Fablehaven: The Complete Series (130 page)

“You’re even braver than I thought,” Patton said with a smile.

“I didn’t really know how to use oars, but I knew how to pedal.”

Patton nodded. “Remember, lean opposite from the direction they try to tip us. But not too far, or they might reverse tactics and tip you out of the boat the other way.”

“Gotcha,” Kendra said, glancing over the side, expecting naiads to accost them at any second.

“They can’t bother us while we’re in the boathouse,” Patton said. “Only once we pass beyond these walls.” He slid the oars into the oarlocks and held them poised to stroke. “Ready?”

Kendra nodded. She did not trust her voice.

Beneath the water just ahead of them, Kendra heard a giggle. Several voices shushed the laughter.

Dipping the blades of the oars into the water, Patton propelled the craft out of the boathouse. The instant the rowboat passed through the door, it began to pitch and rock. Grimacing, Patton wielded the oars aggressively, fighting to keep the boat steady. Bucking and tilting, the rowboat spun in tight circles. Kendra tried to position herself toward the center of the small vessel, but the violent jostling kept her lurching from side to side, clinging to the bowl with one hand while attempting to steady herself with the other.

“I’ve never seen an effort like this,” Patton growled, jerking one of his oars out of a naiad’s grasp.

The right side of the boat tipped alarmingly high, as if many hands were pushing it up. Patton lunged to the right, jabbing at the water with an oar. The right side dropped and the left tipped high, nearly rocking Kendra overboard. Patton flung himself in the other direction, steadying the boat.

The battle raged on for several minutes, the naiads tirelessly striving to capsize the rowboat and simultaneously towing them away from the island. The oars were instantly seized whenever Patton dipped them in the water, so he spent much of his time wrestling one or the other from an unseen grasp. Meanwhile, the boat twirled and swayed like a carnival ride.

As time passed, instead of dwindling, the attack became more brazen. Webbed hands reached up out of the water to grip the gunwale. During a particularly bad bout of tilting, Kendra toppled against the side of the boat and found herself staring into a pair of violet eyes. The pallid naiad had boosted herself out of the water with one hand and grasped at the silver bowl with the other.

“Back, Narinda!” Patton barked, brandishing an oar.

Baring her teeth, the determined naiad hauled herself farther out of the water. Kendra held the bowl away from Narinda, but the naiad caught hold of her sleeve and began pulling her overboard.

Patton brought the oar down sharply, slapping the naiad on top of her head with the flat of the blade. Shrieking, the frenzied naiad released Kendra and vanished with a splash. Another hand grabbed the gunwale and Patton instantly brought the oar down on the webbed fingers.

“Stay in the water, ladies,” Patton warned.

“You’ll pay for your audacity,” snarled an unseen naiad.

“All you have felt is the flat side of the oar,” Patton laughed. “I’m spanking, not wounding. Keep this up and I’ll deal out more lasting injuries.”

The naiads continued to hinder the progress of the rowboat, but they no longer reached up out of the water. Patton began using quick strokes that skimmed the surface of the water, throwing a great deal of spray with each pull. The rapid, shallow strokes were harder for the naiads to grab, and the rowboat began to make progress toward the island.

“Chiatra, Narinda, Ulline, Hyree, Pina, Zolie, Frindle, Jayka!” Lena called. “The water has never felt finer.”

Kendra turned and saw Lena sitting at the edge of the pier, smiling serenely, feet dangling in the water. Seth stood behind her, an eager look on his face.

“Lena, no!” Patton called.

Lena began humming a lazy melody. She kicked her bare feet gently, making small splashes. Suddenly, Lena yanked her feet out of the water and danced a step back from the edge of the pier. Groping webbed hands broke the surface of the pond nearby.

“So close,” Lena lamented. “You almost had me!” She skipped a few steps back along the quay and dipped her toe in, again hopping away just in time to avoid another grasping hand.

“The naiads have never made such a unified, persistent effort,” Patton muttered. “Lena is trying to distract them. Chop at the water with the spare oar.”

Kendra set the bowl in her lap and picked up the extra oar Patton had brought. Gripping it at the middle of the handle, she began stabbing the blade briskly into the water at either side of the boat. Occasionally the tip of the oar struck something. Kendra began hearing grunts and complaints.

Patton began dipping his oars deeper, and the boat surged toward the island. Encouraged, Kendra jabbed the water more frantically, breathing hard with the effort. She became so intent on hacking at naiads that she was caught off guard when the rowboat ran aground on the island.

“Get out,” Patton ordered.

Laying down the oar and picking up the bowl, Kendra stepped to the prow. She hesitated for a moment. Having survived the island once was no guarantee she would survive again. What if her confidence was misplaced? Others who had dared to tread on the island had been instantly transfigured into dandelion fluff. The moment her foot came into contact with the muddy bank, she might dissolve into a downy cloud of dandelion seeds and drift away on the breeze.

Then again, if she opted not to take this risk, her apparent destiny was to become a shadow person on a fallen preserve ruled by a demon and a wicked hamadryad. In a way, an exit as dandelion seeds might be preferable.

All considerations aside, she had made the decision already, and now just needed the courage to carry it out. The naiads could drag the boat back into the water at any moment!

Braced for the worst, she leaped out of the rowboat and onto the firm mud of the island. As on her previous excursion to the shrine, the moment was anticlimactic. She did not transform into seeds. There was no signal to indicate she had done anything out of the ordinary.

Kendra glanced back at Patton, giving him a thumbs-up. He touched his forehead in a casual salute. A moment later, the boat was dragged back into the water and began to twirl.

“Don’t fret about me,” Patton instructed lightheartedly, skimming an oar across the surface of the water with a ferocious swing. “Go commune with the queen.”

On her prior visit to the island, Kendra had not known the location of the tiny shrine, and it had proven difficult to find. This time, bowl in hand, Kendra traipsed diagonally across the island, shoving between shrubs on an undeviating path to her destination. She found the gentle spring burbling out of the ground at the center of the island, trickling down a mild slope into the pond. At the source of the spring stood a finely carved statue of a fairy about two inches tall.

Crouching, Kendra placed the bowl in front of the miniature pedestal supporting the fairy figurine. At the same moment, Kendra inhaled an aroma like young blossoms blooming in rich soil near the sea.

Thank you, Kendra.
The words were distinct in her mind, arriving with as much clarity as hearing could have provided.

“Is that you?” Kendra whispered, thrilled to have achieved contact so quickly.

Yes.

“I can hear you more clearly than last time.”

You are now fairykind. I can reach your mind with much less effort.

“If you can reach me so easily, why haven’t you spoken with me before now?”

I do not inhabit your world. I dwell elsewhere. My shrines mark the locations where my direct influence can be perceived. They are my contact points to your world.

The thoughts were accompanied by mirthful feelings. The combination of thoughts and emotions made Kendra feel as though she had never truly communicated with anyone before. “You’re called the Fairy Queen,” Kendra said. “But who are you really?”

I am
molea
. There is no word to aptly describe me in your language. I am not a
fairy. I am
the
fairy. The mother, the eldest sister, the protector, the first. For the good of my sisters, I reside beyond your world, in a kingdom untouched by darkness.

“Fablehaven is in danger,” Kendra said.

Although I can rarely speak to their minds, I see through the eyes of my sisters in all the spheres they inhabit. Many of my sisters in your vicinity have been tainted by a terrible darkness. If such darkness were to pollute me, all would be lost.

For a moment Kendra could not speak, as a forlorn feeling overwhelmed her. She realized the bleak emotion had flowed from the Fairy Queen as part of her communication. When the emotion subsided, Kendra spoke again. “What can I do to stop the darkness?”

The darkness emanates from an object endowed with tremendous black power. The object must be destroyed.

“The nail Seth pulled from the revenant,” Kendra said.

The object inflames the anguish of a corrupt hamadryad and enhances the strength of a demon. The profane object is embedded in a tree.

For a moment, Kendra beheld a gnarled, black tree beside a fuming pool of tar. A nail projected from the tortured trunk. The image made Kendra’s eyes burn, and engendered a feeling of deep regret. Without accompanying words to explain the scene, Kendra felt certain she was witnessing the tree through the eyes of a dark fairy as perceived by the Fairy Queen.

“How can I destroy the nail?” Kendra asked.

A lengthy pause followed. She heard Patton’s oars sloshing as he continued to resist the attacking naiads.

“What if we make the fairies big again?” Kendra tried.

An image of giant dark fairies flashed vividly into view. Terrible and beautiful, they shriveled trees and oozed shadows.
Aside from the other potential drawbacks, I am still recovering from the energy it required to transform the fairies and initiate you as fairykind.

“What did you do to me?” Kendra asked. “Some fairies called me your handmaiden.”

When I looked into your heart and mind, and witnessed the purity of your devotion to your loved ones, I chose you to serve as my agent in the world during these turbulent times. You are indeed my handmaiden, my steward. You and I draw energy from the same source. With the office comes great authority. Command the fairies in my name, and they will hearken to you.

“The fairies will obey me?” Kendra asked.

If you issue orders in my name, and do not abuse the privilege.

“What is your name?”

Kendra felt a response like melodic laughter.
My true name must remain secret. Issuing commands in the name of the queen will suffice.

Kendra suddenly remembered when the fairy at the mansion where the Knights of the Dawn met had suggested she issue a command in the name of the Queen. “Can the fairies help me destroy the nail?”

No. The fairies lack sufficient power. Only a talisman imbued with tremendous light energy could unmake the dark object.

“Do you know where I can find a talisman full of light?”

Another long pause followed.
I could make one, but such an action would require destroying this shrine.

Kendra waited. A vision unfolded to her mind. As if gazing down from high above, she beheld the island and the shrine shining in the midst of darkness. The water of the lake had turned black, and teemed with foul, misshapen naiads. The boardwalk and gazebos had crumbled; dark fairies flitted among the rotting debris. Darkened dwarfs, satyrs, and dryads roamed among withered trees and parched fields.

Preserving the shrine is not worth so much devastation. I would rather lose one of my precious points of contact with your world than see my sisters condemned to benighted slavery. I will concentrate the energy protecting this shrine into a single object. After I forge the talisman, my influence will no longer persist here.

“I won’t be able to contact you anymore?” Kendra asked.

Not from this place. As soon as the talisman passes beyond the hedge, the pond and the island will be stripped of all defenses.

“What do I do with the talisman?” Kendra asked.

Retain possession of the talisman. The energy inside of you will help keep it stable and fully energized. While in your possession, the talisman will cast an umbrella of energy that will help protect those around you. If you bring the talisman into contact with the dark object, both will be destroyed. Be forewarned. Whoever connects the objects will perish.

Kendra swallowed. Her mouth felt dry. “Do I need to be the person who touches them together?”

Not necessarily. I would prefer that you survive the endeavor. But whether you or another will complete the task, if the light and dark objects can be joined, the sacrifice will be worthwhile. Much that has darkened will be restored.