Fairy Keeper (7 page)

e’re going to ask
Corbin
?
That’s
the big plan?” Nell whipped around, lips forming a disbelieving O.

Sierra raised her eyebrows at what seemed to be a rather extreme response. They’d all known each other since childhood. They went to school together, at least off-and-on, in the one-room schoolhouse of Port Ostara. Sierra had never noticed Nell and Corbin having a falling out, though they’d had plenty of arguments over the years. Then again, Nell had plenty of arguments with everyone.

Sierra tried to explain yet again, keeping one eye on the road ahead. She pulled a slice of laurel tree bark and popped it in her mouth with a grimace. The foul taste of the bark was bitter like over-brewed tea, but chewing on it reduced her headache a bit while it made her sore jaw ache.

“Look, you know he’s the only other fairy keeper in the area and he loves his fairies. He’s studied fairies more than anyone I’ve heard of besides the ancient scholars. There were no clues around my hatch. If anyone could have an idea of what’s going on or where my fairy queen might have gone, it’s him. What’s the problem? You used to play with Corbin when you were little.” Sierra tried to appeal to old, fond memories. She didn’t understand why Nell was being so negative about him.

Nell grumbled, “Times change. He’s more likely to go off daydreaming through the fields than help us find our way. What does he know about danger? He doesn’t believe in hurting anything. We’ll end up spending all our time rescuing him instead of your ridiculous fairy.”

Sierra fought to not roll her eyes. “Okay, he’s not a fighter, but he can still help―he really knows his stuff. It’s all we’ve got.”

Nell kicked at a rock. “Fine, but none of his little girlfriends can come. All those air-headed twits that follow him around are more annoying than his fairies.”

Well, that was a point that they could actually agree on, but Sierra didn’t want to admit that out loud. Corbin did have quite a batch of admirers, especially since he turned fifteen, the official age many young men set off on their own in the port villages. His bronze skin, black hair, and light brown eyes made all the older girls swoon, but he mostly ignored them. He’d courted a few, but he always said it just didn’t work out.

Thankfully, Nell had given up arguing about finding Corbin. He really was the most logical source of information, but besides that, Sierra needed his steady presence. She wasn’t about to explain that, though. Sometimes people got the wrong idea about her and Corbin. He was Sierra’s best friend, nothing else. But he meant the world to her, in part because he could always make her laugh.

Once, after a particularly rough afternoon with Jack when she was eleven, she went over to Corbin’s house for more healing poultice. His expression softened with compassion, not pity, as he handed her the pack for her black eye, but then he said, “We could get you a pirate patch, if you’d like. Aye, mayhap you could be sailing with the buccaneers at the wharf, looking like the scallywag you are, eh? You’d better practice saying, ‘We be lookin’ for buried treasure!’ “

He screwed up his face into the worst imitation of a pirate ever, and she couldn’t help but laugh.

If ever there was a time when she needed some laughter, it was now.

They kept walking toward Corbin’s home in Covenstead, the next tiny village over from theirs, in a silence that stretched like taffy. Covenstead held a tiny collection of homesteaders, slightly farther north of Port Ostara. Healers settled the area years before and developed their own small, unique community. Sierra and Nell’s village, Tuathail, was nearly three times that size, but anyone sick or wounded went to Covenstead. Luckily, the two villages were within half a candle-mark’s walking distance of each other and of the port. In fact, they were both considered part of Port Ostara, the biggest port in the whole country. Port Ostara had been the first village built on the coast, with lots of trade opportunities. The youth of both villages usually attended the single school located in Port Ostara, at least the ones who got to go at all. Corbin always did great in class, and teachers loved his cheery attitude.

Sierra missed a lot of class time thanks to Jack. That was how Corbin and Sierra first became real friends, in fact. He noticed she was falling behind and offered to tutor her, because that was the kind of boy he was. Sierra stayed in school because of him, but then she was the one who showed Corbin which forest mushrooms their fairies favored. Couldn’t find that information in a book.

They actually had their best conversations while gathering wild fairy mushrooms between their villages. For Sierra, the sharp scent of pine was forever woven together with the rumbling sound of Corbin’s voice, so much deeper than expected for his frame. They spent hours collecting mushrooms for the fairies and greens for their tables during countless long summer afternoons. They quizzed each other on the names of all the plants in their forest. Sometimes, they’d go swimming in the ocean and dry off on the shore next to the small stream that ran near the edge of Jack’s property.

Nell could beat him up with one arm and foot tied behind her back. Sierra wasn’t sure why she was acting upset about seeing him. They even used to walk home after school together when they were younger, if Sierra recalled correctly. Nell’s mom would sometimes watch Corbin when his parents were traveling to a healing. But Sierra hadn’t seen them talking to each other in a long time, now that she thought about it. Corbin and Sierra spent all their spare time together, so she’d know if Nell had been around.

As they approached Covenstead, Nell began muttering again. “Idiotic plan,” she said, “Letting him lead us will give him ridiculous delusions of grandeur.”

Sierra ignored her. Nell just wanted to pick a fight. It made her smile a little, the very normalness of Nell’s grumpy response. It was almost reassuring that the entire world had not turned upside down.

They entered the coolness of the forest, crunching on a carpet of brown and yellow leaves and pine needles. It rarely snowed so close to the coast, but frost still bit the air. The red of a cardinal flashed bright against the shadows. A hawk cried high in the sky, hidden by the crisscrossing branches arching over them like hands cupping around a warm flame. Sierra had spent hours in this place, a place where she’d never been hit or insulted. Her stride slowed as she breathed in the chilly, tangy air.

She stopped when she saw the mushrooms, though. They were always running low on mushrooms at the house this time of year. Even though she wouldn’t be able to cook them the way her queen liked best, she figured it made sense to have some of the right food on hand. She was trying to think positive now. Her queen really could be out there, kidnapped or starving, and Sierra needed to be ready. Phoebe needed her to return with a queen.

If the queen was dead, well, then Sierra was determined to capture a wild fairy. She wasn’t above stealing another keeper’s fairies if she could get away with it, either. She’d figure out some way to return them after she used them to get Phoebe free. Phoebe’s survival came first.

Sierra slipped her herb knife from its sheath at her hip and squatted next to the little white patch at the foot of a soaring pine tree. Shiny pink tops glistened as she gently sliced at the base of their stems. She wrapped them in a cloth she took from her pack and looked up sharply to see Nell studying her.

“What?” Sierra asked, unable to resist.

Nell looked like Jack when he was planning a job. He got a gleam in his eyes when he saw a new way to smuggle Flight into a village. If it was right under the noses of the village elders, even better. And when he was eyeing someone he knew must be permanently removed from the scene, his eyes went cold and hard as steel. Nell’s expression looked exactly like that right now.

Sierra stood up slowly, legs tensing. It occurred to her she didn’t know what sort of job Jack actually hired Nell to do and didn’t know what explanation he gave. Whatever Jack had directed, Sierra felt sure Nell would have no problems doing.

Sierra’s mind rapidly plotted out the best paths to run, which way had trees she could climb, which paths had dead ends. She knew this land, and Nell didn’t, not like Sierra did. Every child in their village had played here, but Sierra had combed every surface, looking for whatever her fairies needed, driven by a compulsion.

Nell continued to gaze at her. The hawk cried again, and Sierra shivered despite her winter coat. Nell’s lips lifted as she took note of the response.

Sierra sneered right back.

“Do we have a problem, Nellwyn?” No need to go on a long journey if she was going to start something now.

Nell’s face flushed at the use of her full name, like she’d always done since she was a kid. It was too soft a name for a warrior. They knew all the other’s tender areas. That was rather the point. Prod the angry lion with a stick to see if it would attack. Sierra would rather find out now than later when she was stuck in the wilderness.

Nell snarled but whirled away. “Get the food, and let’s go. If we have to go see Corbin, let’s get it over with.”

Again, her comment puzzled Sierra, but Nell never made sense to her anyway. Sierra faced away, highly aware of the exposed line of her neck as she bent to continue her work. She cut until every last mushroom in the patch was wrapped carefully and stored in her pack.

Nell had walked ahead, a strong silhouette as she stood where the forest ended and emptied into the open glade where Corbin’s fairies made their home. Her hair was tied tightly against her head in her perpetual braid, but wind had pulled tendrils loose from the sides of her face. She occasionally batted at the strands of hair, trying to contain them, but they kept escaping. Sierra walked alongside her and found her frowning and chewing on her bottom lip.

“Ready to go see Corbin?” Sierra asked, a slight emphasis on
Corbin
.

Glaring, Nell stomped out into the glen. Sierra grabbed her arm without thinking, and Nell jerked away so quickly Sierra stumbled. In less than a second, Nell was standing ready with a knife glinting in the sun, crouched, ready to fight.

Sierra stood perfectly still, trying to radiate calm. Her headache was returning, but she forced a little smile. She was pleased her hands didn’t shake as she left them clearly open at her sides.

“Relax. I only meant this is a fairy glade and you can’t go storming through. You could rile them up, and if they attack, it’s dangerous. We could get really hurt.”

Nell narrowed her eyes, looking distrustful, which was ironic since Sierra was telling the truth.

“Come on, Nell, you’ve seen me all bloodied up before. You know what fairies are like. You’ve seen them swarming.”

Nell shuddered ever so slightly, and Sierra tilted her head as awareness flooded in. Nell’s father had died years ago when she was a little girl. Sierra was six or seven at the time, in fact, and remembered hearing talk that he died from a fairy swarm. There were a number of them in the area before Corbin and Sierra bonded to their queens and calmed down the fairies. Sierra couldn’t help but push to see if she remembered right.

“What a terrible duty you’ve got, huh, Nell? Gotta chase down a queen who might call all her crazed little fairies to attack. Or maybe she’s been stolen by a murderer who’ll try to kill us? Bet you’re hoping for the second option, since you can handle a human. A hatch of angry fairies, though, they could make you suffer. They might even kill you.”

Red flame seared across Nell’s face, and she pointed her knife a little closer to Sierra. She must have hit on the truth, because nothing else would make Nell lose her temper so easily when she was trying to be professional.

Nell said, “If where we walk is so important, why don’t you lead the way, Fairy-Fanatic?”

The name only stung a little. She’d come up with that name years ago when Corbin first bonded to his queen and began spending so much more time with Sierra, the only other person nearby marked to become a keeper. Later on, Nell even threw stones at them if they walked too close to her family’s cabin. Of course, that was after she started working for Jack at the tender age of nine. Things between the girls got worse as they got older, but in more subtle ways. Nell didn’t push Sierra around, but she never missed a chance to insult her, either.