The Glass Wall (Return of the Ancients Book 1) (34 page)

“It simply isn’t done, Sydney!” Harmony slammed several brushes on top of the containers and scowled at me.

“But—” I protested, but stopped, startled, as she flicked me on the nose.

“You’re worse than a child! Be quiet so I can paint your mask.” Drawing her lips into a tight circle of concentration, she picked up a brush, dipped it into one of the jars, and began to dust my face.

I held still, certain I was going to drown in impatience. Behind me, I heard Rafael whistling at random intervals as he perused his closet. I simply couldn’t believe that we were wasting time on my clothing and makeup.

Finally, Rafael appeared with an armful of green clothing, scarves, and silver feathers.

“What do you think?” Harmony asked him, stepping back to survey her handiwork. When he didn’t reply, she rolled her eyes and handed him the brush. “Fine, you can do it.”

“Thank you.” Rafael bowed politely, dropping several outfits into my lap. “Change first, Sydney, and then I’ll finish your mask. I’ll return shortly, so you must be quick.”

He didn’t have to warn me twice. I waited until he had disappeared out of the closet and then grabbed the first thing I could. Holding it up, I eyed it in confusion, not having the slightest clue of how it was worn.

“I like the other one better.” Harmony clucked from the couch.

Snorting, I retorted, “Right now, I’d go outside wearing a garbage bag! Just show me how to put this thing on!”

“Humans are so dramatic,” she murmured, rolling her eyes a little but stepping forward to help, and in a few minutes I was wearing sparkly silver leggings, a flowing jade green tunic—of which year the dye was I didn’t have a clue—and a silver belt. The tunic obviously was meant for Rafael’s height; it fell past my calves, looking more like a dress.

Glancing at the heap of scarves and feathers, I pushed Harmony’s hand away and said, “I’ll just go like this. I don’t need those.”

“Don’t be absurd!” Rafael interrupted us, returning in time to hear my comment.

Ignoring my protests, he set about clipping on feathers, artfully arranging scarves with intricate knots, and weaving strands of pearls into my hair. I half expected him to start dancing around me and to break out in song.

Catching my expression, he paused and his eyes glinted with curiosity. “What is it?”

I could hardly reveal my thoughts. Instead, I settled for repeating, “Aren’t we running out of time?”

His lashes dropped in suspicion, but he gamely took my hand and led me back to the stool. We stared at each other in the mirror, and then he reached over and selected what looked like two round palettes of silver and gold-colored eye shadow.

“These would go well, do you not agree?” he asked, holding them next to my skin while still watching my face in the mirror.

“Whatever you say.” I folded my arms. “I just want out of here.”

It didn’t matter. He wasn’t really listening to me, anyway. He held up several other selections against my skin before making his decision and began to dab paint on my face, applying more glitter, sequins, and even a circular disc of jewels and feathers.

His touch was gentle and light, and in spite of our situation, he seemed to be enjoying himself immensely. Under any other circumstances, it would have been amusing to watch him paint my eyebrows, eyelids, and lips with such complete concentration, but I found it hard to sit still.

“Can’t you hurry?” I finally asked.

“Patience, Sydney,” he murmured under his breath.

“Why do you guys have to wear so much makeup, anyway?” I frowned, a bit petulantly.

“Why do you not?” He shrugged, not bothering to answer further.

“But—” I began.

“Sydney, you must not talk!” He furrowed his brows. “You’re making the sequins shift.”

I felt like slapping him, but then he stepped back, surveying his handiwork with a satisfied quirk of his lips.

I jumped off the stool and grabbing his hand to pull him out of the closet, said, “Let’s go!”

“Patience, Sydney!” He laughed a little as he spun me around by the shoulders to face the mirror. “Now you look like a proper Fae.”

To appease him more than anything else, I glanced at the mirror. My mouth dropped open. I didn’t recognize myself. An intricate pattern of silver, black, and green covered the top half of my face, giving me the appearance of wearing a lacy, delicate mask. A row of sequins circled the outer edge, and several swirls of what looked like diamonds trailed down the side of my cheeks in mysterious patterns. The combination of the mask and the outfit, adorned with feathers and scarves, gave me a strangely fascinating, mystical appearance.

“Are you pleased?” Rafael asked in a quiet voice.

I glanced over to see him watching me in the mirror with an expression of admiration. I didn’t have time to get embarrassed because then he held out his hand and said, “It is time.”

Harmony and Ajax were waiting for us by the door. She greeted us with the words, “You have seven minutes.”

“Seven minutes?” I gulped.

Rafael clasped Harmony into a warm hug. “Please, take care of yourself,” he murmured softly.

Succumbing to tears, she couldn’t answer him and turned her head away.

Next, he knelt next to Ajax. The Doberman stared into his eyes before pinning his ears back down, practically to his neck.

“You must stay with Harmony now.” Rafael whispered.

Ajax said nothing but briefly lay his head on Rafael’s shoulder.

Rising to his feet, Rafael touched the wall, and the door zipped open. Holding his hand out to me, he asked, “It is time, Sydney. Are you ready?”

He didn’t have to ask twice. Seizing his fingers, I followed him out of the door as Harmony and Ajax watched with obvious sorrow.

Rafael led me down a hallway with high-vaulted glass ceilings and walls covered in murals composed of tiny mosaic tiles. Potted plants and trees were clustered here and there in front of tall narrow windows. Flowering vines cascaded from above us. It was like walking in a beautiful tiled garden. The hallway curved, leading toward an immense, arched doorway that was obviously the main exit to the tower.

My heart was pounding so loudly that it was difficult to talk, but I managed to whisper, “Are you sure these bracelets are going to work?”

“They will work,” he stated softly, drawing me inexorably toward the arch.

I wished I could believe him.

We were almost there when he said, “Remember, you are clothed as one of the Fae now, so you must act like one. Once we leave this tower, we must cross the courtyard to the stairs. Even though our disappearance will distract them for a time, once Jareth learns we are gone, he will head immediately to the wall. He’ll know what I’m trying to do, and he’ll bring assassins to stop me.”

The word “assassins” made my heart skip a beat, but then we were at the arch and my more pressing concern was, “What happens if these don’t work, after all?”

Rafael smiled down at me. “Then you will never know,” he said, pulling me through before I could react.

For a brief moment, our bracelets shot out beams of light and the archway responded with a shimmer, but then we were on the other side.

It had worked.

“It worked!” I breathed, stating the obvious.

“But of course, little human,” Rafael breathed softly in my ear. “Now, you must act like the Fae.”

“Meaning?” I prompted.

As he stepped out into the warm sun, he lifted my arm enough so that I was forced to stand on my tiptoes, and then he twirled me around. “You can’t walk. You must dance!”

I could hear voices around me, but I was focusing on my balance. I never was much of a dancer, and as I stumbled, Rafael dropped his hand lightly to my waist and lifting me, twirled me around several times before placing me back on my feet.

I looked up at the tower we had just exited. It was more a work of art than a building, a twisting spiral of white stones that wisped up gracefully into the sky with lush gardens and vines growing at different levels. At the very top, a beautiful crystal tree glittered in the sun, its leaves looking more like jewels than anything else.

“Dance with me, Sydney!” Rafael gently shook my shoulders, drawing my attention back to him. He was smiling down at me.

“I can’t dance!” I muttered, embarrassed.

With a light laugh, he replied, “Then I’ll teach you! The Fae express by actions—”

“And with clothes and makeup?” I interrupted, a little flustered by his hand still on my waist.

“Exactly!” His heavily-painted gray eyes lit enthusiastically, totally missing my sarcasm.

The sound of laughter floated from above and I looked up to see the dragon-butterfly creature diving above us, the feather clad Fae on its back laughing loudly. Behind us, three Fae were headed our direction, dressed in elaborate flowing scarves. They wore rune-shaped headdresses at least four feet tall with their hair entwined around them. To the other side, a group of Fae clad in flowing gowns of green, almost the same shade as mine, stood a short distance away, watching me with overt interest.

I froze.

Yanking my arm so that I fell against him, Rafael held me close to his chest and whirled me around, again lifting me off my feet. I gripped his arms tightly, feeling nauseated and certain that we were going to be caught. I shut my eyes tightly, convinced all of the Fae were descending upon us from every direction and that shortly I was going to be blinked away into nonexistence. I was wondering if it was going to hurt, when I felt Rafael’s chest rumble with laughter.

My eyes flew open, and after a few extra twirls, he set me down on my feet. I clung to him a little dizzily as I heard a voice call out in question, “The Summer of 678?”

“Spring!” Rafael responded, waving in an elegant gesture, picking the edge of my tunic up.

A chorus of awed gasps greeted this statement.

I glanced at the Fae around us, gathered in loose clusters. At first, I thought their eyes were focused on me, but then I realized they were staring at the jade green tunic. They weren’t threatening, in fact, they seemed envious.

“Come.” Rafael twirled me away from their scrutiny, half-carrying, and half-dancing with me toward the other side of the courtyard.

No one seemed to think his behavior bizarre. In fact, I could see other Fae doing very much the same kinds of things as they wove their way through the courtyard.

At the next pause, I managed a nervous squeak, “So, you have to act drunk to be a Fae?”

He laughed at that, a loud peal of laughter. “Carefree, Sydney, not drunk,” he explained with humor. “We live in the moment more than humans do. Try it!”

I shook my head. I was too stressed out to dance, and I couldn’t see how I could simply just forget my fears.

“Humans are always living for the future, and they miss the now.” He continued, once again lifting me up, dancing a few more feet, and threading his way through the crowd.

“Perhaps because we are always dreaming of the future!” I mused, though a little defensively.

“Perhaps.” He nodded thoughtfully in agreement.

Setting me down on my feet once again, he planted his face so close to mine that I thought I could feel the sweep of his lashes against my cheek when he blinked. His eyelashes were unusually long, and I found myself wondering if they were really his or fake. Then, catching the nature of my thoughts, I scowled. “We don’t have time for this.”

“You just did it, little human.” His smile broadened. “For a moment there, your thoughts were focused on something in the present, not in the future.”

All at once, my cheeks flamed red.

Glancing over his shoulder, he pointed to a narrow gap between two large metallic cylinders covered with white-leaved vines. It was only a short distance away. “That is the entrance to the stairs,” he said, looking back down at me with a smile. “Come and be carefree with me, Sydney. Even if only for a moment, what better way to spend that moment?”

A small group of Fae descended upon us, laughing, chatting, and dancing. Their long velvet skirts, elaborate hairdos, and hand-held feathered masks made them look like they had just stepped out of a medieval masquerade ball.

“Remember, Sydney … carefree.” Rafael whispered in my ear as he once again caught me about the waist and twirled me into the middle of the cavorting Fae.

I tried, but I was mostly too scared or stunned to feel anything. Now, more than ever, I felt trapped in a dream as I wove with Rafael through the medieval-clad Fae. Several called out the year of the jade green dye with admiration as we passed by. Then, all at once, we were through and standing at the entrance to the stairs.

Rafael’s manner turned serious all at once. Gripping my shoulders, he said gravely, “The instant we are on the first step, you must run and not stop, Sydney. Do you understand?”

I shivered and nodded.

“You must run as fast as you can to the bottom.” His fingers dug into my shoulders.

“Then what?” I whispered, fighting a rising surge of panic.

“I’ll tell you once you get there,” he replied. “But you must know this first. When we get to the Glass Wall, we will have less than ten seconds to break it before Jareth will arrive.”