Extraordinary October (21 page)

23.

My heart stopped beating. I was a block of ice, unable to move, to speak, to think. He had told me he loved me. He had stared right into my eyes and said, “I love you.” Those astonishing blue eyes looking into my plain, ordinary, brown ones. Faintly I thought I heard Walker calling to me, saying he was on his way, but I saw him standing just across the room, looking at Madame Gold with a little smile on his face.

Enoki said, “Now you want Walker? He's your darling? First her dad, then Trevor, now her boyfriend? Fine with me.” She started for the door. “I'm going to find my brother and tell him you made your choice.”

Madame Gold roared. “Don't you dare.”

“You can't have everything,” Enoki said.

“I can and I will. Do not move!”

Enoki's shoulders slumped and she stayed where she was. It was odd that neither Walker nor Luisa had moved or spoken. Where was Oberon? Where was Jed? Luisa was here, so that meant my mother was alone… or worse. I tried to find my mother with my mind. Nothing. I was afraid to think what that might mean. Walker. Luisa. Walker. My heart was broken, smashed, shattered into a million pieces. I heard Madame Gold in my head. “Love you?” She snickered. “How could he love you?” Despite the mushrooms, I felt my confidence draining. Impossible to concentrate on ice cream.

Someone new bounded in so quickly, leaping and turning somersaults, I knew it was a troll. Some kind of old man troll in a long robe. “Wedding?” he exclaimed. “Are we having a wedding?” He smiled at Madame Gold. “As you humans say, let's get this show on the road.”

Wedding? Madame Gold turned to my father and put out her hand. He took it without looking at her. No! Madame Gold was marrying my father.

“How does it begin?” asked the troll Reverend. “Dearly beloved or is it Beloved dearests?”

“Get on with it.” Madame Gold snarled like an animal.

I tried to find my dad with my thoughts. Wake up. Don't do it. Wake up! He didn't respond.

I couldn't allow this to happen. “Stop!” I leapt from my hiding place. “Stop!”

Madame Gold smiled and turned to me.

Enoki's eyes narrowed. “I thought I smelled a half-breed,” she said.

Walker and Luisa didn't move. Walker, I screamed with my mind, but he was frozen with that strange little smile on his face. Under some kind of Madame Gold control. My father didn't react. Luisa did nothing. I felt Madame Gold inside my head. Vanilla, I thought. With sprinkles. I filled my mind with the cool creamy goodness of my favorite ice cream. Ice cream. Ice cream. Ice cream. I needed more of those special mushrooms. The heat was less, my power wearing off. I looked at the center tables. Would any of those experiments help me? I salivated thinking of the mushrooms' taste and aroma and the power they gave me. Enough of those and I could stop Madame Gold for sure. Then, faintly, like a very bad cell phone connection, I heard Luisa telling me my mother was asking for me. I looked at Luisa standing next to Enoki and not moving. I sent her a thank you, but she didn't even look at me, even though she had told me my mother was still alive.

“You can't marry my dad,” I said. “My mother is still alive.”

Madame Gold shrugged. “Details, details. She'll be gone soon.”

She and I both heard Luisa tell us, “She's getting better.”

Luisa was still at my mother's bedside. I saw her as plain as day. I looked again and the Luisa standing beside Madame Gold wavered. She was just an illusion and when I realized that, she dissolved. Madame Gold hissed at me through her teeth. My mushroom power was wearing off, but I could still feel her mind seeking Luisa and not finding her. I heard her calling to me, but I pushed her out by chanting all the flavors I could think of. Strawberry. Chocolate. Coffee Almond Fudge. Her dress floated around her. She was frustrated. Perplexed. Annoyed. With her every frown, my strength returned. As I studied her, Madame Gold became insubstantial, almost see-through. I tried to see what she was underneath.

Suddenly she solidified. Her mind was too strong. I had to look away. “Enoki,” she said. “Your turn.”

“With pleasure.”

In a flash Enoki took off toward me. The Reverend hid his face. I braced myself for her attack. I knew I couldn't fight her. I was no match for her years of practice. I held my breath, I tried to deflect her with my mind, but she barreled forward. Just before she got to me, Green jumped out in front of her. Enoki yelped in surprise. She grabbed his arm, pulled him off his feet into the air and threw him hard against the closest wall. His head made a sickening smack and he slid to the ground, stunned or dead, I wasn't sure which.

“Oops,” Enoki said with a smile at me. “I've been working out.”

“Chris!” I ran to his side. Once again little Green had shown up when I needed him most. Luisa, Green, how did I deserve such friends? Maybe Walker had betrayed me, but they were still on my side. But Walker still wasn't moving. That I couldn't believe. No reaction, nothing, still staring up at Madame Gold with that simpering smile. That's when I knew it wasn't really Walker, just like it hadn't been the real Luisa. I concentrated and the Walker standing beside Madame Gold faded. My stomach calmed and in the midst of all it I felt the tiniest joyful warmth. He hadn't betrayed me. I could see right through him. So that's where that expression comes from.

Madame Gold turned to the Reverend. “Do it,” she cried. “Marry us right now!”

“But his wife isn't dead,” the Reverend squeaked.

“Close enough!” Madame Gold grabbed the Reverend's arm. The Reverend began reading the marriage vows. They were different than human vows, but I admit I wasn't really listening.

“Stop!” I shouted again.

“Keep going,” Madame Gold hissed.

Enoki laughed. Green wasn't moving. Walker, I screamed his name in my mind. Half a second later he and a beautiful black and yellow bird—Oberon in his true form as a Western Tanager, Piranga ludoviciana—literally flew into the room. In his arms he carried my mother. Still alive.

“Reverend,” Walker said touching down. “This marriage is illegal. This woman is far from dead.”

My mother lifted her head slightly to look at the troll Reverend. He knew her and he dropped to one knee. “Your Lowness,” he said.

Madame Gold stamped her feet. “Get up. Get up! Forget this woman.” She whispered in my mother's ear and my mother writhed in pain, then fainted. “She's as good as dead.”

I ran forward and grabbed her arm. “You will pay for this.”
I shook her hard. “I am stronger than you!”

And it was true. The anger, the frustration, the indignation, and the fear of this terrible conniving manipulating woman had made me invincible. I grew taller, but I wasn't slim like a fairy, I was muscled and fit like a troll. I shook Madame Gold and she wobbled in my hand back and forth like a rag doll.

“Enoki!” Madame Gold commanded.

Walker gently set my mother down to one side and leapt in front of Enoki before she could touch me. “Dirt eater!”

“What did you call me?”

“You know what you are.”

“For once and for all,” she said. “I hate fairies.”

Enoki had her legs around his neck so quickly I didn't see her move. She squeezed. Her legs were very strong, but before I could even begin to worry, Walker seemed to elongate, become taller and even skinnier, and slipped right out of her hold. She tumbled to the ground, rolled and and jumped to her feet.

Madame Gold tried to wiggle out of my grasp. I held on tighter. Her arm was odd, almost pipe cleaner skinny inside her big sleeve. I squeezed and her arm seemed to disintegrate and she was free. She pushed Walker toward Enoki, throwing him off balance. Enoki took the advantage and kicked him hard. He flew and hit one of the center tables shattering trays and beakers. When he got to his feet his sky blue eyes had turned a shiny, dark cobalt and his face was all hard angles. A tougher, scarier version of himself. I would not have wanted to cross him.

They circled each other. Enoki laughed. From my spot clear across the room I could smell her slightly muddy sweat and feel the adrenalin zipping through her veins. She wanted him to die. If she wasn't able to actually kill him, she wanted to hurt him so badly he would not survive. Her mind was an easy one to visit. She had only that one thought. She didn't care if her brother got married. She didn't care who was King or Queen. All she cared about was her hate. Hating fairies. It made her a very simple target for me. Madame Gold could feel what I was doing, but in my enhanced state it was amazingly easy to shut her mind out of Enoki's.

I showed Enoki one of my memories of my dad taking six-year-old me out to the woods to show me the birds and the flowers. Mom was along and she pointed out weeds and fungus and beautiful, tiny bugs in the earth. We were all three holding hands. My dad was grinning and he was fun and he looked at my mother with so much love. A fairy and a troll together and happy. Another time when I was eight. And another out in the woods when I was eleven. All good times. All times when a fairy and a troll got along.

Enoki faltered. She shook her head as if to clear it. She looked at Walker and in her mind I saw her begin to see him in a new way. As if he was smiling at her. I sent her pictures of Walker helping Trevor plant a tree, Trevor and Walker playing ball in a field of flowers, driving in a fast car. I had no idea what they might do together, so I had to make it up, but it wasn't hard to imagine. Two guys doing things. I sent the same scene to Walker—and to Trevor wherever he was.

As I concentrated the walls of the warehouse disappeared and a forest materialized all around us. The sun was shining. An image of Walker, Trevor, and Enoki laughing together at a picnic flashed in the center of the room. I was kind of amazed and very proud. I had created this illusion, just as Madame Gold had created The Pits and then the dead fairies in cages. It wasn't easy and I couldn't hold it for long, not like Madame Gold, but it was long enough. Walker and Enoki stopped, straightened, blinked at the picture they were seeing of themselves. They weren't so interested in fighting anymore.

Before I could stop her, Madame Gold dug in her dress and pulled out a glowing red and green vial. Mushrooms! I tried to grab them, but she downed them before I could. She shook her head and laughed her screeching witchlike laugh.

“Garbage! Lies! Trolls hate fairies and fairies hate trolls.” Madame Gold roared and my illusion popped and disappeared. “They always will.” New pictures appeared of Enoki fighting fairies and leaving them to die. Fairies in cages. Fairies fighting back, running through the underground and destroying troll homes. “Fairies hate trolls,” Madame Gold said again.

I tried to keep Enoki seeing good things, but hate was easier to foment than love. Much as I didn't want to admit it, it seemed hate was the much, much stronger emotion.

“Enoki,” I said. “It doesn't have to be like that.”

“It doesn't,” Walker agreed and I loved him for it. “We both want the same thing for our worlds.”

Enoki frowned. She blinked a few times. It wasn't easy to give up a lifetime of warring. I heard a high-pitched zing. Luisa—the real Luisa—had snuck in the back and launched her tin plate Frisbee. “No!” I sent my thought to Luisa. But it was too late. The plate whipped across the warehouse in a blur and sliced into the back of Enoki's head. She didn't even yell, just crumpled.

“That's for Chris,” Luisa said quietly.

Madame Gold swirled to face Luisa. “Good shot.” She sounded friendly and impressed. “Come over here. Seems I have an opening for someone like you. Since my General has been…incapacitated, I could use a good soldier.”

She continued calling her by name and Luisa began to walk toward her.

“That was wonderful,” Madame Gold said. “Wonderful. You are very talented with that old plate. Imagine what you could do with a weapon specially made.”

“Luisa. Snap out of it. Listen to who's talking to you.” Walker urged, but Luisa kept walking toward her.

“I have a special, very special job for you,” Madame Gold continued. “A very important job that only you can do.”

Walker ran to Luisa and grabbed her arm to stop her, but she pushed him away.

I had to do something. I recognized Madame Gold's gently persuading voice and the way her sleeves waved back and forth in front of Luisa's eyes. It was what she had done to my dad. Not again, I thought. Not Luisa. Luckily Luisa was not as susceptible as my dad had been. Madame Gold had to use a lot of mind power to reach and control Luisa, leaving me free to concentrate on her. There had to be something she was afraid of, something she was hiding, and once I found it, I could use it to stop her.

I searched down deep inside Madame Gold. There were swirling memories, things that didn't make much sense to me. I saw the Fairy Canopy beautiful and lush. Smelled the fresh, rich dirt the trolls love so much. I saw a cluster of the luminescent Luxaeterna Duo mushrooms glowing red and green in the swamp and I felt the strength and power they gave her. I also saw a crib in some kind of hospital and parents, human parents, looking into the crib and crying, but I couldn't see the baby. I saw children taunting and teasing and pointing at something on the ground, but I couldn't see what. I saw a TV screen and the clock above it spinning hour after hour through show after show. It was all part of her, but I didn't know why. I saw that Madame Gold's worst fear was that her secret would be revealed. I couldn't see the secret; she kept it hidden even from herself. It had something to do with the mushrooms. She was afraid there wouldn't be enough and she wouldn't be able to grow more. I saw her screaming at the troll scientists to try again to make a synthetic version of the luminescent mushrooms. It didn't matter. I focused on her fear. I made her believe I knew her secret and that I could expose it. I would show everyone. Everyone would see it.