Faery Born (Book One in the War Faery Trilogy) (12 page)

I forgot about the goblin.

I forgot where we were.

I forgot what we were meant to be doing.

The feel of him, the smell of him, consumed me.

One of his hands left my face, snaking around my waist and pulling me in tight. The pressure on my mouth became harder, more urgent, and I returned it with pleasure. It wasn’t nearly enough. Feelings I had never experienced before zinged through my body. I wanted more of him, needed more of him; needed to feel his skin, needed to feel his body. I wanted to roll in him, drown in him, swallow him whole.

It took a while for Wilfred’s voice to penetrate the fog of my mind.

‘Guys,’ he hissed. ‘You can stop now.’

Stop?
I didn’t want to stop. I’d only just started.

Aethan released his hold on me and stepped back. Panting slightly he stared into my eyes. ‘That was… interesting,’ he murmured.

Interesting?
Amazing, awesome, breathtaking –
those
were the words that sprung to my mind when I thought about that kiss, not interesting.

I took a deep breath and tore my gaze from his. The dreamers had returned to their dancing. ‘What happened?’

‘By being more interested in each other we were no longer directly influencing their dream.’

I could feel a wide grin split my face. ‘So do you two,’ I pointed my finger between them, ‘use that ploy often?’

‘Ha ha,’ Wilfred said, ruffling up my hair the most annoying way possible. ‘You going to wear that dress all night?’

With a start I realised Aethan had returned to his former clothing. I felt a blush start on my cheeks as I followed his example.

‘Can you still feel it?’ Aethan asked.

He really wasn’t helping with my blushing problem.
Of course
I could still feel it. That kiss wasn’t something I was going to stop feeling for a very long time.

‘Which way did it go?’ Wilfred asked.

And that was when I realised they were asking about my previous feeling,
not
the kiss.

‘Oh right.’ Just call me volcano-face and be done with it. ‘I haven’t felt it since… I mean I couldn’t feel it once…’ Wilfred chuckled and I sighed and mumbled, ‘He’s gone.’

Aethan nodded his head and then said, ‘I’d like to show you our homeland.’

He took one of my hands, while Wilfred took the other, the world shimmered again and this time I was staring at a wooded wonderland.

Everywhere I looked, little lights floated through the trees, giving off a soft, luminous glow. Aethan held his hand out and a light drifted over to him and rested on one of his fingers.

‘What is it?’ I asked, moving in to get a closer look.

‘It’s a faery.’

‘But it’s so small.’

‘There are many different varieties of faeries. This is a garden faery. We are land faeries.’

‘Is it really here?’

‘It is dreaming.’ He lifted his hand higher and the faery floated off, continuing its leisurely dance through the trees.

We followed after it, winding our way down through the forest.

‘What other sorts of faeries are there?’ There was so much I didn’t know.

‘Sprites,’ Aethan replied.

Wilfred let out a snort. ‘Don’t let one of
them
get close. They bite.’

Aethan nodded his head. ‘Sprites are mischievous. In contrast, pixies are friendly. And of course we can’t forget the night faeries.’

‘I’ve never heard of night faeries,’ I said.

‘They are the dark side of our light, the night to our day.’

The trees thinned around us and we stepped out onto a field. In the distance, a building soared above us. Not that the word ‘building’ really did it justice. It reminded me of a whimsically-iced cake; turrets and stone lacework hanging from every possible position. The windows were filled with light, and music tinkled towards us on the breeze.

‘It’s beautiful.’

‘Isilvitania Castle,’ Aethan said. ‘Although you know it as Eynsford Castle.’

‘Eynsford Castle?’ Eynsford Castle was a dilapidated ruin in the centre of the village. ‘But how can that be?’

‘Our land is a copy of your land.’

‘I don’t understand,’ I said.

‘Hmmm, how best to explain it?’ He paused for a minute while he thought. ‘Imagine laying a piece of tracing paper over a map and copying that image onto the paper. Our land is like that. It is there, but totally separate at the same time.’

I tried to get my head around it. ‘So, it’s like your land is floating above ours?’ I finally said.

‘Not floating. They co-exist, parted by the veils.’

‘So then Trillania?’

‘Trillania is like a traced copy of both of those lands, but everyplace is everywhere, accessible by mere thought.’

Now I was really confused. ‘But…’

The power pulsed through me again, pulling me towards the castle. ‘Come on,’ I yelled, running towards it.

Aethan grabbed my hand and suddenly we were at the entrance. I raced through the door and up a flight of stairs, climbing until I could go no further. I turned left and ran down the hallway and suddenly, I could hear fighting.

‘The Royal Apartments,’ Aethan said, racing past me. He threw the door open to reveal half a dozen goblins fighting two Border Guards and a faery wearing pyjamas.

‘Father,’ Aethan cried, pulling a sword out of the air. He slashed at the head of one of the goblins attacking King Arwyn. Headless, the goblin fell to the ground and then shimmered from view.

Wilfred engaged another goblin and there was no room for me to join the fight. If I tried, I was as likely to hurt an ally as an enemy. But that didn’t stop the pressure from growing, from demanding that I do something, anything but stand there and watch.

My skin felt stretched tight, breathing was difficult, stars started to twirl in front of my eyes as I struggled to hold onto the power. In pure desperation, terrified of what might happen – it felt entirely possible that this time
I
might be the one to explode – I threw my arms out to the sides.

Stone roared as it exploded outwards, leaving two massive holes where the side walls of the room had been. The fighters seemed oblivious to the damage as chunks of ceiling fell into the holes.

Uh Oh.

‘Ah Aethan.’ How best to get his attention without getting him killed? I waited while he ducked a sword swing and thrust upwards with his. He skewered the goblin through the chest and then kicked it off his blade.

‘Aethan.’ I raised my voice as the ceiling started to creak.

He spun towards me and I grimaced and pointed at the holes.

He gaped at the wreckage and then looked up at the ceiling. It was rippling slowly. ‘We have to get out of here,’ he yelled. He lunged for his father, grabbing onto him with a hand and fading from view. The two other Guards flickered out of sight straight after them. The four goblins still standing turned their attention to Wilfred and me.

‘Time to go.’ Wilfred reached out and took my hand.

I heard a roar as the ceiling started to cave in, and then we were standing in Trillania where we had crossed over. The next second I was staring at the ceiling in the sleep room. Scruffy was still guarding my bed and Brad, Jared, and Isgranelda had already been replaced by other students.

‘I’m assuming that wasn’t a pleasure jaunt,’ Rako said, looking at his watch. We had missed our ninety minute curfew.

‘Goblins attacked the Faery Royal suite.’ Aethan climbed off his bed.

‘They are safe?’

‘Only father was there.’

Rako shook his head. ‘More and more the attacks seem to be centred on Isilvitania. What is she up to?’

‘What is who up to?’ I whispered to Wilfred.

‘Galanta, their Queen.’

‘I want to be fully briefed on this later.’ Rako clapped his hands together. ‘All right you lot. Everybody take a dream-catcher and go get some sleep.’

‘Ah Wilfred,’ I said, ‘did I just blow holes in the real castle?’

He laughed and shook his head. ‘What’s in Trillania is a representation of the real world, not the other way around.’ He handed me a shield made of the same materials as the dream-walker armbands.

‘What’s this?’

‘Hang it on your bed. It will stop you entering Trillania when you sleep. Especially important for you. We don’t want you dream-walking unsupervised.’

I weighed it in my hand. ‘Why don’t we give these to the public? Or at least important targets?’

‘They only work if you have used one of the armbands.’

I was too wound up to sleep when I got back to the room, and, if I were entirely truthful, a little worried about sleeping in a room full of people. I hung the dream-catcher on the end of my bed and took Scruffy’s brush out. Much to his disgust, I gave him a thorough grooming. He looked just as bad when I finished as he had when I had begun, but the calming sensation of running the brush through his hair had soothed my frantic mind.

I turned off my little light, tucked Scruffy into my side, and closed my eyes. Much to my surprise I was soon fast asleep, not waking until the morning.

‘Hey sleepy head.’ The voice and a hand on my shoulder woke me. Jared stood looking down at me, an amused expression on his face. His lips were bright red. ‘You really need to look in a mirror.’

I
needed to look in a mirror? The man was wearing make-up.

I clawed my way up out of bed and searched through my top drawer till I found my communication mirror. Somebody, and I had my suspicions on whom that somebody might be, had drawn a moustache on my face. It was long and black and curled at the edges.

‘How,’ I asked, ‘am I going to get this off my face?’

‘You can’t.’ He pointed at his lips.

I stifled a giggle. ‘I thought you were wearing lipstick.’

‘I wish.’

I looked at Scruffy. ‘Call yourself a guard dog?’ He stretched out fully into my half of the bed, totally unconcerned by our new facial features.

I pulled open my drawers and took out a shirt.

Jared put a hand on my arm. ‘Uniform from today,’ he said. ‘You’ll find it hanging in your wardrobe.’

I opened my wardrobe to find a variety of clothing hanging there: black tank tops, t-shirts and leather pants; and black boots that laced to the knee. Two pairs of charcoal and black camouflage-print pants, a couple of fur vests and a black, long-sleeved shirt made from the softest leather, completed my uniform. I grabbed a black tank top and a pair of the camouflage pants.

‘Wait for me,’ I said, heading for the bathroom. ‘I’ll only be a few minutes.’ There was no way I was going to breakfast by myself with this thing on my face.

I threw some water over my cheeks, scrubbing at my moustache for a few seconds before ascertaining that Jared was correct – it wasn’t coming off the easy way.

Giving up, I pulled my hair back into a long braid and climbed into my uniform. I often had trouble finding pants long enough for me, so I was pleased to find that the clothing fit perfectly. I pulled on the boots and laced them up hastily.

Jared was sitting on the edge of his bed waiting for me. Scruffy was on one side of him and Tinka on the other. Both his hands were busy scratching behind their ears.

‘How do I look?’ I pointed at my face.

‘Ridiculous, but you’ll do.’

There was the expected amount of sniggering when we entered the mess for breakfast. I kept my eyes to the front and tried to ignore it. Isgranelda and Brad were sitting at a bench together, broad grins on their faces. Jared and I helped ourselves to food and sat at the far end of the hall from them.

I wanted to talk about Trillania, but some of the first years were sitting at the end of our table within hearing. So instead, I concentrated on my food.

‘Isadora Scrumpleton?’ I looked up from my porridge to find a Border Guard I hadn’t met before standing in front of me. ‘Rako would like to see you in his office when you are finished breakfast.’

I pulled a face at Jared and stood up. ‘Better get it over and done with.’

Rako was sitting at his desk studying a pile of paperwork. He looked up when I knocked on the open door, seeming pleased to have an excuse to put his paperwork aside

‘Have a seat.’ He gestured at the stool on the opposite side of his desk and then looked at me with a puzzled expression on his face, but he didn’t mention my moustache. ‘Just trying to finish your paperwork,’ he said, pointing at the pile he had been perusing when I entered.

‘That’s
my
paperwork?’

‘We’ve been collating information on you for years. True dream-walkers are very rare. Especially ones as powerful as you seem to be.’

I had already guessed from Aethan and Wilfred, and also from what I had seen in my mind, that I had been active in Trillania for years. What I hadn’t guessed was that the Border Guards had been collating information on me that whole time.

‘I’m not a very good dream-walker,’ I said. ‘I mean the only time I can remember being in Trillania is last night.’

‘I spoke to Wolfgang after his session with you. He has no doubt that once your witch and faery sides become cohesive you will remember.’

I looked at the pile of papers. ‘What more do you need from me?’

‘Actually it’s something quite simple. I just need your next-of-kin details and a photo if you have one.’

I dug around in my pocket for my wallet. I had a photo in there of Mum and Grams that would do. It was an exact replica of one I had in a frame beside my bed. I gave Rako the photo, and Mum and Grams’ details.

He placed a blank piece of paper on the table next to the photo and then ran his wand over the photo. An exact replica of it appeared on the sheet of paper.

‘Neat,’ I said.

‘A talent peculiar to my family.’ He handed me back the photo. I noticed a mouse peeping out of the top of his shirt pocket as he sat back in his chair and put his arms behind his head. ‘Aethan and Wilfred told me what you did last night. The talents you are showing will be immensely useful. They will also mean that you, and whoever you are with, are more likely to be engaged by the enemy. This puts you in more danger than any other student. As such, I expect you to train harder than any other student.’

I managed to suppress a surge of panic. That was exactly what I was here for, to fight, to protect. And if I were able to do that more effectively than any other, then so be it if that put me in danger. What was the alternative? To walk away knowing that I could help? That was no longer an option.

The day flew by (fencing in the morning, woodcraft in the afternoon) and before I knew it, I was strapping on the armband and climbing back onto the bed.

‘Wilfred,’ Aethan said, ‘take Izzy in and wait for me. I’ll be a few minutes behind.’

Wilfred nodded and climbed onto the bed next to me. Just as it had last night, the melody of the sleep spell touched me, and within moments I was in Trillania.

‘I like what you’ve done with your hair.’ Wilfred smirked as he touched a finger to his own moustache.

I concentrated for a second and could tell by the way his smirk faded that I had managed to remove the stupid thing from my face. No need to wear it here. Then I stared at him, visualising what I wanted, and clapped my hands in delight as all of his facial hair disappeared.

‘Hey,’ he said. His eyes narrowed and suddenly I was twice my normal width. My clothes strained with the effort of holding in the rolls of fat.

‘That’s not nice.’ I flipped him off and then turned his hands into feet so he couldn’t do the same to me.

He hooked an arm around me and rubbed one of his new feet into my face. ‘Tell me the truth, do my feet stink?’

His toe hair went up my nose and I squealed and turned his body into that of an orangutan. I backed away from him, laughing at the puzzled expression on his face. He looked down at his shaggy arms and furry belly and said, ‘I told you she wanted to see me naked.’

Aethan’s laugh alerted me to his presence. I turned myself back to my normal body size (no need for him to see me looking like Ten-Tonne Tessie) and then turned to face him. ‘What are we doing tonight?’

‘How do you feel about a bit of hunting?’ A sword appeared at his waist and a bow and quiver full of arrows over his shoulder. He waved his hand and a black stallion appeared. It stamped its feet and snorted mist into the night.

I squeezed my eyes shut and pictured a white horse with a mane and tail that touched the ground. Her hooves were a dazzling gold and her eyes the brightest blue. I felt warm breath on my face and then her soft lips nibbled my cheek.

Wilfred waved his arm and a bronze horse with a dragon’s head appeared. It arched its neck and blew fire into the air. ‘Now that’s what I’m talking about,’ he said as he clambered onto its back.

‘Show off,’ I said, mentally adding a saddle to my horse. I climbed onto her back and then turned her around to face Aethan. ‘Why do we need mounts?’

‘We don’t. It’s just fun.’ A boyish grin appeared on his face and then he turned his stallion and raced away into the night.

Wilfred and I leapt after him, my mare running neck-to-neck with his mount.

‘Do you like my draghorse?’ he asked.

‘Did it take you long to think of that?’

‘Nah. I’m naturally brilliant.’

I laughed at the feel of the wind in my face and kicked my heels into my horse’s sides. She neighed in response and lengthened her pace until it felt like we were flying through the night.

Finally Aethan slowed his pace to a walk and Wilfred and I fell in beside him. ‘Nightmare Forest.’ Aethan nodded at the tall trees ahead of us. ‘Most of the monsters that stalk dreamers are bred in there.’

There was wild laughter and an old man, naked as the day he was born, sprinted from the closest bushes. Still cackling, he disappeared into the distance.

‘We go on foot from here.’ Aethan’s mount disappeared from between his legs and he dropped lightly to the ground.

I tried to emulate his move but ended up on my arse on the soft turf. I ignored Wilfred’s outstretched hand and jumped to my feet, dusting myself off.

‘It’s all in the timing,’ Aethan said. It wasn’t as large as Wilfred’s, but a smile still tugged at the corners of his mouth.

‘So what exactly do Border Guard’s do in Trillania?’ I was still trying to get my head around it.

‘There’s a rotational roster. We take turns guarding heads of state and any other important political figures.’ Aethan headed towards the forest as he spoke.

I started to follow him and tripped over Wilfred’s outstretched foot. It was something I would have seen if he hadn’t elongated his leg to twice its normal length to do it. ‘Game on,’ I hissed, dusting myself off again.

‘Then there are the roamers.’

‘Let me guess,’ I said. ‘They roam?’

He chuckled. ‘Something like that.’

‘Har har. They scour the land for evil.’ Wilfred was wearing a pirate’s hat and eye patch. He slashed at the trees with a cutlass.

‘Then there are the hunters.’

‘Us? Right?’

Aethan gave me a broad grin. ‘Yep, tonight we are hunters.’ He pulled an arrow out of his quiver and put it into his bow.

I snaked my arms towards Wilfred, elongating them longer and longer until they were behind him. Then I punched him in the back of his knees, causing his legs to collapse. He fell forwards, landing face first onto the branch-covered ground.

‘Agghhh,’ he screamed, agony ripping through his voice. He pushed himself back to his knees and a stick protruded from his empty eye socket. Blood dribbled down his face and his eyeball dangled from a white worm-like structure.

‘Oh Great Dark Sky,’ I shrieked. ‘Oh no. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it.’

Wilfred burst out laughing and the grizzly spectacle disappeared. ‘Got ya,’ he said, climbing to his feet. He whistled as he walked off.

It took a while for my heartbeat to return to normal and my hands to stop shaking. Then I also placed an arrow on the string of my bow.

The first monster broke from its cover with no warning. Bright-red eyes glowed in its pig-like face, and tusks stabbed from the corners of its mouth, its forehead, and behind its ears.

It stopped when it saw us and shook its head. Saliva flicked out in an arc, flying into the foliage. I heard sizzling and then leaves and branches dropped to the forest floor.

I changed my outfit to a fine layer of tiny metal discs that covered me from the neck down. I didn’t know what it was, but I wasn’t taking any chances with that thing’s drool.

It lowered its head and pawed at the ground with two of its eight legs.

‘Spread out.’ Aethan moved to the left.

I let Wilfred have the middle as I darted to the right. ‘Why aren’t we shooting?’ I asked as it glared at us with those freaky eyes.

‘We don’t want to piss off its Mumma,’ Wilfred said.

‘Mumma?’

Mumma let out a shriek of rage and charged from the trees. I had thought bubba monster was scary, but in comparison to its mother, it was a giggling bundle of joy. Mumma was huge. She towered above us, breathing fire out through the nostrils of her snout. Each of her tusks was a couple of feet long and appeared to be covered in dried blood. Her legs ended in talons, tipped with cruel claws, and when she roared I could see row-after-row of razor-sharp teeth.

‘Oh boy,’ I said, raising my bow.

‘Don’t shoot,’ Aethan said at the same time that Wilfred said, ‘Hold.’

‘Let me guess.’ I was ashamed to note a tremble in my voice. ‘We don’t want to piss off Dadda?’

‘Give the girl a cigar.’

‘Seriously,’ I said in horror, ‘there’s a Dadda?’

Trees shook and trembled and I heard a large branch crash to the ground.

‘Oh whizbang,’ I said as Dadda squeezed out from between two large oaks.

He stopped and observed his surroundings, intelligence burning bright in his fiery eyes. He stared at the three of us and snorted a trail of fire out of his nostrils. Bubba monster scuttled over to stand under the protection of its father’s body, peering out from behind one of the legs.

‘This,’ Aethan said in a low voice as he backed away from the trio, ‘is a family of fire-breathing buffos. Buffos cause a lot of casualties in Trillania. But there are three very good reasons why we don’t try to hunt fire-breathing buffos.’

‘And those reasons are?’ I backed as carefully as I could over the rough terrain.

Dadda pawed at the ground and shook his head, throwing those tusks from side-to-side in a figure of eight pattern.

‘They are immune to magic, and their hides are impervious to arrows.’

‘That’s two,’ I said. ‘What’s the third reason?’ I had a really bad feeling about reason number three.

Wilfred slipped his arrow back in his quiver and slung the bow over his back. ‘The third reason,’ he said, drawing his sword from its sheath, ‘is very simple. We don’t hunt fire-breathing buffos, because
they
hunt
us.’

As if it had been waiting for those words, the father buffo broke from its standing position into a sprint. Fire sprayed from its nostrils as it rocketed towards us.

‘Over here you ugly bastard,’ Wilfred yelled. The buffo altered its course so that it was heading straight for him. Wilfred dropped to the ground and I shrieked as the buffo ran at him. Those talons would tear him to shreds. But Wilfred rolled to the side at the last second, narrowly missing those churning feet. He ripped the tip of his sword down the buffo’s belly, opening up a long wound.