Fairy Keeper (38 page)

ierra’s heart took off, racing faster than a merman’s tail. Nell remained in the grip of the prophecy. Micah was still in chains, and Corbin was wrestling the man away from Nell. In a matter of seconds, Bentwood would no doubt call up reinforcements. Sierra’s rubbery legs would have to hold her. An icy wind slapped her in the face, giving her courage. She pushed aside the last two people in her way as Jack swung up his bow and arrow, then shot Micah in the chest.

Sierra tried to scream but had no breath left to make a sound. He crumpled on the stage, her father’s feathered arrow buried in his chest. When Micah groaned in pain, obviously still alive, Sierra gasped in relief. Thanks to the unexpected wind blasting through the courtyard, her father had missed Micah’s heart, but he was already drawing another arrow.

“No! Stop it!” Sierra vaulted up in front of Micah, rattling the wooden floorboards, uncaring about the cries of the people in the crowd.

The elders stood, uncertain of what to do. This was a colleague’s daughter, after all. They’d let him handle her.

Jack lowered his bow slightly and smiled. “Are you sure he’s worth it? You know he’s already dead, even if I didn’t hit his heart. A unicorn arrow means even a miss is a bull’s-eye.”

Despair acted as a weighted chain around Sierra’s neck. With an intensity matched only by her rage, she reached her mind to her fairy.

Queen!
she called with all her soul.
Bring the queens! Bring them all now!

At least Phoebe was safe no matter what happened. As long as she followed Sierra’s directions, her life would be spared, even though it would cost so much.

Sierra looked Jack right in the eye. “He’s worth everything. And you’re nothing.”

His face became immobile. That was his work face. She was only business now.

Jack redirected his aim from Micah to Sierra. She pulled up her knife, but it was a worthless defense against her father’s bow. Jack sent the arrow flying.

Sierra steeled herself for the hit, but Queen zipped in front of her.

A sharp sound like shattered glass roared through Sierra’s ears. Queen fell, fluttered to the ground, light dim, wings quivering. Sharp pain stabbed Sierra, right where her heart stuttered in her chest. Her legs buckled as horror swamped her soul.

“Queenie,” she whispered, kneeling beside the little fairy. The arrowhead was huge in comparison to Queen, taking up her entire midsection. Queens were incredibly strong, but Jack’s weapon of choice pitted magic against magic. Sierra yanked out the narrow, wickedly pointed tip, and thick golden fluid rushed from Queen’s body. Sierra’s chest tightened in response, but not only from the unexpected ripping pain at the thought of losing her fairy. A physical pain vibrated inside, jolting her stomach, squeezing her heart like a fist. She wondered if she was sharing Queen’s death. And if the fairy queen was dying, was Sierra?

Waves of heat and cold flashed along Sierra’s limbs, and a white explosion of light filled her eyes. She found herself lying down next to Queen. Her body seemed to have no choice. Corbin shouted, but it sounded as if he were a very far distance away. Micah lay on the ground, unmoving. She could barely make out Nell’s voice, her prophetic words garbled and faded, but then silence draped across Sierra’s mind.

She closed her eyes, but, instead of blackness, Sierra saw a golden sea below her, deep under the earth. She had a new way to see, a new set of eyes. The people around her were visible, though her eyes were still closed. It was as if she’d always had this type of vision.

Time slowed to a crawl. Everything around her was tinged with gray. Below the earth there remained a golden glow, but raw, red spots seeped through like lava boiling up in a golden river. She wanted to reach her hands into the golden river and take a deep drink. She understood somehow the energy of that river would revive her. In fact, her head was filled with knowledge, so much information she gasped as a torrent of arcane understanding flew through her mind. Through it all, she sensed Queen’s presence, her thoughts in the background as Sierra experienced what Queen knew. They were sharing at a level deeper than Sierra ever imagined. The door that opened between them that day at the cave was blown off its hinges.

And the golden river below? That was the magic holding their world together. Sierra felt she’d always known this. But the river was poisoned. The decay reached out, making her bones ache. She didn’t want to move, couldn’t imagine how she would ever move again.

“An unexpected bonus,” Jack said, prodding Sierra with one booted toe. When she didn’t move, he returned to the other end of the stage.

Queen,
Sierra called.
Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me.

Queen had saved her. Queen had given up her own life for Sierra. In all the years they’d been tied together, Sierra had never known how much Queen loved her. Sierra’s fairy queen loved her the way she loved Phoebe.

Queen loved Sierra like they were a part of each other. What was she saying? Sierra
was
a part of her.

And Queen was a part of the earth, part of the magic of their world.

Which meant so was Sierra.

She concentrated against the increasing hum in her ears and saw Queen’s link to the earth. It was like a golden ribbon tying her to the stream below, but it was fraying. It billowed in a breeze that came off the golden river but didn’t move Sierra’s hair or caress her skin, made as it was of magic, not air. Sierra couldn’t see it before, but she did now. Whatever had happened with Queen, they were knit together now beyond conscious thought.

Focusing on the golden flow of magic below, Sierra reached out with imaginary hands and strained toward it, knowing Queenie needed it. So Sierra dipped mental hands into the warm, sparkling waters and pulled, willing it to raise a new ribbon to her, siphoning off energy. A tiny waterspout formed, and Sierra pulled harder until the magic danced up from the stream and connected to her heart. The joining shocked her breathless; a jolt of pure energy poured into her.

She was fire. She was wind. She was earth. Her skin was too tight to hold her.

The earth pulsed now. Sierra sensed the entire depth and breadth of the land. She was utterly grounded, and was suddenly as ancient as the rocks that had stood against the pounding waves for eons.

She swirled the magic inside, the heat sparking along her spine. A thin line of shining energy connected her and her fairy. Sierra sent the energy crashing down the little ribbon to Queenie. She wouldn’t die, not if Sierra could help it. Not after she finally realized how much she needed her fairy queen. How much Sierra loved her.

Sierra had little control of this new, strange power, and a tidal wave swamped Queenie, washing away the ragged hole in her body. The flow of time returned with a snap. The fairy spun into the sky with a shock that reached to Sierra’s toes. Queenie shrieked, but the shriek turned to a tiny shout of triumph as her wings beat smoothly and her body was whole again. But the energy was too much for one fairy to hold. The power was like an electrical storm. They needed to be grounded, or the power would eat them alive.

Queenie flew to Micah and touched him. His head bowed back as she flooded him with magic. The power flash-burned the arrow to dust and started to heal him at a blindingly fast pace. Sending him so much magic drained the shocking overload on Queen’s system, on
their
system, enough so Sierra could see the regular, plain earth around her, too. It was a sad, sad place, but with so much potential. She saw how Aluvia was meant to be. Even now, the ground glowed ever so slightly, as did Micah. Queenie was incandescent.

With regret, Sierra slowly relinquished her new ribbon to the golden glow below. She couldn’t function properly with that double vision layered on top of everything. It amazed her that magical creatures must walk around with that kind of sight.

Then the ground started to tremble.

ueen flung herself at Sierra and burrowed into her hair. Sierra’s age-old terror erupted as the ground did. The shivering and groaning of the earth nearly flung them to the ground. People in the crowd screamed. They ran into each other in their attempts to get away, but they were piled in this space like fairies in an overcrowded hatch. Cracks crawled up the buildings nearby. She moaned, thinking of her little sister alone in this chaos.

Keep Phoebe safe!
Sierra begged Queen, who zoomed into the air with a cry, zipping across the top of the crowd.

Micah’s arm landed across Sierra’s waist, pulling her close to him, holding her tightly even when they both fell from the stage as it shimmied and bounced.

Sierra curled up into a ball as her body slammed into the ground. Micah grunted as he rolled them to soften the impact. For that moment that lasted an eternity, Sierra was certain she was about to be swallowed up into the center of the earth.

But then a voice whispered inside her mind, one she had never heard before. It said,
But now you’ve seen inside the center of the earth… and it’s beautiful.

The voice offered comfort, and, for once in her life, she took what help was offered. Thankful Micah was with her, she squeezed her eyes tight and tried to stay calm. If only she could know Phoebe was fine, that’d be easier to do.

Yes, yes
…
sister’s safe,
Queen whispered, sending an image of a dusty but alert Phoebe crouched in the far corner of the square. Relief flooded Sierra, even though the earthquake continued. She could get through this now.

When the shaking stopped, Sierra and Micah heaved deep sighs, stood, and looked around. Bentwood had fallen, buried beneath a pile of rocks. It was pretty clear he wouldn’t be bothering Phoebe ever again. Sierra wasn’t exultant, though. She was glad Phoebe was safe from him, but Sierra’s earlier need for violence disappeared during her final bonding to Queenie.

Jack had fallen, too, near her, ten feet away from the stage, but he was already pushing his way to his feet. Corbin and Nell were still on the platform, which remained standing strong. Nell’s eyes still shined as black as the night.

With the red dust making a haze in the air, she spoke again, “So speaks the earth that has been too drained! So cry out the rocks from which you have stolen! This is the reason for the quakes that have grown in number! People of Aluvia, if you continue to misuse the fairies and steal their nectar and their magic, your ports will soon tumble into the sea! This is the truth! You are all held in the palm of the earth in a great net made of magic. The fairies are meant to keep the net spread wide as they fly through the wild places of Aluvia. They must spread their nectar wherever they go, sharing with other magical creatures! But you steal their nectar before they can collect enough for themselves. Even the fairy keepers aren’t enough to keep them healthy. The little fairies have died―and you are at fault! You are stealing from the land and from yourselves!”