Fairy Metal Thunder (Songs of Magic, #1) (16 page)

Hoke touched the back of Buttercake’s neck.
She stopped walking and stood still.

The dreadlocked man staggered away from the
group of drummers as if drunk. Once he was several paces away from
them, however, he stood up straight and walked with purpose. His
eyes scanned along the concrete path, up the rocky hill to the
tower at the top. Hoke held his breath.

The man’s eyes turned solid black. His jaw
opened, revealing teeth that were suddenly long and sharp, almost
too big for his mouth. Then a forked tongue uncoiled between his
teeth and reached out until it was longer than his arms. The tongue
swirled in the air, tasting it like a snake.

It had to be the guardian, Hoke thought. And
he didn’t have the hexagonal gold and black medallion to indicate
he was on official business for Queen Mab. He was on unofficial
business, so he couldn’t reveal a thing to the guardian. The Queen
clearly wanted the missing magical instruments kept quiet. That was
probably why she’d hired a solitary elf like Hoke, who wouldn’t be
spreading the story to anyone, except maybe some giant sugarcane
trees.

Hoke felt Buttercake tense beneath him,
afraid. He rubbed her between the shoulders to try and calm
her.

The Queen enforced the Supreme Law, or at
least the part forbidding anyone from Faerie from crossing into
man-world. To this end, she appointed darkfae to guard the doors
between the worlds. These were fairies who’d been twisted into
evil, wicked things, usually by too much exposure to black magic.
Trolls, boggarts, dullahans…nasty things.

The creature currently approaching him was
known as a
boggart
, known for being unstable and very
violent. Apparently, it kept itself disguised among the humans in
order to keep an eye on the gate.

The boggart spun its long tongue through the
air again. Then it sucked the tongue back inside, and its teeth
shrunk a little, though they remained much longer and sharper than
a human’s.

“Who’s out there, then?” the boggart
asked.

Hoke and Buttercup remained still and
quiet.

“The Glastonbury Door is closed,” the boggart
with gray dreadlocks said. “Queen’s Law. No Folk out, no tallboys
in.” He stalked up the hill, sniffing the air with his tongue
again. “Who’s being naughty? Goblin? Elf? Smells like elf to
me.”

Hoke tapped Buttercup’s right side. She
turned to the right and started down the slope, away from the
concrete path where the boggart was walking.

“I am the guardian of the gate, appointed by
the Queensguard,” the boggart hissed as he climbed. “You go back as
you came, or we’ll give you the iron.” He drew a long dagger from
inside his high leather boot.

Hoke gave Buttercake three quick taps, and
the unicorn hurried down the slope.

The boggart continued up the path, past the
point where Hoke and Buttercake had turned away. It stopped after a
few steps and unfurled its tongue to its full length, tasting the
air again.

“Oh, aren’t we a clever one?” the boggart
asked as he backtracked. The tips of his forked tongue brushed the
grass near his feet, just where Buttercake had stepped off. The
boggart followed, moving directly toward them now. He’d picked up
their scent.

Hoke took a pouch from his belt and opened
the drawstring. It held sneezewort leaves, dried and crushed into a
powder. Unfortunately, it was even drier and older than he
expected, and a small puff of dust curled out and floated up to his
nostrils.

Hoke sneezed, not just once, but a dozen
times in a row, each one echoing like a thunderclap inside his
nose. He felt Buttercake tense up beneath him, her muscles
swelling. She was about to panic.

When Hoke finally managed to stop sneezing
and open his itchy, tear-filled eyes, he saw the blurry shape of
the boggart charging at them, teeth extended to full length, iron
dagger raised and ready to strike.

Hoke rubbed Buttercake to sooth her, and with
his other hand, he readied the pouch of sneezewort.

“Ha! You’re more sneezy than sneaky, then!”
the boggart crowed as he approached. His tongue lashed the air all
around Hoke and Buttercake. “I smell a naughty elf, and…what’s
this? A griffin? A dragon? Or, perhaps…”

Hoke dashed the sneezewort at the boggart.
The dried powder rolled out in a big cloud, coating the entire
length of the boggart’s tongue.

“What’s this?” the boggart managed to say,
before he fell into a severe sneezing and coughing fit. He rolled
his tongue back inside his mouth, but this only made things worse.
The boggart fell on the ground, his gray dreadlocks flailing as he
sneezed and wheezed and rolled on the ground, scratching at his
nose and mouth.

“Go!” Hoke shouted, squeezing Buttercake with
his knees. “Fast as you can!”

Buttercake raced downhill, picking up speed,
and Hoke clung tight to her neck. They shot invisibly past the drum
circle, some of whom looked up at the mysterious breeze passing
by.

Before she hit the flat land below the hill,
Buttercake leaped into the air. The unicorn floated in a long, slow
arc and landed well out in the plains. She jumped again, and they
drifted over a farmhouse and a few low stone walls before
landing.

With a third leap, they put the rocky hill of
Glastonbury Tor, and its boggart guardian, far behind them.

“That’s a good girl,” Hoke said. “I don’t
suppose you’ve got a sniff of the magic instruments yet, have
you?”

Buttercake neighed.

“That’s all right,” Hoke said. “Let’s stop
and swipe a few apples from the orchard up there, and you can sniff
all you like.”

As Buttercake walked, she drifted slightly to
the west, as if she sensed something in that direction. Perhaps the
instruments were somewhere near Exeter, or Plymouth, or across the
sea in Ireland. Or perhaps the Americas, in which case Hoke hadn’t
picked the best gate to man-world, after all.

Hoke stroked her pink mane. Wherever the
instruments were, Buttercake would root them out. Unicorns were
good for much more than just running and hiding, though they
excelled at those, too.

The sunlight was bright and thick on Sunday
morning, and Jason woke slowly. He stretched, and then remembered
all the things he needed to be panicking about.

Fortunately, everyone had been asleep when
he’d slipped into the house. He’d made it to his room and slid his
guitar under the bed without incident. But the real trouble would
start today.

Before he even got out of bed, Jason dialed
Mitch’s cell number.

“Morning,” Mitch said quietly, as if he
didn’t want to be overheard.

“So, how bad is it?” Jason said.

“Bad. House is wrecked, Mom’s biting my head
off. The neighbors told her I had a party, and she can see the
place is destroyed, so…”

“Sorry.”

“One good thing is that it really looks like
an earthquake. It’s too much damage, even for a wild party. The
whole house is slanted now. The neighbors are all saying
earthquake, which sounds impossible around here, but…”

“Why is that a good thing?”

“For the insurance,” Mitch said. “I mean, if
I tell them it was Dred’s drum solo that did it, they’ll just think
I’m crazy anyway. So my mom’s called the insurance company, and
maybe they’ll help pay for repairs. We don’t know.”

“That’s good!”

“Well, we don’t know anything yet. But
obviously, that’s it for band rehearsal here. My mom won’t allow
it, and I think one more song could blow the house down anyway.
Your parents wouldn’t let us rehearse over there, would they?”

“Yeah, sure,” Jason said. “I’m not even
supposed to be in the band anymore. Plus, you know, I don’t really
want my house destroyed, either.”

“Maybe Erin or Dred’s parents—”

“It could wreck their houses, too. We should
probably work on figuring out how to not do that.”

“Yeah, we’d run out of rehearsal spaces
pretty quickly.” Mitch was quiet for a minute. “But, you know, we
really don’t need to practice anymore.”

“We don’t?” Jason asked.

“Yeah, because those instruments are
magic
, man! That’s our hook. That’s what makes everyone go
crazy for the music. Anything you play on those instruments sounds
great.”

“That’s true…”

“So forget rehearsal. When Tadd gets this
video ready, we’ll put that out, we’ll get gigs…”

“You’re still thinking about the video?”

“Of course! That’s our golden ticket. By the
way, you need to go meet up with Tadd today. He wants to shoot some
extra footage for the videos.”

“Videos?” Jason asked. “More than one?”

“He says he’s cutting a separate video for
each song we played. Gives us more presence online.”

“Okay. I don’t know if I can get out today,
though. I’m still in trouble with my parents.”

“Tadd wants you to meet him at the Irvine
Park Zoo,” Mitch said.

“Why?”

“Extra footage, like I said. I’d go if I
could, but I can’t, because my mom would kill me if I said or did
anything at all right now. And Dred’s not even answering her phone,
as usual.”

“I don’t want to ride all the way over to the
park,” Jason said. “It’s hot out today.”

“Erin’s already there.”

“I guess I should go, though,” Jason said. “I
mean, since you can’t.”

“That’s the spirit. I’ll tell Tadd you’re on
the way.”

“Wait,” Jason said, but Mitch had already
hung up.

Jason got dressed quickly. He ran downstairs,
then ran back upstairs, brushed his teeth and applied deodorant.
Then he ran back downstairs.

His mom was at the kitchen table, painting
some ceramic dishes while Katie watched, asking a million
questions: “Why are you making that red? Isn’t that too dark? Can I
paint one now?”

“Hi, Mom.” Jason drank a quick cup of orange
juice, grimacing as it mingled with the lingering taste of
toothpaste.

“You look like you’re in a hurry,” she
said.

“Yeah…I have to go to the zoo. Just for a
minute?”

“The zoo?” His mom scowled and shook her
head. “You’re still grounded. You can’t go running around town with
your little friends.”

“I want to go to the zoo!” Katie said, and
Jason saw his chance.

“Yeah, I’m taking Katie,” he said. “That’s
what I meant.”

“Yay!” Katie said.

“You want to take your sister to the zoo?”
She blocked Katie from sticking her fingers into the tray of wet
paints. “Stop it, Katie!”

“We could go now,” Jason said.

“Yes, go! Katie, go to the zoo with your
brother!”

“Yay!” Katie jumped to her feet. “Can we see
the cats? And the monkeys?”

“You betcha.” He beamed at her—saved by his
little sister.

He ran upstairs and grabbed his guitar case,
then ushered Katie towards the garage door. Unfortunately, his mom
looked up.

“What’s that guitar for?” she asked.

“For the animals!” Katie volunteered.

“Yep,” Jason said. “We’re going to play music
for the monkeys.”

“And the tigers,” Katie added. “Tigers like
guitar.”

“Whatever.” Their mom turned back to her
painting.

They stepped into the garage and grabbed
their bikes. He wasn’t wild about Katie being around to embarrass
him, but at least she’d gotten him out of the house.

“You’re actually a pretty cool sister
sometimes,” Jason said.

“Sometimes?” Katie rolled her eyes and
pedaled out into the driveway.

They rode their bikes across town, Jason
keeping himself between Katie and the occasional passing car.

They reached Irvine Park and pedaled back to
the zoo area. They reached the long building where the monkeys
lived, and Katie insisted on stopping to look at the family of
white-faced capuchins. The adults rested quietly on their perches,
while two little monkeys chased each other up and down the tree at
the center of the cage.

Up ahead, he could see Tadd shooting video of
Erin while she walked in front of the glass wall of the bear
habitat.

“There’s your girlfriend!” Katie pointed at
Erin, shouting loud enough to get Erin and Tadd’s attention.

“She’s not my girlfriend. Just be cool,”
Jason whispered. Katie skipped along beside him as he joined them
in front of the black bears. “Hey, what’s up?” he asked,
louder.

“Nothing!” Tadd complained. “I wanted
bears
. You know, primal, aggressive. Look at these guys.
It’s like the Berenstain Bears go to the beach.”

Jason looked at the black bears. All of them
were either lounging in the shade under the rocky cliff at the back
of the enclosure, or lounging in the pond at the middle of it. One
rubbed its behind on a tree, while another lazily scratched an
armpit.

“I think they’re fine like that,” Erin
said.

“We need to stir them up,” Tadd said.

“Don’t bother the bears!” Erin told him.

“Yeah, they’re having a good time,” Jason
said.

“What else can we do?” Tadd asked.

“I’m Katie!” Katie announced to Tadd.

“Sorry, yeah, this is my sister,” Jason said.
“Anyway, you’re the director, Tadd. What do you want?”

“Walk around in front of the bears. You and
Erin together. Pretend you’re friends.”

“We are friends!” Erin said, and Jason had to
swallow back the goofy smile that briefly spread across his
face.

“Whatever,” Tadd said. “We need different,
like, emotion-images for different songs. So act like friends this
time. You’ll see where I’m going with this.”

“Are we making a movie?” Katie asked. “Can I
be the monster?”

“There’s no monster,” Jason said. “You can
help Tadd direct.”

“What’s that mean?”

“The director is the person in charge.”

“I can do that!” Katie walked up to Tadd.
“Point the camera at them.”

“I know!” Tadd said. He pointed the camera at
them.