Fairy Thief (11 page)

Saffron swallowed with difficulty
. ‘Temper’ – she means, ‘fight.’
A cold bowling ball sat in her belly with that thought.
But still, you’re not coming, Li. You’re not going to hang around and manipulate me like your little dolly anymore. Nice try.”

Li cocked her head and stared at Saffron in wonder. Then she looked down and twiddled the golden cord that held her dress under her bust.

Saffron watched Li with suspicion.
Oh, man — is she reading my mind again? Does she know what I’m thinking?
In a flash, Saffron’s emotions swung from hesitant guilt to anger.
Then, she shouldn’t be reading my freaken’ mind if she doesn’t want to hear bad things! It’s my mind — she needs to get out. Get out! Get out! Get out!
Saffron glared at Li.

Li looked back, innocently. “I know who can help you, Saffron. In fact, I think you will enjoy their company.”

Saffron’s anger drained and left her limp. Enjoy ‘their’ company? How could she have been so nasty to Li? Still Saffron stood quiet now, didn’t even attempt to say anything to mend the tear she could feel forming between her and Li — this being that she had traveled through life with for hundreds of thousands of years. Still, she couldn’t search for Markis with Li. She knew — she needed to be the leader in this search party. If Li went with her, Li would instantly take charge. That’s just the way Li was. Saffron wasn’t sure if she let Li take charge or if Li quietly bullied her way to first position. Saffron couldn’t think of any of that right now, all she knew was that she had to do this without Li. She cleared her throat, and forced herself to stand up straight. “Can I meet them now?”

“
Of course. Kuzih, could you fetch the twins?”

Saffron had seen Kuzih before. She was stocky — more of a cherub than a fairy. Her eyes were big and blue, her ringlets were short and fat. She had a very sweet disposition, even in the bleak time that had so recently settled upon them. Kuzih could still find reason to giggle and smile.

Soon, there was a commotion in the wet forest. In the tangle of mildewed growth, just beyond Saffron’s sight, somebody screamed like a girl, then somebody else gave a Tarzan howl. There was three seconds of silence, then a burst of sound as a tow-headed boy, younger than Saffron, jettisoned from a bush. He must have been shoved from behind because he came tripping and sloshing through the muck, and landed on his face with a splash. He screamed like a girl again, and got a mouthful of muddy slop and drowned weeds for his effort.

There was something strange about him. Saffron leaned in for a closer look. There was something between his legs. He had a huge…. “Oh, my God.” Saffron turned abruptly, faced away long enough for the boy to get up, sluice the mud from his legs, and pry a coconut out of his shorts.

“
Wha…?” He gazed innocently at Saffron. “It’s just tropical fruit.”

Saffron wrinkled her nose in disgust.

Another boy came bounding from the tangle of brush and howled, “Ha, ha! I am the veektor!” He stomped by his identical brother. Splash! Splash! Splash! — and shoved him in the shoulder. His brother leaped forward and shoved him right in the middle of his back. That second twin tripped forward and bumped into Li. They were dressed in grey lederhosen made of the softest leather, long-sleeved white shirts that billowed, wool socks pulled up to their knees, and brown hiking boots. They looked like they were going to a casting call for ‘The Sound of Music,’ except, Saffron thought, that didn’t totally describe them either. With the way they pushed back their sun-kissed golden curls from their foreheads, and walked around with a confident, laid-back stance, they were almost like
surfer dudes
in lederhosen.

“
Oh, luscious of all fair, winged children, what does thou desire?” The boy tilted his head and blinked his long, fluffy eyelashes while gazing rapturously into Li’s own heavily narrowed eyes.

“
Would you boys like to go with Saffron to find Ny?”

“
Why us?”

The more ornery of the two looked so suspicious, he made Saffron paranoid. She scrutinized Li for any signs of a lie in her answer. Not that she could ever tell when the fairy was lying.

Li said nothing.

The other boy was ogling Saffron — one long look up, one long look down. He walked over to her and said, “Hey mama, what’s up?”

Saffron jumped back from him, “Eeew!” as if he were a giant slug. “You’re kidding, right?” Li stared steadily back at her. Saffron flicked her hand at the boy to get him to back off. “Oh, this is insane!”

He was only as tall as her elbow — short for his age.

“
Oh, yes. I can see you three are going to get along just fine. Saffron, this is Wo.” Li shoved the mud-eating boy before Saffron. “And this lovely man is Tai.” She pulled Tai
back
from Saffron’s face, he was staring at her like she was prime rib, and an ice cream sundae splayed in offering. “Wo, Tai — my friend Saffron needs help searching the realms for Ny and the soul he has stolen. If you could escort her on her journey, read for portals, use magic when required — that would be a big help in getting our realm back in order.”

Wo, the one whose suspicions started early on, was still calculating. “How long is this going to take?”

“
What does it matter; where are
you
going?” Tai muttered. There was pain in his voice, a weariness that humbled him — Saffron liked him a little better.

Kuzih ran up to Li, her round cheeks red with exertion. “Here it is.” She handed Li a rolled-up bit of leather. It looked old and extremely used. The edges were frayed and, it appeared, bitten-off in some areas. Some spots around the middle were smudged and indecipherable.

“
You know,” said Saffron, “you should take that…” she indicated the weary, ancient-looking map, “…to Kinko’s and get it copied before it falls apart completely.” She nodded knowingly at her wise words.

The three fairies hunched over the map looked mildly annoyed. They ignored her.

“
Come, Saffron — let us review this map of the known realms with Wo and Tai.”

The four of them squished and squashed over to the large boulder where Li lovingly laid out the map.

Saffron strained to peer over Tai’s shoulder, as he stood right in front of the map, hogging everyone’s view. Li took him by the shoulders and pressed him aside.

Saffron moved closer, stared at the map, and sucked her breath. “Oh,” she mumbled, “
that’s
why you can’t take it to Kinko’s.”

The picture on the map — the map itself — wouldn’t stay still. The crude, wavy lines that indicated ocean or water, rolled gently. One-dimensional clouds moved across the top.

“
Watch,” Li breathed, and called out, “The Opleenrealm!”

Every line on the map shifted all at once, except for the clouds (which momentarily remained still). Then suddenly, there on the map, lay a land full of very few roads and very many ponds.

“
That, Saffron is how you summon a realm on a fairy map.” Li smiled down at her serenely, with a little bit of haughty thrown in for good measure.

“
Li…I don’t know how to call out for a realm on a fairy map…because I don’t know the names of
any
realms.” Saffron sniped.

Li reached out to rub Saffron’s back, and smooth her hair. “The twins, Saffron, they will summon the known realms for you.”

For the next hour, Li pointed to certain realms where she felt Ny might have taken Markis. She also pointed out realms that the three should avoid, or at least, save as the last possible option. She warned them that although the fairies knew of these outer realms, no one fairy knew much about any of them.

Saffron huffed. “Well, what if we search one realm, and Ny is, like, always one realm ahead of us? What if he’s always one realm behind us? I mean, it’s not likely he’s just sitting somewhere, right? If he’s always on the move, how the hell are we supposed to find him?”

Tai snorted. “Yeah, right. He’s in one spot. Lazy ass.”

Li looked deep into Saffron’s eyes for a very long time before she answered; her large black pupils held Saffron frozen in time and space. The fairies that were around them stilled, as silent as a ladybug slumbering on a leaf. “Saffron, it is easier to try, than to prove it cannot be done.” When she blinked, a low buzz of animation came back to the glade. “Now, Saffron, even though you do not have your human body in tow, it does not mean you are invincible. There are ways to destroy a soul — two that I know of…. There may be more ways in these different worlds. You must stand guard for yourself; always be ready so as not to be taken, destroyed, or misdirected.” Her eyes shifted over to stare at the twins who, after the map reading had stopped and Li’s words of wisdom began, had splashed off in a sudden fit of boredom and were now tossing a bleating wood elf back and forth like a flailing-limbed football. Wo dropped the elf on the last pass, and before Tai could grab him beneath the muck, the elf jumped to his feet and shook his fist as Tai descended upon him, made a grasp for him, and narrowly missed. Then, before Saffron could blink, the elf disappeared into the murky water and was gone. Li sighed, “Take care of my mischievous little friends.”

Saffron frowned,
this better not turn into a big ol’ babysitting expedition; I have enough to worry about. If they can’t take care of themselves, what good are they?
She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the two who were now, side by side, swinging from a tree limb by their knees and crossing their eyes at her. “Yeah, well, I’d love to stay and chit chat, but I have a friend I have to go look for.”

“
A moment, Saffron, a last word, if you please.…” Li beckoned Saffron to her side as she drew an object from her gossamer robes, which fluttered in the restless wind that stirred the entire forest. “This is a timepiece.” It was a metal ball engraved with odd symbols. Li popped open the small globe and held the palm-sized clock before Saffron.

Quite near, lightning touched down and momentarily bleached the woods. Only seconds later, an ear-splitting crack of thunder shook the earth. Saffron clutched her arms around herself and frowned; this whole scene was getting too creepy. She locked her eyes on the timepiece and forced herself to concentrate, just so she could get the hell out.

It appeared to be even older than the parchment, with a bronze face and silver back that had blackened with time. The etchings in the metal, which were exquisitely detailed and abundant, had all been just about filled in by the build-up.

“
It will tell you how much time has gone by in the world you know as your home. It will show you the minutes here, the hours here, the days and years here....” Li let her voice trail off. She didn’t point out the section that counted off the decades, and the other section that kept track of the centuries — not after the look of horror that crossed Saffron’s face.

When Li said, ‘the years,’ Saffron felt her chest clench like it was in a vise. She raised her hand to her mouth as if to stop her heart from popping out. Then she took a deep, forced breath through flared nostrils and said, “No, Li — it won’t take years. I’m telling you right now — it will not take years.” She gritted her teeth and stared at the fairy. “My mother and Derek, Coco — they’re all going to be looking for me. My mother is probably wondering right now, this very second, if Markis and I are ‘getting it on’ in the woods. She’s going to come storming through the woods to find me pretending to be berry picking. If this takes twenty-four hours, even if we’re gone for two days, I’m going to have a hard enough time explaining myself, but that’s fine — I’ll deal with it. But Markis and I
cannot
go missing for years!”

Li smiled sadly. “You know, you may be right. Now that I ponder, I am sure that Ny wants you to come after him — he will want to be found. Maybe it will not take so long as I originally feared.”

Saffron grabbed the timepiece from Li’s hands. Li gently took it back, grasped Saffron’s wrist, and wound the long, golden cord trailing from the piece around and around again. The timepiece itself fit through a finishing hole and, voila, Saffron had a new necklace or bracelet she didn’t care much for.

“
And who will be in charge of this?” Li stretched out her long, lithe, white arm. In her palm was a small, flat, circular piece of glass.”

Saffron looked down her nose at the piece and pulled her head back like a nervous horse. “What is that?” She clasped her hands behind her back.

Wo snatched the glass piece out of Li’s hand and put it up to his eye, securing it between his eyebrow and his cheek. He squinted his other eye. “That’s a monocle, Luv. All the better to see you with!” He pinched Saffron in the rear-end.