Indigo Magic (2 page)

‘Yes,’ Leona added. ‘If they were alive, they would have come back.’

Andalonus didn’t say anything, but he nodded.

I looked from one to the other and took a long, quavery breath. Now more than ever, I needed my friends. I hoped they wouldn’t decide I was just chasing coloured smoke – even if I probably was.

‘Laz said Lily Morganite might have frozen my family in glacier cloth,’ I said.

S
OME AMONG THE FEY BECOME OVERLY FOND OF
E
ARTH
. S
UCH FAIRIES AND GENIES LOSE ALL PERSPECTIVE
. T
HEY BEGIN TO BELIEVE THAT HUMANS ARE LOVABLE
. T
HEY CONSIDER THE TREES OF
E
ARTH TO BE MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN THE SHRUBS UPON
T
IRFEYNE
. T
HEY WOULD RATHER SOAR THROUGH THE SKIES OF
E
ARTH AND PLAY WITH HUMANS THAN ATTEND TO THEIR DUTIES IN
F
EYLAND
. S
UCH FEY FOLK ENDANGER US ALL
. T
HEY ARE CALLED
‘
E
ARTH-STRUCK
’,
AND THERE IS NO CURE FOR THEIR CONDITION
.

Orville Gold, genie historian of Feyland

‘GLACIER CLOTH. THAT
would be Lily’s style,’ Leona said bitterly.

Whenever I thought of my mother, my father, my brother, trapped and helpless, urgency seized me. I’d been told that anyone spellbound in glacier cloth would lose all sense of time. For them, whole years would disappear into one repeating moment of sudden cold. But the meaning of time was never lost on me. I had felt every moment of each day as five years passed without my family.

‘Shh,’ Meteor hissed. ‘Did you hear that?’

The two genies rose up and looked around.

‘Hear what?’ I listened, but the air was quiet and perfectly calm.

Something seized my wrist. I twisted, but couldn’t shake loose. I heard a scream and saw Leona struggling with another unseen foe. Then Meteor and Andalonus jerked as if strings had been tied to their joints and pulled tight.

Meteor ripped his hands free. He coiled his powerful body then let loose, striking out with fists and feet. Andalonus jabbed the air with his sharp elbows.

Grunts, yells, groans from our invisible attackers. How many were there?

Meteor fought his way towards me, grappling against unseen hands. Something yanked my wings, and I shrieked in pain. Meteor kicked whoever held me, freeing my wings and lifting me into the air.

Below us, deeper in the sonnia field, flowers waved like restless water. They parted, showing a horde of stocky creatures marching our way.

‘Gnomes!’ I shouted.

The gnomes wore brass helmets and breastplates, and they carried clubs of pounded iron. Iron!

Shouts erupted from the air beside us. ‘Get the thieves! Stop them.’

But gnomes were unable to fly.

Drawing my wand, I poured magic into it. ‘
Chantmentum pellex!
’ I cried.

My reversal spell made dozens of fairies and genies suddenly visible – a cloud of them, all unknown to me. They bunched around me and my friends, pushing and shoving and grabbing.

What were they doing in Galena?

I didn’t have time to do another spell before five sets of hands began tearing at my wings, my hair, my gown. ‘Give it back, thief!’ an orange-winged fairy screeched in my face.

Meteor kicked furiously until he could draw his wand. ‘
Obliv trau!
’ he yelled.

My attackers lost their grip: three genies and two fairies dropped to the ground asleep.

But instantly, another wave of strangers attacked.

As Meteor and I fought them off and tried to get closer to Leona, Andalonus rushed across the courtyard towards my door, beating at the air as he went. He pressed the latch and dived into the room beyond. An instant later he flew back outside clutching the poker from my hearth, whaling at the air, defending Leona, whose wings and hands were trapped. Her captors howled as the poker struck, and scrambled to get out of the way, fearing injury.

Leona’s wings spread like a great silver fan, and her wand hand was free.

‘
Obliv trau!
’ she yelled, waving her wand in an arc.

Dozens more fey folk fell heavily to the ground, snoring.

‘Quick!’ I called. ‘Get inside.’

G
NOMES, LIKE LEPRECHAUNS, ARE SHORTER AND STOUTER THAN FAIRIES AND GENIES
. T
HEIR FAVOURITE MEAL IS A GRUEL MADE OF FINELY GROUND GRANITE OR LIMESTONE
. T
HEY ARE NOT FOND OF COLOURS, SO THEIR GARMENTS ARE DRAB, AND THEIR SKIN AND HAIR ARE DULL
.

G
NOMES DWELL IN ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD OF
T
IRFEYNE, BUT THEY HAVE LIMITED MAGIC
. T
HEY CANNOT FLY OR CAST SPELLS
. T
HEY MAKE EXCELLENT GUARDS, BECAUSE A SPELL CAST DIRECTLY UPON A GNOME HAS NO EFFECT, AND GNOMES CAN HANDLE IRON WITHOUT INJURY
.

T
HE FEAR FELT BY FAIRIES AND GENIES WHEN CONFRONTED WITH AN IRON WEAPON CANNOT BE DESCRIBED
. F
OR IRON NOT ONLY INTERFERES WITH MAGIC, IT ALSO BRINGS WEAKNESS AND FREEZING PAIN TO THOSE IT TOUCHES
.

Orville Gold, genie historian of Feyland

I SLAMMED THE
door and heard furious shouting from outside. A growling roar sounded like the air itself had been shaken by a band of trolls.

My friends and I waited, gasping and shaky.

Everything was suddenly quiet.

I flew to the window, the others right behind me. Peering out, I saw gnomes on the ground. Some lay stunned. Others staggered back and forth, dazed. Above them, a great crowd of fairies and genies buzzed angrily. The rest of our attackers had become visible.

And two wingspans away on the other side of the crystal pane, Lily Morganite appeared. Of course! She was the only one who could have led the attack. No one else had enough radia to cast spells of invisibility upon so many. And only Lily Morganite had ever pressed groups of gnomes into her personal service.

How was it possible that her face didn’t show any of the evil inside her? Her pink skin was flawless, her saffron hair full of lustre and twined with rubies, her pearly eyes shining, white wings beating smoothly.

But this fairy was diabolical! When she had been Forcier of Feyland, she had collected magic tax from innocent fey folk and then kept it for herself instead of refreshing the durable spells – a crime my friends and I had uncovered only days earlier. And if Laz was right, Lily Morganite had trapped my parents and brother – all because they had guessed she was stealing magic from Feyland.

There wasn’t any doubt that she had tried her best to divide me from my friends – especially Leona. She’d also done what she could to trick me into giving up my wand.
When
her trickery didn’t work, she had declared me a criminal and offered a reward for my capture. Laz delivered me to her, and then she deceived and enchanted every member of the High Council into believing I had killed Beryl, my guardian, when that terrible deed was done by Lily herself; I was sure of it. She even enchanted Leona to tell lies about me – Leona, who had been my friend since we were too young to fly!

And now Lily Morganite hovered outside my window in Galena, a place that should have been safe from her.

‘Those fairies and genies don’t belong in Galena any more than the gnomes,’ Meteor said. ‘The gateway must have fallen!’

As I stared, Lily picked up an iron club that lay beside a stunned gnome. She flinched as the iron touched her skin, but didn’t drop it. Whirling it in an arc above her head, she threw it at the window.

My friends and I jumped back.

The club should have smashed the crystal panes. It should have come whistling into the room, striking anyone in its path. Iron always interfered with magic. But that club never struck the window. It bounced back towards Lily, who dodged. The club flew past her and hit the ground.

Leona let out a hissing breath. ‘Oberon’s Crown! A spell against
iron
?’

‘You’ve enchanted your house?’ Meteor asked in awe. ‘What spell can keep out gnomes? And iron?’

‘How did you do it, Zaree?’ Leona asked.

I looked through the window. Lily was touching her throat with her wand. Her lips moved, and then I could hear her clearly. ‘Open the door, Zaria,’ she said, her voice amplified. ‘I cannot get past your enchantments. But I have something to tell you.’

A
LL FAIRIES AND GENIES ARE BORN WITH RESERVES OF MAGIC, WHICH ARE MEASURED IN UNITS CALLED
RADIA
. N
O MAGICAL ACTIVITY EXCEPT ORDINARY FLIGHT MAY BE DONE WITHOUT SPENDING RADIA; VARIOUS SPELLS REQUIRE GREATER OR LESSER AMOUNTS
. F
OR EXAMPLE, A SINGLE JOURNEY TO
E
ARTH AND BACK AGAIN USES HALF OF ONE RADIA, WHEREAS OPENING OR CLOSING A
PORTAL
TO
E
ARTH REQUIRES 1000
.

W
HEN THEY TURN FOURTEEN, FAIRIES AND GENIES RECEIVE A CRYSTAL WATCH THAT REGISTERS INBORN MAGIC IN ADDITION TO TELLING TIME
.

T
HE FACE OF THE WATCH IS DIVIDED INTO SIX COLOURS, AND EACH COLOUR CONTAINS TEN DEGREES
. I
F THE THIRD HAND OF THE WATCH POINTS TO THE FIRST DEGREE OF RED, IT MEANS THE ONE WEARING THE WATCH HAS TEN RADIA IN RESERVE
. T
HE TENTH DEGREE OF
R
ED MEANS ONE HUNDRED RADIA
. (
N
OWADAYS, 89 PER CENT OF FAIRIES OR GENIES REGISTER AS
R
ED, ALSO KNOWN AS
UNGIFTED
.)
T
HE
O
RANGE ZONE RANGES FROM ONE
HUNDRED
RADIA TO ONE THOUSAND RADIA
. (
S
IX PER CENT REGISTER AS
O
RANGE
.)
Y
ELLOW GOES FROM ONE THOUSAND TO TEN THOUSAND
. (
F
OUR PER CENT
.)
G
REEN: TEN THOUSAND TO ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND
. (
L
ESS THAN ONE PER CENT
.)
B
LUE: FROM ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND TO ONE MILLION
. (
O
NE TENTH OF ONE PER CENT
.)
V
IOLET: FROM ONE MILLION TO TEN MILLION RADIA
. V
IOLET IS SO RARE, SOME IN
F
EYLAND BEGAN TO BELIEVE THAT REGISTERING IN THIS COLOUR COULD HAPPEN ONLY IN THE REALM OF MYTH
.

A
LL MUST LEARN THAT A UNIT OF RADIA, ONCE USED, IS GONE FOR EVER
.

Orville Gold, genie historian of Feyland

METEOR GLIDED BETWEEN
me and the door. ‘Don’t open it,’ he said.

‘She can’t come in,’ I told him. ‘If she could have, she would have.’ Before he could argue, I darted past him and opened the door.

A cloying scent poured in, a scent I had learned to despise – the scent of lilies. Feeling sickened, I wished my wings wouldn’t flutter. The magical barrier had proven itself, but still I trembled to see Lily Morganite without a wall or even a windowpane between us.

Her eyes looked like heated pearls. ‘Your spells are well made, Zaria, beyond my skill to undo. For now.’

I hovered carefully behind the threshold. ‘You said you had something to tell me.’

‘A warning,’ Lily said sweetly. ‘You and Leona Bloodstone escaped me once, but only because luck favoured you. Do not rely on luck, Zaria.’

‘Luck!’ Leona shouted. ‘I’ll show you luck.’ She was rushing forward, but Meteor and I caught her.

‘Don’t,’ I cried. ‘Stay back.’

Smiling, Lily watched as Leona controlled herself.

‘You may be Violet fairies,’ she continued, ‘but my radia reserves are thousands of times greater than the two of you combined.’ She flicked the air with her wand.

Thousands of times greater? We knew Lily had stolen a fortune from Feyland, but billions?

‘How did you bring down the gateway?’ Meteor fumed. ‘And how dare you attack us in Galena?’

Lily’s white wings carried her a little closer to the doorway. ‘I did not attack; it was my followers.’ She smiled gloatingly.

‘When my father and the other councillors find out what you have done …’ Meteor began.

But Lily laughed at him. ‘The High Council is nothing more than a group of gibbering gremlins, young Zircon.’ She ignored his frown, turning to me. ‘I apologize for the attack, Zaria. It’s just that my followers know you
have
wronged me; they wanted to make things right.’

I looked at the swarm of fey folk nodding their heads at her words, at the gnomes struggling to get up, and wondered what she had promised them. ‘Wronged? You?’

As soon as I spoke, they all began yelling at once: ‘Give it back, thief!’ ‘Vile robber!’ ‘Filthy cheat!’

Lily let their yells turn into roars before she held up her hand for silence.

‘What lies have you told them?’ I asked her when they had finally stopped hurling insults.

She shook her head at me, as if I were a child who should know perfectly well that I had committed a crime. ‘They know you have stolen something of mine, Zaria. A bottle, holding the remains of a troll cloak you once wore.’

How easily she said it, as if that cloak had not almost cost me my life.

‘You told them the bottle was
yours
?’ I spluttered, and then realized my mistake.

I should not have admitted the bottle existed.

When my magic had risen up and turned the troll cloak into a heap of powder, Meteor advised me to save the powder. So I used a spell to gather it into a tall bottle made of indigo glass, the only container to hand. Now, that bottle stood on a shelf in my home, filled with fine powder, darkly shining. I feared its magic so much, I hadn’t dared to open it. I could hardly even look at it, and when I did it seemed to stare back with a thousand eyes.

‘It is mine by right.’ Lily drew herself up, holding her wand like a sceptre.