Indigo Magic (9 page)

I crested a hill and searched the horizon, but saw no buildings, only more hills covered with long grass. Drifting along, I felt like a plumed seed, with no idea where I was.

I turned to go back. I should have marked the portal. Why hadn’t I? Now the waving grass all ran together. I hovered, twisting my dirt-streaked skirts in frustration. There was nothing to tell me which hill I had seen first among all those around me.

‘Allooo?’ called a piping voice.

I whirled round to see someone about my own height, gently swaying with the wind. Her arms were green like the grass surrounding her, and her hair was pink. She looked at me with eyes that shifted colour like water, mostly blue. Happy eyes.

‘Lost, are you?’ she sang. Her voice was as delicate and delightful as the scent wafting around her.

She fitted everything I’d heard about pixies, except her eyes and her voice. Beryl had told me pixies had eyes like smugglers, shifty and sharp – and voices that could flatten a troll.

‘Lost, lost?’ she sang again.

‘Yes,’ I answered, wondering why I didn’t feel worse about it.

Smiling, she beckoned. ‘Follow.’

She turned and weaved through the grass. For no good reason, I did as she asked and followed her. Although she didn’t fly, she was very fast; I had to pump my wings to keep up as she led across more hills. Every so often she would wave to me, pointing ahead. Somehow, all that seemed to matter was keeping her in sight.

I began to hear music. Flutes, lyres and drums, and also many voices singing. How joyful they sounded, and free of care. Hearing them, I wished for nothing more than to keep listening.

Flying past yet another hill, I saw a wide meadow below. All across it figures swayed, bending and turning. Their colourful heads looked like dancing flowers. Music poured from dozens of instruments, mingling with the voices.

My guide had brought me deep into Pixandelle.

Every young fairy and genie is told to stay out of Pixandelle. Beryl had warned me over and over about what lay in store if I ever let myself be tricked by pixie wiles. She said pixies led travellers astray whenever they could.

I must have stepped out of the portal on the very borders of Pixandelle and Feyland. But there had been no sign of it being a border zone. Had another durable spell failed? Weren’t the borders supposed to be infused with magic?
And
yet, I had never been alerted that I was leaving Feyland. Why hadn’t I considered all this sooner?

The drums of the pixies pounded my ears with pleasant rhythms while their misty fragrance made my head spin. I wished the music would stop for a moment, just long enough to let me get my bearings.

It didn’t. It got louder, gathering me in. It seemed to form into a sparkling shield around me, protecting me from all my sorrows, easing my troubles. I heard words in the melody now:

‘
Dance for ever, for ever dance
…’

I floated to the ground, and the pink-haired pixie ran to my side.

‘Dance, dear fairy, dance upon the air,’ she sang, her voice blending with the music swirling around us, her smile warm.

She wanted only what was best for me.

What if there was nothing wrong with being here? What could it hurt to take a few minutes to dance one song? I smiled back at the pixie, who urged me closer to the drummers. My arms moved in a flowing motion; my feet twirled, and my wings caught the currents of the breeze. I felt light and free, happier than I had been since …

For ever.

P
IXIES DO NOT NEED TO CAST SPELLS, FOR THEIR MAGIC IS IN MUSIC AND DANCING
. T
HEY CAN MAKE EVEN THE MOST STRONG-MINDED FEY FOLK FORGET THEIR DUTIES, FORGET THEIR FAMILIES, FORGET THEMSELVES
.

Orville Gold, genie historian of Feyland

SOMETHING WAS TAPPING
my forehead. ‘Wake up, Zaria,’ said a harsh whisper. ‘Wake up.’

‘Mmph,’ I mumbled.

‘Wake
up
.’

Opening my eyes, I saw a face close to mine. Silvery eyes, dark hair, worried frown. Leona. Just behind her hovered Meteor and Andalonus. All three wore ugly necklaces that looked like they’d been strung with gravel. Dull leaden pendants hung on their chests.

Leona poked me again with the tip of her wand. I brushed it aside and tried to snuggle down farther into the soft grass. My head was resting on my tote bag, and I was comfortable.

Leona slipped a necklace over my head; it was just like the one she wore. Instantly I felt sad and afraid and unbearably tired. I wanted to take off the necklace, but when
I
tried, Meteor pried my fingers off the strand. Not gently.

I couldn’t do much more than lift my head. ‘What are you doing here?’ My voice rasped as if I’d been screaming for hours.

They didn’t answer.

A group of pixies was surrounding us, singing and swaying. They didn’t seem kind any more, didn’t seem wonderful. I wanted them to go away, but they were moving closer.

Meteor picked me up off the turf. My body ached everywhere; my wings were limp.

Leona touched us. ‘
Transera nos
.’

I was in the nest in my mother’s room, squished against Meteor, with Leona and Andalonus across from me. Meteor got out of the nest, and helped me prop myself up with pillows. My joints seemed filled with grit, and so did my eyes.

‘Pixandelle?’ Leona said.

I groaned.

‘I’ll get you some water and sonnia.’ Leona flew out of the room.

‘Why?’ Meteor asked. ‘Why
there
?’

I stared at him, remembering. The portal. The aevum derk. Lily Morganite.

Leona returned with water. I gulped it. She handed me a bowl of dried sonnia flowers. They tasted so good!

‘How did you find me?’ I asked.

‘When you weren’t here for our meeting,’ Meteor began, ‘we decided something must have happened to you.’

I frowned. ‘We’re supposed to meet this evening.’

A pause while they shook their heads.

‘You danced longer than you planned,’ Andalonus said. He looked frightened, as if he thought a band of pixies might break through the walls and carry me off.

‘We were supposed to meet the day before yesterday,’ Meteor explained.

I tried to remember. I had begun dancing … It had been morning. I’d felt so blissful. Were there times when the day had darkened?

‘Two days and nights with the pixies?’ I croaked.

‘We looked everywhere for you,’ Meteor went on. ‘Couldn’t find a trace.’

‘We were afraid Lily had snared you somehow,’ Leona said.

Snared
. It was too close to the truth. How was I going to tell them she had the aevum derk?

‘Leona had the idea to track down Laz,’ Andalonus said. ‘He’s the one who told us a young fairy with violet wings had been seen among the pixies.’

My eyes snapped to Andalonus’s face. ‘
Laz
told you where to find me?’ I struggled to sit up. ‘How much did it cost you?’

‘A thousand radia,’ Meteor answered. ‘Leona paid him.’

‘I’m so sorry.’

‘He also warned us that if we went into Pixandelle without sorren charms, we would fall to the pixie magic ourselves.’ Leona lifted the ugly necklace over her head and held it at arm’s length. ‘Meteor bought one for each of us.’

I didn’t want to ask how much Laz had charged for the charms. Poor Meteor! It would be bad enough to hand over radia to anyone, but to Laz, whom he despised?

‘And he told us we’d better race as if trolls were after us to get you out,’ Andalonus continued, ‘because any fairy who spends more than a few days with the pixies isn’t able to leave them.’

I pulled the charm from my neck and examined it. The pendant was shaped like the heel of a foot, and the beads were only lumps of clay. I set it on the pillow next to me, hoping that taking it off would make me feel better.

It didn’t.

‘Thank you for coming after me,’ I said. ‘I’m so sorry …’ How long had they been awake looking for me?

‘Zaria,’ Meteor said slowly, ‘what happened? How did you end up in Pixandelle?’

Sighing, I tried to focus, my mind in freefall. I pushed myself up higher in the nest so I could unfurl my wings. ‘I flew off course.’

‘Obviously,’ Leona said. ‘Tell us, Zaree.’

‘You might not stay my friends when you hear what I’ve done.’

But I told them, starting with my visit to Laz.

‘
Laz?
’ Meteor interrupted, his hair actually bristling. ‘You told that smuggling trog about the powder? You asked
him
what it was?’

‘Why shouldn’t I ask him for what he knew? He’s the one who put the cloak on me,’ I said.

Leona shook her head at Meteor. ‘Let her talk.’

So I did. About the aevum derk. And about being a Feynere. They listened, fascinated. Meteor asked the most questions about the aevum derk. And the instant I said the word ‘Feynere’ he drummed his head with his hands.

‘Of course, of course!’ he exclaimed. ‘A Feynere. That’s what you are. It explains everything: spells out of common words, magic rising up, the power of your enchantments … everything.’

I thought of what Laz had said: that he expected a Feynere to look grand and powerful.
Not a smallish fairy with rather plain colouring
. It bothered me that Meteor might have felt the same way, but I didn’t want to bring it up.

He was frowning now. ‘Lazuli knows about you being a Feynere?’

I nodded. ‘He knows.’ My wings drooped. ‘I wish he didn’t, but he does. I swore him to secrecy – it was the best I could do.’

Andalonus put a comforting hand on my shoulder and then tilted his head at Meteor. ‘I’m curious, O sage one: if the Feynere have such unsurpassed powers, why is Zaria’s level lower than Leona’s? Why does Leona’s watch
register
a level higher than anyone else’s in Feyland?’

Leona smiled at that. ‘Yes, Meteor. Why?’

None of us had ever seen Leona use her full power, though I suspected she had poured it into a futile spell to try to heal her mother. The human laser gun had burned her mother too, but of course all Leona’s magic had not been able to help. And since then she had shown no desire to tap Level 200.

Most of the time, I forgot what a powerful fairy Leona was. But her level was twice that of any on record for living fey folk, equal to the strongest fairies and genies who had ever lived.

‘Yes, Meteor,’ I echoed. ‘Why?’

Meteor sighed. ‘Feynere magic isn’t measured in levels. Leona, when we first talked about Zaria’s spells, you said she must have something else, and you were right. Feynere magic goes beyond levels. It’s different.’

‘So I’m still the highest level?’ Leona asked, grinning at me.

Meteor nodded, and I grinned back at Leona.

‘If it’s so different, why does Feynere magic use up radia?’ I asked, a bit peevishly.

‘Because it’s still magic,’ Meteor answered. ‘And it’s still fey.’

I
N
F
EYLAND, THE UNDERSTANDING OF TIME ITSELF IS PART OF OUR HERITAGE AS FAIRIES AND GENIES
. L
ONG AGO, WHEN WE TRAVELLED FREELY BETWEEN OUR WORLD OF
T
IRFEYNE AND THE HUMAN WORLD OF
E
ARTH, WE TAUGHT HUMANS TO MAKE TIMEPIECES AND TO FOLLOW THE HOURS
. N
OT THAT THEY REMEMBER THIS, OR GIVE US THE HONOUR WE ARE DUE
. N
OR DO THEY RECALL THAT IT WAS FEY FOLK WHO FIRST SHOWED HUMANS HOW TO CONSTRUCT SNUG HOMES AS WELL AS GRAND ARCHITECTURE
. F
OR MILLENNIA, WE HAVE HELPED THEM IN A HUNDRED THOUSAND WAYS THAT NOW GO UNRECOGNIZED
. T
HEIR HISTORIANS HAVE FORGOTTEN
. T
HIS IS DUE IN PART TO THE
E
DICT OF THE
U
NSEEN
. A
CCORDING TO THE TERMS OF THAT EDICT, FAIRIES AND GENIES ALLOW ONLY THE YOUNGEST HUMANS TO SEE US
. I
F SIGHTED BY A FULL-GROWN HUMAN, WE MUST CAST A FORGETTING SPELL AT ONCE
. A
ND WISE FEY FOLK THAT WE ARE, A THOUSAND YEARS BEFORE THE
E
DICT WAS ENACTED, WE BECAME CAUTIOUS ABOUT BEING SEEN
. (
I DO NOT COUNT LEPRECHAUNS AMONG THE WISE
.)

Orville Gold, genie historian of Feyland

IT TOOK A
while to tell my friends the rest of my news. At first, they were too shocked to take it in. But finally they understood: Lily Morganite had the aevum derk. She couldn’t open it. I’d kept a small amount in reserve. And I’d created a portal that happened to lead to the edge of Pixandelle.

Leona seized on how I’d kept some of the powder. ‘You should use the last of it on Lily! Right away, as soon as we can find her.’

When I argued that Feyland needed Lily’s billions in stolen radia, Leona scoffed.

‘She won’t use it to benefit Feyland!’ she yelled. ‘What if she uses it to open the bottle of aevum derk?’

My heart ached along with my head. ‘But kill her?’ I whispered. With Lily dead, how would I ever find my family?

‘She’d happily kill
you
,’ Leona answered. ‘Why spare her after everything she’s done!’

‘No, Zaria’s right,’ Meteor told Leona in his calmest voice. ‘If Feyland loses all the radia Lily controls, we would be weakened for ever.’

‘We’re
already
weakened,’ Leona fumed. ‘Tell her, Meteor.’

‘I looked at Meteor. ‘Tell me what?’

‘Things are bad,’ he said. ‘More of the durable spells have begun to fail.’

‘I know,’ I replied. ‘At the border of Pixandelle and Feyland, there weren’t any alarms, nothing to warn me.’

He nodded glumly. ‘When we were looking for you, we went to the Golden Station and found pandemonium. The portals have closed.’

‘What? All of them?’

‘We didn’t check every single one,’ Leona snapped. ‘But it looked that way, yes.’

‘What about all the fairies and genies who were on Earth?’ I cried. ‘How will they get home?’

Meteor shook his head, striped hair falling into his eyes.

Trapped on Earth with no way back! Even an Earth-struck fairy or genie would be desperate to get home. Those who could create a portal were few and far between. Level 75 was rare among fey folk, and so was a thousand radia.