The Amulet (22 page)

“I didn’t actually know your mother very
well,” he started. “I was only assigned to her a few months before
she was killed.” He dropped his eyes and Faedra could tell he still
carried much regret over what had happened. “What I did know of her
was that she was a very caring woman. She loved all living things
and adored the ground you walked on. She would have gone to the
ends of the earth for you, Faedra. She loved you that much.”

“She was also very dedicated to her role as
Custodian and took it very seriously. She had spent many years
training in the sword skills, and, as I said, she was one of the
best sword fighters I have ever seen. I know for a fact, she would
have been very proud of how you have grown and matured. You have
taken to being Custodian very much in your stride, a natural she
would have said. She was a natural; very capable of looking after
herself. As I said before, I was only assigned to her so that she
could teach me, and I failed her.” He looked with determination
into Faedra’s captivated eyes. “I will not make the same mistake
twice.”

Faedra gave him a knowing smile. “Thank
you.”

“You are very welcome.”

“Faen?”

“Yes.”

“You have to stop blaming yourself for my
mum’s death. It wasn’t your fault. I don’t blame you. I blame the
redcaps, and one day I will have my revenge on them.”

He gave her a weak smile. Faedra sensed that
he wasn’t about to stop blaming himself for the death of her
mother, but, in time, she would convince him that he was not to
blame. A loud yawn escaped before she could stifle it, and her eyes
grew so heavy she was fighting to keep them open.

“Ms. Faedra, you are very tired, you need to
sleep.”

“I know, but I don’t want to go back into
that big empty room…” She was asleep before she finished her
sentence.

Faen looked at her for a long moment and
sighed a contented sigh. He brushed the back of his fingers over
her cheek, then leaned over and grabbed some of the excess piece of
comforter that hung over the edge of the bed, wrapping it around
her. He lay down beside her watching her breathing steadily in and
out for a few minutes as she slept soundly next to him. Then he
couldn’t help himself; he wrapped a protective arm around her
before he fell asleep with her safely tucked up against him. Making
sure to leave the soft light glowing above them in case she woke up
in the night. She didn’t.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Faedra opened her eyes and stretched. She
couldn’t remember sleeping that well for a very long time. She
turned her head to see Faen looking at her. He was lying on his
side, propping his head up on his arm.

“Good morning, Ms. Faedra,” he greeted her
with a warm smile, “I trust you slept well.”

“Morning, Faen. Yes, I did thank you,” she
answered, returning his smile with one of her own.

“Well, we better get moving. We have another
long day ahead of us today,” he pushed his covers back and
gracefully slid off the bed.

Faedra was still lying on top of the covers.
She looked down at the piece of comforter she had been cocooned in
and peeled it back. She smiled; he had allowed her to fall asleep
next to him and made sure she didn’t get cold. The sound of water
running from the bathroom caught her attention. She better get a
move on and go back to her room to wash her face and get
dressed.

“I’m going back to my room to get changed,”
she called as she slid off the bed.

Faen poked his head around the bathroom door,
he was brushing his teeth. Faedra couldn’t help herself, she
laughed. Faen frowned. He couldn’t speak, his mouth was full of
toothbrush.

“I’m sorry,” she chuckled. “I just never
pictured that fairies brushed their teeth, or needed to do any of
the mundane personal grooming that we humans have to, for that
matter.”

He smiled around his toothbrush and shrugged
his shoulders.

“Meet you out in the corridor in a few
minutes?”

He nodded and disappeared back into the
bathroom.

When she arrived back in her room, she
noticed that the bed had been made and her clothes were neatly laid
out on it. They had been cleaned and pressed, and her boots
polished and set beside the bed. She quickly changed, then went
into the bathroom to do the mundane personal grooming that humans
do. Several minutes later, she headed out the door. Faen and
Jocelyn were already waiting there for her.

“Hi, Jocelyn. Did you sleep well?” she
asked.

“Yes, thank you, Faedra, and you?”

Faedra glanced at Faen who was watching her
intently. They exchanged a subtle smile. “Yes, thank you, I did,”
she responded.

“Come,” Faen said with a sweeping motion of
his arm in the direction of the kitchen. “We must eat first, then
begin our journey to the pine forest.”

Luckily Faen seemed to know where he was
going because, without a doubt, Faedra would have gotten herself
hopelessly lost in the maze of corridors in this seemingly endless
castle. After a while, they made it to the kitchen and Faedra was
ravenous again. She had noticed her appetite had increased
substantially since she acquired her power, but she hadn’t used it
for more than a day now and was wondering if it was normal for her
to be eating as much as she was. Maybe it was still residual energy
conservation from when she had had to use her power to fight off a
redcap.

They ate a hearty breakfast and were each
given a knapsack full of food, and an oilskin pouch full of water,
which they slung across their bodies. They made their way through
the castle to the main entrance. Faen rapped hard on the door again
and it swung open gracefully. They walked through it and were
greeted by a handsome fairy in uniform.

“The king has given you these horses,” he
told them, holding out his hand in the direction of where three
beautiful horses stood. They were black as midnight with thick
silver manes and tails that shimmered in the sunlight. Faedra was
speechless, she had never seen such stunning creatures. Their
immaculate coats shone with a luster not from her world. One of
them snorted and pawed at the ground.

“I’ll take him,” she said as she walked past
Faen and Jocelyn. She had no doubt in her mind that she was about
to have the ride of her life. Faen raised his eyebrows in
surprise.

“What? You think I can’t handle him, don’t
you?”

“On the contrary, Ms. Faedra. I have seen you
ride. I have no doubt that you are perfectly capable of handling
that stallion,” he replied.

“What is it then?” she asked, narrowing her
eyes at him.

“It is nothing, Ms. Faedra.” Truth was, he
was starting to see the little girl he’d watched growing up, turn
into a tenacious young woman with just a hint of vulnerability
about her, and he thought that she every bit deserved the title of
Custodian. If he didn’t know any better he would imagine that it
was pride seeping from his every pore right at that moment.

The uniformed fairy gave Faedra a leg up, and
as soon as she was on the horse’s back he reared, then came back to
the ground and pawed again. Faedra felt an electric excitement
surging through her as she felt the intense energy of the beautiful
beast she was sitting on.

“Come on you two, what are you waiting for?
We have a Lord of the Woods to find.”

Faen and Jocelyn glanced at each other with a
look that said ‘oh, dear, what have we unleashed’? They mounted
their horses. All three galloped off through the courtyard, out of
the city, and headed in the direction of the pine forest.

They rode for hours across the dying
landscape. Although Faedra was saddened by the devastation around
her, she had never felt this alive before. The horse beneath her
was a powerhouse of muscle and speed, and they flew like the wind.
Her legs didn’t turn to jelly this time. Instead, she embraced the
power she was feeling from the magnificent beast she was riding. To
the point she could feel her whole body was tingling with electric
energy.

After a few hours of riding, Faedra could see
a browning forest loom up ahead. They all slowed down to a trot
and, gradually, a walk. They came to a stop at the edge of the
forest and gave the trees a long hard look.

“Oh, Brother, even the evergreens are dying,”
Jocelyn’s voice rang with sadness as they all looked down at the
thick carpet of brown pine needles that had fallen from the dying
trees.

“We will find the book, Jocelyn. We will
reverse this,” Faen promised her, his voice sounding almost as sad
as his little sister’s. “Come, we must find Kernunnos.”

He moved his horse forward. Faedra and
Jocelyn fell into line behind him as they all entered the
forest.

Faedra found the forest eerie, and, after a
while, she realized why. There were no sounds of life here. No
birds were singing in the trees, no wildlife scuttling about on the
ground, or squirrels chasing each other along the limbs, jumping
from one tree to the next. There was nothing, just an unearthly
silence, except for the soft hoof falls the horses were making as
they ventured deeper and deeper into the forest.

They followed Faen for about another hour
until they came across an opening between the trees in the heart of
the forest. They stood on the edge of the clearing for a moment. It
was almost a perfect circle, and right in the center stood an
ancient, gnarly pine tree, much taller and wider than any pine tree
Faedra had ever seen.

They dismounted and left the horses. Faedra
wondered if they should tie them up but Faen assured her they would
not go anywhere. He told her the horses were ‘assigned’ to them and
would not leave until they were permitted to. She wished Gypsy were
so obedient, thinking back to that day in the woods when her horse
left her there without so much as backwards glance.

Faedra and Jocelyn followed behind Faen as
they cautiously made their way towards the huge pine taking center
stage in the clearing. He stopped about ten feet away from it,
closed his eyes, and held his hands out, palms facing upwards, and
started chanting.

“Open glade in dark wood,

fertile tree in clearing stood.

Lord of the Woods, your help we need,

respect and honor, ours to heed.

Appear to us, this we plea,

Kernunnos hear, we summon thee.”

Faedra held her breath. Nothing happened.
“Was something supposed to happen?” she leaned over and whispered
to Jocelyn.

Jocelyn shrugged her shoulders. “I do not
know. I have never seen an invocation before,” she admitted.

“Quiet,” Faen turned his head and snapped at
them. “This will only work in absolute silence.” Faedra mouthed a
sorry to him and closed her lips tight.

Faen repeated the invocation again, a little
louder this time and with a lot more passion. Still nothing, but
Faedra kept her mouth shut this time and just looked all around
her, having absolutely no idea what to expect.

Again Faen repeated the invocation, with yet
more emphasis and passion. This time it worked, and Faedra realized
at that point that she had watched The Wizard of Oz far too many
times. She’d been expecting the tree to grow limbs that looked like
arms, and a big gnarly face to appear in the bark of the trunk and
start shouting at them, but that couldn’t have been further from
what actually did happen.

It suddenly grew darker, not a pitch black
dark, but a setting sun through the trees kind of dark, causing an
ethereal glow to cloak the clearing. A mist appeared from the trees
surrounding the clearing. It smelled strongly of a musky essential
oil that she recognized as being patchouli, and crept low to the
ground in tendril-like wisps until it had filled the entire space.
Faedra scanned the perimeter of the clearing but could see nothing
but the mist encircling them. Her attention turned back to the
ancient tree in the center when she heard a creaking sound that
seemed to be coming from within. An opening appeared in the bark,
narrow at first, but then expanding into an archway, from which an
incredibly self-assured looking man walked, with a stunning white
stag at his side.

Faedra swallowed hard. She didn’t know what
she was expecting the Lord of the Woods to look like, but the man
walking towards them was definitely not it. He glided with ethereal
grace to stand in front of Faen, who kneeled before him. He was
tall with dark brown, shoulder-length hair and neatly trimmed beard
flecked with gray. He had dark olive skin and deep forest green
eyes. He looked wise beyond his years, and Faedra didn’t even want
to hazard a guess as to how old he actually was.

He wore robes that flowed around him with a
fluidity that reminded Faedra of when she used to watch the rock
pools at the beach. Every time a wave would come and recede away
again, it would leave the water in the rock pool swirling around
until the next time. His robes were colored with the various hues
of woodland, including russet, deep forest green, and autumn
gold.

“Rise, Guardian,” he commanded, and Faen did
as he asked. “You summoned me?”

“I did, My Lord,” Faen responded, and bowed
his head with respect. “Someone has stolen the Book of Anohs and we
need to find it before whomever it is destroys our realm and the
World of Men, and possibly many other realms, too.”

“And how do you think that I may help,
Guardian?” Kernunnos asked.

“I believe that because the book controls
nature, and you are in essence, Lord over an immense part of
nature, I was hoping you may be able to sense where the book is
located.”

“Hmm,” Kernunnos rubbed his chin and walked
over to Faedra, who gulped again. “And you, my child are not from
this realm,” he caught sight of the amulet. “Ah, a Custodian. Well,
now I understand why you stand before me.”