The Emerald Staff (2 page)

“She sounds wonderful, Dad. I’m sure that I
will like her just as much as you seem to.” Faedra could hardly
contain her excitement and wrapped her arms around her dad’s neck.
“This is great news, Dad.”

“Thank you, darling. Now dig in before it
gets cold.” He waved his fork over the open boxes of Chinese food
that were spread over the table.

Faedra put a little from each container on
her plate and dug in. She tried to savor every last bite before
having to go and bury her head in her books again. She was
determined to ace her test tomorrow. Her Guardian was right, she
could wait until after her test to worry about her costume for the
party.

Faedra was glad she put in that extra bit of
‘cramming’ for her test the evening before. It was tougher than she
expected it to be and knew very well that she would not have done
anywhere near as well as she imagined she had, if she’d spent the
time worrying about her costume, rather than studying. Relieved
that the test was now over and feeling confident that she had done
her best, she followed the other students and strode with a smile
out of the examination hall. Bodies spilled into the hallway like a
knocked over bottle of cola and hurried off in different
directions, most with relieved expressions on their faces.

Faen was waiting for her across the hall when
she exited. He was leaning back against the wall, arms crossed in a
relaxed manner over his chest and one foot resting up against the
wall. She still had a hard job getting over how good he made a
simple pair of jeans and a t-shirt look, and noticed some of the
girls walking by turn their heads to look at him. He didn’t even
notice them; his attention was directed solely on his charge.

He gave her a warm smile, as he pushed away
from the wall and dodged in and around the frenzied flow of
students with a touch of inhuman grace, until he crossed to the
other side where she was standing, waiting. He had completed the
test with an hour to spare, so he left his finished paper on the
desk and quietly exited the hall, as instructed to do so by the
adjudicator. He knew he would find the test simple. As he had told
Faedra the night before, what he didn’t know about mythology wasn’t
worth knowing. He was, after all, part of what they were
teaching.

He should be giving the classes, not taking
them but he didn’t mind, as long as it allowed him to stay close to
the Custodian, as was his duty as a Guardian. Although he could try
and convince himself that was the actual purpose, there was a much
deeper reason he wanted to stay close to her and it now had little
to do with her being the Custodian of the Amulet of Azran.

He caressed her chin with his fingers and
tilted her face up, lowering his lips to hers. His kiss, a simple
sign of affection, lasted just a second. But the statement was a
bold as shouting it from the rooftops. He didn’t care who witnessed
his affection for Faedra in her world. In his own, however, that
was a different story. It was very much frowned upon for a fae who
held a position such as his, to be intimate with his charge. If the
king found out, he could be withdrawn from Faedra immediately and
replaced by another Guardian. Faen’s heart sank every time he
thought of the possible consequences of his actions but their bond
was too strong to resist.

“How did you do?” he asked over the din in
the corridor, after pulling back from their kiss. Constant chatter
echoed off the walls. All the other students that had just been
released from their various tests were meeting in the hallway to
compare experiences. Everyone around them was either confident they
had done well or worried sick that they had flunked.

“I feel confident about it, how about
you?”

He raised a conceited eyebrow and answered
with a wry smirk, garnering him a playful thump on the arm.

“Never mind, forget I even asked.” Faedra
sighed, and raised her eyes heavenward. Feeling just slightly
jealous that he didn’t have to study any of this stuff.

The hubbub in the hallway started to subside
as students made their way out of the building. Faedra was thankful
that the test was at the end of the day and they could now go
home.

“Now that I don’t have any more studying to
do, let’s go see Jocelyn. I haven’t seen her for a couple of days
thanks to all this revising. It will be nice to be able to relax
for a while.”

Faen took hold of Faedra’s bag, lifting it
off her shoulder. “Allow me, Ms. Faedra,” he said with a smirk.

“Don’t you dare start all that again.” She
narrowed her eyes at him.

He gave her another smirk as his hand found
hers. They wandered out of the building and across the car park to
where her car was waiting for them.

It didn’t take them long before they were
pulling up next to the church. The church where her friend, and
Faen’s sister Jocelyn, kept guard over the portal to the land of
Azran. Jocelyn’s Border collie form shimmered into her fae form as
soon as she saw them coming around the corner.

“Faedra,” she squealed with excitement, “it’s
so good to see you! How did the test go?”

“I think I did okay…” Faedra’s eyes started
to glaze. “Oh, no, not again…” She managed to turn to Faen, her
eyes already full of pain, just as she started to drop to the
floor. Faen leaped forward and only just caught her in time before
her body would have crumpled onto the gravel pathway.

“Faedra. Faedra come back to me.”

Faedra could hear the soft anxious voice
calling to her from a distance but she was rooted to the spot,
powerless to move. She was still in the churchyard, on the gravel
path that ran behind the church. But from her perspective, it was
twelve years prior.

Bound by nothing physical, she watched as the
redcaps beat her mother mercilessly, right before her eyes. No
matter what direction she turned her head the image was still
there, as if it were attached to her viewpoint. Try as she might,
her eyes would not close off the horror she was being subjected
to.

She forced back the overwhelming need to cry
with every fiber of her being at the scene of violence being
replayed to her. She set her jaw and features in an emotionless
expression. Faedra knew who was doing this to her. She had
recognized the cold heartless cackle that seemed to resonate just a
few inches from her ear, and she’d be damned if she was about to
show any weakness to the evil that she thwarted just a few months
earlier within an ancient stone circle.

“She is not responding, Jocelyn. What do I
do?” Faen looked up at his sister with desperation in his eyes.

“She will not be able to break free from the
torture until whoever it is decides to let her go,” Jocelyn
responded.

She knew it was not what her brother wanted
to hear, but he knew as well as she did, that this kind of magic
was far beyond anything either of them had the power to block.

Jocelyn looked down at her brother with
sympathy. He was sitting on the ground holding Faedra’s lifeless
body in his arms in the exact place where she had dropped to the
floor like a stone. It wasn’t the first time this had happened in
the past few months since their battle at Stonehenge, and Jocelyn
doubted it would be the last. But it only seemed to occur when her
friend entered the graveyard behind the church, where the portal to
Azran was located. This was where Faedra’s mother had been
attacked, causing her death, and also where her body had been laid
to rest. Maybe Faedra’s strong emotional tie to this place gave the
perpetrator the power she needed for this kind of magic.

It made Jocelyn sad to see her friend
tortured in this way, but she knew it was breaking her brother’s
heart having to watch it and having no power to stop it.

Faen looked from his sister back down to
Faedra who was lying limp in his arms, and he felt helpless. The
only way he was sure she was still alive was because of the angry
set to her features and the racing heartbeat he could feel beneath
his hand. It was silent proof of the pain she was being subjected
to, wherever the petite redhead’s consciousness had been taken
to.

Faen’s face flushed with anger as he looked
up again at his sibling, who was still stooped over the pair with
an anxious expression on her face. Jocelyn felt just as helpless as
her brother did.

“This has to stop,” the Guardian growled. “I
have to stop this, NOW!” He looked further up ahead along the
gravel pathway that ran behind the church. He had an idea.

“Jocelyn, open the portal,” he commanded.

His sister drew her eyebrows together,
confused at his request.

“But…” she replied.

“
Now
, Jocelyn!” Faen barked the
command, making his little sister flinch at his words. She had not
seen him this anguished before. He certainly had never raised his
voice at her before this moment. Straightening up she spun round,
her black and white locks splaying around her head with the
movement. The younger fairy reached the portal within a few hurried
strides. Standing in the middle of the pathway, nothing but thin
air in front of her, she reached out a hand, holding her palm up as
though she were pressing it up against an invisible wall. A mumbled
incantation and the portal opened. Jocelyn stepped aside.

“It’s open.”

“I will stop this,” Faen whispered to Faedra
as he placed an arm under his unconscious ward’s knees and another
under her shoulders, scooping her off the ground with no more
effort than if he were picking up a piece of fluff from the floor.
He adjusted his arms so that Faedra’s head slumped against his
shoulder and didn’t hang down awkwardly behind her.

“Where are you going to take her?” Jocelyn
asked, as Faen strode up to the open gateway to their world. The
Land of Azran was just a couple more steps in front of him.

“Todmus.” The name was stated with purpose a
split second before he walked -- carrying the person he loved most
in
all worlds
through the portal – and they disappeared from
the World of Men.

“Hold on, wait for me,” Jocelyn said, making
a cursory glance around her before stepping forward and following
her brother through the portal, leaving the gravel path empty once
more.

The sun shone bright and cheerful as they
stepped into Azran, forcing Faen and Jocelyn to squint against the
brightness. It was dusk where they had just left, and all of a
sudden they were plunged into the bright sunlight of a warm
summer’s day. It was always summer in Azran, apart from a few
months ago when the Book of Anohs had been stolen and the land
looked like a thousand winters had gobbled it up and spat it out.
Faen suppressed a shudder at that memory.

The water in the stream flowing beside them
sparkled like it was filled with thousands of diamonds, but they
had no time to admire the beauty of this place. Faen had to find
out how the dark magic plaguing his charge worked, and how to
reverse it. Prying that out of Todmus may be something of a
challenge, but the blonde haired Guardian was relying on the fact
that Todmus seemed to have a soft spot for the Custodian and
wouldn’t want to see her suffering this way. It was worth a try, he
had nothing to lose and Todmus was his only hope. He just hoped
that he didn’t have to use any threats. Faen did not like using
threats unless there was danger to himself or anyone he was
protecting. He definitely did not want to use threats against
someone he considered a friend.
It will not come to that, Todmus
will want to help Faedra. She is his friend, too.

Faen looked down at Faedra’s face at that
thought. A solitary tear had broken free and was rolling down her
cheek. A look of anguish was starting to replace the resolute anger
disrupting her usually serene and beautiful features. Her resolve
was starting to crumble and he knew he had to get her back soon. He
had to admit he admired her strength, he doubted he would be able
to watch his mother murdered over and over, and not go mad from the
experience.

There was a rustle in the bushes and the
Guardian’s attention was dragged from his charge’s face to the
direction of the noise.

A tiny man with a squat face and big pointy
ears emerged through the bushes. He grinned from ear to ear as he
spotted his friend, Faen. Then his rosy cheeks paled and his kind
eyes widened with concern when he took in what, or rather who, his
friend was carrying.

“Mr. Faen, wh-what is ailing Miss Faedra?” he
spoke with a worried tone, as he scuttled towards his friends, one
of them being from the
other world
as he referred to
her.

“ She is under a dark magic spell and I need
you to reverse it,” Faen stated in the no-nonsense approach he used
when he wanted something done, and done that instant.

Todmus stopped in his tracks and attempted to
give the Guardian a puzzled look, one that Faen could see right
through.

“I-I do not know what you are talking about,
Mr. Faen. I do not know anything about dark magic. It is forbidden
to practice in Azran, you know that.”

“Todmus, you do not fool me. I know you have
researched dark magic.”

Todmus stiffened at Faen’s accusation.

“Mr. Faen, I…”

“Todmus, I also know that you do not use it.
I know what happened to your family and that is the reason you have
researched it, so that you can be prepared should anything horrific
happen again. Well, something horrific is happening right now and
I, or rather, Miss Faedra needs your help.”

Todmus let his shoulders slump and he looked
down at the ground, a battle warring in his head. If he admitted to
knowing how to use dark magic, he risked the consequence of being
expelled from Azran, back to Drofoz. A land ruled by a tyrant
sorcerer. A world where he had lost his family to dark magic. But
he could see, as plain as day, that his
other world
friend
was under some kind of dark spell and suffering unspeakable
torture. Torture that he had seen before.