The Faerie War (12 page)

I’m glad now the Council had the foresight to prepare for every eventuality.

At the end of the fifth day, as we journey across endless open fields, Oliver lets Em take the lead and drops behind to speak to me. “I thought I should warn you about something. You won’t find many from your Guild here. The Creepy Hollow Guild was hit first and hardest. Council members from every Guild were there at the time, attending an urgent meeting. There was an explosion in the room where they were assembled. No one made it out alive. Almost everyone else who survived the explosion was captured and brainwashed.”

“Damn.” The good news just keeps coming. “If the Council is gone, what kind of leadership do we have now?”

“A handful of Council members, including me, weren’t at the meeting that night. Once the attack was over and we knew for certain we couldn’t return to the Guilds, two of us deactivated the spells that kept the safe locations locked. We began searching for anyone who hadn’t been influenced by Draven. Anyone we found who was willing and able to fight was sent to Fireglass Vale. Everyone else was sent to either of the other two places. We’re still finding survivors.”

I look away and try to squash the ridiculous hope that Violet is safe and waiting for me at Fireglass Vale. I push away thoughts of my mother and father and my old mentor, Bran.
Don’t hope and you won’t be disappointed.
Instead, I listen as Oliver tells me how he wound up searching for survivors in Creepy Hollow. He tells me about the beautiful woman from the Creepy Hollow Guild he fell in love with a few months ago. The woman he’s heard nothing from since our world fell apart. The woman named Tora.

At the mention of her name, my chest squeezes tight. Oliver must be talking about Violet’s old mentor; I don’t know any other Tora at the Guild. My stupid heart starts conjuring up ideas of Violet and Tora hiding out somewhere together.
Stop it. You know that’s probably not true.
So I say nothing to Oliver except that I know Tora but haven’t seen her.

Coral pink and burnt orange mingle in the sky as we descend into a valley. Long grass brushes the tops of our legs, and through trees with leaves turning golden brown I see a river glittering with the sky’s reflected colors. Draven’s touch clearly hasn’t extended this far.

We reach the river and walk along its edge toward a waterfall. Sheets of water pound the rocks at its base, the spray wetting our faces as we get closer. As Oliver takes his first step onto the slippery rocks, I realize the entrance to the base must be behind the waterfall. Oliver takes a few more careful steps before reaching forward and pushing his hand into the slamming water. Then he pulls it aside as easily as he would a curtain, revealing a gap large enough for us to climb through.

Above the roar of the water, he shouts, “Come on!”

I expect to find myself in a cave behind the waterfall, but instead I walk into a large, high-ceilinged room that reminds me of the main foyer inside the Creepy Hollow Guild. Well, except for the domed ceiling of protective enchantments we had back there. The ceiling I look up at now is flat. Faeries hurry here and there, up and down the large stairway and along the corridors leading off the foyer. Oliver was right when he said I wouldn’t find many people from my own Guild here. I don’t see a single face I recognize—until my gaze alights on one that almost makes up for all the missing faces I long to see.

My father.

He’s down the stairs so fast I barely have time to move. He wraps me in a tight embrace before pulling back and saying, “Ryn, you just
disappeared
! I’ve tried so many times to contact you. Are you okay? What happened to your face?”

I touch the square bandage that covers the gash on my cheek. “An Unseelie faerie and his knife. It won’t heal.”

Dad frowns. “Dark magic on the blade, maybe. Or a potion. I’m sure someone here can take care of it.”

“Yeah, anyway, that’s not important. Is Calla safe?”

“Yes, she’s at one of the other bases with her mother.”

I hesitate a second before asking, “And mom?” I’m not sure I want to know.

Dad looks away with a slow shake of his head. “I don’t know. No one has seen her.”

I close my eyes and press the heels of my hands against them. “Just like Violet. She’s also missing.”

Dad places a hand on my shoulder and says, “If they’re alive, we’ll find them. We’ll get them back.”

“Yes,” I murmur. “We’ll get them back.”

I don’t open my eyes. I block everything else out. The chatter around me fades to silence as I stand there, holding fiercely to the promise my father just made. I will it to be true, hoping he means his words as much as I do. Because I
do
mean them. With all my heart.
I will find them.

“Linden! Come on, let’s go.” The brittle cocoon of quiet I managed to wrap myself in shatters.

“I’m sorry, I have to go,” Dad says. “Another search and rescue mission. I could be gone for a week or more, since we can’t use the paths. We now have a herd of pegasi here at the base, but not nearly enough for all of us. The Council’s still working on other means of transportation.”

My brain joins the dots. “You’re . . . working as a guardian again? I thought you were finished with that life.”

“Things change. Our side needs as many guardians as it can get.” He squeezes my shoulder once more before letting go. “I’ll see you soon.”

And then he’s gone, vanishing behind the curtain of water. The bustle of activity continues around me, but I feel as alone as if no one were here. I put my hand in my pocket and feel the warm, soft form of Filigree. As sad as it is to admit, the furry creature is the only thing giving me any kind of comfort right now.

*

“Dude, did you know it’s
snowing
out there?” one guy says. “About a day away from here.”

I know I’ve lost track of the days since I started going on search and rescue missions, but it hasn’t been
that
long since I arrived. Two weeks, maybe three. The last time I checked, we weren’t even halfway through autumn.

“It’s insane,” his friend adds.

I’m sitting at a table in the base’s massive dining room trying to turn the strawberry sauce on my pancakes into chocolate sauce. The two guys who’ve just returned from a mission and joined me at the table are both from the Creepy Hollow Guild. They graduated a few years ahead of me and left to find new and exciting jobs at other Guilds. I can’t remember their names. We haven’t exactly chatted much.

“It’s probably Draven,” I tell them, “messing around with the weather to make life difficult for us.”

“Yeah, The Destruction obviously wasn’t enough. He’s probably going to subject us to an eternal winter or something.”

The Destruction. That’s what everyone seems to call what happened. It’s a fitting name.

“Did you find anything more exciting than snow?” I ask. “Like, you know, survivors?”

“No,” the taller, darker haired guy says. He shovels pieces of pancake into his mouth, chews, then adds, “Oh, we did come across a group of some other fae. The scaly-skinned ones.”

“Reptiscillas,” his freckled companion says.

“Yeah. We couldn’t see properly through the trees, so we started shooting as soon as we realized someone was there. It was only when we got closer that we saw there were children in the group.”

“You were shooting at
children
?” I say.

“We didn’t know.” Tall Guy looks offended. “We backed off as soon as we realized they were no threat.”

“You should have tried to talk to them. We need as many fae on our side as we can get.”

“They were terrified. We let them run. Besides, children can’t fight. They’re better off hiding out somewhere else.”

“And they’re most likely Undergrounders,” Freckled Guy says. “You know we’ve never worked well with that lot.”

I shake my head. “There’s nothing wrong with Undergrounders. They treat us the way they do because they’re afraid of us, and with good reason. We’ve never exactly been friendly toward them.”

“Because they’re a violent, unpredictable lot.” Tall Guy looks like he’s starting to wonder what’s wrong with me.

What’s wrong with me is that I’ve had enough of guardians and their ridiculous prejudices. I’ve had to deal with them for years at the Guild, and now, in the midst of impending war, I figure it’s about time guardians got over themselves. “Yeah, about five percent of them are violent and unpredictable.”

“And those are the only ones we ever interact with, so forgive me for painting the rest of them with the same brush.” Waves of hostility start rolling off Tall Guy. I don’t care.

“You’ve never
tried
to interact with any of the others,” I say.

“And you have?” Freckled guy makes sure to get his two cents in.

“I’m willing to bet I’ve spent a whole lot more time Underground than most other guardians.” I don’t tell them why. I don’t tell them where exactly. I don’t explain that even though the Underground clubs are filled with far more people than I’d usually want to be around, the mix of numbness and euphoria are a whole lot easier to deal with than the many emotions spinning around the Guild. “This is going to turn into a war unlike anything our world has ever seen. You think we’re going to win it on our own? We’re not. We’re going to have to play nice with all the fae we’ve thought of as inferior for so long. And people like you are going to have to suck it up and deal with it.”

Okay, that last part was probably uncalled for.

Just as the situation is about to blow up in my face, Em and her cheery attitude appear at our table, complete with a tray of pancakes and rainbow colored milk. “Hey, guys, what’s up? Can I join you?” If she could feel the enmity and aggression bouncing back and forth across this table, there’s no way she’d want to sit here.

I stand up and say, “Enjoy the pancakes,” before sending my tray through the air and into a slot in the wall. I turn and stride out.

My fists are balled as I walk along the brightly lit corridor. I hate living in a perpetual bad mood, but I can’t seem to get out from under it.
Nothing
is happening. We haven’t found anyone on the search and rescue missions I’ve been on, and I don’t believe we’re going to. Anyone who doesn’t know how to hide has surely been captured by now, and those who
do
know how to hide aren’t going to show themselves when we walk by.

As for the weapon that can supposedly put Draven’s reign to an end . . . Well, it’s just hiding in a room somewhere because no one can use it. Council members spend hours poring over the prophecy trying to figure out who the ‘finder’ is, but I know it’s all a waste of time. I’m almost certain the finder is Violet, and there’s been no sign of her anywhere.

I slow my steps and put a hand against one of the wood-paneled walls. I feel weirdly disoriented. Sick. Dizzy. I lean over and stare at the shiny tiles beneath my boots.
What the hell is wrong with me?

Then everything becomes black.

For a moment I’m weightless. Every one of my senses is blocked off. Even the air disappears. I feel like I’m being squeezed, tighter and tighter and tighter until—with a gasp I lurch toward the light growing in front of me.

Glittering knives form in my hands as I suck in air and take a few unsteady steps forward. I turn on the spot, ready to throw a knife at whoever did this to me. My eyes take in a small but opulently decorated sitting room. When I’ve almost turned a full revolution, I see the one who must have brought me here: Violet’s father, Kale.

“Did you just
summon
me?” I demand. I’m not keen on the idea of my body moving from one place to another without my permission.

“Yes.” He rises from a maroon couch covered in decorative cushions. “Difficult spell, but I eventually found someone who could do it.”

Well, that’s certainly worrying. “Aren’t these—” my knives disappear as I point to the markings on my wrists “—supposed to protect me from things like summoning?” All the protective enchantments embedded in my trainee pendant were supposedly transferred to the markings when they were inked onto my skin during graduation.

“Yes.” He comes toward me. “That’s why it’s taken me so long to succeed with the spell.”

“If you succeeded, that means someone else could—”

“Ryn, that’s not the point right now!” He grasps my shoulders. “Did you find the Order? Did you get the weapon?”

If he’s going to demand information, then so am I. “Where’s Violet?”

His hands slip from my shoulders. He looks away.

“What? Tell me.”

“I don’t know,” he says.

“You
don’t know
? But you were
there
when all this happened. You weren’t traipsing around a mountainside unaware of the devastation taking place everywhere.”

“I wasn’t in Creepy Hollow. I was with the Queen.” He starts pacing. “The moment we knew the Guild was under attack, the Queen and her guards went to investigate. My first concern was for Violet, but the Queen ordered me to secure her hideout. Only when she arrived there hours later was I allowed to leave.”

“So you chose your Queen over your daughter?”

“I couldn’t abandon my duty, Ryn! I left as soon as I could. And I found . . .” He takes a deep breath. “Our home was destroyed. Vi wasn’t there.”

So I still know nothing.

“But I found someone else.” My heart seems to freeze for a second, waiting for him to name the person. “It was Tora.” He swallows. “I found her body near what remained of our home. She was crushed by a falling tree. Her injuries must have been too severe for her body’s magic to heal them.”

A wave of heat rolls over my body, followed by a chill of goose bumps. I didn’t know Tora all that well, but Violet loved her as much as her own family. This news will devastate her.

“I looked everywhere for Vi,” Kale continues. “I searched the wreckage of every home she might have been at. I hid near the ruins of the Guild and watched as Draven, this faerie—
halfling
—I’ve never seen before, weaved a spell over every guardian he had forced to kneel before him. His army was small, but they must have possessed some power I don’t know of because they controlled that crowd of guardians as if it was nothing to them. But I didn’t see Violet there.”