The Faerie War (30 page)

She lets out an exasperated sigh. “Yes, come on! We’ve got a world to save.”

PART

IV

“That was almost too easy,” Ryn says as Arthur glides down the landing strip on the transportation level of the Fireglass Vale base. We decided to risk the faerie paths and exited about an hour away from the base. I kept watch behind us after we came through, but if Draven’s guards showed up to see who used the paths, they must have done so on the ground. And, of course, there are no bounty hunters in this area.

“Yeah, I was expecting someone to chase us,” Tilly says, sounding almost disappointed.

We land, and Ryn jumps down to open Arthur’s enclosure. “We should be just in time for lunch,” he says.

“We should probably visit Oliver first and let him know we’re back,” I say as I slide down Arthur’s leg. I help Ryn with the enclosure, then usher an already shrinking Arthur inside.

We cross the landing strip and climb the stairs to the floor with the meeting rooms. “Oliver’s probably somewhere here making plans with people,” Ryn says, “if he’s not up in the dining—ah, there he is.” We stop by a room with a large table in the center. Several people are leaning over the table examining pages. Oliver is off to the side, looking at a book with Amon, the librarian we rescued.

“These are the most recent drawings I can find of the inside,” Amon says. “They probably don’t show everything, but you can see a number of the rooms, especially the private quarters.”

“Thank you, Amon, this is incredibly useful,” Oliver says, taking the book. “Now we just need to figure out which of these rooms are Draven’s, and then we’ll—” His words are cut off as Ryn taps on the door and enters. “You’re . . . you’re alive!” Oliver exclaims.

“Of course,” Ryn says. “Come on, Oliver. We disappear for a week and you think we’ve pegged? I’m offended.”

“A week?” Oliver pushes the book into Amon’s hands and crosses the room. He pulls Ryn into a quick embrace, then says, “Ryn, it’s been almost a month since you left. I didn’t think we’d ever see you again.”

“A month?” Ryn looks over at Tilly, who gives him an apologetic smile.

“I did warn you about the time thing,” she says.

“And you found another survivor?” Oliver asks, noticing Tilly.

“No, no, no,” Ryn says, ushering Tilly forward. “This, Oliver, is the Star.”

Oliver’s eyebrows travel up his forehead as he looks between Ryn and Tilly, probably wondering if this is a joke. Before he can say anything, Tilly says, “I know, I know. I’m not the world-saving warrior you were expecting. But . . . here I am.” She spreads her arms wide and grins.

Oliver blinks a few more times, then says. “Okay. If the prophecy picked you, then I’m happy with that. And your timing couldn’t be more perfect, uh . . .”

“Tilly,” she says, sticking her hand out to shake his.

“We’ve really been gone a month?” Ryn asks, placing his bag and the sword on the ground. “What have we missed?”

Oliver wipes a hand across his brow and sighs. “What
haven’t
you missed?”

“That much, huh?”

Oliver nods to the guardians gathered around the table, and they stop their staring and get back to examining the pages I now see are maps. Then he leans against the wall and crosses his arms. “Let’s see. A few days after the explosion, which turned out
not
to be an attack, we discovered a group of Draven’s faeries hiding several hours from here. So we sent several teams to take care of them, and that
did
turn out to be a trap. Our guardians were completely overwhelmed. Only one survived and made it back here. We’ve since had attacks on a number of our other teams, until it got to the point where I stopped sending people out unless absolutely necessary. We . . . lost a lot of people.”

“I’m sorry, that’s awful,” Tilly says quietly.

“Anyway, then the elves arrived and then the reptiscillas.”

“The reptiscillas?” I repeat. My heart leaps at the thought of being able to see my friends again.

“Yes, just those who can fight, though. The rest are still at their hideout. So we then finalized all our alliances and started putting plans in place for our big move against Draven. And who should arrive at that point? None other than the Seelie Queen herself.”

“The Seelie Queen?” Tilly’s eyes widen.

“Yes. Total prima donna, that one. Thinks she can run the show.”

“Well, she is the Queen,” I say, looking around to see if anyone is listening to Oliver’s potentially treacherous statements. The only person within earshot is Amon, and he just laughs and shakes his head.

“Sadly, though,” Oliver continues, “the Queen doesn’t know the first thing about how to plan a successful attack on an evil overlord. Which is why she has us to plan it for her. She needs to accept that and stop being such a control freak.”

“Oliver, does that mean my father’s here?” I ask. “Ryn said he was working with the Seelie Queen.”

“Your father . . .” Oliver scratches his head. “Uh, yes, he was. But the Queen sent him out about a week ago on some private mission.” Oliver clearly doesn’t approve of ‘private missions.’

“Oh.” I try to reign in my disappointment.

“Yes, uh, sorry about that. Right, so, that takes us up to the most important thing you’ve missed, which is that it’s all going down tomorrow night. Our big move. Our last chance. The end of Draven.”

“
Tomorrow?
” Tilly squeaks. “So . . . now probably wouldn’t be the best time to mention that I’ve never had any combat training and haven’t the first clue how to fight anyone, would it?”

“Except for shooting people with lightning,” I remind her.

“Yeah, except for that.”

“You have nothing to worry about,” Oliver says, pushing away from the wall and placing both his hands on Tilly’s shoulders. “You’ll be with my team the entire time. It’s the largest and most experienced team, since we’re the ones who’ll be going after Draven himself. We’ll make sure you stay safe up until the moment you have to stab him. That’s it. No fighting until that moment. Then it’s just one move and it’ll all be over.”

He makes it sound so easy.

“Oliver, if we hadn’t come back now, you’d be doing all this without Tilly and the sword,” Ryn says. “How exactly were you planning to get rid of Draven?”

“We weren’t. We hoped to capture him and keep him imprisoned until we could find the Star ourselves. Not the best plan, I know, but we couldn’t wait around for Draven to discover this base and make his move before we could make ours.”

“Is that . . . the weapon?” Amon interrupts. He steps closer to us, looking past Ryn at the sword lying on top of his bag. “The one I’ve read about?”

“Yes.” Oliver reaches for it and passes the strap over his head so that the sword hangs across his back. “Can’t leave that lying around.”

“Thank goodness it’s safe,” Amon says. “I was so concerned after the explosion that it had been destroyed. I thought it might have been kept down there with all the other spare weapons.”

“No, no, of course not,” Oliver says.

“What’s it looking like on that level?” Ryn asks. “Still a mess?”

“Oh, no, we couldn’t leave it in a state of ruin. The Training Center is on that level, and our warriors need to keep on training as long as they’re not out on missions. And, well, Uri wanted his lab back. With added protective magic, of course. In case of another explosion.”

“So, it’s all back to normal?” I ask. I remember the extensive damage we passed as we hurried out of here the day we all thought we were being attacked. It must have taken a long time to fix that up.

“Yes, just about.” Oliver runs a hand through his messy hair. “Now, uh, I really need to get back to these maps and drawings.” He takes the book once more from Amon. “Em will fill you in on what’s happening tomorrow night, Ryn. The teams have already been briefed.”

“Oh, okay.” Ryn looks like he might have wanted to stay longer, but Oliver has already placed the book on the table and is paging through it.

“Oh, wait,” he says, turning back to us. “Tilly, I think you should stay here. I don’t want to let you out of my sight until this is all over.”

Tilly looks at me, then shrugs. “Sure, okay. But only if you tell me exactly what I’m supposed to do tomorrow night because I’m still feeling kind of lost here, and lost is
not
what I want to be when I’m scuttling around the Unseelie Court.”

Oliver smiles. “You won’t be lost, Tilly. I’ll make sure of that.”

Ryn lifts his bag off the floor, and the two of us head up toward the dining room. We pass the level that was destroyed by Uri’s explosion, and, sure enough, it looks like it’s almost back to normal. Cracks line the tiles here and there, and some of the wooden paneling still needs to be replaced, but other than that, you’d never guess it was almost demolished a month ago.

We climb the stairs to the ground level, my aching leg protesting all the way. As we near the dining room, two figures we recognize walk out. Em and Max, arguing about something. Em stops the moment she sees us. “Ryn!” she shouts. “You didn’t die a horrible death out there!” She runs over and throws her arms around him. A nasty—and entirely unexpected—monster named Jealousy rears its ugly head in my stomach. I hurriedly beat it back down as Em jumps out of Ryn’s arms and pumps her fist in the air. “Woot! Team Troll’s Butt is back in action!”

“What happened, man?” Max says. “You’ve been gone for weeks.”

“Time disappeared a little faster than we wanted it to,” Ryn says. “But we found the Star.”

“Seriously? That’s great!” Em gives Ryn a high five, and the Jealousy monster struggles to break free again. And why shouldn’t it? I mean, Ryn was mine before I forgot everything, wasn’t he? Don’t I have some kind of claim over him? He said he had a right to be jealous of my friendship with Jamon, so don’t I have a right to be jealous of his friendship with Em? Especially if it was ever more than a friendship?

You’re facing the biggest battle of your life tomorrow, and you’re worrying about
jealousy
? STOP IT!

Ryn glances at me, then claps Max on the shoulder and says, “What’s happening tomorrow night? Oliver said you’d fill me in.”

“Yeah, it’s all been planned out perfectly. Groups of us are being sent to all the locations where Draven’s guardians and warriors are based. So, basically, all the Guilds. And by ‘us’ I mean every single fae who’s allied against Draven. We’re going to use the faerie paths, all at the exact same moment. Our enemies won’t be able to call for reinforcements because every Guild and base will be attacked at the same time.”

“Do we have enough fighters to do that?” Ryn asks.

“Oliver thinks so, and so do the others who are in charge. They know the numbers. We just have to trust them.”

“I don’t know.” Ryn lets his bag slip to the ground. “I feel like we’re rushing this. Like we’re not ready yet.”

“Dude, you’ve missed out on a month of training and planning. We’re way more prepared than when you left.”