Emerson’s Story

Chapter 14

Fourteen

“Crap.” I stumble backward in my haste to put some distance between me and these faeries. “You guys are part of that Griffin rebel movement, aren’t you.”

“Yes.” Confusion crosses Violet’s face. “Which is a good thing. It means we’re on your side.”

“But … you’re the bad guys.”

“Uh, no we’re not,” Calla says.

“That’s what the Guild—what everyone in this world—says.”

“Of course that’s what the Guild says. They don’t trust us. They want to track our every move or lock us up so we can’t use our ‘dangerous’ magic without supervision. They just tried to do the same thing to you.”

I hesitate, because she’s right, of course. “They … they said you attack people.”

Ryn’s expression darkens. “Is that what they’re telling people now?”

“They’ll twist any story to their advantage,” Violet says. “They want people to be afraid of us.”

Calla’s head whips around. “Guys, I think they’re coming back this way.”

“On it,” Ryn says, already raising a stylus and scribbling invisible words in the air.

“Are you coming?” Violet asks. “Please, you can trust us.”

I swallow. Perhaps this is all a lie and I’m being tricked yet again, but I don’t exactly have anyone else to turn to. “Can you help me?” I ask. “With … everything?”

She takes my hand and squeezes it. “That’s what we do.”

Hot air dances across my skin as the darkness of the faerie paths evaporates around us. My feet sink into soft sand. I turn slowly on the spot, squinting against the harsh light as my eyes take in the same scenery on all sides: rolling sand dunes that go on and on, seemingly forever. “You guys live in a desert?”

Calla smiles. “Yep. You wouldn’t think to look for us out here, would you?”

“I guess not,” I say, keeping the rest of my thoughts to myself. My thoughts of how unpleasant it must be to live amidst all this sand and heat.

“This way,” Ryn says, nodding to his right and leading the gargoyle by its reins. I have no idea how he knows which direction to go in since every sand dune looks the same to me. We’ve barely taken a few steps, though, when the faint outline of something dome-shaped comes into view. I blink a few times, but the outline only grows stronger. I’m afraid to ask if I’m imagining things, so I keep my mouth shut. But a minute or so later when the dome is right in front of us and I can make out the hazy shapes of trees and buildings within, I figure it must be real.

“This,” Violet says, “is our oasis. An enchanted piece of land beneath a dome of magic. And once you’ve passed through the dome layer—” she takes my hand and pulls me through after her “—you now have a spell placed upon you that means you can never speak about this place. Even if you’re questioned under the influence of truth potion, you won’t be able to say a thing. Which means everyone here will always be safe.”

The air is immediately cooler, and the fresh scent of plants fills my nostrils. I’m aware of a small smile on my lips as I slowly look around. Grass and bushes and streams, fountains and flowers and a few small buildings, plus a number of enormous trees with houses built into the upper branches. “Actual tree houses,” I murmur. “Not the glamoured type I learned about this morning.”

“Yes,” Violet says. “I lived on Kaleidos for a little while, and they have tree houses like these. I really liked them, so I suggested we do the same thing here.”

“And we spent years before this living in glamoured trees or Underground or inside mountains,” Calla adds, “so when the Guild forced us to run and we had to make a new home somewhere, we decided we didn’t want to live in concealed houses anymore. The outer dome keeps us hidden, so our actual houses don’t have to be hidden.”

“It’s really cool.” I push away the thought that if I could just get Mom safely into the magic world, she and I could happily live here for the rest of our lives. She’d love the gardens, the fountains, the flowers. But I don’t know if that’s possible, so I’ll leave my dreams for another day. Another time, when I’ve figured out if I can really trust these people. “What do you guys do here?” I ask, watching Ryn hand the gargoyle reins to a bald man with eyes that don’t look normal.

“We rescue Griffin Gifted and hide them from the Guild,” he says, turning back to me. “We also help people in other ways. Basically, we do what the Guild does, but on a smaller scale.”

“It’s also non-official and illegal,” Calla says. “So, you know, that’s another reason the Guild doesn’t like us.”

“Oops,” says a small voice behind us. We all turn, and there stands the boy who appeared in the forest before Dash dragged me out to the edge of the cliff. “I was hoping I’d get home before you.”

After a pause filled with shocked silence, Violet walks forward, takes hold of the boy’s shoulders, and makes sure her face is right in front of his before asking, “Where have you been?”

“Um …”

“Did you leave the oasis?”

He blinks. “Maybe. I just … wanted to help with the rescue mission.”

“Jack Linden Larkenwood,” she says, “you’re grounded.” She straightens and lets go of him. “For the next decade.”

“What?”

“For the next century.”

“Mom!” Jack lets out a dramatic groan and turns to Ryn. “Da-ad,” he whines.

Ryn folds his arms. “Do you want me to add another decade?”

“Ugh, you guys ruin everything!”

“No, ruining things is what you did when you decided to disobey the rules and leave the oasis,” Violet says. “Now please give me whoever’s stylus you decided to steal.”

Jack mumbles something too quiet for anyone to hear before handing over a stylus, crossing his arms, and sticking his lower lip out. Calla covers her mouth to hide a smile before turning away. Looking past her, I see the bald man walking back toward us. When he reaches Calla’s side, I realize why his eyes look strange: his pupils are vertical instead of round.

“Lord Sedon wants to arrange a meeting with the two of you,” he says to Ryn and Violet. “He’s on hold on one of the mirrors.”

“Great, we’ll come speak to him now,” Ryn says.

“Is Chase back yet?” Calla asks.

“No,” the bald man says. “You missed a mirror call from him earlier, though.”

“Oh, I’ll see if I can get hold of him now.” She hurries away.

“Jack,” Violet says, “please take Emerson to one of the empty rooms and then show her around a bit while Dad and I do some work.”

“Will you un-ground me if I do that?”

“No. You’ll do it because you want to be friendly and welcoming to Emerson.”

“Fine,” he groans.

“Great. Emerson, we’ll see you a little later,” Violet says. “We can meet for …” She hesitates, then laughs. “Sorry, it always takes a moment to readjust when traveling between time zones. It’s afternoon here, isn’t it, so we can meet for sundowners by the hammocks.”

“That sounds …” Like the kind of vacation I’ve only ever dreamed about. “That sounds nice.”

I watch the two of them walk away. When they’re out of earshot, Jack turns to me and grins. “I actually am friendly and welcoming.”

“Okay. Good to know.”

“Come, you can choose a room.”

I walk with him, slowing my pace to match is short stride. “Who set up this whole place?”

“Dad and Uncle Chase. They said it took them like a year to get all the right enchantments in place. But that was before I was born, so obviously I don’t remember any of it.”

“Who’s Chase?”

“Aunt Calla’s husband.”

I nod. “So … are your dad and Chase the ones in charge?”

“I guess. But so are Mom and Aunt Calla. And Uncle Gaius. Although he’s not really my uncle, he’s just Uncle Chase’s friend since forever, and he doesn’t come out of his house much anymore, since he’s sick. I think they’re all in charge. Well, they set the rules, and I get in trouble with all of them if I break them, so they must all be in charge.”

We reach the base of one of the giant trees. Steps have been carved into it, starting from the bottom and curving around the side of the trunk as they climb higher. Jack leads me up, moving as quickly as his short legs will take him. “How old are you, Jack?”

He drags his hand along the trunk as we climb. “I’m eight and a half. How old are you?”

“Seventeen. Eighteen in a few months.”

“Did you go to school where you’re from? ’Cause you can do that here. I have lessons with the other kids who live here, and mostly it’s fun. You can join us if you want, although you’ll probably be with Junie because you’re older.”

I sigh and say, “No, I’d probably be with you.” In fact, I add silently, if there’s a class lower than yours, that’s probably where I belong.

“So this is our house,” Jack says as we reach the first large structure built into the branches. “It’s got more rooms, like a kitchen and lounge and stuff, and then higher up are just bedrooms and bathing rooms for new people. Then if they stay and they want other rooms, Merrick just adds them on.”

I stop for a moment and look up at the smaller wooden structures built above us. “I probably shouldn’t ask about how bathrooms work all the way up there. I mean, I guess magic takes care of all the … plumbing?”

Jack shrugs. “I don’t know. I guess.” He continues moving up, and I follow him, grateful for all the physical activity Val and I have done over the past couple of years in our quest to teach ourselves parkour.

“Looks like you have to be quite fit to live here,” I comment. “It’s a long way up if you forget something when you leave your house in the morning.”

“I know!” Jack exclaims. “And I haven’t learned how to boost myself with magic yet, so it takes like forever. Mom and Dad can get up here in seconds if they have to. It’s so unfair.”

“Well, you’ll probably be able to do that soon, right? I mean, you know how to do the faerie paths thing.” I’m still particularly interested in that spell. The sooner I learn it, the sooner I’ll feel more in control of my situation.

“Oh, yeah, the faerie paths. I’m not supposed to know that one yet. But I’ve always paid attention when Mom and Dad do it. I’m a fast learner.” He looks back at me with a proud smile, then increases his pace a little, as if spurred on by his own words. “Okay,” he says a little breathlessly after we’ve passed four smaller tree houses. “This one’s empty. Or you can go higher if you want. There are another three that are empty. Merrick always adds more on when he has time.”

“This one’s fine.” I place my hands on my hips and look around as I give myself a few moments to catch my breath. The branches up here are wide enough to walk along without having any balance issues. Good thing I’m not afraid of heights, though. The distance from here to the ground is enough to cause some serious damage to anyone who might freak out and slip.

“Okay, come see,” Jack says. He skips along the branch and pushes the door open. I follow him into a bedroom, plainly furnished with nothing more than a bed, a wardrobe and a chair in the corner. It’s still nicer than the room I’ve always slept in at Chelsea’s house, though. At least I don’t have to climb over boxes of hair products and share my shelves with tiny bottles of strange concoctions.

“Is that a bathroom?” I ask, pointing to a closed door on the other side of the room.

“Yeah. So this is just the basic stuff they put in all the rooms. It’s kinda boring, so you can change whatever you want. You can even change the shape of the room, if you’d like something different. Merrick will do it. He’s an architect faerie. And Junie—she’s an elf—is a designer. So if you tell her what you want your bed to look like, she can easily change it. Or, like, if you want that chair to be a swing hanging from the ceiling, she can do that too. She did that in my room, but then I fell off one night when I was supposed to be sleeping, not playing, so Mom and Dad made her change it to an armchair, which isn’t nearly as fun. But Junie made it dragon-shaped, so I guess it’s not that bad.”

I smile at this outburst of information. “Sounds cool.” I walk to the window, and my smile stretches a little wider at the sight of the orchard, the river, and the sun going down in the distance. I’ve never imagined having a view like this from my own bedroom. And you still don’t, a small voice reminds me. This isn’t really my bedroom, and I probably won’t be here for long. Nothing this amazing could ever last.

“The wardrobe’s empty now,” Jack says, “but Mom will put some clothes in it later. Dash’s mom is a clothes caster, and she sends tons of clothes here. Some of them are weird, and Mom hides those ones, but most are normal. Oh, where did that come from?” I swing around and look to where he’s pointing. In the corner, sitting on the chair, is a kitten.

I cross the room with a sigh. “This little guy is a shapeshifting creature that keeps following me everywhere. I thought he ran away when Dash found me in the forest, but he must have just shifted into something really small and climbed into one of my pockets or something.” The creature shifts rapidly back and forth between two forms I can’t identify, like an old TV flickering between channels. Then it settles as a kitten again.

“Cool, he’s just like Filigree!” Jack says.

“Filigree?”

“Yeah, Mom’s pet. He doesn’t shift much anymore ’cause he’s super old and Mom says he doesn’t have the energy now, but he used to change into all kinds of things. He was even a dragon once, but then he slept for like three days solid after that ’cause it used so much of his magic.” Jack crouches in front of the chair. “What’s this one’s name?”

“He doesn’t have one.”

“Ah, can I name him please?” Jack begs, his eyes widening in delight as he looks over his shoulder at me.

“Sure. He’ll probably end up staying here anyway. It’s not like he’s mine. He just seems to like following me.” A strange twist, given that my first pet had the opposite reaction and ran away after only a few days.

“Yay.” Jack scoops the kitten up and cradles it against his chest. “I shall name him …” Jack squeezes his eyes shut as he thinks. “Bandit. His name will be Bandit.”

I nod slowly. “Sounds cool.”

We walk back down all the stairs—my legs getting a good workout in the process—and Jack shows me around the rest of the dome, pointing out a greenhouse, a school, a vegetable garden and orchard, an outdoor gym area, and a building that apparently contains a laboratory and some other ‘out-of-bounds’ places Jack doesn’t know much about. “It’s stuff to do with their work and how they help people. That’s all I know.”

“There’s a lot here,” I say as we stop beside a narrow river with a swan-shaped boat floating near the bank. “It’s bigger than I first thought.”

“It was smaller when I was little,” Jack says, “but Merrick keeps adding onto it. He gets bored when he isn’t helping Mom and Dad with cases. Anyway, come see the playground.” He grabs my hand and tugs me away from the river. “I kept it till last ’cause it’s my favorite place here. The swing is amazing. You have to try it.”

The playground turns out to be filled with the same kind of equipment I’d expect to find in my world. The swing, too, looks pretty much normal. “It doesn’t just go backwards and forward,” Jack says when I ask what’s so special about it. “See, you strap yourself in, and the swing goes all the way around. As many times as you want.”

“Wow, okay. That is cool. It’s enchanted, I assume?”

“Yeah, obviously. Do you want to have a go?”

“Uh, maybe another time. It’s just … this is a lot. I’m still getting used to all the magical stuff.”

“Oh, right, sorry. You’re from the other world. I remember now. So what do you do for fun there?”

“Oh. Um …” I push my hands into my back pockets. “Well, I hang out with my friend Val. We taught ourselves this thing called parkour. It’s kind of like a sport. You use whatever environment you’re in—like buildings, walls, stairs, whatever—as an obstacle course. There’s lots of jumping and running and climbing. And falling, but falling the right way. Like landing on your shoulder and rolling and standing up.”

“Okay. Is it fun?”

“Yeah. You have to be creative about getting from point A to point B. It’s like an art, actually. The art of rapid movement despite obstacles. An ordinary person might take the stairs out of a building and then walk along the road to wherever they’re going. Instead, we’d figure out how to jump or climb down, and then vault over walls and through gardens to get to the destination the quickest way possible.”

“Cool. Can you teach me?”

“Uh, sure. If you can teach me how to open the faerie paths.”

“Okay.” He wraps an arm around one of the swing’s chains. “But we’d have to use someone’s stylus. Without them knowing. And … I don’t really wanna get grounded again.”

“Right. Yeah. You should stay out of trouble.” Those last few words come out sounding unexpectedly deep and resonant, and that same strange shiver from earlier ripples up my spine and across my arms.

“What was that?” Jack asks, pulling his head back as he eyes me with suspicion. “You sounded weird.”

“Um …” I’m not sure if he knows about my Griffin Ability. “Probably just some escaping magic. I don’t really know how to use it yet.” He nods slowly while I look around for something else to talk about. “So where are the hammocks? I think I’m probably supposed to meet your parents there soon.”

“This way,” he says, taking off in another direction. I hurry after him, grateful for the lasting effects of the chocolate energy drink Azzy gave me before letting the Guild take me away. I probably would have passed out from exhaustion long ago without it.

Jack leads me to a collection of hammocks strung between trees near a round, open-sided pavilion. Large couches sit beneath the pavilion’s decorative roof. “I think I’ll wait over there,” I tell him.

“Cool. I’m going to find some food for Bandit.”

I watch him wandering away until a familiar voice behind me says, “Hey, you got here safely.”

I spin around, my heart thundering in my chest. “Dash.” I jerk away from his outstretched hand. “He’s found us!” I yell. “The Guild’s found us!”