Rebel Faerie

Chapter 10

Ten

“Wait, hang on,” Calla says to me. “Your grip isn’t quite right.”

“Seriously? I thought I’d got it by now.”

“Almost.” She walks closer and adjusts the position of my fingers around the knife’s handle. “There.” She steps back. “Try again.”

I face the tree and the round frisbee-sized target Calla transformed from a stick. I repeat her instructions in my head yet again, trying to turn the steps into one fluid motion. Then I raise the knife, swing my arm forward, and let go. The knife spins through the air, whacking the target a second later. The blade strikes first—which is a lot less embarrassing than the handle striking first—but the angle’s off, and the knife bounces away and lands on the ground beside the other knives that have failed to impale the target. I stare at it for a moment before muttering, “I suck.”

“You don’t suck,” Calla says. “You’ve already improved. And considering you’d never thrown a knife before yesterday, you’re doing pretty well.”

It’s our third day on the run from the Guild’s tracking spell, and most of our spare time has been spent playing with weapons or throwing various forms of magic at one another—while Calla protects each of us with a bubble of shield magic, of course. The continued activity helps keep us distracted from the frustration of not being able to find or save Vi, Ryn, Dash and the others. They’re constantly at the back of my mind, though, no matter how busy we keep ourselves.

Perhaps it’s Calla’s preference, or perhaps this world is covered in far more trees than the human world, but each time we move, we end up in another forested area. This one’s my favorite so far. The trees, bushes, flowers, and even the creatures form a continuous palette of autumn colors. Orange, gold, reddish brown and bronze. Bandit seems to love it too. He’s been scurrying around exploring all day.

“Can we go back to the sword fighting lessons?” I ask as I fetch the fallen knives and the one that managed to land vertically in a tree root. The root heals itself as I pull the knife free. “I think I’m better with a weapon that doesn’t have to leave my hand. Arrows and knives and throwing stars have much greater potential for missing their target.”

“Yes, but arrows, knives and throwing stars mean you’re further away from your attacker. I don’t plan for you to get close enough to an enemy to use a sword.”

“You know you can’t really control that kind of thing, right?”

“Yes, I know,” she says with a sigh. “We can play around with swords again later. For now, try again with—” A lighthearted melody plays briefly behind us, then stops. Calla turns to face the two amber tablets and the mirror suspended in the air a few paces away. “Hmm. Was that someone trying to call us?” She moves closer to the mirror and frowns at its glossy surface. We have the mirror for communication, the one tablet for general news, and the other tablet for Guild Seer visions. The news spell was an easy one, apparently. The kind of spell anyone can apply to any amber device in order to read the latest news. The Seer visions feed, however, was more complicated to get hold of.

Violet mentioned Seers to me when I first arrived at the oasis, but Calla explained again how they see glimpses of the future. They report their visions of things going wrong to the Guild, and the Guild sends guardians to stop certain things before they go wrong. Thanks to Dash’s father Flint, Calla and I now have access to some of these Seer visions. He went into the Seer department at the Creepy Hollow Guild and managed to illegally duplicate one of the vision lists. Specifically, the visions related to incidents of unglamoured magic in the human realm—incidents that Roarke and his followers will most likely be responsible for.

“If it was someone trying to call us,” Calla says, still squinting at the levitating mirror, “they obviously decided they have better things to do.” She takes a step to the side and peers at the tablet with the list of Seer visions. Having gathered all the fallen knives, I join her side.

“No important news from Chase yet, I see. Oh, and that vision still hasn’t been assigned to anyone.” I point the tip of a knife at a vision involving two Unseelie faeries and a movie theater. “It’s been there for hours. Time’s going to run out if they don’t send someone to deal with that problem soon.”

“Yes, but we can’t do anything about it unless we know for sure the Guild’s not handling it. We don’t want to get in some guardian’s way.”

I heave a resigned sigh as I nod. All visions remain on the list until a trainee or guardian team is assigned to deal with the impending problem. If a Council member decides a vision isn’t important enough to be dealt with, tiny letters appear in brackets beside it: alternate. Calla said the Seers believe those visions are taken care of in some other way they’re not aware of. But thanks to Perry’s sneaking around and eavesdropping, the Griffin rebels have known better for years. Any visions labeled ‘alternate’ are considered too minor for the Guild, with their limited number of guardians and trainees, to get involved with. So those visions are discarded. They’re the visions Perry’s spent years secretly gathering up every few days and sending to the Griffin rebels.

Calla and I have prevented two of these ‘minor’ incidents from taking place, and this morning we cleaned up the mess left behind from a third incident, since we arrived too late to prevent an Unseelie royal guard from appearing at a school swimming lesson and turning the pool water into sand. Calla planned to go around from child to child—while glamoured, of course—and apply some kind of charm to make them confused and forgetful about what they’d witnessed. But I had some Griffin Ability power stored up, so I told the whole class and the teachers to forget what they’d seen.

And it worked.

“Okay, try again with the knives,” Calla says, turning away from the tablets. “We can check the visions again in about ten minutes.” She glances to the side at the glowing numbers hanging in the air that are counting down toward zero. “And we’ll need to leave in just over an hour.”

I nod as I turn back to face the tree and drop all the knives except one onto the grass beside me. It was a little disconcerting at first to be followed around by an enchanted timer, but I’ve become used to the glowing numbers suspended beside the tablets and mirror. It’s a useful reminder of exactly when we need to open a doorway to the faerie paths and move somewhere else. Calla resets it for fifteen hours every time we move, which gives us a cushion of about an hour to gather our things, open a doorway, and move to a new part of the world.

“Okay,” I sigh. “Let’s see if I can hit the target at least once before we have to leave. Too bad I can’t command myself to be expertly skilled at knife throwing.”

“Now that’s an idea,” Calla says. “Maybe that would work.”

“I doubt it. When I was at the Unseelie Palace, I told myself I knew how to dance every traditional faerie dance. Unfortunately, it didn’t work.” I raise the knife, but at the back of my mind I’m still wondering if I might actually be able to use my Griffin Ability for this. Part of the way my power seems to work is by knowing my intentions. The magic needs to know what I mean as well as what I’m saying. Obviously I didn’t know what I meant when I told myself I knew how to dance because I didn’t have the first clue what the steps were for any of the dances I hadn’t yet learned. But throwing a knife is different. I know what I’m supposed to do. I know how the knife should strike the tree. I just don’t seem to be able to physically do it myself.

“Em?” Calla says from behind me. “Everything okay?”

I realize I’ve been standing still with the knife raised for several moments. “Yes, I’m just … thinking.” I look at the target once more, then relax my hold on my Griffin Ability and say to the knife, “When I let go, you’ll fly toward the tree and your blade will strike the center of the target.” Then I swing my arm forward and let go.

I watch the knife spin and land with the same expert precision it possessed when Calla demonstrated the maneuver. A smile spreads slowly across my face.

“Aha,” Calla says with glee. “It does work after all.”

I look over my shoulder at her. “Do you think it’s cheating?”

“No, it’s just a different skill you’re using. If the point of the exercise is to get the knife to hit the target, then it doesn’t matter how you get it done.”

“Cool. Maybe I can do it faster. Maybe I can do it with other weapons. Maybe one day I’ll be able to fight as well as you, but using words instead of my own physical strength.”

Calla smiles. “I don’t see why not. But you wouldn’t be able to completely replace actual physical fighting, because as I said before—”

“What if someone prevents me from speaking,” I finish. “I know. So we can carry on with the lessons you were giving me, but maybe I should practice fighting this way as well. I mean, if I’ve got the ability, then I may as well use it. You fight with yours, right?”

“Yes. I use it to distract and confuse.”

“Well it’ll certainly be distracting and confusing when I start talking to my weapons in the middle of a fight,” I say with a laugh.

I try again with our collection of knives, and each time, the blade strikes exactly where I tell it to. I practice saying the words faster and faster, then test out my speed by placing several knives on my palm and telling them to fly through the air one after the other. Calla walks back and forth behind me, checking the Seer visions tablet and giving me the occasional suggestion. “Tell the knife to return to you after it reaches its target,” or “Tell the knife to stab the target several times after striking it once.”

Eventually, when my brain feels like it needs a break, I bend over and lean my hands on my knees. “Whew, this is exhausting. You wouldn’t think the only thing I was doing was speaking.”

“Well, you were using magic too, and that gets tiring.” Calla crouches down by the backpack and searches inside. “Do you want a chocolate apple?”

“Sounds amazing. Oh, hey, Bandit,” I add as Bandit transforms from a cat into a small dragon covered in silver scales. “That’s, what, the fourth time today you’ve decided to be a dragon?”

“He seems to really like the dragon form,” Calla says, standing and walking to my side.

“Yeah, probably because he knows how much I loved riding the dragons at the Unseelie Court.”

“Here you go.” Calla hands me a small apple-shaped chocolate, dark and covered in gold dust, then focuses on Bandit again. “I don’t know if you know this, but he won’t easily be able to shift into a dragon for much longer. As he gets older, he’ll assume the shape of the older version of whatever animal he’s shifting into. Problem is, an adult dragon is enormous, so that would take a huge amount of a formattra’s magic to achieve.”

“Oh.” I pop the tiny chocolate into my mouth and bend to pat Bandit’s silver-scaled head. “Sorry, Bandit,” I say around the chocolate. “Oh, but—” I finish chewing and straighten. “I’m sure Jack told me Filigree became a dragon once. Was that when he was little?”

“No, he was fully grown then. It’s not that it’s impossible, it just requires more magic and makes them extremely tired. I’d never seen Filigree as a dragon before, but a witch was about to kill Violet, so I think Fili got a little overprotective. After he shifted back into something smaller, he barely moved for days. Vi wasn’t sure he’d ever shift again, but he recovered eventually.”

“Okay, so if Bandit is really desperate, he can at least—” I look around as the mirror’s melody interrupts me.

“Okay, someone’s definitely calling this time,” Calla says, heading back to the mirror. “Oh, finally. It’s Perry.” As I reach her side, she taps the mirror’s surface where an image of a wide-eyed Perry has appeared.

“Hey!” he exclaims. “Finally. I tried just now and had to abort when I realized someone in the shop was watching me.” He pushes his hair out of his face and continues before Calla can say anything. “I’m so sorry about what happened at Noxsom. No one had any idea the Council was using that as a trap for you guys. And I’m sorry I haven’t got back to you until now. I’ve been working all hours, and I feel like everyone’s looking over my shoulder, even when I’m not at the Guild. Everyone’s suspicious of everyone else now. I had to dig up this old mirror just in case the one I normally use has been tampered with. Flip, it’s getting more and more dangerous trying to do the right thing.”

Calla folds her arms across her chest. “You didn’t exactly help your situation when you decided to send a letter around the various Guilds gathering support for your anti-Guild vendetta and sign your actual name on it, you idiot.”

Perry pauses, his mouth half open. He blinks, shuts his mouth, then says, “I don’t remember telling you about that.”

“You didn’t. The Guild members who rescued Em and me from Noxsom were trying to use it as proof that they’re on the Griffin rebels’ side. I’m still not sure if that was all an elaborate trick to get us to reveal who we’re communicating with inside the Guild.”

A grin spreads across Perry’s face. “The people who got you out of Noxsom were Guild members? That’s fantastic! Did they say how many supporters have been added to my letter? I haven’t seen it since I first sent it out.”

“Perry!” Calla exclaims. “Are you trying to land yourself in a prison of eternal torture for being a Guild traitor? Why would you put your name on that thing?”

“Look, to be fair, it was only my first name. And I’ve heard of at least one other Perry in the Guild system.”

“That was still a huge risk. I know you want to change the way things are, and that’s extremely admirable, and … I actually really want to hug you for doing something like that for us, but at the same time, you’re no use to anyone if you land yourself in a prison cell for being a Guild traitor. So be careful, for goodness’ sake!”

“Aah.” He gives her a big goofy grin. “This is like when your mom gets super mad at you for nearly getting yourself killed by crossing the street just as a carriage is about to land, and then a second later she hugs you and tells you how much she loves you.”

I tilt my head a little closer to the mirror and say, “Yes, I think it’s exactly like that. And we’re both very grateful you’re taking a risk for people like us.”

“Of course I’m grateful,” Calla mutters. “I’m just hoping it doesn’t get you arrested.”

“Hey, I was very careful,” he tells us. “I gave the letter to someone I was almost certain agreed with me. All he had to do after indicating his support on the letter was find one other person he believed to be on our side and pass the letter on.”

Calla heaves a sigh and drops her hands to her sides. “Okay. Well thank you.”

“So, I know you just said you’ve been busy,” I say to him, “but have you been able to find out anything more about where Vi and Ryn and the others are being kept?”

“No. I haven’t had time to do any snooping, and the Council members don’t exactly hang out in corridors chatting loudly about their private plans so everyone can overhear them.”

“And did Chase tell you we need information on a place called Reinhold?” Calla adds. “It’s possible Dash might be there, and if Dash is there, the other rebels might have been taken there as well.”

“Reinhold? I’ve never heard of it. But—” He cuts himself off, his expression turning thoughtful. “I wonder if that could be …”

“Could be what?” Calla prompts.

“Remember those experiments you stumbled across years ago when you were sneaking around the lower levels of the Guild? Those rooms where they were experimenting on Griffin Gifted fae? Well those rooms disappeared about four or five years ago. I figured they couldn’t be gone completely. They must have simply moved, right? I tried to ask around, but no one seemed to know much.”

“And then?” she asks. “You didn’t try to look into it any further?”

“Calla, I have so much to keep up with already. And right now, I’ve barely even—oh, crumbs, gotta go.” Perry vanishes from view as he lowers his mirror.

“Wait!” Calla calls. “Please can you try to find—” The mirror goes blank for a moment, then shows us our own perplexed faces reflected back at us. Calla shuts her eyes, exhaling sharply. “I know the Guild needs every guardian available right now to keep both sides of the veil from falling apart, but this is a seriously inconvenient time for Perry to suddenly become too busy to spy for us.”

“Tell me about it,” I mutter.

“Anyway, we should probably pack up and get moving soon. I’ll shrink the weapons.”

As she turns away, my eyes are drawn to the tablet listing the Seer visions. The one about the movie theater has vanished, so hopefully someone took care of that. But a new one has popped up at the top of the list. Like most of the other visions, the details are incomplete. Several pieces of a puzzle that show only part of the finished picture. But all I care about is that one word at the end. That one word that sends ice traveling down my spine.

A magical eruption inside a restaurant with pink shutters. Uniforms with insignia of the Unseelie royal guard. Shadow length and quality of light suggest late afternoon. Town name: Stanmeade.

“Stanmeade,” I say out loud. “That—that must be my Stanmeade. Unless there’s more than one? But the pink shutters—that’s Bloomberry Cafe. It has to be.” I turn around. “Calla, we have to go there.”

Calla drops a handful of tiny weapons into the backpack before standing. “Roarke knows you used to live there, doesn’t he? Didn’t he abduct you from Chelsea’s home the first time you met him? This may be a trap for you.”

“Why would he do it this way, though? He doesn’t know you and I are following the Seer visions. And how would he know if this would even show up in a Seer’s vision. If he wanted to get me to Stanmeade, this would definitely not be the best way to go about it.”

“I suppose so, but then don’t you think it’s a very big coincidence that something’s happening in Stanmeade of all places?”

“No. I’m sure he is doing it intentionally. But not because he wants to draw me there. Probably just because he hopes I’ll hear about it at some point and it’ll seriously piss me off.” I pull both tablets and the mirror from the air. “We have to go there. We have to stop it.”

“Em, slow down. The Guild is probably going to send someone. We need to wait.”

“We can’t wait!” I crouch down and shove the tablets and mirror into the backpack. I pull my jacket out, and Bandit scurries into one of the pockets in the form of a mouse. “What if they decide to label it ‘alternate’ and then it’s too late for us to do anything? We have no idea what time it is there right now.” I stand and pull my jacket on, then close the backpack. “At the very least, we need to go there and see what time it is. If the Guild sends someone, then fine. We can watch and make sure they do their job properly. But I’m not going to sit around somewhere far away and hope it all works out.”

“Em, it isn’t safe. We can’t just—”

“I have friends there!” I shout. “My best friend. She’s … I haven’t seen her since my magic almost killed her. If she happens to be nearby when that magical eruption takes place, and she ends up—” I cut myself off and shake my head. I hoist the backpack onto one shoulder. “I can’t let her get hurt again.”

A beat of silence passes. “Okay. I understand.” Calla closes her hand in the air near the floating countdown numbers, hiding them for now. “Let’s go. You’re directing the faerie paths.”