Darkness & Light (War of the Fae: Book 3) (45 page)

“So, what does this mean?” asked Falco, breathlessly.
 
He took a respectful step back and stood next to his friend.

“Well, I guess it means that at least I can identify you, no matter where you are out here.”
 
I looked around at their faces, hoping someone would jump in with suggestions or something.
 
“I don’t know if that’s helpful or not ... ”

“Do you think, once you have identified one of us, that you could send power just to that individual?” asked Robin, a thoughtful frown on his face.

“Maybe.
 
What did you have in mind?”

“I would like to try ... an experiment.”

“Sure.
 
What is it?”

“He wants to be Super Elf!” yelled Tim.
 

“Shut up.”

“Excuse me?” asked Robin, confused.

“Ignore that.
 
Just tell me your idea.”

Robin frowned for a second and then continued.
 
“I would like you to identify my signature, and then when I am ready to take my shot from my bow, you send me a boost of the power.
 
I have some theories about what might happen, but I will wait to share them with you – I fear that your knowledge of my hypothesis might affect the integrity of the outcome.”

“Geez, Robin, are you totally channeling my biology teacher right now or what?”

“I am sorry, but I do not follow you ... ”

“Never mind.
 
Let’s just do this.
 
Just give me a second to find you in the energy mix.”

I reached out through the low-level hum that surrounded all of us and felt for something that reminded me of Robin – serious, stalwart, intelligent, dedicated – everything that was this noble green elf warrior.
 

“Gotcha.
 
Can you feel me?”
 
I sent him a small up-charge of The Green and he nodded.

“Yes.
 
I felt that.”

“Okay.
 
Go ahead then, and tell me when you want the power boost.”

Robin turned, and in one smooth, well-coordinated motion, slipped the bow off his back and pulled out an arrow from its quiver, notching it in the bow’s string.
 
He drew back the arrow, and from my position beside him, I could see that he was squinting at some far off target through the trees.

“Please send me the force now.”

I reached into the power base and pulled some into me and then sent it out to Robin, filling his connection with the essence of it.

Robin released the arrow, sending it whistling through the forest.
 
I lost sight of it immediately, but the gasps of the other elves had me searching their faces for clues of the outcome.

“What happened?” I asked in a hushed voice.

“Looks like you surprised the potatoes out of ‘em,” suggested Tim.

Robin’s bow arm lowered and he turned to me, smiling.
 
This time, it wasn’t my green energy release that caused it, either.

“Did it work?”

“Yes, I would call the experiment a success and my hypothesis proven.”

“What happened?”

“Come and see for yourself,” he said, turning and walking in the direction of the arrow’s flight.

I followed along, looking down most of the time, trying not to trip on the fallen branches and tangled vines on the forest floor.
 
I’d hate to have my awesome reputation as this kickass elemental suffer from the realities of my klutziness in front of all these green elves
who
were a hell of a lot more skilled in this forest than I was.

After a minute or so of walking, we reached a tree.
 
I noticed a green elf mark on it, one of the types that we had learned about earlier when they were teaching Tim and me.
 
There was an arrow sticking out of the center of that mark.

I looked back from where we had come.
 
I couldn’t even see that spot from here.

“Holy shit, that arrow went a long way.”

“Yes, it did,” he agreed, smiling down at me and then at the arrow.

I got the distinct impression he was waiting for something – for me to say something else.
 
I looked back up at the tree and at the mark that was still visible under the arrowhead.

“Isn’t that the symbol for safe passage?”
 
We had learned before that there were symbols representing safe passage and various other things, including danger ahead, areas to avoid, food storage nearby,
etcetera
.
 
I’d only learned a few of them.
 
This particular symbol had seemed important, though, so I definitely remembered it.

“Yes, exactly.”
 
He beamed at me, in a very un-
Robinlike
way.
 
It really lit up his face, and I couldn’t help smiling back.

“So you put an arrow through a ‘safe passage’ symbol.
 
What does that mean?”

“What do you think it means?” he asked, his face going
all serious
on me now.

I grimaced a little, afraid of sounding stupid, “That it’s not a safe passage anymore?”

Robin nodded.
 
“Exactly.
 
Very good, changeling.
 
You are making excellent progress.”

Relief washed through me.
 
I don’t know why it was so important to me that he felt that way, but it was.
 
I really, really didn’t want to screw this up and make any of them hate me.
 
“So what exactly did that extra boost of power do for you?”
 
I had never really watched them fire their arrows at things so far away, so I didn’t know how out of normal this was.

“It enabled me to shoot farther and with greater accuracy.”

I nodded, thinking about the ramifications.
 
“That could come in handy.”

“In many ways,” agreed Robin.
 
“I would like to know if you could do this for more than one green elf at a time.
 
Would you be willing to try?”

I shrugged.
 
“Sure.
 
Why not?”
 
I looked around the immediate area.
 
“Where?
 
Here?”

“No, let’s move to our shooting range.”

Tim and I followed the group of elves to a large, grassy meadow, filled with large tree stumps set out at various distances from the tree line surrounding it.
 
A gentle, late afternoon breeze set the grasses swaying and brushed past the flushed skin of my face.
 
It felt nice to be out in the sun again, feeling the movement of the air around us.
 
The forest blocked many of these sensations, even though some part of me knew they were still out there somewhere.

“Normally, when we stand at this distance, we can hit the targets in the second row of tree trunks with great accuracy.”
 
He pointed to targets out in the distance that showed heavy use with chips taken out of the front and lots of arrow holes.
 
“As we move out to the targets farther away, our accuracy suffers.
 
Obviously, it is safer for us to hit our intended target from a greater distance.”

Tim took this moment to add to the commentary, “What he’s saying is, that unlike pixies, the green elves need to hit the enemy from as far away as possible because they’re the biggest wimps in the forest.”

He squeaked when I was finally able to land a finger flick on his tiny butt.
 
It wasn’t an easy target to reach either, so I was pretty proud of myself.
 
The green
elves’ve
got nothin’ on me.
 
Accuracy my ass.
 
I’d bet they couldn’t flick a pixie butt without even being able to see the target.
 
But to be fair, I’d had lots of practice.

Robin could see that he’d lost me, so he stopped talking for a moment.
 
I realized it was quiet and my face turned red as I noticed him standing there patiently waiting for me to catch up.

“Oops.
 
Sorry.
 
Lost me for a second there.”
 
I pointed absently to my head.
 
“...Tired.”

He nodded.
 
“This will be the last exercise, I promise.”
 
He turned to his group, signaling to them with some sort of wave that apparently meant s
pread out and take aim
.
 
It reminded me a little unpleasantly of the day he’d ordered his friends to shoot me, so I looked at him suspiciously, but he seemed oblivious to my fear and kept talking.

“We will aim for the farthest targets.
 
I would like you to try and tap into all of our connections and send each of us the extra power – everyone but
one
elf.
 
You choose the one who you do not give the power to, and do not tell us which one that is.”
 
He leaned in and whispered in my ear, “But do not select your friend Finn, because I fear then that this test will be of no value.
 
He can hit the farthest target without your ... shall we say ... help.”
 
He nodded, staring me intently in the eye.

I nodded back, trying like hell not to look at Finn and give the secret away.
 
He’d been hanging in the back of the group the whole time, never letting on that we were friends.
 
I didn’t want to blow it for him and screw up his rep as a sharp shooter, so I vowed to myself to make sure he wasn’t the one singled out to miss.

Robin walked over and joined the others, dropping his bow off his shoulder and into his hand, simultaneously loading the arrow as he went.

I stepped far back from and slightly behind the line of elves.
 
I didn’t like the idea of The Green being involved and arrows going all wonky on us.
 
Last thing I wanted to do was personally test Spike’s theory that all fae healed fast and were hard to kill.
 
So many of the other rules didn’t apply to me – I’d hate to find out that this was one of them.

“Ready?” asked Robin in a raised but controlled voice, glancing over at me for a brief moment before turning his attention back to the targets sitting off in the distance.
 
A line of tunic-covered arms lifted bows horizontally and pulled bowstrings back, elbows jutting out behind them in a fierce showing of controlled strength.
 

I didn’t hesitate – I drew extra folds of vibrating green energy into me and then wrapped them around the elves I sensed standing nearby, feeling each of their contributions to our pulsing link of power.
 
I could especially feel Falco’s signature since it tingled a bit with his enthusiasm for the connection.
 
Next, I pulled one elf out of the fold, the one who had given Falco such a hard time.
 
My inner bitch smiled deviously, looking forward to the turning of tables this was sure to cause.
 
I tried to school my outer features so no one would know who my victim was.

“... Aim!”

The line of elves raised their bows in unison until they pointed halfway to the sky.
 
The soon to be deadly discharge of their weapons filled me with awe and more than a little bit of fear.
 
Man, I was so glad I wasn’t going to be on the receiving end of that firing squad.

“...
Release!”

I watched as thirty or so wood shafts tipped with arrows and finished with feathers sailed out from the line and through the air, all but one headed out towards the farthest targets.

In less than a second it was all over.
 
The elves lowered their bow arms, once again in unison, to hang at their sides.
 
Robin separated himself from the group, slipping his bow over his shoulder as he walked towards me.

“What happened?” I asked.
 
I could see that the arrows had hit the far targets, but my eyesight wasn’t good enough to see details.

“I’m not exactly sure.” He reached me and gestured towards the targets.
 
“Come.
 
Please.”

He looked back and signaled the rest of the elves with a jerk of his head so they would follow us to the targets.

The first thing I noticed was a single arrow, stuck into the ground about fifty feet in front of the farthest targets.
 
The group of elves walked up to it one at a time, and after studying the feather pattern on the end, looked over at the elf I had singled out who was trailing behind the others.
 
His face got redder and redder by the second as the realization of his shame took hold.

Falco reached the arrow and smiled, pointing.
 
“Hey, look,
Dav
, it’s yours!
 
You missed!”
 
The smile on his face wasn’t malicious, but it earned him a punch in the arm nevertheless.
 
“
Ow
,” he said, rubbing his shoulder and moving away to locate his own arrow with a barely concealed grin on his face.