Faery Born (Book One in the War Faery Trilogy) (8 page)

‘That is one freaky familiar,’ Grams said. ‘Cup of tea?’

‘I’m thinking healer.’ I nodded down at my arm. I had plenty of time to work out Scruffy. But my arm was screaming for attention NOW.

‘You’re hurt,’ Mum said, bustling to my side. ‘What happened?’

‘I fell.’ It was the only answer I could think of that wasn’t going to illicit a lecture.

Mum grabbed my wrist and I screeched in pain. ‘It’s broken,’ she said, like I didn’t already know that. But I began to cry anyway. It’s one thing to be brave in front of a band of Border Guards, it’s another thing
entirely
to be brave in front of your own mother.

She deposited me on the couch with a blanket (for the shock) and Sabby came to sit beside me. She placed her wand on my wrist and closed her eyes.

‘It’s a compound fracture,’ she said. ‘We’ll have to get Mum to heal it.’

Grindella was a healer at the Eynsford Hospital.

‘She’ll be busy.’ I had a feeling there might be a lot of people in Eynsford in need of a healer.

‘I’ll make you a special pot of tea,’ Grams said, bustling around the kitchen. ‘It’ll help with the pain till she gets here.’

I drank the tea and slumped on the couch with Sabby holding my good hand, and Scruffy curled up by my side. The pain slowly ebbed away to a dull ache.

‘I’m worried about Thomas.’ I was starting to slur my words.

‘Who?’

‘My friend from fencing.’ I was hoping that he hadn’t been the ‘poor bastard’ outside the bakery. He had a real penchant for their custard tarts.

‘Oh,’ Sabby said, ‘the human.’ It wasn’t humans Sabby had a problem with. I wasn’t sure why, but she didn’t have much time for Thomas.

I gave her a level look and she shrugged one shoulder. Which of her two heads was the real one?

She pulled a face. ‘I’m sure he’s safe.’

‘I nearly wasn’t,’ I slurred. ‘A goblin did this.’ I raised my arm and then giggled. It didn’t feel like it was attached to my body any more. ‘What is in this tea?’ I started to laugh.

‘What do you mean a goblin did this?’ Mum was suddenly right beside me.

I peered up at her. Why was her mouth above her eyes? ‘He was going to slit my throat.’ I had to concentrate on every word. ‘But Scruffy saved me.’

‘Isadora Scrumpleton, if you ever pull a stunt like this again.’

Pretty lights, spinning round.

‘I’m going to join the Border Guard.’ I knew the words were coming out of me but they sounded like they were echoing from the other side of the room.

Dizzy, dizzy, dizzy…

Noise was coming out of Mum’s mouth. I stared up at her, trying to work out what she was saying. But the pretty lights grew brighter and brighter, flashing and dancing before my eyes, and then the dizzy, dizzy, dizzy claimed me for its own.

When I finally woke the next morning my arm was bandaged and hanging in a sling over my chest. I wiggled it experimentally. There was slight pain at the extreme ranges of motion, but apart from that it was fine. I was glad I had passed out
before
they had healed me.

When I finally summoned up the courage to venture downstairs (I seemed to remember telling Mum I was joining the Border Guard), there were two men sitting at the kitchen table. One of them I recognised, Radismus Pringle, the other I didn’t, but by the shape of his ears I assumed he was a faery.

Mum was in the kitchen whipping up what appeared to be lemon cake. She was taking magical short cuts and it was in the final stages of cooking.

I hovered in the doorway trying to ascertain how much trouble I was in. She glanced up and gave me a small, tight smile.

‘Scruffy?’ I asked.

‘Already fed him.’

‘I swear he just came downstairs with me.’

‘Been here the whole time.’ Her face was expressionless. ‘Isadora, these gentlemen have come to offer their help in your training. You already know Radismus of course, but you haven’t met Wolfgang Periwinkle yet.’

I nodded my head at Radismus and then held my hand out to Wolfgang. He took it gently in his and stared into my eyes, fixing me with his gaze. A surge of power trickled through me and then he broke eye contact and it was gone. I took a step backwards, blinking rapidly.

‘What was that?’ I asked.

‘I’m sorry my dear,’ he said in a soft, melodic voice. ‘I suppose I should have pre-warned you, but I didn’t want to give you the chance to put any barriers in place. I needed to see your mind as it is normally.’

‘You can look into my mind?’

‘It is a talent peculiar to my family. It is why we have always been trainers to the Royal family.’

‘Oh.’ I wasn’t exactly sure what he meant.

‘Can you explain what’s going on when she sleeps?’ my mother asked.

Wolfgang leant towards me, his large, grey eyes were solemn. ‘You’ve been dream-walking?’

‘I don’t dream,’ I said, ‘so I don’t see how I’ve been dream-walking.’

‘You dream,’ he said, nodding his head. ‘But your faery powers and your witch powers are at odds with each other. Only the faery part of you is dream-walking. Because you identify as a witch, when you are awake, you are unaware of what has happened.’

‘So…’ I was having trouble getting my head around that, ‘because I
think
I’m a witch, I don’t know what my faery part is up to?’

‘That is a simplistic version,’ he said, sitting back in his seat, ‘but for our purposes it will do nicely.’

‘Will that change?’ If I’d been making out with Aethan I wasn’t sure if I wanted to remember it. I got all squirmy and twitchy just thinking about it.

‘It should, if we are able to reconcile your powers. Radismus and I will be working together to attempt this.’

‘Is it dangerous?’ I asked.

‘The procedure Radismus and I will be…’

‘No, no,’ I cut him off. ‘Dream-walking. Is it dangerous?’

He stared at me for a second before answering. ‘When an injury occurs during dream-walking, the physical manifestation appears on the body of the walker.’

‘So that’s a yes,’ I said.

‘If, for argument’s sake, you were to encounter something terrifying in your dreams and suffer wounds as a consequence, then the emotional ramifications of this would transfer those wounds to your sleeping body.’

‘So if I were to say…,’ I paused not sure I really wanted to know the answer.

‘If you were to die during your dream-walk then yes, you would never awaken,’ Wolfgang correctly answered my unasked question.

Buzznuckle.
Here I was flouncing around at night doing something I had absolutely no conscious control over and now I find out it could be deadly. That sucked big time.

The oven chimed, announcing the imminent arrival of the lemon cake. I could hear Mum removing plates from the cupboard as I contemplated Wolfgang’s words. I really had to get a grip on my faery side.

‘So, umm,’ I said once Mum had returned with the cake, ‘how are we going to do this training?’

Radismus reached for a piece. ‘Wolfgang and I will work with you to assimilate the two parts of your personality.’

Hmmmphf.
He made it sound like I was schizophrenic. ‘When do we start?’

Wolfgang chuckled. ‘As soon as we finish your mother’s delicious-smelling cake.

An hour later, I was sitting cross-legged on the floor with Radismus and Wolfgang. We were linked in a circle with our eyes closed, concentrating on our breathing.

‘Now move deeper,’ Wolfgang said, his voice hypnotic and soothing.

I felt myself drift away from my body.

‘No Izzy, deeper
into
yourself.’

I stopped my movement and concentrated instead on the black depth of my core. I moved slowly down the dark tunnel. The walls were soft, muffling all exterior sound. Soon I floated at the centre of my being, cocooned in the darkness like a child in a womb.

‘Radismus, you and I are going to try to reach each other through Izzy,’ Wolfgang said.

‘Huh?’ I could feel myself start to move back up the tunnel away from my centre. ‘Is that going to hurt?’

‘Relax Izzy,’ he said. ‘It won’t hurt at all.’

‘So Wolfgang,’ said Radismus from my other side, ‘what are we trying to achieve?’

‘We are going to try to unite Isadora’s two sides. You will naturally be drawn to her witch side and will work your way through that part of her conscious. I will come through the faery side. If we are able to complete our joining in the heart of her, her two sides will flow together and become one.’

‘Ahhh,’ I said, ‘as you work your way through my conscious sides are you going to be able to read my mind?’

‘No Izzy, your memories are safe.’

I relaxed at the news. Fantastic, the two of them were going to do their stuff and pretty soon I was going to remember everything. I was nervous about the remembering. What if it were like watching a movie – seeing but not feeling?

‘All righty,’ I finally said. Either way I wanted to get it over and done with. ‘Let’s get started.’

I tried to relax as they began, but the sensation of their minds entering mine resulted in a tickling sensation around the edges of my head. I giggled and started to pull away.

‘Izzy,’ said Wolfgang, ‘if we de-link now it will take ages to get back to this point.’

‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘It tickles.’

‘The sensation will stop as soon as we are in.’

True to his word, a couple of minutes later the tickling stopped and, instead, warmth flowed across my mind in a gentle wave. I relaxed into the sensation, stilling my thoughts which had been jumping randomly around inside my head. (Aethan, goblins, Scruffy, Aethan, Border Guards had pretty much been the order of them.) As my thoughts mellowed, the warmth sped up its progress, melting further into me.

‘That’s better Izzy,’ Wolfgang said.

Both sides of my head were warm and buzzing with energy. ‘Have you done it?

‘Not yet,’ Radismus grunted.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘You are putting up some resistance,’ Wolfgang said.

I could feel pushing and prodding deep inside me.

‘I’ve never done anything like this before,’ Radismus said to Wolfgang. ‘Is this barrier normal?’

‘No,’ Wolfgang replied.

‘It’s like a thick, latex layer.’

‘Try tearing at it,’ Wolfgang advised.

‘Please don’t break me.’ The pushing sensation changed to a pulling one.

‘What is that bright light on your side?’ Radismus asked.

‘That’s Izzy’s power.’

‘But… it’s so bright.’ There was wonder in Radismus’s voice.

‘Faery powers look different to witch powers, but even for a faery she is strong.’

Was that what I had felt the first time I had touched my power? The never-ending tide of energy I had dipped into?

‘What’s your side look like?’ Wolfgang asked Radismus.

‘Hmmmm. Pretty standard for a witch, except there are glowing patches, pulsing with energy.’

‘Don’t touch those,’ Wolfgang advised. ‘That’s faery energy soaked through to her witch side. Most unusual.’ His tone was analytical.

‘So what will that mean?’ I asked.

‘That your faery powers will have dominance, but we’ve already seen signs of that.’

‘We have?’

‘Your control over air.’

‘My what?’

‘Your shields are hardened air.’

‘Oh.’ I thought about all of that and then something else occurred to me. ‘Does this have something to do with Scruffy?’

‘What about Scruffy?’

I told him about Scruffy’s collar and about how last night we had all seen two of him.

Wolfgang started chuckling. ‘The familiar chooses the witch and forms a bond with them. This happens because they are similar.’

‘Are you saying I’m a dog?’

‘No. I am saying that you are loyal, intelligent and affectionate. The character traits of the familiar and the witch they choose are similar.’

‘Oh.’ Phantom certainly shared character traits with Sabby. They were both proud, majestic and easily offended. But then they were fiercely loyal to the small number of people they let into their circle. ‘That doesn’t explain the things that keep happening.’

‘You are unique Isadora. A witch with your talents has probably never been born before.’

I let out an involuntary laugh.
Me? The most powerful witch ever born?
It was so funny it was ridiculous.

‘So you think Scruffy has his own powers?’ I said once I had stopped laughing.

‘I think where you are concerned, anything is possible.’

‘What about the fact that he seems to be able to be in two places at once?’

‘At a guess I would say that Scruffy is manifesting your breach in your psyche in his own way. He also has two halves. While one is upstairs with you the other is down in the kitchen with your mother.’

‘That’s plain weird,’ I said.

‘I don’t think I can go on much longer,’ Radismus said.

‘Dear fellow,’ Wolfgang replied in a worried voice, ‘if you are tired you must get out before Izzy’s consciousness swamps you.’

‘I seem to be stuck to this barrier.’

‘Pull yourself away from it.’

‘I can’t.’ Radismus’s voice was weaker.

I wasn’t sure what was going to happen if my consciousness swamped him, and I didn’t want to find out. ‘You can do it,’ I said.

‘I can see you,’ Wolfgang told him, ‘your hands are twisted in the barrier. Turn them anticlockwise and pull hard.’

There was a moment of silence during which I felt tugging, and then with one last wrench he was free. Before I could feel relief, he let out a cry.

‘Not the golden patch,’ Wolfgang yelled.

For a second I felt him, I knew him; his every thought of terror and wonderment blazed through my mind. Wolfgang yelled out as Radismus let go of our hands and slumped to the floor. I opened my eyes; saw the paleness of his cheeks, the pallid cast of his face and dived deep inside myself. I swam back towards the cavernous darkness until I found a softly glowing patch and, grabbing hold of its edges, I pulled myself through.

***

I stood in a flower-filled meadow, edged on one side by the creek and the other by the forest. Radismus was nowhere to be seen.

What if he had ended up in another part of my mind? How were we going to get out?

I decided to concentrate on the
finding
part of the problem first and deal with the
getting out
part later.

I scratched a reference line on the ground and then started walking along the sweeping curve of the river bed. I had only been travelling for a few minutes when I saw a shadowy figure in the distance. I quickened my pace, hoping Radismus was there.

A small girl sang to herself while she picked a posy of flowers. She had long, black hair, and, when she glanced up, I realised with a start that it was a younger version of me.

She looked right through me, as if I weren’t there, and continued breaking off flowers.

‘Well that answers that question.’ Radismus slid out from behind a tree and walked towards me. ‘I didn’t want to scare her.’

‘You’re okay?’ I resisted my urge to hug him.

The little girl looked up again. This time she glanced back over her shoulder. Standing slowly, she turned around. Her eyes widened and she backed up a few steps.

A monster slurched from the edge of the forest. Easily a dozen limbs dangled from its slug-like body, none of them were legs. A large mouth dominated its head, rows of sharp teeth visible through the drooling saliva.

The flowers fell from the little girl’s fingers as her mouth opened wide in a scream.

‘Run,’ I said, backing away from it. ‘Run.’

The creature let out a high-pitched mewl that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, and slithered towards us. The little girl turned and fled across the field. Radismus and I took off after her.

Even though we were all running as fast as we could (you don’t keep anything in reserve when something from a nightmare is chasing you), a quick glance over my shoulder showed it was gaining. We weren’t going to be able to outrun it, but there was nothing to use as a weapon.

And then a horse emerged over the top of a low rise, galloping at an angle towards us. A young man sat astride the horse, his sword drawn. They were moving faster than the monster but I wasn’t sure if they would make it in time.

The monster let out another cry and the little girl’s legs slowed. It called again and she stopped and turned to face it.

‘Run,’ I yelled, but I could feel it too. It was calling us, willing us to stop.

The horse ran as fast as it could, its head out straight in front of its body as its hooves flew over the ground.

‘I’m coming,’ the man yelled.

I forgot all about the monster as my eyes flew to his face. Aethan. Here. Coming to save us.

The monster let out a shrill cry as it reached out its multiple arms to grasp the girl. Its mouth opened wider and wider, till it seemed it would swallow her whole.

Young Aethan sheathed his sword and leant forward in his saddle, reaching a hand down to my adolescent self. At full gallop he grabbed her arm, the force whipping her up and around behind him, out of the arms of the monster.