Faery Born (Book One in the War Faery Trilogy) (17 page)

‘I can assure you Ma’am that this was not done by our hands.’

‘Then by whom?’ She glared around the room.

‘Goblins.’ I managed to make my voice loud enough for her to hear. ‘It was goblins.’

‘May I ask how you knew?’ Rako asked.

‘Half an hour ago her familiar appeared in my kitchen, howling and crying. I could only surmise that something terrible had happened to Isadora. I see now I was correct.’ Her voice still trembled with rage.

‘Your daughter is a hero,’ Rako said. ‘She single-handedly turned a battle against a horde of goblins attacking Isilvitania.’ I noted he didn’t mention anything about my dragon mount.

Mum shot me a look of pride but her back was still stiff. ‘That doesn’t explain why she is like this.’

‘She was captured and tortured.’

Tears started to pour down Mum’s cheeks. ‘Why haven’t you healed her?’

‘I can’t.’ Brinda’s voice came from behind me. ‘It would take too much of her energy to heal so large an area. She could die.’

‘You must be able to do something.’

‘I am removing the heat from the burns. Then I will place a dressing on them.’

I was going to look like a mummy if she had to bandage all my burns. ‘Scars?’ I whispered. I could feel some welts on my face that I didn’t remember receiving.

‘My dressing will prevent scarring.’

‘I want her brought home,’ Mum said. ‘You will tend her wounds there, and then this madness will stop.’ She waved her arm around her as she spoke. ‘No more Border Guards.’

What?
I struggled to sit up but Aethan pushed gently on my shoulders, pinning me to the bed.

‘I think that is up to Isadora.’ Rako’s voice was stiff.

Mum turned her attention to me. ‘No more, Isadora. Surely you can see now that this is too dangerous.’

I didn’t say anything and she took my silence for acquiescence. That was a fight I would leave till I was better. There was no
way
I was leaving the Guard. I had to get even with that bitch Galanta.

‘What happened to this girl?’ She waved an arm at the other bed and I realised it was Isgranelda lying there. The snippet of conversation I’d heard earlier made sense. They’d captured two of us.

‘I gave her a sleeping potion,’ Brinda said into the silence of the room. ‘She had a headache.’

‘This is a rather odd infirmary,’ Mum said. ‘Why do you arrange the beds like this?’

‘We find it helps with the healing if they are able to engage each other.’ Brinda was doing a good job of masking the real purpose of the room, but my mind was on other things.

What had happened to Isgranelda? Was she dead? I hadn’t liked her at all, but it didn’t mean I wanted to see her dead.

As if on cue Isgranelda moaned. So, not dead then. Brinda rushed to her side.

‘She’s bleeding,’ Mum said. ‘Why is she bleeding?’

Not dead, but wounded.

‘Get her out of here,’ Rako yelled, waving an arm in our direction.

Aethan wheeled my bed towards the door. ‘Prunella,’ he said, ‘we will take Isadora home now.’

‘But why is she bleeding?’

Aethan maintained his silence on the subject. He wouldn’t have been able to explain it without suffering the effects of the binding spell. After a while Mum let out a huff and stopped asking. I’m not sure who was more pleased, Aethan or me.

They moved me oh-so-carefully off the bed and onto a litter, but even that caused me to shriek in pain. Then they placed the litter in the back of a car and drove me to Eynsford. Another painful transfer from the litter to my bed, and I was home.

Mum huffed and puffed as she bustled around me. She carefully spread ice over my towel and I even managed to sleep for a while as the cold stilled the pain.

Brinda arrived hours later and she and Mum removed the towel and dressed the wounds. Mum stared at my burns with a look of hard resolve. It was going to be difficult to tell her I was going back.

I waited till she had gone to the kitchen to get more ice and whispered, ‘Isgranelda?’

‘Alive,’ Brinda said. ‘It was touch and go for a while there. She was pretty badly wounded.’ She reached over me and hung a dream-catcher on the bed head.

I nodded my head, partly in thanks for the dream-catcher, and partly in response to the information, and closed my eyes. The salve felt wonderful on my skin.

‘I will have to do this every day for two weeks,’ Brinda said.

‘Two weeks?’
I couldn’t bear the thought of being stuck in bed for two weeks. I had to find Galanta and kill her.

‘Two weeks,’ she replied, her voice firm with authority.

Rako waited till I was well enough to sit up in bed before he visited. Mum showed him into my room, her face stony with anger. Her feelings on my returning had not softened with time, and I hadn’t summoned up the courage yet to tell her.

Rako waited till she left the room before he spoke. ‘You are healing?’

Too nervous to speak, I nodded my head. Was he here to kick me out of the Guard?

‘How did they capture you?’

‘I forgot I could disappear, and then by the time I remembered she had done something with my blood.’

‘She drank it?’

‘I wouldn’t go that far, but yes, she consumed some.’

‘A blood bond.’ He scrubbed his fingers through his stubble. ‘What did she want?’

‘She wanted me to say I wouldn’t marry Aethan.’ I said it as fast as I could, but it was no less embarrassing.

He started to chuckle, his laughter slowly dying off as he realised I wasn’t laughing with him. ‘You’re serious?’

‘Deadly serious.’

‘And did you?’

I squirmed. ‘No.’

‘Why ever not?’

‘I didn’t know why she wanted me to say it, and I felt it best not to give her what she wanted.’

‘You thought the words might give her some kind of power?’

‘Well after the whole blood thing I didn’t know what they would give her.’

Black shadows hung under his eyes. He looked like he hadn’t slept for days. ‘What is she up to?’ he murmured to himself. He looked up at the ceiling while he thought. ‘How did you get away,’ he finally asked.

‘I managed to tap into my powers. I stabbed her and tasted her blood.’ I screwed my face up at the memory of the foul stuff.

‘Clever girl.’ Coming from Rako, that was quite a compliment.

He stood up as if he were about to leave and then stopped and stared at the photo of Grams and Mum on my bedside table. ‘Might I take another copy of that?’ he asked. ‘I seem to have misplaced the other one. I was sure I put it into your file.’

I watched while he copied the photo again. ‘So that’s it?’ I finally said.

‘What do you mean?’

‘You’re not going to yell at me for riding a dragon?’

He rubbed at an eye for a moment and then sat back down. ‘You are bonded to her. What is there for me to say?’

‘You’re not going to yell at me for scaring those dreamers or leaving Aethan and Wilfred… what did you say? Bonded?’ I stared at him. ‘That’s not the first time I rode Emerald is it?’

He shook his head. ‘You’ve been bonded for a while now.’

‘Why won’t anybody tell me these things? Why won’t you tell me about what I’ve been doing when I’m dream-walking?’ My voice rose with my frustration. I clenched my fists into the bedspread in an attempt to calm myself.

‘We can’t tell you lass.’ His voice was kind. ‘If we changed your perception of a memory you may not get it back.’

I opened my mouth to argue but I didn’t know what to say.

‘What if I told you about something that had happened that I’d thought was funny, not realising that the same event had made you sad. Your perceived memory is now one of hilarity; it wouldn’t match the real one. You would either remember it differently or wouldn’t remember it at all.’

‘But just one memory, surely it wouldn’t matter.’

‘What if you’d made a major decision based on how sad that event had made you feel? A huge, life-changing decision.’

The enormity of what he was telling me sunk in. It could alter my past and therefore, also, my future. It could change who I was.

‘Don’t tell me anything.’ I shook my head vigorously. ‘I don’t want to know.’

‘Only a few more days and I’ll be able to go back,’ I said to Sabby. My wounds had healed to faint-pink patches.

‘You’re crazy,’ she said. ‘Why would you go back to that?’ Before I could say anything she added, ‘I don’t know why you’re bothering with him.’

‘What
are
you talking about?’

‘You
know who I’m talking about.’ She placed her hands on her hips and stared at me. ‘I mean he hasn’t even been to visit you.’

I wasn’t sure if I were pleased about that or not. I still cringed whenever I thought about my behaviour. ‘He’s not the reason I’m going back.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ she said. ‘I’m not going to tell you.’

‘Tell me what?’ Whizbang, could she get any weirder?

‘Nothing.’ She sat back down and twiddled her fingers for a few seconds before saying, ‘Oh fine.’ She flicked her wand at her handbag and an envelope rose from one of the pockets and floated to her. She plucked it out of the air and handed it to me.

Her name was inscribed in gold writing on the front, and the back had a broken wax seal. I pulled a piece of paper out and unfolded it, running an eye down the elegant script.

It was an invitation for the following evening to a ball at Isilvitania. It was being held in honour of Aethan’s birthday. ‘Oh.’ I put it carefully down on the coffee table.

‘Oh’s about right,’ Sabina said. ‘While you’ve been convalescing he’s been planning a ball.’

‘None of my business.’ I hadn’t got an invitation. Where was my invitation?

‘Rumour has it that his mother is trying to find him a wife.’ She really wasn’t helping with my attempts to remain calm.

‘Are you going?’ I was rather proud of my ability to keep my voice level.

She blushed and looked away.

‘Please tell me you are. I need someone to get all the gossip for me.’

‘All right then,’ she huffed like she was doing me the biggest favour in the world. ‘But only because you insist.’

***

I was lying in the loungeroom, trying to take my mind off the ball by reading a book. I wasn’t doing a very good job of it. I’d been staring at the same page for an hour.

They would have started arriving by now. All the single women wearing beautiful gowns, designed to catch Aethan’s eye. Even though I knew there was nothing between us, I still felt ill at the thought.

I had fallen for him,
damn it,
and it seemed there was nothing I could do about my feelings except ignore them.

I heard footsteps leading up to the front door and then Grams’ voice telling Eric to let her in. She had been off with Lionel looking for a wedding venue.

‘Why aren’t you ready for the ball?’ She placed her suitcase by the door and gave me a hug.

‘You had to get an invitation,’ I said, returning to my slovenly position in the armchair.

‘That’s ridiculous, of course you would have been invited.’

‘Grams, I dumped him. I think that would have been when my invitation got torn up.’

‘You could be right about that,’ she said.

‘Where’s Mum?’ I asked. It wasn’t like her not to be home in the evening.

‘Probably
book club,’
Grams said with a mischievous grin on her face.

‘Book club?’

‘That’s what she calls it, but have you ever seen her reading a book?’

‘She was reading one last week.’

‘Huh.’ Grams sat down in the chair opposite me. ‘Maybe she really did join a book club. I was hoping it was code for something naughty.’

A knock at the door interrupted us. I hopped up and opened it, secretly hoping it was a last-second invitation to the ball. It wasn’t. Instead, a pumpkin, a rat, and six white mice sat on the doormat.

‘Grams,’ I said, ‘you’ve got to see this.’

‘I don’t believe it,’ she said in amusement when she peered out the door.

‘What is it?’ I asked.

‘Well, I’ve only ever read about it, but it looks like someone has cast a Cinderella spell.’

‘A what?’

‘A Cinderella spell.’ She clapped her hands together. ‘I’ve always wanted to see one in action.’ She backed away from the door, watching me with an excited look on her face. ‘Izzy,’ she said, ‘they’ve come to take you to the ball.’

‘Oh, no they haven’t.’ If I hadn’t been formally invited there was no
way
I was turning up. I couldn’t shut the door though, because the pumpkin, which I was sure had not moved, was blocking it.

‘You can’t fight it,’ Grams said. ‘Just go with the flow.’

‘I am not going to let a pumpkin publicly humiliate me.’

A green shoot emerged from the top of the pumpkin, winding its way through the air towards me.

A sharp knife would fix that. I turned and ran for the kitchen. A step short of the knife block the pumpkin vine wound around my ankle. I reached down and pulled it off but it immediately re-attached to the other leg. ‘Let go,’ I said as another creeper emerged from the vegetable. It grew at an alarming rate, reaching out to snag my other leg. The two vines tugged together, whipping my feet out from under me and pulling me to the ground.

‘Best not to fight it Izzy.’ Grams rubbed her hands together.

‘Like hell.’ The thought of being dragged off to that ball leant me the strength of ten men as I wrestled with the vines. But the pumpkin kept throwing more and more creepers at me until finally I was encased in green foliage from head to foot. ‘You have got to be kidding.’

‘What’s that Izzy?’ Grams said. ‘Your voice is all muffled.’

‘What’s going on?’ I yelled.

‘I’d say it’s dressing you.’

I lay still, trying not to panic as claustrophobia tried to claim me. A warm tingling started at my head and worked its way down to my feet. When it had dissipated, the vines relaxed their grip on me. I rolled away and clambered to my feet where I wobbled unsteadily.

I looked down at my feet. They were encased in glass slippers. ‘So when you
said
Cinderella spell you really
meant
Cinderella spell?’

‘Ahuh,’ Grams was grinning. ‘Oh Izzy you look beautiful.’

I staggered to the mirror in the lounge and gasped at my reflection. I had on a crystal-encrusted, white gown. It sparkled with my every move. The gown had a V-neck with little cap sleeves, and was cinched at the waist before it flowed to the ground. My hair had been piled on top of my head and laced with more crystals. The pumpkin had even done my make-up.

I reached down and tried to tug a slipper off my foot. It was stuck tight.

‘Not till midnight,’ Grams said, chuckling.

‘What do I do now?’ I asked her.

‘Well you probably should take the pumpkin and rodents outside and let them do their stuff.’

I picked up the pumpkin and carried it out to the driveway. The rodents scampered after me, making shrill cries of excitement. I placed the pumpkin on the ground and Scruffy stretched out his nose and sniffed it. He lifted a leg over it and the pumpkin reached a vine up and slapped him on the bottom. Scruffy bared his teeth, growling as the pumpkin lifted two vines like little fists, ready for a fight.

‘Scruffy,’ I said, laughing, ‘leave him alone.’

He growled one more time and then sat beside the road and started to sniff his balls. Grams nodded her head at Scruffy and said, ‘Do you want me to look after him tonight?’

‘I don’t know.’

The pumpkin settled the matter by throwing out a couple of vines and entangling Scruffy. They wrestled for a minute; Scruffy barked and growled as the pumpkin encased him. When he was finally freed, he was wearing a tiny tuxedo jacket, complete with bowtie.

‘Guess not,’ I said.

‘Nice job on the outfits,’ Grams said to the pumpkin.

It jumped up and down on the spot and then began to expand.

‘Oh look, I’ve made his head swell,’ Grams said.

As the pumpkin grew larger, several vines sprang to the side, looping around and around to form wheels. A door appeared on the body of the vegetable and a little seat up top. Then the whole pumpkin glistened and turned translucent.

I tapped on the side of it. ‘Wow, it’s glass.’

‘Can I hop inside?’ Grams asked. In response the door opened and Grams clambered up into the carriage. ‘The seat’s a bit hard,’ she said, standing back up. A purple cushion appeared on the bench in the back. ‘Much better,’ she said, testing it out. ‘Can’t have your bottom going to sleep during the ride.’

The ludicrousness of the situation hit me and I started to giggle. I was going to hop into that pumpkin and go to the ball, dressed up like a princess. I turned to look at the rat and mice. ‘Are you going like that?’ I asked.

Squeaking, they ran in front of the carriage. Sparkles appeared in the air and floated down over them, touching them before settling to the earth. The rodents danced and twirled, getting bigger and bigger, turning faster and faster, until they were whirls of colour slowly morphing before our eyes.

When the dust finally settled, six white horses pranced in front of the carriage, and one man, with a suspiciously rat-like nose, wore a red, velvet suit and a large hat with a feather. He hooked the horses up to the carriage and then held the door open for me.

Scruffy let out a big huff and jumped up and lay on the purple cushion. He wasn’t very happy about his tuxedo.

‘Here goes nothing,’ I said to Grams as I climbed on board and took a seat next to him.

‘Have fun.’ She waved at me through the translucent wall.

‘Everybody’s going to be able to see me.’

‘I think that’s the idea,’ she said.

The coach driver flicked his whip in the air and we were off at a stately trot through the streets of Eynsford. He took the long way, obviously keen to make the most of the spell, and I had to sit and wave to the villagers as we passed by. It’s not every day that a rat gets to wear a magnificent hat and drive a horse and carriage so I let him have his moment.

Eventually we came to Eynsford Castle. A large gap had been opened between the veils and was being maintained by a group of faeries.

We swept through the gateway. One minute we were in Eynsford, England, and the next we were in Isilvitania. The landscape stayed the same but that’s where the similarities ended.

Garden faeries, flitting through massive oak trees, lit the way down the road. The air was sweeter and more wholesome, the trees taller and more numerous. But by far the biggest difference was the castle. It dwarfed our crumbling ruin both in size and magnificence.

The walls of the castle were swathed in lengths of silk and bathed in different coloured lights. Garden faeries congregated in the manicured trees, bobbing and glowing as they weaved an intricate dance. The fountains flowed freely, their water adding a magical tinkling to the music emanating from the castle. A full moon blazed overhead, bathing the whole scene in a silvery light.

The coach continued past the drop-off point at the front, and around to the back of the castle. I wasn’t sure if that were a good or a bad thing as I still didn’t know who had cast the Cinderella spell.

I gathered Scruffy into my arms as the coachman helped me alight from the carriage. He pointed to a pathway.

‘You want me to go down there?’ I asked him.

He nodded his head in affirmation and then climbed back up to wait for me.

Placing Scruffy down beside me, I approached the start of the path. The castle blocked the moonlight, and the way was dark and narrow. I wished I had a weapon. I wished I had a weapon but I didn’t, so my glass stilettos were going to have to suffice. I moved slowly down the path, stopping to listen and allow my eyes to adjust to the dark. I could feel Scruffy pressed up against the back of my legs.

Just when I thought my heart was going to beat its way out of my chest, the path opened up to a courtyard. Light from the castle showed a huge fountain raining in the middle. Soft grass surrounded it.

A man, facing away from me, stood in the shadow of the fountain. He wore a resplendent, green coat that fell almost to his knees. Embroidery covered every square inch of it. His hands were behind his back and I couldn’t see any obvious weapons, so I cleared my throat.

Aethan looked like a dark angel as he turned to face me. He sucked in a breath and stared at my face. ‘I knew you’d look beautiful.’

Damn the man and his ability to make me blush.
‘You
did this to me?’

He nodded his head. ‘It was the only way I could think of getting you here.’

‘You could have invited me.’

‘You wouldn’t have come.’ He was probably right.

‘Why did you want me here?’

‘I need to tell you something.’ He walked towards me, taking my hands and turning me so the light from the castle shone onto my face.

‘What?’ I was having trouble breathing. With him this close, alone, looking so dashing in his fine coat, I couldn’t help but think of that kiss.

‘I’m sorry I embarrassed you. I didn’t think it through properly. I forgot you can’t remember.’

Disappointment flooded me. So that was it? He wanted to apologise?

‘It’s not your fault I couldn’t see the funny side of it.’ I tried to pull my hands from his but he tightened his grip. The tinkling of the fountain drowned out any noise from the castle.

‘You mean couldn’t see the
irony.’

‘The irony?’ Great Dark Sky he was handsome. Suddenly, I was glad he held my hands tight. I wanted to touch his face so badly I wasn’t sure I would have been able to stop myself.

‘Rako said we could ruin your memories if we told you anything. I would die before I did that.’ He let go of my hands and stepped away, spinning so his back was to me. ‘But I can’t risk losing you.’ His voice choked and he turned towards me, reclaiming my hands with his. ‘No, I can’t risk that.’

The look in his eyes became tender as he pulled me towards him. ‘I promised I wouldn’t,’ he whispered, ‘but I can’t resist you any longer.’

The world spun as he moved even closer, bending his head towards mine. He traced the side of my face with his fingers as he stared into my eyes. ‘I’ve missed you so much.’ His body felt hard as he pressed me to him.

My breath caught in my throat and my knees felt weak. Was this
really
happening? Was I
really
getting what I’d been too scared to admit I’d wanted?