A Fairy's Guide to Disaster (11 page)

I watched as Iris disappeared into the darkness. Her giggles faded and then returned with wondrous joy as she entered the ring of light produced by my torch. Iris stopped short of landing on the front door threshold and hovered in the air. Her round face flushed and smiling.

“I’ve never felt so light,” Iris said, doing a flip and spin all in one.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” I smiled back at my sister.
 

“Stop smiling,” Gerald said to me. “So the fat fairy can flip out there, so what? Anybody could do it in that air.”

I watched Iris spin away into the darkness again. “Quiet. You said you wouldn’t call her fat anymore.”

“You said you wouldn’t leave me.”

“I’m not leaving you for good.”

Gerald tried to push past me and I snatched his wing before he could take off.

“Let go,” he said.

“You’re staying. Just lock the doors and everything will be fine.”

“I bet you said that the last time, and Easy got stolen.”

I pulled him down the hall and placed him against the wall next to Iris’s room. We both coughed from the smell and Gerald’s nose started to run.

“I had to leave Easy to help you. You owe him. We can’t take that baby with us. He must weigh a ton. So somebody has to stay, and that’s you. It’s your turn. Understand?” “No.” Gerald crossed his arms. “Iris can do it. She let Easy get stolen.”

I turned my back on Gerald and walked down the hall to the door. Iris landed, hopping up and down with excitement. She hooked her traveling bag strap around her neck and attempted to find a way to carry it comfortably. The bag bulged with snacks and a juice flask she’d filled with water. I told her we wouldn’t be gone that long, but Iris’s excitement blocked out any sense.

“I’m ready,” Iris said.

We flew off the threshold into the lighter-than-air air and grinned at each other. I turned back to the doorway and found Gerald standing there, his face a mixture of rage and fear.

I fluttered back to him. “Lock the door. We’ll be back as soon as possible.”

“What if the spriggans come?”

“They won’t. They already got what they wanted. Lock the door and put a diaper on that baby.”

Gerald nodded and closed the door. I pulled on it to make sure it was locked and turned back to Iris. We flew straight away from the mantel until we’d passed the partition opening. I stopped and hovered. Hundreds of lights flickered beyond the partition. Iris joined me, no longer joyful. Two lines formed between her eyes and her little pink bow of a mouth puckered into a frown.

“We’ll go to the dryads. They’ll help us,” I said.

“We’re in the soup now,” Iris said, imitating Dad’s gruff voice.

“We’ll be fine.”

“You only say that because you can’t hear them.” Iris gestured to something scurrying across the floor beneath us. It paused as if it’d heard and looked up from beneath a smooth, shiny black shell. In the darkness, all I could make out was gleaming white eyes and a set of teeth, curved into a grin.

“Better go,” I said.

Iris nodded and I flew between glass cases and furniture. I spotted the bridal chest and swooped down to see if the brown pile of furry fairies was gone. It was, with no trace. We flew up high and I felt safe in the air. So far we’d seen nothing else flying. I felt something touch my foot and saw Iris red-faced, struggling to keep up. I slowed slightly and went around a corner. The closer we got the dryads, the more determined I felt. I pictured Soren, smiling and nodding. He’d help. He’d know how to get Easy back.

We turned the last corner and the dryads’ home appeared before us. The furniture stood bathed in the glow of a red sign over the mall door that read, “Exit.” I landed, looking around for some sign of the dryads. They were hard enough to see in the light, but I had a creepy crawly feeling dozens of eyes were on me.

Iris caught up and landed next to me.
 

“That was horrible,” she said.

“I know I flew fast, but we had to get here. You’ll be all right.”

“It’s not that. We better find those dryads right now.” Iris squeezed my arm and gave me a frightened look that made me feel wobbly.

I turned and pointed. “That’s Soren’s mother’s house.”

Iris let go of me and ran. She’d gone at least ten steps before I reacted. Iris never ran. The last time she ran our mantel got torn off the wall. I stared for a second and then slowly turned to look in the other direction. Advancing out of the murk was an army of dark creatures. They scuttled out from under furniture and from around glass cases. The red glow of the exit sign didn’t touch them. I didn’t wait until it did. I ran.

CHAPTER 10

“WHERE is it?” Iris ran around in a circle, flailing her arms over her head.

I ran past the door and banged on it.

“They’re coming!” Iris screamed beside me.

I banged with both fists. “Help! Help!”

No one answered. I heard some faint scuttling sounds behind me. Iris backed up against the wall next to the door.

I grabbed her. “Get behind me.” I spun around with my hands spread out to shield Iris. It was ridiculous, like a mosquito shielding a fly.

Out of the dark, dozens upon dozens of shiny black shells advanced on us. The shells together formed a diamond, each shell fitted to the next like scales on a fish. I couldn’t see any heads, arms, or legs. Once the scuttling stopped, the diamond was completely silent. Iris breathed hard on my cheek and she trembled so much, my teeth chattered from the vibration. Still the shells didn’t move. I put my left hand down on Iris’s hip and pressed. We stepped sideways, but as we did, the shells countered with a shuffling movement. I held my breath and waited. When the shells didn’t do anything else, we tried moving to the left. The shells matched our movement again.

“This is ridiculous,” I whispered. As the word ridiculous escaped my lips, the shells rocked back.

“Hello,” called a voice from the shells. It was impossible to tell which one.

“Hello,” I said.

Then the shells rocked back and lifted, exposing the dark creatures beneath. One creature stood up and revealed itself completely. It was half my height and pitch black with skinny arms and legs with large knobby knees and elbows. Where its nose should’ve been was a flat section over a wide slit of a mouth, filled with bright white teeth. Its gaze made me feel cold all over. The whites were the whitest I’d ever seen and the pupils the blackest.

“You’re Soren’s girl, aren’t you?” asked the creature.

I just stared at him, my mouth agape.

“All right, boys. It’s okay. They’re just the new wood fairies,” said the creature.

The rest of the shells rose up and showed their inhabitants. Every single one seemed a copy of the first.

“What are your orders, Commander?” asked one in the first row.

“To the east. Fan out in the snake pattern. Report back when you hit a wall,” said the commander.

The shells dropped back down, hiding the creatures beneath and scuttled away in a wavy pattern, leaving only a few behind. The commander eyed Iris and me, popped off his shell, and sat on it.

“What’s a couple of wood fairies like you doing in a place like this?” he asked.

I said nothing. I couldn’t seem to find my voice.

He pulled out a thin stick from some concealed spot on his abdomen. “You got a light?”

I could only blink at him. A light?

“You know, fire. You can make fire, can’t you?”

I went cold. How could he possibly know I was a kindler?

“Let’s have it.” He stood and held out the stick.

I swallowed. “I don’t have any fire.”

“Really? Are you sure about that?”

The creature stared at me hard. He knew about me. Somehow he knew.

Iris continued to shake, but said, “Of course she’s sure. We’re normal wood fairies. Kindlers are dangerous.”

“Interesting.” He snapped his fingers and another shell lifted. The creature came forward and sparked a tiny flint. The commander stuck his stick in the flame while puffing on the other end. The stick sizzled and he pulled back, blowing out a ring of smoke. “So you met Soren this afternoon? You’re one lucky girl. You never know who you’ll run into out here.”

I wasn’t sure whether I should confirm or deny meeting the dryads. Would knowing us put Soren in jeopardy in any way or us for that matter? I examined my feelings about the creature before me. I wasn’t afraid exactly, but I wasn’t comfortable either. He was small, half my size, but something about him made him seem much bigger. He wasn’t going to out me as a kindler at least for the moment and I appreciated that.

“Gnat got your tongue?” the commander asked.

“No, sir,” I said, without knowing why I used sir, except that the other creatures made it clear he was their leader.

“Very polite. I like that. So are you Soren’s wood fairy or not?”

“We’re friends,” I said.

The creature nodded again. “Good. Good.”

I felt Iris relax beside me and then tighten up again. “They’re coming back.”

Nothing had changed in our vicinity, but Iris’s lips were a thin line, and her breathing grew rapid.

“Good hearing,” said the creature. He looked at me. “You, not so much.”

“What do they want?” asked Iris, her voice shaking.

“My boys are reporting back. No need to worry,” he said. The shells scuttled out from under a dresser a few feet away.

Iris’s breathing became a pant. She starting shaking again and I looped my arm around her shoulders. I couldn’t take my eyes off the shells. They moved as one, formed into a diamond shape again. In the middle of the diamond was a dead fly. No one held it. It jostled around on the shells with nothing to restrain it, almost as if it were still alive, except that it was on its back with its legs crossed in the air.

“The sound,” said Iris with her hands over her ears. “It’s terrible.”

“What sound?” I asked.

“Their sound.”

The scuttling sound came to me only when they got very close, and it did make me shiver. Just when I wanted to put my hands over my ears, they stopped. One popped up and came forward to the commander. His sound alone wasn’t so bad.

The commander sat back on his shell, sucking on his stick. He made the other one wait as he looked at Iris.

“Our sound isn’t very loud,” he said to Iris. “Your hearing is exceptional. We could use someone like you. Bet you can hear them before they die.”

“Before what dies?” asked Iris.

“Anything.” He turned to his subordinate. “Report.”

“First prize of the night, sir.”

“Bring it here,” he said.

The shells scuttled forward. The ones in the back rose up and the fly rolled off to land in front of the commander. The fly rocked back and forth for a second until it settled on its back. I leaned forward to get a better look. Flies weren’t very common around Whipplethorn Manor. The ones I’d seen hung around the humans hiking in the national forest. Mom worried about rogue fly attacks, which were extremely rare. Dad said flies were harmless, but unpredictable. There’d been flying accidents and he said it was best to be careful lest you ran into one.

Iris shifted her hands from her ears to her nose. The fly was newly dead and gave off a scent that wasn’t unpleasant unless you knew it came from something dead. The commander chuckled at Iris’s reaction.

“Smells bad, tastes great,” he said.

The commander snapped off a leg and held it out to Iris. Both of us leaned back, sounds of disgust escaping our lips. He chuckled again and bit off the foot. He snapped his fingers while chewing and several of the shells popped up. Their inhabitants gathered up the fly and tossed it on top of the other shells. Then they went back into formation.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “But what are you?”

“Phalanx fairies. You don’t recognize us? We’re rather distinctive, wouldn’t you say?”

“We’re new here.”

“I can see that, since you’re trying to wake the dryads after dark. Good people, but hard core sleepers. You won’t get anything out of them until morning.”

“What’ll we do?” Iris tugged my arm with both hands.

“I don’t know. We’ll figure something out.”

The commander jumped to his feet. He stalked up to us, almost jittery with excitement. “Do about what? Is there an invasion?”

Iris and I looked at each other. “Who would invade the antique mall?” I asked.

“You look like you’ve been in a battle.” He puffed on his stick while assessing our conditions. “Multiple injuries. Some blood spatter. What happened?”

“Humans tore our mantel off the wall. We were still inside,” I said.

“It was pretty scary, but there wasn’t any fighting,” said Iris.

The commander shrunk down like all the excitement leaked out of him. “Pity.”

I nudged Iris with my hip. “Well, we better get going. Don’t want to keep you from your… hunting.”

“Sure you don’t want a taste?” He brandished the remains of the fly leg at us.

“No, thank you,” I said, nudging Iris again. “We don’t eat… meat.”

The commander’s mouth turned down into a grimace. “Vegetarians. I should’ve known.” He waved us away, picked up his shell, and popped it back on.

Iris nudged me and I bit my lip. I didn’t relish asking for help from those things. The commander knew about me and they were too weird for words. Who ever heard of fairies eating flies? It was so disgusting. I’d almost rather go it alone than ask for help from some pint-sized weirdoes.

“Excuse me, sir,” I said. “Isn’t there any way to wake the dryads?”

“There are procedures for emergencies. Do you have an emergency? I thought you found your boy.”

“I did, but we have a new situation and Soren said I could come to him for help.”

“What’s your situation? I won’t disturb Soren unless it’s serious.”

I took a deep breath. “The spriggans came and…”

The commander cut me off. “The spriggans. Are all your people accounted for?”

“They stole our baby.”

“This happened here within the confines of the mall?”

“Yes, sir.”

The commander reached into his abdomen and produced a red thread with a minuscule key on it. He snapped his fingers and a shell came forward. “Farue, awaken Soren and locate the council members.” He handed Farue the key and he scuttled away into the darkness.