Faery Born (Book One in the War Faery Trilogy) (11 page)

‘I’m Isadora. Izzy for short.’ I held my hand out.

He grasped it and pumped it up and down a few times. ‘Jared,’ he said.

‘Hey Jar Head,’ one of the other guys yelled out, ‘you trying to get the jump on the Ice Queen?’

Ice Queen?
Well I guessed that was better than Scaredy Cat.

Jared flipped a finger at the other guy. ‘Don’t worry about Lance. He’s all bark.’

Isgranelda was unpacking her bag onto her bed. Pairs of lacy bras were piled high next to G-string knickers. Brad and a couple of the other guys were watching her with huge grins on their faces. I grimaced and hoped nobody got a look at my very sensible underwear.

‘So,’ Jared perched on the edge of his bed and nodded his head at Isgranelda, ‘what’s her story?’

Geez, how to answer that?

‘Don’t know much about her,’ I said. ‘She showed up at my school about six months ago and took over as head bully.’

He nodded his head at Brad and said, ‘They’ll get on well then.’

I opened the top drawer of my dresser and shovelled my underwear in, then put the rest of my clothing into the other ones. I hadn’t brought anything that needed hanging. A quick glance at the clock showed that we only had five minutes till we were due at the archery range.

Jared finished putting his clothes into his drawers and then the two of us left the others to their ogling of the contents of Isgranelda’s wardrobe. I had no idea how she had managed to wedge so much stuff into one bag.

‘Jared,’ I didn’t want my potentially only friend to think I was an idiot, but I had to ask someone, ‘what’s Trillania?’

‘I’m not sure. I’ve heard the word before but nobody here ever tells us what it is.’

’Guess we’ll find out tonight.’

He nodded his head and led me out a side door and down to the field I had seen from the common room window. Wilfred was already there with a pile of bows and arrows.

‘Where are the rest of them?’ he asked.

‘Unpacking.’ I had forgotten how hairy he was. Orange hair covered his arms and sprouted out from under the neck of his shirt.

‘You’re imagining me naked aren’t you?’

I jumped and blushed. I hadn’t been imagining it, but I had been wondering if the hair was like that all over his body.

‘Hoi Aethan,’ he yelled out, ‘your woman wants to see me naked.’

There was so much wrong with
that,
that I didn’t know where to start refuting information. To start with, I wasn’t Aethan’s woman. We’d fought together and had one courting session (I wasn’t sure what else to call it), but I wasn’t his woman and didn’t know if I ever would be.

‘I do not,’ I said, my cheeks on fire.

Aethan laughed as he walked towards us from the targets. He didn’t seem disturbed by the mention of me being his woman.

‘You and he,’ Jared waved a finger between Aethan and me.

‘It’s complicated,’ I said. I didn’t want to claim it and yet I found myself strangely reluctant to deny it. The man
was
an eye-fest.

I was thankful when he left it at that and turned his attention to Wilfred. ‘Izzy was asking about Trillania.’

Wilfred’s bushy eyebrows rose up his forehead, ‘But she already…’

‘Wilfred.’ Aethan’s voice was sharp as he shared a ‘look’ with his friend.

‘Oh right,’ Wilfred mumbled.

‘Don’t worry, we’ll go through it all this evening before we start,’ Aethan said.

I wanted to ask, ‘Start what?’ but by then he was standing close enough to be a distraction.

It wasn’t that his face was perfect in its symmetry but more that the different angles and planes of his cheeks and nose created a face simultaneously rugged and handsome. And then of course there were his eyes, intense in the depth of their colour and unnerving in their intelligence.

Even without the body to match the face I would have found his presence disturbing, so instead of trying to phrase an intelligent sentence I just nodded.

Before I could make an idiot of myself, Isgranelda, followed by the rest of the class, sauntered out onto the field. Her sweeping gaze stopped at Aethan. She licked her lips as she eyed him up and down.

I resisted a groan as I backed away from him, but her eyes flitted to me, took in how close we had been standing and then filled with something – Triumph? Glee? – that had me swallowing nervously.

‘You’re late,’ Aethan barked at them. ‘Grab a bow, two to a target.’

Jared picked a bow and I followed him to the furthest target. Should I mention that I had never tried archery?

I watched him place an arrow onto the bowstring. That didn’t look so hard. He stood side onto the target, lifted the bow in front of him, pulled back and released the arrow. It flew through the air and I heard a faint thunk as it thudded into the target.

‘Bull’s eye,’ Jared said, handing me the bow.

I picked up an arrow and sat it against the string. Then I started to pull back.

‘Stop,’ Jared said. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Shooting?’ I pulled a face.

I heard Isgranelda let out a laugh. ‘You owe me twenty rumbles.’

Oh great – of course
she
could shoot.

‘Best of three.’ Brad wasn’t taking losing lying down.

‘You’ve never done this before have you?’ Jared asked.

I shook my head. ‘That obvious?’

‘You could say that. Here let me show you.’ He placed the end of the arrow over the string. ‘This is called nocking the arrow. See how I have the arrow positioned so that the fletching faces away from the string?’

‘Ahuh.’

‘Now gently wrap the first three fingers of your bowstring hand below the arrow shaft.’

‘You need to correct her stance first.’

I jumped at the sound of Aethan’s voice and the arrow flew out of my hand and landed point down a few inches from his foot. ‘I can’t be held responsible for what I do if you’re going to sneak up on me,’ I muttered as he handed me back the arrow.

They spent the next ten minutes correcting my stance and teaching me how to draw the bow and aim at the target. By the time they said I was ready I was itching to release the arrow.

I sighted up the bowstring, lining the bull’s eye up with the centre of the bow limbs, then I took a deep breath and, as I exhaled, I released the arrow. It flew wildly over the top of the target, disappearing into the thicket of trees behind.

‘Buzznuckle. What did I do wrong?’

‘You pulled back as you released.’ It was nice of Jared to sound sympathetic.

I let him fire off a few more arrows before trying again. This time I concentrated on keeping the bow steady, but the arrow embedded itself into the earth a few feet in front of the target. The next arrow flew wide, almost landing on the adjacent target instead.

I listened to Aethan and Wilfred hand out tips to the other second years as I waited for Jared to have his turn.

‘Push your fingers out of the way of the bowstring.’

‘The release must be executed cleanly in a single smooth action.’

‘Rotate your hips so that your lower back is flat.’

There were so many different things to remember that I was getting confused trying to assimilate them. Instead of getting closer to the target, my arrows were getting further away. Some of the others had started placing bets on what I would hit next. I pretended to ignore them but inwardly I cringed at each comment.

Jared was lined up, looking down his arrow at the target when I had the weirdest feeling, as if he were aiming at the wrong thing. As if there were something far more important he should be shooting at. I tried to ignore it but the feeling grew stronger, morphing from urge to impulse.

‘Your turn.’ Jared handed me the bow and stuck a few arrows head down into the grass within easy reach.

I tried to ignore the feeling now clambering in my head. I
had
to hit that damned target.

‘Ten rumbles she misses by more than three feet.’

‘That’s not a fair bet. That last arrow was wide by more than five.’

‘What’s she even doing here? She obviously isn’t Border Guard material.’

I pushed their voices out of my head, concentrating on the target, seeing only the target, but the feeling persisted, growing in strength and size till it threatened to burst out of me. I hadn’t felt it since the last day of school but I recognised it now. It was the raging roar of power soaking through my pores.

‘Have… to… hit… the… target.’ I clenched my teeth and lifted the bow, releasing a small surge of the energy with the arrow. I had another arrow nocked and released before the first one struck the centre of the target. The second one struck home, splitting my first arrow as I released the third one, but even though I was releasing the energy with the arrows it continued to boil and grow.

I grabbed the last arrow and reached out with my senses.

There. In the trees. Everything in me screamed to aim into those trees.

I jerked the bow sideways away from the target and released my arrow. Shrill laughter followed my wildly divergent shot, but I knew it flew true.

A loud bellow was followed by shaking branches and a goblin staggered out from within the thicket. One hand clutched the arrow protruding from his chest, but the other one held a cross bow. He raised the bow, pointing it towards Aethan.

‘Assassin,’ Wilfred yelled, pulling his sword from its scabbard. Time seemed to slow as he ran towards the goblin.

A few of the students nocked arrows but I knew they would be too late.

Aethan dived to the side and a bolt twanged and thudded into the ground a few inches from his head.

I raised my arms towards the goblin and released a wave of power. The torrent struck, lifting him bodily into the air. Higher and higher he flew, the crossbow falling from his fingers as he twisted and screamed.

But it wasn’t enough, never enough.

I thought of the damage the goblins had done: the people injured; the lives lost. I clenched my fists and twisted my hands and the spinning goblin exploded into a million tiny pieces.

‘Now
that’s
what I’m talking about!’ The rest of the students stared, but Wilfred punched an arm in the air as the gristly parcels rained down on us, covering us all in gore.

The rest of the day turned into a search of the campus for goblins. Only when every square inch of the ground had been searched, and no other goblins found, did Rako allow us to stop.

‘Have a shower, get some grub and then meet at the door to the dungeon,’ he said. ‘Not you,’ he pointed a finger at me. ‘In my office now.’

With all the excitement I had hoped he would have forgotten about me. I followed him to a room on the second floor. A large table, covered in stacks of files, dominated the room. I took a seat across the table from him.

He leant back in his chair and stared at me from under his bushy eyebrows. ‘Would you care to tell me how you knew the goblin was there?’

I squirmed in my seat. ‘I just had an urge,’ I said. ‘A need to shoot into the trees.’

‘Dumb blind luck?’ he asked.

I shook my head. ‘Twice now I’ve had a pressure build inside me. This time it made me want to do that.’

‘What happened the other time?’

‘I levitated a room full of students.’

He let out a low whistle. ‘That’s some kind of fire power you’re packing.’

I shifted uncomfortably. ‘I can’t control it.’

He flicked open a folder and started to make notes. ‘Go clean up,’ he said.

After I had scrubbed myself and Scruffy, I used the small mirror I’d brought with me for the specific purpose of contacting Mum and Sabby. Grams was with Mum, and after I finally managed to get away, giving them details of my archery lesson but nothing else, I only had a few minutes to make it to the stairs above the dungeon.

I arrived a few seconds before Rako did. He unlocked a large lock and I followed the rest of my class down the dimly lit stairs.

The stairs led to a series of large rooms, each containing a circle of beds. Twelve in total, the beds dominated the centre, arranged like the numbers of a clock; feet to the middle, heads to the edge.

‘Right,’ Rako said, rubbing his hands together. ‘Tonight you’re going to learn about a Border Guard’s most sacred duty. You’ve all heard of dream-walkers?’ He stopped and looked around the circle. ‘So you know that dream-walkers can enter the Land of Dreams in an alert state. They are aware of their surroundings and able to remember their time there when they wake.’

Everybody was nodding at him, urging him to go on.

‘We call this land they go to Trillania. What is not common knowledge is that all people go to Trillania when they dream. Dream-walkers roam amongst these dreaming spirits.’

There was a low murmur as Jared put his hand in the air. ‘Are the sleeping people aware of the dream-walkers?’

‘They can become aware. That is one of the dangers of dream-walking. Frightened dreamers can become violent, and damage sustained in Trillania is sustained on the body in this world.’

That lined up with what Wolfgang had told me. ‘You said
one
of the dangers,’ I said.

‘There are a number of deadly creatures only found there. On top of that, goblins and their minions can also access Trillania.’ He began pacing backwards and forwards in front of us. ‘Our job as Border Guards is to protect the dreamers, and to do it without them knowing we are there.’

Lance put his hand up and when Rako nodded his head at him said, ‘But how are we to protect them without letting them know we are there?’

Rako looked thoughtful for a moment. ‘Let me rephrase that. It’s not so much that they can’t know we are there, but more that they can’t realise we’re not a part of their dream.’

‘So one of our jobs as Border Guards is to protect people while they sleep?’ I wanted to make sure I had this correct.

‘We guard all of the lands especially Trillania.’

‘Why doesn’t anybody know about this?’ Isgranelda asked.

‘How do you think the average person would cope knowing they are in more danger when they are asleep than awake?’

That was an excellent question. I had always considered going to sleep to be a restful thing. If I had thought for one moment the land of dreams was a dark and dangerous place, I would have been too scared to sleep. And a world full of people too scared to sleep would not be a pretty place.

‘So,’ Brad said, ‘we protect the people but we can’t let them know that we do it.’

As Brad was speaking Wilfred entered the room carrying a tray covered with small cups. Each cup held a foul-smelling concoction. I wrinkled my nose and pulled away in disgust. Were we expected to drink that?

‘It is our secret duty, unknown to any but us, and it must remain this way for all of time.’

Wilfred circulated with the platter, handing a cup to everybody in the class.

‘This spell,’ Rako held the cup in the air, ‘will bind the truth to you. You will be unable to talk of this to any who have not also been bound. But more importantly, you will be unable to speak of this if anyone not bound by this spell is within hearing.’

Well that explained how they managed to keep it secret within their own barracks.

‘If you’re not willing to drink the spell, all memories of this night will be erased from your mind and you will leave the Border Guards.’

I noticed a few of the boys looking uncertainly at the cup but none refused to drink it when Rako said, ‘Bottoms up.’

The spell tasted as bad as it smelt. A putrid concoction of swamp and dead animal that lingered long after the liquid was gone. A chilled tingle swept over my body, buzzing on the surface of my skin.

As Wilfred collected the empty cups, Aethan entered the room with a handful of Border Guards. He was carrying an ornate wooden box, inlaid with metallic patterns. When he lifted the lid, I could see a row of chunky armbands made from leather and the same metal that was inlaid in the box.

He held one in the air. ‘We will be using these to transport us to Trillania. These allow us all to become dream-walkers.’

He started to hand out the armbands. ‘We will be going in, two Border Guards per student. We will stay in Trillania for ninety minutes before waking.’

There were so many questions I wanted to ask, but I shut my mouth until he handed me an armband.

‘Do I need one of these?’ I mean according to them I
was
a dream-walker.

‘Rako and I have discussed it at great length. We think this will allow all of you to go to Trillania, not just your Fae part.’

I felt a thrum of excitement. Maybe the armband would help join my two parts. Maybe I would remember.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to remember things that might entail my blushing furiously right at that point in time, but beggars can’t be choosers so I snapped the armband onto my right arm and closed my eyes.

Nothing happened. No rush of memories. No flash of lightning. Nothing. I opened my eyes to see Aethan grinning at me.

‘What did you think was going to happen?’ he asked.

Feeling silly, I shrugged my shoulders. ‘I’m not sure.’

‘Excellent.’ Wilfred punched me on the shoulder. ‘We’re up first.’

‘You and me?’ I was a little intimidated by the hairy man and the fact that he seemed to know me so well.

‘You, me, and my main man.’ He nodded his head at Aethan.

I chose a bed, stretching out on it and trying to look relaxed. Scruffy jumped up onto the bed and curled up by my feet, laying his head on my ankle. Wilfred lay down on the bed to my right and Aethan the one on my left. Isgranelda, Brad, and Jared were positioned at the other points of the circle, with a Border Guard on either side of them.

Oh great.
My first official trip to Trillania and Isgranelda was coming along for the ride.

I stared at the ceiling, feeling ridiculous, and wide awake. There was no
way
I was going to be able to sleep in this circumstance. Not with a dozen people staring, not with Aethan lying right next to me. But one of the other Border Guards, with sweeping ears that characterised him as a faery, began to hum a low song.

Almost too soft to hear, the melody wrapped around me, relaxing my muscles, turning my limbs to dead weights. One minute I was wide awake, and the next I was standing in Trillania.

***

Wilfred let out a roar and rushed towards me, sweeping me up in his arms and swinging me around.

‘What the…?’ I squealed, pushing him away from me as soon as my feet were on the ground.

He peered at me, a disappointed look on his face. ‘You don’t remember?’

‘I wish I did.’

He shook his head and stomped off, muttering under his breath.

‘All right everybody, gather round,’ Aethan said. ‘Ninety minutes, that’s all. Teach them the basics, keep them safe.’

The other Border Guards nodded their heads before reaching out and linking hands with their student. In the blink of an eye they were gone.

‘Where did they go?’

‘Wherever they wanted to,’ Wilfred said. ‘That’s the beauty of Trillania. Here you can move with the merest of thoughts.’ There was a sulky edge to his voice.

‘That’s also why you have to be careful what you think about,’ Aethan said.

‘Right,’ I said, ‘so lesson number one, be careful what you think.’

‘That sums up lessons one, two and three,’ Wilfred said.

‘Where are we going?’ I asked.

‘Let’s check out what’s happening in London,’ Aethan said.

I reached out and grasped his and Wilfred’s hands. The world blurred around us and suddenly we were standing in Trafalgar Square.

Music resonated and light shone at the far end of the Square. ‘What’s going on?’ I asked, peering toward the light.

‘Looks like a dance,’ Wilfred said. ‘Excellent. How do I look?’ He ran his hands over his hair and beard, rearranging the tousled locks into place.

‘Like a huge, red bear,’ I said.

‘Just the look I was going for.’ He marched off towards the party.

‘They can see us,’ Aethan said, ‘but we mustn’t take the focus away from their dream. Ugly things can happen if you do.’ He also started walking towards the dancers.

That was it? That was the brief? Ugly things can happen?

I shook my head and followed after him and Wilfred. What sort of ugly things?

Aethan and Wilfred stopped in the shadow of a doorway near where the dancers twirled. Women, dressed in flowing gowns, floated effortlessly in the arms of the men who led them. Jewels glittered on arms and necks, and hair tumbled from elaborate styles. The men were no less glamorous than the women, wearing heavily-brocaded vests on fine-silk shirts, studded with diamond and ruby buttons.

‘They’re all here together?’

‘It’s not uncommon for dreamers of like-minded pursuits to find each other.’

The dancers wove an intricate pattern with their feet and their bodies; swirling and turning, leaping and whirling, never once running into another dancer.

I was tapping a foot in time with the music, enjoying the entertainment when I felt it – the strange surge inside me. The same feeling I’d had that morning.

‘Let’s go see what else is happening in London.’ Aethan started to turn away from the dancers.

‘Wait.’ I grabbed his hand. ‘Something is wrong.’ The feeling grew. I stared at the dancers, trying to pinpoint its cause.

‘What is it?’ Wilfred and Aethan stared at the dancers as well.

‘I’m not sure,’ I said. ‘I think it’s one of the dancers.’

Wilfred and Aethan exchanged a look. ‘We’re going to have to go in for a closer look,’ Wilfred said, ‘and I can’t dance.’

‘We can’t go in there like this.’ I gestured at my jeans and shirt.

‘You know how we said we can change Trillania with a thought?’ Aethan’s clothes changed from leather and fur to a navy-blue brocade vest over a white silk shirt. Black pants completed the outfit.

I closed my eyes and visualised one of the dresses I had been admiring on a ravishing redhead. Wilfred let out a low wolf-whistle and when I opened my eyes I was wearing an exact replica of the dress. The neckline plunged far deeper than I had expected.

‘Very good,’ Aethan said. I wasn’t sure if he was referring to my changing my clothes or to my choice of clothes. He held a hand out to me, and, when I placed my hand upon it, swept me into his arms and onto the floor.

Cocooned in his arms I felt like a precious object as he spun me and dipped me, and for one brief moment I forgot our reason for being there. For that second I was just a woman and he just a man, enjoying the feel of our bodies moving together and of skin touching skin.

The power surged inside me, pulling my attention back to the present. Someone was here with evil intent, and I had to find them.

Aethan wove us skilfully through the dance floor and we quickly made a complete circuit, coming back to the edge near Wilfred.

‘See anything?’ he asked.

I was about to say no, but suddenly, just like that morning, I could pinpoint where the pressure wanted me to go.

‘That way.’ I nodded my head to where the feeling was strongest, and started to drag Aethan towards it. We immediately collided with an older man escorting a pretty, young, blonde woman.

‘What do you think you’re doing?’ The man asked, his face screwed up in anger.

As soon as they stopped dancing, another couple collided with them. It only took a moment for the previously well-ordered dance floor to become chaotic. Angry voices could be heard from all areas and previously happy dreamers turned to stare at Aethan and me.

At the far side of the gathering a tall man stood by himself. He met my eyes and his face took on a mocking look as he shimmered and changed. The svelte, blonde man was replaced by a goblin. He lifted a hand in farewell and faded from view.

Wilfred pulled my attention back to the dreamers. ‘Uh oh,’ he said. ‘Do something before…’

‘Things get ugly,’ I said, as the man in front of me brandished a knife.

‘Kiss her,’ Wilfred hissed.

‘What?’ Who did he want me to kiss? The blonde?

The crowd surged towards us, furious at our interference. Things were definitely getting ugly.

‘For Sky’s sake Aethan,
kiss her.’

I turned to look at Wilfred, but Aethan clasped my face with his hands and lowered his mouth to mine. For a second I struggled against him. I mean what was he thinking? We were about to get attacked. But that concern only lasted for a second. Then I totally forgot about the crowd.