Fairy Lies (11 page)

“That whithtling thound cometh from the air ruthing over their lion clawth,” said Lamia Lou. “Thee how he can’t tuck hith back legth clothe to hith body?”

“Are you sure griffins are afraid of lamias?” Tobi asked, peeking out from behind Jak. “Because he doesn’t look afraid to me.”

Lamia Lou shaded her eyes with her hand and watched as the griffin drew closer. “Maybe he hathn’t theen me yet.” Rising up on her tail, the lamia waved her arms in the air and shouted, “Thoo! Go away!”

The griffin opened his beak and screamed. Whimpering, Tobi tried to dig a hole in the ground.

“Uh, Lamia Lou, I think Tobi’s right,” said Jak. “That griffin doesn’t look like he’s afraid of anything. Don’t worry. I can handle him.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a comb. Transmogrification was one of the skills Jak had learned in goblin school. Unlike full-blooded goblins who could turn one natural object into another, he could turn one manufactured object into another. He’d found that he could make even intricate machinery, provided he’d studied an example and knew how it worked. However, right now he didn’t need anything so complex.
A simple sword would work just fine. Jak held up the comb and concentrated.

Bobbing his head up and down, Herbert snorted, and pawed at the ground. “If he comes any closer, I’ll get him with my horn!”

The lamia sighed. “He mutht be a young one if he doethn’t know enough to be afraid of me. He needth to be taught a lethon. I’m the one who thaid we thould go thith way, tho it’th up to me to deal with that griffin. I wath jutht hoping I wouldn’t have to do thith. Thtand back, everyone. I can handle thith guy.”

Lamia Lou coiled her tail beneath her, waiting for the griffin’s return. The beast swooped low, the eagle claws on the front of its body reaching. “Duck!” shouted Lamia Lou.

Jak threw himself to the ground when Lamia Lou shouted, and Tobi was already halfway into a hole he’d dug for himself, so the griffin veered toward the still-standing unicorn. Lamia Lou shrieked as the griffin descended on Herbert, but the unicorn was lunging and thrashing, and she couldn’t get near him. Then Herbert swung his head around, smashing his horn into the griffin’s foot and breaking off one of the beast’s talons. Screaming, the griffin grappled with Herbert until he was able to wrap his remaining talons around the horn. He was straining to lift Herbert off the ground when Lamia Lou launched herself into the air like a suddenly released coiled spring. Latching on to the griffin’s leg with her hands, she swung her tail up and over its back, getting an unbreakable hold on its massive body.

Herbert was half off the ground when Lamia Lou began to squeeze the griffin around the middle. Jak peered up as the griffin screamed. Seeing the griffin half lift, half drag Herbert, Jak jumped to his feet. Precious seconds ticked away as he refocused on the comb he was holding. He pictured what he wanted it to become—a sword made of steel with a razor-sharp blade. Suddenly the sword was in his hand, so heavy that he dropped it and had to bend down to pick it up. When he stood, the griffin had dragged Herbert nearly twenty feet.

“Let go!” shrieked Lamia Lou, her face growing red as she squeezed the griffin.

The griffin thrashed the air with his wings, sending up a cloud of dust that made everyone cough. Herbert squealed as he danced on the tips of his hooves across the ground, partly suspended under the beast that wasn’t quite strong enough to lift a full-grown unicorn.

Suddenly the griffin had had enough. Opening his claws, he released Herbert’s horn so that the unicorn fell to the ground with his legs sprawled under him. Without the unicorn to weigh him down, the griffin was able to fly a bit higher, though he still had an enraged lamia on his back. Twisting and turning, he tried to tear at Lamia Lou with his eagle talons and lion claws, but by now Lamia Lou had wriggled around the griffin so that her upper body was behind his head where he couldn’t snap at her with his beak. She screamed as she pulled out handfuls of feathers, flinging them into the air.

“Lou!” bellowed Herbert as he got to his feet. “Let him go!”

The griffin looked as if he wanted nothing more now than to get away from the lamia. His eyes were wild as he thrashed around. Soon his breathing became labored and his wing beats slowed, and then he was plummeting from the sky and everyone below him was trying to figure out where he might land so they could get out of his way.

“Lou!” Herbert yelled. “Jump!”

Lamia Lou slithered off the griffin’s back seconds before the unconscious beast hit the ground. “Oof! Ouch! Oh my!” she cried as she tumbled across the rocky terrain. When she finally stopped rolling, she lay still with only her chest moving as she struggled to catch her breath.

“Are you all right, my darling?” Herbert called as he galloped to her side.

“I’m fine,” she said, sitting up. “Jutht a little bruithed ith all.”

“Mmf!” came a muffled voice from where the griffin lay.

Lamia Lou turned around. “Who thaid that?”

“I think it was Tobi,” said Jak. “Tobianthicus, are you under there?” Jak ran to where the griffin lay like a dead sparrow with its beak open and its eyes glazed.

“Unh!” Tobi groaned.

Lamia Lou and Herbert both had to help Jak drag the still-breathing griffin aside before they could get to Tobi. The little raccoon goblin drew in a long, shuddering breath when he was finally uncovered. Groaning, he
sat up and glared accusingly at his companions. “Fine friends you are,” he grumbled. “I could have suffocated, stopped breathing, lost all my air while you three fooled around.”

“We’re sorry, Tobi,” Jak said, although he couldn’t keep from grinning. “Next time we’ll pay more attention to where you dig your hole.” While his friends gathered around the griffin, Jak turned the sword back into a comb and shoved it into his pocket.

“What about him?” Herbert asked. He poked the griffin with his hoof and sniffed the motionless body.

Lamia Lou bent over the griffin. When she stood up again, she said, “He’ll be fine. Jutht a little bit thore.”

“If you don’t mind my asking,” said Jak, “why didn’t you bite the griffin when you had the chance?”

The lamia looked shocked. “Why would I do that? I wath trying to teach him a lethon, not poithon him!”

Herbert snorted and glanced from side to side. “Which way do we go from here? A tussle like that gets me all turned around.”

“Thith way,” Lamia Lou said, pointing. “I’m very good at directionth. Lamiath have to be or we’d get lotht in the tall grath.”

“I’m too tired, worn out, exhausted to go anywhere,” Tobi whined. “That fight took a lot out of me.”

Lamia Lou sighed. “Oh, all right. I’ll give you a ride. You might as well climb on, too, Jak. I can move a lot fathter than you, and we’ve already lotht a lot of time.”

“I’d offer to help, but my head hurts,” said Herbert.

“That’th okay, Thweetie,” Lamia Lou said, brushing his forelock out of his eyes. “You’ve been through a lot.”

“Tobi, where are you going?” Jak asked as the little raccoon goblin scurried away.

“I want a souvenir,” Tobi replied, snatching up a griffin feather and waving it in the air. “You don’t come across these every day.”

Lamia Lou motioned to the little goblin. “Hurry up if you want a ride. We’re leaving now, with or without you. Collecting thouvenirth,” she muttered, shaking her head. “The next thing you know, he’th going to want an autograph.”

Chapter 9

Once again Dasras was waiting for Tamisin when she woke. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it; she was angry at him, but despite what had happened, the little voice inside her was back, and it kept insisting that she loved him. Maybe she’d responded so negatively to his kiss because she had been more tired than she’d realized. Then again, it had occurred to her that though he’d insisted that she must love him, he’d never said that he loved her. And what did he mean when he said that she
had
to love him? Did he honestly think he was that irresistible? Irinia had said that he thought he had a way with girls. Could that be what she was talking about?

Tamisin was tempted to tell Dasras to go away, but at least he wanted to spend time with her. No one else seemed interested in even talking to her, except Irinia and Malcolm, and they were busy with their own tasks.

Tamisin felt lonely, which seemed a new experience. Back at home she always had her friends or family to talk
to when she needed to work something out. And there used to be that other person, the one she couldn’t quite remember . . . It was a boy, she was sure of that, but not being able to picture his face or remember his name or anything about him made her feel as if she had a hole inside of her. Whoever he was, she could have talked to him about nearly anything.

A wave of homesickness washed over her. She missed her human parents, her brothers, and her friends. She missed a normal human life where she knew what to expect and—

“Tamisin!” Dasras called.

Deciding that she’d rather go with Dasras than be by herself, Tamisin slipped on her new shoes and released her wings.

“Miss me?” Dasras asked when she landed on the ground beside him. Tamisin half expected him to try to kiss her again, but instead he handed her a small bouquet of violets and began to talk about a place he wanted to show her.

That morning they visited the path lined with fairy sculptures made from living plants; her favorite was the ivy shaped into a statue of Oberon. They were on their way to lunch when they noticed a commotion on one of the paths. A group of fairies were hauling covered baskets down the path, and everyone had to step aside to let them pass. “What’s that all about?” Tamisin asked Dasras.

“I don’t know. What’s going on?” he asked one of the passing fairies.

“Some minor trouble at the perimeter,” said the warrior. “Nothing we can’t handle.”

“Is everything all right?” Tamisin asked Dasras as the warriors moved on.

“I’m sure it’s fine,” he said. “This kind of thing happens all the time.” When Tamisin looked doubtful, he smiled and took her arm. “You worry too much. After lunch, we’ll go to the lake where a trained sea monster is giving rides. I think you’ll enjoy it.”

Tamisin glanced at the fairies around them and relaxed when she saw that no else seemed concerned. Maybe this time Dasras was right. Maybe she did worry too much.

They were sitting down to eat their lunch when a fairy laughed, sounding just like Tamisin’s human mother. Tamisin turned without thinking, and couldn’t help but feel disappointed when she saw the group of fairies. The sound made her feel homesick again and more than a little worried. Who knew what her human parents had gone through since the night she disappeared? They had to be frantic by now. She wanted to go home, but there was no telling when she’d have the opportunity to get to know her father again. Once she went home to the human world, she’d want to stay there for a while. There was something she needed to do there—someone she needed to see.

Frowning, she rubbed her forehead, trying to ease the
headache that had started behind her eyes. Dasras must have noticed, because he studied her face for a moment, then said, “Is something wrong?”

“No. It’s just that . . . well, I can’t help feeling that something is wrong, or something important is missing.”