Fairy Lies (5 page)

With his backpack crammed full of clothes, food, and things he thought might be useful, such as matches and a candle, Jak slipped out the back door. The big black path—fairy-speak for a human road—was only three blocks from his house, so he reached it in a few minutes. Because it was still early, only a few cars passed him, but by the time he reached the downtown area where buildings were closer together, cars were bumper to bumper as people headed to work.

Jak finally smelled the marigolds when he was in front of city hall. He continued down the street until he spotted a fast-food restaurant where a large picture of a cow wearing a sign was displayed on a window. Turning left, he crossed the street and went straight. When he reached a park, he decided that a giant could indeed cross it in ten strides, so he turned again and spotted the big white building that housed the Museum of Fine Art.

A sign in front of the museum said the doors wouldn’t open for another hour. Jak sat on the steps and ate a granola bar while he thought about what he would do next. If all went well, the gate would be open and he would soon be in the land of the fey—ideally nowhere near the cat-goblin lands. If the gate had already closed, he’d have to hunt until he found one that was open. There was no telling how long that would take, and the fairies had warned him that he didn’t have much time. It would be great if he could take a gate that opened near Oberon, but all the gates around the city opened to places within walking distance of Titania’s forest. Gates that led to any other part of the land of the fey would be in another part of the human world, and Jak had no idea where to find them.

When the museum finally opened and a surge of humans headed up the steps, Jak entered the big hall and started searching for a gargoyle. He didn’t see any. He did see a fairy couple, although no one else seemed to notice them. A group of people pushed through the revolving doors behind him, jostling Jak as they hurried toward a woman seated at a
desk. When he heard them asking the price of admission, he realized that he had to pay to get in. Too bad he hadn’t brought any money with him. Where was that gargoyle, anyway?

Jak turned around, ready to ask the fairies where he might find the gargoyle, but the couple had disappeared. Thinking that the creature might be hiding in the museum, he didn’t want to ask a human, so he searched the growing crowd, hoping to find another fairy. When his glance fell on a kiosk holding pamphlets, he was surprised to see a gargoyle on the cover. He plucked a pamphlet from the rack, tore off a corner, and held the scrap of paper in his hand while he thought about a ten-dollar bill. Jak was so good at transmogrifying one thing into another that he no longer had to give it much thought. With the money clutched in his hand, he approached the desk and paid the fee, receiving a sticker in return.

“Where would I find this gargoyle?” he asked the woman at the counter, showing her the picture.

“The statue garden,” she said, and turned away.

Hurrying to join the line of people waiting to show a guard their stickers, Jak saw a sign only a little farther on. STATUE GARDEN read the sign with a small picture of the gargoyle just above an arrow pointing down another corridor. Jak strode past an elderly couple and turned the corner, almost running into a group of nymphs dressed in leaves and grass. They giggled and looked him up and down. Jak was about to speak to them, but they skipped
into the corridor and danced around the elderly couple, who didn’t seem to see them.

Jak scowled. Full-blooded fey could make themselves invisible in the human world when there was enough magic around—which there was when a gate was open. He wouldn’t have needed to buy a sticker if he could perform that handy little trick, but there were a lot of things that halflings couldn’t do.

The statue garden was a large space open to the sky with two ancient oaks dominating the center. Jak was relieved to see that light shimmered between the trees; the gate was open. Directly in front of the trees, the marble figure of a young woman holding an urn stood in a shallow, water-filled pool. Statues of humans in various poses stood around the trees, and a stone gargoyle crouched behind them as if standing guard. Human-sized fairies sat at the feet of the statues or lounged on the edge of the bowl. From the way they kept glancing at the trees, Jak thought they were probably waiting for someone.

A goblin girl with a beak nose was helping an older bird-goblin woman totter toward the exit while three jackal-goblin boys tried to get the girl to talk to them. Jak had known a few jackal goblins at school, all of whom had been nasty friends of his cousin Nihlo. He had avoided them, just as he wanted to avoid these, so he stepped behind a statue and waited for the room to clear.

The light between the trees grew brighter, and a single human-sized fairy appeared. When he stepped into the
garden, the group of fairies greeted him, and then gathered up their possessions and started for the door. Jak stepped out of their way, but they still gave him scornful looks and were careful to keep their distance.

“Look, Tansy,” said the old bird-goblin woman. “It’s a cat goblin. I haven’t seen one of those in years. You’d better hurry, young goblin. The light in the gate is getting all waverylike. It’s going to close any minute.”

“A cat goblin, huh?” said one of the jackal goblins. “And I thought it was just another human. What are you doing here, cat?”

Jak tried to avoid the goblins as he started toward the gate, but they loped across the garden to stand directly in front of him and waited, leering. Out of the corner of his eye, Jak noticed that the bird goblins were using the distraction to shuffle around the corner and out of sight.

“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” asked the biggest of the jackal goblins. Like his companions, he had a stocky build and a blunt-nosed face with eyes set too close together. His eyes seemed to merge into one when he shoved his face close to Jak’s and snarled. Jak jerked his head back as the goblin’s decaying-meat-tainted breath wafted over him. His revulsion must have shown on his face, because the goblin’s eyes narrowed as he set his hand on the center of Jak’s chest and shoved.

Jak staggered back, then ducked as one of the other jackal goblins took a swing at him. Another step back and he turned and darted behind the statue of a man holding a sword. When the goblins came after him, he wove
between the statues at a near run, trying to get closer to the gate. There was a muffled curse, and one of the goblins snapped the head off a spotlight aimed at the fountain, hurling it at Jak. The spotlight missed him, but it hit the statue of a child and bounced off to skitter across the polished floor.

Water began to spout from the marble woman’s urn, creating a mist that hid the shimmering light of the gate. A moment later, a human family of four entered the garden. “What is going on in here?” demanded the man. The family looked in horror at the broken piece of metal and glass that lay on the ground at their feet. “Did you just throw that, young man?” the father asked Jak.

“No,” he said, then remembered that the humans probably couldn’t see the jackal goblins. He glanced behind him and saw the look of glee on the goblins’ faces as they realized that the humans
could
see Jak.

“So you’re telling me that it got there all by itself?” said the man.

“Avery, let’s go,” his wife told him as their little girl began to cry.

Jak was trying to come up with something plausible to tell the man when a goblin shoved him from behind. Surprised, Jak went sprawling, but he hopped to his feet in a flash and dodged out of the way as the jackal goblins tried to jump on him.

“What is wrong with you?” the man asked as Jak dodged here and darted there.

Jak was too busy trying to avoid the goblins to worry
about what the man was thinking. He dashed around the fountain and glanced at the trees, but there was so much mist in the air that he couldn’t see if there were shimmering lights or not. Suddenly one of the goblins slammed into him and Jak went flying. He hit the statue of the child with a thump, rocking it on its base.

“I’m going to get the guards!” the man declared, and left with his family. They had scarcely left the garden when the goblins descended on Jak again.

“Leave him alone,” a deep voice rumbled.

The jackal goblins stopped to look around, then turned back to Jak. “Was that you, cat? You’re trying to tell us what to do?”

The grating sound of stone on stone drew their eyes to the gargoyle. It was standing now, and as they watched, it took a step forward even as its stone surface took on the appearance of leathery hide. “I am the guardian of this gate,” he said in a voice so low and penetrating that the floor seemed to vibrate. “Leave now, jackal goblins, while you still can.”

Jak felt as if his feet had grown roots; he was too terrified to budge. He heard the goblins pelt from the room, but his eyes were fixed on the gargoyle, so he saw when the beast turned its massive, craggy head in his direction.

“Good, they’re gone,” said the gargoyle in a much less fearsome voice. “I don’t like thugs, but there’s nothing I can do about them until they break the rules. They never should have gone after you when humans were around. And they broke a light! Do you know how hard I work to
make sure nothing draws the humans’ attention to this garden?”

“I’m sure you do,” said Jak, sounding half strangled. He cleared his throat and added, “I was told you could show me the way to the gate.”

“It’s right there,” growled the gargoyle. “You were just looking at it. See, it’s open. You can . . . Aw, heck. The fountain is still on. Just a minute.”

The gargoyle’s joints creaked as he inched forward. He waved his paw at the fountain and the spray stopped abruptly. Shuffling his feet, the beast returned to his original position and lowered himself into a crouch. “We don’t want humans seeing the gate when it’s open, so the water goes on when they’re in the garden. It makes the shimmery light harder to see.”

Jak turned to the trees again; the shimmering lights were back. “Thanks!” he said, and grinned at the gargoyle.

“Hurry,” said the gargoyle as his hide turned back to stone. “I hear a large group of humans coming.”

Jak’s smile broadened as he hefted his backpack higher on his shoulder. He might not know exactly where he was going, but at least now he could get there.

Chapter 5

The moon was beginning its descent from the night sky when Tamisin dreamed of Jak. He looked much the way he had when she saw him last: his thick black hair tousled and his deep blue eyes darkened with worry as he tried to figure out why she was avoiding him. She felt herself turn away as he swore that he would never stop loving her.

After a time the dream-Jak faded away, and a cloud of fairies dressed in flower colors replaced him. In this part of her dream, Tamisin flew with the fairies, darting over wildflowers and racing across a rainbow. She was enjoying the dream until her bed began to sway and she rose from the depths of sleep. Opening her eyes for an instant, she saw Oberon hovering over her, but it still seemed like part of the dream. Her eyes drifted shut, and she was lingering on the edge of sleep when Oberon dripped flower-scented nectar onto her eyelids, whispering about fatherhood and that she was his daughter who wanted to live at his court
and never leave. As she drifted off to sleep again, she felt the nectar and dreamed that someone had kissed her eyelids. The sensation combined with Oberon’s words to make her feel warm and loved. Tamisin snuggled deeper under the covers.

Less than a minute later a sturdy figure climbed up the tree trunk and crept along the branch. Tamisin was still dreaming as the blue boy whispered that he was her one true love, and that she was to forget the boy named Jak. When Tamisin rolled over, the boy backed off the branch and down the trunk of the tree, leaving her to a confused dream that made her feel restless and uneasy.

She woke when a tiny bird flitting from branch to branch just above her sang to its neighbors with a warbling trill. Tamisin had a feeling that something had changed, although she didn’t know what it might be.

She couldn’t wait to spend the day with Oberon and explore his forest. Wiping a strange stickiness from her eyelids, she smiled, delighted that Mountain Ash and Oberon had brought her here. She’d been sure that her biological father was dead, but he wasn’t at all, and now she could actually get to know him! Tamisin’s heart felt light until it occurred to her that Titania had lied. Who knew what other lies her mother had told her?

This thought made Tamisin angry, souring her good mood. She sat up and looked around. The side of the bed was high enough that she couldn’t have rolled out if she’d wanted to, which was good, because when she peered over the edge, she saw that the bed appeared to be about
ten feet above the forest floor. It had been dark when she’d finally climbed into it, and she had been so tired that she hadn’t even tried to see what was around her.

“Good morning!” called a voice, and Tamisin peered over the edge again. Dasras was there, tossing an apple in the air with one hand. “I brought you some breakfast,” he said.