Fairy Thief (8 page)

Li, come here.

It took almost half an hour.

But then, they came. She saw them, hastening across the sea, floating towards Saffron like winged specters, glorious and shimmering. A whole flock of them. Saffron was not impressed.

The fairies touched down, spry and delicate, one by one, until they stood before her, still as statues except for their fanning wings. Li walked over to the blanket where Saffron crouched over Markis’ body. The fairy looked down at Saffron with compassion, her porcelain-perfect skin glowing as if she were a Christmas ornament. White hair like spun-glass filament blew across her lavender eyes, fringed with white lashes. She moved the hair back over her shoulder with very long, very slender white fingers. The other fairies stood two yards behind her, as if loathe to move any closer to Saffron.

Saffron wasn’t fooled by Li’s pitiful glance. She knew Li too well by now. Knew her well enough to know Li probably knew all about Ny’s plans. Saffron looked away from Li, her eyes burning into Markis’ staring eyes.

“
I did not know, Saffron. I do not know everything that Ny thinks.” Li’s voice was feathery-soft, like a voice from a far and hazy dream.

“
Is he dead?” Saffron’s eyes blazed as she crossed her arms across her chest and waited for the fairy to confirm.

Li knelt at Markis’ side and touched him. She adjusted his body to a position that appeared more comfortable, smoothed the hair from his forehead, then touched her fingertips to his eyelids to shut them. She straightened his clothes. “No, he is not dead.” She held his hand. “A fairy cannot kill. You know this, Saffron.”

Saffron snorted. “They can cause accidents, can’t they?”

“
He is not dead, Saffron.”

“
But his soul isn’t here, is it?” Saffron’s nostrils were fixed in a permanent flare.

“
No.” Li’s face looked properly concerned. “Do not lend free rein to your wrath, Saffron. You are hurting yourself. It does Markis no good.”

For a moment, Saffron held to her countenance. Then, the mask of anger cracked and there below lay Saffron’s fear – naked for all to see. She brought her hands to her face and rubbed her eyes. “Li, we need to find Ny, and fast. I can’t go back home and tell my mother I left Markis’ body back on this blanket!”

Li stared at Saffron’s hands as she flung them around in hysteria.

“
Li.…” Saffron warned, hysteria peaking in her voice. Why did Li look worried?

Li stood holding her elbows close to her body, and still, wouldn’t look Saffron in the eye.

Evening was coming on. Saffron shivered in the typical, New England, August breeze, which had lost 30 degrees in five minutes. She never expected to be out here this long. Her mother would come for her soon, assuming she and Markis were getting it on.

“
Saffron, when a fairy chooses not to be found, he
cannot
be found.”

“
Wha…?”

“
Ny can hide anywhere on Earth.”

“
Yeah?” Saffron didn’t see the problem.

Li held her hands out before her. “The Earthrealm is not the only realm to search. There are other places, other realms. Hundreds of concealed lands. Sanctuaries of which you know nothing. They are on Earth, but not of this time. They are through doorways you cannot see. To search them all…you would need more than your lifetime. Li looked forlornly at Markis. “We must take his body. We must move it to a safe place where no human will find it. We will hide it for safekeeping, so no one will come along and bury him.”

Saffron’s hand was over her mouth. “No.” Her voice was weak. She didn’t know what she was saying ‘no’ to. ‘No’ to Ny kidnapping Markis. ‘No’ to Markis’ lifeless body. ‘No’ to a burgeoning problem so horrific, so impossible to solve…. She just didn’t know. “Oh, my God. What have I done?” Her eyes flashed to Li. “What have
you
done?!”

“
Blame will not find Markis. We can search, Saffron. I can take a troop with me. We can search. But you must understand we may never find where Ny has taken the soul of Markis.”

“
No.” Saffron moaned. “Why do you guys act like this? Why won’t you just stop? Why are you so twisted?”

Another fairy stepped forward — a male. He looked like a tree. His skin was literally tree bark. His head was almost owlish, complete with large, pumpkin-orange, glowing eyes. “Fairy claims fairy games.” He crossed his arms over his chest (trunk), and looked down his nose at her.

“
Yeah, okay. Not too effen creepy….” Saffron muttered as low as possible. She stood up and positioned herself on Ly’s other side so she would be out of sightline of the total-weirdo owl man.

“
If by chance we do find him, it may be years from now. We can return him to his body, but he will go home to a place that is there no longer. People that are there no longer. He will not be able to live normally in your world again.” Li lowered her head. “Markis is not the first child taken by fairies.”

Saffron stood rigidly and held her breath.
This can’t be true. This is insane
. She sighed heavily. “I can’t go back to my house without him. Are you listening to me? Tell me where to find him. You must know
something.
”

“
No, Saffron, no.
You
cannot find him. You cannot cross over into those worlds.”

Saffron looked incredulous. “Well, how did Ny take Markis into those worlds? If
I
can’t go into those worlds, then Ny couldn’t have taken Markis there....”

“
Ny took Markis’
soul,
Saffron.”

“
Then take my soul, Li.” Saffron’s eyes popped wide as she quick-shrugged. She leaned down and patted the lump that was Markis’ body. “Stick my body wherever you’re sticking his.”

“
No, Saffron!” Birds squawked and rushed from the pine tops, as if her words were wind that blew them all away. “You do not try to understand!” She looked as if she would stamp her foot, but the graceful fairy did not. “If it takes a thousand years to find Markis’ soul, then we shall count ourselves lucky!”

Saffron shrugged with false bravado. “Doesn’t matter. This is my fault. I can’t just pretend this is not happening. I need to find him. He would come for me….”

“
What about your family, Saffron? Your beautiful mother…?”

Saffron stood up, crossed her arms over her chest, and locked her steel-grey eyes onto Li. The fairy’s overly large pupils, thinly ringed in violet, were as disconcerting as ever — especially contrasted with all of those white lashes — but Saffron spoke firmly. She shook her head slowly as she spoke. “You don’t care about my family. You just want me to hurry up, get old, and drop dead, so I can return to you in the fairy world. Then maybe we can plan another great reincarnation adventure together, right? Maybe if I was
four,
I could appreciate your dire need to play house with me, but as we’re talking about somebody’s
life
here, I think you’re just going to have to wait to play with me again.”

Li’s features tightened, making her face look like white crystal. Tears pooled in her eyes, but did not spill over. Confusion and anguish mingled on her face while she reached a finger to lift a tear away. She stared at the perfect dome of glowing, fairy liquid that shone on her fingertip. She continued to look at the tear as she spoke. “How could you say such words to me? You should not say such words to me.” Her hand fisted to clutch the tear in her palm. “You do not know what you do.”

“
Li, store my body with his. I
will
search for him.” Saffron’s voice started to crack. Though she wanted to be strong, the fairy’s misery was washing over her, filling her head and chest with a clutching blackness that brought such weight, Saffron found it difficult to continue standing.

“
As you wish it, Saffron, but I will not let you go alone.” Li turned away from Saffron and brought her hands up to cover her face.

Chapter 7

S
affron stood stiffly with her arms clutched about her. She stared at the trunk of an old oak standing several feet to her right. Its clinging vines reached up and swirled around its massive trunk, desperate for the sparse sunlight that was peeping between sections of canopy above. Moss grew on one side of the oak, a sprinkling of pale mushrooms at its base.

The fairies milled around Saffron in silence, quickly preparing to carry the body of her friend. Her boyfriend. They weren’t sure how many of them it would take to fly him away. They were accustomed to escorting souls, not an entire human body. The weight of his flesh was considerably more than his spirit. They wanted to be quite certain that they wouldn’t drop him mid-flight.

With glassy eyes and stoic expression, Saffron turned to watch the fairies. Her entire body moved as one fixed unit, as if she were a statue and was unable to swivel her head. The fairies’ movement was fluid, hypnotic; or, maybe she was in shock, and that made their actions seem surreal, almost fuzzy, as if a sudden wind could blow the whole scene away. Their transparent wings were threaded with gold, silver, and bronze veins. Some had skin that sparkled. Their hair shone bright blonde, brunette, black and every color of the rainbow — even colors that Saffron had never seen before. Some of the fairies cast frowns in Saffron’s direction, and this was finally what shocked her out of her complacency.

Frowning? She had never before seen a fairy so disgruntled. Well, Li and Ny could put on a good act – those two were almost campy – but these frowns…. These fairies were in pain. They looked sad…and afraid. Why were they looking at her like that? Saffron’s face flushed hotly. Bitterness seethed. What had
she
done? She wasn’t the troublemaker here — it was one of their own, for God’s sake, had
always
been one of their own. She was not the one who flew
herself
away one fine, warm August night to the Fairyrealm. She was not the one who kept the contact. After she’d been to the realm, twice, she had had enough and asked
specifically
to be left alone, to remain in the Earthrealm, and never be witness to their weirdness again — to never experience the creeping unease that crawled through her skin while she was among them. And…she was not the one who
stole
Markis’ soul! Saffron narrowed her eyes and glared at one particularly belligerent female, a fragile beauty with transparent skin, her hair also transparent, like a clutch of rice noodles. She looked a lot like Li, except her entire body was roped in thick, red veins. The fairy whipped her head around, giving Saffron her back.

They finally figured the best way to carry Saffron was to have her stand and sit back on their arms. So, the males reached across and grabbed hold of one another, gripping each other’s forearms. Saffron sat down on the shelf of their arms, totally mortified. They instructed her to wrap her arms around their necks. With a whump, whump, of their giant wings they flew off the ground and hovered several feet in the air, testing their strength and questioning their endurance for the flight to come. They seemed satisfied that they could make it and proceeded to lower her to the ground.

As she hopped off, she watched the fairies struggle with Markis’ limp body. And winced. Every time they thought they had a good way to carry him, an arm would fall, or a leg would bend at an odd angle. Over and over they forgot to support his head, so it lolled around as if his neck were a licorice rope trying to support a grapefruit. Saffron squeezed her eyes shut. If they didn’t start taking better care, they were going to break his neck! Finally, they thought they had it…only to have his body slide out from their arms like a greased watermelon.

Saffron rolled her eyes. “Hey there, mighty magic people — why don’t you just go down to the fire station and ask them for a stretcher?”

Li nodded to one of her comrades. That fairy disappeared in a burst of light — leaving a whirling, swirling cloud, like a glittering dust mote. The energy in the swirl pulled at Saffron and stung the roof of her mouth, much like the sensation left after she had inhaled water.

Li looked to see if any ships were passing by. They didn’t need human witnesses. The others dispersed. Some walked to the edge of the bluff to stare out at the ocean, and some settled in groups under the shade of the trees. Their ill-contained hostility cast a pall, and every once in a while, one would throw Saffron a furtive glance. Only Li stood by Saffron.

Saffron had her arms locked over her chest. “So, why do they all hate me — not that I care.”

Li sighed. “They do not ‘hate you,’ Saffron. They are very distraught. We are all paying for what Ny has done. We are paying in the very worst way. Our home, Saffron — it is not what it used to be, what it always has been.”