Indigo Magic (15 page)

‘The square,’ Laz answered, pointing. ‘They’re gathering.’

I rose above the boulder to see better. From that height, I saw streams of gremlins converging into a crowd in front of one of the bigger buildings.

Laz and Meteor floated up to join me. ‘We should go to a different village,’ Laz muttered. ‘There’s another nest of grem—’

‘Wait!’ I cut him off. ‘What if they’re planning something? Don’t you want to hear about it?’

Meteor nodded, but Laz sniffed. ‘Gremlins in a crowd are not to be trifled with. We should go.’

But I wasn’t willing to leave. These creatures fascinated me, especially because they were so unlike everything I’d been led to believe. ‘I want to listen. It could be our chance to understand them.’

‘Not safe.’

‘They can’t fly. If they run at us, we’ll flee into the air.’ Stubbornly, I watched as gremlins packed the open space, more arriving every second.

On one side of the square, a lone gremlin stood on a block of stone. He wore a heavy amber jewel around his neck that caught the lantern light. His bulbous little nose quivered as he waited for everyone to assemble. Finally he raised both long-fingered hands and cleared his throat. It sounded like a rusty bugle. All the gremlins quit shuffling their feet to stare up at him.

‘Gremlins of Burdecka!’ His voice was loud and blaring. ‘I have received a message filled with rumours,’ he
trumpeted
. ‘I warn you, friends! Do not be misled by the new fey leader.’

New fey leader?
Suddenly I was more awake.

He rolled on. ‘Her promises are as empty as the biscuit packets of yesterday. She pretends she will have the power to make gremlins the magical equal of the greatest fairies and genies. She lies.’

Oberon’s Crown!
Lily!
Lily Morganite must be calling herself the new leader of the fey! A terrifying idea pushed itself into my mind: with the durable spells breaking down all over Feyland, Lily Morganite might actually
be
the new leader. And apparently she was still promising to hand out magic – not only to her followers, but also to outlanders like gremlins. How far would she go for the chance to create aevia ray? And did she know, yet, that the comet dust had been taken?

I desperately hoped the councillors had gone to Anshield Island to tell the king and queen how badly the High Council had bungled. When they named Lily Morganite the Forcier of Feyland, they had brought on disaster and the theft of billions of radia. But would they admit what they had done?

We needed the help of our rightful rulers!

I
N
F
EYLAND THERE IS A GROUP OF ISLANDS IN THE MIDDLE OF
G
LENDONITE
L
AKE WHERE DAYS AND HOURS DO NOT BEHAVE THE WAY THEY NORMALLY DO
. T
HESE ISLANDS ARE UNDER AN ENCHANTMENT THAT CHANGES THE PARAMETERS OF TIME
. A
NSHIELD, THE MOST FAMOUS OF THE ARCHIPELAGO, IS THE ABODE OF
K
ING
O
BERON AND
Q
UEEN
V
ELLERON
(
ALSO KNOWN AS
M
AB
).
T
HEIR PALACE IS SURROUNDED BY A SAPPHIRE WALL WOVEN WITH INTRICATE SPELLS THAT WILL NOT ALLOW ANYONE TO FLY ABOVE IT AND PREVENTS TRANSPORT IN OR OUT
.

N
O ONE HAS ACCESS TO THE SAPPHIRE STRONGHOLD WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM THE ROYAL RULERS
.

Orville Gold, genie historian of Feyland

ALL THE GREMLINS
were gathered in the square to listen as their leader blared on – except the children, who played in the fields nearby. I moved away from the pile of boulders towards the children, creeping into one of the darker patches of shadow to sit on some softer ground and fold my tired wings.

The gremlin children fascinated me. The games they were playing involved running and jumping faster and faster till I couldn’t tell one blur from another. Not far from me, one of them stood watching for a while before trying to join in. But when he darted in, bigger children tossed him off to the side. The limber little fellow somersaulted head over heels, then bounced up to try again. As I watched, he tried over and over but each time he was cast out. I wondered what kept him going back, and why they wouldn’t let him be part of their fun. He fell and rolled so many times, I nicknamed him ‘Tumble’ to myself. If he kept it up, he was going to get hurt.

Again, someone picked him up and threw him with spiteful force. Tumble bunched himself into a ball as he hit the ground hard. He rolled right towards me. I reached out and caught him, holding him gently for a moment before setting him on his feet. He stared at me curiously as I opened my pack. Bringing out a large chocolate chip cookie, I gave it to him and saw a smile of wonder light up his face.

The gremlin leader’s voice grew even louder: ‘The fey leader
promises
to give an endless supply of biscuits to any one of us who will freely give her what is left of our stash, but—’

He never finished the sentence.

The adult gremlins began shrieking. The noise was so loud and piercing, it was like slivers of iron driving into my head. I clapped my hands over my ears.

Gremlin screeches were even worse than I’d been taught. And while I tried to shut out the hideous sound, a cluster of greedy eyes and hands crashed into me. Adult gremlins! One of them must have seen the cookie I’d given Tumble, and now it seemed the entire village was crowding up against me. Looking in concern for the little gremlin, I didn’t see him anywhere. But it took the adults only seconds to strip off my pack, open it, and take the biscuits.

I tried to pick myself up, but gremlins were wedged around me so tightly I couldn’t move, much less spread my wings. They chittered, ‘Gimme gimme gimme,’ their questing fingers searching for more biscuits even as they shoved the ones they had into their mouths.

Laz had told me to guard myself. I should have listened.

Screeches tore my ears, scrabbling fingers dug into my gown, the press of bodies robbed me of air.

As I struggled to breathe, I felt the deep Feynere power within me waking up. Overwhelming strength just beneath my skin threatened to toss the entire group of gremlin thieves into the sky. I didn’t think about the radia I would lose, didn’t think about anything at all except the need to take my next breath.

Then I heard Meteor’s magically amplified voice boom out: ‘Gremlins. Release the fairy and we will drop two more packs of biscuits.’

But it was too late. I couldn’t hold onto the Feynere force. It burst from me in waves, throwing off the gremlins
who
were crushing me. They hurtled out from where I lay like seeds blown from a pod.

Spreading my sore wings, I flapped upward like a four-year-old learning to fly. Meteor zoomed towards me and supported me higher while I gasped for air. I felt so weak and depleted I couldn’t even hover.

‘Zaria?’ His eyes were wary as he held me up.

‘Oh, Meteor. I should have known you’d help; I should have waited. I … it happened again.’ Fearfully I looked below, afraid I would see bodies. But although there was a clear spot where I had been attacked, all the gremlins were picking themselves up. The only effect of my blast of magic was to get them to quit screeching. The crowd had gone silent, hands stretched upward, fingers waving at the sky.

‘Dastardly hobs!’ Laz said beside us. ‘They want more biscuits.’ He shook his head, then turned his anger on me. ‘What possessed you to offer a biscuit to a
gremlin on the ground
?’

I clung to Meteor. ‘He was just a child,’ I said. ‘And the others were—’

‘A child!’ Laz sneered. ‘Of course. And how much radia did it cost you to … do whatever you did?’

Strength. Give me strength!
But I felt none. And I wasn’t about to check my crystal watch while Laz was watching.

The smuggler shook his head disgustedly. ‘These gremlins are in a full-blown frenzy, and they won’t have their wits back for a while.’

‘I’m sorry,’ I said, feeling foolish and defeated.

Laz shrugged. ‘The frenzy would have happened even without you, Zaria. All you did was make it worse. The Morganite’s blasted message about unlimited biscuits will turn every gremlin village into a shambles.’ He looked accusingly at Meteor. ‘Someone must have helped her work out what the gremlin treasure is.’

‘No scholar would help her,’ Meteor said, his tone hostile.

‘Keep your illusions if you like.’ Laz pointed at the ground. ‘But at any rate, we may as well move ahead to our next stopping point – among the trolls.’

‘The trolls! Why not another gremlin village?’ I asked. ‘You and Meteor still have biscuits.’

He waved at the mob. ‘Can’t you see, every village will be like this one. By now, the Morganite will have delivered her message to all of them.’

‘But without the gremlin biscuit, we can’t make aevia ray,’ I said. I didn’t want to venture into Troll Country. We didn’t have any plans for how to find the Nectara elixir. Not that our plans seemed to work out even when we had them.

I thought again of Leona and Andalonus. What if Lily had done something to disturb Pixandelle too?

‘They’ll begin shrieking again in another moment,’ Laz said.

Meteor was looking at me, eyebrows up. ‘I’ll go if you
will
.’ His arm around me was about the only thing good in my life.

Staring at the ground, I decided that gremlins were ugly after all. What would be worse, going deaf, or going into Troll Country?

I nodded exhaustedly. ‘We’ll get the biscuit another time.’

‘Can you fly?’ Meteor asked.

‘Probably,’ I answered. ‘If you hold my hand.’

‘Touching,’ Laz said.

But without help, I really wouldn’t be able to fly any distance. Tremors shook my wings, and deep in my bones I felt hollow and used up.

‘How far to Troll Country?’ Meteor asked Laz. ‘Can we transport?’

‘No.’ Laz turned and flew west. He seemed to have no doubt that we would follow.

When the gremlins saw us heading away without giving them any more biscuits, they began shrieking again. Clutching each other, Meteor and I started after Laz with no grace at all, off balance, tilting through the dark. Laz was only a blot zooming ahead of us, his cap pulled over his ears.

The gremlins streaked along below, running to keep up but gradually losing ground until their shrieks faded away. Squinting to see in the moonlight, we followed Laz over hills and valleys. Meteor had to do most of the flying for both of us. Soon, he shifted the biscuit pack around to his
back
and simply carried me in his arms. I was too tired to protest.

How much radia had I lost? I feared to find out but couldn’t bear not knowing. After agonizing for a while, I decided to check my watch. Making sure that Laz was still far ahead of us, I flipped up the cover. I had to bring it close to my face to see. At first I thought the moonlight must be showing me the wrong mark.

‘It isn’t true,’ I said.

‘Zaria?’ Meteor murmured. ‘What isn’t true?’

‘It says I’ve spent another half-million radia. But all I did was throw some greedy gremlins off me!’ I held up my watch so he could see.

Meteor’s arms tightened around me. ‘I’m sorry.’

It was true then. I was half a million radia poorer, with nothing to show for it, not even a biscuit from a gremlin. I hadn’t needed my Feynere powers to save my life: if I’d waited one moment longer, Meteor would have made the mob let go of me.

What good was it to be a Feynere if my special magic could be so easily lost? At this rate, just as Lily had predicted, all my radia would soon be gone. Looking for comfort, I hid my face against Meteor’s chest and focused on listening to him breathe.

I had to be more careful. More thoughtful. More like Meteor.

We were touching down, landing in a squishy field.
Meteor
set me on my feet gently. Plants grew thickly all around us. They resembled grass, but their stalks were puffy. And slimy.

‘Laz!’ Meteor said. ‘Why did you lead us into a swamp?’

‘A little putch won’t hurt you.’ Laz adjusted his cap.

‘This is putch? Trolls eat this?’

‘Putch is their sonnia, you fool.’

Oh, how tired I was. Exhaustion beyond exhaustion.

And a fog was rising.

T
ROLLS ARE SAID TO HAVE A REMARKABLE SENSE OF SMELL, BUT THIS HAS NEVER BEEN VERIFIED BY A REPUTABLE SOURCE – PERHAPS BECAUSE REPUTABLE FEY FOLK AVOID TRAVELLING THROUGH
T
ROLL
C
OUNTRY
.

T
ROLL FEMALES ARE ADEPT AT KEEPING THEMSELVES HIDDEN IF THEY WISH TO REMAIN UNSEEN
. T
HEY CAN BLEND INTO THE LANDSCAPE ON
T
IRFEYNE AS IF THEY WERE MADE OF ROCKS AND SHRUBS
. O
N
E
ARTH, THEY CAN APPEAR TO BE TREES
. T
HEIR MAGIC IS QUITE AS POWERFUL AS THAT OF MALE TROLLS, BUT THEY ARE MORE LIKELY TO MAKE USE OF IT IN SECRET
.

Orville Gold, genie historian of Feyland

I WAS AWAKE
and yet asleep. Or was I asleep and yet awake? I couldn’t seem to move, but I heard rumbling voices.

‘
It’s her, I tell you
.’

‘
Can’t be. Fairies never come here
.’

‘
She matches the description. And you can smell the difference
.’

Why couldn’t I move?

‘
You may be right. The young genie smells like a normal Blue.
And
there is a Yellow nearby who has an odour of trouble. But the fairy’s scent
…’

‘
It can be no one else. We must take her to King Ozriel
.’

‘
What about her companions?
’

‘
We’ll bring the Blue
.’

‘
And the other?
’

‘
Leave him
.’

My cheek rested on someone’s shoulder, a shoulder that rolled and dipped with each step. I could hear the quiet of the night, broken by footfalls; I could feel the arms that held me. Yes, I was awake, but my eyes stayed closed, however much I willed them to open.