The Bonds of Blood (21 page)

CHAPTER
SIXTEEN

_O
n the third day of
their
journey it rained, and as they had
forgotten their weatherproof cloaks, they were soon
drenched.

As night fell, they reached Willabanter
Ford, a shallow part of the Char River that branched off into two
separate directions.

“We will be camping here tonight,”
Grace informed them, dismounting and walking the little ways to the
ford where she let Holly drink.

“Look at that large stone in the center
of the ford,” Joya pointed out curiously. “Doesn’t it look like a
huge throne? Maybe fairies hold court here,” she said
jokingly.

They all dismounted and began setting
up camp. The fire was hard to start, for all of the wood around the
area was damp. Eventually they were able to find some dry enough
wood to catch the spark, though it smoked atrociously, and the fire
ended up being barely able to boil water for tea. The closest water
supply was still a trip down the bank some ways, close to the ford,
though the ford didn’t come any higher than Jovian’s ankles.
Unfortunately none in the group were accustomed to drinking
sediment with their tea.

Dinner was a dismal event, but at least
it was no longer raining. Grace and Joya were to take first watch
again, so Angelica and Jovian undid their bedrolls, which were
blissfully dry and, after placing them close to the fire, hunkered
down for sleep.

Jovian only seemed to have closed his
eyes when Joya shook him awake. He sat up with a yawn and grunted
when Joya said it was his and Angelica’s turn for watch.

Grace and Joya settled down as the
other two crossed the camp to a large boulder that worked perfectly
as a lookout point.

It was halfway through their shared
watch when Angelica suddenly perked up. “Did you hear that?” This
brought Jovian back to himself, where he had been previously
drifting in a trance between being awake and asleep.

“What?” he stifled a yawn.

“That noise … it sounded like bells.”
Angelica rose from the rock beside Jovian and picked up her mace.
“It was coming from that way,” she said, pointing down the southern
riverbank of the Char River. “Slight, indistinct,” she laughed,
feeling a bit foolish for she had been drifting just as Jovian had
been. “I may have imagined it, but it sounded like tinkling
bells.”

Taking a deep breath, she sat down,
only to rise quickly again spurred by the same noise echoing once
more.

“You didn’t imagine it,” Jovian said
rising with her. “I heard it this time as well.” It didn’t sound
menacing; rather, it had an appealing chime to it, partially why
they were so worried.

“The Hobbedy’s Lanterns were enticing
to look at,” Angelica said, worrying her bottom lip.

“I know,” Jovian sniffed, looking away
from camp, trying to see if he could spot anything moving in the
darkness.

“We are getting closer to the Shadow
Realm, aren’t we?” Angelica asked, and Jovian nodded, a motion she
could barely make out in the dying firelight that bathed both of
them in a faint orange hue. “Do you think it could be something
from there?”

“I don’t think so; this is coming from
the south. Generally speaking, I would expect something from the
Shadow Realm to be coming from the north.” Even so, Jovian fingered
his sword a little more for reassurance.

“I don’t like this, Jovian; I don’t
like this one single bit.”

“Me either, but just hold
tight.”

The tinkling sound of bells drew
closer. Then another noise accompanied the bells; it was the sound
of music. It was a haunting, lilting melody that drifted over them
languidly. It was like a warm summer’s eve, reminding them of the
wild, untamed woods north of their plantation home. It made them
want to dance, made them want to become one with nature. In fact,
as they listened they realized the music was both wild yet
civilized. It was a raw type of music, not planned, not memorized,
but instead inspired by the moment, yet as beautiful as any heard
in the grand theatre in the Ivory City.

They smiled at each other and relaxed
their grips on their weapons, for the music was melancholy,
mystical, and relaxing them so completely that they now felt they
didn’t have a care in the world.

As the music grew louder, so did the
bells. Whatever was making the sounds was drawing closer, but they
still could not see anything.

Then, appearing just as languidly as
the music had, little pin points of light could be seen filling the
air off in the distance, drifting closer to them.

“Put that away,” Angelica hissed,
placing her hand on his arm to stay his weapon. “Even if they meant
us harm, they are too small for you to attack with that sword.”
Angelica, too, placed her weapon back by the rock and sat down. “I
doubt they have come for us anyway. Don’t you recognize them from
classes with Destra?”

“No,” Jovian admitted, sensing
Angelica’s change in demeanor.

“Those are fairies,” Angelica said. The
tinkling bells and music drew closer, and the multi-colored points
of light buzzed happily around the air, as if dancing. “I suspect
they are Solitary Fairies. Those are the ones that do not live in
fairy kingdoms.”

“I remember,” Jovian said as he watched
the fairies drawing closer. They both sat back and watched the wee
folk dancing around for a while, and they could not help but grin
at their antics. “Do you think it is odd,” Jovian whispered, not
wanting to scare them off, “that they have not come any closer to
us?”

“I don’t think so,” Angelica said
furrowing her brow in thought. “I imagine they just don’t want to
get that close to us.”

But even as she spoke, the music became
more excited, and Jovian thought he could hear the slight sound of
tiny laugher mixed in with the music and bells.

Angelica and Jovian had no sooner sat
up at attention when a soft golden glow bloomed into existence
below the surface of the water, directly under the gathered
fairies.

“What in the name of the Goddess is
that?” Angelica breathed, sounding bewildered and awed. “Maybe we
should wake Grace?” A sharp look from Jovian told her not to
move.

Slowly a lady began to rise out of the
glowing river, and Jovian found himself wondering how this was
possible. He had walked in that part of the river when they first
made camp here, and it was very shallow.

The fairies, as if welcoming the being,
flashed around her head in a chorus of bells and trickling of tiny
laughter. Angelica and Jovian smiled ear-to-ear at this and began
to relax once more, their worries of a malevolent force
departing.

The first thing that Angelica and
Jovian noticed was her flaxen colored hair, like a long trail of
silk gathered on the surface of the water, slowly drawing up out of
the river as the woman rose. It was braided here and there and
beaded with luminous white stones that Angelica swore had to have
been pearls.

Her skin was completely flawless and
smooth, like cream. Jovian saw as her long face emerged from the
river that she was wearing a beautifully serene smile, and whatever
cares and worries he had before now melted away as she turned her
peaceful pale green eyes on him.

Finally she stepped bare feet out of
the river and drew closer to where they were sitting. For a time
she paid them no mind as she listened to the small chatter of the
fairies fluttering around her.

After a moment of communing in a
language that Angelica did not understand, the music started up
again, and the woman began to dance with the fairies, her feet a
few inches off of the water.

It seemed like hours that she danced,
hours that they sat there entranced by the haunting, fluid motions
her body took on. It was as if she were telling a story with her
movements, a story of nature, of the water, and of the beginning of
all life. The dance was so happy, yet so sad, for it captured both
the joys and sorrows of human existence.

Suddenly she stopped and held out a
hand. It was such a quick gesture, and they now knew she had been
aware of them this whole time. They both thought twice before going
to her.

The fairies settled down on both sides
of the river, flashing, glowing lights of blues and greens, yellows
and pinks, and happy orange winking in and out of sight amid the
tall stalks of grass. They stayed there for the remainder of the
night, tinkling their tiny bells and playing soft music, completely
content after the dance with the lady.

Angelica and Jovian rose from their
rock together and joined the fairies at her side, reaching out and
each taking a warm hand into their own.

“I am the White Lady of Willabanter
Ford,” she said in a sweet melodic voice that fit everything they
had seen and presumed about her so far. “I come to you now in this
dark hour to warn you of many things that threaten the folds of
fate; the Norns are most aggrieved.” Jovian and Angelica looked at
one another stunned. How could someone so beautiful and so full of
happiness bring them ill tidings?

“I am sorry,” Jovian started, “but how
do our lives have that much bearing on fate?”

“Things are happening, Jovian Neferis;
many things are spinning out of control. Events are speeding closer
that threaten to change your family forever.”

“So something that is going to happen
within our family will change fate?” Angelica was thoroughly
confused.

“Not something, many things will
happen, and these things will happen to each and every one of your
family members. This will change fate, and that is what the Norns
worry about.” She led them a little further away from the camp and
sat them down on the large throne-shaped boulder in the center of
the ford where the Char River branched. “In fact, it began with
your mother.”

“You knew our mother?” Angelica said,
edging closer to the White Lady where she sat between
them.

“I knew of her.”

“What was it that started with her?”
Jovian prompted.

“The changing of fate; she did
something that was out of turn, something that was not supposed to
have happened. She hated,” the White Lady said simply.

“Who?” Angelica asked. “Who did she
hate?”

“That I cannot tell you, for it is not
my tale to tell. Rejoice, though, for it will be told to you in its
entirety by someone much more qualified to impart it upon
you.”

“So what must we do to change what is
coming closer?” Jovian asked.

“You must save your sister.”

“And if we don’t?” Angelica asked.
“What will happen to us if fate is changed?”

“The lack of saving your sister will
have epic consequences.”

“The Great Realms will be in grave
peril if we don’t bring our sister safely back home?” Jovian
thought this sounded a little absurd, and his voice must have shown
this.

“Not bring her home exactly, but save
her nonetheless.” The White Lady looked to each of them, her
delicate pink mouth still curved in a perpetual smile. “There are
many ways to save a person. I have seen that you met with Baba
Yaga?”

How did she know about that
encounter?

“She gave you the Will to do that which
must be done, did she not?”

“Yes,” they said in unison, still
trying to figure out what that meant.

“Good, you will need that before
long.”

“But what is it?” Angelica cried out in
frustration, but as the White Lady cast her a bold glance, she
immediately recomposed herself.

“I cannot tell you what it is, just as
I don’t know how to use it.

“I see by the worry on your faces that
I should not have come to you this night,” the White Lady of
Willabanter Ford bemoaned, and her voice echoed her concern. “It
was one of those things that may have altered how you chose, but
many of us felt as though you should know what was to happen.
Either way, I now feel content that I have done all that I could to
help you two along your journey. I only hope that I didn’t alter
your thoughts too much about your choices.”

“We don’t even know what our choice is
yet, so how are you supposed to have altered them?” Angelica asked
her, and in response the White Lady just smiled.

“I have no gift for you,” the White
Lady said, standing. “I have no powers to pass onto you as Baba
Yaga did. I only have wisdom, the same thing I give many that I
appear to. However, some would say that is a gift better than any
other.”

She drifted a little ways away from
them, and they noticed that she was actually walking on the water
instead of through it. She turned back to them, the foam of her
dress trailing along the surface of the river, blending in as if it
was becoming part of the river once more. Her hands were folded
before her, and she looked at both of them with such love and
admiration on her face that Angelica and Jovian felt compelled to
avert their eyes. “Such mundane creatures can hold such wyrd; it is
astonishing. How can Humans of Clay hold the balance of the
Universe so delicately in their clumsy hands and not destroy it
all?”