Violet Wings

  "That interests you?" Her eyes looked like frozen pearls.

  "What spells protect portals?" It annoyed me that Lily was so tall I had to look up at her.

  "Spells to keep humans out."

  "But I thought..."

  "Yes?"

  "It takes magic to pass through the portals, so if humans don't have magic, why would we need enchantments to keep them out?" I asked sullenly.

  "Very good, Zaria. Perhaps teaching you will not be a hopeless endeavor.The answer is: not all humans are without magic. A surprising number possess the equivalent of Level Five."

  "No one told me."

  She smiled knowingly. "You have much to learn."

  I slid my hands into the pockets of my gown and gripped my true wand. If I had to, I would put another sleep spell on Lily, though I doubted she would have left herself unprotected again.

  "Zaria. Listen to me, child." She spoke softly and sounded

  175

  kind. "A mentor is the most important person in a young fairy's life. I was carefully chosen just for you." I stared at her white wings while she kept talking. "No one will interfere with my teaching methods, for it is understood that I, and I alone, know what is best when it comes to your training."

  I thought of Beryl again. She had tried to interfere. Was that why she was now under layered magic?

  "You should not presume to question what I do," Lily went on, "but because we are only beginning to work with one another, I will attempt to explain what happened yesterday." Her eyes shimmered, full of goodwill. "I gave you your first test."

  "What test?" I blurted out.

  "To find out if you could detect the presence of magic. There was a spell on your pen. Unfortunately, you left before I could finish the lesson."

  "Lesson? But I--"

  "No harm would have come to you," she said. "The spell was cued to be sure you reached the ground before you fell asleep. But I am surprised you were able to fly home. You must be stronger than you appear."

  "I am," I mumbled, trying to remember just how sleepy I had felt, and when.

  "Good. As a Violet fairy, you will need all your strength." Lily smiled warmly. "Now, before we continue, let me remind you that your lessons here are not to be discussed with anyone else--including your friends."

  176

  "Why not?"

  "You are Violet. Level One Hundred. That sets you apart, Zaria.Very far apart."

  "Not from Leona."

  Lily set her jaw. "You should never discuss magic with another Violet. Powerful fairies must work for the good of all, not for the advancement of friends."

  "But--"

  "Stop and listen, Zaria. I am here to teach you." She held out her hand. "Your wand, if you please, so that I can give you your next lesson."

  Without arguing, I gave her the false wand.

  Lily dangled it between a finger and thumb. "I hope," she said, "that you do not intend to try any deception with me."

  Before I knew it, I was speaking my thoughts aloud. "You're the expert on deception" I cried.

  She drew her wand in a flash. She pointed the morganite tip at me. "Reducto et eloquen!"

  For a second I saw a shield of violet light. A loud hum circled the room and then died away. "Gag spell?" I said, and felt a surge of triumph because my protection had worked.

  Lily's eyes stabbed like pearl-handled knives. "I understand why an orphan like you would be distrustful at first, but one day you will learn that I am the best mentor you could have." She tapped the false wand I'd given her. "Disciosan nos enchanterel."

  The stylus lit briefly, then went black.

  177

  Lily nodded. "This so-called wand shows no activity." She dropped the stylus to the floor as if it were a piece of trash. "And yet I saw you transport this morning, and you have surrounded yourself with a protection spell."

  I stared at Sam's stylus, a slim black line on the carpet.

  "Only three days with a wand," Lily said, "and you have deceived the High Council of Feyland."

  "Because of you," I shouted. "You took my mother's spellbook!"

  At the look in her eyes--satisfied, gloating--I wished I could take it back. Beryl had warned me not to reveal anything about myself or how I felt.

  "Impressive, Zaria. A sleep spell on your mentor. Invisibility. A false wand. You show yourself to be as resourceful as your father."

  I gulped. "My father?"

  "Did you not know? Gilead Tourmaline was renowned throughout Feyland as a very resourceful genie."

  My father famous throughout Feyland? Why had no one told me? I wanted to shower Lily with questions, but my throat closed up as if her gag spell had succeeded.

  "Now, show me your true wand." She held out her hand again.

  "T-tell me about ..." I couldn't finish the sentence.

  "First your wand, Zaria, and then I will tell you about Gilead."

  She was offering me what I wanted most. How tempting

  178

  it was, to stop fighting her, let her do as she wished. She knew so much more than I, about radia, and Feyland--and about my father. How could I pass up the chance to learn the truth that everyone kept hiding?

  If I gave Lily my wand, she would know what sort of spells I had done and how many. But she "wouldn't know how often I'd gone to Earth or that I'd helped Leona take back her wand from a human; she wouldn't know about the portal in Galena; she "wouldn't know I'd seen Beryl in The Ugly Mug at the borders of the Leprechaun Colony or that I had buried my mother's spellbook under a tree.

  But she would tell me about my father.

  Slowly, I drew out my true wand.

  "Good," Lily said, as if she respected me.

  But then I hesitated. Less than an hour earlier, I had vowed on my family's honor that I would never give up my wand to anyone. Never. To anyone. How could I consider breaking my vow already--and to Lily Morganite of all fairies?

  Hastily, I put the wand back in my gown.

  She leaned toward me. "I can force you to turn your wand over to the Council," she said calmly. "But I would much rather do the spell privately, just the two of us."

  I felt the power of her determination pushing against me. She would never give up!

  I reached back to the moment when I had vowed on my family's honor, the moment when I had felt the strength

  179

  of my father, my mother, my brother, together with myself. "No," I said.

  Lily sighed. "Zaria, you are so very lost and alone. You need a guide. And I can guide you through all the perils of high-level magic. I only tried to take your mother's spellbook for safekeeping. Have you any idea of how dangerous it was to leave the book in such a vulnerable place? Beryl Danburite means well, but clearly she does not know how to look after the interests of a Violet, nor does she understand the temptations you would feel to practice the spells found in your mother's book--spells that would deplete you of radia and expose you to perils you could not possibly comprehend."

  I waited for her to ask me where the spellbook was now. She didn't.

  "Trust me, child," was all she said.

  I waited longer, and then finally spoke. "If you want me to trust you," I said, despising the quaver in my voice, "take away the spells on Beryl."

  Her forehead crinkled. "Is something amiss with your guardian?" She sounded truly concerned.

  "You know there is."

  "I am afraid I know nothing about it. What is wrong?"

  "I don't know," I mumbled.

  "Which is why you need a mentor." Lily sighed again and looked at her watch. "You have two days to consider allowing me to do the disclosan spell. By the third day, if

  180

  you have not allowed it, I shall notify the Council of your deception." She pointed her wand at the door. It opened silently. "Go."

  There was no dignity in stooping to pick up Sam's stylus, but I did it anyway.

  181

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  GREMLINS,
THOUGH SMALL, ARE LARGE NUISANCES. THEY HAVE NO MAGIC TO SPEAK OF, BUT THEY ARE able to move with such speed that they have sometimes been suspected of performing magic. Gremlins are dedicated to mischief, which they create by removing small, crucial parts of working mechanisms. Sometimes, gremlins emit a high-pitched,

  PIERCING SHRIEK. IT IS A DREADFUL NOISE THAT NONE BUT OTHER GREMLINS CAN BEAR TO HEAR.

  --Orville Gold, genie historian of Feyland

  As I left the FOOM dome, I barely noticed the rose marble of the courtyard. The radiant flowers in the garden only pained my eyes. My thoughts churned. Should I take Lily's offer to tell me about my family in exchange for a spell of disclosure? And if I refused her, what would I do when the Council demanded my wand?

  "She wants you in her clutches," Beryl had said.

  If only I had been given a true mentor, someone I could trust, someone to answer all my questions about magic.

  182

  I should go to the Crown Library and study, try to find out what could be done for Beryl. I should talk to Meteor and see if he might listen to me about what had happened yesterday evening.

  But I couldn't bear the thought of Meteor's anger. My wings beat sluggishly, barely keeping me aloft as I headed for Galena. I passed through the gateway, but the closer I got to home, the more I wanted to avoid Beryl. What might she say and do today?

  Last week, I would have sought out my friends. But now, Meteor thought I had practiced enchantments on him, and I had no idea where Leona might be. I hadn't seen Andalonus since the day of our last class together; he probably believed I had lied when I told him his color wouldn't matter to me.

  My wings ached as if bound with iron as I remembered what Andalonus had said. "Is it so bad to be Violet? . . . Imagine all the good you'll be able to do."

  But I had not done any good.

  I had used an uncounted amount of radia trying to protect myself. Lily was right about one thing--at this rate my reserves would be gone before I was fifty years old. Maybe sooner.

  I opened my watch and brought it close to my face. The tiny golden hand that registered radia had moved very slightly. It was no longer pointing straight at the line between Violet

  183

  and Red, the line I had thought meant "no color" but which Beryl had called full Violet. By the time the hand had moved enough to hit the first degree within Violet--one tenth of the color--I would have used up a million radia. I still had a long way to go before that happened. But the hand had moved, even though I had received my watch only a short time ago. Not good.

  I flew up to the high spot above Galena Falls. I had some vague hope of finding Leona there, but the place was deserted.

  My eyes were drawn to the drab sandstone boulder of the Zinnia Portal. If I went to Earth, I could read my mother's spellbook. Maybe Cinna Tourmaline would have made notes about layered enchantments.

  I glanced around. Children played in the pool far below; I saw no one above me.

  I drew my wand. "Verita sil nos mertos elemen."

  A chilly wind greeted me on the other side of the portal. Earth's sky was so full of dark clouds that not a single strip of blue peeped through. I was glad to be invisible, for not three wingspans away, Jason Court and Sam Seabolt were approaching.

  How relieved I was to see that the wart on Jason's nose was gone.

  Both wore jackets against the cold. Wind tousled their

  184

  hair and blew loudly enough to conceal the sound of my beating wings as I hovered near them. What could they be doing this close to the portal?

  Jason's jaw jutted forward as he went right up to the boulder covered with zinnias and rapped it with a fist. "Here," he said. "She walked straight into this rock and disappeared."

  Trolls and pixies, how could Leona have been so reckless?

  I thought of what Lily had said that morning: "Not all humans are entirely without magic. A surprising number possess the equivalent of Level Five."

  What if either of these humans had the ability to go through the portal? I doubted Leona's mother had set up any barricades. She would have believed this lonely spot to be safe.

  Jason kicked the boulder and then kicked it again. I drew a breath of relief. If he'd had any magic, the portal would have opened.

  "Forget about it," Sam said.

  "She put a wart on me," said Jason.

  "But you're okay now. Call it even."

  Jason shook his head. He reached into his jacket. "When I see her again, I'll give her something to remember me by." A gun with a rounded tip waved in his hand.

  We had learned about guns in Human Culture class. Bloodstone had said humans used them to hurt each other, sometimes even kill each other. But this gun looked different

  185

  from those we had studied. It was sleeker and completely black.

  "Is that what I think it is?" Sam sounded alarmed.

  Jason grinned. "Isn't it a beauty? My dad got it."

  "A laser gun?" Sam took a step back.

  "With this, I can put a mark on that girl's forehead." Jason aimed up the hill toward the grove. A red beam of light shot up the rise and hit the great blue spruce near where I'd buried my mother's spellbook. As Jason held the gun steady, a branch ignited.

  "What the heck are you doing!" Sam yelled. He began pelting up the hill.

  I gathered my strength and flew past Sam, reaching the tree before he did. The small fire was taking hold on the end of the branch, helped by the wind. I didn't understand where the spark had come from. Was this more "technology"?

  I flew close to the blaze. Rising smoke made me cough as I pointed my wand. "Resvera den," I said. "Break."

  With a loud crack, the flaming branch broke near the trunk of the tree. It caught among the thick blue-green needles of the branches just below. I grabbed the broken branch and flung it away. Sparks bounced over the ground below, and several hit my gown. I flew higher, shaking out the cinders that clung to my skirts.

  Sam pounded toward the burning branch, pulling off his jacket as he ran. When he reached it, he beat at the flames with his jacket. He moved very fast, whipping his arm up and

  186

  down, breathing hard. I hovered above him, flicking sparks from my gown while he smothered the fire.

  Then Jason strolled up.

  "That was close," Sam said.

  "Sorry," Jason answered. "I'm still learning how to use this thing."

  He gazed at the tree, his eyes narrowing. He touched the spot where the branch had snapped when I cast the breaking spell. "Look at this."

  "Look at what?" Sam glared at Jason. "The way you almost started a forest fire?"

  "Branches don't break that way by themselves." Jason lifted his weapon again.

  Sam faced his friend. "For God's sake, you'll set the whole ridge on fire!"

  "Come out, come out, wherever you are," Jason called, ignoring Sam. Another red beam blasted the air just above my head.

  "Stop!" Sam shouted.

  I shot toward the portal.

  I wish now that I had flown to the other side of the ridge instead. I wish I had calmed myself and then watched over the portal.

  But fear makes fools of us all, and I am no exception. The bolts of red light had terrified me, and all I could think of was escape.

  187

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  ON THE DAY THAT FAIRIES AND GENIES RECEIVE THEIR CRYSTAL WATCHES, THEIR COLORS ARE ANNOUNCED TO THE WORLD. AFTER THAT, ONLY MEMBERS OF THE HIGH COUNCIL HAVE THE RIGHT TO VIEW ANOTHER'S RADIA RESERVES.

  RESERVES ARE FORMALLY INSPECTED ONCE A YEAR WHEN THE FORCIER ASSESSES RADIA TAX. SUCH INSPECTIONS ARE DISAGREEABLE TO FEY FOLK; THEY ARE THEREFORE DONE IN PRIVATE.

  IN FACT, GROWN FAIRIES AND GENIES ARE QUITE SECRETIVE ABOUT THE DEGREE OF THEIR RADIA RESERVES. UNLESS THEY ARE ALONE, THEY KEEP THEIR WATCH-FACE COVERS CLOSED. EVEN AMONG FRIENDS, IT IS CONSIDERED IMPOLITE TO ASK HOW MANY RADIA SOMEONE HAS LEFT.

  --Orville Gold, genie historian of Fey
land

  I had to warn Leona about Jason's weapon, but where would she be? A few days before, I would have known. Not anymore.

  188

  Sometime during my flight, I became visible again. I zoomed through the Gateway of Galena toward the FOOM dome. Though Leona seemed to have changed her mind about crowds, it was possible she could be dazzling a mob in the courtyard.

  She wasn't there. Several gnomes pushed brooms across the marble. A few fairies hovered in a group near the back gardens, and a couple of genies slouched on benches beside one of the fountains.

  Reluctantly, I dipped toward the Crown Library's emerald dome. It was the most likely place to find Meteor--and maybe he would be able to tell me where Leona was. I didn't want to ask him, didn't even want to see him, but he might know where to look for her.

  The doors of the library were crystal etched with gold. Inside, stacks of metal shelves rose haphazardly. Had they laid out this place as a test of flight skill? I was afraid I would bump into one of the teetering stacks. I could just see it toppling slowly, the shelves crashing and clanging, a musty load of books thudding onto the stone floor.

  I tried to move quietly as I searched for Meteor. I spotted him quickly; the white stripes in his black hair stood out against the red cushion where he reclined. His dark face was half hidden by a book. Lounging next to him, her green wings fanned out to display every shimmer, was Portia Peridot. She looked as if she were posing for an illustration in a human fairy tale.

  189

  Portia saw me but pretended she hadn't. Meteor remained totally absorbed in his book.

  "Meteor," I whispered.

  He looked up. His eyebrows came together in a withering frown.

  "Have you seen Leona?"

  He turned a page, ignoring me.

  "Meteor! Please. Tell me if you've seen her."

  "No, I haven't."

  I turned away, my eyes clouding with tears. In all the years we'd been friends, we had argued many times, but Meteor had never looked as if he hated me.

  I took to the air outside, asking everyone I met if they happened to know where Leona, the famous Violet fairy, might be found. Everyone had heard of her, but no one knew where she was. Leona must have truly tired of her fame, just as she'd told me the day before when she said she wished she could turn to shadow.