Call to Arms

  There was a little tiny person in there. A tiny little person with teensy weensy friggin’ wings.

  “Holy shit! Wings! You have wings!”

  I could see the tiny person’s mouth moving but I couldn’t hear what it was saying.

  “I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

  The tiny person rolled its itty-bitty eyes at me, making lifting motions with its hands.

  I think it wanted me to lift the jar up. I put my hand on top of the glass, wondering what would happen if I did. Would the little winged creature just stay there? Or would it fly away? And more importantly, would I get in trouble?

  “Hey! What are you doing in here?!” yelled a voice from the doorway. I immediately jerked my hand back and stood up, spinning to face the voice.

  I immediately recognized the fae in the gray tunic, the one whose voice I had overheard outside the bathroom discussing my elimination! “I could ask you the same thing,” I said, my voice full of false bravado. I had to try to keep him off balance until I could summon Spike or scream for someone else. Maybe this guy was the one who had arrowed Chase too.

  “No you cannot. I have permission to be here. You do not! I am going to report you right now.”

  “Go ahead. Why don’t you report yourself while you’re at it.”

  “That is ridiculous. I am not going to report myself.”

  “Well you should. You wouldn’t want the other fae to think you’re a hypocrite, would you?”

  “Hypocrite? What? That makes no sense whatsoever. Just stay right there. Others will be here momentarily.”

  “Aren’t you going to report me?”

  “I already did.”

  “On your cell?”

  “What is a cell?”

  “A phone, duh.”

  “Elves do not need phones,” he said haughtily.

  I gave him my ‘well, aren’t you fucking special’ look. He shot me a dirty look in response. We stood there staring at each other in a tense standoff.

  Soon the door opened wider and Ivar stepped inside, followed by two other gray-tunic-wearing elves.

  “She’s here. The intruder.”

  “Ivar, I’m not an intruder. I was looking for Dardennes.”

  “She was going to release the pixie,” said the elf.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “The pixie on the desk. Under the bell jar. You were going to release him, I saw you.”

  “Ooooh, the pixie. I wasn’t going to release him. I just wanted to hear what he was saying.”

  He looked at the others with an ‘I told you so’ look on his face. “She’s obviously as stupid as she looks.”

  That did it. He’d pushed the last button with me. “Listen here, you fucking traitor freak, no one stands there and calls me stupid and gets away with it.”

  I approached him menacingly.

  He stood firm, but I saw a slight quiver along the edge of his mouth. He wasn’t as tough as he pretended to be. Or maybe he had underestimated my inner bitch. But that was his mistake, not mine.

  I pulled Blackie from the sheath on my leg, holding it up in my fist across my chest. I had practiced this move in my room earlier. One slice down and to the left, and he’d have a very large boo boo somewhere on his torso. I couldn’t be sure where exactly since I didn’t have an actual body to practice on before, but that didn’t matter. I could already see my threat was having the effect I wanted.

  He stepped back, his chin quivering. “Th – th – th – The Dark! Th- the Blackthorn. No!”

  His body started to go wispy on me, growing increasingly faint and starting to spin like Céline’s had that one time she showed me how she could fly.

  “Oh, no you don’t, you little gray elf bastard,” I said angrily, grabbing at his quickly disappearing form.

  He started to materialize again, his image getting sharper.

  “Let go of me, you Dark Fae beast!”

  “Dark Fae? Who are you calling Dark Fae? I’m not the one plotting to overthrow the government here ... that’s you, asshole.”

  The other two elves just stood there, enthralled by the show playing out in front of them. But Ivar had apparently had enough.

  “Let go of the elf, Jayne.” He looked at my accuser. “And you, elf, you are going nowhere. Stay present.”

  “Yeah,” I spat at him, “stay present, traitor.”

  He came back to his solid form and gave me a dirty look.

  The door opened and Dardennes entered, stopping short at seeing all of us there in his office.

  “Ivar, what is going on here?”

  “I am not sure, sir; the gray elves were summoned by one of their race. I came with them and arrived in time to see the changeling Jayne and this gray elf in an altercation. Several charges have been leveled since I arrived.”

  Dardennes moved to stand behind his desk, facing all of us.

  “I will begin with the gray elf. Gregale, tell me the charges you have brought.”

  I threw up my hands. Of course the elf bastard got to go first. Fucking Dardennes.

  The elf preened for a second before starting. “I came in here and found her getting ready to release the pixie from the bell jar.”

  “Jayne, what do you have to say about this?”

  “Why don’t you ask him why he was in here in the first place?” I gave the gray elf a dirty look. His face blanched a little bit, telling me he was up to no good.

  “I’d like to hear what you have to say first.”

  “I’d prefer not to say it in the company of this elf here,” I said pointing to my accuser.

  “If you have something to say about him, he should hear it. Please proceed.”

  I rolled my eyes. These fae were so friggin’ irritating sometimes. “Fine. I was coming here so I could tell you two things. First, that I heard this guy and one of his friends – I don’t know who, some girl – talking in the hallway the other night when they didn’t know I was listening, about eliminating me and any other fae who got in their way. Because he’s a traitor. And second, I came here to tell you that someone, gee I wonder who, tried to shoot me with a spelled arrow today, but they got Chase instead – and he’s still in the infirmary waiting for some witchy doctor to figure out how to reverse the spell. But when I got here to tell you all this, you weren’t here. And I saw this little tiny guy with wings under the glass who was trying to tell me something, so I was going to lift the jar just a little so I could hear him. And seriously, he’s tiny, but he’s a person or a fae or whatever, and that’s got to be a violation of some kind of rights to keep someone in a jar on a desk like that.”

  Ivar’s head was slowly moving from side to side, like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  I saw him and lost what little cool I had left. “What, Ivar?! What’s your friggin’ problem?” I’d had enough of his judgmental bullshit. As far as I was concerned, he was nothing more than a common henchman. And I was pissed in general. We had traitors walking the halls, someone trying awfully hard to do me in, and poor little butterfly people trapped in jars. This place sucked. I wanted to go home.

  Dardennes tipped his head down and squeezed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, squinching his eyes up tightly. He stayed that way for a long time.

  I was already impatient enough as it was. “Yo, Dardennes. You in there? Because I’ve got things to do.”

  He let go of his face and stood up straight, looking at me and the gray elf. “Let me see if I can get this figured out. First, Gregale, tell me what you were doing coming to my office today.”

  “I would prefer to speak to you of this in private, sir.”

  “As I said before to the changeling, you will speak here.”

  The elf bowed his head briefly. “As you wish. I also was coming here to speak with you.”

  “About what, Gregale?”

  “About ... the changelings.”

  “And what about the changelings?”

&nbs
p; “It’s just that ... sir ... there are several fae who do not agree that these changelings are in a position to represent the fae in our current state, what with the inevitable conflict on the horizon. I ... I mean, we ... feel that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. And each of these changelings is a weak link.”

  “See! I told you! He said he needed to eliminate us!”

  “She is twisting my words!” he yelled in a high-pitched voice.

  “A-ha! You admit they’re your words!” Oh, my father would have been so proud of me at that moment. It was like I was in a courtroom, cross-examining a lying bastard of a witness.

  “Please! Jayne. Let me hear him speak. You will get your opportunity in a moment.” He turned back to the elf. “Gregale, please continue.”

  “As she has shown you today very plainly, she is tempestuous, prone to attacking without provocation, as well as uninformed and uneducated about fae ways and the fae in general – a prime example being that she was going to release that pixie,” he shuddered at that idea and I noticed Ivar didn’t look all that thrilled about it either. “And last, but not least, she is completely incapable of controlling her powers. She’s dangerous, and we don’t have time to teach her what she needs to know.”

  “So, what would you do with her and the other changelings?”

  “Erase them and send them back to where they came from.”

  “And what if the Dark Fae were to then claim them? Are you comfortable with these changelings fighting against us for the Dark Fae?”

  “Well, no, I didn’t say that.”

  “Well, then, perhaps you can tell me the solution you seek.”

  I joined in. “He wants you to kill us, obviously. That’s what he and his little elf friends were planning.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, changeling, no one is planning on killing anyone.”

  He was poo-pooing me like I was the crazy one.

  Dardennes shook his head, fatigue and maybe a touch of sadness in his eyes. “Unfortunately, Gregale, we do not have the luxury of hand picking only the most highly trained and well-qualified fae to join our ranks. We are taking whoever we can get and whoever will come to us willingly. It is a tall order, to be certain, to ask you to train these changelings in time for battle. But there is no way around it. We must act together as a united group. I am sure you are familiar with the fae saying ‘united we succeed, divided we fail?”

  Gregale put his head down. “Yes, Anton, I am very familiar with that saying.”

  “Do you understand the precarious position you could put our family in by not accepting these changelings and doing everything in your power to help them?”

  Gregale took a deep breath. “I am starting to realize that, yes, Anton.”

  “Good. Then I know I can count on you to take young Jayne out with you tomorrow for training. Since you are so concerned with her weaknesses, inabilities, and lack of insight, I think it only fitting that you correct our educational shortcomings with the help of your people.”

  Gregale’s mouth dropped open, leaving him speechless. I, however, did not have that problem.

  “No friggin’ way am I going out with this traitor idiot to do anything. He’ll probably stab me in the back the first chance he gets! You must be off your rocker to even suggest it!”

  “I assure you, Jayne, I have all of my faculties. You will go out with the gray elves tomorrow for training. They are the masters of the Gray. You could learn a lot from them.”

  “Well that doesn’t make any sense. I don’t have any affinity for smoke or whatever. That’s a Dark Fae thing.”

  “Hush your tongue, changeling!” shouted Gregale, obviously offended.

  “Easy, now, Gregale. Like you have already said, she just needs to be educated. Her statements arise from ignorance, not hate or anger.”

  “Speak for yourself, Dardennes.” I spat. I’d had enough of these idiots. “I’m outta here.” I turned to leave and made it most of the way to the door.

  Ivar stepped in front of me, intending to stop me.

  “Don’t you even think about touching me, Ivar. I just need one more excuse to lay your ass out, and believe me, it won’t take much.” I still had my stick in my hand, but I’m not sure he saw it. Not my problem, though.

  He reached up to grab my arm and I swung my stick out, touching him with the tip. A green glow burst out as Blackie made contact with his skin.

  He yelped and grabbed his arm back, cradling it against his chest, a look of shock and surprise on his face.

  I didn’t even look at the others’ reactions; I just kept walking, yelling over my shoulder. “I told you not to fucking touch me.”

  I was shaking with adrenaline and anger. I stalked down into the hallway and imagined the door to the infirmary. I successfully arrived just a couple minutes later, entering on one end of a hall of beds. I saw Chase near the opposite end and rushed down to be with him. I didn’t know how much trouble I was going to be in for zapping Ivar, so I figured I should say a quick goodbye to Chase before I was caught and kicked out of the compound. He did take an arrow in the back for me, after all.

  I sat down on the edge of his bed. “Hey Chase.” I picked up his cool hand and held it in mine. “God, you look like shit. Sorry about the arrow thing. I know it was meant for me. I guess this means you’re a pretty kickass bodyguard, taking a bullet your first week of duty. I wanted you to know that I just confronted that traitor elf in Dardennes’ office. He probably wasn’t planning on killing us – at least I don’t think killing was his plan. But he doesn’t like us, and apparently he’s not the only one.”

  I looked at his face, noticing that his eyes and mouth were closed. He was breathing regularly, in and out. I turned his big hand over, running my fingers on the lines of his palm. “I don’t know why I’m sitting here talking to you like this. I’m not sure you can hear me or if you’re going to remember this. Anyway, this place is super messed up. I don’t want to be here anymore. I miss Tony. Some guy named Ben is messing with him – changing him. It’s weird and it worries me. It’s only been a few days and already this guy is influencing the shit out of Tony. And there’s a friggin’ miniature fae with wings sitting under a big glass jar on Dardennes’ desk that everyone freaked out about when I almost let him out. They say he’s a pixie. What’s an itty-bitty friggin’ pixie gonna do to bother all these giant, powerful fae? Anyway, I’m not sure I’ll be here when you get up. So I wanted to say sorry and I’ll miss you. Look me up if you ever come to West Palm.”

  I let go of his hand and stood by the side of his bed for a little while longer. I leaned over and kissed him on the forehead before leaving to go back to my room. I’d had a long day and I had to make some plans. I had to figure out how to get the hell out of here and back to Tony.

  Chapter 14

  I got to my room and fell asleep on my bed immediately. I didn’t even get under the covers. No one came to wake me for dinner, so I slept right through it. I didn’t care. I woke up in the middle of the night, around three in the morning, and decided to go check my emails.

  I got to the computer room and checked my account. There were two messages from Tony, sent three hours apart. I opened the oldest one first.

  ‘Hey Jayne, what’s up? Well, I got my contacts. Ben says I look cool. I feel cool too. This is the first time I’ve been without glasses since I was four! I got a haircut and I think you’d like my new look. My mom’s not too happy but I don’t care what she thinks. She’s a pain in the ass. Are you okay? I’ve been getting strange vibes, like you’re upset. Is that weird? Ben says to ignore them, that you’re fine. I should probably take his advice. Well, that’s all. Tony.’

  I opened the second message.

  ‘Me again. Sorry to bother you. Listen, I’m gonna be busy for the next couple days, so you probably won’t hear from me. Talk to you later, Tony.’

  I read that last email about five times, each time the pressure around my heart squeezing tighter and tighter and tight
er. Was my best friend breaking up with me? Maybe I was crazy, but that’s what it felt like. I stood up as if to go, but then decided I had to write back. As if I was going to walk away from that bullshit email and not say anything back ... like hell.

  I opened up a new message.

  ‘Dear Tony. What the hell was that last email all about? You’re acting strange. Just so you know, I am not okay, that’s why you’re feeling those vibes. Don’t listen to that Ben guy. Who is he anyway? You’ve been hanging around him for less than a week and now suddenly you listen to and do everything he says? Shit, Tony, it took me a year to become your friend. I’m trying not to be jealous, but you’re not making it easy. I’m coming home soon. Love, Your best friend forever, and if you try to stop being my friend I will stalk you, Jayne.’

  I re-read my email a few times, making little corrections, additions, deletions. I wanted it to be perfect. A little sad, a little angry, a little guilt-trippy. Perfect. I sent it off, hoping Tony would read it, even though he said he was going to be gone for a while. What the hell did that mean, anyway? Where was he going?

  I logged off and went back to my room. I laid awake for two hours, trying to think of how I was going to get out of here. I never got my five hundred bucks from Dardennes and them for finishing my test. That’s the first thing I had to do. Then I could buy a ticket back home. My mind went over and over the different scenarios of what could happen and all the things that could go wrong. It was a very long list, actually, which was really depressing. I didn’t even really know where I was. I needed a map or a picture of the right door to go out of. I needed a guide, someone who had come and gone before. Jared was the person who jumped into my mind. He’d probably be glad if I left. Maybe he’d be back soon and I could ask him.

  There was a knock at my door, and I glanced at my clock before getting up – five-thirty. Ugh.

  I opened the door and Becky was standing there, all smiles. “Hello! Time for breakfast!”

  I walked back to the bed and threw myself down on it, not even looking at her.

  “What’s up? You weren’t at dinner last night. Are you okay?”