I looked at the huge pile of paper towels in the sink. Then I looked up in the mirror. I stood there for a second, wondering why my brain was nudging me. I saw the toilet behind me in the mirror’s reflection. I grabbed the paper towels and was going to throw them into the trash bin, but changed my mind at the last second, turning and throwing them into the toilet.
“What are you doing?” asked Tim.
“I don’t know.” I sat there looking at all the bloody towels in the toilet, watching them sink and become soaked with toilet water, my mind racing. “I was going to leave you in here, but this place is spelled and you can’t fly. You’d starve to death before you could fly away.”
“So don’t leave me here. I want to stay with you.”
“He’s going to beat the piss out of me, Tim; and if he does that you’ll get hurt too. They’ll find you and kill you, I know they will. I can’t let that happen.”
“So what’s with the towels in the toilet? Do you have an idea?”
“I think I do. Maybe.” Did I? Did I have an idea? It was a long-shot, but even a long-shot was worth trying. “Just be ready to jump ship and find a place to hide until your wings grow back and you can fly the hell out of here.”
“I’m not going to leave you, Jayne.”
“Yes, you are. Trust me ... I’d leave your stupid ass.”
“No, you wouldn’t. I know what you’re trying to do, Jayne. Don’t try to make me mad so I’ll go.”
I sighed. “Tim, if you loved me, you’d do what I’m asking you to do.”
“That’s dirty pool, Jayne, dirty pool.” I could feel his frown burning into my neck. “But I’ll think about it.”
“Fine. That’s good enough for me.”
I walked back to the sink and pulled out all the paper towels from the dispenser. I shoved them into the toilet until it was stuffed. “Okay Tim. Time for Operation Clogged Shitter to begin.”
I walked over and stuck my head outside of the door of the bathroom. “Um, excuse me!” I said loudly out into the hallway. “Is anyone out there? I’m having a little bit of a problem in here!”
A door opened down the hall and the wood sprite dungeon warden came out, obviously irritated. “What is the problem?”
I looked at him sheepishly. “Actually, it’s a little embarrassing.” I gestured for him to come inside. He looked at me suspiciously, but followed me in.
I pointed to the toilet. “I guess I must have used too much paper last time I was in here because it won’t flush. And I really need to go now, but I can’t unless it will flush, if you know what I mean. Is there another bathroom I could use?” I tried to look as embarrassed as possible and not devious, which is how I was feeling inside – devious and hopeful. Come on, you stupidass wood sprite ... fall for my mad escape plan!
He took a few steps over and peered into the toilet, his face getting a disgusted look on it. “What did you put in there?” he asked angrily.
I looked at him, “You’re fucking kidding me, right?” I could tell my reaction surprised him a little, so I decided shame was the right track. “What? You Dark Fae don’t ever shit? Get periods? What is that? A Dark Fae thing? So if I join up, I’ll never have to take another dump again? Never have to find a tampon in the forest? Because that’s tempting, let me tell ya.”
He looked at me in horror. His mouth started moving, but no sound was coming out. His eyes went back and forth from me to the door and then over to the toilet. He was in full panic mode. These wood sprites were no good at verbal confrontation, lucky for me.
“Listen, just bring me to another bathroom so I can take care of business, okay? I won’t tell anyone I know your secret about pooping and periods okay? But honestly, you should put it in the brochures. You’d get a lot of female recruits that way.”
“We don’t have ... there are no ... everyone ... ” he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Fine.” He opened his eyes back up and fixed them on me calmly. “Let’s go. And hurry up. Leck is waiting for you.”
“Yes, and I sure can’t wait to get back to him, too. You know how he’s doing that torture thing? Wow, is that ever fun. He’s even started kicking me in the face now, did you notice?” I pointed to my bloody eye, but he refused to look. “It doesn’t seem to bother him at all that he’s twice my size and I’m a girl. You Dark Fae are so modern-minded. Do you beat your wives too?”
He ignored me as we walked down the hall; I tried like hell to notice any kind of distinguishing feature on any of the doors as I chattered away, but so far, no joy. They all looked the same.
The sprite stopped in front of another door. “Here,” he said testily. “Use this one. And don’t use so much paper this time.”
I gestured for him to come closer to me and leaned towards him, whispering conspiratorially, “F-Y-I? I know you haven’t pooped in a long time, but sometimes, a lot of paper is just necessary, you know?” I left him sputtering outside the door. I had to hurry up and figure out what the hell to do next – I had no time to enjoy my bodily function humor torture.
This bathroom was much like the other, if not a little nicer. It had two toilets and two sinks, plus a small metal boxy thing in the corner. I quickly moved over to it, realizing when I got closer that it was an old fashioned heater of some sort. “What the hell?” I said, running my hands over it, looking for a way to open it.
Tim came out of my hair. “What is it?”
“A heater thing. You could hide in here.”
“Yeah, it’ll be perfect ... until someone starts a fire,” he said sarcastically.
“Listen, it’s warm out. Summer’s coming. No one’s going to light a fire in here anytime soon. Your wings will be back in three weeks or so. You just need to find a way to get some food. Maybe if you crawl up in that pipe that goes into the ceiling you could find a way out, or at least find the dining hall or kitchens.”
Tim climbed down my arm to get closer. “It has possibilities,” he conceded, grudgingly.
“Well, check it out while I go get this stupid blood off my face.” The cut had started oozing again.
I left Tim at the heater and walked over to the sink, turning the tap on and letting it run over my hands as I stared at myself in the mirror. I looked like shit. My hair was a giant ball of knots. My face had dirt and blood on it. My lips were chapped and thinking about cracking. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, letting my mind drift to the place in me that held memories of The Green. Man, how I wished I could pull its healing power into me right now and fix myself up.
I felt a tingle in my hands. At first I thought it was the temperature of the water changing, but then it became stronger. I opened my eyes and looked down, worried this place was spelled with witchy faucets. Maybe the water was poisoned.
But the feeling coming through the water wasn’t a bad feeling. Once I focused on the sensations, I found they were actually pretty nice. Very nice. It felt like ...
“No ... ” I whispered, afraid to be too hopeful.
“What?” asked Tim.
“Tim!” I whispered excitedly, “I feel something!”
“Yeah, me too. Desperate ... hungry ... sad ... hopeless. Pick your adjective.”
“No, stop screwing around, I’m serious! There’s something in this water!”
“Quick! Come get me, come get me!” He was jumping up and down anxiously on the heater, gesturing with his hands and waving me over.
The wood sprite’s voice came through the door. “Are you almost done in there? Leck wants you back.”
Yeah, I’ll just bet he does. “Out in a minute! I’m a little constipated right now!”
I reached over and grabbed Tim. “Stand here on the edge of the sink and put your hand in this water. Tell me if you feel it too.”
Tim and I let the water run over our hands. There was no mistake – something was going on here.
“I feel nothing. It’s just water,” he said, disappointment lacing his words.
“No, Tim. There’s someth
ing there. I can feel it. It’s strong.”
Tim examined at the water on my hands and then he looked up at my face, meeting my eyes. “Jayne. You’re an elemental.”
“Yeah, so?”
“You have ties to Water.”
I thought about that for a second. Flashes of Naida and Becky ran across my mind. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know!” he said feverishly. “Maybe you can connect! How does it work?”
“I have no friggin’ idea, Tim!” I said, panic lacing my voice. “I’ve never communicated using water before! That’s Becky’s thing, not mine!”
“Listen,” said Tim, holding out his hands in a calming gesture, “just relax. Reach out to the water – through the water. See if you can find anyone out there ... a water sprite, a siren ... a frog, a tadpole ... something!”
I took a deep, wavering breath and closed my eyes. I figured I had about two minutes before the wood sprite came and busted down the door to drag me out of here. I had to give it a shot.
Chapter 25
I reached into the sparkly sensation that was flitting across my hands where they rested under the water still flowing out of the faucet. At first my connection was almost imperceptible, just a fluttering; but then I sensed a stretching – a reaching out beyond this place where I was right now. This is what it must feel like to be a beam of light in a fiber optic cable. I was zipping along a current, going with a flow I could not see, images and flashes of feelings flickering by and almost tickling me as I went along. I focused on the two fae I knew who were associated with this element – Becky and Naida, the siren from the Lake of the Green Forest.
At first I had nothing to grab hold of, just a jumble of pictures and bits of sensation. But slowly things began to take shape and gain focus. I could sense that what I sought was out there ... if only I could reach it. Tim was saying something but I couldn’t concentrate on him very well; I was absorbing the things I was seeing and feeling in the water. A few of his words broke through my concentration ...
“... like The Green!”
Hearing those three words made me realize that this moment I was having with the water was not unlike the ones I’d had with The Green. There is a network of beings out there, all connected to each other through these elements. I was connected. I was connected to both networks – the ones of Water and Earth. And they were connected to each other ... weren’t they?
I decided that attempting to make some sort of cross-link between the two was worth a try. Either I was going to bring The Green in to me and somehow at least protect myself from the worst of the torture, or I was going to cause some sort of cataclysmic event. Maybe the elements were never supposed to mix. I didn’t have enough time to sort it out or consult the wise and wonderful gray elves, so I decided to fall back on my standard philosophy: what the fuck ... might as well give it a shot.
I called through the water to my friends. I focused every ounce of energy I had on recalling their faces, their personalities and our shared history. I conjured up the feelings I had when we were experiencing those events together. I pictured Becky’s laughter and easy smile. I saw Naida’s stoic face, luring my friends into the water during our changeling test. I saw it all; and through all these visions, I felt them, their fae energy surging through our Water element, reaching back out to me.
I knew Becky was feeling me there now. She was worried and scared but relieved too. I tried to let her know where I was and that Tim and I were going to try to escape. It was harder for me here using the water link. I didn’t have enough experience with it. I didn’t know if she was getting the message or not.
Naida was there too. I felt a calming presence from her, and anger. I knew the anger was not for me – it was reserved for the ones who held me here. Man, how I wished I could see her float in here and sing them all to death.
I moved away from the link with my water friends and focused on working out a connection between Water and Earth. I knew it was there somewhere.
I thought about the Green Forest and the trees ... the leaves and the vines ... everything that had touched me and others before, when I needed them. I thought of the roots of the Ancients, digging down into the soil, reaching out for the water that nourished. And it was there that I found my connection. It had been waiting for me, all along.
I stood in the bathroom, connected through Water, and pulled The Green to me. It rushed in, filling every part of my being with its cool, healing light. I felt the spot above my eye tingle, and knew that the skin was pulling together, the scar tissue weaving itself over the once bleeding gash. I felt my energy restored, and my sense of hope soared until it swelled my heart with happiness. Now we had The Green, Tim and I. Now we were going to get the hell out of this nightmare.
I sent a silent thank you out to Water, grateful for its assistance and link to The Green. I pulled my hand out from under its flow, testing to see if the connection remained, relieved to find that it did. Even the Dark Fae creatures helped my connection here. Even their Dark Fae hearts couldn’t hide from the power they fed with their life forces. I turned the faucet off and opened my eyes to look at Tim.
“Did that go as well as it looked like it did?” he asked, smiling hesitantly.
“Better. I’m linked to The Green now.”
“I knew it. I could feel the hum, even without my wings. Pixies can do that you know ... sense The Green.”
I smiled, so full of joy right now I couldn’t give him a hard time about his pixie posturing. “I know, you’re the awesomest. You’re the man ... the pixieman. Now let’s go kick some fae ass.”
Tim jumped into my waiting hand and ran up my arm to get into my hair. “Giddyup, you elemental fae butt kicker!”
I reached up, gently flicking him in the ass for yanking on my hair and treating me like a horse, but I didn’t have time to properly scold him because someone began banging on the door.
“Time to come out!” shouted my wood sprite jail keeper.
Time to test my strength, you mean. I put up a field of Green power in front of the door. “Come on in and get me, gnome head!”
I could hear some grumbling on the other side of the door and then the latch started to move. It went still for a second and then started jiggling again, followed by more silence.
“How did you lock this door? These doors aren’t lockable. Open up right this instant!”
He sounded like my mother. I tried not to laugh. Escaping the clutches of the bad guys was supposed to be serious business, but I was so full of the power of The Green right now and the idea that I could be possibly escaping, that I couldn’t help but be happy.
“No!” I felt like I was high on life or something. I was gushing light and happiness. It was so not like me, but it felt oh, so damn good in this miserable place.
I heard the sprite’s angry, striding footsteps receding down the hall. The Green was amplifying all the sounds around me. I could hear Tim breathing fast, showing me he was as excited as I was. Soon I was able to hear several sets of feet coming down the hallway towards the door.
Leck’s voice seeped in through the wood of the door, sending a creepy sensation up and down my spine. It was a bit of a wet blanket on my joy; hearing it caused me to lose some of my optimism. I knew he was on the other side, less than a couple feet away, trying to figure out how to get in and hurt me. That kind of evil is hard to totally block out.
“Open the door, Jayne. We aren’t done talking.”
Tim began to tremble again. “He’s going to come in, Jayne,” he whined quietly.
“No, he’s not,” I whispered. Then I shouted at the door, “Go torture your mother, Leck!” I hoped insulting someone’s fae mother was as rude as insulting someone’s human mother. Maybe if they got mad enough, something would break around here and I’d be able to find a way to get out. Hopefully the thing that broke wouldn’t be me.
“I’m giving you five seconds.”
“Give me whatever you want. I’m not comi
ng out until the Light Fae arrive to kick your asses.”
I considered testing the power link for communication, but I was worried about my ability to do too many things with it at once. Could I hold them off with my giant Green power bubble shun and talk to the green elves at the same time? It was worth trying, but I was afraid to do it with Leck standing right outside. I knew now that as a wrathe he could do things like walk the Gray and send excruciating pain into my body, but I had no other clues about his remaining powers. Wrathes were some scary shit. I was glad my friend Tony was one. Once he had it all figured out, no one would ever mess with us again.
I felt something pressing against The Green. It didn’t feel right; it felt dark and dangerous. It had to be Leck trying to do something, or maybe Samantha again – although this time it felt different, more ominous. Maybe Leck was trying to get in here through the Gray. I had no idea how The Green and The Gray were connected, or separated for that matter, and I really didn’t want to know, either.
“Whatever you’re trying to do, it’s not working. Go torture someone else. There must be a small child or an old lady around you could mind melt for fun.”
I could hear a couple of subdued voices on the other side of the door but it was difficult to figure out what they were saying exactly. I could tell that they were pissed. Good. At least I wasn’t totally inept at this fae power shit.
The pushing on my power bubble had stopped, so I quickly reached along the connection I was holding to see what else or who else I could find out there. Finn was my most likely candidate since he was a green elf and I knew I could reach those guys through The Green. But he was out on training maneuvers for I don’t know how much longer. I wasn’t even sure where he was or how long I’d been in here. But still ... it was worth trying to find him. If I could talk to Finn, he could let Jared and the council know what was happening. Unfortunately, I’d have to tell them about Chase, because if anyone was going to come here for rescue purposes, I wanted him taken too. So far none of the fae here had mentioned Chase, which told me they either didn’t know he was here or they didn’t know about our connection.