“Don’t worry. We’ll get this taken care of, one way or another.”
“I called the witch. Maggie. I’m not sure if she’s coming or not.”
Becky shivered involuntarily. “I’m not her biggest fan, I have to tell you. She was just a liiiittle too happy to take Tim’s wings off. It was creepy.”
“I know. But if anyone has a remedy, it’s her.”
“I hate to think what’s actually in that remedy though.”
“Yeah. Me too. Probably newt balls or something.”
Becky giggled. “You just said balls. Do newts even have balls?”
“Of course they do. I mean, I’ve never actually seen a newt’s nads, but they must have ‘em. How else would they make babies?” I smiled back at her. This was one of the more stupid conversations I’d ever had in my life, but at least it was getting my mind off my poor friend who was now singing something that sounded like Moon River, a song my dad used to sing, only it was the same line over and over and very out of tune. It was weird that Chase knew this old song.
Finn came back from the trees, jogging over to us and talking at the same time. “I found one. It’s not far.” He looked over at Chase. “Question is, how’re we gonna move him from here to there?”
“Leave that to me,” I said, linking up once again to my source of power. I imagined Chase being dragged behind us by the vines, and they began to do my bidding.
“Show us the way,” I said. “Just don’t step on the vines that are holding Chase.”
Finn offered us his hands so he could help us get to our feet. We stood and followed him into the woods, Chase dragging behind us. He’d probably suffer a few abrasions, but that was better than getting into another wrestling match with him. And he was too damn heavy to carry.
Chase laughed and sang intermittently while he struggled against his bonds.
As soon as I saw the tree that Finn picked, I knew it was the right one. It was huge huge. Almost as big as a sequoia. This forest was so strange. It had all kinds of trees in it, and not just the ones you would expect for the area. I knew we were in Europe ... France probably, by my estimations of the time it took to get here from Florida, the climate, and the info I’d seen in the compound’s computers. Some of the trees shouldn’t be here, but they were. I shrugged it off as a fae thing. Pretty much anything I couldn’t explain these days was chalked up to being a fae thing.
I asked the vines of The Green to tie Chase to the tree so he couldn’t get away, and they dutifully complied. He was trussed up like a captive, and he didn’t like it one bit. He was sweating with the exertion of trying to escape while also letting loose bursts of laughter and shouts of glee. His voice was starting to get hoarse.
I went over and knelt down next to him, being careful not to get too close. I looked over my shoulder, saying, “You guys might want to back up. I’m not exactly sure what’s going to happen.”
They each took five steps backward, saying nothing, just staring at Chase and me.
I looked at Chase, hating what I saw in his eyes and on his face. It was like love, desperation, and confusion all mixed together – so not like him. It’s as if there was an alien inhabiting my friend’s mind.
“Chase, babe, I’m gonna try to heal you with The Green. I need you to sit still and just let it happen, okay?”
“Let’s just dance, okay? Or sing! We can sing together. Come on, I’ll start. Row, row, row your boat ... okay, Jayne, now you do a chorus and we’ll play off each other ... row, row, row your boat ... ”
I sighed; it was no use trying to talk to him. I got started, leaning towards the tree and placing my palms against its rough, brown bark so I could adjust my body against it before assuming the tree-hugging stance. I found this was the best and purist way to commune with the life force that ran through this forest. I could connect with The Green from pretty much anywhere, now that I’d learned how to use and control my powers in training with various other fae, but tree hugging was still the best way to go about using my power when I needed it to be at level ten. There was just less effort required on my part and I could focus better on what I was doing – or trying to do.
I spread my arms out across the tree, my left arm lying over Chase’s chest. His back was against the tree, so now we were all connected together.
A voice came through the din of Chase’s delirious singing and the hum of The Green.
“It’s not going to work!”
I recognized the voice of Maggie, now standing behind me.
“I’m going to try anyway.”
“Suit yourself. I’m leaving.”
I disengaged myself from the tree, turning to face her. “No! Stay for a minute. Let me just try this.”
She shrugged and stood still. “Don’t take long. I need my beauty sleep. It’s past my bedtime.”
I turned back to business. “Okay, Chase, here we go ... ”
I closed my eyes, blocking out the rusty chorus of Row, Row, Row Your Boat as best I could.
I sent out my request through this grand old tree that connected Chase and me to the energy linking all of the living and once living things in the Green Forest and then out beyond. I asked for a healing to begin on my friend’s mind – to help him find the old Chase and get rid of this ... thing ... or whatever it was that possessed him. I could feel the loving touch of The Green flowing through me and into Chase, but I had no idea if it was making any difference. I just kept it up until I thought it was all I could do, and then I gently let The Green go, thanking it for whatever it had been able to do. A sigh escaped my lips when I once again found myself empty of The Green’s loving force.
I pulled back from the tree and looked at Chase critically. He was quiet, smiling. That wasn’t exactly a good sign. This was Chase after all, so the smile had me worried.
“Chase? You okay?”
His eyes slowly opened and then his grin widened when he saw me. “That was awesome! Do it again! Please?! I feel so energized right now!” He struggled with the vines, a confused look on his face. “Why are these things on me? Can you help me get them off? I need to go dance.”
Frustrated tears rushed to my eyes as I jumped to my feet. “Shit balls!” I yelled at no one in particular.
“I told you it wouldn’t work,” grouched Maggie. “Come over here, girl.”
I turned angrily, stalking over to her while I explained, “Tim did this to him. It was an accident. If I can’t fix this – if you can’t fix this – they’ll send Tim away to a leper-pixie colony and Chase to somewhere equally awful. Maybe they’ll put him down or something, I don’t know. I need both of them here. And normal. Tell me you can help,” I pleaded.
“Pixies are dangerous friends to have.”
“Yeah, well, it’s too late for that advice now. I just need to know if you can make him better.”
She shrugged. “He looks happy to me. Maybe he doesn’t want to be better.” She smiled shrewdly.
“Stop dicking around, you old bat. You know no one chooses to be pixied or to stay that way. He’s going to kill himself with this kind of happiness.”
She shrugged. “I can think of worse ways to die.”
“Yeah,” I said menacingly, putting my hand on Blackie, “so can I.”
Maggie raised her eyebrow questioningly. “Are you threatening me?”
“Not exactly,” I challenged back. “I’m asking you to help me. You’re either going to do it or not – but tell me now and stop fucking around. I’m not in the mood.”
“Truth!”
“You’re damn straight it’s the truth. So what’s the deal? Can you help me?”
“Maybe. Pixie curses are tricky business. But it’s not for me to help your friend. You need the healers in the Light Fae compound.”
“Why? Why can’t you do it?”
“You need an antidote made in a lab. It’s new magic – not my specialty. You get the blood of Tim, the pixie who cursed him, and use it to make the reversal spell. I know the basics bu
t not the actual process. You need a younger witch and an older witch, working together.”
“Will it work? Will it make Chase ... normal again?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe not.”
I threw up my hands in frustration. “You’re pretty much being no help at all here! I can’t bring him back to the compound. They’ll get rid of Tim for sure. I need you to fix him out here where they won’t see.”
Maggie started to walk away.
“Where are you going?” I yelled shrilly.
“To bed.”
“But I need your help!”
“I helped you as much as I could. Now I’m going to bed.”
“Arrrrggghhh!!” I screamed, wanting to tear my hair out.
Becky walked up to me, tentatively. “So ... what do you want us to do? Do you want to bring Chase back to the compound?” She rested her hand on my arm, its cool presence calming me a fraction.
Finn stepped up too. “Sounds like that’s the only solution.”
“It can’t be,” I said, nearly weeping with frustration, “I just got Tony back. Now I’m gonna lose Tim? No,” I shook my head, “it’s just too much. He’s injured. I can’t let that happen.”
“Yeah,” said Becky, her eyes going over to Chase, “but you can’t leave Chase out here, and there are no other options. He’s too loud to hide. And how are you going to feed him? He eats like a horse.”
Everything she was saying made sense, but I couldn’t decide what to do. I really, really didn’t want Tim to be punished for this. It wasn’t fair. And I knew that expecting the council to be completely unbiased wasn’t realistic. They were racist pixie haters, every last one of them.
“Maybe I could be of assistance.”
The voice came out of nowhere. I grabbed Blackie, pulling it out of the sheath on my leg. Finn’s bow flew off his shoulder and into his hands, an arrow already notched. He was so friggin’ fast on the draw I hadn’t even seen him move. If I wasn’t so freaked out about a possible sneak attack I would have been seriously impressed. Becky pulled a disappearing act, teleporting away to I have no idea where. Man, was I jealous of that skill.
“Who’s there?!” shouted Finn.
“My name is Gustav, but my friends call me Goose. And I am here in front of you, but I do not particularly like being shot or burned, so until you put your weapons down, I will stay in the Gray, thank you.”
He had a light accent. It sounded German or something.
I looked at Finn and he shrugged at me. Neither of us put our weapons down.
“Do we know you?” I asked. I was stalling, searching my memory for a gray elf named Goose. I didn’t know many of them, but Gregale had mentioned a few. I didn’t recall a Gustav or a Goose.
“No. That is not likely,” he said, a smile in his voice. He certainly didn’t seem threatening, other than being invisible.
“Do you live at the compound?” asked Finn.
“No. I live out here in the forest. And in the Gray.”
“What the hell’s he talkin’ about, livin’ in the Gray?” whispered Finn to me.
I leaned towards his ear and told him what I know. “It’s the space between this world and the Otherworlds – where the spirits live sometimes. I’m not exactly sure. Gregale took me there once to go visit Tony using astral projection. Gray elves can go there.”
“Ah,” said Finn, acting like everything I had just said made perfect sense, which it didn’t. But it was the best I could do. The Gray was kind of a mystery to me too.
“If we put down our weapons, you have to promise not to hurt us,” I said, trying to sound confident and not scared, conveniently ignoring the fact that anyone who wanted to harm us would have no problem lying to us about his intentions.
“If I wanted to hurt you, I could have already done that five times over. You are not the quietest fae in this forest, believe me.” He had a point there.
“Yeah, well, we have a sick friend.”
“I can see that. And as I’ve said – I may be able to help you with his little affliction. A pixilation problem, I’m guessing?”
Dammit. Now the whole compound was going to find out.
I lowered my weapon, reaching out and pushing on Finn’s arm so he would put down his bow.
“Fine. Our weapons are down. Show yourself.”
A shimmering began a few feet in front of us. First the form was just a gray outline. Then it became more solid. Standing there, wearing a blackish gray tunic, was a skinny guy with a sharp nose and high cheekbones. He had blond hair like Chase but gray eyes like some I’d seen recently. Whose eyes looked like that? I couldn’t put my finger on it and then he started speaking so I instantly forgot what I was trying to remember.
“I am part of a group of witches and other fae who have recently found some success in treating pixilation. Perhaps your friend would be willing to come to our facility and participate in our latest study.”
I looked at him like he was nuts. We were out here in the Green Forest, Chase tied to a tree laughing his fool head off, and this guy is talking about clinical trials? Was he mental? I started worrying that we had a total psycho on our hands, and not the savoir he was making himself out to be.
“Listen, Goose, I appreciate your little medical breakthrough or whatever, but this is not a joke. My friend needs help and he’s not interested in being a lab rat or whatever it is you’re talking about. So unless you can really help him, I’m going to need you to get the hell away from us.”
My hand itched to lift Blackie up and put it in his face, but I didn’t want him disappearing again until I knew for sure he wasn’t going to be any help. I was desperate – so desperate, I was talking to some strange gray elf who I’d never seen or heard of.
Goose smiled patiently. “No, he would not be a lab rat. Our study is beyond experiments with animals. We have actual fae participating in the study now who have found great success with our treatment.”
Finn spoke up, unable to hold back his curiosity, “So, what is this treatment then? You jus’, give ‘im a shot in the butt cheek or somethin’?”
“No. We have witches on staff who have found the means to create an antidote ... much like the one described by your friend. Maggie, I believe, is her name.”
“So what is the antidote like? What does it do?” I asked.
“It’s a series of treatments, administered at various stages, until the pixilation is completely removed. The side effects are ... manageable. And temporary.”
“Have you actually had a pixying completely reversed yet?”
Goose cleared his throat. “A-hem, well, not exactly. And the correct term is ‘pixilation’. But we are very, very close. For thousands of years, various groups have worked on this solution, but for the first time, we have had major breakthroughs. It is quite exciting really.” He looked meaningfully over at Chase, his expression becoming serious. “Your friend needs us, that much is clear. And you shouldn’t wait too long to decide what to do. The longer you wait, the harder it is to heal and the less chance there is of him coming all the way back from it.”
I got a panicky feeling in my chest. It was becoming hard for me to breathe.
“Well, it sounds good ‘n all, and not to be rude or nothin’, but we don’t even know who you are or where you’re from. An’ you’re just expectin’ us to hand over our friend to you and a buncha witches we don’t know either? Huh-uh. I don’t think so.” Finn shook his head and frowned. “No siree bob. Ain’t gonna happen.”
Finn was right. As tempting as this sounded, I couldn’t just give Chase to this guy like that. Not when we knew so little about him.
“He’s right. Tell us what we need to know. Who are you and where are you from exactly?”
“I can tell you that I am Gustav. I am a fae ... of the wrathe race, as you can see by my tunic. I live in the Green Forest with others of my kind. And I am Dark Fae, if that makes any difference.”
I looked at him aghast. “Of course it makes a
difference, you Dark Fae dumbass!” I immediately held up Blackie, noticing that Finn had beat me to it, already holding Gustav in his sights.
“Ah. So, you are Light Fae ... and newly changed if I am not mistaken. Do not worry, you have nothing to fear from me. I am merely a scientist at heart. Look ... ” he held up his hands and gestured around him, “I hold no weapons. I have come in peace.”
He certainly didn’t look very threatening.
“You’re Dark Fae. That makes you the bad guy,” said Finn, matter of factly.
Gustav smiled. “I see they have the propaganda machine well-oiled and working soundly in the Light Fae camp. How unfortunate for you. Actually, young green elf, the world is not so easy to fit into categories, now is it? I suspect your friend was pixilated by a Light Fae pixie, yes?”
“Yeah. So?”
“Sounds to me as if he’s the bad guy. Not me. I’m offering to help.”
“But what do you want in return? That’s the real question here.” I’d learned one very valuable thing from Maggie, who never even tried to hide the fact that it was her motto – nothing in this world came without personal sacrifice.
“So suspicious. So doubting. But I will give you your answers so that you will feel more comfortable – because it is true that I do this for selfish reasons. We have lost several of our brethren to pixilation. The more subjects we have from different fae races, the more opportunity we have to find the cure. We are nearly there. But we cannot ask fae to volunteer to be pixilated so we can continue our work. I travel the Gray looking for those who have had the misfortune to run into an angry or misguided pixie. That is why I am here and willing to help – even though you are, as we say over in the Dark Fae compound, the bad guys.” He smiled at that, raising his eyebrow at us in a challenge.
I suppose it did make sense that he considered us adversaries.
Finn looked at me, shrugging his shoulders. “Makes sense to me.”
“Yeah, me too. If he’s telling the truth.”
And that gave me the perfect idea. “Just wait one second, Goose. I want you to talk to a friend of mine.”