creepy hollow 03 - faerie war

  “Okay, everyone get ready. We’ll meet down on the transportation level,” Ryn says. He nods for me to follow him out of the dining room.

  “Hey, I should probably tell you something,” I say once we reach the corridor and head toward the stairs. “I tried the finding thing earlier, and it didn’t work. I looked for Jamon and my imagination conjured up an image of somewhere in the air way above the ground.”

  “Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Jamon’s on a pegasus right now.”

  “What?” I stop walking.

  “Yeah, sorry.” Ryn closes his eyes for a moment and shakes his head. “I was supposed to tell you. He left earlier for the reptiscilla hideout with one of our Council members. They’re going to discuss the possibility of bringing all their warriors here to the base.”

  “He left without saying goodbye to me?” I know we’re not that close, but I wouldn’t have expected him to leave without saying anything.

  “You were sleeping. He didn’t want to wake you.” Ryn climbs the stairs, and after a moment’s pause, I follow him.

  “You didn’t seem to have a problem with waking me.”

  “Well, the things I needed to talk to you about were actually important.” We reach Ryn’s level and he heads to the left.

  I roll my eyes and start climbing the next set of stairs. “Whatever. I’ll see you down by the magic carpet.”

  “Bring extra weapons if you’ve got any,” he calls after me. “You never know when they might be useful.”

  *

  The magic carpet ride is just as much fun the second time around—well, except for the beginning. Ryn takes off so fast the rest of us shoot backward and land in a heap, pressed up against the dome-like shield covering the carpet. After Max and Fin attack Ryn and the carpet almost steers itself into the river bank, we settle down for a comfortable ride.

  We’ve got several hours to kill, so Max, Em, and Fin fill me in on their stories. Em’s parents, like mine, were killed on assignment before she graduated. Instead of scaring her off, it made her even more determined to be a guardian. Oliver is the only family she has left—he’s her father’s uncle or something like that—and she’s been with him ever since The Destruction.

  Max picks at the laces of his boots as he tells me what happened that night. He had to watch Draven’s army carry away his parents and girlfriend, and there wasn’t a thing he could do about it unless he wanted to wind up with the same fate. He hasn’t seen them since he joined up with Oliver and Em, but he still believes they’re alive. They were excellent guardians, he says. Draven would want them on his side.

  Fin doesn’t want to talk, but he nods when Em asks if she can tell me what happened. He lost everyone he cared about. He was the only guardian in his family. His parents, older brother, girlfriend, and her family were crushed inside their homes when Draven’s enchanted inferno swept through the Estra forest and destroyed everything. He wanted to end his own life, but decided ending Draven’s would be more satisfying.

  We sit in silence after that, each of us lost in our own thoughts.

  Late into the night, with snow falling thickly around us, we arrive at Creepy Hollow forest. We glide above the trees until Ryn judges we’re close to where the Guild was before The Destruction. We descend slowly, everyone looking out for possible threats. We pull our jackets, coats, and hoods on—which I notice with a smile are all white now, just like the cloak Natesa made for me—and climb off the carpet. An icy breeze permeates my clothes immediately. I blow into my hands to start the charm that will heat me up while Ryn sends the carpet into the air above the trees to wait for us.

  “Are we marking our hands?” Max asks.

  Ryn shakes his head. “Not necessary this time. We’re not trying to gain anyone’s trust to get information. We just want to knock someone out and give him or her the cure. Let’s go this way.” He indicates for us to follow him. I pull my hood further forward to keep the snow from falling into my eyes. “And don’t worry about elevating yourselves this time,” he adds. “The falling snow will fill our tracks.”

  The gathering breeze turns into a wind that sounds like distant screams. Draven must be in a bad mood tonight. I wrap my arms around myself and hug my magically heated clothes.

  “Everyone got their extra weapons, just in case?” Ryn asks above the wind.

  “Yes,” I say, along with the rest of the team. I’ve got a dagger in each boot and a knife strapped to the top of my right leg.

  “Okay, I don’t know exactly what we’re heading toward. It could be a massive ruin, or it could be a brand new, completely hidden Guild. I don’t know if Draven’s people have finished rebuilding. So let’s split up here. Em, Max, Fin—go that way.” He points left. “V and I will go this way. Em, you’ve got those cures I gave you before we left?”

  “Yes.”

  “If you see someone alone, make them take the cure. Otherwise, stay hidden. Keep me updated on my amber. You’ve all got the voice-activated messaging spell, right?”

  More nods.

  “Okay. Let’s go.”

  I follow Ryn. After several minutes of barely being able to see, the snow ceases to fall and the screaming wind disappears. I brush white flakes off my arms as we walk. “Out of curiosity,” I say, “what exactly do you mean by ‘just in case’? Shouldn’t we always be able to use our guardian weapons?”

  “We should, but Zell had this method of blocking people’s magic. I’d be surprised if Draven isn’t doing the same thing to faeries. It’s—whoa. I think we’ve found what we’re looking for.” He stops and points ahead.

  Through the trees I see a clearing. There are shapes that could be broken walls and piles of rubble. Piles a lot higher than the destroyed faerie homes I saw with Jamon. We head toward the clearing, navigating our way over fallen trees. When we can’t go any further without climbing onto the ruins, we stop.

  Silence presses against my ears. The snow has returned, but it drifts down in tiny flakes instead of swirling around us in a blizzard. If I let my imagination go, I can almost smell the burning forest the way it must have been that night. The falling snow becomes ash in my mind, covering the landscape in black and grey. But the ash couldn’t bury this much wreckage, and neither can the snow. It’s still here, like a memorial reminding us of what we’ve lost.

  “So this is what our Guild looks like now,” Ryn murmurs.

  “This is the first time you’ve seen it?”

  He nods. “I’ve been Underground a number of times since The Destruction, but I haven’t been here to the Guild.”

  I think about how much worse this moment is for him than it is for me. He knows exactly what’s been lost. I can only imagine it. “I wonder how far the damage extends,” I say. It’s not like we can see much past the large amounts of debris in front of us.

  Ryn reaches for the nearest branch and pulls himself up into the tree. “If we get high enough, we can see,” he says. I follow his lead and hoist myself up. I could propel myself all the way to the top with magic, but I enjoy the climbing. It feels like something my body’s missed. I advance from branch to snowy branch, following Ryn until we can’t climb any higher.

  “Look at it,” he says quietly.

  The snow-dusted ruins spread out before us as far as I can see. Silent. Unmoving. “I can’t imagine how this was all hidden inside a tree once.”

  “And beneath the ground,” Ryn adds. “Really powerful magic, obviously.” He looks around. “I wonder where they’re building the new one.”

  “We’ll have to keep searching.” I start climbing back down.

  “Wait, look. Someone’s out there.”

  I look up to see where he’s pointing and follow his hand to where three figures are climbing onto the ruins. “It’s the rest of your team, silly,” I tell him. “See Fin’s white hair when he moves past something dark?”

  “We should tell them to stay in the trees.” Ryn opens his jacket and reaches inside, probably for his amber. “If we can see them, some
one else might be able to—Oof!”

  A dark figure slams into Ryn, and he goes crashing through the branches—along with the mysterious figure—toward the ground.

  “What the . . .” I get ready to jump down.

  “You’re about to join him,” a voice behind me says. With a gasp, I turn toward the voice. I catch a glimpse of a woman with dark curly hair before her foot connects with my stomach and shoves me out of the tree.

  I slow my fall seconds before I hit the ground, which means I have at least some air left in my lungs when I jump to my feet brandishing my bow and arrow. Ryn struggles with his assailant and manages to flip him over his shoulder. The man scrambles on the ground for a few seconds before jumping up. Ryn backs away and slashes a sword through the air just as the woman lands beside her accomplice.

  The four of us freeze, weapons ready, each trying to anticipate the next move.

  Without warning, Ryn’s sword fizzles and disappears. “Mom?” he says.

  “Oryn?” The woman lowers her bow and arrow but doesn’t let go. I don’t move mine an inch. “Ryn, it’s really you!” With a smile, she steps forward. “Where have you—”

  “Stop.” A knife appears in each of Ryn’s hands. “Show me your palm.”

  She hesitates. Her smile slips. “Ryn, honey, I’m so relieved you weren’t hurt. We need to talk about—”

  “Show me your palm.”

  Her bow and arrow disappear, but she doesn’t raise her hand. “It isn’t what you think, Ryn. It isn’t what any of you think. Draven isn’t this evil overlord everyone is making him out to be. He wants the best for our world. He wants everyone to be united, both Seelie and Unseelie.”

  “You’re marked, aren’t you?” Ryn says, his voice hitching slightly.

  “I’m loyal to Draven, if that’s what you mean.” She raises her right hand so we can see the open circle inked into her skin.

  Ryn sucks in a deep breath, and I hear it shake slightly as he lets it out. Guilt washes over me. Why didn’t I think to ask Ryn about his family? I’ve been thinking of no one but myself.

  “We have a cure you can take, Mom. You don’t have to serve Draven.”

  She frowns. “But I want to. And you should too. You and Violet can come back with me and—”

  “No.” Ryn shakes his head. “We’re not going anywhere with you. We’re going to cure you of the delusion Draven has placed on you. Then you’ll know the truth.” I see his hand move slowly toward his pocket.

  Ryn’s mother looks over at her companion, a large man holding a sword in one hand and a sparkling metal disc in the other. Shadows make it difficult to see his face. The bow and arrow return to Ryn’s mother’s hands as she looks back at Ryn and says, “I don’t want to hurt you, but if that’s what it takes for you to come back with me, I’ll do it. I won’t lose my son again.”

  Ryn shakes his head again. “Don’t make me fight you, Mom.”

  “I’m sorry . . .” She raises the bow—then jerks forward and slumps to the ground. Unconscious. Em stands behind her, arms outstretched. The man in dark blue spins around and flicks his wrist. The metal disc sails toward Em, but it strikes an invisible barrier and disappears.

  Max and Fin step out from behind the trees and move slowly toward the man, their hands raised as though pushing something through the air. “We’ve got a shield bubble around him,” Fin says. “Give your mom the cure.”

  “You stunned my mother?” Ryn shouts as he dashes to the fallen woman’s side.

  “Yeah.” Em rolls her eyes as she reaches inside her jacket. “Never mind the fact that she was about to shoot you, Ryn. And it was barely a stun. We didn’t have time to gather enough power for that. She’ll be awake in a few minutes. Here, give her the cure.” Em opens the pouch in her hand and removes a small glass vial.

  “Hey, Vi, we could use your help here,” Max says. The man is throwing himself at the invisible barrier surrounding him. When he starts shooting sparks of magic at it, Max groans. “He’s really strong. I don’t know how much longer we can contain him.”

  I run over and add my own shield around the struggling man. I look over my shoulder at Ryn and his mother. He holds her head up with one hand and pours the vial’s liquid into her mouth. “Come on. Wake up and drink it,” he urges. Moments later, she coughs and splutters and pushes him away from her. She rolls onto her hands and knees and crawls a few feet away. A shiver passes through her body, and she takes a gasping breath.

  Please work, please work, I chant silently. I stumble back as the man batters against my shield. I plant my feet firmly in the snow and strengthen the magic pouring out of me.

  Ryn’s mother climbs slowly to her feet and looks around at us.

  “Did it work?” Max asks. His face is twisted with the effort of keeping his shield intact. “Is she cured?”

  She doesn’t respond. Her breathing is heavy as she watches the snow at her feet, her eyes flicking across it. Then she clenches her right hand into a fist and says in a dangerously low voice, “That was very stupid of you.”

  I guess that’s a ‘no.’

  Before I can think of what to do next, I find myself thrown backward onto the ground. I sink into the snow as I throw up a shield once again—to protect myself this time. Sparks shower down and bounce uselessly off the barrier between me and the man in dark blue. I jump to my feet, along with Fin and Max.

  Ryn sends a flock of flapping birds at his mother. As she backs away, he drags Em behind him and gets his own shield in place.

  “Are we going to do this all night?” His mother shouts from the other side of the shield. The flapping birds have vanished.

  “Should we try to stun them and take them back with us?” Em asks. “Five against two. We should be able to do it.”

  “I don’t know. Just let me—”

  “Look there!” Max points past our two assailants to the old Guild ruins. Guardians are pouring out of a doorway in one of the broken-down walls.

  “Oh . . . crap,” Em whispers.

  Crap, indeed. We can’t fight that many faeries. Our best chance is to—

  “Run!” Ryn yells.

  I turn and make a dash for it. I keep my shield up behind me as long as I can, but the magic hammering against it soon becomes overwhelming. I let go. Sparks, shards of ice, and grains of sand that sting shoot past us. I duck and dodge and continue running. As far as I can tell, everyone else on the team is still running too. I don’t know how close our pursuers are, but I’m not about to waste time looking over my shoulder. I hear a chirping sound from Ryn, and moments later the magic carpet swoops down through the trees. It zooms ahead of us, swerving to avoid the trees.

  “Jump on!” Ryn shouts to the rest of us.

  The carpet slows, but doesn’t stop moving. Ryn reaches it first and jumps on. He moves out of the way as Max and Fin leap through the air and land on the carpet. I reach it at the same time as Em. We jump—and Em screams as something tugs her back. I roll across the carpet and look up to see Em hanging onto the tasseled edge with Ryn’s mother’s hands grasping at her jacket. I lunge across the carpet and grab Em’s arms. I pull as hard as I can, and Em tumbles over me as Ryn’s mother loses her grip. The dome-like shield goes up around the carpet, and we shoot up through the trees and away from our pursuers.

  “Are you hurt?” Ryn shouts back as he steers.

  “No,” Em says, rubbing her arms. Her breath comes out in gasps. “She got the bag of cures I was carrying, but I’m fine.”

  “Man, I haven’t run that fast in a while,” Max says, his breathing matching Em’s. “It was quite exhilarating, actually.”

  I know what he means. I can feel the adrenaline high pumping through my body. Ryn says nothing as we gain speed and the forest slides beneath us faster and faster. I want to say something about his mother, something reassuring or comforting, but I don’t know what.

  “Wait, what was that?” Em is at the edge of the carpet looking down. “Slow down, Ryn. I saw someone back the
re.”

  “We’re trying to get away from them, Em,” Max says.

  “No, it was a person in the top of a tree. He wasn’t wearing dark blue like Draven’s people. It could be a survivor.”

  “Hiding in a tree?” Max sounds doubtful.

  “Yes, and if you were still out there hiding from Draven, you’d want to be rescued too. Ryn, can we go back?”

  “Em, it’s probably a trap,” Ryn says, but I feel the carpet slowing anyway. Ryn twists around and catches my eye. He raises his eyebrows. Is he asking me what I think?

  “We should probably go back,” I say quietly. “I know if I were alone out there trying to stay hidden, I’d want to be rescued. And if he or she starts attacking us as we get closer, we can always fly away.”

  Ryn nods and turns the carpet around.

  Em leans over and whispers, “Remind me to get you to ask him for stuff in the future.”

  “Em, you’re supposed to be looking out for this person,” Ryn says.

  Em moves to the edge of the carpet again. “There.” She points. “See that green shape?”

  Ryn nods. “Okay, I’m going to get closer slowly. I don’t want to alarm whoever it is.”

  We glide through the air toward the green shape. It soon becomes clear that it’s a man. A man huddled near the top of a tree with his arms wrapped tightly around the trunk. He’s looking down at something.

  “Hey, I think I know him,” Ryn says, steering the carpet around so we can see the man’s face beneath his hood. “You know him too, V. At least, you did know him. He was the head librarian at our Guild.”

  Amon. That’s what Ryn said when he was questioning me in Uri’s lab, right?

  Amon looks up and almost falls out of the tree. His face turns the color of the snow on the branch beside him, and he grips the tree even tighter.

  Ryn drops the carpet’s shield and calls out, “Amon. It’s me, Ryn. Are you okay? I’m not marked.” He holds up his hand as proof.