Phantom Fae

  The dragon wasn't old. His ridged spine hadn't peaked yet like that of very old dragons. He was muscled and large like Alton, but he still looked to be no more than their age. So she didn't believe he had made a mistake in missing the archer due to an advanced age.

  Who was he? She'd never seen him before. He wasn't one of the dragon shifters who were members of the dragon fae kingdom. She felt terrible for him as she and Alton checked him over and heard his heart beating, but way too slow. She moved around to take hold of his legs. Looking back, she saw Alton watching her, then he positioned himself to take hold of the golden dragon's hind legs. She gently wrapped her claws around his forelegs and led the way, while Alton held onto the wounded dragon's back legs, and they flew him to the hawk fae kingdom.

  Twice, the golden dragon had attempted to protect her, well, hadn't just tried but had done so. She prayed the hawk fae healers could heal him, and that he wouldn't die. She'd never seen a dragon so badly injured who had survived.

  His heart was beating so slowly, she was afraid they were losing him as his blood dripped over the sands of No Man's Land on the way back to the hawk fae kingdom. The sandworms were amassed and frantic to reach them, the blood putting them in a state of frenzy, like blood dripped into ocean water drew sharks.

  They stayed high above as the sandworms arched up to snap at them, but couldn't reach them. The wraiths weren't fast enough to follow them either.

  When they finally reached her castle, she and Alton landed with the wounded dragon in the inner bailey. She saw the frozen mage apprentice, and Freya, in raven form, sitting nearby as if she was guarding the man, but no sign of Brett or Elorian. She and Alton shifted.

  Freya immediately cawed and landed next to the golden dragon and turned into her fae form. "Brett!" Her eyes filled with tears.

  "What?" Ena said, so shocked she forgot to run for a healer. If her staff was here, which they were supposed to be, she would have sent one of them. She looked at the dragon, but no way could he be Brett. And yet, he had always been that way with her, taking care of her and her staff, not worrying about his own health or welfare, despite being human, or at least so she had thought.

  Even though he had faster healing properties with being a fae, they could still die from blood loss or any number of other calamities.

  "That truly is Brett, the human turned phantom fae turned mage?" Alton asked, staring at him also. "He saved your life, even if it was an idiot way to do it."

  "I'll get a healer." Ena vanished and reappeared in the Great Hall. She saw a servant and called out to him, "I need a healer at once!"

  "I will get one."

  "He is in dragon form and two bolts have struck his body. He's lost a lot of blood and we have to remove the bolts."

  The man's face lost all its color. "Yes, aye, right away." He hurried off.

  Ena returned to her castle and found bandages to at least stop the bleeding. When she reached the bailey, Alton had removed his shirt and placed it underneath Brett's boney golden head. She was shocked that he would do something so kind for Brett, and she appreciated it more than he would ever know.

  She moved to wrap the bandages around the one bolt to stem the bleeding while Freya took the other bandages and copied what she was doing.

  Ena prayed to every god and goddess that Brett would pull through as a dozen or so of the hawk fae hurried to gather—some with tools to extract the bolts, others with medicines and bandages, needles and thread, and some with chains.

  She knew what they were for, but she didn't want to see Brett chained like some crazed animal.

  "For his protection," a man said.

  "And ours," another said.

  The pain could be excruciating, she realized, and Brett could lash out in agony, not realizing he was doing so. She nodded. "What can I do?"

  "You must know him," a man said.

  "I do." But not the way he probably thought. Not as a shifter like she was. Had Brett used his mage abilities to shift? He had to have. What other abilities did he have?

  "Then speak with him. Comfort him," the man said.

  Elorian hurried to join them. "This is utterly remarkable. Not the wounds though." He was frowning with worry.

  "I didn't know mages could turn into dragons." Ena sat next to Brett's head on the grassy ground, then moved his head onto her lap. She ran her hand over his scaly skin to comfort him, though he seemed dead to the world, his breathing shallow, his eyes shut tight. It didn't look good.

  "We can't," Elorian said.

  Ena frowned at him. "Well obviously some of you can."

  "Let me put it this way, if some can, that's a new one on me. I would be surprised, though given his injuries, I wouldn't think he could hold his mage-conjured dragon form. I would think he'd turn back into a fae."

  "Are the mages who are different fae have different abilities maybe?"

  "Some, yes. But as I've said, I've never heard of a mage having the ability to shapeshift into other creatures."

  "I'm afraid we can't do anything for him," a healer said. "We are sorry."

  '"What?" Ena couldn't believe what she was hearing. They had to make this right. The healers had to fix Brett.

  "We don't have the tools to dig out the bolts without causing further damage to the muscles, tissues, and nerves surrounding the injuries. Certainly not as weak as he is. He's lost a lot of blood and will lose a great deal more if we were to manage to pull the bolts out. We fear we'll kill him when we try to save him."

  Ena looked at Alton, her heart beating as her mind swirled with turmoil. She wasn't leaving Brett to perish like this without trying something.

  "We could take him to the dragon fae kingdom. They have a healer there who might be able to remove the bolts. She has worked on our kind before," Alton said.

  Carrying him there meant Brett would lose more blood.

  "We face being incarcerated or killed by Prince Grotto's men—which would include them killing Brett," Ena said, still holding Brett's head on her lap and caressing him.

  "So what other alternative is there? Letting him die isn't an option."

  She couldn't believe Alton's change of heart concerning Brett. That he would risk his own life to take him back to their kingdom in the middle of a war? "Unless we take him to the human world."

  "Are you serious? They don't have dragons in their world."

  "They would give him blood," she said, "if he would shift."

  "He's fae like us."

  "Their blood works fine on us. Any type." Ena looked at how pale Brett was. "I don't know, Alton."

  "I think you already do. We need the healer who healed me before. She will be discreet. We just have to find a way to sneak him there."

  Alton was right, but she was certain Prince Grotto would know this, too. "They will be watching her, I would think, just in case one of us is wounded and goes to see her."

  "Then we'll have to create a diversion."

  "I'll be a diversion," Freya said.

  Ena had forgotten the phantom fae raven girl was still there.

  Freya shrugged. "I will be a raven always if Brett doesn't help me. If he dies, then where will I be? I'm supposed to be helping Prince Grotto and his minions. So no one will suspect that I am not on their side."

  "All right. We must move him at once," Ena said.

  "I will continue to learn a way to unfreeze Zane, but then if Freya is gone…," Elorian said.

  "Just hold him until we return," Ena said.

  "Will you need our help?" one of the burly men asked.

  "No. The fewer who go, the less likely we'll get caught. It's bad enough that dragons are so noticeable. Maybe he will turn back into his fae form before that and it will be easier to move him." Or not. She could just see how disastrous this could be.

  "I will help to carry him while you fly ahead and make sure the way is clear," her brother said, startling and shocking her. She turned to see him looking over her shoulder. How long had he been there?

 
Halloran hadn't wanted to fight the dragon fae because they were relations of a sort. So he had stayed behind even when her suitors had gone ahead and joined in on the fight. Some of it was to protect her. Some of it was just because men liked to fight, she suspected.

  She was glad he wanted to help. But like with Alton's offer, she was just as surprised to hear her brother's proposal.

  She didn't want to seem ungrateful, but she wasn't entirely sure she trusted his motives.

  "One of the hawk fae came and told me that the human turned fae saved your life. I will help return the favor. Do we have a deal? You fly ahead and I'll help Alton carry him?"

  "Yes." She stood and gave her brother a heartfelt hug. They hadn't been this close to each other in years.

  He glanced at Alton, and she was afraid he was drawing some conclusion about her relief that he would help, more so than that she didn't want to see Brett die.

  "Are you ready?"

  "When you are."

  "Let's go." In the beginning, Ena flew with them, only this time they were traveling away from the roads and the supply trains. By the time they reached the phantom fae lands, she flew in the lead, watching for signs of archers anywhere in the woods.

  She wasn't certain what shape her castle would be in, whether or not Prince Grotto's men would have destroyed her things, or if he might have taken it over and given it to someone loyal to him. Which she suspected was probably the case. At least if she had been in his shoes, that's what she would have done. No sense in ruining a perfectly good castle and fortifications.

  Soaring overhead, she cast worried glances back at her brother, Alton, and Brett. She was glad her brother had offered to help. She would never have managed to carry Brett all that much further.

  The worst part was they had to stop and rest. They couldn't fae transport such a long distance without having to stop for some hours to recuperate. The only good thing was that Brett was still breathing, his heart still beating, and the wounds seemed to have stopped bleeding. Maybe his fae healing ability was starting to help heal him, yet it couldn't finish the job with the two bolts in his side. Then again, the bolts would help to keep the blood from pouring out even faster.

  She felt sick with the notion he could still very well die.

  She and her brother and Alton landed in the forest, still in the phantom fae territory and couldn't even light a fire for warmth for fear they'd alert the phantom fae of their whereabouts. Not that they particularly needed warmth when their scaly hides protected them from heat and cold. But she thought it would give her solace, and maybe Brett, if he stirred from the sleep of the dead. She suspected he was unconscious so his body could attempt to heal. When she was injured, though never as badly as this, she needed the sleep.

  She hadn't seen Freya in forever, just a glimpse of a raven nearby once or twice, and Ena assumed it had to be her because most birds thought of dragons as big birds of prey. Though normally, neither she nor her brethren hunted birds when they were dragons.

  Her brother shifted and reassured her, "He is still alive."

  But for how long? Ena wanted to do something, anything to get help for him now, not later. Not when it might not make any difference. She looked about for Freya, but still didn't see any sign of her.

  Alton had stayed in his dragon form and was curled up between pine trees to sleep, his wings wrapped around himself like a cocoon.

  "Thank you for helping us." Ena wanted to tell Halloran to sleep while she stood guard because he and Alton had to carry Brett so far. And they had a long day ahead of them tomorrow, too.

  "I'm not sure why Alton is helping you to save this—"

  "Brett," she said. She didn't mean to sound so irritated, but her brother rarely, if ever, called Brett by his name.

  Her brother smiled a little, then he grew serious. "I want to know how he changed into a dragon."

  "I don't know. Neither of us do. We didn't even know that's who he was when he rescued me—twice." She wasn't certain her brother knew that Brett had saved her from an archer earlier, and hadn't managed to get himself shot that time. But she wanted her brother to know how much he had risked his life both times.

  "Okay, but I still want to know how he managed to shift. By magic?"

  "What other way would there be?" she asked, annoyed. "He's a phantom fae!"

  "He's an enigma."

  Brett was that. Ever since she had found him holding Princess Alicia hostage, intending to kill her, Ena had been torn between terminating him, for the sake of all fae, or agreeing with the princess that he might be one of the fae, and not just a human fae-seer.

  After all that he had done for Ena, she couldn't see him in the same way any longer. He was a true friend…and if she was being honest with herself, more. She was certain he didn’t see her as simply a friend, either.

  "I don't want to see you get mixed up with this mage."

  She opened her mouth to tell Halloran to mind his own business, but when Alton stirred, she said nothing. She would do what she felt right in her heart to do. Her parents had long ago died, persecuted because they were dragon shifters and the ruling dragon fae feared their power. The dragon shifters had tried to keep their bloodlines pure, so that they would continue to exist and not die off like in the human world, though they hadn’t been shifters. Just pure dragons. But look what had happened there? The humans didn't even believe dragons had ever existed. They thought they were just myths and legends.

  She had always felt the same about keeping their bloodlines pure, until Brett had turned her world inside out with his strange ways.

  "Sleep," she finally told her brother, who, she was sure, was waiting for her to agree or disagree with his comment. But she wasn't going to discuss it with him. She would do what her mind and heart told her.

  He raised a brow at her, questioning her tone with him—commanding him to do anything. She was his younger sister, and if anyone commanded anyone, it was he who told her what to do. She tilted her chin up. "You've done the bulk of the work today and will again tomorrow. Get your rest and I'll pull guard duty."

  She leaned over to stroke Brett's bony forehead, hoping the soothing contact would make him know someone was there for him, reaching out, trying to connect.

  Halloran shook his head at her, shifted into his dragon form, and curled up nearby.

  She glanced at Alton, and suspected he had been listening in on the conversation. She was glad she had bitten her tongue and not said anything to Halloran about Brett.

  A woman's soft voice spoke nearby. Ena whipped around, sword unsheathed, but she found only Freya. "I thought you were staying behind in case Elorian could undo the freeze spell on Zane and force him to recant the curse he put on you."

  "He said he couldn't. That Brett has to do it. Elorian hoped there was some loophole that would allow him to unfreeze enough of the mage apprentice to make him comply with his wishes. But since he couldn't, I wanted to be with Brett."

  "Where have you been all this time then?" Ena hadn't meant to sound so accusatory, but she had worried that since Freya was a phantom fae, she might tell others of her kind where they were taking Brett. Maybe with the notion her people could save him when they were closer to the phantom fae queen's castle than to Ena's.

  "I have been watching for my people's movement, much more unobtrusive than if I were a large dragon flying overhead. Ravens are abundant. No one knows me from any other." Freya shrugged, then drew close. "How is he?"

  "Breathing still. His heartbeat is too weak for my liking."

  "I know of a healer nearby. She might be able to take care of him."

  "Why didn't you say anything sooner?" Ena suspected the healer would want payment and they may not like the bargain.

  "She will not like that she is going against our own people's wishes. She will believe Brett has turned and is working for your side. Maybe even that I have."

  "So then she wouldn't aid us."

  "I think she still would aid me. I've done a lot for h
er in the past. Kept her company, too. I think if I ask, she'll do it. She wished the curse on me to be withdrawn. When she learns Brett may be able to help me, she might agree. But, she will probably wish something from you in return."

  "But the hawk fae healers couldn't do anything for him."

  "He is a phantom fae. She might try to save him for that reason alone. You have nothing to lose. It is not far."

  Ena thought Freya was being sincere about the healer wanting to help her, but she still didn't trust that the woman wouldn't turn on Ena and the other dragon shifters.

  Still, they could fight a battle. If it meant saving Brett, they had to give it a try.

  She glanced at her sleeping brother and Alton, but they weren't sleeping at all. Both were sitting up, Halloran as a fae, and Alton still in his dragon form, waiting for her to decide, she thought.

  "What do you think?" she asked them.

  "We're with you, whichever way you want to go," Halloran said.

  Alton nodded in agreement.

  "Let's go then."

  Halloran shifted and he and Alton lifted Brett, who groaned slightly.

  Ena's heart went out to him. Freya looked just as concerned. "I'll show you the way." She transformed into the raven and flew toward the dragon fae border. Ena shifted and flew after her. Halloran and Alton followed behind them.

  In the fading light, they found a small clearing around a thatch-roof cottage, a pine fence surrounding it and a well-tended herb and flower garden next to the side of the building.

  "What have we here?" a beautiful young woman asked, coming out of her cottage, not looking like the kind of healers Ena was used to seeing—gray-haired, wrinkled, and ancient.

  Freya shifted and stood before her. She motioned to Brett. "He is one of us."

  The woman shook her head. "No, he is not. But he is the one?"

  "Yes. He promised to make Zane remove the curse. What do you mean that he is not one of us? Of course he is. He…" Freya abruptly quit speaking. "I don't understand."

  Neither did Ena, but she didn't care as long as the healer could see to it that Brett lived.

  "We must put two tables together so that when we pound the bolts through his body, they will exit freely on the other side."