Test of Fae Read online

  I glance down. Nick’s dirty broken fingernails lie gently cupping my shoulder.

  “I’m not really sure. I think one way is as good as another right now. So, I say we go that way.” I wave my hand off to the right. The plants look familiar—sort of. I really picked randomly, so it doesn’t matter which direction we go until we run into a road or some kind of structure. Or maybe another fairy castle. We don’t have any idea where we are. The guys move into their triangular position, and I hoist my crossbow off of my back, carrying it low in front of me.

  “By the way, guys, I think we should try to avoid using the guns as much as possible. First, there’s no replacement ammo here. Second, if you listen, Fae is quiet. It’s peaceful. No loud cars or machinery. Anyone within hearing distance of a gunshot will wonder what it is. A lot of the Fae have never left this realm, ever. Only a small handful actually go up to the surface and kill humans.”

  Jake doesn’t turn and look at me. He nods his head.

  “Like I said, Jake, operational knowledge and a holdout,” Tom mutters.

  I liked Tom better when we were on the surface. Now, he’s just a dick, cementing problems.

  We trudge through day-glo green phosphorescent underbrush, which looks like what Astroturf would if it grew it under a black light and reached mid-thigh? I’m sure Fae have no idea what a lawnmower is. Unless they have special fairies with scythes to mow the lawn.

  The rainbow foliage and array of colors resemble a scene out of Jurassic Park with that pungent, funky scent of slightly decaying greenery and earth, overlain by a heady perfume weighing down the air like a mist of flowers.

  Tom reaches out to touch a vivid, orange orchid-looking flower.

  “Don’t touch that!” I snap.

  He freezes mid-air. The wake flowing from it is jagged and cruel.

  I squat down and pick up a stick with a flat wake line. Moving in front of Tom, I lightly tap a petal. They puff out a yellow mist and a sour scent. Like lightning, I move Tom ten feet away. The mist lingers with its sickly sour wake over the flower before the petals fold in on itself.

  “Holy shit! what the fuck was that?” Tom’s exclamation mirrors my thoughts.

  “Just another way the Fae can kill you. Everything here is beautiful and deadly. Got it?” My eyes take a turn piercing each guy to reinforce my point. They need to understand you can’t trust anything.

  I turn on my heel away from Jake and Tom’s murmuring. The tip of my crossbow pushes leaves out of the way.

  “You ever seen that flower before?” Nick’s shoulder bumps into me.

  “Nope.” My eyes search the area for more pretty death.

  “Anything you want to share with me?” he inquires.

  I chance a glance at him out of the corner of my eye, only to catch him doing the same thing. He gives me a half-smile as I shake my head. He mouths, ‘Okay.’

  From a distance, I spy a towering rainforest of umbrella-shaped trees. The closer we get, the more certain I become it’s absolutely not a forest. The wake line coming off the forest don’t resemble trees. They remind me of a stronger version of humans or Fae. The tree line doesn’t follow the horizon like a forest either. The umbrellas range in size from tall and narrow to squat and round, not a tree but—mushrooms.

  CHAPTER 10

  “What are those?” Tom’s a gambler, not a thinker.

  “Mushrooms. Giant mushrooms. Can’t you smell the funk in the air?” I smell and taste them.

  “Yeah, I thought I smelled mushrooms. Gotta be the biggest goddamn mushrooms of all time.” Jake scratches the back of his neck. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think Jules Verne had actually been down here. Maybe his journey to the center of the earth was real.”

  I throw a sharp glance at Jake. He’s right. A lot of this does resemble Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth. Giant monster-like creatures, oversized plants, and now we’re looking at a mushroom forest.

  Were all of those writers trying to tell us something? Have they known all along? Alice in Wonderland, she went somewhere else, down a rabbit hole where magical fantastical things happened, and it was ruled by an evil queen. The queen who wanted all the roses to be red. It’s not just that she wanted the roses to be red. She wanted to rule everyone and have them kowtow to her. What if they were talking about the Fae?

  Whether they encountered Fae themselves or regurgitating somebody else’s story, it wasn’t important. What if humanity has been encountering the Fae over and over again for our entire existence? All these stories of people going on fantastic journeys and running into monsters, being trapped in underground worlds, lost civilizations. What if they were all the Fae?

  That’s crazy. It’s all fiction. But here I am underground in the Hallowed Hills. The Fae had been pushed down here after losing a battle. There’s a giant day-glo mushroom forest. I think Jules Verne left the day-glo part out. But they are mushrooms nonetheless. I’m sure if everything here hadn’t been lit by fairy light, they’d look like normal mushrooms.

  Of course, the only way to test that theory is to go up to the surface and create my own fairy light and see what happens. We are on the same planet, and we have the same soil.

  The sound waves waking off of the mushrooms should be a perfect outline, but they aren’t. Instead, they’re moving squiggly as they wake out like a beating heart. They meet up with other mushroom wakes instead of reforming into it a completely new wave. They curl around one another into spirals. This is a different type of magic. I see the difference, and it’s amazing. I look up, down, and all around. The muscles in my face pull back into a smile of fascination.

  “What are you seeing that we aren’t seeing, Sarah? You got a big smile on your face?” Nick’s more observant than I give him credit for.

  “Once I was asleep, but now I’m awake, and I see through the eyes of a waking person. Humans are asleep. We can’t see the magic; I can.” Wondrous awe laces every word.

  “Yeah, that’s just kind of creeping me out, boss lady,” Tom says. He has to piss in my cornflakes.

  “I really don’t care if I’m creeping you out. Want to place a bet on the next time I use magic? I have almost zero experience, and I’m just barely beginning to understand what goes on down here. If we go to battle, there is no guarantee I can actually save your dumb ass. If I have to choose between who I save and who I don’t, I’m afraid you are quickly falling to the bottom of that list.” I hear the cuff of laughter.

  “See, Tom? Making friends already? I think she likes you,” Jake jeers.

  Tom laughs. “You don’t like me. Women despise me. I got a big mouth. No, I think she likes you, Jake. I mean we already know she’s not boyfriend-girlfriend with Nicky over there. He doesn’t have a chance, being friend-zoned and all.” Tom sticks his tongue out and laughs at his own joke.

  “Yeah, but she wants to save some guy name Arty. Maybe that’s her boyfriend,” Jake shoots back.

  I shake my head.

  “No, he’s not her boyfriend either; he’s been friend-zoned just like me,” Nick retorts.

  I shoot Nick a dirty look.

  “I don’t have a boyfriend. I’m not interested in a boyfriend. Don’t you guys think I’m a little too freaky for you or anybody?” I smile back at all of them, turning the tables on them is fun.

  “No. Fairy looks good on you.” Nick’s words strike me speechless. He’d been walking behind me most of the time. What part of me is he talking about? My butt?

  “Well now, that wasn’t weird or strange. So, you’re into alternate species or inter-species relationships?” Jake laughs as he says it, but Nick doesn’t.

  Tom pulls his tongue back between his teeth long enough to spew out, “No, I figure part of you is still human. Maybe the most important part.” Tom leers at me with his dirt brown eyes, tongue still lolling.

  “Yeah, somehow, I don’t think he’s talking about your heart, Sarah,” Jake says. “I think I’d stay away from Tom. He seems like a piece of shi
t.” Jake smiles over at Nick. I think Tom’s a pig and Jake just likes to antagonize Nick.

  “Well, whether I’m still human in the most important parts, you’re never going to find out because you aren’t even in a friend zone; more like the asshole zone,” I shoot back.

  All three of them chuckle. “Tom, I guess she burned the fuck out of you.” Jake laughs.

  The dry laugh issuing from Tom’s chapped lips remind me that I hadn’t eaten or drank anything all night. There are low-lying plants around us. One of them is shaped like a calla lily, although I’d never seen a purple one. The flower resembles an upside-down wine bottle with the bottom cut off. I pull it down, revealing a liquid trapped inside. Judging by the moisture in the air, it accumulates there. Mushrooms like moisture.

  I assume it’s water. If anybody can attest to it and survive, it will probably be me. I listen but there’s no sound wake coming off the liquid itself. The flower is happy and healthy, carrying a beautiful G minor. I tilt it over and let it pour some into my mouth, swishing around. It tastes like water.

  “Don’t drink that.” Nick slaps the flower out of my hand.

  “I’m thirsty. I don’t have any water, and it tastes just like water. I think if a fairy wanted to kill us, water from a calla lily wouldn’t be their first choice. They have plants here that will simply jump all over you and stab you to death with a neurotoxin and then chew your body apart. I think the water in a calla lily is the least of my worries.” I cover my mouth. I didn’t mean to snap at him.

  “We don’t know whether it’s a poisonous calla lily or not.” Nick’s brows pull down as he grinds his teeth.

  “Yes, I did find out. The flower told me it wasn’t.” The words leave my mouth. It’s true, the flower had told me it wasn’t poisonous. Clear and pure, it isn’t tainted. There are no minor tones or heavy chords about its song, only perfect harmony. It can’t be poisonous; I just feel it.

  His eyebrows shoot into his hairline. “What if it’s only drinkable for you?” I examine the flower and its contents again, but it all comes up sweet and innocuous. I open my mouth to reply, but Tom cuts me off.

  “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m thirsty.” Tom tilts the nearest calla lily over, pouring it down his throat.

  Remembering my encounter with the hedges in the maze, I warn everyone. “Don’t break them, and don’t kill or hurt them. Just drink the water. They’ll collect more, that’s what they do. When they get too full, they tip over and pour it onto the ground, but they keep the water for other living things, okay?” I don’t want to run the risk of pissing off a flower and having it try to kill me or stop helping us.

  “Don’t worry, we won’t damage the plants,” Jake reassures. “We need some water to fill the cantina. We left in too much of a hurry.” Jake finishes his understatement of the year.

  The closer to the giant mushrooms we get, the deeper trepidation enters my belly. The trees feel wrong. They reach out to us, pushing and pulling at our own wakes. The base of the fungi on the outer edge begins small and grows to epic proportions. The mushroom grows in clumps, each grouping to its own. A gloom settles over us the deeper we trek. The gloomy silence follows us, growing deeper with each step. My fingers itch to reach out and trace the stocks of the massive fungi. They call to me mournfully with a sad song. The gloom falls into a deep purple haze. Wrapping around us, the mist murmurs in my ear. The sharp edges of whispers pull at my hearing, cutting my eardrums with terror. I whip my head left and right, but the wake lines reveal nothing. They pulse with the forest, creating a magical void of pain.

  “Can you feel that?” I can’t be alone in my trepidation.

  “You mean the heebie-jeebies? Yeah, I got that.” Tom replies, as his body trembles to shake it off.

  Jake’s boot slips on the side of a mossy white rock, throwing him off balance. “Watch out for the rocks.” He orders.

  I watch the mushrooms and the moss-covered ground. My eyes dart. My breathing grows loud in my ears. My heart rate speeds up to become a pounding boom of a canon. My eyes lock on the amethyst mushrooms up ahead. They sway and shift with the hammering in my chest like dancers at a rave.

  Windy whispers whip by my head, dragging my hair with them. A scream escapes, but it isn’t my own.

  Jake turns to face me, his hand in front of him. He takes on the stance of a sword fighter with no sword. His eyes gleam silver in the purple gloom. “You wish to dethrone my queen? We shall see.” He shouts.

  I watch in horror as he raises his invisible sword to strike Tom.

  “Nay, we shall triumph over you and your evil queen. Her reign of death must end.” Tom retorts, then thrusts his invisible sword into Jake’s chest.

  Nick stepped forward to join Jake. I grab at his arm, pulling with all my might.

  This isn’t real.

  “Stop, this isn’t happening!” I shout.

  Nick freezes in place. I dash to Jake’s side, pulling at the sleeve of his dungarees. He shoves me to the ground and raises his invisible sword to slice down at me. His silvery eyes are milky with enchantment.

  My lips press together to form a whistle, only to have the wind knocked from my chest. Jake’s boot smashes down on my belly, crushing the breath out of me.

  “You’ll not use magic on me, pretender.” He raises his boot again. I watch in horror as it gains speed.

  “I’ll save you!” Tom’s body crashes into Jake’s torso, and both tumble to the ground, thrashing about. They roll over and over, each turning for the upper hand. However, Jake’s bigger and stronger. He gains dominance over Tom, wrapping his hands around Tom’s throat. His thumbs press into his windpipe. Tom’s eyes roll around as his fists beat at Jake’s arms, pulling at his wrist. His legs kick and scuff. He digs with his fingers into Jake’s grip, attempting to break Jake’s stranglehold.

  “Stop! Stop, damn it!” I roll over to my knees and climb on Jake’s back.

  The voices swirl around me, urging me to kill him. Others want me to torture him and cut him to pieces, bit by bit. One screams ‘traitor’ in my ear. A warm stream runs down my neck into my shirt.

  I beat my fist into his shoulders. He shifts underneath me, but I hold on tight. With every ounce of breath in my being, I whistle Dixie in his ear. He freezes and then sags, falling onto his side with me. Tom coughs, drawing in a ragged breath. They don’t move. I scratch my neck, only to have my fingers come away with blood. The voices swirl with their clamoring desires. We have to get out of here. My arm is trapped under Jake’s torso. Pushing his back with one hand, I pull the other, but I gain little purchase.

  I cry out, “Get off of me!” Curling my leg up, I plant my foot in the small of his back and push, freeing my arm. The voices continue to swirl around me, tearing at my hair and clothes. The wakes are undefined and pulsing. My companions are frozen, locked in this enchanted forest. Nick has little cuts on his face and arms; Tom too. I watch in horror as a wake passes over Jake, drawing a line of blood as it goes.

  I dash to Nick, pulling at his hand. Maybe they will follow me like in the maze. He stumbles forward, feet dragging along the peaty ground. Tom is stock-still, lying on the ground. He stares up at the mushroom canopy towering over us. I grip his arms, dragging him into a sitting position. It’s like moving a giant, sleeping child. I lock my arms under his and pull with all my might to no avail.

  “Get up, you stupid jarhead!” My foot connects with his tailbone. He doesn’t even grunt. I can’t move him.

  Jake lies on his side with his legs under him. I pull one leg until his knee reaches his chest, leaving the opposite leg where it is. Kneeling behind him, cupping both hands under an armpit, I pull him into a half-kneeling, half-crouching position. I move into a squatting pose, and using the strength of my legs, I strain to stand. He moves to stand, with me pulling for dear life at his back.

  Two up, one to go. I turn back to Tom, sitting in the loamy soil. His milky honey-colored eyes meet mine.

  “Watch out, my lady.” He
jumps up and charges behind me, heading for Jake. I whip around. Nick shoulders me to the side. Nick’s large frame tumbles on top of me as the sound of steel crashing together fills the air.

  “I’ll make pixie meat of you.” Tom’s angry words ring out in a singsong tone.

  “You have never been my equal. Pixies will feast on your flesh before mine.” Jake holds a real sword pressed against Tom’s own.

  I push up with my hand, and Nick rolls to the side into a crouching position over me. He pushes me back into the dirt. My cheek stings pressing against a hard edge. I roll over to my side. Nick’s fingers trail over my breast. I slap Nick’s hand away. Digging my elbows under me, I lift my back off the ground. Light sparks off the ground where I’d been a moment before.

  A wake moves off the long narrow object covered in forest debris. My hands brush the soil and peat aside to reveal a sword, next to a metal bracer and rings. The whispering voices tear at me, pulling me this way and that. The pounding in my heart forces adrenaline to my extremities, but the blood drains from my face as realization dawns on me. It’s a graveyard. We have to get out of here.

  Nick and Tom are protecting me from Jake. They all hold swords, and my eyes search for my crossbow. I spot it on the forest floor behind Jake. My hand runs over my body. My knife is gone as is my gun. All I have left to defend myself are the bolts for my crossbow. My hands frantically sift through the loam and leaves, landing on the pommel of a saber. My fingers curl around the hilt, bumping into a metal circle as I tighten my grip. I pull it from the ground. My groping reveals jewelry and weapons along with armor; they litter the forest. Everywhere my eyes land the remnants of war abound for those with eyes to see.

  I whistle Dixie in a hope they will cease their fighting. They carry on as if in another world or time. The waking waves around them change color along with their eyes. Tom appears to grow long black hair as does Nick. Jake’s dark locks turn to long white braids flowing behind him with every swing. The clashing of swords rings in the air around me as if an entire army fights around us.