Violet Wings Read online

  Violet Wings

  Victoria Hanley

  TO FAIRIES, GENIES, LEPRECHAUNS, AND THEIR HUMAN FRIENDS

  NO TREES GROW UPON THE WORLD OF TIRFEYNE. THERE ARE MANY TALL BUSHES AND A GREAT VARIETY OF FLOWERS, MOST OF WHICH CAN ALSO BE FOUND ON EARTH. HOMES ARE BUILT OF STONE AND METAL, NOT WOOD. FAIRIES, GENIES, AND LEPRECHAUNS DWELL UPON

  TIRFEYNE. SO DO PIXIES, TROLLS, AND GREMLINS

  BUT THEY DO NOT LIVE IN FEYLAND, FOR THEY HAVE THEIR OWN COUNTRIES.

  ---Orville Gold, genie historian of Feyland

  Back when I was nine, my parents went missing.

  At first it was easy to believe that each new day would bring them home. After all, they had only gone in search of my older brother, Jett. This was hardly unusual. Jett couldn't seem to stay out of trouble, though I was never certain exactly what sort of trouble he kept getting into. And of course, he never told me where he went, or why.

  It wasn't the first time that my teacher, Beryl Danburite, had looked after me. My parents always called on her when they were going to be gone for more than a few hours. I

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  didn't enjoy having my teacher take, care of me at home, but no one asked my opinion. Once, she had stayed a week.

  This time, she never left.

  The day I learned that my parents would not return, I was sitting on a corner perch, studying the one book from Earth that my family owned. It was about trees. I liked to look at the glossy illustrations and memorize the shapes of the leaves.

  Miss Danburite didn't approve. Whenever she saw me reading it, she would say that Earth was a dangerous place and humans were baffling creatures. But she never actually ordered me to close the book.

  I was looking at a picture of a blue spruce when I heard a loud knock on our door. I put the book aside and flew to answer the knock, my wings trembling.

  A stranger stood on the threshold, a wiry genie with eyes like garnet beads looking out over a bulbous nose. His skin was orange with gold blotches, his hair the color of tarnished brass. On his wrist he wore a large ruby.

  "Good evening," he said in a raspy voice. "I am Councilor Wolframite. Are you Zaria Tourmaline?"

  I nodded.

  "May I come in?"

  I thought for a moment of slamming the door. Maybe if I didn't let him in, the news he carried couldn't come in, either. I feared that only dire news would bring a councilor to our home.

  "Zaria?" Miss Danburite called. "Who is there?"

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  I couldn't make myself speak his name, though I remembered it quite clearly.

  A moment later, Miss Danburite hurried in. When she saw him, her orange wings shivered like those of a frightened child. I had never seen her lose control of her wings.

  "Good evening," he said again.

  "Good evening, Councilor."

  "I am here to speak with you about Zaria." He looked down at me once, but after that he looked only at Miss Danburite. "I am sorry," he said, "but her parents have been declared indeterminum detu."

  Young as I was, I knew the meaning of that phrase from the ancient language. Gone, never to return. A window of night seemed to open in my heart. Dark, without stars, and filled with cold.

  "We believe they were caught by humans," Councilor Wolframite continued. "The last anyone saw of them, they were taking a portal to Earth."

  "But they--" she said.

  "They have been gone a month. And we must make a decision about their daughter." He touched the ruby on his wrist. I noticed that the figure of a crown had been carved into it. "I must ask you, Miss Danburite. Are you willing to be her guardian?"

  "I do not understand," she answered.

  "Zaria's parents named you her guardian if they should die," he said.

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  I looked up at Miss Danburite and waited for her to say that there had been a mistake, that my parents were delayed, not dead. When she didn't speak, the window in my heart opened wider and let in more of the night.

  The councilor frowned. "Miss Danburite?"

  "Has she no relatives?" she asked.

  "Zaria has no close kin," Councilor Wolframite answered. "Her family has been extraordinarily unlucky."

  Miss Danburite's faded yellow eyes blazed up once and then watered over. For several moments she stood silent, her mouth twisting.

  "Her parents named you," he said. "Perhaps because you have no children?"

  She raised her voice a litde, the way she did sometimes in the classroom. "I am two hundred eighteen years old," she said. "You expect me to move to Galena and raise an orphaned fairy?"

  Orphaned fairy. Could that be me?

  "She has no one else."

  Miss Danburite swallowed and blinked and brought her wings under control. "Very well," she said.

  "Thank you." Councilor Wolframite bowed to her. "I will come back tomorrow to ratify you as Zaria's guardian."

  She didn't bow. She didn't tell him good-bye, and I didn't, either.

  After he left, she looked at me. "Do you understand, Zaria? I will stay here with you until you are grown."

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  I wanted to speak, but I felt too cold.

  "I am sorry," she said. "Your father and mother will not be coming back. Your brother is gone, too."

  When she said those words, a wonderful thing happened. I felt as if a curtain appeared in my heart, a curtain woven out of something so heavy and strong, it could cover the window to the night.

  She sighed. "I will try to be a good guardian to you. Try not to be a nuisance to me."

  The curtain thickened. The tighter it closed, the less I had to think about my lost family. And I could look at Beryl Danburite and feel almost nothing at all.

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  CHAPTER ONE FIVE YEARS LATER

  FEY MAGIC IS MUCH MISUNDERSTOOD BY HUMANS; HUMANS SEEM TO BELIEVE THAT MAGIC CAN SOMEHOW

  TURN ASIDE PHYSICAL FORCE. In FACT, FEY FOLK ARE JUST AS VULNERABLE TO PHYSICAL INJURIES AS HUMANS; MAGIC CANNOT SAVE US FROM BLADES, BULLETS, OR EXPLOSIONS. WE CAN USUALLY MOVE FAST ENOUGH TO DODGE KNIVES OR ARROWS, BUT ONLY THE VERY SWIFTEST AMONG US CAN AVOID A BULLET.

  THE FIRST TIME A HUMAN FIRED A GUN UPON A FEY PERSONAGE, THE HIGH COUNCIL OF FEYLAND PROCLAIMED THE EDICT OF THE UNSEEN, ORDERING ALL FEY FOLK TO KEEP OUT OF SIGHT OF HUMANS.

  --Orville Gold, genie historian of Fey land

  My friend Leona hardly ever flutters, but as she passed through the great Gateway of Galena for the first time, her silver wings quivered like a rippling mirror. Just behind her went Andalonus, unable to keep from bouncing up and

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  down, the fronds of his blue hair waving around his head.

  Meteor happened to be floating next to me, but at the gateway he stopped. "After you, Zaria," he said, his eyes shining like well-cut emeralds.

  Gliding past the magic columns that guard Galena, I couldn't keep my wings from trembling. I was simply too delighted.

  We had all been forced to wait until every member of our class reached the age of fourteen before a single one of us could go to Oberon City. Dreadful, stupid law, but like all the laws of Feyland, strictly enforced. We'd been stuck in Galena--the land of babies, toddlers, and children--until I, Zaria Tourmaline, youngest in our class of fifty, turned fourteen.

  I was sorry to have caused forty-nine other fairies and genies to wait for my birthday. If I could have hurried it, I would have celebrated with Andalonus when he turned fourteen five weeks earlier.

  Once through the gateway and inside Oberon City, our teacher, Mr. Bloodstone, ordered us to walk. Walk! As if we would cause accidents if we flew. It was total nonsense, because all of us had been flying since we were four years old.

  Our feet found hard slabs of granite instead of the soft sand that is spread in Galena for sa
fety. We had to crane our necks to see the buildings. Such buildings! In Galena, all structures are low to the ground, to prevent young fairies

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  and genies from injuring themselves. But in Oberon City, great domes rose around us, gleaming silver, gold, platinum, and copper. Beyond the domes, I could see mighty towers studded with gemstones.

  Squeaking with excitement, Portia Peridot soared five wingspans high before Mr. Bloodstone roared at her. "Stay on the ground, Portia, or I will bind your wings!"

  Portia dropped so fast she must have bruised her heels on the hard walkway. She limped on, her green wings drooping. I glared at Bloodstone's back. Typical for him to treat us like infants, even in Oberon City!

  He led the way through a marble arch into a viewing station filled with grown fairies and genies. Ignoring them, he ushered us into a room apart.

  Like toddlers seeing colored smoke, we stared. Crystal booths, clear as the purest raindrops, projected out from the west wall. Each booth contained a scope, a magic instrument of silver that looked from our world onto Earth.

  We were here to get our first glimpse of the fabled land of humans. We would also see a fairy godmother or genie godfather bestow a birth gift.

  Meteor was ahead of me. I watched him step into a booth and put his eye to the scope while Bloodstone hovered approvingly. (Meteor is probably the one true scholar Bloodstone has ever taught, so Bloodstone thinks he's the greatest genie alive.)

  When Bloodstone waved me forward, not even a flicker

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  of premonition warned me that in a moment my life would be forever changed.

  I pressed my forehead gently against the fitting above the eyepiece on the viewing scope. For several moments all I saw were trees and sky. Looking at them, I felt the strangest yearning to jump out of the booth and find a portal to Earth. I wanted to float through that sky and brush those leaves with my fingertips.

  "Find the baby you are here to observe, Zaria," Bloodstone said in my ear. Why couldn't he stay out of the booth?

  I touched a switch that lit up a set of lines pointing to a human baby wrapped in a fluffy yellow blanket. Her skin was brown, a bit lighter than Meteor's, her hair a wispy thatch as plain as a gnome's. Apparently, humans do not have much variety when it comes to skin and hair color. I looked into the baby's beaming eyes and watched her kick her small feet and twine her tiny fingers together.

  A bell chimed, signaling the event I had been brought here to see: the transmission of the baby's birth gift--my chance to see a fairy godmother in action.

  I watched as a gift descended, streaming like mist, settling into the baby's skin. And though I wasn't asking to know, my magic told me what gift it was: to have little curiosity.

  The baby's eyes dimmed.

  I didn't understand. Why would a godmother hand out such a gift? It didn't seem like a gift at all, more like a curse that took away something good.

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  I squinted at the adjacent booth where the baby's godmother perched. Her sleek face turned away from her godchild without a backward glance. Before she left the booth I clearly saw her saffron-colored hair, braided with strands of morganite. Her thin nose turned down at the end, and her wings were white.

  My elbow bumped the arm of the scope and I couldn't see the baby anymore. I tried to get her back. The scope jogged around, and the next thing I knew, I was looking at a human boy about my age. His coloring was so distinctive, he could have been a genie: hair red and gold like flames, hazel eyes filled with amber light. Somehow the scope caught him at a moment when he seemed to be looking back at me. I jumped, knocking the scope's arm all the way up.

  The gray skin of Bloodstone's face creased into a familiar sneer. "You will get used to it," he said.

  That's one of the biggest lies anyone has ever told me.

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  CHAPTER TWO

  SINCE THE EDICT OF THE UNSEEN WAS PUT INTO PLACE, HUMAN MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT FEY FOLK HAVE BECOME MORE AND MORE COMMON. FOR EXAMPLE, WHEN HUMANS PORTRAY FAIRIES AND GENIES IN STORIES, THEY SHOW NOT ONLY FEMALE FAIRIES AND MALE GENIES, BUT ALSO MALE FAIRIES AND FEMALE GENIES. THIS IS AN ABSURDITY.

  FAIRIES ARE THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES; GENIES ARE THE MALE. FAIRIES HAVE WINGS, GENIES HAVE MAGIC FEET, BUT BOTH CAN FLY WITH EQUAL SPEED.

  HUMANS APPEAR TO BELIEVE THAT FAIRIES ARE TINY AND GENIES ARE ENORMOUS. THIS IS NOT SO. ON AVERAGE, BOTH FAIRIES AND GENIES ARE BETWEEN FIVE AND SIX FEET TALL WHEN FULL GROWN, MUCH LIKE

  HUMANS.

  --Orville Gold, genie historian of Fey land

  After leaving the viewing booth, I tried to put the sinister godmother and her godchild out of my mind. All I wanted to think of was Earth. I still longed to be among the trees I had seen, really among them, instead of

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  watching from another world through a diamond lens.

  But according to law, I must be sixteen and registered with the High Council before making even one journey to Earth.

  I couldn't imagine waiting another two years.

  "Well?" I whispered to my friends.

  "I thought it would be more exciting, but it was only a baby with no hair," Leona said. "Maybe it will be different, once I have my own godchild."

  I wondered if my friends' magic had told them what gifts had been given while they were observing human infants. I opened my mouth to ask, but then Andalonus nudged me.

  "I heard Bloodstone say you're Earth-struck."

  "What?" I looked up and caught Bloodstone's eye on me and wished an evil fairy would stuff him into an old-fashioned genie bottle.

  Leona stepped in front of me, blocking Bloodstone's view. She has never been afraid of him because she's a Bloodstone, too--his niece, in fact. He never reprimands her, no matter what she does. "Do human male babies have hair?" she asked Meteor and Andalonus.

  As they talked, my mind drifted back to Earth. Was it possible I'd somehow been enchanted? How else could I explain what was wrong with me? How else could I be so drawn to the world that had killed my parents?

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  CHAPTER THREE

  THE MAGIC OF FAIRIES AND GENIES DOES NOT FULLY RIPEN UNTIL AGE FOURTEEN. THERE ARE WIDE DIFFERENCES IN LEVELS OF INBORN MAGIC FROM ONE INDIVIDUAL TO ANOTHER.

  LEVELS GIVE THE CAPACITY FOR PERFORMING SPELLS FROM SIMPLE TO ADVANCED. FOR EXAMPLE, LEVEL I MAGIC ALLOWS THE CREATION OF LARGE SOAP BUBBLES AND OTHER TRIVIAL ENCHANTMENTS. . . . LEVEL 3 ALLOWS A FAIRY OR GENIE TO BESTOW A SMALL, RATHER USELESS GIFT ON A HUMAN GODCHILD (SUCH AS A KNACK FOR STACKING SPOONS). . . . BUT LEVEL

  75 which is exceedingly rare is required for

  THE CREATION OF PORTALS TO EARTH.

  TO travel through the portals between tlrfeyne and earth, one must have at least Level 5 magic. In ages past, nearly all fairies and genies could make such journeys with ease; but now, 89 percent do not have adequate magic to leave tlrfeyne and are able to see earth only through viewing scopes.

  --Orville Gold, genie historian of Feyland

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  W hen our class returned to Galena, everything looked babyish. Buildings seemed too close to the ground. The sand felt squishy.

  The instant Bloodstone dismissed us, we all rose into the air. Meteor and Andalonus zoomed ahead and soon they were out of sight. Leona and I flew hard, too, racing to Galena Falls.

  There's a place past the topmost rock west of the falls where we like to sit. Sheltered by rocks and plants, it's been our spot since we were little. When we were very small fairies, we'd play with diamonds, eat fresh sonnia flowers-- and tell secrets.

  In the years since, we've outgrown playing with diamonds, but we still tell secrets. I know that Leona despises her uncle Boris, that she rarely sees her father-- who prefers Oberon City to Galena--and that she believes her mother will never understand her in the least. Leona knows I love sneaking out to Galena Falls at night, and that I don't like to talk about my dead family. She also knows I see way too much of Beryl Danburite, who shares teaching our class with Mr. Bl
oodstone.

  We settled into our favorite spot, and I looked down to the pool under the falls. It was lined with gemstones-- emeralds, rubies, diamonds, sapphires, topaz. Sunlight polished the colors and glinted off the spray. Lavish flowers were everywhere. It was truly beautiful, but all I could think of was Earth.

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  "Zaria," said Leona, so sharply she startled me.

  "What?"

  "You are Earth-struck."

  I didn't try to argue. It would be useless; Leona knew me too well.

  Her wings twitched, which meant she had a big secret. "I know where there's a portal to Earth," she said. "A portal we could take today and no one would know"

  "Today?" I blinked in confusion.

  She whispered, "This portal is in Galena."

  "That's impossible!"

  "Unlawful, not impossible," she said. "It's not far from here."

  "How do you know?" I squeaked. "Have you been to Earth?"

  "Not yet." She smiled and rose from the rock. "Let's go."

  I sprang up. "Wait," I said. "What if we don't have enough magic to go through a portal?"

  Leona sniffed. "Level Five?" She arched an eyebrow and turned, floating toward a boulder about twenty wingspans away. I flew jaggedly after her.

  The boulder was plain sandstone, nothing special. No path beside it, just a jumble of wild zinnia flowers, orange and yellow. The nearer I got, the more I felt a strange urge to pass by the boulder and forget about it.

  "This boulder is enchanted," Leona whispered, "so children won't want to play on it."

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  "A long-lasting spell?" I asked, impressed.

  She nodded.

  "How do you know?"

  "I'll tell you once we get through." Leona glanced around, then stepped into the boulder and disappeared!

  I hesitated only long enough to draw a deep breath.To be honest, even if someone had told me the portal would turn me into a troll or force me to live with fifteen gremlins for ten years, I still would have gone through it.

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  CHAPTER FOUR

  PORTALS ARE NEEDED TO TRAVEL BETWEEN TIRFEYNE and Earth.