Violet Wings Page 7

Jenna tumbled back to Sam. He gazed at the spot where I was and put out a hand as if to call me back. I hurried from the room and up the stairs, out the front door.

  Never had my world seemed so far away.

  98

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  FIFTY YEARS AGO, THE LEPRECHAUN EDICT WAS PROCLAIMED BY THE HIGH COUNCIL OF FEYLAND. IT PROHIBITS LEPRECHAUNS FROM TRAVELING TO EARTH, THE EDICT WAS ENACTED TO ADDRESS TWO PROBLEMS. FIRSTLY, LEPRECHAUNS COULD NOT BE PERSUADED TO STOP TEASING HUMANS. THEY WOULD PUT POTS OF FEY GOLD IN PLAIN SIGHT, THEN CAUSE THEM TO VANISH. HUMANS HAVE NO SENSE OF HUMOR WHEN IT COMES TO GOLD: WHEN THEY REALIZE THEY HAVE BEEN TRICKED, SOME OF THEM DEVELOP DANGEROUS GRUDGES. SECONDLY, LEPRECHAUNS BEGAN SMUGGLING HUMAN BEVERAGES INTO FEYLAND, WITH DISASTROUS

  RESULTS.

  TO FACILITATE THE EDICT, ALL LEPRECHAUNS WERE SENT TO THE IRON LANDS, WHERE THEY LIVE IN WHAT IS KNOWN AS THE LEPRECHAUN COLONY. THE GROUND THERE IS MADE OF IRON ORE. NO MAGIC IS POSSIBLE, INCLUDING PORTALS TO EARTH. ANY ENCHANTMENTS BECOME NULL AND VOID FOR THE DURATION OF A STAY IN THE IRON LANDS.

  --Orville Gold, genie historian of Feyland

  99

  I decided to return to Tirfeyne by way of the one lawful portal I knew about. From Sam's house I searched until I found the Cornfield Portal again. I stepped through it into the Golden Station. This time, I didn't worry about being seen.

  There were big advantages to being invisible.

  I flew out, high over Oberon City. In my mind, I went over what had happened on Earth, what had been said and done, how the humans had looked and sounded.

  The boy had called me beautiful. Me. Beautiful.

  I floated, looking down, wondering where my friends might be. The great FOOM dome stood out, bigger and brighter than all the rest.

  Then I saw the crowd.

  A buzzing frenzy of fairies and genies hovered one on top of the other, showing every color of wing, every shade of hair. Something was happening on the ground.

  Cautiously, I flew lower, trying to get close enough to see. My view was blocked. Just as I was about to give up, a group of genies moved enough to give me a glimpse.

  It was Leona. She stood next to the ornamental gardens in the courtyard and seemed to be basking in the attention of the great crowd. She certainly wasn't trying to get away.

  Instantly, I flew high again. I couldn't understand why Leona would enjoy putting herself on display for such a mob, when I would rather live with trolls than have a crowd

  100

  staring at me that way. It made me uneasy. Leona had been my closest friend ever since we could fly. Now, she was acting as if she cared about crowds of strangers more than she cared about me. I couldn't even get near enough to talk to her.

  Below me, Feyland looked like a great flower expanding in all directions. I saw Galena as a petal with the gateway at the nectary point. On the other side of the city another petal caught my eye, but no one seemed to be flying there.

  No flights. Of course. The Iron Lands, where the leprechauns lived.

  I don't know why I decided to head toward the Leprechaun Colony. After seeing Leona holding court, I was feeling gloomy, and maybe I just wanted to go somewhere that matched my mood. Or maybe I was only curious to see what it was like closer to the wall that bordered the Iron Lands. But somehow, I felt drawn in that direction.

  The farther I went from the center of Oberon City, the more thinly spread the domes and towers became. Some of them were clearly in disrepair, marred by crumbling stones and tarnished metal. The few fey folk I passed frightened me a little. Their red-rimmed eyes seemed overly wide, and they flew with strange, sputtering movements. Ragged threads trailed from their clothes. What was wrong with them? Were these the "lawless hooligans" Beryl was always warning me about? Just looking at them made my wings feel tired.

  I decided to turn around. Just as I did, a fairy came

  101

  flying straight at me. I darted sideways, and she barely missed hitting me.

  It took a full second to realize who she was, and then I was very relieved to be under the invisibility spell. The fairy had orange wings, tawny hair, and a horribly drab gown. It was Beryl Danburite.

  What was she doing here?

  I took off after her, surprised by how hard I had to work to keep up. I hadn't even known she could fly so fast.

  I managed to renew the invisibility in mid-flight. The last thing I wanted was to be discovered following my guardian through a seedy area of Oberon City.

  The scenery changed. No more domes, just collections of slag. The air smelled oddly fragrant, but I didn't recognize the scent. Beryl flew lower and lower, and then she touched down.

  I wasn't expecting her to stop where she did; I landed with a bit of a jolt. My feet skidded against gravel. Beryl looked toward the sound, frowning. She listened while I stood perfectly still.

  We were in front of a one-story building patched together from uncut stones. Mortar had been carelessly spread-- it bulged from the wall in sloppy drips. The copper door was completely unpolished; its sheet of mottled green hung raggedly on dented hinges.

  Behind the building, about ten wingspans back, a huge granite wall twisted along bare ground. I must be

  102

  looking at the border of the Iron Lands. I shuddered and wondered why I had wanted to get anywhere near it.

  The only other building to be seen was about fifty wingspans away, and it was nothing but a fallen-down wreck.

  Beryl gazed at the sign in front of us: the ugly mug. Her lip curled. "Reeks of Earth," she muttered disgustedly.

  And then she went in.

  I sprang into motion, flinging myself after her before the door could close.

  The moment I crossed the threshold, the aroma I had noticed earlier intensified. It was unlike anything I had ever smelled: a rich, smoky scent, silken and powerful. It filled the air, and as I breathed in, I felt as if I had been knocked into a forbidden land, a land that would like to capture me and hold me forever.

  I stood behind Beryl in a long, low room, dim and noisy and filled with brass tables teeming with patrons. Beryl advanced, but I hung back, glad to be invisible.

  Murmurs and shouts and raucous laughter swelled around me. The room was packed with fairies and genies of every hue. I also saw a few short, stocky folk; cautiously, I edged after Beryl so I could get a closer look at them. The one nearest me had a long beard, long nose, and long feet decked in boots with turned-up toes. Heavy eyebrows, wide mouth. His stubby fingers held a steaming mug topped with something foamy and white.

  A leprechaun? What was a leprechaun doing outside the

  103

  Iron Lands? The Ugly Mug was close to the border wall, but it was not inside it--not at all. And what was he drinking? Peering around, I saw that most everyone was sipping something similar.

  What was Beryl doing here?

  She stepped briskly past several wobbly bronze tables. "Banburus Lazuli?" she called, using her teaching voice to cut through the noise. "Banburus?"

  A tall genie stood up from a table near the back and moved toward her. In the dusky light, his skin looked somewhere between dark blue and black. A tangle of dirty grayish-blue hair framed his face and fell to his bony shoulders.

  "I don't usually bother with all the syllables," he said when he got close enough to be heard. "Call me Laz. What do you want?"

  Just then a leprechaun jumped up beside Beryl and plucked her sleeve with his free hand. "When's the Council going to reverse the Lep Edict?" he cried.

  Beryl stiffened. "Hands off, if you please."

  He hung on. "I used to travel to Earth--me and all m'friends. Now look at me--banned!"

  "A fine example you are," Beryl said.

  "Not fair!" he groused. "A few leprechauns get into trouble teasing humans, and the Council outlaws traveling to Earth for every one of us!"

  Beryl leaned toward him. "You are mucking my gown. What is that on your hands?"

  104

  "Not
hing!" Abruptly, the leprechaun let go. He wiped his fingers on his shirt, leaving dark streaks of something soft and sticky on the faded green cloth.

  He had left his handprints on Beryl's gown. "Chocolate!" she exclaimed, and drew back. "I might have known."

  Chocolate? I had heard whispers of this delicious contraband, a bittersweet substance made on Earth by humans and then smuggled onto Tirfeyne by desperate outlaws. It was said that once fey folk tasted chocolate, they could never get enough of it; that they would give up everything they had for the chance of a steady supply.

  "Not so!" the leprechaun protested, but his denial seemed ridiculous. Not only his hands but also the edges of his mouth were coated with gooey smears; even as I watched, he licked his lips as if he couldn't help himself.

  "And if the stench in my nose tells the truth, you have been drinking coffee, as well." Beryl smoothed her stained skirts with narrowed eyes.

  I had heard of coffee, too. One of the many beverages favored by humans, it was brewed from special beans into a drink that could keep fey folk up for days and nights at a time. Its effects were supposedly worse than spending hours dancing with pixies.

  Was the aroma that circulated through the ugly mug coming from coffee or chocolate or both? Beryl had called it a stench, but I didn't believe that even she could really find it anything but exciting.

  105

  Beryl glared at the little man. "Lucky for you I am not here to investigate." Her back straight, she turned from the leprechaun to the tall genie who called himself Laz. "May we speak privately?"

  He shrugged, calmly grabbed a bowl-sized cup from the nearest tabletop, and headed toward the door. I slipped aside or they would have bumped into me on their way out.

  106

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  THERE IS ONE METHOD FOR FEY FOLK TO GAIN MORE RADIA. THIS IS DONE BY TAKING A TRANSFER FROM SOMEONE ELSE'S WAND. DEPENDING UPON availability, it is possible to transfer any amount of radia from one wand tip to another.

  TRANSFER OF RADIA REQUIRES CONSENT. THERE IS no such thing as an involuntary transfer, for even the most powerful compulsion spell will not be effective in forcing any of the fey to give up radia unwillingly.

  --Orville Gold, genie historian of Feyland

  Outside The Ugly Mug, I tagged after Beryl and Laz as he led the way around the corner of the building. They faced each other on a patch of gravel. I stood behind Beryl so I could see the genie's face.

  "You're a smuggler, aren't you?" she asked in her sharpest tone.

  The color of his eyes matched his hair--a murky blue-gray "You know my name, but I can't return the pleasure," he said, ignoring her question.

  107

  "Beryl Danburite. I am a teacher in Galena, though I never had the honor of seeing you as a student. You must have belonged to a different group."

  He took a swig from his cup, which left a whitish film on his upper lip. "And?"

  "Must you drink coffee while I am speaking to you?"

  "Cocoa." Laz glared sourly at Beryl. "And what I drink is my own business. Since you don't care to partake, I have to assume that something else brings you here."

  Beryl huffed. "You should be ashamed of yourself!"

  Staring straight into her face, the genie deliberately took another drink. "Perhaps you'd care to tell me why I should listen to anything more?"

  Beryl fidgeted a moment before saying, "You are Samuel Seabolt's genie godfather."

  Samuel? Was she talking about the human boy I had met? Had she seen me appear in front of him today?

  Laz gave Beryl a considering look. "What of it?"

  "You have not been keeping an eye on him!"

  Laz flicked his cup with the fingers of one hand, making a pinging sound. "Something wrong? Last I checked, all was well with Sam."

  "No thanks to you."

  "Spare me the lecture. Humans get along just fine without us." The genie swiped his filthy sleeve across his mouth.

  "Other godfathers help and protect---"

  "These days? Not many," he scoffed. "And if they take

  108

  credit for their godchildren surviving to adulthood, they're liars." He leaned close to Beryl and breathed out slowly. "Tell me why you're here."

  Beryl wrinkled her nose but didn't move back from him. "Two fairies in my class broke the rules and made a visit to Earth," she said brusquely. "I cast forgetting spells on the humans who saw them, of course, but I found one memory I could not eradicate. It was in a gadget belonging to your godchild."

  I began to feel a little better. Evidently this was not about my latest journey to Earth.

  Laz's chuckle sounded like gravel poured into a culvert. "Gadget?"

  "A machine that remembers."

  A change came over Laz's face: his bleary eyes widened and his jaw went slack. He looked purely astonished. "Mighty magic," he said, as if awestruck.

  Then I realized his gaze was locked on me. Once again, I'd allowed the spell to lapse. Oberon's Crown! Beryl would take me to the Council and insist they take back my wand.

  I looked into Laz's face, shaking my head pleadingly.

  "Not magic!" Beryl said irritably. "Human technology."

  He shifted his gaze, rolling his eyes to the sky. "Technology," he said. "Of course. And how long since you traveled to Earth yourself, Miss ... Danburite?"

  I got my wand tangled in my gown as I frantically drew

  109

  it. Before Laz finished speaking, I had whispered, "Verita sil nos mertos elemen."

  "Not long," Beryl answered. She turned her head. "Did you hear something?"

  "Not long? How long is 'not'?" Laz asked, sneering.

  "No more than thirty years," Beryl said.

  He laughed, a snort that ended in a cough. "And those fools at the Council have you teaching youngsters!" He raised his cup to her mockingly. "The gadget was probably a video camera---or might've been a cell phone. Either one could have recorded your fairies."

  Beryl shook her finger at him. "Because of genies like you, all of Feyland is infected with human customs, human mannerisms, and human speech!"

  "Genies like me, eh?"

  "I can spot an Earth-traveling genie when I see one. You pick up those vile human habits and spread them everywhere. Not to mention those loathsome confections and concoctions that corrupt anyone who tastes them."

  "And what do you want? Maybe you'd like to do away with the last few hundred years of history?" Laz shook his cup lazily, and creamy brown liquid sloshed over the sides. "Free advice for you: modernize!"

  Beryl bristled. "We are modernizing."

  The genie rolled his eyes again. "You're obsolete." He tipped his head back, draining the cup, then turned toward the building.

  110

  "Wait," Beryl cried. "How do I get rid of the memory in the gadget?"

  Laz turned back. "You go to Earth. You find where it's stored. You delete it." He lowered his brows. "Not too much for you, is it?"

  I couldn't believe it when Beryl asked, "Will you do it?" What was the matter with her? Why would she trust a genie like him? It was as if she were afraid of going to Earth

  herself.

  A slow grin showed all of Laz's teeth. "For a small price." "What price? You should do it out of duty to your godchild."

  He seemed unimpressed. "It's not as if Sam could be harmed by the sight of a fairy on a screen," he said. "For all I know, it would do him some good. Broaden his horizons."

  He flung the empty cup; it crashed against a corner of the building and broke into little pieces. "I don't ask much. Fifty radia."

  "Fifty! But going to Earth and back uses less than one!"

  He blew out a slow breath. "Fifty or nothing."

  For a moment Beryl's wings actually quivered. "Very well," she said, croaking her words. "I expect it to be done tonight."

  What?! Hadn't she taught me that only fools and criminals traded in radia? That it would lead to nothing but trouble and loss? Why would Beryl Dan
burite strike a bargain with a genie who drank coffee and associated with leprechauns?

  111

  "Sure," Laz said. "I'll pay a visit while he's asleep."

  I watched Beryl take out her wand. The carnelian rod glowed, and Laz produced a wand with a lapis tip. He touched it to the danburite tip of Beryl's wand, and the glow transferred from her wand to his.

  And that was all. She said nothing about checking to be sure he did what he said he would do. Had she sniffed Banburus Lazuli and decided his word was good?

  I watched as they turned from each other. Beryl streaked away, and Laz headed for the door to The Ugly Mug.

  112

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  ONCE THEY HAVE FINISHED ORDINARY SCHOOL, FAIRIES and genies who are gifted with high-level magic and adequate radia reserves are allowed access to the Crown Library, where they may read the ancient texts about advanced magic. however, young fey folk suit themselves about what they study and when. this is a deplorable state of affairs, for only true scholars, motivated by their own deep curiosity, acquire enough knowledge to protect themselves from those who are experienced but unscrupulous.

  -Orville Gold, genie historian of Feyland

  I arrived home well before Beryl. She didn't come back until late, and by then I was pretending to be asleep, though my restless thoughts ran from Leona to Earth to The Ugly Mug.

  The next morning, Beryl shook me awake very early. Her visit with Laz seemed to have put her into a mood. She was scowling as if she wanted to deepen every wrinkle,

  113

  and her yellow eyes snapped. She waved a hand in a shooing motion. "Get up."

  "Why so early?" I yawned.

  "You are due to meet your mentor this morning, and you do not want to be late!"

  The mention of my mentor threw me into a mood of my own. Sitting up, I frowned at Beryl. "Why are you still punishing me? Wasn't the iron enough?"

  "What in Oberon's name are you talking about?"

  "My mentor assignment."

  Beryl folded her arms. "I do not even know "who your mentor is!'

  "Then how did Bloodstone know?"

  "Bloodstone did not know! Mentor assignments are secret, as we have taught you again and again. What does it take for you to learn something, Zaria? Apparently it is not enough to repeat a lesson over and over. Now get up."