Cold Front Page 6

  I’m not ready, I protested weakly.

  You won’t be. You won’t be ready until you need to be.

  When did you become old and confusing? Speaking in riddles and becoming wise?

  When did you decide that you couldn’t help people anymore?

  I didn’t answer that. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to help, but I wasn’t someone who led armies. That wasn’t me. I had enough troubles a year ago “leading” five.

  “We have the elves already on our side. Liam would spare no one if you asked for his help,” Regan said after a moment of silence. “Ston believes we can win over these pixies, and they may be few in number, but may know others willing to help. And the mages will have to help if they are attacked like Ston says they will be. The other people on the surface may be a little late in helping, but they’ll join us eventually, when they realize that it affects them too.” Regan was listing off our allies, or soon-to-be allies, I think to give me a little reassurance. It wasn’t working; it was just making me nervous. “We’ll be all right. And I won’t let anything happen to you. I’m your protector, remember?” she asked, looking over at me with a grin.

  “I’m afraid that I’ll be protecting you soon,” I whispered.

  We didn’t talk anymore about the matter. We just followed Skye.

  We stopped for lunch a while afterward. Skye seemed to know what time it was, despite the lack of sunlight, or any other indication of the hour.

  Cinder began wandering around, even leaving our ring of light after a while. I didn’t worry for him. He was almost as tall as I was and had already proven he could take care of himself. He was still young, though, and he was curious about this new world around him, so I didn’t call him back to us.

  After we finished eating and had started on our way again, I jogged to catch up to Skye so we could talk. I could hear someone quicken their pace to follow, sure it was Regan. I ignored the slight irritation that came from her following, like I needed someone to make sure I would be okay.

  “So, this camp, what’s it like?” I asked.

  “It is focused on trade with other camps and villages, and the people are all very different from one another. I’m a scout in the camp, my friend Twitch is an inventor, and his twin brother Flick is a warrior. We don’t usually have need of warriors, but in such dark days it’s been best to have some. It used to be trolls were our biggest problems, but lately the dark elves have been attacking those who don’t join their war.” She cast a dark glance at Ston, who pretended not to notice. “Our people often join other camps when they come of age so that we don’t mate within our own family trees,” Skye answered, looking out into the dark curiously. I believed she was looking to see if there was something watching us.

  “You focus on trade, so you must have good relations with other groups?” I asked casually, trying not to let on to how important that could be for us.

  She looked at me briefly before turning back to look out into the dark cavern. “I’m not the one you want to discuss plans with, Casey. My chief will talk about what he can help you with when we arrive at camp.”

  I nodded. “Right,” I mumbled, mostly to myself.

  Regan rubbed my back slowly, comforting me.

  “How much longer do you think it will take?” Ston asked.

  “Not long. We’ve made good time. We should be there by dinner,” Skye answered. She looked over to Regan, Cam, and me again. “Days here are longer than surface days, I hear. We have no outside light, and so our ‘days’ are longer. We work with the cycle of the underground. We sleep when it sleeps.”

  “The cycle of the underground?” She had me hanging on her every word yet again.

  She nodded. “Things grow here, not the way I imagine things grow on the surface, but they do. There are these flowers that grow all over the walls and floor that open and close at certain times, and we work our days around them. When they open is when our day begins, and when they close the day ends.”

  “What do they look like?” I was enthralled, and I knew Regan could tell by the way she chuckled quietly. She wrapped an arm around my waist as we walked. Her hand was cool compared to the permanent four-degree heat difference since I tore down the wall that held back my Life Force. It was probably even higher now that all of this magic had nowhere to go for the past year. I had too much of it for the simple life I’d been living.

  Skye told me to wait, and I watched her thin wings come through her shirt like it wasn’t even there, and then she lifted herself from the ground, her wings flapping slowly as she rose higher and higher and then disappeared into the darkness surprisingly quickly. She came back after a moment and lowered herself to the ground, and I watched her wings flow under her shirt again. She held between her fingers a small white flower with three petals and a dark gray stem. She held it out to me, and I took it, inspecting it closely.

  “How does it grow?” I asked, a little breathless, before passing it to Cam so she could see it. I still felt like I needed to teach Cam about magic, so I almost told her to feel for its Life Force, but she had it. She was already doing that. Cam didn’t need a teacher anymore; she had taught herself everything I couldn’t in the Veil.

  I forced the thought from my head and looked back at Skye for her answer. “We’re not sure. Twitch, the inventor I told you about, spends a lot of time looking at them, studying them. They drive him crazy. He can’t figure them out. Other things grow down here, mostly things that don’t feed off light, but these produce their own light, even after being picked, for a short time at least. They aren’t like the rest of the life down here. They are beautiful. Most of what lives down here is ugly and misshapen, even the animals.”

  Regan raised her eyebrows as she looked at the pixie. “Well, obviously not everything.” I playfully elbowed her in the stomach, and she laughed. “What? I’m just saying! I still love you, babe.” She kissed my temple, and I had to drop the act of being upset.

  “Is there a source of Life Force in here? On the surface, everything has Life Force, of course, but plants are grown with water and sunlight. These aren’t. Maybe there’s something substituting that energy.”

  “We’ve found out that they’re grown purely from Life Force and a small amount of water, which means there has to be a source of it somewhere, and it has to be huge if it’s going to grow all of these. We just can’t find it. Twitch has come up with all sorts of gadgets to try to find it. They all work for a little bit and then suddenly stop. And we have very limited knowledge about what makes them open and close or what they do, if anything.”

  “I’d like to talk to this Twitch for a while, see if I can think of anything,” I said and took a bite of an apple Regan had given me earlier.

  “You really should let her,” Cam said. “She’s brilliant. Came up with a cure to save all of the elves from a really nasty disease, defeated a necromancer, and found out how to become pretty damn close to a dark elf herself. Minus the super long life, but she got really close anyways. If there’s anyone who can help, it’s this girl.” She bumped me with her shoulder, and I looked down at my feet.

  “She’s making me sound much better than I am. I had help for it all, and I screwed up quite a bit. I just kind of guessed with everything…,” I mumbled and took another bite from my apple.

  Skye looked at me for a moment before asking, “Did you really do those things?”

  “Well, yes, but—”

  “That’s all I need to know. Twitch can figure out the rest for himself,” Skye said.

  The rest of our walk was filled with small talk about us. Skye was curious about our little adventure last year, but I had trouble remembering it all. It seemed like a vague dream I had as a child, but it wasn’t. Regan seemed to remember it better, so I let her tell most of it, only jumping in when I had been alone and nobody had been able to see what I did.

  At one point Skye must have sensed something because she said, “Be careful, we’re not alone anymore.”

  Ston d
idn’t seem too worried either and took a few long steps to catch up with us. “They never give up, do they?”

  Skye shook her head. “They’ve been growing braver too. And moving in groups. They attacked our neighboring camp just last month.”

  “Do you think they’ll attack us?” he asked quietly.

  “Probably not. They’ve never seen humans before; I think they’re just curious right now,” she answered. “But be on your guard. I don’t trust those bastards. I’ll tell the chief tonight about them, see what he has to say about it.”

  “They’ve moved farther out. They used to be deep in the underground. They’re only a short distance from the way out now. Are you worried they’ll take it a step further and go to the surface?”

  “Not yet. They’re waiting be told to go up to the surface. Right now, their orders are to terrorize the rest of us into submission.”

  Cam, Regan, Cinder, and I walked behind Ston and Skye to let them talk for a while. After it seemed like they had finished talking business, Cam looked over at us. “I’m going to go talk to them for a bit. I want to know more about those flowers. They were like nothing I’d ever seen before. You okay on your own?” she asked me.

  I smiled and gestured to Cinder and Regan. “I’m not really alone. You go ahead.” She smiled and then ran to catch up to them.

  “Do you miss her?” Regan asked.

  “I’ve missed her for a long time. A little while longer won’t hurt me.”

  Regan, Cam, and I were exhausted when Skye told us we were almost there. She was right about the longer day. It wasn’t even dinner time here, but I was ready to eat two or three hours ago. I wondered if we’d have to talk to the chief before we could eat.

  It felt like we would walk forever, but then we came over a small hill, and I stopped at the top of it, looking down at the sight before me. Thin white tents with yellow lights inside of them, a large fire in the center of the camp with people huddled around it, probably for dinner, and a huge tent right beside the fire. Probably the chief’s.

  I didn’t hear anyone approach, but Skye did. She turned to face him before we even saw him enter our light.

  “You weren’t supposed to be back for another night, and you bring a dark elf and humans with you? What have you done, Skye? Are you prepared to doom us all for your foolishness?” he snarled.

  “Back up, Nill, your breath is killing me,” Skye retorted. “And who I brought back is none of your business. They are here to talk to the chief about matters that do not concern you.”

  “This concerns everyone! You could kill us all with this. The humans are not ready for this knowledge yet.”

  “They’re going to have to be since ‘this knowledge’ is about to launch an attack on them soon!” she snapped back. “We’re going to see the chief.”

  “Sharla herself couldn’t convince me to let you past.” Sharla must have been a higher being of some kind for the pixies, a deity or goddess.

  “Well, good thing I’m not her, isn’t it?” Skye stepped forward, and the man, Nill, flinched back. It was strange to see someone taller than Skye, even if by only a few inches, seem afraid of confronting her. It made me wonder what she was like around people like her. “I thought so. Come on, we should go now so we can have a moment alone with the chief.”

  Nill watched our small group walk down the hill, his eyes shooting daggers, but he didn’t make a move to stop us.

  When we reached the bottom, I looked around in awe. Here I was, standing in a pixie camp. It should have been impossible, yet here I was.

  “Come on,” Skye whispered. “Quickly. Nill will waste no time in spreading the word. We have to get to the chief now. I don’t want anyone to stop us before we get there,” she whispered. We followed her to the back of a large tent, and she held up a corner of the fabric and gestured for us to go inside.

  I took a deep breath and went in.

  A week ago I thought I could live my life as any other normal person would, and now I’m standing in a pixie chief’s tent. Where the hell did I go wrong?

  Chapter 7

  WE WERE standing in a small section of the tent that was separated from the rest, like someone’s room. It was filled with journals and a table with a small lamp on it and sketches of different things—plants and creatures I’d never seen before. Off in the corner was a small unmade cot and a pot filled with rocks and the fine gravel that coated the ground, which grew a handful of the white flowers. Someone had stuck toothpicks beside the flowers and attached scraps of paper with small handwriting on them. It reminded me of my room back in the Temple when I spent all day and night researching.

  “This is Twitch’s room. It’s always a mess. He must be at dinner with his family in the main room right now. Come on.” She made her way to one of the tent walls and pulled back the flap, peering into the next room before pulling it back enough for us to go through.

  We walked into a large, almost empty room with three figures facing away from us. They were sitting while they ate, facing the pixies outside. The one on the right was thin, hunched over, and looking down at his plate. I could see his arm move as he picked at his food, but he didn’t lift it to his mouth. The one on the left sat up straight. An air of strength radiated from him, and I could feel it even from here. Beside him lay a sword, shimmering blue in the light of a fire. The one in the middle was taller, with gray hair and a bulkier body. He sat straight but unlike the man on the left, his posture was inviting. Even from behind him, I could tell that much. The three of them sat near the entrance of the tent. No front wall blocked them from the mass of people outside. A fire was in the center, and pixies surrounded it, most of them turned at least somewhat to the three before us.

  “The chief and his two sons,” Skye whispered when she saw me looking. She straightened herself up and dusted off her cargo shorts. “The one on the right is Twitch. The one on the left is Flick.” She walked over to the three of them, and the rest of us stood awkwardly where we were.

  We watched the chief turn and Skye bow her head respectfully. They talked for a while, and at one point Skye gestured to us, and the chief and his sons turned to look at us. Eventually, the chief raised his hand and beckoned us toward him.

  Regan gripped my hand as we walked forward, Cinder, Cam, and Ston following us closely.

  “Ston, my boy, where have you been?” The chief sounded older than he looked, and he stood up slowly to embrace Ston, who had continued to move toward the family even after we had stopped a polite distance away.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t back in time to help you with the problems I’ve heard you had. I was on the surface, getting some old friends together,” he said as he hugged the older man tightly.

  “The surface? Ston, I’ve already told every dark elf that has come here that I will not partake in their plans. I have had enough of you blasted dark elves coming to me and trying to bribe me into punishing the humans for something they don’t remember. Most of the underfae don’t even remember, like Ellivan, despite what that old ogre claims he saw, he—”

  Ston smiled widely and said, “I know, Craliun, I know. He was an infant at the time, and he’s had thousands of years to spend imagining it. I didn’t come to ask you to punish the humans. I came to ask for you to help them. The humans don’t remember the underfae. They’re children’s stories to make them treat their mothers with kindness. Craliun, they aren’t prepared for the war that will come to them. They can barely handle war between themselves.”

  Craliun scowled and said, “Just because I do not wish to punish them does not mean I want to reward them. Let the elves help them win their war. I am the underfae; I am not worthy to step upon their land.” He spit at the ground and began to turn from us.

  I stepped out, and Regan grabbed my wrist, but I shook her off and touched Craliun’s arm, my fingers brushing along the bare, pale pixie skin. I gasped, feeling a wave of cold air rush over me, and he turned ever so slowly to face me. “Your kind isn’t welcome in the
underground, human.”

  I blinked the stars from my eyes. The power from him was overwhelming. He was unreal. “Sir, I’m not just a human, I’m a mage. My name is—”

  “Casey Kelley. Skye here has told me about you and your friends, but it does not change what you truly are: someone of the surface, and this is not where you belong. It is time for you to go home and leave us be.”

  Undeterred, I continued, “As a mage, I am a cousin of yours in the family tree of the world. The humans are also my family, Chief. And in being my family, they are yours as well. These people here, in your camp”—I gestured toward the outside of the tent to the pixies who were watching intently, some with fear and others awe and curiosity—“are my family, just as the humans are yours. I don’t know them, but to watch them die is to watch my family die.”

  He scoffed again. “Then it is to watch any fae or human die as a brother die.”

  I lowered my gaze and said, “Yes, sir, it is, for the loss of life should be tragic, despite the species to which it belongs. We mages are cast out, similarly to the underfae, held against our will in the Temples, told that should we leave we’ll surely die out in the world. Most stay from fear alone, but the ones who try to leave usually die because they have been unprepared for living outside the Temple. We have been degraded, spat upon by the human society, but that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t die protecting them.”

  “She very nearly did,” Ston whispered into Craliun’s ear. “She saved a lot of people a year ago, the same people who forced her into an inn used only by dark elves. They treat the dark elves just as badly as the mages, Craliun. She could have watched them die and said it wasn’t her problem, but instead she risked her neck for the humans. Just as I did. She’s right, they’re family to us.”