Sucking on a tooth, Jus crossed his legs, collected the faerie and arranged her on his knee. He hunched down to meet her eye in concern.
“Escalla, are you all right?”
“I’m fine!” The girl almost jumped out of her skin. “Justfine!”
“Good.” Jus tilted his head to examine her as if she might bemad. “Escalla, what are you talking about?”
Escalla felt the blood drain out of her whole body and go into storage somewhere on another plane. She wilted like a boiled lettuce as she stared at the Justicar.
“You didn’t give me the necklace, did you?” Still mystified,Jus shook his head. Escalla felt her whole life sliding into a horrible pit of embarrassment. “You didn’t give me roses, and you didn’t give me the sweetseither.”
“Ah, no.” Jus scratched his head. A mind used to sifting tinyclues and solving crimes struggled with the events of the last five minutes. “What was all that about scale?”
““Nothing!” Escalla jumped to her feet in fright. “Nothingat all! It was-” The girl looked for something neat and glib to save her face.“It was wing scales! Like butterflies! I need to change my scales! Dust themoff, polish them! And it will all take time!” The girl fluttered like a mad mothin a bottle. “Yep! Time! Which implies anticipation! Lots of anticipation, allworking toward, ah, fruit. No, not fruit. Cherry picking!” The girl whirled andgrabbed Jus by the armor. “No, not cherries! Bananas! Apples! Yes! Gottahave my wings ready by apple blossom time! Faerie tradition!”
Suddenly Escalla stopped, stared at Jus, and leaned away. “You gave me none of those gifts?”
“Nope.”
“Not roses, not my favorite sweets, not this tailor madenecklace just for me?”
The Justicar spread his hands in innocence. “Escalla,really!”
“Shhh!”The faerie’s face went blank. She lifted a hand forsilence as horrible thoughts skittered through her mind.
“It wasn’t you…” Sudden cold fear griped Escalla, andshe whirled to stare around at the forest in fright.
She fired off a battery of spells-an anti-scrying shield,then an illusion of herself and Jus still sitting talking by the stream. The girl grabbed Jus by the shirt and dragged him into a run, yanking him back toward the cart.
“Run! Come on! Run!”
She snatched her ice wand, Enid’s stun scroll, and herspellbooks all in a single mad second. Polk began wrenching his cart around to follow as she dragged Jus out across the stream. The girl took one look at the cart and fired a swarm of little magic bees that slashed the mule’s traces andcut them in two.
“Polk, get on the mule and ride! Hurry!”
“My cart!” Polk stared at the abandoned vehicle. “My cart!”
“Lose it!” Escalla whacked the terrified mule across itsrump. “Go!”
With a bleat of fear, the mule sped into the trees, plunging Polk through a bramble bush. Jus backed away from the stream, his hand on his sword, trying to cover Polk and Escalla’s backs.
“What is it? What’s there?”
“Just run! Just do it!” Escalla felt tears of panicflood her eyes. “Come on, man. I don’t want to lose you!”
The girl dragged Jus away, and he broke into a run. He led the way past Polk and the mule, twisting sideways down a deep gully filled with leaves that helped cover their trail. They fled past fallen statues, past another giant’s skeleton, and sped out onto an old road with weeds jutting upbetween the cobblestones. Escalla danced in a cold fright, keeping her companions in the cover of the trees.
They ran for a mile. Breathing hard, Jus stopped beneath a broken oak to look behind him. Nothing moved. The world seemed still. Escalla shot out of the skies, her eyes roaming in fright across the leaves.
“Jus, if we get separated, meet me at the Hydra’s lair! Justwait! Wait as long as it takes!” She half tore out of his hands, surged forward,gave him a kiss, and broke away. “You’re my friends! I’m not losing you!”
Something unseen flashed through the leaves high above. Escalla whirled, stabbed a spell into the treetops, and blasted a web across the trees. Something small and invisible struck the web, kicking and cursing. Escalla shot aside, invisible again. A line of golden bees hissed from midair to show her position as she passed. She blasted the branches and tops from trees, sending a cascade of debris tumbling through the forest.
Something invisible hovered in the falling leaves-somethingthat cursed and threw up a shield to ward away the debris. Stabbing upward from below came another spell, and another of Escalla’s webs hit something full forceand plastered a struggling shape against an old dead tree.
Leaves jerked as Escalla sped invisibly away-until a vastwall of fire suddenly thundered upward in her path. Escalla’s voice could beheard cursing, then cursing again as another fire wall blocked her escape off to one side. In a sudden flash, Escalla’s invisible body was somehow outlined insparkling light as an unseen enemy neutralized Escalla’s camouflage.
Jus was already running to her aid. He tackled the girl, balling himself about her as he leaped through the fire wall. Cinders’ peltshielded them from the heat. Rolling to his feet, Jus released the girl. Breaking away, she sped hard and fast through the underbrush.
“Jus, keep back!”
A spell stabbed at her from above. Escalla rolled aside, but the magic had never been intended to hit her. Instead it lanced into the fern beneath, which instantly sprang into life and caught the girl about the waist. Struggling, Escalla became visible as she fired a shower of little missiles into the plants and blew them apart.
She flung out a hand and scythed a spell into a patch of empty space. A female scream echoed in the woods, and a small form smashed into the autumn leaves, flickered, and instantly became visible.
It was Escalla in mirror-image: small, lithe, blonde, and winged like a dragonfly. Dressed in white lace, the faerie had a face and hair that could have been Escalla’s own. With a vicious screech, the newcomerscrabbled to her feet and threw a killing glance at Escalla.
Escalla hissed, whipped open her hands, and the blinding sizzle of a lethal spell flashed into life. The other faerie snarled at her, matching Escalla’s motion and wreathing herself in dancing electricity. The twogirls were about to open fire, when a sudden imperious voice pealed out from above.
“Enough!”
It was a voice that hit with a tidal wave of matronly power. On the forest floor, the two young faeries jerked sullenly back as though struck a blow. Unused combat spells leaked off into the ground.
“Escalla! Tielle! Cease this at once!”
A regal presence shimmered into being above the two glaring girls. Lean and arrogant, blonde and beautiful, it was a female faerie dressed in icy splendor. Her body had a wild hauteur that almost stung the eye.
Other figures shimmered into view-faeries, male and female,in hunting costumes and in gowns. Their fashions were exquisite, their faces arrogant. Here and there, tiny dragons buzzed and hovered at a faerie’s side.
Looking stark in her black leathers, Escalla stood and coldly wiped the spell taint from her gloves. Standing proud and arrogant amidst her peers and keeping a good grip upon her battle wand, she stared at the magnificent woman floating above and gave her a look that dripped poisoned icicles.
The woman looked down at Escalla as though examining a found beneath a log.
“Hello, Escalla.”
Escalla matched the woman gaze for gaze.
“Hello, Mother.”
5
It was a world where dreams had taken shape into reality, aplace of strange colors and spaces that shone like alien stars. A titanic tree stump made an island, and above the island, the sky shimmered with little drifting points of light. A dark, cool pool stretched off into the distance. Wooden stepping blocks stretched off across the lake to other islands, far and near.