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“I can create a path,” Dearen replied.
“Like a bridge?” Brigid asked.
Dearen nodded. “Sort of... The lake is too big for a regular bridge, but I can create a path.”
“I will help,” Kieran said.
The two of them started to work their conjuring magic. Soon, grey stones appeared slightly above the water’s surface.
“We can start walking,” Dearen said as more stones started to take shape to lengthen the path above the water. “We need to be closer to conjure the rest of the path.”
I took the first step. The stones were solid underneath my feet but it was strange to be walking on something like this. The path was not wide enough for two to pass through side by side, which meant a slight wind could knock me into the lake. I was careful not to go too close to the edge.
As Dearen said, the road took shape before us as we walked.
A few minutes later, we were standing on the island's shore.
The sun was quickly rising on the horizon. The lake and the mountains past it looked beautiful, but even that scenery sent a sadness through me. I thought about Feremir and Fiona. The queen had said that she would use Fiona, I hoped that meant she would not harm her.
“We will find a way to save Fiona,” I said to Kieran as he stood beside me.
“And Feremir,” he replied.
“That way,” Cari started walking. There was a cleared path leading into the middle of the island. “Be careful. The well isn’t guarded but...”
She passed as she lifted a branch to reveal the horrible scene on the other side.
“Here he is,” Cari said.
My chest tightened as I stepped into the little clearing.
The cherry tree looked ominous, with the monster tied to its wide trunk. The monster did not move. It did not seem aware that we had just walked into its open-air prison.
Its nostrils did not flare upon picking up our scent. I wondered if it could smell anything at all.
This monster was stranger than any I’d ever seen before. Its wings were double the size of a normal monster and there was something off about it.
The closer I got, the more I could see. The monster was hurt. It had scars on almost every part of its body. Some were oozing with pus that looked painful and smelled horrific. There was a large wound on its chest that looked like someone had tried to rip apart the monster’s heart. The blood on its chest hadn’t even dried yet.
“What is this?” I asked.
“An experiment,” Cari replied. “The queen was trying to make the monsters more vicious.”
“Is it...” I took a step toward the monster. “Dead?”
“Shouldn’t be,” Cari replied. “I can’t sense its thoughts, but then again, I haven’t been sensing this one for quite some time now. I think the queen did something to it to keep me away.”
It was possible. The monsters the queen had created today were closed off to Cari. That meant she had a way of creating monsters that could not be reached by mind magic.
“What was she trying to do?” Dearen asked. His tone was grim.
“I am not sure,” Cari replied. “I assume she was making them stronger. She always said she needed them to be more vicious because whenever I did not force the monsters to attack fae, they chose to stick to animals to eat. Left on their own, they avoided cities.
“They did not want to kill their kind,” I mumbled.
I stared at the hurt monster. It looked pitiful with its arms and wings tied to the tree. The closer I looked, the more wounds I saw on it. Some were healed, and some weren’t. Its arm was crooked, almost as though it had broken and healed wrongly.
“The queen has healing magic,” I said to no one in particular.
