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Tammy shook her head.
After a moment to rest, Maple lifted Allison off Tammy’s neck and set her on the ground nearby. Tammy took the opportunity to shapeshift back to her normal self. Her summoned leaf-moss-flower dress reappeared on her as fast as the fur vanished.
“This way,” said Maple. “We are getting close.”
Light from Maple’s wings shimmered off the bark of the blackened trees. The tiny woman floated like a magical lantern through the night, gliding up and over another wall of root. This one had to be twelve feet thick.
Rather than continue to climb vines as big as houses, Tammy stayed on top, jogging along their surface like a bizarre system of roads. It finally occurred to her that neither Allison nor Maple had grabbed her sneakers, which remained miles away somewhere in the woods never to be found again.
If having to buy another pair of sneakers ended up being the worst part of this mission, she’d happily accept it. The vine she followed had thorns, but they posed no danger to her bare feet—being as tall as her chest or even over her head. No way could she step on them.
Over the course of the next hour, she navigated an interconnected pathway of creeper vines that became increasingly larger. By the time Maple abruptly dove to sit on her shoulder and whispered ‘hide!’, the living ‘pipes’ had become so huge she felt as if she’d been walking atop the roofs of two-story homes.
“Hide?” whispered Tammy.
“It’s close. Be careful. Both of you.”
The reason for the massiveness of the roots became obvious a few minutes later when they reached the edge of a great clearing. What Tammy had thought to be creeper vines turned out to be the root system of a giant tree. It, too, appeared to be rotting and withered like the gateway tree they’d used to enter the realm. This one, however, could make skyscrapers feel small. It sat at the center of a wide clearing with forest on all sides. Its enormous roots divided the space into sections walled-off by bulbous gnarls as tall as small office buildings. Thousands upon thousands of tiny holes in the sides of the roots suggested the dark faerie who had not yet transformed themselves into monstrosities lived in it like a city.
She didn’t waste much time ‘admiring’ the spectacle. Her attention went to a spot not far from the bottom of the giant tree where a clear bubble sat trapped in a writhing mass of black thorny vines. A henge of tall standing stones encircled the glowing sphere, each bearing three symbols on the surface. The symbols glowed violet.
Annie floated inside the bubble, eyes closed, head slightly bowed. She looked weak, but unhurt. The girl’s peach-colored dress had numerous small rips and snags as though she’d tried to run away through heavy undergrowth. A little blood stained her left foot where her sandals proved insufficient to protect from low-lying thorns. Her bright purple backpack, sitting at the bottom of the magic bubble, suggested the dark faeries kidnapped her perhaps on the way to school.
Tammy couldn’t read the big runes, nor did she know their exact meaning. However, thanks to the faeries teaching her all throughout her second childhood, she understood their purpose. The elemental stones would taint the magic within the child, twisting her into an aberration of evil—or killing her and absorbing the power released upon her demise.
Seeing Annie stuck like that while her life force slowly drained off filled Tammy with a big-sisterly rage.
The writhing mass of roots appeared to be engulfing the violet bubble in the manner of an egg-swallowing snake. Each time the roots attempted to squeeze, Annie grimaced in a determined manner, like a kid trying to lift something a little too heavy for them.
Maple grabbed Tammy’s ear. “She is fighting. That shield you see is her work.”
Oh.Tammy stared at the creepy black vines. “She made a bubble around herself. It’s not a cage.”
“Yes. It’s her only protection, but it won’t last long.” Maple pointed. “I’ll get her out of the withervines. You two kill anything that tries to stop me. We can kill the rest of them after Annie is safe.”
Tammy didn’t know whether to laugh or nod. She didn’t doubt Maple would seriously want to murder every last dark faerie in sight as payback for this, but it would be a fool’s mission. Three people—or two people and a faerie queen—couldn’t possibly take onallthe dark faerie at once. They had to get Annie out of here first and foremost.
“Let me guess,” said Allison. “As soon as we jump down off this… whatever it is… and start running over there, we’re going to whack the hornet’s nest.”
Maple started flying toward Annie. “There are no hornets here. And why would you whack their nests?”
Tammy glanced at Allison. “She doesn’t get metaphors. But yeah. We’re about to save Annie.”
And with that, she jumped off the twenty-foot-high root head-first. Halfway to the ground, she shapeshifted into an eagle, pulled out of the dive, and flew after Maple, skimming along only a few feet above the dead grass. Allison jumped after her, magic slowing her fall to a lazy glide... all while whispering a protection spell for them all. At least, that’s what Tammy hoped she was doing.
Operation ‘Save Annie’ had commenced...
Chapter Fifteen
Winging It
While debating what to do next, I talk to Shane about this and that.
He knows his dad has been sad ever since his mother died. The boy suspects his father feels guilty over taking the trip, otherwise he would’ve heard Erica fall and pulled her out of the tub before she drowned. Shane tells me he’d been away at a weeklong summer camp when it happened. He also admits to being afraid to be away from home for any sort of sleepover or camp now because he’s worried his father might be dead by the time he comes back.
His tone of voice is somber, but he doesn’t cry. Maybe he’s already coped with the loss of his mother, or maybe he’s too worried about his dad right now to surrender to his emotions.
According to him, his parents got along. No matter how well an unhappy couple thinks they hide their fighting from the kids, the children always know. Good chance Carson and Erica were, in fact, reasonably happy together. Damn. Now I feel bad for assuming the worst about the guy.
