Lure Page 8

  Chapter 8

  CEARO

  I ran. Through the trees, barely touching the branches, fluttering the leaves in my wake. This was the fastest I had moved in my too long life.

  I ran as if my life depended on it. And if Water was right, then it would. I vowed it.

  I tried to halt. I had to swing around a trunk to let off the momentum I carried. I stood on a branch only feet from the edge of the forest. Any further, I would give myself away.

  The air near the gate was damp. It had rained. Water had felt it. Water had also felt him. I watched the water fairy in Boden’s group for reaction, but he gave none. Maybe his Water was different. Mine had chosen me, whereas his had been born into him. Mine was old. His was a baby. It probably did not know what to make of this strange human.

  This strange human. He was strange. He was not the man who left his footprints on my drawings. His hair was shorter, less wild. It was brown, but more like the dirt high on the river’s banks than the mud at the waterline. He was pale. I never colored my sketches, but if I had, I would have used a darker tone, a result of hours of fishing in the sunshine. He was shorter. The man I drew was not exceedingly tall, but this man was the size of a fairy.

  I had allowed a quick glance at the fairy with him. Not Boden and his group, but the one chained like a captured human. It was Willa. I had been right all those years ago.

  My gaze had moved back to Strange Human. He was the size of a fairy because he was a fairy. Or likely half fairy. I wondered if he carried earth then. I was answered a moment later. He turned to me. Our gazes collided.

  “Who are you?” he called, gazing up at me from the roots of my tree.

  How had he known I was here? I needed to leave. My feet stayed attached to this branch.

  “You will not tell me?” he said. He waited. I did not move. He nodded. “Alright. Would you like to learn to fish?”

  The memory came and went in an instant. It was enough. The rest of him may have looked different now, but the eyes were the same. Exactly the same.

  I knew he would not remember. Willa did not remember. But it did not matter.

  I followed them all the way to the castle. My mind was a hurricane of ideas and indecision. I let them be dragged inside the walls. Those walls were not quite as impenetrable to me. I stood just beyond the wall, high in a tree that no one would think to look for a rogue fairy in. I faced the tallest of the castle’s towers. I knew they were in there now for two reasons. One, I have spied on the Seelie for ages. Two, Water was still reaching for him.

  Fine, Water. You want him? Go. But slowly.

  I knew they were in the tower but I did not know which cell. Water did. I lifted a hand and let off a mist that seemed to know exactly the direction to take. It traveled directly to a small, barred window at the very top. An idea crystalized, and the storm in my head ceased. I had been there. I had been in every inch of that castle, unbeknownst to the Seelie. That particular cell, along with those next to it, had very rusty bars. The Seelie did not bother replacing them, as the height was enough to deter the humans from trying to escape through them. Some may eventually want to jump, but by the time they reached that point, they were too weak to get to the windows.

  He would not reach that point. I would get him out. I had a plan. I had a goal. Time to move.

  I jumped down from branch to branch until I hit the ground. I tensed. I was inside the wall. But that is not what made me nervous. Others fear the Seelie. I fear the ground. It was too far from the sky. I nudged Earth in my mind. Moving roots was too easy for it. It had a tendency to fall asleep. I hoped it was rested because it was going to work today. I took a deep breath to calm myself. Then I opened the ground underneath me before any of the Seelie glanced out their windows at me.

  The air did not move down here. It was too still. I thought it must dislike being buried as much as I did. I created a tiny tornado on the tunnel floor just to see if I could.

  You are in here for a reason, Cearo.

  Right. Tunnelling was an excellent way of getting around secretly in the Seelie Kingdom. Not as excellent as my usual method of gliding in the rafters and clinging to the ceilings, but a human could not do that. No, tunnels would have to do. I needed to find a good path for him. I had a vague idea of how to pull this off.

  It took only an hour to work out the kinks in the tunnel route. But it took several to figure out the wall. I had to push Earth to listen to me exactly. I was rusty and it was groggy, but this had to go perfectly. I hoped the Seelie had not touched him yet. I hoped for the Seelie’s sake.