Soulkeeper Page 20

  “Pardon me, little one,” he interrupted. “My slow ears struggle to follow your voice.”

  “Oh, sorry,” she said. Tesmarie’s hands weaved before her. The air thickened about the faery, then shimmered into a pink and purple bubble enveloping her. When it popped, she flicked her bangs away from her face and frowned. “You humans experience the world much too fast. You miss out on so many wonders that way.”

  Whatever she’d done, her movements were now slower and her speech clearly understandable.

  “Thank you,” Devin said. “It is an honor to meet with… forgive me, I do not even know what you are.”

  “I’m an onyx faery,” Tesmarie said. She tilted her head. “Has it really been that long? Do you know nothing of the fae?”

  “Until last week I thought the fae were stories we told our children.”

  Jacaranda stepped between them before Tesmarie might respond.

  “Do you know of what Devin seeks or do you not?”

  Tesmarie frowned at the rude interruption.

  “Well, yes, I believe I do.”

  “Then take us there.”

  Tesmarie side-eyed the woman.

  “I don’t take orders, especially from those whose names I don’t even know.”

  “My name is Jacaranda. Now show us the way.”

  “Or you’ll do what?”

  Devin grabbed Jacaranda’s wrist before she could draw her dagger. Tesmarie zipped a dozen feet higher into the air. A twirl of her wrist created a slender sword within her grasp, from hilt to blade glowing as if formed of moonlight.

  “Should have known, should have known, should have known. Humans hate fae. Call us thieves and pranksters and bad omens…”

  “No, please,” Devin said. He glared at Jacaranda. “You are not to harm Tesmarie under any circumstances, is that clear?”

  Jacaranda’s arm immediately relaxed.

  “There must be no delays,” she said. “If Tesmarie does not help, she is a delay.”

  “Thank you for explaining it so succinctly,” Devin said dryly. He looked up to Tesmarie. “Forgive her, please. Soulless are not the best when it comes to meeting new people, but I promise we mean you no harm.”

  “Soulless?” Tesmarie said. Curiosity snuck into her voice. “How is that possible? Have the Sisters abandoned you?”

  The question stung deeper than the faery could have known.

  “No,” he said. “But sometimes I wonder if we have abandoned the Sisters.”

  Tesmarie opened her hand. The moonlight blade vanished into mist.

  “This starlight tear, you’re not planning to take it, are you?” she asked.

  “I seek to know who and what this Janus is. If he wanted the starlight tear, I only wish to know its purpose.”

  “Then I shall lead you to it, but only if you promise that…” She stopped to glare at Jacaranda. “That… soulless… behaves.”

  “You heard her, Jacaranda,” Devin said. “Stay on your best behavior.”

  “I do not behave. I do not misbehave. I follow orders.”

  “And if I order you to behave?” he asked. Jacaranda stared at him and said nothing. “Good enough for me. Please, Tesmarie, if you’d be so kind, lead the way.”

  The faery looped two circles in the air.

  “All right then, follow me!”

  She dashed into the woods like a shot. In less than a few seconds she was out of sight, gone so fast neither Devin nor Jacaranda could even begin to follow. A second later Tesmarie returned.

  “Sorry, sorry, silly me,” she said. “I forgot that for how fast your time moves, you walk so slow.”

  “We walk only as fast as our two legs may take us,” Devin said. “Some of us do not bear the luxury of wings.”

  Tesmarie pirouetted three full revolutions in the air, dropping several feet before springing back up to eye level.

  “They are pretty neat, aren’t they?” she said. For the first time since he met her she smiled, and it warmed Devin’s heart.

  The faery fluttered ahead, this time at a far more sensible pace. Devin was glad to have her, for without her he’d be lost in this weird forest. Worse, he’d have returned to Londheim without learning anything about whatever Janus had come to the Oakblack Woods for. Devin used his thick coat to protect against the scraggly weeds and briar patches they pushed through, and he stomped down a few of the weaker ones to allow Jacaranda easier access after him. Tesmarie, meanwhile, casually fluttered up and around every obstruction, seemingly clueless as to their difficulty in following her.

  “Several times now you speak of us moving fast,” Devin asked as he navigated yet another briar patch. “Yet to my eyes you are the fast one.”

  Tesmarie hovered at the other side of the patch, and she frowned and scrunched her nose as she thought.

  “It’s not that you move fast,” she said. “Your time does. Mine is much slower, which to your eyes makes me seem like I move much faster than I do.”

  Devin rubbed at his eyes.

  “That doesn’t… I don’t think I follow, little one.”

  The faery crossed her arms as she hovered up and down in thought.

  “How about this… imagine two rivers. One is a rapid current. The other is a slow, steady trickle. Put a leaf atop the water of each, and it will move with the speed of the current. In the rapid current, the leaf will vanish quickly. In the slow, you will follow it with ease. Does this make sense so far?”

  “It does.”

  “Now imagine that the two rivers are in fact the same river. Time moves fast for you, like the rapids. Time moves slow for me, like the steady trickle. Pretend my words and actions are like the leaves, easy for me to follow, but fast for you in your rapid pace.”

  Devin tried, he really did, but this felt more like something Tommy would love to argue about over a campfire. As far as Devin understood it, time was time, equal and fair to all who lived upon the Cradle. He decided to let the matter drop and instead focus on not getting scratched to pieces by the briar patch. Dozens of yellow flowers hung from long vines at the end of the patch, and Devin dipped his head beneath and thankfully emerged with only a single scrape across the back of his hand. He shook his coat to loosen a few broken, clinging branches.

  “This is far from my first time within the Oakblack Woods,” he said. “Yet I recognize none of these plants.”

  “None of them?” Tesmarie asked from up ahead. “How strange. So even some plant life vanished with us.”

  Devin glanced over his shoulder to check on Jacaranda. The woman walked with rigid spine through the patch, not even bothering to push aside the branches scraping across her legs and thighs. Devin winced, fearing how many cuts he’d need to attend to once this business was over. Sending a soulless with no sense of self-preservation into a dark, cluttered forest seemed like a cruel punishment in hindsight. Just one more wonderfully wise fuckup he’d made on this entire trip.

  “Be careful,” he said. Unsure if Jacaranda would understand or know how to obey the simple command, he decided to elaborate. “Do not get pricked by thorns if you can avoid it.”

  Jacaranda turned her attention to her legs and arms, carefully obeying his command. With her attention downward, she walked straight into the yellow flowers hanging from the vines. Powder exploded out of their bell cups, and it shimmered black in the forest air. Panic spiked through Devin’s veins as Jacaranda gagged, her face immediately swelling.

  “Jac!” Devin screamed.

  He held his breath as he rushed to her side and yanked her free from the patch. She tumbled to the ground, her lips a frightening shade of blue.

  “Oh no, no, no no no-no-no-no,” Tesmarie said. She zipped to Jacaranda’s side. “Why didn’t you duck? Those are poisonbells, those are bad, bad-bad-bad. Devin, lift her up, do it, do-it-do- it-do-it!”

  Devin slipped one arm underneath her shoulders and the other below her knees. Where were they to go? Whatever poisonbells were, the speed with which their pollen took effe
ct was beyond any toxin he’d witnessed in his years as a Soulkeeper.

  “Need time, more time, more time,” the faery said. She clenched a fist, summoning her moonlight blade into existence. Devin met her gaze and saw steeled determination worthy of a being ten times her size. “Don’t move. I need to carve a rune upon your forehead.”

  “What for?” he asked.

  “For her!” Tesmarie cried. “No time, stay-still, stay-still!”

  She landed atop his nose, her wings softly fluttering to keep her balance. Her blade cut shallow grooves into his skin. Devin clenched his jaw against the stinging pain and kept his carefully trained muscles still. Tesmarie knew what she was doing. She had to, for otherwise Jacaranda would die. The blade carved a circle first and then sliced and cut seemingly at random within that circle. No blood dripped down his face. Did the blade burn and not cut? He dared not ask, lest he disturb her concentration.

  Tesmarie finished cutting whatever symbol she wanted, released her fist to disperse the blade, and then clapped her hands together.

  “Chyron enthal tryga!”

  Her palms slammed into the center of his forehead. It felt like a house dropped atop him. Devin gasped as his mind performed cartwheels. The sounds of the forest slowed. His body became molasses. A deep part of him shrieked against the wrongness of everything, and he feared it would break his mind completely, leaving him a drooling fool to starve and die in the middle of the Oakblack Woods.

  Devin closed his eyes in an attempt to regain his bearings. His eyelids obeyed, but it seemed ten minutes passed before they fully shut. His chest moved to inhale. The cool air flowed like honey down his nostrils to his lungs. Half an hour passed between the first beat of his heart and the second. Words calmly slid into his ears, each one an interminably long drone with a mountain of time between them.

  “Too.…

  far…

  too…

  far…

  come…

  back…

  Devin

  come…

  back…

  to me, Devin!”

  Devin’s mind slammed into his body and restarted at normal speed and pace. He gasped in a breath of air and opened his eyes. Things were returning to normal, at least somewhat normal. Tesmarie hovered before him, relief mixed with urgency on her dark features.

  “Oh, thank the dragons you’re here,” she said. “Quick, quick, follow me.”

  Devin lurched to his feet. Waves of disorientation assaulted him. It took a moment to recover, and once he had, he spared a glance at Jacaranda. Her face was fully swollen, the tip of her tongue pressed out between her blue-tinted lips. She wasn’t breathing. Wait, no… she was, only slowly. Very slowly. Devin looked around, realizing for the first time just how much had changed. A yellow leaf fell from one of the trees, its descent a slow, graceful weave back and forth. It fell less than a foot over the course of several seconds. Tesmarie’s wings were no longer an imperceptible blur but a beautiful rainbow of colors reflecting off the clear chitin.

  “What have you done?” he asked. His voice sounded strange to him, deeper, flowing like water yet echoing repeatedly in his ears.

  “Slowed your time,” she said. “Like me. Like the trickling river. Now stop dallying and run!”

  Devin shifted Jacaranda’s weight in his arms and then followed Tesmarie as she flew through the trees. The air felt sticky against his skin. The grass crunched beneath his footfalls, and it remained pressed low after his passing. A soft wind blew through the trees, creating a steady, comforting roar above his head.

  “Where are we going?” he shouted.

  “Not far.”

  The vegetation thickened as the ground sloped downward. Devin used his shoulder to brush aside a low-hanging branch. When it slipped off it did not spring back immediately. Instead the leaves shifted like a dance, tilting away from him as the branch slowly straightened.

  More brush beat at his arms and legs. Thorns cut holes in his trousers, and he had no choice but to endure. The ground’s uphill slope intensified, more branches formed a wall in front of him, and then at last Devin broke through.

  A pond sparkled before him. Dragonflies hovered over it, their slow hum mixing with the croaking of a hidden frog. Tesmarie pointed to a flat spot beside the pond.

  “Put her there, but do not let go!”

  Devin set her down, careful to keep a hold of Jacaranda’s hand. He had no idea what magic surrounded him, nor why he must keep contact with Jacaranda, but he wasn’t willing to risk putting the woman’s life in further danger. Tesmarie hovered several feet out, frowning at the water as she drummed her fingers against her chin.

  “Two minutes should do it,” she said. “I hope.”

  Devin watched mesmerized as the faery extended her right leg and then twisted about. Her foot carved across the water. The ripples spread at a snail’s march. Tesmarie danced and danced, drawing a strange, circular rune atop the water’s surface. She was a wonder amid this frozen canvas.

  Is this the world she lives in? Devin wondered. She’d grumbled that humans passed through time too quickly. Seeing everything so calm and slow, he now understood her analogy with the rivers. Mundane movements gained a sense of fluidity. The twisting of leaves was a gentle ballet. Flying insects moved in careful circles he’d not noticed before. Even the ripples of water took on a hypnotic quality.

  “Drink!” Tesmarie called to him. Devin startled, his concentration broken. “Have her drink!”

  The runes on the water glowed with a sudden pulse of purple light. Devin reached his cupped hand into its center and lifted it. The liquid ran down each side of his palm like tiny waterfalls, leaving drops in a stalled rain as he brought his hand to Jacaranda’s lips. He used his other hand to carefully pry open her mouth and pin her tongue to her jaw. The opening was small, and so much water had already spilled free of his palm. Devin prayed it would be enough. He lowered his wrist and twisted it, sending a crawling stream past her blue lips and across her swollen tongue.

  A soft pink sheen flashed across Jacaranda’s pale features. Devin opened his mouth to question it but his words died on his tongue. The color had started to return to Jacaranda’s lips. Her chest heaved up and down as she violently struggled for breath. The swelling dwindled. Her face calmed. Last came a single cough expelling a cloud of black powder from her lungs, which Tesmarie turned her back to and blew away with her wings.

  “What magic is this?” Devin wondered aloud.

  “Not now,” Tesmarie said. “This won’t feel good, but if you stay like this any longer you might not ever leave.”

  “What do you…”

  The faery snapped her fingers. A thunderous explosion of sound assaulted his ears. Jolts streaked up and down his spine like a wave crashing over him. Devin let out a confused gasp and then it was over. The world returned to its normal speed and time its normal flow. Jacaranda looked up at him, perfectly healthy and perfectly calm as ever.

  “I do not remember how I came here,” she said.

  Devin fought off a wave of nausea as he stood. His skin tingled, and it felt like his insides were rioting in protest of the sudden departure of magic.

  “I’m not sure you’d believe me if I told you.”

  He offered her his hand. She ignored it and flipped up to her feet on her own. Wet soil from the pond clung to her back and rear. She showed no sign of caring.

  “We must continue,” she said. “There must be no more delays.”

  Devin laughed despite the growing pain throughout his every muscle.

  “Indeed,” he said. He turned to Tesmarie. The little faery looked relieved as she wiped sweat from her brow. “Thank you so much. You healed her.”

  “Yes and no,” Tesmarie said. “She’s better but I didn’t cure her. Instead I made her like she was then and not now.”

  “‘Then’ as in before she breathed in the poisonbell’s fumes?”

  “Correct! About two minutes ago, to be exact.”

&nbs
p; Talking wolves. Corrupted black water. Time-controlling faeries. More and more it seemed the world was a waking dream, but there was nothing dreamlike about the intense ache in Devin’s limbs.

  “I feel like I sprinted a dozen miles,” he said. “Is this… normal?”

  “Your body is not meant to live in the world I live in,” Tesmarie said. “I promise I would not have done it if I thought we had enough time. Poisonbells are aggressively lethal. Everyone knows not to touch them.”

  Devin brushed his forehead, and the symbol she’d cut there to enact her spell. “So will this leave a scar?”

  The faery peered up at him.

  “Probably. I didn’t cut deep, but your skin is as sensitive as a flower petal. In case you’re worried, the runic design is intricate and beautiful. Consider it a decoration.”

  “What do you think, Jac?” Devin asked. “How’s it look?”

  She spared a glance his way.

  “It looks like you were wounded.”

  “Can’t argue with that.”

  Jacaranda climbed up the wet slope away from the pond.

  “No delays,” she shouted over her shoulder.

  “Always on point, that one.” Devin dipped his head in respect to Tesmarie. “Would you lead us again, little one? It’s clear we are in over our heads.”

  “Of course I will,” Tesmarie said. A chipper smile lit up her face. “Always happy to help a friend, yes?”

  “Yes,” Devin said. He smiled back. “Friend indeed. Oh, and if you would, could you point out other obvious things that might kill us as we travel?”

  Tesmarie winked at him before flying ahead of Jacaranda.

  “You two are just so helpless, you know that? Well, you’re under Tesmarie’s care now. Trust me, and I’ll lead the way!”

  CHAPTER 20

  Are any of these poisonous?” Devin asked as they walked through a flowerbed full of knee-high buttercups, only instead of a normal yellow their petals pulsed between red and purple as if a heart beat within their stems. Concentrating on all these strange new plants was proving increasingly difficult.