“No. It has to be me, Holly. If the second lock is opened, then I will die, but if my plan succeeds, then all fairy souls inside the magical corona will be drawn to the afterlife. Fairy souls. My soul is human, Holly, don’t you see? I don’t intend to die, and there is a chance that I may survive. A small chance, granted. But a chance nonetheless.” Artemis rubbed his eye with a knuckle. “As a plan, it is far from perfect, but there is no alternative.”
Artemis made Holly comfortable with cushions. “I want you to know, my dear friend, that without you, I would not be the person I am today.” He leaned in close and whispered, “I was a broken boy, and you fixed me. Thank you.”
Holly was aware that she was crying because her vision was blurred, but she could not feel the tears on her face.
“Opal expects you and me,” she heard Artemis say. “And that is exactly what she will get.”
It’s a trap! Holly wanted to scream. You are walking into a trap.
But even if Artemis could hear her thoughts, Holly knew there was no turning him from his path. Just as she figured Artemis had left the room, he reappeared in her field of vision, a pensive look on his face.
“I know you can still hear me, Holly,” he said. “So I would ask one last favor of you. If Opal outwits me and I don’t make it out of that crater, I want you to tell Foaly to power up the chrysalis.” He leaned down and kissed Holly’s forehead. “And give him that from me.”
Then the teen genius left, and Holly could not even turn her head to watch him go.
Opal knew that the ranks of her warriors were depleted, but it didn’t matter; she had reached the final level of the Berserker Gate’s second lock. Satisfaction flushed through her system in a buzz that set sparks jumping from the tips of her ears.
“I need peace,” she called to whatever Berserker was guarding her flank. “If anyone comes close, kill them.” She hurriedly amended this order to: “Except the human Fowl, and his pet LEP captain. Do you understand me?”
Oro, in the body of Beckett, understood well enough, but he wished the fairy bonds gave him the wiggle room to suggest that their leader forget her personal vendetta. However, Bruin Fadda’s rules were explicit: Total obedience to the fairy who opens the gate.
We should hunt them down, he wanted to say. If we can capture these last few humans, then there is no need to open the second lock.
Opal turned and screamed into his face, spittle flying. “I said, do you understand me?”
“I do,” said Oro. “Kill anyone, except Fowl and the female.”
Opal tapped his cute button nose. “Yes, exactly. Mommy is sorry for raising her voice. Mommy is stressed beyond belief. You would not believe the brain cells Mommy is expending on this thing.”
Say Mommy one more time, thought Oro, and bonds or no bonds…
The most Oro could do against the grip of the fairy bond was scowl slightly and bear the stomach cramps, but the scowling had no effect, as Opal had already turned back to her task, a corona of black magic shimmering around her shoulders.
The final tumbler in Bruin Fadda’s enchanted lock was the warlock himself. Bruin had interred his own soul in the rock in much the same spiritual fashion as the Berserkers had been preserved in the ground.
As Opal ran her fingers over the rock’s surface, the druid’s face appeared in the stone, roughly etched but recognizable as elfin.
“Who wakes me from my slumbers?” he asked in a voice of rock and age. “Who calls me back from the brink of eternity?”
Oh, please, thought Opal. Who calls me back from the brink of eternity? Is this the kind of troll dung I am going to have to put up with just to wipe out humanity?
“It is I, Opal Koboi,” she said, playing along. “From the house of Koboi. High Queen of the fairy families.”
“Greetings, Opal Koboi,” said Bruin. “It is good to see the face of another fairy. So we are not yet extinct.”
“Not yet, mighty warlock, but even as we speak, the humans approach the gate. Haven is threatened. We must open the second lock.”
The rock ground like a millstone as Bruin frowned. “The second lock? That is indeed a momentous request. You would bear the guilt for this action?”
Opal used the penitent face she had developed for parole hearings. “I would bear it, for the People.”
“You are indeed brave, Queen Opal. The pixies were ever noble, in spite of their stature.”
Opal was prepared to let the stature remark pass, because she liked the sound of Queen Opal. Also, time was a-wasting. In less than an hour the sun would rise and the full moon would pass, and the chances of maintaining this little army for another day, even with the humans chasing their own tails, were pretty slim.
“Thank you, mighty Bruin. Now, the time has come for your answer.”
The warlock’s frown deepened. “I must consult. Are my Berserkers by your side?”
This was unforeseen. “Yes. Captain Oro is at my shoulder. He is in total agreement with me.”
“I would confer with him,” said the stone face.
This Bruin character was really pushing Opal’s buttons. A second ago it was all Queen Opal, and now he wanted to consult the help?
“Mighty Bruin, I don’t really think there is any need to consult with your soldiers. Time grows short.”
“I would confer with him!” thundered Bruin, and the scored grooves of his face glowed with a power that shook Opal to her core.
Not a problem, she thought. Oro is bonded to me. My will is his will.
Oro stepped forward. “Bruin, comrade. I had thought you gone to the next life.”
The stone face smiled, and he seemed to have sunlight instead of teeth. “Soon, Oro Shaydova. I liked your old face better than this young one, though I can see your soul beneath.”
“A soul that aches to be released, Bruin. The light calls to us all. Some of my warriors have lost their wits, or close to it. We were never meant to be this long in the ground.”
“That time of deliverance is at hand, my friend. Our work is almost done. So, tell me, are the People yet under threat?”
“We are. Queen Opal speaks the truth.”
Bruin’s eyes narrowed. “But you are bonded, I see.”
“Yes, Bruin. I am in thrall to the queen.”
Bruin’s eyes flashed white in the stone. “I release you from your bonds so that we may speak freely.”
Not good, thought Opal.
Oro’s shoulders slumped, and it seemed as though every one of his years was written on Beckett’s face.
“The humans have weapons now,” said Oro, and it was strange to see the words coming from a mouth full of milk teeth. “They seem miraculous to me. In this young one’s memory I have seen that, without us to hunt readily, they kill each other by the thousands. They destroy the earth and have annihilated several thousand species.”
The stone face grew troubled. “Have they not changed?”
“They are more efficient than we remember, that is all.”
“Should I open the second lock?”
Oro rubbed his eyes. “This I cannot answer for you. It is true that Queen Opal has sabotaged their efforts, but already they mass against us. The gate has been assaulted twice, with two of our own among the attackers. An elf and a dwarf, both cunning adversaries.”
The stone face sighed, and white light flowed from its mouth. “Always have there been traitors.”
“We cannot hold on much longer,” admitted Oro. “Some of my warriors have already been called to Danu’s side. The world is in chaos and, if the humans attack the gate tomorrow, there will be none to defend it. With their new weapons, perhaps they will find a way to dismantle the second lock.”
Opal was quietly delighted, and if she could have clapped her tiny hands without seeming unqueenly, she would have. Oro was convincing this craggy idiot better than she ever could.
“The People wither and die without sunlight,” she added with a poker face. “Soon we will disappear altogether. Su
ffering is our daily ritual. We must ascend.”
Oro could only agree with this. “Yes. We must ascend.”