Fairy War

Chapter 11

"Now let's go!" Neszra said as she let go of my hand. "We don't want to waste any time."

"Someone want to explain this to me?" Mickey asked after we'd taken only a matter of steps through the entrance.

A set of steps had appeared to lead underground, but instead, the ground of the bowl seemed to vanish, revealing a crevice within which was a huge circular structure, its layout very similar to that of Stonehenge. Several fires around its edges provided light but the only things visible were a handful of guards who seemed headed in the direction of the false alarm.

"Why didn't we see even a hint of this outside the entrance?" Mickey asked, still sounding bewildered.

"I told you," Neszra replied, "our enemy is capable of magic far beyond even his own fallen fairies. Whatever he's planning here has evidently been in motion for long enough that he couldn't risk anyone – either human or fairy – discovering his secret by accident."

"How do we get in?" I asked, thinking we were wasting time.

"There's an entrance across the bridge at the bottom of this path," Neszra said, pointing to a narrow entryway guarded by two fairies. "If we can take both of them out at the same moment the alarm won't be raised; then we'll just have to figure out how to find your mother."

"You're a good archer right, Neszra?" Nikkela asked as she took her bow off her shoulder. Neszra nodded in reply. "I'll take the guard on the left, you take the guard on the right. We'll have to time this perfectly, not to mention how well we'll have to aim these bolts."

They found a rocky outcrop that was safely out of the immediate view of their targets, aiming as precisely as they could, and without a sound both arrows were loosed, the two guards hitting the floor within seconds of each other. It was pretty impressive.

"Come on people," Nikkela said enthusiastically, jumping over the outcrop. "We're on a clock here – don't just stand there looking all slack-jawed!"

As we slipped through the entryway we saw solid stone walls to either side, undecorated but for the occasional lantern. I was beginning to think we'd been led on a wild goose chase when we found ourselves suddenly inside a large circular chamber, from which we could see unnaturally formed tunnels stretching off all around us. There was no clear indication of which, if any, tunnels led in a useful direction.

"Anyone want to guess which way we go?" Naarin asked. "Even if we could follow some kind of magical trail, odds are this place is so saturated in the stuff it'd be impossible to tell which routes aren't just dead ends."

"We could split up and-" Neszra's answer was cut short by the sudden appearance of a large, wolf-like creature, which immediately jumped towards Niana.

Although Naarin's lightning-quick reflexes meant he got to the wolf in time to stop it, it did manage to rake its claws across Niana's arm, causing her to fall to her knees with a scream.

"Someone help her!" I shouted, running over, and as I touched her arm I felt my skin tingle strangely. As a strange glow passed up her arm, the wound suddenly healed. "Wha-what just happened?"

"I should have known some of my talents would pass on to my son," Kira said as she emerged from one of the tunnels. A young man followed close behind with a tall fairy dressed in a long brown tunic, a bow over one shoulder and a greatsword buckled over the other. "Not in a million years did I ever think you would come to rescue me." She ran over to me then, pulling me into a hug before I could say anything else. As she held me I allowed myself to breathe a sigh of relief, enjoying the comforting warmth of her body. After a few moments she pulled back from the hug, looking at the others. "Who are your friends?"