“Thank you again, brave sparrow,” he said.
Felicity blinked her eyes. Words right now didn’t matter so much. So she just nodded.
“I would like to give this to you,” the king said, reaching into a pouch on his belt. “For my queen once you find her.”
King Taron drew out a silver necklace with a white crystal dangling from the end of it.
Felicity bowed her head, and he slipped the chain over her neck.
The crystal disappeared beneath her feathers but she could still feel it against her skin.
“The lair of Grak is northward; that way,” the king said, pointing through the gloom of the forest. “He should sleep as long as the sun is in the sky. If you fly quickly, you may be able to reach his lair, save the queen, and escape before the sun sets.”
Colin stepped forward now, and spoke. “These guards have volunteered to go with you and guide you as far as they can.”
He gestured to the pair of guards standing nearest to her. One had light hair, and the other had dark. Their hands tightened around their rose-thorn spears as they took a step forward.
“This is Giph,” said Colin. The dark-haired fairy nodded to her. “And this is Kurk.” The fairy with light hair dipped his head.
“Hi.” She offered them a shy smile, comforted a little by the fact that she would have company. At least a little way. They seemed like nice enough guys. But she wished that Colin could come, too.
Drat that his poor wings were still growing back.
As if he sensed her thoughts, Colin stepped near and put a hand on her wing. It made her feel a little better.
“We will look out for you as long as we are able,” the guard named Giph said.
Kurk added, “We’re sorry we cannot remain with you the whole way.”
Felicity straightened her posture. “That’s okay. I’m sure I’ll be alright once I’m, um—”
She couldn’t say on my own. She didn’t want to think about it. And now as she did, she froze a little.
What was she doing, going all alone into the enchanted realm of some wicked hawk wizard? A sorcerer who could probably turn her into a bug and chomp her in one bite!
Her heart stuttered and she thought about her home, her comfortable little nest and her books.
For a second, she wished— But no! She had promised!
Fluttering her wings and fanning her tail in determination, she launched herself into the air. Her guides lifted off with her, their wings becoming bright blurs.
“This way Mistress Sparrow,” Giph said and fluttered off into the forest twilight with Kurk beside him.
Felicity wheeled in the air, glancing back one last time at Colin and his father, and the other soldiers.
Colin waved, and she offered him a fleeting smile before she turned and flapped after her guides, her heart throbbing with a mix of excitement and fear.
~ ~ ~
Without the sun overhead or familiar landmarks to help her, Felicity could only guess their direction as she and her two guides flew through the forest, around the fat trunks of trees and over or under fallen logs.
The two fairy guards, Giph and Kurk, seemed to know the forest well and she was glad they had come with her. She would never have been able to find her way this far on her own. Here and there, a beam of light made it through the trees, illuminating the forest floor and the fat, rough trunks of trees. But mostly the forest lay in a perpetual dusk.
She could not tell how long they flew through the forest shadows but Felicity guessed the sun was getting close to the middle of the sky when to her surprise, the trees in her path— moved.
A wall of branches and leaves grew up in front of her and the two fairies with a speed that astounded her.
The creak and groan of twisting, swelling wood and the whispering flutter of shifting leaves filled the air like quiet, sinister voices whose words she couldn’t quite understand.
Felicity flapped rapidly to slow down then wheeled back to avoid the impenetrable wall of branches and leaves.
Behind her the two fairies pulled to a stop as well, and hovered in the air side by side.
“What is that?” she asked, alighting on a branch that jutted from one of the trees near her companions. Thankfully, this tree wasn’t moving.
“We can go no further, Kurk and I,” Giph said. “This is where Grak’s enchantments begin.”
“Only you can go past this point,” Kurk said. “We wish we did not have to, but we must turn back.”
“Once we leave, the branches will withdraw and you can go on,” said Giph.
“Really?” Felicity shifted her weight from side to side. “Um, how— how will I know which way to go?”
“Come this way,” Giph said. “We will show you.”
Kurk and Giph rose up into the air, flying toward a narrow break where a thin spear of light pierced the thick canopy. Felicity followed them. She flapped through the gap in the branches and leaves, and emerged into the open air above the tree tops.
Felicity blinked in the brightness. The sun had almost reached the top of the sky, washing the green sea of fluttering leaves in warm light.
She fluttered to a stop and perched on a bare branch that jutted above the topmost leaves. The trees around her stretched to the horizon in an unbroken sea of green, except to the north where a long range of mountains, hazy in the distance, rose up into the sky. Her fairy guides hovered nearby.
“Up here, your sight is clearer,” Kurk said. “You won’t lose your way so easily as below.”
“Still, the enchantment against us works above the trees as well,” Giph said. “Look.”
He pointed his rose-thorn spear several feet away where a lump of leaves and branches bulged and swelled like the hunched back of an angry bobcat. The leaves even rustled with a sound that reminded Felicity of a threatening hiss.
“Watch this,” Giph said.
He gestured to his friend, and the two of them retreated a few inches. As they backed away, the swelling leaves began to ease down. But then as the fairies came back to Felicity’s side, the bulge of leaves rose again, rustling, and whispering softly.
“Whether we try to fly into Grak’s domain above or below, his enchantments keep us out,” said Kurk.
“No matter where we try to enter, no matter how fast we fly, the wall of wood and leaves rises to meet us, batting at us if we get too closer,” Giph said.
Felicity winced.
Kurk added, “And if we try to fly high enough to go over the reach of the branches, fierce eddies of wind catch us and fling us violently back.”
“Many of us have been injured trying to get through to rescue the queen,” Giph murmured.
“Ooh,” Felicity breathed. She tilted her head and shifted her wings. “Is that how the king hurt his arm?”
“It is,” Giph said, and Kurk nodded.
“But these trees won’t—”Felicity shifted her weight. “They won’t try to hurt me?”
“This enchantment keeps out fairy folk,” Kurk said. “You are a bird and can pass where we cannot.”
“Even so—” Giph cast a wary glance northward. “You must stay alert no matter where you are in Grak’s domain. Be wary of all that you see. Let nothing distract you. And do not deviate from your goal.”
“Fly toward that cliff,” Kurk pointed his spear toward one peak that rose higher than the others, one side a sheer cliff of grey stone. “Where that ledge slopes down the cliffside, you will find Grak’s lair.”
“Take care of yourself,” Giph said with a sympathetic grin as he and Kurk retreated a little way. “And may the goodnesses watch over you.”
“Thanks,” Felicity said. As her companions drew further away, the angry swell of leaves and branches eased down, and finally flattened completely.
Heaving a breath, she rose off the branch.
Swallowing back her uncertainty, she flew toward the same spot where just seconds before, the leaves had surged like the raised back of an angry animal.<
br />
But as she drew near, nothing happened.
She circled the spot and looked back.
The fairies each raised a hand in farewell. Then gripping their rose-thorn spears, they turned, dove through the small break in the canopy, and vanished.
With a heart that felt like a pebble in her chest, Felicity watched Giph and Kurk disappear. Then gulping hard, she turned and beat her wings in the opposite direction.
Chapter 7
Trees marched up the ragged sides and ridges of the mountains that rose in the blue distance. At the base of the cliff Kurk had pointed out, a pale green ridge sloped downward, melting into the ocean of trees beneath it. The cliff itself, a face of grey somber stone rose stark and bare like a talon clawing at the sky. It seemed like a dreary place where no one very nice would want to live.
It made sense though. In all the books Felicity had read, the evil guys usually didn’t like living in cheerful places.
They always chose drab, inconvenient places like crumbling fortresses surrounded by lakes of lava or dark castles in the middle of ancient, over grown forests or dripping caves deep underground.
So it made perfect sense that a wicked sorcerer who happened to be a hawk would live on the side of such a desolate, forbidding cliff.
Besides the sound of her wings beating the air and the thump of her own heart, she couldn’t hear anything else across the vast sea of green tree tops. No other birdsong or any of the rumbling that came from the noisy carts the featherless two-foots rode in.
Felicity had never been so far away from familiar things. She had never been this alone in her whole life.
And to make matters worse, she was in the realm of the wicked sorcerer Grak, the Night Hawk.
She shivered as she looked out across the sea of treetops that stretched to the horizon. This was very open, up here. Maybe she could duck down below the treetops, into the quiet shadows of the forest. It was shady there and she didn’t have to worry about anything pouncing on her from out of the sky.
But if she lost sight of the mountains ahead, she’d lose her way. And who could say that she was safe anywhere in Grak’s realm?
She didn’t know what unpleasant things she might find down in the shadows and the dark, among the musty, ancient trees.
Her dream from the night before came back to her and Felicity wished that Colin was with her. Or somebody.
One thing was certain; she wouldn’t turn back.
So on Felicity flew, skimming over the ocean of leaves. She kept her eyes fixed on the mountains ahead and the grey cliff where she’d find Grak’s cave.
But something beneath her, just beyond the edges of her sight, caught her attention. She looked down.
Below her, a dark shape sped along against the leaves at the same pace she was moving, wings outspread like a bird. Felicity started in fright before she realized that it was her own shadow growing larger or dropping away as the tops of the trees rose and fell.
“Oh.” Her voice came out in a breath of relief. “It’s just you.”
She beat her wings and the shadow beat its wings too. “I guess I have you for company.”
She dipped her wings and glided to the left. So did her shadow. Then she dipped to the right. Her shadow moved with her.
Watching her shadow against the tree tops, Felicity only saw the face looking up at her through the leaves for a split second.
“Oh my!” Felicity chirped, flapping her wings upward in fright.
Woosh!
The face disappeared just as fast as she’d seen it. But Felicity felt sure she had seen something besides the leafy tops of the forest leaves.
She dipped her wings and circled back. She wheeled over the place where she had been sure she’d seen the face. But she couldn’t see anything now. Maybe it had disappeared down into the leaves. Or maybe it had just been her imagination.
Turning again toward the mountains, Felicity pondered what she’d seen as she continued to fly. A pair of eyes. Angry eyes. And a frowning mouth lined with sharp teeth. Maybe it had been her imagination. After all, sometimes her imagination got away with her. And now that she was on a real life adventure with the threat of Grak the wizard on her mind, maybe her imagination was working harder than usual.
Felicity heaved a breath. Her mind was playing tricks on her. That had to be it. After all, she didn’t know of any creature with such a face as—
Woosha!
Felicity shot straight up in the air. She had seen the face that time! The same wide, triangular face, the same angry eyes and sharp teeth! She had seen it, flat against the leaves of the trees, looking up at her!
Felicity circled and dropped back down toward the spot where she had seen the face. Right next to that bent twig that jutted up above the leaves. She’d seen it right there! But it had disappeared!
Was she going crazy? Or— had Grak just conjured an enchantment to scare her, trying to make her turn back?
Well, she wasn’t going to let him scare her!
Giving a fierce chirp of determination, she shot ahead, her eyes fixed upon the range of mountains in front of her.
Shawoosha!
A flat triangle-shaped face shot up out of the tree tops directly into her path. Huge, sinister eyes glared into her own.
A sharp squawk escaped her and she banked hard to the left, barely avoiding a collision. Behind her, the face dove back down into the leaves as quickly as it had come.
On she flew, beating her wings harder than ever now, a new fear gripping her heart.
In the split second when the face had popped up in front of her, she’d noticed something dreadful. It had no body! It was just a head attached to— well, to nothing!
Ooh! Grak’s enchantments were too much for her! He had monsters working for him. Monsters! Floating heads with wide mouths full of teeth that could open up and swallow a sparrow in one chomp!
For a few moments Felicity wished that she hadn’t come. That she’d told the king she was sorry, that she couldn’t help them and had gone home.
But as her throbbing heart grew calm, she pictured Colin’s face. And then the king’s.
And she remembered why she’d come in the first place.
Felicity released a shaky sigh. Remembering didn’t make her any less scared but it did help make her a little bit braver than before.
Clenching her beak in determination, she continued on.
Shawoosha woosh!
Felicity shot upward, avoiding yet another flat, angry face that leaped into the air just in her path with, of course, nothing beneath it but air. And then she flashed past it.
Golly, how many were there?
And were there any more coming? That was the fourth face she’d seen. Or maybe—
A terrible thought came to her and her eyes widened.
Had she seen several different faces or the same creepy face?
After all, they had looked exactly the same.
Was there a single monster head down there right now, floating through the shadowy maze of trees and woven branches?
She shivered at the frightening image of a floating head bobbing along beneath her through the forest shadows, ready to pounce up right in her path and— and then—
And then, what? What did it want? What would it do to her if it caught her?
She couldn’t say, but whatever it wanted, it couldn’t be good.
Felicity struggled to think. What would Augustus do? Would he just ignore it? Probably not. It might not be smart to ignore something that, well, wanted to eat you. Would he try to outfly it? But no matter how fast she flew, the face seemed to be able to follow her wherever she went. And it somehow seemed to know right where she’d be. So trying to fly away would probably not work either.
Maybe she should try to confront it, from a safe distance of course, and see what it did.
Shawoosha woosha!
This time, when the face leaped out of the trees and into the sunlight, Felicity didn’t scream or dodge it. She did so
mething else.
“Hey! You!” she shouted, slowing and hovering in place. It strained her wings, but she could do it for a little while. “Hey, you—you face!”
The face did nothing.
It did not blink or smile or do anything. In fact, it did not even seem to have heard her. It just frowned and stared at her with glowering, unblinking eyes. Two little tufts on the top of its head, a pair of fluffy little feathers, twitched and quivered. But nothing else moved.
Shawoosha woosha! Woosha woosha!
To her left and to her right, two more faces flew up out of the trees.
Three monster faces surrounded her now!
Her instincts told her to turn around and fly away, to take the only escape she had. To leave Grak’s domain and go back to safer places where crazy floating heads with giant teeth didn’t jump out of trees and chase after her.
But she didn’t.
She couldn’t.
She wouldn’t.
Because Felicity remembered why she’d come. And she had promised.
Instead, she turned to the face in the middle. “Hey, you!” she chirped, ignoring how tired her wings were getting. “I’m not going to say I’m not scared of you. ‘Cause I am. But—”
The face folded in on itself, going completely flat, then unfolded again to glare at her once more, motionless and unblinking.
Felicity paused. “What did you—?”
She dropped down and landed upon a long leafy twig that jutted up through the thick leaves.
She fluttered her tired wings and folded them behind her, now more curious than afraid.
She puffed herself up, fanned her tail and asked, “What did you just do?”
The faces did not speak nor did their expressions change. Then once again the face in front of her folded on itself and unfolded again.
Felicity shifted her wings and tipped her head.
The face on her left folded then unfolded, just like the first.
Then the face on her right did the same.
And then she saw something she hadn’t noticed before.
These faces weren’t floating in the air. They were resting on skinny twigs that jutted up above the trees, just like the twig she perched on.
And those little tufts at the tops of their heads weren’t feathers!
“Wait a minute—”
Felicity narrowed her eyes and hopped sideways along the length of her twig.
As she angled past the nearest face on her right, the body of a moth with two fuzzy antennae came into view.