Audrey dragged me back to Jesath’s later that night. I was barely able to move.
All of Jesath’s children were asleep when we returned. We came back to a quiet house, with only a lamp shedding green light over Jesath’s worktable.
It was clear we’d interrupted his work when he flipped open the door for us. He was still squeakily polishing a small contraption with a handkerchief. He quickly wrapped the device into the kerchief and popped it into his pocket. “Oh dear!” he said, taking my hand and patting it furiously. “It looks like m’boy’s taken the blood rather hard!”
“It’s nothing a good night’s sleep won’t cure him of,” Audrey replied. She dragged me up the stairs, my arm slung around her shoulder. She hoisted me along, carrying my entire weight. My feet scraped across the floor, bumping up the steps.
Jesath scrambled for his lantern. He hopped up the stairs behind us, throwing green light our way.
“Yes, just put him in this room,” he said. “Don’t worry, Kevin m’boy! You’ll be fine!”
“I know,” I mumbled.
We entered a little room with a circular window. As Audrey brought me around, I looked out the window to the backyard below; the embers of the bonfire still simmered red through black puffs of smoke. Scattered piles of cushions and quilts gave the room a sense of comfort. Next to the window was a tremendous pillow the size of a mattress.
Audrey tossed me onto the pillow; feathers popped out and drifted around the room.
“I’ll let Jesath take care of you from here,” Audrey said.
“Yes, yes, m’dear!” Jesath raised his lantern. Now that he was closer, I saw the lantern was lighted with dozens of green fireflies fluttering inside. “You go and get some rest yourself. You need it, m’dear!”
“Thanks, Audrey,” I murmured, as she disappeared out the circular doorway.
Jesath placed the lantern on the floor and flitted about me like a bee. He drew a quilt over me and busied around the enormous pillow, fluffing the corners. “Do you feel comfortable, m’boy?”
I was sinking happily into the huge pillow, as if it would swallow me in softness. “Yes,” I mumbled as Jesath plumped a spot of pillow near my head.
“Let me put night lights on for you.” Jesath opened the lantern and let out several of the fireflies. They fluttered about in tiny green sparks.
“Thanks, Jesath,” I managed. “If you ever need anything from my world, I’ll be happy to get it for you.”
He was huddled near the lamp. The light splashed green over his large glasses as he asked, incredulous, “You don’t say?”
“Sure. Don’t see why not. Just send one of those ravens my way and let me know. It shouldn’t be a problem.”
“You know, I haven’t visited your world in a long time, oh no.” His voice was soft, pensive. “Whenever I went, I’d always have to put on such an outfit to help me blend in. Oh! But I still drew some attention for my height, yes I did! Like one of those Oompa-Loompas from your books, yes I did!” A couple fireflies flew out of the open window before Jesath drew it shut. The other fireflies twinkled near the ceiling.
“You didn’t dress like Oompa-Loompas, did you, Jesath?”
“Very funny, m’boy! Now you keep your jokes to yourself and get some sleep.” He patted my head and picked up the lantern with the remaining fireflies inside. In the next moment, he had flitted out, flipping the door shut behind him.
I listened as his steps pattered down the stairway, fading into a quiet. I lay still, buried beneath the quilt in the embrace of an enormous pillow. I yawned. Overhead, the fireflies shimmered, giving the room an emerald glow. Shafts of moonlight came in and laid silver across the floor. A firefly drifted in a pinpoint of light over my forehead. I watched as it flew to the window, green in a shaft of pale moonlight.
And that was the last thing I remembered.
• • •
“Wake up, sleepyhead!” Audrey’s voice rang painfully into my head. A cold gust of air blew into my bed.
“Stop that,” I mumbled. I shifted, grabbing at my covers.
Another chilly gust seized me from behind. Audrey was lifting up my quilt, letting in drafts of cold. “Not until you get up.”
I grunted and squeezed my eyelids shut, blocking out the sunlight. I tried to tell her I’d be up, but only succeeded in making more strange noises.
“Alright,” she said. I wondered if she’d actually understood me. But then she said, “I’m in a hurry, so I’ll leave you here and go on to Hallia myself.”
“Okay, I’m up. I’m up.” With a huge effort, I threw back my bedcovers, rolled over and nearly toppled to the floor.
Audrey grabbed my arm and lifted me to my feet. “C’mon,” she said. “Jesath is making us breakfast.”
“I felt like I just got into bed,” I said, scratching my head. As sleepy as I felt, I was glad I could move on my own again.
“That tends to be the effect of sleeping pillows,” Audrey remarked.
“Is that what that enormous thing’s called?”
“Actually, it’s called a tlehrieh nahsspehtt. But for your sake, let’s just call it a sleeping pillow.”
“I think it’s awesome!” I said.
“Shhh… Keep your voice down. The kids are still sleeping.”
“Sorry.”
At the bottom of the stairs, Jesath was at his worktable, busy pouring something into cups. Quilted bags of fairies’ blood were stacked next to cushions.
“Oh! Good morning! Good morning! Have some porridge, m’littles! Have some porridge!” Jesath handed each of us a bowl the size of a teacup. “You must eat something before you are off!”
Audrey promptly downed hers in a swig. I was beginning to wonder what she couldn’t eat in a single swallow. In my own cup, brightly colored flakes were floating in a red fruit drink. The flakes crackled, sending sparks flying from the cup. Even though Audrey drank hers without any problem, I remembered she could also throw around men twice her size and heal her wounds right before my eyes.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but – is this safe to drink?” I asked. I heard Audrey’s clear laughter; I was starting to get used to that.
“Firecracker flakes, m’boy!” Jesath called out enthusiastically. “Of course it’s safe! Let me give you some more punch.” He reached for the pitcher and poured more fruit juice into my cup. Immediately, there was an explosion as sparks flew everywhere. I shielded my face with my arm. As the puff of mushroom cloud dissolved over my cup, I peered tentatively over the rim and saw the flakes sizzling with more colored sparks. “Drink up!”
With an anxiety nibbling at me, I took a sip. I could feel it whizzing all the way down. It felt remarkably like drinking soda with very strong fizz. When I’d finished, I handed the cup back to Jesath.
“Well done, m’boy! How did you like it?”
“It was… good!” It was still popping away in my belly. In the midst of its crackles, it had a fruity taste. I patted my stomach. It had been through a lot these past days.
“You’ll miss our foods when you’re back in your world! Here, take some fairies’ blood. Take some fairies’ blood with you. I’ve got plenty!” He hopped to the stack of quilted bags and stuffed them into my Moreinen satchel.
“Have some leaf cakes, Jesath,” Audrey said, “for all your trouble. They’re in Kevin’s bag there, I brought some over from Moreina.”
“Oh, Ryloha, it’s no bother! No bother at all!” Jesath said, as he rummaged through my bag. He plucked out a sphere of auburn leaves, which Audrey had taken from the Moreinen dinner rug. “Wonderful to see you again,” Jesath was saying. “After all these years!” He held the ball of red leaves, the small sphere large in his hand. A sorrow settled in the little man’s big eyes. “Oh, do give your sister my best wishes. She was a most apt pupil, most talented. I do hope to visit her again sometime soon.”
“I’m sure she’ll be happy to see you.”
“Yes, yes.” The sorrow in his magnified eyes mingled with concern. “Tak
e care of her, Ryloha. So glad you are back.”
After helping himself to a couple more leaf cakes, he handed my satchel to me and saw us out the door. I slung my bag over my shoulder, thanking him profusely. As he waved us away, he promised to send me many messengers requesting supplies from my world.
Audrey and I made our way through the tunnel before stepping out from the folds of the tree. The forest was crisp and clean in the morning air. Birds rustled through the leaves overhead. Grasses and twigs crunched beneath our feet as we walked among the bulbous trees.
Out in the clearing, before the sunflowers, Audrey whistled for her hine. Ly swept down from the blue air, and soon we were rising into the sky, the sunflowers dissolving into a field of orange below. Before long, all that was beneath us was an expansive sheet of white clouds, lying long across the skies like a blanket of snow.
“See that star?” Audrey indicated with a nod of her head.
Although it was morning, a star shone clear, lingering on from the night, pressed against the blue of the horizon. The lowest tip of the star was long and slender. It was the tapered star I had seen above the city in the touch. “It’s like the star they have in nativity scenes.”
“That’s the Star of Hal,” she said. “It’s the symbol of Alhallra. Each of its seven points represents one of the seven virtues of the Angels, so it’s also called the Star of the Angels. But we worship Hal over all the other Angels, hence ‘the Star of Hal’. It lies right over Hallia.”
We flew silently for a while before hunger and curiosity began nagging me. I swung the sack from my shoulder, peeking inside to find several leaf cakes sitting innocently beside bags of fairies’ blood.
“What are leaf cakes?” I asked.
Audrey half-turned and I could see the corner of her smile. “Why don’t you eat one, Kevin?”
“Okay.” Happily, I pulled one out. Grasping Ly tightly with my legs, I peeled off the layers of fall leaves, letting them blow away through the sky. As the leaves peeled off, the golden rice of the cake revealed itself. It was blended with honey and rich with fruits. When I took a bite of it, it was sweet in an amazing way.
“You like it?”
“Excellent,” I said, through a mouthful. She reached back for one, and I passed a cake to her.
Thus, we swept through the skies towards the Star of Hal, leaf cakes in our hands, the clouds brushing our faces and running in mists across Ly’s wings. The longer we flew, the colder it became. Soon, our leaf cakes were gone. The sun began to dim, the blue skies graying to a pale frost. Gales smashed against us in waves of icy wind. Audrey bent against Ly’s neck and drove the hine on.
“I’m going to put my coat on.” My breath puffed out in a fog of white. The wind battered against Ly’s wings and sent us rocking in the sky.
“Okay. If you fall, I’ll catch you,” she said.
The cold was becoming unendurable, so I gripped Ly as tightly as I could as I rummaged for my coat amongst sacks of fairies’ blood. When I drew the fur coat out, it flapped violently in the wind. I was just able to pull it on without falling over. I could see the side of Audrey’s cheek as I hugged the coat to me, and I could tell that she was grinning.
The sun was already high in the sky, but it was shaded with a mist of grey. Snow began to fall.
“Have you seen much snow in California, lately?” Audrey asked.
“Not since I last went snowboarding in Tahoe.”
“Well, you’ll see plenty here.”
Snow flurried through the clouds as we flew lower. The field of white below us was no longer a sheet of clouds, but endless stretches of snow. Forests rose from the pale landscape, their silver leaves bright in the white sun, the foliage lined with the softness of the snowfall. As the wind blew through the leaves, I thought I heard a tinkling, like bells.
We descended into a pale world, brushing just above the snow fields, the tips of Ly’s wings grazing the surface, leaving long thin lines dipping into the snowy earth. We rose over a hill and the land extended before us in rolls of pallor until it touched the ice city of Hallia. The city shone crystalline through the icy drifts.
Deer ran across the plains, their coats white with the winter. We flew toward the deer as they fled over the frozen ground. They parted before Ly’s wings, stampeding around us, their ivory horns swirled with snow.
Ahead, the spirals of the city ascended into the snowfall. Its towers neared, large and silver, filling the breadth of my vision. We soared into the city, past spires blanketed in white. Rivers were frozen beneath bridges, the waters ridged with frosted waves. The waterfalls were falls of ice, as firm as the structures they touched. Pedestrians weaved through the streets with heavy fur coats, the roads beneath them like icy walkways.
The whole city was in the midst of high festivity. Silver banners streamed from every tower. An occasional splash of pale blue embellished a spire, while flags displaying the Seven-Pointed Star adorned the buildings.
We flew around the frozen shaft of a waterfall and emerged onto the height of the city. The Krystalline Castle appeared before us, a palace of silver. We landed in the courtyard, the hine’s wings beating up a flurry of snow.
It was as if I had stepped into a dream, with Hallia and the Krystalline real around me. Audrey dismounted and I followed, leaping to the ground. Although my coat kept me warm, my feet were painfully cold in the Moreinen sandals. The snow pressed in, icy against my toes.
At the courtyard’s center was the statue of the Angel holding a white orb in its hand. Snow laced its impressive wings. The swirls of snow from Ly’s wings began to settle, revealing figures standing in a line. They all wore black cloaks, except for a single figure at the front whose white cloak was highlighted by the dark line of those behind her.
Even before she stepped forward, I knew who she was. All my life, I’d only seen one person carry herself in such a manner, with the ability to give such an impression. I’d seen Satinah before as a vivid dream, but now she was real in front of me. A shudder ran through me, as if it were cold even in the heat of my coat. Although her glance never once touched me, I wished desperately for the protection of invisibility again, and feared the touch of her eyes.
Her illness had made her thinner, her cheeks more pronounced and her eyes larger. But the effect was only to make her more beautiful. Her hand was so slender as she extended it to greet her sister. Under her fur cloak, her dress was a pale satin iced with a pattern of stars. Beneath the intricate ivory of her crown, her silver-white hair was twisted into a design, frosted in place by a thin layer of ice. Snowflakes fell into her hair and lingered there, glittering. She wore earrings of white petals hanging long against her neck. The wind turned the folds of her dress, and for a moment, that was the only part of her that moved as she stood beneath the Angel’s wings.
Audrey took her sister’s hand and brought the slim fingers to briefly touch her lips. She was still dressed only in her white gown; as she bent to kiss her sister’s hand, her Moreinen dress flowed out in magnificent lengths among the sheets of falling snow.
Satinah withdrew her hand. “I’m glad to see you again, my sister,” she said softly. “Come. We have much to discuss.”
They began to cross the courtyard, the cloaked figures following behind. I would have stood still, had Audrey not bid me to follow with a jerk of her head.
As we entered the castle, Audrey turned to her sister. “Ah sister,” she said, and I could hear the smile in her voice. “It’s good to be home again.”
• • •
We walked through the crystal halls, footsteps echoing. At a nod from Audrey, one of the dark figures dropped back and offered to escort me to a room. Audrey and Satinah continued down the corridor, accompanied by the rest of the cloaked figures. I had not forgotten Hallain’s concern about Satinah, but aside from a cold temper, she seemed indifferent to me.
Our path through the castle took us outside and up a flight of stairs, curving around a great pillar with a chamber at it
s zenith. Running alongside the stairs, in a wall of ice, was a frozen waterfall. At the foot of the falls, the castle gardens were veiled under the snows of winter.
We arrived on a glass balcony encircling a round chamber with white pillars. The balcony was the same as what I’d seen in the touch – a platform of smooth glass bare of railing; I could see through it perfectly to the spires below, and it made me dizzy to walk onto it. Between the pillars, the chamber walls were glass. The lady opened a pane, and I hurried into the room only to find the floor was as clear as the balcony outside. Beneath my feet, the lower castle was distinctly visible, as if I were standing on air.
The lady threw a match into the fireplace, a circular opening in the floor. It lit into flames of white, sending lights dancing in swirls across the glass. She nodded a goodbye to me and a spark from beneath her hood caught my eye; she was wearing a silver band across her forehead that dipped to a white jewel. When she walked away, I glimpsed the flutter of silver beneath her black cloak, and recognized it as the mantle of the councilors.
Through the glass floor, I watched the councilor’s tiny figure descending the spiraling stairs into the castle below. People and things I had seen only as a strange dream were becoming a terrific reality, as if dreams were coming true.
I stood alone within the chamber, feeling dwarfed by the pale majesty of the palace. I paced for a while, admiring the intricately engraved walls of glass. The room was warming with the fire, and my feet, bare except for the sandals, were glad for the warmth.
Across from me, under a pale awning, was a white bed. There was no frame to support it; it was only a round mattress sitting on the floor. I smiled. It was like a giant marshmallow draped in translucent veils. I touched it, and to my surprise, it was soothingly warm. I pressed down. There seemed to be nothing inside but air. Curls of steam began to rise from the bed.
I decided to lie down for a minute.
I shrugged off my coat and let it slip to the floor. I felt the fire warming my skin from the fireplace. Getting beneath the covers was like lying onto a bed of clouds. Steam from the cushion puffed out, curling in a light mist. I sighed happily as I sank into a bed of warmth. The sheets were soft as air. I couldn’t even remember when I fell asleep.
Chapter 29