(Previous)
The
shark-thing circled us twice and then reached up with two hands -- yes hands --
and pulled himself into the boat, dripping a bit of water, though it
disappeared as he settled into place.
"You
two both made the right choice," the man said. Or maybe fae, I supposed, given the
magic he'd used. He wore a shirt and pants, barefoot, hair
braided back. Pale skin and blond hair,
too -- I didn't know what to make of him.
But he did smile, and that looked better than the shark smile.
Was
he a were-shark?
"What
is going on?" I finally asked.
"I
was a test," he said and leaned back, clearly at ease. Edmond was still on my shoulder. He kept sniffing as though he expected a
shark rather than a fae. "And you
made the right choice. I could tell you
wouldn't change your mind."
"What
now?" I asked.
"I'm
Ellin. We are going somewhere to
talk," he said with a bow of his head.
"And
how long is it going to take to get somewhere?" Edmond asked. "That's a lot of water around us!"
"Illusion,"
Ellin said with another smile.
"There isn't any water at all, really. Haven't you looked down?"
I
carefully turned and looked down, a hand on Edmond to make certain he didn't
fall. The water shimmered --
But
then I realized I was not looking down through clear, pretty water to the sand
below. No. I was looking through air to the land far
below.
"Ack!"
Edmond shouted and threw himself off my shoulder and into my lap, trying to
burrow into my shirt again. "I hate
flying!"
I
couldn't say I was very happy with it, either.
It was one thing to be sitting in this little boat magically moving
across the ocean. There was a sense of
relative safety with the water below us.
Nothing but air? If I could have
burrowed into something too.
I
glanced down. Was that the jungle way
down there? And the walkway. Could I get the boat to fly down there and
let Edmond and I get off so that I could maybe catch up with the others
again?
I
could find no way to control the boat.
We were at the mercy of this fae and I couldn't say I had shaken off the
worry that he would turn back into a shark soon.
"You're
safe," Ellin said when I looked back at him. "You are safer here than you were the
rest of the places you've traveled. And
we'll be to land soon."
I
looked out across what still appeared to be open water, but at the same time
Ellin waved his hand and it all shimmered.
No more than half a mile away in front of us stood a tall, wide sky
island of rock, floating in the air. It
didn't look any more stable than the boat as far as I could see, but since
neither of them were falling, I supposed I should stop worrying about it.
We
were bound to have other worries soon enough.
Other
boats were already pulled up on the rocky shore and I wondered what kind of
trouble came in those craft. It was
bound to be a problem. Everything was a
problem.
Edmond
only brought his head up when we reached the land and bumped against the
shore. He was the first to leap out onto
the ground. I didn't tell him that the
over-sized rock was floating in the air, too.
I wasn't sure he would handle the idea very well, and I didn't want to
see him panic. However, I was more than
aware of the rock's precarious position as I stepped off the boat and onto the
land. I figured I could panic enough for
both Edmond and me.
I
suppose people who were used to magic and had lived with it all their lives
would have had less trouble with this floating rock concept. I kept expecting the ground to give way
beneath my feet.
Ellin
had yanked the boat up on the shore -- or whatever you called the edge between
land and open air. I glanced back once
and decided that was not a good idea.
"Who
else is here?" I asked.
"Other
fae, mostly. People who have been in
this realm for a while," he said and seemed to be weighing whether he
should tell me something more or not. He
opted for not and just kept walking.
We
entered a cavern. I expected darkness,
but there were lights in the wall and I could see another bright opening at the
far end. The cavern must have gone
straight through the rock and Ellin led the way. He had moved well ahead of us. I didn't know if I trusted that from someone
who had been a shark not so long ago.
"Where
do you think the others are?" Edmond asked. We hadn't passed any openings and I could see
no one ahead. The passage was starting
to angle upwards now, too. "I don't
hear anyone."
That
was another good point. I saw Ellin
glance back our way, no doubt hearing what Edmond had said. He still offered nothing.
I
reached down and picked up Edmond.
"Just to be safe," I said softly. He gave a silent nod and settled into my
arms.
I
wished Maggie, Davis and Lord Snow were with me. I glanced back, but what was the point? Go sailing in the sky again didn't appeal
much to me right now.
So I
kept going forward, w atching the light
at the end of the tunnel -- yeah, that just didn't look good.
To Be Continued
954 words
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