I had surprised Sylph. I wasn't sure why, but I could see the confusion on her face. By then, the snow was falling hard, and my leg hurt so much that I just had to sit down. I dropped down by a large cedar and felt protected in its shadow.
But not safe.
Sylph knelt in front of me. I started to protest.
"Listen to me," she said, her voice a whisper on the wind. "We are targets. We know something, even if we don't realize it. I had been ready to run back at the trouble -- but I think your question deserves more notice. What can the others no longer do? This isn't a question those of us from the forest could answer. We do not truck with humans or Fae much at all. And yet, this being has taken our crown as well. Why?"
I thought about it for a moment -- not long because the storm grew worse and we wouldn't have much time. "The first use of any crown is to draw others to you. Maybe someone -- something -- wants us to be unable to call the groups together. If we couldn't do that first step, we wouldn't be able to join into a larger group, would we?"
She gave a decisive nod and then looked at the growing storm with a snarl. "Matters are unsettled in the human world. Whatever walks here cuts too wide a path and pushes even nature and unsettles the very air." She gave a long-fingered wave at the sky where snow fell so prodigiously that it already lay at least two inches on the ground around us.
"This is going to kill some humans," I said.
She looked startled. "Surely only an inconvenience --"
"They have no magic to keep their vehicles moving, and those will get trapped by the snow if -- when -- it gets too deep. There are also ones who are already out on the streets, some of them with nowhere safe to go at all."
"Not safe from weather," she said as though this were something that had never occurred to her. Maybe so. Sylphs did not often leave the deep forest, after all. They were not the type of Fae, like him, who could walk among the humans. "They live in places made of stolen trees that, even in death, protect them from the seasons."
"Some use other material to build their homes, but yes -- that's true. And remember that they have no feeling of magic. They don't know what they are doing on levels that we would understand."
She looked around, still bothered.
"Sylph --"
"I cannot leave you here and go on to your people. I need you to explain such things as I clearly don't see. So we do what we can here first. Maybe wisely, not lead this being somewhere else that could be more dangerous to even the Fae."
I thought to argue and then thought again. "See if we can do anything," I agreed and gritted my teeth as I stood. I tried a little magic, but it didn't help. I would need some serious work to repair my injury."
Just then, a small owl tumbled from the tree. I caught it out of reflex -- the poor thing was mostly covered in ice, and I brushed that away and then turned awkwardly to put it back on a branch, but one hidden from the wind. It did not take me long, but I had the feeling of too much time passing. When I looked back at Sylph, preparing to apologize, I saw an odd look on her face. She looked from me to the owl and then back again with a slight frown.
"I am fae," I said -- oh, words that rushed through my soul. I'd had to deny it for so long. "Unlike humans, I am linked to nature. I would not leave any creature, even humans, to suffer in this weather."
"Fae. The Link between the wilder ones like me and the humans who do not feel the world."
"I guess so." I took a look around and then forced myself to stand. "Let's at least get away from here."
I tried to move on through the growing snow. My foot was already too cold, so that didn't hurt it any worse. The damage, though, made it impossible for me to keep moving. Sylph finally just lifted me in her arms again.
"For a distance," she said. "No magic, either of us. I believe that is how it tracks us."
"And something is following us?" I asked, relieved to be off my feet even if it was embarrassing. I'm fae. I should have been able to move on my own.
"Oh, yes. Something still comes. I am not sure if it is what we faced in the subway or not. This seems ... angry. The other simply seemed to be there, with no intentions."
I took her word for it -- but my mind quickly agreed anyway. The snakes were a sure sign, if not the storm itself. And that storm grew worse as we headed toward the edge of the forest. The world beyond was a swirl of white, wind, ice -- and panicked humans.
We did what we could to get most of them out of immediate danger. Sylph encased my leg in a thin wooden covering from knee to toe, and that helped. It still hurt, and it was difficult to move, but my leg didn't give out with each step. Since I was so human-like, though, it gave me a chance to deal directly with humans. Many bundled into cars with total strangers, something they could not do on their own. Those cars I gave power and direction to the nearest place to find shelter. I could not do it for everyone, though, and I knew thousands upon thousands would be in trouble in the city alone.
My duty was to protect them from something I didn't even understand...
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