He used all the tricks and leverage Master Elk had taught him. It didn’t do any good. Master Elk had trained these guards too. When they pulled, he used his heavier mortal body against them. Wynn’s life was at stake. That gave him enough strength to yank his arm away from his captors and run back down the staircase.
He had only one thought in his mind. He didn’t know what had driven Wynn through the shield, but he was determined to follow her. He wouldn’t rest until he found her again.
He charged down the stairs and glanced behind him. When he turned back around, the knife-like points of a rack of silver antlers were only a half a foot in front of him. Elric skidded to a stop, throwing his weight back from the stag in front of him. He lost his balance and fell onto the stairs.
The snow-white stag snorted through his black nose as he stared up at Elric from under the branching silver antlers he carried like a crown. In a clouded mist of silver light, Master Elk transformed. The antlers melted away, and instead of a snowy stag, his teacher stood before him in his impressive white robes with his long braids falling over his shoulders. He held his sword like a barrier between them.
“She is gone,” he said in his low melodious voice. “I understand that you are hurt.”
“No.” Elric shook his head. “You cannot know that she’s dead.”
“I can.” Elk took a step forward, and it forced Elric further up the stairs. “The reaper almost made me diminish today. Wynn is a mortal child and frail in both body and mind. What you saw at the shield was a trap. Think. The second part of that trap is yet to be sprung. The Grendel knows about you. His reaper saw you. He knows you will follow your sister to whatever end. I cannot allow that.”
“She is not frail, she’s strong. I won’t abandon her.” Elric rose to his feet and faced his teacher. He didn’t have a weapon. He didn’t have thousands of years of experience with fighting. But he did love his sister.
“You are young.” Elk gave him a sad smile. “And a mortal creature. I commend the strength of your feelings.” He gave Elric a slight bow. “You saved my life today, and I will repay that debt.”
Elk’s eyes turned pure white, and a flash of silver light was the last thing that Elric remembered.
When Elric woke, he found himself in his room. The walls formed from the inner wood of the living tree and surrounded his soft bed. He threw the down-stuffed blankets off his body feeling hot with rage. The roof of his room glittered with the white light of the stones embedded in the ceiling. He grabbed the edge of the chest next to his bed and overturned it. His clothing spilled out onto the floor as the chest rolled to the center of the room with a satisfying crash. He crossed the soft woven rug to the door and pounded on it.
“Let me out!” he shouted. He beat at the door until his hands felt raw. He shouted until his voice felt hoarse. And when he could finally say no more, when the strength of his arms failed him, he stumbled over to the window.
“She’s my baby sister.” The words tore from his throat, clawing their way from his broken heart. “I promised to protect her.”
He stared out through the enormous leaves of the tree to the shield that arched over him. When they first came to the Between, he found the shield beautiful. It had made him feel safe, like nothing in the world beyond it really mattered. Darkness and pain couldn’t touch him as long as the shield remained above him. Now it felt like a wall—a stone wall as high and impenetrable as a fortress.
His sister was lost on the other side, and he was under siege. The problem with fortresses and walls was that the armies beyond them would always find a way to cause suffering within. The safety of a wall was an illusion as shifting and beautiful as the colors swirling through the shield overhead. There was nothing more terrible than a siege. The army outside could hold their ground until the people in the fortress slowly starved. The fairies weren’t really safe here. They were trapped.
Wynn was in danger and there was nothing he could do about it, because he was trapped with them. His throat felt painfully tight. He kept trying to swallow to relieve the soreness there, but it didn’t help. His jaw ached from clenching his teeth, and his heart hurt. He pressed a fist against his chest.
The dark woods beyond the shield stretched on forever. Wynn seemed so small in comparison when he stared out at it. He had to believe she was strong enough to survive. He had to believe she was smart enough to make it on her own. But that was so hard to do. Things were difficult for Wynn, and surviving in a magical wood filled with dangerous creatures was even worse. It would be a challenge for someone who had magic at their fingertips. Wynn had nothing but a single shoe and a fat black hen. Or at least he hoped she did. It made him feel better to think that Mildred was with her and she
