“I will not sacrifice the boy,” the queen said. “I will keep them both safe.”
“As you should,” Raven said, holding his hands out. “As you should. But if the Grendel only knows of one child, it should be the child capable of defending himself. It does not hurt to let those spying on us get a glimpse of him, rather than her.” Raven walked toward Wynn. He peered down at her and held out a hand. “We should keep the other tucked away at all times, like the treasure that she is. Come, little one. I will take you back to your room.”
“Here, child.” The queen turned to her and produced a pair of crystal bells from the air. They rang with several notes at once as the queen handed them to her. “Go and make me a pretty song in your room. I will come and listen to it at dinnertime. Promise me you will obey the rules. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
Wynn glanced out the window. A gust of wind shook the trees of the shadowy woods in the distance. “I promise,” Wynn said.
Raven tried to take her hand, but Wynn pulled it away. She followed him out of the queen’s rooms and back to hers, still thinking about what she heard. She had to find her brother.
Wynn jingled the pretty bells for a while, long enough for Raven to fly off and boss someone else around. A pretty song wouldn’t help Elric. He was in danger. When everything was quiet again, she slowly opened her door. She tiptoed through the corridor, glancing every now and then through the narrow windows cut into the living wood. A gap opened up to her right and she turned. An arching bridge curved over the top of the leafy branches toward the heart of the tree. She hadn’t been this way before, but it led to the trunk, and the trunk had stairs, and it didn’t seem as busy as the main branch.
She wasn’t supposed to cross the bridges without help. This one was very high, and it didn’t have rails. Wynn peered through the branches of the great tree. Each leaf was huge, at least the size of the roof of the hut where she had grown up. She took a step out.
Immediately she looked down. Her head spun. The ground was so far below, it didn’t look like ground at all. She stepped back into the hall and heard footsteps and voices coming toward her. The fairies would make her go back in her room.
There was only one thing to do. Wynn grabbed her skirts again and ran over the bridge. She watched her feet and tried not to think of how high up she was. The bridge sloped down, and she nearly lost her balance and fell forward, but she caught herself and stumbled, falling through the open doorway into the trunk of the tree. She skidded down a few steps before she picked herself up.
Her heart was racing, but she made it!
Now she needed to find her brother.
CHAPTER TWOElric
“GOOD! FASTER, PRINCE ELRIC, DEFEND your weak side,” Master Elk Windlight commanded in his deep and booming voice. It carried across the arena.
Elric gripped his staff harder and used it to parry the attack of the fairy boy he was sparring with. The muscles in his arms felt like they were made of gloppy mud, and his thighs burned with pain. His legs shook as he gritted his teeth and tried to find the strength to fend off the new attack. This was his first fighting lesson, and he didn’t want to let Master Elk down. They had been working since dawn without a break, and he was both hungry and exhausted.
The sand of the arena shifted beneath Elric’s feet and his sweaty palms slipped on the polished staff. The fairy boy tried to dodge Elric’s next blow by floating three feet in the air, but Elric swung his own staff, and landed a strike on the fairy boy’s weapon. The crack of wood on wood echoed in the arena.
“Zephyr, the prince is a mortal. You must fight like one too!” Master Elk shouted at the fairy boy with a commanding bellow that suited his rank as the captain of the queen’s guard. The air around Zeph’s shaggy mop of blue-black hair glimmered.
With a flash of light, the boy was gone. A gust of wind buffeted Elric’s head as he fell face-first into the sand.
Zephyr reappeared on Elric’s other side and laughed. “Remember the first rule of fighting: always keep your balance.”
Elric grabbed a handful of sand and threw it at Zephyr. The lousy cheat. The fairy boy flicked his wrist and the wind blew the sand harmlessly to the side.
“That was against the rules, and you know it.” Elric dusted himself off and picked up his staff even though his fingers felt too weak to hold it anymore.
“Maybe.” Zeph chuckled. “But it was worth it.”
Elric bent to catch his breath. He was the prince. The queen had determined he was ready to fight. This wasn’t a game. He rose up, swinging his staff in a quick arc to catch Zeph behind the knees. The fairy landed on his rump in the sand. He looked shocked at first, then his eyes flashed from warm brown to bright green. Zephyr crossed his arms over his belly and fell back in the sand, laughing. “Good one, Prince! I can’t believe I fell for that.” He floated up and dusted off his rump. “Literally.”
Elric gritted his teeth.
