“Once a fairy has magic, they cannot die the way a mortal does. Instead of blood, they bleed light,” Osmund said.
Elric remembered the silvery light spilling from Fox and Elk during the battle with the reaper.
Osmund continued. “If they lose enough of that light, their life as we know it is gone.”
“I’m not sure I understand,” Elric said, plucking off a leaf of the tree that was tickling his neck.
Osmund thought about the question for a moment. “Take Zephyr, for example. The first form of his magic that he was able to control is the air around him. In the future, he will master other forms of magic and add to his name. That twilight trick shows promise.”
“I’m with you,” Elric said, slowly peeling the fleshy parts of the leaf away from the center vein.
“If fairies lose enough of their magical light, they are reduced to becoming the form of their simplest magic,” Osmund explained.
Elric thought about what he just said. Then the true horror of it finally struck him. “So if Zephyr were badly wounded, he would turn into air?”
Osmund nodded grimly. “Others become a rock, or a shadow, or mist, or a flower somewhere. They retain a consciousness, but lose control over their simplified form. There’s no way for them to come back again and become what they were. Not without powerful magic, and they would be beholden to the one who brought them back.”
Elric looked up at the stars, trying to imagine living for an eternity stuck in a form of a rock or a twig. It was worse than death. “The crystal is linked to the queen, so the cracks—that’s her blood spilling from it, isn’t it?”
Osmund closed his eyes. “Yes. If she diminishes completely, the Grendel will come to claim his staff and whatever power he can steal from the lives around him. Make no mistake. If the Grendel takes over the fairy kingdom, he will drain each and every living thing of their power and reduce them all to nothing. Only then will he have collected enough of the light magic to be able to use the portals again. He will fully come to the Otherworld, not just as a storm or a shadow. He will feed his dark magic with misery and pain. He will cause death and destruction, the likes of which I cannot imagine, to increase his power. Not a living soul will survive.”
Elric looked beyond the masses of stars to the storm clouds building over the Shadowfields. They seemed so far away. The woods stretched on forever, and Wynn was lost somewhere within it. The reaper howled, a long, deep sound that seemed to carry the promise of the pain and destruction of the Grendel on the wind. “Then we must defeat him,” Elric said.
They had to find Wynn before that reaper did, or it would be too late.
CHAPTER NINETEENWynn
WYNN WATCHED THE ELF GIRL wipe her eyes with the hem of her robe. She hadn’t talked for a while, but Wynn waited for her to speak. She was very upset. Finally she sighed and looked back up at Wynn.
“What happened?” Wynn asked. Now it felt even more important to help her friend. She knew what it was like to have a brother in trouble. It was terrible.
Lexi dried her nose with her sleeve. “The Grendel put him under a spell. Now he is very sick. Come with me. I’ll show you.”
Lexi picked up the lantern, but left the sack. Wynn gently lifted her sleeping hen and placed her on the bed. “Stay here, Mildred,” she whispered.
The elf girl pushed aside the loose floorboards and swung her feet down into the hole in the floor. She stood up, and the floor only came to her waist, but didn’t fall quickly. Instead she slowly drifted down through the floor like a feather. It was very strange.
Wynn peered through the floor. “Drop your feet down. I’ll help you,” Lexi said as she stood next to a strange contraption made of long boards and gears looped with ropes.
Wynn did as she was told and slid her legs down. She felt Lexi’s palms on the bottoms of her bare feet and slid down farther. Lexi steadied her, and placed her feet on a narrow board. Wynn tried to balance, but she wasn’t very good at balancing. The gears whirred, and the board under her feet slowly lowered, but Wynn couldn’t keep her balance. She tipped backward, and landed with a soft thump on the lumpy sacks. A puff of dust came up out of them.
“I’m so sorry,” Lexi whispered. “Are you hurt?”
Wynn shook her head and stood, slapping the dust off her tattered skirt.
“My invention isn’t the best, but I had to put it together with whatever I could find,” Lexi said as she lifted her lantern. “It’s all storage down here. I had to break open the lock. Don’t worry, I can fix it.”
They wandered through a maze of old stone walls, tall woven baskets filled with ropes and wheels, old crates, and several more sacks. It smelled dank and musty. In the shadows, Wynn could see larger wheels and billows. Moss grew in the spaces between the stones. Lexi’s lantern flickered, making the shadows dance around them.
“I’m not good at following rules,” Lexi said. “I don’t know why. I just get an idea in my head and I do it without thinking.”
Something creaked above them, and they stopped. Lexi shielded her light with the edge of her robe. They heard a soft snore, and Lexi motioned them forward again.
“I like books. I was named for words.” Lexi peered around, then carefully stepped over a fallen broomstick. “Before the Grendel destroyed the old city, we had a great library. The books are still there, all the thoughts of everyone who is gone now. I’m obsessed with those lost books.
“When there was peace with the fairies, they gave us
