“That is sad,” Wynn said. She didn’t like it when things got broken. She thought about what Lexi said, and brightened. “Mother told elf stories,” Wynn said. “She said elves borrow people things. They get lost. I lost my shoes in the garden once. I didn’t see elves take them.” Wynn looked down at her bare feet. She had lost her shoes again. She knew the elves hadn’t taken them this time, either.
“We haven’t been to the Otherworld in a long time. When we do go, you can’t see us. We turn invisible.” Lexi giggled. “And we do like to investigate interesting things, sometimes borrowing them for a while.” She held the light higher and it shone on the shimmering strands of a spiderweb. “We always give everything back, though, when we can. Not always in the same place. If we accidentally misplace something, we speak to people like you and tell you where you can find it. We also share our ideas, especially if you are dreaming. Then the people can invent things, and pass that knowledge on. That way elves create things in your world too, and our ideas grow like flowers. We don’t have magic, but we had ideas once. All of that is lost now,” Lexi said sadly.
A long millipede slowly snaked across the floor in front of them. Wynn liked to think of the elves as invisible friends. They must have very good ideas. She liked their inventions. Wynn carefully stepped over the crawling creature.
Lexi continued. “When I heard about the library in the old stone city, I had to find it. I had to save the books so they wouldn’t be lost forever. There’s a dark witch who lives in the ruins. She burns things with evil fire spells.”
Wynn ducked under a spiderweb, and paused as they reached a flight of stairs. She wanted to say something but couldn’t. Her thoughts were moving very fast, but wouldn’t connect together.
Wynn didn’t think that was right. Flame didn’t seem interested in elf things. She liked to be alone, that was all. But she could start fire. Wynn started to speak as Lexi put a foot on the stair. The old wood creaked. “Be careful up the stairs,” she whispered. “We’re almost there.”
Wynn held on to the half-rotted rail and forgot what she was going to say.
Lexi stopped on the step and Wynn almost ran into her. She spun around and closed her eyes as she balled her fists. “Three weeks ago I snuck out of the village so I could rescue the books from the burning witch.” Her words came out in a rush. “It was dangerous and stupid. My brother followed me. He was trying to protect me. A reaper found us. My brother sacrificed himself so I could run.” She placed her hands over her mouth and began to cry.
Wynn put her hands over her mouth too. That was terrible. That was something Elric would do. She remembered the night he had been beaten by the men who had tried to throw her in the pigpen. He saved her. He gave her a chance to run.
“I’m so sorry he’s hurt,” Lexi said. “Father chased down the reaper, but it was too late. We couldn’t stop him, and he took my brother to the Grendel. When the Grendel was finished with him, he left my brother at the gate. He was alive, but barely. Father said it was a warning. Now everyone is afraid.”
Lexi reached a door at the top of the stair and slowly opened it. She peeked through it with her lantern and motioned for Wynn to follow. They crossed a dark hall and entered another room, much like the one Wynn was supposed to be in.
“When we found Codex, he looked like this,” Lexi motioned to a bed in the corner.
At first Wynn didn’t see anything on the bed. The flickering light of the lamp didn’t reveal anything, and the shadow of the top of the bed was perfectly flat.
Then she saw him. A young elf lay still on the bed, but Wynn could see right through him. He looked like he was made of smoke, thin and gray. Lexi put her lantern down and sat on the edge of the bed. She lifted the nearly invisible hand and held it in her own. “We know how to heal bodies. We’re very good at it. His body is fine, but he is slowly disappearing. It’s like his spirit is gone. This magic is beyond us. We don’t know how to save him.”
Wynn came forward. She could barely see the different markings on the boy’s skin. His face looked much thinner than his sister’s. His eyes were closed, but she could see his chest slowly rise and fall.
Lexi turned tear-filled eyes to Wynn. “I need fairy magic. I have to save him.”
Wynn wrinkled her brow and thought hard. She couldn’t make plants grow. But that magic wouldn’t help anyway. She couldn’t change into an animal. That fairy magic also wouldn’t help. How could she help?
“My brother was hurt,” she said, remembering how scary that night
