Elric stared at her. “That’s your plan?” He didn’t sound very impressed.
Her eyes widened. “Oh, and I slipped a sleeping potion into the guards’ water. We just have to wait for them to fall asleep now, and we can get out of here. I brought you disguises.” She patted the bundles of cloth. Wynn picked one up and unwrapped it. Then she started to wriggle out of her dress to change. Elric turned his back to her and focused on Lexi.
“What do we do once we get out of here?” he said.
“I haven’t thought that far,” she admitted. “But if the dome shatters, the Grendel will come. No one will be safe. Not here, not anywhere. Father doesn’t see that. He thinks the Grendel will ignore us and attack the fairies, and we will be protected because we’re insignificant. I don’t believe that.” She got up and walked over to the door and pressed one of her large ears to it. “I can hear the guards stirring still. We have some time to wait yet.” She sat down, then looked over at Wynn.
Wynn liked her new elf tunic and the loose leggings that went with them. They were dark red, and would be much better for hiding than her fairy dress. She pulled on a pair of boots, and kicked her old muddy dress. These clothes were warm and soft, and they came with a black hooded robe like Lexi’s. Elric picked up a bundle and retreated to the corner to change.
Lexi turned to face Wynn. “People are talking all over town. They are saying you killed a reaper. Is it true? How did you do it?” she asked as she pulled fruit and nuts out of her bag and offered them to Wynn.
Wynn screwed up her face to think. “I kicked it in the head. It dropped me,” she said. “Shadow saved me.”
“The Grendel found you?” Lexi looked very afraid. “Or do you mean the fire witch?”
“No, a girl.” Wynn picked up another piece of fruit. “And her tigereon.”
Lexi let out a high-pitched squeak. “That is impossible.” She looked in the sack that she had brought with her, found an old book with a stained cover, and opened it. “Tigereons are extinct. We hunted the last of them decades ago before the dark times.” She flipped through her book. “The skin of the last tigereon was given to the Fairy Queen as a gift on her wedding.”
“Wynn, are you sure you saw a tigereon?” Elric asked.
Lexi interrupted. “They are large cats, but with heavy heads, and stripes. They can live at least a thousand years or more, and are immune to fairy magic. Their black stripes stay the same, but the white ones can—”
“Her stripes change colors,” Wynn finished for her. “I stayed the night with her. Shadow is very nice. She didn’t eat Mildred.”
“Shadow?” Lexi leaned forward. “There’s a legend about a beast that lurks in the old ruins. It does the bidding of the fire witch, but no one has ever seen it. Could it be the last tigereon?” She inhaled and her eyes went wide, as if she were mystified by the idea.
Wynn huffed. “She doesn’t like the name ‘witch.’ And she doesn’t like elves, either. They stay far away so you won’t see them and hurt Shadow.”
Lexi tilted her head. “This doesn’t add up. The witch is an old woman. She has haunted the woods for many years.”
“No, she’s a young girl. She’s Elric’s age. She is very nice. She likes Mildred.” Wynn chewed on one of the nuts. It was very bitter, but she was hungry.
“An elf girl?” Elric asked.
Wynn shook her head.
“An Otherworld girl?” Lexi asked, searching through her book.
Wynn shook her head again. “No, she’s a fairy. She can light rocks on fire. And her hair.”
“But why would a fairy . . .” Lexi’s voice trailed away as she looked very puzzled.
“Live alone out here instead of staying under the shield?” Elric finished for her. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“No fairy would willingly live out here,” Lexi said. “It’s miserable. Besides, I thought the queen forbid fairies from coming into the woods.” Lexi turned another page, and squinted at it.
“She did.” Elric shook his head as he picked up one of the pieces of fruit.
“Then how can she be a fairy?” Lexi asked. “Wynn, you might have mixed up a witch for a fairy. What does she look like?”
Wynn thought about it. It was hard to picture Flame in the dim light of the room. “She has brown skin, like the queen. She has dark hair that curls, like the queen. Sometimes there is fire in it. Her dress is smoke. Her eyes are dark, and she has bad scars across her face.” Wynn made a slashing motion across her own face. “She has a very pretty smile, and a mark on her back.”
“What sort of mark?” Elric asked. He was dressed now, just like Wynn, except she didn’t have a sword. Wynn frowned as she thought about his question.
“It’s a picture. It’s round, like the queen’s flower picture. But it looks like a star, and fire, so I called her Flame.”
Elric paced around. He looked dumbstruck. Then he pulled his sword out of the scabbard and showed her the pommel. “Did it look like this?” he asked. A circle had been engraved on the bottom of the sword. It looked a lot like the great seal, only instead of flower petals, tongues of flame curled over the arms of a six-pointed star.
“Yes, that’s right!” Wynn said. It was a pretty mark.
“When we first came to the Between, the queen gave me this sword. She told me it was meant for her daughter. The princess was destined to battle the Grendel with it,” he said. Wynn didn’t understand what he meant by that, but Lexi got very excited. Her mouth opened so far, a fish could jump in it.
Elric put the sword
