Everyone in the castle was used to seeing Twinket accompany Aislin on her excursions out of the castle into the surrounding forest. The day after the king left, she joined Aislin, Poppy, and their friend Bim as they headed out to go mushroom hunting. Twinket rode in Aislin’s basket while Bim rode in Poppy’s.
When the group reached the meadow beside Blue Lake, they spotted tiny fairies flying around with freshly picked mushroom caps on their heads. “Where did you find those?” Aislin asked one as she passed.
“I’ll show you!” the fairy replied. “We heard you were coming, so we saved you some. There were oodles out here today.”
Aislin knew all about mushrooms. When she was little, the fairies had taught her which ones were safe to eat and which ones she should never touch. Just because some were pretty didn’t mean they weren’t dangerous, and some of the most boring-looking mushrooms were the most delicious.
The fairy fluttered ahead, leading the way around the edge of the meadow to an ancient grove of oak trees. Mushrooms dotted the ground between the roots. As she drew closer, Aislin spotted more tiny fairies peeking out from under their new mushroom caps, adjusting them so they fit just right. Seeing the princess, the fairies darted into the air in streaks of color, swirled around her long enough to say hello, and flew off into the woods.
Aislin and her companions were busy picking mushrooms when Timzy and his friends appeared, racing toward them from the far end of the meadow. The children laughed and shouted as they ran, and Aislin knew right away that they were playing one of her favorite childhood games—Magic Gate. It was a game in which “fairies” fled the “humans” until they had reached the magic gate; this time, it was a mulberry tree where someone had tied a scrap of red cloth.
The game was so popular in part because it was based on something that had really happened in the fairies’ history. For as long as anyone could remember, the fairies had lived side by side with the humans, trying to stay friendly, but avoiding involvement in their wars and conflicts. When distancing themselves became increasingly difficult, King Darinar and Queen Surinen decided that the fairies needed to move somewhere that the humans couldn’t find them. The pedrasi king and queen, rulers of the land under the mountains, were happy to have them as neighbors. Once the fairies had moved to their new kingdom, the gate was sealed using powerful magic. Fairies and pedrasi can live for a very, very long time; hundreds of years had passed during which the fairies enjoyed their isolation and hoped that the humans would either forget them or come to believe that fairies were a myth.
A pedrasi child screeched and ran past Aislin. The children looked as if they were having so much fun that Aislin was tempted to join them, and she might have if she hadn’t promised Cook that she’d bring back mushrooms.
Bim had no such reservations. “I’ll play, too!” the little sprite cried when he saw that other sprite children were playing.
“Aren’t you going to collect mushrooms?” Poppy asked him.
Bim looked down at his empty basket, then at the mushrooms. With a twitch of his fingers, a mushroom flew into the air and landed in the basket. “Here,” he said, handing the basket to Poppy. “I’ve done my share.” With a wave of his hand, he scampered off to join the game.
Poppy glanced at the plum-sized basket. She sighed and shook her head. “One mushroom! I don’t know why we invited him.”
“Because he’s our friend,” said Aislin. “We always invite him.”
The number of children living in the castle was growing. For a long time, fewer and fewer babies were born to pedrasi and fairies every year. Children were precious to both groups, but they were becoming increasingly rare. When the daughter of the pedrasi royals married the son of the fairy royals, the newlyweds kept their union secret until they learned that they were about to become parents themselves. Hearing that their children had married without permission, the pedrasi and fairy royal couples were furious, but nothing could have softened their hearts faster than the news of impending grandparenthood.
They gave the southern tip of the vast land between the mountains to the new parents, making them rulers of their own kingdom. King Carrigan named it Eliasind, a fairy word for strength. Now couples with children gravitated to Eliasind, where every sort of fey was welcome. Aislin had friends as tiny as six-inch-tall Bim and as big as Igbert and Salianne, the giant brother and sister who lived with their parents in the deep woods. It wasn’t unusual to find children of all sorts playing together.
Aislin looked up when she heard a shout. The younger children were darting this way and that, trying to avoid their pursuers. Aislin’s basket was half-filled when Timzy and five of his friends raced past, heading for the other end of the meadow. Two sprites and a little pedrasi child were chasing them, shouting, “You can’t get away from humans!”
“Run, Timzy!” screamed Twinket.
Aislin grinned. With two sprites on the “human” team, the others didn’t stand a chance. Sprites loved to cheat. Their motto was “whatever works.” Then again, sprites weren’t the only ones who didn’t always follow the rules. Suddenly a troll appeared in the middle of the field, growling and slobbering and making the “human” children stop in their tracks. The glamour lasted only a few seconds before it faded away, leaving Peatie, one of Timzy’s fairy friends, holding his stomach as he bent over, laughing.
Aislin and Poppy watched the children turn on Peatie and chase him around the field. Twinket tugged on Poppy’s hem. “I think someone wants to talk to you,” she said, and pointed into the woods.
A doe with soft, frightened-looking eyes was standing only a few yards away, pawing the ground nervously. Her speckled fawn stood behind her, its thin little legs shivering with fear. The doe made some high-pitched sounds that didn’t mean anything to Aislin, but Poppy nodded and answered back.
“What did she say?” Aislin asked, irritated at the flash of jealousy that her friend could talk to animals while she couldn’t.
“Tawny Coat says that there’s danger in the woods and everyone must flee!”
“What kind of danger?” asked Aislin.
The fact that she had to wait for Poppy to ask the deer the question and wait even longer for a reply made her irritation grow. “People with weapons!” the fairy finally told her. “They hurt Sure Foot and the rest of the herd ran away. Tawny Coat thinks that the people are going to eat him!”
Aislin frowned. Neither fairies nor pedrasi killed or ate animals; they found the very idea repugnant. Whoever these people were, they weren’t the normal kind of fey, if they were fey at all. “Where did she see them?” she asked Poppy.
“Near the big rocks in the pass,” her friend eventually replied. “They don’t look or smell like any creature she’s ever seen before. She’s going to warn the others.” The doe and her fawn turned, their tails flicking as they bounded into the woods.
Aislin handed her basket to Poppy. “Please take the young ones and return to the castle. Tell my mother that there are hunters in the forest.”
“Where are you going?” Poppy asked her.
“To learn more about them,” Aislin said. “Father always says that you need to know the truth about something so you can make the right decisions. We won’t know what to do until we know what we’re facing.”
“You should return to the castle, too, Princess! One of the guards can go,” said Poppy. “Or let me go! I can fly there and back before the hunters notice me.”
Aislin shook her head. “My father won’t ask anyone to do something he won’t do, and I won’t either. And what if someone saw you? We don’t know anything about these hunters, and I don’t want them to know anything about us if we can help it. The last thing we want is for them to see fairies flying around. Please spread the word that everyone should keep out of sight.”
“But what if they see you?” asked Poppy.
“I’ll be careful,” Aislin told her. “I can be just as silent in the forest as you. Please take the young ones home now. I’ll see who these hunters are and hurry straight back.”
Timzy had seen them talking and came running over. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “You look so serious.”
“There are hunters in the forest,” Poppy told him. “Take everyone back to the castle. Aislin and I are going to investigate.”
“But I—” Aislin began.
“Can’t go by yourself,” Poppy told her. “Hurry, Timzy. Go home and tell your mother about the hunters. Aislin and I will be right behind you.”
When Timzy ran off to collect the other children, Twinket grabbed hold of Aislin’s gown, saying, “I’m going with you, too!”
Aislin sighed. “Fine, but no one else! The more who go, the harder it will be to be sneaky.”
Timzy was already herding the younger children back to the castle as Aislin picked up Twinket and started toward the pass. The princess had been there once before when she’d been out riding with her family. Huge, slick-sided boulders filled the narrow opening, too tall and smooth for anyone to climb. Even if the boulders hadn’t been there, the magic wards placed on the pass would have made it impossible for anyone to get closer than a hundred yards. And this wasn’t even the Magic Gate! Her father had told her that the gate filled a much bigger gap leading into the mountains, and had magic so powerful that it looked to outsiders as if there had never been an opening there at all. After closing the gate, the fairies and pedrasi had closed all the other passes as well, including the one located in what came to be called Eliasind. Aislin couldn’t imagine who the hunters might be, or why they were near the pass.
Years of moving quickly and silently through the forest had made Aislin and Poppy able to sneak up on even the most vigilant of creatures. They had often surprised deer, quail, and the occasional dragon, so creeping through the forest without alerting the hunters was easy. Even if they hadn’t been so quiet, however, the hunters were making so much noise themselves that they probably wouldn’t have noticed them. Aislin could already hear them when they were still far off, breaking branches and snapping twigs in the forest and kicking rocks and pebbles as they splashed across streams. She knew that they were riding horses, too, and that the animals hadn’t been trained for stealth. More than once she heard the horses call out to each other, announcing their presence in the forest; the mounts of fairies and pedrasi normally kept silent.
“Even the giants are quieter than these people,” Poppy whispered to Aislin.
“Maybe they’re not trying to be quiet,” said Twinket.
While searching for the hunters, the friends stopped now and then so Poppy could warn the animals they encountered about the approaching danger. After hearing their warning, a family of porcupines scuttled into the underbrush, a unicorn galloped off, and a wild boar rounded up its children. Only the bear enjoying a newly discovered beehive seemed unconcerned. Sharp Claw, one of the biggest bears in the forest, grumbled his thanks to Poppy. When the fairy turned away, she told Aislin, “He said he’ll go as soon as he finishes his honeycomb.”
“They’ll be here soon,” said Aislin.
Poppy shrugged. “You can’t move a bear who doesn’t want to be moved.”
A little farther on, Aislin realized that the hunters were approaching them on a deer trail that meandered through the forest. Slipping into the thicker underbrush, the three friends hid so they could watch without being seen. Aislin studied the hunters as they passed by in single file. They were all men, coarser looking than fairies and taller than pedrasi. Their horses were big and solid-looking, not at all like the sleek steeds of the fairies or the pedrasis’ small, sturdy ponies. Aislin covered her mouth with her hand when she saw a horse walk past carrying a dead deer slung over its back. She recognized Sure Foot, a young buck she had known since his birth.
“I feel sick,” Aislin whispered when the hunters were well past. “They’re killers and they flaunt it! Who do you suppose they are?”
“You mean ‘what do you suppose they are,’ don’t you?” Twinket whispered back. “They aren’t fairies and they aren’t pedrasi.”
“They smell funny, too,” said Poppy.
A sudden thought made Aislin shiver. “Do you think they might be humans? I’ve never seen a human before. Maybe this is what they look like.”
Even in the deep shade, Poppy’s face looked pale. “I bet you’re right,” she replied. “We need to go home and tell everyone.”
“We will, but first I want to make sure that Sharp Claw left,” Aislin told her. “He should have run off by now, but I bet he’s still at that old tree.”
“We already warned him once,” Poppy said. “Do you really think we need to warn him a second time?”
Aislin shrugged. “I hope not.”
They slipped past the hunters, who were still picking their way through the forest on the deer trail. Once they had left the hunters behind, they began to run, and soon found Sharp Claw still digging into the honeycomb. Poppy gestured toward the deer trail while she talked to him.
Sharp Claw gave his paw one last lick. Dropping onto all fours, he turned and grumbled at Poppy. As the bear started to amble off, Poppy told Aislin, “He says he’s not afraid of them and that he’s bigger and stronger than any puny humans.”
“He doesn’t need to be afraid, just smart,” Aislin replied. “Quick, let’s climb up and watch for the hunters from the tree. I want to make sure they leave and don’t get Sharp Claw.”
Twinket held on to the folds of Aislin’s dress as the princess began to climb. Aislin was halfway up the tree when she stopped to look around. The deer path led through thick underbrush, with closely spaced trees on either side, and opened into a meadow carpeted with wildflowers. She couldn’t see the humans, so she glanced up at Poppy, who had climbed higher in the tree and could see even farther. “Where are the hunters now?” she asked.
“I can’t see them,” Poppy told her. “They’re behind some pine trees and … They’re almost here! Quick, climb higher!”
Instead of climbing, Aislin said, “Tell Sharp Claw to run. If the hunters see him, they’ll kill him like they killed Sure Foot!”
When Poppy called out, the bear huffed and started to run. Seconds later, the men burst from the trees. A richly dressed man was leading the way, and when he spotted the bear running through the meadow, he dropped the reins and reached for his bow and arrow. Taking aim, he let the arrow fly, hitting Sharp Claw in the shoulder.
Sharp Claw staggered and turned back to the humans. Rising up on his hind legs, he roared so loudly that the tree branches shivered and leaves showered the forest floor. Shaking his massive head, the bear dropped back on all fours to charge the horse and rider.
“Go straight home and tell my mother everything you saw,” Aislin rushed to tell Poppy.
“What about you?” Poppy asked her.
“I need to stop something very bad from happening.” She dropped from the tree.
The horse was rearing as the human let go of his bow and grabbed for the reins again. With the other riders crowding from behind and thick forest on either side, the horse had nowhere to go. Gritting her teeth, Aislin landed between the horse and the oncoming bear.
“No!” the princess shouted at Sharp Claw, her back to the terrified horse.
She wasn’t sure at first if Sharp Claw was going to stop, or even understand her, so she picked up a stick and threw it at him to get his attention. The stick hit him on the nose. Blinking, he slowed and finally noticed her standing in front of the horse, holding up her hand. The bear shook his mighty head. Roaring one last time, he turned and ran into the forest.
Aislin spun on her heels to face the still-plunging horse and watched as the rider was finally able to get it under control.
“You’re either the bravest or the most foolish girl I’ve ever met,” the man said, walking his horse toward her.
Aislin edged away from the tree so the man wouldn’t notice Poppy. “I didn’t want anyone to get hurt,” she replied.
“You’re lucky you weren’t hurt,” said the man. “That bear could have ripped you to shreds!”
“Are you all right, Your Majesty?” one of the riders asked, coming up behind him.
He’s a king? thought Aislin. Then what’s he doing here?
“I am, thanks to this young lady,” the king replied. “What is your name, child?”
“Aislin,” she said, then wished that she hadn’t told him.
“We were hunting for game, but neither my horse nor I was expecting a bear of that size,” said the king. The man was very handsome in a rough sort of way, but his eyes were cold and seemed predatory, even when he smiled. As the other hunters joined him, they moved to encircle Aislin. “We weren’t expecting people here either. It looks as if the land between the mountains is full of surprises!”