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THEO WAS PREPARED FOR pain. He was even prepared to feel nothing, as death came and took him to his spirit’s final resting place.
But none of that happened.
Nothing happened.
He opened his eyes to see Elva’s power still lashing out at him, but the barrier around the spinning wheel rendered her power null.
Behind Elva, Annalora was shouting at her to do even more, while Elva was trying to tell her that it was not her fault that she was unable to do any damage.
Theo brandished his sword when Annalora came up to Elva and began shaking her. “Stop!” he yelled, watching Elva’s eyes widen in fear.
“Fool.” Annalora shoved Elva down on the floor, hard. Elva crumpled and curled into a ball, shielding her eyes with her arms.
Theo held his sword out in defense as he hurried toward Elva.
At that moment, Bachas came up behind Annalora and pushed her, using his own magic.
Annalora flew toward Theo. He watched as she passed through the magic barrier by the fireplace. Instantly, her skin turned dull and wrinkled, and her eyes dimmed with her true age.
His sword struck her at the hip as she fell against him. Blood dripped out from between the folds of her dress. Theo pushed her away from him as another cloud of her magic herbs went flying, but this time, he noticed, there was no sting in his eyes or in his nose.
Before Theo could check on his aunt, he heard Bachas cry out. “Elva!”
Bachas hurried over to his wife and cradled her head. “Are you alright?” he asked her, his voice tender as he held her.
Elva nodded shakily. “My mistress always gets violent when she is unhappy.”
Theo looked down at his aunt, who had also gone still. The blood was still dripping from her torso. He put his sword down and reached for her pulse.
“She’s old,” Bachas snorted behind him.
“She’s not that old,” Theo said, even though Annalora’s face looked even older than his grandfather’s.
“Stripped of her magic, she’s unable to maintain a regular body like ordinary humans,” Bachas explained. “And injured besides? She’s not going to last.”
“She will,” Theo insisted, as he found her injury. He grimaced at the blood; his sword had cut into her more deeply than he had thought. “Help me move her.”
Bachas stilled, and shook his head. “No,” he said. “I will not help you this time.”
Theo scowled at him. “She’ll die if you don’t help me.”
“Exactly.” Bachas gave him a hard look. “Elva will be free. And the tapestry will be only half-finished. Your princess will be safe from her and those soldiers.”
“That still doesn’t mean I should allow her to die,” Theo shouted.
He carefully pulled his aunt’s body out from behind the spinning wheel. Instantly, the blue aura of fairy blood choked him further, but Theo forced himself to breathe through it as he grabbed some cloth and tried to bandage his aunt up.
Before he could do anything else, a flash of light exploded behind him, and Theo briefly felt pain in the back of his head and shoulder before the darkness took him.
There was no way to tell how much time passed before Theo heard whispers as he began to stir, but he had a feeling it was not very long.
“I think he’s waking up now,” Elva said. “Do you think we should let him?”
“It’s fine,” Bachas replied. “He can’t do anything else. And despite the less than appealing way I knocked him out, he’s a good man.”
The words were soft, but Theo heard them and almost smiled. After all their time together, he was glad he had won Bachas’ admiration.
Even if Bachas had been the one who had stopped him from saving Annalora.
At that thought, Theo blinked his eyes open. Immediately, the smell of blood wafted over him, and he looked to see he was still in the corner of Annalora’s workroom. Her body was sprawled across the bloodstained floor.
As Theo sat up, the small pixie suddenly stood before him, the same hardness on his face.
“So,” Bachas said, “Elva was right. You are awake.”
Theo nodded, feeling dizzy from the pain in his head. “You hit me.” He reached up and felt a small bump on his head.
“You’re welcome,” Bachas said.
“I didn’t want you to let her die,” Theo said. “Why did you do that?”
“The same reason you go off and fight in war and battles,” Bachas said. “To protect the one I love.”
He glanced over at Elva, who was sitting in the far corner, wrapped in a blanket.
Theo sighed. “She is okay, then?”
“She’s a little sore, but overall, yes, she is fine. And she is free, too.”
The wonder and joy in Bachas’ gaze made Theo’s heart warm. He was glad for the pixie’s happiness, even if he was upset at the cost.
“She was my mother’s sister,” Theo said quietly. “I was hoping she would tell me more about her.”
“Well, your aunt was a terrible person, from what I saw,” Bachas said. “You wouldn’t have been able to trust her information anyway.”
“True.,” Theo said, trying not to think of how much he missed his mother. “I remember my mother used to tell me bedtime stories of Queen Lucia and Benedict, who became the first knight of Rhone, and eventually its king.”
“If it’s any consolation,” Bachas said, “I don’t remember my parents. They were killed by some fairies themselves. So I do have some understanding of your feelings toward Everon, if not any sympathy for your aunt’s loss.”
Theo glanced over at his aunt’s body once more. All of her magic was gone. The young woman who had greeted him warily at her cottage door was gone, and an old woman had replaced her.
Theo nodded slowly. “I understand,” he said, “even if we still disagree.”
“You’ve seen death before. I don’t know why you’re upset.”
“Death was not originally part of God’s plan,” Theo said quietly. “I know why it happens, and I know that there is no stopping it sometimes. But I also know that life is precious, and my aunt might have had a chance at a better life if she was still alive.”
“Might have.” Bachas rolled his eyes. “I think you’re being difficult about this on purpose. In fact, you are being a complete hypocrite about it.”
“How?” Theo asked, narrowing his eyes at him.
“Listen to yourself. If it had been Everon who was maimed, you wouldn’t have had any trouble letting him die,” Bachas pointed out. He snickered deviously. “Besides, you don’t have to worry about it. I’m the one who stopped you from saving her. I’m the one who let her die.”
“It’s not an easy thing to bear.”
“It’s easier for me to bear than it is for you, then,” Bachas said. “I have no qualms about the fate of a lady who tricked my wife into a life debt.”
Theo watched as Bachas looked over at Elva. The softness in the pixie’s eyes was clear, and Theo felt a small amount of envy. Bachas had told him before that he had not seen Elva in many, many years. Even after all their time apart, he was still very much in love with her.
Theo stood up and rubbed his head. “What do we do now?”
“I say we destroy this place,” Bachas said.
“So many fairies lost their lives here,” Elva said. “It is a graveyard of the worst sorts.”
Theo agreed with her assessment. “Alright. But I still want to bury my aunt. Will you help me?”
Elva nodded. “I’ll start a fire.”
Theo, Bachas, and Elva all worked diligently as the moon began to climb into the sky. No one talked too much, until Bachas and Theo moved Annalora’s body outside of her cottage.
“Let’s bury her here,” Theo said. “It’s close to her garden.”
“Fine.” Bachas snapped his fingers, and a shovel appeared. “I’ll let you do the honors.”
“Thanks,” Theo muttered grimly, as he began to work.
Several more moments passed in silence, and Theo finally asked Bachas a question that he’d had on his mind for some time. “Why do pixies have life debts, Bachas? Especially if you know some are tricked into it? Wouldn’t it be better just to stop the practice?”
“I know you think I’m heartless after allowing your aunt to die,” Bachas replied. “And I’d agree with you if I could. Sometimes it is better to be heartless. You can’t feel how terrible life really is if you don’t have a heart.”
Theo thought about the night Rose told him he could leave her and nodded.
“But it’s not the point of life, is it?” Bachas continued. “Pixies and fairies are very different creatures, but we are alike in many ways. We are even similar to humans at times. But we are not allowed to choose our life’s highest ideals. And one of our ideals is the idea of honor.”
“Honor?”
“Yes. So if someone saves your life, protecting you from death, you’re given a new chance. Our honor demands that while we did not die, we die to ourselves, and serve the one who saved us.”
“But sometimes you have terrible masters,” Theo reminded him.
“Yes, but it is still a high calling we have, to honor the good of ourselves and our heritage, even if we are unable to stop all the bad from happening.”
“It seems a little silly.”
“To you. But you know as well as I do there are plenty of things we do that are bad in order to bring about good.”
Theo agreed, but did not want to give Bachas the satisfaction.
After Bachas left him, Theo finished burying his aunt. As he packed down the dirt on her small grave, he felt a sense of relief when he laid her to rest. Even though he felt conflicted with her death, and he did not want to go home to his grandfather with the news, he knew that Bachas was right: Annalora had treated Elva terribly, and it was his obligation as a husband to act.
After all, Theo thought as he finished burying her, I would have done the same for Rose.
Bachas called out to him a moment later. “Theo.”
He turned at the sound of his voice. “What is it, Bachas?” he asked.
“Elva and I are almost finished in here,” he said. “But we need you to help with something.”
Theo went inside, heading back to the workroom. He was gratified to see Elva had managed to get the bloodstains off the floor. The spinning wheel remained in the heart of the room, but the blue aura was gone. “What is it?” he asked.
“That,” Bachas said, pointing to a small, ornately carved box on the fireplace mantle.
Theo glanced down at it.
“We can’t touch it,” Bachas explained. “It’s a kind of power not for us to mess with.”
“So I should pick it up?” Theo asked, arching his brow.
“You’re not a pixie, so you should be able to,” Bachas said.
Theo headed over. Once more, he felt the magical barrier surround him that had saved him before. “I thought this was Annalora’s magic.”
He reached out, hesitant, and picked up the box. He opened it up to see a large ruby staring back at him. He gasped.
“Woah,” Bachas said. “That’s one big ruby.”
Theo nodded. He touched the ruby lightly. It reminded him so much of the one Amalia had given to Rose. Is it possible this one also holds dragon’s blood? Or does it contain some other power?
Elva spoke up. “That was the object which canceled out Annalora’s power, and mine as well,” she said. “It must be a powerful gem.”
“It cancels out magic?” Theo continued to stare at the jewel. He suddenly wondered if Rose would be able to use it on her eighteenth birthday.
“At least my magic, and Annalora’s,” Elva said. “She was at the spinning wheel earlier when you came, and her magic was unable to keep her young.”
Theo nodded. “This might help Rose,” he said. “Can I have it?”
“She was your aunt,” Bachas said. “You’re not thinking of using that to fight Magdalina, are you?”
“Well, yes,” Theo admitted. “Why?”
“We’re going to need more than that to defeat her.”
“Rose has dragon’s blood,” Theo told him. “She’s got a crystal like this, too.”
Elva and Bachas raised their eyebrows and exchanged a look of surprise.
“Besides,” Theo said, “what do you mean ‘we?’ You and Elva are both free. You don’t have to help me and my friends fight Magdalina.”
Bachas and Elva linked hands. “We want to help you,” he said. “As a way to thank you, for all you’ve done for us.”
“You don’t owe me anything.”
“It’s not a matter of owing someone,” Elva said. “We are grateful.”
“But you’re also in love,” Theo replied. “And the battlefield is no place for love.”
“That’s hardly the truth.”
“I’d return the gratitude if you’ll let me take this ruby,” Theo said. “That is all I would ask of you, for helping me here.”
“She was your aunt,” Bachas said with a shrug. “Take what you want.”
“Thank you.” Theo tucked the small box into a pouch on his belt. The magic barrier radiating from the jewel disappeared. “I don’t know if it can help Rose at all, but if it’s a possibility, I can’t leave it here to burn.”
Bachas smirked. “If nothing else, it’ll give you something to talk about other than how she doesn’t love you.”
Theo frowned at him, while Elva nudged him with her elbow. “Thanks, Bachas,” he said. “Now, let’s finish up here. If this is something that can help Rose, we should head out as quickly as we can.”
It was only when Theo walked outside moments later that he saw they were not alone.
He stopped in his tracks, just outside his aunt’s door, as Everon stared at him, his eyes burning an angry red.