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“I’ve never made a sword so fast.” Keera said, tapping away to secure the pommel. A process she called peening the tang. Aiden thought he’d misheard the first time she’d said it.
“It’s still a work of art.” Unlike the workroom. It was a trash site. Aiden was fumbling scattered tools into cupboards and drawers, and hoping he’d put them back in the right place. His mother would complain...if she got the chance before they left. The blade almost glowed with power. “I think it’s a match to her sister’s—and that’s saying something.”
Keera nodded. “I think it’ll do.” She examined the blade inch by inch. Checking the pearls were firmly placed into the pommel. One gold, and the other a rare black pearl, shimmering purple and green. Together, they symbolised the sweet wee child that had fallen asleep on the couch, fingers in her mouth. Hopefully.
“Now for the moment of truth.” Keera swallowed, bringing the sword’s pommel near the infant’s crib.
“I’ve got it.” Carefully, Aiden placed Pearl’s sleepy hand on the hilt.
Pearl’s fingers wrapped around the leather-bound pommel, a smile curving her wee lips. The sword’s black pearl glimmered in the afternoon light.
Keera let out a long breath. “Not fae.”
They hugged in relief.
And still my parents are not back.
“We should leave the blade with Pearl,” Keera said, throwing things out of her pack and into a day bag. “Do you think the Faulkners will be able to look after her until your parents arrive? We have to go.”
Aiden had packed light. A change of clothes, a coat and a couple of torches. Clothes and tools were left strewn across their room like a hurricane had passed through. He wrapped baby Pearl in her blanket and pulled her into his arms. She murmured sleepily, head against his breast as Keera opened the cottage door.
Out in the courtyard, Ruby and Alice’s three kids were playing a game that involved hopscotch and climbing a tree while Alice stared out over the gate.
“No sign of them?” Keera asked.
“Not yet.”
“Hey, thank you so much for all your help today,” Aiden said.
Alice nodded, distractedly.
“We were...”
“You know, I’d rather make swords than look after five children. Where would we have been without you?”
Alice shrugged. “Stuck with a changel—” She glanced over at Ruby and shook her head. “Anyway, I should like to know where that husband of mine is.”
All the things that could have gone wrong rushed through Aiden’s head. Killed by demons, ambushed by spiders, attacked by brigands on the road.
He shook away an image of his parents being dropped by griffons and dashed onto the rocks.
“I’m sure they’ve all just had a busy day,” Keera said supportively. “Lost track of time.”
“Can’t help but wonder if they found it,” Aiden said, shrugging on the light backpack and checking his sword-scabbard was strapped on just right.
“The Library of Alexandria? Yes, I hope so,” Alice said wistfully. “Brian will be sad he wasn’t the first, but he would love to visit it.” She glanced over at the children playing stop out behind the town hall. “Damn that Burcham. He’s stirs up trouble and then he runs off, leaving Brian to babysit his inevitable disaster while he goes on Brian’s dream mission.”
Aiden nodded. “Imagine all the lost secrets hidden in that library. I think we’d all love to go.”
“Lost secrets?” Keera’s lips twitched into a half-smile. “Can’t be all that lost if they’re safely stored in a library.”
Aiden raised his eyebrows. “Yes. It does seem odd that we haven’t found it.”
“Mmm,” Keera said, taking her non-committal comments to the library to new lows.
“Do you think—?” Alice wrung her hands. “I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to him. I just...I don’t want you to go yet.”
The sun was dipping on the horizon. Aiden wondered about mentioning the mirror again, but Alice was clearly in no state to take them that way. Besides, who would look after Alice’s children, and Pearl? “I’m sorry, Alice. We’ve got to go.” Any later and they’d be crossing into FaerLand in the dark. Any later and Ruby would be stuck there another day—by Brocéliande time.
Keera followed Aiden’s gaze out across the forest, and turned back to Alice. “Alice, are you going to be alright? Just until...”
Alice hugged them. “Of course. Go. Save your child.”
“Thank you.” Reluctantly, Aiden handed over their youngest daughter, trying not to worry that this might be the last time they saw her. “Bye darling. Look after Alice.”
Sleepily, Pearl open and closed her little hand in an awkward wave. “Bub-ba.”
“Ruby! We have to go,” Keera called.
Changeling Ruby ran to hug Aiden’s legs...stopped and backed off. Inching herself away from the sword Aiden had unsheathed.
A thin cry rang out. It was coming from outside the fence. They all turned.
Demons? A forest animal? “There hasn’t been trouble for ages...” Aiden trailed off, replaying the cry in his mind.
“And there won’t be now.” Keera pushed her shoulders back, hand ready on her pommel, but not drawing her sword.
“No, of course not,” Aiden agreed. There was no point frightening the children. “Are you going to be alright, Alice?”
“We’ll be fine.” Alice said. “Come on, children. Let’s make some dinner. Your father will be in soon and he’ll be hungry.”
“Can we have sausages and chips?” Arthur asked.
“But...” Hazel protested. “Someone’s coming. We saw.”
“The watch people would warn us...” Aiden said
The bell in the tower rang, its metallic clang sounding once, twice—people were coming, Hazel was right. A third ring clanged over the courtyard.
Danger!
Keera drew her sword, and she was not the only one. The ring of swords being drawn echoed around the village.
Alice stood unmoving. “Dammit!” Aiden swore. He gathered Pearl and then Ruby into his arms. “Children, stay close to me. We have to make it to the Faulkner’s cottage, okay?”
The boys nodded and Hazel drew her bow and joined them, moving in close.
Ruby’s red hair spilling over her shoulders, the changeling grated, “The Spinners are angry.”
§
Lettie shivered, clutching herself tight as she saw Changeling Ruby—Nada. Fae was glorious, faer red hair spilling over her shoulders. A spark of power in faer fingers as fae muttered, “The Spinners are angry.” Aiden glanced down at Nada as if puzzled. But Nada’s speech was clear as day. Fae was no longer merely a Changeling. Fae had Become. Nobody could doubt it. Not now.
And the changeling was right. Wyrden had done his job, riling up the spiders. They swarmed in the trees around the village, ready to strike. It wasn’t like the spiders to come so far into Brocéliande territory. She never thought they’d attack the humans—and now, here they were.
§
“Earthsiders,” Keera muttered. If they’ve stirred up the spiders... You can’t reverse time. Deal with now. Satisfied Aiden and the children were headed for safety, Keera headed closer to the gate where a small crowd was forming, swords ready.
Footsteps echoed in the gathering dark, pelting towards them. A small band of humans, by the look of it.
Keera squinted at the shadowy group. Two people, with one trailing. They didn’t appear to be in a very effective attack formation. Maybe it’s a sortie. They were older...
She rolled her eyes. It was Aiden’s parents. They bounded into the clearing with Burcham close behind. “We found it! We found it. You’ll never believe it,” Aiden’s mother gushed. “We found the Library of Alexandria! It was everything we could have wished. Bigger than a castle with scrolls and books from floor to ceiling.” She waved a little gold and black book at the crowd. “There were giants and goblins, and students from thousands of places we never knew existed—”
“Congratulations. That’s fantastic, amazing,” Alice said through a clearly forced smile. “I can’t wait to see it.” She peered behind the trio into the dark forest.
Her husband’s still missing, and the warning call’s gone out—it isn’t like the sentries to be mistaken. Something is out there.
“And there’s a Room of Many Ways,” Burcham said completely missing the flat tone of Alice’s voice, the drawn swords and the acrid smell of danger in the air. “It leads to all corners of the Earth. You know what that means?”
“We might be able to create a non-forest portal,” Aiden’s father gushed. “It’ll mean a new era of exploration. No more tramping for half a day to get to the Three sisters Tree. No more dangerous mirrors. No more...”
A shrill scream cut through into the clearing.
“Coming in hot!”
Corson? Keera didn’t think she’d ever heard him so panicked.
Philips, Corson and Faulkner thundered into the clearing—a pack of enormous spiders on their heels. Their shiny matt-black exoskeletons partially reflected the setting sun while their mandibles snapped at Corson’s heels.
Corson turned and waved a sword at the beasts swarming near the iron fence.
“Light the lanterns!” Burcham roared.
“Swords ready!” Keera glanced back. Aiden was still in the town square. He must have dallied when he saw his parents arrive—but he was still closer to the Faulkner’s cottage than Alice, who was only turning back now. Keera’s heart throbbed to see her children clutched in his arms—knowing one of them wasn’t her child at all.
Keera waved, but he’d turned away. He was doing his best to get the five children to safety. To help him, and them, I need to do my job. “Behind me,” she called.
“Stuff that,” Corson said. He closed in on Keera until they were standing shoulder to shoulder. “Aiden would never forgive me if something happened to you. Now, let’s fight.”
§
With a rustle of leaves, and the skitter of hundreds of legs, huge spiders burst past Lettie and chased the party of humans up to the gates. They skittered up over the iron and ivy and began weaving a silken swathe over the steel and ivy.
The villagers attacked, swords stabbing the oncoming spiders.
Many spiders turned back, scuttling for safety, but more were coming, aiming away from the front gates and toward areas of fence with fewer defenders. Lettie followed the trail of a red-back spider just behind the main attack and waited for it to spin enough web over the ivy-covered iron fence safe to make it cross.
Lettie scrambled over the spiderweb, holding her fig branch and sword in one hand and climbing with the other. Carelessly, she brushed the cold iron, and sucked in a cry, her fingers blistering. Not that anyone would notice any sound she made with all the heavy fighting.
Safely over, she darted under a lemon tree and glanced around. Where’s the Sword Master? She was in amongst the fighting, but Aiden...he was out in the open, Nada and the human child in his arms as he rushed across the town square toward the lights of the cottages.
The red-back she’d followed scuttled away from the fence, circling by the bushes at the edge of the courtyard as if unsure who to attack first. Then it darted toward Aiden and the children.
My chance.
Lettie ran. While Aiden was distracted with the spider, she’d snatch Nada into her arms and take her far away from the stupid humans who were so careless as to rile up some of the most dangerous creatures she knew. Wyrden’s doing. The humans and everyone else are just sticks in his hands. Sticks to make fire.
Stop thinking. Just kill the man and take Nada back.
She held up the blade of Titania silver, and her fig-tree stick, and charged. “Die defiler!” she yelled.
