Once upon another time, p.9
Once Upon Another Time, page 9
Jin’s mouth dropped again in surprise as the other knights all took a step back now, giving Lena a bit more room. She grinned at the fallen knight, almost a bit guiltily. “Oh, that was fun. But I didn’t mean to hurt the poor tree. So if you wouldn’t mind moving more to the center of the clearing, so no more trees get destroyed, I’d appreciate it.”
“Taaake herrr!” the trapped Faceless growled, his voice sounding even more disjointed than usual. But there was no time to figure that out as the other Faceless swarmed Lena.
In spite of Lena’s pretty surprising strength, Jin did not like the odds. Even someone stronger than a regular human couldn’t hold out against a dozen Faceless. No, he was being left with no choice: Jin was just going to have to reveal himself and save Lena from the knights.
And once he did, he’d have to remember to teleport the Faceless somewhere far away, so they couldn’t report back to the Golden King what had happened. The king was paranoid enough without finding out that his genie had fought his knights.
Jin started to turn himself visible but stopped as he realized that if he did so right in the middle of the clearing, Lena would know he’d been following her the whole time and refuse to take him to the Last Knight. He groaned, then shook his head. He’d have to pretend he just happened along in the forest.
Why was tricking people so complicated?
A knight went flying a few inches to his right as Jin quickly ran to the edge of the clearing, preparing himself. Another knight flew over his head, distracting him for a moment as he watched the Faceless’s helmet start to come loose, only for several tiny, stringlike appendages to reach for it and drag it back onto the knight’s body.
Uh… what? That was new. Maybe he’d have to figure out what these things were sooner rather than later.
Meanwhile, behind him, the clank of denting armor was starting to lessen, so he turned to see what was happening and gasped in surprise: There were just two knights left, and Lena wasn’t even breathing hard.
“Thank you for this!” she told the knight she was facing, while the other maneuvered around behind her, his shadow-magic sword aimed at her back. She threw it a glance, but the other knight attacked, and she leapt out of the way. Together, the two Faceless might actually have a chance against her. “I really needed to punch something.”
The longer Jin watched, the more he felt a weird, burning feeling in his chest, and he realized he was angry. Almost before he knew it, he had made himself visible and leapt straight at the second Faceless, shouting something incomprehensible, even as the creature attacked Lena with its sword.
Jin slammed into the armored monster, his dense arms and steel-like skin actually helping knock the Faceless to the ground. “Don’t touch her!” he shouted, and the Faceless reared back in surprise, his sword just short of hitting Lena.
Jin pulled an arm back and punched the Faceless in the empty helmet, only for the visor to close over his hand, trapping him. His eyes widened, and he frantically tried to pull it out, forgetting in the heat of the moment that he could just make himself insubstantial.
But the Faceless didn’t wait. Instead, it drove its sword straight at Jin and stabbed him in the shoulder.
It struck like fire, and pain went shooting through Jin’s entire body, like nothing he’d ever experienced before, as he felt the sword pulling him, absorbing him, every second it stayed in his body. “Ahh!” he screamed, writhing on the ground as he desperately yanked the sword out and threw it away. Everything began to go dark, and he concentrated as best he could on keeping his human body together, as he couldn’t reveal his genie nature, not now.
But he wasn’t exactly sure he’d have a choice, as he’d never felt this drained before.
Someone shouted, and Jin distantly recognized that the Faceless attacking him went flying off into the woods, taking several trees with it.
“Are you okay?” said a voice, and Jin got one last look in Lena’s eyes before everything faded to black, and he fell unconscious.
CHAPTER 17
Lena whirled around at the sound of someone’s voice, only to scream out herself as a stranger behind her took one of the knight’s swords in his shoulder.
“NO!” she roared, and plowed into the knight. She grabbed him by the leg and threw him across the clearing into the first knight, who was now trying to get up. The force of the hit sent them both crashing into the forest, knocking down trees as they went.
And just like that, the fight was over. Only, someone had gotten hurt, someone Lena hadn’t even realized was there. Someone she could have been watching over, if she hadn’t been so focused on herself.
“No no no no no,” she repeated, her heart racing and guilt drowning her in waves as she quickly ran to the stranger’s side. It was a boy, one who looked like he might be around her age, but not someone she’d seen in the city before. His short brown hair looked generally familiar, but a lot of people had brown hair, and she couldn’t place it. Either way, he looked human, but considering how much she did too, she knew that didn’t prove anything.
“Are you okay?” Lena asked as she quickly reached into her pouch and pulled out the first item she could find to bandage his wound, an extra tunic. The boy didn’t respond, which wasn’t good. As bad as the stab had been, it shouldn’t have knocked him out.
She quickly ripped her tunic in half, then wrapped it around the boy’s shoulder over and over, trying not to hurt him any more than she needed to as she pulled it tight. He didn’t react, which made her even more nervous.
“Hello? There’s someone hurt, and I need help!” she shouted, hoping maybe there were people around to hear her, especially the Last Knight.
Too late, she realized that her shout would just lead more of the Faceless to her, if they weren’t on their way already. And with the boy injured and unconscious, she couldn’t stay to fight them.
The Last Knight might have medical supplies, but the Faceless were after him. If she went to him now, they could follow her and find him. Going back to the city wasn’t any better, as she might lead the creatures there, too.
“What do I do?” she yelled, slamming her fists to the ground, sending a small tremor through the forest.
But she knew. Even Rufus knew, as he came pawing out of the woods to nuzzle her.
“Lena and I go home now?” he said quietly.
Her stomach dropped at the thought of it, but there was no choice. She nodded and carefully picked the boy up in her arms, being sure not to jostle him too much. “We’re going home now,” she said to her cat.
He began to purr, probably thinking that everything was okay then. “Lena is so strong!” he said, rubbing his head against her as she laid the boy stomach-first over his back. “I let you fight without me because of that.”
“I know, little man,” she said, and nodded down at the boy in her arms. “We need to carry him really gently, okay?”
Rufus’s ears went back as he sniffed the boy. “I smelled him before, Lena. I smelled him before!”
Her eyebrows rose at this. “In the city?” she asked.
“Yes,” Rufus said, since she’d never been able to teach him to just nod for yes.
“Then we’ll have to take him back there, once he’s healed,” Lena said, nodding herself. Faceless or not, nothing was going to keep her from delivering this boy back to his home. He’d tried to protect her, after all, getting himself stabbed in the process! Her eyes itched just thinking about it. She didn’t need the help, but he hadn’t known that. And now look at him! All because she’d been distracted during the fight and hadn’t realized he was there.
Rufus seemed to have more to say, but she just shook her head, as they didn’t have any more time to waste. She climbed up behind the boy, making sure both were secure, then leaned over the boy to talk to her cat.
“Take us back home, as fast as possible,” she whispered to Rufus, feeling nauseated at the very idea. But what else could she do? The boy needed help, because of her. She had to make sure he was okay, and there was only one way she knew to do that.
The Spark.
It healed the other giants and increased their life spans, so whatever was wrong with the boy, the Spark had to be able to fix it.
And the flame was also sacred to the giants, so the very thought of this human touching it would disgust them, even the ones who didn’t hate humans as much as the king did. If they found out she’d used it to heal a non-giant… they might exile her, or worse.
But the boy had tried to help and gotten wounded for his trouble. No, whatever consequences there’d be, she’d accept them. But she was going to heal this boy, one way or another.
And hopefully, they just wouldn’t get caught.
As Rufus kicked off with his Seven League Boots, Lena threw one last look in the direction of the Last Knight’s cave. If she wasn’t discovered, and was able to heal the boy, she could still make it back to the knight before nightfall. And then she could use the cauldron and return home for good.
But for now, she couldn’t worry about that. The boy’s injury had to come first.
The land around her blurred from the magic of Rufus’s boots, focusing back up as they reappeared at the base of the mountain. He quickly lifted each paw up to her so she could take the boots off, which she did, tying them by their laces and throwing them around her neck as Rufus began to climb the mountain.
Unfortunately, even the dangerous climb couldn’t distract her imagination from what might be wrong with the boy.
Maybe the sword had been magic, and now he was slowly turning into a garden slug, like poor Mr. Lettuce, who lived nearby Peter’s pumpkin and every so often forgot himself and tried to eat Peter’s house.
Or maybe the magic sword had somehow stolen the boy’s mind, and now it was held in the Faceless’s sword forever, just so the creature could have someone to talk to?
Not that it even needed to be magical. The sword could just be poisoned with something natural, meaning the boy’s life was in her hands.
The more she considered the possibilities, the worse she felt, and the faster she wished Rufus would go.
“Hurry, my brave little man,” she whispered, and the cat sped up again, even leaping so early over one of the mountain’s chasms that Lena thought for sure he wouldn’t make it across.
She was right. His claws scraped against the rock, finding no purchase, and they slipped down into the chasm. Lena’s heart began to race so fast it almost broke through her ribs as they fell, and she had just enough time to wonder if this was it, this was how everything ended.
But at the last moment, Rufus managed to catch his claws in the dirt and pull them back up, though Lena almost slipped right off his back and into the chasm from the motion of it all.
“Okay, maybe just a little less fast,” she whispered again, her heart and Rufus both slowing, at least a little bit. Somehow the boy hadn’t woken up through all of that, which worried her even more.
The only good thing about that—and her nervousness about returning to her village after everything that had happened, breaking her exile—was that the trip up the mountain went by much quicker than usual, and Rufus soon was propelling them through the cloud cover and back home.
He came up so quickly, in fact, that he practically crashed into the bottom of a large leather boot.
A boot Lena recognized.
Her mother was sitting on the cloud next to the hole where the mountain jutted through. She must have been waiting for Lena to return this whole time.
Fortunately, her mother’s boot blocked Lena from view, so Lena had a moment to consider all the emotions swimming around in her head. Part of her wanted to jump into her mom’s arms for a hug. Part of her wanted to beg for help and apologize for leaving in the first place. And a big part of her felt sick and angry about how her mom and dad hadn’t stood up for her, back during the ritual.
But all of that had to wait.
“I’m so sorry, Mom,” Lena whispered too softly for her mother to hear as she dismounted, quickly pushed Rufus’s boots onto his front paws, then jumped onto his back again.
And then they disappeared in a flash, her mother having no idea Lena had ever even returned.
Rufus reappeared on the stone walkway leading to the castle gates, and Lena swallowed hard, hating that she couldn’t stop and explain things to her mother, all of it. But there was just no time.
Instead, she had returned to the last place she ever wanted to be.
The guards still stood by the gates, but now that Lena was her normal size, Rufus was able to sneak them in without being seen, ducking slightly to crawl beneath the gates. From there, he sprinted along the walls and into the castle’s great hall, which was now empty, but for the Spark, which burned brightly from its spot atop the pedestal the Sparktender had stood next to during the ritual.
Lena dismounted and gently lifted the boy from Rufus’s back. She thought she saw his eyes flutter for a moment but decided she must have imagined it. “Stay here with the boy,” she whispered to her cat. “I’m going to bring the Spark back.”
Rufus meowed slightly just as footsteps from outside the great hall shook the floor, and Lena froze in fear.
Someone was coming.
There was nothing for it, though. She couldn’t take a chance on coming back later, not if the boy still wasn’t awake. She’d have to grab the Spark and just hope she was fast enough.
If she wasn’t, then at least she wouldn’t have to worry about the cauldron anymore, as she and the boy would both be doomed.
CHAPTER 18
Jin woke to a burning feeling in his shoulder and an exhaustion like nothing he’d ever felt. Something was jostling him, and he opened his eyes to find himself in an unfamiliar room.
Where was he? He closed his eyes again and reached out with his magical senses, but that just confused him more. Somehow he was in a castle in the clouds…?
A giant’s castle, the cosmic knowledge said. The girl brought you here to heal you.
A giant’s castle? Well, that was… something. Whatever the girl planned on doing, he wished she’d hurry, as Jin was in so much pain, he could barely keep his human body together. At least he hadn’t lost control of it while unconscious, which was a pleasant surprise.
When this whole wish fulfillment thing was over, Jin decided he would have to find out more about the Faceless. The shadow magic in their weapons was dangerous. He’d almost died just from one stab! If the Golden King had the power to actually do away with Jin, he might decide to use it, if he were angry enough.
Jin gently reached out with his senses toward his shoulder, hoping to gain more information from the injury, only to find something odd: it wasn’t just that the sword had cut him, but part of his power was… gone. Completely removed somehow, as if the sword had cut away the magical part of him, leaving him weak and in incredible pain.
Am I going to heal? Get my magic back? he asked the cosmic knowledge, a cold, sinking feeling in his stomach.
It went silent for a moment, and Jin found himself holding his breath. No, it said finally. Not without some sort of influx of magic, you won’t. At this point, you have just enough magic to control your own body. But even teleporting is out.
Which meant not only was he stuck in the cloud city of giants, but he had no way of getting home, with or without the Last Knight. Jin sighed. Well, at least I’m humbled! That should count for something, right? And get me out of my service to the king?
It might if you were humbled, but trust me, you’re not.
Jin swore. This is why no one likes you, you know.
See, now you’re just projecting.
The jostling stopped, and Jin quickly closed his eyes again as someone lifted him up, then gently set him down on the cold stone floor. After a moment of silence, he cracked one eye and almost shrieked in surprise as he found the cat’s giant head just inches from his face.
“Stay here with the boy,” Lena said to the cat as he licked his lips. “I’m going to bring the Spark back.”
Rufus meowed, his look showing zero mercy as he moved in. Right before Jin could object and call the girl back, the floor trembled from booming footsteps that sounded as if they were coming this way.
“Get off me,” Jin said, pushing the cat’s giant mouth away from him. He tried to push to his feet, only for his shoulder to start screaming in agony when he put pressure on it. The surprise pain sent him crashing to the floor, landing hard on his back.
“Lena!” the cat hissed, and from across the room the girl looked back, which was embarrassing. Why couldn’t the girl’s spell that made him so nervous around her be the part that the shadow magic had stolen?
Because that spell doesn’t exist, and you just have a crush?
“Don’t move!” Lena hissed from the bottom of an enormous pedestal. “I’ve got something that will heal you right up!” She glanced up at it, then leapt into the air, going far higher than any human could jump, which Jin would have found odd if the pain in his shoulder hadn’t been so distracting. At the top of her jump, she threw her arms around the pedestal, somehow grabbed ahold of it, then began climbing quickly to the top.
It was hard to tell from the distance, but it almost looked like she was digging handholds in the marble pedestal using just her fingers. But again, that couldn’t be possible.
The footsteps shook the room again, closer this time. Jin winced and tried to stand once more, only for the cat to lay a paw on his chest and push him back down.
“Lena says stay,” the cat told him, licking his lips again. Fantastic. And Jin couldn’t do anything about it, because he was too weak.
This day was not going how he’d planned. Not even a little bit.
“Okay, I’ll stay,” he told the monster, holding up his hands in surrender. But if you try to eat me, Jin thought, I hope I have enough magic left to transform into something poisonous.
You don’t.
Lena’s climb didn’t take long, but it did give Jin some time to examine his surroundings, which was a lot more useful than watching the cat eye him hungrily. It looked as if they were in an enormous hall of the castle, though the word “enormous” didn’t do the room justice. Most of the Golden King’s castle could have easily fit in just this one room.
