Lillya

Lillya stared down the pair of luminous, unblinking, brown eyes. “Please,” she pleaded.

“Moo,” the cow lowed obstinately.

“Fine,” she shot back grumpily. “There must be a better way to get milk, anyway.”

Having somebody else do it was how, but Lillya wanted desperately to be useful. Celia had been so nice, but their stay had stretched on longer than anyone had expected. Although the family tried to pretend like three extra people was no strain, one of those people kept taking things apart and chopping things down and setting things on fire. In fact, Tansy had been too quiet, and Lillya should have been checking on her. This milk-tastrophe was unanticipated.

Lillya sighed. Everything here was slow, slow, slow.

She peered in the bucket. She wanted to believe there was more milk inside than there had been when Celia had so patiently showed her how to milk the cow and Lillya had promised, yes, getting milk out of the giant animal was absolutely something she could do herself with no problem. If Lillya was being honest, there was no additional milk in that bucket. She could chalk milking cows under the category of farm chores she could not do.

Lillya took a deep breath. “I think we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot…or hoof. Foot for me, hoof for you.” She tried to keep her voice light and soothing. She patted the cow softly on her bulging, spotted side. “You are full of milk, and I would like that milk. Maybe we can trade. Would you like to have your neck scratched, or I can tie bows around your ears, or tell you a story? Maybe a plant in your barn would help your mood?”

“Are you trying to talk Mallow into giving you milk?” interrupted an incredulous voice at the door.

“No,” Lillya scoffed. Well, reasoning with the cow had not been the first thing she had tried, anyway.

Barx fully entered the room to survey the scene with his barely-teenaged judgment. He had the same curly silver blond hair as Ivyliss—wooly, like a sheep. Lillya had been looking forward to spending time with the secretive people of Curi, but she had seen nothing but farm animals and fruit trees. Grandmama had been very specific about how far she was allowed to stray from the house, and it wasn’t even to the edge of the homestead. This cow could wander farther than Lillya was allowed. She was stuck. Most of all, she wished the world would hurry up and not end, because she was full on homesick. Her eyes flooded with tears.

“Oh no,” Barx moaned. “What now?”

Lillya’s voice was strangled. “I just want to go home, and I can’t help with anything because I’m useless and med—” She struggled to get words past the lump in her throat. “Mediocre!”

“But…you’re a princess,” he said, looking at her like she had sprouted pink feathers from her nostrils.

“A mediocre one,” she sniffled.

“Yeah. Ok.” Barx was not sympathetic.

“What if everybody’s dead,” Lillya wailed. “The forces of evil could be in control right now. It might be just us left.” How long could she stay on the run with the twins? Tansy might have a shot outside the magic dampening circle where none of them could use their magic, but then they could be tracked. Grandmama was very clear about not being lured outside her protective circle.

“Maybe I should go get my mom,” said Barx, backing out the barn door slowly.

He did not make it very far.

“What. Are. You?” hissed a voice behind him, a voice that made Lillya’s spine tingle.

Barx spun around, and Lillya craned her head. A woman was sliding through in the barn door, but she was blocked by Barx’s wooly head.

“Who are you?” Barx stuttered.

“Quiet,” snapped the woman, punching the “t” like she was a snake spitting venom. Powder billowed up around Barx’s head, and the woman pushed the poor boy out of her way as he crumpled to the ground, unmoving.

The woman in the doorway was in clear view now, a gaunt specter of a woman framed in tattered clothing and matted, stringy hair of dull black.

“You. Child. Come closer.” She stretched out a hand and snapped, but nothing happened. The magic she was trying to use was blocked here. Rage twisted the woman’s pale face, and she withdrew a dagger from the ripped shards of her dark clothing. The blackened metal was smeared in blood.

“I know who you are,” Lillya stammered, out loud for some reason.

“Good,” said the dark-haired lady.

This woman was supposed to be locked away—gone forever. Lillya could not quite remember her name; Mama hated hearing it out loud, because she was that awful woman who had stolen Mama when she was a child.

Lillya’s heart leapt to her throat. “What do you want?” she managed to whisper.

The woman narrowed her eyes under the curtain of matted, dark hair. “I want you to be less disappointing,” she said in a matter-of-fact way. “You’re not like her at all. You do have her eyes, though,” said the woman in an almost dreamy tone.

Lillya was terrified, but she could not be terrified right now. Right now, she was staring face first into a crazy lady with a dagger, and Grandmama had given her instructions for a situation like this one.

“Are you working with them?” Lillya asked. “The Flifary?” If she could buy a little time and get some information, somebody would come to check in on Barx’s absence.

“No.” The woman recoiled from the question like it was rotting garbage. “I hear their island has been destroyed. Gone. Imagine my relief to discover you weren’t on it.”

“How did you find—” Lillya just barely stopped herself from saying “us.” “Me,” she corrected.

“Hmm…” the woman murmured. “Daniella’s old tricks—this rather obnoxious magical dead spot for one. We did work together briefly. Although together is a loose interpretation. We worked toward similar purposes at the same time.”

“You’re lying.”

“Rarely.” The woman smirked. That dagger in her hands was glossy with blood. Lillya tried not to think too hard about who the blood belonged to.

“You’re not going to kill me,” Lillya told her boldly.

A wave of sadistic amusement swept across the unnaturally young face under a curtain of stringy hair. “Oh, Princess?”

“You can’t use magic here,” Lillya pointed out, “and you have to step away from the door to stab me. I’m pretty good at running and screaming.”

“I’m pretty good at hitting a moving target,” the woman countered in a smooth, completely terrifying way, “but killing you now would be a waste of potential. Maiming, however…You may want to watch your tone. Where are the others?”

Lillya’s stomach seized. This woman did know about the others. Lillya stared back defiantly, her mind whirling for a solution. If she threw up, would that be a decent distraction?

The woman’s mouth twisted into a terrifying smile. “You do have a bit of Her. You don’t have to tell me. I’ll find them soon enough anyway.” She sounded so calm and certain. Lillya hoped that was the crazy talking.

Why was no one coming? She braved a glance toward the door.

“Oh, they’re busy,” promised the woman with ominous certainty.

“Doing what?”

“Putting out the fire.”

Lillya’s heart sped up. Or maybe it kept stopping and starting. Her heart was definitely doing a series of things that made it hard to decide what to do. Lillya had to make sure Tansy and Duck were ok. It was her responsibility. But she also had to keep them ok by keeping this woman with ill intent away from them. Lillya edged closer to the door—the door unfortunately being blocked by the unbalanced woman with murderous intent.

“Yes, go.” The dark-haired woman waved her dagger at the door.

Lillya took a shaky step forward. She did not want to get closer to that dagger, but the door was worth the risk.

She was dumbstruck the second she had a clear view out the barn door. Walls of flame streaked across Celia’s orchard. Nothing about this fire was natural, made evident by the way the towers of flame seemed to reach an invisible wall and stop, forming a curved wall of flame in a circle around the back of the house. With horror, Lillya watched the previously invisible boundaries of Grandmama’s magical barrier shudder, rippling like a breeze across a pond.

“Ah,” the woman sighed, coming so close Lillya could feel the slick dagger brush her arm. “If I had been but a few minutes more patient.”

Then the barrier would have fallen and the crazy lady would have been able to zap Lillya to some sort of death cave where her entrails would be used to reduce the world to cinders, probably.

Lillya jammed her foot down on the woman’s thin boots and bolted at the sound of her shriek. She ducked grasping fingers and the swoop of a dagger. Her skinny legs flew across rough grass and around the building. Aunt Issabeth said size was an advantage in an escape. Small size made Lillya a hard target to hit, but only if she used obstacles to block line of sight. She wanted to hide, but she needed to find Duck and Tansy right now. Also that barrier was about to go down. Then this whole farm and orchard would be on fire. And who knew what sort of horrible powers that woman might have?

As she rounded a corner to make a break for the cover of some nut trees, that woman with her crazy eyes and fluttering shards of clothes breezed in from the other side of the building. Lillya skidded to a stop. High above, the barrier quivered. Time was up.

“Hey, Shril,” called a very welcome voice. The voice was welcome to Lillya, anyway. The unhinged lady found the voice less welcome. Her face twisted in rage and she spun to see Aunt Issabeth emerging from the trees. An arrow zoomed straight for the dark woman’s chest.

The same instant, the sound of snapping erupted around them. The collapse of the magic barrier was like an explosion inside Lillya’s brain. She clutched at the sides of her head as spots filled her vision.

The instant Issabeth’s arrow would have pierced the lady’s heart, she disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The black smoke swirled up right in front of Aunt Issabeth, and before she could react, the resourceful crazy lady had tossed another handful of powder in Issabeth’s face. She folded to the ground just like Barx had. Lillya gaped, frozen to the spot, head bursting with color.

“Shrilynda!” exclaimed another voice, and Lillya’s attacker had two more foes to contend with. In the haze of her own head, Lillya barely recognized them as Rosaliy and that man from Crystal Palace, the nice one who hunted pirate treasure.

Shrilynda was between them, and her hungry, desperate eyes locked on Lillya’s just before she disappeared once more. Lillya stumbled for Rosaliy, but smoke reformed in front of her before she could take three steps. The woman’s red-smeared hands reached out of the dark cloud. One touch and Lillya might vanish forever. She dove backwards, head still pounding with the magic crumbling around her.

The Baysellian man reacted as quickly, but the woman snapped her stained fingers before his hands closed around her. His arms wrapped around nothing more than a second cloud of smoke.

“Where are Tansy and Duck?” Rosaliy called, pressing the sides of her head.

Lillya threw up her hands.

“I think—” Rosaliy spun. “Something’s over here.” She rubbed her temples. Lillya understood her pain. It was like magical fireworks were exploding with bursts of debilitating sound and color. “Stay with Drake. Check on Issabeth,” Rosaliy yelled, running to find the twins.

“You ok? Lillya?” Drake asked, reaching down to haul Lillya off the ground.

“That’s me,” she said. “No.” Her head was throbbing and the sounds around her were echoing. She almost fell flat on her face when she tried standing on her own.

“We’ve got to find the twins before that woman,” Lillya insisted breathlessly.

“I was supposed to keep you safe,” Drake objected. “And what about—” He waved to Lillya’s prone aunt.

“She’ll be safer where I’m not,” Lillya argued, “but have you seen Tansy and Taurin when they’re trying to hide? If they’re scared, Sorceress Rosaliy will never find them.”

Drake scanned the flame wall bearing down on them and the barn in the opposite direction. “There are ten furlongs of ground to cover in this homestead, and it’s all going to be on fire soon. Where would you start?”

Lillya closed her eyes and tried to find her brother and sister, but her malfunctioning senses made her woozy. She pointed toward a feeble sputtering of light she could see bouncing behind her eyelids. “That way?”

“That’s exactly opposite from the direction Rosaliy just ran,” he pointed out.

“So it’s either the right way or the exact opposite direction from trouble,” Lillya said. “Win-win?”

Drake blinked back, his face hard to read. Perhaps he was impervious to her logic. But he waved a hand for her to lead the way.

They loped toward the edge of a cluster of chestnut trees that bordered the creek where Duck was always playing with his toad. This was a likely hiding location. Unfortunately, they were also reaching the edges of where the magical barrier had been, and the smoke from the fire was heavy. Drake dug out a pair of bandannas from his pocket and held one to breathe, offering her the other. She was glad for the partial relief from the stinging smoke attacking her eyes and lungs.

As they closed in, Lillya’s head began to balance out, and the lights she was following grew stronger. They were definitely getting closer to the twins. She was about to tell Drake so, but his face went rigid just as she removed the bandanna from her mouth to speak. He pulled her behind an overgrown chestnut tree and put a single finger to his lips in warning. An instant later, Lillya heard a chilling voice call, “Where are you, darlings?”

Drake silently unsheathed a knife on his belt and wrapped his fingers around it. His presence was comforting, but he was no match for magic.

Branches snapped, and Shrilynda was walking away from them. She was heading toward the creek, going for Tansy. She must be. Pressing himself close to the tree, Drake peered around the trunk. Satisfied the woman was out of sight, he knelt to match Lillya’s height.

“Are they close?” he whispered.

Lillya bobbed her head.

“Up for being bait?” he asked.

She was expecting something more along the lines of “stick close to me” or “let me hide you where you won’t get hurt,” so she had been prepared to argue her importance to this mission. She blinked a few times before his words sank in. “Of course.”

“Scream,” he ordered. “As loud as you can.”

She understood what he was doing. Her scream was a half-strangled pathetic thing suffering from numb terror and a lack of air, but it did the trick. A billow of smoke appeared between the orderly lines of leafy trees. Drake lunged for the smoke, knife in hand, but Lillya’s eyes went round with horror. Shrilynda had baited him.

He sliced through empty smoke while she solidified just behind him. Before Lillya could even begin to cry out a warning, she planted her dagger in his back. He crumpled, but his attacker trembled with the exertion as well, bending to catch her breath like she was exhausted from running ten furlongs. The woman’s magic was reaching its limits.

Lillya finally managed to turn half a gasp of air into another scream, and she mustered the next giant breath into a truly earth-shattering call for help.

A dark blaze of fur was the first to answer. Pepper appeared in the fringes of the smoky orchard and raced for the woman. With tired eyes, Shrilynda withdrew another handful of powder and tossed it at her own feet, vanishing in the largest cloud of black smoke yet. The putrid smell of the powder lingered in the already smoky air.

Lillya batted her way through the noxious smoke to get to Drake. He shuddered and moaned when she put a hand on his shoulder and tried to shake him awake. At least he was still alive.

“Sorceress Rosaliy!” she hollered. “Celia! Tansy! Duck! Anyone!”

Wary green eyes blinked back at her from between the branches of a nearby tree. “Tansy! Duck!” Lillya called. “Come here! Help me!”

“What’s happening, Lil?” asked Duck’s scared little face from above.

Well, the trees around her were on fire, her protector was bleeding to death right here, and there was a crazy woman looking for them.

“Aunt Issabeth and Sorceress Rose are here,” she promised them, holding out her arms. “If we stick together, Rosaliy will find us.” Duck and Tansy tumbled to the ground and ran for her. Lillya pulled them into a warm huddle next to Drake.

Tansy was a mess, shaking with loud sobs. “Breathe, Tans,” Lillya urged. The last thing anybody needed was an earthquake from a Tansy tantrum. “Everything’s going to be ok.” Pepper nosed himself in, and the little girl gripped his fur in a powerful hug, trembling.

Lillya pried Drake’s knife out of his hand, just in case that lady returned. She tried shaking Drake again for good measure. “You have to wake up,” she urged. “There’s fire everywhere.”

He did stir and blink his eyes a little. “Get out of here,” he murmured faintly. “Find Rose.”

Fire was spreading to the tree where Lillya had taken cover just before. This spot would be engulfed within minutes.

Maybe between the three of them, they could drag him. Luckily, before she convinced Tansy and Duck to take a leg each and pull, Sorceress Rosaliy burst coughing through the smoke and spotted them.

Rosaliy hugged the twins and examined the bloody wound on Drake’s back. It looked truly terrible, all rimmed with black and purple streaks creeping out into his skin. He tried harder to wake up for her, Lillya noticed.

“You just promised not to leave, and the first thing you do is get yourself stabbed,” Rosaliy chided him.

“Sounds like me,” Drake grunted.

She was already folding his discarded bandanna and pressing it to his side. “It’s bleeding a lot, but it doesn’t look like the blade went through anything catastrophic. Hold,” she ordered, clamping his hand over the cloth.

“Feels worse than that,” he gasped.

“Well, Shrilynda’s dagger was probably laced with some kind of life-draining magic poison, but what good does it do you to worry about that right now?” she answered. “I’m sure Issabeth can use the pearl on you when she’s up.”

Aunt Issabeth and the pearl were amazing, but dark poisons followed their own rules. Plus, Issabeth was out cold. This was never going to work. Lillya realized Rosaliy was making up a comforting story because she could not move Drake. The poison would work itself through his system in a flash if they tried.

The smoke so thick it was blanketing the trees now. Lillya could hear brittle trees toppling and crashing.

“Celia and her family,” she bleated. Celia was about to lose everything, and it was all their fault. “Tansy,” Lillya said, thinking fast. “Rain. We need a big storm.”

“But, I—” The dirt-streaked girl trembled. “But—”

Rosaliy knelt down in front of her and took her hands. “Tansy, you know how I’m always talking about control and using magic responsibly.”

Tansy bobbed her head up and down with fearful eyes.

“Forget all that,” Rosaliy said. “We need the biggest, wildest rainstorm you have trapped in that little soul of yours.”

Tansy took a long moment to hear what Rosaliy had said to her. As the words sank in, her dirty forehead crinkled in confusion under her wild mop of raven curls.

“Tans,” Lillya added, “you’re a pirate Princess at sea, and there’s a wild squid attacking. You have to send him back to the depths of the ocean with a tsunami.”

“Pirate Princess at sea,” repeated Tansy, and she stretched out her hands.

The wind that ripped through the orchard was very nearly the death of them. It flung flaming branches and spread fire from tree to tree like they were matchsticks lighting each other.

“It’s not working,” Tansy wailed.

“It’s ok,” whispered Duck, hugging his sister around the middle. “You can do it.”

He was so sure of her, they all felt it. Literally. He radiated a calm certainty that touched all of them even in the middle of raging fire.

Tansy closed her eyes, and they heard the cracks of rolling thunder. The crackles of fire gave way to the sounds of thudding on treetops all around them, and soon water pelted down through the bare, charred branches.

Lillya almost heaved a sigh of relief.

“Drake?” said Rosaliy, shattering the almost-relieved moment. He had slipped into unconsciousness. Lillya had rarely seen the balanced Sorceress so worried before.

“The poison,” Lillya murmured. “Duck, that bark mom’s always gathering—any of that around?”

“No time,” Rosaliy objected. “I need to get you out of here.”

Duck looked at Drake and shook his head. “I know where to find some.”

“We have to help,” Lillya agreed.

“Can’t we do healing?” Tansy asked, shivering from the cold.

“I could maybe turn him a faint shade of magenta,” answered Lillya, “and you don’t want to mess with poison.”

Rosaliy took Drake’s hand and scooped Tansy under her arm, nodding at Lillya to go. Lillya and her bark whisperer brother scurried into the pelting rain.