cartwheeling in my chest.
They hadn’t even had a chance to fire their weapons.
“You killed them,” I said. The words fell like
bricks out of my mouth into the silence.
William didn’t look at me, just pushed through the
door behind the guards. His cry of surprise brought me rushing inside after
him. In a cage in the center of the room lay what look liked hundreds of
fairies. They were all emaciated, their wings shriveled and cracked against
their pale, naked limbs. The cage was hooked up to lines that disappeared into
the ceiling and hummed with power.
“Help me,” William said.
At the sound of his voice, a few of the fairies
stirred. Their weak, mewling cries of pain made me sick to my stomach, but I
grabbed William’s arm. “Don’t touch the cage,” I said.
He shook me off but didn’t reach out to touch the
metal. He stared at the trapped fairies with rage. “I’m not leaving until
they’re freed,” he hissed at me.
I nodded, trying to think. There had to be
something in the metal itself that was pulling energy from the fairies. If I
could just stretch the bars of the cage out, I should be able to pull the fairies
out. Before I could chicken out, I shoved my staff through the bars and threw
my weight into it. When the metal gave out with a soft squeal, I nearly fell on
my face. Whatever the material was, it wasn’t steel. The fairies that were
still well enough to fly streamed out of the box. The others crawled onto
William’s outstretched hand and clung like shipwreck survivors. When all of the
living fairies were out, the bottom of the cage was still drifted with bodies.
William stared at them, his face pale and set.
When he snatched the staff away from me with one hand and began beating the
cage and the connecting wires, I stepped back and didn’t say anything. The
fairies clinging to his other arm were keening, and the others that had flown
out came and clung to William’s hair and shoulders until he was wearing a
living blanket of little blue and green and yellow fairies. He was screaming so
loudly it hurt my ears in the small space.
While he destroyed as much of the machine as he
could, I looked around the building. When I spotted a box of colored pencils
and a pad of graph paper sitting on a table off in the corner, the sweat on my
skin turned to ice water. I approached the table slowly, already knowing what
I’d find. In the colored pencil box, only the red and blue pencil showed any
use. The graph paper tablet was full of schematics, all neatly labeled and
notated in Jake’s cramped, precise handwriting. The last page with writing on
it contained an illustration of the cage behind me. The fairies in the cage were
rendered as stick figures with frowny faces.
Before William could come up behind me and ask
what I was doing, I shoved the tablet down the front of my pants. On an
afterthought, I dropped the colored pencils in too. I hoped William wouldn’t
notice the square outline across the front of my thighs, but when I turned
around again, William was gone.
With a curse, I dashed out of the building after
him only to see him disappearing over the treetops. I screamed at him to wait
and sprinted back towards where we’d entered the clearing. Desperate, I
searched the ground for some sign of the path we’d used, but beyond a faint
scuff on the leaves, there was no trail. He’d left me and night was coming. I’d
helped him, and he’d abandoned me in the middle of the jungle. One minute he
wanted to keep me alive and make out with me, and the next he just disappeared.
“Jerk,” I said. The sound of my voice was the only
noise in the clearing. Panicked and unsure what to do, I went back to the
building and shut the door behind me. Maybe William would come back and fly me
to safety. I should stay here where he could find me.
Yes, and maybe I’ll wake up and realize this
was all a crazy, awful dream . I wandered around the small building, eyes on
the wire mesh over the windows up
They hadn’t even had a chance to fire their weapons.
“You killed them,” I said. The words fell like
bricks out of my mouth into the silence.
William didn’t look at me, just pushed through the
door behind the guards. His cry of surprise brought me rushing inside after
him. In a cage in the center of the room lay what look liked hundreds of
fairies. They were all emaciated, their wings shriveled and cracked against
their pale, naked limbs. The cage was hooked up to lines that disappeared into
the ceiling and hummed with power.
“Help me,” William said.
At the sound of his voice, a few of the fairies
stirred. Their weak, mewling cries of pain made me sick to my stomach, but I
grabbed William’s arm. “Don’t touch the cage,” I said.
He shook me off but didn’t reach out to touch the
metal. He stared at the trapped fairies with rage. “I’m not leaving until
they’re freed,” he hissed at me.
I nodded, trying to think. There had to be
something in the metal itself that was pulling energy from the fairies. If I
could just stretch the bars of the cage out, I should be able to pull the fairies
out. Before I could chicken out, I shoved my staff through the bars and threw
my weight into it. When the metal gave out with a soft squeal, I nearly fell on
my face. Whatever the material was, it wasn’t steel. The fairies that were
still well enough to fly streamed out of the box. The others crawled onto
William’s outstretched hand and clung like shipwreck survivors. When all of the
living fairies were out, the bottom of the cage was still drifted with bodies.
William stared at them, his face pale and set.
When he snatched the staff away from me with one hand and began beating the
cage and the connecting wires, I stepped back and didn’t say anything. The
fairies clinging to his other arm were keening, and the others that had flown
out came and clung to William’s hair and shoulders until he was wearing a
living blanket of little blue and green and yellow fairies. He was screaming so
loudly it hurt my ears in the small space.
While he destroyed as much of the machine as he
could, I looked around the building. When I spotted a box of colored pencils
and a pad of graph paper sitting on a table off in the corner, the sweat on my
skin turned to ice water. I approached the table slowly, already knowing what
I’d find. In the colored pencil box, only the red and blue pencil showed any
use. The graph paper tablet was full of schematics, all neatly labeled and
notated in Jake’s cramped, precise handwriting. The last page with writing on
it contained an illustration of the cage behind me. The fairies in the cage were
rendered as stick figures with frowny faces.
Before William could come up behind me and ask
what I was doing, I shoved the tablet down the front of my pants. On an
afterthought, I dropped the colored pencils in too. I hoped William wouldn’t
notice the square outline across the front of my thighs, but when I turned
around again, William was gone.
With a curse, I dashed out of the building after
him only to see him disappearing over the treetops. I screamed at him to wait
and sprinted back towards where we’d entered the clearing. Desperate, I
searched the ground for some sign of the path we’d used, but beyond a faint
scuff on the leaves, there was no trail. He’d left me and night was coming. I’d
helped him, and he’d abandoned me in the middle of the jungle. One minute he
wanted to keep me alive and make out with me, and the next he just disappeared.
“Jerk,” I said. The sound of my voice was the only
noise in the clearing. Panicked and unsure what to do, I went back to the
building and shut the door behind me. Maybe William would come back and fly me
to safety. I should stay here where he could find me.
Yes, and maybe I’ll wake up and realize this
was all a crazy, awful dream . I wandered around the small building, eyes on
the wire mesh over the windows up
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