Conrad Edison and the Anchored World (Overworld Arcanum Book 2) (4 page)

"What is she?" Max asked, huffing and puffing somewhere behind me. "I've never seen green hair and silver skin."

"That's what I want to find out." I crawled through the hole and saw the girl running to my right. Taking a deep breath, I went after her.

She looked back, a sly smile on her face, and seemed to slow, though not enough to let me stop and catch my breath.

"Wait for me!" Ambria called.

I glanced back and saw my friends several paces behind.

We ran along the curving walls of the stadium and all the way back to the iron fence surrounding the Fairy Garden. Max had warned us about entering this place, but I threw caution to the wind and followed the girl through a black iron gate.

"Don't go in there!" Max cried out, but it was too late—I was through.

Chapter 3

Max had once given us an aerial tour of the university, and even though I'd only glimpsed this place for a moment, it had obviously changed for the worse. A crumbling yellow brick road passed by what had once been a clear blue pond but was now murky and choked with what looked like oil. The vibrant carpet of green grass had faded to patches of brown and sickly yellow, and rows of tree stumps rose like headstones to commemorate where a thick forest once stood. Only the blackened ruins of the mansion beyond the tree stumps seemed unchanged.

I spotted the girl standing at the edge of the pond, a sad look on her face.

"Whoa, all the trees are gone," Max said.

Ambria stepped to my side. "It looks awful. I expected the Fairy Garden to be much prettier than this."

"It was." Max shook his head. "I don't understand what happened."

"All the trees are gone," I said. "Why would someone chop them down?"

"I'll bet she knows what happened," Ambria said, pointing to our quarry.

I nodded. "Let's ask her."

The girl tilted her head as we approached.

"What happened here?" Max asked, saying each word slowly and loudly.

The girl danced backward.

"Oh no, not again," Ambria groaned. "Please don't run."

Max wiped sweat from his forehead. "I should've grabbed a broom."

I touched his arm to stop him from walking forward. "Are you certain you've never seen a supernatural being like her before?"

He looked at me and shook his head. "I've never seen or heard of anyone with skin or hair like hers, though I suppose she could be some sort of shape shifter."

 "Maybe fairies are real," Ambria said. "Why else would she come to the Fairy Garden?"

"She could be an elf," I suggested.

Max sighed. "I suppose there could be some beings similar to what we think of as fairies or elves, but I've never heard of them."

The object of our musings danced on the tips of her feet, mud squirming between her toes, and watched us with a curious expression.

"Stay here," I told the others, and stepped cautiously forward.

The girl stopped dancing and tilted her head, a cat-like expression on her face. "Conrad," she said.

I nodded and pointed to myself. "Conrad." I pointed to her. "What's your name?"

She went still, took a deep breath, and unleashed a high pitched squeal.

I plugged my ears and grimaced. Max groaned and Ambria shrieked.

The girl giggled and said in heavily accented English, "I am Evadora."

"Well, why didn't you say so in the first place?" Max said.

Evadora skipped in a circle, splatting mud with her feet. "Evadora, Evadora, Evadora!"

Ambria watched the girl dance, her forehead wrinkled. "I think Evadora is a bit odd."

"She's completely mental," Max said.

Evadora waved her hand. "Come." She pranced away toward the ruined forest.

"Doesn't she ever get tired?" Ambria muttered darkly as we trotted after the girl.

Curiosity outweighed my desire to rest and I picked up the pace, eager to narrow the distance. Though Evadora dashed through the graveyard of trees, dodging and leaping stumps, I opted for the muddy brick path through the center of the devastation.

"I'm not an expert on trees or anything," Max panted, "but some of the dried sap looks odd."

A quick glance at a stump confirmed what he said. The sap looked dark crimson.

"It looks like dried blood," Ambria said.

Evadora leapt atop a particularly wide stump and drew a long rusty knife from somewhere beneath her dress. She plunged the knife into the wood. A terrible ghostly keen seemed to rise from the dead tree itself. The girl withdrew the knife and licked bright red blood from the blade. She giggled. "Not dead yet!"

Ambria screamed.

Max leapt back. "Are those trees alive?"

But Evadora transfixed on Ambria and the question glided past unheard. She leapt from the stump and ran toward my friend, the dagger still in her hand.

I took out my wand and stepped in the girl's way. "Not another step closer," I warned the silver-skinned girl.

Evadora flicked her hand and the blade vanished, replaced by a small crystal bottle. She pointed to Ambria. "Please."

I looked at Ambria's tear-stained face and then back to Evadora. "Please what?"

"What do you want from me, you awful little creature?" Ambria said. "What are those tree things?"

"May I have?" Evadora took another tentative step forward, large eyes pleading.

Max leapt in front of Ambria and shielded her with his arms. "What is it you want?"

Evadora's lips peeled into a smile. "Tears."

"You want my tears?" Ambria said in a shocked voice.

The other girl nodded rapidly. "Please, please, please."

"And you won't harm me?"

Evadora shook her head so quickly, it appeared she was having a seizure. "Just tears."

Ambria took a deep breath and touched mine and Max's arms. "Fine. But then you have to tell us everything we ask you, agreed?"

"Everything." Evadora drew out the word slowly as if to encompass the entire world.

"If I'd known she wanted tears, I would have just kicked Conrad in the knee," Max said as he stepped aside.

I held onto my wand and tried to remember how to cast the
torsious
spell. Some knowledge gained from my parents' soul shards was only temporary, especially if I didn't pay close attention when using it.

Evadora held the crystal bottle to Ambria's cheek and two tears spilled inside it. By now, Ambria's eyes were drying since the episode with the tree stump had merely frightened her.

The bottle glowed darkly. "Ooh," Evadora breathed. "Fear."

"Well, I certainly wasn't crying from sadness," Ambria said.

Max peered at the bottle. "Are you a nutter?"

Evadora nodded. "I like nuts."

He groaned. "No, I mean are you mental?"

"I am physical," she said.

"What sort of being are you?" Ambria asked.

Evadora looked down at her hands and feet, then looked at Ambria. "I am a being like you."

Max threw up his hands. "Just great. We can ask her anything, but her answers are rubbish."

I tried to think of a good question and finally came up with something. "Evadora, where are you from?"

She tucked away the bottle and pointed toward the ruins of the mansion. "The crack in the world."

My gaze followed her finger, but I didn't see a crack. Behind the mansion were a few trees and the stone face of a cliff that climbed into the clouds. "Show us," I said.

She nodded and bounded along the path. We ran after, following her around the burnt remains of the mansion and to the back. We stepped through a grove of trees and over a mound of gravel. Evadora stopped and pointed at a crack in the base of the cliff.

"That's just a cave," Max said.

"Yes, a cave," Evadora said. "A crack in the world is a cave. A cave in the world is a crack." She giggled and ran a hand along the stone. "The world is thin here."

Ambria got down on her knees and peered inside. "Where does it go?"

"The rift and the other world," Evadora whispered. She made a strange squealing noise not unlike the one earlier. "I do not know what you call it."

"How do you speak our language?" Max said.

She tilted her head. "With words."

His fists clenched. "How did you learn our language?"

"I hear words, I learn words," she said. "I listen to the people at your place talk."

Ambria tentatively touched the girl's strange skin. "Are you a fairy?"

"What is fairy?" Evadora asked.

"Well, they have wands, or at least some do," Ambria said. "Some have wings and are tiny." She held her hands apart about a foot. "Some are normal size and look like humans, and they can talk to animals."

Evadora tilted her head. "Talk to animals?"

Ambria nodded.

Evadora pursed her lips and warbled.

I was so startled I jumped back.

A bird fluttered in and landed on Max's shoulder. It looked at Evadora and warbled back.

Max's eyes went wide. "Can you believe it? There's a bird sitting on my shoulder."

"You must be a fairy," I told him.

He flattened his lips.

"So you can talk to animals," Ambria said in amazement.

"It is how this bird calls for other birds." Evadora shrugged. "I hear it, I learn it."

The bird made an agitated noise and flew off. Ambria burst into laughter and pointed at Max's shoulder where the departing bird had left a moist gift.

"It pooped on my shoulder!" Max said.

Evadora giggled. "Pooped, pooped, pooped!" She grabbed Max's hands and bounced up and down. "I like this word."

Ambria laughed so hard, she had to hold her stomach. Max chortled until he cried.

Evadora went absolutely still and watched a tear trickle down Max's face. "Please have?"

He almost wiped the tear, but Evadora's face contorted with horror.

She grabbed his hand. "Please, no." Eye large and pleading, she looked into his. "Can I have?"

Max nodded. "Yes, but you have to give us better answers when we ask questions."

She nodded eagerly and the crystal bottle reappeared in her hand. She carefully nudged the tear with the lip of the bottle and it dribbled inside. A warm yellow glow lit the bottle for a moment and faded. Evadora corked the bottle and smiled. "Happy."

I looked at the bottle. "What do you do with the tears you collect?"

"To help with the nothing," she said. "It is easy to forget."

Ambria's eyebrows pinched. "Forget how to cry?"

"To laugh, to cry, to be mad." Evadora sighed. "I want to help, to bring these to the queen."

"Ooh, a queen." Ambria bounced on her toes. "I want to meet a queen!"

I didn't know what to believe, but Evadora's claim about this crack leading to another world had piqued my interest. I took out my wand and waved it. "
Illumus
." The tip glowed brightly and I poked it into the supposed crack in the world. The tunnel looked large enough for a person to crawl through, but I couldn't see more than twenty feet or so inside. "When was the first time you came here?" I asked our strange guest.

She held up one finger. "Two."

Ambria held up the correct number of fingers. "This is two."

Evadora nodded. "Yes."

Max shook his head like a wet dog. "Two what?"

"Two of the many days," she said.

"Weeks or months?" I asked.

"Weeks," she replied. "The man came through the crack."

My mouth fell open. "What man?"

"Who?" Max said.

She pointed to me. "The man like you."

I exchanged confused looks with the others. "What man like me?"

"He looks like you," Evadora replied.

"Oh no." Ambria's lip trembled. "I think she means your father."

My stomach knotted. "Evadora, can you describe him?"

She nodded. "His hair like yours. Face like yours. He came with the pretty woman with long black hair."

Max blew out a breath. "That sounds like Victus and Delectra all right."

Evadora shrugged. "He came through the crack. I followed him back."

"What happened to the trees in the Fairy Garden?" I asked. "Did the man do that?"

She nodded. "It was the price."

I didn't like the sound of that. "The price for what?"

"The help of the queen." Evadora got down on her knees and peered into the dark tunnel. She pointed forward. "I show you."

Max waved his hands in front of his chest. "No way am I following that mental girl into a dark narrow tunnel."

"She made a bird poo on your shoulder, Max," Ambria said with a grin. "How evil could she be?"

I held up my glowing wand. "I'll go with her. The rest of you stay here."

"Now hold on," Max said. "I'm not letting you go in there alone."

"And I'm not waiting out here." Ambria looked around and shivered. "This place feels haunted."

"Yes, many spirits," Evadora said, pointing in the direction of the ruined forest. "The guardians all gone." She slashed a finger across her throat and smiled. "Dead or mostly dead."

Max shuddered. "You're not supposed to smile when you talk about murder, you wicked little thing."

Evadora's forehead pinched. "No? If I not supposed to smile, then what?"

"Murder is awful," Ambria said. "It makes me frown and cry." She grimaced.

Evadora produced her bottle, eyes eager. "More tears?"

Ambria shook her head. "No, I'm just explaining emotions."

"You know what happiness is, right?" I asked the silver girl.

She nodded. "Yellow."

"That's a color, not an emotion." I tapped a finger to my chin. "When the bird pooped on Max, that was happiness."

Evadora nodded. "Yes, that was happy. But murder is not happy?"

I shook my head. "Murder is death. It's the blackest of the black."

She seemed to absorb that. "I never saw death before coming here. It is a bad thing?"

"It means that what was living goes away forever and turns to dust." Ambria picked up a handful of dirt and let it spill from her fingers.

Evadora's eyes went wide and she fell back against the cliff face. Her skin turned grayer until it nearly matched the stone. "Gone," she whispered. "Death is gone. It is bad."