Frey (2 page)

“
Well
?” Fannie was in my face.

I jerked back to
reality.
What was she saying?

“
Where were
you
during the commotion?
I’d think if you were at Junnie’s, you’d have known all about it.
Why didn’t you warn me?”

Oops
. “Well, I was… Junnie sent me home early because I learned a
spell.” Fannie looked incredulous. I backpedaled. “Well, not a
spell but I grew a… flower. And then I was so excited I was going
to run home and tell you… but I took the back way and then…”
Oops
. “Well, and then I
got lost. Sorry.”

Aunt Fannie was incensed. “You pigeon-headed,
imp-brained…”

She ranted on and on.

The years of listening to it seemed to
coalesce, and I was suddenly exhausted. “I think I’ll go lie
down.”

“
Do you think you can just
sleep when you want to sleep? Whose tree do you think this is?
You’ll lie down when I say you’ll lie down…”

Ugh
.
I tuned her out, knowing the outcome if I didn't.

Shortly after her tirade insisting I stay
until I had earned permission to leave, my dear aunt Fannie tired
of looking at me and sent me on my way.

I trudged out of the kitchen, through the
main sitting area, and into my room. It was dark except for a small
beam of light from a knothole in the wall. Fire was the one magic I
had mastered; I had been able to light lanterns and candles for as
long as I could remember, but I didn’t bother. If I was in this
room, I wanted to be alone. And in darkness I felt more so.

Chapter Two

Chevelle

I was usually a late
sleeper, but the next morning I was out of the house early. I
wanted to get away before I had to face Fannie in the middle of her
wine hangover, and I knew Junnie could tell me if Evelyn had turned
the town or council against me. I rushed up the path and through
the village gate, keeping my head down. No one generally went out
of their way to speak to me, but I didn’t want to take any chances.
The other elves didn’t have much use for one who wasn’t able to
contribute. My lack of magic and skill had put me far from their
minds. Except in the case of Evelyn, who sought to raise herself by
lowering me, but always with such a thick coating of sweetness. It
also didn’t help that I looked different and couldn't pull off the
polished joyfulness of the other,
normal
elves. I wasn't wholly out of
place, but unquestionably a blot on the family portrait of the
clan.

I slipped around the village and through
Junnie’s back yard, darting past a trellis toward the door. I
ducked under the hanging ivy, caught my foot on a vine and cursed
as I stumbled forward, nearly running into a large boulder. And
then I realized the boulder was wearing a shirt.

Gradually, my head tilted
upward, and I peered through my bangs to find a strong chin, stern
mouth, and the darkest, deepest sapphire eyes I'd ever seen. Sure,
lots of elves had blue eyes, but bright-light and shimmery. These
were of the deepest blue.
They must appear
black in the shadows.

Suddenly, I flushed. I was staring into
someone's eyes.

And, as quickly as I had come upon him, he
was gone. He turned from me without a word and disappeared in a few
long strides. I watched him go. Short dark hair, dark eyes, and a
large, strong build. He certainly wasn’t from this clan.

Junnie cleared her throat. “Freya?”

I hadn’t realized she was
watching me from the open door.
Watching me
watch him
. I flushed again. “Who…” I
trailed off.

“
You needn’t bother yourself
with him.”

She could see I would.

“
Chevelle Vattier. He’s from
a northern clan. He’ll be here only a short while. Council
business.”

That brought me back to my mission. “Fannie
said there was some trouble with Evelyn?” I asked.

“
Yes.” There was something
in her tone I didn’t recognize. “She’s fine now.”

“
I was… yesterday, I saw
her.”

“
Yes.” She half-smiled,
“Don’t worry yourself, Freylinda. Come now, let’s
study.”

I hesitated. Evelyn had mentioned me, but not
accusingly? Surely Junnie would have more to say. She placed a
gentle hand on my shoulder and led me in. “What shall we do
today?”

I went back over our conversation, trying to
find some meaning. Inspiration, or maybe distraction, hit me as I
recalled the dark-headed stranger. “Lineages.”

Junnie raised an eyebrow as I sped to the
study. I’d find out more about Evelyn later. This was my chance to
learn of Chevelle Vattier.

I pored over a dozen volumes
with determination. There were so many lineages but I needed
something on the northern clans, something on Vattier. I’d need a
library, maybe even the council library. I shivered. Okay, I wasn’t
sure about that. Even if I worked up the nerve to sneak in, I
didn’t have the magic to search so many documents to quickly find
what I was after like the council members did.
Stick to the library
.

I made a short excuse to
Junnie and headed out the door and around back. After I rounded a
few houses, I cut back toward the village center. I wasn’t doing
anything
wrong
but
I didn’t want to advertise. I had no good reason for researching
Chevelle Vattier, except I had been thinking about him all
day.
You
just
met him this morning. Not even
met. Stared at
. I flushed again. I glanced
around constantly and walked quickly, shoulders hunched, looking
like a criminal on my way to the old tree housing the
library.
Yeah, this wasn’t
obvious
.

Twice I imagined a set of dark eyes on
me.

When I walked in, I
remembered why I didn’t go to the library to study lineages. There
must have been a thousand volumes and tenfold more scrolls in the
main level alone.
And no magic to lead me
in the right direction
. I went to the
section which would most likely house the desired information, and
then closed my eyes and concentrated. Maybe it wouldn’t work but I
could try. I wasn’t sure I felt anything, but after a few minutes I
started to feel stupid and opened my eyes, reaching out my right
hand because I imagined it might have tingled a little. I grabbed a
close volume and leafed through it.

It was a legacy of the Viridian Forest clan.
Well, so much for the magic. I pulled another volume down. A diary
of Momar the Ancient. This was going to be like greasing a
monkey.

I sat for hours exploring
the early texts, stories of the river clans and their battles with
the Imps of Long Forgotten, firsthand accounts of the Trials of
Istanna, and the long lineages of the eldest families. A whisper
roused me from my studies. I realized it was late so I decided to
retire and start again the next day. I rose unsteadily and heard
the whisper again.
No, not a whisper…
wind
. I glanced behind me to see paper
falling to scatter on the floor. I looked around, but the library
was practically empty. Someone on a higher level must have
accidentally knocked the pages down. I bent over and read the
closest document. It was an account from the northern clans. I was
stunned but somehow managed to act quickly, stashing the papers in
my shirt before attempting a casual exit to read them at
home.

I made it out of the library
and almost to the gate when I noticed a dark figure behind Virden
Day’s tree.
Chevelle
. It looked like he was speaking with Virden. He turned his
head slowly toward me… and I was staring into his eyes
again.
Oh give me a break; he’s half way
across the village from you
. But I was
staring. I flushed, yet again, and turned away. The pages stuffed
in my shirt felt like they were burning. I quickened my pace,
caught my toe on a root, and stumbled. As soon as I righted myself,
I wasn’t able to stop myself from peeking back to see if he had
noticed, but he was gone. I didn’t know if I was relieved. My mind
went over the encounter again as I made my way home. Did he always
wear such a stern expression? Why was he looking at me so
intensely? I had my answer:
because you
were
staring
at
him, idiot
.

It seemed to me Fannie always knew when I
didn’t want to be bothered and went out of her way to ensure I was.
I quietly entered the house, hoping to slip right into my room, but
there she was, smack in the center of the sitting area, drunk as a
two-day jamboree. She stopped me on my way through and forced me to
sit, her audience. I watched her as she rambled. She wasn’t much of
a looker. Dull blond hair with muddy brown eyes, and she was heavy,
which was unusual for an elf. After a long evening ducking her
verbal jabs and listening to her theory on the council’s secret
underground conspiracies, I finally made it to my room.

I flitted my fingers and light flooded the
tiny space. I took a quick inventory in the light: the seal on my
wardrobe intact, my drawings still scattered appropriately across
the floor, a stash of cheese on the table beside my bed, and my
mother’s pendant hanging from a woven leather chain above my pillow
shooting refracted beams across the bed. I smiled.

I scanned quickly through the pages I'd
brought home from the library, trying to find some order. I hadn’t
even considered there might be missing pages, but I sorted what I
had as best I could, sitting rigidly while anxiously reading
through each page. The first pages contained a detailed description
of the writer including his lineages and how he came upon the
information. He was apparently a record keeper for the Grand
Council and was responsible for copying scrolls and adding new
information for each of the northern clans from their various local
libraries.

Some of the information was sketchy: gossip
from the neighboring fairy guild about strange activities and
reports from travelers about deserted villages. Or maybe not
deserted, one description seemed to imply the village was not only
empty of elves, but empty of all evidence it had ever been
inhabited. There were maps of the mountains and forests, showing
each village and town.

The next pages were a copy of the record
keeper’s report to Grand Council about his findings. And his
horrible conclusion. There were definitely missing pages here, but
something dreadful had happened for certain. His official report
should have been factual and serious but the description was loaded
with superstition and fear. Even his script became shaky as it
reached the final word… "Extinction". Something had wiped out the
entire region? All the northern clans were gone according to his
account.

The last pages were lists of clan members in
order of family names. There must have been thousands, but still
pages were missing… F… G… L… N… V…

As I reached the end, I took
a deep breath. I had gotten so involved in the terrified man’s
story and page after page of family names, I had forgotten why I
was reading in the first place. I sighed.
Of course, the pages with the V names were
missing
. I suddenly felt guilty for the
selfishness of the thought while looking over such loss but I waved
it away and tucked the pages under my mattress. I lay back on the
bed and, looking up at my mother’s pendant, slowly closed my eyes,
trying to remember…

I could see her face,
beautiful and far from ordinary. Her gentle smile. Her long hair
waving loosely around her shoulders, moving slightly with the wind.
She wore an elaborate white dress with bell sleeves and a low-cut
neck. Her pendant hung there. It started to refract light but there
was only darkness around my vision of her. The wind picked up and
her dark hair began to whip back away from her face. She was
smiling, glorious now, her arms outstretched. The pendant started
to glow and the darkness cracked. The wind was howling, screaming.
Everyone was running, running away and screaming. I could barely
see now for the wind. Or maybe something was covering my face. I
screamed but the sound was lost. I tried again, but suddenly I was
mute. Blind, mute and still. And yet I knew everyone was
dying.
Running and screaming and
dying
. I was overcome, my ears, my chest
felt like they would burst.

I jerked upright in bed,
gasping. I might have been screaming. My ears were ringing. There
was something wet on my face. Tears? No, blood. My nose was
bleeding. It took a minute to get my bearings. My bed sheets were a
tangle and my clothes were disheveled.
Must
have been a dream
. I had fallen asleep
looking at my mother’s pendant, trying to remember her, and somehow
combined it with the disaster I had read of the northern
clans.
Just a dream
.

I sat shaken, struggling to collect myself. I
reached up and removed the pendant from the hook. I squeezed it in
my hand. It felt good there, like a connection. I slid the leather
chain over my head and pulled the pendant down to rest on my chest.
It felt right there and I knew I should have been wearing it all
along. As I let go, I realized I had blood on my hands from my nose
and decided to go ahead and clean up for the day.