Bloody Fairies (Shadow) (10 page)

CHAPTER TWELVE

Hippy sat in the chair with her hands folded in her lap. Poppy and Pierus towered over her. This was worse than when the elders told her off after Pierus asked if she could go to Dream with him. Much worse, because they were both much taller and she was getting a crick in her neck.

“Tony’s not a vamp,” Poppy said. “It’s impossible.”

“But he got bit by Rustam Badora.”

“That’s the vampire king?”

Hippy nodded.

Pierus spoke through clenched teeth, his face white with fury. “I told you not to go hunting vampires on your own!”

“I wasn’t on my own, I was with Tony.”

“Since when?” Poppy demanded. “Last thing we saw you were on the balcony. We were worried sick when you disappeared! We didn’t know what happened to you!”

“Oh, that’s easy. I saw a Freakin Fairy on the other balcony, so we both jumped off and then played chase.”

Pierus went from white to bright red. “You saw a Freakin Fairy?”

“Saw him? We got in a fight! It was lots of fun.”

Pierus put a hand over his eyes. His voice was strangled. “All of Shadow is at stake and I’m stuck with a Bloody Fairy!”

Hippy scowled at him. “What else was I supposed to do? Tell him I’m not allowed out? Hang around here and argue while Rustam Badora is out killing Tony’s friends?”

Pierus sighed. “Poppy, would you excuse us for one moment?”

“I’ll make some coffee.” Poppy stomped into the other room.

“What’s coffee?” Hippy eyed Pierus, nervous. He had a funny look on his face.

“Hippy.” Pierus crouched down in front of her, bringing himself to eye level. He placed his hands on either side of the chair. His brow was wrinkled just enough to create all sorts of fascinating lines and furrows. His dark hair tangled over his ears. “I need you to listen to me very carefully. I know it’s not in your nature to pay attention, or obey orders, but this is important.”

“Alright.” Hippy tried not to let him see how her blood was pumping overtime from nerves. She absolutely did not want the muse king to know he made her nervous by being so close.

“You are too important to take these kinds of risks.”

Hippy blinked. “I am?”

“Yes, you are.” He leaned in a little closer. “I can’t retrieve the Apple of Chaos without you.”

“Oh.” Of course that was why. No need to be unaccountably disappointed.

“And-” he paused, apparently struggling to frame the next words. “Well, the thing is, my dear girl, you’ve become–that is–” he paused. “Perhaps it’s because you’re so like her.”

“Huh? Who?”

“Pandora.” He dragged another chair over and sat opposite her, this time not quite so close. He looked directly into her eyes. “Hippy Ishtar, you have become important to me. For more than just the mission.”

Hippy tilted her head to one side. She felt like she should say something sensible, or profound. “Rustam Badora licked my face. It was really disgusting.”

Pierus tensed, closed his eyes, looked away and took a lot of deep breaths.

Poppy walked back in, dragged a table over, set three hot cups on it and sat with them.

Hippy sniffed her cup. The most intriguing aroma came out of it. “What’s this?”

“Coffee. Drink up, it’s going to be a long night.” Poppy took a sip.

Hippy took a cautious sip of her coffee and burned her tongue. “Ow!”

Poppy grinned. “Let it cool a little, dear. Now where were we?”

“I think it would be best if Hippy told us everything that happened tonight.” Pierus appeared to have composed himself.

Hippy thought about it for a minute. “Well, first I chased the fairy into an alley that smelled nasty. There were two other people from Shadow there and they said to tell you you’d never find the Apple of Chaos. They said to find another way to deal with the vamps.”

Pierus’s upper lip took on a disdainful curl. “What did they look like?”

Hippy shrugged. “They wore cloaks. They were tall, but not like you. And the Freakin Fairy did what they told him to. Weird, huh?”

Poppy gave Pierus a sharp look. “Well? Sounds like you have enemies.”

He snorted. “Nothing worth worrying about. If they’re all that stands between us and the Apple we’ll be home by tomorrow.”

“Who are they?” Hippy thought about the arrow safely hidden in one of the pouches at her belt, but she didn’t take it out in case he just took it away again.

“Nobody,” Pierus said.

Poppy’s voice was sharp. “Look buddy, if we’re going to be a team and find this thing you need to start sharing. Answer the goddamn question.”

Pierus arched an eyebrow at her. “Literally, nobody,” he said. “You don’t live for three thousand years without attracting a few fringe lunatics. They call themselves the Invisible Army and they make it their business to follow me around and generally be irritating. Apparently now they’ve decided they don’t want me making their homes and families safe from the vampires.”

“They seemed nice.” Hippy took a sip of her coffee. This time it didn’t burn. It was bitter, but it made her feel good.

Pierus’s voice turned acid. “Of course they seemed nice. They want to win you to their cause. If they got their hands on you for longer than five minutes, mark my words, they’d say or do anything to turn you against me.”

Hippy felt like he’d slapped her. She buried her face in her coffee and sniffed loudly.

“See, now you’re sounding like a giant ass again,” Poppy said. “Lay off her, would you?”

There was silence. When Hippy looked up from her cup again, Pierus’s eyes were on her.

“Continue,” he said. “What happened next?”

“I left them there and I went to look at the sparkly dresses,” Hippy said. She stared into her coffee. “I like sparkly things. Like vamps covered with fairy dust, right before they turn to petrified ash.”

“Focus, dear.” Poppy tapped the table with her index finger. “How’d you hook up with Tony?”

“Oh!” Hippy took another sip of coffee. She felt really good. Energetic. Her words tumbled out faster. “He pushed me into his car and was going on about his missing friends, so we went to the rendezvous point to look for them, but Rustam Badora was there so I broke Tony’s nose, then Rustam licked my face and it was really really gross, so I hit Tony again and he got upset.” She paused for breath, but went on before Pierus or Poppy could respond. “You know, Badora’s not nearly as scary as I always thought, he’s just another vamp and he said he wasn’t going to kill me until we were both back in Shadow but I told him I’d make him sparkle first and then he said I should tell Pierus he wants a truce but it was a stupid truce. Is it true you stole something from Pandora and made the vamps?” She blinked rapidly and stared at Pierus.

His mouth twitched. “Poppy, take the coffee away from her.”

Hippy grabbed the mug and tipped the rest down her throat before Poppy could respond. “Is it true?” she repeated.

There was a long silence. Pierus tapped his fingers on the table. Hippy twitched.

“It’s true I had a hand in creating the vampires,” Pierus finally said. “To my eternal regret.”

“You’re responsible for vampires?” Poppy rubbed her forehead. She looked tired.

Pierus looked away from them both. “Believe you me, if I’d had any idea what would become of it, I’d never have allowed Pandora-” he broke off.

“People must want to smack you in the head a lot, huh?” Poppy said.

Hippy giggled and bounced up and down in her chair.

Pierus gave a weary sigh. “Hippy, tell me about this truce. And do try to slow down a bit.”

Hippy stared at the roof and tried to gather her rather scattered thoughts. “Well.” She drew the word out. “He said if you opened the rip and let the vamp army into Dream he’d leave Shadow alone forever but if you didn’t he’d raise an army here and take them back to Shadow to crush us all forever and all he wants is a home for his army and a reliable food supply.” She stopped and panted for breath.

Pierus snorted. “What makes him think he’ll get an army back into Shadow without my help?”

“This sounds like a really nasty guy,” Poppy said. “Maybe Hippy’s right. Maybe we need to stop him first.”

Hippy got up out of her chair and paced around the room. She had so much energy right now. She considered for a moment, then walked right up a wall and onto the nice high roof. From her upside down position she saw Poppy go pale.

“Get down!” Poppy yelled. “My God, if anybody saw you!”

“Okay.” Hippy let go and dropped to the floor. At the last minute she rolled, jumped to her feet and walked up the wall again.

Poppy buried her face in her hands.

“You did give her coffee,” Pierus said. “What did you think was going to happen?”

“I don’t know. I’m not used to Bloody Fairies!”

Hippy dropped from the roof and rolled again. Before she could head back to the wall a third time Pierus grabbed the back of her shirt and held her in place. “Hippy.”

“What?” She jumped up and down on the spot.

“When am I to give Badora his answer?”

“He’s coming to find us tomorrow night.”

Poppy groaned. “If you don’t make her stop that I’m going to feed her to the vampires myself.”

“Can I go hunt vamps?” Hippy stopped jumping and turned around. “Please? Please can I? I promise I’ll be good for a whole day, honest.” She bolted for the door.

“Hippy Ishtar.”

Pierus’s sharp voice stopped her in her tracks.

“Come back here and sit down.”

Hippy scowled, stomped back to the table and sat.

“Is there any way to counteract the effects of this drug?”

“Caffeine’s not a drug.” Poppy yawned and eyed Hippy. “Well, maybe if you’re a Bloody Fairy. But you know what? I can’t function on no sleep. Unlike you two, apparently. She’s just got to wear it off. Take her up on the roof and let her jump off it a few times. Or even better, try a depressant.” She went over to a small cupboard, took out a bottle of amber-coloured liquid and plonked it on the table. “Brandy. I’m going to bed. Make any more noise and I’ll shoot you both.” She left the room and firmly closed the door behind her.

Hippy sat still for a whole two seconds. Her heart thudded uncomfortably fast. Her skin itched. She felt like she was going to burst. She really, really needed to keep moving. “Roof,” she said. “I feel weird.”

Pierus gestured at the door. “After you, my dear.”

Hippy didn’t look back. She left the room, found the stairs and ran up eight flights. The final door led to the roof of the hotel, a bare concrete expanse. Pierus hadn’t even caught up yet. She jogged to the edge of the roof and looked down. From up here she couldn’t even see the ground. Wow. She wondered if the Freakin Fairy was watching.

Hippy gulped some air and jumped. She rushed down, down, down through stinging, biting wind, past window after window, then a streetlight. The pavement jarred her ankles when she landed in a crouch. It was awfully tempting to run into the city again. She considered it.

Wait, no, that jump was fun.

Hippy went back into the hotel, ran up thirty flights of stairs and onto the roof.

Pierus sat on the ledge bordering the roof and raised an eyebrow at her. “You fairies never cease to amaze me.”

“Yeah? Well watch this.” Hippy stepped onto the ledge and dived.

She somersaulted in midair, plummeted again and landed neatly on her feet in front of a startled pedestrian. “Wow,” she said. “I’m getting better at this.”

She ran up the stairs and jumped again three more times.

By the fourth time she reached the roof her heartbeat had slowed and she was out of breath. It was a curious sensation. She flopped down next to Pierus.

“Better, my dear?” He uncapped the bottle of brandy. “Have some of this.”

Hippy took a swig of brandy. It burned her throat and made her cough and hack. When the burning subsided, she spoke. “Dream has weird drinks. But I’m starting to like it here.” She handed the bottle back.

Pierus took a swig, coughed and thumped a fist on the wall.

Hippy giggled. Everything was returning to normal, except she now felt a pleasant fuzzy sensation inside her skull. She slid down to sit on the floor with the wall at her back.

Pierus joined her and handed her the bottle again. “My dear girl, Dream’s intoxicants are no better or worse than some of the frightening concoctions you fairies come up with.”

Hippy took a swig and handed the bottle back. “Yeah.” She sighed. “I miss my mum’s cooking.”

Pierus curled his fingers around hers. “Dream food will make you forget your mother’s cooking.”

Hippy moved closer to him for warmth. “Pierus?”

He looke
d down into her face and seemed at a loss. “Yes?”

“Tell me about Pandora.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Pierus downed another mouthful of brandy. His voice mellowed so much he sounded almost relaxed. Hippy wondered if it was the drink, which seemed to be having a similar effect on her. Dream really did have some wonderful things. She honestly couldn’t understand why everyone didn’t drink brandy and coffee all the time.

“Pandora was the most beautiful woman in Thebes,” Pierus said. “Maybe in all of Greece.”

“How do you know?”

He chuckled. “Perhaps it was a matter of opinion, but I never saw a woman to rival her until I met you.”

“Me?”

“My dear girl, don’t be coy. You may not be terribly bright, but I suspect if you scrubbed away a layer or two of dirt and brushed your hair properly you could take Dream by storm. Humans valued beauty above all else three thousand years ago. Not much changes.”

Hippy scowled. “I don’t see as how it does me any good. It doesn’t help me fight vamps or be more like a proper fairy.”

Pierus pulled her closer and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “I think the fairies are fools.” He tipped her face up with his free hand and gently smoothed the lines out of her forehead with one finger. “There. I like you better when you’re smiling and pretty.”

“Better than what?” Hippy pouted. “I wouldn’t be much help to you if all I did was smile and look pretty.”

Pierus shook his head. “And that’s where you and Pandora are so very different.”

“How?”

Pierus leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes. “She knew how beautiful she was,” he said. “She was vain and distractible, but when she wanted something, she got it. She wanted me.” A smile played around the corner of his mouth.

“What for?”

Pierus snorted. “What do you think? Or have the fairies kept you a complete innocent?”

Hippy blushed and looked away. “Oh. That.”

“When I first met her she was married to a man who cared nothing for her,” Pierus said. “He was the richest and almost the most powerful man in Thebes, but had little interest in women. She carried on an affair with me and he never even protested.” He was silent for a moment. “Twice I saved her life, for she was a foolish girl who used to put herself in danger.”

“And then what happened?” Hippy watched the stars, entranced. They were different in Dream. Even listening to stories felt different. It felt like she could step into it and be there.

“He died.”

“How?”

“I’d rather not talk about that.” Pierus lazily brushed a lock of hair from her face and took another swig of brandy. “Suffice it to say it was his own fault, and just the first of many unpleasant things.”

“Is this going to be a scary story?” She accepted the bottle. It didn’t burn quite so badly now she was used to it.

“Very.” Pierus took the bottle from her and set it on the ground. “After her husband died Pandora was left in the care of her brother, a man both evil and mad. She married me to escape him, and because we loved each other. But it was only then the devious creature showed me the Apple of Chaos.”

“Was it shiny?” Hippy asked.

He leaned closer and whispered into her ear. “Very shiny.”

She grinned. “I like shiny things.”

Pierus gave a low sigh. “They used to say Pandora was created by the Gods as a gift to mankind. I still don’t know whether that story was true, but she was most certainly the guardian of something extraordinary. She possessed a box, which she guarded jealously and would rarely be parted from. Nor would she open it, until she knew she was safe. With me. After we were married she allowed me to see what was inside.”

Hippy caught her breath. “You opened Pandora’s Box? You let the bad things out?”

Pierus shook his head. “Poppy told me that pile of rot. It’s a silly little myth and nothing like what really happened.”

“Then what really happened?”

“Inside the box was a glass sphere. It called to me almost as much as it called to her. She said it was a sacred apple tossed into a volcano by the Goddess of Chaos, and there turned to glass filled with the most potent magic known to man, chaos itself. As the guardian, all she had to do was place her hands on it, and things would happen.” Pierus paused. “I warned her it was dangerous, but she wouldn’t listen.”

Hippy couldn’t take her eyes off him. This was one of the best stories she’d ever heard. She hardly dared breathe, in case she missed what happened next.

“For a time I convinced her to put it away, but she was still under the sway of her brother. He knew about the Apple of Chaos too, and he made her use it to gain him power. He was insatiable. He wanted people to worship him, but when they did, he would drive them to madness with his evil ways.”

A poison entered his voice that made Hippy want to shift away, but she couldn’t. His arm was like a dead weight on her shoulders. “You stopped him, right?”

A thin smile curved his lips. “I tried, but it was too late for Pandora. Perhaps the madness took her long before I knew her. Perhaps it was the Apple of Chaos that tipped her over the edge. She began to have nightmares. Then her nightmares spilled over into her waking life, and at the end, they became real. And I, I who was the closest person to her, was not immune either. My nightmares of pale men who drank blood and killed indiscriminately began to haunt my waking life. Our terrors laid siege to all of Thebes.” His head dropped forward and he squeezed his eyes shut. A shudder went through his wiry frame. 

Hippy gave his arm an awkward pat. “Then what happened?”

“I took her to a sorcerer,” he said. “We asked him to help us find a way to mend what we had done. He told us it could be done, but the price would be a terrible one. We agreed, of course. We had no choice.”

“What did he do?”

“He took the Apple,” Pierus said. “He worked his magic on it and made it into a doorway. Beyond the doorway he made a new world, and into that world he banished every creature we had created. Finally, and last of all, he banished Pandora, myself, my sisters, her brother and all his followers, in fact most of Thebes, for nobody was untouched by chaos. I was the last to go. He made me hide the Apple of Chaos deep underground and then he cast spells so I could never remove it. The thing was so powerful he couldn’t simply render it useless, you see. But he made it so it could not be worked by anybody but a descendant of Pandora. Then he ensured Pandora was trapped in Shadow and made me Shadow’s guardian. Since the chaos inside the Apple had to go somewhere, he channelled its power through me and my sisters, which was how we became muses. We use the chaos to inspire writers and artists here in Dream.”

Hippy
blinked. She was getting sleepy, but she wanted to stay awake for the end of the story.

“The sorcerers gave one final gift.” Pierus’s voice
grew very, very quiet. “Or perhaps a curse. I’ve never been quite sure.”

“What was it?”

“That I should live as long as Shadow does. Or that Shadow should live as long as I. I am Shadow’s guardian. If I die, so does everything you and I have ever held dear or fought for.”

That woke her up. Hippy’s eyes were like saucers. “You mean, if you die-”

“Shadow ceases to exist.”

She dropped her head against his chest. Her brain
was spinning like the clunky old waterwheel in the river near home.

“What happened to Pandora?”

Pierus stroked her hair. “My dear girl, she went quite mad. She left me and ran off with some creature she found living in a tree. Together they bred a race of silly little creatures who spread all over Shadow, split off into clans and spent all their time fighting each other.”

Hippy sat bolt upright. “The forest people?”

Pierus chuckled. “No. Fairies.”

“I’m descended from Pandora? She’s like my
great, great, great grandmother?”

“Add another three thousand
years’ worth of greats, and yes, she was.”

Hippy blinked, trying to understand exactly what this meant. “Were you sad when she left?”

Pierus’s mouth curved, but there was something rather cruel in his smile. “No.”

Hippy wriggled out of his grasp and jumped to her feet. She stood there a moment, swayed and put a hand to her head. “I feel really strange.”

Pierus got to his feet and put an arm around her waist. “You’re drunk. So am I, or I wouldn’t have told you all that. With any luck you won’t remember in the morning.”

Hippy blinked at him. Then she giggled. “I don’t know what drunk means, but you’re a lot nicer when you are.”

This time his grin was genuine. He grabbed her waist and pulled her close. “I know it’s wrong,” he said into her ear. “I know I’ll regret it, but you’re the most amusing creature I’ve encountered in a long time and I intend to keep you.”

“Keep me where? Now you’re just being silly.”

He tangled his hand in her hair, lifted her onto the wall so they were the same height and put his mouth on hers.

Hippy’s eyes widened. She’d kissed a boy fairy once and they’d both agreed it was a ridiculous kind of thing to do. But this was the muse king kissing her. Ishtar would be furious. The muse king had chosen
her
. A thousand nonsensical thoughts flitted through her head.

Pierus broke away, looked into her astonished eyes, scooped a hand under her knees and lifted her into his arms. “You, my dear, are drunk and need to get some sleep.”

“I like being drunk.” Hippy buried her face in his shoulder and closed her eyes while he crossed the roof and descended the stairs. By the time they reached Poppy’s rooms, she’d passed out.