The WishKeeper (The Paragonia Chronicles) (8 page)

The trio of Keepers flew in formation through frozen branches and came to a clearing. An old maple glowed with a shimmering Gate in the middle of the tree. Just as they darted into the clearing, a swarm of Lost Fairies launched and propelled themselves, firing spells at the retreating Keepers, cutting them off. The blasts lit up the little pocket of the forest.

Faster and more agile, the Keepers dodged and weaved through the onslaught, but they were outnumbered. Forced to break rank, they fired defensive spells back at their attackers, desperate to make it to the maple, until one of the Keepers was tackled and pulled to the icy ground.

About to finish off the tackled Keeper, the Lost Fairy with his wand raised high, was blasted back as the two other Keepers grabbed their fellow soldier and rushed back into the sky. Hurtling through grappling Lost Fairies and wicked spells, they were seconds away from the Gate until…

A menacing Lost Fairy dropped down from a higher branch and landed directly in front of the Gate. Taller and more athletic than the others, he held his wand loose in one hand and leaned a thick, heavy crossbow against his shoulder. A black, form-fitting cloak draped the rest of him and his hood skewed any light from his face. Black, charred bones protruded from his back. The wing remnants were gnarled and twisted as if hundreds of battles had continually battered them into regression. This was no ordinary Lost Fairy and the Keepers knew it. It was The Captain.

The WishKeepers drew their wands and charged. The Captain didn’t flinch as if eagerly awaiting the fight. The Keepers blasted spells in unison. Three spells careened toward The Captain. He ducked to his left and dodged one, blasted the next spell with a counter then caught the third blast with his bare hand. Smoke sizzled from his burning palm, unfazed. Now it was his turn.

He dropped the lame spell, blasted his own wrangling spell around the neck of one incoming Keeper, pulled and propelled himself, using the Keeper like a hook to swing up and above his attackers. He swung the neck-wrangled Keeper and slammed him into a tree. Letting go of the spell and starting to fall, he fired another wrangling spell at the second Keeper and with the same technique, hurled himself back toward the Gate, shooting the Keeper with his crossbow as he soared.

Careening toward the tree, he stuck his crossbow deep into the bark, perching himself along the trunk and wrangled the third incoming Keeper, also around the neck. This time, he held the final Keeper up, choking him to death. Every move was effortless as if The Captain was simply observing everything he was doing. He was coldly watching them, free of judgment.

A black wind whipped through the trees and swept the strangled Keeper out of The Captain’s grip. A familiar foggy hand wrapped around the Keeper’s waist.

“It would be in our best wishes to let this one live. Your gate awaits,” he said to the caught Keeper. “Go tell your hero General his time has come and I hold true to my promises,” said Erebus, calm but threatening.

The Keeper was suddenly free and didn’t hesitate. He swooped toward the Gate and disappeared through it. The Captain watched him leave, staring at the diminishing light as the Gate shut.

“You wish to leave, do you? To fly through with him?” taunted Erebus in a cool tone. He swiftly grabbed The Captain and squeezed a tendril of fog around his neck, raising him up. “You waste my time chasing useless Keepers and birthday wishes while the first beacon in years shines on The Other Side!” he said as he slammed The Captain to the ground. He leaned his black face inches from The Captain’s and slowly whirled fog around the fallen Lost Fairy.

“You want to leave? Then do as I say!” Erebus yelled and the fog immediately straightened The Captain to attention, under a spell, unnatural.

“Find the Makers, bring me True Love and you can go. We can all go,” Erebus finished. He swirled into the blackness of the night and left The Captain alone, still stuck in the spell.

Fighting the curse, The Captain slowly turned his head toward where the Gate shined within the maple. He stared at it for a long breathless moment, then quickly propelled a grappling spell into a nearby tree and launched himself away.

12

Fairies Don’t Make Wishes

It used to take Shea all morning to climb the wall of the castle in order to sneak into its library. Because of the overgrowth of vines sprawling its mossy stone, her climb was a bit easier these days. Through daily repetition, she had memorized every crack, step, reach, and balancing act needed to squeeze through the over-sized mouse hole under the third story stained glass window. She liked to think that a mouse got so hungry for knowledge one day that it couldn’t help itself and gnawed right through the stone. Now that she had become so good at grappling, her ascent up the northwest wall wasn’t as tiresome, and it gave her extra time to devour the thousands of books within.

Shea wasn’t what most consider an avid reader. She wasn’t interested in other’s stories, only her own. It was a sickness that drove her to the library on a daily basis. A sickness that she grew to love - one that stirred her stomach, tingled her spine and pumped her angry blood. While most of her peers were too frightened to cross over to The Other Side, Shea was determined to do so. Every unread book represented a possibility, a hope, that despite her disability, there was a loophole or a precedent set by a past WishKeeper that she could emulate. A precedent that she could use to prove that just because she can’t fly doesn’t mean she can’t Keep wishes. While nothing had yet been found on the subject, there was a vast storage of skills, spells and tips that she had secretly practiced for the past ten years.

The library was enormous - so big, it took the dust and spiders much longer to cover it compared to the other rooms of the castle. Over the years, Shea had divided the massive library hall into stacks of books: “Boring”, “Possibly Not So Boring” and “Awesome”. The “Boring” stack was much larger than the “Awesome” stack, but adding to the “Awesome” stack was what kept Shea returning to the library every day. However, books with titles such as,
The Flying Machine
,
The Physics of WishMaker Flight
and
Spells For The Lazy Keeper
had captivated her.

On this exciting day, Shea wasn’t climbing her “Awesome” stack, but instead slipping and sliding up and down the “Boring” stack, mumbling to herself.

“Where is it? I know it’s here somewhere!” Tossing books aside such as
Why Do We Just Call Them ‘Trees’? A Nature Guide to Paragonia
, and
Release The Giant Within, Self-Help for Wizards
, she let out an impatient grunt and craned her neck, looking up at the towering shelf in front of her. This merely one of a hundred towering shelves; she was looking for a needle in a haystack.

Blasting a grapple spell three shelves up, she heaved herself to the shelf and landed on the edge. Inching along, she wiped dust from each book’s binding, searching. “Come on. Where are you?”

“Shea! What are you doing in here?” yelled Thane from out of nowhere.

Startled, Shea slipped and fell. Thane rushed beneath her, arms out. Shea quickly blasted another grapple spell and connected to a random book.

“Don’t you know we’re in a library? You can’t just sneak up on someone and scream!” Shea yelled at Thane as she dangled.

“The king’s library is off limits.”

“The so-called king is long gone. Don’t think he’ll mind--whoa!” Shea accidentally pulled the book from its shelf and crashed to the heap of “boring” books below. The dislodged book toppled over her.

“Shea!”

“I found it!” chirped Shea from under the book. The little fairy pushed over the giant book and flipped through its pages. “Evenstar…Evenstar. Where is…got it!”

“Found what?” asked Thane as he looked over her shoulder. At the top of the page he read,
WishKeepers and WishMakers - Lineage
.

“Something happened tonight. Something huge,” said Shea as she continued searching the page. “There! I knew it!”

“I just know we can’t be in Erebus’ library. It’s strictly off -,” suddenly Thane found a wand stuck in his neck.

“I don’t care if this was once his library, it’s not anymore!” yelled Shea as she flashed angry eyes at him. Realizing the placement of her wand, she pulled it away and relaxed a little. “Sorry.”

“You’re crazy, you know that?” Thane rubbed his neck.

“I said I was sorry, OK?”

“Then tell me what happened and why you’re in…here”.

“Do you believe in fate?” Shea quickly asked. Thane could barely say “um” before, “Like no matter the choices you make or what happens in your life, you’re supposed to be something? Or someone?”

“Yeah, I - maybe,” tried Thane, but Shea cut him off again as she read from the book.

“WishMakers, Miranda Anderson and Grayson Brady, assigned at human age nine by the order of the WishKeepers to first class fulfillment officers Elanor Willowind and Beren Evenstar respectively,” Shea looked at Thane.

“They were nine when they were finally assigned Keepers?” Thane wondered out loud.

“Just - would you listen? My parents met when Miranda and Grayson were kids. Because they spent every wishing moment together, so did my parents! My parents eventually married and had me!“ she flipped to the next page. It was a huge family tree with notes of which WishMaker belonged to which WishKeeper within the family history of Shea’s parents. A note next to
Elanor Willowind
read,
First WishMaker Assignment: Grayson Brady, Maker year 1991
. The same type of note was next to Beren’s name noting Miranda as Beren’s first assignment. Only four years prior had Erebus been crowned WishingKing.

“My parents were assigned their first WishMakers in the Maker year of 1991. They were fresh out of training when they were assigned Miranda and Grayson,” explained Shea, still just as excited, but her enthusiasm slowed as she considered how eager her parents must have been. They were no younger than Shea at the time, full of hope and enthusiasm to take on their first assignment. They were fresh and optimistic with a bright, unknown future stretching out in front of them. Their daughter wasn’t even a flutter in their hearts.

“Huh. Neat. I wonder if my gram’s family is in here,” said Thane, leaning toward the book.

“Can we stay on point please?” Shea said as she stopped Thane from turning the page.

“Well then, what is the point?”

“Just read that,” Shea impatiently pointed to a note at the very bottom of the page.

Thane sighed, annoyed, and read the text, “By fulfillment law, at parental death, the family WishMakers are passed to final heir - Shea Evenstar. And…that’s all it says.”

“What do you mean that’s all it says?” Shea pointed at herself, “Final heir!”

“It’s an old book in an old library that we’re not supposed to be in,” Thane said trying to close the book and obviously not understanding what Shea was not-so-cleverly trying to explain. Shea grabbed the page from him.

“Grayson and Miranda made another True Love Wish tonight.”

“The deep end, and you just jumped off it,” said Thane, confirming she was officially nuts.

“I’m serious!”

Thane was barely listening at this point. “If every day of my Keeping you is like this, I’m gonna be dead before I even become a Keeper.”

“I heard my dad talking with the F.I.A. just an hour ago!”

“Look, I think it’s great you’re looking up your family history and I know how hard it is to lose a parent, but WishMakers don’t make two True Love Wishes. It’s impossible. And it would mean that -,” Shea cut him off again.

“That it’s my wish! By wishing right, I’m the one who has to grant it.”

Thane stared at her, thinking but not believing, even though she was right if what they were reading was correct, anyway. With a quick rip, Shea tore the page out of the lineage book.

“Shea!” scolded Thane.

“Fate. Remember?”

The eager, broken-winged fairy rushed out with the book page flapping at her side.

Shea walked with a purpose across the grassy glade. Behind her was the dilapidated stone castle and Thane trying to keep up. In front of them was the headquarters to the Fairy Intelligence Agency. A thatched roof structure huddled within the branches of a massive oak tree. With four tiers above the base and turrets towering over five corners, it was quite huge, even by fairy standards.

As Thane caught up to the purposeful Shea, he tried to slow her down. “Even though the rules are clearly stated and you are evidently the rightful heir to the wish, General Beren is too, so let’s just think about this for a second.”

Still marching, Shea interrupted, “Two WishMakers, two WishKeepers. My mom is…my dad needs me, OK? And I can’t think anymore! It’s all I’ve been doing my whole life.”

“Yes, but sometimes stopping to think helps you make the best decision because you can’t just walk into the F.I.A. and tell the General that it’s your wish,” said Thane, thinking he was making sense.

“Watch me,” Shea quickened her pace. Thane stopped and dug in his heels.

“Shea. You can’t fly!”

Spinning on her heels and staring at Thane, rage swelled within her. She charged at him, red-faced.

“Don’t you tell me what I can or can’t do. This is my wish! Who’s gonna grant mine, huh?”

He was stunned such a small fairy could be so intimidating. “But…fairies don’t make wishes.”

“Well I do! And none have come true,” her reply seethed through her teeth. She quickly turned and continued her speed-walk to the F.I.A.

Thane followed, making sure to keep his mouth shut.

13

A General’s Plea

Ever since Beren lost Elanor, he was never quite the same. Word had gotten out among his Keepers that the General would occasionally go missing for hours at a time without any report to the F.I.A. He knew there were rumors about him; rumors that claimed he’d lost his spark. Not the spark of energy he once had as a young fairy, but the spark that keeps a fairy sane and intact. For Beren, it was just easier to let his troops and civilian fairies talk all they wanted. There was a spark that was missing, but it had nothing to do with his sanity.