Thunder: The Shadows Are Stirring (Thunder Stories Book 1) (31 page)

Livs’ level of concentration is deep enough to make even Storm watch her with concern. Dragging her eyes away from the floor, Livs says somewhat inanely to the room at large, “There is no breeze.”

Chapter Twenty-Six: Bound

(OLIVIA)

“
T
HERE IS NO BREEZE.”
I stare dumbly at Tab’s toddler-styled craft project. My arms prickle all over, and the electrical zing at the nape of my neck could run a city-block’s energy needs for a week. Everything in the cell is still, except for a twitch of Storm’s tail and the gentle flutter of the cloth in the non-existent air current. I swallow and finish my grab. Hardly daring to breathe, I unfurl the yarn, seeing that it’s laced through the open eyes on the back of each small button, which in turn are connected to the piece of dark gauze. As soon as my finger touches the material, I break into a cold sweat. Unballed, it’s about an inch shy of the length of my hand. Silhouetted there against my palm is the shape of a fairy. Wings lifted, arms akimbo, feet splayed almost in defiance. I sit down hard and realize everyone is staring at me. I feel like I need a clap of thunder to release the build-up inside of me.

Instead, it’s just my voice that cracks as I croak out, “I have it. We have it, guys!” Let me state for the record that, despite everything I’ve witnessed in here, I’m more than a little awed by what this entails.

The boys’ faces display uniformly perplexed expressions. With care, I pinch Tab’s gift between two fingers and hold it up for them to see. There’s no doubt in my mind this is the real deal. And I hadn’t even bothered to look at it when Tab had handed it to me.

“Nuh-uh. No way. That’s, like, insane. How can you hold a shadow? Or even remove it in the first place?” Sam shakes his head in disbelief.

“Sweet!” crows Jamie, lifting his fist in the air as he bounces forward to see it better.

My mind is whirling. Jax said Queen Viola had willingly removed her shadow and hidden it away. How had Tabina had it in her possession? Was she the safe spot where it had been kept for at least a year? A baby at the time, who would grow into a child with the Sight? Had the Fairies known of her gift? They must have. Maybe it’s all tied together. I was the one destined to come to the Shadows as the Seeker, to find Tab’s house, find Tab herself, be her guardian—

“Oh shoist! Double frackity shoist!”

“Holy smokes, Liv! What happened?” Jamie asks, probably thinking I’m hurt. He moves in to check me over, but I flutter my hand at him.

“No, no guys; Ethan, get this! That dog back in the Harvestlands, the Keyes? Their water well?” I turn around, gripping my head with my hands, trying to think this through. The shadow, clenched against my temple, squirms in my grasp. I know I’m not making any sense. “Shoist. It wasn’t to get at me; the Sliders were tracking the queen’s shadow! Messing with my mind, giving me all that guilt because of what could have happened to Tab—all of that was a bonus for them. Don’t you see? They were that close to getting this!” I wave the silhouette in front of me. “The stinkin’ Sliders were almost the ones who could claim the fairies and all their magic as their champions! Holy smokes! If we’d been a day late, or—” I stop myself. It’s the whole ‘all things for a reason’ deal. No sense in mucking through the what-could-have-beens. “Tab must have Seen me, must have known what we’d need…. Whew. What now?” I gulp in a deep breath. The boys are all standing around me with various stages of confusion or understanding written in their eyes.

Ethan, who comprehends it all, throws his arm around my shoulder and smiles cheerfully. “I think that means we get to call in our guards.”

~~~

A
ISLEIGH TAKES ONE GLANCE
and says, “It’s kind of small, isn’t it? Are you sure you didn’t nip it off a pixie?”

Raz rolls her amber eyes. “She’d have to have magic, which is impossible for humans. Being non-magic is one of the things that makes them human. And just see how the wee thing is shaking its fist at us! The spitting image of the queen. I’d say it’s time for a gathering.” She narrows her eyes at me. “You’ve only now realized you’ve had this all along? How could you forget a detail like that? Hmm?”

“Oh!” I stammer, “Um, yeah, well …” and I decide I need to tell them the whole story; otherwise, they’ll work up some evidence for theft or shadow-napping or something. When I tell them about Tabina, their eyes lose their questioning glint.

“Queen Viola will come shortly. Tell her what you have told us, and everything should be fine,” Aisleigh assures me.

Should be?

“Why would anything be wrong? I’ve got the bloody thing and I’m returning it. Why should we be concerned?”

“Well, you did shrink it, you know. She may not be pleased with that.” I can almost hear Raz’s unspoken “Duh!”

Oh dear.

Queen Viola is a pale shade of violet and she travels with at least twenty statespeople or courtiers or something at a time, and then there’s all the hangers-on. Our jail cell balloons to the size of a great hall, the bars turning to solid, polished wooden walls the color of rich honey. The once-bare floor now sports a lush carpet, which looks like grass and wildflowers, and a long slab table including a throne-type chair appears in the middle of the room. Surrounding the table are little pouf seats, which remind me of that nursery rhyme about Little Miss Muffet. On the table is a full buffet’s worth of food.

Everything glitters, and all the colors in the room make me feel like a rainbow had been frozen and shattered into a hundred million little pieces and tossed into the air. It’s very distracting and my mind keeps jumping around. My eyes find resting points on the few faces I recognize: Jax, Aisleigh, and Raz. And what do you know, Jax does wink at me. I feel Ethan’s hand land on the small of my back. Silly boy. I twist my head to the side and smile up at him; his eyes smile back, but he keeps his hand in place. Suits me well enough. We stand unmoving, with my brothers and Maddix at our sides and Storm crouched almost under Ethan’s feet. He doesn’t seem comfortable in the crowd of people, plus the sky’s been threatening another storm. Indistinct rumbles make up the background music.

The queen acknowledges us with a nod of her head and we bow back to her after we see Maddix dip at the waist.

“Humans. Sit, please,” she states in a deep and throaty voice. Gesturing dramatically to our seats with her slim hand, she curves her lips into a charming smile of welcome. However, I’m quick to notice her sharp teeth, which look like they could bite quite fiercely if she desired it. I don’t want her to desire it; I’m the first to sit. The others hastily follow, Storm curling at the foot of Ethan’s pouf.

“I hear there’s a story for me to consider. Who shall be the teller?”

Instantly, all four boys’ eyes are anywhere but on Viola. I sigh inwardly. I’m the one who can best tell it anyway, but still! No backbone when faced with a gorgeous female who has the first name of “Queen.” I hold onto my necklace and clear my throat. Everyone has taken a seat and there’s an awful lot of attention aimed my way. I hope I don’t screw this up.

I open my mouth and speak; the story is not long. When I tell of Tabina, I watch Viola’s eyes soften. She must know how special that kid is. When I get to the well, her eyes turn rock hard, and thunder shakes the room in a deafening boom. Has it been her creating the storms all along? I don’t know but, boy, the atmospheric result is spectacular. I end with my hands spread in front of me. Offering up myself, my brothers, our friends, our cause. Hopefully, the queen will accept this offering and honor her vow. I’m with Maddix, thinking we need these strong, beautiful, and quite importantly, magical creatures on our side.

The hall remains silent as Queen Viola deliberates her response. “I admire you the giving of yourself, rather than the demanding of me. You have surprised me with your quick thinking and skill in acting as you did to save Tabina. She was right to gift my shadow to you. May I see it, please?”

Slipping it from my pack, I hold it gingerly in my palm and wince at its crumpled and forlorn appearance. I wish I’d thought to have put it in some kind of special holder or that I’d at least smoothed it out beforehand.

“Hmm, the rumors are true; you have shrunk it indeed.” Her voice is heavily sardonic.

My eyes flicker up to her face in alarm, but I see humor in her expression. I’m quick to notice the same emotion replicated in the faces of both Aisleigh and Raz. Punks. They were trying to freak me out. Well, it worked. I scowl on the inside, but ask calmly, “What should I do with it now?”

“You reattach it, of course!”

“I do?”

“You have the fasteners and binders.”

“I do?”

“The yarn and buttons?”

“Oh, those; yeah, I do.” Yarn and buttons to reattach a shadow? To a fairy queen? I don’t think Gunther covered this one back at home.

“Well, then, girl. Let’s begin!”

I’m not sure where to start. And I don’t want to upset the lady; she seems to have fairly mercurial moods. Meeting her at her end of the table, where she stands regally, I search out the boys. They grin and nod encouragingly at me. I clear my mind and think. This has to be, like, the last part of the “Are You Worthy” test. If her shadow’s so flippin’ important to her, I don’t think she’d have some lowly human like me trying to bumble my way through fixing it. I examine where the yarn strands and the buttons come together. It’s got to get fastened to her feet somehow. Isn’t that where all shadows start? I hold it up to her and immediately see a problem beside the size issue.

“Um, it’s too dark in here.” The shadow is almost invisible against the queen. “Could I have a bright light please?” Instantly, a soft yellow light flares above us, like sun between the branches of a tree. The shadow darkens. “And may I see your foot, please?”

Queen Viola arches her eyebrows at me and slowly, elegantly proffers her foot. She has on delicately laced slippers with diamond-sparkled buckles. The shadow can’t stick permanently to shoes, right? I mean, if she takes them off, her shadow would come with it. I remove her footwear. There is not a sound in the room. Even I’m holding my breath. I hope I’m not doing anything completely offensive.

The queen’s skin is smooth and cool. No sign of, well, I don’t know what I’d expected. Hooks and buttonholes? Taking the pearly buttons at the end of a strand of yarn, I hold them up against the sole of her right foot. And I almost drop the whole bundle when they disappear against her flesh, yarn and all, leaving no mark or bump. The shadow, on the attached side, stretches and grows until it flickers life-sized in the yellowed, rainbow-splintered lighting.

On to foot number two. Which works the same way, but leaves me puzzled because there are still two more strands left in my hand. I regard the queen from my kneeling position. She returns the look, her gaze impassive. My hands shake at the thought of what I’m going to try next because it strikes even me as being impertinent.

I sit down and remove my boots.

Holding a button to my own foot, I try not to flinch as a searing heat cuts into my skin. The yarn vanishes, and I do my next foot. When nothing of Tab’s gift remains, I tuck my feet underneath me, focusing on the floor. I’m too scared to see the expression on anyone’s face. I have no idea what I’ve just done, but it felt like a ritual. As the pain begins to fade, I give a little cough to clear my dry throat. Peering up through my lashes, I ask, “Did it work? Are you back together again?” Cripes; the thing couldn’t have been put on backwards, could it?

Queen Viola bends down, grabbing my hands, and pulls me to my feet. “You did well, young Olivia. You have sealed the promise. We, the People of the Lake, are bound to you, and honor your quest. We shall use what resources we have to defend the honest Dwellers and defeat the Sliders; we will do what we must to ensure that you complete your task.” She twinkles a grin as she whispers for my ears alone, “In order for all of fairykind to follow our directives, I needed to leave it up to fate and faith. I was hoping it would be someone like you. Now we are all bound to help, and no one can question or work against it. Thank you for your bravery and strength.”

I smile faintly and then grab at my stomach, hunching over; I feel sick—woozy and disoriented. The world echoes away from me, becoming distant blurs and muted sounds. The last sensation I’m aware of is an enveloping scent of citrus, familiar and comforting.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: A Parting