Lessoc Fountain - a fairy-creature tale

Ch. 38 What You Hate Most

In the moment that Daniel hesitated, Cocot jerked her head back, hitting the magician's nose. She jabbed her elbow in the magician's stomach and was free. She tore the gag from her mouth. "No, not him! I'll open it!" she promised the witch. "No agreement, I'll open it!"

"By all means," the witch replied.

Daniel stepped towards Cocot, uncertain of what was happening. Captain Thraidox took his arm.

"Let Daniel go first. I promise to open the fountain and to help you find the other bottles."

"I know you will. But you must hurry. Listen," the witch whispered. "Jean-Baptist arrives."

A hush fell over the tiny square as each creature strained to hear what the witch already noticed. Hard soled boots thumped on the street and the faint susurration of something being dragged came to their ears. Two steps, then shhhrk. Two steps, then shhhrk. Closer and closer.

"Keep him away," whispered Cocot, "and let Daniel go. I'm offering to help. I will do anything and everything you want."

"Quickly now, before he arrives!" the witch said.

"No, let her go. I agree, I'll stay and Cocot can go!" Daniel said.

"Agreed!"

"No, wait," shouted Cocot. She ran to the fountain and grabbed the basin wall. Water trickled into it from two spigots standing upright at the middle. A drain pipe let water out at a few inches from the top of the basin. She stared at the ridiculously normal, everyday design. This world of magic and evil was not hers. She was no magician, no powerful fairy. She didn't know what to do or where to start.

"Only a dozen feet away. Better hurry," called the witch.

"Tell me what to do, how to break the seal!"

"You have the fairy magic, your mother gave it to you, now speak the words!"

"But what words?" Cocot gasped. The footsteps were getting closer always followed by the shhh-shhh of something being pulled after them.

Daniel tried to yank his arm from the captain's grip. "Go, Cocot, get out of here!" He was gagged and thrown to the ground by several fairies.

"Quickly, Coquelicot, before I hold him to his agreement and change him. Before Jean-Baptist arrives!" the witch said.

Daniel kicked a fairy in the face, but two more held him down. His muffled shouts mixed with the footsteps getting closer. Cocot wrenched her eyes from him.

"Break then!" she shouted at the fountain. Nothing. "Open, for I mean no harm here. By my voice, by my heart, know me and—"

"Not those words," interrupted Soufflé. He landed on her shoulder and caught her hair. "Put your hands in the water at the bottom closer to the seal. Say anything to form your thoughts. Say, 'Seal set long ago, hear me and break apart, set free all below.' The stronger and the clearer the words, the better the call for your magic. Try."

She risked a quick glance at him. A trail of tears streaked down his whiskery chin.

Two hard-soled steps, then a sibilant swish. Right behind her. She plunged her hands in the icy water, all the way to her upper arms. "Evil below, hear me and come. Come." She spoke the words without even thinking, the change seemed right. It was not the seal she had control over; it was the evil itself. The witch had told her all it needed was for her to beckon.

Chill wind rushed around her—straight through her. At the bottom of the fountain a bulge formed. It bubbled up near the center, and yet the fountain was still perfectly normal and intact. To Cocot, it was like looking at two pictures at the same time, one real and one dreamed.