Grey Folk

Chapter 13

So this was the sort of thing going on in the village when Emory wasn't around.

No panicked message from Rita, no shouts, no odd shiver down his spine, just the Raven Queen's warning and now... a burnt tree. But no signs of spreading wildfire.

Emory's adrenaline rushed through his veins and made his heart pound faster, mind whirling.

"What's going on?" he demanded again, pressing his palm to his tight chest. He hadn't had a damn panic attack in years, he wouldn't have one now. "Why didn't you send for me?"

Rita's cheeks flamed a deeper red and she scrambled back through the grasses, throwing herself at Emory and hugging his thigh, clinging to it briefly before drawing back and slapping his leg as high as she could reach.

"Don't blame me! I didn't call for you. I was so caught up in it, and then Midge said--"

"Midge is responsible for this?" Emory groaned, sheathing his knives in one seamless motion. He couldn't kill Midge even if she was the one creating problems here. Thanks, Raven Queen.

"Not... exactly... sort of?" Rita glanced over her shoulder at Midge.

Both of their jaws dropped when they saw what the strange fae was up to. Her long, spindly figure, still somehow drab even beneath the bright yellow sundress, crouched near the pile of ash where the tree had been. She sank her fingertips beneath the dirt, her eyes closed and head tilted as if listening for something beyond the gentle breeze and distant bird calls.

Emory could still see the sunken cheeks, the way her bones strained at her skin like they were trying to burst free, but beneath that he could also see her very essence beginning to shine through.

And her very essence was strange, yes, but also strong. She stooped forward and placed her forehead upon the ash, pressing in and dirtying her skin, bits of ash puffing up from her lips as she muttered soft, unintelligible words.

"All right, but really, what... what is going on?" Emory asked, glancing back at Rita.

"This is the same thing she did before," Rita breathed, "with the pool. The portal... mud pit... pool thing."

"What?"

"Just watch."

Emory instinctively obeyed, turning his eyes to Midge and the pile of ash. She remained prone, pressing her face down against the ashy meadow for another few moments before straightening. Stumbling to her feet, she turned and began to walk away, her features trapped in a grimace, her pale eyes blank and staring nowhere.

Behind her, the piles of ash began to climb back over themselves, the particles knitting themselves together in tighter and tighter knots, springing back upright and welding to form the core of the tree. Wind stirred, swirling clouds of ash and bringing them rushing up, climbing over the trunk and laying bark over the tree's core, fluttering leaves down onto the branches again like a flock of bats returning home to roost.

By the time Midge's stumbling steps carried her to Rita, the tree had reformed itself to its former glory, stretching up to the pale blue sky and shivering in the passing breeze.

Emory was so stunned he almost missed it, but when Midge's flailing elbow nearly caught his cheekbone, he reached for her instinctively, catching her before she could fall to the grass. Rita supported her other side, concern wrinkling her tawny brow.

"You all right?" Emory asked gruffly, marveling at how paper-smooth her arm felt under his touch. Her skin rustled like parchment when she shook him off and stood under her own volition.

"Better this way," Midge said as if she had no control over the words spilling from her lips. Then she blinked and her full lips frowned. "Yes. I'm all right."

Emory stepped back, lifting his hands. "I think it's best you start from the beginning."

Midge glanced at Rita, who shook her head and pointed back at Midge, who looked at Ulviir, who shook her head and pointed back at Midge.

Turning her attention back to Emory, Midge folded one arm over the other and tapped her fingers. "It seems an emissary from my home opened a portal in that tree to bring me back, but I did not wish to return. They threatened Rita, but I was able to convince them not to hurt her and to leave us in peace, for now; the portal seems to have destroyed that tree, and by some magic unknown to me, I was able to restore it."

Emory thought that seemed a rather brusque explanation, and his mouth opened to demand more details, but he stopped when he discovered that did explain everything. Sort of. Except... "How could this emissary person come here? Only a lich could have the power to open a portal from another plane like that. Or an Eladrin, perhaps. Or..."

"Queen Titania," Midge finished. "She could do it. She has as much power as the Eladrin, or more."

"How would she find you? And why now?" Emory asked. He wasn't going to bring attention to the revelation that Midge didn't want to leave the island. That little fact sat well with his current mission, and he had learned the less he poked at a person's emotions, the less confusing they might be. And the less likely those emotions were to change.

"The Queen has the ability to scry across space," Midge explained, her voice dropping from its strong, confrontational tenor to the more familiar husky treble. "And time just works differently there. It's possible she didn't bother looking for me right away, or all this time has passed here, and in the Faewild it has been but a moment."

Emory squinted. Gone was the stammering 'I don't remember anything, sir' Midge of a few weeks ago. "I knew you knew more than you admitted."

There was a moment of silence, then Midge shrugged. "What of it?"

What of it?

"So you're being sneaky! There's portals opening up on my island left and right. Do I trust you're not bringing these... I could swear when I arrived I heard someone shrieking about burning something to ash!"

"Honey." Rita laid one hand on his arm, her long, rounded fingernails digging against his skin lightly. "Just because you're out of the loop doesn't mean she's being sneaky. Perhaps it's time you two had a real, honest conversation in Gloomshadow? I trust her. I trust you. We'll all need to work together to get out of this, if we've got the attention of such folks as Queen Titania and Peacebloom."

"Peacebloom? Oh good lord." Emory had heard that name before. He blanched. "That's who was just here? That's the emissary of the queen you were talking about?"

The few times he'd wandered the Faewild, the creatures he met spoke of Peacebloom and how their smile could bring a shaft of pure sunshine to the deepest and longest night, but their frown could scorch and incinerate with the force of that same benevolent, fiery star.

"He's hyperventilating," Emory heard Rita say as if speaking through a pool of warbling water. "Emory, focus. Take us back to Gloomshadow."

Gloomshadow. Emory could focus on getting home, and getting safe. He felt long, cool fingers grasping his shoulder, and their strength dragged his mind into the present. Reality fuzzed around him in a swirl of black smoke as he and whoever was nearest to him vanished, reappearing within the depths of Emory's haven.