“It took me a minute,” I said. “I didn't realize that you'd been sent to serve at the Castle of Eight.”
“Been awhile now.” Drake nodded.
“Are you happy—”
“Vervain,” Arach cut me off, “where are those photographs?”
“Sorry. I guess we don't have time for socializing.” I pulled the photos out of the leather satchel slung across my chest and handed them over.
Arach chose one and held it out for everyone to see. “We can use this image to direct our first trace. The location is in England.”
Right, I didn't need the directions after all. But then again, where I was concerned, it was better to be safe than sorry. The Aether had messed with me before; it was how I'd wound up in Faerie the first time.
We all took a good look at the photograph before Arach handed it back to me with the others and I slid them into my satchel. We stepped up to the Great Tree. It was wide enough that we could all touch its trunk at the same time, standing side by side, with room to spare. They didn't call it great for nothing. I pictured the photograph in my mind and asked the Aether to take me there. I was sucked in with the rest of them.
And spat out on a hill covered in cold, damp mist. The sun was just creeping upward across the sky but the land didn't seem to have gotten the message that it was morning. I shivered for a second before I turned my internal temperature up. Arach must have done the same but the other men had to deal with the chill. Luckily, they had dressed warmer than I.
Below us, a picturesque village rolled over the hilly terrain. We were at Painswick, one of those historic, country villages with stone cottages covered in thatched roofs and climbing ivy. A lovely place with a horrible name. The mist made it seem magical but not as magical as the faerie garden lying right at my feet.
“Fred Flintstone,” I whispered as I lowered into a crouch. “This is so bad.”
Jake's picture hadn't done the fey flora justice, especially if he'd taken it days from now. The affected land stretched several feet to either side of me, sprouting not only flowers and grass but also a few types of bushes. Most of the plants were benign but if you walked too heavily on those blades of grass, they would stab you like real blades. And they weren't the most dangerous things there; that would be the flowers.
The rainbow blossoms swayed at my touch, some of them emitting a heady fragrance. One whiff and a normal human would lie down and take a long nap—á la Dorothy in the poppy fields. Unlike the poppies of Oz, these fey flowers would feed on their victim's energy, making them want to sleep more and creating a vicious cycle that could prove fatal. It was more a M. Night Shyamalan movie than The Wizard of Oz.
“We don't know how plants obtain these abilities, they just evolve very rapidly,” I murmured a line from The Happening; It felt appropriate.
If humans found those fey plants, they'd first think it was nature, then they might realize something was wrong and, eventually, they'd figure out that these plants didn't evolve on Earth at all but had migrated there from someone else. Then things would really get dicey.
“Faerie plants haven't evolved in millennia,” Arach murmured, not recognizing the quote. “But that might change here, in a new, non-magical environment.”
“Great. So, this could get worse. What the hell do we do with them?” I asked in dismay.
Arach gave me a grim look.
“No,” I said firmly.
“We can't transport them all back to Faerie,” Arach argued.
“Why not?” I crossed my arms.
“There's grass here, Vervain.” Arach swept out a hand helplessly. “Do you want us to dig up the sod?”
“We've got an Earth-Sidhe with us.” I waved a hand at Sean. “I'm sure he can manage it.”
Sean frowned at me and then at the expanse of fey flora. He brushed back his blond hair and considered it. “I could manage it but then we'd have to find a place for them. It's not like there are a lot of open patches of land in Faerie. Plus, they feel strange to me. Bringing them home might have a detrimental effect on the other plants of our realm. I'd rather not risk Faerie to save a few flowers.”
Arach looked at me.
“These aren't just normal plants, they're more alive, almost sentient.”
“They're magical, not sentient, Vervain,” Arach said gently.
“But they react to stimulus,” even as I said it, I realized that the same could be said about some plants on Earth. “Never mind, you're right. Reaction to stimulus doesn't make them sentient, the ability to think and communicate does. Blossom is sentient, not these flowers.”
Blossom was a flower I'd created with magic in the God Realm, but she was a fey flower and she had ways of communicating with me. I brought her to live in Faerie and she seemed to be happy there. But these plants weren't like Blossom and there were far more than one of them.
“I'll make it quick,” Arach promised.
I got up and stepped back, off the fey grass.
“One moment, King Arach,” Mallien said. “I must find the way to Faerie and close it before you take care of the flora.”
“Of course.” Arach gestured for Mallien to proceed.
“Shouldn't it be in the center of all of this?” Lugh asked.
“Not necessarily,” Mallien murmured as he stretched a hand out and looked around. “Magic can behave erratically, especially when it's growing. It could have jumped.”
“Jumped?” I asked.
“Jumped.” Mallien nodded as he walked off... then vanished.
“Mallien?” I called.
Mallien reappeared, looking grim. “The way through is here.” He lifted an arm and his hand vanished. “No cave or tree or anything to hide or hold it—just a door from this world to ours, hanging in midair. It is most irregular.”
“An invisible door,” I growled. “Anything could wander through, not just humans.”
“Yes, that has occurred to me, Queen Vervain,” Mallien said grimly. “But this is what I'm here for.”
Mallien held up both of his hands, palms facing outward, and closed his eyes. A glow seeped out of his palms and soaked into the passage, forming a tall oval. The oval of light brightened and then suddenly winked out. I'd seen the trick before, when Mallien had closed the passages in the Fire Kingdom, but it was still impressive.
“There. Now, your efforts should prove triumphant, King Arach,” Mallien declared.
The other men drew even further back, but I stayed at my husband's side as he blew a stream of fire over the affected land. The beautiful flowers and grass were gone in an instant, reduced to ash that floated up into the morning mist. It hurt my heart a little to see them destroyed, but I understood that it was for the best. They couldn't be left there to be discovered by the locals. Or worse, hurt the locals.