I looked over at Brianna and saw her smiling with approval. She tapped the oak with her finger, and the outline I had just traced lit up for a moment.
“Now I am going to teach you how to open it,” she said. “For the near future, you’ll be required to come here, open the door, and step through to have your lesson.”
“But—can’t other Fae use this door too?” I asked in alarm, thinking of the Dark Fae.
“Of course. But only Light Fae, and it won’t take them to my home. That destination is locked to you and me. The way into the palace via this door is also locked to you and me.” Her smile widened as she saw me take that in.
“But… that means the door can go to more than one place!” I cried, bewildered. “How is that possible?”
“Among many other things, that is what you are going to learn,” she chided gently. “First, you must find the place inside you where your power is. That is the same place you reached when you deflected the curse and the dark magic.”
I closed my eyes again and thought back to the moment when I realized my baby sister was about to be struck with a magic curse that would send her to a horrible fate. I pictured it very vividly in my mind—and as I actually started to feel some of the fear I had felt then, I sensed it. It was like a snake uncoiling and rising to strike.
And at the same moment that I felt this stirring within me, Brianna said, “Now send that power into your hand, hold it in the middle of the door, and will it to open. It might help to picture the power as a hand pushing it.”
That was what I did, and for a while, nothing happened. But then I felt some of the power leaving me as a bright line formed around the edges of the door, and then the door did slowly swing inward!
It opened on another garden, but it was nothing like the one behind me. As I looked past it, I saw it led to another garden that was quite clearly a garden only a Fae could create. This one was full of plants I didn’t recognize, flowers in shapes that made no sense—one was shaped like three pyramids stacked on top of one another—and with perfumes I had never smelled before. There were trees that had been somehow contorted into seats, like the roots of my oak, and bushes that had been coaxed into amazing symmetrical shapes. I had trouble taking it all in, but Brianna took my hand and led me inside through the tree. I heard the door in the tree close behind us, but I was too busy looking at the garden to worry about that. The fantastic landscape was not limited to plants. There were butterflies everywhere and a veritable chorus of birds. Listening closely, I heard frogs and crickets too.
In the middle of all this was a sort of miniature castle. That is, it was built to look like a castle, and a very fanciful one at that, but it was about the size of the manor house Mama and Father and I had shared.
Then again, I supposed that a Fae could make her dwelling as big or as small as she cared to.
“We’re going to work out here in the garden for the first little while,” Brianna said, leading the way to one of the trees that had been formed into what looked like a rather comfortable bench seat for two. “Until you gain control, I would rather not risk anyone else’s property, and to be honest, it’s safer for mine that we practice out here in my garden. Once I am certain you won’t be knocking down walls, we will practice inside my home. When your control is even better and I need not be concerned about any accidents, we will move to a spot in the forest near your own home.”
I nodded, acknowledging the justice of that. “But why are we starting here instead of there?” I asked. “If you’re worried about accidents, wouldn’t the forest back in Tirendell be better?”
“Magic is easier to move here in the Fae Realm.”
“Oh.” I thought about that a moment. “Well, how do I start?”
“You felt the magic within you when you concentrated on the peril your sister had been in, and you managed to control it,” she observed as we both took our seats on the velvety greenish-black bark of the trunk of one of the seating trees. I couldn’t help running my hand over it. I’d never felt bark like that—
Then I realized that it wasn’t bark; it was moss, the thickest, softest moss I had ever seen.
“Um, yes,” I said, belatedly realizing that she was still waiting for an answer. Brianna raised an eyebrow at me.
“You mustn’t allow yourself to be distracted when you are dealing with magic,” she warned. “Human magic, such as your wizard practices, is dangerous enough. Fae magic is generally much more powerful and capricious. And you may have both; I am not certain yet.”
I knew that there was human magic and there was Fae magic, and that they weren’t the same thing. But I’d had no idea that it was possible to have both.
“Yes, my lady,” I responded, flushing with embarrassment.
“Now I want you to find the center of your magic when you are not agitated,” the Fae instructed. “Take your time. Tell me when you have it.”
I closed my eyes to shut out all the extremely distracting sights of the garden and concentrated on how that magic had felt inside me.
It had felt like a coiled snake.
But I want something gentler—kinder. I don’t know where the thought came from, but it was loud and strong in my head and somehow right. Righter than a snake. I wasn’t going to attack something, after all, or even defend against something. So when I finally found that deep well of warmth and force, I thought of a flower instead of a snake.
I imagined a flower inside me opening up, spreading its petals, filling me with its perfume.
I felt something tickling my cheek that was not that power, and I almost lost it. But I managed to get control of it at the last second before it slipped away from me, and I opened my eyes.
I was covered in butterflies. They clung to me everywhere, my dress, my hair, and the tickling on my cheek had been one of them trying to land there.
Brianna smiled broadly, much to my relief. “Excellent,” she said. “Not exactly what I wanted you to do but near enough. Now send the butterflies away without frightening them.”
What would the butterflies in a Fae garden be attracted to? Well, they came to me when I called up magic. Maybe they eat magic?
Carefully, without disturbing them, I turned my right hand over so it was palm up. I had forced power out of my hand when I opened the door, but I wanted something gentler now. So I coaxed the power instead, moving it by degrees until it started to flow of its own accord, and I pooled it in the palm of my hand. It formed into a softly glowing golden puddle there.
The butterflies immediately responded, fluttering off my dress and hair and moving down onto my arm. So far, so good. Now they were all competing for a spot on my hand and arm.
I lifted my hand, imagining that the warm little pool of power was a ball, a ball as light as a bit of thistledown, then I imagined a breeze coming and blowing it out into the garden.
And it did! It lofted off my palm and bobbed out into the garden, the butterflies following in a joyous, fluttering multicolored cloud.
I coaxed the ball into setting down on a bush of what looked like roses and turned to see what Brianna thought of my solution.
She watched the butterflies drinking up the magic with her head tilted to one side. “Interesting. That is not a solution I would have come to.”