R. Anderson - Wayfarer

“Rhys,” said Rob.

“-but if you ask me, it makes no difference. Because if they’re known for being generous and kind to humans, I can’t imagine that they’d be any more impressed with your attitude than I am!”

She finished the sentence with a glare, daring Rob to make some caustic retort. But unaccountably, his stern expression softened. He reached out and touched her hair, letting the brown curls tumble between his fingers.

“You are young,” he said. “And altogether too innocent to survive in this hard world. But you have courage. And the human boy-he played well tonight.”

He glanced over at Timothy, still sprawled oblivious across the bed. “Let him sleep a little while longer, then wake him and go to the nearest train station. My people are not fond of places where many humans gather; you should be safe there until you can find transport out of the city. Return to your Oak quickly, and remain there, and you may yet escape the Empress. I cannot promise you anything more.”

Linden caught his arm. “But if we leave, how will I find the help we need? Surely not all the other faeries serve the Empress-if I just knew where to look-”

“That,” said Rob, “was what I had hoped you would be able to tell me. So it seems we are both disappointed.” He shrugged away from her grasp, flung the door open, and was gone.

“Timothy. Wake up.” Linden was shaking him. “We have to go.”

He groaned and rolled onto his back, blinking his sleep-gummed eyes against the light. “What, already?”

“Yes, right away. Rob’s gone, and-” She cast a nervous glance at the open door. “We can’t stay here much longer.”

Timothy swung his legs around and sat up, squinting at his watch: 5:47 A.M. Beyond the cracked window the sky was still dark, the streetlights glowing eerily through a haze of mist. He felt dislocated, as though he had wakened on some alien planet. “Okay,” he mumbled, “just give me a few minutes.”

“There’s no time to waste.” She dragged his backpack and guitar case toward him. “If any of the Empress’s faeries find us, we’re dead.”

Abruptly he was wide awake. “What?”

“Just come,” begged Linden. “I’ll explain on the way.”

As they stepped onto the landing, Timothy nearly tripped over a pair of leather shoes sitting just outside the door. “What the-” he said, but Linden had already snatched them up.

“Rob must have left them for me!” she exclaimed, slipping them on and bouncing a little. “They fit perfectly.”

“How’d he know your size?” asked Timothy, but to his surprise, Linden only blushed and hurried down the stairs.

She told him the story as they walked, passing one street after another on their way toward the nearest train station. The glamour she’d put on herself before they’d left the flat made her look like an ordinary human girl in a winter jacket and jeans, but it plainly wasn’t keeping her warm: By the time she had finished speaking her cheeks were rosy with cold, and she was hugging herself in an effort not to shiver. Timothy fished his last sweatshirt out of his backpack and handed it to her.

“Oh, I am grateful,” she breathed as she floundered into it, rolling up the sleeves that drooped over her hands. “But you haven’t said anything.” She looked up at him, eyes big with apprehension. “Are you angry?”

Timothy shoved a hand through his hair. “No, it’s all marvelous,” he said bitterly. “I’m glad you and Rob had such a nice chat. Lovely people, your folk.”

“I’m sorry.” She looked stricken. “I never imagined it would be like this. I thought if I could only find more faeries, everything would be wonderful. But to meet them, and then hear that they all despise us and call us Forsaken…and even worse, that they’re ruled by someone evil… ”

“So now we’ve got no choice but to run back to Oakhaven.” Timothy stomped on a discarded soda can and kicked it aside. “It’d be one thing if I’d been gone a week, or been in an accident or something. But coming back to Paul and Peri’s the morning after I left, because I was scared of a lot of homicidal faeries-that’s just pathetic. They probably haven’t even found my note yet.”

Linden said nothing. Her head was bent, her face invisible behind her turbulence of hair.

“On the other hand,” he continued, “it’s the perfect excuse not to go back to Greenhill. Hello, Mum and Dad, England’s fine, I met some faeries and now they want to kill me. Sure you don’t want to send me to school in Canada instead?”

Linden gave a quavering laugh and then, to Timothy’s horror, burst into tears. He grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her away from the road, hoping desperately that she’d calm down before someone stopped and demanded to know what was going on.

But though Linden put her hands over her face and sobbed until her body shook, none of the passing cars even slowed down. And once she’d wept herself into dry hiccups and wiped her eyes on her sleeve, Timothy was finally able to make out what she was saying:

“I’ve done everything wrong,” she choked. “I thought I could help the Oakenfolk-I thought I was helping you-but all I’ve done is put all of us in worse danger than ever. What if the Empress sends her people after us? What if they find the Oak? Valerian was right. I wasn’t ready for this. And what am I going to tell the Queen when I see her?”

Timothy regarded her helplessly for a moment. Then with sudden decisiveness he took Linden by the elbow and marched her along with him until they reached the train station. He steered her inside and made her sit down on one of the benches before taking both her hands in his and saying in the low, firm voice he used to calm his little sister, “All right, yes, it’s a bad situation. For both of us. But we’re still alive, and we’ve made it this far. That’s good, isn’t it?”

Reluctantly, Linden nodded.

“So we’ll get you on the next train to Aynsbridge, and you can go back to the Oak and tell the others what happened. At least now you know that there are other faeries out there. Male faeries, even. That’s got to be worth something.”

Linden rubbed at her reddened eyes. “But if all the other faeries want nothing to do with us, and all we can do is sit in the Oak and wait to die-”

“Who says that? Maybe the faeries here in London won’t help you, but you can always go to some other city-or another country, if you have to. All you have to do is hide in the Oak for a few days until the Empress gives up looking for you, and then try again. What about these Children of Rhys that Rob mentioned? They’re faeries, too, aren’t they?”

“Yes, but we don’t even know where to find the Children, let alone whether they’d be willing to help us. And we’re running out of time.” Her expression was desolate. “Even working together, Valerian and I can’t protect the Oak the way the Queen used to. If we’d done the wards properly, you’d hardly have noticed the tree at all when you came-but you walked right up and touched it. We might be able to hide from the Empress, but what good will that do us if we just end up being found by the humans instead?”

Timothy let her go and stood up, shoving his cold hands back into his pockets. “I don’t know. But I can’t see you’ve got any other choice.”

Linden was silent, her gaze on the floor. Then she said, “You’re not going to come with me, are you? You’re going to keep running away.”

She didn’t sound accusing, only resigned. Timothy hunched his shoulders uncomfortably. “Look, it’s not that I don’t want to help you. I just don’t know what use I could be, especially if the Empress and her people do come after us. You might be safe in your Oak if you can keep up those spells long enough, but all they’d have to do to find me at Oakhaven is look through the window. They might even figure out that Peri used to be one of your people and decide to punish her, too. Is that what you want?”