Chapter 18
Elizabeth’s grin widened as Hespera and Abraxas flew into sight over the crest of the hill. I am very happy to see you! She told her familiar.

And I am happy to help you, Abraxas responded, but his mental voice was tinged with anxiety. We must return you to the Library soon. The situation is unstable.

Elizabeth took a deep breath. One peril at a time.

When William turned his head and caught a glimpse of the two griffins, he actually laughed at the sight. “Well played!” he exclaimed.

Alaine cursed but then laughed. “Those puny creatures are no match for my thunderbird!” She jumped onto the thunderbird’s back and pulled Bix up behind her. They leapt into the sky to meet the griffins. It was true that each griffin was only a quarter the size of the thunderbird, but Elizabeth was not ready to count them out.

As the thunderbird wheeled away and the princess focused her attention on the griffins, Elizabeth could sense Alaine’s magic loosen its grip on William. He was quickly able to muster his own magic to shake it off entirely. Thank goodness!

But they were hardly out of danger; it was only a momentary respite.

Trying to escape from the two griffins, the thunderbird swooped upside down in a huge loop. The princess was barely clinging to its back. On the ground, the patronesses were still under the princess’s control and their actions mirrored hers. The elegantly dressed ladies were jerking and sliding around the hilltop or tumbling head over heels. Oh dear. Elizabeth watched Lady Dalwrymple toss up her accounts. How mortifying. But then another patroness struck her head on a rock. The princess’s hold on them was endangering their lives.

Elizabeth exchanged a glance with William. “I suppose we have an obligation to help them.”

He grimaced. “I suppose. A conscience is a terrible thing.”

Elizabeth could see the cords of magic binding the patronesses to the princess. She cast a quick spell to sever those cords; instantly the patronesses dropped to the ground like marionettes whose strings had been cut. At least they were no longer tossed about like rocks in a box. They lay on the ground complaining and bemoaning their fate. Elizabeth could only hope they would stay there and not interfere in the fight against Alaine.

But Elizabeth’s actions had drawn the fae princess’s attention. She leapt from the back of the thunderbird with the preternatural grace of her kind, landing lightly on a stony outcropping. Bix followed suit. Alaine gave them a cold smile as she climbed down from the outcropping as easily as she might descend from a flight of stairs. “Those blooms do not last very long, Darcy. I only need delay you a little and it will be too late to save your sister.”

“Why do you hate Georgiana so?” William asked, bewildered. “She has never hurt a soul in her life.”

“That is what you think,” Alaine hissed.

She had reached the plateau where Elizabeth and Darcy stood, and Bix was not far behind. Elizabeth’s stomach clenched. She and William were at diminished capacity and faced two fae – who were known to be the most powerful mages in the world. A glance upward showed that Abraxas and Hespera were quite busy fighting the much larger thunderbird.

Alaine raised her hand and shot a bolt of blazing white lightning at Darcy. He dived to the side, hitting the ground with some force before taking shelter behind a cluster of boulders. Elizabeth hurried to join him. Alaine directed another bolt at Darcy, but he managed to raise his shields, glowing a bright blue when the bolt struck them.

Peering out between two boulders, Elizabeth watched Alaine very deliberately place her hand on Bix’s shoulder and start to draw magic from the other fae. Joining power in such a way gave Alaine a huge advantage; she could fuel far more powerful attacks than Elizabeth and William could hope to muster. They had no hope of surviving a battle of attrition. The human mages would need to find another way to fight and they would need to find it quickly.
If only they could combine their magic the way the fae could. But human mages found that notoriously difficult; William and Elizabeth had tried it in the early stages of their quest, but it had been a miserable failure. But maybe…the situation was different now.

William turned to her. “Elizabeth,” he said urgently. “I will create a diversion so you might take the bloom and ride Abraxas to Pemberley.”
She shook her head. “I refuse to tell Georgiana that I abandoned her brother to fight two fae mages by himself.”

“But—”

She forestalled his objection with a raised finger. “Would she want her life to come at the cost of yours?” When he had no immediate response, she spoke again. “I have another idea. Please give me your hand.”

William placed his hand in hers. Elizabeth tried not to think about the impropriety of the touch…or how wonderful it felt. She closed her eyes and accustomed herself to the feel of his magic – its texture and weight. Fortunately, it had grown more familiar over the course of the journey.

She had merged her magic with Abraxas’s many times; it was a common way for familiars to augment their mages’ power. But where Abraxas’s magic felt like the ripples of a soothing bath, touching William’s magic was like plunging her hand into a typhoon. It ebbed and flowed in great jagged waves, moving wildly and unpredictably. How could she ever merge her magic with something like this?

Elizabeth tried to keep a calm mind; if she panicked now, they would never form a successful link. She imagined her magic as a soothing stream trickling into the raging sea of William’s magic, a little at a time – like a stream of warm water would mix into the colder sea. She pictured their magics mixing together.

Eventually their magic combined to produce something like ocean waves: powerful, but regular and predictable. She had done it! She had established a link between their magics!

She opened her eyes to find William staring at her. “I did not think it was possible,” he said. “Why could you do it now when we could not establish such a bond before?”

She gave him a small smile. “Now I know that you love me.”

He huffed a soft laugh. “How could I not? You are amazing.” They were under attack and yet his smile was tender, and his eyes shone with love. His gaze drifted to her lips. Would he kiss her? Every part of Elizabeth yearned for increased intimacy with him, wanting to take advantage of these moments before they had to go their separate ways. Of course, these were not ideal circumstances for their first kiss.

A lightning bolt crashed noisily into William’s shield, making them both flinch and jerk apart. William poured more power into the shield, and yet it was wearing thin in places.

William’s forehead crinkled with concern. “What you have accomplished is marvelous,” he said. “But I am not certain that even our combined powers will be enough to defeat two full-strength fae mages.”

“Ah, but I have another trick up my sleeve!” she said with a smile. She reached out mentally to Abraxas. Can you and Hespera spare a little power?

The griffins had landed on a lower plateau after forcing the thunderbird to the ground with an injured wing. The griffins had a distinct advantage on land. Four legs gave them great maneuverability while their opponent could only hop around, dragging its injured wing in the grass.

Yes, Abraxas answered. Take the power you need. It is yours. We do not need magic to bring this creature to heel. Power and renewed energy flooded into Elizabeth, as if she had partaken of several cups of coffee. The expression on William’s face suggested he had received a similar gift from Hespera.

“Now I think we are ready to do battle,” Elizabeth said to him. “Will you take the lead? You have training in combat magic. It is not something that Librarians usually require.”

***
Darcy nodded, happy that he could finally be of some use. He grasped ahold of the four threads of magic – two human and two griffin – now entwined into one sturdy rope. But it was a rope with a mind of its own. In fact, holding such a strong force of magic was like riding a bucking horse. It was wild and powerful and not sure it wanted to bend to his will.

He had never before held so much power. He doubted many human mages had. It was heady and terrifying at the same time.

I cannot fail. Georgiana is depending on me, he reminded himself.

He jumped out from behind the boulder to launch a fire spell, easily the most powerful fire spell he had ever created. It burned a path from his fingertips across the air and splashed against the shield covering Bix and Alaine. They had not bothered to take shelter behind any boulders; instead, they stood in the open, protected only by the glowing red dome of Alaine’s shield. Darcy was not whether to admire their confidence or to consider them foolhardy.
He fed more power into his fire spell, but it could not penetrate the shield. Alaine shots jets of green fire toward Darcy, forcing him to hide again.

When Darcy next emerged from behind the boulder, he tried a shatter spell, a wave of kinetic energy designed to burst anything in its path. It crashed into Alaine’s shield with a loud bang and dissipated. Then he tried to bind the fae with enchanted ropes, but the shield foiled that attack. His next choice was a telekinesis spell which hurled hundreds of rocks at the two fae. He could sense Alaine’s shield weakening slightly, but none of the rocks penetrated it.
Darcy barely refrained from swearing. Despite this massive magical power nothing worked against Alaine’s shield. Apparently she was justified in her confidence. Meanwhile they had him pinned down so that he had no hope of escaping to Pemberley and Georgiana.

Elizabeth had been observing the battle from a space between two boulders. “Alaine’s shield falters when she is distracted,” she noted.

“What do you mean?”

“She must be fueling the shield directly from her mind rather than casting it as an independent entity – as you did with your spell. When her attention is directed away from the shield, it flickers and weakens.”

“Thank you,” Darcy said, grateful that Elizabeth could perceive magic so clearly. “My magical combat professor would have given her poor marks for such an amateur mistake.” If she loosened her hold on her shield, Darcy might be able to pierce it with a spell.

But how could he make use of that information? Alaine’s shield was still quite powerful. Darcy would need a powerful distraction to disrupt her concentration.

Fear was a powerful source of distraction, but what did Alaine most fear? Perhaps an illusion of a dragon? No, some fae were capable of commanding dragons. An illusory army of mages? No, she would not believe such a thing was possible.

Unfortunately few things could threaten a truly talented fae mage except another fae mage. Ah! Now there was a possible illusion that might distract Alaine! Surely the princess’s activities were not condoned by others in the faerie court. A group of fae would not be a welcome sight for the princess.

Darcy conjured in his mind every fae he had ever met, even including the woman by the side of the river and Anne of the Hills. It amounted to half a dozen fae. Then he put the fellow with the ever-changing hair color at the front of his illusory crew. Finally, he positioned the illusion at the approximate location where he and Elizabeth had emerged from the faerie cave. There was, of course, no door to faerie there, but he would wager the entrance was nearby and concealed from human eyes.

Taking a deep breath, he prayed that the ploy would work. Then he released the illusion. Elizabeth gasped as half a dozen fae emerged from a sheer cliff face and marched purposefully toward Alaine. The fae man in the front looked particularly grim despite his colorful hair. Darcy could only hope that he would not be revealed as one of Alaine’s friends.

Bix was the first to notice the illusory newcomers, tugging on Alaine’s sleeve to direct her attention toward fae. Her face paled. “Malus!” she exclaimed, staring at the man in the front of the group. “What are—? I can explain myself!”

“Her shield is almost completely gone,” Elizabeth whispered to Darcy.

Dividing his attention – and his magic – was one of the hardest things Darcy had ever done. It would not have been possible without the power borrowed from Elizabeth and the griffins. Darcy continued to feed power into the illusion while commanding the fae to stop and stare imperiously at Bix and Alaine. But he had to act quickly. Alaine would not be fooled for long.

At the same time, Darcy cast a strong sleep spell, one that should quickly render the fae unconscious. He stuck his head up above the boulder just long enough to hurl the spell at Bix and Alaine – before ducking down again. “It went through the shield!” Elizabeth cried. Darcy allowed himself a small triumphant smile.

He waited in suspense for a few seconds. “They are asleep!” Elizabeth cried.

Darcy e was exhausted and every muscle in his body hurt. Practicing magic was far more physically taxing than many people assumed. He almost envied the fae’s nap.

He emerged cautiously from behind the boulder, but Bix and Alaine were slumped in the grass and showed no signs of stirring. The illusion of the other fae had disappeared the moment Darcy no longer needed them.

Well done, Darcy, Hespera greeted him as she landed in the field a few yards away. Abraxas was not far behind.

The thunderbird? He asked Hespera.

It lives, she answered. But it is injured. It will not be able to fly without healing. The fae know how to care for such creatures. Perhaps we can find one since we are so close to their cave.

Care for the thunderbird will have to wait. “We must go to Pemberly,” Darcy said to Elizabeth.

***
Before Elizabeth could reply, she was startled by the sound of a shriek coming from the sky. Not another threat, she thought wearily. Surely we have done enough fighting for one day.

William must have had the same thought. He placed a hand on Hespera’s shoulder as if preparing to leap onto her back and fly into battle. Then the source of the shriek came into focus and William sagged with relief. “It is Fitzwilliam and Maor!”

Now that they were close enough, Elizabeth recognized William’s cousin and his hippogriff familiar. When they had landed, William hurried over and gave his cousin a hearty handshake. “Richard, you are a welcome sight indeed! How did you find us?”

The general laughed. “Blind luck. I was searching for the entrance to faerie when Maor said she spied two griffins and a thunderbird in the distance. That is a combination you do not see everyday. We thought we would investigate.”

“How fares Georgiana?” William asked.

“She lives,” the general said, his expression grim. “She still fights the curse. But I do not know how much time she has left.”

“We have the cure,” William said, producing a miraculously unbruised flower from his pocket. “We must reach Pemberley.”

“Indeed,” Elizabeth agreed, striding toward Abraxas when she was startled by a loud crash from behind them. They all whirled around to find that the cliff face had split into two pieces. Elizabeth took a moment to marvel at the power that could cleave solid rock.

Then a figure emerged from the darkness between the two rocks. It was the fae with the changeable hair who Alaine had called Malus. He wore a rich silk shirt and matching breaches – all covered by a high-necked cape that fell to his feet. On his head was a solid gold crown in the shape of vines and leaves, and in his hand he held a naked sword. This was the Malus who had frightened Alaine.

When he spoke, his voice rumbled like distant thunder. “I am Malus, Winter King of Faerie. Who has dared to use my likeness?”

Behind him, fae warriors, carrying spears and swords, poured out of the cleft between the rocks onto the grassy plateau.