Land of Smoke and Ashes

Nightmares

Again, she got the feeling they weren't telling her something, but Natalie didn't press the subject. "So this king, he isn't trying to stop her? He's just trying to make peace?"

"That's the problem." Jewels looked miserable. "He keeps trying to reason with her. He sends ambassadors and peace offerings and tries to bargain with her. But she keeps sinking lower. He's a great man, but his belief that there's good in everyone is slowly destroying this land."

She couldn't help but lift an eyebrow at this. "Wow, I guess he really hasn't been to the human world, has he?"

Edward shifted in the doorway. "See, even she admits it. She's just going to bring trouble down on our heads."

Now she'd finally had enough of him. "Yeah, I admit that humans can be nasty. But not all of us our bad. It's not that simple, is it? And you certainly don't seem that great yourself."

Edward straightened up, stammering indignantly, and Gwen let out a snort of laughter. Jewels hurried to fill in the gap before anyone could say anything, "Anyway, she wants what you have, which is why you have to be careful. The last known key was in human hands, so every human is hunted down by her men. How did you get in, by the way?"

Natalie hesitated for a moment, before telling them about the box in the attic, and how her mother had disappeared.

Nobody said anything, but she caught Jewels and Sam exchanging a long look. She wanted to ask what that look meant, but somehow she knew they wouldn't answer. There was something they weren't telling her. She felt a flash of indignation at this. She had told them everything. Well, sort of After Jewels had discovered the pendant she had.

The silence stretched out for a few seconds, and all of them looked down at the pendant, glittering under the flickering light of the gas lanterns on the walls. For the second time a chill went over Natalie's skin, but this time it was at the mere thought of what she held in her hand. The fact that people would kill for her it. She should want to throw it away, to give it to one of the others for safekeeping. But it was still her mother's necklace. The last and only connection she had to her, and her only way of getting home. And that meant that no matter what, she wouldn't part with it.

Sam herded everyone out of the room after that, insisting that they all needed sleep. Gwendolin was exhausted from her weeks in the mining camp, and they all ate dinner—with Natalie trying to ignore Edward's furious glower from across the table the entire time—and then Jewels made up an extra bed on the little cot in the corner for her.

The others retreated to the next room, and Natalie could hear the gentle murmur of voices from behind the door. She wanted to creep to the door and try to listen, she was sure they were talking about her. Maybe discussing whatever it was they weren't telling her.

Long after the lights had gone down, and Gwen and Jewels had come in and gone to bed, she lay awake. She stared at the thin stream of moonlight coming in from the side window above the bed, trailing bars of silver light across the walls. Her mind was working furiously, and she turned the pendant over in her hands, smoothing her fingers over the cool surface of the silver charm.

She could close her eyes now and wish herself back, couldn't she? Natalie bit her lip, staring down at the moonlight glinting off the charm. It made the fairy pendant look ethereal, like it might come to life at any moment. There was no doubt in her mind that if she gripped it tightly enough and wished hard enough, that she could go back home right now.

But...what would she return to? The rickety house and her preoccupied father. School. The newspaper article in the attic. And still more mystery. She wouldn't know what had happened to her mother. Her father clearly had no idea about Brookland, or he would have used the necklace ages ago. And if she went back and discovered somehow that her mother was here, what if the necklace stopped working? What if there was only one return trip and then it ran out? She felt a stab of panic at this thought. She hadn't asked the others how it worked.

If she stayed here, just for a little bit longer, she might be able to find her mother. Or at least find out what had happened to her.

Jewels had said the person who'd had the last key was human. Did that mean this was the last key, and that the human had been her mother? It still didn't add up that the necklace had been in the attic then. If her mother had gone missing and ended up here in Brookland, how had the necklace gotten back there? Though the others had said it may have been destroyed. Her gut twisted. Did that mean her mother had come here and then been trapped?

Her head was starting to hurt just thinking about it.

Maybe, just maybe, her mother had purposely left the necklace for Natalie or her father to find. Maybe she was supposed to be here, and her mother was waiting for her somewhere, waiting to be found.

Excitement prickled her insides. There was no way she was getting any sleep tonight.

Whatever happened, she had to find her mother. She had to find out the truth about what had happened to her. And, she thought, turning the pendant over in her hands for what felt like the hundredth time, this necklace was probably her first and best clue.

On the floor beside her, Jewels shifted and mumbled something in her sleep, and Natalie turned to peer through the dark. She could only make out a dark lump under the covers in the midnight darkness of the room. Jewels was an expert jewelry maker. She knew about stuff like this. So perhaps she would know if there were rumours of another key. Or, who had the pendant Natalie held that they last knew of. She had to know something, and if she didn't, perhaps there was someone else who did.

The memory of the strange woman at the jewelry stand came back to her suddenly, the narrow, cunning smile she'd given Natalie. Her glittering eyes.

And the eye in the pendant.

She shuddered. The woman might be horrible but she might also have information that Natalie was looking for, if Jewels couldn't provide it. Tomorrow, she would talk to the others and see if they knew anything, and if they didn't, she would venture back out into the market and try to track down something, anything, about her mother.

Natalie rolled over with a sigh, tucking the necklace beneath her pillow. It felt good to have a plan, some kind of purpose.

She dreamed again that night. It started the same way it had last time, in the field of lavender, the wind blowing the black dress she wore, weaving cold fingers into her hair, brushing strands across her cheeks.

It only took seconds for the whispers to start, those voices, like the chiming of bells. They grew louder, still in a foreign tongue, though this time Natalie was surprised to realize that she understood it. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up.

Natalie, where are you?

Her heart lurched, and a second later she sat up on the cot, the sheets tangled around her legs, her pulse racing in her ears. The moonlight filtering through the narrow window illuminated her surroundings. There was no forest, no lavender, just the small bedroom above the pub. Gwen and Jewels were still asleep, and she could see Jewels faintly in the dim silvery light, one hand thrown over her face as she slept.

Natalie breathed a sigh of relief and lay back down, tugging the blankets back up to her shoulders.

If she dreamed any more that night, she didn't remember in the morning.