Fairy War

Chapter 16

I was glad to see that Selina was no less talented a teleporter than Niana's sister, and in the blink of an eye we were no longer by the old farmhouse but were instead standing in the middle of a moss-covered stone circle. My first thought was that we'd been brought to Stonehenge – a place I'd once visited with school – but this site covered a much larger space and was wreathed by a strange, fog-like substance that drifted between the stones. I couldn't help but shiver, feeling slightly reassured that Selina was the only member of the group who didn't have this reaction to our surroundings.

"I thought you said you were going to take us through some tunnels?" Niana asked. "I don't see anything around here that even looks like an entrance."

"We're dealing with fairies who could bury tunnels further below the ocean than any humans could ever reach, even with modern technology," Selina replied with a sigh. "You really think with all that effort they'd make the entrance obvious to all and sundry?"

She knelt down, touching her hand to the ground while closing her eyes, and at first nothing seemed to change, the atmosphere being no less spooky than it already was. When Selina stood up again, however, a low hiss of escaping air drew our attention to the area of grass in front of her.

It had vanished to reveal a large void, the only sign of it being anything other than a bottomless pit being the set of stairs that extended from Selena's feet and went down into the pool of darkness below. "I promise this is easier than it looks," she said, noticing the reluctance on our faces. "You'd be surprised what use magical spells can be put to in good hands."

"I don't care if we have to walk for hours in the dark," I said with a laugh, "I just want to be in the warm. I know Britain is hardly tropical, but right now it feels like we took an unscheduled trip to the freezer section of a supermarket." And then, as if to reinforce my point, I shuddered again.

We managed to get a short distance down the steps – using the limited light provided from above – before Selina whistled for us to stop.

There was the loud sound of someone snapping their fingers, and then the cavern suddenly filled with light as though it was covered in lanterns from top to bottom. As I looked up, I realised the natural light from above the ground was fading as the grass reappeared, sliding back into place.

Once our eyes had adjusted to the sudden increased light, we all let out a gasp – where we'd expected to see the staircase continuing beneath us, there instead seemed to be barely a hundred steps before it met a rock-strewn tunnel floor, which stretched off into the distance. We'd somehow reached the bottom of the staircase in hardly any time at all.

Pillars extended to the ceiling above, appearing so tall it was difficult to believe any fairy could even begin constructing such a tunnel. It was only when we realised Selina had skipped down the stairs ahead of us that we decided we'd better stop standing around and admiring the scenery.

"I suppose that's the problem with being so familiar with this place," Selina said to the air around her as we finally reached her. "You forget it takes most people a moment for their eyes to adjust, due to its sheer scale."

"How did we travel that far without collapsing from exhaustion?" the President asked, unable to hide the sense of awe in his voice. "It looks like we travelled down far more steps than we actually seemed to."

"Whoever built this evidently realised travelling through here in real time would be a nightmare," Selina replied, "so one of the many spells they cast was to allow fairies – or a group containing fairies – to be transported through this tunnel as if it folded in upon itself. I suppose the closest comparison a human would understand is that it acts somewhat like a wormhole. I'm assuming you're not complaining that we aren't walking the entire length of the tunnel in real time? I got the impression we were supposed to be in a hurry."