Fairy War

Chapter 26

It was the strangely calming whistling sound that finally made me start coming round. It was relaxing enough, and for a moment I began to wonder if everything I'd just experienced had all been a dream and that I'd open my eyes to my mother telling me I'd be late for school.

It was the scent of sea air that dispelled this pleasant thought – after all, my house was at least 20 minutes' drive from the sea.

As I slowly opened my eyes, I found myself staring up at a ceiling that appeared to have been painted to resemble a cloudy sky, and as I took in the odd pattern above me, my last memories began flooding back.

"Niana!" I said, sitting bolt upright in the camp bed I was lying in, pain shooting up my right arm as I did so. "I need to find her, make sure she's okay."

I felt a gentle but insistent hand pushing me back onto the bed, revealed to be Selina, a pair of delicate reading glasses perched on her nose and a book held in one hand. I allowed her to help me lie back on a raised pillow.

"Where's Niana?"

"She's sleeping," Selina replied. "She came round long before you and insisted on staying by your side, but I told her she needed sleep so she could recover from her own injuries." She smiled. "All things considered, however, things could have been far worse."

"What happened?" I asked. "I mean, after I blacked out."

"We won," Selina said with a sigh. "With the portals closed a large number of the enemy's monsters simply vanished – presumably they could only maintain their presence here as long as Feth'rael remained in the mortal world. Those left behind who hadn't been killed either fled or surrendered; apparently without their leader they soon lost any interest in fighting." She paused for a moment, looking down at her hands. "Sadly, there were casualties on our side as well. Do you remember the soldier we met in New York who offered whatever help his unit could provide?"

"Of course," I said, cheery at first before I realised her eyes were red from crying. "Oh no, what happened?"

"It appears offering to help us made his base a target," she replied. "Feth'rael sent a force to attack the nearby town, and the division did what they could to defend it while evacuating civilians. They came across a bus full of schoolchildren in the path of a pack of Fenrir, immediately worrying about getting the kids clear. Unfortunately the soldier was killed just before the task was completed; his last action was pushing a young woman in a wheelchair clear just before the Fenrir reached the bus. The US Senate are already talking about fast-tracking a posthumous Medal of Honour for him, and I don't think anyone will object, all things considered."

"That doesn't seem fair at all," I said, lying there silently for a moment as I took in all this new information. "Where am I?" I asked after a while.

"Now that's an interesting story," Selina said with a wry smile. "When you collapsed we knew you needed immediate medical attention, but Ressik's forces were too busy tending to their own dead and injured for us to feel comfortable asking them for aid. Seeing how upset Crystal was, Nara decided it was well past time for the Pixie Queen to do as her daughter asked, so she brought us to Cornwall and essentially threatened to never speak to her mother again if she didn't allow us entry. Thankfully we were allowed to enter." She smiled. "You're in one of the rooms of the Tower of Healing in the great Pixie Enclave, somewhere near the town of St Austell. When you feel well enough you should go outside; the views here are incredible."

"Hopefully I'll be able to do that sooner or later," I said, trying to turn over and feeling the shot of pain again. "Okay, I should've asked this before, but I don't remember getting attacked that violently, so how come I blacked out?" I winced. "Why am I in this much pain?"