Young Writers Society

56 THE FLIGHT

Neva sat in brooding silence as he finished his story. Christian drew a breath and said as politely as he could manage, “Forgive me, but even if it was their job to guard him—well, as he is your brother, don’t you think you ought to take more responsibility for him?”

Neva’s brows contracted over his indigo eyes. He said nothing but glared until Christian said, “Never mind. But you see, that’s why I’m here. Goblin is returning to power, and the fairies sent me to find Morrow.”

“You?” Neva said. “Why should they send you? I can see at a glance you are not an adventurer.”

“I hardly know,” Christian admitted. “But here I am. And I’d like your help, if you’d be willing to give it.”

Neva stretched. As he did so, feathery white wings spread from his shoulders to stretch as well. They were so huge that Christian wondered both how he had been unable to see them before and whether the angel was only stretching to impress upon him how large and powerful he really was.

It was only when he was done stretching that Neva settled back in his throne and asked, “What help would you ask of me?”

Christian could hear Narodnaya in his head, warning him not to expect more than transportation to the Sunforest, but he forged onward. If Neva had been concerned enough about Earth to want to keep Goblin from getting to it, he couldn’t see why the angel would not want to remove him from it.

“Well,” he said, “if it wouldn’t be too much of an imposition—well, first I should like help finding Morrow.”

“Why did the fairies not send you to the Sunforest?” Neva asked. “Why did they think it right to send you to me?”

“Er—” Christian hardly liked to admit the truth when the angel already had such a negative opinion of Aurelia and her sisters. “Er, well, you see, they did mean to send me to the Sunforest, but—but something threw me off course. I mean, I think that’s what happened. It’s all a bit of a blur.”

Neva stroked his chin, gazing at Christian as though trying to decide whether this was the truth of the matter.

“I see,” he said at last. “What else do you ask of me?”

“Would you—would you come back to Earth with me and fight?”

Neva smiled mirthlessly. “Does it not occur to you, human, that if the fairies had meant me to return with you they would have sent you to me instead of trying to send you to the Sunforest?”

He does not mean to help, Narodnaya said viciously, for all he claims to love your kind.

Neva scowled at her and said, “Do not question me, marsh-witch. Indeed it astonishes me you should agree to help, for all you have always claimed to hate his kind.”

It was the first time he had acknowledged her, and she was caught off-guard. Perhaps she had thought he could not hear her.

It is different—Goblin has wreaked his havoc on my lands as well—and you have seen yourself this one is not like the others.

Her voice in Christian’s head sounded miserable and almost embarrassed. Christian grew angry again. Narodnaya had seemed unshakeable to him and he did not like that Neva should have said something to upset her, although he couldn’t understand why it had done so.

“Leave her alone,” he said. “She’s been nothing but kind to me. If you ask me she’s much kinder than you, and frankly much braver. She’s come all this way with me just to have you insult her, when you won’t even agree to help me and you didn’t think it was your duty to keep your own brother from escaping your world and—”

“Enough, enough!” Neva laughed. Christian quailed at the sound, surprised by the angel’s change in mood. “You started off beautifully in your defense of her, but I understand your general meaning and so there is no need to go on abusing me in that vein. You are a funny creature! Most people are either terribly arrogant or utterly terrified in my presence, and here you can’t decide whether to humble yourself and grovel at my feet or to upbraid me for insulting your friend.”

“I was not groveling—” Christian said, but Neva laughed again.

“Peace, brother. I meant nothing by it. Narodnaya, I apologize. You have done well by your lands, and I do not forget the fairies once thought you an ally of my brother.”

I do not forget you stopped them in their efforts to destroy me as such, Narodnaya said stiffly. Her eyes shone like two fireflies in the dimness of the garden. But it is true you do not mean to help.

“I will help a little,” Neva said, rising from his chair. “I will take this human to the Sunforest to see Morrow. I will not interfere any more than that. The humans must protect their own world as I must protect mine.”

His deep voice was so full of finality that Christian could do nothing but bow and say, “Thank you.”

Neva smiled at him and stood up, spreading his wings again.

“You are gracious,” he said, “for someone who still wishes me ill-will. Let us away.”

The angel led them through the garden and into a twisting hallway that brought them to a door less grand than the others in the palace. When they went through it they found themselves back out on the mountaintop, gazing at the stars that hung low over the horizon. The air was as cold as ever, and Christian shivered as the door shut on the warmth behind them. Neva crouched down.

“Climb onto my back,” he commanded.

Christian hesitated and then did so, feeling absurdly like a long-legged child getting a piggyback ride from his father. He looked at Neva’s bare white back and the arch of his wings, wondering where to put his hands.

“Hold tight,” Neva said.

Christian had barely hooked his fingers over the spot where Neva’s wings connected to his body when the angel launched himself into the sky so quickly that Christian was sure he would fall off. His fingers slipped from the great wings as they beat, so he grabbed Neva’s shoulders instead. A glance back showed him Narodnaya speeding through the air behind them, her mossy gown and wild hair blowing behind her; a glance below, and he saw the mountains flying by beneath them, followed by open fields and sleeping villages and rivers glittering in the moonlight. Those two glances were all he had the courage for. He leaned forward into Neva’s neck, tightened his grip on the smooth shoulders, and squeezed his eyes shut as his stomach flipped in protest of the flight.

It went on much longer than Christian would have liked. By the time they began their descent into the Sunforest, the sun had begun to rise. Christian saw a spot in the center of the forest that, from above, looked like the site of an explosion: gray and flattened, with debris littering the forest floor and the tree-trunks twisted and opened.

“That is where Goblin was held,” Neva said. “He did great damage when he escaped.”

He sounded so grieved by this Christian could almost feel sorry for him—almost—but, he told himself crossly, if Neva was so powerful he could have stopped it, after all.

A short while later they landed near the edge of a clearing. Christian clambered down from the angel’s back, his knees shaking as his feet hit solid ground. Through the trees he saw the light of cooking fires. Narodnaya drifted down beside him.

“This is where I shall leave you,” Neva said. He too was peering through the trees at the fires and the shadowy people moving between them. His indigo eyes held pain and compassion. His face was so beautiful it was difficult not to feel pain and compassion for him at the sight, but Christian reminded himself not to do so and only bowed again and said another thank-you. Then he turned away from the angel and headed for the clearing.