Ch. 35 A Trick
A sword clapped into a scabbard and a fairy sighed in disgust. "We go! This place stinks of man's sweat and iron, of human filth and decay!"
"The witch sent us for the boy," said the other. "We search upstairs."
"Bah! He's not here. I'll stay no longer."
The door was thrown wide open and M. Ruffieux sputtered in surprise. "Daniel! You out there? Get inside before I take a switch to your hide!"
In the closet, Daniel tensed and Cocot pressed her hand on his lips harder.
The first fairy must have left. The second fairy grunted and cursed before he hit the table with his fist and left, dragging his blade over the wooden floor.
Farmer Ruffieux babbled in amazement at the noises and the door swinging to and fro on its own. He slammed it shut and locked it. He muttered on his way up the stairs.
When the candlelight and noise faded, Cocot went limp with relief.
"I think it's safe," she whispered. "I think they're gone, but you have to hide tonight." Easing the door open, she risked looking into the room.
No one. She motioned for Daniel to follow.
Daniel searched the two back rooms. "It's clear."
"All right. Stay put for tonight, but tomorrow as soon as there's light, take the farmer's truck and go to Bulle. From there, you can take the train.Get as far away from here as you can," Cocot said.
"What were those things?" he asked, tapping the bread knife.
"They are...they are great fairies who live under the hill," she answered. "I made a mistake. There is a witch who wants something from me and thinks that by hurting you, I'll give it to her. That's why she wants you—to make me suffer. I'm sorry, Daniel. I'm sorry. I never meant to put you in danger or for this to happen."
It sounded like madness, she shuddered at what he must think of her.
He frowned for a moment and clutched the knife tighter. "We can go to the attic," he finally said. "Hide there. Tomorrow, we'll make a run for it. Figure things out."
"I can't go with you," she said, shaking her head. "I have to set this right. I have to go to the fountain in Lessoc."
Daniel stared at her, speechless, while several seconds ticked by. "You say they are fairies and we should hide from them. That seems reasonable, apart from the fairy stuff. And a witch wants to hurt you by hurting me. I say let her try. You say I should hide because you are going to the fountain at Lessoc tonight, and I...I don't understand. One or both of us is crazy."
"Neither one of us is crazy, Daniel. They're real, the witch is real. I know it's hard to accept, but I came tonight to tell you to hide from the fairy guards. That's all. You have to hide, and I have to go to Lessoc."
"What can you do at Lessoc against those things? They had knives and swords!"
"I have to try and keep the witch from getting more evil from the fountain." Cocot decided she might as well be honest and explain everything at this point. "The fairy king told me to fix it...right before the witch must have killed him."
Daniel scoffed and turned his head. "Crazy. All of this is crazy. The farmer didn't even see them in here, no one sees them but us. Wait...." Understanding dawned in his expression. "No one sees you, either. Oh, that's it. I'm the one who's crazy."
"I put a spell with pixie dust on you to see me this afternoon. It must work for all fairies. But it's real. I'm real."
"Then you're a fairy, too?" He reached out as though to touch her cheek.
"No! Yes, but not one of them. Never! I have to stop the witch, though and save them."
"What can you do?" he asked.
"I'm not sure, but I have to try."
He grabbed her shoulder. "Craziness, Cocot. That's not a plan at all. If this is really happening, then do something smart about it. Take your horse and ride out of here as fast as you can!"
"I can't," she said, voice breaking. She couldn't say that Hector was dead—not aloud. She couldn't explain there was no way to run far enough or fast enough to escape. The witch would follow wherever she went. Kill whomever she loved. Her only choice was to go to the fountain.
Daniel pressed his palms to his forehead.
"Daniel, listen to me," she urged him. "Stop listening to yourself and what you think you know and listen to me. Forget all of this. There is a different life for you. I hid money between the pages of your book—enough money for you to start school and study the stars. Promise me you will hide until morning and then you will get away from here. In a few days, you will forget me, and forget this. You can live the life you want, if you hide tonight."
He shook his head in confusion during her plea. "Just hide here?"
"I can't bear to lose anyone else I love," she said. "Promise me."
He sighed in defeat. "All right. I promise."
"Thank you. Now...I have to sneak out. And I need...I need to take some raspberry brambles." What was one more crazy request at this point?
He led her to a side window and carefully unlatched it. He pulled open the panes and popped the hook on the shutters. A bushy pine hid her as she crawled out.
Daniel caught her hand. "Let me go with you."
"I told you," she whispered, "the witch is after you so she can make me suffer. If you live, then I win."
He did not reply and his face was a blank mask. Her hand slipped free from his.
She tiptoed from the pine towards the raspberry bushes. The shutters bumped closed and then the faint click of the window being shut sounded. His life was closed from hers now. It was the only way.
The moon was low and swollen just above the Dent de Broy, letting off a yellow, earthy glow that the moon gives before rising high. By this sallow light, she found the raspberry bushes. She took a hold of several thick stems near the ground where there were no leaves or prickles. As she cut into them with her kitchen knife, she heard the plant whisper, "We are one, we are the same."
With a gasp, she stopped cutting. Was the plant aware that she was cutting off its branches?
"We are one, so long as one lives, we are the same," it said.
Cocot had no choice, she had to take the brambles to Lessoc. Another quick cut and the handful of brambles broke off. She held them up towards the moon, waving them back and forth. Nothing happened.
"Mother, if there is anything you want to tell me, I'm listening," Cocot breathed to the night air. A heavy fear was gathering in her stomach. The king had said to use the raspberry brambles and that she had the key. Her mother said she might one day, or night, need the moonlight. The answer to this riddle must lie in Lessoc.
But she still had to get there without being seen. She needed something clever; a trick, a way to transform into a swan, a Trojan warhorse to hide in. A way to avoid the dark creatures in the woods who would harm her if they could.
"You were right about the evil fairy creatures, Mother, but staying on the path isn't going to save me."
Wishing her mother was with her—her fear changed to bitter sorrow. From sorrow to cold determination.
"Help me," she whispered to the garden and field. "They are watching."
The barley and raspberry brambles sighed, but there was no wind. Every trick, every power, every drop of magic she had, she would use tonight.
"Don't let them see me," she ordered.
A ripple of wind stirred the fields, above, a stray cloud covered the moon.
"None are watching," came a thousand tiny voices from the barley. "Fly!"
Cocot ran for the field, as soon as she reached the barley, she ducked her head. For what felt like an hour but was only a minute, she crossed the distance to the forest.
Taking a deep breath, she plunged into the deep shadows and flew as fast and quietly as her feet would carry her. She darted around thorny bushes and between evergreens. By some great luck, she made almost no noise and the sound she did make could have been the wind.
She reached the rounded hill overlooking the village. Her luck had run out.
There were at least a dozen fairies patrolling the fields and cobblestone streets of Lessoc. Thick undergrowth shielded her from sight, but the second she stepped from the woods, they would catch her.
No.
There had to be something. She wracked her brain, sifting through the stories in her Greek Mythology book, tales her mother had told her of fairy creatures, even the animal fables. Not a single one gave her a solution.
She crouched against a tree, wrapping her arms around her knees. Despair was taking hold. What was she doing here in the night, watching armed fairies creep through the wheat and barley? Their swords and knives glittering with moonlight and dark red hatred pulsing in their eyes? She didn't even know how to end the evil in the fountain, only that she had to or this plague the witch had started would spread until she had razed all that lay in her path.
Just as she had killed Hector.
Cocot took a shuddering breath, holding her pain and sorrow in a tight ball until it heated back into anger. She wanted to scream with frustration, to smash the mountain peaks and shower the fields with rocks.
"Coquelicot!" a voice in her ear hissed.
She jumped out of her skin. "Soufflé! You're all right! I thought she might have hurt you."
"What are you doing here? Why did you come this way? I searched for you on the hill past the chalet."
"I'm sorry, Soufflé, I can't run away," she whispered.
Soufflé flitted nervously about and almost landed on her shoulder. He changed direction at the last moment to stand on a low branch. "We had a bargain," he said slowly. "I would help you get into the hill and then you would leave forever."
"I know that's what we agreed on, but you don't know what happened in the hall, you can't imagine. I only escaped because Hector came for me, and the witch—"
"I do know. Which is why you have to keep running and never stop."
"I can't let her get to the fountain. Sooner or later, without the king to stop her, she'll find a way to break the seal my mother set on the crack. I can't let that happen. It's all my fault for trusting Wenslar. You were right when you said I couldn't trust anyone."
"No. No, you can't."
"Help me reach the fountain. There has to be a way I can sneak down there."
"To do what?" he asked.
"To put an end to the evil," she replied.
"She'll catch you. Even if you could destroy the evil in the fountain, which you can't, there are still the bottles that Fanchon collected."
"No," Cocot said. "I'm sure my mother destroyed the bottles. There was just the last one. When I was a baby, my mother told me she had to make her wish to become a human right after she set the seal on the fountain and the last bottle was full. To make her wish, she had to drain all her magic. Don't you see? There was only one bottle to hide, and if I can get rid of what is under the fountain, then the witch can never get any more."
"Child, I am not the family you desperately need, but for what it is worth, turn around and run away now."
"If you won't help me, then leave me." Cocot closed her ears and heart to his talk of family. She had a duty to perform for the king and for her mother.
"Coquelicot, you can't fight the witch! She's too powerful."
Cocot crawled to the very limit of the underbrush, ready to make a dash for the wheat.
"I can't let you," Soufflé warned. "If you turn back, I can give you a head start, but if you run for the fountain....I have no choice."
She spread her fingers through the wheat, the drying stalks vibrating at her touch. "Cover me sight and sound." A faint humming from the raspberry brambles and the field thrummed in her ears.
"Coquelicot..."
"Goodbye, Soufflé," she whispered firmly.
"She's here," he called.
Cocot halted her dash forward. What did he mean? Was the witch here? The fairies had raised their heads in unison to look towards the forest where Cocot was hiding.
A glowing light lit the field from behind, like candlelight without the flame. She blinked in confusion as it grew brighter.
It was coming from Soufflé.
"What are you doing?" she asked. "They'll see you!"
"I'm sorry, Coquelicot, but I have no choice," he said. A chasm of sorrow opened on his face. It was too much sadness for such a small fairy in ridiculous shoes. Cocot thought she might fall in. He shook his head. "I'm so very sorry."
"Put out the light before they come," she urged.
A twig snapped and a bush rustled. Then she understood. Cocot made one last dash to escape before the fairies caught her.
Soufflé's light faded and went out.
*** The trick was Soufflé's, not Cocot's, afterall. ***
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