Page 20 of The Guardians of Dreamdark
“Aye. The ancient ones like old Father Linden here have drunk the dew of the Dawn Days. Think of it, they’ve been alive in the world for all the lifetimes of faeries stretched end to end, all the way to the beginning! But they keep their secrets close. I rarely hear them speak at all.”
“Oh, aye? Pity. I wonder if he remembers me,” she mused, glancing at the place where the red door had been swallowed by a skin of bark.
“I’m sure he does! Others do. They told me you’d returned.” Poppy paused and grew serious. “I missed you so when you left. Why did you? Why did you go?”
Magpie frowned. “My mother...It’s the wind blood, I ken. She’s never gotten used to being in one spot. They only stayed till I was big enough to travel, and we never stayed anyplace half so long again.”
“But what is it you do...beyond?” Poppy asked. To the faeries of Dreamdark, leaving the forest was like leaping off the edge of the world.
“Well...” Magpie mused, wondering where to start. Not with devils, sure, or chasing witches, or hanging upside down in a monkey king’s dungeon. “We go find faerie clans, and we try to learn their magic. Papa writes it down in books so it won’t die out with the old folks. Right now they’re with a clan on Anang Paranga that still practices shape-shifting.”
“Shape-shifting?” Poppy marveled. “And your parents will learn how to do it?”
“Aye. We also search for clues of what happened to the Djinn and try to keep magic relics out of the hands of monkeys and mannies, who’re always messing about where they oughtn’t.”
“You’ve seen humans?”
“Piff. Thousands. Mannies are nothing special.”
“But aren’t they giant-big?”
Magpie shrugged. “Not so big. About like a stack of raccoons. There’s plenty of bigger things. You should see elephants. Whales!”
“And dragons?” asked Poppy.
“Dragons?” Magpie frowned at her. “There aren’t any dragons left.”
“What?”
“Neh. Humans killed ’em out ages ago! Firedrakes too.”
“All of them?” Poppy asked, aghast.
Magpie knew that faeries lived in isolation, ignorant of the world, but she was still shocked. How could it not be known in Dreamdark that the dragons were extinct? Seeing Poppy’s horrified expression, Magpie felt the tragedy anew. She herself had first heard the chronicle of the dragon slaying many years ago, but it still clenched her insides to think of it. Such a frenzy of butchery it had been that even thousands of years could not cleanse humanity of its stain. Magpie chewed her lip. There was no need to school Poppy in the ugliness of the world, was there? She said casually, “Ach, who knows? There’s whole volcanoes a dragon could slip down into like a bubble bath. Sure they’re hiding...but tell me, what about you?”
Poppy said, “Nothing to do with mannies and monkeys! Just growing things. Dreaming new flowers. Making potions.”
“Potions?”
“Aye. I’ve never been great with glyphs,” she admitted with a pretty blush. “But potions I can see and stir. They make sense to me.”
Potions were a very different art from glyphs, an earthy magic Magpie associated with hearth witches and healers. “What sort of potions?” she asked.
“Oh, say, for better night vision or a singing voice, or seeing lies or remembering your dreams. And for things like wrinkles and warts—”
“Causing them or curing them?”
Poppy laughed. “Both! And there are potions for telling if a babe is a lad or lass before it’s born. And love magic—”
Magpie snorted. “Love magic! I don’t think you’ll be needing any potions to make lads fall in love withyou.”
“Me?” Poppy grimaced. “Lads? Echh. Nay, please! But oh, my cousin Kex has been hounding me fierce for a potion to woo the queen.”
Magpie froze and narrowed her eyes. “Queen?” she asked.
“Aye! Haven’t you heard yet?” Poppy laughed a hard laugh. “The heir of Bellatrix has been found, blessings be!”
“That fake’s nothing to do with Bellatrix!” Magpie snapped.
