Chapter 13

Tuck helped me back to the cavern. It was slow going with my twisted ankle, but we finally made it.

Kailen was still inside cooking the fish on the fire when we arrived. He had never even thought about coming to check on me. My feelings were hurt again. Tuck didn’t mention my ordeal to him and neither did I. I hoped that he would never find out. I had already had about all that I could take of his crazy mood swings.

I pulled myself away from Tuck and managed to walk on my own over to a large boulder. I did my best to make sure that I didn’t limp. I sat down on the cool stone and tried to steady my nerves after all that had happened.

When the food was finished, it was Tuck that brought me my share. “Tomorrow when Kailen leaves to gather more supplies I will start teaching you how to fight.” He whispered as he said this, so he must have been getting the same vibe from Kailen that I was.

I nodded in agreement. Kailen was leaving? He hadn’t even mentioned it to me. Not that he had said anything to me since our argument the day before, other than to yell at me. I still could not understand what had gone so wrong. Maybe he was bi-polar. Could fairies be bi-polar? Undoubtedly.

It had only been a few days since we shared our first kiss. I thought that maybe he really cared about me. I was certainly starting to feel something for him. I know that he was concerned that there would be no place for him in my life if I ever took over as queen, but that was just crazy. Maybe I needed to find a way to talk to him.

After we cleaned up the meal, Tuck went to lie down on his blanket on the floor. I had to take my chance while I had it. Kailen was stirring the coals around in the fire pit as I approached.

“Kailen?” He didn’t bother to look up.

“Kailen, what’s going on? Why are you ignoring me? I don’t know what has happened between us, but I can’t stand this.” I pleaded.

He turned from me and walked over to the few cooking utensils that were stacked close to where we normally ate.

“Kailen!” I caught him by the arm.

“Callie, just let it go.” He jerked his arm from me.

“Kailen, what in the hell is going on?”

“I should never have kissed you, Callie. I had no right.” He turned away again.

“What do you mean? I thought that you felt something for me that night above the tunnel. What possibly could have happened since then to change your mind?”

“Callie, you are going to be a queen. I am just a carpenter from a village of outcasts. This could never work between us. I don’t even think that I want it to. It’s better to end it now before we get caught up in something that we’ll both regret.”

“This is really stupid Kailen!” I yelled. I just couldn’t take it anymore. “If I am going to be some queen, then I have the right to be with whoever I choose.”

“It doesn’t work that way, Callie. The nobles of Petrona would never approve. They wouldn’t respect you. I couldn’t have that.”

“So you are just going to push me away. You’re not even willing to try?” I was exasperated. “You’re being a real jerk Kailen.”

He just stood there and glared at me for a moment. I huffed in frustration and when he didn’t speak, I turned and walked away.

I laid down on my blanket and cried myself to sleep for the second night since coming here.

By the time that Tuck woke me up the next morning Kailen was already gone. I looked over to see that even his bedroll was missing.

“Is Kailen coming back?’” I asked Tuck as he straightened out his sleeping area.

“Yeah, but it will be a few days. He is going back to Drake to get a bunch of stuff so that we can start making this place more livable.”

I hadn’t realized that he was going to be gone that long. He didn’t even have the decency to mention any of this, or to even say goodbye. I had to stop letting him get to me like this.

Pushing him from my mind, I turned back to Tuck. “What are our plans for today?”

“Today, we teach you to fight.” He said with a grin.

Tuck stood in the center of the room. He had been trying to teach me to fight using my legs. “Aim for my hands.” He held his palms out to me.

I spun around with my leg in the air and kicked him hard in the hip. It was all that he could do to keep from losing his balance.

“Nice try, but next time aim a little higher.”

I tried again and this time I hit my target. It felt great. I was finally getting the hang of it. I dared Sty, or anybody else for matter, to mess with me again.

Tuck took me through exercise after exercise. I practiced kicks and punches until I didn’t think that I was going to be able to lift my arms or my legs again, ever.

“Okay Callie, that’s enough for today. You did good.” He gave me an evil grin. “Tomorrow we really fight.”

I looked at him in alarm. “You me I actually have to fight you? Like, for real?”

“Yes.” He laughed. “You have to learn to block a hit, and how to counter attack once you have been blocked.”

“Alright.” I said with a sigh.

Tuck just laughed some more. “Right now, you need to learn how to fish.”

I let a long groan.

“You need to be able to survive without me around, Callie.”

“Are you planning on going somewhere?” I asked.

“No, but you never know. Plus, you can keep me company while I try to get us something fresh to eat. That jerky stuff is disgusting.”

“Well, you are right about that.”

We headed out to the river. Tuck pulled some string and a few hooks from his bag. He looked around on the floor for a moment and then he pounced.

“What are you doing?” I was getting a little nervous.

“Getting us some bait.” He smiled as he held up a big brown beetle.

“That’s really disgusting.” I scrunched my nose.

He baited the hooks and we spent the next couple of hours trying to entice the fish.

“You know Callie?” He had just finished pulling his third fish from the water. “It’s really going to be great when you get to be queen.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You really seem to care about everyone. It really seems to bother you when someone is not happy. It would not be about the power or control to you. You would have everyone’s best interest in mind, no matter what you tried to do.”

“The only reason that I am even considering it is because that’s what my parents wanted for me. And after seeing the people of Drake shunned from the city, and you living out here the way that you were, I knew that I needed to do something.”

“Things just haven’t been the same since your parents left.” He looked thoughtful for a moment.

“What was it like?”

“Once Lilith forced herself into the role, she started making all of these crazy rules. They made it impossible for the poorer people to sell their merchandise. Then she started adding these crazy taxes. The ones that couldn’t afford to pay were kicked out of the city.”

“Wow.” I said as I shook my head in disbelief.

“Some of the people that had been outcast tried to revolt. There was a great war between the outcasts and the Guard. Many Fae lost their lives, my parents included. They just didn’t have the training or the resources to take on the queen’s henchmen. Most of the remaining outcasts settled in Drake or roamed the tunnels. I’m not even sure what happened to the rest of them.”

“That’s really sad. It helps me to understand why I really need to do this, but I am afraid that there will have to be another war. I just don’t know if we will be able to get people to fight with us again. They have already lost so much. What if we don’t win? What if I can’t overthrow Lilith? Won’t that make things worse?”

“We will just have to win, Callie. Everything depends on it.” He looked more serious that I had ever seen him look.

I never realized that getting Lilith out of Petrona would mean so much to so many Fae. I was willing to bet that there were plenty of people still living in the city that would stand beside us as well. Now I really knew that I had to do everything I could to prepare for a fight.

Tuck managed to catch a few more fish before we made our way back. We cooked them and went to bed early. I needed as much rest as I could get. My body was worn out from everything that I had put it through lately and I still had a lot left to learn.

The next day I found myself toe to toe with Tuck. I tried hard to get a hit in on him but he blocked me every time. When I wasn’t paying attention, he would get a good hit in on me. I flinched with the pain of each blow, but he wasn’t really hitting me hard. I am sure he could have done a lot more damage than that.

It didn’t take long for my reflexes to kick in. Soon, I was giving him a run for his money. He came at me with a jab and I blocked him with my left hand as I landed a blow with my right.

I learned to roll away and get back on my feet quickly. I even learned to use my wings to fly at him to land a blow. I was quite proud of myself.

“That’s it, let’s call it a day.” He was wiping sweat from his brow.

I bent over with my hands braced on my knees and panted to catch my breath. “Sounds good to me. What should we do the rest of the day?”

“I think that we are going to take a little trip ourselves.” He winked as he said it.

A trip? I was really starting to get excited. “Where are we going?”

“There is somebody that you need to meet.” He would not say anything further, which left me anxious but thrilled all at the same time. I trusted Tuck, and I knew that whatever he had up his sleeve had to be good.

We gathered a few things to take with us. Since we were setting out so late, we needed to be prepared to spend the night away from the cavern.

Once everything was ready we headed out past the waterfall, but we didn’t climb back up to the tunnel. Instead, we followed the river downstream. We walked for a long time, and soon I started noticing pieces of wood tacked up all over the place. They had warnings painted in sloppy red paint. Things like beware and turn back now were positioned every few feet.

“Should we be down here?” I asked getting a little nervous.

“Yeah, you’ll see.” Is all that Tuck answered.

I trudged on, but I couldn’t help but get a little nervous about all of the warnings. The passage began to get wider and I began to notice random pieces of junk piled up along the walls. There were old wooden crates and broken chairs. I saw an old broken bicycle and even an old stove like the one that I used to have back home. Pretty much anything that you could imagine.

I noticed the golden glow of candle light up ahead of us. I started to slow my pace but Tuck just motioned for me to keep up.

“There it is.” He started to trot ahead of me.

“Hello?” He called. “Mr. Biggins?”

I heard someone stirring as we approached a room built into the side of the wall. A short stocky man with short tattered black pants and a dirty tan button down shirt and bare feet stepped out of the doorway. He squinted his eyes at us. Then his face revealed a glint of recognition.

“Tuck? Is that you?” He asked as he came out into the passage.

“It’s me.” Tuck held out his hand and Mr. Biggins took it in his and shook.

“I have brought someone to meet you. This is Callie.” Tuck gestured to me.

Mr. Biggins squinted again as if he were trying hard to get a good look at me.

“Well you don’t say. Miss Calliope Rose.” He said in awe as he shook my hand as well. “What a pleasure.”

“How do you know my name?” I had never laid eyes on him before. I was sure that I would have remembered him.

“Well, you have certainly grown since the last time that I saw you, but I could never forget a face like that. You look just like your mother.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I just smiled. He knew my mother. That could not be a bad thing, could it?

“Come in, come in.” He motioned for us to enter his room.

Inside, it turned out, was some sort of a workshop. There were tools and scraps of metal and wood strewn about a long table. In the back of the room was a small bed, a few chairs, and a few shelves covered in various half completed projects it appeared.

“Mr. Biggins, I was hoping that you could help Callie. I have been helping her learn to fight. She’s come a long way and I think that she might be ready to try her hand at a good weapon.”

“A weapon?” I was obviously shocked. Tuck and Mr. Biggins turned to look at me briefly, but then carried on as if I had not said anything at all.

“A weapon suitable for princess?” Mr. Biggins thought out loud. “I think that I have just what she needs.” He walked over to a large wooden crate and began to root through it, tossing things here and there. “Ah, here it is.”

He lifted a long wooden box that was carved with flowers and vines in intricate detail. He sat the box on the table and loosened a little golden clasp on the front of it. He raised the lid to reveal a beautiful silver sword. It was at least three feet long, and very slender. It shined like a mirror, and the handle was made of gold and was carved with the same intricate floral detail as the box. Next to it laid a long stiff leather sheath.

“Wow, this is for me?” I asked as I gazed at the beautiful blade.

“This was your mother’s. She left it with me for safekeeping. Now it belongs to you.” He carefully lifted it from the box with two hands and held it out to me.

I took it from him, holding it carefully by its handle. I clasped it with both hands and stepped into a warrior’s pose. “How do I look?”

Tuck laughed. “Fierce. Definitely fierce.”

I carefully laid the sword back on its velvety bed and closed up the box.

“How could I ever repay you?” I asked the old man.

“Just help us get our home back.”