Keys and Curses (Shadow Book 2) by Nina Smith Page B

anyway. “I swear to you I am not crazy.”
    She regarded him a moment longer. “The king will know. He’ll help you.” She turned on her heel and walked brusquely down the path, just as though she knew exactly where she was going and it was very important she not be late getting there.
    Nikifor stayed where he was, staring after her. A cold, sick feeling settled in his stomach. He could still hear the words of the little Bloody Fairy with the long hair, this Hippy Ishtar whom he had helped but could barely remember.
    Your destiny is to kill the muse king.
    “I fear I am not fit to seek out the king with you, my friend,” he said under his breath.
     

     
    They walked all day. The sun was past its peak when the white gravel path finally veered away from Quicksilver forest to cut through a paddock where swollen, heavy yellow buds threatened to burst into flower at any moment. Nikifor trailed his fingers over the greenery, concentrating on the sensation of furry leaves and tough stems, trying to remember whether this was a crop of peas or some underground tuber. It helped to focus on everything that was around him. He wanted to be present, lucid, to feel normal again and hang onto that sensation for dear life.
    The hills crept closer. The afternoon wore into evening, and the mountain became less of a shadow and more of a smudge on the horizon. They camped overnight in the shelter of a lone tree, shivering around a tiny fire they lit in a damp hole in the ground. Nobody came near in all that time. They might have been the only people in all Shadow.
    The next morning was sunny again, but the cold had not yet eased by the time they came upon a crooked wooden sign planted in soft dirt by the path. On it was a roughly carved picture of a flower and a circle with three arrowheads pointing in different directions. The whole thing was shaped like a lightning bolt topped with an arrow that pointed straight at the sky.
    Nikifor tipped his head back and considered the clear blue expanse, but there was nothing up there. 
    “We’re close.” Flower continued up the path.
    “Are you sure? Can you read the sign?”
    “Of course I can. It says `this way.’”
    Well, she was the fairy expert. Nikifor had never been in Bloomin Fairy country before. He’d never even met a Bloomin Fairy, and wasn’t sure he wanted to after being cursed by Freakin Fairies and hit over the head by Bloody Fairies. 
    The white gravel became brighter white. A stand of tall, slim, white-trunked trees growing along the roadside obscured the paddocks. The path went around a bend. Nikifor, lost in wondering if it would be such a bad thing to never find the king, almost ran straight into Flower when she halted. The two of them stared at the structure blocking the way much like a pair of frightened rabbits caught out after dark.

A wall of industrial grade quicksilver barred the road from tree to tree, with no way past. The wall was patterned with thousands of tiny geometric lines that made Nikifor feel mildly ill. The brightness of the reflected sunlight off it didn’t help either. Dead in the centre of the structure was the outline of a door.
    “I don’t like this,” he said.
    “Neither do I.” Flower spoke through clenched teeth. “It was clearly stated in the third article of the Bloomin Fairy land treaty, which I brokered, that no major routes in or out of the territory are to be barred in any way that would impinge on the cultural practices or free movements of the inhabitants. I did not spend fifty years negotiating that document to stand by and see it flouted!”
    “Flower wait!” Nikifor tried to grab her sleeve, but was left with a handful of thin air.
    She marched right up to the wall and hammered on it with her fist. “Hey you! Open up!”
    Nikifor put his face in his hands and groaned. This couldn’t possibly end well.
    A small window shot open high up in the wall and a pale face appeared in it. “No entry without paperwork!” The