The Rescue

PART NINE
If some fairies are not warmed up the right way after enforced hibernation, they can sometimes go a bit berserk and destroy anything in their path. Luckily this will only last quarter of an hour, after which the fairies will become unconscious. Unluckily, if they do not receive proper treatment they may die. While this is happening no fairy is capable of any kind of thought, rational or otherwise. After they recover they will have no memory of what has happened to them after their enforced hibernation.

Patrick looked over his bed at Ruth who was writing in her diary.

The immortals had somehow found out that they were siblings and connected their rooms. It wasn't all that uncomfortable, although there was no furniture apart from two beds, one chair and one bookshelf. They had been very kindly given a kitchen where Ruth now spent most of her time as a distraction from where she was and what had happened. She also took to writing down things which hadn't actually taken place.

They didn't talk much.  Most of Patrick's time was spent in reading as there was an infinite number of books which were replaced every week. It had been almost a month since they had arrived there. This could only be told by the electronic calendar/clock on the wall as there were no windows. They heard a rumble and the sound of someone speaking very loudly outside, followed by a loud crash which shook the floor. All the lights went out. 

“What is it, Patrick?” asked Ruth, 

“I don't know.” There was a soft buzz and a small amount of light appeared from the far wall. “The door's open!” 

“Shall we get out?” 

“Not yet, wait until we know it's safe.”

Earlier that day the guards had noticed a strange woman wandering along the wall above the large gate which led into the palace. 
“Hey! Who are you?” called one particularly large guard, named Frank, brandishing his gun. The stranger advanced. 
“Hello, I'm looking for Queen Devo's palace, could you tell me where it is?” 
“Er... this is the queens' palace.” 
“Oh thankyou, I've been searching all night.  You must be a guard, pleased to meet you. My name is Ivan. What's yours?”

Ivan shook Franks' hand with both of hers, demonstrating that she was quite as strong as he was. 
“My name is Frank and I am a guard.” 
“Well, Frank, how is life as a guard treating you?” 
“Well it's not the most interesting job in the world, most days there's nothing to guard the palace against, speaking of that, what are you doing here? You didn't spend all night searching just to ask me about my job did you?” 
“I did.” 
“You came just for that?” 
“Well... not you personally, I'm... taking a survey on how the palace guards here are being treated.” At that moment Tom, who had been guarding the other side of the wall, came over to see what they were doing and if he could help Frank in any way. 
“Can I help you with anything?” he asked 
“Yes thankyou, my name is Ivan. I'm taking a survey. Nice to meet you. What's your name?” 
“Uh, Tom.” 
“Tom, could you possibly call over that other guard who I can see at the other end of the wall?” 
“Alright. Ben, come over here!” 
“Thankyou. You're a very obliging young man.” Ben soon reached them and looked questioningly at Tom, 
“What is it sir?” 
“Hello you must be Ben, my name is Ivan.” 
“She's taking a survey.” 
“Oh. How do you do?” he held out his hand. 
Tom, who had happened to glance over the wall, tapped Frank on the shoulder. “Uh, Frank... I think you should look...”

“What is it? What the-?” On seeing the crowd of fairy soldiers arrayed in front of the wall, silently observing the little group, Franks' first reaction was to gasp in horror and his second reaction would have been to sound the alarm but it was cut off abruptly by a violent blow to the top of his head from his own gun wielded by Ivan who dealt with the others in the same manner, leaving them in a silent heap on the ground. 

“'Morning! Do you want the gates open?” Ivan yelled down. 

“Yes thankyou!” the fairy captain yelled back, 

“Right. I'll be with you in a minute.”  The gates were soon open and the army inside. It was the custom of the fairy army when they fought to be as quiet as possible and not to kill anybody but to merely render them unconscious, especially as they were on a raid rather than at war.  Because of this, no one really noticed until almost the afternoon. By then most of the troops were either locked in closets or lying around somewhere probably dreaming of a strange aunt named Annie with an apron made from live rabbits or of flying trough the clouds with a dog named Mat. So the general called for the next best thing: the prison guards. After the call was sent out, the fairies blew up the power lines but that didn't matter, except for the small problem of how they were to find each other in the pitch dark.

When Ivis received the call she was in one of her “Depressions” where she would just sit on a chair and be as negative as possible.

Once she had threatened suicide and would have done it too if there had been anything to do it with which there very luckily wasn't. Why they still kept her as a guard is a mystery. When the call came she decided she had had enough and shot herself with her gun. A minute after, the power went off.

Now would be a favourable time to explain just what was happening: back at the Macandrews' house, as soon as the immortals had left, the whole family group had set out for the nearest fairy base to tell them what had happened to Patrick, Ruth and Anise. This was a long journey so it was nearly a month before the fairy army were informed and did something about it. Ivan, one of their best scouts had been sent to open the gates for them and you know the rest.

Due to the sudden rise in temperature Anise was soon awake. The first thing she saw was that what had been a black wall before the loss of power was now merely a sheet of glass blocking her from the room beyond. The second thing she saw as she stood up was the horrifying sight of Ivis lying dead on the floor.

Anise stood for a few minutes and stared, the temperature rising all the time and the puddle of blood on the floor increasing slowly in size. Suddenly she leapt up and hurled herself at the wall of glass until it shattered. Anise charged at the door and smashed it as well. Outside she met the prince who was on his way to give a rousing speech to fire up the troops, but he was doomed. Anise fell upon him and strangled him. She charged through the palace and soon found her way to Queen Devo's private apartments which she swept through like a whirlwind until she found the Queen herself in a large sitting room writing something down by the light of a small lamp. When she saw Anise she shrieked and backed away into a sofa but Anise was upon her before she could move any further and the life was soon crushed out of her.

Anise fell down in a crumpled heap on the floor. This was the scene which met the eyes of Evo who had come down because of the noise. Evo was twelve, with blonde hair and green eyes. She had the same interests and prejudices as her mother, was devoted to making Devo proud of her, was of strong arm, mind and will and very clever. She was horrified to see the dead and bloodstained body of her mother lying on the sofa

Anise, on the floor, also appeared to be dead and was bleeding from cuts in her arms and legs. Evo rushed to the sofa to confirm her suspicions. She did not cry, she was not as weak as that. The paper on the table caught her eye. She snatched it up and read it rapidly. It was the right to the immortal throne. She stuffed it into her pocket and left the room. It is said that after this she took the few troops still conscious and fled deep into the mountains through a secret tunnel and from there began to raise an army large enough to drive the fairies from Outer Earth. Meanwhile the fairies were quickly gaining ground and soon there was not one immortal on his or her feet in the palace.  The army was able to penetrate the inner rooms where they found Devo and Anise.  Once they had rescued all the prisoners, including Anise, Patrick and Ruth they returned to fairy territory.  Anise was put in the recovery centre in Instan City but it was nearly half a month, (80 normal days), before she regained consciousness.

END PART NINE

The next part of Anise will be the last. I shall be putting a new book on here soon.