ATT WAS FALLING The ground had opened up beneath him and as he plummeted headlong through a narrow tunnel arms and legs flailing there was no ending just falling falling falling When he tried to scream the roaring wind filled his throat and only a sob escaped his lips His mind was a blur His panic was so intense that he couldn’t concentrate on anything but the certainty that he was going to die A heartbeat later he heard someone screaming She plunged past him bouncing off the milk-white walls of the tunnel Becky Matt cried Matt she shrieked tumbling head over heels her voice raw with fear Matt Matt Suddenly the boy and his sister hurtled around a curve and a ragged figure brushed past them followed by another and another and another Pale faces with huge gleaming eyes and pointed ears stared then shot out of sight With a sudden burst of shock and relief Matt realized that he wasn’t falling after all It wasn’t gravity pulling him down it was something else some unknown force pulling him and his sister forward in a vast tunnel parallel to the ground but beneath it They were in the Cord They were traveling the Low Road the Faerie passage hidden in the earth and Matt and his sister weren’t falling they were flying Becky Matt cried Hold your hands out in front of you keep your body straight and your eyes ahead Look where you’re going I can’t Becky sobbed and bounced off another wall Yes you can If I can do it so can you
I can’t Becky insisted as Matt drew alongside her and took her hand in his Then stay with me he said trying to keep his sister steady as they hurtled together through the tunnel Even though Matt’s heart was pounding confidence welled up inside him he felt a crazy certainty that he could do this that he could navigate the Faerie passage that he could lead himself and his sister to safety somewhere up ahead We’re flying The words burst from him fragile and explosive Becky we’re flying Then in the distance he saw a dark line spread along the wall of the Cord like an ink mark drawn by an invisible hand There was a ripping sound Dozens of tiny filthy fingers reached into the tunnel and grabbed Becky by her hair They yanked her from the Cord as Matt hurtled forward unable to turn back In despair he clutched at the walls with his fingernails trying to slow the insane velocity His grip gave way Then his perspective shifted again and in horror he saw that he wasn’t flying after all He was falling down down down Silence Matt opened his eyes and sat up in the darkness He was breathing so hard that he felt dizzy In the seconds it took to orient himself a glimmer of hope welled up inside then vanished leaving him in a place blacker than he could ever have imagined in his brief fourteen years of life As he left the realm of dreams behind and entered the waking world Matt had no doubt that this was the real nightmare He wasn’t at home in bed He was in a cramped moldy space beneath the roots of some enormous tree in the woods where he had spent the night sleeping fitfully next to his sister on a pile of damp leaves He brushed a leaf from his face and peered into the darkness to see if Becky was still lying asleep beside him He heard her quiet breath regular and calm and he decided to leave her alone She was only nine It wasn’t fair to subject her to this insanity Daytime would come too soon Matt crawled out from under the tree roots into the dark forest His jeans and T-shirt were filthy caked with dirt even though he had turned his clothes inside out like the Elves asked him to Evil spirits they said would be less able to recognize someone with their clothes turned inside out Around his neck hung a tangle of beads amulets and charms designed to protect him from spells or at least that’s what the Elves told him All superstitious garbage all of it Matt thought There was a soggy lump of herbs tucked between his teeth and gums He spit it out into the foliage All night long he had kept the bitter
herbs in his mouth just like they had instructed This was supposed to dull the pain from the markings they had tattooed on his chest which they’d guaranteed would hurt They were right he thought This was madness all madness And it was all his fault Matt slipped his fingers beneath his T-shirt and felt the place where his skin had been marked To protect and help you the Elves had said The tattoos were necessary to protect him from the dangers that lay ahead What dangers Matt thought And how would they help Was he crazy to agree to this What was he thinking It had started with the shoe It seemed like a lifetime ago so much had changed since then Matt’s dad and mom had moved the family from their apartment in Pittsburgh to the hilly countryside north of town to start a new life Dad had inherited a big piece of property and it was there that he built the houses on the edge of the rural highway He was going to be a developer He was going to transform the forest into a place where people could live But Matt running barefoot through the construction site stepped on a little jeweled shoe only two inches long and everything changed Matt hid the infection that began to fester in his foot Then the Elves came to him in the night and demanded that he return it to them Elf Matt pondered was a funny word When people thought of Elves they’d picture cartoon characters baking cookies in wood-fired ovens they’d think of fairy tales and silly stories meant to entertain and amuse children And yet here were Matt and his sister cowering in fear obeying the commands of humanoid creatures who called themselves Elves Because of the shoe the little jeweled shoe Matt had discovered a realm unknown to humans It lay somehow parallel to his own world though the bonds that kept these two worlds apart were coming undone The Elves were at war both with each other and with people though there were few who knew that yet The houses Matt’s dad had built were all burned to the ground by some hideous flying fire breathing things and there was nowhere in the human world for Matt and his sister to go Their parents and baby sister had been taken abducted by a group of renegade Elves Matt peered into the darkness Over the tops of the trees a streak of purple appeared dawn was near He heard what sounded like footsteps in the distance clomping over the leaves on the forest floor Elves no doubt soldiers on guard were patrolling the outskirts of the Elfin city of Ljosalfar Matt moved carefully among the trees His fingers touched carved wood it was one of the totem poles sculpted by Neaca She was an old friend of the Mage The Mage had
ruled Alfheim the community of Elves that was destroyed in the firestorm that took Matt’s own home Now the Mage and her apprentice Tuava-Li were homeless too and they along with Matt Becky and Tomtar were all Neaca’s guests Neaca’s forest home was surrounded by totem poles like the one Matt stood behind She called them her Klumma Matt is that you a voice whispered from the gloom Tomtar Matt replied Matt and Becky had gotten to know the Troll in the weeks after Matt had stepped on the jeweled shoe Before the failed Elfin wedding and the battle that followed Before the fire Before the black-robed Elfin monks took his parents and his baby sister in the flying machines Before Prince Macta and the monk Jardaine entered his house with the ghost-girl Anna before the guns and the fear the running and the screaming back when the world Matt knew was simple and peaceful and good If Matt had a friend in this bleak place it was Tomtar What are you doing up so early Tomtar asked I had a bad dream I couldn’t sleep And these these tattoos hurt I think the elves are trying to kill me Tomtar squatted in the brush between two Klumma He glanced up at the boy through a mop of curls wondering if he was making some kind of joke Tisn’t funny Matt I know you don’t trust em but you’ve got to try The Mage knows better than us what’s at stake Matt saw movement in the shadows ahead and ducked down Lights like torches appeared Fire Sprites Matt mouthed the words He’d seen them before in the battle in the woods A moment later a squadron of perhaps a hundred Elfin soldiers marched past Matt was sure they would hear his beating heart and the throb of blood pulsing in his veins He squeezed his eyes shut Soon the soldiers passed by oblivious to the boy and the Troll When their footsteps faded in the distance Tomtar grinned up at Matt He rapped his knuckles on the Klumma and stood up to his full height of twenty-seven inches We’ve got to trust em see Old Neaca’s lived here for ten thousand moons without bein noticed right here on the edge of Ljosalfar These things she’s carved they keep the world away We’re as good as invisible as long as we stay inside their perimeter
