The Silver Stag

by Yasmine Galenorn

  Viktor looked at me. “Once Herne and I saw the mess, we wanted to spare Angel the heartache.”

  “Thank you.” I shook my head, trying to figure out what kind of people would do such a thing when they thought a child was involved. Talia may have thought that I had to come to terms with my heritage, and she was probably right, but when I saw destruction like this, it made me want to run farther away.

  “I just want to focus on stopping Kuveo. I’m used to having to kill some of the sub-Fae like goblins and the like, but the kind of brutality that we’ve seen the past couple of days makes my stomach churn. Do you ever get used to it?” I looked up at the ogre, hoping—and yet fearing—that he would say yes.

  “No. You’d think it wouldn’t bother me so much, given I’m half-ogre. But I think anybody who has any sort of empathy will find this job challenging at times. That’s why we do it. If we didn’t care, why bother? Why try to make a difference? It’s always going to be difficult for those who really care. But we are the ones who can make a difference, who can put wrongs to right. Or at least, most of the time. Herne hasn’t told you something, but you deserve to know.”

  “What are you talking about?” Herne asked.

  “I know what he’s talking about. Sometimes, we have to be agents of chaos,” Yutani said, his voice low as he stared at his tablet.

  “What does he mean?” I glanced at Viktor, who had a dark look on his face.

  “Sometimes we’re called on to right the balance when light overshadows darkness. There’s a balance between good and evil, and it must be maintained.”

  “I know that,” I started to say, but caught sight of Herne, who was giving Viktor a long look through the rearview mirror. He shook his head ever so slightly.

  “Never mind. I’m sure things will sort themselves out.” The ogre went back to looking out the window, and feeling confused, I did the same.

  We entered UnderLake Park and were nearly at the turnoff to Castle Hall when Yutani asked Herne to slow down.

  “Going about as slow as I can—fifteen miles an hour,” Herne said.

  “There should be a turnoff near the ruins. Take that and park. It’s going to be difficult to see in the darkness, but you should be able to find it if you’re going slow enough.” Yutani consulted his tablet, then said, “On the right side.”

  Less than sixty seconds later Herne eased into a parking spot. I could barely see the sign indicating that turnoff, but apparently Herne’s eyesight was better than mine.

  “All right, everybody out and grab your bags. Try to move as quietly as you can, although I realize that’s asking a lot.” Herne gave us all a look that told me that this had been an issue in the past. By Viktor’s response, I knew I was right.

  “Dude, are you going to bring that up every time we head out in the field?” the ogre whined.

  Herne snorted. “I wouldn’t have to if you’d watch where you put your big feet.”

  Their sparring sounded good-natured, and one look at Yutani told me that. As much as they might poke and prod each other, they really did care.

  “We need to get into the basement level. From there, we search for an entrance to the underground labyrinth,” Yutani said. He paused. “You all should know that I saw a coyote on my way to work.”

  Herne let out a slow breath. “Just what we need. All right, thank you for warning us.” He glanced at me. “You’d better tell her. She still doesn’t know.”

  Yutani slid his tablet into his bag and switched to his phone. “Every time a coyote crosses my path, it means trouble’s ahead. Sometimes it’s danger, other times just chaos.”

  He shrugged into a denim jacket and pulled his hair back in a sleek ponytail. He slid on a black Deadman Tophat with a blue feather in the band, and suddenly he went from gangly geek to gorgeous hunk. It was amazing what the right look could do, I thought, then tried to shake off my libido, which had been on overdrive since I met Herne.

  “Well, I guess I’m forewarned.” There wasn’t much else I could say. I showed Herne my dagger.

  “That’s a good blade. Looks sturdy. Nice sharp edge. You have a secondary weapon?”

  I blinked. “Not on me. But I can shoot crossbow with dead accuracy. And I can fight double-handed. Two blades at once.”

  He motioned to Viktor, who handed me one of the small crossbows I had seen in the armory. “Have you shot this kind before?”

  I glanced over it. The pistol crossbow was handmade, that much I could tell, but not dissimilar to the ones I had learned on. But there was enough variation that I wasn’t sure how quickly I’d ramp up with it.

  “I’d better put in a little practice with it before I take it into a hostile situation. If you have any nunchaku, those I can use.” I handed him back the crossbow reluctantly. I enjoyed target practice, and they came in handy when you didn’t want to get too close to an opponent.

  “I can provide a pair,” he said, putting away the crossbow and handing me a pair of nunchaku.

  I tested the weight and found them to be almost identical to the ones I owned, and hooked them onto my belt. The weight of the extra weapon calmed me down, and I realized just how nervous I was.

  “These are good. I’m ready.” I grounded myself as we crossed the lawn to the remains of Castle Hall.

  The ruins were in bad shape, though—unlike Angel’s house—they were still standing. Weathering and neglect had taken their toll, along with the inevitable march of time. Some of the walls were still standing, while others had caved in and crumbled. The roof was still in place, which both surprised me and made me nervous, given we were going inside. Nothing about Castle Hall looked stable, but I figured since the city owned the park, if they thought the house was going to fall down and kill somebody, surely they would have cordoned it off.

  The mansion had been huge, three stories high, and it looked like most of the impacted walls were on the upper levels. A corner wall on the third story had crumbled, and on the second story a number of windows had been broken out, and the half-walls beneath them were broken through. Up close, especially under the cover of night, the great house loomed like some massive, threatening shadow.

  “And we’re going in there,” I murmured.

  “Yeah, that’s about the size of it,” Viktor said, letting out a slow breath.

  I glanced over at Yutani, wondering how his fighting skills were. He had his phone in one hand, and in his other, he carried what looked like a barbed dagger. I raised my eyebrows.

  “That looks wicked.” I pointed to the blade.

  In the light of our flashlights, the smile he gave me looked feral, and his eyes flashed with a topaz light. He patted the blade against his jeans.

  “Oh, she is. The blade has a silver alloy coating, and beneath it, iron. Whether I go up against vampire or Fae, it will do the trick. The Wulfine don’t care for it either, but I’ve seldom had altercations with them, although they don’t like us coyote shifters much.”

  That surprised me. “I would think you get along. You’re both…canine.” That came out wrong and I grimaced, but Yutani just laughed.

  “But not all dogs pack together. The Wulfine see us as dirty mongrels, not noble like they claim to be. While the coyote shifters are street smart and cunning. Sometimes the Wulfine have too many rules for their own good. We know how to fight dirty and are willing to do so when necessary.” And with that, he shrugged and motioned for me to be quiet. “We’re close enough to be heard.”

  I wanted to point out that we had our flashlights on. Even if they didn’t hear us, they could probably see us if they happened to be looking out a window. But I figured the guys had done this before, so I kept my mouth shut.

  We crossed to the front door. At first I thought we should go through the back, but it occurred to me that since nobody was supposed to be living here, and all of the dirty work had been belowground. If anybody but the ghosties were hiding out inside, they were probably down in the subterra
nean hideout.

  Herne went first, with Yutani second. I came third and Viktor took the rear, keeping an eye on our backs so that we weren’t surprised from behind. I liked the idea of having an ogre covering my ass. It made me feel secure, though I had no doubt that both Herne and Yutani could hold their own in a fight.

  But Herne didn’t go directly to the front door. He skirted the outside of the building around to the left, and then, when we were by the side, he crept to one of the windows. I frowned, but then I caught a glimpse of Yutani’s phone—the blue light was even more visible than our flashlights—and saw that he had some sort of GPS going. It didn’t look like a regular map, so I guessed he had plotted out the projected route we needed to take.

  Herne ran his fingers along the windowsill. Then he took out a small crowbar and pried the window open. At first, it didn’t want to budge, but then it let out a creak as the wooden frame jogged free from the sill. Once it was open a couple inches, he put the crowbar away and put some muscle into it, heaving up the frame to expose enough space for us to crawl through. Leaning in, he flashed his light on the floor, then slipped through the opening.

  Yutani followed him, and then it was my turn. Viktor started to offer me a leg up, but I was already half through, swinging my legs over the sill and finding my footing beside Herne. Viktor heaved himself through, and we were in.

  I glanced around. The lights of our flashlight offered enough visibility for me to see that we were in what must have been a parlor of sorts. It smelled like mold and dust, and I shivered as an unexpected blast of cold air swept past.

  “Ghost,” Yutani said softly, keeping his voice low.

  “They gather here,” Herne said. “You said the trap door is in here?”

  Yutani nodded. “It should be over by that bookshelf somewhere.” He nodded toward a built-in that was filled with decaying books. I grimaced as we moved toward the shelves.

  “What a waste, to let all of the books go to ruin.” I loved to read and it pissed me off to see so many books destroyed.

  Yutani began to search along the floor as Herne took one side of the bookshelf and Viktor the other. We had been looking for some sort of trigger button for about five minutes when I realized that something on the shelves looked out of place. I stood back, eyeing the bookcase, squinting as I tried to figure out what was off. And then I realized what it was. One book looked almost new amidst the sodden mass of pulp and paper. I crossed over to it, shining my flashlight on it. The title read Aladdin’s Lamp.

  I motioned to the men. “Found it, I think.” I pointed to the book. “It looks almost new, so it’s probably not a real book. Can we say ‘Open sesame’?”

  Yutani’s eyes gleamed as he gave me an appreciatory nod. Herne let out a grunt that was almost a laugh. He clapped me on the shoulder.

  “Good work. I knew you’d be an advantage on the team.” He motioned for us to stand back as Yutani checked around the book.

  “What are you looking for?” I kept my voice low, still worried we were being observed.

  “Any visible traps.” Yutani poked and prodded the decaying books to both sides, then shrugged. “Looks clear to me. Most people don’t seem to read much, so I assume they figured nobody would notice.”

  “Here goes nothing.” Herne pulled the book and it tipped forward with a click. To the right side, part of the built-in opened—a door in the unit. We were staring into a small dark room with a spiral staircase leading down.

  “Okay, then. Here we are.” Yutani consulted his phone. “Down the staircase should put us near the place that the summoning ritual was held. Let me take the lead. I can see in the dark easier. From here on, we’ll have to rely on the light from the dimlim.”

  “The what?” I had never heard the word before.

  “Dimlim—slang for one of our gadgets. It’s a low-light illumination device, which basically gives us just enough light to see by, and won’t attract much attention. It’s not like a beacon, unless it’s pitch dark, and even then it can be mistaken for several things. Think low-level green light.” He flipped the switch on a gadget that was attached to his belt and turned off his phone. “Flashlights off.”

  Sure enough, at that point, the darkness encroached and I could see in front of me, but not by much. Just enough to see directly in front of me. Yutani swung onto the spiral staircase and we followed him down.

  The staircase was steel, and there was no way to hide the sound of our footsteps. I noticed that Herne’s steps could barely be heard, while the rest of us made what sounded to me like a racket, even though we did our best to move quietly.

  We moved quickly, clinging to the rail as we circled around and around, descending into the tunnel below. The dimlim illuminated our feet, but did not pierce the darkness below us. I wondered how far down we were going, as we kept spiraling, step after step. I thought back to the Market. But here, the shaft around us was roughly hewn, first out of compacted dirt and then turning into rock. I wondered how many years of rock and soil buildup we were passing through.

  It felt like we had been on the staircase for hours, although I knew it was only probably ten or fifteen minutes, but eventually Yutani stepped off of the bottom stair and made way for the rest of us. I looked up, unable to see the opening above. It was all murky blackness.

  The dimlim’s light illuminated the area directly around us, and I saw that there were two shafts, one leading straight ahead, the one behind us. Both were narrow passages, roughly hewn into an oval shape. The floor was rough, although it moved forward at an even grade. The walkway was wide enough for us to travel one at a time, and it occurred to me that if we met anybody coming our way, we were in for a standoff.

  I took a deep breath, trying to categorize the scents that I could smell. Dampness, and the pungent scent of mold from freshly turned soil during the spring. We weren’t that far from the lake, but I couldn’t sense the movement of water. These tunnels probably ran straight through the earth down to where they crossed over to Mercer Island, and then across the lake.

  “Anything?” Herne asked me, his voice soft and low.

  I shook my head, adjusting my voice so that it would not carry. “No, just mold and soil and the dampness that’s already in the air. I don’t smell anything out of place.”

  He turned to Yutani. “Hear anything?”

  Yutani shook his head as well. “If anybody’s down here, they aren’t in the immediate vicinity. Which is both good and bad. I’d like to get this over with, but at least there’s a chance they won’t have heard us coming.”

  “Which tunnel?” Viktor asked.

  Herne looked to Yutani for an answer. Yutani closed his eyes as though he were trying to remember something, then pointed to the tunnel directly in front of us.

  “This way. Straight ahead will lead us to the area where Kevin took the video. I just needed a moment to get my bearings.”

  I knew what he meant. The spiral staircase had turned us around so many times that I wasn’t sure which way we were facing. Herne took the lead, taking the dimlim from Yutani. He pulled out his dagger, and motioned for the rest of us to arm ourselves.

  As we crept along, I held my dagger firmly, but made sure I wasn’t clutching it too tightly. In a fight, it was best to keep as relaxed as possible, so that your movements wouldn’t be jerky. That way, if somebody caught you off guard, you wouldn’t be dragged forward if the blade got jammed into something. Or someone.

  We moved more swiftly now that we were on relatively level ground. Herne suddenly stopped and, in front of me, Yutani froze. Herne pointed toward the wall to his right and held up the dimlim. Yutani took a step to the left so that Viktor and I could see what Herne was pointing to.

  On the wall, spreading out like some amorphous blob, was a mass of sparkling gel. It clung to the wall, and I could see the faintest of movements as it slowly spread out, stretching thinner as it did so. Or maybe, it was actually growing. I had no clue what it was, but
Herne seemed wary and so did Yutani. I glanced up at Viktor, who was standing closest to me, and he shook his head.

  “Don’t touch it,” he said, whispering in my ear. “That’s a phosphorescent slime. Not only will it give you a severe acid burn, it will then infect you with some pretty horrible diseases. It’s riddled with bacteria. They breed like amoebas, splintering off from each other, which is probably what it’s doing now. Give it a wide berth, and now that we know one’s down here, be on the lookout for more.”

  I shuddered. It was beautiful in an eerie way, like a sparkling iridescent gel. But knowing it could kill me seemed to drain away some of the fascination. Yutani had heard Viktor and now he nodded in confirmation. We all pulled to the left after making sure there weren’t any others on the left side of the tunnel, and skirted around it as best as possible. Herne began checking the floor as we went, and I realized that the slimes were probably not confined to the walls. We’d have to be careful with every move we made. It made me wonder just how many other creatures there were that I didn’t know about, and how many we might find down here.

  We had gone probably two hundred yards down the tunnel when Herne stopped again, holding up his hand. He pointed forward, and pulled aside so we could see. Ahead, there seemed to be a faint light coming from the left, and I realized there was a branch in the tunnel.

  Herne glanced at Yutani, a question in his eyes.

  A moment later, Yutani pointed toward the turnoff.

  Herne gave him a nod, and once again began to move forward, preparing to turn the corner. I felt my breath quicken, and tried to calm myself. One thing was for sure: this wasn’t a profession for anyone with high blood pressure.

  For a moment, I wondered what Angel and Talia were up to, briefly envying their jobs. But this was what I was cut out for. I was born for this sort of work, even if it was a pain in the ass at times. I steadied myself, straightening as Herne neared the turnoff. From here, it was obvious that the tunnel we were entering was wider than the one we had been in, and Herne motioned for Yutani to scoot next to him. We’d swing around going two abreast.