“What?” Klassje looked genuinely shocked and I was stunned too.
Odran had always seemed so at home there.
“This trip has made me aware o’ how mooch Ah may have let mah duties an’ responsibilities slide,” Odran explained. “Now that Ah have abdicated, Ah have nae duties or responsibilities as sooch, an’ sooddenly Ah feel them all the more. Ah have seen with mah own eyes the resurgence o’ the Oonseelie Court an’ it is a terror to see. Ah hope, that savin’ your wee bairn may be enough to end it afore it starts, boot Ah cannae take sooch a risk. Ah am resolved to return to the Seelie Court an’ give them an ultimatum.”
“If they don’t deal with the Unseelie then you will?” I suggested.
Odran nodded. “Aye. Even if Ah have to raise an army o’ mah own to do it. An’ Ah dinnae think they want a man o’ my charisma raisin’ a fighting force.” He shook his head. “Ah should nae have let things get to this pass while Ah was king. Ah cannae change what has occurred, boot Ah can make sure it doesnae happen again.”
This journey had changed Odran, and I thought for the better. He had always been the proud, strong leader, but now that courage was tempered with wisdom and a sense of responsibility. I knew he held himself to blame for what had happened to Sinjin and Dureau.
But so did all of us.
#
It was the following day that we found what we were looking for, quicker than any of us could have predicted. Away from the mountains, Faery became more bountiful and bright, though it was wilder here than in the lush fields and green forests around the Seelie Court. Maybe it was having my daughter with us that made the place seem brighter.
As ever, the land of Faery reflected back what you brought to it
—it was hard to imagine that Klassje, Odran or I would be bringing anything happy, but my baby seemed always to be smiling and happy, giggling to herself as she watched the world go by from the sling I had improvised to carry her in. She was a joyous child, reminding me more than a little of her cousin Emma, and that joy was realized in the land around us.
“Have you thought about names?” asked Klassje, offering a finger to my baby who sucked on it and beamed at the vampire.
“I can’t help thinking of them,” I admitted. “But I’m not making a choice without Sinjin.” I wouldn’t admit that such might leave the child nameless a long time. Perhaps even forever.
“Well,” Klassje mused airily, “you can’t go wrong with something traditional, like say, just for instance, off the top of my head; Klassje . Or I understand that some people like to name their child after someone important in their life; a friend or something. So maybe—and I’m just spit-balling here—something like Klassje ?”
“Very funny, Klaasje, but I’m not naming my child after you,” I said on a laugh.
She laughed as well. “Also, have you heard of nominative determinism?”
“What?”
“It means a child’s future can, in some part, be determined by its name; so if you call her Honey then she’ll be sweet. So… and
I mean I’m just guessing here… you’d want your daughter to be strong and brave and independent and a good fighter. So if you know someone like that, then she would see that example and think; cool, we have the same name, I could be like her.”
“Did you have a name in mind?” I asked, playing along.
“Well, you’ve put me on the spot, but I was toying around with Klassje ?”
I smiled at her and shook my head. It was really nice to have a friend with me, someone who could help lift the sadness every time I thought about my vampire. “I wonder if Sinjin would approve.”
“You don’t want to listen to him. He’s got an old fashioned taste in names.”
I couldn’t help thinking back to the conversation I’d had with Dureau and wondered if I dared broach the subject. It was still none of my business and would surely be a difficult subject now with things the way they were. On the other hand…
“Have you ever thought about kids ?”
Klassje had been looking down at the baby again but her head shot up as I spoke, looking like a rabbit in the headlights. She tried to shrug her obvious surprise off and be casual.
“I’m a vampire. Not really an issue.”
“There are other ways to…”
“I’m not thinking about it until I know Dureau is safe.”
“So when we’ve got them back…”
“Not thinking about it,” said Klassje, firmly. She was deflecting, but I couldn’t really blame her. It was none of my business.
“Lasses!” I was grateful for Odran shouting to us from up ahead, distracting from what could have been a very awkward few minutes.
“Come quick.”
We hurried on to join him at the edge of small copse of apple trees that hummed with bees and other insects, wafting from blossom to blossom.
“What is it?” I asked.
With a theatrical flourish, Odran licked his finger and drew a line in the air before the copse. As his finger passed, it seemed to leave a slick trail in reality behind it. We had found a portal.
“It isnae a powerful portal,” Odran confessed. “Boot there is mooch power in Kinloch Kirk. Enough Ah would say to bridge the gap from the far side.”
“We can get home?” I asked.
It had taken us so long to get here. But, as ever, distance in Faery was a flexible concept.
“We are verra loo cky to find it all the way oot here.” Odran was grinning like a schoolboy at his discovery. “Ah’d lay odds there is nae another Fae who knows o’ this place.”
“How did you find it?” asked Klassje.
Odran looked bashful as he spoke. “Ah wanted an apple.”
It didn’t matter how he’d found it, the only important thing was that he had. Odran drew his sword from across his back, the muscles on his arm standing out proudly as he bore the weight of the ornate weapon. With a deft flick of his wrist, he drew a pattern in the air where the portal power lay. The point of the blade left a sparkling trail behind it, as if he were cutting through the fabric of the world itself. One by one, those cuts started to peel back.
A portal is basically a place where one world is thin enough to connect to another. Some are as reliable as Old Faithful, others can hurl you way off course if you misuse them. Fortunately, Odran knew what he was doing.
I felt a lump rising i n my throat as, through the tattered shred of reality, I saw a familiar beach. It was maybe only at that moment that I realized how much of a home Kinloch Kirk had become to me. That place to which I’d been forcibly brought was now a piece of my heart and there was nowhere else I would have wanted to raise my child.
“See that, my darling?” I whispered. “That’s your home.”
My child seemed happy about it, although, in fairness, she seemed happy about everything.
“Lasses first,” said Odran, with a courtly bow.
Klassje and I passed through the portal. We left behind the warmth and summer heat of Faery, with its sweet smells and birdsong, and tasted on our lips the familiar tang of salt spray.
It had never tasted better. It tasted of home. It was colder here but I welcomed the cold, the sound of the breakers on the shore and the feel of soft, damp sand beneath my feet. But the sight that met Klassje and I as we stood on the beach was enough to stop us in our tracks.
“Home again,” said Odran, jovially, as he joined us on the far side of the portal. But he too was silenced.
From the rise ahead of us, beyond the beach, came a crackling sound and the sky was black with billowing smoke. I could taste the ash on the breeze that blew it out across the water. Beneath the rising smoke, the flames still licked from windows and doors, consuming all they touched.
Kinloch Kirk was on fire.
FOURTEEN
BRYN
“Jolie!” I yelled as I started forward but Odran held me back with his enormous paw on my upper arm.
“Ye cannae go chargin’ in, lass!”
he bellowed.
“He’s right,” Klaasje said. “We don’t know if the enemy who did this is still there.”
I held myself back and nodded, feeling completely depleted as worry and anger stormed through me.
“We will inspect the grounds boot we need to be careful,” Odran added.
Jolie, I thought through our mind connection. Can you hear me?
But, there was no response.
Jolie, I thought again. Please tell me you’re okay!
Nothing.
“I just tried to reach my sister telepathically,” I said as I looked from Odran to Klaasje. “And there’s no answer.”
“Could it be that we’re too far away?” Klaasje asked.
“I mean, yes… if she’s not at Kinloch any longer,” I answered with a nod. “But, if she’s still inside Kinloch, she would hear me unless…”
“Don’t think that,” Klaasje said as she patted my hand consolingly.
“We need to inspect the premises,” Odran said.
#
I held my baby close, taking comfort from her presence, but even her smile had faded, as if she understood something was badly wrong.
Kinloch was a heap of burning rubble in some places, as though explosives had leveled the building and, in others, it was intact but badly damaged. Smoke penetrated the air, along with dust. The rose gardens were ruined, the fountain blown to smithereens.
“We haven’t come across any bodies,” I said, my voice small.
“Aye,” Odran said with a nod. “That means the queen was able to get her people oot.”
Klassje nodded as she turned around herself, in silence. Vampires are no strangers to loss; their lives are built around change and goodbyes, but even she was deeply affected by the sight before us.
When we reached what was once the Green Room, Odran sank to his knees, his strong body seeming to crumple. As befits a Fae, he lived his life in big emotions and this was exacting its toll.
“Whit has happened here? How can this be? Who could have done sooch a thing?”
That at least, seemed no mystery to me. “Who else?” I growled through clenched teeth. “Luce.”
“What do we do?” It was strange to see Klassje look so lost.
Odran said nothing. The lights of the fire were reflected in his eyes and I saw tears glisten at their corners.
“It’s just a building,” I said, trying to be the strong one.
“What matters are the people. And clearly, the people got out.” I took a big breath.
“But got out where?” Klaasje asked.
“Right,” I answered then turned to face the enormous Fae next to me. “Odran, where would Jolie have taken everyone?”
The question seemed to give him something to cling to and he pulled himself back together. “There is a fortress built into the mountains—built when the Oonderworlders first came to these shores.”
“A fortress?” I repeated.
“Kinloch Broch it is called. It is a place o’ last resort, boot there is room enough for everyone, an’ if there were nae other
options, then Jolie would take them there to bide time oontil she could figure another plan.”
“I’ve heard of it,” nodded Klassje. “But I thought it was in Faery.”
“Ah,” Odran managed a smile and raised a finger. “Well, ye might say it is and it isnae.”
“Odran,” I admonished him, “this is no time for riddles.”
“The Broch exists part in this world and part in Faery,” Odran explained. “As Ah said, it was built when the Oonderworlders first came here, and they found the place wild with magic, as the world was in those times. They found the portal energy, an’ were able to channel it to form a permanent link in Kinloch Broch. The idea was that if people were ever trapped from either side, they could escape into the other world.”
“That could explain why I couldn’t reach Jolie through my thoughts,” I said, pondering the subject out loud as I chewed my lower lip. “If she was in Faery, there would be no way I could have reached her.”
“That’s probably exactly why,” Klaasje said with a nod and a big grin.
“So Jolie might have evacuated everyone into Faery?” I asked as I faced Odran.
“It’s possible, lass.” Odran was looking more optimistic with every passing moment. “Ah daresay it would depend on wh at happened here.”
#
Odran led the way along the beach, away from the fire of Kinloch Kirk. It had not been the happy homecoming I’d been hoping for, but as long as Jolie and the rest of our friends were alive, I would take it.
Soon enough, our path led off the beach and through the stands of pine trees in the mountain foothills. Apparently we had a longish trek to Kinloch Broch, something I wasn’t excited about because it meant it would take us that much longer to return for Sinjin and Dureau.
“I’ve had enough of mountain climbing,” announced Klassje, as the path became steeper.
“Then ye picked the wrong place to live,” observed Odran.
Maybe it was a point of silly, personal pride, but I found the Scottish mountains of Kinloch Kirk, far superior to those in
Faery. Obviously the Faery mountains were taller, snowier and more mountainy, but that was part of the problem. They felt like storybook mountains; perfect in every detail, but lacking realism. These were real rock and sod mountains, buckled up from the bones of the earth.
We had been climbing a while when we started to hear noises from up ahead. The sounds of people.
“Sounds like a lot of people,” said Klassje. “Like a big camp.”
“Aye,” agreed Odran.
Though we were searching for our people, none of us leapt to the conclusion that this was good news. We were all smart enough to be wary and approached with care, sticking to the trees as we crested the rise that looked down into the valley that housed the entrance to Kinloch Broch.
My heart sank. There, below us, was a vast encampment of soldiers. Luce’s army of Elementals, Daywalkers and hybrids. And they were parked right outside the entrance to Kinloch Broch which meant they were waiting for my sister to surrender.
“Tis a siege,” snarled Odran. “There, do ye see?”
He pointed with a large finger to the base of the cliff where the rock had been hewn into a series of interlocking walls and ramparts; the entrance to Kinloch Broch. Beyond it, I could just glimpse the heavy wooden doors with iron mounts.
“Couldn’t Luce just blow the doors down?” Klaasje asked.
Odran shook his head. “Look closer, lass. Ye will notice the old arrow slits. We dinnae use arrows any more, boot any who try to come close will be dead before they have passed the first wall.
Nae to mention the cannons. Kinloch Broch is secure.”
Outside of the defensive walls, the camp had built a rough rampart of its own, manned by Luce’s people. They couldn’t breach the Broch, but they could wait for the people trapped inside to starve.
We crawled back away from the edge to talk through what we’d seen.
“I don’t understand,” Klassje shook her head. “If there’s another way out into Faery then why hasn’t Jolie taken it?”
“Do we know she hasnae?” asked Odran. “Luce might be sitting outside an empty fortress.”
“Then where is she?” I shook my head. “If Jolie had brought people out through Faery, then she would have either reclaimed Kinloch Kirk and set to recreating it through magic or attacked
Luce’s army from behind. Look at them—they’re all bunched in there together. Any military commander worth his salt would destroy them. And Jolie has plenty of good soldiers to advise her.” I shook my head. “She’s in there. And I have a hunch I know why.” I took a breath. “There were Fae down there amongst Luce’s army.”
Odran looked at me, aghast.
“Not many,” I hastened to add. “But we know Luce has done deals with the Fae in the past—the Fir Darrig for one. I think he’s got them hemmed in from both sid
es.”
Odran shook his head. “Mah Poor Queen.”
“So we can’t get in?” asked Klassje.
“I don’t see how,” I replied as I shook my head. I’d tried to keep my spirits up, thinking at least I would find Jolie again, but now it seemed that even that was denied to me.
“There may be a way,” corrected Odran.
“If there’s a way in, then why aren’t they using it to get out?”
asked Klassje.
“The way in isnae verra suitable for large numbers,” explained Odran. “There is a narrow tunnel that leads in, just to the north o’ Luce’s camp. If we took it, we’d have to go in on all fours and ‘tis a tight squeeze in places, but Ah think we can make it.”
“That sounds good enough to me,” said Klaasje and started forward. Odran stopped her with a hand on her arm.
He shook his head. “They would see us. We moost wait oontil dark.”
#
By night, Luce’s camp was lit with brilliant electric lamps, strung between the tents. A pair of massive search lights were pointed at the main entrance of Kinloch Broch, just in case the besieged people within tried an attack, and three more lights combed the surrounding landscape, alert to any attack from behind. Luce was taking no chances.
“There,” Odran whispered as he pointed.
We had made our way down from our vantage point, through the pines and bracken, into the valley itself as evening fell, and were now crouched amongst the scrub, staring across the open space between us and the scattering of rocky scree that masked the entrance to Odran’s tunnel. The searchlight strafed past and we all flattened ourselves to the ground. I cradled my child to
me. She was sleeping. How wonderful to be an infant and so oblivious to your surroundings.
“ Ah ’ll go first to clear the entrance,” said Odran. He crouched in readiness, waiting for the searchlight to pass again. As it went by, he made a break for it, his kilt flying up as he ran.
Odran was a big, powerful man and not really built for speed, but properly motivated, he cleared the space in seconds flat, before that damn searchlight came sweeping back again.
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