Daughter of Lies and Ruin

by Jo Spurrier

  ‘No, I can’t do veils yet. But Aleida will come, she must have heard all this fighting!’ She had to be on her way already, surely? But then I bit my lip, hard, thinking of the eagle that had been soaring above us all morning. If this other witch had been watching us, then she must know I was only the apprentice. If she’d sent a griffin after me, then the gods only knew what she’d sent after my teacher, back at the wagon.

  ‘I’m not waiting around to be rescued,’ Kara said. ‘Maybe we can lose these arseholes in the trees. Come this way, quickly!’

  She ducked around the trunk of the tree, heading away from the bandits and the wagon, vaguely in the direction of the rocky scar — and the rest of the bandit troupe. Still, that was probably better than taking my chances with the marked men. I picked up my skirts, and we ran, darting from tree to tree.

  We hadn’t gone far when I heard a shout from the marked men as they realised we’d slipped away.

  ‘Keep your head down,’ Kara hissed to me, still heading back towards the rocks.

  I could hear voices shouting somewhere nearby — not those of the marked men we’d left behind, but others. Holt’s men, maybe? From somewhere above came the screech of a griffin — and then another, rising up in answer. Oh gods, there’s two of them.

  Kara halted, waving me to stop beside her. ‘We’re running out of cover.’ Ahead of us was open ground, stubbed and studded with pale boulders, with only a scanty thatching of stunted trees and withered bushes. ‘We’ll have to run for the Scar. There’s lots of narrow paths between those boulders — we’ll crawl into a crack where they can’t reach us.’

  I bit my lip, saying nothing. There was another option, if I could make it work. But I hadn’t been able to do it since that first desperate time, months ago in the mountains around Black Oak Cottage. I couldn’t explain it to Kara though; I hardly understood it myself.

  ‘Looks clear,’ Kara hissed in my ear. ‘Go!’

  I followed on her heels, clutching my skirts to lift them clear of my feet. As we ran I caught a flash of movement from the corner of my eye and glanced around — only to falter as my heart leapt to my throat once again.

  There was a huge, tawny beast charging towards us. Fierce golden eyes burning in a snarling face, surrounded by a dark mane, rippling with the wind as it sprinted, faster than a galloping horse. It was a lion, honest-to-gods, right in the middle of this tinder-dry forest where it had no business being.

  Kara turned at my strangled cry of warning, and yelped in surprise. ‘What in the hells?’

  My legs faltered. It was pointless trying to run. The beast charged, breath grunting in its throat with every pulse of muscle. And just like the griffins, its fervent gaze was fixed right on me.

  There was no time to think. Already the beast was leaping, and there was nothing I could do but cast the ward again and brace for impact.

  There was no question of sending the creature bouncing back — it had to weigh as much as a small horse. It slammed into my shield and once again I was knocked sprawling on the dusty ground. But instead of those huge paws and wicked claws digging into my shoulders, they slid right off me. The lion hit the ground near as hard as I did, kicking up a cloud of dust.

  Half-winded and coughing, I staggered up, while the lion found its feet with a sinuous twist of its spine. Kara darted in front of me, sword held low, while I struggled with the tangle of my skirts. With a guttural snarl, the lion swiped at Kara with a huge paw, and she answered it with two quick slashes of her blade, one to the swiping foot, the second across the beast’s face, making it pull back with a growl. ‘Dee, get up!’

  ‘I’m trying! These blasted skirts!’

  As we spoke, the lion feinted to one side, and when Kara swung to counter, the beast darted back, charging past her and towards me.

  I was already summoning fire to my wand, feeling it sear down my arm and into my hand, and loosed it in a burst that made the beast think better of springing at me again — instead it shied aside with a snarl and the wafting stench of singed hair. On its flank I caught a flash of gold — it looked like a wax seal, the sort folk used on fancy letters, only made with solid gold and pressed into the fur.

  I backed away, feeling Kara beside me. ‘The rocks,’ I hissed. ‘We have to get to the rocks.’

  ‘Yeah,’ she said with a shaky voice. ‘Find some crevice it can’t fit through.’

  I hoped that would be enough. I knew my fireballs wouldn’t hold it off for long — an ordinary beast might be driven away with fire, but not this one. There was a man’s mind behind those golden eyes, I was certain of it, and with that strange golden seal as well. The strange witch had sent him after us. After me.

  I could hear other noises around us — shouting voices, and the thudding of galloping hooves, but I could barely make them out over the thundering of my heart in my ears. There came another roar, too, somewhere nearby, but I couldn’t look around for the source, not while the lion crouched, ready to leap again. Oh gods, what else is she going to throw at us?

  The lion crouched, snarling — and then a huge red blur slammed into the beast. It was Toro, galloping at full pelt directly for the beast. The impact sounded like a side of meat hitting a stone slab, and the pair of them went down, tumbling together in a tangle of limbs.

  With a yell of dismay, I started forward, my head full of images of the lion’s claws sinking into Toro’s chestnut hide, those huge yellow teeth buried in his neck . . .

  But before I could take a step, I felt a hand on my shoulder, nails digging in. ‘Don’t move!’ a familiar voice growled in my ear, and I shivered in relief. ‘Aleida!’

  Something cool settled over me, like gentle, tingling rain — a veil, hiding us from sight. ‘Head for the rocks!’ Aleida said, fingers digging into my shoulder to pull me away.

  ‘But Toro! He’ll be killed!’

  ‘He’s just distracting the beast so we can slip away. Once we’re clear he’ll leave it in the dust. Move!’

  Kara didn’t argue, she just headed for the shelter of the Scar, sheathing her sword as she went. I started with her, but dropped back when I realised Aleida couldn’t keep pace, limping along with her staff. ‘Where’s Maggie?’

  ‘She’s safe, I turned her loose under a veil.’

  The shouting voices were growing louder now, and at last the source of them came into sight, rushing towards us as they rounded the rocks — Holt and his bandits. The men must have trailed after us as we drove away from their ill-fated ambush, and met up with Holt after Aleida sent him away. But something had them retreating rapidly now, some helping their wounded fellows as they stumbled through the dust, shouting and hollering — and from behind them came another roar, loud enough to make my breath catch in my throat. It sounded bigger than the beast we’d just escaped from.

  A moment later it came into view — a bear, huge, shaggy and hulking. It had to be nearly as tall as Toro, with rippling muscles under the thick brown fur, snarling lips baring teeth as long as my finger.

  ‘Get into the rocks!’ Holt shouted. ‘Go!’

  Aleida dropped the veil as we joined them, retreating between the warm milk-white boulders. If the men were startled by our appearance, it didn’t bother them for long. From the sky above came a familiar shriek and Aleida and I both tipped our heads back to see griffins wheeling above — two of them this time.

  ‘Damn it,’ Aleida said. ‘This is not going to cut it, Dee. You’re going to have to get this one.’

  I just blinked at her. ‘What?’

  She laid a hand on my shoulder, and the gesture was half a squeeze, half a shove along the path. ‘Come on; you’ve got an ace up your sleeve, and now’s the time to use it! Find us a pathway, now!’

  The word struck a chill in my chest, like a band of ice around my ribs. ‘I can’t!’

  ‘You can, you’ve done it before.’

  ‘But I’ve tried and tried, and I’ve never been able to do it again.’

  ‘Don’t think, just do,�
� she said, while behind her the bear roared, shouldering between the narrow boulders after us. ‘I’ll keep them off your back. Go, Dee!’

  She pushed her way back along the path as the bandits all crowded around, smelling of sweat and dust and blood. More than a couple of them were wounded. ‘What’s the plan?’ one of them said. ‘We’ve got to keep moving, find somewhere to hide.’

  ‘Ain’t nowhere those beasts can’t get to,’ another one babbled, cowering against the rocks.

  ‘There’s something wrong with those creatures out there. Something unnatural.’

  I clenched my teeth and tried to block out the voices, weaving between the bodies until I found a wall of stone and pressed my palms against it.

  It was smooth and warmed by the sunlight, dusted with orange lichen. I closed my eyes and leaned against it, trying to block out all the noise and chaos behind me as the bear roared and the griffin screeched, and the men around us yammered in confusion and dismay.

  I felt a flicker of energy under my fingertips — my friendly little earth elemental. He’d taken something of a shine to me when I first arrived at Black Oak Cottage, and brought me little presents from time to time. I’d come to call him Facet, and he liked to join us when we went a-travelling. Now he hovered inside the stone, come to see what I was up to. ‘Help me,’ I murmured. ‘Please help me.’

  A wordless question came back, just as it always did, and my heart sank. Every time I’d tried this since the day Kian lured me to the top of the waterfall, it always ended the same way. Facet didn’t understand what I was asking. I pressed my forehead against the rock as behind me I felt Aleida loose the power in her wand, and heard the whomph of a fireball and the pained bellow of the bear. Somewhere safe. We need to get somewhere safe, somewhere cool and calm and quiet where the beasts can’t follow. ‘Please,’ I said again, but I knew it was hopeless. I didn’t know how I’d done it back in Lilsfield, and after all I’d learned about witchcraft I felt I understood it even less. But I could remember the chill of those dark passages, the sharp, earthy scent of clay in the air, the feel of the rough stone under fingers trailing along the wall.

  Inside the stone, I felt my friend twitch as though startled . . . and then the rock began to fold away.

  I stumbled forward, opening eyes that were all but blind after the glare of the sun. The huge boulder slowly parted, like a loaf of bread being torn open. Inside, hanging in the air, was my friend, all his planes and facets rippling with light as they slowly spun through each other. He looked a little like the paper snowflakes children make for midwinter, only made of light and crystal and movement, while behind him a dark passage stretched down into the earth.

  ‘Everyone in!’ I shouted.

  No one moved, until beside me Kara called, ‘Holt, get them moving!’

  ‘What? Oh! All right, you sons of bitches, everyone into the hole! Go, go, go!’

  As the men filed past, I saw Aleida at their rear, her straw hat tipped back on her head and her staff raised high. Above her, the griffins wheeled and shrieked, one of them swooping down to alight on a boulder beside the path, while just past a cluster of rocks the bear snarled and struggled, fighting something I couldn’t see. ‘Aleida! Come on!’ I shouted, not daring to take my hands from the rock. ‘It’s open!’

  Casting a swift glance over her shoulder she started towards us, retreating step by step. She had to pass by the griffin, though, its bill-hook beak just above her head.

  Then, before my eyes, my teacher blurred, like ripples in water will blur the image cast upon the surface. It lasted just an instant, and then my teacher let her staff fall, and, fleet as a deer, leapt up and sprinted out past the stones, out into the bare ground around the Scar.

  Beside me, Kara gave a cry of dismay. ‘What is she doing?’

  The griffin perched on the boulder snapped its head around to follow her, its black pupils swelling huge, like the eyes of a hunting cat, and it leapt into the air with a mighty pulse of its wings. The one still aloft gave a shriek of triumph, and the two beasts took off after her in a flurry of wings and lashing tails.

  It was enough to make my breath catch in my throat, my heart pounding beneath my stays, even though I knew exactly what she was doing.

  Too late, I remembered that Kara had no idea. Beside me, she spat a curse, and then took off, sprinting after Aleida, even though by all appearances my teacher was yards away by now, with the griffins swooping down on her.

  ‘Kara, stop!’ I yelled, but while the words were still in my mouth, Kara slammed hard into something unseen in the path.

  With a crackle like flames in dry grass, my teacher lost her hold on the veil that was hiding her from sight, and she and Kara both went sprawling over the rocks.

  ‘Oh, for pity’s sake,’ Aleida groaned. ‘Damn it, kid! Get up! Get back inside!’

  Kara gaped at her in shock. ‘But . . . you . . .’

  ‘I’m a witch, you stupid child, or had you forgotten?’ Snatching up her staff, Aleida tried to stand, only to stagger again as loose rocks rolled beneath her feet. ‘Quickly, before they figure out it’s just an illusion!’

  Out past the rocks, the griffins had discovered just that — they were searching the dusty ground, like cats pouncing on a fragment of sunlight reflected off glass.

  But I wasn’t concerned about them. Just past the rocks, the bear lifted its huge head, fixing its gaze upon Aleida and Kara. I had no idea what Aleida had done to distract it, but from the looks of it that spell had died along with the veil when Kara knocked her to the ground. With a vicious snarl, the beast charged, moving far faster than a creature that size should ever move.

  Aleida was backing away, her hand around Kara’s arm, pulling the girl with her, just a few paces from safety.

  But then Kara yanked her arm free, almost pulling Aleida off her feet again, and drew her sword. ‘You go, I’ll hold it off!’

  ‘Don’t be so bloody stupid! Get inside!’

  I bit my lip, helpless to do anything but watch as I held the pathway open. Kara stood no chance, sword or not. Even if she could have struck the beast dead, she’d have been crushed as it fell. It’d be like being hit by a boulder.

  But at the sight of her, standing fearless and defiant, the bear wrenched itself aside with a pained grunt, stumbling off the path and slamming into a boulder. With a snarl of protest and pain it snapped at the empty air, as though fighting something we couldn’t see.

  No, I realised. No, it was fighting itself, trying to advance and retreat at the same time.

  Staring up at the huge beast, Kara slowly lowered her sword. ‘Da?’ she said. ‘Da, is that you?’

  In answer, the bear roared again, and lunged for her with claws and teeth, huge jaws gaping wider than her head — only to hit the ward Aleida cast behind her, slamming against an invisible wall.

  ‘Get into the godsdamn cave, kid,’ Aleida growled in her ear, and finally, Kara did as she was told, backing slowly away, unable to take her eyes off the huge, shaggy beast.

  Step by step, they retreated, and the moment they passed the threshold, I let the door close. The rock flowed in behind me, cutting off the daylight.

  In the absolute darkness, the only sound was Kara as she sobbed. ‘Da . . . Da.’

  I could hear the voices of the men ahead of us, half panicked, half relieved. Holt hurried after them, but Kara didn’t. She stayed where she was, her face blank with shock.

  The shock lasted until Aleida moved past her, leaning heavily on her stick with each step. As she passed, Kara’s hand lashed out and caught her by the sleeve. ‘Take me back!’

  Aleida stopped with a sigh. ‘You’re asking the wrong person. But either way, the answer is no.’

  ‘But that was him! I know it was! Go back, we can bring him in here! We can get him away from her!’

  ‘No,’ Aleida said, firmly. ‘Lord and Lady, do you know how close he came to killing you back there?’

  ‘No!’ Kara said. ‘No, he stopped! He saw m
e and he stopped, you can’t deny it!’

  ‘Yeah. Once. And then the witch laid into him. She’s riding him, Kara, he might have taken her by surprise the first time but she won’t let it happen again.’ She shook her sleeve free and limped along the path again. ‘Come on. Can’t be hanging around in between, it’s not safe.’

  She’d mentioned that once before, the last time I’d used a pathway. The only other time I’d done it, if you want to be accurate. I’d never got around to asking further, especially since I hadn’t managed to open one again. And now didn’t seem the best time. I hurried after her, my wand in my hand, for all the good it would do me. I wasn’t sure fireballs would be any use against the sort of threats that lurked in . . . whatever this place truly was.

  Thankfully, it wasn’t far to the shelter Facet had found for us. After only a hundred yards or so, the pathway brought us to a quiet cavern, a calm little bubble within the rock. There was a small stream flowing through it, and a kind of beach made up of round, water-smoothed stones.

  We were the last ones to reach it. The bandits were there already, clustered around a few candle stubs someone must have been carrying in a belt-bag.

  I waited in the end of the passageway until Aleida glanced back and beckoned me with a jerk of her head. ‘Close the door, Dee. Don’t let the flies in.’

  I stepped away from the wall, and felt the rock melt closed behind me. I tried very hard not to think about what would happen if I couldn’t manage to communicate to Facet that we wanted to go back. ‘What happens if someone gets left in between?’ I said, quietly. The bandits hadn’t yet noticed that the doorway was closed.

  ‘Well,’ Aleida said, rubbing the back of her neck. ‘It’s a good way to get rid of someone you don’t like, let’s put it that way.’ She limped over to a fallen slab of stone and sat gingerly, easing herself down to lean back against the wall.

  Kara jammed her hands on her hips to glare at her. ‘Are you just going to sit there? There are wounded men here!’

  ‘You should probably go help them then,’ Aleida said, closing her eyes and tipping her head back against the stone.