Flight (Children of the Sidhe)

by J. R. Pearse Nelson

  “I’ve never known you to play the victim, Tessa. You’re better than this. Stronger than this. Quit sniveling and think it through. I’m confident you’ll come up with something.”

  Tessa raised her chin a notch. Thrum was right, after all. She was no weakling. Abarta had crossed the wrong woman. He’d assumed she would cave to his demands mindlessly to save her family’s reputation, and so far, she’d proven him right. Her cheeks burned with shame and anger knotted her belly.

  Suddenly, a revelation hit her with alarming speed, multiple thoughts colliding in her mind as they all came together. She got it.

  Abarta had sold her this intricate story that was supposed to keep her full attention on him. But they didn’t call him the Trickster for nothing. He’d lied to her from the beginning. He’d never meant her niece harm, and he’d certainly never meant to spill the secret about her. If the Sidhe knew of her, they could protect her, much as Tessa had finally suggested to Mikhail. In the meantime, any help he coerced out of Tessa would only help him reach his goal of annihilating the half-humans. She’d aided him blindly, out of her greatest weaknesses – pride and family loyalty. He’d known how to use them against her, and she’d danced to his tune.

  No more.

  TWENTY

  Thrum’s cryptic advice would never have gotten him all the way to the Well of Slaine, but Season was there and she guided him. When they were close, she flitted onto his shoulder. “I won’t go closer, Nathan. These folk aren’t accustomed to my kind. I’ll visit the Morrigan and return later.”

  “Thanks for leading the way,” Nathan smiled. “Tell the Morrigan I said get a life.”

  Season frowned and shook her head. Nathan shrugged.

  Blip. The pixie was gone.

  Nathan continued in the direction Season had indicated. A chattering from the branches of a nearby tree greeted his arrival. He tried to get a look at what was making the racket, but the creature stayed out of sight. Of course, it was always possible it wasn’t alive at all, but a ward similar to Tessa’s, just with a much more annoying sound. No matter the variety of alarm, it was obvious the folk who lived here were being summoned to meet him. That was all well and good.

  Still, he was surprised when folk swarmed out of the dwelling and surrounded him on all sides. This was a full-blown settlement. Many of the Sidhe brandished weapons of a glorious nature. The metal was of such fine quality that it shone in the hazy afternoon light. Maybe they were enchanted. He wondered which among the Sidhe had magic he should fear.

  He held up his hands in what he recognized was a human gesture no one in power here was going to understand. Yet he saw recognition in several faces, and one of those people spoke. “Are you Nathan?”

  Nathan grimaced, uncertain in the face of their advantage. They knew of him, but he knew very little about them. “Yes, that’s me.”

  The woman who had asked stepped forward, extending her hand in another gesture so familiar Nathan’s heart leapt to his throat. He shook her hand, and couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face.

  “I’m Therese. We’ve been waiting for you. This is my brother Joel.” Therese gestured to the man who stood behind her. They were similar in height and build, tall and thin as many of the Sidhe came.

  So these were the other Sidhe children on the assassin’s list. “Isn’t there supposed to be another of us?”

  “Eva,” Therese confirmed. “They haven’t been able to find her yet. We’ve been worried about both of you.”

  Nathan shrugged. “I’m fine, just a little late to come around, I guess.” He looked her in the eye, trying to evaluate everything from her honesty to her intelligence in a few strained glances. “Do they really think they can protect us here? What’s so special about this place?”

  “Sidhe can’t fight here. It’s a safe zone, due to the healing springs. A place a wounded immortal might come to regain their strength in peace.”

  “What do you mean they can’t fight? Like it’s a law or something?”

  “It’s a spell. A powerful enchantment on the land. Any Sidhe who attempts violence will instantly lose consciousness.”

  Nathan frowned. “Does it work on us, too?”

  “Oh, yes.” Therese gave her brother a dark look, and he scowled right back.

  “You tried it out?” Nathan asked Joel.

  He nodded. “Not worth it, man.”

  Nathan chuckled. “Sorry. That’s shitty luck you were here first. I would have tried it if I were here. Anyway, good to know.”

  “Can we show you around?” Therese asked.

  “Nah. We were just about to eat,” Joel spoke up. “You know he’d rather eat than look around.”

  Nathan grinned, and followed them.

  Looking around, Nathan realized about half of the Sidhe who’d been surrounding them had melted back into the forest or the short squat buildings between the trees that lined the spring. The others continued to watch them, sort of like they were a curiosity you might take a moment to observe at the zoo.

  Nathan didn’t like the feeling, and Hawk definitely didn’t like it. He had to keep his emotions under control. When he started to feel out of control, Hawk threatened to take over. Animal instinct was a sure bet, and his natural inclination seemed to be to retreat to that primal state when things got too heavy. Maybe he’d learn to control it with time, but that didn’t help him fit in better among the Sidhe, who were raised with their abilities as they were raised to use their limbs and digits.

  TWENTY-ONE

  Tessa’s fury made her dangerous. Abarta had invited her to meet at the pavilion right next to the river Xanas at dusk. It was the spot where Ian and Hazel had wed a while back. Tessa’s anger made her swallow her unhappy memories of that day. Abarta had probably been trying to make her uncomfortable. She couldn’t wait to return the favor. She’d make him very uncomfortable, indeed.

  He was already there, watching the flow of the river. He kept his back turned in an obvious insult. He didn’t fear her, much less respect her.

  And that was the final straw. Tessa opened the floodgates, throwing her head back with a rough laugh as magic coursed through her. Abarta finally turned, but not in time to deflect her spell, which bound him hand and foot, though you couldn’t see the chains. They were there, and they were real. The chains of her fury, her potent rage.

  “I won’t say I trusted you, Abarta, because we both know that isn’t true. But you’ve been lying to me…and now you’ll pay for trying to use me to your own ends. You’ll pay for Bertran. You’ll pay for this whole sorry string of events that I am coming to understand is your doing. You’re behind it all, aren’t you?”

  He didn’t struggle, just smiled at her. That’s when she got worried. But she wouldn’t show him that. She couldn’t. Now that she’d instigated the attack, she had to stay strong. She had no delusions that Abarta cared for her, or for the life of yet another Sidhe. If it suited his purposes and he was able, he’d kill her without mercy or a second thought.

  Tessa stilled her nerves and smiled back. “I’ve figured something out, Trickster. And here your hold on me ends. You would never harm my niece when she’s the ticket to what the Fomorii want from you.”

  His smile faltered just enough to tell her she’d struck home with that comment. He didn’t expect her to figure him out. “It doesn’t matter. It’s been fun, Tessa, but you aren’t exactly essential to my plan.”

  “Which is?”

  He laughed loudly. He snorted and shook his head in derision. “I have nothing to gain by including you. You’re troublesome.”

  “Well, thank you. Here I thought you hadn’t noticed.”

  Abarta still didn’t struggle, which told Tessa he wasn’t done speaking with her. Yet he didn’t seem nervous about what would happen when their conversation was at an end. What was his game?

  “You have no idea how close I am. So close I can taste it. I know where your precious half-humans are hiding. This was to be our last meeting, no
matter what was said. I hope you can forgive yourself, in time.”

  He wriggled his hands, his first sign of struggle, and then he was gone. Just gone. Disappeared.

  “No!” Tessa shouted. She hadn’t seen it, but apparently he’d had some way to force an instant portal. If he truly knew where Nathan and the others were, how could she even get there in time?

  Ian. He was the only one with the power to open portals wherever he stood. Tessa had no idea where Abarta had come upon whatever device had allowed him to do so, but its existence explained a lot. It had always seemed he knew far too much to be traveling as most Sidhe did.

  All of these thoughts ran through Tessa’s mind in a few moments, as she turned heel and ran toward Authority Guard headquarters. Luckily she was already close. She had to find Ian now and get to the well.

  “Ian!” Tessa tripped over the doorway to his office in her haste, and nearly sprawled headlong on his floor. Hazel watched her with concern from a cushioned chair near a window, where she’d been reading a worn volume Tessa recognized as ancient poetry of the Tuatha De Danann. Her fingers rested reverently on the cover. They did share a common history, after all. It was the first time Tessa noticed Hazel as another Sidhe woman, and not a half-human competitor for Ian’s affection.

  Ian rose from behind his desk in a heartbeat and caught Tessa’s arm to steady her. “You’re in a hurry. What’s going on?”

  “We must go to the Well of Slaine. Abarta knows. He’s going there now.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “I’ll spill the whole story later, Ian. Just trust me, that’s where he’s going, he’s going now, and he’s going to kill them all!” Her head swam with panic. Would he question her until all hope was lost?

  He must have seen the question in her eyes, because he nodded to his wife, gripped her elbow firmly, and opened a portal to the Well of Slaine, stepping through with Tessa clutched to his side.

  TWENTY-TWO

  Right after dusk, when they’d finished a simple meal and shared a flask of mead, all hell broke loose.

  At first Nathan thought his eyes must be playing tricks on him. A figure had emerged from the forest, but where the Sidhe could almost be mistaken for a human, this being was monstrous. Its one eye blinked blearily, like the dim light was too much for it. Its head was too small for its chubby, long-armed body. And it shuffled oddly. When Nathan realized its feet were saucer-like, splayed and webbed, and that was the reason it moved so, he nearly passed out.

  Even as his eyes refused to make sense of the monster, he saw another form much like his own. This Sidhe wasn’t one he’d seen earlier. He had a terrible suspicion this was the assassin he’d been hiding from. Around the foreign Sidhe, shadows swirled. They slithered swiftly from between the trees, inky darkness like a black fog stretching toward them.

  More forms slunk and stumbled from among the trees. With no rhyme or reason, they were hideous. No one form characterized them. They seemed like something out of a bad old movie, a hodge-podge of sea monsters that had grown various numbers of legs and come to land shuffling like zombies.

  At that moment, Ian and Tessa appeared between Nathan and the creatures.

  “Tessa!” Nathan shouted, relieved beyond belief to see her…except that it put her right in the line of fire. “Look out!”

  She spun back and finally saw the creatures coming closer, and the Sidhe man who stood among them, shadows hovering around his legs.

  “Abarta! Call them off!”

  So it was the assassin. Nathan whirled to the others. “Inside! Get inside the buildings!”

  Joel grabbed for Therese, but she’d taken off in the other direction. He yelled after her, but his words were lost in the chaos. The monsters came on steadily. Nathan found his feet were planted firmly on the earth – he didn’t seem able to move.

  “Go with them, Nathan!” Tessa shouted.

  Instead, Nathan watched Abarta. The creatures moved on to flank the buildings. Finally, a clash of weapons filled the clearing as the Sidhe joined the fight. Nathan didn’t know what had taken them so long, but they were sorely needed now. The creatures just kept coming.

  Therese had stopped, maybe to look for Joel – and one of the monsters caught up with her. Nathan didn’t notice the weapon until it had slid straight through her. She touched the creature, and it writhed in pain, yanking back from her with a howl. With a sigh like a light breeze teasing a stand of alder, Therese sank to the earth.

  “No!” Joel surged from another building, and as he ran, true night descended.

  Night didn’t happen in Middleworld. Dusk was as dark as it got.

  Abarta’s shadows might have been creepy, but now an inky blackness stamped out everything. It happened so suddenly that gasps and curses testified to the surprise and stubbed toes.

  Nathan couldn’t see anything. His ears tried to compensate, but his mind kept making up wild scenarios to go with what he was hearing. It sounded like…a rush of wings and limbs and the pounding of earth like a great drum.

  Then a light flooded the clearing. Tessa held a ball of light above her palm, stretched high into the air. And what Nathan saw would feed his nightmares for the rest of his life. There were more monsters than ever, a mass of them, more limbs and heads than he could count. And they moved faster than before, like the darkness helped them somehow. They grimaced and wheeled from the light Tessa held, but all through the rest of the clearing they ran and leapt like sugar-crazed kids on a playground.

  Joel had reached Therese’s side, his hands were covered with her blood, and as two monsters approached from either side, he shrieked her name and covered his head with his hands. The Fomorii hauled him off between them.

  “Call off the Fomorii!” Tessa challenged Abarta.

  Abarta fidgeted, watching the Sidhe advance among his troops. He twirled a dark metal ring on the first finger of his left hand.

  Tessa yelled, “The ring! That’s how he’s traveling!”

  Ian didn’t hesitate a moment. His eyes narrowed slightly in the changing light, his gaze focusing on his target while he pulled a wicked looking knife from his pocket. In another moment the knife whistled as it arced through the air. As soon as it left his fingers, Ian dropped, unconscious. Shit, they didn’t know about the spell on the land!

  His aim was decent. The knife’s whistle came to an abrupt end as it embedded itself in Abarta’s forearm. It didn’t sever the hand, but Abarta howled in pain and clutched his bleeding limb to his chest with a snarl.

  The Fomorii front guard echoed the snarl as they collided with the front of the building. It wasn’t a place meant to withstand attack, and Nathan wondered if it would crack with that first onslaught.

  And just like that, everything stopped.

  A woman who shone like the sun stepped toward him. She had green hair that swirled to her waist with a life of its own, and strange shapes emerged and retreated on her brown skin. Her eyes were sky blue, as blue as the fastest of streams, or a robin’s egg.

  Nathan blinked. Her form shimmered, like a mirage. But then she solidified, and Nathan got the feeling she’d just crossed over from somewhere else. He looked around, wondering at the sudden and strange silence that had fallen over the battle.

  The rest of the clearing was silent – everyone was frozen where they stood, with angry faces and arms raised to attack or defend. She walked among them, observing with an air of affronted calm. “What is it you’ve brought to my spring? Violence? The air smells different here. Tir Nan Og is changing. Preparing?”

  She looked thoughtful, but kept her thoughts close for the next few minutes as she circled the oddly still occupants of a time she’d apparently stopped at her whim. When she turned back to him, it was all he could do to stand tall and not cower before her. He didn’t know what she was, but it was apparent she had more power in her little finger than he’d ever imagined possessing, despite the small tricks he’d started to pick up.

  “I am Airmid,” she told him
, turning to face him again. Her features were odd – huge eyes slanted above high cheekbones, her full mouth smiling as he evaluated her appearance. “And you are the young Lord of the Skies.”

  Nathan frowned. “No. My father is the Lord of the Skies. I’m half-human.”

  “And what has that to do with what I say?”

  “I am not powerful. I was raised in the human world and I’ve just come to Tir Nan Og.”

  “Are you so weak you have no hunger for the power you were born to?” She shrugged. “Pah. I have no time for weaklings.”

  Now Nathan glared. “I am not weak. Just new. What is this power you speak of?”

  “You can stop this slaughter. Your hawk, that is.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “My spell against violence has no hold on your other form. You must shift to fight Abarta. Quickly, now. We don’t have much time. And Nathan?”

  “Yes?” Nathan still wasn’t quite sure what she was asking of him, but there wasn’t time to panic.

  “Remember the spring. Its waters restore the Sidhe, even from the grip of death, so long as little time has elapsed. Remember.” Her inhuman gaze was stern. “Now shift, and prove to me you are no weakling. Prove to them the half-humans have everything to offer. And never doubt it yourself.”

  Nathan did as she commanded, shifting to Hawk in the blink of an eye. Screeching, he lifted his wings to fly. Just then, the clamor returned to the small clearing, as Fomorii blades rang from their scabbards, and foreign Fomorii bodies clattered against the buildings that usually housed the sick.

  Nathan knew his target, and blocked out all else. Abarta still clutched his arm, but now it was the ring on his nearly severed hand that he focused on.

  Nathan understood with sudden certainty that Abarta would escape in the next few moments. Luckily, wings were a quick way to travel above the fray. Knowing he had only a moment, Nathan stretched his talons toward the assassin who had marked him and the others for death. Abarta’s screams filled the clearing as Nathan’s talons slid far too easily into his left eye, like slicing softened butter. Blood spurted from the wound, and Abarta gargled with the intensity of the pain.