by Ann Gimpel
Light flashed, bright as a hundred suns, and Eiocha stood panting, hair straggling around her face. She held a hand out, and Leif took it. Together, they invoked the casting that would shut this portal as well. Maybe because they’d had practice, they dispatched this affront to the Earth in far less time.
“We can’t kill her,” Eiocha said around gasping breaths.
“We don’t want to since sea Shifter power is linked to both her and Poseidon. What we’ve done is better than killing,” Leif replied. Revenge was sweet, goddammit, and he’d relish every second.
Eiocha let go of him and flexed her burned hand. Flesh was starting to grow back over the naked bones. “That was satisfying. Where’s her scoundrel of a consort?”
“She said he’d deserted her.”
“All the better. One less problem for us. He’ll be far weaker without her by his side.” Eiocha inhaled deeply. “No rest. We’re not finished yet.”
As if to validate her observation, the three Harpies flew close, black ichor spewing from their extended talons. Leif poured power into his warding. Eiocha faced the Harpies squarely. White magic shooting from her hands surrounded their poison, turning it a sickly gray. The disgusting mix dribbled to the earth, creating smoking holes where it landed.
“You think to challenge me?” Eiocha tossed her head much as her horse would have.
“Only one of ye, sister,” the Harpy in the lead called back.
“Aye, ye must sleep sometime, and when ye’re least expecting it—” another Harpy mimed drawing an index finger across her throat.
Eiocha grunted derisively. “I was never sister to any of you. You’re weak. All of you. Not enough souls to snatch and feed yourselves. You think you can sneak up on me? My ley lines will make short work of you if you dare disturb my rest.” She made shooing motions. “Go away.”
The trio circled but didn’t leave. Eiocha ignored them. “At least this additional portal explains why we’ve made so little progress.”
Leif did a quick check of his pod—and Moira. All were immersed in killing demons. He hunted for Zoe but couldn’t locate her. “The coyote Shifter?” he asked Eiocha.
She frowned. “Alive, but very weak. The arrow contained poison. It’s complicating the wolf Shifter’s healing.”
A small group of faeries ran toward them. “Fae need you. The ice woke up.”
Eiocha held out her arms, and the faeries jumped into them. “Say more, little ones.”
Leif left them, running to where he could see what was happening. He didn’t realize how far he’d gotten from the main battlefield, perhaps half a mile. He gritted his teeth. Amphitrite’s location hadn’t been accidental. She’d lured him away from the others, thinking to weaken their offense.
And she’d damn near succeeded.
He ran toward where Moira, Ketha, and Viktor had formed an outward facing circle, each of them killing whatever crossed their line of sight. “I found Amphitrite, and a second portal. Eiocha and I sealed her within it.”
Moira skinned her lips back from her teeth. “I’m glad she’s dead.”
“Not dead,” Leif corrected her, “but contained forever. I hope.”
“A second portal, eh?” Viktor cut in.
“No wonder more demons kept piling up,” Ketha grunted as she sent power to kill a squat little sprite with a horn in the middle of his forehead and clawed feet.
“Thank the goddess for the ley lines,” Moira said. “If it weren’t for them, we’d have run out of power an hour ago.”
Leif didn’t point out they’d barely been here for an hour. Time passed differently with this much evil afoot.
Lewis raced toward him, killing a trio of hissing, spitting demons that rolled in front of him. Another approached from behind.
Leif focused a beam of power to flatten it. When the no-name monstrosity caught fire, Lewis glanced over one shoulder. “Thanks, mate. We have another problem. At least this one isn’t linked to Hell, but we woke something.”
Leif thought back to the faeries’ message about the ice waking up. “Do you know what it is?”
Lewis made a face. “You’re not going to believe me, but I believe it’s either Scylla or Charybdis.”
“If one is here, the other would be as well.” Leif had met the two supernatural sea monsters a time or two. They lurked in the western Mediterranean Sea, luring boats and sailors to their doom.
“How’d they end up here?” Moira asked.
“The Cataclysm, how else?” Ketha replied.
“They probably thought this would be as safe a place as any to wait out Armageddon,” Viktor muttered.
“What did it look like?” Leif asked Lewis.
“Six heads and—”
“That’s Scylla,” Leif interrupted him. “Take me to her. Perhaps she’ll remember me.”
Lewis took off at a quick pace. Leif followed him, racking his brain as he tried to remember something that might placate the ancient sea monster. As he threaded his way through demon bodies, an idea took shape. He grabbed one of the fallen goblins and slung it over a shoulder, wrinkling his nose at the noxious smell. Black blood dripped down his shoulder, staining his clothes. Bugling blasted his ears, probably from a pissed-off Scylla.
Lewis turned, leading them behind an icefall. Twenty-foot-tall fluted columns of blue-white ice rose in free form sculptures that were beautiful in an esoteric kind of way. Eiocha had beaten them there, along with Oberon and Titania. Scylla lay on her belly on the ice, twisting her six heads this way and that. Magical netting held her in place, and her fury at being restrained was palpable. Two of her six mouths opened, bugling again. A sea serpent’s body trailed behind her six stalky necks. Twelve feet long, her trunk and tail were covered with black-and-silver overlapping scales.
Leif tried for an upbeat note. “This is Scylla—” he began.
“We know quite well who she is,” Oberon cut him off.
The monster opened one of her mouths and roared, thrashing her tail from side to side.
Leif dropped to a crouch, holding out the dead goblin. “I bring you an offering. Do you remember me?”
Scylla trained one set of eyes on him. In olden days, she’d worn a girdle of baying dogs’ heads, but no more. Steam hissed from the head facing his way. “Aye, wee dolphin Shifter. Of course I remember. Tell these cretins to release me.”
“What did you do to frighten them?” Leif eyed her, hoping she’d answer.
“Naught. I did naught but emerge from where I have been asleep these many years past. Something bad came. It sullied my waters.” Six sets of jaws opened and clacked shut. “It killed Charybdis, my heart, my sister, my love.”
Genuine pity stirred through Leif. “I’m so very sorry.”
“Aye, she and I were formed together. We’ve always been together. And now, I am alone. Once she died, I swam and swam. For weeks, or mayhap ’twas years. I ended up here and hid myself, hoping for death, yet here I am.”
“Sheathe your magic,” Leif ordered. “She will not harm us.”
“Why harm ye?” Scylla’s head nearest him asked.
“Aye,” another chimed in. “There’s food enough to last me a year. I smell the blood and rot.”
Eiocha cut the flow of her power, and the silvery netting around Scylla fell away. Leif remained in his crouch, and the monster slithered to him, laying one of her heads on his lap. He stroked the sharp scales, not knowing what to say to comfort her.
Some losses cut too deep for words to have any effect.
“A favor?” the head on his lap asked.
“If it’s within my power.”
“Help me carry food into my grotto. It’s just behind me.”
“Of course,” Leif said.
“I’ll help as well,” Lewis cut in.
Scylla twisted the head nearest him to examine who’d spoken. “Another dolphin Shifter?”
Lewis bowed. “Aye, ma’am.”
The head in Leif’s lap leaned into him much as a ca
t would have. “One more favor, since ye’re in a generous mood.”
Leif waited. Oftentimes, like with quests, subsequent requests grew more difficult to fulfill.
“Leave the rest of the demons alive.” Interest lit her coppery eyes, turning all six sets to small fiery orbs. “Killing them will be fun. Much better than living off what’s already dead.”
“You’d have to be certain not to let any escape.” Eiocha walked close.
Steam sprayed from Scylla as several heads brayed laughter. “Goddess. Ye doona know me at all.”
“You’ve done us a tremendous favor.” Leif found a spot of skin beneath a scale and scratched, hoping she’d enjoy the sensation.
Scylla arched the neck attached to that head. “In that case, dolphin Shifter, the last request is for ye to return each year to visit me.”
“Done. It would be my pleasure.” With a final scratch, he got to his feet. To his surprise, Scylla started to sing. Unlike the Sirens, her song was primitive and discordant, but lovely in an untamed way.
“Come on.” Lewis tapped him on the shoulder. “Let’s get this carrion-moving project off the blocks.”
Leif grinned. Once they’d carted some bodies near the icefall, they could leave. Scylla would pick off the remaining demons, except the Harpies. They’d depart on their own if they hadn’t already. While he and Lewis dragged carcasses to the spot Scylla indicated, Lewis said, “I’ve been talking with my bondmate.”
“And?” Leif quirked a brow.
“It knows a dolphin or two that would be delighted to bond with Moira.” Excitement streamed from Lewis. “Don’t you see, mate? She’d well and truly be one of us.”
“I like the idea,” Leif said carefully, not at all certain how Moira would feel.
“There’s a but hanging about.” Lewis eyed him.
“Yes, there is. She’s just been treated very badly by one bondmate. She may not be in a rush to dive back into another bond.” He blew out a breath. “Don’t mention this to her. I will, but later. Once we’re back on Arkady and have had a chance to rest and breathe a bit.”
Scylla had been watching as they piled carcasses. When the stack was so high they had to swing the next one to toss it on top, Leif said, “Enough, my lady?”
“Aye. In truth, ’twas enough a while back, but I’m enjoying your company. Doona forget your promise.”
“I won’t.”
“I’ll come with him to visit you.” Lewis bent and stroked the head nearest him.
Scylla slithered to the stack of dead demons and tugged one out of the bottom of the pile, tearing into it with two of her heads. It seemed a good time to leave her to her meal, before she thought of more promises to bind him.
Leif headed for where he’d left everyone. Lewis trotted alongside.
“Do you know how Zoe is?” Leif asked.
“Weak, but she’ll survive. Karin and Recco moved her into the faeries’ tunnel to take advantage of the strong earth magic inside. Also, it’s warmer.”
Eiocha and Moira waited for them near the entrance to the passageway. Everyone else was already gone. Demons milled about, looking lost with nothing to take aim at. True to Leif’s prediction, the Harpies were nowhere to be found.
“Why aren’t those bastards still fighting?” Leif asked, angling a pointed look at a group of red-scaled demons with horns and hooves.
Eiocha skinned her lips back, managing to look both feral and pleased at the same time. “I cast an obfuscation spell. They know we’re here, but they can’t find us.”
“We’ll meet half the group where we beached the Zodiacs,” Moira told him and Lewis.
“Aye, the others are on their way back to the ship. Karin wanted to get her patient out of the weather,” Eiocha said.
“Did Oberon and Titania gather up their fallen Fae?” Leif asked.
“Of course,” Eiocha snorted. “Not that they wouldn’t have anyway, but…”
Leif nodded. The king and queen of Faery wouldn’t have left their fallen companions to turn into food for Scylla. They’d give them heroes’ burials back in the U.K.
“We did well,” he said. “Far better than I’d hoped.”
“Aye, that we did,” Lewis agreed. “Very few casualties, and we accomplished our goal.”
“You two are so bloody understated,” Eiocha cut in. For once, she was smiling, and it lent an otherworldly beauty to her austere features. “We won. We saved Earth from darkness.”
Leif didn’t want to put a damper on her enthusiasm, but after losing thousands of sea Shifters to the Cataclysm, he didn’t feel like he’d won much of anything. He’d survived and saved a few of his pod.
“Darkness isn’t gone,” he muttered.
“Nay, but we reestablished the balance point where we hold the upper hand.” Eiocha nodded briskly. Power flashed from her hands, and the passageway morphed into view. “Hurry through,” she instructed. “I shall seal it behind us, so none of the demonspawn can use it as an escape hatch.”
Lewis ran ahead, kindling a mage light to illuminate the passageway.
“I want to hear about Scylla.” Moira gripped Leif’s outstretched hand, and they entered the tunnel. “And I have news. I guess.”
Something about her tone alerted him it might not be good news. “What?”
“While I was waiting for you, my vulture popped up. It changed its mind.”
“So now it’s not breaking your bond?” Leif asked to make certain he understood.
“Yeah.”
“You don’t sound very happy.”
Moira glanced his way. “I’m not. I don’t trust it anymore, and I don’t know what to do.”
“No need to do anything right this minute. We can talk about this after we’re back.” He almost told her about the dolphins who wanted to bond with her, but the timing was terrible. That information would have to wait. He didn’t want her to think he was pushing her toward being a sea Shifter. He’d told her he loved her no matter what she was, and he’d stand by his words.
This transit of the tunnel went far faster than entering it from the other end. Magic was like that sometimes, plus they weren’t battling evil. They emerged onto the rock-studded spit of beach where they’d landed hours before. Light was leaching from the day.
Two Fae stood straight, silken robes drawn tight around them and silver hair falling to waist level. Amithra and Piotr rose from where they’d been crouched drawing pictures in the sand. Amithra’s green hair was streaked with black blood. She hurtled to Moira who lifted her into her arms.
Piotr ran to Leif and Lewis, crimson hair streaming behind him. Lewis lifted the faery, swinging him in a circle until he squealed with delight.
“We won!” Amithra beamed, her small face wreathed in smiles.
“That we did.” Moira hugged her tight.
“We waited for ye,” one of the Fae said, “to extend thanks from Oberon and Titania.”
“Aye,” the other Fae spoke up. “They hope ye will visit them.”
Leif bowed. “Please tell them we’d be delighted, and that they are welcome anytime no matter where we are.”
“Will ye remain traveling aboard the ship now that the quest has been dispatched?” the first Fae asked.
“I don’t know,” Leif replied. “We haven’t gotten that far yet.”
Moira hugged Amithra and set her down.
“Do ye want kisses?” The faery grinned mischievously.
Moira smiled back. “No, little one. Not yet, anyway. Can I take a rain check?”
“What’s that?” Amithra placed her hands on her hips.
“It means, may I save your offer and take you up on it in a hundred years or so?”
Amithra clapped her chubby hands, clearly delighted with the idea. “Of course. Ye know where to find me.”
“Put me down,” Piotr demanded.
Lewis set him next to Amithra and extended a hand. Both Fae clasped it, along with the faeries.
Leif and Moira did the same.
“We should go,” he said, glancing at the group fifty feet down the beach standing around the Zodiac. “They’re waiting for us.”
“My condolences on your lost companions,” Moira said.
“Thank you. We shall see them to their rest once we return home.”
Light formed around the Fae and faeries; magic swelled replete with the rich scents of heather and gorse. The air shimmered and grew liquid. When it quieted, Leif, Moira, and Lewis were alone.
Turning, they walked to the Zodiac. “Ready to go home?” Juan asked.
“More than ready,” Leif said and bent to untie the raft from its anchor point on the beach. Juan herded everyone aboard, and Leif slogged through the surf, jumping over the pontoons and into the Zodiac.
A dolphin swam alongside. Lewis slapped his tail against the raft and said, “See you back on the boat.”
“Would you rather swim?” Moira asked Leif.
“No. My place is next to you.”
Juan quirked a blond brow. “Oh-ho. Looks like Vik will be officiating at another wedding.”
“The sooner the better,” Leif said and gripped Moira’s hand. “So long as the lady is in agreement.”
She gifted him with a warm smile that didn’t require words, and well wishes flowed as the raft cut through the darkening sea.
22
Unexpected Gifts
Moira stopped by to see Zoe as soon as she left the raft and was encouraged by how quickly the coyote Shifter seemed to be regaining her strength. Karin and Recco had settled her in the lab, where Karin constructed a healing canopy.
“How’s she doing?” Moira asked Karin.
“Excellent.” Karin beamed. “She nearly died from the combination of poison and the arrow, so it’ll be a few days before she’s up and about.”
“Whatever was in those ley lines helped a lot,” Recco said. “We’ll have to figure out how to tap into that power source and direct in into our healings.”
“I’ll talk with Eiocha about how best to accomplish it.” Karin nodded, her expression serious once again.