All's Fair (Fair Folk Chronicles Book 4)

by Katherine Perkins

  Chapter 35: Dea Ex Musica

  They'd covered the idea of 'the music of the spheres' in class once. Maybe the medieval philosophers had been trying to imagine this melody.

  Every lyric felt, as she articulated it, like one of those weird magic words from dense novels, the kind that could possibly make someone's head explode.

  Megan wasn't sure that hers wouldn't, but there was a lot of glowing runes in the corner of her eye. Others around her also looked safe, and even on the battlefield... she was having an effect all right, but she wasn't killing them with a word.

  And in the night, something ripped. Megan could feel it. She could feel it as strongly as if she'd reached out and torn the air open with her own gauntleted hands. Somewhere in the depths her mind, Megan wondered if it was just the power of suggestion that she smelled ozone.

  She looked up to the stars in the night sky. By now, the skies of Faerie had become a familiar sight, but they'd changed. Now, the familiar blanket of stars glowed red, tiny pinpricks of fire in the skies, all save two piercing green stars in the midst of it, flickering brighter than all the rest.

  A corona of fire built around her, a bright, flickering red. Megan's eyes lit instead with bright green, vibrant fire, coloring all the world the shade of the twin stars looking down on her.

  She raised the spear, then brought it down, and a column of flame split the skies, coming down atop one of the cavalry units, disintegrating the Fomoire where they'd stood.

  As she sang, the winds picked up, and a rain of bright embers fell upon the invaders. The beasts howled in confusion, and more than a few of the handlers' creatures and some of the twisted warhorses broke free from, or even turned on their handlers and riders, before fleeing. In some part of her mind, Megan thought of the stories of the animals who are supposed to react to natural disasters before anyone else senses them coming.

  Thunder rolled over the field, and another jet of flame lanced down from above, then another, scorching the field, incinerating more of the Fomoire. Panic built up in the ranks, and some retreated. Indech roared, the sound carrying above the sound of the song. The roar turned into words, that same, guttural, inhuman take on Gaelic. Megan felt something pushing back at her magic, and for a moment, she almost lost the song. Then the Sword of Light flared, and the pounding rose over Indech's voice again.

  Against the impossibly vibrant green of the fire before her eyes, she could still see the Fomoire's magics striking the walls, eating away at both magical and physical protections as they hit. A couple of the spells struck where she was standing, cascading around the wreath of fire enveloping her. For a moment Megan felt simply unclean, but then it washed over and around her, between the protections of the song, and from Justin's focus on the anti-magic properties of the Claiomh Solais.

  After the third such blast washed over her, Megan brought the spear down again, and white-hot fire poured down over one of the giants, dropping the behemoth, and turning several of the Fomoire around his feet to ash as well. In response, Indech gestured with his sword, and a charge for the walls began.

  The earth began to shake, throwing some of the charge off, some of the cavalry disappearing into rents in the earth, while shrapnel from explosions of stone took down others. Still, Indech kept coming, and in his wake, other Fomoire followed. Despite her best efforts to direct the wrath of Brigid's song, Megan found she barely singed Indech and those closest to him as he countered each blast. And while she tried, more of the Fomoire rallied around him, picking up momentum.

  Realizing that she wasn't stopping Indech, but there was still a great deal else she could do, Megan refocused. She raised the spear again at a high point in the song, and the rain of embers intensified over many of the Fomoire's siege engines, setting the wood on fire and scattering some of their crews.

  The rain of missiles on the walls slowed, and, with renewed confidence, the guards still on the wall, and the Dullahan's troops rained arrows and magic down from the top of the walls.

  Even with half of the Fomoire in retreat, and many of the others in chaos, it wasn't to last forever. Indech reached the wall, smashing a fist into it. More thrown rocks, and a few siege engine missiles continued to strike, and the cracks in the stone grew.

  Megan resumed trying to target Indech, digging deep, but every time, there was a faint ripple around him, and a wave of heat, and the magic failed. Each time his strength proved greater, and when he proved a single point of invulnerability to the song, more of the Fomoire rallied to him.

  She vaguely heard Justin saying something—and felt the walls shake under her feet. The shaking got harder, and stone exploded nearby, as parts of the wall collapsed. She kept singing, even while she looked about, seeing more and more fae retreating from the walls. Justin had his newest shield up, defending her from the shrapnel. She noticed that the portion of the wall-walk leading to the nearest stairs had collapsed. New assaults were coming in by the moment.

  Looking around frantically, she noticed, beyond her own viridescent glow, several spots of color in the air behind her. She heard the clash of arms as Indech's forces met Jack-In-Irons's men at the breach in the wall, and the ogres fought to hold the courtyard as long as they could, even as she could vaguely pick up on more calls to retreat.

  A single one of the tiny spots of color dodged and weaved through the shrapnel and chaos, fire, red flares, and arrows, until a tiny woman with Painted Lady butterfly wings landed on her shoulder, shouting in her ear. "I'm Nessa, Majesty. Ashling sent me to get you. We need to fall back to the castle. Follow me!"

  With a wave of pixies and sprites aiding in the counter-magics, and Jack's lines buying them time, Nessa led her and her entourage to another stair. They had to pause, bracing when the pixie told them, running when she signaled. Finally, at a shouted "Jump!" they leaped off the stairs, with Tsonoqua hauling the stone and cauldron both as Kerr tried to keep up.

  As soon as they hit the courtyard, with Megan singing all the way, more of the sprites and pixies fell in, helping them dodge and weave as stones and gray-green fire rained down. The Dullahan and Jack met them, fighting just behind the Queen's retreat, fighting to keep her free to continue singing, even as more and more of the smaller Fomoire came pouring through the breaches in the walls.

  Tiernan and a small unit of warriors, including the remnants of his spearmen, fell in with the defense, fighting alongside ljosalfar, ogres, and the rest.

  They fought back to the doors, dragging the wounded where they could, having to leave far too many to be captured, the strongest fighters holding the breach while Megan sang. More fire rained down on the courtyard, and more of the Fomoire burned.

  With the walls and courtyard finally emptied of fae, the song built in Megan's head again, and the stone ground began to tear itself up under the oncoming boots of the enemy. The Fomoire charge slowed, then halted entirely, as spearmen filled the door, archers and spellcasters fired from behind them, and Megan sacrificed the courtyard to make a killing field.

  For a few moments, all momentum halted, and the Fomoire were forced back. Until, with a groan, the stone walls collapsed further, and Indech tore a breach open wide enough to let him pass. A few more impacts, and another section of the walls fell, and more of the giants came through, followed by the first of the cavalry. Indech gestured, and a new charge tore across the ruined courtyard.

  More afraid of their ruler than the Queen's power, the first cavalrymen ran themselves into the spear wall, sacrificing themselves and their monsters in order to render the wall of weapons useless. The next ranks hit them, and the fighting intensified, and more stones started to hit the walls of the central castle, as the giants and Indech lifted pieces of the collapsed walls, or pulled up missiles from the broken ground of the courtyard.

  The walls shook with each impact, and holes began to appear, and bits of the ceiling started to fall. The fighting all around her intensified as more of the Fomoire reached the defenders, and as more breaches in the walls appeared,
more attackers started storming through them into the halls.

  The sight of Indech storming towards them filled her vision. As he advanced, the sickly light around him intensified, and instead of stone, he flung a ball of gray-green fire at her. It struck before Justin could advance. For a moment, the song disappeared in a scream of pain, and Megan felt blisters rise up along her shoulder. While the divine aura and grounding of the artifacts prevented her from being burned down where she stood, she'd been wounded. A glance revealed the burn, and black lines starting to expand out from them.

  "Fall back to the Ballroom," she called, before she willed the song back. As she sang, she felt the cold from where she gripped the spear intensify. The blue runes crawled further up her arm, and the burn cooled, and the black, wiggling lines first stopped moving, then retreated, black toxin bleeding from the wound. The next fireball, and the next were weakened by the song enough that Justin, now more prepared, was able to deflect them with the sword as they fell back.

  More and more fae fell in front of her, fighting to allow her to keep up the song that was proving the greatest weapon they had, and the only thing keeping them in the fight. Fae she'd seen dancing, running wild, eating, fighting at her father's side, disappeared one by one under the tide of the Fomoire—but they made the invaders pay for every inch of ground.

  She reached the Ballroom, the doors opening for her, and a new wave of magics hit the Fomoire as Cassia's soldiers unleashed their prepared ambush. The Dullahan and a knot of his troops fell back to join them, dragging everyone they could with them, even as the Fomoire dragged more prisoners away. Jack-In-Irons and a handful of his people, all bearing new injuries of their own, but still fighting, soon followed, fighting at the doors.

  Megan nearly fell over backwards, desperate for just a moment to catch her breath. She wanted to mourn, she wanted to look to someone, anyone else for direction. Despite the rejection of the Fomoire toxins, her shoulder ached, and fatigue threatened to take her legs out from under her.

  There was a loud groan, and a crack like thunder, and the outer walls of the castle came down. Indech's sword cleaved through the stone walls, and the shark-toothed King of the Fomoire followed, with more Fomoire behind him.

  Megan's lungs ached as she breathed in the dust.

  "Live." Her father's voice. It was disembodied, echoing around her.

  "Make friends..." Justin cut down an armored warrior before he could launch his spear at her. Looking held together by bandages, Cassia cut the legs out from one of the monster mounts, so the cats could scale the falling body to maul the rider. Kerr distributed medicine from the cauldron, even as they retreated.

  Indech advanced through the broken walls. "Make enemies. And make them of the finest sort, and earn them."

  "Live." It exhorted again.

  "Live." This time, it was a different voice. The voice that should be singing the song. The voice she heard it from. The echoing built up again, the pounding in her skull intensified, and through the ruined walls, those two bright green stars looked down on her, and her eyes flared anew to match them.

  The green before her eyes....she could try forever in vain to paint that color. I might.

  Chapter 36: Battle for the Ballroom

  The song built again. The battle raged around her, as Megan's perceptions filtered in and out. Am I going mad?

  This was a song that mortals weren't meant to sing, or even hear. That lords of Faerie would hear and think of forever, without being able to quite remember how it went.

  In one blink, she saw battle. Justin, the Dullahan, Tiernan, the ogres, the tengu, the smallfolk, the redcaps, the wolf-riders, and others fought fiercely to keep the Fomoire off of her.

  In the next blink, she saw those same people, and many others, weaving, spinning, and circling in the wild dances that belonged in this room. She saw her father and Orlaith dancing, never quite touching hands, in the center of everything. The dance grew more intense as the whirling bodies shifted their motions to keep up with the song in her head.

  In another blink, she saw Indech again. The great black sword swept through one of the redcaps, and, not even slowed by cutting through the body, gravely wounded one of the ogres as well. A charge from the Dullahan was halted when one of Indech's great boots smashed him to the ground. The head rolled away from a now very still hand.

  She sang, and red stars flared above, in the waning moments of night before the dawn. White-hot fire rained down from above, turning one of the giants to ash before he could launch another boulder onto the defenders. Her song picked up, and a line of Fomoire infantry retreated in religious terror.

  Jack-In-Irons wrestled with one of the monster horses, getting a black-tipped spear through the shoulder, managing to overturn the horse onto its rider anyway. Some sort of scorpion-tiger lunged, threatening to overwhelm the ogre before he could pull the spear free. She lost sight of him trying to grapple the monster with one arm.

  Two tengu weaved and danced among the Fomoire, darting out into the hall in gaps in the enemy lines to strike, before dodging back again. One of them dodged too slow, taking a deep cut along his chest, before he was pulled into the Fomoire masses, while his companion was forced to retreat back to the lines.

  The ljosalfar unit proved no less brave when alongside Megan, a rank keeping their spears leveled to slow any advance, while sworn shieldmen defended them from enemy missiles. When one would fall, they'd close ranks to let the wounded be pulled back to receive medicine and bandages.

  Tiernan's men joined the ljosalfar ranks as more fell under the assault, adding spears to the line, as the Seelie King fenced with two of the Fomoire warriors, felling one before taking a wound to the side himself. He fell back to the defense of the spears, but remained on the front lines despite the bleeding injury.

  More Fomoire spells were launched at the Ballroom. The Claiomh Solais flared again and again, and between the blade, Megan's song, and the additional help from the smallfolk in the room casting collectively, the spells weakened or dissipated entirely. Still, a few struck home, drawing screams of pain behind her. In addition to the rock dust in the air, the taste of ashes filled her mouth and tortured her lungs, but this time, the pounding in her head didn't let up, and she sang.

  Another Fomoire charge was blunted when the ground tore up where the great doors to the castle had been, dropping more of the structure of the castle on advancing Fomoire warriors.

  Those who made it through that were immediately met by ljosalfar spears. Seven tackled one of the unhorsed warriors and savaged his weapon arm. The wolf then stood atop his fallen foe, facing off with more of the enemy, daring them to try to get past.

  Megan blinked again, and she was dancing, feeling the absolute emptiness of the place with just a couple of musicians and Tiernan observing the date. Is this what it will be like, even if we win?

  She snapped back to awareness as a horse and rider bore down on her. Cassia intercepted them, driving her sword into the horse's flank, and losing hold of her weapon when the horse reared, throwing its rider. As before, the cats leaped—the Fomoire was ready for them, raising his sword and taking Jude's right front leg at the shoulder, before Maxwell's jaws found the gap in the armor at the throat and finished off the warrior.

  The last sight she had of the cats was Maxwell standing defensively over his brother as a Fomoire beast handler closed in on them. Cassia started to fight towards them and soon found herself engaged with two of the Fomoire spearmen, one of the black-tipped weapons tearing through some of the bandages at her side.

  She blinked again, and ljosalfar and trolls were gathering amid the frosty air of An Teach Deiridh as ravens circled. The ravens know when war is coming. If the Norse are here, it's a sign. She hadn't thought it would come to this, but they had centuries of preparation behind them. From the moment they showed up, was this inevitable?

  The ravens disappeared as reality re-imposed itself, and a three-armed warrior came rushing at her, to fall short when t
alons raked at his eyes, and Ashling dove off of the Count to drive her knitting needle into his neck. The Count tried to stay with Ashling, but was battered aside and back into the Ballroom when one of the Fomoire struck a glancing blow with a war club. The crow was agile enough to avoid being struck head on, but not enough to avoid it entirely. Megan could see him moving, slowly, trying to get under cover. Ashling disappeared amongst the moving feet on the floor. Megan was about to go after her, but was forced back by spear-thrusts that fell just short when she stumbled back.

  One of the warriors tried to follow up, but Justin cut the spear in half, and then cut the warrior's leg off, finishing him when he fell. Justin barely got his shield up in front of a war club that tried to strike while he was finishing the first. Even with the shield, he was thrown off balance, and sent staggering after Megan. Indech ignored the blows aimed at him, storming through the gap, kicking people aside regardless which side they fought for in his pursuit of the Queen. He raised the sword again, and Megan shut her eyes.

  When they opened, there was a moment of her first foray into the Ballroom. She saw Orlaith atop the dais, with Inwar at her side. Stacking the deck against the Fomoire, against Winter, strengthening Summer.

  She blinked again. The sword was coming at her. Tsonoqua stepped up to challenge him, stone under one arm, holding the cauldron in the other. She raised the ogre's treasured cauldron as Indech swung at Megan. While the cauldron remained intact, Tsonoqua was battered to the ground, losing hold of both artifacts.

  Indech was about to stab downward at the ogress, when she disappeared. Indech looked around in confusion. Kerr. Megan thought, noticing the cauldron and stone had disappeared as well.

  Indech gestured, and fire exploded outward from him. Kerr's illusionary invisibility shattered, as the brownie pulled as much of the ogress as possible behind the stone and cauldron. The brownie stifled a scream as the flames licked around the cover of the artifact.