Everyone settled as best they could, and the pixie started to guide Megan through a new song. It took a while, and as they worked it out, the sword visibly shifted a couple times, pushing into the wall about an inch. Megan did her best to shut out the grinding and focus on learning the song.
At first, she was sure nothing was happening, aside from the sword shifting another half an inch, forcing Cassia to shift again, and leaving things tight enough Lani would have to crawl over people and hope the music was enough to keep them asleep if she needed to get to any other part of the room.
The cats fell asleep first, followed by the Count, and then Justin. Megan felt her own eyelids getting heavy, and did her best to let the song take her too, despite being the one casting. She kept singing when Ashling quieted, going still, using Megan's stomach as a pillow, and then she heard soft snores from Cassia's direction, before Megan drifted off as well.
She was shaken awake by Lani, urging her to hurry. The ceiling had opened, and the walls had moved apart slightly, letting Justin free the sword. Cassia made the fifteen foot leap upward, then held the other end of the rope Lani had drawn from her bag, easily holding on while the others climbed out. "How did you do that?" Megan asked, once they were free, and Lani triggered the floor closing again.
"Sort of a cross between opening a locked car with a coat hanger, and convincing the trap it had closed all the way. Sorry about your armor, Cassia. I needed all the bolts."
Cassia shook her head, "I figured. I can get more made. But if you really want to get my clothes off, Lani, there's easier ways."
Lani sighed, trying to turn her attention to the warded door. "At least you still have a couple layers on. You are wearing a wrap, right?"
"Another death trap or two, or some good wine, and you can find out."
Lani finally found a safe point to stand and had Justin mar the wards with the sword from there. It didn't take long once they were destroyed for Cassia to force the door open.
Inside was a burial chamber much like the others, ornate, full of old treasures—but the body was missing, the dust had been disturbed, and the weapons rack had open spaces where a sword and shield were supposed to be. The room was also full of rolled up parchments. Lani immediately turned her attention to those, while the others looked around.
"I guess he already left. Where do you think he could have gone?"
"These might have some kind of clue, but I'm not sure," Lani said, with one parchment unrolled on the raised alcove where the body had been laying, delicately unrolling another, "I think they're maps, but all marked up. I can't read them, and I'm not sure what all these lines and arrows are."
Cassia perked up, moving to look. "Tactical maps. Ric has a copy of this one, from the perspective of the other side. Guessing this guy is some kind of strategist."
"It would make sense that some of Balor's officers would be," Justin agreed, moving to study the two open maps.
"So after all of that, we just missed him?" Megan asked.
"But we should take these maps, and try the last place on our map and hope for better luck. These are all really old, but they might still give us some clues."
The group packed up as many of the rolled-up parchments as they could and carefully made their way back out of the burial chambers.
Chapter 15: Wandering
“Well,” Megan commented as they started to make their way to the very edge of the swamp. “We can't get too negative. The dead-tactician guy might just be wandering aimlessly until he wears out again. We don't know that he's actually going to do anything with the Butterfly Collector.” She looked at Ashling with what she hoped was reassurance.
Before the pixie could respond to that, a voice came from somewhere to their left, laced with countertenor giggling. “What are the odds of that, you figure?” Megan and Lani startled, looking in the direction of the noise. Cassia growled low even before she looked, and the cats joined in. Ashling just sighed. "Bother. You had to show up now?"
The figure leaning against the tree looked a little like a middle-school kid, provided that middle school had an extremely lax dress code that allowed long, messy hair and very ragged clothing. A look at his glinting eyes quickly indicated that he really wasn't young at all. Megan quickly remembered to look away. She'd had bad experiences looking some Faerie creatures in the eyes, particularly ones with sardonic smiles.
Cassia said something in Greek that Megan was fairly sure wasn't nice.
“Nice to see you, too, Cass.”
“What do you know about all this, Rob?”
“Enough to find it hilarious, obviously. But why should I drop spoilers? Merry wandering!” And with another trill of giggles, he was gone.
"Check the supplies." Ashling suggested automatically. “The sooner we find out what he did, the better.”
"Why? Who was that?" Megan asked, even while starting to help Lani, who was already checking their rations and tools.
"Robin Goodfellow," Cassia snarled, checking over her weapon and few other possessions.
"That sounds vaguely English-y familiar,” Megan admitted. “Now that I've been at this stuff a while, though, I'm guessing it's more complicated than anybody thinks.”
"A powerful faerie. Like, on par with the King and Queen powerful, in his own way. Except he just uses it to cause trouble," Ashling responded. "Except when he doesn't. Those times, when people leave him milk and bread, well, then he weaves a really neat sweater."
"How is that different than... well, a lot of you?"
"Because right now, he's pissing me off," Cassia responded.
"What Cassia means," Ashling said, "Is that no matter how many sweaters he's made someone, the first time he visits and doesn't happen to have been left milk and bread, he's as likely to burn their house down as anything. I mean, don't get me wrong, he's fun at parties, but Rob lives in the moment."
"I said what I meant." Cassia answered.
"I'm still not seeing how that's different."
"Because," Lani finally stepped into the conversation, "Even most of the Unseelie balk at things like messing with the undead, or triggering ancient curses, or playing with things belonging to the Fomoire. If it will cause some chaos, he'll probably do it."
"So why is he messing with us?"
“It's what he does. And he must have pulled something, but all our supplies are in order. The granola's not even stale.”
"So let's at least try to catch up with him and find out,” Megan said.
They moved for a while, trying to check the area around the tomb for tracks or any other sign of his passage without luck. The leopards perked up a couple of times, but whatever sign there was, it never led anywhere. Likewise, Ashling and the Count circled above, but, much to the pixie's disgust, never had anything new to report when they descended again.
The group finally checked the map and started towards the final tomb listed, slogging over the soft, marshy ground. Megan finally called for a break to catch her breath and rest her feet. Some time later, she called for another, with Lani and the cats in firm agreement.
"It doesn't look that far on the map," Megan said.
"You are moving pretty slowly," Ashling responded.
"Not that slow," Lani said. "We can't all hop on a crow and fly."
"She's right, though," Justin said. "Our destination is no further from the last tomb than the first and second were apart. But it's taking longer this time."
Cassia said, "You're just slowing down because you're tired."
Lani stood staring. She looked at the cats. Maxwell and Jude were both resting next to a tree, occasionally yawning and stretching. “Wait...” Lani said. “Megan, we left the tomb, what, two hours ago?”
“Yeah,” Megan said. “So it's probably safe to say by now we're officially lost.”
“No,” said Lani. “Well, yes, but that's not the point I wanted to address first.” She pointed at the leopards. “Why are they still at full size?”
Megan blinked.<
br />
“Huh,” said Cassia.
Ashling sighed. “So that's what he did: a dreamscape illusion. Robin Freaking Goodfellow. One of his favorites."
"Ok, so I understood illusion. And we haven't gotten out of its range yet? How big of an illusion can he make?"
"That's the point of dreamscape illusions," Ashling explained, happily forgetting her cursing of the other faerie to go into explanation mode. "We've been going in circles. So, you know, they're really excellent for tropical vacations. Get someone who can do them to lay one down, and you have a tropical vacation. Swimming, private beach, maybe nice little house with a view. All in fifteen feet. You know, ‘til it ends, and you're in your bikini in Minnesota."
"I don't think this is supposed to be a vacation," Megan said, gesturing to their surroundings.
"Okay, well that's the other point of them: to get people lost or keep them from going anywhere. That's probably it this time."
"Yeah, that's probably it. So how do we get out?"
"It will go away eventually," Ashling explained.
"And how long is eventually?"
"Longer than we have," Lani said. "We need to find another way out. What are our options?"
Ashling considered. "We can look for the flaw in the illusion."
"How do we do that? If he's that good, is there even a flaw?" Megan asked.
"They all have them. The better the illusionist, the smaller the flaws. But eventually, his magic will have gotten bored with it. A tree will repeat, or there'll be the same bird sounds. If the illusion stops working right, and we know it, it's easier to break."
"We know it's an illusion. So it's already not working right," Megan said.
"You want a saving throw? You might know it's an illusion, but your brain is still getting information from your senses. Until you convince them, we're stuck."
"We can't just walk in a straight line?"
"Why, have you been drinking?" Ashling paused. "And not sharing?"
Megan sighed. "If the illusion tricks us into walking in circles, it seems like we should be able to get outside of it if we can stay on track."
"Sure, maybe. If you have something to follow that's not illusion. You can think you're walking perfectly straight, and you've actually been walking without rhythm the whole time."
"Is that some sort of bard thing?"
"The worms like bards just fine, yes."
Megan blinked and looked towards Lani, who sighed, and started looking around again as if she might spot the discrepancy right there.
“Wait, Justin, why aren't you dealing with all this?” Megan asked.
“I beg your pardon?”
“The sword. The magic-cancelling. You busted open the wards. You've cut through magic weapons. A whole murmur of sprites can't zap you. Why are you stuck in this dreamscape illusion thing?”
“If you'll indicate where to slice it open, Highness, I will be happy to follow instructions. Or you might let me have ten years to develop a broader-based understanding of technique, but I am hoping to get you home sooner than that."
They moved a little further, but Megan's feet started to ache again, and she paused to rest, thinking through the situation while the others scanned the area around them further. "Hey, what about the cats?"
"What about them?" Cassia asked, scratching Maxwell between the ears.
"Couldn't they, like, smell something and go find it, or something? They don't rely just on sight the way we... and, uhm, birds do, right?"
"It's worth a try." Lani agreed, then paused to let Cassia and Ashling confirm the plan with the cats. Maxwell was eager to try out being the hero, charging into the trees, while Jude was more hesitant, but duly sniffed the air and started searching the area for a way out. Eventually, Maxwell came charging up behind them, stopping and looking confused, and Jude just circled back to them.
Ashling shook her head. "They're still getting the same cues we are. Having really good hearing and stuff here isn't any more helpful than you having really good eyes."
Megan thought about that a little longer, humming to herself as ideas bounced through her head. She rejected a few, and finally stepped up to Jude, while addressing Ashling again. "So, it's just an illusion, right? We only think we're seeing straight lines, while we're going in circles and stuff, but it's not actually physically moving us around or anything, right?"
"Right. Robin doesn't do that kind of magic. If he wants someone moved, he kidnaps them to a tower in Faerie or something." Lani twitched.
Megan searched until she found a stick and brought it over to Jude, holding it in front of the cat. "Can you smell that?"
Ashling confirmed the movement of Jude's head was agreement. At that, Megan pulled the leopard's goggles down, then covered the lenses with mud.
"Hey, what are you doing? He won't be able to see anything," Cassia said, moving towards Megan.
Lani held a hand up. "I think I understand. That's the point. Make him rely totally on other senses."
Megan nodded, hushing everyone. "He'll need to hear where it falls." she explained, before throwing the stick as hard as she could. As soon as she heard the stick land in the distance, she tapped on Jude's back. "Find it."
The cat took off in the direction of the noise, and, at Megan's urging, the rest of the group followed, taking care to focus strictly on trailing the cat. By the time they found him, the tiny kitten in the leather helmet was playing with the now much-too-big-for-him-to-fetch stick. "I think we're safe." Megan said, crouching to pet the kitten and clean the goggles.
Chapter 16: Beastly and Sacred
After his role in their escape from the illusion, Jude was only too happy to return to Megan's pocket for a nap. With all the extra walking, and discovering that they hadn't made any progress after all, Megan's legs felt like lead, and more than anything, she just wanted a nap herself. Lani looked only a little better off, and the Count was spending far more time resting on Cassia's shoulder than flying. Only the two full faeries looked unaffected.
Megan tried one of her anti-fatigue songs, which seemed to help progress a little, but not nearly as much as she'd have liked. "Much as I don't want another wight alive and moving—or less dead and moving—I kind of hope we don't have another fight on our hands," she said, as they approached the last of the tombs marked on their map.
"Speak for yourself,” Cassia grumbled. “After that hassle, I'm ready to kick someone's ass and pretend they're Robin."
As they neared the door to the structure, Jude again jumped out of Megan's pocket, reaching full form along with his brother by the time his back paws hit the ground in front of the tomb.
After checking to make sure the doors didn't have protective runes or other wards against Faerie magic, Cassia and Justin went to work prying the door open. This one came open more readily than the earlier doors they'd had to pry open had. As soon as it was open far enough, Cassia drew her sword and gestured to the leopards. She and Maxwell, followed by Justin and Jude, started forward.
"Wait!" Lani called, but too late.
The doors swung shut again, slamming closed much faster than they'd opened. Justin and Jude darted backwards—though Justin tumbled to the ground in the process—ending up outside, while Cassia and Maxwell were trapped inside the tomb.
Moments after the door closed, multiple figures seemed to melt out of the light tree cover nearby, having been nearly invisible a moment before. An unearthly scream heralded a falcon leading the way, rushing at Lani, who dove to the ground to avoid its talons. A monstrous hound followed. At first, it rushed at Justin, still on the ground, but veered away as the knight managed to draw the Claiomh Solais, shying away from the flaming blade.
The two beasts, each with eyes the same glowing green as the earlier wights, were followed by their apparent master. He was the biggest of the wights yet, wearing only light armor, his skin covered in twisting tattoos, a couple of them glowing faintly green.
The big figure drew a claymore from over his b
ack, swinging down hard at Justin, who barely managed to get his sword up in time to parry. Sparks flew from the Claiomh Solais on impact. Prevented from standing, Justin scrambled back as best he could, keeping his sword up and on the defensive, with the wight following close after.
The doors to the tomb shook with Cassia's obvious efforts to escape. Every time they did, one of the runes on the wight's skin glowed brighter, and Megan guessed it was some magic that allowed him to shut the door, and keep it closed against the satyress's powers, since they hadn't found any enchantment on the door itself. "He's using magic and using a sword. That's not fair!" she called to the others.
"We noticed. Can we discuss fair later?" Lani called back, backing away from the advancing hound. As it was about to lunge at her, Jude barreled into its side, unable to knock it down, but at least throwing it off enough that Lani was able to avoid being trapped. The dog turned and snapped at the leopard, who darted back, taking a few scratches from a graze with the undead hound's teeth, but avoiding anything worse from the bite.
After diving at Lani, the falcon quickly engaged Ashling and the Count, the two birds wheeling and darting about in the sky, with Ashling having to hold on tight during the evasive maneuvers. Amidst the attacks, a few black feathers flew, floating down to the ground after each close call.
Focusing purely on defense, with the advantage of the magical sword, Justin was managing to stay alive, but wasn't able to get up or get in any attacks of his own. He was running out of room to keep sliding back. The wight's sword, Megan guessed, had some kind of enchantment of its own, given that it hit the flaming sword repeatedly without breaking.
Considering that and the glowing runes, she started into the counter-spell song, the one Ashling had run her through the most. She was three notes in, almost sure she was seeing the glowing tattoos fade slightly, before she remembered her earlier use of the song, of her throat seizing up. Megan fell silent pre-emptively.
Lani returned the favor to Jude, diving at the monster hound's hindquarters, throwing it off balance as it tried to lunge. Because of her interference, the snapping jaws missed, and it took a claw rake across the face, though that didn't slow it down at all. It whirled, the motion flinging Lani away, sending her tumbling in the grass. Jude got in another slash with his claws, cutting deep into the dead flesh, but it didn't show any signs of slowing down the hound.
Street Fair Page 8