by Anthea Sharp
He paused. Barely audible beneath the hushing of the wind in the leaves was the sound of running water.
“A river, maybe?” he said.
She nodded. “That reminds me—we shouldn’t eat or drink anything while we’re in here, no matter how good it looks. Only the food we brought, otherwise we could end up trapped in the Realm of Faerie for years.”
“Right.” He dimly recalled some old tales about the negative consequences of eating food in magical lands.
The forest changed, the pale-trunked trees turning to shorter willows, the flowers now trumpetlike yellow bells on fleshy stalks. The noise of running water was loud. Nyx pushed through a stand of willows, and only his quick reflexes kept him from tumbling into a clear, rushing river.
It was wider across than they could jump. Glancing up and down the bank, he saw no sign of a bridge spanning the water.
“Maybe we can follow it downstream,” Marny said, coming up beside him. “Surely it leads somewhere.”
“Looks fairly deep.” He peered at the current. “If the bank gets impassable, I’m not sure we can wade it.”
“I’m not sure we’d want to. All kinds of creatures could be living in there.”
“Um, yeah.” He took a step back. “I think I see one now.”
Something was rising in the middle of the stream—a head topped by swirling green hair. Two bulbous eyes peered above the water, regarding them the way a frog looks at a fly.
“Tasty morsels, come a little closer,” the creature said in a burbling voice. It began humming, a wordless tune that floated and twined like weeds in the current.
“Water hag,” Marny said in low voice. “Time to go.”
She moved into the willows, but Nyx stood there, reluctant to turn around. He imagined he could feel clammy hands grasping him, pulling him down…
“Come on.” Marny grabbed his arm.
He blinked, his thoughts slow and sludgy. Wouldn’t the water feel cool and nice, the mud so silky between his toes?
Without meaning to, he moved nearer to the river.
“Not okay.” Marny pulled at him, but he turned his wrist and broke her grasp.
The creature smiled and drifted closer. One moment she was a green-haired hag, and the next she transformed into a beautiful maiden with promises in her eyes.
“Dammit. Come on. I can’t drag you out of here one-handed.” Marny’s voice buzzed annoyingly in his ears. He swatted the air, trying to drive it away.
The water maiden’s song almost resolved into words. If he stayed a little longer he would hear them. He would understand.
“Ow!” A sharp pain in his back made him whirl.
Marny stood there, pointing the spear at him. Her eyes shifted to the left.
“Duck,” she cried.
He did, and she jabbed awkwardly at the hideous, green-slimed creature emerging from the river.
“Arghh,” the hag cried. “What cold iron befouls the air?”
“The kind that will hurt you,” Marny said. “Now, get away.”
The creature grabbed the haft of the spear, keeping the point from touching her. With her other hand she reached toward Nyx. His vision flickered, the hag strobing from lovely to ugly with every blink.
It was too freaky. He bounded to his feet and pulled his knife out.
“Begone!” He shook the point at her.
“We mean it.” Marny tugged at the spear.
“Iron, fly,” the water hag screeched. “Say goodbye, up and down, then you drown!”
On the last word, she ripped the spear from Marny’s grasp and swung it hard at Nyx. He got his arm up for a block and the sudden impact knocked the knife from his hand. It tumbled through the air, glinting, then hit the water with a splash and disappeared.
“Run!” Marny cried, already scrambling away.
Nyx turned and bolted through the willows, mourning the loss of their best weapons. But no way was he going after the creature for his spear, or diving into the river to get his knife. They’d just have to keep going with what they had left. He shot a look over his shoulder.
The water hag had transformed to a maiden again, her long blonde hair shading down to green at the tips.
“Alas!” She gave him a beseeching look from eyes like clear blue pools, and held out her arms. “All I beg is but a single kiss from your lips.”
“That would be a no.” Nyx turned his back on the creature and followed Marny.
The smell of crushed willows filled the air, as behind him the water hag sobbed and pleaded. Marny reached back and caught his hand, like she was worried he planned to turn around. No chance of that—he’d seen the sharp tips of the creature’s teeth and knew all she wanted him for was lunch.
Together, they plowed back under the trees.
“It’s safe,” Marny said, stopping and sucking in a breath. “Pretty sure the hag can’t come this far out of the water.”
“If you say so.” He squeezed her hand, then let go. “Are you all right? Sling holding up?”
“Well enough. Sorry about poking you back there.”
“It had to be done.” He shivered at the memory of how easily the water hag had cast her spell over him. “How come you weren’t affected?”
“I have some protection against faerie glamour.”
He opened his mouth to ask, and she shook her head.
“It’s a long story.” She glanced around at the quiet forest. “And not one I want overheard. When we get out of here, I’ll tell you.”
“You better.”
There were a lot of things he wanted to hear from Marny, and not all of them had to do with the obvious adventures she’d had dealing with the fey folk. She was one of the most interesting people he’d ever met.
“So much for following the stream,” she said. “I guess we keep going through the woods.”
He was about to reply, then held up his hand. Something deep in the forest crashed through the underbrush. The ground vibrated with the sound of hoofbeats.
“Crap.” He glanced around, looking for a hiding place. A nearby cluster of bushes had branches that swept the ground. “We can take cover under there.”
Marny made a face, but hurried over to the shrubbery. “I wish we were here as our in-game characters. Sure would be nice to turn invisible about now.”
“We’ll have to do the best we can as ourselves.” He pulled a few of the branches aside, careful not to break them.
Marny got down on all fours—well, three, since she couldn’t use one arm—and started wriggling into the small hollow at the base of the bushes.
The sling and her pack made her awkward, and he tried not to urge her to hurry up as the sound of approaching riders grew near. Just when he was about to give her a push, she pulled her legs in. A heartbeat later he slid in after her, practically ending up in her lap.
Her body was softness laid over solidity. The line of her thigh and hip and arm pressed against him, but he could feel the strength under her curves. Her lips were full, and for a second he wondered how it would feel to kiss her.
“Sorry it’s so tight in here,” she whispered, holding his gaze.
He shot her a quick smile to show it was fine, then pushed all thoughts of kissing out of his mind. This was so not the time.
The sound of hooves pounded the earth outside their hiding place, and they both stilled.
To his dismay, the hoofbeats slowed. The cold chill on the back of his neck told him that he and Marny were about to be discovered.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Marny watched from between the overlapping leaves as the riders approached. Through the foliage she glimpsed two horses bearing armored figures. One wore silver mail, the other golden.
Her breath caught. Surely the Bright King himself wouldn’t be out riding around the forest looking for them? For the first time in a long while she wished she were smaller, so that she could slip further back into the concealing shrubbery.
“The scent of humans is strong here
,” a cold voice said. “They must be nearby.”
With a chiming of bells, one of the riders dismounted. His armor shone pale in the light, and the glimpse she caught of his face showed high cheekbones and green eyes slitted like a cat’s. His long, dark hair fell in a single braid down his back, and a deadly looking sword hung at his side.
“There was a commotion by the water,” he said. “Shall I investigate, Bright Lance?”
“Do so. I will search this portion of the forest. Should you discover the humans, call out, and I shall do the same. We will present these mortal pests to our liege lord in good time.”
“As you say.” The silver-armored faerie turned and led his mount toward the stream.
The remaining rider turned in a slow circle, sunlight gleaming off his golden-hued armor. Then, excruciatingly slowly, he urged his mount to walk directly toward their hiding place.
Beside her, she felt Nyx tense. He wasn’t planning to fight, was he? But what else could they do? She didn’t think they could outrun a mounted faerie knight, especially when he had magic at his disposal.
The horse halted in front of their bush, and the rider dismounted. Marny swallowed, her spit sour with fear.
The Bright Lance’s gauntlets glinted as he reached to pull aside the branches of their shelter. Nyx shifted forward, his expression fierce.
Something pulled her from behind, a sudden tug as the air gave way to emptiness. With a stifled yelp, she fell backward. A confused blur of leaves and branches, the smell of freshly turned soil, and then she landed with a thump on hard-packed earth. Her backpack cushioned her fall, but her arm twinged sharply and she gritted her teeth against the pain.
Nyx tumbled on top of her, and there was a confused moment as they sorted themselves out. By the time they sat facing each other in the dim light, her wound was hurting in earnest.
“Where are we?” he asked. “And where’s that faerie guy?”
Marny glanced around the earthen hollow, which appeared to be a shallow cave. Daylight filtered in from an opening between two raised stones, with a third laid across the top, forming a small doorway. It looked big enough for her to wriggle through. Probably.
“No idea about where,” she said. “And I don’t think the knight followed us.”
“Yet. I have the feeling he’s not going to give up.”
Marny had to agree—this was a temporary reprieve. She was about to suggest they leave, when the far side of their small shelter began to glow, a sphere of brightness forming there. The strength of a candle flame at first, the light grew more intense until she had to squint. Inside the sphere a fey creature capered.
“Company,” Nyx said, rising to a half-crouch.
Marny reached for her knife, setting her fingers on the handle.
“Foolish mortals,” a high-pitched, familiar voice said. “You are safe for the moment, but do you truly think you can stumble undetected about the Realm?”
“Puck?” Marny raised her hand to shade her eyes.
The glowing sphere faded, leaving behind a grinning sprite sitting cross-legged in the air. His tattered tunic was stitched with leaves, and he had feathers woven into his hair.
“Indeed, Mistress Marny.” Puck bounced up and made her an elaborate bow. “Pray, introduce me to your companion.”
She hesitated. Jennet had told her that names held power in the Realm of Faerie. But Puck already knew all the Feyguard by name, and besides, “Nyx” wasn’t an actual birth name, but a nickname. It was probably safe enough to make the introduction.
“Puck, this is my friend, Nyx,” she said.
“Indeed.” By the twinkle in his eye, she suspected the sprite had known that, and had tested her in some way. “Well met, Master Nyx. Tell me, what brings you two mortals faring so far?”
“We’re looking for my sister,” Nyx said, a challenge in his voice. “Have you seen her? And how come you know Marny?”
“Questions upon questions.” Puck turned a lazy somersault in the middle of the air. “What will you give for the answers, I wonder?”
Right—there was always a catch where the fey folk were concerned. However, since she and Nyx had actually come into the Realm as their physical selves, with items from the real world, maybe they had something to bargain with.
She dug in her jeans pocket. A tissue, a mint wrapper, some lint. Ah, a dollar coin. They weren’t made with iron, were they? She pulled it out.
The metal gleamed softly in the palm of her hand, the embossed symbol and numbers on it looking suddenly strange and foreign.
“How about this?” she asked.
Nyx shot her a glance, as if he thought info about his sister was worth way more than a dollar. Which, of course, it was—except that anything from the mortal world was special here.
“It’s like your crossover leaves,” she said to him.
She hoped that any power the coin had in the Realm wouldn’t ultimately prove dangerous to humans.
His expression cleared. “How about it, Puck? What can you tell us?”
The sprite flew over and flicked the coin with his fingernail. It let out a ping, and Puck nodded, apparently satisfied.
“You shall find what you seek in the Bright Court,” he said, plucking the dollar from Marny’s hand.
“Hey, not so fast.” She swiped at it, but Puck swooped away, laughing.
She’d look dumb trying to chase him around in the little cave, so she settled for scowling and settling back onto the dirt floor.
“The Bright Court,” Nyx said. “How do we get there?”
“You are well on the way,” Puck said. “Your intent aligns with the wishes of the Bright King, allowing me to transport you to this passage.”
“Why help us?” Marny asked. She knew better than to take the sprite’s assistance at face value. The fey folk always had an ulterior motive. If only she knew what Puck’s was. “I mean, those guys after us were the king’s guards or something, right? Maybe we should have let them capture us and take us to the court, if that’s where Nyx’s sister is.”
“We didn’t know that at the time,” Nyx pointed out.
“Yeah, but why not let us get taken?” She gave the sprite a narrow-eyed look. Maybe Nyx had missed the fact that Puck hadn’t actually said Emmie was in the Bright Court, but she hadn’t.
“Should you hope to be successful, you must bargain with the king from a position of strength,” the sprite said. “Captives in his court have little recourse.”
“So, you want us to rescue her?” Marny asked.
“The balance must be restored,” the sprite said.
Which was another of his maddening non-answers.
“We appreciate the help,” Nyx said. “But it would be nice to have a little more to go on.”
“You are fortunate to have even this much assistance,” Puck said, cocking his head to one side. “I have told you everything you need to know, and more.”
“Fine,” Marny said, shifting to find a more comfortable position on the packed dirt floor. “We get to the Bright Court, find what we’re looking for, and make a bargain with the king. Do I have that right?”
Puck waved one had through the air, leaving a glittering trail. When he smiled, his teeth glowed in the light. “Indeed, Mistress Marny, you do.”
Unfortunate. Bargaining with the fey folk was always a bad idea—but how else could they get Emmie out of the Realm of Faerie?
Speaking of which…
“Do you happen to know a quick escape spell we could use?” she asked Puck. “We’ll pay you for it.”
Nyx nodded, clearly sharing her thought that once they got his sister they’d need to leave immediately. It wasn’t a good idea for humans to hang around in the courts of the fey.
Puck tilted his head and screwed up his face, making his chin look even more pointed.
“Perhaps,” he said. “But no mortal escapes unscathed from the Realm of Faerie. Are you willing to pay the price?”
“If that’s our only tic
ket out of here, then yes,” Nyx said.
Marny frowned—but really, what choice did they have?
“Mistress Marny?” Puck turned his bright eyes on her.
“What kind of price are we talking about?”
She thought of her friends, who bore their own scars from the realm. Jennet had nearly died. Tam had been willing to sacrifice himself to save her, and had almost lost his brother to the Dark Court, too. Roy’s heart had been broken and she still wasn’t sure he’d recover fully, despite the fact that he could see Brea, the girl he’d fallen in love with, once a month.
But it was far too late to choose any other path. Marny was here with Nyx because his sister needed rescuing. Even though she wasn’t a Feyguard, she knew what was right. What had to be done.
Puck nodded, as if he could hear her thoughts. “You have a brave soul, Mistress Marny. Sometimes, the price is not something taken away, but accepting a new burden. I cannot tell you what it might be.”
“Why not?” Nyx demanded. “I’m not a fan of all this vague talk.”
The sprite slowly rose into the air and floated above their heads, just below the earthen ceiling. His next words carried an edge of darkness Marny had never heard in Puck’s voice before.
“When you brush up against magic, the path of your life is changed. I have neither the skill nor the desire to peer deeply into Fate’s web to see what awaits you. But you are here, two mortals in the Realm of Faerie, and that will mark you both. Forever.”
He gestured, his long fingers scribing runes into the air. The symbols hung there, first glowing white, then shading to gold, then to deepest indigo. The sound of chimes filled the small cave. Despite herself, Marny scooted a bit closer to Nyx, grateful for his warmth. He reached out and set his hand on her knee.
The runes dissolved into a rain of glitter, falling over them. It felt like cold droplets, like fire, like regret. Something flared in Marny’s injured arm, and she inhaled sharply.
“What?” Nyx asked, his eyes concerned.
“I have healed Mistress Marny of the injury she sustained from the spriggan guard,” Puck said.
He drifted down to settle cross-legged before them. Although there was still a touch of purple glow in his hair, his grin was the same as ever.