Bands of orcs attempted to scale the walls of the castle, and a couple of trolls lumbered through the trees. There were so many goblins. Too many for the Guard to handle. What were they all doing here?
A group of dreamers played cricket on the green while more looked on. They were oblivious to the fighting going on around them. A troll lumbered from the trees with a huge club dangling from his hand. He surveyed the players while he tossed his weapon from hand-to-hand.
Emerald and I flew over the top of the melee, banking in a wide arc back towards it. My skin felt ripe, ready to burst as the power arced inside. I drew it out, wrapping it around me like a cloak, and then we attacked.
Emerald lowered her head and swept her wings back as she dived towards the ground. She let out a stream of fire as we roared past the orcs. I hooked my feet behind a couple of her scales and knelt on her neck, fitting an arrow to my bow.
Flaming orcs fell from the castle walls, shining like beacons in the half-lit night. I released my arrows with a breath of power, speeding them towards the troll. They lodged in his neck and he dropped his club, looking around in bewilderment.
‘Dragon,’ one of the dreamers screamed, pointing into the sky. The rest of them stopped their game and stared open-mouthed at Emerald. They stood like that for a few seconds before the adrenaline hit their blood stream. You could tell when it kicked in because half of them started screaming hysterically and running towards the woods and the other half just disappeared.
Oh great. Totally unaware of an army of goblins and a big, fat troll, but throw a dragon into the mix and they got all hysterical.
I was so going to hear about this from Rako.
Emerald banked again and attacked from the other side. I could see the goblins, some attacking Border Guards and others chasing terrified dreamers through the trees, and my anger expanded exponentially.
Arrows weren’t going to be very effective at the speed we were going. I knew I had lucked in with the troll. And even though Emerald’s fiery breath was a deadly weapon, it wasn’t enough.
I reined her in with some pressure from my knees and she hovered, the flapping of her wings fanning the fire to a new height.
I took all my humiliation, all my sorrow and I channelled them into my anger. I pointed at a goblin pursuing a woman in a baby-blue night dress. ‘Take that,’ I screeched.
Even I got a fright when the lightning bolt lanced from my fingertips. It pierced his chest and he dropped to his knees and then toppled to the ground.
Border Guards and goblins alike stared up at Emerald and me. I recognised Jared and one of his trainers, Brent. Isgranelda had a look of shock on her face as she shielded her eyes from the fire and gazed at me. A dark slash coloured her right cheek. Then her mouth curled into a triumphant smile and she threw back her head and laughed.
A goblin lifted a crossbow and fired it towards us. Emerald hissed as it bounced off her scales. She reached out her neck to blast fire onto him. He shrieked in pain and dropped to the ground, rolling over and over.
‘Izzy.’ Aethan dashed from the trees and waved his bow at me. ‘What are you doing?’
What was I doing? I was damned well saving their arses, that’s what.
Another bolt slammed into Emerald, wedging in the soft tissue under her arm. She bellowed in pain and flapped higher into the sky.
Leave, I said into her mind.
More bolts followed. One nicked the side of her neck, spraying black blood over me.
‘Go,’ I yelled at her.
She shook her head and snarled; spitting fire and fighting against my mental command. Anger won out. Her roar resounded off the walls of the castle as she nose-dived towards the goblins.
Bolt after bolt slashed towards her. Some bounced harmlessly, but others buried themselves deep between her scales. Fire poured out of her and over them, but still they shot.
‘Stop,’ I screeched, pulling back on her neck.
A bolt lodged into her belly and she let out a huffing grunt. She turned to stare at me and then eyed an arrow that was wedged in her neck.
Help me. Her silent command boomed into my mind, almost blasting me from her back.
I shuffled up her neck while she wheeled in the sky. ‘Fine,’ I said, ‘we’ll go out together.’ She snorted her approval as I worked the arrow from under her scale, and I wasn’t sure if it were for the relief from some of her pain, or for my mental image of us going out in a blaze of glory.
This time as we approached, the Border Guard stopped its forward attack and danced away from the goblins. Emerald sent her fire into the gap they had provided, flambéing the entire front row of goblins.
Lightning danced from my fingers as I speared warrior after warrior. Laughter bubbled on my lips and I threw back my head and let out a triumphant shout.
A troll smashed into the back of the Border Guard, swinging his club and arms with equal effect. He lifted them bodily into the air, tossing them aside like rag dolls.
Emerald raced into the sky, spinning as she went. Higher and higher she climbed, pushing me back against her shoulders. I clasped my limbs around her neck and prayed. Finally she turned, swooping back towards the earth.
If I had thought she had gone fast before it was nothing compared to what she did now. With her wings tucked in and her neck stretched out straight, the wind whipped over us. I pressed my face against her scales and exulted in the feel of the speed.
At the last second her wings popped out and she levelled out much lower than I had thought possible. Reaching out with those cruel talons she plucked the troll into the air. She ripped him into two chunks and threw the pieces at the goblins. Blood and gore spattered them.
On her next pass she did the same to a goblin, ignoring the cross bolt arrows as she ripped his head off with her teeth.
Anger coiled in her, lashing out at her enemy. It flowed through her and over me, and for that time we were one; our aims identical, our needs identical, we tore our way through the goblin ranks.
She was bleeding from a dozen puncture wounds but I thought she was infallible. And then, as she levelled out for a pass, a bolt struck the front of her wing. A million-in-one shot, it nicked the webbing, tearing through the membrane to the middle bone.
Shrieking, she pivoted to the side. The wing no longer held us aloft. I screamed and wrapped myself around her neck as we crashed through the trees, hurtling through branches and trunks and limbs until we slammed against the bole of a large oak.
‘Emerald.’ I climbed shakily off her neck and crawled to her head. ‘Emerald.’ Please don’t let her be dead.
She opened one enormous eye and stared at me. An image of us in a blaze of glory flashed into my mind. Then her eye slid shut and her mind was gone.
‘Oh Emerald.’ I wrapped my arms around her head, blinking tears onto her.
Warm air from her nostrils moved against my arm and a picture of a mouse playing dead flashed through my mind, quickly followed by a simple command. Fight.
I stood and turned in time to see the goblins. They approached warily. I reached for my power but it had disappeared during the crash. I raised my hands defensively, and they stopped.
How long before they realised I was bluffing? I only had to hold them off until the Guard got there.
‘She’s over there,’ Wilfred roared.
‘Get her.’ It was a female voice, thick and accented. ‘Take her now.’
One of the goblins darted towards me. I grabbed my sword from its sheath on my back and slashed at his hand.
A female goblin? All of the ones I had ever seen had been men.
He danced back out of reach and I heard the sound of fighting coming towards me. Just a few more moments and I would be safe.
‘Take her or suffer my wrath.’
At her voice the goblin warriors swarmed towards me. I managed to wound a couple of them before they overwhelmed me. Strong arms grasped me and prised the sword from my fingers. I could hear Wilfred yelling and Aethan callin
g my name. But they were too late.
The world shimmered, fading from view as the goblins took me captive.
13
Uhh Ohh!!!
‘Well, well, well, what have we here?’ She had a strong, proud voice.
The goblins held my arms tight and turned me to face her. As tall as me, she had dark skin and black, dreadlocked hair that fell to her waist. Her clothing was made of leather, adorned with teeth and bones.
She reached out her finger and dabbed at a cut on my shoulder. Her finger came away smeared red. She popped it into her mouth and sucked it clean. ‘That was easy,’ she said.
‘Who are you?’ I tried to keep the shaking out of my voice, but failed miserably.
Her smile revealed teeth filed to a point. It wasn’t a nice smile. ‘I’m Galanta.’
Galanta the Goblin Queen? ‘The Galanta?’ I said.
‘Oh goody, you’ve heard of me.’ She polished her long, black talons on her leather vest.
‘To what do I owe the pleasure?’
She stopped polishing her nails and looked up, holding my gaze with her eerie, black eyes. A ring of red around the outside of her iris took that eerie and amplified it to freaky.
‘I want to chat.’ Her guttural voice ruined the innocence of the statement.
‘About what?’
‘You, and the second-in-line to the Fae crown.’
‘Aethan? What about him?’
‘I heard it on the apple vine that you had broken up.’
‘You mean grapevine,’ I said.
‘I said apple vine and I meant apple vine.’
‘Apples don’t grow on vines.’
Her face took on a steely look and she stalked towards me.
‘Okay, apple vine,’ I said.
She snapped her teeth together and visibly restrained herself. ‘Is it true or not?’
‘We were never really dating.’ What the hell was it to her?
‘But you love him?’
‘No.’ I said it way too quickly.
She snorted. ‘So you do love him.’
‘No I don’t.’ I didn’t love him, damn it. So why could I feel my face turning red?
‘I won’t tell anyone.’ Her face took on a conspiratorial look. It didn’t suit her at all. ‘I just want to hear it from the pygmy’s mouth.’
‘You mean the horse’s mouth?’
For a split second her face showed black rage. It was gone so quickly I almost thought I’d imagined it.
‘Ahhhh. So you won’t mind swearing that you won’t marry him.’
This was getting way too weird. ‘I won’t what?’
‘Marry him.’
‘What’s it to you?’
‘If you don’t love him, what’s it to you?’ She stalked towards me and ran a finger down my cheek. I jerked my head away from her, pulling against the restraints of her guards. Her finger dug deeper, her sharp nail tearing at my skin.
And that was when I remembered I could leave anytime I wanted. ‘Well it’s sure been a pleasure,’ I said, ‘but it’s time to be going.’ I shut my eyes and willed myself away. The pressure on my arms remained and I opened my eyes to the same situation I’d been in.
Galanta had an amused look on her face. ‘Going somewhere?’ She threw back her head and laughed.
‘What have you done?’
‘I drank your blood. Now you are mine. Come,’ she gestured to her warriors. ‘Things are about to get interesting.’
I was guessing her idea of interesting was quite different to my own. I fought them as hard as I could. Throwing myself from side-to-side and flailing my arms, but I may as well have been a babe for all the good it did.
They dragged me out of the woods, into a small clearing. A bonfire blazed at one end of it, a stake stood at the other. They pulled my arms behind me and tied them around the stake.
Oh Great Dark Sky. This was not good at all. Where were Aethan and Wilfred when I needed them?
Drums started to bang; the pace slow and steady as goblins chanted and moved in a lurching dance around the large fire. Sweat dribbled down my body as the heat scorched my skin.
The lurching and chanting increased in tempo as the goblins picked up the drum beat. Faster and faster they whirled around the fire, the slapping of their feet resonating with the throbbing of the drums.
If only I could reach my powers. I closed my eyes and willed them to come to me. They may as well have been non-existent. It was so frustrating. My witch powers were almost useless. And what I had begun to recognise as my faery powers, came upon me when I least expected them, seemingly with the sole purpose of destroying goblins. Well here I was, desperately in need of some goblins being destroyed and what did I have? Big, fat nothing.
Trying not to cry, I sagged back against the post.
The drums, banging and beating so harshly one second, were totally still the next. Knowing that whatever they had stopped for had something to do with me, made the silence that followed harsher than the chanting had been.
I tried to blow a piece of hair that was tickling my cheek off my face but it was stuck to my sweat. A hand with long black talons appeared in front of me and gently removed the hair.
‘Is that better?’ Galanta asked.
‘Yes thank you.’ She had me where she wanted me. Angering her didn’t seem like such a good idea.
‘It’s the little things that make the difference,’ she purred. Her long, pointy teeth belied the kindness of her words.
I started to feel ill. What was she planning to do to me?
‘Now be a good girl and say it.’
Was she still going on about the marriage thing? ‘No.’
‘It’s just a few words.’
I had no idea what she was going to get out of this, but if she got anything it was too much. ‘Nope.’
‘Poor Isadora.’ She rolled the ‘r’ making it sound European. ‘So loyal, so young, so brave.’ She walked around the stake, trailing a finger around my body as she went. ‘Are you really willing to die for this?’
I didn’t want to die for it. It was stupid, I knew. They were just words. And we were never going to get married. But the stubborn part of me had stepped in, and now there was no going back.
‘It’s such a little thing.’ She pouted at me. ‘All you’ve got to do is promise that you won’t marry him.’
I shook my head.
‘She’s blonde you know,’ she continued. ‘It turns out that brunettes aren’t his thing after all.’
I closed my eyes as a vision of Aethan entwined with a busty blonde danced into my head. Was it the same one he had lip-locked a few years ago?
‘Just say it and all of this will go away.’ Her voice had become hypnotic, lulling me with its cadence and lilt. ‘Then we can be friends.’
My eyes snapped open. I may not have known if what she said about Aethan were true, but I knew for sure that she and I would never be bosom buddies.
‘Now Galanta,’ I said, staring into her cold, black eyes. ‘You and I both know that that’s never going to happen.’
She snarled at me, shaking her head like a lion. ‘So young, so stupid.’ She pulled her dagger out of the holster on her belt, walking over to the fire to hold the end of the blade in the flames.
Oh that so did not look good.
When it was red hot she came back to me and waved it in front of my face. I noticed her warriors had gathered in a semi-circle to watch. If I hadn’t been worried before, I certainly was now. Now I was shit scared.
‘Sure you don’t want to change your mind?’ she said, reaching out and lifting up my shirt. ‘While the cats are away the dogs will play.’
‘It’s mice you bitch.’ I gritted my teeth and braced for the pain.
Growling, she pressed the tip of the burning knife to the soft skin of my stomach. I could feel skin blistering and smell hair burning and I screamed the loudest scream I’d ever heard. By the time she pulled the knife away I was emotionally and physically exhaus
ted, and I knew the fun had only just begun. Panting, I hung from the stake, trying to think my way through this rationally.
Why did she want me to say it?
Galanta wandered back to the fire to reheat her knife and then she returned. She smiled hideously at me and then seared the knife into the other side of my gut. My shriek cut through the air as I felt the scorching pain. Even when she stopped, the burning went on. I could hear my breath panting in hoarse sobs.
What harm would it do to say it? It was just a few words.
I screamed and shuddered as she burnt me. My whole body was on fire. She worked her way down my arms and my legs, then across my back. But I couldn’t say it. The words refused to come out of my mouth.
The pain overwhelmed me, threatening my sanity. I dived inwards to the soft cocoon of my core, where it was muffled and distant. The golden pools of my mind glowed around me and suddenly, I knew what to do.
I hung onto one of those pools and with my remaining strength forced myself back to consciousness. The pain flared brightly in my mind. I forced it to the side and allowed pure rage to control me. Dipping into that golden pool I pictured the bindings falling free from my hands. They slithered away and piled at my feet.
With my arms still behind me, I imagined the cruellest weapon I could visualise; a short sword with three jagged blades emerging from the handle. Each blade was designed to do more damage coming out than going in.
I waited till she approached me again and let her press the blade to my skin. Then I whipped my hand around and plunged the dagger into her side.
Her eyes widened in disbelief as I wrenched it from her. The blade tore at organ and muscle.
I dipped my fingers into her blood and placed them in my mouth. Gagging, I forced myself to swallow the cloying, slimy liquid.
Her blood tingled as it entered my body, and her control began to fade. I just needed a few more seconds and then I would be free.
She staggered away from me, stumbling to her knees. Roaring in fury, her warriors raced towards her; towards me. But they were too late.
As a warrior reached out a hand to grasp my hair I closed my eyes and shimmered back to where I’d entered Trillania.
Faery Born (Book One in the War Faery Trilogy) Page 16