I almost felt sorry for her, but then I remembered her burning me and all feelings of pity went out of my head. I knew I should finish her off while she was down, but I couldn’t. Not in cold blood. If the situations were reversed I had no doubt she would have, but I wasn’t her. I wasn’t a monster.
A shimmering light glowed over her, encasing her from head to foot. She screamed again and again, spasming in time with her shrieks. And then finally, the screaming stopped, the shimmering vanished, and she lay there, dressed in a white, crystal gown and glass slippers.
I couldn’t help myself, I burst out laughing.
‘What have you done to me?’ If I’d thought she’d been mad before, she was in a total rage now.
‘I didn’t do anything.’ I stepped back as she climbed unsteadily to her feet. ‘It’s a spell that was cast on me. It seems to have stuck itself to you.’
She looked down at the gown with a disgusted look on her face. ‘How long will it last?’
‘I’m only guessing,’ I warned her, ‘but probably till midnight tomorrow night.’
She took a step towards me, wobbling on the high heels. Snarling, she tried to yank them off.
‘They won’t come off till then.’ I was trying to memorise every detail so I could share it with Aethan when he woke up. ‘If it’s any consolation,’ I said, ‘you look lovely.’
‘I don’t look lovely,’ she yelled. ‘I look hideous.’
‘Oh well, that’s just my opinion. Why don’t you go and ask your warriors?’
At the mention of them, her face took on a look of horror. ‘I can’t allow them to see me like this,’ she said. And then she turned and sprinted towards the edge of the cliff. I watched as she propelled herself off the side, and then rushed to watch her rapid descent to the ravine below.
She disappeared long before she reached the bottom. One minute she was falling, and the next she was gone.
I rushed to Aethan, kneeling beside him to check for a pulse. It was there beneath my fingertips. I breathed a sigh of relief. I wasn’t too late.
I called him and shook him, and, when that didn’t work, I slapped his face. But nothing that I did could wake him. Galanta’s words on the double bind entered my head but I pushed them aside. I refused to be blinded by her callous words.
What should I do? I couldn’t carry him all the way back, and I didn’t want to leave him in case a goblin showed up.
I reached up and pushed his hair back from his face. It felt as soft as it looked. I traced a finger over the top of one pointed ear, and then, feeling voyeuristic, I did what I had wanted to since the first time I’d seen him. I ran my hands through his hair.
My hands brushed the rock under his head and sharp edgings caught at my fingertips. Gently, I lifted his head. Words were etched into the stone. I shuffled him sideways across the stone so I could read them.
Only blood can let me live,
Only blood can set me free.
Blood of my own one true love,
Or of a descendant born of me.
Huh? Did the poem have anything to do with the spell on Aethan?
I pondered the words. It was obviously a call for blood but I was pretty sure I didn’t satisfy the rules.
He was a distant cousin though. Did that count?
I poised the tip of the dagger over my wrist, gasping as the sharp blade penetrated the soft skin. Blood welled to the surface and I turned my arm so that the first drips landed on the words inscribed in the stone. They sizzled as they landed.
My blood pooled on the rock, boiling and bubbling. Then it sank, disappearing into the stone until it was gone. There was not even a stain to show it had been there.
I heard the tremor before I felt it. From deep within the earth, the rumble worked its way to the surface where it ruptured the rock, cleaving it into two pieces.
Aethan and I were tossed to the side. He landed on top of me, the weight of his body forcing me down. Cold air flowed from the fracture. It wound around me, caressing me with its icy touch. It chilled me to the core of my heart and sent a shiver of fear down my spine. And then, just when I was wondering what I had done, Aethan opened his beautiful eyes and looked straight into mine.
I heard a click deep inside and my two halves flowed together. My memories meshed into one perfect whole. I felt things, I saw things, I knew things I hadn’t known before. But somehow it was as if I had always known.
Like two decks of cards being spliced together, the memories flicked into order.
I knew Aethan. I knew him. With every cell in my body, every fibre of my core. We had hunted, we had fought, we had laughed, we had loved.
The irony he had tried to tell me about? In our hearts, and our minds, we were already betrothed. I was bonded to him and him to me.
I laughed as I reached for him, crushing his lips to mine. It had been too long since I’d held him. Too long since I’d tasted him. I breathed him in as our lips moved and our tongues touched. I needed more of him, always more of him.
I pushed my hands up under his shirt and ran them over the glory of his body. So hard, so strong, so mine.
He broke the kiss, leaning back so his weight was off me.
‘I remember,’ I said. ‘All of it.’
He cleared his throat and tilted his head to the side. ‘This is all very nice,’ he said, giving me the cheeky grin I loved so much. ‘But… do I know you?’
He was joking. He had to be joking.
‘Where are we?’ He pushed himself up and held a hand out to help me. ‘The last thing I remember is fighting goblins.’
A double bind. She’d said she had me in a double bind.
‘With me,’ I said. ‘You were fighting them with me.’
He shook his head. ‘I left the ball to get some fresh air. They came over the wall and surrounded me. I was alone.’
Air left my lungs and I sagged back onto the broken stone. She’d said I would choose between him and me.
Tears slid from my eyes. He didn’t remember me. I ached to hold him but his eyes beheld a stranger.
I had found him and lost him in the space of a heartbeat.
‘Why are you crying?’ His perfect face held only concern.
‘Ummm. I’m happy you’re alive,’ I said, wiping my arm across my eyes. ‘We’d better get out of here. The others will be worried.’
‘Ahhh,’ he peered over my shoulder, ‘why is there a dog floating behind you?’
‘Scruffy is my familiar.’
‘You’re a witch?’
‘Half,’ I said.
Great Dark Sky, he didn’t remember me.
‘I hate to have to ask this,’ his embarrassment was palpable, ‘but I don’t know your name.’
I tried not to cry but traitorous tears leaked down my face. ‘It’s Izzy.’ I could feel my heart ripping into a million pieces. ‘Isadora.’
‘Well Isadora, which way do we go?’
He never called me Isadora.
‘That way.’ I pointed towards the head of the path, turning away so he couldn’t see my face.
Gone. All gone.
The ache in my chest threatened to crush my lungs. I tried to suck in air, but it wouldn’t come. Bright lights danced before my eyes as my knees buckled.
‘Are you okay?’ He shook my shoulder gently.
‘Aethan.’ The shout came from the pathway. A few seconds later a contingent of the Border Guard rounded the corner. They spread out over the open space, their weapons drawn.
‘I thought I’d lost you son.’ King Arwyn pulled Aethan into a rough embrace.
Wilfred reached a hand out to me and pulled me back to my feet. They had been bare when the Cinderella spell had struck and now sharp stones dug into them.
‘Oh Willy,’ I cried, throwing myself into his arms.
Is this how he had felt when I hadn’t remembered him? Like his heart was being ripped from his chest?
Wilfred pulled away and peered down into my face. ‘You remember.’ It was
a statement not a question.
I nodded my head.
‘So, why the tears?’
Aethan pointed a finger between Wilfred and me. ‘So… you and Isabella?’
‘It’s Isadora.’ I managed to correct him without a fresh sheet of tears.
‘What? No.’ Wilfred pushed me away. ‘You know she’s like a sister to me.’
‘How would I know that? I’ve never met her before.’
A stunned silence filled the clearing. Everyone there, except King Arwyn, had been aware of the relationship between Aethan and me.
Rako cleared his throat and broke the silence. ‘Ahhh, where’s Isgranelda?’
‘Gone,’ I said.
Before I could elaborate, a drum boomed. A few seconds later another one reverberated throughout the mountains. Then a third.
‘Raiding parties,’ Rako said.
‘And he’s not speaking about the sort of party that includes balloons and a gift bag,’ Wilfred said.
The more drums that joined in, the more the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
Rako snorted. ‘If these guys give you a gift bag it will probably contain one of your body parts. Time to go.’
I followed the rest of the Guard as quickly as I could. But while they ran I trotted my way through the sharp rocks.
‘Keep up,’ Rako called over his shoulder.
Hmmmphf. Easy for him to say.
It wasn’t long before they were out of sight.
‘This is just great,’ I said to Scruffy as the noise of the drums got closer. ‘I save his arse and then he runs off and leaves me to get killed.’
I paused at the start of the narrow ledge. ‘Don’t look down,’ I told myself. I tried to concentrate on that thought, and not the fact that as well as the drums I could now hear guttural cries coming from further up the path.
How far away were they?
Scruffy growled from the safety of his shield balloon.
‘I know, I know,’ I said, clearing the ledge and picking up my pace. I rounded a corner and ran into Aethan and Wilfred.
‘They’re coming,’ I said, hobbling past them.
‘She’s got no shoes on,’ Aethan said, picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder. ‘Why has she got no shoes on?’
I growled and Wilfred let out a laugh. ‘Kind of your fault dude.’
‘How is this my fault?’
I bounced up and down on his shoulder, the damage from Galanta’s punches making me want to yelp. But we were making much better time like that than with me limping, so I shut my mouth on my curses. Instead I lifted my head and peered up the path the way we had come.
The moon’s rays touched this side of the range and I could see the path winding up through the mountains. It was crowded with goblins, pushing and shoving as they ran. An arrow clattered to the ground about ten feet behind us.
‘You might want to run faster,’ I shouted.
Another arrow raised a cloud of dust. This one was closer.
‘Leave me.’ I struggled to get down. Aethan was far too important to die saving me.
Wilfred spun and fitted an arrow to his bow. Within the space of a few seconds he launched three arrows at the goblins in the lead. Two of them dropped to the ground, and the ones behind stumbled over them. More goblins ploughed into them and, like a caterpillar, the effect made its way up the mountain. From sprint to standstill, the line of goblins swelled in breadth and I saw several bodies plummet off the side of the mountain.
We rounded a corner and I looked ahead under Aethan’s arm. Rako and a couple of the other Guard stood at the end of the path. ‘Hurry,’ Rako called, as if Aethan wasn’t sprinting as fast as he could. ‘Is she hurt?’
‘Only my pride.’
The rest of the Guard was already mounted. Aethan ran towards the horses. Placing me back on the ground, he climbed onto the back of the mare and reached down to pull me up behind him.
I ducked low and threw my arms around his waist as the roar of the goblins indicated they had cleared the mountain path. An arrow nicked my leg, ripping the denim of my jeans. I saw a second one bounce off the back of Wilfred’s armour as he leaned low over the neck of his horse.
I wished I were wearing armour. I wished it with all my might. Armour, a sword and a pair of boots. I closed my eyes and concentrated on it. And when I opened them I still had no armour, no sword and bare feet.
Stupid unreliable powers. What was the point? They were more likely to get me killed than not.
The sound of the goblins faded away behind us, and our group dropped from a gallop to a canter, and then to a trot.
‘Don’t want to tire out the horses,’ Aethan said over his shoulder.
The fact that he felt the need to explain that meant he still had no idea who I was.
I sucked in a big breath of air and pushed the pain down. We would fix this. He would remember me again. He would. I had to hang onto that belief. And in the meantime, I had to do what he had done for me. Say nothing.
The sun was just peeping over the trees when we got back to the castle. I was exhausted from a combination of the night’s activities and the strain of the awkward silence between Aethan and me.
‘Get some sleep,’ Rako ordered. ‘We will debrief at sixteen hundred hours.’ He jumped nimbly from the black stallion he had been riding and strode over to me. ‘That includes you.’
Ignoring Aethan’s hand, I slid off the back of the mare. It hurt for him to touch me so dispassionately. I nodded my head and limped off to where I had left the coach.
A pumpkin lay discarded on the ground, but the rat and mice were nowhere to be seen. I picked the pumpkin up. It didn’t seem right to leave it there to rot in the sun. I hugged it to my chest as I contemplated how I was going to get home.
‘Guess we’re going to walk, boy,’ I said to Scruffy. I concentrated hard, trying to dissolve his air shield, but he continued to float just beyond reach. I was going to have to get help.
He ruffed and then slowly faded until he disappeared from the bubble, reappearing a moment later at my feet. I gave him a steely stare as he trotted to the nearest bush and squatted.
‘Get in.’
I turned to see Wilfred leaning out the window of a bright-red sports car. The dash was covered with shag-pile carpet, and fluffy dice hung from the rear-view mirror.
‘Like you’re not hairy enough.’ I opened the passenger door and climbed in, falling backwards into the bucket seat with a groan. It felt so good to be almost lying down. Scruffy jumped onto my lap and then into the back of the car where he stretched out on the back seat.
Wilfred put the car into gear and headed for the break in the veil. ‘Where’s your familiar?’ I asked.
‘Don’t have one.’
‘But you’re not full-faery and I doubt you’re half-human.’
‘I told you, my Mumma was an orc.’
‘I thought you were joking,’ I said with a laugh. Why had I never known that about him? There was so much fodder there for jokes.
‘You don’t get this hairy any other way.’ He scratched at the orange hair puffing up from under his collar. ‘So are you going to tell me what happened up there?’ He slowed a little as we drove between the lines of faeries holding the veil spell. They looked as exhausted as I felt.
I sighed and picked at a partly broken nail. ‘Isgranelda turned out to be Galanta. We fought. She left. Then I woke Aethan.’
He looked over at me. ‘You speak like a man.’
‘That’s because you trained me.’ I had spent almost as much time with the big man as I had with Aethan. I sighed again. ‘I’m trying to pretend it didn’t happen.’
He laughed as he pulled up in front of my house. ‘You act like one too. All right, I’ll wait till the debrief.’
I opened the door and Scruffy jumped back onto my lap and down to the lawn. He barked and ran towards the front door, probably off to beg Mum for food.
Wilfred reached over and put a hand on my
shoulder. ‘This will sort itself out, just you wait and see.’
‘I hope so,’ I said as I climbed out of the car. ‘I really hope so.’
16
Impending Doom
Grams, Mum and Sabby were waiting for me when I came in the front door.
‘By the Great Dark Sky,’ Sabby said as she threw herself at me, ‘I freaked when you came into the ball covered in blood.’
‘Most of it was goblins’.’ I looked over at Mum and Grams.
‘You’re not going to stop doing this sort of thing are you?’ Mum asked.
I shook my head. ‘Sorry.’ I hated worrying her.
‘Why couldn’t you be an accountant? Mary Simpson’s daughter Lucy is an accountant. She never rocks up to balls covered in goblin blood.’
‘Lucy Simpson is as boring as bat shit,’ Grams said.
‘True.’ Mum hopped up to put the jug on and I knew I was at least partly forgiven.
‘So,’ Grams clapped her hands and leaned towards me, ‘tell me everything. What happened when you got to the ball?’
Even though Mum seemed to be starting to accept my choice to be a Border Guard, I didn’t want to push my luck. I also didn’t want to talk about Aethan. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said, ‘I need to get some sleep.’ Grams’ face fell. ‘I promise I’ll tell you,’ I crossed my fingers behind my back, ‘but not now.’
I needed food as well, but sleep was coming in at number one on my to-do list.
I showered long enough to remove any gore and then sank onto my mattress. Bright light slipped around my curtains, illuminating the room. ‘Eric,’ I said, ‘I need to sleep.’
The room immediately darkened until I could just make out the shape of my own hand. ‘Perfect,’ I said. I reached up and pulled the dream-catcher off the head board. There were things I needed to do.
As soon as I shut my eyes I stepped into Trillania. Normally I would have concentrated on the thought of Aethan and gone to wherever he was.
I squished my eyes shut tight while I fought the urge to cry. Once I had it under control I concentrated on Emerald, sending out a mental cry to her.
Faery Born (Book One in the War Faery Trilogy) Page 20