With the wave receding, people flew down from the treetops to help. Master Casters froze the stream in front of the hall solid so that the floodwaters that swelled it couldn’t escape its banks.
The wave slid back to the ocean, leaving an alien landscape behind. All the trees between the shore and Woodman’s Hall had been knocked flat. Most of the fallen trunks were swept out with the receding waters. Halfway up the shore and past Woodman’s Hall the trees survived, but they were bare and covered in mud high up on their trunks. Only the tallest green branches remained unscathed.
Valory lowered me gently onto the waterlogged ground. My legs didn’t work. My last reserves of energy were gone. I felt empty but I was also jubilant. I’d saved the hideout.
“You did it! You did it!” Valory cheered. She jumped around excitedly in the mud. “I wish you coulda seen yourself! You looked all glowy like Commander Larue did! I was scared, Em. I thought you were gonna die!”
“Well, I didn’t,” I said weakly. “Help me out of this mud.”
Valory threw my arm over her shoulders and pulled me to firmer ground. My vision was hazy. Everything was ocurring in slow motion. Lord Finbarr appeared and said something to me. His face was a blur. The others joined him. A crowd of blurry people carried me into the hall.
“That was amazing!”
“Spectacular!”
“You saved us!”
“…and without a source crystal.”
I fought the urge to slip under. I’d fallen asleep after big bursts of magic before, but this time I vowed not to. What if another wave came? The more I fought it the more I realized how pitifully weak I was—and ravenous. I felt as though I could eat five hearty meals and it wouldn’t be enough.
Somehow I ended up in the main sitting room. I sank gratefully into a plush armchair. Valory’s worried face hovered into my vision.
“Is there anything we can get you?”
“Food,” I croaked.
“Right on it,” said Anouk from somewhere in the hazy distance.
After a big helping yams and rice I grew more cognizant. I noticed for the first time that I was covered in mud.
“Don’t worry about that,” Anouk said as I tried to wipe some of the muck off the armchair. “We’ll clean up later. It’s going to be dirty around here for a while yet. I only hope the animals return to the forest soon. It’s okay, though. We’ve got plenty of food stores in the pantry and they’re all intact thanks to you.”
I mumbled something agreeable and bit into a chunk of bread. Warmth returned to my insides. I still didn’t feel strong enough to get up and dance or anything, but I was no longer on the verge of passing out.
Lord Finbarr came whistling into the room. His hands were in his vest pockets and he looked quite jolly. He gave me a big grin.
“I hate to say I told you so,” he said.
“Go ahead,” I mumbled through a mouthful of bread.
“Fine. I told you so. What would we have done without you here tonight?”
I wiped my mouth. Instead of clearing away bread crumbs I smeared mud across the whole lower half of my face. “Thank Valory. She’s the one who spotted the wave. Any idea what caused it?”
“Not a clue,” Lord Finbarr said. “There haven’t been any such cataclysms in recent history, though most fishing villages have legends of such things. We’ll send a search party to the shore to see if they turn up anything.”
Anouk returned to take my plate away. She laughed at me. “If I didn’t know it was you under all that grime I’d think you were a mud sprite! Come on, let’s get you a bath.”
I was happy that Anouk seemed in better spirits than earlier that evening. Woodman’s Hall hadn’t been destroyed. Everyone was safe and I’d saved the day. I should have been content. Why then, was there a gnawing sensation in my gut? The air felt charged. Maybe it was just an echo of my barrier. After all, I’d just released enough magic to power Ivywild for a week.
The feeling stayed with me all through my bath. Even as vigor returned slowly to my muscles, I sensed the approach of something dangerous. It was like some part of me had been vaporized into the atmosphere along with my magic and now it was traveling on unseen channels, sensing things I normally could not have known. Strange as it was, I couldn’t help but think that whatever had caused the wave was connected to me somehow. Perhaps these were the threads of destiny that High priestess Grimmoix had warned me about. The wave was but a hint of some cosmic disturbance. I wondered fearfully what might wash ashore from the ripples.
It was very late. I wondered where Valory had gone until I went upstairs and found the lanky Slaugh passed out in bed, still in her muddy clothes. I imagined what Mrs. Larue would say when she came in and saw the filthy sheets in the morning. Valory deserved her rest, though. I couldn’t imagine how difficult it was for her to hold me aloft along as she had.
Finally, blissfully, I fell into my own bed. Sleep pulled me under far, far down where nothing could invade my mind.
Valory woke me again in the morning.
This time she didn’t shake me. She merely leaned over my bed, grinning from ear to ear. I blinked a few times, then sat up and rubbed my eyes. Valory watched me carefully like a matador gauging the mood of a bull.
“How did you sleep?” she asked.
“Like the dead,” I said. “You bathed.”
Valory popped the collar on her clean shirt. “Mrs. Larue insisted.” She clasped her hands behind her back and seemed to wait for me to ask something.
Despite Valory’s perplexing behavior, I had plenty of other things on my mind. First off, I wanted to get a good look at the surrounding forest in the daylight and see how much cover we’d lost.
“We need to check this place for cracks,” I said to Valory as I reached for a comb and my shoes. “All that shaking last night might have done some damage.”
“Lord Finbarr’s already got somebody on it,” Valory said, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
“Oh.” I put on my boots and stared through the window at the mud-covered landscape. “What about wildlife? How big of an area did the wave affect?”
“I can find that out quickly enough.”
“Were there any injuries?” I asked.
“Some kid bumped his head because he flew into a branch. Nothing much worse than that.” She was still bouncing on the balls of her feet and her wings twitched in impatience.
I headed for the kitchen. “Did Lord Finbarr send some people out to inspect the shoreline? He mentioned something about it last night.”
Valory dogged my every step. “Yep! And guess what? You remember that thing I saw on the wave?”
“Yeah.”
“I was a ship! It got tangled up in some trees down the coast.”
I paused in the kitchen doorway. “Really? Was there anyone on board?”
Valory’s eyes lit up. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth to answer, but she didn’t need to. At that precise moment I walked into the kitchen and saw a group of Slaugh seated around the nearest table. When I saw who was sitting at the head of the table I nearly choked.
“It’s my people,” Valory said. “I tried to tell them that I was their queen, but he won’t listen so they won’t either.
I had locked eyes with King Hugo.
There he sat, in the flesh. I wasn’t prepared for it at all. His sudden appearance at Woodman’s Hall was so jarring that I thought I was seeing things. I wanted to shake my head from side to side to clear out what was obviously an illusion, but I couldn’t take my eyes from his. They made me feel small and wretched.
Hugo broke off the soul-withering gaze and returned to his meal. He looked my direction no more. Now I felt worse than small and wretched. I felt invisible.
Unable to collect myself, I spun, pushed Valory out of my way and ran upstairs. I couldn’t see, couldn’t think—couldn’t even breathe. I could deal with forces of nature. I could deal with bad guys and monsters. I couldn’t deal with the person who ha
d ripped my heart to shreds and who I’d repaid in kind.
“Emma!” Valory called as she thudded up the stairs after me. “Don’t you want to hear their story?”
I kept running until I was safely in a secluded room far away from the kitchen. Valory ran in after me.
“Emma? What’s wrong?”
I rounded on her and pointed a finger. “Why didn’t you warn me?”
“I tried. Sort of. I didn’t want to jump right out with it when you first woke up because I thought you wouldn’t believe me. But you’ve got to come back downstairs, Emma. They’re going to tell us everything that happened. He knows all about the wave. I heard him telling Lord Finbarr about it!”
“He hates me,” I said. “He hates me. Didn’t you see it? Couldn’t you feel it?”
Valory shrugged. “He gave me the same look, like I wasn’t nothing more than a smudge of dirt on his shoe. I suspect he looks at most folks that way, seein’ as he had some great royal upbringing.”
“Not me!” I said. “He never…he was…we were…”
“Was and were,” Valory said. “What’s done is done. Right now you’ve got to chock it up to good fortune for bringing that boatload of Slaugh to us because they’re the only ones in this whole messed up place that knows what’s going on. By the way, it wasn’t just Slaugh on that ship. Some blind Hobgoblin lady was asking about you.”
This news surprised me enough to take my mind momentarily off of Hugo. “That sounds like Captain Sandrine.”
Valory relaxed a little. “I didn’t catch her name. She’s real neat, though. She’s got this crew of Gremlins and Brownies. There’s a Fay guy with her, too. Tall guy. Looks like somebody left him out in the sun too long.”
I realized she was talking about Bayard Barrie and a little more of my anger went away. I wasn’t mad at Valory for not warning me. I wasn’t angry at Hugo, either. I was mad at myself. Hugo hated me and I deserved it.
“Well?” Valory asked.
I glanced up at her.
“Aren’t you going to come downstairs and hear what they have to say?” she asked.
The answer was yes, of course. I was dying to know what had caused the freak wave. I also wanted to know what the Slaugh had been up to all these months.
Unfortunately it meant being in the same room with Hugo again and I wasn’t ready for that yet. I put my back to the wall and slid down it until I sat on the floor.
“For mercy’s sake!” Valory said, crossing her arms. “I can’t believe you’re the same girl who saved our skins last night! I don’t know the whole story on you and my half-brother, but you’re acting like that silly sourpuss Larue girl. Now get up before I drag your tail downstairs myself!”
Offended, I rose to my feet. “I AM NOT acting like Beth! She’s pining over some stupid little crush. Lev, I mean, Hugo and I were like best friends until he lied to me, and I basically told him I’d kill him if I ever saw him again.”
Valory was not impressed. “So what? Just go tell him you’re sorry.”
The very notion of apologizing was ludicrous. “No! It’s his fault as much as mine. He wronged me first.”
Valory groaned. “Well fine. Stay up here and sulk if you want, but I’m going down there. Hugo can look down his nose at me all day long if he wants and it won’t bother ME a bit! If I went around looking grumpy like him all the time I’d have to punch myself in the face.”
She whistled a tune as she stomped downstairs, leaving me alone.
I wished my skin was as thick as Valory’s. I knew I was being childish, but at the root of it all I felt very real pain. One glance from Hugo had been like the twist of a knife.
I found the inspiration I needed in my pride. If everyone saw that I was miserable, they’d know why and I’d look like a fool. Hugo would enjoy that. The only remedy was to hold my head up and be as aloof as him. If I didn’t exist to him, then he did not exist to me.
Feeling much calmer, I descended into the main lobby. Every soul present at the hall had already congregated on the lower level, so I took up a spot by the rail at the top of the stairway. Someone had drawn a cover over the pool where Lord Finbarr had given Valory and me a Truth Test. Now there was a little stage in its place. The ragtag group of Slaugh convened around it. I noticed that several were badly injured. One young man was missing a hand. Another had a broken wing. I refused to look at Hugo so I didn’t know if he’d suffered any injuries, but the tattooed girl beside him was nursing a bandage on one arm. It was Katriel, the same girl who had been helping Hugo on the dock the day he left. She had an air of importance, like she was his second-in-command. She was more muscular than any of the other female Slaugh, and she dressed in pants like the men. Nevertheless her face held the same exotic beauty as all Slaugh women. Her lips were tattooed black and a line of black dots went up each of her sharp cheeks. I could never pull off such an extreme look, but on Katriel it seemed perfectly natural.
Katriel leaned over and whispered something to Hugo. I noticed how formal her movements were. She did not lean in too close or even brush a hand near him as any other girl might. The absence of affection struck me as odd. In my agitated state at the dock I’d automatically assumed that Katriel was a romantic rival. Now I realized that wasn’t the case.
A fellow onlooker nudged me. “I think those folks down there are trying to get your attention,” he said.
I looked where he pointed and spied Yert the brownie and her husband, Ralph, along with Joyboy, Wimbleysminch, Bayard Barrie and Sandrine. It was the whole crew of the Melidee Gale—almost. I didn’t see Doctor Splitfoot.
Sandrine and her crew were crammed into a corner on the lower level behind the stage. Yert waved a hairy arm back and forth. I waved back and she beamed like a big, furry ball of sunshine. Sandrine was much more composed. Of course, she couldn’t see me. She wore a blindfold and leaned on a cane. Next to her stood Bayard, Ivywild’s own renegade Sword Bearer. He had traded his shiny pants and silk shirts for the canvas clothes of a sailor. His blonde hair, once down to his waist, now barely came past his ears. He was still tan as ever, but the sea winds had turned his cheeks ruddy. I was proud of him. He’d come a long way from the arrogant coward I used to know. Then I felt a little pang because Commander Larue wasn’t there to see him.
Somebody rapped on the stage floor. I had to look hard to spy Lord Finbarr among all the tall Slaugh. He cleared his throat loudly and then knocked on the stage again with his foot. The room grew quiet.
“Good morning, my friends. You were all witness to the events of last night. The ocean rose up and scoured the forest. We were only spared thanks to the quick thinking of a few.” He shot me a brief glance.
“However destructive the wave was, it did bring new allies into our midst. These fighters are not like you or I, but they fight nonetheless and our cause is the same: to protect and preserve peace in Faylinn. While we have been trying to reclaim Ivywild from the Duke of Briar, they have been chasing an enemy much more cunning. Your true queen, Chloe de Lolanthe, spoke of this enemy in her last address. You’ve seen the minions of this enemy, those vile beasts that attacked Mag Mell at our king’s funeral. The Slaugh standing behind me have seen where those beasts thrive. They have been into the darkest battleground where evil is breeding, and they have returned to tell us what they found.”
Gasps went around the room. Lord Finbarr observed the response with a grim tightening of his jaw.
“Please give your attention now to the man behind me. Some of you have seen him before, but you have not known him as a king. He is heir to Hagan Winterwing, ruler of all the Slaugh.”
“For right now anyways!” shouted Valory from somewhere in the back of the room. The Slaugh around the stage looked angry. Lord Finbarr pressed on without faltering.
“King Hugo,” he said, bowing slightly. “Please tell us about your mission.”
Lord Finbarr stepped to the side as Hugo took front and center. He drew every eye in the room like a magnet. Even though many
of the Slaugh behind him were bigger or more fearsome, he commanded a presence that they could not. It was in the straight line of his shoulders and the in the way he held his chin. It was in the way he moved: always with purpose but still graceful. These traits were unique to him and even though I tried not to look, I couldn’t help but notice how familiar all those little things were—and how much I’d missed them.
Then he spoke.
“Thank you all for welcoming us. We have had a hard journey.”
I had forgotten the power in his voice. It was deep with just a hint of danger, like thunder rumbling high in the clouds when you couldn’t yet see the lightning. I knew its subtle pitches and inflections like the tune of my favorite song.
It was agony. I closed my eyes and tried to separate the man from the voice. Don’t listen to him, I urged myself. Just listen to his words.
“We have been to Seraph’s Tear,” he continued. “There we found what you know as mechamen. They are the undead minions of the demon, Robyn. They have been using machines in the ruins of Seraph’s Tear to bolster their numbers.
“When we arrived in Seraph’s Tear we found them working like insects, building nonstop day and night. At first we thought that they were simply adding more drones to their ranks. We made a preliminary sweep of the area to learn their numbers and see if Robyn was also hiding in the city. We found no trace of Robyn, but we did discover that her mechamen are evolving.”
Gasps came from the crowd. I felt a sickly prickle, like a spider crawling slowly down my back.
Hugo’s voice took on an even deeper, more chilling tone as he continued the tale.
“They built a ship. I could use many words to describe it. A behemoth. A monstrosity. None of these are adequate. It is a moving machine made from buildings taller than the trees in this forest. That is not all. Thousands of mechamen can fit inside it. We saw the thing and we thought we were seeing our death, but the ship had no interest in us. It departed Seraph’s Tear and moved out over the ocean.”
The Flute Keeper's Promise (The Flute Keeper Saga) Page 32