by Mary Dublin
"You have to stay," Esmae said. "You've been through enough as is. Where are these caves? Where are they keeping him?"
Brennan shook his head stubbornly. "I can't just point you in the right direction, especially while it's dark. The caverns are too concealed. You need me."
Esmae opened her mouth to argue, but she bit her lip reluctantly and conceded. Time was of the essence. "Nadine. Can you make Brennan well enough?"
The raven-haired fairy squared her shoulders and nodded. "I'll do everything I can, Princess." She prompted Brennan to lay on his side and set back to healing.
Though Esmae tried to maintain outward confidence, her mind was reeling. She had told Daniel with every ounce of firmness to make the journey. She had convinced Brennan to go along. A shiver crawled up her spine as the truth of it assaulted her mercilessly.
Logan distracted her as he made to stand. "I must rally the royal guard. Anglian isn't going to get away with this!"
"No!" Esmae grabbed his arm. He could have dragged her with him without a second thought, but he stopped to regard her urgently.
"You must be joking, my lady—"
"I am far from joking! How do you expect to convince them you just happen to know that Daniel is captured and exactly where he is being held? There will be questions and more delay than we can afford."
"We have a witness," Logan argued, gesturing to Brennan. "They'll have to believe us!"
"When?" Brennan scowled. "After the interrogation about fae in the castle? We may as well hand over Daniel to Anglian ourselves!"
Logan furrowed his brow, clearly at a loss. "What happened to the knights accompanying the prince?"
"They're turned around," Brennan answered, wincing as Nadine touched the awful redness at the base of his wings. "Searching for the bandits. I don't expect they're any closer to finding Daniel than they were hours ago."
Esmae swallowed hard. "It needs to be us," she said, turning to Logan grimly. "With or without you, we are going to find Daniel."
"I can't very well let you go riding off into hostile territory on yer own!" the knight said in a lion's growl. "It's no place for the future queen."
"My place is with the man I love." Esmae fixed the giant with a hard look. "You can accompany me, Sir Logan, if you're so concerned."
With heat in her cheeks, she spun on her heel to whisk her summer cloak off the seat of her vanity. It would have been preferable to don trousers for such a lengthy ride, but she couldn't spare the time to rummage through her wardrobe. As it was, she worried she was too late already.
She could feel Logan's befuddled gaze following her as she returned to the bedside. She pushed her hair behind her ears so not to disturb the fairies as she leaned in closely. Brennan had his eyes squeezed shut for the moment, while Nadine waved healing magic over the base of his wings. It looked as though that frown might etch itself permanently onto his familiar face.
"I'll carry you," she murmured.
Brennan nodded gratefully, prying his eyes open. "Might be best."
Nadine sat back, and helped to fasten his shirt at the back. "It's improved, Princess, but it's still tender. He needs a long-term healing."
"It'll do for now," Brennan said, shifting to his feet. He flexed his wings once before folding them neatly at his back. Esmae laid out cupped palms at his feet, holding still as he stepped into them like a soldier.
"Should I come too?" Nadine chirped. She flew to Esmae's eyelevel, sweat dotting her fair skin.
Esmae shook her head with a soft smile. "I can't ask that of you."
"You might need me. If anything should happen… he's in no state for healing anyone right now." Nadine nodded at Brennan.
Images of Daniel beaten and bloodied crossed her mind's eye. She had to repress a shiver at the gruesome thought. She'd seen him shed enough blood to last her a lifetime.
"Fair enough."
With the fairies huddled in her palms, only Logan stood in her path now. The room held its breath as he lowered his chin to look at her, nostrils flaring. Esmae stood her ground, unwavering.
"Are you coming?" she asked.
"I swore an oath to Daniel I would protect you. Fairies or no, I'll stand by my word." He stepped aside. "After you, my lady."
Chapter
Six
The night air was cool on Esmae's face as she rode. With the lights of the Mirrel castle behind her, the world outside felt all the darker. Daniel stayed at the forefront of her mind, driving her to not look back.
Luckily, the stable boy hadn't questioned her inexplicable desire to go on an evening ride. With Sir Logan shadowing her, she doubted that anyone would question much of anything she wanted to do.
Part of her wanted to ride hard as soon as she and Logan were out of view from any castle staff and guards, but she forced herself to maintain a manageable speed for the fairies riding on her shoulders, hidden in the shadows of her raised hood. She tried to keep her torso steady against the gallop of her chestnut mare, not wanting to agitate Brennan's injuries into a worse state.
"You'll need to veer off the path eventually," Brennan told her. She couldn't be sure if the waver in his voice was from the jostling movement or his soreness. Likely an unsavory combination of both. "Cutting across is the only way to reach where they're hiding him."
Esmae murmured her thanks, fears clustering in her mind. She didn't want to imagine what Anglian hoped to get out of this. He was an infuriating man to deal with, that much she understood. But never in her wildest dreams did she think he would be capable of orchestrating something so evil.
Logan, who had been quiet since departing the stables, interrupted her spiraling worries. "May I ask how you and the prince came into an alliance with the fae?" His tone was careful, uncertain despite the lengths he was going to follow Daniel's order.
She didn't answer right away. She was certain she heard Brennan mutter something along the lines of, no, you may not ask. Esmae couldn't bring herself to be so harsh now that they were making progress toward saving Daniel, but admitting what she was felt more frightening than she could bear. She couldn't imagine what Logan would think about having his mind glamoured into forgetting her first visit to Mirrel.
"It doesn't matter right now," she said. And it wasn't a lie. "What does matter is that Anglian will surely have the wrong idea now that his men are aware of our friendship with the fae."
"I told you what they said." Brennan raised his voice to be heard through the cloak. "They think Daniel's using our magic to manipulate the rest of you."
"That's preposterous," Logan growled. "I've never met a man more honorable than Daniel. Even as a boy he was a good soul. Never prone to fighting the way a lad usually is."
"I know," Esmae murmured, hands tightening on the reins of her horse. His smile flashed through her head, the one that crinkled the corners of his eyes and widened his dimples.
Quiet settled between them for a time. Logan urged his steed level with her own, trying discreetly as possible to get a look at the fairies as they galloped over the rocky hills.
"Will you be able to fly again after what they did to you?"
Esmae felt Brennan stir in realization that this was directed at him. "I should be able to, after a few days' rest."
The knight scratched a hand through his thick beard. "Do you live somewhere in the castle?"
"No."
"Suppose it would be easy to hide you, wouldn't it? You could have been living in a shoe and I wouldn't have been any the wiser."
He chortled at this. Brennan didn't.
"Do you always talk this much?"
Logan pulled back, giving Esmae's shoulder a reproachful look. "No need to be short with me. I'm not the one who twisted yer wing."
"Well, the man who did also likes to talk a lot, and he's easily as big as you, and he wouldn't let me forget it."
Esmae drew in a sharp breath, glancing aside at Logan. Fear pounded through her at the thought of Brennan dealing with a hostile person that size, a
nd she was taking him right back toward the culprit.
"I'm only trying to understand what has been happening right under everyone's noses," Logan argued. "Are all fairies so prickly?"
"Prickly?" Brennan echoed. He shifted so suddenly that Esmae worried he would try to test his wings then and there just to argue to Logan's face. "I nearly had my wing and leg torn off! But I suppose it's good to know that my kind's avoidance of humans isn't entirely unfounded."
Logan snorted in offense. "May I remind you that you're riding with a human at this very moment?"
"Dear me, I seem to have forgotten," Brennan responded flatly, though the reality was likely that he didn't quite consider Esmae to be wholly human despite her size.
"That's enough, both of you," Esmae said sternly before Logan to retort. "We can't afford to be at odds with each other. Not now. We're limited in numbers as is. Brennan, how many men are in the cave?"
"There were five at first, but more arrived just before I escaped," he answered. Esmae swore she could feel him shudder. "They have hounds with them as well."
Nadine, who had been quiet since they departed the castle, perked up suddenly. "I can help with that!" she announced. "Er… I'm not sure how well I'll be able to handle animals who already have masters. It's a faint chance that I can convince them to turn, but at the very least, perhaps I can get them to run off."
"I might be able to manage a distraction of sorts, if there's still a crowd," Brennan offered after a large beat of hesitation.
"No!" Esmae and Nadine said at once.
"Save yer strength, little one," the ginger knight agreed. "I assisted King Veros himself on the battlefield not so many years ago. So long as we scatter these criminals, I should have no problem—"
Brennan stood to attention, hushing the knight with a sharp gesture. There was a beat of silence. Then, without a word in warning, Brennan launched himself from her shoulder and rocketed forward in the air. Esmae cried out in alarm, stirring her horse into a gallop after him.
"He's going to get himself killed!" she hissed under her breath. Almost immediately, she was pulling the horse to a stop as Brennan held up his hands for absolute stillness. Logan pulled up his steed beside hers, scarcely daring to draw a breath.
"We're close," Brennan announced. The woods didn't turn dense for another mile, but his voice was already hushed, fearful of being overheard. A trembling finger was lifted towards trees that were old and thick with webs of moss. "Just through there."
Logan cursed under his breath. "The Weeping Wood? That's not possible!"
"You know this place?" Esmae asked.
"Unfortunately, my lady. I was under the impression that all of the passages had collapsed into themselves years ago. The cave system in the forest was once a haven for the most unsavory of criminals before it happened."
"There are still clear passages," Brennan insisted, flying closer. "The entrance is narrow and well-hidden on one of the east-facing cliffs." He glared at the trees, as if something were to come bounding out of the darkness at any moment. "The thugs took their horses through the forest to reach the caves, loud enough to follow. For stealth's sake, it would be best for you to go on foot from here, perhaps steal some of their horses when we get Daniel out."
Despite everything, Esmae felt a sudden rush of confidence. When they got Daniel out, Brennan said. When. She nodded, reassuring herself that, while the forest was unfamiliar, it was still a forest. They had no choice but to leave behind the man-made trail.
Prompting Nadine to fly from her shoulder, Esmae dismounted her horse and bade Logan to do the same. Though he strode purposefully beside her, she could sense his uncertainty as they crossed amongst the trees. "Should have thought to bring a lantern," he muttered to himself.
He nearly stopped in his tracks when the problem was resolved right before his eyes. Esmae hid a smile at the sight of the fairies flying ahead. Brennan's orange glow looked almost amber in the darkness beside Nadine's glittering blue.
The forest looked a little less sinister when bathed in the fairies' light. Dark clumps of black moss shone like spun cerulean silk as Nadine glided past, and the ragged bark of the ancient trees glittered like gold in Brennan's amber aura. Esmae glanced down at her hand, ducking as Logan held a branch out of her path. Her skin was dull in the dark, unchanged. A pang of wistfulness hit her squarely in the stomach as she recalled the soft rose glow that had once been her own.
She was drawn out of her thoughts when a sword was drawn from its sheath. Sir Logan stood with his longsword at his side, eyes locked ahead. Esmae followed his gaze and squinted: faint torchlight bled through the midnight pass. She huddled down next to the knight hastily, a cluster of boulders offering further shadows to hide them. Gravity threatened to pull her down into the rockface, dizzying her as she peered down the steep slide of ferns and trees to the occupied clearing.
Hounds laid in a pile, sleeping or pawing at the dirt. Horses were tied up in a line to the far left, while men sat around a small fire in the front.
"That's a lot of dogs," Logan murmured. "Yer little friends can handle those?"
Esmae had half a mind to correct his terminology, were they not in the midst of a dire rescue. "Magic hardly knows of size." She paused, turning self-conscious. "Or, so I'm told."
The answering silence ringing in her ears made her heart skip a beat. She turned to find the fairies had separated. While Brennan lingered on a lower boulder, Nadine was already a dozen feet ahead. She flew without hesitation, without an ounce of delay. Her path circled up to a thick canopy of branches, her blue glow flickering before shutting off entirely. Three of the dogs had raised their heads at her slight approach and had turned their snouts up, sniffing the air.
Esmae held her breath, looking between the hounds and the men fretfully. The men didn't seem to notice that anything was amiss, too involved in their conversation.
The hounds, however, were becoming restless. More of them raised their heads and sniffed at the trees, but none of them made a sound. There had to be around ten or so. Esmae couldn't sure what sort of exchange was going on between them and Nadine, but controlling ten dogs would be no easy feat. They weren't particularly large, but they weren't squirrels either. And seeing as they weren't wild, the chances of resisting to stay loyal to their masters was entirely possible.
"Come on," Esmae whispered.
All the hounds were up, some of them pacing and panting, while others held perfectly still. Each second that crawled by made Esmae wonder if any progress was being made. Nadine was practically invisible to Esmae without her light.
There was little warning before chaos broke through the lull.
Half the dogs bolted up the incline toward Esmae and Logan. The knight grunted in surprise, making to push Esmae behind him and raise his sword.
"No, wait!" she urged, grabbing his wrist.
It was a bold risk, but her suspicion was correct: the hounds blazed right past the two of them into the woods with no interest in attacking.
"What's gotten into them?" Logan demanded.
"She sent them off," Esmae explained breathlessly. "Better to have them out of the way and have less of them than lose control by trying to influence so many at once." She turned her eyes back to the clearing, heart pounding.
Sir Logan arched a bushy brow. "You seem to be quite the expert on this magic, m'lady."
Several heads were turned in the hounds' direction, but there was no time for questions to arise before the remaining dogs went bolting for them, snapping and snarling like they had gone mad.
With shouts and ringing cries, men leapt to their feet. Teeth tore into armor and boots before they could fully draw their swords.
"Gerard! Get your hounds under control!"
Bandits were halfway up trees now, dangling from branches to keep away from the snapping, slobbering jaws. Another man staggered from aa slit in the rock face. He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled. He shouted commands, no to avail. The dogs flattened t
heir ears at their master, teeth bared.
"They're not listening!"
Logan gave a rattling chuckle as he watched. "I'll be damned."
In minutes, the odds had turned to Esmae's advantage. The men still on their feet had dwindled to three- until more movement stirred in the cave. Her breath caught at the sight of him. The monster of a man had a black cloth tied around his eyes like many of the others, but stood nearly a head taller than the average human. Glowering, he held up a torch to the madness.
Brennan pushed on Esmae's wrist to get her attention. "That's him," he said in reply to her inquiring look. "That's Seamus."
Sir Logan clasped a hand on her shoulder. "Stay here, my lady." He moved from their shelter, taking long lumbering strides down the slope. Esmae's heart pounded in her chest as the knight stepped from the woods. She had no sword at her disposal- nor did she had the faintest idea how to use one.
If Logan failed, they would have nothing left.
Catching sight of him at once, Seamus let the torch drop from his hand so he could pull an ax from his back.
"You lost, friend?" he called out in a sandpaper growl.
Logan swung at a smaller bandit who had foolishly tried to take a stab at him. The thug flew to the ground as though he'd been hit with a sack of lead.
"I'm not yer friend."
"That's unfortunate." Seamus hefted the ax in two hands, jaw squared.
With that, the two towering men charged at each other. Steel clashed on steel as Logan's sword caught the first swing of the ax. Both men reared back and clashed again. Esmae shook her head, praying Logan would find an opening in all that armor. But as it was, neither of them came close to landing a hit.
"No," she whispered, standing straighter as yet another man charged at Logan from behind.
In an instant, the dogs were on the move again, snapping viciously at the would-be attacker before winding back to the trees to keep the other men off the ground.