Unwinnable

by May Dawson

  “Thanks, Lake,” Tyson said, as if Lake was doing him a favor by returning him to his cell.

  “Show me your hands,” Lake ordered, and he began to move between us, muttering the words of a spell. The chains on our wrists fell away, leaving behind just a cuff that molded close to our skin. As he reached me and began the spell, my skin seemed to burn, and I clutched my wrist to my chest.

  “Sorry,” he said, giving me a sympathetic look. “It’ll block your magic until you’re released.”

  “And when will that be?” We needed to get out of here in a hurry and get the shield. We didn’t even know where in the Greyworld the other half was—the Greyworld would be the tough part.

  Lake hesitated, and I had the feeling he knew, but didn’t want to talk about it.

  “Come on,” Tess said impatiently. Lake turned away from me without answering and headed toward Tess, who still stood at the door with her sword at the ready and a twitchy expression.

  “Relax,” Lake chided her gently.

  “I thought the digs would be a lot worse,” Tyson observed, glancing around. “They must not have a dungeon.”

  They’d put us in a long hallway with stout wood-and-iron doors at either end. A dozen windowless small bedrooms, barely bigger than walk-in closets, lined the hall. But at least we were together.

  “How did it go?” Lex demanded.

  “They’re hanging us all at dawn,” Tyson said, and then as the rest of us reacted, he hurriedly followed it up with, “I’m kidding.”

  Rafe gave him a long look. “Hilarious.”

  “It’s just me, and it’s trial by combat,” Tyson said, shrugging one shoulder, his voice lazy.

  Dread formed a brick in my stomach, but Tyson was already twisting to call after our guards, “How bad do you think it’ll be, Tess?”

  The Fae girl with the pretty face and cold eyes turned and walked backward. “I think you’re going to die tomorrow, trespasser.”

  “She’s just kidding,” Tyson said. “She’s a big joker. Secretly rooting for me.”

  “You’re going to be eaten by the Feddlewig, and that is going to be a wonderful joke,” she retorted, with a toss of her hair.

  “Winning friends as always, I see,” Penn said to Ty.

  Lake seemed to linger at the end of the hall. Tess noticed and sheathed her sword in one quick motion, before reaching out to catch his arm. “Come on,” she scolded him, “you don’t need to gawk at the pre-dead humans.”

  “Pre-dead humans,” Silas mused. “Reminds me of raw toast. We’re all dying, after all. Including you, Fae.”

  Silas had that far-away look on his face that I was never sure how much to believe now that I knew how dangerous he was under that easygoing, dreamy surface. I frowned at him, but he leaned against the wall, smiling faintly and looking lost in thought.

  “Trial by combat,” Lex said. “Explain, please.”

  “Fenig—she seems to be more-or-less in charge—said we would need the Delphin’s help to break the curse,” Ty said. “She seemed willing to help us. Then the Delphi arrived.”

  “How did that go? Did you offend her?” Penn asked. Tyson’s reputation as a skeptic—and a loudmouthed one at that—was well-established.

  “Not this time.” Ty was thoughtful. “She said I seemed like a sweet boy and that it was too bad I might die in the trial. That if I didn’t die, she looked forward to helping me.”

  “I’ll fight,” Rafe said immediately. “Not you.”

  “Nice try,” Ty said. “But you need a ‘Fae-blood’ for your champion. So you’re stuck with me, boss.”

  Before he even finished speaking his sentence, he looked to me, his gaze landing on mine just as he said the word boss. Something flashed through his eyes quickly, and my heart lurched. He knew it now; he believed we weren’t brother-and-sister.

  And we had no time—and less privacy—to talk about that. It didn’t even matter, if he faced combat tomorrow. He was already looking away.

  “But there’s something going on here,” Tyson said, snapping his fingers with sudden energy. “They need something from us too, we just have to figure out what.”

  “The Fae always have a bargain,” Silas agreed.

  Ty looked at him. “And you’re back. What do you have to say about the Feddlewig?”

  Silas fixed that dreamy smile on him. “You were baiting her for information.”

  “And you’ve been turning that information over in your brain,” Ty said, “which is the only reason I’m not disturbed at how you smiled at that news.”

  Silas waved the concern off. “You’ll best the Feddlewig. I wouldn’t even need to know what it was to know that.”

  Rafe glanced between the two of them. “You have quite the reciprocal fan club, but do you think perhaps you could fill the rest of us in?”

  “It’s reductive, but the Feddlewig is easiest to understand as half-bear, half-spider,” Silas said.

  “Is it more bear-sized, or spider-sized?” Tyson asked.

  “Bear-sized, definitely,” Silas said.

  “Of course it is,” Tyson said. “You know I hate spiders.”

  “How does this trial by combat work?”

  “Oh, it’s quite the party usually,” Silas said. “As a general rule, they create a labyrinth—magic to the rescue—around the mouth of the cave where the Feddlewig lives. Ty will start in the middle of the maze. The Feddlewig is at one end, and on the other side is the exit. In theory, if he reaches the exit without having been ripped to pieces, he wins.”

  “Ripped to pieces? I really need you to work on your phrasing,” Ty muttered.

  “Realistically, it doesn’t matter,” Silas went on. “The Feddlewig just rose from hibernation, and it’s about as good-tempered and pure-of-heart as Penn first thing in the morning. It will scent you and it’ll come to see what you are. Then it will try to eat you.”

  Tyson rubbed his hand across his face. He muttered, “I hate my life.” Then, more audibly, he said to Silas, “What kind of weapons do I get to have?”

  “You are a weapon,” Silas reminded him. “But they’re certain to give you a sword. Maybe even a shield, for the good it will do.”

  “I was a weapon.” Ty said. “I don’t have the wolf anymore, remember?”

  “I thought you all realized when you defeated the Day that you don’t need the wolf,” Silas said. He glanced around at us all fondly. “You’re all quite terrifying in your own right.”

  I wasn’t sure any of my other men knew how truly terrifying Silas could be. I wondered if they would learn during our time in his world.

  “We need to talk strategy,” Penn said. “What are its weaknesses?

  There was a clanging sound down the hall, and the two young guards returned—Tess looked quite sour-faced—followed by an old white-haired knight that Ty whispered was Fenig.

  “The castle gates have been closed for the evening,” Fenig told us. “There are all sorts of monsters wandering loose outside, so if any of you would like to escape, you’re welcome. Or if you wish to stay and try your luck in the morning instead, then we would like to offer some better hospitality.”

  From the sulky look on Tess’ face, a dungeon was her preferred level of hospitality. I was curious why the girl hated us so much on sight.

  Fenig opened the door at the other end of the hall, then led us up one flight of stairs at the end of the hall. We emerged onto a rooftop. The keep’s flag snapped in the wind as it was drawn down by a few of their young soldiers—I would have called them children—and the wind seemed strong here, above the shaking tree tops.

  “From here, you can see the monsters roam on the forest side,” she said. “To the other side of the castle is the city we defend.”

  “It doesn’t seem like you all get along very well with Turic and his men,” Tyson said.

  Fenig gave us both a small smile. “I get along with whoever I have to, to protect my knights, who protect this land.”

  Maybe that meant
she would be our ally instead if we could help her. Somehow.

  “When the final bells ring, I will secure the doors between the guest quarters and the rest of the keep—simply a formality, an old tradition we keep—but you’ll be able to come up here, if you wish. You’ll see what we fight during the daylight hours.”

  She left us alone then. The sun was sinking low in the sky.

  “I don’t see any monsters,” Chase grumbled. “Despite what she said about needing the Delphin’s help, I think we should just see ourselves out.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Ty said dryly.

  “It’s ridiculous,” Chase said, giving voice to how I felt myself. “Of course you can beat the Feddlewig, Ty, but what if you get unlucky?”

  “It’s rather a long way down,” Silas said dryly. “I think perhaps we should play the Fae game.”

  Penn turned on him. “What do you base that on, Si? Maybe all those secrets locked in your head that you don’t bother to share with the rest of us?”

  Silas gave him a skeptical look, thrusting his hand into his pocket. “It’s not that I don’t bother,” Silas said. “It’s that I choose not to tell you.”

  The look that flashed across Penn’s face made me take a step toward the two of them. Penn and Ty might fight mercilessly with each other, but I knew Penn, and he was more upset by the thought of Ty going into danger than Ty was himself.

  “Enough games, Silas,” Lex said. “Do you know anything about this trial-by-combat? This specific scenario?”

  Silas shook his head. “No, I don’t. But Tyson said the Delphin claimed it was necessary. She could have some kind of political reason, of course. Or she might just be blood-thirsty. Or she could be an imposter oracle. But if none of that is the case, then it must be necessary.”

  “Every day with you all gives me a headache,” Rafe muttered.

  “So we gamble Tyson’s life on winning the favor of some oracle?” Penn demanded. “Is that really the game we’re playing?”

  “The other part of the game,” Silas reminded us all, “is that we don’t have wings. We can break out, even without magic, if we want to risk fighting our way through the Fae, but then we have to go out there.”

  He waved his arm at the forest outside, where the wild beasts roamed.

  “If we can get these cuffs off,” Penn banged his against the stone wall, “you can erect a shield.”

  “The shield is defensive,” Silas said. “You know that. We can’t move with it.”

  We were trapped here.

  “If I win, the Delphin said she’d help us,” Tyson pointed out. “at a bare minimum, they’ll grant us safe passage to the Hooksbane, and that will get us to the temple.”

  “We can’t tell them where we’re going,” Rafe reminded us all.

  “Oh believe me,” Silas said, “if she isn’t a false oracle, the Delphin already knows.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Silas

  I rested my hand on Maddie’s shoulder as we headed through the narrow stone halls to dinner, and she looked up at me with a smile lighting her face. After all this time, my heart still jumped when she looked at me like that.

  “How are you doing?” I asked. A lot had happened in one day, from our capture to Tyson finally accepting his Fae heritage to the news Ty would have to fight for our freedom. She looked as if she was taking everything in stride, as always—but I knew Maddie better than that.

  She glanced at the guys walking ahead of us, then came to a stop. A mischievous smile touched her lips as she pressed me against the wall, my shoulder blades hitting the stone behind me. “You know, sometimes your sensitive side throws me for a loop after getting to know Echo.”

  I raised my hands to make air quotes, something Penn had taught me about the previous week. “‘Echo’ cared about you quite a bit, even if he didn’t come across as the most sensitive guy.” I studied her face. “I thought that was what you like, anyway. Guys who are jerks.”

  “You did say I have a type,” she reminded me, running her hands up my chest as she swayed in for a kiss. “But you’re my type, and you’re not a jerk.”

  “I tortured you, if you recall,” I said.

  She glanced at the retreating backs of our friends just before they were lost around the curve in the hall.

  “You’ve been protecting me,” I said, sure of what I’d long suspected. “You think they’d deal with what happened in the Day…badly.”

  “I think they deal with a lot of things badly.” Her lips twisted. “But you’re a pragmatist.”

  The memory of how I’d hurt her yanked at my heart. “Maddie, I was doing what I thought would keep you alive in the Day. Hurting you before anyone else could, because I knew I wouldn’t hurt you that much. And I’ll own that. You don’t have to keep secrets from them.”

  She didn’t need to keep my secrets to protect me. I wanted her to have an open, honest relationship with every male she chose to bring into her circle.

  She smiled. “You know, despite your incredibly awful background and everything you did to me, I still think you might be the most emotionally healthy and well-adjusted man in this pack.”

  “And yet I am just a man.” I touched her cheek tenderly, thinking about what would happen when we went into my world. I was still a rebel magician; I still owed my life to helping my people gain their freedom—even if some of them didn’t want to be free. “Not a wolf. I’ll never be part of a pack.”

  “Lies, Silas Zip,” she said fiercely, before her lips met mine.

  The two of us traded kisses before I said, “I mean it, Maddie. You don’t need any more secrets between you and them. You should tell them what happened.”

  I wasn’t scared of any of them. I didn’t mind their anger.

  She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter anyway—we have a mission. None of us need to get distracted by feelings.”

  I scoffed at that, knowing how much she and Tyson needed to work through. Despite how wolves seemed to view their emotions, feelings weren’t always an unnecessary distraction.

  “What secrets?” Lex stood at the end of the hall, right before the curve.

  Maddie hastily untangled herself from me. “What? No secrets.”

  He gave her a long look. “I think you forget that I was your cadre, and I know very well what it looks like when you two are plotting and dissembling.”

  Maddie grinned and ducked her head, before grabbing my hand and pulling me along with her.

  The bells were tolling for dinner. Lex gave us a long look as we reached him.

  “Whatever you two are trying to keep from the rest of us, you know your secrets won’t last,” he reminded us.

  “I know,” I said. I just had to convince Maddie of the fact. I didn’t want her to sacrifice anything for me. She had given up enough for all of us, over and over.

  I couldn’t make her see it, but what she saw as her mistake was really her sacrifice. According to prophecy, it was always necessary that the shifters lose their wolves so they could embrace magic and the wars could end. I knew she carried a deep sense of shame about being tricked by Bennett, but she was always meant to change the world.

  It’s never easy to be the one re-writing history in the moment, though.

  We reached the dining hall last. It was already crowded with knights, young and old—but only a smattering who seemed to be above the age of thirty—and with children, plenty of whom were so young that their legs kicked above the long benches without touching the floor. They all stopped to stare at us openly as we walked in.

  Seeing the kids made me think about growing up in the orphanage and in the rebel magicians, but I pushed that part of myself down deep, closed the lid, sat on the box. I’d survived and taken a place in the world where I did good, and so would they. That was all that mattered. An unhappy childhood is hardly a tragedy.

  A delicious aroma of food hung in the air. Lake stood from a nearly-empty table and gestured us over as Tess buried her f
ace in her hands. Raura kicked Tess under the table with a lack of discretion that I found instantly appealing. Next to her sat Arlen, and for the first time I noticed that the tall, broad-shouldered Fae wore fine armor that suggested he wasn’t one of these orphan warriors, who all wore simple dark clothes and no chain mail.

  The eight of us made our way over and took seats at the benches.

  “Let me introduce you to the humans,” Lake said to his friends.

  Arlen scoffed at that. He clearly expected us to be dead before it mattered. Lake reeled off our names, pointing to each of us in turn.

  “Impressive,” I told him as he took his seat again.

  “He has his parlor tricks,” Arlen said.

  Lake ignored him studiously. “Don’t mind him.”

  I shrugged. “Every group has one.”

  Arlen looked at me, but didn’t even bother to frown, his face an indifferent mask.

  The table was spread with roast game, fresh bread, and different salads and roasted vegetables in polished wooden bowls. But everyone’s plates remained empty. I looked around, trying to make sense of the etiquette of the moment. Fenig rose from her seat at a table filled with a few warriors and a dozen of the youngest children and intoned a blessing over the meal.

  Penn and I exchanged a glance. Penn was skeptical about religion in general, and the Fae religion—where the oracles spoke for the spirits, and everything had a spirit—in particular.

  The shifter kid from outside approached the table curiously. What was his name? Nat?

  Tess shook her head at him, but Tyson was already throwing one leg over the bench so he could twist to see him better. “Hey there,” Ty said. “Want to come sit with us?”

  “He doesn’t,” Tess said.

  Ty winked at him, patting the bench. The kid ran off, then came back carrying his plate and sat down between Ty and me.

  As we finally began to fill our plates, I turned my gaze on Raura again. She was trying to tease Arlen, who was unresponsive, as she filled her plate. She stole a roll off his plate, and he didn’t even look her way as he reached for another one from the bowl at the center of the table.