~~~
Freddy hugged her dad hard around his shoulders and leaned her forehead against his. "Daddy, I'm so glad you're all right."
He closed his eyes and tears leaked out. "I'm so sorry for all of this."
"What are you talking about? You're the person least to blame for any of it." Freddy tucked the blankets around her dad's shoulders. Dad looked real beat up, his voice sounded so weak, but she pushed those thoughts aside as she fussed around him, making him comfortable. Her dad was He-Man. He would be okay. He had to be.
"What are we going to do?" Deg asked the car at large.
Freddy didn't look up. "We should get Dad to a hospital. He looks bad and--"
"That's not what he means." Mom darted a look at Deg. "Is it?"
Deg shook his head.
Freddy glanced at both of them, her heart thudding unpleasantly with sudden worry. "What do you guys mean?"
Her dad spoke when Mom and Deg didn't say anything. "This isn't the end, kiddo. The Phantom Queen wants both of us. She's going to try and get us back."
"Why can't that bitch leave us alone?" Freddy's voice sounded high-pitched and whiny even to herself, but she couldn't help it. She had been stretched to the snapping point about three days ago. Cold all over and aching like an eighty year old, Freddy, for one, couldn't handle anymore. Looking at her parents, at Deg, they all appeared to be in a similar state of Done.
We are so screwed. "Where are we going?"
Mom shrugged and continued driving down the long narrow road leading out of the dam's surrounding parkland.
Gloomy dread hung heavy in the car as Mom drove along. Her eyes whipped from side to side, looked for menace on every street corner. Kore sat stiff and unresponsive in the front seat, radiating fury.
Where can we go? Home isn't safe. Freddy glanced idly out the window as her mind furiously spun. Her eyes widened, and she pressed her palm flat to the window. "Mom. Mom. Make a u-turn and take us back. I know where we can hide."
~~~
The local country club was a sprawling set of buildings a short uphill climb from the recreational area at the dam. After a hurried walk, Deg broke a window to get inside. Alarms shrilled, loud and painful in Freddy's ears, echoing almost like a welcoming call to Morrígan. Kore tsked and silenced the screeching alarms with a look. She held Mom by the arm and the two of them trailed Freddy and Deg as they dragged Dad inside.
Freddy swallowed hope, stifled fear, and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.
Mom found the nurse's station, and they all piled through, hurriedly depositing Dad on one of the two narrow pallets. Freddy headed straight for the far corner of the room, pressed her back to the wall and slid down. Cocooning tight around herself, she drowsed against the wall so she wouldn't have to watch or listen as her Mom and Deg tended to the nasty mess of Dad's wounds.
"Freddy." The low voice jolted her awake and firm hands held tight to her shoulders, shaking her a little when she started to thrash. "Freddy."
She opened her eyes and stared. Deg. Only Deg. She released her tension in a slow breath and glanced around as Deg settled against the wall beside her. Freddy's dad lay passed out on a short bed with Mom draped across the edge, head sunk onto her arms. Mom breathed deep and slow, sound asleep. Kore snored in the next bunk over.
Freddy studied Deg as he sat beside her, his arm a solid, comforting weight around her shoulders. He had settled into his grim-mode again, his face hard and blank, his body tensed. He shifted beneath her, settled his arm back over her shoulders. He stayed that way for a few minutes then shifted position again.
"You're twitching," Freddy muttered, brain heavy with near-sleep.
"I am thinking."
Freddy stretched her toes out and yawned. "Do I want to know these thoughts?"
Deg fell silent and then, "No."
A sudden crash down the hall made her jump just as light flared outside the window. Freddy pressed tight to Deg, her hand gripping the fabric of his tunic in a tight ball, alarm jolting down all her nerve endings.
No. Please, no.
Kore bolted awake.
Mom reached for Dad.
Deg started to rise, but Kore waved him down and went to the window herself. She shook her head, mouthing, Nothing. But Kore returned to her bunk and curled in a fetal position.
The cruel teeth of fear bit hard in Freddy's chest. Voices from far off filtered into the room along with the sounds of destruction and fighting across the property. The fairies had found their way to the country club somehow, and they would probably discover her and her family soon enough.
"This is my fault," Freddy whispered.
"No." Deg had his head tipped back against the wall and his eyes shut tight.
"I said we should come here."
"They would have found us eventually, anyway."
Freddy wasn't sure she believed him, but she sighed and clutched his hand, seeking the soothing comfort his touch always gave her. "Bring on the eagles anytime." She laughed under her breath at the silliness of that idea.
"Eagles?"
"Eh, I'm not picky."
Her mom turned, resting her cheek against her forearm, and gave a small smile. "At this point, Fred, I'll take any deux ex machina we can get."
"'God from the Machine?'" Deg didn't open his eyes. "Frederica, you have two gods and two half gods here. What good would one more do you?"
Kore snickered under her breath and hunkered beside them. "Brother, it is a literary term."
"Like the eagles in Tolkien." Freddy tried another smile, but her face couldn't support it. She shrugged. "You know, when something shows up out of nowhere at the Last Gasp to save our Brave Heroes from their Terrible Fate."
Kore's eyes misted. "Polydegmon, do you remember in the old days when we would go to the theatre? They'd lower those fake gods with the gilt laurels from the ceiling on ropes? The gods out of the machines."
Deg glanced back and forth between the two of them, a dubious look on his face. "And these machine gods and eagles swoop in and save people when it seems a bitter, bloody end is inevitable?"
"Yep." Freddy's light-hearted facade cracked as something broke down the hall. Kore jumped.
Deg put his arm around them, gently squeezing. "I would welcome the appearance of one of those." The crashes and jeering calls were closer. Deg's arm tightened. "Now would be ideal."
Freddy buried her face in his shoulder. She took deep, gasping breaths and drank in his smell. She let time roll back for her. She wasn't here. She was safe at home. Maybe she and Deg had already finished The Three Musketeers and were watching the sequel with the extra musketeer in the title. Maybe she'd put some popcorn in the microwave. Maybe she'd kiss him, deep and long before her parents got home...
…before the fairies burst through the door to kill Freddy and everyone she cared about.
"Freddy." Deg poked her.
She scrunched into the nook of his shoulder, trying through sheer will to keep the clawing panic at bay. Denial was working for her, and Deg was spoiling it.
He pushed her back from him. "Freddy, do you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"I hear it." Kore's face looked glorious, hopeful, lit from within.
"Hear what?" Freddy made a dive back for Deg's arms. She stopped as a rich sound echoed from the golf course. "Is that a horn?"
"A hunting horn." Kore's smile seemed large enough to split her face in two.
"A hunting horn?"
Mom sprinted to look out the window. "Cernunnos is here."
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Freddy jumped to her feet faster than she would have thought possible and crossed the room in three bounds to stare out the window at the moon-saturated grounds.
Deg and Kore crowded behind her.
The horn sounded again, loud and deep, thrumming through her chest with enough force to compete with her heartbeat, plucking at the chord of hope strung tight inside her.
Deg yanked her away
from the window. "Freddy, he will not be able to get to us here."
She tried to swallow around the lump in her throat but couldn't. "You're right." She tried to smile. "Jeez, talk about a crappy deux ex machina. They didn't even bring eagles."
Deg shook her, his face stern. "You have to get to Cernunnos." He cast his eyes about then snatched up his father's helmet and shoved it at her.
She shoved it back at him. "Why me?"
Deg met her mom's eyes and Mom returned him a look of pure gratitude.
Freddy frowned. I'm missing something here.
Deg lifted the helmet. "It has to be you, dear Amazon. You and Kore are the only ones he will listen to."
Freddy stopped him again, holding his forearm to keep the helmet off her head. "Send Kore. I'm not leaving my family."
Mom clasped Freddy's hands. "Baby, he might have come just for Kore. If we send her, he'll leave, and we'll be back where we started. If you go, he'll still have to fight his way in for Kore."
A crash from somewhere nearby made Freddy jump. She looked at Mom then back at Deg. They both radiated confidence in her. Trust.
The sight sickened her, low in her gut. She so didn't deserve that kind of trust. All she'd done lately was screw everything up and get them into this mess. That her loved ones wanted to rely on her seemed the worst kind of stupidity.
Deg tipped her chin up and forced her gaze to meet his. "You can do this."
"We will all die for certain if you do not even make the attempt," Kore put in.
"Thanks, Kore. No pressure or anything." Freddy eyed Deg and Mom suspiciously, detecting an undercurrent between them flowing over her head. But she couldn't ignore their pleading looks, and every second she spent arguing lessened the chances of anyone being rescued. Sick inside to leave them, to be responsible for getting help, to be in this situation at all, she nodded anyway.
Deg's smile seemed to well all the way up from the very tips of his toes to spill onto his face, big and bright. "I will lift you through the window. Ah, and take this." He pulled a spare dagger from his belt and handed it to her. Freddy tucked the dagger with its sheathe into the back of her belt.
She popped the window out with Deg's help, then he lifted her out with his hands on her waist. Freddy rested her gut on the sill and turned back to look at everybody. Not for the last time, she promised herself. Deg tipped her the rest of the way through.
Freddy landed hard on the ground, her hands stinging, her head ringing from the tumbling fall. She jiggled her head to shake her thoughts into order then pushed to her feet. Deg handed her the helmet through the window. His hand brushed hers as she took it from him. Freddy pressed his fingers and watched his eyes hungrily follow her face. She steeled herself and set the Helmet of Invisibility on her head.
Freddy blinked and leaned back. The colors around her went all wonky, drained away. The world became a muted gray with flashes of stark black and white. Deg burned above her, practically glowing. She gulped. "Bye, Deg."
She ran unseen across the immense grounds of the club, the dagger in her hand. She passed safely the fringes of Morrígan's camp and headed toward the sounds of fighting, even as her every instinct screamed about how dumb she was being. So what if she could get to her fath--to Cernunnos? Was he really going to help her? He was probably here for Kore.
Worried, she glanced back toward the country club to check it was still standing. Her legs collided with something solid and she staggered and gazed around at the small, haphazard camp Cernunnos had set along the ninth hole in the golf course.
Freddy shied back from the sentry she had fallen over, but still collided with another one of her father's guards. The huntsman looked as startled as she was. He made an aborted attempt to capture her, staring around in alarm and confusion, hands waving in futility in front of her face. Freddy dodged around him and plunged deeper into the camp.
Her heart hammered, and she gasped for breath. Large bonfires climbed the night sky and conquered the moonlight. Someone knocked into her from behind. She fell forward on her hands and knees and the helmet tumbled off her head to roll on the ground before her face.
The huntsman nearest her cried out in glee and pounced, rough hands grabbing her.
Freddy kicked and thrashed. The huntsmen's hands were as good as chains around her body. She couldn't get free. A sense of ironic déjà vu overwhelmed her.
Just hell.
They carried her straight to Cernunnos. He took his time turning around to look at her. When he did a slow, velvet smile spread his lips wide over his teeth. "Hello, my child."
~~~
Most people think that gods can't die. That, in fact, their immortality is one of the things that makes them inherently god-like, divine. A common misconception. A god might go forever without dying--all they have to do is not get killed. But as soon as the right magic, the right hero, the right enemy comes along, a god can die as quickly as a man, if not as easily.
Deep in his heart, Polydegmon accepted he would die here, hacked to bits by the Morrígan or one of her sisters. His head would probably be sent home to his father. And I hope then he feels guilty about all of this. Little enough consolation, but it was something.
"Will she make it?" Abby's voice caught on the words. Her eyes were dark smudges in her face when Polydegmon turned away from the window to look at her.
Freddy might not reach Cernunnos, but she certainly had a better chance of surviving than anyone in the room now did. I did that much right at least.
He tried a reassuring smile for Abby but sensed the expression twisting on his face to something more like a distended grimace. "If she does not make it, she will receive a cleaner death than any of us can hope for."
Abby grimaced. "That's what I love about you gods--always looking on the sunny side of life."
Colin moaned and thrashed on his bunk. He knocked some sort of metal pan off his side table. The pan rolled over and over again on the floor with a loud clang. The sound echoed, deafening, horribly conspicuous in the silent building. Abby went to Colin and stroked his hair back, trying to soothe and quiet the man.
Colin's eyes opened, and he blinked at Abby. "Where's Freddy?"
Too loud. Polydegmon went to the door and strained to listen. Low crashes and a faint sound of footfalls reached his ears. Coming this way.
"She'll be here soon," Abby murmured. "Go back to sleep, honey."
Colin bolted up. "Where is she?"
"Gone into danger to try and save us all." Polydegmon stepped forward and tried to press Colin down among his pillows.
"You." Colin shoved Polydegmon's arm away. "What have you done to her?" The vein on Colin's head pounded and he gritted his teeth as he swung his legs over the side of his bunk to stand. He started for Polydegmon.
Abby got between him and the Hound. "Colin."
The Hound looked at Abby in disgust and turned on his heel to stride for the door.
Polydegmon drew his sword. He darted in front to stop the other man leaving the room.
Colin's hand darted out to grasp Polydegmon's wrist and twisted. Agony knifed through Polydegmon, and he cradled his arm as his sword clanged against the ground.
Kore cowered as Colin flung the door open, banging it against the wall.
"Oh, hell." Abby chased after him.
Polydegmon exchanged a look with his sister. She shrugged and followed Abby. He growled to the empty room in frustration, trying to shake the pain out of his arm, then followed his sister out.
A pack of a dozen fairies waited in the hallway. An ambush. The fairies grinned and exchanged sly looks with each other. "Hullo, chums. Suppose you lot step along with us for a bit, eh?"
"Back off." Colin tried to push his way through.
Fairies moved to stop him. The Hound sent everyone who tried it crashing into the walls.
Polydegmon raised his eyebrow at Abby, making his voice dry. "He seems to be recovering."
Abby shook her head. "This is bad."
Ko
re knit her arm through Polydegmon's and quivered against his side. "Cernunnos warned me of this."
Colin bashed two more fairies' heads together with juicy thuds, and stepped unconcerned over their broken bodies. Polydegmon viewed the sight with acceptance if not approbation. They weren't dead. If Colin's methods seemed barbaric, well, he wasn't a Greek. Or a Roman. That he might lack a certain style, a more streamlined approach to fighting, was to be expected.
Four more of the Morrígan's minions were dispatched with squeals and sickening thunks.
Kore's dug her nails into Polydegmon's arm.
Abby started after Colin. "No, no…"
Polydegmon grabbed her back. "He is getting the job done."
"A battle frenzy might kill him." She jerked her arm free.
"Battle frenzy?"
Kore rolled her eyes at him. "Instead of chasing nymphs, you might have spent some time studying other pantheons. Cúchulainn's battle frenzies are famous among even our kind. He once killed an entire army and built a wall out of their corpses."
"That is what we need, is it not? To defeat the Morrígan's army."
Abby whirled him around and jabbed her finger into his chest. "He won't recognize friend or foe if he goes into a full out ríastrad. He has enough trouble deciding what you are at the best of times. Want to press your luck?"
Polydegmon disentangled himself from his sister and ran after Cúchulainn. "We must subdue him. Before he injures himself." Or me.
~~~
One good thing--Cernunnos and his men were on the move and fighting their way into the country club buildings. The huntsmen were doing most of the skirmishing, clearing a path over the lawns and into the buildings for Freddy and Cernunnos. Freddy looked away as they cut down the fairies and trampled their corpses to make their way forward.
Freddy had a sword and a bow but was too far back to fight, pulling up the rear with Cernunnos. He turned to her as she marched beside him, his eyes practically glowing with excitement. He was enjoying himself, drinking in the scent of battle and blood with as much pleasure as he would a fine wine.
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