by Alicia Wolfe
The man nodded wretchedly. “Yes, my lord.”
“Very well.”
“Is there anything more you can tell us?” I asked.
“No, ma’am.”
I sighed. “I’m sorry. I hope you find a new position soon. I know this wasn’t your fault.”
We let him go, then returned to Liara. She was just finishing up with the body, and she took her sisters outside on the lawn, where they went over their findings with us while the family returned to their silent vigil.
“What did you find?” Davril said.
Liara frowned, lines appearing on her smooth, ageless face, framed as it was by long white hair. “They are indeed the same wounds I found on Therin. I wish they weren’t.”
“Why?” I said. “What have you determined killed Therin?”
“I wish I could say with more certainty, but the truth is I don’t know. It wasn’t a blade, though. The wounds were caused by the talons or claws of some fell thing.”
“Fell?” said Davril.
The lines around her mouth turned grimmer. “Indeed. I have detected the emanations of some dark force. Something allied with Lord Vorkoth.”
Her sisters whispered amongst themselves and cast their gazes down. I felt the urge to cross myself, and I wasn’t even Catholic. A dark flutter seemed to stir the leaves.
“Could they have been caused by Shadow Wraiths?” Davril said.
“Wraiths,” Liara said, musing on. “Yes, perhaps. Very possibly. I hadn’t considered them before now.”
“What are these Wraiths, exactly?” I said.
“Fell spirits,” Davril said. “Thralls of Lord Vorkoth. High servants of the Shadow.”
“I didn’t think they could cross over into this world,” Liara said.
“They couldn’t,” said Davril. “Not until recently. But when my damned brother got his hands on that wardrobe, and a direct pipeline was opened between this world and the Fae Lands, many things that weren’t possible became possible.”
“Great,” I said.
“That is ominous,” said the normally unflappable Liara. She appeared to gather herself. “Is there anything else I can do for you, my lord?”
Air hissed out from behind Davril’s teeth. “No, thank you, Liara. That will be all for now.”
She bowed and moved off through the trees, taking her silent Sisters with her. Alone again, Davril and I turned to each other. He looked deep in contemplation.
“Penny for your thoughts,” I said.
He stared off into the distance. “This is worse than we’d feared, Jade. This means the Shadow has some part in all this.”
When he said the Shadow, I knew he also meant his brother Nevos, only he didn’t want to say the name, probably because of what had happened between me and him. Even now that was causing a problem, breaking down communication between us. Damn it all.
“Well, I guess this exonerates Lord Greenleaf,” I said. “And also Taron Deepnight.”
“I believe it does exonerate Greenleaf, but not so Taron.”
“How do you figure?”
“He was still spotted leaving the area of Therin’s murder.”
“Yeah, or at least something that looked like him,” I said. “Wearing his armor.”
“True enough.” Davril stretched. “Let’s report to the Queen and tell her the manner of Neva’s death, then figure out our next step.”
I agreed, and we made our way once more through the beautiful forests of the Floating Gardens.
“You know, something occurs to me,” I said.
“Oh?”
“Ainu said she was keeping her eyes on us, right? And she always knows when violence is about to break out. But she didn’t stop the murders. I wonder why.”
“Maybe she can’t. They happen too suddenly. But when Jereth was gathering his forces, she had time to gather hers, too.”
“Okay, I’ll buy that. But how does she know?”
Davril saw what I was getting at. “She’s watching us.”
“Exactly! There can’t be video cameras, can there? With all this magic about? That would interfere with the electronics, right?”
“But there must be a way, you’re right.”
“I think we need to talk to her. See what she knows. If she has some video of the murders, or something, maybe it will show us who’s behind all this.”
“If she has that, then why hasn’t she shared that with us?”
“Good point,” I said. “And also, why does she keep such close tabs on her guests? Is she … like, you know, spying on them? Does she see what they’re getting up to and then blackmail them over it?”
“I wouldn’t put it past her,” Davril said. “She’s mysterious and out for her own interests, that I can tell.”
I was just about to agree, but just then I thought I heard something. I stopped walking and listened, and Davril did likewise. I felt him tensing beside me. My hand strayed to the new crossbow at my side, half expecting more green spiders to jump out at us, even though Davril himself carried the emerald ring.
Instead I saw three figures slip from tree to tree ahead, furtively and trying not to be observed. Davril and I hunkered low, flattening ourselves against the ground, and watched. The three figures seemed to be coming from the direction of the Coolwaters’ bungalow, but I wasn’t sure where they might be going to or what they had to be so damned secretive about. Judging from the frown on Davril’s face, he didn’t, either.
“I think we should follow,” he whispered to me.
I nodded.
Unspeaking, we trailed after the three Fae that moved ahead of us. They went quietly and carefully, often glancing over their shoulders or waiting at the edges of clearings to make sure no one was present. Davril and I constantly had to throw ourselves behind trees or onto the ground to avoid being seen. We were pretty good at that, though, and the three Fae kept moving ahead of us. This day kept getting stranger and stranger.
Finally the shapes paused before another clearing, and a bungalow appeared through the trees ahead. With a shock I realized it was Jereth’s place of residence. His knights stood at the ready about it.
“What the hell?” I whispered to Davril.
He didn’t answer.
One of the three figures stole up to a knight. The guy tensed, but the messenger, if that’s what he was, spoke quickly and quietly, and the knight relaxed. The other two came up, and two knights escorted them inside the bungalow, where Jereth presumably was.
“This is bad,” Davril told me, keeping his voice low. We were both prone on the ground, peering out from behind a bush.
“Yep,” I agreed. “The Coolwaters might be trying to come to Jereth’s side.”
“The death of her daughter has unhinged Lady Coolwater.”
“I wouldn’t say unhinged,” I said. “She just thinks that an enemy of Jereth’s killed Therin and Neva, and that whoever did it is in with Queen Calista. That makes Jereth her ally, not the Queen.”
“She’s wrong on all accounts.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. We still don’t know who’s behind all this. It could be someone working for the Queen.”
“It could just as easily be someone working under Jereth, either directly or not. Leaping to conclusions without proper evidence is a mistake, pure and simple.”
“Not to someone that’s just lost a daughter.”
Davril didn’t argue, and moments later two of the three messengers emerged. Accompanied by one of Jereth’s knights, now out of his armor to avoid making any undue noise, they moved back into the forest and in the direction of the Coolwaters’ bungalow. Davril and I didn’t follow them, though, but kept staking out Jereth’s place. After about twenty minutes, the brat prince himself emerged in his ridiculous purple armor, surrounded by half a dozen knights.
Moving briskly, the prince strode with purpose into the trees.
I shrugged at Davril. “I guess we’re following?”
He didn’t have to answer. Anger flashed
in his eyes, but not at me. Scowling at what we both feared was likely happening, he half-rose and hastened after Jereth’s party, and I came right behind him. This was all going horribly, horribly wrong, I thought. If I had thought being a Fae Knight was all glamor and happy magic, I’d been greatly mistaken.
A few minutes later Jereth’s company slowed and entered a clearing.
Lady Gaia Coolwater, surrounded by half a dozen of her own knights, waited for him.
Breath caught in my throat as Davril and I approached the treeline, then hunkered down. Shit shit shit, I thought. It was really happening. Lady Coolwater was really going over to Jereth’s side. It occurred to me that maybe this is what the killer had wanted all along.
Prince Jereth and the Lady dismissed their knights and spoke in low tones under the sunlight, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying, and I didn’t think Davril could, either. I listened harder. The wind sighed and moaned, occasionally bringing me a snatch of conversation. I heard “Deepnight” and “blood-mad Taron” and “he must pay”, along with “gather the forces” and “my mother be damned”.
Both looking resolved and grim, Jereth and Lady Coolwater nodded at each other and separated, going back to their respective groups, then leaving in opposite directions. But not for long, I knew.
“They’re going to gather their forces,” I said, not sure how much Davril had been able to hear.
“Let’s hurry, Jade. There may still be time to get to Commander Gleamstone and rouse the knighthood. We can quell this madness before it gets out of hand. There will not be war if we can help it.”
“Amen to that. Okay, let’s go.”
Heart hammering, I followed Davril. Honestly I was a bit turned around and wasn’t entirely sure in which direction the barracks lay. Davril seemed to know, though, so I hurried in his footsteps. It was a warm day, but I barely felt it. I was cold and freaked. The end of the Fae Lords, or at least of the order I knew, might well and truly be at hand. If war divided them and the two halves whittled away at each other, there might not be much left. Not only would that be tragic in itself, but then who would hold back the agents of the Shadow? Lord Vorkoth had set his eyes on this world, and I doubted that the absence of any resistance from the Fae would get him to forget it.
Besides, for the moment Nevos was trapped here, and I knew he certainly wouldn’t.
“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” I said. The trees around us seemed strange and unlike the ones I recognized.
“I … think so,” Davril said. But even he sounded uncertain.
“That’s not real encouraging.”
He moved slower, an odd expression on his face. “The forest feels …. Strange. Something is different, Jade. Be on your guard.”
“I will.”
But instead of something sinister we came into an open area, and I gasped in delight.
Twenty white horses grazed on the brilliant green grass, and they were the most beautiful horses I’d ever seen. They glowed with a soft white light, and their long manes rustled in the wind. The sunlight glinted on their rolling muscles beneath that luminous coat. Or maybe the luminosity came from within them. They glowed like moonlight, like starlight.
“Veras,” Davril said softly.
“What are they?” I asked. My voice came out hushed, reverential.
“Horses from the Fae Lands. We rode them for pleasure, but also into battle. Few made the crossing into your world. They’re very smart, and are long-lived and magical. Ainu must have spent a fortune to acquire them.”
“And now they roam wild in the forest-gardens here …” I shook my head, unable to believe how lovely they were. How lovely this whole place was.
Even Davril had to visibly shake himself. “Come,” he said, and gently led me on.
I went, but I walked as one gone numb. Only slowly did I come out of the spell of the Veras. They were like a dream of horses. I wanted to run my hands along their smooth flanks, feed them apples and stroke their soft muzzles.
We passed over a bouncy rope bridge spanning white rushing water, and I peered over the side to see magically colorful fish leaping and splashing below. They were some sort of goldfish, and their colors shifted, moment by moment, from orange and green to blue and red. On the other side of the bridge, we entered more forests, and I tensed.
I was just thinking about going back for another look at the Veras when suddenly dark shapes lunged out at us, and what had been a dream became a nightmare.
Chapter Twelve
A dark claw raked at my head. I ducked, sweat flying, and jumped to the side. Spinning, I raised my crossbow.
The dark shape, like a wisp of smoke vaguely in the form of a man, rushed at me, claws stretched out. I knew without any further evidence that it had been claws just like that that had claimed the lives of Therin and Neva.
Davril ripped out his blazing sword and slashed it at the wraith. The creature howled and drew back, a line of fire appearing where the sword had parted its phantasmagorical flesh, or ectoplasm or whatever it was.
Two more wraiths appeared from behind it. Their eyes, blacker than the rest of their bodies, which were already black enough, bored into us, and I felt a chill course through not just down my spine by through my soul. Those things were evil, through and through. I could feel their darkness, their connection to primal forces beyond my understanding or my desire to understand.
I fired my crossbow. The bolt hurtled through one wraith’s head, passing through it without seeming to touch the creature, and I heard the thunk as it struck a tree trunk on the other side.
One of the phantoms barreled toward me, howling as it went. Its bloodcurdling shriek made my blood run cold. I fired another bolt at it, but the thing still came on. Davril was busy slashing at two of them that were coming at him. I threw myself to the side, putting a tree between me and the wraith.
I spun, trying to keep track of it through the dripping limbs. I shoved the crossbow back in its sheath and pulled out the dagger. Its hilt glimmered with enchanted jewels and its blade hummed with magic. Maybe it could harm the bastard.
But my dagger was much shorter than Davril’s sword, and it meant getting much closer to that thing.
All of a sudden, the wraith appeared, bursting from the tree itself. It had passed right through the trunk!
“Shit!” I said. I almost dropped my dagger in fright.
Instead, I slashed at the wraith, then danced aside. It loosed a terrible howl, and when I wheeled about it wore a look of anger, maybe even pain, on what passed for its face. So the dagger could hurt it.
“Like that?” I said. “Well come and get some more!”
It shrieked and flew right at me, talons outstretched. Okay, maybe challenging it hadn’t been such a good idea.
I slashed at its nearest talon, meanwhile pirouetting gracefully, letting it pass right by where I had just been, then leaping through a gap between two trees, circling back around to find the path. Maybe the thing could pass through trees to get me, but it had eyes, right, even if they were ghostly? That meant it probably needed to see me in order to pursue me. Maybe. Or not.
The path lay ahead. Davril was backing down it, slashing with his sword at the two wraiths that drove at him, calling for me as he went.
“Jade! Jade!”
“I’m here,” I breathed, jumping beside him. “You take the one on the right, I’ll take the one of the left.”
Together we retreated down the path, hacking and slashing at the unholy phantoms as we went. The third one joined them, and altogether the three howled and shrieked and swirled about us, and we just barely fended them off. Davril’s sword of light cleaved right through them time and again, but they just kept coming. They healed from whatever wounds they received instantly.
At last we reached the bridge we’d just passed over and backed our way across it. The wraiths drove on, relentless. I had hoped that under the open sun they would be less aggressive, maybe even afraid, but these things weren
’t vampires. They didn’t need the darkness. They did, however, look less solid and less visible in the sunlight. That didn’t make them any weaker, though, only harder to see.
On the far side of the bridge, Davril hacked at the supports of the bridge. It gave a groan and ripped away from the bank. This end fell, swinging downward toward the water and taking the wraiths with it. They shrieked awfully.
I approached the edge and laughed as the wraiths plummeted to the waters, disappearing in the foam.
“Ha!” I said. “Good thinking, D.”
“Thank you. And don’t call me D.”
“Whew! So do you think—”
Dark shapes broke the surface of the water below. They flowed forward, not seeming hampered by the rushing current at all. They streaked toward the shore and the cliff that rose to where Davril and I were standing. I had no doubt they could just fly right up. Now that I thought about it, they seemed to hover above the ground more than walk. They floated.
They neared the shore. Reached it. Just as I feared, they blasted right up the cliffside toward us.
“Run!” Davril said.
We bolted. My heart hammered in my chest, and beads of sweat broke out on my brow. I didn’t want to look back, but as we entered the treeline I couldn’t help it.
A mistake. The wraiths had reached the top of the cliff and were zooming straight for us, claws outstretched. Those claws might look like shadows, but I knew that when they wanted to be they were all too solid. The deaths of Neva and Therin proved that only too well.
We plunged into the trees and ran.
“This way,” said Davril.
He sounded like he knew where he was going. I didn’t ask, just followed. He was my superior officer, after all. And I sure didn’t have a plan.
We burst out into a clearing. The white horses that Davril called the Veras grazed on a brilliant grassy field. They lifted their heads to look at us quizzically. A few neighed fearfully, and I knew they could sense the wraiths. Three took off in fright.
Davril came to one and stroked its neck. It whimpered in fear, but it calmed when he touched it, and he spoke softly to it.
He turned to me. “Quickly,” he said.