by Alicia Wolfe
“Can you use your ring yet?” I said to Greenleaf, who was blasting at a wraith his staff.
“No,” he grunted. “Not yet. Need … more … time!”
We ran on, breathless. Limbs ripped at my hair and roots tangled my feet. Somehow I managed not to fall on my face, but it was a near thing. At last we saw tall hills to the east and made for them. Davril found a narrow valley and ushered us through it. When we had come out the other side of the defile, he spun and aimed a blast of magic at the hillside. Rocks cracked and tumbled down into the channel. Other Fae joined him and soon there was a huge pile of rocks jamming up the canyon. The entire wall had collapsed.
Davril laid his hand on one of the boulders and poured his energy into the barrier. Greenleaf and Calista did the same. The wall of rock shimmered and glowed. The glow faded, but I could still sense a power radiating from it. They had hallowed the barrier, made it impossible for the wraiths to cross.
“That will only hold them for a while,” Greenleaf said, when the three sagged backward, plainly tired.
“It will have to do,” Davril said.
Calista touched his arm. “It was well done, Davril.”
He didn’t seem to notice. “Let’s put some distance between us and them. Hopefully they’ll lose our trail.”
With all their woodcraft, the Fae vanished into the forest, and me with them. We covered our tracks as best we could, praying the unholy bastards couldn’t find us. This has to work, I thought. If it doesn’t ….
The thought was too terrible to contemplate.
We all held our breaths as we went along, expecting the worst, but the minutes went by and the wraiths didn’t reappear. Eventually I began to hope that we had escaped them.
“I think we did it,” I said at last, only panting a little.
Davril drew the company to a halt. He cocked his head, listening, and swept the forest all about with his keen gaze.
“We’re safe now,” Davril said.
Queen Calista blew a strand of golden hair out of her face. “Maybe, but for how long?”
“And just why are the wraiths after us, anyway?” Greenleaf said.
“That’s a good question,” I said. “They appear to be the killers of both Therin and Neva, though.”
“Is this true?” said Calista.
“It is,” said Davril, with a sharp look to me. Uh oh. Was I not supposed to have said that? Surely Davril didn’t mean to keep secrets at this late date. Then again, he was never exactly Mr. Forthcoming.
“I don’t understand,” Greenleaf said, sounding honestly perplexed. “The wraiths can’t still be attacking … now …”
“What do you mean?” Davril said suspiciously.
Evidently hearing the suspicion, Lord Greenleaf frowned. “I only meant that the wraiths, in as much as I understand them, are dark entities allied with the dark powers, and they will be serving Lord Vorkoth.”
“Got that,” I said dryly.
“That’s not what I mean. The wraiths are very specific entities. They do not exist on this plane but on another, the Black Plane, just as my spiders come from the Emerald Plane.”
“Is there a Pink Plane?” I said. “I think I might like that one better.”
Davril rubbed his chin. “What are you getting at, Grand Vizier?”
“Say on,” Calista prodded him.
“Very well,” Greenleaf said. “The wraiths are entities that must be summoned and controlled, just like my spiders, although they possess intellects of their own and are quite powerful. But they are subservient to whoever wields them. Just like with my spiders, that person must wield them through an artifact—in this case the Black Scepter.”
“Interesting,” Davril said. “So once we get out of this we need to look for whoever has a black scepter.”
Greenleaf’s eyes flashed. “No, you fool! Don’t you understand? That’s what’s so horrifying about all this.”
“Watch who you’re calling a fool,” I said.
“Go on,” Calista said. “Tell us what you mean.”
Greenleaf speared us all with his glance. “I mean that none of our powers were able to break through Ainu’s damnable veil. If we can’t, then neither can the might of the Scepter or its wielder. That means …”
“Dear gods,” said Calista, seeing it sooner than I did.
“What?” I said. “What am I missing?”
Davril’s face had gone pale. To me, he said, “That means that whoever wields the Black Scepter is within the veil.”
“Don’t you see?” Greenleaf said. “One of us is in league with the Shadow!”
The world tilted around me. “I can’t believe it,” I said. “I mean, I knew Jereth was an asshole—pardon, Your Majesty—but I thought he was on the side of the righteous, at least in his own head. But if he’s the one ordering around these wraiths …”
“It doesn’t have to be Jereth,” Greenleaf said. “In fact, I would suspect it wasn’t, based on what I know of the prince.”
“Thank you for that, at least,” Calista said.
I shook my head. “But the plan would still be the same, right?”
“Plan?” Davril said.
“Yeah. To find whoever holds the Scepter. And stop him.”
Davril nodded vaguely. “Yes. I suppose. But we now have both the wraiths and Jereth’s faction hunting us. And we can’t escape to get reinforcements.”
“It’s no easy task,” Calista agreed. “But Jade is correct. I can see no other course of action.”
Davril’s jaw bulged. “Very well. Then Jade and I will see it done. But first we need to get you and yours to a safe place, Your Majesty. Only then will I feel comfortable leaving you.”
“We should all stay together,” Greenleaf said.
“Good idea,” I said.
“No,” said Davril. “Two might slip through the forests unseen, but a company this large? I don’t think so. No, Your Grace, you hide. I will find whoever wields the staff, if I may.”
“It would be easier if we didn’t have Jereth to contend with,” I said.
“I wish he would desist his hostilities,” Calista said. “But I fear that he now senses that victory will be his. He will be harder to calm down than ever.”
“He smells blood in the water,” I agreed.
“He’s still bound by his oath,” Davril said.
“Oath?” Greenleaf said.
“He’s sworn to abide by our findings—if Jade and I can provide proof of who committed the murder by three A.M. tonight.” He looked at the horizon to see that the sun was beginning to set. “We still have time.”
“Assuming Jereth will listen,” I said.
“He will,” Calista said. “Davril’s right—Jereth swore.”
I was glad they had some faith in the golden-haired jerkwad. Not me. He’d torched that along with the Big House. But they knew him better than I did.
We put some more distance between us and where we guessed the wraiths to be, then set about finding the Queen and her company a place to hole up in. We found it on a hill crowned by tall, slender trees whose likes I’d never seen before. Their leaves shone with a waxy gleam, yet they were dark, and their trunks were smooth and supple and gave off a scent like cloves.
“We should be able to see anyone coming from here,” Calista said, “and at the same time to remain hidden.”
“It will do,” Greenleaf agreed.
The knights hunkered low, bristling at some imagined sound, then relaxed. The Queen stared in the direction of the drop-off, where we’d almost met our end.
“I hope the others are all right,” she said, and it sounded like more of a prayer than anything else.
“They will be,” Davril assured her. “If any survive, that is. Jade and I will stop all this madness before it can go any further.”
A rueful look entered her eyes. “We entered into this ‘madness’, as you say, in order to gain some intelligence from Jereth that might be to our advantage. Some way to fight the
Enemy. But it seems that our ambition only opened us up to more evil.”
“I did try to warn you,” Greenleaf said. He didn’t say it boastfully, though, but mournfully. “Jereth cannot be trusted.”
“You guys were just the ones saying how he could be trusted,” I reminded them. “If that’s true, then Jereth has been played just as badly as the rest of us.”
“True,” said Davril. “I do not think he brought the evil with him—not intentionally. But he has been its pawn nevertheless. Anyway, we’ve tarried long enough. Let us be gone.”
“May the Light shine upon you,” Calista said, and touched us each on the arm. At the contact, I felt lighter, cleaner, more sure of purpose.
Davril and I left her there with her knights and Lord Greenleaf. I hoped the Grand Vizier would be able to use his ring sooner than later. I was sure that if they stayed there for long enough they would need it. The wraiths weren’t taking prisoners, and those green spiders of his had proven able to contend effectively with the creatures.
As Davril and I passed through the forest, we removed our armor so that we could move more silently. I missed the protection the armor afforded, but I didn’t relish drawing the attention of the wraiths, either. When we were once more wearing only our under-things, Davril turned sideways to me. In a low voice, he said, “I haven’t forgotten what you did.”
Shit, what did I do now?
As if reading my worry, he offered a small smile. “When you saved me earlier,” he clarified. “With the horse.”
“Oh. Right.” Mentally I kicked myself. Of course Davril would circle back around to that. His pride probably resented him being rescued by a girl. But again I’d misread him.
“That was very brave of you,” he said. “And very foolish. Still, I thank you. Without your rash action, I would surely be dead now.”
“Oh. Well. Cool.”
He arched an eyebrow. “‘Cool’?”
I cleared my throat. “I only meant …” What had I meant? Jesus, why did my IQ drop twenty points whenever Davril and I talked privately? Finding my voice, I said, “Er, no problemo. That’s Mexican.”
“Actually, that’s Spanish.”
“Oh. Ah, yeah.” Stupid stupid …
He started to say something else, then tensed. He waved a hand, commanding silence, and then crouched down and darted forward. Breathless, I followed. We pressed against a tree and peered outward, down a short incline cut through with a gentle stream lined by glinting stones.
Three figures rushed up the hill, not toward us, but along the stream, going perpendicular to our path.
“Jereth’s people,” Davril said.
Chapter Fifteen
Davril and I watched the figures slip over the hill, vanishing from sight.
“Where could they be going?” I said.
“I don’t know. But I mean to find out.”
“You sure that’s a good idea?”
“We need to know what Jereth is up to, and we have no idea where he is. These runners, if that’s what they are, could bring us to him.”
“We’d better hurry, though. We’ll lose them.”
“Not with my woodcraft.”
Nevertheless, we stole after the Fae we’d seen, reaching the top of the hill and traveling quickly after them. I couldn’t see them any longer, but apparently Davril could read their signs, and we jogged after them, still going by the side of the stream, which splashed and gurgled pleasantly in its rocky bed. The sunlight reddened to the west between the boughs of trees, turning the limbs into black, twisted tendrils silhouetted against a crimson orb. And somewhere the wraiths were hunting, hunting …
At last Davril gestured for us to go slower, quieter. Hardly daring to breathe, we approached a glade to see the three Fae we’d been following approach a larger group of Fae, all resplendent, armed and armored. Jereth in his purple plate mail stood in their center, tall and proud, but with a concerned look in his emerald eyes.
“What news have my spies brought me?” he said.
“Much, my lord,” said the forefront of the three, all of whom knelt before Jereth. “The wraiths continue to stalk the forests, and their chill radiates out, permeating all the Home Isle.”
“Blast!” said Jereth. “Just what are these things?”
“Horrors from the old world,” said Mia Sunheart in her red armor. One of her paramours stood beside her. Had the other one fallen in the fighting? If so, that would explain the too-still expression on her pretty face. “Or at least at the beckoning of the Dark One.”
“Thank you for the riveting analysis,” growled Lord Von Strongwall. His eyes were red and his brows had drawn together. He must be suffering greatly after the loss of his son, I thought. In any case, the situation had put him in a foul humor, and he gripped his broadsword tightly.
“Now now,” said Jereth. “Let us all get along. We’re all friends here, are we not?” He said this pointedly to Von Strongwall, who grunted. Mia Sunheart preened, as if delighting in the rebuke of one who must be a rival for the affections of Jereth. She wanted the prince to become king and for her to have the highest place in his court when all was said and done, that was plain, and she seemed to see Strongwall as an obstacle. Of course, he probably felt the same way right back at her.
Jereth turned to his spies, and once more concern touched his features. He drew himself up, as if steeling himself for dire news, and said, “What of Mother? How fares she and her ‘loyalists’?”
“The wraiths apparently ambushed them, my lord,” said the lead spy. “We heard the sounds of fighting and went forward to investigate, but when we saw the wraiths passing through we drew back and waited. There were many of them this time, my lord. A dozen at least.”
“Damn,” said Jereth. “When the three were spotted, I thought that was bad enough, but a dozen … Go on. What became of Mother?” The words were spoken casually, but I sensed a tension about him, almost a desperation. He had led an attack on Calista, but he didn’t want her dead, not really. He wanted to force her to acknowledge his rule, but he didn’t want her put in the ground. He was an angry kid who wanted the upper hand in an argument with his parent for once, not the elimination of the parent altogether. At least that’s what I gleaned in a quick flash of insight, right or wrong.
“When we arrived, the battle was over,” the spy said. “Or at least it had moved away from the cliffs, where it took place. At the drop-off, that was. We found several bodies, but not of the Queen. Some tracks went to the right, some to the left. We split up and explored each, but the wraiths were still thick about that area and we didn’t dare tarry.”
“They don’t attack our side, you fool,” said Mia Sunheart. “You had nothing to fear.”
“If you say so, my lady.”
She scoffed. “You employ worse cowards than ever, Jereth.”
“Yes,” he said coolly. “Cowards that rose in rebellion against a well-armed queen. Quite craven, I would say.”
“Don’t lecture me. I was right there with you. Unlike some,” she added with a glare at the Coolwaters, who stood nearby, at least some of them, including Lady Gaia Coolwater. Her gaze locked with Mia’s, and I felt the enmity there.
“We’re here now,” Lady Coolwater said, ice dripping from her voice. “Or would you rather us not?”
Mia narrowed her eyes.
“We’re all quite glad of your presence, aren’t we, Mia?” said Jereth. Back to the spies: “Is there anything else to report?”
“No, my lord. We scouted out the lands for awhile, seeking some news of the Queen, and hiding from the wraiths when we needed to, then made our way back here to the rendezvous spot.”
“Well done,” Jereth said. “I thank you.” He examined his long fingers. “So Mother could be alive or dead. She could be slain by a wraith or have even tumbled over the edge of the drop-off to her doom.” In a low voice, he said, “Let us hope not.”
“What do you intend to do with her, then?” Lord Strongwall said. “W
hen the fighting is done? If she lives then, and we’re triumphant?”
“Lock her up, I suppose,” Jereth said. Then he smiled. “Maybe shut her up in your castle.”
Strongwall grunted in amusement. “Once I’m safely out of the accursed place, it’s all yours. Or hers, as the case may be.” He flexed a fist around the hilt of his broadsword. “I can’t wait to be out of there. I only wish Therin could have lived to have seen it.”
“And Neva,” said Lady Coolwater.
He nodded his head. “Aye, and little Neva.”
Mia Sunheart was staring from one speaker to another, then back to Jereth. “I just don’t understand, my lord.”
“What is that?” said Jereth.
“Well, if the wraiths aren’t attacking our side, that must mean they support our side. So just who is the one controlling them?” Once more her gaze swept the crowd of Coolwaters, Strongwalls, courtiers, knights and others.
“You’re assuming that’s the way it works,” said Gaia Coolwater. “The truth is none of us know. We’re not loremasters.”
“Perhaps not, but someone is,” Mia Sunheart insisted. “Someone knows how to control these things.”
“Let’s not ignore our good fortune,” Jereth said. “Or look past it. The wraiths appear to be helping us. Let’s simply enjoy the turn of events and benefit from it. If I had to guess, I would say the Shadow has sent his agents to do his bidding, thinking that overthrowing Queen Calista would be a boon to him. Little does he know that I’m far more deadly to his plans than Mother could ever be.”
“Bold words,” said Lord Strongwall.
“Yes, but true.” Jereth sniffed. “At any rate, while our enemies are scattered we need to gather our greatest strength. We have all our warriors here, but we’ve left many weapons, artifacts and family members behind. Let’s disburse and go each to our separate dwellings, gather the things we need, then reconvene with our full force at the bungalow I’ve been staying at. When our full power is gathered, we’ll plot the next step.”
The others grudgingly agreed, and the group began to break up, some going this way and that. Davril and I hunkered even lower, waiting for them all to vanish, then rose and dusted ourselves off.