“Crusty! Here!” Garbage might be only four inches high, but she could yell with the best of them. Considering that even the faeries had been keeping their voices down in this weird forest, I was surprised. Then I noticed that the faeries, along with Padraig and the others, had entered a clearing. Apparently yelling within the forest wasn’t good, but yelling into it was. I shook my head as Crusty nudged her crazy gray feline and they zipped through the trees to catch up to the others.
We followed them into the clearing. Padraig and Lorcan were debating the map, the faeries had gathered into a tight group—well, as tight as a hundred and twenty or so cats could get—and Mathilda was frowning at the trees themselves.
Alric rode toward Padraig and Lorcan. I rode to Covey who looked as confused as I felt.
“What’s the problem?” I looked at the faeries. “Or problems?”
She shook her head. “Not a clue. But Padraig wasn’t happy to see this clearing here and neither were the faeries. This isn’t on anyone’s map.”
“No, it’s not.” Mathilda walked her horse over to us and kept her voice soft. “We are being watched by something more than trees—and I don’t believe it is the boy faeries either. Something has trapped us well and good.”
Chapter Forty-One
Lorcan nudged his horse over to us. “I have to agree. This isn’t on the map, so it’s not a defense built in by the people who created it.”
“No tell us. Not know.” Garbage and her cat were suddenly in the middle of our impromptu circle. They just walked in-between the horses’ legs. Those cats were too damn quiet.
“Padraig and Alric are going to continue arguing as if they have a way to figure this out. We agree that whoever or whatever triggered this is watching us,” Lorcan said.
“I think we should be ready with weapons, and be prepared to run if need be.” Mathilda patted her staff. I had been so used to seeing her with it that I didn’t think of it as a weapon.
My sword was hanging around. Of course, if it was affected by the magic drain here, it might not be able to disappear. That and the temporary deadening of Alric’s geas were about the only good things to come out of this hidden realm so far.
Padraig and Alric were making a good show of keeping up their debate. The faeries had started to break up their gathering, but Garbage must have agreed with our assessment. She went back and pulled them together into a giant collection of jabbering faeries and bored cats.
“Why don’t we just walk out of the clearing if this is the trap?” I was all for us being cautious, but standing right in the middle of a known trap seemed kind of stupid.
“To what?” Covey looked up toward the trees but didn’t point. The way we’d come was now blocked with trees. There was no way it was natural. For one, we just came that way, and for another, no tree could survive living that close to the others like that. I kept my head down but slowly looked around us—yup—we were surrounded.
“We figure.” Again Garbage and her cat steed were right in the center of us. I’d be glad when this was over just so they couldn’t keep popping in like this. Being as low and silent as they were, they were too easy to miss.
“You figure what, sweetie? Is this something to do with the boy faeries?”
“Is no, too brainy.” She tapped the side of her head. “Bad.”
“I know they’re bad, or do you mean whoever trapped us is bad?” I might be figuring out how her brain worked. That was almost as scary as all of the other things that were going on.
“Yes, this bad. Queen Mungoosey no know.” She glared around as if this entire situation was a personal affront. Obviously her queen knew everything about everything, and her not knowing about what went on in a secret pocket of reality was impossible.
“What did you figure, Garbage?” Mathilda brought us back to the current situation.
“Trees.”
We looked down at her waiting for more. True, I hadn’t noticed that the trees had moved in until Covey pointed it out, but we knew about them now.
“What about them?” Covey tried.
“They do this.” Garbage flung her hands around her head and her cat twitched her calico ears in agreement.
Lorcan and Mathilda shared a look, then a shrug. “Could be? The map really didn’t indicate anything about the trees, just that the ruin blocks needed to be avoided. But this thing was created over a thousand years ago.”
I thought about the weird square rocks and the horrible way they made me feel, like when you walk into a bar and you just know you don’t want to be anywhere near that toothy cherub sitting in the corner. Like they had a revulsion spell on them. “This is a really long shot, and don’t ask where it came from, but could the blocks have a life of their own?” That sounded so insane, even to me that I felt like someone else said it.
Covey looked at me as if maybe she should be visiting me in an insane asylum somewhere. But Mathilda and Lorcan looked thoughtful.
I personally agreed with Covey’s visual assessment. But I preferred the opportunity to not be crazy provided by the thoughtful looks from the two magic users. Besides, they were both very old and probably had seen weirder things.
“I have to say, I’ve never heard of rocks being sentient, but it would explain the admonishment to leave the ruin blocks alone.” Mathilda looked a bit closer into the underbrush of the trees. There went my theory of this being commonplace. “The trees are moving closer, and I believe there are some blocks there as well. I know there were none near this part of the trail before we hit this clearing.”
Alric and Padraig walked their horses to us and we expanded our circle to include them. Garbage jumped off her cat, scrambled up Alric’s horse and climbed up Alric. “Problem. Bad rocks trap us. Need go fight.” She looked up at Alric as if he would take care of everything, patted his hand, then scrambled back down, jumped on her cat and rode back to the other faeries.
“What did we miss?” Padraig watched Garbage ride off, but controlled his laugh. Garbage had been earnest in her sincerity. Riding a battle cat didn’t make her any less cute, though.
“Taryn came up with an outrageous, but sadly plausible, theory,” Lorcan said. He quickly outlined what I’d said, only put far more important sounding and larger words in—his version sounded much less crazy. He seemed to feel the blocks might not be the ruins of the former people who lived here—they were what those beings became. His theory was even more far-fetched than mine.
“So, what you’re implying is that those square, moss-covered blocks are sentient, because they were once the species who built these hidden realms?” Covey was watching the blocks closely now.
“They might have been the creators, or some species they wanted to save. But I think we have to agree they’re alive and have the ability to stalk people.” Lorcan looked to the surrounding trees. “That indicates a certain level of intelligence.”
“And they are moving closer.” I watched as two blocks shuffled forward a few feet before stopping. A moment later the trees closest to them followed. A shiver went across my back and didn’t feel like it was ever leaving. Knowing that things that shouldn’t move were moving and seeing them move were extremely different things. “If we can’t use magic, what is going to stop those blocks?”
“Are we worrying for nothing?” Covey asked. “Unless they can fly, how can they hurt us?” It took a lot more to upset Covey than it did me.
The faeries started taunting something inside the dense trees directly across from us. It was one of the boy faeries, in his new animal form of a vhin, who apparently had been following us. He charged forward on his heavily clawed feet. Made it right to the edge of the clearing, then touched one of the square blocks as one of the faeries zigged and he moved to follow her movement. He burst into flame, then crumbled to ash. Tree limbs reached down and brushed away the dust.
I really felt the need to be ill.
“Is that. Not good.” Garbage had baited the vhin just to demonstrate what those blocks cou
ld do.
Not only were the blocks a threat, but that tree moved to clear the ash with as much ease as any of us would have. The trees could take us out before the blocks even got involved. “How do we fight that? Girls? You said before that you could fly, but you weren’t supposed to,” I said. “Can you fly now?” Maybe they could get out, find help somewhere.
“Not now. Was could. Now can’t.” Leaf responded as Garbage continued to glare at the stone block that fried the vhin.
Crusty stood on her gray cat, jumped in the air, flapped her wings furiously, and then crashed to the ground. “Nope.” She dusted herself off and climbed back on her feline steed.
Another block did its odd shuffle to move forward. A moment later the two trees closest to it moved and stretched their limbs to cover it in shadow. I looked up at the sky. That same diffused light was above us here. “When we first came in, you mentioned that maybe the diffused light was for some of the creatures who live here. What if those stone-people-things can’t handle light? Every time a stone block moves, the trees move to block it from the light.”
“Bad time to not be able to use magic,” Covey said. “You guys could light this place up in an instant.”
Which was a good reason to make this place free of magic. I looked around, maybe if we could light a fire of some sort?
The faeries were milling about on their cats, gathering in small groups to glare at the woods closing in on us.
Their bright colors made me think of something. “Mathilda, remember when that boy faery went after your nectar, and all those faeries lit up?”
“Yes. But yours didn’t do it.”
“But maybe they can?” I waved Garbage over. “How did those other faeries glow; remember, at the cottage?”
“They just do.” She scowled but more at the situation than at me. Or so I told myself.
“Like this?” Crusty stood on her cat again and held her breath. And glowed. She released her breath and it faded.
“Why you no tell?” Garbage was not happy.
“You no ask.”
I held back my laughter at that. It was good to know they kept things from each other as well as from me.
“So, if they hold their breath, the faeries can glow? Won’t that be a short glowing?” Covey asked it, but everyone was watching now.
“They stay in closed off bottles of ale for hours at a time.” I shook my head as one by one various faeries tested it out. “Going without air hasn’t been a problem for them yet.”
Garbage glared at her faery army as they began holding their glows longer. She finally held her breath, and glowed. Her smile and nod were one of victory.
“We get them back.” She rode to the rest of the faeries, and without checking with anyone, they all held their breath and scattered.
“No! We need to plan!” I knew those faeries were tough, but even they couldn’t recover from being turned into ash. And the cats were mortal.
“Doing!” Garbage leapt off her cat, as did the others. The cats stayed in the clearing with their tails lashing as the faeries, running like a giant, deranged, rainbow, continued to the tree line.
Before the blocks had shuffled slowly. Now they were finding a way to roll backward even with their blocky shapes. They couldn’t get away from the brightly glowing faeries fast enough. The trees tried fighting back at first, but the faeries were tiny and quicker than they were. Even so, there were a few connections of tree and faery where one of the faeries was flung back into the clearing. The faery in question shook herself off, puffed out her cheeks, and ran back into the forest.
Not all of the trees were of the moving-and-working-with-the-evil-blocks kind. A clump behind us didn’t move back and the faeries in that section quickly went to either side. And there were also no blocks there. Traveling with a bunch of insanely smart folks meant they usually came up with solutions long before I did. It was nice to figure something out before they did.
The rout lasted about five minutes. With all of the blocks, and a good amount of the trees gone. The faeries came swaggering back, hopped on their waiting cats, and rode over to us. Garbage looked so proud you’d think they single-handedly saved the world.
To be honest, if we’d had to fight those blocks, it probably would have been the end of us, so their attitude wasn’t too far off.
“Excellent work, ladies!” Mathilda said. “Unfortunately, I don’t have any sweet treats, but I promise you each a mountain of them when we are out of here.”
Once we had paid them their due acknowledgements, including Bunky and Irving, we headed back into the trees. We might have created a hundred little monsters as the forest kept popping with colors as they continued to play with their new-old trick. Even Bunky and Irving drifted higher into the trees to get away from the bright lights.
After about ten minutes, Lorcan turned back to them. Even he’d had enough; I was contemplating taking a chance with the scary stone blocks at that point. “Ladies, the boy faeries must not know how powerful you have become. You can’t let them see your lights.” His smile was so sincere, even I almost believed him.
Garbage had been holding her breath, but dropped it at his words. “Is right. Keep secret.” One by one the other faeries stopped glowing.
Crusty flashed blue.
“Keep secret.” One of the faeries closest to Crusty reached over and popped her in the head. She let go of her breath.
“Secret now,” she said with a grin.
“How long until we can get this sphinx and get out of here?” I couldn’t help it; even without those creepy blocks, these woods were disturbing.
“At least a day, possibly longer. Getting here was the easy part, figuring out how to locate the sphinx is the challenge.” Alric was back to riding up front and even he didn’t sound happy about the length of time. A day meant we’d have a night in here. I wondered how long the girls could keep their glowing up.
The forest had thinned a bit and the odd sky had started to dim when Alric and Padraig called a halt in another clearing. I looked around as they built a small fire, using only dry wood they found on the ground, but none of the trees seemed to be moving.
I really wished we could have found a way to bring Mathilda’s cottage along.
“I don’t think we should leave the fire burning during the night,” Padraig said. “It’s not safe around these trees.” He was watching the branches closest to us. While the trees themselves weren’t moving, the branches were waving in the wind. Except, there was no wind and they moved in different directions.
“We glow.” Garbage, her army, with their cats had settled around the edges of our circle and now she dispatched about a quarter of the faeries into the trees. As they got in position, they lit up.
The clearing looked like someone was having a fancy party.
Lorcan looked around and shrugged. “I don’t see why they can’t. And their light should keep any of the blocks from coming back.”
Bunky and Irving swooped into the clearing, made a circle, and looked ready to go out further.
“You two stay within the circle of faeries. We need you to stay close to us for protection.” I tried to make it sound like we needed them to protect us, but the fact was I didn’t want anyone out in that forest tonight.
Chapter Forty-Two
The next morning came silently. I rolled over and crawled out of my tent to find everyone asleep. That wouldn’t be too odd, except that the faeries were gone, and there was no guard. Padraig was drooped over awkwardly near the remains of our fire. The horses were undisturbed but they were the only thing that looked normal.
I scrambled to my feet and ran to Padraig since he was the closest. He was alive, but deeply asleep. The remains of a squished purple flower-like thing told me who’d gotten him—gloughstrikes. I couldn’t use magic, the faeries were gone, and I had no other way to awaken my friends. All of them were collapsed in or near their tents.
Bunky and Irving looped through the clearing but dropped down wh
en they saw me. Both spit out shredded gloughstrikes.
“I know I can’t understand you, but do you know where the faeries are?”
The war cries that I heard not too far from me answered my question before either of them could.
I started to run toward the sounds, but both constructs followed. I stopped and held up a hand. “I need you to stay here and guard the others.”
Bunky buzzed a bit and was clearly not happy.
“Please? I can’t wake them, and those blocks could come back.” The thought of those stone blocks working with the gloughstrikes as a hunting team flashed in my head. A chill went down my back.
He and Irving both nodded and went back to the center of our camp.
I continued running toward the war cries. After a few minutes of dodging trees that didn’t appear to be moving, I came to a long clearing. I didn’t see any gloughstrikes, but hopefully Bunky and Irving ate them all.
I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting, but an army of cats, armored in what appeared to be modified pieces of a sarcophagus, and being ridden by feather wearing faeries was a bit overwhelming. Impressive as hell though.
They hadn’t added to their previous collection of combatants, still probably a hundred or so. Just the right amount to face off against a hundred or so boy faeries—or vhin as Mathilda had called them. If this was a test from Queen Mungoosey, she had planned it well. In the past the girls could call up thousands of their wild faery brethren. Judging by the lack of leaves on any of the ones I saw—the preferred clothing of the wild faeries—these were ones who had been corrupted by my original three.
They were holding back, watching each other, but I saw a few faeries and cats off to the side with various injuries so they must have been fighting for a while. As far as I could see there were no injured vhin. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
Garbage and Leaf were conferring, when a row of the vhin charged forward. Garbage yelled and all of the cats with their faery riders `ran forward as well. The claws on the vhin were long and wicked looking but the cats were steady and sure, stayed on target, and got their riders in close. At first I wasn’t sure why the girls needed the cats; even if their queen forbade them from flying, they were pretty fast when they ran on the ground for only being four inches high.
The Diamond Sphinx (The Lost Ancients Book 6) Page 29