I closed my eyes and focused on the trees. There it was, balancing on the edge of perception. I listened closer. The sounds weren’t random, but rather—methodical, as though someone was pacing first to the left, then to the right. I had the sudden image of a big cat in a cage, watching its captors. The sense that we were intended prey hit me full force. I opened my eyes and spun, staring at Raven.
“It’s a predator, all right. It seems impatient, as though it’s waiting for an opening so it can pounce. I don’t know if someone’s keeping it on a leash, or if there’s a reason it hasn’t made its move yet, but whatever the case, we’re on the radar.”
“Maybe it can’t act in the dark,” Angel said, glancing nervously at the tree line.
“Maybe it can only attack under the cover of the forest,” Raven said.
Neither prospect boded well. I glanced at the sky. Dawn was on the way, so if Angel was right and it couldn’t act in the dark, we’d best be ready come first light.
“Let’s sit by the fire, eat the rest of the fish, and try to be prepared.” I sat down on the log that was near the firepit.
Angel yawned, then skewered the three remaining fish. She fixed them over the fire on the makeshift rotisserie. As they sizzled in the flames, I handed out bottles of water and we drank them down. Might as well get as hydrated as we could while we were near a stream.
As the first streaks of pale blue and yellow began to flicker into the sky, I noticed a decided red tinge to the dawn. “ ‘Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in morning, sailors take warning,’ ” I said. “Storm on the way.” Sometimes the old wives’ tales had it right, and this was one of them that I trusted.
“I hope not another thunderstorm,” Raven said. “Though seeing those…what did you call them? Rajamahs? They’re beautiful.”
“They were, at that,” I said. “As soon as the sun’s up, I’ll go try to get some more information out of the kelpie.”
Angel handed us each a fish and they were as flavorful as the night before. The lack of enough food to fill us up tended to make what we did have taste so much better. I thought about breaking out a package of cookies, but we didn’t know how long we’d be on the road. Hell, we didn’t even know if we were headed in the right direction, and I didn’t want to use up what we had. On the other hand, we needed a few carbs along with the protein, so I added another half protein bar and two cookies to each of our meals, counting on the sugar and chocolate to give us immediate fuel.
As the dawn gave way to morning, I could still faintly hear whatever was pacing in the woods, but as the sun broke through the trees, the sound vanished. I decided to make the short trek to the stream. I entered the forest and paused. The only noises I heard were the sounds of small animals and birds. I crossed through the trees until I came out on the shores of the stream. In the early morning, the whitewater tumbled over the rocks and the endless forest beyond, both making me feel isolated and yet, reminding me of home.
The kelpie was sitting on the shoreline, eating a raw fish. I grimaced, but reminded myself that it was far better than if she were eating a human arm or a leg—which kelpies routinely did when they attracted strangers into their lairs. She looked up at me, her brows narrowing.
“You’re still here? I thought you would be on your way,” she said between bites.
“We needed to rest. Say, do you know what’s been pacing in the trees, watching us all night? Could it be one of the Star Hounds?”
The kelpie shook her head. “No, they would attack. You probably heard one of the night-watchers. The spirits of those who journey through the forest to Caer Sidi. Some of them are angry, and some very powerful. Some refuse to complete the journey and can attack, if they’re strong enough. If they can’t reach into the physical realm, they watch, angry that they’re dead and unable to free themselves. You do know what forest you’re in, don’t you?”
I shook my head. “No, we were thinking Y’Bain.”
“No, not Y’Bain. You’re in the Foraoise na Marbh. The Forest of the Dead.” She leaned back, arching her back. Her breasts lifted, round and plump, their nipples stiff in the breeze. If I had been bi, gay, or a guy, my eyes wouldn’t have been on her face. She looked even more alluring now than before. “This forest rings Caer Sidi, encircling the borders of Caer Arianrhod. You’re on the inner side.”
My heart sank. “How wide is the forest? And how far is it from Cernunnos’s palace?”
“Wide enough that it will take you weeks to traverse on foot, and then only if you keep to a steady pace. You’re in northern Annwn, a long jaunt from the Forest Lord’s lands.”
I sat there, brooding. After a moment, I looked back at the kelpie. “What’s your name?”
She hesitated, then said, “Irianie.”
“I’m Ember. I’m Herne’s fiancée.”
That produced a reaction. First, she looked startled, then she seemed to mellow—her stance became less rigid, and she brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “Then you’ll become a goddess.”
“Yes, I will.” I let out a long sigh. “Thank you for talking to me. For helping me.”
She inclined her head. “I cannot journey with you, but I can bring you more fish for your journey, and something else that might help.” She dove beneath the water again and when she returned, she carried twelve more fish in a net, along with some bulbous water plants.
“Thank you.”
“You may need this as well,” she said, handing me a small bag that jingled. Inside were a dozen gold coins—far’ens, the money of Arawn. Each coin was worth twenty qik. “I’ve little use for this sparkle and I gather it’s worth quite a bit.”
I tucked the bag in my pack. “Thank you again. I won’t forget your kindness.”
“Consider it…a good will offering,” Irianie said. “Which way will you travel?”
“If we travel to the mountains, we’ll be heading to Caer Sidi, correct?”
She nodded.
“And it’s closer than Cernunnos’s palace?”
Again, a nod.
“Then I propose we start off for there. Maybe Arianrhod will be able to help us. But we’ll need to watch out for the Star Hounds. Do you know if they run free or are they pretty much near her castle?”
“They’re all through the Forest of the Dead, and all through the land. And there are other creatures, just as deadly. Snakes are venomous, as well, and several species of spiders, along with a few predatory animals. Caer Sidi lies at the top of a mountain. The path you came through the forest on will lead you there. But the open land will be cold and there won’t be much food along the way.” She handed me the bag of fish. “The plants are water-roots. They’re edible but they need to be cooked. You’d best carry some wood with you. There won’t be much when you cross through the grasslands.”
I stood, hoisting the fish over my shoulder. “What about water?”
“This land is crisscrossed with streams and creeks. You should find water without much of a problem, even in the heart of summer.”
“When Herne and I marry, I’ll return to say hello. Maybe I can repay the favors you’ve shown me.”
“I would welcome the visit,” Irianie said. She watched me as I headed for the trees, but said nothing.
* * *
“So, we’re not in Y’Bain. This is the Forest of the Dead. Which means your coin should work here,” I said.
Raven nodded. “Should I use it now?”
“Yes, if you can. We might as well try before we set out on a long trek.”
Raven pulled out the gold coin. I stopped her for a moment, holding up one of the coins Irianie had given me, but they didn’t match.
“Okay, I just wanted to see.” I stood back, as did Angel.
Raven took hold of the coin, closing her hand around it. She closed her eyes and focused, and murmured, “Help. Herne, please help.”
The coin was in the center of her palm and, as we watched, it shimmered, pulsing o
nce, then once again before it sat lifeless. Nothing happened.
“Well, crap. Maybe you have to be in the same realm as he is—” Angel started to say, but Raven shook her head.
“No, because he gave it to me right before I left for Kalevala. So it has to sync into other realms. I’m not sure why it didn’t work.” She looked at me, as though expecting an answer.
“I don’t know why it didn’t work,” I said, almost defensively. “Herne’s the one who programmed the damned thing. Maybe he’s still tied up in the dragon war. He can’t die, so I’m not worried that he got himself killed, but maybe the war’s still going on. I wonder if they’re still fighting? It’s been how many days?”
“Three? Four? I’ve lost count,” Angel said. “I guess we take off and if he’s detained, he’ll find us wherever we are, given the coin is with Raven.” After a moment, she added, “What do you think is going on back home? Do you think the dragons won?”
I shrugged. “I have no idea and I’m almost afraid to speculate. If Typhon won, it won’t be good news. If he didn’t, it might still be a mess. Either way, it’s going to affect the way the people see the dragons. That theme park of theirs might go bust if he loses. But…the Dragonni are tricky, and I don’t trust them not to carry on their father’s fight behind the scenes.”
“Let’s smoke these fish before we leave. It will take an hour or so to cook them, and then we can wrap them in cold leaves so they last longer. I’d say we’ll need to eat them up within two days, so a fish each in the morning and another at night.” Angel set about gutting and spitting the fish, then she placed the spit over the fire.
“So, you want to head north, you said?” Raven was using some twine from her pack to tie bundles of kindling together. “We’ll need wood. I can spark a fire off the grass, but it burns so fast that we wouldn’t have the heat for long.”
“Why don’t we fashion a sledge or a travois that we can drag behind us to carry wood. It will slow us down, but with the weather being so cold, we can’t chance being caught without some sort of heat.” Angel wiped her hands on her jeans and stood up. “Let’s hope that Herne is just detained and that he’ll be here as soon as he can.”
She was taking everything so well that I wanted to give her a medal. I started to say something but then thought back. When Mama J. had died, Angel had been a rock, taking over the care of her little brother without a single protest. When Rafé had died, she had mustered up, coping with the loss of her boyfriend better than I had expected. And now, she was dealing with being lost in a strange land with pragmatism and patience.
“All right, what do we need to build a sledge?” I looked around. “I suppose we’ll need to make a sort of land raft, if you know what I mean. Small but big enough to hold a bunch of wood. Damn, I wish we had a saw.”
“Look for branches we can break easily. There’s a lot of downed wood in this forest, I’ve noticed,” Raven said. “In fact, it feels like the energy of the forest is slowly evaporating. Maybe it’s the ghosts.”
“You think?” Angel said.
Raven nodded. “I can feel spirits here, but they feel different than the ones I’m used to. Less aware, and more…like the flickering of shadows on a wall. Because here’s the thing…Arawn is the god of the dead. I’m his priestess. But he sends some of the souls to Arianrhod to reincarnate, and he sends heroes to Cerridwen to go through the cauldron of rebirth. And others…wander until they’ve paid their penance. Still others are forever caught in limbo, and some are destroyed for good. The most evil among men are slated for oblivion.”
Angel and I stared at her. “Wow, I had no idea that those who follow the Celtic path go through all that after they die.”
“You’d be surprised by the Finns. It’s far more intense, in many ways. Over in Kalevala, I’ve heard the strangest legends and tales.” She frowned, eyeing the forest. “What might be easiest is to find two long poles and then lash branches to either side. It would be easier than trying to make it entirely of wood. I have a length of rope in my pack we can use to bind everything together. Back in Kalevala, I never go anywhere without rope. The land is a beautiful but rugged place to live.”
While the fish roasted over the fire, we gathered two branches, each about five feet long and a good inch or two in diameter, and then we used our daggers to cut long boughs filled with needles off of the trees. We lashed them to the central poles, creating a sledge, then used the rest of the rope that Raven had brought with her to create shoulder straps that we could loop over our shoulders so that we didn’t have to use our hands to pull it along.
While Angel packaged up the fish as best as she could, Raven and I gathered wood and stacked it on the sledge along with the bundles of kindling that Raven had made. Since she could spark a flame with her magic, we wouldn’t need to carry smoldering embers from the fire.
We were finally ready. I made one last visit to the stream to fill every water bottle we had after we drank them down, and to say good-bye to Irianie.
“Thank you.” I knelt by the stream and handed her the bottles as she filled them and returned them to me. “I’ll see you again. I know I will.”
“I feel it as well,” she said. “Well met, Queen Ember.”
I laughed. “I’m not a queen yet.”
“You will be,” she said. “And people would do very well to walk on your good side.”
With that cryptic statement, she dove beneath the water and vanished. I returned to Angel and Raven and, with me hauling the sledge, we began to make our way back along the route we had come, toward the north, starting on the long journey to Caer Sidi.
Chapter Seven
We came to the edge of the forest near dusk. We had taken turns pulling the sledge behind us, and we were all shoulder-weary and sore. It was much harder than it looked in the movies. We stepped out of the forest, back into the open. I scanned the sky but could see no sign of a storm coming over the horizon. The night would be clear and it was already growing bitter cold.
I turned to the others. “Where do you want to spend the night? In the forest, or out there in the open?”
“The grassland,” Raven said. “While it would be nice to have some cover one more night, at least out there we can see if anything’s approaching.”
Angel agreed, so we gathered a couple more armfuls of wood, piling them atop the sledge so that we wouldn’t have to use our stash so quickly, and then we made our way up the sloping incline, with me hauling while Angel and Raven pushed the sledge. Once we could see the miles of grassland ahead of us, I stopped.
At that point, it occurred to me that the pathway was wide enough for a wagon to travel on. This had to be one of Annwn’s major roads. A look at the grass to either side of the road and I realized that we’d better clear an area for the fire so we didn’t run the risk of sparking the wildfire of the century. The grass wasn’t dried out, but that guaranteed nothing.
I pulled out my dagger. “Come on, let’s build a fire ring. We may not have any stones, but we can dig a wide ditch and watch so the fire won’t carry over. When we put it out…well…if there’s moisture in the air, I can coax it out to drench the flames.”
“Cool,” Raven said. “I can create the fire, you can call water. We need to remember that if we run out.”
“Well, as long as there’s some humidity, I can coax it out. If it gets hot and dry, all bets are off.” I began to shear blades of the tall grass down at the root while Angel pulled out a dagger she was carrying and plunged it into the earth, digging out a trench.
“How deep should I make it?” she asked, glancing up at the waning light. The sunset in the west glowed orange, and overhead, the sky was growing dark at a rapid pace.
“At least six inches deep and a foot wide.”
Raven helped her as I finished cutting the grass away. I was careful to sever it at the ground, and the blades of grass, which were a good eighteen inches long, I set aside for later. We finished carving out the fire ring and then laid a b
undle of kindling down and prepared enough wood to hopefully last us the night. Raven struck a spark with her magic and soon we had a small fire crackling.
As we huddled near it, the temperature took a nose-dive and we wrapped ourselves in the Mylar blankets, trying to catch the heat of the flames to mirror against the reflective material.
“It’s going to be a cold night,” Angel said, shivering. “I wish we had a tent.”
“I wish we did too, but yeah, we weren’t expecting this little jaunt, were we?” I rubbed my hands together. Even in my gloves, my fingers were tingling from the chill. A wave of loneliness washed over me and I realized how much I missed my home and Mr. Rumblebutt. Was Ronnie taking care of him? Or Herne?
“I miss my kitty,” I said, tears gathering in my eyes.
“And I miss Raj,” Raven said. “He won’t understand why I’m not home.”
“I can’t bear the thought of Mr. R. feeling like I abandoned him.”
We were set to have a good pity-party, but it was hard to focus on anything else.
Angel came to the rescue. “I have my e-reader with me, and it has a long charge on it since I only use it for reading. Why don’t we read a book while we’re resting? We can take turns reading through a couple chapters. If we parcel it out, we should be able to get a month out of it before it dies. I have several books downloaded so we don’t actually need a signal.”
I perked up. Angel and I had the same taste in books—murder mysteries with a touch of romance. Raven also was eager to join in. So Angel picked one none of us had read—A Kiss of Bones by Erian Lancsher, a Fae author, and we started to read aloud, the cold black of night surrounding us, and the only glimmers in the darkness were the flames of the fire and the backlight of the e-reader.
* * *
Veil of Stars: A Wild Hunt Novel, Book 17 Page 7