The Druid's Guise: The Complete Trilogy (The Druid's Guise Trilogy)

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The Druid's Guise: The Complete Trilogy (The Druid's Guise Trilogy) Page 68

by Michael J Sanford


  Wyatt did the same.

  Ms. Abagail looked at him and smiled, her face still coated in blood, quickly freezing. She looked maniacal, but Wyatt couldn’t have been happier to have her at his side. He had traveled alone for far too long. She held out her hand toward him. He took it in his and squeezed tightly.

  “Like sledding,” Wyatt said, more to stifle his own anxiety than hers.

  “Here’s hoping,” Ms. Abagail said, pulling them forward.

  Gravity took hold of the pair in its vise-like grip and dragged them through the snow. Their hands remained intertwined, and it was similar to sledding. For a time. About halfway down, the ground shifted and Wyatt was torn from Ms. Abagail’s hold and sent tumbling head over heels.

  When he had spun just enough to become hopelessly dizzy and disoriented, his journey ended. Thankfully, he stopped rolling with his head up and his legs somewhat beneath him. Ms. Abagail coughed and righted herself nearby, brushing snow from her hair and arms. Wyatt waded toward her.

  “Do you see Lucy?” he asked.

  Lightning flashed in the distance. It had grown even darker during their brief journey down the hill. Wyatt wasn’t sure it was even still day, for the clouds were so thick and black that it could have easily have been night. It was difficult to see more than a few feet ahead in any direction.

  “Wow, got dark quick,” Ms. Abagail said. “Not a good thing, I take it.”

  “Probably not,” Wyatt admitted. “We need to find Lucy.”

  “Over here!” came a shout from the gloom.

  They found Lucy a dozen feet away, buried in the snow up to her chin, unable to move anything but her nose. And her mouth.

  “I’m stuck,” she said. “I saw that stupid light and just had to go to it. It was weird. Dumb, stupid light.”

  Together, Wyatt and Ms. Abagail were able to dig away enough snow to pull Lucy free.

  “Yeah, me too,” Wyatt said. “It’s how I found where you’d fallen down the hill. Funny place for a light like that, too. But at least it tells us we’re still in some version of Earth. Unless it’s another memory or something.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” Ms. Abagail said.

  “No?” Wyatt asked, turning toward her.

  Ms. Abagail had her back to Wyatt and Lucy. And there, in the far distance, was another light. Wyatt could tell at once it was much more than a strangely placed streetlight. And even at such a distance, it was bright enough to illuminate the tower it topped and turned the nearby spires into golden spears aimed at the heavens.

  “That’s Sanctuary,” Wyatt said.

  “Uh huh,” Ms. Abagail said. “And that?” She pointed away from the mountain citadel.

  Somewhere between Sanctuary and their position lay what looked like a sea of lights. Wyatt squinted and let his eyes focus. No, not just lights. Fires. There were hundreds of fires burning against the night-covered snow.

  “I don’t remember there being a city or anything that close to Sanctuary,” Ms. Abagail said. “Maybe we’re on the other side of it?”

  Wyatt shook his head. “No. There are only mountains behind Sanctuary.”

  “Oh, right, then what’s—”

  Lightning lit up the valley and silenced them. As the world darkened in its echo, Wyatt held his breath and told himself he hadn’t seen what he’d thought he had. But it was there, seared into the backs of his eyes. And if there was any doubt, a series of lightning bolts chained together to create a kaleidoscope of heavenly light, shattering the clouds like glass. And as the high sun reappeared and the clouds vanished, the world fell silent, hiding the valley no more. The storm had risen in an instant and faded even faster.

  “That’s…” Lucy said.

  “Oh my God,” Ms. Abagail said.

  “Yeah,” Wyatt said, hearing the tremble in his voice as he stared at an enemy force that spread from horizon to horizon. “That’s the Regency.”

  * * *

  Wyatt, Ms. Abagail, and Lucy dropped to their knees, hiding in the deep snow. Lucy nearly vanished entirely, but they pressed in tight to one another, sharing each other’s warmth as well as each other’s courage.

  “This can’t be possible,” Wyatt said. “They were in Gazaria. Benjamin said himself it would take a long time for them to reach Sanctuary, even if they knew where it was.”

  “Benjamin said that they can track you,” Ms. Abagail whispered, though they had to be at least half a mile from the Regency army. “Or Lucy.”

  Wyatt growled. “But how’d they get here so fast?”

  “The magic storm,” Lucy said quietly, her voice muffled by the snow.

  “Like how we got here in the first place,” Ms. Abagail said, seeming to put things together. “And how they found us at Greenwood.”

  Wyatt didn’t want to admit any of it, but he couldn’t deny what occupied the valley between them and Sanctuary.

  “Gah, it’s all my fault,” Wyatt moaned.

  “Yep,” Lucy said.

  “Hey,” Wyatt protested, turning to Lucy.

  “Well, it is,” Lucy retorted. “If you—”

  “Enough!” Ms. Abagail said, far louder than Wyatt would have liked. “Doesn’t matter how or why, not now. What matters is that there is a whole freaking army out there. And my guess is they either want us, or Sanctuary. Probably both.”

  “And they might have Athena and Maia,” Wyatt said, giving Lucy one last scowl before peering over the snow at the distant army. “And they definitely have Rozen.”

  “Right,” Ms. Abagail said, her previous emotions masked by the professional appearance Wyatt was most accustomed to seeing. “So, what now, Druids?”

  Wyatt glanced at her and saw her smiling back. She gave a nod toward the valley.

  “Well, I’m the only Druid now, thanks to Wyatt,” Lucy mumbled, just loud enough for Wyatt to hear.

  “I said I was sorry,” Wyatt said without looking at her. “And what do you even know about being a Druid?”

  “Wyatt…” Ms. Abagail warned.

  “What?” he nearly shouted, just catching himself and lowering his voice as he continued, “it’s not fair. I actually know what it’s like to be a Druid and use the Mother’s voice, or whatever it really is. But I don’t have that anymore, Lucy does. But she’s never even really been to the Realms before now. And I know it’s my fault that I don’t have it anymore and that things are all wonky now, letting a whole army just jump hundreds of miles because of some magic storm. Unless we jumped ahead in time or something and then there are the weird memories that Lucy takes us—”

  “Wyatt,” Ms. Abagail said firmly, grabbing his arm as she did.

  He stopped talking and found that his whole body was shaking, and not from the cold—though that was there, too, biting through his simple garb. He took a couple of deep breaths and sat lower in the snow.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  Ms. Abagail shook her head. “It’s all right. Whatever is going on, we’ll figure it out.”

  “I just don’t like not being in control, though I’m not sure I was before, but at least it felt like it. But that’s not why I was apologizing to you. I’m sorry you had to…you know, go through that back there. With your mom or whatever.”

  Ms. Abagail looked away and wiped at her face, smearing the blood onto her hands. She rubbed them in snow and repeated the process a couple more times, before finally turning back to Wyatt, her face clean, but lined with sorrow. Or something approaching that.

  “It’s all right,” she said. “You said this world has something to do with memories, good and bad. And that we had to face them to fix things.”

  “It was just a guess,” Wyatt admitted. “And I didn’t think it would affect anyone but Lucy and I. I thought this was our world.”

  “Maybe it is,” Ms. Abagail replied. “Either way, that was something I needed to face. Even if it doesn’t fix things, I’m glad I had the chance to stand up for myself.”

  Wyatt just nodded dumbly. There
was nothing he could say in that moment, so he turned back to the very real and physical threat that blocked their path to Sanctuary. Their memories were part of it; Wyatt was certain of that now, but if all they had to do was remember, then why wasn’t anything fixed yet? In fact, things were continually getting worse—a pattern Wyatt was thoroughly tired of. And if Ms. Abagail’s memories were part of the world, and if he and Lucy had really experienced a piece of Athena’s past, then who else was involved?

  “None of this makes sense,” he said to himself, not intending to speak aloud.

  “One thing at a time,” Ms. Abagail said.

  Wyatt sighed wearily, feeling more of the cold than he had before. He shivered and wrapped his arms around his shoulders. Ms. Abagail wrapped an arm around him and shuffled closer. And to Wyatt’s surprise, Lucy did the same, leaning her head against his side, but saying nothing.

  “Any ideas?” Ms. Abagail asked.

  “We need to get closer and see if we can find Athena and Maia. And Rozen, too,” Wyatt said.

  “Whoa, I was talking about how to get back to Sanctuary before we freeze to death out here,” Ms. Abagail said. “I know they have Athena and the others, but we can’t just walk up there, hoping to rescue them from an entire army. Lucy, can you like, use your necklace to get us back inside the castle?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe,” she said.

  “Can you try?” Ms. Abagail asked.

  “No,” Wyatt said abruptly. “We have to find the others. That’s the whole point. Find them and kill the Lord Regent.”

  “I get the big plan,” Ms. Abagail said. “But right now, that’s not the best idea. I’m sure they’ve seen the Regency from Sanctuary, but if not, we need to get back and warn them. What would you expect us to do, anyway? If the Regents don’t kill us, the cold will. I’m half frozen already. We need to get back to Sanctuary.”

  Wyatt gritted his teeth, once again rising to watch the Regency forces mill about like thousands of ants. It was impossible to see any detail, but he kept imagining a plume of bright red hair passing in their midst. Whether it was Athena or Rozen that he longed to see, he didn’t know.

  “Fine,” he said. “But it doesn’t really look like there’s a way around them. Not if we want to make it back without freezing to death, like you said.”

  “No, I know,” Ms. Abagail said. “Maybe try and get back up the hill. Back to the—my house? Back the way we came?”

  “We came because Lucy got mad at me and activated whatever weird memory-traveling power she has here,” Wyatt said. “Besides, I don’t think we can climb back up.”

  “I can try,” Lucy said, pulling away from Wyatt and looking at him with a furrowed brow.

  “No, Wyatt’s right,” Ms. Abagail said. “You’re lucky you didn’t get hurt falling down it the first time.”

  “No, I meant try with this,” Lucy said, producing her amulet and holding it out as far as the hempen string would allow.

  “Oh boy,” Ms. Abagail said.

  “Might be the only way,” Wyatt said. “Unless you want to go straight at the Regents. And that’s still my first choice.”

  “All right, all right,” Ms. Abagail said, pinching her eyes shut and massaging her temples. “Can you do it, Lucy? Whatever you did to get us here?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe,” she said, examining the green stone.

  “Like, try and think about the room we left in Sanctuary. With all the food. Visualize it or something,” Wyatt said. “And maybe you can just take us there. Before I…lost my power, I thought I was getting close to controlling it better.”

  “I know, I know,” Lucy said. “I said I’ll try.”

  Lucy cleared out some of the snow from around her, sat down and closed her eyes, the gem pressed between her hands.

  “Think she can do it?” Ms. Abagail whispered.

  “Take us to Sanctuary? Probably not,” Wyatt replied. “But if she can just do something with that thing, then it’ll be better than just sitting here.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  Chapter Eight

  CROUCHED IN THE snow, within a mile of an overwhelming enemy force, Wyatt shivered. His breath lightly frosted the air, and his body shook as he tried to keep still.

  “Stop peeking,” he warned Ms. Abagail as she looked over the edge of crisp snow for what felt like the hundredth time as they waited for Lucy to do…something.

  Ms. Abagail dropped back onto her knees and looked at Wyatt. Her teeth were chattering as she wrapped her arms around her torso. They had been lucky to have been fully dressed when Lucy swept them up in her magic, but the cold crept closer with each passing moment.

  “Can’t help it,” Ms. Abagail said. “This is way more than I ever expected to see in my life. There’s a whole freaking army of monster-men out there.”

  “And friends,” Wyatt added.

  “Yeah, I know. And we’ll get them all back. I mean, we got a magical girl on our side, right?” Ms. Abagail smiled, but Wyatt thought it looked forced.

  Lucy was sitting cross-legged, eyes still shut, swaying slightly, and mumbling to herself. She had been that way for at least ten minutes with not so much as a hint of magic. Wyatt wasn’t holding his breath. He was merely waiting an appropriate amount of time before charging headlong into the enemy in search of his captive friends.

  “I wish I still had my magic,” Wyatt said. “Then we could really get something done.”

  The snow around Wyatt hissed and turned into steam, dropping him down a foot to solid ground. No sooner did he land than another ripple went out from around the hidden trio. The snow snapped and crackled, spit and sizzled.

  “Whoa!” Ms. Abagail shouted as the snow continued to boil and vanish all around them.

  Lucy squeaked in surprise and jumped into action, diving for Wyatt and Ms. Abagail. They caught her together and whipped their heads around. The snow receded in fits and starts until they were in the middle of a hole thirty feet wide. The ground was warm, the flattened grass of the previously hidden valley drying quickly.

  “Well, this is something,” Ms. Abagail said.

  “But we’re still here,” Wyatt said. “Lucy, what did you do?”

  “It was an accident,” she said. “I fell into a dream and got lost. Or a memory. I don’t know. It’s funny like that.”

  “What are you talking about?” Wyatt asked, feeling butterflies come to life in his stomach.

  “I… I…”

  “What is it, Lucy?” Ms. Abagail asked calmly.

  “I got lost,” Lucy repeated. “But…he…it…found me.”

  The nervous feeling in Wyatt’s gut flared into dread as the deep shadows at the edges of their snow pit began to coalesce into a single form.

  “What found you?” Ms. Abagail asked.

  Lucy didn’t answer and neither did Wyatt, as they were focused on the slowly forming shade.

  “Why, I found her,” the Bad Man said, standing a few feet away, his featureless form a shroud of secrets and darkness. “You’re welcome, by the way.”

  “What is that?” Ms. Abagail whispered out of the side of her mouth.

  “Oh, where are my manners?” the Bad Man said. It took a step forward and bowed theatrically, extending an inky hand toward Ms. Abagail as it did. “My name is of no consequence, but rest assured, I am an old friend of Wyatt and Lucy. It is my pleasure to meet you, Abagail Miller.”

  Ms. Abagail recoiled and wrapped an arm around Wyatt and Lucy.

  “You’re the Bad Man,” she said flatly.

  The Bad Man stood and seemed to turn its back on them, though it was difficult to tell just which way it faced. “I see the newfound siblings have been speaking of what they do not know. Yes, I suppose you may call me as they do. Bad Man.”

  “I won’t let you hurt them,” Ms. Abagail said.

  “Hurt them? Oh, my dear Abby Mae—”

  “You don’t know me!” Ms. Abagail blurted.

  The Bad Man swiveled around and cock
ed its head to the side, its eerie smile of absence appearing. “Don’t I? Little Miss Abby Mae, known to stray down a wayward way—”

  “Shut up!”

  Wyatt tore his gaze from the Bad Man long enough to catch the look of rage in Ms. Abagail’s eyes. He wiggled from her grasp and shakily came to his feet in between them.

  The Bad Man took a step back and regarded Wyatt with unseen eyes. “Oh, if it isn’t the great defender, Wyatt the…what was it? Mighty? And just how did that work out last time? Seems I recall lots of death at your hand. Not that I’m complaining. It was impressive in its own misguided way.”

  Wyatt bit back the bile and fury that boiled in his throat. “What do you want? We’re not scared of you. You’re just bad memories and—”

  “Ha!” the Bad Man shouted. Wyatt felt a wash of frozen air hit his face at the outburst. “Is that what I am? Bad memories? How poetic. And just how would one defeat a creature of bad memories?”

  The Bad Man drifted to the side, slowly circling around Wyatt and forcing him to spin in place to keep sight of the creature. Ms. Abagail pulled Lucy further away and pressed into the bank of snow.

  “We remember,” Wyatt said with as much authority as he could.

  The Bad Man stopped circling around him and looked to the sky, laughing with gusto.

  “We remember!” Wyatt shouted.

  Wyatt lunged forward and punched for what he thought was the Bad Man’s chin. His fist passed through the shadows, as did the rest of his body as he lost his balance and fell to the ground. The Bad Man ceased laughing and loomed over Wyatt.

  “And what is it that you remember, Wyatt?” the Bad Man said with frigidity.

  Wyatt crawled away until he felt Ms. Abagail’s hand on his back. Suddenly, he had lost his courage. Was he wrong? If so, what hope did he have in defeating the Bad Man?

  The Bad Man stood, but didn’t advance any further. “You know nothing and you remember even less.”

  “Liar!” Lucy yelled.

  The Bad Man seemed to start at the sudden shout, but gathered itself quickly. “Ah, you were always my favorite, Lucy. And it still breaks my heart to know you betrayed me. You really should have left Wyatt alone as I instructed. After all, he killed your dear old mom and dad—ruthlessly, in fact.”

 

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