Faery Born (Book One in the War Faery Trilogy) (20 page)

Wilfred pulled away and peered down into my face. ‘You remember.’ It was a statement not a question.

I nodded my head.

‘So, why the tears?’

Aethan pointed a finger between Wilfred and me. ‘So… you and Isabella?’

‘It’s Isadora.’ I managed to correct him without a fresh sheet of tears.

‘What? No.’ Wilfred pushed me away. ‘You know she’s like a sister to me.’

‘How would I know that? I’ve never met her before.’

A stunned silence filled the clearing. Everyone there, except King Arwyn, had been aware of the relationship between Aethan and me.

Rako cleared his throat and broke the silence. ‘Ahhh, where’s Isgranelda?’

‘Gone,’ I said.

Before I could elaborate, a drum boomed. A few seconds later another one reverberated throughout the mountains. Then a third.

‘Raiding parties,’ Rako said.

‘And he’s not speaking about the sort of party that includes balloons and a gift bag,’ Wilfred said.

The more drums that joined in, the more the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.

Rako snorted. ‘If these guys give you a gift bag it will probably contain one of your body parts. Time to go.’

I followed the rest of the Guard as quickly as I could. But while they ran I trotted my way through the sharp rocks.

‘Keep up,’ Rako called over his shoulder.

Hmmmphf
.
Easy for him to say.

It wasn’t long before they were out of sight.

‘This is just great,’ I said to Scruffy as the noise of the drums got closer. ‘I save his arse and then he runs off and leaves me to get killed.’

I paused at the start of the narrow ledge. ‘Don’t look down,’ I told myself. I tried to concentrate on that thought, and not the fact that as well as the drums I could now hear guttural cries coming from further up the path.

How far away were they?

Scruffy growled from the safety of his shield balloon.

‘I know, I know,’ I said, clearing the ledge and picking up my pace. I rounded a corner and ran into Aethan and Wilfred.

‘They’re coming,’ I said, hobbling past them.

‘She’s got no shoes on,’ Aethan said, picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder. ‘Why has she got no shoes on?’

I growled and Wilfred let out a laugh. ‘Kind of your fault dude.’

‘How is this
my
fault?’

I bounced up and down on his shoulder, the damage from Galanta’s punches making me want to yelp. But we were making much better time like that than with me limping, so I shut my mouth on my curses. Instead I lifted my head and peered up the path the way we had come.

The moon’s rays touched this side of the range and I could see the path winding up through the mountains. It was crowded with goblins, pushing and shoving as they ran. An arrow clattered to the ground about ten feet behind us.

‘You might want to run faster,’ I shouted.

Another arrow raised a cloud of dust. This one was closer.

‘Leave me.’ I struggled to get down. Aethan was far too important to die saving me.

Wilfred spun and fitted an arrow to his bow. Within the space of a few seconds he launched three arrows at the goblins in the lead. Two of them dropped to the ground, and the ones behind stumbled over them. More goblins ploughed into them and, like a caterpillar, the effect made its way up the mountain. From sprint to standstill, the line of goblins swelled in breadth and I saw several bodies plummet off the side of the mountain.

We rounded a corner and I looked ahead under Aethan’s arm. Rako and a couple of the other Guard stood at the end of the path. ‘Hurry,’ Rako called, as if Aethan wasn’t sprinting as fast as he could. ‘Is she hurt?’

‘Only my pride.’

The rest of the Guard was already mounted. Aethan ran towards the horses. Placing me back on the ground, he climbed onto the back of the mare and reached down to pull me up behind him.

I ducked low and threw my arms around his waist as the roar of the goblins indicated they had cleared the mountain path. An arrow nicked my leg, ripping the denim of my jeans. I saw a second one bounce off the back of Wilfred’s armour as he leaned low over the neck of his horse.

I wished I were wearing armour. I wished it with all my might. Armour, a sword and a pair of boots. I closed my eyes and concentrated on it. And when I opened them I still had no armour, no sword and bare feet.

Stupid unreliable powers.
What was the point? They were more likely to get me killed than not.

The sound of the goblins faded away behind us, and our group dropped from a gallop to a canter, and then to a trot.

‘Don’t want to tire out the horses,’ Aethan said over his shoulder.

The fact that he felt the need to explain that meant he still had no idea who I was.

I sucked in a big breath of air and pushed the pain down. We would fix this. He would remember me again. He would. I had to hang onto that belief. And in the meantime, I had to do what he had done for me. Say nothing.

The sun was just peeping over the trees when we got back to the castle. I was exhausted from a combination of the night’s activities and the strain of the awkward silence between Aethan and me.

‘Get some sleep,’ Rako ordered. ‘We will debrief at sixteen hundred hours.’ He jumped nimbly from the black stallion he had been riding and strode over to me. ‘That includes you.’

Ignoring Aethan’s hand, I slid off the back of the mare. It hurt for him to touch me so dispassionately. I nodded my head and limped off to where I had left the coach.

A pumpkin lay discarded on the ground, but the rat and mice were nowhere to be seen. I picked the pumpkin up. It didn’t seem right to leave it there to rot in the sun. I hugged it to my chest as I contemplated how I was going to get home.

‘Guess we’re going to walk, boy,’ I said to Scruffy. I concentrated hard, trying to dissolve his air shield, but he continued to float just beyond reach. I was going to have to get help.

He ruffed and then slowly faded until he disappeared from the bubble, reappearing a moment later at my feet. I gave him a steely stare as he trotted to the nearest bush and squatted.

‘Get in.’

I turned to see Wilfred leaning out the window of a bright-red sports car. The dash was covered with shag-pile carpet, and fluffy dice hung from the rear-view mirror.

‘Like you’re not hairy enough.’ I opened the passenger door and climbed in, falling backwards into the bucket seat with a groan. It felt so good to be almost lying down. Scruffy jumped onto my lap and then into the back of the car where he stretched out on the back seat.

Wilfred put the car into gear and headed for the break in the veil. ‘Where’s your familiar?’ I asked.

‘Don’t have one.’

‘But you’re not full-faery and I doubt you’re half-human.’

‘I told you, my Mumma was an orc.’

‘I thought you were joking,’ I said with a laugh. Why had I never known that about him? There was
so
much fodder there for jokes.

‘You don’t get this hairy any other way.’ He scratched at the orange hair puffing up from under his collar. ‘So are you going to tell me what happened up there?’ He slowed a little as we drove between the lines of faeries holding the veil spell. They looked as exhausted as I felt.

I sighed and picked at a partly broken nail. ‘Isgranelda turned out to be Galanta. We fought. She left. Then I woke Aethan.’

He looked over at me. ‘You speak like a man.’

‘That’s because you trained me.’ I had spent almost as much time with the big man as I had with Aethan. I sighed again. ‘I’m trying to pretend it didn’t happen.’

He laughed as he pulled up in front of my house. ‘You act like one too. All right, I’ll wait till the debrief.’

I opened the door and Scruffy jumped back onto my lap and down to the lawn. He barked and ran towards the front door, probably off to beg Mum for food.

Wilfred reached over and put a hand on my shoulder. ‘This will sort itself out, just you wait and see.’

‘I hope so,’ I said as I climbed out of the car. ‘I really hope so.’

Grams, Mum and Sabby were waiting for me when I came in the front door.

‘By the Great Dark Sky,’ Sabby said as she threw herself at me, ‘I freaked when you came into the ball covered in blood.’

‘Most of it was goblins’.’ I looked over at Mum and Grams.

‘You’re not going to stop doing this sort of thing are you?’ Mum asked.

I shook my head. ‘Sorry.’ I hated worrying her.

‘Why couldn’t you be an accountant? Mary Simpson’s daughter Lucy is an accountant.
She
never rocks up to balls covered in goblin blood.’

‘Lucy Simpson is as boring as bat shit,’ Grams said.

‘True.’ Mum hopped up to put the jug on and I knew I was at least partly forgiven.

‘So,’ Grams clapped her hands and leaned towards me, ‘tell me everything. What happened when you got to the ball?’

Even though Mum seemed to be starting to accept my choice to be a Border Guard, I didn’t want to push my luck. I also didn’t want to talk about Aethan. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said, ‘I need to get some sleep.’ Grams’ face fell. ‘I promise I’ll tell you,’ I crossed my fingers behind my back, ‘but not now.’

I needed food as well, but sleep was coming in at number one on my to-do list.

I showered long enough to remove any gore and then sank onto my mattress. Bright light slipped around my curtains, illuminating the room. ‘Eric,’ I said, ‘I need to sleep.’

The room immediately darkened until I could just make out the shape of my own hand. ‘Perfect,’ I said. I reached up and pulled the dream-catcher off the head board. There were things I needed to do.

As soon as I shut my eyes I stepped into Trillania. Normally I would have concentrated on the thought of Aethan and gone to wherever he was.

I squished my eyes shut tight while I fought the urge to cry. Once I had it under control I concentrated on Emerald, sending out a mental cry to her.

Her voice responded sleepily in my head.
Safe,
she told me.
Well.
Sleepy images chased those thoughts: soaring towards the ground, talons reaching to pluck a fat sheep from a paddock; racing over a wind-whipped ocean; flying through clouds, the misty shapes coating her in a fine layer of mist; and I realised she was dreaming.

My thoughts turned to Galanta and the world around me shifted. Trees towered above me, shadowing me with their huge trunks. I tensed at the sound of drums beating. I hadn’t had one good experience that involved goblins and drums.

Frozen with indecision, I paused. Did I go to see what the drums were about or did I try to find another Guard. Problem was that the Guards on duty now would be from the Southern Hemisphere, where it was night at the moment, and I didn’t know any of them.

The drums increased in tempo. Whatever they were up to it was going to happen soon.

I shook my head and ignored the feeling of foreboding that was lodged in my throat with a scream. Then I crept through the forest, stopping to check around me as I went.

A large bonfire flickered through the trees. I slowed my progress, scurrying from trunk to trunk till I found a large, low thicket. I pushed my way into it until I could see out the other side.

Galanta stood naked in front of the fire. Sweat trickled between her breasts and down her stomach. She held a knife in each hand and her head was thrown back as she swayed and chanted.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as her voice reached a fever pitch. The drums beat so fast they were a continuous thrum. Her voice grew louder and louder as she shrieked and screamed and then suddenly, instantly there was silence.

I had a bad feeling about whatever was about to happen.

She opened her eyes and stepped back from the flames as one of her warriors thrust out an arm. His hand was wrapped tight around the neck of a little girl.

Her eyes were wild with terror as she cried and suddenly,
I
was a little girl, hiding under my bed.

I bit down on my hand till the pain returned me to the present. I hadn’t gone through everything I had to let
this
happen.

I started to push out of the thicket but Emerald’s mind was suddenly in mine.

Stop.

I have to help her.

You will die.

I knew she was right, but at that point in time, with irrational fear burning inside me, I didn’t care.

Her mind pressed down on me, preventing any movement.

Witness.

I didn’t want to witness. I didn’t want to see this. I didn’t want to know.

Bright blood splashed as Galanta whipped a knife through the girl’s neck. Her scream of pain and terror, and Galanta’s screech of triumph, masked my whimper.

Galanta shook her, holding her so that the blood dribbled out of her neck and onto a stone.

A sick feeling started in the pit of my stomach. I recognised that stone. The two broken bits had been pieced back together, but it was the stone Aethan had been lying on when I’d found him.

Oh Great Dark Sky.
Terror beat inside my stomach and ice formed in my veins.

Steam started to rise off the stone as blood ran freely over it. The little girl’s head hung. Her eyes were closed, but her chest still moved as her heart pumped her blood from her body.

That icy breeze that had escaped the breaking stone – what had it been?

The cloud of steam grew larger, as it pulsed in the air. It warped and waned and, as the blood flow continued, it took on the form of a man. I heard Emerald hiss in my mind.

Oh Sky, what had I done? What had I
done?

The shape shifted its smoky limbs as if stretching.

Galanta laid the girl’s head on the stone and picked up her legs. The more blood that flowed, the more solid the man became.

My heart thundered in my chest as I stared at him. Dread owned me. Its icy fingers held me down. Panic swelled and roared in my ears.

I could hear Emerald chanting in my mind.
It’s him. It’s him.

Her terror amplified my own. Spreading its wings inside me till madness fluttered frantically at the edges of my mind.

Just when I thought I couldn’t take any more, just when I thought I would start screaming hysterically, it was done.

Galanta tossed the dead girl to the side and opened her arms as the man stepped away from the stone. Hard, lean muscle dressed his naked form.

She bowed low and her warriors prostrated themselves.

‘You have done well Galanta.’ His voice had a sonorous quality.

Oh please don’t let it be him.

‘Thank you my Lord,’ she said.

He spun on the spot with his arms held wide and then he started to chuckle. ‘It feels good to be back,’ he said as he laughed.

Chills ran down my spine and Emerald whimpered in my mind.

He lifted Galanta’s head with a finger until her eyes met his own. ‘I will make them pay.’ His voice was cold and hard.

‘Yes my Lord.’

‘I will hunt them down and crush every last one of them.’ Insanity danced through his words. ‘Nobody, and I mean
nobody,
gets away with tricking me.’ He threw both arms in the air and a bolt of lightning arced across the sky. ‘Nobody gets away with tricking Santanas Gabrielle.’

It was him, it was him.

Great Dark Sky save our souls.

Santanas, the War Faery, was back.