Faery Born (Book One in the War Faery Trilogy) (6 page)

Grams pointed her wand at them and a large jet of water burst from its tip. She let out a gleeful cackle as it smacked into them, putting out their fire. The one closest to us held his arms up, trying to shield his face from the flow. I raced towards him, bending low as I passed to cut the back of his ankles. I saw a wolf do that to a lamb once, and this was just as effective.

He bellowed in pain as he crashed to the ground, but his friend leapt over him, narrowly missing my throat with his dagger. I took off as fast as I could, quickly realising my attempt to outrun this goblin was doomed to fail. I could hear his grunting breath getting closer and closer.

I could spin and face him, but his momentum would very likely carry him through me. I would be lucky if he didn’t gut me.

And then I saw the other goblins farther up the street. Swearing, I changed course, heading for the clock tower. I heard yelling behind me and realised I now had all of the goblins on my tail. This was turning out to be one hell of a birthday.

Glad I had taken up running as a hobby, but wishing I had concentrated on the sprinting part of the vocation, I broke into the square around the clock tower. A handful of men were already there, swords-in-hand as they battled a group of goblins.

‘Incoming,’ I yelled as I raced towards them.

I increased my speed, heading straight for the side of the clock tower. As I reached it, I lengthened my stride and ran up the side, pushing off and executing a backward somersault over the goblins. I landed behind them and hamstringed the two closest; swirling straight away to shove the dagger into a third one’s neck. I felt the blade dig deeper than I had intended, catching as it struck bone. I leapt clear of his outstretched arms with only the branch to defend myself.

‘Here,’ one of the men yelled as he threw a sword hilt-first to me.

I grabbed it out of the air as the closest standing goblin turned towards me. I was used to lighter fencing swords, not this heavy, ungainly weapon. I hefted it with both hands and, using the same technique I had with the branch, I swung the blade towards the goblin. It struck home, into and then through his neck. Blood sprayed out in an arc as he fell to the ground. His severed head bounced a couple of times as it hit the pavement. The open eyes blinked once as they stared up at me.

‘Gross,’ I said, trying not to slip in the blood as I stepped around it.

The next goblin approached me more warily. He feigned a couple of times with his dagger and I slapped him away with my sword.

To be honest, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I had no idea how to use this blade effectively and I was staring at it, wishing desperately it were a sabre, when all of a sudden it was. The shock almost ended my life as the goblin chose that exact moment to charge.

‘Whizbang,’ I yelped, diving to the ground. I brought the sabre up as a reflex and the tip of it pierced his side. He let out an ‘Oooph,’ and then fell to his knees, staring in confusion at his chest where the tip of my sabre had emerged.

‘Nice,’ one of the men said, kicking the goblin off my blade. ‘But then you always did have style.’ He was huge, with red, shaggy hair growing out of every part of his body. Even the area of his chest that his fur vest didn’t cover was a carpet of red. ‘Duck,’ he said, and I realised in time that he wasn’t talking about the winged variety.

I dropped to my knees and he swung his sword over the top of me. Warm liquid sprayed over the back of my neck and arms.

I looked over my shoulder. A goblin lay in a pool of blood. ‘Thanks,’ I said.

Black and white feathers caught my attention. Standing off to the side, Grams flicked her wand at a goblin. He immediately dropped his dagger, placed his arms in the air, and started to waltz to music only he could hear.

My shaggy companion clapped his hands together. ‘I think we just ran out of goblins,’ he said.

I looked around. He was right.

‘Luckily,’ he continued, ‘I know where we can find more.’

As if on cue, a group of them trotted past the end of the square. They looked to be heading towards the field.

‘Well,’ Grams said, ‘what are we waiting for?’

I wasn’t sure that the clever thing to do was to hunt down more goblins. I suspected that it was to go home, lock the door behind us and close all the curtains. But instead, I found myself heading towards the field with Grams.

‘I’m Izzy,’ I said to the shaggy man.

He gave me a weird look before his face broke into a grin. My hand disappeared into his as he shook it. ‘Nice to meet you Izzy. I’m Wilfred.’

It was my turn to look at him weirdly. The way he had said it, had said his name, was as if to a special person.

One of the others confirmed my suspicion that Wilfred had been taking the piss when he said, ‘Leave her alone Will.’

A third man raised his hand and we all stopped. He looked back over his shoulder and put a finger to his lips. Then he gestured that we should spread out. Like that, we slipped into the tree line and crept down towards the field.

If I had been looking forward to my party I would have been devastated when we reached the edge of the trees. Chairs and tables lay smashed in small pieces, and where the dance floor had been erected, now only an area of flattish grass remained. The pieces of the floor were scattered around the grass as if someone very large had played Frisbee with them.

The marquee sagged from its poles in tattered pieces of fabric. My Happy Birthday sign, slashed into two pieces, hung dejectedly from where the opening had been. What had once been beautifully-wrapped presents lay scattered on the ground. Now they resembled the aftermath of Christmas morning, ripped paper and crinkled bows barely covering broken boxes.

But I hardly had time to worry about any of that. A group of my guests had been rounded up and were standing at the far side of the field. A couple of goblins stood guard over them while the rest battled a group of men. They were all dressed in leather and fur.

I looked over at Wilfred. ‘You’re Border Guards?’

‘At your service.’ He made a mocking bow.

‘What’s the plan?’ My nerves were starting to kick in. It was one thing to react to being attacked, another thing entirely to stalk and engage a goblin.

‘We kill them all.’ He laughed maniacally.

Grams looked at me with a wild grin on her face. ‘This sure is turning out to be a great party,’ she said. ‘Although Sabby’s going to have your guts for garters when she sees what you’ve done to that dress.’

I looked down at my shredded, blue dress. It was covered in blood and ripped to the top of my thighs. ‘It’s far more comfortable like this.’

‘Circle around,’ one of the Border Guards said. ‘We’ll hit them from behind.’

‘Last one there is a rotten egg.’ Grams started to trot in the direction of the fight.

This was crazy. I mean I loved doing things with my Grams: watching movies, making hot chocolate, and toasting marshmallows. But fighting goblins? I didn’t think that was in the Grandma/Granddaughter bonding handbook.

Shaking my head, I jogged after her. ‘Let’s get the guests,’ I said. That should hopefully be safer.

We stayed clear of the fighting as we circled around. I could see Grams’ wand hand twitching, and I knew she was aching to throw a spell or two into the mix. However, the chaotic mass of men and goblins meant that her spell would as likely hit a Border Guard as a goblin.

My party guests huddled miserably in front of a thick knot of trees. I could see Bobby Helman standing protectively in front of his wife Layla. Blood dribbled from a gash on his arm. The Dickson triplets and Nancy Day and her little girl Betty, were clustered behind them, as if Bobby could protect them all. Two terrifying-looking goblins stood guard, watching us as we approached.

‘What are we going to do?’ I whispered to Grams. I didn’t like my chance of taking on both of them without the element of surprise.

‘Watch and learn.’ She rubbed her hands together and chuckled. Mumbling something, she flicked her wand at them. I waited for them to start laughing or dancing, but instead, one of them scratched his arm.

Then the other one reached down and scratched his leg. Within the minute they were scratching uncontrollably, their nails leaving lines of blood over their bodies.

‘What the?’

Their limbs pulled into their bodies and re-emerged covered in dark fur. Their heads distorted, their noses and mouths pushing away from their eyes, elongating into long snouts.

‘Grams…’ I started to back away from them.

They snarled as they shrank, their bodies warping as they twisted and moulded. Dropping to all fours, one of them threw back his head and howled.

Two huge, black dogs stood where the goblins had been. Saliva dripped from their massive jaws and red eyes glowed with an evil light. Low growls started in their bellies and worked their way up their throats.

‘What did you do?’ I gasped as I moved backwards.

‘I turned them into guard dogs.’

The growls became more ferocious.

‘Why?’

‘I must admit, I didn’t think that one all the way through,’ Grams said, slowly placing one leg behind the other.

Their growls became barks, raw and vicious, as they crept towards us.

‘Turn them back,’ I said.

‘No time,’ Grams shrieked. ‘Run.’

Their jowls pulled back to expose long fangs as they broke into a charge towards us. There was no way we were going to be able to outrun them.

I screamed as the first dog leapt, gnashing teeth aimed for my throat. Throwing an arm up in front of me, I prayed for a shield. Instead, the dog exploded. Blood spattered like some surreal artwork as chunks of flesh peppered us.

Grams wiped an arm across her face. ‘Is that what happened to the watermelon?’

‘Kind of.’ The watermelon had been more sticky than disgusting.

The second dog circled warily, its hackles raised as it growled and barked. And then Bobby Helman leaped on top of it, wrestling it to the ground. He gripped its jaw shut with both hands as his body pinned it down, and then he ripped its head to the side at an awkward angle. The dog let out a high-pitched yelp as its neck cracked.

Bobby climbed to his feet and wiped his hands on his pants. The dog lay motionless at his feet. ‘Thought you could use some help,’ he said. He reached back down and picked up one of the daggers the goblins had dropped during the transformation. ‘You’ll get them to safety?’ he asked, pointing at the rest of the group.

‘Yes.’ I nodded my head.

He gave Layla a quick hug before jogging off to help the Border Guards.

‘I could do with a nice cup of tea,’ Grams declared. ‘Anyone care to join me?’

Nancy stared at Grams with wild eyes. ‘A cup of tea?’

‘Thirsty work this killing goblins.’ Grams pulled her skirts up and started heading back towards the path. After a few seconds Layla and the Dickson Triplets followed.

Betty hugged her arms around her chest and sung softly to herself as she stared around the field. Nancy took her hand and led her after Grams. The little girl continued to sing Happy Birthday as I brought up the rear.

We had reached the top of the path when one of the triplets let out a whimper of fear. It took me a second to hear what they had already; crashing through the trees off to the right of the path. It had to have been caused by more than one person, and I doubted very much that any Border Guard’s woodcraft would be so sloppy.

‘Go,’ I whispered to Grams. ‘I’ll lead them away.’

The group of women hurried away from the mouth of the path and off towards our house.

I licked my lips and stared toward the noise. Hopefully they would keep going right on past. But of course they didn’t, and a few seconds later the first goblin burst from the trees and stared in the direction the women had gone. A quick glance over my shoulder showed me Grams, disappearing from view around the corner. A grotesque smile distorted his face as he pulled his dagger from its sheath.

‘Oh no you don’t.’ I stepped into view. ‘Not on my shift.’

Another three goblins emerged from the trees.

Ahh whizbang.

If I just ran off they might decide to go after the easier target Grams had presented. I had to get and hold their attention. I took a deep breath and then sprinted towards them. The lead goblin laughed and moved into a fighting stance. But I had no intention of engaging him.

I leapt up, sailing over their heads as I ran through the air. I had enough time to hope they couldn’t see up my skirt before I landed in a crouch. I wasn’t sure whether to be pleased or not when the four of them took off after me as I sprinted for the shortcut to the field.

I gained some ground on them as I zigzagged through the trees; their height and bulk made them slow and clumsy. I changed my direction and slowed my pace as the hill became steeper. Trying to maintain my footing and not make any noise took up most of my attention, but I could hear them off to the side. I stopped behind an oak, hugging its vast trunk to stop myself slipping as I peered around its girth.

I could see two shadows moving slowly as they searched for me. Where were the other two?

I was starting to fear that I had misjudged my trajectory when a hand clamped over my mouth. I tried to break away but an arm wrapped around my waist holding me tight. I screamed into the hand and then bit down onto the soft skin.

The hand disappeared as a man swore softly behind me. Eyes open wide, I lifted my sabre and spun towards my attacker. As I turned, a bed of leaves slipped from underneath my feet, sliding down the steep slope. I had a moment to feel surprised as I danced from one foot to the other, trying to regain my balance. My outflung arms clasped that of my attacker and he pulled me to him, but it was too late.

‘Your weapon,’ a gruff voice said.

I threw the sabre away from me and then we were tumbling down the hill in a jumble of limbs. He cradled me, wrapping his body around mine, but sticks and stones still crashed into me. I buried my face in his chest and held him tight. Finally we slowed, rolling to a stop at the edge of the field.

I opened my eyes and took my first breath since we had started to fall. I lay on my back with him on top of me, my legs entwined through his. He lifted his head and captured my gaze with his midnight-blue eyes. All of a sudden I was totally aware of every inch of his body pressing into mine. I had to remind myself to breathe.