Simith’s features hardened. “Stay here.” He gripped her shoulder briefly before disappearing around the opposite side of the wagon.
Jessa touched her arm, her sleeve ripped and wet. Blood came away on her fingers, but she was lucky. It looked like just a graze. The archer had probably been aiming for Simith. There came a muffled shriek nearby. Simith reappeared a moment later. Jessa tried not to look at the dark stain on the blade of his sword.
“How badly are you hurt?” He examined her wound, mouth set with worry.
“It’s not bad,” she said. “We can deal with it later.”
He nodded reluctantly. “The battle has moved to the other side of this hill. I was separated from my escort on our way here. I need to free myself from these leathers. They’re pinning my wings beneath.”
Jessa lifted the knife still clenched in her fist. “I can do it.”
His brows lifted in recognition. “Ah, so this is how you found me. Clever.”
Shouts came from far too close, weapons clanging. Simith moved closer, his body a wall shielding hers. He didn’t look at her, eyes scanning the shadows. “Cut the straps. I will guard us.”
The leathers looked uniformly smooth over his chest. She had no idea where to find the straps. Maybe the armor was belted on. Her hand went to his waist, fingers seeking along the line of his hip. His breath hiccupped.
“Not there.” Without ever dropping his gaze from their surroundings, he took her hand and guided it to the buckles at his side. “Here.”
“Right. Sorry.” She wedged the blade between the highest straps, flicking a look at him. “Ticklish, I take it?”
“Very.”
She pinched her lips against a smile as the first buckle came free. “And not afraid to admit it.”
“A wise knight confronts his weaknesses.”
“Unless it’s an aversion to cabbage. Then it seems you run for cover.”
He snorted. “That’s self-preservation. Cabbage is vile.” His eyes lowered to hers, his brow furrowing. “How do you know this?” He tilted his head. “You don’t like rice. Is that true?”
She nodded stiffly, reaching for the next strap.
Simith continued in a wondering tone. “You pen your words with your left hand. Walks in the breeze inspire you, and you eat something called pandesal with coffee every morning.”
“Yes.”
“How do I know that? Why do I see you in all my dreams? Jessa,” a strained note entered his voice. “Why do I feel like I know you better than I should?”
She severed the last buckle. The leathers slid free. Small lacerations littered his ribs and chest, but they appeared mostly healed already. The raven feather of his conduit tattoo burned emerald green over his heart.
“Because those aren’t dreams,” she told him quietly. “They’re my memories.”
His eyes widened, but the clomp of hoofbeats cut off any reply he might’ve made. He twisted away from her, his dragon-fly wings lending him a boost of speed as he rounded the wagon. He lowered his blade as soon as he spotted those approaching.
He glanced at Jessa. “You didn’t mention others accompanied you.”
Relle and Katie came into view and reined to a halt on their steeds of vines and leaves.
“We’ve got our chia pets,” Katie announced. “They were munching on grass when we reached them. Does that count as cannibalism?”
Simith shook his head at Relle, and didn’t appear fooled by the pooka glamour. “You must be mad indeed to have come into this world. Did you give no thought to the danger of the curse?”
“I gave it a thought, yes.” Her brow creased as eyed Jessa pressed back against the wagon. “Are you hurt?”
She touched her arm. “Nothing a little disinfectant and a bandage won’t fix.”
“We’ll get you to urgent care. Now that you found each other we can head back.”
Simith glanced between them. “Why were you looking for me?”
“We came to rescue you, pixie-boy,” Katie sniffed. “So, more gratitude and less sass. It’s your fault we had to come in the first place.”
“Katie,” Jessa said sharply.
“Well, it is.”
“Discuss this later.” Relle waved Jessa over. “The fairies had to spring their trap early, so the trolls’ army might get away, but the king’s little contingent is definitely outnumbered here. He and his small group are already cornered. We have to get out of here while we can.”
Simith took a step forward. “Cornered where?”
She waved a hand behind her. “On the other side of this hill behind a rise of boulders. You can’t go there to help them,” she bit out when he shifted that direction, moving her horse to block his path. “Your fate is tied to Jessa’s. There’s no time for all the details, but if you die, so will she.”
Simith’s gaze snapped to her. She nodded in confirmation and the color leached from his face. He cast a helpless look toward the hill.
“The king used the fight as a ruse.” Bleakness filled his eyes. “He came to hear my bid for peace. He spared my life. Now, he and his people will die for it.”
The obvious blame he cast on himself pained her. He already believed himself beyond redemption. She couldn’t bear to see that belief reconfirmed in his mind, not when he’d tried so hard. Nor could she imagine simply going home, leaving the trolls to be butchered.
“What if we distracted them?” she offered. “Maybe draw some of the fairies away so the trolls can fight their way free.”
“And do what afterward?” Katie asked. “Even if we knew how to distract their enemies, they’ll just track them down, won’t they? There’s nowhere to go.”
Relle’s hands tightened on her reins. “She’s right. We should stick to our original plan and make for the doorway.”
“The troll army has been redirected to their borders. The legion will follow,” Simith told her. “You’ll be cut off from the Jaded Grove, even if they decide against a direct engagement.”
Jessa’s mouth went dry. They couldn’t get home. They were trapped here.
Fighting echoed in the night, a reminder of the encroaching danger and the lives cut down with every passing moment.
“There is a place I could lead us all,” Simith said then. “We would be hidden from the fairies.” He shook his head. “Though I have no answer for covering our tracks. We’d be pursued, if not run down outright.”
“No, we won’t.” Relle waved a hand and Katie yelped, leaping down as her horse unraveled into a pile of leaves. Their glamour disappeared with it.
“What are you doing?” Katie demanded.
“Which direction will you take them?” Relle addressed Simith.
He pointed. “East, along the Thousand Rivers.”
Toward the moorlands. Jessa realized his intention. She stared at him, astounded. Surely, he didn’t mean to take them there.
“Okay.” She motioned to Katie and Jessa. “You two, take the wagon and start heading that way. I’ll arrange a distraction so Simith can reach the trolls and send them after you.” Her eyes scanned the wagon. “I’m guessing they brought this thing because the iron deflects magical attacks. Once you’re far enough, I’ll make sure the fairies can’t follow.”
“How?” Katie reached up to grab her arm. “Magic? You’re already using too much.”
“I swore I wouldn’t see you hurt again.” She put her palm to Katie’s bruised cheek. “I won’t break my word.”
Katie’s face twisted with fear. She covered Relle’s hand with her own. “If that’s true, then promise to come back. You have to.” Her voice choked. “There are things I need to tell you. I should’ve already said them. I shouldn’t have been so mad.”
Relle gazed on her with such deep affection, Jessa’s throat tightened.
“I promise to come back,” she said softly. “I would promise you anything.”
Katie’s smile wobbled. “You’d better.”
She stepped away as Relle wheeled her ho
rse about. “Simith, help them in and hurry after me.”
Simith turned to Jessa as Relle headed off. He gave her a boost into the back of the wagon. “The bear will follow your direction. She senses ally from foe, but keep your instructions simple.”
“You’re taking them to Hollow Hill, aren’t you?” The sanctuary his people fled to after the trolls burned their hamlets. She could scarcely believe he meant to offer it to them. “Are you sure about this?”
“Their king asked for my trust,” he answered, reaching for Katie who ignored his hand, her face pinched with dread as she climbed in by herself.
“And do you trust him?”
He shook his head.
“Then why?”
“Because if I don’t give him the chance to earn it,” his wings rustled as they lifted him up, “there will never be peace between us.”
Chapter Nine
From a tactical standpoint, the trolls’ position couldn’t have been any worse. Movement was key in battle. To be cornered in a stationary position equaled death, which was exactly the situation Simith encountered when he reached the top of the hill and looked down. They were fortunate the pixies had been deployed with the legion. That crowd of boulders the trolls sheltered behind didn’t offer any cover from above.
He scanned the area beyond, but didn’t locate Relle, though he had no doubt she would begin her distraction at any moment. Spotting King Drokeh with his general at his side, Simith sheathed his sword and dropped down behind them.
Half a dozen blades turned his direction. He lifted his hands. “Greetings.”
Drokeh growled low in his throat and waved them away. “Back to your line. Watch those archers.” He regarded Simith with some surprise. “You didn’t flee.”
“I’ve come with an offer of help.”
Seshi grunted. “We just pulled you out of a trap of your own. How can you help us?”
“You’ll recall a trio of pookas approached you on my behalf.”
She flashed her fangs at him. “That’s to be our salvation?”
Screams erupted from the fairies.
“They weren’t pookas.”
Beyond the boulders, brambles swelled from the ground, scrambling vines as thick as tree branches sprouting daggered thorns. They curled around fairy limbs and necks, dragging them down while blackberries erupted like dark jewels, filling the air with the scent of blood and fermented fruit.
“Go.” Simith alighted on the tallest boulder. He unsheathed his sword. “Head east when you reach the other side of the hill and don’t stop.”
Drokeh shouted orders to his people as Simith scanned the area. He spotted Relle beyond the rise of lethal shrubbery. Once more, her glamour had fallen, revealing her Fae features. Her eyes were closed, lips clamped tight. Fell light surrounded her, an invisible wind tugging at her clothes and flattening her dark curls. The fairies not trapped in the brambles screeched when they saw her.
“Fae!” they cried. “Fae have come!”
A trio of archers still standing turned their bows toward her. Simith launched himself at them. He sliced his blade through the bowstring of one and tackled another. Snatching the dagger from the archer’s hip, he hurled it at the third, but not before someone kicked him in the ribs. The blow threw off his aim. He missed.
But the archer never shot his arrow. The dirt stirred around them and a violent tremor shook the ground. Startled, Simith leapt to the air again. A split formed in the soil under the archers. Not just them, he realized, turning in the direction the trolls had gone, but all the fairies. He watched in awed horror as roots twisted up like knuckles, pulling apart the shelf of land beneath the fairies’ feet. A chasm opened, an earthen mouth yawning wide to swallow them whole. They tumbled helplessly in, their screams an endless keen amidst an endless fall—until it snapped shut. The boom pounded his ears. A gust of wind vaulted him upward and dirt spewed into the air.
Silence followed. Simith swiped a hand over his face, shaken by the idea that any creature could wield such power. It was one thing to have heard of the tales of the Fae, but seeing it firsthand was something else entirely.
He descended with caution, squinting through the dusty haze in search of Relle. Picking out a prone figure crumpled on the ground, he arrowed toward it.
He called her name, landing beside her. She appeared unconscious. He lifted a hand to touch her shoulder, more than a little hesitant to do so. “Can you hear me? Are you hurt?”
She groaned softly and opened her eyes. Blood spilled out of them.
His stomach dropped to his boots. The curse.
“What can I do?” he asked.
She gave a minute shake of her head, silver gaze resigned. “Katie and Jessa,” she rasped. “Make sure they…get home.”
“What of you? What of your promise?”
“I…I…” Red dribbled from her lips. A whimper escaped.
Her suffering twisted his heart. She had spared his life in her world. He would not leave her to die like this in his.
Simith lifted her in his arms and gave her a stern look. “Don’t give up,” he said, and flew as fast as his wings could take him.
Arriving to Hollow Hill, Simith felt an echo of his younger self beside him as he spoke the password that allowed them into its sanctuary. He’d been barely eighteen at the time, his little cousins in his arms, his heart shriveled with overwhelming loss. Today, it felt no less heavy while he watched the trolls pass through. The same doubts. The same dread for the future. He caught a glimpse of Katie and Jessa sitting beside Relle in the wagon as it came by. Its iron structure helped to slow the speed of the curse as he’d hoped, though the symptoms continued to spread. Simith feared the iron’s drain on Relle’s strength might outweigh its benefit soon, but he could think of nothing more to do.
“I will see if she responds to the twilight diamond,” Drokeh said, and Simith turned, surprised to find him standing beside him. “It might give her some relief.”
“My thanks.”
He surveyed his people walking past. “And you have mine.” His chuckle was a low rumble. “A Fae on your side. I wouldn’t have guessed you’d be more unpredictable as an ally than an enemy, Sun Fury.”
Simith couldn’t will a polite smile to his face. “It was never my people’s wish to be your enemy.”
Drokeh grunted. “Then you shouldn’t have gotten involved in the war.”
He fought the pulse of anger rising in him. “What did you expect us to do after your repeated attacks against our homeland?”
The stars were fading with approaching dawn. They’d arrived just in time. He watched the last of the trolls enter the hill.
“You ought to go in,” Simith said. “The sun will soon rise.”
But the king didn’t move. The intensity of Drokeh’s stare made Simith turn, expecting a glare to meet him. Instead, his regard looked closer to shock.
“Tell me, Simith of Drifthorn,” he said quietly. “As a long-time veteran of this war, do you truly believe I would see a tactical gain in attacking pixie hamlets?”
“There is always gain in destroying your enemy’s morale.”
“That’s not what I mean.” His hand swept wide around them. “Think. See the horizon of your homeland, its wide, flat landscapes. Look at its endless skies and sparse forests.”
“What of them?” he bit out, patience fraying.
Drokeh tilted his head and held his gaze.
Simith’s temper soared. He nearly stalked away. Then understanding crashed upon him, an unseen predator swooping down from above. There was no cover in the moorlands, not for many leagues. To attack the hamlets would be a great risk, with limited time to engage an enemy and withdraw to safety before night gave way to dawn.
No, they couldn’t have been tricked into the war. It wasn’t possible. He’d witnessed the trolls’ attack on his people himself. Unless…Glamour? He’d already witnessed the fairies’ use of it in the other world. He hadn’t recognized them at all. If not for the li
ghts in Jessa’s greenhouse, he’d have sworn on his sword they were trolls. A groan of disbelief escaped him. The fairies hadn’t been able to conquer the Twilight Grotto on their own in close to a century. They’d needed an additional force to see it done. One that could attack from the air. One they could control utterly if only they gave them a reason. If they made them afraid. If they made them hate.
Simith realized he’d fallen to his knees. He stared at the ground.
“I think we have much to discuss.” Drokeh’s voice was soft.
“All this,” he said. “They’ve done all this just for a stronger conduit?”
“No.” The king eyed the horizon and stepped to the entrance into the hill. “They’ve done it because the twilight diamonds would make them immortal.”
Chapter Ten
Jessa watched the slow, meticulous movements of Simith’s hands winding the gauze from her first aid kit around the gash on her upper arm. His gaze was attentive to his task, but his thoughts seemed far away, his eyes sad.
“Simith,” she said. “What’s wrong?”
“I am well,” he answered, his voice as hollow as this hill.
He wasn’t well at all. Everything about him seemed hunched since he came inside, as if a physical weight rested across his shoulders. She was torn between prodding him to talk about it, or letting him be. It struck her that she’d probably made others feel this way. Still, there were times when the hurt was too overwhelming to simply talk about. Sometimes the best comfort was having a friend nearby who didn’t force the issue.
“It’s cozier than I thought it would be in here,” she said.
“What had you expected to find?”
“A lot of dirt, for one. This is more like a garden.”
Her eyes drifted over the area. Covered in soft, green moss out of which little sprigs of purple-white flowers grew, the ground felt as soft as any cushion. Even the wide walls and high, domed ceiling were strewn in ivy and fronds of lush wisteria. Since the sunlight couldn’t reach any of it, she wondered how the plants thrived so well, but she supposed magic solved that problem. Narrow brick paths wound through the large space with bench-like mounds offering places to sit. Wooden lampposts shimmered with a ball of gentle white light that sent the shadows to the far corners. Simith had found her not long ago, bidding her to bring her first aid supplies, before leading her to one.
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