I tasted earth as my face struck the ground.
The cord slithered around my ankle and began worming its way up my leg.
"What in the hell?" I said.
I tried to kick free and ended up scraping my leg along the ground and digging at the thick cord until I managed to yank it off. I pushed myself to my feet and surveyed the area.
Everyone was running away from the center of town even as the knights and I ran toward it.
Hunter had found a way to string small lights through the trees that lined the main street, and spotlights beamed down from rooftops. As the evening encroached, the lights grew brighter. I could see exactly how much chaos captured the town. People were running, falling.
It wasn't just electricity and power that bedeviled the town. In that early gloom of evening, with the strange unnatural lighting cast from the bellies of treetops and roofs, I could make out the shapes of iridescent forms moving in between the light and shadow.
Magic crackled from the nymph's fingers and anything and everything that was nature bound, had begun to attack the citizens.
Trees and flowers and even grasses bullied them. Grasping at their ankles or whipping at their face.
Flowers planted along hedgerows grasped at legs as they ran by. Rosebushes scratched at faces and cheeks. Leggy sage bushes and herbs in window boxes whipped at anything that went by.
Small things, really, but when added to the stones lifting themselves from the streets to hurl at anything that moved, the trees whose roots had burrowed up from beneath the ground to wrap around arms and legs, it was chaos.
Tree branches pulled people to the ground. Roots wormed their way up towards the throats of passersby.
I had to hack through one as it quietly strangled the man I'd met the morning before.
I brought down Excalibur on the fleshy part of the root where it met the ground and only then was the man able to free the remaining arm from his throat.
He gagged as he fought for breath, his body struggling to move the tissue again after being violently compressed.
"Are you alright?" I said.
He nodded frantically. His eyes bulged in the purple light of a blast of magic that sailed over our heads and struck a treetop. The light hidden in its foliage burst.
I pivoted on my feet, swinging to scan the streets. Everywhere around me, people were fighting nature.
And they were losing.
They stumbled and fell, having tripped over a root. Flowers forced themselves into their mouths and up noses as people gasped for breath. Thorny bushes delivered thousands of cuts to faces and necks.
People bled and screamed and choked all around me.
Every single knight was occupied trying to stave off the attack and even as we did so, I could see the nymphs flitting in and out wherever there was light. Now you could see them, now you couldn't.
I had to stop this chaos. It wasn't the town's fault. It wasn't mine.
I searched frantically for the Queen.
"It's not me," I yelled, hoping she could hear me. "I didn't break my vow."
A maple tree, young sapling planted at some point to make the town look less barren whipped about as if it was being throttled by a great wind. Anything that came within reach of it, even accidentally, was struck. Someone lay bleeding and unconscious at its trunk.
I scanned the area for Marlin, and found him crouched over a child who had obviously been smothered by a poppy. His hands were enveloped in hazy green light. I watched him run his palms down over the child's chest with my own breath caught in my throat.
She coughed to life and he pulled her, crushing her against his chest as his face lifted to the heavens in relief. I let go my breath in a sigh of gratitude.
Lance and Sadie and Chas and Gal were similarly occupied. And I knew that if all of this was happening in this one small spot of the center of town, how much more was happening throughout the rest of it and out into the outskirts. I could hear the distant and muffled cries of people throughout New Denver.
We were only a few and there were at least 10,000 people in the town. There was no telling how much damage was being done elsewhere. If the nymphs could command the very nature, then everything that wasn't man-made was a potential threat.
It wasn't one I could win.
Apples from the barter stalls lifted as one and hurled through the air as though thrown by an invisible hand.
"Show yourself," I shouted. "This has nothing to do with me," I said. "It's our enemy. Our common enemy. You have to believe me."
An apple sailed through the air at me and struck me in the cheek. Then another. I lifted my hands to defend myself, and peered through the hail of fruit to see Lance standing in the middle of the street, his sword drawn, his stance wide and planted as he swung at apple after apple that rained down at him. Where he missed, the fruit assailed his face and torso.
For everyone he struck, he had double that coming back at him as the halves lifted from the ground and flew at him once more. It looked like bees pummeling him.
They struck with such force that they burst into mulch at his feet.
Something grabbed at my hair and pulled so hard I nearly dropped my sword.
My scalp burned and to ease off the pressure, I let it pull me forward, leaning into it as I tried to make out what had hold of me. I almost expected it to be tree branch, but I saw nothing but my hair stretched out and straining as though being held in a tight fist.
"Please," I said, knowing that it was one of the nymphs who held me. "Tell the Queen it's not my fault. We are not doing this."
In answer, whatever held me yanked me hard and I ended up staggering along with it, trying to keep the pressure off and the tension lax as it drove me all the way to the gate of the town.
Whatever held me, it thrust me to face the woods and the trail that lead into town. From there I could see all of the woods around us come alive.
The screaming behind me, the sound of sobbing, pleas and cries for help swelled to a point that I realized exactly how bad the situation was.
But it could get worse, and I knew it. Along the trail, crouching as though waiting for an order to attack were mountain lions and bears. Wolverines and badgers snarled next to each other.
Whatever held my hair let go and I fell to my knees. I was still clutching Excalibur and I lifted it high over my head.
The hum that I felt along its hilt buried into my elbow and I felt as though it was drawing something from me.
I looked up to see the sword glowing blue in the encroaching darkness.
"I swear it," I said. "I swear on this blade that we did not turn on the power. I swear we will turn it back off. Just stop the attack."
As though something was listening, everything went still. The screaming behind me died down and a soft, relieved sobbing took its place as the citizens found a moment of relief.
The lights that had been strong through the trees still glowed, and as I looked behind me over my shoulder, I could see the townsfolk falling back, freed from whatever was attacking them. Some of them collapsed onto the ground. They all seemed to understand something significant was happening.
I wasn't sure whether it was good or bad, but when I turned back around the nymph Queen stood before me.
And she looked angry.
-9-
The nymph queen looked every bit as magnificent in the shadows of evening as she did in the light of day. A mere few hours and she believed I'd already broken my vow.
"We asked for your word, Skye Shadow," she said.
"I kept it," I said, looking up at her.
She was taller, not the sprightly thing she had been in the woods earlier when Lance and I had seen her.
She pointed to the lights.
"You call this atrocity keeping your word?"
"I didn't turn those on," I said. "I told you we don't have the capability. That was Hunter. The one bringing the war."
I stood and faced her with Excalibur tight in my grip
.
"You should know this. Those lights are hung in your trees, they come from somewhere up in those hills."
I pointed past the buildings for emphasis.
"It would seem to me if you have any communal with nature, you would know that."
I eyed her suspiciously. She had to know. Surely every blade of grass and leaf and tree stump had transmitted the information that the power had not come from us.
Surely her messengers were better than that.
"Listening to your human voices at that amplitude hurts our ears," she said. "The hum that travels back and forth through these wires and through this electricity causes us pain.
"It isn't natural, this energy," she said. "I warned you. There must be consequences to a broken vow."
"I didn't break it," I said with my chin held high. "You may test me as you will."
Her eyes fell to Excalibur. "You're blade has natural magics," she said her gaze flicking back up to my face. "Natural magics that are far greater than anything created by blood."
"It's not my blade," I said. "I only carry it."
She canted her head at me, her face thoughtful. I could see her thinking as the light moved across her features.
"Will you swear by the magic of the blade that you are not to blame?"
"I'd swear on any blade. Any magic."
"And your blood?" she said. "Would you swear by your own blood that you have not and will not break the solemn vow?"
I eyed her carefully. She was trying to tell me something. I was sure of it. The way she stepped closer, the way her eyes kept trailing to the wires and then off into the woods.
"Swear a blood oath this time, Sky Shadow," she said. "By the magics of Excalibur and the blood in your veins, swear to us you will not use technology to service yourselves while harming nature."
She had used the sword's name. A name I had not told her.
I lifted my free hand, palm facing her.
"But the magics of Excalibur and the blood I shed by its magics, I swear I will not use power to make our lives easier at the cost of nature."
"Blood," she said and held my gaze. "Blood has power. Don't waste it."
I'd been hurt many times by others. I'd fought and been cut and bled. But the thought of running the blade over my own skin made me nauseous.
She stepped ever closer, close enough that I could smell the mint on her breath. The lights from behind me in the trees, cast a yellow glow across her face.
"It's a powerful sword," she said. "Don't be afraid to use it."
I sucked in a breath and laid the blade against my forearm. With a quick swipe across the skin, the blade bit down and I felt the hot fluid rise to the surface. The hum of magic that moved through Excalibur seemed to fill me. I pulled the sword from my skin, heard the soft pitter pat of blood dripping to the ground.
In the next instant, I thought I saw her move to reach for the sword, but she was swift, so swift that the only thing I registered was a blur of light and then out of nowhere the stink of sulfur rose around me. A whirlwind lifted my hair as it swirled about the two of us.
The nymph queen took a step backward. I expected to see fear on her face, but what I saw as the wind stopped and the smoke died down was something akin to victory.
"As you said; it's yours only to carry," she said. "Until the day you die, and that thing comes to claim it, no one can take it from you."
She waited as though she expected me to speak, but when she saw I had nothing to say she took another step backward and then in the same way that she had arrived, all of her creatures disappeared into the shadows between the light.
My shoulders suddenly felt as though they carried several hundred pounds.
I swung around to face the town and in the glow cast from the lights strung through the trees, I surveyed the chaos that remained.
New Denver looked like it had been hit by a tornado. Trees were uprooted, debris was everywhere. I searched for my knights, and saw them throughout the town, wresting people into calm submission where they had lost their minds. Helping those who were hurt.
I noticed Marlin running his hands down along the cheek of a child. He'd helped her to her feet and hoisted her onto his hip, carrying her across the street to lay her at the feet of what I presumed was her mother.
We had survived, a bit worse for wear, but we had survived.
A ruckus to my left caught my attention. Several people were clutching the arms of a cloaked woman whose hood was torn. I recognized the studded collar that fell to her feet and got trampled in the dirt.
It was such a ruckus that it drew the attention of most everyone in the street, and soon everyone was rushing over to see what was going on.
I had to shoulder my way through the crowd. Myste's face was beaten and filthy. Her hood was torn almost off of its cloak and someone had her their hands in her hair.
Her bow and arrow lay at her feet, several of the arrows broken in half.
"What are you doing?" I demanded of the crowd. "Leave her be. This woman is a knight. She saved dozens of children in the fire."
I wrestled a man's hands from her arm and pushed him aside, barreling closer to Myste to protect her with my body. I felt Excalibur press closer to my back as though it were clinging to me through the scabbard.
"She's a Shadow," he said. "She's the reason we lived so long without this." The man pointed to the lights. "You heard Hunter. She's the reason we have to work so hard."
I wrested Myste from their grip and pulled her aside out of the reach of anyone else. She staggered but caught her footing quickly.
"You believe the man who plans to attack us?" I demanded. "What's wrong with you? This," I said pointing to the lights. "This is why you suffered this evening. This power, this technology is a curse if it can't be used for good."
I was aware that Marlin and Lance had trotted over. They were shouldering their way through the crowd to reach us and people peeling back to give them room.
"She was trying to sneak out to turn it off," someone said.
"I was not," Myste said, lifting her chin.
She grabbed my arm. Her fingers dug into the flesh of my muscle as she tugged at it, urgent and not at all out of pain or anguish at what she'd endured.
"There's a node in the hogbacks," she said to me in a hoarse whisper as she pulled me away from the crowd toward the brothel. I was aware that Lance and Marlin stayed to keep the people from following us.
"I was coming back into town to tell you it was disabled. That's why the power is back on." She swallowed convulsively, the glare from the spotlight planted on the brothel's roof made her look manic And Myste was anything but manic.
"My shadows protecting the node have been killed."
She waited for that to sink in. That there was a node so close surprised me, but that there were people out there, watching over it? And that they'd been killed? It was inconceivable that I couldn't have known.
"I'm sorry, Myste," I said. "How many?"
I surveyed her swollen cheek and wondered if she'd had to fight her way back out of the hogbacks.
"Three," she said. "And I worry for the other nodes. There's word they are being overrun."
"How do you know this?"
She lifted her chin defiantly.
"Telegraph. We have telegraphs. Before the attack, my node received a message that they were being attacked. The shadow on duty wrote it down."
"Do you think the power is up everywhere?" I asked her.
She nodded. "Not just everywhere, but magnified. Hunter and his army is out there, Skye," she said. "And they won't wait long."
Someone in the crowd demanded Myste face justice and the sound of the word being spoken made my temper flare.
I spun to face the crowd.
"Listen to me," I said. "A little hardship doesn't make us horrible. It's the choices we make that do that. It's not a terrible thing that we work. You're acting as though doing a little labor is a curse worse than death. This woman is doing
what she thinks is right. She's lost loved ones. We've lost loved ones. She's one of my knights. I've chosen her because she's honorable. More than that, I think she's right. Look around you. These lights, this power it comes at a cost to nature. We can't continue to use energy while it drains the very land we live on.
"I swore an oath, a blood oath, to the nymph Queen. I swore that we would not use technology to harm nature. And what Hunter has done is making it worse for them. They just want to survive the way we do. They want to live. If we work with nature, if we cooperate and do so in good faith, we can be better than this violence. Maybe we have a chance to thrive."
I considered pointing to Myste's face but I had the feeling she would be furious for being used as an object lesson. She stepped ever so subtly into the light. The woman who had tried to barter a locket shouted that they should all be ashamed.
As it turned out, I didn't need to remind the crowd. They'd been the ones to inflict it.
"It's just the fear," I said. "The chaos and the tension and the stress make us react. Let it go. If we're going to beat Hunter, if we're going to get our freedom back and thrive, we have to do better than this.
I glared at them, feeling the rise of frustration and anger and knowing that beneath it all, they were doing what human beings did. I was no better. I felt angry as I looked at them and brought to mind the bruises on Myste's face.
"We have more important things to do. Hunter is coming. We can't afford to bicker among ourselves. And if you can't see that, you're going to die. Each and every one of you."
I was exhausted. Fear and adrenaline and stress sang through my body making me feel no more stiff than a wet teabag.
I left them there, and headed home. I'd had it. If these people wanted to waste their energies on an ally instead of the real enemy, I didn't know how I could affect the change. I'd failed. I needed sleep. I needed to rethink everything I had come to believe.
Queen of Skye and Shadow complete box set : Queen of Skye and Shadow Omnibus books 1-3 Page 29
