I nodded, turning back to my own food. All around me, the forest moved, thinking whatever long, dark thoughts it held. I hoped it would keep them to itself.
When we were finished, I dusted my hands on my jeans and stood, stretching before I picked up my walking stick and returned to the path. Viktor and Yutani joined me.
“If anybody has to go to the bathroom, I suggest behind that bush right there,” I said, pointing to a nearby bush. “And I suggest you go now, so that we can pick up the pace and make as much distance as we can before nightfall.”
Yutani took advantage of the bush first, and then Viktor, and I went last. Another luxury that Brighid’s servants had provided was toilet paper from our realm. It was definitely a long sight better than rags or leaves. I washed my hands using the snow before pulling on my gloves and again and returning to the guys.
“All right, let’s go,” I said, setting the pace at a good brisk walk, the fastest we could manage through the snow. The weather had held, and I myself hoped it would cloud over before night because it was going to be damned cold without a fire, and a clear sky would make it even worse. The jacket I was wearing—the one Raven had given me—helped, but it sure wouldn’t stave off temperatures that were below freezing all night long.
As the shadows crowded in overhead, the sun slowly lowering in the sky, I realized we had been walking for about three hours without speaking. Everything felt muffled by the snow and the susurration of the constant breeze blowing through the forest. I tried to think of something to break the silence, but it was as if all thoughts of conversation had fled, and the only thing that existed was our never-ending hike through Y’Bain.
Another half-hour and it was growing dark. While we were in the waxing half of the year now, the light still faded quickly in the January night, and it seemed like a good time to begin looking for a camping spot. I was going to point this out when we came to a T in the road. Straight ahead, poking through the snow, stood a ring of red-capped mushrooms that were almost knee high. The road continued on beyond them, but I remembered all too well what Brighid had told me.
“We’ve reached the faerie ring. Make certain you don’t step over the borders of it. We have to turn left here.”
“We should find a place to camp. It’s growing dark and you remember what they said about walking through the forest after nightfall,” Viktor said. He pointed off to the right, about ten yards away from the ring. “There’s a bit of a clearing there that would probably make for a good campsite. What do you think? Camp, or take a chance in order to put distance between us and the faerie ring?”
I wanted to continue. The last thing we needed was to camp next to a portal. But the light was fading quickly and it felt like danger lurked everywhere.
“I don’t know. I’d hate to have night fall while we’re still on the path. They warned us not to forge ahead during the dark. I have the feeling the paths here may shift at night.” I thought for a moment, then gave him a nod. “All right. As much as I don’t want to camp near the portal, let’s break for the night. We only have about half an hour until it’s fully dark and it will take that long to set up the tent.”
We scoped out the campsite first, making sure there were no animals around or traps that we could see. Yutani and Viktor set up the tent as far away from the faerie ring as possible. It was large enough for all three of us, and as I stepped inside to help lay out the bedrolls, I was surprised by how warm it was. It wasn’t shirtsleeve warm, but the chill from outside didn’t seem to penetrate the walls.
“Well, that’s a surprise,” I said. “I wonder if they enchanted this so it stays warmer?”
“Is there a way you can tell?” Yutani asked.
I placed my hands against the polyester walls of the tent and closed my eyes. Sure enough, just below the surface I could feel the comforting flow of magic. I wasn’t sure what kind it was, but it infused itself through the material. I wondered whether it extended its reach to protection magic as well, but I wasn’t going to bet on it.
“It definitely has magic woven into it. But we still need to take shifts. The tent may keep us warm, but I don’t know if it can protect us. Whoever is on watch can sit right outside of the rain flap. I suggest using your sleeping bag to drape around your shoulders. I’ll take first watch, if you like.” I picked up my sleeping bag and unzipped it, figuring that it would help above and beyond the jacket I was wearing.
“I’ll call second,” Yutani said. “I’m good with just four or five hours of sleep a night.”
“Wake me up for third,” Viktor said. “When do you want to eat dinner? It’s not like we have to cook.”
I was always up for a good snack, but I also realized that we weren’t even into the mid-evening hours yet. “Why don’t we wait for a couple hours? If we’re not going to travel during the dark, then we have a long evening ahead of us.”
“I thought of that,” Viktor said. He pulled out a couple LED battery-operated lights. They illuminated the tent so that we could see easily. He also brought out a deck of cards. “Anybody up for gin rummy?”
Yutani snorted, but he sat down on the floor of the tent and motioned to Viktor. “Okay, deal them out. By the way, I also brought an e-reader. So if anybody wants to read, I’ve got a huge selection of books on it.”
I joined them, and we played five straight games of rummy, then shifted over to poker, using nuts as poker chips. I was winning when my stomach let out a loud rumble.
“What time do you think it is now?”
“Probably around seven-thirty. Dinner?”
I nodded. I was getting a hunger headache. “Yeah, I’m hungry.”
Once again we made sandwiches, along with eggs and apples. This time, we added in a couple cookies as dessert. Brighid’s servants had been generous with the cookies, but I knew we could easily eat them all in one sitting, and I wanted to make sure we had something saved for snacks along the way.
An hour later we were all yawning. I longed for coffee—I had a caffeine headache already. Fumbling in my pack, I looked for something that I had figured I would need. I pulled out one of several bags of chocolate-covered espresso beans.
“Seriously, you’re going to caffeinate up now?” Yutani asked.
“You better hope I do, or I’ll fall asleep on watch.” I poured a handful into my palm, and made quick work of them. As the ping of caffeine hit my system, I felt ready enough to go out and keep watch. “You guys get some sleep. Yutani, I’ll wake you up in a few hours. Although I have to say, time seems very odd to me here.”
Viktor handed me his watch. “Here. I set the alarm for three hours.”
“I’m not putting this on, because I could kill it if I did. I stop watches. But I’ll put it in my pocket.” I slid the watch into the pocket of my jacket, and then, pulling my sleeping bag around my shoulders, I stepped out of the tent into the chill.
The sky was still clear, with stars shimmering down from overhead. It made the entire forest glow, although I wasn’t sure if some of that glow wasn’t the aura I had seen the night before. Y’Bain was beautiful in the darkness, with the snow reflecting under the light of the stars.
I settled myself on a small log that we had carried over next to the tent. I readied Serafina and unsnapped the binding on my dagger in its sheath, so that I could grab it out at a moment’s notice. I nocked an arrow into Serafina, readying the bow for use, and then settled in to watch.
Yutani had offered me his e-reader, which was backlit, but I had turned him down, preferring to keep as alert as I could. The caffeine was racing through my system now, shoring me up, and I felt like I could hear every sound echoing through the forest. It was an odd cacophony, a concert of clicks and whistles and rustles and the occasional thump of snow falling off the trees to the ground. After a while, I settled down, my nerves smoothing out as nothing happened.
About halfway into my watch, however, I had the sensation that we were being observed, that something out there was watching me, wait
ing. While we had felt like this all day, the feeling was growing stronger and I was beginning to get uncomfortable. I shifted, looking around, trying to see if there was anything nearby that I could catch sight of.
Ember— Ember—come here. The words seem to sing through the air, a faint melody on the wind.
I straightened up, looking around. At first, I saw nothing, just the snow and the dark silhouettes of the trees. But then, across the clearing at the other end of the campsite, I began to notice faint orbs of light hovering in the air. They paused, still glowing, orbs of pink and blue, of green and gold.
Just Lightning Flits, I thought, starting to relax.
But then they started toward me, not floating aimlessly like Lightning Flits usually did, but as though they were directly focused on me.
Ember— Ember—come play with us.
I stiffened. These were no Lightning Flits. Catching my breath, I stood, readying Serafina.
“Who are you?” I asked, trying to keep my voice low so I wouldn’t startle Viktor or Yutani.
But the orbs didn’t answer, they just kept coming at a slow, steady pace.
I paused, mesmerized by their beauty. They were lovely, and they felt so welcoming. I paused, thinking that perhaps I should lower my bow, but then some part of me deep inside reared up, furious. Without thinking, I sent an arrow singing toward one of the orbs.
“Get back,” I ordered. Now, I knew what they were. From some memory locked deep inside, I realized that we were facing a group of will-o’-the-wisps.
“Get away, now.” Then, I called out, “Viktor! Yutani! Will-o’-the-wisps.”
The will-o’-the-wisps paused, waiting. It felt like we had approached a standoff. As I stood, the tent rustled behind me, and Viktor and Yutani came rushing out.
“We have will-o’-the-wisps.”
“I’m not entirely sure how to deal with them,” Yutani said, standing by my side, staring at them. “I’ve seen them before, but I’ve never had to fight them. How do you deal with corpse candles?”
I thought for a moment, running through what knowledge I had of the creatures. They were forest devas, not true Fae the way most people thought of the Fae. They weren’t sub-Fae, either. They were dangerous to anyone and everyone who crossed their paths, and they hunted in packs.
“They don’t like light or fire.” As I said the last, the forest shifted around me. Crap. Apparently I had to spell the word after all. “We don’t have the option of…F-I-R-E, so what do we have in the way of light?”
Viktor pulled out his flashlight, shining it in their direction. That caused them to shift around, and it was obvious they didn’t care for it. Yutani popped back in the tent and then returned with Viktor’s LED lights. He turned them on, and set them on the log next to us. That halted any additional forward movement from the will-o’-the-wisps.
“What do we do now?” Viktor asked.
“How long of a lifespan do those lights have?” I asked.
“About two hundred hours and I put fresh batteries in before we left. More than enough if we need to leave them on all night.”
“All right, that will keep them at bay. But another problem is that they can lure you away. They can affect me. I heard them calling me to come play. I was about ready to run off with them until my father’s blood rose up. The Autumn Stalker blood in me recognizes them, apparently, and prevented me from falling into their trap. Oddly enough, I don’t think that my Leannan Sidhe side can protect me from them, though. But you two are prime targets. We need to drown out their ability to speak to you. Anybody got any music?”
“Yeah, but it will wear my phone down. I don’t think it can last a morning,” Viktor said.
I groaned. There was only one other option as long as they were around. I was going to have to sing.
“Guess what? You’re in luck, boys. I’m going to sing. And whoever takes over, as long as the will-o’-the-wisps are here, will have to pick up where I left off. Because these creatures can hypnotize you even when you’re asleep.”
“We can’t go without sleep, not for forty-eight hours,” Viktor said. “All right. Do you think you can sing for a while?”
“Bring me my bottle of water. I just have to continue until they get bored and go away.”
Viktor set up another LED light inside the tent so the will-o’-the-wisps couldn’t enter, then he brought me a bottle of water. Feeling nerve-racked, I motioned for them to go back to bed. I kept my arrow trained on the will-o’-the-wisps while I began to sing.
Illuminated by the LED lights, I sang my way through several songs by Gary Numan, then tried rapping a couple Beastie Boys songs, then mangled a couple songs by The Kills. Finally, the will-o’-the-wisps seemed to get bored of me and they withdrew into the woods.
I kept singing for another twenty minutes, making certain they weren’t sneaking around behind the tent, trying to get in that way. But after a while the forest fell silent, and when the alarm went off, I was more than ready to wake up Yutani to take my place.
As I snuggled inside my sleeping bag in the tent, I could hear him singing, and I wasn’t sure what song it was but it was haunting and ancient, and I realized that he had an excellent voice. Feeling strangely secure and comforted, I closed my eyes and fell asleep, not even waking when Viktor and Yutani changed places.
Chapter Eighteen
We were on the road again by first light, giving the faerie ring a wide berth. The will-o’-the-wisps hadn’t returned, and I was grateful to whatever impulse had made Viktor bring the LED lights. The clouds had socked in and it felt a little bit warmer, although I could smell snow on the horizon. That crackle of ozone filled the air, the way it always did preceding a snowstorm.
“It would be a whole lot easier if horses would cooperate in the forest. We would be at the lake by now.” I felt grumbly, especially after the will-o’-the-wisps, and my throat hurt from singing so much. I loved the forest, and I tried to respect it, but Y’Bain had other ideas. Annwn seemed a far bigger and scarier place than any place back home.
“If wishes were shares of VN stock, we’d all be rich.” Viktor laughed, glancing my way.
“True that,” Yutani said.
VN stock—the official stock of the Vampire Nation’s financial holdings—was soaring on the charts. I had actually invested $3,000 to buy three shares, and it had doubled in the past month. I was hoping it would go higher, and all things looked good. Although if Typhon was actually able to control the vampires, everything would go crumbling to the ground. Maybe I should sell, I thought, suddenly feeling leery about the possibilities.
I paused, suddenly aware that I could hear water up ahead. “We can’t be to the lake yet, can we? I hear water.” But I could feel the water, too.
It was alive and thriving, and the energy of it flowed past me like a wave rolling in from the ocean. My Leannan Sidhe side rose up, responding to the energy. Given my Light Fae side was steeped in water magic, it was no wonder that I responded to it.
“No, we’re not due to hit lakeside until afternoon. But I hear it too,” Viktor said. “It’s coming from around the bend up there.” He nodded toward the bend in the road, which angled sharply to the north.
“This must be the shift that Brighid told us about. Toward the north.” I cautiously rounded the bend, Viktor and Yutani close behind me. Up ahead, breaking across the path, was a swift stream, churning along with whitecaps frothing atop the water. It looked deep. Deep enough that I didn’t want to try crossing it.
“Well, how are we supposed to get around that?” Yutani asked. “It’s far too deep to wade through, not with the speed of that current.”
“Is there a bridge anywhere?” I looked around, trying to spy a crossing nearby. There didn’t seem to be anything in sight, although as we approached the shore, I saw the remains of a splintered log. It quickly became apparent that there had been a small footbridge over the water, but it had either been swept away or broken.
“What do we do now?”
Viktor asked, staring at the remains of the bridge. He glanced around. “I could cut a small tree to fall across the water, but somehow I think cutting a tree in this forest would be akin to lighting an F-I-R-E.”
“Yeah, we’re not cutting any trees down. But is there anything around here that we could drag over? A fallen log that’s wide enough and long enough?”
The stream was about four yards wide. However, it was hard to see where the bottom was, it cut such a deep channel. And looking both left and right showed no end in sight.
“The only way to find out is take a look,” Viktor said.
We began to look for a log that was already down and would be long enough to cross the water, but not so heavy that we couldn’t lift it. Luckily, Viktor was incredibly strong, and Yutani had a wiry strength going for him as well. I was strong enough, but I couldn’t match either one of them. It was slow going, picking through the woods right near the path, especially since most everything was covered with snow.
“This is the first time I’ve ever wished I was a bird shifter instead of a coyote shifter,” Yutani said. “I could fly across with the end of a rope, and we could create a rope bridge.”
“I wish you were a bird shifter, too, right now,” I said, brushing the snow off of a log that looked like it might be promising. “Viktor, what do you think about this? It looks long enough. Do you think we could lift it?”
Viktor walked over to one end of the log and knelt to take a look at it. He tentatively tried to lift it, grimacing a little, but he was able to get it off the ground.
“It’s heavy, but it’s definitely long enough, and I think the three of us might be able to drag it over there. My suggestion is that we get it over to the edge, then lift it up and push it so that it falls across the stream. It’s not very wide, so we’ll have to be careful on the way over.”
Under Viktor’s guidance, Yutani and I grabbed hold of the front end of the tree, while Viktor pushed on the back. It took some doing, but we were able to lug it over next to the stream without too much of a problem. As we stood, sweating, Viktor eyed the stream, then the tree.
A Sacred Magic: A Wild Hunt Novel, Book 9 Page 18
