by Jayne Faith
My mind whirled as I tried to calculate possible next moves.
“What’s the name of your advisory council?” I asked.
“The Spriggan Leadership Assembly.”
“Marisol and all of the current Stone Council members get seats on your Assembly,” I said. “And, the New Gargs retain the right to continue to pursue kingdom status with the High Court.”
I was pulling the strategy out of my ass but thought it might at least buy some time. The Order’s bid for kingdom status would be a hundred times more difficult if we’d already subjugated ourselves to another ruler, but I had to try to keep that possibility alive.
“I must deny the last request,” he said. “Why would I allow you to continue to pursue independence?”
I set my jaw and gave him an unwavering stare.
“You’d be dead if it weren’t for me, your majesty,” I said, my voice deadly calm. “You should have sworn a favor to me that night at Druid Circle, but you didn’t, and I didn’t ask. That doesn’t change the fact that at least in principle you owe me a debt for your life. Beyond that, we both know the chances of kingdom approval will be virtually nonexistent once we’ve sworn to you. What does it really hurt to make that small allowance?”
We sat there, our gazes locked, for several seconds.
I knew he badly wanted the New Gargs under his rule. Without this deal, it was a victory that he could only dream about. His kingdom didn’t have the size or the strength to take the Stone Order through official means, or by force as Periclase was attempting. I could see the greed gleaming in Sebastian’s eyes as he weighed it all in his mind.
“Fine,” he said finally.
My heart leapt.
“None of the New Gargoyles of the Stone Order will swear fealty to you unless you help us successfully force Periclase, the Duergar, and the Undine out of the fortress,” I added quickly, while he was still distracted by the glow of imagining ruling the New Gargoyles. I shrugged a shoulder. “Obviously. But I just wanted to make that clear.”
I knew he would ask for a binding oath to seal the agreement and wondered how it would work. I couldn’t agree to something on someone else’s behalf, so I couldn’t promise that Marisol—or any of the other New Gargs, for that matter—would swear to Sebastian.
He opened his mouth to speak, and I jumped in again. “Oh, also, we have to move on the fortress tonight. As soon as possible.”
He inclined his head. He was going to agree to all of the terms I’d laid out. My hands tensed into fists. Why wasn’t he pushing back more? What had I missed? Shit. No time to work out every angle. We had to storm the fortress before Periclase forced Marisol to swear to him.
King Sebastian repeated my terms and magic shivered through the air between us as we set a binding promise in place.
After that, everything seemed to jump into fast-forward. Not an hour later, I stood with a borrowed broadsword at one of the doorways located in the Spriggan castle’s military wing. I was going to take several brigades of soldiers into the fortress through a doorway that was located in a storage area. It was well away from the busy areas of the fortress, and little used. Only New Gargs sworn to the Order new the sigils to enter through it.
The first brigade of a dozen soldiers jostled awkwardly so they could all be in contact with me, enabling us to pass through the doorway at the same time. Once they were through, I went back for the next group.
I snuck all four brigades into the fortress undetected. With me in the lead, we crept through the dark hallways. It was impossible for that many armored people to stay silent, especially the large-statured Spriggans, but we managed to move closer to the heart of the fortress unnoticed.
In addition to a broadsword, Sebastian had given me a shield made of black, striated wood—ironwood. It was huge and heavy, about a foot and a half wide by nearly three feet tall. He claimed it would absorb the lightning magic strikes from the Undine’s tridents. I sent out a prayer to Oberon that the Spriggan king was right. Otherwise, it was going to be a short and ugly fight.
I drew magic to form stone armor. It wouldn’t protect me against Undine magic, but it would prevent injuries from other types of weapons if it came to that. It wasn’t long before I got the chance to test the shield.
I led the Spriggan soldiers toward Marisol’s wing. We had to go straight for Periclase and try to cut off the coup from the top. We got as far as the floor just above her office before we met our first Undine.
The four trident bearers took one look at our weapons and struck. Not having used a shield since training, I barely pulled it around quickly enough. Fortunately, the bulky shield was so large it gave me almost complete cover when I hunched behind it.
I used it to my advantage, charging under the lightning magic onslaught until I was close enough to reach out with my sword, knock away the tridents, and stab two of the Undine men through their stomachs in quick succession. The Spriggan soldiers had advanced right on my heels, and they quickly disposed of the other two trident bearers.
Breathing hard with the effort of hauling a heavy broadsword and the enormous shield, I turned to see how the brigades had fared. The shields weren’t big enough to completely protect the tall, broad Spriggan, and few of them had fallen under the lightning magic strikes. But they were most likely just knocked out rather than dead. We didn’t have time to check.
Suddenly, there was a flurry of shouted commands in an unfamiliar tongue, and the corridor was full of Undine. Bolts of lightning filled the air.
“We need to get to Marisol!” I shouted over the commotion. “Spriggan, follow me!”
And then I dove into the fight, quickly getting absorbed in advancing behind the shield and then stabbing and slashing with my sword. Thick smoke began to fill the corridor as the surfaces of the shields got fried by the Undine magic, but the Spriggan wood held.
I mowed through half a dozen Undine, with the Spriggan fighting right beside me. There were agonized screams every time one of them was hit with a trident strike.
But we were fending them off. Better yet, they weren’t particularly skilled in close combat, and we were driving them back. After a few minutes, we finished them off. All of the Undine lay on the floor bleeding.
It was only a matter of seconds before more showed up. I was panting and soaked with sweat, but there was no time to pause.
“This way,” I said over my shoulder to the Spriggan soldiers who were still standing. Then I took off.
Our footfalls pounded through the corridors as I led them down two flights of stairs to the ground floor that housed the administrative wing.
We were greeted by a crowd of Undine when we rounded the last corner. They must have known we were coming, and instead of attacking us, they’d decided to regroup. The air filled with crackling lightning magic so thick there was no avoiding it. The Spriggan around me were going down like felled trees. I managed to avoid the strikes only because I was small enough to hide completely behind my shield.
Ozone hung in the air like fog, a byproduct of the lightning magic. It mixed with smoke from the shields, stinging my eyes and burning my throat as I fought my way forward.
The Undine were crowded so tightly in the corridor, the ones in the front couldn’t get out of the way of my sword. I mowed down three of them.
But my army was falling. In a matter of minutes, I would be the only one left.
The air turned into a choking, electric haze. Static plastered strands of hair to my face.
The Undine pushed forward, forcing me back.
And then the back side of my body lit up with pain. I screamed, my spine convulsively arching under the electrical barrage. Panic jolted through me as my shield began to slip. The lightning magic was paralyzing my muscles.
I lost control of my legs and fell to my knees. The top edge of the shield slammed into my forehead as it slipped from my grasp.
Damn it to Maeve, the Undine were going to fry me to death, and there wasn’t a fricking thing I co
uld do about it but lie there and take it.
But then the pain petered out. The lightning magic stopped. Bellows and hollers filled my ears.
With a shuddering breath, I opened my eyes.
I figured I must have been hallucinating or maybe even dead because it seemed I was having a wishful vision. My father Oliver was there, swinging his broadsword and relieving Undine heads from bodies.
When he bent and linked his elbow under my arm, dragging me backward, I knew it was real.
Oliver and the Stone Order legion had arrived.
Chapter 27
I TRIED TO struggle to my feet, but my muscles were still too fried from the trident strikes.
By the time I was able to shakily rise, the fight was all but over. I managed to stagger forward and run my sword through the ribs of an Undine. Oliver and his battle ranks took care of the rest.
When the air stopped crackling and the smoke began to clear, the corridor was littered with Undine bodies and blood. There were a few unmoving Spriggan soldiers, too.
“Marisol,” I said shakily to Oliver. “We have to get to her. We can’t let her swear fealty to Periclase.”
He took off toward her office, and I tried my best to keep up. The door to her office’s anteroom was closed, but it opened under his hand. We both rushed inside, brandishing our swords. The room was empty. Oliver went to the door leading to her office and kicked it in.
Half a dozen trident men hit us with lightning magic, but it hardly seemed to affect my father. He was so amped up with adrenaline from the battle, he charged forward, knocked away the tridents of four of them, and ran his sword through their hearts. I took care of the other two, thanks to the protection of my shield. There was no way I could have withstood more strikes.
Oliver’s eyes were wild, and his chest heaved as he whipped around. He went to one knee beside one of the trident bearers who hadn’t yet expired.
“Where is she?” Oliver bellowed.
But the Undine’s eyes went vacant and his body still.
Movement through the window caught my eye.
I pointed. “There!”
Periclase had Marisol and Maxen in the courtyard outside.
Oliver went to one of the windows and stabbed at it with his sword, breaking out the panes of glass. Then he jumped through. I went out after him.
There was a small koi pond in the courtyard, and there was already an arch of water forming over it.
My father and I charged forward just as one of the Undine began moving his trident, drawing the sigils that would allow them to pass through a doorway. Periclase had a hold of Marisol’s arm, and he hung onto the Undine with his free hand.
Oliver dropped his sword and launched himself through the air, tackling Marisol before Periclase could drag her into the netherwhere.
With a yell, I let go of my shield and gripped my sword with both hands, swinging and charging Periclase.
But he slipped through the doorway, disappearing. I nearly tumbled into the pond as the arch of water collapsed with a noisy splash.
I whirled around just as the Undine who’d been holding Maxen snarled and unleashed his lightning magic at me. Without my shield, I was defenseless against the onslaught. I toppled over, my head hitting the stone patio. I had a sideways view as Oliver sprang to his feet and tackled the trident bearer from behind. They went down, and my father lifted and smashed the Undine’s head against a paver twice. The Undine didn’t move again.
Maxen came to help me up. “Are you okay?”
I ran a shaky hand over my eyes. “I feel like I’ve been making out with a live wire for the past hour,” I said, my voice wobbling. Then my gaze darted to Marisol. “She didn’t swear to Periclase, did she?”
“No.”
I sagged against him in relief.
“That’s good,” I said. “But oh, man, she’s not going to like what I have to tell her.”
The four of us limped back inside, this time using an actual door instead of going through the broken window.
Marisol immediately began barking orders at the fortress soldiers, mostly having to do with draining every pond, pool, and fountain on the property.
“I don’t want to see so much as a glass of water sitting around!” she commanded.
Out in the corridor, she caught sight of Spriggan milling around and did a double-take.
“What in the name of Oberon are Sebastian’s soldiers doing here?” she asked.
“Um, Lady Lothlorien? I can explain,” I said. “But first, you should have the battle ranks take Spriggan with them to patrol through the fortress for any remaining Undine. The Spriggan shields are the only decent defense we have against lightning magic.”
She gave the command, and then she whirled and pointed at her office. Oliver, Maxen, Marisol, and I went in. Oh, shit, she was going to hate this.
I told her the entire story, starting with me and Nicole getting taken to the Duergar palace. When I got to the part about Sebastian’s payment, she first looked outraged, but then the inner corners of her brows drew down.
“You can’t swear an oath on my behalf,” she said.
“I know. But he agreed to it just the same.”
Her frown deepened. “It must be some kind of entrapment.”
“I didn’t know where else to turn on short notice,” I said. “I couldn’t expect to reach Oliver in the middle of a war for the Summerlands, and I was desperate.”
I knew she was angry, but she turned her attention to my father. “We need the Council in here, now.”
He nodded. “I’ll get someone to round up pages who can summon everyone.”
The hallways of the fortress had been completely empty of New Gargoyles. I looked at Maxen. “Is everyone . . . ?”
“Periclase forced everyone back into their quarters,” he said. “The Undine were guarding the residential wings.”
I let out a breath of relief. As long as no one had tried to challenge the trident bearers, the regular residents of the fortress should have survived.
Maxen’s sapphire-blue eyes were anxious. “We need to bring Nicole home.”
“I’ll get her as soon as I can,” I said. I slid a glance over at Marisol. I had a feeling she wasn’t going to let me go off on any adventures anytime soon.
“Maybe I should just go,” Maxen said.
“No, you’re not leaving, either of you,” Marisol said. I wasn’t even sure she’d heard our conversation, but apparently she had. “Nicole is safe where she is. We need to sort out what’s going to happen next here. Not to mention get the full report about what’s transpired in the Summerlands.”
One of her assistants appeared, looking shaken but ready for his duties. Marisol sent him to collect the messages that had arrived by raven.
“Hurry, and come right back here,” she told him.
He left at a run.
She went to her desk and pulled out a notecard and pen. She sat down and began quickly scribbling words.
“With the oath Petra has sworn to Sebastian, we can’t avoid him forever,” she said. “I’m sending him a proposal to meet on neutral grounds, and you’re going to deliver it.” She glanced up at me.
I blinked, surprised she was willing to allow me out of the fortress.
She finished writing, stuck the card into an envelope, and sealed it with her wax and stamp. The message would be visible only to the intended recipient. Then she pulled out another notecard and wrote a few symbols on it.
She handed both to me, with the notecard on top. “These are sigils that will get you through a doorway right outside the front of the Spriggan castle.”
I glanced at it and then nodded. A shortcut, good. I didn’t have the energy to run a couple of miles through the Spriggan kingdom.
“Find your spellblade, and then go,” she said.
Mort. I was suddenly keenly aware of how light my empty scabbard felt.
It took nearly half an hour of roaming the corridors and asking every Order soldier I pa
ssed whether anyone had found the weapons that had been left on the ground in the courtyard where Periclase had made his entrance. Eventually, someone realized the weapons had all been locked up in a safe in the fortress jail. That was why I couldn’t sense my spellblade—the safe was guarded against charms and other magic so prisoners couldn’t call upon their confiscated items.
On my way to the lobby of the fortress, I spotted Oliver. I jogged up to him.
“What happened in the Summerlands?” I asked.
“Finvarra was winning when we left,” he said. “Titania will likely never forgive us, but I couldn’t stay when I learned what was happening here. I imagine the battle for the High Court is still waging.”
“I’m sure Marisol will get word,” I said. “She sent a page to pick up all the messages at the tower.”
“You look like you’re headed out,” he said.
“She asked me to deliver her message to Sebastian.”
A ghost of a frown passed over his usually-stoic face. “Her message?”
I grimaced. “She said, rightly so, that we can’t avoid him. He and I have a binding agreement, and he’s delivered on his part. I think she suspects there’s a way out of the promise and wants to get on with it.”
His eyes narrowed slightly. “Sebastian may be prone to posturing, but he isn’t stupid.”
“I agree. But hopefully he’s left a loophole that we can exploit. And Lady Lothlorien ordered me to go, so . . .” I held up the envelope with Marisol’s seal.
“There’s no avoiding that.” He hesitated. “Just . . . be careful, Petra.”
I nodded. “You too.”
I stepped out of the fortress and into the San Francisco night. It was blessedly quiet and still, the Earthly realm unaware of the war and drama transpiring just across the hedge. Standing before the doorway disguised in the side of the fortress, I pulled out Marisol’s notecard with the sigils.
I traced the symbols in the air, whispered the magic words, and then stepped through the arch.
