Wolfgang finished before me. He rinsed off his bowl and headed back into his tent, leaving me sitting on a log by myself.
Isla and Wilfred were still sitting where I had left them and the other three were deep in their own conversation. Before Galanta’s spell I would have quite happily joined them, but tonight I was too tired to resist the pain from being treated like a stranger, so instead I headed for my tent. I had things I needed to do.
I didn’t bother to light my candle, unbraiding and brushing my hair in the dark. Then I took off my boots, lay down and pulled the blanket over me. Tonight was the last night I would have the luxury of even partially undressing. Once we were in goblin territory, what sleep we got we would get fully clothed and fully armed.
I heard low murmurs and scuffing boots as the others kicked dirt onto the fire and made their way to their tents. Material rustled and then a few minutes later, silence. I wanted to get to sleep as fast as I could; I was betting Wilfred was a snorer. And besides, I had work to do.
A few minutes later I was standing in Trillania. I sent my mind out to Emerald, searching north, west, east and south. She was nowhere to be found.
Where could she have gone? Was it possible she was hurt?
I was pushing my mind out to hunt for her again when an arm grabbed me from behind. I shrieked and ripped myself out of the grip, lashing out with my right arm as I turned around. I felt my fist connect, heard a crunching sound, and then Aethan was clutching his face. Blood dribbled through his fingers from his nose.
‘That’s going to hurt tomorrow,’ Wilfred said.
We both spun towards him and said in unison, ‘What are you doing here?’
He was wearing one of the armbands from the sleep room.
‘You stole an armband?’ I wasn’t sure if the tone in Aethan’s voice was for the armband or his broken nose.
‘Not all of us are dream-walkers.’ Wilfred’s contrite voice was ruined by the big grin on his face.
‘Yes, well, none of us are going to stay here.’ Aethan put his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘You both heard what Rako said.’
‘Well, what are you doing here?’ I put my hands on my hips and tried to stare him in the eyes. It was a bit hard though, what with him trying to stop the bleeding, and I had to be content with peering up his nose.
‘I came because I knew you would.’ He pointed his free hand at me.
‘Such devotion,’ Wilfred said in a dreamy voice.
I kicked him in the shin and said, ‘Shut up Will.’
‘None of us will be entering Trillania while we are away from the barracks.’
‘Ahhh,’ I said, turning to Will. ‘And here I was thinking Galanta had only taken his memories. Looks like she stole his balls as well.’
I heard Wilfred laughing as I willed myself back awake. ‘None of us will be going into Trillania,’ I mimicked Aethan as I dug through my saddlebags, searching for the dream-catcher. Finally, I felt the edges of it digging into my palm. I pulled it out and shoved it under my pillow.
A groan from the tent off to my right put a smile on my face. That’d teach him for sneaking up on me.
My anger at Aethan and Galanta and the world in general coursed through me, making sleep impossible to find. Then my thoughts turned to my training session with Wolfgang and that did nothing to improve my mood.
Finally I thought about Emerald. My concern for her was enough to soothe the fire in my veins.
Was she sick? Was she in trouble? There hadn’t been a time since we’d bonded that I’d not been able to contact her. I had to go back to Trillania to find her. I had to.
Decision made, I reached a hand up under my pillow and pulled out the dream-catcher.
3
They Seek Us Here, They Seek Us There
I’d only been in Trillania for a couple of seconds before Aethan reappeared.
‘Ahah,’ he said. ‘I knew it.’
I really wasn’t in the mood for his goody-two-shoes act. ‘If you want to spend more time with me I have a few hours free tomorrow.’ I turned away from him and sent my mind out to Emerald.
‘Rako said….’
‘Oh shut up.’ I’d had enough of him parroting Rako. I mean honestly, like I didn’t know what Rako had said.
I closed my eyes and pushed my mind out further than I had ever had to. Where was she?
‘What are you doing?’
‘Trying to find my dragon.’ I snapped my eyes open and glared at him. Practically ignores me all day and now, when I need him to be quiet, he turns into a regular little chatty-cat. What was it with men?
‘I’m sorry,’ he shook his head and grinned, ‘it sounded like you said you were trying to find your dragon.’
I was going to have to go looking for her. ‘Well, at least we don’t need to get your hearing checked.’ I closed my eyes and willed myself to a cave located high in the mountains rising out of the Black Forest. It was where I had found her after the fight with the goblins.
The soft, white sand carpeting the floor glowed gently. It was enough for me to see the smooth indentation made by her body, and the drag marks from her talons, but the cave itself was empty.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Whizbang.’ I jumped at the sound of Aethan’s voice and cracked my head on a stalactite. ‘Didn’t your mum ever tell you it’s rude to sneak up on people? Oh wait…,’ I snorted out a laugh, ‘I forgot who your mother is.’
The look on his face hardened. ‘I don’t appreciate your cracking jokes at my mother’s expense.’
‘Oh really.’ I wasn’t quite sure what had gotten into me. I could only assume it was the stress of the last few days. ‘So what are you going to do about it? Ask me politely to take it back.’ I put my hands on my hips and stared him in the eyes.
‘I was going to try that,’ he said, matching me stare-for-stare, ‘but I’m not sure if you could do anything politely.’
‘Ouch. If I gave a damn, that would have really, really hurt.’ I raised an eyebrow.
‘Yes, well, I can’t expect a girl of your calibre to care about anything.’
Now that was punching below the belt. I launched myself at him and crash tackled him to the ground, making sure that I pinned his arms with my legs. ‘I would have thought one broken nose for the night was enough.’
He struggled beneath me, trying to free his arms. ‘Bring it on witch.’
‘Don’t say you didn’t ask for it.’ I balled my fist and slammed it into his cheekbone. It made a satisfying crunch.
He roared and flipped his body up, throwing me backward off him. I rolled over and scrambled away, but he grabbed my ankle and dragged me back. ‘How… do… you… like… it?’ he grunted as he struggled to contain me.
I fought him like a wildcat, punching and kicking but he used his weight superiority to pin me down.
‘Get off,’ I gasped, as he wrestled my arms to my side.
‘Not unless you say pretty please.’
‘Never.’ I twisted my body from side-to-side, using the momentum to try to roll. If I could get onto my belly with my arms under me….
He tightened his grip till it was painful. ‘Pretty please,’ he hissed.
I snarled and renewed my struggle.
‘Well if we’re going to stay like this for a while I might as well have some fun.’ For a wild second I thought he meant to kiss me and I wanted it so badly the yearning was like a tsunami racing through my body. But instead, he mimicked my earlier position and tucked my arms under his knees. ‘Ever played typewriter?’
‘What?’ The absurdity of the question froze my struggles.
‘Typewriter.’ He began to tap my forehead with his fingers as if typing, and then slapped the side of my head.
I threw my head to the side trying to escape his hands. ‘What in the Dark Sky are you doing?’
‘Writing a letter.’
Tap, tap, tap, slap.
It was enough to send me into a frenzied strug
gle, but try as hard as I could, I couldn’t break free.
Tap, tap, tap, slap.
‘Stop it,’ I screeched.
‘Say the magic words.’
‘Never.’
Tap, tap, tap, slap.
‘Preeettyyy pleeeease,’ he said in a sing-song voice.
Tap, tap, tap, slap.
I reared up and slammed my forehead into his already broken nose. He let out a yelp and rolled off me, his fingers clutching his face.
‘And that,’ I said as I stood up and dusted myself off, ‘is how we say pretty please where I come from.’ And then I willed myself back to the campsite and to my body.
***
It was still dark when I clambered out of my tent the next morning. Brent had a pot of water boiling and Luke was over at the horses. I went to join him, checking them over for any sore areas that may have arisen from yesterday’s ride.
My white mare, whom I had named Lily, nickered when she saw me, pressing her soft, pink nose into my hands.
‘Oh okay,’ I said, offering her the bit of dried biscuit I had brought for that very purpose. Scruffy whined and I laughed and handed him down a piece as well. When Luke and I were sure all the horses were fit to travel, I packed up my tent and then accepted a cup of tea and some dried meat from Brent.
‘Here boy.’ Brent held out a bowl to Scruffy. It held the remnants of last night’s stew and a couple of biscuits.
I sat on a log and watched the sun peeping over the horizon. Isla joined me a few moments later. ‘I love watching the sunrise,’ she said. ‘It always holds such hope for the new day.’
I looked at her to see if she were taking the piss, but her face was radiant as she gazed at the rising sun.
‘I must admit,’ I said, ‘I’m never normally up early enough to see it.’
‘Humans and witches always get it wrong,’ she said as Wilfred sat on her other side, ‘daylight is for achieving things, night time is for sleeping. Well that, and making love.’
Wilfred sprayed a mouthful of tea out and started coughing. I wasn’t sure if it were that, or Isla’s comment that made his face go bright red.
I saw Aethan moving towards his horse, Adare, with his gear. ‘Come on people,’ he said, ‘we want to get as far today as possible.’
The three of us rose off the log, but while Isla and Wilfred grabbed their bags, I stretched my arms above my head, using the activity to delay having to interact with Aethan. I wasn’t looking forward to that after the damage I had done.
Wilfred let out a low laugh and pointed at Aethan. ‘She got you a beauty,’ he said, making me wish I had gone with them so that I could kick him in the shins again. The man had no sense of secrecy.
‘I fell,’ Aethan said, casting a quick glance in my direction.
The left side of his face was so swollen his eyelids resembled two grapes jammed together. The bruising extended from the eye, down the side of his face and ran in an angry line along his jaw line. I felt the teeniest weeniest bit guilty.
‘I’m thinking you should sleep on two pillows tonight,’ Isla said. She turned away from him toward her black stallion and winked at me.
When we had finished placing the gear on the horses, we gathered in a group in front of Aethan. He drew a few squiggles and a triangle in the dirt with a stick.
‘We’re here,’ he said, stabbing his stick into the ground.
‘Well obviously,’ Isla said.
He rolled his one good eye toward her and she pressed her lips together and mimicked turning a key.
‘This is the Black Mountains.’ He pointed at the triangle. ‘The mountain range extends hundreds of miles, winding towards the goblin territory border.’ He pointed towards the dark shadow I could see off to the left. ‘That’s it there. Today we are going to make our way around the edge of the mountain range, and then as far along the border as we can before nightfall.’
‘Why are we staying in goblin territory?’ I asked. ‘I mean wouldn’t it make more sense to cross over the border to get away from them.’
‘See these squiggles?’ he said. ‘This is the Livia River. It runs deep and fast along the border. Crossing it would be dangerous.’
‘Yeah,’ Wilfred said, ‘and if you did make it, you’d be wishing you’d stayed to have tea with the goblins instead.’
‘Giants,’ Isla said in a low voice. ‘Nasty ones.’
I’d only ever seen giants from the air, and that was as close to them as I wanted to get.
‘Talk only when necessary,’ Aethan said, ‘and stay alert. We want to avoid confrontation if we can.’
We mounted our horses and followed Aethan out of the clearing. Scruffy trotted beside Lily for a while, but soon got bored of the exercise. I pulled him up behind me and he tucked himself between the saddle and the bags and promptly fell asleep.
We had been riding for a couple of hours, dodging our way through the small, spread-out trees, when we heard the sound of goblins moving through the woodlands off to our left. They didn’t seem to be making any effort to be quiet, and their guttural voices echoed through the trees.
Aethan held his hand up and we stopped. Brent slid from his saddle, and disappeared into the undergrowth. I held my breath, waiting to hear evidence that he had been detected. There was none, and he reappeared a few minutes later.
He held up his hand once and pointed at an angle in the other direction.
Five goblins moving away from us.
We waited till the sound of them had disappeared before we began to move again.
As the day wore on the parties of goblins became larger, until it seemed we were stationary more than we were moving. Brent and Luke handed the reins of their horses to Wilfred and me and ghosted off to the front and sides, reappearing only to send us in another direction. By the afternoon we were tracking backwards and to the sides nearly as much as we were moving forward, and we were still this side of the Black Mountains.
As the sun was beginning to set, Luke and Brent appeared together. I could hear them whispering to Aethan. They mounted up and led us further north until we came to a dense patch of trees.
Aethan dismounted. ‘We’ll stop here tonight,’ he whispered. The trees were too close to slip between and the path in was narrow. It would be an excellent position to defend, as long as there was another way out.
We led our horses along the track for a few minutes before it widened into a small clearing. A wall of rock bordered the right of the clearing, disappearing up into the gloom. A fissure ran in the rock face. I watched as Aethan and Brent disappeared into it. They returned moments later and Aethan beckoned us to follow.
It was just wide enough for Lily to fit and even then, the rock pressed up against her sides in a couple of places. She whinnied with fear until I stroked her withers and coaxed her through. Scruffy, still riding on her back, didn’t look thrilled either.
We rubbed down the horses and ate our cold meal in silence. Then Brent and Luke disappeared back through the fissure to take the first watch. Aethan and I were up second, and Wilfred and Isla were last. Wolfgang had wanted to take his turn but after a hushed conversation with Aethan he nodded his head and sought out his blankets. It seemed Aethan wanted his magic maker well rested in case we needed him during the night.
I cleared an area of the floor, balled some clothes up as a pillow and pulled a blanket over me. All my Border Guard training both before and since I had signed up had not prepared me for sleeping on hard ground. I was softer than I had thought and that annoyed me.
I debated with myself whether or not to use the dream-catcher – I mean I was only going to get a couple of hours’ sleep before Brent and Luke woke me – but my concern for Emerald’s welfare meant I wouldn’t sleep easily. If I knew I was going to search for her I would fall asleep quickly and be better rested.
Well, that’s how I justified it to myself anyway.
Closing my eyes, I relaxed my mind, trying to dispel the fear instilled in me from a day of cre
eping around goblins. It took a little while, but finally I was able to cross over to Trillania.
I sighed when Aethan stepped out from behind a bush.
‘We may have gotten off to a bad start,’ he said.
‘You think?’ I cocked my head to the side and looked at him. He had left the bruises and swelling behind and was back to his devastatingly-handsome self.
‘I may have underestimated you.’
I couldn’t help it. I smiled. It was something he’d often said while he’d been training me.
‘Why are you smiling?’
‘No reason.’ There was no way I was telling him the truth. They were memories I didn’t want him losing. We had fallen in love during those training sessions. Instead, I held out my hand. ‘Truce?’
He took it in his and shook it. ‘Truce, but you know we can’t stay here long, right?’
‘I just want to have a quick look for Emerald.’
‘Your pet dragon?’
‘Well obviously she’s not my pet.’ I laughed as I thought of the look she would get on her face if she heard herself described as my pet. ‘She’s my friend.’ I didn’t bother mentioning the bond we shared.
‘I’ve never heard of a friendly dragon.’ He dragged the heel of his boot through the dirt. ‘Only a bonded one.’
I looked at him sharply. Was he remembering me?
‘Santanas had one. She came out of Trillania to Isilvitania in one of the battles at the end.’
‘They can leave Trillania?’ Santanas was bonded to a dragon?
‘They’re the only animal that can naturally traverse between all the planes of existence.’
Well that certainly gave me plenty to think about. But right now, I needed to find her. ‘Are you coming with me?’ I held out my hand.
‘Someone’s got to watch your back.’ He reached out and took it and a zing of energy leapt up my arm. I could tell by the widening of his eyes that he had felt it too. He tilted his head to the side and stared at me questioningly but I wasn’t about to explain that that sort of thing had been quite normal between us.
I closed my eyes and concentrated on a large, grassy plain I knew had been one of Emerald’s favourite hunting grounds. When I opened them, we were staring out over a huge herd of morths. Except for the fact that they had six legs, morths looked remarkably like sheep. They had been her favourite food. If Emerald were around they wouldn’t be grazing so peacefully.
Faery Forged Page 4
