I found myself surrounded by trees. Why did it always have to be in a forest? There were plenty of things to worry about in a Trillanian forest even without stumbling onto a goblin. I added a crossbow to my arsenal. If a buffo charged me it would come in handy.
Galanta was off to my left. I could feel her. I turned that way and scuttled from trunk-to-trunk, pausing to check there were no unwelcome visitors in between.
Whatever she was doing here, she was doing it quietly. No drums, no chanting, not even any of the guttural goblin language.
It took me a few minutes, but eventually I reached the place I could feel her. I peeped around the edge of a tree trunk to where I knew she should be, but she wasn’t there.
I pulled back behind my trunk. Where was she? I could feel her. Was she hiding behind another tree? But no, the sensation of her was coming from the small clearing I had peeped into.
Ever so carefully, I stepped into the clearing. My head swivelled from side-to-side as I checked for movement. Night birds called and a light wind rustled the leaves, but there was no sign of anyone else there.
I tip-toed to where she should have been and stared at the ground. A small black splotch of blood darkened the earth.
Was she injured?
I could feel a feral smile curl my lips. It was time to hunt.
Closing my eyes I reached for her. North. She was further north.
I willed myself there, crouching low in a dense stand of bushes. Arrow nocked, I stared over the top to where I could feel her. She wasn’t there.
Rising, I stalked to where I could feel her life force. More blood. A larger patch this time. Was she running from someone? Excitement hummed through my veins.
Now I could feel her off to the west. I transported myself there, releasing an arrow as soon as I appeared. It flew through the spot where she should have been, but she was already gone.
I hopped further south and found a sizeable amount of blood.
Back north to find a clump of hair caught on a bramble bush.
I was closing in on her, I could feel it. Could almost taste her desperation as she flicked again and again. Losing more blood each time, getting ever weaker.
East to where she had lost her dagger.
North to where she had left her spear.
She was mine. I could taste the victory as I chased her.
One last jump. This time the feel of her was overwhelming. She was here. I knew it.
I spun in a circle, my sword loose in its sheath and an arrow ready to fly. Dark brown flickered through the trees as she staggered away from me. I took off after her, ready to end this once and for all. I had let her get away once, that wouldn’t be happening today.
Isadora.
I ignored the sound as I raced after Galanta. The distance between us was closing.
Isadora.
A black shape, off to my left, flickered through the trees. Galanta darted to her right and I followed, cutting the corner and gaining time.
Isadora.
Blackness grew on the edge of my vision. But Galanta was so close. I sighted her down my arrow and released it. It thudded into a tree, inches from her head. She threw a desperate glance over her shoulder, her eyes wide, her mouth open as she panted. She pressed her hands to a wound in her side and she staggered.
Looking back on it all, there were so many things that didn’t make sense. Where were her warriors? Why didn’t she leave Trillania?
But there, at the time, with the feel of her in front of me and the taste of her death on my lips, I wasn’t capable of rational thought. I let out a snarl and hurled myself after her.
The blackness swelled as it raced towards me, twin lights blazing from within its inky depths. I let out a screech and loosed my arrow into it. The arrow flew wildly as if I had not aimed at all.
I threw out a hand, loosening a lightning bolt towards the shadow. It glanced off a sheet of light and a tree to the right burst into flames.
Now it was my turn to flee.
Isadora.
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as fingers of dark reached out towards me. I could see Galanta off to the side, her head thrown back as she laughed.
A trap. It was all a trap.
And I had fallen for it.
The shadow wrapped itself around me, cold and damp it slithered over my skin. I closed my eyes and willed myself away.
My daughter.
Why couldn’t I leave? I tried again and again, but the shadow pinned my arms to my side and held me in place.
Look at me, daughter.
I opened my eyes and stared at the glowing lights. Dread walked down my spine. ‘I am not your daughter,’ I whispered.
A shadow hand reached up and brushed back my hair. ‘Of course you are.’
I shook my head trying to deny who trapped me. Part of me wanted to start screaming hysterically, the other part wanted to curl into a ball and hide. But as the shadow formed a man, Galanta came to stand at his side. I could no longer deny who held me.
‘Your brother, Alexis, is my father.’
He threw back his head and laughed. ‘If I am not your father, why does my blood trap you?’
That’s what was going on?
‘No,’ I shook my head again. ‘My mother would not lie to me.’ Well, not about this I hoped.
How was I to break this blood bond? I couldn’t do what I had with Galanta, because he had no blood to drink.
‘Come.’ He lifted me bodily and drifted through the trees.
Galanta followed off to the side, a triumphant sneer on her face. ‘Did you think I couldn’t feel you?’ She let out a laugh. ‘We are blood bonded. I always know when you are near.’
I was so going to have that talk about blood bonds with Wolfgang when I got back.
If I got back.
I banished that thought from my head. Defeatism would only cripple me.
Galanta had said she always knew when I was near. Prickles ran over my skin. If that were true, she had known I was there the night she had raised Santanas’s spirit.
‘That’s right.’ Her lips pulled back to reveal her pointed teeth. ‘I knew you were watching. I wanted you to know what you had done.’
‘Gloating’s not very nice.’ I was proud my voice didn’t show the panic the rest of my body experienced. What were they planning to do to me?
‘Nice isn’t in my vocabulary.’
‘There’s a lot of things not in your vocabulary.’
She turned to Santanas. ‘Let me cut out her heart.’
Sweat formed on my brow as bile pooled in my gut. I fought back the urge to vomit. I would not show weakness in front of her.
Santanas let out a sigh. ‘You are not going to gut her Galanta. We need her.’
I resisted the urge to giggle in relief. They weren’t going to cut out my heart.
Galanta stuck her bottom lip out and eyed me. ‘Surely a little cut wouldn’t hurt.’
‘I’ll think about it,’ he said as we flowed on through the forest.
‘Where are we going?’ Normally I liked surprises. Christmas, birthdays – I was all for it. Today I wasn’t feeling so adventurous.
‘Your new home.’
I stayed quiet for the rest of the trip. The answers I was getting weren’t helping with my attempts to remain calm. Would Aethan and Wilfred realise I was here? Would they come for me?
We drifted through the forest and across a large plain. Then up into a mountain range that stretched as far as the eye could see. Was it the Black Mountains?
Near the top of one of the peaks a stone castle stood. Part of the turrets had plummeted to the ground where they lay in discarded piles of stone, but the rest of the castle was intact.
Galanta pulled open double wooden doors, leading the way into the castle and down a flight of stairs.
‘Remove her weapons,’ Santanas said.
Galanta shoved and pushed at me as she took my sword, daggers and bow and arrows. I let her. There were
plenty more where they came from.
‘Home, sugar, home.’ She pulled open a door to a cell.
‘It’s home, sweet, home,’ I said as Santanas deposited me in the room.
She pulled back a hand to slap me, but Santanas loomed in between, a barrier of shadow.
‘You will not harm her,’ he said.
I stuck my tongue out at her and waved as she slammed the door shut.
In the small amount of twilight peeping through the window high in the wall I could see a mattress lying on a pallet on the straw-covered floor. A bucket filled with water sat in the opposite corner. I paced the room, measuring it as I walked. One wall was five paces, the other four.
I rattled the door and looked for cracks in the walls, but there was no easy way out. I stood pressed up against the wall furthest from the window and tried repeatedly to release a lightning bolt. The only thing I got for my efforts was a stress headache.
Okay, so if I couldn’t escape I could at least protect myself. I summoned a sword, but nothing happened. I had the same result with every weapon I could think of.
Despondent, I slumped onto the bed, wriggling around to get comfortable. A lump persisted, digging into my spine.
I pulled the mattress up and felt along the wooden pallet. Half a nail stuck out of one of the planks. The wood was split and warped along its length. I pushed the mattress off the pallet and grabbed the end of the plank, straining upwards till, with a mighty crack, a chunk pulled free.
I smacked it into my hands a few times. It wasn’t a baseball bat, but it would do. It would have to.
By the time I had finished, my head was pounding so I lay back down with my weapon hidden under the edge of the mattress. How was I going to get out of this mess?
I wasn’t sure how long I’d been lying there before the door rattled. I grabbed my plank and stood by the door, wiggling my feet till the stance felt right as I raised the wood to the side of my head.
Batter up.
A few seconds later a plate was pushed through a hatch near the bottom of the door.
Hmmmph.
I’d been looking forward to smacking Galanta in the head.
I stared at the food. Without enough light I couldn’t be sure what it was, but its putrid smell was enough to tell me not to eat it.
I drank the water and sat on my mattress and waited for the door to open. I paced the room, running my hands over the walls and yelled till my throat was raw. Another couple of trays turned up, each as foul-smelling as the first.
How long had it been since I’d been captured? Trillania didn’t have days, and time here didn’t correlate to Isilvitania. All I knew was that my stomach grumbled so fiercely that the clumps of meat were starting to smell edible.
The door rattled again, but this time, instead of the noise of the bottom latch working free, I heard a key in the lock. I grabbed the plank and stood by the side of the door. If I hit her hard enough it would be game over. Without her, Santanas’s spirit would be lost.
The door pushed open and a shape too short to be a goblin stepped into the doorway. I swung the bat back, waiting for them to step into the room.
‘Ithadora?’ the small shape lisped as it peered into the darkness.
Friend or foe? I couldn’t be sure. The plank felt heavy in my hands as I stared at the small head.
‘Ithadora? We muth go now if you are to ethcape.’ The voice was low enough to belong to a male.
Escape? I lowered the plank and stepped into the opening of the door.
‘Come,’ the figure beckoned when he saw me. ‘We go.’
He stepped out of the doorway into the light. I tried to follow but an invisible barrier held me in the room. I ran my hands over it and then beat at it, but it would not yield.
‘Come, come,’ he said.
‘I can’t.’ I peered at him. Was he a mudman? Why would a mudman be helping me?
‘Yeth,’ he said. ‘Blood bond cannot hold you. You share blood.’
I stared at him while my frantic mind contemplated his words. And then I got it. It was the fact that I was of his blood that was giving Santanas his current control. But that meant that I already had his blood running in my veins, I didn’t need to taste his at all. His tenuous hold over me had come from my lack of knowledge on the subject. I had thought he had control over me and therefore he did.
Santanas’s blood bond was only effective because I believed it was.
As soon as I realised the truth, I was able to pass through the doorway. I resisted the urge to shout in triumph. Stealth was still better than confrontation.
‘Thank you,’ I said to the mudman. ‘I need to go now.’ The block preventing my return was gone.
‘Wait,’ he said. ‘You muth thee.’
‘See what?’
He didn’t answer but beckoned for me to follow. Was it another trap? I couldn’t be sure. But the little man had rescued me – why I wasn’t sure.
I armed myself and then crept down the passage after him and up a flight of stairs. We wound our way through the castle, eventually exiting a door on the opposite side of the castle from where I had entered.
A large wooden building stood off to the side. A stable or a store house.
I could hear Santanas’s voice booming from within. ‘You served me before. You will again.’
An animal roared its displeasure and light flared from gaps between the wooden logs.
Santanas laughed. ‘You think to harm me? You cannot touch me, dragon.’
I froze in horror. Dragon?
Emerald? I sent my mind out towards the barn and encountered emptiness. She wasn’t there.
‘You muth thave her.’ The mudman tugged on my arm. ‘Your friend.’
I shook my head. ‘No. That’s not my friend.’
‘Yeth,’ he said. ‘Your dragon.’
I sent my mind out to her again, this time flowing through the entire barn. Galanta stood near the side wall and Santanas’s spirit hovered in the doorway. I couldn’t feel Emerald, but I also couldn’t feel any other dragon. Inch-by-inch I scoured the air until I realised what I had been missing. There was a void in the middle of the barn. My mind skated over and around it, but I couldn’t penetrate it.
She’d been here the whole time, trapped in a shield. I beat at it, trying to reach her, but it held firm. I was going to have to free her the old-fashioned way.
The mudman beckoned and led me around the back of the building. He bent down and pointed to where a chunk of wood was missing. I clambered to my knees and pressed my eye against the gap.
Emerald crouched in the middle of the barn. Her lips pulled back from her massive teeth as she spewed fire at Santanas. The shield lit up like a light globe as the fire curled inside it.
‘Yield,’ he yelled, cracking a whip at her.
The tip of the whip lashed the side of her face and she shook her head, her eyes wild with pain. He slashed again and this time the whip gouged a chunk of flesh from her flank.
She roared and poured fire towards him but she didn’t so much as flick a wing.
‘We can do this the easy way, or the hard way,’ he said, cracking the whip in front of her face.
The bond between us yanked tight, squeezing the air from my lungs. I had to help her. I had to save her.
Santanas’s whip had showed me that the shield was one way. If I could get to her, perhaps I could free her, but I was only going to get one go at it.
I nocked an arrow and ran around the side of the building. Bursting through the doors I loosed the arrow at Galanta. She let out a shriek and disappeared from view. It would take her a few seconds to re-orientate herself and get back.
‘Stop.’ Santanas’s voice was laced with power but it no longer had the ability to control me.
All I could see was Emerald, her beautiful body streaked with blood, her majestic head held proudly. The anger in her eyes changed to hope as I sprinted towards her.
I knew as soon as I was through the shield. Our mi
nds collided in a whirl of conversation.
You must leave.
Not without you.
He has bound me with ties you cannot break.
I let my mind roam over her. Invisible bonds bound her wings and her legs.
If I can free you where will you go?
Isilvitania. He cannot reach me there. Not yet.
I reached her side and lay a hand on her flank. She was right. I wasn’t going to be able to break the bonds. Not in time for her to escape.
He comes.
The terror behind her thoughts made my mind up for me. I couldn’t leave her here. I wouldn’t leave her here. I slashed with my mind, ripping the shield into two pieces and tossing them to the side. Then I yanked the bonds off her body and let them flow over mine.
No!
You must go. If he caught her again all would be for naught.
She bent her head and touched her snout against my forehead. A large tear wet the side of my face. Then she stretched her wings and let out a roar and promptly disappeared from view.
I fell to the ground as the bonds tightened fully. They bound my feet together and pinned my arms to my side. Galanta flickered back into view and I smiled at them both as I shut my eyes and willed myself back to my body.
7
When Day Meets Night
I was trapped. I couldn’t move, or open my eyes, or yell for help. I beat at the inside of my body like a person buried alive. But it made no difference.
‘She’s going to be fine. Her energy is strong.’
‘Why is she still unconscious?’
My friend’s voices filtered through my panic.
‘She’s not technically unconscious any more.’ That was Wolfgang.
‘Well, what is the technical name for this?’ Aethan sounded worried. If I could have, I would have smiled.
‘More like a deep sleep.’
Somebody whistled an off-key melody, stopping the eerie tune to ask, ‘What did she do?’
There was silence and I could imagine them all looking toward Wolfgang, waiting for the answer.
What had I done? There’d been a battle. I remembered that.
‘I’m not exactly sure.’ Wolfgang sounded like he was holding something back. ‘I need to talk to her.’
Had I done something bad?
Faery Forged Page 11
