Rako gave him a long look and for a moment I thought he wouldn’t answer. ‘Not that this is any of your concern, but the goblins have been throwing everything they’ve got at the castle for the last few nights.’
It was a given that the Guard would protect the castle down to the last man standing. When the Royal Family dreamt, their initial entry point to Trillania would be in their bedroom. From there they would disappear to wherever their dreams took them.
Not for the first time I felt frustrated that we couldn’t tell them the truth and shield them from coming. But there were two main problems with that. Firstly, the average person would not be able to handle the truth of what danger they were possibly in when they slept. While large areas of Trillania were considered safe, animals that lived off the souls of dreamers did exist. And of course there were the goblins and others of their ilk who trespassed the Land of Dreams. But they normally left the average person alone.
And the second reason that we couldn’t stop them from coming was that they needed to dream. Everybody needed to dream at least once in a while as a release for their subconscious mind. People who didn’t dream, eventually lost their grip on reality and went mad.
‘What’s Galanta up to?’ I didn’t really expect an answer.
‘We don’t know. We haven’t been able to locate her. It’s as if she doesn’t come here any more. Now you three need to get back to wherever you are.’ He looked back at the battle and shook his head. ‘Now the orcs have joined in.’ He pulled his sword and trotted down to join the fight.
‘Come on.’ Aethan grabbed my hand and a second later we were standing outside our tents.
‘Wait,’ I said. ‘Aren’t you curious as to what Galanta is up to?’
‘You heard him,’ Wilfred said, ‘they can’t find her.’
‘Oh she’s here all right.’ I could feel her faintly, a long way south.
‘Surely a little peek couldn’t hurt,’ Wilfred said.
Aethan crossed his arms and for a second I thought he was going to refuse. But then he said, ‘Fine. But we stay out of sight.’
‘No problemo,’ I said, crossing my fingers and hoping that Wolfgang’s blood did the trick. I grabbed their hands and concentrated on the feel of her, making sure that I placed us a good half a mile away. We could walk in from there.
We appeared on a grassy plain that stretched as far as the eye could see. Drums sounded in the night and a large bonfire glowed in the distance. I was glad I’d added the extra distance because I had been expecting to end up in a forest. I’d never encountered her in the open before.
We paused for a few seconds to check all around us before we started walking towards the fire. A few minutes later we were close enough to see the enemy massing on the far side of the bonfire. Whatever was going down tonight was big.
‘Great Dark Sky,’ Aethan whispered. ‘Goblins, dwarves, trolls, orcs, giants and who is that at the back?’
‘I think it’s the vulpines.’
‘Vulpines?’ Not being full faery my eyes weren’t as good as theirs.
‘A tribe of Bedouin fighters from the Middle East. They ride these kick-arse birds.’
‘Great. Airpower.’
The drum beat increased in tempo and a group of goblins shuffled around the fire, chanting and waving their arms.
‘I’m thinking that the fighting at the castle is a diversion,’ I said. ‘To make sure that none of us stumbled onto this.’
‘You could be right,’ Aethan said.
‘Is that Galanta?’ Wilfred pointed at a platform to the left of the fire.
I pushed out with my senses to pinpoint her location. ‘That’s her,’ I said.
As we watched, she rose and slashed her hands to the side. The drum beat and chanting stopped instantly.
‘We need to get closer,’ Aethan whispered.
We dropped to our bellies and started to crawl. Hopefully, with them all staring towards the fire no-one would notice the grass shaking.
‘Welcome,’ Galanta yelled. ‘You are all here because you have heard the rumours. Rumours that the Dark One walks amongst us again.’
A cheer broke out amongst the watchers and the goblins beat the butts of their spears on the ground.
‘Now is the dawning of a new age. Our age. Too long have we been repressed. Too long have the faeries and witches held us at bay.’
She stopped as another bout of cheering broke out.
‘We will rule this land and all who live in it. We will enslave the weakling humans and we will take what is ours.’
Her words sent shivers of fear down my spine. It was everything I had feared. The sheer number of chanting and cheering enemy made my blood run cold. Even with the night faeries we would be outnumbered. We would have to recruit the humans to help, and for them, without a trace of magic, or faery blood to give them strength and speed, it would be a suicide mission.
A battle field filled with human corpses was not my idea of a good time.
‘What’s that?’ Wilfred pointed to the end of the platform where dark air was massing.
‘Santanas.’ I pressed myself down into the grass.
As we watched, the darkness pulsed and whirled, pulling up until a man stood next to Galanta. I’d thought the throng had been excited before, but that was nothing to what they were now. Shrieking and hissing and cheering filled the night. The goblins’ spears beat the ground so hard and fast that the low vibration reached us where we lay.
He put his hands in the air and the noise died down. ‘I welcome you all to my fire. It is good to see so many who have held to the faith. Welcome vulpines, welcome friend dwarves. It has been too long since I have seen you. And you, friend giants, your shadows grace the land. Welcome troll brothers and orcs. May your spears stay strong and true. Welcome goblins, highest of all, for you never gave up the search for me.’
The goblins jumped to their feet, hollering and banging their spears and a drum beat madly for a second.
Santanas waited till their noise had died down before continuing. ‘There is one more amongst us tonight. One more dear to my heart.’ My blood turned to ice as he turned toward where the three of us lay hiding in the grass. ‘Welcome daughter,’ he said. ‘Won’t you join me?’
I couldn’t move, I couldn’t think. His gaze pinned me to the ground. He leapt off the top of the platform, black smoke swirling like a colony of bats as he flew towards me.
A thousand spiders running over me, a hundred snakes wrapped around my limbs, I would have taken them all and gladly, rather than lie frozen, waiting for him to pounce.
Aethan rolled on top of me, breaking the hold of Santanas’s stare. I closed my eyes and he took me with him, back to the campsite and into my body. I woke with a start, sitting bold upright in bed, but all I could see were Santanas’s eyes.
11
Monsters, Monsters Everywhere
It didn’t take them long to get to my tent. I had my arms wrapped tight about my middle and my teeth were chattering when Aethan threw up the flap.
‘What,’ he said, ‘in the name of the Dark Sky was that?’
Wilfred followed him in and said, ‘Daughter?’
‘I’m not,’ I said. ‘I’m his niece, that’s all.’
‘Well would you care to explain why he thinks you’re his daughter.’ I hadn’t seen Aethan look this pissed off since I’d broken his nose that last time.
‘Because I released him from the rock. He thinks I must be his daughter. It’s not true though. There must have been a flaw in the binding spell.’ I had come up with that theory all by myself, but I didn’t tell them that.
‘What is going on in here?’ Isla stuck her head in through the open tent flap. ‘Some of us are trying to keep a watch for bad people. Speaking of which,’ she pointed a finger at me, ‘you’re up.’
I pulled my vest over my tank top while Aethan and Wilfred left the tent. ‘Stay here boy.’ I patted Scruffy on the head and he snuggled back into the blanket.
/> ‘What is that on your head?’ Isla peered at me as I wiggled past her to get out.
‘I had a pimple. Apparently blood’s good for them.’
‘You seemed to have quite a few.’ The look on her face told me she knew I was lying.
‘Heat rash’s a bitch.’
She shook her head. ‘Whatever.’
I felt bad for not telling her the truth, but I knew what would happen if I tried.
I made my way out through the trees and settled back against a trunk. Letting my eyes relax as I stared out away from the camp. The new moon wasn’t throwing out much light. I was going to have to rely on my sense of hearing as well as my eyes.
The next few hours passed too slowly, giving me far too much time to think.
He couldn’t be my father. Could he?
I stared at a shadow. Was that someone moving? I crept towards it to discover a leaf blowing in the breeze.
No. It was ridiculous. I mean, surely Mum would have known.
Something scraped softly at the trunk of a tree. I froze and stared towards the source of the noise. It scraped again and I slunk from tree-to-tree, slowly getting closer to the source of the noise; a badger, digging for grubs.
Why hadn’t Wolfgang’s blood worked against Santanas? Galanta had certainly been surprised we were there.
A hand closed over my shoulder and I let out a low yelp and spun around. Wilfred stood there with a huge grin on his face.
‘You walk like a little girl,’ I whispered, shaking his hand off my arm.
‘Sorry.’ He didn’t look at all sorry. ‘Forgot you’d probably be a bit freaked out after this evening’s events.’
‘Freaked out? I’m not freaked out.’ Much.
‘Anything going on?’
‘There’s a badger over there.’ I pointed in the direction of the nocturnal hunter and for the briefest of seconds two yellow eyes gleamed at me. I shuddered. What was it with the yellow eyes?
‘Cool, I love badgers. Might go check him out.’ He moved off soundlessly towards where I had pointed.
I turned to head back to my tent and walked smack bang into Aethan. His hand wrapped over my mouth in time to muffle my shriek. I took a deep breath as I stared wide-eyed at him. What was it with those two tonight? Were they trying to make me wake everybody up?
My poor heart was still tap dancing when he removed his hand. ‘Anything out there?’ he asked.
‘A big, red bear bothering a badger.’
The night’s shadows made him look dark and mysterious. I stared at his lips, remembering the feel of them on mine, and I realised we were standing only inches apart.
Danger, danger. I was only inches away from making a fool of myself.
But it wasn’t me that closed the gap. It wasn’t me that reached my hands towards his face. I gazed up at him as his lips descended towards mine. And then I closed my eyes and arched my back and… Ebony let out a shriek that would have woken the dead.
‘Buzznuckle.’ Aethan let go of me and turned, racing towards Ebony’s tent.
Samuel was with her by the time we got there. Light from the candle he had lit danced on the walls of the tent. ‘She’s okay,’ he said, looking out the flap at us. ‘It was another nightmare.’
‘A beast.’ She shuddered and started crying. ‘It had yellow eyes, and they spun around and around and it looked like an animal, and then next second it was different.’ Her terrified words tumbled over each other.
Aethan crouched and moved into the tent. I stayed frozen where I was, my shallow breathing matching hers.
‘Get out boy,’ she snapped at Samuel. ‘There’s not enough room in here for you.’
He pushed out past Aethan and met my eyes. We both knew what she was talking about.
I had trouble getting back to sleep. Terror had taken an icy grip on me and I couldn’t push it off. Every time I closed my eyes I saw the retcher or Santanas. Each was as bad as the other.
In the end I sat up, lit a candle, and pulled out the little book I had stolen from the library. It probably wasn’t the best time to read it, with only Scruffy for company and me already scared. But I figured if the animals in it were real, I needed to know about them. And besides, I couldn’t get any more scared than I already was.
Half an hour later I had to concede that I had been wrong about that last bit. Instead, now I had a whole heap more things to be scared of.
Snugalofs that flew through the evening skies, descending to sever your head with their blade-like wings.
Chameleon-like Brolontas that can stand right next to you without you seeing them. They killed by ripping out your throat with their teeth.
The six-toed gurantha that moved like a sloth, unless they were on the hunt. Then they flung themselves from tree-to-tree, faster than a horse could run. They jumped onto their victims’ backs and used their teeth to snap spinal cords.
The list went on-and-on, each page bringing a new type of death. I was still awake when the sun came up, happier than ever to see the gentle rays of light.
‘You look like shit,’ Isla said when I crawled out of my tent. She was obviously still pissed about the night before.
‘Look like shit, feel like shit,’ I mumbled, staggering past her.
Brent took one look at my face and handed me a coffee. I thanked him and sat on a log with my eyes closed while I sipped the bitter brew. Maybe I could sleep while riding Lily. I doubted I would ever sleep at night again.
A shadow blocked the warmth of the sun’s rays and I opened my eyes to see Aethan watching me. He met my eyes and then turned away, running his hands through his hair. He did that when he was agitated. Was he regretting nearly kissing me last night?
I sighed and closed my eyes again. It was one more thing I would spend the day trying not to think about.
‘How far are we travelling today?’ Ebony, for all her days in the saddle and a night of broken sleep, still looked perfect. How did she do it?
‘We need to get to the other side of the Thorn Forest.’
‘We can’t camp in it?’
‘We most certainly cannot.’
I opened my eyes and stared at Aethan. It was unlike him to speak so sternly, especially when she hadn’t even started getting annoying.
‘It is imperative we make it out the other side before sunset.’
‘What happens if we don’t?’
There was a beat of silence during which Isla, Ebony and I all stared at him while the others busied themselves with departure preparations. It looked like the girls were the only ones not in the know.
‘Ghouls,’ he finally said.
Ghouls? I wracked my brain for what the book had said about them. Wraith-like creatures that emerged from the ground after dark. Their merest touch would rip your soul from your body.
And then the true horror of what his words meant hit me and I had to stop myself from gibbering in terror. I already knew that retchers were real. So if ghouls existed as well, then the probability that every damned creature in that book was real had just increased.
‘You don’t look so good.’ Luke handed me a hard biscuit.
I sighed, and tapped it against my metal mug. We had run out of fresh food the night before. ‘Didn’t sleep well.’
I gave Scruffy his portion of the beef jerky as well as my own. He chewed contentedly while I folded down the tent and packed my things onto Lily.
‘Come on boy.’ I picked him up and swung into the saddle, settling him on Lily’s rump behind me.
‘How far till we get out of Thorn Forest?’ Isla’s face showed the tension I’m sure mine did.
‘We haven’t reached it yet,’ Aethan said. ‘By my calculations we’re still about an hour from the start.’
We rode for the next hour and then another before we could see the trees thickening at the foot of the next hill.
‘Thorn Forest,’ Aethan said when Ebony pointed a dainty hand at it.
It took us another thirty minutes to get to the start of i
t. We halted and rested and watered the horses.
‘Maybe we should wait,’ Aethan said. The sun had only risen a couple of hand spans above the horizon.
‘I’ll die of boredom if we have to stay here all day.’ Ebony tossed her braid back behind her shoulders and put her hands on her hips. The movement made her breasts bulge over the top of her dress.
‘You’ll die if we end up in there after dark.’
She pouted and then chewed on her bottom lip, worry shadowing her brilliant eyes.
‘Do we have enough food to stay the day here?’ Brent asked.
‘We’ll have to decrease our rations.’
An arrow thudded into a tree trunk a foot from Wilfred’s head. ‘Take cover,’ he yelled, diving to the other side of the tree.
Wild cackling came from the same direction as the arrow. A wiry man wearing only a loin cloth flicked the end of his beard over his shoulder and sighted along another arrow.
This one landed next to Aethan’s foot. He swept Ebony up and threw her onto her hagon. Then he tossed the reins up to where Samuel already sat on his brown mare. Samuel wheeled his horse and dragged Ebony’s hagon into the forest behind him.
‘Stop that,’ Wilfred yelled, aiming an arrow at the old man.
‘Or what?’ The man laughed as he capered from bare-foot-to-bare-foot. ‘You’ll shoot me?’
‘Too right I will.’ Wilfred released the arrow.
It flew true towards the man but at the last second he shimmered and it passed right through him. He waved his hand and the arrow curved back towards us. It split into two, then four, then six arrows.
Shrieking, I threw myself to the ground over Scruffy as one of the arrows whizzed through where I had been standing. I looked around and saw everyone else, except Wolfgang, in the same position I was. He had a shield held in front of him.
‘Bugger off,’ the man yelled. ‘I live here.’
‘Good sir,’ Wolfgang called out, ‘you are obviously a wizard of great strength and talent. We do not tarry because we want to live here. We wish to enter Thorn Forest with a whole day of travel ahead of us.’
‘I don’t care.’ He giggled as he talked. ‘This is my home. And what I say goes.’
Faery Forged Page 19
