The Tattered Lands

by Barbara Ann Wright

On the second floor, Camilla barred the way. She had her hands on her hips, but she didn’t seem angry. If anything, she looked radiantly happy, a wide smile on her bright lips.

  “Clever Lilani. I won’t ever let it be said that you lacked intelligence.”

  Lilani took a few steps closer. Maybe if she swung the pylon piece like a club, she could drive Camilla into the kitchen. She couldn’t shroud; she wanted Camilla to see the threat. Besides, they’d be able to tell where she was while she held the piece, just as their taint gave them away.

  Lilani’s heart pounded as she went through her options. She clung to the wall, trying to come at Camilla from the side and doing her best to ignore the others. There was no way this was going to work.

  Camilla hadn’t lost her smile, though her wince increased the closer Lilani came. Her eyes were almost slits, turning her smile into a grimace, as if the top and bottom halves of her face weren’t communicating anymore.

  “Turn around, and put that rock back where you found it,” Camilla said.

  Lilani didn’t bother to reply. Could Camilla stand the pain long enough to knock the piece out of Lilani’s hands? No, she would have done it by now. Lilani’s gaze flicked past Camilla to the stairs, to freedom. Her breath came faster, and she could feel the dread surrounding the tattered seelie creeping in on her, smothering her. Soon, they would leap, or Camilla would rush her.

  Behind Camilla, Lilani saw a slight waver in the darkened stairway, a hint of fractured light. It could have been a shimmer of heat from the torches, but what if it wasn’t? Lucian shrouded so well, she normally couldn’t see him, so who…

  Camilla shrieked and lurched sideways, her hands flying to a wound that bloomed in her side. She clasped pale hands over the flow of blood, and as she tottered out of the way, Lilani leapt past, following the shimmer down the stairs. She heard steps behind her and spun, swinging the pylon piece. A host of seelie fell back, one flickering into view after he’d shrouded.

  Someone pulled Lilani backward, and she let an invisible hand guide her down the steps. Her own magic rose over her, summoned by fear, shrouding her. The door to the outside stood open. Lucian leaned against the doorjamb. As they locked gazes, he stepped outside, and the shimmer ran past him. After Lilani followed, Lucian slammed the door shut, and Faelyn blinked into view. He slipped his knife through the door handle, the blade catching against the bricks, barring it from this side. It wouldn’t hold for long, but Lilani nearly wept with joy.

  There wasn’t time to throw her arms around Faelyn. She ducked under Lucian’s arm to help him walk, still holding the pylon piece. When Faelyn took Lucian’s other arm, they all shrouded together.

  “This way!” Faelyn said. “Down the path.”

  Lilani braced herself and smiled. The tattered seelie would be through the door in moments, and they had so much dangerous territory to hike through, but they were together. They could keep one another safe. She hadn’t given in to despair before; she was not going to start now when escape was so close.

  “By the elders!” Faelyn said, anger roughening his voice. “Where did those fool humans go?”

  “Humans?” Lilani’s hopes soared further. “Vandra?”

  Light exploded from their right, toward the bottom of the craggy hill. A fireball raced through the mist, blowing it away like cobwebs. Hot air rushed over Lilani, making her stagger.

  “Come on.” Faelyn tugged them down the path as if he knew that any explosion must be a good sign.

  Lilani grinned. If the explosion was because of Vandra, then the light from before had been Vandra’s doing also. Lilani had been right. Vandra and Faelyn weren’t an army, but the fact that they’d come for her meant everything in the world.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Vandra shielded her eyes from the flames. As with the pylon, the peat had flared quickly, reflecting off the fog of the tattered lands and suffusing the area with much-needed light. Crashing and shrieking echoed around them as tattered creatures fled, and even the fog seemed to pull away. Vandra grinned, happy to do some damage to this horrible place. With the right alchemical combinations and a controlled burn, could they actually drive the tattered lands back?

  A thought to put away for later.

  Vandra and the twins crouched behind one of the jagged rocks that shielded the watchtower. The bubble that their magical stones created in the mist no doubt gave away their position, but who would be looking at them while the ground was on fire?

  “When they come out, we grab Lilani and run,” Fieta said.

  “Not without Faelyn,” Pietyr added.

  Fieta tightened her grip on her spear. “We can come back for him!”

  Vandra poked them both. “If the seelie don’t bring out their hostages, we’ll sneak into the watchtower and grab them in the confusion.”

  That shut them both up, though it also made their task ten times more difficult.

  Frowning, Fieta nodded. “Okay, we’ll go in the front door, grab them, then run out the door into the ruin.”

  “Right,” Pietyr said. “Their invisibility won’t help them as much in that jumble.”

  Vandra was glad they were thinking strategically. As soon as she’d said Lilani’s name, all Vandra could think about was having her safe again.

  “Look!” Fieta whispered.

  On the path from the watchtower, the mist whirled, just what they’d been waiting for: the sign of someone moving while invisible. Vandra tensed, but the disturbance didn’t seem large enough to contain a cadre of enemies. Vandra fought the urge to swear. If the enemy seelie had sent scouts while the rest of them remained in the watchtower, this plan was over before it had begun.

  “Wait,” Pietyr tugged on Fieta’s shoulder. “There’s a bubble.”

  Vandra squinted. More than eddies, this invisible group seemed to have a small void around it, just like Vandra and the twins. And since the enemy seelie would no doubt be uncomfortable in the presence of the stones she’d made…

  She stood. “Faelyn!”

  Fieta and Pietyr reached for her at the same time, shushing her, then they stood, too, as Faelyn appeared, holding up Lucian, and on Lucian’s other arm…

  “Lilani!” Every smidge of awkwardness or embarrassment Vandra had ever felt vanished. All she could think of was the wasted time between when they’d last seen each other and now. Worry and fear and hope and relief mixed up within her, and she couldn’t have stopped her feet if she’d tried.

  Lilani smiled even as her eyes filled with tears. She ducked out from under Lucian, gave him a large stone she’d been carrying, then opened her arms. Vandra rushed into her embrace and reached up, tilting her head down so their lips could meet in a kiss that pushed the tattered lands back further.

  Lilani’s magical field covered Vandra in a thousand tiny caresses. She slid her hands into Lilani’s hair as their kiss deepened. Vandra leaned in to the silly, sentimental, wonderful thought that this was everything she’d ever been missing. Lilani’s grip tightened, revealing her own need.

  Faelyn pulled them apart. “Time to run, young lovers. They are right behind us.”

  “Ri…right.” Vandra nodded and beat her thoughts back into order. Without Lilani wrapped around her, some embarrassment and fear trickled back in, and she didn’t dare look at the faces around her, not wanting to see grins. “Running, not kissing.”

  Lucian seemed incapable of walking on his own, Faelyn had a wound in his side, and when Vandra made herself look somewhere besides Lilani’s beautiful eyes, she noted the bruises and dried blood flecking Lilani’s ears and neck. They were all hurt, the enemy was probably steps away, and the fire was fading.

  But by the gods, she wanted another kiss.

  Fieta turned her around, muttering about lovesick morons. “Let’s move!”

  Pietyr took the lead, following their own tracks back toward the pylons. Fieta walked behind them, guarding the way. Vandra ducked under Lucian’s arm with Faelyn since Faelyn was wounded, and she didn’t tr
ust herself next to Lilani.

  “What happened to you?” Vandra asked softly. “We saw the blood near the door.”

  “A trap,” Faelyn said. “I was trying to get someone inside to open the door, thinking that if I could lure an enemy out, I could sneak in.” He grimaced. “I stood well back, but a tiny blade shot from the door and gouged me in the side. If I was any closer, it would have impaled me. I was so surprised I dropped my shroud, but luckily, Lucian opened the door.”

  Lilani gasped from Lucian’s other side. “Wait, was that you scratching?”

  “I was trying to sound suspicious enough to be investigated but not threatening enough to bring reinforcements.”

  Lilani grumbled in seelie before she said, “I heard you, but I thought it was some tattered creature. If I’d let you in then, we could have escaped nearly unnoticed!”

  He barked a laugh. “No matter.”

  “Still—” Lilani started.

  “It’s all right,” Vandra said, wanting to hug her. “You did well, Lilani. We’re free.”

  Across Lucian’s body, Lilani gave her a glorious smile.

  Lucian said something in seelie, and Faelyn chuckled. “He says we should save our breath.” He shifted, and Vandra helped him adjust Lucian’s weight across both their shoulders.

  They moved well at the moment, but that couldn’t last. The border was too far away, the enemy seelie too close. They couldn’t possibly make it. As the mounting dread made her stumble, Vandra’s suspicions rose. She’d felt this abnormal fear before, at the monarchs’ ball.

  Were the enemy seelie closing, or had they already surrounded Vandra’s party, waiting for the chance to strike? Vandra glanced to the side, trying to spot telltale eddies in the mist, but her own hurried progress made too much of a disturbance.

  “They’re here,” Lilani said, the words almost a whisper.

  Vandra felt a rush of air, then something heavy slammed against her shoulders. She stumbled along with Faelyn. Lucian toppled forward, and the weight was enough to drag Vandra and Faelyn to the ground. Vandra struggled upward in time to see Lilani swinging the glowing piece of syndrium.

  Fieta was on one knee, twirling her spear in a wide arc. “Go, Van!”

  “Where? The worst thing we can do is split up!”

  “I felt someone move,” Pietyr said as he pulled in tighter to the rest of them, his weapon moving in a defensive arc like Fieta’s.

  They couldn’t stand there waiting for invisible opponents to find a way through their defenses. Faelyn pulled out one of his stones. He caught Vandra’s eye, then vanished.

  She gasped. Was he taking the fight to the enemy? Going for help?

  Pietyr, Fieta, and Lilani formed a defensive triangle around Vandra and Lucian, though Lucian looked ready to wring someone’s neck if they got within range. On the edge of their bubble, something whistled through the air, parting the mist before smacking against an invisible foe. An enemy seelie blinked into view, crying out in pain as one of the magical stones dropped at their feet. Fieta grunted and threw her spear, sticking the enemy seelie in the chest. He sank to the ground, hands wrapped around the shaft.

  “Your weapon, idiot!” Pietyr yelled.

  “At least I killed one.” She drew a knife from her belt.

  So, Faelyn was aiming for the enemy. And now their bubble was a little wider. The enemy seelie didn’t seem to want to stay within its protection. Otherwise, they could have overwhelmed Vandra and the rest within seconds.

  Unless the enemy was simply toying with her. She gritted her teeth. She needed time, needed to keep the enemy seelie at bay, or needed to create some room. Faelyn couldn’t keep throwing stones. He’d run out; she’d have to give him more, then they’d have to worry about the enemy seelie and the tattered lands itself. But what else repelled the tattered lands and everything in it?

  Fire.

  Vandra swung her pack around and pulled out several pouches, a bottle of oil, and some matches. She emptied the pouches, scattering herbs to the wind, and stuffed two pouches into one before dribbling oil inside. She tied it loosely, lit a match, and dropped that inside, too. It flared to life, but before the fire could penetrate the outer pouch and burn her, she flung it into the mist, hoping Faelyn wasn’t in its path.

  She rubbed her hand. Even with the thick leather, she’d still held fire in her palm, and she felt the tingle of a mild burn, but the pain disappeared as fire bloomed in the peaty ground of the tattered lands. This time, several enemy seelie cried out at once. The mist billowed away from the flames, and another enemy appeared. It was a shame Fieta no longer had her spear.

  Faelyn appeared next to them, Fieta’s spear in hand. Pietyr waved him into their circle, but he shook his head. “Now, while they’re distracted, run!”

  They ran together, Pietyr keeping them on track. Vandra lit another fire pouch and threw it in their wake, but she only had materials for one more. As soon as the enemy seelie went around the fire, Vandra and her friends would be in the same situation as before.

  Lilani shoved the glowing syndrium piece into Vandra’s arms so she could better help Lucian. Vandra tucked the piece under her arm and fumbled through prepping her last fire pouch. When should she use it? How far were they from the border? Terror kept trying to beat past her reason, and soon it would win.

  In the lead, Pietyr fell. Vandra stuffed the unlit fire pouch in her pocket and raced around Lucian, reaching for Pietyr, Fieta beside her. He rolled on the ground, clutching his leg with his free hand while still trying to swing his blade at an invisible foe. Fieta leapt in front of him while Vandra dropped the syndrium piece and fell to her knees at his side.

  “Let me look, let me look,” she said, trying to still him so she could see past the blood and the mist and the fear. Oh gods, there were arteries in the leg, tendons that if destroyed meant the leg was now useless, but he wouldn’t be still, and she couldn’t see, and dread was choking her until she could barely breathe.

  Fieta pitched forward, grunting as someone struck her. Her feet tipped up, and she landed on her shoulders. Vandra tried to stand up and pull Pietyr with her. If she could get the twins together, she could fix them both at the same time.

  Rough hands grabbed her, spinning her around. Her jacket pulled around her tightly, balled in an invisible grip. She fumbled for her pocket and drew a magic stone. The grip released her, and a pale seelie appeared, hands raised to shield their face as they stumbled away.

  “Draw your stones!” Vandra shouted. “Get—”

  “Vandra!”

  Vandra spun. Lilani reached for her. She had no stones, needed Vandra to protect her. Everyone needed her. Another enemy seelie appeared in front of Vandra and staggered back from the glow of her stone. She could make a space that—

  A long blade flicked past her shoulder and sliced the back of her hand. Her fingers clenched as she cried out, and the stone dropped to the ground. She flew backward, yanked with such force that the pain of her hand faded as she slammed into the ground. The air rushed from her lungs, and she struggled to breathe, to see past the spots dancing in her vision.

  A seelie pale as death smiled down at her.

  * * *

  Lilani darted for Vandra, shrouding as she went. She hit the tattered seelie who stood over Vandra and knocked him off balance. Faelyn knelt between the twins, but he could do little more than cradle them. On the ground, Lucian grabbed two of Vandra’s stones and was holding them as if to bash in the skulls of anyone who reached for him.

  But no one did. They were going to be captured, not killed, so Camilla could use them against Lilani.

  “No!” Lilani reached for Vandra, but Vandra flailed in her grasp, unable to tell one invisible opponent from another. “It’s me! Where is the pylon piece?”

  “Lilani? I dropped it.”

  Lilani spotted its glow at Pietyr’s side. She darted for it, keeping hold of Vandra, not willing to let her go again. When Vandra wrenched back, Lilani’s hand slipped free as
Vandra lifted clear from the ground.

  “Let’s see you, lovely Lilani,” Camilla’s voice said.

  Vandra reached into one pocket with a bleeding hand, but as she drew a stone free, her wrist twisted to the side, finger-sized dimples appearing in her flesh. She cried out in agony, and the stone fell from her grasp.

  “Let her go, Camilla,” Lilani said as her shroud dropped, though her magic still roared around her.

  Camilla appeared, one hand holding Vandra aloft by the back of her neck, and the other grasping her wrist. Camilla breathed hard, and she seemed even paler, if that was possible. Blood soaked through a hasty looking bandage wound around her. Yet her smile hadn’t faded. Her gaze flicked past Lilani’s shoulder, and her fingers tightened around Vandra’s neck, making Vandra wheeze and scratch at Camilla’s hand.

  “Faelyn, Lucian, please, stay still.” Lilani could barely breathe; she wanted Vandra’s pain to stop. They could surrender now and live. They’d escaped once. They could do it again.

  Camilla’s laughter sounded as pure as ever, even in this blasted place, even with all the blood and horror, yet Lilani wondered if there was anything inside her that could be saved. She set Vandra down and snaked an arm around her. “Back up,” Camilla said.

  Lilani stepped back to stand even with Faelyn. He’d managed to drag the twins together. Pietyr was still awake, hands curled around his bloody leg, but Fieta’s eyes were closed, and a line of blood flowed out of her hair and down her temple. Two more seelie appeared on either side of Lucian but kept out of reach. He’d managed to stand and still held his stones. Camilla would have a hard time convincing him to put them down.

  The pylon piece lay beside Pietyr, but Camilla could snap Vandra’s neck before Lilani could grab it, before Faelyn or Pietyr could throw it, before anything. Lilani fought the urge to sob, to roar, to fling herself at Camilla and make this all end.

  “Now,” Camilla said. “Lilani, you and I, and this one”—she shook Vandra—“are going to the pylons. Anyone else who can walk is welcome to come along.”