“Probably the one marked with the Medal of Honor ribbon.”
“My dad uses somebody's Medal of Honor as a bookmark?”
“His library matters to him. He likes bookmarks that mattered to somebody. Try reading the song.”
“This is a good time for music lessons?”
“Bardic magic is some impressive stuff. I don't have the knack, but you do. And I've known some other bards, so ...”
"You've known some... how old are you, anyway?"
"As old as the trees... well, as old as some young trees. But totally trees that count as trees. Not saplings anymore."
"I'm sorry I asked.”
Megan looked at the words and notes on the marked page and began carefully singing them. The words weren't that hard to pronounce at all, once she got into the groove of it. She almost felt like she knew what they meant, even though she didn't speak the language at all. It felt somewhere between a lullaby and a work-song. When she finally looked at Justin, Megan thought for a moment that he was going to fall asleep as the expression on his face shifted. Trying to analyze it, it took her a minute to realize she hadn't yet seen him when he wasn't in pain.
With a little more singing, while her leg remained swollen and scratched, the intensity of the wounds decreased, not looking as angry. The pain also lessened considerably. Lani didn't just look more relaxed: when the pain eased, she started to drift off almost right away.
“Are there going to be a lot more of these music lessons?” Megan asked Ashling.
“You bet!”
“So what's the first rule of barding?”
“Providing excellent protection to your horse,” Ashling replied immediately.
“Huh?”
“The second rule is a lot more helpful,” Ashling acknowledged. “That's about inspiration.”
The walk was much easier after that. Not being chased certainly helped. Their first encounter with the dogs initially put Megan on edge, but Justin just walked up, extending a hand. The lead hound sniffed at him, then bounded away, followed by the rest of his pack. After that, there were no more difficulties, and no other packs approached them.
When they finally reached the unfordable river, the makeshift ramp Cassia had laid on the Hounds' side of the bridge had been knocked over. Megan took a deep breath and reminded herself that Cassia was probably fine. She also had to remind herself that they hadn't run out on her and the cats. Megan didn't want to have run out on anyone.
As they carefully clutched the ropes and inched their way across the bridge, Megan looked up enough to notice smoke in the distance. Not a lot and not very far.
“What do you think that is?” she asked.
“Campfire, maybe,” said Justin, moving carefully along the ropes, taking twice as long as the girls due to his injury, but looking glad to not be swimming.
From there, it didn't take long to find the source of the smoke. Cassia and the cats had settled on the far bank and made a small camp. All of them looked the worse for their earlier encounter, still scratched and bruised, but alive. The chariot looked the worst of all. When they first walked into camp, Cassia was working on replacing a broken axle with limited luck. "I'll fix it tonight." Lani offered.
Cassia grinned wide, leaping to her feet and limping over to give Lani a hug, then Megan. "Gently." Lani groaned, clutching at her side again. Both cats rose, Jude heavily favoring a front leg as they made their way over to nose at the girls and greet them as well.
After the hugs, Cassia looked at Justin. "And who is this? What have you girls been up to? What's with the costume? Do I need to get out some fives?"
Lani sighed, but Justin just glanced at her oddly at the stream of questions. "Justin of Ludlow," he replied, with a slightly awkward bow. "You're wounded. The packs?"
Cassia grinned. "Nothing you can't kiss and make better, handsome." That time, Justin blushed brightly. Cassia took the opportunity to press her momentary advantage and looked to Megan. "You know what they say about Ludlow boys, right?"
"That they're very responsible and hardworking," Lani interrupted, narrowing her eyes at Cassia, moving to rest a hand on Justin's shoulder. "Especially by people who want their chariot fixed."
Cassia sighed. "Yes, yes. That was it. Very hardworking."
“So what was your plan for now, Justin?” Megan asked, eager to change the subject.
“My original plan was to go home, hear people cheer, see the Lords Appellant quake in their expensive and overly clean boots, and be set for life. Now, it's to fulfill my agreement with the Queen by putting the sword in the stone, and then…figure out what happens next.”
“I don't see how the sword's going to help us save Ric if we stick it in a rock,” Cassia pointed out.
“It'll be fine,” Megan insisted. “We'll do the deal and then use it to save my dad. We can't leave Justin stuck here.” She settled in by the fire to enjoy her first hot food in some time and to read through the music book more for as long as there was light, occasionally asking Ashling questions. The pixie always answered, but in her typical fashion. Nonetheless, Megan was pretty sure she was getting the general idea.
Lani examined the chariot, making notes, and then had food before a long nap, not trying to do any work while people were awake. Cassia and Justin talked over dinner. Megan didn't catch much of it, but there was some discussion of swordplay and life in other centuries—in between Cassia trying to draw more blushing, and Justin fending off the feigned advances.
Finally, Megan settled in to sleep, as did the others, with Lani waking up to go to work on the chariot.
They were awakened by Maxwell's warning snarl, Jude joining in moments later. Megan clambered to her unsteady feet, looking around for the disturbance. Her first impression in the dim light of early morning was of a small, glowing ball of light floating nearby. A rustle and splash drew her eyes to the water's edge, where a tall, gangly woman with grayish-green skin was crawling from the water. Another look to the trees, and she saw a handful of things Ashling's size, but with moth-like wings, and distinct malice in their eyes, each armed with little knitting-needle-like swords. One more noise drew her eyes to the other side of camp as realization set in: they were surrounded.
Then her eyes settled on a familiar face: the baseball cap, the jagged grin, and the eyes. As the redcap advanced on her, flanked by two others, Megan froze in terror.
Chapter 26: Much Obliged
"We're here to escort you," the redcap in the ‘49ers hat said, taking a few more steps towards Megan. "To make sure that sword gets where it belongs." Megan couldn't help but notice, now that she was seeing the faerie things for what they really were, that the bat looked a lot more metallic, with numerous spikes along its length.
"You'll forgive me, Peadar, if I don't exactly trust you," Cassia snarled at him, the two cats moving to her side.
"Awww, what's the matter, Cass? Don't like even odds?" he sing-songed back. "Just come along quietly. We're not here to hurt you."
The moth-winged things looked between each other, and the sound of wind whispering through the trees arose again. Megan guessed that they may have either been surprised about the 'not hurting' part, or were amending it to "Yet." Cassia was back-talking without hesitation, but the whole group was injured, and Megan still couldn't move.
Then she heard a whispered song in her ear, hints of a tune. Fixating on the music, she hummed the music Ashling was feeding her, and the fear lessened. She hummed louder, quickly drawing the attention of the creatures around them, and Peadar forgot about Cassia to focus entirely on Megan. This time, with the music reverberating in her mind, she stared right back at him, then stepped forward. This time, it was the redcap who retreated a step.
The hesitation didn't last long. He snarled, raised the weapon, and rushed at her. There was movement to one side and a flash of blue as Peadar swung the spiked club. When Megan's brain caught up with events, Justin was standing between her and Peadar, and the Claiomh Solais had cleaved direct
ly through the redcap's weapon.
The Jenny Greenteeth hissed and started forward, then stopped when Justin turned to point the flaming sword at her. The other redcaps tensed, then backed away on finding Cassia and the cats alike growling at them. The whispering in the wind picked up. Megan looked towards the group of not-pixies, who seemed to be directing their magics, as far as she could tell. For a moment, they looked intently at Justin and his sword, gesturing towards him, then looked at each other, confused, when their magic seemed to wash over him without effect.
Louder this time, Ashling hummed a different tune in Megan's ear, one recognizable from the music book. Megan picked it up, singing the words this time, and gestured. All three of the moth-winged things were lifted out of their tree branch by a sudden, fierce breeze and carried back into the woods.
"Who sent you?" Cassia asked Peadar as the rest of the Unseelie gang backed away.
"Can't tell you. Sworn to secrecy," he responded, not backing away like the others, but not looking nearly as threatening anymore either.
Megan glanced at the will o' wisp, which was drifting back into the woods. "I have a guess. I suppose you can't tell us where you planned to escort us, either?"
"Couldn't tell you if I wanted to," he replied, standing his ground even as the hag slipped back into the water.
"We don't need an escort, and we know where we're going," She had a brief impulse to tell Justin or Cassia to hit him, to get the point across, before another thought hit, admiring his conviction. She settled on, "Get out of here."
To her surprise, the redcap nodded, reaching down to pick up the other half of his club and backing away. "Sure. We just wanted to make sure you got there safe and sound. Look like you've got a handle on it," Then his grin returned. "No hard feelings?"
Megan's first thought was of her father's words, 'distinctly not idea people.' She nodded back, surprising herself a little at her own choice of words. "No hard feelings." She was more surprised that she felt entirely sincere about it. "But you owe me one."
She was even more surprised at his response, especially in light of what she'd heard about the weight of favors here. Instead of more snarling and posturing, he bowed deeply to her. "You've got it, Highness," He glanced around at the other redcaps and the moth-winged things starting to peek their heads back out. "Come on, you cowardly bastards, let's go."
When Megan looked back around at the others, she noticed Lani, in particular, staring incredulously. "Did that just happen?"
"I'm...actually not sure," Megan responded, a little confused, with more time to process, but suddenly feeling a lot less hurt, and a lot more confident in their mission.
Justin sheathed the sword and moved to Megan's right side. "Thank you. I'm not sure what you did with their magic, but..."
"That wasn't her," Cassia said. "That's one of the things the sword is all about. How do you think those heroes of old Ireland stood up against sorcerers and Fomoire and all sorts of magical this-and-thats? You're not invulnerable—but a few sprite tricks aren't going to slow you down. Oh, and you should see what it does to undead things."
"Undead?" Megan said.
"Don't worry," Cassia said. "I can outrun them."
"That's... actually not very reassuring," Megan told her.
Cassia hooked the cats up to her chariot, now not only working, but scratch-free. "Sure it is. I feel much better." She helped Lani up onto the chariot with her, whether out of thanks for the repairs, or because she still had the worst injuries wasn't clear.
In preparation for the trip, the Count landed on Megan's shoulder, Ashling dismounting and crawling around the back of her neck to sit on Megan's other shoulder. "Besides, no one has seen any undead things in forever. There's some cults with necromantic leanings here and there around the world, but they're probably harmless. And I guess there might be a vampire or two in Washington D.C., but that's just kind of a given, right?" the pixie said.
"You're no help either," Megan replied, before setting off after Cassia and the chariot, with the others close behind.
After a few more miles of travel, Justin turned, heading off the path and deeper into the woodlands.
"The castle is this way." Lani pointed.
"We're not going to the castle," Justin said. "The stone's this way.”
Lani and Megan exchanged a glance, then Megan turned to follow. A moment later, Cassia turned the chariot and moved to follow as well.
As they walked, Ashling started muttering. For some time, and a few miles, Megan didn't pay it much mind. Then she heard the strangest thing she'd heard yet from Ashling—at least given what she knew of the pixie. "Huh... I'm not even sure where this is."
Cassia apparently heard her, too. “Well, if we get ambushed again, our hardworking young man can apparently handle things with one hand tied against his side,” she said, grinning.
Justin just stared straight ahead. “There it is,” he said, heading for a very small clearing. In it was a gray stone, perfectly cylindrical, sitting on the ground.
“Well, Justin, get the sword in the rock so we can get on with the rest of the job,” said Megan. “Matters of life and death and all.”
As Justin nodded and drew the blade, Ashling suddenly spoke hurriedly, even by Ashling standards. “Megan, I just remembered where this is, and that's not a rock. I've only ever come here with the Unseelie King, and...”
“Ashling, I'm sure it's a great story with a lot of interesting definitions, but let Justin finish his deal first.”
And in a flurry of white and blue sparks, Justin stabbed the blade into the stone.
Chapter 27: Flame War
For a moment, nothing happened, and Justin reached for the sword again. Before he could take hold of it, blue flame shot upward from the stone, shooting high into the air. Surprised, Justin staggered back. As the flame lowered, a shockwave rippled out from the stone, the outer edge ringed with blue flame. Megan dove just in time, and even then, the force rolled her backwards. Justin landed next to her, stunned and groaning, but at least still moving. The others ended up scattered around the clearing, with Cassia catching and shielding Lani with her body before they crashed into a tree. Ashling and the Count both went tumbling much further, disappearing back into the woods.
As Megan watched, blue flames licked across the surface of the stone, etching ancient Celtic symbols in the facing surface. Even after the flames passed each symbol, continuing to write something across the stone, the symbols still flickered with occasional sparks or tiny tongues of flame. Megan couldn't make out the writing, but even from where she was, could feel power and heat radiating off of the stone.
“What did that just do?” Megan asked, trying to clear her head while looking around for signs of Ashling.
“Exactly what I needed it to,” said a clear-ringing voice. Orlaith, accompanied by her General, a dozen of the sidhe knights, and twice as many brownies, stepped into the clearing from the other side. A host of pixies—Megan couldn't say how many glimmers that was—emerged from the woods, settling into the trees around the edges.
“It will fuel the balefires,” the Queen continued. “A constant, dependable energy source will keep them burning, keep the paths clear and safe. We don't need detours for maintenance. We don't need Unseelie tricks to stoke them. We will never need the Unseelie to run anything again. Now that it's obsolete, I am canceling the Dance, this year and forever."
"Canceling the Dance?" Lani was the next to speak. "That's insane. Do you realize what that will do to Earth?"
Orlaith turned her head, glancing at Lani for a few moments before answering. "Earth will survive. As soon as stability is ensured, we'll see what we can do to help mitigate any damage. We must look to the good of Faerie, first."
Cassia was next, half-growling her words as she pulled herself up to stand behind Lani. "You're asking for war. The Unseelie aren't going to stand for this."
"The Unseelie are a nuisance. They are a mess. They are a prison mob that that is all
owed to run loose year after year. I am choosing to end the cycle and keep things in the hands of those of us who know what we're doing."
"By shoving a flaming sword into your delicately-balanced system?" Megan interjected.
"I can control it," was Orlaith's slow, almost staccato reply. "It can be controlled."
"But ... but won't there be a huge fight?" Megan asked.
"Here's hoping," said Cassia.
The queen just smiled. "Who knows? There are a few Unseelie who can see reason sometimes," she said with a cryptic lightness. "As for the rest, how would they become informed and organized before Samhain? Even if they did, we have the upper hand until then—and now we always will."
“When my dad went missing in the first place… ” Megan began.
“I may have mentioned how very, very impressive an Ellén Trechend would be for the Samhain feast at the ball. I may have mentioned that it was just possible for a sufficiently skilled and dashing hunter to bring in such a trophy from the Winter Marches before the paths even shifted. And then, certain reasonable people may have done what they found necessary.”
The words echoed a bit as Megan heard them. Her brain scrambled to the last time she heard a phrase like that, and the wince on her face took on several different aspects. She struggled to listen, her heart pounding with anger, hurt, and confusion, to the Queen's next declaration.
“Justin of Ludlow,” Orlaith said. “Our deal is done. You are under no further geasa.”
“Guess what?” Megan asked automatically, little though she was in the mood for another vocabulary lesson. Ashling still didn't pop up to give one, anyway.
“She doesn't have any other jobs for me before I go home,” Justin, still bowing slightly, explained in the careful tone of a boy who realizes he's pleased some very dangerous people and accidentally upset others.
“Exactly,” Orlaith said. “Ludlow is still lovely this time of year, crumbling castle walls and all. Admittedly, right now that particular path would be especially…” She glanced at the sword and the blue-sparking conduit. “…hot. Uncomfortably so.”
Foul is Fair Page 12
