Jesse peered at the plants, stroking her chin, and then walked a few paces further on. She pointed at the bushes. ‘Here. Start cutting here. It’s a little thinner.’
‘A little?’ Ramona asked.
Jesse gave a small wince. ‘Uh, yeah. This isn’t going to be easy.’
Trudy lifted her machete. ‘Well, hard work never scared off a grey. Let’s get on with the hacking.’
~~~
Evidence of the city around them was scarce. Tangleroots had done its best to infiltrate the suburbs and ensure that as much as possible was thoroughly demolished. Using the road had turned out to be a very good idea since the buildings around it had sometimes had cellars, and many of those were now pits, partially filled with rubble and dirt. The undergrowth was thick in those buildings and spotting the fact that you were about to fall down a hole was not easy, but the roadway was, relatively, safe and fairly uniform.
That was not to say that it was easy to cut through. It was slow going. Charlotte and Krystal took over from Ramona and Trudy. Felicia stepped up when Krystal started to flag. Xanthe and Jesse took their turns, and the cycle picked up again.
After a couple of hours, they breached an area which seemed to have once been a crossroads of some sort. There had been some sort of feature, a statue or fountain, in the middle of it. Whatever had been there was largely gone, but the stone base it had sat on remained and had stopped the plant life getting too thick.
‘We’ll camp here,’ Jesse said when they had cleared the vines away. ‘We can get an early night and start again in the morning. I guess we’re… four or five miles from the castle.’
Felicia looked around the relatively small space they would be using as a campsite. ‘My, won’t this be cosy.’
‘We’ll fit,’ Xanthe said. ‘Just about anyway. We’ll have to make sure we space the tall ones out… That’s everyone but me and Jesse, I guess.’
‘I’m not going to sleep that well anyway,’ Jesse said, frowning. ‘I never do this close to the castle.’
‘The plants?’ Krystal asked.
‘They make me nervous. There’s something… not quite right about them.’
‘It’s going to be the magic for me. That weird feeling I’ve been getting has been stronger ever since we left the track. Except…’
‘Except what?’ Trudy asked when it did not seem as though Krystal was going to continue.
‘Except that it’s almost as if it likes me. It doesn’t feel malign. Sometimes it feels like it’s happy to see me.’
‘You’re ascribing feelings to a magical effect, darling,’ Felicia said.
‘I know. It’s crazy, I admit, but I can’t help how it feels.’
‘Well, however it feels,’ Xanthe said, ‘we’ll run the same watch rotation as last night. I’m not even sure the ancestors know what kind of weird critters lurk in this place, and I certainly don’t want to find out the hard way.’
8th Day of Highsummer.
Nothing disturbed them during the night, not even Krystal’s shadowy figure. This was good, because carving their way further into the ruins was hard.
‘How far have we managed to move?’ Trudy asked as they paused for lunch beside an old roadside trough which, thankfully, was still sound and had collected some rainwater Charlotte could fill their canteens from.
Jesse looked upward at the canopy over them. It was starting to thin a little again: there were building remains littered about the ground and that was restricting how tightly the trees could pack into the area. Still, there was little in the way of visible landscape to navigate from. ‘I don’t really know…’
‘About a mile and a quarter,’ Krystal said. She took a slug of water from her canteen and then looked with some distaste upon the dried meat she was about to bite into.
‘Is that all?’ Trudy groaned.
‘Sorry. That’s what the location spell says. I’m not even sure we’ll manage to get through to the castle before the sun goes down. Have you ever cut in this far before, Jesse?’
‘Yes,’ Jesse said, grimacing a little. ‘Once. There’s not really much need to, but I was curious. The ruins get a bit more solid from around here, and the plants get thinner when you get really close to the castle. There’s still enough masonry in there to make it hard for trees to grow, but we’ve got a couple of miles to go before we get to the thinner growth.’
‘At least we seem to have lost our mysterious trapper,’ Ramona said.
‘Or he couldn’t get close enough to watch us without being too easy to spot,’ Charlotte replied.
‘Fair point, though it’s the same practical result. The guy can’t keep an eye on us as easily while we’re in here, and there’s no way he can get ahead of us to set traps.’
‘Probably.’
‘Just probably?’
‘If he’s just some kind of hunting nut,’ Krystal said, ‘then you’re probably right. If he’s also a magus…’
‘All bets are off,’ Charlotte finished.
~~~
Trudy swept her knife down and found the vines she was attacking parting more easily than she had expected. Reaching out, she pulled at some stems. ‘Hey, I think we’re getting to the end of this.’
‘No,’ Jesse replied from behind her, ‘but we’re getting to the end of the really bad part. This is the edge of the more solid ruins.’
A little more hacking got them through the tangle of vines on the edge of what was actually starting to look like a ruined city. There had been more stones showing through the undergrowth for an hour or so, but now they were entering an area which, it seemed, had held up against the ravages of the forest better. There were a couple of walls still partially standing. The trees had had trouble getting established among the rocks and were spread further apart and not as tall. On the other hand, the roadways were more or less covered in vines and scrubby bushes, and the skeletons of buildings were filled with foliage of one sort or another. The lack of trees seemed to allow some of the disturbed air which normally sat above the canopy to get lower: there was a strong breeze once you stepped out of the denser cover, which was a pleasant change from the humid, still air they had been in for the last few days.
‘We’re still going to be cutting,’ Xanthe said, ‘but at least we can see where we’re going.’ She pointed and everyone followed her direction to an even taller collection of ruins maybe a mile deeper in.
There were definite signs of thick walls there, and even this far away it looked as though someone had used siege engines to demolish them. There were what were possibly standing buildings visible within the walls and, toward the centre, there was a tower, or what was left of a tower. It still stood proud of the castle itself, but it was also clearly not as tall as it had once been. The top was sheared off at an angle no architect would have suggested, and there were holes in some of the masonry further down. It seemed like it was a miracle that the tower was still upright as much as it was.
‘Wow,’ Krystal said. ‘The Armonia family’s castle.’
‘What’s left of it,’ Ramona said. ‘I’m amazed there’s that much left from the stories the Scarlins tell about the final battle here.’
‘Yeah, well, trusting a royal not to lie about stuff like that is–’ Trudy stopped as Krystal looked at her, one eyebrow raised. ‘Okay, so there are exceptions, but they were bound to say it was all bigger and meaner than it was.’
‘I’d tend to agree,’ Ramona said.
‘It’s like fishing stories,’ Xanthe said. ‘The one that got away is always five times as big as the one you caught. In this case, the one no one can get near to check is bigger when it’s retold by dragons who were never there when it happened.’
‘We’ve got near,’ Krystal said.
‘But we’re not getting closer today,’ Jesse said. ‘Or not much. If we can clear through to that wall on the right’ – she indicated a crumbling, low wall which appeared to have less foliage in front of it – ‘we’ll make camp. It’s going to be easi
er from here, but we aren’t going to get to the castle walls before dark.’
‘Okay. It’s a shame, but it means we’ll get there fresher, I guess.’
‘Hopefully. Let’s get cutting.’
~~~
The reason for camping beside the wall became apparent when the sun went down. Jesse had arranged the fire right against the wall and the flames were still guttering in the wind which seemed to have come down from above as the light began to die.
‘It doesn’t get much worse than this,’ Jesse said as they sat huddled against the wall, waiting for their stew to heat up over the patchy flames.
The wall was blocking the main airstream, but it also caused turbulence. Sitting there, against the crumbling stones, they were being buffeted by irregular gusts and a general cold trickle of moving air.
‘This is what it’s like above the trees?’ Krystal asked.
‘Pretty much,’ Charlotte replied. ‘Seems like the trees keep it higher. Except…’
‘Except that it wasn’t this bad until the light started to die. I could say something about rising hot air, but the ground shouldn’t cool this fast. And the air currents are weird. See the bushes further in? Maybe… two hundred yards in, they’re being pushed in the opposite direction to the wind here. It’s like there are whirlwinds inside whirlwinds and that’s just…’
‘Not natural,’ Charlotte concluded. ‘That about says it all as far as Tangleroots is concerned, right? That’s the other thing about the wind. Further out, it was blowing out from the centre, pushing you toward the edge. Here it’s going in circles.’
‘With an eye in the middle,’ Jesse said. ‘Except it’s not the middle of the forest. The middle of the wind storm is the castle.’
‘That’s magic of some kind. That’s air magic of some kind. Pretty powerful. Do you think that’s what you’ve been feeling, Krys?’
Krystal frowned at the sky, not that it was going to tell her much. For some reason, she had the distinct impression that it should be cloudy up there, but the sky was a clear, darkening blue. There should have been big, black, menacing clouds. ‘Maybe,’ she said. ‘I’m sure that’s something to do with it, but there’s something else.’ She shook her head. ‘Maybe we’ll find out if we can get to the castle tomorrow.’
‘Maybe,’ Jesse said, ‘but I wouldn’t hold your breath.’
~~~
Sleep did not come easily. The wind tugged at Krystal’s hair and cooled her skin, and it seemed like there was no way she could lie which kept out the draught. Then, when she did sleep, there were dreams. None of them lingered in her mind, but there seemed to be fire and noise, voices shouting and battle cries, and dragons. True dragons flew in her dreams. Huge wings beat the air. Fire and ice were belched forth from mouths full of sharp teeth. One such creature, at the peak of its size and power, appeared before her and roared…
And Krystal awoke to shouts which did not echo her dreams but carried as much of a sense of alarm. She struggled from blankets which she seemed to have become twisted in and tried to determine what was going on.
‘There’s something out there.’ Xanthe’s voice, sounding urgent.
‘I can see something moving,’ Ramona said, ‘but I can’t really see a shape.’
Krystal began changing, still with the blankets wrapped around her shins. Whatever was going on, it seemed like it was trouble and they were having trouble identifying it. She was in scales by the time she managed to get her legs free and, looking around, it seemed that she was not the only one. Ramona, Trudy, and Xanthe were on their feet and their skin was glittering in the firelight. Jesse’s hair was green when she joined them, and she also looked out into the dark.
Getting to her feet, Krystal followed their gaze. To her, the night was nothing and she spotted something large and black moving through the bushes perhaps thirty feet away. ‘It looks…’ she said, frowning. Black was not quite right. The beast was feathered, thickly feathered in a very dark brown which shimmered a little as the light caught it at different angles. It was hard to make out precisely what she was looking at until the thing lifted its head. ‘It’s a wolf,’ Krystal said and the beast’s lips drew back to show long, stained fangs. Movement drew Krystal’s attention to three more shapes moving through the bushes. ‘Four of them.’
‘What on Draconia are four Tangleroots wolves doing in this part of the forest?’ Xanthe asked, though it was likely that the question was rhetorical.
‘Getting closer,’ Krystal replied.
‘Right. Well, their claws are nasty, but do not get bitten. Those fangs will open you up like a fish. They’ll go for limbs and try to hang on.’
‘Are they afraid of fire?’
‘Most things are afraid of fire, Krys, but–’
‘I was just checking.’ The spell she was shaping was not exactly difficult and she had begun it as soon as she saw the head of the first wolf. Animals were scared of fire, but these things were not going to be put off by the little campfire the girls had, so… She released the spell and fire engulfed everything around her, or seemed to.
There were various shrieks, though it seemed likely that it was more surprise than anything else. The illusion did include a perception of heat since Krystal knew enough about light to know that infrared light carried heat with it, but it was still an illusion, an image of fire, not the real thing. Pretty quickly, everyone realised that they were not burning, but it seemed to be enough to fool the wolves.
‘They’re backing off,’ Krystal said, her voice low. The flames made it hard to see, harder for her than it had been in the dark, but she could see dark shapes moving back, away from the illusion.
‘Yeah,’ Xanthe said. She had moved closer to Krystal, but her eyes were still watching the shadows beyond the flames. ‘Good call.’
‘Huh, well. See, Ramona? You can justify learning to cast illusions for warfare.’
‘Dragons aren’t as afraid of fire as wolves are,’ Ramona said.
‘No, but most will stay away from–’ Krystal stopped, squinting through the flames. ‘Ancestors!’ And then one of the wolves leaped through the flames.
It was big, easily as large as a dragon, and waist height at the shoulder. The illusion had stopped it being able to see what it was looking for and the heat effect seemed to be causing it some distress, but it turned its head, looking around for its quarry, located Krystal and Xanthe nearby and made an immediate, hurried snap at Xanthe. Xanthe let out a yelp of pain as teeth sank into her left arm, but she had the presence of mind to strike back. Her claws scraped over the thick feathers of the wolf’s neck.
More dark shapes jumped into the illusory fire. Krystal heard Felicia scream, but the first wolf seemed to have reprioritised its assault and Krystal had her own problems. Shouldering Xanthe aside, the huge dog threw itself toward Krystal, jaws opening as it made for one of her legs. Teeth came together with a loud snap, short of their target. Krystal saw Xanthe’s claws failing to get past the wolf’s coat of feathers once more, but all she could think of right now was avoiding becoming lunch. And the wolf’s attention seemed to be almost entirely on her now so if she backed up, maybe Xanthe could get at it from behind. Krystal backed away, aware of the wind whipping her long hair over her face and the beast’s jaws coming closer once again. She stepped clear of the next bite and the next, and then she stepped back and her heel struck something solid and she was falling, tipping backward, limbs flailing. She expected the wolf to leap on her, but as her shoulders hit the ground, it gave way and she just kept falling. There was a rush of air and a fleeting image of stone walls, and then her head hit something very solid and she saw nothing else.
9th Day of Highsummer.
Her head felt as though someone had taken a sledgehammer to it. There was a throb in the back of Krystal’s skull which suggested that she had really banged her head. Her immediate concern, however, was that there seemed to be something heavy on her chest. She had some recollection of falling. She had fallen through
into a cellar, maybe, and maybe something had fallen on top of her. There had been an attack and she was still in the cellar, which meant her friends might be in trouble…
With some trepidation at what she would find, Krystal opened her eyes. A pair of large, dark eyes stared back at her, apparently unconcerned by her being awake. For a brief second, there was panic as she thought one of the wolves was looking her in the eyes, but these eyes, while large, were not nearly big enough for the thing which had attacked her, and they were the wrong shape. And the face they were in was covered in tightly packed, dark-blue feathers which showed flashes of purple at the edges. Krystal was, she realised, looking into the eyes of a large cat which was lying contentedly on her chest and showing no desire at all to move.
‘Nightshade seems to have taken a liking to you.’ Krystal turned her head, searching for the source of the voice, and established two things. First, she was lying on a cot of some sort, a simple bedframe with a thin mattress. Second, she was not wearing her glasses and she could see little beyond the edge of the bed. There was a dragon-shaped blur somewhere across the room. ‘I’m sure he’ll move if you get up, but you should stay where you are for a short while. You took a bad blow to the head when you fell.’
‘My friends–’
‘Are fine and in another room.’ The voice was female and the shape appeared vaguely female too. There was something about that voice which Krystal felt she should recognise, but whatever it was, it was not quite coming to mind. ‘I took care of their wounds. You were more badly hurt than the others. You should really watch where you’re stepping.’
‘Uh, yes. I’m sorry, I don’t seem to have my glasses and I can’t really see you. Do I know you?’
‘No. No, you don’t. My name is Cadenza, but most people know me as the Tangleroots Witch.’
‘I’m–’
‘Krystal. I know. You don’t know me, but we have met. A long time ago.’
‘Oh. Uh, wait a second…’ Krystal focused herself on the simple light manipulation she had used before when she had been without her glasses and, a few seconds later, the room swam into focus. ‘That’s better, I can see now.’
Misfit Witchcraft (Misfits Book 2) Page 16
