by WB McKay
Her features drew upward, probably an Orani version of a smile. "I will be a pain in your ass. My name is Letha."
"Let's march, Letha," I said, giving her a small shove. She was bleeding from wounds on her arm and face, but her legs were in good shape. Though I hated to do it, and I'd been thinking I could do it without, at the last minute I lowered the wall I was learning to put between myself and the Fleece's authority and pulled on its magic before I said, "Take a direct route to Owen Kinney, the dragon." I coughed, shoving the power away. The more I let it take over, the more I learned about it, and the more I understood that the line between me controlling it and it controlling me was finer than I could grasp. I wasn't sure I could ever learn to control it. I wasn't sure anyone could. "If I suspect you are delaying, I won't be so nice any more."
"This is your version of nice?" she asked, waving at the dead piled around us.
Yep, a complete pain in my ass. "Yes," I said. "For a person threatening someone I love? Yes. This is me, being nice. Think about that before you piss me off. Now, move."
The girls fell in beside me as Letha oriented herself and marched toward the woods. "Are you all right?" asked Phoebe.
"I will be all right when we find Owen and bring him home safely," I replied.
I meant it when I said it, then it hit me that I owed a favor to The Morrigan. It made me pause midstep, but I promptly picked up the pace again. There was nothing I could do about it now. If it meant that I was able to keep more of my people alive in that battle, and rescue Owen, then it would be worth it. Just a year ago I couldn't have imagined there would be a person in my life who I'd ask my mother a favor for. I looked back on the women following me. Now there might be more than one. Life was strange.
Letha moved quickly through the forest and I peppered her with questions to make sure that we were on the quickest and safest route to Owen.
"Yes, we are on the fastest and safest route to your beloved dragon," said Letha. She rolled her eyes at me for probably the hundredth time. "I want to be rid of you. I'm doing what you asked."
The path was winding and steep, headed into the foothills of the floating mountain. According to Letha, Owen was being kept in a cave.
"There's something not right about this," said Zoe, falling into step beside me. "She's being far too cooperative."
I shrugged. "You're welcome to ask her any questions you can think of. I'm sure she's trying to screw us in some way. If you can figure it out, please do."
"Perhaps we should stop while we sort it out," suggested Ava. "You look tired."
The caring concern was very out of character for Ava. That pulled me out of my thoughts faster than anything else. "Why are you suggesting we stop? This is your brother. Don't you want to save him?"
"Zoe is right. Something is wrong. We need to figure out what it is."
"I don't disagree with you on that point, but we are not stopping." I picked up my pace to illustrate the point. "I'm sure any remaining Orani are tracking us. If we stop, they'll be on top of us, and then our hopes of saving Owen drop to almost nothing."
She must have realized the arguing was getting her nowhere, so she didn't speed up to stay beside me. I took a quick peek back and saw that even the warrior men were huffing and puffing. It was hard arguing with my friends when I agreed so much with them, but I was the leader and I knew that stopping wasn't an option.
"So, are there traps waiting for us at this cave?" asked Zoe.
"For the thousandth time, I don't know." She turned around to glare at Zoe. "They purposely don't tell us the details of how a prisoner is kept so that we can't give the information away."
We'd come at that subject a dozen different ways. Letha didn't know if there were traps. I figured that meant she didn't know if they were presently set up and in good working condition. There were a lot of ways to mentally get around things so you could answer "I don't know". That meant there likely were traps. Ugh. She didn't know how many guards there were either. Only those guards knew the systems in place to keep prisoners locked up. The only option we had was to follow the Orani woman and deal with whatever came up.
"Turn around and keep marching," I said.
Letha continued walking for another twenty minutes and then came to a stop, looking up the hill we were climbing. She pointed to a dark spot surrounded by loose rocks. "There it is."
There was something in her tone that sounded like fear mixed with anger. Something nasty was waiting for us up there. "Let's get moving people. We're almost there." I could deal with whatever these people could dish out. I couldn't deal with waiting a moment longer than necessary to make sure Owen was okay.
The cave was illuminated with torches in brackets along the wall. There was nothing obvious like trip wires. It was impossible to tell what kind of magic might be waiting for us.
I gave Letha a shove. "All right. Get in there and walk around. See what happens."
She walked forward confidently. Her steps were normally placed. I watched her carefully, waiting to see the trick.
"Turn left," Zoe called to Letha. The Orani turned without hesitation. "Now right." Again, immediate compliance.
"Good thinking," I told her.
Phoebe, Ava, and Zoe took turns ordering Letha to walk certain ways and touch different surfaces. She never hesitated, and nothing happened. My impatience was palpable.
The men gazed impassively into the depths, except for Graulfv. He stood at my side, waiting for orders. "Any ideas, Graulfv?"
"Nothing, Sophie." He looked me in the eye and made me an offer I wasn't sure how to respond to. "Would you like me to send the men in to test for safety?"
My first thought was no. My second thought was that if we all went in together, we'd all die together if something went wrong. There was no telling if Letha was leading us astray. But I hated the idea of treating them like lab rats. The Morrigan's new group of followers had served me extremely well. Many of them had already died for coming to my aid. Still, someone had to be the first to enter the cave.
Before I could say anything, a short, thick man with a black beard stepped forward. He gave me a quick, awkward bow and said in thickly accented English, "It will be an honor to die for you, Sophie Morrigan, if that is my fate."
"Uhh, let's not make that plan A," I said. He gave me a confused look. "Be careful. If something gives you a bad feeling at all, run away. We'll do our best to cover you if something happens. I patted him on the shoulder. "I appreciate all you've done to get us this far."
There was a murmur from the assembled crowd of clansmen. I was left with the distinct impression they were jealous of the man about to go die for me. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. New breed or not, they still had some messed up priorities.
The volunteer walked into the cave along with Letha. Nothing happened. He walked from side to side and went several yards into the cave with no issue.
Letha leaned against the wall of the cave and shook her head. "This is going to take days if you keep playing around this way."
I waved my lab rat out of the cave and slapped him on the back. "Good job. Now join the rest of your friends. We're going in there. I'm sure there will be more fighting for you."
"I insist that you continue to let us be your shield," said Graulfv, pride shining in his eyes.
I thought about it for the space of a deep breath. "Very well."
We were all going in at the same time. If they wanted to form a protective ring around me and my friends, I wasn't going to stop them.
"I still think there are traps," said Zoe.
"I'm sure there are, but we're not learning anything out here. Owen is in that cave, and I'm going in to get him." I gave her a firm look. "You're welcome to stay out here."
Zoe shook her head and gave me a lopsided smile. "Haven't you figured it out yet? I never miss the fun."
"The same goes for you two," I said, leaning around Zoe to look at Ava and Phoebe.
"Nope, we're in this until the end," sa
id Phoebe.
"I speak for myself, dryad," said Ava.
Phoebe scowled at Ava. "You're going to bail out on the last leg of the mission to save your brother?"
"Of course not," said Ava, calm as ever. Her demeanor riled Phoebe up more than my shouting ever had. "I'm in this until my brother is rescued or I'm dead. And during that time, I will always speak for myself."
I chuckled. "Well, on that cheery note, let's get going." I waved the crowd of men that had surrounded us forward. The short one with the black beard was right in front. Graulfv was just behind him. "Lead on, Graulfv."
Once we were all in the cave, we stopped to collect Letha from where she leaned against the wall. I pointed for her to go first, and she did without further encouragement from me or the Fleece.
We hadn't gotten far when she looked over her shoulder and made sure to let me see the defiance shining in her eyes. She raised her arms and wrapped them around something at head height that must have been hidden by magic. "Die groundling scum," she shouted, and pulled down.
The sound of metal and stone scraping together filled the cave. "Out!" I shouted, turning toward the mouth of the cave.
It was too late. A thick metal grate sprang up from the ground and blocked off the exit. When I turned around, I saw there was another one blocking the way into the rest of the cave as well. We were trapped.
If only that were all that happened.
There was another grating sound and the dim cave glowed to life with orange firelight. It wasn't the torches. There was a new source of fire from around the corner.
The scent of magic hit me a second later. It smelled like a forest fire, green things burning, the searing meat of dying woodland creatures. I expected whatever came around the corner to be huge, based on the pervasiveness of the magic. Instead, three waifish figures stepped out. They were proportioned like the typical gray aliens from human science fiction stories. Thin, long-limbed bodies were topped by a large head that was mostly covered by huge eyes. The big difference was the bodies were covered with flames instead of gray skin.
"Fire elementals," said Zoe, her voice quavering.
"Zoe, why do you sound scared?" I asked. "They are fire. You are impervious to fire and you can quash flames with a thought."
"Fire elementals are something more. They are a force of nature like a volcano. I can hold them off for a while, but I'm not impervious to them." She looked me in the eye. "You need to find a way out of here. This is not a fight we can win."
Without another word, Zoe ran into the open space between us and the fire elementals. Her magical flame engulfed her body and her dragon form burst forward, filling the cavern between the rest of our group and the elementals. I could only see them in glimpses around her huge body.
The elementals didn't hesitate. They held out their hands and blasted her with jets of flame that arced from each of their fingers. The sound of howling flame filled the cave, along with a rush of heat. Zoe swiped at the elementals with a huge clawed foot. They dispersed in a flash, then reformed a second later in different positions.
"Do you want us to attack, Sophie?" asked Graulfv.
I couldn't see what good that would do. We would all be reduced to ash in a matter of minutes. It took a lot of control not to say that out loud, but a leader had to keep emotions inside and project confidence. "No. There has to be something in this cave to neutralize the elementals. The Orani wouldn't keep them here without a way to contain them. Spread out, search the walls. Use your hands, not your eyes."
"It's no use," said Letha, her lizard features twisted into a mask of hatred. "You will all die here."
My rage boiled over. It had been close to the surface since I'd let loose with The Morrigan. The darkness slid over me like a comfortable sweater. "Not before you," I replied, barely audible over the hiss of the fire.
There was no surprise on her face. She had known she would likely die when she pulled that lever, but she'd done it anyway. It was noble, but even the noblest among us couldn't escape death.
Epic was in my hands with a thought. I took two lightning fast steps and brought the sword down in an arc that cut through Letha's body from shoulder to hip. She fell to the ground in two separate pieces.
When the haze of my anger cleared, my stomach turned itself inside out. I couldn't remember the last thing I'd eaten, but I left it on the cave floor. "What the hell is wrong with me?"
I reached up and touched the crown of feathers on my head. Was it because of the Fleece, or was I finally giving into the dark nature of my magic? I didn't like either of those ideas. Still, there was an even more terrible possibility lurking in the depths of my mind. Was this just who I was?
There was no time for introspection. Everyone I'd grown to care about was at risk of dying in a horrible fire, because I'd insisted on pushing forward. I shoved the newly visible lever Letha had pulled back to its previous position, but nothing happened.
"Come on, Sophie, get in the game," I mumbled. "You've never been great at puzzles, but you've got to pull it together on this one."
I scanned the cave walls where my team groped for a switch like the one Letha had pulled. They were covering the whole space and hadn't found anything. What were we missing? Was there some magical trick that only the Orani could do that would take out the fire elementals?
Zoe snapped at one elemental with her terrifying jaws and slashed another with her claws. The third she missed because she was too slow. There were blackened spots on her hide. She was beginning to falter.
I looked down at Letha's face, trying to ignore the gore. "Why didn't you run for the entrance of the cave where it was safest?" My gaze shifted to the spot on the wall that held the switch. "Because there was still something here to guard?"
A jet of flame rushed past me, bathing the wall surrounding the switch in fiery orange. I turned to find the source and found several of the clansmen battling one of the fire elementals. Zoe still had the other two engaged. Things were going downhill fast.
I groped forward and found the large switch protruding from the wall. It stuck out at a right angle, and moved only when I put my weight into it. My new position left me facing the increasingly heated battle. I shook my head. Things were going so bad I couldn't even laugh at my own mental pun. Ava and Phoebe had joined the fight. Both of them had obvious burns.
I pushed the lever the rest of the way down, and a chill wind blew through the cave. It was a welcome relief from the suffocating heat of the elementals, but it didn't seem to have any effect on them.
It was definitely a puzzle. But that also meant this was definitely it.
When I pulled the lever back to its original position there was the sound of stone on stone. I scanned the cave for its source and found a hole opening in the ceiling toward the back. I was pretty sure that was where the elementals had come from. Was that progress?
"Well, let's see what happens if we put the switch back in the up position."
The cool wind started up again. This time I paid attention to where it was coming from and where it was going. It definitely originated in the front of the cave and moved toward the back. Still, it wasn't doing anything to the elementals.
Fire arced over my head and I could smell burning hair. At about the same time, I saw Phoebe hit the ground in a heap. For several heart-stopping seconds I thought she was dead, then she rolled over.
A sound like crackling fire laced with music echoed through the cave. There was a loud thud. Zoe had collapsed, her heavy dragon form smacking into the cave floor. The musical noise was the laughter of the elementals.
I ached to run toward them, but I had to figure out the damned switch. The wind first started when I pushed the switch all the way down, so I gave that another shot. The cold breeze kicked up a few notches.
That drew the attention of the elementals. Zoe swiped at one from her prone position and it dispersed. When it reformed it was only a few feet away from me.
"Time to go home!" I shouted in it
s face. I threw the lever back into the up position and the cold wind kicked up to gale force. It was all I could do to hold onto the lever.
The elementals were struggling to walk toward me, their thin, alien arms outstretched. It wasn't working. They were having a hard time moving, but so was I. All I'd managed to do was make everyone uncomfortable.
Ava ran out of nowhere, her two large knives extended in front of her, and swiped at the neck of the elemental close to me. It dispersed into a shower of sparks and blew to the back of the cave before disappearing into the ceiling.
Laughter erupted from my throat. "That was badass, lady!"
Ava flashed me a quick grin and then took out the other two elementals before anyone else had a chance to jump in. Apparently, when the wind was blowing, the elementals couldn't reform. When the last of the sparks retreated into the ceiling, the hole closed and the wind died. The grates that had held us in retreated.
We were in.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
"Now what?" asked Phoebe, glaring at the three separate tunnels that greeted us when we made our way deeper into the cave. "Places like this can go on forever."
"How would a dryad know anything about caves?" asked Ava.
"I have the internet," she said with a pout. "It's good for finding things other than pretty boys, you know."
I cracked a smile. "Any ideas, anyone?"
Zoe stepped forward. "Phoebe is right. Caves can go on for miles in every direction, this is true on Earth, and it's doubly true in Faerie. Whenever I have to look for people in caves, they tend to be in the deepest parts, so I think we--"
"Owen!" I shouted. There was no response after a couple of seconds, so I tried it again. "Owen!"
Ava put a hand on my back and rubbed it gently. "Nice effort, Sophie, but that's not going to work. You can't break down in frustration now. We need you to lead."
"Shhh!" I hissed.
Ava stepped back, her face actually managing to look shocked, but I ignored it.
