As her eyes adjusted to the meager light of the torches, they revealed Maya sitting on a squalid, lumpy mattress, her face grimy and streaked with tears. Her short skirt and scoop-neck T-shirt were streaked and stained with dirt, and her golden hair looked brittle and dull. “Maya!”
Her friend’s eyes went wide with surprise and her relieved smile lit up the room as she raced toward her with arms outstretched. “Cate? Is that really you?”
Maya’s hug was fierce as the door clanged shut behind them both and the guards walked away. “You have no idea how crazy the last twenty-four hours have been!”
Cate smirked. She had a pretty damn good idea.
“I think we may have been abducted by aliens,” Maya whispered confidentially in Cate’s ear.
Cate pulled back from the hug. “I’ll admit this is a far different place, but these aren’t aliens.”
“You haven’t seen—”
Cate held up a hand to stop her. “Just trust me on this one.”
Maya frowned, crossed her arms, and plunked herself back down on the worn-out straw-filled mattress. “If you’ve got a better explanation, I’m all ears.”
A familiar thickness crept into Cate’s throat. It grew difficult to swallow. She’d stopped warning her friends about the fae she could see but they couldn’t in about the third grade. Being teased one too many times for seeing “invisible monsters” had made her leery of telling anyone the truth who couldn’t see them. She blew out a slow stream of breath to steady herself. Maya could see them. She’d have to believe her.
“They’re faeries.”
“Oh, no they’re not. There aren’t wings. Well, on some of them, at least. They don’t sparkle, and I don’t know about who brought you here, but Kallus is not the size of Tinker Bell.”
The steady plinking drops of moisture from the cell’s stone ceiling were going to drive her nuts. Cate pressed her index finger over her brows to stem the headache beginning to throb between her eyes. “They’re dark fae, Maya. They aren’t all lightness and sparkles or tiny. Now, listen to me. If we’re going to get out of here, we don’t have much time. In less than two hours the rift we traveled through won’t let us go back. We have to get out before then or we’re screwed.”
Maya’s lips pressed into a firm line, her eyes bright with determination. “Tell me what I have to do.”
Cate took a seat beside her. “I’ve got a plan, but you have to follow my instructions exactly if it’s going to work.”
Smudges of shadows beneath Maya’s frightened eyes told Cate her friend’s trip to the fairy realm had been more of a waking nightmare than a dream.
The stench of mold and mildew was strong in the cell, and Cate didn’t want to think too long or hard about the scuttling sounds coming from the dark corners.
Maya followed Cate’s gaze to the shiny streaks of green and black slime, then frowned. “So what’s with the ball gown and crown?”
Cate sighed, the heaviness of it coming straight from the center of her chest. “Even if I tried to explain it, I couldn’t. Let’s just say that I’m a political prisoner. The only thing I’ve got is that the king’s son is on our side and he’s promised to help me get you out.”
Maya hugged her hard. “I’m in, whatever this takes. And so help me, I’m never going on a blind date ever again.”
Cate pulled back and rubbed her hands up and down Maya’s arms, trying to warm and reassure her. “Don’t beat yourself up. Anybody could be taken in by a glamouring fae.”
“Is that how you got here?”
Cate shifted her weight to her other foot. “Not exactly.” Did she dare tell Maya the truth? Her heart twinged a bit. Perhaps Maya was better off not knowing. It had always creeped out her childhood friends to think that invisible beings were cavorting about them and there wasn’t a damn thing they could do about it. Perhaps it was best to stick to only the essential facts. “I saw the guy you were with when you ditched out on lunch. He looked like bad news, so I found a way to get in so I could bring you back.”
“How was I supposed to know he was taking me here as some kind of sick fraternity joke?”
Cate frowned. “Is that what he told you?”
“At first. For a while I thought perhaps he’d put something in my drink and drugged me and I was just hallucinating. But then I didn’t wake up...”
“It doesn’t matter now. All that matters is getting us home. Right?”
“Right.”
Cate fished into her pocket, pulled out a few of the rusted nails, and handed them to Maya. “I want you to put one of these between each of your fingers and hold your hand in a fist, like this.” She demonstrated. It made Cate look as if she were wearing a lethal spiked glove, the long rusted points looking savage and very, very dangerous.
Maya rolled one of the nails between her fingers. “But they’re just old nails.”
“Iron is poisonous to them. As soon as the guard gets near enough, we’re going to both hit him as hard as we can. Scratch his skin if you can, or leaving them stuck in him is even better.”
Maya gave her a saucy grin. “I didn’t know you had this vicious side to you. I approve.”
Cate couldn’t help but smile back. “Thank me after we get out of here.” They were taking an awful risk, but if she could get them to the tapestry, she knew where a portal could be found.
“So once we hit the guards with the fists of fury, then what?”
“We run like hell.”
Chapter Nine
It had taken every inch of willpower Rook had possessed not to bolt after Cate like some greenling. He was still shaking, a potent mixture of anger and worry pulsating in his blood. He didn’t want the guards touching her. No one would touch her. And if they did...he’d do more than challenge them to Cattan to fight for their honor—he’d kill them outright. Falling short of that, he wished he could plow his fist into Kallus Thayer’s face. Repeatedly.
Kallus stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Rook, as if he were an equal, which only fueled the rage already fired in Rook’s belly. “You can’t possibly give Rook credit for this Uplander, Your Majesty. She’s a Seer. By right she should have been brought directly to you. So therefore, she is your conquest.”
The Shadow King frowned. “Do not recite the laws to me, Kallus Thayer. I know well enough what my son should have done. But if I choose to count the Seer as his conquest of the Midsummer’s Eve, then I shall do so.”
“Of course, Your Majesty.” Kallus bent in half, his forehead touching his clasped hands in respect before he straightened to his full, impressive height. “But may I respectfully ask for a Cattan? It is a matter of honor that Rook Blackwood, Prince of Shadows, seeks to take my conquest from me after she has already been declared mine. He only brought the Seer here because he was trying to take my conquest back. She is related to the Seer somehow.”
“What say you, Rook?”
The king’s question startled Rook out of his own dark thoughts. In truth he’d only been barely listening to Kallus wail on about whatever thing he wanted from the king. “Whatever Your Majesty wishes is just,” he smoothly replied.
“So you would accept Kallus’s challenge of a Cattan for the Seer and her friend?”
Rook mentally shook himself. Kallus had challenged him to an honor duel for both Cate and her friend? When in Morgolath had that happened? He needed to focus.
If Kallus wanted a fight, he’d be happy to oblige. He’d been Kallus’s rival for his own father’s attention long enough. Thayer was nothing but an honored guard, not a blood son. Maybe beating him senseless would take the edge off the throbbing pain in his chest. “If that is what you wish, Your Majesty.”
A small smile tugged at his father’s lips. “What I wish is for my strongest and bravest warrior to lead my people to victory, first against the Wyldlings and then against the Uplanders.”
“And what of the Seer, Your Majesty? What is to be done with her?” Rook tried not to appear too eager, but it was damn diffic
ult.
“For now, nothing. She is remaindered to your care. But when the time comes, I will want her absolute support of our cause. That bit of convincing I will leave to your capable hands, my son.”
Rook bowed his head, both in respect and out of gratitude for the boon his father had offered him. If Rook bested Kallus, Cate would be his and he could return her friend home. He just hoped that she’d waiting on him as he’d asked her to.
The doors of the grand audience chamber burst open, accompanied by the clatter of metal on metal as a group of armored guards pushed their way in. “Your Majesty! Your Majesty!” one of them cried out. “The Uplanders have escaped!”
Rook’s stomach curdled into a tight knot. Damn.
The Shadow King swore. “Kallus. Rook. Go after them. Bring them back. We are too close to the end of Midsummer’s Eve to lose either conquest now! Go!”
Rook and Kallus bowed and turned in unison, jogging out of the grand audience chamber. “Get me my mount!” Rook shouted to a waiting squire.
“Belay that order. There’s no time!” Kallus growled in response.
“We can catch them faster if we’re mounted.”
Kallus frowned. “Use your head. Chances are they’ll race for the first portal they can find.”
Kallus had a point. Cate had asked a lot of questions about the portals and precisely how they worked. She’d know what to look for and what to do, and they’d passed the oldest and most powerful of them on the borderlands. As smart as Cate was, she had to have noticed. But it was close to midnight. The portals would not function without the key coin. And he assumed she still had it with her, making every moment count.
“Fine, Thayer. We do it your way. But if I lose her, gods help you, I’ll skin you alive with my bare teeth and cast your soul down to Morgolath.”
Kallus gave him a feral grin. “I’d like to see you try.”
Rook got into Kallus’s face, fairly spitting the words at him. “Don’t cross me, Thayer. There won’t be a healer who can sew the pieces back together when I’m through with you.”
Kallus grabbed a sword from the page who held it and swung in a fast, gleaming arc, spinning so quickly the blade nearly disappeared. “If I do my job right, I won’t have to cross you, Blackwood. The Shadow King will give me your Seer as a reward for finding them before you do. Which one do you think they took?”
Rook glanced at the tapestries. The snow fell softly at the borderlands, but in the blanket of white he could still make out two sets of footprints. “There!”
Both he and Kallus stepped into the tapestry. The strange snap and pull of portal travel shoved them through the flat second dimension for a moment, then spit them out in the borderlands. Rook’s breath frosted in the air. The snow was falling heavier now. He wished he’d thought to bring heavy coats for the women. They’d need it when he found them.
He took a moment to sniff the air, seeking out any trace of the combination of vanilla, cinnamon, and warm sweet female that marked Cate. He caught a whiff of the scent from the eastern forest and grimaced. The women were headed straight for the border with Wyldwood and into danger, and they didn’t even know it. But that’s precisely where the old portal tree was located.
“Make double time, Thayer. They’re headed for Wyldwood.”
Kallus frowned, scanning the ground, his eyes narrowing in concentration. “How can you tell? There aren’t any prints.” The snow had fallen thickly enough that their footsteps had been obliterated.
“I smell her.”
§
Cate kept pushing through the snow, her legs aching from the cold. Her gown was no protection against the bitter weather. Maya, who was still in her summer clothes, fared no better. They were perfect for the warm weather in Seattle, but were totally worthless here. Maya shivered. “We’ve got to get out of this cold.”
“I know, I know. But we’re almost there,” Cate said, trying to encourage her to move a bit faster. “God, what I wouldn’t give for some gilly fruit.”
Up ahead, Cate spied a familiar bend in the snow-covered path. There was the familiar stack of stones and a few yards behind it the huge old tree with the ankh carved into the trunk. She grabbed Maya by the arm. “There it is! Come on!”
They moved as fast as they could through knee-deep snow.
“Hold where you are!” The man’s voice startled Cate. She whipped around to see six men clothed in the scarlet coats of Wyldwood holding drawn weapons on them.
“Oh, come on!” Cate yelled at no one in particular. “Look at us. Do we seriously look like a threat to you guys?”
None of the Wyldwood soldiers answered.
“We just want to go home,” Maya wailed. “I’m freezing!”
The soldiers advanced toward them. Maya screamed. Cate shoved her away and yelled, “Run! Go for that big tree!”
Cate screamed as one of the fae grabbed a fistful of the hair at the back of her head and swung her around like a rag doll. He jerked, then grew still. Cate squealed when she spotted the thick arrow sticking out of the man’s chest.
She scrambled away from him, toward the cover of the trees. An explosion behind her shoved her face first into the snow, but Cate quickly pushed back up on her hands, shaking her head to ward off the ringing in her ears. The fae’s chest was now open with a gaping hole the size of a dinner plate where the bolt had once been, and the snow was stained red.
Adrenaline roared through her system, pushing her to stay low and move quickly. Her eyes scanned for Maya as she went, dodging fighting fae and trying to stay out of range of their weapons and fists. She caught a glance of Rook battling one of the red fae guard in hand-to-hand combat, his arms bulging, his teeth bared. Kallus stood out among them, his blond hair whipping about his face. He pulled and shot the exploding arrows from his bow so quickly the thunking sound of each bolt was like a heartbeat. Ka-thunk. Ka-thunk. Ka-thunk.
Finally she spotted Maya, on her knees and hovering well behind Kallus near the giant tree. Cate bolted to reach her friend. Maya was shivering, the snow dusting her hair and eyelashes. Her eyes were wide and dilated with shock.
“Come on, get up!” Cate said, pulling on Maya’s arm. Her friend staggered to her feet and Cate pulled her along into the trees.
“Who. Are. Those. Guys?” Maya’s teeth chattered, breaking the words into bits.
“Let Rook and Kallus worry about that.” If she had any chance of getting Maya out of the fae realm, she had to do it now while they were both distracted by more pressing matters. Cate took the coin she’d stolen from Rook out of her pocket and threw it at the enormous old tree.
The familiar shimmer and wave began to warp the tree until it seemed to wiggle, then a golden seam appeared, growing longer and thicker until it split down the center into a human-size hole.
On the other side of the opening, Cate saw the uplit Space Needle and the night skyline of Seattle, both of which glittered peacefully over the tops of the trees in the arboretum. A freaky window to her own world and a direct contrast to the cold and chaos unleashed around them. Maya let out a gasp.
“How’d you do that?”
Cate didn’t bother to answer. There wasn’t time. “Come on!” She grabbed hold of Maya and pulled her toward the opening.
Just then a terrible roar rent the air, and it made Cate’s insides instantly chill. She hesitated, knowing it was Rook’s voice she’d felt to the marrow of her bones. She glanced back and saw that the battle continued. Only instead of jointly fighting the enemy who lay broken and bloodied around them, Rook and Kallus now circled each other.
“I’ve challenged you to a Cattan and you accepted. By the law I choose when we shall battle and I choose now.” Kallus swung his bow, swiping the metal-tipped end of it at Rook.
Rook dodged the hit. A metallic hiss sliced through the cold air as he pulled his blade from the scabbard on his back. The polished sword glinted in the light, a silver flash as it moved. “What are you going to do now, Thayer? You can’t kill
me. I’m of the House of Shadows. You do, and you’ve signed your own death order.”
Kallus dropped his bow in the snow at his feet and took out a dagger from his belt. “I can’t kill you. But I can hurt you until you wish you were dead, you pompous ass.” He flipped the blade around and around his fingers in a dizzying spin. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to bring you down a peg. And your father isn’t here to back you up this time.”
Both of them began to shift, their faces and bodies growing larger as their warrior animal natures rose to the surface. Their canines grew longer, their faces warping to look more like the catamounts they rode. Cate was both horrified and unable to look away. There was a loud crack and the sickening sound of flesh hitting flesh as Kallus lashed out at Rook with his free hand, hitting him hard and without warning in the face.
Rook’s head snapped back and, with his other hand, Kallus sliced at Rook’s midsection with the short blade. Rook arced away, but not far enough. His blue coat and black tunic split open, revealing an expanse of skin with a blood-red line slashed across it.
She’d felt that very skin beneath her fingers, tasted it with her tongue. Cate sucked in a startled gasp and took a step toward him. Rook’s gaze locked with hers, his eyes dark with pain. He growled and launched himself at Kallus like a coiled black panther. With two swipes of his sword he left Kallus bleeding, his tunic in shreds.
“Cate!” Maya’s voice rang in her ear.
She stepped toward Maya, knowing she should follow her friend through the opening. Her hand strayed to the rusted nails in her pocket, but she stepped over the glittering edge, one foot on the snowy ground of the Shadowland and the other in the damp green grass of Seattle.
She glanced back one last time. Rook took a swing at Kallus, pivoted, then lashed out again from the opposite direction.
Kallus took the hit, the razor-sharp edge of the sword biting into his back. His shaggy head swung in her direction and he glared at her, his sides heaving.
Shadowlander (Shadow Sisters) Page 10
