by Shea Berkley
“I didn’t want you to be put off. This really is our best option.”
I feel like I’ve been tricked, that this trip was pointless. “Is there anything else you need to tell me? ’Cause I don’t think I can handle another surprise once we get out there.”
“Other than I’m highly attracted to my deceased sister’s beau and am feeling terribly guilty about it? Nothing that I can think of.”
With that, she scurries out of the tunnel, leaving me with the knowledge that not only do Halim, Reece, and I have serious issues, but she’s carrying a load of her own. Right now, the only normal one of us seems to be Bodog, and he’s lit himself up like Casper the friendly ghost.
We’re going to fail. It’s a given.
And then I feel it. Nothing.
The earth has stopped shaking. In fact, it hasn’t shaken in some time.
As soon as I poke my head out of the tunnel, I instinctually want to go back. Dead bodies lie everywhere. Fire burns at odd intervals in every direction. Heavy smoke clouds my vision. I can barely see two feet in front of me. Bodog leans on his walking stick muttering to himself as Reece picks up a blood-drenched sword and rasps, “This is getting bigger by the minute.”
I shake my head. I knew an all-out attack would happen. I just didn’t know when.
Signe’s steps are fragmented, made clumsy by more than the uneven ground. She stares out over the battlefield and whispers raggedly, “All of Teag is burning. Who would do this?”
I point to the sword Reece is holding, and she confirms it’s for a first, though she’s never seen one exactly like it before. She lifts her gaze to Reece, her face wreathed in misery. “Is your world so brutal?”
“Yes,” he says and wraps his arm around her shoulders as she blinks away the moisture clinging to her lashes.
“Do you recognize anyone?” I ask. “Any of you?” All I can think of are Leo and Wyatt. I left them in the village, left them somewhere safer than where I was supposed to be going. Granted they both wanted to be here, but I still feel responsible for them.
“No. Maybe.” Signe hides her face against Reece’s chest. “I cannot look.”
Reece’s frown grows intense. “Where’s Halim?”
Signe immediately pulls away, her face showing her sudden panic. “Halim? Halim!”
“Here,” his high-pitched voice answers.
I race toward the sound and stop when I nearly stumble over him and the body he’s hovering over. I yank him to his feet. “What are you doing?”
He yanks free. “Listening.”
Halim drops to his knees and puts his ear to the man’s mouth. “Go on.”
Reece and Signe emerge from the smoke, and we huddle around and wait. It doesn’t take long for the last breath to leave the man. Halim sits back and places his fingers over the man’s eyes, forcing them closed.
“What did he say?”
“He is a Corlian.”
“From the land to the north of us?” Signe doesn’t hide her surprise. She examines the sword I still hold. “But they are our allies.”
“His people were promised power and riches if they fought for the new lord,” Halim says.
“Who is it?” I ask, though I’m afraid I already know.
“Someone not from here. He said the lord is young and reckless and brutal, disposing of lives as one would a bare bone. They followed him out of greed, but also out of fear he’d turn on them. He has a lot of power.”
Reece snorts. “Sounds like Teag’s allies aren’t as friendly as they say they are.”
“Teag isn’t as friendly as it wants people to believe.” The bitterness in my voice surprises me. I’m tired. The air feels thick, my movements slow, and one of us is missing…again. I grumble my irritation at our inability to stay together. “Bodog!”
As Bodog lumbers through the dead toward us, the acrid smoke swirls apart, and the manor’s fortified walls come into view behind him. He stops a few feet short of us and leans on his walking stick like an old, frail man. The wariness in his eyes is unmistakable. “Only the eye of the storm.”
“What, like the intermission?” Reece asks. He grabs Halim along the back of his shirt and pulls him to his feet. “Let’s go.” He literally marches the kid and Signe to the gates.
We’re not the only ones making our way to the manor. Both sides of the conflict stagger to the gates. We press forward, and I’m a little surprised when Signe tells them who I am and we’re rushed ahead of everyone else.
Inside the walls, we’re greeted by piles of dead and the moans of the wounded. One of the sentries escorts us through the throngs toward the house. Everywhere I see ruined outbuildings and stunned people. Signe’s fingers suddenly dig into my arm, drawing my attention to the stables. We all stop and stare. It’s a mass of rubble, with dead horses and smoldering timbers…and still buried within it all, the unmistakable form and feathers of a griffin.
“This way.” The sentry motions us forward.
I’m stunned. We’ve come so far, and now this. It’s almost too much for me. How am I supposed to reach Kera now?
Signe has to pull me along like a disobedient child. “There is another way. There has to be. Do not lose faith.”
“I don’t have much left.”
A man, his hair dirty and his clothes blood-spattered, intercepts us and grabs my arm. “You’ve come back. I told them you would.” He turns to those around us. “The heir to Teag is back. Did I not tell you? He is back!”
Okay, this is new. I’ve never met anyone from Teag who was excited to see me. Only Kera.
The man’s excitement sweeps through the crowd. Faces alight with interest. Hope even. The once worn and weary crowd presses in. Our escort shouts at them to stay back. We push our way forward and burst through the doors of the manor. A handful of soldiers rush forward to help keep the people back.
We’re quickly escorted down the hall. Raised voices come from what looks to be a study and we pause in the doorway. Wyatt, Leo, Hadrain, and several soldiers are huddled around a huge library table. A map, magically dotted with green and black showing each army’s movements, lies unfurled across it. Lord Hadrain jabs at a section. “I tell you, they came from this direction.”
Lounging in a chair across the room, Lucinda delicately yawns and shifts her weight. “Nothing is over there but a spit of barren land and then the sea, My Lord.”
The muscles in Wyatt’s jaw twitch. “Seems like Leo’s little kitty knows quite a bit about everything, but still has nothing of real value to share.”
“Wyatt,” Leo warns.
“What?” Wyatt pounds his fist on the table and points toward Lucinda. “Look at her. She’s acting like—”
The soldier announces us, and those around the table turn our way as we enter. A split second later, we’re rushed. Signe is engulfed in Hadrain’s arms, and Wyatt, dressed like a soldier of Teag, whoops when he sees his brother. Bodog hides behind me as best he can as Leo rushes over and gives me a huge hug. “Bro, I am so glad to see you. This is some crazy rabbit hole we’ve fallen into.”
Leo looks like an extra in a period movie, wearing spit-polished leather shoes, a suit with a vest, a bow tie, and a watch on a fob. I don’t have time to question his style. I duck my head through the strap of my satchel and let the thing fall to the floor with a sigh. “You’ve got a mess outside and from what Bodog tells me, it’s only halftime. Where’s Granel?”
Reece’s attention snaps to me, completely ignoring his brother, but Wyatt keys in on the tension. “Funny you should ask. As soon as you left, he disappeared. All that talk about protecting his people…absolute crap. No one knows where he is. His men don’t know what to think, so I’ve given them something to think about.” He spreads his arms wide, winces, and lowers them, pressing his hand against his shoulder. It’s then I see a bloody bandage peeking out between his fingers, and he says with a shrug, “Meet their new leader.”
“You?” Halim asks as he peeks around Reece. “Why would they
follow you?”
I see Hadrain take off his glasses and disappear into the hall as Wyatt stares down his nose at the boy. “Who’s the runt?”
“Halim. Be nice.” Who Reece is telling that to, his brother or the boy, is unclear. Most likely both.
Wyatt ignores the kid. “Apparently Granel wasn’t that popular with his men. Didn’t know jack about tactics.”
“Have you looked outside?” Halim asks. “It doesn’t look like you do, either.”
“Ha-ha, little buddy.” Wyatt grabs the back of Halim’s head and pulls him close. “Those aren’t my men.”
“Neither am I. Does that mean I’m going to end up dead too?”
“Nice kid you picked up,” Wyatt says to Reece. “Wouldn’t it be kinder to throw him back into the deep end of the stray pool?” He finally lets go and Halim stumbles back, irritation twisting his face as he glares at Wyatt. It’s not hard to imagine the torture plots running through Halim’s mind.
I’m not the only one thinking that. Reece whispers something in Halim’s ear, and then affectionately rubs his head before the boy wanders off. Reece turns his attention back to his brother. “Who are they?”
“Who aren’t they?” Wyatt motions to the map, where army units move in an ever-tightening circle. “Seems like everyone wants to join the let’s-kick-Teag’s-ass outing. We’re only able to hold our own with the help of Hadrain’s and the council’s combined magic.”
The mention of the council grabs my attention. “Where is the council?” Not that I’m upset they’re not here. After they tried to kill me, there’s no love lost between us. Just thinking about them makes my skin glow hot.
“I sent them to a safe haven. One dies, the spell is broken. I’m not taking any chances.”
I nod toward the door Hadrain went through. “What about—”
I don’t get to finish my sentence before he jumps in. “I’m protecting him.”
And I thought I was the only one with a superhero complex.
Hadrain comes back into the room, his face revealing his confusion, and he forces a smile. “Although I am pleased to see you all safe and sound, where is Kera?”
“Clearly not here,” Lucinda mews from her chair where she is grooming her hair with long, careful finger strokes, and then pauses a second before saying, “What could possibly be detaining her?”
A ghost of a smile appears, flashing her slightly long canines, and my gut sours. She has the attitude of a bored, spoiled woman. Why do I always get the feeling we’re her personal collection of mice she likes to maim before she eats?
I don’t care how lovesick Leo is over her. I stalk across the room and yank her halfway out of the chair. “What do you know?”
“Only words.” She looks from my hand on her arm to my face. Anger sparks behind her eyes for only a split second, but I see it. She sends a crackle of energy to buzz my hand. When I don’t let go, she tugs and lets out a snarl of warning.
“Where is my daughter?” Hadrain demands a little louder.
“In the Unknown,” Signe says, drawing all eyes to her.
The glasses in Hadrain’s hand slowly bend out of shape. He blinks, though he doesn’t see. I’m sure of it. He’s thinking like I do, of all the horrors Kera is suffering. “H-how?”
“Someone kidnapped her from the human realm.” Signe’s face has grown so pale, her freckles stand out. Her gaze flickers to mine almost apologetically.
It’s the truth. She has nothing to hide or to be sorry about. “They took her because they knew I’d follow her back here.”
“Taken? She was supposed to be safe in your realm.” Hadrain’s gaze wanders the room and stalls on Bodog. The little guy ducks into his cowl and shuffles backward. Kera’s father storms over to the suddenly whimpering dwarf. “Was it you?” he demands. “You stole her when she was a child. Did you do it again?”
Bodog shifts from pale to dark, trying to blend in with the color of the paneled walls, and I realize I don’t know him at all. “You were in prison because you stole a child?”
Lucinda stills. Her pink tongue darts out, like she’s licking cream from her lips. “Interesting.”
All this time he led me to believe he was unjustly imprisoned, that he was being persecuted for being different, when in fact he’s no better than a criminal.
Bodog knocks into the wall and curls against it, shoving the walking stick out as if it has the power to keep him safe. “I only wished to protect her.”
Hadrain grabs the stick. “Do not lie to me.”
The wood shifts in Hadrain’s hands. It creaks and moans until a familiar face appears in the grain. “He tells the truth, my friend.”
I know that crackly, dry voice. Still, I can’t believe it.
“Faldon?” Hadrain shoves the stick as far from him as his arms will allow. “What trick is this?”
“No deceit,” my renegade grandfather assures him. “Although at the time he didn’t know it, Dylan saved my soul by trapping my spirit in a tree. Bodog found me and fashioned this walking stick from one of the limbs so I can keep an eye on the boy.”
“Huh,” Wyatt snorts. “A talking stick.” He looks around. “And nobody else finds that a little weird?”
“Not anymore,” Reece says, though he folds his arms across his chest, clearly not comfortable with the idea of a soul getting trapped in a piece of wood. “Though the irony of Dylan having the ability to control fire and his grandfather being a piece of wood isn’t lost on me.”
Not only did Bodog lie, but he’d been helping my grandfather, the man who was ordered to kill me and nearly succeeded, to spy on me. What more is Bodog not telling me? Though firsts can’t lie, that limitation doesn’t seem to apply to any other creature in this realm.
Signe puts her arm around Hadrain and leads him to a nearby chair. She orders a soldier to fetch the older man a glass of wine. With the stick still gripped in his hands, he sits. He’s aged ten years in less than a minute. He catches Signe’s hand. “No one leaves the Unknown alive.”
“Rubbish.” Faldon’s face recedes into the grain and then reappears facing his friend. “They say that because no one has ever tried.”
“Hey,” Halim calls from his perch next to the map. He swipes his dirty hand across a section and it’s like a flap in a children’s picture book—push it aside and you see a hidden object, but on the map it’s a section of land. “There are a lot of black thingies over here.”
Wyatt rushes to the map and pushes Halim away. “What did you do? Don’t touch the map, kid.”
“I didn’t…well, not much. I only moved a few things around. We needed to cover this side better, because that’s where the Corlians are from…and you know they breed like rabbits. Fresh soldiers are coming.”
Wyatt glares at his brother. “Where’d you get this kid?”
“I’d listen to him.”
“My dad taught me chess.” Halim sneaks back to the map and moves a few more units around. “Which everyone knows is war on a grid. It’s all about position and power. We have great position and a good bit of power. Only an idiot can make a tangle of this.”
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Untangling this.”
Catching Halim’s hand in action, Wyatt shoves his face into the boy’s face and points at the map. “Does that even remotely resemble a grid? No grid. Don’t play chess with my men. This is not a game. Got that?”
The two start bickering, and I turn to Reece and Leo. “If Halim’s right, and a new wave of soldiers is on its way, we have to get Kera before this thing blows up and we’re trapped here. The griffin’s dead, but there has to be something else big enough to fly us into the Unknown. Any suggestions?”
Silence hovers over us, and then Reece shrugs. “How about flying monkeys?”
Leo frowns and pushes his hair out of his eyes. “Are you serious?”
“I’ve been dragged into a parallel realm where there are talking sticks, a magical prince, and a dwarf who acts like
a mood ring. Flying monkeys make perfect sense.”
“Here’s a tip, bro. Unless you’ve seen a flying monkey, don’t offer it as an alternative.” Leo drops his head and rubs the back of his neck. “Flying monkeys. That is messed up.”
Reece’s eyebrows rise. “Sorry, Cranky Crab Pants. Miss your nap time today?”
“We need something bigger,” I say, steering them back to the problem at hand. “I wish we had a mongo flying lizard.”
“Or how about a Pegasus?” Reece offers. “They have griffins, doesn’t it stand to reason they have a flying horse or two?”
Leo’s head pops up. “I’m an idiot.”
I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want me to agree with him, but when I try to get him to expound on what he means, he rushes over to Lucinda, pulls her out of the chair, and points to me. “Don’t go anywhere until I get back.”
One moment they’re there, the next, they’re gone.
“What the…” Reece looks from where they were to me, his mouth hanging ajar.
Oops, forgot Reece has never seen Lucinda before. “Leo’s girlfriend isn’t human.”
Wyatt turns to us. “What was that all about?”
I shrug. “Wish I knew.”
Halim, who’s turned into a pint-sized general in the making, punches Wyatt’s shoulder. “Pay attention. If we move these over here, then we cut off their supply of men.”
“I already thought of that, but we don’t have enough manpower to move there without weakening these defenses.” He points to an area thick with black and green. “We’re leapfrogging over to here, which will cut off their tail. If I do it right, I can keep biting off chunks without them noticing.”
“Are Granel and Jason in on this together?” I ask. It’s the only plausible explanation. “Granel needs a leader and Jason’s ego fits Granel’s type.”
Hadrain pushes away the wine Signe holds out for him. “You know who is behind all this?”
“We came across a dying Corlian. He said their new leader was young, brutal, and reckless, and that he’s not from around here. That description fits Jason. He’s from my realm. I think he’s the one who’s been trying to get me here.” I recall the dream I had, how angry he was, and how insistent he was that I come find him.
