“Was Huck here?” Anna asked, sounding as though she didn’t want to hope.
“If he and Demi came near this place, the runes may have drawn them as they did me.” And you, he thought.
“Could they have gone through the gate?” Anna asked, a doubtful frown marring her pretty features. Even if a seed of druidic power did exist within her, it had never been activated. Munro didn’t know how much Huck had explained to his sister about magic and how gates worked.
“No. It’s broken. Give me access to the power of a thousand faeries and a thousand years to work, and I still don’t know if I could repair it. If Huck and Demi left the human realm, I don’t see how they could have gone this way.”
Raw sadness filled Anna’s eyes. “Where will you go next?”
“Home,” he said.
“To the Otherworld?”
“Yes,” he said.
“I’m coming with you.” Anna raised her chin, daring him to deny her.
He paused a moment, then shook his head. “I’m sorry. But no. Alyssa?”
Munro delved into Alyssa’s power, guiding it to alter Anna’s memory. They made her forget about having seen them and persuaded her to go back home. She’d be safest there. As tempting as it was to take her to the Otherworld and have Flùranach unlock her powers, he had to make a choice. Like most of the decisions he made lately, he didn’t have a lot of confidence that he was making the right one, but he felt fairly certain this would at least be easier.
∞
Douglas climbed the wide, stepped road which had been cut into the mountainside by stone faeries. The stair-like path was broad enough for fifty men to walk abreast, but Douglas ascended alone. Long before he reached the top, he heard the echoes of Aaron and Lisle’s voices. Hurrying to meet them, Douglas took two steps at a time.
The road ended at the mouth of an immense cavern carved into the side of the mountain. The sheer size of the place made Douglas shiver. He couldn’t help but envision the mountain crumbling in, despite the massive stone columns supporting the high ceiling. What might have taken humans years to construct, stone fae built in mere weeks.
Aaron nodded to Douglas when the other druid approached, and Lisle smiled. “How good to see you,” she said. “Is Prince Tràth well?”
Douglas nodded. “As well as can be expected, considering he’s getting married soon,” he said with a grin. Even though the match was a political one and Tràth was bonded to and in love with Douglas, the temporal faerie was becoming the life-mate of the crown-princess of Zalia. The event was of great importance to both their kingdoms. The weight of responsibility bore down on the prince, causing him noticeable strain.
Aaron gestured around the room, indicating several dozen gateways, all standing empty. “Paeter and his crew finished the last of them a few days ago. When will Munro be back from America? We really need his help to carve the runes to open them. I’m useless with stone, and he has more experience with gates.”
“Tonight,” Lisle replied.
“So what are you working on?” Douglas asked. “I was surprised when they told me you’d be down here. I thought you’d be repairing the Source Stone.”
“We are,” Aaron said. “Every day.” He sounded tired and his voice betrayed his testiness.
“Well, I’ll do whatever I can to help,” Douglas said.
Lisle stood and brushed some dust off her clothes. “We’re getting so many requests streaming in. We can’t keep up.” She sighed. “There aren’t enough of us to do all the work that needs doing, and every fae queen thinks her transport gate should be the first one finished.”
“Where’s Rory?” Douglas asked. “Is he helping out?” He felt guilty for having spent too much time in Zalia with Tràth. Douglas’ work there seemed important at the time, but he also knew his fellow druids were being pressured from all sides to construct individual gates for the queens, to build this huge transport hub to improve trade between the kingdoms, to investigate runes, to create magical artefacts and tokens, and any use the queens could think of for the druids’ creationist talents.
“Usually he does. Today he’s fighting with Flùranach.”
“Again?” Douglas asked.
Aaron answered with a roll of his eyes.
“How about you, Lisle?” Douglas asked. “How are you holding up?”
She looked at her hands and shook her head sharply. After a moment, she said, “I’m going down to the city to meet Sheng. I promised we’d put some protective runework around the new healing centre.” Over the previous months, hundreds and thousands of faeries had flocked to the Halls of Mist, wanting to serve the druid lords. Turning their talents to industrious use, the fae had begun building a city at the base of the mountainside that housed the Druid Hall.
When the druids called, these faeries would come work on whatever project was required. But otherwise, they devoted themselves to constructing their new city. Within a short time, they had erected homes, public buildings, shops and markets, a healing centre, a school, gardens, and farms. Every day, more faeries and loads of supplies came from around the Otherworld. In the centre of the new city was an immense but still empty palace. The druids didn’t even know what to say about the project. They hadn’t been consulted, so they likely couldn’t stop it if they wanted to. The people called the place Rìoghachd nan Ceòthan, Kingdom of the Mists.
Douglas lightly touched her arm. “Munro will find Demi. I know it’s hard, but she and Huck will be home in no time.”
Lisle forced a smile. “I’m sure you’re right,” she said and clapped more dust off her hands. “If you see Munro, will you tell him I’ll be back at the Hall by morning?”
“Sure,” Aaron said. “Do you need help?” Lisle was over eighty years old, but since coming to the Halls of Mist, she moved and acted more like a vibrant fifty-year-old. She had an energy about her that made Douglas think she could outlive them all by sheer willpower.
This time her smile was genuine. “You’re a sweet boy,” she said. “I’ll be fine. I want to walk alone for a while.” Demi’s disappearance had taken a toll. Lisle was just as determined as before and worked hard every day, but the sparkle in her eye had dimmed.
The two men watched as she left the cavern that would someday be the central transport hub for the Otherworld. She moved slowly, as though lost in thought. When she’d begun the descent to the city below, Aaron asked, “Do you really believe Munro can find them?”
The question rang across the high, stone ceilings. “Of course I do,” Douglas said, knowing Lisle could still hear him. “He’ll never give up.” That part, at least, he felt certain was true. Munro was like a dog with a bone sometimes. Once he had his mind made up, he wasn’t likely to change it.
Aaron nodded. “Come on. Let’s find Rory and see if we can’t get him to work on the Stone today.”
He and Douglas made their way to a smaller stair that wound up the mountainside toward the Druid Hall. Their responsibilities weighed on them both. Too much needed to be done, and the druids were weary and overworked.
Chapter 2
Huck held Demi and ran his hand over her hair, comforting her as he had so many days before. Or nights. In this dark, cold place, he had no way to tell the difference between the two. She tried to be strong. She was, in many ways, braver than him. But when she let herself think about Jago, her heart ached and the tears would come. “I’m sorry,” she said, drying her eyes.
“You have nothing to be sorry about.” He liked those moments, holding her, that when she grew sad and vulnerable, she trusted him.
“I just don’t understand what they want,” she said. “I miss my baby. Do you think they’ll ever let us go?”
Huck didn’t know how to answer these questions they’d asked so many times. They’d been round and round already. The creatures that captured them were hardly rational. Their strange nightmare began when they were taken at dusk after spending a day hiking on the Colorado Plateau. The creatures appeared to want so
mething, as though they were waiting for one or both of the druids to give them something. If only either of them could figure out what.
“How long have we been here?” Demi asked, leaning her head on his shoulder. Another question they’d asked before. Huck tried to stop thinking about it.
“A couple of months, I think. Maybe two?” With no light to tell the time or regular schedule of sleeping or eating, it was getting difficult to keep track. Sometimes the creatures brought the druids raw meat every couple of hours, and other times their stomachs would ache and rumble. They learned to put some aside in case they were forgotten, cooked with the little fire magic Huck managed in their prison.
“Jago’s birthday is coming soon. Or maybe the day has already passed.” In the darkness, Huck saw a silvery tear slip down her cheek, and he brushed the drop aside.
“We’ll celebrate with him when we get home,” he said. As best he could tell, they were deep underground. Fortunately, a small stream of cool water flowed through the back of this cave, trickling through impossibly narrow openings. It meant they always had water, something they’d learned to be grateful for. Huck believed they were not too far from where they were taken. Their captors weren’t very communicative, so information was hard to come by. The worst part was not understanding why.
Their cave had only one entrance, and outside was a warren of tunnels. They didn’t have a guard posted outside, but they never got far before they were seen and carried back. He tried to work out their location, but the efforts had been a failure. Every intersection led to five ways out and identical intersections with just as many exits. They never managed to travel more than fifty metres away and never saw anything that would help them find an exit. Everything looked the same.
Their captors were rough and unpredictable. After the last time Huck tried to discover the way out, he’d suffered a terrible beating that had him bruised and weak for a long time. He was only just starting to feel strong enough to try again. He needed something to distract them. But these strange creatures were simple and single-minded. They were tall, bent creatures with sickly pale skin that was cold to the touch. Their bony and drawn faces looked horrible enough without the scraggly patches of hair growing in clumps on their heads, set off by a dim red gem pressed into their foreheads. All the ones Huck saw seemed to be male, with shrivelled sex organs dangling between their twisted legs.
“I have an idea,” Huck said. “We should venture out in quick jaunts. One of us goes to the intersection outside. I have a bit of metal on my belt buckle. We use it as a stylus and put a rune by one exit, then we come back here. When the coast is clear, we go out again and make the same symbol by another exit. Marking a trail is the only way I can think to make any progress.”
Demi shivered. “Are you sure you’re ready? Are you well enough?”
“I’m sore, but I need to get moving before I lose my mind. I’m thinking if we mark the way with runes, we should be able to keep track of where we’ve been before. If they do catch us, at least we won’t repeat ourselves or wander in circles when we start again…as long as they don’t obscure the runes.”
Demi didn’t answer. The lack of enthusiastic response disheartened him. In the beginning, she’d led the way. Now, she cried more often. She was in danger of giving up. He needed to do something, make some progress, give her some reason to believe they could escape.
“I’ll go the next time someone comes with food, because I think they pay less attention then,” Huck said. “I’ll come right back after I make the first rune. We have less chance getting caught if we aren’t wandering aimlessly.”
After a pause, Demi said, “Maybe we should follow them. They have to be getting these animals from somewhere. If we can discover where they hunt, maybe we can find a way out?”
The plan struck Huck as dangerous, but at least she was brainstorming again. “Okay. We can try your way.”
“If that doesn’t work,” she said, “we’ll do the runes. It’s a good idea. Carving on each intersection may take a while, but we’ve got nothing else to do.”
They’d developed a routine of helping each other stretch, of doing what exercise they could in the small space. They’d become a team and learned to sense each other’s moods. After the first few weeks, they’d talked through things he’d never revealed to anyone else.
Over time, he’d settled in to their friendship, begun to see her as a woman, not simply as a romantic interest. Now she was like a part of his own mind, closer than any lover or even a member of his family. When they held each other, the mood wasn’t sexual, but survival.
If they did escape, he didn’t know what their relationship would be on the outside. They had forged a deep connection and would probably always share something special, but his love for her had grown into something entirely different than he’d expected back when he first met her.
After they stretched, they talked about a distant memory, as they so often did. Demi was leading in to an incident from her high school years when they heard one of their captors approach.
When the creature shuffled into the doorway, he brought a waft of foul-smelling air with him. Oddly, he didn’t carry food. He began to babble at them in harsh, guttural tones. To Huck’s ears, the language sounded strangely familiar. He couldn’t pick out specific words, but he wondered if they were speaking a variation of the fae tongue.
He slipped a protective arm around Demi. The creature towered over them and was soon joined by three others. Huck had begun to notice certain individual traits, although the creatures did look very much the same. One might have larger eyes and the other might have more bow to his legs. This one had a strange and distinctive feature. Instead of one gem between his eyes, he had four, arranged in a diamond formation.
Demi scooted toward the back wall, shrinking away from the monsters, and Huck moved with her as more of them fit into the room. They were agitated and angry, unlike any time he’d seen before. A sick dread filled his stomach. There was no way the two humans could defend themselves if the creatures grew tired of keeping them alive. They seemed angry at Huck and Demi, but more frustrated than hostile.
Finally, the one who’d entered first threw something on the ground in front of Huck. He opened his mouth and bellowed, a deafening sound. Both humans covered their ears. Then the creatures went still, waiting.
“What is it?” Demi asked, her voice trembling.
“I can’t tell from here. Should I pick it up?”
Demi inched forward. “They brought it to us for a reason.” Moving slowly under the watchful eyes of the twisted creatures, she reached out and extended her hand toward the small object on the floor. The leader of the group nudged it with his foot, sending the small thing skittering closer.
Keeping her gaze locked on the creatures, she felt around on the filthy floor and picked the object up. Huck could almost hear them holding their breath, waiting.
“What is it?” Huck said.
“A stone,” she told him. She knelt a few feet ahead of him, but when he scooted up closer, their captors shouted, so he stopped moving.
She turned to look at Huck. “It’s a talisman,” she said. “I haven’t seen this particular one before, but I’m sure it’s druid made.” For the first time in a long while, a smile crept to her lips. “This feels like Munro’s work.”
Munro? How would these creatures get something that belonged to him? Had Munro been captured too? Or was he out there, looking for them? Huck’s mind reeled as he considered the possibilities.
“I’m going to try to activate the rune,” she said. But unless the object had been created with her blood talents in mind, she would be unlikely to succeed. Could Munro have left the artefact for them on purpose? Was he trying to tell them something? “I can feel the flows, but they’re faint. Maybe if I—”
The creatures went into a frenzy. One struck her hard enough that the impact made a sickening thud.
“Demi!” Huck shouted.
The talisman f
lew out of her hand, and the creatures set upon her. Before Huck could reach her, he’d been kicked by an oversized foot. His mind not listening to reason, he tried to claw his way to her, but he only succeeded in angering one to the point that it turned its violent attentions on him. He didn’t stand a chance. Later, when all the creatures had gone, he lifted his head and saw her form, lying in a heap near the opposite wall. She wasn’t moving.
“Hurry, Munro,” Huck whispered. “Don’t give up. Come find us.”
∞
Joy stepped through the Mistgate first, followed by Munro. While they waited for Alyssa, who was clearing away any evidence of their passage on the other side, he told Joy that Anna was a druid.
She didn’t appear surprised. “I suspected, from what she said about her brother, but I don’t have the talent to be certain. You saw her abilities with your pipe?”
He nodded. “Maybe I shouldn’t have left her behind,” he said as Alyssa appeared through the gate.
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