She punched me in the arm. ‘You’re such a glass-is-half-empty person.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You’re thinking about what you couldn’t do. You should be thinking about what you did do. Without you, we’d all be dead.’
I tried to hang onto her words but the guilt still lingered. I shrugged my shoulders and strode towards the closest dragon. A particularly large surge of pleasure broke through the barrier I had erected against Emerald and I had an urge to run to Turos. I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders and placed my hands on the closest dragon.
A few moments later I felt the last of the metal balls make a sucking pop as it exited a wound. I rubbed a hand over the dragon’s shiny scales and moved to the next patient.
It took the rest of the afternoon and most of the night to finish healing the dragons.
When the last one was done, I joined the other healers, flopping down with an exhausted sigh next to Sabby.
Somebody handed me a cup of broth and a chunk of bread. I looked up to see Sabby’s Mum, Grindella. She looked as tired as I felt.
‘You should be resting,’ I said as I took the food she offered.
‘I already rested. I had to stop healing a few hours ago.’ She reached down and squeezed my arm before straightening back up. ‘More mouths to feed.’ She smiled and then turned and hurried away.
The smell of the broth assaulted my nostrils and my stomach roared in displeasure. I was suddenly, desperately hungry. I moaned as the salty broth cascaded over my taste buds. When I had finished I stood up and stretched. ‘I’m going to bed.’
‘Me too.’ Sabby held her hand out to me.
I grabbed it and hauled her to her feet. She’d been healing all day, I didn’t know how she was still able to stand.
Thomas appeared out of the shadows of the night, a sword strapped to his side. He gave Sabby a shy smile and the two of them began walking towards the village.
‘I’ll be your bed buddy tonight.’ I hadn’t even known Isla was still there.
‘You don’t trust me.’
She pulled a face. ‘It’s not you I don’t trust. I don’t want Aethan and Turos to have their next wrestling match on the floor of your bedroom.’
I let out a snort. Emerald and Lance had returned a few hours ago and I had my emotions back under control. ‘Do you know what came of the War Council?’
‘The rest of the army are nearly in place. We’re heading out tomorrow morning to meet them.’
‘Do we have a plan?’
She flashed me a grin. ‘Of course we have a plan.’
‘Care to expand on that?’
‘And ruin all the fun?’ Mia unravelled from Isla and scampered down her arm to jump over to me. She hissed down at Scruffy and then nestled into my neck, her small paws patting me as if to console me.
I sighed as I reached a hand up to smooth her pelt. ‘Geographically speaking, the most tactical place for us to meet a force larger than us would be the Pass of Bones. Have the night faeries arrived?’
‘No.’ She pulled a face. ‘Ebony says they are not far away.’
I batted down the flash of annoyance at hearing her name. ‘They would have had to go around goblin territory. But still, they’ve had plenty of notice.’
‘Apparently it takes a while to muster a full army.’
We passed a series of huge marquees that had been set up to accommodate the now homeless Milleniums. A woman sitting with her back against the wall of one of them looked up as we passed. She bowed her head to me and pressed the back of her hand to her forehead. I smiled and nodded my head woodenly. ‘I’m never going to get used to that,’ I said.
‘You need to.’’
‘Why?’
She quirked her head to the side and looked at me. ‘Wow. You haven’t worked it out yet have you?’
‘Obviously not.’
‘Whichever choice you make, you will end up a Queen.’
Her words took my breath away. ‘But, I don’t want to be a Queen,’ I spluttered.
‘Well, maybe you should stop making out with the heirs to the thrones.’
She had a point.
‘I can’t help it.’ I raised both my hands in the air.
‘You’re going to have to choose.’
‘I know, I know.’ We reached the bottom of the track leading up to my house. ‘It’s just….’
‘You’re having too much fun?’
‘No. Not at all.’ I was appalled that she thought I was doing this for my own amusement. ‘The thing is…,’ I paused while I struggled to capture the vastness of my emotions and shape them into the two-dimensionality of words. ‘All my life it’s been Aethan.’
‘But now there’s Ebony.’
‘Yes. But, even pretending she doesn’t exist.’ I stopped and turned to face her. ‘I love him. You know that. But this Aethan…well, we don’t have the depth, the history we should. When Galanta stole his memories, she stole our relationship. What we have now is new.’
Isla nodded as she understood. ‘So what you feel for Turos, and what you feel for this Aethan is equivalent.’
I nodded, relieved she got it. ‘I miss him so much.’ Tears welled in my eyes. ‘He was my best friend.’
‘He’s still there.’ She grimaced. ‘Well, forgetting about the whole betrothed thing.’
‘It’s not the same.’ I started walking again. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I still love him. But it’s like I’m loving a shadow of him, of what we had.’ We walked for a while, negotiating the bumpy path in the dark. ‘It’s like part of him died.’
‘Just as he shaped the woman you are today, you shaped the man he was. That part, the part that was because of you, it’s gone.’ She reached out and clasped my hand. ‘It doesn’t mean you can’t recreate the depth in your relationship. If there was a reason to.’ She shook her head slowly as if she doubted that was a possibility, and I knew what she was thinking of. Who she was thinking of. ‘At least you’ve got a fall back.’ She pulled a face as if to soften her words.
I felt stupidly selfish. The love of her life was off in servitude to a Goddess, and I was moaning about the hardship of having to choose between two amazing men.
‘You’ll see him again.’ I squeezed her hand. ‘You know that, right?’
She turned to face me and I could see the tears in her eyes glinting in the light of the moon. ‘I know I will. I feel it here.’ She beat her fist against her chest. ‘And I have faith.’ She nodded slowly, the wisdom of her years showing on her perfect face. ‘She will return him when we need him the most.’ She glanced towards the moon, a beatific look settling into a peaceful mask.
We stood like that for a while. Two friends, admiring the beauty of the moon, and hoping that we would still be here to admire it, when all was said and done.
***
I woke with a soft hand on my shoulder and a heavy lump on my chest. It turned out that the hand belonged to Isla and the lump was Scruffy. He licked my face as I opened my eyes.
I could hear a drum beat, echoing in the distance. ‘Goblins? Really?’ I blinked my eyes a few times and then said, ‘Eric, lights please.’
The house responded by flicking on my lights.
Isla sat beside me, her long black hair tousled from sleep. ‘What is she up to?’ she murmured.
Mia sat up from where she was pressed against my side and shook herself.
‘I never know.’ I shrugged my shoulders. ‘She’s far too clever for me.’
Isla held her hand out to Mia and the little monster climbed over me to scramble up her arm. She let out a laugh as Mia’s tongue found her cheek. ‘Tickles,’ she said before turning her attention back to me. ‘The chess game is not won till the King is in checkmate.’
‘I don’t play chess.’
‘Well, that’s something we are going to have to fix in the future.’
A possibility of a life where there was no urgency, no need to be constantly thinking of the next attack, the nex
t assault, came to me. I realised that there were voids in history. Times when there had been decades, no centuries, where the most dramatic thing to happen was a feud between two neighbours. Suddenly, the idea of being able to play a lazy game of chess was appealing.
But that time was not now.
I jumped out of bed and pulled on my fighting leathers, slapping my blades into their holsters and strapping my sword to my waist. Emerald?
Coming now.
I got a mental image of her, Lance and Arthur waiting for us in the field.
‘Let’s end this,’ I said to Isla, ‘before it begins.’
‘My type of fight.’ She grinned and hefted a bow and quiver bristling with arrows onto her shoulder.
Mum and Radismus were already in the kitchen. I couldn’t help but notice Mum’s nightie. Lace and skin were a predominant feature that had been lacking in her old one. I squished that thought before it could mentally scar me, and said, ‘What are you doing?’
‘We heard the drums.’ Fear trembled in her voice.
Radismus grasped her hands. ‘There now love, Izzy won’t let anything happen to us.’ He looked at me as if to reassure himself that that was true.
Mum pulled herself up, as if she should be the one protecting me.
‘Hey.’ I pulled her into my arms. ‘Don’t worry. I’ve got this.’
Isla let out a polite cough.
‘Fine.’ I rolled my eyes at her. ‘We’ve got this.’
Grams burst out of her wing of the house with Lionel right behind her. She was dressed in full camouflage gear, including her black balaclava. His striped pyjamas looked ludicrous with a sword buckled to his waist.
‘Oh good.’ Grams slid to a stop next to Mum. ‘I thought we’d missed you.’
I let out a sigh. There would be no stopping them, and Grams had proved herself to be quite valuable in our earlier staged attacks on the field.
Banging on the door turned out to be Turos and Aethan, both with their fists raised as if competing to see who could knock the loudest.
‘Rako’s rallying forces down at the field,’ Aethan said.
‘The dragons are ready to go,’ Turos said at the same time.
‘Men.’ Isla muttered as she shook her head.
‘You’re confident on Arthur?’ I asked her.
She nodded, a grin spreading over her face. I knew how much she enjoyed flying.
‘Grams, you and Lionel go with Turos. Aethan, you’re with me.’ I ignored Turos’s scowl and Aethan’s triumphant smile. I didn’t have time for that at the moment. ‘Let’s go.’ I hugged Mum and followed Turos and Aethan back out the door.
Our dragons were crowded onto our front lawn. We climbed onto them, even Grams scurrying up with surprising ease, and within a few seconds we were landing in the field where Rako was giving orders.
‘Do we know what we’re dealing with?’ I asked him.
‘Goblins. Lots of them.’
There was only one reason they would be attacking here. To stop us joining the rest of our forces.
‘Want us to fly a reconnaissance?’
‘Can you see well enough?’
I looked over at Aethan. ‘He can.’ I jabbed a thumb at him. ‘And I can see what Emerald sees.’
‘We can see as well,’ Turos said, pointing between himself and Lance.
‘And we can provide cover.’ Grams was bouncing up and down on her toes.
Rako nodded. ‘Fine. But no risky moves. I don’t want you engaging the enemy.’
‘What if they need to be engaged?’ I said. ‘If our engaging them would bite the head off the snake, so to speak.’
Rako squeezed the bridge of his nose. ‘Don’t do anything risky.’ The six of us burst out laughing and the corners of Rako’s mouth curled up. ‘Fine,’ he said, ‘don’t do anything ridiculously risky.’
The drums’ beat pulsed in the cool night air. Wherever they were, they were getting closer.
We started to lift off when I remembered the cave the night before. Stop.
Emerald cut her wings and her legs flexed as she absorbed the force of us landing again. What?
I didn’t answer. Instead I slid off her neck and trotted back to Rako. ‘It’s a trap.’ It was the only thing that made sense. Always before I had fallen for her subtle manipulations, danced to her tune. But not this time.
‘You’re sure?’
I nodded.
He didn’t question me. He just stared into my eyes for a second and then said, ‘Well, you know her the best.’
When she had stolen Aethan’s memories, she had kidnapped him and used a shield to manipulate the final battleground, the final players. Then she had done the same with poor Orion. Last night she had led us into a snare-filled cave. I was one hundred percent sure, that this was her attempt to control the final battle. But it wasn’t happening tonight. Of that much I was also sure.
Turos strolled over to us, his long, muscular legs eating up the ground between Lance and us with ease. I tried not to think about what those legs would feel like wrapped around my body, holding me down onto the length of him. I was only partially successful and I could feel my face flush red.
‘It’s a trap,’ I said before he could ask anything.
‘What do you suggest?’ Rako asked.
‘We continue as planned. But we do it now.’
He nodded his head and turned away from me, whistling a high-pitched tune. The Border Guard call to arms.
Aethan hurried off in the direction of the Guard and Turos winked at me before he and Lance disappeared toward the Millenium.
It only took Isla, Grams, Lionel and me moments to get back up to the house, but Mum was already dressed. Lionel slipped off to his and Gram’s quarters and returned a few minutes later clad in battle gear. Grams was opting to stick with her camouflage outfit. I suppressed a grin. It was nice that some things hadn’t changed.
Sabby, Grindella and Thomas arrived not long afterwards.
‘We’re leaving now,’ I informed them.
Sabby nodded, not at all surprised, and Thomas rested his hand on his sword as if he were readying himself to protect her.
‘Did Turos get time to…?’ I nodded my head at his hand.
‘A little. I get the theory but I’m having trouble with the practical.’
‘Well, you’re doing better than I did,’ I said. ‘It took me ages to understand the theory.’
‘She’s a slow study.’ Isla shuffled her arrows around in her quiver, making sure they would all pull out smoothly when she needed them. She patted her head, checking her braid was secure, then ran her hands over her fighting leathers, making sure her daggers were where they were meant to be.
I followed her example, slipping my fingers over the familiar feel of the steel blades strapped to my biceps and thighs.
There was one last thing I had to do and my heart squeezed at the thought. A war was no place for familiars. They were too easy a target, and if they were killed, the witches’ powers would be neutralised. Some familiars would go. The small ones that were easily concealed on one’s body. The rodents and insects. But the rest would be taken by relatives to be kept safe until the witch returned. If the witch returned.
Scruffy stared up at me with huge golden eyes. He stood on his hind legs and scratched at my knees with his front paws. I reached down and scooped him up, cradling him in my arms while I scratched his head. I pressed my face into his fur, breathing in his doggy smell. ‘Stay with Mum,’ I whispered. ‘I need to know you are safe.’
‘Mum.’ I held Scruffy out, blinking back stupid tears as she took him from me. ‘You and Radismus are to go with the civilians.’ We already knew that that was the plan. That Mum and Radismus’s job was to lead the civilians to London, to the barracks there. But saying it made me feel better. As if I could assure her safety by the will of my words.
Tears stood in her eyes but she nodded in acquiescence. Her magic didn’t extend to anything that was going to help us this night.
Nor the next few days. And I didn’t want her anywhere near Santanas.
‘Grindella,’ I turned to Sabby’s Mum, ‘will you go with them? They’ll need healers in case….’ I didn’t finish the sentence. Didn’t want to think about the finish of the sentence.
Her eyes were huge and wise as she nodded her head. She turned to Sabby and held out her arms. ‘Give Phantom to me,’ she said. ‘I’ll keep him safe till you return.’ Tears trembled on her lashes as she looked at her daughter.
Sabby bent and picked up her huge, black cat. She shushed him as he struggled in her arms. ‘It’s for the best,’ she whispered. She buried her face in his fur, holding onto him as if she couldn’t bear to let him go, then she took a deep breath and passed him to her Mum.
Thomas’s arm crept around her shoulders and she sagged against him.
Grams unwrapped Cyril from around her shoulders. Mum took the huge python, bowing a little under his weight. He didn’t look happy as he took up residence over her shoulders.
‘Here.’ Isla reached up and unwound Mia from her neck. She held her out to Radismus. ‘Will you protect her? Where we are going is no place for her. We need to keep her safe till we can find her baby.’
At those words Mia stopped struggling. She let out a forlorn mew, and then jumped to Radismus, her body trembled as she tucked herself in against his throat.
‘I’ll keep her safe.’ Radismus put his arm around Mum’s shoulders and lifted his chin. ‘I’ll keep them all safe.’
‘I know you will.’ I had no doubt that he would fight to the death to protect them.
I hugged Mum tight, trying to pretend that that might not be the final time I got to feel the warmth of her body.
She wrapped her free arm around me, then kissed me on the cheek and pulled back till she was holding me at arm’s length. ‘Make me proud.’
‘Have I ever not?’
‘Well, there was that time….’ She stopped and smiled at me, and I knew it was time to go.
A piece of my heart splintered off as I turned and walked away.
The goblin drums echoed through the night, their pace increasing, a call to action. I steeled myself to ignore it. For once, I was going to move in the opposite direction, I was no longer willing to dance to the beat of her drums.
Faery Revenge Page 23
