A lump welled up in my throat. I’d been holding it back since the moment the commander died. “What if it’s all for nothing? Sometimes I can’t help but ask myself that. All the good people that have died, all the friends I’ve lost…all for what?”
The shadow of motherly concern clouded Valory’s face. For a few moments the age gap between her and me felt larger than a mere two years. “But you can’t think like that, Em. You just can’t. You keep going. That’s all. You just keep going and one day all the bad guys will get theirs and you’ll be sittin’ pretty, eating sweet cream pie.”
I reached the breaking point. I couldn’t hold it in any more. “I DON’T WANT SWEET CREAM PIE! I WANT COMMANDER LARUE BACK! I WANT MY DAD! I WANT TO GO HOME TO IVYWILD AND I WANT THE DUKE AND ROBYN TO FALL OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH!”
Valory didn’t try to hush me. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and sheltered me with her wings. She had no way of knowing that it was exactly what Lev would have done and the thought of him only made me more upset.
“There, there,” Valory said. “You’re all right. Just let it out. Even knives of the strongest iron can break. We’ll just smelt you back together and you’ll be good as new.”
“I’m not made of iron,” I said, my voice cracking. “Commander Larue was and you saw how easily they broke him!”
Valory rested her chin on my matted hair. “Maybe you’re made of wood then, like that tree over there. You got chopped down but we’ll make something stronger out of the pieces.”
Her soft, calm words helped me regain control. I sniffled and wiped my eyes. “I’m afraid all the pieces aren’t here. Part of me is in Ivywild and always will be.”
Valory sat back. “Tell me about it.”
I took a shaky breath. “Ivywild? I told you lots about it over the winter.”
“Tell me again,” Valory said.
So I told her about the first time I saw the castle, rising like a mountain of crystal over the emerald valley. I told her about the elevatree and the open-air market. I told her about the servants and the Pixie messengers. I described the beaded, feathered creations that hung in Chloe’s closet. I told her about the view of the courtyard from my room and described how a full moon made Ivywild River sparkle like a silver necklace running through the castle grounds. I talked of the Master Casters and how they used to guard the castle walls in their purple uniforms. Now crimson guarded those walls, not purple, but in my mind it would always be Commander Larue and his eager young soldiers.
When I finished I had calmed down considerably, although inside there was still a throbbing ache. I rested my head on my knees and stared into space.
Valory sat and looked up at the stars. She was so quiet and so still that she might have been a statue. After a long time she spoke. She took her time choosing her words and spoke carefully, playing down her usual country brogue.
“It all sounds very pretty, Emma, but it isn’t why you fight. It’s the people you care about. I lived in Almyra’s hut all my life, but I didn’t have pains about leaving it when the time came because there wasn’t nobody left there for me to care about. You’ve got to stop thinking on Ivywild and look ahead. We’re already on the right track. We’re hunting up your friends. That’s the pieces you’re missing.”
Her words were profound enough to rattle me out of my pity party. I shoved my hair out of my face, letting the night air cleanse the evidence of tears from my cheeks. “Valory, sometimes I think you’re a genius and you’re just hiding it.”
Valory’s brows drew together. “What’s a genius? Is that like a kind of flower?”
“No,” I said. “It means you’re a very smart person. It’s a little scary, to be honest, especially having known your parents and your half-brother. I think you’re smart in a different way, though.”
A grayish color tinged Valory’s white cheeks. “Pshaw. I may not be a droolin’ idiot, but I wouldn’t call myself a genius.”
The next day found me in better spirits. We packed up camp, consulted the map and continued our trek to the north.
By the end of the second day Valory still hadn’t picked up the scent of any Fay.
“Maybe they didn’t come this way,” I suggested. “It’s all unmarked wilderness. Or maybe they flew.”
“There should be something,” Valory said as she sniffed at trees frantically like a puppy in a new place. “Even if they were flying they’d have to stop for relief breaks.”
“Relief breaks?”
“To go pee. All I smell is animal pee. People pee smells different.”
“Good to know.”
We continued to navigate by the map for the next day and the next. The mountains disappeared behind us and now even the foothills lay far behind. The forest was thick with the sounds of birdcalls and Dryad whispers. The air hung in damp, warm pockets that made my leather clothes stick to me. Gnats hovered in a constant cloud around my face. Valory took to flying more often to get a break from the muggy forest.
On the afternoon of the fourth day, Valory let out a shout that disrupted a whole flock of birds from the branches over my head. She swooped down and landed next to me, cursing.
“Bloody bull maggots and stinkshrooms!”
“What? What is it?” I asked in alarm.
“We’ve veered off course. We’re too far south. When I was flying just now, I saw those swamps Trapper Toussant warned us about.”
I pushed my sweaty hair out of my face. The cloud of gnats sensed fresh meat and buzzed even closer to my nose.
“I’d say we’re a day or two south from where we need to be,” Valory said drearily.
“Man, what I’d give for an airplane right now,” I said. “And a bath.”
“What’s an airplane?”
“It’s a big flying machine you take to get to faraway places. I flew in one once. We went on vacation to Florida. I was very small but I remember feeling funny when the plane took off because it went up at an angle.”
Valory seemed to have forgotten her question. She was watching my hand with a look of intense curiosity. I realized I’d been drumming my fingers on my shortsword.
“I’ve caught you doing that a few times now,” Valory said.
I withdrew the sword from its scabbard. “You know how I told you about the flute? About how I’m not supposed to have it?” I flicked open the hilt and pulled the flute out.
“Criminey!” Valory exclaimed. “That’s the flute that can destroy whole armies and level cities and stuff?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Kind of small, huh? This is it. If I were to summon one of the beasts, we could make better time. There’s a huge wolf that could probably get us there in a day.”
Valory stared at the flute like it was a gigantic spider that had just crawled out of my pocket. It was a far cry from Marafae’s hungry leer the first time she’d seen it.
“Nu-uh,” Valory said. “Not if it means tinkerin’ with big magic like that. Anyways, we can’t risk being spotted. Put it away.”
I obeyed, admitting that I’d given the very same reasons to myself. Still, the idea of more travel by foot exhausted me. I swatted the gnats and leaned against a tree trunk. “We need to take a break.”
“You do look rough,” Valory said. “I saw a brook just a little ways up. You could take your bath and I could fly ahead and see if I can spot the best route to go north.”
We parted ways. I found a clear, shallow pool in the brook Valory mentioned. I waded in up to my knees. The water felt blissfully cool. At first I was hesitant to strip down, but my clothes were heavy and reeked of sweat. Ignoring the giggling of the Dryads in trees nearby, I took my clothes off and scoured them clean as best I could. Then I hung them over a bush to dry while I soaked in the pool and pretended I was home in my own floral-scented bathtub.
“Look at all those scars,” said one nosy Dryad.
“I’ll say,” said another. “Did you see her clothes? Filthy!”
“She’s not nearly as pretty as
the last girl who bathed here,” said the other Dryad.
I sat up with a tremendous splash. “Did you say there was another girl here?”
“Why should I tell you?” said the pert Dryad.
“Ewww, her knees are all scabbed up!” said another.
I glared at the trees, naked and fuming. “Look, it’s a simple question. Who was here? How long ago?”
“Oh, ages,” the first Dryad said. “Before the winter, I suppose. It was a Fay girl. Her figure was better than yours. Aren’t you going to cover up? You’re embarrassing us.”
“You’re just jealous.” I wiggled my hips and tossed my wet hair like somebody in a shampoo commercial.
“What on earth are you doing?”
I let out a squeak and jumped back into the brook. “Valory, when did you get back?”
She fought to keep a straight face. “How’d that go? Like this?” She mocked me by shaking her hips and tossing her hair.
I sank down into the pool until only my head poked out. “What did you find?”
Valory’s mirthful expression turned dark. “Bad news. The forest gets thick as a Brownie’s chest hair just ahead. It’s going to slow us down a lot.”
“Rats,” I said. “And I was just getting my hopes up again. These Dryads said a girl bathed here just before the winter. I thought maybe it was someone from the resistance.”
“Doesn’t make much sense, does it?” Valory said. “Why would they come through that mean patch of forest? Surely there’s an easier route.”
I groaned. “I don’t know, but I guess we shouldn’t waste any more time. Don’t look. I’m going to get dressed.”
Valory turned around and picked at the moss on a nearby tree. The Dryad inside complained that she was tickling her, so Valory did it with more zeal.
I wrung out my hair and went to grab my clothes from the bush I’d draped them over. I had pulled on my underthings and was just tugging on my pants when a bird swooped down and snagged my shirt. The bird made a screeching noise and flew upstream with its prize.
“Noooooo!” I shouted. I stumbled the rest of the way into my pants and chased after the bird.
“Can I look now?” Valory asked, having tickled the Dryad delirious.
“Get it!” I shouted, pointing at the bird.
Valory flew up in the air, but the Dryad got its revenge by twisting a large branch into her flight path. The branch caught Valory across the stomach. She grunted and fell to the ground.
“I need a minute,” she panted, clutching her stomach. “The damn Dryad knocked the wind out of me.”
I saw the bird flying lazily back and forth across the stream, clutching my shirt in its talons, like it was taunting me. It lingered just out of reach as I ran along the banks of the brook.
“Come back here!” I shouted. “What kind of bird steals a shirt? Come on, give it up!”
I lunged forward but the bird beat its wings and lifted the shirt just out of my grasp. I tripped and nearly fell over a big boulder. The stream cut through a bed of large rocks. It became a game of hurdles as I leaped over the boulders. The obstacles dotted a trail all the way up the side of a small hill.
Panting, I got near the top to find the bird perched on one of the rocks. He’d dropped the shirt on the ground below. I snatched it up and pulled it over my head.
“Cheeky critter!” I scolded the bird. “Did you just feel like playing a game? That’s not very nice! That’s—”
The words stuck in my throat. I had just spied a Fay symbol scratched into the rock beneath the bird’s talons. It wasn’t just any symbol, though. It was the symbol for Ivywild. The very same symbol was on all the Pyxis Charms and on the door beneath the castle cliff. What was it doing here, in the middle of a forest hundreds of miles away from the castle?
The bird pecked at the symbol. He cocked his head and stared at me with black dewdrop eyes. He was a chubby little fellow with a soft, cream-colored chest and long tail feathers. He chirped and flapped his wings.
“Cinder?” I asked.
He flew around my head and alighted on another rock beside me. I glanced over and received another shock.
“Did you catch him?” Valory asked as she climbed up the hillside. She was still clutching her stomach.
“I think I know how those Fay came this far south without crossing the dense forest,” I said. “Look.”
I pointed at the mouth of a cave that had been hidden from view below. The bird stood near the opening. He chirped, flew around my head once more and then vanished into the forest.
“Friend of yours?” Valory joked.
“Maybe so,” I said. I rubbed my fingers over the symbol of Ivywild in the rock. The pieces of my life were finally starting to come back together. “This is the right way. I’m sure of it.”
Valory stared into the black mouth of the cave. She gulped. “I don’t know, Em. It looks a little…scary.”
I held my breath and tried not to giggle. The idea of a Slaugh being scared of the dark was too much. I grabbed my sides and burst out laughing.
“You hush!” Valory said. “If you keep laughing at me I’m gonna keep doing this!” She made an exaggerated motion of wiggling her hips and tossing her hair.
That just made me laugh harder, so Valory kept on making fun of me until we’d peeved off all the Dryads in the surrounding area. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so happy.
Somewhere in the forest a bird chirped. I heard its call with a deep sense of contentment and dared to hope that I was closer to home than I thought.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Death is my maker. Its black wings enshroud me. Its silence is the only truth. I have beheld it; the shadow of life. From darkness born, to darkness I return.
Lev could not help but think of the old Slaugh funeral dirge as he gazed upon Seraph’s Tear and its frightening new inhabitants. The mechamen marched through the city like ants in a colony. Numbering in the thousands, they filled the streets with the jarring sounds of metal and bone. Their stench infected the air even high atop the bridge tower where Lev and two other Slaugh stood watching.
“Scavengers,” Katriel said, lowering a spyglass. She handed it to Lev. “It’s a miracle they don’t have the buildings down to bare frames by now.”
He took the spyglass and tried to hold it steady against his right eye. The curse was taking its toll. The vestiges of his mother’s magic recoiled from it and faltered, causing his limbs to grow weak. He’d been trying to hide it, but he could tell by the increasing frequency of Katriel’s sideways glances that she was onto him.
“Wilhelmina, what’s today’s number?” he asked as he trained the spyglass on a group of mechamen near the city’s outskirts.
“Same as the day before,” Wilhelmina replied. Her voice was less harsh than Katriel’s, having been smoothed by a couple years of lullabies and bedtime stories. Her daughter was waiting for her back on the ship. For the millionth time, Lev wondered if he’d been foolish to let her bring the child, but the ship seemed safe enough so long as it kept at sea. The mechamen couldn’t fly and if there was a battle to be fought, it would happen here in the cursed city.
A light blossomed behind Lev’s eyelids and he cringed, feeling at once the full power of the curse of Seraph’s Tear. His gift was trying to show him something, but he couldn’t reach it through the film of pain inflicted by the ancient curse.
“Sir?” Katriel asked, grabbing his arm.
He steadied himself. The light dimmed, leaving behind the barest traces of an image and two whispered words that drifted up out of his subconscious like dust set aloft by a slamming door.
Not yet.
“What did you say?” Wilhelmina asked.
He had not realized he’d spoken aloud. Katriel and Wilhelmina were both watching him apprehensively.
Suddenly there came a rumble that caused the bridge tower to sway. All three Slaugh spread their wings on instinct and hovered above their perch, watching the massive structur
e wobble. In only lasted a few seconds, but it was enough to make Lev keep his wings partially open after he landed.
Katriel cursed in Slaugh. “Just what we need,” she said, carrying on in her mother tongue. “An earthquake!”
“A blessing in disguise, perhaps,” Wilhelmina said, nodding towards the city. The mechamen were scattering towards its edges in a frenzy. “Maybe it took care of a few of them for us.”
“Not likely,” Lev said, raising the spyglass again. Where Wilhelmina saw panic, he saw order. The mechamen were not so much scattering as moving in force, with purpose and direction. “They increased their population by up to a third every day until last month. Now that they’ve stopped adding to their numbers, it begs the question of what they’ve been doing.”
“Why have they been tearing down buildings?” Katriel said.
“Right,” Lev said. “Where is all that metal going?”
“You think they’re building something else?” Wilhelmina asked.
In answer to her question, a chunk of the city rose from its foundations. The earth shook again, but this time it didn’t stop. It continued to tremble as thousands of tons of metal and stone became mobile.
Wilhelmina gasped. “How?”
Lev, who was watching through the spyglass, could hardly bring himself to answer. The mass was rolling towards the harbor on the backs of thousands of mechamen working in tandem with gigantic gears and levers. “More machinery. We have underestimated them.”
“It’s coming this way,” Katriel said, spreading her wings.
“To the harbor?” Wilhelmina said. “But why? Surely it’s not—”
Lev collapsed the spyglass and watched the ungainly structure close the distance between edge of the city and the frothy water lapping at the shore. He turned to Wilhelmina. “Get to the ship. Tell the captain to pull up anchor and ready the sails.”
Wilhelmina gave one quick nod and she was off.
“Kekist nin!” Katriel hissed as the bridge tower swayed beneath them. The mechamen and their impossible construction were at the water’s edge now. The displacement sent waves inland, turning streets to rivers.
The Flute Keeper's Promise (The Flute Keeper Saga) Page 27
