by Nunn, PL
She closed her eyes and ducked her head.
Soon the trail leveled out and she was able to straighten her back. She patted the animal’s neck in congratulations of the successful navigation. Up ahead she could make out the glints of armor or the occasional flash of nighthorse eyes.
The whole company slowed. Her own animal closed on the flank of its predecessor and tossed its head nervously. At the very front of the column, a spark blossomed. It spread to a infusing glow that illuminated the forest around the leaders. The landscape blurred and Victoria blinked as her brain tried to orient the suddenly out of whack scene her eyes were feeding it. The leading riders urged their mounts forward and they simply melted out of existence. As the other riders followed, they too disappeared.
Victoria was holding so hard to her own animal’s reins that it balked uncertainly as the nighthorse in front of it began to move towards the disturbance. It tossed its head violently, tearing the reins from her hands and gaining its head. She let it go numbly. What magic was this?
Certainly nothing she had been taught. The sidhe and the nighthorses had no fear of riding blindly into it.
Her mount’s ears twitched and it swung its head to the left. They passed a great, lumbering tree. Its ancient appendages hung down over the trail. The nighthorse took a few nervous steps sideways. Victoria ducked her head to avoid contact with the moss-covered limb and rather suddenly felt something wrap around her arms with surprising strength and lift her right out of her saddle. Her feet left the stirrups and with her weight gone from the animal’s back it danced forward with no misgivings over losing its rider.
She did not think to cry out at first.
She was too startled. And so quickly was she borne upwards and into the concealing foliage of the old tree that she had no time later when the thought did hit her. Hands, she was certain it was hands and arms around her, clamped over her mouth and pinned her arms to her body. She was hugged against a hard body and held perfectly still. No one raised a cry of alarm. Riders passed under the tree with no indication that they had observed her kidnapping. The whole of the party, including her former mount passed through the distortion in the forest and disappeared. The wavering illusion ceased to be and the night returned to normal save for the fact that she was held hostage by an unknown stranger on the lower limbs of a craggy tree.
For a long series of heartbeats she was held unmoving, then the hands loosened over her mouth. She took a much needed deep breath. Twisted to see her captor and found herself instead lifted and propelled back down to the forest floor. A form silently leapt down to her side. All she could see in the night’s cover was a tall, lanky figure. She knew he had strong hands. One of them grasped her upper arm and urged her quickly forward across the trail. She cooperated for a few steps before indignity began to take over. She was thoroughly tired of being a piece in this game they all played. Being a rook in someone else’s campaign was in no wise fun.
She shook her arm loose with an impatient release of breath and demanded.
“Just what do you think you’re doing?”
A hand came up immediately to the shadowy face in what might have been a gesture for silence.
“Lady, we’ve no time. Come with me.”
“I will not!” She planted her feet stubbornly. “Not until I know where you want to take me and who you are.”
“I take you to friends,” he insisted.
“And there’s no time. They will notice you gone and return and no amount of cloaking will hide us when we’re this close.”
She wished dearly for the magic of night vision. She needed to see her new companion’s face. “What friends?” she whispered.
His answer if any were forthcoming was cut off by a thunderous flapping of wings and a demented squawking. A midnight-cloaked demon descended from the heights. It cried out and swooped over her head to land on the stranger’s shoulder. She could hear another fluttering about overhead.
The birds. Her messenger birds.
“You sent the message stone?” she breathed.
“I did.” He took her arm, dragging her forward. “There is no time.”
For some unfathomable reason the presence of the birds, who were familiar, made her trust him. She followed as fast as she could, his erratic path through the untamed underbrush of the mountainous forest. They might have traveled for twenty minutes when he suddenly grasped her about the waist and bodily threw her into the decaying cubby formed by the roots of a great tree. He crowded in with her, curling his limbs around her. Reflex made her struggle until he whispered harshly into her hair.
“Riders.” That was all. She relaxed, fearing even to breath. But he was doing something that made that caution unnecessary. She could not practice the magic, but she was aware of its usage.
The forest became deathly silent. It was as if all sound had ceased to be. No chirp of crickets, no snap of branches as night birds and predators moved. No rustle of leaves or dripping of dew soaked foliage.
A bubble of total and complete quiet had fallen. She could not even hear her own labored breath, or the pounding of her pulse. There was movement in the distance. A heavy shadow passing. Then another. They were gone. Still the silence reined. For too long a time she sat crammed between the roots of the tree, her muscles cramping and her nerves stretching to the breaking point. Then at no particular signal the silence was broken and the forest sounds again intruded upon her hearing. It was a blessed relief. Even more so when the stranger shifted and crawled out of the cubby, holding out a hand to help her do the same.
“The hunt?” she asked shakily, as she stood, one leg numb from her forced position. She rested weight on the other unsteadily, dreading the pins and needles of awakening flesh.
“The hunt.”
“You shielded us?”
“I did.”
“Who are you?”
He started her moving again, a hand gently on her back. “Keirom,” he said softly.
She repeated the name. “Who are you taking me to, Keirom? What friends?”
He did not answer her right away, which began to make her nervous. The birds came and went from his company. He was very, very tall. No lesser sidhe this one. Not with that height.
“Are you Seelie?”
“No.”
That startled her. She squinted through the darkness narrowly.
“Unseelie.”
“No.”
“Then what are you?”
“Nothing.”
Which was not an answer to satisfy her curiosity. “What friends, Keirom?”
“Aloe Eberillan et Liosalfar.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part Eighteen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Bendithy huntsman went sailing across the clearing to brutally hit the unyielding trunk of a ancient conifer.
There was a splintering crack of bone with the impact and the body slid down to lie in sprawled disarray among the ferns and fungi of the forest floor. The other huntsmen crowded together in absolute terror, water leaking from their eyes and faces white as death. And death seemed such a certain fate, what with the Unseelie Lord’s present rage.
“Incompetent fools!” Azeral screamed at their cowering lot. The sidhe that remained at his back seemed just as silently apprehensive. No one could be entirely safe from the destructive power of his anger. “How could you miss her going? She knows nothing of forest craft! How could she slip away from you who do?”
Of course no one dared answer. They had seen the fate of one who did transgress to offer excuses. The Unseelie lord cursed and cruelly jerked his mount around. The animal tossed its head in irritation and spun in a circle, kicking up moss and dead foliage with its sharp hooves.
“He who finds her will find life easy and comfortable. Those who do not will find it short and painful.” He waved a hand at them and they scattered, stumbling over each other in efforts to mount their night horses. In a mass, confused exodus they fled from Azeral’s rage.
/> The sidhe had no such recourse. He turned burning eyes to the six who accompanied him.
“Intolerable,” he hissed. “To not even know if she escaped on this side of the portal or the other. I will have her back. If every able-bodied creature in my domain has to make this forest its home for the next millennia, I will have her back.”
They stared at him wide-eyed. No rebellion there. There were none among these few who might dare. The power moguls were already searching on the other side of the hole Azeral had created.
The hunt had a new prey. A soft, helpless, human one. But nonetheless one that had managed to elude their search so far.
There was nothing they could do but search and pray to the deities of nature that she was found, in one form or another, before their lord’s anger became too great and he started taking out his frustration on Sidhe hosts instead of slavish ones.
~~~
Aloe. Aloe had come looking for her.
Victoria knew a joy and comfort so intense that it almost overshadowed the fact that she and a strange sidhe were running for their lives through the inhospitable forest with the great hunt of their heels. Aloe was her friend. A true friend that had risked God only knew what to help her. It made all the days of loneliness in Azeral’s keep seem worthwhile. It banished all the morose thoughts that she was without recourse or sympathy in this world. She still had an ally in this realm.
They had fled for what she assumed hours when her guide caught her arm and pulled her into the vine shrouded cover of a great tree. His birds were high overhead, silent and watchful. She listened but could hear nothing to indicate worry. After a moment Keirom whispered tightly, “Someone uses magic to scan this area.”
“Can you shield us?” she whispered back.
“I think so. I understand you are a wielder of great power. Assistance would be comforting.”
She groaned, hoping he could manage without it.
“I would love to, really. But I can’t. Azeral’s done something to me. I can’t reach the magic anymore.”
He blinked at her, then merely shut his eyes and leaned against the tree. A few minutes later a breath of relief passed his lips and he stared at her once more. It was light enough to see his features now. He had a long, angular face. High, sharp cheekbones and unusually tall ears. His eyes were deep set and dark, as was his hair. The darkest she had seen on a high sidhe. His eyes remained upon her for a long, uncomfortable time, then his shoulders slumped and he moved out from the cover of the tree.
“I can sense the spell, but it is beyond my capabilities to dismantle.” Just that.
She followed him, a furrow growing between her brows.
“It can be broken, though? Right? It’s not permanent?”
“No magic is permanent,” he explained. He was, she had discovered, rather business-like. Little humor escaped his solitary demeanor. The birds, however were completely his creatures. They sat on his shoulders like adoring admirers, occasionally turning their colorful heads to hiss at her or squawk disapprovingly.
For the most part they flew over head, sailing under the foliage to land on this limb or that and await the earth bound to catch up with them. When they did descend, Keirom obligingly scratched under lifted wings or at the base of feathered skulls. They brought him odd tidbits at times, berries or colorful blossoms. He either ate the offerings or filed them away about his person so as not to offend by throwing the gifts away.
He would not engage Victoria in any but the barest necessity of conversation. The birds got more talk from him. It was not an imposition, for her mind was full.
She had only been half prepared for the possibility that the hunt might signal an escape. The reality left her somewhat stunned. Elation was dropping in favor of practicality. She was aware of just how much land she had to cover to return to Ashara’s domain. A hard enough journey without Azeral after her. And he would be after her. His minions would be after her.
She knew how very, very competent some of those minions could be. Would he send Dusk after her again? Without her magic that pursuit would be inescapable. And those responsible for her escape could very well find themselves in terrible danger.
“Azeral will send his Ciagenii after us,” she said quietly. Her companion made no answer, merely drew dark brows.
“Soon, I would expect,” she continued. “I hope you can shield our tracks as well as our presence because he is difficult to elude.”
“We won’t be followed,” Keirom finally said, but there was a trace of worry in his voice.
Daylight was a sheltered affair. The sun was high in the sky before even a trace of warmth breached the barricade of leafy branches. Victoria’s feet hurt. She did not ask to stop or complain over the discomfort. It seemed that making haste through jungle-like forests was her lot in life. The birds glided overhead, she lifted her gaze to watch the graceful flight and when she looked back down there were riders in the path in front of them. She gasped, casting a startled look at Keirom.
His face showed no sign of concern, so she looked back with more care. There were two riders actually and several riderless animals. Not nighthorses. These animals were silver and gray, with normal dark horse eyes. Their fetlocks were huge with flowing silky hair. It obscured their hooves completely.
With a cry of joy, she recognized the riders. One silver haired and slim, the other graced with pale golden locks.
“Aloe! Okar!” She ran forward, even as the sidhe girl dismounted and threw her arms around her friend.
“You came. You came,” she was sobbing. The tears were uncontrollable.
Aloe held her at arm’s length in amazement. The girl had a high flush to her pale cheeks.
“Of course I came. I made you my friend. I would not desert you regardless of your foolishness.”
Victoria wiped her cheek with the back of one hand and looked up at Okar, who had a not-quite-frown on his handsome face.
“I was foolish. I know that. I was an utter idiot! And for you to risk Azeral’s wraith coming after me… I just don’t deserve it. God, what if he catches you?”
“Then we’ll be very, very dismayed,”
Okar announced.
“Some of us more than others,” Aloe added and got a glare from Ashara’s mate for her trouble. “We’ve no time for dalliance, if we’re to avoid that fate,” the sidhe girl concluded. “Mount now. We’ve a long ride ahead of us.”
With one last swipe at her wet cheeks, Victoria did so. Keirom mounted also without a word to either of the other sidhe. He got a long look from Aloe though, with an expression that Victoria could not remember seeing on the girl’s face before.
There were two fresh mounts besides the horses Victoria and Keirom had commandeered. The sidhe then, were planning on a harsh ride as well as a long one. Victoria preyed her skills of horsemanship were up to it. Legs already sore from a rough walk might very well cramp from riding.
“How far are we from the keep?”
Victoria yelled across to Aloe after some time of riding. The silver haired sidhe furrowed her brows and said.
“Not far enough. For the hunt, a day’s ride.”
“Can they track us? Magically or mundanely?”
“Magically, no. They don’t know where to look and even if they did we’re on the move and between Okar and Keirom we’ve got a shield to block their best farseers. Mundanely… well there’s a lot of forest to cover, and we hide our tracks well. If they are extremely lucky their woodsmen might find traces.”
More silence. Then Aloe guided her mount close to Victoria’s.
“Did you find him?”
She wanted to cry, the reality of what she had found hit her so hard. She did feel tears blur her vision.
“I found him. My dreams were true, Aloe. He hardly knew me. He has a lover among them. A lover! And I was so silly to give myself over to them in hopes of helping him. He didn’t need my help.”
After a while. “I’m sorry. I don’t begrudge you trying. It was a nob
le effort.”
“It was a costly effort. It cost me my magic and made you risk your lives. And I came away with nothing.”
“You’ll get the magic back. And I think you may have gained more than you think. You know the enemy now. That knowledge is priceless.”
Victoria did not think so. She looked away and tried to ease sore muscles. A stop now would be rather pleasant. The sidhe showed no signs of even slowing.
“How did you get away?” Aloe asked. “We searched for trace of your path and found nothing. Your woodcraft is not that good.”
“Dusk. I made a deal with Dusk. He took me to Azeral.”
The sidhe girl’s eyes suddenly widened in shock. She cried halt so quickly the others bounded ahead half a hundred feet before realizing the women had stopped. Aloe’s horse danced around Victoria’s in frenzy, sides heaving.
“The Ciagenii was inside Ashara’s keep?”
Victoria stared at the alarmed sidhe faces. She nodded slowly.
“Yes. He came for me. He claimed he harmed no one.”
“He did not,” Okar confirmed. “But that he got past our defenses… Mother earth, how could we not have known?”
“He’s good,” Victoria summarized.
“And as I’ve told Keirom, he’ll probably be after me again. He’ll know where to look.”
“We can’t bring ‘that’ down on the grove,” Aloe whispered.
“What choice do we have?” Okar answered gravely. He wiped a lock of hair from his eyes and looked skyward. Of course no sky was to be seen, only the crisscrossed layers of foliage. “Defenses can be strengthened. If he got in once, then we need to revise them at any rate.
Besides, an assassin is not our only worry. We may see more of Azeral than we like.”
“He wouldn’t dare come into the grove.” Aloe sounded secure in that belief. Okar smiled sadly at her. His gaze lingered on Victoria.
