There were a few more lunges, fended off by Justin and the cats, while Lani bandaged her shoulder and resumed tending to the unconscious boatman. Megan, meanwhile, started getting the hang of the winds, whipping the water current up more to drive them on. Jude managed to drag Cassia back into the boat just in time to avoid another set of snapping jaws, while Maxwell lunged, driving the serpent back as claws raked across one of its eyes.
"Megan—" Ashling was shouting something, but she couldn't make out more than her name over her song, the winds, and the chaos around her.
With the combatants fending off more feints and snapping jaws at the back and sides of the boat, Megan was caught off guard when the boat rocked violently. Then it rocked the other way, almost tipping over. This time she caught it. "He's under the boat!" the pixie shouted, after climbing up to Megan's ear.
The bottom of the boat cracked, wood splintering upward, followed by a spray of water. The boat rocked another direction, tipping upward. This time, Cassia was ready. She dove for her sword, which had been sliding around in the boat, snatched it up, and drove it through the wood. The spray of water through the leak that followed was accompanied by black blood, and the impacts against the bottom of the boat stopped.
"Keep singing. We're almost to the falls!" Ashling shouted.
That had the opposite of the desired effect. "Falls?"
"Sing!" the pixie called. "Safest route."
"The falls are the safest route?" Lani shouted.
Megan decided that Ashling was probably telling the truth this time and got back to her efforts with the winds. The boat was steadily filling with water now, with Lani being forced to abandon her efforts on the boatman for the time being to bail. Justin surrendered his shield to her, deeming her efforts more critical to their survival, fending off the snapping jaws with the sword alone. At least the serpent with the black mark on its neck was wary enough of the blade that it seemed to be working for now.
"Hold on!" Ashling shouted, grabbing on to the Count. At the warning, Megan gave up on the song, and readied herself. The boat hit jutting rocks, cracking apart as it pitched over a waterfall that dropped into inky blackness below. She pushed off as hard as she could, and fell. With the winds dying down, the Count pulled away from her, taking off and carrying Ashling to safety.
Megan hit the freezing cold water after a long fall, managing to go in feet first. In the shock of the sudden impact and cold, she nearly lost all track of up and down. Her lungs were burning, but Megan forced the panic down. She kicked off her shoes to make swimming easier and managed to get her head above water.
As she surfaced, she heard Lani's breathless voice next to her. "You okay?"
Megan spat water, gasping for air. "Yes."
"Can you swim it?"
"I think so." Megan said.
"Then can you give me a hand with this guy?" Lani asked, pausing a couple of times as she struggled to keep both her own and the boatman's head above water. Lani was normally a strong swimmer, but the extra body and the injured shoulder were obviously making it difficult just to tread water.
As Megan swam, she heard arrows hissing from above and hitting the water, but none came close. Thankfully, it seemed the shapeshifters didn't see in the dark much better than she did, at least in forms suited for archery. With a lot of effort, the pair dragged themselves and the boatman to shore before trying to feel their way towards cover in the darkness.
Cassia emerged right after them, Megan judged by the breathing and hooves scraping the wet stone. A metallic dragging and a bit of sputtering told her the satyress had pulled Justin in before his chainmail could drag him down.
"This way," Cassia hissed, helping support Justin, who managed to get to his feet, while Megan grabbed onto Cassia with one hand to make sure she didn't lose her. She kept hold of the boatman with the other, helping Lani to drag him along.
The satyress led them to cover behind some rocks, where they waited for the others. Jude arrived next, followed by Ashling and the Count. Maxwell arrived last, just as Cassia was about to go to try to find him. Ashling and the Count flew along with the cat, guiding him to the others.
They rested in the pitch black for some time, hearing more arrows hitting the stone and the water.
"We need to move," Ashling said. "They'll follow us eventually."
"The sword," Justin said.
"I'll get it," Lani answered. "But I'll need the sheath. Otherwise it'll give us away as soon as I bring it up. At least it should be fairly easy to find."
"Your arm," Megan pointed out. "I'll get it."
"I'm a better swimmer," Lani said.
"Usually, but not right now. I'll find it."
Justin handed the sheath over reluctantly.
There were far too many close calls with arrows until Megan sank under the dark surface of the cold water again. Lucky they’re still archers and didn’t decide on some cliff-proof monster form yet, she thought. Lani was right, diving and swimming weren’t Megan's strongest suits, but she did find the bright glow at the bottom of the pool. She struggled back to shore with the sheathed sword, offering it to Justin while she caught her breath.
Finally, Megan managed to get back to her feet. "Okay,” she said. “Let's go."
They managed to form a line, using some of Lani's rope to keep tied together as the pixie navigated them through the caverns. Eventually, Ashling glowed, casting a faint light against the walls. "This path is safe, and I can get us to a portal from here."
"Are there ogres on the other side of this one?" Megan asked.
"Probably not," Ashling answered.
"So inspiring," Megan said.
"Inspiring is your job." the pixie replied.
Chapter 16: Subtle
It was a slow trudge, between everyone's battered exhaustion and Cassia's having Tiernan's boatman in a fireman's carry. Ashling lead them through three separate portals before they arrived at An Teach Deiridh.
“So how much longer from here to Murias?” Megan asked.
“Heck no,” Lani said. “First we're going to your room here and going to bed. I'd say 'this is ridiculous,' but we've passed 'ridiculous' and gone to 'insane.' Besides, we've got a patient with Fomoire weapon poisoning, and I am sick of handling this in the field.”
Megan didn't have any good arguments against that, so they went into An Teach Deiridh, starting for Megan's room. On the way, they stopped in the kitchen where Kerr was directing a small brigade of brownies to carry out stacks upon stacks of carefully wrapped field rations from the counters and storage cabinets.
“Heck of a pantry raid,” Cassia said.
Kerr looked up. “Lani! Highness!”
“Megan,” Megan said.
“Oh. Right, Megan. Um, hello, everyone.” Kerr smiled awkwardly while pressing a few canisters into a colleague's hands. “Oh, so, Megan, one of the cake-decorators is covering for you in the morning because I had to get back to work. The field kitchen needs so much more staples. But your mother was reassured when last I saw her, mostly. Just thought you were quiet.”
“Of course. Thanks so much for taking care of it. So, Kerr, we're about to put this guy down in my dad's bed—”
“Thank goodness,” Cassia interjected. “I'm tired of carrying this jerk.”
“—but first, we could really use some of that burdock and milk-thistle tincture of yours? He took a couple of Fomoire arrows.”
“Okay. I have a bottle—oh...” Kerr got a better look at the figure over Cassia's shoulder. “That's... that's one of … Tiernan's. I'm not really sure if the rules...”
“Well, what exactly do the rules say?” Megan asked.
“Neither Tiernan nor anyone declaring allegiance to him is welcome in this house or its environs,” Kerr said, shuffling awkwardly.
“Well, he's not declaring anything,” Megan said. “He's unconscious. And we promise not to welcome him. We're just going to put him to bed and treat the poisoned wounds.”
“Okay.” Kerr got
the bottle and handed it to Lani with their little salute, before insisting on delaying them a little longer to tend to Lani's mild injuries from the fight, cleaning and binding the scrapes from the serpent's teeth before they were able to leave the kitchen.
Not long after, Ashling unlocked the Unseelie King's room. Megan was struck by how obviously absent her father's armor was. Things were serious out there. The painting of the Goddess Brigid was still there, across from her dad's bed. Megan was thinking about the slight resemblance to her mother and slighter resemblance to the Queen. She thought about the middle name her father had given her and about what he'd said about seeing the Goddess. She was thinking about all of that when Justin touched her hand.
She sighed and turned. “You okay having a sleepover with this guy?” Megan asked Justin.
“Neither of us is in any condition to object,” he said.
“I'll have a couple of the guards look in, if it comes to it,” Cassia said.
“Okay.” Megan kissed Justin's cheek, made her way slightly down the hall, and collapsed in her bed.
The dreams were vivid. She felt the frozen air contrast with some distant warmth at her back, saw the hand that looked sculpted out of tinted glass, heard the chitter of... squirrels?
She woke beside Lani. “We got trouble.”
“Yeah, what with the shapeshifting assassin-triplets. We literally cannot handle any more of that.”
“Them too,” Megan said. “Yeah, let's deal with them first.”
“Good,” Lani said groggily. “How?”
“We need to know more about these guys,” Megan said.
“But they're probably Fomoire. Hardly any Faeries alive have ever met Fomoire.”
“We could talk to Dad.”
“Unless he's busy, which he is,” Lani said. “Or doesn't understand the perspective, which he might not. Or doesn't necessarily have any idea for how to take on every single set of soldiers in an army he faced over a thousand years ago, which—”
“Yeah, okay. Backup plan. Where's the absolute best place to go for dirt on the Fomoire and any pals they might have?”
Ashling spoke up from her spare-pillow bed. “The best dirt on the Fomoire was sunk under the waves ages ago.”
“Wait, which waves?” Megan asked. “The ones right by the meeting table?”
“Yeah. Murias was ruled by the sorcerer-king Semias, so that tells you a lot of what you need to know.”
“Not really.”
“Okay, it would if you'd gotten better at your language lessons. He was literally Mister Subtle. Tricksy, backstabbing gossip was totally his thing, and he had all kinds of notes to keep it going.”
“Until the Fomoire sunk the place,” Megan said, trying to think. “Right, right.” She nudged Lani. “You said it was so they could get rid of the records.”
“I said maybe,” Lani murmured sleepily. “That doesn't explain the whole story, like why they kept trying to destroy the Dagda statue.”
Megan lay on the bed, watching the leaves and butterflies flutter across the painting on her wall. “Maybe it does. My grandma has a statue of St. Joseph in her garden.”
“You've been hanging around with Ashling too long.”
“Hear me out here. If you fiddle with that statue just right, there's a secret compartment with a spare key in it. Now, if you were a guy who was big on secrets and information, and had an indestructible statue made, wouldn't you try to make sure it did something useful? Maybe it's not totally the same thing, but I bet there's something to the statue."
“...Maybe.”
“Well, maybe the Fomoire flooded the city because it was the best thing they could think of when they couldn't smash open the statue.”
“Which would mean we can't either. Even if we had scuba gear,” Lani said. “Which we don't. Beyond the divelight and stuff in my bag, anyway.”
“The Fomoire weren't engineers, and they weren't smart enough to get affiliates with the most brilliant engineers out there.”
“You're trying to butter me up,” Lani said.
“Doesn't make me wrong,” Megan replied.
“I'd … need to consult with my dad beforehand,” Lani said. “And still couldn't guarantee anything. And we still wouldn't have time to go back home and try to find scuba-gear that's mystic-ruins-compliant.”
“But that'd be great,” Ashling said. “You could stand in some underground grotto, fidgeting with your tools—that'd look suspiciously like a fork and a pipe—gazing up at the statue and singing 'Part of That World.'”
“Hmph.” Cassia had clearly been trying to continue dozing on the floor during all of this, but she finally spoke up. “I can arrange for someone to be guided, breathing, through mystic underwater ruins. With pretty much no notice, even. But it's pulling in a heck of a favor, and it's probably for only one of us.”
“People are trying to kill us, and distracting us from preparing for the potential war that's trying to kill everything,” Megan said. “I think it's worth calling in favors. I'm totally happy to owe one for it, and despite what plenty of people seem to think, I've got some clout around here. So, what is this mystic scuba gear?”
“Not so much 'what' as 'who'.”
Chapter 17: Patient
“I was never here,” Nell said as they all walked alongside the shore of Murias. The leopards continued to jump from rock to rock around the narrow paths, and Megan was happy to leave that to them. Yet another session of crawling over otherworldly rocks had gotten really old for her, and she'd had to send her boyfriend right back up again. Justin had, as usual, gone without complaint.
As they waited for Lani to finish consulting with her father, Megan found herself staring at Cassia's lead singer, particularly the membranes on her eyes. "I was especially never here if the Greek delegation is involved," Nell said as she unzipped her dress to reveal a green one-piece bathing suit. Her slightly wiry legs didn't seem to match the rest of her, Megan noticed.
Cassia looked at the suit. “Now I'm disappointed,” she said.
Nell rolled her heavily lidded eyes. “Of course you are.”
"Cassia, this isn't about fun," Lani said from above. Justin was helping her down the narrow paths and over the rocks. She carried a large diving bag and wore a hefty secured flashlight. "We need to deal with those guys. They came close enough to killing us a couple of times already."
The satyress grinned. "And that was kind of fun too."
“So this will work?” Megan asked, to interrupt Cassia's being Cassia. “That's a real mermaid thing? Helping people breathe?”
“Depends,” Nell said as Lani revealed her own bathing suit. “Unlike most of my relatives and those they're equated with, though, I actually have every intention of bringing the person back up.” Nell looked to Lani reassuringly. “And I will.” She wrapped an arm around Lani's shoulder.
“Hmm. Too bad we can't all go down as a full cuddle-puddle,” Cassia said.
“I'm not sure who's more impressive for putting up with what an annoying flirt you are: Violet or the planet,” Nell said.
“What's impressive is a siren who can be annoyed by how much other people flirt.”
“Yeah,” Nell said drily as she and Lani slowly stepped into the water. “Part of why I was never here.”
Once the two had disappeared into the murky depths, Megan looked Cassia. “Siren? I've seen the Greek art. Sirens aren't mermaids. They were bird-women who lost their wings so they were just left with the voices and the stupid bird-legs. Yeah, yeah, don't say it, confused with mermaids for millennia, same word in the Romance languages, but it... I mean how...?”
Cassia sighed. “The power of words is complicated. Magic is complicated. And family...family is very, very complicated. Nell refuses to talk about it.”
“Yeah, sounds like it. How'd you get her to even come near any of this? I thought she refused to get involved at all, and the concert last year didn't exactly end smoothly.”
“People do a lot of things t
hey normally wouldn't for a successful artistic collaboration,” Cassia said with a shrug, as if that was explanation enough. “Besides, like she says, she's not here.”
“Yeah.” Megan sat on the shoreline and frowned. “Nell's a civilian.”
“Very,” Cassia acknowledged. Justin sat beside Megan.
“And so's Lani,” Megan continued. “She's an engineer. She's worse with a sword than I am, and that's saying something.”
“You won't be able to use yourself as an insulting comparison much longer,” Justin said quietly, his arm settling on her shoulder. “You're getting much better. But I know that's not the point.”
“It's not. Lani's never going to be a fighter, and she keeps going into these dangerous situations—that she knows are dangerous, when she'd rather be mathing around or whatever—and getting herself hurt. Especially in these ancient cities. And who knows what's down there, and they're all alone, and if anything happens, it's my—”
“Megan,” Justin interrupted her. That wasn't something he tended to do. “Lani is one of the finest and bravest people I have ever known, and I suspect she would want it said that she doesn't allow you to blame yourself for the risks.”
Megan started to nod, then frowned. “About time you said my name. You've been 'my lady'ing me all week. You're my boyfriend, for Pete's sake.”
“And you are an excellent girlfriend, Megan. And your name is wonderful. But in some times, places, and levels of danger, you are, foremost, my lady, and people need to know that. I'm sorry to make you unhappy, but—”
“There better not be some guy-line about how I'm cute when I'm angry.”
“No. If I learned the word right, you're cute when you have pastel smudges right on the line of your cheek. You're appropriately worrying when you're angry, but you're still beautiful, and at any rate it's worth enduring for the chance to reassure you: Lani is nearly always exactly where she chooses to be.”
“...Okay.”
Rather than stand there staring at the water, Megan made herself step away to try her father again. Riocard was having meeting after meeting in his tent. For these latest ones, it seemed, his mood had been slightly improved by having Ashling on one shoulder and the Count on the other. Eventually, when there were no more messenger sprites about the tent, even they had flown out on a brief errand.
A Fair Fight Page 8
