A Fair Fight

by Perkins, Katherine

  "Some of it. They'll still have numbers on us, and skill, and arrows." Justin replied.

  "I'm getting really good at dealing with arrows." Megan said. "I'm a lot more worried about sorcery.”

  “I'm getting better with the sword's protective enchantments,” Justin said. “But I couldn't protect very many.”

  Cassia looked at the cats, "We can make some noise, draw a lot of attention, and limit what you need to deal with. If you're fast. They're not used to visitors: they'll only have so many guards. But if they have time to mobilize, it's not going to matter what the plan is."

  Megan nodded. "Cassia, you're fantastic! Justin, can you handle taking care of you, me, Ashling, and the Count?”

  “I can do that.”

  “Okay,” said Megan. “I know the teams. Here's the plan."

  It took surprisingly little time to explain.

  They headed to the paths to the exiles' underground river. When they reached the shore, they found Tiernan coordinating moving military supplies and different units of troops from boats onto the shore. He watched them suspiciously as they moved towards him and his troops. "You're back, already.”

  "You really thought I wasn't going to follow through?" Megan said.

  "I thought you might see reason,” he said. “But you are your father's daughter."

  "Yes, I'm my parents' daughter. Thank you," Megan said. "And you're forgetting something."

  Tiernan looked like he'd bitten into a lemon unexpectedly, but turned his attention to Cassia. "Thank you."

  Cassia glanced between Tiernan and Megan, then grinned. "If you let us take one of those boats, I won't even insist you say it like you mean it."

  "Deal," Tiernan agreed, gesturing to an empty boat.

  The trip through the waters was rough, but it was almost relaxing compared to being attacked by sea serpents. On the other hand, this time they had a lot more supplies, some of them large and heavy. They'd also dressed for the water and cold, in wool clothing that could be easily wrung out, and putting Justin's chainmail and shield into waterproof bags like many of the other supplies.

  When they reached the falls that they'd had to rush over to escape the trio before, they slowed, secured ropes at the top, and climbed down, lowering the laden boat as carefully as possible into the darkness. It was a slow, arduous process, but still better than the reckless crash. Good to be safe while we can, Megan figured.

  When they'd resettled everything at the bottom, Lani turned on her diving light, shining it ahead of them as they guided the boat through the waters. That eventually led to the west wall Mab had spoken of. Lani shined the light down. "The water is definitely still moving, so it lets out somewhere."

  "Mab said there would be a submerged passage here or something," Megan said.

  "Or something?" Lani asked.

  "Or something," Megan said. "So we should find the something. Because she definitely thought we could get through it."

  "I just hope she wasn't thinking of what she could get through," Lani said, as she swept the light across the cave wall, trying to figure out where the water was draining to. "Because I can see a dozen holes in the wall she could get through, maybe Ashling, but..."

  "Let me see what I can find," Cassia said, standing on the boat and starting to unbuckle her armor.

  "Okay, but no skinny dipping." Lani said, with a smirk.

  "Fine, I'll keep the weapon belt on," Cassia said, waggling her brows at Lani. Despite the comment, she actually kept her entire underlayer of clothing on, just setting the armor in the boat before diving in. She surfaced several minutes later, not even out of breath. "Found it. Wide enough space and all.”

  "So if we secure everything else to the boat, then flip it over before we drag it under, it ought to trap some air," Megan said.

  Lani gave her a very odd look. "That's right. But..."

  "But science?" Megan asked, with a grin. "Don't worry, I saw it in a movie."

  "Okay," Lani said, trying to hide her grin while feigning relief instead. "But it's still going to be really hard to drag under. Even with all the metal.”

  "I'll tow it," Cassia said. "Sure you don't want me to strip down a little more and show off the muscles?"

  "Thanks, but I think we're okay without," Megan said, starting to make preparations, tying everything she could to the boat before she climbed into the water and helped flip it over, once they were in line with the entrance Cassia had indicated. The cats were especially unhappy with the process, as they gave up on clinging ferociously to the boat to avoid the water and instead had to swim.

  "Caw, caw."

  "The Count is just going to ride under the boat, and see if he can ride the trip out without ruining his 'do." Ashling translated. "He just had it styled."

  Megan rolled her eyes, but helped to lift the boat enough for the pixie and the crow to find spots to hold on without getting soaked. "Hold tight,” she said. “If we lose track of either of you, we're going to have a rough time finding you in the dark."

  They used the last of the rope to secure the boat to Cassia. True to her word, when she went under, then entered the tunnel in the wall, between the satyr's strength, and the current, the boat was pulled under. Megan and the others held on, taking deep breaths and going with it, kicking to help propel the whole thing along. Lani kept her diving light. Rather than crowd Kerr and the girls, Justin just ducked under the boat now and then, surfacing long enough to catch a breath before diving again. Megan did the same a couple times, just pleased to prove that her theory worked. Neither of the cats seemed at all comfortable with submerging entirely for long and swam directly under the boat, heads sticking out into the air pocket.

  The boat scraped along the water-worn ceiling a number of times, but held together, before it finally bobbed to the surface at the end of the long tunnel. "Well, that was exciting,” Megan said.

  “The boat's damaged a little,” Justin said. “And the larger waterfall you mentioned isn't likely to help.”

  “I can fix the boat later,” Lani said. “Though it's going to be a heck of a climb—and hike—all the way back, before we get much use out of it. Good thing there's always a lot of rope, at least.”

  At that, Megan started to untie Cassia's armor.

  "Leave everything else tied to the boat," Lani suggested. "Even if the falls destroy it or something, the wood will float, and things may still be attached to it.”

  The current picked up again after some distance and just kept speeding up and getting rougher. They scraped off numerous rocks, despite their best effort to navigate as Lani kept the light pointed ahead.

  "We need to be asleep!" Megan shouted.

  "Over these waters?" Lani shouted back.

  Megan answered by starting her standard lullaby. Mab had said they had to be asleep to pass between the worlds, and if the falls were as high as they looked, they definitely wouldn't survive going over them without passing between dream and reality, however that worked.

  Justin settled into the boat quickly, trusting in Megan's judgment. One by one, the others sat or laid down on the boat as well. There was nearly a rush for the oars again when the boat almost capsized, sliding and scraping up against a large group of rocks, but everyone remained where they were and tried to relax again as the boat finally slid back into the water.

  Megan had to shout the song, which didn't help her own efforts to give in to the lullaby's pull, but one by one, people were compelled to sleep, while the boat pinballed its way through the rough waters and obstacles, pulled rapidly towards the massive falls. Megan's last thought, through the haze of near-sleep, came just as the boat was tossed over the rocky ledge. That's a really long way down. Then the world went black.

  A rush of air woke her mid-freefall, giving her just time to take a deep breath before she hit the frigid water. The crew struggled to the surface one by one, pulling themselves to the shore.

  As soon as they'd caught their breath and confirmed that they didn't seem to have any c
ompany around the lake, they went back in, bringing supplies back to the shore. They collected all they could of the boat. Then, as soon as they were done in the water, Lani opened one of the waterproof bags, handing out towels. These helped a little, but ultimately, they could only do so much about the wet clothes. Even when directly wrapped in a fresh set of dry towels, Lani was already shivering, though as Mab had promised, the chill was not frostbite-level, just unpleasant.

  With time to think and the cold not being quite so pressing, Megan also noticed that her hand ached. Checking it, she could faintly see marks on her hand, where she'd scratched it in the dream, but no sign of any fresh injury.

  As soon as they had everything they could find accounted for, Megan pointed towards the city in the distance, which perfectly matched the vision of it from the dream. "All right. Cassia, good luck: we'll wait for the noise. To have any chance at all, we need to get as deep into the city as we can before anyone notices, so, Ashling, we'll need your very best work."

  Chapter 27: Fated

  "This thing is really heavy," Megan called as they hurried along in the darkness. "And running in damp clothes really sucks."

  She held on to one handle of the rough metal cauldron, while Justin had the other. They watched their steps partly by icy eldritch glow, partly by pixie-light, as the Count flew ahead with Ashling on his back.

  "And it gets far worse if they catch us," Justin said, as Ashling doubled back to make sure she didn't lose them.

  "We're sure about the mystic alarms?" Megan said, directing it towards the pixie.

  "Oh yeah. You guys tripped all the alarms. Especially when Justin destroyed those wards." Ashling said.

  "Only way to get through that trap," Justin said. “As you pointed out.”

  "Only way without a bulldozer and a rocket launcher," Ashling said. "Why didn't we bring a rocket launcher, again?"

  "They don't just hand those out," Megan said, quieting to try to conserve her breath as she tried to pick up her pace and not slow Justin down as much.

  There was still occasionally the sound of rock and ice falling off in the distance, though the tremendous cracking and grinding that had been their cue hadn't been repeated in a while. When Cassia said she was going to be a distraction, she took it seriously.

  After what felt like an hour making their way around the place—but might have been only half—Megan believed she definitely understood the distance between 'underground' and 'underworld.' There were, indeed, no dead people, though. The ships made of fingernails were somewhere else.

  Suddenly, the phosphorescent light reflecting off the ice and smooth stone walls dimmed. Megan looked over her shoulder enough to see five obsidian figures moving far too quickly behind them. They rounded a corner just in time to avoid the arrows that struck the wall. Megan pondered trying to sing up a wind for better arrow protection and opted to go with conserving her breath for running instead.

  They took a few more twists and turns, trusting in the sword's protection against magic and in Ashling's sense of direction. Despite their efforts, with the heavy cauldron, the sound of boots behind them kept growing louder.

  "Are we almost there?" she called to Ashling.

  "That depends on your definition of almost!" Ashling called back, looking worried as she doubled back, getting a better view behind the teens.

  As they hit a longer straightaway stretch, Megan stumbled, falling to her knees. Justin managed to keep his feet, barely, as the cauldron dragged on the ground. Megan managed to get back up, wincing at the sight of blood on her torn jeans from badly skinned knees, but started running again.

  The next corner was still too far away as she looked back, seeing the dark figures racing into the passage, readying their weapons.

  After a moment of assessment, “Drop it,” she finally told Justin. “Just run.”

  Justin followed the instruction without question, reaching for her hand to help pull her along, trying to get her in front of him.

  After a few desperate twists and turns, they had to stop for breath. Three of their pursuers eventually came around the corner.

  Megan held up her hands. “Look. We dropped it, okay? We're out.”

  “Yes, and not yet, respectively,” said one of the figures.

  “So ... what are you even doing with it?” Megan asked

  “Waiting,” said another glass shadow.

  “Waiting?” Megan echoed.

  “Waiting on the Fomoire,” said a third.

  “What do you care what they do?” Megan asked. “You've got your own things.”

  “We do. And here we are. Stuck.”

  “Only the occasional crystal tightrope,” the next continued. “And the Jotun are trapped as well. How could we storm a rainbow in force?”

  “What does your being stuck have to do with the Fomoire?” Megan asked.

  “Your folk get everywhere. Like dandelions. They colonize so well, to get people from everywhere, to everywhere. They dance their dances that keep the paths just so.”

  “The Fomoire won't dance. They'll storm.”

  “From their thawed lake, they will stop the dancing.”

  “They will bring the Fimbulwinter.”

  “They will sweep the paths into highways.”

  “Then we can start Ragnarok.”

  "Why would you want an end-of-the-worlds war?” Megan asked. “Do you honestly think you're going to win?"

  “Honestly?” echoed one of the figures. “Honestly, no.”

  “Ragnarok is Hamlet. Thorsson is Fortinbras to Balder's Horatio, and everybody dies.”

  “Every God and Jotun.”

  “Every honored and damned soul.”

  “Every dark and light elf.”

  “Honestly, we have no chance at all.”

  “This is why we will cheat.”

  “So... you got the cauldron to cheat?” Megan asked.

  “We'll certainly do a lot better if we have infinite supplies, and if all those allied with our enemies have already been having to fight for three years."

  “Better yet, if all the enemy's allies are dead or scattered.”

  “Easy to scatter if they can't agree.”

  “Why not just cheat by everybody agreeing not to storm that rainbow?” Megan asked. “If the Ragnarok game's rigged against you, don't play.”

  “Fate still comes for those who hide from it.”

  “We must subvert it entirely.”

  "So even if you don't fight, you still die when the time comes?" Megan asked.

  "When the time comes. Unless we change the threads of fate. And the cauldron's magic is powerful enough to help shift the weaving hand, with enough sorcery. And you will slave to help us, or die."

  "Funny that, speaking of subverting..."

  Instead of attacking the dokkalfar, Justin swung his sword at the inscriptions on the wall where they'd stopped. Megan, the Count, and Ashling pulled in close to him to be under the sword's protection as the sword disrupted the magical alarms and protections set in place, causing a bright explosion of light. The dokkalfar pursuing them covered their eyes and staggered back.

  "You can't hide, but we can run!" Megan said.

  They emerged from the maze with the three dokkalfar closing back in on them, even without the cauldron slowing them down.

  As the four emerged, with the dokkalfar close on their heels, Cassia and the cats met them, racing the other way to intercept their pursuers. The satyress crashed into one, while the leopards pounced on another. The third briefly went for his sword, then thought better of it, ducking back into the maze.

  "You dropped it?" Cassia asked, as she turned and caught up easily, running after Megan and Justin, while Ashling and the Count circled, looking for more signs of pursuit.

  "Yeah, but a magicked-up kitchen cauldron won't fool them for long," Megan said.

  "And they'll be after us with an army," Justin said.

  “Important thing was to buy the moment—there!” Megan said when Lani a
nd Kerr appeared as the brownie dispelled the invisibility illusion. Both were out of breath, particularly Lani, but they had a cauldron between them. Megan rushed up to hug Lani. "You made it!"

  “Somehow,” Lani said. She was trembling.

  "You did a good job tripping all of the alarms,” Kerr told Megan. “If they'd been looking for us, they'd have seen through the illusion."

  "Thanks—now, back to running. There's just a couple of those snowflake-bridges between us and rowing away from this place.” Once they'd lashed the wood together again. And then there'd be a lot of hiking up cliffsides and along rocky shores, but Megan was trying to focus on one thing at a time, since 'slaving' and 'dying' were both terrible options.

  As soon as Lani had caught her breath enough, Justin and Cassia took hold of the cauldron, and the small group started moving again. Megan couldn't help but look over her shoulder, seeing more and more light picking up from the city. Pursuit wouldn't be far behind.

  Indeed, by the time they were approaching the vast network of chasms and cliffsides, she could see dozens of tiny forms in the distance behind them, some mounted, rushing after them. Trying not to think about how little time they had before they'd have company, she urged them out onto the slender crystalline expanses.

  “I'd prefer if we had time to test out the different weight of the real cauldron,” Lani said as she stepped on the ice, breathing a little heavily.

  “We don't,” said Megan.

  They made it some way out onto the bridge, but at the thinnest point, near the center of the crystalline expanse, the ice started to crack. There was an attempt to rush forward to reach solid ground again, but it wasn't enough. The ice gave way, and the group fell into darkness.

  Chapter 28: A Crazy Engineering Folk Song

  Megan couldn't quite complete a dive for solid ground but managed, as she fell, to grab for handholds on the walls. The rock and dirt gave way under her hands, but it slowed her fall just enough that when she hit the rock shelf partway down the chasm, it just hurt. The landing wasn't any fun, but she was pretty sure nothing was broken. "Everyone all right?" Megan asked.