A Fair Fight (11 page)

Justin had to grab onto the boat to keep from being dragged out of it himself, leaving him without a hand to go for his sword. Still singing, Megan grabbed for the blade, pulling it free of the scabbard, and, thanks to Justin's training in the past months, felt halfway competent in stabbing the flaming blade at the giant serpentine neck. There was a flash of flame, before the creature hissed, releasing the shield and ducking back below the water before she could follow up.

She handed Justin his sword, and he resumed protecting her, while parts of the group moved to try to keep watch on as many points as possible around the boat.

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.”