A Fair Fight (18 page)

Sheila O'Reilly and Kalea Kahale were talking quietly on the couch when Megan headed out to
Space Ship!

Cassia’s living room was littered with all of the supplies Lani could think of and the items Megan had insisted on after her dream.

“
Okay, I get how what Kerr's brought could be useful,” Lani said. “But... I don't get how we're going to make use of it.”

“
Having a brownie may help,” Cassia said, smiling in the manically tired way she'd been since they'd seen her again.

Said brownie nodded a little and shuffled slightly. “Not just a supply run,” Kerr said. “Of my 12,000 accrued vacation days, I am now taking my eighth and ninth.”

Lani bit her lip. A hand set on Kerr's wrist. “Are you sure? The first seven were my responsibility, and I feel... I know it's kind of a brownie-scandal...”

Kerr gave the weird salute—with the hand that wasn't touching Lani's. “It's okay.”

“
Even the chef can take time off, given cause?” Megan asked quietly.

Kerr answered even more quietly, “I certainly have one.”

“
No offense meant to brownie propriety, but is a vacation really more controversial than going into an extremely dangerous realm in order to retrieve an artifact that has a small chance of helping the peace?" Justin asked.

"You haven't exactly voiced any objections," Cassia said.

Justin nodded. "Obviously."

“
So what's the plan?” Lani asked Megan. "And why did we need all of these things?"

“
Ashling, you can help navigate, right?” Megan asked as she passed the map around to everyone. Lani took it and started encasing it in something Megan assumed was waterproof.

"Sure," Ashling said. "But they have traps, and mystical alarms, and all sorts of things. It's hard to figure out how to be safe and discreet until we've already gone over the falls.”

“
I'd like a plan before that,” Lani said.

"Most of what the dokkalfar have is magic in some way, right?" Megan asked, looking to Justin. "So the Claiomh Solais should protect us from at least some of it."

"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 company 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.