A Fair Fight (19 page)

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 and 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.

"I caught Lani," Kerr said, standing and dusting off, before helping Lani up. Megan was all the more grateful that, outside of cold iron, the fae were a lot more durable.

"Amateur," Cassia said, sitting up. "I caught Justin and kept the cauldron from rolling over the edge." The satyress looked around. "The boys landed on their feet... cats."

Megan looked up at the walls, trying to figure out how far they'd fallen. "Cassia, do you think you could climb it?"

Cassia studied the walls, testing a couple handholds, one of which came loose in her hand. "Icy, crumbling rock and every possibility that there's archers up there keeping an eye out for us. I don't think that's the best idea."

Megan sighed, considering their options, until Lani stepped up beside her, studying the walls, then taking hold of a couple of the rocks. "Hmm."

"I like the sound of hmm," Megan said.

"The ice shouldn't normally form bridges and stuff. That's definitely a mystical thing. Stone... I think I should be able to work with this. I have my tools. If everyone is sleeping, I should be able to cut a ladder into the wall, or rig up a pulley, or something. It's going to need some magic, though."

Megan let everyone settle in, most looking grateful for the chance to rest after the mad scramble and the fall. Ashling and the Count did a quick scouting run to check for the presence of the dokkalfar, then found their own place to rest. Megan started the lullaby, drifting off to sleep as well.

She woke to the sound of sobbing.

Lani was kneeling, surrounded by chunks of ice and stone, and discarded tools. There was a hollow cut into the wall, but nothing resembling a ladder. Megan's best friend had her face in her hands and was gently shaking.

Megan quickly got up and ran over, wrapping her arms around Lani. "What happened?"

The sound had also woken Justin, and he shifted over to take one of Lani's hands. Her face was almost maroon as the tears streaked across her face.

Lani took a few quick breaths, managing to speak, though she was still shaking. "It won't work. It won't work. Everything... everything breaks."

“
Okay, so let's work on that,” Megan said.

“
...breaks...” was all Lani managed between heaving breaths, her eyes staring blankly ahead.

Kerr cuddled up to Lani's other side. “Not your fault,” Kerr muttered to Lani. “It's probably just the place.”

Lani was still beginning to hyperventilate.

“
Hmph, makes sense,” said Cassia. “Underworlds get under the skin. And... well...”

Megan nodded as she slowly realized. Menehune magic wasn't as badly affected by cold iron as most of the Celtic fae. But apparently the dokkalfar only worked in ice and shadow anymore because nothing else in the place would be worked. “Not your fault,” Megan echoed. “We'll think of something.”

Lani's sobs picked up a little more. Reason wasn't going to work. Megan had her voice, but the idea of trying to pull out the rousing battle march now was absurd.

“
'
The careful textbooks measure,'”
she started to sing softly.

Megan had heard the song plenty of times. The Kahales, whatever Kipling's thoughts on them might have been, loved it and bonded over it as a family. Megan had always considered it the silly engineering song, all about construction. It started with textbooks, for goodness sake. Perfect for Kahale nerddom. She usually stopped paying all that much attention when it got to buckled girders, whatever those were. But the whole thing had understandably been stuck in her head since the dream, and when it came down to it, she knew the lyrics.

Megan helped prop Lani back against her, letting her lean, while Megan wrapped her arms around her and sang softly. It was only when she hit the second verse that the words started to come alive for her more than ever before.

"
But in our daily dealing
With stone and steel, we find
The Gods have no such feeling
Of justice toward mankind.
To no set gauge they make us,
For no laid course prepare—
In time they overtake us
With loads we cannot bear:
Too merciless to bear
."

She knew about the building things, and the relatively warm relationship between the menehune and the people of the islands. In all her mentions of owls and lawn gnomes, she'd never given a lot of thought to the Gods of the islanders, or how old the Kahuna might be. Megan's father had obviously been affected by those few final moments, under Brigid's eye. The Gods had left them too. It was to seal away so many things, and prevent the wars that could have torn the world apart, sure—but they'd still left. And when they did, the Fomoire and Giants and who knew what else were still waiting under their ice and stone and shadow. The faeries had continued their lives, adding some beautiful and terrible magic to the world, helping the seasons turn, and all the rest, but the more Megan learned of all different fair folk, the more she saw that ancient ways and ancient natures did still shape them. And the menehune were engineers and building crews.