All's Fair (Fair Folk Chronicles Book 4) (8 page)

Chapter 15: Scale

They didn't have to get very far from the Fishing Hole before Megan heard it. Ringing, metallic sounds, at least a dozen distinct rhythms, each at a steady pace. "What's that?"

"Forges," Justin said. "The Fomoire at Gorias are making sure the war effort is well supplied."

"Okay, I should have figured that out. I've heard that before. But it still sounds kind of different. Probably the wind."

"The wind," Justin agreed. "And you have to hit cold-forged iron a lot harder to work it."

"Oh..." Megan said, unable to stop from looking in Ashling's direction, where the pixie sat on Lani's shoulder.

"What's the safest way in?" Lani asked the pixie, trying to quickly change the focus.

Ashling looked thoughtful, as if pondering numerous options, before responding. "Nuking them from orbit and letting the Lovecraft fan club sort them out. Then digging through the wreckage."

"Okay, short of that."

"There is no safe way in, but any options that aren't the gates are high on the list. Most of them are gone on the warpath, sure. But they're still guarding the front door," Ashling said.

"What about the Falias option?" Megan asked. "There were those secret doors and things."

"That was the city of the dead," Ashling said. "By the dead, and for the dead, who already perished from this Earth."

"I'm almost sure that's something else," Megan said. "And I never did quite figure out why people would want to be crowned in a cemetery."

"Earn their birthright before their ancestors," Justin said.

"Anyway, even if it's a thing for High Kings to begin and end in the same place, the King still doesn't want to take the same door as the undertakers," Ashling said. "This place works on a little different principle."

"So there's only one door?" Megan asked.

"And sixty-foot-high, ice-covered walls," Ashling said.

"So, any good news this time?" Lani asked.

"Sure, I just s..." The pixie paused, looking at Lani's narrowed eyes. "Okay, fine. Even better than that. They definitely won't be expecting anyone to try to get in past the sixty-foot-high, icy walls. So we have the element of surprise."

"Admittedly, that sounds like an awfully reasonable thing to be surprised by," Megan said.

"Hold up a second," Ashling said, bringing the group to a halt. "Okay, we're almost out of the hills. The next thing I say is going to sound really counterproductive."

"You might say something counterproductive?" Megan said. "Gods forbid."

"Does it involve bulldozers, minesweepers, or laser satellites?" Lani asked with a grin.

"Or all of the above?" Justin asked.

Ashling went with the conversation, ignoring or oblivious to the teasing. "No, that's four suggestions from now. And mark my words, it will be a brilliant suggestion when the time comes. This time, I need to move over to Megan's shoulder and help coach her singing."

Megan offered a hand, letting the pixie crawl off of Lani's shoulder and up Megan's arm, but she looked confused. "We're trying to be sneaky. Why would I sing?"

"Yes, yes, not normally how stealth bonuses work. But if you think all those hammers are noisy out here..." Ashling said.

"But even at a skeleton crew, they'll still have a few sentries on the walls," Justin said.

“Skeleton crews here also being different from Falias, thank goodness,” Megan muttered.

"So, if they can't hear you, and the Huldufolk enchantment should still keep them from spying on us with magic, there's just the matter of someone seeing us," Lani said.

"So a snowstorm—" Megan said, before Ashling interrupted.

"Now you're getting it. A snowstorm has at least three benefits. It'll be exactly what they're expecting, based on recent weather, it will keep us all hidden, and instead of just your feet getting cold from the snow, you'll all end up covered with it."

"How is that a benefit?" Lani asked.

"You'll really, really appreciate it extra when you get to get inside and get dry."

Megan sighed at the pixie, and starting singing. It didn't take much to whip some cover up around them. The down sides quickly became obvious. As promised, the cold got worse, especially when snow ended up down the back of Megan's collar. Visibility was also reduced to a couple feet. She trusted Ashling's sense of direction for navigating, but after the close-ups with the pair of magically created monstrosities and their handler, she couldn't help but imagine another patrolling unit out in the snow just ahead of them.

They managed to reach the wall without any sign of detection. Megan's singing dropped to occasional quiet snatches, just enough to maintain the snow cover, while Ashling and the Count went scouting. They landed again fifteen minutes later, the Count going to warm up again, while Ashling reported. "All right, there's guards in the guard towers at each of the corners. They're definitely not on high alert, though. You'll just have to be quick."

Lani glanced up, and up, and up at the icy wall. "Quick at climbing up this? You've got to be kidding."

"Do we have enough rope?" Megan asked.

"Sure," Lani said, taking her pack off, drawing out a tightly coiled rope. "Light, but strong enough to support any one of us. But that doesn't really help."

Megan glanced up the wall. "Ashling, could you and the Count carry an end up and secure it to something?"

"Caw."

"He's pretty sure we can," Ashling said.

"Okay, so that's a good start," Megan said.

Lani nodded. "Sure, but it'd be just the rope. The walls are coated. Your feet would slip, and there's no reliable hand or footholds to help. You barely made it ten feet up a knotted rope in gym class."

Megan studied the wall again, looking less hopeful. "Thanks for reminding me."

"Not saying I'd make it either. And it's a long way to fall."

"Justin could probably make it," Megan said, looking to her boyfriend.

"I might be able to. Lani could also probably rig something up that'd be more efficient," Justin said.

"Like a catapult," Ashling said. "She has a way with siege weapons."

"I really don't like the sound of that," Megan said. "I don't think that's how siege weapons work."

Ashling frowned. "Pessimist. Long as she did her calculations right, I doubt you'd have problems with anything except the landing."

"I think the rope is our best chance," Lani said.

Justin started removing his chain shirt, replacing his Seahawks jersey and jacket quickly afterwards. "Ashling can take the rope up. Megan's right: I'm the best climber. When I get to the top, you can take turns tying the rope around your waist, and I'll help bring you up."

Lani shook her head. "I'm going to modify the plan. This has to be a team effort. I'll need your boots."

Megan watched Justin work his way up the secured rope, the spikes Lani had secured to his boots digging into the wall.

“
But if we tried to tango / I'd be stepping on your feet.”
As she sang, the wind stirred up snow flurries to keep them concealed, and its whistling helped cover the noise of the spikes.

Justin paused repeatedly and even slipped a couple times, but each time, he caught himself at the points they'd knotted the rope. He resumed climbing, making slow progress, before he finally rolled over the top of the wall.

Megan expected a shout or a sign of alarm, but none came. True to the plan, Lani secured the rope around herself, and Justin helped pull Lani up, once he'd had a chance to catch his breath. Lani, after all, was lighter, and a better climber and athlete than Megan, who kept singing as she waited. The rope was lowered again so Megan could secure herself, and this time, Lani helped to drag her up the wall.

As soon as she reached the top, Megan rolled over the wall, and all three huddled back against the cover of the wall, trying their best to stay out of sight from the guardposts, while Lani coiled her rope back up. Justin, looking especially exhausted, just slumped, removing his gloves, slowly extending and clenching his fingers trying to get some sensation back in his hands.

Megan finally turned her attention out into the city, immediately getting a feel of military uniformity. The orderly grid of the city was laid out, even in ruins, as half war camp, and half war memorial. Megan wasn't sure if the park-like sections, lined with statuary, had been ruined by time, or if the Fomoire had destroyed most of them when they moved in, but either way, now they were filled with marble debris. Each eighth of the city had barracks, each of which had their own training yard.

She regretted, for a moment, that she'd seen enough war and preparations for war, in the past two years to recognize those features for what they were, or what they'd been.

Each eighth also had a single forge—the ringing noises came from those, while more muffled versions came from somewhere below. None of the forges Megan saw had fires burning, but various figures—she realized quickly the resemblance to the slaves driven before the Fomoire at Murias—went to and from each of the apparent cold-iron works.

Aside from that bit of staffing and a few patrolling guards, the city looked mostly empty. There were numerous vents and chimneys, however, spaced around the city. Smoke and noise rose from these, suggesting a lot more activity below the ground.

A few seconds after Lani got the coiled rope back into her bag, Ashling and the Count returned from another scouting run. "Come on," hissed the pixie. "The way to one of the stairways down into the city is safe, but it won't be for long."

Tired and sore as they were, all three still struggled to their feet, moving after Ashling as fast as they dared atop the icy walls.

Chapter 16: Ah, But Underneath

"What is this?" Megan asked, approaching the table. She tried to reason out why it was left out in the open next to a recessed area and what the numerous scratches in its surface meant.

They'd made it down from the walls just ahead of a guard patrol's passing. Once they reached the city, they found plenty of cover around the buildings, most of them uniform, and set at perfect right angles to one another.

"I think it's an odds-maker's table," Justin said.

"What makes you think that?" Megan asked, looking at the table closer.

"Because I think this recessed area here is a fighting pit, judging by the mooring points for chains, and the bloodstains."

Megan lost a lot of curiosity about the table after that, urging them back to the cover of the buildings. They'd mostly been able to move about, with so many of the Fomoire having left to march on An Teach Deiridh, but there was always a chance of being spotted by the guards on the walls, running into sentries moving about, or by one of the slaves. For the most part, the latter had kept their heads down, focusing completely on whatever task they were doing, or on their destination, but Megan was still quite sure that if they were spotted, they'd be reported.

"All right, so where should we start searching?" Megan asked, when she felt they were under sufficient coverage. "We need to make this quick. Sure, it's quiet now, but we need to sleep eventually, and they might have more monsters. We have to assume someone will catch on."

"We have a lot of area to search, though," Justin said.

"So, which of the barracks has the armory? That would seem the best bet," Megan said. She looked to Justin first, assuming he'd know the most about that sort of thing.

Lani answered instead. "I don't think it's going to be in any of them."

"So, where?" Megan asked.

"Underground," Lani said. "There's obviously more forges down there, I bet that's not all. The surface, sure, there's some. But not a lot of homes, shops—aside from the fortress-palace thing, it's half barracks and monuments up here."

"Who puts forges underground, anyway?" Megan asked.

"People who like mines and other dark places. So most of the noted crafter folk besides the menehune. Besides, it protects them. If you build everything like a fortress, you expect to be attacked. I think we're just seeing the pretty stuff."

"Pretty, before it was sacked," Justin said.

"Right," Lani said. "But I think there's not just a few forges. I think we're mostly standing on top of the city of Gorias. We need to find the way down."

"Now we're back to places instead of things. I can do that," Ashling said, pointing to the west. "Nearest way down."

"And safest?" Megan asked.

"Safe gets... weird," Ashling said, after a moment.

"Weird how?" Megan followed up.

"There's more maybe-threats any way we go. Slaves, I suspect. Whether they report us or not will determine how threatening they are. And that's uncertain. Best guess."

***

The undercity was a much different thing than the neatly laid out surface. It was far warmer, to begin with. While that much was welcome, Megan quickly found herself regretting that warmth came with so much smoke in the air. The forges might all have vents and chimneys, but there was still a faint haze, and the entire place smelled of burning coal as the Fomoire kept multiple forges working at capacity.

“I thought they were doing cold iron!” Megan whispered hoarsely, trying not to cough.

“They are,” Lani said quietly, staring and covering her mouth. “But they also want other things, like hilts, siege-weapon pieces, and a few blades that will actually cut through stuff and not just leave faeries scratched and burned and screaming.”

“Okay. Point.”

After that, there was the darkness. Lanterns hung at uneven intervals, which added to the smoky haze, and provided occasional illumination without doing much to cut into the deep shadows. There was plenty of room to move around, with everything built to accommodate trolls and other members of the larger fae. The buildings were also closer together, and spaced more unevenly, giving the place a more maze-like quality than the symmetrical grid above.

As they were looking about, Ashling hissed a warning, and Justin grabbed Megan's shoulder. He pulled her back into an empty building, joining Lani and Ashling, who had already ducked out of sight. Megan peeked out through a window, going still as two slaves passed, staggering along at a faster pace than most of the slaves she'd seen moving in the distance.

After they passed, she started to stand, but Justin tightened his hand on her shoulder. She picked up on the heavier footsteps, and scraping noises against the stone, and went still.

This particular Fomoire monster looked mostly reptilian, like a three-headed komodo dragon, and each of its trio of tails ended in something like crab claws. It stopped in front of the building, heads turning about, tails that previously dragged lashing in the air instead. Two of the ten-foot Fomoire handlers followed.

The creature emitted a long hiss, intermingled with rapid clicks. Justin's hand slowly dropped to the hilt of the Sword of Light. The handlers stopped behind the creature, talking between themselves. Megan could pick out enough to tell they were speaking some dialect of Gaelic, but that was the extent of her understanding. Finally, one of them pointed ahead down the path, at the two slaves that had passed, then kicked the creature in the side. It hissed louder, and the tails lashed, but it started moving again—and Megan started breathing again.

"Okay, I think Fomoire impatience just saved us," Lani whispered, starting to move.

"I think the smoke might have hurt the thing's tracking,” Justin said. “I wouldn't want to take a deep breath in this, let alone try to follow a scent."

"We won't get so lucky next time,” Lani said. “We need to find the armories."

Megan nodded and started moving opposite the direction the patrol had gone.

Rounding a corner, Megan almost crashed into one of the slaves. She pulled up short, and ducked back around the corner. The slave remained focused on his task, carrying something towards one of the forges. The eyes, which weren't yellow, did not turn to see them. The face was covered in the black lines of Fomoire sadism-sorcery, as if they had long since scarred over. The figure didn't even have a hat. But as the creature's mouth opened to breathe heavily, there was no mistaking that particular desperate need for orthodontia.

Redcap were the first fae to ever scare the living daylights out of Megan, to make her realize her situation was not only puzzling, but alien and dangerous. To see one with, well...the living daylights...long since drained out of him was bizarre.

Megan shuddered, waiting with the group until the redcap, or former redcap, she wasn't quite sure, was further out of sight. "There's nothing left of these people, is there?” she asked.

Justin set a hand on her shoulder. “They were dragged into a freezing watery realm more alien than any otherworld we have seen. They spent thousands of years surrounded by enemy god-monsters. Now, centuries later, those things still don't let them go. It's hard to know what can be left.”