The Screaming Stone: The Otherworld Series Book 2 (21 page)

Duncan released Annie from his grip and pushed her gently behind him before confronting Autie.  “We trusted ye with little more than yer word,” he reminded the tiny Fae.  “There was no lie in Patrick.  His kind is incapable of it.”

“I doona trust his
kind
,” Autie spat back.  “We followed the path he set for us an’ it almost led us ta our own deaths!  If I had no’ seen the omens we could have been lost in the
Inbetween
forever!”

Duncan bent down and facing the Knocker nose to nose whispered his next words menacingly.  “Ye warned us of nothin’ ye superstitious ol’ codger.  All ye did was scare her!” he accused as he pointed his finger back at her. 

Annie reached out her hand and took hold of his.  He had not let go of her in the tunnel, nor on the path through the
Inbetween
and she missed the small comfort it had offered.  “It doesn’t matter,” she said trying to convince him.  “Autie, I do not think Patrick led us astray.  He came to us because he owes Duncan; let’s just leave it at that,” she said with a shake of her head.  Her mind was still a little foggy as it tried to readjust and gain it’s equilibrium after being stuck in another plane of existence.  Her gut however was screaming at her again.  “Something’s not right,” she told the others.

She began looking around trying to figure out what was wrong.  The feeling had begun to grow once Duncan had released her.  Something wasn’t right and as her eyes searched the horizon she realized what was wrong.

“Oh my god,” she breathed.  “It’s dark.”

The realization hit them all at once as their heads and eyes swept over the landscape now bathed only in the light of the moon.  How had they, how had she, missed such an obvious thing?  And how had they lost so much time?  When they had emerged from the tunnel the sky although gray in color was still back lit by the sun; hours must have passed between when the exited the passage and now.  She no longer had to fear twilight.  Nope they had skipped right over that and entered all of their worst fears, nightfall.

Duncan’s sword appeared in his hand and Robert followed suit pulling his from the scabbard that hung constantly on his hip.  Autie dug into his coat and managed to produce a long wicked looking dagger.  The three pieces of silver colored metal gleamed in the moonlight reminding her that there was something else missing. 

They were missing a sword and they were missing their shield.

“Where are the others?” Robert asked.  “Griffin!  Kat!”

“Knackers!” Annie hollered joining Robert in vocally searching for the missing members of their party.

The chorus of names continued to be shouted until their voices grew hoarse with the strain and thick with emotion.  Robert gave up last his voice cracking with emotion as he fell to his knees sobbing.

“Do you really see the outcome of this devoid of loss?”

The taunting words the mirror had laughingly spoken to her last night came back to haunt her.  Annie fell to the ground her knees buckling under the weight of the tears that fell from her eyes.

Duncan and Autie kept their distance.  They had all lost someone.  Words failed to express the sorrow they all felt in that moment.  Annie had thought losing one would be crushing.  She, they had just lost three.  Her best friend was gone, her big brother was gone, and her favorite mangy cat-like Fae was gone.  They were all gone, lost somewhere in the
Inbetween
.  Their souls would flicker and fade until the light they had in life was reduced to one of the corpse candles that had lit the path in the graveyard.

“Why the hell is everyone cryin’?”

Annie’s head snapped up at the sound of that lovely voice.

Knackers appeared out of the misty darkness that now hid the path towing two stunned humans behind him.  He was straining under the effort.  With one final push he shoved Kat and Griffin to the ground.  Robert and Annie crawled over to the pair and arms tangled with arms as they all struggled to hug each other, tears of relief streaming down their faces.

“What no love for Knackers the Great?”

Autie launched himself at Knackers almost knocking him to the ground.  “Och ye ugly cow ass I may have need o’ the parts ye be crushin’,” he scolded Autie.

“How?  What happened?” asked a stunned Kat.

“The
Inbetween
is no’ a place for those of the natural world.  Yer too easily distracted.  Good thing you had three strapping beings of the Otherworld ta see ye through the dangers and folly o’ the
Inbetween
,” Autie proudly explained.  Knackers smacked him hard on the head.

“Shut it ye ol’ coot.  I carried two.  Ye had only one.”

“He’s the biggest o’ us all an’ he ‘ad only one,” Autie whined pointing a shaking finger in Duncan’s direction.

“Are ye forgettin’ who the lass carries then?”

Knackers and Autie fell into bickering and pushing as things for them drifted back to normal.  Their voices grew louder and louder with each insult that was hurled.  Kat too seemed to be regaining her senses as she shook the last pieces of the
Inbetween
out of her head.  Only Griffin seemed to be struggling to return to the land of the living.  Robert sensed Griffin’s difficulty at the same time she did.  They exchanged worried glances unsure of what to do.  They had both come out of the fog and the lack of form and sense a trip through the
Inbetween
seemed to cause.  Griffin, it appeared was suffering longer than the rest of them.

Annie struggled to understand what he was going through.  He was the shield, the protector of the group.  His shield was constantly up protecting not only himself but any other person he cared enough to share his protection with.

“Did he try to shield us in the
Inbetween
?” Robert asked Kat as if he had read her mind.

Kat shook her head as she was just becoming aware of what her friends were concerned with.  Griffin had rolled over on to his back.  His eyes were staring unblinkingly up at the stars that were just beginning to show themselves in the darkening sky.  Kat crawled over to him.  She began pounding on his chest as she screamed his name over and over.  Robert grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her he held her tightly trying to calm her down.  Knackers and Autie had stopped fighting and along with Duncan looked on concerned for their friend.

“Kat what happened?  What did Griffin see?”  Annie asked hoping that Kat would begin to remember.  It had taken a few precious moments for her to remember what it was like to life in the natural world.  They could not afford to give Griffin any more time.  They needed to move.  They sat out in the open and unprotected as their shield lay helpless on the ground.  No one but Kat had the ability to lift and carry that shield.

Kat shook her head.  Her eyes were covered with a thick layer of tears.  “I don’t know,” she sobbed.

“Kat listen to me he said something right before I felt there was something wrong,” Annie said quietly.  It was the last thing she remembered before awakening to Duncan screaming her name.  She hoped Kat had heard it too.  Annie struggled hard to remember.  Kat stared at her blankly her emotions too overwrought to remember if Griffin had said something.  Annie turned and looked at everyone else in the group pleading silently that someone remembered hearing what Griffin had said.

Autie snapped his fingers suddenly.  “He said he had been here before.”

Griffin sat up.  His head and eyes circled around the group that surrounded him until he found his target.  When his eyes landed on Annie they stopped moving and stared at her for a moment.  Annie watched him in silence, realizing his brain was trying to catch up to the sudden shift from the
Inbetween
to the natural world.  The trip was disorientating.  Annie still felt like she was recovering.

“It’s okay Griffin,” she said softly trying to reassure him as she reach out a tentative hand.  “We’re all here, we’re all okay.”

Griffin moved suddenly.  The intense ferocity of his reaction caused her to flinch as he seized her hand and shook his head violently in disagreement.  She heard Duncan growl behind her.  She held up a staying hand silently begging Duncan to remain still.

“What is it Griff?” she asked quietly.  His eyes widened, almost bulging out of his head as they glazed over.  “Kat, Robert grab on to him.  He’s trying.  For some reason it’s taking him longer to come out of the fog then it took us.  We need to help him.”

Kat and Robert both reached out to him each placing a hand on one of his shoulders.  The moment the connection was complete Griffin returned to them.  His eyes softened but stayed focused on Annie.  He blinked twice then regained his speech.

“Run,” he whispered hoarsely.  “Run Annie.  He’s here and we are surrounded.”

Annie felt herself being yanked off the ground as her legs were forced into a run as she tried to keep up with Duncan.

         Chapter Nineteen

The Black Storm Rises

As soon as Duncan had ripped her from the ground a large boulder hit the exact spot where she had been sitting.  She glanced over her shoulder as her legs tried to keep up with the fast pace Duncan was setting.  Her small group of friends stared at the boulder that had replaced Annie, none of them moving.  She tried to scream, tried to tell them to run but her lungs were so tired and her voice was paralyzed by what she had just witnessed. 

The sky had just rained boulders down upon them.

Robert’s head snapped up first and she could hear him over the wind whipping past her ears, “Run!”

Annie tripped and fell losing her grip on Duncan as she watched her friends scatter as more rocks and stones rained down upon them.  The most ridiculous image popped into her mind.  They all looked like ants scurrying around their anthill as the rain plummeted down on them.  The wind began to howl louder and whipped her hair in front of her eyes obscuring her view.  Ants could out run the rain and find shelter.  Where did you run to when boulders fell from the sky?

She felt herself being lifted off the ground.  “Get up we must keep movin’!” Duncan shouted over the wind.  More stones littered the ground around her and she feared there was no way they could avoid being stoned to death.

Her terror, her fear, inspired the goddess inside her to stir.

She swallowed hard and tried forcing the rising goddess to wait.  Inside she begged, she pleaded and reasoned with the pissed off deity who did not like being threatened.  While she argued with Áine her physical form had gone limp.  She felt Duncan lift her from her feet as he threw her over his shoulder and began running with her like she was a near weightless sack of potatoes.

“Let me out,”
Áine hissed at her as she pushed Annie trying to force her to step aside.

“Not gonna happen,” she replied shoving the goddess back down.

“Your friends are going to die,”
Aine warned her.

“They’re our friends and they wouldn’t dare!” she shot back as a blinding rage began building inside of her.

The two waring halves remained silently locked into a staring contest, neither one willing to give the other the right of way.  Their fight for dominance had become a battle that neither one could win.  At an impasse they sighed and fell into a strange sort of sync with one mirroring the move of the other.

“
Well we can’t just lay here like a doll we must do something
.”

Just then Duncan tripped as the raining stones sought to block his path.  He struggled to remain on his feet and keep them protected on his shoulder.

“They did not just do that!” they screamed in unison.

“Together?”

“Together.”

The warring duo put aside their differences and instead of working against each other joined forces and sought to destroy.  Annie felt Áine merge with her essence.  It was painful.  Her limp form jerked and twitched as the goddess knit herself to the mortal. Electric waves of pain shot through her mortal shell and her last thought was that magick was painful.

Together they used the pain.  It refocused, coalescing, growing and expanding as white hot ball of light that rose from their solar plexus, their center and their core and raced up their spine rejuvenating both beings as life suddenly sprang back into their bodies.  The ball of light split in two when it reached their heart where it had continued to grow doubling in strength.  One ball of light raced down their arm and stopped dead center in their palm.  The other ball shot up their throat and waited in the back of their mouth.

They raised their head and took in the scene before them.  Stones continued to pound into the soft earth around them.  Robert had caught up with them.  His wild hair whipping around him in the gale that had erupted over them, he was shouting at them over his shoulder as he faced down a horde of black shadowy creatures that were slowly gaining ground.  Just below Robert stood Kat and Griffin flanked on either side by Knackers and Autie.

Kat had her small hands pressed against Griffin’s back as if she were holding him up.  Griffin’s hands were stretched out before him palms facing the black storm that was a cloudy mass of teeth, wings and claws.  A strong almost solid looking mist was emanating from his outstretched hands and he shielded the group as they ran up the hill.  Knackers and Autie hacked at anything that managed to slip past Griffin and Kat’s magickal wall.

They raised their head and caught Robert’s eye, and for a moment time froze.

They spoke to Robert, whispering into his mind and saving their voice for one powerful shout.  His head tilted to the side and his eyes blinked slowly as he listened carefully to what they told him he needed to do.  He nodded in understanding, and time returned to its normal flow.

“Griffin drop the shield!” he screamed his voice barely rising above the maelstrom that was threatening to destroy the group.

“No!” Duncan shouted out his own order as he spun around cutting off their line of sight with the advancing horde.

They lifted their eyes and saw the
Lia Fáils
, the screaming stone, just a few feet from them.  They could not run to it.  They needed to help those that were trying to help them.  They called upon their strength now pushing against Duncan, with surprising strength they freed themselves from his tight grip and launched themselves into the air.  They twisted midair spinning around to face the rising black storm.  They landed like a graceful dancer on their feet.  Their eyes shifted glowing and emitting a bright blue light that rivaled the sky on a cloudless day.  They raised their right hand, palm facing the storm silently ordering them to stop.  The wind ceased to blow and rage and the hill grew quiet as both sides stared at each other.  They nodded their head indicating that they were ready and Robert receiving the cue ordered Griffin to release his magickal shield.

“NO-!,” Duncan shouted but was silenced as they raised their left hand at him mirroring their right.  “Annie?” he whispered.

They turned to face him a crooked smile pulling up one corner of their mouth as they winked an otherworldly eye at him before turning back to the beings that had threatened them and their friends. 

“NOW!” Robert bellowed.

Griffin dropped his shield and the hot white light they had been holding onto shot from their palm as a screech of death flew from their mouths dropping every threatening creature amassed below them to the ground.  The horde began to scream and wail as their bodies began to smolder before erupting violently into flames that spread like a ring around the hill creating a wall of white fire that no creature of the darkness could penetrate.

“What the hell was that?” a stunned Robert asked them.  His breathing was heavy and labored, his mocha colored skin flushed with exertion as a thin line of sweat dotted his brow.

“Spriggons, body guards of the Unseelie,” they explained.

“Not quite what I was asking but it was an answer,” Robert said as he stared at the ring of fire in awe.

“Annie?” Duncan whispered their name on this plane.

They turned slowly and met his eyes that glowed with a strong otherworldly light of their own.  They smiled up at him, a warm and inviting smile, and extended their hand silently asking him to take it.  He obeyed their silent command.  When his fingers brushed against their palm they sighed, comforted by his touch.

Annie staggered under pressure of the goddess’ retreat as her power was, for the time being depleted; they had joined together to fight and now were joined together in exhaustion.  She fell into Duncan who easily caught her.  He gripped her elbows tightly and pulled her up against him.  Her exhausted human head fell back as if the weight of it was too strong for her neck to hold upright.  He tried to speak but she stopped him.

“We don’t have time,” she said exhaling heavy as physical exhaustion threatened to take her human form down as well.  “We need to get to the stone now.”

A screech echoed in the sky as a new unseen enemy made its presence known.

Duncan looked over the top of her head at Robert.  “Go!” Robert ordered.  “She’s done all she can.  Now it’s our turn,” he said as he raced off to join the others near the ring of fire.

Duncan nodded his thanks, wrapped his free arm around Annie and supported her weight as they climbed the rest of the hill in a desperate attempt to reach the stone and the only escape route they had left.

She had scared the hell out of him.

She had gone unconscious; he had picked up her limp form and draped her over his shoulder. He had but taken a few steps and suddenly she had come to life and was vaulting over him flying through the air and after some complex acrobatics landing deftly on her feet.  Without a spoken command she had convinced Robert and Griffin to aide her and defeated an entire horde of Spriggons with a beam of light and a battle shout that would have rivaled the strength of both the Battle Queen and Battle Crow combined.  He had never seen anything like it in his long life.  He had seen many of the minor gods and goddess in battle.  They were fierce, their strength and stamina rivaling ten mortal men.  Some had amazing speed and could race around an invading army wounding and killing with the speed of the wind.  Some had terrifying voices that caused even the stoutest heart to cower with fear.  But never, ever had he seen such pure magick decimate an entire battalion.

Once again the strength and power she had wielded left her drained and on the point of collapse.  The light that had shone like a blue beacon from her eyes had dimmed leaving shadowy bruises around her now sleep laden eyes.  She struggled to maintain her feet and as he wrapped a supporting arm around her he tried to will some of his strength to seep into her boneless form.  They were making slow progress and would never be able to out run the new terror that threatened to swoop down from the sky.

The Nightflyers had come. 

He squeezed her tighter praying, wishing and hoping that something would come to their aide; because at the moment they were severely outmatched.  He could not support her and fight the demons that circled above their heads as they slowly trudged up the hill.

“Annie come on please luv were almost there,” he coaxed as he willed her feet to move faster.

One of the Nightflyers fell upon them from the sky.  Duncan barely managed to swing his sword in defense against the quick and sudden attack.  He lost his grip on Annie and she fell like liquid to the ground.

Their plan had collapsed.  They had failed to foresee the lengths of Bres’ wrath and jealousy.  He was willing to stop at nothing to get what he wanted.  Like a bad wish a condescending laugh echoed around him.  Bres crested the hill and stopped a few feet from the
Lia Fáils
.  His beautiful face was twisted with evil mirth as he stared down at them.  His green eyes glistened with victory under the weight of the full moon.

Duncan felt his rage begin to build.

He narrowed his eyes as he stared down his opponent.  Caelia’s words from the wharf trickled back into his mind.

“Kill him Duncan.”

A feral growl rumbled in his chest as the animal he usually sought to contain burst free of its cage.  The beast strengthened slowly as it gathered and absorbed all the rage and pain Duncan had endured at the hands of this evil half-ling.  “I will kill you,” he snarled his promise to the betrayer of the Children of Danu.

“I doubt that Dark Warrior,” Bres returned his words filled with a confidence that almost failed to reach his eyes.  “You are alone, with a broken goddess at your feet surrounded by Nightflyers who but await my command to destroy you.  You do not possess the strength nor the power to kill me.  You are Faeriedae, nothing more.”

Another growl began to vibrate his chest as Annie struggled to get to her feet.  He kept his vision locked on Bres while praying and willing Annie to find her feet.  She managed to get to her hands and knees, her wobbly limbs besieged with the monumental effort it took to hold her weight.