bedeviled & beyond 03 - bedeviled & beleaguered (31 page)

“Like the daze you and I were in when we were in the dungeon?” Darma asked.

Realization hit me. “If so, that means they can communicate with us.”

She nodded.

I shuffled my mental drawers.
Dialle? Can you hear me?

Silence. I tried again.

Dialle, if you can hear me I need you to answer me.

I can hear you.
He still sounded pissed off. Amazing.

Are you okay? How in the hell did you get yourself captured?

I don’t know, Astra, I must have been distracted when I found out my bonded Queen has been making out with a traitorous ex-royal.

I sighed, realizing that the male ego was a universally fragile and difficult creature.
Don’t be such an ass, Dialle! I didn’t do anything. Emo just threw the lip lock at me unannounced. You can’t blame me for that!

Tell me you didn’t enjoy it!

I stumbled around for a response that wouldn’t be a complete lie but would still get me out of trouble. Unfortunately my hesitation was all he needed.

Alas, your silence speaks volumes.

Now that just pissed me off.
Dialle, the fate of the entire world is hanging in the balance. Do you really think this is the right time to have this discussion?

Silence.

Oh to Hades with it!

I reshuffled my mental drawers.
Emo
?

Hey boss! Am I glad to hear from you. What the hell’s happening out there? I heard all kinds of screaming a while ago.

Trust me, you don’t want to know. We’re coming in to get you. Do you think you can break the spell my mother’s put you under?

Not by myself, I’ve tried. Several times.

You’ll have to work together with Dialle and Torre.

Oh shit, Astra. Why don’t you just ask me to have sex with your evil mother. It would be easier and more pleasant.

I sighed, I was getting pretty sick of the male animal and his fragile psyche.
Just figure it out. We’re coming in right now and we’ll need your help. I think my mother has both light and dark fairies in there, along with Prince Nille.

Shit!

Yeah, my sentiments exactly. See you in a minute.

I looked at Darma, she gave a slight nod. “I told Torre to reach out to the others and join. He promised to try.”

“Let’s hope his brother is half as accommodating.”

“Are we ready?” Myra had grown considerably in the narrow stairwell and pulsed with light and energy. Her voice throbbed with power and echoed up the stairwell. If she got any more agitated she’d start bursting through the walls.

“I guess we’d better,” I responded, “before you get permanently wedged in here.”

I grinned at Flick and he chuckled. Since I’d admitted he probably had balls he was happy again.

Myra scowled. “I do not get wedged, Astra.”

“So you say,” I murmured.

She flicked the back of my head with a magic powered finger.

“Ow!” I rubbed the spot as I took a battle stance. Looking around the group, I waited for each of them to nod.

We’re coming in, Emo.

Okay boss, we’re still negotiating here.

I shook my head.
Idiots
!

Emo chuckled.

I reached out with both hands and focused a power blast toward the door. I’d expected it to blast back into the room but instead it dissolved into atmospheric gas with a huge explosion. Silence followed the ground shaking concussion and dust trickled down onto our heads.

I looked at Flick and my eyebrows lifted in surprise.

He grinned, “Adrenaline much?”

Shrugging, I flung myself through the door.

We stood inside the door, looking around in horror. The floor was covered with dead humans. For just a moment in time everything stopped. We were rooted to the spot, our sensibilities shredded by what we saw. Then movement in the air above us tore our focus away from the dead and back to the living.

The air inside the room was thick with fairies. The sound of violently beating wings thrashed against my ears and throbbed inside my head. I hit the ground on my hands and flipped back up, feeling small, fluttering bodies striking against my legs and head as they attempted to trip me up with fairy string. As soon as my feet hit the ground I sprang back up, kicking a particularly insistent fairy in the head on my way over.

As I spun backward in the air I threw out a wave of power and melted several of the evil bugs before they could get close to me. I landed in the center of the large room encased in a power bubble.

I stood there for a moment, trying to get my bearings and locate my mother and the evil Prince Nille. It was no good. The air was thick with mean-faced little fairy bugs. Miles of fairy string continued to hit my bubble and slip harmlessly toward the ground.

I lifted my hands and shot power in an arc around me, vanquishing a few more fairies into dust. But there were too many. The place was thick with them.

I wondered how the rest of my little group was doing.

Darma?

Long silence and then,
I’m kind of busy, Astra!

I smiled. Alrighty then.

Father?

I’m well, Astra. Myra and Flick are holding their own. But we are seriously outnumbered. I could fill the room with light magic but that would kill all. We need to get to Emo and get them out of here.

I’m on it.

I strained to see beyond the flurry of fairies but it was impossible. Springing upward, I grasped a cross beam in the ceiling and quickly located the three hostages on the far side of the room. By the movement of their twitching fingers I could see that they were beginning to push off the spell but hadn’t yet managed it.

Emo, how close are you?

Almost there.
His voice sounded strained.

I’m coming, maybe I can help.

No! Astra!

The little hairs on my arm standing up at attention was the only warning I got that something big and ugly was about to hit me. Then something that felt like a laser train plowed into my side and my hands let go of the beam I’d been clutching. I flew sideways through the air, my nostrils flaring against a putrid smell like raw sewage. I recognized both the smell and the force of my invisible assailant.

Agar!

I hadn’t even realized I’d sent out the cry for help. I was deeply enmeshed in panic mode as my body flew through the air toward a hard, block wall.

Duck, Astra!
Flick’s voice sounded slightly hysterical.

I rolled myself into a ball in midair and pulled my power around me in a protective bubble. I probably would have been all right but unfortunately, when I hit the wall the Agar hit my bubble and it popped with a hiss. I slid down so fast I thought I was gonna break both legs when I landed.

A whirring sound swept over me when I was just a few feet from the ground and my body jerked to a stop in midair. I glided the rest of the way down on gentle wings of air. As my butt settled gently to the ground I looked at the two light fairies who’d carried me down and one of them winked before saluting. Then they both skittered away.

“I’ll be damned.”

A wave of light energy folded over the Agar above me. The burst of power illuminated the Agar’s slug-like form in spits and starts, like an old black and white movie that was badly edited. It hung in the air, writhing and jerking against the pull of the light magic, its disturbing features constantly changing as the souls of all its victims played across its face like a bad horror reel.

I watched in disgust as the thing’s eyes bulged and it began to writhe in apparent ecstasy, growing larger. Its gaping maw of a mouth opened and closed rhythmically, spewing suffocating, graveyard air over me. The thing’s constantly changing eyes slid shut with obvious pleasure. The monster looked like it was enjoying a good old fashioned orgasm. I realized it was feeding off the electrical component of Flick’s white energy.

It feeds off electricity, Flick.

Shit!

I grinned, it wasn’t often I heard my uptight, vanilla angel swear.
Reverse the power and draw energy away from the Agar. I can help if you want, I had to do it once before in the shadows, against Nille.

Yeah and look how well that turned out.

I frowned.
Okay, bite me. You’re on your own.

I’m used to it.

The Agar jerked and its monstrous gaze flew open. Its sewer-like maw opened wide in pain and I thought it looked as if it might be shrinking. But I didn’t have time to watch it die.

The first fairy string hit my body and wrapped around my neck. That was about the time I realized I’d forgotten to pull my power bubble back into place.
Oops
!

The second string enslaved one wrist. Before I could raise my other arm to turn the hovering horde of dark fairies to dust, another string wrapped itself around that arm too. All I had left were my legs.

I leapt to my feet and kicked out, catching one tiny tormentor just under a square, bristly chin. The fairy flew backward and was lost in the melee at the center of the room.

One down... Another dark fairy swung into place. There were just too damn many of them and I was down to one leg. I tried to pull my power forward but the fairy string muted it and held it dormant.

I was starting to get concerned.

When my one free leg succumbed to fairy magic I knew I was toast.

That was when the first dark fairy exploded into dust in front of me. I was left looking into the pink cheeked, pixy face of one of King Aelfric’s light fairies, her sword outstretched and coated with purple fairy blood. She gave me a sober nod and then turned to meet the next dark fairy.

I watched helplessly as the light fairies, who’d lost the element of surprise, fought for their lives and, I assumed, my freedom. One by one they defeated their dark foes through sheer grit and an impressive level of skill with their tiny swords. I’d read somewhere that King Aelfric, knowing how precarious their position in the world would be as partners to the Royals, had decreed seven hours of sword practice a day for his people. I was a happy witness to the results of that effort.

Above me, the Agar gave one last roar and exploded into a shower of sparks that sprayed over me and the surrounding cast of thousands. The fairies barely even noticed but I had to beat a few sparks out on my sweater before they took hold.

Astra?

My head flew up.
Zerphor
!

Have you forgotten about Plan B?

Yes... I mean no! Hold on.
I pushed myself into a standing position and tried to look around the room. I could see one window on the far side, set high in the wall.
There’s a large window on the south-facing wall. You’ll have to blast through, it’s not quite big enough.

I’m on my way now.

Take care, we have light fairies fighting dark fairies. King Aelfric’s people are on our side.

I’ll try to avoid killing any of the good little folk but it would be best if they would vacate.

I’ll try to get word to the king.

Allow me, I have a way.

I returned my attention to the battling fairies in front of me. They seemed oblivious to my plight. I tried to get the attention of the nearest light fairy. “Hey, pssst.” He ignored me as he battled a dark fairy who was considerably larger than he was. “Pssst. Hey you. Can you get rid of this string for me?”

He threw me a glance and suffered a cut on his chest for the effort. “Be still, halfling. I’m busy.” He returned his attention to his foe and swiftly delivered the killing blow. Then he buzzed over to me and cut the string around my throat.

“Look out!”

Without hesitation he completed the arc of his sword and swung round, using the momentum to plunge his sword into the throat of the attacking fairy. He turned back and cut one of my wrists loose.

“Duck!”

The agile fairy dropped to one knee in the air and tucked his sword backward under one arm as I screamed. His sword found his opponent’s chest with unerring accuracy. Before the dead fairy’s dust cleared my tiny rescuer was slicing through the string binding my other wrist.

Then he stopped and looked at me. Aren’t you going to scream at me to watch out or something?”

I shrugged and grinned. “There seems to be a lull in the action.”

He nodded, turning to the string on my ankles.

“Watch out!”

His wings became a blur as he suddenly rose straight up, past my face, a wide grin on his handsome face. He flipped in the air and spun like a top, his small, compact body tucked into a fairy ball with only one protuberance.

That protuberance pierced the cheek of an attacking dark fairy as he connected and I thoroughly enjoyed the confused look on the small bug’s face just before he exploded into fairy dust.

Grinning widely, my rescuer blew on his sword.

“That was frunkin’ cool. What’s your name?”

He gave me an elegant bow, “Kheelan Aelfdene at your service, ma’am.”

I inclined my head, honored that he’d offered me his name. “Kheelan. Aptly named, that means warrior doesn’t it?”

He bowed low, golden hair forming a shimmering curtain around his handsome face. “You are indeed wise, halfling. It was my pleasure to serve you.”

“Right back atcha Kheelan. You might want to get the Hades out of here now. I have a black dragon coming to help.”

His sparkling blue eyes widened in pleasure. “Sweet!” He bowed one last time and flew away, tapping his fellow warriors on the shoulder as he passed. They fell into his wake without discussion and soon I stood alone in a sea of dark fairies.

They realized that just about the same time I did.

I looked at them.

They looked at me.

I frowned.

They smiled.