Born of Oak and Silver (The Caradoc Chronicles) (23 page)

She didn’t answer. I made my way back
to the wall through which I thought we had come and allowed my hands to continue searching for the means to send her back. When I was again met with nothing, I punched the wall for good measure. It felt so good that I continued to hit it until my knuckles were split and bleeding. Even then I couldn’t bear to look at the idiotic girl who had followed me so blindly into the unknown. I was angry, but if I were being honest, I was also proud that she’d done it, and that made me even angrier.

I leaned my head against the cold stone and breathed rhythmically
, sorting through the thoughts that had scattered so inconsiderately in my mind. I watched the blood well up on my knuckles.

I
t gave me an idea. I grabbed the dagger from where it hung at my belt and slowly drew the blade across my palm. The cut was not deep, but just enough that blood began to collect in my cupped hand. I allowed it to pool. When I had enough, I used my other hand to draw the same runes Bram had used to reveal the Silver on Ben Bulben. I stepped back expectantly.

Nothing shimmered or even flickered in recognition.

“Finished?” I heard Ayda ask me.

I turned to find that she was no longer on the floor, but stood against the wall opposite of
me. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her eyes watched me with anger. What did she have to be mad about? I had hoped that she would find the sense to realize the gravity of the situation we had landed in. I did not know if we were still on the Earth—or more likely—if we now found ourselves in the vast and unfamiliar lands of Faery. If the second were true, there would be a host of beings who would not take our intrusion kindly.

Fury once again flooded my mind at her unbelievable stupidity. Instead of taking it out again on the wall, I crossed the floor in ten easy steps and stood directly before her seething. My eyes bore into hers.
“Ayda, let’s lay some ground rules, shall we. At no time are you to speak unless I directly ask you a question—and even then, it will never be in more than a hushed whisper. Secondly, you will not do anything to further endanger yourself . . . or, for that matter, me.” Her mouth quirked up in amusement, a trait that only served to aggravate me further.

“Furthermore,
” I ground out through my teeth, “you will do as you are told—always. And you will remain close to me unless I specify otherwise.” I shifted my weight, again running my hand through my already untamed hair.

H
er still amused mouth was driving me to the edge of my control. I was seriously contemplating throttling her, and didn’t see any real reason not to.

“Daine, I am fully capable of taking care of myself,” Ayda said with thi
s look that seemed to indicate she knew exactly what I was thinking, and dared me to try it.

“And you did a rather fine job of that now, didn’t you.”

She was nonplussed. “Of course I did. I am still breathing, am I not? I knew full well the risk I was taking in coming with you. I couldn’t stand the thought of not knowing if you were alive or dead, and so I followed you to make sure that you do not become the latter.” She huffed, gauging me loftily.

“
Oh, really?” I asked her pertly. “For all we know, we could be trapped here forever. But you already knew that, didn’t you. What then, was your glorious plan to guarantee that I continue living?” My eyebrow quirked up at her in question.

Her brows narrowed as her hands balled into fists. Her voice
was a mix of passion and determination. “I do not know, but I will make sure it happens.” She then pushed me away lightly, dismissing me from such close proximity to her.

I watched her closely as s
he took her turn in running her hands over the cold cobblestones that made up the walls of this room. In total, the room we were in was roughly ten by fourteen feet, and little was required to make one’s way around it.

She made a few rounds, pausing here and there to inspect cracks and crevices. She exhaled her frustration. She t
urned her attention back to me. “Should, perhaps, we explore wherever this leads?” she said from where she had stopped, a few feet away from the blackened doorway.

I indicated
that we would with a slight nod. I raised my finger to my mouth reminding her of the need for silence. She nodded once, and stepped in beside me. I moved to the opening, but stopped when her hand took mine as if wanting to hold me in place. I raised my questioning eyebrow, searching for what gave her pause.

She gave a small smile as
, gently, she took the hand that I cut with my dagger moments before. I had forgotten all about it. She released it, expecting me to leave my palm upturned. She bent down, ruffling under her skirts, and tore a clean strip of fabric from her petticoat. Her bottom lip was caught up in her teeth as she deftly wrapped my palm, her hands working with precision as she tied off the bandage tightly. Satisfied, she offered me another familiar smile as she stretched her hand out in invitation toward the door. Now we could proceed.

We left the room cautiously, find
ing that our doorway was just one of many that opened into a long hallway—the ends of which our light didn’t touch. There was nothing to entice us to go either left or right, so we blindly went right. As we left, Ayda allowed the last bit of her torn petticoat to fall on the ground as a mark of where we began.

For the most part we found nothing, though some of the rooms
contained random relics indicating that, at some point, humans had been in these very rooms. However, there was no way for us to determine how long it had been since these walls had last seen mortals. From the amount of dirt, and the general untouched state of everything, it had clearly been quite some time since humanity had last breathed this stale air.

T
he tunnel ended at a rock wall with a small room resembling a cellar on the left, and a larger, cavernous room on the right. We explored each, finding that neither contained anything more than cobblestone walls, floors, and ceilings. I was unsure if I felt relieved or disappointed at not having found anything. With Ayda still pressed close behind me, we moved back the way we had come to explore the other end of the corridor. Once again, our search revealed nothing. We were trapped. There was absolutely no visible way out of whatever this place was.

With no
where else to go, we went back to the room where we had started, deciding our only possibility of escape was the Silver we had come through. We sat together, our backs against the wall opposite of the Silver, watching for any sign that it might be opening. Of course, there was never anything more than stones and mortar. For the longest time, neither of us said a word as we allowed the silence consume us.

At some point, Ayda retrieved two hard rolls from the satchel under her cloak. We ate, grateful for something to do other than stare at the lifeless wall before us. Soon after,
Ayda leaned against my shoulder with a sigh. Instinctively, I wrapped my arm around her and drew her close, whispering for her to sleep. It was not long before her steady breathing indicated that she was.

Our predicament was not a good one, and
the old comfort of not being alone did not lend me much consolation. If anything, it made it worse. I could handle being trapped alone much more easily than I could handle feeling responsible for someone else who was in the same terrible mess with me. I didn’t know how I was ever going to find us an exit out of this cobblestoned prison. I let out a long and steady breath and listened as it seemed to echo off of the walls around us. Ayda, still sleeping, leaned more deeply into my chest. I looked down as I held her, tucking a few stray curls that had fallen onto her face behind her ear before I resumed staring at the wall.

I must have drifted
to sleep as well, because a sudden quickening of my heartbeat roused me into an awareness of my surroundings. I had allowed the fire that I had called to go out, and everything had returned to being impenetrably dark. With Ayda still held tightly in my arms, I listened hungrily in the complete darkness for just what it was that had put my Druid on guard.

There it was, a faint scratching coming from somewhere down the corridor of endless doorways and nothingness. I straightened myself a bit, and strained to hear anything more. It started out as almost nothing, but then turned into the definite
humming of voices. They sounded musical and lovely, though I could not understand a single word that they were saying. My heart thumped even faster. Finally, the Sidhe were coming.

T
he light that they carried added just the vaguest sense of visibility to the nothingness. There was nowhere for us to hide. I placed my hand over Ayda’s mouth as I nudged her awake. The light had grown to be enough that we could see each other’s features. Wordlessly I indicated with my head to the door. Her eyes grew wide as she heard the voices drawing nearer.

We moved quickly, putting ourselves against the wall that contained the doorway.
My body was closest to the door, and I pressed Ayda as far as I could into the corner behind me. I extended my hand over her, wishing I could hide her well away. The light built, and I heard as their feet lithely stepped upon the dirty cobblestones in the hall. The light paused beside our door.

We held our breath as we pressed more deeply into the
shadows. This corner offered the only place for concealment as their light burst through the entryway and lit the rest of the room. Nearly human fingers reached down, delicately clasping the small piece of Ayda’s petticoat from the floor. It disappeared as the Fae brought it into hallway for closer inspection.

I readied myself, drawing as much energy as I dared from the light and
air around us in preparation for the fight I was sure was about to ensue.

Words in a pleasant,
but still unknown, language broke the profound silence, followed by laughter that was distinctly lewd in tone. The faintest view of the strip of petticoat appeared in my vision as it was discarded upon the floor. The Sidhe resumed moving toward whatever it was they knew how to find here. I was just glad it was not found in here.

Once
the light had nearly disappeared, Ayda and I took our first tentative breaths.

“Ayda,” I whispered
against her ear as quietly as I could manage, “we need to follow them. If there is a way out of here, they will know where it is.” Despite her fear, her hand squeezed my own in agreement.

I stood, helping her to find her feet.
Placing my hand against the wall, I felt my way to the door and thereafter down the passageway. Blindly, we followed the faintest of lights and only the slightest possibility of escape.

We moved quickly, but
for all of our haste remained well within the shadows. Their light veered to the left as they entered a room. I braved a quick peek; there were three of them.

As individuals, they resembled human men entirely
, with the exception of possessing more beauty that a human—male or female—could ever possess. They were well muscled but lean, and they each dressed in clothes the most common of men might be found wearing. Though not one of them had any imperfections to ruin their perfect features, their clothes were worn and dirty. It was a pairing entirely at odds with itself.

They
stood facing a wall that was just the same as every other within this place. I watched as one stepped forward with his hand extended, speaking words of command in his own tongue. Those words I ran over and over in my mind in an effort to memorize them perfectly.

Instantly
a Silver revealed itself. Its view was of a dense and green forest with pines, leafed trees, shrubs, and vines . . . all competing for dominance in a landscape where it didn’t appear that any could win.

This must be what it is like for t
he Fae as they use the Silvers; they can see exactly where it is they’re going, and who and what is directly on the other side. I turned quickly to Ayda, and with the slightest of glances indicated that this was our chance. My hand found hers just before we charged into the room. All three of them had already passed through the Silver, and we made it through just before it closed behind us.

Ayda and I collided
with the leaf-cluttered ground. The sound of water could be heard, as could the voices of men speaking drawling English. I threw Ayda behind me, and stood at once to face the three Fae who watched us with unreadable expressions. They had chosen to lose the last of their otherworldly beauty, and now resembled only very handsome men. They regarded me steadily and impassively, their lack of blinking now the only trait that would give any indication that they were not human.

Ayda
stood slowly and hid herself behind me. Neither of us moved.

It was the Fae who spoke first.

The words came slowly, spoken as though he found the sound of our language on his tongue to be distasteful. “Caradoc, it is a pleasure to be finally met with your acquaintance. We have heard much of you.” He gave me a slight but still perceptible bow. “I am Anwyn. These are Welk and Morgan.”

I inclined my head slightly
to them. I could play cordial. “I assure you, the pleasure is all mine. I hope you’ll forgive me for my insensitivity, but might I inquire where it is that one so lowly as I has had the honor of meeting three such as yourselves?” Flattery was our best option. If I could delay them, I might have time to think of something that would allow us to get away. With no weapon to me, aside from two limited iron daggers, time was all I had going for me.