Darkthunder's Way (40 page)

“I wouldn’t fool with that kind of stuff either, if I had any choice, but I don’t—you know that. But truly, if I could do it all over and not have it happen, I would. I was happier when the Sidhe were only myths.”

“I don’t doubt it—”

“Did I hear the ghost of a
but
?”

“Not a
but
,
exactly…well, maybe. I guess I was gonna say ‘but it’s not that simple.’” Alec took a deep breath. “There’re a couple of things I have to tell you.”

“You mean besides about this Eva person?”

Alec nodded. “
And
about her.”

“So shoot.”

“This is gonna be a big one.”

“I’m ready.”

“Okay, then. Davy, I…I know what the bad thing is.”

A chill raced down David’s spine. “Oh jeeze, man, I’d ’bout forgot about that.”

“I wish
I
could,” Alec snorted. “But it came back to me. That’s the reason I called you, why I brought you here.”

“Okay…”

“It’s Eva, David. The girl I told you about—that I
couldn’t
tell you about before today. I met her at the fair and kinda fell for her. Just an infatuation to start with—I thought—but then it just sorta grew. I guess I needed somebody and she was available. Anyway, she’s the reason I got grounded: I was out with her. Well, actually I came up here, and she just kinda found me—and we…uh, well, we kinda did it.”

David’s mouth popped open, and it was a moment before he could speak. “All right!” he began, then broke off. “But…but if that’s the bad thing, I don’t see why you couldn’t remember it. I—”

“She’s one of the Sidhe, Davy—probably one of Ailill’s flunkies.”

“Oh God,
no
!”

Alec nodded grimly. “’Fraid so. I should have known. I should have seen it in her face, or heard it in her voice, or something. Worse, I should have known when I found out I could tell her things—except.”

“Except?”

“Except I don’t think I could.”

David rose abruptly and paced to the empty doorway to gaze out at the lengthening shadows. Jesus, he would have to be going soon, to clean up for his date with Liz. And now to have something like this dropped on him. He whirled around in place, trying not to betray the confusion, the anger that was welling up in him. This was important to Alec; he would let him have his say.

“She played with my
mind
!” Alec sobbed wretchedly. “I didn’t know at the time, but I…I think the magic water helped some, and then I looked at the stone, and suddenly it all came clear. None of the memories I had were real, they were only what she wanted me to believe. But Eva pumped me for everything I was worth, and then left lies in my head.”

David cleared his throat awkwardly. “So you
didn’t
do it then?”

“Oh, no,
that
really happened, believe me.”

“Well, that’s some comfort I guess.”

“Comfort
hell
!
That’s the biggest thing a guy our age can do, and I had it stolen. Do you think I was anything to her but a grunt and a thrust?”

“Well, she wouldn’t have done it unless she wanted to,” David replied lamely, trying frantically to consider the implications—none of which were encouraging.

“Bullshit. You know enough of Faery morality to know that’s a lie. All I was was a warm body to her—that, and I think she had to do it to get power over me. Deep power, I mean: the kind that let her play with my mind. I’ve been thinking about that a lot, and it’s all starting to make sense. Blood, semen, whatever; they’re the stuff of life. One sustains it, one makes it. Think about all the Faery magic you’ve seen. Half of it depends on blood. Our blood to reanimate Finn, that sorta thing.”

David resumed his pacing. He would have to be away soon, but—Jesus, he couldn’t resolve all this that quick.

“There’s still one more thing: the
really
bad thing.”

“So spill it, bro. You know you can tell me anything.”

Tears trembled in Alec’s eyes. “There’s a real good chance I’ve betrayed the Sidhe. I…Eva gave me a dagger as a so-called going-away present, and apparently made some kind of posthypnotic suggestion, so that when we got to Galunlati I switched it with Finn’s.”

“Oh, Christ, Alec—
Jesus
!
Finno needed that dagger to get to the Powersmiths! Any other would take him…
Shit
!” David froze in mid-step, at a loss as to how to continue. “If you’re right, if you
have
betrayed them, God knows what they’ll do!”

Alec sighed. “I keep telling myself maybe it wasn’t betrayal. Honestly, I don’t know what the dagger would do, but…”

“I do,” David spat. “I’ll bet you dollars to donuts it’ll take Finno straight to Finvarra.”

Alec fell silent, staring helplessly at David. “I just don’t know what to do!”

“Well, one thing’s clear, we’ve gotta tell the Sidhe pronto. At least that way they can’t accuse us of holding out on ’em.”

Alec’s lips thinned as if he fought back some remark, but finally he nodded. “I was afraid you’d say that, but you’re right, of course.” He stood, drained the beer, and started toward the door. “Come on, White ’Possum, I reckon it’s time I found out what the old 240’ll do.”

David’s only response was a resigned roll of his eyes as he snagged his pack and followed Alec back down the secret stair. Why did it have to come to this? Why now of all times, when an hour before all he’d wanted to do was find out what his buddy’s minor mysteries were, then go home and see his lady? Liz—Lord how he’d missed her. He’d spent half the day rehashing their adventures so he could tell them to her just perfect. And now he was gonna have to tell her something much more sinister.

They had reached the field by then, and sprinted toward the waiting Volvo. Alec started it up, gunned the engine furiously, then shifted into drive and tore up the turf for yards before his surge of panic slackened.

*

Halfway between Enotah and Sullivan Cove, David made a disturbing discovery.

Alec had made the right turn off Courthouse Square and headed toward the less-populous southern end of the county. No problem so far—except that his friend’s unexpectedly heavy right foot was threatening to attract constabulatory attention they neither desired nor could afford. But a mile or so past the city limits, the national forest closed in around them, and it was then that David caught the first faint warning tingle from his eyes as the Sight began to kick in. It didn’t usually bother him now; or else he had got so used to it from frequent contact with Faery that he no longer noticed its minor manifestations. Maybe it was the fact that the Sidhe usually showed themselves to him willingly these days.

But this time, he somehow knew, was different—and suddenly, as they swung around a particularly tight curve, David caught sight of something that proved to him just how different it was.

It was a rider—no, a
pack
of riders, all on horseback, all galloping through the woods to the right where the mountains had been scooped out to make the road. Those horsemen were following them, too, of that he had no doubt, pacing the Volvo along the edges of cuts that frequently rose far above their heads in an arch of red clay and black stone, or just as often dived beneath the level of the road where the highway department had filled a hollow. In and out, up and down, but never losing sight of them, and oh so very slowly growing closer.

And his eyes were burning abominably, which meant that they were Sidhe (as if he had any doubt, once he could see their dress: black mail and ornate black helms and flowing cloaks black as their horses), and that they were using Power in profligate amounts to sustain their glamour here at this time of day and off the Tracks.

“Faster, Alec,” he shouted. “Christ, won’t this thing go any faster?”

“I’m going as fast as I dare!”

“Bullshit. It ain’t to the floorboards yet!”

“Davy—”

“The Sidhe are after us, McLean! We gotta run for it, get to the house as fast as we can and get behind doors.”

“Won’t the car protect us? It’s steel, after all.”

“Sure, but what good’s it gonna do if we’re stuck in the car? There’s no telling what the Sidhe are up to, but those are Lugh’s
guardsmen
, guy! And—oh shit!”

For the hump of mountain had swept suddenly lower as they entered a long straight roughly a mile from David’s house. And as the crest of the cut dipped along with the road, the lead rider veered sharply toward them. Closer he came, then was pounding along the pavement, while the westering sun slashed his shadow long before them.

David’s breath hissed as that man turned his face their way, then reached to his scabbard and slid out a sword. He could see the Faery’s mouth move in words he could not understand; could feel a buzz in his head that was his telepathy muted to incomprehensibility by the presence of so much steel; could see the stallion’s eyes growing wide with pain and horror as its rider drove it nearer to what was for it, in all likelihood, a lump of red-hot flame.

Closer the rider urged his steed, and nearer—even with David’s door, now; with the others charging up behind and splitting off to either side to surround them.

“Goddamn it, McLean,
move
it!”

Alec floored the accelerator, straining his body forward, as if that effort would give them more momentum. David saw the riders fall back a little—evidently their mounts, no matter how fast in Faery, were somewhat limited here.

They crested a hill—too fast, and Alec had to fight to retain control in the hairpin curve that followed. But they got a little grace from that, as the shrinking right-of-way forced their pursuers behind again.

But then they were on another straight, and ahead was the hump of mountain that hid the approach to the Sullivan Cove road. Less than a mile to go.

David twisted around once more, saw the riders spur their mounts and surge forward.

“Hurry, man! You’ve gotta get to the turn before they recover their ground, that’s our most vulnerable place— Oh, God, here they come!”

Alec’s brow furrowed, but he kept his foot on the floor, while David watched the rear. The Volvo’s engine began to buck and hiccup.

The leader was gaining—gaining too fast. A stab of spur and suddenly he was even with David’s window, the stallion’s eyes wide and wary, its nostrils flecked with foam. Teeth showed in tortured jaws as the rider fought the reins, his own teeth flashing a terrible whiteness as he grimaced—swore.

The turn was upon them.

Alec jammed on the brakes, jerked the car into a half slide, and swung around into the narrower dirt road. Something thumped hard against David’s door, and he heard a muffled scream that might be either animal or human. A glance sideways showed him the horse’s legs pounding beside him, the rider’s knees practically in his face. And then that rider was slashing out with his sword—not toward the car, but further back and down. Light flared there and metal screeched.

“The tires! Oh Jesus, man; give it all she’s got!”

Alec flicked the wheel toward the rider. The Volvo shuddered and the rear end threatened to come around. A hail of gravel exploded behind them.

“Shit—he got it!”

“
Tell me about it,” Alec muttered, fighting the wheel.

They were nearly at David’s driveway now, thundering along between the river bottoms. “Where to? Your house or…”

“Yes!” David shouted.
“No!
I don’t want those things there. Go to—to Uncle Dale’s, I guess. We’ve got to get inside! Got to find time to think.”

Alec scowled. “I don’t think the car’ll make it that far.”

“It’s got to!”

“Davy—”

“Would you rather fuck up the rim or get slashed by one of those guys? They mean
business.
And I don’t think it’s me they’re after.”

It was all Alec could do to keep the car on the road. The riders had dropped back a little, which David thought was curious—until he realized, with sick dread, that they’d probably done exactly what the Sidhe wanted. They were being herded, there was no doubt about it.

“Should have stayed in civilization,” he groaned dully. “No way they’d have come after us in the middle of MacTyrie.”

“Wanta bet?” Alec spat. “Given enough time those guys’d do anything—oh
shit
!”

The car slewed wildly, and David heard the pounding of rubber against metal as the tire rubbed itself to ribbons and tore away.

“Here! Turn here!”

Alec swung the wheel hard left, hurling the Volvo across the culvert and into Uncle Dale’s drive. It bounced twice and something metal broke with a resounding clank as he forced it mercilessly up the steep slope.

“By the porch! Park by the porch!”

Alec tried, lost control—and slammed with a sickening crunch into the solid wood.