Foul is Fair (16 page)

Justin charged while the golem had its sword buried in the stone walk, then thrust upward, burying the flaming sword into the golem's eye. The eyeball shattered like glass, and a burst of blue flame shot into the socket. Something inside seemed to be still flaming as the golem staggered backwards, then fell over, unmoving.

"Run!" Lani shouted, as golems closed in on their flanks. Megan didn't need to be told twice, sprinting as hard as her leg allowed towards the gate, despite the pain.

Justin held his ground against the remaining tower-golem. It raised its sword for him and slashed downward. Justin side-stepped the blow, the sword coming down an inch from him. Then he thrust the Sword of Light upward, striking the eye, with the same results as before.

He spun, readying himself for more golems. Megan ran by him first, rushing out of the gates, then Lani followed, clutching at her side. Justin started backing towards the gates, defending the retreat.

He was almost to the gates when a golem caught up to him. He blocked the blow with his sword, only to have it smashed back into his chest. The force of the blow lifted him off his feet and through the air. He hit the ground and, unable to get back to his feet before they caught up, rolled out of the way as another sword blow hit where he'd been lying. He started trying to get back up and ready to fight, when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Justin, we made it," Megan said, looking at the line of golems stopped at the gate, watching, but not moving. Then a panicked realization hit her. "We need to go back for..." Her words cut off as the Count flew over the gate, flapping hard to keep control as he descended, and landed on Megan's shoulder. "Right. Bird," Megan finished.

"We need to keep moving," Lani said. "We have a long trip ahead of us, and not many supplies left. Besides, I know they're stopped right now, but..."

"But I'm not going to feel any better until the city is out of sight either," Megan said, trying to help Lani move with as little stress on her side as possible, while Justin moved to help take some weight off of Megan's leg. "But what do we do about the dogs?"

"I remembered to ask for passage both ways," Justin said.

"Of course you did."

Chapter 25: Regrouping

Megan's leg was throbbing as she tried to keep supporting Lani on the hike down. She was wondering just how much longer Justin was going to last trying to climb one-handed when Ashling shouted, “Okay, we're far enough from the city now!”

“Glad to see that you're feeling better,” Megan muttered. The black mark on Ashling's leg had faded to light gray.

“Yep! Your turn. Sit down and get the music book out of the bag. There's a page the king probably still has bookmarked. It might help.”

Everyone sat down. Megan got out the book and opened it. “There's...two ribbons and a piece of paper shoved in the book. Which page do you mean?”

“Probably the one marked with the Medal of Honor ribbon.”

“My dad uses somebody's Medal of Honor as a bookmark?”

“His library matters to him. He likes bookmarks that mattered to somebody. Try reading the song.”

“This is a good time for music lessons?”

“Bardic magic is some impressive stuff. I don't have the knack, but you do. And I've known some other bards, so ...”

"You've known some... how old are you, anyway?"

"As old as the trees... well, as old as some young trees. But totally trees that count as trees. Not saplings anymore."

"I'm sorry I asked.”

Megan looked at the words and notes on the marked page and began carefully singing them. The words weren't that hard to pronounce at all, once she got into the groove of it. She almost felt like she knew what they meant, even though she didn't speak the language at all. It felt somewhere between a lullaby and a work-song. When she finally looked at Justin, Megan thought for a moment that he was going to fall asleep as the expression on his face shifted. Trying to analyze it, it took her a minute to realize she hadn't yet seen him when he wasn't in pain.

With a little more singing, while her leg remained swollen and scratched, the intensity of the wounds decreased, not looking as angry. The pain also lessened considerably. Lani didn't just look more relaxed: when the pain eased, she started to drift off almost right away.

“Are there going to be a lot more of these music lessons?” Megan asked Ashling.

“You bet!”

“So what's the first rule of barding?”

“Providing excellent protection to your horse,” Ashling replied immediately.

“Huh?”

“The second rule is a lot more helpful,” Ashling acknowledged. “That's about inspiration.”

The walk was much easier after that. Not being chased certainly helped. Their first encounter with the dogs initially put Megan on edge, but Justin just walked up, extending a hand. The lead hound sniffed at him, then bounded away, followed by the rest of his pack. After that, there were no more difficulties, and no other packs approached them.

When they finally reached the unfordable river, the makeshift ramp Cassia had laid on the Hounds' side of the bridge had been knocked over. Megan took a deep breath and reminded herself that Cassia was probably fine. She also had to remind herself that they hadn't run out on her and the cats. Megan didn't want to have run out on anyone.

As they carefully clutched the ropes and inched their way across the bridge, Megan looked up enough to notice smoke in the distance. Not a lot and not very far.

“What do you think that is?” she asked.

“Campfire, maybe,” said Justin, moving carefully along the ropes, taking twice as long as the girls due to his injury, but looking glad to not be swimming.

From there, it didn't take long to find the source of the smoke. Cassia and the cats had settled on the far bank and made a small camp. All of them looked the worse for their earlier encounter, still scratched and bruised, but alive. The chariot looked the worst of all. When they first walked into camp, Cassia was working on replacing a broken axle with limited luck. "I'll fix it tonight." Lani offered.

Cassia grinned wide, leaping to her feet and limping over to give Lani a hug, then Megan. "Gently." Lani groaned, clutching at her side again. Both cats rose, Jude heavily favoring a front leg as they made their way over to nose at the girls and greet them as well.

After the hugs, Cassia looked at Justin. "And who is this? What have you girls been up to? What's with the costume? Do I need to get out some fives?"

Lani sighed, but Justin just glanced at her oddly at the stream of questions. "Justin of Ludlow," he replied, with a slightly awkward bow. "You're wounded. The packs?"

Cassia grinned. "Nothing you can't kiss and make better, handsome." That time, Justin blushed brightly. Cassia took the opportunity to press her momentary advantage and looked to Megan. "You know what they say about Ludlow boys, right?"

"That they're very responsible and hardworking," Lani interrupted, narrowing her eyes at Cassia, moving to rest a hand on Justin's shoulder. "Especially by people who want their chariot fixed."

Cassia sighed. "Yes, yes. That was it. Very hardworking."

“So what was your plan for now, Justin?” Megan asked, eager to change the subject.

“My original plan was to go home, hear people cheer, see the Lords Appellant quake in their expensive and overly clean boots, and be set for life. Now, it's to fulfill my agreement with the Queen by putting the sword in the stone, and then…figure out what happens next.”

“I don't see how the sword's going to help us save Ric if we stick it in a rock,” Cassia pointed out.

“It'll be fine,” Megan insisted. “We'll do the deal and then use it to save my dad. We can't leave Justin stuck here.” She settled in by the fire to enjoy her first hot food in some time and to read through the music book more for as long as there was light, occasionally asking Ashling questions. The pixie always answered, but in her typical fashion. Nonetheless, Megan was pretty sure she was getting the general idea.

Lani examined the chariot, making notes, and then had food before a long nap, not trying to do any work while people were awake. Cassia and Justin talked over dinner. Megan didn't catch much of it, but there was some discussion of swordplay and life in other centuries—in between Cassia trying to draw more blushing, and Justin fending off the feigned advances.

Finally, Megan settled in to sleep, as did the others, with Lani waking up to go to work on the chariot.

They were awakened by Maxwell's warning snarl, Jude joining in moments later. Megan clambered to her unsteady feet, looking around for the disturbance. Her first impression in the dim light of early morning was of a small, glowing ball of light floating nearby. A rustle and splash drew her eyes to the water's edge, where a tall, gangly woman with grayish-green skin was crawling from the water. Another look to the trees, and she saw a handful of things Ashling's size, but with moth-like wings, and distinct malice in their eyes, each armed with little knitting-needle-like swords. One more noise drew her eyes to the other side of camp as realization set in: they were surrounded.

Then her eyes settled on a familiar face: the baseball cap, the jagged grin, and the eyes. As the redcap advanced on her, flanked by two others, Megan froze in terror.

Chapter 26: Much Obliged

"We're here to escort you," the redcap in the ‘49ers hat said, taking a few more steps towards Megan. "To make sure that sword gets where it belongs." Megan couldn't help but notice, now that she was seeing the faerie things for what they really were, that the bat looked a lot more metallic, with numerous spikes along its length.

"You'll forgive me, Peadar, if I don't exactly trust you," Cassia snarled at him, the two cats moving to her side.

"Awww, what's the matter, Cass? Don't like even odds?" he sing-songed back. "Just come along quietly. We're not here to hurt you."

The moth-winged things looked between each other, and the sound of wind whispering through the trees arose again. Megan guessed that they may have either been surprised about the 'not hurting' part, or were amending it to "Yet." Cassia was back-talking without hesitation, but the whole group was injured, and Megan still couldn't move.

Then she heard a whispered song in her ear, hints of a tune. Fixating on the music, she hummed the music Ashling was feeding her, and the fear lessened. She hummed louder, quickly drawing the attention of the creatures around them, and Peadar forgot about Cassia to focus entirely on Megan. This time, with the music reverberating in her mind, she stared right back at him, then stepped forward. This time, it was the redcap who retreated a step.

The hesitation didn't last long. He snarled, raised the weapon, and rushed at her. There was movement to one side and a flash of blue as Peadar swung the spiked club. When Megan's brain caught up with events, Justin was standing between her and Peadar, and the Claiomh Solais had cleaved directly through the redcap's weapon.

The Jenny Greenteeth hissed and started forward, then stopped when Justin turned to point the flaming sword at her. The other redcaps tensed, then backed away on finding Cassia and the cats alike growling at them. The whispering in the wind picked up. Megan looked towards the group of not-pixies, who seemed to be directing their magics, as far as she could tell. For a moment, they looked intently at Justin and his sword, gesturing towards him, then looked at each other, confused, when their magic seemed to wash over him without effect.

Louder this time, Ashling hummed a different tune in Megan's ear, one recognizable from the music book. Megan picked it up, singing the words this time, and gestured. All three of the moth-winged things were lifted out of their tree branch by a sudden, fierce breeze and carried back into the woods.

"Who sent you?" Cassia asked Peadar as the rest of the Unseelie gang backed away.

"Can't tell you. Sworn to secrecy," he responded, not backing away like the others, but not looking nearly as threatening anymore either.

Megan glanced at the will o' wisp, which was drifting back into the woods. "I have a guess. I suppose you can't tell us where you planned to escort us, either?"

"Couldn't tell you if I wanted to," he replied, standing his ground even as the hag slipped back into the water.

"We don't need an escort, and we know where we're going," She had a brief impulse to tell Justin or Cassia to hit him, to get the point across, before another thought hit, admiring his conviction. She settled on, "Get out of here."

To her surprise, the redcap nodded, reaching down to pick up the other half of his club and backing away. "Sure. We just wanted to make sure you got there safe and sound. Look like you've got a handle on it," Then his grin returned. "No hard feelings?"

Megan's first thought was of her father's words, 'distinctly not idea people.' She nodded back, surprising herself a little at her own choice of words. "No hard feelings." She was more surprised that she felt entirely sincere about it. "But you owe me one."

She was even more surprised at his response, especially in light of what she'd heard about the weight of favors here. Instead of more snarling and posturing, he bowed deeply to her. "You've got it, Highness," He glanced around at the other redcaps and the moth-winged things starting to peek their heads back out. "Come on, you cowardly bastards, let's go."