Keys and Curses (Shadow Book 2) (6 page)

The fairies clustered behind them. The darkness bristled with spears.

The Moon Trooper gave a soft, low chuckle. “I was hoping you’d play it this way.” He took the silver stick from his belt. One end of it threw off blue sparks. The others followed suit.

“Oh Shadow,” Flower whispered. “Stay here Nikifor, whatever you do, do not show yourself.” She strode out into the camp.

“Flower no!” Nikifor reached out to pull her back but wasn’t quick enough.

Flower stalked into the space between the fairies and the Moon Troopers. “Enough,” she said, her voice crisp with authority. “Stand down, you have no reason to bother these Freakin Fairies, and I do not believe you have a reason to be looking for me either. You will withdraw immediately.”

“You would be Flower.” The Moon Trooper drew the name out into a sneer. “How very noble of you, to drag a pack of Freakin Fairies into your illicit journey. You just made them guilty of hiding a fugitive.”

Flower’s voice grew flinty. “I gave you an order to withdraw, in the name of King Pierus. You have no business here.”

“And you were not permitted to leave Shadow City.” Sparks jumped from the end of his stick.

Flower folded her arms. “Last I checked I’m free to travel anywhere I choose. I demand to know on what charges you pursue me.”

“You’re charged with being a muse. Take her.” The Moon

Trooper gestured, and three of his companions surrounded Flower.

“I thought I told you to stay out of sight,” Coalfire growled.

“This Freakin Fairy just admitted to being her accomplice,” the Moon Trooper said. “Round up the fairies and torch the village.”

Nikifor clenched his fists. The rage that had built inside his ribs during the exchange exploded into action. He bolted into the knot of fairies, seized two spears from them and hurled one at the Moon Trooper leader, impaling him through the heart. Blood exploded from his chest and showered his companions.

“Nikifor the lightning rods!” Flower yelled.

Nikifor ducked the sparking sticks, used the spear like a club and clouted the next Moon Trooper in the head with it. It felt right and natural to dodge, duck, turn and impale, swing out to avoid a lightning rod, take it from its bearer and thrust it into a silver mask. The night became a whirl of thuds, yells, snarls and blood. A Moon Trooper leaped at him. Sparks from his lightning rod made the leather tunic smoulder. Nikifor drove a fist into his neck and followed it with the spear, then yanked it free to impale another form behind him.

Silence. Nikifor breathed hard. Slowly, the night came back. A circle of Freakin Fairies stared at him with big eyes and warily clenched fists. Blood spattered the ground, his hands, his clothes, Flower’s hair. Dead Moon Troopers lay all around him. The spear clattered from his hand.

Flower took a step toward him. “Nikifor-”

Nikifor put his hands to his head. The memories. If he squeezed hard enough, he could drive them out of his skull. He’d done this. He’d done this before. All the death. All the killing. “Stay away from me.” Even his voice was ragged.

“You damn fool of a muse!” Coalfire roared. “Look what you’ve done!”

   Nikifor sank to the ground, heedless of the blood that pooled under him. “I’m sorry,” he whispered to the bodies. “I didn’t mean to, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“He’s done you a favour,” Flower said over his head. “It looks to me like the lot of us would have been the next to disappear if not for him.”

“And what happens now? When those Moon Troopers don’t return, they’ll send four times the number to look for them!” Coalfire thumped his staff on the ground. “We could have dealt with them our own way, you know. If we have to go to war on the Moon Troopers, who’s going to work the quicksilver mine? Him?” He prodded Nikifor with his staff.

Nikifor flinched.

“Oh come on, they’re just a bunch of thugs.” Flower wiped sweat from her forehead. The circle of Freakin Fairies around her, Nikifor and the bodies inched inward.

Coalfire pointed his staff at Nikifor’s head. “That muse is dangerous.”

Flower’s voice was cold. “Of course he’s dangerous. He killed thousands upon thousands of vampires in the Vampire Wars, and now he’s just saved you from a bloody battle or a swift disappearance. So back off, fairies.”

“Fairies, is it?” Coalfire chuckled. “I wondered how long before you’d drop the act, Muse. Why are you really here? Spying for your precious king or your precious Guild?”

“I’m not a spy!” Flower yelled. “And you well know it, Coalfire Quicksilver. I came here to help Nikifor, and the fact he just killed twelve Moon Troopers should tell you we have no allegiance left to the Guild!”

Screams. Horrible screams, echoing from long ago. Nikifor leaped to his feet, eyes wide. The circle of fairies flickered in and out of his vision. Shadows. Tall, pale shapes creeping from his memory. Teeth. White skin. Red eyes. His breath came hard and fast. Fear traced fingers of ice through his veins, until he thought the freeze would stop even his heart. “Vampires!” he yelled. Then he hid his eyes. “Weakness is disloyalty,” he whispered. He grabbed Flower’s sleeve, frightened. “I remembered something. Vampires. Fairies. She was in so much danger. She said–she said I had to kill–”

A shadow. Incorporeal fingers digging into his shoulder. A soft, venomous laugh. He clapped his hands over his ears, yelled in fright and bolted. The circle of fairies tumbled apart to let him through.

“Nikifor wait!” Flower ran after him. The fairies followed her.

Nikifor crashed through the forest, pushed his way through dense branches and flung himself into the mossy shadow of a huge, gnarled Ghost Fig that promised a cave, darkness, safety.

Flower crouched by him and touched his shoulder. “Nikifor?”

He put his finger to his lips, listening for the screams. “Shh.”

“What are you doing?”

“Hiding.”

The ground trembled under the weight of the Freakin Fairies thundering into the clearing. Nikifor shrank into the tree, clung to the gnarled roots. The shadow at his shoulder laughed, a low, mirthless rumble.

Strike Pin and Coalfire grasped him by the shoulders. Nikifor hung onto the tree roots, but they gave him no purchase. He skinned his knuckles on the bark, then scrabbled at the grass and mud while the fairies hauled him out of the shadows. Flower protested loudly when Tick Tick and Tock Tock pushed and pulled her out to stand next to him, but her words were drowned by the shadow that fell across him, the low incorporeal laughter, the deafening clamour of leaves crunched underfoot when the fairies closed in. Weird, hooked shadows jumped across the trees in the gaslight.

“Running away?” Coalfire paced in a circle around the two muses.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Flower said. “Can’t you see the poor boy is traumatised? He doesn’t even know what he’s doing! He never liked killing!”

“A Muse Champion who doesn’t like killing?” Coalfire pointed the goat’s skull at them both. “A likely story. Muse Champions are born to kill. No more lies and stories.”

“Lies and stories!” Flower’s voice rose in fury. “Do you have any idea how hard I’ve worked for you fairies for the last two centuries?”

“Silence!” The staff swung to point at Nikifor. “You! You came to us for a cure and you received it, only to bring down the Moon Troopers on our heads. You owe us.”

Nikifor trembled. The shadow, the Tormentor, stood behind the fairy, sharpening a knife.

“Muse Champion, from this day forth you are cursed bombastic!” Coalfire’s words fired like cannonballs. He clouted Nikifor in the head with his goat’s skull.

Nikifor’s eyes rolled back. He fell over, but did not sink into oblivion as he expected. He simply couldn’t move.

Flower uttered a yell and dropped to her knees. Her cold fingers touched his throat, felt for a pulse. “What have you done?”

“I’ve done him a favour, if you ask me,” Coalfire said.

The fairies around him snickered.

“You’ve killed him!”

“He’s not dead. Just a little cursed. Good curse, too. Should balance out some of that crazy in his head for a while.”

“What are you talking about?”

Coalfire leaned on his staff. There was a short silence, then footsteps. The other fairies faded into the shadows, to home and bed. “You two are going to do something for me,” he said. “To make up for leaving piles of dead Moon Troopers around my camp.”

“Do what?” Flower slapped Nikifor’s cheeks and pinched his hands. It all hurt, but he couldn’t for the life of him move to make her stop.

“Find the Silver clan. Take them back to their village. Then, and only then, will I consider lifting the curse.” A pause. “Maybe. Could be you’ll like your friend better this way.”

“What? No! You can’t do this to us, you know we have to find our king!” Flower’s voice broke.

Nikifor abruptly took a deep breath in. He stretched his hands and sat upright, then rubbed his aching head. The clearing was empty except for the two of them and a single flickering torch.

“Nikifor?” Flower seized his shoulders. “Are you alright?”

“Alright?” He blinked several times and patted himself down to make sure. He felt better. He felt more present than he had in years. Words swelled from deep within and burst out of their own volition. “I am not just alright my angry friend, I am magnificent!”

The boom of his voice faded away into the darkness. Flower stared, wide-eyed, pale, incredulous. Her mouth tightened. She swung away from him and kicked a tree. “I hate Freakin Fairies!”

CHAPTER SIX

Flower knew the rules. She’d inspired thousands upon thousands of humans over sixteen generations. Obsessing over one writer wasn’t allowed. She was supposed to spread her attention equally, but all the other artists were doing fine.
They
listened to her advice. The way the girl with the pink hair ignored her was more than an irritation, it was a professional slight.

She slept fitfully in the shade of an overhanging rock, alert to the slightest sound from the night; the stomp of a moon trooper, Nikifor going mad again ... all of the sounds melded into a pack of cheering spectators squashing her against a low wire fence. A big white banner said
Fremantle Women’s Hockey Final
in red letters as tall as a fairy.

Pink hair flashed in and out of the crowd of women running about the field. The girl brandished her hockey stick like an axe. Fast and vicious, she elbowed two other women out of the way, smashed the ball across the grass, then pursued it like a hungry predator. A team member sent it hurtling back in her direction; she dived for it. The crowd whistled and cheered.

A tall woman with a high ponytail barred her way. Their sticks clashed so hard splinters flew. Pink hair tossed over one shoulder. The crowd, hypnotised, took a single breath, waiting to see what she’d do next.

The girl aimed a savage blow at her opponent’s ankles, which the woman just barely dodged in time. The girl twisted, swung, smashed the ball and sent it hurtling like a demon into a net. She scowled around her, daring anyone to object. Her nearly-injured opponent backed away from her.

Flower closed her mouth, which had dropped open. She could have been a Bloody Fairy, standing right there pretending to be a human. They fought entire wars just like that, the whole hot-headed pack of them. It wasn’t unknown for fairies to escape into Dream, but–but she was far too tall to be anything
but
human.

Wasn’t she?

Flower started awake at the croak of a raven. She sighed to find herself back in reality, cold, hungry, damp and lost in the early morning in Quicksilver Forest. Not to mention alone. She started to her feet. “Nikifor?”

“I am here!” he boomed.

She winced, gritted her teeth and put her hands over her ears. “Do you have to be so loud?” She twisted and looked up to find him crouched on top of the boulder.

“I’m sorry,” he said in a loud whisper. “I can’t seem to help it!”

“I’ll give those Freakin Fairies bombastic.” Flower climbed up the steep, grainy path tucked into the side of the boulder to join him. “I’ll give them so much bombastic they choke on it!” She clambered onto the rock, allowed Nikifor to help her to her feet, then gazed out soberly over the tops of leafless, skeletal trees that clawed the horizon in every direction. “So where are we?”

Nikifor surprised her by being useful for only the second time since she’d dragged him out of Shadow City. He pointed to the north and west. “Our friends the Quicksilvers lie in that direction.”

“Then we won’t go back that way.”

He pointed south. “Over there is a break in the forest. Do you see it?”

Flower looked. He was right. Some way off, the wintry treetops gave way to a greenish space, but what lay in that space was indistinct. “Do you think that’s the Silver’s village?”

“Indubitably I do, oh Flower of the Great North Island Beyond the Night Flickered Sea!” He blinked in surprise when the words left his mouth, then visibly winced.

Flower didn’t really care right now if he couldn’t control it or not. She was cold and she was hungry and she was not a morning person. “Nikifor if you ever call me that again I swear to Shadow I will dip you in Silver and give you to the Freakin Fairies for a statue!” She flounced down the rock and set a rapid pace south.