Night Myst (40 page)

“Hurry,” Chatter said. “We don’t have much time before dusk and who knows what the return of shadow will do for Myst and her people? With the way things are, this might have strengthened them.”

With that lovely thought lingering in my mind, I let him pull me to my feet and we headed off again, one slogging step at a time. Thanks to the time in the cave, I wasn’t as frozen, but the temperature was dropping and the snowflakes were growing smaller and more furious. This was sticking snow, biting snow that would pile up all night.

Kaylin slipped up beside me. “What went on back there with Grieve?” he asked in a low voice. I shook my head, not wanting to talk about it, but he wouldn’t let up. “I know something happened. What was it?”

Turning my head to him, I kept my voice low. “He’s being overtaken by his darker nature. And he says that this
cure
that Lannan and Lainule thought they found may just make the Indigo Court a lot fiercer and more dangerous to deal with. You should have seen him fighting both the pain and his urge to give in to his vampiric nature. Kaylin, it’s all so fucked up.”

He slipped an arm around me and helped me along, not saying another word. The look on his face was enough. He may not have approved of Grieve but he wasn’t taking any delight in the unfolding events. As we trudged along behind Chatter, I leaned my head on Kaylin’s shoulder and he tightened his grasp around my waist.

After another twenty minutes of slow, cold going, Chatter held up his hand. Kaylin let go of me as we all gathered around the Fae. We were on top of a ledge, overlooking another ravine. Down below, I could see three guards standing in front of what looked like the mouth to another cave.

“The gaol,” Chatter mouthed.

The guards looked anything but attentive. One was bent over, puking his guts out near a huckleberry bush. Another was moaning and rocking back and forth. The third was managing to stand upright, but he leaned on a nearby tree stump and looked in danger of passing out. Finally, a piece of luck.

I sucked in a deep breath, planning out the approaching battle in my mind. They were weak, but even weakened, they were formidable foes. We’d have to get down there and kill them before they could raise an alarm.

It struck me that the thought of murdering three strangers didn’t even make me flinch, and I looked up, shocked and numb. Kaylin met my gaze and gave me a small nod.

He understands. He’s been alive a long time, Cicely, and not all of his life was easy or painless or free of death and blood.
Ulean’s touch was gentle on my skin.

Ulean brushed around me. I thought of Peyton, and of Grieve. Of Heather and Elise, Leo’s sister. I thought of Kaylin’s best friend, and the nameless others who’d lost their lives to these creatures. And those who were next on the list.

Sucking in a deep breath, I checked my blades and pulled out my fan. The others silently readied their weapons. We were ready. If Myst wanted mayhem, then we were going to ram a boatload of it down her throat.

Without another thought, I went barreling down the slope at the three guards, waving my fan twice, driving the gale on before me.

We brought down a minor avalanche with us, the snow cascading behind us in a wave of smoke. There was very little roar, since only a small slope of snow broke off, but as we surfed the frozen white, a lightning bolt split the sky and thunder rocked the air. Snow lightning—crap! We were getting full special effects for this.

I came to rest—on my feet, luckily—in front of the guard who had been doubled over, puking his guts out. He’d jumped back when the snow cascaded down the slope, and his gaze rose to meet mine, his eyes ringed with the same mad haze that I’d seen wash over Grieve’s face. Before he could react, I flicked out my stiletto and lashed out, slicing his left arm across the bicep.

He let out a growl and spun around, his foot catching me across the stomach. In a daze of pain, I went flying back into the snow. As I struggled to my feet, I pulled out my fan.

To my left, Rhiannon and Leo had engaged the second guard. Leo planted his staff in the ground and used it to propel himself up and over the guard’s head, catching the man’s neck between his legs with a scissor kick. The man twisted, trying to free himself, and Leo flipped away from him, landing in a crouch. Unbalanced, the guard went down. As he struggled to regain his footing, Rhiannon held out her hands and a blistering flame shot forth, engulfing the Vampiric Fae.

To my right, Kaylin and the third guard were into it. From appearances, Kaylin was winning. There was blood all over the snow and none of it appeared to be coming from him.

Chatter was skirting the perimeter, looking for anybody, particularly other guards, who might be hiding out.

Ignoring the pain in my side, I quickly turned back to my own attacker and held out the fan. As I waved it twice, whispering,
“Gale force,”
a gust of wind so strong it knocked me back off my feet raced past, directly aimed toward the guard. It hit him square in the chest, sliding him along the snow a good ten feet before slamming him against the face of a boulder. He went limp and I raced up, switchblade ready.

Before he could regain consciousness, I slid my blade along his throat, severing the skin from ear to ear. As blood fountained out, his head fell back, still attached to his neck by a sliver of flesh. With a final gurgle, his body relaxed and I knew he was dead.

Be cautious how much you use the fan. It has limitations that Lainule didn’t remember to tell you about. And . . . repercussions.
Ulean swirled around me, a twisting vortex as she helped lift me to my feet with her currents.

I turned to see how Rhiannon and Leo were doing. Leo was limping, and the guard’s knife was bloody. Chatter was on the run toward them, but he was too far away. Kaylin and I converged on the Indigo Court Fae as he swung around and—like the creature we’d met earlier—his mouth began to distend as his body shifted.

“He’s turning into one of those doglike creatures!” I couldn’t use the fan, the others were too close, so I flipped out my switchblade and tried to jump him.

The Fae met me with an outstretched fist, managing to punch me directly in the shoulder. I clutched my arm with a groan. How the hell could he be so strong? As I struggled to get out of the way of his second blow, Kaylin leapt in with his nunchakus and went to work. Leo circled behind and brought his staff down across the man’s head and, with a loud crack, he was down. Except the Fae was just stunned. He was already starting to regain consciousness and when he did, he’d begin his transformation again.

Rhiannon pushed to the front and held out her hands.

“No,” I said softly. “Let me do it. Don’t bloody your hands, Rhia.”

She let out a harsh laugh. “They’ve been bloody for half my life.” And with that, she let out a spray of fire that melted the snow around the Fae and caught him aflame. He shrieked once, then Kaylin threw one of his daggers with deadly accuracy and the Fae lay dead.

We stared at the carnage around us. Leo was limping, but the cut he’d received was superficial and Chatter bound it up with a strip of cloth cut from one of the guard’s tunics. My ribs and shoulder felt bruised, but I’d live. Kaylin and Rhiannon were untouched.

We turned to the cave. Peyton was in there, somewhere. The question was . . . were other guards waiting for us? There was only one way to find out. I pushed to the front and stepped over the threshold.

The cavern was actually a tunnel illuminated by a trail of purplish sparkling lights. It led into the mountainside. I glanced around—nobody in sight. Yet. Motioning for the others to follow me, I headed down the passage, trying to be as silent as possible. Ulean was at my shoulder, I could feel her.

“Is this the prison?” I stopped, motioning to Chatter.

He slipped up beside me and nodded. “I’ve been inside a couple times, when they locked me up as punishment. The tunnel continues, with side passages—some are holding cells, others are guard quarters, I believe. I don’t remember which is which.”

The tunnel was made of granite, and at first I wondered if it had been an old mining tunnel, but looking closer it seemed too smooth. No miners’ picks had chipped away at this passage. No, it looked almost like glass in its even surface. I stopped briefly and slid my fingers across the smooth wall, closing my eyes. A shiver ran up my back. The passage was magical, the energy flaring from within the very structure of the rock.

Sucking in a deep breath, we started down the hall again, Kaylin behind me, then Chatter, then Rhiannon and Leo. As we came to the end, I peeked around the corner. Several of the chambers Chatter had mentioned buttressed the main channel to the right, then another turn at the end. Slowly, cautiously, we moved to the first side entrance and stopped a few feet before it.

I nodded, then turned back and whispered what Ulean had told me to Kaylin, who passed it back to the others. They looked to me for a decision, though by the look on Leo’s face, I could tell he was nursing a faint hope it might be his sister. Torn, I tried to decide what to do. If we tried to sneak past, whoever it was might raise an alarm, or take us from the back. No, we were going to have to face them, whether they were one of the enemy or a prisoner.

I swung in through the door, hoping to catch whoever it was off guard. The person whirled.
Fuck, one of the Indigo Fae.
A woman this time. She was lying on a bed and as she tried to sit up, blinking, pain filled her face.

I didn’t wait. I lunged for her and landed on top of her, holding her down as I raised my switchblade high. Biting my lip, I brought the blade down right in her throat. She let out a hiss, and threw me off, sitting up. I went sprawling to the floor, ducking, as Kaylin flipped over me and landed a kick right in her stomach.

She landed back on the bed and reached for her throat, trying to staunch the bleeding, but the activity had just spurred on the flow and now she frantically tried to press her hands against her throat. Kaylin pulled out one of his daggers and within seconds it was over.

I stared at my hands, at the blood spatters that were covering me.
What was I becoming?

Kaylin must have noticed my expression. He moved to put his arm around me. “We’re doing what we have to do. If you want to save Peyton, we have no choice. These creatures—and they are creatures, mind you—would eat you alive and I am not joking. I think I’ve figured out what the book was talking about when it mentioned
feeding frenzy
. Can you imagine a group of the Vampiric Fae, turning into those creatures, attacking a woman? A child? They’d eat them to the bone, without bothering to administer a killing bite first.
Feeding frenzy.
Think about it.”

Chatter sucked in a deep breath. “That’s exactly what happens. I’ve seen it,” he said. “Children, women, it matters not to them. They have no conscience, and they love the mayhem. They feed on the fear they cause, as well as the flesh.” His mouth pursed, looking like he was going to cry, he shook his head. “They revel in the blood.”

I looked up at him, and the image flashed through my mind. I could see it, all too vividly.
Feeding frenzy.
They were the piranha of the Fae world. I thought again of the people who’d disappeared. Of Heather and Peyton and Elise . . . oh gods . . .
Elise.
I turned to Leo, who was white as fresh-fallen snow.