18. Hiding
The men and the wolf struggled during the onslaught. Unlike the training fields where each opponent was human, they had to continually adjust their swings to strike knee-high raccoons, human-sized goblins, and chest-tall coyotes all without delivering fatal blows. The precision needed to strike the gems and restore the creatures cost them time and garnered more shallow wounds on their arms and legs, but they persevered. Moving steadily toward the front of the castle, they threw themselves down the stairs to the massive portcullis at the entrance. Meshougi followed behind them, singing gently, as she danced her way through the fallen, confused, or unconscious creatures. She touched the recovering animals and whispered words to revive them before catching up with the trio.
“Past the gate, my dears. This magic cannot cross it,” Meshougi called.
Killian grabbed Phineas’s sleeve and ran toward the twenty-foot iron gate that opened on the enormous stone wall. Spikes tipped each metal bracer at the bottom, looking lethal and ominous as they approached. At the top of the column of stairs beside the gate, a goblin’s sinister smile gleamed before he axed through the lever, releasing the giant chain. The heavy metal gate began to collapse. In a moment of adrenaline, Killian threw his sword. He heard a gentle croaking murmur from Meshougi. The sword glowed and moved slightly to the right, striking true. It held fast in the stone between the chain links. The gate seized and stopped.
Killian glanced at Meshougi who shrugged casually. “It was a nice throw. But even heroes can benefit from a little magical support.”
Phineas yelled as several creatures knocked into him, pushing him over the threshold and through the gate. Instantly, the creatures spasmed and transformed into a mishmash of ancient animals and very confused woodland creatures who quickly shrugged out of their humanesque clothing to disappear into the forest.
Behind the gate, the rest of the horde stood growling and snapping at the humans until those freed by that fox pounced on the other creature’s gems and freed them too. Killian hesitated. He knew what it was to be trapped, and he ached to free them all.
A bony hand settled icily on his forearm. “Even princes need to know when to delegate.”
He snorted. “The ancients have it in hand?”
Her hand spasmed as a mischievous glitter flashed in her eye. “Well … in paw. Zalina approaches. You must head into the forest.” She reached up to grasp Phineas’s forearm. “Come, dear, now is the time to run.”
Killian met Phineas’s amused gaze as the caked ball of blankets with spindly legs led them down the rocky path. Snow scattered around them, pushed by the wind against the crags and cliffs to either side. The snarled trees grew closer and closer until the cloudy sky was obscured and the path was enveloped in shadow. They had sprinted for some time when a piercing scream reverberated through the forest.
Meshougi stopped and looked back. “She is close.”
Jax sniffed. Get off the path.
“No! Don’t!” she cried, but it was too late, the two men and the wolf had already stepped into the shadows. She huffed and went with them. “This is dangerous.”
It is better than being found on the pathway. She comes.
“For someone ancient, you are not wise.”
For someone wise, you are acting foolish. You’ll get them killed.
“Jax,” Killian said in warning. “Be kind.”
Get down! The ancient wolf ducked under an overhang in the escarpment, burrowing into the cliff face. The others followed. Above them, a creature with beating wings flapped by once, twice and again, its flight stirring the trees with a whistling wind.
I think she can smell you, old woman.Jax’s green eyes flashed as his nose tucked into Killian’s shoulder. He pulled back with a snort. You’re not much better, Killian.
Killian agreed, but nothing could change that now. He gave the wolf a quelling glare.
It’s true though …Jax muttered. No respect for canine sensibilities …
The tree closest to them suddenly creaked as it wavered, shifting side to side in an abnormal pattern like something had landed on the highest boughs.
Then a whisper shivered through the forest. “Killian … Killian.”
He shuddered, his center filled with ice as the eerie yet altered voice of Zalina rippled through him.
He felt a kick to his shoulder, and he looked back at Meshougi who put her finger to her lips, before pointing to her forehead. He tried to focus on Raela so he wouldn’t accidentally respond to the call of Zalina’s magic. He remembered Raela’s bubbling smile. Her patience with his pronunciation. Her sweet vigor for life.
A woosh of air filtered through the branches, until the tree wavered and returned upright. Zalina called again, “You cannot save her. I will marry you, and you will be mine. I will be queen.”
The heavy presence was lifted as the beating wings faded into the distance.
“Well, that was terrifying,” Phineas said.
Killian had to agree. “Zalina has cursed the true princess. I have to make this right. Then, find Raela and clear this whole thing up.”
“Can I ask—and I don’t mean to be callous—but why doesn’t Zalina just kill the princess or you?” Phineas sheathed his sword.
Meshougi sat up and brushed off her filthy dress and the blanket tied like a cloak around her neck. “She cannot. The magic of the blessings prevents it.”
Killian turned to her. “The blessings?”
Jax huffed. Magic complicates everything.
“I promise I’ll tell you when we get out of here,” she said to Killian. To the wolf, she added, “So bitter in your old age.”
Jax’s fur bristled. Killian reached for him. “Jax, don’t eat the nice lady.”
I wouldn’t eat that if she asked me.
“I bet I’m delicious,” she said as she eyed her forearm. “Maybe a little crunchy right now. But wine tastes better with age, so why wouldn’t I?”
Jax rolled his eyes, then headed back toward the path. The others followed behind, watching the shifting shadows of the forest which swayed and groaned in acrid wind. A low hum emanated from the ground and blackened bark and droned around them.
Jax was leading them back toward the place they had stepped off the path, but then he slowed and began rapidly sniffing the ground and air around him. The path is gone. My nose says we were here, but there is no path.
Phineas and Killian searched as well, but every turn revealed the same pattern of trees, rocks, moss, and ice. They found no tracks, no path, and no evidence that animals ever trailed through this part of the forest. Since they were several hundred feet lower in elevation, snow patches were rarer. But it was as if their path had never existed. The light around them dimmed as the trees closed in tighter. The hum of the forest was increasing by degrees.
“I did tell you to stay on the path.” Meshougi shrugged. She sat heavily on a rock, strumming her fingers along the green and black lichen.
Jax whirled toward her, but Killian set a hand on his shoulder. “Peace, Jax.” He turned toward Meshougi. “Do you know the way out?”
Closing her eyes, she stood slowly, her knees creaking like trees in the wind as she turned first one way, then another. Jax snorted in impatience. She opened her eyes and turned up the hill. “It’s this way.”
“Up?” Killian raised a brow and turned to Jax, but the wolf shrugged.
It doesn’t smell like death that way.
“Isn’t that the way we came?” Phineas asked as he unsheathed his sword. “Weren’t we running downhill to get here?”
“Magic has twisted the forest. Don’t believe what you see. Follow your heart.” She turned toward Jax. “And his nose.”
Now she speaks with great wisdom. He came up beside the old woman with a nudge of his giant head. She scratched behind his ears, and Jax gave a quick wag of his tail before sliding away from her touch. Together they took off uphill.
Slipping on the rocks, the granite stone started to chip and shift, like shale or powdery limestone just as the lichen lost its rough edge and began to shimmer—slick and slippery like algae. The ground sloped treacherously downward. They moved through the trees in a diamond shape, Meshougi at the back and Jax leading with his nose as they weaved through the forest. The hum of the trees was low and loud enough that Killian’s chest hummed with the vibration. It began to pulse. Then it pulsed twice. Like a heartbeat. Slow and monstrous.
The trees were now so close together that the men had to turn sideways. Jax brushed against each one with his broad shoulders as he slipped around them. The tree bark had shifted from the piney clumps of Raela’s forest to something more like papery skeletons. Branches now grew like angled arms, thick and bent. Each black spot of the birch began to ooze, and the tarry substance clung to their clothing. Slow rivulets dripped from the base of the trees and coated the shale path.
Killian stumbled and caught himself on one of the blackened trees. Pain jolted up his arm. A whisper spoke in his mind, “Coward. Murderer.” He ripped his hand away from the slime and bark, and the pain and voices halted. Killian looked back at Meshougi, eyes wide and questioning.
Meshougi watched him with an owlish gaze before heaving out a huge breath. “And so it begins.”