Chapter 14
Imade sure Tynan was covered before I let my voyeuristic friend in. She came bearing cherry-filled pastries and coffee. The tray floated before her and landed easily on the table. I was fixing my coffee as she headed to the bed.
“When do you sleep?” Abbey asked, climbing up onto the bed. “Yeoowies,” she said before I turned to find her peering under the sheet. “I had fits all night thinking about men. No one was around for me,” she pouted.
“Quit that.”
“Why, he doesn’t mind?” She dropped the sheet and headed toward the table.
“I’ll never get used to the openness around here,” I said as she plopped into a chair.
“We’ve had this conversation. You’re the only one with the hang-up here,” Abbey snorted before taking a bite of pastry.
“I just feel like Tynan made such a huge sacrifice…”
“He did it of his own free will, sister. He’s lived this life for hundreds of years. He’ll start feeling guilty sooner or later if you don’t at least consider taking another consort.”
“I think he already does, at least from the way he’s always talking about it and all the trips he’s taking lately.
But I can’t seem to get that part of my upbringing out of my head just yet.
I think I’ve accepted a whole hell of a lot in the last few months.
Let me hold on to this for just a bit longer. ”
“Your loss,” she said, filling my cup. She pushed her cup to the side. “So, is he out enough to talk about the B double-O K?”
“Yeah.” I reached up to the amulet around my neck.
“But I think I’ll be safe.” I took it gingerly over to the dresser and put it away.
I rummaged through the stack of books I had had on my desk until I found the small black book we’d found a month ago.
We’d glanced through it, but I’d hidden it.
We didn’t want anyone to discover we had it as we’d made plans.
The cover was still dusty, and the feel of the pages repulsed the nerves at my fingertips.
Abbey had gotten all the way up on the table.
The worn parchment creaked as I tried to flatten the cover open enough to see the entire map across the fold in the middle.
The map looked to have been drawn in ink.
“This is a hand-drawn map.” I flipped to the next page.
There was no table of contents, no author’s notes or reference information like most of the spell and potion books I’d seen.
No. On that page, printed in beautiful script, was a single sentence…
There be monsters here.
Abbey “oohed.”
“They used to write that on ocean maps. I saw a really old one in a university library once,” I said.
“The sailors must have come by here once or twice,” Abbey joked, and I had to laugh. She was probably right.
I turned to the next page, and then the next—the rest was written in German. “You read German?” She shook her head. “Know anyone we can trust who might?” She pointed over to Tynan. “Very funny. He’d tie me down to the bed if he knew what we were up to.”
“So all we have is the map,” she said, turning back to it. “Why would the map be in English and the rest be in German?”
“I think someone added it later.” I shrugged at my own guess and studied the map. Thule was an oblong-shaped island with a mountain range across the middle, and steep cliffs were indicated for most of the island, except for a beach and a dock at the far south end.
Abbey looked up at me and nodded. “We have to land at the beach or climb.”
On the fire side, just beyond the mountain, was the word Tutzlwarm. I sounded it out and looked up at Abbey.
“Mythical creatures that burrow in the ground. That’s all I know. I couldn’t find anything else about them in the library.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad.” The words written atop the drawing of the mountains were faded doodles, but I could still make them out.
“Valley of the Unforgiven. Guess that’s where the Slaugh hang out.
” Abbey shuddered. At the far northeast corner was a faint drawing of a castle.
“Bran’s house?” She shuddered again. “Do these little boxes just below that look like other buildings to you?”
“I think so.”
“I wouldn’t imagine that Slaugh need shelter. That’s where I need to go. He has to be there.”
“Cauldrons, Keena, you’ll have to cross the whole island.” Her face looked worried.
“Do I have another choice?”
“You can’t go. Coyle is likely dead.”
I sighed.
“Never mind. I know you’re going.” She looked terrified for me. “I wish I could go.”
“Not again.” I sighed. I was going alone.
She jumped up and clapped her hands. “But you do have help! I told you I had been trying to find the potion Bevin used to make that amulet for Tynan.”
I gave her a puzzled look.
“Well,” she continued, “my cousin was helping her Gnome friend clean up after Bevin did some particularly nasty potion. She makes some of the weirdest stuff for her healing. I would love to get a peek at her supply chest. God knows what that Witch has in there. Anyway, let’s just say my cousin saw the recipe for your communications amulet… ”
“So?”
“So? So I have it!”
“How does that help me with Thule?”
“Think, wild thing.” Her tone was laughingly condescending. “If we change just one of the ingredients, it can let you share sight instead of thoughts.” She held out her hands and cocked her head as if to say “Duh!”
“Howard!” I exclaimed, suddenly catching on.
“That’s the most frivolous name I ever heard,” she smirked. “But yes, Howard could do some scouting for you once on the island.”
“Howard the Hawk is a great name,” I insisted. “And you are the smallest genius I know. What’s in the potion?” I closed the slimy little book and slid it back in the stack with the others while Abbey rattled off a list of fairly common ingredients and a few I hadn’t heard of.
She got quiet and looked down at her feet. “You’re really going, right?” I’d never seen so much concern on her face.
“Not much choice. Tomorrow night’s the full moon, and we won’t have another chance for the amulet. But I swear, if Bevin doesn’t relax with the practicing… I’m so worn out.” I took the tea Abbey had made while I was talking. “Oh yeah, I got a boat arranged.”
“How’d you manage that one?” She sounded as surprised as her big eyes looked.
“From one of the Trolls. I traded some gold buttons from one of my dresses. It not a great boat but it’s the best I could do,” I said.
“Hogan let you have gold buttons from one of his master creations?” She was mimicking his accent and tone as she spoke.
I laughed. “No. Remember when Feldema tossed me into the fountain?” I’d had a few more altercations with Feldema since the pipe incident.
The first two, she’d gotten the best of me.
Silly stuff really, spilling wine on me at a meal and once tangling my hair in knots from across the yard.
During the most recent incident, though, I saw her lips start to move and could have stopped her before she used a blasting spell to knock me back into the fountain, but I allowed her to continue.
I wanted her to go on thinking she could best me.
It had worked once, and I wanted that advantage again.
“I took off the buttons before I gave the dress back to Hogan. He was furious that I ‘lost’ them. But we needed the gold. I only traded nine of them with the Troll, in case I need more later.”
“And Hogan hasn’t found the rest?”
“Nah, I put them in the pocket of the jeans Tynan bought me on his last trip. Hogan hates them so much he won’t touch ’em.”
Abbey cocked her head, “You’re getting too good at this. So we have the boat, almost all the supplies, and tomorrow night we’ll have the amulet. Are you sure you’re ready to do this?”
“I think. My casting has gotten fairly good. I’m as ready as I’m going to get.”
“You know your spells won’t help you with the Slaugh, you’ll just have to fight them,” she said as she stood to examine my face for doubts.
“I know. I’m not afraid.”
She gave me a “yeah, right” look.
“Fine. I’m terrified—but I have to get him, Abbey.
I’ll fight the Slaugh. It’ll be daylight, and most of them can’t be out then.
I’m hoping good old-fashioned knives will help with whatever else is out there.
” I had been carefully asking various beings on the island for their impressions of Thule.
Most shared outrageous rumors they had heard over the centuries, though everyone was adamant that Witch powers wouldn’t work on the island.
The bottom line was, I wouldn’t know what was real and what was speculation until I got there.
“I’m more worried about Nessum. He’s a fallen angel, Keena. I don’t think he can be killed.” She shivered, and I did too.
“Let’s just hope I don’t have to worry about him.” I changed the subject. “I’ll go get my stuff and meet you at the tower so no one sees us heading to the water together.”
Blood-of-the-dead coral grew off the south side of the island where the currents ran strong and the rocks were treacherous.
Fog rolled across the choppy water, making it look particularly eerie.
The sight of the ocean was beautiful, but I knew what it held.
This was Feldema’s world, and I was not at all eager to enter, but it was the only way to get the coral.
I had to dive for it and that meant going in.
I stood at the edge of the water and took a deep breath.
The cold air rushing into my lungs sent shivers through my body.
“You be careful. I don’t know if Feldema has creatures that will alert her to your presence, but I don’t want to find out the hard way,” Abbey whispered, apparently trying not to alert anything herself.
I didn’t know either. I strapped two small daggers onto my bare thighs and fastened a small bag to a strap of leather around my waist. “If you lose sight of me for too long, go get Bevin and Manus.” The surf was rough and she could easily lose sight of me in the churning waves.
She swallowed hard. “You make sure you get somewhere I can see you every few minutes.”
“Okay, stay over there on those high rocks so you can see me easier over the surf. If anyone comes, you duck down.” She nodded and headed to the boulders above the water. I stepped tentatively into the surf.
The water was freezing—not merely cool like the streams and river on the island. The cold waves seemed angry at my presence. I had a hard time getting past the breakers in the waves. In my mind, they were trying to push me back.
Swimming out the required hundred yards or so helped me adjust to the temperature.
An Imp friend of Abbey’s told her the coral was out about that far—and only Feldema was willing to dive in those dangerous waters.
I was going to try. Looking around, I found Abbey sitting high up on the rocks.
The sun had started its approach toward the horizon, and her hair was gleaming in the brilliant rays.
She waved and pointed at her wrist to remind me to check in often.
I took in a deep breath and dove under the water.
When I opened my eyes, the salt stung but I adjusted quickly as I swam down.
I was surprised at how well I could negotiate the waters.
I had thought that, as a Witch of the land, I wouldn’t do well in the ocean, but I moved easily down to the reef.
The colors were dazzling. The reef was an entire world unto itself.
Corals of all colors, growing one atop the other, looked like a giant painting.
Some of them hard and luminescent, others soft and swaying with the currents in a ghostly dance to music I couldn’t hear.
Brightly colored fish darted to and fro, ignoring me as they went about their business of existing.
I was running out of breath and hadn’t seen any sign of the blood-red coral.
I surfaced and looked to find Abbey, realizing the current had moved me down shore a bit.
She waved as I found her on the rocks. I waved back, took in another breath, and down again I went.
I saw a huge octopus under an overhang in the reef.
It moved toward me to investigate. I contemplated attempting to kill it in case it could alert my sister.
The creature drifted before me a moment then darted away.
I decided that if Feldema was aware of my presence, the octopus would have probably attacked.
I kept moving along the reef, using some of the smoother corals to pull myself along.
I had to surface again. I had dived even deeper and had to struggle this time to get to the light of the surface.
I splashed through with a gasp. I turned to look back to the rocky shore and once again found Abbey’s hair shimmering in the evening sun.
I went under a third time. It seemed to be harder to hold my breath as long and the cold water was definitely starting to stiffen my joints.
I moved along anyway, finally catching a glimpse of what I thought was the right coral.
I quickly pushed myself toward it and broke off a piece with a dagger, tucking it in the bag.
On the way back to the surface, my lungs were burning for air, and my toes were numb.
I watched as the surface came closer and closer.
The setting sun was playing off the waves above.
I hit the surface just before I thought I was going to bust, taking in large, labored breaths as I turned toward the shore.
Abbey was nowhere to be found.
I stopped just short of panicking when I realized I had drifted around a large outcropping of boulders. I tried to head back toward my starting point but the current, stronger now, would only let me head into shore.
By the time I got to the sandy shore, I was exhausted from fighting the current. I sank to my knees to catch my breath then climbed around the outcropping to find Abbey.
She wasn’t there.
I spun around, looking among the rocks for her, thinking perhaps she had somehow fallen. I found nothing. Maybe she had headed to get help since she lost sight of me…but her bag was still over by the trail. I was frightened and my heart was pounding—and not from the swim.
Running to her bag, I glimpsed movement on the water out of the corner of my eye.
A Slaugh!
He was standing on top of the ocean. That makes no sense.
I stared harder and made out the boat. It was the color of the ocean, making the small vessel nearly invisible if you didn’t squint to see it.
Then someone else came into focus—Feldema.
She blended into the horizon almost as much as the boat.
The black-cloaked Slaugh turned slightly, and I saw Abbey struggling in his grasp. They were heading away, neither of them looking back.
I had no way to help her. I couldn’t swim to them, so I did what I did best—I ran.