Roz was our walking armory. He usually carried any and every weapon he could manage to tuck inside his long coat, flashing it open like some crazed exhibitionist when we needed extra weapons. But he almost always had something that would do the trick.
“You have any of those ice bombs you carried for a while? If I recall, they could do a nasty jolt or two of frost damage. What would something like that do if you set it off underwater?” I had visions of the water surrounding the K’thbar freezing into a giant cube and him popping to the surface, one big Elder Faesicle.
Roz gave me a long, wilting look. “You really don’t think we can just freeze him? Yes, you do, don’t you? Trust me, Camille, it’s not going to work. You can’t freeze one of the Elder Fae into a Popsicle. I’d like to say yes, but it’s not going to happen.”
I deflated. “Thanks for bursting my bubble.”
He laughed. “Well, you have to admit, that’s a tall order. But one of those bombs could potentially shift the temperature of the water so drastically, it might shock him.”
“Shock him and it would probably kill us. Remember: Those waters are frigid as it is—even in the middle of summer, they aren’t all that warm. We’re going to have to wear wetsuits even though we aren’t officially scubanauts.”
Delilah shuddered. “The thought of wearing one of those makes my skin crawl. They’re skintight.”
“You don’t have to, remember? You get to stay on dry land.” I stuck my tongue out at her. “Okay, so the ice bombs are probably not going to be a big help but I still say bring a few. What, if anything, would a firebomb do?”
“Same thing in reverse. Would heat up the water nice and toasty. Which might not be a bad idea, given how cold it’s going to be. It would make it a sight easier to navigate through the water—our muscles wouldn’t be so tight. So I guess I’ll take a few of both, just in case.” Roz was jotting down notes as we spoke.
“Claws. You ever see the X-Men movies?” Vanzir said. “We need a few of those claws. Of course, we’d have to wear them like you wear brass knuckles, but that would be bad-assed for up close and personal battle.”
I blinked. “That’s not a bad idea. I think there’s a weaponsmith who can make them—they come with wrist and arm braces and the claws retract into the brace.” I had never in the world considered getting something like that for my own use, given how prone I was to hurting myself. But I could easily see Roz or Vanzir, or even Trillian leaping around with them. “But we don’t have time to order them.”
“Stainless-steel garden forks. They’re strong as all get out, and they are sharp,” Iris said as she entered the kitchen, a basket of early lettuce and radishes over her arm. “I brought up some vegetables from the garden for you. I could hear you from the porch. You’ll want to get longer ones, if you want to stay out of reach of the creature.”
Trillian snapped his fingers. “Of course—and they’re easy enough to get. We can stop by the hardware store on the way to Edmonds. We take daggers, short swords, and gardening tools.” He snorted. “I suppose anything works in a pinch.
“I suggest we get a move on. I can’t think of anything else that might be useful, given how little we know about K’thbar.” I had dressed for action, but none of us owned a wetsuit, so we’d have to stop by a scuba supply store for those, too. It was going to be an interesting shopping trip, that was for sure.
As we headed out to the car, amid admonishments to “Be careful” and “Don’t you dare drown” and “Whatever you do, don’t let Delilah go near the water” coming from Hanna and Iris, I glanced up into the large oak near our house. There, on one of the branches, was a large raven. I knew exactly who it was before she spiraled down to land at my feet. In a bright flash of smoke and sparkles, there stood Raven Mother.
RAVEN MOTHER WAS one of the Elemental Lords and Ladies. She was a trickster, a lot like Coyote, and she had always had an eye for me. She wanted me to leave my post with the Moon Mother and join her ranks. Raven Mother had always been at odds with the Moon Mother, coveting the brilliant moon high in the sky, and all that the Moon Mother laid claim over, including her priestesses and witches.
But circumstances dictated that we work with her, and truth to say, she wasn’t evil. It was just difficult to trust her, regardless of how much she beckoned to me. Her son, Bran, was a member of the Court of the Three Queens, and soon enough I was going to have to put up with him on a daily basis. He was head of the Fae militia out at Talamh Lonrach Oll.
Bran liked to goad me. Raven Mother wanted me to marry him, but that was the last thing on my bucket list. For one thing, I was already married and had enough husbands. For another, the thought of him touching me—regardless of how good looking he was—made me queasy. We had come to a truce but I didn’t trust it to hold, nor did I trust him to keep his word. Bran was more cunning and less helpful than his mother, and he blamed me for his father’s death.
Truth was, he was correct. I had killed his father—the Black Unicorn—but the Black Beast, as he was known, had instigated it.
The father of the Dahns Unicorns, he was a legendary beast, and the consort of Raven Mother. Together, they had somehow engendered Bran. Every thousand years, eight times before I had met him, the Black Unicorn had died and been reborn, shedding his horn and hide. I was lucky enough to possess a set. Only those who worked with magic could wield them, and there were plenty of people who wanted to get their hands on them, especially sorcerers.
But even though the Black Beast had engineered his own death at my hands, Bran hadn’t forgiven me. And he hadn’t forgiven his father for giving me the horn and hide. Bran was running some weird hate/lust relationship with me. I doubted that love entered into his emotional repertoire.
“Raven Mother, what do you want?” I knew I sounded churlish, but given the situation and the baggage behind us, I wasn’t all that thrilled to see her.
“An abrupt question, and yet, no greeting? No greeting from the one who will rule her court soon? How the seedling has sprouted. How the tender young plant has become a haughty bush. Aren’t you ever joyful to see your old, dear friend, Raven Mother?” As she spoke, Raven Mother began to circle me. The others stood back, wary.
“I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but we need to hurry. I don’t have time to talk.” I stood my ground. No way was I going to tell her what our rush was. As entwined as my life was with hers, I didn’t trust her and doubted that I ever would.
“Then be aware of this: Bran received a missive from Otherworld. There are whispers that the sorcerers who survived the dragon fire have banded together and have gone back to Chimaras, the Lord of the Sun. They are very antsy, they are, to reestablish their power. They have been driven to ground and now have no thought for anyone but themselves.”
My eyes narrowed. “They deserve nothing. They don’t even deserve their lives.”
The sorcerers had marched on the elves and destroyed their lands, and were intent on destroying everything else. They had left the order of Chimaras and thrown themselves in with Telazhar who had promised them the world if they lent him their strength. When their attack failed—and it failed in a spectacular rain of fire—the ones who had survived scattered.
“That may be, may be indeed. But they are gathering. And their first target will be not the dragons, whom they cannot hope to fight, but your beloved grove.”
The Grove of the Moon Mother. I pressed my hand to my throat, catching my breath. “How soon?”
“Oh, it will not be for some time. Some time it will take them. But you should know and warn your sisters of the order. I cannot, of course, since the beautiful, shining Moon cast me out of her forest, warning me never to return. Sad is the bearer of sad tales.” Raven Mother talked in circles, but I was used to it by now.
I thought about what she had said. “I have at least a few days, then.”
“Oh, yes. They are not ready to move forth yet. Time it takes to gather forces and regroup.”
br /> “Thank you. I…” I stopped. I had started to say that I owed her one, but that was never a wise move with the Elemental Lords. In fact, that pretty much guaranteed a one-way ticket to enslavement. “I’ll make sure that the Moon Mother gets the message.”
Raven Mother eyed me craftily, then let out a soft caw. “I still wish you would reconsider and marry my son. What a force you would be together.”
“I don’t doubt that,” I said, giving her a long look. “But it’s a force that I think the world is far better off without. Now, I have to run.”
She shrugged and then, in a blinding flash of smoke infused with overtones of ruby, vanished into her raven form and winged her way south.
Watching her go, I had a sudden thought. “The horn. Maybe I can use it under water. I’ll be right back.” I dashed back inside and up the stairs to my room, where I pushed past the clothes in my closet to a secret recessed niche that Smoky had built for me. A touch on the hidden panel and it slid back, revealing the box in which the horn sat. The hide, which had been fashioned into a cloak for me, was hanging at the back. Hiding in plain sight, so to speak. I left it in the closet. A cloak would do me absolutely no good underwater.
I opened the box and there it sat. The horn of the Black Unicorn. Crystal, with golden threads woven through it, the horn was a good eighteen inches long and so hard that even if I threw it over the edge of a cliff, it would not shatter.
Removing it from the box, I lowered myself into trance and sought for the energy. I charged it beneath each dark moon and it had plenty of juice right now.
“Camille, well met.”
I opened my eyes. I was sitting in a space in between worlds. I was actually inside the horn. Oh, my body was in trance as far as anybody else was concerned, but I was here—in a room with four screens, one filling each wall. In the center of the room sat a table and chairs.
A tall man with skin the color of amber waited at the table. Sometimes he was eight feet tall, other times he was six inches. But his eyes were always sea-foam green and he was far more powerful than my sisters and me combined. He was a jindasel, an avatar of the horn. And yet, he was his own person.
In a way, he was a lot like Shade, who was both an avatar of the Autumn Lord, but also his own self. Jindasels were different than djinns, though they came from the same elemental plane.
“Eriskel, it’s been awhile.” And truly, it had been. While I had used the horn at Winter Solstice fighting Yvarr, I had kept it safe and hidden since then. “I need to ask you something.” I explained what we were going to do. “Can the Lord of the Depths help me?”
Eriskel thought for a moment, then nodded. “But you’ll need to prep the horn. The Lord of the Depths should be able to aid you, and most likely the Lord of the Winds. Perhaps the Lady of the Land. But I doubt the Mistress of Flames will be of use to you this time.” He paused, eyeing me carefully. “Mistress Camille, if I might offer a warning?”
I nodded. “As always, I’m grateful for your help.”
“Be very careful. Using the horn under the water? It would be very easy to lose your grasp and have it swept away before you know what’s happening. Please don’t let down your guard.”
I gave him a quiet nod. “I thought about that on my way up here. But I think we may need the help. There’s always the chance we’ll get in there, find the seal, and get away without waking the Elder Fae. But I’d rather not bet money on it. Or our lives.”
“Which of the Elder Fae did you say it is?” Eriskel asked.
“K’thbar.”
The jindasel walked over to the western screen and held up his hands. “Lord of the Depths, come forth.”
A moment later, a giant of a man swam up toward the screen. His hair was glistening with lights, and his eyes were round and glimmering. He was a merman, carrying a trident, and beside him swam a pod of dolphins. He rose out of the water that now filled the screen, against a background of crashing ocean waves, and held up his trident, inclining his head.
“Lady Camille, how may I be of service?” His voice echoed from the screen.
I gave him a quick curtsey, even though I was technically his mistress. But I believed in respect. “Lord of the Depths, I have a question. Do you know anything of K’thbar, the Elder Fae, who lies sleeping beneath the waves?”
He paused, then leaned down and whispered to his dolphins, and they turned and, with a flash of silver, streaked along the surface, away from us until they were out of sight. “I sent my servants to find out what they could.”
I thanked him. While I waited, it was as good a time as any to prepare the horn. In the outer world, time passed much more slowly. We wouldn’t lose more than five or ten minutes by me taking the time to prep everything before we went in.
Eriskel called up the others, and I greeted them all. The Lady of the Land was a dryad, as brown as rich, fertile earth, and she stepped from among lush bushes—tall and thick with leaves and berries. She wielded a wand made out of oak and her hair was long, the color of corn silk. The Master of Winds rode in on a giant eagle to his mountaintop, and he brought with him the lightning. He was as tall as Smoky, and pale, with leather armor. His sword was honed to a razor’s edge, and freshly polished. The Mistress of Flames walked over freshly molten lava, her eyes as brilliant as the flowing rock. Her hair stretched out behind her, hardened pillow lava that flowed down her shoulders and spun out as she walked. She wore a wreath of fern and vines around her head. As they joined the Lord of the Depths, each in their own screen, my heart welled up. They were far more primal than the Elemental Lords and Ladies. These four were intrinsically connected with the powers of earth, wind, water, and fire, and they came together in the horn to form a potent, powerful weapon.
But the horn could help, as well as harm. The Lady of the Land could make gardens grow and enrich the soil. The Lord of the Depths could summon rain and bring rivers long dried up back to life. The Mistress of Flames created new land even as she destroyed rock and stone. And the Master of Winds could call up a stiff breeze to sweep out smog and stagnant air, and he could move the ships on the waters if sailors were stuck.
I waited for a moment, then told them what we were planning.
The Mistress of Flames bowed her head and stepped back. “I’m afraid my magic has no place in this battle. I could heat the water, but that would kill the fish.”
“And we could do that. Thank you.” I watched as she vanished and her screen faded.
“I can help, however.” The Lady of the Land smiled benevolently at me. At least, I liked to think it was benevolent. “I can shift the earth beneath the waves if need be.”
“And I as well. I cannot give you the power to breathe beneath the waves, but I can extend any spells you get to that effect.” The Lord of the Depths pressed against the screen. “If you need me to take action, I am here.”
Just then, his dolphins returned and he held up his hand, then turned to them as they started chattering at him. He joined their conversation with whistles and clicks, and then turned back to me, his look grave.
“K’thbar isn’t one of the Elder Fae. He’s one of the Primordial Fae—the beings from which the Elder Fae originated. They live in the depths of the waters, the earth, the fiery lava, and in the upper reaches of the atmosphere. They’re big. Very big. So big. And to them, the Elder Fae are as young as a newborn is to your own self. He will not understand you. Not because he’s stupid, but because he is as alien to your life and thoughts as you are to an ant or a bee. All he will see is you are stealing something of his. That you are a pest come in to swipe a pretty bauble.”
“Well, hell.” I thought over the news for a moment, but no spectacular idea sprang to mind. “What powers does he have? Did your dolphins know?”
The Lord of the Depths laughed. “They have heard tales that he can command the waters to rise up and lash against the land. To what extent, I do not know. Nor do they. K’thbar has slept for a thousand years. La
st time he woke, I believe there was some form of massive landslide into the waters, but I can’t tell you more than that. The question is, Mistress Camille: is the spirit seal you seek truly important to him, or is it just a toy? I think that will decide how K’thbar reacts, should he wake when you arrive.”
And with that bit of sage but unhelpful advice, the room went black and I opened my eyes. I stared at the unicorn horn for a moment, then secreted it in my pocket. I feared very much that I’d have reason to use its powers, and not just to strengthen our ability to breathe underwater.
Chapter 5
I DASHED BACK to the others, who were waiting in the driveway.
“I brought the horn. I thought I’d better, plus I can extend our ability to breathe underwater with it.” Then, on a less cheery note, I told them about what the Lord of the Depths had said about K’thbar. “So, not Elder Fae. Something called a Primordial Fae, and far more dangerous, given that he exists outside of our frame of reference. Or rather, we exist outside of his frame of reference. I got the feeling that the Lord of the Depths was trying to politely say we’re pretty much the ants of K’thbar’s world.”
“Yeah, and when ants annoy you, you pour boiling water on the ant hill or get out the bug spray.” Trillian cleared his throat and leaned back against my Lexus. The sunlight had broken through a few lazy morning clouds, and was as good as blinding us. Life in the Pacific Northwest came at several prices, one which was the sun became a suspect ball of fire in the sky that none of us were too familiar with.
“Boiling water…I wonder if he can make the water boil?” Roz fumbled in his duster and brought out a couple of the ice bombs. “I decided to bring these along, along with the firebombs. If he can affect the water, then we might be able to mitigate the effects.”
“Primordial Fae are big. ‘They’re big. Very big. So big’ is an exact quote. And when a lord of the elements says that with awe in his voice, you know you have a problem.” I squinted, shading my eyes. “So, yeah, I’m bringing the horn.”