“We will.”
“I . . . I want to kill my mum.”
“Really? Because I don’t think you do. Taking a life isn’t easy. So you might say you want to kill your mum, but you don’t. You’re not a killer, Chloe. You might have to be, one day; that’s the world we live in. But not at seventeen. And not your mum.”
“I know,” she admitted. “It’s just, I’m done with her. She’s insane, and psychotic, and clearly only thinks of herself. I want no part of that.”
“She’s a bad person, Chloe. You’re better off as far away from her and her insane coven as possible.”
“What’s going to happen to them when we get back through to our realm?”
I paused. “I don’t know. Arrest is the most probable action, although if they mess around or resist, they’re likely to find themselves executed instead. What your mum and her coven have done, creating a krampus a few years back—they got away with that by the skin of their teeth. Sending us here is an abuse of magic. It’s an abuse of a lot of things. They’ll need to be punished for it.”
“I honestly can’t believe she would go so far: to try and get us trapped and murdered by these elves.” She took a deep breath. “Let’s discuss something else. Like how I pick the spirit to guide me, or how I don’t let the demon inside my head out. I’m not sure if the medicine was worse than the illness this time around.”
“You’re alive. That’s all that matters right now.”
She nodded. “When we get back, I’m going to take some time away from all of this. If my dad stays here, my mum goes to jail, and who knows what else, I need to do something for me. Maybe go to university, or just feel like someone who’s almost eighteen. At least for a while.”
“Sounds like a good plan to me.”
“In the meantime, I get to try and figure out which spirit is the least annoying of the three in my head.”
“You want a hand with that?”
She nodded.
“Sit down, close your eyes and take a deep breath.”
She did as I asked.
“Just concentrate on breathing—ignore everything else. Ignore where we are, or what you’re feeling. Just concentrate on breathing in and out. In and out, over and over, as your mind relaxes.”
She sat that way for sixty seconds, the tension in her shoulders slowly ebbing away.
“I’m going to count to three. On three open your eyes.”
She sat a little straighter.
“One. Two.” I leaned down to her ear. “Pick a spirit. Three.”
She opened her eyes.
“Which spirit came to you first?”
“The Roman woman, Aelia,” she said. “She was an archer, a hunter.”
“Go with her then.” I straightened up. “I’ll let you get used to your new powers.”
“Thanks, Nate.”
“Just make sure you keep that demon in check. I don’t really want to have to deal with you rampaging across the battlefield at the wrong moment.”
“You and me both, Nate. You and me both.”
I walked away and found Adam beside a large carving of a dwarven warrior. “She trusts you,” he said.
“She’s a good person,” I told him. “She’s been through a lot. I think trust is important to her.”
“Thank you for all you did for her.”
“It was my pleasure.”
“If the demon gets out, we’ll need to stop it.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“I’ve been out of her life for so long, I need to find a way to be there for her. Originally, I wanted to stay here and help the dwarves, but maybe Chloe needs me more. I’d like to make up for lost time. And I’d like to see Mara get the punishment that’s coming to her.”
“Trust me when I tell you, we all want that.”
Adam laughed. “She used to be a good person. But she started dealing more and more with that coven of hers, and then when Hera entered the picture she just went full crazy. That was after Chloe was born. I thought about running away with Chloe, starting over, but Mara would have used her witch contacts to find us. And I couldn’t risk losing Chloe. And now that I’ve found her, I don’t want to lose her again.”
“Don’t talk like that. We’re all getting out of here.”
He nodded solemnly and walked off toward Chloe.
“Have you got a moment?” Jinayca asked as I was just about to make my way back up to the rest of the group.
“You spoke to the elders?” I asked.
She nodded. “They don’t like your plan. They don’t want to agree to your plan. They’d really like to send me with you, but that’s not an option either. Instead, I’m going to be sending a group of twelve dwarves to the area to help you collapse the bridge. I just need you and your group to cause a big distraction. They’ll need about an hour.”
“You said earlier that there were other ways into the citadel.”
“There are tunnels that lead down to the level under the bridge. It’s how the elves move about so freely. There are entrances into the citadel from there. They used to be for servants and those who didn’t wish to be seen.”
“So it would be helpful if those tunnels were no longer usable.”
“It would,” Jinayca agreed. “But the bridge is capable of bringing more elves across in one go than the tunnels. The tunnels are a dozen dwarves wide; the bridge is twenty or thirty. They could have an army across it in a lot shorter time.”
“Use your people to destroy some of the tunnels. We’ll deal with the bridge.”
“How?”
I had no idea. “I’ll improvise. But we’ll ensure that the bridge gets out of commission. Just make sure some of the tunnels closest to here are collapsed. If they’re going to come attack you, let’s give them a longer journey.”
“Okay. I’ll leave the bridge to you.” She held out her hand, which I shook. “It’s been a pleasure, Nate. I’m sorry you didn’t find out more about all that happened to you here. Brigg’s death left a lot of things unanswered.”
I looked over at the temple. “There were plenty of other people there who can tell me. I’ll learn why they did it one day, why they had to take my memories and put these marks on me. That’s the thing with secrets this big: eventually they come out. And then it’s just a case of cleaning up the mess they leave behind.”
CHAPTER 35
It took several frustrating hours to get everything ready, and even then it was another few hours before we actually left Sanctuary. Jinayca wished us all good luck, and Zamek led us out of the city.
We were soon trekking through parts of the mountain that had seen no dwarven visitors in a very long time. The dwarves Jinayca had sent ahead a few hours earlier lay in wait to collapse the tunnels on my signal. I still wasn’t sure what the signal would be, but I told them it would be impressive, so I guess I had to come up with something. And fast.
The occasional blood-elf patrol was nothing to the group, and I for one felt pretty good about our chances. That feeling went away when the citadel loomed above us.
We’d hidden behind a large mound of stones that allowed us to look down on the massive structure and surrounding area. The bridge that connected the citadel to the road was several hundred feet long. Thousands of blood elves were camped in large areas to either side of the road. More were on the bridge, and even more than that far below the bridge, their campfires making it look almost serene from this distance. Some of the closer elves were resting by open fires, some practicing combat, and others beating human slaves.
“The elf camp goes to the south,” Zamek said. “What used to be a barracks and training areas is now completely held by the elves and their slaves. A lot more of them will be in that tower.”
“How many dwarves lived in the citadel?” Chloe asked.
“Thousands,” Zamek said. “Royalty, members of staff, lords and ladies of court, elders. And now it’s held by blood-elf filth.”
“We’
re not here to take it back,” Nabu reminded him. “Where do we go from here?”
“We need to take a tunnel to the east of here. It curves down and around a second set of tunnels: ones we stopped using due to the possibility of cave-ins. They were sturdy enough when I was last sent through, but that was a thousand years ago, so I’m hoping they’re still the same.”
“Chloe, Adam, you’re with Mordred and me.” I scanned the bridge, and the elves upon it. “The rest of you, good luck getting into the citadel. Remind any dwarves you see to wait for my signal before they start blowing tunnels.”
“You figured out how to destroy that bridge yet?” Diane asked.
“Not even slightly,” I told her. “It’ll come to me.”
“Do not die,” Remy said. “And if you get out, I may kiss you on the lips, you lucky devil.”
“I’d rather you didn’t,” I said with a smile.
Remy chuckled. “Well, I just don’t know if our friendship can take that kind of rejection.”
After everyone had said their goodbyes, we watched the rest of the group go until they vanished behind a large, partially collapsed building.
“You ready?” Mordred asked.
I nodded, and thought about how much had happened between us since I lay trapped in the Fates’ back garden. I’d gone from hating him to attacking him to not trusting him to something I couldn’t quite understand. It wasn’t trust, or acceptance, but it felt like there was something I could begin to look past, that I could start to move past the last thousand years of lies and death, and look toward those who had turned Mordred into the walking bundle of mayhem he’d become. Those people were going to find I was less than pleased about what they’d done. I just hoped that when Mordred and Baldr met again that Mordred wasn’t going to snap and kill everyone trying to get to Baldr.
We made our way to the main road that led to the bridge and followed it down. The feeling of more and more elven eyes boring into me grew the further we went. We were all fully armed, although I doubted it would have made much difference if we’d gone naked. We were outnumbered by such a degree that I’m pretty certain it could be classified as royally fucked.
Elven archers sat on the higher parts of the camps beside us, but there were no attacks, no threats. They just sat and watched. Silently. It was the creepiest thing I’d encountered in a long time.
Unfortunately that ended when we made it to the bridge. A number of elves began beating their weapons against nearby stone or their own shields, causing a huge din that washed over us. We began crossing the bridge, staying in the middle to avoid the elves on either side. The smell of cooked meat made me wonder what exactly it was the elves were cooking, and then I quickly realized I didn’t even slightly want to know the answer.
We were just over halfway when the thirty-foot-high black, steel doors of the citadel slowly opened.
“Really went for the whole fantasy cliché thing with those, didn’t they?” Chloe said. “They might as well have written We’re the bad guys in six-foot-high, bright-red letters.”
“I’m not sure it was a cliché when they were first made,” I suggested.
“Ominously dark doors have always been a cliché, since the very first one ever used,” Mordred said.
“Why aren’t you all more terrified?” Adam asked.
I shrugged. “Oh, I’m scared. I’m just not going to let them know that.”
Several blood elves filed out of the citadel, taking up residence on either side of the bridge while Kay left the comfort of the mighty building to walk toward us. He was smiling, and that made me want to punch him in the face. Repeatedly.
“Good to see you again, Nathan,” he said with far too much cheer to be normal.
“Nice to see your face has gone back to its usual smug-prick appearance,” I said with a grin. “I was worried my footprint might stay on it.” I laughed in an exaggerated manner, ignoring the fact that Kay was clearly angered by my comments.
“I’m going to flay you alive,” he said. “I’m going to enjoy it.”
I leaned in close to him, and six blood elves behind him dropped their hands to their swords. “Well, I figure that instead of doing that, I’d just kill you, take your tablet and go home. Or kill you once I get home. To be honest, I’m pretty flexible on that point.”
The look on Kay’s face was almost worth the punch to the ribs. I wouldn’t bend over, though. I wasn’t about to let him see he’d hurt me in any way.
“Enough!” Baldr shouted as he left the confines of the citadel just as Kay stepped forward to hit me again.
Kay stepped back like the good little lapdog he was.
“Your brother would be so proud,” I whispered.
“You really should save your breath,” Kay said. “You’re going to need it.”
Baldr stopped six feet away, his hand resting on the pommel of his sheathed sword. “Mordred, it’s so good to see you again.”
Mordred just stared ahead for several seconds, until Chloe placed a hand on his arm pulling his attention over to us, the expression of hatred softening.
“Where’s Kasey?” he asked.
“Are this girl and man here to take Kasey back to the dwarven Sanctuary? That’s what they call that pathetic little town they’ve created. A town we could obliterate within seconds, should we so choose.”
“Why haven’t you, then?” I asked.
“Because it’s not worth the time and effort. We have bigger things to consider.”
“The addresses and spirit scrolls,” I said. “They’re the bigger things, aren’t they?”
Baldr laughed. “The addresses? Oh, we copied those years ago and destroyed them. It’s how we managed to make Kay’s tablet that lets him jump between realms. We would like those scrolls, though. We know they’re in Sanctuary. But don’t worry about that; we have plenty of scrolls here—plenty more on the earth realm, too. We’ll turn that dwarven town to rubble soon enough, and then we’ll have new little powerhouses all over the globe. All of them ready to lose their minds to a demon, all of them ready to cause havoc at our command.”
“You can’t command a demon,” I said. “Pandora didn’t work out so well.”
“Actually, you can,” Baldr said. “But we’ll discuss it more inside the citadel.” He turned to the elves. “Bring the bitch.”
“Don’t call her that!” Chloe said, her voice rigid iron.
“She’s a female werewolf; what else should I call her?”
“Kasey,” Chloe said. “Her name is Kasey. You can call her Miss Carpenter though.”
Baldr’s face lit up. “‘Miss Carpenter?’ Is that a fact?” He turned to the blood elves again. “Bring out Miss Carpenter.”
Kasey was marched out by two blood-elf commanders holding an arm each. Her face was a little bloody, and the anger inside of me ignited. “Are you okay?” I asked as she was pushed toward Chloe, who caught her, lowering her to a seated position.
Kasey nodded. “I wouldn’t behave; they thought they could make me. Didn’t turn out so well, did it?” She shouted the last sentence and spat on the ground beside Kay’s feet.
“Filth, just like your mother and father,” Kay said, disgusted.
“Bring Mordred and Nathan up to my residence in the citadel,” Baldr said. “They may say goodbye to their friends. I would be very wary about giving the archers above you any reason to fire. Their arrows aren’t silver, but they are tipped with spider venom. I assure you, no magic will help heal it.” He walked away, back into the citadel, and I helped steady Kasey who had gotten back to her feet.
“You’re going to go with Chloe and her dad,” I told her.
“Can’t leave you alone in there,” she whispered. “They’ll kill you.”
“I’ll be fine,” I promised her. “I just need you to get out of here before they change their minds.”
“The archers are going to kill us anyway,” she said. “I heard them say it.”
I nodded. “I’m staying here and
waiting for them to reach the end of the bridge, and walk to that tunnel over there.”
“You’re coming with us,” Kay said and went to grab my arm, but paused at my expression.
“If you touch me, you die first. If anything happens to them, you die first. You might kill us all, Kay, but your corpse is going to be the first one to hit the floor.”
Kay clenched his jaw, but nodded, so I stood and waited while the three of them crossed the bridge as a few hundred blood elves bayed for their blood. I’d told Chloe what she needed to do. Get into the tunnel closest to the bridge and destroy it. She assured me she could use her new power to do it, and I hoped she was right. If not, they’d be inside a tunnel with a large number of blood elves. And there would be nothing anyone could do to help them.
My heart beat faster as they reached the tunnel, Kasey no longer needing help to walk, and entered the mouth.
“They’re safe. Now come with me, or we go hunt them down.”
I ignored Kay and counted to ten. I got to seven when the mouth of the tunnel exploded, raining down chunks of rock onto the blood elves closest to it.
“A trick?” Kay screamed.
“Insurance,” I told him. “Now we’ll come with you.”
Kay visibly seethed, but there was little he could do about it. Chloe and Adam had been given instructions to run halfway down the tunnel where they’d meet several of the dwarves from Sanctuary. They’d used the few hours’ head start to create a new tunnel directly under the original escape route. The tunnel would be collapsed behind them, and Chloe, Adam, and Kasey would meet up with the rest of the group.
Mordred and I allowed ourselves to be marched into the citadel, and waited while the doors swung shut behind us as the smell of blood and death filled our noses. It made me cough.
“It takes a bit of getting used to, doesn’t it?” Kay said with a laugh. “The smell wafts up here from the cells below. They’re down those stairs over there.” He pointed to a curving staircase that vanished somewhere beneath us. “They didn’t used to be cells, of course. When the dwarves lived here, they were guard rooms, but the elves like people to know what awaits them when they first enter. And frankly no one wants to tell them to stop.”