Night Seeker

Chapter 12

The door slowly swung open, the keys staying within the locks. The archway was rounded, and the floor within was tiled just like the passage through which we’d first come-the stones shimmering from some dark and brilliant internal light.

I looked at the others, then stepped through. As I passed the entryway, a hush descended, and once again the pressure of ancient magic fell on our shoulders.

Grieve slipped up to my side and motioned for me to stop. “Let Kaylin take the lead. I sense he is needed here.”

I nodded, pressing back against the wall to allow Kaylin to slip by. We were working as a single entity now, trusting each other’s instincts. Kaylin stopped beside me, touching my cheek.

“You and Rhiannon…life will never be the same,” he said, then faced front. We fell in behind him, single file-me, then Rhia, Grieve, and lastly, Chatter brought up the rear.

The passage was short, opening into a room. But in front of the room, a lone maiden sat. I would have called her a girl, but she was dressed in a flowing gown and her hair rippled with gold, spilling down her shoulders. She looked as fragile as a butterfly caught in a strong wind. At first I thought she was a spirit-and maybe I was right, but there was no way in hell any of us were going to touch her to find out. The power surrounding her was so strong it shoved us back, like a giant hand separating her from us.

She was playing a stringed instrument that looked like a miniature harp. I listened, trying to catch the music, but the moment she strummed the strings, the wind caught up the sounds and tore them from earshot.

Who is she?

Ulean danced by, whispering as she passed. She is the Maiden of Knowledge. The Daughter of the Air.

Is she one of the Wilding Fae?

No, she is far more than that. She is…she simply is. This is but one of her avatars. Ulean softly rested on my shoulders, her susurration tickling my ears. You must answer her questions to pass. If not, she will rip you to shreds.

Answer her questions? What kind of questions?

I do not know. Whatever she chooses to ask.

I bit my lip. What the hell was I going to do now? I knew-as sure as I knew my own name-that there was no way to defeat this being. The Maiden of Knowledge was beyond fighting. I had the feeling that if I reached out to touch her, my fingers would slide through. But if she chose to go on the offense, her attacks would be all too physical.

How do I-

Do not ask me more. You must figure this one out by yourself, Cicely. It is forbidden for me to help you in this.

I sighed. Ulean would never deny me if it was possible for her to help, so I knew she was speaking the truth. I looked at the others and shook my head, then stepped forward. The Maiden of Knowledge looked up at me, her luminous eyes glittering in the dim light of the passage. I wondered how long she’d been sitting here. How long had she been keeping watch? Did she ever speak to anyone? Did anyone ever come to visit her? And would she ever be free?

Feeling unaccountably sad-her existence seemed so lonely-I moved forward to the point where the energy field stopped me. I cleared my throat. She watched me, unblinking, a soft light washing over her face.

What should I say? What should I do? And then a thought crept into my mind. She was waiting for me to speak. Perhaps, being the Maiden of Knowledge, she was here to give aid and advice.

“We come seeking passage. Will you help us?” My voice seemed out of place, and even though I was speaking softly, it echoed through the chamber as if I were shouting. I winced at its coarseness. Normally I didn’t notice my voice, but here, in this place, it sounded rough and harsh.

The Maiden of Knowledge paused, then she strummed her harp, and this time her voice came crashing through the air, so beautiful it made me want to weep and fall to my knees.

“What is it that you seek? Why do you wish me to grant you free passage?” Her words thundered through the air, and I realized that if the wind hadn’t caught up her singing, it might have deafened us with its force.

I stammered, taken back by the power of her presence. Suddenly frightened, and feeling like a bull in a china shop, I struggled for an answer that would suit her. “I am looking to help Lainule-the Queen of Rivers and Rushes. She is in danger. I come with her permission.”

“Why should I believe you?” Her gaze was now fastened on mine and I felt like she was probing my mind, turning me inside out, shaking out my innermost thoughts to examine them. She rifled through me, stripping away layers of an onion, searching. The feeling was heady and terrifying and intrusive.

I shook my head. “Because I am telling the truth. Because…I promised Lainule I would help her if at all possible.” That was the best I could think of-it was simple and it was the truth.

“What will you do if I refuse you?”

I stared at her, wanting to say we’d strike her down, but I knew that was a pipe dream. Or that we’d find another way in, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen and would be mere bluster. Finally I shrugged, feeling helpless.

“We will return home and fight Myst without the aid of Summer. We’ll fight until she takes us down. And most likely, we will die. Because we need Summer’s help to win against the Queen of the Indigo Court.”

The Maiden of Knowledge rose from her seat, and her gown fell in waves, a gossamer creation of spiderwebs and silk, of feathers and birds’ nests and the cotton of clouds. She approached the other side of her force field. I looked up at her-she was oh so tall, and oh so regal, and I began to realize that Ulean had been right. This was no Wilding Fae but a spirit caught in form, an energy that had never been human but only wore a beautiful face like a mask.

The Maiden of Knowledge slowly reached through the crackle of energy and held out her hand. I sucked in a deep breath.

Faith, I thought. This is where faith came in. I slowly reached out and rested my hand in hers. The feel was less that of skin and more of solidified air.

She wrapped her fingers around mine and then, with one smooth motion, drew me through the force field. I gasped as a thousand pins and needles stabbed me through. The Maiden of Knowledge laughed, but it was neither friendly nor comforting. Her gaze never left my face, and I found myself transfixed as she turned and led me behind the chair. There, against the wall, was the outline of a door.

“May I and my friends go through? Is this the path we need to take?” I was confused. It couldn’t be this easy, could it?

Again, she struck her harp. Again, her voice rang out and from this close, it reverberated through my head like a gong. “You were telling me the truth. This is the way. As to your friends…they put their lives in your hands. They may accompany you, if they so dare.” She stepped back and the field opened. The others filed in slowly. They looked drained, and I wondered what had happened.

The Maiden of Knowledge pointed to Kaylin. “First in line. Do you accept the responsibility? You are the scout, the tracker.”

He winced, rubbing his head, and stepped in front of me. “I do.”

She pointed to me next. “You are his second. You are the helmswoman, the conquerer. The results of this journey lie squarely on your shoulders and the choices you make. And you,” she said, motioning to Rhiannon, “are third. The lady-in-waiting. Do not ask what it is you wait for, you will find out soon enough.” Turning to Chatter, she said, “And you, guardian, are fourth.” And then she turned to Grieve. “The Wounded King. You follow last.”

Wounded King? What did that mean? Wondering at the labels she’d assigned to us, I kept my tongue. I was rapidly learning over the past few weeks that sometimes silence was the better part of wisdom. Grieve nodded and took his place.

The Maiden of Knowledge began to play her instrument and a swirl of sound echoed and vibrated through the walls. And then, slowly, the outline of a door turned to a sparkling veil. I couldn’t see what lay beyond, but a strange hum began to emanate from the passage. Kaylin looked back at me and without another word stepped forward into the shadows.

How long we were in the passage, it’s hard to tell. When we emerged, it was into a chamber as golden as the sunlight rippling through the trees at midday. The light was almost blinding. I shielded my eyes-the brilliance hurt and I winced, turning away. Grieve was doing the same, but the others just shaded their eyes. The chamber was so large it felt like we were truly outside rather than far under the ground.

“I feel like I’ve slept again.” I yawned, but my body felt revitalized, as if I’d been through both nap and shower.

“Me too. Look.” Rhiannon’s voice was hushed.

I turned and, squinting, followed her gaze. There in the center of the room was a plinth made of gnarled oak and ivy-real ivy. The ivy of the open woodland, not this alien forest of the deep caverns. The plinth rose about twenty feet into the air, and a spiral stair led up to a landing in back of it. Around the base, except at the start of the steps, a deep pit drove into the ground, so deep I could not see the bottom when I gazed into it. But it was wide enough to fall in, and I backed away, not wanting to lose my balance.

I stared at the staircase. “I have to go up there.” The pull was so strong that I couldn’t ignore it.

“Is that…” Rhia looked at me, wary.

“I think so.” The pulse of a beating heart drummed from within the column of oak and ivy, running straight down through the tree stump, into the earth below. This was the heart of Summer, the wellspring from whence she sprang. This was Lainule’s core, her essence.

The others waited, silent, as I began to ascend the stairs. Formed of green and gold glass, they were slick and spiraled around the trunk. There was no railing, and so I kept to the inside, leaning against the oak as I tried to avoid slipping. One misstep and I’d go over the side, and when I looked down, I realized I’d fall directly into the moat. To where that led, I chose not to speculate.

About a third of the way up, my foot slipped, and I scrambled, going down on my hands and knees with a jarring thud. Shaking, I struggled to stand and, after taking a deep breath, started again. The sound of my boots on the glass echoed through the chamber-the others remained silent, watching below. They couldn’t help me. I’d been entrusted with this task by Lainule. I was the only one who would be able to retrieve her heartstone.

As I approached the top, the ivy began to wave, and Ulean swept by.

Beware. Be cautious. You are not through the tangle yet.

What is it?

But I didn’t have time to wait for her answer. One of the tendrils reached out and wrapped around my wrist. I struggled against it, but the ivy came thick and fast and began to wrap me up like a spider wraps its prey. I was having trouble breathing and couldn’t move fast enough to stop it. Below, I heard Grieve shout. The next moment, the tower quaked and the ivy sucked away from me, leaving me to tumble down the steps until I caught myself. The tower quaked again and I looked down.

The oak was caught in a frost that was spreading up its trunk. Grieve was standing on the steps, slack-jawed, staring as a layer of frost spread from his feet to the steps, and huge cracks began to form in the staircase.

Kaylin vanished as I glanced anxiously up at the top of the tower. I wasn’t far from it-but the cracks were spidering up the glass, and soon the stairs I was standing on would break and send me tumbling to the abyss below. I made a run for it, staggering up the slick surface to the landing at the top.

Grieve jumped off the bottom step back to Rhia’s side just as the foundation of the staircase shattered and vanished into the crevasse. I didn’t have much time. I glanced around the top of the tower and there it was-a crystal box, and within the box I could see the brilliant emerald stone, pulsing with life and with light. I grabbed up the case, trying to decide what to do. Just then, Kaylin materialized on the landing next to me.

“Can you take the case while you’re dreamwalking?”

He shook his head. “Yes, I can. As well as your clothing, since you’ll have to change into your owl-shape and fly down from here. There’s no returning down those stairs. Hurry-strip!”

I caught my breath, staring at him, reluctant to hand him the case. But there was no choice. I pushed the crystal box into his hands and pulled off my clothes, stripping as fast as I could.

The stairs were half gone, shattering like tempered glass into a thousand pieces. I kept my moonstone pendant, but everything else I gave to Kaylin, and he vanished back into the shadows. I glanced down at the stairs. Only a few more and the landing would go. I sucked in a deep breath and stepped to the edge of the landing. As the glass began to break beneath my bare feet, I gathered my courage and spread my arms, toppling over the edge in a freefall.

Arms into wings, body into bird, nails into talons. As I headed toward the ground, Ulean caught me in her updraft and I was aloft, flying around the room. It felt so good-this freedom to soar, to fly, to…what the…from here, I could see handholds carved into the walls. I followed them up, and when I got to the ceiling, found a trapdoor right next to a thin ledge. This was our way out. I turned to fly down to the others when the door shattered open and a wave of snow and ice came swirling through.

Holy fuck. Three Shadow Hunters leaned through, their expressions triumphant. And behind them-Myst!

I spiraled down quickly, shifting as I hit the ground. Turning to Kaylin, I whispered, “You have to dreamwalk. You must escape with the heartstone, now.”

He tossed me my clothes, the look on his face pained, and I knew he didn’t want to leave us. “All right, but take this.” He pressed something in my hand as I gave him a sharp nod and he was once again a puff of shadow and smoke, vanishing from sight.

I glanced at what Kaylin had given me. The obsidian knife. Gritting my teeth, knowing what was in store for us, I yanked on my clothes, as the Shadow Hunters began their creep down the ledge, using the handholds. Myst leaned in through the trap door, her laughter echoing through the room.

“Too late, too late, Cicely. And my Consort, what a naughty boy you’ve been. It’s time for summer to end. It’s time to bring the long night of the world.” Her voice was chill, the winds of winter rushing through it. At least she only had three of her Shadow Hunters with her. But three of the Vampiric Fae against four of us? Not even the beginning to a fair match.

Rhia backed up, her expression grim. “We do whatever we have to in order to get out of here.”

“Yes. And my first act is this.” I swept out my fan and aimed it at them.

Cicely, do not overuse-

There’s no choice. I cut off Ulean with an abrupt whisper. “Hurricane force.” And as I swept the fan, all hell broke loose.

The winds rose, but this time so did I. I felt myself rise half out of my body, yet I was still attached to my form. I loomed, overshadowing the chamber. I was both my shadow and myself, rising up with the winds, no longer feeling their backlash, but this time they were coming from within me. I tried to catch my breath but my shadow-self did not need to breathe, the winds were breathing for me as they raged forth from my body.

Ulean shrieked, and I turned in her direction. I could see her-the celestial sparkling form that I had only before seen when I was dreamwalking with Kaylin. Now she was clear and huge, and she spun around me.

Draw the wind back! You do not know what you are doing!

But I had to move forward. I couldn’t pull the raging winds back to me-they were sustaining me, lifting me up, making me a giant in my own world. The plinth shuddered as the hundred-mile-an-hour winds hit it square on. It shrieked, splintering as bone and branch broke apart, falling to the floor.

I took another step forward, shaking the room as I moved. Behind me, I heard Rhia, Grieve, and Chatter shouting, but I could no longer hear their voices, and right now I had work to do. I turned toward the Shadow Hunters and let out a long breath, and the winds struck the walls, shaking the chamber, howling as they echoed through the room.

The Vampiric Fae shrieked as I headed in their direction. They clung to the walls with a preternatural strength, pressing themselves against the tiles. I threw back my head, my hair whipping in the wind. As I laughed, my laughter rumbled through the room. The obsidian knife was still in my hand and now its energy began to ripple through me, a fierce hunger overtaking me.

I reached the wall and-shadow watching over my body-began to climb, like Myst’s people, clinging to the walls as the hurricane-force winds thundered from within me. My heart was buoyed by their strength. I scuttled up the wall like a spider, like an insect, and as I reached the first Shadow Hunter, he cringed as I brought up the obsidian knife.

Kill, bleed, feed, drain him dry, suck marrow from bone, feast on his heart, bathe in his blood and brains…

The impetus drove me forward, drove my hand up, brought the knife plunging down into his body, as I ripped, tearing him apart. Laughter came burbling up, and I licked the blade, not caring when it sliced my own tongue. The salty taste of his blood only whetted my appetite and I reached out, intent on drawing him to me, but the winds that buffeted the walls sent him careening to the floor.

Even as he fell, I reached out to catch him and Ulean swept by, catching up the fan in her wake, yanking it off my wrist. I screamed, furious, but she sent it spinning down to the floor.

No! No! You do not dare!

Cicely, come back to me. Cicely, let go of the knife. Let go.

I cannot-we cannot withstand them without it-

Look, Cicely. Look above you.

I glanced up at the walls. The other two Shadow Hunters had scurried up, retreating to Myst’s side. She was staring at me, her mouth in a rounded “O” and, for the first time, a look of hesitation filled her eyes. I ignored Ulean and began to climb higher, my gaze fixated on her. She would know what it was like to feel the kiss of her own weapons. The winds howled, raging up toward her and her warriors.

But before I could reach the top, she withdrew, and they were gone. We were alone. I growled, wanting to take her on. But the gusting winds began to recede, and Ulean took that moment to slam against me, making me reach for the wall to hold on, dropping the knife as I did so.

I gasped, shaking my head as my thoughts slowly began to clear. I looked down, not sure how to get back down. I was exhausted and no longer seemed to have the same knack for climbing that I’d had a few minutes before. Grieve quickly began to scale the wall.

He reached me before I fell, and, using one hand to keep hold of the handholds, he managed to help me up to the top of the room. He looked down and motioned to Chatter, who said something to Rhiannon. She picked up my fan. Chatter gingerly picked up the knife, and they began to climb, with him helping guide her.

Within a few minutes, we were sitting outside the trapdoor, in the snow, staring at the path that Myst and her hunters had forged. It was somewhere near dawn, and they were nowhere in sight. I was almost sorry. If need be, I’d take up the fan and knife again, out here in the open, and get it over with. But inside, a voice of sanity whispered, Even with the knife and the fan, you could not defeat her. You must have Summer’s help.

I swallowed my regret. I’m sorry, Ulean. I did not mean to say those things.

Yes you did, Cicely. At the time, you meant them. As Lainule warned you, overusing the fan can put you at its mercy. It changes you, makes you more a part of its element. Use it too often, with too much force, and it will suck you fully into the realm of air and turn you into a hybrid-a Wind Elemental not endemic to the realm. And most of those who have that happen go mad.

I pondered this for a moment, then told the others what had happened. “The combination of the wind controlling me, and the knife…I could have taken her on. I wouldn’t have won, but I would have hurt her.”

“But then you wouldn’t have come back as you.” Rhia shook her head. “Your father is right-the knife is too dangerous for you to use until you learn how to master the power of obsidian.”

“We had to do something. Myst would have killed us.” I shook my head. “I do believe I need to learn how to use the power of the stone, but we were in a tight spot. I now understand what Lainule and Ulean were warning me of about the fan. The power is immense. It will-and has-changed me. I came very close to being carted off by the winds.”

“We’d better get back to the warehouse.” Chatter glanced at the sky. “We are near morning, thank heavens. I’d say another ten minutes until dawn, which means Myst and her hunters should be hiding from the light.”

“We’d better get moving.” Grieve stood, holding out his hand to me. “Are you tired?”

“No, I’m strangely exhilarated. And the rest we had in the realm of Summer helped me a lot. What about you?”

“Same here. A little weary but with the adrenaline of the fight, and the sleep we got…I’m good to go.” Chatter glanced at Rhia and she nodded the same.

I gratefully accepted it, allowing Grieve to pull me up out of the snowbank in which we’d been sitting. “Do you know what day this is? We went in on Monday.”

Chatter squinted, closing his eyes. After a moment, he shook his head. “I don’t know. But you have your phone. Better call Peyton.”

“I’ll have to leave a message-they’re probably in the realm of Summer with Wrath and they won’t get the message till they pop out.” I pulled out my phone. “I hope Kaylin got away.”

“Yeah, so do I.” Rhiannon looked around. “Where the hell are we? Do we even have a clue? The forest looks the same to me here as it does anywhere. We could be twenty miles in, or we could be ten minutes from the road.”

I punched in Peyton’s number and left a message. Then I tried Kaylin. No answer. Sighing, I left my phone on and shoved it into my pocket. “Which way?”

Grieve glanced up at the growing light. “There-that’s east. We head to the west.”

As we started slogging through the snow, I began to notice that I felt odd. Odd in a way that didn’t feel sick, so much as…changed. Something had happened to me. I pulled the fan out of my pocket. More than once, both Lainule and Ulean had warned me against using it too much, and I hadn’t known why. Now I stared at it, wondering if I’d have the courage to ever use it again.

Chatter hadn’t given me back my knife, and right now I didn’t ask for it. Truthfully, the ferocity of my feelings scared the fuck out of me. It reminded me all too clearly that in another life I had been Myst’s daughter. I didn’t want to remember that, but every day it was becoming clearer that I was going to have to accept that fact and learn to use it rather than run from it.

Myst had been scared of me, when the wind and bloodlust from the obsidian were controlling me. And we needed her to feel fear. We needed her to hesitate, to falter while she thought things through. Every time we could put her on her guard, throw her off kilter, was one more inroad we had to destroying her.

As we plowed through the snow, my phone jangled. By now, it was obvious that morning had arrived, even though all signs of the sun were obscured by clouds. So Myst and her cronies were in hiding.

I pulled out my phone and answered.

“Cicely here. What’s up?”

Peyton sounded relieved. “I’m so glad you’re okay. You are okay, aren’t you? It’s been two days and we were beginning to worry.”

So we’d been in the realm of Faerie for two days this time. This losing time thing was a little intimidating. “Lainule-is she still alive?”

“Yes, she is hanging on-barely. Kaylin arrived back here with the heartstone a few hours ago. But Wrath says you must be the one to present it to her. Where are you? Are you near a road?”

“I don’t know…we’re walking west, in the woods. I have no clue how far we are from a road. Can Wrath fly over the Golden Wood to see if he can find us? He knows where the cedar is, though we don’t seem to be anywhere near that at this time. We came out a different way than we went in.”

Peyton’s voice echoed as she spoke to someone else. After a moment, she came back on the phone. “Yes, in fact, he’s headed out the door now. Stay put, out from under the trees so he can see you. The moment he sees you, he’ll land, and then you call me back.”

“Where are you? Did Luna’s sister make it in?”

“Yes, and we have some wonderful news. Well, potentially wonderful. But that will keep. Hurry and position yourself at a point where Wrath will be able to see you. As for us…well…we’re in Lannan’s mansion. Several things happened while you were gone and they weren’t all good. And Cicely-be careful. Leo and Geoffrey are on the move, and they aren’t going to stop hunting down you and Rhiannon. Be cautious.”

As she hung up, I glanced around. “Let’s get to open ground and then we wait for Wrath. And be careful. Watch out for any day-runners that might be Geoffrey’s or Leo’s men.” I didn’t have to warn them that Rhia and I were being hunted. They already knew that.

As we struggled through the deep snow, looking for a clearing, it occurred to me that Geoffrey and Leo were almost as dangerous as Myst. More so, because they knew we could kill them. I may have jangled Myst’s nerves, but for now she still claimed most of the game board for her side. Geoffrey and Leo, on the other hand, were playing from the place of “nothing much to lose.” And men-or vampires-who had nothing to lose were far more deadly than someone who had a reason to use common sense and caution.