I looked back as one of the guards closed the outer door, and for a brief second, I thought I saw a ripple in the darkness. But then it was gone, the door closed, and we were heading downward as fast as we could manage. Yating glanced my way once and nodded. I thought it meant he had seen the ripple as well.
"Slower," I dared to say as we passed the next level. "I should hate to see what would happen if some of us at the back went tumbling down on the rest of you. We can slow back here --"
"Slower," the Queen agreed. She even stopped at the next landing, which was not what I'd had in mind, and I started to protest. "No," she said. "Rest a moment, all of us. We are in a place where we are free of anyone eavesdropping, too. How is your leg?"
I realized she was addressing that to me. I looked down with a start -- despite the constant underlying ache, I had mostly forgotten the injury. Sylph's wooden bandage and brace had kept it from disabling me.
"I seem to be doing fine," I offered after a moment of silence. "Thank you, Sylph."
She bowed her head but glanced upward toward the darkness. It still bothered her.
"We'll find a way to defeat it," I said when she looked my way again. "Or else we will find a way to move all the sacred forests, even to the human realm if that's what it takes."
It was not the sort of statement a minor prince of the line ought to make under normal circumstances. There was nothing ordinary about this time. Sylph, though, turned to look at the Queen, which was probably wise. The Queen glanced my way, but I saw no reprimand in her face.
"Yes," she said and started down the steps again. "We shall do all that we can to save everyone in the fae lands -- but I should not like to think we are giving up just yet. Let us see if we have a chance against the enemy first."
The ground shook harder, and a wall cracked. I wasn't the only one to send a wave of magic to reinforce the damaged area.
We hurried faster after that. The trip to the top of the tower had seemed useless at the time, but now I thought differently. It wasn't so much what we found there, but rather that the group of us had formed a bond. Even quiet Lady Winter and King Pixie had joined us. I could feel it the way a fae could in dire circumstances.
It was no less dark when we stepped out into the open area, though I could see more spots of lights nearby. Soldiers were trying to form up in battle lines, though I could tell that no one knew what they faced. I could hear sounds, the scraping of feet, the soft growl of creatures that must be close but unseen.
Yating moved closer to the Queen, and barely in time. Movement erupted from the dark in a mass that seemed to be nothing more than shadows, claws, and teeth. Lycan and Sylph threw themselves into the fight around the Queen. Lady Winter changed, and in a moment, the giant polar bear was grabbing creatures by the neck with her huge teeth or sweeping paws across them in quick killing blows.
As they fell, I could see that we faced mostly Trolls. That, at least, made it easier to do battle -- though I was aware that there was still the darkness and the pounding of something else coming our way.
King Pixie flew off in a sparkle of lights, and I almost yelled for him to come back, but he swept upward out of the main focus of the battle. He was probably safer up there anyway.
It was not safe down here. How did the enemy get into the castle grounds? The guards fought, but many of them had already been injured. Were there no more soldiers around to help?
The others, whatever they might genuinely be, were coming closer. A wall fell -- I couldn't see it, but I heard the crash of the stones and calls of surprise and pain. Something moved out there -- I could sense it more than feel it, like a wall of black closing in from the right.
And then another from the left. We were being walled in, and the others realized it.
"Get the queen out," I yelled to Yating.
"How? Where?" he sounded frantic, and I understood that feeling.
Then Sylph came to my side and took hold of my arm, pulling me over to the Queen so quickly that I hadn't had time to protest.
"I can take her somewhere safer."
"Go with Sylph," I said, and without any doubt that she'd be safe. "Go, please. Form a shield around yourself -- just get out of here because I have the real feeling they've come for your crown."
"Why would any of the Lords of Chaos want --" But she stopped herself from saying more. "To take control. They don't understand how it works, but they know the symbols."
"Go!"
Yating gave me a look of disbelief, but the Queen had figured it out, and she moved to Sylph with a nod. The shield she put around herself was so strong that I couldn't see her.
And then dust rose, and they disappeared, dropping away below the stone and dirt so quickly that I had barely blinked, and they were gone.
Something knew she was gone, too. A howl rose out of the darkness, and for a moment, it seemed as though the world swirled and everything disappeared. I grabbed at Lycan, and Yating must have caught hold of me.
Because when things settled again, it was just the three of us ... and we were somewhere else...
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