Street Fair (9 page)

Her vision started to clear. The swirls and sparkles started to turn into shadowy outlines. She was pretty sure that was Justin's shadow, fencing with two bulky figures with swords. Leopard-shaped shadows darted in and out of a fight with a couple more of the suits of armor—because as things took on a more coherent shape, she figured out that's what the sources of all the metallic noises were: four suits of ancient armor, without any sign of the men underneath. A fifth figure stood in the background, guarded by the others. This one wore less armor, but seeing more than that was made difficult by—in addition to the lights swimming in front of Megan's eyes—the fact he wore another of the light-eating cloaks. She could, however, see the glowing green of his eyes.

She first hit on the inspirational march from last time, but that didn't seem quite right. Her allies weren't struggling with fighting off fear this time. Still, it couldn't hurt, and it was the first thing that came to mind.

"Not that one!" Ashling called, reaching Megan's shoulder, and starting to hum. Megan caught on, and set into a new song, trying to remember the old Gaelic lyrics by rote memory, rather than actually understanding what she was singing. As she did, Ashling joined in, singing into her ear to help.

As the song started, the wight hesitated, gesturing and moving less, and focusing in on her. As Megan's song echoed through the halls, and the wight's attention shifted, she noticed a marked difference in the armored figures. Their movements were slower, and their swings had less force behind them. Where before, Justin had been struggling defensively, he easily parried a blow aside, and got in a good counter-offensive, leaving a deep cut in one suit of armor. Unfortunately, it didn't fall, as any living combatant would have, but the wound still slowed it down, and left it vulnerable.

The cats, working as a team, were also able to take advantage. When a sluggish swing missed Jude, Maxwell pounced at a knee, knocking the suit over entirely, but he had to back away when the other suit near them lunged. Regardless, the difference in the fight was showing already.

That's when the wight's tactics changed as well. Megan caught hints of a booming voice, speaking some variation of Gaelic, and his right hand began to glow, before he pointed at her, and a burst of bright green fire shot her direction. Ashling's tone in her ear abruptly shifted, and Megan tried to match it... and went silent.

Justin leaped into the way of the jet of fire, with far better reflexes than Megan could have managed. The Claiomh Solais flashed a bright white when the green flames hit. Justin was left lying on the floor, showing no signs of the horrible burns Megan was envisioning, but was still slow to get up, while the armored figures closed on him.

Meanwhile, letting the armored figures move, more slowly, but with less of his direct input, the wight was chanting again, with the fire building back up. Megan made another attempt at the part of the song Ashling was trying to guide her through, but there was nothing. She started to panic, finding that she not only couldn't hit the notes, but when she tried, she went dead silent.

Lani rushed into the breach while Justin was trying to recover from the saving dive, and being hit by whatever part of the spell the Sword of Light hadn't canceled. Lani had a wrench in one hand, and a hammer in the other—neither was proving very effective, but with the armored figures moving so slowly, she was managing to protect Justin, while the cats went back on the defensive.

Just as the next blast of fire was being launched, a small, dark, feathered shape dove for the wight's eyes. Throwing an arm up in front of his face to fend off the Count, the blast shot upward, hitting the ceiling above Megan. The black scorch mark on the stone was bad enough. Much more disturbing was the way the edges of the burn seemed to keep moving, sending black lines snaking out across the stone. Whatever the wight was launching at her, it definitely wasn't normal fire. She kept trying, her mouth moving, but ended up just managing a few orphan notes around gaps of silence. The only thing she was managing was keeping the wight's attention on her, instead of directing the armored figures.

A third blast of fire arced her way, and she jumped to the only song that came to mind, switching to a rock song she'd practiced in her back yard, and sending a blast of wind outward. As she did, she felt Ashling contributing some kind of magical push of her own. The green fire exploded outward on impact with the sudden wall of wind, and she felt an intense blast of heat, followed by a growing nausea. The arms she'd thrown up in front of herself defensively had bright red burns, and given the feel of it, she suspected her face did too.

When she tried to go back to singing, and getting the winds to pick back up, she found that her throat felt raw, and the notes wouldn't come out right. She'd saved herself once, but it wasn't going to happen again.

Thankfully, it didn't have to. As an armored thing closed on Lani, Justin rose to a knee and swept his sword low. It didn't react nearly in time, and the flaming sword took a leg off at the knee, and cut halfway into the other. While the suit kept crawling, it couldn't swing effectively, and Lani fended the other one off.

Maxwell leapt directly over a sword swing from another, attaching himself to the figure's helmet, latching on, and kicking the figure's chest and stomach hard with clawed back legs. While it staggered, Jude raced between the armored legs, springing at the wight as he was about to launch another stream of green flame. The spell hit the wall as the wight fell backwards, with a helmeted leopard clawing at his face.

Justin quickly took out the legs from the figure attacking Lani, freeing them both to rush the wight. The undead figure bellowed a new syllable, amidst trying to protect its head, and both Jude and Lani went flying back as if struck by some sort of wave of impact.

Justin staggered, but the Sword of Light flashed again, and he kept his feet. Regaining his momentum, he took two more long strides and swung, just as a new blast of the green flame was building around the wight's arm. Justin's strike was faster than the spellcasting, burying the sword in the wight's shoulder with all the momentum he could put into the swing. The sword flashed bright again, and the greenish flare died out. The spellcasting in Gaelic was drowned out by a horrendous scream that shook the cavern.

The sword flared again, and the fire seemed to direct itself into the wound. As Megan watched, the wight's green eyes were replaced by a flash of white light, and then went dead. The wight remained still as Justin pulled the sword free, and the other armored figures—both the crawling pair and the two trying to corner Maxwell—fell, lifeless.

Chapter 13: Recovery

Megan's voice cracked a little as she as she slumped, then sat down against the wall, her latest attempt at singing having failed for the moment. But now it was just the pain and hoarseness, not like before, with the sheer silence seizing her throat.

Lani passed her a canteen of water, because of course she had canteens of water, for reasons of Lani. Everyone else gathered around, slumping or lying down in similar states of injury and fatigue, though everyone was at least able to walk under their own power.

“Remember to drone a little on the Ms and Ns,” Ashling said. “That always helps in these old-style songs. And don't try to get loud. You'll just strain yourself, and it won't help.”

Megan drank, and then nodded. After a few more sips and a few more breaths, she started in again on the healing song. Some of the exhaustion faded, along with the magic taking the worst of the pain from the burns. Megan kept singing, between water breaks.

When she'd fully caught her own breath, and let the minor healing effects take her own edge off, Lani slid closer to Megan, speaking quietly, "So, what happened? You were doing great, and then..."

"I don't know," Megan answered, pausing the song, and taking another drink. "I was doing fine, really starting to feel it working, and then the song was just gone."

"Gone? Like, how?"

Rather than trying to explain, and seeing no harm to the effect, Megan started singing. The first few notes went over fine, and then her voice just disappeared, just as it had during the fight. Then she moved on, the song coming back, before disappearing again.

"That's really weird."

“...Yeah,” Megan said, her eyes slowly widening as her mind came together more. “Oh.”

“What is it?” Lani asked.

“It's the F#. I can't sing F#. Not in any octave. The doctor meant that really literally.”

“The doctor? At the market?” Lani groaned. “Megan, you didn't.”

“I did. But how does that even work?"

"It doesn't matter how it works. The important part is that it does. You traded it away and might never get it back. Which, among other things, means those songs are never going to work."

"Among other things?"

"I'm just saying, Megan, you need to be more careful. The things faeries consider to be commodities, you—well, you just need to be careful."

"Okay, I get that this is bad. We're fighting magical undead things. But is there some other commodity that's really getting to you?"

“Well, yes, okay? There is. Mack.”

“I'm not going to trade your brother for anything, Lani.”

“I know, I just ...He's a collector's item, you know? Humans and other folk having kids is one thing. The same two staying together long enough to have a second ten years later is a unique rarity. A bright, energetic little rarity that thinks everything is awesome, and daisy-chain necklaces are against the first-grade dress code, because I've asked, and I just ...”

Megan reached over and hugged Lani. She wasn't used to seeing the more focused girl talk this quickly and disjointedly. Lani seemed more worked up now than by the fact that they'd almost gotten killed. "I know the stories aren't just stories,” Megan said carefully. She'd certainly learned a lot since making '80s-movie baby-stealing jokes, and now she was pretty sure she'd avoid doing it again. “And I guess, yes, I wasn't very careful with that note. But I'm not going to let anyone hurt your brother, okay?"

Lani looked miserable, but hugged Megan back.

Megan kept an arm around Lani, and Ashling and the Count settled in to try to offer some comfort as well. Jude, limping and favoring one back leg, joined not long after. Megan continued the healing song, slowly feeling her own burns getting less intense, though they didn't fade entirely, while the others started showing more signs of life and wanting to move again. From her practice sessions, she was fairly certain healing was never going to be a strong point, but at least she could usually rest and focus while doing it.

After resting, Justin settled in next to the others, lifting away a portion of his burned t-shirt, to show a slight wound. Far more troubling than the faint burn mark, though, were several short, black lines extending out from it. Occasionally, one seemed to move just slightly. "I didn't think it was more than a minor injury, but..."

Ashling gestured to the Sword. "Press that against it."

There was a hissing noise as Justin did what she asked. When he drew the sword away, his skin was undamaged by the contact with the flaming sword, and the black marks had disappeared, leaving only a clean cut in the skin. "What happened?"

Ashling spat. "Fomoire magic. For some of them, just throwing around fire, or lightning, or poisonous slugs wasn't enough. They had to make sure that the survivors had parting gifts."

"Poisonous slugs?" Megan couldn't help but ask.

"Egypt trademarked a lot of the snake magic, so they improvised," Ashling answered, matter-of-factly.

"Of course they did. And I guess, for Justin, the sword is faster. What about the rest of us?"

Ashling frowned. "Well, some of you could borrow the scabbard and sword for a little bit. It might work okay, since you're only half-fae. And then there's antidote magic."

"Does that come in a bardic variety?"

"Well sure, but..."

Megan frowned. "Don't tell me that it's only for Romanian bards, or you need to buckle it on your horse the right way, or something weird. This is serious."

Ashling sighed, turning away to ruffle the Count's feathers, and Megan instantly regretted the comment. Ashling had just started reverting back to more typical responses, after all of her anger at the Butterfly Collector. "I'm sorry."

Ashling looked back and nodded. "I know. That's not it. The problem is, that song has some F Sharps, too. I only know the one. Fomoire magic is nasty stuff. Only so many ways around it."

"Oh." It was all Megan could come up with.

The climb back up was no more fun than the way down, but they ultimately decided that it beat trying to make their way through more magical traps. At least this time, they were able to light their way, and had Justin lead the way with the sword, cutting through branches and roots as necessary.

"So?" Cassia asked, once she verified that everyone, particularly both cats, were safe, beyond Jude's limp.

"He's dead. Or re-dead, or something," Megan volunteered, lifting the shroud they'd taken off the body. She explained the wards and the battle with the suits of armor. "So can we not fight any more undead sorcerers, maybe?"

"We probably shouldn't be fighting any more undead anythings," Lani said. "We've gotten lucky twice. We should go tell your dad and let the experts handle this."