Vault of Shadows (10 page)

“They haven't given us another choice, Milo.”

“I know,” he said. And sighed. “I know. But . . . I don't want to accept that. There has to be another way.”

When he glanced at her face, all he saw was doubt and disagreement. She turned away. As if what he'd said and what he felt made
him
the strangest of the two of them.

Maybe, he thought, it did.

Milo changed the subject. “Can I tell you something?”

“What?” Her voice was guarded.

“It's about a funny thing that happened today. Or, at least I think it happened.”

“What do you mean?”

“It could have been a dream.”

“Another dream of the Witch of the World?” asked Evangelyne, suddenly excited. “What did she say?”

“Huh? Oh . . . no, it's not that. I saw something in the woods but I was kind of out of it for a couple of minutes and now I'm wondering if I daydreamed it. It's hard to explain.”

She studied him, then nodded slowly. “Maybe you should tell me.”

So Milo told her about the ring of mushrooms, the shimmering air, the dancing little pointy-eared soldiers who seemed to want him to come and play with them. He told her about the smoky shape that seemed to be turning into the Huntsman, and about the regal little female creature who threatened to burn everything Milo cared about. Evangelyne went pale and touched his chest with the flat of her hand.

“Are you telling me the truth?” she demanded. “Did this really happen? When? Where? I mean, exactly where? What color were their clothes?”

She rattled off a dozen questions and he tripped over himself trying to answer. Even though the details were fuzzy in his mind, he was able to pull out some of it, including a few words from the song.

“I don't
know what it means,” he admitted, “but they said something like, ‘Come to the
Sídhe,
Milo. Come play with us.' Stuff like that.”

Evangelyne recoiled as if he'd tossed a hunter-killer into her lap.
“Aes Sídhe!”

“Yeah, what is that?” he asked. “You mentioned that word when we first met.
Sídhe.
They said it too. What does it mean?”

“Did they touch you at all?” she barked.

“No, I—”

“Did you enter their ring? Tell me the truth, Milo Silk, did you enter the faerie ring or eat the mushrooms?”

“No. I didn't—” he protested.

“Did they come out of it?”

“No.”

“Are you sure? Did any of them step outside the ring?”

“No, I'm positive. Why? What is it? What's all this mean? Are these more of the Nightsiders? And what's with them saying that the Huntsman was their champion?”

Evangelyne turned from him and stared at the trees. Her hands were balled into knots by her sides, and her body was stiff with tension. “Milo,” she said without turning, “how did you get away from them?”

As she asked that question, her voice was not the voice of a young girl. It was the deeper, more feral, and far more threatening growl of someone who was a heartbeat away from revealing herself as the monster she truly was. Milo felt instantly terrified.

“Tell me, Milo,”
she said in a tone filled with unspoken threats. Her face was hidden by her hair, and in that moment Milo was positive her face wasn't human. No, not at all. “It's important that you tell me the truth. Tell me
now
.”

“It was K-Killer,” he stammered. “He came running out of the woods and seemed to pull me back. I heard him barking in the forest and—I don't know how to describe it—I kind of woke up.”

After a minute, the great tension in Evangelyne's back eased. She still took an extra moment before turning toward him again, and he was greatly relieved to see that her face was entirely human. At least, it was now.

“You are a very lucky boy,” she said softly.

“Why? What
was
that? Who were they? I mean, they were Nightsiders, right?”

“Yes . . . and no. They are what you would call ‘supernatural,' but they are not like us. Not like my friends, or my family.”

“Then what are they?”

“They are the
Aes Sídhe.
They are faerie folk who live deep beneath the world. Or perhaps it would make more sense to you if I said they live
beyond
our world. Apart from it.”

“That doesn't actually help,” said Milo. “Isn't Halflight a faerie?”

“Halflight is a sprite. Mook and Oakenayl are spirits of the earth, or elementals. Before today you never met a
true faerie, and it was almost your doom to have encountered them.”

“Why? I thought faeries were cool. Tinkerbell and like that.”

“Don't be stupid, Milo. I'm talking the
real
world.”

“Um. Sure. Okay.”

“There are many kinds of faerie folk, Milo,” said Evangelyne. “Most live so completely apart from the rest of the world that you could see them and never know. Others, some of the higher Courts of Faerie, are part of my world, and many of them went into the realms of shadow when the Swarm invaded the Earth. But there are others still, Milo, who are not friends to your people or even to mine. They are the
Aes Sídhe
—the people of the mounds—whole courts of faerie warriors and sorcerers who were driven from their lands into the earth thousands of years ago. Their lands were taken by invaders from Europe, by your ancestors. Humans who came like a plague to the lands of magic. They did to the
Aes Sídhe
what the Swarm have done to this world—invaded, destroyed, exterminated, and ruined. The
Aes Sídhe
went into darkness—both in where they lived and in
how
they lived—and there, in that darkness, they have grown very strong and very wicked.”

The whole day seemed to become still as she spoke, and Milo felt a chill in his heart that had nothing to do with the temperature of the air.

“Yeah, okay, well, that's . . . um . . . scary,” he said weakly, swallowing hard, “but we're all fighting the same
fight now. I mean, you and the Nightsiders, us—it's all us against the Swarm, isn't it?”

Evangelyne gave him a pitying look. “You know so little of how this world works, Milo,” she said. “You think that everyone has a good heart, don't you? That all people need to do is open their eyes and they'll suddenly ‘get it.'”

“No . . . ,” he said hesitantly. “I'm just being practical. It really is
us
against them. We all live here.” He bent down and tapped the ground with his knuckles. “If we don't stand by each other, then that only makes it easier for the Swarm.”

She shook her head. “There are some who don't see it that way. Even Oakenayl thinks that we should step away from you and fight this war on our own.”

“Why? We need each other. Or are all bets off, now that you have the Heart of Darkness back?”

“No. Not as far as I'm concerned,” she said, smiling faintly. “Mook feels the same, and Iskiel. The bats are with us, and there are others who will fight with the Orphan Army. However, there are some who will always want to stand apart. Many more than want to stand together, sad to say. And some are not merely bitter, like Oakenayl. Some, like the
Aes Sídhe,
hate all humans. Their ruler, Queen Mab, has never made a secret of her hatred, and that spite is very old. It runs as deep as the bones of the earth.”

“Queen Mab . . . Hey, do you think that's the red-haired lady I saw? The nasty one?”

“Did she wear a golden torc around her neck?”

“Not
sure what a torc is, but she had a thick gold ring around her neck.”

“That's a torc. And yes, that was probably Queen Mab. You're lucky, Milo. Very few people have ever escaped her enchantments. She is immensely dangerous.”

“I kind of got that impression. But look, how's she connected with the Huntsman? He was beginning to appear inside that circle. How's that make any sense?”

Evangelyne looked frightened. “I . . . don't know. Magic circles like that are used to conjure demons, to bring them forth from their dimension with the promise of an offering, usually of blood or flesh, and then to enslave them.”

“Demons? Geez. What would a bunch of faeries want with a demon?”

“To help them escape, of course.”

“Why? I thought they escaped
from
here to wherever they are.”

“They did. But they did it the wrong way.” She paused. “Goddess of Shadows, there is so much you don't know about my world. Let me try to explain it.”

She paused to think. Milo figured it was as hard for her to explain the world of the Nightsiders as it would be for him to explain tech to her. Same planet but very different worlds.

Finally Evangelyne nodded to herself. “When Queen Mab led her people out of this world, she opened a door to a shadow dimension that was well suited to her needs. The
Aes Sídhe
conquered that place and made it their own. There were other creatures there, and her dark faeries either killed or enslaved them.”

“Sounds like the Swarm,” said Milo.

“It sounds like every nation everywhere,” corrected Evangelyne. “History is filled with conquest. There were oceans of blood spilled here before the Swarm invaded.”

Milo nodded, glumly accepting her stern correction.

“However,” continued Evangelyne, “the magicks Queen Mab used to protect her people and to safeguard her new world from invasion by the Daylighters backfired. She sealed the door behind her. The
Aes Sídhe
locked themselves on the other side of that doorway of shadow and now no one can pass through in either direction. Only in very rare cases and for very brief periods of time can she or one of her warriors slip between her world and this one. Demons can do it more easily, and some of them know how to create new doorways from world to world.”

“What worlds are you talking about? That faerie ring was right here in the forest.”

“There are many worlds, Milo, and there are worlds between worlds. And even worlds between those. I suppose you would call them dimensions. They overlap with ours and are mostly invisible to any but the most powerful. Each of these worlds connects to others. Sometimes the doors are sealed shut with the strength of iron, and sometimes they are as insubstantial as smoke. That is
how demons move between the worlds, but they are usually pulled back to their own dimensions by cosmic forces that even my people don't fully understand. However, with the right spells, a demon can be summoned who will open such a door.”

Milo nodded, accepting this. It made him wonder if magic was really just some aspect of science that had never yet been measured or understood.

“Doors are meant to be opened, though,” continued Evangelyne, “and there are many kinds of keys and many kinds of locks. Spells are one kind of key, and the casting of a faerie ring is a powerful kind of spell. If the right spells are cast, then those circles allow for passage between worlds. Not all worlds, just certain worlds. And the circles themselves act like cells. They contain whatever passes through. Do you understand?”

“Sure. It's like the spells are entry codes and the circles are air locks.”

She gave him a blank stare. “I have no idea what that means.”

“Doesn't matter. I'm following what you're saying. Go on.”

“Well, what you encountered in the woods was Queen Mab using a faerie ring to try to summon a being of power. A demon.”

“But the Huntsman's not a demon.”

“I know, which is why this is hard to understand. Unless . . .”

“Unless what?”

“Unless the Huntsman somehow convinced Queen Mab that he
was
a demon.”

“Why on earth would the Huntsman want to do that?” asked Milo.

She considered the question, then shook her head. “I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. There are several possibilities, but I'd only be guessing.”

“So . . . guess.”

She thought again. “The Huntsman wants the crystal egg you stole and he wants the Heart of Darkness. The queen has wanted to be free of her prison for many years and she is a powerful sorceress. It's possible—even likely—that she sensed the presence of a being of great, dark power and reached out to him to strike a dark bargain so that they both could get what they want.”

“How?”

“The easiest way for a sorceress of her skill would be through dreams. Much as the Witch of the World speaks to you in your dreams. Queen Mab might have offered to help him recover the crystal egg so he could give it back to the Swarm. And they would
both
want the Heart of Darkness. Besides, we know that the Huntsman craves magical knowledge. Who better to teach him than a queen of faeries? It is something she might consider a fair bargain if he helped free her.”

“Maybe,” said Milo, “but I'm not sure that theory's right. They called him their ‘champion.'”

“Of
course. If he promised to free her, then that's what he would be. He is already so powerful, and that would be very appealing to her. An alliance between the two would make them each incredibly strong. Ten times more so than they would be alone.”

“How would it work, though? He's scary, but all he has is science.”

“Maybe,” she said dubiously. “There are things even a Daylighter can do on this side of a doorway to help someone on the other side escape.”

“Like what?”

“Like a human sacrifice.”

“Oh . . . man . . .” It made him sick and dizzy to think that not only could he have died in that circle, but that his death might have doomed the world.

“To do that, though,” said the wolf girl, “the Huntsman would have to cross a line that few are willing to cross. He would need to sacrifice his own soul.”