A Fair Fight (5 page)

Still wrestling with the dog-thing on him, Justin managed to get a foot under its stomach, kicking the creature away hard enough that it crashed into another table, knocking it over. By then, the biggest dog-thing had recovered, leaving it in a race with Megan and Justin for the sword. Justin dove, grabbing onto the big monster's back legs, holding on desperately to buy Megan a few extra moments. The dog-thing tried to turn and snap, but Justin managed to keep hold of it, using a tight grip and quick reflexes to stay out of reach of the jaws for the moment.

Megan got to the blade first, as the other creatures were, respectively, recovering from the chair smash and disentangling itself from the fallen table. Both charged, readying to lunge at her, but stopped, turning and watching the sheathed sword fly over their heads as Megan did her best to throw it to Justin. The blade hit the ground a foot away from him, making Justin the new focal point of the whole pack.

He released the biggest dog-thing and dove, grabbing onto the Claiomh Solais, and rolling away, without enough time or room to get back to his feet. When one of the dogs caught up, he managed to interpose the sheathed sword, letting it bite down on the indestructible object. Justin pulled the flaming blade clear with one hand. The dog-thing holding the sheath quickly let go in time to dodge away from Justin's first swing.

The young knight fended the three off, making wide sweeps with the blade. Justin managed to maneuver himself to intercept her as he tried to get clear for a run at the door, while the creatures tried equally hard to cut them off. Megan swept up one of the broken chair legs from the floor, arming herself as best she could, to try to better guard Justin's flank while they retreated.

They finally made it to the door, and were about to make a run for it, when one of the dog-things leapt out through the broken window they'd entered through, cutting off the escape attempt. The three closed in, trapping the two in the doorway, feinting, trying to get Justin to over-commit and leave an opening.

There was a roar of an engine as
Space Ship!
jumped the curb and crashed into the monster that had cut them off, sending it rolling. Lani leaned over, opening one door, shouting, "Get in!" Megan let Justin take the open door as she pulled herself into the car through the open back window, fitting through it much more readily than Justin would have. As soon as they were both in, with Megan still trying to right herself in the seat, the car took off again through the Seattle streets. Looking out the back window, Megan could see the three canine forms in pursuit for a while, but once Lani pulled onto I-5, they left them behind.

Once Megan was sure they were well on the way to Cassia's, with no sign of giant dogs or police giving chase, Megan finally got her wits about her enough to ask. "Not that I'm arguing, or anything. But that case is kind of, well, awkward to take on a date. Why did you bring the sword along, anyway?"

Unusually for him, Justin started laughing.

Finally, as he appeared to be catching his breath, Megan followed up. "What's so funny?"

"The Kahales had pointed out all of the things stolen from cars here in the city. The trunk was full. So I brought the sword with me to protect it from thieves."

Chapter 7: A Game of Go

The sun was rising behind the mountains in the realm they'd reached only via two mushroom rings, a lodestone circle, and a very shiny infinity-symbol fishpond.

Megan hoped that the pizza parlor wouldn't have too much trouble repairing the broken window. Did insurance cover acts of dog? Especially when they weren't really dogs?

The crisp Spring air smelled of flowers, especially cherry blossoms, and lots of them.

Megan hoped no panicking onlookers in the distance had lingered to see Justin end up drawing the sword—or gotten out phone cameras. Fortunately, it really seemed like there hadn't been time.

The girls sat on a bench along a stone path, the brilliant white rock almost blinding in the sunlight, just alongside an open-air shrine. Justin and Cassia stood on either side of the bench, mostly looking ahead but occasionally making bizarre eye contact with various people that Megan assumed were security staff. The leopards lounged in the perpetual-morning sun.

Despite the beauty of the surroundings, Megan couldn't get her mind off the night before. “I really want to know who those guys were,” she muttered.

"Way too many options to list," Lani said. "Shapeshifting is a pretty normal trick for Fomoire and sorcerers both."

"What about bards. Can I do that stuff?" Megan directed the new question to Ashling, who was hiking on foot the few feet over from the shrine.

"Oh sure," the pixie responded cheerfully, accepting Megan's hand up onto the bench. "Chasing cars, attacking people tooth and claw, tracking down your enemies. But all of that would sure be easier if you could turn into a giant dog-thing first. Bardic magic doesn't do that part."

"Oh." Megan then joined Justin and Cassia in quietly staring into the Shinto-style shrine.

On a raised dais at the center was a table. Other than the Count, three beings sat at it, all on one side of the table. While all three were, as best Megan could guess, between four and five feet tall, with lithe, slender frames, there was a marked difference in that one had feathers and the head of a raven, one had a dog's head, and the third had a more humanoid head, but with dark red skin and an extremely long nose.

"So, what are they?" Megan whispered to Lani.

"Tengu."

"Wait, all three of them are the same thing?"

"Yes."

"Why do they look so different?" Megan was used to faeries looking odd, but usually, faeries of the same type had at least been somewhat similar types of odd.

Lani smiled. "If you asked them, you'd get three different answers. But probably at least partly because they like confusing people and making them ask questions like that one."

Megan nodded. Since they had the connection here, Ashling and the Count had taken the lead in the diplomacy and explanations. With the way Ashling tended to explain things, combined with the fact that her father and the Queen had thought that getting help from here at all was unlikely, Megan was not overly comforted by that.

They tried to keep it quiet as everyone watched the Count shove a white stone with his beak to slide it into place on the game board he was standing on. He then turned over a tiny sand-timer with his foot. The ancient creature opposite him moved a piece in turn. The crow and the tengu had been playing Go for a long time, even with the turn timer, as Megan and the others were intermittently brought tea. All conversation with the tengu so far had been in Japanese, Corvid, or occasional Ashling Charades, so Megan wasn't really sure where things stood as the game progressed.

Eventually, Megan could ignore the other problems enough to shake her head in wonder at the Count. “Wow,” she said. “He really is the smartest crow on Earth."

"Well, he's not /that/ smart,” Ashling said.

"What makes you say that?"

"Of the ten games he's played, he's been beaten all but twice."

Megan sighed.

"So, is the Count's friend going to help us?" Lani asked Ashling.

"Well, that depends. It's a very complicated question," Ashling said.

"Depends on what?" Megan asked.

"The price of tea in China." Ashling replied in a very serious tone.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Megan said.

"That's what people keep asking, yes." Ashling agreed.

“
So what did you come over here to say?”

“
Oh. He's agreed to take our message to the courts, and they'll consider sending a small delegation to the conference. Then, of course, the courts will consider the recommendation."

“
Okay,” Megan said. That definitely didn't sound very fast, but she supposed it was better than nothing, which was apparently what everyone was expecting.

“
But they want to ask you something first, to have a bit more data to take to the courts.”

“
Oh. Of course.” And Megan got up, stepped fully into the shrine and, with a bit of a curtsey, joined the Count across the table from the Tengu.

“
Thank you for coming, Highness,” said red one with the long nose.

“
Good to meet you, Megan,” said the one with the dog's head.

The crow tengu nodded politely amidst making his next move.

“
Very nice to meet you, too. Thanks for having me,” Megan said, a little disconcerted. “There was information needed?”

“
Yes,” said the dog-headed one
.
“
We hear that you are planning to attend school in the visual arts.”

Megan blinked. She had been expecting them to start a discussion of the lake, An Teach Deiridh's military readiness, or her dad. “Yes, um. I haven't decided where yet.”

“
How would you illustrate the scratch on your arm?”

“
Um, as a crease in some long sleeves?” She'd definitely wear long sleeves the next time she saw her mom, just in case.

“
Reasonable. What medium?”

“
For a self-portrait? Probably just ink and paper, though I admittedly do a lot with pastels these days.”

All three nodded, though Megan wasn't sure if the crow tengu in the middle was nodding at her or at the Count, who was nodding back to him. The Count then began pecking at the more white-stoned areas of the board. Eventually, he stopped and then looked up at the tengu, who said “Yes, and two more, for 20. And the komi gets you 26, but I, my friend, have 27. An excellent game.”

Megan took this in. “So... was that everything?” she asked.

The three tengu nodded again. “Thank you for coming,” said the dog-faced one.

Chapter 8: Submerged

Once upon a time, Megan had dreamed of having a palace. In her little-girl imaginings, it had white stone walls, a vast courtyard, a city full of adoring subjects around it, and especially high towers. It overlooked vast plains blending perfect emerald green with vast washes of pinks, blues, reds, oranges, and every other color she could imagine a flower could be. Then there were the fruit trees in neat rows, adding tiny delicate blooms and early season fruit to the mix of colors. On the other side, there were supposed to be high cliffs. From the towers, one could see for miles out over the vast, sparkling waters, or look closer, where waves dashed against the cliff faces.

And looking at the ruined remains, gray with neglect and algae, Megan knew: somehow, she'd dreamed of Murias.

The flower fields of her dream were there after a fashion. As was normal with Faerie, all the colors blended, even on the same plant. But instead of cultivated rows, there were wild, chaotic tangles of color as weeds battled it out with multicolored blackberry thorn patches. In spots, both had to give way for the hardier remnants of old flowerbeds. A few surviving fruit trees were in Spring bloom, flowers just starting to open up, but any effort to get to the uneven trees would require finding the way through the thorns. The skeletons of other trees provided some structure to climbing, choking vines and mushroom colonies—in their own way, even more fitting gardens for what Murias had become.

The edges of the cliffs were now not that far from the wall, the stone showing signs of an oddly steep slope, with fragments of foundation stones jutting out. The structure had obviously once been both massive and ornate, judging by the scope of the ruins, but it had been undercut and mined out until almost everything had fallen into the sea. The old borders were marked by persistent fragments of walls that had once stretched over a mile. Here and there stood propped-up remnants of parapets or an arch or two standing entirely alone, a gateway opening from nowhere into nowhere.

Scattered amidst the ruins were various tents, of widely divergent make. There were two central command tents, larger than the rest, while dozens of the smaller structures dotted the area.

The only original part of Murias that had kept some semblance of itself was the grand table. It was truly vast, seemingly carved out of a single piece of stone. Lengthwise, Megan suspected that it would stretch the length of three football fields, maybe more. Despite that, at least in those times she'd sat at the table, getting used to the place, she noticed that it seemed to still have some magic to it. Specifically, when Riocard or Orlaith spoke while they occupied the joint head-of-table spots, even if Riocard's was currently slightly more elevated, she could hear their voices clearly from anywhere at the table.

Similarly, as long as she was seated, she could hear the music of the two harpists that Riocard had set on either side of the table. He'd said something about "For old time's sake."

Megan had to suspect that some of those old times were extremely happy, with the music mostly having a danceable, celebratory air. No one was dancing, though, and the music, so at odds with the fallen majesty of the setting, somehow just served to make it all the more tragic in her eyes.