Last Car to Annwn Station (14 page)

Ellie frowned. “Maybe they’re helping with the survivors of the crash.”

“Maybe they know we’re coming and it’s an ambush,” Kravis replied.

Jill narrowed her eyes at the door, willing it to reveal its secrets. It did not. “Is that the only path to the door to Annwn?”

“Yes,” Lady Mirallyn whispered, turning to look at Jill.

Jill realized the others were waiting for her to lead them. There was no point standing around. If it was an ambush, they were well and truly screwed, and if it was not, then they were wasting time. “Then that’s the way we go.”

Before the others could react, Jill walked forward and pushed the doors open.

She found herself looking down a long walkway to an oak throne, its wood polished dark from years of wear. Banners hung from the beams of the vaulted ceiling, bearing fantastical creatures and various types of trees. The emblems or coat of arms of faerie nobles, Jill supposed. Benches lined the walls, giving spectators a place to sit. Jill could imagine the room filled with creatures such as Kravis and Ellie and others she had observed on the streetcars.

“Where is the door?” Jill asked quietly.

Lady Mirallyn pointed to a spot just behind the throne. “There.”

There was a round silver door set into the wall behind the throne. It was covered in softly glowing writings and symbols. A short, jeweled sword was set across the door, barring it closed.

The four conspirators were mere feet from their destination when bright lights flared in the Great Hall and the rattle of armor heralded the arrival of guards. Jill looked around, fighting down panic. They were surrounded.

A squad of four armed and armored fae appeared between them and the door to Annwn. Standing just forward of the guards was an almost mortal-looking male. He was dressed in a dark green robe, embroidered with red and yellow runes. He was heavy about the waist, his nut-brown face tired, his golden hair lank under the silver circlet he wore. Belted to his robes was a long dagger, emeralds and rubies winking from its guard and pommel. The feature that set him apart from a normal man was his ears. They poked up, pointed, from the sides of his head, their wrinkled tips beginning to droop and curl downward.

He glared at the group. “At last you show your true agenda, Mirallyn of the Lake.”

Lady Mirallyn stepped forward and bowed her head. “My Lord Murlannor—”

“Silence.” The Lord of the Llysllyn Court of the Tylwyth Teg looked from Mirallyn to Jill.

Jill shivered. He did not raise his voice, but the command held all the force of a shouted order. Her companions were instantly cowed, though Mirallyn at least looked squarely into his eyes.

He stepped toward Mirallyn. “I have been tolerant of you, Mirallyn. Tolerant of your indiscretion with a mortal lover. Tolerant of your subversive ideas to merge our people with Rhyania’s Court. Tolerant of your half-blood child cavorting in my domain. I should have destroyed that abomination and banished you before your madness grew too great.”

He stopped in front of Mirallyn. She stared into his eyes, unblinking, before frowning and speaking.

Jill could not understand Mirallyn’s words. She had not thought anything of being able to talk with Kravis and Ellie and eventually the Lady Mirallyn, but suddenly she was cut off from the language, as if someone had flipped a switch. She watched Lady Mirallyn speak and saw the angry reaction of the Lord of Llysllyn. Next to her Ellie seemed to wilt and tears began to roll down her cheeks. Kravis paled. Jill might not have been able to understand the words any longer, but she could tell they were in deep trouble.

Jill looked at the door to Annwn. It was no more than five feet away. If she could reach it, and if she could drag Lady Mirallyn with her to open it, she doubted the guards would dare follow. Jill took a couple of deep breaths. She was larger than everyone in the room. She would have to attempt something—probably something stupid—if she were going to save Mae.

Lord Murlannor turned toward her, locking his dark green eyes on her, capturing her gaze, holding her frozen with the force of his presence. He favored her with a sneer.

“I do not know what you thought to accomplish, human, but I can smell the taint of magic and doom on your spirit, and I will not allow you to destroy my people.”

“I just want to bring my friend home.”

“You lie! We know the secrets of your kin. We know the same blood runs through your veins as that of a mortal mage. You cannot hide your nature from us. You would open the door to Annwn and bring your masters to our realms!”

Jill held herself still. There was no reasoning with him, this she could tell. It was obvious the faerie lord had made up his mind that, since she was related to one of the mages, she had come to destroy his people. Jill was horrified at this confirmation of Robert’s involvement with the evil mages. She checked her allies.

Kravis and Ellie looked defeated, though they were still unbound and the guards had yet to draw a weapon. Only Lady Mirallyn kept her head up, her eyes fierce, but even she appeared either unable or unwilling to act. Jill knew nothing about magic, but she could tell the others were somehow being controlled by Lord Murlannor. From the moment the faerie lord had spoken, her companions had become helpless, but to whatever compulsion held them in place, Jill seemed immune.

Murlannor turned to his guards. “Kill the traitors. Remove the woman’s eyes. Leave her blind and naked at the water’s edge. She will be our message to her masters.”

Jill tensed. She had no intention of being blinded, stripped and tossed into the snow to die. She could still act, and Mae was counting on her. Jill snapped her baton out to its full twenty-four inches and struck. The blow took the unsuspecting Lord of the Llysllyn Court across the back of the head.

Jill winced at the dull, wet thud. She reached out and grabbed Lady Mirallyn by the front of her gown, jerking the small faerie woman forward, over the crumpled body of Lord Murlannor and between the startled guards. She heard the hiss of swords being drawn. The loud roar of Kravis’s battle cry and Ellie’s high scream of fear provided counterpoint to the shocked cries of the guards and fae in the Great Hall.

Jill pushed the wizard against the door and turned to face the first of the guards. “Open it!” she screamed, trying to deflect the stroke of a silver sword.

The guard’s blade slid along her baton. Jill managed to turn her body just enough to avoid losing her left arm. Her heavy winter coat cushioned most of the slice, though she felt a trickle of warm blood running toward her wrist.

“The door!” Jill screamed, pushing back against two guards who were pressing her, trying to force her against the wall and disarm her. Next to Jill’s head an arrow struck the wall, digging into the wood, quivering.

There was a sudden blast of cold air, as if winter’s fury had battered down the walls and was trying to crush them in a blizzard’s grip of freezing wind and icy rain. The screams of outrage from the assemblage in the Great Hall turned to cries of panic.

Jill had only an instant to register the opening of the door to Annwn before the guards overbore her and knocked her to the ground. She lay stunned, waiting for the final blow to fall, the bright flash of the blade that would end her life.

One of the guards fell on her, his surprised face inches from her own. Jill heard his death-rattle as breath and life left him. She jerked violently, throwing off the dead body. She was lifted from the floor and she screamed, both in fear and as a challenge, as she raised her baton to strike.

The blood-splattered face of Kravis peered at her, and Jill held her blow. Another explosion of cold air, terrible and fierce, tore through the Hall, blasting many of the fae from their feet, sweeping them along the floor, away from the open portal.

“This way,” Kravis shouted while dragging her toward the open door.

Before the door to Annwn, her back to the battle raging mere feet away, stood Lady Mirallyn. Her arms were opened wide as she faced the gale. She held the sword that had barred the door in one hand. Snow and ice tore at her cloak and gown. Her silver hair whipped like a ragged banner around her head. Jill could see Mirallyn’s lips moving, though she could not hear the words.

“Hurry!” Kravis yelled. “She cannot hold back the storm for long!”

Jill slipped under the arms of the wizard, struggling into the blizzard, Kravis pushing her, urging her forward.

Jill crossed the threshold into a land of winter and white. She turned to Lady Mirallyn, her hand outstretched. Behind Mirallyn, Kravis wheeled, sword in hand, defending his lady from the attacks of the grim-faced faerie-guards. Mirallyn tossed the sword that had barred the door into Annwn. It landed at Jill’s feet.

One of the guards managed to slip past Kravis and strike Mirallyn with his shield. She stumbled and turned toward her attacker. The door closed and vanished. Where Mirallyn had stood before, there was only flat, frozen ground for as far as the eye could see. With the closing of the door between Annwn and Llysllyn, the blizzard winds abated, leaving only a gentle breeze and softly falling snow.

“No!” Jill cried out to the uncaring expanse before her, her voice swallowed by the sound-deadening snow.

Jill wiped the tears from her face. She was tired, frightened and sick from all the death and violence, but there was nothing else to do except go forward.

She collapsed her baton and placed it back into her coat. Picking up the sword, Jill surveyed her surroundings. In the distance stood a frozen forest of snow-covered trees.

Jill started toward the far-off woods, certain it was where she would find Mae.

Jill struggled through the deep snow, using the faerie sword like a walking stick. Every few steps she drove it through the icy crust and into the ground for stability, a function for which it was ill-suited. Stumbling on something unseen under the thick white blanket, she used the sword to pull herself back to her feet.

Her feet were numb, the unrelenting cold having pierced her boots and double pair of wool socks. Her legs ached with the cold, shaking, making her unsteady. The white glare caused her eyes to water. Jill found herself constantly blinking to clear her vision.

“Come on, Jill. Keep moving.” She was only about fifty yards from the tree line. She looked skyward, peering into the bright but sunless sky. The snow had stopped falling. She chuckled at how happy that made her feel.

She wondered if she could start a fire once she was in the forest. Jill’s experience in the wilderness was slim—a few camping trips as a child where every detail was so well-planned the outing might as well have been catered, and one bug-infested day of hiking in college. She doubted her ability to produce flame by rubbing two sticks together or using the blade of the sword to strike a spark off a rock, never mind finding tinder or wood dry enough to catch fire.

Jill paused at the first tree, leaning against it as she tried to catch her breath. Her lungs burned with every intake of frigid air, and her nostrils were frozen shut. She wiped her watery eyes with her coat sleeve. The snow was not as deep in the trees. Further into the forest she saw green trees, possibly firs and pines. Jill moved toward them, hoping for more cover, less snow, warmth and a clue as to Mae’s whereabouts.

Jill found the first footprints only a few feet into the forest. She squinted down at the imprints in the snow. They were smaller than her own. They could be Mae’s. There was a faint impression of paws as well. Jill gave the deep woods before her a wary look. The hounds had been here.

With no real choice and no real plan, Jill moved forward. Once she found Mae, she did not know how they would escape Annwn. She had assumed that Mirallyn, or Kravis, or even Ellie would be with her. One thing at a time, she decided. One thing at a time. She stopped for a minute, sitting on an ice-covered boulder for a few moments before she stood and bent at the waist, gloved hands on her numb knees.

“Let’s go, Jill. Can’t sit too long. Sitting can kill. The cold can kill. Keep moving,” she whispered to herself.

The tracks were easier to follow as she traveled deeper into the forest. She peered at one of the long icicles hanging from the limbs of a leafless oak. Jill reached out and touched it. She gasped at the sight of a small creature frozen in the ice and stepped backward, coming up against another boulder. She put a hand down to steady herself and discovered what she thought was a boulder was actually a frozen white cow.