Part 25 (1/2)
”How can I convince you of my innocence in her death?” Herne did not look at Keelie.
”You cannot. I have searched for the one thing that would prove the guilt of my sister's killer. On the day of Linsa's birth, our father forged a quicksilver heart in the fires of the Earth's core. Her birth gift, as mine was my scrying room. That heart could not have been taken from her in life, and when she died, it should have returned to me, yet it has never appeared.
”I know of the heart. Linsa showed it to me,” Herne said. ”It did not return to you because it was no longer hers to give. When we bound our true hearts together, she gave me a token of her unending love. I have Linsa's heart.”
Keelie gasped when she saw the silver heart hanging from a chain around Herne's neck. He removed it and gently held the heart in the palm of his hand. Ribbons of light and magic flowed through the quicksilver. A slight fluttering from the center of the heart made it appear as if was alive and beating.
Vania reached out with trembling fingers. ”Give it to me.
Another rumble from the ground, and the fairy queen almost lost her balance but steadied herself. Sean reached out for Keelie and stabilized her as she swayed to the left.
Herne protectively clasped Linsa's heart. ”She gave it to me as a token of her undying love.”
Vania scowled angrily. ”That heart belongs to me.”
He draped the chain back around his neck and hid it beneath his s.h.i.+rt. ”It was freely given to me by the one I love.”
Vania blasted Herne, pinning him to the ground with a mighty wave of magic. Keelie sprang back and watched, amazed and terrified. Pulling strands of wild magic from the air, Vania wove an invisible net that held Herne.
The clash of metal on metal signaled that another battle was taking place nearby. Keelie heard her father's voice call to her. ”Dad!” she screamed. She saw the elven army turn the corner, her father at its head.
Above them, Avenir dove into view, a sinewy silver streak mirrored with the colors of the aurora borealis. He was beautiful, and his questing gaze fell on the Lord of the Forest. His wings swept back and he prepared to dive.
”Dad, look out-Avenir at eleven o'clock!” Keelie's voice echoed in the rubble-strewn streets.
Dad looked up, and the elven archers around him nocked their arrows.
Vania whipped around and gestured toward Keelie. Strands of magic wrapped around her, burning, taking her oxygen. Her vision faded, and then all was black.
Keelie was hot, and the air had a heated mineral smell that reminded her of the hot springs she'd visited with her old friend Laurie when they were in eighth grade. She opened her eyes, but she wasn't in California. The dark cavern's soaring ceiling reminded her of Under-the-Hill, but the red light that flickered against the walls was from only one source, and the searing steam cooking her right side came from a vent in the rock that burbled with a hidden, molten river.
Vania was standing near the vent, as if the heat did not bother her. Fala stood before her in fanciful armor that seemed more decorative than useful. Knowing the fae, it was probably enchanted.
”Take your army and wipe out the elves. I will handle Herne.”
Fala's expression did not change. ”He is injured, your majesty. Surely we can pick him off easily?”
”He is a G.o.d once more,” Vania said, sounding grumpy. ”The wild magic has restored him. Peascod has failed. Must I do everything myself?”
”What about the girl?” Fala's eyes flicked toward Keelie, but then quickly back to the queen.
Fala knew she was awake, but he hadn't betrayed her. Yet. Would he really fight against the elves? Keelie wondered if Dad was still alive or if the dragon had killed him. In any other forest, she would have felt him; he would have spoken to her mind-to-mind. The trees would have talked of nothing else. But here ...
Vania walked toward the vent in the rock and looked in, seeming to enjoy the blast of heat. ”Leave her. I'll need her later.”
Fala bowed to the queen and left just as Peascod and his large band of goblins spun up from beneath the earth, dirt spewing everywhere. A glow of magic shone over their avocado skin and their eyes were bright with madness. Keelie could feel that they were much stronger than they had been. They pulsed with energy from the wild magic.
She very carefully reached for the rose quartz clasped at her belt loop. She was going to need all the magical backup she could get, because another battle was about to take place. As she stretched her mind to the trees, pain ripped through her head-she felt strong magic blocking her telepathic connection. It was like the dampening field she'd experienced earlier. She cried out from the sudden headache.
Peascod grinned at her. A cold forboding slipped through Keelie-it looked like she was going to be on her own. It wasn't a comforting thought, even as the pain eased. The goblins surrounded her, and Keelie saw no way to escape. She had to come up with a plan.
Vania tried to motion toward her with her hand, but it seemed she couldn't move it. Panic flashed across her face.
”I wouldn't do that, Your Majesty,” Peascod chuckled. He was holding a bright green cut-gla.s.s container. Its quicksilver lid pulsed with magic. One of the goblins reached over and grasped the queen's wrists. It smiled, exposing horrible rows of sharpened teeth.
”You dare touch me.” Vania kept her steely gaze level with the goblin's. ”You'll die,” she whispered.
The goblin licked his mud-brown lips with his serpentine tongue as if he was antic.i.p.ating the first taste of death. ”You'll die first!”
As the goblins crowded around Vania, relis.h.i.+ng her fear, Keelie glimpsed a shadow creeping up on her. Fed up with being dragged around, she jumped up in a karate kid pose, then dropped her arms as she realized that it was Ermentrude, finger to her lips, beckoning for her to follow. The dragon woman looked into her eyes for a second, then nodded, satisfied at what she had seen.
Goblin screams filled the cavern, sounding like bad brakes, and Peascod cursed. ”Hold them!” he ordered.
As the goblins charged toward them, Keelie and Ermentrude sprinted into a corridor. Their footsteps echoed oddly in the s.p.a.ce, as if they were five hundred people instead of two. As they reached an intersecting tunnel, a wave of elven soldiers and dwarf warriors poured out and ran past them.
”Dad! Where are you?” Keelie cried. She let go of Ermentrude and ran after the soldiers. Intent on the battle ahead, they didn't listen when she asked if Zekeliel Heartwood was still alive.
Behind her, Ermentrude huffed and puffed. ”Maybe I should cut back on the smoking.”
The running army clashed with the armored goblins in the huge cavern. The echoing sounds were deafening. Ermentrude pulled Keelie to safety on a jagged boulder near the vent. Keelie scanned the scene below for her father and Sean, but it was impossible to tell one fighter from another. Drums sounded as more goblins poured into the cavern.
”This is the caldera,” Ermentrude yelled in Keelie's ear, pointing at the vent. ”The rift starts here.”
Keelie looked down at the opening in the rock. This was the rift, the source of the wild magic. She could see the golden river that sloshed and bubbled beneath it. No wonder it was so warm in Big Nugget now, and there were earthquakes-they were in a volcano!
Panic rushed through her as she saw Avenir charge into the fray. His human form was mighty, almost as scary as his dragon shape. His gaze fell on Ermentrude. Cutting a swath through the warriors, he fought his way toward her.
Ermentrude shoved Keelie behind her. ”This might get ugly, kid.”
Might get ugly? A war was raging around them, and it wasn't pretty. It smelled even worse. Keelie wanted to cry or run away. At the same time, she wanted to grab a sword and hack into some goblins.
Then she saw Peascod, flitting behind Avenir and looking around anxiously. He stopped and straightened his mask. Keelie followed his gaze and saw that the fae army had arrived. They were doomed.
Fala raised his sword and called to Queen Vania. She smiled and extended her hand to him from across the carnage of the cavern floor, just as if they were in the High Court's ballroom. Fala saluted her with his blade, then stepped aside to reveal Herne, in his man-form, fully restored.
”Traitor!” Vania screamed. ”You betrayed my army to the enemy?”
Avenir stopped his surge toward Ermentrude and turned to face Herne. ”You,” he bellowed. ”I thought I had killed you for good.”
Herne laughed. ”I was here long before you, lizard. I will be here long after.”
Avenir roared and instantly began to change into his dragon form. His mighty, clawed feet extended and the goblins ran to safety. The elves and dwarves turned their attack toward him. At Fala's signal, Salaca led half of the fae army to flank the dragon.
”Don't kill Herne,” Vania screeched. ”The fool has Linsa's heart and has not declared to whom it should go. Give me the heart, Herne. It belongs to me.”
Peascod stepped away from the dragon as fire blazed out of the caldera. The gash in the rock was widening. Fire encircled Avenir's body, which had grown huge within seconds. Instead of burning him, however, the magical flames seemed to empower him as he finished his transformation. The elves and dwarves froze, unsure of how to attack. Peascod smiled with pleasure.
Avenir has to be stopped, Keelie thought desperately. If he killed Herne, then the fae, elves, and dwarves would all perish. She didn't want to speculate about what would happen if Avenir and the goblins were free to roam the world, killing and destroying.
”Little human child, come to me,” Peascod said, striding toward Keelie. Her skin crawled as if the c.o.c.kroaches from Maemtri's shop were walking on her body.