A Lament of Moonlight Read online

  “Where’s Mari?” Skye asked.

  Celeste leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “She didn’t make it.”

  “What do you mean?” Skye asked, his voice rigid.

  “She’s dead,” Celeste said in a hushed voice.

  Skye’s eyes squeezed shut and his head drooped. Several silent moments passed where Abagail could hear nothing but the tinkling of falling water and hushed voices from somewhere beyond their cell. She expected the Frozen North to be much colder than their cell was. Granted she wasn’t comfortably warm, but she wasn’t exactly cold.

  “How did it happen?” Skye asked.

  “The storm giant caught her with a bolt of lightning,” Celeste said.

  “At least she died in the light, instead of underground where she couldn’t rejoin the stars,” he murmured.

  Celeste didn’t say anything for several moments. “Did you see where we are?”

  “Not well. I know we are far down in the mountains in the north.”

  “I’ve already tried breaking out of here, but it’s wyrded,” Celeste said. “There’s no way we are going to make it out unless we have a key, or they want us to come out.”

  “So we wait,” Skye said, taking up a spot beside Celeste. “Did she see it coming?”

  “It was fast,” Celeste told him.

  Purple light filled the chamber as Daphne crawled out from under Celeste’s collar. The fairy flitted to the ground and looked around them. Her light dimmed some, as if she could turn her own glowing down. Or maybe she was feeling the same loss of Mari as the elves.

  “Maybe Daphne can scout for us?” Leona said. “Let us know what we’re up against, maybe figure out a way for us to get out?”

  “Maybe she can find Rorick and take a message to him for us,” Abagail suggested.

  Celeste sat up straighter and gathered the pixie to herself. “I never thought of that. Daphne, do you think you could help us?” The purple light flared brighter, and then faltered. “She says she can. Alright, first we will have her scout so we know what we are up against.” Celeste bent close to the pixie and started whispering to her. Before long, Daphne had taken wing and made her way out the barred door. The moment she was out of the cell she vanished.

  “What happened?” Abagail asked, leaning forward so she could see out the door. The only thing she could see was a rough earthen wall outside and a single torch on the wall just opposite their cell.

  “Cloaking,” Skye said. “She can use her wyrd to hide herself. It would probably be best if the giants didn’t see her.”

  “Alright, so what’s the plan?” Leona said. “After we know what we are up against, what do we need to do to get out of here?”

  “Well, there are keys,” Celeste said. “We would have to devise a way for Daphne to bring them to us. We would also have to locate our weapons and figure out if there’s a back way out of here that we can avoid the giants.”

  “For right now, we’d probably better wait until we know what we are facing before we make any plans,” Abagail said.

  Leona sighed and slumped against the wall. “I hate this waiting.”

  As it turned out, Rorick appeared before Daphne returned.

  The shadow loomed outside, and this time Abagail was of a better frame of mind to study it. The shadow was much smaller than a giant. Keys jingled and the door screamed open once more, making Abagail’s head throb harder. The shadow pushed Rorick in, and the bearded man jerked away from the creature.

  The door groaned shut once more. The lock squealed into place.

  “Alright, there’s other things here with the giants,” Abagail said.

  “Yes, I suspect trolls,” Skye said.

  “It smelled like a troll,” Rorick answered.

  “Did you get to see much of it?” Abagail wondered.

  “Some. They’re ugly.” Rorick said.

  “That’s helpful,” Leona commented.

  “What do you want me to say? It was dark, there were a lot of winding turns. They kept pushing me in front of them. The only time I really got to see them was when they were unlocking the cell door, but then my eyes weren’t accustomed to the light, and it kind of blinded me.” Rorick shrugged. “It was lumpy, bits of hair here and there, kind of sickly green and looked mean.”

  “Sounds like a troll,” Celeste commented.

  “And you didn’t see anything?” Rorick asked them all, slumping beside Abagail.

  “I was out,” Abagail commented. With that statement, Abagail couldn’t help but see the man once more, the man that had been the wolf before.

  “We all were,” Celeste said. “When the storm giant attacked there was a bright flare of light, a concussion and it knocked us out.”

  Skye looked away and clenched his fists a few times. Celeste placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, but didn’t say anything to him.

  “Daphne is scouting, she should be back before long, and then we can plan an escape.” Celeste told them.

  “We need to jump whoever comes next,” Leona said. “We will have to use whatever we can find here to do it.”

  “Not sure we will have much luck with that, but we will try to find something,” Celeste said.

  “Are we expecting any more people?” Skye asked. “We are all accounted for. Who says they’re coming back?”

  “They have to come back,” Abagail said. “They are looking for the God Slayer. Chances are they don’t really know what it is. If they did, this might be a completely different conversation we are having.”

  “If we were even alive to have it,” Celeste agreed.

  A few moments passed in silence, and just when Abagail thought she was going to slip back into dreams, Rorick nudged her with his shoulder.

  “What are you thinking about?” he said in a deep whisper that always made her shiver.

  “How much my head hurts? How we’re going to get out of here. Where is dad?” Abagail leaned her head against Rorick’s shoulder and closed her eyes. The room felt like it was spinning, but at least she had one stable place to lay her head. It felt good being near Rorick. She hadn’t really felt close to him since the beginning of their trip. Abagail hoped they could get back to where they had been before the journey. They’d had fights and squabbles before, and they’d always made it through them. She hoped that the death of his parents and her infection wasn’t the turning point for them.

  It was strange to think that someone who used to fill her with such happiness to be around could change so drastically. Now she didn’t get any of those butterflies in her stomach at his presence. All she got was a feeling of dread if she was going to do something to somehow piss him off again. It wasn’t a feeling she liked and it made her angry. Angry at what she wasn’t sure. She couldn’t really be angry at Rorick, he had never been like this before, and it was obvious to her that the death of his parents was the reason for his change.

  She sighed and tried to put those thoughts aside. He was here now, and he was acting like the Rorick she once loved. She would enjoy that feeling for as long as it lasted.

  “What are you thinking about?” Abagail asked.

  “Wondering if they’re ever going to feed us.” Rorick said.

  Abagail smiled. “Do you think you want to eat their food?”

  “I’m so hungry I could eat anything right now, even if it did smell like that troll’s armpit.”

  Abagail gagged then groaned as the pain in her head bluntly reminded her that it was still there.

  Rorick chuckled.

  “But then, maybe we are on the menu,” Rorick commented, leaning further against the wall so that Abagail could get more comfortable. “Maybe they are getting the stew pot ready for us now.”

  “I don’t want to imagine what that stew might taste like. Me with my plague, you all hairy, none of us with a bath in days and laden with sweat. It probably would taste like a troll’s armpit.”

  Rorick laughed. “At least we would get a bath.”

  Abagail coul
dn’t help the peel of laughter that bubbled out of her throat. Her head throbbed, but she didn’t care. It felt good to laugh. Given their hopeless situation, maybe laughing was the only thing they had left.

  “I want to go home,” Leona said after silence fell. “I want to go home and carry in water, and toil away at meaningless chores and have a nice dinner and sit before the fire at night listening to dad read to us.”

  The statement cleared up any humor that might have existed a moment before.

  “I want to go home and actually have a home to return to,” Rorick said. His shoulder stiffened underneath Abagail’s head. “I want my mom’s apple pie even if the crust is too tough, and I want to smell dad’s tobacco smoke.”

  “What about you Abbie?” Leona asked her sister.

  “I want to go home and just forget everything that’s happened. I want to forget that dad lied to us about where we came from and I want to go back to thinking all of this stuff is stories, myths that never really existed.” Her head was throbbing.

  “I guess that’s just as realistic as all of our wishes,” Leona said. She sighed. “We will probably never get that back, will we?”

  “I know mine won’t come true, but we will get there some day,” Abagail said. She sat up and pulled her sister close to her. Abagail tucked her plagued hand between her knees to keep it safely away. Leona leaned into her chest. Her shoulder’s shook with tears. “We will see father again someday, we will listen to his stories, we will have the fire, and the winter winds shifting around the house and a warm meal on the hearth. Rorick will be there, and I will make him an apple pie, but it will turn out horrible because I can’t cook to save my life.”

  Leona chuckled through her tears. Rorick wrapped an arm around Abagail’s neck and squeezed her shoulder once. A silent thank you.

  “But first we have to make it home,” Abagail said. “That’s what we need to focus on, okay?”

  Leona nodded her head.

  “Let this be our fuel. These are just giants. Silly, dumb giants that smell bad.” Abagail failed to mention that the giants were really much smarter than they’d been led to believe from stories they’d been told.

  “Okay,” Leona said. “We need to get out of here and find the harbingers.”

  “Actually, that’s a good point,” Celeste said. “Didn’t you say the ravens told you the harbingers were coming for us?”

  Abagail felt her spirits life for the first time in a long time. “Yes, they did.”

  “So help is on its way?” Leona asked.

  “It seems like it,” Celeste commented.

  “But there’s one problem with that,” Skye said. “How are they going to lock on our location if we are in a cell that doesn’t allow wyrd in or out?”

  “I have to imagine they have more ways of finding us than by tracking wyrd,” Celeste said. “They have skilled trackers. I’m sure our scuffle with the giants left some pretty noticeable tracks.”

  “Not to mention all the churned up snow from those bastards bringing us here,” Rorick commented.

  “So we just wait?” Abagail asked.

  “No, we should prepare to help them when they come.” Skye sat up straighter. “It would be good to have a plan to get out of this cell.”

  “And it wouldn’t hurt if we were ready to attack from our end,” Rorick said. “The giants will most likely be distracted by the harbingers when they attack, that means we might be able to make a pretty good dent from behind.”

  “So we have to locate our weapons and arm ourselves,” Leona said. “And then wait.”

  Celeste nodded. “When Daphne returns she should be able to tell us where our weapons are, as well as the layout and the exit. Then we will wait for the harbingers.”

  “And then we will be off to their camp,” Abagail said. They were so close now. So close to her aunt. So close to her training. A swirl of nausea churned through her belly. She’d never been around a lot of people, and the thought of all of those strangers flooding in around her made Abagail jumpy.

  “What’s it like?” Leona asked. “Do the elves and the harbingers live together?”

  “Not precisely,” Celeste said. “New Landanten is on top of the mountains, the harbinger settlement is scattered through the foothills.”

  “I thought the harbingers lived in one large building,” Abagail said. “Whenever I thought of them, I kind of thought of a school.”

  “Well, you will learn while you are there, that’s true, but it’s not really a school.” Celeste said. “More like huts spread out through the foothills.”

  “Will we be able to stay with Abagail?” Leona wondered.

  “I don’t see why not,” Celeste said. She cleared her throat. “Most everyone that comes is given their own hut and assigned chores to help the settlement. But she will have a lot of training to do, and there will be a lot of time when you won’t be with her.”

  “Can we visit the elves?” Leona’s eyes were wide, and a smile spread across her face with the thought.

  Celeste smiled. “Yes. The elves don’t keep humans out of New Landanten.”

  “What is the elf city like?” Leona wondered.

  “Probably like nothing you’ve ever seen before,” Celeste told her. “Towering marble buildings inlaid with gold and colored glass. Tall trees and a lot of stone architecture that has no real purpose.” Celeste shrugged. “Us elves really like pretty things.”

  Skye scoffed. “Useless things.”

  “Typical guard,” Celeste poked him in the side. Despite himself, Skye smiled.

  “Guards?” Leona asked, her eyes darting between the two elves.

  “Yes, but that’s boring, I’m sure you will learn all about how daily life works when we arrive.” Celeste turned her attention to Leona.

  Before any more questions could be asked, Daphne suddenly appeared inside the cell door, her wyrded invisibility fading the moment she met with the anti-wyrd space inside their prison.

  Celeste sat up straighter and held out her hand for the pixie to land in. She settled Daphne on her shoulder, and bent low so she could listen to what the pixie had to say. Everyone sat up straighter, waiting to hear what they were up against.

  Celeste let out a long sigh and rested her head against the wall. “It’s a mess,” she reported. “We are deep in the mountains half-way down a twisting corridor. There are branches off the main corridor, and we are on just one of the many branches. It’s hard to determine which branch is even the main one.”

  “But Daphne knows which branch we are on, and which one leads out, right?” Rorick asked.

  “She does, but there’s a central chamber that the corridor empties into. That’s where they’re keeping our weapons, but that’s also where the giants are, and some trolls…”

  “And?” Skye pressed when Celeste trailed off. “That’s not it, is it?”

  “Daphne can’t be sure, but she thinks there’s a garm out there,” Celeste says. A shiver ran through Skye.

  “What’s a garm?” Abagail asked, glancing between the two of them.

  “A hound from Muspelheim,” Skye tells them.

  “Oh,” Abagail said, glancing to the floor.

  “So what do we do?” Leona clutched her hands together. “How are we to get out?”

  “This complicates things,” Celeste said. “I can’t lie, this makes our task very difficult.”

  “What about the other way?” Rorick wondered. “If the corridor to the right leads to the giants and this dog thing, where does the left lead?”

  “She went that way for a long time, but all she found was more and more tunnels. There’s no telling if there really is an end, much less where it leads.” Celeste shrugged.

  “So, basically it’s no use in trying that way?” Leona murmured.

  “Right. Even if there is an end to the left, who knows at the end of which tunnel it might lay? We know what is to the right. It’s best if we stick with that,” Skye said with a nod.

  “Alrig
ht, so here’s the plan. We will send Daphne out to look for the harbingers. She will let them know where we are, and she will lead them here. She will tell us when they are here, and when they are ready to attack. At that point we can make our move.” Celeste looked around at the rest of her group. “Does that sound like a good plan?”

  Abagail shrugged her hands. “It sounds like the best plan so far.”

  Rorick nodded and Leona made a noise.

  “Alright.” Celeste nodded to the pixie and Daphne fluttered to the door. Once she was beyond the iron doorway she vanished from sight.

  Abagail let out a breath, her muscles relaxing. “I guess there’s nothing to do now but wait.”

  “Try to get some sleep,” Skye said. “We will need our strength when the time comes.

  The door slammed open. The scream of the hinges and the reverberation of the iron door hitting the stone wall shivered through the room.

  Leona sat bolt upright, but the room was flooded with darkling wyrd, making it impossible for her to see more than a few feet before her. As the wyrd crawled up her body, her limbs began to harden like stone, making movement impossible.

  “Grab the youngest,” Gorjugan said.

  Rough hands locked around Leona, tugging her up into the air. She let out a scream, but she couldn’t move. No matter how she tried to fight against her captors, she just couldn’t. The wyrd wouldn’t let her.

  The darkness was parted by a light, and the cell door swung shut once more. She heard her friends yelling behind her, calling out to her, calling out for the trolls to bring her back.

  Still, Leona couldn’t move.

  The trolls were squat, misshapen things. Their eyes weren’t the same size, their bodies were a series of tumorous lumps with growths of hair. One of the trolls had a second head growing out of his neck, but it didn’t move, it simply hung there on his shoulder like it was sleeping.

  She closed her eyes against the nightmare of the trolls, but then thought better of it. Leona opened her eyes once more, trying to count the turns they made, and in which direction they went. After several minutes of torches whisking by and several turns that didn’t make any sense, Leona was confused.

  And then they dropped her. All air rushed out of her lungs when she made contact with the hard floor. The darkling wyrd released her, and once more she could move.