The monkey leaped onto Sophie"s back, and she staggered. "I can stand. I can"t run, and I don"t have another fight in me, but I can stand."
"You"ve had your fight. This next one is ours." Exasperated, Nikolas said, "Robin, can"t you go under your own steam?"
"We go together," the monkey said, wrapping its arms around Sophie"s neck. "We go at the same time."
The emphasis he put on the last word was a good reminder of how much time slippage there would be on the way back. Nikolas told Sophie, "You and I are going at the same time too, and I"m in the forefront."
She looked upward briefly, as if to ask for help from the heavens. "I will deign to agree, but only because I dislike winter so much and my coffee is back on Earth. The fact that my decision coincides with your orders is purely coincidental."
He took a deep, bracing breath and reached for patience. "I"m well aware of that."
He led the way back to the hole, where he found all his men except Braden waiting. He told all of them, "You"re relieved of duty too."
Gawain shook his head. "Not happening, mate."
"Me neither," Rowan said.
The rest of them shook their heads as well.
He was so d.a.m.n proud of them. So d.a.m.n proud.
Giving them a curt nod, he said, "Let"s go."
After that, things appeared to happen quickly. The first wave of troops, including Nikolas, Sophie, the puck, and the rest of his team, went through the cramped tunnel to the oubliette.
"I did the math," Rowan said almost cheerfully. "A fortnight in Lyonesse roughly equals six months on Earth. It took four hours or so for Sophie to contact Annwyn and to bring the troops. That means it"s been two and a half days on Earth. Not counting all the time slippages from when we ran around in the house, of course."
Gawain growled, "If you mean to be encouraging, you"re not helping."
Together they hoisted Cael up, then Rhys, who took a rope ladder with them. After a long, long-long-moment, they tossed one end of the ladder back down. The next man up carried another rope ladder, and the fourth man carried another, and then there wasn"t any room for more.
Nikolas went up before Sophie, and when she climbed up with Robin on her back, he was waiting to lift her the rest of the way out. They strode down the corridor. Someone who had come before them had moved Ashe"s body. Nikolas caught a glimpse of a still form lying in the armory, covered with a tapestry.
Cael met them in the courtyard. "Watch yourself," Cael warned. "There"s damage, and the b.a.s.t.a.r.d hasn"t stopped."
"Of course he hasn"t," Nikolas growled. He exchanged a look with Sophie, then they both hurried down the pa.s.sage that connected the courtyard to the great hall.
Once there, they turned in a circle, taking in the scene. It had changed drastically. Giant cracks marred the hall. The iron-bordered windows had warped, and the chimney over the large fireplace had broken in two. Stones had fallen out of the balcony floors, and timbers from the roof crisscrossed the open floor.
The monkey jumped off her shoulders and ran to the window. Sophie rested both hands on top of her head, her expression dismayed.
"My beautiful, spooky house." Her mouth drooped. "I don"t have chimney or roof insurance for a house built on a broken crossover pa.s.sageway."
"Don"t think about that right now," Nikolas told her. "We"re here, and we"re not blocked off from Earth yet."
"I know that"s the most important thing," she said bitterly. "But I loved this place, and he"s tearing it to pieces. If he"s broken my jar of instant coffee, I"m going to have a meltdown."
As she went rummaging in the grocery supplies, Nikolas joined Robin at the window to look through fractured panes of gla.s.s. A rumble began low in the distance and grew to vibrate through the building. He could feel the strain in the flagstones underneath his feet.
The interior of the house had taken serious damage, but outside, the scene looked downright apocalyptic. Trees had been downed, and wide, deep cracks ran in the earth across the clearing. Most of the gatekeeper"s cottage had crumbled to rubble. The gate pillars themselves, at the border of the road, had toppled over.
Morgan knelt outside, hands planted flat on the ground, while Hounds kept watch in a circle around the house. Nikolas checked the sun"s position. He guessed it was late morning. It looked like the b.a.s.t.a.r.d hadn"t taken a break in three days.
Nikolas said over his shoulder to Sophie, "You"re not going to like what he"s done to the rest of your property either."
"G.o.ddammit! I haven"t even gotten the t.i.tle doc.u.ments yet!" she wailed around a mouthful of food.
She joined him at the window, carrying a half-eaten protein bar in one hand and a bottle of black water in the other. She had changed her blood-soaked sweater for a clean, long-sleeved, gray cotton shirt. As he watched, she shook the bottle of water, uncapped it, and took a long swig while she glared out the window.
Distracted by the sight, he curled a lip in disgust. "You"re drinking cold, instant black coffee."
"It"s caffeine and hydration," she muttered. "I"m still on my feet, aren"t I? Besides, I didn"t feel comfortable lighting one of the propane stoves."
"Good point." Squeezing her arm, he turned to face the great hall.
Soldiers poured in.
"Archers to the front," he said. Four women and three men stepped forward. He told them, "We"re not going to make the same mistake we made the last time we fought on this land. We concentrate everything we have on bringing Morgan down. The Hounds might be dangerous, but they"re incidental."
Cramming the last of the protein bar into her mouth, Sophie turned to listen. When he paused, she said telepathically, Every good magic user I"ve ever known has some version of an avert spell for defense. And clearly Morgan is one h.e.l.l of a magic user.
He raised an eyebrow. Your point?
Well, you don"t want to just shoot at him, right? She drank the last of her coffee. You want to take out his magic too.
He said out loud, "The null spell. We need the null spell on as many arrows as we can get. How much magic-sensitive silver do you have?"
"Not enough to spell all their arrows," she said grimly, gesturing to the group. "I was on vacation. Choose your best archers, and we"ll go from there."
While Nikolas prioritized the group, Sophie retrieved her luggage and pulled out a small package. She called out to the gathering crowd, "Gawain?"
"Right here, la.s.s." Gawain shouldered through to her.
"Did you get metal-making tools for me?"
"We didn"t have time."
Her shoulders drooped. "Okay. Doesn"t matter. This doesn"t have to be pretty. We"re going to need to light a propane stove after all and use one of the cooking pots. All we have to do is get the silver melted enough to dip the tips of the arrows in it, and then we can cast the spell."
"Got it."
As they set to work, Nikolas organized others to shift the supplies, along with the fallen timbers and stones, into the side halls to make more room for arriving troops. They weren"t going to get all four hundred and fifty into the great hall, but if the troops stood shoulder to shoulder, they could get most of them in. The rest would have to line up back in the courtyard.
"Watch out for the painted lines!" he called out to the workers. "They mark time-s.p.a.ce shifts. There"s a shift along one side of the courtyard too-Rhys, go back there and make sure people know to avoid it."
"I"m on it." Rhys worked his way to the back.
Annwyn appeared at Nikolas"s side. She stared at the Mini and the Harley for a long moment and took a breath as if she meant to ask a question. But then, in the next moment, she seemed to think better of it, for she shook her head and let it go.
"How many have come through?" he asked.
"Close to three hundred," she told him.
Nodding, he strode to Gawain and Sophie, where they bent over a small propane stove set on the dining table. He asked, "What do you have?"
As he spoke, another low rumble started. This time it rose and rose, and a sharp crack sounded overhead. Immediately Gawain doused the flame while Nikolas lunged forward to cover Sophie"s head and shoulders with his, and people swore and crowded as close as they could to the walls.
For a long moment everyone in the great hall held tense and still as they waited, but nothing fell. Then Sophie said in a cranky, m.u.f.fled voice from underneath him, "We"ll get you ten spelled arrows as soon as you get off me. Any minute now."
With a growl, he expelled a sharp breath and rubbed his face in her hair.
Crazy. She made him crazy. Somehow in spite of that, he was more in love with her than ever.
Straightening, he said to everybody, "Get back to work."
Activity resumed. Gawain lit the propane stove again, and he and Sophie went back to spelling arrows. Annwyn joined them and said, "I don"t think this old place can take much more."
"I don"t either," Nikolas told her. "Soon as Gawain and Sophie are done, we"ll make our move."
"We"re done," Gawain said. He doused the flame again, and he and Sophie sat back. She handed Nikolas two fistfuls of arrows.
He strode over to the archers and handed the strongest ones two arrows each. "These are only to be used on Morgan," he said. "This is your only job."
"Understood," the lead archer said, her expression direct and clear.
As Sophie joined them, Nikolas said, "Morgan doesn"t know we"ve broken through to Lyonesse. He doesn"t know about any of you. Let"s keep it that way until we strike. I"m going to hide you with a cloaking spell. We"ll open the doors, and then you"ll hit him with everything you"ve got."
"Yes, sir."
They strode over to the doors. Annwyn said to the troops, "Get ready."
The troops drew their swords and readied shields, then silence fell in the great hall.
When Nikolas, Gawain, and Sophie reached the doors, Nikolas cast a ma.s.sive cloaking spell over the five archers who took their places behind them. Then Nikolas fixed Sophie with a stern look. "You"ll stay out of it."
She widened her eyes. "Oh, believe me, this is not my fight."
They pulled open the doors. Morgan lifted his head.
Sophie surveyed the wreckage of landscape with tightened lips. She called out, "I don"t know if you"re a monster or if you"re ma.s.sively misunderstood. But I do know one thing."
Morgan stood. Even from the distance of twenty meters, Nikolas could sense him ama.s.sing Power, as Morgan asked, "What is that, Sophie Ross?"
"You need to get off my lawn," Sophie said. She stepped to one side.
Nikolas whispered, "Now."
Five arrows flew through the air. Morgan dodged, moving so fast he turned into a blur. Most of the arrows missed.
One didn"t.
It struck him in the arm. The Hounds to either side of Morgan broke into a run, hurtling toward the house.
Even as Morgan reeled back, he flung his hand out in the direction of the open doors. Nothing happened. Behind Nikolas came the distinctive sound of the archers drawing their bows. Raising his hand, he kept his eyes trained on Morgan and the approaching Hounds.
Morgan tore the arrow out of his arm. The archers loosened their arrows, and he blurred again as he dodged. Another arrow hit, this time in his side. He stumbled and fell to his knees.
Nikolas dropped his hand and roared, "Go! Go!"
Soldiers sprinted out the open doors and collided with Hounds. More and more poured past Nikolas while he drew his own sword. He lunged onto the field eagerly, looking for Morgan.
This time, centuries later, the Daoine Sidhe had not come too late.
Chapter Twenty-One.
The battle was a complete rout.
Sophie climbed onto the Mini to get out of the way as troops streamed past. The sound of shouts, growls, and screams rocketed back through the open doors, echoing in the shattered great hall.
Robin had disappeared. Nikolas, she knew, would be in the thickest of the fight. He had lived for the eventuality of this battle. When the last of the troops had sprinted out of the manor house, she limped to the front doors to look out.
She"d been telling the truth earlier-she didn"t have another fight left in her. After running through every one of the shifts in the house, digging through to Lyonesse, and then coming back again, she couldn"t even imagine how to calculate how long ago it was that she might have slept.
She had jet lag on steroids. She had only eaten a protein bar in a very long time, probably in at least a day. The fight with Ashe had been short, but it had wounded her and knocked her around, and the wild ride to Raven"s Craig and back again had made every joint in her body ache.
Still, adrenaline coursed in her blood so strongly her hands shook. Just in case, she retrieved her gun from the micro vault and loaded it so she had some kind of physical weapon with her. The runes on her hands and arms were itching and beginning to crack and peel, but for now, she still had one telekinesis spell and one confusion spell left-she always counted her spells, just as she counted her bullets-and she watched from the doorway as the last of the Hounds was killed.
She could see no sign of Morgan, no sign of Nikolas. She saw Rhys and Rowan in the distance, and Annwyn strode across the clearing with two swords bloodied, looking fierce and magnificent. Finally, when the fighting died down and it looked calm enough to walk out, Sophie stepped outside and surveyed the full extent of the devastation.
Bodies littered the area as far as she could see. The nearby clumps of forest had been all but leveled. The small lake behind the house had drained into a huge crack in the ground. The cottage was rubble. One man had done this. One man had torn the earth apart, trying to get to them.
Her hands wouldn"t stop shaking.
Fight or flight. Fight or flight.
She hadn"t seen Robin since they had returned to the manor house, but she wasn"t worried. When they had broken through to Lyonesse, the puck had been revitalized, and he had shone with a kind of Power that had been nonexistent when she had first found him.
She walked to the cottage ruins and checked for the scent of gas. She didn"t smell anything, so she shrugged, found a likely piece of wall to perch on, and watched the aftermath. The Hounds had been decimated, but there had been injuries and casualties on the other side as well.
After some time, Nikolas, Gawain, and Cael walked out of the woods. Sophie sagged in relief. They moved slowly like they"d been running hard and were tired. Even from where she sat, she could see Annwyn lift a hand in inquiry, and Nikolas shake his head in reply.