Cage of Thorn (The Blackthorn Cycle Book 2) Read online

  “The Hall of Stags,” Dax said. “This is where we housed our best fighters, back when we still had a robust defensive force. Our soldiery do still live here in the Hall of Stags, but their numbers are diminished.”

  “The carvings are beautiful,” Una said. “In fact, every part of the palace I’ve seen is glorious. I can hardly imagine that any place in my own realm is half as lovely. Maybe the Taj Mahal, or the Alhambra.”

  “Are those places great palaces, too?”

  “Yes,” Una said. “They’re both far away, though… not anywhere near Ireland. And I can’t be sure either palace is as large as yours; I haven’t visited them.”

  “Our stronghold is certainly large,” Dax said quietly. Una had the impression that he wasn’t pleased by her observation. “Once, we filled all these chambers and halls. Oh, we were not overcrowded; many of our people lived far beyond these walls, ranging everywhere across our realm. The palace was never crowded, but neither did the place echo as it does now. Hollow and all but empty—that’s how it feels to me.”

  Una watched him silently from the corner of her eye. Dax’s face was drawn, his eyes distant with his unpleasant thoughts.

  So I was right; their population is dwindling along with their power. Again, the guilty sadness she’d felt before tugged at her heart. Una shoved it aside, but she also cast about for something to distract Dax from his brooding. It seemed the right thing to do, to take her cousin’s mind off his dark inner turmoil

  “Why stags?” she asked. “For your military men, that is. Do stags hold some special significance for the Seelie?”

  The distraction was a good one. Dax told her a charming tale as they walked, about a white stag who rescued one of the first Seelie heroes when his enemies had trapped him on a river island. It was a fascinating bit of folklore; Una found herself taking real delight in the myth, for Dax was an excellent storyteller.

  She asked him to explain more of the palace’s symbols as they passed from hall to hall and garden to garden. Dax enraptured her with vivid tales of grape vines and silver birds, of foxes and owls and snow storms, all of which were said to have given aid to the Seelie in the past. Each element of Seelie folklore added to the mystical beauty of the grand palace, even if it did echo with emptiness, with the loneliness of their footfalls, as they toured the quiet grounds.

  Soon Una began to recognize a few features—carved figures and emblems she had seen on her first arrival at the Seelie Court. She perked up and glanced more sharply around, suspecting that Dax was leading her back to the huge, white-stone courtyard—the one with the four fountains and the tall, slender trees growing up from their planters. The one whose outer boundary was the enchanted circle of stones, the barrier that stood between Una and the rest of the Otherworld.

  She rubbed her thumb surreptitiously along one finger, and felt the strand of blue thread there, snug and secure where she’d left it some two days before. The thread had done its job, reminding her of the ring of stones—and the necessity to get beyond it—even when her food-daze was at its thickest. Una bit her lip to slow her heartbeat as Dax guided her out of a hall and into the courtyard of fountains. She must look for her opportunity… but she mustn’t give way her intentions, mustn’t betray her thoughts to the prince.

  The courtyard was the same as she remembered it—the broad, white stones flooring the place in an expanse of shining smoothness; the clusters of slender trees growing up from great white boxes; the four fountains splashing musically at each corner. But the yard was not empty now, unlike the last time she had seen it. Now it was populated by several groups of Seelie, and each group was engaged in various tasks. Women wove long strips of that strange, shimmering cloth on great wooden looms below the trees. Another group seemed to be a music class; a dark-haired woman led a few children—the first Una had seen—as they plunked at the strings of small harps in ragged unison. Still another group of young women danced and giggled beside one of the fountains, now and then deigning to dip crumpled robes in the water and wring them out on the paving stones, a languid, half-hearted attempt at laundry.

  Each group of Seelie looked up curiously as Una passed by on the prince’s arm. Una often detected murmurs of approval; the Seelie seemed to be quite satisfied to see the human woman in close company with their prince.

  Do they think I’ve finally accepted his advances? Una wondered. Do they believe I’ve become his mistress?

  Beyond the courtyard, across its wide stretch of elegant, pale stone, Una could see the ring of upright stones curving around the palace grounds like a solemn gray palisade. She tensed at sight of the boundary, then breathed steadily, trying to calm herself. Dax would surely notice her change in mood unless she could slow her racing heart, and it wouldn’t do now to put the Seelie prince on the alert. Una smiled and nodded as he spoke, giving every indication of listening attentively to the prince’s discussion of the palace’s architecture, its stone, its history… but even while she smiled complacently, Una’s thumb couldn’t stop teasing the blue thread wrapped around her finger.

  The ring—the stones, Una thought as she played with the thread.

  The boundary of the Seelie spell: it was so close now, near enough that she could almost feel its strange, water-like pressure once more. She would break through that barrier as soon as she could discover how to overcome the Leanan Sidhe. If the creature could be overcome by a mere human, magic-less as Una was.

  Suddenly, Una became aware that Dax was no longer speaking. She glanced at him and saw that he was looking at her expectantly, waiting for her to give some response to what he’d just said.

  Una gave a little jump and combed frantically through her thoughts, searching for whatever Dax had just said.

  “Er… yes,” she stammered. “The ramparts up on the highest walls are certainly very… er… formidable.”

  “Indeed,” Dax said smoothly. “That was what our ancestors had in mind. The Unseelie have been our enemies for as long as we can remember, so of course, we—”

  His vibrant green eyes slid past Una, gazing beyond her across the courtyard. For a moment so brief Una almost didn’t catch it, the prince’s serene features registered distraction, annoyance—or perhaps it was worry. Then an air of perfect, unruffled control settled over him again.

  He smiled lightly at her. “A moment, please.”

  Una turned, looking over her shoulder. Across the white courtyard, a group of Seelie men were rushing toward Dax. A crowd of others followed behind, huddled and obviously agitated. As the crowd made its way across the courtyard, the groups of women and children who’d been gathered there, engaged in the pleasant activities of their day-to-day lives, left off what they were doing. The Seelie murmured and stared at one another with expressions of obvious distress.

  Una recognized the foremost group of Seelie—those who were coming toward her and Dax the fastest—as the very same men who had come to apprehend her when she’d left her room and gone to the gazing pool. Were they a contingent of guards, then? Soldiers? As they came closer, she realized that each of the men carried something in his hand: a weapon, but like no weapon Una had ever seen. The implements were long, sharp, and nearly as thin as needles; wickedly pointed on one end, with a cruel hook curving at the other end. The pike-like devices were transparent, but their edges ran with delicate light, delineating the brutal sharpness of the weapons. The things looked as if they were made from glass or ice.

  Una stifled a gasp. She had not yet seen any of the Seelie armed. With a flash of panic, she wondered whether the guards had come for her. She shrank back behind Prince Dax, hoping that if they had come to take Una again, he would defend her. She didn’t think she would be much of a match for those ice-like spears.

  “My prince,” the foremost guard said. He bowed low, but straightened almost at once. His black hair rippled like a silk banner as he moved. “Our boundary signals have been triggered—and in multiple locations. I have the rest of our fighters patrolling the perimeter
stones, but we came to find you, to hear your orders.”

  Tense murmurs rippled through the crowd of ordinary Seelie. Una could read fear and uncertainty plainly on their faces—perhaps, as Dax had claimed, Seelie and humans were not so dissimilar after all.

  Dax, however, did not appear frightened. He maintained his regal calmness with admirable poise. “How many signals were triggered?”

  “Nine, that I know of, my prince. But I came to find you straight away; there may be more that I do not yet know about.”

  Una’s eyes darted from Dax to the soldier and back again. She was burning with curiosity—what were these signals the men spoke of?—but she knew it was a poor time to interrupt.

  “So she has tried to breach our perimeter in that many places—and all at once?” Dax murmured thoughtfully. “She is growing bolder… more confident.”

  Una bit her lip. She may be a newcomer to the Otherworld, but she had no doubt who Dax meant by “she.” It was Etain, the Leanan Sidhe.

  “Growing more powerful, if you ask me,” the dark-haired one said gruffly. “What else could make her feel free to attempt such a thing?”

  More powerful? A chill crept through Una’s body. Does that mean she has drained more of Ailill’s strength?

  “After all, it’s a dangerous thing she tried,” the soldier continued. “Throwing herself at our ring of protective spells in nine places at once… or perhaps more places; we haven’t heard back from the farthest sentries yet. Her power must have taken a great leap forward; it can mean nothing else.”

  As if to confirm Una’s fears, Dax cast one brief glance at her. She saw the faintest flicker of anxiety in his eyes before he looked quickly away.

  So he knows, too. Of course. He understands what it must mean if Etain has grown in power. What it means for Ailill… what it means for me.

  “Dax,” Una said, struggling to keep the tremor of fear out of her voice, “You must let me—”

  But Dax didn’t allow Una to finish her sentence. He gestured with a steady hand at the Seelie who clustered behind the soldiers. “Into the palace, everyone,” he commanded, cool and serene. “Arm yourselves with whatever is to hand. With luck, none of us will have to fight—not even our trained fighters. But we will all be prepared to face the worst if necessary, yes?”

  “Dax!” Una clutched his harm desperately. “Please, listen to me. I have to—”

  The prince jerked his head at the guards, a silent command. Two of them stepped forward, flanking Una, while one laid a hand gently on her shoulder.

  “Come now, my lady,” the guard said. “We’ll see you safely back to your chamber, and I’ll remain to watch your door, to be certain you’re unharmed.”

  They led her a few paces away from Dax, but Una stopped and turned back to him. “Where are you going? What will you do?”

  “Go along with them, Una,” Dax said. “They will ensure your safety. I have other duties I must attend to now. Our people need me.”

  “What is going on? Will somebody tell me?”

  “Very likely, there is no cause for alarm. As soon as I can verify that the palace is secure, and our perimeter spells are still intact, I will come to you. Go, now. Until we can be certain of our safety, it is best to move with urgency.”

  “Come along, my lady,” one of the soldiers said again.

  Una stumbled along between the two Seelie guards, her feet numb, her heart beating painfully in her chest. So Etain had attacked the palace. Could Una still have a scrap of hope that Ailill was alive? She glanced back over her shoulder, across the courtyard with its fountains and shady bowers. The Seelie were scattering in all directions, hurrying for the shelter of the great stone palace. Dax strode among them, tall and proud, calling out orders to men as he passed. And beyond Dax, beyond the courtyard, Una could see the great, tall, stones, moss-covered, granite-black, looming in their silent, protective circle.

  The guards were leading her ever farther away from the spell-laced perimeter. And once they had her back in the chamber, Una could guess what would happen to her. Despite Dax’s cordiality, he would pen her up there—keep her under lock and key, with these very soldiers on the door. She was the most valuable asset the Seelie Court had—their thin shield, their fragile dagger. If the vampiric creature were truly attacking the magical shields that surrounded the palace, there was no way Dax would allow Una out of her chamber again. And he would certainly not entertain any talk of her venturing beyond the ring of stones, out into the Otherworld to find and rescue Ailill. If Ailill could still be rescued at all.

  It’s now or never, Una told herself. Now, while they’re distracted. Now, while they must think of saving their own hides.

  If Ailill were alive, Una knew she must go to him now… now, or not at all.

  It’s mad. It’s reckless. I’ve no idea what I’m doing, where I’ll go, how to fight this Leanan creature.

  But the time had come, and it might never come again.

  Before she could talk herself out of it—before she could make herself acknowledge plain, common sense—Una spun suddenly away from the Seelie guards and sprinted back across the courtyard.

  She heard their shouts of alarm behind her, the pattering of their cat-like feet against the white stone as they gave chase. But she would not stop. She would not surrender. She would fight her way free from the Seelie Court or die trying. Ailill needed Una now more than ever before.

  She ran straight for the nearest moss-covered stone and did not look back as the Seelie, with their magic and their ice-like spears, pursued her.

  10

  After days of confinement in the Seelie realm—days spent sitting beside the gazing pool or sleeping off the wine haze in her room—Una’s body responded with infuriating sluggishness. The muscles of her legs protested as she tried to sprint across the courtyard. She couldn’t go nearly as fast as she wanted to—needed to—but the element of surprise gave her a minuscule edge over the soldiers. They hadn’t expected Una to bolt like a rabbit loosed from a snare. They’d thought her cowed, perhaps still drugged by the effects of their food and wine.

  The few seconds she gained on the soldiers were as precious as solid gold, for the Seelie were superior to Una in every way. Surely they would have caught her in a fraction of a moment if she had given them even a few seconds’ more warning. Or perhaps they could have used magic to stop her—to confuse and misdirect her, or to physically halt her, if they were capable of such a thing.

  The crowd helped, too, providing a confusion of bodies into which Una could disappear. She dodged and ducked and twirled, darting her way through the press of agitated Seelie, putting as many of them between herself and the guards as she could manage.

  When she broke free of the crowd, Una urged her stiff, cramping legs to move faster, faster… the stone ring was only a few yards away now! she could almost see each frond of fern and spike of moss on the nearest stone as she ran toward it.

  “Stop her!” one of the guards shouted.

  An answering cry of confusion and fear went up from the Seelie crowd. If a few of them now realized what was going on—the hope for their future, making a break for freedom—they didn’t attempt to catch Una. For all any of them knew, Etain may be poised to attack the palace again… or might already have found a way inside. Price Dax had said to get inside, to prepare for a fight, and it seemed all the Seelie were intent on doing just that.

  Una was nearly at the stones now. Just a few paces more… a few more…! She gritted her teeth to stop herself from screaming with tension and rage, for she felt sure, with a creeping chill, that at any moment she would feel the bite of one of those terrible glass spears between her shoulder blades.

  But no—that was impossible. Dax and the rest of his people wanted her alive—needed her alive. She would be useless to them, skewered on the end of one of their strange weapons, bleeding out her life on their pretty white paving stones. Or so she desperately hoped.

  Una heard one of the guards close in,
his breath rasping in his throat. Then she felt a sudden, alarming tightness at her neck as the soldier caught hold of her silken gown. Una grated out an animalistic scream of denial and kept on running; the silk bit painfully into her skin as she strained against it. With a sound like a shocked exhalation, the fabric tore at Una’s shoulder, and she broke away from her would-be captor.

  Una leaped with all her strength, thrusting herself beyond the reach of the guard before he could seize her again. As she passed the boundary stone, the air congealed around her just as it had done before, thickening, holding her briefly in place. For one sickening heartbeat, Una was certain one of the Seelie had trapped her in place with magic. But she remembered the strange sensation she’d felt when she had crossed this boundary the first time, when Bracken had led her to the palace. It was only the magic of the protective barrier that surrounded her now. A moment later, it released her, and she tumbled to the ground with the force of her momentum, rolling through moss and mud.

  The second she stopped rolling, Una scrambled to her feet and bolted into the surrounding forest, diving into the thickest part of the undergrowth, hoping it would help conceal her from the guards. Branches like skeletal hands reached for her, grasping her, and she didn’t know whether it was her frantic imagination, or whether the forest was truly enchanted—whether it was coming to life, attempting to squeeze her in a damp, woody fist. She slapped and kicked at the branches as she struggled through the forest; saplings snagged her ripped gown and tore at her skin, while thickets of thorny brambles scratched her ankles and conspired to trip her.

  Una heard no signs of pursuit, but she knew better than to believe that meant she was safely away. The Seelie could move as silently as panthers, and she wasn’t about to believe the guards had given up on her so quickly. Una refused to look back, refused to slow down. If Dax’s soldiers wished to recapture her, they would have to fight hard, and Una was determined resist them every step of the way back to that damnable chamber.