Page 47 of The Iron Vow

“Fair enough, princess. But we’re going to have to get across somehow.”

Ash gazed around the soaring peaks. “There,” he said, pointing to something over the falls. I followed his direction and saw a scraggly tree growing from a ledge in the mountainside, its roots barely clinging to the crumbling rock. It looked rather sickly; its trunk was decayed, and only a few withered leaves dotted its branches, but it was better than nothing. Trees weren’t exactly in abundance along these cliff sides; the only other vegetation I could see was a few withered bushes and several clumps of grass that looked like all the color had been leached out of them.

Puck, also following the pointed finger, wrinkled his nose. “Not a very sturdy-looking bridge, ice-boy,” he said. “I’d give it four out of ten stars on the safety meter. But, since we’re not exactly spoiled for choice, who’s gonna climb up there and get our bridge for us?”

Our Nyx stepped forward, peering up at the jutting limb. “I don’t think I’ll need to climb,” she said, giving it a thoughtful look. “The roots don’t look very stable.” A curved blade appeared in her hand. “I think I can cut it down from here.”

“Wait.” Ash raised a hand, though his gaze wasn’t on the branch overhead. He was scanning the sides of the cliffs around us with narrowed eyes. “I don’t think we’re alone up here.”

Chilled, I looked up and saw what he was talking about. There were no Nightmares or monsters perched on the walls or ledges around the waterfall, no eyes peering down hungrily. But several large gaps and crevices had been bored into the stone. Large enough for something slim or insect-like to squeeze into.

I suddenly felt eyes on me. Or maybe that was my paranoid imagination.

Gilleas sighed. “I was going to ask a fellow intellectual what he thought of all this,” he said. “But it appears he has disappeared again. Am I to assume that this is normal?”

Grimalkin had indeed vanished. Which made everyone who knew him even more wary. Puck groaned and pulled his daggers, and Ash casually stepped closer to me. “Normal, yes,” Puck said. “Ideal? Never.”

“Nyx,” I said, and both Evenfaeries looked at me, their movements so identical, it gave me a brief surreal moment. I shook it off and nodded to the branch. “Go ahead and get that tree down. We’re going to have to cross the river one way or another.”

They both nodded. A moment later, two spinning blades of light flashed through the air, streaking directly toward the tree. At the last second, both blades seemed to curve and separate from each other, striking the roots attached to the rock face at different angles and cutting through the gnarled wood like it wasn’t there. The tree immediately shuddered, bent over, and toppled from the cliff.

“Timber!” called Puck.

The tree plummeted. Miraculously, it hit the river precisely where we needed it to, straddling both banks, sending an impressive spray of water into the air. The crash from the falling trunk shook the ground and echoed off the surrounding peaks.

A ripple shuddered through the cliffs around us. The stirring of many bodies all at once. Hisses and high-pitched snarls rose into the air, coming from the dozens of holes and crevices in the rock, and things began emerging into the light.

“Yep, I hate it when Furball disappears.” Puck sighed as a black leathery wing poked out of one of the cracks. A head followed, wrinkled and hairy, with large, tattered ears and a nose that looked like something had squashed it. Glowing white eyes with no pupils glared down at us. Then the bat-like creature gave a shriek and leaped into the air, soon joined by dozens swarming overhead.

Screaming, the bats descended, swooping from the sky in a flurry of claws and flapping wings. One landed in front of me with a snarl, baring oversize fangs as I slashed at it. My blade cut into the sinewy body, and the bat gave a hiss as it scuttled back.

Another came at me from above; I caught a split-second glimpse of outstretched wings and grasping talons before Ash’s sword sheared through the creature’s body, splitting it in half. Like most things in Faery, the creature didn’t crumple and die; its body burst into dozens of tiny brown bats that flew into the air and scattered.

Something grabbed the back of my shirt from behind, momentarily lifting me into the air. I lashed out, my blade striking flesh and bone, and was instantly dropped with an angry hiss. “They’re trying to throw us off the mountain,” one of the Nyxes warned, as I dodged the talons of another bat and jabbed it in the leg. “Don’t let them get a hold of you.”

“Easier said than done,” Puck called back. “These things are very grabby. Hey, hey, no. Stop it.” He slashed at another pair, keeping them at bay. “I’m gonna need you guys to respect my personal bubble. No, see, you’re not listening. Agh! Get off! Bad bat things! No touchie!”

Looking back, I saw two of the bats holding the back of Puck’s hoodie between them and flapping into the air. Puck squirmed, twisting in their grasp, and managed to stab a bat in the thigh, making it screech and let go. But the second bat lifted him higher, dragging him toward the edge of the cliff. A few paces away, Varyn sliced the neck of another bat, kicked it away from him, and glanced over his shoulder, seeing Puck struggling with the winged monster overhead. For a moment, there was a clear, open shot between Varyn and the bat.

He hesitated. Just a single heartbeat, but the bat holding Puck rose even higher into the air, flapping closer to the edge. I started forward, but Nyx threw out a hand, and a curved blade went spinning through the air, passing through the neck of the bat creature. It had just a moment to hiss in surprise before its head toppled from its skinny shoulders and its body exploded into tiny bats. They swarmed into the air with furious squeaks, and Puck dropped to the ground.

He shot Varyn a poisonous glare as he rose, but another pair of monster bats descended on him with deafening screeches, and whatever he was about to say was lost in the cacophony.

“Meghan.” Ash caught my gaze through the swirl of flailing wings and claws. “Guard my back,” he said, turning to impale a bat through the chest. “Don’t let them get behind us.”

I nodded and whirled to stand back-to-back with my husband, feeling his tense muscles against mine. A bat screeched somewhere behind my head, but I trusted Ash would not let it touch me and focused on the enemies in front of me. The bats hissed, frustrated that they couldn’t sneak behind us, but it was still difficult slashing at enemies in the sky. It was like fighting a pack of wolves, only more annoying because the harrying tactics came from overhead as well as the ground.

Several bats closed in. For a few seconds, I couldn’t see anything but flapping wings, fangs, and grasping talons. I parried and lashed out grimly, cutting through leathery membranes and hairy limbs, and the air surrounding us filled with tiny bodies that squeaked as they flew away.

“We’re driving them back!” Keirran’s voice rang out, though I couldn’t tell from where. “Don’t stop.”

The swarm of wings and claws suddenly ceased. Panting, I looked up, seeing the remaining bat creatures flapping away, hissing and snarling down at us. But they didn’t flee. All the bats rose up to perch on the walls and peaks of the mountain, still glowering at us with baleful white eyes.

“Not running away, I see,” Puck observed. “You’d think they’d learn.”

“They might be rallying,” Ash muttered. He pressed closer to me, raising his sword and never taking his eyes from the swarm. “Keep your guard up for the next attack.”

The bats did not attack. They fell silent, baring their fangs, eyes glowing in the night. Then, as one, they lifted their heads and opened their jaws as if they were screaming. At first I didn’t hear anything. The swarm of bats clung to the walls, heads raised and jaws gaping, but seeming to make no sound.

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