Page 31 of The Guardians of Dreamdark
“Didn’t you see the beds? They never got out of their beds.”
Talon felt sick. He’d known something wasn’t right in the cottages, but he hadn’t been able to put his finger on just what. The lass was right. The blankets hadn’t been thrown back. There’d been no struggle and no sign they’d risen from their beds. It was as if they’d vanished in them. “What do you know?” he demanded.
“Nothing,” she cried, frustrated. “Still nothing! Except he’s come here to Dreamdark, of all places! What mad devil would come to Dreamdark?”
“Devil?” Talon repeated, incredulous.
Magpie saw the disbelief in his eyes. “Aye, devil,” she said. “But tell me, lad, what doyouknow?”
They faced off like a couple of cats that might start hissing and spitting at any moment. “Lad, lass,” Calypso said soothingly, coming forward. “It’s plain ye’ve two hard skulls between ye, but there’s no need for this. Sure we’re together against it, neh?”
“Against what, exactly?” Talon asked. “And don’t say devil. Every eejit knows they’re long dead and gone from this world!”
“Long gone? Aye. Long dead? Neh. They were never killed. They couldn’t be,” Magpie told him.
“Why? Sure Bellatrix could—”
“Ach, sure shecould. That’s not the thing. The thing is, the blighters got sparks, same as faeries. They die, they pass to the Moonlit Gardens, just like us.”
Talon looked at her, and some of the anger went out of his face, to be replaced with a dawning understanding. ‘Oh,” he said softly. “Couldn’t have the Gardens swarming with devils. So then...what became of ’em?”
“The champions caught ’em in bottles and threw ’em in the sea, sealed with magic nothing was ever supposed to undo. Everything was fine for thousands of years, while faeries made an art of forgetting.”
“And now one’s got out?”
Magpie grimaced. “One or two.”
“And it’s come here?” Talon asked. “That’s what it is? What’s it done to...?” His voice trailed off, and he and Magpielistened to the silence of West Mirth. “What’s it done to them?” he almost whispered.
“I don’t know,” she said, softening, and finally sheathing her knife. “I’ve never seen a devil like this.”
“And how many have you seen?”
“A fair few,” she answered gruffly, turning and walking out between Calypso and Algorab.
Talon followed. “Who are you? You’ve got to tell me what you know. It’s taken my kinsmen—”
Magpie turned to him. “What? When?”
“Late yestermorn. At Issrin Ev. They tracked some great vultures there, and only their knives were left to find. You don’t think they’re...”
“I don’t know. If it’s any comfort, I’ve never seen a devil eat but that it left a dread mess behind. Blood everywhere, and sometimes they spit out the skeletons like owl pellets.”
“That’s a great comfort, lass, sure,” he said with sarcasm. “Thanks for your heartfelt words.”
“Ach,” Magpie muttered, realizing how crude she must sound. Her cheeks colored a little. It was long since she’d been much in the company of faeries. Snoshti was right—shewasa barbarian. “Come on, birds, we got to go.”
“Lass, wait!” Talon said sharply.
She turned to him, her face guarded, but when her blue eyes locked on his, she saw only anxiety and fatigue. He held his hands out to her in the manner of greeting, and after a brief hesitation she reached out and pressed her palms against his. Both faeries’ eyes widened in surprise as they felt a sudden surge in the pulseof invisible force around them at the very moment of their touch. It tingled in their fingertips so that after they pulled their hands apart, both clutched their fingers surreptitiously into fists. Neither had any reason to think the other felt it, and they drew warily apart.
“You’ll warn the folks hereabouts?” Magpie asked Talon.
“Aye. I’ll bring them to the castle.”
“Good. That’s good. And...be careful, neh” She rose to her wings but hesitated a moment in the air with a thought on the tip of her mind. She said, “Lad, that skin...” She gestured to the gossamer fabric that still clothed him from neck to toes. “You really made it?”
“I finished it this dawn.”
