Page 66 of Tattered Huntress
Eyes stared at me from behind the bars, some fearful, some resigned. Only a few displayed a flicker of hope. I couldn’t begin to imagine why Greenwood had imprisoned so many creatures in this place; I didn’twantto imagine why.
‘It’s a nightmare,’ Otis mumbled. ‘It’s a fucking nightmare.’ It was the first time I’d ever heard him swear and I sincerely hoped it would be the last.
I leaned backwards slightly, listening for the Burlies. By the sounds of things they’d gone. I leapt towards the first row of cages. Here we go. Here we fucking go.
The cages didn’t have locks but that didn’t make opening the bloody things any easier. They didn’t need locks when they were made of iron. I employed the same technique I’d used on the front door, covering my skin with the flimsy material from my shirt and avoiding touching the metal for any length of time.
I focused on the thrill of the spider’s silk overdose and started tearing open the doors one after the other. Brownie. Brownie. Brownie. Leprechaun. Brownie. Troll. Each dazed prisoner stared at me but stayed inside their cage as if they suspected some sort of trick.
The troll, who was a third of the size of Duchess and considerably thinner probably because of prison rations, cleared his throat. ‘Who are you?’ His voice was scratchy and it seemed to cost him a lot of effort to get the words out.
‘My name is Daisy. You’re free now. You can leave.’
He still didn’t move and I cursed under my breath. I went to the front door and gritted my teeth at the renewed surge of bone-deep pain as I opened it again.
‘Go!’ I flapped my arms. ‘Get out of here! If you head around the back, you can climb the wall.’ I turned to the next row of cages. Three more brownies. Two goblins. And… Fucking hell. I looked at the final cage, which was larger than the others. A damned unicorn.
There were painful looking sores on its body where it had doubtless brushed against the iron bars of its cage. Even here in Scotland where unicorns were the national animal, it wasincredibly rare to see one. I looked into her Mediterranean-blue eyes at the sadness reflected in their depths. There was vicious fury there, too. ‘How the hell willyouclimb a wall?’ I muttered to myself.
The unicorn dipped her head and stretched the tip of her horn towards me. I ripped open the cage door. ‘We’ll find a way,’ I told her. ‘You are all getting out of here.’
Hester flapped her arms as she hovered in the doorway. ‘Here!’ she called frantically. ‘This way! Follow me!’
All the captives gazed at her and for a moment I thought that none of them would move. Then the unicorn stepped forward, her hooves thudding against the wooden floor. I moved aside and she slowly walked out onto the porch. As she tilted her head up to the sky and sniffed the clear air, I swallowed a large lump in my throat. A second later she took off, wheeling around the pavilion and heading for the far wall.
I ran after her, even though I had no idea how I could help her. I needn’t have worried. As soon as the perimeter wall came into view, the unicorn picked up speed and started to gallop. I squeaked with terror, convinced she would crash head first into the stone and fracture her skull.
She dipped her head and her horn stretched out in front of her. ‘No!’ I yelled, no longer caring if the security guards heard me. ‘Stop! Don’t do it!’
The unicorn galloped harder. I came to a stuttering stop, watching her in horror. ‘Don’t worry, Daisy,’ Otis said by my ear. ‘She’s got this.’
I barely heard him; I was too busy summoning as much power as I could, combining both air and earth magic to shake the foundations of the wall and make it collapse. But the unicorn was preternaturally fast, faster than the damned magic.
Her horn smacked into the stone wall. There was a tremendouscrash and dust filled the air as it crumbled. A split second later, my magic flashed uselessly into the space where the wall had been. The unicorn had destroyed a seven-metre section of it all on her own.
She leapt through the rubble and vanished in an instant, leaving me gaping after her.
Somewhere behind me near the house a shrieking alarm rent the air – but it was already too late. A posse of brownies flew past, then the leprechaun ran forward, his legs and arms pumping hard as he sprinted through the gap in the wall. The troll cantered after him. Even the goblins, who weren’t known for their speed, disappeared into the cloud of dust.
It might have taken them a moment or two to pluck up the courage to leave their cages, but as soon as they had they’d moved fast. I reckoned less than thirty seconds passed between the unicorn leaving the pavilion and the goblins making their escape.
‘We should go too!’ Otis urged. ‘Greenwood’s security guards will already be on their way!’
Whether it was because of the spider’s silk overdose, the adrenaline in my body or simply the joy of witnessing the escape, I felt completely calm.
‘No,’ I told him dreamily. ‘We still have work to do.’
Chapter
Twenty-Five
Iturned back and faced the pavilion. My magic couldn’t melt the iron but the rest of the horror-clad building was made of wood. Now that it was empty of living creatures, it was safe to destroy it.
I smiled humourlessly, released the tight control I’d been clinging onto and threw enough fire magic to set it ablaze. The resulting bonfire was the most glorious thing I’d ever seen. The flames glowed red and yellow, their crackling warmth the complete opposite to the sensation that the cold iron had created. ‘So pretty,’ I murmured. ‘So fabulous.’
‘Now can we go?’ Otis shouted in my ear, struggling to make himself heard over the roar of the fire.
I shook my head. ‘We still have to get the key part.’
