Duck, Duck, Noose Read online

  I glanced at Maya, walking cautiously by my side. She’d spent her fair share of time as Estus’ prisoner. “Were you kept anywhere besides the dungeons or the torture rooms?” I whispered.

  She shook her head.

  I turned my gaze back down the hall, just as someone stepped into view.

  He was just as I remembered him. Small, around Maya’s size, with dark, loose-fitting clothing. His silver hair was twisted into an elaborate braid that trailed over his seemingly frail shoulders to reach his ankles. He smiled, crinkling the fine lines on his face.

  “You’re early, Madeline,” he said pleasantly.

  Faas and Alejandro were suddenly at my sides, while Frode and Marcos took up positions in front of us. Maya stepped behind me. I remained silent, waiting for him to speak. Why was he confronting us alone? It was a bold move, for a less than bold man.

  “Is it Estus?” Faas whispered. “Or the key?”

  I focused my attention on the man before us, and really couldn’t tell. They had similar energy to begin with. If Mikael’s theory was correct, the key would have fully possessed Estus, rather than sharing space like it had with me. But did it really have that kind of power?

  “Where are Alaric and Sophie?” I demanded.

  He smiled and took a step toward us. “You truly think I would hold them here, where you could so easily snatch them away?”

  My heart sped. Was he lying? “Where are they?” I repeated.

  He smiled wickedly. “Some place you will never reach them without my aid.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t believe you.”

  He laughed, then lifted a hand to observe his nail beds, as if exceedingly bored. “Search the entire Salr if you like. You will not find them.”

  I gritted my teeth in frustration and balled my hands into fists, wanting nothing more than to rush forward and lash out at him. “And Mikael?” I asked through my clenched jaw.

  His sudden anger hit me like a ton of bricks, matching my own. Mikael had done something that he hadn’t liked, which likely meant he was still alive. It was a start. Now to stay alive long enough to find him.

  “What do you want from us?” I asked. “Why take Alaric and Sophie at all?”

  His anger was suddenly shut away, and I couldn’t sense a single thing from him. Like he was afraid I’d learn his thoughts. Shielding was a skill the key had learned right along with me, but that still didn’t tell me which energy inhabited the man before us. Estus could have learned to shield his emotions on his own.

  “What are you hiding?” I pressed.

  “Everything will be revealed at my inauguration ball,” he replied. “For tonight, you and I have much to discuss. Alone.”

  I frowned. I was leaning more and more toward the idea that we were speaking with the key, which was unnerving on so many levels. Estus was a clever man, who chose his words wisely, and he wasn’t making any sense right now. I wasn’t needed for his plans. He’d made that quite clear after he stole the key from me.

  “He’s afraid of us,” Marcos stated coolly, referring to Estus. “Together we pose too great a threat.”

  Estus glared. “I am simply cautious. I did not enjoy being trapped, and lied to.”

  Well shit. He was the key after all. He was referring to his time spent inside my mind, when the Morrigan and I had kept our thoughts secret. Mikael had been right, which meant . . . I finished my thought out loud so the others could hear. “The key is afraid because I’m too much like it. My energy is what’s needed to balance the chaos it embodies,” I turned my gaze to Estus, but continued speaking to my companions, “He, the key, is planning something that involves my energy. Kidnapping Alaric and Sophie wasn’t part of Estus’ ploy for revenge, it was part of the key planning something entirely different. Estus didn’t need me. The key does.”

  Estus/the key growled, then lifted a hand into the air. Suddenly my limbs seized, and I began to walk forward jerkingly against my will. Estus’ powers were in telepathy, and mild telekinesis, and now the key had those skills too, only amplified.

  “I fear nothing!” he/the key shouted, his curled hand looking like a claw as he used his mind to force me forward.

  Alejandro turned and wrapped his arms around me, straining to hold me in place while Faas and Marcos stepped forward. I sensed Faas’ power, so similar to mine, as it enveloped Estus. Faas was trying to drain the key’s energy, but it wasn’t working. It was like there was an impenetrable barrier around Estus. A barrier I knew quite well.

  When the key had been a physical object, no one could harm me unless it chose to allow it. When Alaric had tried to rip the key from my throat, he’d been thrown backward by an invisible force. Now that force was protecting Estus from having his energy drained. It wasn’t like when Faas had kept me drained. I’d had control over my own body, even with the key, and I had allowed Faas to take my energy. Neither the key, nor Estus, if he had any control, were allowing Faas to drain them now.

  A sudden force tugged at my chest, as if I were a marionette, and Estus held my strings.

  Maya joined in the fight to keep me away from him, but her small body didn’t add much weight. Frode rushed forward and tried to freeze Estus, but his ice stopped and dissipated in midair, not even getting close to touching him.

  I felt it the moment Marcos added his energy to Faas’, and the force tugging on my body began to subside.

  With a snarl, Estus shifted his focus to them. He swept his arm outward, and both men were flung back like they weighed nothing, narrowly missing Alejandro where he held me.

  Estus turned his attention back to me, and I was jolted forward. Alejandro, his arms still wrapped around me, pushed me back, but I was moving on waves of the key’s power, not just with my own force. Alejandro was no match for that pull.

  Tears rimmed my eyes as I struggled to simply not move forward. It took so much concentration I almost didn’t notice the small form behind Estus. A few feet behind him, Sivi held her arms out in front of her. An impossibly large wave of water erupted from her palms. It parted and flowed around Estus, then grew in volume as it collided with us, knocking us all off our feet.

  Alejandro lost his grip on me, and I struggled to paddle upward as suddenly the entire hall was filled with a heavy current of water. Knowing I stood no chance of swimming against it, I swam with it, just trying to keep my body afloat.

  Maya’s head crested the surface of the water beside me. She gasped and sputtered for breath. We picked up speed down the hall, and I almost didn’t believe my eyes as the unnatural water took a sharp left turn. It flowed down the stairs of the dungeon like an invisible barrier had diverted it, leaving the hall further down perfectly dry.

  Suddenly I realized that Sivi hadn’t been trying to attack Estus, nor had she tried to attack us. She saw that we were about to lose, and was helping us escape.

  I tried to turn with the current as I reached the hall that led to the dungeon, but there was no need. The water contained itself like there was an invisible barrier adjacent to the dungeon’s entrance. I bobbed in the water for a few seconds as I bumped into that barrier, then shot along with the water down into the dungeon. The water splashing in my face obscured my sight. Were my companions still around me? I hoped so, but I couldn’t worry about them at that moment. I just had to worry about staying on top of the current.

  I had picked up so much speed that the long, cell-lined corridors whooshed right by. Once I reached the corridor we’d entered through, another invisible barrier diverted the water. Yet this time, the water didn’t flow forward into the corridor. I was thrown out of it, like I was reaching the end of a long amusement park water slide. I hit the stone ground hard, then barely managed to roll out of the way as Alejandro came flying out of the water right after me.

  His reflexes quicker than mine, he leapt to his feet and grabbed my hand, dragging me back as the rest of our party shot out of the water to land in a groaning heap.

  We helped everyone to their feet word
lessly, then Alejandro tugged me toward the vines that would take us back above ground.

  I tugged back. “Alaric could still be here!” I shouted.

  The others could leave, but there was no way I could depart without searching for him. Estus had claimed he wasn’t there, but Estus was also a liar. So was the key. They both lied to themselves even more than they lied to everyone else.

  “You can’t help him if you’re dead!” Alejandro shouted, taking both my arms in his.

  His wild emotions stopped me, and I nodded numbly. He was right. I was being stupid. We all rushed forward into the vines that would carry us back into the cold moonlight, no closer to saving those I cared about most.

  17

  Two by two, we emerged from the ground into the chilly night air. Our clothes were sopping wet, adding to the cold, though only some of us seemed to be affected by it.

  “Where’s Tallie?” Alejandro questioned.

  I glanced around in the darkness, but didn’t see her.

  “We need to get away from here,” Faas cautioned. “Once we’re safe, we’ll regroup and come up with a new plan.”

  I felt like I might vomit, but nodded, then took off at a run, back toward civilization. I was worried about where Tallie might have gone, but it wouldn’t do anyone any good for us to wait around for Estus to surface, even with the banshees aiding us. I just wasn’t sure who would win.

  My brief thought of the banshees brought them to close in around us. I thought of Tallie, urging them to find her. Their dark shapes whirled around me for a moment, then veered to the left, leading us in a different direction. Desperately wanting to return to civilization, but not wanting to leave Tallie behind, I followed. Nobody questioned me as I darted away into the woods. They just fell into step around me.

  I ran on, occasionally stumbling. My sopping wet clothes tugged at my skin uncomfortably as my over the shoulder purse thunked irritatingly at my side with every step, catching on the blade at my right hip. I frowned as I thought of the blades, which had been utterly useless. If Faas’ powers couldn’t touch Estus, there was no way mundane steel would.

  We ran for around a mile, and I felt just about ready to collapse when we heard voices. Several figures were standing roughly thirty feet away, softly illuminated by moonlight. At our approach, the nearest one turned to face us. It was Tallie. My knees felt weak with sudden relief as I realized who was with her.

  Tallie trotted in our direction, spewing apologies as soon as she reached us. They fell on deaf ears. I rushed past her toward the six-foot-five figure she had been speaking with.

  Mikael wrapped me up in his arms as I reached him, lifting me off my feet and spinning me in a small circle. “When Tallie told me she let you go into Estus’s Salr without me, I could have killed her,” he explained, letting me down to my feet. “How could you be so stupid?”

  I smiled despite his harsh words. “I didn’t know if you were alive or dead, and I couldn’t just leave Alaric and Sophie down there to rot.”

  “But you didn’t find them?” he asked, quickly taking in those gathered behind me.

  Aila moved to stand at Mikael’s back, along with several other people I didn’t recognize.

  I shook my head, then lifted my eyebrows at Mikael in question. “Care to explain what you have been up to?”

  “We will discuss everything,” he explained. “But first I must know, did you encounter Estus?”

  I nodded, then glanced over my shoulder reflexively, even though we hadn’t seen nor heard any signs of pursuit since leaving the Salr. “I think you’re right about everything,” I explained, turning back to meet his gaze. “I believe the key has fully possessed Estus, and is carrying out its own plans. It seems to want me for some reason, while in contrast, I served no further purpose for Estus. Without Sivi’s help, we probably wouldn’t have escaped.”

  “Sivi?” he questioned.

  I looked around us and realized she’d remained back with Estus, unless she’d jumped into the water that had carried us, but we’d seen no signs of her as we left the Salr.

  “Nevermind,” I muttered, feeling too overwhelmed to explain everything in detail.

  He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, then guided me forward. Everyone fell into step around us.

  “After we were attacked,” he explained, “most of us remained to fight Estus’ people. Many were killed, but those who lived eventually surrendered. Once they heard what we had to offer, most were willing to switch sides. Those who would not have been . . . taken care of.”

  I grimaced, but didn’t comment. I supposed we weren’t really in the position to take hostages.

  He removed his arm from my shoulders, then offered me a hand over a fallen log. “At that point, we searched the woods for you, but you had done quite the job of escaping. Without Faas and Tallie, we were unable to track you. Our few new recruits let us know of the various Salr entrances. It was sheer luck I was with the group that came to check this one, and that we were near enough at the correct time for Tallie to sense us.”

  “You could have called,” I replied, remembering my frustration at trying to get a hold of him on his cell.

  “My phone was destroyed, which wouldn’t have been worrisome since I have your number memorized and could get to another phone. I tried to call as soon as we reached civilization and a pay phone, but someone had their phone turned off, and your voice mailbox was full.”

  I abruptly stopped walking, suddenly feeling like the biggest idiot on the planet. I had kept my phone off to preserve the charge, assuming if anyone managed to call me they would leave a voicemail that would appear as soon as I turned the phone on. I’d always been terrible about deleting old voicemails, but I’d never thought it would come back to bite me in such an awful way.

  “Well I feel like an idiot,” I muttered.

  Mikael laughed. “It all worked out. I bought a new phone, and one for Silver as well. I sent you a text as soon as I did, but it was recent. I’m guessing your phone is dead by now?”

  I nodded. “And probably a bit . . . wet.”

  “It’s okay,” he continued. “We can move on with our plans, and we now know that Estus has been possessed by the key, and that it is the key trying to lure you in, not him.”

  “He also claimed Alaric and Sophie aren’t in the Salr, though we have no reason to believe him,” I explained.

  Suddenly Mikael grabbed me and shoved me behind him. I was about to curse at him and ask why, when I noticed someone running toward us. Moments later, Sivi came to a skidding halt in the dead leaves. She looked up, way up, at Mikael.

  She panted for a moment, out of breath, then peered past Mikael to me. “You could have waited for me, Madeline,” she snapped.

  “You know her?” Mikael asked, his eyebrows raised high as he glanced back at me.

  I stepped up beside him. “This is Sivi. She saved us from Estus.”

  She snorted. “You left me little choice. You were clearly all about to die.”

  I opened my mouth to argue, then shut it. It didn’t matter. What mattered now is that we were safe, for the time being.

  “I take it you had no time to search for Alaric and Sophie?” I questioned.

  She shook her head. “And I heard what Estus claimed, that they are not within the Salr at all. I am inclined to believe him.”

  “But there’s no way to know for sure,” I grumbled.

  Mikael motioned for us to continue walking. “Our new recruits do not believe they are being kept in the Salr,” he explained as we all moved on. “Or else they are extremely well hidden. No one has seen them.”

  Sivi trotted to catch up with us, then grabbed my arm. Her small, bony hand clenched my bicep tight enough to pinch through my damp jacket.

  “Where is Kira,” she demanded.

  Mikael stopped and looked at her, then glanced at me. “I thought I saw some resemblance there.”

  “They’re sisters,” I explained.

  “You’ve see
n her too?” Sivi gasped, gazing up at Mikael.

  “She’s safe,” he assured. “If we can manage to get out of these woods any time soon, you’ll see her shortly.”

  That shut Sivi up. She hurried past us to the forefront of those who walked ahead. I imagined they knew where we were going, because I sure didn’t. Hopefully somewhere warm, where my luggage and phone charger awaited.

  I wrapped my arms around myself as we began to walk once more, debating whether I’d be colder with or without the damp jacket

  “Here,” Mikael offered, shedding his brown leather coat.

  I shucked my damp jacket off without a word, then handed it to him in exchange for his. I donned it quickly, reveling in the dry warmth.

  “You really need to learn to just ask for things when you’re uncomfortable,” he chided, slinging my damp jacket across his arm, not seeming the least bit uncomfortable baring his arms to the cold

  “Honestly, I didn’t think about it,” I replied.

  “That’s my point,” he explained. “If you don’t think about your well being often enough, eventually you will no longer be well.”

  I smirked, though in the darkness, he probably didn’t see it. “Vaettir don’t get ill,” I countered.

  “But they can still suffer from exhaustion,” he countered right back. “Exhaustion slows your reflexes, and can mean the difference between life and death.”

  “Point taken,” I sighed. “Just don’t forget that you have well being to look after too.”

  He laughed. “Oh no, I’m invincible, hadn’t you heard?”

  I smiled, glad to have my friend back by my side. The task of rescuing Alaric and Sophie, and of beating the key, seemed far less daunting with Mikael’s help.

  Never underestimate the value of friendship at any time, but especially when you’re ass deep in alligators. Mortal peril is never a good place to be alone.

  Sophie’s clothing had mostly dried by the time the castle came back into view through the trees, a small blessing since night had fallen, and it was cold as Hades in ancient Ireland. They’d spent the past hour listening to Mara as she briefed her on what to say. She hoped she could remember it all, as her life quite literally depended on it.