"Oh, Chatter." Rhiannon slid her arms around his shoulders and he leaned into her embrace. "I wouldn't bring up the memories but we need your help. We need all the help we can get. Will you tell us what happened to Grieve?"
He blinked. "We were caught. They were going to feed on me but Grieve begged them to spare me. They drank him down to the gate of death and then made him drink. Then he just . . . he recovered--so fast. And when he stood again, he looked so strange. His eyes changed. Grieve changed. He looked like a wild child and I was afraid he'd finish me off himself, but he just said, Let me keep him. He's lazy and useless but he amuses me. My friend would never have said that before the change."
"And they agreed?" I quietly shifted my weight. My feet were going a little numb in the cold but I didn't want to break the mood.
"Yes. So I stay with Grieve most of the time. The others hate me, but Grieve . . . he tries to be himself. I can tell he doesn't like what he's become. He would never treat you so oddly, Cicely, if this hadn't happened to him. There's a constant battle going on inside. I can see it in his eyes. He's always at war with himself."
Chatter crouched on the ground, ignoring the snow. He rested against the tree trunk. "I get tired, so I come out here and breathe the illusion of freedom."
"Do you want to come home with us? We can help you. You could leave town, get away." I had no idea how we'd manage it but the offer slipped out before I could stop myself.
But Chatter shook his head. "Thanks, Miss Cicely. You and Miss Rhiannon, you're good friends, even though I only really knew you when you were children. But I'm afraid I wouldn't get far. You'd be in trouble and I'd end up dead. And besides . . ."
"Besides what?" What more could there be than to get away and not look back? But Chatter's answer silenced the cynic in me.
"I help keep Grieve sane. Without me he'd give way, fully turn into one of them. And I can't do that to him. He was my best friend at one time. Shadow Hunter or not, Grieve's still my blood-oath brother."
I wanted to do something . . . anything . . . to help. But there was nothing we could do if he refused.
"I understand. Chatter, will you at least promise not to mention you saw us or talked to us?"
He inclined his head. "I won't give you away. I promise you that." He slowly rose and dusted his hands on his pants. "I'd better go now, before they miss me. I don't want them to come looking for me and find you." Turning, he added, "But be careful. These woods are laden with creatures that could rip you apart. If I were you, I'd go home. Seriously, the woodland is tainted. I don't know if it can ever recover."
I bit my lip, wanting to take him by the hand, drag him home, and send him off on a bus somewhere, but I stepped back. If we interfered too much, we'd only get him in trouble. Or dead.
"Go then, before they sense us. But Chatter . . . if you do see my aunt--Rhiannon's mother--or our friend Peyton . . . if you think of something that can help, then please, let us know."
Chatter nodded. Then, turning to go, he stopped. "The owl's been looking for you, by the way, Cicely. He asks for you, every day. I'd help, but I'm just . . . don't count on me." He shook his head. "I'm useless. But soon, you must find the owl. If the Shadow Hunters find it, they'll kill it. They hate owls. And--don't trust spiders. The spiders of the wood watch and listen. They're Myst's pets."
He ran then, so fast I could barely track him. In mere moments, he was gone.
We made our way up the other side of the ravine in silence. I could tell the others were itching to discuss the meeting with Chatter, but this wasn't the time nor place for that.
Once we were at the top of the ravine, the going was quicker and we moved silently through the path, our sounds muffled by the snowfall. The clouds had moved in and now a light flurry had started, softening our footsteps even more. Although still overgrown, the trail wasn't as bad as it had been back in the ravine. Someone had to be keeping it under control, and my guess was the Indigo Court. The light fell through the trees in an odd, slanted way, and the silver-tinged sky lent an air of foreboding to the disturbing ambience that filtered through the woodland.
I kept my eyes open for the stand of red huckleberries. I knew them by sight, even without the berries in blossom. Blue huckleberries grew more frequently over the Cascades, in eastern Washington. I was beginning to wonder if Grieve's instructions were right when, within a few minutes, I saw a thick patch of them ahead--there must have been twenty or thirty bushes in one grouping.
"Start looking for the Faerie ring. Don't step inside of it--we need to go around it. Grieve was clear on that. Don't step inside the ring of toadstools."
I glanced around. Toadstools were another commonality in the forest--their growth spurred on by the dampness and the thick decay that littered the forest floor. Moss grew heavy in these woods, and ferns, and all plants misty and magical. That they'd be up during the snow was odd, but then again, this was a magical wood and the Fae could work wonders with the flora.
We slowly passed through the stand of huckleberries and I was beginning to wonder yet again if we'd made a wrong turn when Leo said, "I found it."
Off to our left, about ten yards past the shrubs, a wide ring covered the path. A good twelve feet in diameter, the ring was comprised of toadstools that were rust and brown, with white spots that dappled their skin. Some had blossomed out--their tops flat and fully open, ready to spore. Still others retained bulbous heads, tightly closed to stem. Their aroma was heady and bitter: pungent earth, tangy like fermented dirt. The snow within the ring was pristine, untouched by even animal prints, and the trail to the side was clearly visible.
Rhiannon backed away. "There's something wrong with that circle."
Leo knelt beside it, careful not to place his hand inside. He reached down, touching the ground beside the ring. "The magic here is deep--strong. Earth magic, but not friendly to us. I can feel it pulsing through the ground, touching the trees and plants all around here."
I reached out, trying to listen, but my power lay with the wind and there was little I could latch on to. "Kaylin, what do you think?"
Kaylin motioned for us to move back from it. "Rhiannon is right--this Faerie ring is a trap. Don't step inside, don't even put a single finger inside of it. I don't know exactly what would happen, but it's waiting for its next victim."
"Grieve said to skirt the outside of it. From here, we walk for another hour until we come to what he called the Twin Oaks. There we'll turn right after stepping between them, and we'll be at the Marburry Barrow." I glanced at the sky, wondering how long we'd been out here so far. It was cold and getting colder, but I wasn't willing to turn around and go home yet. "Anybody have any idea of what time it is?"
Kaylin flipped open his cell phone. "Reception here, not so good, but the clock says we're going on ten thirty. It took us an hour to cross the ravine and talk to Chatter. So if we keep a good pace, we should reach the Barrow at a little before noon."
"Let's get moving then. I'm chilled through. Walking helps."
I sucked in a deep breath and headed around the mushroom ring, bypassing the danger by keeping to its edge. The tingle of magic followed me, reaching out to jar my senses but otherwise left me alone. One step over the line, though, and we'd be in big trouble.
Traveling was easier at this point, although we had to keep a clear lookout for hidden rocks and roots beneath the snow cover. Twice I stopped, holding my hand for the others to wait as I tuned into the wind, listening to noises coming along the slipstream.
Once, I caught the distinct impression of a shriek that vibrated down my spine, a bolt of fear hidden in the one, lone cry. I kept quiet, not wanting to alarm the others. Not ten minutes later, another noise set my alarms ringing, but what I thought might be another goblin dog turned out to be a rabbit loping by. It stopped for a moment, nose twitching as it stood on its hind legs to look at us, before it turned to dart back into the undergrowth.
"Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late . . ." I whispered under my breath. But since the rabbit carried neither a pocket watch, nor wore a waistcoat, I decided this wasn't our rabbit hole. Too bad Myst wasn't as innocuous as the White Queen.
Sure enough, at about twenty minutes to noon, the forest began to open out into a clearing and up ahead we could see a pair of oak trees, towering huge. The path led right between them, and beyond, the route blurred to the eye.
"A portal . . ." Kaylin said.
"What?" I turned to him as he joined me at the trailhead.
"The oaks--they make up the sides of the portal. From here, I can't see anything but a barren mound, but want to make a bet we walk through there and bingo, we'll be facing the Marburry Barrow?"
I nodded, slowly. That would account for the indistinct blur around the edges. "You're right, I think. Grieve said they were a portal, that we had to pass through the oaks to find the Barrow. But now I'm wondering whether there might be members of the Indigo Court prowling the outskirts? We know they can go out in the daylight, so what's to prevent them from being there? Maybe I didn't think this thing through enough before suggesting we come out here."
Rhiannon pressed close to my side. "My mother's in there, and Peyton. They need me. I have to try."
Leo frowned. "I brought a few things from Marta's ritual gear that might help us." He set down his pack and began to fish through it, bringing up a handful of what looked like vertebrae. "Snake bones," he said. "I've studied enough to know that these can be used to create a cloud of poison--"
I looked at him. "Poison? I thought you were a healer."
"Heather taught me from the beginning: A witch who cannot hex, cannot heal. The balance of light and shadow--there's a place for the dark, Cicely. You know that from the life you led." He shrugged. "We have to be willing to do whatever it takes, considering who we're facing and what's at stake."
Blinking, I realized just how far down the road we'd come in just a matter of a few days. Danger was no longer a concept. We were staring it in the face. And the world needed both life and death, but in balance. The Vampiric Fae were upsetting that balance.
"Yeah, I get it. You think that the gas would work on the Indigo Court?"
"We don't know, so save it as a last resort," Kaylin said. "I know one way to slip in there and see what's going on."
"And what's that?" I asked, glancing at him.
"I'm a dreamwalker. I'll go in on the astral."
Rhiannon shook her head. "No--it's too dangerous. You could be hurt."
"There's always that chance, but if the odds are with me, they won't notice me before I can get away. The key is, you guys have to be ready to run. You'll have to run fast and hard because they're stronger than we are. But if I can get in there without them knowing, I might be able to pinpoint how to actually enter the Barrow." He handed me his backpack. "Keep this for me, please. It has some important items in it . . . just in case."
"You aren't serious about this--" I began to say, then stopped. Of course he was serious. None of us would be here if we weren't. I'd been ready to stomp right in there and that would have been far more likely to get me caught than if Kaylin slipped in on the astral. "What do you need in order to go in?"
He glanced around. "We need to find a place to hide. I'm going to have to lie down to prepare for this."
Ask if you can go with him, Ulean prompted.
I blinked. Say what? I was no dreamwalker and while Kaylin had a century of experience, could he really take another person with him?
Just ask him. I can go with you.
Score one for scaring me shitless. But Ulean could see farther than I could and she apparently knew something I didn't. I tapped Kaylin on the arm. "Listen, do you know how to take somebody with you? Can you do that?"
He jerked around, giving me a hard look. "Why do you ask?"
I shrugged. "Ulean told me to ask if I could go with you."
When Kaylin spoke again, his voice was cold. "I won't risk your life, Cicely. There's no guarantee that they won't have some sort of anti-magic field that will negate the spell. What happens then?"
"Tell me exactly what it is that you do. Then let me make the decision." I sucked in a deep breath.
Rhiannon shook her head. "Bad idea. Don't let her talk you into it." She scuffed her feet. Neither she nor Leo looked happy at my request.
Kaylin let out a long sigh. "When I dreamwalk, I go into a deep trance--and yes, I can drag someone along with me. At some point--it's hard to explain how it happens--I see a door. When I go through it, my body turns to shadow. To the stuff dreams are made of. I can move around in shadow-form and so can whoever I have taken with me. I can spy on people, but I can't take action. I can't get in a fight, for example."
I thought about it for a moment. "Is there a time limit?"
He nodded, slowly. "Of sorts. If I stay out on the astral too long, I run the risk of not being able to come back. I could be trapped as a shadow entity."
"And how long is too long?"
"I don't know," he said. "I've never been out longer than an hour. I believe it depends on the power of the dreamwalker, whether someone else is in tow . . . a number of varying factors. And there's another little matter: There are creatures out there, and not all of them are nice."