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The brigade’s medical and provisions support units came next, with ten powerful trolls who carried camp equipment as well as the women’s satchels. The troll brigade, a hundred strong, brought up the rear and would engage Margetta and her force if necessary.
Both Batya and Lorelei remained quiet and alert, bodies tense. He would have expected nothing less, sensing in each woman a strong survival instinct.
He felt the air change as the sinkhole appeared. A grassy smell invaded the fir-tree scent and on instinct, he headed to the very center of what was, just as Henry had said, a rocky, barren stretch of land at the lowest point of the depression. He touched down.
Lorelei released his neck quickly, letting go of him to stand on the ground, as did Batya.
“Here.” Lorelei pointed to a patch of grayish dirt. “This is the entrance, probably a shaft of some kind. I can feel it.” She lifted eyes that glowed—shifter eyes.
Quinlan had these lapses, forgetting what she was for brief stretches. He nodded. “Good. What else do you sense? Can you break through?”
She rose up and sighed heavily. “The earth will have to do this for us. We can’t violate her.”
“What do you mean?” Batya moved up next to Quinlan, her hand grazing his, a touch that jumped-started a couple of extra heart-beats.
“This area of the earth is alive and has a will of its own. I can hear a river below. The sound is growing stronger.”
“Then the earth is thinning, choosing maybe.”
“I think so.”
The women might be listening to the earth, but Quinlan had one ear to the sky and something wasn’t right. He stretched his hearing as far as he could. That’s when he heard the sounds of battle, of trolls screaming their war-chants, of energy released, of steel weapons engaging, and of wraith-shrieking.
Everything in the Nine Realms seemed to be changing, including the nature of battle and war.
Henry, can you path with me?
Yes, but I’m kinda busy. We’ve got thirteen Invictus pairs, one angry she-bitch of an ancient-fae and at least one of those uber-wraith-mastyr vampire pairs you mentioned. I’ve got three men down.
Do you need me?
Quinlan smiled, because he heard Henry snort.
This is war. Get those women into the earth. Margetta means business. Hold on. Yeah, f**k you, wraith.
Quinlan heard the shriek of a dying wraith and he smiled.
One more bites the dust.
Good.
We can hold these lightweights, mastyr. Just keep this line open and let me know what’s happening, when we need to make tracks in your direction.
Lorelei says the earth is thinning.
Good. That’s a good sign. But stick close. If the earth opens up, Lorelei might be in for a hard fall.
Quinlan turned to look at Lorelei and Batya and found them both on hands and knees, pawing at the earth. Then Lorelei stretched out, a sublime expression on her face.
Batya looked up at Quinlan. “She’s communing.”
Lorelei’s eyes opened. “We’ll have thirty seconds to get the entire brigade through before the earth closes up again. You should bring the trolls here now.”
Quinlan nodded then relayed the message to Henry.
We’re on our way.
In the distance, Quinlan heard a sharp whistle and the sounds of battle ceased. “They’re coming.”
Just as he turned back to the women he watched them both fall into a hole. Neither of them could fly so he dove in after them. He caught Batya’s arm and pulled her to him, but her flailing movements, purely instinctive, didn’t allow him to continue his descent.
“Lorelei, shift,” he shouted.
In midair, the woman suddenly transformed into her wraith-self and ended up hanging only three inches above a massive jagged rock.
Quinlan breathed a sigh of relief, dropping down to set Batya on the floor of the massive cavern. A moment later, trolls fell, flew, or tumbled through the earth’s doorway, one after the other, faster than he’d ever seen them move. The support crew came first, with all their equipment, then the Guardsmen.
The men were exceptionally well-trained.
“They only have seconds before the earth closes,” Lorelei cried out. “Hurry! Faster!”
She began floating higher, while avoiding the stream of warriors. A hundred troops were a lot for the small space.
Quinlan glanced around. The entire brigade was there, except one.
He flew straight up, Lorelei not far away.
“Henry,” he shouted, as the earth began to solidify once more. “Henry! Henry!”
He felt along the jagged shelf of earth, but no aperture remained. Lorelei once more pressed herself against the earth, petting the rocks, chanting softly. “We have one more. Please, mother realm. Do this for me.”
Quinlan heard Henry shouting and beating on the lowest point of the sinkhole.
“Please mother-realm. One more troll. Please.”
Suddenly the earth split, Henry popped through, and the stone closed up behind him.
Quinlan shot after him, because Henry was spinning hard. Something wet kept striking Quinlan and just as Henry would have landed in the rushing water of the river, Quinlan caught him, then carried him to shore.
The troll bled from his mouth and from a severe cut over his shoulder. He had burns on most of his face and neck. His eyes rolled in his head.
Quinlan called for medical assistance. He stayed close by as one of the trolls, trained in emergency quick-fixes, opened up his med-kit and went to work.
Kneeling, he stared at Henry and willed him to live. “Don’t give up.”
But there was no response.
Henry, you bastard, if you die now, I swear I’ll chase you into hell and beat the shit out of you.
He saw Henry’s lips curve, then his whole body went still and the medic drew back, both hands in the air. “I don’t know what happened.”
He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up. Batya eased down beside Quinlan. “May I?” she asked.
He nodded, in shock. He could feel that Henry was right at the brink of death and that the medic couldn’t help him.
Batya took his hand in hers, closed her eyes and that was when he felt her most essential faeness, and realized that she was a healer. “He needs blood. Now.” She stripped off her coat and rolled up the sleeve of her shirt.
Quinlan stiffened suddenly, and a red hue covered his vision. His brained winked in and out as though caught in some kind of electrical failure, firing and misfiring. “Like hell you will.” His deep voice reverberated around the massive cavern and a wind rushed through, blowing against Batya forcing her backward, away from Henry.
