Bloodfire (Blood Destiny 1) - Helen Harper Page 0,77
to look but today I wasn’t seeing them. As I hopped over some roots without breaking my stride, I blundered straight into an invisible wall and was immediately thrown backwards. Slightly stunned, I staggered to my feet, daggers already pulled. But there was no physical enemy – I’d become trapped inside a sodding faerie ring.
“Fuck!” I slammed my shoulder against the edge of it, even though I knew it was a useless gesture.
Faerie rings are perfect circles of woodland mushrooms, left in random areas of countryside by the more irritating members of the Fae. Many older rings were now defunct; they didn’t tend to hold their power for long. However the ones with enough juice in them still to work were not only annoying, but also dangerous. Time, for the Fae, moves differently to what it does for almost everyone else. They survive for millennia in Earth terms; and once in the Fae demesne itself, you could spend one day and then return to find that decades in the ‘real’ world had passed. They’d set faerie rings to capture foolish humans, and would then force their hapless prisoners to dance themselves to death. It was said that just one beat of faerie bells was enough to set your toes tapping and your hands clapping, and that once you started you’d never be able to stop. Even worse is that with time lacking in any importance for the Fae, often years would go by before they’d check on their faerie traps. It would be impossible to force my way out of here on my own, and of course my mobile phone was back at the keep. After leaving that message on the answer machine that all was well, no-one, not Julia nor Corrigan, would be using their Voices to get in touch and see where I was. If I had some iron on me, then perhaps I’d manage to break through it, but even more stupidly I was pretty sure that my usual iron knife was currently sitting happily on my bedside cabinet waiting to be cleaned and sharpened after I’d used it to slit the throat of the terrametus.
I emptied out the contents of my bag, anyway, just to be sure. I’d put the empty Coke cans that I’d shared with Alex on the beach back inside but they were made of aluminium, which was next to useless against anything other than a recycling plant. There was the half empty canister or hydrogen peroxide that reminded me painfully of John for a second, but which offered no help in terms of usable iron. There was a small first aid kit, a couple of energy bars, a tatty book that I’d been reading when routing out the rabbits had become just too unspeakably dull for words, but absolutely nothing that would help me get out of the ring. Even my daggers were made of an alloy that wouldn’t contain enough iron to work. Sometimes modern technology was a curse. I tried anyway, stabbing randomly at the invisible wall. Of course nothing happened.
I flung the contents of my bag to the ground and moved around the entire circle, checking it for any vulnerable points. Nothing. I felt rage and frustration shivering all over me. It wasn’t fair! I knew that someone would find me long before I’d ever have to persuade any of the Fae to let me go, but I needed to get out now and get into the portal.
I thumped myself down, cross-legged, in the centre and slammed my palms against the mossy ground, stirring up a fine dust as I did so. I kicked out uselessly at the edges of the ring. It was no good; I’d just have to wait till someone came and rescued me.
*
Several hours later, dusk was beginning to settle. I was curled up, dozing, and waiting.
Where the fuck are you?
Corrigan! I sat up with a snap. Finally. I didn’t think I’d ever be pleased to have his Voice inside my head. I was about to answer when Julia spoke to me, with a high note of panic.
Mackenzie! We need you!
Oh shit. What’s going on? What’s the matter? I had no idea whether both Julia and Corrigan could hear me at the same time, but it didn’t matter. Something thing was clearly very wrong.
It was Julia who answered, and her words made the bottom drop out of my world. The keep is under attack. We need you. Now.