Эприлинн Пайк: Wings

Laurel crouched by the corner of the house and peeked around the side. Scarface and his friend were lounging on a dirty couch on the equally dirty porch. Their voices were too low for Laurel to catch what they were saying but, considering their conversation in the car the previous night, that was probably best.

Scarface yawned and the other troll looked close to falling asleep. Laurel heard the tiniest skitter as Tamani made his way across the roof, but apparently the two trolls were too tired or distracted, because neither of them even glanced up.

Even though she was expecting him, Laurel had to suppress a yelp of surprise as Tamani came flying down from the roof and swung to land gracefully in front of the trolls. His hands shot out like two blurs and clunked their heads together with a dull thud. They slumped into the couch cushions and didn’t move.

Laurel took one step and crunched a dried leaf.

“Wait,” Tamani said softly. “Let me finish first. You don’t want to see this.”

It was too great a temptation. He wasn’t looking at her, so she didn’t pull her head back around the corner — just watched in rapt fascination, wondering what he was going to do.

Tamani braced his knee against Scarface’s shoulder and held his face in both hands. By the time Laurel realized what was going to happen, it was too late. Her eyes refused to close as Tamani snapped the troll’s head around and a sickening crunch assaulted her ears. Tamani leaned Scarface back onto the cushion and, as he turned his attention to the other troll, she couldn’t help but look at the limp face — devoid of life and, for the first time, not wound up in a sneer.

When Tamani lifted his knee to the other troll’s shoulder, Laurel quickly pulled herself back around the corner and shoved her fingers in her ears. Not that it mattered. The snap of Red’s neck found its way to her inner ears and her mind filled in what her eyes couldn’t see. Tamani’s soft finger on her shoulder made her jump.

“Come on, we need to keep going.” Tamani tucked Laurel under the arm farthest from the dead trolls, but she still peeked around him to look at the two forms that appeared to simply be sleeping.

“Did you have to do that?” she whispered, trying to remember that these men had attempted to kill her and David. But they looked so harmless in the dim morning light with their deformed faces slack and peaceful.

“Yes. One of the rules of the sentries is to never leave a hostile troll alive. It’s something I’m sworn to do. I told you — you shouldn’t have come.”

He took an instant to grab something from his belt and sprayed the hinges of the back door. When he swung the door open, it moved silently. Laurel remembered Bess and followed Tamani very hesitantly. But she was lying limp on the floor. Tamani crouched beside her and removed a small dart from her neck. Laurel remembered the brown straw and realized what he had done.

“Is she dead?” Laurel whispered.

Tamani shook his head. “Just sleeping. The death darts are much bigger and don’t work as quickly. She’d have gotten out a few good yelps and ruined everything.” He was reaching into his belt again. He sighed as he unscrewed a small bottle. “These are the ones I always regret. The ones too stupid to know what they’re doing. They’re no more guilty than a lion or tiger that stalks their prey, at least in the beginning. But once they’re taught to be vicious faerie haters that obey their masters’ every order, they’ll never stop being dangerous.” He pulled down one of Bess’s eyelids and squeezed out two drops of yellow liquid. “She’ll be dead in a few minutes,” he said, putting the bottle back into his pack.

He turned to Laurel and set his face close to hers so he could whisper right by her ear. “I don’t know where the other one is. If we can find him and catch him by surprise, it’ll be easy. So follow me, but not another word from here on out. Okay?”

Laurel nodded and hoped she could walk half as quietly as he did. She’d never in her life felt clumsy — she’d always had more grace than her peers — but compared to Tamani, she was downright stumbly. By watching Tamani’s feet and stepping right in his footsteps, she managed to traverse the stairs more or less silently.

They walked by three doorways with nothing in them but sheet-covered furniture and swirling dust motes. Tamani peeked around the fourth doorway and immediately reached for his belt. Laurel could see Barnes’s shadow, elongated across the floor by the sunlight from the eastern window, and somehow even the shadow profile was unmistakable. Tamani pulled out the long straw again and rose to one knee. He took a breath and aimed carefully. With a small puff the dart flew.

Laurel kept her eyes on the shadow. There was a jolt and a tiny grunt. Eternal seconds passed, then the shadow head thunked down onto the desk. Tamani pointed to the ground where Laurel was curled against the wall and again whispered for her to stay.

This time she obeyed.

Tamani crept forward and crouched behind the still troll for a few seconds. She watched in the shadows as his hands rose to the sides of the troll’s head. Knowing what was coming next, she squeezed her eyes shut and placed her hands over her ears. The next sound she heard was not a crack but a loud thud that rattled the wall at her back.

“You thought your little faerie tricks would work on me?”

Laurel’s eyes flew open and she flung herself to the spot Tamani had vacated only seconds before. She couldn’t see Barnes, but Tamani was crumpled on the floor against the wall, shaking his head as he glared at Barnes. She watched the long shadow jump toward Tamani and opened her mouth to scream a warning, but Tamani was gone before Barnes crunched into the wall, cracking the plaster. Tamani darted around the room as Laurel tried to press farther and farther into the wall. The whole house was shaking now as Barnes lunged at Tamani over and over and Tamani continued darting just out of reach. Laurel watched their shadows dance and held her breath, afraid that every movement, every sound, might give her away.

With a yell and a mighty swipe of his long arms, Barnes caught Tamani across the chest and threw him against the south wall, directly across from the doorway where Laurel crouched. Cracks spidered over the plaster where Tamani hit the wall, and he slid onto the floor. Laurel willed him to rise and jump away again, but Tamani’s head lolled to the side and he breathed heavily.

“That’s better,” Barnes said.

Laurel pulled her head back around the corner, but it didn’t matter; Barnes’s back was to her as he stood halfway across the room towering over Tamani. He leaned forward and studied Tamani before breaking out in his grating laugh. “Look at you. You’re just a boy. A baby. Are you even of age to be a sentry?”

“I’m old enough,” Tamani rasped, glaring at the troll with hard eyes.

“And they sent you to take care of me? You faeries always were fools.”

Tamani flung a leg out, but this time he was too slow. Barnes caught him at the calf and twisted, lifting Tamani from the ground and flinging him around before slamming him back against the wall with enough force to create a few more cracks.

“You want it the hard way, I’ll give it to you the hard way,” Barnes said. “Truth be told, I rather like the hard way.”

Laurel’s eyes widened as Barnes took a pistol from his belt, pointed it at Tamani, and pulled the trigger.

A SHRILL, DEAFENING SCREAM REVERBERATED IN LAUREL’S head as the room filled with the crack of gunfire, but somehow only a small whimper escaped her lips. As the smell of gunpowder burned her nose, a muted yell forced its way into her consciousness. Laurel’s eyes sprang open and flew to Tamani. His face was contorted in pain and a groan continued to work its way through his clenched teeth. He clutched his leg and his fingers were wet with sap as he glared up at the troll.