Karen Chance - Claimed by Shadow

We finally made it to the tree line, but even I could follow the path of trampled grass in our wake. Anyone with tracking experience wouldn't even break a sweat following us. I stared at the dark woods ahead and hoped someone had a plan.

The next hour was a nightmare, slogging through a forest that, while amazing, was also intensely creepy. For one thing, it made the centuries-old trees that had surrounded Tony's farmhouse look like saplings. We passed two giant oaks going in, each of which had a trunk large enough to have driven a car through had they been hollow. Of course, that would have required building a ramp first, because the trunks started well above my head, resting on a massive root system taller than most houses. They were positioned like sentries at a castle's gate, their mossy arms raised as if in salute-or warning.

The tangled tree roots all seemed to stop at the same point, forming a rough path towards who knew what. Something brushed my shoulder as we pushed our way into the sea of brambles and tangled underbrush. For an instant I thought I saw a gnarled hand with bulbous knuckles and unnaturally long fingers reaching for me. I jumped before realizing it was nothing more threatening than a low-hanging branch, the moss on it damp and clammy against my skin.

Even worse was the way the place smelled. The meadow had been warm and fresh and flowery, but there was no pleasant green scent here. The forest was dank and mildewed, but below that was something worse-sour and faintly rotten. I thought about it as we plodded along, and it finally hit me. It was like being in the presence of a terminally ill person. No matter how good the hygiene, there is always a faint odor clinging to them that doesn't smell like anything else. The forest reeked of death-not the quick, red-clawed end of a hunted animal, but the long, lingering sickness of someone death has stalked for a very long time. I vastly preferred the meadow.

I pressed closer to Tomas, who was thankfully still oblivious, and tried not to look as spooked as I felt. But there was something unnatural about these woods. It was in the murky light that made it instantly twilight, and in the age, which pressed down like gravity had somehow increased as soon as we left the field. I couldn't even begin to guess how old some of the trees were, but every time I thought they couldn't get any bigger, they managed. And my tired brain kept seeing faces in patterns in the bark-old, craggy ones with mushroom hair, lichen beards and shadowy eyes.

Marlowe tried several times to start a conversation, but I ignored him until he gave up. I had other things to think about, like how I was going to find Myra and what I was going to do with her when I did. Now that I was here, I understood why she'd chosen to hide in Faerie. It was an entirely new playing field, and one I knew nothing about. Getting close enough to spring the trap was going to be difficult if my power was unreliable, and I had no idea how many allies she had. After seeing what happened to Mac's wards, I wasn't as confident about the Senate's weapons as I had been. What if they didn't work in this crazy new world?

My mood wasn't improved by more mundane considerations, like how heavy the damned coat was getting, how much I could really use a bath, and how badly I wanted to see Mircea. The craving hadn't diminished, and although it was bearable, it wasn't fun. I felt like a three-pack-a-day smoker at the end of a twelve-hour flight. Only, for me, there was no relief in sight.

We finally stopped for a breather. Wind rustled the tree-tops, but down at ground level, there wasn't so much as a breath of air. Billy, who had been bitching about Tomas' weight the whole way, swore we'd been walking for a day, but it had probably been only an hour or so. I stripped off the lead-lined torture device Pritkin had stuck me with, and it helped a little, but no breeze hit my soaked clothes.

I was bent over, panting and exhausted, sweat running off my face to drip onto the leaf-strewn forest floor, when I saw it: my first proof that this really was an enchanted forest. A tree root, covered in bright red lichen like a scaly arm, reached up from the path to position itself on the ground under my nose. I shied back, giving a surprised yelp, then watched as it sucked dry every leaf that held any of my sweat.

"W-What is that?" I pulled back a leg as the root came closer, rummaging through the leaves like a pig after acorns. It couldn't see me, but it knew I was there.

"A spy." Marlowe's resigned tones came from above my head. "I knew we couldn't avoid them, but I was hoping for a bit longer than this.”

"A spy for whom?”

"The Dark Fey," Pritkin answered, coming alongside. "This is their forest.”

"Very likely," Marlowe concurred. "But I should reach our allies before-”

"You aren't going," Pritkin interrupted. "Give me a token and I'll do it.”

"Go where?" I asked, but no one was listening.

"They don't know you," Marlowe protested. "Even with an introduction from me, you could be in danger.”

Pritkin smiled sourly. "I'll take the risk.”

Mac cleared his throat. "It might be best if I go," he offered. "You've got enough trouble keeping that one in line"-he nodded at the golem, who was running his hands over the trunk of a nearby tree, an expression of wonder on his features-"and it doesn't know me. If something sets it off again, I can't guarantee I can control it.”

"It's coming with me.”

"It won't be much good in a fight right now," Mac said doubtfully.

"It isn't going to be fighting." Pritkin glanced at me. "I suppose you want to stay here and tend him?" He didn't name Tomas, but we both knew whom he meant. I looked at Marlowe before replying. He was adjusting the bandages around his curls as if they pained him, and grinned when he caught my eye.

"The storm didn't do my head any good," he explained, wincing slightly as his hand brushed a tender spot. "First Rasputin cracks my skull, and now this. You would think someone could aim for another part of my anatomy just once, but oh, no.”

I didn't smile back. Marlowe might really be in pain, or he might be trying to convince me how weak he was. If the latter, he was wasting his time. I'd seen enough injured vamps to know: if they were conscious and moving, they were deadly. There wasn't much I could do for Tomas, but at least I'd make sure Marlowe didn't cut off his head. I looked back at Pritkin and nodded.

"Then I'll need to borrow your servant.”

Billy had collapsed into a sweaty heap as soon as we stopped and was now tugging on one of his black boots and swearing. I guess he had tender baby feet to go along with the new stomach. "You sure? He's not much of a fighter.”

"He's only there in case something goes wrong. To run back and warn you.”

"He should be able to handle that." I nudged Billy. "You're up." He bitched, of course, but eventually beer won out over blisters and he agreed to go.

Marlowe scribbled a brief note on a piece of paper that Mac had located among our supplies. It seemed somehow wrong to be using lined notebook paper and a ballpoint to write an introduction to the Fey, but no one else seemed to notice. "I'm not sure my contacts are still there," Marlowe said, handing over the finished note. "Time doesn't flow the same way here. My spies have sometimes entered months apart to find that they arrived on the same day, or on other occasions that decades had passed. We've never been able to determine a pattern.”

"I'll manage," Pritkin said, rummaging through my discarded coat for ammunition. He fished out three large boxes. I didn't ask what he thought he'd need that many bullets for. I didn't want to know.

He had exchanged his leather trench for a dark cape with a hood from Mac's pack and, after a brief struggle, managed to get the golem to accept being put into his coat. It wasn't a great disguise, considering that the golem was still orange, bald, seven feet tall and barefoot, but it beat the alternative. 'Shouldn't he stay here?" I asked doubtfully.