Chapter 115

The following day Morgana and I patrolled nervously around the court as Verenestra granted some of her most loyal subjects extra land, including Talusi and her mother Melusa. You could tell that the nerves of the guards (and William) were stretched thin, though finally the ceremony was coming to a close. It was then when a little of the tension was ebbing that the floor on the dais went out of phase causing Verenestra and William to go tumbling down through it with loud yells of surprise. I was swifter than many off the mark and, as I’d been nearest the dais, I dived through the floor after them, feeling it begin to seal behind me, though fortunately my momentum carried me through. Verenestra and William were also falling through the kitchen floor, something we hadn’t thought to check on, and into an area that wasn’t marked on the plans as we all landed with a crash in an area surrounded by Daoine Sidhe who rushed us only for the leading three to go down by Null bullets as we’d all drawn our guns and swords, nulling up a bullet as we fell. That and the loud noise from the guns gave our attackers pause, long enough for us to get to our feet and take the fight to them.

The three of us had been tested in the fires of combat and, as we stood back to back, our blades cut out an arc of death around us. We were also nulling up bullets as swiftly as we could, sensing the approach of Morgana and the royal guard, who, despite the efforts of the Daoine Sidhe, were blasting through the floor to get to us.

“This isn’t it!” I gasped out as I ran through an overconfident Daoine Sidhe.

“Isn’t what?” William replied as he used his leg to sweep the legs out from under another attacker for Verenestra to skewer.

“This is just a distraction, they’re buying time!” I yelled.

“Still trying to kill us!” Verenestra yelled back.

“That’ll be a bonus; this is to keep us occupied and the eyes of the court elsewhere. These are just cannon fodder!”

“He’s right, my love. They aren’t their best and we know some of their best went with her.”

“Dammit, we can’t get out and they’re blocking all channels!” Verenestra screamed out.

“Arwen! They’re after Arwen!” I yelled, now taking far greater chances with sword and pistol, forcing my attackers back in disarray.

Suddenly, from being on the defensive, the three of us took our attackers by storm cutting them down and shooting them as well as using a variety of magical tricks to keep them off balance. Verenestra, being by far the more proficient with the sword, was taking the lead and driving our now panicking foes before us as they struggled to hold us. Despite their greater numbers there was no way they could now contain us and the final few dropped their swords and went to their knees in surrender just as Morgana and the royal guards broke through.

“Arwen, my Mage. They’re after Arwen!” I yelled at her. Her face paled and she scrambled back up the hole made to the court.

We were not far behind her as the guards swiftly restrained the surrendered Daoine Sidhe, no doubt to be questioned later.

“Where is my daughter?” Verenestra demanded of the fearful looking courtiers.

“Your maids took her to your chambers,” Talusi replied, then gasped as we could feel a powerful magical suppression field in that direction.

“With me now!” William bellowed at the guards and ran towards the royal chambers followed by any Sidhe who held a weapon as well as two of our Seers.

One of the bodies of the maids was in the corridor, slowly crumbling to dust as two armoured Daoine Sidhe blocked our way only to be blasted into their component atoms by the Seers. Morgana used an incredibly powerful burst spell on the suppressed door which bypassed the suppression spell and allowed Willian, Verenestra and I to race into the chamber where we saw Arwen enclosed in a pearlescent shimmering shield holding off an irate Oonagh as we were set upon by Oonagh’s guards.

“I curse thee, my nadorhuan rutting rival!” Oonagh spat out as she held back our barrage of offensive spells aimed at her and her guards. “You may have thwarted me here, but there is more than one way to gain revenge!”

She then opened two portals despite all we could do to stop her, the suppression field preventing any sort of Null. She literally kicked Arwen through a black fulminating gap before diving through a normal(ish) looking one.

Oonagh’s guards then also rushed the portal she’d gone through despite several getting skewered in the back as I, throwing caution to the wind, hurled myself forward, getting several hacks to my body from the defenders, and dived through the rapidly closing portal Arwen had been sent through. I felt it close behind me as I fell into utter darkness.

After what seemed like an age, utterly unlike a normal portal, I landed with a massive crash into a morass of stinking vegetation. It was pitch black, incredibly humid and on the hot side of the equatorial range of tolerance. However a little fiddling with my eyes and the optic nerves soon had a form of vision going for me. It wasn’t much help, the sky was overcast and the land appeared to be a massive swamp ... Worst of all, I couldn’t sense Arwen either, a magical suppression field dulling my senses by quite a bit. My armour had protected me from the worst of the blows against me and I was able to repair it and myself very rapidly as I scanned all around me for any life signs. After an utter failure in that regard I also began reaching out to see where I was in the respect of other Earth’s, though I realised this was a place like no other I’d seen. World after world of clouded swampy vegetation flipped out ahead and behind me confirming at least that I wasn’t in the outer reaches, thank God, before I thought to scan the night sky and realised I was no longer in the solar system any more.

Throwing caution to the wind I sent out a distress message telepathically in the hope that somehow I could penetrate the suppression field as well as someone/thing might hear me and reply. But there was nothing, simply an eerie mental silence that was as oppressive as it was unnerving.

I was also finding that only certain forms of magic were far more difficult than others as I attempted to teleport away from the swap to what appeared to be a nearby small hillock. It was only by using a high-level port that I could move myself at all. Forming a portal was out of the question too. I might have been able to use a frame to make one, but mentally free standing? No chance! Magic used on myself though was not affected so much, hence the ability to adjust my senses in order to see far better than an ordinary mortal could.

The hillock I was on was simply a larger, if a little dryer, mass of the same vegetation, whilst no amount of fiddling with my eyes could stretch my normal vision more than a mile.

Eventually, with a hell of an effort, I managed to access my pocket universes and pulled out a set of very powerful binoculars and scanned the area beyond where my senses could range, looking for anything that might help or even make sense. I finally spotted something glowing faintly several miles away and, as the only anomaly around, decided to head for it, believing, or rather hoping, it might be Arwen.

Teleportation was exhausting, though not as exhausting as trying to wade through mud and rotting vegetation, or even float above it. The mental, rather than the physical, effort caused me to have to stop to restore my energy balance after each jump. Still, I finally got there to see, buried almost fully, the pearlescent shield Arwen had been using to protect herself from Oonagh. Using my powers I managed to raise it from the swamp and settle it upon a more solid piece of ground before wondering how I was going to open it, or rather get Arwen to open it. Finally I did the obvious and knocked on it in the ‘shave and a haircut’ (da dit dit da da) style, knowing Arwen would recognise the simplicity of the rhythm. The shield cleared first then collapsed as Arwen saw who it was and she threw herself into my arms, sobbing.

“You found me!” she finally gasped out.

“Not quite. I followed you is more accurate,” I replied as the sobs ceased and the snuggles began in earnest.

“Where are we, Uncle John?” she asked when she could speak more calmly.

“I don’t know, not in the solar system though. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say the home-world of the Sidhe.”

“Why guess that?”

“It’s the only place I can think of that Oonagh might have known about that isn’t where we come from or within reach, like the outer reaches,” I replied thoughtfully.

“But the Fae came to your part of the universe almost two hundred and fifty millions of your years ago. Oonagh’s only been Queen a hundred million years, though mother says Oonagh claims to have come through in the beginning as an infant,” she replied in that weird adult way that freaked her mother out.

“Oonagh is actually about a quarter of a million years old, she’s only been Queen a hundred million according to your Mum,” I confirmed. ‘So I’d guess she may have spoken to those who knew of its existence or whereabouts before the Nephilim wars and the attrition suffered in the reverses against mankind. Knowing Oonagh, she probably had them killed too, to keep it a secret.”

“That’s true. No other Sidhe knows of it now though, it’s certainly not in our group consensus.”

“That might be why she chose it, or I might just be wrong.”

“You might, but the logic is fairly sound.”

“You realise that your mother will get disturbed if you talk like this in front of her?”

“Yes, so I tend to skip a lot, sing and float,” she giggled.

“You aren’t fooling her.”

“No, but it makes her happy.”

“Anything you picked up from the Seers that might help us as I’m struggling with my magic here?” I asked, giving up trying to understand her speech pattern changes as Arwen was simply Arwen.

“There’s a large tower almost a hundred miles that way,” she replied, pointing after a moment’s concentration. “It seems to be generating the suppression field.”

“Guess where we’re going. Though I can only port for short distances. It’s exhausting my reserves,” I nodded.

“Me too. There are also some life forms in the same direction, though I’m not powerful enough to tell who ... or what yet.”

“Can’t scan beyond a mile myself, so I’ll take your word for it. But we’ll have to find you something better to wear than these court robes if we’re going to hike a hundred miles,” I chuckled.

Giggling, Arwen simply pulled the robes off to leave herself in a child’s version of Mage armour, courtesy of her mother and father no doubt.

“Uncle Simon had it made for me,” she said with a beaming smile.

“Lucky girl.”

“Mummy did ask him though,” she added showing the unnerving female trait of being able to read my mind, telepathy or no.

“Well, it will protect you from the weather, though sadly not the state of the ground.”

“Yes, what about food?”

“Got loads in the pocket universes, but I’m going to pull out a lot of MREs as well as water bottles and purification tablets just in case this effect gets stronger and I can’t get to my stuff or create water. Same with a tent and cooking gear. I don’t think we’ll need the arctic survival stuff though,” I finished with a grin.

“MREs?”

“Meals Ready to Eat,” I chuckled. “Got a load in stasis from the British Army. Was told only to eat when desperate or real food wasn’t available.”

“Bad?”

“I hope never to find out.”

“Oh.”

“Let’s go. It’s easier for me at least to affect the gravity around my body so I don’t sink, than teleport.”

“Yes, Uncle John. Me too,” she replied as we headed in the direction of this tower she could scan.

For all Arwen could walk, she was only four and with all the limitations that physically affected a four-year-old to boot. Sidhe kids are generally a bit tougher than human ones at that age, but only just. So, for a lot of time Arwen simply adapted her weight and rode on my shoulders, keeping an eye out for anything hostile. The land itself did not improve much, at least on the first day and darkness came far too quickly for my liking. The tent assembly was remarkably quick and soon had us under cover and eating ice cream from my stores.