The pixies were on us immediately. They looked like torches waving over the surface. They darted about, searching. I thought my lungs were going to burst, but I didn’t move. Then as suddenly as they had arrived, they were gone. Not trusting luck of any kind tonight, especially the good kind, I waited a few extra moments before sticking my head above the surface. It was hard not to noisily gulp air.

No pixies. No lights.

Piaras’s head popped up beside me. “They’re gone?” he gasped, once he had filled his own lungs. He seemed as doubtful of our good fortune as I was.

I scanned the surrounding trees. No glow. “That’s what it looks like.”

“Why?”

“Tastier offer?” I didn’t really believe it, but it would have to do until something else came along; but in the meantime, I wasn’t going to question it too closely. “Let’s get out of here.”

I felt heavier coming out of the pond than I had going in. I knew I was taking some of the pond with me soaked into my clothes, but I was listing a little too far to the right. Piaras looked at me, his eyes as big as saucers.

“Raine.” His voice was tight.

I stopped and looked down at myself. I didn’t see anything. “What?”

He grimaced and pointed to my right side.

I lifted my right arm to get a good look and bit back a scream. It came out as a squeak.

A black, shiny leech was working hard to attach itself to my ribs. It was easily a foot long. And from the enthusiastic way it was squirming to get through my leathers to my skin, I must have been the best thing to come along in quite a while.

I cleared the water and was on the bank with my knife out in record time. The only thing I wanted worse than to have that leech off was to scream. I couldn’t remember ever wanting to scream and run that badly.

“Soul-stealing rock, razor-fanged pixies, blood-sucking leeches,” I hissed as I struggled to get my knife wedged under the thing’s blindly seeking mouth and pry it off. “When this is over I’m going to treat myself to a screaming fit. I deserve it, and I’m going to have one.”

I sliced the leech from my doublet and checked myself for others. I stopped. Something was very wrong. Even more wrong than foot-long leeches. Piaras coughed twice from swallowing water, and then it hit me. The noise Piaras had just made was the only sound I could hear. It was as if every creature, living or whatever, was holding its collective breath in anticipation of something. The pixies had known what it was, that’s why they had given up so quickly. I suspected we didn’t want to wait around and find out what the pixies knew. Piaras realized it at the same time.

“Which is it?” he whispered.

I assumed he was referring to my litany of this evening’s monsters.

“None of the above. We need to move.” The amulet felt like it was trying to slice its way through my doublet to free itself. “Whatever it is, it’s coming at us fast.”

I doubled back toward the hill with the intention of skirting its base. That would put us back in the direction of the closest way out. The newest threat was coming from the opposite direction, so every step in our present direction took us farther from the whatever-it-was and closer to home. Worked for me.

I stopped suddenly just before the edge of a large clearing. Piaras plowed into me from behind, and we both went down in a tangle of limbs. I looked up and froze.

Prince Chigaru Mal’Salin stepped out of the shadows about fifty yards to our right. He wasn’t alone. I didn’t expect he would be. He had neither seen nor heard us, though I imagined that would change soon enough. He was well armed and armored, which was more than I could say for myself or Piaras. Looked like someone was a little put out by our early departure.

Rahimat, the goblin spellsinger, drifted wraithlike out of the trees to stand beside him. Neither of them had sensed us, and I didn’t know if it was the beacon shielding us, or the presence of whatever was coming up behind us. What I did know was that we were trapped between the goblins and something the amulet and my own instincts were telling me was infinitely worse.

Chapter 12

“Mistress Benares. I know you are here. I promise I will not harm you or your spellsinger, which is more than I can say for the creatures living in this forest. You will not make it out alive without my protection.”

Spellsinger? I swore silently. So much for keeping Piaras out of this.

The goblin prince paused, listening. He gestured, and his guards spread out to surround the area where we were. They didn’t know our exact location, but it wouldn’t take them long, especially if they stepped on us.

My hands were sweating against the leather dagger grips. I forced my breathing to remain even, and released the shielding spell I had been holding, quietly I hoped, to cover both of us.

The goblin prince and his guards moved closer. They didn’t make any effort to be quiet. They didn’t need to. They weren’t the ones hiding.

“I give you my word, both of you will be released unharmed once I have the Saghred.”

That’s what the prince was saying, but that wasn’t what I believed. I kept my hand on Piaras’s shoulder, and willed him not to move. I need not have bothered with the warning. Piaras remained flat on the ground, peering through the thick reeds, eyes alert to the goblins moving toward us. The long dagger was in his hand, and the look on his face said that he wasn’t going anywhere else with a goblin tonight—and if any goblin tried to make him, they were going to regret it.

Prince Chigaru’s guards were armed mainly with swords. There were a few crossbowmen. Not nearly few enough, but I would take any advantage I could get. I wouldn’t exactly call what I sensed approaching us an advantage, but if it gave the crossbowmen something else to shoot at besides us, they were more than welcome to join the party.

I didn’t know what scared me worse: the goblins, what was stalking us, or what I wore around my neck. If metal could have emotions, I would say that the beacon was having some strong ones, and it was doing everything it could to compel me to share them. My mind knew I was outside and there was plenty of air for everyone. My body wasn’t convinced. The air was getting thick. Only one thing could do that. Magic. The bad kind. And there was entirely too much of it.

I was being hunted, and not just by the prince.

I looked up. A richly robed goblin stood on the far side of the clearing, halfway between us and Chigaru Mal’Salin. The prince’s guards froze. I didn’t blame them. I also didn’t need a formal introduction to the newcomer. We’d met last night.

Sarad Nukpana stood alone, completely unprotected from Prince Chigaru’s guards. Any one of them could have put a bolt in his chest. Not a one of them tried.

The grand shaman’s head turned, his gaze leisurely taking in every goblin in the clearing. Some of the prince’s guards shifted uneasily, some looked away. I heard branches snapping as a few goblins back in the trees bolted in terror.

“I should have expected a traitor to be hiding in the wild with the animals,” Nukpana said.

“Or Khrynsani to be consorting with monsters,” Prince Chigaru replied, his features expressionless.

Others emerged from the shadows behind Sarad Nukpana, some robed, others in royal Mal’Salin armor. They had no intention of attacking immediately. They were waiting for something, and I for one, could go through the rest of the night without knowing what.

A solitary goblin stepped forward as the others deferentially made way for him. This was unexpected. The beautifully intricate scrollwork on his chestplate clearly identified him. Twin serpents twining around one another, battling for dominance, both surmounted by a crown. He looked like a slightly older version of the prince.