Chapter 55

"Yes, yes, Toby. I am certain. None can see us," Radagast said, surveying this new land with care. "Much has been tampered with," he muttered to himself. "This may be more difficult than I feared."

He scampered away from the rift as it closed in his wake. He had much to learn, much to set in place and not much time in which to see both done. Such windows between these worlds, he'd been informed, lasted only six and a half hours and could only be created every six and a half days. He could not afford to remain in Faerie a full week – there was too much chance he'd be discovered. What the hobbit could do with ease due to the Ring took all of the wizard's reserves. Six hours of such effort to conceal himself would leave him exhausted by the time he and Toby ventured home.

Radagast's hand gripped his staff as he walked beneath oddly-colored boughs, listening to the wildlife. His brows lowered as he observed the state of Faerie. He'd followed the twins through the rift a week before, but at that time, his mission had been simple: avoid detection and ensure the naiads survived. He'd watched the echnari working feverishly, but despite the echnari's combined, impressive power, the satyr would have passed. The boy had endured entirely too much pain. His wan spirit had attempted to slip away from the burnt husk of his body twice, and if not for Radagast's presence and the aid provided through him by his Lady, Aleks would have entered the Halls of Mandos.

The effort had been costly to himself and Lady Yavanna both, but they'd anticipated it. As soon as Master Hunt had been stabilized, he'd retreated through the rift undetected. It had been a close call - he'd barely returned before the brief window allowing such travel expired. The risk had been necessary, for Yavanna could not venture into these lands herself and the naiad line could not die out. Such was Eru's charge to Yavanna, and her charge to him.

Much to be done, he thought. And only six hours in which to see it completed. Now where, he wondered, might our Master Baggins be found?

OoOoOo

Hours later, the Brown Wizard chewed upon all the hobbit had conveyed to him. Daphne not yet located. Breeding plans, of all things. The travesty fired his temper until smoke curled out of his ears. The gall of these echnari, attempting to breed intelligent beings like cattle. Well, he'd made short work of that nonsense, ensuring it would never come to pass.

Be safe, Master Baggins, he thought. The hobbit would carry a heavy burden, for there was much he had asked of him in the week to come. Why, it would be the sixth of December before Radagast could return, and he knew they had no time to spare. With a last look around at the suffering creatures of Faerie, he stepped through the rift and returned to Middle Earth.

OoOoOo

Bilbo watched the wizard vanish, brow pursed. He'd not been happy with Radagast's admonition to keep the wizard's presence a secret from Daphne and Aleks, but he did understand it. The echnari could not catch so much of a glimmer of what was afoot.

With a shake of the head, he hustled away. He had six and a half days before Radagast's return and a veritable grocery list of things he must complete in the meantime. He'd make each hour count.

OoOoOo

Aleks handed a fat hare over to the weasel in payment, thanking the critter as it accepted his offering and trooped away with the bigger hare's corpse dragging across the ground in his wake.

No Bilbo, he informed his sister. He hadn't seen hair nor hide of the hobbit in days, and Daphne hadn't seen any indication their friend had located her. Worry flared between them.

Surly find anything? Daphne asked him.

"Surly", the weasel, had found squat of use. He ticked off his findings upon his fingers. He found his way into Lord Ovid's pantry, he said in a dry voice, the armory, and some room where a bunch of people are sleeping. Not so helpful.

Did he find where the human prisoners are being held?

Aleks's belly churned. He'd hoped she'd not ask about that. Surly had found the humans all right – what was left of them. Oh, the youngest kids were still alive and nothing more than scared, but the rest…

That bad? A small, nervous voice.

Aleks frowned. He'd noticed that change in her. That pressure from Faerie's energy definitely had her on edge. When had he last felt her sleep? Let me worry about the humans, he said. You can't do anything from where you are.

We need more trees, she said. He could feel the way her mind was turning, planning what she might do to allow humans set loose in Faerie's wilds some sort of safety.

You sure you're up to that?

Uncertainty. She'd managed to grow four additional sentinels in the last day: another hawthorn, a birch, a pine, and a walnut tree. Both of them had wondered what using Faerie's energy would do to the two of them. In theory, as a balancing presence, they'd be okay, but both had been leery of any attempt to wield it in extravagant amounts.

Don't do it yet, he decided. Small stages, that was the ticket. If they suffered no obvious effects in a few days, then they could do more, but it seemed rash to start trying to use all the energy stuffing inside of them willy-nilly.

Especially if it twisted them as it had Faerie's trees.

Another day passed. Then another. Aleks continued to scout what he could using his limited resources, as well as attempting to add to his arsenal of animal friends. He needed a bird – any bird would work. Didn't matter how small it was, Aleks just wanted to find his sister himself.

In case the hobbit was gone.

The possibility grew every hour. Bilbo, dude, we shouldn't have let you do this.

OoOoOo

Tell me that again.

My brother was a dead man. A whole week, we'd been working as a team, and now he tells me he hid something so monumentally huge as this? My fingers clamped down into the dead leaves beneath me, my intention to dig up the tubers I'd sensed forgotten.

Aleks radiated guilt, but I didn't back down.

Aleks, I warned.

They intend to breed us, he said for the second time. Today.

Today. I rose to my feet, collected my staff – a misshapen thing Bofur would likely have a thing or two to say about – and my best dagger, my movements swift and careful. I loped back through the woods on light feet, something I'd grown better at in the last six days. Carnivorous plants would do that to you.

The echnari intended to send a stranger to impregnate me today. Rage built and built, compounded by Aleks's lack of warning before now and the dwindling amount of sleep I'd been getting. What if the echnari made a game of it? I could have a dozen creeps after me for no other reason than to save their own skin. No one could tell me the echnari were above that. I heard the sounds of their depravity every hour of every day in the anguish of their victims.

You listen to me, and you listen good, Twin, I growled. You hide stuff like this from me again, and I'll find a way to kick your butt. I can't believe you.

A quiet, I was hoping we'd be out of here by now, was his response.

In a week? Did he think we were heroes from a Marvel comic? He was lucky he was out of range of my new staff, that was all I wanted to say.

Breaking free from the hostile tree lines, I rushed into my glade and towards my five healthy sentinels, whistling to them that danger might be coming. All rustled with increased alertness. At my camp, I scooped up all of my daggers and situated myself at the base of the first hawthorn, back to its trunk.

Daph? A tentative query.

My hand fisted upon my knee. What?

A pause. Sorrow, guilt. Keep safe.

I exhaled, the back of my head resting upon the tree's bole. Thoughts raced to what I could expect. It wasn't like the echnari would sic some centaurs or minotaurs on us – one, we wouldn't survive such an encounter and two, I didn't think any children could come of such unions. So what would the echnari send? Sirens, maybe? They were kissing cousins to naiads, probably why we loved music so much. We might not obsess over it as a siren did, but that affinity was there. Maybe a sprite or brownie?

The latter two, we had no easy defense against. Brownies were better than hobbits at sneaking about, and sprites could wield water as a weapon, yanking it from a person's body or shoving it through the skin, into the lungs and drowning a person where he stood. (Not that I expected us to face that bit of joy.) Sirens, however… Aleks, plug your ears. Sirens didn't just love music, they could mesmerize with it. One nice croon, and they could have a person eating from their hands like a lapdog.

I grabbed my blade and hacked strips of fabric from the bottom hem to use in lieu of earplugs. Once that was done, I began to whip up a real army of trees. If I was going down, the person or persons attempting it were going to pay a high price.

OoOoOo

Aleks spent the day pacing in full satyr mode, fingers curled into claws and mind clouded by a red haze of rage. No Bilbo. Aleks knew his twin was alert and mad enough to defend herself, but he howled inside. It was a satyr's place to defend the dryad, yet here he was, stuck with no clue how to reach her. The satyr side of him was incandescent with outrage that he couldn't do what instinct demanded.

The sun rose.

Aleks set knife to wood, creating wood shaves for no reason but his need to cut into something. Each minute stretched out like hours. When destroying wood no longer sufficed, he set his tool aside and stomped around on his hooves. Daph paced, too, once she had another dozen or so trees at her beck and call. The nervous fury ping-ponged between them. Neither said much, but the link joining them remained wide open.

The sun reached its zenith.

The sun set. Both eyed the dark landscape around them with suspicion. Daph allowed her first hawthorn to draw her into its boughs while the other trees took up position around it.

Both remained awake all night.

No one came.

OoOoOo

I shook out my robes, dumping a new load of pinecones, berries and whatnot on the ground. Turning, I almost shrieked to find Marcus standing beside me, his lips white and his back muscles tight enough to use as a trampoline. The caution that had driven Aleks and me to fight off sleep for two days straight prodded me away from the werewolf, my eyes narrowed.

At my whistle, the trees rustled, ready to react at a moment's notice.

"I should kill you." His first words since acting so worried about me in Middle Earth. It was so abrupt and shocking, I didn't at first understand. "I let compassion rule me back in your Erebor." Wolf eyes turned my way, and the rage there sent prickles of alarm zinging through me. I didn't back away – I knew better than to try – but my hand tightened around my dagger. "If there is one thing Faerie has taught me," he growled, "its that compassion is a luxury. In this world, it is every man for himself. Had you died, they would be fading."

Aleks? I couldn't help it, I retreated one step.

Daph? What's wr- As he merged with me, no explanation was needed. My twin began to swear, but edited himself, as aware as I of the danger in that. Faerie was not a place for idle words.

Marcus snorted, his gaze upon my dagger. "Think that will stop me, maple-girl?" The disdain was back, accompanied by a hardness of heart I'd never heard from him before.

I licked my lips. "Why am I still alive?" Call the trees or not? Bravado aside, I didn't want my first victim to be Marcus. I kept my link to them open, readying myself for what I might have to do.

"Let's make one thing clear," he said, prowling forward until his bigger frame blocked out the blue sun. Before I retreated, his hand lashed out and grabbed my neck, not strangling, but caging. "I will do anything to protect my Pack."

I believed him.

"You live for one reason. I've smelled a creature not from Earth or Faerie. He hides from sight, but he's here." Bilbo? Aleks and I clanged together. "He can hide from them. So I spare you. For now. I want to speak with him."

A sword materialized over my shoulder, the point at Marcus's throat. "If you wish my assistance, you will release her."

"So you finally reveal yourself."

"Perhaps I've been too polite. Release her. I won't ask again." Bilbo stepped closer, Sting held steady and the hobbit's gaze unwavering.

Marcus's throat vibrated with a low growl. "You think your puny pocketknife is going to hurt me?"

It was Sting, I thought. Like Orcrist and Glamdring, it had been forged by the elves of Gondolin. Marcus and the dwarves might scoff at it, but I wasn't so sure it wasn't powerful in its own right.

I'll kill him, Aleks fumed. I could sense him stomping around, snorting in full satyr-fury. If Marcus comes in reach, he's dead, you hear me?

Hard to ignore when it was shouted in your own head.

"Remove your hand from her neck," Bilbo said in a voice suddenly filled with threat.

Marcus's head fell back, and he laughed. His hand did drop, however, and Bilbo quickly planted himself between us, Sting's length shielding us both. Marcus's laughter turned bitter and helpless. "I should kill you," he said, his gaze once again upon me. Bilbo stiffened. "Once chance, that's all you get," Marcus said. To Bilbo, "You find a way to kill these echnari, and I'll let them live. I know what you wear, hobbit." Both Aleks and I inhaled sharply. Marcus's finger pointed at Bilbo. "You use it to change things, or I'll rip it from you and do it myself after I've disposed of both naiads. Got it?"

What, I asked myself, had happened to Marcus? This wasn't the guy I knew, not even close.

Looks like Faerie brought out the worst in him, Aleks said in a low, rumbling voice. Don't you dare make excuses, Daph. Thorin would tell you trials like this show the true character. A person of honor will die before descending to this level. We both know Marcus was never that.

Did that make Marcus an all-round bad guy? I suspected I'd be tempted into a lot of badness if someone put a knife to Aleks or Bofur's neck. Marcus wasn't some thug willing to kill over a pack of gum. He was being driven, and werewolves always responded to that kind of thing with violence.

"You can most certainly try," Bilbo said, his jaw tight. "My purpose is to see my companions safe, but if I can do anything to help the other people here, I will do so. Not because you threaten, but because it is the right thing to do."

Marcus's lip curled. "You keep your vaunted morals. I'll be the one to walk away with most of me and mine alive."

"Marcus, what happened?" I dared to ask.

It doesn't matter, Aleks fumed.

It might, I objected.

He wrapped his hands around your neck, Aleks snapped. He threatened to kill us.

A tremor shook down Marcus's spine. "Besides using us as fodder in their internal wars, you mean?" he said at last. Wolf eyes burned into mine. "They use us. For sport. As pets," he spat. "Think illegal dog fights back home, then throw in monsters found only in Faerie. I've lost two wolves already. One to the arachne and one to a lamia."

As Bofur would have said, Mahal. Even Aleks's rage cooled by a few degrees.

"They abandoned Carlos," he said. Before I could ask, he added, "In Middle Earth. Left him there, torn and bloody by what that Muriste did to him." He raised a fist between us. "He is my wolf. And I can do nothing to protect him."

My fingers twined into the fabric of my robe. "He'll be okay. So long as its the elves or dwarves who find him, he'll be alright."

Marcus shook his head in dismissal. "Follow me," he said.

I eyed my trees and weighed my chances. "Where?" I slowly collected my nuts and seeds, buying time.

Marcus turned around, a false smile on his lips. "Lord Ovid has Aleks. He wants you, too. Right now, Lord Quai's lands – these lands – are being invaded by Ovid's legions. He has a gorgon."

I blanched, hands frozen where they hovered over my loot. "Which one?"

What do you mean? There's more than one? Aleks demanded.

There were three, I told him.

"What? What is a gorgon?" Bilbo asked, his gaze flying between us.

"Euryale," Marcus informed me.

I juggled what I could in my right hand while grabbing Bilbo's wrist with my left, dragging him after me. "We'll be leaving now," I told the hobbit. Be safe, I whistled to my trees.

Who is Euryale?

I mentally flapped hands at Aleks. Like we had time for a lesson now. "I suppose that means the barrier is down."

Marcus's grunt sounded like agreement. His attention turned to the hobbit, "You are Bilbo, aren't you?"

Bilbo cleared his throat and placed me opposite him to Marcus. "Perhaps you should have ascertained that before making your threats," the hobbit said. "Yes. Bilbo Baggins at your service."

Marcus growled in the back of his throat. "Remember my words. For the record, I don't make threats. I promise, little hobbit. Don't forget it."

"Believe me, I won't be." Bilbo's face was grim as he next directed to me, "What or who is Euryale?"

The sounds of battle began to come from far away to the south. I picked up the pace. "The gorgons were three sisters," I hurried to explain to hobbit and brother concurrently. "Cursed. I don't remember by whom. Snakes for hair. Seriously ugly. The most famous, Medusa, could turn men to stone with one look of her face."

"Stone," Bilbo repeated as if he didn't buy it.

"Stone," I reiterated. "If you come across a section of Faerie full of stone statues, don't stick around. Euryale, if I remember correctly, can kill men with a scream."

"Just men?" Bilbo asked.

"Males," I corrected, shoving the strips of cloth I'd made at him. "Put these in your ears."

OoOoOo

Bilbo slipped away once he was certain Daphne was ensconced in Ovid's tower with guards other than werewolves to protect her. If the echnari war had reached such a feverish pitch, now might be the perfect time to sneak into Quai's squat fortress in search of any information that might reveal some weakness in the echnari not requiring his friends' deaths to capitalize upon.