Blood of Centaurs: Book 12 of The Witch Fairy Series (11 page)

“Tana is gone and we are at war?” Kegan asks incredulously.  “You have not been here that long.”

“We are not technically at war,” I point out.  “We will simply have the Fairy army here to keep the peace.”  It hits me how often the United States back home has done something like this.  I try hard not to think of how those situations worked out.

Kegan isn’t buying it but he moves on.  “Where do we look for Tana?”

“Good question,” Kallen says.  He and Dagda have been brooding over this for the last ten minutes while I caught Kegan up on what has b
een happening.

“It is not likely she left by her own will,” Dagda says, putting to words what we are all thinking.  “She would have gone straight to Zac upon leaving the barn.  His safety would have been her number one concern.”

Kegan glances toward the barn that is almost completely crumbled under the flames.  No one is bothering to try to put them out anymore.  The structure is a lost cause.  The focus now is to contain the fire to the barn and not letting anything in the area burn.  “Was there a back door?” he asks.

Kallen, Dagda and I exchange glances.  Finally, Kallen says, “No.”

Kegan frowns.  “But you are certain Zac did not use his magic to make her disappear?”

“Correct,” Dagda says.  Kegan’s
confusion is not lost on him.  “Nor did Garren or Zac see her leave by the front door.”

“There was no trace of her in the barn,” I say again.  “I looked everywhere.”

After a worried glance in Dagda’s direction, Kegan finds the courage to say, “Tana delved deep into ancient magic.  Perhaps she knew a spell that could get her to safety?”  He used the word ancient but we all know he meant black.  No one practicing white magic can disappear into thin air without Angel blood running in their veins like me.  This would also imply she got herself to safety and simply left Zac, Felix and Garren behind.

Kallen shakes his head.  “I felt no trace of her magic inside the barn.” 

Surprised, I ask, “You could tell with all the fire and smoke?”

Kallen’s mouth turns up in a half smile.  “Yes.”  Wow.  He is really good at sensing other people’s magic. 

“So, no magic used and no other exits,” I reiterate unhelpfully.  “What’s left?”

“We discover who was around the barn when she disappeared,” Kallen says.  There’s a determined gleam in both his and Dagda’s eyes that makes me almost feel sorry for the Centaurs and Sasquatch that happened to be in the area at the time.  I suspect the questioning process will not be pleasant for them if they don’t have the right answers.  Kallen is angry, but Dagda is at the intersection of homicidal tendencies and psychotic acts of torture.  No one wants to get on his bad side at the moment.  Though, I suppose, he doesn’t really have a good side to find right now.  He is going to leave carcasses in his wake if Kallen, Kegan and I can’t rein him in when necessary.

Both King Bayard and King Yerwen approach with grievous expressions on their faces.  “My sincerest regrets for any lost belongings,” Bayard says.

Fortunately, Fairies travel light.  “We have not lost belongings,” Dagda says tightly.

Yerwen glances around and then his eyes zero in on Kegan but he doesn’t question his presence.  Instead, he stupidly acknowledges Tana’s absence.  “Has the Queen retired to safety?”

Magic once again leaks through Dagda’s pores.  “The Queen,” he says through clenched teeth, “is missing.”

Horrified, Bayard’s eyes move to the pile of ashes that was once the barn and then back again.  “Has she perished?” he asks with more than a little fear in his voice.  It doesn’t take a mathematician to figure out the odds that the attack on us led to the barn burning to the ground and the disappearance of Tana. 

“No,” Kallen says.  He has angled his body in a way that puts him in a position to throw himself upon Dagda if he decides to rush the Centaur King.

“Then it is a simple matter of forming a search party.  I am certain she will be found quickly,” Yerwen says.  The confidence of his words doesn’t reach his eyes.  His own disbelief of his words also makes my skin crawl. 

“Both Centaurs and Sasquatch attacked us.  Either of you could have given the order to seize the Fairy Queen,” Kallen accuses.  “Trusting you to help find her seems contrary to our goal.”

Both Kings register the implications of his words.  Bayard is the first to react.  “You believe the Centaurs injudicious enough to declare war in such a blatantly stupid manner?  We have no quarrel with the Fae nor do we wish any harm to the Queen.”

“Nor do we,” Yerwen reiterates. 

I hold up a hand before he can continue.  “Yeah, yeah, we’ve had this conversation already.  Instead of telling us these things, maybe you should be addressing your armies.  They seem to be confused as to what they are here to accomplish.  Peace hasn’t really been on the agenda since we arrived,” I point out. 

Galloping hooves drown out whatever the Kings are saying in response.  A haggard looking
, soot covered Centaur practically barrels into Bayard.  Getting himself under control, the Centaur bends at the waist.  “My Liege, there is something you must see.”

“What is it?” Bayard demands.

The Centaur is still bent at the waist, his eyes cast downward.  “As the flames extinguish, a hidden escape route has been discovered.”

Hope blooms in my chest.  “Where does it lead to?” I ask.

Of course the Centaur doesn’t answer me.  He waits for Bayard to ask him the same question.  Jerk.  Finally, he says, “The way has been blocked.  It will take some time to remove the debris and continue our search as all the flames have yet to be extinguished.”

Dagda has already started for the barn.  Kegan and Kallen are right behind him.  I scramble to catch up.   When we reach the
pile of wood that used to be the barn, we can see what the Centaur was talking about.  In one of the barn stalls, the one Dagda and Tana were using, a trap door has been discovered in the floor under where the bed would have been.  Did Tana know it was there all along?  Is that why she sent Zac and Garren out while she attempted to battle the flames?  Because she knew she had another way out?

“Clean the area of debris!” Bayard shouts to his Centaurs.  Many of them look from him to the burning embers and random flames still encompassing the barn.  Trying to clear the debris with their hands
right now would lead to serious injury.

Lucky for them, their manual labor isn’t necessary.  As if we have been practicing, Dagda, Kallen, Kegan and
I all pull magic and begin using it to remove the debris from the area of the trap door.  The Centaurs and Sasquatch scramble out of the way of the flying debris.  My worst fear is that when we have cleared it all away, we will find Tana and Felix lying beneath it.

“Is that the best you can do?” Taz complains.  “Put some weight behind your magic, for bloody sakes.  Are you Fairies or
humans?”  If I wasn’t concentrating so hard, I’d kick him.  Instead, I limit my reaction to a glare which goes completely unnoticed as the Tasmanian devil focuses on the trap door as if he can move the debris with his eyes.

It only takes a few minutes for us to burrow through.  What we find is confusing at best.  Beneath the trap door is a room.  A basement to be more exact. 
The trap door had been huge, large enough to turn into a ramp leading down to this area.  A ramp large enough to be used by a Centaur.  In the center of the room, there is a high table but the rest of the room is empty.  It appears we have stumbled upon a secret meeting spot for Centaurs.  My eyes stray to Pholos to garner his reaction to what we’ve found.  He seems as surprised as the rest of us. 

What we don’t find is Tana and Felix.  My heart breathes a sigh of relief, but my head pounds with frustration.  Where did they go?  There doesn’t appear to be a way out of the room except back up the ramp.  Granted, the room is smoky, but there are no obvious indicators in the walls or floor that
we can see to indicate there is yet another trap door leading to the outside.

“Your men meet in secret?” Yerwen sneers.  “It is no wonder your army lacks cohesion.”

The tightness around Bayard’s eyes and mouth indicate he is thinking the same thing.  At least about his men meeting in secret.  As mine did, he searches for Pholos.  There is a touch of relief in his expression when he realizes his son is as stunned as he is about this.

“Uncle,” Kallen says quietly.  “It is almost time for Xandra to open the passageway.”
  The Fairy army must be assembled on Isla’s beach by now.

Dagda is shaken from whatever homicidal fantasy he was indulging in.  “Yes.”  Turning his cold, hard gaze to the other Kings, he says, “My army will be here within minutes.  I suggest you direct your troops to give them a wide berth.  Any act of aggression will be returned in kind.”  Several times over I suspect.

“Why are you all being so nice about this?” Taz demands.  “We are losing precious time.  Let’s string them up by their hooves and hair and beat a confession out of them.  Stick bamboo in their hooves, gum in their hair!  Better yet, shave the Sasquatch and put saddles on the Centaurs.  That’ll get them talking.”

He’s right, those things probably would.  The idea of
the Sasquatch trying to pick gum out of their precious white hair does bring about a sense of satisfaction.  Even if they aren’t responsible for Tana and Felix being missing.  I can’t imagine the indignity a Centaur would suffer if forced to wear a saddle.

The current stress I’m under makes my magic all the more potent.  It seems all I need do at the moment is think hard enough about something to make it happen.  Around us, Sasquatch are
suddenly bellowing and clawing at their long body hair.  To be more precise, they’re clawing at the pink chewing gum clumped in their hair. 

Kegan snickers aloud and Kallen punches him in the arm.  I believe he does this more to cover his own desire to snicker than to chastise Kegan.  Even Dagda’s eyes show a hint of humor.

“What is the meaning of this?!” Yerwen demands, trying to yank out an especially large piece of gum in his armpit.  The more he pulls, the farther the gum stretches and more and more of his long hair gets tangled in it. 

The Centaurs would find great amusement in this as well if they weren’t currently trying to yank the saddles off that have become adhered to their backs.  Pholos rounds on me, sensing correctly this is my doing.  “You choose to humiliate us!  You degrade us by reducing us in your eyes to pets to be ridden and broken?!”

“He’s a real smart one, he is,” Taz says.  “Lift me up so I can ride on his back until he confesses.”

“Xandra,” Dagda says, getting ready to chastise me.  But he stops.  Looking around for a moment at the general chaos, his eyes come back to the Kings standing before him.  Clearing his throat, he says, “Wars cannot be fought by troops who are too consumed with their own problems to
defend themselves.  The Fae do not require your blood to bring your armies to their knees.  Unless my wife and my daughter’s Familiar are returned, this realm will be plunged into chaos.  This is simply a taste of what could come.”  To prove his point, he creates a pair of scissors and uses them to magically cut a large chunk of hair from a random Sasquatch’s abdomen.  The Sasquatch bellows in anger and despair. 

I appreciate that
Dagda added Felix into his demand even if the Tasmanian devil isn’t exactly my Familiar.  He’s still my friend.  And my responsibility.

Kegan and Kallen have joined the fray and
are creating their own interesting takes on items of torture.  Kegan is using magic to fling something resembling tar at the Sasquatch and Kallen has created a swarm of horseflies.  Centaurs are swatting at them with their hands and tails as they wince in pain from the tiny creatures’ bites.

Unfortunately, none of this
is helping us find Tana and Felix.  And the Centaurs and Sasquatch will not be of any help in their current condition.  I pull my magic back and the others do the same.  The gum, saddles, scissors, tar and horseflies disappear.  The Centaurs and Sasquatch are returned to the same condition they were in before our magical attack began.

Kono is on the brink of a total meltdown she is so angry.  “You will pay for this,” she growls.

Dagda is not concerned.  “You have seen the power of four,” he says in a voice much calmer and more relaxed than a few minutes ago.  “Do you believe you have the means to stop my army?”

“The Fae and the Sasquatch have never met on the battlefield,” Kallen says in the same calm tone Dagda is using.  “I, for one, would welcome the opportunity at this point.”  The
menacing grin on his face is enough to make Kono screech in rage and lunge toward him.  Kallen’s magic is too strong for her and she is forced back.

Kegan and I look at each other.  This has gotten completely out of hand. 
Yeah, I started it but I never would have guessed Kallen and Dagda would egg it on.  What has flipped the universe upside down and made Kegan and me the reasonable ones?  “Perhaps we should seek a plan of rescue as opposed to a plan of war,” Kegan suggests.

“We are here to create peace, after all,” I add.  Peace may be off the table, though.  There are no peaceful thoughts roaming the realm at the moment.