The Iron Warrior Page 7

  Finally, a single white car pulled into the driveway and shuddered to a halt. The driver’s side door opened, and Guro stepped out, carrying his gear bag over his shoulder. Slowly, I stood up, wondering if I should walk forward, suddenly uncertain as to what my mentor thought of me now. I’d been gone for months. The last time he’d seen me, I’d brought a pair of fey into his home, performed a dark ritual and vanished into the Nevernever. That was a lot of weird crap for anyone to handle.

  Guro froze when he saw me hovering at the edge of the sidewalk. I swallowed and stayed where I was, waiting. If Guro didn’t want to see me again, if he turned, walked away without looking back and slammed the door behind him, I wouldn’t blame him.

  “Are you just going to stand there, Ethan, or are you going to come inside?”

  My legs nearly gave out with relief. Numb, I followed Guro up the driveway to the front door of his house, where a series of wild barks could be heard beyond the door. Razor hissed and hid in Kenzie’s hair, and she grimaced.

  “I’ll wait outside, if you need me to,” she offered.

  But Guro shook his head. “One moment,” he said, unlocking the door and pushing it open a crack. “I will return shortly.”

  He slid through the opening, and I heard him calling to the dogs, leading them away from the door. Kenzie and I stood on the step and waited, the gremlin muttering nonsense beneath her hair. A few minutes later, Guro appeared in the doorway again, motioning us inside.

  We followed him into the same living room where, not so very long ago, it seemed, Keirran, Kenzie and I had gathered with a dying Annwyl, and Keirran had begged Guro to save her. Even if it meant turning to the dark arts. And Guro had agreed. And Keirran had lost his soul.

  Dammit, why did we ever come here in the first place? Why did I agree to let Keirran do it?

  Guro sat down in the armchair and faced us, his dark eyes unreadable. My heart was pounding again. I breathed deep to calm it down, not knowing why I was suddenly afraid. This was Guro, who believed in the unseen, who had always helped us before.

  Who could perform black, bloody magic and create an amulet that sucked out your best friend’s soul.

  “Much has happened since I saw you last,” Guro said, his dark gaze solely on me. “Ethan, before you say anything else, answer me this—where have you been for the past four months?”

  My stomach dropped. “I...uh...I’ve been in the Nevernever, Guro,” I said, knowing I couldn’t deny it, not with him. “I couldn’t really come back.”

  “And your parents?”

  “They knew where I was. I told them...before I left.”

  “Do they know you are here now?”

  “No, Guro.” My voice came out a little choked, and I willed my gut to stop turning. “I’m not...quite finished, with what I have to do.” He continued to watch me, and I stared at my hands. “I...made a mistake a while ago, and a lot of people were hurt. I’m trying to fix it.”

  “I see.” Guro laced his fingers under his chin, his expression grave. “Does it have anything to do with what happened four months ago, the night the Hidden World became visible?”

  Kenzie and I both jerked. “You know?” Kenzie gasped. “You remember! Can you...” She glanced at Razor, buzzing on her shoulder. “Can you see Them now?”

  “No,” Guro said calmly. “When the spirits faded from sight once more, I lost the ability to see Them. But I do remember what happened that night, though everyone else seems to have forgotten.”

  “What happened?” I asked. He frowned.

  “Chaos,” he said, and his tone sent shivers up my back. “I was teaching class that night,” Guro went on, “when suddenly we heard screaming in the parking lot. When we went to see what was going on, there was a body lying in the road with a strange creature perched atop it.”

  “What kind of creature?” I asked, feeling sick. “What did it look like?”

  “It was very small, with sharp teeth and pointed ears. It carried a dagger in one claw, and its skin was green.”

  “A goblin,” Kenzie muttered, as I felt a stab of dread for where this story was going. Kenzie’s eyes widened, too. “Oh, no,” she said, also guessing this wasn’t going to end well. “What happened to the students? Did they try to catch it?”

  “I warned them to leave it alone,” Guro said, “but by the time I reached them, it was too late. The creature became angry, and several more of its kind appeared, right before they attacked. Most of the students escaped with minor cuts to their legs, but...” His eyes darkened. “One boy tripped trying to run, and they swarmed him before I could get there. He was taken to the hospital with multiple stab wounds, but thankfully, they were able to save his life.”

  “Oh, God,” I said, and ran both hands through my hair, sick and furious all at once. Was this what you wanted, Keirran? Is this what your perfect faery world looks like? How many more had been hurt? How many had died when the Veil went down? And it was partially my fault. Because I’d been stupid enough to trust Keirran, to believe that he wouldn’t stab me in the back.

  Guro’s voice was low with regret as he continued. “By the time the police arrived,” he went on, “the students had already forgotten what they had seen. They could not tell the officers what had attacked them. I knew the truth, but what could I say? They would not believe me. So I told them there were several attackers, that they were small, and they were carrying knives. No one could explain the events of that night or even remember what had happened, but it haunts me every day. I will never forget that boy’s screams as those creatures brought him down.”

  “Dammit,” I muttered, and covered my eyes with one hand. “I’m sorry, Guro. I caused this. This is my fault—”

  “No,” Guro interrupted. “It is mine. Black magic always leaves its mark. This is the price I must pay for using it.”

  I blinked in surprise. For a moment, Guro was silent, brooding as he stared past us with troubled eyes. Finally, he said, in a sorrowful voice, “Your other friend is not here. I assume...you have come to know about the anting-anting?”

  I could only nod, though Guro still wasn’t looking at me. He stared at the floor over his folded hands. “Did it kill him?” he asked softly.

  “No,” I answered. “It...took his soul.”

  Guro sighed, his expression tightening, but he didn’t seem at all surprised. I watched him, my teacher, my mentor, the only other human who truly knew what was going on with my life. I’d thought I knew Guro Javier. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

  “Did you know?” I asked, my voice rough. “When you created that thing. Did you know what the amulet would do?”

  “I suspected,” Guro said calmly, and lowered his arms to his knees. “I had not performed black magic before, Ethan,” he went on. “Nor have I ever worked my craft for spirits, or creatures of the Hidden World. I was not sure your friend even had a soul.”

  “Would you have told us if you were?” I wasn’t trying to be accusatory; I just needed to understand. Keirran was gone, and I had seen firsthand the demon that was left behind. A true fey; no emotion, no regret or remorse or conscience to slow him down. Without his soul, Keirran had become the kind of faery I had always loathed and feared.

  “If I did,” Guro returned in a quiet voice, “would that have stopped him?”

  I slumped, shaking my head. “No,” I muttered. Nothing would have stopped Keirran. He was bound and determined to save Annwyl, and now, he was well on his way to destroying the courts. Just like the prophecy had said.

  And I had helped make it happen.

  “Can it be reversed?” Kenzie asked, as Razor crawled up her back to peek out of her hair. “Or, is there a way to destroy the amulet without hurting Keirran and Annwyl?”

  “The anting-anting cannot be destroyed,” Guro said gravely, making my stomach drop. “Not by norm
al means. Nor can it be given away or lost. It will always find its way back to its bearer. If you want your friend’s soul to be saved, there is only one solution.” Guro raised his dark eyes to me and held my gaze. “He must destroy it, of his own free will. He must make that choice.”

  The air left my lungs in a rush. Keirran had to destroy the amulet himself. How impossible was that going to be?

  “If Keirran does destroy it,” Kenzie asked, “what will happen to Annwyl?”

  “She will die,” Guro said simply. “Or, she will return to how she was before the anting-anting was created. There is nothing I can do for her. I am sorry.”

  Kenzie slumped against the couch, her face tightening with grief. Razor crawled onto her shoulder and made worried buzzing sounds, patting her hair, and Kenzie clutched his tiny body close. She didn’t contradict Guro’s statement or insist that he might be able to do something else. No more magic. No more spells. We both knew better than to ask.

  “I wish I could give you better news,” Guro continued, his own voice subdued, full of regret. “But, if you want your friend’s soul returned to him, the anting-anting must be destroyed, and he must be the one to do it. There is no other way.”

  I nodded numbly. “I understand,” I said, feeling the impossibility of it all weighing me down. How would we ever get Keirran to destroy the amulet, especially if it would kill Annwyl in return? Even if we managed to talk to Keirran without him attacking us, he would never agree to that. “Thanks, Guro.”

  “One more thing,” Guro added as I prepared to stand. “A few months ago, someone came to my house. I could not see it, but I could feel it. I knew someone was there.”

  “What did it want?”

  “I do not know.” Guro shook his head. “It never said anything. But I do not believe it wished me harm, whomever it was. It left soon after, and has not been back since.”

  Kenzie looked at me. “Annwyl?”

  I shrugged. “Why would she come here and not say anything?”

  “I don’t know,” Kenzie murmured, as Razor bobbed on her shoulder, muttering, “Pretty elf, pretty elf.” Her face darkened. “But I think it’s safe to say we have to find her now.”

  I nodded, already thinking about where we had to go next when, somewhere behind closed doors, the dogs exploded in a frenzy of barking. And not the excited people are here barks I’d heard dogs make before. This was a snarling, guttural racket, the kind with bared teeth and raised hackles, and it made the hair on my neck stand up.

  Razor gave a hiss of alarm and crouched low on Kenzie’s shoulder. Guro rose swiftly, eyes narrowed to dangerous black slits. I leaped to my feet, watching Guro and wondering if I should pull my swords.

  “Something is coming,” Guro said, just as a dark shadow slid across the window outside, peering in. It was lean, too lean for a human, with long thin arms and a featureless black body like a spill of living ink. Two bulbous glowing eyes stared out of the dark mass, pupil-less gaze fixed on us all. It raked long fingers down the glass, and my blood turned to ice.

  The Forgotten were here.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  AGAINST THE FORGOTTEN

  With a curse, I drew my blades, as a second Forgotten moved across the window, a black blur against the glass. Panic fluttered inside, and I shoved it down. Guro didn’t have the Sight; he couldn’t see the Forgotten like Kenzie and I could. If these were human invaders, I’d almost feel sorry for them, but how could you fight something you couldn’t see?

  “Guro,” I said, as he glanced at me sharply, “the Forgotten are here. Er, faeries that are after Kenzie and me. Do you have a back door? If we leave now, we might be able to lead them away.”

  His eyes narrowed. “How many?” he asked in a lethal voice.

  “Uh...” I glanced at the window. Three Forgotten pressed against the glass now, and another two scuttled past the window beside it. “I don’t know, exactly. At least five, maybe more.”

  A high-pitched screech interrupted us, setting my teeth on edge. A Forgotten glaring in the window raked its claws down the glass, leaving four long, thin gashes behind. Razor screeched in return, baring his fangs, and Kenzie cringed back in fear. Guro shot a look at the window, at the white scratches made by invisible claws, and whirled from the room.

  “This way,” he ordered. “Follow me.”

  We followed Guro through the kitchen and paused as he opened a single wooden door on the opposite wall. A set of stairs led down into what I assumed was a basement, and Guro motioned us through. “In here, quickly.”

  I went down the steps, Kenzie close behind. The bottom of the stairwell opened into a large room with cement walls and floors. It was dark down here, the shadows clinging to the walls and hiding everything from view, until Guro flipped on the light.

  My eyes widened. The space in the center of the floor was clear, but the walls were covered with weapons. Crossed swords, knives, clubs, wooden rattan sticks, a couple machetes and tomahawks, all hung in pairs around the room, glimmering wickedly in the fluorescent lights. A tire dummy sat in one corner of the room, a heavy bag in the other, and a couple wooden stands with padded coats and helmets stood at the back. One entire wall had pairs of traditional Filipino short swords—the kris, gayang and kalis were a few I knew by name—hanging beneath a crest that read Weapons of Moroland.

  “Okay,” I almost gasped, “I’ll admit it. I’m a little terrified.”

  Guro stalked to the back wall, where a pair of swords hung, isolated from everything else. I recognized them as his personal blades, his family’s swords, passed down from his father and grandfather before him. They were shorter than mine but no less lethal, a pair of razor-edged barong that were probably several decades older than I was.

  “Ethan!”

  Kenzie’s frightened cry rang behind me. I whirled to see a solid flood of Forgotten stream through the door and scuttle down the stairs, climbing along the walls and ceiling like huge black spiders.

  “Guro!” I called, as one spindly shadow dropped from the ceiling and lunged at me. “They’re here!”

  I dodged back as the faery’s long, thin claws barely missed my shirt, and lashed out with one of my blades. It struck the thing’s neck, biting deep, and the Forgotten didn’t make a sound as it writhed into tendrils of darkness and disappeared. Another leaped in, slashing at me, and I hacked through its arm before backing away.

  The Forgotten hissed and drew back, melting into a crowd of its brethren. As I raised my swords, a chill crawled up my spine. The Forgotten had surrounded three sides of the room. Guro, Kenzie and I stood near the back wall, a semicircle of solid black glaring at us with baleful yellow eyes.

  “Kenzie,” I panted, “get back. Try to stay between me and Guro.” Though I didn’t know how my mentor was going to fight them. There were an awful lot of Forgotten down here, and they were invisible to normal eyes. Unless Guro had somehow gotten the Sight, which I doubted, most of the fighting was going to be up to me. “If you see an opening,” I continued, not daring to look back at the girl, “run. Get out however you can, and don’t wait for me. I’ll catch up.”

  “Screw that,” Kenzie snapped, and I heard the frantic zip of her bag opening. “I’m sure as hell not leaving you, Ethan. you should know that by now. Just keep them back for a few seconds.”

  The Forgotten edged forward, silent and deadly, preparing to attack. Guro stood next to me, the barongs held loosely at his sides. I snuck a glance at him and saw that his eyes were closed.

  Like a flood of black water, the Forgotten surged forward.

  Before I could react, Guro leaped past me into the midst of the attackers, both swords spinning through the air. They moved like helicopter blades, blurred and almost too fast to see, whirling and slashing around him. They cut through the ranks of fey like a thresher through wheat, and clouds of darkness
erupted around Guro as the Forgotten fell before the relentless assault.

  Hissing, they drew back, rallied and lunged forward again, claws and talons raking the air. I kicked myself out of my shocked trance and threw myself into the chaos, lunging beside the whirling dervish of death, adding my own swords to the fray. Forgotten shrieked in fury, falling back to avoid the steel, trying to pounce on me from behind. I stood back to back with Guro, fending off attacks, not thinking of anything but keeping my arms moving, reacting to the dark blurs of shadow clawing at me from every side.

  “Ethan, above you!” Kenzie’s voice rang out from somewhere beyond the mass of Forgotten. I stepped back, whipping my sword up, and sliced through a Forgotten dropping toward me from the ceiling. I caught a split-second glance of Guro, surrounded by Forgotten, his swords moving so fast they were a blur. His eyes were still closed as he spun and whirled his blades around him, driving the faeries back.

  “Ethan, Guro!” Kenzie called out again. “This way! Back to the corner, hurry!”

  I didn’t dare look back to see what she was doing. Glancing at Guro, I started edging toward her voice, falling back before the relentless press of Forgotten. They hissed and slashed at us, still crowding in from all sides, and my arms started to burn from constantly swinging my blades. One of the Forgotten hit my arm, claws tearing through my forearm and sending a spatter of blood to the cement floor. I barely felt the wound, though I knew it was going to hurt like hell when this was done. If they didn’t tear me to pieces before then.

  And then, as we backed into the corner with Kenzie, still fending them off with our blades, the press of Forgotten just...stopped. Like we had crossed some invisible barrier the Forgotten couldn’t pass. Panting, I looked down at my feet to see that a thick line of salt had been poured across the floor, boxing us in. The Forgotten hissed and crowded the other side of the salt line, glaring with sinister yellow eyes, but they couldn’t come any farther.

  Slumping in relief, I looked at Kenzie. Her backpack sat open in the corner, and she held a huge canister of salt in both hands. Catching my gaze, she offered a wry grin.