ARC: Stolen Songbird Read online

  Luc left me gaping at the mountain while he led the horse over to a rough wooden paddock. I clawed at the knots binding my ankles, but they were tight and my fingers were numb. Luc was unsaddling the animal now, distracted. I tried to crawl on knees and elbows, but quickly realized it was a waste of time – I couldn’t move fast enough and my legs left obvious marks in the dirt. Crouched on my knees, I reached up and pulled off my gag. Taking a deep breath, I screamed, my voice thundering down the mountainside. The horse squealed and leapt away from Luc, galloping to the far side of the enclosure. I screamed again, praying there would be someone near enough to hear.

  Luc sprinted in my direction, but I managed to howl for help one last time before his fist caught me in the cheek. I toppled backwards and he grabbed my dress, hauling me upright and hitting me again. My face throbbed, my vision hazy.

  “Quite a set of lungs on you!”

  I tried to crawl away, but he snatched up the rope binding my legs and dragged me down a slope, my skirts riding up around my waist. Sitting on my bare legs, he unbound my ankles and retied the rope to one of them. Then he flipped me over and untied my wrists, leaving them free.

  “You need to be able to swim. It’s the only way under the mountain.” One hand grasping the bodice of my dress, he tore it down the front, brushing aside my arms as I attempted to fight him off. “Don’t worry, Cécile. They were specific that your virtue remain uncompromised.”

  “Who?” I demanded. “Who are you talking about? Where are you taking me? Why are you doing this?”

  He shook his head. “You’ll learn soon enough.” Taking hold of the rope attached to my ankle, he hauled me into the icy pool of water lying at the base of the rocks. I had to start swimming or risk drowning. My breath came in great heaving sobs, my terror building to the point I thought I might drown myself and save Luc the trouble. He must have noticed as much, because he swam back and snatched hold of my arm.

  “Pull yourself together, Cécile! I didn’t drag you all the way up here so you could cry yourself to death. Now on the other side of this rock is a cave. To get inside, you must swim down about four paces and slip under the edge of the rock. Do you think you can manage?”

  “This is madness,” I croaked.

  Luc dove beneath the surface. I barely had the opportunity to take a deep breath before the rope binding my ankle jerked me under. The rock was slimy under my hand, and seemingly endless. I swam hard, the rope slack enough now that I could kick. Where Luc was, I couldn’t say. What I did know was that his grip would keep me down here until I found the opening or until I ran out of air.

  Bubbles trailed from my lips, floating freely to the surface. My lungs burned, desperate for breath. My heart hammered faster and faster. The pressure of the water overhead built until my ears popped. Then the rock disappeared, leaving me disoriented and grasping about in the darkness.

  I found the edge of the rock. But as I slipped underneath, the water thickened like glue for a moment, holding me in place for precious seconds. My skin tingled as though I stood on the top of a mountain in the middle of a thunderstorm, lightning crackling down all around. Shuddering, I struggled through and pressed upwards.

  The rope pulled hard on my ankle, flipping me upside down. Hands grabbed hold of my wrists and my head broke the surface. I sucked in sweet life-giving air. The darkness was absolute. Grasping about, I found a rock protruding from the water and I clung to its slick edges, afraid to let go.

  I felt the icy cold of the water on my body and the rough stone beneath my fingers, smelled the stagnant damp air, and heard the faint splashing of Luc as he paddled towards me. All my other senses combined seemed insignificant compared to the loss of sight. I shivered, waiting.

  “Are you all right?” Luc’s voice broke the silence.

  “No.”

  Tension radiated between us and I cursed every decision I’d made that had led to this point. If only I’d galloped straight home, or fought harder, or had bloody well watched where I was riding, then maybe I wouldn’t be here.

  But I was here. And a morbidly curious little part of me wanted to know why. “You owe me an explanation,” I said.

  “Aye, I reckon I do,” he said. “But first let’s have some light.”

  I listened as he scrambled out of the water, fumbling around in the darkness. Then the sound of a flint being struck and the faint glow of flame, as welcome to me in that moment as a hand plucking a drowning sailor from stormy waters. Carefully, I climbed out of the pond and made my way towards it. Luc held a burning splinter to a storm lantern. When the wick caught, he turned it up high, illuminating the cavern with its blessed glow.

  We were in a small cave of sorts, rock encasing us on all sides. Apart from the watery entrance we had come through, the only exit was a dark tunnel leading away from the water. There were no signs of treasure, gold, or of anything other than a pile of supplies and the lantern, which Luc had obviously brought on a prior occasion.

  “Well,” I said, wrapping my arms around my icy body. All I had on was a shift and boots, and the damp fabric concealed uncomfortably little. I hadn’t truly expected him to answer, but Luc had always been excessively proud of himself, so I shouldn’t have been surprised when he did.

  “Of course, of course.” He leaned closer to me, the lamp casting shadows on his face. “It is the most incredible of things. I’d scarce believe if I hadn’t seen it myself.”

  “Get to the point, Luc!”

  He laughed as though something I’d said was beyond amusing. “You never did appreciate a good tale. So, fine, I’ll get straight to the point. I’ve found the lost city of Trollus.”

  Silence hung between us for a long moment. I certainly hadn’t expected his motivations to have anything to do with a mythological city. “Do you think this is some sort of jest or have you lost your mind?” My voice echoed through the cavern. Mind… mind… mind… mind… We both flinched and looked about uneasily.

  “The city wasn’t lost, Luc. Trollus was buried by half a mountain worth of rock.”

  “Aye,” he said, his eyes narrowing. “Buried, but not destroyed. At least not completely.”

  “Impossible. Nothing in this world is strong enough to withstand the weight.”

  “That is the best part.” He leaned closer to me. “Just like in the stories: they’ve been living here under the mountain this entire time!”

  “Who?” I asked, afraid but desperately wanting to know.

  Luc’s eyes reflected the orange glow of the flame, and he licked his lips, relishing the moment. “The trolls, Cécile. They’re here!”

  “Fairy tales,” I whispered. “Stories told to scare naughty children.”

  Luc laughed. “Oh, they’re plenty real and plenty monstrous. And happy enough for us humans to think they’re shadows in the night. Keeps people from troubling them and trying to steal their treasure.”

  “Treasure.”

  “Aye. Chambers heaped with gold and jewels.”

  “If they dislike humans, why would they let you anywhere near their wealth?” I asked, discreetly taking stock of my surroundings. The pool lay directly behind me. If I caught Luc off guard and managed to get into the water, I might have a chance. I could hide in the trees until nightfall and then make my way to the farm, if my father didn’t find me first.

  “His Majesty showed me during our… negotiations.”

  “His Majesty?” With a maniacal laugh, I leaned back on the palms of my hands. The stone floor was sloped. If I threw my weight backwards, I’d roll into the water. “I didn’t realize trolls had royalty!”

  “Oh, yes,” he said. “They are the ones who purchased you.”

  I gasped. “For what?”

  “With gold,” he said, mistaking my question.

  “What do they want with me?” I whispered.

  Luc shrugged. “With what they agreed to pay, they can throw you in a cooking pot for all I care.”

  Because according to the fairy tales, that w
as what trolls did. Put you alive into a pot of boiling water and then gnawed your flesh until all that was left were bleached white bones.

  I clawed my way back towards the pool, my fingernails tearing on the rocks. All I could think about was that I was being marched towards the most horrific of deaths. Nothing Luc could do to me could possibly be worse than being eaten. I struggled with single-minded purpose towards the pool, but Luc had a tight grip on my leash and I was no match for his strength. “Help!” My voice echoed off the water and the rock until it seemed I had a dozen doppelgangers, all of them taunting me with the futility of my screams.

  Luc slapped me hard. “Shut your mouth, or I’ll gag you again.” One finger pointing towards the glowing lantern, he said, “Pick that up, and start walking.”

  Hands numb with a cold that was far more than skin deep, I followed Luc’s order.

  What I had thought would be a straight walk into the deep was anything but. Instead, a labyrinth of tunnels, crevices, and dead-ends lay beneath the mountain of stone. The floor was an uneven carpet of boulders and rocks, riddled with cracks that could break your ankle or swallow you whole. I took each step with caution, a kidnapper at my back, and the risk of a broken neck at every turn. My shift clung to my body, refusing to dry in the damp darkness and providing nothing in the way of warmth. The light from the storm lantern shivered along with me, casting strange shadows on the rock and setting my heart racing until I was convinced it would beat itself out of my chest.

  At each intersection countless rough markings were carved or chalked on the stone. Some were clearly directions or warnings, but others were meaningless symbols. Logic crept past my fear, and I knew that if I had any chance of escaping, I’d need to know how to find my way.

  “Who made these?” I asked, my voice seeming loud after the long silence. I kept my tone quiet and non-confrontational. Luc got his back up easily at the best of times and I needed to keep him talking.

  “Treasure hunters.” Luc tapped his knife against one of the strange symbols. “Each of the pathfinders has his own mark leading the way he deems fastest. Or safest, most like,” he amended.

  An arrow next to a symbol carved into the stone pointed to the right, where a narrow, slot-like tunnel promised a tight squeeze, even for me. Half a dozen symbols had arrows pointing to the passage on the left, which seemed wide open and inviting by comparison. “Why not the other way?”

  Luc shook his head and tapped two wavy lines scratched below the markings. “Means sluag been sighted down that path. Or their leavings, at least.”

  “What’s a sluag?”

  The uneasy expression on Luc’s face did not ease my fear. “Something big and something best to be avoided,” he said. “I asked the trolls about them. They said that if I ever got close enough to spot one, t’would be unlikely I’d live to tell the tale. Even they are afraid of sluag.” He pointed towards the right. “The tight spaces are safer.”

  I shone the light down the left passageway, but the scant few feet of visibility gave me no comfort that there weren’t sluag or worse lurking beyond. My back against the wall, I reluctantly squeezed into the crack.

  The crevice remained tight for a long time and progress was both slow and exhausting. When the passage finally opened up into a bigger space, I sank down on the damp rock with relief. Luc emerged soon after, his face as filthy and exhausted as I assumed mine to be.

  “We need to keep moving,” he said, after taking a long swallow from his water skin then passing it to me. “The trolls are expecting us by nightfall.”

  Needless to say, I didn’t find the reminder particularly motivating. “Who told you about these tunnels, anyway? Or would you have me believe you decided to crawl to the center of the earth one day to discover if you might pop out the other side?”

  Luc sneered at me. “No one can tell anyone about this place – the trolls ensure that. If you make it all the way to Trollus, and if they decide you’re useful enough not to kill on the spot, they make you swear magic oaths binding you to secrecy. S’why I couldn’t tell you anything until we got under the rocks. The trolls, they’re big on oaths. Don’t take too kindly to those who break their word, so we best be moving right along.”

  I sat rooted, refusing to move.

  Luc tossed up his hands in exasperation. “Fine. I took to noticing that old Henri seemed to have unlimited coin to do his drinking in town, though he ain’t never worked an honest day in his life. So I followed him, thinking he had a stash buried in the forest somewhere. Turns out he’s been trading with the trolls all these years and no one the wiser.”

  “Trading what?”

  “Books, of all things.”

  “And you? What did you give them?”

  Luc shrugged. “Odds and sods. They pay a lot, but it’s a dangerous trip. When I heard they were looking for a girl with your description, I knew I’d hit pay dirt, and I was right. They let me name my price.”

  Fury overtook my fear of punishment. He had sold me, sold my life away, all because he was too greedy to do honest work. Booted heels lashing out, I caught him in the knees and watched as he toppled over the edge of the rock and out of sight. Unfortunately, his grip on the rope did not slacken and I was dragged forward until my feet dangled over the edge.

  “You just don’t give up, do you.” Luc sat about four feet below me in a pool of guck, and a rank stench rose up to assault my nostrils. He wasn’t alone.

  “Looks like you have a friend,” I snapped, pointing at the skeleton lying on the floor next to Luc. “Shame you didn’t meet a similar fate.”

  Luc looked down and grimaced. Then his curiosity got the better of him and he gave the body a closer examination. “Shine the lantern down this way, Cécile. I can’t believe I’ve never noticed him before.”

  I obliged, but only because I had no other options. He’d just pull me over the edge if I didn’t obey. Judging from the bareness of the bones, the man had been dead for some time. My skin broke out into a fresh set of goose bumps. “What is that slime?”

  “I don’t know – never seen it before.” He sounded nervous, and his trepidation caught hold of me like a plague.

  “How many times have you been this way?” I asked, my mind turning to the real fear that we might be lost and he just didn’t know it.

  There was no chance to respond before the cavern thundered with a strange roaring noise. BAROOOM! The echoes faded, replaced by the wet swish of something slithering in our direction. Something large.

  Luc’s terrified eyes met mine and he whispered, “Run!”

  CHAPTER 3

  CéCILE

  Terror may have given us wings, but the labyrinth of Forsaken Mountain kept us to a crawl. We wriggled across boulders, boots slipping on the loose rock and ears peeled for the tell-tale swish, swish of the sluag hunting at our heels. If it was fast enough to catch us, it was choosing not to. But whenever I thought we’d escaped, we’d round a corner and the swish, swish of slithering would accost our ears, forcing us to backtrack or take another way – almost as though it was toying with us. If not for the etched directions, we’d have certainly lost our way. Exhaustion was catching up with us, and when it did, so would the sluag.

  Luc examined the markers, both of us panting and gasping for breath. We stood at the convergence of three tunnels. “This way,” he whispered. “Just a bit further and we’ll come to a narrow hole. You’ll have to get down and crawl, but once you’re through, we’ll be into Trollus. The sluag won’t be able to follow.”

  BAROOOM!

  I started in the direction he pointed, but Luc shoved me aside and went first. Reaching the tight bit, he fell to his stomach and squirmed his way in. His small pack caught on the edge, forcing him to back up, take it off, and shove it ahead of him.

  Swish, swish, swish. BAROOOM! Triumph thundered in the creature’s voice as it drew closer.

  “Hurry, hurry, hurry,” I whispered, and turned to look back the way we’d come.

  Swish, swi
sh, swish.

  Only Luc’s feet stuck out of the tunnel now. I dropped to my knees, ready to dive in the second he made room.

  Swish, swish, swish.

  Luc’s heels disappeared. I glanced behind me one last time, the light of the lantern catching the monster rounding the corner. The sluag reared, white and glistening like a giant slug, and out of its mouth shot a long, whip-like tongue. The lantern smashed at my feet, guttering out. I screamed and scrambled into the hole.

  I could see nothing – only hear Luc cursing ahead of me, and the swish of the sluag coming up from behind. I crawled faster, uncertain how far into the tunnel I had progressed or if my ankles still protruded enough for the monster to catch hold.

  BAROOOM!

  I screamed, and something smacked into the heel of my boot, the force driving me onto the back of Luc’s legs. “Hurry! It’s coming!”

  BAROOOM!

  We clawed our way forward, and the tunnel shuddered as the creature slammed into the rock. I shrieked, snot and tears coating my face as I shoved against Luc’s feet, trying to get through the tight hole. Even after he reached the other side and pulled me out of the tunnel, it took a long time for my panic to recede enough for me to think. I was not safe. Not only was I kidnapped, my kidnapper was too stupid to get us safely to those he intended to sell me to. It was all for nothing. I was going to die for nothing.

  “I hate you,” I croaked. I swallowed hard and repeated myself. “I hate you.” The sentiment still wasn’t enough, so I howled the words. “I hate you, Luc!”

  “Where’s the lamp?” His voice held no emotion, but I felt him pick up the end of the rope still attached to my ankle.

  “At the end of the tunnel with the sluag – feel free to go get it.” Except the thought of the creature wolfing him down didn’t make me feel much better. I would be alone in the dark, with no sense of time or direction. The chances of finding my way out were nonexistent – I’d starve to death down here and no one would ever suspect what had happened.