Fortune's Fool - Mercedes Lackey [124]
They looked as if they wanted to protest, but bit their objections back. Klava stepped forward, looking more determined than Katya had ever seen her. “I’ll take care of them, Katya,” she promised. “I’ll make sure everyone gets out. You fight the Jinn. You can beat him, I know you can.”
Katya smiled, and it wasn’t an insincere or weak smile. “Believe me Klava, that, all by itself, will make a big difference. If you all can get away, you take the power he is counting on with you. The weaker he is, the better chance we have to bind him.”
Klava turned and went down into the root cellar.
“I wish that I was an earth-spirit,” Marina said, bitterly. “I cannot even hope to help you. One touch from him, and I am gone.”
Poor Marina! Given how fragile she was, it was amazing how much she had done in these past days. Her courage was amazing. Katya embraced her. “You have been more help than you think, and I am counting on you as our second line of defense if he defeats us. To do that, you have to flee. Get home. Be safe. If we don’t win, warn others, tell Father Frost. He may be able to do something where we can’t.”
“I will,” Marina promised.
Magda merely traced an odd pattern in the air, nodded soberly, and turned away, taking Marina by the hand. Blessing? Protection? Both? And when the gypsy had started to tell the future with those cards of hers, what had she seen?
The Wolf and bear maidens stood uncertainly together, and Katya turned toward them. “You two can do something no one else can,” she said firmly. “You are both neutral creatures and you both lived in the forest that was destroyed. The Queen may listen to you when she listens to no one else. Muster your pleas and present them if you see her. If you can bring her in, we will win!”
“We will,” they chorused, and took themselves down into the cellar after the gypsy.
Yulya embraced her, and Katya heard a stifled sob, but when the swan maiden let her go, there was no sign of tears. “You will bind him,” the young woman said fiercely. “You will win, and they will tell wonderful stories about this. And I will tell my sisters that they must be more like you.”
She turned and fled down into the darkness. Katya looked after her, touched and just a bit bemused.
The small dark girl, and the one who spoke to animals, merely nodded and left. Katya sighed; she still didn’t know their names. Now she might never learn them. But they had been steadfast companions, and she was glad to see they were escaping.
“I’m not leaving,” said Guiliette from behind her.
She turned, and frowned with unease. “This isn’t wise, Guiliette. You should go with the rest.”
But Guiliette smiled. Smiled! And there was something about that smile that made Katya take notice. This wasn’t a whim…and it was going to be important. “Let us merely say that I am going to provide a far more formidable distraction than the arrival of your paper bird. And that…it is not altogether true that I am not leaving. I am just not leaving by the tunnel. You did know that the fountain is not just a fountain, didn’t you?”
Katya blinked at the sudden change of subject. “Ah, no?”
“It is fed by a spring. In fact, if it were not for the fountain being there, the spring would be gushing forth with a great deal more enthusiasm than it is.” The Wili smiled again. “I think you can use that.”
And then, suddenly, there was no more time.
With a sound like a bee shooting past, the paper bird arrived. Katya snatched it out of the air, stuffed it into its envelope, and stuffed the envelope into the bodice of her shirt. She heard the hum of the Jinn approaching at high speed, snatched up the bottle, and ran for the door; fear making her heart hammer, determination forcing her to move faster than she thought she could.
But Guiliette was faster still.
She sped out the kitchen door and through the gardens with Katya on her heels. They both reached the fountain at the same time as the Jinn.