Harvest Song Read online

  And we jumped—all of us—as a door opened in the mist.

  I TUMBLED TO the ground, shaking my head as I pushed myself to my hands and knees. I looked around, and saw the others beside me. A glance over my shoulder told me that the door no longer was there.

  Panicked, I felt for my dagger and found it at my side, in its sheath where it should be. I touched my pocket and the talisman resonated from within, comforting, a promise to help me find my way home. As I stood up, I noticed the others were doing the same.

  “Are we really here?” Nerissa glanced around, a look of bewilderment on her face. “I’d swear we were here in body.”

  “We are, for all intents and purposes.” I glanced around, trying to get a sense of our whereabouts.

  The landscape was oddly familiar, and yet different enough that it took on an alien feel. We were on a rocky hill, near a path that led down into a thickly wooded valley. I glanced back at the hill where the door should be. The mountain rose up behind me so far that I couldn’t see the top. The precipice was cloaked in mist and clouds and it looked as though a storm was raging.

  To the left of where we stood was another hill, much smaller with a rocky incline, up to what looked like a mesa. To our right was a dropoff into the valley, a steep slope of grassland leading down into the woodland below. A narrow path edged alongside the hill overlooking the valley, so steep that it made me dizzy. Straight ahead, the path wound around an outcropping on the mountain, looking as though it curved back some three or four hundred yards later.

  I squinted into the distance. The sky was a silvery gray, but it seemed to be daylight. In fact, it reminded me of around 3:00 p.m. on a cloudy autumn afternoon in Seattle.

  The mountain behind us loomed so large that there was no way around it. We stood at the beginning of the path. If we wanted to go in that direction, we would have to climb over the mountain itself.

  Where we stood, the ground offered sparse vegetation, some straggling grasses and a few scrub brushes. But in the valley below, the grass was thick, looking almost like moss. From here it was almost impossible to tell whether the woodland was deciduous or coniferous. The soil itself was a deep ruddy red, the color of rust, although it seemed to fade into a russet brown below the grass in the valley.

  In the valley, a river churned along. It looked as though it wended through the woodland, and was so wide that I had my doubts whether we could cross on foot.

  “Well, where do we go from here?” Trillian looked around, shading his eyes. “I’d rather not have to go over the mountain behind us if we can avoid it.”

  I realized they were waiting to take their cue from me.

  I walked over to a large boulder and sat down, surprised that it felt so sturdy. I glanced around, wondering if Shade had been propelled into this realm through the same doorway we had been. Closing my eyes, I reached out, trying to get some sense of where he might be. I searched for his energy, reaching out for the familiar touch of his skin, scent of his body, feeling of safety when I was around him. Something inside stirred. Panther raised her head, wanting free. Nerissa jerked around, staring at me.

  “Let her free. I can feel her from here. I think she knows what to do more than you do.” Nerissa’s voice was throaty, and I could feel her puma rising to meet my panther.

  “You’re right. I’ll bet you can interpret for me when I’m in Panther form.” I caught her gaze and she grinned.

  “Big cats of the world, unite.”

  I stood back, summoning Panther as I let her off the leash. As I began to transform, my clothes morphed into the beautiful emerald collar I wore as Panther. My limbs welcomed the shift as they stretched and altered. It felt as though here, Panther belonged where I did not. A few moments later, I stood there on all fours, luxuriating in the feel of my skin and bones and muscle. Every sense seemed heightened, every noise louder.

  I let out a low rumble as Nerissa stroked my back. I could sense the puma in her responding to me, and it took all the focus I had to bring myself back to my task at hand. I wanted nothing more than to encourage her to shift and then to run off and race through the mountains together, feeling the wind in our faces as we leapt from rock to rock.

  “I know, I can feel it too—but I can’t change right now. We’re here to find Shade.” Nerissa’s voice was soft, soothing in a way that I didn’t usually find people’s voices, and she brought me back to why we were here.

  I cast around, trying to pick up the scent. And there, faint but still detectable, I smelled a familiar odor. It was the smell Shade had when he was nervous. I sniffed again, inhaling deeply to fill my lungs with the scent. I could taste it on the back of my tongue, and I looked up at Nerissa, my mouth open with my tongue rolling out, as I let out a chuffing sound.

  “Did you find something?” she asked.

  I bobbed my head up and down, nosing at the ground where I could smell him. I slowly began to follow the odor, one step at a time, to make sure I didn’t lose it. We were headed along the pathway that wound around the mountain. Part of me wanted to go lolling off into the grassland below because it looked softer and easier, but I forced myself to keep on track.

  The path was about six feet wide before dropping off into the steep slope of grassland, and there were numerous stones and twigs along the compacted dirt trail. But it was relatively level, and if you watched your footing, it didn’t seem all that dangerous. Nerissa was walking behind me, with Trillian and Roz behind her. A gust of wind railed against us, and I noticed it was blowing away the clouds, leaving a faint slick of pale blue sky in its wake.

  We were about sixty yards along the trail when the scent suddenly vanished.

  I stopped, looking back at Nerissa, who held up her hand to Roz and Trillian. While they waited, I took a few steps forward, but I couldn’t pick it up anywhere. I cautiously approached the edge of the trail, glancing over into the grassland below. In my four-legged form, it didn’t seem nearly so steep, and I sniffed at the edge of the grass, searching to see if I could pick it up again anywhere along the bluff. A moment later, I caught a faint whiff, this time about three yards down the slope. I looked back and let out another chuff.

  Nerissa gave me a nod, and turned to the others. “I think she’s picked up the scent again. It looks like we’re going to have to go down into the valley. That’s a steep decline, so be careful.” She paused, then laughed. “I forgot, we aren’t here in our actual bodies.”

  “We may not be here in body, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take damage.” Trillian gave us a look that told us he was well aware of how dangerous this mission was. “Try to be careful. If you get hurt, it means that your body will take damage. In other words, if you stub your toe while we’re here, chances are you’re going to have a bruised toe when you get back to your body. And if you get attacked, you’ll suffer damage in the outer world.”

  Roz let out a sound, but I wasn’t sure what he had said and I didn’t pay much attention. I was too busy searching again for Shade’s scent in the grass. It was harder to track here on the slope, but I was relieved to get off that path. I wasn’t sure why, but the trail had made me nervous, as though we were headed toward danger. There weren’t any smells that seemed alien, and there was nothing I could see off the bat. But I had the feeling that danger lurked in those mountains.

  The hill leading down to the woodland was extremely steep, but the grass was dry and it wasn’t that difficult to keep our footing. Especially for me, given I was in my Panther shape. I reined myself in from running full tilt down the mountain, focusing on tracking the scent and following the trail. It was leading to the river, to the place just before it entered the forest, and I hoped to find some evidence that Shade had been there. His scent was clear in my mind, but there was part of me that wanted some tangible proof, some sign that I wasn’t imagining things.

  Overhead, a loud shriek cut through the air and I looked up to see a massive eagle passing by. At least I thought it was an
eagle. It appeared to have a ten-foot wingspan, and for a moment I was afraid. Maybe it couldn’t carry me off, but those talons could do some serious damage.

  “Crap,” Roz said. “That’s one hell of a big eagle.”

  “There are some that big back over Earthside, and in Otherworld there are larger still. But you’re right, it’s impressive and it could be a deadly foe if it decides it’s hungry.” Trillian scanned the sky, watching as the eagle flew off to what I assumed was the east. I actually couldn’t figure out what the directions were, so I arbitrarily decided north was behind us, up the mountain into the clouds. Which meant we were headed southwest into the valley.

  “It’s looking for something,” Nerissa said. “I recognize the posture. It saw us, but we weren’t its prey, so it left us alone.” She shivered, and I could smell the faint aroma of fear wafting off of her. I could also smell Menolly mingled in with her scent, and if I had been in my two-legged form, I would have blushed as I realized they must have had sex that morning.

  I picked up Shade’s scent again, and once more, continued the descent into the valley. It was still faint, but at least it was present and by now I was convinced that I actually did smell him in the grass. I had some pretty vivid daydreams, but even I didn’t have enough imagination to conjure up someone’s perfume.

  The descent was longer than it looked, and I estimated it took us about half an hour to reach the valley below. As I gazed back up the slope, it looked almost impossible to climb, and I was surprised that we had made it without incident. I had neither seen nor heard any other animals on the way down, except for the eagle. It almost felt like we were alone in the universe but I knew that couldn’t be the case. My gut told me things would change once we reached the forest.

  As we approached the river, I began to notice wildflowers dotting the lea. They looked like violets, except they were bright red, and other flowers that reminded me of lavender spiked up through the tall patches of grass. Though faintly blue, they didn’t smell like lavender, but looked very much like the dusky plant. I was cautious to avoid pressing my nose against them. I knew very well that back Earthside, foxglove could cause heart palpitations if you inhaled much of the pollen. We had no clue what these flowers were, or what they could do, so it was best to be on the safe side.

  The roar of the river grew louder as we approached the shore, and I saw now that it was even wider than I had thought. At least thirty yards wide, white caps flowed atop it, a vision of foam and froth. The current raged along, so swift that I could easily imagine being knocked off my paws if I stepped into it. I shuddered, watching the untamed rapids that roared by.

  “I’m thirsty,” Trillian said suddenly. He slowly approached the water, kneeling by the edge where it was spraying against the shore. He glanced back at us. “Do you think I should chance it?”

  Nerissa shrugged. “I don’t know, but we don’t have another option, do we? I’m sure that they are going to hydrate our bodies, but… Will they know we’re thirsty if we don’t drink?”

  “I’m going to take the risk.” Trillian scooped up a handful of the water and slipped it. He shivered. “It’s icy, but good. It tastes cleaner than any water I’ve had in a long time.”

  I padded up beside him, lowering my head to lap at the waves that churned along. He was right. The water was clear, and tasted remarkably good as it rolled down my throat. Part of me wondered if we were seeing the river because they were giving us water back in the laboratory, but then I decided that no, this really was a different realm and we weren’t creating it with our minds. If we could take damage here, we could drink the water.

  We rested for a few minutes while I prowled around, searching for Shade’s scent. Finally, I picked it up, heading directly toward the forest. I turned back to my companions and let out a low growl.

  Nerissa stood, stretching. “Caught the scent again, did you?”

  I gave her a bob of the head. Then I turned and slowly began to traverse toward the forest. Nerissa walked by my side, while Trillian and Roz followed behind us. We weren’t far from the treeline when the river disappeared into the thick tangle.

  I looked for a pathway in. Finally, Nerissa pointed to a trailhead that I had somehow missed. “There, that has to be the trail. Can you smell Shade? Did he take the path?”

  I cast about, smelling for him. Finally, a few moments later, I moved onto the trail, following the faint odor. The others scrambled to keep up. As we entered the forest, the sunlight receded, kept at bay by the tangle of foliage twining in the canopy above.

  The trail itself was spacious, wide and unmarred by more than small patches of grass or a hand-sized pebble here and there. The trees looked familiar, a mix of deciduous and coniferous, but not quite any that I could identify immediately. One smelled like cedar, but didn’t quite look like it. Another looked like a giant oak, but the leaves scattered below it on the ground were an odd shape, and I didn’t get that sense of ancient foundation that oaks usually had. Again, everything felt familiar, yet not quite the same.

  The sound of the river roared through the trees, and the undergrowth was thin enough that we could see the shimmer of the waves in the distance, about fifty yards away from the trail. I had hoped that the trail would be parallel to the river, right next to it, but instead, the swath of trees that created an island between the path and the water kept us just far enough away so we couldn’t actively see what was going on. I wasn’t sure why this bothered me so much, but it did, and I felt uneasy, like we were under observation of some sort.

  Part of me wanted to change back into my two-legged form, but it would be harder to track Shade’s scent that way. So I continued on in my panther form, snuffling at the ground, searching out the direction in which he had gone.

  “This forest makes me uneasy,” Roz said, voicing my own thoughts.

  “I know. It doesn’t seem like it should,” Nerissa said. “But I’m finding myself uncomfortable as well. I feel like we’re being watched. Delilah, can you sense anything?”

  I paused, glancing up at her before closing my eyes and trying to drift into the energy that surrounded me. First there was the energy of the trees, and they were watchful, but neutral. I didn’t sense any danger from them as long as we kept to ourselves and didn’t try to harm them. The water, though, felt mesmerizing, and I realized that the reason I wanted to walk beside it was because I was being urged to its side. Naiads, perhaps? Or undines? Or river sirens, maybe? Or perhaps even a kelpie, or a púca? Whatever it was, something was urging me toward the water.

  I had to let them know, and this wasn’t something that I could explain to Nerissa while she was in human form and I was Panther. I moved aside. As I transferred back into human shape, taking my time so it wouldn’t hurt, I felt a dizzying sense of disorientation. The world looked far different than when I had been in panther shape.

  As soon as I could talk, I nodded to the river. “The water—there’s something enchanted about it. Or there’s someone who’s enchanting it. All I can tell you is that I’m feeling drawn to its side, and that’s a scary thought, given all the creatures that can cast charms.”

  “Elder Fae, perhaps?” Trillian asked.

  “I hadn’t even thought of that. But can the Elder Fae enter this realm? Why would they even be here?” The idea of the Elder Fae making their home in the Land of Wandering Souls seemed almost ridiculous. Yet I couldn’t think of a good reason why they wouldn’t. Especially the ones who searched for human victims, or those who fed off of life energy.

  “They probably can—the Elder Fae seem to be everywhere. What do you think it might be?” Trillian asked.

  “I’m not sure. At first I thought maybe púca or a naiad, or even a kelpie. But now I’m not so sure.” And then, before I could say another word, there was a rustle from a thick stand of brambles near us.

  A large creature careened out, teeth gnashing, eyes bulging. It reminded me of Yannie Fin Diver—one of the Elder Fae I had
fought with Camille—only this one was much, much bigger.

  Chapter 8

  “FUCK!” TRILLIAN UNSHEATHED blade, jumping back. He was closest to the creature and it almost sideswiped him as it lunged toward us.

  I drew Lysanthra, grateful that we had brought our weapons.

  Whatever it was we were facing, it was butt-ugly and massive. It stood at least eight feet tall, and while it was bipedal, it was by no means human in any shape, way, or form. Its thighs were tremendous and thick, as were its arms, but its torso was almost nonexistent.

  It looked as though someone had taken a bodybuilder or power lifter and cut them off right under the boobs, piecing their top right onto their hips, just above the leg joints. Right then, I noticed that it was definitely male—the loincloth didn’t cover up enough to hide his junk.

  His body might be frightening, but his head was worse. Bulbous and grotesque, his head contained a single eye in the center. His mouth was long and narrow, filled with teeth that resembled needle-shaped bones. He had no hair on his head, and he stank to high heaven.

  His head was at least three times larger than it should be, and that one roving eye gazed down at us with a hungry, cunning look. The creature carried a massive club in one hand, and the other was dripping with blood, no doubt from his last victim.

  “Watch out for that club, it’s got spikes on it!” Roz jumped to the side as the creature took a swing at him. He pulled out his dagger, and with his other hand, he retrieved something else out of his pocket. At first I thought he had grabbed his talisman, but then I saw that it looked like a ping-pong ball or a golf ball. A bomb. Roz had brought some of his bombs!