Sight Read online

  Sight

  Wicked Woods #5

  kailin gow

  Sight

  Published by THE EDGE

  THE EDGE is an imprint of Sparklesoup Inc.

  Copyright © 2012 Kailin Gow

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher except in case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  For information, please contact:

  THE EDGE at Sparklesoup

  14252 Culver Dr., A732

  Irvine, CA 92604

  www.sparklesoup.com

  First Edition.

  Printed in the United States of America.

  ISBN: 9-78159748635-4

  To my parents who were amazing enough to get a vacation property in a wooded mountain resort when I was a child where Wicked is based. Childhood memories and campfire tales are the stuff dreams are made of.

  Prologue

  Maisy stood with Steve in the center of the meadow, looking around at the wild flowers, the stream, and the strange, alive-looking trees. They had found it thanks to the computer program Steve had put together to allow him to find anything he could identify characteristics for, from vampires to places like this. It was, Maisy had to admit, pretty impressive.

  Impressive enough apparently that Steve wasn’t bothering to look at the clearing around them. He just stared at his device, then at the sky, then at the device again.

  “Steve,” Maisy asked, “what are you doing?”

  Steve didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he turned with his device, watching the screen until he seemed satisfied that he was facing the right way.

  “Look over there,” he said, pointing.

  Maisy did her best to follow the line of his pointing finger, and what she saw in that moment made her stand with her mouth open. Dragons. Two of them, one golden while the other was purple and green, flying out of the clouds with their mouths open in a roar that echoed over the countryside.

  Maisy hadn’t thought she would ever see anything like that, even living in Wicked. Yes, the town was full of vampires. Yes, there were werewolves living nearby. Yes, thanks to her friend Briony, she and Steve were members of the Wicked Woods Preservation Society, dedicated to fighting those creatures that threatened humans. So she knew as well as anybody some of the amazing things that lived near the town, but to actually see dragons?

  “Wow,” was all Steve could say as the two huge creatures circled overhead.

  Maisy could only agree. “It looks like they’re looking for something.”

  “Well, aren’t they from where Briony and Aunt Sophie went to?”

  “Palisor,” Maisy supplied, nodding. “Something serious must be happening there for two dragons to come over together. I wonder what it could be.”

  No sooner had Maisy said it than mist sprang up in the clearing, forming the shape of an arch before solidifying into something like stone. The space within was still filled with mist. From that mist stepped a huge man with long, matted blonde hair, dressed in a mixture of leather and furs that looked completely out of place around Wicked. He was larger than any man they’ve seen, yet strangely attractive. The fierceness of his eyes and the cruel set of his jaws kept him from being completely handsome. He had a pair of swords by his side, and as he opened his mouth to bellow a challenge to the dragons, Maisy saw that he had fangs that made most other vampires’ look dainty by comparison. Instinctively, Maisy drew back.

  She did not know what had been happening in Palisor, or what had happened to Briony and the others there, but from the looks of it, things were very serious indeed.

  Chapter 1

  Briony knelt in the castle of the vampires of Palisor with Kevin’s arms around her, trying to comfort her while her father laid dead just a short way away. Behind her, Aunt Sophie and Vigor were fighting off the last of Marcus’ vampires, but Briony did not care in that moment. She had lost her human father to Pietre back in Wicked. Now, when she had discovered another father in King Waltham of the Hugtandalfer, she had lost him too.

  So she knelt there, and as she knelt, she looked over to where Fallon stood, not far from them. There was so much in his features in that moment; jealousy and anguish and longing all together until it seemed to Briony that he might burst with it. Despite her own grief, part of her wanted to run to him then and open her arms to hold him too, yet Briony knew that she couldn’t. The hugtandalfers did not accept vampires. They certainly would not accept the daughter of their king, his rightful heir by blood, being in that close a relationship with one.

  Briony tried to focus on what needed to be done. “Someone needs to go after Marcus.”

  “Let the dragons do it,” Kevin said softly. “Fletcher and Archer are already after him. They can handle him.”

  “For a while. Not forever.” Briony looked over to where Vigor and Aunt Sophie were finishing their fight against the vampires. Only the youngest and weakest of the creatures remained in the hall, so unless the two had already slain all of Marcus’ older servants, that meant those ancient vampires had fled. Where though?

  Fallon rushed over in that moment, reaching out to take Briony’s arm. Kevin gave his brother a hard look. He clearly did not like the young vampire breaking into Briony’s grief like that, yet Fallon no longer seemed to be simply consumed with jealousy. Instead, his expression was earnest.

  “What is it, Fallon?” Briony asked. “What has happened?”

  “It’s Marcus,” Fallon said. “I can hear him. He has sent out a mental call for his vampires. He wants them to join him on the other side of the gate.”

  “The gate to Wicked?” Briony asked, but even as she asked it, the answer to that was obvious. Marcus believed that the scepter of the hugtandalfer was in the town. He needed the scepter for the power stored within it. There was nowhere else he would go. That he had taken his vampires with him, however, was a frightening thought.

  Vigor and Aunt Sophie approached. Aunt Sophie had a few flecks of blood on her otherwise pristine face, and Vigor’s armor was dented. Other than that though, the two appeared unharmed. There were no more vampires in the room. Briony spent a few seconds explaining the situation to the pair.

  When she was done, Aunt Sophie nodded. “He’ll want the power of the scepter to let him give the town to his men for a feast.”

  Briony looked up at her youthful looking great aunt, who helped her to her feet. “Why would he need the scepter for that? Why not simply attack it?”

  Fallon explained. “Weirdly enough, the problem is Pietre.”

  “Pietre?” Briony laughed. She couldn’t imagine Wicked’s master vampire ever doing anything to help the human populace of the town.

  “Vampires are territorial,” Aunt Sophie reminded her. “Respecting territory prevents all-out war among them. Only a vampire with truly overwhelming power would be able to simply allow his followers to terrorize a town belonging to another without permission. And after all that has happened, I do not think that Pietre will give his permission easily.”

  “So Wicked is safe for now?” Kevin asked.

  Aunt Sophie shook her head. “Safe? In the middle of a war between two rival factions of vampires? Marcus and his vampires are stronger than Pietre’s. They will begin their feeding even if they do not move up to full scale slaughter until they find the scepter. No, you need to get back to Wicked at once.”

  Leave? Just like that, with the body of her father still on the vampires’ floor? Briony was not sure whether she could do that. There were other things to consider too. “What about Palisor? I can’t just leave now, can I? Not when everyone
thinks that I’m their long lost heir. Not with King Waltham…” she didn’t need to finish that.

  Aunt Sophie touched Vigor lightly on the shoulder and he moved forward with all the grace of the fanged elves. He knelt beside King Waltham’s body and lifted it as easily as he might have lifted a child. His face was a blank mask, but as Briony watched, a tear fell from his eye.

  “I will… do what needs to be done. I will see to our father’s burial, and ensure that things remain stable here.”

  “I’ll help him,” Aunt Sophie promised.

  “You aren’t coming back?” The whole reason Briony had gone to Palisor in the first place had been to get her great aunt back. More than that, with the unpredictable way portals from and to the kingdom opened, she knew that if Aunt Sophie did not come back with her, then there was a chance that Briony might not see her again.

  “Briony, you have to go.” Aunt Sophie reached out to pat her hand. “Wicked needs you. You have Waltham’s blood in you, so the scepter will speak to you in a way it does not connect with anyone else. You will be able to find it. You must find it. You know how much havoc Marcus could create if he acquires that kind of power. I even dread to think of the damage he will do simply looking for it. He has to be stopped.”

  “Then come with me to stop him,” Briony argued. She really did not want to leave Aunt Sophie in this place. Not when it might mean never seeing her again. “Jake wants you back. So does George.”

  “Only to feed me that awful food of his,” Aunt Sophie shot back. She smiled gently and pulled Briony into a hug. “I will see Jake and George soon enough. When you have the scepter, you will have full control over the gates. You will be able to come back to me easily enough.”

  “And if I don’t find the scepter?”

  Aunt Sophie looked serious as she pulled back slightly. “Then Marcus will find it, and we will all be in a great deal of trouble. Trust me, Briony, you will be the one to find it. In the meantime, Vigor and I will watch over Palisor. He knows the kingdom, and my family has always provided advisors for rulers. Plus there are dragons here that have lived as long as any of us. Between us, we will be able to keep the kingdom running smoothly.”

  “But if it will run so smoothly,” Briony argued, “why not come with me? We could do with your extra skills in a fight.”

  “You have your own skills,” Aunt Sophie said. “You have Fallon, Kevin, Fletcher and Archer. Not to mention all your friends on the other side. In any case things will not be so easy here. There are factions among the hugtandalfer, and I will be needed to help prevent problems with them.” She dropped her voice. “You know that not everyone loves Vigor.”

  That was true. The hugtandalfer had been waiting for Briony so eagerly when she returned precisely because Vigor was so direct. So uncompromising. His bluntness would not endear him to all the nobles of the kingdom, and then there was the problem of his lack of royal blood. For all his training, he was not of the royal line, and that would make it difficult for him to maintain power without help.

  “After your return…” Aunt Sophie said, but stopped herself with a shake of her head. “Go now. You don’t have much time. The gate will close at some point and you need to be through them if you are to deal with Marcus.” Sophie looked around. “And Pietre. He is not here, which probably means he has retreated from Palisor. I cannot see him turning down the chance at power.”

  Briony had not considered that, but she knew she should have. Pietre having the power of the scepter would be every bit as bad as Marcus getting it. Perhaps worse. Even so, there was one more thing she had to do before she left. She turned to Vigor, who still stood there with King Waltham in his arms. She put a hand on his shoulder.

  “I will return if I can,” Briony promised. “If I can’t, I know you will do a good job of ruling with Aunt Sophie.” She decided to forget the formality, and hugged Vigor as best she could. “I’m sorry about our father, and he was ours, both of ours, even if it was only by blood in my case. I was glad to have known him, and I am glad that I have met you too, Brother.”

  Vigor didn’t say anything then, but he shook his head gently. He looked up at Aunt Sophie and she went to him, not helping him with the body, but being close enough that he knew she was there. It was a simple gesture, but it was obviously a comforting one for the hugtandalfer warrior. Aunt Sophie had that way with everyone, and despite her gruffness at times, Briony was glad Aunt Sophie was in Palisor to help smooth things over in what could have been a very politically dangerous situation.

  More hugtandalfer warriors arrived then, shouting and ready for battle, clad in armor of gleaming silvered steel that shone in the light, their swords at the ready. It was only as they saw Vigor standing there that they ground to a halt.

  “What happened here?” One asked. “The king…”

  “The king is dead,” Vigor said, his voice carefully neutral. “You are too late.” His voice was filled with bitterness and disgust. Briony looked over the warriors and wondered why they did not show up on time to aid their king and prince, too. She glanced at each men’s faces, hoping to find an answer there, but only saw men who appeared ashamed and saddened by the loss of their king.

  “We were trying to get here on time, but were detained…” one of them said.

  “By what?” Vigor asked.

  “There were some vampires that surprised us on the road, slaughtered half our men. We were lucky to have escaped and found our way here.”

  Vigor’s eyes narrowed. “Even a dying ancient king was able to get up here to fight these vampires.” Briony exchanged glances with Aunt Sophie then. Vigor was right. Something about the hugtandalfer warrior’s story did not add up, and Briony could sense there was more it then it seemed.”

  “The King was our champion,” the hugtandalfer warrior said. “He died a champion, which is how we…” he looked at his fellow warriors around him, “felt he wanted to die.”

  Briony clamped down her mouth from saying anything then. A glance at Aunt Sophie confirmed her thoughts. The hugtandalfer warriors deliberately let King Waltham go after Briony and Vigor to the vampires’ castle, and deliberately stood aside so the ancient hugtandalfer king would die as a legacy, not as an old sickly man.

  “Take him,” Aunt Sophie ordered, and to Briony’s surprise the men moved to obey, lifting King Waltham’s body between them. “We will return to the palace with him, and prepare for his burial there.”

  The soldiers did not question that. Instead, they lifted King Waltham onto their shoulders, using his cloak as a litter on which to carry it. It would undoubtedly be a long way back to the palace for them, but Briony did not think that any of them was about to complain. Vigor walked at the front of them, leading them from the room, while Aunt Sophie brought up the rear. She paused at the door to wave a last farewell before following them out of sight.

  Briony waited for several seconds after they were gone. Part of her wanted to go with them. It was probably her duty as hugtandalfer royalty, for one thing. Yet she had other duties, as a friend, as someone with a human life, as a member of the Preservation Society. And part of her was glad of that too. She needed something, anything, to distract her from everything that had happened here, even if that something happened to include a life or death search for a scepter she had never seen before.

  “Briony,” Kevin said softly, “are you ready?”

  Briony nodded. She looked from Fallon to Kevin. Both young men looked at her with such love and determination that it was almost hard to bear. “Are you?”

  “Yes,” they both answered, so close together that it became almost one word. Kevin took a step, and in the space of that step he was a wolf. Briony knew what he intended, so she swung up onto his back and gripped his fur as best she could.

  “Then let’s go, before Marcus or Pietre could do anything worse.”

  Chapter 2

  Maisy led the way away from the clearing, more or less dragging Steve by the hand. He was still looking up at the
sky, but she had more urgent things on her mind. Standing around staring up at dragons was one thing, but doing it when the largest, most dangerous looking vampire Maisy had seen was in close proximity was quite another.

  So she led Steve back through the trees, hoping all the while that she remembered the way to get back to town. The last thing Maisy wanted was to be stuck out in the woods. Ordinary woods would have been bad enough, but the ones around Wicked, with all the creatures they contained, were far worse.

  “Come on Steve, we need to get moving.”

  “I am moving,” Steve insisted, though he was still staring at his device as he did it. “I think we’re all right though. I don’t think the vampire’s following us.”

  Maisy loved Steve as much as one self-confessed geek could love another. And loving a geek meant loving his creations. But, there were limits. “I think I’ll trust my safety to being a long way away from where we saw the vampire, rather than to your screen being blank. Remember, I’m the one who saw all the attempts that didn’t work.”

  “I thought we agreed that we wouldn’t talk about… hold on, there’s something on my tracker.”

  Maisy didn’t wait. She just got a firmer grip on Steve and pulled him along as she ran.

  “Maisy, slow down…”

  “We don’t have time. Come on Steve, keep up.”

  “But…”

  “If you’re about to tell me that you have asthma, I don’t care. This is running away, not phys ed.”

  “But we’re running straight towards one of them!” Steve puffed, just as a figure stepped from the trees.

  It was a young man who was tall and broad-shouldered, wearing a football jacket from Wicked’s high school. He had the square jawed good looks and blonde short hair of a jock, too. Maisy thought that she vaguely recognized him. He was a kid who had been a few years older than her. He’d gone missing in the woods, and his picture had been up all around time for the time when people had been looking for him. His name had been… Tommy, or something like that.