Will growled. “It’s about more than me. I lost one friend and I may still lose another. Janice has lost an eye and half her face. Do you think I care about nothing but myself? They matter to me!”
One of the cat’s ears twitched, but he still seemed unfazed. “Should they matter to me? Have any of them done me a great service? You helped me remove an old enemy, but did they? Am I supposed to care about all of humankind now? You go too far in your assumptions. You were aiding one of my sworn enemies; did you expect my assistance?”
Will glared at the cat for half a minute. He wanted to fault the demigod’s logic, but he couldn’t. Nor could he dismiss the fact that the cat had shown up at the very moment he had been about to give in to despair. Was it a coincidence? Given the creature’s feelings about the fae, he didn’t expect an honest answer. Will took a deep breath, held it, then let it out slowly. “Did you say you were offering a boon? How much will it cost me?”
The goddamned cat wrinkled his nose in disgust. “You should know me better by now. I don’t deal in favors and bargains. I help those I choose, when I choose. Last night I was disinclined, but today I am otherwise disposed to offer you assistance.”
He thought about it a moment, then replied, “Sorry. My words were careless. What do you propose?”
“I can get you to the place you desire, and back, assuming you survive,” said the Cath Bawlg.
“You’ll guide me through Faerie?”
“I could, but I would rather not waste so much time. I have another path in mind, though you’ll need to protect yourself.”
Will nodded. “What do I do?”
“The demon-armor spell you used in the past should work nicely, though it will become tiring. This path is not for the faint of heart.”
He frowned. “How fast is this route?”
“Less than an hour, but you’ll be sorely tested. Make certain your reserves are full before we begin,” answered the goddamn cat.
Will expanded his outer shell and began absorbing turyn as quickly as he could, until he felt comfortably full but not strained. When he glanced back at the cat, he nearly fell over backward. The formerly small gray tabby had grown to the size of a destrier. With the cat standing on all four legs, Will could barely see over his shoulders. If someone’s dog saw him right now it would have nightmares for life, he observed as he stepped back and tried to hide his startlement. “You could have warned me.”
The goddamn cat’s voice was a deep rumble as he replied, “If I intended to put an end to you my size wouldn’t matter.”
Size doesn’t matter when it comes to giant… Will began to snicker, unable to help himself.
“Is something funny?”
Will waved his hands in front of his face. “Nothing, just something I’ll have to tell Selene one of these days.”
The cat ignored his lack of a proper answer. “Climb on my back.”
He tried, and although the Cath Bawlg was kind enough to lie down to make things easier, he found it to be about as easy as climbing a mountain of pudding. The giant feline’s skin hardly seemed attached to his body, and while his fur was thick it was also slick, providing little purchase. Will eventually got to the demigod’s shoulders, but when he tried to get his leg over, he wound up sliding down the other side. “This isn’t working,” he admitted at last. “I think we need a saddle or something similar.”
The goddamn cat showed his teeth in displeasure, a frightening display of ivory sabers set in a disturbingly large mouth. “You obviously missed the operative word, ‘climb.’ You have a spell for that, don’t you?”
“Will that work on a person—or cat?”
“Find out. You’re the wizard.”
He tried and failed, then he took a moment to study the spell construct as he tried again. Arrogan had walked him through the basics of crafting new spells the previous year and it wasn’t something to be done casually, but this seemed like it might be a small change. After a minute he identified the runes that designated the target as an inanimate solid. Switching it around, he altered it to what he thought should target animate solids instead.
When he invested turyn into the spell this time, he did so very slowly. He’d learned the risk of overloading an untested spell once before and he didn’t want to repeat the experience. The spell took effect and seemed to be functioning normally so he tried climbing the goddamn cat once more.
The skin still slid back and forth, but he remained firmly attached, like a stubborn tick. He worked his way up to the shoulders and managed to get himself astride the massive feline with no trouble. Both legs were firmly affixed on either side of the Cath Bawlg, and since the spell forced the user to keep three limbs attached, he had to keep one hand on the cat at all times as well. Maybe I should work on a version that only requires two for situations like this, he thought. It would be handy to have both hands free.
“Ready?”
“Sure—areaghhhhh!” Will’s assent transformed into a terrified scream as the cat leapt forward. The beast moved with incredible speed, and unlike a horse, whose back was relatively stable, the cat’s spine, shoulders, and hips all seemed to move in different directions at the same time. He was suddenly grateful that he couldn’t come loose and started to wish his free hand was similarly stuck.
They raced across the field and into a small copse of trees, but the world shifted as they entered the shadows, transforming into something entirely unfamiliar. The turyn was different, and Will could tell they were no longer in the world he was familiar with. “Where are we?”
“My ancient home, the Shadowlands.”
It was hard to see, as the air seemed to swirl around them in dark ribbons. Will thought there were trees, or bushes, but the light was dim, and everything seemed insubstantial. He tried adjusting his vision and only succeeded in making himself nauseous. The world only grew stranger the harder he tried to perceive it properly.
The Cath Bawlg stopped suddenly, and Will probably would have fallen off if it hadn’t been for the climbing spell. Something even darker loomed in front of them, or perhaps it receded. Or is it sinking downward? His mind struggled to make sense of the alien geometries that seemed inherent to everything in the Shadowlands. “It’s time to use the demon-armor spell,” warned the goddamn cat.
Will had formed the spell once a day as part of his daily practice routine, which turned out to be a good thing, for when he saw the colors of the runes forming above his palm he nearly lost his train of thought. They formed in shades of silver, gray, and black with none of the ordinary chromatic hues he was familiar with. Discipline alone got him through his surprise, and a few seconds later the spell was ready. He released it, and silver flames formed around his body.