“Whoa, that made things tighten up,” Kipa said, coming to my side.
“Yeah, it feels like I raised the drawbridge over the moat.” I glanced up at him. “That’s the best I can do for now. I’m going to run and change quickly, then we’ll head out.”
“Don’t be too long,” he said as I dashed down the hallway. “I promised Quest we’d be there by noon.”
I didn’t answer but darted into my bedroom, where I stripped off my dress. I kept on the leggings, but slid on a pair of gauchos in black. I pulled on a hunter green V-neck sweater and belted it with a silver belt. Then I slid my feet into boots that came up to my knee. They were black leather, with a half-inch heel, and I would be able to walk through the woods in them. Despite my love for hardware, I had chosen a pair with rubber soles. They had a single buckle and strap across the top of my foot. Hardware made noise, and I wasn’t sure how dangerous the Thicklewood forest was.
I shrugged into the jacket I had enchanted for warmth, and then added a pair of leather gloves, and draped a blue scarf around my neck. Another moment and I transferred everything in my purse to a backpack, added a bottle of water and half a dozen protein bars, and I was ready to go. I stopped in the living room to bribe Raj to be good and not get in trouble, then headed to the door.
There, I saw that while Kipa was still wearing his jeans and rust-colored sweater, he had added a windbreaker to the mix, and he, too, had a pack slung over his shoulder. He handed me a pair of earmuffs and slid his over his ears. They were fuzzy and warm, but I could still hear perfectly well.
“Ready?”
“Let’s go,” I said, as we headed out.
It was snowing, and the flakes were piling up for real now. Seattle got snow every now and then, and it usually didn’t last long when we did, but every few years we got a massive punch. It wasn’t as bad as it had been the year before, but the inches were slowly creeping higher and I had the feeling the storm would be around for a week or so before moving off.
The air was so crisp and cold it hurt my lungs and I started to cough, then covered my nose until we were inside the car and the heater was blowing out cool air. It would take a few minutes for it to warm up, so we waited. By the time Kipa had finally de-iced the windshield, the car was warm and toasty.
The drive to Quest Realto’s place usually took fifteen minutes from my house, but today it stretched out to twenty-five minutes thanks to how slick the roads were. We pulled into her driveway promptly at the stroke of noon. She was waiting inside, but when we stepped out of my car, she opened the door and hustled down the porch steps. Like most coyote shifters, she was thin to the point of being gaunt, and she had a weathered look to her. She waved us over toward the massive oaks that stood in her front yard.
“It’s blowing up a storm,” she said. “I know we were supposed to get a few inches, but another cold front is sweeping down into the area and it’s going to bring subfreezing temperatures. I can feel it in my bones. So make sure you’ve got candles and flashlights ready, because that kind of storm brings outages.”
I paused, frowning. “Should we go now? If the temperatures are dropping—”
“Everything will be all right. We’ll be back by tonight, so Raj will be fine.” Kipa wrapped his arm around my shoulders and kissed the top of my head. “I promise, everything will be fine.”
I wasn’t sure about that, but I decided to trust him. I turned to Quest. “When did they say the subfreezing temperatures are supposed to get here?”
“By tomorrow morning. They’re moving in overnight. The weather forecasters are saying it’s an arctic front like we haven’t seen in years. I don’t think it’s supposed to bring much more snow, but we may have freezing rain or ice storms. So I suggest whatever you have to do over in Annwn, you hurry it up and get back as soon as you can.”
Kipa glanced at the oak trees. “Is the portal ready?”
Quest jammed her hands in the pockets of her parka. “Yeah, it is. I won’t be here when you get back, but I think it should be set fine for your return. Good luck with whatever you’re doing.”
Kipa took my hand and we headed toward the portal. This was the one I used when I went to see my therapist, and I was familiar with the vortex.
As I looked up, I could see a giant spider’s web of energy between the trees. The glowing strands crackled and snapped as we approached. The trees themselves were sentient, like all portal trees, although not many people knew that. They could sense us, and if they didn’t want us to go through, they could stop us. But most often, portal trees paid no attention to who used them, or why. Only when their energy was harnessed by one of the gods or a powerful magician did they keep a watchful eye on the travelers passing through.
“Ready?” Kipa asked.
“Let’s go. Let’s get this over with.”
Holding hands, we stepped through the portal, into the mist beyond.
As we exited the vortex, we landed near Cernunnos’s palace. We were on a road that led directly to it, first passing through a small village that I was unfamiliar with. Most of the inhabitants were Elves. As Kipa and I stepped onto the cobblestones that surrounded the portal, forming sort of an entry pad, the portal keeper stepped forward. He took one look at Kipa and bowed.
“Welcome, Lord of the Wolves.” He glanced at me, and acknowledged me with a silent nod.
Kipa looked at him, frowning. “Since when did Cernunnos begin stationing portal keepers to greet visitors?”
“Lord Kipa, he ordered us to begin doing this about a month ago, should any of the Dragonni decide to try to invade Annwn.”
It was then that I noticed the portal keeper was heavily armed. He had a bow on him that looked like the equivalent of an elephant gun, and the bolts in his quiver were massively thick. I couldn’t help but wonder how strong he had to be in order to cock the bow string.
Kipa must have been thinking the same thing because he said, “Those must be poisoned bolts, then?”
Not poisoned,” the portal keeper said. “They’re allentar.”
Kipa whistled. “Then yes, they could take down one of the Dragonni. Not kill them, but take them down for a while. Good thinking on Cernunnos’s part.” He wrapped his arm around my waist. “Let’s get moving. We don’t want to waste any time.”
“What’s allentar?” I asked. The word sounded familiar but I couldn’t recall what it was or where I had heard of it.
“Allentar is ilithiniam that has been fortified with dragon scales.”
I whistled. Ilithiniam was a magical metal that was incredibly strong and it held magic better than any other metal. The dwarves mined most of it. Combine it with dragon scales and it had to be almost invincible.
The path from the portal sloped downward, through an open meadow toward the village ahead. There was snow here in Annwn too—massive amounts of it compared to Seattle. The pathway had been shoveled, but it was still slick and to the sides were mounds of snow.
Beneath the banks of snow that had been shuffled off of the pathway, there was at least three feet of snow spreading across the field. To either side of the field stretched the great forest of Y’Bain. It bordered most of Cernunnos’s lands and the massive trees grew so tall they almost blocked out what light there was. The forest proper was always gloomy except for sporadic clearings where the light shone through. Cernunnos’s palace was on the other side of the village, probably two miles ahead.