The Carnival of Deepest Desire, Part 7
Lost in the Dark
This serial is a sequel to North of Midnight. Carnival of Deepest Desire can be read as a standalone, but if you’d like to read North of Midnight first, click the button below.
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Khalid shot an arrow at the Dulluhan, who disappeared the moment the arrowhead touched him.
“What the—” Khalid began. But before he could finish, the Dulluhan reappeared in a different spot, and his severed head winked at us.
“Were you thinking I would just walk up alone so you could shoot me? The Dark Man of the Unseelie Court could never be as stupid as that. I can cast an image of myself anywhere within the carnival.”
“You were stupid enough to think you could keep us as prisoners,” said Khalid, nocking another arrow and pointing it at about where the Dulluhan’s heart would have been if he’d been the real thing rather than a projection. Of course, the gesture was futile. It was Khalid’s way of showing he wouldn’t give up.
The Dulluhan laughed, this time sounding like wind rattling through old bones that had been hung from dead tree branches. “You are still my prisoners. After all, you have no idea where you are, and even if you should find your way to one of the boundaries of this place, you have no idea how to get out. I just appeared here so you would know that my eyes are always upon you. If I need to, I can draw my minions to you at any time.”
“Let’s test that,” said Khalid, making himself invisible. With my ability to see magic, I could still tell where he was, and so could the Dulluhan—or so I thought. But the eyes of his severed head shifted back and forth, uncertain.
“I thought so,” said Khalid, reappearing. “You have a general idea of where we are, but you can’t pinpoint us exactly—and you can’t use a projection of yourself to see us more precisely.”
The Dulluhan shrugged. “I don’t need to know exactly where you are to send the Sluagh host after you to rend you flesh and torment your souls.”
“All of which is a way of saying that you’re afraid to face us directly,” replied Khalid. “Wow, the Dark Man of the Unseelie Court is afraid of a teenager and a woman with no magic training! Show yourself if I’m wrong.”
The illusion continued to hover nearby, glaring at us through the eyes of his severed head, which I noticed weren’t really looking at us. Perhaps the Dulluhan had difficulty seeing because of my hearth fire torches.
“I’m right then,” continued Khalid. “I’ll bet you didn’t even create this place yourself. Someone as weak as you are could never have pulled off such a feat.”
“Ah, but you’re wrong,” said the Dulluhan. Khalid’s needling must have been getting to him, though. His tone was much more defensive than it had been before.
If the Dulluhan hadn’t created this place, who had? Maybe the ruler of the Unseelie Court—whoever that was. If so, the Dulluhan was just a front man, and not one as powerful as he pretended he was.
But I wondered about the wisdom of Khalid’s strategy. What was he trying to do? Bring out the real boss? That seemed like an epically bad idea with only four of us, split into two pairs, to confront that hypothetical leader.
I tried looking around—a futile exercise, since I couldn’t see very far. What we needed was some fuel for a real fire. If the darkness shied away from my two torches, might it retreat if faced with a hearth fire conflagration?
“You’re just a broken-down loser,” said Khalid. “What trash heap did the Unseelie Court dig you out of?”
The severed head scowled at him, and the Dulluhan projection disappeared, leaving us once again alone in the dark.
“What did that accomplish?” I asked. I tried not to sound too critical, even though I found Khalid’s strategy baffling.
“I just confirmed that you were right about him not wanting to kill us. And we learned that he isn’t powerful enough to cast some impressive nonlethal magic on me to retaliate against my insults. Supernaturals like him have a hard time not showing off their power if challenged. They restrain themselves only if they want someone alive and mostly undamaged—or if they don’t have that much to show off. In this case, both are true.”
“OK, but we’re still stuck here, aren’t we?”
Khalid nodded slowly. “Yeah, I can’t tell which way to go or how to break this darkness. Chances are good the magic around us is being generated from some central point, but since the darkness obscures magic signatures that are more than a short distance away, we have no way of locating that particular spot. I thought it might be in that place we just came from, but if so, it was incredibly well hidden. Or maybe it’s deep under the ground below it or high in the air above it. There’s just no way to know.”
“What about a simpler question? Where can we find some fuel? If we had enough, we could start a pretty good fire that would make the darkness ease up more.”
Khalid thought for a moment. “If you’re becoming a seer, you’re our best shot at finding something like that—or anything else, for that matter. I’ve heard that forming a direct question in your mind and concentrating on it might be the best way of finding out something specific. Of course, that might not work, but I think it’s worth a shot.”
“I’ll try it,” I said. “Where can I find fuel for a big fire?”
I held the question in my mind and stared into my torch flames. I didn’t know why I was doing that, except that magical fire might have an affinity for possible fuel sources. At least, that made as much sense asking the universe questions and hoping that answers would drop out of the air.
As I concentrated, the flames seemed to grow until they were all I could see. Once the fire had consumed my vision completely, the torches started pulling on me like a divining rod in a dowser’s hand.
“Something’s happening,” I said. Khalid understood what I meant and fell into step behind me as I started to walk, drawn by my hearth fire torches toward something they could use as fuel.
I wasn’t sure how long we walked, but my calf muscles began to feel sore. Among other things, I was a strong runner with a lot of endurance. How far must we have walked for my legs to feel like this?
Just as I was beginning to think that the torches were leading me on a proverbial wild goose chase, I almost walked right into what looked like a circus tent in the dim light. I wasn’t sure if it housed one of the carnival’s attractions or was just a prop to provide a realistic background. Either way, its presence meant that we had to be back near the entrance, which was good news.
Even better, the tent was obviously flammable.
Almost as if my arms were acting on their own, they thrust the torches against the tent’s canvas exterior, which burst into flames at once. The fire burned so vigorously that I reflexively stepped back from it, even though I knew the amulet would protect me.
Khalid clapped his hands in delight. “That should teach the Dulluhan that he’s messed with the wrong people!”
The fire quickly covered the tent, and as it blazed higher and higher, the darkness around us convulsed, unable to maintain itself against the protective flames. Though there was no noticeable breeze, sparks flew from the conflagration, seeking more food. I could see other tents nearby, all of which were starting to burn.
As the darkness backed away, so did an illusion that have prevented us from seeing the bulk of the carnival. The starry sky above it suggested it was really night now, and the previously dim carnival lights were much brighter.
Unfortunately, those lights revealed something else I wished I had seen before I set the fire. People, lots of people, some trying their skill at games of chance, other munching on popcorn, cotton candy, or hot dogs. Children darted around much faster than their parents, looking for new adventures.
Children. Families.
And just beyond the area where they were happily enjoying the carnival, an epic wildfire raged, though somehow, none of them yet saw it.
Standing at the edge, dressed in black tie and with his head seemingly reattached to his body, stood the Dulluhan, staring at me and smiling. That smile would live forever in my nightmares
“It took you longer than I expected to get here,” he said. “You know, I wasn’t expecting to perform any human sacrifices tonight—but I can work with this.”
“The Carnival of Deepest Desire” is related to the Spell Weaver series. (The action takes place between the sixth and seventh books, just after the end of “North of Midnight.”)
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