Page 1 of Hijack the Seas: Seismic

Chapter One

An arrow flew by my ear and would have taken it off, except that I shifted out of the way just in time. I stared around in confusion when I landed on the opposite side of a small clearing because I wasn’t Supergirl. I hadn’t heard the arrow.

I’d shifted because of a tangled mass of roots on the forest floor ahead which I suspected of being the grabby variety, because Faerie’s trees liked human blood. I also liked it—in my veins—so I’d learned the hard way: stay clear of the damned trees. But that was hard to do in a forest, and anyway, it wouldn’t help with the arrows.

Why was somebody trying to kill me? I didn’t know; I couldn’t see much here, with the canopy overhead turning a sunny day into twilight. But it wouldn’t be the first time something like this had happened.

In fact, it’s pretty much a weekly occurrence. My name is Cassie Palmer, and I’m Pythia, the Chief Seer of the Supernatural World. Nifty title; crap job, and one that frequently resulted in—

Shit!

I had to shift again before I could even finish my monologue because whoever was out there was good. And had eyes that worked better in deep shade than mine. Damn it!

But I could cross territory faster than them since I didn’t cross it at all. I spatially shifted from one spot to another. It was one of the Pythian gifts, along with time travel and a bunch of time-related powers, only about half of which I’d had a chance to learn because somebody was always doing that, I thought furiously, as an arrow parted my hair.

Okay, now I was getting pissed.

There was a time, not so long ago, when the idea of being pursued by a bunch of murderous fey through a forest would have freaked me the heck out. Especially when I was sans weapons, sans allies, and sans the map I’d lost a while ago. But I’d learned a few things since then and managed to keep my cool despite arrows smacking into stuff all around me.

I’d barely finished that thought when I had to shift away from an incoming barrage, which was tearing up the leaves in my direction and which slammed into a tree in the shape of my body a second later. There must have been twenty arrows quivering out of the bark, mostly grouped in the head and torso region. So, plenty of enemies, and nobody was shooting to wound.

Not that I’d thought they were, but now I had confirmation. And had to decide what to do with that. Or with that, I thought, my head jerking up as something started shrieking.

It didn’t sound human. Not that I’d expected it to, considering where I was, but the terrible soul-rattling shrieks didn’t sound fey, either. Or not any fey that I’d ever encountered or wanted to.

Damn it! Why was everything here so hard? And why were the shrieks not stopping, since whatever it was should have asphyxiated or paused for breath by now!

I crouched in the shade of a clump of bushes I’d shifted into the middle of, holding my hands over my ears and thinking about leaving. Thinking hard, because the shrieking had been joined by yells and curses and a bunch of other stuff indicating that a diversion was going on, if not one that I’d had anything to do with. I could use it, though, to get the hell out of here, to figure out where I was, and maybe to get back on track.

But then the shrieks leveled up in anguish, and I sighed.

Being Pythia came with a boatload of duties, mainly concerning patrolling the timeline, fighting gods, and helping the little guy. And a little guy was yelling his head off. Which did not change the fact that I had shit to do and did not have time for this!

But the wails were pitiful, and I was stupid and—damn it. I spotted a perch in a tree in the direction of the screams and shifted there before I had time to talk myself out of it. The perch was in a pine tree, or since this was Faerie possibly not, and there wasn’t much cover.

Not that it mattered, as nobody was looking at me anyway.

A bunch of dark-haired fey—think humanoid, if humans were regularly seven feet tall, long-haired, and supercilious looking—had gathered in a clearing where the sunlight had managed to find a hole in the trees. The fey faded into the background thanks to their dark green and brown leather ensembles, which mimicked the shadows even without magic being needed, although they had no shortage of that. But something else didn’t.

Something else stuck out like a sore thumb because it was in the middle of the spotlight the sun was providing. Or because it was the focus of all eyes, some of them horrified. Or because it was a monster.

I blinked at it, and it wasn’t like I didn’t have a good view. I had an awesome view, a center balcony view, a could-only-be-better-with-binoculars view, and I still had no idea what I was looking at. And didn’t want one because that . . . was just nasty.

It was large, gelatinous, tentacle-strewn, and formless. If not for the tentacles, it would have looked like a giant had horked something up of the phlegm variety, only not so attractive. It was vile and oozing is what I’m trying to convey, and was grossing the fey out just as much as it was me.

And then I realized there were two of them.

They slorped away from each other like an overgrown cell undergoing mitosis, or maybe one had just been on top of the other. Couldn’t tell; didn’t care. I just wanted to leave now, and that was before the smell hit me.

What the . . .?

My hair, which was blond and scraggly after the last few days shifting around the wilderness, wilted even more in the funk coming off the oozing pile. And I was pretty damned high in the tree, meaning that it had to count as some kind of germ warfare down there. I gagged and tried to do it quietly while a fey lost his lunch in the bushes.

The rest didn’t give him hell for it, maybe because they looked like they were considering joining him. But then one decided to be brave, grabbed a stick, and gingerly poked the nearest bit of horror. The monsters did not appear to mind this or even notice because they were busy.

Screaming at a cow.

I had been too preoccupied with the horror show to notice before now, but that was definitely a cow. And it looked to be of the Earth variety. That wasn’t too strange, as the fey had co-opted stuff they liked from Earth over the centuries, including pigs, chickens, and cows, which they found to be as useful as we did.

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