by KJ Baker
“I’m very pleased to meet you, Maria,” she said gently. “My name is Rillana.”
Maria watched her for a moment. “Are you a police officer?”
Rillana glanced at me and I shook my head. “I don’t know what’s happened to her. She doesn’t seem to know either but...” I lowered my voice so only Rillana could hear. “She doesn’t seem quite right. I hoped you could use your...skills to find out more.”
The Spire nodded. “I’ll do what I can.” She turned back to Maria. “I’m going to place my hands on your forehead now, Maria,” she said patiently, as though addressing a child. “I promise it won’t hurt and it will make you feel better. Is that all right?”
Maria stared at her, wide-eyed, but made no objection.
Rillana placed her hands on Maria’s head and closed her eyes. Her lips moved although I couldn’t make out the words. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then Rillana gasped and stepped back. Her face had gone pale and she staggered, visibly shaken. Hawk stepped forward and took her elbow.
“Rillana?” I asked. “What is it?”
She turned to one of the waiting aides. “Take Maria to the healers. See she’s well cared for. I’ll be along in a moment.”
The aide nodded and led Maria away. Only when they were out of earshot did Rillana turn to me.
“Who did this?” she hissed, her voice tight with fury. “It is an abomination!”
“Did what?” I answered, my voice every bit as tight as hers. “Did you discover anything?”
Rillana passed a shaky hand over her face. “Yes. Too much.” Her eyes found mine. “Someone has tampered with her mind.”
“You mean like a glamor?”
“No. Not like a glamor. A glamor is just a form of persuasion, a way to influence somebody’s thoughts but the thoughts themselves are still there. For Maria, they are not. There are holes in her mind. Bits are missing. It’s as though somebody has ransacked her mind and stolen her memories. Not all of them, but enough that she no longer knows who or where she is.”
A thick silence met this statement.
“Is that even possible?” I asked after a moment.
Rillana shifted uneasily. “It is if you know the right magic. At the Spire there is a collection of forbidden books, ones banned by all the laws of the Fae. They contain dark magics and are constantly warded. Access to them is for the Spire alone. But who knows what Eliana Rose might have done with such books?”
“Like given them to Taviel?”
She nodded. “It’s possible.”
My jaw tightened. I suddenly really, really wanted to hit something. Preferably Taviel’s face. I forced myself to calm. “I don’t understand any of this. How has he managed to bring a mortal from beyond the Veil? And why would he want to remove some of her memories?”
“I don’t know,” Rillana replied, her expression grim. “But we have to find out. Before it’s too late.”
ASHA
I had never been good at sitting still. With no working TV, no radio, no cell phone to distract me, I couldn’t get my thoughts to settle. I’d already read the single magazine lying on the coffee table from cover to cover and now I’d been reduced to pacing up and down in the living room of my ‘apartment’ trying to decide exactly what the hell I should do next.
I had to figure out what was going on. I had to figure out what Taviel was up to. In addition to giving me some answers, anything I discovered was valuable intelligence that Raven might be able to use.
Raven. My stomach contracted as I thought of him. I missed him so much.
Why? A traitorous voice whispered in the back of my head. Because he’s your mate? Or because he’s bewitched you with his glamor?
Shut up! I told the voice. Don’t say that! Don’t even think it! Raven has not bewitched me. He loves me.
Unbidden, images of Raven in that clearing surged into my mind. The look of hatred on his face as he’d killed those people. The snarl of contempt that twisted his mouth as he’d cut down those peace envoys. That couldn’t have been my Raven. It just couldn’t.
How much do you really know about him? That insidious little voice whispered. There’s so much he hasn’t told you.
Nothing is what it seems. Nothing.
I balled my hands into fists and slammed them into the wall.
“Shut up!” I shouted. “Just shut the hell up! Taviel is the bad guy. This is all just some god-damned trick!”
My voice echoed off the walls and died into silence. I felt like I was going crazy. This place might look like my apartment but it was a prison nonetheless and being shut up in here was sending me over the edge. I had to get out. I had to escape.
I walked to the door. It would be locked. Surely, it would be locked? Samuel had said I wasn’t a prisoner but I didn’t believe a word of it. Taviel might be playing nice at the moment but there was no way he would let me just leave.
Biting my lip, I reached out, grabbed the handle, and turned it. I jumped in shock when the door swung easily open. Suspecting a trap, I stuck my head out and looked in both directions. Beyond the door, the room’s magic ended and my apartment gave way to one of the long white corridors of the Spire. It was empty in both directions.
My heart began to race. Could it really be this easy? Could I really just walk out of here? Only one way to find out. I wasn’t sure which direction to take so I chose at random, slipping out of the door and hurrying down the corridor. It ended at a hallway with corridors running off in four directions. A staircase filled the center of the hall, leading both up and down. I had to get to the bottom level of the Spire where the bridges were if I wanted to escape so I paused long enough to listen for any sound then hurried down the stairs to the level below.
I saw and heard nobody. The Spire was as silent as a grave.
I paused on the landing, not sure where to go. On impulse I set off along a corridor with closed doors on either side which seemed to go on forever but eventually opened out into the round, galleried landing that ringed the Spire’s central shaft. The platforms of the paternoster traveled in their unending loop not ten paces ahead.
Yes! A surge of elation washed through me. This would take me to the bottom level and from there I could find my way out of the Spire, across the bridges and back to Raven. Simple, eh?
I hurried across the open space and approached the paternoster. Leaning forward slightly, I gazed up at the yawning shaft that reached all the way to the top of the Spire and saw one of the platforms descending towards me. But just as it reached me, voices suddenly rose up from below.
“The report came in from Geran this morning. Our forces are in place, holding a defensive line at the border,” said Samuel’s voice.
“Good. Tell them to wait,” Taviel’s voice answered. “They’re not to step foot over the border until I give the order. If there’s any chance of peace with King Arion, I want to take it. That chance will be lost if we step foot in his kingdom.”
My heart leapt into my throat. They were coming up in the paternoster! If I took the downward platform, they would see me as I went past!
Before they reached the level on which I stood, I dived onto the upward moving platform instead, landing on the one directly above theirs. As I began to travel upwards, I tried to keep utterly silent so they wouldn’t realize I was above them.
“How is Asha?” Taviel said.
“Still in denial. Raven’s glamor is strong. I don’t know if we’ll be able to break it.”
“We must. Otherwise, she’s doomed. You know he’ll cast her away the second he tires of her, just like he’s done with all the others. I don’t know why Felena still cares for him after the way he’s treated her.”
Liar, I thought, fighting down a surge of anguish. You’re a liar.
As the paternoster drew level with the landing above, I stepped off the platform and sprinted into one of the corridors that led off the landing. I paused around the corner, pressed my back against the wall, and peeked back the way I’d
come.
Samuel and Taviel came into view as their platform rose. They had their heads together and were talking quietly. They hadn’t seen me. Good. I still had a chance to get away. Then, to my horror, as the paternoster drew level with the landing, they stepped off their platform and began walking towards me.
I took off, speeding down the corridor and skidding round a corner, my pulse roaring in my ears. Their voices followed me. Damn it! I needed a place to hide. I glanced around and spotted a set of wide double doors. I grabbed the handle, yanked them open, and slipped inside, pressing my ear to the door.
Taviel and Samuel’s voices got louder and louder as they approached—and then began to recede as they carried on past. I let out a long sigh of relief, sagging against the door. It took a long time for my heartbeat to slow and my breathing to even out. That had been close. Too close.
Finally, I turned to look at my hiding place. My jaw dropped at the sight that greeted me. It was no store cupboard or dusty closet in which I found myself. Instead, a large circular room spread out before me. Windows illuminated row upon row of shelves crammed with books and scrolls of all sizes, so many that I doubted I could read them all in a lifetime. Elegant spiral staircases led up to a mezzanine level with study desks and wooden ladders on casters lay against the shelves.
The Grand Library! It had to be! What other place would hold so many books? The Grand Library—a place that Samuel had told me I wasn’t allowed to enter.
My heart started thumping all over again. What did Taviel not want me to find in here? I had no idea but I was sure as hell going to find out.
I moved silently into the vast space, head swiveling as I took in the enormity of the information contained here. My boots echoed hollowly on the marble floor but there was no other sound. Like the rest of the Spire, the Grand Library was deserted.
I approached a bookcase at random and pulled out a book, a fat old tome covered in faded green leather. I opened the cover and looked at the pages. Lines of elegant writing filled the pages, decorative scrollwork crawling along the edges. It was written in the Fae language and I couldn’t understand a word. My stomach sank in disappointment. If all the books were like this, maybe it wasn’t going to be such a great discovery after all.
I was just about to shut the book when the words on the page suddenly began to swim in front of my eyes. A faint glow came from the page. Then, when the glow faded away, the words were no longer written in Fae. They were written in English.
I blinked. What the—?
Was this another form of the Spire’s magic? If so, no wonder Taviel hadn’t wanted me in here. I could read everything in the place!
A spark of excitement began to burn in my belly. I quickly read the page.
When distilled with loganberry in a ratio of three to one, the Summerdew apple will make the most exquisite wine. However, it is the medicinal properties that hold the most interest, a subject of which the writer has conducted a thorough study and which will prove valuable to anyone interested in remedies for skin ailments of all kinds.
I scowled. No. This wasn’t what I was looking for at all. In fact, I had no idea what I was looking for but there must be something in here that Taviel was hiding. I replaced the book on the shelf and took down another one. This appeared to be a treatise on the merits of crop rotation. I moved down the row, choosing books at random, but nothing caught my attention.
I placed my hands on my hips and looked around. Something up on the mezzanine level caught my eye. A chair by a desk had been pulled back and the desk itself was piled high with books and scrolls, some of them lying open.
Somebody had been studying up there.
I froze, cursing myself for a fool. I should have checked. I should have made sure I was alone before poking around. I turned slowly, trying to listen over the sound of my rapidly thumping heart. But all was still. Whoever had been studying up on the mezzanine level was not there now.
I chewed my lip, wondering what I should do. Common sense said I ought to leave and go back to my apartment. Yet common sense had stopped having any kind of hold over me quite some time ago. I’d come this far; I couldn’t leave without finding what I’d come for.
I looked from left to right, checking that the coast was clear. Then, moving quickly before I could change my mind, I hurried to one of the spiral staircases that led up to the mezzanine level and climbed. As I stepped onto the upper level, I got a fabulous view of the whole Grand library below me, stretching out into the distance. Yes, it would definitely take me years to study all of this.
I wondered briefly what it must have been like before all the acolytes fled. I imagined the study tables crammed with students. I imagined the hum of debate as they discussed what they’d discovered. Once, it must have been a grand place. Once.
I crossed to the table piled with books and scrolls. Several lay open with leather markers to keep their place and others had been piled haphazardly around the edge, whether they were waiting to be read or had already been used and discarded, I couldn’t tell. I picked up the nearest book and flipped it open, scanning the words on the page.
House Ash ruled for four hundred and thirty-three years. King Vasil of Ash married Lady Fashana of House Stone and they had three children.
What followed was a list of the descendants of House Ash and then a diagram of the family tree. With distaste I traced it with my finger all the way to Simeon Ash, the latest descendant and a total slimeball of a man who’d betrayed Raven by joining an Unseelie plot to kill Rillana.
I flicked the page and found a description of House Stone. The whole book seemed to be a genealogy of the Fae Houses, listing their provenance and their descendants from the deep past right down to the present day. Even House Storm was included and I took my time reading through Raven’s family tree although the lists of names and ancestors meant nothing to me. It was interesting, but it didn’t get me any closer to finding what I needed.
I placed the book back on the table with a thump. As I did, it dislodged a piled of scrolls that went tumbling to the floor.
I bent down to pick them up, unrolled one and began reading.
Guest list for the wedding of Arion Storm and Felena Sand.
I stared at the words scrawled on the parchment, sure I was hallucinating. A long list of names filled the page, all annotated to say whether they belonged to the bride or the groom’s side. I blinked, struggling to make sense of what I was seeing. No. This was some kind of mistake. Surely, this was some kind of mistake?
I dropped the parchment from suddenly nerveless fingers and picked up the next one. It was a letter.
My dearest Taskian
I hope this letter finds you well. I was pleased to receive your letter expressing your approval of the betrothal of Arion and Felena. As you know, my son is headstrong to a fault and I dread to think what he may have done had you rejected his suit. We all know how volatile a man in the grip of the mate bond can be. He’s quite smitten with your daughter and under the circumstances it seems appropriate that we arrange the wedding as quickly as possible. Would late summer be sufficient time for preparations? Today I will write to the Spire to request their officiation at the bonding. I await your response,
Yours
Alanrin Storm
I staggered, steading myself on the edge of the table. The room spun. I sat down heavily in the chair, leaned my elbows on the desk, and put my head in my hands. The letter fell from my grip where it fluttered down slowly to settle by my feet.
He is quite smitten with your daughter. How volatile a man in the grip of the mate bond can be.
The words burned across by brain. I felt sick. I felt like the bottom had just fallen out of my world. Everything I had believed only a moment ago evaporated around me like smoke.
Oh no. Oh no, no, no.
“What are you doing in here? You’re not supposed to be in here!”
I whirled as Felena stepped off the stairs. She glanced from me to the papers that scatter
ed the desk and back again. Her eyes blazed with fury.
“Get away from there! You have no right to be in here!”
“Is it true?” I croaked.
“Is what true?”
I gestured helplessly at the books and scrolls scattered across the table top. “This. All of this. You and Raven.”
Her expression went stony. She crossed to the desk and began gathering up the scrolls and books, hugging them against her chest.
“I told you, didn’t I?” she growled. “I’m no liar, mortal. Arion and I were marked to be together since birth.”
Her words were like tiny shards of glass pelting against my skin. No. No. No.
She raised a sardonic eyebrow. “You think you’re the only one? Then you’re more stupid than you look. Arion is the king of the Shadow Court. He’s had women throwing themselves at him his whole life. You don’t think he’s indulged them more times than I care to remember?” Anger as well as hurt throbbed in her voice now. “He violates all the sacred customs of the betrothal bond. But I’ve forgiven him time and time again. And I’ll forgive him for this latest insult. I’ll forgive him for bringing a mortal here and parading her around in front of me as though our betrothal means nothing! Even for that, I will forgive him. So maybe when it comes to Arion Storm, we are both fools.”
I felt numb. Cold. Like somebody had ripped out my insides, leaving me an empty shell.
Raven. He was my mate. My love. But now I was being told that he was none of those things.
I explored the bond. I sensed him distantly. He was angry and focussed. He was always angry these days.
But was it the bond? Was that really what I felt? Or was it chains of glamor that Raven had bound to me? Was I as helpless as Gracie had been when Taviel had bewitched her?
I shook my head, squeezing my eyes tight shut. “This can’t be happening,” I whispered. “This isn’t real.”
“Oh, it’s real,” Felena said. “So you better get used to it. Arion Storm is not what you thought he is. He’s a womanizer and a liar.” Her expression hardened and her eyes flashed.