by KJ Baker
“And he’s mine.”
Chapter 8
RAVEN
I pulled my horse to a halt and gazed out at the border of my kingdom. Below me, the land stretched out into the broad, fertile river valley that dominated the Court of the Moon’s eastern border where it butted up against the Spire. It was nearing midday and the sun hung in the sky high above me, turning the air sultry and sluggish. If I squinted, I could just make out the glimmer of water on the far horizon, marking the beginning of the lakeshore on which the island of the Spire sat. On which Asha was a prisoner. The need to reach her burned withing me hotter even than the sun.
But between Asha and me, and filling the river valley from end to end, lay a vast, teeming mass of Unseelie warriors. Bowen and his scouts had reported that they’d reached the border yesterday and dug in. They hadn’t crossed into my territory which indicated that they were still wary and instead had settled in to wait.
Now, as my army marched up in ranks behind me, the tramp of booted feet and the whinnying of horses loud in the hot, still air, I realized this would be a long and bloody battle.
The two forces were evenly matched. My warrior’s eye took in the deployment of the Unseelie horde. Divisions of heavily armored foot soldiers held the bottom of the valley, drawn up in square formations that would lock shields and become all but impregnable. Two phalanxes of cavalry covered the flanks and row upon row of archers had taken the high ground, holding the slopes of the valley against any attempt at a flanking movement.
My jaw tightened. Word had reached us that Mirak Willow had been given overall command of the Unseelie army. This was not good news. He was the military commander of the Court of Earth, one of the less radical of the Unseelie courts, and I had held out hopes that the Court of Earth would stay out of this and thus keep Mirak Willow off the field. My hopes had been dashed and now I was facing the greatest military strategist in the Summerlands. He had deployed his troops exactly as I would have done and I saw no weakness in his planning. He’d arrived first and so had chosen the site of the battle to suit him and had used the terrain to his advantage.
Hawk, sitting his horse next to mine, raised an eyebrow. “Well, you’ve got to give it to the old bastard. He certainly knows his stuff.”
“Every commander has a weakness,” Ffion replied from my other side. “And in every army there’s a weak link. We just need to figure out what his is.”
“Sure. He’ll just sit here whilst we reason it through, eh?” Hawk replied.
Ffion made an acerbic response and as the two of them began bickering, I shut out their voices. Something was wrong with Asha. I sensed it through the bond. She wasn’t hurt or in danger but it was something else, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Sometimes I couldn’t feel her at all. I knew she was there, I could sense her on the other end of the bond, but her emotions had become distant, elusive, as though she was drifting further and further away.
“That’s suicide!” Hawk snapped. “Tell her, Raven!”
“Hmm?” I snapped back to the present.
“Our dear sister here wants to go into the camp alone and assassinate Mirak Willow. Tell her it’s madness!”
“Cut the head off the snake and it can no longer bite!” Ffion growled.
“Or the snake will bite your own head off before you can get within a hundred feet!”
“You don’t command here, Hawk! Maybe you should—”
“Stop it! The both of you!” I snapped. I took a deep breath. “There will be no assassination. That’s an Unseelie trick and I’ll not stoop to their level. We’ll meet them in battle head-on, just as we planned.” In my brother and sister’s eyes, I saw an iron will and calm determination. They would ride with me to the death if need be.
“Go get some rest. We attack at dawn.”
ASHA
“Why do I get the feeling you’re not listening to me?” asked Samuel.
“Hmm?” I glanced at him then turned back to staring out of the window.
It still seemed strange that inside, the Spire looked just like my apartment but outside, the landscape of the Summerlands spread to the horizon. Night was falling, creeping over the countryside like a dark blanket and in the far distance hundreds of tiny points of light glimmered like fireflies.
Watch fires. Raven’s army had arrived to challenge the Unseelie.
“I said, would you like to come down to dinner? I’ve asked Tourin to make us a special from back home. Pizza and fries. What do you say?”
I shook my head. “I’m not hungry.”
Samuel sighed. “Asha, what is it? What’s wrong?”
I looked at him incredulously. “What, beyond being kept prisoner you mean?”
A look of anguish crossed Samuel’s face and I immediately regretted my sarcasm. He was doing his best. He was as trapped as I was. Yet, I must not allow myself to pity him. If I did that, if I allowed the eggshell wall I’d built around my emotions to crack just a little, I knew I would shatter completely. I was barely keeping it together, holding on by my fingernails.
“Has something happened, Asha? You seem...distracted.”
Has something happened? I thought. Are you kidding? Oh, nothing much. I’ve just discovered that the man I thought I was in love with, the man I thought loved me, has been lying to me from the start. That’s all. Nothing to worry about.
But the thought threatened to crack my eggshell wall and I felt the hysteria bubbling, so I locked the thought away, refusing to give in to despair. I would not break. I wouldn’t.
Samuel shifted in his chair, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. He frowned at me. “Asha, why don’t you tell me what’s bothering you? You can trust me.”
I looked at him sharply. Trust? I could trust exactly nobody! Today’s events had shown me that. Yet Samuel’s face was creased with concern and he was the only person—the only one—who might be able to understand a little of the all-consuming pain that beat the edges of my soul.
I swallowed several times and then spoke in a small, weak voice. “Can I ask you something, Samuel?”
“Anything.”
“How do you know that the bond between you and Eliana was real? How can you be sure she didn’t just enslave you with her glamor?”
He sat back, considering his answer. He seemed to sense how important this question was to me.
“The key difference is that a glamor goes only one way. All the power is held by the Fae. They control everything, even though the person who’s been ensorcelled isn’t aware of it. A bond goes both ways, delves right into the heart of each partner and reveals them entirely, right down to their core. When I bonded with Eliana, I saw into her soul. I knew everything about her. The good bits. The bad bits. The bits she’d rather keep hidden. There were no secrets between us. And it was from that truth, from us each understanding the other so completely, that our love grew. Does that answer your question?”
I nodded, turning to look out of the window so that Samuel wouldn’t see the tears in my eyes. Truth. Honesty. No secrets. That’s what a true bonding meant.
Yet I had gotten none of that from Raven. He’d kept so much from me. I had only learned that he was a king because Taviel had told me when we’d confronted him in the mortal realm. I’d only learned he had siblings when we’d come to the Summerlands. He’d not even bothered to tell me that in bonding with him I’d become immortal.
But worst of all, worst of all, he’d lied to me over and over again. He’d told me he loved me. He’d told me there was nobody else.
And yet, I’d found that he already belonged to another. That he was engaged to be married to Felena Sand and that he’d betrayed her just as he’d betrayed me. No wonder she hated me. Wouldn’t I feel the same if the situation was reversed?
I thought suddenly of Gracie. My best friend had been ensorcelled by Taviel’s glamor and she had been so enraptured by him that she’d turned against all else, even me, her best friend. She’d refused to listen, refused to
see what Taviel had done, and would have defended him to the death if need be. I’d been horrified by what he’d done to her. I’d pitied her. But was I any different? Or was I exactly like Gracie? Blinded by Raven’s hold over me, refusing to see what he really was? I’d seen him attack that peace delegation. I’d seen him kill with hatred in his eyes. I’d seen the proof that he’d been engaged to Felena all along.
I was no better than Gracie. I was a slave and I hadn’t even realized it.
My eggshell wall shattered and a great, dark hole opened inside me, threatening to pull me in and smother me. I wanted to let go, I wanted to fall into that deep, dark hole of despair and let it destroy me. But the darkness was not the only thing inside me. Deep down, a tiny flame burned. An ember of anger pulsed in the darkness. How the hell dare he? Who the hell did he think he was?
I scowled, stoked that ember and used its heat to push away the darkness just a little. I turned in my seat and looked at Samuel.
“Is there a way to remove Raven’s hold on me?”
He blinked, clearly taken aback. For a moment, he said nothing. Then he slowly nodded.
“Yes, Asha. There’s a way.”
Chapter 9
RAVEN
The pre-dawn air was chilly. As I stood in the darkness, my breath plumed white. A slight lessening of the dark, a tiny whisper of the dawn to come, brushed the sky to the east. I nodded.
It was time.
Below me, the two armies lay shrouded in gloom. Watch fires burned around the perimeter but inside the camps all was still as the warriors grabbed whatever precious moments of sleep were left to them. It would not be long before the red ball of the sun crested the horizon and that’s when it all would begin.
At least, that’s what my enemies thought. Did I say that Mirak Willow was the best military strategist in the Summerlands? That had not been entirely true. There was someone better.
Me.
The jingle of tack sounded behind me and a horse stamped a hoof, eager to be away. It was the only sound in the stillness, the only indication of the small, hand-picked band of warriors arrayed behind me. Down in the camp, a light suddenly began to blink: one, two, three times, as Hawk opened and closed a shuttered lamp. The signal. Everything was ready.
I dropped to my knees, placed my palms flat against the earth, and sent my magic pouring out. In response, the shadows all around me began to move. I was the king of the Shadow Court and within my own lands, the shadows did my bidding. Gloom grew around me, chasing away the pre-dawn glow and plunging the valley once again into darkness. Oblivious to this false night, the Unseelie army slept on.
But under the cover of the cloaking shadows, the Seelie army began to move. They had not been asleep at all, but awake and ready in the darkness, waiting for the cover I would give them. Now movement rippled in the valley below, a shifting of the shadows that indicated a mass of moving bodies as lines of warriors inched forward, covering the no-man’s-land between the two opposing forces.
To any other eyes, they would have been invisible. But we were the people of the Shadow Court and to us, the shadows were home. For the Unseelie warriors, many of them from the Court of the Sun where they needed the sun to be at the height of their powers, they would see nothing but the false night around them.
Exhilaration rushed through me as I poured my magic into the earth and it was so heady and intoxicating that for a few seconds, I forgot all else. It would be so sweet to give in, to let the power pour through me until I was utterly spent. Then I could lie down and become one with the shadows that had spawned me.
But a hand settled on my shoulder and I looked up to see Ffion’s face. Her eyes shone in the darkness.
“We have to get moving.”
I nodded, held out my hand and allowed her to pull me to my feet. Down in the valley the first line of the Seelie army had almost reached the Unseelie. A sudden shout of alarm went up as the Unseelie scouts finally spotted the horde rushing at them through the cloak of shadow. Torches flared to life along the length of the Unseelie front and an alarm drum began beating out the call to arms. Warriors burst from their tents, strapping on weapons, running for the front.
But it was too late. The Seelie line crashed into the unsuspecting camp with an audible impact. Two wings of cavalry dashed into the fray, cutting down warriors left and right in a lightning strike before wheeling their mounts and retreating to make way for the spear-shaped phalanx of heavy foot soldiers under Hawk’s command.
It was carnage. The Unseelie were caught completely unawares, unable to counter our attack. But I knew it would not last long. Mirak Willow was too wily a commander for that. Already I sensed the power of the Sun Court building, a counter to my shadows.
That was my cue.
I nodded to Ffion and the handful of warriors gathered behind us. “Let’s go.”
We formed a circle, holding hands tightly. I murmured a few words under my breath, employed my magic, and teleported us right into the heart of the enemy camp. Under normal circumstances, they would have wards against such an intrusion but I knew that employment of the Sun magic to counter my Shadows would take all their strength, leaving none aside to monitor the wards. It was the chance we needed.
We materialized amongst the baggage train. Here pens full of animals and piles of supplies lay about, only lightly guarded. My Shadows still held, cloaking us in darkness, meaning our arrival had gone unnoticed. We wore the insignia of the Sun court so if anyone did spot us, they would hopefully mistake us for their own. Stealth was our greatest ally this night.
“Spread out,” I ordered the grim-faced warriors around me. “You know what you have to do. Check every tent. Every storage shed. If you find what we’re looking for, don’t wait for the rest of us, just get out immediately. If you’re discovered, retreat. If the Fates are smiling on us, we’ll all meet again. If not, I’ll see you all in the Twilight Lands.”
They thumped their fists to their chests in salute and melted silently away, shadows among shadows. I was left alone with Ffion. She gave me an encouraging nod and we set out, circling a wagon piled high with grain sacks and working our way steadily forward. The sound of fighting was thick in the air now, the clash of weapons carried on the breeze that blew in our direction. The Sun magic was building beneath my feet and would soon shred my shadows, destroying our advantage. We had to hurry.
I thought back to the events of last night that had led us to devise this risky gamble. It had been past midnight and all but the sentries had been asleep, getting what rest they could before the battle commenced at sunrise. I couldn’t sleep. I lay on the camp bed in my tent, staring up at the ceiling, thinking of Asha.
Night time was the worst. During the day I kept myself busy, filled my day with a hundred different things that demanded my attention, but at night there was nothing to keep away the deep, aching loneliness at her absence. She should be beside me right now. I should be able to feel her warm body against mine, smell the scent of her hair in my nostrils. Instead, there was just an ache deep in my bones and the coldness of the late summer night.
“Your Majesty?” said a voice outside the tent flap.
I rose onto my elbows. “What is it?”
The tent flap opened and Zaran, one of my personal guard, stuck his head in. “The Spire is here to see you, my lord.”
I became instantly alert. If Rillana had come to see me at this late hour, then it must be for a good reason. I scrambled up from the bed.
“Send her in.”
Rillana ducked through the tent flap. She looked haggard. Her hair had come free of its braid and lay in tangles around her face. Dark shadows framed her eyes as though she’d not slept in weeks.
I went to her immediately, taking her hand and guiding her into a seat. She sank gratefully onto the chair and nodded her thanks.
“What is it?” I asked her. “What’s happened?”
Rillana drew in a deep breath. “It’s Maria, the human you rescued. She’s dead.”
I stared at her, stunned. “What? How?”
Rillana wiped a shaky hand across her brow. “It’s my fault. I should have realized. I should have acted sooner. Fates take them all for doing such a heinous thing!”
Her hand curled into a fist and she thumped it against the arm of the chair. I waited patiently for her to speak. She closed her eyes for a moment as if gathering her strength.
“My healers and I have been working with Maria all day. I told you there were holes in her mind and that some of her memories had been taken. Well, we used every healing magic at our disposal to recover those memories. Nothing worked. Finally, we began probing her mind to figure out what happened to her. As soon as we did, she began to deteriorate.”
I frowned. “I don’t understand. As far as I could see, she was unharmed. She had no injuries.”
“It was not a physical sickness, but one of the mind. Whoever had tampered with her mind had left an imprint there, a self-destruct if you will, designed to stop anyone from discovering what had been done to her. The moment we touched her mind, it triggered. The moment we realized what was happening, we withdrew. We did everything possible to stop it. But it was too late. Her brain functions began to shut down. She died ten minutes ago.”
A heavy silence fell. “I’m sorry, Rillana.”
She nodded. “But that’s not all. We did manage to find something before her mind threw us out. A memory they hadn’t managed to erase. It was fragmented and sketchy but we managed to deduce a few things.” She leaned forward and gripped my arm tightly. “Raven, there are more of them. More humans being used as Maria was used. And it has something to do with Asha.”
I snapped back to the present. It was this discovery that had led to me and Ffion being here right now, creeping through the Unseelie camp. It had led to us changing our plans and taking this risky gamble. If there were humans in this camp being kept as prisoners, then we had to rescue them. It was our duty as Seelie Fae. If we did not, we were no better than the Unseelie who kept them captive. And besides, they might be able to help me find Asha.