Judged

by Liz de Jager

  A chime from his mirror brought his pacing to an end and he turned towards it.

  ‘Report,’ he instructed, triggering the mirror’s communication spell.

  The kami, Yukiko, was a small shadow in the garden and her face was pale. ‘All your forces are dead, Oswald.’

  ‘Impossible. What of the sluagh?’

  ‘Dead. They are all dead.’

  Oswald sighed. She sounded terrified. He had no time to deal with the hysteria he suspected was coming. ‘How did this happen?’

  ‘The forester was with them. He killed the sorcerer and …’

  ‘How?’

  ‘The sorcerer? The forester trapped him amongst the roots of an old oak. The roots pulled him under.’

  Oswald grimaced. ‘That’s certainly … unique. What of the soldiers?’

  ‘The forester stabbed them to death. It was savage.’

  ‘The sluagh?’

  ‘The guardian killed him.’

  ‘I’m sorry, did you say the guardian?’

  He could see her face clearer now as she leaned closer to the mirror. Her pupils were dilated and she was so pale in the shadows that she looked like an apparition. ‘The prince, Oswald. Aelfric’s son appeared out of nowhere and he just took the girl from the sluagh. And –’ her voice wavered – ‘he tore it apart with his bare hands. I have never heard of anyone killing a sluagh.’

  ‘That is because it can’t be done. Sluagh do not die … they regenerate if close enough to a leyline …’

  ‘No, Oswald. He burned the sluagh. As he touched it, flames engulfed it and it burned to ash. The guardian has abilities no Fae has had in a thousand years. Please, Oswald. I must come back. This place is not safe.’

  ‘Very well. Join me here. We need to report to Aelfric and explain to him how you failed him.’

  ‘I didn’t …’

  ‘Make haste, Yukiko. The high king is not a man who likes waiting.’

  She scrubbed at her face but gave a brief nod before the mirror went dark. Oswald stared at his own reflection for a long few moments before turning away. First, he had an audience to prepare for and a traitor to present to the king. He’d only just sat at his desk when there was a knock at the door. It swung open and a young Sidhe warrior walked in.

  ‘Feran,’ he said mildly, ‘this is not a good time.’

  ‘Sir, Lady Firesky sent me on an errand.’ The man’s mouth twisted, apparently seeing himself above such things. ‘I thought it was a good opportunity to bring you some paperwork we found in the princeling’s room.’

  Oswald accepted the notebook with a raised brow. ‘Is it significant?’

  ‘Sir, he had the scrolls glamoured to resemble alchemy tracts.’

  ‘Well then, let’s see what we can see.’

  Oswald skimmed the pages of careful writing and, as he read, a growing sense of unease stole over him. ‘This is rather remarkable, Feran. Have you told anyone else?’

  ‘Of course not, sir.’ Feran looked offended at the thought and Oswald nodded. He was right to trust the young man. Middle son of a large, minor noble family with no career prospects. He’d joined the King’s Army but had excelled in languages and strategy. Oswald had hand-picked him for his elite squad of spies and assassins, and the boy flourished.

  ‘Good. I am pleased. The king will be pleased. Go and run the errands Lady Firesky demands of you and make sure you get back to the tower in a timely fashion. She must not suspect you of dawdling.’

  ‘Yes, sir. Of course.’ Feran was almost to the door when Oswald called his name.

  ‘Feran? Good job. You’ve done well.’

  A look of pleasure flashed across the warrior’s features. He gave a brief nod before ducking his head and pulling the door shut behind hm.

  Oswald sat back and traced the words on the page with a callused finger. So it goes, he thought. One door closes and another opens.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Thorn looks a little lost standing in the middle of my room. He is more unkempt than I’ve ever seen him and he’s thinner too, as if he’s been so busy running that he’s not stopped for long enough to eat a decent meal. He looks around the room, cataloguing my few possessions. His gaze lingers on the pendant I placed back on the mirror, and when his gaze eventually settles on me, it’s almost a physical thing. It carries weight and an intent that’s not lost on me.

  ‘Kit.’

  I feel strange, so just give him a tired look.

  ‘Thorn.’

  ‘I told you to be careful.’

  ‘I was. The sluagh attacked the house and almost killed Dante and Aiden. What did you expect me to do? Stand by and watch my friends get slaughtered?’

  ‘Aiden is a wolf, he’s almost healed anyway.’ The statement is baldly factual, and it shocks me. I gape at him, feeling anger uncoiling inside me.

  ‘That’s a horrible thing to say. He can die, Thorn. He’s tough to kill, but it’s possible. And what of Dante? He was almost killed too. We all almost died.’

  ‘Dante has protection like none I’ve ever seen. They are both fine, but what about you?’ He gestures at me and it looks as if he wants to move towards me but he stops himself. His voice is soft and sounds raw. ‘I thought I was going to lose you.’

  My heart flutters at that and I swallow with difficulty. The bruises around my neck are painful. ‘I’m tougher than you think. You should remember that.’

  There’s a heavy silence for a few moments. He looks up at me from beneath his lashes and gives a small smile. ‘Let’s not fight.’

  ‘No, let’s not. I have to clean up, wash the blood off my face and get changed. We have to regroup and figure out what we’re doing next.’

  ‘Someone is trying to kill you. You should stay safe and not put yourself in harm’s way.’

  ‘Really? You expect me to just nod quietly, embroider you a pennant and wait for you to go and have adventures all by yourself?’

  He looks miserable for a second but then sighs. ‘I had to try, at least.’ He closes the gap between us and picks up my hand. ‘Do you know how to embroider?’

  ‘I know how to stitch wounds together, remember?’ I tell him. ‘That’s the extent of my domestic skills.’

  He nods. ‘I remember.’ He kisses the tips of my fingers and I try to pull away, feeling oddly vulnerable at the touch of his lips on my hand. ‘I’m alive because of you. I can’t bear the thought of anything happening to you, Kit.’

  I drag my eyes away from him with difficulty. ‘Is that why you came today?’

  ‘I sensed you were in danger.’ His other hand drifts to the small of my back and he pulls me a little closer. ‘I felt your pain and knew that if I didn’t intervene you’d be lost to me. I had to do something.’

  ‘That’s a very big gesture, Thorn. A little reckless, even for the guardian of the realms.’

  He nods, and we’re so close now that our mouths are millimetres apart. ‘I don’t care. I saved you. I killed the sluagh and I would do it again in a heartbeat.’

  When his lips meet mine it’s for the softest sweetest kiss we’ve ever shared. I close my eyes and let it carry me away. For a moment it’s just the two of us, in my room, with all the world shut out. We’re just a boy and a girl kissing. And for a handful of seconds it’s exactly the right thing.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  We’re all cleaned up, sitting downstairs drinking tea and trying to make sense of the attacks. Crow’s broken down the heavy spell he cast on the front hedges, but the door is still solid. No one is getting in. Dante is restless, moving to the window to check outside and then returning to sit next to Aiden.

  Crow and Thorn are taking turns explaining their findings and the more I hear, the more concerned I’m becoming. Aiden’s subdued. He’s pressed tightly up against me with Dante on his other side. It’s as if he feels proximity to us will anchor him and keep him safe. I link my fingers with his and gradually become aware of him relaxing against me. Dante has an arm wrapped around Aiden�
�s shoulders and occasionally Dante’s fingers would brush against my shoulder too. We make a pitiful trio of less than badass fighters.

  ‘The goddess is dying,’ Thorn is saying. ‘She should have been banished with her brothers. And her hold on the Veil’s growing weaker because she’s growing weaker, and nothing Brixi or any of the Faceless are doing will stop that from happening.’

  ‘So the kids? They’re dying because she’s using them up faster?’ Dante asks Crow, who looks bleak.

  ‘In a way. The older the children are, the more likely they are to survive.’

  ‘We should go and fetch them, bring them back to their parents.’

  ‘If we do that, the goddess will wake and the Veil will tear. It would be disastrous for your world.’ Thorn looks at me and sighs; it’s a sound too close to defeat.

  I frown a little at that. ‘It would be worse for yours.’

  ‘It would be bad in general, for both our worlds.’

  ‘What has this to do with the attacks on us?’ Aiden asks. ‘Why would they come here? How did they even know how to get here?’

  ‘I think we were followed. When I brought Kit back from the Otherwhere, they must have tracked the route I took, forced the gateway to stay open and brought the sluagh through.’

  Thorn frowns at Crow in confusion. ‘Why were you with Kit in the Otherwhere?’

  ‘Oh.’ I start slightly and when I open my mouth to talk my throat closes up and I have to take a sip of tea to ease the ache. ‘That was a very unexpected visit, sort of against my will.’ I lean forward so I can catch Dante’s eye. ‘Dante’s aunt brought me to the Otherwhere, before the attack. She wanted to make sure I would look after Dante until they were ready to reach out to him officially.’

  ‘What?’

  Crow holds up his hands as both Dante and Thorn start talking at once. ‘It’s true.’ Crow explains far more swiftly than I would have been able to. Aiden is so out of it, he doesn’t even make fun of Dante being an actual prince who may end up with his own kingdom to rule.

  Thorn listens all the way through without interrupting, but once Crow’s done he’s the first to speak. ‘Do you think Yukiko is the one who followed you?’

  ‘She would have had the skill to control the sluagh and there was no one else there. I would definitely have sensed them,’ Crow says. ‘I should have been far more careful. I knew something was off.’

  Thorn clasps a hand to the forester’s shoulder. ‘Don’t do this, my friend. You’re all here, we’re safe. And that is what matters ultimately.’

  ‘The boy could have been killed. It would have been my fault.’

  ‘But the boy is safe.’ Dante’s holds out a hand to Crow and Crow shakes it. ‘You saved me. From my own family. Thank you for that.’

  Aiden sighs softly and his grip flexes on my hand.

  ‘Hey, you okay?’ I whisper so only he can hear.

  ‘Exhausted.’

  I rub his hand and listen to his breathing. When I look up, I find Thorn’s gaze on me and I give him a small smile.

  ‘So, Yukiko is behind these attacks? And you think she wants to kill Dante?’

  ‘It would appear so. And it would make sense. If she wanted the throne for herself, and Dante stands in the way.’

  ‘What if I don’t want their stupid throne? What if I just want them to acknowledge my existence and maybe teach me how to control my weird abilities? Maybe explain to me who I am and who my mother was? And why they let me go in the first instance and never thought to look for me?’ Dante’s scowl is dark as he jumps up to walk to the window once more. ‘So now what do I do? Carry weapons with me at all times and watch out for assassins?’

  ‘No, wait, before we get talking about that. How do the attacks on Dante tie in with the goddess and the Veil?’ I ask Thorn. ‘You made it sound earlier as if these could also be linked.’

  Thorn looks away from his cousin’s pacing and grimaces. ‘I fear if I talk of yet more prophecies Kit may stab me.’

  I groan and lean back against the couch. ‘You cannot be serious. What is it with your people and prophecies?’

  Three pairs of eyes watch me warily and Aiden pushes away from me. ‘You’re twitchy,’ he complains, moving to take up the seat Dante has vacated. His eyes start drifting shut immediately and I stare worriedly at him.

  ‘Okay, shoot, tell us about the prophecy,’ Dante says, sounding as tired as I look. ‘I’m sure it’s going to be great.’

  ‘You remember the prophecy?’ Thorn asks, looking at me. ‘You remember how it goes?’

  ‘The one about the Elder Gods?’

  When he nods, I close my eyes, digging for it. ‘Woe to the prophesied son as the Elder Gods await his coming. Upon his decision to cast aside … uhm, what? Oh yes. Hold on, I’ve got it. Upon his decision to cast aside what has gone before rests the fate of the world and the Elder Gods’ return.’

  ‘They will remake the world as it once was, bringing with them the destruction of fire and water and all will be as new.’ Thorn’s voice rings beautifully in the quiet of the room and I stare at him a little.

  Dante closes an eye and squints at us. ‘Seriously?’

  Thorn has the grace to look embarrassed. ‘Well, yes. Prophecies don’t have to be pretty or eloquent, do they?’

  ‘And this is about you?’

  Thorn nods silently, looking tense. ‘I’ve found that there is more to the prophecy and more of the prophecy. I think it’s about Dante.’

  ‘Hell, no. You’re joking right?’

  Aiden snorts his laughter from the far side of the couch where he’s slouching, chin on his chest and eyes closed. ‘Oh, this is gonna be good.’

  ‘I approached Em.’ At the name of Olga’s adopted grandfather, I sit up and scowl at Thorn but he holds his hand out to me to placate me. ‘No, listen to me. He has been keen to make amends after what Olga did. You should know he never had any idea of what she’d been planning with Istvan. Anyway, Em has a great many contacts, who in turn have access to stores of knowledge. We’ve been talking on and off for a few months now and I trust him. All the information he’s shared with me in the past has proven to be accurate. I spoke to him about the rest of the prophecy because it felt incomplete and he’s come up with something that I think is relevant.’

  ‘You trust him?’ Aiden’s the one to ask the question. ‘Olga was his granddaughter. She almost killed you. She almost killed Kit. She –’ he waves his hand around irritably – ‘and her brother tried to bring around the end of the world, Thorn. And you trust someone else from her family?’

  ‘I trust Em. He’s been around far longer than Olga or Istvan were. He adopted them as a favour to a friend. He had no idea what they were planning. Besides, Em thinks Olga did what she did out of loyalty to her brother. They were deluded and their actions were misplaced and it had nothing to do with Em. He hadn’t seen Olga in over a century and had no idea what she’d been up to.’

  ‘And you believe him?’ Again this came from Aiden.

  Thorn nods, his gaze firm. ‘I do. I know she betrayed you most of all, Aiden. You were friends, from what I remember, but Em had no part in that.’

  ‘Okay, let’s move on. Tell us about the prophecy you’ve found about our boy Dante here.’ Aiden’s lips twist when he says the word ‘prophecy’ and I sense that his anger is bubbling very near the surface. I wonder if focusing on Olga and her betrayal of us both is helping him come back to himself. He certainly seems more awake than before.

  ‘It speaks of a vessel, of a person – either Fae or human – who can take the power from the Elder Gods. The vessel will then become the repository of all their magic.’

  A long silence follows these words.

  ‘And this is about me how?’ Dante asks eventually.

  ‘One will come. Unwished for and cast aside by those who do not see his true value. He will be a vessel and take into himself the power of the Elder Gods. In him lies the ability to change the worlds.’

  If t
he silence before was resounding, now it echoes. I repeat the words to myself and frown.

  ‘Okay, so maybe, if you squinted really hard, this could relate to Dante. Possibly.’

  ‘Maybe.’ Aiden’s voice is soft and slurred.

  Thorn looks so uncomfortable that I just know he’s hiding something.

  ‘There’s more, isn’t there?’

  ‘The vessel is marked by nature. He will be hunted for his abilities and by his side he will have steadfast companions, a warrior and a wolf. They will see to it that he succeeds in all things.’ Thorn frowns and looks unhappy. ‘I’m translating this from our language, of course, and so it sounds stilted and odd, but that’s the essence of it.’

  Dante looks as if he wants to be sick. I stare at Thorn because I can’t really form words right now.

  ‘You’re kidding me, right?’ Aiden, once again, is the voice of reason and sass, even if he sounds half asleep. ‘Again, that can be you, Thorn. You’ve been marked by nature – you’re a bloody dragon – and by your side stand a warrior and a wolf.’ He points at me then at himself. ‘It’s easy enough to make these prophecies fit whoever you want them to fit.’

  ‘The markings,’ Thorn says, gesturing at Dante’s tattoo, visible above the curve of his shirt. ‘The vessel is marked by nature.’

  ‘Do I have a say in this?’ Dante asks. ‘I don’t want to be a vessel. I don’t want to be whatever this alludes to me being.’

  ‘What do you want, cousin?’ Thorn makes a small helpless gesture. ‘I’d like nothing more than for you to get what you want. To walk away from this prophecy before it binds you and traps you in its web.’

  ‘I want to be free. I want to know who I am.’ He turns to stand in front of Thorn. ‘I want to know you. I want the chance to get to know your brothers and my other family too. I don’t want to hide.’ He looks over at me and Aiden. ‘I want to be able to go out with my friends and know we won’t be attacked. I want to continue working for the Spook Squad because I’m good at it. I want to make a difference.’ His voice sounds raw and he puts a hand to his throat and swallows. The cut has mostly healed, but it’s still red and raised. ‘I just would like the chance to have things go my way for once.’