The Silent Goddess: The Otherworld Series Book 1

by N. K. Vir

  The image remained long enough to make its mark. As the dogs began to howl and bark in alarm he knew the danger was close. He blinked once and the mortal Mandy sat in front of him dumbfounded from the invasion of two powerful beings vying for control over her delicate mind. He blinked again and he was racing towards the newly formed night and the horrors yet to come.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Annie’s Army

  “This is a terrible idea, “Knackers grumbled. Even Annie was beginning to agree with him. Back in the safety of her kitchen the idea had seemed brilliant and simple; in short, find as many friendly Fae as possible and use them to defeat the Redcap. Annie had been shocked to find out that Pete, stinky Pete, was Fae, a Fir Darrig or Ratboy. Even more startling was the fact that he had three brothers who smelled worse than him. They tended to like the shallows of the wharf during low tide so Annie, accompanied by Knackers waited on the dock for Pete and his brothers to make an appearance.

  “I thought you said they were the good guys,” Annie mumbled as her eyes flicked across the horizon looking for Pete.

  “Aye,” Knackers replied. “Usually,” he added under his breath.

  Annie spun around to face him. His glamour, or disguise, gave him a few extra inches in height so she didn’t have to look down at him as much but he still barely reached her shoulder. His cat like eyes looked up at her warily. Although his feline features, including his tail, were no longer visible he still retained his shaggy gray goatee and at the moment his hairy hands were tugging on it nervously. Annie tried to retain her anger but his outfit was ridiculous. He wore a garishly loud Hawaiian shirt and tattered khaki colored board shorts that seemed to accentuate his bowed legs. She refused to let her eyes drift below his knobby hairy knees, his feet in flip flops was a sight she never wanted to see again. In all he looked like a gnarled, short overly hairy fisherman on holiday.

  “Knackers,” she growled her anger beat her sense of humor. “You said Pete could be trusted.”

  “Aye an’ I also said the swans would be here too,” he replied pointing to the spot where the swans usually were at this time of day.

  Annie squinted up at the setting sun. It’s fading glow illuminating the golden eagle on top of the Custom House. She was still close to home, close to the safety and security of her house and life, her old life. She sighed heavily closing her eyes. If she believed in wishing she would wish for the boring comfort of her old life. Two days, that was all it had taken to turn her world completely upside down. All the stories of her youth were true, Faeries were real magic, no magick was real; and worst of all there was some kind of Faerie princess sleeping inside her.

  “Sleeping- frickin’- beauty,” she muttered.

  “What?” Knackers asked puzzled.

  Annie’s nose twitched as she recognized the distinctive odor of stale cigars and filth that just defied description. “She thinks she’s like sleeping beauty,” cackled a familiar voice. “She may be right too.”

  Annie looked over her shoulder towards the small pier that docked the Friendship. Standing a few feet away were the Fae she and Knackers had come to find. A gust of wind blew off the ocean sending Pete’s special and too personal aroma, rocketing towards Annie and Knackers. Annie tried hard not to wince but could do little about her eyes watering in offense. Knackers however refused to be so polite.

  “Bloody hell mon,” he gasped turning his head away from the foul wind. “I’ve been in sewers that smell better than ye!” He threw an arm over his face in an attempt to shield his offended nose. When that failed he took several steps to the right. “Ye need to be down wind mon!” He waved a hand in the direction he wanted Pete to go. Pete let out a wheezing laugh that showed his yellow teeth off before moving to appease Knackers. As he passed Annie raised her hands to cover her nose and mouth trying to convince herself that she was stifling her laughter instead of shielding her own nose.

  “Honestly he smells better than most,” a sleepy voice inside her head.

  Annie’s watery eyes widened. “Good god,” she shouted into her hands.

  “Goddess,” replied the sleepy voice before once again falling silent.

  “I know, “Knackers’ muffled voice said. “He smells like the he took a bath in a well-used chamber pot.”

  Annie shook her head at him. He obviously thought she was commenting on Pete’s stink, instead of the voice, or rather goddess, in her head. She debated on clarifying her comment but quickly decided against it; it would keep till later.

  “I’m sorry Pete,” she said removing her hands from her face. Now that he had moved the smell was tolerable. A few more gusty breezes and the air smelled clean again. She cleared her throat stalling for time as her brain raced to find the words to begin.

  Knackers, sensing her distress got right to the point. “Are ye here ta be an ally or no’?” His green eyes narrowing as he looked at Pete. The sun was rapidly sinking behind the buildings and Annie did not want to be outside once it became dark.

  Twilight, she had been warned was dangerous. Twilight was an in between time. The veil that separated the natural world from the Otherworld was thin during the in between making it easier to slip between worlds. If a being was in the wrong place a hole could appear and they could get lost in one place or another; or worse get stuck in between. Many humans got lost or stolen when the veil was thin; and as each year passed more and more holes had begun to appear in the veil. It was a weakness the Unseelie had been abusing for years, quietly stepping through the veil during twilight to come and wreak destruction once night fell. The Unseelie thrived in the dark, living off the chaos they could create, feeding greedily on the negative energy that festered and grew in the darkness of the natural world. Fixing the veil was the only solution, and to do that the sleeping princess/goddess had to be freed from Annie. How that was to be accomplished had yet to be revealed because Duncan had disappeared.

  “An ally of course,” Pete replied after a drawn out pause; his raspy voice drawing Annie back from the deep pools of thought in her mind.

  Knackers squinted angrily at Pete, “Took ye long enough.”

  Pete lifted one bony shoulder in a lazy shrug. “Just giving Annie time to catch up,” he said winking a milky blue eye at her. “Besides you are fun to mess with,” he said pointing a crooked finger at Knackers.

  “Why ye-“

  “Enough,” Annie bellowed with enough anger to startle not only her two companions but herself as well. Her eyes darted between the two Fae waiting for one of them to speak. When she was sure she had their attention she continued. “Fine we have Pete and his brothers,” she said nodding her head at Pete who nodded back in agreement. “Fiona, Riana and Devon,” she said looking at Knackers. “And a very confused human who has nothing but fading recollections of stories her father told her.” Her confidence was quickly fading. She buried her face in her hands and shook her head as tears threatened to fall. Her allies, against a very scary blood thirsty demon-like creature, consisted of three very small people and four unreliable yet smelly ones. She was unsure if any of them had any magick or weapons strong enough to help her defend the goddess she harbored.

  “Ye’ve got Duncan,” Knackers said laying a soothing hand on her arm.

  Annie pulled her hands away from her face. Her eyes overflowed with tears as she stared unblinkingly at Knackers’ hand on her arm. She wanted to accept his reassurance, but the small doubtful part of her became loud and overbearing as it struggled to rise up to the surface. On the heels of her doubt came anger and then fear. All of these emotions were knew to her, and as each vied to play the leading role another sneakier and more deadly emotion, hate, exploded out of her with such violence that she shook under its power.

  “Duncan,” she spat. “That duel man who one second spouts beautiful words weaving the illusion of caring and then the next stumbles, no jumps!” She said as her voice lost some of its power. The hurt of Duncan’s actions was working its way into her mind. “Away from me, afr
aid to even offer me the slightest causal touches,” her voice trailing off to the quietest of whispers.

  “He never told ye?” Knackers asked in astonishment as he slowly withdrew his hand.

  “Thought the boy was smarter than that,” Pete muttered. The two exchanged a glance as they seemed to communicated silently. “Tell her,” Pete said to Knackers. When he hesitated Pete growled at him.

  “Lassie,” Knackers said with a heavy sigh. “Yer mo-, um the Battle Queen put a wee bit of a curse on Duncan. The boy, well he loves you deeply. An’ the queen knows this too well. She was afraid that he’d take one look at ye and forget. So she cursed him. He canno’ touch ye or else it would cause pain ta both of ye.”

  Annie listened quietly wanting to believe. In all honesty with everything she had witnessed it wasn’t that hard to believe. If a Redcap and a demon dog were real a curse could be too. The demon dog-. Duncan had thrown Annie behind him when they had spotted the dog. She had heard him hiss as though he was in pain but she had felt no pain. In fact if anything she had wanted him to touch her again, she had wanted it so much that at the time she ached with it.

  “Trust me lass he wants to, ye’re all he cares about,” Knackers reassured her. “After the Redcap attack he picked you up himself he did and laid you to rest on yer bed. His chest suffered a mighty blister from the contact but he wanted to make sure ye were safe.”

  “Then why was he letting Mandy crawl all over him earlier?” Demanded a very angry Kat.

  Annie blinked rapidly clearing her blurry vision. Kat, Griffin and Robert had joined the pity party Annie was holding and if looks could kill everyone in the vicinity would be a corpse on the ground. Kat was very, very frightening when she was angry, and right now angry did not do the fury in her eyes justice. The air around her seemed to crackle and pop. Her raven hair floated and drifted around her shoulders as if it were alive with static electricity. Even Griffin’s usual calming influence was powerless to reel in the anger that was radiating from Kat’s tiny frame. That is when Annie noticed that not only was Kat beyond pissed so were Griffin and Robert.

  “Mandy?” Annie whispered. All her friends nodded in unison.

  “Annie you’re not the only one he fooled,” Kat said as Annie stumbled backwards.

  A tiny bubble of angry laughter bubbled up her throat and escaped out her tightly clenched mouth. “He even tried to convince me that he was Oisin,” she said shaking her head in disbelief. “I almost believed him.” Words kept pouring out of her mouth as she gave voice to her inner monologue. “I fell for it too, I mean why not? He’s gorgeous right? Well what girl wouldn’t want a guy like him?” She kept talking oblivious to the concerned looks on her friends’ faces as she continued to ramble. “Then he says don’t doubt how much he wants me- my god he’s good because I totally fell for it. Then he protects me from that hell hound. That was really hot by the way, scary but hot.”

  Kat nodded her head with every word Annie spoke, Robert looked slightly terrified at Annie’s breakdown and Griffin just looked pissed. Knackers and Pete tried to speak but couldn’t seem to find the right break in Annie’s tirade. It wasn’t until Annie heard a loud pop that she finally stopped talking. She spun towards the origin of the sound and found herself face to face with Mandy. Her body moved before her mind had time to process the information from her eyes. Annie’s fist clenched, her arm drew back then propelled forward into the beautiful blonde’s face. In the time it took to blink Mandy was lying flat on her back holding her bleeding nose.

  Instead of screaming and writhing in pain Mandy did something that really shocked the group. She laughed.

  “There’s the Sidhe goddess,” she said spitting out a mouthful of blood.

  No one moved.

  No one breathed.

  All eyes were focused on the beautiful, bleeding waitress lying on the ground laughing manically.

  Kat broke the spell of silence first. “Why the fuck, are you in armor?”

  Annie gasped, Kat hardly ever cursed, but more importantly she was right. The slutty waitress bleeding at her feet was dressed in some form of armor. Annie frowned in confusion trying to place a time when she had seen armor like this. In many ways it was akin to what she had seen heroines in fantasy video games wear. The chest plate was molded to her shapely torso, doing a better job of covering her ample chest than most of her usual non-existing tops did; her long legs were encased in a similar but more flexible metal. A small round shield with the etched image of a swan lay besides her.

  “I like you little druid,” Mandy said smiling up at Kat. Slowly she got to her feet never taking her eyes off of Kat. “To answer your question I am in armor because war is coming and I have a debt to repay.” She shook her head and the face they had all come to know and secretly hate slipped off as if it were a child’s party mask. The new face that stared back at them was the same and yet very different. Gone was the smug pretty face with its sneering mouth and lustful eyes. If Mandy was beautiful this new version was breath taking. Her pale blue eyes now sparkled like deep dark sapphires. Her pale complexion began to warm and glow; her skin seemed smoother like porcelain. Her lips grew fuller the line more serene.

  “Caelia,” breathed Knackers. “You bitch!” He hissed as he lunged for her. Pete threw his arms around Knackers to restrain him. “Dinna listen to her Annie. She’s a hateful liar. All of this can be laid on her doorstep!” Knackers’ face was red with anger as he struggled in Pete’s grip.

  Caelia’s beautiful serene face changed into an ugly mask of pure anger. “I am not the one who has been hiding her!” She bellowed frighteningly. She closed her jewel-like eyes and took a deep breath. The anger slipped off her face and was quickly replace with an eerie calmness.

  “I am here to protect like I should have in the past. I am here to right my wrong.” Her eyes snapped open and pinned Annie forcing her to look at her. “I am here to die if need be.”

  “Dinna listen Annie,” Knackers pleaded. “She be the one who betrayed Duncan and ye.”

  Annie stared into Caelia’s gem colored eyes. She was captivated by the unusual colors that sparkled in her irises and by the shame and sorrow that lay hidden just beneath the surface. Annie believed her. More than anything or anyone in that moment she believed every word.

  “Kat,” Annie began quietly as the strangest thought began to take shape in her mind. “Is that what you mean about my eyes? Is that what they look like?”

  “Yes,” she replied without hesitation.

  Annie felt her knees buckle as the weight of realization came crashing down on her. “She’s not just in me is she? She is me and I am her.”

  Caelia’s slight nod confirmed her guess. This princess, goddess, was Annie. She wasn’t sure of the details; couldn’t care about the hows and whys. Because in one breath she had gone from being mortal to immortal, from human to Sidhe; and it was a terrible revelation. She stumbled away from the group. A few protested but she was vaguely award of Kat and Caelia defending her need for a few moments of solitude.

  “She just figure out she’s a Faerie fucking princess. Let her breath.” Kat’s voice, two curses in a few minutes, the impossible was possible.

  Annie wandered to the shore. She could still hear her friends arguing in the distance. She tuned them out, focusing instead on the sounds of the ocean as it gently licked at the sand under her feet. This had always been her quiet spot; the one location where she felt at peace. Here the world seemed to easily slip away and become more of a dream than reality. Now however her reality had become a dream.

  She could not remember and therefore had a hard time believing. Of course it had to be true otherwise the past two days made no sense. The Fae, and she was sure they were very real, would not be so eager to befriend or destroy a mortal; especially a very boring, ordinary mortal. She absently scratched at her left wrist. The wound had already begun to heal, just another reminder of the impossible truth.

  Something dark and evil was coming for her. It
had almost succeeded twice, and unless she quickly accepted the reality of the situation she was in she might not out live a third attempt.

  “Bhanphrionsa,” whispered a tiny timid voice. The familiar word drew her attention from the water’s edge. To her left a tiny ball of light danced around her shoulders. The greenish orb pulsed and grew with life as it expanded pushing its glowing tail towards the sand as it slowly lengthened into an almost human like shape. The body was reminiscent of a trees’ trunk with long willowy limbs that floated gracefully in the air like branches wavering the trees. “Caraid,” it whispered.

  Annie shook her head. “I don’t understand, Gaelic?” she guessed. “Are you a Dryad?”

  The Dryad nodded. “Yes and a friend.”

  “Is that what ca-rit-sh means?” Annie asked carefully repeating the Gaelic word.

  The green orb pulsed brighter as laughter emanated from its center. “You have many friends,” the dryad whispered again. “The dryads will protect the bhanphrionsa, the life spark, as will the Fae of the flowers for she nurtures us.”

  Annie wanted to offer her thanks but held back. The Fae only give to those deserving thanks is a human expression and is considered rude to the fae. It was something her father had told her long ago. She could not recall when or why, she could only remember his words. Hoping and trusting that he was right Annie nodded her head as regally as she could.

  The Dryad pulsed with laughter again. “I have brought another caraid,” she said pointing to a spot in the water before winking away.

  Annie squinted into the distance towards the spot the Dryad had indicated. A round shape bobbed with the incoming tide. For a moment it remained stationary rolling with the rocking ocean waves; then slowly it crept towards the shore. Annie stood tall and straight some unknown instinct begging her to remain still and accept whatever swam towards her. The round shape turned into a head with long pointed ears that lay flat along the side of its elongated face. It stopped a few feet from shore keeping its body submerged allowing only its head to remain above water. The ocean water rolled past an elongated jaw, the chin rising and falling in motion with the tide.