The Renegade Son (Winter's Blight Book 2)

by K. C. Lannon

  “His name is James.”

  Alvey just shrugged in response.

  Kneading her forehead, Deirdre asked, “What do these things look like anyway?”

  “Fie, I do not know! Use your senses.”

  The items Deirdre was handling were already a blur of gold, silver, and wood; it was hard to concentrate when the air was so close, and the roof appeared to be slowly falling. Frustrated and beginning to tremble, she threw down the scepter in her hands with a loud crash.

  “Stop that! They might tell us to stop searching!” Alvey chided.

  Deirdre covered her face with her hands. “I don’t care! I want to leave this place! I hate caves. I hate closed spaces—I hate this!”

  “What?” Alvey scoffed. “Pray tell, why? Since your primary magic is obviously not Wind Magic, you have no real reason—”

  Deirdre threw her arms in the air, beginning to pace. “Because it freaks me out! And aren’t you done yet?”

  Alvey was scowling, but she rummaged quickly through the closest pile, only to stop and retract her hand, clasping a large, old-fashioned, silver pocket watch.

  “That’s it, right?” Deirdre asked impatiently. “Let’s go!”

  They trekked back toward the others, where they were cleaning and mending their wounds.

  On the way, just to trying to distract herself, Deirdre asked, “So you’re all done in these caves, right, Alvey?”

  “Aye. But”—she ran her fingers over the watch—“this is not as I expected it to be. I require something I can easily keep on my person at all times, without it affecting me or doing anything I do not wish it to. I shall need a few more things, from elsewhere, before I return home.”

  “Like what?”

  “Some nails and wood, a strong necklace chain, and certain crystals.”

  “Why do you need it anyway?”

  “Time Magic is rare these days, but it is often present in the faery realm. I can sense it some but not predict or control it. No faeries can in the realm.” She let out a small snicker. “But with this, I should be able to at least predict it. To be able to harness it would be more preferable…”

  “Why do you need to predict it?” Deirdre’s eyes widened, and she asked in a whisper, “Is it dangerous?”

  “I… I suppose you might say that.” Alvey hesitated a moment before continuing, “I am not as adept at avoiding it as the Noble Faeries are. The Noble Faeries can easily avoid being caught in it, being rushed into the future by a river of magic or being held in one place in a slow pool.”

  Deirdre pursed her lips thoughtfully. “I don’t really get what you mean.”

  Alvey groaned and then snapped, “I am not really fourteen, understand?”

  “What? I mean, no. You look and act fourteen!”

  “Aye, but I was caught in the rapids of a river of Time Magic. It pushed me forth, three years, in just what seemed a score of minutes.”

  Halting, Deirdre’s mouth fell open. “B-but then you’re really seventeen! You’re as old as I am? No way!”

  “Once again, those years passed by so quickly for me I did not age. That is the power of Time Magic. And that was just a single river of it.”

  “Wow. That… actually sounds kind of scary.”

  “Well, I truly wasn’t scared!” Alvey exclaimed a bit too loudly. “But I do not wish to be at the mercy of its whims. So…” She held out the watch. “Enhanced properly, this should enable me to better sense and predict the movement of the magic. Therefore, I will have nothing to fear when I return to the realm!”

  “I thought you said you weren’t afraid?” Deirdre couldn’t help but wheedle, grinning as she began to push the chair again, leaning forward to see Alvey’s reaction.

  It was worth it; even in the shadows of the cave, it was obvious that the girl’s entire face went beet red. “I— It was simply an expression! I fear no magic! Humph!”

  “Where were you two?” Iain asked as they rounded a pile of treasure back to the others.

  “Looking around,” Deirdre replied. “Alvey needs more stuff though.”

  “True,” Alvey said in a surprisingly demure voice. “I have need of nails and wood, a necklace chain, and some rock crystals. Do you… happen to know a place where such things may be found?”

  James popped out seemingly from nowhere with a gold goblet in his hands, right beside Deirdre. She let out a shriek of surprise, clutching her hands to her heart.

  Alvey tensed in response in her chair. “There is not another dwarf nearby, is there? I do not smell another, and the Unseelie ones tend to be solitary creatures.”

  Deirdre giggled nervously. “It’s just James.”

  Alvey’s mouth formed a thin line; she seemed to be holding back a biting remark. Deirdre half expected her face to start turning blue with the effort.

  “I think I know where you can get all that stuff you were talking about—” James began, breathless and wide-eyed with excitement. He looked a bit deranged, smiling like that with blood on his face.

  “Eavesdropping, were you, Jay?” Alvey scoffed.

  “Says the girl who’s always eavesdropping,” Iain cut in with a teasing smirk.

  Alvey just laughed pleasantly, the sound a little unnerving. “Ah, a clever quip and well delivered.”

  Deirdre stared at the other girl. Did Alvey just compliment him? I didn’t even think she could be nice… I guess that’s unfair though. Everyone has a nice side, I suppose…

  “Anyway,” James said pointedly, “the Wayfaring Festival might have all those things you’re looking for.”

  Iain frowned. “Where is that located, exactly?”

  “It moves locations sometimes, but currently it’s in the Peak District, which is close to where we’re heading.”

  Iain snapped his fingers. “That’s it! I remember Mum telling us about it in one of her stories about her sister—” He broke off, his mouth twitching into an unabashed grin. “Delphina used to go there every year to sell her art!”

  “Art?” Deirdre asked, tilting her head.

  “Yeah!” James chimed in, just as excitedly. “Mum told us that Delphina is a coppersmith—that’s what the Kalderash used to be known for ages ago—but that she makes jewelry and art installations and stuff, and sometimes she sells it at venues and events.”

  “Then our problem’s solved,” Iain said. “We’ll find Delphina there, and we can talk to her one-on-one, without anyone else to intervene. She’ll help us.”

  After a moment, Iain added, “And Alvey can get her stuff, of course.”

  “Ah, yes!” Alvey clasped her hands, smiling. “’Tis quite the gathering of all sorts of folks, of all trades. Good suggestion, Iain.”

  “Uh, yeah. Thanks.”

  “Yeah.” James grumbled. “Good suggestion, Iain. I wonder where you come up with all your good ideas!”

  Iain reached over and gave his shoulder a little shove. He chuckled. “I just steal them from my egghead brother.”

  The brothers and the commander were still getting ready to move on; at first Deirdre tried to sit down and wait, but she was soon pacing again, trying to keep her head down and pretend that the roof above them was actually pulled back and it was just the open darkness of night above her.

  “If you’re so scared, why don’t you tap into the magic here?” Alvey asked a bit shortly, fiddling with the pocket watch.

  Deirdre stopped midstep. “I’ve been trying to keep magic from coming out of me all day! And I already failed at that… Why would I want to do it again? I might bring the roof down!” Her voice pitched with panic, and she sat down, hugging herself.

  Alvey’s voice softened just a little bit. “You really have no idea how magic works, do you?”

  Deirdre sighed. “No.”

  Sitting up straighter, the younger girl said, “Magic is all around us, a part of the world and all the elements; ’tis a natural part of all creation, as normal and prevalent as gravity and magnetic forces.”

  “What are yo
u getting at, Alvey?”

  “I’m saying, magic is something you tap into and channel through you. ’Tis not just popping up from inside you.”

  Deirdre gestured her hands toward Alvey in a pleading manner. “But the only way it seems to happen is when I get mad or upset or… or something else, and then it just explodes and hurts things and people and…” She sighed, shuddering. “I hate it. I wish it’d just go away.”

  Alvey responded to this heartfelt emotional outpour by reaching over and solidly punching Deirdre’s shoulder.

  “Ow! What was that for?” she demanded, rubbing her arm.

  “Magic is part of who you are as a faery, Deirdre—don’t say you want it to go away! ’Tis foolish and inconsiderate!” She gestured to herself with both hands. “Do you have any idea how it makes half elves like me feel?”

  “What?”

  Alvey leaned her head back, letting out an exasperated groan. “At least learn how to get in touch with magic—even I can do that without getting angry or anything you mentioned.”

  “But then the magic will come out, and—”

  “No, it shall not! Simply listen to it.”

  Deirdre shifted, reaching down and raking her fingers through the pebbly cave floor uncertainly.

  “Close your eyes now.”

  Sighing, she shut her eyes.

  “Focus on the rocks around you, beneath you, beside you, above you… all throughout this entire cave system.”

  Deirdre’s eyes flew open, and she looked at Alvey in disbelief. “All of them?”

  “Well, why not?”

  Picking up a particularly large pebble in her hand, she asked, “Can’t I just focus on one?”

  Alvey groaned again. “And why would you do that? Just listen to them all!”

  “I don’t really see how—”

  “Hold your tongue and do it!”

  “Fine!”

  Deirdre hesitated a moment before defiantly holding on to the pebble with both hands, concentrating on it as she shut her eyes again. After a few moments, she was able to tune out the sounds of the boys and the commander talking and getting ready to move onward. Slowly she became aware of the texture of the pebble: the subtle rough areas, the smoothest areas, the areas that might cut someone moving just in the right way at the right speed. She leaned down and breathed in the smell of it and the cave.

  “This cave is connected to the entire earth,” Alvey said in a low voice. “It all has a heartbeat, because magic is alive. By listening to Earth Magic, you’ll hear the earth’s heartbeat, past and present.”

  “Okay…”

  Alvey huffed. “Just think about it.”

  Sighing, Deirdre tried for a moment to process all that the younger girl had said, to little avail. She soon slipped into wondering where the rock came from originally. Did it come from a stalagmite or stalactite? Then she remembered the two types of rock: sedimentary and igneous. Which one was this?

  Most likely sedimentary… so it was made of stuff from the whole island. Or at least stuff in this area…

  The more she thought about it, the more she could imagine it: how this had once been normal dirt, underneath the everyday gray skies of England, and how, over time, it was beaten down by weather, animals, and eventually men until it became so deep. Even dwarves had used it in the past before the Unseelie one had claimed this cave.

  Hundreds of other rocks in the rest of the cave had been beaten down and formed the same way too. With a small gasp, she opened her eyes. Although she did not actually see it with her eyes, she could identify every single part of the cave that had the same origin as this pebble; they seemed to light up in a soft, creamy light, vaguely flickering or pulsing, like small beacons or candle flames. This strange second sight didn’t fade or cease.

  She felt warmth creeping back into her arms, which had gotten quite chilly in the cool air of the cave. But the warmth didn’t rush up to her neck and make her blood boil; it was comfortable and natural, like sinking into warm water.

  “Wow.” A smile formed as she looked up at the ceiling; it now seemed, to her mind’s eye, to light up like a constellation as she saw all the rocks that shared kinship with the one in her palm.

  “Did you hear anything?” Alvey asked, sounding a bit smug.

  Deirdre nodded enthusiastically, holding up the pebble practically in Alvey’s face, even though the girl couldn’t see it. “Yes! I understood it! I mean, I saw where this came from, all the dwarves who had used it all these years!”

  Alvey sniffed the air, apparently to figure out exactly what Deirdre was holding to her; soon she stopped, and her face twisted in furious recognition. “You… tapped into just that pebble?”

  “And I can see all the other rocks connected to it!”

  “You fool, I told you to listen to the whole cave!”

  “Well, I understand the cave better now, I think! Because I see all those other rocks; I mean, I can’t see them, but I can sense them! It’s like… I recognize them, but I don’t know how!”

  Alvey flushed. “You completely ignored my instructions!”

  “But this is cool!”

  “This is pitiful! All that you are telling me now—this is expected for a faery child just starting to speak!”

  Deirdre briefly frowned, then shrugged. “Well, this is more than anything I would have expected, so… I don’t care! I like it.”

  Scowling, Alvey managed to turn around in her seat, her back toward Deirdre, arms folded. “You didn’t listen to me! I’m not teaching you anything else!”

  “Oh come on, Alvey! So I didn’t do everything you said—it was still helpful!”

  “Nay! You know best, apparently!”

  “Alvey!”

  Less than a minute later, during which Alvey soundly ignored Deirdre’s various pleas and scoldings, they all began to head down the cave passageways. As they did, Deirdre kept picking up or fingering rocks that weren’t illuminated, concentrating on them and listening to find out where they came from. While most were sedimentary, she did come across the occasional very old one that was igneous in its origin. At one point she ran right into Iain when her mind was full of the stones’ memories of volcanoes.

  Iain chuckled, reaching out to steady her. “It’s a little hard to see in here, yeah?” he said. “I just almost ran right into a stalactite—”

  Her heart full of seeing live, red-hot lava eventually turn to rock, she simply beamed and replied, “This is really cool.”

  He looked a bit concerned, glancing around as if he’d missed something. “The cave?”

  “This!” She held up the small, rough black stone in her hand, practically shoving it in his eye. “I’m looking at it with magic. Alvey showed me how—”

  Alvey let out a loud, “Tuh!”

  “—and I can see it! I can see the volcano it came from!” Iain still looked perplexed, so she hurried on. “It’s like I have four eyes, and the other two are seeing straight into this bit of molten lava mess, spurting and smoking and rushing about, all hot and red and orange! It’s so cool!”

  Iain smiled briefly before pressing his hand against the wall of the cave like he might feel what she felt. Then he pulled away, glancing at the stone thoughtfully. “You can really see all that? I had no idea magic could do that or be so… amazing.”

  “I know! I had no idea either!”

  “I guess the Summer Court might teach you more things like that.”

  Deirdre stopped for a moment; she hadn’t considered that. Then the vision of the rock’s progress changed, hardening and being cooled by mist and then rain, and she decided to think about the Summer Court later.

  They continued through the treasure-filled tunnels. Eventually they came to a large chamber that was full of mostly steel and wood treasure. Deirdre wouldn’t have noticed any details beyond that, so distracted by the history of a rock she had just picked up with some trace of crystals inside, if the commander hadn’t stopped to look over the treasures.

  �
��These are all weapons,” he said, his expression hard.

  James inspected the pile nearest him, pointing down and saying, “Look at this! This looks like a Roman Gladius.”

  “Aye, the Romans came to this island, so that is no surprise,” Alvey said a bit shortly.

  “But this club.” James hefted up a wood and steel club with some difficulty. “It’s got some Egyptian hieroglyphics on it. Look!”

  Deirdre stepped over, frowning at it and tapping at the faded, worn hieroglyphics with her fingernails. “I wonder how that got here?”

  “There’s stone spears, sickle swords”—the commander hefted one up and looked closely—“this looks like something out of my childhood Bibles, about Babylon.”

  Iain was looking quietly at a suit of armor, medieval knight style, with the armored helmet, as well as a lance nearby.

  “What are these doing here?” James whispered, now holding and inspecting a silver-laden dagger with designs and symbols that were wholly unfamiliar.

  “Dwarves love making weapons and things like this,” Alvey said. “But corrupt dwarves are poor at crafting anything. So they steal and hoard.”

  The commander tossed the sickle sword back onto the pile loudly, making Deirdre and James jump. “None of these have iron in them anywhere except some of the blades. That’s the only thing that is similar about them. No iron.”

  James’s eyes lit up, and he beamed down at the dagger in his hand. “These are all faery weapons! That’s amazing!”

  “It’s a stockpile of weapons for them to use against humans,” Walker said coldly. “It’s only amazing if you’re interested in the extinction of the human race.”

  “These weren’t made to be used against humans,” Alvey said mockingly. “Honestly, why would the blades sometimes have iron?”

  “They used them against other faeries?” James asked in a hushed voice. “But why?”

  “Just think about it,” Iain said, arms folded. “There’s a Summer and a Winter Court, and they’re at odds now. They’ve always hated each other.”

  “But some of these are thousands of years old!” James protested. “They’ve been fighting that long?”