by Bonnie Lamer
There is no way I am climbing the ladder with Lielle in my arms. “Isla, will you please hold her a moment?” I ask.
Surprised, Isla asks, “Will my holding her wake her up?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. But there’s a book up there that wants me to read it.”
Panic jumps into hers and Garren’s eyes so fast, I can’t believe the momentum doesn’t send their eyeballs flying across the room. “One of the books wants you to read it?” Isla repeats to be certain she heard me correctly.
I nod and point up. “That one on the top shelf.”
Isla’s eyes follow the direction I am pointing. “That is odd. I do not recall seeing that book before.”
“There are thousands of books in here,” Garren says. “You cannot be expected to remember them all.” Rising from the loveseat, he says, “I will retrieve the book.” Isla wants to tell him no, don’t do it, but she keeps her lips pressed together so the words don’t escape.
Garren scales the ladder and grabs the book. Climbing back down, he studies the cover before handing the book to me. “How odd,” he says. “There is no title.”
Who writes a book without a title? I take the book from him and sit down with it. Both he and Isla are staring at me now, which is a little unnerving. More nervous than I should be when opening a book, I lift the cover to the first page. A sharp intake of breath later, Isla and Garren are at my sides, peering over me to read what made me react.
The first page is not the beginning of the book. It is the dedication page. It reads: For Xandra. I glance up at the two Fairies hovering over me. “Um, was there another Xandra here?”
Isla shakes her head. “I am not aware of another with your name.” I guess Xandra isn’t a common Fairy name. “Keep reading,” she instructs as if I am going to stop after seeing this page.
I turn to the next page. The book begins like a classic spy movie back home. The first line is: “Xandra, if you are reading this it means my vision has come to pass.” I already don’t like where this is heading. “My daughter is safe and under your protection. Please forgive me for such presumption on my part. From the brief time I spent in your company, I knew you would not let an innocent child suffer regardless of the circumstances under which she fell into your care. Visions are not always what they seem at the time. As with prophecies, there may be several interpretations. I tried to plan for all of the possibilities in the little time I had left.
By now, my sister will have threatened war if Lielle is not returned to the Elf realm. It is much to ask of you, but please, please do not give her what she wants. As much as I would love to stand side by side with you and fight for my daughter’s life, it was impossible for me to escape with her. It was nearly impossible to send Lielle from the realm. Since I cannot be there to fight with you, I have placed myself in stasis to prevent my sister from torturing the whereabouts of Lielle from me. My body and my mind have been separated and only you can make me whole again.
I flip to the next page. Then the next. I fan the pages of the book but the rest are all blank. I stare up at Isla who is as dumbfounded as I am. “Any idea what she means by only I can make her whole again?”
Instead of answering me, she says to her husband, “Please get a message to Dagda he is needed here immediately.” To me, she says, “Wake Kallen.” What, I don’t get a please?
“Does this mean you do know what Addylyn meant?” I ask since she blatantly ignored me the first time I asked.
Isla shakes her head. “I have a few ideas, but I have not worked it all out yet.” That was quite unhelpful. “When everyone is here we can discuss the possibilities.”
“In other words, she doesn’t want to waste her breath telling just you what she’s thinking,” Taz snarks. He is more annoyed with Isla than trying to be insulting toward me this time.
“I think you’re right,” I mutter.
“A few ideas to mull over while everyone is being assembled would be nice,” Garren presses.
Isla shoots him an annoyed look. “I will wake Tabitha and instruct the guard to bring Whysper. We will meet in the living room in twenty minutes.”
That doesn’t give Garren much time to get Dagda here. A fact which is not lost on him. He shoots his wife his own annoyed look but he leaves the room to do as she requested. Knowing I won’t get any more details from her, I leave the library, as well. I am so irritated, I am halfway up the stairs to get Kallen before I realize I am carrying Lielle as I ascend. Huh, guess I am capable of doing it. I continue up.
23 CHAPTER
In our room, I stare longingly at the crib. I want to lay Lielle down, but I am too afraid she will have nightmares. Other than the wildflowers, she has not emitted any glamour while I’ve held her. Giving up on putting her in the crib, I move to the bed. I sit down on the mattress and lightly stroke Kallen’s cheek. He smiles in his sleep. Wanting to wake him up but not Lielle, I try another silent approach. I kiss him lightly. He reaches for me, trying to pull me to him. He is still asleep, though. Moving out of his reach, I try one more time. This time, I twap him on the forehead. This wakes him up.
He sits bolt upright and rubs his forehead. “There are nicer ways to wake me,” he grumbles.
“I tried those ways, you wouldn’t wake up,” I whisper back.
Glancing at the clock, he says, “I feels like I just fell asleep.” Realization sinks in and it registers in his mind that I must have a reason for waking him up before his allotted four hours is up. “What is it? What’s wrong?” He is already climbing out of bed, dressing himself as he does.
“I found a book in the library that Addylyn left for me,” I explain.
This stops him just as he’s about to stand up. “What?”
I hand Kallen the book I brought with me and he lights the room only enough to see the writing. He is conscious of Lielle’s sleeping form and doesn’t want to wake her. He reads the message several times before handing the book back to me. “It appears this was written after she went into stasis.” Exactly what I was thinking.
“Isla and Garren are rounding everyone else up. We’re supposed to meet them in the living room in about fifteen minutes.” I gaze longingly at my pillow. I desperately want to crawl on the bed and rest my head for those fifteen minutes.
“She must be getting heavy,” Kallen says. “Let me take her.” Gladly. I hand Lielle’s sleeping body over to him.
“She’s like a rock when she’s sleeping,” I complain.
“Think of it as a nice work out for your arms. You will be stronger than me soon,” Kallen teases. My only response is to snort.
Downstairs, we find Isla, Tabitha, Kegan, Alita and Whysper with her guard. As soon as we walk in, Tabitha comes over. “Let me see the book.” She snatches it out of my hands. She is always so grumpy when she’s woken up in the middle of the night. Something which has become a frequent occurrence since I moved in. Hmm, I’m probably lucky she still feeds me.
We wait in silence for Dagda and Garren. The book is passed to Kegan and Alita eventually. It bypasses Whysper. I’m kind of surprised Isla wanted her here.
When Dagda finally arrives, his mood as cheerful as Tabitha’s, he takes a seat and is handed the book. He rereads it several times before looking up. “You found this tonight?” he asks me.
I nod. “I was in the library looking for a book and it called to me.”
Giving me a dubious look, Dagda says, “It called to you?”
I nod again. “I’m not sure how or why, but I knew it was there and that it wanted me to read it.” That sounds so stupid when I say it aloud.
“Well, that sounds stupid when you say it aloud,” Taz confirms. I glare at him.
Kallen is the first to speak. “It reads as if Addylyn wrote it after Lielle was brought to us.”
“I agree,” Dagda responds, gazing back down at the book like he’s waiting for it to spontaneously explain itself.
“I have no idea how I’m supposed to make her whole again,” I say to th
e room in general.
“I have a few thoughts on that,” Isla reminds me. Yes, the thoughts she didn’t want to discuss until everyone was here. I’m still annoyed about that. Though, I may be oversensitive due to my distinct lack of beauty sleep. I haven’t looked in the mirror lately. I’m afraid of what I’ll find.
Continuing, Isla points out, “Addylyn has separated her body from her mind. Since the only being I have ever heard of who can exist outside of the shadow realm without a body is Nixie,” she pauses for dramatic effect, “where is Addylyn’s consciousness?”
I wonder where Nixie has gone off to now. She’s having fun travelling from realm to realm. She checks in every once in a while, but since Kallen still harbors a grudge from when she tried to seduce him with my body, she doesn’t stick around long.
“You believe Whysper is carrying it,” Kallen deduces. That’s why she wanted Whysper here.
“I believe the possibility is strong. It occurred to me that the only one who has tried to read her is Xandra.” She glances at me and then shifts her eyes back to Kallen. I think I was insulted, but I’m not certain. “Who determined she wasn’t lying,” she adds to appease me.
I remember something. “When I see someone’s deepest, darkest secret, I feel like I’m travelling through a dark tunnel in their mind before I can see it. It’s different from person to person, but the general process is the same. When I checked Whysper’s mind, it was as if her secrets were laying out in the open.” I pause to think of how to say the same thing but so it makes more sense. “I mean, I didn’t have to dig through her mind. None of her secrets were hidden. I thought it was a Cowan thing.”
Kallen understands where I’m going with this. “If another consciousness exists within her, it could be lying under hers and pushing all of Whysper’s thoughts and feelings to the surface.”
I nod. “Something like that.”
“You do realize I am in the room, correct?” Whysper grouses.
“Tabitha, will you please feel for another presence inside Whysper?” Isla asks.
“You know, I am capable of doing these things in the daytime,” Tabitha snarks as she rises from her chair.
“If she refuses to cook bacon in the morning because of this, I am blaming it all on you,” Taz informs me. “Revenge will be mine.”
“How often do you think about bacon a day?” I ask. “Six, seven thousand times?” Taz sniffs and follows Tabitha across the room. More for her protection than his desire to suck up for once. He is afraid Whysper will resist. She is definitely not the little mouse she initially wanted us to believe she was.
It is several long minutes before Tabitha drops her hands. “It is locked. I can only go so deep into her psyche before I run into a wall.”
“Has that ever happened before?” Kallen asks.
“No.”
“Would a spell unlock it?” I ask.
Tabitha considers for a moment. “I do not know. If Addylyn somehow placed her consciousness inside the girl, I have no idea how she did it.”
“The Elves do not want anyone to know the details of stasis,” Garren says. “So how the hell does she think Xandra can reunite her mind and body?” I would like an answer to that, as well.
Kallen is studying Whysper. “Why would Addylyn choose her?”
“Maybe it’s easier to lock a human mind,” I suggest.
“She planned for Whysper to escape, thereby letting her own consciousness escape,” Kegan points out.
“Can other Elves detect what Tabitha did?” I ask Isla.
“It seems there is much I do not know about the Elves,” she sighs. “It is a wonder they have been able to keep such secrets.”
“It is supposed to be a rare talent,” Garren says. “It is easy to hide something if it does not happen often.”
“I knew of stasis,” Dagda reveals to the others. I already knew from our trip to the Elf realm. “But I was not aware of the actual process. I assumed it was a sort of hibernation.”
For some reason, this makes me giggle. I imagine Elves hunkering down like bears for the winter. I don’t know why it makes me laugh. Neither does anyone else from the looks I am getting. “Sorry,” I say, but I’m still giggling. I need sleep. I’ve moved into the slap-happy stage of sleep deprivation.
Dagda is staring a hole through Whysper. “Were you aware when you came to us that you are a vessel for Addylyn’s consciousness?”
The horrified expression on her face is enough of a response, yet she still speaks. “Absolutely not.” She is shaking in anger. “I would never willingly let a selfish, conniving Elf use me like this.”
I wonder how she really feels about it. “I’d be careful,” I warn. “Addylyn may be able to hear you.”
Hands on her hips, Whysper grinds out, “I hope she can. What is she going to do, kill me?”
She has a point. If she is the vessel holding Addylyn’s consciousness, it is in Addylyn’s best interest for her to remain safe and alive. She still seems like an odd choice, though. “There are other Cowans living among the Elves. Why do you think she chose you?” I ask.
Before she can answer, if she even has an answer, Lielle begins to squirm in Kallen’s arms. She appears to still be asleep but she is growing restless. I know the signs well enough now to know what is coming next. Glamour. The living room is suddenly shrouded in darkness. Within the darkness are the shadow figures. They are moving through the room waiting for a chance to strike. The only way we know where they are is when the moonlight reflects off one of their knives. There are more of them this time than before. A lot more. All of us who can pull magic and we encircle the small area of the living room we are occupying.
We see the glint of metal as they begin to strike. Our magic holds but I don’t know what to do this time. There are too many of them for me to stab with a magic blade of my own. There must be at least fifty of them.
A war cry echoes through the house. The pounding of feet and pulling of blades can be heard. The Elf warriors are coming. Was this part of Addylyn’s plan? Did she see us trapped like this and knew her soldiers would be here to witness it? And attack us? Kallen slips my hand into his and his expression tells me he is asking the same questions in his mind.
The relief which travels through me almost makes me stumble. The warriors are not trying to attack us. They are going after the shadows. Their night vision must be better than ours because they seem to be able to find them easily enough. This gives me a chance to ask Kallen, “Is the glamour coming from Lielle or Whysper?” I want to know if Addylyn is doing this or not.
His response is immediate. “Lielle.” The baby is still cradled in his arm. Asleep.
I throw my hands up in the air. I’ve had enough of her glamour and tip toeing around it. “This is ridiculous,” I exclaim. If she can’t control it, I’m going to start controlling it for her. I just hope it doesn’t hurt her because I am going to put an end to it. Magic burns through me. I pull and pull on it until I cannot hold anymore. In one quick, powerful burst, I let it go. Bodies fly everywhere. Shadows, Elves, Whysper, all of them outside our circle of magic. Lielle wakes and begins to wail. Furniture is overturned, plaster has come loose from the walls and a crack runs along the floor.
They are gone. The shadows are gone which is why Lielle is awake. Most of the Elves have been rendered unconscious or at least stunned into inaction. But Whysper? It is the strangest thing. She is lying on the ground, wide-eyed and in a fetal position. Her entire body is shaking and her eyes dart around the room taking everyone in as if she is seeing us for the first time.
“I believe you unlocked her mind,” Kallen murmurs.
If I did, Addylyn is in worse shape than I thought. Why is she just lying there whimpering? “Whysper?” I call to her. I get no response. She doesn’t even look at me. I try again. “Addylyn?” Still nothing.
“Tabitha, maybe you can sort this out,” Isla suggests. The same puzzled expression I’m wearing is on her face.
Tabith
a takes a tentative step forward. Squaring her shoulders, she bolsters her courage and kneels beside the Cowan girl. Placing her hands on either side of her face, she does whatever it is she does to see inside one’s soul. After a moment, she snatches her hands back and stares at Whysper in horror.
“What is it?” Kallen asks.
Tabitha does not seem to be able to form words. “Tabitha, are you alright?” Isla asks, true concern in her voice.
It takes another moment for Tabitha to respond. Finally, she turns to us and says, “It is not Addylyn. It is a babe.”
To say my jaw drops open is a vast understatement. A more accurate statement is my jaw has dropped so far, I could clean the floor with my bottom lip. “A babe?” I repeat. I expect Taz to make some random comment about my asking stupid questions. But, when I glance down at him, his jaw has dropped open, as well.
When he feels me staring at him, he shrugs his little shoulders. “I got nothin’,” is all he says.
“Grandmother?” Kallen urges, hoping she can explain this.
“Why the hell does she have a baby inside her?” is Garren’s contribution to the conversation.
Isla’s eyes dart from Whysper to Lielle and back again. “Can you determine the babe’s identity?” she asks Tabitha.
“It does not work that way. I can sense another presence, but they do not come with name tags,” Tabitha explains. She is not being snarky, just telling the truth.
“Can you still feel Whysper?” I ask. I am afraid my magic somehow erased her.
Tabitha nods and I am flooded with relief. “Her presence has been pushed deep inside her, though.”
“So, now she is the opposite of what she was,” Kallen deduces.
“The wanker has some brain in him. I thought you were the best at speaking the obvious. Nope, there’s a new contender in the ring,” Taz drawls.
“Honestly, I am less concerned about the Cowan girl than I am about the fact a baby’s consciousness is inside her. Where the hell is Addylyn then?” Dagda demands. He is facing Isla, expecting her to have the answer.