Dark of Winter: A Between the Worlds novel

by Morgan Daimler

  “Oh! Umm, don’t be offended but I honestly didn’t know you were an adept,” Allie said, chagrined. “I mean I knew you were a mage obviously and that you were very experienced but I never thought about what level your training was at.”

  He sighed mentally, “Well now you know. And as an adept – thank you very much – and being in Fairy I am more than capable of making this cave quite comfortable for the time we are here.”

  “Wait, why are you in Fairy? I mean don’t you need paperwork and clearance to enter the Holding? And I don’t want you taking time off from your job for this, I mean it seems unnecessary for you to be out with the Guard, not that I don’t appreciate you looking for me too. But this situation shouldn’t be disrupting everyone’s lives,” Allie wound down finally, obviously concerned.

  Jess fought the urge to look at Bleidd, knowing that Allie was able to see through his eyes if she chose to and suddenly afraid of how she might react to this unexpected change in Bleidd’s position. He could feel Bleidd stiffening next to him and was sure that Bleidd was worrying about the same thing. So Jess answered for them both, deciding now wasn’t the time to break the news of Belidd’s new job to Allie. “Bleidd had been helping us locate you by using our connection to you to give a rough idea of your direction. Normally he would not have been able to enter the Holding without permission, it’s true, but we were in need of a mage of his skill level and things were arranged.”

  Bleidd shifted next to him, his hand tightening around Jess’s waist, which Jess ignored as he continued, “Speaking of arranging forgive me my heart if I overstepped but under the circumstances – I called your employee and asked that she work in the store until you are able to return. And Jason is keeping an eye on Luath for the moment.”

  “Bless you Jess,” Allie thought, easily distracted, her love filling him and making the two elves relax into each other. “I am a terrible person but I hadn’t even thought of Luath and the poor puppy must be so confused. And the store…crap. I know you are in Fairy, but is there any way for you to get a message back to her? I know cell phones don’t work here.”

  “It can be done,” Jess said. “Where your technology fails we have magic methods that work much the same way. I can contact the Outpost and request she be called.”

  “I should have realized there were faster methods than sending letters for everything. If you could, I know this sounds so silly but just tell her to pay herself out of the till each day for now? I don’t know how long until I’ll be back and I can’t have her working for free.”

  “Of course,” he agreed, making a mental note to do as she asked in the morning.

  “Allie,” Bleidd said, his voice low in their minds. “How are you? Is everything alright?”

  “I am a little less terrified,” she said. “The house I’m in is owned by a Glaistig and a Púca and they are very nice. They have been good to me since I’ve been here – please keep that in mind when you get here. I mentioned the young elf, Salarius, who took me. Well he is Dark Court you were right about that but I don’t think he means me any actual harm, it seems like he’s being forced to do this.”

  “Forced how?” Bleidd said skeptically.

  “Under threat of torture,” Allie said simply.

  Jess again fought the urge to look at Bleidd, but he was sure that Bleidd believe that about as much as he did. Neither said so to Allie. Instead Jess asked her, “Have you learned anything else about where you are being held?”

  “Not much,” she said. “But I did find out that it’s Salarius’s father who is coming here, within the next few days. I assume to take me with Sal further into the Holding.”

  “Sal?” Jess and Bleidd said together, both disturbed by the use of the nickname. Names among elves were always deeply significant, and it was unusual for a person to give a nickname; Allie was an enigma with her insistence on using her human-world name which seemed like a nickname rather than her full elven birthname even when dealing with elves and other Fey.

  “Oh, umm, it’s not what you think. That’s the name he gave me first when he came into my store last year. I didn’t know his full name until I heard Anna use it today.”

  “Last year?” Jess said, trying no tot let her feel his anger. “You have known this agent of the Dark Court since last year?”

  “Well, I didn’t know he was Dark Court, obviously,” Allie said defensively.

  Bleidd sighed heavily. “Allie, start at the beginning. And this time don’t leave anything out.”

  “I’m not leaving anything out on purpose,” she snapped. “How am I supposed to know what random details of everyday life are actually significant? Sal is a young elf who started coming into my store late last spring. He didn’t break my wards, he never said or did anything strange…I mean except it did seem odd that he was wandering around town by himself because I think he’s only like 100 years old or so. But I just assumed he’d slipped his leash somewhere along the line. His emotions were about what I’d expect from a teenager out having fun. And since then he’s come in and browsed maybe a half dozen times. Sometimes we’d talk for a bit. That’s all.”

  Out of the corner of his eye Jess saw Bleidd reach up and pinched the bridge of his nose, looking pained. Jess shook his head slightly, torn between admiring Allie’s ability to befriend the most random people and the way she consistently trusted people who were dangerous. Bleidd said, “When we have you back safely, you and I are going to have a long talk about – I believe humans call it ‘stranger danger’, and why we don’t just trust everyone who wanders into our place of business.”

  “Bleidd, I am not a child.”

  “If someone offered you candy, would you get into their van?” he shot back. Jess had no idea what that meant, but he assumed it was a reference to some human cultural thing or idiom, because Allie huffed in response obviously offended.

  “Oh nice,” she said. “Maybe we could skip the kidnapped children jokes until I’m a little less kidnapped? Because I don’t think that’s very funny. And for your information Mr. Snarkypants I wasn’t lured into any vans, I’m not that stupid. I walked out the back door, locked up, and then Sal knocked me out before I realized what was happening.”

  Jess wanted to ask what Bleidd’s pants had to do with it, but decided to redirect the conversation before the two started fighting for real. “How badly are you injured?”

  “I’m not. I don’t know what he did to knock me out but I don’t think he physically hit me. Maybe some sort of magic? I don’t know.”

  “Is he a mage?” Bleidd asked, looking pensively out at the snow. Jess turned his head further to the side, trying to avoid looking at the other elf.

  “Not that I can tell, but he has a charm on my wrist that is keeping me from using spell-based magic, so maybe he has a similar sort of thing that could knock a person out?” Allie said, her feelings restless as she pondered the idea.

  “Is it a silver band? Engraved?” Jess asked, alarmed at the idea of the Dark Court having the same item that the Guard used to bind mages and witches in custody.

  “No,” Allie replied. “It’s woven from thread and uses a crystal. I have seen things like it used for warding buildings but never used on a person before.”

  “I’ve never heard of such a thing,” Jess said, very unhappy at the idea. Next to him through their link and the physical contact he knew Bleidd was just as disturbed as he felt.

  “It’s nothing I’m familiar with either.”

  “Well, whatever it is, I can’t even cast basic children’s magic, but I can still use the shields Miss Amelia taught me,” Allie said. “And I can still sense people’s emotions around me and obviously I can still talk to you.”

  “Interesting,” Bleidd said.

  Their conversation was interrupted by Tashlin, “Dinner – such as it is – is done. At least there is plenty of it and with our travel rations we will eat well enough tonight.”

  They both turned towards the fire as Brynneth sat up and stret
ched. Allie spoke in their minds, “I heard him. You go eat. I already had my dinner and am lying down in my little room here, locked in for the night.”

  “Allie,” Jess said, not ready to let go of this tentative connection especially knowing that if she could hear Tashlin that meant she had projected herself almost fully into his mind. It made him glad that he had avoided looking at Bleidd in uniform, although he knew that was not a secret they would be able to keep for long. Nonetheless knowing she was so strongly with him meant a great deal; he cherished that sense of closeness, even if he could not feel it as she did. “We are trying to find you with all speed. We will find you, as soon as the weather clears we will be back on the trail.”

  “I know,” she thought back gently. Across the small space Tashlin had already served himself a portion of the food that was prepared and Brynneth was taking his share. Jess knew that they needed to get their plates and eat or it would start to look strange that they were lingering and not speaking. Of course he could tell them both that they were speaking to Allie, but that might complicate things if they, particularly Brynneth, had questions for her. And for the moment Jess felt possessive over this communication.

  “If there was anything more we could possibly be doing right now, we would do it,” Bleidd said, reaching down and touching his new badge.

  “About that,” she thought to them, her words and emotions hesitant. “I shouldn’t even be asking this, really I have no right to, but…”

  She trailed off and the silence stretched, Brynneth looking up curiously at the pair where they stood by the entrance. “What is it Allie?” Jess prompted, moving away towards the back of the cave where his pack and blanket were, to get his plate. Bleidd was close behind him.

  “Never mind,” Allie mumbled. “I didn’t realize that you were in such a small space with Brynneth and, ah, Tashlin.”

  “Allie,” Bleidd said, pausing resting one hand on Jess’s back. “Let me guess. It’s been…what?...three, no four days since we slept together. You need the energy, and if you can’t get it directly then secondhand is better than not at all.”

  “When you put it that way you make me feel like a monster,” she thought back, upset.

  “No,” Jess said, “you are not. We’ve told you many times-“

  “Just forget it,” she thought back tightly. “I’ll make do with what I can get ‘secondhand’ here.”

  Jess’s eyes narrowed, and he knew Bleidd felt as jealous as he did. “What does that mean?”

  At almost the same time Bleidd thought, “Don’t you have to be bonded to a person to draw from them?”

  “Calm down guys,” she thought back, picking up on their reaction and trying to soothe their feelings. “That’s not what I meant, that is I didn’t mean the same way it is with you. Just because I’m stuck here doesn’t mean I’m a different person – hello, still Allie here, Mrs. Monogamous-with-two-people. Have you forgotten how hard it was for me to even wrap my head around the idea of two partners? And I certainly have no intention of bonding with anybody else or to anybody else. I have my hands full with you two. Oh, uh that didn’t sound right. Metaphorically not literally. Not that you two aren’t, because you are, I mean…okay you know what I’m stopping now, before I make this worse.”

  Jess struggled not to laugh at her embarrassment, even if he was baffled by it. He could never understand why sexual matters flustered Allie so much, when they should be so straightforward. Bleidd’s voice was flavored by his own amusement, “I am very reassured knowing that your virtue, such as it is, is safe. That aside, you can pull energy from people you aren’t bonded to?”

  “Well, kind of,” she thought back. “It doesn’t work the same way and it isn’t nearly as strong. Miss Amelia warned me once that it would be like the difference between cream or watered down milk and that’s actually a really good analogy. But under the circumstances, it’s better than nothing.”

  “Don’t fear Allie,” Bleidd said, finally moving away from Jess and retrieving his plate from his own bag, before standing up “I’m sure the commander and I can give you what you need.”

  “I don’t want you to, not with Brynneth and the other Guard right there,” she thought back, mortified at the thought.

  “They wouldn’t care,” Jess thought back, puzzled that she was even worrying about it.

  “She cares,” Bleidd said, standing up. “Alright Allie, I’ll be creative and think of a way. Maybe Jess and I can volunteer to go gather firewood together. I can make a temporary shelter with magic while we’re out and we’d have privacy, if that satisfies your concern.”

  “I feel bad making you go to that kind of effort,” she said, but her relief was obvious.

  “Oh don’t give yourself too much credit. Under the circumstances I find myself in need of some stress relief and Jess is always a good option, besides he’s already said he didn’t want to sleep cold tonight.”

  “You two shouldn’t be allowed anywhere without adult supervision, you know that, right? Because you’re incorrigible,” she thought with a mental giggle. “And thank you.”

  “Let’s go eat,” Jess thought, “Get some rest Allie and we will go gather that firewood after dinner.”

  “Why do I think that’s going to be a phrase that I’ll be hearing in the future?”

  “It does a have a ring to it,” Bleidd thought, walking over to join the other two guard who were almost finished eating.

  Jess waited another moment, until he was sure Allie had pulled back, then joined the others by the fire. Brynneth was staring at him, curious. He decided that he may as well fill the rest of the Squad in on what information they had gained. He served himself some rabbit and began recounting what they had learned from Allie. Perhaps somewhere in what she had said was a clue they could use.

  Chapter 5 – Saturday Morning

  Allie woke the next morning feeling considerably better than she had when she’d retreated to the pantry-turned-bedroom she was staying in the night before. Her ankle and her back weren’t aching, her head felt clear, and she felt more relaxed than she had in days, despite the circumstances. She lay there in the darkness, unsure what time it was in that timeless space, wondering if she should try to talk to Bleidd and Jess again. Eventually she decided against it, since they had talked for so long the night before, not only before the two had dinner but also later when they did indeed go out to collect firewood.

  She felt a twinge of guilt at the memory, as pleasant as it was, and the knowledge that her current improved physical state was a direct result of pulling from Bleidd and Jess while they had sex. No, let’s be honest she thought to herself, stretching in the narrow bed, not just pulling from them, projecting into Jess’s mind and amplifying what they were feeling so that it was almost like being there with them. I know they didn’t mind, Hel, I know they both wanted me to and they enjoyed it. But it still feels wrong somehow. I need to get over this. It didn’t bother me when Jess was indulging his inner voyeur when he was out on assignment and it was Bleidd and I who were together. In fact I encouraged him because I was worried about how difficult it was for him, how depressed he was, because he was cut off from the physical experience. So why am I feeling so bad about it now that I’m on the other side?

  She frowned up at the darkness unsure why the two situations seemed so different in her mind. It’s not like I didn’t try to go without. I mean, I wanted to try…and I was trying to pull as much as I could from Anna and Cormac while they were – although I don’t suppose that’s much better really. Feeding off strangers who don’t even know I’m doing it does seem way creepier than taking from my own lovers from a distance who do know I’m doing it. Ugh. And Miss Amelia was right, as always, it really isn’t the same at all anymore. I can get something by pulling from other people, but it’s nothing even close to as strong as what I get from my bondmates. Why do I even have to be this way? Why can’t I just be a normal human-style empath like everyone assumes I am?

  Her morose trai
n of thought was interrupted by a gentle knock on the door. She sat up quickly, paranoid that someone had found a way to sense what she was doing, then she chastised herself, Don’t be crazy I wasn’t even doing anything just now. I was just thinking about it. Gods being in this place is making me so jumpy. Clearing her throat she said as loudly as she could manage, “Yes?”

  Anna’s voice drifted through the door, “Are ye ready to come out for the morning and get somethin’ to eat? Or would ye rather spend the day in there?”

  “Out sounds good,” Allie said. She was sure she heard a chuckle but by the time the door was unlocked and swung open Anna wasn’t laughing, just smiling.

  “Come on then, I’ve got eggs and meat ready.”

  Once again Allie tried not to think of what the meat was. She stood and took a few cautious steps to test her ankle, then stepped fully out into the main room. “Smells delicious, but could I visit the bathroom first? Please?”

  “Did she just say please?” Cormac said around a mouthful of food. He was sitting at the table next to Salarius who was picking at a plate of eggs and some kind of red meat. Sal didn’t even glance up.

  Anna’s grin widened. “Didn’t I tell ye she was somethin’? Go ahead Allie, I’m sure you’re fit to burst by now.”

  Cormac grunted thoughtfully as he chewed. Allie hesitated waiting for Anna to walk her down the hall but the Glaistig had gone over to the hearth and was dishing up a plate. Since she really did need to use the bathroom Allie started walking down the hall. She’d only taken a few steps when Sal’s voice stopped her, “Where are you going?”

  “To the bathroom,” Allie repeated, turning back to face the room.

  “Anna go with her,” Sal said.

  “I’m getting her breakfast ready, and my own,” Anna said calmly, although Cormac stopped eating glancing uneasily between the young elf and the Glaistig.

  Sal tensed at that, frowning, and Allie decided to redirect him before he got too angry with Anna for her rudeness in refusing him. “Sal I promised you I wouldn’t do you any harm or use any magic. And I’m only going to the bathroom.”