by Morgan Blade
Fuck!
“Why is it killing me!”
“Because it loves you. Love consumes its object of desire,” Selene said.
“Not this way!”
“A very dark kind of love would. We need to stop it,” Selene said.
“By going in there and kicking shadow-beast ass?”
“That would only buy time. We need a permanent fix. You have to recreate the barrier that once held the darkness helpless in you. A seal that will let you call forth the beast, and send it back, always on your terms.”
“I don’t know if I can do that.”
‘Can you not succeed? Can you live as only a Villager? I don’t think so. Both your souls are tied together, by the same fate.”
Fate’s a bitch, but she’s mine.
I stared at my golden dragon. He stared back.
And nobody takes what’s mine.
“When the shadow-beast realizes what I’m doing, it will attack. You’re going to have to fend the tentacles off.”
“Calamari, yum.”
“Don’t let me fall.” I pulled my hand free.
Selene placed herself between me and the glass wall. Her red glow left me. The one around her brightened considerably.
I stared down at my cupped hands and pooled darkness there. I made a disk of shadow float up in front of my face. I stretched it out like pizza dough. Holes appeared. I smeared pieces of darkness around until I had a pattern of shadow lines and curves, a warding similar to the one I’d sealed Tartarus off with. I refined the design, knowing every line had to be right, every arcane symbol in balance and perfect—or the seal would never take.
Don’t rush. Get it right. Forget that your dragon is wounded. Almost eaten alive. And that it’s your fault. I’m so tired of everything always being my fault.
Something big whumped into the glass wall. Startled, I looked up. The shadow-beast was just on the other side, flattened there, its huge red eye glaring at me with love and hate that, for it, was the same thing. Its tentacles seeped golden light, raw magic stolen from my dragon. That light coated its body, enabling it to start pressing through. Several tentacles phased past the wall without harming it.
Selene summoned two-dimensional blades of crimson light and used them to chop through the tentacles. The amputated pieces fell past us, curling, bleeding golden light.
“Hurry up,” Selene said. “Before it thinks of breaking the glass.”
As if hearing her, the beast writhed, battering the glass on its side.
“Way to go,” I muttered. “You jinxed us.”
“Is the spell ready or not?”
“I think so.”
The cracks in the glass wall widened lightly, extending further. Fresh ones appeared as the beast flailed. She stood limned by the monster’s giant red eye. I pushed past her, my spell hovering above one palm. I held the little thing up to the glass wall, noticing that the red-nova light inside was dimming rapidly. Darkness would be back soon, hiding the obscenity of a dragon’s death.
No. I will not permit this.
I pushed the spell circle into the glass and poured my shadow power into it so the pattern grew across the wall, completely covering it.
Seeing what I did, the shadow-beast hazed itself with gold and tried to phase entirely through, escaping before I locked the door. I had planned to use the emerald energy of the Heart Stone to energize the spell. That became unnecessary. I laughed as the shadow-beast’s stolen magic energized the glass and the pattern I’d formed.
Selene turned to watch me laugh. “Caine?”
The seal activated. The beast was repelled from the wall, trapped within it. I looked past him. My golden dragon faded out. Only I could contain him now with my darker impulses tamed.
Selene tilted the world back the way it had been. The cracks in the glass under us mended, closing. Selene and I stood on the glass, under a night sky with stars and a purple moon. The air in front of me shimmered with gold. My dragon formed, hung in the air a moment, and fell to the street, bleeding, open wounds revealing white bone and torn muscle, chunks of him gone. His long neck waved, his head fell last, smacking the glass.
His half-lidded eyes stared at me. His irises were golden moons, dimming. His breath rattled in his lungs. He coughed bloody words. “I blame you for this.” His tail-tip thumped the glass once, then stilled.
“Yeah, get in line.”
Selene choked down a sob. The dragon was more her soul-mate than me. “It’s bad.”
I knelt by his head and reached fingers into my translucent guts. I dragged out fistfuls of emerald fire. The magic of Fairy. The power of the Phoenix Court. Pure life. I thrust the green fire into my dragon, and maliciously muttered. “Here, choke on this, thundercunt.”
Selene said, “He’s you, you know?”
I nodded. “Yeah, the bitch side of me.”
I pulled out a couple more handfuls of emerald fire and pushed it into him.
“His wounds are healing,” Selene said.
I stood, trembling with outrage. “I just realized. All the time I didn’t hear him, I didn’t hear my dick and balls either.”
My dragon coughed. The sound became a weak laugh. He laughed at me.
“It was you, the other voices, all this time, fucking with my mind! You son of a bitch!” I kicked him in the nose.
He just laughed harder.
Selene touched my shoulder and red light burned the ghost town away. I sat up on her autopsy table, grabbing the Heart Stone as it rolled. Selene’s hand was still on my shoulder.
I looked into the back shadows of my mind. My dragon lay there, healing as he pulled power from the Heart Stone through our link. Behind him was a wall of black glass, with the golden lines of a magic seal on it. Beyond that, a shadow-beast stared with its single, monstrous red eye. Helpless. Contained. Until needed. Until summoned. Another weapon in my arsenal.
My inner dragon continued to laugh, making up for lost time.
I growled at him. “Fuck you!”
Selene leaned into me as I swung my legs off the table, ready to get out of her dungeon. “I’d love to. Thank you for offering.”
In my head, my dick began to sing something from an Italian opera. My balls joined in, neither one in the same key.
Oh, what fresh hell is this?
THIRTY-SIX
“A good smackdown goes a
long way to solving problems.”
—Caine Deathwalker
The funeral was pending. The body of the dead king was in an open casket, lying in state on a wooden bier surrounded by flowers, guards, and torches. He looked better dead than he had dying.
The lesser fey had been invited to come to the Great Hall and pay their respects. I was waiting for the booze, for the wake. I’m not prejudiced; I’ll drink to the death of anyone. Passing through, the visiting fey were dour-faced, haggard to a ridiculous extreme. I figured it was a competition: who can glamour-up an illusion of grief and heart-break better than anyone else. Pride had to be on the line since I’d heard nothing about a cash prize.
I’d just arrived, joining a knot of fey from other towns. Selene was with me as the Queen of Nightmare. I’d explained to her that she’d have to start spending a percentage of her time in her new kingdom, bonding with the land to keep it healthy.
My Earth clothing was covered by a black riding cloak with a gold-and-ruby clasp. I might seem misshapen, a hunch back, since I wore Colt’s backpack underneath, carrying the Heart Stone within. I’d have skipped the festivities entirely, but I still needed to collect the oath of the new king—or there wouldn’t be a new king.
There didn’t seem to be a widow. The twins were both in attendance. Their grief looked real to me. Aleys stood with regal stiffness, face pale, blonde hair pulled back and pinned down. Her brother looked much the same, but his grief had anger mixed in. The corners of his jaw knotted. His eyes were dry, flashing fire. His face hard as carved stone.
Aleys’ stare swept past me, then cam
e back. Her gaze sharpened with recognition. She turned her face to her twin and whispered. His eyes widened, searching, and then locked onto me. His face reddened. The rage grew, pushing out his grief. He shook his sister off and came around the bier, marching straight toward me,
Selene murmured. “Trouble?”
“It’s possible he suspects his father died of other than natural causes.”
She angled toward me, eyes searching mine. I thought she looked especially beautiful with her hair piled high, her neck bare, sheathed in a red dress that faithfully clung to her delightful curves. Before coming here, I had tried to suggest that blood red was more fit for a battlefield than a funeral. She had insisted, saying she was not about to stop being the Red Lady.
“Caine, did you…”
I smiled.
She inhaled deeply in sudden surprise. “You did!”
I shrugged. “They had Colt. I couldn’t wait for the inevitable to happen. Actually, the old king was suffering. I thought my compassion and mercy particularly praiseworthy.”
A man in a silver cloak came up from behind. He joined the conversation. “I’d have done the same thing.”
I looked at him. “Orin. You’re here for the booze, too.”
“Caine!” the young prince yelled my name. His yelling and my name caused a surge of murmuring in the Great Hall. Apparently, not very many people had recognized me yet.
The prince stopped just out of reach so he could draw his sword easily if he needed to. He pointed a trembling finger at my face. “You were there when he died. You took the tie!”
“I was there, and I did take the tie that you’d agreed to turn over to me at your father’s death. What of it?”
“Did you…did you…kill…!”
Aleys caught up to him, grabbing his sword arm. “Don’t let grief drive you mad,” she said. Her voice lowered. “And don’t ask for answers you don’t really want. He has the magic of all the kingdoms and many armies to call on. If you challenge him, we are utterly lost.”
Selene nodded. “Yes, that about covers it. You have a good grasp on the situation.”
The prince calmed himself, hiding dark emotions by half-hooding his eyes. “You need to produce the tie so I can claim my inheritance.”
“And when I do, you will swear loyalty to me as your High King?”
“It seems to be the best course of action.”
Ah! That’s not actually an answer.
“You understand that if you refuse to pledge to me, I can’t let you rule.”
His voice lost all trace of emotion. “The tie chooses. It always has.”
“So, the tie chooses you, then what? You declare war on me for some imagined insult? You kill me, and you become the Overlord of Fairy?”
Being fey, he could evade, but not lie directly. A lie would cost him his magic.
Aleys whispered to him. “Calm yourself brother. Think of our people.”
He looked at her and shoved her away. Gasps went through the observers as Aleys staggered and fell to the stone floor. I noticed that the royal guards were easing closer, getting into position to back their young lord’s play.
I smiled at him. “Fine. You want the tie?” I shed my cloak, letting it fall around my feet. Slinging the pack forward, I opened the drawstrings, and pulled out the Heart Stone. Its emerald light silenced the crowd. Fey are like crows; they like shiny stones, especially ones the size of a basketball. Even sprawled on the floor, Aleys stared with naked hunger.
I extended the Heart in one palm. “I can’t actually give anyone their ties back. They’ve all fused together. The Heart of the Land is restored.”
Orin said, “Caine, if you give him that, he can wrest the Crown of the Land from your head.”
I let my face take on an innocent look of trust. “Oh, he wouldn’t do that. We have an agreement. He’d have to throw away all honor…”
The prince snatched the Stone off my palm, as I knew he would. He backed away with his prize. He grinned, laughing. “What do I care about honor when my father is dead, and you owe me the world?”
His guards rushed in to surround him, in case I was going to try and violently recover the Stone.
He stared into the green crystal depths, concentrating. Watching, Aleys climbed to her feet. The prince closed his eyes. Seconds passed. Nothing happened. Magic mists didn’t rise from the Land to anoint him. No mission bell rang. His eyes opened. “I don’t understand. It refuses me. All the ties do.”
“The rules of magic as you’ve known them have changed a little bit. It doesn’t matter who steals the Heart Stone, it will not acknowledge them. I am the High King of Fairy. The Stone answers to me alone.”
The prince drew his sword. “Then you must die first. Then my father’s kingdom will be mine.”
“No. Then Izumi, Queen of the Dragon’s Eye will be High Queen. And she will appoint who she desires. You’d have to murder her too, a woman carrying a child.”
The prince clutched the Stone against his stomach. His eyes slitted. His sword pointed my way. “Whatever is needful.”
Aleys gasped. “Brother, no!”
His eyes flicked toward her. “Stay out of this,”
His stare returned to me, and the Storm PX4 semi-automatic that I’d pulled from thin air. I squeezed off a shot. A red dot appeared between his eyes. The back of his head blew out. He fell backwards, still ringed by guards.
I held out my hand and the Heart Stone left him, flying back to me.
The guards rushed at me.
Aleys called them to order. “Stop! I command you.”
They did, but their faces showed they hated to be restrained.
I walked over to Aleys. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
She said nothing, staring back at me.
“Put your hand on the Stone,” I said.
She did.
I smiled. “As Queen of the Phoenix Court, do you swear fealty to me as the Land’s Overlord?”
She glanced briefly at her dead brother, then back to me. “I do.”
“Then rule wisely here in my name.”
The sky over the Great Hall shivered with a mission bell sound that swept from horizon to horizon.
The common people, ever mindful of the need to curry favor and kiss ass, clapped and cheered. The guards dragged the prince’s body away. They had another royal burial to prepare for.
I smiled at Aleys. “I don’t think you need to worry about anyone forcing marriage upon you anymore.”
“I suppose not, but I was looking forward to Colt defending my honor as he promised.” Her voice went ultra-casual. “Did he happen to come here with you.”
From my side, Selene leaned in, giving Aleys a close inspection. “My son is not yet born. You will have a while to wait, and I have not said that I approve of his interest in you.”
I hooked Selene’s arm and dragged her away. “Don’t go starting trouble.”
She glared at me. “You’re one to talk.”
Orin followed with my cloak, having picked it off the floor. Catching up, he draped it over my back. “Let’s go find the wine cellar,” he said. “We need to celebrate the rise of a new queen.”
“We do indeed,” I said.
After a few more steps, we were stopped by three dark green shadows rising out of the floor. The shades had found me. I knew what they wanted. I handed them the Heart Stone, knowing they could not use it against me. “I’m letting you have that for safekeeping, until I need it again.”
“You are magnanimous,” the smith said, “giving us what is ours.”
The Poetess held the stone, staring into it. “What have you done to the Stone? It is different.”
I explained. “Part of me is in it now. Your powers are restored, stronger than ever, but you cannot take the crown from me. Get used to the idea that the new Overlord isn’t anyone’s puppet.”
The poetess inclined her head. “As you say.”
The crone shrieked. “No! He must pay for poor Reggie
’s death.”
I gave her an icy stare of contempt. “You’re the one that got him killed, that bought him to the caverns to ambush me. Unless you want me to kill you again, old bat, I’d shut the fuck up!” I lowered my voice. “Besides, one day the Unzar will come. We can’t afford to be divided if Fairy is to survive.”
The crone sprang for me.
Her sisters grabbed her, holding her back. With the Heart Stone, they sank into the floor and were gone.
Orin looked at me. “You bring out the best in everyone.”
I shrugged. “What can I say; it’s a gift.”
Orin’s smile widened. “One of these days, I want a rematch, your sword against mine. I know I can take you.”
“That can be arranged, but never expect a fair fight,” I said.
“I know that about you,” Orin said.
I found a guard stationed at the entrance to a back hallway. “Which way to the wine cellar?”
He stared at me like I was crazy.
“Never mind. We’ll find it. This place can’t be that big.” We moved on.
“Do you want to introduce me to your lovely companion?” Orin asked.
“Sure. This is Selene, the Red Lady, Goddess of the Red Moon, and newly crowned Queen of Nightmare.”
She hung on my arm, walking beside me. Looking across me, she nodded affirmation at her titles. “My pleasure.”
I said, “Orin is the Lord of the Phantom Court. If you ever need any ghosts, he’s the man to look up.”
Orin smiled. “At your service, ma’am. Also, if you ever want to trade up husbands, I’m available for that as well.”
“She’s too much woman for you,” I warned.
Selene nodded. “Sadly true. You don’t know rough sex until you’ve had it with an actual dragon.”
“You’re saying I wouldn’t survive?”
“The first minute or two, maybe,” I said. We passed unadorned walls of stone. There were blue-white crystals embedded in the wall to light he way. We took a turn. I followed my nose toward a kitchen.