by HDA Roberts
The leg, though, that was work. I had to cast a very complicated Regeneration Spell that would use my Aura Template to fill in the missing flesh and bone, but not replace the whole limb, which was a tricky bit of casting. That took most of the time I had available to me, even with the Affinity. It would take hours before my wounds were fully healed, but at least I was stable, and in no danger of losing a limb.
Just after I was done with my casting, Evelina came out of her fortress with half a dozen guards, including that twerp who had called her 'Beloved'.
She had tears on her face as she approached me, and her expression was still a bit guarded, but she was smiling, if only just a little. It was a great thing to see on her face again.
She stopped a few steps short of me. Her guards were barely a step behind and nervous, never taking their eyes off me. I couldn’t blame them for that, I had just demolished an army, and they didn’t know me. As far as they were concerned, I could just as easily turn around and do the same to them.
"We thought you were dead," Evelina said, drawing my attention back to her.
"I'm not. But that extraction really hurt, just so you know."
Bad enough to put me in a coma, in fact. Probably should have killed me, I try not to dwell.
She smiled a little wider.
It was a different expression than I’d become used to when I was getting to know her. Most things about her were different, actually, right down to the way she stood. She was colder, less cheerful, not as playful, not that I couldn’t understand why. She'd been through hell these last months. Even the way she looked at me was different, but that was only to be expected. How she’d felt about me was intimately tied to the bond that had been ripped out of me. Goodness only knew what I was to her now.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, closing the distance between us a little bit, much to the distress of her guards and the twit.
"I would think that was obvious.”
She lifted an eyebrow.
"Me? You came for me?"
"I did. Of course I did. As soon as I could. I'm sorry it took so long. Oh, and the Dimensional Barrier is down, in case you hadn’t guessed that. You should be able to Portal home now. Your mother wants you back at that big city in the middle of a crater. I didn't catch the name."
Her lip wobbled a little, and her shoulders seemed to lift a bit, like a weight was vanishing from her.
She took another step forward and extended a hand towards me, which I took.
"Things are different now. Between us. You understand that?" she said quietly. Her eyes were wary again, like she was afraid of how I’d react.
"I know. Doesn’t matter, though. Whether we're bonded or not, I care for you. You're my friend, simple as that."
Torys snorted, crossing his arms.
"Something to say to our saviour, Torys?" Evelina asked sweetly, but there was an undertone to her voice that spoke of considerable pain in his future.
Thankfully, the fellow seemed to have something resembling intelligence, because he looked down and shut up.
“Charming fellow,” I said dryly.
Evelina snickered and finally stepped up to me, wrapping her arms around my neck.
"I missed you, Mathew."
"I missed you too," I said, and I really had.
Before she'd gone, we'd started to grow closer. I don't mean in a romantic way (though I have to confess that I'd been leaning in that direction), in the way of real friends, simply comfortable being with one other. It had been the same with Gwendolyn, and I’d really felt an absence when they’d been locked away.
Things between us had certainly changed. I could feel that the instant I held her. There was none of that... heat that I’d felt from her before. But as her emotions washed over me, I couldn’t help but smile, because what I felt from her now was so much better. Gone was that magnetic attraction created by the Spirit Bond, but what remained was all the real stuff that had nothing to do with Magic. There was still love there, but it was a warmer, gentler thing, a bond of compatibility, loyalty and friendship. Things that were far harder to remove, and went much deeper than any transitory physical attraction.
For my part, I was still a heterosexual male, so I found her to be absolutely gorgeous and drop-dead sexy (the form-hugging armour and weaponry only added to that), but that was incidental to how I really felt about her, the 'her' under all that physical perfection. My peculiar, sneaky, ambitious, lethal friend.
She laughed, squeezing me tighter, and kissed my cheek. The simple happiness in her voice made everything I done and gone through absolutely worth it.
Naturally someone had to ruin the moment...
“How dare you lay hands on her highness!” Torys snarled, stomping towards us.
I sighed, flicked a finger and he face-planted right into something red, squelchy and rather foul-smelling.
God, how I loved Sleep Spells.
"You haven't changed even the littlest bit, have you?" Evelina asked, turning to look at the rat-related nitwit as he snoozed in some mess.
"I like to think I'm essentially the same, yes, a little battered, perhaps, but all the original pieces are still there."
She smirked, hugged me again for a moment, and turned back to her guards.
“Return to the generals and tell them to prepare a complete evacuation. We’re going home.”
They bowed and ran back over the drawbridge, each of them grinning broadly. Within seconds of them getting through the gates, I heard cheers.
“I’ll be glad to see the back of that hell-hole,” Evelina said with a shiver as her troops started filing off the walls, but for a few lookouts.
I squeezed her hand and she leant against me.
We talked for a bit, though not about anything heavy. She asked about what I’d been up to and I told her a few light-hearted stories to try and take her mind away from what she’d been through. I wasn’t sure if that was what she needed, but she smiled and laughed at my misadventures, so I considered that a good use of my time (which I also spent eating everything I’d brought with me, I was in desperate need of resources for all that healing I had to do).
Eventually, she asked how I’d managed to get to her, and I gave her a brief, pain-free version of events, which seemed to surprise her not at all. She just smiled knowingly and said something about Fate and Magic, which made me frown.
Fairy Magic was really annoying. It made me feel as if I wasn’t in control of my life. I mean, I wouldn’t have made a different choice, or anything, but the way this crap seemed to work assumed that there was no other choice.
Or something.
I’m not explaining it well. Mostly because I didn’t understand it all that well. Fairy Magic: crazy, Newtonian Magic: sensible, is my basic point.
Moving on.
After about an hour, General Cruinn came flying out of the fortress on the back of a Wyvern. They were imposing creatures, like a scaly bat with a flattened Dragon’s head. Full grown, they could reach about three times the length of the average horse, including a short, thick tail. They came in a variety of colours, depending on breed, but Cruinn’s was black, striped with red, a long line of black spines running down its back except where they'd been trimmed to fit a saddle.
The beast landed next to us and Cruinn nodded down at Evelina, "We stand ready, your Highness," he said.
"Excellent. Can you open the Way, Cruinn?" Evelina asked.
"I have just enough strength, I think."
"Do so, and then start them moving. Oh, and have someone pick up Torys and sling him over the back of something, will you?"
"Of course," Cruinn said with a smile. He turned and looked at the unconscious Sidhe, taking in the pile of muck he was sleeping in, "Shame that, nearly two months of siege, and now he manages to get his precious armour dirty. This may cost you, Highness. His family is a proud one."
"Blame the Human, I had nothing to do with it," she said innocently.
"Figures. I get blamed for
everything," I muttered, earning me a poke in the ribs.
"As her highness says," Cruinn replied with a raised eyebrow. He grabbed Torys’ body by the collar and dropped the prone young man over his saddle.
The General clicked his tongue and the Wyvern leapt back into the air, powerful wings flapping apparently effortlessly under the additional burden. I shut down the Sleep Spell when they got to altitude and was amused by a sudden scream.
"You'll come back with us?" Evelina asked me.
I nodded, "I suspect that if I try and get back on my own I'll just end up landing in a Dragon's nest or something."
She giggled, "Still get lost, huh?"
"I'm getting better!"
She lifted a perfect eyebrow, "Really?"
I looked at her indignantly...
"No," I admitted.
She smiled, kissed my cheek one more time and walked me back to her fortress. Well, she walked, I floated. Walking with one leg held rigidly straight would have looked ridiculous, and I was still quite some time away from being fully healed.
We arrived in the courtyard just as the first group of soldiers had gone through a broad, purple Portal, quickly followed by a long line of refugees and wounded on stretchers, with yet more soldiers bringing up the rear.
Evelina walked over to a young man holding the reins of particularly large Wyvern. She took the reins, dismissed the man and patted the creature’s nose before cooing quietly to it. It was dark green, striped with golden yellow, which made me smile. Des and I had spent our formative years watching He-Man, and the Wyvern’s colouring was almost identical to Cringer's.
I must admit that the creature looked far more dangerous than any mere feline, though. It was a third again as large as Cruinn's mount, heavier at the shoulder, with proportionally longer fangs and much longer spines.
Evelina stroked the monster’s broad flank and hopped onto its maroon, leather saddle. She methodically checked through each one of a dozen knives, swords and ranged weapons hanging on leather straps before she was content. Even though she was heading home, she wasn't letting her guard down (and neither was I. I hadn't forgotten Cassandra's warning).
I approached and the huge lizard bent down to inspect me. I was a little nervous about that, truth be told, but it seemed friendly enough for being a three-ton war beast. It gave me a sniff, glared at me with one yellow, vertically-slit eye, and then ignored me.
“She likes you,” Evelina said.
“As what? Breakfast?”
She giggled again and clicked her tongue, which started the Wyvern moving towards the open Portal.
I followed, and could see the broad plains around the capital city, which Evelina had explained was called Kyn-durnia, after the continent it was sat on, Tyr-durnia (really not an inventive bunch of namers, the Unseelie).
We came through about level with the northernmost pass, and its immense fortress. The instant Evelina stepped through, her mother was there, surprising the Wyvern, which squawked with alarm, but did nothing more than cower in response. Sensible creature.
Evelina saw her queen, quickly dropped from the saddle and into a low bow.
Adriata was having none of that, though. She swept Evelina into a hug which surprised everyone who saw it, me included. It was just so unlike Adriata to show such emotion, even for her firstborn and heir.
"I thought I’d lost you," Adriata whispered while everyone pretended to find the sky, the ground, or their fingernails, vastly interesting.
"Never, Mother. There's no way you win that easily."
Adriata didn’t let go for a long time, rocking her daughter back and forth. Finally, the queen kissed the princess gently on the forehead and held her at arms' length.
"You look skinny. Have you not been eating?"
"We were under siege, Mother," Evelina said in an exasperated tone, pinking at the cheeks.
"That's no excuse! You're royalty!"
"What was I supposed to do, eat the peasants?"
"It wouldn't be the worst use for some of them."
While they were doing this, I was slowly sidling my way towards an empty patch of grass so I could make my getaway. I had pressed my luck too far already and the proverbial ‘other shoe’ would almost certainly be dropping on my head before too long.
But before I could quite make it, a great sinuous shape dropped from the sky, making the earth shake, and badly startling Evelina's already startled Wyvern, to the point where it gave up trying to look dignified and scarpered at speed, shrieking indignantly, not that I could blame it...
That Dragon sure was huge.
Its body had to be at least a hundred metres long, covered in shimmering blue and white scales. Its head was bigger than a Jeep and bore colossal horns that looked nasty enough to skewer a cow. It was akin to the dragons from Far Eastern mythology, coil after coil of scaled body with legs at either end and massive wings in the middle; more like a winged-snake with feet than your more traditional winged-dinosaur type Dragon. Pretty, though.
A familiar Seelie princess dropped from the lowered head and threw herself at Evelina.
"Evi!" Gwendolyn squealed.
"Gwen?!" Evelina replied, her voice full of sudden tenderness.
The pair seemed to collide, and were soon caught in each others' arms, tears flowing freely between them.
"Oh, I missed you!" Evelina said.
"I thought I'd never see you again," Gwendolyn whispered.
Again, everyone found something else to look at.
That was new. They’d cordially loathed one another the last time I’d had them in the same room.
"Don't get me started," Adriata said, sidling up to me with a sigh.
"What’s that?" I asked.
“And it’s all your fault, too.”
“What isn’t, these days? But what do you mean?”
She waved an elegant hand at the pair, now rocking each other as they cried, laughing all the while.
“Soul bond. Through your smelly human soul-bits.”
“Firstly, that’s just rude. Secondly, that was your fault!”
“You presume to tell me what is and what is not my fault in my own Realm, Human?” she said, very much on her dignity, dainty nose in the air.
I shook my head.
“It’s sweet,” I said.
“It’s messy. Do you have any idea how hard it’s going to be to get grandchildren when the two of them are going to be joined at the hip forever? Disgusting! Any poor fool has to be approved by both, and you just know it won’t be someone of good breeding...”
“You poor thing,” I said dryly.
She turned an evil eye on me.
I just smiled. Her lip quirked. A little.
“At least it won’t be a human,” she said, an oily smirk appearing on her face.
“There’s that. And no matter what, they’ll always have each other, if I understand you correctly.”
“And apparently, you as well.”
“Was that a compliment?”
“A complaint. You’re an interdimensional stalker, now.”
“At least they’re happy,” I said, choosing to ignore that last comment.
"Oh, I hope it all comes crashing down," Adriata said, "The political problems alone..."
"That's just cold, Your Majesty."
She shrugged, "I suppose she’s not the worst soul for my firstborn to bond to. She is royalty, there's that. Nice connections. Not human... really can’t overstate how happy I am about that.”
"Racist," I commented.
"Barbarian," she replied, a fond tone in her voice. She even smiled at me, a genuine one, this time.
The hug ended and Evelina guided Gwendolyn around so that the latter could see me. The girl instantly went beet red and tried to run. Evelina took her firmly by the hand and led her towards me. I smiled at them both, and that seemed to settle the Seelie a little.
"It's good to see you, Gwen," I said.
"You too, Matty," she said, looking down, �
�I’m so sorry... I didn’t... I tried to stop them...”
"It’s okay. I understand," I said.
"Really?" Gwendolyn asked, looking up.
"Of course. The Queens did what they thought was best with the information they had, and they did what they did to me to keep you two sane. As much as I might dislike their methods, I can’t really fault their motivations.”
Gwendolyn smiled at me, taking Evelina’s hand.
Just as with Evelina, Gwendolyn’s feelings for me were completely different as well. There was still fondness there, trust, deep affection, but once again, the physical attraction was gone.
Damn, had I dodged an ethical bullet there, or what? Clearly, they had only been attracted to me because of the Spirit Bond, but they had been really attracted. If I’d been just a little less insecure about the situation... well, we’d have a whole new mess of guilt to deal with. And quite possibly a pair of vengeful Sidhe women.
Best not to dwell. Disaster averted, cautionary tale about romance connected to Magic taken on board.
If there was one last loose thread, it was this new bond between the two princesses. Don’t get me wrong, it was sweet how they were looking to one another. They were clearly close, far closer than they’d been before, more like sisters. But I wondered how much of that was them and how much was the little vials of soul-stuff around their necks? The little amulets were glowing and shimmering in exactly the same way, right down to the pattern of light coming out of them.
The nature of that connection would be very interesting to explore. Were they connected through the pieces of soul-stuff? Was it a matter of resonance, or simply an acceptance of the fact that they’d always been two halves of the same coin? And if those pieces of my soul were connected to each other, were they still connected to me in some way? Was that how the Fairy Magic had been able to connect to me, to alert me that Evelina was in danger?
Alas, Adriata interrupted, snapping me back to the present and away from Magical science (an odd turn of phrase, I know, but it does rather apply).
“Not true, I wanted you dead; you were a canker on the perfect arse of my court.”