“I believe the legend you speak of to be true, though I have no definitive evidence,” she finally spoke. “I have sent men to a particular region of the mountains for reasons that are the concern of Decretum and Decretum alone, but I will say that most I send fail to return. I do not believe there to be an ordinary explanation that exists for the phenomenon.”
Zander hit her with a high-wattage smile, attempting to charm the information out of her that she so clearly evaded telling us.
“Can you give us the location of the region of which you speak?”
She momentarily went starry-eyed again, but then glanced at me and shook off its effects in a huff.
“No I cannot,” she said with a pout. “But I can have my Guard Captain accompany you there. Decretum is nothing if not hospitable.”
I saw through her hospitality for what it really was. A means not to refuse Zander’s request outright and to also keep a close watch on us and our interest in the mountain. I did not know what her interest was, but her knee-jerk reaction to our mention of it made it clear she did not want us finding out. Pure curiosity made me wonder at it but I mentally shrugged it off. I already had one too many unresolved questions crowding my mind.
Chapter 20
“So you and her were almost engaged huh?” I asked Zander as we rode toward the steel gray mountains that loomed in front of us.
We rode in companionable silence during the first part of our journey, even with the terse Guard Captain slightly ahead of us leading the way. I wanted to ask the question the minute we left Ainsley’s palace, but I held off not wanting to seem like I was too bothered by the knowledge. I kept my face impassive and nonchalant as I waited for him to respond.
The amused twitch of his lips told me my faked indifference wasn’t fooling him.
“She likes to over exaggerate. Our fathers briefly considered a possible union between us before the King of Decretum passed. The kingdom has always longed for Anthame’s considerable military strength and a share of its lucrative exports while my father seems to think there is a vast fortune of gold hidden within Decretum’s mountains. Anthame’s mountains are where we mine our own precious metals from and Decretum’s have never been explored. My mother wouldn’t hear of it. You know as well as I do how she is about tradition. The bride for the Heir of the House of Roth is always selected by the Competition. Besides, Ainsley may have a royal title, but it only bequeathed her sovereignty over lands my mother considers insignificant to put it nicely. Tradition aside, she never would have approved of Ainsley as a suitable pairing for me. My father is putty in my mother’s hands. The Queen of Anthame is the monarch who really holds the final word.”
“Oh,” I said lamely still pretending that I didn’t care if he had been betrothed before me or not. “If a future Queen wasn’t enough for your mother, and your father failed to convince her, how in all hell did you get her to agree to me?”
I was purposely sort of changing the subject but I was also curious.
He grinned at me conspiratorially. “I’m the Crown Prince remember. I have ways of getting what I want. Especially when it is something that I desire so fiercely, the very thought of her not being a part of my world makes it too dull and agonizing to continue living in. “
“I bet you say that to all the girls,” I teased him.
All playfulness drained from his eyes. They bore into me intently.
“No just you. Always and forever and only you.”
There were those words again. Always. Forever.
They were the same one the boy that resembled Zander spoke in my visions to the girl that resembled me. When he spoke them to her, she always had the nagging sense that they were not entirely true. They were well-intentioned and even yearned for, but not the truth. When Zander spoke them to me, in that moment there was no doubt in my mind that they were. The finality and sureness of them settled in my heart like a soothing balm. It warmed me from the inside out and put me at peace about one worry I had been secretly harboring since the visions began. Zander would not leave me like he left her.
Not intentionally anyway, a sinister voice attempted to invade on my bliss. He could be ripped from you.
The vision of Zander lying dead with the hole torn into his chest on the steps of the palace in Faerie began to creep into the edges of my consciousness. I forcefully shoved it away. Whatever that particular part of the visions meant, we would face it head-on and find a way to tell fate she could shove her pre-determination back up her ass. I would not lose him and he would not lose me. Unlike the couple in the visions, always and forever is what we would have.
Chapter 21
We stood at the base of the mountain staring up at its jagged peaks. They towered above us like a living, breathing, ravenous beast waiting to swallow us whole.
I mentally shook off the sense of unease. It was silly to feel apprehensive about climbing it now. We had sailed across an ocean and rode across an entire kingdom to get to it. We had actively sought it and whatever inhabited it out.
“You okay?” Zander asked from beside me.
He tried to come off as sounding reassuring and supportive but his voice had a disquieted edge to it that mimicked the way I felt.
“I will be.”
I took his hand in mine giving it a firm squeeze. If he could be brave in the face of trepidation then so could I.
“If you two are done with your sickening exchange, we should get climbing. I would prefer to make the climb and back during daylight hours. Most of the people stupid enough to chance this, do it during the cover of darkness thinking the shadows will hide them from anything that might do them harm. Fools. The lot of them. The only person that ever went into these mountains and made it out to tell about it did it during the day while remaining constantly vigilant of his surroundings.”
They were the first words the Guard Captain had spoken during the entire journey other than a grunt here or a mumble there to tell us which direction we needed to head in.
My eyes widened in shock at him.
“What?” He snapped at me when he caught my reaction.
“You spoke. I wondered if you meant to make the entire journey in silence. For someone who is supposed to be our guide, you sure have not been talking a lot.”
His answering smirk was full of contempt.
“One does not have to speak to guide. They simply have to lead the way.”
I made a wide arching gesture with my hand. “Well after you, oh Silent One.”
His eyes narrowed but he said nothing, deciding to turn back into a mute.
Our climb up the mountain was blessedly uneventful.
“Are we looking for anything or any spot in particular?” I asked the Guard Captain.
He shrugged his shoulders. I thought he was going to forgo answering me but then he said, “This is your quest not mine. I assumed you had some kind of a lead to go on.”
“Great,” I muttered. “So we’re just going to traipse around this wretched mountain until we happen upon something or it happens upon us?”
“Or you can leave. Go back to where you came from. You do not belong in these mountains. No one does.”
I looked around bewildered by the foreign voice. I did not see anyone other than Zander and the Guard Captain who both should have looked as flummoxed as I did. Instead, they appeared completely unfazed.
“Did you not hear that?” I asked both of them.
“Hear what?” They said somewhat in unison.
“The voice telling us to leave the mountains.”
They stared at me blankly, devoid of all knowledge of what I spoke of.
“Are you alright, Skyler?” Zander asked me concerned.
“Yes, I’m alright,” I snapped at him.
I could not have been the only one who heard the voice. I looked from Zander to the Guard Captain and then back to Zander again.
“Did you not hear a voice just moments ago telling us we do not belong in these mountains?”
“No,” Zander said, his forehead creasing in worry.
“I have heard of the mountains making people disappear, but I have never heard of them causing people to go crazy,” the Guard Captain snorted.
Charming. Now was the time he wanted to speak unnecessarily.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” Zander asked me again.
“Yes,” I hissed at him. “I told you that already. I heard a voice.”
“Okay,” Zander said in a placating tone that teetered on the edge of pissing me off.
Damn it. I knew what I had heard.
“Let’s say you did,” he continued. “Which direction did it come from?”
I frantically looked around the mountainscape then frowned. “I don’t know. No particular one really. It was like it was all around us, coming from every direction at once.”
The Guard Captain looked at me like I was certifiable. The urge to impale him with something sharp came over me. I ignored it.
LEAVE, NOW! The voice boomed.
I looked around frantically searching for its source. Again, I saw nothing but rock and stone.
“No!” I shouted back out of desperation. “We came here for a purpose. Show yourself!”
I don’t know why I was yelling back at a disembodied voice that I was beginning to think was only in my head. Surely if Zander and the Guard Captain did not hear it, it meant it was not being spoken aloud. Maybe I was losing my mind.
At my shouted command the world around us immediately stilled. The gentle breeze that blew abruptly dissipated and the sounds of nature atop the mountain disappeared.
An unexplainable bout of terror washed over me that was near paralyzing. I glanced at Zander and the Guard Captain, expecting myself to be the only one affected. To my horror, their faces reflected the same panic-stricken look as mine. Even if they had not heard the voice, they definitely felt the chill currently creeping into the atmosphere.
The shadowy outline of a man began to form in the open space in front of us. The darkness shaded in its interior then gave way to flesh. I blinked involuntarily and when my eyes refocused a giant of a being threateningly loomed before us in the skin of man. The illusion cast before us did not fool me. Ethereal power beyond comprehension radiated off him in waves.
“You don’t look old,” I stupidly croaked out. Panic and terror and shock will make you do that. Say stupidly idiotic things in the face of imminent danger.
“And you are not human,” he hissed at me. “You are an abomination. I will not abide your kind in this world.” The being raised his hand in a definitive arc and when he brought it down I knew I would exist no more. I stood before what was my judge, jury and executioner.
“Wait! You are Order!” I shouted before he brought his hand down, ending me forever.
My recognition of him for what he really was stalled his hand and saved my life.
“How do you know that?” His eyes narrowed at me. “That is a name and legend the mortal realm has long forgotten.”
I dipped my head in deference, hoping the show of respect would prolong my life and stay his hand a little longer. Perhaps once he knew what I had to say, why I had come unknowingly seeking him out, he would grant my pardon.
“As you know, I am fae. Your brother, Chaos, may have receded from our realm eons ago, as you obviously did the same from the mortal realm, but the history of him, and therefore you, is known to all fae.”
What I spoke was not a lie. All young fae were told by their elders of the history and creation of Faerie. Unlike mortals, we were well aware of the source of our existence and thus our magic.
However, I was more knowledgeable than most fae still in existence, even the ancient ones, about the twin brothers who were the source of the origins of both realms. Upon hearing the story of our creation as a child, I became fascinated with it, and Chaos in particular.
While being held prisoner by Belial, I passed the time combing through the vast tomes in his palace’s libraries. It was one of the only freedoms Belial allowed me. One day I came across an ancient volume retelling the story of the origin of the fae and it spurred my fascination into an all out obsession. I scoured the libraries for any text I could find on the history of Chaos and Order and kept a detailed diary with my notes on the information I collected. I don’t know why I was so interested in the beings that resulted in the origin of magic and Faerie. Then again who knows why anyone becomes obsessed with the things that they do. Some unforeseen force sparks an interest in them and as they feed that interest it morphs into a craving that is never satisfied. You constantly want to know more, want to learn more, want to see more, want to devour more.
The being as old as the beginning of time itself had yet to eviscerate me so I continued speaking.
“I know you and Chaos warred over the existence of magic. I also know that the creation of Faerie and the sealing off of it from the mortal realm was the truce that permanently ended your war. I do not want to remain here. I want to go back. It is why we are in these mountains. We were searching for the old man rumored to know magic in hopes that he knew of a spot in which a portal to Faerie can be created.”
Order eyed me intently, judging me, deciding if I would live or die.
“You possess the magic to create a portal.”
It was not a question. It was a statement that in his eyes sealed my fate.
“I do,” I did not bother to deny what he knew as truth.
His inhumanly midnight eyes darkened to black. Lightning flashed within their depths.
“My brother was to have destroyed that magic long ago.”
“Our history says he did.”
“Then how is that it you exist?”
“I do not know. Neither does any other in Faerie. I am the first born with the magic since Chaos himself un-made all who possessed it many millennia ago.”
“You will be un-made as well. I will not permit it to exist.”
The outline of the human shape he wore began to glow a dim blue. The blue morphed into living flames that peeled away from his frame and concentrated themselves into a finely honed blade. He raised his hand once more and brought it down in a swift arc. The blade shot out toward my chest.
“No!” I heard Zander scream.
Then he was shoving me out of the way.
No!”
It was my turn to scream. I scrambled to my feet too late. I watched the blade of flames crash into Zander’s chest. My heart stopped. It completely and utterly gave out. I knew it was choosing to stop beating and share in the fate of its other half.
The flames broke apart, falling around Zander in a hailstorm of blue ice. He remained upright and alive and wholly unaffected.
Order’s eyes widened in amazement. Then they narrowed into thin slits. They locked with Zander’s and he looked at him so intently it was as if he was trying to discern the composition of his very soul.
His eyes flickered with an emotion I did not recognize, but if I had to describe it I would say there were touches of pain, and regret, and resentment in it.
“You seek a place to create a portal into Faerie. You are standing in one. It is just below the peak of the mountain. Open one and leave this realm, now.”
With his words, all traces of him vanished.
Zander and I rushed toward each other and met in the middle. His lips claimed mine at the same time mine did his. We had both just experienced moments where we knew the other had been torn away from us for the rest of eternity. There were a million and one questions that needed to be asked, needed to be contemplated, but not then. For the moment we both simply needed to touch each other, to feel one another and ensure ourselves the other was really alive and whole.
I heard the sound of someone struggling to speak but unable to form words. We pulled away from each other to turn our attention to the forgotten Guard Captain. His eyes were wild in fear and bewilderment.
“What.Are.You?” His eyes darted wildly between Zander and me.
“W
hat…was….that?” He looked to the spot where Order had previously stood.
It may have been cruel and mean, but now that we had the location of where I could open a portal I was too anxious to take the time to deal with explanations better left unexplained. I did something I had done only once since entering the mortal realm when I fought the Pirate Lord and even then I had done it sparingly. I dropped my glamour enough for him and his men to see the preternatural speed with which I moved, but in all other respects I still appeared human. On the mountain, I completely let the glamour fade. I allowed my non-existent humanity to show. The angles of my cheekbones sharpened as my hair lightened from bronze to a reddish copper that appeared to blow in a non-existent breeze. The green of my irises illuminated to a brilliant jade and expanded inward until no trace of the dark pupils that could previously be seen remained.
The Guard Captain drew in even more ragged breaths at my change.
I purposely lowered my voice to a deadly but enthralling timbre. “You ask questions better left unanswered. Return to your Queen and speak of this to no one. Do you understand?”
He nodded his head in capitulation, then turned on his heels and started down the mountain.
I had no clue what to make of the way I found Zander looking at me. I self-consciously put the glamour back in place.
“Sorry, if I scared you,” I spoke into the ground, not wanting to see the relief that my glamour being restored placed in his eyes.
He took my chin deftly between his fingers, as was becoming his routine. When he tilted it upward forcing me to look at him I saw the last thing I expected to see-- admiration and adoration.
“You are exquisite however you appear. You don’t have to hide who you really are from me. I love you. All of you, any of you, it doesn’t matter as long as it is you.”
With his words this time just like the last another weight bearing down on me fell away.
Chapter 22
Chaos Page 11