Poison in the Blood

by Robyn Bachar

  “Are we expected to return tomorrow?” I asked.

  “Yes, in case we are needed to provide testimony in rebuttal to the Infernus clan’s speakers,” Justine replied.

  I nodded. “How do you think we fared?”

  “I believe we did rather well,” Dr. Bennett said.

  “Good. Well, I shall retire for the evening. I’m sure the two of you have things to discuss.” I sent Dr. Bennett a pointed look, and he blushed.

  Oblivious to my silent message, Justine bid me goodnight, and I hurried out to the waiting carriage. I rested my eyes for a bit during the journey, until I was jolted awake by a gentleman’s voice.

  “We are not all of us guilty, Mrs. Black.”

  With a startled gasp I sat up and stared at the figure who had appeared on the bench across from me. From the overwhelming nature of his magic I could tell that the man was a faerie, but like Mr. Paris he appeared quite normal. He wore a light gray suit with a matching top hat, and spectacles with smoked lenses hid his eyes.

  “It is not up to me to determine guilt or innocence. That is the council’s decision,” I pointed out.

  “But you could advocate for mercy. Right now they believe that all of us are at fault, and that is simply not true. I for one never approved of Helen’s activities,” the faerie assured me.

  “Then why didn’t you stop her?” I countered.

  He grimaced. “Because she is family. I did everything I could to discourage her—”

  “Which did not stop her from murdering countless girls. I am sympathetic to her plight, but the torture of innocents cannot be the answer. Surely that is not what the higher powers would want for your people.”

  The faerie snarled. “The powers have abandoned us, and one day they will do the same to magiciankind. You cannot count on them for anything. We must all make our own fate. That is why I have come to you.”

  “How can I advocate for anything? I am merely a witness, and I have already given my testimony.”

  “You are a seer. Judging by your testimony, your mortal brethren have not given your words the proper weight that they deserve. If you ask to speak with the council, they will listen. If you campaign for mercy, then it will be granted. Please, Mrs. Black.”

  I studied him. I could lie to placate him, but my seer’s sensibilities balked at the idea. He wouldn’t take my true opinion well, and I had no way to defend myself. Though we were quite close to Josephine’s home now—if only I could somehow warn Michael. I rubbed my face with my hands as though contemplating a difficult decision, and I concentrated all my energy on Michael, sending him a warning shout that I hoped my soul mate would be able to receive.

  “Mr.…I don’t believe I know your name,” I began.

  “You do not need to know my name.”

  “Very well, Mr. Mysterious. I cannot in good conscience advocate for anything on behalf of your clan at this time. If you knew of the murders and did nothing to stop them, then you are guilty of a crime as well, and deserve punishment.”

  “Even if those deaths were caused in pursuit of a goal as important as saving our people from extinction?”

  “Considering that your people are safe in their own realm, and are not vulnerable to disease, I don’t see how your extinction is impending. Besides, if a cure was found using the lifeblood of a magician, how many would you consider it acceptable to harvest? A dozen? A hundred? How many of my people would need to die so that yours could live?”

  My faerie opponent sighed and appeared as though he intended to launch into another round of arguments, but he suddenly turned to the door with a startled expression and then vanished. The carriage door was wrenched open, and Simon stood on the other side.

  The opposite door opened a heartbeat later, and I was pulled from the carriage into my husband’s arms. “Are you all right?” he asked.

  “Yes, thank the powers,” I said. “You got my message?”

  “Yes, it was remarkable.” Michael carried me to the front steps of the house and set me down.

  “I’m surprised that they were so bold as to openly attack the carriage,” Simon said.

  “He didn’t attack me. At least he hadn’t yet. He was still campaigning for my aid.”

  Michael frowned. “Regardless, from now on, you’re not going anywhere unaccompanied until this matter is settled.”

  “I have no argument with that. Here, let us all go inside. I have much to tell you.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  True to his word, Michael accompanied me to Justine’s the next evening, and Simon accompanied him, unwilling to let his apprentice loose in the streets of London. Simon seemed a bit like an overanxious mother hen, but considering Michael’s accident in feeding from me, I couldn’t argue that my husband was still in need of supervision as he continued to adjust to his chronicler condition.

  My undead escorts were left behind at the stroke of seven, and Miss Dubois, Dr. Bennett and I were returned to the courtroom. Dr. Bennett had met me with another harried shake of his head, and I resisted the urge to announce the issue of their soul-mate status to Justine. I trusted that Dr. Bennett would take care of it, even though his timeline was beginning to test my patience.

  After we took our seats I scanned the crowd for the anonymous Infernus faerie I had spoken with last night, but if he was in attendance he was wearing his natural form and not the gentleman’s appearance.

  Paris was the first witness. Iago rose and addressed him.

  “You have been accused of kidnapping magician women and carrying them off to Faerie. Is this true?”

  Paris shook his head, golden curls bouncing with the effort. “No. All of those women went with me willingly.”

  The crowd murmured, though it was difficult to judge how the faeries felt. I for one was filled with outrage, and I saw Dr. Bennett’s hands clench into fists where they rested upon his knees.

  “And once there, did you murder them?” he asked.

  “No.”

  “Thank you. Your witness, Horatio.”

  Iago walked away, seeming satisfied, and Horatio approached. His bushy brown eyebrows reminded me of a bird’s nest, and they were beetled together with concern.

  “Why did these women go with you willingly? What did you promise them?” Horatio asked.

  “Romance. They each sought to have a torrid love affair with me.”

  “Despite the fact that you are married, and have been since before the formation of Faerie?”

  Paris blinked, his violet eyes filled with shock. “I promised them a love affair, but I did not deliver it. I was never inappropriately involved with any of those girls.”

  “So you tricked them,” Horatio pointed out.

  “Yes, I suppose so.”

  “I’m not sure I would call that willing then,” he commented, and Iago leapt to his feet.

  “Objection! My esteemed colleague is testifying, not querying.”

  “Your objection is noted, Iago. Please proceed, Horatio,” Lady Hippolyta instructed.

  Horatio nodded, seeming pleased. “You stated that you did not kill these women. Do you know who did?”

  “I cannot speak to actions that I did not personally witness,” Paris replied.

  “Were you aware of said actions, even though you did not witness them?”

  “Again, I cannot speak to that—”

  “Yes, yes, you are as innocent as a babe in the woods,” Horatio said.

  “My lady,” Iago objected again.

  “Why did you lure these girls to Faerie if you had no intention of pursuing a romance with them?” Horatio asked, ignoring Iago’s distress.

  “I was merely following orders.”

  “Whose orders?”

  Paris grimaced and looked away. He folded his arms across his chest and remained silent. Horatio turned toward the council. “My lady?”

  “Answer the question, Paris,” Lady Hippolyta ordered.

  “No. I won’t.”

  Lady Hippolyta rose, statel
y and angry. “Answer the question, or we will see you bound and held in the gray until the end of these proceedings.”

  I leaned close to Dr. Bennett. “What is ‘the gray’?” I asked in a whisper.

  “A hell dimension,” he replied, and I shuddered.

  The blood drained from Paris’s face. “The orders came from Helen. But please, you must understand, our intentions were for the good of all faeries.”

  Horatio shook his head. “I am not interested in your intentions, sir. Only your actions. I have no more questions for this witness.”

  Iago called Helen next, and I shuddered. Her appearance was beautiful and yet her heart was monstrous. Again, I wanted to pity her, but I saved my pity for Mrs. Harding, Miss Thistlegoode and their families. Helen sat in the witness chair as though it were a throne and she were queen of all Faerie.

  Iago bowed to her, which I thought odd, and then spoke. “Helen, please tell the court why you ordered these actions.”

  “Gladly,” she said with a smile.

  Sickened, I closed my eyes in disgust. The moment I did I caught a change in the room’s energy. A strange sensation pressed against my eyelids in a rosy, glowing haze. I couldn’t quite identify it, so I explored it further as Helen began to speak. She appeared to be exuding charm, rather like Mr. Paris had at the poetry salon when he led me into the garden, only this effect was stronger. Helen was using magic in an attempt to win the crowd over, and I was sure that wasn’t legal. Opening my eyes, I leaned forward and tapped Horatio on the shoulder, and then whispered my findings to him. His brown eyes widened, and he nodded his thanks.

  “—like a poison in our blood, you see. This is why we can no longer breed with each other. Combined, there is too much poison to allow a child to be conceived. But magicians have no such element in their blood, which is why we can interbreed with them. We have been working on ways to cleanse our blood using the blood of young magicians who are at their most fertile. We have made great progress in our studies. Yes, I admit that we were forced to sacrifice lives for our research, but it is for the good of us all.”

  “And you believe that your efforts will cure the plague of infertility that has affected faeriekind since the formation of our world?” Iago asked.

  “Wholeheartedly. It is only a matter of time now before we have a breakthrough.”

  “Thank you, Helen. No further questions.”

  Horatio rose. “Lady Hippolyta, before I proceed, I would ask that the witness cease her charm spell.”

  Each of the councilwomen started, clearly surprised, and Helen shot Horatio a poisonous glare, which was then refocused on me. I smiled politely.

  Lady Hippolyta nodded, and pointed threateningly at Helen. “End it now, and if you pull another stunt like that you will leave this room in chains.”

  Helen waved a dismissive hand, and I assumed that the spell was over. I still found her repulsive, but judging by the expressions of nearby spectators they were less enamored of her as well. Good. Horatio rose and approached her.

  “Your husband has testified that he lured women to your stronghold on your orders. Did you order anyone else to acquire additional victims?”

  “They were not victims, they were test subjects. Yes, I did. It became clear that we needed additional subjects from a wider area to study.”

  “And how many test subjects did you study?”

  Helen shrugged, a graceful gesture of her indifference to her crimes. “I did not keep count. I was not in charge of keeping the records of our research.”

  “I see.” Horatio picked up a ledger from the desk and held it up for all to see. “If it pleases the council, I would like to enter this record book into evidence, which was obtained during a second search of the Infernus stronghold.”

  “So noted. Please proceed,” Hippolyta said.

  “Would it surprise you to know that your clan did in fact cause the deaths of over one hundred magician women?”

  The spectators gasped in shock, and I placed a hand over my throat as it tightened with emotion. So many poor girls, lured away from their promising lives. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Dr. Bennett taking Justine’s hand to comfort her.

  “It was necessary to find a cure,” Helen said.

  “And you truly believe that luring these magicians away from their homes and families and butchering them is in the best interest of all faeries?” he asked.

  “They weren’t butchered.” She spat out the word as though it was distasteful.

  “The victims were drained of their blood until they were dead. How would you describe that, Helen?”

  “Their blood was necessary.”

  “Why was it necessary to kill them? Blood drinkers do not kill to feed. Why kill these women, if you merely wanted to take their blood?”

  She sighed. “Because lifeblood is more powerful. Blood drinkers seek to sustain their existence, but we needed more power. There is power in death, and we are so close—”

  “When you say we, are you referring to your entire clan?” Horatio interrupted.

  “No, of course not. Not everyone participated in our research.”

  “But all of them knew of its existence?”

  The Infernus faeries stilled, likely waiting to see if she would condemn them all. Considering how many women had been killed, I doubted that any of them could be ignorant of the goings-on.

  “I cannot speak to what they did or did not know,” Helen replied evasively.

  “I see. And should your researchers discover some miracle cure within the blood of these magicians, what then? You would turn us all into murderers?”

  “I would return our strength so that we could restore our former glory. We could be great once again. We could be victorious where our elven kin failed.” Helen’s voice was filled with the fire of fanaticism. She truly believed what she was doing was right, and had blinded herself to the destruction she left in her wake.

  “You would turn us into demons, and our home into another hell,” Horatio countered.

  “Objection,” Iago protested.

  “No more questions for this witness.” Horatio returned to his desk, and Helen returned to her place with her clan.

  A few more Infernus faeries were called to give evidence of their crimes, though like Helen each insisted that their actions were research. I studied the crowd’s response, worried that more faeries would agree with them. After several centuries of infertility it was reasonable that they would become desperate, but I hoped that they were not desperate enough to condone mass murder.

  When the last witness was finished, each speaker was allowed to give a closing statement. Iago went first, and he stood in the center of the room and addressed the council.

  “My ladies, there are those who will see only darkness in the actions of my clan. They will focus on the loss of life, but we respectfully ask that you look at the potential for life instead. When the last of the elves perished, our people knew that our days on Earth were numbered, and we created Faerie as a means to escape extinction. We may have saved ourselves from being hunted into oblivion by the humans, but it was an empty victory, for we still doomed ourselves.

  “For the first time since the creation of Faerie we have hope for a new generation. Isn’t that hope worth any price? We mourn the loss of the magicians who sacrificed their lives for our studies, but I ask you, how much weight do those lives truly have? Magicians are mortal, and their lives are short. Ephemeral. They are only allowed a handful of years on their world before their shells perish and they move on to their next incarnation. All we have done is speed that process along, with the promise that their lives were not sacrificed in vain. They were given for the good of us all. Who among us has not longed to hold a child in our arms without suffering from the knowledge that the child’s mortal blood would see it perish as surely as its mortal parent? Who doesn’t long for a return to the days when faerie marriages were honored as sacred?

  “We are so close. Don’t throw it all away
on some tired sense of honor, or obligation to the mortals. Let us finish what we started, and we will all benefit.” Iago bowed and returned to his seat. I exchanged a worried glance with Justine and noted that she still held Dr. Bennett’s hand.

  Horatio took his place in the center of the room, bowed to the council and began. “My ladies, I ask you, what defines a faerie? Is it our magic? For other beings possess magic, including, as my colleague mentioned, our elven cousins. The elves fought to a brave end, and they accepted their fate. We did not. We chose to run, and that choice came with a price. All magic comes with a price.” He turned and eyed the collected Infernus clan for a long moment before returning his regard to the council.

  “When it became clear that there would be no more full-blooded faerie children, we turned to the mortals to produce our offspring. Generations of magicians carry on our bloodlines, and yes, their lives are short, but all life is precious. In murdering these magicians, you have likely killed our own descendants. You claim that it is worth it to sacrifice the few to cure the many, but the truth is, we gave up our right to future children when we formed Faerie. You claim that it is only helping the magicians along to their next incarnation, but this is murder, and it is monstrous and evil. Faeries do not murder the innocent for our own gain. That is the work of demons. To embrace it would turn all of us into spawn of the shadows, and our world, our sanctuary, into one more hell dimension.

  “We are better than this. Desperation must not excuse murder, or allow the guilty to go unpunished. What would you tell our children about how they were conceived? What sort of faeries would be born from the blood of innocent victims? These crimes cheapen us all. Do not reward the Infernus clan for them.”

  Horatio returned to his seat, and the room burst into whispered conversation. The three council members gathered and spoke for a few moments. My heart pounded as I watched them, and I fought the urge to attempt to read their energy with my eyes closed, for that would be cheating. When the council finished conversing, Lady Hippolyta addressed the room.