by R. A. Rock
“What are you talking about?” Finn asked, turning his head to give her an incredulous look. “These blades were made to kill the Dark Queen. They can handle a few little monsters, I’m pretty sure.”
Finn swung his arm at a monster who had been edging closer and managed to scratch it. It fell to the ground, writhing and screeching.
“What in the Chasm?” Tessa asked, shocked.
“The magic of the blade,” Finn said, breathing hard. “It transmutes some of the monster’s essence into Light magic instead of Dark. Can you imagine if a part of you was just gone? You’d be rolling on the floor in pain, too.”
Tessa was amazed. She hadn’t realized the blades had so many different properties.
“So, what’s the plan?” she asked as another monster reared up before them with an earsplitting roar. Finn struck upward into its soft belly, leaving it collapsed on the ground.
“The same,” Finn said, his eyes on the beasts surrounding them. “We open a portal. But I need to be able to focus. And I can’t do that while I fight off monsters. That means you have to do it.”
“Me?”
“It’s going to take two good hands to keep these creatures away from us long enough for you to open a portal.”
“But I’ve never done it before,” Tessa protested. “And what about all those dos and don’ts you told me? I can’t remember any of that.”
“You can do it, Tess. Stop worrying.”
Tessa nodded, eyes wide. If she had to do it, she had to do it. “Okay. Tell me.”
“Do you have the right blade out for opening a portal?”
Tessa checked her knife and saw that the blade she had grabbed did indeed have the runes that spelled Open etched into the metal.
“Yes,” she said, excited.
“Great,” Finn said, slashing at another monster and keeping it from getting too close. “It’s just like using any magical object. You need to bring your attention to the object and intend what you want it to do.”
“Got it.”
“Now,” Finn said, his eyes darting back and forth to the monsters that had encircled them. “You use the blade with the curve away from you, then focus, and intend to cut a hole through reality itself.”
“Right.”
“And then you imagine the place where you want the portal to end up.”
He suddenly lunged forward at a monster who was getting too close and, with a hooking motion, slashed across its neck. Black blood flowed freely, and there was a terrible stench. Finn leaned back against the wall, breathing hard, a look of agony on his face. He had put some weight on the twisted ankle, and it must have been terribly painful.
But Tessa couldn’t think about Finn. She needed to concentrate. She had to do this. She turned away from the monsters and breathed in, attempting to calm herself enough to focus. She bit her lip hard enough that she tasted blood.
“Use the blade, curve away from you,” she muttered to herself, holding it properly. “And focus.”
She closed her eyes, and just like she had done when she had been falling from the geyser and needed to change forms, she drew up a concentration and singlemindedness she required. She focused, creating the intention to rip a hole through reality.
“Where to? Where to?” She held on to the tight focus that she needed to create the portal. And when the image of the place came to her, she shrugged a little. It would have to do. She had no more time for thinking. Finn wouldn’t be able to hold them off forever.
Tessa focused and drew the blade across in front of her at about eye level, with the curved edge of the blade up. There was a little shimmer in the air. But nothing else happened.
“It’s not working,” she hissed at Finn.
“What do you mean?” he asked, taking his attention from the monsters for half a second to look at her.
“I drew it across like this,” she said, demonstrating. “And there was a little shimmer. But nothing happened.”
Finn rolled his eyes and huffed out a breath of frustration. “You made the portal, Tess. Just not very conveniently.”
“What do you mean?” Tessa asked, feeling confused.
“Duck down and look up.”
“What?”
“Just do it,” he said as he used a crossing motion in front of himself to strike at yet another monster.
Tessa ducked down and looked up.
And there was her favorite spot in Direwood Castle. The tower. She was looking up at it, but it looked as though there was a four or five foot drop down to the stones.
When she stood up again, she couldn’t see the portal at all. The opening was only in one direction.
“It’s here,” she said, feeling elated. “I did it.”
“Yes, well, let’s use it then. These monsters are getting bold. You go through first.”
“Wait,” Tessa said, a thought suddenly occurring to her. “How do we use it?”
“Well, you remember the one I made to go to Isadore’s right?”
“Yes.”
“I drew the blade vertically so we could walk through it. But this one is horizontal and pointing up. That means we have to go up through it.”
“And how?”
“We just jump up,” Finn said. “It’ll be fine.”
“With your twisted ankle?”
“Oh.” He appeared to not have remembered that.
“Yeah, exactly. I’ll have to boost you. You can’t possibly jump with that foot. You can barely walk.”
“And what about the monsters?” he asked, cutting deeply into two monsters’ bellies and then leaning back against the wall as they fell to the ground.
“We drive them back,” Tessa said. “Then you climb on my back and go through. As soon as you’re gone, I’ll jump straight up and through the portal.”
“That’s a terrible plan,” Finn said with a half smile as he remembered that she’d said the same thing a little earlier.
“Definitely,” Tessa said, smiling back. “But it’s all we’ve got.”
“Right. Let’s do it then.”
They advanced together on the monsters, swinging their blades and slashing at the horrible creatures, Tessa with only one arm, Finn limping heavily. The monsters pulled back at their attack.
“Now,” Tessa said, running back and crouching on the ground.
Finn followed closely, dragging his hurt leg. Then he stepped with his good foot on to her back, groaning because of the weight he had to take on the hurt ankle as he stood up through the portal. Tessa pushed up as soon she felt his weight on her, giving him several extra inches of height.
With a suddenness that surprised her, his weight was gone. Tessa glanced around and saw the monsters closing in again, their huge teeth gleaming and covered in saliva. She swiped at them, and they backed off for a second.
That was all the time she needed. With a burst of adrenaline, she jumped hard and felt the buzz as she went through the portal. Then her eyes got big as she saw the tower below her. She was instantly falling toward the stones with all the momentum of her jump, plus gravity. Reacting with her fighting instincts, Tessa tucked and rolled over and over, cradling her arm against her torso. Even with her quick reflexes, she still crashed into the parapet and then lay staring up at the sky, feeling out of it. Her wrist ached something awful.
“Finn?”
“Here,” he answered, pain in his voice. “You need to close it, Tess.”
Tessa stood up quickly as she imagined a monster falling through by accident and landing right on top of them. She took the other blade from her pocket with her good hand and drew it across the portal, which sealed itself, and she could see up into the grey sky above the castle instead of into the cave in Tartarus.
“We made it,” she said, feeling unbelievably tired. “We’re safe.”
There was a noise on the stairs, but Tessa was too weary to turn and see what it was.
“We made it all right,” Finn said, and at that moment, she went completely still as
a dagger was placed at her throat. Tessa cut her eyes over to Finn without moving her head as he went on speaking. “I don’t know about being safe.”
Chapter 24
The Dark Queen was sitting on an obsidian throne in one of her lesser reception rooms. She was surrounded by her usual posse of Dark Fae, including Runa, Tessa noted. The queen wore a long blood-red gown that hugged every curve and accentuated her breasts. Her full lips were painted to match the dress. And she was sipping something blue in a delicate crystal glass. The morning sunlight streaming in the window hit directly upon her and highlighted her misleading beauty. Tessa wondered if the queen had set the chair in that location for that exact reason.
Ransetta watched their arrival without reaction, seeming unsurprised to see Tessa and Finn—beat up, dirty, and barely conscious being thrown to the floor in front of her.
“Callahan,” the Dark Queen said, gazing at Tessa. Finn had been dragged by two burly guards, his hurt leg bumping on the floor and his face a mask of agony. When they threw him down and kicked his hurt leg for good measure, he gave a groan and appeared to go unconscious from the pain. The queen didn’t seem interested in him, turning her attention back to Tessa. “I didn’t expect to see you here so soon.”
“My Queen,” Tessa said, getting to her feet with effort. Direwood Castle’s usual smell of fear and despair invaded her nostrils, and she tried to breathe shallowly. She bowed to Ransetta, who was studying her as if she couldn’t make up her mind what to think. “We ran into some difficulty in our quest.”
The queen leaned forward at this, a maniacal gleam in her eye. “Did you get the blades?”
Tessa drew a shaky breath and made herself hard, tough—the person she needed to be in the Dark Court.
“We did, Your Grace.”
“Ah,” the Queen said with satisfaction. “Good.”
She didn’t mention that she and Finn were hurt. She didn’t request to be dismissed to wash and have their injuries tended to. That would be a sign of weakness. And she was back in the Dark Court. She could no longer afford to be weak.
When the Queen was done with them, they would clean up and recover. Nothing mattered except that the Dark Queen not find a reason to kill them today.
With shock, Tessa realized that that was what her whole time in the Dark Court had been like for the past three hundred years. Each day was merely about making sure that the queen didn’t have a reason to kill her.
What a life.
And just like that, the sense of being a prisoner descended on her again. She had only been there twenty minutes, and already, she felt like a trapped animal. If only gnawing off her leg were enough to set her free, she would do it in an instant.
“What’s this my guards are telling me about a magical disturbance on the North Tower?” the queen asked. Her slender leg was hooked over the arm of the throne, and her calf was swinging back and forth. Tessa found the movement mesmerizing in her exhausted state. “And then they bring you and the thief here. What’s going on?”
Tessa’s mind worked as quickly as it could. How much of the truth should she tell her? How much ought to be concealed? Tessa decided that she would give a very general account and beg to give the details after Finn’s injuries had been tended to. That might work and would get them out of the queen’s sight, as well, without betraying weakness on her part—even though her broken hand was a screaming, throbbing balloon of swollen flesh, making her feel nauseated.
“The quest went well, my queen,” Tessa said, keeping to her feet by sheer force of will. She was ready to keel over. “We got the blades and were making our way back to the castle when suddenly, a whirlwind appeared and swept us away into Tartatus.”
The queen’s eyes shifted to Runa for a moment and then back. Tessa frowned, also glancing at her rival, who was giving her a smug smile. But Tessa didn’t have the brain power right then to puzzle out what the two women were wordlessly communicating about. She was too tired and beat up.
“We ended up in a monster lair and only just escaped with our lives.”
Runa whispered something in a nearby Fae’s ear, and she and her friend laughed. Tessa kept a neutral expression on her face and ignored her enemy. She had to focus on giving her report and getting out of there so that she could get Finn medical attention.
“And how did you get here?” the queen asked. “Tartarus is a considerable distance.”
Tessa hesitated only a fraction of a second. Not enough that the queen would notice. “Finn had a traveling spell in a crystal,” she lied.
“The energy signature was large,” the queen said, unhooking her leg, leaning forward, and scrutinizing Tessa. “I would have thought it was something more significant than a traveling spell.”
“It’s a special one,” she said, lying glibly. “You can use it anywhere in Esper. It needs more power because of that.” Her only thought was that the queen not find a reason to kill them today.
Them? She realized that she had thought them the first time, too. As if she and Finn were together. A unit. Stars above, since when had she ever been concerned about anything more than her own survival? And at what point had Finn become so important that she wanted to protect him from the Dark Queen? Of course, everyone deserved protection from the Dark Queen, but—
Her thoughts were cut short as the queen spoke, and Tessa snapped her attention back to the woman in front of her.
“I see,” the queen said, but Tessa desperately hoped that she didn’t see. The powerful Faerie sat back, resting her head on her hand, leaning her elbow on the arm of the throne and studying Tessa as if she were a curious insect.
She didn’t want to tell the queen about the blades’ ability to form portals because she was pretty sure that the queen didn’t know. And that would give her an advantage in acquiring the Scroll of Severance, if she ever got a chance.
“So, you’re not ready to give the demonstration then?” The implication was that she had failed.
“Your Grace,” Tessa said, holding on to her temper. She clenched her jaw and stayed in control of herself, unable to believe the nerve of the woman. They were here early. They had been plagued by a tornado, a cave full of monsters, and some unknown enemy that was trying to kill them. And the Dark Queen wanted her demonstration. Now.
Didn’t she have eyes in her head?
“I apologize for being unable to show you the blades immediately. But we are both injured and in need of a Healer. Once we have healed, we will be more than happy to give you the demonstration.”
“Injured?” the queen asked, a disinterested expression coming on to her face.
“Finn’s ankle is twisted, and my hand has a broken bone. They’re only minor injuries, but they would greatly hamper our ability to truly show you what the blades can do.” Especially since Finn appears to be unconscious at the moment. “It was my understanding you wanted a serious demonstration.”
“Yes,” the queen said briskly, her tone showing that she was done with them for today. “I do. Very well then. Get yourselves to the Healer, and when you are ready, let me know, and we will set up the demonstration.”
“Yes, my queen,” Tessa said, bowing deeply again and then moving toward Finn. She beckoned to a couple guards to bring him. Fortunately, they were two of the kindest guards, a man and a woman. If they had all been in different circumstances, Tessa would have considered them her friends. She wondered if it was coincidence that they were here or if they had heard of her return and sought to help if they could.
“Can you carry him to the Healer?” she asked the two guards.
“Yes, Captain,” they said, picking him up carefully and heading for the door.
“Be careful of his ankle. It’s twisted.”
“Oh and Tessa,” the queen said, and Tessa stopped, pivoting on her heel to look at the queen. “Don’t take too long recovering. You know my patience is…” The Queen smiled like a Skransser who had just consumed a soul. “Well, just don’t take too long.”
> Tessa gave a quick nod and left, more than happy to be out of the queen’s repulsive presence.
It was a few days after their unexpected arrival at Direwood Castle, and Finn woke in the room they had given him, which was located in the wing where the royal guard slept and wasn’t far from Tessa’s. During their convalescence, she had taken to spending most of her day in the chair next to his bed, and he wasn’t going to complain. He enjoyed the company. As he opened his eyes, they lit upon Tessa in her usual spot, gazing out the window, seemingly lost in thought. Finn took a moment to admire how pretty she looked before he spoke.
“Tess,” Finn said, and Tessa’s eyes moved to his face.
Her hair was falling in lovely brown curls. He had never seen her with it down, and she was such a beautiful sight that he almost couldn’t breathe. She wore an outfit of royal-blue satin pants with a white shirt that was belted at the waist—the usual outfit of a soldier on leave. She wore a blue satin ribbon in her hair the same vibrant color of her pants, and it seemed to make her sapphire eyes even darker.
“Hey, Finn,” she said, her voice soft.
Finn noticed that she only used the soft voice with him. When there were others from the Dark Court around, it was always the hard voice, the hard expression, the hard Tessa.
I sort of miss having her all to myself.
But that was silly. There was nothing between Tessa and him. They had been on a quest together. That was all. Now that was done, and all that remained was the demonstration for the queen. Then they could both get on with their lives—whatever that meant.
“How are you?” he asked, looking at her broken hand, the bandages clean and white against the tanned skin of her arm. He could smell the fresh scent of the balm that the healer had used, and it reminded him of home and summer and childhood.
“Better,” she said. Then her face fell.
“What is it?”
“I asked about Nat, and they said she’s not here. She’s attending one of the queen’s ambassadors on a visit to the mages.”
“I’m sorry you won’t get to see her,” Finn said, knowing that Nat was Tessa’s best friend in the Dark Court.