by R. A. Rock
She had known Nyall since they were both babies. And, yes, it was true that he had become rather pompous and irritating since they had grown up. And he had been a complete asshole the last time she had seen him.
But he was still her friend.
And she didn’t want to kill him.
Also, acquiring the most powerful magical object in Ahlenerra and going against the King in the process seemed like a very bad idea.
“Why, your majesty?” Tessa wanted to let out a sound of frustration, but she kept it in, her face impassive. The queen locked her gaze on Tessa’s face.
“The Keeper has been located for the first time.”
Tess frowned. “Hasn't he been hiding since you gave him the Scroll?”
“Yes.”
“So why would he suddenly be caught? Why now? After hiding for thousands of years, that seems very odd. Almost like a trap.”
“You're not wrong, Callahan. By design, when the King and I created the Severance, we chose the Keeper and gave him the Scroll. He was supposed to keep himself and the Scroll hidden—forever.”
“So...”
The queen gave a sigh, as if she was very tired. “Look, Callahan. I don’t know why the Keeper has allowed himself to be located. And, frankly, I don’t care. I have it on good authority that the Light Court is going to try and get the Scroll of Severance from the Keeper.” The queen shook her head. “I can't let that happen.”
“How? Where? When?”
“He’s been spotted at the summer festival in Asmoore.”
Tessa didn’t say anything. The surprising revelations were coming too quickly, and she could barely keep her wits about her and follow along with what the queen was telling her.
“I don’t know where he hides the rest of the time,” the queen said. “Nor does it matter. As long as I get to him before the Light Court does.”
“But, your majesty, why would they be trying to find him? Why now?”
“I’m not sure,” the queen said, looking thoughtful. “The agreement between the King and I was to split Ahlenerra in two with the Chasm of Severance. And the Hundred Years Ball would be the only time that the people of our two lands would meet.”
If it had been anyone other than the queen speaking to her, she would have said, tales heard at my grandmother’s knee, and rolled her eyes. But it was the queen, and Tessa let her speak. She needed as much information as possible if she was to deal with Ransetta’s latest whim. Plus, it would be more than dangerous to interrupt.
“The monsters, including me, would stay over here, and the King and his perfect Fae would stay over there,” Ransetta said, staring down at the floor in misery as if she wanted to be swallowed up by it.
And for the first time, Tessa saw the woman behind the crown, behind the madness. She saw, for one fraction of a second, the woman who had tried to protect her people and who had been brutally shunned and punished for it.
No wonder she had become who she was.
The queen shook her head, looking up again at Tessa, and the powerful, in-control Dark Queen was back. No sign of the vulnerable woman, whose heart had been broken by the man she loved. Tessa wondered for a second if she had imagined it. But no. She had seen it. And it had completely changed the way she saw Ransetta.
And she could never unsee it.
“And of course, there were all the Fae that just got dragged along with my banishment. But that’s neither here nor there.” She once again gazed with unfocused eyes out the window and then spoke softly as if remembering something from long ago. “Maybe the King wants to end the Severance.”
“And what do you want, your majesty?” Tessa asked, also in a quiet voice, trying not to break the sharing mood that the queen was in. “Do you want to end the Severance?”
“Oh no, Callahan, I have something much better planned,” she said, and her voice was louder, the cunning look back in her eye.
Better than ending the Severance? Not likely. “What’s that?”
“What I’ve always been after. The defeat of the Light Court, of course, and for the King to suffer. Greatly.”
“And how will you do that, your majesty?”
“I’m going to capture him and become queen of all of Ahlenerra. Nothing would cause him more pain than that.”
Tess blinked at this admission.
The Dark Queen ruling over all the Fae land? Not a good idea.
“You, Callahan, will find the Keeper first. Get the Scroll if you can. And kill Nyall and his team if they become a problem. Take the handsome thief with you to help, since he’s not dead and he has been quite useful in getting you the blades and training you on them.”
“But, your grace—”
The queen gave her a mildly annoyed look when Tessa attempted to interrupt. It was the look she gave before she had someone beaten to death, and it stopped Tessa in her tracks.
“Then I will have the Scroll instead of the King,” the queen continued. “With it, I can destroy the Light Court.”
“I thought neither you nor the King could be killed without destabilizing our entire land,” Tessa said, thinking back to what Finn’s grandfather had said.
“That’s true. I can’t kill him. But if I could make him suffer terribly, that would be nearly as good. The King and I are both linked to the Scroll magically, and it’s the only way I can get any power over him because he is the most powerful Faerie in the land. I can’t kill him. But tormenting him for the rest of eternity would be almost as satisfying.”
Tessa tried not to show her disgust.
“Of course, your majesty,” Tessa said automatically because there was no possible way she could say no, but her mind was thinking furiously. “But how will I get onto Light Court lands to kill him?”
“Here’s a spell that will get you across the Chasm.”
In her graceful hand lay two bracelets made from what looked like pale yellow diamonds—the only stone strong enough to contain a spell this powerful, Tessa guessed. It was strong Dark Magic indeed that could get them across the Chasm of Severance. When she made her reports to the King, he always created a portal for her. Not even the King gave her something with which to cross the Chasm.
“May the Shadows guide you on your journey,” Ransetta said, handing over the bracelets.
Tessa took them with trepidation. “And may they cover you in darkness until I return, your grace,” Tessa said, using the ritual words.
Everyone knew that you couldn’t cross the Chasm of Severance because of the magic spell that the King and Queen had created when they had separated. Other than the magic that holds together the entire realm of Esper, there was nothing more powerful than the magic that created the Chasm of Severance. Because it had been created from the pain of love turning into hatred and there was nothing stronger than that.
“We will discuss the details later, Callahan,” the queen said with a wave of her elegant hand. “Leave me now.”
With a bow, Tessa left the room, and as she walked down the corridor, a tiny smile lit her face. This mission had fallen to her for a reason. It was so that she could do what the Seer had said she would.
Tessa would get the Scroll of Severance.
But she wouldn’t give it to either of the spoiled brat monarchs that ruled the Seelie and Unseelie courts of Ahlenerra.
Tessa would get it for herself and for her people.
And she would end the Severance.
It was really possible.
And she was going to do it.
Chapter 28
Tessa’s hand shook a little when she knocked on Finn’s door. She had learned so much, and she wasn’t sure how she would tell him everything. And she was so excited about finally having a way to accomplish her goal.
Finn opened it immediately, grabbing her arm and pulling her inside. He shut the door and, grabbing her other arm, pushed her against it. He examined her closely as if looking for injuries. On impulse, she clasped his forearms too, not sure what was going on.
“Well? What did she want? Are you okay?” Finn studied her with worried eyes. It was such an unexpected gesture, and the anxiety on his face was so genuine that Tessa was momentarily caught off balance. She stared back, lost in his eyes, her heart pounding wildly.
“Tessa?” he asked, seeming even more concerned. “Are you all right?”
Tessa shook her head a little, trying to clear it, not sure what had just happened to her.
“Uh, yeah. I’m fine. I wasn’t in trouble.”
“Okay.” He looked relieved and released her. “Come in. Sit down. What did she want?”
Tessa took the chair, and Finn sat on his neatly made bed. The smell of Finn’s soap and his battle leathers permeated the room, and it comforted her a little.
“She wants me to kill my friend,” Tessa said, the enormity of what the queen had just asked her to do coming back to her in a wave of heaviness.
“What do you mean?”
“There is a man. His name is Nyall. She wants me to kill him.”
“Why?”
“He’s Light Court. And she thinks that the King is trying to get the Scroll of Severance.”
Finn looked completely bewildered. He stood up and began to pace.
“So, you’re saying that you have to kill this Light Court Fae, Nyall?”
“Yes.”
“And he’s your friend?” Finn put more emphasis on the word friend than was strictly necessary.
“Yes.” Tessa had long ago had a crush on Nyall. But surely, that hadn’t shown in her tone? Well, the crush had been more recent than long ago. But still. She was over that.
So why am I blushing, then?
“How do you have a friend that’s from the Light Court?” Finn asked, studying her with sudden suspicion.
“I met him at one of the Hundred Years Balls,” Tessa lied, feeling terrible about it. But there was no way that she could tell Finn about being a spy in the Dark Court, even if they were partners and good friends now. She was way past the point of when she could have come clean.
“Ah,” he said, suddenly ill at ease. “Of course. I’ve… met… some Light Fae that way, too.”
Tessa suspected that he had done more with said Light Fae than just met them. But she didn’t comment on that.
“How does the queen expect you to get into the Seelie lands?”
“She gave me these?” Tessa held out her palm to show him the bracelets.
Finn studied them with concern as they seemed to vibrate in her hand with the strong Dark Magic they contained.
“Those look powerful. What are they for? And why do you have two?”
“She said they’d get us across the Chasm,” Tessa said, and Finn seemed taken aback. “You’re to go with me,” she added, in case it wasn’t clear.
“But she just tried to kill me. And now she wants to send me on a mission of this importance? She doesn’t even trust me. If we hadn’t merged our magic, I’d be dead.”
Tessa shrugged. “I don’t try to figure out the queen’s whims. I only try to ride them to my advantage as much as possible. That is the only way to survive in the Dark Court.”
Finn examined Tessa. “Do you want me there?”
Tessa frowned. “Of course. Why would you say that? I thought that you thought that we were better together?”
“We do work well together. It’s just that this friend of yours…” Finn stared at the floor, his face troubled. “Nyall.”
“What about him?”
“Maybe he wouldn’t take kindly to you showing up with me to save him.” He suddenly glanced up. “You are going to save him, aren’t you?”
“I am.”
“Good.”
“But we’re going to do much much better than that, Finn,” Tessa said, suddenly forgetting Finn’s awkward questions about Nyall as she remembered her goal.
“We are?”
“We’re going to get the Scroll,” Tessa said, determination in her voice. “And I’m going end the Severance.”
“What are you talking about?” Finn asked, staring incredulously at Tessa. “Get the Scroll? End the Severance? Are you crazy? What did Ransetta do to you in there?”
Tessa glowered at him. “I’m not crazy. And you said yourself that I should do it.”
“I was kidding.” Finn ran a hand through his dark brown hair. “Like when I said I believed the Seer. It’s called sarcasm, Tessa. You know, a joke?”
Tessa shook her head. “So, are you saying that you think that I can’t do it?”
“No one can do it. It’s impossible.”
“The Severance was created by Fae, and it can be uncreated,” Tessa argued. “It’s not something that is immutable, like the land.”
“Of course, it’s immutable. Look at the Chasm. It’s a part of the land. There’s nothing more permanent or more impossible to change than that, Tessa.” He got up and began to pace, his bare feet padding across the stone floor. “It’s madness to think you can do this. You’re going to get yourself killed. Twice. Once by the Dark Queen for crossing her. And once by the King for taking his precious Scroll.”
“You really have that little faith in me?” Tessa asked, crossing her arms over her chest, more upset than she wanted to admit.
“It’s not that,” Finn said, stopping his pacing and coming to face her. “It’s just…”
“What, Finn?” Tessa jumped to her feet and tilted her head to scowl up at him. “It’s just that you’re too scared to try to change things? It’s just that you think that I’m not good enough to do anything this important? Or maybe it’s just that you don’t want anything else to do with me. We got the blades, saved our skins, and now we’re done. And everything you said about us being better together and all that was just Shadows and wind.”
“No,” Finn said, upset. “That’s not it at all. You’ve got it all wrong.”
He moved closer until he was staring down into her eyes, his chest rising and falling with his erratic breathing.
“Then tell me, Finn Noble. What is it?”
There was silence in the room after her final question. Tessa waited, anger pounding through her veins.
“It’s just…” Finn started, once more his eyes on the stones that made up the floor. Tessa didn’t say anything, waiting impatiently for him to speak—to explain himself.
Finally, he lifted his gaze and met hers.
“It’s just that you will surely die on this ridiculous mission and—” Finn swallowed, breathing hard as if what he wanted to get out was extremely difficult for him to say. He took her hands in his, causing a wave of energy to spread through her until every bit of her body seemed to be humming.
“And—” He broke off again. Finally, he gathered the courage to say it. “And I don’t think I could stand to lose you, Tess.”
He stared at her a moment longer and then left the room, the door slamming behind him. Tessa stood there. Stunned. Not at all sure what to make of his words.
“Are you kidding me?” Finn asked, staring at the eight-inch wide plank stretched across the Chasm that would allow them to cross over into the Seelie lands. It was not attached at either end. This was one of the narrowest parts and it was still thirty feet across. Below them, the fall to the bottom was dizzying. It was not so high that you couldn’t see the bottom, thus giving you a comforting false sense of security, but was just high enough to be completely terrifying. The plank, which probably had once been quite sturdy, now appeared to be old—ancient even—and about to fall to pieces.
Of course, the only way across the Chasm was a simple board. What else would it be? Finn gazed up at the sky, which was grey and dreary—much the way Finn’s life was feeling more and more these days.
“This is where she said that her people cross sometimes using the bracelets.” Tessa’s voice was worried, and Finn looked back at her.
“What is it?” he asked, concerned by an odd note in her voice.
“Nothing,” Tessa said with what was probably supposed to be a
nonchalant shrug. “I just… I’m not good with heights.”
“The fearsome Captain of the Guard is afraid of heights?” he asked in disbelief.
“Not afraid. I’m just not good with them. I have this issue with my inner ear the Healer said. Affects my balance.”
He lifted his eyebrows.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
Finn closed his eyes, searching for some semblance of calm. Of course, the best fighter in the kingdom had a problem with heights. A sigh escaped him.
“Why don’t we just fly across in our tiny form?” he suggested. “It would be safer.”
Tessa shook her head. Some curls had come free of her ponytail and were whipping around her face. Of course, the wind seemed to be rising just as they were about to cross an impossible chasm on a rickety old board.
How had he gotten here?
“The bracelets are for our regular forms only. They won’t work when we’re small, even if we could carry them. Which we can’t. Plus, flying across in our tiny forms will set off the wards, Finn. As if the King and Dark Queen would leave such a ridiculous loophole.”
“And we can’t use the blades because of the Severance spell,” Finn said.
“Exactly. It’s the most powerful spell in all of Ahlenerra, meant to keep any Fae from crossing. The King and Dark Queen would have thought of that.”
“Fine. Fine. But I have to say that it sure looks as though the queen is setting you up to fail over and over again, Tessa. Are you sure she’s actually on your side?”
“Not at all,” Tessa said, staring across the immense chasm. “In fact, I’m pretty sure she didn’t expect me to come back alive from the quest for the blades. But that’s not the point.”
“What’s the point, then?”
“We have a way to get into the Seelie lands without the wards being set off, Finn.”
“And just so we’re clear, those are the wards that will kill us if they’re set off?”
“Yes, those wards.”