by R. A. Rock
“What’s in that corner?” he asked, not looking there and keeping his eyes on the aunt—and the dagger.
“It’s a watching spell,” she said. “There’s no sound, though.”
Finn nodded in understanding and put his hand up to rub his nose as he spoke so anyone watching wouldn’t be able to read his lips.
“So, you felt like you didn’t have a choice. Fine. But you did something to her. What did you do? How can I counteract it?”
“I just knocked her unconscious. Don’t worry. I wouldn’t really hurt her. She’s my niece. I’m not a monster.” Like you, seemed to be the implication. “She’ll wake up in an hour or so.”
“I can’t believe you did this,” Finn said, and it was his turn to be disgusted. “I don’t care if you were forced. A person always has a choice. Tessa wants to come back here so bad, but you people don’t deserve her.”
Tessa’s aunt seemed to lose her temper. “I gave Tessa what she needed. And I did what I had to, to save my life. The King’s guard is on their way. There’s a garrison stationed near here, and they should be here any moment.”
Finn clenched his jaw, his hand curling into a fist.
When her Aunt saw the fist, she frowned and grabbed Finn’s shirt, putting the dagger to his neck. Finn was surprised. The woman had more combat training than she appeared to. He held his hands up, and she pulled him so that they were nose to nose above Tessa’s unconscious form.
“I knocked her unconscious and called the King’s guard,” the woman spat the words. “And I gave her the ring to access the memories, like she asked. ”
“So?” Finn asked, livid. “You want a medal for best aunt?”
Tessa’s aunt pressed her lips together. “You’re missing the point, Dark Fae. I’ve done my part. Now you have to do yours.”
Finn blinked in surprise, and the woman gave him a pointed look. Then he understood. They needed to put on a show for whoever was watching so that the King would think that the aunt had followed his orders. And because Tessa seemed to love her so well, he decided to help the betraying wench.
Finn gave one nod to show he understood. She let him go and stood up, keeping the dagger pointed at him. He laid Tessa gently on the floor. Then kneeling, he held out his hands as if he would let her bind him. When she lowered the dagger, he reacted.
“Shadows take you, woman,” he yelled, jumping to his feet. He hoped his performance was convincing.
Tessa’s aunt darted away from him as he pulled one blade with a magic hum and slashed at her, missing by less than an inch. Her eyes grew wide in fear, but she gave him a tiny nod and then ran out the door, slamming it shut. There was the sound of a bolt sliding home.
They needed to escape this place. Now. He pulled a small bag from the pocket where he kept the spelled objects he always had on him. He dipped his hand in and withdrew a pinch of powder. He threw it in the air toward the corner with the watching spell, and the dust turned into a magical cloud that would block anyone from seeing what he was doing.
Quickly, he stowed the little bag again and then checked the blade he had out to see that the symbol for opening the portal was on it. It wasn’t. He sheathed it and pulled the other one.
“The Spring of Reminiscence,” he muttered as he drew a line in the air with the blade face down. The portal opened up, and he carefully lifted Tessa and sent her through it. He went to climb through himself but then looked around the room. There must be something useful to them in here. He went to the spot where the aunt had gotten the potion for Tessa and grabbed another one. He didn’t stop to read the label because there was the sound of shouting outside the door and the sound of the bolt being withdrawn.
The guards were here.
He stowed the blades—and the potion—in the Otherworld sheath and jumped through the portal just as the soldiers burst through the door.
Tessa’s eyes fluttered, and she looked up at Finn, who was staring down at her with a worried frown on his face. There was the smell of forest and the sound of water trickling.
“Tess,” he said, with relief. “You’re awake.”
“What happened?” Tessa asked, putting her hand to her head. She had a splitting headache.
“Your aunt knocked you out.”
Tessa gave him a look of disbelief.
“Not with her fists,” he said, helping her to sit up. “It was the potion.”
Tessa’s face grew troubled.
“She said the King had warned her that you might show up and ask for help. He just wanted her to detain you. And she would have without the blades.” Finn pulled one, flipping it several times and then putting it back.
“You got us out of there with a portal?” Tessa asked, getting slowly to her feet.
“Yes, but look, Tessa,” Finn said, needing to explain. “Don’t feel bad. Your aunt was forced to turn you in. She gave you the ring you wanted, for the memories. And she gave us a chance to escape. She helped you as much as she could.”
Tessa felt slightly sad and disappointed. “Right.” Then she pulled herself together and drew a deep breath. “No lunch spent reminiscing about old times with my aunt. That’s fine. I didn’t want to do that anyway.”
Finn didn’t say anything.
“So, where are we?”
“Speaking of reminiscing…” He gestured at the water.
“We’re at the Spring of Reminiscence? You brought us right here?”
Finn gave a nod. “Yep.”
“The water smells so fresh, and I feel sharp, like my mind is really clear.”
Finn smiled and pointed toward the water. “It’s the spring. Even breathing in the mist must affect a person.”
“The spring,” Tessa said, taking a step back. “It’s magic?”
“Of course, it’s magic,” Finn said, astonished. “You haven’t heard of it? It helps you remember things you’ve forgotten.”
“Guess we could have just come here in the first place,” Tessa said, dropping her eyes. “Instead of going to my aunt, the traitor.”
“Nah,” Finn said. “She didn’t really betray you. And you only remembered this place once you had the ring. And I only remembered it when you mentioned it. So we had to go there. Don’t second guess yourself.”
“Okay, well, what do we do?” Tessa asked, still feeling a little sad.
“You can access the Keeper’s memories?”
Tessa twisted the delicate silver ring with the purple gemstone embedded in it that was on her right ring finger.
“I can. Everything. But only when I activate the memories. Otherwise, I can’t sense them. That must be how the ring works.”
Finn nodded, running his fingers through his hair. “So, do you remember how to get to the Scroll?” He looked around at the small waterfall. It was maybe nine or ten feet high. The fall of water lacked much pressure. When Tessa looked up to examine the Spring, she noticed that the water was coming out of the rocks of the cliff above their heads and dropping into a shallow pool.
“Follow me,” Tessa said, pulling off her clothes and dropping them on the ground. Finn politely averted his eyes, though she wouldn’t have minded him looking. She wasn’t modest. Not anymore. “Good thing you can swim.”
“What?” Finn asked, a startled look on his face.
Tessa didn’t answer but walked through the waterfall, which was falling in a sheer curtain of water. She sort of hoped he was watching. It was stupid. But she wanted him to want her.
“Come on,” she called through the water, and Finn soon appeared behind the waterfall, where it was very loud.
The only thing he was wearing was the satchel where he kept his spells. They both stood in the waist-deep water, and she had to tear her eyes away from his muscular chest. She kept her back to him, but she wished that giving in to her desire was an option because—Stars above—Finn was even more delicious without clothes than he was fully dressed. And she had found him pretty attractive when he was clothed.
“Stay close.”
She began to climb, being careful because the rocks were wet and so were they. When she got to a small cave, she entered. Finn soon clambered through behind her. They had to crouch down because the ceiling of the cave was so low. Tessa sat down, putting her feet through a hole in the wall.
“Stars and Shadows, Tessa. What are you doing?”
“We have to go in here,” she said, pointing to what looked like a shadow on the wall but was actually an opening.
“This seems like a terrible plan.”
“Dropping into a dark hole in a cave when we don’t know what’s at the end of it? Definitely.”
“Right,” Finn said, resigned. “Let’s do it then.”
“See you down there,” Tessa said, pushing off. It was a little freaky, but she didn’t worry about it because she had memories as if she had done this before. There was some sort of very slippery moss and water running down the tunnel. As soon as she pushed with her hands a little, she was sliding down into blackness.
Finn’s startled gasp echoed off the rocks from above her.
Tessa was slipping down and down into the blackness. Her heart was pounding hard because even though she knew what was happening, it was pitch dark and she couldn’t see, so she couldn’t anticipate anything.
Soon enough, she came out and dropped about six feet into a deep pool. There was dim light in this cave coming from some hole in the ceiling high above them. She swam quickly out of the way, and Finn soon shot out, making a big splash as he landed.
“Shadows take me,” Finn swore as his head popped out of the water.
“Save your breath,” she said. “And follow me.”
“Farther?” Finn asked in a whiny tone of voice.
Tessa took a deep breath and ducked under. She swam, holding her breath until she reached another hole underwater. She checked to see that Finn was following and then went through.
Tessa only had to swim through about four feet of underwater tunnel, and then she popped up in yet another pool. She climbed out and grabbed for a towel that she knew would be to the left of the pool.
Finn surfaced a moment later, gasping a bit for breath and then climbing out of the water. Tessa handed him a towel, and he covered himself. She found several robes hanging on the hooks where the towels were hung. They were too big for her and too small for Finn, but they put them on.
Tessa looked around and saw that they were in a small room that looked like a study or a bedroom. There were books covering two whole walls. On the third wall, there was a fireplace with the hooks for the robes and towels on either side. In one corner was the pool they had come up through that was surrounded by a stone floor, which they were now shivering on. In the opposite corner on the fourth wall was a large bed.
“Warm me,” she commanded.
The fire jumped to life, instantly putting off so much heat that they were warmed up in mere seconds.
“Warm me less,” she told it, and it cooled until it was just a good amount of heat.
“A Provision spell,” Tessa murmured to herself.
“What about clothes?” Finn asked, looking uncomfortable in his robe that only came to his knees.
Tessa held up her arm that was drowning in her robe, trying not to look at Finn’s lean, strong legs. There was a suspicious bulge under the tiny robe, and she averted her eyes before her traitorous body gave in and begged him to take her.
“We had to leave ours. We couldn’t have swum all that way wearing any. Guess we’ll have to find some.”
“What about that spell?” Finn suggested. “Can a Provision spell do that?”
Tessa raised her eyebrows. “Maybe,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “Dress me.”
They waited. Nothing happened.
“Clothe me?” she tried.
And just like that, they were dressed in the kind of clothing they usually wore.
“I’ve even got a handkerchief,” Tessa said as she checked out her new clothes.
“Me too,” Finn said with a grin, pulling his out of his pocket and then stuffing it back in. “This is amazing. I’m beginning to really like this place.”
“From the Keeper’s memories, I know it’s heavily warded, and the only entrance is the way that we came in. There’s an exit out the top of the mountain, but you can’t enter that way.”
Finn raised an eyebrow. “What about leaving through a portal?”
“We can’t. It’s spelled against that. Although the Keeper, in his later years, used to come and go using a spell.”
“Hm.”
Tessa plopped down in an armchair on one side of the fire, and Finn sat in the other. Food appeared on the table between them.
“This place is great,” he said appreciatively. He picked up a cube of cheese and popped it in his mouth. “Is it the Keeper’s home?”
“It is,” Tessa said, helping herself to a cookie that tasted like it had just come out of the oven. “There are lots of other rooms. It’s almost as big as a castle. Some cave rooms, you can walk between, but the ones he really doesn’t want people in, you have to swim to all of those chambers.”
“It’s a nice place, Tessa.”
“Are you implying that it’s mine, now, Finn? Because now I’m the Keeper? I’m not sure I’m comfortable keeping something so… opulent.”
Finn shrugged. “Seems like a safe place where no one could find you. I’m not sure I’d turn that down. But you don’t have to figure that out tonight. There’ll be time for that. Right now, it’s late. We need to get a good night’s rest and then go for the Scroll in the morning.”
Tessa sighed. She was extremely tired. Her arm and shoulder ached where they were still healing. And all her muscles were sore. Plus, her head still hurt from the potion.
“A good night’s rest. Okay. Then we get the Scroll.”
She walked over to the bed and climbed in. The fire popped and crackled softly in the quiet chamber. Finn got in too, curling up, his back to hers.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice sounding sleepy to her ears.
“Sleeping.”
“Okay,” Tessa said, ignoring her disappointment. But even if he had been making advances, she honestly wouldn’t have been able to keep awake another moment. Finn’s warmth was comforting.
Might as well go with it.
Because, after all, who knew what the morning might bring?
The next morning, Tessa and Finn were sitting at the magic table finishing breakfast. Tessa sat back, feeling full, well rested, and confident—prepared for whatever lay before them.
“Okay,” she said, standing up. “Ready?”
“Ready,” Finn confirmed. “What do we do now to get the Scroll?”
“I know where to find it,” she told Finn, grabbing a handful of cookies. “Let’s go.”
Chapter 37
“Up here.” Tessa handed him a cookie, and he took it, biting into the rich treat. The magic table had provided them with breakfast—a wide assortment of delicious foods, including cookies. He hadn’t had such luxuries for quite some time.
Might as well enjoy them because he might be dead later.
Tessa, still crunching on her cookies, led Finn to a door in the Keeper’s network of caves behind which was a spiral stairwell.
“This is the exit I mentioned. It also happens to lead to the place where the Scroll is kept.”
The stairs curled upward, seemingly forever. Finn could smell a slightly damp odor from the water-filled caves below them, and every once in a while, he got a whiff of sweet buttery goodness from the cookies that Tessa was eating. Finn felt as though they would never get to the top, but the view of Tessa’s ass was well worth the climb.
He had been pretty wound up the night before, but he knew this was not the time for trying to indulge in any fantasies he might or might not have been having about Tess since he had met her.
He had been getting a vibe from her that made him think she wouldn’t have been averse to the suggestion th
at they lie together. But he just couldn’t. No matter how much he wanted to. It wasn’t the right time. Everything in both their lives was on unstable ground. Shadows and Chasm, they might not live through today. But if they did, he was definitely going to revisit their relationship and where it was going.
Tessa certainly seemed to know where she was going. She moved with a sureness that was born of years of experience living in this place, which she got from the Keeper’s memories, he supposed.
Finally, they emerged into a rough cave, and Finn could hear a strange moaning sound that set his nerves on edge. Tessa didn’t seem concerned though, and she followed the passage until it came out on to a path that was about three feet wide and curved around the rocks heading down the mountain to the right. When he looked left, he saw that the path continued up the mountain. He realized that the moaning sound had come from the wind blowing across the opening of the cave, which he could no longer see because it was spelled.
Finn stepped out confidently beside Tessa to the edge of the ledge… until he saw the drop off. In shock, he took three quick steps backward until his back hit the force field of the spell covering the exit. His heart was pounding so hard that he thought it might escape his chest.
“Shadows and Chasm, Tessa.”
“It’s high, isn’t it?” she asked, glancing around and showing none of the balance issues that she had displayed when they crossed the chasm. Maybe because the Keeper hadn’t had balance problems, when Tessa was accessing his memories, she didn’t have them either. It was all a little mind-numbing, and Finn stopped thinking about it.
“It’s the highest point in Ahlenerra.”
Finn believed her. It was indescribably high.
He took a few deep breaths and then stepped out beside her again. The ground was so far below them that he couldn’t tell exactly what was down there. It was green, so maybe trees or grass. When he looked out, he could see Ahlenerra stretching away before him. Far off, he could see the black slash that was the Chasm. And beyond that, the grey that was the Unseelie lands.