FULL MOON

by Jennifer St. Clair

  He straightened up as Edward stared at him, his head swimming with unaccustomed power; his body as heavy as the stone beneath him, his vision darkening as the energy sought a place to stay.

  He set it to work healing the rest of his wounds and felt it drain away, replaced by weariness so strong he felt himself falling sideways with no way to stop his descent.

  Ahlos caught him and gently lowered him down to the ground. "I owe you my freedom," he murmured. "And I will bring him someone to drink."

  Edward tried--and failed--to open his eyes. "She has no hold on you now?"

  "None. I broke that spell years ago. Wait here. I'll be back." He vanished before Edward could stop him, and the silence was so thick and so complete that Edward did not fight the darkness when it carried him away.

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  * * *

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  "But you found Nidrea's heir," Mahalia said for the second time, her voice still puzzled. "You found him and yet he cannot be king?"

  "Yes," Ceidrin said, and hoped she didn't ask him to go into detail. "But that's not all. I wish to lodge a formal complaint against my aunt and cousin--Oriellen and Meinren--for murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, torture--"

  "I've heard enough," Mahalia said, raising both her hands.

  "And treachery," Ceidrin said. "And probably plotting against the crown. I have--"

  "Proof?" Mahalia asked. "If I bring this to the Council, can you prove that they were involved in this?"

  "I liberated Gene from Oriellen's dungeons," Ceidrin said softly. "They took him from the driveway of our home and tortured him, Aunt. Oriellen has hounds as well, who attacked Nidrea's son--"

  "Is he dead?" Mahalia asked.

  "We don't know," Ceidrin said. "I am hoping to pre-empt his death by doing this. I doubt that Oriellen knew who he was, but she took him away."

  "We would have to summon both of them here to hear the charges against them," Mahalia said. "What else?"

  "I thought you said you had heard enough," Ceidrin said. "Elinor's mother is dead, her house burned--"

  "Mmm," Mahalia said. "That tragedy is being blamed on Elinor's brother."

  "By whom?" Ceidrin asked. "Elinor saw the hounds. They chased her into the human realm. Oriellen snatched Edward in the human realm--"

  "By Oriellen and Meinren, of course," Mahalia said, and rose from her desk to pace the room. "Is Elinor still outside?"

  "I hope so," Ceidrin said. "She's my bodyguard."

  Mahalia stared at him for a moment, unsmiling. "You expect them to attack you here?"

  "Once they find out what I've done, I expect no less from them," Ceidrin said. "They managed to murder Isobel, and probably Nidrea as well--"

  "Elinor's brother was Isobel's confidant, and the last person to see her alive," Mahalia said. "We've been looking for him since she died. Did no one tell you? Are you certain you have the right villain?"

  "No one told me anything, save that she was dead," Ceidrin said, and closed his eyes. "Is her brother also a Healer?"

  "Yes. He is." Mahalia stopped in front of a floor-to-ceiling mirror and regarded her reflection for a moment, then frowned, as if she had seen some minute imperfection. "Call Elinor, please."

  Ceidrin opened the door and stuck his head out into the hall. The hallway was deserted; an odd thing, in truth, since this part of the castle was well-traveled and often used. At his request, Mahalia had set wards around the room, but she had called him paranoid. And now, Ceidrin wondered if he should have insisted that Elinor join him in the first place.

  "She's not--" He turned back to face Mahalia, just in time to see her crumple where she stood, her eyes wide and fading, her hands clutching at the dull iron bolt that jutted from her chest.

  For a second he stood frozen, his mind refusing to accept what his eyes already knew. But even in that second, some piece of his subconscious registered a threat, and when he turned around, two of the bolts hung quivering in the air behind him, caught in the net of a ward he didn't recall casting.

  And it was Meinren behind him, not Oriellen, holding one of those damned crossbows, his eyes narrowed, his lips thinned.

  Elinor--Elinor lay bound behind him with blood in her hair, her eyes closed, but breathing.

  "They are iron," Meinren said, as if that one word would crumble Ceidrin's ward at its utterance.

  "I suppose, then, it is an advantage to live with a human chef who insists on cooking with the very same metal," Ceidrin said, his voice very calm. "Will they kill you? I've already survived them once."

  He realized, then, that his calmness belied an anger so terrible that he almost could not hear over its fury. Meinren saw the truth in his gaze, and stepped back.

  Ceidrin plucked the bolts from the air and threw them on the ground. "This--" He motioned behind him where Mahalia lay. "This is treason, you realize. Punishable by death."

  Meinren's lip curled. "It would only be treason if you were king," he said stiffly. "You had one warning--" His finger tightened on the crossbow's trigger.

  Absolutely unable to help himself, Ceidrin sketched him a mocking bow. "Treason."

  "No." Meinren shook his head. "No. You swore--"

  "Yes, I did," Ceidrin said, and saw Elinor's eyes slide open. "I swore. I wanted nothing to do with the crown or its kingdom, but you made one fatal mistake, Cousin. Perhaps more than one, in truth."

  "The only mistake I made is telling my mother's hounds not to kill you," Meinren spat. He fired another bolt; Ceidrin deflected it without a passing thought.

  "No. You kidnapped an innocent," he said, his voice full of a terrible power that seemed to emanate from the stones beneath his feet. "You kidnapped and tortured the man I love."

  "A human." Meinren dismissed Gene with a toss of his head. "They are so fragile. So easily hurt."

  "Yes, they are," Ceidrin said. "And it's a shame we're not more easily killed." Using the power that surrounded him, he broke Elinor's bonds and shattered the spell Meinren had cast across the hallway. Elinor sat up, holding her head, her eyes squeezed shut, her mouth pinched. "Elinor, can you see to Aunt Mahalia? I'm afraid--"

  "No need," Mahalia's dry voice came from behind, ringed with pain, but also buoyed by fury. "There are advantages to wearing so much jewelry, but my necklace might never be the same again." She motioned towards Meinren, and the crossbow fell from his hands. "I'd add attempted murder to your charge of treason, Ceidrin."

  "Attempted murder, murder, treason, kidnapping--"

  "My mother--" Meinren began.

  "Your mother is not here," Elinor said, her voice cold. "I am a member of the Healer network now--did you bother to think before you wounded a Healer in the line of duty?"

  "He doesn't think," Ceidrin said as Meinren's face paled. "He never has."

  There were more elves in the hallway now, all staring, all hesitating, as if they did not quite know what to do.

  "I call Council," Ceidrin said, almost relieved that he did not have to continue the fiction of Gene's death. "And I will submit three witnesses in addition to myself and Elinor: Lucien, Sennet, and Gene. I will also demand the release of the hound called Ahlos, Elinor's brother, and Edward Lange. And anyone else you or your mother might be hiding in your dungeons."

  "A human?" Meinren made an abortive move to escape, but Ceidrin's net settled over his skin, pulling him backwards until he sank into the wall itself. "Your damned brother is the murderer--"

  "My brother may be a bit unstable, but I can't see him murdering anyone," Elinor said sharply.

  "Do I have to gag you?" Ceidrin asked. "You're only making it worse for yourself. I call Dierin as witness as well--"

  Meinren laughed before he could stop himself, then shut up when Ceidrin swung around to face him.

  "Speak," he demanded.

  "Dierin is dead," Meinren said. "She was a traitor, and she died like a traitor--"

  "Would someone find out if that is true?" Ceidrin asked quietly, and used a bit
of the power to gag Meinren before he damned himself any further--or talked himself into an early grave.

  "Of course," the nearest elf said, still wary, but willing to help. "I know her family; I'll check."

  Ceidrin had never seen him before, but Mahalia whispered the name 'Rhys' in his ear.

  "He is trustworthy," she murmured. "Distantly related to Elinor's side of the family."

  "Thank you," Ceidrin said to him. "If anyone tries to stop you from letting me know what you've found--"

  "They will not," Mahalia said, and swept out of the room, dropping the remarkably unbloodied iron bolt at Meinren's feet. "Ceidrin has called Council," she said, and the declaration reverberated through the castle.

  "Give me an hour to prepare," Ceidrin said. "To gather my witnesses."

  "Granted," Mahalia said. "You are our king, after all."

  Ceidrin tried not to flinch when he heard that small tidbit of news pass between the gathered elves like a wildfire, and continue its spread through the castle. He wasn't quite sure how he knew that; he'd never found the castle particularly responsive at all.

  "I've heard it wears off in time," Elinor whispered as two elves approached to take Meinren away.

  "What?" Ceidrin asked, watching them try to figure out how to pry him from the wall.

  "You can sense everything, can't you?" Elinor smiled. "The one time I met Aunt Isobel--she told me to call her that--she said she knew what was happening in any given part of the castle at any given time."

  "She told you that?"

  "She said that was part of being Queen," Elinor said. "I was eight years old, and very impressed."

  "She was a good Queen," Ceidrin said, and took pity on the elves. "Why don't you just leave him there?"

  "In the wall?" one elf asked. "But--"

  "It's secure," Ceidrin said. "I'll bring him to the Council meeting myself. If it makes you feel any better, you can guard him."

  Meinren made a furious set of noises behind the gag. Ceidrin smiled brightly at him, and he subsided.

  "At the moment, I believe we're in need of a mirror," Elinor said.

  "We'll use this one," Ceidrin said, and retreated into Mahalia's meeting room, firmly closing the door behind him.

  He leaned on it for a long moment, his mind replaying the last few minutes and trying to come up with a good explanation as to why he was not dead.

  "Are you okay?" Elinor asked.

  Ceidrin opened his eyes. "It's nothing you can fix," he said. "I--I didn't expect it to happen like this." He stared at the spot where Mahalia had fallen. Had her necklace truly blocked the bolt from killing her?

  "It never does," Elinor said, and for a moment, Ceidrin thought she would add something else to that proclamation. "What does my brother have to do with this? He was part of Meinren's group of 'friends' once; we haven't spoken since my father died." She stared into the mirror, frowning. "I didn't know he was here."

  Ceidrin had no lock of hair to find Edward, but he knew the general location of Oriellen's castle. "Mahalia said that he is suspected of killing your mother, and that he was the last person--save for the murderer--to see Isobel alive. He's wanted for questioning, but they seem to assume he ran away."

  "I thought we were going to tell Sennet--" Elinor said as a perfectly normal looking stone castle appeared in the mirror like a postcard from Faerie.

  "That's your assignment," Ceidrin said. "I'm going after Edward."

  "By yourself. With no Healer to save you if Oriellen tries to kill you." Elinor shook her head. "No way. We contact Sennet and the others first, bring them here, and then we all can go with you to find Edward."

  "If I die, Lucien is first in line to take the throne," Ceidrin said, and opened the portal. "Don't you think it would be prudent for me to leave him behind? And if you contact Sennet now, he'll insist on coming."

  "I'm coming after you, then," Elinor said. "I'll be right behind you."

  "That's fine," Ceidrin said, watching the castle for any sign of life. He couldn't even see any guards on the battlements. "Tell Gene not to kill Meinren." Before she could answer, he stepped through and closed the portal behind him.

  Even here, he felt a strange sort of power from the stones under his feet. It was almost as if the kingdom itself recognized him, and he wondered if that were true. Was this pre-ordained? Had he been fooled all along into believing that he actually had a choice?

  Preternaturally aware of everything around him, Ceidrin set his sights on the castle and walked up to the nearest door.

  It opened at his touch. Frowning, he slipped inside.

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  * * *

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  When Edward opened his eyes, he saw Ahlos first, bending over Luka's sprawled out body with a cup in one hand and a half-empty glass pitcher beside him. The body of an elf--presumably the source of the blood in the pitcher--lay against the far wall, but Ahlos had not escaped unscathed. He'd tied a makeshift bandage around his arm, but the shredded sleeve of his shirt was wet with blood.

  "He fought," Ahlos said as soon as he realized Edward was awake. "The others did not."

  "Others?" Edward asked, struggling to sit up. "How many--"

  "Five." Ahlos' grin held nothing but a mad sense of joy. "I did not go in search of Oriellen. Yet."

  "You killed five of her guards and you don't expect anyone to notice?" Edward asked.

  Ahlos shook his head. "They aren't dead. They're locked in another room, bound, gagged, and warded. I didn't know how much blood he would need." He grinned again. "And anyway, Oriellen will have worse things to worry about. The kingdom has chosen its king."

  "The kingdom has chosen--?"

  "You should feel a bit of it," Ahlos said. "You healed yourself with some of that very same power."

  "And you feel it too?" Edward asked, inordinately relieved that the kingdom hadn't chosen him.

  Ahlos hesitated. "If I say yes, you'll think I'm something I'm not," he whispered. "If I say no, you'll wonder where I got my information."

  Edward slowly bent his once-broken leg and used the wall as a crutch to help him stand. It held, with only a passing ache when he put his full weight on it. Wherever the power had come from; the kingdom or the stones under his feet, it had healed the rest of his wounds.

  "Then I won't insist you answer," he said. "Do you know what kind of drug they gave him?"

  Ahlos glanced down at Luka. "From what he has said, it was something Meinren came up with to combat his vision problem," he said. "Only, it didn't quite work the way they planned it to work. And they deliberately gave him an overdose before he came here."

  "Or perhaps it worked just fine," Edward said. "He makes a good scapegoat if he's known to be a bit--"

  "Unstable?" Ahlos' eyes narrowed. "That's true." He glanced back at the elf, as if gauging how much blood he had left in his veins, then pressed his cup to Luka's lips. "He has never been very--observant."

  "But he's a Healer," Edward said. "That has to count for something." He walked across the room without limping once. "How long are you planning to stay here?"

  "How long will it take for Oriellen to realize something is wrong?" Ahlos asked. "If you take him out of here--"

  "I've never been here before," Edward said. "I have no idea where to go or how to find Elinor and the others."

  Ahlos stood. "I can't let her get away," he whispered. "You couldn't begin to understand. Take him out of here. Please."

  "I understand that she cursed me a century ago, and I've spent the last hundred years only human during the space of a couple of days a month," Edward said quietly. He felt something surge in the power around them now--a welcoming, of sorts, as if someone new had just walked through the front door. "You don't have to do this alone. She owes me something, too."

  Ahlos cocked his head, his eyes half-closed, listening to the same thing. "Ceidrin is here."

  "By himself?" Edward asked, wondering how he had managed that feat, since he was--no
doubt--now king.

  "I took the guards at the gate, and opened a few doors," Ahlos said. "I thought someone might come for you."

  "And Oriellen?" Edward asked. "Where is she?"

  Ahlos bared his teeth. "Summoning her hounds," he said. "I must go."

  Edward dropped to his knees beside Luka, and carefully pulled him up. His eyes half-opened, but they were glazed and unaware; despite the blood he had drunk, he was still lost in the throes of the drug.

  "I must go," Ahlos repeated.

  "Then go," Edward said. "I'm not leaving him here." He tucked the dagger into a pocket of his ruined coat and stood up with Luka's arm across his shoulders. It was an awkward position, made even worse by Luka's dead weight.

  Ahlos draped his other arm across his own shoulders a moment later. "We will--move quicker if we work together," he said. "I'll show you the way out."

  Carefully, still slowly, they moved down the hall and to the door that led to freedom.

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  Chapter Twenty-Six

  "What are you doing here?"

  Ceidrin had half-expected to be stopped much sooner as he ventured through the silent castle, but he had not found a single soul, until now.

  Oriellen stood in the hallway behind him with four hounds at her side, their beauty belying the fact that she had used them for ill.

  "The door was open," Ceidrin said, which was the truth. "I saw no guards; no sign of life. I was concerned, Aunt."

  Her lip started to curl, but then she thought better of it and smiled instead. "My guards must be--" For a moment, she couldn't think of a word to say. "Detained, I suppose. I can't imagine how the door became unlocked."

  "You should keep better track of your guards," Ceidrin said. "But in truth, I came to speak to you, Aunt, and invite you back to the castle to answer the charges against you."

  "Charges? Brought by whom?"

  Ceidrin smiled, although he knew that would probably make it worse, at least in her mind. "Brought by me." He hesitated. "Meinren is already in custody, after attempting to kill our Aunt Mahalia. You have a lot to answer for, Aunt."