She cast her portal, and the other wytch queens filed through.
The initiates didn’t move, they knew if they did they’d be killed for disobeying orders.
“Begin.” She barked as she left them alone to their fates.
Keenan waited for her in her study when she returned, and though she said nothing, he opened his arms to enfold her, calmly providing support for her against the worry she could never admit to feeling.
“They’re smart girls.” Keenan reassured her. “And you can bet that they will work together to get through this.”
“That strategy would be against the rules and give them both a liability.” Silver muttered. “Besides, the point isn’t just to survive, not really. The point is to impress the Dark Coven.”
“Asha knows that.” Keenan replied. “I think she will surprise you.”
“She can use her wings if nothing else.” Silver reassured herself. “No one knows about them so she should be safe.” She tried to forget the list of aerial predators in the desert even as she spoke.
In the end, despite her worry, she drifted to sleep in Keenan’s arms, waking to the knowledge that she had less than an hour till the initiation was complete.
Silver carefully and deliberately strapped her weapons across her body, pulling one of her more extravagantly decorated masks across her eyes in recognition of the occasion. Lena came in holding a box of small jewels attached to tiny clips which she gently clipped into Silver’s feathers. When it was over her black wings shimmered with tiny diamond stars that matched those encrusted into the ends of sophisticated silver swirls that swept out from the furthest corner of the eyeholes in her mask. More diamonds covered the ornamental knives disguised as hairpins that were placed in her hair, those had been a gift from Keenan and she fingered them fondly. That was all the ornamentation she would permit, and she only donned it in a show of solidarity for her niece.
When she reached the courtyard where the initiates would appear it was to see only Grandmother Black, Hannah, Lillian and Casey were there. The latter two were in deep conversation that made it clear that although their mentees hadn’t attained their familiars yet they wanted to be prepared for when they did. Unspoken in all the preparations for this evening would be the distain for any wytch queen who failed to train her student sufficiently to pass the tests. It was a waste of magical strength should any of the initiates die.
Grandmother Black wore her usual flowing black robes, edged with gold to mark the occasion of one of her own trainees undergoing the initiation. The other wytch queen initiate was Nydia, and Hannah showed her support for her student by adorning herself with gold and jewels from head to toe, no doubt every piece of it stolen and each piece a testament to the wytch’s skill. Other wytch queens arrived one by one, till the circle of seven stood loosely around the space, Silver directly in front of the ritual cauldron that Misty had dug up from somewhere. When everyone was in place, Silver gave a slight nod to Averna and Grandmother Black.
The wytch queen of death opened a tiny fissure between the world of the living and the world of the dead at the western edge of the desert. Grandmother Black held the souls trying to break free in check as a ghostly green light exploded over the horizon for a second before Averna shut the gateway.
The entire ordeal took its toll on the two wytch queens, but Silver was amazed at how little it showed. It was a testament to the third and fourth most powerful dark wytches that they held their poise and nonchalant expressions despite the immensity of the magical undertaking.
It didn’t take long for the first trainee to appear; Nydia seemed to explode from the floor from a puddle of inky blackness that must have something to do with the nightmares she commanded. She was splattered with blood and holding the head of a desert bandit in her grasp. She looked wild, but as Hannah broke into a fierce grin she straightened, walked forwards purposefully and placed the head that was her offering into the cauldron of flames that stood three steps in front of Silver.
“I deliver the bones of those who would oppose me to the Dark Coven.” She began, then dug her own human fingernails deep into the skin of her wrist, drawing blood and letting it drip into the fire after the head of the bandit. “I deliver my blood to the Dark Coven and swear allegiance to Wytch Queen Silver and her laws.”
“Your offerings are accepted.” Silver replied, nodding her head for the woman to move into place next to Hannah who wrapped her initiate in a cloak that transformed into a flowing gothic dress the moment it covered her shoulders. In moments Nydia was clean from her bushy blonde hair to her toes.
As if by design Sekai appeared the moment that Nydia took her place in the circle.
The harpy was as clean as she had been when she left, not a drop of blood on her. But her skin was instead adorned with the bodies of five different venomous snakes, hung around her neck like trophies, their necks broken.
She stepped up to the cauldron, her expression haughty, prideful in a way that made Silver certain that she needed to keep a close eye on this one. Pride was acceptable, most of the dark wytch queens had spades of it, but those wytch queens had seen what she was capable of first hand. Perhaps, she thought as Sekai dropped first her offering and then her blood into the cauldron, the Dark Coven was due another demonstration soon.
The ritual words were spoken, and Sekai took her place in the circle, taking the robe Grandmother Black apathetically handed to her. Upon donning it the material transformed into a tiny skirt and tight bustier top that let her wings loose and showcased the light dusting of fur that went down her back and flowed around her ankles and collarbone.
They looked back towards the centre of the courtyard, and Silver cursed Asha for making her wait.
Tension burned in her blood as the minutes ticked by. The Dark Coven waited patiently as the half-hour window in which the initiates had to return slowly began to close. Restlessly Silver resisted the urge to pace or tap her foot. Keeping still was suddenly taking up a lot of her concentration. Her eyes watched the clock above them as she counted down. With a minute to go she opened her mouth with dread, about to announce that the two initiates had failed. That was when Masozi arrived, the air filling with the sounds of battle after her teleport. Asha was close behind her, and somewhere in her mind Silver recognised that Masozi must have had difficulty teleporting for the first time, and Asha’s lateness would have been due to helping her friend.
But that was not the foremost thing on her mind as she heard the circle’s collective gasp and took in the fact that the two were wearing the skins of desert wyverns and each of them clutched, in one hand, a still dripping heart.
Masozi approached the cauldron first and threw the heart into it, but when she went to throw the scaled hide of the dragon in Silver halted her with a wave of her hand.
“Only one sacrifice need be made.” She stated.
Masozi bowed her head.
“I deliver the heart of those who would oppose me to the Dark Coven.” She said, and then used one of the spines still hanging from the hide to score her skin and drip her own blood into the cauldron. “I deliver my blood to the Dark Coven and swear allegiance to Wytch Queen Silver and her laws.”
“Your offerings are accepted,” Silver replied, nodding for the tiny fey to move into the circle opposite her and handing her a cloak that unsurprisingly turned to ice fey armour the moment it covered Masozi.
Asha stepped forwards and plunged the heart into the fire. “I deliver the heart of those who would oppose me to the Dark Coven. I deliver my blood to the Dark Coven and swear allegiance to Wytch Queen Silver and her laws.” She used her own claws to drip blood into the cauldron, and Silver watched curiously as the blood seemed to glitter as it fell. The cut closed almost instantly.
“Your offerings are accepted.” She told her niece, nodding at Asha to take her place on her right hand side, between Silver and Grandmother Black. The cloak Silver passed her turned instantly to a dove grey replica of Silver’s own armour, albeit wi
thout the weapons or mask.
“Now that that is over and done with,” She began. “You are no doubt aware of our meeting with our allies, and you also know of the plan to take down an Ancient. I have kept no secrets from you in this. The target we are to take on will be the home world of Ancient Ellamae, one of our most powerful and vile enemies. Though we work with our allies in this endeavour, I do not have to warn you not to make the mistake of placing your trust in them. Watch your own backs, and if necessary watch those of your fellow dark wytch queens. But above all show solidarity and power. Make them fear us more than they already do.”
Wordlessly they disbanded, and Silver lead the two girls back to her study.
“I would ask Joanna to have those hides made into armour if I were you.” Silver suggested to the two of them. “It will serve as a reminder who won this initiation.”
“But Aunt Silver, you never said it was a competition.”
“Then you are deaf.” Silver replied. “Because I have told you a thousand times already, girl, that perception is everything.”
She opened a portal to Dalmorin once they were behind the door of the study and ushered them through. From then, they were out of her hands as Roan, Keenan, Lena and Acis bombarded them with congratulations while Keir and Masozi’s white dove familiar, Jem, smothered their wytches with attention and praise.
The moment Riven entered the room; his eyes locked onto Asha and didn’t leave her as she moved around opening celebratory presents provided to her by them all. Silver knew that the fey was enamoured with her niece, and wondered exactly when Asha planned to have her revenge upon him, or if that was even the case anymore. The two seemed to have become closer since she’d locked them both in the safe room together and it was only now that she was thinking about the repercussions of her actions.
Because there was no way a fey spy would be considered good enough for the princess of two realms and a queen of wytches.
Yet again, she thought, glancing at her own fey, perhaps Riven would grow to fit the position of Asha’s protector. Or perhaps he would end up dead for breaking his vows. Only time would tell.
“Get some sleep.” She interrupted the gathering. “Tomorrow will be interesting to say the least, and as wytch queens I expect the both of you to be awake and alert.”
“I’m glad you’re proud of us Aunt Silver,” Asha ignored her completely and grabbed Silver around the waist in a great hug. “We did our best to impress you.”
Everyone sucked in a collective breath, seemingly unsure what Silver would do in response to the ridiculous affectionate contact.
Silver gently extracted herself from the girl, glaring at anyone in the room she thought may comment on it and stalked off to her room to begin the plans.
Chapter Forty-Two
CANNON FODDER
Asha had been forced to arrive early for the war meeting, simply because arriving with either coven would have been construed as favouritism by the many allies each was bringing. So now she stood in a great war-room, gazing out of a ruined window that still held shattered fragments of the original stained glass panes; peering over the waterfall which plunged from all sides down into a churning pool a dizzying distance below.
The fortress she remembered well from her aunt’s memories. She knew that several floors below this room was a heavily warded chamber where some of her aunt’s most loyal guardians had been given their last rites thousands of years ago. And where Tommy, her mother’s friend had also been honoured as the first warrior for hundreds of years to be deemed fit for the ceremonial burial, just months before her birth. So heavy were the ghosts of the past in this place that Asha wouldn’t have been surprised if one of the elven warriors of old had been looking over her shoulder right then. She looked back over her shoulder at the rest of the room, feeling the memory of her aunt’s sadness at the place having been left this way. Some of the only happy memories of Silver’s childhood had been produced here.
She walked away from the window, towards the round table in the middle of the room. There had been another reason for her coming early, one that was meant to serve as a surprise to her aunts and uncles.
She laid her hands across the stone and concentrated, passing her magic around the citadel, making sure to cover every inch of it, then with her mind she searched outwards, finding the structure that she had unwittingly found on her initiation.
Though her father had outlawed slavery, the Desert Slave Shop still stood. Its inescapable and defensible walls now home to a desert don, some bandits and thugs for hire. Asha felt her magic touch every part of the building, noting how it was still in excellent condition. Then she toppled it, razed it to the ground with one sweep, using the power she wielded to force Toyke back to its prime as she did so. And thus as one fortress citadel collapsed, another rose from its crumbling ruins. As nature overtook the ruins of the slave shop, it retreated from Toyke, till the star citadel had returned completely to its former self, stone by glittering stone.
When it was done, she didn’t even feel tired, and she wondered at how vast her powers had grown since taking down Llewellyn. Now they wanted her to kill another Ancient, yet Asha wasn’t sure she wanted all that power, and who else was there to give it to? The power of both the covens was already double that which it usually was, and her father could conceivably live forever on the power she’d given him.
The only other option was to channel it into the Ancients themselves, but from what she could tell, none of them ever needed to become more powerful.
As she looked around the restored room, she noticed huge canvases being pieced back together, the mould and grime receding from them as the roof rebuilt itself and the table was restored, lichens peeling off and fading into nothing, revealing the inscriptions beneath that told tales of elven valour and strength from ages long past. The shards of the window flew upwards from the depths of the river below, merging together to show a heart-breaking scene.
It was the elven royal family, as they must have been before the king’s madness. In the centre was the king, by his side, his glowing wife, Hira, clutching in her arms the baby Thalia, and around them their five boys. Endis stood seriously beside his father, while uncle Roan was caught with a lifelike expression of mischief on his face. The twins stood next to each other, arms around each other’s shoulder, while Felix sat at their feet, gazing out of the window with silver eyes matched by every other family member. Even Thalia’s wide baby eyes were coloured in that way and the colour was brought out with matching lettering around the edge, telling of how the family with eyes of silver were so beloved by the Ancients that they were made immortal, to be a symbol of hope to the people through war and peace. It was lies, of course, but the window then went on to explain the terrible cost the immortality had on the family, and how they were stricken by the sudden death of all their children after tiny Princess Thalia, beloved of all the nation and heir to the throne, was born.
Asha stopped and re-read the last part. And then re-read it again.
“Surely it must be propaganda,” she thought aloud.
“I think you know better than that.” Kate’s voice came to her from a far corner of the room.
“Is it true then?” Asha asked, turning and meeting her grandmother’s embrace as they studied the mural together. “Is Silver the rightful queen?”
“And what if she was?” Kate waved a hand across the mural, and before her eyes the last line disappeared. “Would you take up arms for her? Demand your uncle give up the throne to Silver? Think before you speak, little one. There are very few left alive who remember the birth right of Princess Thalia, even fewer who would support her claim. And Silver would never suit a throne; you know that as well as I.”
“But you were the one who said she should rule!”
“At the time, my weak foresight showed me a very different vision for Thalia’s future. I have never been very gifted in that art, and so when I failed to see the wars and the madness of her father, I failed to se
e what a terrible choice I had made, so I covered up all the evidence of it till the foretelling faded out of memory. Now only Endis, Silver and their brothers truly remember. And Endis has wanted Silver all these years because of it.”
“He wants to make her who she was before so she can become queen.” Asha muttered. “All those years of searching for her, he never wanted the crown, but he can’t give it to her until he can prove she would be the best one to hold it!”
“Correct. Endis, burdened as he is, has never been bewitched by Thalia’s enchantment. He simply wants his sister to claim what is rightfully hers and release him from the crown he never wanted.”
Asha shook her head in wonder. “My aunt and uncles will all be here today.” She informed Kate, “They’ll notice it’s changed.”
“They will. But they will never ask you about it.”
Asha cringed at the thought of having that conversation with her aunt or any of her uncles. “You’re certain? This isn’t another of your foretellings is it?”
Kate laughed. “No, it is an old fashioned guess, nothing more.” She stroked a hand through Asha’s hair. “This alliance must work, Asha. The alternative does not bear thinking about.”
“I understand.” Asha knew very well that she, her mother, father, Keenan, Silver and many others would all die if the plan didn’t work. They wouldn’t be alive to have a second chance at killing Ellamae and taking her world of warriors out of the picture.
Kate disappeared quickly after that, leaving her alone for little more than a minute before the double doors were flung open and the Light Coven made their entrance.
The cacophony of high heels clacking away at the stonework echoed before them as they burst into the room like an explosion of colour, leading the way for the leaders of their collective allies. Among those present Asha spotted Cass’s vampire sire, a number of dragon generals, a few of the dwarf lords, all of her elven uncles and some of her father’s top human generals to name but a few. The wytches themselves were nearly cackling with anticipation and magical auras. They were clearly keeping with her mother’s belief that it didn’t matter that they held less intimidating powers than the Dark Coven, and flaunting all the power they had.
Asha's Power (Soul Merge Saga Book 4) Page 28