Sword of Elements Series Boxed Set 2: Bound In Blue, Caught In Crimson & To Make A Witch

by Heather Hamilton-Senter

  Another clap of thunder. The river had become a shallow stream and the girl’s body had washed up on the shore. White bones showed through white flesh and I was grateful her tattered gown and golden hair hid most of what was left of her from sight. A man on horseback passed by on the road and when he saw the lovely ruin by the water, he dismounted and wept over it. Retrieving a knife from his saddlebag, he went to work on the body, severing bones and shearing hair.

  I was reminded of L’Inconnue de la Seine and the worship of beautiful dead things in the water.

  The thunder came again and I was now in a crowded hall where a young couple sat at the head table, whispering to one another and stealing quick kisses. It was a wedding celebration. Beside me was the man who had found the body of the girl and in his hands he held a golden harp.

  I walked with him as he approached the bride and groom. The harper placed the harp on the table and sweet music sprang from it entwined with a voice which pierced my soul. It sang of two sisters who loved the same man, but he loved the younger one and her golden hair. It sang of how they walked by the river and how the jealous sister pushed the other one in. It sang of the harper who wept over the body of the drowned girl and then used her bones and hair to make a golden harp.

  And then the harp accused the young bride in the hall of murdering her sister Binnorie and marrying Binnorie’s beloved.

  No clap of thunder, just a slow fade of the scene as I closed my eyes in the past and opened them in the present.

  I took an unsteady breath. “What was that?”

  Miko took the harp from my nerveless fingers and put it back in her bag. “You saw?” I nodded. “The harper carved the frame of the harp from Binnorie’s breastbone and made the tuning pegs from her fingers and the strings from her hair. The harp sang the truth of how Binnorie died and Binnorie’s sister was burned at the stake by the same husband she stole. I think after that the harp became obsessed with justice and uncovering hidden truths. I think it helps us find people with talent because they’re hidden too, but it’s not all-knowing and it does send us down some completely useless roads sometimes. Because of the sister’s betrayal, it took me a while to earn the harp’s trust, but it doesn’t trust men at all. It hasn’t forgotten that Binnorie’s beloved transferred his affections to her sister after Binnorie’s death.”

  “Is her spirit in the harp?” I was horrified at the thought.

  Miko shrugged. “Don’t know, but Binnorie must have had powerful earth magic for her bones and hair to still be alive with it even after her death. Too bad she didn’t discover that before her sister murdered her.”

  I shivered. “Where did you find it?”

  “It called to me. It led me to one of those old castles in England that’s open to the public. The harp was sitting on a bookshelf, right out in the open, but no one seemed to see it. I don’t know why it chose me, but I became its keeper.”

  I crossed my arms. “And now you use it to kidnap people.”

  Miko laughed. “Nope, you’re the first.”

  Tynan wasn’t amused. “Stop it, Miko. No one’s being kidnapped.”

  “Really, Ty? Taliesin’s paranoid and you know it. I mean, I agree we need to get to the bottom of things, but we could try asking the harp instead of locking Rhi up in a tower like Rapunzel. Now that we’ve introduced them, we could do it right now.”

  Tynan sat back down on the bed. “No. Not unless Dad says we can.”

  I wasn’t sure I wanted to get any better acquainted with Binnorie, but I asked anyway, “If the harp is so good at finding truth, why would he say no?”

  Miko grimaced. “He doesn’t trust it. Or me.”

  “Why not?”

  Miko lay back on the bed and pretended to inspect the black polish on her nails.

  “It’s the whole fairy thing,” Tynan explained when Miko didn’t respond.

  I laughed and then stopped when I saw he was serious.

  Time for a little payback.

  “You’re a fairy? Don’t fairies have wings and put their hair up in ballet buns and need little children to clap for them or they die?”

  With a sigh, Miko pushed herself up on her elbows and glared at me. “OK, listen up, cuz I’m not repeating it. Mom was a fairy—or a sidhe as you better call them whenever über Celt Taliesin is around—and Dad was human. He owned a ritzy department store in Kyoto—still does—and she was the model-slash-girlfriend of a well-known British lingerie designer. Did you know half the models in the world are at least part sidhe? Fairies can retract their wings into their bodies, and who else could look as good in thongs and pushup bras? Anyway, Dad was rich and kind of hot stuff so they hooked up. Mom got pregnant and I ended up with some fairy powers but no wings—genetics are a bitch. As soon as I was born, she dumped me on Dad and took off. Fairies are beautiful, obviously, but also lazy, cruel, and generally stupid. Dad spent a lot of time beating that out of me—literally—so when the harp called, I left and never looked back. Fairy powers are all about glamour and deceit and that makes me good at knowing the truth from a lie and not so good at getting people to trust me.”

  Tynan put his arm around the girl’s shoulders. “I trust you, Meek.”

  Miko shook him off and rolled her eyes again. “Because you’re an idiot who can’t even remember the first fifteen years of his life. If you did, maybe you’d know better.”

  “Wait,” I interrupted, “you were serious about that?’ When Tynan flushed, I regretted asking.

  “When Taliesin found him in New York, he was living on the street like an animal. He didn’t even know his own name and his abilities were all over the place.”

  Tynan’s face had gone bright red, but Miko was about as sensitive as a wooden spoon. “What about Daley?” I asked to change the subject. I didn’t expect Miko to fall back on the bed laughing in response.

  “Don’t,” Tynan warned. “He’ll kill you if he finds out you told her.”

  “Oh, who cares!” She flipped over and looked at me with a wicked smile. “It’s too funny to not share. Daley’s been with Taliesin the longest and he’s definitely teacher’s pet. I’ve never seen anyone take Daley down, not even in practice, and he would have more control over the magic side of his abilities if he just tried harder to master it. But back then, nobody would tell me anything about him and even the harp was silent.”

  “The harp doesn’t like Daley,” Tynan added.

  “The harp is flammable, idiot. Can you blame it? Anyway, like I said, Daley was a mystery so I kept my eye on him.”

  “He says you stalked him.”

  “Whatever. I was following him one day when the weather turned bad and then it happened . . .”

  “What?” I asked, intrigued.

  “Daley was hit by lightning.”

  “Was he hurt?”

  “Nope.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  Miko paused for dramatic effect. “He caught it.” She frowned. “So technically, I guess he wasn’t actually hit by the lightning.” She was on her knees now and bouncing on the bed. “C’mon, it’s no fun unless you guess. I’ll give you some clues: lightning, big hammer, imagine Daley with long hair and a beard . . .”

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “Daley is ‘The Mighty Thor’!” Miko fell back on the bed as she exploded into a fit of giggles.

  “He’s not Thor,” Tynan said and then frowned and shook his bangs out of his eyes. “Except, in a way, he kind of is.”

  I shook my head. “What?”

  “Daley is descended from the Greylander who came here and used his power over the weather to make himself the god of thunder. The people in the North called him Thor, but he had names in other places—Summanus, Tlaloc, Thunderbird—it was all the same guy. The old gods did that all the time. To the Celts he was Taranis.”

  Miko snorted. “And because Taliesin is like a billion years old and still thinks Britain is the center of the universe, we all use the Celtic names even though half of t
hose are the Roman versions that got written down. But don’t try telling Tal that. Practically all of the earth magicians alive follow him, so it’s become a ‘thing’.” She air quoted.

  Tynan shrugged. “It would be too confusing to use all the different names. Most of the old gods are gone anyway.”

  “They died?” I asked. “Isn’t immortality the definition of a god?”

  “They lost their powers. None of them were probably truly immortal, except maybe Cernunnos, but thousands of years can feel like it. Without their powers, most died sooner rather than later. A few still hold on. Becoming a god is tricky. When people worship you, it enhances and increases your power. But when the people who worshipped you stop or die off . . .”

  “The power dies too?” I jumped to the logical conclusion.

  “And not just the new power, but the amount you were born with too. It all gets mixed up together. That’s what happened to Viviane, I mean, your mom.”

  I thought of how quickly the sickness came on and how her organs shut down one by one. “No one’s been worshipping her for a long time. Why did it happen now?”

  He shrugged and brushed his hair back. “Viviane was once incredibly powerful, but to you she seemed like an ordinary person. The Lady of the Lake was never seen again after Arthur was defeated. She’d probably been dying for years and it finally caught up with her.”

  I felt sick as Tynan plowed on. “I don’t know if Taranis is dead or not, but Daley’s the first person in three thousand years to inherit the same abilities. Daley’s parents adopted him, so no one knows which one of his ancestors Taranis hooked up with. He’s a Protector too.”

  Miko grabbed the blanket at the end of the bed and wrapped it around her shoulders, striking a pose. “Well I’m going to keep calling him Thor. I bought him a cape last Christmas but he never wears it. Maybe I should get him a helmet this year.”

  Tynan tossed a pillow at her head which she ducked. “Maybe you should stop teasing him about it.” It made me think of Peter.

  “So Daley’s like Peter?” I asked.

  “Sort of. He’s your bonded Protector. You don’t know what that means yet, but he’d die to protect you.”

  “I’d do the same for him. He’s my best friend.”

  Tynan shook his head. “It’s not the same. You can choose to do it, but Peter has to do it. He’ll protect you even if it means letting someone else he loves get hurt. Daley’s different. Taranis wasn’t just the god of thunder. There are ancient references to his powers that no one understands. His symbol was a chariot wheel with eight spokes.”

  My breath caught. The little charm tucked under my sleeve also had eight spokes. I pushed the bracelet a little farther up my wrist. For some reason, I didn’t want anyone to see it.

  “The wheel is a symbol of fate. Dad thinks part of Daley’s inheritance is the responsibility to be a judge over the gods, to decide their fate. I don’t know what that means, but we all get pretty big guilt trips from him whenever one of us screws up.” Tynan laughed but there was an edge to it.

  Miko was watching him. “Daley’s a bully sometimes, but even I know he loves you, Ty.” She paused and bit her lip. “More than anyone else alive on earth.”

  Tynan looked up and Miko shrugged and gave him a funny smile.

  I think I’m missing something.

  She glanced at me. “Daley’s completely full of it sometimes, but he’s as hard on himself as he is on everyone else. Taliesin plans for him to fill the void when Arthur is defeated once and for all. ”

  “Don’t ever say that. There’s only one Earth King.” Tynan’s voice was harsh.

  Miko frowned. “Maybe. And maybe not. I do know Daley doesn’t want to be the judge of the gods.”

  I didn’t understand. “But you said the gods are all dead or powerless now.”

  Miko slipped off the bed and readjusted her ponytails in the mirror over the dresser. “That’s the old gods. There are still gods on earth. Gods who can speak to harps, command armies, take power from a Cŵn Annwn . . .”

  Tynan’s eyes were sad. “We’re the gods Dad believes Daley is destined to judge.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “Us?”

  “Yup.” Miko pulled out some eyeliner from her bag and began thickening and winging the black lines around her eyes. “But what happens when the gods go to war and judging one magic user means betraying another, or protecting a human means ignoring one of his own kind? Rowan started a bet that Lord Thor’s mind won’t be able to handle it and he’ll go berserk and kill us all.” She smirked. “I may have let that slip one day when Daley was being particularly annoying.”

  Tynan brushed my hand with his. I tried not to pull away. “Daley’s always searching through old books and checking out ancient sites where Taranis was worshipped to see if he can find out anything about what he’s supposed to do with his power.”

  Miko threw her eyeliner down on the dresser. “And maybe Daley should decide for himself. Just because some moldy old book or a scratching on a pillar in a field tells him something, it doesn’t mean he has to do it.”

  Tynan looked down so his hair fell over his cheeks and I couldn’t see his eyes. “Fate is fate. You can’t escape it. Maybe it’s better to know who you’re supposed to be, even if you don’t like it.”

  I thought about that for a moment. “I don’t believe in fate,” I decided.

  Miko bounced back on the bed. “Me neither. I say, if all Daley wants to do with his power is roast hotdogs with it, then why not?”

  All this talk about Daley conjured images in my mind—powerful images that stirred something inside me more deeply than Tynan’s quick kiss had.

  The front door slammed. There were voices and then one rose above them all.

  “You can produce the girl now or my men will go and search for her, and they don’t play so nice with things like Italian leather furniture and fancy ceramic doodads. Or doors. You’ll lose your security deposit for sure, Taliesin.” This was said in an English accent so broad it was almost comical and followed by a booming laugh I could somehow feel as well as hear.

  That’s my cue.

  “Sorry guys. You should try to remember to get rid of any cell phones the next time you kidnap someone.” I grabbed my purse and walked out the door.

  “Ah, this must be Miss Lynne.” The man at the bottom of the stairs was an impressive sight. Tall and broad shouldered, he wore a dark green suit accented by the triangle of a handkerchief in a brighter green in the breast pocket. His beard was full and bushy, and the tawny red hair spilling onto his shoulders was as masculine as the mane of a lion. The man stood in the center of a tableau that included Peter, Lacey, and two other bearded men on one side, and Rowan, Daley, and Taliesin on the other.

  “Mr. Goodfellow?” I asked as I came down the stairs. Miko and Tynan had caught up, but I ignored Tynan’s hand brushing my arm as if to stop me.

  Up close, I could see that the man’s eyes were also bright green, and it was a sprig of holly in his pocket. Drops of moisture like dew clung to his hair and beard, but the day was dry and sunny.

  “Of course, my dear, I came as soon as I received your message. Viviane told me you might be in touch.” His face became serious. “The world is darker with her passing.”

  “Thank you.”

  Pulling out a card from the inside pocket of his jacket, Goodfellow offered it to Taliesin but the bard waved it away with a tight smile. “Do not mock me, Silvanus. I know who you are, though I have only had dealings with your cousins.”

  “Yes, you and your kind make quite free use of my kin. But call me Robin Goodfellow, Bard. The name Silvanus died with the Romans.”

  “And I thought the Lord of the Forest no longer ventured onto the Paths to visit the human world.”

  Goodfellow shrugged. “True. You and your earth magicians have bound my kin to ferry your asses to and fro ‘round the world, but I’ve eluded being pulled into this little jihad you and Morgan are working yo
ur way up to. That doesn’t mean I’ve given up all care for what happens in the wider world outside the Greenwood.”

  Daley and Rowan had been watching the exchange with confused looks on their faces, but Rowan seemed to suddenly understand something and stepped forward. “Lord Forest,” he said, bowing from the waist.

  “It's just a Path guide, Rowan . . . ,” Daley said and then his eyes widened. “Are you saying this is the Green Man?”

  “The Green Man, Silvanus, Jack in the Green, the Green Knight, Robin Goodfellow, even Robin Hood—they are all his names,” Rowan replied reverently. “He is the Lord of the Forest and the Keeper of the Paths.” One glance at Peter and I could see he was almost overcome by the thought he was standing in the same room as Robin Hood. I wasn’t so enthusiastic.

  Couldn’t Mom have a nice, normal, human friend I could rely on instead of another addition to the freak show?

  Robin Goodfellow scratched at his beard, but he looked pleased. “It’s nice to be recognized. As for my younger kin, you may call them ‘guides’ if you wish.” He glared at Daley. “But remember they serve at my discretion and allowance.”

  “Take care, Lord Forest.” Taliesin’s voice was quiet, but I could hear the warning in it. Goodfellow seemed to shrink a little.

  I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks Taliesin’s one scary dude.

  The so-called Green Man gestured towards me. “Viviane asked me to come if ever Miss Lynne needed me. Miss Lynne called, so she’s leaving with me, end of argument.”

  Daley was unimpressed. “Do you think you can take her if we don’t want you to?” Either my colors were coming back or there were actual sparks of static electricity dancing in Daley’s hair. Goodfellow flinched.