“How close are you to your animal right now?” Silver asked. “Tell me the truth.”
“I’ve always been on the edge; hiding in a cell isn’t going to help me to learn to control it.” He argued.
Silver was silent for several minutes, judging his motives. He had been Marten’s prisoner since she had stopped his assassination attempt on the king, kept in a cell for far too long. It was a shame considering his abilities.
“Weapon of choice?” Silver asked, making her decision.
Tommy let out a breath he appeared to have been holding for some time. “Butterfly swords.” He replied, getting to his feet.
Silver wondered where on earth the boy had ever learnt to use traditional dwarven weaponry. Butterfly swords were rare, strangely broad bladed swords that were roughly the length of a human forearm.
“When did you learn to use them?”
“Romana took me to the armoury one day and told me if I was going to be a spy I was going to learn to defend myself.” Tommy smiled. “I was allowed to pick any weapon I wanted. Butterfly swords looked best, plus I thought that with two swords you have twice the ability to stab your opponents.” He flashed a cheeky, boy-like smile that was at odds with the sullen man he had been as he debated whether or not to drink demon blood.
Silver turned with a cursory nod and led him out of the cell without a word. Romana had taken every precaution possible to make sure this boy was safe, but why? What was a thief-turned-spy to a wytch queen?
She sifted through their shared memories. The boy, to all intents and purposes, appeared to be nothing more than a simple friend. Something must have changed since Silver had died and then been reincarnated.
“It’s because Katelyn worries about me.” Tommy volunteered. “When I was first recruited as a spy at seventeen she didn’t want me to go on missions; she would find out where I was being sent and go after me and it used to drive Romana mad. That in turn made the king annoyed, so he hired a dwarven man to teach me.”
Silver huffed. “Foolish girl. If she wanted to keep you safe she could have learned to defend you. Plus if you are any good as a spy I don’t believe you should have needed to defend yourself. Isn’t the point that your enemy believes you to be among their allies?”
Tommy smiled, “Sometimes. But other times we are tasked with situations that require us to use less subtle methods.” He didn’t seem affected by what he was saying, which was completely at odds with what Silver would have expected of him. He had managed to retain an easy-going and laughing personality that in her experience, human spies and warriors did not have. Most of those she had met were brooding, intense and sometimes even honourable, much like Keenan.
On their way outside to meet Keenan she ordered the dwarves to fetch Tommy two swords. They emerge into the bright sunlight of one of the paddocks surrounding the fortress. The grass was wet from rain they appeared to have just missed, and the ground muddy and uneven. The mules that the dwarves used in the mines were on the far side in the shelter of the trees, half asleep in a cluster of long ears and short fur.
Keenan stood shirtless in the centre of the paddock, doing drills with another pair of swords. Walking closer with Tommy close at her heels Silver wondered about the weapon choices of the two halflings. She had always thought her preference for dual wielding uncommon, but the two thieves both using them made her wonder if fashions had changed in recent years. Given the rarity, age and culture behind the blades, however, she doubted it.
Keenan had, if possible, chosen weapons more obscure than Tommy. His hook swords were longer than most sets Silver had seen, and she hadn’t seen very many of the ancient fey weapons. The fey guarded their culture viciously, never letting any outsiders onto their islands southwest of the main continent. Their weird brand of magic had captivated scholars, though none of them would ever witness it.
His technique as he completed the drills was flawless, and Silver gauged his strength and skill with a critical eye. His blades swung through the air with an ease only a master swordsman could achieve. How much training could a man like this need?
Tommy would have continued to move forwards, but Silver put her arm out in front of him to signal him to halt.
“Wait,” She commanded softly.
She continued to watch for Keenan to stumble or misstep, but he didn’t. It took her a few seconds to realise the obvious problem she was seeing.
His speed was human.
The fey looked human – unlike the elves with their obvious grace and chiselled features – but they had a natural speed close to elvenspeed. If the fey was exceptionally diligent in training their speed, they could even surpass the average elf. Keenan wasn’t exceeding human velocity.
“Tommy, use elvenspeed and surprise Keenan.” She instructed, whispering though she suspected there was no need; if Keenan didn’t use his natural speed the likelihood was that he curbed his hearing abilities as well.
Keenan had been acting mortal his whole life, and it had been the same with Romana. If her sister hadn’t learned to use her speed and move effectively Silver would have had trouble making the muscles of the body they shared work in the way she needed them to.
“I can only do the speed thing in short bursts.” Tommy apologised.
Both of them were playing mortal? Silver groaned.
“Drop the swords, both of you!” She yelled. “You’re not worthy to hold the blades. Keenan, get over here! I am not yelling across this field at you.” When he didn’t move fast enough she yelled again. “Move it ice-boy! I don’t have all day and if you are still holding those swords in five seconds I will chop off your hands!”
Annoyance raced through her, though whether it was aimed at them for being incompetent or at her for not realising their fault sooner, she couldn’t tell. Keenan arrived, looking infuriated.
“Five laps of this paddock, you have thirty seconds.” She ordered.
“No-one can do that.” Keenan objected.
“Ten seconds.” Silver retorted. “Answer back one more time and I’ll make it five. If you fail, then you lose a foot. Maybe I’ll heal it, maybe I won’t.”
Both of them paled, and she was glad to see neither of them doubted she would do it.
“Go,”
She spoke softly, but they left her side instantly. She used her own speed to track their progress as they raced around the field. As Tommy had said, he could only use elvenspeed in small bursts, and Keenan, though able to use the speed of the fey, couldn’t seem to co-ordinate his movements and ended up falling into the stodgy, muddy grass because he didn’t concentrate on where he was stepping.
Finally, they both made it back to her, both covered in mud and sweat. She frowned in disgust.
“Twelve minutes and fifty one seconds.” Silver announced, having kept count in her head. “What did you learn from this?”
“That you set impossible tasks!” Keenan retorted.
Silver, using speed slower than normal, ran five times around the field. “It was not impossible.” She explained, as she reappeared in the centre with them. “You both lack the necessary discipline and concentration required. That much became clear within the first few seconds.” She was angry at them both now, for some reason she had expected them to have some level of ability. She drew her swords.
Keenan watched the movement then glanced at Tommy, for a moment, Silver thought he was going to beg her to punish Tommy not him, but he did the opposite.
“If you’re going to punish anyone, punish me.” He interrupted. “You made a vow not to harm Tommy unnecessarily and he did finish before me.”
Silver hesitated, and that was what made her do what she did next.
With a single swing she swooped low and cut not one, but both of Keenan’s feet from his body. Then she looked at him with shock.
Tommy grabbed Keenan as he started to fall, a bellow of pain erupting from him at the same time that blood raced out and he stared at his dismembered feet in shock.
Silv
er chucked the small phial of demon blood at Tommy. “Pour it over the wounds and be thankful he took your punishment.” She muttered.
Then Silver fled.
She walked back, seemingly controlled and collected but inside she was roiling with confusion.
She had been about to spare them both, to swing the sword but miss intentionally; just leaving them with a minor scare. But when Keenan had defended Tommy she had been sucked back to another time and another place. She’d been transported back to the palace tree in Elvardis in the days of her youth, to her mad father yelling at her older brother to continue her torment, and to Roan volunteering to take the punishment for her.
Roan had stood up to Endis and their crazed father in front of the entire court. Her punishment for screaming at a nightmare had been to be whipped in front of all of the nobles, to show that weakness was not acceptable in times of war. Her laughing, jesting older brother had argued against the punishment, had told her father that the routine tortures Silver had been enduring to make her ‘strong’ were what had been causing the night terrors. And when Endis had been handed the whip by her father and swung it as ordered, Roan had dashed in front of her and taken the lashing.
He’d whispered to her the entire time that his back was being shredded, as her father yelled for more blood to flow and the madness of war consumed him. He was her only brother who refused to torture her to ‘save’ her as a child, and he had taken the beatings for that too.
“Roan.” Silver murmured, spread her wings, and took flight.
Chapter Eighteen
NO JEWEL OR COIN…
“She’s completely unpredictable.” Kate argued as she stood with Gaillean gazing into the fires in his volcanic forge. Gaillean had been the one who Romana had gotten her powers from, fire and air were his to command as well, though his body was able to handle the amount of power he had and thus he did not glow like their daughter.
“She is perfect.” Gaillean retorted. “She is my daughter!”
“Why show her the favouritism you deny your full blooded daughter?” Kate demanded. “Talia is only half your kind, and her soul is not rightfully your daughter’s anyway!”
“Her name is Silver.” Gaillean dismissed her and turned back to the fire which still showed the image of Silver flying in a loose ring around Dalmorin. “Look at her; she’s such a complex, fierce being. I have always admired wildness and volatility. Romana is of your temperament.”
“And you don’t stick around for those of us that don’t go on murderous rampages, do you?”
Gaillean turned to her, looked her in the eye and replied in the brutally honest way only he was capable of. “Kate, I am a slave to my own nature. I protected you in a way you found hurtful but yet as a result the daughter you so prize was not slaughtered in your womb by the Council. I did as I was expected by the Council back then in order to protect you both. I gave you both up, and I will not do so again if I get the chance to feel freely and openly once again.”
If the Council falls, the words were unspoken but almost tangible in the air around them.
Did he mean he wanted to be with both of them once he broke the Council into pieces? After all he had done? He’d ignored his daughter for over three decades and now he wanted to be a family.
“No.” Kate spat out. “You don’t get to use the Council as an excuse. If you cared about us you would have defied them, together we would have done as we were doing now.”
“It wasn’t feasible at the time.” Gaillean argued. “Llewellyn’s spawn created a window we simply cannot ignore.”
“I don’t have to listen to this.” Kate attempted to teleport out, only to find a barrier in place. “What are you doing, Gaillean? You cannot keep me here.” She mentally punched at the shield around the cave, trying to break it and teleport away but to no avail.
“I will keep you here until you have heard me out.” He insisted. “Can you not remember what we were like? At the very beginning of time we danced together, and then when we developed into something more, would you not give anything to have that happiness back again, and to be able to express it fully?”
“Why do you care?” Kate demanded, “There is nothing between us now but memories. Nothing!”
“A wise woman once told me there is no jewel or coin in this universe more precious than memory.” Gaillean responded, and before she could blink she was caged against the wall.
She almost smiled at the memory of them both at the beginning of days, running through meadows and fields just created. But their current situation had enraged her and so she barely reminisced as she struggled to be out of the prison he had created.
“That woman was young and carefree.” Kate replied, almost sadly. “She did not carry the burdens I do.”
“But you still feel the same about me Kate, admit it.”
“No! I will not. Loving you brought me nothing but misery. I loved you and you loved only freedom, I will not make the same mistake again.” Tears were running silently down her face as she ceased struggling. “We almost lost our daughter to the Council when we were together, if this were to continue between us then both Romana and Silver would be killed!”
“Ah, but the Council will soon be no more, little one.” Gaillean reminded her as he leaned over her and pressed a line of kisses to her throat. “What excuse will you hide behind then?”
“I’m not –”
But Kate was cut off as Gaillean suddenly kissed her, silencing her protests as she tried will all her might to find the will to stop him
But she couldn’t and within moments she was cradling his face with her hands as she kissed him back.
It took a minute, maybe two, for her to find her sanity and shove him backwards with all of her considerable strength.
“Don’t EVER do that again.” She ordered, panting.
“You don’t mean that.” Gaillean retorted. “You still love me dammit!”
“Fine, tell yourself whatever you need to!” Kate fought a battle against her emotions as she struggled to stop herself from launching back into his arms. “I just want to leave.”
Maybe she had finally said the words with enough vehemence, or maybe Gaillean was merely distracted by the sight of tears streaking down her face, but her next mental shove at his shield worked, and with a last glance at him, she teleported away.
Chapter Nineteen
LACK OF DISCIPLINE
Silver landed in the paddock outside Dalmorin so ungracefully it could have been regarded as crashing; the crater she left in the earth a testament to her exhaustion. After flying away from Keenan and Tommy earlier she had used her speed to track each one of her siblings, but she had never found the one she wanted to find most; Roan.
Perhaps it was for the best, she had been so unstable previously that it was likely she would have confronted him in an embarrassing display of emotional turmoil. Pulling her wings back into her back she noted the broken tattered feathers with revulsion.
She was too weak, even if she was stronger than she had been before. Her memories had shoved their way forwards when they had been buried for thousands of years. This potentially fatal development could not be allowed to continue.
Debating the cause had not helped her, the only difference between Keenan’s act of self-sacrifice and the millions of others she had seen were the people involved, yet she could not see why that would affect her; especially given her lack of a close relationship with either of the men.
Her only option was to guard her memories closer than before and if a second lapse occurred, to try and find a common cause.
Gaillean was not responding to her mental calls, and she had considered the idea that he and Kate were behind this as some sort of experiment to ‘fix’ her, but she found it unlikely.
Silver’s best theory was that that tiny piece of Romana’s soul that remained inside of her was causing the problem somehow. Her sister’s ability to feel so deeply was the complete reverse of Silver’s decision not to and it
was causing some kind of mental instability.
She strode, uncaring of her tiredness into the fortress and was greeted almost instantly with Leigh’s yell.
“You chopped his bloody feet off!” The centaur bellowed. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“I wanted some new slippers.” Silver muttered as Leigh cantered up to her and drew alongside her, eyes flashing dangerously with menace. “Whose side are you on Leigh?”
“Yours! And I had hoped, when I offered you the guild’s information and a thief lord on a silver platter you would keep him in one piece and not upset the Council!”
“The Council will not hear of it.” Keenan’s voice came from the shadows of the mountain halls, followed quickly by the man himself, walking unaided next to Tommy.
Leigh fell silent, and shot him a questioning look to which he responded.
“I agreed the punishment for failure and offered to take punishment. The wytch merely accepted my offer when she took both my feet and left Tommy unharmed. I cannot fault her for this.” His eyes were grave as he turned to Silver. “It is a privilege to be trained by you, and I will endeavour to fix my shortcomings before our next training session.”
Taking her completely off guard, Keenan knelt in the traditional bow of a person in the presence of the Ancient’s before standing and leaving the way Silver had come, followed closely by Tommy.
“What the heck?” Leigh wondered after they’d left. “They must be mad.” She gave Silver a look. “You knew they’d do this, didn’t you?”
Silver smiled, and it was a true smile, unlike her usual cold smirk. “Tommy’s punishment was seeing Keenan in that state. It tormented him more knowing that his mentor took the blame for his crime than it would have if I had equally punished the both of them. Keenan is under the delusion I have mercy because I spared Tommy which makes him grateful to me.” She paused thoughtfully. “Tommy’s determination not to make Keenan suffer further and Keenan’s caution in not testing my mercy again will make them both work harder.”
Silver's Redemption (Soul Merge Saga Book 3) Page 19