“She is hardly going to say anything to the Council; I think she might despise them more than we do.” Isaac retorted against Marta’s silencing hand.
“Isaac, Marta, to what do we owe the honour.” Gaillean asked, appearing beside them with a worried looking Kate.
“We come to offer an alliance.” Marta replied. “As a gesture of good faith we offer you overdue notice of our marriage.”
“Marriage?” Kate looked stunned. “But you ended any ties to one another in order to prevent war between the Council members.”
“We chose to lie to the Council. We have been wed for centuries now.” Isaac looked at Gaillean. “But of course you already knew that.”
“Just as I know about your children.” Gaillean replied evenly, and Kate looked ready to faint. “You did well, none of the others even suspect.”
“But the living in fear of their discovery is not something either of us wants to continue doing.” Marta explained. “Hence we’re offering an alliance. The others are doing the same, and I have seen more offers coming your way in the future.”
“You’re speaking as though there will be war among us.” Gaillean noted.
“I have foreseen it.” Marta confirmed. “If she succeeds against Alda then there is a strong possibility that the Council will dissolve into civil war.” With that warning she gestured to Keenan once again. “May I heal him? Isaac and I voted against his punishment, but I still feel guilt for allowing this pain to befall him.”
“Go ahead,” Keenan replied. “But leave the scars.” Silver glared at him.
Marta walked closer and Silver tensed, ready to defend Keenan if this was a trap, but all the woman did was run her hand through the air above him. Instantly the black scabs fell away, displaying silver-white scars.
“You realise the effect of using hellhound blood?” Marta gave Keenan a strange look, and he looked questioningly at Silver.
Silver glared at Naphulan. “Something you forgot to mention?”
“I assumed you valued his life more than his humanity.” Naphulan replied. “If not I can always correct my oversight.”
His humanity? “Explain.” She ordered.
“Humans subjected to large amounts of our blood often inherit extra abilities.”
Such as?” She was getting impatient, and the blade she had gotten out to defend Keenan twirled in her hands.
“Dependant on the amount of blood, anything from increased senses to thickened skin and in extreme cases the ability to drink souls for healing.”
“And how bad is extreme?” Silver demanded, noting the solemn expressions on the Ancient’s faces.
“There has not been a blooding in centuries,” He began. “But his injuries were severe. It is almost certain that he has been granted the ability, and as such is now half demon.”
Keenan sat back and laughed.
Not the reaction she had been expecting, but Silver preferred laughter over silent brooding.
“I get tortured by the Ancients and made half demon in the same day. Living with you is literally hell.” Silver inwardly winced.
“It is living, however.” Gaillean pointed out, defending her. “If not for her actions you would have died, and indeed you are now vastly more powerful than you were before, and being a blend of three races has its perks.”
Keenan scoffed, but Marta interrupted.
“There is a war to discuss, may I suggest that we take this to Kate’s plane where there are less ears.”
“As long as you understand that my daughter will be accompanying us.” Gaillean stipulated.
“Daughters.” Kate reprimanded harshly.
“No. Romana should be left in peace.” Silver argued. “She hates war and has no talent for it.” And the other woman would undoubtedly wish to discuss the effects of their two souls merging; something that Silver was trying her utmost to avoid.
“Our sons are the same,” Isaac remarked, “It is interesting that our full blooded descendants are less inclined to violence than their half ancient cousins.”
“I doubt such a thing is genetic,” Kate brushed away his comment. “Marta, tell us what you have seen.”
“Only when we are on your plane, Kate.” The seer replied. “Too many eyes and ears are here for my liking.”
“No-one in these caves will say anything about your presence.” Silver objected. “Every single dwarf is programmed to ignore my presence and obey my every order.”
“Still, every extra person around us is a potential puppet for Alda or the Council.”
“Very well,” Kate muttered.
“With the utmost respect, I would request to accompany your daughter.” Keenan suddenly spoke, looking straight at Gaillean, who gave a slight smile.
Silver rolled her eyes. “He’s coming.” She muttered, ignoring Keenan’s supposition that the Ancient’s needed to give permission for her to take anyone to this silly war meeting. “As is Roan, and my familiars.” She kept Gaillean’s lie about all of her pack being her familiars, but noticed the way Theria’s eyes narrowed as she mentioned her brother.
“I didn’t take your advice about trusting Tommy and Keenan with important matters before.” Silver informed her. “Because of that Tommy is dead. I would be a fool to trust them, but I’ll not disregard their advice.”
With a thought she had dwarves bring fresh clothes to her brother in his cell, and for Keenan in her room. Roan would want to be well presented for a meeting with the Ancients, and Keenan would probably prefer to be wearing more than a bed sheet.
“I suppose that is acceptable.” Marta said, and Silver suspected that they’d all been talking mentally. “Gather your advisors and we shall meet there.”
The Ancients left with a small flash of light and Keenan breathed a sigh of relief. “That was tense.” He muttered. “Why invite your brother?”
Silver wanted to ignore him, but she’d promised truthful and honest answers to his questions. “You are both talented strategists, I would be rash to ignore your advice. I’ll leave you to change.”
She strode from the room without a second glance,
Roan caught her just as she was settling into her chair by the fire; his panicked expression said it all.
“You’re letting me go?”
Silver simply tutted. “Why would I do that? I’m not letting you go, dear brother. You’re coming with me as an advisor to my little war party with the Ancients.”
His jaw dropped and Silver took great pleasure in reaching over and shutting it with one finger.
“Before we go, however, I need your vow never to betray me.” She searched his face for any clue of what he was thinking. “We were always closer to each other than to our other siblings, but if the idea of keeping things from them disturbs you then don’t vow it. I’m not having the Ancient’s punish another of my company for a non-intentional betrayal.”
Roan went wide-eyed at the news, and she almost heard his delusions about omnibenevolent gods shatter.
“Shake any misconceptions you may have of the Ancient’s being loving beings.” She advised. “They’re a bunch of cutthroat bastards.” Roan flinched at her language, but Silver ignored him. Princess-like eloquence was for calm people; Tommy had just been murdered and Keenan tortured - she was not calm.
It took several seconds, during which Silver held her breath. If Roan refused, she’d have to keep him locked up for years, and that would just become more and more bothersome over time.
“I vow to the Ancient’s never to betray you, providing you never ask me to do something that would harm our family.”
She let out the breath she’d been holding, his conditional vow was one she could live with. “I accept your vow.” She replied, sealing the deal.
“There was a silence, during which her brother gave her a long look that saw too much as evidence when he noticed the change in her eye colour.
“Are your eyes turning gold?” He demanded, getting far too close to her for comfort and peering into
her irises.
“No.” She immediately denied it, turning away.
“They are!” He realised. “Is this the bond with Romana that Endis spoke of? You didn’t have it when you left Elvardis.” He was constantly trying to get around her and study her like some kind of experiment.
Giving up, she let him look.
“Yes, but it means nothing. They’re just flecks of gold, nothing serious.”
Thankfully, Keenan arrived in the next instant, flanked by her hounds. The light of the lamps hit the scars exposed by his leather armour; his, face, neck and forearms were covered in thick raised white lines. He was right, every time she saw those scars she would remember what he’d done for her, and a mixture of pride and guilt, emotions she’d never bothered with before, would seep through to the surface.
Theria butted against her hip, shaking her out of her observations and prompting her to open a portal to Kate’s misty realm. Stepping through, she saw that a long table made of a cloudy crystal now stood upon the water, surrounded by elegant chairs which had been disregarded in favour of standing by all four of the Ancients, all of whom seemed to have changed into armour in the time since she had last seen them.
“Good, you’ve arrived.” Isaac said, looking up from the table at her. “Come, your father has great faith in your abilities and your opinion is welcome.
Silver bristled with the way he assumed her compliance, but the warning look in Gaillean’s gaze, coupled with common sense told her not to annoy her uncle. Besides, it was a word of praise from a man who was regarded by many ignorant people as a god.
She approached the table, choosing a spot by Gaillean’s side, while Keenan and Roan stood slightly back from her. The hounds circled the area, not liking the unfamiliar mist.
“I foresee a great carnage if we don’t capture the fourth world quickly…” Marta began and Silver settled in for what was sure to be a long day.
Chapter Thirty-One
BURIAL
When they finally made it back from Kate’s realm, a day had passed; the Ancients had no concept of mortal time. The first thing she noticed when she reappeared in the field was that Tommy’s body was gone.
“I put him inside.” Leigh informed her, from where she stood in the doorway of the mountain. “I assumed you would want to oversee his burial.”
“We are not going to bury him.” Silver corrected her, and Roan walked up to stand next to her.
“We’re giving him a warrior’s funeral in Toyke.” Her brother announced, and Silver could only stare at him in surprise. “He protected my little sister and to me that means he is as worthy of the honour as those who were granted it before him.”
“Lena has already wrapped the body,” Leigh informed her. “I trust you will not want to wait much longer.”
“No, we will go now and then continue the search for Alda afterwards.” Silver created a portal to the room where Tommy’s body lay, wrapped in painted silk, gently picked him up and then created a portal to the elvish lands.
The ruins of Toyke were exactly that, the stone ruins of a star shaped citadel once manned by the greatest warriors of all elven-kind. Now it lay abandoned, crumbling from the cannon fire that had destroyed it a thousand years ago. Once it had been a hundred floors tall, a tower dominating the surrounding rainforest, now the structure was so crumbled that the trees would have pressed around it if not for The Great Lake.
And it was the Great Lake that stretched before them now as she looked upon the ruins. They hung over the edge of the falls, suspended by engineering that the world had long since lost the ability to replicate.
“It should never have been left like this.” Silver murmured. “This was a proud fortress once, the strongest and best of our race were trained here. We were trained here,” She looked at the long crumbling bridge across the lake, broken from the blasts of the war. With a sigh, she spread her wings and soared across, Tommy’s body wrapped in white silk and cradled in her arms.
Roan and Keenan had followed her through the portal and dashed and hopped their way across after her. She was aware of her hounds following their lead, their immense strength meaning that they could cross gaps that the others had to find ways around.
If any one of them fell in, they would die. Below the deceptively calm surface of the dark water were currents strong enough to drag down an elf and then they would fall into the river in the canyon below.
She reached the spot where the great doors had been but no longer were, broken down and rotten in age. The stone had survived, even if it had been broken during the siege. She didn’t bother exploring, she remembered the passageways from her days as a child, visiting her brothers and bewitching warriors with her face so that they would teach her everything they knew, rather than the self-defence her mother had restricted her to learning.
In the centre of the keep there stood a raised circular platform, with flickering candles littering the surrounding space. This was the ritual chamber, and there was only one ritual the warriors here had observed; the rites of death.
The platform may have been raised, but in the centre was a great, gasping hole, through which you could see the edge of the falls and the rocks below them. The roaring of the falls surrounded the citadel, but it was greatest in this room, which had been partially restored to allow warriors to use this place still. But her mother had decreed this place only for the most honoured warriors. There was a caretaker somewhere, and that was why every black candle remained lit, and the little wooden row boat hanging from two pieces of rope in the centre of the hole was well maintained.
She placed Tommy in the boat, his butterfly swords she lay between his clasped hands, and she twined beads of jade around his hands. The black and gold silk he had been wrapped in previously floated down into the falls below as she crouched in the boat and arranged his armour properly.
Silver didn’t even know why everything had to be arranged so neatly, it wasn’t as if they were all going to miraculously stay in the same neat condition they were in now as they plummeted for two thousand feet and were smashed upon the rocks or the riverbed below.
She leapt out of the boat and back to the side, her actions making it swing slightly.
“Proper burial rites.” Silver sent an image to Romana. “There has not been an elven warrior burial for four hundred years. I trust this is sufficient.”
There was deep sadness imbued with the reply “Thank-you, sister.” Romana’s mental voice was hard to make out over the noise of the falls but Silver got a sense of her sister feeling more at peace now.
Not that she cared how Romana felt.
“Should we say something?” Keenan asked, his voice grave.
“There is no need.” Silver responded after a short while. “My father said that as my protector he already had the highest commendation to the Ancients.”
She knelt and turned the handle set into the floor, causing the pulleys to release and Tommy’s body to fall from the sky. When it was done Silver turned back to find Roan and Keenan with their heads bowed.
“We need to go. I’m not going to stop until Alda is destroyed.” Silver informed them. “He mentioned a desert cave. I plan to fly across every inch of the desert till I find her.”
She dived through the hole in the floor after Tommy, only spreading her wings at the last possible moment before she hit the water.
Chapter Thirty-Two
LIFE WILL NOT PROTECT HER FROM DEATH
But weeks passed, and Silver traversed every inch of the desert and never found the cave she was looking for. People in the cities grew used to the demon birds that searched with her, even if they didn’t accept the amount of cattle stolen by the creatures. But still there was no word.
The word she did hear repeated most often, was that of the royal wedding taking place tomorrow. But she wasn’t attending, despite Roan’s urging. Her last party had ended up in Tommy’s death.
She was resting in the desert when Romana found her. The sands were slowly
closing over her body, still warm from the sun as the wind slowly blew grains of the stuff over her.
“I hate the desert.” Her sister said, plonking down beside her.
“I hate the fact that the pregnant queen of all wytchdom is sitting, completely vulnerable, beside me.” Silver complained, shifting an arm to cover her face. “You’re blocking the moonlight.”
“I hate the desert because out here you feel completely isolated, almost entombed.” Romana continued as if Silver hadn’t spoken. “The worst years of my life were spent among the sands.”
“If you’re here to tell me to hurry up finding Alda, you can run back home.” Silver muttered. “Don’t you think I’m trying?”
“I didn’t come here to talk about that.” Romana replied. “I came here to ask my sister to come to my wedding. Keenan is coming, so is Leigh, Roan, Acis and Lena. No one will attack you; you can wear your armour and your mask if you want. I just want you to be there.” From under her arm Silver watched as her sister rested one hand on her obviously pregnant stomach. “I’d feel safer if you were.”
Silver could understand that, after all, she hadn’t been the only one who had lost Tommy at the last party.
“I don’t think it would be wise. Endis would attempt to cage me; his pride is ruined by my freedom.” Silver came up with her quickest excuse.
“He has vowed to the Ancients that if you come he will not make any attempt to make you feel uncomfortable or re-imprison you.” Romana countered. “As have your other brothers,”
“I don’t do social.” Silver muttered.
“Grit your teeth and deal with it.” Romana ordered. “The wytches will keep you busy in conversation so that you don’t have to talk to any of the humans or the dwarves. This is my big day and I want you to be there.” It was almost a whine.
“How long till the baby is due?” Silver asked, stalling for time.
“A month, I’ve been hiding the pregnancy outside of the isle with glamour.” Her sister sighed. “I don’t want my daughter to have to live in secret to keep her safe.”
Silver's Redemption (Soul Merge Saga Book 3) Page 28