by R. A. Rock
“Get it away from the strong, powerful Fae man who’s in the grip of magic so powerful that he would do something that he is aware will destroy everything he knows and loves?” Izzie’s expression was skeptical.
“I’ll get it,” Tess said. “Don’t worry. I’m still the greatest warrior in the land. No matter what power the spell has over him.”
“That’s a good point,” Izzie said. “What do you want me to do?”
“Find me some spells for distracting,” Tess said, focused and determined now that she had some help. “You’re going to make sure that the queen doesn’t notice us and what we’re doing. And you need to distract Finn while I get the dagger."
“The Dark Queen could just snap her fingers and trap you in the wyrm tunnels, where you will have all your Starlight sucked out of you,” Isadore said. “Tessa, you’re going to get yourself killed.”
“Better me dead than the whole Shadows-cursed world destroyed, Izzie.”
He pressed his lips together in disapproval of the statement. Tess waited while he seemed to make up his mind about something.
“Listen, Tess. I want to tell you something about the Dark Queen that may give you a small advantage at some point.”
“What’s that?”
“There is a weakness in the Dark Queen’s magic.”
“A weakness?” Tess said, and Izzie nodded. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“She keeps it quiet, of course, but you should know about it in case it might help you.”
“Yes, definitely,” Tess said eagerly. “Please, tell me.”
“Well, you may not know, but magic is flavored with the person’s emotions. Their dominant state of being can affect their magic. The Dark Queen has a lot of fear in her magic. This fear infects whoever it touches. The fear gives more power to her magic, but also, it is her Achilles heel for anyone who truly has courage and is not afraid of her.”
“Are you saying that by not being afraid of the queen, her magic won’t have as much power over us?” Tess said in disbelief.
“That’s right,” Izzie said. “The queen knows this but keeps it very quiet, obviously. She has infused so much fear into her magic over the centuries because it gives her immense power over most people, but for anyone with courage, it is a vulnerability in her magic that can be exploited.”
Tess thought about that.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Tess said, holding up her hands. “So all we have to do is not be afraid of her, and we can affect how much power she has over us?”
“It’s easier to see the Stars than reach them,” Izzie quoted a Fae proverb.
“Well, I’m not afraid,” Tess stated.
“Tessa,” Isadore said, staring deep into her eyes.
“Fine,” Tess said, dropping her eyes. “I am afraid of her. She’s evil. Everyone’s afraid of her. So how am I supposed to just not be?”
“You must have courage,” Izzie said. “That doesn’t mean that you are not afraid. It means that you accept your fear and proceed anyway.”
“Accept it?” Tess said. “How?”
“I can’t tell you how. I only know that it’s possible. And if you can truly accept it, then her power over you will decrease.”
Tess rolled her eyes and huffed out her breath.
“Well, thanks,” she said. “I don’t know how we’re supposed to use that information, but thanks.”
He sighed. “You’re welcome, Tess. I don’t know how it may help you either, but if you end up fighting the queen, it could mean the difference between life and death.”
“Tessa, there you are.”
Tess was so focused on her mission to save Finn that for a moment, she hardly registered the woman in front of her.
“Sanndrah? I don’t have time to talk right now.”
“Nonsense, it’ll only take a minute,” the other woman said, standing in her way. Tess tried to go around but the irritating faerie moved to block her. “Don’t make me use my immobilization dust.”
Tess stopped and glared at Sanndrah. Maybe it would be faster to just listen to her.
“Who is this?” Izzie asked, but Tess just shook her head.
“My name is Sanndrah, pleased to make your acquaintance, sir,” Sanndrah said, and Tess could barely contain her impatience.
“Look, Sanndrah, I don’t know what you want, but I will help you with whatever you need if you just get out of my way right now. Finn’s in danger and I need to go.”
“Palm vow?” Sanndrah said, holding up her hand. And if Tess had been paying attention, she would have seen that her eyes were too innocent.
Tess slammed her hand into Sanndrah’s.
“I promise I’ll help you with whatever you need,” she said and dodged around the woman, continuing on her way.
Izzie was walking quickly to keep up and his breathing was labored when he spoke. “You’re not concerned that may come back to haunt you?”
“What I’m worried about is helping Finn. It’s the only thing that matters right now.”
Izzie gave a nod but then looked back behind them with a troubled expression on his face. But Tess had no time for his thoughts on the matter.
“Come on, Izzie. Let’s go. Every second counts.”
It all would have gone exactly as planned.
If only they had gotten there in time.
When they approached the queen—Izzie his normal self with the distraction spells in his hands and Tessa insubstantial—Finn was already there.
Tess watched it all happen in slow motion as if she were in a nightmare and couldn’t do anything. As they arrived, they saw Finn suddenly appear before the queen, using the ring. He lifted his dagger. The light glanced off of the metal as he raised it high to plung it in her chest.
The Dark Queen was shocked—clearly surprised.
And Tess knew that Ransetta was never taken by surprise.
But she sent a blast of power at Finn before he could strike her, throwing him back hard enough that he hit the wall of the castle and he crumpled to the floor. Of course, he wasn’t hurt because of the Truce spell.
The Dark Queen directed her hands at him, and he was instantly bound with what Tess knew to be the magic rope they used for restraining particularly dangerous prisoners.
What made the whole situation worse was that Finn couldn’t have killed the queen even if he had succeeded in his crazy plan—because of the Truce spell.
Then Tess noticed Ransetta was looking for something.
Shadows take me, Tess thought.
It's me.
She's looking for me.
Tess took off out of the hall.
"Well that didn't go very well," Perdira appeared floating along beside her invisible form.
"Perdira," she hissed. "Get out of here. You'll lead them right to me."
Tess tore past Izzie on her way out. He was pretending to be slightly drunk, and nobody was paying any attention to the muttering old man that was stumbling out of the hall. She was confident that he was going to be fine.
On the other hand, Finn had been captured.
This was terrible.
Tess darted out and began running as hard as she could, dodging guards that couldn't see her.
"Them?" Perdira glanced at the Dark Court guards that were swarming the corridor. "I don't think so. Besides. I'm not really here. And nobody can see me except you."
Tess scowled at Perdira, trying to figure out what she should do.
And then a thought occurred to her that was more terrible than Finn being captured. The Dark Queen had Finn, and Tess knew exactly what the Shadows-cursed Fae was going to do with him.
She would use him to make Tessa do whatever she wanted—just like in the dream dungeon. Ransetta would use Finn to make Tess give her the crown and then she would hold it until the Truce spell ended. At that point, Ransetta would bring all the prisoners back to Direwood Castle, like she always did, and probably torture and kill Finn in front of her. Then she would torture and k
ill Tessa.
If Tess couldn’t figure something out, her quest to end the Severance ended here. Not to mention her life and Finn’s.
In one fell swoop, the queen held all the cards.
Never mind that, she had burned all the cards.
And they were now at her mercy.
"What am I going to do?" Tess whispered.
Chapter 32
"I don't know, Starshine," Perdira floated next to Tess, completely unconcerned. "But you better do it soon. They have a magic torch."
Tess glanced around the hallway that she was in. Then she looked back over her shoulder where there were what looked like thirty guards running out of the room behind her. Others were converging on her from other corridors.
One of them was holding up a magic torch that makes visible what is hidden.
With the torch, they would soon spot her.
She tore down the hall, searching for somewhere to hide because there was no way she would outrun that many. She imagined that there were likely some coming from the other direction as well and she would soon be surrounded.
"Oooh, there's a door," Perdira said, clapping her hands.
Tess glared at Perdira and, hoping for the best, she pulled it open and went in. She was in a storeroom. Tess tried to catch her breath.
"What are you going to do, Tessa?" Perdira asked, as if she were reading the most exciting book ever and was invested in the stakes. Not because she cared that Tessa's actual life was in danger.
"I. Don't. Know," she said, glowering at the ancient fae. "Could you be quiet and let me think?"
"Sure, no problem." Perdira perched on one of the shelves and folded her arms over her chest.
Tess paced the small room.
Finn was captured.
That meant that Ransetta would use him against Tess in order to get her to do exactly what the Dark Queen wanted. She would make her give over the Crown of Visions. And who knew what else she would have Tess do? Tess couldn’t let that happen.
Tess thought hard.
If the queen was going to make her give up the magical objects, then she didn’t have much time.
"I need to read the Scroll." Tess spoke aloud. "Right now. Before I'm captured, too."
"But you can't get it out," Perdira said, still not looking at Tess.
"Perdira, will you help me? You can move the wards again, like you did when we got the Crown. That way I can get the Scroll out and read it before the queen captures me."
"This doesn't seem like your best idea, Tess," Perdira said, reluctant. "You sure you want to do that?"
"Yes. I'm desperate, Perdira. Please."
They would already be making a systematic search of every room down this hallway. It was only a matter of minutes before they discovered her.
"Okay. Don't say I didn't warn you."
She swept her hand vaguely in Tessa's direction.
"Done," she said, shaking her head.
Tess turned herself solid again and wrenched the Crown out of her bag. Next came the Scroll out of the Otherworld sheath. Tessa wished she had more time for some ceremony or at least reverence. But there was no more time for her or Finn.
She plunked the Crown on her head and stumbled from the sudden burst of images that flowed through her mind. She saw a handsome man on a stage with some sort of lute, playing and singing into a stick. He was so gorgeous that she could hardly stand to look at him.
There were thousands of people watching the performance, and the man seemed to exude some sort of almost magical charm. She felt herself respond viscerally to his good looks and there was something else, too. Something that tugged at a part of her deep inside. She felt as though she had known this man before. That if she could just get to him, that she would be home.
What nonsense was this? Tess shook herself and tried to get control of the magical object. She opened the Scroll, and light blazed from it, so powerful was its magic. With the Crown of Visions on her head, she could easily read what before had been unintelligible.
Tess stumbled a little as a blast of clarity hit her, making her dizzy. She shook it off and focused on the Scroll.
“To end the Severance, you must—” she read aloud.
Suddenly, the door was flung open.
"Shadows take me," Perdira said, disappearing a half a second before the Dark Queen entered with about twenty guards standing in the hall behind her. The King himself was beside her, for the love of Starlight.
“Seize her,” she said, and as Tessa reached for her ring to twist it, she found it gone. The Scroll too. It was in the King's hands.
“That’s enough of those tricks, Callahan.” Tess blinked up at the queen in shock. She didn’t know what to think, what to say, what to do.
The guards dragged her out and down the wide corridor to a place where several hallways converged and there was more space. Ransetta strode toward Tess and ripped the crown off of her head.
“This is mine,” she said. “Isn’t it?”
She glanced at the King, who frowned but didn’t answer. When he didn’t say anything, the queen plopped it unceremoniously on her own head. Tess was frozen, allowing them to bind her roughly and pull her to her feet.
“It’s taken me a little longer to catch you than I had planned, but I’m not too upset about that,” she told Tessa.
“Callahan,” the King said. “It pains me to have to do this. I had high hopes for you.”
Tess stared at him.
He had used her. For years. To protect himself. He was full of nothing but Shadows and wind. She looked away from the King and Dark Queen. It was hard to believe that she’d given up hundreds of years of her life serving these two. What a Shadows-cursed waste.
The King walked forward, the Scroll in his hands.
No! The King and Dark Queen had the crown and the Scroll. How could this be happening?
“We’ll have to talk about what we’re going to do about the Scroll, Setta dear,” he said. She gave him a dark look.
“Yes, dear,” she said. “We’ll have to figure something out.”
“And what about her?” he said, indicating Tessa with a lift of his head in her direction.
“She’ll be thrown in the dungeon with the others. Then we can sort everything out at our leisure.”
“You can’t stop me,” Tess said, her eyes dead, her voice rough. “I will end the Severance.”
The King and Dark Queen looked at each other and laughed.
“We created the Severance,” Ransetta said. “And we’ll decide when it ends.”
They both turned and started to leave.
“No,” Tess said.
Both monarchs turned to face her again, identical scowls on their faces.
“You know about the prophecy,” Tess said.
There was a heavy silence.
“Leave us,” Ransetta ordered the guards, who scrambled to obey her. When they were gone, she faced Tessa, who stood her ground, sensing that she now had the upper hand somehow.
“We know about the prophecy,” the King said. “But what do you know about it?”
“I know enough,” Tessa said. “To know that you don’t get to decide.”
“We can kill you,” Ransetta said, but somehow, she wasn’t her usual confident self. Tess could tell it was bravado, nothing more than a mask to cover her… fear?
“No,” Tessa said with a shake of her head. “You can’t. Or you would have already.”
The King exchanged a glance with the Dark Queen.
“Tessa,” he started.
“Oh, now I’m Tessa?” she said with an incredulous snort.
“Callahan, you are in our custody,” the queen said, trying to get some semblance of control over the situation.
“Yes,” she said with a smile. “I am. But that still won’t stop me.”
The Dark Queen lost it then. She stepped forward and punched Tessa so hard that if the Truce spell hadn’t been in effect, she was sure the queen would have knocked her head clean
off. With the Truce spell, she simply felt as though Ransetta had patted her cheek.
In all the time she had worked for the Dark Queen, she had never seen her lose her temper.
“You must be really rattled, old woman,” she said, knowing that calling her that would anger Ransetta because she took pride in her youthful looks.
“And you…” Tess sent a venomous look in the King’s direction. “Both of you are so worried that your precious Severance will end and the balance will be upset. And then what? Stars forbid that your people should be happy. And free.”
“Tessa,” the King said, clearly disturbed by her words. “I never meant for it to get so out of hand. I was just…” He looked over at Ransetta. “I was just so angry.”
The Dark Queen actually softened as she looked at the King as he delivered his attempt at an apology.
“We were both angry,” she said softly.
“And the rest of us paid for it,” Tess pointed out, her voice as quiet as theirs. “You two are so selfish.”
“Don’t lump me in with her,” the King said, offended.
“And what am I supposed to do? You’re the most powerful being in all of Ahlenerra and you’ve allowed this to continue for thousands of years. You’re just as selfish as she is.”
His face was troubled.
“That’s why I have to do this. And you two can’t stop me. It’s time for it to end.”
“Enough of this talk,” the queen said.
“I’m the chosen one and I will end it,” she told them, and they both listened with grim expressions on their faces. “The prophecy will come true. And neither of you can do anything to prevent it.”
Chapter 33
The dungeons were like a big cage that was divided into smaller cages. The cell blocks had stone walls but then the individual cells within the block were divided into four cages. All the walls were made from bars.
This made for a complete lack of privacy, which was likely what the dungeon designer was going for. It also made it easier for the guard to see exactly what was going on from the door. When Tess had thought she was free of the Dark Queen forever, she had hoped never to have to enter these dungeons again. No such luck.