by Eva Brandt
I sighed and took a sip of my tea. It tasted nice, like cherry blossoms. An imported product, no doubt. I could still sense subtle traces of Eranthe’s magic in it, not quite as strong or as potent as some of her experimental blends, but interesting nevertheless.
Enjoying the familiar feel of my sister’s powers, I considered Oki’s report. “I suppose the absence of the undead is not really surprising. Even when they do try to approach Chronikos, they only head toward The Realm of Eternal Sunlight.” Mostly to commit suicide, which annoyed Tarasia to no end, but that was beside the point, for the purpose of this conversation.
Mariko retrieved another ribbon and started to braid it around a tuft of the wendigo’s fur. I placed my tea cup on the table and retrieved the letter that was one of the real reasons for my visit here. “Mariko, I need you to take this letter to Phthinoporon. Wait until she provides you with a response, and come back to me immediately after.”
Mariko abandoned her previous task and took the missive with translucent fingers. As soon as the envelope made contact with her body, it disappeared. Still, I had no doubt that it would reach its destination, post-haste. The Yuki-Onna was nothing if not conscientious in her duties.
“Make sure she reads it when she is alone,” I added. “Its nature is confidential.”
“Of course, Your Majesty. I will see to this at once.”
As expected, she meant that literally, and the moment she finished her sentence, she faded away, her spirit leaving the cottage. In the wake of her disappearance, Oki and I were left alone in the home he and Mariko shared. “I seem to have stolen Mariko from you again,” I commented, all the while debating the merits of finishing my tea before it froze solid.
“She’s hardly mine to steal. It’s more... the other way around.” He pointed to the ribbons around his antlers. “As you can see, Your Majesty.”
Despite my overall bad day, his disgruntled tone drew a small laugh out of me. “I personally commend her for her taste. The ribbons suit you.”
If Oki had possessed a face capable of having an expression, I suspected he would’ve been giving me a very unimpressed look. Even so, he didn’t argue against the huge lie I’d just told him. I sort of wish he had, because it would’ve kept the conversation from drifting into awkward silence, and would’ve allowed me to delay something I really didn’t want to do.
But I’d never been one to shy away from the things that were necessary, so as unpalatable as this particular issue was, I had to address it. “What of the prison?” I asked. “Is it... safe?”
Tension invaded Oki’s stance at the question. “It is the same way it’s always been. Safe would not be the best term to describe it, but there’s been no change.”
“I’d like to see it, please,” I said sharply, all pretense of focusing on my tea abandoned.
Despite my polite phrasing, my tone made it clear that it was an order, not a request. “Of course, Your Majesty,” the wendigo replied. “Right this way.”
As I got up, Oki waved his hand, and the floor of the otherwise unremarkable cottage shifted, the planks flying upwards to form a door instead. The wendigo dug one long claw into his own palm and pressed his now bloody hand to the wood. Symbols flared to life along the edges of the door, the very same ones that kept this place isolated and prevented me from seeking it out on my own, from the distance.
It was actually a little inconvenient that the only way this prison could be accessed was by going through Oki. However, that had been the whole point of building the prison this way. The door needed both undead blood and a very specific incantation to be opened, and with Oki being loyal to my family, it was very unlikely that anyone could ever open it and release the threat inside. The magic of winter had limited power here, and that was the way it was supposed to be.
The door opened, and Oki took my hand, guiding me past the magical gateway. It was more for safety purposes than anything else. The enchantment reacted negatively to non-undead beings trying to enter on their own, and while I seemed to be immune to that effect, I had been instructed to never take chances.
Almost instantly, a nigh-unbearable heat assaulted my senses, threatening to stop my organs from working. I tightened my magic around both me and Oki like a shield, using it to keep our bodies isolated from the temperature of the air. I could have chased the heat away entirely, just like I had in the case of the fire wall that had protected my dragons, but that would’ve defeated the purpose of the heat spell’s existence. The simple enchantment normalized my breathing and cleared my head. It also made Oki relax somewhat. As an undead being, he’d never been crazy about having to live over what was essentially a fiery pit, and I suspected that his regular visits here were far more uncomfortable than our current one.
It was just as well that the prison itself wasn’t that large. In fact, the moment I entered the chamber, I could spot the reason for my visit.
A metal encased capsule loomed in front of me, its edges lined with frost despite the high temperature. I stepped up to the receptacle and pressed my hand against the capsule. It felt icy under my touch, which should’ve been an impossibility, and never failed to make me uncomfortable.
It also easily answered the question that had been weighing on my mind. Oki had been right, and nothing had changed about the prison since the last time I’d come here.
The whole thing lasted less than a minute, and was almost anticlimactic. Still, I considered ‘anticlimactic’ a synonym to simple, and I’d had a significant lack of such straightforward solutions as of late. This was a nice change.
Relieved, I pulled away from the capsule and headed back the way I’d come. Once again, Oki guided me through the doorway, back into his home. Behind us, the symbols flashed, and the door morphed back to its previous state, returning to the floor.
“As always, thank you for your service, Oki,” I said as soon as all signs of the prison had vanished. “Keep me posted if there’s any news. And do be careful. Even if things have been quiet here, I have a feeling there might still be trouble afoot.”
“I’m always careful, Your Majesty. Mariko would be furious with me if I endangered myself needlessly, and you wouldn’t want to see a Yuki-Onna when she’s angry.”
I supposed I would just have to trust him on that one. I actually didn’t know a lot about undead beings at all. Outside their suicidal missions, very few of them came to Chronikos. They preferred their own homeland of The Immortuos Voievodat, with the occasional rebellious group living in Ton Daímon.
Oki and Mariko were the two lone exceptions. I had no idea why they’d turned to my father when they had decided to move, but it had all worked out well. Oki was an excellent guardian for the prison and whenever she wasn’t delivering messages for me, Mariko made excellent tea. It was win-win.
Honestly, it was a bit of a shame that I didn’t visit them more often, but my private time was always limited, and I couldn’t afford to go off on my own to have tea with my subordinates whenever the mood struck me.
The thought reminded me of Jack, and anxiety and frustration flared inside me once more. I forced myself to remain calm and focused on the next task on my list. I couldn’t let my feelings get in the way of my judgment, not when there was so much to do.
With one last nod toward Oki, I left the cottage and summoned my magic again. As I started to head toward The Frozen Peaks, my mind strayed back to Emmerich, Kerryn and Raijin.
I still did not know what to make of the situation with Jack, but this strange feeling I had when I was around my dragons was so much worse. When had they become mine anyway? We’d only met the day before. Yes, I had enjoyed our dinner and had tentatively decided to share my bed with them, but that didn’t mean anything.
The blizzard holding me aloft intensified in response to my emotions, and I gritted my teeth, doing my best to rein in my restless magic. What had determined me to trust them with Jack’s retrieval anyway? As much as I hated to admit it, Ded Moroz had not been wrong in stating that I�
��d had no real reason to leave such an important task to three people I didn’t really know. Granted, they had offered to assist me and it was completely fair of me to give them the chance to atone for their perceived slight against my realm. I’d believed them when they had said that they wanted to help me. But had it really been appropriate for me to share so many of my private concerns with them so quickly? Probably not.
To top it off, I had yet to find an answer regarding the mysterious phenomenon that had brought them here. They’d claimed to not know how it had occurred, and I’d trusted their word, but still, in the wake of this whole incident with Jack, I had to wonder if maybe I’d been too hasty in my decisions.
As this thought crossed my mind, a flicker of red flashed through the corner of my eye. Instinctively, I turned to look. After the earlier episode with the hydra, the last thing I wanted was to be targeted by another fire blast.
My concerns proved to be for naught, at least in that respect. The frozen grounds of the tundra seemed completely barren of life, the snow unmarred by the feet of any intruders who might have tried to attack me. Ironically, I would have perhaps preferred it if there had been some kind of opponent in sight, and not just because it would’ve been nice to take out my anger on someone foolish enough to invade my territory. Alas, fate didn’t favor me. Instead, the light was coming from the direction of the Topaz. If I was not mistaken, the source was the exact area where I had found my dragons. No, not my dragons, damn it. From where I had found Raijin, Kerryn and Emmerich. Right.
Had I failed to fully extinguish the anomaly that had protected them? I didn’t think that was possible. I had been very careful when I’d retrieved them from the river. There shouldn’t have been any damage left at all. Not to mention that both my underlings and I had gone past the location since then several times, and had seen nothing.
“I swear on my life, if I end up with more dragons because of this, I’m retiring and leaving this place to Ded Moroz,” I said to myself as I changed directions and headed toward the river. I didn’t know what to do with the three dragons I already sort of had. Another set would drive me crazy.
Thankfully, the river didn’t seem to be keeping any hibernating serpents captive today. When I reached my destination, I saw no walls of flame or would-be meteorites. In fact, the water on my side of the Topaz was frozen solid, just as I had left it. Pandora’s side was similarly unchanged.
Nevertheless, the ice was glowing, and that had certainly not been the case earlier. Once again, I had to investigate.
I wanted to believe that in this instance, the answer would be found just as easily as before, but I suspected I wouldn’t get lucky twice in a row. Somehow, things never worked that way for me.
I still flew closer to the river and smoothly landed on the ice. It felt solid underneath me, displaying no signs of cracking or melting. That would’ve normally pleased me, but today, it was another mystery on the long list of questions that needed to be answered.
Frowning, I knelt next to the section of glowing ice and pressed my hand against it, just like I had at the prison, when I had checked the state of the capsule. At first, I didn’t sense anything amiss. A touch of alien magic brushed mine, but it wasn’t hostile, more like... curious. I carefully poked the tendril of power with my own, wondering if this was the moment when I’d finally figure out how in the name of the gods my dragons had gotten here to begin with.
I really should have known better than to tempt fate.
All of a sudden, the magic that had called me here morphed from the harmless thread I had sensed into an avalanche of uncontrollable tentacles that grabbed onto my core and dragged me down into the nothingness. A cacophony of indistinct, barely recognizable voices exploded in my head, the jumble of words, emotions and distant images so powerful it threatened to crack my sanity.
Yearning. Anger. Anguish. Desperation. Passion. Need. Courage. Determination. A brief glimpse of the Topaz. Flashes of a distant canyon I didn’t recognize. A silent, misty forest that stretched out as far as the eye could see. A lake that seemed to glow from within more brightly than the Topaz ever had.
“I can’t live like this. I want more.”
“I just need to be a little patient. I’ll find the right female.”
“There’s someone there for me, I know it. I can prove that I am just as worthy of a female as any of the others.”
“Am I really being unreasonable? All I want is a female who truly cares about me.”
“I’ll do it today. I’ll cast the spell. No matter what it costs me, it will be worth it.”
“Today, it’s going to be today. Wait for me.”
“Today. I’ll prove myself worthy of her.”
“Today. I’ll find my—”
The unbearable clamor in my mind came to a screeching halt when a strong hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled me out of... wherever I’d been. I landed heavily on a hard, cold surface, spluttering and struggling to catch my breath.
Spots danced in my vision, and I blinked several times, rubbing my eyes in an attempt to fix the problem. It worked, and within seconds, I finally became aware of my location, and the identity of my companion.
It wasn’t so difficult, considering the fact that Oki’s skeletal face was inches away from my own, and he was practically shouting at me. “Your Majesty! Your Majesty, can you hear me? Are you all right?”
I stared at the wendigo, uncomprehending. Was I all right? I didn’t know. I looked down at myself, trying to figure out if all my limbs were in the right place. The first thing I took note of was the fact that I was soaked to the bone. My hands were shaking, and my usually pale complexion had turned frostbite-blue. Obviously, at one point, I’d fallen into the Topaz.
That didn’t explain how it was possible for me to get frostbite, but the sensation was already fading, my magic chasing away the wrongness. My dress was torn, and a thick, jagged cut ran over my now exposed breasts. Not amazing, but all things considered, not a serious injury. I’d lost one of my boots, perhaps during my impromptu swim in the river, but my feet appeared to be where they belonged and I could wriggle my toes fine.
Tentatively satisfied with my current state, I opened my mouth to reassure Oki. The words I’d intended to say didn’t come out.
The cut on my breasts began to burn, and I gasped, instinctively reaching for the wound and trying to mend it with my magic. It didn’t work. The pain flared even brighter, engulfing my whole body, so intense it felt as if I was self-combusting, like a dying phoenix trapped in the circle of its own immortality.
Through the haze of my agony, I heard Oki cry out again. “Your Majesty! Queen Cheimon!”
I made a grab for his arm and buried my fingers into his skin. “Oki... I need... I need you to... I need you to... Take me to them.”
“To whom, Your Majesty?” Oki asked tremulously.
“T-To my soulmates.”
Seven
Of Nymphs, Satyrs and Thieving Dragons
Raijin
“The hydra is your second cousin twice removed? Seriously? I didn’t know that.”
“Really? That’s surprising. As far as I’ve heard, the mating of Lerna’s parents was pretty scandalous.”
I rubbed some heat into my chilled arms as I listened to my companions’ conversation with half an ear. It was actually interesting, and at a different time, I would’ve liked to know more about Kerryn’s background and how his hydra cousin had ended up on Chronikos of all places. However, I had been feeling increasingly off in the past hour or so. Any mood I might’ve had of indulging my curiosity had long ago died a swift death.
“Do we really have to wait until the brothel opens?” I asked, interrupting the discussion between Kerryn and Emmerich. “Can’t we just knock?”
“You heard what Lerna said,” Kerryn replied. “It’s dangerous to do that, and it might draw unwanted attention.”
I tried to suppress the surge of irritation that rushed over me at his response, but I encounter
ed only limited success. “They’re satyrs,” I snapped. “How dangerous can they be?”
Emmerich arched a brow at me, and I cursed to myself, realizing how unreasonable I was being. “Sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“What’s wrong is that we’re here and not with Cheimon,” Emmerich replied, rubbing his chest in an absent-minded gesture that almost eerily mimicked mine. “I get it. But we have to hope that we’ll get this done quickly and return to her before nightfall. We can’t do that if we get in trouble. Besides, we promised to be careful, remember?”
I hadn’t forgotten our vow to Cheimon, but the delay still frustrated me. I also found it strange that Emmerich was dealing with our little excursion to The Realm of Eternal Bounties better than me. Hailton was, much like its name suggested, a town where it rained a lot, and where hail fell in abundance. The humidity in the air alone should’ve made a firedrake like Emmerich uncomfortable, especially since we’d found no real place to take shelter.
We had been forced to huddle together under the torn roof of a nearby terrace, so all of us were wet to the bone. While Emmerich and I could’ve used our magic to give us some protection, it would’ve drawn the eye, so we were stuck waiting it out and hoping that the satyrs would open up their establishment soon. In the meantime, as a water-oriented creature, I should’ve felt right at home, or at least, not as miserable as my fellows. I didn’t, and I suspected it had very little to do with my elemental affinity.
My demeanor must’ve alarmed my companions, because Emmerich frowned at me, meeting my gaze with his own dark eyes. “Raijin? What is it?”
“It’s just that... I feel like maybe we shouldn’t have left her. It’s dangerous.”
“She’s strong,” Kerryn said, clenching his jaw. “She can protect herself, and we can’t barrel over her desires.”