Smells Like Finn Spirit

by Randy Henderson

  Yet this woman—this Fey—was the next level of perfection. She made me feel as though I had discovered colors and shapes that were normally too perfect for mere human perception. Her green eyes glittered as she looked at me, and her black curls appeared to dance in a wind all their own, brushing along her shoulders and the top of an emerald feathered cape. And her gossamer green dress clung tightly enough that I could see the smooth movement of muscles beneath her tan skin—

  “You like my dress?” she asked softly as she neared, and my eyes snapped back up to hers.

  “Uh,” I replied. “I’m—” I added, just to ensure there was no mistake as to my level of cool. I looked at Dawn on the other side of me, and found her regarding me with one eyebrow cocked. I blushed. “What?”

  “Oh, nothing,” Dawn said.

  *As long as you’re in trouble anyway, would you mind looking back to the lady?*

  Don’t push it.

  “My lords and lady,” the first Silver knight announced. “Proxenos Oscar te’Oz the Great and Powerful, from the Forest of Shadows, has come on urgent business regarding these humans.”

  The second knight said, “And Proxenos Telloraine te’Lerajie from the Shores of Chaos requests immediate audience as well.”

  “Proxenos,” Apollo said to the Shadows Fey. “You are welcome to the Silver Court.” Gone was any hint of uncertainty in his manner. He stood straight and regal once more, looking the part of a prince, and Apollo. And was that a slight glow to his skin as he turned to face Lerajie? “Chaos especially has been missed in this court. I hope that we can bring our … Demesnes closer together once more.”

  “Indeed,” Lerajie said, “it is to that end that I am come.”

  “Great Prince,” Oz said, as the prince continued to smile at Lerajie. “I am Oz, the Greatest and Most Respected Proxenos of my Demesne, and I come to warn you against the lies of these two humans, who invaded our Demesne and attacked two of our Aalbrights. As a sign of goodwill toward your Demesne, I am willing to take them away. I’m afraid they are quite dangerous indeed.”

  “That’s not what happened!” I said.

  Apollo looked over at me, and whatever hint of openness that had been there before melted away like snow off of a marble statue, leaving only a cold, hard visage. “Did you enter the Forest of Shadows without permission?”

  “Yes,” I said. “But not—”

  Apollo held up a hand. “And did you attack two of their Aalbrights?”

  “No!” I said. “Well, I mean, we had to fight to escape. They were going to imprison me. And Alynon.”

  Oz shook his head and made a tsking sound. “He did indeed face sentencing for crimes against the Greatwood and our vassals, crimes recognized by the Colloquy. I’m afraid they are quite serious.”

  “This is crazy,” Dawn said. “You can’t take this guy’s word over your own brother’s! I mean, Oz is a con man!”

  Oz laughed. “Oh my dear, I am not even a man, pro or con, and a good thing that is, too. You humans all tell lies with more frequency and finesse than a unicorn poops, I’m afraid. But don’t you worry, you will be returned home safely, just as we promised.”

  “Oh, will I?” Dawn said in a falsely sweet tone. “Though if you expect me to actually believe your word, maybe you should be offering me a brain instead, since you clearly don’t think I have one.”

  “Prince,” I said, trying to regain control of the conversation. “If we can just finish the conversation we started before the Proxenos arrived, I—”

  Apollo raised a hand to stop me, looked between me and Oz, and then to Lerajie. “And what of Chaos? What may Silver offer you?”

  “A fair hand, Prince,” Lerajie replied. “When last your brother did upset this court, ’twas Chaos that was blamed. I am here to ensure such mistakes are not made again.”

  “Which mistakes?” Apollo asked with an amused half-grin. “Alynon’s mistakes in getting caught, or your Demesne’s mistake in using him?”

  What are they talking about? I asked Alynon, but he did not respond.

  “Alas,” Lerajie said, “’twas your mistake in believing we had any part of it.”

  “Well, we clearly have a disagreement on that point,” Apollo replied. “Perhaps we can work out our differences once we are done here.”

  “I look forward to it,” Lerajie said.

  Apollo gave a smile of confident success, and climbed the dais back to his throne. “Well then, let us conclude our business here. te’Marduk!”

  The lead knight who had escorted Dawn and me to the castle stepped forward. “Yes, Prince.”

  “Take the humans to the holding chamber. We shall summon our own Proxenos from the Colloquy that we may judge the merit of the Shadows’ claims.”

  “Prince—” Oz began, but Apollo held up a hand.

  “While we would maintain goodwill between our two Demesnes, so too we have our own claims against these humans, and against the Silver Aalbright with them, and little desire for releasing them to Shadows justice before the Silver has satisfied our claim.”

  Oz considered Dawn and me for a second, as if weighing whether he might sneak us out under his cloak before anyone could stop him. “Very well,” he said at last. “I only meant to say I had intended to suggest just such a course myself. But know that the Shadows will be satisfied with nothing less than the return of these two humans once the Silver has verified the truth of our claim.”

  “I know many things,” Apollo replied. “Including what is best for the Silver. te’Marduk.” He nodded to the Silver knight, who gave a sharp bow of his head, then signaled to two other knights.

  “Prince,” I said. “Please. You must believe me. The Silver are in danger—”

  “Indeed they are,” Oz said. “From you.” He looked at Marduk. “Bind the woman well, knight. She has uncanny strength of will.”

  Marduk gave Oz a cold look.

  Apollo said, “Instruct not our knights, Proxenos, they know well their duty.” He looked at me. “And as for believing you, we will of course give your warnings due consideration—though it seems clear you came to seek rescue from justice rather than to offer it.”

  “Come,” Marduk said, and turned once again to march Dawn and me back along the blue and silver carpet. I felt the tug of the silver collar around my neck again.

  As I turned to follow its lead, Lerajie said, “Here, that you may dream of me.” She plucked a feather from her cape, and tucked it behind my ear, letting the back of her hand brush along my cheek as it lowered.

  “Uh,” I said, but she had already turned her stunning smile back toward Apollo.

  Dawn cleared her throat. “Come on, Kirk, you can seduce the space babe later.”

  Marduk and two knights escorted us to the double doors, which opened as we approached, revealing now a mirrored hallway of polished silver.

  Damn it, I thought to Alynon as we were lead down the hallway. I thought for a second maybe your brother might actually listen, might believe you.

  *Yes,* Alynon said in a subdued tone. *As did I.*

  I’m sorry.

  *You tried. And if we can force a trial here, rather than a return to the Shadows Demesne, we might yet prove the truth to my brother, on many points.* There was hope in Alynon’s voice. Faint, the hope of someone who’d had hope betrayed in the past, but it was there.

  Marduk halted us before one mirrored panel among many in the hallway, and I studied it, trying to see anything special about it. Having learned the lesson of the Black Lodge’s labyrinthine hallways, I was doing my best to figure out how to retrace our steps to escape if needed, and if possible. But I could see nothing unique marking this spot.

  Facing the mirror, with the mirrored panels behind us as well, it had that infinite reflection effect, as though we stared down a new hallway of ever-shrinking doorways. But behind us the near-black gray of badly tarnished silver seemed to rush at us, swallowing each nested reflection as it grew. I turned, startled, to see what rushed at us,
but saw only the mirrored panel on that side of the hall showing the same thing, a growing darkness behind me.

  When I turned back, I found myself not in the hallway, but in a room made of the tarnished silver, with what looked like a door-sized window behind me opening onto the mirrored hallway.

  “You will remain here for the even’ cycle,” Marduk said. He gave a wave of his hand, and two simple beds with silver frames rose from the floor, followed by a small table bearing fruit and a pitcher. “We shall return for you come brightrise.”

  “Great,” Dawn said. “And if I can’t hold it until then?”

  “It?” Marduk asked.

  “Yeah. What if I need to use the restroom.”

  “You have beds for resting,” he replied, frowning, and turned to leave.

  “She means urinate,” I said.

  “Ah,” Marduk said, turning back with a look of distaste. “I had forgotten.” He waved his hand, and a large silver pot rose out of the floor. “Until the morrow,” he said, and moved to the door-window.

  “Seriously?” Dawn asked. “You clearly haven’t had to share a bathroom with this guy when he’s under stress.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “Wait, Marduk, can we just—”

  Marduk ignored us now, and walked into the window. He passed through it, into the hallway, and then the window vanished.

  “Well,” I said. “At least this time we might get a fair trial.”

  “Yeah,” Dawn said, clearly not convinced.

  “It has been a crazy couple of days with little rest.”

  Dawn plucked Lerajie’s feather from behind my ear, and said, “I’m way ahead of you.” She moved to the chamber pot, and dropped the feather in. “Just go over there for a minute and turn your back. Let’s maintain the mystery a while longer, shall we?”

  “I am so with you,” I replied. I went to the far corner and made loud la la la noises until Dawn threw an apple at me to let me know she was done. We switched places, and after I was done we willed ourselves clean, moved the beds close together, and went to sleep, my hand on hers.

  * * *

  I woke, and rubbed at my face. It felt sticky. Had I drooled on my pillow again?

  My eyes opened, and I remembered I wasn’t in my bed, or even Dawn’s.

  Nor, I saw with surprise, was I in the room of tarnished silver.

  I sat up, looking around me.

  I lay in the center of a large four-poster bed with hanging curtains of red and silver. Above me, another mattress rested on the ceiling, I guessed to prevent injury when defying the illusion of gravity in this place. My impression from Alynon was that Fey did not experience the physical pleasure that humans did from sex, but obviously they still got something out of re-creating the act.

  Beyond the bed I caught vague impressions of a giant floating sphere of water filled with gently swirling rose petals, a peach tree growing downward from the ceiling offering its fruit for easy plucking, and a fireplace that ran the length of one whole wall filled with blue and silver flames that sang softly in a hundred-voiced chorus. But I barely registered them, and ignored the other wonders calling for attention.

  Because next to me lay Apollo, Prince of the Silver Court, with a ruby-hilted dagger in his chest.

  *No!* Alynon thought.

  “Oh, fu—”

  The chamber doors slammed open, and Marduk rushed into the room, spiked mace raised and ready to cave someone’s head in. He looked from me to Apollo and back, and his mace flickered with blue-white lightning as he shouted, “Murderer!”

  23

  POLICY OF TRUTH

  As Marduk advanced on me with his mace flickering brightly, I did the only thing I could think of. I held my empty hands above my head, and said, “I didn’t do this!”

  Marduk cocked back his mace to strike, then swung it down viciously—at the empty air. “Bah!” he exclaimed, and waved his other hand, which bore a sprig of some kind of plant. Manacles with chains manifested around my wrists and ankles, and it wasn’t until I felt the cold hard edge of a collar manifest around my neck that I realized I had been freed somehow from the last one.

  “I don’t—” I began, but Marduk gave another wave of his hand, and a gag choked my next words.

  “Chant the praise of the Aal, arcana, bow to your luck that this is the Silver Court. Were it any other Demesne, your spirit would be ten steps into death already. But you are in the Demesne of justice, and justice shall you face.”

  He motioned, and I was jerked up to my feet, then forward to follow him as more Fey poured past us into the room.

  As Marduk led me through mirrored halls, I thought to Alynon, What happened? Do you know if Dawn’s okay?

  *I do not know, I remember only blackness after you fell asleep.*

  I hesitated, then thought to him, There’s not a chance you took control, is there? Maybe unconsciously, or—

  *I will say this but once, Finn. I did not wish my brother dead. I wished to knock his ego down a peg or two perhaps, and I wished him to know and believe the truth of what happened between us, but that is all.*

  Okay. So any idea how this might have happened?

  *As it was Oz’s dagger used to do the deed, suspicion shall fall on the Shadows, and me as being their agent.*

  Which is obviously what someone wants.

  *Yes.*

  But if the Shadows really were behind the attack, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to leave such an obvious clue. Unless they wanted to make a statement?

  *Were they the Mountains of the Mind, ever ready for open contest, perhaps, but the Shadows avoid direct and honest war. They prefer to work through deception, and only strike when they have clear advantage.*

  The queen will see that, right? She’ll see that someone’s obviously trying to frame us?

  *Perhaps. She has great wisdom. But she will see it is also possible you simply did not escape the scene and it was by luck that the dagger was discovered. Or possible that the Shadows, knowing that nobody would believe them foolish enough to use their own dagger, used their own dagger so as to ultimately shift the blame away from themselves. Or … that I used you, not caring for your fate.*

  I moaned. Could someone in the Silver Court be behind it? Someone who wants to take over, maybe? Or held a grudge against your brother? Gods, it’s not the queen, is it?

  *I find it more likely that it was the Chaos Proxenos, Lerajie. I think it is safe to assume she had access to my brother’s private chambers.*

  I thought of the feather she had placed behind my ear, of her touch, which had felt electric against my skin. Had that been more than a flirtation? Had she done something then that allowed her to control me, or at least locate me to work some magic?

  I supposed that would make more sense than that she was flirting with me. I sighed. Dawn said women flirted with me all the time, but I never noticed it. So of course the one time I notice, I should have realized it was something else.

  I thought back to the events of the past few months, of the plot to pit the Elwha Silver brightbloods against the Shadows brightbloods, part of a larger plot to maneuver the two Demesnes into a war that would weaken both. There were not many clues as to the identity of these puppet masters, except that they were perhaps working with the Arcanites. And they had somehow used the gnomes to deliver forged orders in the names of both the Shadows and Silver.

  Alynon, who do the gnomes pledge to?

  *What?*

  Which Demesne do the gnomes pledge to?

  Alynon sighed, then said, *Most often, the Shores of Chaos.*

  And you didn’t feel it necessary to share this earlier, when we learned someone was using the gnomes in these plots?

  *In case you have forgotten, arcana, I am an Aalbright of the Sil—* he fell silent a second, then said, *I am not of your realm. I do not offer you information freely unless it is to the benefit of myself or my realm. This should not come as a surprise.*

  But this affects your realm.

  *I co
nsidered the possibility that Chaos was to blame, but did not see enough evidence to make it likely. After all, even your grandfather found a way to make brightbloods work against their own Demesne through his drug. And the Chaos Aalbrights and their vassals have ever been for the progress of our realm, and our race, free from our ties to humans and your realm. They would not ally with the Arcanites, or seek a war with humans. At least, I believed not.*

  But war is chaos, I thought back.

  *Battles are chaos,* Alynon responded. *War seeks to direct that chaos to reach a purposeful goal.*

  You’re splitting hairs. War breeds chaos. And change.

  *Fine. I may have been mistaken in dismissing the Shores of Chaos. Congratulations. You win, and my brother is still dead.*

  I winced.

  Sorry. We’ll figure out who did this, and bust their ass.

  Marduk rounded a corner in the hall, and jerked me around it by my invisible tether.

  *Yes, we are off to a fine start,* Alynon said sourly.

  I didn’t respond. What could I say?

  I thought about the Shores of Chaos, Demesne of change and entropy. They had such beings as Loki, Typhon, and Ahriman, known troublemakers. And when I imagined what personalities might be there, names like Charles Manson or the Joker came to mind, though, I realized, I had no idea how accurate that was. They couldn’t be all about destructive chaos, since they were also said to have been instrumental in the early evolution of the Fey out of the formless chaos.

  And where the Silver had in some ways aided arcana in ending the last Fey-Arcana war, Chaos had remained truly neutral in all of the wars on record. More, they had sought neither favor nor recognition from the ARC for that.

  In fact, I now remembered a story I’d heard as a child. “Mira, interesting fact,” my mother had said. “Once, when the Demesnes were planning for war against our world, they knew that Chaos would not join. For Chaos claimed that all Fey life began in the great Sea of Chaos beyond their shores, and that it was the will of the Aal that Chaos should remain untouched by the war: for if the Fey should be utterly defeated in war then Chaos would be left to once again fill the Other Realm with life.