Smells Like Finn Spirit

by Randy Henderson

  Oshun’s eyes went dark, going from river green to the light-kissed blackness of a night sky. “I see within you that which exceeds seeming, it is true. But I have not the wisdom to understand it, nor judge its nature.”

  “Enough,” Arthur said. “I have expressed my blessing for this bonding. If there is some contest or conflict between your nature and my decisions for the benefit of this Demesne, then it is your nature that is flawed. And for my part in your nature, I will apologize if you wish, but I offer no apology for this decision.”

  “What of justice?” Alynon demanded. “We are the Demesne not only of reason, but of justice, and I say it is not a just act to bond someone against their will.”

  “Nobody is being bonded against their will,” Arthur said. “And even were it so, it is not reasonable to expect our Shadows cousins to abide by our definition of just.”

  Alynon felt something like the collapse of a star within his chest, and his form wavered. He did not want to believe Velorain would agree to the bonding. But he knew her nature, and nothing felt certain or stable in his world.

  “By your leave,” Alynon said, and bowed. His entire form vibrated with his emotions as he turned and strode away.

  * * *

  Wait, Blobby’s voice sounded. We are interrupted.

  * * *

  I was jolted out of Alynon’s memories back into the reality of the Chamber of Counsel, and became aware of the Shadows ambassador’s angry voice demanding entrance behind me. I blinked, and turned away from the row of Silver Counsels to see Oz blocked by the two guards at the chamber entrance, his face quite red between his bushy gray sideburns.

  He flicked his high-collared cape in a gesture part agitation, part showmanship, and said, “I demand to know what is going on. I have been treated more like a criminal than an ambassador. And this court has had more than enough time to see the wisdom of sending these two true criminals back with me to my Demesne for trial there. Instead I learn you are holding a trial here—”

  Ma’at stood, and said, “I am curious how you learned any such thing, as you were to be confined to your rooms until sent for.”

  Oz stood up straight, and said in a great booming voice, “I am Oz the Great and Wise. I know many things and you cannot hold me—”

  “Then you surely know why they are here, but your dagger is not,” Ma’at said.

  Oz looked startled. “My dagger?” He glanced down at his hip, as though surprised to see it not there.

  “Proxenos te’Oz,” Ma’at continued, “I promise you that should these two be found innocent of the charges we bring, then we shall consider the merits of sending them to the Shadows to face justice there as you have requested, as well as other considerations of justice. Guards, please return the Proxenos to his rooms.”

  Oz was forced back from the doors, and they swung shut once more. And their clanging felt like the shutting of a prison door on my hopes. Even if Alynon could prove reasonable doubt about our guilt, would the Silver just send us back to the Shadows to face a much less forgiving justice there?

  25

  PRICE OF LOVE

  “Alynon, do you wish to continue?” Justitia asked.

  *Yes,* Alynon replied, his tone one of restrained emotions. *I must. We have not yet addressed all charges against me.*

  “Alynon says yes,” I translated.

  Dawn put a hand on my arm. “Are you okay? What did you see?”

  “You couldn’t see the memories?” I asked, surprised.

  Blobby shook his head. “She could not. Only the Counsel may perceive them. We have no wish to reveal even more of our world to a mundane.”

  I sighed. “I’m okay,” I said to Dawn. “Don’t worry. This will all be over soon.”

  “Very well,” Justitia said. “te’Kenobi?”

  Blobby-Wan placed his hand on my head, and I fell into Alynon’s memories quickly this time.

  * * *

  A flash of silver light.

  Alynon looked into Velorain’s eyes and asked, “You would say yes to my brother’s proposal? For all that is sacred, why?”

  They stood in the Silver Grove, beneath the canopy of a star willow. The tree’s tarnished silver trunk stretched two hundred feet toward the moons above, its branches made of flickering, flowing light that fell like curtains of sparks and shooting stars all around them.

  “We spoke of this,” Velorain said, radiant in her gossamer red dress and diamond-netted hair. “It was in Apollo’s nature to claim me. It was in your father’s nature to do what is best for his people. And it is in my nature to seek the greatest power for mine.”

  “But you also said you love me,” Alynon said.

  “And I do.”

  “Yet you would bond with my brother?”

  She frowned at Alynon. “I—what would you have of me?”

  “I would have you.”

  Velorain looked at Alynon in silence for a minute, her face lit silver in the glimmering light of the willow. “To marry your brother would place me in a great position of power and influence, and would gain much for my Demesne. To turn away from such an opportunity—I would instead likely lose much of the power I have gained, and may well be exiled.”

  “And should I defy my father’s clear desires, I too may be exiled,” Alynon said. “So let us go into exile together.”

  Velorain took a step back. “To what gain?”

  “The gain of each other,” Alynon said.

  “The gain of an uncertain future in return for the injury of all that I have known,” Velorain said, “of all that I have built for myself.”

  “And to what end, all that you have built?” Alynon asked. “For what purpose do you play this game of power?”

  “What end? To no end: no end to my life, no end to my freedom.”

  “And what use ‘life’ or ‘freedom’ if you do not employ them to your happiness?”

  She smiled. “You assume that the game itself is not what makes me happy.”

  Alynon shook his head. “I assume nothing. I hope that you might consider life with me a life indeed, and the freedom to love me the greatest freedom.”

  Velorain watched the light cascading down for a long silent time, then said, “Where would you have us go?”

  “Wherever you may feel happiest with the choice,” Alynon replied. “The Summerland, Demesne of creativity and art, where you may be surrounded by poetry every day. Or the Heart Lands, Demesne of passions and desires, for surely they would accept us.”

  Velorain considered her hands for a moment, then said, “I know that I love you. I have all the thoughts and feelings that commend themselves to that name in the memories given me. And there is in my nature that which yearns to be consumed by this love as in a great fire. But also I am Uriel, and shaped by and for the Shadows to a Shadows’ purpose. I cannot abandon my ambitions nor my duty so easily. I am sorry.” She looked up. “Would that you were the elder brother, that I might be bonded to you, then all of my desires would be fulfilled in one body.”

  “Let me fulfill all your desires yet,” Alynon said.

  “How?”

  “I—we may go to the Shores of Chaos,” Alynon said. “Whatever is in me that surpasses like and proves real—whatever in my nature allows for love to conquer all other impulsive needs that my makeup recommends me—it is surely tied to the manner of my branching. And that method comes from Chaos. Let us see if they might alter that fixed part of your nature that binds your will to memory, and in alteration find love’s truth.”

  Velorain looked into Alynon’s eyes for what felt like an eternity before saying, “If I might indeed be freed from the compulsory and oft tyrannical law of mine own nature, to pursue my heart’s desire—to pursue love for love’s sake as I willed—that would be a kind of power worth such risk.”

  “Truly?” Alynon asked, barely daring to hope.

  “Yes,” Velorain said, and then with more conviction, “Yes. I will go with you to the Chaos Demesne.”

 
; * * *

  Blur—

  * * *

  Alynon faced Apollo in his brother’s private chamber, a room as grandiose yet soulless as Apollo himself.

  Apollo rolled his eyes, and flung one leg over the arm of his throne-like chair, leaning back. “Give it up, brother,” he said. “Find some new entertainment.”

  “Have you not heard me, brother?” Alynon replied. “She has agreed to leave with me in exile. But I would not see her stripped of home and title. Relinquish claim to her, find some other Shadows match to pursue, that she may withdraw from the proposal with the lesser shame and come with me not as an exile, but as an ambassador. A thousand beautiful Lydas will I find you for this one Velorain.”

  Apollo laughed. “My appetite is for a Velorain. A thousand Lydas tempt me not.”

  “Why can you not understand that I truly love her, brother?”

  “I understand well. And I declared my love equally.”

  “That which you hold is not love,” Alynon said. “It is a passing desire shaped by your nature.”

  “It indeed holds the shape of love, and the feel of love, and all other forms and aspects of love,” Apollo replied. “How then is love not love?”

  “When it allows not for the happiness of the one you claim to love.”

  Apollo grinned, settling into an even more relaxed stance across his chair. “Oh, I have never had complaint of my love before, and I feel quite certain Velorain shall not differ in this regard.”

  “Perhaps,” Alynon offered generously, managing to keep his tone, and his form, steady. “But I ask you, brother to brother, to believe me when I say that there is naught in your nature that can love her as I do.” Apollo snorted, and Alynon raised a hand. “This is no flaw in you, but rather a happy curse for me. But if love shall be the wind that drives your course, let it be whatever familial love you do hold for me, and grant me this request. I will grant you in return any boon you ask.”

  Apollo sat up, his expression growing serious. “Enough, brother. I do love you, as I love Father and all of our Silver Aalbrights. It is to all our benefit that I take Velorain as mine. And more importantly, it is what my heart compels me toward. I will speak no more on the matter.”

  “This has naught to do with love, or duty,” Alynon said angrily. “You would simply take that which I desire most.”

  “Believe as you will,” Apollo replied. “It changes my answer not at all.”

  A sword flickered briefly into existence in Alynon’s hand, but he quickly regained control of his emotions—or at least the outward expression of them. “I came to you as a brother, hoping for a brother’s love,” Alynon said. “I leave without a brother, and a love that is truer than any you shall know.”

  Alynon marched out of the room, already making plans for a swift escape to the Shores of Chaos.

  * * *

  Blur—

  * * *

  Alynon motioned Velorain to the side as he stood before the trilithon and prepared to invoke the portal to the Shores of Chaos Demesne. Behind him, he could feel the presence of the Silver Court like a weight upon his shoulders, and could not face it, could not face the home he was about to leave and possibly never see again.

  He raised a hand. “Yl thein ghlach’lorahn mich anthon—” As he spoke, the trilithons began to glow, and hum.

  But before Alynon could complete the first pattern, a dozen rainbow-edged blurs of light streaked down from the Silver Court walls and resolved themselves into the Silver Guard, each armored in gleaming silver plate with a silver diadem holding back his or her braided locks.

  Arthur and Apollo appeared as well, and Alynon’s heart quivered.

  “Father—” he began.

  “Do not address me so,” Arthur said, and held up his hand. A rotating black crystal appeared above it, radiating an ultra-violet glow. A communication crystal. “We uncovered your conspiracy before its damage could be realized.”

  Alynon frowned. “Love is not a conspiracy, Fa—my lord.

  I tried—”

  Arthur’s fist clenched, and the crystal vanished in a dark flash. “I know what you tried!” he said. “And speak not of love. I viewed the messages from your Chaos patron. You would have betrayed our Demesne, and your brother, to bring this Shadows Aalbright as sacrifice to the Chaos Lords, a trade to gain you position and power in their ranks.”

  “What?” Velorain said, stepping back from Alynon.

  “What?” Alynon said at the same time. “I have had no communication with the Chaos Lords, nor any desire to join their ranks.”

  “Indeed?” Apollo asked. “And to where was this portal meant to take you?” He waved at the trilithon.

  “Father,” Alynon said, ignoring Apollo and raising his hands in a pleading gesture. “It is true, we were defecting to the Shores of Chaos, but only—”

  “Enough!” Arthur said. “Knights, take him. I will escort Velorain te’Uriel safely back to the company of the Shadows Proxenos myself.”

  “No!” Alynon said, and reached for Velorain. But she stepped back from him, her face and form rippling with signs of hurt and confusion and anger.

  “You were but using me?” she asked.

  “Never!” Alynon said. “Someone went to much trouble making it seem so, but—”

  She shook her head. “In the Shadows, we learn to assume every word and act of another is part of some larger game toward their own advancement. But I had hoped—you made me believe else.”

  “Velorain, please—” Alynon said. But four knights surrounded him and extended their will to bind him between them as in a cage. Apollo moved to Velorain’s side.

  “You failed, brother,” Apollo said. “You have failed us all. Accept your punishment.” To Velorain, he said, “Come.”

  “No!” Alynon said. “Brother, Father, please—”

  But Apollo led Velorain away, and the four knights of the Silver Guard forced Alynon in the opposite direction.

  * * *

  Blur—

  * * *

  Alynon paced the containment room until a doorway appeared. The door always appeared in a different location on a random wall so that Alynon could not easily ambush whoever came through, even if his control over anything beyond his own body weren’t blocked.

  The Shadows Proxenos, Canubrius te’Vilovain, swept into the chamber and fixed his dark eyes on Alynon. The door closed behind him.

  “You did this,” Alynon said.

  “Did what, exactly?” Canubrius asked. “Took Velorain in defiance of your father’s wishes, and tried to steal her away to Chaos? That was you, I’m afraid.”

  “You created the false record of my messages with Chaos. Deception is a Shadows weapon.”

  Canubrius arched an eyebrow. “You say that with disdain in your tone, and while I admit no deception, you are there, and I am here, and which is the better position?”

  “This isn’t a game!” Alynon said. “And when next I speak to Velorain, I shall—”

  “You will not speak to Velorain,” Canubrius said. “You tried to steal her away to her destruction. I shall not allow you to see her.”

  “There will be a trial,” Alynon said. “Whatever deception you have woven will be destroyed upon projection of my memories.”

  “Again, I admit to no deception,” Canubrius replied. “But I have a terrible foreboding that denying your guilt will not end well. For you or anyone you love. Why put them through such a … torturous ordeal?”

  Alynon froze. Had Canubrius just threatened his family harm if Alynon did not go along with this charade? No. He had not the power to harm Arthur or Apollo. If he did, the Shadows would have done so long before.

  He spoke of Velorain.

  He would torture or destroy Velorain.

  “You bluff,” Alynon said. “You would gain nothing by harming Velorain.”

  “I said nothing of harming Velorain,” Canubrius said. Alynon grit his teeth. Though it was normally impossible for an Aalbright to outright lie,
they could dance around the truth like Fred Astaire on pixie dust, and none were better at it than the Shadows.

  “Your intent was made clear, nonetheless,” Alynon said.

  “Intent?” Canubrius replied. “I am not the one who nearly took Velorain to Chaos to be sacrificed. Yet had you succeeded in your plan, perhaps it would have been best that she be sacrificed. For having failed that purpose to which she was pledged in coming here, and should the Shadows Senate believe her to have gone willingly with you,” he shuddered. “One might fear she would be seen as a disappointment at best, and a liability at worst. I am just glad I was able to spare her from such a fate. And I think it villainous of you, sir, that you persist in trying to destroy not just her honor, but her very existence.”

  Alynon had backed against the wall as if trying to escape Canubrius’s words, and he slid now to sit on the floor.

  Canubrius was not bluffing. He would destroy Velorain. Perhaps even frame Apollo for her death. How much advantage would the Shadows gain in the Colloquy and in their constant campaign to bring low the Silver Court if both princes of the court had made an attempt on the life of a Shadows ambassador? It seemed foolish, when even more advantage might be gained from having Velorain bonded to a Silver Prince, but there were plenty of Shadows who preferred war with the Silver to any lasting peace or profit, and Canubrius might just be among them.

  Alynon didn’t care about his own reputation, or about exile. The former had never been sterling, and the latter he had been prepared to impose upon himself already.

  What he did care about was Velorain’s life.

  “Very well. I shall not contest the charges.”

  “La, wise choice,” Canubrius said. He rapped on the wall, and the door appeared. A guard opened it, and Canubrius left.

  * * *

  Blur—

  * * *

  The door appeared once again, and this time it was Anansi, Master Strategist of the court, that entered. He wore robes that hung from just below his armpits and across his chest, robes of bright red, yellow, and blue in zigzag and geometric patterns that told a story, though Alynon had never learned the secret of reading it. Anansi’s four extra limbs, still in spider form, wrapped around from his back to cross his mid-section.