Blade Singer

by de Orive, Aaron

  Manny could only stare into her eyes, his breath caught in his throat.

  Morrigan tapped her clawed finger on her chin. "I shall make you a generous offer. I vow to be truthful with you, on any topic you might choose to discuss, if in exchange you vow to be truthful with me. What do you say? Do we have an arrangement?"

  Managing a quick shake of his head, Manny muttered, "I can't answer any of your questions. I don't know anything."

  Another exaggerated pout pinched Morrigan's features. "Oh, is that because you want to guard your secrets from me? What if I told you I already knew most of them?"

  Manny's eyes widened in surprise. "I... don't believe you. I don't have any secrets."

  Morrigan glanced at Grim. "Where has trust gone in this world, Lord Grim?"

  "It is certainly a rare commodity these days, my lady," he replied.

  Morrigan regarded Manny. "Your name is Manny. Your spirit has come from another realm and it currently occupies the body of one of my pickpockets, a budding goblin known as Remy. The world you hail from possesses a strange and potent magic and devices of such cunning and such destructive power that men use them to dominate and rule over vast and mighty nations. An enchanted coin brought you here, a relic whose secrets I am quite eager to learn."

  Manny just stared, stunned and horrified.. "How how do you—?"

  "Know all of this?" she finished his question. "My dear boy, do not fret, for I have every intention of showing you."

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The crystal glowed with an eerie purple light. It was shaped roughly like a jagged teardrop, with angular facets that glittered and sparkled. It floated, spinning like a top, above a golden brazier with struts that supported a ring in the center. It was obviously intended to cradle the crystal when it wasn't suspended in the air.

  "Isn't it beautiful? It's a scrying crystal. This is how I see the truth." Morrigan's voice was a gentle purr.

  Manny stared deep into the crystal's mesmerizing light. It was beautiful. So much so that it even banished some of his terror. And given the fact that he was kneeling across from a nightmarish Unseelie hag, terror was a natural emotion.

  Morrigan had awakened the crystal with a few waves of her spidery fingers. After forcing Manny to kneel in front of the table, Grim had gone to stand in the shadows. Lothair had disappeared.

  Morrigan studied the scrying crystal. "It shows me almost anything I ask, even the most secret desires locked in a man's heart. And when I grew curious about you, dear Manny, oh, the things it revealed to me." She looked up at Manny with a smile.

  Manny settled back. "If you have this, what do you need me for?"

  "As I said, it shows me almost anything I ask. There are still some unanswered questions. Some force seems to be shielding you, you lucky boy. A powerful force. Don't you find that intriguing?"

  Manny did find that intriguing. What could be protecting me? He hadn't made any other allies besides Adriana, Etienne, and Gaudulfus, and he didn't think any of them did that sort of magical stuff. He needed answers of his own.

  "You said you would be honest with me if I was honest with you," he said. "Did you mean that?"

  "Of course! I never break a vow. Ask me anything."

  "Okay, who are you?"

  Morrigan lifted her brows. "My sweetest Manny, surely you know who I am."

  "I mean, who are you, really? Everyone believes you're a dangerous witch, a thief, and the leader of the Hands of Shadow. But you're more than that, right? Grim called you a 'lady' and you're involved with really important people like Minister Magneric."

  He could tell Morrigan wasn't displeased by the question, as if he was a student she was trying to teach. "True."

  "So who are you, really?"

  Morrigan stood and slowly spread her wings. Up close Manny found them both intimidating and fascinating. The maze of wrinkles and veins that covered the leathery membranes looked almost like some sort of archaic script. The rest of her body was covered in layers of flowing black rags of tattered silk. Her gray hair was a rat's nest atop her elongated head, the tips of her long, pointed ears poking out like two reeds. Her glowing eyes and her wide mouth, filled with those sharp teeth, were her most disturbing features.

  "What you see is Morrigan, the creature you have described so eloquently, my boy," she said. "My countenance is hideous, befitting that of a monstrous hag that haunts the sewers of Lutetia and steals for a living."

  Manny couldn't argue with that.

  "That is who I am now," she said, her voice low. "But that is not who I have always been."

  In a quick motion, she wrapped her wings about herself, her form shuddering and undulating. A bitterly cold wind suddenly blew in from the surrounding darkness and buffeted Manny, nearly knocking him over backward.

  In the midst of this tempest, Morrigan's form shifted and transformed. Her wings melted into a black cloak of shining silk, whipping around her body until the wind died down. The cloak lowered and parted as her arms came to rest at her sides.

  Manny gaped at her.

  Where the hag had once been there now stood an elegant, beautiful woman whose pale skin glowed with a ghostly light. Her eyes were oval pools of darkest night and her lips were as red as a rose. Her hair cascaded down her shoulders in rivers of shimmering ebony. A long, silk gown of the deepest red covered her shapely form, as snug and sinuous as snake's skin.

  "This," she said, her voice like a chill evening breeze, "Is who I truly am. I am Queen Mab, monarch of Albion."

  "Whoa," Manny gasped. "You— you're Queen Gloriana's sister? The one who tried to take the throne from her?"

  "Silence!" snapped Mab, her angelic face contorting and briefly transforming back into its demonic visage.

  Manny winced away, covering his ears.

  With a great effort, Mab relaxed, taking a deep breath. Her features smoothed out into angelic beauty again. "You must forgive me, dear boy, but that name is not to be spoken in my presence. Do you understand?"

  Swallowing nervously, Manny removed his hands from his ears. "Sorry..."

  "No harm done. Now it's my turn. Where did you get the enchanted coin that brought you here?"

  Manny's mouth clamped shut. I can't tell her that. She might find a way to get to my world and hurt Tia Licha. I've got to lie to her.

  "Now, now, dearest Manny," Mab said, "don't back out on our arrangement now. That would vex me quite terribly." She leaned forward, her smile sweet and chill.

  "I borrowed it," Manny stammered. "From a friend."

  "Does this friend have a name?" asked Mab.

  "Yeah," he replied, his mind racing. Who can I blame? Will she know it's a lie? What will she do if I don't tell her the truth? "His name is Gregory Salazar," he blurted out, then bit his lip. "And I didn't borrow it. I stole it from him."

  Mab studied his face for a long time. Manny hoped the mix of truth and lie was convincing. "I see. And do you know where Gregory acquired it?"

  Manny shrugged. "I'm not sure, but I think it might have been in a book."

  "Excellent, now we're getting somewhere."

  "Now it's my turn!"

  Mab inclined her head. "So it is."

  "What are you going to do to the king?"

  Mab looked up at Grim. "Should I tell him that, Lord Grim?"

  "You know best, my lady," the goblin replied. "But I would advise caution. At least until after the deed is done."

  Mab reached down and caressed Manny's cheek with a slender finger. "Do you hear, sweetest Manny? You've made Lord Grim nervous. And that is something very few people can do to the legendary Bloody-Bones, or as I prefer to call him, Tommy Rawhead."

  Glancing at Grim, Manny frowned. Those names sounded awful, but they seemed to suit the cold-eyed, willowy goblin. "Uh, okay."

  "But in the spirit of our arrangement," Mab said, "I shall answer your question. I intend to send Lord Grim and Lothair into the palace tonight to murder the young King Clovis and his mother, Giselle."

&nb
sp; "That's terrible!" Manny said, but he wasn't surprised. "Why would you do that?"

  "Because the deaths of human royalty at the hands of Sidhe assassins is precisely the fuel that is needed for the cauldron that is Aquitania. You've seen the situation in the streets, my clever boy. A civil war between the humans and the Sidhe bubbles just beneath the surface, and I've done everything I can to stoke the flames. All it needs now is just a little more heat in order to boil over and consume this kingdom and her people."

  Manny shoved to his feet. "No! I won't let you do that! I'll warn Etienne and Gaudulfus and they'll stop you."

  Mab laughed. "Foolish child, Etienne is to blame for all of this. If he and his accursed king had not meddled in my affairs, it would be my hated sister rotting in this stinking sewer now instead of me. I have a score to settle with him and I intend to do just that."

  Taking a deep breath, Manny bolted into the darkness, making for the cover of some crumbling pillars. Don't see me! Don't see me! he chanted to himself.

  He sensed more than saw Grim behind him. Manny ran in a zigzag pattern, trying his best to elude capture. There was a blur of motion just at the edge of his vision moments before a searing pain hit Manny in the back of his head. His legs went wobbly and his vision dimmed.

  He felt himself falling and a roaring sounded in his ears. Monstrous faces with viper eyes and needle-like teeth swam before his vision.

  The last sensation Manny felt before darkness claimed him was of being lifted by icy cold hands, the last thing he heard was a hiss, "Stupid boy!"

  ****

  Manny came to with a terrible, pounding headache, and a bright light in his eyes. Wincing, he reached up and touched the back of his head. It was wet and sticky. His bloody fingers confirmed he had been hit by something hard enough to break the skin.

  He lay on filthy animal skins covering the bottom of a circular metal cage. It hung in one of the shafts of sunlight that fell through the barred openings high above. He sat up, and the cage swung slightly, setting off a sympathetic lurch in his stomach. The bottom was a few feet above the floor. A quick glance up at the top of the cage revealed the thick rope tied around the uppermost bars, suspending it from a beam stretching between two of the stone pillars.

  "Welcome back," a voice said.

  Manny twisted around and focused on Morrigan. And it was definitely the witch Morrigan who was speaking to him, and not her alter-ego Mab. The bat-winged hag reclined once again on her throne, only a short distance away. The scrying stone sat on its tripod at her feet, glimmering in the faint light.

  "Your rude gesture has forced me to rescind our arrangement," she said. "A shame, as I was so enjoying our discourse."

  Grim stood a few feet away from Morrigan, giving Manny a cold unblinking stare.

  "But it seems Lord Grim was correct," continued Morrigan. "We should attend to the matter at hand. Then, afterwards, as Lutetia burns, you and I can spend as much time as we wish together."

  Manny got painfully to his knees, holding onto the bars to keep from falling over. "Etienne... will stop you," he said. "You'll see."

  Morrigan chuckled. "You are very fond of this Chevalier, aren't you? I must admit, he does have an annoying habit of appearing where he is not wanted." She got to her feet. "I have decided to take Grim's advice and make sure he will never be a thorn in my side again."

  She held out her clawed hand and closed her eyes. A strange chanting began deep in her throat, a droning, disturbing sound. Her lips did not move but the bizarre sound grew in volume and intensity, reminding Manny of the cicadas that hid in the trees of his yard on the hottest summers.

  Morrigan opened her eyes, her impossibly wide mouth parted with a wet gasp. A sickly, luminescent blood-red vapor oozed out from behind her sharp teeth and slithered down her torso, pooling on the floor in front of the dais.

  The vapor started to coalesce and take shape in the bloody pool. A tiny, red and black lizard-like shape began to squirm in the center, slowly absorbing more and more of the vapor. The creature's tiny mouth parted and it shrieked like a banshee.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Disgusted, Manny winced as he studied the tiny creature. "What is that thing?"

  "Just a little newt to make certain your friends in the Foundry don't talk to anyone likely to listen." Morrigan made a sharp gesture, and the creature leapt out of the mist and whipped across the room, glowing red in the shadows. Quicker than thought, it shot up the long stairway, around the upper part of the room and vanished out through the doorway into the sewers. "Once it arrives, it will assume its true form." She added, "I told Adriana the consequences of betrayal."

  Manny stared after the creature, horrified. She's sending it to kill them. Trapped in the cell, unarmed, they would have little chance against whatever that thing was.

  Morrigan swept to her feet and stepped down off the dais. "And when I return from my work at the palace, you will tell me what I want to know, dear boy. Make no mistake. If you defy me, you'll envy your friends their quick deaths."

  Manny sat silently, watching Morrigan and Lord Grim leave the lair. Once they were gone, he let out his breath in relief. The good thing was, he didn't think there were any guards left behind, at least in this room. It was difficult to see into the darkness past the circle of sunlight, but he couldn't hear anyone, or sense any movement. Morrigan must have needed all the members of the Hands of Shadow to attack the palace. I've got to get out of here, and fast, before that newt thing gets to the Foundry.

  He pulled at the lock, wrenched it back and forth, putting all his weight and strength into it. He used a lot of swear words that Tia Licha liked to pretend he didn't know, but it wouldn't give way.

  Remy could pick this lock, he thought in frustration. He sort of knew how himself, fragments of knowledge that popped into his head out of nowhere, out of that part of him that was somehow still tied to Remy. Except he needed some metal picks to try it, and he had nothing but his clothes.

  Okay, okay. Be calm and think. He looked up. Maybe I could untie the rope, then at least I'd be on the ground. He stood, wavering a little as his head swam, then climbed the bars to reach the top of the cage.

  He dug at the rope with his fingers, then tried to gnaw on it. But it was so big and solid it was like concrete, and even his half-goblin teeth didn't put a dent in it. Clinging to the top of the cage, Manny looked around again.

  A few feet away, there was a pillar, one of the supports for the beam the cage hung from. An old rusted torch bracket was attached to it. If he could get his hands on it, he might be able to take it apart to get some pieces of metal he could use to pick the lock. Manny strained to reach for it but it was just too far. He dropped to the floor of the cage, making the whole thing sway. He eyed the bracket again. Okay, let's try this.

  He pulled his shirt off, twisting and knotting it until he had a short rope with a loop on the end. Climbing to the top of the cage, he worked his arm out through the bars and tried to lasso the bracket.

  After a moment, Manny had to give up. The rope was just too short. He dropped to the floor of the cage again, feeling it jerk a little under his weight. Now there was a possibility. He flung himself forward into the bars, then back as hard as he could, and was rewarded with a sway from the heavy cage.

  Manny kept at it, though his head hurt. He hit the bars so hard he was bruising himself, making himself dizzy, but soon he had the cage swinging back and forth. When it was going as far as he could make it, he swung up to the top again, reached out, and slung his rope toward the bracket. The loop caught.

  Manny's gasp of triumph cut off as the cage swung back and the rope yanked hard at his arm. With a snap, the bracket broke right off the pillar, taking a large chunk of stone with it. The rope jerked out of Manny's grip, banging his elbow painfully against the bars.

  Manny dropped to the floor of the cage again, sitting in a dejected slump and holding his aching head. The cage swung back and forth, finally slowing to a halt. Augh, that
was a waste of time...

  He looked down. The bracket had bounced out of reach, but the stone chunk had broken apart and now lay in scattered fragments below the cage. Pulling the animal skins aside, he flattened himself against the bottom of the cage and tried to reach the fragments. The ground was just a little too far so he worked a leg through the bars and managed to pick up a few good chunks with his toes.

  That minor triumph didn't last long. Now he had some rocks, but bashing the lock with them didn't work, and the stone wasn't sharp enough to cut the rope. Manny looked around again, frustrated, biting his lip. And his gaze fell on Morrigan's scrying crystal, still sitting on its tripod.

  The edge of the crystal itself might be sharp, and if he could get a hold of the tripod, that was metal. It was definitely worth a shot. Manny took a piece of stone and scooted forward, working his arm through the bars, and threw the stone at the base of the tripod.

  It took a few tries, and he was down to his last good-sized rock, but he finally hit the leg of the tripod. It fell, sending the crystal rolling toward the cage. Manny retrieved it with the help of his toes.

  He could already tell this wasn't going to work, because the edge didn't feel nearly as sharp as he had expected. But as soon as he pulled the crystal into the full sunlight, it sparked like a spotlight.

  Manny winced away from it, black spots dancing in his vision. It was like looking into the sun. Maybe because it's an Unseelie thing, and it's not supposed to be out in the sun.

  Wishing he had a pair of dark sunglasses, he angled the crystal back and forth, trying to figure out what he could do with it. At least it was letting him see more of the room, reflecting the sunlight into a laser-like beam.

  Like a magnifying glass in the sun, only much stronger, Manny thought, inspired.

  Magnifying glasses or lenses could be used to start a campfire, like that kid lost in the mountains had done in the book they had read a couple of years ago in English class. Squinting his eyes, he angled the crystal around, trying to aim it up at the rope holding the cage.