Through Time-Slamming

by Conn, Claudy

  She went near him and whispered in his ear, “The monsters can be killed with iron. Make bullets and rockets of iron. You saw some men using iron rods, didn’t you…iron…”

  She smiled as she stood back and listened to the general snap off orders to get as much iron as they could collect.

  That would help them.

  She turned to Trevor. “Okay, that will give them a chance.”

  He touched her cheek, “My goddess.”

  She laughed, “No. you hellion. Come on, the Queen calls.”

  They shifted in and found all the Royals gathered with the two Queens in what had been set up as a war room.

  Three dimensional blueprints of Morrigu’s Castle had been laid out on the long dark oak table and everyone stood staring down at them as Deimne shifted into the chamber.

  A flick of his wrist produced yet another blueprint only he did not set it down, but raised it to eye level for contemplation.

  “Why has Pestale enlarged the dungeon from its original size? It extends into a tunnel of sorts that was not there before,” Trevor pointed out.

  “An escape route for his non-shifters?” Jazz asked.

  “No, my love. I don’t see an exit,” Trevor said thoughtfully.

  Breslyn said grimly, “I don’t like this. What can he be planning?”

  Radzia walked around the lifelike prints, hands on her hips, “what is that huge gold chain thing for?” She pointed. “There…in the wall of the tunnel.”

  Aaibhe turned to Mab who shook her head and said, “It is impossible to see into the mind of a deranged Dark Fae, for Pestale is no more than that.”

  “With all due respect Queen Mab, I disagree,” Jazz answered while frowning. “To allow ourselves to fall into the trap of underestimating Pestale simply because he is evil would be a mistake.” She shook her head. “If he has enlarged the original dungeon, Pestale must has a very good reason. It is important to remember that while we may not understand his line of thinking, he is very clever.”

  Jazz stood back and Trevor ran a hand down her back as they waited for the Queen to speak. Aaibhe looked at Mab who looked concerned, but folded her hands together and nodded her head for Aaibhe to proceed. “What do you think he could possibly want to use this new alteration of the castle dungeon for?”

  “To house something he needs,” Breslyn said thoughtfully.

  “Indeed. That may be so, my Prince, but what?” Aaibhe said.

  “Pestale has had a long time to gather his trinkets—artifacts that belonged to the Dark King. I am new to all of this and can only imagine how powerful those artifacts are. You, my Queens,” Jazz said careful to give them both their due, “would know what the Dark King had in his possession and perhaps left behind for his Princes to find. We can only speculate what Pestale means to do with those artifacts. We do have to be ready to counteract anything he throws at us. The fact that he has some gold chain in a tunnel adjacent to a dungeon that he had enlarged has to worry us,” Jazz concluded.

  “He means to capture something—someone and hold them there, but why enlarge the tunnel? All the Royal Seelie could have fit in the original dungeon,” Trevor mused.

  “The gold chain is key. I know of no gold chain that ever was used to control or trap a Royal Seelie. There is nothing in our past to…” Breslyn mused more to himself than to anyone.

  Aaibhe gasped and all eyes centered on her as she spoke. “I remember the story of the Dark King and Queen Bridget.” She looked at Deimne. “When the Gorka tore through Danu skies and we lost so many.”

  Deimne frowned. “The Gorka was captured and taken to a secret location while we still had our Danu. The dimension that holds the beast was created by Queen Bridget and the Dark King before their final falling out.” He shook his head. “How would Pestale know of it? How?”

  “Because at one time,” Z said, “when I was in the Dark Realm I learned how he was a welcome son at the Retreat the Dark King kept with Crystal—before he tried to seduce his father’s woman.” She shrugged. “Who knows what he learned during those early years.”

  “Yes, but I doubt that the Dark King would have told him where the Gorka was kept. He always understood the importance of that secret. Even I do not know where they located the Realm that holds the Gorka,” Aaibhe said thoughtfully.

  “But my cousin, I remember stories about a gold chain created from a spelled chalice and Danu dust…” Mab interjected.

  All conversation ceased as the implication of this was driven home.

  “Pestale means to capture the Gorka and bring it here to the Human Realm,” Deimne breathed in horror.

  “To set it upon us, to destroy all the Royals,” Aaibhe said grimly and turned to Mab. “We must retire immediately and find a way to spell an artifact just as Queen Bridget did.”

  “We can’t do it without the Danu Dust or the Twalla,” Mab said. “The Gorka was impervious to most of our magic.”

  “There is more,” Deimne said. “Pestale allowed his non-shifters to devour the residents of not one, but three villages. The people in those towns were totally wiped out--consumed. Those abominations will soon multiply.”

  Z spat angrily, “Bastards!”

  “That caste is helpless against us. They are no more than numbers we will easily put away and are meaningless in the fight we will take to them,” Queen Mab offered impatiently.

  “So to sum things up we have the possibility of a thing called a Gorka, which from its name does not sound good. And we have hordes of monsters about to be released into the world,” Jazz summed up. “I’m guessing he wants large numbers of Unseelie out and about to distract us. They are perhaps meaningless to us, but not to humans who we have sworn to protect. He will keep setting them on the cities, distracting us from our purpose. I don’t think he has guessed our purpose, which is to bring our fight to them, but he doesn’t have to if he is keeping us forever at bay.”

  “My Jazmine Decker is very right,” Trevor put in. “We must take the fight to him soon, before he can use the portal and send his creatures into the cities, and before he can find and retrieve the Gorka.”

  “In the meantime, my mate has whispered into the ears of one of the human generals. She has told him to create bullets and rockets out of iron. That should help the humans defend themselves which will free more of our warriors,” Trevor added.

  Radzia moved to Danté and he touched her cheek as she looked up into his golden eyes, and pulled at his auburn braid. He collected her and brought her in close and whispered a word of reassurance into her ear.

  “We can also get the message across to the smaller communities,” Z said. “I’m not affected by iron. Next time the Unseelie attack a village, I’m going in holding an Unseelie up by its grossness and slicing its head off with an iron bar and telling everyone around that iron can kill ‘em. How is that?” Z said with a wide smile.

  Trevor and Danté grinned and Jazz did a high five with Z and said, “I like that. I like that a whole lot.”

  “A thought,” Aaibhe cut in quietly. “We will have a great deal to repair in the Human World when we finally get Pestale under control, and my brave warriors we shall. However, we will have to find a way to make the humans forget that we, the Seelie Fae, and our Druids exist. They have witnessed us in the fight to help them and even after we enacted the Féth Fiada, they knew something they couldn’t see what was killing the monsters. We shall have to take care of that.”

  Breslyn grinned, took up his dark blond long hair and tied it at the nape of his neck with a leather string. “Leave that to me. I think I have the answer.”

  “Are you going to share?” Jazz asked.

  “Not just yet. One thing at a time, Jazmine Decker,” he answered.

  Jazz didn’t like that Trevor had them all calling her by her first and last name as though they were one.

  ~*~

  Pestale stood with his muscular long legs spread wide apart. He pushed the long black strands of his free flowing hair back and
tied them with leather to hold them in place against the harsh wind.

  His eyes scanned the horizon as his sandals scraped along the stone flooring of the castle’s open parapet. He bent his elbows onto the stone ledge and gazed past the moat far below, past the stockade and down into the green valley.

  Everything about Morrigu’s Castle called to and settled him. He discovered that he loved this place. The moment they had arrived at the castle in the Highlands, he knew. And then he stepped within its walls and he felt the power surge through him as he realized this was where he belonged.

  He was a Royal. A Dark Prince, but a Royal all the same. This was Morrigu’s Castle and therefore his own. He was going to rename it eventually.

  The land spoke to him. He was certain it whispered his name. He would be King of all the Universe.

  He would rule and his word would never be challenged. In the end, all would benefit from his rule. The humans, though slaves would no longer suffer war. He would be the sole arbitrator of all. He would lay down his law. He was strong enough to wipe out all opposition until there was none. Then he would allow the humans their track of earth and their pleasures as long as they served him well.

  Pestale grimaced as thoughts of Morrigu filtered through. As of late, she was no longer focused on ruling the Universe.

  She was too involved with the male human, what was his name—Dude. No, the human used that word, but he wasn’t Dude. He was Ray Wicken.

  He seemed to think he was magical, maybe even a warlock he said. This had made Pestale grin. He was a fool, but harmless.

  Ray Wicken didn’t know what real magic was, but he seemed to be good for Morrigu so Pestale had allowed him to live.

  He liked that this Ray had such a calming influence over her. It pleasured him to see her so happy. How odd that he cared so much.

  The human male seemed to comfort her. He had been at first slightly jealous, but he put that sensation to rest as the human was useful as a good diversion for her.

  Pestale was not emotional and although he could be kind when it suited him, he was not inclined to be. However, Morrigu was different. He had always felt an empathy with her. She had been used and then mistreated by his father. She had been discarded as though she was nothing, just as he had been. Besides that, she was in a manner of speaking, his mother.

  Her genes were in part his genes, and perhaps now, she might enjoy the pleasures she was entitled to experience—the pleasures the Dark King had denied them all.

  He did find it odd how devoted this male human was to Morrigu. Their time together had been a short one thus far and yet the two were inseparable. Pestale had investigated and found that Morrigu had not even compelled him to be with her. He remained enamored with her, smiling and laughing as though it was meant to be.

  He no longer believed in such things. He had once thought that Royce was meant to be his, but he had been wrong. If this human male disappointed Morrigu then he would send him in pieces to whence he came! But for now he was a good diversion for her, as Hordly and he were too busy to look after her many needs.

  Suddenly a shiver swept through him blasting its way into his head, giving him a warning. He looked up into the cloud splattered sky. Something high above made his blood tingle with dread. But what could it be?

  He couldn’t see anything, but he certainly felt the magic. He was sensitive to all kinds of magic, whether it was white or dark. He sensed something hovering in the atmosphere.

  Only one winged Fae remained, Deimne.

  Was it the Sluagh high above?

  What would the Sluagh want? What could the Sluagh learn hovering above his castle?

  Pestale didn’t like this. He wasn’t ready for an attack by the Seelie Fae. If it was the Sluagh then he needed to be prepared for the winged Fae’s next visit.

  The Sluagh was the only Fae capable of hiding himself from Unseelie. This fact swept through him, irritating him to his core.

  How dare the Sluagh fly over his castle! It was further proof that he, the first of the Dark King’s sons was more Unseelie than Seelie Fae. For a Seelie Fae would have seen through his invisibility.

  Damn his father’s dark magic! With Morrigu’s DNA and the Dark King’s DNA so much a part of him, why hadn’t he turned out completely Royal Seelie?

  He knew the answer, of course, for his father had explained it once. It was simple—his father had erred.

  The Dark King anxious to create his son all powerful, slipped in the DNA of an Ancient and beloved Danu creature. He had not realized that it had been damaged by the solution the DNA had been preserved in.

  The Dark King had hoped to instill all this creature’s powers and abilities for great empathy and kindness and instead, it had made his sons something altogether different.

  Graely and his youngest brother, who was now dead, had not received those genes. Only he and Hordly had.

  He sighed and shoved these cogitations aside. At the moment he had to deal with the fact that he was certain he had the Sluagh in the sky above his castle. What was it doing? No doubt it was spying for the Seelie.

  The Sluagh had to die.

  He smiled to himself; very soon he would have the means to accomplish just that. And in fact, as humans so aptly put it, he would take out two birds with one stone.

  The notion made him laugh. His laugh was an ugly sound that rang through the Grampian Mountains, so at odds with the beauty of the wild and vibrant life it held.

  Pestale immediately shifted to Gorkum.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “A DISRUPTION HAS occurred at MacTalbot!” Aaibhe said quietly, her hand up halting all conversation around her. “Our treasured Druids, Maxine and Julian, stand at the edge of their warded land conversing with Graely the Dark Prince.”

  She turned to Trevor. “You must go there at once. Maxine and her Druid mate are mortal and both are beloved. I am not certain their wards will hold against a Dark Prince. They should, but I would feel better if they had your protection.”

  “I’m coming with you Trev.” Jazz didn’t question these things anymore. She simply assumed that the Queen and Maxine had some kind of mind link in place. What she questioned was anything that might put Trevor in danger. From her tone and her stance it was obvious she was not backing down.

  “Neither one of you should be going,” Breslyn stuck in irritably. “Maxine and Julian are my people—my friends. I shall attend to them.”

  “Breslyn, Maxine tells me that Graely has asked for Trevor,” the queen answered softly. “She must have her reason.”

  “I don’t like it,” Bres answered. As Ete reached for his hand and he looked into her eyes, Jazz saw him melt for her. She couldn’t believe that without a word or even a harsh look Ete had worked his will and made it her own. A smile curved her lips as she watched the handsome brute warrior sit beside his mate; much like a youth and allowed her to take control. Now that was a real man—male Fae, or whatever.

  Trevor sighed and took Jazz’s hand and frowned at her. “You say that, as though you are sure I shall allow you to accompany me, Jazmine Decker.”

  “Whether you allow it or not, I am coming. If I have to track and follow you I will be at your side. When needed I will be with you. Understood?”

  Breslyn frowned as he looked their way, obviously still of a mind to go as well. Ete murmured softly, “Maxine linked with the Queen for a reason Bres. She knew you would want to go to them and for some reason she requires Trevor.”

  Jazz watched the two as he kissed her forehead and then her fingers. What a special love they shared. How complete. She turned and looked at Trevor who she discovered was watching her. He leaned over and said in a low voice full with emotion, “I love thee just like that. Please know that always, my very own Jazmine Decker.”

  “Then accept the fact that I always want to have your back, Trevor of Lugh,” she said on an emotional note.

  He lit up. She saw him simply glow as he pulled her close against his rock hard body and said
in a throaty voice, “Aye then wench have me, my back, my front, and my all.” They shifted to MacTalbot Castle.

  Deimne shifted just behind them, and in time to hear all of this. He watched them go and said softly to Aaibhe, “I must join them Queen Aaibhe.”

  She nodded her approval and as Deimne shifted out he heard Breslyn begin a series of mild Danu curses.

  ~*~

  Jazz saw this beautiful dusky haired young woman rush towards them. A big, dark haired buck at her side had looked stern and was ready for a fight.

  Maxine’s green eyes were alive with excitement. Jazz thought that she may be mortal, but she didn’t seem to be afraid.

  Maxine looked at her curiously but turned to Trevor and said hurriedly as she turned her head toward the big Dark Prince on the other side of the ward.

  “Pestale’s brother, Graely is right there on the other side of the ward. He says he doesn’t mean us any harm, but must speak with you.” She looked up as Deimne glided easily to her side, pulled in his beautiful wings, took her by the waist, and drew her to himself with obvious pleasure. “High Druid Priestess,” he said fondly.

  “Deimne! Oh, it is so good to see you,” she said and hugged him fiercely.

  His glittering eyes were alive with a tease. “Have you decided to leave this Druid Priest and fly around the world with me, my sweet love?”

  She laughed and as her husband the Druid Priest in question, had stepped up at that moment to offer his hand which was heartily taken. A moment was lost in the greeting and Jazz managed to get a good look at her surroundings.

  They were in an open field with what Jazz assumed to be MacTalbot Castle in the distance.

  She saw Graely standing very still and looking solemn. At his back was a Pine Forest that loomed dark and mysterious. She looked into his black eyes and found the amber light glittering in them. He was not like his brothers.

  Jazz turned back to look at Maxine whom she had heard so much about. She knew that Maxine and her husband Julian had fought during the time of Gaiscioch not so very long ago. Their personal story was very intriguing, however at the moment it was Graely that held her totally and seriously, too worried to think of anyone else.