by Bonnie Lamer
“Are you going to behave?” I demand.
“Yes! Make it stop, just make it stop!”
Unfortunately, I can’t make it stop if I want answers. “Where are the Siren’s?”
The man’s eyes are closed tight against the pain. “I don’t know.”
My skin doesn’t have the creepy crawlies so he must not be lying. “How can you not know?”
“I do not know this land.” Oh, that makes sense.
“Could you find your way back to them?” I ask.
“No,” he grates out.
I scowl down at him. “They didn’t give you a map or anything?”
“No,” he rasps. “They will come to us when we have taken the palace and village.”
“So, they sent you on a do or die mission.” They are some cold hearted bitches. Then again, I’m the one torturing this guy for information. I may not be the best person to judge.
“If we are not successful, we do not deserve their love,” the man wheezes.
Yup, still affected by their spell even with the pain. “How many of you are there?”
“Thousands.”
“Are they all here now?”
“Yes. We came to land yesterday. We were to wait until many had died. We sent word back that no one has died and we received the order to attack tonight.”
“You said there are thousands of you. What realms do you all come from?” They can’t all be human.
“Everywhere.”
I doubt everywhere. The realm which still has dinosaurs probably wasn’t on the Siren hit list. Nor the Dragons as they are not humanoid, but I get his point. “And you’re all here? Why couldn’t the Fairies sense the magical beings?”
Felix can answer this one. “When the Sirens create a slave, they are then blanketed in Siren magic. Their original magic is stifled.”
Got it. I hate Sirens. “When will you be considered successful? When all the Fairies are dead?”
“All but one.”
He means Kallen. “Is there anything else you can tell me?” He shakes his head then cries out at the pain it causes. I can’t hurt him anymore. Even if he is here to kill me. I release him from my magic while simultaneously teleporting me and my Familiars to the safe side of the enclosure. He caught me unawares twice. I won’t let it happen again. Good thing, because as soon as my magic releases him, he comes after me. He runs into the invisible enclosure and practically knocks himself out. The pain has definitely roused him from his stupor.
“Princess, the High Chancellor requests your presence,” Sindri says from the doorway of the cell room. He is eying the Cowan in the enclosure with murder in his eyes. Huh. I didn’t know Sindri had it in him to be feral.
“Let’s go,” I say to Dagda’s faithful assistant before he makes good on the threat in his eyes.
“I will arrange for a guard,” Sindri tells me.
The ferocity in his voice makes me pause a minute to consider if he is a threat to the prisoner. I can’t tell. I’m starting to believe, though, the chances of the Cowan making it out of this realm alive are pretty darn slim.
Chapter 18
Incredulous, Tana asks, “That is all he said? That is not new information.”
I shrug. “He had no more to tell.”
“Maybe I should question him.”
I shake my head. “Not with that gleam in your eyes.”
Standing akimbo, she demands, “What gleam?”
“The one which suggests you are considering black magic,” Isla drawls. She is sitting behind her desk tapping a pencil on a pad of paper. She must be worried. Isla never fidgets like that.
Tana sputters a few things but it’s barely intelligible. She finally says, “Fine.” She throws herself into a chair and pouts. Stress does not always bring out the best in her.
“So, no one has tried to get into the palace while I was talking to him?” I ask Isla. When Sindri came to get me, I thought it was because a battle was brewing.
“No,” she says absently. “No one has triggered a crystal and no one has attempted to gain entrance into the palace.”
“That’s strange.” The Cowan said there were hundreds of them here. “Do you think they all went to the village? I could pop over there and check.” And make sure Kallen and the rest are okay.
Bringing her full attention back to me, Isla shakes her head. “No. They may be waiting for you to leave the palace.”
My face folds into a frown. “How would they know? And why did you call me back if there wasn’t anything new going on?”
“They would know,” Tana says from her pouty chair, “because most of them are magical beings and can detect the magic of others. You are easy to find.”
“She would know,” Taz snarks. “Each time she tried to kill you she knew right where you were.”
“I called you back because I doubted you would get much information from the Cowan. You are more valuable here if anything new should occur.”
I sigh heavily. “So, what? We sit here and wait to be attacked? We could go on the defensive,” I suggest. Just sitting here is already driving me insane.
Isla stares at me a minute. Finally, she asks, “Can you sense any beings within the Siren magic?”
No, I can’t. Because they are under an umbrella of Siren magic like the Cowan told me and she knows that. I put out another idea. “When Irena was here, I sent out a blanket of magic and it hit her even though I didn’t know exactly where she was.”
Isla considers for a moment and shakes her head. “That is too dangerous for our people. Two of the search parties we sent out before your attack have not returned. We cannot risk them being caught in your magic”
“What?!” I scramble from my chair. “We need to find them!” How can she be sitting there so calmly?
Trying to hide a trace of guilt in her eyes, Isla says, “It was Naja’s group and another led by a skilled warrior. I trust in their ability to save themselves.”
I groan and fall back into my chair. I understand her reasoning. Naja would be pissed if we attempted to save her at the risk of everyone else in the palace. She is very good at what she does and I would trust her with my life in battle. She is smart and would know when to fight and when to find cover. “Okay, but if we don’t hear from her by morning, I’m going to look for her.”
Isla nods. “I will assist you.”
We sit in uncomfortable silence for several minutes. It’s surprisingly not my voice that finally can’t take it anymore. Tana rises from her chair. “I must do something.”
Giving Isla a sideways glance, I say, “We should probably check the palace.” Before she can get mad at me for doubting her ability to seal it off, I rush to say, “If they’ve been here all day, they could have entered the palace before the doors were sealed.”
“I will go,” Tana offers.
“Not alone,” Isla insists.
“I will find Sindri. He can accompany me.”
“Take Felix with you. That way if you run into trouble, he can come find us,” I suggest. Knowing Felix, he would stay and fight but it would still make me feel better if they had some added protection.
Tana inclines her head. “Excellent suggestion.” She likes my Familiar and trusts him.
“Are you certain?” Felix asks. He gives a surreptitious glance in Taz’s direction.
“Like you could do anything to protect her that I couldn’t do,” Taz challenges.
“It’s fine, Felix,” I assure him before he and Taz get into a pissing contest.
“I’ll check on those in the Great Hall,” I tell Isla. I walk to the door before she has a chance to stop me. I need to do something, anything to feel like I’m being of use in regards to protecting my realm.
In the Great Hall, Fairies and Mermen are snug in their resting places. Many of them are snoring away. I wish I could have their oblivion at the moment. I walk among them, keeping my eyes open for a Trojan horse. Ones the Sirens may have sent in to pretend to be asleep and kill the ot
hers when they have a chance. Yes, there have been guards here all night, but…wait. I stop in my tracks. Granted, I don’t know all the guards on Dagda’s staff. I’m pretty sure, though, the guy near the elevator is not one of them. He has a cap pulled low over his forehead, but there’s a little bit of blonde hair sticking out on the nape of his neck. No Fairy is blonde.
He knows the instant I’ve made the discovery. His eyes grow wide and he scrambles backward. At first, I prepare myself to be attacked with magic. I’m not because this is another Cowan.
“They get these guys on discount or something?” Taz snarks as he approaches the human with teeth bared.
When the guy hits the wall behind him, he draws his sword. Yeah, that’s not going to work for me. With a burst of magic, the sword goes flying out of the guy’s hand and buries itself to the hilt into the wall. Oh. I hope there wasn’t anyone standing on the other side of that wall. I don’t hear any screaming, so I’ll assume there wasn’t.
“You got trouble back here, too,” Taz informs me.
I turn to find several other Cowans bearing down on me. Well, this sucks. Though, I am going to have quite the sword collection when I’m through. Several more land in the wall next to the first. A couple of the guys run to them and try to yank them out to no avail. If this was all started by King Arthur, the swords that can’t be pulled from their resting places seems fitting. I doubt any of them are Excalibur, though.
“You gonna play with swords all night are you going to protect yourself?” Taz snarks. He’d probably say more, but his mouth is now full of some guy’s ankle.
I decide protecting myself is the way to go. I suspect none of these guys will have anything new to tell me. The Sirens like to keep their slaves in the dark, apparently. I run down a list in my mind of what I can do to stop these guys. I could use extreme violence. I’m certainly pissed enough. On the other hand, these guys really aren’t fighting under their own volition. They’re simply puppets the Sirens play with. An idea builds in my mind. Puppet strings can be pulled by different people if you know how. The spell is coming out of my mouth before I even finish the thought. “A Siren’s hold cannot be broken, of their power you are a token. The power of blood flows through my veins, born of three not to be restrained. With these wings I evoke the right of higher blood this fateful night. While the moon sits high in the sky, Siren blood you will not abide. Until the darkness succumbs to light, you will serve only my delight.” Angel light fills the room as the magic of my ancestors explodes from my wings.
“Awk, I’m blind! They should make you get a license to wield those things!” Taz cries from my feet.
I know he is not blind, so I don’t worry about his whining. The guys in front of me? Yeah, they’re probably blind but I can fix that later. Right now, I just want them to do one thing. “Sleep,” I order. Now under my control, they fall to floor right where they are and go to sleep. How cool is that?
The spell should have worked all through the palace but I need to be certain. Taz and I check the offices and discover a random body here and there as confirmation. We leave them where they are. I’ll talk to Isla later about what we should do with them. Right now, I want to make sure there are no other imminent dangers from the Sirens. We do take their weapons just to be on the safe side.
I run into Tana and explain what happened. She immediately volunteers to check the archives. “You can check the rest of the palace.”
I eye her suspiciously. Is she trying to keep me out of there or is she going to do a little research on her own? You know, at this point, I don’t care. If her going evil again is the only way to get rid of the Sirens, so be it. We’ll deal with her later if it happens. We brought her back from the brink once, we can do it again. “Fine,” I relent.
“Keep her out of any more trouble,” Felix instructs Taz.
“Bite my butt, newbie. I know this one better than you. She’ll do what she wants, when she wants and you can’t stop stupid once it gets going.”
“Thanks for putting me on a pedestal like that,” I say sardonically.
“I notice you aren’t arguing my point,” my lovely Familiar drawls.
“You know, someday there’s going to be arsenic in your bacon. And the way you scarf that stuff up, you’ll never even notice.”
“We will let the two of you finish your conversation. I will be in the archives if you need me,” Tana says and she and Felix walk away.
I give Taz a long, stern look. Which he completely ignores. Sighing, I head for the stairs. “Let’s see what fun awaits us on the second floor.” Taz patters along behind me. If I didn’t know better, I would say he actually has my back.
Chapter 19
“Have I mentioned that I hate Sirens?” I grumble as I disarm the third unconscious warrior we find on the second floor.
“Have I mentioned I hate Witch Fairies who are constantly complaining about what they hate?” Taz snarks.
I glower at him. “I am seriously considering replacing you with a puppy. A mastiff would be a lot better protection than you are.”
Taz is unfazed. “Yes, because evil beings are just lining up to make you another Familiar.”
It’s true. Some weird magical rule will only allow Familiars to be made by someone other than the intended owner. The process takes dark, dark magic, as well. And honestly? I don’t need a larger version of Taz. There isn’t enough bacon in the realm to sustain a larger version. “You could at least make yourself useful and help me take the weapons off these guys.”
“Me and my opposable thumbs will get right on that. Oh, wait, I don’t have opposable thumbs.”
“You get more annoying by the minute.”
“Just a part of my charm. Wake me up when you’re finished with this one.” The Tasmanian devil stretches his fat belly out on the floor and pretends to fall asleep. I’m not blind. I can see he has one eye trained on the door of the sitting room we are in.
Back to focusing on the task at hand, I put a small dagger in the leather bag I’ve created. The bag is getting heavy with the weight of swords, daggers, and knives. These guys came prepared. Most of them are Cowans but I have come across one Fairy and a Sasquatch. I have no idea how he got into the palace unnoticed.
The night is half over by the time I’ve checked the third floor. I never realized how big the palace is. According to Taz, we’ve walked a hundred miles tonight. It was probably more like five. Still, with the small amount of sleep I’ve had in the last few days and the weight of the bag I’m pulling around, I’m exhausted by the time we’re done. I did eventually get smart with the bag and put wheels under it, but it’s still heavy. Some of the swords I put in it, I could barely lift. I’d never be able to wield one.
When every inch of the palace has been searched, I teleport myself, Taz and the bag of weapons to Isla’s office. I startle both her and Tana by our sudden appearance. Moving her eyes from me to the bag, Isla remarks, “You have been quite busy.”
I flop down in the chair across from her. “Too busy,” I complain. “I cannot believe a Sasquatch got in with no one noticing.”
Isla grimaces. “Neither can I.”
“What are we going to do with these guys now?” I ask. “I have their weapons, but they’re going to wake up back under the Sirens’ control and they’re going to be determined to wage war.”
“Most of them are Cowans?” Tana asks. When I nod, she says, “They will be of little challenge to the guards, then.”
“It is best not to underestimate your enemy,” Isla reminds her. “These males entered the palace unnoticed. They will awaken around the same time as the males under Xandra’s sleeping spell. Our males will be groggy and disoriented and not at their best. We will be torn between helping them and making sure none of them are still under the Sirens’ spell while fending off the intruders if we do not do something to render them powerless between now and then.”
“What do you suggest?” I ask her.
After a long, assessing look at
me, she says, “You are about to drop.”
What a nice way to say ‘you look awful.’ “I’m fine,” I assure her.
“You have worked powerful spells this evening. Leave the intruders to Tana and me.”
Before I can argue, Tana says, “As I was saying before Xandra popped in,” she gives me a stern look, “I can perform a spell which will trap them in their own minds.”
Isla sighs in frustration. “As I was saying, it is too risky for you to dabble in dark magic.”
“I am in control of my magic,” Tana argues.
“Yes, because it’s not a party until you add vengeful psycho to the mix,” Taz snarks.
“Okay, you can’t tell me not to go in the black magic section because you are afraid of the consequences and then decide to do dark magic that could send you over the crazy cliff,” I tell my soon-to-be evil stepmother. She definitely has the glare down pat.
“We better take cover,” Taz tells Felix, “one of them is about to blow.”
Even though she can’t understand my Familiar, Isla agrees. “This conversation is not going anywhere good.”
She’s right. Ignoring Tana’s fuming, I ask, “Have you heard from Kallen?”
“No.”
I try not to take the worry on her face to heart. “That’s good, then, right? They’d only send word if things were going badly.” At least, that is what I’m telling myself.
“Dagda should have checked in by now,” Tana says softly.
Kallen and I didn’t set a time to check in with each other. We probably should have. “When was he supposed to check in?”
“Two hours ago.”
Oh. Ten minutes would be okay. Even twenty would be understandable. Two hours? There’s no excuse for that. At least, not one that sends the right message. I rise from my chair so fast, I send it skittering several feet. “I need to check on them.”