Pulling her in tight, his lips found hers in a passionate kiss. Both of them reveled in the fact that they were still alive. Sean sent up a silent thanks to the Tuatha Dé Danann for their gifts, gifts which had saved Fiona’s life. Fiona, for the first time in her life, offered a silent prayer to the Tuatha Dé Danann for sending Sean to her.
A broken laugh caught their attention. Their eyes opened wide when Whelan sat up, the broken pieces of his skull knitting together. “You’re not the only one who can heal,” Whelan said as he struggled to his feet, one hand still holding his gut, which was closing slowly. “I’ll kill you both this time.” Whelan’s skin began to take on a rocky texture and he grew in size, standing ten feet tall by the time he stopped. “I’ll use all the Talents she gave me if I have to.”
Sean got to his feet, pulling Fiona up with him. Fiona picked up the silver dagger that had pierced her earlier, and Sean drew his bronze dagger. “We can do this,” Fiona said, grabbing her spear from the ground. As her hands came together, the dagger fused to the top of the spear, forming a metal point.
Sean picked up his wooden daggers, creating a spear. “He’s much better than I am, but I’ll try to buy you time,” he told her as he split away from her to the right.
“Fools,” Whelan’s voice was deeper as he flexed watermelon sized hands into fists. “I’m going to tear your limbs off.”
Fiona moved to Whelan’s other side, “Even your troll’s strength can’t tear mithril apart.”
“I’ll break you in two,” Whelan roared, lunging at Fiona.
Seeing the attack, Sean darted in to stab at Whelan, but the attack had been a feint as a long rocky arm came swinging back at Sean. Pulling away, Sean saved himself from being crushed, but was still thrown twenty feet through the side of a house. Sean gritted his teeth against the pain of several broken bones as he tried to pull himself back to his feet. Struggling, he made it upright and staggered towards the door. His eyes fell on Darragh’s axe, leaning beside the door.
His hand tingled as he picked the axe up, as if it were trying to connect with him. Leaning against the wall, he struggled to breathe, his eyes focused on the adamantine weapon. A warm sensation tingled along his arm, not the same as when he’d used it before. This was more like a friend taking his hand. “You want me to accept you?” Sean murmured in a wheeze. The tingle intensified in apparent response. “Conditions?” The tingle vanished. “You want to be mine, with no conditions?” The tingle surged over his entire body, his bones shifting back into place as the sensation swept over him. Standing upright and taking a deep breath, Sean grinned ferally, “I accept.” A lance of cold, piercing energy punched straight into his core, latching onto his soul. After a second it went from cold to warm and welcoming, like a dog getting comfortable in a bed. “Let’s go kill the fucker who killed Darragh,” Sean growled as he pulled the door open, the axe vibrating in his hand as if in agreement.
Fiona was backpedaling for all she was worth, her spear breaking bit by bit as she tried to parry Whelan’s attacks. She paused for a heartbeat when she saw Sean, which was long enough for her to get caught by a massive fist and sent flying through the open doorway into Darragh’s home. Whelan roared as he took two steps to follow, but pulled up short upon seeing Sean.
“The bug comes back. Why won’t you just lay down and die?” Whelan growled as he turned to face Sean. “The axe is dead—only Darragh’s chosen successor can wield it and I already killed Cian.”
Those words hit Sean like a hammer. If what Whelan said was true, then Darragh had chosen him; but why would Darragh have done that? With a growl of his own, Sean started forward, wishing he still had the reach of a spear. As he ran at Whelan, the axe became a spear, the point gleaming with deadly intent, and Sean felt a burst of joy that he could Shape his newfound weapon.
Whelan slowed, seeing the axe transition, “No! No! That isn’t possible!” Whelan screamed in rage and slammed both fists into the ground. “She promised it would be mine…” Eyes wild, Whelan charged at Sean. There was no finesse to the charge, just a wild animal trying to overrun an obstacle.
Sean tried to dodge to the side, but the spear urged him to charge in return. Following the seemingly suicidal plan, he charged at Whelan. As the distance between them closed, Sean dove to the ground and planted the shaft of the spear against the dirt, the gleaming point set to accept the charge of Whelan’s troll body. Expecting the weapon to snap at the impact, Sean was surprised to see that the spear was holding Whelan’s body completely off the ground.
“No… I was promised… She told me… Ve…” Whelan whispered, before finally falling silent.
Grabbing the spear just behind the blade where it jutted out from Whelan’s body, Sean yanked it from the corpse. Shaping it back into an axe with a thought, he brought the blade around and hacked the head off Whelan’s body, which had shrunk back to human proportions.
“Sean,” Fiona hissed from the doorway, teeth gritted in pain, “you killed him?”
“I let him kill himself,” Sean said as he went to her. “Are you okay?”
“My ribs are knitting back together,” she winced.
Carefully, he fed her more energy so that she could recover faster, but not to the point it would overwhelm her. “I’ve got you,” he said as he slipped her arm over his shoulder.
“Sssean,” Misa’s voice came from beside the home.
Turning, he saw Misa slowly slithering towards him, her vibrant scales now dull and her movements sluggish. “Misa, what happened?”
“Darragh sssent me away from him, forced me away from him,” Misa hissed with fading strength. “Made me promissse to wait for you, ssso you could accept hisss gift and hisss lassst few wordsss.” Coughing, she shuddered, rolling onto her back. Her eyes were white and sightless as she looked up at the sky. “You come from the Tuatha Dé Danann. Darragh guessssed thisss. Long ago he wasss visssited by a crone, who told him that he would meet the Emissssary of the Tuatha Dé Danann near the end of hisss life. Lassst night, he dreamt of hisss death at Whelan’sss handsss, ssso he made me leave ssso you could claim hisss legacy. Life Bind me. It wasss hisss lassst wisssh.”
“I can’t do that,” Sean said, horrified at the idea of binding her on her deathbed.
“Fool,” Misa hissed softly. “I will die anyway. I have all of Darragh’sss life in me; he wanted to give it to you. If you deny the Bond, it will all be lossst. For the man I loved, pleassse, do thisss.”
“Sean,” Fiona said as she nudged him towards Misa. “Do as Darragh wanted.”
Feeling as if he was being forced on a path he wasn’t sure he wanted, he did as he was asked. Kneeling next to Misa, he touched her snout. “Do you wish to Bind your life to mine, Misa?”
“Yesss. On my death, everything I hold isss yoursss,” Misa hissed, her voice fading. “Darragh sssaid you would hesssitate. Do not think of thisss asss a path you mussst walk, but an option to you for the yearsss ahead.” With a last shuddering breath, her eyes closed. “I come to join you now, my warrior king, Darragh Axehand…” her last few words were barely audible as her body went limp.
Sean felt a surge of energy and knowledge fill him as tears welled in his eyes. Misa’s last act, pledging her soul again to Darragh in death, moved him. The tears fell from his eyes as Fiona’s tears fell on his neck and her hands touched his shoulders. They stayed that way until, as the sun fell below the horizon, a feral yowl went up from the forest.
“Moonbound,” Fiona whispered. “Whelan must have been telling the truth about killing one of them.”
“Fuck,” Sean sighed as he got to his feet. “Grab what food and gear you can. We need to find Myna before the Moonbound do—they’ll blame her for their loss.”
“I’ll make it quick,” Fiona said as she darted for her house, her wounds now completely healed.
Sean picked Misa up as best he could, taking her inside Darragh’s home. He found Darragh headless on the ground next to the table, his head placed on his chest by
Whelan. Setting Misa next to Darragh, he silently whispered a prayer to Aed to keep their souls together and happy. Sticking his head into Darragh’s room, he spotted a pack stuffed and waiting by the door. Grabbing it, Sean exited the home and found Fiona coming toward him.
“Which way do we go?” Fiona asked as she looked at the dark forest all around them.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Bringing his Mage Sight up, Sean scanned the area around the village. Off to one side, a shape was leaning heavily against a tree. “Myna?”
Myna appeared as she dropped her Camouflage. Blood stained her front, and bloody furrows crossed her chest, leaving her leather armor in tatters. “You should run,” Myna managed with a wince, “they’ll be here soon. Madness consumes them now—I had to kill another of them when I tried to tell them about Whelan breaking the Agreement.” Slumping to the ground, Myna groaned, “All of our hard work, Darragh’s vision and promises, all for nothing…”
Sean raced to her side, but by the time he got there she was dead. “No, gods dammit,” Sean cursed as he touched Myna’s face. “Fucking Whelan,” Sean snarled, feeling a burning anger rise in his chest. “He was working for someone. That fucker is going to pay for all of this death.”
Fiona touched his shoulder, “We should do as she said and flee.”
His right hand clasped hers on his shoulder, a wild thought occurring to him. “Fiona, you still trust me, right?”
“Of course,” Fiona said as she kept looking at the woods, “but there is nothing we can do here.”
“There is,” Sean said, brushing Myna’s cat ears tenderly.
“She’s dead. There is no healing that can fix death,” Fiona said, thinking she knew what he wanted to do.
“You are probably right,” Sean said as he gently pulled her down next to him. “Myna was kind to both of us. She wanted to learn more, she wanted to be accepted and live a happy life. I think I can still give her that chance. It will require everything, though, every last dreg of energy I can muster. If you share with me, we’ll both be greatly reduced, but maybe not empty.”
Biting her lip, Fiona wanted to deny his request, but she couldn’t deny him. He had given her so much in the last few days, and what he was asking could, if he was right, bring back a friend. “Okay, but if it fails we need to run.”
“Yes,” Sean agreed. Focusing on Myna’s body, he began pushing his energy into her where his hand rested on her head. He’d felt the energy he used for Shaping and water magic being drawn out of him, but this felt like his very core was being dissolved and rushing out of him, down his fingers and pouring into Myna.
The torrent of energy seemed to go on forever. Fiona gasped as she slumped against his side. Sean’s lips pulled back into a snarl as he began to question what his gift from Aed was useful for, if he couldn’t save a friend. “Come back, Myna, come back and we’ll track the fucker down and kill him.”
Thick black bands formed on Myna’s wrists and neck a second before her body convulsed under Sean’s hand. Sight wavering as he felt lightheaded, Sean didn’t let up. Myna’s eyes fluttered open, a dark light filling them.
“I agree,” Myna’s soft voice croaked.
The energy flowing from Sean into her snapped off like a broken rubber band, then reversed. Energy from Myna poured into him and he gave some back to Fiona, who started crying as she lunged at Myna.
“You brought me back,” Myna whispered as she held Fiona. The blackness faded from her eyes, replaced by wonder, “Who are you, that you can bring back the dead?”
“A friend,” Sean said, getting to his feet and wobbling for a moment. “We need to go.” As if to punctuate his statement, another yowl went up, closer than before.
Myna got to her feet, pulling Fiona up as well. “I had to Bind my soul to yours, but you promised me retribution on the one behind all of this. That’s one of my deepest wishes, now.”
“We’ll talk more later, but you need to lead us. You have the skills we need to disappear from here and escape them,” Sean said, making sure that all three of them had the ability to use Mage Sight and Camouflage. “There—we’re all equal. We’re in your hands.”
Pushing Fiona away, Myna locked eyes with her. “Later, we will mourn the dead. We need to flee now.”
“Yes,” Fiona said as she scrubbed at her eyes. “Lead us.”
Myna spun and started away at a jog, carefully picking her way. “No talking until I say it’s okay, got it?”
Sean and Fiona didn’t say anything, but followed her as quietly as they could. She would be their only chance at getting out of the area without having to kill more people. As the group fled, Sean was surprised to notice that Myna’s footprints seemed to linger on the ground for a few seconds before fading from his Mage Sight. He made a mental note to ask her about it later, if they had a later.
The next two hours were a blur for Sean as he doggedly focused on putting his feet where Myna and Fiona had. Myna led them up into the trees at least a half dozen times, down fallen logs a few times, and even into the stream and out the far side. When she finally called a halt, both Fiona and Sean were barely standing, exhausted.
“I haven’t heard any hunting calls for a while, so we can rest for a bit,” Myna whispered as she turned to find them both wavering on their feet. “Rest, I’ll keep watch.”
Slumping down next to Fiona, who dropped like a puppet, Sean nodded. “Wake me in a few hours and I’ll give you a break.”
“Sleep,” Myna said as she drifted back down their trail. “I’ll see about laying some false trails, just in case.”
A hand gently caressing his face woke Sean, and he came to groggily. “Not what I imagined my life partner looking like, but you have many Talents, it seems,” Myna whispered as she leaned over him. “Are you going to tell me what my place will be with you?”
Scrubbing at his face, Sean felt his mind start to kick into gear. Shifting backwards, he sat up, prompting Myna to sit a few feet from him. “What do you mean?”
“You have Life Bonded me. My soul is now tied to yours, much like Misa was to Darragh. I cannot deny you anything you want of me. Am I guard, hunter, sexual plaything, maid, servant, or some combination? What is it you will do with me?”
Jaw dropping, Sean finally had time to feel the Bond that connected him to Myna. “I didn’t mean for this to happen,” he finally said. “I feel like I’ve violated your soul.”
“No,” Myna said as she scooted towards him, “you called out to my soul and I came back of my own will. You promised me vengeance, and I accepted and bound my soul to your will. Like all Life Bonded, I must know my place. I know you and Fiona were close when you left, and from the way she defers to you, I would say closer still now. I will not harm you. I can’t harm you, as my Holder, but I won’t cause issues for you, either. I tried to show you that I was interested before you left, but I think I’ve lost the race, haven’t I?”
Exhaling slowly, Sean’s mind whirled with clashing thoughts. Eventually, he nodded. “Fiona and I are a couple.”
“I see,” Myna said, a melancholy tone filling her voice. “It won’t be as I’d hoped, then.” Laying down, she closed her eyes. “I’ll get a quick nap in. Wake me in a few hours, or if anything happens. We should move further away, and I don’t think Oaklake is the way we should go.”
“Whelan said he was working with someone. We might need to go there to search for clues,” Sean said, still trying to wrap his mind around the woman he had called back from the dead having feelings for him.
“It will be risky. His contact will know he died, and will either be waiting for us or have fled,” her words slurred and dropped in volume as she slipped into sleep.
Sitting in the dark, Sean called his Mage Sight back up so he could actually see in the dark. His mind churned over the thought that the woman with cat ears, one of his fetishes, was so openly offering herself to him. Grimacing, he shook his head. You’re a one woman kind of man, Sean. Your father would have a fuckin
g heart attack in his grave if you even considered it.
He was still chasing his thoughts around in his head when Fiona woke. “Did we make it?” she asked softly, seeing Myna sleeping nearby, her eyes going to the black bands on Myna’s wrists and throat.
“It seems like we might have,” Sean whispered back. “How are you?”
Fiona looked to him, then to Myna. “She… is Life Bonded. You bonded her to you when you brought her back?”
“It seems that’s what happened,” Sean said, looking away from Fiona and wondering if she would hate what he had done.
“You’re upset?” Fiona asked as she took a seat next to him.
“This kind of thing was never possible on my old world. I don’t know how to feel about it. Magic, Binding, Dryads, Moonbound, all of it... it’s all new to me. I haven’t even been here a tenday yet, and everything I was starting to get familiar with was destroyed just hours ago.”
Morrigan's Bidding Page 24