“I watched you.” His voice was like a cold knife through the already chilly air. “The entire time it took me to walk from the castle. I watched you watching them.”
She wasn’t completely sure what he was accusing her of, or why any of it made any difference to him. She stayed silent as she steadily walked back toward the kitchens, even though she still felt like running.
“He’s your brother!”
“I know that!” Beth whirled around to face him. If he was going to shout, he was going to attract too much attention — Bryan’s attention –- and she certainly didn’t want that.
“But still you … you want him.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You aren’t blood-related —”
“He’s my brother! I love him. I love all of them. I would die for them if necessary. They are part of me … I …”
“Spirit Bound,” Finn murmured, and then suddenly he didn’t seem so angry anymore.
“Yes,” she said, surprised at the understanding she heard in his voice.
“That doesn’t change what I’m saying about you wanting him as more than a brother.”
“How is any of this your concern?”
“It isn’t.”
“Let’s leave it that way.” Beth turned back to the castle once more. Then she stopped, so suddenly that Finn slammed into her from behind.
His hands closed around her arms, and she could feel him warily glancing about the yard. His warrior instincts were fully engaged: protect the innocent, secure the area, and whatnot.
“What is it?” he hissed.
“There,” she answered, pointing to the tower that loomed up to one side of the kitchens. “Something was moving in the middle window.” The moon had risen enough to wash the tower with a pale glow.
“Now above,” he murmured, as a shadow passed by the top window. Beth was suddenly aware that she could feel the vibration of Finn’s voice where her back pressed against his chest. She was standing too close to him, but she didn’t move away. Given his instincts, if she tried to move while he was still assessing the danger, she would probably find bruises on her arms in the morning. Not that he would mean to hurt her; it was just that warriors could be intense that way.
“Someone walking the stairs, maybe?” she said.
“Yes.”
“Why would anyone be in the tower?”
“It’s your castle. You tell me.”
It could just be a guard. Even with so few of them still on duty they were most likely still doing rounds, but she watched to see if the shadow descended … it didn’t. Warning bells went off in Beth’s head, almost literally. Each ring brought a new reminder — her mother asking her to not sneak into the tower room … that the room contained items best left locked away … that the absence of most of the adults left the castle defenseless if someone was able to pass through the wards. That was a big if. The wards had been built and reinforced for hundreds of years, most recently by the Spirit Binder, whose magic, as Beth saw clearly in the courtyard earlier, was more powerful than an earthquake.
Beth sprinted toward the kitchen entrance with Finn at her heels. He didn’t ask her why they were running; he just followed. Which was good, seeing as how she didn’t know why she was running. She just knew that something was about to happen …
… something worse than Bryan and Calla kissing in the stables …
… something worse than the earth trying to swallow Rose…
So, she ran.
∞
The tower stairs stopped every flight at a landing that led to a small room. These chambers were mostly used for storage, though for the last few days, they’d been converted into extra bedrooms for the servants accompanying the castle’s many guests. The makeshift bedding had been tidied but not cleared away. At each landing, Beth paused only long enough to assess that the lower rooms were indeed empty.
Pale light washed in through the windows facing the moon, but no other light illuminated their passage. This was fine for Beth, who preferred to walk in the shadows anyway, and seemed not to bother Finn, seeing as how his step never faltered behind her.
After the Aerie Rising that had left her and her siblings, and apparently Finn and Calla, Spirit Bound, her mother had slept for three months secured in this top tower room. That had been a time of great uncertainty for Bryan and Rose, who were already bound to Theo, and for Cascadia as a whole. No one had understood the complete ramifications of Theo’s actions until people had started dying, or killing each other, with powers that manifested suddenly and without control. Thankfully, the power spike had abated quickly for most, and so far as Beth now knew, only seven of the Spirit Bound existed … though it seemed that all of them, excepting Bryan and Rose, had lost their birth parents in some way due to the events of the Aerie Rising … Beth stuffed these thoughts away. She always made an effort to not remember much of her past, and now was not the time to dredge it up.
As they approached the final landing, Finn slowly drew his sword, an unadorned broad blade that looked wickedly sharp, and touched her lightly on the shoulder.
Beth stopped, pressing against the outer wall to allow him to pass. She realized she was completely comfortable with having the warrior and his weapon in front rather than behind her back.
At the top of the landing, Finn stepped into the moonlight, which fell into deep shadows as it spread away from the window. Beth stayed in the shadow at the top of the stairs. He reached out before she could stop him and tested the handle of the only door. It was locked.
“I doubt even you could break it, Spirit Bound and all,” a woman’s voice whispered from the shadows.
All the hair stood up on the back of Beth’s neck as a cool shiver slipped down her spine. She should run from that voice, she knew instinctively. She should hide in the shadows and pray to the Greatness of Spirit to protect her. Instead, she was rooted to the stone steps.
Finn shifted rather calmly into a defensive position, facing toward the corner of the landing from which the voice had emanated. He didn’t, however, raise his sword any higher.
“Finn,” the voice said. “How odd. If I was to run into someone here, I didn’t think it would be you.”
“I don’t know you, lady,” he replied carefully. “Have you lost your way? I don’t think the tower is for visitors.”
A harsh laugh reverberated off the stone walls, and the shadows shifted. Suddenly a hooded figure stood in front of Finn, as if the shadows had formed into a solid figure. “It almost was, once,” the hooded woman said. “But then she woke up.” The ‘she’ had to be referring to Theo during her great sleep, Beth guessed. Based on the woman’s tone, the fact that her mother had eventually woken was a source of contempt. Either that or the woman simply hated Theo, awake or not.
Perhaps it was the woman’s tone that caused Finn to step back, readjust his footing, and raise his sword. Perhaps it was the feeling of the magic radiating from the stranger that put him off. This magic was uncomfortable and chaotic; even Beth could feel it, like it wanted to choke her, and she usually wasn’t so sensitive to such things.
“Come Finn, there’s no call for violence. We know each other well, no matter that you are completely inconsequential.”
Beth shifted forward out of the shadows, but still stayed behind Finn. The hooded figure instantly tilted her head so that she faced her. Beth could see only the outline of the woman’s jaw underneath the hood.
“Ah, you. It was you I was expecting, if I was expecting anyone at all … but what are you doing standing behind Finn?”
Beth ignored the stranger and murmured to Finn, “Do you feel it?”
“Yes,” he responded.
“It feels off. Wrong somehow.”
“I concur.”
“What are you two nattering about? I have no recollection of you being so … chummy.”
“You. We’re discussing how wrong you feel. Like you shouldn’t be here at all. Not only in this tower, but in
this castle, in this … this …”
The woman barked her harsh laugh once more — a laugh that was not laughter at all, but an expression of anger and pain and frustration. “I’m not interested in being told where I belong by some child, but you can do something for me. Open that door.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Now, how did I know you’d say that?” The woman stepped further into the moonlight and slowly pulled back her hood.
Finn raised his sword higher, and they both stared at the face of the stranger … except she didn’t look like a stranger … there was something so familiar about her …
Finn shifted. Beth could feel a shiver of recognition run through his body. But then, inexplicably, he reached behind him to lightly touch the back of Beth’s hand, as if reassuring himself she still stood there. Beth didn’t see what he saw. She saw the straight dark hair cropped at the stranger’s shoulders, the almond-shaped gray eyes, and the high cheekbones. The woman was striking, though not beautiful, in an edgy, angular way. Her face, especially her eyes, matched her harsh bark of a laugh.
Then suddenly it clicked, in the way that something completely impossible seems almost possible when thought about too much. As if thoughts and conclusions might actually make something real.
The woman was her.
The woman on the landing was her.
If Beth hadn’t known that her birth mother had sandy hair and hazel eyes, she would have assumed this woman was her mother back from the dead. But she wasn’t. She was Beth. Easily fifteen or twenty years older, but her.
“It is unbecoming to just stare at someone like that,” the woman, the older her, sneered. “I see we are still going through our awkward phase.”
Finn shifted slightly, again making sure Beth was tucked behind him, as he drew the older Bethany’s attention.
“I had all but forgotten about you, Finn. You actually like her, don’t you? I don’t think I knew that … but she’s not for you. She’s not yours to defend. So stay out of it, little warrior. It will be many years until you access your full powers, while I am at the height of mine.”
Finn didn’t move a hair, but Beth could sense his power beginning to surge around him. She was suddenly very glad she wasn’t on the receiving end of whatever look was on his face.
The older Bethany looked away from Finn, as if he was some minor pest not even bothersome enough to squash. She turned her cruel eyes on the younger Beth and said, “You will open the door for me.”
“I will not.”
“You will, because there is something inside. Something that will make life right once again for both of us.”
“My life is perfectly right.”
Bethany’s laugh once again sent a chill running down Beth’s spine. No matter how striking she looked as an older woman, Beth wasn’t pleased that she also appeared more than a little mad.
“It might seem that way for now, but things will change. Things you wish you could fix, and when you try to fix them you will only make them worse. I’m going to stop it all before it begins. Now open that door!”
“Open it yourself. Surely, if you are me, no lock can stop you. Perhaps you only wear my face.”
“I am no spiritwalker.”
“But Beth’s right,” Finn spoke up. “No lock can stand against her, ergo you are not her. So you are either an elaborate test or some sort of thief in disguise. Either way, I always hit what I aim for.”
The young warrior pivoted so quickly that he was a blur. He lunged, and as he did, he brought the flat of his blade around to bludgeon Bethany, rather than slash at her.
Except Bethany was no longer within reach of his sword.
Beth quickly reached up to touch the sconce she knew to be on the wall beside her. The candle within flared, as did all the candles in a cascade down the stairs behind her.
The landing was empty.
Bethany was gone.
“Down the stairs?” Finn asked.
“I would have felt her brush by me, wouldn’t I?”
“Not if she walks in the shadows like you do,” Finn said, pushing past Beth to take off down the stairs.
Beth stared at the empty landing and then at the locked door. The wrong feeling that had accompanied the woman wearing her older face was gone, but Beth still felt that something more terrible was just around the corner. As if at one point she’d seen the future, but now couldn’t remember the vision at all. A mind echo empty of any substance.
∞
“So, what is in there?” Finn asked.
The four of them — Beth, Finn, Bryan, and Calla — stood on the top landing of the tower, staring at the locked door.
Instead of answering Finn, Bryan turned to Beth. “And she wore your face?” he asked once again.
“Older, but yes.”
“Did she feel like you?” Calla asked.
“No,” she answered, just as Finn said, “Yes.”
“What?” Beth countered. “All I felt was that wrongness. I don’t feel wrong.” Finn shrugged and didn’t elaborate. “Does Hugh feel different when he shifts?” she asked Bryan.
“Yes, but still like himself,” Bryan answered. Their adoptive father, Hugh, was a spiritwalker, though he rarely took the shape of another person. Bryan, who had a special bond with animals, would be able to know if Hugh felt the same in different animal forms. He then changed the subject. “Have you gone in?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Theo asked me not to.”
She felt Bryan bristle the way he did whenever she called their adoptive mother by her name. “And you listened?”
“She asked nicely. She said she’d show me if I wanted, but asked me not to open the door in case it affected the wards.”
“But you don’t usually compromise the wards when you break through, do you?”
“I didn’t think so.”
“But you must affect them somehow,” Finn piped up. “Alter their magic, or even key the wards to you.”
They all fell silent in contemplation of the door.
Beth’s thoughts, unable to unravel the mystery of the older her appearing and disappearing from the tower, were beginning to wander. Bryan’s shirt was misbuttoned, and a piece of straw stuck out of Calla’s hair. She wondered if Finn had interrupted them in the barn or just stumbled upon them when he had rushed out searching for Bethany. He seemed slightly contrite when he returned to the tower with Bryan and Calla in tow, as if he shouldn’t have left her alone there, but it wasn’t his place to look after her.
“Well, we can’t open it then. We’ll post a guard,” Bryan finally said.
“Should we send a message to Theo?” Beth asked.
“No. They have enough to deal with. Obviously this woman, who ever she is, can’t get past the tower door wards. We can handle it until they get back.”
“But she can get into the castle,” Beth countered. “That’s bad enough, isn’t it?”
“You think I can’t handle this, Beth?” Bryan’s question hung between them, and Beth quickly dropped her eyes to ground so as to not see the annoyance growing in her brother’s eyes. He was still angry that the parents had left him at the castle, not allowing him to assist in the city, but they had left him in charge …
“All right,” Beth said, but she wasn’t sure that was the right choice. She felt like whatever they chose to do would be the wrong choice, actually, and that Theo always made everything right. But she always deferred to Bryan’s judgment; she trusted him more then she trusted herself.
“Wrong choice,” Finn muttered from behind her.
“You not up for it, warrior?” Bryan asked. Finn calmly raised his eyes to Bryan’s assertive gaze and squared his shoulders.
“We are your guests,” Calla murmured, laying her hand delicately on Bryan’s forearm, but not taking her eyes off her brother.
The tension stretched between the boys. Beth realized it wasn’t all about the mystery woman in the tower, but Finn hadn
’t had any interest in Bryan and Calla when he saw them in the stables, so what else could be the problem?
Finally, Finn nodded.
Accepting this gesture, Bryan turned to leave the tower, Calla following him. “Bryan?” Beth called after him, “What’s in there? Money? Treasure?”
“Sure. Maybe old stuff, collectibles, but a thief would have to be pretty stupid to steal a rare item from Mom. It would be a little difficult to fence it. And few people are powerful enough to wield any of the magical items in there.”
“Then what is the other me after?”
“If she is you.”
“Let’s say she is.”
“How would that even be possible?” Finn interrupted.
“I don’t know,” Beth answered, without taking her eyes from her brother. “Just answer, Bryan. I can see you think you know something.”
Bryan hesitated. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been in that room.”
“Over ten years.”
“Yes.”
“Since Theo’s great sleep.” Bryan only nodded.
“You visited her,” Beth guessed. “What did you see?”
“Mom. On a bed. Seemingly sleeping, and … well, Dougal had arranged her. I think it was him. She was holding two swords.”
“Two?”
“Hers, the one with the ruby, which used to be her aunt’s.”
“I’ve seen it. She was wearing it this morning.”
“And one other. A blood sword.”
Finn and Calla both looked at Bryan sharply. Well, Calla had been looking at him dreamily before, but his statement snapped her out of it.
“She didn’t destroy it?” Finn asked, his voice low but fierce.
“I don’t know. This was before she woke,” Bryan answered. He was oddly uncomfortable, as if he shouldn’t be discussing any of this at all but didn’t know how to stop answering the others’ questions.
“You think this other me might be after this blood sword?” Beth asked. Bryan shrugged, and Calla looked aghast.
“What’s so important about the sword?”
“It’s crazy powerful,” Finn answered, when it became apparent that Bryan wasn’t going to speak. “It killed my father.”
“Oh, I didn’t know …”
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