Death And Darkness

by E. A. Copen

  “No.” I shook my head. “There has to be a way. There’s always a way.”

  He sighed. “I’ve been thinking that very thing. Perhaps we could overpower the guards when they come for us, if only they would come into the dungeon. They come once a day to toss us a crust of bread, but they always manage to stand just out of reach. But that was before you were awake. Have you tried your magic?”

  I reached for my power but felt nothing. There was no death in Faerie, which meant my necromantic powers would be worthless here unless Remy was also present. Okay, what about my Horseman abilities? I closed my eyes and tried to activate my Vision, but when I opened them again, there was no glowing orb where Foxglove’s soul should have been. “I don’t understand. It should work. Why isn’t it working?”

  The only explanation I could think of would be that the Baron had carried through with his threat to strip me of the mantle. No, he couldn’t do that, not unless he came to see me in person, and the pain of losing it should’ve woken me.

  I tugged on the chains and felt the faint touch of magic in them. “It’s the chains,” I growled. “They’re shutting my magic down. Can’t use it.”

  Foxglove sighed and fell back against the wall. “That’s what I was afraid of.”

  I gave up fighting the chains and backed toward the corner to sit. “How do you know they come once a day?”

  “They’ve come three times. I just assumed that meant once a day. It seemed like there were many hours between the visits.”

  Three days in Faerie. How long had Remy been gone? Just over a week on Earth? And she’d aged over a decade. I didn’t know exactly how time moved here. We might’ve been gone only a few minutes, or I could’ve missed years already. Maybe so much time had passed that everyone I knew on Earth was gone.

  A sinking feeling settled in my stomach while the throbbing in my head grew steadier. No matter how long we’d been there, one thing was for sure. I had missed my chance to save both Remy and Emma. They were both lost now. How had I screwed this up so badly? Josiah was right. I never should’ve been involved with them. I should’ve walked away, focused on stopping Loki. Maybe once he was dealt with, I could relax and enjoy my life. Maybe things could go back to normal.

  Normal, I scoffed. Since when has anything in my life ever been normal? I didn’t even know what normal was, especially now that I wouldn’t have Emma and Remy anymore. What would life be like without them? Who would I call in the middle of the night when I needed back up? Who would I complain about little things to? Who would I laugh with?

  The sinking feeling became a dull ache and rose to my chest. What was the point of escaping if not to go back to them? They were everything to me, and I’d squandered my time with them as if there was no shortage of it.

  I pulled my knees up and buried my head in my arms. Foxglove was right. Things would’ve been better if I hadn’t survived. “I failed. Emma is dead, for all I know, and Remy hates me. My fetch won. What’s the point in any of this now?”

  “What’s the point?” Foxglove tried to come closer, pulling the chains as tight as they would go. “I was thinking the same thing before you woke up. I finally got to be the knight of a court and didn’t even make it a day. I’ll go down in history as the shortest court knight who ever served. Not only that, but I’ll be the butt of every knightly joke in the future for serving a human. No offense.”

  I said nothing.

  Foxglove cleared his throat. “To make matters worse, I was just rejected by the woman I loved and protected for over a decade. Not to mention the death sentence hanging over my head. I’d say things look pretty bleak for us, my friend. I even considered strangling myself with my chains. Of course, without Remy here, I can’t even die, can I? You think you’ve got it bad. At least you might die. I’ll just waste to nothing.”

  I lifted my head slightly. “I didn’t realize this was a misery competition.”

  “I’m not miserable.” He strained against the chains to step into a patch of dim light coming through a crack high in the wall. It highlighted a crazy glint in his eye. “I’m pissed off. In fact, I’m too pissed off to be upset about the rejection or my situation. All I care about right now is finding our root problem and tearing it apart with my bare hands. I’d really like to kill you, Lazarus. But I’d settle for your fetch since he’s the one who turned Remy against us.”

  “And how do you expect to do that?” I raised my wrist and shook the chain. “We’re chained in a dungeon. I’ve got no magic. You’ve got no weapons, and we don’t even know if or when anyone is coming down here.”

  “I’m going to demand a trial by combat.”

  I burst into laughter that echoed off the damp stone walls. “Trial by combat? You can’t seriously believe they’ll even allow that?”

  “I am an anointed knight and you are a deposed monarch. It’s a well-documented tradition going back generations.”

  “But I can’t fight!” I spread my hands wide. “I’ve won a few, sure, but mostly by luck. I certainly couldn’t take on any of Summer’s champions, especially not the Summer Knight. No offense, but I’m not even sure you could, Foxglove.”

  “Listen to me.” He jerked against the chains, his voice growing fierce. “It’s your only chance. Eventually, Titania will come to pass judgment, and you must demand a trial by combat. She will allow you to choose a weapon. Choose your magic.”

  I shook my head. “It’s no good here, not unless Remy is around, and people are dead. Maybe I can get to someone’s soul if the chains come off, but that’s it.”

  “Just do it, Lazarus. Trust me. You made me your knight for a reason. Listen to me.”

  I grumbled something incoherent at him. My head was hurting too bad to think. The security guy who’d clocked me upside the head had done a hell of a job. I needed to rest, but it was too cold in the dungeon to get any sleep, even curled up into a tight ball. Every time I would get close, my own shivering would wake me. Funny, considering we were supposed to be in Summer. I guess we were on the edge.

  Hours passed. It felt like days. Foxglove occasionally tried to talk to me, but my head hurt too bad to answer, so he gave up. Eventually, I slipped into a twilight sleep where I was able to close my eyes but stay aware of my surroundings. It wasn’t a restful sleep, but it was better than nothing.

  Footsteps awakened me. They echoed into our prison cell from somewhere beyond, getting louder.

  “It’s the jailor,” Foxglove whispered and rushed to the end of his chains.

  I pushed myself up to stand.

  Keys jingled. Door hinges groaned loudly, and dim light flooded the room, forcing me to put my hands over my eyes.

  “Oh, awake, are you?” The jailor’s voice made my skin crawl. It was familiar. Too familiar. “I’ll let Her Majesty know you didn’t die. She’ll be eager to fix that.” My fetch chuckled and moved into the light.

  I lowered my hand and squinted into the light. “Why don’t you come over here and say that to my face?”

  He stepped forward, holding two steaming bowls. His nostrils flared as he inhaled the steam. “Leftover stew today. I had some yesterday. Not bad at all.” he said and lifted a wooden bowl, holding it out toward me.

  The scent of food, however awful, woke me. My mouth watered. I shifted forward, hands out.

  He waited until I had come to the end of my chains before turning the bowl over and dumping its contents on the floor. “Oops. Butterfingers.”

  “You son of a bitch,” I growled.

  He smirked. “If you get down on your knees now, you might be able to lick some of it up. I promise you, it’s to die for. How about you, Foxglove? Want some stew?”

  Foxglove flexed his fingers into fists. “I demand to speak to the queen.”

  “Too bad. You only get to speak to me from now on. Queen doesn’t want me upstairs. Says it’ll upset Princess Remy.”

  “Then I demand a trial by combat,” shouted Foxglove. “It is my right!”

  Bizarro La
z sat down on the floor just out of reach and tipped some of the stew into his mouth. “Oh, this really is good stew. And you must be so hungry after being down here so long. And thirsty.” He put the bowl down out of reach and pulled a flask from his pocket, chugging its contents loudly.

  I licked my lips. “What is it you want from us? You’ve won. You get everything. Remy, Emma, my whole life is there if you want it. Why the hell are you down here torturing us?”

  He screwed the lid back onto the flask. “Torturing you? I’ve barely had to lift a finger. You torture yourself enough. All that guilt you drag around. Woe is you, the poor little necromancer who ruins everybody’s lives.” He launched to his feet and grabbed my chin, squeezing hard. “If you’d pull your head out of your ass long enough to see things for how they really are, you’d have killed Loki a long time ago. How many times has he been within your grasp? All the opportunities to kill him and you didn’t. You know what your problem is? You care too much.” He let me go and paced away.

  I opened and closed my jaw a few times, trying to work out the pain. “If you’re such a badass, why haven’t you killed him yet? In fact, what have you done other than send a few minions after me? You don’t even have the balls to take me on yourself, do you? Coward.”

  He stopped with his back to me and rolled his shoulders, bristling.

  “You want my life?” I continued. “Fine. Have it. My life sucks, and you’re not making it any better. You think it’s easy being the Pale Horseman? Think again, asshole. In fact, I’ll be grateful to be rid of all that stress. So come on. Kill me. Walk away from Faerie and just take over being me. No one is going to know the difference.”

  He scowled at me. The silence hung between us, palpable.

  “You can’t, can you?”

  “I can kill you just fine.” He gritted his teeth. “It’s taking over your life on Earth that gets complicated. You did something, something that changed things on Earth. Whatever you did, I can’t step foot in New Orleans without it feeling like my skin is disintegrating. Don’t you worry, though. Once Titania invades your precious city and claims it for Summer, none of that will matter.” He gripped the door and yanked it open. “Enjoy your stay.”

  The door slammed closed behind him, sealing us in darkness.

  At least his visit hadn’t been in vain. I’d learned something valuable. Something I had done in New Orleans made it painful for him to be there, preventing him from completing his goal to take over my life. I’d accidentally saved the city and ended his reign of terror. No more kidnappings and zombies. Too bad I’d doomed myself in the process.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Bizarro Laz came and went several more times. There didn’t seem to be any pattern to how often he came to taunt us. I guess he just came when he got bored. Usually, he’d bring food down and eat it in front of us or a bottle of some fae wine. He’d always offer us that. I was thirsty enough I had to bite my tongue near in two to keep from accepting it. Once I drank the fae wine, I’d be trapped in Faerie forever, according to legend.

  Without anything to eat or drink, and no reliable rest, both Foxglove and I were exhausted and weak. We stopped talking to each other even when my fetch was gone. I shivered so much that my teeth hurt from all the chattering. The headache got so bad I wished they’d just come in and kill me.

  Then he didn’t come for a long time. Oddly enough, I found myself missing the bastard. At least when he was there, it gave me something to do. Dying was slow, boring work. Coming up with creative insults for my fetch was pretty much all that kept me going.

  After an absence that seemed to stretch for days, the door opened. I expected my fetch to come in holding leftovers from the night before as usual, but instead, a young man with curly dark hair stepped in. His once handsome face bore three scars across the bridge of his nose from when Kellas had clawed him. He’d tried to hide them by growing his bangs out over one side of his face, but it just made him look even more like a broody romance hero.

  “Declan?” I rasped, my voice raw. I hadn’t seen him since I was the Summer Knight. I’d made him my squire, and he’d helped me prove Kellas was the assassin. When Titania threw me out of Summer, he was the one who wrote a letter and had the dryad staff delivered. He was a good kid if a little naïve.

  “Yes, sir,” he said and produced a canteen from under his cloak. “It’s water.”

  I seized the canteen and chugged from it, pausing only once I heard Foxglove’s chains rustle off to the side. “Here,” I said and held it out to Declan. “Give some to him.”

  Declan nodded and passed the canteen to Foxglove, who drank it dry. “We have to be quick. The queen doesn’t know I’ve come. It took me days to slip away.” He pulled a loaf of bread from his pocket, broke it in half and passed one half to me.

  I grabbed it with shaky hands and tore into it like an animal.

  “She means to pass judgment on you tomorrow before the wedding,” Declan said.

  I licked crumbs from my fingers. “What wedding?”

  “Titania is forcing Princess Remy to marry someone from the Court of Light. Prince Roshan’s younger brother, I believe. She wants to make sure the monarchs from the Court of Light are here to witness your beheading. You’re supposed to be the princess’ wedding present.”

  Foxglove swallowed his last mouthful of bread. “And what of the trial by combat I requested?”

  Declan shook his head. “I’ve heard nothing of that, sir, but I don’t imagine she’ll be inclined to give it to you unless one of the other courts recognizes your Court of Miracles. Summer is refusing to.”

  “Declan, is Roshan coming?” I asked

  He shrugged. “I suppose so.”

  “I need you to get a message to him and to Athdar. Make sure both are present when we’re brought into the throne room for sentencing. Can you do that?”

  “I can, sir. What’s the message?”

  I told him.

  Declan’s eyes got as large as William’s shield. “Are you sure about this, sir? They might not go for it.”

  “Roshan’s been the laughingstock of his court for years, especially now that his younger brother was found a more suitable groom for Summer than him,” I said. “And he was invited here so that Summer could rub it in. He was angry enough to attack Summer when he got rejected last time. And Athdar sort of owes me. Trust me. They’ll go for it.”

  “I’ll try, sir,” he said, nodding.

  “You’re not going to ask me to join my court?” I meant it in fun, but Declan’s expression remained grave.

  “No offense, sir, but why would I join a court where the king and his knight are both in prison awaiting execution? You’ve been good to me, and I do hope you manage what you say you’re going to, but Summer is my home. I can’t just leave. Besides,” he said, fidgeting, “I’ve met someone.”

  I grinned and patted his arm. “Declan, you dog. Who is she?”

  He flushed red. “She’s handmaiden to Princess Remy.”

  “Do you think she’d help us?” Foxglove asked.

  Declan’s answer was a shrug. “I’ve told her about you, about the fetch and all of that. She’s a good woman, but I don’t know if she might help. She used to work with the blacksmith. Maybe he’ll forge a sword for you? Is that what you want?”

  “No, but I have something on Earth I need you to get for me.”

  “I do,” Foxglove piped up. “What’s a knight without a sword?”

  I nodded. “Can you do all this, Declan? I know it’s a lot to ask.”

  He nodded. “You were good to me. Gave me a chance when no one else would. Both of you. And I’ve seen how Titania’s been these last few years. Once the princess sees what’s really happening, things will change. She won’t let Titania harm you.”

  “I hope you’re right,” I said and patted Declan’s shoulder.

  “I’d better get on those errands.” He stepped back. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to come back. Just in case…” He sighed,
shook his head, and rushed forward to squeeze the life out of me in a hug. “That’s as close as I can get to thanking you.”

  “All right.” I patted his back and pushed him away. “You’d better hurry. Don’t let my fetch see you.”

  Declan nodded to me, then to Foxglove, and hurried out the door.

  “Do you think he can do it?” Foxglove asked once Declan was gone.

  “If anyone can, he can.” I sank back into my corner to wait.

  My fetch did not come to collect us the next day. It was William and a troll jailor with big tusks and fingers the size of sausages. Rather than undo the chains around our wrists and ankles, the troll simply ripped the chains out of the wall and walked us like dogs on a leash.

  I fought against his grip to look William in the eye. “You know this is wrong.”

  William avoided my gaze. “The prisoners will remain silent or they’ll be gagged.” He pushed me out the door. “Titania and her audience are waiting.”

  The Summer Knight and the jailor led us through opulently decorated halls with lavish tapestries, huge stone arches, and climbing ivy. I stole a glance over at Foxglove, who’d sprouted some shaggy facial hair that made him look like a madman. The pronounced limp, baggy eyes, and unkempt hair didn’t help the look. He caught me eying him and gave me a nod.

  This is it, I thought, directing my attention forward. By the end of the day, we’d either be dead or free. There could be no other outcome. I supposed I’d be free either way. At least I wouldn’t have to wear those chains anymore.

  Declan waited next to the throne room doors in a red tunic, a gold belt, and a brown cloak. He gave me a subtle nod and reached to open the door. I hoped that meant he’d succeeded in his missions. If he had, I needed to remember to do something amazing for him, provided we survived.

  The throne room was full of people, all crammed to either side of a red carpet. Titania and Remy stood at the front of the room on a dais. Titania wore a huge fluffy dress of emerald green with a high collar and a sparkling golden crown. I’d always thought she was pretty, but standing next to Remy in her dazzling white dress, she looked like a pig. She was beautiful, my daughter. Stunningly so. I almost missed a step when I saw her. It still hadn’t hit me that this was really her, the baby I’d held in my arms just a week ago.