Queen's Journey (Lilith's Shadow Book 5)

by Benjamin Medrano

  “You’re welcome, Lilith. I’m on your side. I’ll always be on your side,” the AI replied. “Now, the teleporter is charged and waiting. Good luck.”

  Lilith nodded, tears prickling at her eyes, but she kept going, refusing to show weakness in front of Amber’s cameras. Or more weakness, anyway. At least she had Circe’s well-wishes, and she would not let Amber break her.

  “That damned brat!” Amber snarled, barely resisting the urge to throw her mug across the room. “How dare she defy me! I made her! If it weren’t for me, she would have been destroyed before she even woke up!”

  “Based on the information I have gathered, you are likely correct, Mistress. It is unlikely that Crimson Bull would have chosen to retrieve Lilith’s growth chamber, and while Warden might have, I give seventy-nine point nine percent odds that they would have destroyed her once they determined how she had been created,” Circe replied calmly. “As to her decision to defy you, I must note that rebellions are common among those who are growing up. I am not certain why she chose to do so, however.”

  “She’s supposed to be better than the gutter trash,” Amber said angrily, standing up suddenly. “All of my time in that damnable prison, wasted! If I hadn’t been captured, I could have kept her in line and taught her correctly. Damn it, if you’d been intelligent, perhaps you could have done the job properly. This is what I get for leaving the job to automated systems. Years of work down the drain, and now I’m being threatened by the gods, so I can’t even replace her!”

  Circe didn’t reply, which allowed Amber to stew for a minute, and to calm down. It was hard, with as frustrating as the entire situation was, but she needed to do it. She needed to analyze things properly, and after a moment she reached out for Lilith’s mind… only to recoil as she found that Lilith’s walls were completely up, and the link to her had weakened significantly. That almost caused Amber to explode again, but she took a deep breath, then let it out.

  “Is she cut off?” Amber asked, her thoughts churning unhappily.

  “Yes. Her armory will be empty in approximately thirty-seven seconds, and I will retrieve her undersuit as she goes through the teleportation.” Circe replied promptly. “That should be within one minute, Mistress. She is not attempting to deviate from the guideline. However, I must add that Lilith has resources that are not dependent on access to the system, Mistress. She has made a small fortune for herself in the last year, and will be able to use those resources.”

  “Perhaps, but it doesn’t matter. She’s gotten used to being able to fabricate armor in a handful of days. Perhaps having to deal with how primitive the rest of the world is will teach her a lesson,” Amber said, still fuming, then came to a decision. “Monitor her, but do not interfere. If she gets herself into trouble, she can deal with it on her own.”

  “Yes, Mistress,” Circe replied, and Amber turned toward the door.

  “Deal with the coffee,” Amber said coldly. “I’m going to screw up the days of a few heroes.”

  Circe didn’t reply as Amber left the room, which was for the best. Amber was in a terrible mood.

  Eden Manor, Glendale

  Lilith appeared, and the room almost immediately went dark, the hum from the teleportation platform dying, and she glanced down at it, shivering as she realized she felt a bit lighter and colder. It took Lilith a moment to realize why, then she realized that her undersuit was gone, and she sighed, shaking her head.

  “Of course. Why would she leave even that?” Lilith asked, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. She half expected Circe to answer, even if the AI had just said that she wouldn’t be able to, but she didn’t. Circe remained silent, which sent a pang of loneliness through Lilith, and she sighed, shaking her head as she stepped toward the door, listening and looking around as she did so.

  The differences from that morning were subtle, but she picked up some almost immediately. The lights didn’t click on the instant she stepped into the hallway, and there was something off with the temperature as well. More obvious was when she approached the armory and the door didn’t open. Instead the pad next to the door had a red dot above it, and Lilith let out a soft sigh as she reached up and laid a hand on the pad. It warmed slightly, then the light switched to blue and the door slid open.

  Even expecting it, the emptiness of the armory was a shock, and Lilith blinked, wondering how in the world Circe had emptied the room in the handful of minutes she’d had. The maintenance bays were empty, with only power hookups dangling, the weapon racks were empty, and every suit of armor, all of the devices, and even the raw materials were gone. The room was little more than bare shelving, and Lilith glanced around for a moment before taking a step back as she allowed the door to shut.

  “You work fast, Circe. I’m guessing that you knew what Amber was going to order before she did it, and prepared to evacuate things,” Lilith murmured, heading up the stairs.

  At least most of the house looked about how she’d expected it to, so she wasn’t going to be without everything she was used to. Just… every bit of company she’d grown used to, over the past eight months or so, and all of the equipment she’d been learning to use. Lilith didn’t feel exactly naked, but it was like she was dreaming in some ways. She kept expecting to wake up and to have Rachel practically in her face, teasing her about sleeping in for once. Or maybe for Gina to cuddle into her, and the warmth to make her so uncomfortable that she couldn’t sleep anymore. Instead… everything just kept going. It wasn’t a dream, no matter how disheartening that might be.

  Looking around the upstairs of the house for another moment, Lilith slumped against the wall, just trying to recover from her frazzled nerves. Despite everything she tried, she couldn’t stop the heat welling up in her eyes, or how the tears blurred her vision as she started to cry. She didn’t sob or collapse like she would have once. Lilith simply stayed there, grieving for everything she’d lost, and wondering just how much of it had been nothing but lies.

  Soon she would have to do what Circe had suggested, changing her passwords and preparing for a life without the AI’s help. She’d have to call up Whispering Darkness to see if he’d be able to help her build a suit of armor that didn’t rely on Amber’s technology… but that was for later. She needed a moment to grieve, and to start composing an email for Gina and Rachel. Preparing for tomorrow could wait for that long.

  Chapter 10

  Wednesday, August 20th, 2031

  Iver, England

  “So… just where does your mentor live?” Warden asked, staring down at the landscape below her.

  The patchwork of fields and towns was so different from what she’d grown up with that it was hard for her to imagine what it would be like to live here, and she half-wished they were visiting England for a better reason. Though that also could be her weariness talking, since she kept having to focus on following Morgan. She hadn’t rested well in the hotel the previous night, with as stiff as the mattress had been, and resting on the flight itself hadn’t happened. Warden had never been able to sleep on a plane.

  “Not far from here. In Iver, as I recall… I’ve only met her a few times in person, mind you, so I’m not sure if I should call her a mentor.” Morgan replied, adjusting the lanyard holding her temporary flight license, and seeing it flapping, Warden glanced down to make sure hers was still secured to her belt. “She should be waiting for us, and I’m pretty sure we’ll get there before sunset.”

  “If you say so,” Warden replied, glancing down again as they moved. She wasn’t sure, but she thought some people were taking pictures of them, which was a little disconcerting. Not enormously, but still.

  They continued flying for a couple more minutes, with Warden forcing herself to focus the entire time. Then Morgan spoke up cheerfully.

  “Ah, there it is!” her friend said, and began descending toward a small community ahead of them.

  Their goal looked like it was on the edge of the town, where there were several single-dwelling homes along with duplexes,
if Warden didn’t mistake herself. Behind them were several fields, and a few of the houses were separated by a narrow cluster of trees, which she thought lent a rather charming air. As she got closer, she saw that most of the homes had brick walls around them, some with decorative iron spikes on top, and it looked like most of the buildings were made of the same red brick with white-trimmed windows. The ones Morgan was heading toward mostly had two floors that she could see, which made her a little more hopeful about the visit. Warden had always heard that houses in England were tiny, and was worried that they might be crammed into a tiny space. That wasn’t to say that they couldn’t rent an apartment or something, but the flight had been expensive enough as it was.

  To Warden’s surprise, Morgan landed just outside the gate. Her surprise faded as she got closer, as Warden noticed the wards. Honestly, she was surprised she hadn’t sensed them from a half-mile away, they were so potent, yet somehow their signature was muddled and hidden, which surprised her.

  “So, here we are. Remember, Madison is helping us as a favor, so please try to be polite,” Rachel said quietly. At the same time, a car came down the street on the wrong side of the road, and Warden tensed. Then she blushed, as her brain caught up with her and reminded her that this was a different country. This… would take some getting used to.

  “I know,” Warden replied belatedly, shaking herself as she did so, then apologized. “Sorry, I’m just… tired. It was a long flight.”

  “Don’t I know it. Now, I suppose I should call her, and—” Morgan began, reaching for the phone in its case, but at the same time the door to the house opened and a woman burst out.

  The woman wasn’t very tall, standing barely five and a half feet tall, at a guess, and she wore her brown hair in a bob, while her eyes shone a bright brown. She was quite pretty, with a broad grin that showed slightly uneven teeth, and her skin was tanned from a good deal of time outside. While Warden could vaguely associate the woman in brown trousers and a beige shirt with the heroine whose picture she’d studied in the airport, the two were incredibly different… even if she didn’t seem to have aged a day over the past decade.

  “Rachel, you’re here! You look knackered, and so does your friend!” Madison Fisher exclaimed, clicking her tongue as she continued briskly, opening the gate for them. “Come in already! I’ve heard about what happened over the weekend, and I want to hear all about it from you. It sounds like a disaster, and almost makes me wish I was active again.”

  “That is something you’d say,” Morgan replied, smiling wryly as she stepped in and gave Madison a hug. “It’s wonderful to see you. Thank you for agreeing to help, especially since I couldn’t be specific over the phone.”

  “Feck that,” Madison replied bluntly, pushing Morgan away to look her in the eyes. “Mind control is nothing to screw around with. If you didn’t contact me, I’d have a go at you. And this is your friend. Should I call you Gina or Warden?”

  “Um, Gina is fine,” Warden replied, blinking back at Madison in confusion. “I suspect you’re going to get to know me better than I necessarily like, considering what a mess things are up here.”

  She indicated her head as she spoke, and Madison grinned, gesturing for her to come through the gate. Warden did so, pulling her luggage with her, then stopped abruptly as the world seemed to change enormously.

  The houses and streets didn’t change, nor did any of the handful of other people outside, but the sky and clouds… instead of the evening sky she was used to, it was like enormous streamers of the aurora borealis had come to visit, with a slowly spinning, vivid artist’s depiction of the galactic disk in the background, and a full starfield beyond that. Warden looked up, gawking a little.

  “Yes, that’s the price of mental help. I don’t always like doing it, but it has to be done.” Madison said, closing the gate and glancing up with a grin. “Like my sky? It took a massive amount of work, but what use is illusion magic if you never use it?”

  “I… can see that. If you don’t mind, I may want to paint that,” Warden replied, shaking off her shock. She hadn’t expected an illusion of that scale, and glared at Morgan, who just grinned in response.

  “Brilliant! I’m no artist when it comes to making things that last, just in spellwork, so I might want a copy for myself,” Madison replied enthusiastically. “Come in! Let’s hear what happened to you.”

  “That sounds wonderful,” Morgan said, and Warden followed as the woman led the way into the house.

  Chapter 11

  Wednesday, August 20th, 2031

  Iver, England

  “Now, I’ve cleared a pair of rooms on the first floor for the two of you. They might be a bit cramped, but they should serve nicely. I find that dealing with mental changes makes you cranky, and privacy is good,” Madison explained briskly, opening the door to reveal a small, well-appointed family room. One which was rather crowded, Warden thought. “Wouldn’t want you to snap at each other too much!”

  “I’d rather not snap at all, if it’s all the same to you,” Warden replied, looking around curiously.

  Numerous paintings and knickknacks adorned the walls and tables around the room, two china cabinets, a television, and a sofa, but what really drew her attention was the cabinet which wasn’t filled with china. Instead, it was covered in a variety of pictures, several of which depicted Madison in the dark dress and goth-like makeup she’d favored when she was an active heroine, while others showed her graduating from college, though Warden wasn’t quite certain of that. Also in the cabinet, prominently displayed, was an ancient-looking wooden wand with tarnished silver scrollwork along the tip, the same outfit that she’d worn as Morgan Le Fay, and several pieces of jewelry. Those Warden recognized, but she didn’t recognize several other items, like the scorched metal gauntlet in the left side of the case which radiated faint magic, or the cracked crystal ball on the right.

  Madison followed Warden’s gaze and smiled as she asked, “Oh, you like my display? I’ve got a wee bit of history behind me, though Rachel looks to be trying to beat me! If she does, I’ll have to have a go at her.”

  Morgan winced, looking at her pleadingly. “Please don’t? I’d rather keep my skin, if you please.”

  Warden couldn’t help a smile as Madison cackled in response, almost sounding like a villain as she gently punched Morgan in the shoulder.

  “Then you shouldn’t have gotten mixed up in all this! Being a heroine is bloody dangerous, and you’ve put yourself right in the middle of it,” Madison told her, grinning the entire time. “If you don’t want that, retire. That’s what I did!”

  “A fair point,” Warden said, dragging her gaze away from the display as she continued. “That said, I am tired. Is there any chance we could see the rooms?”

  Madison nodded agreeably, starting down the narrow hall, then turned to climb the stairs, speaking as she moved. “The rooms should be mostly empty, though I might have missed some bits and bobs. If they’re in the way, tell me, and I’ll get them out of your hair. Here we are! Choose whichever you want.”

  The woman stopped next to a pair of doors at the top of the stairs, then pointed at the next door down on the right as she added, “A washroom is right there.”

  Morgan peeked into one room, and Warden eased forward to look into the other, her eyebrows rising a little. It was quite different than she’d expected, with a few ornately carved pillars in the corners of the room, while a twin bed was against the nearby wall. There also were a couple of side tables, a wardrobe, and a dresser. Put together, the room was crowded, but the rug on the floor and light from the windows made it feel larger than she’d expected.

  “I think this will do very well for me. Thank you, Madison,” Warden told her, smiling slightly.

  “You’re welcome, but don’t call me that! Call me Maddy,” the woman replied, smiling and patting Gina on the shoulder. “Now, why don’t you two get settled, and I’ll get dinner out? Rachel never eats well on those flights, so I made sure to ha
ve one of her favorites ready.”

  Warden’s eyebrows rose, especially as Morgan blushed, and she asked, “Oh?”

  “Steak pie,” Morgan said, looking a little embarrassed. “You shouldn’t have, Maddy.”

  “I wanted to,” the woman retorted, turning away and heading down the stairs. “If you take too long, I’ll start without you!”

  Morgan let out a sigh, and Gina chuckled, resisting the urge to smile as she mentally forced herself to focus on being just Gina. That would be strange, she thought… but they were in England, and they had rules about foreign heroes. She and Rachel would get in trouble if they jumped into fights without going through proper procedures, and that wasn’t why they were here.

  “She’s interesting,” Gina said, looking at Rachel, who nodded in response, a wry smile on her face.

  “She’s definitely that,” Rachel agreed, stepping into the opposite room, which looked similar to the one Gina was in, though it had somewhat different furnishings. Part of Gina wondered if Madison kept the rooms furnished the way they were for visitors like them. She’d heard of a few people visiting her for similar purposes before, after all. “I like her, though. Maddy is… refreshing. And very supportive.”

  Gina nodded, rolling her suitcase into the room and she sighed softly. It was quite a change from the large room that they’d spent so much time designing with Lilith, and her things… so many of them were in storage for the time being. Not that they’d told Lilith what they’d done with them, but it was best not to leave things in the manor if everything went poorly. She hesitated, then shrugged, closing the door as she said, “I’m going to change quickly. The suit isn’t appropriate, if we’re not going to be working.”