Witch-Blood

by Ash Fitzsimmons

  “And get a court.”

  “I don’t want a court,” he protested. “Especially not that one. Would you want to clean up the mess Mab made?”

  We stood there in the meadow, staring each other down, and finally, I let my fire die and my corona extinguish itself. “I can’t look at your thoughts,” I mumbled. “Don’t know how. Going after the troll was supposed to…I don’t know, trigger something.”

  Val hesitated, then closed the distance between us. “Control takes time,” he said, gripping my shoulder. “And practice. Believe me, I know—I didn’t begin to come into my power until I was a man. But you’re young, and your power is correspondingly slight—”

  I shook my head, cutting him off. “Realm, uh…she gave me a boost.”

  His tanned face began to pale. “What sort of a boost?”

  “Um…I’m not entirely sure, but I think she was aiming for Coileán.”

  He let that sink in for a moment as he continued to blanch. “You can’t control it.”

  “Figured out fireballs. Joey’s back that way,” I muttered, pointing toward the woods. “I got pissed at him last night, and now he’s in a coma. So no, I can’t control it.”

  “A coma?”

  “He won’t wake up,” I explained, and my words began to run together. “I could have killed him, I may have killed him, and this was…I was supposed to figure out how to fix him—”

  “My lord.”

  I shut down the renewed glow before it could blossom and looked back at Val with pricking eyes. “Help me,” I begged. “I don’t know what to do, and I’m making everything worse.”

  If he noticed the tremor in my jaw, Val had the decency not to mention it. “Are you injured?”

  “No.”

  “Then the first consideration is Joey,” he said, releasing me. “Lead the way. Where did you leave him?”

  “He’s in a cave,” I said, starting up the trail. “The piq are watching him, but—”

  “The what?”

  “Piq,” I repeated, looking over my shoulder. “You didn’t know about them, either?”

  “What’s a piq?”

  “Basically, they’re tiny, glowing people with butterfly wings.”

  Val considered that as he walked, then muttered, “If Coileán learns of this—”

  “I’d planned to have a video camera on hand,” I said, then mumbled, “assuming we can wake him, of course.”

  “That’s been my hope.” The dirt path widened, and Val walked beside me through the forgotten bones. “What’s your strategy? You can’t carry him out of his room…”

  “Yeah, the realm clued me in. She said I need to distract Oberon, buy Coileán some time.” I frowned at him as another thought occurred to me. “She didn’t mention that you were coming.”

  “I’ve been following your trail for days. Oberon wanted to be certain that the breakout was just a trick, so I said I’d investigate for him. The realm…it’s been speaking to you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well,” he said, kicking a hoof out of his way, “bear in mind what you’re dealing with. Come, now, would you expect Faerie to be anything less than capricious?”

  CHAPTER 14

  * * *

  The piq swarmed when Val and I reached the clearing, but he threw a shield around us without so much as a twitch. The little things rebounded with a sound like bugs slamming into a window, and I paused as a few hit hard and fell to the ground in a stupor. “Uh…Val,” I said, “they are hosting us.”

  “Then they can put their weapons away,” he replied, unperturbed by the angrily buzzing guards. “Where is he?”

  Climbing as quickly as I dared, I led him into the cave and down the ledges, and he tossed up a white orb to light the way. Another cloud of disturbed piq raced toward us when the orb brought daylight to the cave, but Val’s shield held, and they shared the fate of their compatriots topside.

  Lailu was waiting by the time we reached the bottom, hovering with a half-dozen guards at her side. “You’ve returned, I see,” she said, cutting her eyes to the moaning, dazed piq on the cave floor. “And your…companion?”

  “Daig,” I replied. “Properly daig. And since he just fixed your troll problem, maybe you could call off the welcome committee.”

  “Yes…I suppose,” she murmured, and turned to her guards with a series of rapid, unintelligible instructions.

  I looked at Val, whose poker face barely betrayed his surprise at the encounter, then said, “Lailu is their queen, and from the looks of it, the only one fully fluent in Fae. I’ve picked up maybe ten words from them, so it would help if we all stayed on each other’s good side.”

  He nodded, and when Lailu turned her attention back to us, he dropped the shield and showed his empty hands. “I mean no disrespect, my lady,” he told her, “but under the circumstances”—his gaze drifted to Joey, who remained on the floor where I had left him—“I thought we might leave the negotiations for another time.”

  She gestured toward the patient and landed on my shoulder, grabbing my ear as a handhold. Ignoring the high-pitched cries of the agitated piq around us, Val knelt beside him and placed his hands on Joey’s temples. He closed his eyes but said nothing, and in an instant, I saw the enchantment form around them both, a yellow-green net of working magic. It funneled through the backs of Val’s hands into Joey, just as Mom’s healing spells had channeled magic through her wand and into my broken limbs, and I waited, crossing my fingers and hoping for a miracle.

  A moment later, Val released his hold and slid back, and the enchantment dissolved. “Is he—” I began, but Joey’s gasp cut me off, and Val caught him before he could try to sit up.

  As I exhaled the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and fought the sudden weakness of relief in my knees, Val tended to him. “Welcome back,” he said, cradling Joey’s head in the crook of his arm even as he pressed him to the floor. “Give it time. If you try to stand too quickly, you’ll faint.”

  Joey looked around, taking in everything, then focused on the face above him. “Val—”

  “I’m not your enemy,” he said, cutting Joey off before he could panic. “And if I were going to kill you, I would have left you as you were. Understand?”

  Joey’s eyes shifted uncertainly, but he offered a slow nod.

  “Good. Rest.” He lowered Joey’s head to the ground, then stood over him and glowered. “And were you trying to kill yourself?” he bellowed. His voice echoed around the cavern, and I winced as Joey flinched. “I expect foolishness from him,” Val continued, jabbing his finger toward me, “but I thought you were beyond that!”

  “Hey,” I protested, “I’m not stupid…”

  Val spared me an impatient glance before looking back at Joey. “Boys do foolish things. I thought you were a man by now.”

  Joey’s eyes rolled in confusion. “I…I don’t…”

  “You don’t remember? Aiden says you’ve been unconscious nearly a full day.”

  “Huh?” he mumbled, rubbing his forehead. “I…wait…where the hell did you come from?”

  “You don’t remember what happened?” I interrupted, stepping into Joey’s line of vision. “I was going to go after a troll, and you tried to stop me, and—”

  I shut up as realization dawned in Joey’s face. “Dude, you threw me?” he yelped. “And you—”

  “I’m so, so sorry,” I rushed, stepping clear of his grasp. “I didn’t mean to, I didn’t know it was going to happen…”

  Val raised his hand to silence me. “Joey,” he said, glaring down at him, “you know he can’t control himself. You provoked him. What did you think was going to happen?”

  Joey cut his eyes to me but continued to massage his head. “Not that.”

  “You’re lucky to be alive.” Val stepped back and offered him a hand. “Come on, try to sit up. I want to check for bruising.”

  Though sullen, Joey took Val’s hand and eased upright, and Val crouched behind him to prod at th
e back of his head. “Tell me if this hurts,” he muttered, then paused as Joey hissed. “Yes…still a little swollen,” he said, brushing Joey’s hair back. “And blue. Have I yet told you how fortunate you are to be alive?”

  “Joey,” I said, squatting a safe distance from him, “I’m really sorry, please, I…I didn’t mean to hurt you, I couldn’t—”

  Joey’s voice was low, but it cut through my babbled apology. “I was trying to protect you.”

  “I know, you were right, I was stupid…”

  Val snorted his agreement, and Joey flinched as his fingers found yet another tender spot.

  “…but I thought I’d killed you, and I wouldn’t hurt you, Joey, you’re my friend, I—”

  “I know,” Joey interrupted. “It’s—damn it, that hurts!” he yelped, pulling his head away from Val. “Jeez, man, a little mercy!”

  “You don’t want to know what I just repaired,” Val replied, resuming his exploration of Joey’s scalp. “And if you’ll be still, I may be able to fix the rest. Stop complaining.”

  Joey rolled his eyes but gritted his teeth while Val prodded his bruises. “So,” he said to me, “after all that, you still went after the troll?”

  “Eventually,” Lailu piped up, and jumped off my shoulder. She drifted to a clean landing on Joey’s knee and walked up his thigh while he watched and winced at the ongoing examination. “He would not have done so if he hadn’t thought he might learn to heal your wounds in the process. He remained with you through the night, but when you did not improve…” She shrugged and glanced back at me. “You see, this solves two problems, does it not? The troll is dead, your friend will recover—”

  “And you persuaded the boy to attack a troll in the first place,” Val interrupted, glaring at her over Joey’s shoulder. “Are you siding with Oberon?”

  The queen seemed miffed. “Certainly not. We take no part in your wars. And as for the boy,” she continued, folding her arms, “it was the Lady’s suggestion, not my idea. I was merely the messenger.”

  “The lady?” said Val.

  “She means the realm,” I explained. “Faerie talks to her, too.”

  He sat back on his heels and rubbed his face. “So the realm somehow gives you power, lets you hide in the forest for days without telling you I’m on the way to assist, and tells her that the way to solve your problems is to send you on a suicide mission. Are you certain she’s taking your part in this?”

  I spread my hands helplessly. “She says she hasn’t told Oberon that we’re here.”

  “Well, he hasn’t mentioned it,” Val muttered. “When did you come across? And how? I thought I told you to stay safe,” he added, and hit Joey’s shoulder to drive the point home.

  “Tor gate,” said Joey, rubbing the struck spot. “Rufus opened it for us, and we made our way from there.”

  Val’s face creased. “Which gate? And who?”

  Joey sighed as the enchantment started again, a more delicate piece of work for the fine details. “The Tor gate,” he repeated. “There’s a hidden one at the top of the Glastonbury Tor.”

  “In England,” I added, seeing Val’s bemusement. “Uh…Britannia?”

  “Yes, I know the place,” he said brusquely, “but where did this gate—”

  “A lake,” Joey muttered. “It opens into a damn lake infested with a damn green hag in the middle of goddamn nowhere.”

  “To the northeast of here,” I said.

  “And there are giant damn spiders,” Joey complained.

  “Quite a ways to the northeast.”

  Val peered at me over Joey’s shoulder. “How long have you two been out here?”

  “Phone,” Joey snapped, pointing to his bag, and I carried it to him while he healed. He rummaged in the pockets until he found his quasi-iPhone, then pulled up the calendar and grunted. “Today makes a month.”

  The enchantment broke, and Val stepped around Joey to look at his filthy, stained backpack and worn-through boots. “You’ve been living off the land for a month?” he said, visibly stunned.

  “Surprised?” he replied with a smirk. “I’m not a complete imbecile, Val.”

  “I never said you were, but…” He took a second look at the bloodstains on Joey’s gear and nodded. “Well done. And who’s the idiot who thought this was the safest place for you, then?”

  “Vivi’s brother,” I said. “One of them.”

  “We left Georgie with him,” Joey added before Val could ask. “Easier to hide without a dragon.”

  “And how were you hiding her in the other realm?” he pressed.

  “Toula took care of it,” said Joey. “She has a few choice words planned for you, by the way.”

  “I’m sure she does.” Val looked at the two of us and Lailu, who had seated herself on Joey’s jeans. “Well,” he said to Joey, “you’ll live for now, and as for you,” he said, glancing my way, “training begins after lunch. Were you planning on cleaning out the larder here, or could I be of service?”

  “I mean, I don’t want to impose or anything,” said Joey, “but seeing as Aiden ate the last of my kill…”

  A gallon-sized ceramic bowl filled with goopy orange pasta appeared beside Joey, along with a fork. “Will that make you happier?” asked Val.

  Joey shoveled in a few mouthfuls of macaroni, then nodded. “It’s a start,” he said, spraying bits of cheese sauce into his new beard with every word. “Food of the gods.”

  Val rolled his eyes. “I thought you only recognized one deity.”

  “Just an expression.”

  “Mm.” He squinted at Joey’s lunch and wrinkled his nose. “I trust that my gods could do better than that.”

  Val didn’t hold a candle to Astrid in the food department, but that day, I’d have been grateful for a pack of bologna and a can of Easy Cheese. He managed a respectable pizza, to which he’d taken an immediate liking while traveling with Toula, and as Joey and I gorged ourselves on the carbohydrates we’d been craving, he told us what had happened in our absence.

  “We did the best we could,” he said, picking at his share of the pie, “but their numbers were overwhelming, and they caught us off guard. I’ve had security on the permanent gates for years—the practical gates, at least,” he amended, “not your lake gate, but Oberon ripped open several new ones simultaneously, and we couldn’t close them against him. He led his elite force straight into the palace, from what I’ve put together, and they took Coileán unawares.”

  Joey nodded. “That’s what Astrid was saying.”

  “She was clever enough to stay out of the way until the first wave finished,” he replied. “They killed eighty-four that night, and many more since…” He paused, suddenly uncertain. “Did Astrid tell you about—”

  “My siblings?” I offered. “Yeah.”

  “I would offer my condolences, but honestly…”

  “Got it. Go on,” said Joey, picking dried cheese sauce out of his short mustache.

  A damp hand towel appeared beside him, and Val shook his head as Joey tried to blindly find the leftovers clinging to his face. “There were simply too many of them,” Val told me, “and we weren’t prepared. It’s my fault,” he muttered. “Of all the threats I’d anticipated, an invasion by Oberon was low on the list. He could have returned whenever he’d liked, and he’d never have tried that with Titania—I suppose Coileán was a different matter.”

  “But he left Coileán alive,” I said. “He can’t kill him, or he won’t?”

  Val’s face darkened. “He’s biding his time. Keeping Coileán alive ensures that Moyna does as she’s told.”

  “Yeah, about that,” Joey interrupted. “When did those two team up?”

  “I assume in the last months,” said Val with a shrug. “My understanding is that after Nath threw the rest of Mab’s people out of the Gray Lands, at least some of the exiles rallied around Moyna. The girl craves vengeance, and she’s not stupid. They have no leader, but Moyna, at least, knows the right things to say.”<
br />
  The picture began to come into focus. “So she approaches Oberon,” I said, “joins up with him, brings Mab’s court with her as muscle, and helps him invade?”

  “Not quite,” Val replied with a bitter smirk. “Oberon approached her. As far as pure numbers go, Coileán’s court and his were roughly equal before the attack. Adding Mab’s refugees tipped the balance in Oberon’s favor.”

  Joey’s eyes widened, and he put the towel down. “Moyna helps Oberon, they take Coileán out, and the court’s hers.”

  “Exactly. Or at least, that’s their agreement.” He picked up a slice and chewed slowly. “You must remember that Oberon never wanted to share power. The arrangement among the Three was a cessation of hostilities, not anyone’s prearranged plan. He told me he’d had enough rest and thought the time was right to finish what he started.”

  “Shit,” Joey grunted, “he’s going to kill Moyna, isn’t he?”

  “And that would be the true plan,” said Val, pointing his slice at Joey’s chest. “Oberon’s keeping Coileán alive for now while Moyna and her forces move on the Arcanum. When they’ve broken through and wiped out the silo—behead the organization and hope the survivors scatter, you know,” he explained, “Moyna expects that he’ll kill Coileán as her reward. He will, but only once he’s killed her.”

  “He actually told you this?” I asked.

  Val smirked again. “Well, as the old boy sees it, someone will need to take the reins with Mab’s people. I’m of the blood, after all. Kill Moyna, leave them leaderless again, then prop me up as their new head. The position doesn’t come with any extra power,” he continued, “or so I’d assume, given Mab’s state at the end, but if they follow me, then Oberon will have the third court under his control—I mean, I would be beholden to him, wouldn’t I?”

  “And what about Coileán’s?”

  He shrugged. “I’m sure Oberon will clean out the dungeons once he settles his affairs with Moyna. He’s actually counting on me to help kill her,” he added. “It’s taking too much of his strength to keep Coileán subdued—more than Moyna realizes. He hides it well. But he’s opened his thoughts to me, made it plain what he intends.”