“Hello.” Amy sounded fine, and Thomas let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
“Amy, it’s Thomas.”
“Thomas, I’m glad to finally hear from you! Are you all right? Marcia told us what happened to your house. I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“I’m fine. Fine. It’s a mess — obviously. But I’m totally fine.” He felt a pang of guilt; he’d been so utterly focused on Kyoko, he’d forgotten everyone else. When he hung up with Amy, he resolved to call Marcia. He’d also have to do something for the families of his security team.
“Thank God. Thomas, I was so worried! I mean, you should have called earlier. And don’t give me that crap that you didn’t want to upset me while I was in the hospital. You know me.”
“You’re in the hospital?” Thomas couldn’t keep the question out of his voice.
“No. I’m at home. I mean, I’m still going back in for the tests, but I was discharged on Monday. And I have to thank you for sending Kiera. She’s been extremely helpful.”
The name ‘Kiera’ sounded so like ‘Mira’ that Thomas wished he had spoken to his mother before calling Amy. Clearly, she’d gotten involved in some way on his behalf. Perhaps this was why he had been unable to reach her or Cordelia on the phone. “How are you feeling? Seriously now? Don’t keep up the front,” Thomas said.
“Really, I feel fine. I’m still just a little tired. Mary went home yesterday, and Kiera is staying with me now. It’s hard to get used to the change, honestly. I sometimes have double-vision, so I wouldn’t want to drive or anything. But I can’t imagine a better outcome.”
After a few minutes of talking with Amy, Thomas gleaned what had happened. It was so unlike her that Thomas could barely bring himself to ask any question other than why she had done it. Of course Amy didn’t answer that question, but in her effort to avoid answering, she filled him in on all the information he should have already known.
“I promise,” Thomas said, “I’ll get to Boston as soon as I can.”
“I’m so sorry, Thomas. About your house. You don’t need to rush up here. Just take care of what you need to take care of.” Amy was probably sincere in her sentiment, but Thomas knew that she wanted to see him. He also had a strong suspicion that their mother was this “Kiera,” his business partner’s purported niece, who just happened to be a home health aide living in New York City. Amy had been even more talkative than usual.
When he hung up (the phone was still a rotary dial connected to the kitchen wall) he turned to Kyoko, who had heard his half of the conversation.
“I thought your sister was a brain surgeon?” Kyoko asked.
“She is. But now she’s apparently also a patient. She says she’s fine, but I’ll know more when Mary calls back. You know how she was doing research on mage sight? Something about the neural pathways or connections and how to operate on the nerves to link something up in mundanes with mage backgrounds?”
Kyoko nodded.
“So, Amy apparently thought her lab was about to shut down her project or take it in a different direction — I didn’t quite follow exactly. She apparently decided to push ahead. And since there were no other suitable subjects, she did the operation on herself. Well, she didn’t operate herself — one of her colleagues did. She says it was a success, and now she’s trying to figure out how to use her new mage sight.”
“That’s incredible,” Kyoko said.
“I’d call it pretty insane.”
“No, really; it’s incredible that she’s gained a whole new sense — just like that! I’ve never heard of anything like that being done by magick, and there isn’t much that a fae healer can’t do.”
“Well, I wish she hadn’t used herself as a guinea pig, but it sounds like she made it through fine. I’m not so sure how this relates to my meeting with Atlantea, though. Both Cordy and my mom know her well. They never said she liked to play games. So, I don’t know why she didn’t just tell me what she obviously knew. I mean, I’m sure my mom is in Boston with Amy. I hope she calls back.” Thomas walked toward the window to look at the calm sea.
“Atlantea doesn’t trust you, maybe? Perhaps she’s testing your resolve? Testing us. Pulling about the edges to see if something unravels. I don’t know that I’m so powerful that she needs to be this worried.” Kyoko shook her head.
“You broke an unbreakable spell, and you don’t think you’re powerful? Let’s just leave false modesty aside, my love.” Thomas sat down next to Kyoko and inclined his head to brush hers. “Maybe you’re right about this being a test. It’s really the first time I’ve ever spoken to Atlantea. She doesn’t know me, and I think she’s afraid of you. It is odd that we don’t have any mages in Atlantis. The Jarl has had a court mage since forever, and I’ve heard that the Pacific court has a trio.”
“Maybe that’s what I’ll be,” Kyoko said.
“No,” Thomas straightened. “I won’t let you escape one master just to be yoked under another — even if this one won’t drain your life force. How long, do you think, till you’re untraceable?”
“I don’t know, Thomas. I was thinking, perhaps, if staying here is a problem, maybe we could go to Australia?” Kyoko’s hesitancy showed. Non-mages were second-class citizens under the Cabal’s strictly enforced apartheid regulations.
“Australia?” Thomas was taken aback. “Seriously? You think we should go to Australia?”
“I know it sounds crazy. But any mage is automatically a citizen and can’t be extradited. Any assault on a mage outside of a registered duel is investigated and punished. I think it would be the safest place for me. And you would be safe with me,” Kyoko said quickly.
Thomas thought for a moment. Kyoko was an incredibly powerful mage, and would be welcomed — even celebrated — in Australia. She would have privileges and protections there that he could never provide for her here. And best of all, there would be no sirens to lure her away from him.
“Not a crazy idea,” Thomas said slowly. “Let’s think about it. I don’t know that we have to rush away now.”
“I can think of better ways to spend the afternoon,” Kyoko agreed.
Thomas half-woke in the night, reaching for Kyoko. She wasn’t beside him in the bed. He sat up, now wide awake.
“Shh,” Kyoko whispered. “I didn’t mean to wake you.” She was standing next to the bed. The blackout curtains were open, and moonlight shafted through the window to draw a rectangular outline across the room.
“What are you doing?” Thomas asked. “Come back to bed.”
“In a minute. The moonlight is clarifying.” Kyoko seemed intent on something. It was a little unsettling to have her full attention on him while he slept.
“What do you mean?” Thomas asked.
“Even though I cast in full sunlight, I design my spells in reflected light. You can see more subtleties and work through the nuances when you’re not overwhelmed by the full power of the sun.” Kyoko tilted her head to one side as she looked at Thomas. “I can see it so much more clearly now.”
“See what?”
“The blood-geas.” Kyoko traced her hand slowly in Thomas’ direction. “It’s so clever. There’s such a beauty in its design that it’s hard to imagine she cast it in such a moment of stress. Or without any planning.” She shook her head, as if bringing herself out of a trance. “Sorry. You can’t see it. And I know it’s evil, but at the same time, so very elegant in its composition. But I think I see now where the joints are. If I press here and here, it will begin to crack, I think.”
Kyoko pointed at a few spots just inches away from Thomas’ neck and chest. Thomas shivered; she wasn’t touching him, but he could nevertheless feel her fingers gentle on his skin.
“Kyoko, wait,” Thomas took Kyoko’s hand. “The moon isn’t even full tonight. You don’t have nearly enough power to do a working, and I don’t think you’re completely recovered from that last spell you cast.”
“I’m not going to cast anything now,” Kyo
ko replied. “I’m just looking. You really can see things by moonlight that aren’t visible in the brightness of day. All that color washes out all but the faintest outline of the spell.”
“Kyoko, you don’t have to do anything. This geas has been around for fifteen hundred years. It isn’t necessary to try to change it right now. It doesn’t bother me — I’ve never really noticed it.”
“You never noticed it because it’s always been there, strangling you. But that doesn’t mean you won’t feel better once it’s gone. Think of a lifetime of being only able to inhale this much,” Kyoko placed his hand on her chest and breathed in and out shallowly, then took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “What a difference to be able to really breathe. What more you could be able to do if you weren’t so constricted.”
“It’s too much,” Thomas said. “You risk too much.”
“And what about your family, your sisters? It can’t be good to have such a separate life from them. You say you love your family — but this geas has forced you to hide most of your life from them. This is the test, Thomas. I know it. This is how we prove to Atlantea that I can be trusted; that we can be trusted.”
God, she was seductive. Her words and her body silhouetted in the moonlight were a spell that Thomas shook off with a will. “An indenture cast by a regular mage is one thing, Kyoko. But this is a geas cast by one of the greatest mages in history! I know you’re talented, but there are risks — you could pour yourself into it and fall into a coma or disappear.” Thomas worried at how obsessed Kyoko seemed.
“I won’t disappear, Thomas. I can take it slowly. I know I can do this. It won’t be as sweeping as her death spell — she enchanted an entire species — but I can break just one link of the chain without fueling it with my own death.”
“Kyoko, we’ll go to Australia. I was thinking about it before.” Thomas had never been as tempted as he was at that moment to compel Kyoko. His voice actually trembled as he suppressed his power.
“You need to trust me a little more,” Kyoko said flatly. “I understand more about my own limits than you do.”
“I do trust you. Okay, I don’t know what your limits are. But can you really stand there and tell me you know them yourself? That you are absolutely certain breaking a blood-geas won’t be too much? Let’s go to Australia, and you can consult some of the greatest mages in the world about it first. Promise me. I want you to do this, I do. I just think you’re pushing too hard, too fast. Slow down.”
Kyoko looked down for a moment, then back at Thomas. “I can’t. I can’t slow down. It’s just too alluring. Maybe it’s your influence, but that spell is intoxicating. It calls to me in a way that I just can’t explain. I swear I won’t do anything rash; that I’ll be careful. But I can’t swear not to touch it.”
“I don’t understand magick.” Thomas said, a note of despair creeping into his voice.
“No,” Kyoko agreed.
“But I’m not completely ignorant. You were in a near-coma for almost two days after breaking your indenture!”
“Thomas, this is different. It’s so much harder to cast a spell on yourself. You can barely see the bindings, let alone undo them. It’s like operating on yourself; you feel at the same time you are trying to cast — and the muddle of experiencing your own touch is almost overwhelming. This, I can do. In some ways it’s much easier, even though the spell itself is a higher magick.”
Kyoko was persuasive, but Thomas hated his lack of understanding. “But you’re not doing anything now. It’s too dark. Study it, explore it. But don’t do anything yet. It could backfire on me, also, right? I mean, you don’t want to hurt me.”
“I won’t hurt you. I can’t hurt you. I’m not casting tonight,” Kyoko agreed, and Thomas had to content himself with that.
Part Three
Under Sea, Break Free
While sirens enjoy some immunity to passive fae magicks, great caution must be used in approaching them. The fae do not think like humans, and when visiting their preserves, it is critical that you adapt your mindset to their different perspective. It is recommended that an experienced mentor accompany any newly transitioned siren on their first ten to twenty visits into fae territory. Please note that some sirens generally deem it prudent to always travel in pairs. But do not let this cautionary note dissuade you from your purpose: the fae need sirens. So long as their need for us remains, we enjoy a measure of safety in their presence.
– Sirens: An Overview for the Newly-Transitioned, 3rd ed. (2015), by Mira Bant de Atlantic, p. 108.
Chapter 29
The North York Moors National Park was about five hundred and fifty square miles on the northeast coast of England, and much of it was covered in a purple expanse of heather that waved like a lavender sea in the wind. For all its visual beauty (and certainly September was the time to visit), the whole landscape felt hostile and unwelcoming to Cordelia.
She had not forgotten the feeling of drowning on dry land when that ancient faerie had bespelled her on her first visit. Nor the terrifying emptiness that had followed. While she still wasn’t certain the faerie had shown her an absolute truth like an Oracle, she did believe the suffering of the Aos Sí was quite real.
Zale may be right: she was meddling without thinking things through. But the increasing turnover in siren support staff, as well as Thomas’ sudden flight from England, meant that she wasn’t the only siren disturbed by what was happening here. So what if Zale made her feel like an idealistic teenager, attempting to save the whales with little thought to the collateral damage on the poor fishermen of southeast Asia? Something had to be done.
The fields’ beauty was countered by a musty odor that hung in the air. It reminded her of the flooded shed she had cleared out as a teenager: not quite the smell of rot, but certainly of decay. She shivered, despite the humidity, and turned back to Titania, who had accompanied her this far. “The moors are as uninviting as the forest was,” Cordelia stated.
“Yes. We feel it too. The hostility grows as more of us fade,” Titania didn’t look at Cordelia, but also stared out at the undulating hills of heather before her.
When Cordelia had presented herself to Titania four days ago, the Aos Sí queen had worn a crown of blackened silver enhanced with diamond stars. The old-growth forest’s dim light was reflected into white streams that pierced the gloom like a halogen flashlight bouncing off a disco ball, alternatively blinding Cordelia while illuminating the woods. The brightness of Titania’s crown had been a display of power that made Cordelia wonder whether the fae could be freed without igniting the world.
Today the Aos Sí queen again wore a crown of silver so tarnished it gleamed black in the sunlight. Her glamoured crowns were always in the form of tarnished or blackened silver, the true message of which Cordelia was still trying to interpret. Was Titania trying to remind her of the fae’s suffering? Demonstrate the extraordinary length of time they had been imprisoned? Indicate that the Aos Sí had been so weakened, they were no longer a threat? But Cordelia looked at the crown and hoped it signified that once free of this place, the fae could shine again.
She knew that to be around the fae was to be unable to trust the reality you experienced, but she had to try. In her first meeting with Titania, they had probed one another in what felt like a verbal joust. The queen was clearly interested in understanding why Cordelia was there, and Cordelia tried to focus on the extent of rage and hate Titania had hidden beneath her impassive exterior.
Titania, though, had the experience of millennia to hone her speech, and Cordelia felt eminently outclassed in their conversations. She understood why Zale was so ambivalent about whether the Aos Sí would destroy them if they could.
Since their initial meeting, Titania had gradually altered her style from the ornate to the ordinary. Today she looked like a modern mundane, wearing a sensible wool plaid coat over blue jeans and walking shoes. Even the blackened, silver circlet about her head didn’t detract from the commonplace appearance the qu
een was cultivating. But no fae voluntarily appeared without their glamour unless in the company of those they trusted most. Their glamours changed with their moods or whims and seemed designed to intimidate or seduce the mortals they encountered. Cordelia thought that Titania had moved from intimidation to seduction.
She knew only that she shouldn’t allow herself to believe anything she experienced here: she could never be sure that she was actually getting to know Titania’s true self, as opposed to simply the image of herself she believed Cordelia wanted to see. And despite Titania’s agreement that the land felt hostile, it seemed unlikely that Titania experienced the same feeling of unwelcome that Cordelia did.
“I think the land’s hostility is directed at me,” Cordelia probed. “After all, this is land you have claimed, and we sirens are not completely innocent bystanders to your suffering.”
“Bystanders is perhaps the right word,” Titania stated. Cordelia noted that Titania chose not to agree or deny the truth of what Cordelia had said. While the fae could not lie, they could avoid the issue.
“Culpable bystanders?” Cordelia asked.
“Do I think you are culpable? No, you are innocent.” Titania stated firmly.
“I’m innocent, but the Atlantics perhaps not. And I’ve certainly been passive.”
“You’ve been more active than most.”
“I was warned that if given the opportunity, the fae would rise up against their oppressors. That is, against us.” Cordelia said.
“There are some of us who would if they could. But much of that is likely due to despair and the pain of surviving. We aren’t long-lived because we nurse grudges, Cordelia. We are a race that lives in the moment, looking neither backwards nor forward.”
“That’s not exactly true,” Cordelia countered. “You remember what happened in the past well enough, and have the strength of focus to plan for your future.”
Sirens Unbound Page 31
