by HP Mallory
“Nothing will save her,” Persephone responded, not bothering to take her blazing eyes away from mine. “And I will feel nothing but thrilling excitement as her essence fades away into nothing.” She took a deep breath. “And I will experience the same feeling when I watch you fade away into nothing.”
I felt my eyebrows furrow as I brought my attention from the floor back to her face. “Ah dinnae follow.”
“I have no further use for you,” Persephone insisted as a malicious smile danced over her lips.
“And I reminded our lovely queen that you had but one wish,” Alaire added. “Do you recall what that wish was?” When I did not respond, he continued. “It was to see yourself divorced from Donnchadh.” He feigned a smile that seemed suddenly beyond wicked.
“Ah already decided ’gainst it,” I informed him as a huge knot began to form in my stomach because I knew exactly where this conversation was headed. “Boot ye already know that.”
“Yes, well, we reconsidered it and decided that the choice should not be yours to make,” Persephone nearly interrupted me, apparently extremely excited to relay this information.
“We believe in granting absolution to anyone who desires it strongly enough,” Alaire added as his smile broadened and I realized there was nothing but darkness within him. “And you, my friend, have desired redemption for so long now, I believe it only fair to grant that which you request.”
I had to admit that I was not surprised it had come to this. I knew I was simply a sitting duck, waiting for the moment when Alaire would decide it was time to do away with me. Alive, I was nothing more than a threat to him.
“What’s going on? What the hell is he talking about?” the angel called out from his cell. “Tallis, you okay?”
“Sae git oan with it,” I said as I glared up at Alaire, not bothering to respond to the angel. He would discover what had happened soon enough.
“Do you have any last words?” Persephone asked with the same demonic grin displayed by Alaire.
“There is no need for last words,” Alaire responded as he faced me with interest. “There is no need because I am not going to take your life.”
“But,” Persephone started, but Alaire held his hand up to quieten her. He never took his eyes away from mine.
“I will separate you from Donnchadh, but I do not want this to mean your death, dear bladesmith,” he started.
“Mayhap ye are more daft than Ah gave ye credit fer,” I started, shaking my head as I glowered up at him, hating the position he had me in. I had sworn to myself that I would never be subjugated to Alaire and yet, that was the exact position in which I now found myself. How far I had fallen. Once the king of the Underground City and now no better than a helpless prisoner who was near the end. “If ye separate Donnchadh from meh, Ah will die.”
Alaire chuckled and shook his head. “You underestimate me, my dear sir,” he started as the laugh left his lips. Then he faced me squarely. “Donnchadh’s power and his strength interests me greatly,” he started. “I seek to harness that power for myself. But, I do not bear you any hard feelings. At the same time, though,” he continued with a shrug. “I have to ensure that you do not interfere with my plans, and the only way I can rest assured you will not attempt to trifle with me is by removing that which makes you omnipotent.”
“By removin’ Donnchadh,” I answered the silent question, still unsure where Alaire was going with all of this.
“Yes, very good. It seems you are quite astute,” the braggart continued.
“Ye still havenae explained how ye hope tae sever Donnchadh from meh an’ yet expect meh nae tae die.”
“Perhaps it would be better to show you rather than to explain,” Alaire finished as he eyed the pulley system which kept me chained in place.
He brought his attention back to me as he approached, extending his hand toward Persephone and gently pushing her out of the way as if he meant to protect her from something. I was worried about just what he felt he needed to protect her from.
He stood perhaps a foot or so in front of me and then reached inside his pocket, producing a bright green pill that was maybe the size of my thumbnail.
“Whit is that?” I demanded.
“This is your absolution,” he responded as he approached me. “Sent direct from Afterlife Enterprises as soon as I requested it.” He began to nod, his smile broad. “Yes, they sanctioned your redemption as well.”
“This isnae redemption,” I spat back at him. “Sae quit referrin’ tae it as sooch.”
“Tomato, to-mat-toe,” he said with a shrug and then reached down, gripping my cheeks between his fingers. He pinched my lips, forcing them together so I resembled a fish. Then he shoved the pill inside my mouth and clamped my nostrils, forcing me to release my jaw if I wanted to breathe. I did not fight him. There was no reason to attempt it. He had me exactly where he wanted me. Fighting would simply postpone the inevitable.
Once I swallowed the horse pill, Alaire reached both of his arms forward, propping his palms on my shoulders. I felt my head suddenly lift up involuntarily and found myself staring him in the eyes. The longer I looked into his, the more I started to realize they were glowing. The glow began as a faint light which then brightened into a radiance that seemed to emanate from his pupils. I tried to divert my gaze but found myself unable to shift my eyes from his. It was as if he had locked our gazes, forced me to hold his stare.
I began to feel a slight buzzing in the pit of my stomach. It almost felt as if my stomach were hungry and growling. But little by little the buzz began to intensify until it felt like I had swallowed a power saw. The reverberations echoed through my entire body, causing me to shake. I tried to open my mouth to speak, but my lips would not comply. It seemed as if Alaire had complete control of my body.
“How dae ye have this power?” I was able to rasp out because I had never possessed such abilities when I was leader of the Underground. And Alaire had never been as magically inclined as I was.
“I was gifted with certain … abilities in honor of my service to the Underground City for these last few centuries,” he responded.
“Afterlife Enterprises,” I grunted as I realized my hunch had been correct. Alaire was in cahoots with AE.
He tightened his fingers on my shoulders as he continued to stare into me, as if seeing through me. My breath hitched as a tremor suddenly ripped through me and I felt myself jolted forward as if pushed by unseen hands. Then I was swarmed with what felt like outrage. Outrage and extreme power. Strength.
Donnchadh … I thought his name as I realized what was happening. Alaire, or perhaps it was the pill I had just swallowed, but something was releasing Donnchadh inside me.
I felt like I was drowning, attempting to keep my head above water only long enough to draw a breath or two before the unforgiving waves pummeled me back down again. Donnchadh was surging through me now, rising to the surface of my body and suppressing me, forcing me back into the undertow. I was losing myself …
I fought to maintain control, but I was sputtering. I could feel my essence growing dimmer, my soul beginning to fade away into oblivion as Donnchadh usurped control of my body. It was becoming difficult to breathe now.
And just like that, I was able to come up for air again. I opened my mouth and inhaled as deeply as I could. I was panting, my chest rising and falling as I fought to catch my breath. My heart was palpitating within my chest, feeling like it might burst any second. I hung my head as I closed my eyes and tried to discern whether or not I was still at the helm of my body.
I could not understand how it was possible that I was still the captain of my ship, but I was. The realization made no sense because only moments earlier, I had felt Donnchadh’s power, felt my own impotence as he subjugated me, stole me away from myself. And yet now I felt nothing but a light airiness. It was a feeling I had not experienced in a very long time. One I did not recognize.
“Whit,” I started, still finding it difficult to speak
because I could not quite catch my breath. “Whit happened?”
“You and Donnchadh are no longer one and the same,” Alaire admitted, somehow looking no worse for wear.
“Nae,” I said and shook my head. “That cannae be so. Ah am still alive.”
He nodded. “It is so,” he insisted. “How do you feel?”
I marveled over the fact that I felt wonderful. Better than I had in centuries. But this was impossible! “If whit ye say is true, Ah should be dead.”
Alaire shook his head. “Did I not promise you that I would ensure you did not meet your end?”
“Tallis!” the angel called from his cell, his voice panicked. “What’s going on? What the hell are you sons of bitches doin’ to him?”
No one responded. For myself, I was too baffled to even begin to form a response. I still did not understand how I could be separated from Donnchadh and yet still be alive. “’Tis nae possible,” I breathed out.
“Anything is possible if only one is powerful enough to make it so,” Alaire responded with a self-impressed smile.
“Boot if whit ye are sayin’ is true, why am Ah nae dead? An’ where is Donnchadh?” I insisted.
“You are alive, my dear man,” he started, emphasizing the word “man.” “Because I separated Donnchadh from you but allowed you to maintain your humanity.” He shrugged as he studied me. “As to where Donnchadh is, he is contained. You need not worry yourself about Donnchadh any longer.”
“Ye allowed meh tae maintain mah humanity?” I questioned him as I shook my head, trying to understand what this meant.
“This is not what we agreed to!” Persephone spat at Alaire as she faced him in anger. “I told you I wanted him dead!”
“He will be no trouble to you in his human form, my queen,” Alaire responded as he offered her a smile before turning to face me again. “Yes, you are human now, Tallis Black. You can rely on none of your former abilities nor your immortality. You are as you were when you came into this world.”
I said nothing. There was nothing left to say. I sat there in stunned silence as I watched Alaire offer his arm to Persephone. She continued to glare at me for another few seconds before she accepted his proffered arm and the two of them sauntered out of my cell just as leisurely as Alaire had first walked in.
I watched Persephone turn and lock the door to my cell, but I could not say that I really saw her. I was so enveloped in my own thoughts that I could think of nothing beyond them. Even as I heard the sound of the iron door to the prison wing closing behind Alaire and Persephone, I still could not focus on it.
“Tallis, are you okay?” the angel rasped, but I did not respond. “Dude, please answer me! I gotta know you’re still alive!”
“Aye, Ah’m still here,” I said, my voice sounding suddenly foreign to me.
I was still here. I swallowed hard as the weight of the realization struck me.
I was human.
REBIRTH
Book 5 of the Lily Harper series
by
H.P. Mallory
“The ocean, fearing his tumultuous tide…”
- Dante’s Inferno
PROLOGUE
Tallis
The rope irritated my neck, wrists, and ankles, the coarse fibers digging into my raw skin while my sweat stung the fresh wounds. The wind blew across my face and the glaring sun left me squinting until I was nearly blind. Nearby a horse neighed and footsteps approached, a solitary shadow moving in front of the sun. My vision cleared and the shadow turned out to be a man.
“Aulus Plautius,” I spat when I recognized him. “Glad tae see ye have enough honor left in ye tae see the sentence carried oot.”
The Roman, shining in his articulated armor, smiled. “Did you think I could miss this?” The legate knelt down beside me.
“Careful, Sir!” One of the Roman General’s consuls jerked forward as he added, “he murdered six Centurions before we managed to restrain him.”
Aulus laughed, “I have no reason to fear this traitor. What does he have left to fight for? His family is dead, his clan long gone. But that should not concern you, should it, Tallis Black?” He did not wait for me to respond. “You turned your back on your kin, did you not? You chose the fleeting promise of power and riches over the respect of your familial ties and responsibility.”
Although his words pricked my conscience, I could not denounce them for they were all true. I chose not to respond.
I felt Donnchadh, the spirit-warrior living inside me, stirring. I strained at the knots that held me down, the rope creaking every time I attempted to pull myself free from the ties that bound me.
“Ye will regret this, Roman,” I growled. Saliva leaked from the edges of my mouth and my eyes burned from my own sweat.
“No, Tallis,” Aulus knelt down beside my head. I could smell the southern wine on his rank breath. “I will be remembered. It is my name that will be sung in praises of glory. For I did what Caesar himself could not do to this island; I did what Crassus could not achieve in his war against the Parthians. I, alone, have come to the end of the world and conquered Brittania.”
His words were for his men, who neatly surrounded us in a square formation. But I knew the truth. Despite all of their strategy, arms, armor and war machines, the Romans would still have a damned hard go at conquering the British Isles. Just because Aulus defeated the Black Clan was no guarantee he could defeat the rest of us.
“Aulus,” I whispered, making him lean in closer. “The only thing ye’ve won is ah lake an’ ah castle that will never truly belong tae ye.” His grin faded quickly from his face. “Aye,” I continued. “It took all o’ the might o’ yer legions an’ the vilest trickery yer southern minds could create tae defeat jist mah clan. Dae ye think Prasutagus will kowtow tae ye? The Druids?”
“Spare me your empty threats!” Aulus barked as he stood up. “You are already defeated along with your legacy. Your clan is scattered, if not dead, and your castle will make a fine place for me to house my whores.” He paused for a moment. “Do you know what the most delicious part of all this is?” Again, he did not wait for me to respond. “You did it for me.”
My hands balled into fists as I thought of Castle Fergus; I remembered how the sun danced across the rippling water, the fresh smell of rain rolling down the mountains. But Castle Fergus was no longer mine. It slipped through my fingers the moment I agreed to assist the Romans.
I sighed. “Aye, Ah helped ye ‘gainst mah kin boot ah broken promise is still ah broken promise, even among traitors.”
I could see the battlefield in my head. My clansmen, my kin, family and friends…all hacked apart by Roman swords, their painful defiance harshly etched on their dead faces. And there I stood—in the middle of the field with piles of corpses ringing me like a grotesque henge. Blood dripped from my hands and I did not need the sight of my own reflection to know I was splattered in it from head to toe…
Aulus whistled and an aide pulled his horse closer to him. The legate mounted and whipped the horse around to face me. “Any last words, Druid?”
I spat once more. “Ah curse ye. And Ah curse yer consuls. Ah curse yer legions an’ every Roman who ever sets foot oan the Isle o’ Alba to come. May ye sooffer the worst fate o’ traitors yer gods allow for. May ye never know peace agin.” There was silence for some time before the gathered legionnaires began to laugh. After a moment, Aulus raised his hand and the laughter stopped.
“Fiery oration,” Aulus Plautius mocked, clapping his hands together slowly. “Really, there was true conviction in those words, Tallis Black. But sadly for you, I do not believe in curses anymore than I believe you are inhabited by this Donnchadh spirit of which you continually speak. A man’s fate is only determined by the man himself. Muse on that in your final moments.”
The legate raised a hand and the horses at the end of my ropes were nudged forward by their riders. Stars danced across my vision as the noose around my neck cut off my circulation. The joints in my arms and
legs popped first. I heard the muscles tearing away from my bones before they slowly began to crack and break. The pain was infinite and such as I cannot describe. My neck cracked when the noose snapped it. I could not breathe. My mind panicked and deep down inside me, I could hear Donnchadh howling. Even as I was being torn apart, I managed to keep my eyes firmly fixed on Aulus Plautius.
The fiery rage of Donnchadh burned so brightly I was convinced it, alone, kept me alive as my legs and arms dropped from the rest of my body. I wish I could truthfully say I did not scream with the intense pain, but that would be a lie.
My neck was broken and collapsing but I was still alive and my eyes remained riveted on Aulus. I watched him as the horses came to a stop. I watched him when a guard approached me and cried out in terror upon discovering I was not dead. I watched him dismount his horse. I watched him draw his own weapon and place the blade against my left eye. Even as he pushed down and I felt the sphere of my eye being sliced in two, I still watched him. And as the darkness settled over me and the pain and anguish and world faded away, the last thing I remembered was the slightest movement I glimpsed in Aulus Plautius’s face.
A twitch of the lip, a squinting of the eye.
I knew that look so well.
It was fear.
“… when we met a troop of spirits…”
- Dante’s Inferno
ONE
Tallis
The stookie angel was finally silent in his neighboring cell.
I did not marvel at Bill’s invincibility, his persistent sense of humor, his bottomless appetite or much else about him, for that matter. But I did appreciate one thing about the wee fella: he could sleep anywhere.
I, on the other hand, was finding sleep no more than a bittersweet memory most of the time. If I managed to snatch a few minutes of fitful rest, my dreams, which chronicled the worst terrors I had ever known, would inevitably wake me. Presently, I was shifting from left to right, trying to give my shoulders and arms a much-needed respite.
