by HP Mallory
“And its eternal Queen,” he said.
“What?” I asked, confounded by his response.
“The almighty Master and eternal Queen of the Underground City,” Alaire corrected me. “After all, we are now the newest power pair, as modern parlance goes.”
I forced a wide, but obnoxious grin. “So we are! But where would you be without your Queen at your side?” I swallowed another gulp of wine to avoid wincing. The sense of increased liberation alerted me that this might not be a good idea. I needed to pace myself. Although Persephone never did…
Alaire simply smiled and nodded at me before returning to his own meal. I didn’t fail to notice that he never answered me. Things were quiet for a little while, something I wasn’t ungrateful for. Then, straight out of the blue, the old memories of Alaire returned. He was holding me like a hostage and cupping my breast while he taunted Tallis. The shock of seeing that instantly made me lose my appetite. Just. Like. That.
I dropped my fork with a clink and pushed myself away from the table.
Oh, the harlot is done stuffing her face? Surely, there are some crumbs on the ground that you could vacuum up with your grotesque mouth?
There was no doubt in my mind that I hadn’t been thinking any of those words.
My heart sped up and I felt the hairs on my neck standing at attention. The room seemed ten degrees colder. One name repeated in my rapidly clouding mind: Persephone. Was it possible that the queen bitch managed an escape from her metaphysical grave? Was it possible that she still lived inside me?
You’re a lot smarter than I ever believed, the voice goaded me.
“Persephone?”
Get out of my head, MY head! I screamed in my own mind with a shudder of sheer horror.
“Persephone!”
I jolted upright, knocking my chair over. Immediately, I looked at Alaire, who was watching me with uncanny interest. I picked up the chair, pushing it into the table before taking a moment to straighten out my dress.
“I,” I faltered. “I’m not feeling well.”
“Naturally, you are excused, my dear,” Alaire responded with an expression of disgust and a casual hand wave.
But I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to care about what he may have suspected. I had to get away from the table and Alaire. I had to retire to the privacy of my bedroom and figure out what the hell was happening to me. Specifically, why Persephone’s voice was still in my head.
“As if there was ever any doubt,” I said with a weak smile, trying my hardest to stay in character. I turned on my toes and immediately exited the dining room.
Without fleeing to my bedroom, I walked briskly enough to cause several of the Watchers that lingered in the hallways to stop and actually observe my behavior.
To hell with them! Yes, not the smartest thought to have right then, but this was becoming too much.
I pushed open the door to my room and promptly slammed it shut. The walls rattled as the thick wooden door crashed against its frame. I leaned against it before I slid down to the floor. My heart was pounding and my breaths were coming in small, sporadic gasps. I felt lightheaded, frightened out of my wits, and… well, also drunk.
“What chance or destiny…”
- Dante’s Inferno
NINE
Lily
Tallis’s dank cell in the tower smelled of mold and desperation.
With the melted candles cleared away and both of his hands bound to the wall once more, it looked like nothing was amiss. But the pity and anger rising inside me at seeing him like this made my eyes water and my hands shake with outrage.
I promise you, Tallis, I’m going to get you out of here, I silently vowed. Whatever it takes.
Tallis lay still, not in a sleeping stillness but the dead kind. My heart lodged in my throat as I took a step forward, fearing the absolute worst. Until I glimpsed the telltale rising of his chest as he inhaled and exhaled. My utter relief was palpable and I didn’t realize that I’d been holding my breath until then.
His hair was so long now that it completely covered his face. The beard was also a new feature that had sprouted during his captivity. I wished I could see his scar, his most unique and human feature.
I checked and double-checked the tower to ensure that no Watchers or other servants were nearby. The fear that Alaire would discover my true identity was stomach-churning to the point where I had a severe case of heartburn. Glancing in both directions to confirm that I was alone—save for Tallis, of course—I took a step forward and wrapped my hands around the bars of his prison.
With a deep breath, I called his name. “Tall—”
“Ah dinnae have the strength tae please ye,” he interrupted. His words were gasping and weak, imbuing a terrible credence to his remark. His head didn’t move at all. The way his voice bounced around the cell, Tallis could have been talking to me from anywhere.
At first, I was confused by his comment until I remembered whom he thought I was. I also remembered his parting words to me in the land between dreams. He said I’d have to convince him I wasn’t Persephone because he wouldn’t realize I was back to myself again.
“Tallis, I didn’t come here to use you,” I stated as I unlocked his cell and entered. I moved closer, lodging my knee next to him. The smell that wafted off him was intensely unpleasant—sweat, dirt, blood.
“Then git oan wif it,” he said, further vexing me.
“It’s me, Tallis, it’s me… Lily.” He didn’t move or say anything for a few moments. “Tallis, did you hear me?”
“Aye, I heard ye!” He thrust his head up at me, grinding his teeth. The hair in his face flew back as he started kicking and pulling on his chains. “Ye bloody witch!”
I fell back, a startled yip! escaping my throat. Crawling backwards along the rough stone floor, I could only scrape my hands as I went. But Tallis continued to fight against the chains holding him in place and he glared at me with obvious outrage. I waited for him to stop, which didn’t take long. I tried not to think about how much precious strength he’d just used up.
“Tallis,” I said as I held up my hands, wanting only to comfort him.
“Ah’m done wif yer games,” he spat at me. “Leave meh be.”
“I’m not playing any games with you,” I replied as I crawled closer to him again. I remained on my knees this time, holding up my hands once more to make him see I had no intention of trying to hurt him. My memories confirmed that Persephone did her fair share of flogging, whipping and beating him. A realization that left me sad and ill, not to mention how much worse it made this. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be.
“How dare ye use the woman Ah love against meh!” His words were choked, sounding even frailer than his first words. I didn’t know what I would do if he started crying.
“Tallis, please, you have to believe me.” Yes, a weak plea, true, but the shock of his reaction negated any carefully worded arguments I’d stored up for this talk. “I promise you! It’s really me… Lily. You helped me get rid of Persephone through our dreams!”
Tallis shook his head, and his hair and beard went flailing around him like an angry mop. “Nae,esom, Ah ‘ave done nae sooch thing. Ye think I’d forget somethin’ like that?” His hands were balled up into fists, and he was straining hard against his shackles. I stood up using the wall before I replied.
“Yes, you did, you just don’t remember it,” I attested, my heart pounding. If looks could kill, I would have been cold and dead more than two seconds ago. “You and I trapped Persephone’s spirit together by Fergus Cast...”
“Dinnae dare say the name o’ that castle,” he admonished me. His eyes shone through his hair, like pinpoints of hate. “Feces sittin’ in the chamberpot has more honor than ye.”
Despite his comment being directed at Persephone, it didn’t take the bite out of the slur. Then Tallis unleashed a slurry of names and insults that got less comprehensible the more he talked. I tried to ignore the verbal assault he thr
ew at me. All the while, an unwelcome cackling laughter kept echoing inside my head.
Not now! I chided the laughing voice internally. Previously, I’d worried that Perspehone–whether real or just a figment of my overwhelmed mind—would visit me while I was in the process of doing this. The timing couldn’t have been worse.
I shut you out! I screamed at myself, which was really directed at her, or whatever the actual source of my internal torment was. I stood and held up my chin stubbornly as if to stress the strength behind my conviction. Not another peep came from the other voice so I figured—and hoped—that my determination was working.
Looking back at Tallis, I rapidly concluded that it was all but impossible to convince him of my true identity. His anger was still too fresh, and too hot.
“Tallis, listen to me,” I said as I knelt down in front of him again. He pulled away from me as much as his chains would allow.
“Remember all the time we spent together?” I asked him. He still wouldn’t look at me. “Do you remember when we were in the Dark Wood and we stopped at that tavern where we all got really drunk? Saxon was there too. Do you remember that?”
“Aye.”
“And what about all the trips you and Bill and I made together to the Underground City? Remember how our first mission was with Kipur and Ragur, those awful clowns? And Sherita took our souls because you stole one of hers?” My voice sounded increasingly hopeful.
Tallis looked up at me and scoffed. “Means naethin’. Ah am fully aware that ye ‘ave access tae all o’ Lily’s memories.”
Hmm, that would definitely make the job of convincing him way more difficult. I racked my brain to think of what I could use instead of our shared memories. What did I know or have that Persephone couldn’t have possessed?
Then the perfect something popped into my head. “Tallis, do you remember the mud? Do you remember how you came to visit me while I was submerged beneath the ground?”
He flinched as if my words suddenly hit him like a physical blow. That was it! Proof straight from our dream worlds!
“Tallis, we lay together in the mud! You told me you loved me! And I told you I loved you! You promised me you would get rid of Persephone for me!” Tallis shook his head but his expression was filled with surprise and unmasked hope. “And you did get rid of her!” I continued, pointing my finger at him for emphasis. “We both did—together. Now she’s in a hole in the ground outside the castle, and covered in vines. We put her there. You called it the place between worlds.”
“Nae,” Tallis rumbled as he rocked back and forth.
“It’s the truth, Tallis,” I contended. “I’m telling you the truth! Remember the mud and Fergus Castle! We were there together. And now we’re both out here again… together. And I still love you now just like I did then.”
The look on Tallis’s face softened. Apparently, that was inside information Persephone would never have had a clue about. I was finally getting through to him. I just had to keep pressing. “Your blood was the element that strengthened me. I could finally see what Persephone was doing to me. You gave me the means to finally resist her and fight back.” I stepped towards him, close enough that I could reach out and touch him but I didn’t. “I called to you and you answered me, Tallis Black. That’s why I meant it when I told you I loved you.”
His eyes blackened into vast pools of despair. He knew he was defeated but he had every reason to believe that this was just a new torment. “Ah… Ah only love Lily.”
“I am Lily, dammit!” I all but yelled at him, balling my hands up in fists of frustration. “How could Persephone know about the mud? Or about Fergus Castle? Think about it, Tallis!”
My heart was beating in my ears. His defiance was unrelenting, frustrating and pointless. Just how much pride could one man own? I had to do something to make him see the truth, once and for all.
Think, Lily, think. What’s the one thing you have that Persephone didn’t?
A switch went on in my head. I could almost hear the ding! that accompanied the idea. I leaned forward, grasping Tallis by his dirty face. Then I kissed him like the world was ending because for all I knew, it was. I poured all my passion, love and affection for him in that one kiss.
If there were any connection left between us, from the place between worlds to the one here, then he had to feel it now. He had to.
He resisted at first, pursing his lips and trying to pull away from me. But I drove the kiss home until he relented. Our lips mashed together through the forest of his hair and beard. My tongue reached for his and my skin tingled in excitement when his tongue finally met mine. He was grungy, dirty, and smelly but I didn’t care. He was my Tallis, my Bladesmith, my protector and I loved him with my entire soul and being.
When I eventually pulled back, I found him studying me with a new sense of rekindled hope in his midnight blue eyes.
“Lily,” he said and a tentative smile appeared on his lips.
“And who is this, that shows to thee the way?”
- Dante’s Inferno
TEN
Lily
Tallis and I talked for as long as we could. Our hushed tones reverberated off the stone around us, making me concerned that someone would detect us. No one ever did but I kept glancing at the door just in case.
When I asked Tallis why his memory had more holes than a block of Swiss cheese, he blamed it on the demands of the ritual, combined with his weakened physical state and the fact that the whole event took place in Dreamland. I filled him in on what had happened since I regained control of my body: the dinner with Alaire, his vague comments about AE and Streethorn, and learning that a two-hundred-year-old woman was still trying to possess me, despite her premature burial.
“Aye, it was always ah risk that Persephone may yet still be stirrin’ in ye,” Tallis said, nodding without any surprise registering on his face. “Joost like meh own passenger…”
“Former passenger,” I corrected him.
When Tallis’s eyes dropped to the ground, I got angry at myself for my glaring lack of sensitivity. I’d given too little thought to Tallis’s loss of immortality since my return. It never even registered with me to come out and ask him exactly how he felt about becoming human again. A shameful feeling washed over me.
Tallis must have sensed it. “Dinnae worry aboot meh, mah besom.” He looked down to see my sad eyes. “Nae denyin’ ye have been through the worst o’ the worst.” Looking into his eyes, I felt my strength returning. Tallis had always been my rock, to be sure, but now it was long past time for me to return the favor. I had to be stronger for him, and for Bill, and for myself… Hell, I had to be strong for all of us.
“I have to admit I’m surprised,” I said as I looked at him with a smile. “I assumed if Donnchadh left you, you would immediately die and yet, here you are?”
Tallis nodded. “Aye, Ah’ve wondered the same thing, mahself,” he said while breathing in deeply. “Ah suppose it jist means that Ah’m now a mortal. An’ Ah can die mooch easier than ‘afore.”
“Don’t even think about that,” I said immediately, reaching over and silencing him by placing my fingers over his mouth. The thought of losing him so soon after coming back to myself was too painful to even contemplate.
He looked at me and chuckled, his eyes warming as he gently pried my fingers away. God, he was more handsome than I remembered.
“Lily, we will git through this. That, Ah promise ye.”
I forced a reassuring smile onto my lips but felt no emotion behind it. It just seemed like we were stuck in this horrible place, surrounded by nothing but equally horrible obstacles. That made it difficult for me to remain optimistic.
“Oh!” I exclaimed as I suddenly remembered another important reason for my visit. “I brought you something.”
I swiftly produced the small parcel that I’d tied up with a big bow of twine. “It’s extra food I managed to get out from the kitchen before the Watchers came in. Once I saw them, I had to pretend like
I was looking for alcohol since Persephone doesn’t ever get the munchies.” I handed the parcel to Tallis who immediately grasped a handful of grapes and ate some crackers and cheese in two bites.
Then he licked his lips. He was probably still famished, despite previously consuming a relatively hefty amount of food which Persephone fed to him leading up to the ritual. Then again, maybe the ceremony itself used up all his energy, which wasn’t too surprising.
As he swallowed the last bite, I realized I failed to bring him any water. “Sorry, I forgot to bring you a drink,” I said with an embarrassed, little smile.
All at once, I felt like I was instantly transported out of my body and looking at this scene with detached, foreign eyes. I took a deep breath and my heart began to pound as strange feelings washed over me. It was like when you continuously repeat a word until you don’t understand its meaning anymore.
Who am I? Who was I becoming? Those words began to haunt me.
I’m Lily Harper, I answered in reply.
Well, yes, that might have been technically true but it also wasn’t completely true. I mean, I had been Lily Harper until I wasn’t her and now? I’d changed so much in the brief lapse of a small amount of time. And not just my physical being—leaping from mousey, nerd girl to supermodel bombshell—but my interior changed as well.
Who was the old Lily anyway? I could barely remember that life anymore. It just seemed so insignificant now, not to mention, so far away. Now, in this new life (afterlife, if you insist on being technical), I’d observed real power and saw what it really had the power to do.
In that moment, I suddenly missed my mother more than I could remember. And it struck me as being rather odd because I hadn’t had much room in my brain lately to try to recall my mother, let alone think about her for any amount of time. There was so much to contend with—my missions, Bill, Tallis, Alaire, and Persephone…
