Queen of Skye and Shadow complete box set : Queen of Skye and Shadow Omnibus books 1-3

by Thea Atkinson

  I eyed the stones buried beneath moss and debris, sizing up the heft and weight of them as I imagined they might begin to hurl themselves at us.

  But nothing more happened.

  In fact, everything in the woods went deathly quiet. No rustling of breeze or chirping of bird or buzz of insect carried to us.

  And then I heard the soft whisper of grass swishing and dancing with itself the way it does when the breeze takes it or when someone parts it like waves in the sea.

  Then, much like the puddle had done in the mineshaft when Marlin had cast a spell over it, the very air seemed to shudder in front of me.

  "Hold on," I said and I pulled Excalibur free to wait at my side. It felt warm and hummed its anticipation. The air felt vibrant with its magic.

  Or maybe it was just magic.

  "Holy crap," Lance said. "Do you see what I see?"

  -6-

  Did I see what he did? I couldn't know. All I knew was that one lithe and willowy creature with long green hair shivered into our reality as though she'd been there all along, just nestled between the molecules of air, waiting for the right light to dance upon her form. A crown of ironwood roots wreathed her head in a twisted multi-layered crown. It was laced with purple thistles that at once wrapped and cushioned the crown and braided themselves into her hair. I recognized the sprinkles of white as sweet woodruff flowers

  "Is she real?" he whispered with such awe, I knew he saw her beauty as clearly as I did.

  "I bloody well hope so, because she's not the only one."

  Beyond him just down the trail and to the sides of each of us came more women. They wore iridescent tunics that came down mid thigh and waltzed around their knees with each step.

  Nymphs, no doubt.

  But not like Marlin's nymphs. Not water nymphs, these.

  "Wood nymphs," I said. "

  "Not just that," Lance said.

  Indeed, as I watched, I could see that the nymphs were each companioned by a host of wild creatures. Dire wolves padded along toward us. A mountain lion, several bears.

  I held my breath, bracing myself. Lance spread his feet apart, ready to do battle.

  "Don't," I said, placing my hand on his forearm.

  "What if they attack?" he whispered.

  "If they planned to attack they wouldn't be strolling toward us as though there on a nice Sunday walk."

  It was a herculean effort, but I slipped Excalibur back into its scabbard and dropped my hands to my sides, letting my palms face outward, supplicating. I nudged Lance to do the same.

  We stood side by side, similar postures. I hoped the nymphs and the creatures with them could read our body language.

  "Skye Shadow," the nymph queen said. Her voice sounded hoarse as though it was unused to speaking. I thought of the Lady of the Lake and wondered how these beings communicated if not with vocalizations.

  "Be calmed, Skye Shadow," she said. "We don't plan to harm you. You have an influx of new people," she said, stating it as fact and not a question. I had the feeling whatever she wanted from us, she already knew what she was going to get.

  She might not plan to attack, but things could change on a breeze. No doubt it was she and her minions who had beleaguered the migrants along the way and although no one was dead that I knew of, they were certainly terrified.

  "Perhaps not me, but you've harmed some," I said.

  She lifted a delicate shoulder, and I realized in the moment that she was actually nude, but that her skin took on the iridescence of sky and woods and earth and painted itself in the patterns of nature. The colors and patterns shifted as she moved, as though an artist was constantly recreating and reloading a palette.

  "We didn't mean to do them terrible harm," she said with a quirk of her head. "We just wanted to warn them."

  "What exactly are you warning them from? A warning only works if the person knows what they're being threatened for."

  She inclined her head forward, looking offended. "We don't threaten," she said. "If we thought your kind was a true threat, you would not be standing here."

  As if to punctuate her words, a mountain lion growled deep in its throat as it came up next to her. I eyed it carefully.

  "What is it you want?" I said.

  "A simple answer. We want to know if you plan to bring the electricity back."

  "Electricity?" I said. "It's not in my power, no pun intended. The estate I live in has wires left over from a generation ago but there is no juice going to it. I don't know any way of getting it working, and I have other things to worry about. Namely that influx of people you were talking about."

  "And the war," she said.

  Lance shifted beside me. I thought he might have drawn his sword and I looked at him askance. I shook my head. His face looked grim, probably because a bear had begun to thrum its feet in front of him and the nymph who held it was smiling crookedly.

  I turned my attention back to the queen. She was by far the tallest of all of them.

  "You know of the Army that's coming?" I said. "You know we are at war."

  She nodded. "A war such as you've never seen, Skye Shadow. One where you might need allies."

  "I have allies," I said. "A whole town full. Are you offering your help too?"

  It occurred to me right then that her reach was no doubt far greater than ours. If the magical creatures were indeed coming back into the world after hiding for generations, they no doubt had some sort of network. Or they communed with nature so intimately, that they knew the hum of communication without words.

  "You know how bad it is?" I said.

  "I know how bad it can get," she said. "I know that you will need support."

  "And you're offering that support?"

  "I am. Providing you make me one promise."

  "I can't promise anything if I don't know what it is."

  "Very well. I want to know if you plan to bring back the electricity."

  "I already told you, that's not within my power."

  "But it will be, someday."

  She laid a palm between the dire wolf's ears. It pulled its lips back to show its teeth.

  I couldn't help leaning away.

  "So you're telling me that I only have to make you a promise about something that I have no control over?" I said. "Seems like an easy deal to me."

  She smiled coyly. "Easy only if you keep your promise."

  Lance stepped up. "The power, the technology. It's what drove you all into hiding, isn't it?"

  None of the nymphs seemed interested in answering. But it didn't matter. I had lived this long without technology. And like Myste had said there was really no use for it. As humans, we had proved that we would do damage to each other if we had the technology and the time.

  "We don't need it," I said after a moment's thought. It wasn't just that promising to keep the power out of New Denver was easy because Myste and her Shadows kept the EMP functioning and the old power grids out of commission. It was also because no one seemed to need to return to a time barely anyone remembered.

  "You promise to help us in the coming battle with Hunter and I agree that if I have the power to keep the technology turned off, I will do so."

  She smiled broadly. "Across the nation," she said and I lifted my eyebrow in disbelief.

  "That's a promise I have no control over."

  "You will, Skye Shadow. You just need to remember to keep your promise. Vows are very special to us. Don't break them."

  I nodded, not sure what to say at her declaration. It felt like a hollow promise, one that couldn't have any teeth because it was a moot point at the end of it all. We'd been without technology or power for as long as I could remember.

  But now that we knew the real reason the woods were attacking people, there was only one reason remaining to go to Old Denver.

  The library. I had promised books to the baker. When Lance offered me his hand to sit with him on his mount, I took it, and I ached the whole way there at the feel of his gently rocking hip
s behind mine.

  I was relieved when we hobbled the horse at my favorite tree just outside the city and went the rest of the way on foot.

  The building itself might be gloomy to someone who didn't understand books the way I did, who was scared of spaces that smelled of must and mold and damp paper. But to me it felt like the kind of vault where you could be safe. I could travel through my imagination in this library. I could jump from being an old world pirate to an astronaut somewhere in the future.

  I stood in the door to the main library and breathed deeply as Lance stood at my side murmuring his amazement.

  I closed my eyes and let the ambiance surround me. I'd been in this room so many times over the months that I'd been home, that I felt lost not coming here a couple of times a week.

  It was one thing I would miss about my new life as leader of New Denver. There was no time to range about, to collect books. No time to read.

  And yet, I felt that familiar yearning as I took in the massive shelves, the stone fireplace that rested out of reach of the stacks to the right of the librarian's counter. I wanted to curl on the floor in front of it the way I'd done in the past, and hold a novel up to the light.

  "What's with the big sigh?" Lance said, interrupting my reverie.

  I blinked as I turned to him, trying to reset my imagination back to the reality setting. But it was difficult. The skylights above us cast him in a golden light and for a second, he made me think of a real knight, the sword slung over his back, and bobbing over his shoulder as he moved. The angular set to his jaw seemed determined and very Saxon. All that was missing was the chain mail.

  "I'm no damsel," I said quietly and he smirked.

  "Damn straight," he said, his gaze dropping to my mouth and pinning there. "Damsels are too much bloody work for the payoff."

  He stepped closer, and his boots made loud scuffing sounds in the silence.

  "You say that like you've put in time for a damsel," I said.

  It wasn't really a fishing expedition, but it sounded like one, and I immediately stepped backward so he wouldn't think I was digging for Intel.

  He seemed to sense my discomfort and spun on his heel. His movement was so abrupt, it knocked over a reading lamp on the table beside the door.

  It crashed to the floor, splintering the glass bulb into shards that sprayed across the tiles.

  "Shh," I said, grabbing for his arm and pointing at the Keep Quiet sign that hung on the wall over the librarians desk.

  His smoky brow furrowed in confusion.

  "So why are we here again?"

  "I told the baker I would pick up some recipe books," I said.

  I headed toward the banks of index cards that I knew rested still in a fairly pristine state inside drawers that were never opened anymore except the one time I'd peeked in to see what was there. I ran my hand down along the outside of the drawers, my fingers seeking the number that would tell me where the cook books would be.

  "What is a recipe book?" Lance said, coming up beside me.

  He laid his hand on the front panel of the filing system. Without looking at him, and finding the cooking section, I pulled open a drawer. The card tops were still intact, if a bit grayed and frayed.

  "It's a book that tells you how to cook," I said.

  "I think the baker knows how to cook," he said.

  I glanced sideways at him.

  "You never came here as a child?" I said.

  He shrugged. "Why would my parents bring me to a dilapidated building filled with paper?"

  I couldn't help smiling. "You're in for a treat, then."

  I spun on my heel with an index card in my hand and started combing the shelves. He'd unwittingly answered my question as to whether or not he could read, but I knew he could see. I knew everyone loved pictures.

  The first thing I did was find the fantasy section and ran my hands along the shelves. There had to be graphic novels in there somewhere. Things with pictures and bright colors that might have outlasted the years. Books were meant to be enjoyed. And if it crumbled in his hands, the momentary enjoyment he felt would be totally worth it.

  I pulled out four, in the end. There was a vampire one penned by an author named Anne Rice and several dystopian type zombie novels. All of them had bright pictures and the paper and ink were still clear and vibrant.

  He had followed me and watched me intently as I pulled out the first book from the shelf and passed it to him.

  Find a spot," I said. "Let me know what you think when you're done."

  I turned away, not wanting to pressure him into looking if he didn't want to.

  "Where are you going?" he said.

  "I'm off to find those cookbooks," I said.

  It didn't take long to find a bunch of cookbooks that showed several with brightly colored pictures of the steps one would take to make croissants and puff pastry. There was a German pastry book, and although it had a lot of words, it also had enough pictures that someone who understood the methodology of baking at all could easily figure it out.

  I knew that immediately after the grid went down, there had been no time for schooling or education. In new Denver, they had a schoolmaster who taught basic things. I assumed those basic things were reading and writing, but even so, not everyone found the time to send their children to school. So much work needed to be done around the homes. Water needed to be lugged, fires built for cooking. Fields needed to be worked or barter stalls needed to be tended to.

  The half dozen children that Hunter had taken hostage in the school house were obviously from families who understood the value of education. But many families understood that the some skills could not be learned in a classroom. And those families, like Lance's, put a greater value on what they could do with their hands to survive.

  I certainly couldn't hold it against him. He was a master smith. He understood how to fight. And in this world, and this town and time especially, those skills were even more valuable than education.

  Even so, when I returned to see Lance's sitting cross-legged on the floor, his back against the banks of books with those graphic novels spread open on his lap, I reveled in the way his face lit up as he ran his fingers along the pictures.

  I squatted down next to him and laid my cookbooks on the floor beside me.

  "What do you think?" I said.

  He looked sideways at me and the expression on his face said it all. I expected him to smile or to ask questions about what he saw. But what he did surprise me.

  He dropped the book to the floor and cupped my face between both of his hands. He turned my face to his and ever so slowly, and gently, planted a kiss on my lips.

  It was light and non-aggressive, but in that moment my mouth met his, all of my reserves went down. I reached for him and wrapped my arms around his neck.

  I pulled him close, opening my lips to his.

  He tasted of smoked ham and apples, and his mouth was soft and exploratory.

  He pulled away before I did.

  "Thank you," he said. "This is the most remarkable thing anyone has done for me."

  "It was just a kiss," I said.

  "That was pretty amazing too," he said and lifted the vampire novel in the air. "But this comes a close second."

  I tried not to smile to show my pleasure, but the grin crept onto my face anyway. It was so unexpected it made my cheeks hurt.

  I watched him flip through a few of the pages and then hold it up for me again, facing out, the pages curling inward.

  "And these words here," he said. "They go along with these pictures."

  "They do," I said.

  I want to know what they mean," he said and caught my eye and held it. "I want to learn what all of them mean."

  "You will," I said. "I'll make sure of it."

  I didn't expect to feel so fulfilled just showing someone a book, but the fact that he was excited about it made my chest warm. I wanted to start teaching him right there.

  But we had a mission and there'd be p
lenty of time to learn and study once all the nastiness was over.

  Because it would be over. And we would win our freedom.

  We headed back, both of us on his horse. I hugged his back at times just to feel close, and he laid his free hand along my knee. By the time we reached new Denver, completely un-accosted by the woods or any other sighting of nymphs at all, it was late afternoon.

  We were met by two men on horseback at the town gates.

  "Skye Shadow?" One of them, a burly man with broad shoulders, said to me.

  "Yes," I said.

  "We need to talk to you."

  -7-

  We all sat in the room of the charred table. Each knight of the order took his or her place. Lance sat to my right as normal. Myste and Sadie and Chas and Marlin all assembled around us. Gal stood at the door, next to the two men who we discovered were envoys from different cities.

  They stood behind the two chairs we had placed at the table for them. Neither would sit, not the one from New Topeka, who was swaying on his feet from exhaustion, or the one from New Albuquerque who looked like he wouldn't sit so long as his partner stood.

  Excalibur rested on the table beside me. I knew it looked like any other sword to the casual observer. That even when it was in its scabbard, no one could tell it had any special magic.

  But if I looked at it just the right way, in the right light, it glinted blue and had an aura that reminded me of ice on a spring river.

  I waited impatiently, my fingertips drumming on the table as I stared at both of them, scanning them from head to heel in order to assess what it was they wanted, and I knew it wasn't the thousand men they demanded to help protect their town from Hunter.

  Those two cities were the same size as new Denver. They had an equal amount of men and women in them. Children, too. I'd ranged out to those cities as a mercenary and then again as one of Hunter's Ruby Skulls investigating and implementing his brand of justice.

  I knew they wouldn't need an influx of men to protect the city. I also knew they couldn't possibly expect another town to supply them. No. They wanted something else and the ask of a thousand men was just the opening bid to negotiations.