His thoughts were interrupted when they entered the dining room. He and Soryn joined Seraphine at the table. He watched and listened to them as they ate. Only weeks before, Marista had sat in unhappy silence at this table with him. Seraphine seemed much happier to be with here, and Soryn would be forever loyal to him.
When they had finished the meal, Ashiyn cleared his throat to get the conversation to die down. "The neighboring kingdom declared war on us today. Tomorrow they will die."
"I want to go with you," Seraphine said, as she stretched. "I wish to see you in battle, my King."
Ashiyn leaned back in his chair and relished the moment. He glanced to Soryn. "Soryn?" Out of the three of them only Soryn seemed troubled.
"I will stay here, my lord. You will hardly need my talents, and Errance may attack the castle again." Soryn got up to clear the dishes away.
Ashiyn watched him go with a frown, then glanced to Seraphine. “I will join you in my chambers soon. I need to speak with Soryn first.”
Seraphine rose from her chair and bowed to him. “Of course, my King. I will be waiting,” she said, then with a wink she wandered out of the room.
Ashiyn rose to follow Soryn. He leaned against the door frame as he watched his friend put the dishes into a tub full of soapy water. "You seem troubled. Odd for someone so eager to kill earlier."
Soryn frowned as he scrubbed the plates. “I know that kingdom. I have no desire to go back there.”
Ashiyn raised a brow. “How do you know it?”
Soryn shuddered but only shook his head as an answer.
Ashiyn walked over and took the plate Soryn was washing, then placed himself between Soryn and the dish tub. He set the plate down and grabbed Soryn’s chin, forcing Soryn’s gaze up to look at him. “Tell me.”
“That kingdom is full of pixies. I know because they were the ones that Rurik bought me from as a child. They stole me from my parents, then didn’t want me anymore, so they sold me to him,” Soryn whispered. “Please, don’t make me go back there, Ashiyn.”
“No, I won’t,” Ashiyn promised as he pulled Soryn close to him. His eyes narrowed once Soryn couldn’t see them. Pixies? He hated pixies. The only way to truly kill them was to kill them at their seat of power. He would kill every last one of them for the role they had played in Soryn’s pain.
CHAPTER FORTY
Ashiyn grabbed the nearest pixie and violently ripped its gossamer wings from its back. The thing screeched like a banshee and struggled, but he closed his fist around it to crush the life out of it. It exploded in a satisfying splatter of gore. The last time he had visited this kingdom they had worn a magical glamour to look like humans. Before he left that morning, Ashiyn had Soryn cast a spell to break the pixie’s disguises. He stopped and grabbed another one that had latched onto his neck. He ripped it off and the creature chattered and screeched in its native tongue as he shook it. He glared at the rows of razor-sharp teeth normally hidden behind the pixie’s cute appearance. Ashiyn crushed the annoying pest and tossed it aside. That was how they trapped people. They disgusted him. They stole children in the night, and now that he had learned Soryn was one those taken, he had no mercy left for them.
He rolled his shoulders, trying to see where Seraphine had gone in the swarm of angry pixies that surrounded him. It was like stirring a hive of bees. Ashiyn loosed his blade from its straps on his back, then began swinging it around. The blade woke as the blood of pixies covered it.
Why are you wasting time with pixies? The sword asked as Ashiyn took down an entire swarm of them with just one swing of the massive blade.
"It's not a waste of time," Ashiyn said, as he cut his way through to the steps of the castle.
"King Ashiyn! I must insist you stop!" The pixie king flitted out of the castle flanked by guards. Less impressive when they were only about twelve inches tall and covered in glittery pixie dust.
Ashiyn brushed some of that dust off his armor, then made a face. He'd be trying to get that stuff off for weeks now. "First you denied an alliance with me. Then you forbade me to see your daughter. You started this by sending one of your armies to attack my castle. I've had quite enough of you."
"I'm sure it was just a mistake!” The pixie king started to protest but stopped short when he sensed the magic covering Ashiyn. “How dare you come into my kingdom using a spell from a leftbehind to reveal us!”
"Leftbehind! Leftbehind! Curses on the leftbehind!" The pixies swarmed over to dance in a circle around Ashiyn as they chanted angrily.
Ashiyn reached out and grabbed the King, pulling him over to look the tiny pixie in the face. "What is a leftbehind? Talk! Before I make your eyes pop out of your skull from the pressure of squeezing your tiny body."
"A leftbehind is a child we stole from the mortals but didn’t turn into a pixie like it was supposed to,” The pixie king spat as he struggled. "I sense his magic on you! It was that child we sold to Rurik!”
“So you admit selling him to Rurik,” Ashiyn growled. “Do you have any idea what Rurik did to him?”
“Why would I care what happened to a leftbehind? He was flawed! He should not still be alive,” the fae king started to say then the words cut off abruptly with a loud pop as the pixie exploded. Ashiyn's eyes glowed with magic as he released it. All around him pixies melted as though he'd thrown them into a furnace. Ashiyn growled and turned to storm back down the steps to the town to find Seraphine, melting pixies whenever they crossed his path.
Seraphine sat calmly on the outskirts of town near Illusion and Soryn’s griffin, weaving little effigies out of the long grass blades there and humming.
“Seraphine! I thought you wanted to watch me fight,” Ashiyn said, as he walked up to her.
Seraphine looked up at him, blood covering her delicate fingers and her purple eyes glowing with a weird light. “Oh, I’m sorry, my King. I got distracted with my spell.”
He slowed when he saw the bodies of several maimed pixies lying in a bloodied circle in front of Seraphine. He couldn't tell what magic she had worked with the sacrifice, nor did he care. The pixies were dead, and that was what mattered. He hoped they had eliminated every last pixie on this forsaken planet.
"Time to go home." He snarled as he stalked past her and climbed onto Illusion.
Seraphine didn't seem to hear him at first, continuing her spell. She placed the effigies in the circle. Then everything disappeared in a surge of bright light, and it was like nothing had been there.
Ashiyn watched Seraphine climb on the griffin. He was not sure what the spell was that she had just worked; he had not been aware she could work magic at all. Magic with effigies and the blood of fae creatures was not something he was familiar with either. He considered this newfound knowledge while they took to the skies and returned to his castle as darkness fell over the land.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Seraphine asked permission to wander around Ashiyn's vast library after they returned to his castle. Ashiyn allowed it. The pixies had put him into a foul mood, and he wanted to talk to Soryn alone.
He found Soryn in the kitchen, making them dinner like nothing had happened. Ashiyn watched quietly and took a moment to consider how odd it was to have two people around him who didn't care at all that he killed. His thoughts were interrupted when Soryn noticed him.
"Your Nthir killed a unicorn. Have you ever had unicorn meat? It makes a delicious stew." Soryn said as he chopped slices of meat and threw them into a pot. He raised a brow at Ashiyn's scowl. "Well, it was already dead. There was no sense in letting it go to waste."
"I will have to speak to them about that." Ashiyn moved to the large solid wood table that served as Soryn's cutting board and sat down at the head of it. He enjoyed this dining set; he'd stolen it from a rival country after he'd killed the king.
"Unicorn meat also has magical properties. It's supposed to make you more virile," Soryn said, matter-of-factly, as he continued to fill the bubbling pot.
Ashiyn grimaced at that.
He wasn't fond of having offspring. He enjoyed the process, but his children tended to take on his worst qualities. And there was Ember, his firstborn, who continuously tried new ways of killing him. Unfortunately, his children also inherited immortality. He knew of a handful of them throughout the world and he had not meant to create even that many. He decided to change the subject. "You are a magus. You trained with the most powerful magus in the land. Do you know what sort of spell would use blood magic and effigies?"
The knife slipped in Soryn's grip and he nearly cut his finger. With a curse, he set the knife aside and looked at Ashiyn. "Where did you see that?”
Ashiyn leaned back in the chair, hands behind his head. “Seraphine used the pixies to cast such a spell. She mutilated their tiny bodies, drew a circle in their blood, then placed effigies around them and the entire thing vanished with a flash of light.”
Soryn scowled at him. “You need to get rid of her then. She’s not what she seems if she’s doing that kind of magic.”
Ashiyn gave Soryn a dry look. "I knew that the moment I met her. She has powerful enough magic that she could entrance me if I let her. Normal women can't do that. So, what is she? An enchantress?"
"Worse, I think. I think she's a naga, a snake-woman," Soryn said with a grimace as he started to cut up an onion for the stew.
"Well, we are near the coast. And there are rumors that the sea creatures do get bored and come onto land to mingle with the common creatures. I wouldn't be surprised. That could be why she's so happy here. The castle is surrounded by the sea after all." Ashiyn shrugged. He furrowed his brow as another thought came to him, “Do you think Marista’s death summoned her? We met her in the village.”
Soryn looked unsettled. “Marista was carrying your child. It’s possible this creature got a taste of its blood and came looking for the source. Ashiyn, I know you enjoy her company, but she might be more than just a bored naga.”
"How so?" Ashiyn asked. He leaned forward with interest.
"Remember that I told about the prophecies and how there were others plotting your demise so they could rise to conquer this world?" Soryn asked, glancing at Ashiyn.
"Here we go with your prophecies again. Are you truly an oracle, Soryn? Oracles irritate me." Ashiyn reached over to pick up one of the large knives on the table to turn it over in his hands.
"No, my King, not to worry. I'm merely a scholar of prophecy. Rurik was obsessed with prophecies,” Soryn said, shaking his head. "I believe Seraphine is one of your rivals. The spell you describe was her attempt to sacrifice the pixies to gain more power."
"You can sacrifice pixies for more power?" Ashiyn asked with a raised brow. He hadn't realized that. “Why didn’t you tell me that before I killed them all?”
Soryn narrowed his dark eyes at Ashiyn, the irritation rolling over his face. "I am trying to be serious and warn you of danger. If she is one of your rivals, she will try to be rid of you."
"Unless I convince her it's in her interest to be one with me instead." Ashiyn stood up, unconcerned. He returned the knife to the table. "Perhaps I should put your unicorn stew to good use and make certain she's with child tonight."
Soryn stared at him in disbelief.
Ashiyn laughed at the shock on his friend's face. "If she is as powerful as you say, our offspring would be rather fantastic, don't you think?"
"I would be cautious, my lord. She is a naga. They are not known to be very nurturing. She's more likely to sacrifice the babe for more power," Soryn warned with a snort. "It will be a few hours before the stew is ready."
"I will leave you to it then, my friend." Ashiyn turned and wandered out. Unicorns did not just wander onto his island. Most were bonded to elves. They could leap great distances and transport themselves with magic, but they would have no reason to come to his castle alone.
Soryn hadn't mentioned another body. Random elves had no reason to come to his island either. There was only one half-elf that had any reason to be here. Ashiyn rubbed his forehead in an attempt to stall the headache he felt coming on. He drew Sihtaar and started to hunt. That was all he needed right now. His idiot son, Ember, had come to try to kill him again.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
It took Ashiyn almost no time at all to find Ember. The most obnoxious of his offspring sat there in the middle of his courtyard like an arrogant bastard making no effort to disguise himself. If Ember was here again, it was at the behest of his mother. Why was Queen Harm still alive? Elves lived a long time, but surely the old bat had to be on her deathbed by now.
Ember had tried to kill him on no less than twenty separate occasions and failed miserably every time. He also had horrible timing with the attempts. It was an all-around annoying experience.
Sihtaar hummed to life in Ashiyn’s grip as he brought the tip to Ember's face, a threat. "Ember. Never a pleasure to see you. Come to make it twenty-one failures?"
Ember's golden eyes narrowed at the tip of the sword in his face, but it did nothing to wipe the smirk off his handsome features. Except for the long ears and a lankier frame, Ember looked uncannily like Ashiyn.
"Still relying on the magic swords, father? Well, I suppose old age can make one's strength start to fail. How old are you now? Three thousand? Five?"
Ashiyn slipped the blade back into place despite Sihtaar's demands for blood ringing through his mind. He crossed his arms. "I don't need any weapon to fight you. You have your mother's weakness."
Ember's eyes burned with hate at the mention of his mother, and his fists clenched. Then he reached up to brush some of his ashen colored hair from his face with a shrug. "I haven't come to fight you this time, father. I think we've both learned that it is a waste of our time."
"Then why are you here?" Ashiyn asked with an annoyed glare. "You are wasting my time just by speaking."
"I've come to join you, father. You are the only one who can stop the madness this world is falling to." Ember rubbed one of his eyes.
Ashiyn could see the faint scar there. That was fresh since he'd last seen Ember. "Your mother finally threw you out, did she?"
Ember's expression soured again at the mention of his mother, and he stood up slowly. "My mother sees only her rapist when she looks at me. No matter what I do, it’s impossible to win her approval. The only thing I could do that would appease her is kill you. You are immortal, so that is an impossible task. And even if I could, exactly what would it solve? Nothing. I would still look like you. She would still hate me. I have decided she’s trying to get me killed."
Ashiyn rolled his eyes. "Is she still claiming I raped her? Won’t admit she seduced me to have you? I don't exactly care for you either, Ember. I'd kill you if you weren't immortal."
"Oh, but I am. And so are you. The way the world is going, only the immortals will be left. My mother’s health is failing. You are ruler of this world. I would be part of your kingdom. It's the only smart thing to do." Ember shrugged. "You may hate me, but you've only abused me when I provoked you first. Will you let me stay, father?"
Ashiyn looked his son over. Ember wore the ceremonial leather armor of the elves and carried fine enchanted daggers covered with elven runes. Ember wasn't a bad fighter, and it was probably wiser to have him as an ally rather than wasting his time continuously fighting him as a rival. Plus, it would irritate Ember's mother to no end. Harm had been Ashiyn’s sworn enemy since before Ember was born. Soryn’s words came back to him as he considered. "Fine, you can stay. Until you irritate me enough to throw you off the cliff."
"That's fine. I will just turn into a raven mid-fall and fly back," Ember laughed.
Ashiyn snorted as he started back to the castle's entrance. "Do you have any of your mother's traits in you besides your ears and her elven weakness?"
"I would prefer not to have even those," Ember grumbled as he followed. He stopped short of the entrance when the Nthir swarmed angrily to block him after Ashiyn had passed through the door. "Father, your pets."
"I suppose if you want ins
ide you will have to figure out how to appease them." Ashiyn laughed as he continued down the hall and abandoned Ember to the creatures.
With the elf situation dealt with, Ashiyn's thoughts turned back to Seraphine. If she was truly his rival, perhaps he shouldn't have left her alone in his library.
Sihtaar stirred on his back, still humming with life. I thirst, Master. We must hunt.
Ashiyn ignored it. He was the master after all, wasn't he? Let the sword hunger. He had other things to see to first. He threw open the double doors to the library.
Seraphine sat in the middle of the floor, her simple dress a puddle around her. Piled around her were books. All of them were spellbooks. Books of power. She paused and looked up at him when he entered and gave him that disarming smile, mischief in her purple eyes. "My King, your library has many fascinating things."
The Darkest Sword Page 17
