Heart of Farellah: Book 3

by Brindi Quinn

  The day had passed faster than any day had before, but I’d spent all of it in Nyte’s arms, clinging to each fading second. While it was true that I loved Kantú, Ardette, and the others, it was my Elf whom my soul longed to stay beside on that final day. I surrendered to that longing, and once more, I felt pleasure in the act of giving in.

  Nyte and I’d been together through the sun’s full cycle. We’d stayed atop the twisty mangrove wood until Scardo had called us back to the others for one final fire.

  For what was to be the last time, we all gathered around the flames together. The sun was setting in an angry red glow. The ad’ai of the western moon would be coming very soon.

  “Almost,” I said to the licking blaze.

  It flared in response, not really because of anything I’d said, but because a sticky wind that had just blown through the marsh and rippled the water around the trees, had also slid through the center of our circle.

  Grotts was the only one to acknowledge it.

  “Mm,” he said. “Should be soon. Ya ready, guys?”

  He was speaking to me and Nyte. We both nodded, determined.

  I hadn’t told any of the others my secret plan to release the Song of Salvation alone. They might’ve considered it my likely approach, but since Nyte still felt the pact, they had no reason to suspect that I was actually going to go through with offering up my life to save his.

  They shouldn’t have known the decision I’d made. They shouldn’t have been concerned, yet for some reason, something was off. I could tell. I noticed it most in Kantú.

  She was avoiding me. Or at least avoiding speaking directly to me.

  To the untrained eye, it could have been written off as speechless apprehension over what was to come, but I knew Kantú. I knew her well. And the thing was, if the wholehearted Squirrelean really thought it the last time she’d see me, her response would’ve been something dramatic. But on the contrary, she wasn’t behaving like that at all. She was anxious, sure, with a tail that wouldn’t sit still and ears that continually gave off small twitching flicks, but other than that, she was acting pretty reasonably. That’s what had me concerned.

  Reasonable wasn’t in Kantú’s nature.

  “What’s going on, you guys?” I asked. I settled my eyes on the one that would be most likely to betray the situation further.

  That person let out a nervous chitter in response.

  I knew it.

  “There’s something you aren’t telling me,” I pressed. “Darch?”

  He looked away quickly.

  “Trib? Scardo? Rend?”

  None of them said a word.

  My question lingered in the air, untouched and awkward. At last, Ardette threw the bent stick he’d been holding into the shrinking fire and stood.

  “Well, I suppose it’s time you knew,” he said.

  I didn’t like that. I didn’t like it one bit.

  “Knew what?” I asked, fearing the answer.

  I looked at Nyte, but he retreated his stare to the ground.

  Nyte?!

  “That we’ve a slight problem,” said Ardette.

  “WHAT?! What sort of problem?”

  Again, the question hung there awkwardly. I scanned the circle for relief. Kantú stared at the flames, Scardo stared at his lap, Grotts stared at the setting horizon, Rend stared at Nyte, Nyte continued to stare at the ground, Trib stared at Sowpa, who’d been bound by one of Nyte’s spells, and Darch stared at Ardette. Only Ardette met my eyes.

  “Lusafael can’t enter this place, but there’s something you should know.”

  “What?!” They were driving me into a panic with their strange, ominous behavior.

  “He’s been gone since last night. Or at least we think he has because the cad’s been silent all day. We’ve taken turns leaving the safety of the marsh, but he’s failed to make an appearance. He knows we’re in here by now, and he knows ad’ai is about to happen. So . . . where do you suppose he is?”

  “I don’t . . .” But then I understood.

  I’d been so consumed with enjoying one last day with Nyte that I hadn’t even considered how obvious it was. Why would Lusafael give up after his Feirgh plan failed?

  “He’s getting reinforcements?” I asked, feeling stupid.

  Ardette confirmed it with a grave nod. “He is most definitely getting reinforcements.”

  “But from where?!”

  “Who knows? But I suspect they’ll be arriving at any moment. I also suspect that this time, he’ll have your sister in hand. That’s why . . .” Ardette snuck a shifty glance at Grotts.

  “Why what?”

  “Sorry to do this, Aura.” Grotts jumped up, grabbed my shoulders, and tore me away from Nyte. “We ain’t gonna let ya die. Yer gonna hold tight and use Nyte, and in the meantime we’re gonna fight whatever beasts Lusafael’s got set up for us.”

  “WHAT?!”

  Scardo hopped up, rope in hand. “My sincerest apologies, Miss Heart.” He bowed low, then grabbed my wrists and started to tie them together. I fought him, but I was weak. Nyte turned away.

  “Wait! What are you doing? I thought that was already the plan! I thought the plan was already to use the pendant!”

  “Speak not, Havoc.” Rend’s voice wasn’t as cold as usual. It might even have held just the tiniest drop of pity. Then again, it might’ve just been my imagination. “Your deceit is far too easy to read.” She, too, turned away.

  Grotts squatted to bind my ankles.

  “You’re seriously tying me up like this?!”

  “Grottsy!” Kantú had been fidgeting. She now jumped up. “Do we have to?! Are you sure?!”

  “Kantoo, ya promised.”

  “Take your seat, Kantú, or I shall bind you.” It came not from Rend, but from Nyte.

  What?! Nyte, why?! How can you just sit there?!

  Kantú obeyed him with drooped ears. “Sorry, Aura.”

  “I don’t get it! Why are you-”

  “Basically,” said Darch – he took off his spectacles but didn’t look up – “we know that you’d never let Nyte die for you. And we know that you don’t want to bring the land back together, either. Not really. You’re still bent on what you learned at Yes’lech. Even if it’s just a theory, that threat of war . . .” He paused and rubbed his head. “A person like you, who values life so, SO strongly – and rightfully so – couldn’t possibly choose war. You’d never be able to live with being responsible for the destruction and chaos that might come from that path. We all know you too well, and we all know that you’ll do whatever you can to choose life, but the problem is that you’ll choose life for everyone but yourself even if it’s wrong. That’s why we’ve got to do what’s necessary.” He flicked his eyes to mine only long enough to say – “Sorry. Really, Aura, I am.” – before bringing them back to the ground.

  “What happened to not taking my choice away!?”

  “I told you, my pit. You aren’t supposed to make your choice until you’ve heard me out, and besides, it’s wrong of you to make a choice based solely on your love for him. Your responsibility is to be the savior to the entire world, not one whiny Elf. We’re just helping you get there. Your boy agrees. That’s why he’s allowed us to carry out this plan.”

  “Nyte!”

  “It’s gotta be this way.” Grotts was done tying my ankles. He and Scardo lifted me and set me against a tree. Scardo looked at me like a scared child about to be reprimanded and held up another piece of rope.

  “You’re really going to tie me to a tree? For real? Why? I’m telling you, you’ve got no reason to worry!”

  “My pit, you’re a terrible liar.”

  He was right. I was still fully determined to escape this and run far away and release the Song on my own.

  “Yeah, we sure are gonna tie ya up,” said Grotts. “You gotta stay here where it’s safe. With Nyte. We can’t take the chance that either o’ ya’ll get caught in the fightin’. Ardette’ll stick around, too, and make sure y
a do what’s gotta be done. He’ll hold the pendant ‘til the right time.”

  The pendant. Just the thought of it turned my stomach. Once they put it on him, I really would have no choice. It would be all over.

  “Kantú, please! Darch? Trib?!” But no one was on my side. They all just sat there.

  “Condolences,” said Trib. “It’s not my place to interfere!”

  Grotts did the final knot. “We can’t let ya die. It’ll all be fer nothin’ then.”

  “Aura . . .” Kantú peeked up one more time, but Rend sent her a look so foul that she cowered away.

  “Grotts! Come on, now! This is wrong! And Scardo, what do you think you’re doing! Stop right now! I order you to stop!”

  But even the ‘Pure Heart’ card wouldn’t work.

  “Ardette! Nyte! I’ll never forgive you! I’ll never forgive either of you! I’ll hate you!”

  Nyte finally faced me, and it was instantly apparent that he wasn’t affected by my empty threats at all. “It is just as well,” he said sternly. “You shall have a lifetime to reconsider. I shall give you a lifetime. If you chose to spend it in hatred of me, then it is the price that is to be paid.”

  “No! Don’t force this on me!”

  Ardette flicked a lazy hand at me. “Grotts, tell the Pure Heart a story to calm her down, won’t you?”

  “Er- a story?”

  “Yes, she finds you comforting. She always has. Tell her one of your fables, maybe.”

  “But I only know the one.”

  “Then tell that one. The rest of you should get ready. The sun’s gone. The moon’ll be up soon. Lusafael’s pawns should be arriving any moment.”

  The rest of them started to move like water. It didn’t take me long to realized that they’d laid out every step of their mission. Every second of it had been carefully planned. They were focused, and even Kantú and Trib had designated tasks. The two of them flitted around, packing and gathering.

  “Unbelievable,” I muttered, feeling betrayed.

  Grotts looked at me sideways. “Ardette, I really don’t think she wants ta hear a story.” He wiped his forehead with the front of his shirt because I was sending him my strongest death-glare and it was causing him extreme perspiration.

  “You’re sure as hell right I don’t want to hear one!”

  “Do it anyway,” said Ardette.

  “You bastard! Ardette, untie me! This is ridiculous!”

  “Alrigh’ then, if ya really think it’ll calm her.”

  But I’d never get to hear Grotts retell his fable. Everything that they were planning, everything that they were counting on, it didn’t prepare them for what happened next.

  There was singing. All around us, from nowhere, there was singing.

  “Willful song I lay within,

  To stay within, to wish akin;

  Willful song I take a vow,

  To force it in, to stay within,

  The vessel chosen for it now.

  Empty space to take it in,

  To dwell within, to find akin,

  Forceful words to there avow.”

  The phantom song roused an atmosphere of sheer disquiet. Before we had time to think, a laugher lit the air.

  Like the song, it was a laughter that I recognized. Chime-like and dainty, it set in motion two conflicting whirlwinds of emotion within that piece of my heart that had once been broken. One of the emotions was love. The other was hatred.

  “Illuma?” I said.

  Shocked, I searched for her, but she was nowhere to be found, but though I couldn’t find her, her answer found me.

  “Hello, Sister,” she said. But the voice that was Illuma’s hadn’t come from Illuma.

  It had come from Rend.

  Chapter 20: The Ad’ai

  “Look at you, Aura,” said Rend. “You’re all tied up! Have they turned against you?”

  “Cousin!?” Nyte jumped up..

  “Guess again, Nyte.” With a seductive purse to her lips, Rend drew herself to her feet, flexed her arms, and rolled her neck around in a rapturous stretch. Then she brought her hands to her waist and slowly drew her fingers up the sides of her stomach.

  At least three of the men in our presence dropped their jaws. There was no chance in hell that was Rend.

  When the imposter reached her armpits, she let out another burst of tinkling laughter.

  Nyte was repulsed. “Remove yourself from my kin!”

  “What a nice body,” cooed Illuma. “I’ve never felt so tall.”

  “Remove yourself, or I shall I force you out!”

  “No!” said Illuma, amused.

  “Argh!” Releasing a great angry shout, Nyte lunged at her, but he didn’t make it very far because Scardo grabbed him from behind and pulled him back.

  “S-stop!” stuttered the Yes’lechian. “You must refrain from harming her! It’s Rend’s body! Consider it, Nyte!”

  Following Scardo’s plea, Nyte did, indeed, stop to consider it, and he didn’t pursue the lunge further. Instead, he took any ferocity formerly placed behind the attempted action and moved it to his tongue.

  “You desecrate her body with your presence! Remove your foul soul, Mystress!”

  “Oh, Nyte,” – Illuma messed with Rend’s hair – “you don’t have to call me that. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, you can call me by my real name. Remember? The name you used to mutter aloud in the still of the night. You were one of the only ones allowed to call me ‘Illuma’ back then. Try it now. Maybe you’ll find that you like the way it slides across your tongue.”

  “Speak not of the past! Any acts forced upon me were without meaning!”

  “Forced?” She giggled. “I don’t know if I forced you really. Okay, so I did. But don’t pretend you didn’t like it. You were so good at being . . . corrupt. Surely your friends have seen it too. Surely the Pure Heart’s seen the pleasure you felt during those times you were under my control? You could have just monotonously followed my commands, but the fact that you did so with such panache, just proves that your true desires are to be lost in brutality.”

  “You are wrong!”

  “Tell yourself that.” She winked at him. “My one regret is that I let you go. You were such a fun toy. Do you remember the times when I’d release you from my spell? You’d wake with your arms around me, so confused. It never stopped you, though, did it? Say my name. Try to remember how it tastes.”

  “I will not tarnish my tongue with the stain of such a thing!”

  Nyte was fuming. It was taking everything in him to keep from pouncing at her again. Illuma noticed and curled Rend’s mouth into an even haughtier smile.

  “How is she doing this?” I said under my breath to Grotts.

  “Not a clue. I understand usin’ a song fer controllin’, but how’s she getting’ her voice into Rend like that? It don’ make sense!”

  Illuma heard us.

  “Did you like it?” she sang. “I made it up. I like to think my style is a little more mature than my sister’s. And the best part is I can’t feel anything. See?”

  It was at this point that my depraved sister did something that was more than disturbing. It was so unswallowable, in fact, that it was still stained vividly in my memory long after the action was through – an unclean image that wouldn’t go away. It was an action that made my stomach turn and further solidified The Mystress’ insanity, making her all the more dangerous to deal with.

  Prepping her incisor with a provocative lick, she brought Rend’s hand to her mouth. She looked at it a moment with a lewd smile before next chomping into it with a ripping bite and tearing off a chunk of skin, which she then spit it into the fire.

  Holy crap!

  I buried my mouth in my shoulder to stifle the gag that was rising in my throat.

  “I didn’t even feel that,” said Illuma. “Isn’t that great?”

  Her teeth were coated in scarlet.

  “HOW DARE YOU?!” Nyte ground his feet into the ground hard to keep f
rom letting his fury take over.

  “What evil did you use to make something like that?!” I yelled, flinching at the brutal wound. “A song that would put someone’s soul into another’s body?! It’s almost like . . .”

  “The feather man,” said Kantú, queasy and holding her mouth.

  “Exactly!” I said.

  “Possession?” said Trib. “But how? How is there room inside of Rend for that?”

  Room? I didn’t understand what she was getting at, but Darch did.

  “Because Rend’s lost her magic,” he said.

  “What do you mean ‘Rend’s lost her magic’?” But even as I asked, the dots started to connect. Again, I’d been so embarrassingly clueless.

  Darch confirmed it. “That was her sacrifice to Mikkan, and with the magic removed from her veins, it left room for other non-physical energy to enter. If Illuma forced a song into that space left behind . . .”

  Illuma wiped Rend’s mouth, which only smeared more blood across her face, and started clapping. “Very good!” She was speaking to Darch. “Remind me next time to obtain one of your kind. You’re all so intuitive. Yes, once Lusafael and I saw what happened, it was easy to figure out what to do. And since this Elf and I have both been branded by angels, that made it all the easier to enter her.”

  “Well, what’ve you come to say?” Ardette had been observing all this time with a frown. He wasn’t as affected by all of it as the rest of us. That was good. We needed someone to stand their ground. “You’ve no power here,” he continued, “so out with it.”

  “No power?” Illuma pouted. “Whatever do you mean?”

  “I daresay your sister’s a far more powerful songstress than you, and Rend’s got no magic for you to steal, so . . .”

  “Mm.” Illuma forced Rend to give another sultry smile. “I remember you. After we parted ways, I couldn’t help thinking about you. You’ve so much spunk. What do you think, Daem? Care for a taste of Elf? I bet she’d never let you have a drink otherwise. Or maybe it’s my sister you prefer?”

  “I would never drink from someone stained with a soul as black as yours. I don’t want to catch something, after all.”

  The insult tweaked a nerve in Illuma. The corner of her nose twitched just a little.