Queen of Swords and Silence

by Carrow Brown

  “A door closed, a lost soul,” Vainya rumbled, his words jarring against the natural song of the woods. His attention remained fixed on the fairy as he continued, “To our door, we do welcome you. Through trial and pain, you find yourself here.”

  Moving closer, I scooped the dark soil of the grove over Snowdrop, leaving her face exposed to the cool air.

  “Ancient spirits of Grave Wood, we present you a creature of the British Isles, a fairy with no home or wood to call her own.”

  Magic tickled my flesh, the sensation varying from a feather touch to the tips of claws.

  “Where earth and fairy meet, let them unite.” Vainya walked a slow circle around the fairy. “Spirits and ancient ones of our wood, please accept this soul as your own. Welcome her and make her whole.”

  At the end of his words, I leaned over and placed the acorn in the dark earth covering her and stepped back out of the circle. Vainya did the same and we waited by the edge of the garden.

  The trees continued their sway, a distant whisper added to their ancient song. One by one, branches reached down to touch the fairy and scoop her out of the soil. She hung limp in their arms as they lifted her higher and higher. Three trees wrapped multiple branches to create a heavy cocoon to hang between them.

  In the distance, a single tree glowed, and a trail of its light led from it to the trees that provided the cocoon for Snowdrop. Other trees glowed until Grave Wood illuminated the darkness, their whispering voices speaking as a powerful whole.

  Then as quickly as they’d come to life, the glow died away, leaving a soft ebb of light feeding into the still-forming cocoon.

  “The forest has accepted her,” Vainya said at my back. “She must recover from her ordeal, which will take time.”

  I let out a breath and rubbed at my eyes. “Thank you, Master.”

  His tail slid over my back and pulled me closer to him. “The forest will benefit from having a fairy bound to it. It will take care of her. Does her state have anything to do with the man Silence is possessing?”

  “It does.” I turned and looked back at the house. “And I still need to handle that mess.”

  Vainya’s tail stopped me from moving. “I know that look in your eye and I would advise against passionate action until you are calm.”

  My head jerked up to face him. “Why? He deserves it and more.”

  “Consider an alternative. Instead of killing him, allow his punishment to be served out to those he’s caused grievance to.”

  My brow furrowed as I thought over what Vainya meant. “You mean hand him over to the Fae Courts.” I let the idea dance in my mind and measured the rightness of it. “That would appease them, but they won’t respond to a correspondence from me.”

  “But they will from me. Secure him to the shed and I shall send the missive to the queens to collect him.” His tail left me and he walked inside, ending the conversation. I thought about mentioning about how I was hired to kill Patrick and collect money, but appeasing the Fae was worth more than the money for the job. Then again, considering his likely fate, I was probably meeting the letter of my contract. Caldrin didn’t state how he had to die, just that he had to.

  I headed inside to the lobby where David stood with Silence.

  Silence continued to grin, swinging his arms back and forth. On seeing me, Silence said, “I like this body. Can I keep it?”

  “No. Walk him to the shed.”

  David made to walk with us, but I placed a hand on his chest. “Not you. There’s beer in the kitchen if you want it.”

  The Marine’s eyes shifted between the pair of us and then nodded. “Sure. What are you going to do to him?”

  I turned and followed Silence. “We’re going to have a chat.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Rooftop Talks

  My shed wasn’t as elegant as the Manor. It was not even really a shed, but a crude place I dragged my food to eat so the carnage was contained in one area. The wooden walls and dark floor were covered with dried blood. Two iron cages rested inside the shed for times when I needed to save my “meals” for later. I threw Patrick into one of them and snatched Silence from him in one motion.

  The magi sneered at me, though with missing teeth and a bashed-up face, it didn’t have the effect he probably wanted.

  “You think you can just keep me here?”

  “I’m a fan of irony and vindictive justice, so yes.”

  “You won’t get away with this.” He leaned forward and grasped the bars. “When my master finds out, he’ll—”

  I kicked the cage right by his hand. “Do what?” I grabbed the cage and tossed it and a screeching Patrick a few feet away, the cage landing with a loud clang. “Go on. Threaten me some more.”

  The human scrambled back as far as he could in the cage. “You... you can’t—”

  “Who are you to tell me what I can and can’t do?” I paced around the cage, watching Patrick as he shuffled to stay away from me. “If your master gave two shits about you, you wouldn’t be here.”

  He swallowed. “What are you going to do with me? Kill me?”

  “No, I’m not going to kill you. I can’t with the way things are.” I walked over and knelt by the cage. “Let me tell you a story. Not sure if you heard of him, but there was this guy way back called Arthur Pendragon. Ring any bells?”

  “What does he have to do with anything?”

  I snapped my hand out and grabbed Patrick’s lower jaw and squeezed my talons along his flesh until he whimpered. “I’m giving you a history lesson, you ape. There are history professors at Harvard who’d kill for this, so shut up and listen.” I released him and leaned back onto my heels. “Now, Arthur had big dreams. You humans have distorted the story, but his goal was to find a way to unite humans and mythics. He wanted us all to get along. Take a guess who didn’t want that?”

  Patrick’s eyes flickered about. “Queen Mab?”

  “Yes, nice to see you paid attention to whatever Fae one-oh-one class you magi have. The Winter Fae didn’t care for Arthur’s hand-holding foofoo dream. Mostly because the Winter Court isn’t about playing nice with others.” I leaned closer to the cage. “They’re about the horrible reality of life. Of humans dumping their children in the woods because someone’s stolen their clothes. Something that happened in abundance those days. We’ll skip all the boring stuff and jump right to the main event when Mab’s army was attacking Arthur’s castle.”

  “That never happened. There’s no evidence. Nothing in the histories or the records.”

  I laughed. “You’re telling me humans don’t alter history to fit what they want others to know? No, it happened. I know it for a fact because I was there. Her army was ready to decimate Arthur’s kingdom and reduce it to a dead flat surface. I saw what Mab would’ve done just when she didn’t like someone’s politics. And can you imagine what she’ll do when she finds out some human played mad scientist on a Fae? On a whole pile of dead, mutilated Fae?” I slammed my hand against the cage. “Mab and the Winter Court have been looking for any reason to break the treaty. You fuck-ups are giving her the legal justification on a silver platter!”

  Patrick scrambled back from me, but I reached an arm through the bars and dragged him over to me.

  “You’re going to be the sacrificial lamb in hopes Summer and Winter don’t team up to commit genocide.”

  Patrick’s eyes continued to shift, a tiny giggle escaping his lips.

  I gave him another shake. “Did you hear what I said?”

  “In twos and threes, they come,” he muttered. “Twos and threes… twos and threes…”

  You knew that was coming, Silence said. I’m surprised he lasted that long.

  “Did you at least learn anything before you fried his brain?”

  Yeah, he really likes it when they scream.

  “I’m serious, Silence.”

  I dug around, but he was already cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. A lot of memories were addled as well.

  “Add
led? How can you tell?”

  Because his squishy human brain just couldn’t get it. They were replaced by things he knew or understood. I know it when I see it because you do it, too.

  “No, I don’t.”

  Yeah, you do. Do you actually think I’m a small child? I’m older than you! Let’s use another example. In the dream a few nights ago, remember how those people lecturing you for being late were those you knew? That’s your tiny brain filling in for stuff because it couldn’t comprehend what you were seeing.

  “And what, you could?”

  Of course, I could. Why do you think I wanted to leave? There is more. Look at his threads.

  Wrinkling my nose, I shifted my vision to see Patrick magically. The effect of Silence’s influence on him left his aura warped and the colors dulled, but not to the point where I couldn’t see his aura or the threads attached to him. I studied each thread and paused when my eyes fell onto a thin yellow one. Something in its movement struck me. Threads didn’t typically move until the other individual they were attached to was nearby, but it wasn’t that kind of motion at all. I leaned closer to study it, staring at it for several minutes before I realized why it stood out.

  The thread was being pulled from Patrick.

  I kept watching as the line of light left Patrick, causing his aura to dim so minutely I wouldn’t have noticed it otherwise.

  “What in the...”

  “Yes, yes,” Patrick whispered, his eyes fixed on the wall in front of his cage. “Twos and threes. Twos and threes.”

  I turned to face him. “Who are you talking to?”

  Feverish eyes met mine. “Don’t you hear them?”

  As if on command, I noticed the whispers from my dream once more. Their speech still lacked all sense to me, but it remained consistent. Could Patrick hear them as I did? Why was that? How was it he could make sense of them and I couldn’t? My mouth opened to ask those very questions, but I stopped myself as drool ran over Patrick’s chin and a vacant look replaced the awareness in his eyes.

  Too late for that.

  With a growl, I quickly rose and walked out of the room, though the whispers continued to follow me. I walked outside and up to the ladder I used to climb to the top of the roof. As I climbed it, I felt Silence’s dread building up in the back of my mind.

  Once I felt confident no one was close enough to hear me, I said, “We’re going to have a little talk.”

  Silence’s response didn’t come right away. About what?

  “Don’t ‘about what’ me,” I snapped. “You’ve been holding out on me! I’ve got voices in my head, fucked up dreams, and Badb’s foreshadowing doesn’t help. There’s nowhere I can go to find out more and apparently telling Vainya will make things worse. I don’t want to get locked up again, but fuck, Silence. I need information and you have given me the impression that you know a lot more than you’re telling me. If you don’t tell me, who can?”

  Silence shuddered against my back, his voice coming fast as he said, I don’t want to talk about them.

  “Don’t want to talk about them? Silence, this isn’t about what you want. It’s about what I need to know. Give me something.” I paused before adding, “I can’t protect either of us if I don’t know what I am facing. Who the fuck is Walker and what does he have to do with me?”

  The seconds ticked by as I stood there waiting for Silence to respond. I worried he would shut down and refuse to answer me. He possessed the same stubbornness I did when it came to certain subjects. And I couldn’t compel him to answer me as I could with others.

  It’s hard to explain. Walker was my wielder before you. He didn’t let me have thought or growth, only stabbing, slicing, and death.

  “So, Walker was a person and a he? Then why do these things think I am him?”

  Silence hesitated. I don’t know. Could be any reason, really. They don’t see things like you do. It may be because I’ve been with you for so long. There might be bleed over.

  “Bleed over. Right.” I reached back for Silence and pulled him free from his sheath. “Gods, you are so full of shit.”

  No, wait! Lis—

  I drew my arm back and threw Silence into the air and watched him spin away before disappearing into the tree line. Some solo thinking time without Silence in my head was needed. The two of us had been together for thousands of years and he only spouted sophisticated garbage when he was evading. Though, the fact Silence was actively lying to me made it worse. It bothered me on a lot of levels, but I pushed it to the side to focus on the important issue.

  Why had he lied in the first place?

  In the dream, Silence had been terrified. Not disgusted with sentimental feelings or irritated at those who thought themselves stronger than him. I couldn’t even place a time Silence had ever been afraid in our time together. No, Silence hadn’t even wanted to be in the warehouse. Coupled with the damage he’d taken, whoever those beings were proved to be well out of my weight class.

  The more I dwelled on that fact, the more uneasy I became. I thought over the recurring elements in the dream. The whispers I still heard. A warehouse full of soul-wine. Repeated lectures about being late. Late for what? And what about the woman in the dream? Dreamer?

  I focused on my reaction to her. I’d been annoyed by her… Inconvenience? She’d been making sport of me the way friends did with each other. In some ways, it reminded me of the relationship I had with Vainya.

  Only I was Vainya and she was me.

  The distant whispers increased their volume until it drowned out the forest sounds. None of the words became clear, no matter how hard I focused on them. Instead, additional details in the background faded into my awareness. Low guttural growls and distant hisses. I picked up on a thrum to the whispers, giving me impression of something large moving behind me.

  “Hey.”

  The sound David’s voice from edge of the roof gave me a start.

  “Sorry,” he said, climbing over the edge. “Bad time?”

  “No.” I placed a hand to my chest to slow my heart and blocked out the whispers. “Was just thinking things over.”

  He let out a grunt and took a seat next to me. “You know, once you get over what the trees represent, it’s kind of nice to look at.”

  “Yeah, a lot of things grow on you if you are around them enough.” I rubbed a hand along my face. “Why is everything such a mess right now?”

  David’s tones dripped with amusement. “Isn’t that how life is?”

  I lowered my hand and looked back out over the forest, my eyes resting on the glowing cocoon. “Yeah, I guess.”

  “Subject change, how are Valkyries born?”

  I lifted a brow at David. “Why are you asking?”

  He shrugged. “Curious. The Manor gave me a book when I asked about it, but I couldn’t read any of it.”

  “Probably because it is in Old Norse.” I let out a long breath. “They are normally warrior women who are blessed by Odin or Freya before a major battle. If their death is honorable, they transcend to be a Valkyrie.”

  “So how did you die, if it’s not a personal question?”

  “I don’t know.”

  David’s brows rose. “You don’t know?”

  I nodded. “It’s not uncommon, but I don’t remember anything from when I used to be human.”

  “So, you woke up and bam! ‘I’m a Valkyrie?’”

  I wrinkled my nose. “No, it didn’t go like that. My early memories are really fuzzy.”

  “What do you remember, then?”

  My eyes focused on my hands. “Darkness. I couldn’t see, it was cold, and I remember being afraid.” I let out a breath, shifting my gaze to the sky. “And when I could see, I remember wishing I couldn’t. It was a lot to take in with the sound and sight and smell.”

  “That sounds like something most newborns would say.”

  The corner of my mouth quirked. “Yeah, I suppose they would.”

  “What happened after that?”

/>   I looked at him. “Do you want the hour-long version or the ten-hour-long one? I promise you won’t like either of them.”

  “What’s the one-sentence version?”

  I rested my chin on a palm while giving David a wry grin. “My family hates me and went to a lot of effort to keep my existence hidden.”

  Seconds passed while David studied me, his face and scent giving away nothing. “I had a troop like you. Rough past but pretty flippant about it. He knew how to make light of what happened so no one would walk on eggshells around him.” He reached out and placed a hand on my shoulder. “You do that, too.”

  I shrugged off his hand. “I can’t blame them.” My eyes lingered on my hands, allowing my fingers to shift back into the black talons which were their true form. “I’m a monster.”

  He gave my side a shove. “Did you choose to be this way?”

  “No.”

  He looked back out over the forest, his hands resting between his knees. “Then you’ve got nothing to be sorry for. Not to me, anyway. You can’t help being what you are. It’s stupid you feel the need to apologize to anyone for it.”

  The fondness I’d been feeling for David wormed its way back into my chest. “You’re one of a kind, you know that?”

  “Maybe. But I think what you need is just a different perspective on things.”

  “And you’re going to be that perspective?”

  “Sure am.” He flashed me a grin. “I’m what the doctor ordered.”

  My lips quirked up at the sight of his smile. “And what makes you qualified?”

  “How many of your friends are human? I’m guessing none. We don’t live long enough for you to form attachments. You know a lot about us, but you don’t interact with us unless you have to. I get that.”

  “Do you?”

  “I grew up in Vermont, remember? We didn’t have much livestock, but I know what it’s like to see the cow grow up, make memories with it, give it nicknames, and then shoot it in the head for dinner. It’s not easy.”