by Sumida,Amy
Trevor choked back a laugh. Everyone else gaped at me.
“Never mind, it was a joke,” I waved off the weirdness. “I do that sometimes when I don't know what to say.”
Arach sighed deeply.
“It's just that, when you told me that all I need to do is wish this power into existence, it's is akin to telling me to go rub a lamp,” I huffed at Cernunnos. “I understand the basic motions of it, but I doubt a genie is going to appear when I'm done polishing.”
“Let go of the Aladdin reference,” Trevor whispered desperately.
“And how do you even know all of this?” I ignored my husband, and continued to focus on Cernunnos.
“I long ago separated myself from the chaos of other gods,” Cernunnos sighed with a smile. “I immerse myself with the cosmos, connect myself to the land. I listen to the wind, and commune with the water. Knowledge is everywhere, especially in a place as magical as the God Realm. Once I quieted my mind, I began to learn. The Universe revealed secrets to me, and continues to do so.”
“You meditate a lot?” I scoffed. “That's how you know things even Faerie and Alaric don't?”
We know that, Faerie huffed, and we've told you such before, but you don't listen, Vervain!
“That ain't true,” I growled. “You never said all that.”
I said something very similar.
“Fine, Faerie,” I rolled my eyes. “You're all knowing, and I don't listen to you. Happy?”
No, because you don't listen! Aren't you listening?
“Does anyone understand her?” I looked around, and was surprised to find Cernunnos laughing. “Hold the presses, you can hear Faerie?”
He just told you he listens! Ugh, you're such a moron, Vervain. You're still not listening.
“Shut it,” I growled at her. “Unless you have a helpful suggestion on mastering my star, I don't want to hear your lip.”
I don't have lips.
Cernunnos barked out a laugh, and then held his hands to his mouth in horror. “Oh, forgive my outburst. You have my deepest respect, Great Faerie.”
You hear that? Faerie crooned. That's how you should address me. Thank you Cernunnos, you may visit my realm anytime you wish.
“I heard him all right. What I didn't hear was any suggestions from you,” I snapped at Faerie.
“Thank you, Faerie,” Cernunnos whispered with awe. The horned one was having the best day ever.
Vervain, you needed to discover how to unleash the star in your own way. Alaric and I have led you as best we could. Didn't you access its powers right when you needed them?
“Oh please,” I gave Arach and Trevor a scathing glare apiece. “I would have figured out how to separate them eventually.”
Not that stupid skirmish, she made a growling noise. Your daughter and your husband. Did you not pull Kirill back from his journey into the Void? And did you not convince him to return by allowing him to communicate with his daughter? His daughter who has only just been conceived! She was hours old, Vervain. Do you not find that miraculous?
“Oh yeah,” I mumbled. “I suppose that was pretty amazing.”
You suppose? Do you also suppose that you wouldn't have found a way to access the star, if you hadn't been in an extreme emotional state?
“Maybe.”
Vervain, she went serious, I have led you here. Now you must unlock the power of the star yourself. Your need will pull it forth, but once you have an understanding of it, you must begin to use it for the good of all realms. You have a strong and pure heart, Daughter. We made no mistake when we chose you. You were born to hold the star.
“Alright, Faerie,” I swallowed hard, shocked to my core to hear her praise me. “I'll do my best.”
I know you will, Queen Star, she chuckled.
Chapter Thirty-Three
With the addition of Trevor, our carriage was extra full. Arach and I had one of the baby baskets on our lap, while Isleen held the other. Dexter took up the seat beside her, while Trevor sat on my left. This left me sitting between Arach and a hard place. Get it? A-rach and a... never mind. Let's just say it was tense.
We'd decided to take Cernunnos to meet the High King. Mainly because we wanted to speak to the High King about the ring theft in Air. But also because Lugh was at the Castle of Eight, and the High King would probably be thrilled to have one of the Tuatha, who hadn't deceived his son, join them. Of course, Cernunnos may not have been a party to the deception, but he hadn't exactly gone out of his way to tell Lugh the truth either. He was the god version of Switzerland, and I wasn't entirely sure on the welcome he'd receive. Cautiously optimistic, but not certain.
As we rode through the Forgetful Forest, I heard a commotion coming from the carriages behind us. I nudged Trevor, and asked him to investigate the disturbance. He hung his head out the window to see what was going on. When he sat back, he was smiling.
“The green men are all hanging out of the carriages, waving their arms about as if they could embrace the whole forest,” Trevor chuckled. “Damn tree huggers.”
“They're practically related to trees,” I noted, “so hugging them is probably normal.”
I cast a look at the gently moving trunks of the trees of Faerie. Most of the trees in the Forgetful Forest were massive. Not quite as big as the Great Tree at the End of the Road, but still larger than any sequoia you may have marveled at. And their size wasn't the only special thing about them, They also breathed. Normal trees took in carbon dioxide and expelled oxygen. Faerie trees did this too, but they did it like a human did the opposite. They breathed. Their trunks expand with the process, just as a human chest expands with air. It was fascinating, though hard to catch when you were riding by at a fast clip.
I was trying to focus on a tree trunk, and see if I could catch the subtle movement, when a vine as thick as my thigh snuck through our window, wrapped around my waist, and yanked me out of the carriage. Arach caught Brevyn's basket just before it fell. Hands full of baby, he was unable to help me, and looked stricken about it. Trevor however, was closest to the window, and I had to pass by him on my way out. He latched onto my waist as I was jerked by, getting pulled out of the window with me, and taking a chunk of the door with him.
Wood splintered in all directions, and then leaves and branches slapped at us, restricting my view of the rapidly diminishing carriage while just being plain aggravating. I caught a single glimpse of Arach jumping out of the destroyed doorway, and then all I saw was foliage and the face of an angry werewolf.
Trevor had remained shifted after his fight with Arach, simply because he had nothing to wear, and we didn't think it would be appropriate to show up at High Court with a naked demigod. I was now doubly glad he'd remained in werewolf form. His giant paws were perfect for clinging to me (the better to hug you with my dear) while his lethal claws were coming in handy for some impromptu vine trimming. The vine imprisoning me twitched as if it were a living thing, and clear, viscous fluid began to ooze from its wounds. Kinda gross actually. Then it abruptly released us, and we both fell in a tumbling drop. Right into a conveniently located lake.
We came sputtering to the surface, and I had a second to reach for Trevor before I was yanked back beneath the water. I flailed about with my legs, but whomever had me was pulling me down so rapidly, I couldn't even bend my arms. They were forced straight above me by the momentum. Finally, I came to a stop, and a huge mermaid tail slammed me in the gut, driving the remaining, precious air from my lungs.
Spots danced across my vision as the mermaid swam up before me, smiling smugly as she watched me drown. I gaped at her, just barely stopping myself from pulling in a surprised breath. It just wasn't possible. The water-sidhe before me was long gone, sent to some horrid wasteland by my Ring of Remembrance. I'd even thought it was a different future, a different timeline...
Oh damn. Had my time machinations brought back Dubheasa?
This bafflement went through my mind in seconds, and then I was simply left with a raging nee
d for air. I started to kick for the surface, but I knew I wouldn't make it in time. Dubheasa knew it too, and casually followed me up so she wouldn't miss a second of my drowning.
Air! I screamed in my head. I needed to breathe! My lungs were burning. Although I knew I could come back from this, I wasn't looking forward to the painful sensation of my lungs filling with water. And who knows what Dubheasa would do with my body in the vulnerable moments before my immortality kicked in and saved me?
I needed to breathe. Now! I saw the surface glimmering far above me, and panic filled me. It was so close. I needed air! Air! Air! Air!
And then I could breathe. Magic shot down through the water, parting the liquid like a laser beam, and forming a column of cool, clean, air around me. I gulped in a breath as I dropped with the rapidly falling water level, landing on the bottom of the lake with a heavy splat. I stood up, shaking out my soiled and soppy gown, and found Dubheasa gaping at me from the other side of a curving wall of water.
“Ha!” I pointed at her as I set my feet apart in the silty lake bottom. “How's that feel? And also, what the hell are you doing here?”
Dubheasa's pretty pink tail transformed into legs, and she stepped through the wall of water, her bare toes squelching in the thick layer of silt. She was naked, gorgeous, and extremely pissed off. She didn't bother with any banter, or the courtesy of answering my questions. She simply attacked.
I punched her in the nose.
“You tried to kill my children!” I screeched at her, and lifted her by her Barbie-pink hair. “My babies! And you tried to kill my friend's baby!”
I headbutted her, a trick I'd recently learned from watching my husbands fight. One of those very same husbands came tumbling down my column of air, and landed on his paws behind me.
“What the fuck?” Trevor growled as he saw who my assailant was. “Isn't that bitch supposed to be dead?”
“I'll rectify that in a minute, darling,” I growled at him as I kneed her in the belly.
Dubheasa doubled over, and then her hand shot out towards the water around us. She made a grabbing motion, and tossed a spear of water at me. It hit me in the chest, wounding me like an actual spear. I tumbled backwards, out of my air tube and into the water, just as Arach skidded down the vertical liquid like a pro surfer. I flailed my way back into the air, batting my heavy skirts and hair out of the way. But by the time I tumbled onto the silty sand, Arach and Trevor had Dubheasa strung out between them. Arach's claws were around her neck, and Trevor's were around her legs. My werewolf was intent on getting his slice of sashimi.
And, for eerie background music, Dexter's pitiful howls echoed down to us.
I angled my head to look over my bleeding wound. Luckily, Dubheasa had missed my heart by an inch, hitting me right beneath my collarbone. The spear had liquefied after it struck, leaving me with a clean puncture. It was gushing blood, but it wouldn't be a problem for long. I pulled down the neckline of my dress, and breathed a stream of fire on the wound, healing it closed. It still ached, and I knew it needed more fire, but I didn't have time to waste on it. I had a murderous mermaid to deal with. My gaze lifted and landed on Dubheasa.
“Wait!” Dubveasa screeched, seeing her death in my eyes. “I'm not your only enemy. Don't you want to know how I was able to return?”
Arach and Trevor paused, both of them looking to me.
“Well, go on then,” I squished my way over to her, losing one of my shoes in the process. I went back for it with a sigh, and then tried to recover my cool points by glowering at Dubheasa again.
“I'll tell you in exchange for my life,” her massive fish eyes, the color of after dinner mints, fastened on my face.
“No,” I said simply. “You tried to kill children. My children. You don't deserve to live.”
“They were simply a means of enacting my revenge,” she snapped.
“Bitch, you need Jesus,” I shook my head at her. “But I don't like you enough to give you an introduction.”
“The attacks won't end with me, Vervain,” Dubheasa snarled. “And you'll never be able to prove who's after you without me.”
Arach slapped Dubheasa across the face, and calmly leaned down to inform her, “It's Queen Vervain.”
“Aalish is your cohort,” I declared, and Dubheasa's eyes went even bigger. “Yeah, it wasn't that hard to figure out.”
“But you can't prove it!” she screamed as Trevor's claws started to slice into her slim thighs.
“Hold,” Arach growled. “She's right, we need her to testify against Queen Aalish. If she doesn't, the Earth Queen will keep pursuing Vervain.”
“Fuck!” Trevor swore, and dropped Dubheasa.
Arach dropped her too, and the mermaid landed in the muck with a satisfying splat. She pulled her legs up to her chest to hide her nudity, and stared up at me furiously.
“That's a ballsy look for someone whose ass just got handed to her,” I noted. “Now spill or I'll kick your teeth in, and you won't be able to talk at all around the blood.”
She lost the rebellious look, her opalescent skin paling even more than it was to begin with. It stopped being pretty, and began to look like the pallor of death.
“I was dying,” she whispered. “Every drop of water leeched from me by the wasteland you sent me to”
“I didn't exactly choose that for you,” I shrugged, “but whatever. Go on.”
“Queen Vervain?” Cernunnos appeared at the top of our column of air, doggy paddling at the edge of it. “Are you alright? Do you require some assistance?”
“We're fine, Cernunnos,” I waved at him gaily. “Go enjoy the forest for a bit, and we'll join you soon.”
“Alright, Queen Star,” he smiled wide, and swam away like it was just another lovely adventure for him to savor.
“Continue,” I growled at Dubheasa.
“I was dying when Queen Aalish-”
Hands came out of the sand, grabbed Dubheasa around the waist, and jerked her into the ground while she was mid-sentence. She disappeared with a surprised squeak and a loud squelching.
“Oh hell no!” I snarled, and dove at the spot she disappeared into.
I had no idea what I was about to do, just the urgent need to follow Dubheasa and hopefully catch Aalish. I knew with absolute certainty that it was Aalish down there. Who else could it have been? The reasonable conclusion that I would hit the sand and possibly break my neck, never occurred to me. I was acting on pure instinct.
Well, Faerie had been right. My need was all that was required to access my star. Just as with the water, the earth parted around a column of air, drawing back to reveal a shocked earth queen and her ex-queen, mermaid accomplice. Both women stared up at me in horror as I landed on them. I had dove in after all. I didn't know the earth would just open for me, and was completely unprepared for the fall.
I had a moment to fold myself into a ball before I slammed into the women. Then we all laid there and moaned as my husbands jumped in after us. Trevor grabbed Dubheasa as Arach took Aalish, and the sounds of female screaming began to fill our narrow tube of earth. It also stopped suddenly.
I got to my feet, and found both women bloody and comatose.
“Now can I kill her?” Trevor asked me calmly.
I looked to Arach.
“No, we need to take them to the High King,” Arach snarled at Trevor when he began to protest. “Then we demand that they be given to the Wild Hunt for justice. I would be happy to have you join us on the hunt, Wolf Prince.”
My jaw dropped. No non-faerie had ever been allowed to join the Wild Hunt. At least not as a hunter. It just wasn't done. But Arach went even further.
“And I would like you to extend the invitation to Odin, Azrael, Kirill, and that new one. The sunshine god. What's his name, Vervain?”
“Re,” I whispered.
“Yes, Re,” Arach nodded. “I believe the Hunt will make an exception for this one instance.”
“I'll be there with bells on,” Trevor slung D
ubheasa over his furry shoulder and held his giant paw out to Arach.
Arach took it without hesitation, “Good. We'll drink her blood together, Wolf Prince.”
Trevor threw back his head and howled.
Arach looked to me, and mouthed one word in question, “Bells?”
Chapter Thirty-Four
The green men came in handy for restraining the faerie queens. They didn't say much, those guys. A simple, “Allow us”, and a couple of them had wrapped the women in thick branches, holding them tight to their pine-green chests. I didn't want to let the women out of my sight, but I settled for Trevor riding in their carriage as guard, while we rode to the Castle of Eight. As much as I wanted to keep an eye on the women myself, there was no way I was going to allow them in the carriage with my children. And there was no way I was going to allow the children out of my sight.
Faerie, who had remained silent through the whole attack, had spoken to King Cian about the situation, and warned him of our imminent arrival. So he had a whole squadron of knights... a corp... battalion? Whatever you call a whole lot of faerie knights, that's what he had waiting for us on the steps of the central tree.
They immediately came forward, and took the women into custody, giving the green men wide-eyed looks as they did so. It must have been quite a long time since they'd seen gods who looked so fey. Trevor growled, and started to follow after the knights, but I put a hand to his furry arm and held him back.
“They'll put them in the cells beneath the tree,” I told him. “They have special elemental restricting cells that drain a faerie's magic. Those traitors aren't going anywhere.”
Trevor nodded, but still looked upset, so I gave him one of the babies to hold. He instantly calmed, cradling Brevyn gently to his chest, where my son snuggled into the soft warmth of werewolf fur eagerly. It was the cutest thing ever, and I instantly dove back into the carriage to pull my digital camera out of my purse. Yes, I have a human-made purse I use in Faerie. I just don't take it into court with me. Mainly because I don't want to deal with all of the women who will undoubtedly approach me to ask me for one of their own. Handbags have an unnatural power over women, and I was pretty sure faerie women wouldn't be immune.
