“So … what youself doing now?”
“Now?” Silene asked. “I shall rest, and heal. Tomorrow, however, I shall begin to gather those of the Silver who would share in the purpose the Aal has revealed to me. And then? Then, we shall fight for the respect we are owed.”
* * *
Blur …
Silene stood within the protective stone circle on the bluff at Fort Worden, hacking at the strands of spider silk around Reggie as she watched me struggle to my feet, the white crust of the jorōgumo protection potion flaking from my skin. Hiromi faced us across the dew-soaked grass, swaying on her spider legs.
“Hiromi, why are you doing this?” I shouted. “We don’t need to be enemies.”
“Of course we do,” she replied. “We are different, and difference always leads to conflict. Or enslavement.”
“You sound like my grandfather.”
“Then he is right,” she hissed back.
“He’s dead. He tried to start a war, but arcana and brightbloods, we fought together to stop him.”
“Then you only delayed the inevitable!” she said, and attacked.
* * *
Blur …
Silene stood beside the curled-up, still body of Hiromi as I questioned the jorōgumo’s spirit.
“You were responsible for Veirai attacking the alchemist?” I asked.
“Yesssss.”
“You infiltrated Silene’s group posing as Romey, a waerfox?”
“Yessss.”
“Hiromi? Were your orders really from your Forest of Shadows patrons?”
“Yesss. I obey obey betray the betrayers all will die die die.”
* * *
Blur …
Silene, looking like a young teen girl, stumbled backward through a moonlit forest. Bright flashes, explosions, and screams deeper in the forest announced a battle drawing ever closer. Silene’s hands trembled as her fingertips sought out the comforting feel of the ferns and shrubs that surrounded her.
A mixed group of arcana and allied brightbloods began to appear from between the trees, retreating toward Silene. Soon, enemy brightbloods could be seen pressing them back, bolstered in strength and ability by possessing Fey.
Silene tried to stem the tide of enemy brightbloods, tried to weave tangled walls of vines and branches to slow them. But the enemy brightbloods were too many, and too strong.
Allied brightbloods—dryads, satyrs, sasquatches, gryphons, leprechauns, and others—fought a desperate but clearly losing battle against waer creatures, ghouls, trolls, lindworms, wendigos, unicorns, and other dark brightbloods fighting for their Fey masters.
Arcana fought side by side with the allied brightbloods. Wizards wielded wands and rings, or fought with tattoos and swords. Sorcerers cast illusions to frighten and confuse, or controlled the minds of the less intelligent enemy brightbloods and turned them against their own. Thaumaturges crushed and broke the enemy lines with prepared boulders or tree trunks by moving a resonant pebble or branch across their palm. Alchemists lobbed gas grenades, or splashed healing potions on the wounded. And necromancers darted forth to rip the spirit from enemy creatures, or snag the magic from both ally and enemy fallen in order to fuel the living arcana’s spells and weapons.
They continued to retreat, emerging from the forest onto a grass clearing.
I recognized it. The bluff at Fort Worden. This was the final battle of the last Fey-Arcana war, just before Katherine Verona used her daughter’s spirit as the equivalent of a nuclear bomb.
The chill evening air reeked like spoiled steaks being charred over a dung fire as bodies were shredded, chopped, burned, boiled, putrefied, and disintegrated. The only sounds louder than the explosions were the screams.
And then, the night was banished by a blue-white flash from the edge of the bluff—
* * *
The memory ended, the projection faded.
“This is what my brightbloods may face, what we all may face, if we let war happen again,” Silene declared to the Quorum.
I blinked, and looked from Silene to Athena.
The Fey lady melted like a wax statue, collapsing to the Quorum floor, the runoff evaporating before spreading.
“Holy—” I stepped back, feeling a confusing swirl of emotions at the sight, but horror and sadness dominated.
Silene turned quickly away, shaking her head, her eyes scrunched closed.
Oshun stepped gracefully around what was left of Athena, and put a hand on Silene’s shoulder. “You did well, child, and made her death a noble one. It is reason for joy, not sadness.” She lifted her head, and raised her voice. “And we have great need for debate, I think, on recent events and their meaning.”
I glanced up. Chauvelin looked anything but happy at what he, and all his fellow proxenoi, had witnessed. Many of those proxenoi nodded at Oshun’s words.
Bragi stood. “There is truly much for us to absorb. We shall—” His words stuttered to a halt.
I began to melt. Not a disintegration like Athena, but my form softened and expanded, my hands and feet going globby and taking on the Jell-O–like appearance of an unshaped Fey.
“What the—” I said as my translucent skin began to glow with a bright white light.
“A spirit bomb!” Otto Von Bismarck shouted. “He intends to destroy us all!”
“The protections!” Bragi said. “It should not be possible.”
There was a panicked scramble in the gallery as the members of the Quorum rose and disappeared in streaks of light, willing themselves far away without any pretense of walking the distance between. Even Chauvelin and Bragi disappeared.
Silene stared at me with a horrified expression, clearly uncertain what to think or do.
Oshun approached me as though I were a hissing snake, and placed one hand on my chest, her eyes suddenly the dark, swirling gray-green of a flowing river. She frowned for a second, then shook her head.
“I—I cannot stop whatever this is. I am sorry.” She looked between me and Silene, then she too vanished in a streak of light.
“No!” I said. “I don’t know what’s happening! Come back! Help me!”
Gods, if my grandfather had survived our last encounter, he really could be using the spiritual connection between us to turn me into a weapon the way Katherine Verona had with her daughter. But this didn’t feel like a buildup of energy so much as a fading.
I thought of Dawn, and wished I could talk to her one last time.
Everything went white.
25
I Won’t Back Down
I woke to the sound of Silene and Alynon arguing, and opened my eyes slowly.
The room looked like it could very well be the afterlife, with white marble floor and walls, and pillars like twined tree trunks rising up and fading into the bright blue sky of the ceiling. In between the pillars floated what looked like giant white leaves, which served as sofas, or hammocks, given that I now lay on one. An arched doorway stood in one wall, and a window on the opposite wall looked out onto the flashing colors of the unshaped Other Realm.
Not that I needed the window to know I wasn’t really in the afterlife. If Alynon were here, I couldn’t be dead. However thoughtlessly cruel the universe might seem to be at times, it could never be that cruel.
Oshun stood to one side of me, her hands folded within her golden robes and a look of amused patience on her face.
Alynon waved in Silene’s direction. “If you could not control yourself, you should not have been there.”
“At least I was there,” Silene replied.
“Getting yourself condemned!” Alynon said.
“Hey!” I said to announce myself awake. “What’s going on?”
Silene spun to face me. “Thank the Bright!”
Oshun nodded her head at me in the smallest fraction of a bow. “It seems that whatever force did hold Alynon within your body is still connecting you both,” she said. “When he traveled too distant from you, both began to lose your form.�
�
Great. “Well,” I said, looking at Alynon, “at least we’re alive.”
Alynon crossed his arms over his ruffled shirt and looked downright petulant. “I question whether living is truly a reason for celebration if I must remain bound to you.”
“Wow, thanks,” I said. “You’re no great prize there either, Hamlet McBlueballs.”
“Fa!” Alynon said, and ran a hand through his spiky silver Ziggy hair. “Believe you me, I would that we were far, far apart.”
“Speaking of which,” I said, “where did you go?”
“Nowhere,” Alynon replied.
“Hardly nowhere,” Silene said. “The Bright Champions who brought him in said he collapsed on the edge of the Forest of Shadows.”
“What?” I looked to him, surprised. “I thought you’d gone back to the Silver Court, or perhaps to whatever Demesne is the Fey equivalent of Reno. What the hell were you doing—” I glanced at Oshun. Had Alynon taken up Chauvelin on his offer to join the Shadows?
“My actions are no longer your concern,” Alynon said.
“Fine,” I said. “But maybe, if you’d let me, if you’d trust me, I might actually surprise you and help.”
Alynon’s mouth scrunched to one side, and I could see that he weighed my words. But then he shook his head. “It matters little. As long as I’m stuck with you—” He sighed heavily.
“You and your sighs,” Oshun said, and turned to me. “My foolish brother went to the Forest to seek out his love.”
“Love?” I said, surprised. “Wait, Alynon’s love is in the Forest of Shadows?”
That helped explain his disfavor, and Chauvelin’s attempts to have Alynon defect.
Alynon scowled. “Thanks, sister of mine,” he said. “But you need not share my entire life story.”
“Poor little Aly,” Oshun said. There was a touch of mocking humor in her tone, but also genuine affection. “For true, I was happy to hear you had become stuck in the human realm.”
“I’m sure the entire family was thrilled,” Alynon said.
“You mistake me,” she replied. “I hoped it was your destiny to find happiness there as you could not here, to be reborn into a new life. Never have you fit well within the … limitations of your position here.”
“So you two are family?” I asked. “And the Athena who was in the quorum?”
“Yes,” Oshun replied.
“Oh.” I stood. “Alynon, I’m sorry about your sister. I wish—”
“Fa! It is my own fault for believing you capable of so simple a thing as speaking to the Quorum.”
“Peace, Brother,” Oshun said. “They comported themselves well.” She turned to me. “And do not weep for Aalia te’Athena. She had recently given of herself to have a child, and grown unstable. It was but a matter of time before she returned to the Aal. You granted her a chance to give that parting greater purpose.”
“Aalia branched?” Alynon asked in a surprised voice.
“Yes,” Oshun said. “And she named her child Alynoniah te’Sophia.”
Alynon turned away. “She … was never the wisest Athena.”
“And you were never able to accept a gift, at least not from family.”
There was an awkward moment of silence. I cleared my throat.
“So, if your sisters are Oshun and Athena, does that mean you’re really part Orisha or god, too? Let me guess, Bacchus?”
“No,” Alynon said with the same tone I’d heard Dawn use when someone asked to touch her hair. “I am me.”
Oshun chuckled. “He is that. He is also a prince of the Silver Court.”
“A minor prince,” Alynon muttered.
“Even small rivers keep the lands green and the ocean wet,” Oshun replied. “And had the nature of any godly spirit been part of your creation or makeup, it would be one of the tricksters I should think.”
“He does have a kind of Loki vibe,” I agreed.
Oshun smiled. “As lovely as this conversation is, now that I see you awake and well, I have matters of great import to attend to. I am to inform you, however, that your return home has been arranged. You may depart for your realm as soon as you feel strong enough to bear the strain of the transfer.” She stepped closer, and put one hand on my shoulder. “And on behalf of the Silver Court, I wish to thank you for defending our vassals, warning us of the Shadows plots, and most importantly for putting up with my brother.”
“te’Oshun!” Alynon said.
“Very well.” Oshun smiled. “That last is from me personally. The Silver owes you both a debt,” she said, and nodded to Silene.
“Uh, thanks,” I said. “But do you really think it will be enough? Seemed like Chauvelin convinced everyone that we were just puppets of the Silver Court pretty easily, before Silene’s memories. I’m guessing he’ll try to do the same again.”
“The Shadows have much power and influence, it is true,” Oshun said. “Few are willing to oppose them directly or to openly declare sides until the outcome is most clear. But you have given us a foundation upon which we may build the arguments against them. And more than mere arguments, Silene has, I hope, reminded many of the proxenoi the true costs of this game we play.”
“There’s got to be something I can do,” I said. “Make some promise or threat on behalf of the ARC?” And deal with the consequences when I returned home.
“No,” Oshun said. “The Silver Court, more than any other Demesne, must now prove that it can achieve a victory without requiring the aid of arcana to do so.” She turned to Silene. “And while you have given cause both in your world and ours for rebuke, know also that we see the value in your passion and your desire to protect your brightblood cousins. Such action, in spite of fear or consequence, brings honor to your clan and proves the quality of your nature.”
“Thank you, Bright Lady,” Silene said, and bowed her head.
Oshun returned the bow, then said, “Now, if you will excuse me, I must to these pressing matters attend.”
A sad smile curved Oshun’s lips as she stepped past Alynon, and paused.
“Brother, I wish you luck in your quest for freedom. Few desire for love to thrive as much as I, so though I doubt the wisdom of your choice, I do offer my truest sympathies for your heart’s plight.”
“Thanks. But if you truly wished my happiness, you would ask the family to keep me here until we figure out how to separate me from Finn.”
“Uh, wait,” I said. “What?”
“You know I cannot do that,” Oshun replied.
“I know you will not.” Alynon turned away from his sister.
Oshun sighed, and said, “Farewell, Brother.”
“La. Thanks.”
Oshun glided from the room, the door dissolving away from her, then returning once she’d passed.
“You know—” I began.
“Do not,” Alynon said. “You are in no position to give me advice on family, love, or anything else.”
“Fine.”
I felt bad. I truly did. But our spirits were still clearly bound together somehow, and if distance in the Other Realm had nearly undone us both, I didn’t imagine being in separate realms would end much better. I did not want to force Alynon to leave his own body and be trapped in mine again, and not just because he was an annoying brain-guest. But I also wasn’t willing to be trapped in the Other Realm. “Look, when we get back, we’ll double our efforts to find a way—”
“Just don’t,” Alynon said. “I don’t care about your promises right now.”
“I understand,” I said.
And I did. Not just his anger about having to return with me, but that his family hadn’t fought harder to keep him from exile. A feeling I could completely empathize with.
I summoned Herman the guard, and he swept ahead of us in his slayer armor, leading the way to the Room of Transfers.
Alynon looked absolutely miserable as we walked.
I sighed. “Is there anything I can do? You know, short of staying? Maybe I ca
n get Heimdallr to help you, give you a chance to see your true love or something?”
Alynon blinked at me.
“I—no, there’s nothing you can do.”
We reached the Room of Transfers. Heimdallr waited for us.
“The way is prepared,” he said. “Upon your word, I shall open the way back to your home.”
“Great,” I said. “Three to beam up, Scotty.”
Alynon gave a sharp nod to Herman behind me, and I felt a collar snap closed around my neck.
“What—!” I grasped at the collar.
“I’m sorry,” Alynon said. “But only Silene will be leaving.”
My body melted, lost its human shape, and returned to the blobby form of an unshaped Fey. The bracelet that Heimdallr had given me slipped to the floor. As my body changed, I continued clawing at the collar with both swelling hands. It felt all too familiar. I had worn one for twenty-five years, a representation of bondage that allowed them to remove even my limited ability to move and project my voice.
I stepped away from slayer Herman, stepped back from everyone. As much as I had feared this might happen, had tried to prepare myself for the possibility, I still felt unreasoning panic scrabbling at the edges of my mind, threatening to overwhelm me. I tried to speak, but had lost the ability. What are you doing? I projected.
“I am truly sorry, Finn,” Alynon said. “But I cannot return to being a prisoner in your head. I won’t.”
Chauvelin entered the room, a smug smile on his face at the sight of me in my unshaped Fey body.
I looked from him to Alynon. You made a deal with him, didn’t you? What did you offer him?
Alynon had the decency to look guilty at least, as he avoided my eyes. “You left me no choice. You, and my family.”
Chauvelin gave a dismissive wave of his hand. “Alynon’s choices are no longer your concern, arcana.” He looked at Heimdallr. “You were told to send back the vassal, yes? We would not wish to add insult to injury for the Silver.”
“Very well,” Heimdallr said. He raised his hand and muttered some words in a language I didn’t recognize, and a portal opened up within one of the gates, an oval window through which I could see Verna’s laboratory in the ARC headquarters beneath Snoqualmie Falls. My body and Silene’s lay in their chairs surrounded by equipment meant to keep us alive.
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