by HDA Roberts
I made a mental note to create my own version of that room. Maybe I wouldn’t be blindsided so often...
"But naturally I can't," he grumbled, flopping down behind a small, ebony desk after quite a bit of pacing (combined with some rather creative swearing).
"Why?" I asked.
"The same reason you didn't squash Bradley and her whole poisonous brood when they started playing silly-buggers."
"Your Warden wouldn't let you?"
Killian snorted, the dreadful look leaving his face for a moment, "Politics," he replied.
"Yuk."
"Quite. At the best of times, the Triumvirate doesn’t like me, I've had to conduct one or two purges over the years, and I was in a bit of a mood during the last one and might have gone just a touch overboard."
Oh, that didn't sound good. Killian's 'a touch overboard' was everybody else's 'natural disaster'.
"And what with this whole 'global society' thing, I can't just go in there, Spells-blazing. They'll complain to their allies, who'll complain to their allies, who will complain to Kron, who will hold it over me for centuries."
"That's the problem?" I asked.
"That, and it's not like anything really terrible happened. The idiot who actually broke the law is already dead and everyone left will just deny everything. So I’d have to peel it out of someone, which will cause more bad blood..."
He sighed and sagged, leaning his chin on his hands.
"Oh for the good old days when I could just pop in, fry a few locals, set something on fire and be home in time for tea, secure in the knowledge that they'd do what they were told."
I chuckled. I think he was joking...
"So what do we do now?" I asked.
"I keep looking for evidence to tie something to Yoruba and you go home, please. You've stirred up another hornet's nest and I don’t want you making it worse."
“Oh, how could this possibly be my fault?!”
“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but you have to admit that things tend to go wrong when you turn up,” he replied, his face cracking into an evil smirk.
“And the site?” I said, choosing to ignore that.
“I've already dispatched a couple of Wardens to cleanse it of any residual nastiness and even more to start looking into whatever else that idiot Yoruba may be up to. If nothing else, this debacle has revealed that I haven't been paying as much attention to the home front as I should have been."
The way he said that chilled me to the bone. He may not have intended anything flashy, but you just knew something bad was going to happen to Yoruba. I can’t say I felt too bad about that. The man was messing with things even the really stupid idiots wouldn’t go anywhere near.
Even knowing that his ire wasn’t directed my way, while I didn't quite sprint out of there, it was a close run thing. I didn't want to be anywhere near Killian when he was in that bad a mood. I did take the time to say goodbye to Umaira and her people, though. We parted on good terms, though I can’t say that I ever expected to see them again.
Funny how things work out...
Cassandra and I went home as quickly as I could manage it, to find the place just as I'd left it. I smiled at that. No matter what weird and whacky things happened to me, life went on. Blackhold remained, solid and eternal, home and safety for me and my family.
I caught up with my parents (who'd barely noticed I was incommunicado), Des (who was making an arse of himself with every Mexican senorita he could find; so far he'd accumulated ten slaps and two kicks to the groin) and Tethys, who was hip deep packing for a surprise getaway with Ross.
"Thank God you're back," she said, hugging me. "There was no way I could get away from here if you were out of the country."
"Wow, the overwhelming rush of your emotional welcome has truly touched me," I said dryly, earning me a pinch.
"Lexi made plans, she's booked us our own private island out in the Pacific. Two weeks of sun, sea and debauchery."
"I'll miss you."
"Think of that, Matty, a private island of hedonism. Tell me you aren't jealous."
"Of course I am, just not of you," I replied, "Lexi, however..."
She actually blushed, "You always were a charmer."
I smiled at her, "Take a satellite phone with you, though."
"And have people calling every five minutes?"
"No, in case something goes wrong and you need help. I assume you're leaving your Wardens behind?"
"Of course. Private island."
"They definitely take the phone, alright? For me?"
She rolled her eyes, but nodded.
“I’ve set everything up with Viv,” that’s Price, by the way, “she’ll be taking over our intelligence gathering in the Conclave, and my various lackeys will keep things ticking over until I get back.”
Yes... it wasn’t the most convenient time for her to go on holiday, but, like Cassandra and Demise, actually getting her to go was largely impossible, so I wasn’t really in a position to complain, and if she thought her operations could manage without her, who was I to gainsay?
I wished her a good time and she was gone by the end of the day, vanishing through a Portal with Ross holding her hand; a small train of luggage following them.
Ross was a lucky woman.
While I’m not really one for jealousy, I will confess to feeling a little... lost when Tethys left like that. Never was there a time when I regretted her intimacy issues more.
For all her immense confidence with people, Tethys was still wary of real relationships after the loss of her first great love. I hoped that she'd be able to move past that one day, and that when she did, I wasn’t so lodged in the friend zone that there could be no coming back.
But then... Succubus, I’m not sure that they even have a friend zone.
After she left, and with nothing better to do I just slipped back into my daily routine. Not that I got to for very long...
Because on the second night after coming back from the desert, I had another dream, the worst one yet.
Evelina stood on the outer wall of her fortress, which I now knew was called Del-Sora, thanks to that dream of Elora and Gwendolyn. She stood with Cruinn, Torys, Medrine and several other leaders. The ramparts were heavily manned, with black armoured Sidhe in double lines standing ready. The front line was armed with spears, pikes, swords and shields, the rear with bows. All around, boys and other non-combatants ran with bales of arrows, water and food.
The far side of chasm that protected the outer walls was lined with Hyde abominations. There were thousands of them, mostly the smaller ones, made of Sidhe and beasts. But there were larger ones too, now. Some were twice the height of a man, stitched and stapled from ogres, trolls and other medium sized monsters.
And then there were the giants.
Some were ‘only’ twenty feet tall, but some were larger still, as much as double that, some broad for strength, some tall and skinny for something resembling agility. I saw cyclopean eyes, the heads of dragons, drakes and even what looked horribly like an enormous spider, stapled onto patchwork bodies that didn’t look like they should work, but did.
It was an army to end a world.
But there was worse to come.
Beyond the gathered Hyde, on the other side of their camp, something was happening.
Next to the trees, far beyond the range of arrow or bolt, the air was beginning to flex and warp. It swirled, energy started to flare, casting arcs of static electricity and pulses of power that scorched the churned ground.
The effect compressed and gathered into a vertical whirlpool before pulsing one last time and disgorging one of the most awful things I’d ever laid my eyes on.
You could have cut the tension among the Sidhe with a knife as the new... thing came skittering away from where it had emerged and towards the fortress. It was maybe six metres long; its overall shape that of a lumpy, fleshy maggot, bent in the middle, the front third standing up, the rear two thirds propelled by hundreds
of insectoid legs, like a millipede’s. The 'head' was a mass of black eyes, pointed all around itself, and it had eight dextrous arms that looked like they'd come from Sidhe.
That was bad enough, but, arranged along its back like a line of grotesque vertebrae, was a row of Sidhe heads. They were fused into the flesh of the horror... and still alive. Or as alive as a Hyde could be, anyway, all of them in obvious agony, screaming in their madness and torment.
It didn't take me long to figure out what I was looking at; Elora had been told about it in that last dream, and it could be nothing else, not that thing...
Medrine confirmed my suspicions.
"By the Goddess, the Prime," she whispered.
But a very different Prime to the ones I was used to. They had been more or less humanoid, if a bit twisted and generally lacking most of a face. This thing didn't look remotely human.
And the way it had appeared explained a lot. Thanks to Myrddin, Elora and simple common sense, I knew that the Unseelie didn’t have access to their Portal Magic. That would be a problem, sure, but they still had a whole world of soldiers and resources at their disposal, they shouldn’t have had anywhere near this sort of trouble with a few Hyde.
But, if the Hyde could use some form of Transportation Magic (and that seemed to be the case from what I’d just seen), then while the Unseelie were stuck using roads and ships...
Even if it was just this one monster that was doing the shifting (which seemed a safe bet, Medrine and Elora had called it the Prime), the Unseelie would be in terrible trouble. Evelina’s people were faced with an enemy that got stronger as they got weaker, that didn’t need rest, that didn’t need much food or shelter except from extreme temperatures, and which could move its forces with near impunity while they were stuck behind walls, scattered to defend an entire planet’s population.
It did not look good.
Evelina nodded, "So this is it, then. The endgame."
The deadness in her voice chilled me. She'd all but given up.
But then she straightened, taking a breath and standing up straight.
"Powers to me!" Evelina barked, raising her hands.
Even though I was just some sort of projection, I could feel the power that flowed towards her as hundreds of Sidhe Mystics (their equivalent of Magicians, though with Unseelie, it was really a matter of degree as most, if not all, had some sort of power) all lent her their energies. With that to hand, she went to work, calling to the air around her.
She worked fast; impressively fast.
The Prime was faster.
And in that terrible instant when it used its powers for the first time, I knew why it had collected all those heads. It was because they’d belonged to Sidhe Mystics; powerful ones, too.
Just as Evelina was using the energy of her people to power her casting... so too was the Prime using those poor, tortured souls.
The screaming heads started howling as one, energy flickering between them and into the Prime’s ugly body. The creature raised a pair of its hands and pointed at the fortress' wall. A beam of purple light lashed out and slammed into the stone.
There was a crack, and for a second I thought nothing had happened, but then a twenty metre stretch of that massive fortress wall simply exploded.
Dozens of Sidhe were killed in the blast, and hundreds more were injured by the splash damage, their exposed skin seared to the bone and their armour suddenly hot enough to cook the flesh within.
The beam started to move, blasting the rubble away as it shifted towards undamaged sections of the wall, but then Evelina finished her work and a great shimmering barrier of hardened air appeared between the castle and Prime, cutting off the monster’s assault.
But it was too late. That single attack had been more than enough to seriously compromise the defences of Del-Sora. Perhaps even fatally.
And the attack was still going! The beam bored into the shield, causing the dome to contort and ripple under the stress. Evelina’s defence couldn't last long under that sort of strain. It was certainly powerful, at least a match for a Fortress Shield, but I couldn't see it lasting, not like this.
Evelina sagged and Torys caught her. She sweated and gasped for air.
"How long, your Highness?” Cruinn asked softly.
"Not long. A day. Two at the most, then we're done."
Better than my estimate, which would have been hours, but still very bad.
And she’s sounded so tired when she said it. I was nearly frantic with worry. I had to do something!
"It's time to think of your safety, Highness," Cruinn said, a note of finality in his voice.
"I agree. We should prepare your mount," Torys said, though I suspected that he was only in favour of that because it would mean preparing his mount as well.
"No. There's nowhere to go, and I won't abandon my people to that thing," she snarled, glaring at the hellish monster still trying to claw its way in to her.
God, what if it caught her? What if it... what if it did that to her as well?
"I will stay, and I will fight. You will gather every rider we have and determine precisely how many children each mount can carry, for when the worst happens. You will find another rider for my beast, understand?"
"My Lady-" Cruinn began.
"I asked if you understood, General," she said coldly, her tone brooking no argument.
He looked like he wanted to argue again, but didn't.
"I do," he finally agreed.
"NO!" I screamed.
I would have sworn that they started turning towards me at the sheer intensity of my words, but I didn't get to find out.
I snapped awake.
The Cat was there.
It's time, he sent in his emotive way.
Damn right it is!
Chapter 36
I took a moment to calm down and settle my breathing after the intensity of the dream, but I made sure that I did so; panic would help nobody. The Cat just waited patiently for me to be ready, grooming himself and purring.
I started moving. First, I went to the intercom and hit the button for Cassandra's room.
"What?" she grumbled.
"Cassie, I need you in my room, quick as you can, please."
"On the way," she said, immediately awake and alert at the tone of my voice.
While I waited for her, I dressed, selecting comfortable clothes that wouldn't be easily grabbed by something nasty; tight, but not constricting. I pulled on a dark shirt, matching trousers, hooded sweater and well broken-in walking trainers. Finally, I looped my standard 'go-bag' around my shoulder. This was something Cassandra had taught me about, a bag containing the basic necessities for anywhere I might go, sat-phone, G.P.S. receiver, spare batteries, torch, water, snacks, money; you get the idea. Basic stuff, most of which would be useless where I was going, but I wasn’t going to waste time repacking the thing.
Cassandra barged into my room like a mini-tornado just as I finished getting ready. She came to a halt at the sight of me standing next to the Cat. She swallowed.
"I'm going to hate this, aren't I?" she asked.
I smiled. "I should think so."
"Unseelie?"
I nodded.
"Any point in my trying to convince you not to go?" she asked.
"I have to. She's family, in a strange sort of way."
She chuckled, but it was sad.
She came over and yanked me into a hug, squeezing me like she was afraid it was for the last time. When she pulled away, she looked me square in the eyes.
"Alright, if you're doing this, here are the ground rules. One, never, and I repeat, never let your guard down, not for any reason, not at any time. You may be going to help, but you are still going uninvited, that leaves you with no rights of invitation, and something may try to take you as a trophy, understand?"
I nodded.
"Two, get in, save the girl, get out. Do not linger for anything. If you do, the same problem applies. I can't hammer this home enough. You
are going in uninvited. This is a big thing for them. You need to be out of there as soon as you possibly can."
I hadn't known that this would be so big a problem. I was now a little worried, actually, but it wasn’t like that was going to stop me.
"Okay."
"Good.” She hugged me again. “Be careful and come home safe."
"Thanks Cassie. Keep the home fires burning?"
"You know I will."
I looked to the Warp-Cat.
Okay, let's go.
Cassandra was trying to keep up a brave face, but she was terrified for me. I couldn't say I was especially happy either, but I had to go. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I didn’t.
Grommit yawned widely, stretched and jumped onto my shoulder. He meowed softly and warped us away.
We reappeared in a clearing, surrounded by tall trees; larch and spruce, so dense that I could barely see a few feet into the woods. I pulled the G.P.S. from my go-bag and discovered that we were in North Wales, more or less smack in the middle of the Gwydir Forest Park.
Grommit dropped from my back and padded over to a weather-worn slab of black stone that seemed to shimmer in the reflected light of the stars above us. He sat down on the stone and stared at me, his golden eyes boring into mine.
Way here, he sent eventually, patting the stone with his meaty paw, I show, you open.
I nodded and returned the GPS to my backpack. I made sure to log the coordinates, though. Very few people knew where to find an access point to the Fairy Realms and I wasn’t going to risk losing this one because of my dreadful sense of direction.
Much power required to breach barrier. Warn you; maybe explosion, maybe you die.
Nice pep-talk.
Grommit purred loudly and hopped back onto my shoulder.
Without any further preamble, his mind pressed against my own, and he started showing me what needed to be done. It wasn't easy to understand at first; it was all instinct, with points of reference that I couldn't quite grasp. But Grommit was patient and he slowly guided my Magical senses into the stone, and then into the Gateway that existed there.
It was no wonder that those things were so hard to find. The energy was unlike any I’d ever felt before, and it blended so seamlessly with the ambient energy of the area that I wouldn’t have been able to detect it at all without Grommit helping me.
