Primal's Wrath: Book VI of 'The Magician's Brother' Series

by HDA Roberts

“Why are you always in a mood?” I replied, frowning.

  “Oh, no particular reason. The monsters rampaging through my world don’t help, though. And, let’s not forget, you’re here... without an invitation.”

  Everyone froze.

  Everyone. Even the mounts seemed to go still.

  Heads slowly turned towards me. Gwendolyn's eyes filled with tears again.

  "No!" she gasped, turning towards Adriata. "You wouldn't! Not after what he’s done for us?!"

  Evelina rolled her eyes and pulled her... friend? Bond-Sister? Well, anyway, they moved away from me.

  "We'll be along to see you as soon as things settle, okay, Matty?"

  "You're always welcome in any place where I hold sway. My home will always be yours," I replied.

  They both smiled at the old, formal words. In Sidhe culture, that was what you said when you wanted to let a friend know that they had an open invitation. It was a demonstration of trust and friendship as old as their laws of hospitality. As you might imagine, they didn’t get said very often in Unseelie.

  With that, I decided to leave immediately. I figured it couldn’t be long before someone tried to do me a mischief, and boy was I right!

  Adriata stepped to one side and that nitwit Torys leapt right at me, spear in hand, his face contorted into a mask of hatred. I wiggled a finger and he slammed into the ground, face first... again. Another flick and he went flying back the way he'd come, right into the rather fragrant area where the garrison's Wyverns had been gathering.

  And if you think horses can crap, you'd be horrified by what Wyverns could put out...

  I pulled my Shade Armour back up around my person as the first of Adriata's elite guards leapt at me.

  "Really?" I said to the Queen as the first spears sparked off my defences.

  "I gave you a head start," she said, smirking.

  "What, half a second?!"

  "You're still alive, aren't you?"

  I sighed and waved to my two favourite princesses. Evelina was laughing while Gwendolyn looked worried, but she was reassured when it looked like I wasn't in any real danger. They waved back, and I my used my link to the Shadows to pull the armour into the air. I went straight up, far faster than anything could hope to follow.

  I smiled as I took in the view from altitude. The tide had already turned. Squadrons of Seelie Dragon-Riders were working in concert with Unseelie Wyvern packs to attack the Hyde while columns of Sidhe soldiers from both Realms emerged from Portals to attack the monsters from the rear before vanishing the same way they arrived, leaving piles of broken bodies behind them. The Hyde camps and supply depots were already burning, some were destroyed entirely...

  I heard a roar from beneath me and saw a small squadron of particularly mean-looking Wyverns take off and start flapping after me. I stopped sight-seeing and accelerated off to the south, though I stayed under the speed of sound so that I didn't shatter anything important.

  Even so, I was going pretty fast, so it didn't take me long to get back to the forest on the other side of the crater wall, or to find the Gateway I'd come in through. I came in for a landing on that familiar dark stone before the first of my pursuers could even get to the mountain range.

  I took one last look around at that beautiful, if bleak, place as I opened the Gateway that would take me back to Wales. It really was a world of wonders; wild and untamed, Magical and mysterious. But it was also the home of predators, monsters and lunatics, and I had quite enough of those at home.

  I sighed and stepped through the Gate, happy to be heading back where I belonged.

  Chapter 39

  I reappeared in the wrecked clearing I’d left from, just as the sun was starting to peek over the horizon. I checked my watch and saw that I hadn't even been gone four hours.

  And in that time, I'd rescued a princess, helped save a world, and reunited new-found Bond-Sisters. Not a bad morning's work.

  I smiled... for maybe a second before that other shoe I’d mentioned finally made itself known.

  "Are you out of your bloody, hormone-addled mind!" Hopkins snapped, badly startling me and drawing from me a far from manly shriek.

  “God Jen, you scared the crap out of me!”

  “Oh you think it’s bad now?! Just you wait, you little bastard!”

  I winced and reconfigured my armour back to its brace around my wounds before slowly stomping around until I was facing her.

  She was dressed in a neat suit, though her hair was tousled like she’d been woken up, likely by a certain Warden of my acquaintance (who apparently had no idea how to sugar-coat bad news to avoid getting me in trouble).

  I cleared my throat and tried to look sensible. I don’t wish to guess how that came across. Knowing me, I probably just looked vaguely winded.

  "Once I explain, I think we will all agree..." I started, but whatever I’d had in mind vanished when the look on her face started getting more and more hostile.

  I swallowed.

  I tried again. "That is to say..."

  Her eyes narrowed dangerously and my second attempt also died on the vine.

  "Did Cassandra not tell you where I went?" I asked instead.

  One of the eyes started to twitch.

  "Ah, that's actually made it worse, hasn't it?"

  A small nod.

  "It had to be done, Jen," I said, drawing myself up as best I could with my broken bits. The arm was just about fine, but the leg wasn't half-done healing, only just barely reconnected and still missing a lot of muscle and bone mass. The healing process had slowed because I’d used up every spare resource on my frame and eaten everything in my go-bag while I’d been chatting with Evelina.

  "Unseelie, Matty? Do you know how many people have come back from Unseelie after going in without an invitation?"

  "Lots?" I offered.

  "One. Including you."

  That made me a little queasy.

  "Adriata owed me one, I suppose. She gave me a slight head start. Not that I needed one, I hadn't lowered my shields or anything."

  Hopkins really looked like she wanted to shout at me, but instead she sagged and came over to look at my injuries, "Jesus, what happened to you?!"

  "Some sort of Disintegration Beam. This new kind of Hyde Prime thing was a nasty little bugger."

  "New kind of Prime?”

  "Indeed. Creepy-looking thing; here," I said, concentrating.

  An Illusion of the creature appeared, in all its slimy glory.

  Hopkins grimaced, "Not just a Prime, a High Prime. But... you were successful? You got to Evelina in time?"

  "Just in time. I don't think I'd have made it if I'd left even an hour or two later, Jen."

  She sighed, rubbing her eyes, "Alright, let's get you home, you can tell us all about it."

  "Us?" I asked with a certain amount of trepidation.

  "Oh yes. Everyone's there and nobody's happy with you."

  "Does it matter at all that I did a good deed?"

  "Does it ever?"

  "Fair point."

  We Portalled directly into my drawing room, where the other three Archons were, indeed, waiting for me. Killian and Kron looked largely unperturbed, but poor Palmyra seemed determined to stress-eat every cupcake in the county. We found her with one in each hand and frosting smeared on her lips. It would have been adorable but for the look of fury that crossed her features at the sight of me...

  "There, told you he'd live. I had the odds at better than fifty-three percent," Kron said to Palmyra, a satisfied smirk on her face.

  Killian rolled his eyes and stood to shake my undamaged hand.

  "We were a bit concerned," he said as I more or less collapsed onto a sofa with a satisfied groan.

  Before I could reply, Cassandra came bursting though the door, along with Demise and the dog, all of whom rushed me. It was almost too much for my poor ticker, which had been subjected to quite enough shocks and surprises for one day...

  The dog managed to get to me first and slobbe
red all over me in his snuffling attempt to determine that I was still intact (and not in possession of any food he could pinch).

  Cassandra and Demise spoke at the same time, simultaneously scolding me and making sure I was alright while the other Archons watched on in amusement.

  "I'm fine, just a slight duelling mishap that will be fine in an hour or two," I said as they poked my Shadow-covered limbs.

  At this point Palmyra came along to have a look, though she was still rather obviously angry with me. She closed her eyes and I felt her power sink into my injuries. She winced when she saw my leg.

  "Those lattices are good. Just get some nutrients down you and you'll be fine," she said, still glaring.

  "Thanks," I said. "And I’m sorry."

  "For what? For going to the one place no invader's ever come back from? For not telling us? For not taking us with you? Be specific!"

  "All of that that," I said, looking down. "But my friend was in trouble. I had to go, and I couldn't wait; really, I couldn't."

  Palmyra puffed out a breath and sat next to me.

  "Idiot."

  "Fair enough."

  "At least his heart's in the right place. Not too many idiots can claim that," Kron added, smiling, perhaps even a little proudly.

  I rolled my eyes, but smiled back at her.

  "Now, tell us what happened," Kron said, her eyes dancing with interest. "Leave nothing out.”

  I took a moment to gather my thoughts, and started telling my story. Kron made me stop after I got to the battle so she could import one of her Wardens along with a Memory Crystal and a camera, at which point she made me start again with the dreams. She also made me produce Illusions, which could then be recorded by both the crystal and the camera.

  "You did it again," she said when I was done, now scowling at me. "You hogged all the fun for yourself!"

  "Not all the fun, I assure you!" I said, waggling my bent wing.

  "Don't be such a drama queen. That was a story for the ages and you kept it all to yourself! A princess to rescue, an evil army, a monster from the depths of humanity's depraved imagination and you kept it from me!"

  "If I'd paused to call you, said monster would likely have eaten the ruddy princess!"

  "That's no excuse!"

  "It sort of is..."

  Kron pouted, though I'd never describe it as such to her face. She slumped in her armchair, arms crossed, face scrunched in frustration.

  "I'll tell you next time, alright?" I said, trying to placate her.

  "You said that last time," she grumped.

  Palmyra smirked, but otherwise continued to look upset, I think just out of principle.

  "I know that I sometimes rush into things," I said to the little Life Mage, "but I really felt like there was no opportunity to do anything else. And I also figured that if I told you lot that I was going into Unseelie, you'd be along with a straitjacket and a coil of sturdy rope before I'd had the chance to tell you why I wanted to go."

  Kron looked a little shifty at that, but didn't comment. The others looked just as guilty.

  "That's what I figured. I knew I'd eventually be able to convince you that I needed to go, but by then it would be too late, and there's no way you'd have just come along with me on a second's notice, is there?"

  Shrugs all around, but everyone knew the answer was no.

  "I’m sorry if I frightened or upset you, but I'll never be sorry I went. This may well be one of the best things I ever did. I actually managed to give a real pair of Fairytale Princesses a happy ending. That's a good day."

  "Just not the happy ending you were hoping to give them, am I right?" Palmyra said knowingly, her traditional lascivious grin back in place.

  "Nice to know you're still keeping it classy."

  Before long, the others went on their way, content that they'd given me a good enough scolding, and levied a sufficient fine in the form of everything in my kitchen. They barely left me enough nutrients to keep my healing going.

  It took me a while to calm down, I have to say. To go from one of the most intense battles of my life (and on another planet, to boot!) right back to calm at home was immensely jarring, and I found myself staring off into space more than once, just thinking about what I'd seen and what it all represented.

  And then there were the questions...

  The most pressing one was how had Adriata been so foolish as to believe she could beat the Hyde without her Portals. That seemed idiotic, and Adriata was nobody's idiot.

  No matter how you cut it, the Unseelie had been on the verge of destruction when I'd arrived. Their capital city had been under siege, many of their lands had been lost, and their Crown Princess was about to be absorbed into that horrific Prime. Disaster was too weak a word.

  Not that it was that important, but you really would think, bearing all that in mind, that Adriata might have given me a pass on the invitation, but no... Unseelie will be Unseelie.

  While I was spiralling down into something resembling a stupor, my mother called, which was a relief. It gave me something for my whirling brain to latch onto. She said she’d called to check in, but what she really wanted was for me to try and talk some sense into Des.

  It appeared that he’d taken up a new hobby.

  Have you heard of Mexican wrestling? The kind with the masks and the acrobatics and the drama?

  Well, it turned out that there was also Mexican Duelling.

  It was absolutely mortifying.

  They called him 'El Blanco Loco', and apparently he had gathered quite the following. He’d already won several minor matches against local semi-professionals in Mexico City.

  I wanted to stop him. The pictures of my twin brother dressed in spandex alone...

  But, of course, I couldn’t bring myself to put an end to it. When I called him, he just sounded so happy, so full of life. I wouldn’t take that from him just to spare myself a little ribbing. He deserved to be happy and a little frivolous for a while.

  At least it was a safe activity, more performance art than actual duelling, and they used the full suite of safety gear, besides.

  If nothing else, those conversations snapped me out of my daze and had me turn my attention back to the real world, where things still had to be done, paperwork still had to be filed... and a Conclave still had to be infiltrated.

  I called Price (Tethys was still on holiday), but there was nothing worth reporting on that front, as it was still early days. She promised to keep in touch, though, which was reassuring.

  Worryingly, though, was that there was still no sign of Myrddin. Not so much as a peep.

  Maybe he’d done the decent thing and just keeled over?

  Nah. No way was I that lucky.

  The next day was a Monday, and it was back to university for me.

  Try as I might, I couldn’t relax into my subjects, there was just too much on my mind between the Conclave gearing up for something nasty and Myrddin almost certainly plotting my demise from some undisclosed location.

  At least I had Kandi to take my mind off things. She’d returned from another business trip that morning, though she was thoroughly miffed that she’d been left out of the holiday plans.

  "I can't believe she didn't take me with her. I love a tropical island!" she complained that evening.

  I smiled and rubbed her back for her, which settled her down a bit.

  We were lying on my recliner, watching something brainless on the TV, just relaxing for a while. We were both dressed for bed, a blanket over our knees.

  "You'll get the next one."

  "I damn well better! Can you imagine what those two are up to? I'm so jealous!"

  I snorted and she cuddled in a bit closer to me.

  "I think she's leaving me behind," Kandi said in a tiny voice a while later.

  "Why would you think that? She loves you."

  "If that's so, then why is there even a Lexi at all? What if she’s moving on from me?" her voice was worried and sad.

 
; I sighed and squeezed her a bit tighter. "From what I can see, Tethys is just looking for someone to fill a void, that's all. You've been so busy with Thornsby International that she was missing you and went looking for someone who could fill in for you a bit. If you ever told her that you didn't like Lexi, Tethys would drop her like last week's shellfish. You know that."

  She turned her lovely eyes on me.

  "You think so?" she asked.

  "I know so.”

  She smiled and nuzzled gently at my neck, which tickled and made me smile.

  "I still miss her."

  "Me too."

  "And I want rid of that Lexi-bitch."

  "You and me both, but I can't think of a way of doing that which doesn't hurt our mutual friend."

  Kandi sighed (which did yet further interesting things to my neck) and hugged me a bit tighter.

  "Fine, I'll be nice."

  "No, no, be as mean as you want, if you can get rid of Lexi, then my hands stay cle- ow, ow! Stop biting!"

  She giggled.

  Chapter 40

  I managed to get three days of peace and quiet before anything else could raise my blood pressure. Three days of school, steady eating and evenings spent wrapped up with a spicy redhead, I was in heaven.

  But then a Fairy Dog turned up.

  He arrived just I was drifting off to sleep with Kandi wrapped around my chest, her head tucked in under my chin (once of my top five ways to fall asleep, just for the record).

  “Ahem!” he coughed. I barely noticed. I may have yawned, but that’s it. Kandi started snoring a bit.

  He barked.

  “What? What is it?!” I said as I bolted upright, dislodging Kandi, who squawked as she was nearly rolled off the other side of the bed.

  I turned, expecting to see Burglar, but was instead greeted by something that looked vaguely like an Irish Wolfhound in structure, only with black, smooth fur and pointed ears. It took me a second to recognise him, and that was a scary second, let me tell you. He was not a cute-looking dog.

  "Grontor?" I finally managed, still slightly dazed from my near-sleep state. "Is that you?"

  "Do you know any other Watchers?" he asked, flopping his heavy hindquarters down next to my bed.