Edgelanders (Serpent of Time)

by Jennifer Melzer

  Because no matter which father she chose to claim as her own, both men brought the U’lfer nothing but pain.

  There was a raised wooden chamber spanning the left side of the hall. Several empty seats filled it, but what drew her attention was the beautiful young woman sitting there alone. The woman turned toward them, reached up to tuck a loose tendril of wavy black hair behind her ear and drew her lower lip between her teeth apprehensively when she saw them. There was something familiar about her, about the shape and color of her stark blue eyes that reminded her of Finn and Vilnjar. She looked over at them both before glancing back at the woman again, but there wasn’t time to contemplate. The guard on her right pushed her up the three stairs and told her to sit down. Lorelei took a seat just behind the other woman and Finn squeezed into the tiny chair beside her.

  “Are you okay? I wanted to come see you, but Viln said…”

  “Don’t you dare even look at me, you little brat,” the woman hissed in a whisper over her shoulder when Finn started to lean forward to talk to her. “I just spent the last five days caged in isolation while you were out here playing Seer’s favorite because you were thinking with your gods damned hormones.”

  “Oh, come on, Rue. It wasn’t like that. There’s so much more to it than my hormones. Rhiorna says…”

  “Yeah, about Rhiorna,” she sneered, “the least you could have done was asked her to get me out of there since she’s all mighty and powerful again. Good gods, Finn. You commit the biggest crime in the history of the village, and I’m the one who gets arrested and thrown into confinement.”

  He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and lowered his head like a scolded little boy. “Viln tried to get you out, I swear,” he grumbled. “I even offered to throw myself on the council’s mercy to take your place there, but Rhiorna said I needed to stay with Lorelei and protect her.”

  The woman glared over her shoulder at Lorelei, narrowing her almond-shaped eyes with unspoken hatred that sparked unease in her so strong she had to look away.

  “She told me if you quietly served your punishment they would let you go. Apparently they’ve got far worse things planned for me.”

  “Good,” she huffed and turned in the chair to face forward again. “You could use a good beating.”

  “I don’t think they’re going to beat me.” He laughed uneasily. “I’ve got it on good authority that the next couple of hours will be my last here.”

  “That’s what I heard,” she muttered, her beautiful blue eyes widening slightly as she turned around once more. “They’re going to exile you?”

  “I’ve put everything the council stands for in danger bringing her here.” He said that so casually, as if he really didn’t care the least bit that his own people were preparing to cast him out of his home because he’d brought her into it. When Lorelei looked over at him he was grinning, proud of what he’d done.

  “I told you, you idiot. I told you to leave her where you found her. Llorveth’s horns, Finn.” She threw her arms up as if in defeat and sunk a little lower in her chair as a long, heavy breath escaped her.

  “I did what I know in my heart to be right.”

  “You can call it heart all you like, but we both know it was hormones, and now that big, stupid heart of yours is going to be the death of you, and very soon.”

  “Don’t be so dramatic. I’ll be fine. A little ice and snow never hurt anyone.”

  “You’re probably right. I don’t know what it is about you, but you seem to come out of every stupid thing you do completely unscathed while the rest of us pay the price. You’ll be lucky if Viln can get you out of this one somehow.”

  “Viln can’t do a damn thing about this, Rue. They removed him from the council on account of his impartiality.” The woman’s face remained almost calm in the wake of that revelation, but Lorelei swore she saw her eyes widen just a little. “And besides, even if they weren’t going to remove him, I wouldn’t want him to intervene. You know what exile means.”

  “Yeah, it means freezing that big, dumb ass of yours to death in the tundra, you moron. I know you think it is freedom, but you’re going to die down there, little brother. And for what?” She turned a scathing glare toward Lorelei, her pale eyes alight with fire and accusation. “Some pretty little ginger princess you hope will let you into her bed?” Her upper-lip curled into a bitter sneer. “Even cleaned up, she’s not that pretty.”

  Every muscle in the massive body beside her tensed and Finn leaned toward his sister with clenched hands. Lorelei swore she heard a low, guttural growl rumbling in his throat, but before it could get uglier than it already was the man seated at the center of the curved table stood up and began ringing a small bell. The chatter died down, and Lorelei didn’t have time to process what the woman said about Finn hoping she would let him into her bed, or the fact that she wasn’t even that pretty.

  The entire hall grew silent and focused on the seven men and women sitting in front of them.

  Lowering the bell to the table, the heavy quiet that followed was stifling.

  “Silence and order,” the ringer of that bell called out. “Before we begin this evening’s judgments, let it be noted that we, the Council of the Nine, stand before you this day as only seven. Due to the severe nature of punishment to be passed upon the judged in question, and the familial attachment of our youngest member, Vilnjar the Strong, son of Deken and Eornlaith, has been asked to step down from the council until such a time that his loyalties can be proved.”

  The silence was broken by a series of curious mutters and shifting bodies as everyone in the great hall turned to find Vilnjar standing near the back of the hall with his arms crossed.

  “Silence and order, please,” the man commanded, lifting the bell again to quiet their voices after he gave them several minutes to gasp and murmur like a hive of buzzing bees.

  Lorelei looked to Finn and for the first time since she’d met him the playful look in his eyes was gone. He was staring down at that man, his general state of nonchalance replaced by a narrowing, unspoken need for vengeance that actually frightened her.

  The mutters waned slowly, yielding to silence and allowing the councilman to speak again.

  “For ten years this council has been incomplete, even as all nine seats were filled. Despite her connection to Rognar the Conqueror, who brought shame and darkness upon us all,” he paused to allow several people to curse under their breath; the uncomfortable sound echoed through the hall for what seemed an eternity before he finally went on, “we honored her because of her connection to our lord and creator, Llorveth. Rhiorna was granted every honor and comfort, even as her once great contributions to the very foundation of this council were lost with her voice and vision.”

  Lorelei had a bad feeling about the man speaking from the center of the table. Unlike Trystay, who had been her first lesson in fair equals foul, there was nothing fair about the chancellor, but he was more than just a little foul. A hideous purple scar marred the right side of his face, driving down through his milky eye and gouging into his cheek before disappearing into the full, brown and silver beard that dangled thinly from his chin. His unmarred eye was beady and small, brimming with self-righteous malice and hate when he cast his gaze upon her again during the long pause he made for emphasis.

  “But she who once connected us all to Llorveth has played us false.” More whispers and disbelieving mutters followed, which he ignored as he continued his tirade against the seer. “Rhiorna’s blind silence was little more than deception, a farce behind which she hid a grievous agenda intent on tearing everything we’ve built here apart.” Another long pause, but that time no one dared to speak. “Tonight, she will stand and be judged among those seated in the chamber on your left. Ruwena, daughter of Deken and Eornlaith, her brother, Finn, who was named mad and reckless for his many outlandish deeds, and the red-haired stranger from Leithe, who crossed the border into our lands uninvited.”

  Chittering voices circulated through the
room once more, and for a time the speaker let their speculations circulate. After several minutes he nodded toward the officers positioned at the back of the hall and they moved inward to open the double doors. Two guards marched forward, Rhiorna bound in silver chains between them. The outraged crowd grew louder. A hitch of panic stifled the natural flow of Lorelei’s breath, and as if sensing her fear, Finn lowered a large hand over hers, his fingers curling and squeezing before he turned his eyes down to meet with hers.

  No fear, they seemed to say. Show no fear, or they will eat you alive.

  Creaking benches mingled with raised voices as every head in the room turned to watch her move gracefully down the narrow aisle. Every step made the bangles on her arm clang and jingle against her chains like muffled bells tangled in the flowing color of her long skirts, and though Lorelei didn’t understand why, she felt proud of how high the woman held her head. Even after everything Rhiorna told her, after the risks she claimed to have taken to watch Lorelei’s path and make sure she was guided in the right direction—an act that would surely be considered treason once it was confirmed that Rognar was her father—the woman had nothing to fear, nothing to hide.

  “Are the chains really necessary, Cobin? I was on my way to the hall to speak truth to our people when your thugs accosted me in the corridor and tangled me in within them.”

  “Silver is a necessary precaution to ensure you don’t escape, Rhiorna, for this judgment is yours, just as it is theirs, and it his high time our people know how far you’ve gone in your attempts to sabotage everything we’ve built here in the last eighteen years.”

  “There is a fine line between sabotage and truth, Chancellor, and you’ve been crossing that line yourself since before the War of Silence ended. This man,” she held her chained wrists toward the chancellor, every eye in the room following that movement with raised brow and curiosity. “Your chancellor has deceived you all. He has turned you away from the path our god chose for us when he created us, using fear to manipulate you, using lies to steer you further and further away from who we are. Llorveth has shown me the chancellor’s true face, has walked me through every one of his foul deeds, and if our people do not take control of their own destiny the U’lfer of the Edgelands will not have a future.”

  The sharp slap of skin clapping skin reverberated through the muted hall as the chancellor brought his hands together in singular applause. “Bravo, Rhiorna. Bravo. There are very few among us who have forgotten how skillfully your family could wield words like weapons. You speak with more passion than your brother, who sought to ruin us all just as you do now.”

  “My brother’s vision was clouded by a lust for power, just as yours is now, Cobin, but he saw the error of his ways before all was said and done.”

  “Rognar’s vision was no doubt sown into the field of his impressionable, power-hungry mind by you. And to think we spared you from Rognar’s fate because we thought your ties to Llorveth would bring us the peace our people have craved since the onslaught of that dark and terrible time. All the while you were plotting against us.”

  “The only thing dark and terrible in this room, Cobin, is you. For years you have blinded our people with fear, turning them away from our god and then telling them Llorveth abandoned us. You’ve forbidden what few children we have left from embracing what lives inside us all, you’ve made the last generation weak and unworthy of calling Llorveth their father, and Llorveth is not pleased. It is time the veil of lies is lifted so the U’lfer can see clearly again and return to the path our Creator laid out for us when he spun our very souls from the fabric of the Great Hunt.”

  Again, a curious wave of chatter rippled through the hall, but was quickly stifled when the chancellor shouted, “Silence!”

  Unlike the startled people in the rows of benches, Rhiorna didn’t flinch back in fear, but Lorelei felt herself leaning just a little closer to Finn.

  “You cannot silence your god, Cobin. Llorveth speaks and you would do well to listen.”

  The seer grinned and jerked herself free from the guards who led her, holding the chains up for everyone to see. The bonds that held her wrists together snapped free, the chains clinking to the floor at her feet as slow spirals of bright gold and silver light began to swirl and dance around her feet. They snaked upward, circling around her waist and tangling through her arms until the light reached her throat. She opened her mouth and that essence slipped inside her, causing her entire body to tremble with an unnatural force so strong the walls and floor began to shake. It lifted her feet from the worn wooden floor, suspending her like a stringless puppet, her body rising slowly into the air.

  When she spoke, it was not her voice that clamored above the chaos of murmuring voices, but a chorus of power that echoed through the halls until the world around them shook as if it were breaking apart to make way for a god to cross into their realm.

  “It is I who call for silence now and my voice will be heard.”

  Finn’s fingers squeezed tighter, so tight Lorelei felt like her bones were breaking in his grip, but she was too terrified to pull away and actually found herself leaning even closer to him.

  “Take heed, all who grow weary of the struggle. You fail because you have fallen from my path, but you are not alone. I have never left you even though you have ignored the very souls I put inside you and have forgotten who you are. But fear not, for she has come.” Rhiorna’s chained hands yielded to Lorelei. The seer’s body glowed brighter, the iridescent, golden light making a vibrant frame around her body. That light spiraled and grew, crawling through the space between them in eerie circular movements. “Daughter of Rognar and Ygritte, beloved of Llorveth and Madra, she is the moonlight in the darkness. Follow her south and she will lead you all to salvation.”

  “Stop this treachery and deceit, foul witch,” the chancellor bellowed. “You are no more the voice of Llorveth than I am, and we will not succumb to your sorcery and lies. Guards.”

  The guards surged forward to grab her, but when they put their hands upon her skin their flesh began to burn. Their screams tore through the hall, and Rhiorna threw back her head, dark laughter mingled with the golden essence leaving her body, gathering above her and taking shape. Every head in the room lifted upward to watch the ethereal spirals of light take form in the air, a great, golden stag hovering over them all in the center of the hall.

  “Follow her beyond the land’s edge, or you will fall and I will not hold out my hand to lift you up again.”

  Those were the last words Rhiorna spoke before her body dropped into a lifeless heap on the floor. The guards went down with her, rolling and screaming as they clutched their singed and blistered hands.

  Every eye in the hall was focused on the golden image of their god rising out of Rhiorna’s body like a spirit leaving a corpse. When it began to rush toward Lorelei, she swore she could hear the gallop, as if hooves drummed the earth and they hammered in time with the quickening pace of her heart. There was barely time to gasp as the essence of a god rushed through her like a breath and filled her body completely.

  Overwhelmed, completely encompassed, Lorelei barely felt her body rising off the chair until her feet were on the floor. It was lifting her, filling her, drawing her upward until every moment in time rolled through her veins like thunder passing across the sky. There was no time. Creation burned through her from the dawn of time forward and it was beautiful and peaceful, dark and terrible. Burning, she was burning as the god circulated through every inch of her body, every fiber of her being until she knew all, felt all, and could not deny the truths he had spoken inside her.

  She was terrified, and yet more calm than she had ever been in her entire life. There was an underlying beat in her heart, not her heart, but another and it was there with her, beating in time with hers and calming the furious pace that made her feel as if she might explode. She would be all right, so long as that heart continued to beat with hers. She would be just fine as long as she could feel it.

/>   When the energy began to centralize in the core of her being, it was a ball of cold fire raging in her soul. It was going to explode, to burst and scatter her into millions of pieces across the sky like stars, but as it began to dissipate, she could feel that power ebbing away, all the energy leaving through her pores and forming a spiraling ball of eternity just over her head. She only had to exhale and she would be free from that beautiful madness, but she wanted to hold tight to that wonder, cling to the overwhelming beauty and perfection.

  She felt her soul clench tighter around it, but she wasn’t strong enough to hold a god inside her forever.

  And then she was falling, floating downward as the energy left her with a great gust and there was nothing left to hold onto.

  Somewhere in the depth of her soul she heard him whisper, the voice of a god calling out, “Fear not, my daughter. I am always within you. Follow my voice and I will show you the way.”

  The last of his energy was building, pulsing, burning, growing, rising up inside her like a volcano on the verge of eruption.

  All she had to do was breathe and she would be free.

  “Lorelei!”

  Finn. He was so distant, the grasp of his desperate hands trembled across her flesh, but she was more than flesh, more than spirit. She was Llorveth, she was God.

  “Healer! Where’s the healer?” a frantic voice outside her separated her from the source, gave it just enough traction that it could pull free from its grip on her soul. A beautiful shadow hovered over her, soft lips lingering just over hers whispering, “Breathe, Princess. Come on, breathe.”

  She could feel his breath across her lips, the soft flutter of his hair brushing her face as he came down and touched his mouth to hers. The words he spoke into her soul were distant, but she could hear them whispering to her heart, their hearts which beat together in a single rising chorus of drums.