The Mad Queen (The Fae War Chronicles Book 5)

by Jocelyn Fox

  “You always make sandwiches out of everything,” said Tess under her breath.

  “It’s very utilitarian,” explained Liam. “Because you can make a sandwich out of pretty much anything.”

  They both ate in silence for a few moments. Tess leaned back as she swallowed a mouthful of food. “So what did you think of the council? I wasn’t expecting Mab to come out of left field like that.”

  “We were expecting it a bit,” said Liam. “Or at least, I was.”

  “What’s the vision you had?” she asked quietly. Her brother avoided her eyes. “Liam. Come on. You just finished telling me how I’m legendary, but you don’t want to tell me about a vision?”

  “I know,” he sighed. “I just don’t want my visions to become like Minority Report, you know? I don’t want people to be punished for a future that may never happen. That’s the tricky part.”

  “Do you think it would be better if we just let you internalize all of it?” she rejoined, raising her eyebrows. “Because we all know how well that works in our world.”

  Liam fixed her with his signature I’m the big brother, you’re the little sister look. “I think I can figure out what I can internalize and what I shouldn’t.”

  “Well, let me just point out that technically speaking I have more combat experience than you do in Faeortalam,” she said.

  “What does that have to do with what we’re talking about?”

  She shrugged and grinned. “Not a lot. But it was something I realized back in our world, and I’ve been waiting to tell you.”

  He chuckled. “All right, all right, fair enough. But I still beat you in our world.”

  “For now,” she said.

  “You think you’re going to be fighting battles in our world that much?”

  “I think that both this world and our world are changing very quickly,” Tess said slowly.

  “How’s Duke? And Jess? How did they react?”

  “We ended up right outside this little town called Cairn in Louisiana. It’s where Ross, Duke’s fiancé, lives. She was the tether that pulled him and the rest of them there.”

  “For all his talk, I knew he really loved her and wanted to get back to her,” said Liam in satisfaction, nodding.

  “I think I met her during one of your homecoming celebrations,” said Tess. “She remembered me a little. In any case, she and her roommate Vivian had picked up Duke, Merrick and Luca and protected them until we found them. In fact,” she amended, “they already had a rune-trap set up for the bone sorcerer. I was just the bait that got him to step into it.”

  “Merrick set it up on his own?”

  “No. I thought I mentioned this when we were talking about the Exiled after the council,” she said.

  “Maybe I missed it.”

  “Tyr helped. Or at least that’s what I was told. I wasn’t there when they actually built the rune-trap. Merrick wouldn’t have been able to do it on his own. He was nearly dead when we got there because he didn’t know the protective runes for travel in the mortal world.”

  “We’ve discussed a training course to ensure that all of the Vyldgard know the protective runes, just in case,” said Liam.

  “I think that’d be wise. And something I didn’t realize before…Tyr knew a lot that Merrick and maybe even Finnead wouldn’t have known. I think Mab has been playing around in her Court’s heads a lot more than we suspected.”

  “I wouldn’t put it past her,” said Liam. “She wants total control, and I think she’s going to start squeezing even tighter soon.”

  “What do you think Vell will do?” Tess asked quietly, staring at the fire in the hearth. “She didn’t seem completely sold on Titania’s plan.”

  “From what I’ve seen, Titania usually doesn’t propose her own plans. She’ll sign on, with the right convincing, but I don’t really see her as an independent actor in situations like this, so the fact that she’s pushing this course of action makes me think that she might do it with or without the High Queen’s support.”

  Tess shook her head. “I don’t agree. I don’t think Titania would risk losing. As much as she hesitated in the beginning of the war against Malravenar, she threw her whole weight behind us after I rescued her.”

  “She might have felt like she owed a debt,” said Liam thoughtfully.

  “Maybe.” Tess shrugged. “I can’t be sure about that part, but I think she hasn’t gone off the deep end like Mab. I don’t think the Seelie are on as tight of a leash or in as precarious a position as the Unseelie.”

  “I’ve been talking with Finnead while you’ve been gone,” said Liam, “and he said that once upon a time, the Unseelie Court was a happy place, if you can believe it.”

  “It’s difficult,” admitted Tess. “My entire experience of Mab was her digging into my brain the first time she met me. I was told that I was lucky she didn’t kill me.”

  “All of this is coming to a head now because Malravenar is gone,” said Liam.

  “Well, he’s not gone,” said Tess. “He’s just split four ways and bound into the river stones.” She slipped her fingers into her belt pouch, brushing past the little marble-like Gate gems, searching for the smooth river stone that held a part of Malravenar’s spirit. She frowned as her fingers curled briefly around the wrapped Lethe stone, and then met with no other larger object among the Gate-orbs.

  “Something wrong?” Liam leaned back in his chair.

  “Maybe,” she said. “I just…I can’t find the river stone. It was in my belt pouch. I’ve kept it there ever since the battle. It’s never out of my sight. I…” She trailed off, remembering when she dropped one of the orbs in the backyard of Vivian’s house…and Corsica had bumped into her, retrieving the orb from the ground. The Exiled woman had offered the orb to Tess on her knees, subserviently. A spiral of anger bloomed rapidly in Tess’s chest as she realized that somehow Corsica had stolen the river stone. Distantly, she felt her fists clench. The Sword abruptly rattled to life in its sheath, hung on a peg by her bed. She wasn’t sure whether the heat overtaking her body was her anger or her taebramh. Her war-markings blazed to life under her sleeve with a vengeance, and the edges of her vision went white.

  “Tess! What is it?” Liam’s voice reached her through the scorching miasma surrounding her. With an effort, she pulled back some of her taebramh, but that didn’t stop the Sword’s power from raging in the cage of her ribs, turning and prowling and leaping like a huge predator.

  “Corsica stole the river stone from me,” she grated out, clenching her jaw so hard that her teeth creaked in protest.

  “Easy,” said Liam. “You want to go to the practice yards or something to blow off some of this?”

  “I don’t want to hurt anyone.” Tess couldn’t bite back the growl of anger that followed her words. She leapt up from her seat at the table and paced in front of the fire. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice until now. She swore an oath on the Sword! She swore an oath!”

  “Did the oath include not stealing the river stone from you?” Liam asked, his voice calm.

  She looked at him sharply. “What, you’re trying to excuse her?”

  “Not at all,” her brother replied, unmoved by her glare. “You’re emotional right now. And I get it. You’re pissed that someone pulled one over on you. But I’ll tell you from personal experience, it’s happened before and it’ll happen again. We’re not perfect. So now it’s time to ask a few questions.”

  Tess pressed her lips together and tried to ignore the snarling of the Caedbranr, a low wordless expression of rage that she had never heard from the Sword before. It rumbled in the back of her skull and through her bones like the deep bass echo of the war drums that had made the very ground shake with the force of their sound. She took a deep breath. Her bones hurt with the force of her anger-amplified taebramh, twisting and turning, seeking an outlet. She turned her mind back to the moment when she’d had the Exiles swear on the Caedbranr.

  Swear on the Sword that you will
guard the bone sorcerer known as Gryttrond until my return.

  She remembered Corsica gritting her teeth and submitting to the Sword. And now she stiffly shook her head. “No. There was nothing about that. I made her swear – I made them both swear – that they’d guard the bone sorcerer until I got back.”

  “Because of the promise that Merrick made to Corsica and Tyr,” said Liam.

  Tess nodded. It was difficult not to let a tendril of her anger reach out and ensnare Merrick; part of her wanted to blame the navigator for this treachery from Corsica. “Yes.”

  “Are you angry at Merrick?” Liam asked, still in that strangely calm voice.

  She made a sound of frustration. “Are you sure you can’t read minds in addition to seeing the future?”

  “I don’t see the future. I see possibilities. And no, I can’t read minds. At least, I don’t think I can. I just know you, Tess. I know what I’d feel in a similar situation, and maybe you need to let yourself be angry with him. Don’t act on it, don’t tell him, but you can tell me.”

  “I know it’s not logical,” she said. “I get it. He almost died in the mortal world. I mean, he almost died a few times on the way to Brightvale and then across the Deadlands. I have no right to be angry with him. Merrick is one of the truest friends I’ve had here.”

  “Doesn’t mean you can’t be mad at him. There were a few times I wanted to punch one of the guys in the face, and we’re brothers.” Liam raised his eyebrows. “If you ask Quinn, he’ll tell you about one time I did punch him.”

  “Only one time?” Her attempt at humor fell flat. The Sword’s snarl still rumbled through her bones. Her own anger raced through her veins like fire. “How could I have been so stupid?”

  “Tess, you know you’re not stupid. You’re just not perfect.”

  “Stop being the voice of reason,” she protested. “Just let me wallow in my anger for a few minutes!”

  “Wallow away,” said Liam with a wave of his hand. “But I have a feeling that the others will be just as angry at Corsica when you tell them, so you gotta work out your angle now.”

  “What do you mean, my angle?”

  “Are you going to tell Vell? Are you going to tell Luca? Do you even know what Corsica could do with the river stone?”

  Tess crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head as she resumed pacing. “No. I don’t know what she could do, so I guess that means I have to tell Vell at least. It’s only a fragment of Malravenar’s spirit, but I still have no idea.” She stopped and faced Liam. “Speaking of a fragment of a deity’s spirit…” she said slowly. “Would Arcana know anything?”

  Liam went very still. “How did you know?” he asked softly.

  Tess frowned. Some of her anger faded into the background as she worked through the implications of her brother’s words. “How did I know what?”

  “That I think Arcana is still there, in the back of my head,” he said.

  “I didn’t know that, but I’ve been thinking about it, and it’s not that far-fetched.”

  “Not when you’re thinking about what one of the Exiled can do with a fragment of Malravenar’s spirit,” said Liam in agreement. He shifted in his chair. “When you were gone…I was sparring with Finnead, and normally I’m not really a challenge for him. But something odd happened. This copper fog rolled in on the edges of my vision and it was like my Sight kicked into overdrive. Very specific and immediate.”

  “Your Sight told you Finnead’s next move?” Tess asked. She couldn’t help the bit of amazement that seeped into her voice. Thinking about Liam’s Sight in such a quick-moving situation, divining the next sword-sweep of a lightning-quick Sidhe fighter…it genuinely surprised her. “I thought I’d lost most of my capacity for surprise, but that’s pretty incredible.”

  “It was,” admitted Liam, “but it didn’t end well. I let it carry me away, and I drew blood.”

  “Not too badly, I hope.”

  “Enough to feel bad about it,” he said. “Anyway, I heard her in my head. Arcana. It was like my Sight was supercharged, but she was the one reading out directions.”

  “Welcome to the club of having sentient voices in your head,” said Tess. The initial explosion of anger had simmered down into low-burning coals: still there, still hot, but no flames threatening to scorch through anything and everything in its vicinity.

  “Is it really a club we want to be a part of?” joked Liam, and then he sobered. “I haven’t heard her since then. Maybe I can figure out how to…summon her. I don’t know.”

  “It might be worth a try,” said Tess quietly. “I don’t know whether Vell will know, and the only other source that I could really ask is Titania. With everything that’s going on, I don’t want to make her think that I approve of her plan.”

  “You know, considering your history with Mab, I’d think you would be more inclined to want to watch her be taken down.”

  “There’s a part of me that would love nothing more than to see her locked away where she can’t hurt anyone else,” said Tess in a low voice. “But I can’t act on that just for my own personal gratification. I don’t know what the consequences will be to those in her Court. I can’t discount the fact that we’ve all just been through a war, and this could start another one.”

  “But will Mab eventually start a war regardless?” Liam asked.

  “Maybe,” Tess said. The Caedbranr had quieted somewhat, but she could still feel it vibrating in its sheath. “I do think that if she finds out about the river stone being lost…about Corsica stealing it from me…she could use that against me. And I think it’s safe to assume that she’s already pissed about me not giving up the Lethe stone.”

  “Safe bet.” Liam nodded. “Do you want to know what I think?”

  “You’re probably going to tell me either way.”

  “True. But at least I asked first.” He smiled at her. “I think you should tell Luca and Vell when they get back from their jaunt outside the city. Maybe Merrick and Calliea too.”

  “That way it stays within the Vyldgard,” Tess said thoughtfully. Then she looked up at Liam. “Wait, Vell left the city? Aren’t we in a bit of a precarious situation?”

  “Something about the wolves,” said Liam with a shrug. “I could go into detail, but I don’t think you’d want me to. Let’s just say it involves the continuation of the bloodlines.”

  Tess frowned. For an instant, something like jealousy spiked within her at the idea of Luca being out with Chael and Vell…but that was ridiculous. She’d been marked by the White Wolf as well…but then, if that really mattered, why hadn’t they asked her to come along too?

  Because you are not ulfdrengr, said the Sword in the back of her head with something like condescension in its androgynous voice. You are the Bearer.

  Then why was I marked by the White Wolf? she demanded silently.

  I do not know everything, replied the Caedbranr.

  Well, that’s the first time I’ve heard you admit that, Tess retorted.

  Do not be rude. You are angry about the Exiled woman’s theft, as you should be. Do not let that cloud your judgment.

  You’re angry too, she pointed out. She could still feel the reverberations of the Sword’s anger in the core of her body.

  “You’re having a silent conversation,” said Liam. “I can go, if you want me to.”

  “No,” she said, blinking. “Sorry. Sometimes the Sword likes to offer its opinions on my thoughts. It’s great. Fantastic.”

  Liam chuckled. “Your enthusiasm is impressive.” He stretched. “If you’re okay with talking about it more, we can talk about courses of action.”

  “For the river stone?” At Liam’s nod, Tess sighed. “The only course of action that I can see is going back into Doendhtalam and retrieving it from Corsica.”

  “She wouldn’t have stolen it if she didn’t want to use it for something,” said Liam thoughtfully. “So we might have to think about what could have happened since you’ve left the mortal wo
rld.”

  “It hasn’t even been a full day,” Tess protested.

  “Finnead told me that especially since the Great Gate was closed, time can flex between the worlds. For example, just over two centuries passed here, as best as they reckon, but you said the Exiles were in the mortal world for a little over four centuries.”

  A vague sense of panic gripped Tess. That in combination with the embers of her anger combined to conjure swirling nausea. She wished fervently that she hadn’t just eaten a big meal. “We didn’t really talk about that before.”

  “Because I don’t think they knew about that before. They may have suspected, but only the experience of the Exiled gave them concrete starting and stopping points to compare.”

  “The Sidhe didn’t stop studying the mortal world,” Tess protested. “I find it hard to believe that they didn’t realize that time passed differently.”

  “You know, there’s something else they didn’t have during that period,” Liam said slowly. Tess crossed her arms over her chest and waited for him to explain. He looked at her and raised his eyebrows. “A Bearer. There was no link between this world and theirs other than the lesser Gates that each Queen maintained on their own.”

  “There was a weird adjustment when I went through into our world,” Tess said. “It’s hard to describe, but I eventually figured out that it was because I was absorbing a lot more taebramh in our world than I do here. And I’m a…a conduit, I think.”

  “A pipeline for taebramh between the mortal world and the Fae world,” said Liam.

  “In a way. Maybe that will help anchor the flow of time.” She took a deep breath. “I was overwhelmed a bit when I was first bound to the Sword. I felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders.”

  “In a sense, it was, and you handled it.”

  “I know. But what I’m saying is that this makes me feel like that again. I’m a conduit for taebramh and maybe I’m also the anchor for time itself? That’s a lot, Liam. It’s just…a lot.”

  “I know,” Liam said. “And you know I’m always here for you.”

  “I know.” She tried to smile and failed. “But you’re also one of Vell’s Three, and her…whatever you want to call yourself….I don’t think boyfriend really covers it.”