Heart of Thorns: a Between the Worlds novel

by Morgan Daimler

  “A simulacrum, a magically created being,” he said impatiently. “I admit I’ve never seen one created from anything so insubstantial, or seen this exact variation of it, but the premise of it…the Light Court uses such things sometimes because they can be useful, and creating them is an exercise that all apprentice mages learn.”

  “Why only sometimes?” she asked, looking up at him. “Why not all the time if they are so easy to make and so useful?”

  He pinched the bridge of his nose, a gesture that she was learning to hate. “Firstly there is the ethical quandary involved – the longer they exist the more life like they become, and while they have their uses it is usually only deemed fit to create them and keep them for more than a short while in times of necessity, such as war. Secondly they are a perpetual energy drain on the mage for as long as they are active. And thirdly because they are not truly sentient they have to be monitored and directed carefully. Generally its easier to just find and train a real being to do the same work rather than creating one.”

  “Don’t be annoyed, I’m just curious,” she said pulling herself away from the hound and standing up.

  Sam followed suit slowly, still looking wistfully at the dog; he had clearly never seen this sort of magic before. Allie could feel his delight through her shields and she enjoyed the purity of it. Bleidd reached out and pulled Allie against his side again and she realized that he had been unusually tactile all day. She didn’t have time to wonder about it as he was already answering her, “I’m not annoyed I just hadn’t planned to give you a crash course in elven magic this morning. If I’d realized this was the spell you meant to use, I would have talked you out of it.”

  “Don’t be so sure,” she shot back. “I still think this is our best bet. And I have to ask if I want to know. I’m not trained in elven magic at all only human witchcraft. What little I know of elven magic is mostly from observation and books.”

  He squeezed her shoulder, “Then I shall have to teach you as much as you have the capacity for. The thought of you running around untrained conjuring random spell-beings will make me lose sleep otherwise.”

  She stuck her tongue out at him, forgetting Sam for a minute then shot a guilty look at the human mage who luckily was still staring at the hound. She cleared her throat loudly. “So, let’s get on with this then shall we?”

  Sam tore his eyes away from the dog and focused on her. “How exactly do we do that?”

  Bleidd smirked when Allie hesitated. “Go ahead Allie. Just tell it what you want it to do.”

  “How will we follow her?” Allie said, suddenly uncomfortable referring to the hound as an ‘it’.

  Bleidd rolled his eyes at what she was fairly sure he thought was an overly sentimental attitude. “In the car. It can’t move any faster than a mortal hound, and you will be able to sense where it goes.”

  She made another face at him. “Fine. Let’s go to the car and I’ll tell her what to do.”

  ****************************

  Riley finished packing and bit her lip uncertainly. Her legal time here was up and she knew she should leave. She’d done as much as she could anyway, and thanks to the bookshop owner she had the spell to remove the curse. She should head back home and do it, see if it worked. That would be the smart thing to do, because if it didn’t work for some reason she’d be able to come back and try again….

  But as she finished packing and carried her bags out to her car she kept going back and forth with herself. Things don’t feel finished yet, she thought. I don’t feel like I’m done here. Leaving now…it feels like running away and I’ve never run from anything before, not ever. As she closed the door on the last of her bags she stopped, standing next to the car. Glancing down she ran her thumb over the healing wound from the thorn, then looked up nervously as if she expected him to jump out at her – but there was nothing around her except the normally tranquil parking lot of the B&B. She looked back at the injury from her spell mishap. I should leave she thought again. This was a really bad omen, and one way or another it will have a rebound, I know it will.

  She stepped away from the car still uncertain. Well either way I have to turn in the key to this room she thought finally. This is the first place they’ll look for me when they realize I didn’t go back to regular earth. She shifted uncomfortably remembering the stern look on the cop’s face when she passed across the bridge at the border. She was reaching into her pocket for the room key when she froze. In the distance she could hear the faint but unmistakable sound of a dog howling.

  In her mind’s eye she saw the Hell Hound, black as death, lurking in his yard. And her blood went cold.

  Without thinking she turned and started running.

  *******************************

  They jogged into the park and the two men hesitated, scanning the walking paths and maze of open areas and trees. Allie didn’t hesitate though, running as quickly as her bad ankle would allow after the steady pull of the shadow hound. The hound had run relentlessly since they’d released it at the house, cutting a path across town, heedless of traffic and pedestrians. Bleidd had found that extremely amusing, and even Sam had seemed to enjoy the chase, although he grumbled about the paperwork if the dog caused any accidents, but Allie had worried the whole way about the poor thing getting run over. Their roles had reversed as soon as the hound ran into the park though. Once the car stopped Bleidd and Sam had been overwhelmed with concern, wanting to follow slowly at a distance, while Allie’s nerves had fallen away and she had immediately started running after the spellhound forcing the two men to follow her.

  So Allie was the first to see the young woman who had flattened herself against the wall of one of the little gazebos that dotted the park, the spell hound growling and dancing around her feet. For an instant her mind refused to process what she was seeing and then her anger surged up as she couldn’t help but recognize the girl. The hound’s growling deepened, its teeth snapping dangerously close to the woman’s legs as Allie’s emotions channeled into it. When she spoke her voice shook. “You! You’re the one who’s been hexing us this whole time?”

  Riley looked away from the hound, her face white and panicked. “Call it off! Call it off before it eats me!”

  “It would serve you right if it did you lying little bitch!” Allie snarled back, still moving forward until Bleidd finally caught up to her and grabbed her from behind.

  “Allie, calm yourself,” he said sharply in Elvish, speaking almost in her ear. “And watch your words! Or the hound will do as you say and it really will eat her.”

  For an instant Allie felt a surge of rage, and she didn’t care, she almost wished that the hound would do it. But as she watched the spell animal crouching preparing to leap, she suddenly remembered Bleidd kneeling on the floor beneath the weight of her anger. She swallowed hard, and used all of her willpower to call the animal back, “Enough, Madra, leave her alone. But don’t let her go anywhere.”

  Riley fixed her with a furious glare of her own which Allie ignored. Bleidd relaxed slightly behind her. “You shouldn’t name it Allie.”

  “I wanted to name her,” Allie said. “And I did. And if this….this…piece of….ugh! This dumb bitch moves and tries to run I’m going to let her take a chunk out of her.”

  “How can you say that?” Riley hissed. “I should have known you’re just as heartless as he is.”

  “I’m heartless?” Allie said, trying to step forward again and only being held back by Bleidd. “You could have killed me last night with your freaking curse and you almost killed my lover. What did I ever do to you except help you? Is that how you pay someone back for doing you a favor?”

  “You know her?” Sam asked, his voice cold.

  “She came into my store looking for help removing a curse,” Allie said. “How’s that for irony?”

  Sam edged towards Riley, pulling out a pair of handcuffs specially designed for magic users. Once on Riley would be unable to do even the simplest magic. She sa
w him coming and moved away slightly, putting the spell hound between them. “You’re lying!” she yelled, looking desperate. “That curse can’t kill anyone. It’s just meant to turn your heart, make you stop loving him. It can’t kill anybody.”

  Sam stopped and reached into his pocket; a moment later Allie heard a faint click as Sam turned on his recorder. “So you admit you cursed her?”

  “Yes!” Riley said, eyeing the hound who had begun slinking forward again. “But I told you it’s not even a major curse. It was just to break them up, to turn her heart cold.”

  “I’m not fully human Riley!” Allie hissed. “I’m – you don’t understand what that kind of magic does to someone like me.”

  She was so angry she was shaking now, thinking of how much harm had been done in such an offhanded way. Bleidd cradled her against his chest, his own feelings a mix of anger and sadness. When he finally spoke his voice was flat, emotionless, but she knew that he was struggling hard to control himself. “Why would you go to such effort to begin with? Why try to, as you say, break us up?”

  “Why? Why?!” Riley shrieked suddenly furious. Her emotions burned through Allie’s shields, blending with Allie’s own anger until it was hard for her to be sure who was feeling what. Allie reached out for the solid anchor of Bleidd’s feelings to keep from being swept away in the young woman’s incandescent rage. “How can you even ask that? You got away from justice once, but not this time! Oh that’s right, I’ve been hexing you! And I cursed her to try to get her away from you, because why do you deserve any happiness after what you did to us?”

  Sam looked back at Bleidd, his face puzzled, and Allie knew that Bleidd was just as confused as the police mage was. So was she for that matter. Bleidd’s head tilted to the side, the elven body language lost on the young human woman, “What do you think I did to you?”

  “I don’t think, I know,” Riley spat. “You cursed us all. You killed my great grandfather and raped my grandmother, and cursed my whole family. And you weren’t even punished for it. And now you have this great life here, and you don’t deserve it. You don’t deserve any of it.”

  Riley was crying now, angry tears coursing down her cheeks. Her three pursuers all stood watching in stunned silence for a minute after she stopped talking. Allie could feel Bleidd’s emotions spiraling down into a morass of self-loathing and that spurred her to speak. “That’s why you came here? Good gods Riley, he was punished, and far more harshly than human justice would ever have done. And he didn’t curse your family – did you Bleidd?”

  “No,” Bleidd said softly, “I didn’t curse them.”

  “That’s a lie!” Riley snarled through her tears. The spell hound growled as she started to step forward, forcing the young woman back against the wall.

  “Riley,” Allie said, feeling suddenly tired. “Elves don’t lie. Elves can’t lie. If he says he didn’t curse you or your family then he didn’t. Period.”

  Riley rolled her eyes, making Allie grit her teeth. “Right. He doesn’t lie. He just rapes teenage girls and murders their fathers. I don’t believe you.”

  “Whether you believe me or not, it is true,” Bleidd said stiffly, and Allie knew how hard it was for him to control his anger at the repeated insults to his personal honor. Elves took their honor extremely seriously, even Bleidd who liked to pretend that he didn’t have any. “Whether you like it or not the story your family has told you is the one they prefer to believe not the one that is true.”

  “Oh the story my family has told me,” Riley said bitterly. “Right. And what’s your version then? You fell and your knife accidently ended up in my great grandfather and then you tripped again and your dick accidently landed in my grandmother? And then you just, oops! Slipped and cursed my whole family?”

  Bleidd’s arms tightened around Allie to a point that was just shy of painful. “Your grandmother was quite fond of male company,” he said coldly. “When I met her she was eager enough to spread her legs for me, and my mistake was failing to understand that by human law she was not considered old enough at 16 to consent. Had I known that I would never have touched her. I deserved to be punished for that transgression and I have never denied it. But when her father questioned her absence during the time of our tryst she lied to protect herself and accused me of forcing her. It’s patently ridiculous of course – I have never forced myself on a woman, nor would I bother when the worlds are full of willing bedmates.”

  Something moved behind Riley’s eyes as Bleidd was speaking that made Allie suspect the young woman did believe him on some level. When she spoke her voice was less belligerent. “If that’s true then why’d you kill my great-grandfather? Why curse us?”

  “I didn’t curse any of you,” Bleidd said through gritted teeth. “If your family is cursed then you did it to yourselves. And I had no choice but to kill her father. He confronted me with an iron blade and I was defending myself. If I had it to do again, knowing the price I’d pay for his death I would certainly try to leave him alive.”

  “Right,” Riley repeated with less conviction, as Sam continued to watch and record every word. “Because you’re life here is so terrible? That’s your punishment?”

  “You don’t understand,” Allie said. “He was Outcast because of what happened.”

  “So what?” Riley sneered, and behind Allie Bleidd growled deep in his chest. “Big deal. Like I said his life here seems pretty good.”

  “He lost everything because of what happened,” Allie repeated. “He lost his position in the Elven Guard, his home, his family. Everything. Most people who are outcast die within a few years because elves just can’t survive alone, without community.”

  “He survived just fine,” Riley insisted.

  “You have no idea the Hel his life has been for the past 60 years,” Allie said, angry again that this girl just wouldn’t listen.

  “Don’t bother Allie,” Bleidd said. “She hears only what she wants to hear.

  “Alright,” Sam said slowly, reaching for the cuffs again, the shadow hound standing still to let him get around it. “I think I’ve heard enough. You’re under arrest-“

  Riley moved quickly, her tears and passivity falling away as she cast a spell almost directly into Sam’s face. The police mage fell to the ground, writhing and screaming, his hands clawing at his face. Bleidd shifted from holding Allie to picking her up and moving her aside at the same time that Riley lunged forward and plunged her small iron pen knife into the shadow hound. The spell dog fell back, whimpering, and at the same time Allie stumbled, feeling a burning pain in her own shoulder where the dog had been stabbed. Well she thought, dazed, I guess I found another downside to this spell…

  Riley leapt around the dog, her muscles tensing to run. Bleidd let Allie go, and lunged towards the young witch, a glittering sword appearing in his hands. Allie had a second to wonder where the Hel he’d gotten a sword and then she was watching in morbid fascination as the hilt of the sword was connecting to Riley’s face with brutal force. Her head snapped back and her feet flew up in the air. And then his hand was on her chest, almost too fast for Allie’s eyes to follow, and he was slamming her into the unforgiving earth. He knelt mercilessly on her chest as the girl moaned, her face bloody.

  Holy…even I forget how fast elves can move when they want to Allie thought, stunned. Then she shook herself and stumbled over to Sam’s side. The mage was kneeling with his hands covering his face, rocking slightly, and she could feel the pain wafting off of him from several feet away. “Sam? Sam? Are you okay?”

  The mage grunted, his head turning in Allie’s direction. She was afraid to see the damage but when she saw his face there wasn’t any blood or obvious injuries, just his eyes screwed tightly closed and streaming tears. “God that sucked in an epic way.”

  “What happened?” Allie asked, keeping an eye on Bleidd who was still pinning Riley down, his sword at her throat.

  “Stupid mistake on my part,” he winced. “I wanted to get her confession o
n tape for evidence. Bought into her whole innocent act and let my guard down. She set off a light spell right in my face. Kind of like having a super bright flash go off right in my eyes. Burned my retinas.”

  “How bad?” Bleidd asked grimly.

  “I can’t see anything but a field of white and it feels like me eyeballs are taking a vinegar bath,” Sam said. “It might get better on its own but the sooner I can get to a healer the happier I’ll be.”

  “Right,” Allie agreed. “Ummm. How do we call for back up?”

  She ignored both men sighing. Sam reached down and fumbled at his belt until he freed his cell phone, which he waved in Allie’s direction until she grabbed it. “Text ‘code 9’ and our location to the station number. It’s an emergency code for backup if I’m injured on a call.”

  “Right,” Allie said again, glad he couldn’t see her trying to work his phone. As soon as she’d managed the text she pressed the cell back into Sam’s hand and turned to check on the spell hound only to find that it had disappeared. Damn she thought genuinely sorry to see it gone, then, regretfully The iron probably disrupted the spell.

  She got up carefully, feeling dizzy from the disruption of her magic, and staggered over to where Bleidd was holding Riley. “Is she okay?”

  His gaze didn’t waver from the young woman’s bloody face. “I hope not.”

  “Bleidd,” Allie said, tired and wishing they could just go home.

  “This is nothing compared to what she deserved,” he insisted, pressing the point of the blade down into her throat.

  Riley reached up trying to push the blade away, then jerked her hand back as the edge sliced her palm. When she spoke her voice was muffled by the injury to her face. “I just wanted justice. I just wanted to help my family.”

  “What you have been doing isn’t justice,” Bleidd hissed, some of his anger showing through. “I have paid for my crime and you have no right to decide I must pay more. And what has Allie ever done to you or your family? She even said she tried to help you remove this imaginary curse, yet you didn’t hesitate to harm her. How is that justice?”