by Conn, Claudy
She grimaced and swallowed hard. She had even in her worst nightmares never pictured so many monsters of so many different castes collected into one chamber. Their numbers spilled over and into a long hall she could only assume led outdoors. They were, as she had worried, lined up and ready, so ready for their trip into the Human Realm, and they were going en masse. They looked anxious, and they looked damned hungry!
“Trev …” she whispered, feeling her body go numb.
The time has come to use the pendant. We must inform the queen. He didn’t speak out loud but in her head. Another skill he had taught her and had her practice over and over yesterday.
It was a unique sensation to hear him inside her mind, but she complied immediately. She grasped the pendant and enacted the required chant.
Nothing, she said in his mind.
Don’t stop. Keep calling for her, he answered.
Another moment went by before the queen’s image appeared, and she said, “I know—I have felt the shift in the universe. There are two voids in the atmosphere, and we are not certain which one he will try and use.”
“My Queen,” Trevor whispered, “he has the Green Babblers at the head of his army—we must stop him, or the loss of human life will be … disastrous.”
“Indeed, do what you can on your end.” And the queen was gone.
“Jazmine Decker … this is … grave,” he said as he turned to her.
“What should we do first?”
“There is something stored at the Retreat, something Crystal showed me when you were in transition. I will have to get it into the heart of the portal.”
“What is it?”
“Iron, hundreds of iron rods, spelled by the Dark King, but I will have to get to the Retreat and manage its delivery here. Because iron can affect a Seelie Fae as well—and in that quantity there is no saying what it will do to me—I will need you to help me shift it here.”
“But you are a Royal. Iron affects Royals?”
“In quantity, it can.”
“Well, I have human in me, so I betcha I’m immune and can help you get it here.”
Trevor considered her for a moment and said, “No time to talk …”
He took her hand, and they shifted to the Retreat into a dimly lit room filled with iron bars.
Trevor was almost immediately affected by the potency, but Jazz found she was not. “Okay, Trev, what do I do?”
“Can you help me move these, like I showed you—when you lifted the bed with your mind? Remember how you went into your mind? Do that now, my love, with me …”
She concentrated and discovered she could help him. The bars lifted as one unit, and she grinned. “Are you doing it too?”
“Yes, but I can feel myself getting weaker. I need your help … the iron … is poisoning me …”
“What?” She lost her concentration, and the iron mass fell with a heavy and resounding thud to the wood flooring.
He touched her shoulder. “No time, and you needn’t worry—it is only temporary. As soon as we are rid of it I’ll be fine.”
She turned on the room full of the iron bars, and with scarcely an effort it went up as one unit and hovered. She turned to Trev and said, “Shift us, baby—shift us now.”
She could see he was in pain and rubbed his arm, wishing she could do something. He was stoic about it, simply patting her hand, and managed to shift them back to the dungeon.
They had shifted into the recesses of one dark corner, hovering near the rafters as they surveyed the bevy of movement and grunts below. Jazz found she could keep the iron bar collection up with very little effort and concentrated on helping Trev stay conscious, for he looked like he was going to pass out.
These monsters, all shapes and sizes and varying degrees of repulsiveness, had Jazz grimacing with disgust. She could never have imagined such horror. It was like being in what she always imagined the pits of hell would look like. Unseelie creatures shuffled about, bellowing, groaning, grunting—some would throw back their heads now and then and howl like rabid animals.
And then Trevor used all his strength and shifted them to the cold stone floor, laying the pile of iron as a circular wall around them. She could see it had taken a great deal of his determination and strength to fight the affects of the iron to accomplish this.
Trevor was in trouble. She could see it. The iron was a deadly poison to the lower-caste Dark Fae, but apparently it had a debilitating affect on Seelie Fae as well. She knew whatever they were going to do next had to be done immediately.
Unseelie everywhere hung back with sounds of horror and began screaming in bellowing terms.
“We need to get the iron into the mouth of the portal …” Trevor said, but his voice was a weak whisper.
The Dark Princes had surrounded the iron-clad circle, but all of them, including Pestale, were helpless to get inside, as they couldn’t approach the iron.
The odd thing that Jazz noticed at once was that Pestale and his brothers didn’t seem overly interested in trying to get at them.
Trevor was in no condition to shift the iron into the mouth of the portal, but she could. She hadn’t learned the knack of true shifting yet, but she had learned how to jump shift, and the portal was close enough that she could jump shift to it.
She said softly, “I’ve got this, Trev.”
Even as he reached out to stop her, yelling something about a mistake, even as she mentally lifted and jump shifted right smack dab into the middle of the portal’s black, cavernous mouth, she realized something was wrong.
She felt it as she shifted. How could she not have realized in time? That was her, always impulsive, leaping with that damned faith leading and never looking, ‘just in case’.
The iron went flying in different directions but was sucked up into the gooey walls of the portal. She saw the mouth close, and she heard Pestale laugh just as he said, “Now, my brothers! Now, my Morrigu!”
“Nooo,” she heard Trevor, and her heart sank.
Her Fae blood had enlarged her brain all right, but she hadn’t listened to it in time. A trick, her Fae brain told her now.
This had been a diversion.
This was not the portal to Earth but one to another dimension!
And as the swirling black hole consumed her and sent her flying she heard over and over again what Pestale had told his army: “Now …”
~ Nineteen ~
A FIRE-WORLD OF molten lava met her gaze when she was spit out of the portal, and she hovered, looking for a place where she could stand.
There wasn’t any.
Spouts of clay—opening mouths no larger than three or four feet in width—covered the landscape and spit sprays of red, burning puke. These geysers were scattered as far as she could see and spewed their insides at regular intervals. Fire sparks exploded as they burped hot, black, crusted lava. She thought of the geysers at Yellowstone when she looked at them, except this landscape was red, as was the sky above.
Jazz adjusted her inner temperature just as Trevor had taught her, and she remained calm in the face of what could be a horrible death. She had to find a way out of this dimension. Would Trevor find her?
She took a breath, and it burned to the taste. She was in serious trouble.
She said out loud, “Hey, Trev, trouble here—come and get me.” She then tried the mind link and repeated, Hey, Trev … now would be a real good time. Nothing. No response. Was he okay? Oh, please let him be okay. She looked around and added another request: Please let me be okay.
How could Trevor find her when she didn’t know where she was? She needed a Fae GPS system. Good idea; she would talk to him about one.
She felt a moment of panic and calmed herself again. Yup, she was in trouble because she knew he would have no way of knowing into just which dimension the portal had taken her. The iron had neatly shut the portal down.
Right. Well, she couldn’t hang out over these hot mud tubs forever, now could she? She had to do something.
She scanned the horizon and discovered something interesting. Was it a mirage?
She took on a series of ‘jump shifts’ in the air, careful not to touch ground, and after what she assumed was about fifteen or so minutes found herself at the edge of a cliff.
At the bottom of the cliff was a narrow, bubbling foam of water, and it was moving with a great deal of speed. Were there rocks beneath the foam? Was it too far to jump shift? Was foaming water better than hot lava? Ah, yeah … at least, she hoped so.
Across the divide was what looked like a forest that had seen better days. Could she jump shift the distance—would it be cooler there? The trees were black and dead and the earth charred, but at least the lava-spitting geysers would no longer be a threat.
She came lightly down from her hovering position and found the earth beneath her boots very hot. She did an ‘ooh-ahh dance’ a few times before she remembered her internal temperature. Still, her shoes weren’t made for this heat. She was going to have to make it to the other side sooner than later.
She heard Trevor’s voice as he’d whispered to her just this morning, Think about where you are going … think hard, and your mind, which has the science, will pull up the coordinates for you. Think, my sweet …
“Okay, Trev … I’m thinking,” she said and set her goal to shift to the other side of the ravine.
She didn’t quite make it!
* * *
Trevor realized too late what Pestale had done.
The portal they could see was not the one Pestale meant to use. It was a diversion. The other portal was hidden down the long corridor.
The iron had depleted his ability to sense the other opening, and no doubt Pestale had installed a magical wall around it earlier, bringing the attention to the portal his Jazmine Decker had just flung herself into.
Where would it take her? He was damn sure it wasn’t to the Human Realm. It had been a trick.
He had felt the real portal before he had seen it. The Gypsy spell had not fooled Pestale earlier. The Dark Prince had known all along that they were there watching, and he had put on quite a show.
Trevor shifted and tried to spell the portal closed, but its mouth just continued to widen, like a dark funhouse grin.
The numbers of Unseelie were too great for him to cut down. Pestale and his two brothers were surrounded by their grotesque brethren, and he would not be able to get to them.
He had to hope that the queen would locate this opening and get to it in time on the other side, for already Pestale, his brothers, and Queen Morrigu were stepping inside its swirling chamber with a flood of Unseelie at their backs.
And his sweet beloved—where was she? He called for the orb, and as he stood in the now empty dungeon, for the portal had sucked in the last of the army that Pestale had called upon, he demanded, “Show me … where is my mate?”
“In trouble, my Prince,” the orb said as its gray cloud cleared and showed Trevor Jazmine Decker as she fell into a rushing, foaming river.
He closed his eyes and whispered in his mind, Jazmine Decker … hear me, beloved, hear me … hover, before you hit the water, hover … you can do that.
And then the gray cloud returned inside the orb.
“What are you doing? Show me,” the prince demanded.
“Something interferes … and my Prince, I must transport us to the queen,” the orb cried frantically.
Against his will, he found himself transported back to where it all had started—Killarney Lakes.
~ Epilogue ~
TOO LATE, JAZZ realized she could have avoided the deep plunge into the frigid swirling stream. She could have hovered before she broke water.
However, suddenly she found herself caught up in a human moment.
As the rushing stream pulled her along, she found herself tossed and flung about. She hit a few smooth, algae-covered rocks as the raging river took her downstream.
The current was strong, and she was temporarily confused; however, as the water’s force began to ebb and she felt the current’s pull lighten up, she realized she could jump shift out of the river and find some dry land.
She swam for a few moments as she tried to regain her senses and saw a grassy slope up ahead. With something of an effort, she jump shifted, landed on her butt, and stayed there as she recovered from the experience.
She knew that she had, somewhere in her new mind, the skill to blink her clothes and shoes dry, but just as she tried concentrating on this, something else caught her attention.
She cocked her head as she watched the water in the middle of the narrow river begin to part. “Huh,” she said out loud.
She froze in place for a fraction of a minute as she watched a red, horny, glaring thing that looked much like a prehistoric creature rise partially out of the river. Then she saw the little arms and then the talons—it was an oversized prehistoric raptor!
Its pin-like eyes took a sweeping gaze of the surroundings. Those eyes were cold, and suddenly its gaze was directly on her. It was as though it smelled her presence. It was as though she could hear its tiny brain say ‘food’, just as she watched it take a flying leap.
It was no more than ten feet from her.
She didn’t wait for more; she jump shifted.
However, in her panic, she did not calculate where she was jumping to, and she hit a tree with a force that left her on her butt.
At her back, she could hear its thunderous clumping over brush and small trees, so she jump shifted again. It still came at her. She wasn’t getting far enough away!
Okay, she told herself, hover—hover high!
She was pleased with herself when she accomplished this and found that she was well out of its reach. Then a swooshing sound through the tree tops caught her attention.
The next thing she knew, she was dangling in the air, flying, held in the talons of what looked like a prehistoric and a hairless vulture the size of a Cessna plane!
“So not good,” she told no one in particular.
*** *** ***
Jazmine’s story continues in Through Time-Slamming. Read on for a preview …
The next part of Jazmine’s story
will be available in June. Until then,
here’s a sneak preview of
Through Time-Slamming (unedited)
~ One ~
Many things might bubble up in one’s mind while dangling from the talons of a prehistoric and flesh-eating, pterodactyl-like creature. Oddly enough, what came to Jazmine Decker’s mind as she looked down at what appeared to be a lush green landscape was The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.”
This quote by Eden Phillpotss was one her mother had been fond of; hearing it in her head, in her mother’s voice, helped Jazz center her concentration on the fact that she was now quite capable of saving herself.
She might be in the talons of a giant flying beast, but her Trevor had taught her the skills to escape.
How quickly the scenery was changing! She would have to make a decision fast. Yup, time to leave.
She shifted out of the sharp talons, and just before she landed in the thick of the green mass below, she hovered. As she did, she patted herself on the back. Her smugness, however, ended abruptly when an anaconda slithered through the air to come face to face with her.
Screaming was her first reaction. In fact, the entire jungle vibrated with the scream that came out of her mouth.
Her next and instinctive reaction was to lift off and hover higher—much higher off the ground. “Never going to touch that land down there again,” she told herself right out loud, and then once again she attempted to mind-link with Trevor.
Nothing.
Jazz remembered the pendant around her neck. It had to work. It had worked in the year 1816, so why wouldn’t it work now?
Hovering well above the huge anaconda, who had given up on her and had curled into a coil ready to spring, she took the pendant in her hand and murmured the ancient
spell that had been handed down from mother to daughter. She waited, and then a swirl of black mist opened up onto a bright yellow aura, but as suddenly as it had arrived, it was gone.
She thought she heard the queen’s voice whisper just before the aura vanished, “…be patient.”
She couldn’t be sure; she frowned with frustration. “What is the good in having this charm if you can’t get through to help me?” She shook her head and sighed. She was going to have to shift again and again, until she could find a place to set down and shield herself.
However, suddenly a strong swish of wind blasted over her, and once again she found herself dangling from a determined pterodactyl’s talons.
She swung in the wind for a moment while she tried to get herself together and decide where to jump shift to.
And then she saw them.
Three hungry, reaching, oh, she thought, pterodactyl babies with wide-open mouths as large and toothy as a Great White Shark’s!
Jazmine Decker screamed with total abandon.
According to prophesy, Ravena is the only one who can rescue a powerful sorcerer trapped in another dimension—but the prophesy doesn’t promise she’ll survive the experience. Read her story in
Hungry Moon: Quicksilver
~ Prelude ~
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
—William Shakespeare, Hamlet
1575, Scottish Highlands, where many honored their clans and chose to follow the old ways
Quinn MacValdane had a great deal of weight on his shoulders, but those shoulders were huge and certainly capable of carrying the burden. The weight, however, was unlike any other he had ever lifted, and he was tired of constantly having to deal with it. He just wasn’t ready to get married!
