Sword of Elements Series Boxed Set 2: Bound In Blue, Caught In Crimson & To Make A Witch

by Heather Hamilton-Senter

  A young woman sitting at a clear glass desk looked up from her laptop. “Hello, Mr. Martin,” she said brightly. “Everything quiet on the floor today?” Her smile widened when she noticed Redcap. “Mr. Ruadh! We haven’t seen you here in ages.”

  “Hello, Iris. Can you let the boss know I’ve brought a couple of friends to meet her?”

  “Of course.” The girl pressed a button on the phone on her desk and spoke quietly into the receiver. Nodding, she gestured for us to proceed. “She has a break in her schedule and would love to see you.”

  Martin backed up into the elevator. “Well, that’s me safely out of it. Good luck, Mr. Ruadh. I’ll leave the knife with the concierge.”

  “Thanks. Sorry for all the fuss.” Redcap pushed on a section of glass and it swung open on nearly invisible hinges; he obviously knew his way around the place.

  “Ruadh?” I murmured as he held the door for me to pass.

  His smile was cool and impersonal. “The name I use in polite society. Ruadh is Gaelic for red.”

  We entered a spacious office with a glass conference table on one side, and several couches and chairs on the other. Beyond them, another glass desk continued the theme of transparency. And beyond it, a wall of glass showed the sky above the other hotels on the Strip. A woman stood with her back to us, gazing at the scene. I was reminded of my trip to Goodfellow’s apartment, but another look around reassured me that I hadn’t travelled through a disguised Path, and that I was still in the city and time I expected to be.

  The woman turned languidly and I immediately felt underdressed, under coiffed, under everything. Wearing a purple sheath dress cut to skim every curve, she was heavily made up with liquid liner framing her almond-shaped eyes and her lips were stained deep plum. High cheekbones and a nose that was a touch too big for her face were framed by close-cropped, black hair. There was nothing masculine about the cut. It balanced the strength of her features, paring them down until she wasn’t quite beautiful, but incredibly arresting.

  Actually, smokin’ hot sexy.

  No one spoke. The woman placed a long-nailed hand on her hip and quirked an eyebrow at Redcap. Sighing, he gestured from me to her. “Rhiannon, please allow me to present Cleopatra Thea Philopator.” He turned to look directly at me for the first time. “My wife.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  GARNET

  I wasn’t sure which word was harder to grasp, wife or Cleopatra.

  Cuz both of them are impossible.

  “Ex-wife,” the woman drawled.

  Though Redcap laughed, I got the sense he’d deliberately tried to shock me. “Sorry, love. Old habits die hard. Divorce used to be forbidden, or at the least, quite difficult to arrange. I keep forgetting that times have changed.”

  The woman sat down in the leather chair behind the desk and crossed her legs. Picking up a pen, she balanced it between two fingers. “So this is the girl who’s been causing so much trouble.” The comment was directed at Redcap in a less friendly tone.

  Daley took a step forward. “Rhiannon is under Taliesin’s protection. If you have a problem with that, you can take it up with him.” His defense surprised me.

  Cleopatra dropped the pen and leaned forward on the desk. “Who said I had a problem with it? What I have is an agreement with your people, earth magician. You’re not welcome on my property.” A sudden movement brought her to her feet and she practically glided over to look at Daley closely. “But you’re not an earth magician. You do, however, look familiar. Have we met before?”

  “No.”

  “Perhaps when you were younger?”

  “I would remember.”

  The woman smiled. “Still, there’s something about your face . . .” She stiffened. “You’re the storm god’s son.”

  “I’m not his son.”

  She waved his objection away. “It doesn’t matter how many generations there are between you, you’re his son in all the ways that matter.” Tapping her finger against her bottom lip, she narrowed her eyes at him. “You resent your gift, and you resent your progenitor more for not being here to guide you. Without him, you’re not sure what you really are. Perhaps I could help you find the answer. I knew Einridi a little, long ago. We were friends.” Meaning overlaid the word and I could feel my face grow warm. What really surprised me was the faint flush on Daley’s cheeks.

  Redcap chuckled. “There isn’t a man alive that Cleo can’t read like an open book. She can ferret out all the small lies we men tell ourselves. It makes for an uncomfortable marriage.” His tone was mocking but affectionate.

  Smiling, she raised an eyebrow at Redcap. “Perhaps why none of them lasted much past the honeymoon. Still, there’s no point in not remaining friends.” The woman focused her attention on me. “But Thomas knows I have no true magical power. The only gift I inherited from my Greylander father was my long life. Relationships with great men were once my political stepping stones, but eventually, they crumbled beneath my feet.”

  “I thought the story was that Cleopatra killed herself,” I blurted, “and how the heck did you and Redcap meet?”

  She looked at Redcap. “Shall I tell my tale of woe then?’

  “Cleo . . .” he murmured, but she laughed and turned away.

  Her tone was light, but I could tell it was false. “Don’t you know that history is written by the victors? After my husband Marc Antony died in my arms, my handmaiden helped me to escape Egypt.” She nodded towards the outer office. “The girl you met outside is a many generations removed descendent of the original Iris. The emperor Octavian spread the lie that I’d committed suicide rather than let the world know that a mere woman had eluded him, so I travelled north to Britain. I knew the route from my discussions with Julius Caesar’s about his campaign there. Settling in Ireland, I adopted the identity of the sorceress Carman to build an army to reclaim my throne, but when I heard that my eldest son had been killed by Octavian and my other children given to the emperor’s wife, I lost heart for it and forgot who I once was. After many generations—and a couple of advantageous marriages that left me a widow with a large fortune—I met Thomas.”

  “Celebrating the coronation of Queen Victoria in a Belfast pub,” he reminded her.

  “A very nice pub,” she drawled. She looked at me from under shadowed eyelids. “But sadly for me, our union lasted only slightly longer than the queen’s celebrations did.”

  Redcap smiled. “Marriages entered into after consuming copious amounts of ale were never meant to last, but I also never regretted a moment of our time together.” The man seemed intent on sending me the message that I was the least interesting woman he’d ever met compared to the great Cleopatra.

  She made a dramatic movement with her arms to indicate the world beyond the glass. “I discovered a desire to reclaim my identity, at least in part. I came to America and became Cleopatra again, though I modernized it a little to Cleo Philemon.”

  Redcap inclined his head towards her in a gesture of respect. “And have become truly powerful in your own right.”

  Instead of being pleased at the compliment, a shadow crossed her face and her arms dropped heavily to her sides. Underneath the proud, almost-gold of confidence in the woman lurked the mottled colors of insecurity. “You know I always enjoy your visits, Thomas, but I actually have a meeting now that I can’t miss. Why didn’t you let me know you were in town?” She was all business now.

  He shrugged. “I didn’t want to bother you. I know how busy the Christmas season is around here. I also know you don’t like Taliesin’s people in the Bellagio, so when I saw these two, I thought I’d make sure they didn’t get into any trouble.”

  “I see.” Her voice was too neutral. The casino had to be covered in security cameras. She probably already knew that Redcap wasn’t telling her everything. “Where are you staying then?”

  “Just a place by the airport.”

  “You’ll stay here. Iris will make the arrangements.”

  “You don’t have
to do that, love.”

  “Nonsense. Besides, I wouldn’t mind keeping you close in case my New Year’s Eve plans fall through.” Redcap laughed, but I would have laid bets she was serious.

  Cleo turned to Daley. “Contact me if you want to find the storm god. I have access to resources which the bard does not.”

  “Thanks,” he murmured.

  Suddenly intent, she darted towards me. “I need to speak with you privately . . .” Then something caught her eyes and her expression became closed and impersonal. “My business associate has arrived. He’s catching a plane this afternoon for New Orleans so we’ll need to finish this up some other time.”

  “OK,” was all I could think to mumble, wondering what she could possibly want, but then I remembered Miko’s words from what seemed like an eternity ago.

  Everyone is going to try to use you to their advantage.

  Cleopatra nodded for someone to enter and an extremely tall man with a shock of red hair strode into the room. Beside him was a young girl with tangled blonde hair streaming out from under a newsboy cap.

  I glanced over at Redcap when I heard the hiss of his indrawn breath, but his face was impassive. “Belenos,” he said with a slight bow.

  The man ignored him. “Really, Cleo, if you make me miss my flight, there’ll be hell to pay.” He had a British accent.

  There was a spark of defiance in the woman’s eyes, but her smile was smooth and welcoming. “My friends were just leaving.” Cleopatra kissed Redcap lightly on the cheek, but evaded his questioning gaze.

  The young girl stared at me as we passed her. When I turned back, she was still watching, but then the door swung shut and separated us.

  Iris rose from her desk with an expectant smile, but Redcap waved her away. “Please let the boss know that while I appreciate her kind offer, I won’t be taking her up on it.” He crossed the room and pressed the button for the elevator.

  The girl looked distressed. “But Mr. Ruadh, you know she doesn’t like being crossed.”

  The elevator doors slid open. “Don’t worry. She never stays mad at me for long.” Ignoring the girl’s protests and giving her a wink, Redcap entered the elevator and Daley and I followed.

  “Blast it,” he murmured once the doors closed. “The Mari Lwyd is probably long gone.”

  “So you saw it too? The Mah-ree-loo-ed?” I stressed the syllables to make sure I’d heard him correctly.

  Redcap nodded. “Grey Mare is the translation, though it has nothing to do with the Grey Lands.”

  “Do you mean that thing we were following?” Daley asked.

  “Yes. I was in town for,”—he glanced at me—“other reasons, but I caught a whiff of it, magically speaking. Something in me recognized the scent and told me to follow it. I ended up here. I was just debating whether it was worth getting on my ex-wife’s radar when I saw the two of you. I check in on her every couple of years to make sure she’s staying in line, but I wasn’t due for months yet.” His laugh was rueful but still a little fond. “Cleo is a complicated and infuriating woman, but life is never dull around her. I wonder what she could possibly be doing with Belenos.”

  The elevator reached the ground floor. Ignoring the dark emerald jealousy spiking through me, I stepped out first. “So what is this Mari Lwyd thing then? Something bad? It burned me.”

  Redcap followed. “Not evil. Not good either. Not even properly alive, at least in the way most would understand it.”

  Daley was staring down the hall, alert to any possible threat. “Like Excalibur?”

  Redcap shrugged again. “More alive than Excalibur, but with less free will than other sentient beings. The Mari Lwyd is a portent, a harbinger, a thing of magic. There hasn’t been a confirmed sighting of it in at least a hundred years. Think of it as an aspect of the earth magic, a message from whatever element has claimed it. For it to appear so soon after the quickening of Excalibur, well, I doubt it’s a coincidence. It must have some purpose for appearing after all this time, and yet it places a glamour on itself so it can’t be seen by just anyone. . .” He and Daley shared a look.

  And then they both looked at me.

  The sharp orange of irritation prompted me to blurt, “What’s the difference between Greylander and earth magic anyway? It all looks the same to me. ”

  Daley frowned. “It’s different.”

  “Not to me.”

  Tendrils of lightning flashed through his eyes. “Well, you don’t really know that much about it.”

  Redcap’s snort of laughter eased the tension. “Maybe Rhi’s right. If there’s some essential difference between the two, other than bloodlines, I’m not sure what it is. What you can trust is that the Mari Lwyd’s appearance is somehow linked to the deadly belt ornament she’s got on.”

  I grabbed Excalibur’s hilt. The sword and scabbard were still invisible, but somehow, Redcap could see them. I probably shouldn’t have been so surprised.

  Redcap seems to be able to see into my soul. Why not the magic that ate a bit of it?

  I might have spent more time dissecting that thought if a ribbon of red fire hadn’t caught my eye. The Mari Lwyd stood at the end of the hallway, bones gleaming, shaking its head the way a live horse would shake its mane. I was just about to shout to the others, when the creature’s voice entered my mind.

  There is something I must show only you. This is why I was sullied with glamour to evade all other eyes. This is why I have led you here. But not now. Not while the soul eater and the lightning bringer are present. I will find you again.

  It was more images than words, but the meaning was clear. Then the Mari Lwyd disappeared.

  Redcap was watching me. “Miss Lynne?”

  “It’s Rhiannon Caerleon now,” I replied, evading the question, and wishing he would call me mo leanabh as he used to.

  “Rhi,” he amended, “is something wrong?” His tone was courteous, but his eyes were cold, reminding me of the terrible things I’d said to him when we were last together. There was no forgiveness in him.

  I stifled a sigh. “No. The creature’s gone. We might as well go too.”

  “Right then. This is more Taliesin’s territory than mine anyway.”

  Daley frowned. “Then why were you following it in the first place?”

  Redcap shook his head. “Not here.” He walked away.

  Daley and I shared a look and I knew we were in agreement. We followed Redcap to the lobby where he retrieved Daley’s knife from the concierge and gave it back to him, and then outside past the Bellagio’s fountains. On the walkway well off the property, Redcap finally answered. The crowds eddied around us, but he didn’t lower his voice; they weren’t the ones he was worried about overhearing.

  “I think you understand that when a Great One falls, I take a part of them into myself. What those outside my race don’t know is that all this knowledge, all these essences, were never meant to reside within one person. As my people had sons and daughters, the fragments of souls within were passed on, becoming less cohesive, less aware. It was a burden shared by all, which benefited all. Thousands of years of wisdom and experience could be shared among an entire people, but we were too thirsty for war and it led to our extinction. As far as I can tell, I’m the last of my kind. I have no one to share the burden with or to pass it on to when I die. With each new Great One I take into myself, the pressure becomes greater. The essences inside me are more complete, more demanding than any other redcap has ever endured.”

  A gust of wind caught a lock of his hair and pushed it over his forehead, glinting in the sun with the same red as his eyes. I wanted to reach out and brush it away. As if he could hear my thoughts, Thomas Redcap looked at me and I knew his feelings for me hadn’t gone cold. With emotion naked on his face, he seemed vulnerable and young—the youngest and last of an ancient people.

  As lost and alone as I am.

  When Daley broke the silence, I sensed his mauve discomfort. “What are you trying to tell us?”

 
But Redcap could only see me. “Because of what happened to my people, I made a vow to never use my abilities beyond being a living catalogue of magic users. I’ve resisted the temptation to violate the privacy of the essences inside for my own gain—I suspect Cleo only married me hoping I would—but I can’t always ignore their voices. I contain a Great One who once encountered the Mari Lywd. The fragment of his essence is so old that I don’t know who he once was, but he’s been shouting at me ever since I caught sense of the creature.” I could feel distress streaming off him in hot, wild colors. “The Great One kept screaming until I saw you, Rhiannon Caerleon.”

  Daley’s voice was unexpectedly gentle. “What did he say?”

  Redcap’s eyes flared red. “Have mercy on us, Child of Blood. Have pity on us, oh thou Destroyer of Worlds.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CARDINAL

  I bet somewhere, a gold harp with the soul of a girl in it is saying I told you so.

  Despite the good idea of a day of training turning into a fiasco—and Redcap spouting Binnorie’s prophesy about me—Daley still insisted on stopping at a local mall on the way back home. Leaving me at the food court, he disappeared into the crowd of last minute Christmas shoppers. After less than an hour, I couldn’t bear the crush of people anymore. They could all see me now, really see me. It was probably my imagination, but everyone seemed to be watching me, wondering why I was sitting alone. I longed to hide again under Viviane’s binding spell, to forget who and what I was and make the rest of the world forget too.

  I was a fool to ever want to be noticed.

  In the throes of a full-blown panic attack, I pushed through the crowd until I found an exit. Outside, the air was cool and soothing. When I calmed down, I realized I was on the opposite side of the mall from where we’d parked. Retracing my steps back inside, I passed a small stall where a local artisan was selling wreaths. Some bowed to the local foliage and were fashioned from palm leaves woven together, but others were the traditional evergreen type. When I brushed my fingers against them, I was surprised to find they were real. A quick look at the price tag showed the rarity of the material in this climate, but most prices had been knocked down for the last hours of Christmas Eve shopping.