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

by Heather Hamilton-Senter

  “Should we get a tree?”

  He shook his head. “No. Leave it be. Things are different now. Holly and evergreen are fitting symbols and have their own innate magic of protection, but it’s about time we dropped the other trappings celebrating the birth of the Carpenter from Galilee.”

  I stared at him in surprise. “But Daley said you loved Christmas.”

  “Children can be bought with gifts, but I was raised by my mother in the old ways. I remember that now. Did you know that Arthur converted to Christianity? It was the one thing he and my mother disagreed on. I never knew if his conversion was genuine or only a cynical attempt to reconcile with the faith that was sweeping the world, even among magic users.”

  “Rowan told me once that there are earth magicians and even Greylanders of all faiths.”

  He snorted. “There are no gods. We of all people should know that.”

  I ran my fingers over the soft needles of the wreath, but pulled back when a few berries tumbled off onto the limestone hearth. “I don’t know what I believe in.”

  Tynan’s soft laugh sent a shiver down my spine. “Believe in yourself and you’ll never be deceived. Believe in your power. Believe in Excalibur.”

  I put my hand on the hilt of the sword on my hip and Tynan’s eyes followed the movement. The sword was still invisible, but the hungry look on his face told me he knew exactly what I’d reached for.

  “Yes,” he whispered, “that truly is something worth believing in.”

  “I’m going to check on Miko.” But as I walked across the great room towards the bedroom wing, Tynan followed.

  Always an echo.

  When I rapped lightly on Miko’s door, she called for me to enter almost immediately and I was happy to see that she looked a lot better. She was still deathly pale, but she was sitting up cross-legged on her bed with a laptop in front of her.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked. “Peter was so worried when he couldn’t wake you up. So was I.”

  Her eyes evaded mine as she closed the lid of the laptop. “It’s just how I sleep now. I get tired. I’m glad you’re here though. There’s something we both wanted to talk to you about.”

  “Both?”

  Tynan threw himself into a chair beside the bed, hunching over his knees, and was abruptly Tynan again. “Maybe we should wait.”

  Miko shook her head and strands of black hair floated into the air as if they had no weight. She was dressed in a white kimono-style robe and her hair was long and loose on her shoulders. She looked like a Japanese princess. “We’re leaving, Rhi. Both of us.”

  I sat down heavily on the end of the bed. “What? Why?”

  “Because of this.” As she half-closed her eyes and exhaled, translucent black wings sprang from her back, scalloped in shape like a bat’s.

  “Don’t be so dramatic,” Tynan drawled.

  Mordred’s back. That was quick.

  I forced myself to focus on Miko’s face, because when I looked too long at those beautiful, somehow wrong wings, I felt sick. And then I wanted them. “Is this because of Peter? He’ll get over it.”

  Another exhale and the wings retracted into her back and disappeared. She slumped against the headboard. “It’s not about him. Tynan and I just don’t belong here anymore. We both need to figure out what we truly are and we can’t do that here. Taliesin has lost his way. Everyone can see that. Haven’t you been wondering where all the Protectors are, other than the ones Peter has been training with?”

  I shrugged. “I thought they were all out, you know, protecting.”

  “Some. Others have stayed in their own homes in the city, not ready to jump ship yet, but soon.”

  “And some have left already and gone to Arthur,” Tynan interrupted. “Just a few months ago, this house was filled with people. Now there’s only a skeleton staff, and those Protectors too loyal or too frightened to leave. In a few more months, they’ll be gone too.”

  I stood. “Then we need to get Taliesin to wake up! I know he’s hurting, but he can’t let it all fall apart like this.”

  “That might not make a difference. Despite everything Taliesin stands for, most earth magicians and our Greylander allies believe they are superior to the Mundanes, even if they won’t admit it. More of us believe in Arthur’s vision of the world more than we do in Taliesin’s.” It didn’t escape me that for the first time in my hearing, Tynan hadn’t called Taliesin Dad. “Only my real parents can guide me in my abilities.” While that seemed like a reasonable excuse, by the way his eyes shifted away from mine, I knew he was hiding something.

  Maybe he’s making more progress with his magic than he’s admitting.

  I put the thought away for future consideration. “You’re conveniently forgetting that they both tried to kill you.”

  “And I tried to kill Arthur, who was not only my father, but my king. If they can get past it, so can I.”

  “So you’ve already been in contact with them.” It was an accusation, not a question.

  Miko reached over and grasped my hand. “I didn’t make this decision lightly, but it’s my best hope of finding an answer to the question of what I’ve become. You could come with us. Maybe it’s your best hope too. Taliesin is trying to hold on to a world that’s already disappeared.”

  “I don’t know.”

  Tynan snorted. “C’mon, Rhi, you know as well as I do that Merlin is coming and only the Pendragon is strong enough to stop him.”

  “Pendragon?”

  When Tynan made a gesture towards the sky with his hand, I was struck by how long and graceful his fingers were. “Pen Ddraig. Head of the dragon. Arthur.”

  “What if I told you Merlin isn’t coming yet? Would that make you stay, even for a little while?”

  Frowning, Miko let go of my hand. “What do you mean?”

  I considered telling her that my father was blackmailing me into finding my mother Guinevere—the only one who could release him from his prison behind the Wall Between Worlds. He had enough power to escape it for an hour here and there—long enough for him to demonstrate how he could destroy me by pouring magic into me till I burst like a ripe tomato—but not long enough to neutralize the threat Arthur posed to his power.

  I changed my mind. I wasn’t ready to give up all my secrets yet. “Just that there’s no need to rush into anything. Peter told me you contacted the guy who did this to you. Can’t he help?”

  “Marus is only a droch-fhola,” she dismissed him airily.

  “Droc-ola?”

  “Gaelic for man of bad blood—a vampire.” The side of her mouth quirked up into that familiar half-smile. Miko had always ridiculed Taliesin’s insistence they call all the wild and varied Greylanders across the earth by their Celtic names.

  “So if he’s just a plain old vampire, why aren’t you one too?”

  Her voice was a whisper. “True vampirism is rare and actually quite hard to transmit. When Marus met me at the dance, he didn’t think he could hurt me because he’d bit me before and nothing had happened. It’s why we broke up, remember? Vampire magic is like a virus and most humans are immune. So are most magic users. Since nothing happened after I was bit, I was immune. Vampires don’t need to drink blood, and they certainly don’t need to kill. There’s tons of groupies who’ll line up to be bitten.”

  For a moment, the look on Miko’s face was rapturous. “Vampire magic is felt by both parties during the bite, and it’s like nothing you’ve ever imagined. People become addicted to it. When Marus came to see me, I was tempted. I’d interrupted it the first time and never got a chance to experience what I’d learned some people would do almost anything for. When we saw each other, we couldn’t resist fooling around. We figured we were protected by my immunity, but it turns out that it was my fairy side that wasn’t fully immune and we’d just been playing Russian roulette. Now that’s the side that’s changing . . .” Her voice trailed away.

  “So now you want to drink blood?”

  “No, I’m
not craving blood.”

  “Then you’re like me. You feed on power.”

  She considered the thought before shaking her head, black tendrils lifting around her again, proof of the change she was describing. “I don’t know. Not exactly. But I’m so hungry all the time. And I’m fading. I can feel it. That’s why I’m sleeping all the time too. I might die if I don’t get whatever it is that I need.” Her eyes were wide and her pupils dilated. “That’s why I have to go. I’m running out of time.”

  I was filled with azure sympathy. “Stay. We’ll figure it out, I promise.”

  But Miko had closed her eyes wearily and Tynan answered, “You have more than enough to figure out yourself. You should come with us.” The intensity in his gaze made me uncomfortable. “We could help each other. No one really wants you here.”

  My breath caught at his words, but before I could respond, Miko’s eyelids fluttered open. “I almost forgot. I think I’ve found something for you. Not every single legend in the world is a Greylander fact, but it’s possible that one of Arthur’s knights actually encountered a leanan sidhe. There’s an old poem which describes an encounter between the knight and a woman with strange powers. It might be a retelling of an even older story. Arthur might know more about it if you ask him.” She put her hand on the laptop. “I’ve emailed it to you. Don’t read it till you’re ready though.” She and Tynan exchanged a glance. “You might not like it.”

  Still smarting from Tynan’s words, I got off the bed and walked to the door, but I couldn’t resist a parting shot. “If you’re so hell-bent on joining him, why don’t you just ask Arthur about it yourself?”

  Miko’s reaction was strange. She looked away—the first quick movement she’d made—and two spots of red bloomed on her white cheeks. She looked feverish.

  Tynan laughed. “It will probably make more sense coming from you”

  “What?”

  Tynan didn’t look away or flush. “Arthur is on his way here. Tonight.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ROSE

  “Are you nuts? Please don’t tell me you invited Arthur here, tonight of all nights!”

  Miko and Tynan shared another long look. “Not exactly,” she admitted, “but the timing is lucky.”

  Tynan’s eyes were large and dark. Though the multi-colored sparks of his aura were as chaotic as ever, they seemed to be circling a knot of amethyst. I’d previously only seen his magic as a heritage from his mother Morgan le Fay, but he could sense Paths just like his father. It might be obscured by all the chaos, but he was a prince of the earth magic. “I’ve been in contact with my father ever since we got back. He reached out to me. I didn’t trust him at first—didn’t trust that he’d forgiven me—but now I do. It’s time for me to reclaim my place by his side. He said so himself.”

  Miko’s eyelids fluttered as if she could barely keep them open. “We only made our decision a couple of days ago, but then Arthur phoned Taliesin yesterday and requested a truce and a meeting. We don’t know why, but we’ll leave with him after.”

  “Have you told Taliesin yet? Or Daley?”

  “Not yet,” Tynan admitted. A flash of something like guilt passed through him and then disappeared.

  “Taliesin might, but Daley won’t understand.”

  He looked away. “I can’t be the little brother forever. I love Daley and I owe him a lot, but I have to walk my own path. He’ll understand someday.” Straightening his shoulders, he looked back at me. “Do you?”

  I wanted to say I didn’t, but it would have been a lie. I did understand. I wasn’t in Las Vegas because of any real allegiance to Taliesin. I’d come because I needed to know what I was. If I couldn’t find my answers with the bard, then I would move on too.

  Tynan seemed to read my thoughts. “Come with us.”

  “I don’t know.” The room suddenly felt too hot. I turned to leave but his words stopped me in the doorway.

  “Promise me you’ll think about it.” There was no us now. Tynan’s plea was for himself and I could feel the strength of his desire to keep me with him. It was difficult to resist.

  I was having trouble breathing. “I don’t know,” I repeated as I walked out.

  Back in my own room, I stowed Excalibur under the bed and assessed my options. I hadn’t made any progress in finding my mother, and I knew Merlin would only wait so long to hear from me. Taliesin seemed to have lost the will to live, let alone to help me. There was nothing left for me at home. I’d hurt Redcap and the thought was like a wound that wouldn’t completely heal; there was no comfort there now. Daley would never leave Taliesin, I was sure of it, but what about Peter? I suspected he would want to go home once his training was over. He’d been my other half since almost my earliest memories and I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be away from him.

  I sat down at the desk and turned on the laptop Taliesin had provided for my use. Miko’s email was already waiting for me. It contained a link to a website that consisted of a single page with a painting of a beautiful woman leaning over a knight dressed in armor at the top, and a poem beneath it. My breath caught as I read the title: La Belle Dame sans Merci—The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy. The poem told the mysterious story of a knight who lies dying, claiming a beautiful woman has bewitched him and sucked his life away:

  She took me to her Elfin grot,

  And there she wept and sighed full sore,

  And there I shut her wild wild eyes

  With kisses four.

  And there she lullèd me asleep,

  And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—

  The latest dream I ever dreamt

  On the cold hill side.

  I saw pale kings and princes too,

  Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;

  They cried—‘La Belle Dame sans Merci

  Hath thee in thrall!’

  I saw their starved lips in the gloam,

  With horrid warning gapèd wide,

  And I awoke and found me here,

  On the cold hill’s side.

  And this is why I sojourn here,

  Alone and palely loitering,

  Though the sedge is withered from the lake,

  And no birds sing.

  I went cold all over. Had there really been a knight once who’d encountered a leanan sidhe? According to the notes at the bottom of the page, some scholars believed that Keat’s poem referred back to an older tale, now lost. A succubus was a demon, an evil spirit, but this poem told of a living woman with a terrible power. A beautiful woman without mercy.

  A leanan sidhe.

  I went to the chest of drawers across the room, opening the second one down. Hidden underneath a sweater was the pale pink apple from the orchards of Avalon that Merlin had left with me so I could contact him. I tentatively touched its smooth skin. Merlin, Taliesin, or Arthur—which one should I follow? Merlin was my father and held my life in his hands. Taliesin’s vision appealed to my sense of fairness and equality. Arthur was the rightful Earth King.

  I couldn’t ignore the truth that a cold, merciless part of me was drawn most to Merlin and the power he represented, but the apple reminded me of poor Seolan, the Cŵn Annwn I’d destroyed and he’d killed.

  There was a knock at the door and I shoved the apple back into the corner of the drawer. “Come in.”

  Peter entered the room and stood there, staring at me. We didn’t need words. Through our bond, I felt his homesickness, and his disappointment at the failure of his relationship with Miko. But I could also feel his pride at his accomplishments as a Protector, and underneath that, his irrepressible delight for Christmas, even here, so far from home.

  A burst of laughter escaped me when he produced a tray of cookies and a bottle of soda from behind his back with a flourish. My own need for comfort had been as clear to him as his emotions were to me. “C’mon then.” Giggling, we hopped on the bed and I clicked on the TV. We spent the rest of the day gorging on shortbread and watching every old Christ
mas special we could find. My last memory before dozing off was of Scrooge dancing around his apartment in his nightgown.

  It was music that woke me up. Curled against the warmth of Peter’s back, I had to push myself up and over him to see the clock on the bedside table. He stirred and groaned under my weight, but didn’t open his eyes. I gasped when I saw the time. “Wake up! Daley said dinner would be at midnight. It’s almost time.” Peter had always been a deep sleeper and it took a couple of hard whacks on his shoulder to finally get him up. I went into the bathroom and changed into a velvet skirt and black ballet-style top while he struggled to full consciousness.

  The music beckoned me, arousing an excitement I’d never felt at Christmas before. It hinted at mysteries to be revealed and comforts to be enjoyed. For a moment, I understood Scrooge’s impulse to dance just for the sheer joy of it. Peter and I were grinning at each other like kids.

  When we entered the great room, we could see that someone in the staff had been busy. Though there were no seasonal decorations other than the wreath on the mantle, white candles had been placed on every surface and their light illuminated Taliesin sitting on, playing a harp. It was similar in style and size to the harp of Binnorie, but I was happy to detect that it was ordinary wood with no hint of magical color around it. Peter and I sat down on one of the sofas to listen. Miko and Tynan were huddled together, talking softly. Daley stood alone by the French doors. Several other Protectors and staff members I didn’t know sat around the room.

  Taliesin began to sing a Christmas carol, though one I’d never heard before. The melody was simple, stirring, and something about the tune and the words told me it was very old:

  This endris night

  I saw a sight,

  A star as bright as day,

  And ever among

  A maiden sung,

  Lullay, by by, lullay.

  I’d never heard Taliesin sing before—though I’d assumed that was part of a bard’s job description—and I wasn’t disappointed. Though I could still feel the grey edge of despair in it, his voice was rich yet clear. The song seemed to be a dialogue between Mary and her child, but the old English was difficult to follow. Instead, I looked out the window into the darkness and let the delicate sound of the harp and the beauty of the bard’s voice transport me to a sky as soft as the velvet of my skirt where the stars pierced me with a nameless longing.