“She looked strange.” Roan admitted. “Her eyes were round in her face and golden in colour. She looked like a human, but with her skin tinted slightly grey, and tattooed with red vines, and many piercings in her ears, like a tribal shaman. I don’t remember much, most of it is blanked out by pain.”
“Because her father is an ancient but her mother is from a different world.” Silver explained. “I would bet that the difference is even more pronounced in her brothers.”
“There were two guards, one elf and one dwarf.” Roan said. “But I don’t remember much about them, they just seemed really forgettable.”
“Did they say anything about a spy in Marten’s court?” Silver demanded.
“This would be a lot easier if you took the mask off.” Roan replied, standing. “Who is around to see if you take it off? It’s just you and me.”
Silver shook her head. “You know what my face does to people. I’m beginning to believe that fifteen years of me not wearing a mask has had that effect on you.”
“Take it off.” Roan said, and it was an order this time. “Take the damn thing off, Talia!” He got too close for comfort and was reaching for her face when he was suddenly slammed into the wall.
“She said, no.” Keenan informed Roan as her brother was quickly encased in ice. “And she also told you that that is not her name.”
The halfling had her brother pinned up against the wall by his throat with one hand and surprisingly, even though her brother was struggling to escape, Keenan was holding his own against a full-fledged elf.
“She’s my sister, I have a right!” Roan argued.
Silver wanted to punch both of them; her brother for being an obsessive, possessive moron, and Keenan for defending her when she was perfectly capable of defending herself.
Keenan meant well, and perhaps that was why she only pushed him roughly aside as she knocked her brother out with a vicious uppercut.
“What was that?!” She demanded, but Keenan ignored her.
“That’s why you wear a mask, isn’t it? That’s why you freaked out when I saw your face. Men get enchanted and obsessive when they see you.”
Silver rounded on him. “You don’t need to know.”
“If I’ve been cursed too then I think I deserve to.” He retorted.
She could concede that. “You’ve only fallen for my curse if all you can think about is looking at my face, if not seeing it hurts you physically.” She replied on a sigh. “Looking at me makes people feel like they want to possess me. In my past life it was a problem only when I spent a lot of time around a specific person. Brief glances usually don’t cause any difficulties.”
“Curse?” Keenan looked confused. “How did someone like you get cursed?”
“I didn’t get cursed.” Silver replied, sinking into an armchair as she watched her brother hanging on the wall, still bound in ice. “I was tortured so often as a child that in order to make sure I fit my parent’s expectations the magicians used to change my face little by little every time they put me back together. They made me look like this and it is their magic I blame for the curse.”
“That’s sick.” Keenan said. “You were tortured and when they were healing you all they could think about was making you look pretty?” He shot a dirty look at her brother. “Everyone who went along with that should be hung.”
“Some of them have been.” Silver replied. “I got my revenge, slowly and surely. I even killed my own father. He died in battle of course, but no-one knew who was responsible for firing the arrow. I spared my brothers and my mother mostly because at the beginning they did actually object to my father’s rulings. I spared the magicians because I wanted to live forever. But one by one they all turned on me. It just taught me that everyone will betray you, sooner or later. You would do well to learn from that as well.”
Keenan was silent for several moments, when he spoke it was with a slow assurance that told her he had thought about his next words for a long time.
“I vow to the Ancients, never to betray you. Do you accept my vow?”
Silver went wide eyed with shock. No-one had ever made that vow to her; even Leigh had never taken the initiative.
“Your duty to your guild…” She stuttered.
“It doesn’t come into this. I give you my unending loyalty, no loopholes. Do you accept?”
“I accept your vow.” She replied, trying to figure out where the thief was going with this. “And in return, ask anything of me, and I will grant it. Just one thing, and if it is in my power to give, I shall try and do so.”
Mentally she was speculating at what the hell she was doing. Keenan could ask for anything in the world and she could probably get it easily. She’d even practically offered him her demon armies when she spoke those words. She watched him carefully as he stood in deep thought.
“I ask for truthful and full answers to any of my questions.” He finally replied. “Complete honesty since I cannot betray you.”
“Agreed.” Silver rushed to answer him even as her mind scrambled to comprehend the reasons behind his choice.
Keenan had to have known the extent of what she could have given him. He had chosen something completely opposite, with almost no chance of material gain, which seemed in complete contradiction to his position as a thief.
“What questions would you ask of me, now that you have my compliance?” Silver demanded, “For it seems now I have more questions than you could ever have.”
“You’re wondering at my reasons,” Keenan guessed. “Let’s just call it curiosity.” His words were echoes of his reasons for watching her sleep all those days ago, and did nothing to sate Silver’s own grasping mind.
“I must be missing something.” She concluded. “There is no way you benefit from any truth that I tell you since you cannot now tell anyone else or use the facts for personal gain as such an act would be a betrayal. You have created a situation where you can know everything and yet use nothing. What is the purpose behind this?”
Keenan shrugged at her. “I’ll let you work it out.” He replied. “Meanwhile, do you mind if I have a little talk with your brother?”
“Unfreeze him and take him back to the dungeons; Loke, Lucan and Bran will accompany you and protect whoever receives the first punch.” Silver said automatically. “There will be no violence against my brother unless I am the one to dish it out, are we clear?”
“Crystal.” Keenan replied with a respectful nod as he turned, shattered the ice with a touch of his fingers, hefted her brother over one shoulder and walked off towards the dungeons.
“I want to know everything that is said.” Silver mentally ordered the two hounds that followed him, “May I enter your minds and watch them?”
“You are our mother, you will forever have that right,” Loke replied, and Silver waited until she got a similar reply from Bran and Lucan before she closed her eyes and looked through theirs, aware of Theria, Willem and Cicero coming to watch over her while her defences were weaker.
The hounds followed Keenan at a steady pace, but disappeared up onto the rafters built specifically for them in the stone walls surrounding the dungeons. She watched through Loke’s eyes, aware he was less inclined to violence than the others.
Keenan dumped Roan unceremoniously onto the cot in the cell and then slid the enchanted iron bars back across where they locked automatically.
It didn’t take long for Roan to come around; he was a mature elf, easily able to shake off the effects of her punch.
“Where is she?” Was the first question out of her brother’s mouth.
“Not here.” Keenan replied. “Disappointed?”
“You have no idea what you’re into.” Roan tried desperately to warn Keenan. “You’re Romana’s friend, am I right? My sister is insane; no matter what you believe, no matter what she has told you, you are in danger every second you spend with her.”
“And you’re not?” Keenan appeared to be entertaining Roan at the moment, but Silver h
ad no doubt there was something in particular the thief wanted out of the elven prince. He was just chatting while he debated how to go about getting the knowledge out of him.
“She has never killed any of her brothers.” Roan informed Keenan. “We are too useful to her alive, and she likes to torment her playthings.”
“What about your father?” Keenan said, “If he wasn’t safe from her, how do you know you are?”
“Because our father betrayed her. I never will.”
“Yet you just tried to rip her mask from her,” Keenan said.
Roan sighed heavily. “You do not yet understand her as I do; perhaps this is a good thing. Her mind works differently, I never tried to kill her. She knows none of us ever would, we love her too much, and even if in places that love has rotted to hate, we are all guilty of making her like this and Endis’ pride will never allow him to believe he failed to fix his mistake.”
“How long did she have you fooled?” Keenan asked.
Roan gave him a long dark look. “She’s been fooling everyone for the last three thousand years. Do you honestly believe that just because she swapped a dress for armour she isn’t hiding her true thoughts still? It is my brothers’ and my belief that deep inside her there is a part of her that is still whole. We will die trying to bring that part back.”
“Sounds like obsession to me.”
“I am not under her spell.” Roan muttered. “I hate the mask because it is a sign of who she has become because of me.”
“She’s beautiful.” Keenan commented, “I would imagine even her brother would have a hard time not becoming enraptured like all those other men.”
Roan snarled, “I am not bewitched! I simply hate that stupid thing. She has no reason to wear it, everyone knows of her past now anyway.”
“The mask is her symbol.” Keenan replied. “And you forget that she hates all of the men clamouring over the face that you are responsible for!”
“Talia never used to hate it.” Roan replied. “She had many suitors, yes. But that didn’t mean she denied them. She was engaged once.”
“What happened?” Keenan leaned against the bars of the vacant cell on the opposite side of the corridor.
Silver wasn’t fooled by the relaxed pose, this was what Keenan wanted, gossip from millennia ago.
“Someone killed him.” Roan replied, “Our father was killed by Silver so shortly afterwards that originally I suspected him to be the culprit and her to be seeking revenge. Now I think that she killed her fiancée because, brutalised as she was, she couldn’t handle being in love. I think she realised that she needed him after she murdered him and then killed our father in grief because, after all, he did make her what she is.”
Loke moved around on the beams, trying to keep both men in sight.
“You need to get away from her.” Roan reiterated. “I’ll be set free eventually; I’m not interesting enough as a prisoner. But you, she hasn’t got a reason to keep you around. The moment you’re not interesting enough as a plaything you’ll be hunted, tortured and killed. The moment you stepped into her clutches you were never going to have an easy death.”
“Then surely the smart thing to do would be to stay near her and make myself invaluable?” Keenan suggested, but he sounded like he didn’t really care about the conversation any longer, he was just going into hypotheticals to keep her brother off of the scent. For some reason, he had wanted to know about the people that mattered to her. Possibly because he was weighing up his chance of survival if he got close enough to her. Was that what his vow was about? Living longer?
She had promised the guild an enforcer, there was no reason to suggest she was going to kill him. So no, that was not the reason.
Keenan was leaving, she realised, now that her pondering was at an end. With a sigh, she gently pulled herself to the outer edges of Loke’s mind.
“You were watching.” Keenan was right in front of her own body where she still sat on the armchair.
When she had left Loke’s mind, he had been walking at human velocity. He must have sprinted during her leaving the hound’s mind to get here in time to catch her in the act.
“Yes.” She had promised him truth, and that was what he got. “Why are you so interested in my little family drama? Those events unrolled millennia ago, they’re hardly hot gossip.”
“Why do you think I wanted to know?” Keenan asked, and Silver grew frustrated with his constant questioning.
“I think I’m bored with you answering my question with a question.” She responded, getting out a dagger and twirling it on the point of one finger as she moved into her favourite spot, crouching on the back of the armchair. “Yet I am bound by my word and will answer you.” She pouted. “My obviously incorrect assumption is that you want to know what the survival rates are for those who get too close to the Silver Eyed Wytch.” She moved so she was lying draped along the back of the chair, and was surprised when Keenan moved to kneel on the sofa cushion next to her.
Too close. He was too close.
She wanted to move, but to do so would be surrender. She couldn’t let him know he’d gotten to her.
“Curiosity.” Keenan said. “That is why I do most things.”
“Curiosity killed the cat…” Silver muttered.
“But, satisfaction brought it back.” Keenan retorted.
“Are you claiming to have nine lives?” Silver demanded. “Because I assure you I can extinguish every one of them.”
“What was his name?” Keenan asked, ignoring her question.
She knew who he was talking about. “I can’t even remember anymore.” She confessed, “And before you ask what he looked like, I don’t remember that either. My brother has his own way of looking at things where I am a twisted victim. I assure you, I have ever been the villain.”
“Yet you remain the hero of the Battle of Elvardis.” Keenan commented.
“Stupid kingling. I blame him for that.” Silver let out a humourless laugh. “I should cut out his tongue for making speeches about me. And I should cut out yours for asking a hundred questions and giving no answers.”
She vaulted up off of the couch and towards her room. “Training at dawn tomorrow.” She told him. “If I find you’ve been watching me sleep again, I will cut out your eyes.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
INESCAPABLE
There must be something he wanted from her, Silver concluded the next day as she watched the two thieves sparring. She could think of no other reason for Keenan’s vow as she carefully analysed his every action from the night before. She was still fuming at the way her brother had given up all the information Keenan wanted to know so easily. Stupid elf should have realised he was being played.
Her mind had been running in circles all night as she tried to find out the thief’s motives. He may have been trying to befriend her when he gave her the vow, but the only reason for befriending her would be to betray her, which he had sworn not to do. In which case the only other logical conclusion was that he wasn’t trying to befriend her at all, but then why bother to swear never to betray her.
Maybe it was an elaborate plan to get money, the thought had occurred to her before, but she ignored it again because there was no way to steal from her without betraying her and Silver didn’t give gifts.
“You’re supposed to be the smart one.” She told Theria. “Why did he vow something so inescapable? What is his motive?”
Theria, who was sitting in the long golden grass next to her, gave a tiny snort. “Did it never occur to you that not every action someone takes is a plot to kill you?”
The hound didn’t bother to reply mentally and for some reason Silver felt awkward knowing that Keenan would have heard that she was discussing him.
She was so distracted chasing circles of thought and conspiracy in her mind that she almost missed the dagger that came flying at her. She caught it by the blade, and saw Tommy pale as she chucked it back at him. Keenan had been the one to throw it, but o
f the two of them, Tommy still needed the most practice.
He caught it, but by the hilt, and dropped it almost instantly.
Silver wanted to laugh, but she frowned and looked meaningfully at Keenan’s feet. Tommy would get better, or his friend would suffer for it. Not that she needed much provocation to remove another of Keenan’s limbs right now.
Neither of them apologised, and Silver approved.
“You’re getting to the stage where you’re almost half decent fighters.” She commented. “I may have to put you up against demons from now on.”
“Why can’t we fight you?” Tommy piqued up. “Keenan could do it, if not me,”
Silver snorted. “Keenan, would you like to try your luck? I won’t use magic.”
Tommy interrupted before Keenan could answer. “You won’t kill him, will you?”
It was Keenan’s turn to snort. “So much for your confidence in me,”
“It’s training.” Silver said, “I have no plans to kill him.” Just hurt him a little for all the time she wasted considering his motivations.
Theria and Tommy moved away from them both; Silver wasn’t near Keenan, but she didn’t have to be. He was at a point where his ancestral speed was coming to him more naturally, but it was still likely that a slip in his concentration would be what allowed her to take him down.
Silver didn’t move for several moments, she had the advantage, but she knew that Keenan never attacked first if he didn’t have the upper hand. It was time to break that habit.
He realised she wasn’t going to move after about a minute of staring at each other, then his eyes darted around the field, and Silver could see the strategies unfolding in his mind.
“Your strategy is obvious just from looking into your eyes,” She told him. “Keep moving them around and your enemy will know what you plan to do before you’ve even decided you’re doing it.”
Keenan either didn’t listen to her or thought she was taunting because his eyes still roamed the area. She easily figured out the plan he was forming, to try and get behind her using his speed and catch her off guard. The moment he tensed to move, she removed her double broadswords and prepared to prevent a blow to her back.
Silver's Redemption (Soul Merge Saga Book 3) Page 23
