But he didn’t go where his eyes were looking, instead, he materialised in front of her and she had to quickly adjust her own strategy, eyes widening as she realised she’d done the most asinine thing imaginable.
She’d underestimated her opponent.
He was well versed in using hook swords, and with his new speed he was indeed deadly. But Silver managed to get back on top quickly enough, though the fight was not over as quickly as she would have liked. There were many occasions where his stupid swords almost ripped her own from her hands, and even more where he almost tripped her up with them.
If she didn’t have magic he might have a small chance of winning normally, she admitted with disgust. How weak had she become that she was close in strength and skill to a fey halfling?
But yet again, she had taught him. The fact offered her a small amount of comfort; after all, Leigh could probably win in a sparring match if Silver was distracted.
The moment she had been waiting for came, when he faltered in using his speed and an opening appeared.
She made a quick cut to his wrist, and another to his ribs, not deep, but enough to sting him when he came back from the battle high. Keenan swore in response and she could see his brows furrow in concentration as he concentrated harder on keeping up with her.
She let him get in a few good shots, but nothing that would injure her, as they fought further her blades continued to point out his errors for her with slight cuts that in a real fight would have meant his death or a serious injury. Her confidence that in a real fight she could win returned as he became slowly covered in scratches, while her own skin remained unmarked.
The next time his speed slowed and he looked like he was beginning to tire, she swooped downwards and kicked his legs out from underneath him, landing on top of him, straddling his chest as her blades crossed over his neck.
“Do you yield?” She demanded.
“Yes.” Keenan nodded, and she sheathed her blades but as she moved to get off of him, he grabbed her thighs, keeping her in place. “What would each of these scratches have cost me in a real fight?” He asked.
“Death,” Silver replied. “You did well,” Her concentration was actually focused on the way he was holding her, still not letting her go even as she had answered his question. Her pointed glance at her thighs didn’t seem to make a difference. “Were you planning on letting me go any time soon?” She said.
“Perhaps,” He replied smoothly.
His actions said the opposite as he rolled them over so they switched positions, with him straddling her abdomen.
Silver frowned, what was he doing? The obvious answer was that he was flirting but she dismissed it; Keenan wasn’t that stupid as to flirt with someone like her.
Or was he?
She stabbed him just in case.
He cursed and pulled the thin throwing knife out of his back, looking at it with annoyance. “What was that for?” He demanded.
“For refusing to get off of me!” Silver retorted, trying to fight his hands as he tried to pin hers above her head. “You yielded!” She reminded him as she slammed a pressure operated blade in the toe of her boot into his shoulder.
“I did, this is a new fight.” He replied, smiling.
“Fine, new rules then.” Silver played along. “You have two seconds to get off me before I cover myself in demon fire and you are vaporised.”
Wisely, he decided to scramble away quickly.
“Tommy.” Silver flipped onto her feet. “Have you drunk the blood I gave you today?”
The thief nodded. “I’m not going to like what you have to tell me, am I?” He asked.
“I need the information you know.” Silver replied. “I’m going into your mind, and it will hurt.”
Tommy’s gaze hardened. “Where are we doing this?” A simple, practical question, yet it was one that held powerful weight and a hint of the man that the boy had become.
“Here. Keenan and my pack will guard us.” Silver said. “Inside there is too much potential for damage.” She sat cross-legged on the ground and patted the spot in front of her. “If it is any consolation, I will attempt to make it hurt as little as possible.”
“Hold him down when I go in.” She sent mentally to Keenan. "Freeze him if necessary. Whatever happens, do not interrupt me or your friends mind will be obliterated.”
Silver shot a quick glance towards ice-boy to ensure he’d heard her, satisfied with his grim nod; she removed her gloves and placed her hands on Tommy’s temples.
Her entry into Tommy’s mind was difficult to say the least. The remnants of Romana’s attempt to shield him were scattered around the outside of his psyche and she was forced to weave her presence past them in order to get deeper. The fragments of shield were dangerous; magic and men did not usually mix well and if the tiny pieces of power drifted too close to the next layer of Tommy’s mind he could be rendered insane.
Floating through his consciousness was easier, the thoughts here were better ordered, even if it was not by much. Pausing slightly at the part of his mind that housed the consciousness of the animal traits she felt a sort of kinship with this separate entity that was trapped within another mind; Romana had trapped Silver back in much the same way. She reached out and carefully soothed the disquieting presence. In the physical realm she felt Tommy relax slightly under her fingers.
Then she reached his memories.
“Think about the last thing you remember before you were taken, but don’t go any further or I swear I’ll skin you alive.” Silver instructed.
The blur of memory in front of her seemed to move like images floating then swirling before settling. Silver caught the memory and followed the strand of pictures.
The mess she came across was disheartening to say the least.
It seemed Alda, not able to destroy the memories had tried her best to obliterate them anyway. She’d tangled the deceptively frail looking threads, mangled them and then for good measure she’d attempted to cut them out of sequence.
Curiosity, which had led her to look without just using a demon to fix him in the beginning, had her reaching out to try and touch the tangled threads..
The result was an immediate roar of pain from Tommy, and his mind began to lose focus. Silver found herself trying to soothe the animal part of him which reacted by trying to take over.
She withdrew rapidly, recognising the futility of trying to fight from inside a mind that was collapsing as another took over.
The scene she emerged to was tense to say the least.
Tommy was frozen from the waist down, his arms wrestled behind he back by a sweating Keenan. His features were constantly morphing; flickering between the man and the bear. She scrambled backwards from where they were wrestling, conjured a portal to the second world of the demonic realm and summoned through a helio-demon.
“Stop his transformation.” Silver commanded and the demon nodded flying into Tommy’s mouth. He shuddered slowly, the effect rippling across his body as he changed back into a man, his eyes losing the deranged look of before. “Fix the damage to his memories.”
For long moments, nothing seemed to happen; Tommy just stared back at her impassively, his entire aura glowing with the light of the helio-demon. Then the face that so often laughed contorted with pain and a yell left his body that chilled Silver more than the sound of all the dying screams she had ever heard.
“Stop his pain.” She ordered the demon.
But it didn’t obey her, and the eerie sound of Tommy’s anguish continued for minutes that seemed endless.
When he finally crumpled in on himself, Keenan’s hand flew to the boy’s pulse. When he nodded at her, she breathed a slight sigh of relief, but her anger flared as the demon flew out of his mouth.
“I told you,” She began with a quiet, menacing tone, “to stop his pain. Why did you feel you didn’t have to obey this order?”
She created a whip of pyro-demon fire and cracked it menacingly.
“You
ordered his memories released. He was remembering the pain, honestly my queen, there was nothing I could have done.” The demon looked exhausted and terrified of losing its life at the same time, but Silver didn’t care.
“Were all of his memories restored?” She demanded, cracking the whip again.
“Yes, your majesty. Every single one was replayed to him.” The demon hurriedly replied, its light flickering.
Silver’s ire was fading, yet unfortunately for the demon she wasn’t feeling particularly merciful. But there weren’t enough helio-demons to allow her to kill this one.
“The only reason I am letting you live,” She began, “is because you are one of a very small number. If your or your kin disappoint me again, I may forget that fact. Now leave before I change my mind.”
She waved open a portal, through which the demon fled.
“How is he?” She asked Keenan.
“Out cold,” The thief confirmed.
Silver cursed. “No news on the brother in Morendor?” Keenan shook his head and she cursed again. She needed a fight but who was there to kill? She couldn’t risk sparring with Keenan again, not after the events of earlier.
As she glanced around she noticed Keenan swoop down to lift Tommy across his shoulders in a fireman’s carry and start towards the door in the mountainside.
“I’m taking him to a proper room.” Keenan informed her. “Now that he’s not a flight risk due to his animal traits, I presume the cell is no longer necessary?”
It was a statement phrased like a question and Silver was grateful for the small amount of control she could glean from it.
“I’ll show you to a suitable one.” She agreed, leading the way back to her rooms.
Lena had been trying to convince her that since Tommy hadn’t had an outburst he should have a proper room. Hence one had been made up a little over a week ago to try and encourage Silver to see the brownie’s side. At first she’d ignored it, but now she was thankful for the brownie’s stubbornness.
“Put him in here.” She opened the door opposite Keenan’s room to reveal a room draped in citrus colours but the décor wasn’t on her mind as she watched Keenan gently ease his burden onto the mattress, remove Tommy’s boots and ruffle his hair.
“He will be fine.” Silver felt herself wanting to reassure Keenan. The halfling looked almost defeated at the sight of his friend pale and unconscious on the sunny yellow silk bed sheets.
It definitely wasn’t an expression which suited him; she was used to every other expression bar that one. When Keenan admitted defeat it was done either in anger or playfulness.
“You told us there would be pain.” He replied. “I just didn’t expect it to be that bad and those were just his memories.”
Silver said nothing, but passed the thief lord the small phial of patho-demon blood. “It should help him heal faster. After he’s woken he will have to learn to come to terms with his memories. Once he’s told me what he knows, he’s free to go back to Morendor.”
“What if he wants to stay?” Keenan suggested. “Could he?”
“I doubt he will, but if he wishes he may. I will train him as well.” She brushed past him as she walked towards the door.
The likelihood of Tommy staying was very slim; however, she didn’t mention it to Keenan. If the halfling longed for companionship that much she’d get him a puppy.
For the first time Silver found herself contemplating Keenan’s leaving, to her surprise, every time she tried to imagine it, she couldn’t. For some reason she was certain that either he wouldn’t leave or she wouldn’t let him.
She looked back into the room to see him sitting behind Tommy on the bed, supporting the other man as he tried to pour the thick liquid into his mouth.
The thief lord had become a problem; with his ‘curiosity’ and her newfound lenience when it came to him he was a complication she could not afford. But she wasn’t quite sure she wanted to kill him either.
She felt fur under her fingertips as she left the two men and walked along the corridor to the living room and her chair. Her hand clenched involuntarily, seeking comfort. Theria looked up.
“You’re over thinking it.” The hound informed her. “Focus on the task at hand.” The words in their language were a welcome balm. A reminder that there was one being on this planet who understood her every action almost better than she did herself, and she was not alone.
“We need him to wake up.” She jerked her thumb back towards the direction she had come from. “I have no idea how long that will take.”
“Then let’s hunt.” Theria suggested, rolling her claws against the carpet. “We have not run together in a while. The pack would happily join us.”
“So much for focusing on the task at hand,” Silver commented, untying her hair from its braid and running her hand through the silky mass. “This war is a waiting game, and my patience is wearing thin.” She sighed and looked into the deep familiar eyes that understood what this patience was costing her all too well. “How is Leigh?” She asked suddenly.
“Healing slowly without your aid,” the hound admitted. “Lena has attempted to sneak her demon blood several times but Leigh refuses out of respect for you.”
“Respect or fear?” Silver muttered, not really wanting an answer but Theria replied anyway.
“A bit of both, I think. She became too comfortable in her place by your side that she forgot who you are.”
“Who I was,” Silver whispered. “Your presence has made me softer.”
“Not at all, finding a familiar was never going to make you change fundamentally, but time has made your mind desperate to protect itself. It has made what once were open wounds into scars. They will never fade; they made you who you are, but you will look past them.”
“You’re getting philosophical again.” Silver warned.
“No, Loke is worse than I am. I just pay attention to what you’re feeling.”
“I shouldn’t be feeling anything.” Silver complained. “You are already weakness enough. I don’t need more.”
“Like Keenan?” Theria confronted her. “He is not merely a shadow or a business contract anymore; he is approaching becoming your friend. He is already a trustworthy ally.”
“No. Trust is an illusion.”
“Someone is trustworthy if you believe they will not betray you. Keenan cannot betray you; I say that makes him the first person, myself excluded, who you could trust.”
“Let me guess – you would have me working with Romana?”
“She’s compromised.” Theria acquiesced, “But some members of your family have never betrayed you.”
“Roan?” Silver was stunned, “He gave up on me when I was a child.”
“He too was young. Ask him to make the same vow Keenan did, I have no doubt he would not hesitate. Tommy would also die for you.”
“He works for Marten.”
“That’s not what his letter said.” Theria countered. “He said he was staying, that you had his allegiance and he wasn’t going to leave Keenan alone.”
The sounds of coughing reached her from Tommy’s room, and Silver didn’t bother running, she simply opened a portal straight through.
Tommy was sitting up in the bed, Keenan’s hand on his shoulder has he hunched over. His hair was plastered around his forehead, his face haunted with memories.
“Tell me what you remember.” Silver told him. “Then I’ll take you home, Romana has healers that can make your memories easier to deal with.”
Tommy’s look hardened. “I’m not leaving,” his usual smile was erased in favour of a stubborn expression that made him look older.
Silver’s shocked look must have been funny because a smile began to play at his lips. “This is my home now. I want to stay and train with Keenan.”
The look she got from Keenan was a knowing one, and Silver inwardly groaned. “You mean I’m never going to get rid of you?” A ghost of a half-smile graced her face.
“Not until the day I
die,” Tommy smiled. “As for what I remember, mostly I was on the ship where we found Endis, but I remember the ship docking at one point, and I was led out in the night through a city on the edge of the desert and through a cave system in some mountains. I never saw Alda, they kept a bag over my head when she was near, I know she was annoyed with my shields, and that’s when the pain started.” His eyes darkened slightly. “It never stopped, she was clawing at my mind, and I could feel it, almost like I can feel the shields your demon put there now.”
Silver hadn’t known that the demon had taken the initiative and put new shields in place of the old ones. Demonic shields would be impossible for Alda to break, no matter how hard she tried. They weren’t of the same realm as her powers, and so a wytch of this realm would never even scratch them.
“There was something else, I heard them talking about you.” Silver leaned forwards in interest. “Alda was saying she would kill both you and Romana, no matter what. She kept going on about getting revenge for Kobos, for the life she could have had with him.”
“Get some rest.” Silver told Tommy. “Any word yet on where we can find her brother?”
“I’ll visit the guild just to check.” Keenan replied, but he didn’t sound hopeful as he patted his friend on the back and left the room.
Silver gave Tommy a nod, “You’ll be back on your feet by morning or I will send you home.” She informed him.
“You could try.” Tommy joked.
She gave him an eye roll as she left.
Chapter Twenty-Six
LESSONS LEARNED
“We’ve received word of who in the palace is Alda’s brother.” Keenan informed her. “The first son of a rural duchess, fostered at court to make alliances. He sent a letter bound in gold thread five hours ago.”
Silver looked up in amazement, putting down the poster handed to her by a dwarf she had charged with keeping her up to date with current affairs.
“A nobleman?” She asked, amazed. “How did she pull that one off?”
Silver's Redemption (Soul Merge Saga Book 3) Page 24
