Crown of Visions

by R. A. Rock

“For someone who wants to save us all, you’re not willing to sacrifice much.”

  Tess shook her head. “No. Not that. You can’t.”

  Perdira gave Tess the most patronizing smile she had ever seen.

  “I wasn’t… I mean, I actually want…”

  Perdira hesitated, and Tess was confused. Was the ancient Fae anxious about asking for this deal?

  “What?” Finn asked, also scowling. “What do you want?”

  “I want your body.”

  “I already said Finn’s off the table, Perdira,” Tess said in exasperation.

  “Not his body. Yours.”

  “Oh.” Tess took a step back. “I like men.”

  “Me too. Though depending on the woman, I can be persuaded.” Perdira laughed again. “I don’t want to lie with you. I want to be in your body. Just for a couple hours. To remember how it feels.”

  “Are you kidding?” Finn exclaimed.

  “What? No,” Tess said at the same time.

  “Fine,” Perdira said with a shrug, like she didn’t care much either way.

  Finn and Tess stared at each other in dismay.

  “Can I talk to Finn for a minute privately?” Tess asked, politely.

  “Sure. Take all the time you want. There’s no hurry, is there?” Perdira’s voice oozed with sarcasm. Tess and Finn walked down the tunnel till they were out of earshot.

  “What are we going to do?”

  Finn frowned. “Well, unless you’re suddenly back in either the King or Dark Queen’s good graces, you’ll have to give her what she wants. An hour in control of your body.”

  “Do you know how awful the thought of that is?” Tess said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

  “I am well aware. And I’m also afraid she’ll try to seduce me as you, and I won’t be able to resist.”

  “Ugh,” Tess said, shuddering. “I hadn’t thought of that. That makes it so much worse.”

  “What choice do we have?” Finn said with a hopeless shake of his head. “Either we play her game, or we lose. Everything. We can’t end the Severance without our bodies, Tessa.”

  Tess balled her hands up in fists, her whole body tensed in resistance to the idea. Then she let the tension go and took a big breath.

  She walked back to Perdira and spoke. “I’ll do it.”

  “Wonderful,” Perdira said, clapping her hands.

  “But,” Tess held up a finger, “there are conditions.”

  “Of course,” Perdira said, pleased. “I’d expect nothing less from you, Tessa.”

  “One, it can only be for a few hours.”

  “Five,” Perdira said.

  “Two,” Tess countered.

  “Three it is,” Perdira said, and Tess nodded. “And I decide when I take them. It’ll be sometime before midnight tomorrow.”

  “What? I don’t think so.”

  “Sure, that’s fine,” Perdira said with a shrug of her smooth shoulders. “I honestly do not care. Deal’s off, then.”

  Perdira turned and began walking away, fading as she went.

  “No, no, wait!” Tess called, holding up her hands. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Fine. You choose when you take the three hours.”

  “Perfect,” Perdira said, turning and coming back to them. “Go on with your conditions, then.”

  Tessa gave Finn a dark look, and he gave her a helpless one. But he was right. Perdira had all the power in the deal.

  “Two.” She held up two fingers. “You can’t sleep with Finn as me.”

  Perdira pouted. “I don’t know why you two are so fussy about that sort of thing.”

  “Do you agree to this condition?”

  Perdira rolled her eyes but nodded. “Yes.”

  “Three, you don’t get me into any kind of trouble while you’re in my body.”

  “I can live with that,” Perdira said.

  “Do you want to make a palm vow?”

  “Do you think you’ll back out?” Perdira asked, lifting one eyebrow.

  “No,” Tess said, insulted.

  “Neither do I. It seems we’ve got enough palm vows running rampant, don’t we? Probably best not to make another.”

  Tess and Finn exchanged a glance. Perdira knew about Finn’s palm vow and how it was going out of control?

  Another thought occurred to Tess.

  “So… will I… you know… be there? Or will I just black out or what?”

  “Don’t worry,” Perdira said, waving her hand. “You won’t remember a thing.”

  “That’s what worries me the most,” Tess muttered to Finn.

  “So, Perdira, how do we get our bodies back?”

  Perdira was gazing off at the ceiling of the tunnel. But she flicked her hand as if she had a fly on it. The next second, Tess felt something change. She tried to run her hand through the rock again and banged it really hard.

  “Ow,” she cried out. Then she threw herself into Finn’s arms, and they hugged tightly.

  “I missed doing this,” he whispered in her ear.

  Tess clung to him.

  “Well, Tessa,” Perdira said with the sly grin of a person who’s just taken someone for everything they have. “I’ll be seeing you.”

  “Thanks, Perdira,” Tess said, feeling like she had just sold her soul to a dark mage.

  Finn and Tess climbed back up to the regular floors in silence.

  “Let’s take the parapet back to the Keeper’s quarters,” Finn suggested, and Tess followed him, not saying a word. There was a cool breeze blowing, and they could see down into the Courtyard where people were visiting or picnicking. Tess gazed down at them, suppressing a sigh. She wished she could be having a carefree Ball, like them.

  “I feel like this may turn out badly,” Finn said when Tess still didn’t say anything.

  “Tell me about it,” she said after a long moment of silence. “At least it’s not your body she’s taking over.”

  “And you did say she couldn’t sleep with me, so thanks for that.”

  “Well, she didn’t agree not to tease you mercilessly,” Tess pointed out.

  Finn stopped dead. “I never thought of that,” he said, staring at nothing.

  “I trust you’ll be able to resist her, Finn,” Tess said, taking his hand.

  “I’m glad you have such faith in me,” he said, worried. “But I don’t know. Last time, if it hadn’t been for you, I would have slept with her.”

  “You couldn’t help it. That was a spell. You couldn’t resist such powerful magic.” Tessa consoled him. “She said that she wouldn’t lie with you. And I believe her.”

  “Right,” Finn said, only sounding a little reassured. “Right.”

  They were walking along when all of a sudden, Finn’s eyes narrowed, and he tensed.

  “What is it?” Tess said, trying to follow where he was looking.

  “It’s her,” he said, and his voice didn’t sound like Finn. It was lower and scarier than Finn’s voice.

  “It’s who?” Tess said, watching him with concern.

  He stared at Tess in despair. Then he started toward the stairs, stopped, came back to her, shook his head as if to wake up, took a few steps in the direction of the stairs, then returned. He seemed completely confused or conflicted maybe.

  “Finn? What’s going on?”

  He didn’t answer, but she saw his eyes change—they went black for a second and then back to normal—and he began stalking toward the stairs with no hesitation this time. And he really was stalking, like a cat following a mouse.

  “Finn?” Tess asked, walking quickly to catch up. No, no, this couldn’t be happening. When Lorcan had left, he had forgotten to give them the cuffs. “What are you doing?”

  He once again ignored her and kept moving with that weird gait. She ran and got in front of him, and for a moment, he focused on her, but it was like he wasn’t really seeing her.

  “Move,” he said. “You’re in the way.”

  “Finn, look at me,” Tess sai
d, but he pushed her roughly aside so that she fell. Then he strode forward again. Tess jumped to her feet and chased after him once more, feeling apprehension rising in her. She dashed in front of him and grabbed his arms, making him frown down at her.

  “Stop that,” he said, his voice an angry monotone, though she wasn’t sure how that was possible. “I’ve got to get her.”

  “Who, Finn? And why?”

  He looked down at her again.

  “The queen,” he said, pushing her hard so that she slammed against the stone wall and slid down until she was sitting. “So I can kill her.”

  Shadows and Chasm. Finn had lost control of the vow, and the magic was making Finn fulfill it. This was bad.

  She hadn’t even known that Finn was that strong, or maybe it was the magic making him that way. Tess speculated about what was happening. It seemed that he could resist the pull of the vow when he was far enough away from the queen, and likely, he could have resisted it for years more, though it would have weakened him, draining his Starlight.

  But because he was in close quarters with the Dark Queen, he was feeling its pull, and the time left before he would have to fulfill it or it would consume all his Starlight was much shorter, Tess guessed.

  If it hadn’t been for the Hundred Years Ball, he would have been fine for decades. Instead, he was either going to try to kill the queen to fulfill the vow — and fail because of the Truce spell — which would probably mean that he would be captured. Then when the Truce spell ended, they would torture him and kill him. Or his Starlight would be completely consumed by the magic and he would die.

  It was an impossible situation.

  But the first thing she had to do was make sure he didn’t try to kill the queen. She glanced over the parapet and down into the Courtyard. She could see the queen was relaxing on the grass.

  She couldn’t see Finn anymore, but she knew he would head straight for the queen. Tess felt a twinge of fear, but she twisted the ring, her hands disappearing before her very eyes. Then she turned small and flew down from the parapet, landing near the queen and turning big again but still invisible and insubstantial.

  She only waited about a half minute before she spotted him approaching. The queen hadn’t seen him, and maybe no one else had either.

  Tess had to stop him.

  A plan formed in her head as she took off running, still insubstantial, toward Finn, where he was pushing people out of the way as he tracked his prey.

  Tess ran at full speed, straight through people and objects, until she was about four feet away. She turned the ring back and plowed straight into Finn, slamming him to the ground. There were gasps from people standing nearby.

  “He’s my partner,” she explained to those who were beginning to frown at her and move closer to protect the innocent man she had just assaulted. “He’s got a spell on him. I have to get him back to our quarters.”

  The threatening people backed off but still watched her with suspicious eyes, while Finn lay there unconscious. Tess didn’t know when he would wake up, so she frantically searched through his bag of spells. She found the one she was looking for, a lightness spell, and used it on him. Then she lifted him without strain onto her shoulder, getting to a deserted hallway where she could turn them both invisible. Then she ran as fast as she could back to the Keeper’s quarters.

  Finn was not going to be happy with her when he realized what she had done. But she didn’t care. She had sworn to support and help him.

  And if she had to knock him out to do it, she would.

  Still, she was not looking forward to when he woke up.

  Chapter 31

  Finn woke up with a pain in his head. He groaned and went to put his hand to his forehead but found that he couldn’t. He frowned, which elicited another sound of pain, and struggled to open his eyes.

  When he finally got them open, the first thing they saw was Tess. She looked… contrite. He studied her for a moment and then tried again to put his hand to his head where it hurt. He couldn’t because one of his hands was cuffed to the bed—again.

  “I’m sorry,” was the first thing that Tessa said.

  “Why are you sorry?” he asked, not really wanting to know. What he really wanted to do was go back to sleep. His head hadn’t been a pounding mass of pain when he had been unconscious.

  “Because I knocked you out,” she said. He noticed that she was standing a good distance away. As if she were wary of him.

  “Why?” he said, having no memory of what had happened for him to end up there like that.

  “You weren’t yourself, Finn.”

  “I wasn’t?”

  “No, the vow is taking you over and forcing you to keep it. I’ve never seen anyone resist keeping a vow before, but it seems that the later stages are quite disturbing.”

  “Disturbing,” he repeated, trying to think.

  “It was like you were another person, Finn,” she said, her eyes troubled. “You were so intent on killing the queen. I almost couldn’t stop you.”

  Finn’s eyes grew wide at that. He had tried to kill the Dark Queen? No. No. That was bad. Very bad. He couldn’t kill the queen. It would bring the whole land crumbling down about their ears. Or, well, he didn’t know exactly what would happen. But the other time the queen had almost been killed, it had been so bad that the king himself had shown up to save Ransetta. Not because he didn’t want her dead. But because if he didn’t save her, all of Ahlenerra would be destroyed.

  And now Finn’s vow made it so that he wanted to kill her, thus ensuring their entire land’s destruction. He sighed, ignoring the pain in his head at the tiny movement.

  “Thank you for tying me up,” he said. “I really do appreciate you stopping me, Tess.”

  “You do?”

  “Yes,” he said, surprised that she was surprised. “Of course.”

  “Good,” she said with a nod. “Now give me your hidden weapons. I already got your sword and dagger."

  “My hidden weapons?” He frowned, feeling annoyed, though he didn’t know why. “Why do you need those?”

  “It must be very uncomfortable to lie on them,,” Tess said, overly nonchalant. “Can you just take them out and give them to me? I'll put them away for you."

  He gazed at her in confusion.

  Why did Tess want him to give her his weapons? To be more comfortable? How would he protect himself? It didn’t make sense to his muddle mind. Such a strange request.

  “Please, Finn,” she said, and her eyes beseeched him. He couldn’t resist.

  “Fine,” he said, sitting up with difficulty. "I only have one hidden today."

  He withdrew the small dagger from the sheath in his boot. But as he pulled it and held it out to her, he suddenly felt as though he didn’t want to give her this weapon.

  He wanted to do something else.

  And Tess wasn’t going to stop him.

  Tess watched anxiously as he pulled the dagger. In a moment, she would have all of his weapons, and Finn would truly no longer be a danger to anyone.

  But as he stretched out his hand to give it to her, she saw the change come over him. Instead of dropping the dagger in her outstretched palm, he changed his grip on it and cut through the ropes that bound him.

  With a jump, he was on his feet and heading for the stairs. He didn’t seem to be in pain anymore and he had a grim look of determination on his face.

  “No, Finn, please don’t do this,” Tess begged. “Give me the dagger.”

  But Finn just twisted his ring and was gone.

  “Shadows take me,” she swore.

  What was she to do?

  Obviously, she had to stop him before he found the queen and tried to kill her. She thought hard. Well, now that she could pick the crown up, she needed to take it with her. They had been keeping the magical object in the Keeper’s safe. But she didn’t know what was going to happen when the Ball ended. It would be better to have everything with her in case she needed to run. She wished with
all her heart that she could put the Crown in the Otherworld sheath. But that was out of the question. As she carefully placed the priceless magical artifact in her messenger bag and slung it over her shoulder, she asked for the Stars blessing on what she was about to do.

  But, what to do about Finn?

  She would need help.

  And she would find him the same way she had last time. She would get to the queen before he did. The vow was making him want to kill Ransetta. And it didn't matter that he couldn’t do it.

  He was going to go try to kill the Dark Queen... and probably be captured in the process. Tess couldn’t let that happen.

  “No, no, no,” Izzie said, holding his head and rocking back and forth. “I can’t get involved. He can’t kill the queen. This is impossible.”

  “Izzie, please,” Tess said. “Finn’s always telling me that I can’t do everything myself. I need help. And this time, I need your help. To save Finn.”

  “What about the elf? Why don’t you ask her?”

  “She’s locked up. Ransetta got her.”

  “So get her out.”

  “It’s not that easy. The dungeons are heavily guarded. The locks are unpickable. And there are wards. Everywhere. The wards are the most dangerous. They’ll blast you with magic.”

  “Designed by the secret order of Fae I told you about that makes spelled objects. You’re absolutely right. Those wards are unbreakable.”

  “Exactly. And even if I could break her out? The queen herself has special spells on the dungeon that alert her if there’s ever a breach.”

  Izzie frowned, his eyes pained.

  “And by the way, there’s never been a breach.”

  Isadore didn’t speak.

  “Besides, I need help with magic. When it comes to magic, you’re the most knowledgeable Faerie in all of Ahlenerra. No one knows more about it than you.”

  “Finn is like my own son,” he said after a long moment. “I would do anything to save him.”

  “So you’ll help?”

  “Anything but this, Tessa.”

  “I’ll take that as a yes. Izzie, we don’t have much time. We have to get to the queen and make sure Finn doesn’t try to kill her. I think the easiest way would be to get his dagger. He’ll have it out, so we can get it away from him.”