FORBIDDEN TALENTS

by Frankie Robertson

  “This is a remarkable time for us all,” Kaeron said. “Remarkable, and past due. Please know that you are welcome guests. I only regret that your need has brought you on such a difficult journey.”

  Ragni instinctively reached out with his Talent, then recoiled as he met the unnerving nothing he always found when he tried to touch the Fey. Frustrated he said, “Yes. Let us speak of that need.”

  Che’veyo interrupted. “We honor you for your hospitality, Lord Kaeron. We bring you greeting gifts, and hope you will accept them with our good will.” He nodded to Masale, who sat near the end of the table. The Tewakwe warrior rose and brought Che’veyo a bundle wrapped in oil cloth.

  Ragni glanced ruefully at Che’veyo, glad one of them had remembered their manners.

  Kaeron unwrapped the gift, revealing two pure white suede tunics. The first was carefully painted with stark black Tewakwe symbols, reminiscent of their pottery. The second, apparently meant for a woman, had intricately beaded fringe on the sleeves and hem that chimed with tiny bells. Ragni drew in a deep breath. They were stunning gifts.

  “Thank you. These are remarkable and most generous,” the Praefect said.

  Thankful for Celia’s perspective and input on the Nuvinland gifts, Ragni gestured to Fender, who brought a gold-chased box and placed it in front of the Praefect.

  Kaeron exclaimed as he examined the intricate clasp. “A puzzle!”

  “I’m sorry. I meant to open that before.” Ragni gifted Fender with a brief glare.

  “I’m glad you did not.” Kaeron gave his full attention to the clasp for a moment.

  Ragni waited, hoping this would not prove embarrassing for them all.

  A moment later, Kaeron shifted a lever and flipped a latch before sliding the hidden drawer open. “Wonderful!”

  Ragni was distantly aware of Fender’s satisfaction.

  Kaeron pulled another box from the drawer. Inside lay two matching torcs, one each for a man and a woman. Gold stylized boars chased along the silver arms of the man’s torc while in the center two mirrored images of Freyr held a blood red stone between them. On the woman’s neck-piece, two Freyas embraced a moonstone while knotted silver cats graced the golden arms. Through both was woven Sevond’s Talent for enhancing the beauty of those who wore them.

  Not that these folk need any enhancement.

  “These are gifts worthy of a prince. I thank you both.” Kaeron bowed his head, then signaled for a gofle to take them away.

  Ragni watched the little creature with widened eyes. It wasn’t the first he’d seen since he’d arrived at the Elvenholt, but they’d take some getting used to. Baruq, with his attitude, seemed somehow more …normal. Ragni shook his head, feeling addled.

  “Now, what need has driven you to this journey?” Kaeron asked.

  “We have several concerns, which we hope you will address, but one is foremost in our minds,” Ragni said, preparing to ask about the Dark Elves’ siege of Quartzholm and their plans for starting Ragnarok.

  “Yes,” Tiva’ti said, directing her remarks to Rien. “Why have you stolen our people?”

  Ragni drew in a sharp breath, startled by her directness, by the fact that she had spoken at all. He still wasn’t used to the Tewakwe custom of giving precedence to their women in council.

  Kaeron’s eye’s narrowed. “We do not take any mortal unwilling.” His voice was distinctly cool.

  Ragni clenched his teeth, wishing again that his Talent could show him what the Praefect was feeling. How did the others stand it, going through life blind all the time?

  Tiva’ti ignored the Praefect’s protest. “We honor Tiowa. Our kopavi are open to his guidance. Yet our people are stolen. And when they are returned, if they are returned, they are mere husks. We know it is your kind who have done this.”

  Kaeron frowned. Ragni found it hard to believe, but Tiva’ti wasn’t the least afraid.

  Rien lifted a finger just as Kaeron opened his mouth and the Praefect remained silent. “Our kind, perhaps, but not the Lios Alfar,” she said. Her face was dispassionate. Ragni could read nothing of her reaction.

  “But you do take humans from their homes,” Saeun said.

  “Not unwillingly,” Treskin protested.

  “Then what of those who are?” Ragni asked.

  “It is the work of the Dark Ones,” Rien said.

  “Why?” Tiva’ti demanded. “How have we offended the gods? Why do they punish us?”

  Ragni didn’t have any trouble interpreting Kaeron’s expression. He looked out of patience. Ragni wondered what he could say to sooth the rising tempers.

  “The Dark Ones are not serving the gods in this,” Rien continued. “Indeed, they violate the oaths they gave when Freyr and Freya brought you here.”

  “What do they want from us?” Che’veyo asked. “Some of our clans are proposing a cleansing war. They believe you will only be satisfied when those who do not honor Tiowa are gone from the land.”

  Ragni read Kaeron’s disgust almost as well as if his Talent worked. Disgust for the Tewakwe or the Dark Elves?

  The Praefect shook his head. “That would indeed please the Dark Ones. They want all mortals gone from Alfheim. If you kill yourselves for them, all the better. But that is not Freyr’s will, nor Freya’s. It will not serve Tiowa nor Spider Grandmother. And we certainly do not wish it.”

  “Baruq has said they want to bring about Ragnarok,” Ragni said softly, almost wishing the pinnsvin were at this meeting.

  “Even they would not be so foolish,” Kaeron said. “But they want you gone; at least, some of them do. And they intend to draw help from the Realm of Fire to do it.”

  “But the way to Muspell is closed,” Fender said.

  “You thought the path from Midgard was closed, too,” Celia said. “Yet here I am.”

  Ragni shot her a quick look. She still looked well, thank the gods. The effects of Valender’s healing had lingered, keeping her strong even on their trek to the Elvenholt. “True enough.” He turned to Lord Kaeron. “So how are we going to stop them?”

  Kaeron raised his pale, finely arched eyebrows. “Stop them? I doubt you can.”

  Saeun sat up straighter. She was appalled. “Not alone, perhaps. But with your help …?”

  “They may be Oath-breakers, but The Dark Ones have offered us no offense. It is not for the Lios Alfar to intervene.”

  Ragni had no trouble reading Saeun’s outrage. It flowed off her in hot waves. “You asked me for my help, and I gave it to you. You said you swore an oath to the gods not to harm us. But you do, through your inaction. If you allow the Dark Elves to continue without intervening, you might as well aid them.”

  Several of the Elves frowned angrily, then the walls seemed to creak and shift. The Elves glanced upward, seemingly surprised, but Ragni couldn’t pay attention to that now. Baldur’s Balls. He had to salvage this parley somehow. “Perhaps—”

  “You presume rather heavily on our hospitality, Lady Saeun,” Kaeron overrode him. “We owe you neither explanation nor justification of our choices. You are here in Alfheim as guests, and here in this Elvenholt at our sufferance.”

  “And we are grateful that you aided us—” Ragni began.

  “The gods brought us here,” Tiva’ti interrupted.

  “The same gods who took your oath,” Saeun added.

  “We are not Oathbreakers. We promised not to harm mortals directly, and we will not. Indeed, over the years we have often saved you from suffering and untimely death. But our oath does not require us to war with our brothers.”

  “The gods may not require it, but our honor does,” Valender said.

  The Elves all looked at him. The air sizzled with tension.

  “We have been charged to share this land with the mortals,” he continued. “It cannot be right to stand by and watch our brothers violate their oaths and kill our mortal neighbors.”

  Kaeron’s cat-like eyes narrowed as Rien and Treskin nodded. His gaze went around the table, stoppin
g at each of the Elves as though he were listening. His lips thinned as the silence grew longer.

  “So be it. We will offer what aid we can.” Kaeron looked at Saeun. “I must ask you to risk yourself again. If we are to intervene, you must show us where Edelstena means to open her portal to Muspell.”

  *

  Saeun’s heart clenched and she glanced at Ragni. It was one thing for him to know she’d practiced unsanctioned magic, it was quite another for him to witness it. Now he would see with his own eyes that she was a law-breaker.

  “Risk yourself?” Ragni asked. “What does he mean?”

  Kaeron gestured and an Elf brought out the box of magical tools.

  Saeun put the delicate green bowl on the table and poured the quicksilver into it. Kaeron passed her the leather pouch with Edelstena’s amulet.

  “Saeun? What risk?” Ragni demanded.

  Saeun tried not to look at him. If she focused on her magic, she wouldn’t have to think about how much it would hurt when he turned from her in disgust.

  “We will ward her,” Valender said.

  “What risk?”

  She couldn’t concentrate. Saeun forced herself to meet Ragni’s gaze. “It’s all right. I want to do this. I want to help.”

  “I don’t want you endangering yourself!”

  She savored the look of love on Ragni’s face, knowing it wouldn’t be there long. “You all took a risk just leaving Quartzholm. This is something I can do to help our people.”

  “I can’t lose you again,” he said softly.

  She tried to smile, felt it waver. “You won’t.” No, he wouldn’t lose her. When he saw what she was about to do, he would cast her away with both hands. “Now be still and let me do this.”

  She closed her eyes and spoke the words her mother had taught her, twined with the changes she had discovered for herself. They needed to see further into the future than tomorrow. Thora had been frightened for her when she’d learned that Saeun had done this. Thora had been right. It was dangerous. But it was also necessary.

  Saeun held the amulet in her hands over the quicksilver. She didn’t need to see to know where it was. She felt it like a cool draft pulling the warmth from her. The amulet grew heavy as she continued her chant. Muscles throughout her body trembled, then began to ache. The ache became screaming pain, but she couldn’t waver, couldn’t stop.

  With a cold rush, she felt the vision come. Saeun threw her arms wide and looked into the bowl. She was dimly aware of the others leaning forward and watching, too.

  A huge natural cavern swallowed the light from glow globes and torches. The uneven floor had been smoothed in one small section, and a small company of Elves gathered around Edelstena, fighting in unnatural silence to keep human and Elven warriors away from her.

  In the still, shimmering surface of the quicksilver, Ragni and the Tewakwe Shaman stood to one side, a glow nearly obscuring them, their faces tight with the strain of exertion.

  Saeun fell into the vision, no longer watching. She was there. Edelstena turned to look at her, then swung her staff with all her might at Saeun.

  She couldn’t move. The staff glimmered in the uneven light as it arced toward her head. A powerful jolt knocked the breath out of her, then she knew nothing more.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  “MY LORDS?”

  Lord Thogarr, the Arms Master, stopped his report. Dahleven looked up from the bowl of stew he was wolfing down. It was the first food he’d had since the meat-roll he’d eaten on the run that morning. It was early evening now. “Yes?”

  The armsman winced. “Lord Dahleven, it’s Lady Angrim. She—”

  “She’ll have to wait. I told her this morning, and you can tell her again that—”

  “You can tell me yourself, Dahl, since I’m here.” Angrim walked up and stopped beside the Arms Master. Her gait was steady, not at all tentative. No one led her by the hand. She stood there, her blue eyes slightly wider than normal, looking at Dahleven. Her sight must be even better than he’d suspected.

  He said the first thing that came to mind. “What are you doing out of your quarters? Where is your guard?”

  “This is my guard,” she gestured at the armsman, who looked like he was awaiting his execution. “And I don’t recall being forbidden to leave my room.”

  Dahleven clenched his jaw. She was right. He hadn’t forbidden her to move about the castle. That will change. “I’m rather busy.” His voice was tight. “You may have heard we’re under siege? What do you want?”

  Angrim smiled. “Yes, I heard about that. That’s why I’m here. To offer my help.” She fluttered her eyelashes at him.

  Does she really think she can use that old flirtatious… He stopped.

  She wasn’t flirting. She raised her eyebrows and glanced at the armsman and the Arms Master.

  “Excuse us for a moment, Thogarr,” Dahleven said to the Arms Master. “I’ll look you up when I’ve dealt with this problem.” Dahleven dismissed Angrim’s guard with a wave of his hand. As soon as they were alone, he asked, “What is it you want, Angrim?” His voice was as cold and forbidding as he could make it. He wasn’t going to put up with another attempt at extortion.

  “I told you. I want to help.” Angrim slid gracefully into the chair across from him. “I can see again, Dahl.” Her joy seemed undiminished by the scowl he gave her. “Not quite like before, but I can see.” She lowered her voice conspiratorially. “And I see …things. I think they’re Fey creatures. Nobody else notices, or they think it’s just a cat or some such. I can point them out to your men.”

  Dahleven looked at her eyes. Why didn’t they have the shimmer that his and Celia’s eyes held? Was she lying? Where was Ragni when he needed him? Off getting his own ass Fey-marked.

  “You’re Fey-marked?” he asked, doubt in his voice.

  Angrim looked a little nervous. “Yes. Just like you.”

  “And you don’t care you’ll be shunned when people find out?”

  “Yes, I care. But that doesn’t matter.” Angrim looked frightened, but she straightened her shoulders. “I made a terrible mistake with Jorund. I can’t undo that. But I can do something to help save Quartzholm.”

  Baldur help him, he believed her. But then, he’d trusted her loyalties before, and look where that had got him. He ought to call a Truth Sayer, but all she’d have to do would be to say, “Dahleven is Fey-marked,” and the Truth Sayer would confirm it. At least that would bugger Wirmund, too. He almost smiled.

  “I did wrong before,” she continued. “But I’ve since sworn fealty to you. I’m not an Oathbreaker.” Her wide blue eyes were devoid of coyness.

  He could lock her in her rooms, or he could trust her. And there were minions of the Dark Elves about, doing who knew what mischief.

  “All right. But there’s something you need to know before you go charging off to defend us. Not all of the Fey in Quartzholm are our enemies.”

  Angrim’s eyes widened. “Oh?”

  “The Light Elves have …servants …living here. They have no love for the Dark Ones’ minions, so don’t kill them by mistake.”

  Angrim looked at him steadily for a moment. “I won’t ask how you know this. Only …how do I tell them apart?”

  Dahleven shook his head. “I don’t know. Ask if they are friends of Baruq. If the creature doesn’t respond well, then it’s probably Dark.” He still hadn’t been contacted by Baruq’s friends, but he hadn’t been back to his room since early morning, either. “I’ll let you know if I have any better ideas.”

  Angrim nodded.

  “I’ll assign three men to patrol with you, and get you a spear. And you’d better change those skirts for leggings.”

  “A spear?”

  “You may have to spit the things yourself if they’re fully invisible instead of just pretending to be a cat. A man can’t fight blind, directed by someone else, and hope to win. A spear doesn’t require much finesse, and will keep you at a distance.” He cocked an eyebrow at her.
“Getting cold feet?”

  She lifted her chin. “No.”

  He smiled. “Good. But if you see full-sized Dark Elves within the castle, don’t try to be a heroine. Let the men take them. Run for help.”

  “You don’t think I could be as much a Valkyrie as Celia?”

  Oh, no. I will not get mired in that swamp. “We’ll need the information more than another Valkyrie. If by mischance you’re all dead, you can’t tell anyone what you saw.”

  *

  “Saeun!” Ragni leapt to his feet from his seat beside the Elven Praefect. Saeun’s head lolled sideways, her face white as snow. Rien and Valender caught her, easing her down. Stark fear froze Ragni in place.

  Valender cradled her in one arm, his hand on her brow. It seemed an eternity before he spoke, though it was only a moment. “She lives, but a blow has loosened her hold on this world.” He stood and scooped her up. “She will require care. Treskin?”

  “What blow?” Ragni demanded. “What’s wrong with her?”

  Treskin was already on his feet, following Valender out of the room.

  “I will come also,” Che’veyo said, going with them.

  Ragni started to follow. He’d do a Great Healing if she needed it.

  Lord Kaeron stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Leave them to their work.”

  Ragni rounded on the Praefect. “Let me go!”

  “You cannot help her. Not as you are.”

  Ragni jerked his arm free. They were of a height and he crowded Kaeron, getting in his face. He would have answers, and have them now, one way or another. “Where are they taking her?”

  Several Elves moved forward, but the Praefect raised a hand and they stopped. “To her room. They will care for her there.”

  “Take me there. Now.”

  “Come with me. I’ll direct you,” Rien said. “But if you care for her, you will not interfere.”

  Celia came with him. Rien led them at a stately pace through the twisting halls. Ragni walked close behind, as if he could make Rien walk faster, but she never hurried her step. At last she stopped beside a doorway covered with hanging moss. He could hear Che’veyo’s voice chanting softly within.