The Consort

by K. A. Linde

  “But you survived the attack,” Cyrene said.

  “Yes, and no. Growing up, I had this wicked scar on my stomach. The kind that ran from chest to navel. As if someone had opened me up and then incorrectly closed me. It wasn’t until my lone wolf ceremony when I really realized that I wasn’t like anyone else my age. I always had keen eyesight. I could hear conversations I knew I wasn’t supposed to hear. My brain cataloged information that I never forgot. But I thought nothing of it until I was the first person back that day, and my mother finally told me about the attack.”

  “You were bitten?” Matilde guessed.

  “Yes.”

  “But bites don’t make you do…that!” Avoca cried out.

  “No. Many others were bitten that night. Some died. Some didn’t. No one else was affected. But I was a baby. I should have died by that bite. But a man was traveling through our village, who stayed there that night. Without him, the Indres certainly would have slaughtered our entire village. He imbued my body with magic, which held the Indres venom in my bloodstream. That man saved me and damned me.”

  Avoca gasped softly. Her eyes were wide. “You don’t mean…”

  Ahlvie nodded. “Ceis’f.”

  “He saved your village and your life, only to return to Aonia to see it gone,” Avoca whispered.

  “Another reason he must hate humans,” Cyrene whispered. “To think, if he had not helped you and just gotten to Aonia a night sooner, he might have helped them.”

  “Or died,” Vera added. “He very likely would be dead.”

  “He’d be smart to see it as a blessing that he had stayed back an extra night,” Matilde said.

  “That doesn’t sound like him at all,” Avoca said. “Are you sure it was Ceis’f? It might mean that there is another Aonia Leif alive.”

  Ahlvie shook his head. “My mother recognized him from twenty years ago. She says he looks the same. She tried to thank him, but he said he didn’t remember her. Or he chose not to acknowledge her.”

  “Does…does he know that you’re the baby he saved?” Cyrene asked.

  Ahlvie nodded gravely. “He does now.”

  Cyrene winced. Ceis’f had saved Ahlvie’s life only for Ahlvie to end up with the woman that Ceis’f loved. He must hate himself for that. Among many things.

  “So…Ceis’f kept the Indres venom in your system, and now, you’re an Indres?” Avoca asked in disbelief.

  “Not…exactly. I would say up until then, the venom had been dormant. I got some of the benefits. They really helped me in Byern when I needed them. Sneaking out was especially easy.”

  “Of course you would be given powers and use them to sneak around and cheat,” Cyrene muttered.

  “What’s the use of having superpowers if I can’t have a little fun?” Ahlvie shrugged. “Anyway, when we were in Aurum and you were attacked by the Braj at the castle, I disappeared into the gardens and was met with the Alpha.”

  Matilde and Vera perked up at this knowledge. “The real Alpha?” Matilde asked.

  “The big, bad himself. There are pack Alphas, and then there’s the top Alpha,” Ahlvie explained. “They could sense that I was one of them. That I was inherently prepped to join them. And they sent their best to force me to join or to take me down.”

  “And you won?” Vera asked, practically giddy.

  “Killed the bastard,” Ahlvie confirmed. “Then, the pack invaded my mind and made me Alpha, all because I’d killed him. The symptoms have been getting worse ever since. I’ve been trying to fight them off to ignore their calls. But, up on that mountain, with so many of them with us and nothing but the call of the wild, I lost it and shifted.”

  “And that likely saved our lives,” Matilde said, inclining her head.

  Vera smiled and did the same. “Thank you for getting your pack in line. Perhaps that will keep them off our tail for some time.”

  “So, just like that?” Ahlvie asked. “You’re okay with this?”

  “We’ve had some time to consider. We’ve known all along,” Vera told him. “You’re not the first half-breed we’ve come across in our years.”

  “Really?” Ahlvie gasped. “There are others like me?”

  Avoca jumped to her feet. “Are none of you going to acknowledge the danger of what we witnessed? Indres are evil. In Eldora, we hunt them for sport. They killed six of my men in the Hidden Forest. They would have killed us all if Cyrene had not saved us. And, now, you are one of them?” She looked disgusted and horrified.

  “I didn’t choose this,” Ahlvie said with his arms wide.

  She shook her head and stormed from the room. Ahlvie reached for her, but she sidestepped him, being careful not to touch him before she left.

  “Let me,” Orden said, swinging on his cloak and following after Avoca.

  Ahlvie looked downtrodden. “I was afraid of that,” he said, plopping down into his seat.

  “She’ll come around,” Cyrene said. “She loves you.”

  “This is something worse though. I’m her enemy. I knew it; I did. That’s why I didn’t tell her.”

  “Maybe, if you had told her, then you wouldn’t be in this mess.”

  Ahlvie shrugged. “Maybe. But you? How do you feel? Am I still part of the party?”

  “You once told me you were a cheat but loyal. I trust you.” She reached out and put her hand on his. “I always have. I don’t think being Indres inherently makes you bad. You still have a human heart. Use that, and you’ll be fine.”

  Avoca was still gone an hour later.

  Orden returned empty-handed and shrugged. “You try to keep up with a Leif who doesn’t want to be followed.”

  Ahlvie stood up and made for the door. “I’ll go after her. I’ll explain. I’ll, you know, charm my way out of this.”

  Cyrene stopped Ahlvie. “I don’t think so. Even if you could find her…”

  “I found her in your room last night from a league away after leaping over a twenty-foot wall into the city. I think I can find her now.”

  “I’m sure we’d all like to know exactly how you did that,” Cyrene said with a raised eyebrow. “But, last night, you were in your Indres form. Even if you could find her as you are now, she doesn’t want to be found. Take it from me. Sometimes, it’s best to back off and let her come to you.”

  Ahlvie grumbled and cursed. “Fine. I’m going to go downstairs with Orden and get us some breakfast then.”

  “Don’t do anything stupid.”

  “Me?” he asked with that confident look in his eyes. “I’d never.”

  Cyrene laughed at him as he and Orden disappeared back downstairs. “How long do you think Avoca will be gone?”

  “Not as long as her anger will last,” Matilde said.

  “If she’s gone too long, you can call her back,” Vera said.

  “How long did you two know what Ahlvie was?” Cyrene asked, taking a seat before them once more.

  “From the first,” Vera said.

  “Yes. He has the look about him,” Matilde confirmed. “Half-breed.”

  “You know,” Vera continued, “I had a thought about the coin.”

  She held up the little thing in her hand, and Cyrene gazed at it with earnest. She didn’t know why she felt so drawn to it. Probably because the infuriating thing showed up in her dreams every night.

  “Yes?” Matilde asked.

  Vera flipped it in her hand as elegantly as Ahlvie did with dice at an inn. “Why would Maelia have this talisman in her possession?”

  Cyrene shrugged. “Chance?”

  “No,” Matilde said. She raised her finger and touched her cheek three times. “Very few talismans can be used by non-magical people, and that girl didn’t have a lick of magic about her.”

  “There are talismans that can be used by people without magic?” Cyrene asked.

  “Well, of course. You’ve seen one yourself,” Matilde said.

  Cyrene blankly stared back at her.

  “The Mirror of Truth,” Vera fille
d in for her. “Dean doesn’t have magic, and he looked into its depths. The Doma book in your possession is a talisman as well.”

  “The book is a talisman?” she gasped.

  “With dire consequences for those who use it who are not worthy.”

  “They lose time,” Cyrene said intuitively.

  “But most talismans, including your book, were thought to have been lost before or during the war. Eldora, of course, still has a stockpile, but so many of the others have been lost over time.”

  “So, the Mirror can be used without magic. Are there others like that? Could this coin be one of them?”

  “We’re not sure,” Vera said with a disgruntled sigh.

  “The most notable one is the bridge,” Matilde said.

  Vera shot her a look of disgust. “Oh, do not even talk about it.”

  “What’s the bridge?” Cyrene asked. She felt like she could sit here and soak up information from them all day and night and never know enough.

  “Our own sort of fairy tale,” Vera told her.

  “Didn’t you say all fairy tales were true?”

  Matilde shot Vera a look of triumph. “You did, didn’t you?”

  “Fine,” Vera muttered. “The bridge is rumored to be one of the most powerful talismans in the known world. It can take a person between dimensions.”

  Cyrene stared at her in confusion. “Dimensions?”

  “Imagine that there’s an infinite number of worlds beyond our own,” Matilde said. “Other places than where we are right now that exist at the same time as our world.”

  “Okay,” she said reluctantly.

  “The bridge is said to transport you to the other side. Essentially, to take you to hell and back,” Vera said.

  “Why would anyone want that?”

  “For one,” Matilde told her, “it’s rumored that other dimensions have different kinds of magic. That dragons came from another dimension. That you can go through the bridge, and if you prove yourself, you can come back with more power.”

  “So, as you see,” Vera said, “it’s a myth. If such a bridge existed, only a fool would enter. Sacrificing your life for the potential payout.”

  “Or they might have nothing to lose,” Cyrene offered.

  “Perhaps. Though that is not the here or now. The bridge has never been seen. Even when we were girls, the bridge was just a story. No one had ever actually seen it or knew anyone alive who had gone across it.”

  “Okay. So, talismans can work for people without magic. Can’t we just test it out?” Cyrene asked.

  “The problem is,” Matilde said, starting the lecture Cyrene knew was coming, “we don’t know if these pair of coins could have the same horrid side effects like the Mirror of Truth. I personally knew someone who used a gemstone, expecting it to be an amplifier, and was blinded.”

  “Oh, poor Marten,” Vera whispered. “He was never the brightest.”

  “What did it do before it blinded him?” Cyrene gasped.

  “Eventually, someone realized that it was mirroring visions. You could see what happened through someone else’s eyes. Messy business.”

  “Well, we can’t just do nothing,” Cyrene told them, standing in frustration. “Serafina told me to use the coin to find the dragons. She couldn’t have said that for no reason.”

  “That’s true,” Vera agreed.

  “Do you recognize the figure or the language on the coin?” Cyrene asked, admiring the female figure and the three mysterious words. “The words feel almost familiar.”

  “Ah, that,” Matilde said with a shake of her head. “It seems as if it’s a derivative of Doma.”

  “Or,” Vera added, “Doma is a derivative of it.”

  “There was something pre-Doma?” Cyrene asked.

  “Well, it is possible. Legend says that there is a language of the gods.”

  “And this is a language of the gods? Like, when the Creator herself walked the earth, this is the language she used?”

  Vera nodded. “It’s possible. We know all known languages, and we don’t know this one. Thus, we have to assume it predates even our knowledge.”

  Cyrene blinked rapidly. Could I be holding a coin that belonged to the gods? And if I was…was the person in my dream who had given me the coin a god?

  It was too outrageous to even consider.

  Gods on earth! Creator!

  Vera took a sip of her tea and set it back down. “Cyrene, will you retrieve the book for us? Perhaps there’s something we’ve overlooked in there.”

  Cyrene nodded and then hurried back to her room. The book was waiting right where she had left it. She snatched it up just as Avoca climbed up through the open window.

  “Creator! Can’t anyone use the door?” Cyrene gasped.

  “Apologies,” she whispered.

  “Where did you go?”

  “Nowhere. I wandered. The city is very dirty.”

  Cyrene smiled. “You’d think they’d clean that up with all the glass buildings.”

  “The glass confuses me as well. Why have glass when it’s so often covered in snow?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “What are you doing?”

  “Ahlvie and Orden went downstairs for food. Matilde, Vera, and I were working on the coin until you got back.”

  “Well, don’t let me keep you.”

  Cyrene grasped the bond between them and tugged.

  Avoca slipped her a smile. “I’m not ready to talk about it.”

  “Come with me then.”

  Avoca nodded and followed without complaint. Matilde and Vera didn’t seem surprised when she took a seat in the corner and started sharpening her knives. Cyrene passed Vera the book.

  “Thank you. You hold on to this and see if you sense anything from it,” Vera said.

  Cyrene took the coin, and her magic practically sighed with relief. She didn’t know what that meant exactly, but she felt connected to this somehow.

  “It feels right,” Cyrene said. “I wonder if it’s because I was given its pair in my dream.”

  “I wonder if they work together,” Matilde hypothesized.

  Vera shrugged and flipped the page. “This wasn’t exactly our area of expertise. Two thousand years is a long life span, but without tomes such as this one, we were only able to glean new information from the remaining sources in Emporia.”

  “You could be doing that forever,” Avoca muttered.

  Cyrene sighed. “We don’t have forever.”

  “We should probably just get the boys and get to the gate before first light. That way, we can be the first ones out of this city and on our way,” Avoca said.

  “You can do that,” Cyrene said with a raised eyebrow.

  Avoca shut her mouth and glanced back down at her blade. “Fine.”

  “If you channel raw energy from all four elements into the talisman,” Vera read under her breath, “the talisman will begin to glow, revealing its true meaning.”

  Cyrene frowned and stared down at the coin. Is that it? Just channel my energy into the talisman? Well, that’s easy.

  She pulled all four elements to her and then pushed it toward the coin.

  “No!” Matilde and Vera shrieked at the same time, jumping to their feet.

  Avoca was beside them with a blade, ready for whatever was to come.

  “What have you done?” Matilde cried.

  Cyrene glanced up at them and then down at the coin as it started to rattle and glow fire red. “I…I thought I was following Vera’s instructions!”

  “I wasn’t finished reading!” Vera cried.

  “Drop the coin!” Matilde said. “Throw it down! Everyone, take cover.”

  Cyrene’s mouth flew open as she tossed the coin into the center of the room and took a diving roll to avoid whatever she had unleashed. She was huddled behind the chair, shaking from head to toe. She couldn’t believe that she had been that stupid. She had thought that the instructions were so clear. But, of course, she should have lis
tened to them and heard the consequences. I could go blind or insane or be thrust into another dimension! Anything is possible!

  Why did I have to be so reckless? Why couldn’t I control the insane urges that took over me?

  All she’d had to do was listen, and instead, she’d set the talisman loose with no knowledge of what it could possibly do.

  Cyrene’s eyes darted down to the innocuous coin in the center of the room. It was as red as hot coals and turned in circles round and round, like a top, before finally falling flat with the figure face up.

  Then, before she could cover herself again, she watched the world cleave in two.

  Cyrene screamed and fell backward to get away from whatever was happening. One second, she had been staring at the other side of the room where Matilde, Vera, and Avoca were standing. Now, she was looking down a long hallway. It was made of dark stone, and at the end, she could see a closed door.

  She had split the fabric of space.

  The coin had taken her…somewhere else.

  Of course, she didn’t know if the hallway was of this world or if she was staring at the mystical bridge that Matilde and Vera had mentioned.

  “Cyrene!” Avoca yelled. The noise sounded muffled, as if coming from a long way off.

  “I’m here!” she shouted back.

  She tugged on her bond and felt an immediate response. Avoca was fine. They were all fine.

  “Do you see this?” Cyrene asked.

  “Yes! We’re working to fix it!” Avoca called back.

  Cyrene finally rose to her feet. Nothing was coming out of the hallway. In fact, there wasn’t even anything in the strange hallway, except for some bracketed lanterns. She kept expecting for something to crawl out of the space at any minute. For the darkness she’d had in her dreams to seep into her world and take over. For that hand to reach out and snatch her.

  But, besides the crackling of the edges of the space, it was empty. Whatever the coin did, it didn’t seem to be inherently dangerous. Perhaps it would have been had she been holding it when the hallway opened. Maybe it would have sliced her body in half as easily as it had popped open in the room.

  She had no idea.

  But she wondered why Serafina had told her to use the coin to get to this strange hallway. Were the dragons on the other side of that door? Could it possibly be that easy?