by Conn, Claudy
I shifted, and as I thought, Queen Aaibhe, as radiantly beautiful as ever, hovered in the air over the monolith, whispering the words that would close it against further invasion. No one hovered guard about her? How odd … but no doubt she had sent them to help keep back the Dark Fae.
I shifted once more, but this time I had the Golden Net I had stolen from Pestale’s private chambers earlier in the month, knowing Pestale wouldn’t notice it missing. He had never used it in all his thousands of years. It was fitting, for this was the very net the Dark King had used to ensnare Queen Bridget before he stabbed her with his death sword, and now, I would ensnare Queen Aaibhe with the same!
* * *
“Danté!” Breslyn called out to warn me that three of the creatures had gotten through Ete and Z.
As I shifted and sent their heads flying off their grotesque bodies, I felt a trepidation that had nothing to do with the battle. It was not yet Samhain, and my gut, which my good friend Daremont Carrick taught me to use in the seventeenth century, told me something was off—really off.
This battle felt like a diversion. I watched Z and Ete fighting side by side, and I was filled with pride … and yet, I felt we were being misdirected. He had sent these creatures to die, merely to keep us busy. I was sure of it.
Breslyn … I called him telepathically.
What? I heard him laugh and add, We are a little busy at the moment, old man.
Precisely … tell me why we are busy.
Why? Because if we don’t cut them down, they’ll feed on the humans.
Understood, but, Breslyn—my gut tells me there is something else at work here.
Aye, I feel it as well, but what? Hands full at the moment, he answered, and I saw him as he dove into the thick of many. He swirled, shifted, and stabbed, and as I fell into the fight, I couldn’t help but consider the problem I had given myself. Why the diversion?
These Dark Fae were many, but they were one of the lowest caste of Dark Fae with very few skills. They were slow—they lumbered in their movements, their thought process was simple and instinctual, not power driven. Why had Gaiscioch set these tiresome creatures free? Why now? He had already tested us a few times, so it was not to test our strength or our numbers. He knew the answers to those questions.
And then I looked up and saw our Queen Aaibhe. She had only just arrived at the portal, and I watched her for a long moment as she worked her magic to close and then dispose of it.
I felt like something was slapping me across my face. I was struck by the fact that something was very off—wrong. For one thing, my queen hovered over the monolith, working her own special brand of magic, but she was alone …
She worked first to vanquish the black magic that hovered around the portal’s domain. And it struck me even as I swung my sword and brought two abominations down. It was in fact, inconceivable, but she was unguarded!
How could she have not brought a guard with her? And even as I asked myself that question, I felt the arrival of my young brother beside me. “Trevor! What are you doing here?”
“Danté.” He grabbed my arm and vigorously greeted me before he inclined his blonde head of curls. Even in the heat of battle I couldn’t stop myself from ruffling his hair and then smacking him lightly alongside his head. You could say that I raised Trevor, who is now only six thousand years old in Fae years, equivalent to about twenty human years. I will always think of him as a youngster.
“And again, scamp, what are you doing here?” I asked him as I noted that Breslyn had been cutting down my share as well as his of Dark Fae and was grinning broadly at us.
“The Council sent me to guard the queen while she closes the portal … She left without her guard and without notifying anyone.”
“Well then, better get to it,” I answered as I speared a Dark Fae and flung him to the side with my death sword.
“Aye then … I just—” Trevor’s golden eyes enlarged as he pointed. “Danté!”
What we saw stilled my heart, and even as we shifted, we knew both of us knew it would be too late.
Gaiscioch was already upon her, and we watched helplessly as he ensnared our queen with the Dark King’s Golden Net … the very same that had been used against Queen Bridget!
And I had my answer: all this had been staged so he could capture the queen when she arrived to close the portal.
Would he have been able to accomplish his objective if she’d had her guard in tow? How could he know she would not have her guard? Or had he planned for that as well?
* * *
Danté and Breslyn were in a terrible state. Our queen had been abducted by Gaiscioch, and we weren’t sure where he had taken her. In fact, we hadn’t a frigging clue!
However, I was certain of one thing, and Ete agreed with me: I couldn’t believe that he would return to the Dark Realm with her.
I told Danté that, but he said that they had to follow every angle and that he and Breslyn had decided to enter the Dark Realm in search of her. Ete and I wanted to go with them, but they hadn’t agreed yet to allow us to do so.
We left Chancemont and his men with Nuad and his Trackers to clean up what was left of the Dark Fae as the queen had successfully closed the portal and stopped the uglies’ invasion.
However, Gais abducted her before she was able to send the monolith off where it could do no harm. That job was left to Breslyn and Danté, who were able to use their combined Seelie magic, with both Ete’s and mine as backup; we finally sent it off to an open field outside of Dublin. We didn’t have the magic or the skill to send it off to another dimension, so that was the best we could do.
We stood in that open field beside the monoliths and went into a huddle. I waited for everyone to voice their opinion and then told them, “I have an idea—I have this ‘feeling’ that my notion is correct.”
“What is it, enfant?” Danté asked, putting his arm around me.
“We know or must assume that Gais has been planning this—all of this—for a very long time. We know also, or should know, that it has always been his plan to get his hands on the queen … It has always been about the queen.”
“Agreed.” Danté’s eyes looked dark golden and full of uncertainty.
“Well, don’t you think he would have prepared a place to take her—a place that was laced in the kind of magic she would not be able to get through? It wouldn’t be the Dark Realm, would it? No, because he would have prepared a place for her in the centuries when he was free. He found a dimension that suited his needs, and that is where he has taken her.”
Breslyn and Danté looked at one another and sighed. “Z is quite right,” Breslyn offered. “Which only leaves us what … an infinite number of dimensions?”
“Yes, and what kind of magic would hold our queen? Aaibhe has formidable power. How could he hold her? He is not even a Royal,” Ete asked tearfully.
“With the magic of the Dark King’s Golden Net—it held Queen Bridget, didn’t it? It wasn’t just any net he used … it was that one,” I answered. “Somehow Gaiscioch got his hands on it while in the Dark Realm, where no doubt the king had forgotten all about it.”
Dawning lit on their faces, and Breslyn shook his head. “Yes, of course, and you know Gaiscioch was her trusted friend. Who knows what bits and pieces of knowledge he collected and stored up to use against her now.”
“Agreed, but, Bres, we have no idea how to break her out of the Dark King’s Golden Net, if that is what is keeping her bound to Gaiscioch,” Dante said thoughtfully.
“Queen Mab might be able to help,” I stuck in as my mind raced.
“Why would the Dark King allow this?” Danté asked. “He and his human would not allow this.”
“He is a believer in Destiny. Perhaps he thinks interference would change the natural course?” I answered. “But how are we going to break our queen out when we find her?”
“Bottom line,” Ete stuck in on a hushed note, “we must find Aaibhe … we must, before he harms her.”
/> “We will, Ete,” I said and squeezed her hand. I had to think. There was something bopping around in my mind, just out of reach, and it was important. What was it? “How many dimensions are out there that Gais would know about and also be suitable for his plans?”
Ete dissolved into tears. “Too many to count.”
Breslyn cursed under his breath and took Ete into his arms. “We will find her and bring her back safely, Ete. Don’t cry, love …”
“The damn Council will have to be told.” Danté pulled a face at his young brother standing with his head hung low.
“I should have gone straight to her,” Trevor said on a defeated note.
“You would not have been able to stop him. He would have had her encased in the netting and shifted off before you even knew he was there,” I answered him gently.
“Trevor, you must go to the Council. This was not your fault, and we will find her,” Danté said on a hard note even as he took my hand and shifted us off.
Evidently he had decided that, wherever he was going, I was going too. Things were more serious than we dared speak about—I knew that, but dwelling on it wouldn’t help. We had to push forward.
Our problem was that the Seelie Fae had always been matriarchal and had been totally dependent on the queen’s rule. She had been a guiding force, formidable and kind, and no one wanted to consider a future without her.
There had been utter chaos amongst the Council and the Seelie Tuatha Dé when their beloved Queen Bridget was killed. It had been an unexpected occurrence, and she hadn’t even had the time to announce an heir to take the throne and the leadership of her race. If it hadn’t been for Queen Mab, the Tuatha Dé’s political structure would have collapsed.
We knew that Queen Aaibhe, fearing such a catastrophe in the future, had appointed someone to take her place—and that someone was Ete, who was half-Daoine and very able to carry the mantle of Seelie Fae leadership. She didn’t want to do this, and we all wanted desperately to save our queen—to save our Aaibhe.
I touched Danté’s cheek as we shifted and whispered, “We will find her—you and I will find her. I feel it.”
“Easier said than done, my enfant,” Dante said on a hushed, sad note. “Gais has an entire universe in which to hide.” And we stepped out of the shift towards Nuad and his Trackers.
“But, I have an idea,” I continued, trying to slow him, as I wanted to tell him before he talked to Nuad.
“An idea? Of course you do … when do you not?”
I basked beneath his proud gaze and realized how very much I wanted him to approve of me. “Your brother is with the Council—you will discuss what is needed with Nuad, and then, because we are going to have to do something totally unorthodox, and it will probably get us into hot water with the queen when she finds out, we had better not involve any of the others just yet in my plan.”
“I am almost afraid to ask what you have in mind, my Z.”
* * *
“Gaiscioch … you and I were friends once,” Aaibhe said to me. How dare she? How could she have said that to me? Friends? Why would she recall only that facet of our long relationship? We had been lovers—that was what I wanted her to recall.
I stared at her where she sat serenely inside the prison of gold I had created from the Dark King’s magic netting. I stared at her because I could not believe that she’d ever thought I was just a friend. She had several of those—I was different. I had always been different. How could she have been so blind—she, who was all-seeing?
I didn’t trust myself to speak as I looked her over, thinking what a lucky chance it had been when I found the Dark King’s Golden Net hidden in Pestale’s chamber a month ago. It had happened quite by accident. I had been looking for something else entirely while Pestale had been busy with Morrigu.
I had not believed my good fortune and squirreled it away in another dimension, a dimension I had been secretly traveling to and from for months. Why the Mirror portal allowed me to travel to other dimensions, I still don’t understand. However, it did, and I was able to visit my secret dimension where I had long ago, before I even entered the Dark Realm, prepared a place for my Aaibhe. I had been planning this for centuries—and all I needed was the Dark King’s infamous Golden Net …
Pestale was a fool. He had the Net negligently lying about, scarcely hidden. He didn’t even know that it was missing. But then why would he? It wasn’t as though he had ever planned to use it …
I’d created this palace and the gardens that surround it over the centuries, and it had stood waiting for my queen’s arrival—and now she was here, with those magnificently sad eyes gazing at me as though … but no, I wouldn’t allow myself to believe she cared for me. Why would she? She knew I was a traitor.
She couldn’t break the Dark King’s magic thread that enslaved her here, and I could see she was aware of her predicament, for she wasn’t even trying to escape.
“Aaibhe … you brought this on yourself.” Why did I speak to her? I had planned to keep silent, allow her to suffer without conversation from me. I wanted her to beg me to speak to her.
“Yes, I have, I know,” she answered me softly.
She surprised me with her answer. I had expected denials, but then, Aaibhe had always surprised me. It was why I’d adored her for so many thousands upon thousands of years. Perhaps I still did. She is the reason for everything I have done, and she is the weak link in my chain to success. I know it and will be wary.
“You understand then … you understand why all of this has come about?” I wanted to seal my lips, but I couldn’t stop myself from speaking to her. My insides swelled with ‘feeling’ I had thought, had hoped, long dead. I needed to feel nothing while I tortured her, and she had to be tortured. First, she had to worry to distraction about her Tir—her World … and her humans. First, she had to picture them being ravished and devoured.
“I do, Gaiscioch. I have thought long and hard about this … about you.”
She meant to trick me with words that sounded sincere, and yet … could she have meant it? We had meant so much to each other once—did she regret the past? Did she regret casting me aside for a human? She should have.
“Your humans will die torturous deaths. My monsters will overrun the cities and feed.”
Her eyes spoke of unimaginable sorrow. Already I had made her suffer. She raised her chin, still so proud—still the Queen of the Tuatha Dé—and she dared say to me as though she were not a prisoner, as though I didn’t have the upper hand, “You will not win, Gaiscioch. My Seelie warriors will defeat you.”
I shrugged my shoulders purposely, as though her words didn’t hurt—but I wanted to slap her perfect face. However, I didn’t want to enter her chamber, yet. And I didn’t want to let down my defenses. I could not allow her to trick me with her wiles—later I would enter her chamber and teach her a lesson or two.
“Do you believe that, Aaibhe? Then so be it—believe whatever helps you in your present situation. But even if what you say is true, it won’t happen before I have accomplished a great deal of destruction. It won’t happen before I decimate the human population and then kill some of your dearest Royals … not before then, my Aaibhe.” I looked her over as though she were no more than a whore. “And before all that happens, I will make you writhe with pleasure beneath me.”
“Will you indeed?” She shook her beautiful head of white gold hair free and stared hard at me, and in spite of my holding all the cards, I felt like a chastised boy. “Gaiscioch—I never writhed with more than mild satisfaction beneath you. I thought you knew that … ” Her chin went up, and her brilliant eyes flashed angrily at me.
I knew what she was doing. She was taunting me with that soft, alluring voice and words meant to cut me. “Mild satisfaction, is it? Nevertheless, I have a clear memory of your legs spread wide as I made you mine.” I hadn’t meant to snap off those words, but they came unbidden.
“Ah, you equate sex with love—how human of you.” She eyed
me with something I had not seen before—hatred. She hated me. And then she whispered words at me that made me cringe inside. “You should remember that I quit your bed. You should remember after the boredom of our relationship … I wanted no other until I saw Conall. You stole him from me. You stole my happiness, and now you mean to destroy two worlds. Why … because of unrequited love?” She clucked her tongue and turned her back. “Leave me in peace.”
“Damn you—damn you to eternal darkness! You shall grovel at my feet and beg for mercy, but I will keep you alive and make you watch as I destroy everything you have held precious—everything you care about. Your dear Ete for one—I will rape and then kill her. I nearly did that once—do you remember?” I thought I saw her flinch, but she kept her back to me.
“The key word being nearly, Gaiscioch. As I recall, Breslyn, as usual, got the better of you. I should have allowed him to destroy you all those years ago …” Her voice trailed off, and she would not look at me.
I left her then, but in spite of the time and distance between us, she had managed once more to hurt me beyond my imagination. I had not thought it possible. I calmed myself. I told myself that she had said those cutting things on purpose because she did not like being controlled. She had loved me once, I was sure of it, and I would mold her and use her and she would love me again.
I went to my private quarters, where the other end of the Mirror portal was set for my return back into the Dark World. I didn’t have to worry about entering the Dark Realm now. I was free—free to come and go to the Human Realm whenever I chose, and the battle I planned would soon be upon them … when Samhain was in full bloom and black magic was at its strongest.
However, as I emerged into the Dark Realm, I found someone waiting for me.
“Pestale.” He stood before me in my private chamber as I stepped through the Mirror fragment, and I knew a moment’s concern.
“And so you discovered that it needed only the Daoine’s blood to get you into their world?” He sneered at me. “But that isn’t where you just were. Where were you, Gais?”
