Norns of Fate: A New Adult Urban Fantasy Novel (Descendants of Thor Trilogy Book Two)

by S. A. Ashdown

  ‘After I’ve responded to your points, if you don’t mind, Miss Strand?’ Michele strode over to her spot, and she retreated, with reluctance. ‘Thank you. My young colleague – at least we share the same profession – already suffers from one of its side effects.’ He shook his head at Ella, feigning pity. ‘Always expect the worst in people, and this is what you’ll see. I have a more optimistic interpretation of events. Theodore indeed was tortured.’

  He waved our auxiliary forward, and she handed out another binder to each jury member. ‘The first document contains Doctor Smyth’s initial assessment of my client’s injuries, along with photographic evidence. I’m afraid it’s rather gruesome; Theo lost a great deal of skin. He had multiple surgeries, all on record. This is not something a young man can just “make up”.’

  Belle met my eyes, her face a little green. I didn’t need to see their grimaces. I only had to remember. ‘As for his miraculous healing, this is the result of strong Pneuma DNA and a little help from a vampire donor, who wishes to remain anonymous. In order to prevent any further exposure risk, Doctor Smyth was convinced, using legal Enthralment – under the Third Precept – to discharge Theo back to his father and uncle, who were far more qualified to help him recover.’

  Michele held up a finger to silence Ella as she stood. ‘Yes, he was physically recovered by this point, thanks to a little help, but mental trauma is not so easy to overcome. For many days, Theodore Clemensen was unable to function and required complete assistance by his family. I’m sure they can be forgiven for not checking the mail during that time. As for why he didn’t report his torture, my client still doesn’t trust the Praetoriani after the death of his mother at their hands.’

  I resented Michele for bringing Mum up too, but it was his job. Menelaus groaned softly behind me and that old anger flared. It wasn’t his fault, I understood that, but it still slid into my gut like a knife.

  ‘Interesting, too, that I found a handful of missing-person reports across the South-West – and sadly some reports from the sapien police – of dead Pneuma found with similar injuries to my client. Bodies that vanished, presumably dealt with by the Praetoriani. Conjecture, I know, but conjecture is all one has during a traumatic recovery.’

  His boldness caused a storm in Praetor Cullen. You promised you wouldn’t accuse us of torture, his face read – at least, that’s how I read it.

  Michele glowered back. You promised not to use it against him in court. An eye for an eye.

  ‘Your Honour, I would like to call Espen Clemensen to the stand.’

  Father’s cloak swayed over the marble. His jaw clamped shut when Michele produced the Codes to swear upon. I expected him to insist that he swear upon an oath ring, as was our tradition, until I realised he was about to lie through his teeth. He slammed his palm down on the book and swore to speak the truth.

  ‘Tell us about Theo’s state of mind when he came home from hospital.’

  ‘The shock didn’t really hit until he felt safe in his own bed,’ Father said. ‘At first I think he was just relieved to be alive. But that didn’t last. In no time he wasn’t there, asleep in his own mind. I was so worried about him.’

  ‘Did you check your mail during this time?’

  ‘After a couple of days. I didn’t even look at it. I’d hardly slept, looking for a way to get my son back. Turns out, only time and rest was needed.’

  Wow, I thought, he’s telling the truth and lying at the same time. Michele had insisted I do the same; the Gatekeeper could smell the vampires in this court even if I could not, the older ones having changed out of their ‘day suits’, as Michele and Malachi had. ‘Thank you, no further questions.’

  Ella fixed her eyes on Father. ‘Espen Clemensen. Look at the jury. Go on.’

  Father looked.

  ‘Do you see idiots? I don’t. These men and women have heard the stories. How you hate us for an accident. So overprotective, taking your son out of school, isolated from positive influences so you could keep him under your control. Well, it didn’t work, did it? After all that loving care you gave him, he left Hellingstead Hall to move in with some very suspect characters. Well, maybe he’s merely an ungrateful child. Of course, you’d say anything to protect him, for the sake of your dead wife, if nothing else.’

  Father’s shoulders hunched as if he was about to jump her, but somehow he managed to control his rage. ‘Good reasoning does not rely on unfalsifiable supposition,’ he said. ‘Whatever I say cannot prove or disprove your accusation.’

  She shrugged. ‘Tell me this, then. Did you and Nikolaj Clemensen remain at Hellingstead Hall for the entire period that Theodore was in recovery at home? Did Theodore, for that matter?’

  ‘None of us left the grounds.’

  ‘But what about this Realm? Espen? Did any one of you leave Midgard at any point?’

  Father paused. ‘I don’t see why this is relevant. Theodore was incapacitated during the period that you accuse him of Absconding. I was not with Nikolaj the whole time – he might have returned to the Sarrows briefly to seek advice.’

  ‘Might have?’

  ‘My dear uncle is a little eccentric. It’s hard to keep track of his movements at the best of times.’

  Ella smiled, as if she found his throwaway comment amusing. ‘Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, someone, nay, three people left Midgard during this time.’

  The auxiliary switched on the projector. A fuzzy picture of blues, greens, and reds, illuminated a board erected above Praetor Cullen. ‘This image comes from an aircraft with state-of-the-art heat sensors that flew over the Clemensens’ estate on the twenty-eighth of May 2015. This clearly shows an Elven portal being opened in the back garden.’ She waved to the auxiliary, who changed the slide. ‘And here we can see three humanoid forms – the red silhouettes – entering the portal. Moments later, the portal vanishes.’

  A third slide appeared. ‘Despite repeated flyovers, only one heat signature was detected in Hellingstead Hall over the coming days. We have several sightings of Espen himself scouting the perimeter of the estate during this time, taken by our surveillance team.’

  Sure enough, a few fuzzy images of Father flashed up on the screen. If it wasn’t for his wards, the images would’ve been much clearer. I stared at Father, wondering if he was planning to ward for heat detectors next.

  ‘My wards probably interfered with your instruments,’ Father said, unfazed.

  ‘I think they worked pretty well,’ Ella said, glancing at the jury. She held a finger up to Michele in retaliation for his earlier slight. ‘Yes, I will explain how this is pertinent. I am about to show the reason why Theodore Absconded – because he was bitten by his first taste of profane magic and had to be healed in Alfheim, accompanied by his Uncle Nikolaj and this “anonymous vampire”, who we all know is a close associate of the De Laurentis family.’

  And here the facts would be laid bare. I had broken the Codes by agreeing to heal Anna, for Lorenzo and his then girlfriend, Jean-Ashley. Should I be punished for saving someone’s life? I felt I already had been; the Black Widow trapped me in the Underworld until I’d traded my hair for freedom. The price – it tugged at the back of my head, a pinprick reminding me my fate was in her hands.

  That was why Nikolaj and Lorenzo had begged the Elves to save me. Ella might as well have strapped a shovel on her back – the girl was good at digging.

  She walked close to me and smiled. ‘Perhaps you can convince the jury that your trip to Alfheim was innocent, not connected to necromancy at all….’

  I cringed as the men and women across the aisle vocalised their canned consternation. Hardly any of those faces I’d met, so how could they act as if I’d harmed them personally? Face forward. Ignore the scowls.

  ‘Yes, perhaps you can tell the jury why you broke your oath not to leave Hellingstead until authorised to do so by the Praetoriani? Skipping town is Absconding, is it not?’

  Michele edged around the slanted desk and stood between Ella and
me. ‘My client is not in the witness stand, Miss Strand. Aim your conjecture somewhere else.’

  That was when I noticed it, as Ella backed away, hands raised in mock surrender. Her shirt fell open near the collar, revealing a golden necklace, a sun disk with rays radiating outwards. The symbol of the Aten, I realised, like the necklace Lorenzo spat out.

  ‘As you wish,’ she said, approaching Espen again. He kept his eyes fixed on her without moving his head, like one of those creepy old paintings. ‘Espen, I apologise for dragging up the past, but I’m afraid it’s necessary. I believe your son inherited his mother’s temperament, isn’t that so?’

  He glared at her. ‘Mr Clemensen, are you feeling alright? A migraine perhaps?’

  Five seconds. An eternity. At last, Father replied. ‘My wife was a good woman.’

  ‘Even good people sometimes do terrible things for the ones they love.’

  Father folded his arms and set his teeth. ‘Right and wrong depends partly on perspective,’ he said.

  ‘I disagree,’ said Ella, earnest, ‘I would say breaking the Codes is wrong, no matter the reasons why.’

  ‘Unless you’re a member of the Praefecti. Since when was it allowed in the Codes to send a minor onto private property without warning, and without adequate training, to frighten my wife and kill her? And then not punish anyone for it?’

  ‘Hear hear,’ I said.

  Ella swivelled and glared before turning back to Father. ‘I assume you’re talking about the night your wife died. Of course, by all accounts you were blinkered by love. Your “perspective” was skewed, Espen.’ She shook her head. ‘I have no further questions for you. Your Honour, I’d like to call my next witness.’

  Father hopped from the witness box and stormed back to the bench. ‘I wouldn’t sit down yet,’ said Ella, grinning. ‘I require the Guardian, Menelaus Knight. Let him pass.’

  ‘Objection!’ shouted Michele. ‘Professor Knight is my client’s Guardian. He is our witness to summon—’

  Praetor Cullen rolled his eyes. ‘Miss Strand?’

  ‘I only intend to question him on a past matter. I’m not asking him to speak against Mr Clemensen directly.’

  ‘Then why is it pertinent to the case?’ Michele demanded, but Praetor Cullen was deaf to him, and waved Menelaus to the stand.

  Menelaus filled the box, his wild hair more tamed than usual, his neat beard freshly shaved. But the silver scar from the night he’d fought my mother was visible, cheek to chin. ‘I swear on the Sacred Code laid down by our Founders, and by Akhenaten’s Grace, that I, Menelaus Knight, will speak with Truth, Honour, and for the Justice of All.’

  The auxiliary placed the book back on its stand.

  ‘Professor Knight,’ Ella began, ‘Tell us about the night you were sent to check on Isobel Clemensen.’

  Menelaus gave me a pleading look and sighed. ‘It was all written in my Official Statement,’ he said, ‘the day after it happened.’

  ‘I know,’ said Ella, ‘but perhaps time has aided your understanding of what you saw. After all, ten years of further training and study must have made the events of that night clearer to you.’

  ‘I try not to think about it. It was the worst night of my life.’

  Ella waited, her expectation clear.

  ‘I was young and eager to prove myself. My adoptive father and mentor, Julian Knight, had just been promoted to Overseer, and he wanted me to fill his old role. We sought permission from the magistrates to allow me to become an apprentice Guardian, although I was only sixteen.’ I glanced round at Julian, who bowed his head.

  ‘You were too young,’ Ella said, ‘a fact the Praetoriani has recognised in hindsight, and thus we no longer permit Guardians below the age of eighteen.’ I felt Father bristle behind me, catching her barb. The Praetoriani did react to Isobel’s death, she was saying, despite Espen’s claim.

  Menelaus shrugged. ‘Young, and invisible,’ he said, and I wondered at his ambiguity. Did anyone else pick it up? Michele’s elbow knocked into my side as I shifted on the bench. ‘As Julian had once been a Guardian to the Clemensens, I inherited that role. I got a bit ahead of myself and decided I had to watch them.’

  ‘How often did you watch Isobel?’

  Menelaus squirmed. ‘A fair amount.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I don’t know. I guess I felt drawn to them.’ He looked at me, briefly.

  ‘Perhaps you sensed they were hiding something?’

  Menelaus dipped his head. ‘No, I was just curious and keen to prove the magistrates had made the right decision.’

  ‘Sure. So, explain that night from your perspective.’

  ‘I’d been watching the Clemensens in the evenings. It was winter so it was pretty dark when Isobel came charging out of the house. She was crying; I mean, not sobbing, but visibly upset. I followed her into the woods, concerned.’

  ‘Then what happened?’ asked Ella.

  ‘As I said, it was dark. I lost her for a few minutes. The Clemensen estate is quite large, and the woodland obscured the moonlight. Then I heard her chanting and shouting. I found her in a clearing.’

  ‘Doing what?’

  He frowned. ‘Casting a spell.’

  ‘What kind of spell?’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ Menelaus said. ‘Isobel’s command of Latin and Scottish Gaelic was far more extensive than mine.’

  A few jury members snickered.

  ‘However, it was worrying enough for you to attempt an arrest?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You warned her to stop but she refused.’

  Menelaus grimaced, looking into the distance. He was the last person to see my mother alive. I shuddered. ‘She was far too gone, I think. She’d transformed into something wild, metaphorically speaking. We fought, and she ran.’

  ‘In your initial statement the following day, you told the magistrates that you believed Isobel had been attempting profane magic. I quote, “Isobel was summoning her ancestors from their resting places in order to force them to perform a task.” Does that fit with your memory, Professor Knight?’

  ‘That was my impression at the time. Then again, maybe my guilty conscience led me to interpret the event that way, to justify what I had done.’

  Ella raised an eyebrow and looked at the jury. ‘I doubt it. Your impression was strong enough to cause you to attempt an arrest in the first place. Ancestral binding is prohibited under the Second Precept of the Code, along with any interference in the natural cycles of life and death. Isobel Clemensen clearly didn’t subscribe to the Second Precept, and neither does her son, as I am about to show.’ She placed one hand on the witness box. ‘No further questions.’

  Menelaus rose, a wild animal in his own right, towering over the court, only Praetor Cullen stationed above him. Ella shrank back a little under his intense scrutiny as if he was speaking directly into her mind: You won’t get away with this. I am against you.

  He swept those eyes, blackness where it should’ve been hazel, over the left side of the courtroom. No one spoke as the Minotaur walked back to his seat.

  The tension choked us like smoke.

  ‘Who was this vampire who so kindly aided Mr Clemensen in the healing of his wounds?’ Ella’s heels rang against the marble as she walked, chin high, steps measured. All she needed was a sceptre and a robe and she could’ve been attending a coronation. ‘There are only a handful of registered vampires in Hellingstead. Two – Malachi and Michele De Laurentis, are with us today. The last addition to their family, Lorenzo Angelucci, has been picked up on CCTV, within Hellingstead Hospital, on the date that Mr Clemensen was admitted. Lorenzo and Theodore were spotted leaving together, along with Anna Rayner, the mother of Lorenzo’s girlfriend, who was terminally ill. Brain cancer.

  ‘And yet by the following morning, Anna’s doctors were amazed to find that her incurable deep-rooted brain cancer had vanished. Overnight. Her blood count was back to normal, as if she’d never had the disease in the first place. We
know Lorenzo couldn’t have achieved this feat, as our own scientists have proven that vampire blood feeds cancer cells.

  ‘We also know that, despite leaving the hospital able-bodied and of sound mind, Mr Clemensen disappeared for five days. The prosecution argues that like his mother, Theodore returned the favour and used profane magic to heal Anna Rayner of terminal cancer after Lorenzo healed him in hospital.

  ‘However, messing with natural cycles comes with a price. We believe that Anna shows no trace of cancer because Mr Clemensen absorbed it into his own body – probably by accident – and condemned himself. He should have accepted this consequence. But he cheated once more. Lorenzo, fearing for his friend’s life, took Theodore to Hellingstead Hall, whereupon Nikolaj Clemensen opened a portal to Alfheim in order to seek Elvish magic to heal his nephew.

  ‘According to records kept in the archives, time in Alfheim runs slower than in Midgard, partly providing Elves with a longer lifespan than us lesser mortals. This is why it took five Midgard days for the trio to return. Espen Clemensen could not send his son back to the Praetoriani because he simply wasn’t there. He wasn’t there because the defendant was desperately trying to mitigate the effects of profane magic.’

  She circled around, satisfied. Tilting her head to one side, she added, ‘You may think the defendant was simply trying to help a friend, that his efforts were laudable, but you would be wrong. Interfering with natural processes can have irrevocable and unintended consequences for the entire community. Miraculous healing puts all Pneuma at risk of exposure. When the gods are deprived of the souls they have chosen to join them, they are forced to pick others. Famines. Plagues. The history books are full of such warnings, which is why we abide by the Code. We disobey at our own peril. Theodore Clemensen has broken the Code. And that was only the first time. His brush with death only made him bolder, as I shall prove after the recess.’

  She mimed throwing the gauntlet to Michele, though she ignored me. The old vampire took the floor and I was desperate to read his mind. What Ella said was truth; I did use magic to bring Anna back from the brink of death, but it was Gatekeeper magic. The effects weren’t so drastic as they would have been for another warlock. The Black Widow had given up her claim on Anna’s soul in exchange for my hair. If disaster struck, her spinning was to blame.