by L. H. Nicole
“I know.” Her father stroked her hair again.
“But a tiger saved me. It came along and somehow scared away the snake.” She looked at the tiger on her father’s silk tunic. “That was you!” After scaring away the cobra the tiger had circled her, Aliana had been sure she was going to be tiger kibble, but the beast instead started to lick her wound. She had been so freaked she didn’t dare move, but then something strange had happened: her leg started to feel better. At least enough that she was able to put weight on it again.
“I guided you back to the monastery after that.” Her father’s strong mouth turned up in a smile.
“Then Wade seriously laid into me for going off on my own like that.” Not that she hadn’t deserved it for being so stupid and impulsive, but she hadn’t been in a really good place then, so soon after her Mama and Papa’s deaths. “I learned to start making my own maps after that, and being more careful when I went exploring.”
“Thankfully,” the Underlord tossed in. “And though I do regret this, you cannot remain here much longer, granddaughter.”
Her chest tightened. “But I’ve only just met my parents!”
Selene wrapped one slender arm around her. “It is hard on all of us, but you need to get home to your friends. They need you far more than you realize.”
Her father wrapped his arm around her shoulders from the other side. “This will not be the last you see of us. Now that you know, and have tapped into the full powers of both your heritages, it will be much easier for you to come see us, here. And us to come to you.”
“Before you go,” the Underlord interrupted, “There is one more thing I have for you.”
“Seeing my Mama and Papa?” she asked hopefully. She felt a slight tension enter her parents. “Sorry,” she whispered, not meaning to upset them.
“Do not worry,” her father told her. “We owe Allen and Carrie much and do not begrudge them your affection.”
“I am truly sorry, Aliana,” the Underlord cut in again. “They are here in this realm, yes, but now is not the time for you to see them again.” His sharp features softened a fraction. “But that time will come.”
Aliana swallowed the heavy lump in her throat and nodded to the Underlord. She held her hands out to Dagg, who had been watching all of this silently. She bit her cheek as he came to her arms. She stroked him seeking comfort from his presence as he resettled around her shoulders. “What was the one last thing?” she asked her grandfather.
“I offer each of my descendants one boon in their lifetime. Your father used his to find his souls mate, I am now offering you yours. You can ask anything of me as there is very little outside of my powers to grant.”
Aliana sucked in a breath. She could ask him to let her mother and father be with her in the mortal realm! Or ask him to give Vira her life back; or give her Mama and Papa their lives back! She remembered Titania’s final challenge before she had awakened Arthur in Avalon. She remembered her answer to Titania’s similar offer. Her parents wouldn’t want her forsaking the safety of everyone for her own selfish happiness. Neither would Vira. She couldn’t let everyone down like that. What she needed was to get Arthur allies to help in the fight against Mordrid. And her father did mention he had an army.
“Then I would ask that you grant us General Alaki.” She looked up at him. “My father,” she corrected herself, “and his army to fight with us, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, when we need them to finally defeat Mordrid and Viviane and Morgana.”
The Underlord cracked a wide and pleased smile. “I was hoping you would ask for that. Your wish is granted. Death and his army will be at your disposal whenever you need them.”
Aliana looked at both her parents, their pride shining in their eyes. She hugged them both fiercely.
“Before she must depart, my lord,” Selene said, her arms tightening around Aliana. “I would ask one last moment alone with my daughter.”
The Underlord allowed it. With a kiss dropped on her forehead, the general went to his father. Dagg left her shoulders and followed the two men.
“Come,” her mother said, leading her a short distance from the two men. She waved a hand creating a beautiful Chinese garden, with a long stone bench covered with colored cushions.
“I’m surprised everything here had such an Asian feel to it. I would have expected a more…”
“Doom and gloom, hellfire and brimstone atmosphere?” her mother finished for her.
Aliana giggled. “Something like that, yeah.” They sat down on the bench. Aliana glanced at the Underlord who had his back to them and met her father’s red eyes over her grandfather’s shoulders. He smiled affectionately.
“I am so very proud of you. You have endured far more than anyone your age should have too. But you have done so with grace and great strength and honor.”
“I don’t feel like I have. I just feel so lost all the time,” Aliana said. “I’m so confused by all the different stories and magics and destinies! I mean, my best friends are half Fae and half wood Nymph! I’m terrified I’m going to mess something up in Camelot and screw with my friends futures, and everyone expects so much from me. What if I’m not strong enough or smart enough? What if I make a wrong decision or trust the wrong person or do something wrong and I let everyone down! I mean, Merlin has beat it in my head from the day I met him that my destiny is to help save the realms, for god’s sake!” Her hands fell to her lap.
“And then there’s the fact I’m in love with two guys at the same time. I feel these strange, wonderful and sometimes terrifying bonds with both of them. But Galahad broke my heart, my trust, and Arthur…even after all he’s done and said and…I can’t help worrying that Titania may want him with Delphina, that he may truly love her. That doesn’t even take into account that fact that Galahad’s little sister is dead because of me.”
“Oh my sweet girl,” her mother lamented, brushing a strand of hair behind Aliana’s ear.
“And if the Underlord is right, that I was here originally…or…oh whatever! Why don’t they remember me?”
“Hush now,” her mother said gently. “No one can truly understand how time works. There may yet be some explanation as to why the memories of you were taken from the knights.”
Aliana sighed and leaned against her mother. She felt Selene’s lips brush her head as she wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulder. “What do I do? Before Mordrid kidnapped me, after I first kissed Arthur and he and Galahad fought…” She stuttered over her words, not sure how to explain what she had felt. “After I helped Galahad, and he kissed me, it felt like those two bonds started warring against each other. It hurt so much.” Tears started to well in her eyes. “I just want to know what the heck is going on in me! This can’t be normal, at all!”
“Aliana…”
“I know,” Aliana said bitterly, pulling away from her mother. “I’m the Destined One, nothing about me is normal, and I’m just a freak creation of Titania’s magic prophecy.”
“Stop that right now,” her mother ordered in a stern, motherly voice. “You are not a freak! Everyone is created as they are meant to be, unique and special.”
Aliana sighed. “I just don’t get all of this. I just want to feel like I have some control of my life again. I’ve been moved around like a pawn on Titania’s chessboard, and Mordrid’s ridiculous bid for ultimate power.” She got up and paced wringing her shaking hands together. “What Galahad and I had made me feel like I had something solid to hold on to, to help find some kind of stability but…I have been pushing this horrible worry aside for a while now, because I don’t want to even think about it. But what if what I feel for both Arthur and Galahad isn’t real? The instant attraction I felt for Galahad doesn’t just happen outside a teen romance series! What if this love is just a side effect of this prophecy or even worse, some kind of manipulation?”
Her mother stood. “The riddle the Sphinx asked you…she said, ‘One of the two creations of this universe that are un
controllable.’”
Aliana frowned, what did that have to do with anything?
“Think. What is the one thing besides destiny that is stronger than any other magic or force in all the universe?”
Aliana dropped her gaze, huffing out a breath. “I don’t know.” She truly didn’t.
Her mother’s cool fingers touched her chin, guiding her emerald gaze to hers. “Love.” She smiled softly, casting a glance at her husband. “There is no force in all of creation stronger than true love. It transcends even death. Magic cannot create love; it can only enhance or manipulate the true feelings that already exist. That is why you did not feel the full force of the bonds you share with both Galahad and Arthur right away. You had to grow into them.”
“But I love both of them,” she whispered.
“Perhaps, but a person cannot truly be in love with more than one person at one moment. If the bonds you are feeling are truly not real then you have to seek that out, inside yourself, and discover the truth of your true heart. You have told Arthur several times to listen to his; it is time you do the same. You are strong enough to figure out the truth. Your father is my souls mate. Morgana is Merlin’s as Lancelot is Guinevere’s. You have felt the strength of those bonds, use that as your guide if you must.”
Aliana looked at her mother silently, letting her words settle in. Could it really be that simple? Could her fear, the fear she hadn’t let herself truly consider until now, be true and the bonds she felt with both Arthur and Galahad were fake? A creation of Titania’s prophecy? But Morgana hadn’t fully turned her back on her bond with Merlin. She’d hesitated, but she hadn’t really forsaken it, not in the end. The blond sorceress had saved Merlin. She had sacrificed herself for him.
“I just wish I could get some kind of clarity.”
Selene hugged Aliana fiercely. She whispered, “You are my daughter, the daughter of Death himself, and granddaughter of the Fae Queen and the Underlord. You have the blood of heroes and cunning scoundrels running through you—that comes from your father’s side, I assure you. If anyone can find this truth, it is you.”
They pulled back as General Alaki and Dagg came to them. “I am truly sorry my love, my daughter, but you have to return to Camelot now.”
Aliana nodded as Dagg coiled around her shoulders and her parents guided her from both sides. She felt warm and safe and loved. Her mother’s words gave her a little confidence that she could yet figure out the mystery of her heart.
“Okay, I’m ready, I think.” She turned and hugged her parents tightly one last time.
Her father kissed her head and whispered, “I am always with you, call for me whenever you have the need. No one will dare harm those who Death loves and protects.”
Her mother kissed her cheek, cool, flowery magic flowing through her. It circled her heart and her mind and eased some of Aliana’s remaining fears and pain. She felt the cool blossoming strength of her mother and father’s love for her.
Aliana pulled back, went to the Underlord, where he stood by the mirror portal. On impulse she reached out and hugged him too. The fierce man hesitated, and then rubbed her back briefly. “You are certainly full of surprises, granddaughter,” he said when she pulled back, a wicked smile on his face that told Aliana that the news pleased him.
“I will see you all soon…right?”
“Indeed, my daughter,” Alaki and Selene both assured her.
Aliana called on the rolling, earth-charged energy she was now assuming was the power of the Underworld and ran her finger down the middle of the mirror. The surface rippled like water then crackled with jade green magic.
She looked back at her parents one more time and waved before following Dagg through the portal.
The magic flowed and rippled through her giving her another kind of clarity she had not realized until now. Her earth magic, the energy magic she connected to so strongly was because of her father, because he was of the Underworld and by default so was she. Her magic so easily killed the black knights because, like Excalibur, she had the power to kill even what was already dead. Maybe that was why, after the first time she used that magic, back in their battle in London, she had felt that spirit thank her for freeing it after defeating the black knight army.
The power ebbed and vanished after that moment, and she felt the chilled air of Camelot as she stepped out of the mirror and down the stairs of the portal she had created.
31
Inner conflict is the very devil to deal with. It’s not that I don’t trust Delphina, she’s family, but she is not telling us everything. I worry why that is. At least we know now where Lacy is heading. Thanks to Freya. Lacy is heading to the Well. She’s told us of her and Dawn’s plans, but it worries me that she has just gone off without us. I fear there may be severe consequences to their plan, and she’s kept it from us. Freya wants to come with us, but it’s too dangerous to get her any more involved in this quest than she already is, not that she agrees with my opinion, the stubborn lass.
~Leo
“MY LADY, YOU’VE FINALLY RETURNED!”
Aliana met Falorn’s excited pale eyes. She blinked away the remains of the magic, turned from the Fae and raised her hand. Her ruby glowed as she closed the portal and let the earth return to what it once was.
“It’s good to be back,” she said to the Fae as Gawain snatched her up in bear hug. “Put me down Gawain!” She laughed.
He did and hugged her again. “We have been going insane with worry! You’ve been gone almost a month!”
Aliana pulled back, her eyes wide and shocked. “Son of a monkey!” She looked around and saw the fallen leaves, and the winter dark evening setting in around them.
Gawain stepped back as D’varin came over and bowed to her. “’Tis true, Princess. You have been gone a long time, and much has happened.”
“We need to get back to Camelot, immediately,” Gawain insisted.
Aliana looked around. “Where’s Merlin?” She hoped the answer was the one she wanted.
Gawain’s face pinched as Lancelot stepped out from the woods. “He went with Delphina to the realm of Avalon.” Lancelot’s voice held a frustrated, long angry edge about it. “He is attempting to claim the Grail of Power.”
Well, he certainly doesn’t approve, she thought. But she was glad Merlin did it. He understood how important this was.
“Are you able to ride, Princess?” Falorn asked.
She nodded. “All recharged and ready.”
Gawain crossed his arms. “You got what you needed then?”
Aliana held up her ruby glove. “I did indeed. And a lot more.” She smiled at Dagg. She missed her parents already, so much so it was an ache in her heart, but she was also glad she finally knew the truth and got to be in their arms.
“What has happened since I’ve been gone? Have Mordrid and Viviane put the Spear of Hel together or attacked Camelot?”
Lancelot shook his head. “Neither, that we know of. Queen Igraine discovered that in order for the Spear to be connected, revived, it must be done on the first winter harvest moon.”
Aliana shivered as a particularly cold gust of wind blew through the small valley. Falorn grabbed a velvety looking cloth from his saddle and held it out for her. It was a Fae cloak that would protect against even the bitterest chill. “When is that?” she asked, securing the soft material. It was light and very warm.
Gawain’s face darkened even more. “Tomorrow night.” He ran a hand through his hair then grabbed his horse’s reins. “We are still searching for the site they will use, but without Merlin…that task is far harder.”
Aliana took her mounts reins from him. “Maybe I can help, now that I’m back.”
Lancelot agreed and said that they needed to ride all night to get back to Camelot, so that they would have enough time to find the location.
Her guardian settled around her shoulders after she mounted. They set out for Camelot riding at a fast pace, Aliana thanking the stars that her time in the Unde
rworld had refueled her energy. She didn’t think she would have the stamina for an all-night ride otherwise.
After a few hours Aliana started to recognize small landmarks she had seen the last time she had ridden this path. They were maybe halfway back to Camelot already. When the horses started to lag, Lancelot led them to the river where they would rest for a while.
Everyone was feeling the cold of the night and the wind that had been thrashing them on their long ride. She opened her magic senses and pulled on her ruby power to create a warm pocket of air around them all.
“Are you doing that, Aliana?” Gawain asked, grinning.
She nodded. “I thought it would be nice for everyone since we don’t have time to build a fire.”
“We are grateful, Princess. Thank you.” Falorn bowed his head to her.
“Please call me Aliana, Falorn.” She looked to D’varin. “You too.”
Lancelot opened his mouth to say something but a flash of fire soared through the air, hitting the valiant knight in his left shoulder.
The guys scrambled. Aliana ran to Lancelot, panic flowing through her as she looked at the burning arrow that had pierced him. He was moaning through clenched teeth, his face a mask of contorted pain and sweat. More arrows started to fly. Aliana opened her magic and summoned her bubble-like shield to cover her and Lancelot. With her other hand she held it toward the river, calling on the dripping, rippling power of the water element. She doused the burning arrow.
She leaned over him as Falorn, D’varin and Gawain wielded their shields, forming a barrier between their injured knight and the attacking arrows.
“I can heal you, Lancelot! But I have to remove the arrow first!” She looked around and expanded her shield to their other side, just in case the enemy tried to attack from the other side of the stream. She looked to Dagg. “Go invisible!” she ordered. “Find who’s attacking us and from where!”
Her guardian nodded. She felt the slight pull of him taking a bit of her magic. She turned back to Lancelot. “This is going to hurt.”
