However, we had to move with slow and methodical intentions or we risked certain death long before we reached the center.
We came to a waterfall, and Cedrotrix assured me it was safe to drink from. We took a longer break, and the time was totally worth it. I was hydrated and in a better state of mind when we started again.
The labyrinth wasn’t flat. There were gradual hills in some places, steep terrain in others. There were dry areas with cacti as well as swampy land where I was sure we’d encounter crocodiles if we stuck around long enough. We had to go across rocks to get over a raging river, we had to cross bridges that started breaking up halfway across, and we even had to run from an Indiana Jones-esque round boulder that chased us through a downhill portion, and we dove into a right hand turn at the last second before it rolled over us.
Eventually, we neared what the map showed as the center, and we went slower than ever.
A left turn took us to a large round doorway with an eerie light on the other side.
I was certain this doorway would take me into the center, but the man from the false-oubliette was on the other side with a damned fucking imperator crocodile in warrior form.
And this one was possibly even bigger than Isaac.
I looked at Cedrotrix. “You know I have to do this without you. I’ll let you know when it’s safe to join me.” When, not if. I needed to sound certain, even though I wasn’t.
“Of course. You’ll be my Queen for real once you reach the structure in the center. You can’t see it from here, but I have an ancestral memory of the small temple.”
“Thank you for everything. If I don’t return, please try to make it to safety. Your companionship and help have been invaluable.”
“I’m at your service, Queen Kirsten, and I’ll always be your friend.”
I smiled. “I’m not certain I’m your Queen, but I value your friendship.”
It all seemed terribly formal, so I hugged her. She was prickly, but I didn’t care. She gave me some more warm, healing energy, and I walked towards the portal into the center of the labyrinth.
It probably wasn’t an actual portal, but it certainly felt like one.
I stopped a few feet away and met the man’s gaze.
“I didn’t catch your name, before.”
I have no idea how I knew, but I was certain the man held the imperator as a slave. I felt the bond between them, as surely as I’d felt Gavin’s leash around my willpower.
The man clearly had no intention of answering, so I tried again. “You aren’t a Strigorii because you’re standing in the sun… or whatever you call the light source in the sky here.” I sighed. Maybe Strigorii could be in the daylight on Alfheim. I didn’t know. He was terribly pale.
If he was a vampire, I could blow his head up.
“What has to happen for me to get past you? Is killing you the only way?” I didn’t want to kill him, but he’d enslaved someone, so I was pretty sure he wasn’t a good guy. I needed to be sure, though. Bran’s slaves want to be with him, after all.
“One of us has to die. Less than a tenth of those who enter make it this far, but none have made it past me. You will not, either.”
“I don’t want to kill you. Is there another way?”
“You can’t kill me, child.”
Nothing happened when I tried to explode his head. I tried my lasers next, but they bounced off some kind of force field in the doorway. Thankfully, I was at an angle so they didn’t reflect back on me.
I’d figured I’d have to step through the round door to fight the man and imperator, but I’d hoped to do it from outside.
The imperator was a slave, though, and I intended to do my best to keep from hurting it.
Chapter 6
I removed my dress, formed a light sword, took another half-dozen steps, and I was inside the center of the labyrinth dressed only in the fancy peach-colored bra and panty set Mordecai had put me in. No one moved for ten seconds. Were they waiting for me to make the first move?
“Please move so I can take the path.”
“You’ll have to move us. I wasn’t guarding anything in the oubliette; I just wanted to have some fun. Here, I’m sworn to keep people from the center.”
“Pity. Sometimes asking nicely works. I had to give it a try.”
I lifted my arm and shot my laser, but the man was too fast. He motioned the imperator to get me, and I did the burst-into-flames trick Mordecai had insisted I learn. I was again thankful he’d been such an asshole about it.
“Ah. This is why you’re in your skivvies. I can still make him attack you, even when he’s terrified.”
“But it’ll take all your concentration, and then you might not be able to…” I shot my laser and came closer to taking him out, but he disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the imperator, who was beyond terrified of the fire.
I used my light to manifest some baseballs, and I lobbed them in the general direction of the imperator. I didn’t want to hit him, I only needed to move him away from the trail. It worked, so I did it again.
“Damn you,” the man screamed. “Go after her or I’ll burn you every day for a decade!”
The imperator took a few hesitant steps towards me, but the threat made me more resolved than ever not to hurt the poor creature. I ran around the creature and towards the man. “Go ahead, disapparate again and prove how much of a pussy you are! At least stand your ground and pretend to be a man!”
The taunt worked, and he pulled a sword from thin air, prepared to fight me. I swung my light sword at his head, but he ducked and aimed his sword at my midriff. I blocked his sword with mine, which melted the long metal weapon in two. He roared, spun, and stabbed at me with what was left of his sword, but I blocked with my staff again and managed a solid roundhouse kick to his head.
However, I was still on fire, which meant it burned both of us, because it pushed the fire into the side of my foot. I was able to recover faster though, and I shot a laser at him. It hit him below the heart, and he vanished and reappeared behind me. I spun, kicked again, and then finally managed to get my staff through his neck. His head came off, but his body stayed standing, and the bastard tried to fucking kick me. I swung my light-staff again and cut him off at what should’ve been the center of his heart. The top part fell off, but once again, the body stayed standing and it was still coming at me.
Panic took over. I don’t do so well with horror movies, and I was suddenly living one. I’d been fine with a giant dinosaur ordered to kill me, but give me someone with body parts that keep fighting after they should be dead, and I turn into a panicked little girl.
I chopped the standing part of his body into a half-dozen pieces, but the upper part of his torso was hand-walking itself to me, and was nearly close enough to grab my foot. I cut the arms off and jumped backwards, but they came at me like macabre inchworms. I hacked and hacked until they stopped.
I swung my staff over and over, chopping into every damned joint in his body, because he only needed a single working joint in order to walk that body part to me. Shoulders, elbows, wrists, thighs, elbows, ankles. Even fingers and toes. I rolled the torso over and melted through his spine, and then I pulverized the hands and feet. Finally, I looked up to the imperator and let my fire go out. My right foot and ankle were horribly burned, and I hurt all over again. The demon bite was close to taking me once more, and I wasn’t positive it was in me to walk the final forty yards to the temple. The fight had come at a big cost. Still, I had things to do and couldn’t just lie down and die.
“He doesn’t control you anymore. The leash around your willpower should be gone. Is it?”
The imperator turned towards me and took a step, but then stopped. He was still twenty yards away, but he was huge and it would only take a few steps before he could reach me — and eat me in a single bite.
“You’re in charge of your destiny. Are you a good guy or a bad guy? If you’re a good guy, shift to human and I can introduce you to anoth
er of your kind.”
The imperator took three steps. It was close enough to eat me. I’d told it to shift, and it hadn’t, but otherwise, it wasn’t acting threatening. I tried to still my heart, racing away in my rib cage. He was a big scary monster, but I had no reason to believe he was a bad guy.
Still, I was prepared to burst into flames again if he swung his head towards me.
Instead, he moved his face to me ever-so-slowly. Just as I’d known the wolves weren’t shifters, I knew this guy was. I don’t know how I knew, and it probably didn’t matter. His Master was dead, and now he had a choice of whether to be good or evil. He didn’t deserve to die just because I was fucking terrified.
He sniffed me and could’ve eaten me, but he didn’t. Finally, the air where he’d been sparkled, and the biggest crocodile I’d ever seen was stretched out before me. He stepped back and sideways, and proceeded to eat the pieces of the man. He ate the torso first, then the head, and then he went after the largest leg and arm pieces, which were now trying to escape him. I hadn’t noticed they’d been forming together again. In an hour, the sentinel would’ve been whole again.
But that wasn’t going to happen now, because this forty foot long crocodile fucking ate him.
The air shimmered again, and a naked, beautiful man stood before me.
“Thank you.” His voice was off, as if he hadn’t used it in a long time.
“You’re welcome. I need to go to the center to be healed, and then we can talk.”
I felt energy, warm and loving, and I closed my eyes and accepted it. Cedrotrix had stepped through the doorway and was sending me energy.
I turned so I could see her without putting the man at my back. “Thank you. I needed that, but you know I have to do this on my own.”
“You had to slay the sentinel alone,” the naked man told me, “but we can walk you to the center.”
“There may be more beings set on keeping me from the center. I don’t want to put either of you in danger.”
“Then we’ll follow, fair maiden.” His voice was stronger this time.
“What is your name?”
“I am Harrison, fair maiden. Can I ask yours?”
I smiled. “Kirsten. I should go before I collapse.”
I started down the path, prepared for anything, but nothing else came at me. I rounded a corner, and a Greek-looking temple glowed in the mists. Every one of my senses felt for danger. The place was creepy as fuck, but I didn’t sense any threats.
Somehow, Cedrotrix was inside and behind the altar when I stepped in. She was a tall woman, still with some tree-like characteristics, but she had actual arms and hands now, as well as a body, feet, and legs.
And a face with the kindest smile I’ve ever seen.
I made it to the center of the room before I collapsed, but Harrison caught me and lifted me to the altar before I hit the ground.
I remember dozens of woodland sprites working on me. They fixed my burned foot, my shoulder where the demon bit me, and even the spot in my brain I knew had been damaged when I’d had to cut the cords Gavin had put in. It was a tiny spot, but it’d been there, and it’d bothered me, and now it was gone.
They healed me, they gave me energy, and then they sat with me until I was ready to move. The energy of this place was good and pure, and whatever was in the demon bite couldn’t survive. It wasn’t like Mordecai’s pool, where good and evil battled. This was peaceful. Serene. The good simply transformed anything that shouldn’t be.
When I finally sat up, they offered tea I’d swear was sweetened with honeysuckle, and bread so tender it melted in my mouth.
Cedrotrix hugged me, and I breathed in her cedar smell. She — along with the other woodland spirits — were the epitome of nature, and they’d supported me while the energy of the temple had healed me.
Finally, I looked to Harrison. They’d put the dress back on me, and some kind of shift on Harrison.
“Usually,” he said, “It’s the prince who rescues the princess. You seem to have reversed that.”
“Except I’m not a princess. Are you a prince?”
He tilted his head. “I’d likely be king if I hadn’t been made a slave. I don’t know the state of my kind back home.”
“When I left, the King was dead, and the person the title wanted was trying to keep from having to take it on.”
“My father was killed when I was taken, do you happen to know the name of the King? Or of the person who doesn’t wish to accept the title?”
“I don’t know the dead king’s name, but Isaac was trying to keep from being king.”
“I’ve been gone a long time. I do not know this Isaac.” He shrugged and gave me a kind smile. “They need to crown you, Your Majesty.”
I looked to Cedrotrix, and she lifted a crown with fluorite and rubies. Instead of gold, it seemed to be made of copper, woven as a vine would be, instead of solid like a normal crown.
And I loved it. I would’ve hated a traditional crown, but this one suited me, somehow.
Still. Queen? No.
“I can’t live here and take on the responsibilities of Queen. I have a life in the human realm.”
Cedrotrix sent more love throughout the temple, and my heart filled with joy.
“If you take care of your land at home,” she told me, “this land will be taken care of. The stewards can continue with their job — you only need to guide them. We need you, Queen Kirsten. The land needs you. The people need you.”
This was the deal. I’d understood it while they healed me — they were taking care of their Queen. The time to turn them down was past. By accepting their energy, I’d accepted the title. I bowed my head to let them put the crown on me, knowing it was going to be a huge responsibility. I’d just have to step up and handle it. They knew I couldn’t live here, and that my life was on Midgard, and they still wanted me as their Queen.
Instead of placing it on my head, they took me by the hand and walked me out the side of the temple, and we were suddenly standing back in the castle’s courtyard on a raised dais, in front of a small temple exactly like the one in the labyrinth.
And so, while dressed in heavy hiking-type boots and a beautiful white and gold dress, the mirror of the tree I’d grown so close to years before crowned me Queen of a demesne on Alfheim, and I had no idea what that meant, but there was no way for me to refuse it.
I felt the weight of the office when the crown went onto my head. I felt the land. The people. It wasn’t as if something snapped and changed in me, it was as if my energy was suddenly more. I felt the woodland creatures, the trees, the vines, even the bugs and earthworms. I felt the streams and rivers. The fish.
Cedrotrix was right — the land needed me as much as I seemed to need it. It wasn’t possible for me to walk away. Doing so would’ve been like cutting off an important body part.
It wasn’t until later that I found out Adonis and several other gods and goddesses flashed in to watch the ceremony in person. I’d met Jupiter at Aaron and Sophia’s wedding, so he hugged me to congratulate me afterwards. Adonis hugged me as well, and once again, his arms felt like coming home. Brotherly and not sexual, but I didn’t want to leave his embrace. I had to, of course, but it was hard.
The others merely kissed my hand and told me they’d see me at the party later.
I didn’t know there’d be a party, nor did I want to attend one. I needed to get home, but Mordecai telepathed that I needed to spend another fourteen hours here or it would be beyond rude, and then I’d be able to collect Harrison and go home.
During the party, I heard someone call Cedrotrix something close to Zeta. When I asked if she’d prefer me to call her by the long or short form of her name, she became so flustered at the question, I walked her into a private room to calm her down.
“Queen Kirsten, for you to call me by my nickname would be a level of familiarity I would never ask of you.”
I breathed out in relief. Perhaps I would finally be able to show her
how I truly felt about her.
“Zeta. My dear, dear Zeta. You are my heart, already. I am Kirsten to you, not Queen Kirsten. We are friends.” I remembered what Mordecai had said about the magic translating, so I made sure it was translating friends correctly. “A friend has a special connection, and trust, and companionship. It’s much more than an acquaintance. It means you’re special to me. It means we can use nicknames with each other.”
The next couple of hours involved me sitting on a throne and meeting the Stewards, one by one and then as a group. They were following the orders of the previous Goblin King, and I saw no reason to change anything. I agreed with the economics and the politics, surprisingly enough.
But then the question came of what to call me. I could choose between Goblin Queen, Harlequin, Erlqueen, Elven Queen, or a number of other terms describing me as the queen of something.
I chose Harlequin because it didn’t have the word queen in it. Close, but not quite.
When it was finally time for me to return to the human realm, Mordecai looked so sad, I knew something was wrong.
“The war isn’t going as we’d hoped. Many of the supernatural inhabitants of Chattanooga are in a little town called Trezevant. That’s where I’d like to take you.”
Can Zeta come? I asked.
Sorry. She needs to live here, but she’s mirrored in your cedar tree. You’ll still have her energy, and you’ll be able to pop back here anytime you want, when you miss her.
Chapter 7
I landed in an unfamiliar jail cell, with torture equipment situated outside the three cells. This was getting old, but Mordecai and Harrison were in there with me, so I figured Mordecai had known where we’d land.
Two people came rushing downstairs, and my heart jerked in my chest when I saw Cora. I had no idea where I was or why she was here, but we fell into each other’s arms as soon as another woman unlocked the door.
Unhuman Acts Page 5
