Chapter 10
Islipped the gold threaded burlap bag over my head and held it at my side. "I bring you an offering, and an apology. You were right. You were right about everything; I just didn't have the patience, or the heart to see it then."
A wet snort. "Of course not. Well, don't stand there lingering on my doorstep like a vagrant child. It's rude. And I've had enough of your rudeness for my lifetime."
I walked slowly, carefully, through the split in the rock and was yanked away from the desert to a seashore. The sand was a soft gold, kissed by deep cerulean blue waves as they washed up over the edge of the shore. The sky above was a pale purple dotted with wispy clouds.
The air did not smell of salt and sand, but of fresh cut hay and summer air.
Ahead of me stood a man in a deep purple cloak, his hood pulled up and a staff at his side that he tapped with his fingers one at a time. Behind him was an old gray horse, sway-backed, her bony hips sticking out on either side so far, they looked like shovel heads. Deep dapples rippled across the still glossy coat, and her eyes were half closed as she dozed in the warm sun, her lower lip dangling.
Dropping to a knee, I put the burlap sack out in front of me, pulling the cord to open it up. "I am sorry for my rudeness on my last visit. I was blinded by a love I thought was real. I did not want to hear that my heart would be taken by another, that my wife would be unfaithful."
The old man tapped his stick once and then poked the bag with it, pushing it open further before he positioned it under the horse's muzzle. Her nose twitched, whiskers dancing as she sniffed at the bag.
"Oats from the ice fields? And a pair of golden apples?"
A low snort from the horse behind him, then the sounds of munching as she dug into the bag.
"Is this for real?" Nancy muttered. "Oats and some apples for his horse is the offering? Seems cheap to me."
"Ah, so you brought a friend this time?" The Seer's voice echoed not from the man…but from the horse. I looked up.
"Elder Mare, this knife is bonded to the Sentinel of Savannah."
"And it holds a demon inside of it. Interesting." She spoke around a mouthful of the slightly blue oats. Her limpid dark eyes bored into me.
"It does."
"At least you aren't trying to lie to me this time." She paused in her chewing.
Nancy laughed. "You tried to lie to a Seer? How dumb are you?"
The Elder Mare blew out a big raspberry and shook her head. "He is young yet, by Fae standards. A young king. A young heart. But none of that is why you are here. You are here to ask after the Sentinel's fate? To find her, yes?"
"How do I save her? There are too many people, too many sides vying to use her. I don't want her to be…killed. I don't want to lose her now that I found her."
The Elder Mare stuck her nose out and bopped it against my chest. "And what will you do if what I see is not what you want? What then? Will you be rude to me? Kick sand in my face again? I will boot you in the ass again if I must."
Nancy let out a low laugh. "You didn't, did you? Wow, you really are a big dummy."
I swallowed hard. "I regret those actions, more than you can know. I don't care what happens to me. Her life is worth far more than my own."
A heavy sigh rolled out of her. "Freddy, put the fire on. Let us see what we can do."
Freddy did as he was asked, without an argument.
He pulled a stone from his pocket and rolled it in his hand as if he were a potter, creating a large black cauldron that floated between his hands. Carefully he lowered it to the sand.
Once the cauldron was in place, Freddy bent and blew on the sand around the base of the cauldron.
"Does he know there is no fire there?" Nancy whisper yelled like the demon ass he was.
"Shut up." I smacked my hand over the blade and he mock yelped.
"Spank me again, Fae King."
The Elder Mare quirked her lips and I could have sworn she was laughing at me. "Having problems?"
"I am sorry."
"Oh, this is more than amusing. I don't mind."
She dropped her head and blew out a long breath on the other side of the cauldron and the sand itself caught fire, turning brilliantly white, the flames licking up the sides of the black steel.
Within minutes, a large cauldron bubbled in the center of a fire that had been created out of nothing. The fire burned bright and hot, though there was no fuel for it. Just flames against the sand.
The Elder Mare limped closer toward the cauldron, favoring her front right hoof. "I am not long for this world, young king. I hope that you can pull your head out of your ass long enough to make the things right that you yourself have helped set in motion. So I can finally see our world the way it should be. The way it was always meant to be. The way my dreams have told me is possible."
She stood in front of the cauldron, her nostrils flaring as the steam rolled up over her face. "The sage, Freddy, the pearl of dragon. And the oyster bane. That will do it."
"Oyster bane? What the fu?—"
"Be quiet, demon blade," the Elder Mare snapped. "Or I will end up scrying for you, and neither of us wants that, as I've no doubt your past and future are a complete and utter mess. Your future is bound beyond this place, and this trial." She blew out a breath and it rippled across the top of the cauldron, making waves in the murky liquid. Lower and lower her head went until her long whiskers were dunked into the heating water, and there she stopped.
Her eyes drifted closed, and her bottom lip hung loose again.
Freddy leaned over and gently added a sprig of sage, a tiny black dragon pearl, and a powdered mixture that sparkled in the light. That had to be the oyster bane.
I kept still, with a hand clamped tight over Nancy, to muffle anything he might deign to spit out at an inopportune moment.
The Elder Mare's muscles twitched all along her neck and down her spine as the steam rolled up thicker around her face, until I could see nothing over her head except the tips of her ears.
She blew out another heavy sigh, and the steam raced from her nostrils, curling up and turning into something more than just liquid air.
A figure I would have known had I been blind slid into existence in front of me, formed from the steam. She was on her knees, in a cage of some sorts. The bars were high over her head. She turned, her face blinking in and out of focus.
"Bree."
She reached for me through the bars. Her mouth moved, but I couldn't hear anything.
"She is trapped, but where?" I asked the Elder Mare.
The Seer breathed out again, and Bree slid away, the steam swirling and dancing. Turning into waves in an ocean I couldn't identify.
"Near water." I nodded. "Somewhere a vampire would think of as home?"
The Elder Mare lifted her head, eyes blinking. "I can only see that she is surrounded by water. Which makes it harder yet to see clearly, young king. The very reason she is there is to be kept hidden until the last moment."
I bowed my head to her. Even though there was so little information, it was at least something. "With all my thanks, Elder Mare."
"I do not see a good outcome." She let out yet another heavy sigh. "The powers that surround her are darker than dark, and they will break her if you do not hurry. There are so many lies, so many threads of stories that must be read to find the truth…it will be up to her to understand what she must do."
Her words sent chills up and down my spine. "I won't let them break her."
"Then you must hurry." She whinnied softly. "For you are her only hope of escape, young king, and she is the world's only chance at stopping the evil that would use her to destroy us all."
I bowed again and stepped back. "I will do all I can?—"
"Wait…" She blew out a huge breath, her nostrils flaring as the smoke around her face dispersed. "Wait, I see a path for you. Something you must do if you wish to find her in time."
I waited as she breathed the smoke in and out, waited to hear her words.
"Your home is breaking, young king. Your roots rotting. The Scourge has taken hold of what is left of the place you once called home. Your mother can tell you where to find the Sentinel. She can trace the Sentinel when no other can."
Anger flared through me, and the sky above darkened. I clamped hold of the emotion and calmed it. "That realm is no longer my concern. I was disowned, Seer. Cast out for daring to believe there was a better way."
And there was no way my mother would help me to find Bree. I could be on my deathbed, and my mother would walk past me, pretend she did not know me. In fact, it had been in her lands that I had died on Remy's blade.
The Elder Mare's eyes fluttered open, and in their dark depths I could see the open fields, the trees I'd played in as a child, the castle I'd called home. Darkness circled it all—darkness with eyes of fire.
"Oh, that's not good," Nancy whispered. "That's a demon."
"Yes," said the Elder Mare. "A demon of such cruelty and pain that there is none above it. A monster has taken the throne of the dark fae, young king. So while you may have no love for the one who birthed you, there lies your best chance at finding your heart. Your mother's abilities can aid you."
I tried to take a step back, but instead my body was dragged forward. "I have no claim?—"
Her eyes filled my vision, her words echoing through me as if nothing else existed. "If you wish to save the Sentinel, you will need your people. All of them. You will need to heal that which has been broken, and bring the light and the dark together to fight for you against the forces that are coming for this world and the human's. To save the one you have waited for your whole life, you must first face the past."
The hold on me relaxed, and it was as if marionette strings had been cut. I went to my knees in front of the Elder Mare. "Bree?—"
"She needs you to be the king you were always meant to be. Which means you can run no longer. Claim your birthright. Claim your crown. Free your people."
Nancy all but bounced at my side. "What she's saying is you're going to have to fight off that big mother…ducking…demon you saw over that castle. That's not good, man. I know that demon. He's going to be tough to kill."
The Elder Mare shuffled back, her body shaking with the effort. "Your companion might have come to you by accident, but I believe that nothing happens without reason in this world. He will help you."
Nancy grunted. "I might."
The Elder Mare shook her head, whinnying a laugh. "If you do not, and the Sentinel dies, your soul will be reaped by your master."
Nancy squeaked and his voice went up an octave. "You know, I could be convinced to help. Probably. I mean, most likely."
I pushed to my feet. "I thank you, Elder Mare. You have my gratitude."
The Elder Mare arched both brows at me. "You aren't going to do as I say, are you?"
I bowed again and kept backing up, away from the Elder Mare. She had been my best hope, and the hope she had given me…was a path that I was not sure I could walk.
"I will do as you say, though it may end in my death. If that is the case, I will wait for Bree on the other side."
It was not the demon I was worried about—not really.
My mother had sworn to kill me should I ever step back in her castle. And I had no doubt she would try to do just that.