“Let me bathe first. You too.” He pulled at a tendril of my freshly bloodied hair, moving it behind my ear.
“Okay,” I breathed.
As I watched him stalk off to the bathroom, I wondered what Tejus was trying to hide from me. I couldn’t see any other reason that he’d be so reluctant. I didn’t believe him when he said it was a waste of time. There was a small chance that we might find something, and that was better than no chance at all.
Hazel
We sat opposite each other on the velvet sofas in Tejus’s living room. Both of us had changed clothes, and we sat with damp hair from our baths. My mood had changed from one of hopelessness to a cautious optimism now that we were taking action—doing something other than reading the long-winded memoirs of clueless ministers.
I felt a mild sense of déjà vu. We had sat in almost the exact spot the day that I’d first managed to project my mind to Tejus, after Queen Trina had attempted to kidnap me. That day had ended any unnecessarily painful mind-melds with Tejus—he had no longer needed to go rummaging around in my brain, and instead our connections had taken on a far more pleasant quality… some of them really pleasant. I blushed, and cleared my throat.
“Okay, shall we start?”
Tejus raised an eyebrow. “I’m ready. Are you?”
“Yeah.” I shook away the errant thoughts, and tried to keep my mind clear to receive whatever memories Tejus was able to share. I closed my eyes, waiting to feel the familiar feather-light touches of Tejus’s mind reaching out to entwine with mine.
I waited for a moment, but I couldn’t feel anything. I opened one eye, looking to see what the hold-up was. He was gazing at me, a perturbed expression on his face.
“Tejus?” I prompted.
“Sorry,” he replied curtly, not sounding remotely sorry. “I’m ready.”
I pursed my lips, and closed my eyes again. His reluctance was starting to become mildly offensive…and I wondered if he truly did have something to hide from me.
A moment later, I felt his mind reach out and touch mine. I focused on his energy, trying to draw it closer, and soon our bond became strong—in my head, an image of a thick, bright gold rope seemed to stretch between us, steadily becoming thicker and more dense.
Suddenly I was transported to a hallway of Hellswan castle. It was bright outside, and light flooded in from the large floor-to-ceiling windows. Tejus was with his brothers—Danto, Ferros and Jenus. All dressed in their black robes, with dark hair, they were difficult to distinguish, but I recognized Tejus instantly as the tallest. They were all waving wooden swords about, stabbing each other, but then laughing uproariously. Tejus had just been knocked to the floor, dragging one of his brothers down with him, when the group fell silent.
The emperor, looking much younger but just as imposing as I remembered him, glared down at his children.
“What is the meaning of this?” he roared at them.
“Sorry, Father.” Tejus stood, dusting off his robe. “We were just playing.”
The emperor yanked the sword out of Tejus’s hand.
“You sword-fight with the masters, with steel. It is never a game. You are all Hellswans! When you waste your time with games, you degrade our name and put your own pleasures first. Jenus—what is wrong with that?” he demanded, turning his icy glare to the red-faced boy.
“Because duty to the kingdom comes first,” Jenus whispered.
“All say it!” roared the emperor.
“Duty to the kingdom comes first,” the boys chorused.
“Good.” The emperor nodded. “To the study hall with you all.”
The boys filed off, and the emperor watched them go.
As fascinating as the little interlude was to me, it didn’t help us in the slightest. I tried to reach out to Tejus, to tell him to focus on the task, but I knew from personal experience that it was much easier said than done. I wondered why that particular memory had found its way to the front of his consciousness, but before I could focus on my own thoughts, I was planted in another of Tejus’s memories.
He was with his brothers again, but this time they were in the emperor’s chamber. A beautiful, raven-haired woman was sitting up in the bed, smiling at the boys as they lounged on the giant bed, occasionally pushing and shoving one another for space. Though beautiful, she looked unnaturally gaunt—the nightgown she was wearing drowned her frame. I realized that it must have been Tejus’s mother before she died. I’d never asked how it had happened, but clearly she’d had some sort of wasting sickness. How sad, I thought, and as I did so, a slight blue tint filtered the color of the memory, tainting it with my emotion.
“Tell us the one about the man who flew!” Danto cried out.
“No!” Jenus replied. “I want to hear the one about the maiden who stole the sword, and died in the lake!” His eyes gleamed at the gruesome horror, and I wanted to scoff—interesting to note that Jenus was a complete psycho from a young age.
“I have a gory story.” Their mother laughed at them. “Perfect for the heirs to Hellswan…but no nightmares, agreed? It’s just a story,” she reminded them, squeezing Ferros’s hand.
“You’re such a baby,” Jenus hissed at his brother, but Ferros ignored him.
“Once upon a time,” their mother started in hushed tones, “there was a handsome prince who lived in a magnificent kingdom—his land was vast and bountiful. The sun always shone, and his people lived in peace. His father was away at sea, fighting for riches and land in other worlds, far, far away. He was gone for so long that the people of the kingdom feared that their king would never return. Though the prince was sad, he agreed eventually to become king—and he would take a queen, the prettiest in all the land. For years they lived together in peace and harmony, and the queen begot a beautiful boy.”
“This doesn’t sound scary at all,” Jenus moaned.
“She’s getting to that part!” young Tejus interjected, punching his brother on the arm.
“Boys!” their mother exclaimed. “If you don’t behave, you won’t hear the story. But Tejus is right. I am getting to the scary part… One day,” she continued, “the new king received a letter from his father. He was overjoyed, because it meant his father was alive. In the letter, the old king urged his son to come and join him in a new kingdom that he had discovered—an entire land that was theirs to claim. The new king made haste, packing his belongings and preparing all the people of his land to travel with him. The king and his family, and all the kingdom, traveled across the waters on great ships—hundreds of them.
“After several days at sea, they landed on the shore of his father’s land. There was much celebration and joyfulness as the old king and his son were united at last. The new king was happy, but he encountered a strange sense of unease that pervaded his father’s castle. When he questioned his father about it, the old king told him that the castle held a malevolent entity within its walls. When the old king had arrived in this new land, he had been enslaved by hideously disfigured creatures, as had the army of men that he had traveled with.
“After years of plotting, the old king and his men orchestrated a revolt, and managed to overpower the creatures with the help of a magical wispy demon—not quite man, not quite air—who locked the evil creatures away with magic stones.
“The new king was amazed at the story, but praised his father for all that he had done to overthrow the evil. Peace continued for a while, and the people settled into their new land. Until one day, when the new king’s son came to him, saying that he had found a beautiful stone in the wall. The new king admired the stone, and then sent his son away so he could focus on the matters of the kingdom.
“That night, the wife of the new king came to him, saying that she couldn’t find their son. The guards were alerted, and the entire castle was searched high and low. There was no sign of him, until one of the kitchen boys went down into the store rooms, and saw the young prince hanging from the rafters—his face almost entirely eaten and the bright s
tone still clasped in his hand.
“The old king announced that it was the work of the entity, who had now been released. The skies went dark, and the entity’s army rose from the dead. They massacred the villages and all the people of the kingdom, including the handsome new king, whose eyeballs they ate off silver platters, and the old king’s hand—which they hung from the door of the castle, to remind all who might travel their land just how deadly they were.
“Can anyone guess what the land might be?” she asked, laughing at the horrified faces of her sons.
“It’s Nevertide, isn’t it?” Tejus asked in a whisper.
“It is indeed…and what’s the lesson in the story?” she asked again.
Silence descended over the boys as they tried to work out the point of the story.
“The boy, he shouldn’t have taken the stone?” Tejus asked.
Their mother nodded and smiled.
“No one must take the stones of Hellswan castle, or the immortal one will rise from his prison and gobble you all up!”
“Where are the stones?” Jenus asked, open-mouthed.
“Ha! That would be telling.” The emperor had walked into the bedroom. “I don’t want any of your curious minds walking around the castle looking, do I?”
The image flickered and faded.
I expected the mind-meld to come to an end, but another image appeared instead.
No longer tinted by the blue, the colors of the image were saturated with a bright yellow light, making the scene before me seem hyper-real. I couldn’t make out what he was showing me for a few moments, but then I could make out two figures sitting on the thrones from the coronation ceremony. I couldn’t make out who they were, but then the image flickered, and the perspective changed, so I was standing right in front of the thrones.
It was Tejus and I, sitting side by side and holding hands, smiling at one another. I thought for a moment that it was the memory of Tejus’s coronation…but then I realized that I was wearing a crown. I waved and smiled at the cheering crowds in front of me, and then Tejus leaned over and kissed queen-me.
What?
The image jolted and spluttered, and suddenly it was cut off, leaving just a blackness in my mind. The connection had been broken.
What was that?
I opened my eyes to see my surprise mirrored in Tejus’s expression, and a faint red coloring his cheekbones.
“My mother’s story.” He spoke abruptly, his voice hoarse. “Was it of any use?”
Oh, okay… so we’re going to ignore that, then…
“Um, yes, I think so,” I managed, my mind still trapped on the last image.
“Hazel!” he snapped.
“Right. Um…” I racked my brain to make some sense of the story. “Well, the wispy creature—the one that was half man, half air—that sounds like a jinni to me.”
“A what?”
“A jinni. They’re sort of like spirits or fae, they live in a land called The Dunes, in the supernatural realm… Do you know if they’ve ever inhabited Nevertide?” I asked.
“No, not that I know of. I’ve never heard of these creatures,” Tejus replied, his brow furrowing.
I guessed that wasn’t too surprising. I still didn’t know exactly where Nevertide was, but even if it was located in some hidden area within the supernatural dimension, jinn tended to keep to their own territory.
“How much of the story do you think was true?” I asked, wondering how much of the tale was a warning to her young boys, made up to scare them into not touching the stones.
“Well, we know that the stone prison is true,” Tejus mused. “I think the rest was a warning…what concerns me is the ‘armies’ my mother spoke of. If that part of the story is true, then it is not one malevolent creature that we’re facing, but an entire horde of them.”
I nodded slowly.
This has quickly gone from bad to worse…
“Do you recognize the description of the entity? Is it something you’ve come across before?” Tejus asked.
“There wasn’t exactly much to go on,” I replied. “It could have been anything—it just sounds like the stuff of nightmares.”
I thought of the young boy taking the stone, and thought of Benedict. An image flashed in my mind of my brother hanging from the rafters of the store room, and I shuddered, feeling like throwing up.
“Okay, plan B.” I stood up, refusing to dwell on imagined horrors when we had enough real ones on our plate. “Do we have one?”
“Search the castle from top to bottom.” Tejus shrugged. “Right now I can’t think of anything more we can do. It all leads back to the stones, and without locating the lock, we don’t know for certain that one has gone missing…or how we close it again.”
“Okay. Can we also put a guard outside—to speak to Benedict when he comes back?” I asked quietly.
Tejus hesitated, and I interjected before he could open his mouth.
“He has the stone.”
Tejus nodded, clearing his throat. “Consider it done.”
For the first time today, I was glad that Benedict was out of the castle. I didn’t want him and the stone anywhere near here…If the story from Tejus’s mother had taught me anything, it was that this place was dark and consumed by evil—it had always been so, and probably always would.
Benedict
I must have dozed off for a while, because I woke up with a start, looking around Ash’s room in a blind panic till I realized that there wasn’t any danger, that I was safe for the time being. I waited for my heartbeat to regulate, and then staggered up off the bed.
All I could think was that enough was enough. I couldn’t remember exactly what had happened last night after I’d stumbled in the forest. Just flashes of the weird temple, the green light and the stones blinking at me, dancing in the dark. I had to speak to someone about what was going on. I had spent days living in mind-numbing terror, becoming afraid of shadows, afraid of closing my eyes—afraid of what I could see as much as what I couldn’t.
But without Julian here, there wasn’t really anyone I felt comfortable talking to. Ruby and my sister would just be worried—the last thing I wanted was for them to stop focusing on finding Julian and lowering the Nevertide barriers. I wanted to go home. That was all that mattered.
I thought of Yelena. She had promised to help me with this earlier. Maybe speaking to her would help, and if she was willing to stay up and watch me, then perhaps things wouldn’t feel so bad, and at least I would know for sure that I hadn’t done anyone else any harm.
With shaky steps, I followed the passage through the servants’ quarters up to the ground floor of the castle. There were a lot of ministers wandering around—a lot giving me odd looks, which I didn’t understand till I caught my reflection in an old mirror. I was still covered in the red rain from the forest, having completely forgotten to remove it when I’d got to Ash’s room. Whatever. It would have to wait.
There weren’t any guards outside the human quarters, so I let myself in, cautiously poking my head around the door first, checking that Ruby and Ash weren’t there first. I didn’t feel like facing a barrage of questions about where I’d been.
A quick scan of the room reassured me. There were a couple of kids lounging around, looking bored and tired, and Yelena standing by the window at the back of the room.
“Hey, Benedict.” One of the kids smiled up at me sleepily. “You look weird.”
I nodded absent-mindedly in return, not wanting to stop and chat. Yelena had spun around as soon as my name was called, and was staring at me as if she’d just seen a ghost.
“What?” I said, my eyes widening as I approached her.
Without saying a word, she clasped onto my wrist and dragged me through to my bedroom—her grip was surprisingly strong for such a little thing. Once we were in the room, she slammed the door behind her and glared at me.
“Where have you been?” she stormed.
“You know, I was looking for Julian,”
I replied, confused by her angry tone.
“Everyone’s been worried sick! Your sister came down looking for you—she’s petrified something’s happened to you!”
I groaned. “Yelena, please don’t tell me you told her where I was?”
“I had to!” she cried angrily. “I don’t even know how you even got back in here.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes in exasperation.
“The barriers! They’ve been put up around the castle now. No one can get in or out…well, we thought no one could get in or out—obviously you did. How can you not know any of this?”
“I fell asleep in Ash’s room,” I said, waving aside her question. “What do you mean about the borders? Are there more? Who put them up?”
“No one knows.” Yelena shook her head. “No one will tell me anything.”
“Well, I need to tell you stuff,” I replied, recalling the reason that I’d come to see her in the first place. “All you have to do is promise that you’ll try to believe everything I say, because all of it is true—I swear.”
Yelena plonked herself on the bed next to me. “Oh, don’t worry about that. I don’t think anything’s going to shock me anymore, not after this. I’ll believe you.”
Taking a deep breath, I told Yelena everything. From the moment that Julian and I had found the narrow corridor in the castle, and how only I had been ‘allowed’ down into it. I told her about the whispers, the late-night walks, the Viking remains and the temple, the stones, wondering why everyone seemed so tired all the time—wondering if I’d had anything to do with it, and if I was somehow to blame for Julian’s disappearance.
To her credit, she listened to the whole thing without saying a word. The only thing I left out was standing over her body. I didn’t want to freak her out more than she was already, and judging by her half-open mouth and wide, wide eyes, she was well and truly freaked out.
“Benedict, you’re right. I’m so out of my depth here…this stuff…it’s terrifying.”