The Maebown

  THE MAEBOWN

  Book Four

  Weald Fae Journals

  by

  Christopher Shields

  Visit Me At:

  www.wealdfaejournals.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2014 by Christopher Shields

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of the publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the Author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Contact the Author at www.wealdfaejournals.com

  Cover Art © 2014 by Christopher Shields

  Cover Art by Derek McCumber

  Editor Richard Shelton

  Kindle Edition

  DEDICATION

  For Mom and Cliff,

  Dad and Virginia,

  and for Rick—

  your support and love means everything.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY-ONE

  TWENTY-TWO

  TWENTY-THREE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  TWENTY-FIVE

  TWENTY-SIX

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  TWENTY-NINE

  THIRTY

  THIRTY-ONE

  THIRTY-TWO

  THIRTY-THREE

  THIRTY-FOUR

  THIRTY-FIVE

  THIRTY-SIX

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  EPILOG

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  GET THE ENTIRE SERIES

  Courage

  A challenge so great, I could not see,

  No path to take, no victory.

  Enemies approach, they cry for blood.

  Courage skirts the doubting flood.

  Fear now runs the course of me.

  The voice I hear, it begs to flee.

  Trembling hands, they wrest' the hilt.

  On preservation ‘lone, is my heart built?

  A glimpse of those already gone

  Haunting memories linger on.

  Of more to follow, should I fail,

  A spark of courage, do I avail.

  Across the threshold, advance the hoard.

  For those still living, I swing the sword.

  With death I’ll surely make amends,

  To fly me ‘way when it ends.

  For those I love, I will pay with all

  The greater good, it cannot fall

  The price is steep, I will pay with all

  The greater good, it cannot fall

  —Christopher A. Shields

  ONE

  SUDDEN EXPOSURE

  The Jaguar’s headlights seemed inadequate in the ink black night, lighting only a small section of road as we sped across Germany toward Salzburg, Austria. My fingers were twined in Gavin’s and I refused to let go—he changed gears without touching the shifter. The August air, still warm from the heat of the day, rushed around us like a protective cocoon. I did feel safe at that moment, but so much had happened in the previous three months that I also felt dizzy and disoriented.

  A group of Fae, the Rogues, had killed my father, and then chased me around the globe. They’d killed dozens of people in France by destroying a bridge, and then killed millions more by collapsing a volcano and sending a tsunami around the Atlantic. That, of course, was after they’d used nature as a weapon, creating half a dozen major earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and hurricanes. I had no idea where the Rogues were, nor what was left of them. Many of the oldest died in Fontainebleau Forest, but the rest of them were still out there—hundreds of them—somewhere.

  Almost nothing had gone as I’d hoped. The Seelie Council was no more. Some of its Council members had spread across the globe when the Seelie Clan dissolved. Those who didn’t go back to their original clans blindly followed Ozara. She was the real enemy, and she’d pulled off the unthinkable—she took the Seelie who remained loyal and joined the Unseelie. I still couldn’t believe it. They called themselves the Alliance, and they were the strongest force in the world. The original clans couldn’t challenge the Alliance on their own—the Ohanzee were the strongest, and they were no match. The Kobold, the Sidhe, the Olympians—none of them could put up much of a fight, and I had learned enough about clan politics to know that getting them to work together would be harder than learning Aether.

  I despised her, but I had to admit that Ozara had played it brilliantly. She sold it, and she sold it well. She had every Fae in the world terrified of the Second, a unidentified Aetherfae that she claimed had led the Rogues on a murderous spree. She’d used the ploy to entice some of the clans to join her by offering them protection. She coerced others, like the Ometeo, after falsely accusing them of aiding the enemy. It made my blood boil. Ozara was the enemy—the only enemy. Posing as the second, she killed Seelie, Unseelie, and hundreds of other Fae in smaller clans. Besides me, only a handful knew the truth. We had to get the word out before more clans flocked to her for protection.

  Where did we stand? I didn’t know. The Ohanzee had reclaimed the Weald—for some unknown reason, Ozara and the Alliance had abandoned it after destroying the original Seoladán. The Weald. It broke my heart to even think about it. The cottage was gone, the Toy Box a burned-out ruin. It was my home. Even though there was little to return to, return I would. My family was still in Arkansas—hiding with Wakinyan, Billy, Tadewi, Drevek, and Faye. I trusted them. I prayed they could keep Mom, Mitch, and my grandparents safe. I was doing this for them, and for my unborn baby brother. When I wondered whether I’d ever meet him, a chill rattled down my spine.

  At least Gavin was alive and well. Dersha and the Rogues had nearly finished us both off in France a few hours earlier. Dersha died quickly, and despite all the pain she had caused, I was glad for that. Her story filtered in and out of my mind as we flew past tiny villages sleeping under the protective guard of church steeples. Trapped in an Aether prison for twenty-three centuries with nothing but rage and emptiness to keep her company, I felt some measure of sympathy for Dersha. That said, the bigger part of me welcomed her death.

  They’d set a trap, and I’d entered it. Had Ozara not returned to America, had she stayed in Europe and been there when Dersha caught me, I would have died in Fontainebleau Forest. I should have died anyway. Had it been not for another twist of fate I could hardly believe—my savior turned out to be an actual Second Aetherfae, Caorann, the Golden Bird—I would have. In the minutes after she killed Dersha, she taught me Aether. I had the power to destroy Ozara, and I had an Aetherfae on my side. That much was exhilarating, but it was equally ironic. If the legends were true, the thing that could save the world might be the very thing that would kill me.

  Driving to find Candace and Ronnie, I knew I needed to project to not only make sure they were safe in their current hiding place but also to determine if my family was safe in Arkansas. What was perhaps more pressing, I needed to see what Ozara was up to. Chalen had escaped, again, and if my hunch was correct, it wouldn’t take long for him to find her. Then all hell would
break loose.

  “What’s on your mind?” Gavin asked.

  “Just wondering what’s next.”

  “For a few minutes …” he paused until I looked at him, “… let’s just forget about the rest of the world. It’s an amazing summer night and we’re together. Focus on that for a while. The world—the conflict—will find us soon enough.”

  I leaned my head against his shoulder. “Okay.”

  “Thank you,” he said.

  “No problem. Really, I’d like nothing more right now than to find a secluded island in the South Pacific with big palm trees and white beaches and just hide with you.”

  Gavin sighed. “That would be perfect, and I know of a place, but that’s not what I meant.”

  “Oh, you mean having me all to yourself isn’t at the front of your mind?”

  “That thought is always with me, but I meant thank you for coming after me.”

  “Honestly, I thought you’d be furious.”

  “You saved my life, found a powerful ally, and you learned Aether—my opinion may be biased and slightly self-serving, but it turned out to be the best possible decision.”

  “And about you charging into danger…getting your feet cut off?”

  “Yes, let’s talk about my decision, which of course led to you finding a powerful ally, discovering Aether, and perhaps setting the stage to save your entire species…”

  “Your cup is always half-full, isn’t it?”

  Gavin laughed. “It’s a much healthier perspective than the alternative.”

  “Well, that’s true. So, tell me about this island of yours.”

  * * *

  For the next three hours, I created Aether over and over, so by the time we drove through Munich it was second nature. I couldn’t see or sense her, but Caorann stayed close to us, occasionally offering advice. She was my new Treorai, my guide, for this new element. I needed one. From the moment I created Aether my emotions were heightened. The anger I felt toward Ozara would consume me if I let it.

  “Did it affect you the same way?” I asked her, as the car slipped into the German countryside east of Munich.

  “Yes, Maggie. Aether is a gift and a curse—it is Ambrosia and Ichor. Learning to govern your passions is the first step in using it. I will teach you—you must devote yourself.”

  “I will. I promise.”

  “When I learned Aether, in the moments before I found Ádhamh, my rage was boundless. I wanted to strike out at the world for taking him from me. Of course, I did find Ádhamh—or rather, he found me. My love for him wasn’t enough to quell the rage at first, but he said six words that stole away the air from the flame and replaced my malignant emotions with something more enduring. He said, ‘My love, we are inseparable now.’”

  Her words made me smile. They meant Gavin and I might not ever be separated. “I feel everything and every emotion so much more clearly. The good makes me tingle all over, but the bad…it burns my flesh. It doesn’t stop when I drop Aether. Is it permanent?”

  “Yes, it is permanent. When you learn to contain your emotions, you will discover that your connection to everything has heightened. You’ve achieved balance with the physical world, Maggie. You no longer manipulate Naeshura—you control it. You have an important responsibility to the natural world, one that goes beyond retribution. When you let go of your hatred for Ozara, you will understand.” Great, you ask the impossible.

  Gavin tightened his grip on my fingers. “Caorann, you’ve had Maggie practice creating it in front of me. I assume that was for a reason.”

  “Gavin, I remember your compassion above any of our kind. When Ádhamh’s physical life ended, you spent years at my side, consoling me. The end of Maggie’s life in the physical world is inevitable, regardless of the outcome of the conflict. You, who feels more deeply than any of our kind, may suffer even more than I. It would be unconscionable for me to permit the anguish I know your separation from her will bring.”

  “You intend for me to learn Aether?”

  “Yes. You have made the connection with Fire, Earth, and Air already, have you not?”

  “Yes, how did you know?”

  “I can sense them in you. It will take you time to master Water, but master it you must. Learning Aether will be the only thing that spares you from madness,” she said.

  “Is it true? You can see Ádhamh?”

  “Yes, Gavin. As Maggie is learning now, balance provides a connection to Naeshura that, quite frankly, you cannot yet fathom. A human’s physical death is merely a transition. I see that now.”

  “Ozara lied about that, too,” Gavin said.

  “Yes. She undoubtedly knows that human consciousness exists beyond physical death. Obviously, it works better for her plans if our kind remains ignorant of that fact.”

  Caorann had a point. While there were plenty of Fae who wouldn’t care, there were thousands of former Seelie who, I hoped, would take exception to killing off a species with an eternal consciousness. Ozara’s deception bothered me, but it made me think about Ra and Dagda.

  “Caorann, the other Aetherfae knew as well, didn’t they?”

  “Certainly.”

  “Figures. But what I don’t get is why Ozara fought two wars against Aetherfae who, essentially, wanted the same thing she did. It doesn’t make sense.”

  “But they did not want the same thing, Maggie. Your predilection for placing humans at the center of the conflict is understandable, since you are one, but I don’t believe this conflict has ever really been about your species. Humankind was simply the catalyst.”

  “Wait, what do you mean?”

  “Some Fae are as flawed as the very worst of your species—just as vile, just as twisted. Like the basest of humans, they seek power. They desire control over one another. Ozara is among the first one hundred of my kind to come into existence—ancients who time has endowed with remarkable and terrible power. Without Aether, Ozara is exceptional, but there are eleven who preceded her, including myself.”

  It occurred to me. “She wasn’t the boss.”

  Caorann laughed. “Yes, quite simply, she was jealous. The Fae tend to relegate jealousy as nothing more than a petty human character flaw, but my kind explored and mapped the festering depths of that particular emotion ages before the dawn of mankind. Even as the twelfth Fae, she was the fourth oldest among the Ohanzee. Millennia after millennia, her hubris grew with her abilities, and so did her desire to assert authority. It is most ironic that as a fledgling Fae she joined the Ohanzee because of their power and the security that power afforded her. The Ohanzee were, after all, the original superpower.”

  “Given what Bastien told you about her pairing with Zarkus, I believe she formed the Seelie Clan by playing on the popular sentiment of Faekind to leave the physical world to physical beings. There was a ready audience hungering to hear what she had to say. Ra and Dagda were either complications she had not foreseen, or more likely, tools she carefully used along the way to create the current crisis. Either way, Maggie, their existence is what permitted this façade.”

  * * *

  The orange glow of the rising sun backlit the eastern horizon, casting deep but fleeting shadows down the western slope of the alpine foothills to our right. It felt peaceful and serene as we drove the last fifty miles toward Salzburg. Tucked into those shadows, I felt Fae, and as we got closer, I could tell that Victoria and Sherman were there. We were in the heart of Kobold territory. The Kobold were a powerful clan, and at the moment, still independent of the Alliance. We needed their help.

  “Just a mile to the right, at the base of the hill,” Gavin said, turning the silver XKE onto a smaller paved road.

  “I sense them.”

  We were a half mile from a small stucco and timber house barely visible through the tree tops. The hair began standing on the back of my neck. Someone other than the Kobold lingered in the dawnlight “Ozara.”

  Gavin floored the Jaguar, quickly carving away the remaining distance as da
rk clouds rolled over the mountains. My heart raced as I scanned the sky. Ozara wasn’t alone, and she wasn’t cloaked. With lightning cracking overhead, the Kobold swarmed the mountainside, charging the encroaching Fae. When each sensed Ozara, they retreated back down to a small house at the edge of the woods. I’d never guessed that the Alliance would come so quickly, and so brazenly, into Kobold territory.

  Gavin bolted from the car, leaping over the windshield and landing fifty feet in front of the bumper. I followed on a cushion of Air, taking his side. The Kobold spread out in a line across the hillside as Ozara and twenty Alliance Fae formed a tight pack. Each in human form, they didn’t seem as threatening. I didn’t recognize most of them, but two were former Seelie Council members. Ix-Chel, the muscular bronze-skinned Fae with copper-colored eyes, and Ekoi, the dark-skinned exotic looking female who never spoke. Her large dark eyes found me first. Her stare caught Ozara’s attention. Her displeasure was visible from two hundred yards away.

  A lean but muscular blonde Kobold, who looked no older than sixteen, said, “Ozara, I don’t recall extending an invitation.”

  “Volimar, my pet, I did not ask for one, and I do not recognize your authority over these lands. We came here with the purpose of discussing your role in the Alliance, but imagine my surprise to find you harboring Gavin. Surely you know there is an edict of death on his head, and that edict applies to any Fae—or human—who aids him.”

  “I do not recognize your authority on Kobold land. Leave. Now,” Volimar said.

  Ozara’s rage was visible. She was unaccustomed to being refused. A green flash ripped the air toward Volimar. Ozara’s mouth dropped open and her entourage took a step backward, when it crashed against Caorann’s. A moment later, Caorann blew Ozara into the mountain with such force that the ground rocked. Ozara emerged from the crater, unscathed, her eyes wild. The alliance Fae behind Ix-Chel and Ekoi crouched, channeling energy. They were outnumbered and outgunned. Ozara wrapped herself in Clóca, but did not leave. Somehow, I felt her presence. I created a stream of Amber, the combination of Earth and Water I’d discovered in Germany, and sent it into her barrier. As it had done in the grove of trees, it melted the Clóca, exposing Ozara to another blast.