Blood of Sirens: Book 13 of The Witch Fairy Series (11 page)

Her words are so soft, I can barely hear them.  “So I can live apart from those who wish to do harm against other races.”

My curiosity gets the best of me.  “The gills on your neck are a dead giveaway in regards to you being a Siren.  Where could you possibly live and not be hated?”  Yes, I have disembarked from the tact train.

A faint smile touches Zyrene’s lips.  “I live with my husband in the realm of the Merpeople.  They have graciously given us a beautiful island to call home.”

Arie mentioned something to this affect.  “Where is your husband now?”

All the light drains from Zyrene’s eyes.  “He stayed with our children.  He begged me not to come.”  She lifts her eyes to me.  “He thought you would kill me on sight.”  Good lord, how bad is my reputation?

A snort travels up from the floor.  “Like you have the balls to be a killer,” Taz smirks.  “Though, you could probably talk someone to death.”

“Shut up,” I say, kicking my foot out at him.

Shrinking back against the chaise, Zyrene whispers, “My apologies.”

I roll my eyes.  “Not you.  My Familiar was making snide comments.”

Eyes wide now, Zyrene asks, “You have a Familiar?”

Guess Taz isn’t as famous out in the Universe as I am.  “Unfortunately,” I simper.

“I know where you keep your real clothes.  They’d make a great nest after I tore them into pieces,” Taz snarks.  This time, I choose to ignore him.  Though, I may want to consider putting locks on my drawers.

“Long story,” I tell Zyrene.  “So, your husband didn’t want you to come but he was okay with you coming alone?”  Kallen would be pissed if I didn’t let him come along.  I know this from experience.

Zyrene shakes her head.  “He did not know.  I left while he was asleep.”

“I admit, you tell a good story,” Dagda interrupts.  “Yet, you have said nothing useful to us.  How do we stop Irena?”

“Stop her?” Zyrene echoes.  “You cannot stop her.”

Affronted, I say, “Wait, you came to tell us fighting her is useless?”

“Now, she has some balls,” Taz quips from across the room.

“I do not know of a way to beat Irena.  When my people tricked her in the past, we had the element of surprise on our side.  She would never fall for such a trick again.”

Kallen turns to Dagda.  “Should I put her in a holding cell or bring her back to the village?”

I know my husband.  He would never send her back to the angry mob in the village.  But Zyrene doesn’t know this.  “No,” she begs.  “I may not know how to stop her, but I do know what she seeks.”

Kallen cocks his head to the side and sizes the Siren up.  “Then by all means, tell us what she seeks.”

“Complete annihilation of the Fairy race,” Zyrene says sadly.

I can’t help but laugh.  “How in the world would she manage that if she can only lure males to their death?”

“She has an army.”

“How large is her army?” Dagda asks, taking the Siren more seriously than I am yet.  We already figured Irena would attack when our defenses are cut in half.

“While in captivity, her followers grew.”

I’m confused.  “Are there male Sirens?”

Zyrene smiles.  “No.  Sirens must mate with other races.  But all female children born of these unions are Sirens.  Male offspring are of the race of their sires.”

She is speaking of this as if they are dogs breeding puppies.  Mating, sires, offspring.  Is romance dead in other realms?  “Where did the males come from?” I can’t help but ask.

“When Irena was taken captive, there were many slaves living among the Sirens.  Slaves it was impossible to free.  Once they are under the Siren spell, they are lost forever to their kind.”

“And there isn’t much to do in captivity except build up your army,” I say, filling in the blanks.  “Lovely.”  Another thought hits me.  “So, your husband is your slave?”

Zyrene shakes her head and says adamantly, “No.  I met my husband after I forsook my magic.”  Sure she did.

“Are these slaves warriors?” Kallen asks.  He’s as disgusted by the whole idea of birthing their own army as I am.

Zyrene nods.  “Most of them.  They have trained these centuries and their offspring have trained.  They are loyal to Irena and will die for her if they are called upon to do so.”

How come I don’t have minions?  I could use a few thousand with all the trouble that comes my way.  “Are they loyal simply because they’re under her spell?”

“Some,” Zyrene admits.  “Others, especially the children of these matings, are loyal out of love.”

It seems it would be hard to love a mass murderer.  Then again, back home there are serial killers on death row who get fan mail and sometimes adoring girlfriends and wives.  I will never understand such things.  I am quite content loving someone who is not a psychopath.

“So, her plan is to weaken the Fairy population by killing off half of it and declaring war on the other half,” Dagda sums up.

“Yes.”

“You know a lot about Irena and her clan.  How is this possible if you lived apart from them?” Kallen asks.  Good question.  If Zyrene was supposedly apart from Irena and her minions, how could she know the plan?

“I still have friends among Irena’s clan.”

Which means we still have no idea where the Siren’s loyalty truly lies.  If she has friends and family amongst Irena’s clan, her motives for coming here are certainly suspect.  Another thought hits me.  “Why did you show up in the village?” I ask.  “Why not come directly to the palace?”

A faint blush touches Zyrene’s cheeks.  “I got lost.”

“Lost?”

She nods.  “Yes.  After coming through the passageway, I found myself in the woods.  I did not know which direction to go and I ended up walking in the direction of the village.  I had no idea where the palace was.”

It does seem reasonable she didn’t have a map of the Fairy realm.  “Okay, but you had to know you would not be a welcome sight.”

Again, she nods.  “What choice did I have?  My time to warn you was at a minimum as tonight will mark the third night the others will sing.  You will lose a great many lives unless you can find a way to stop them from reaching the sea.”

“We have that covered,” Kallen growls. 

Zyrene’s eyes open wide in surprise.  “You do?”

Proud of myself, I say, “We have not lost a single soul to Irena as of yet.”  I hope I didn’t just tempt the universe again.

Confused, Zyrene asks, “How is that possible?”

“You let us worry about that,” Dagda informs her curtly.  “Nor do we plan to lose lives tonight.  Irena has no idea what she is up against.”  I can almost hear his brain churning out ideas for preventing war and annihilation at the hands of the Sirens.

“Is there anything more specific you can tell us?” Kallen asks the Siren.

“You are Prince Kallen?”  Kallen nods.  “Then it is you who Irena seeks to satisfy part of her revenge.”  She glances in my direction.  “She wants to weaken you.”

“Old news,” I inform her. 

“May I go home now?” Zyrene asks.

“No,” Kallen and Dagda say at the same time.

“You will remain here until Irena is no longer a threat to this realm,” Dagda informs her.  “You will be given comfortable accommodations in the meantime.”  Lucky her.  I expected him to put her in a cell until he can determine if she’s actually on our side or not.

Not in the least surprised by Dagda’s refusal, Zyrene asks, “Could I at least send word to my husband?”

Dagda’s nod is curt.  “I will ask Queen Arie to relay a brief message in regards to your safety but that is it.”  He’s afraid she will try to send a coded message.  Smart guy my father is.  “I will have someone escort you to your room and you will be kept there under guard.”

Resigned to her fate, Zyrene nods.  “I understand.”  She tries to stand up but her legs will not hold her.  “I am afraid I am still quite weak.  Although I forsook my magic, I am still a nocturnal creature at heart.”

I certainly hope she doesn’t expect Kallen to be her walking taxi service.  “Which room?” I ask Dagda.  “I’ll bring her.”  I get a raised eyebrow from Kallen.  So sue me.  I don’t want my husband exposed any longer than necessary to a Siren.

“No,” Dagda says.  “I will have Naja escort her.  We have things to discuss.  Kallen, send Naja a message.”

Zyrene stares at Kallen.  “Are you telepathic?”

“Only partially,” he answers truthfully.  I don’t miss the relief on Zyrene’s face.  It’s only there for a second but it was definitely there.

We stand in an awkward silence for a few minutes while we wait for Naja.  None of us want to leave the Siren alone.  Who knows what she is capable of doing.  When I have Kallen alone, I need to ask him if there’s a spell to make it seem like someone’s magic is gone.  I know there are cloaking spells, but this would be something more powerful.

“This is tedious,” Taz says.  He waddles to the Siren and begins to sniff her. 

Zyrene shrinks back against the chaise lounge. “Does he bite?” she asks.

Taz snorts.  “Tell her she’s not enough fish to make it worth the effort.”  I am not going to tell her that.  Taz continues to sniff at Zyrene and Felix has joined him.  “Smell that?” Taz asks his brother.

“She smells like putrid seaweed,” Felix remarks, getting closer and taking a big whiff.  He stops and backs up a few feet, teeth bared.  “Forsook her magic, my ass,” he growls.

Uh oh.  “What do you mean?” I ask, trying not to let the building anxiety within me show on my face.

“Circaea,” Felix responds, moving closer to Zyrene with, it appears, every intention of tearing her to shreds. 

“Felix, wait.  Tell me more.”

Reluctantly, the Tasmanian devil stops but his eyes never leave the Siren.  From the fear on Zyrene’s face, she knows she’s in trouble.  “Enchanter’s nightshade.  Sirens can use it to mask their magic so they can walk among other races unnoticed.”

“Um, I didn’t read anything about that.”  If Kegan or Alita did, it seems they would have mentioned it.  “How do you know about it?”

“Because, my Witch Fairy,” he pauses, letting the distaste in his mouth simmer down, “would supply them with it.  Even she could not sense them once the spell began.”

Wow, the other me really sucked ass as a defender of the universe.  “How long does it last?” I ask, ignoring the penetrating gazes of Dagda and Kallen.  They seem to believe if they stare at me hard enough, they’ll be able to understand the conversation.

“Not long.  Only a few hours.”  He and Taz are now on either side of the chaise lounge.  The Siren is not getting up without one of them biting her.  Or worse.  It has been an hour or so since Taz ate anything.  He’s probably starving.

“Xandra,” Kallen grinds out, his patience quickly ebbing.  “What is going on?” 

With my eyes on the Siren, I answer, “The lying Siren is about to become a Tasmanian devil chew toy.”

Kallen swears loudly and with great imagination.  “Does she still have her magic?”

I nod.  “She does.  It’ll be active again soon.”

Dagda’s turn to swear.  “How?” he demands.

“Enchanter’s nightshade.  It can be used in a spell to hide a Siren’s magic for a short period of time.”

Zyrene’s eyes open so wide, her brain is going to start oozing out soon.  “How do you know that?  No one outside of our race knows that.”

I shrug.  “I guess your secret’s out.”

Kallen and Dagda move into flanking positions alongside my Familiars.  “Why did you really come here?” Kallen growls.

While they’re all ganging up on her, my mind is wandering.  I can detect lies.  All kinds of lies.  It makes me feel like I have bugs crawling all over me.  Is this nightshade stuff powerful enough to fool my internal lie detector?  I find that hard to believe.  I think back to what Zyrene said.  She forsook her magic.  Okay, she did that by using the circaea.  She lived apart from Irena’s clan.  Maybe she was lucky enough to escape when they were tricked into imprisonment.  The one sticky point I can figure out is her husband.  She said she met him after she forsook her magic.  Maybe she didn’t mean it literally.  Irena didn’t use her Siren magic on Dagda when she was hot for him.  At least, I don’t think she did. 

“I came to warn you about Irena,” Zyrene is sputtering.  “That is all.”  Okay, now I’m getting the creepy crawlies. 

“Hold on,” I say to my husband and father.  “I think most of what she said was true.”  Zyrene is as shocked as they are at my words.

“Xandra,” Felix growls, “there is powerful magic at work here.  Do not be fooled.”

“Could she detect lies?” I ask him, meaning my doppelganger.

“What?” Zyrene asks in confusion.

I wave her off.  “Not you.”

Felix shakes his head.  “No.”

That power must not have evolved in her yet.  “Then I need to test my theory.”  I move closer to Zyrene making everyone in the room nervous, including her.

“Xandra, what are you doing?” Kallen hisses.  I know he hates it when I don’t explain myself, but I want to see if this works first.

I reach out and grasp Zyrene’s arm.  I can feel the spell now.  It leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  It’s also trying to keep me out of her mind.  I pull magic and push it inside her.  The spell crumbles and I am tearing down a tunnel into her psyche.   Thoughts and ideas and magic are swirling around me as I delve into her mind.  I am vaguely aware of screaming.  I am hurting her by pushing the magic of the nightshade aside but I can’t help that.  It is too important to know why she is here.  Finally, I reach the end of the tunnel and there, in the farthest reaches of her mind, is her deep, dark secret.  She’s not a spy.  She’s a traitor.  Or, at least, she thinks she is.  She is also Irena’s cousin.