Blood of Sirens: Book 13 of The Witch Fairy Series (14 page)

The prisoner is leaning against the cold, dirty wall of the cell.  I am sitting in a comfortable chair on the other side of the clear wall holding him in.  “How many of you are there?” I ask.  The man stares past me like he’s in a daze.  I’m not certain he even knows I’m here talking to him.

“Remember, he is under the Sirens’ spell,” Felix tells me.  “He has most likely been instructed not to talk to anyone who is not of their clan.”

“Is there a way to make him talk?” I ask.

“You won’t like it.”

I think about what Zyrene told us.  Annihilation of the Fairy race.  “Tell me anyway.”

“Pain is the only thing that can temporarily wrest his mind from their control,” Felix says sadly.  He thought his days of dealing with things like this were over.

“Meaning, as soon as he’s not in a lot of pain his mind will go back to being theirs?”

“Correct.”

“He must be in pain already,” I point out.  He and Taz tore some big chunks of skin from the guy.

“It is not enough.  Xandra, I am sorry.”  Felix knows how different I am from his Witch Fairy.  She derived pleasure from these things.  It makes me sick. 

I already tried to use my ability to read deep, dark secrets on the guy.  It didn’t work.  His mind is so consumed by the Sirens’ spell that he really doesn’t have any thoughts of his own.  No thoughts of his own means no secrets.  Can causing him an enormous amount of pain really be enough to lift the spell long enough for him to talk or will I simply be torturing an innocent for no reason.  If he is not acting of his own free will, he technically is an innocent.

“I will do this for you,” Felix says staunchly.  He would, too.

I shake my head.  “No, I will not make you do it.”  I would be no better than his old Witch Fairy if I did.

“It’s not the same,” my new Familiar says.  He has an uncanny ability to read my thoughts.  “I am volunteering.  I have done this before, you have not.”

“You’ve done this specific thing before?”

“No,” he admits.  “But inflicting pain on him will be no different than any other situation in which I’ve done such.”

“Let him do it, you’re too much of a pantywaist,” Taz snarks.  “I’ll help him.”

Though his loyalty is not always as apparent as Felix’s, I know Taz would give his life for mine.  Still, I must do this.  “Thank you, guys, but I can’t ask you to do anything I’m not willing to do myself.”  My decision made, it’s time to get down to it.

I teleport into the cell.  It’s cold and damp on this side of the enclosure.  The Cowan before me is wearing only jeans, his massive chest bare.  Several bite marks are still slowly oozing blood.  I study him for a moment.  How do I go about this?  I’ve hurt people before.  Badly.  Generally, though, it was in the heat of battle.  This is different.  Taking a deep breath, I pull magic.

Within this guy’s brain, there must be memories of his own.  I simply need to clear a path for them.  I hope.  I think back to my anatomy lessons and say a silent thank you to dad for teaching me from a doctor’s perspective and not just a teacher’s.  I know where the long term memory center of the brain is.  I need to attack his temporal lobe.  Closing my eyes, I gather my courage and send my magic out.  I don’t need to open my eyes to know when it hits him. It is reasonable for me to assume the instant he starts screaming my magic has made contact. 

I’ve been inside other’s minds before.  I have an idea of what to expect.  Usually.  This guy’s brain is, for lack of a better word, mushy.  His brain feels like a damp sponge to my magic.  One that has sat in the sink too long and has become mildewed.  I want to pull back it feels so gross.  I may need to give my magic a shower after this.  Still, I keep digging.  He keeps screaming.  I pour more magic into him and force my eyes open.  If I’m going to torture him, I’m going to have the courage to watch him deal with it.  Tears fill my eyes as he presses his hands against his temples and begins begging for it to stop.  His first words. 
Stop, you’re killing me
.

“Stay strong, Xandra,” Felix encourages.  “If he can communicate with you, you are almost there.”

I push harder until it feels like a dam breaks inside the guy’s mind.  Memories flood out.  He was from Persia when it was a thriving country.  A Siren called him to the sea because he was a brutally abusive husband.  Okay, feeling a little less guilty about hurting him, now.  When the Siren laid eyes on him, saw his strength and vigor, she decided to take him as a slave instead of killing him.  She would treat him as he treated his wife.  Okay, there’s some justice in that.  If only he wasn’t being deployed to kill me and everyone I care about I might be on the Siren’s side.

These are old memories, though.  I’m in his long, long term memories.  I need more recent information.  I push away more of the murkiness.  As I get closer to his more recent memories, the guy lashes out.  I’m not expecting it and end up getting knocked on my butt when he sweeps my legs out from under me.  Felix and Taz attack immediately.  This gives me time to right myself and change tactics going after more than just his mind.  I expand my magic, flooding the guy’s body with it until his cries are surely heard as far away as the Giant’s territory. 

“Are you going to behave?” I demand.

“Yes!  Make it stop, just make it stop!”

Unfortunately, I can’t make it stop if I want answers.  “Where are the Siren’s?”

The man’s eyes are closed tight against the pain.  “I don’t know.”

My skin doesn’t have the creepy crawlies so he must not be lying.  “How can you not know?”

“I do not know this land.”  Oh, that makes sense.

“Could you find your way back to them?” I ask.

“No,” he grates out. 

I scowl down at him.  “They didn’t give you a map or anything?” 

“No,” he rasps.  “They will come to us when we have taken the palace and village.”

“So, they sent you on a do or die mission.”  They are some cold hearted bitches.  Then again, I’m the one torturing this guy for information.   I may not be the best person to judge.

“If we are not successful, we do not deserve their love,” the man wheezes. 

Yup, still affected by their spell even with the pain.  “How many of you are there?”

“Thousands.”

“Are they all here now?” 

“Yes.  We came to land yesterday.  We were to wait until many had died.  We sent word back that no one has died and we received the order to attack tonight.”

“You said there are thousands of you.  What realms do you all come from?”  They can’t all be human.

“Everywhere.”

I doubt everywhere.  The realm which still has dinosaurs probably wasn’t on the Siren hit list.  Nor the Dragons as they are not humanoid, but I get his point.  “And you’re all here?  Why couldn’t the Fairies sense the magical beings?”

Felix can answer this one.  “When the Sirens create a slave, they are then blanketed in Siren magic.  Their original magic is stifled.”

Got it.  I hate Sirens.  “When will you be considered successful?  When all the Fairies are dead?”

“All but one.”

He means Kallen.  “Is there anything else you can tell me?”  He shakes his head then cries out at the pain it causes.  I can’t hurt him anymore.  Even if he is here to kill me.  I release him from my magic while simultaneously teleporting me and my Familiars to the safe side of the enclosure.  He caught me unawares twice.  I won’t let it happen again.  Good thing, because as soon as my magic releases him, he comes after me.  He runs into the invisible enclosure and practically knocks himself out.  The pain has definitely roused him from his stupor.

“Princess, the High Chancellor requests your presence,” Sindri says from the doorway of the cell room.  He is eying the Cowan in the enclosure with murder in his eyes.  Huh.  I didn’t know Sindri had it in him to be feral.

“Let’s go,” I say to Dagda’s faithful assistant before he makes good on the threat in his eyes.

“I will arrange for a guard,” Sindri tells me. 

The ferocity in his voice makes me pause a minute to consider if he is a threat to the prisoner.  I can’t tell.  I’m starting to believe, though, the chances of the Cowan making it out of this realm alive are pretty darn slim.

Incredulous, Tana asks, “That is all he said?  That is not new information.”

I shrug.  “He had no more to tell.”

“Maybe I should question him.”

I shake my head.  “Not with that gleam in your eyes.” 

Standing akimbo, she demands, “What gleam?”

“The one which suggests you are considering black magic,” Isla drawls.  She is sitting behind her desk tapping a pencil on a pad of paper.  She must be worried.  Isla never fidgets like that.

Tana sputters a few things but it’s barely intelligible.  She finally says, “Fine.”  She throws herself into a chair and pouts.  Stress does not always bring out the best in her.

“So, no one has tried to get into the palace while I was talking to him?”  I ask Isla.  When Sindri came to get me, I thought it was because a battle was brewing. 

“No,” she says absently.   “No one has triggered a crystal and no one has attempted to gain entrance into the palace.”

“That’s strange.”  The Cowan said there were hundreds of them here.  “Do you think they all went to the village?  I could pop over there and check.”  And make sure Kallen and the rest are okay.

Bringing her full attention back to me, Isla shakes her head.  “No.  They may be waiting for you to leave the palace.”

My face folds into a frown.  “How would they know?  And why did you call me back if there wasn’t anything new going on?”

“They would know,” Tana says from her pouty chair, “because most of them are magical beings and can detect the magic of others.  You are easy to find.”

“She would know,” Taz snarks.  “Each time she tried to kill you she knew right where you were.”

“I called you back because I doubted you would get much information from the Cowan.  You are more valuable here if anything new should occur.”

I sigh heavily.  “So, what?  We sit here and wait to be attacked?  We could go on the defensive,” I suggest.  Just sitting here is already driving me insane.

Isla stares at me a minute.  Finally, she asks, “Can you sense any beings within the Siren magic?”

No, I can’t.  Because they are under an umbrella of Siren magic like the Cowan told me and she knows that.  I put out another idea.  “When Irena was here, I sent out a blanket of magic and it hit her even though I didn’t know exactly where she was.”

Isla considers for a moment and shakes her head.  “That is too dangerous for our people.  Two of the search parties we sent out before your attack have not returned.  We cannot risk them being caught in your magic”

“What?!”  I scramble from my chair.  “We need to find them!”  How can she be sitting there so calmly?

Trying to hide a trace of guilt in her eyes, Isla says, “It was Naja’s group and another led by a skilled warrior.  I trust in their ability to save themselves.”

I groan and fall back into my chair.  I understand her reasoning.  Naja would be pissed if we attempted to save her at the risk of everyone else in the palace.  She is very good at what she does and I would trust her with my life in battle.  She is smart and would know when to fight and when to find cover.  “Okay, but if we don’t hear from her by morning, I’m going to look for her.”

Isla nods.  “I will assist you.”

We sit in uncomfortable silence for several minutes.  It’s surprisingly not my voice that finally can’t take it anymore.  Tana rises from her chair.  “I must do something.”

Giving Isla a sideways glance, I say, “We should probably check the palace.”  Before she can get mad at me for doubting her ability to seal it off, I rush to say, “If they’ve been here all day, they could have entered the palace before the doors were sealed.”

“I will go,” Tana offers. 

“Not alone,” Isla insists.

“I will find Sindri.  He can accompany me.”

“Take Felix with you.  That way if you run into trouble, he can come find us,” I suggest.  Knowing Felix, he would stay and fight but it would still make me feel better if they had some added protection.

Tana inclines her head.  “Excellent suggestion.”  She likes my Familiar and trusts him.

“Are you certain?” Felix asks.  He gives a surreptitious glance in Taz’s direction.

“Like you could do anything to protect her that I couldn’t do,” Taz challenges.

“It’s fine, Felix,” I assure him before he and Taz get into a pissing contest.

“I’ll check on those in the Great Hall,” I tell Isla.  I walk to the door before she has a chance to stop me.  I need to do something, anything to feel like I’m being of use in regards to protecting my realm.

In the Great Hall, Fairies and Mermen are snug in their resting places.  Many of them are snoring away.  I wish I could have their oblivion at the moment.  I walk among them, keeping my eyes open for a Trojan horse.  Ones the Sirens may have sent in to pretend to be asleep and kill the others when they have a chance.  Yes, there have been guards here all night, but…wait.  I stop in my tracks.  Granted, I don’t know all the guards on Dagda’s staff.  I’m pretty sure, though, the guy near the elevator is not one of them.  He has a cap pulled low over his forehead, but there’s a little bit of blonde hair sticking out on the nape of his neck.  No Fairy is blonde. 

He knows the instant I’ve made the discovery.  His eyes grow wide and he scrambles backward.  At first, I prepare myself to be attacked with magic.  I’m not because this is another Cowan.

“They get these guys on discount or something?” Taz snarks as he approaches the human with teeth bared.

When the guy hits the wall behind him, he draws his sword.  Yeah, that’s not going to work for me.  With a burst of magic, the sword goes flying out of the guy’s hand and buries itself to the hilt into the wall.  Oh.  I hope there wasn’t anyone standing on the other side of that wall.  I don’t hear any screaming, so I’ll assume there wasn’t.

“You got trouble back here, too,” Taz informs me. 

I turn to find several other Cowans bearing down on me.  Well, this sucks.  Though, I am going to have quite the sword collection when I’m through.  Several more land in the wall next to the first.  A couple of the guys run to them and try to yank them out to no avail.  If this was all started by King Arthur, the swords that can’t be pulled from their resting places seems fitting.  I doubt any of them are Excalibur, though.

“You gonna play with swords all night are you going to protect yourself?” Taz snarks.  He’d probably say more, but his mouth is now full of some guy’s ankle.

I decide protecting myself is the way to go.  I suspect none of these guys will have anything new to tell me.  The Sirens like to keep their slaves in the dark, apparently.  I run down a list in my mind of what I can do to stop these guys.  I could use extreme violence.  I’m certainly pissed enough.  On the other hand, these guys really aren’t fighting under their own volition.  They’re simply puppets the Sirens play with.  An idea builds in my mind.  Puppet strings can be pulled by different people if you know how.  The spell is coming out of my mouth before I even finish the thought.  “
A Siren’s hold cannot be broken, of their power you are a token.  The power of blood flows through my veins, born of three not to be restrained.  With these wings I evoke the right of higher blood this fateful night.  While the moon sits high in the sky, Siren blood you will not abide.  Until the darkness succumbs to light, you will serve only my delight.” 
Angel light fills the room as the magic of my ancestors explodes from my wings.

“Awk, I’m blind!  They should make you get a license to wield those things!” Taz cries from my feet. 

I know he is not blind, so I don’t worry about his whining.  The guys in front of me?  Yeah, they’re probably blind but I can fix that later.  Right now, I just want them to do one thing.  “Sleep,” I order.  Now under my control, they fall to floor right where they are and go to sleep.  How cool is that?

The spell should have worked all through the palace but I need to be certain.  Taz and I check the offices and discover a random body here and there as confirmation.  We leave them where they are.  I’ll talk to Isla later about what we should do with them.  Right now, I want to make sure there are no other imminent dangers from the Sirens.  We do take their weapons just to be on the safe side.

I run into Tana and explain what happened.  She immediately volunteers to check the archives.  “You can check the rest of the palace.”

I eye her suspiciously.  Is she trying to keep me out of there or is she going to do a little research on her own?  You know, at this point, I don’t care.  If her going evil again is the only way to get rid of the Sirens, so be it. We’ll deal with her later if it happens.  We brought her back from the brink once, we can do it again.  “Fine,” I relent.

“Keep her out of any more trouble,” Felix instructs Taz.

“Bite my butt, newbie.  I know this one better than you.  She’ll do what she wants, when she wants and you can’t stop stupid once it gets going.”

“Thanks for putting me on a pedestal like that,” I say sardonically.

“I notice you aren’t arguing my point,” my lovely Familiar drawls. 

“You know, someday there’s going to be arsenic in your bacon.  And the way you scarf that stuff up, you’ll never even notice.”

“We will let the two of you finish your conversation.  I will be in the archives if you need me,” Tana says and she and Felix walk away.

I give Taz a long, stern look.  Which he completely ignores.  Sighing, I head for the stairs.  “Let’s see what fun awaits us on the second floor.”  Taz patters along behind me.  If I didn’t know better, I would say he actually has my back.