Chains and Memory (36 page)

“We have to run,” I said. “Not when we get back. All of us, now, before they expect it.”

Inola's breath hissed between her teeth. “That will only convince them they're right—that the Fiain can't be trusted.”

“We can't
be
trusted if they aren't
willing
to trust.”

The
geas
had bound every wilder to the side of the Seelie, but also to the side of humanity: it had told us to protect them, to be their guardians against the threat of magic and the Unseelie. I'd told Julian that I believed in the goodness of the Fiain, that if the
geas
vanished tomorrow they would still do their duty.

Inola shook her head. “I won't run.”

Agreement echoed from all around us, some a bit swifter than others, but one wilder after another nodding or sending a wordless pulse. They knew they'd be walking into a conflagration. But even without an ancient compulsion driving them forward, they were willing to go.

Call it peer pressure. Call it Fiain honor, and my determination to be worthy of the people I had joined. Whatever it was, I couldn't bring myself to break ranks.

Until Inola gripped my arm and brought me around to face her, heedless of the attention it might draw. “But you aren't wrong. We're going back, but you and Julian—they'll crucify you. The two of you have to run.”

Julian roused from his vigil over Neeya's body. “Where will we go?”

“Better if I don't know,” Inola said.

Because then they couldn't take the knowledge from her mind. I'd said we should flee, but I'd hoped somebody else would suggest where we should flee
to
. The Seelie would be out to get us, the Unseelie couldn't be trusted, and pretty soon there would be a manhunt on through the entire mortal world.

Grayson turned to look at us. Her expression was cool as stone, giving nothing away. I knew what awaited us if Julian and I went back; she couldn't save us from that.

If we ran, whatever lay ahead might be just as bad.

But at least we would have a chance.

I gripped Julian's hand. Harlow, the head SIF agent, finally noticed what was going on; he frowned and started our way. There was no time for anything subtle, no chance to slip away while his back was turned and hope Grayson could persuade him to take the wounded team home to safety instead of pursuing us. The Fiain were linked, and our massed power blazed up like a sun. Harlow acted on instinct, flinging out little matrices that had to be shield triggers; he'd learned them before we came out here, because he wanted to be ready to gut us all if he had to.

But it was too late—had been too late since the moment the knife pierced Neeya's heart. The shield couldn't stop us anymore.

The power flooded into the two of us, Julian and me. In the mortal world this would have been impossible, but we were in the place magic came from, and there was no one here who could match our strength. I focused the power and passed it to Julian, and he wove a circle around the two of us with no sigils or ritual components to help, nothing but raw force of will; the world went nuclear white around us, and we were gone.

Chains and Memory
was funded via Kickstarter, with the assistance of one hundred fifty-three people (including two who chose to donate directly). Some of these backers have chosen to remain anonymous, but I would like to thank the rest of them by name:

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Marie Brennan is an anthropologist and folklorist who shamelessly pillages her academic fields for material. She most recently misapplied her professors' hard work to the Memoirs of Lady Trent (
A Natural History of Dragons
,
The Tropic of Serpents
,
Voyage of the Basilisk
, and
In the Labyrinth of Drakes
). 
She is also the author of the Doppelanger duology of
Warrior
and
Witch
, the 
Onyx Court historical fantasy series (
Midnight Never Come
,
In Ashes Lie
,
A Star Shall Fall
, and
With Fate Conspire
), 
and more than forty short stories.

When she's not obsessing over historical details too minute for anybody but her to care about, she practices shorin-ryu karate and pretends to be other people in role-playing games, which sometimes find their way into her writing.

A second city lies beneath the streets of London: a place of darkness and mystery, intrigue and faerie enchantment.

The Onyx Hall is London's shadow, a subterranean realm that protects its inhabitants from the powers of iron and Christian faith. The mortals above live their brief lives; kings and queens come and go; the fae of London are eternal.

Buy the books!
 

Midnight Never Come

Deeds of Men

In Ashes Lie

A Star Shall Fall

With Fate Conspire

* * *

DOPPELGANGER

When a witch is born, a doppelganger is created. For the witch to master her powers, the twin must be killed. But what happens when the doppelganger survives?

Mirage, a bounty hunter, lives by her wits and lethal fighting skills. She always gets her mark. But her new mission will take her into the shadowy world of witches, where her strength may be no match against magic.

Miryo is a witch who has just failed her initiation test. She now knows that there is someone in the world who looks like her, who is her: Mirage. To control her powers and become a full witch, Miryo has only one choice: to hunt the hunter and destroy her.

Buy the books!
 

Warrior

Witch

* * *

OTHER

Have you ever:

* Held a sword?

* Taken a karate class?

* Punched another person in the face?

Even if your answer is "no," you can still write a good fight scene. In this guide, fantasy novelist Marie Brennan will show you how. Drawing on her experience with fencing, stage combat choreography, Okinawan martial arts, and above all writing, she lays out the components that turn the strikes into a compelling story.

From purpose to tactics to prose,
Writing Fight Scenes
walks you through the anatomy and execution of combat on the page.

Buy
Writing Fight Scenes
 

* * *

Seven tales of supernatural horror . . .

A maiden in a tower. A grandmother in a cottage. A stranger at a ball. None of them are what they seem, in this collection of very brief stories from fantasy author Marie Brennan. The dark forest of fairy tales hides things more perilous than wolves and wicked stepmothers. Are you prepared for what you'll find?

Buy
Monstrous Beauty