The Toll (80 page)

“
Lachesis?” Clothos asked
quietly, canting her head questioningly.

Clothos and Lachesis knew of Bo and
Atropos’ indiscretion, and they knew of Atropos’ choices. She was
not allowed to keep the babe if she wanted her to be immortal, but
could give the child inherent powers, though masked as Other’s, so
as not to draw suspicion, and if she’d wanted to remember, Bo would
have to forget. If not, the price for acting on her lustful
indiscretion, and keeping her lover in the know, was her sight. If
they had kept on the path they’d been headed originally, things
would only have gotten worse.

Choosing the path she had,
all parties had benefited from the decision, the other two none the
worse for wear, but as her gaze returned to that sturdy oak, her
lover’s temporary holding, she had to wonder,
was it?

“
Forgive me. I am bitter.”
Letting out a long sigh, Lachesis took a deep breath. The humming
started up again, followed by the swaying, and Atropos and Clothos
grimaced.

Just when they were getting ready to
close everything up, Lachesis held out a hand. Clothos and Atropos
waited.

Taking the bag and tossing a small
silver wristlet from the folds of her cape in after him, Lachesis
beamed proudly when she heard it clink and thunk, sliding down his
prone form, staring down where she assumed he’d be. “May you not
lose your britches ‘round your ankles! Here, for your
mate!”

Wiping their hands off as Clothos
quickly sewed the seam shut, Lachesis pricked her thumb to smear a
length of deep, dark blue blood along the seam, then they all
rushed back to their cloaks, tossing them on to wait.

“
How long ‘til he wakes, do
you think?” Clothos murmured quietly, lips twitching at her
sister’s odd ramblings.

‘
Long as it
takes’
, Atropos signed. She bore no ill
will how things would turn out for Wind. He would find someone on
Hearthe, fate willing, and find some small measure of happiness,
she hoped.

Lachesis was right, and she knew it.
The alotter never spoke lightly of such things.

She hoped Bo might find his way back
to Hegtrag someday, though, to claim the daughter he never knew was
his. Her chest started to tighten again, but she fought back the
hurt.

Tapping her chin in thought, Lachesis’
face scrunched up and she murmured, “When does man have cars
again?”

Frowning, Clothos blinked a few times
and stared at her sister, “Never on this plane of existence, why?
That is another dimension, another world entirely. We sent him to
Hearthe not Earth, sister.”

‘
Hearthe. The one that
portals from the other end of Underhill, opposite Hegtrag’, Atropos
signed.

“
Whoops!” Grinning
sheepishly, Lachesis shrugged. “Hearthe, Earth. Guess we’ll see him
on the, uh, the flips side.” Then she giggled hysterically while
Atropos grunted, froze, shoulders slumping, and slowly shook her
head.

Clothos’ eyes widened and she opened
her mouth to speak, but the clearing buzzed with the rumbling of
the ground, rocks, dirt and moss trembling beneath their
feet.

“
Earth!” Snatching up their
hoods, they donned them and raced back.

They almost didn’t make it back in
time for Gaia’s dramatic entrance, Clothos grimacing as she tried
to catch her breath. “We’re getting too old for this.”

Ground rumbling, splitting as a crater
opened wide, rocks and grass tumbling in, Mother Nature rose up
from the gaping maw in the ground, dirt rolling off of her smoothly
as she stepped out and shook herself off.

The Fates watched avidly as the ground
slowly closed behind her, grass and small patches of clover popping
up.

Holding a hand out, Gaia shook her
head, stopping several yards away. “I know the corners are at an
end,” she murmured sadly, gaze dipping before she forced it to meet
the three hooded figures before her, “and my time, as well, but...
but I would ask that you let me stay, here, on this plane, as...”
she looked positively sick as she forced the words through dry
lips, “a mortal, a human, so that I may look after the one called
Brevin.”

“
Look after him?” Lachesis
mused, a knowing smile titling her lips. “Is that what you wish to
do?”

Intrigued, the other sisters
waited.

Frowning at the Fate’s odd wording,
she nodded somberly. “Yes, that is what I wish to do.” Slipping her
earrings from her ears—her medallion—her tether to her Earth
magicks, Zeme held them out and waited.

Hands behind her back, Clothos
motioned that she come forward.

“
You will have to take a
human form,” Lachesis informed her warningly, gesturing to her
person. “Is this one acceptable to you?”

Hands encircling her waist
protectively, she nodded vigorously. “This is my true form. I would
like that it be no other, human or not. If I cannot... well, then I
would choose that of my glamour, Adamina. The boy is familiar with
that one.”

“
Is he now?” Smiling so
wide her eyes crinkled at the corners, Lachesis’ hands formed a
steeple as she brought them to her lips.

Blinking as her eyes darted from one
hooded figure to another suspiciously as the two on the ends each
let out a collective, “Oh,” followed by a knowing nod, her lips
pursed. “Yes. I would think he’d be more comfortable that
way.”

Clucking her tongue, Lachesis tapped
the tips of her index fingers on her small, bowed lips several
times thoughtfully as she nodded her head slowly.
“Excellent.”

Zeme failed to grasp the double
conversations going on. “Then, my glamour would be more
appropriate, you think?” she mumbled uncertainly, soft brown brows
pulling down.

“
Oh, no,” Lachesis chirped
excitedly, “he thinks of her like one would a staid aunt, or
annoying neighbor lady, and that would never do!”

Zeme’s face scrunched up as Lachesis
gripped her fingertips, yanking her hand towards her, the earrings
still sitting in her palm. “It wouldn’t?”

“
Of course not! No,”
Lachesis’ head shook, the folds of her cape rippling along with
her, “that would never do.” The golden caped Fate chuckled as if
the Elemental had just said the silliest thing ever. Motioning that
Atropos do the honors, she smiled happily.

As the needle arced down, about to
pierce the raggedly cut agate, Lachesis jerked Gaia’s hand hard,
the needle piercing straight through her flesh. “How would he mate
with you if he thought you an old crone?” the crazed Fate cried
happily. “No, that would never do. Don’t worry, by the time you’ve
found each other, you’ll both be of age!”

“
What!? I don’t want to
mat-
Ahhh!”

As Earth yanked her hand back,
screaming as blood streamed freely from her wound, she ripped the
needle out, tossing it to the ground. “What have you done?” she
cried, cradling her hand to her chest. Blood seeped her beautiful
gown, staining it with crimson and liquid silver.

“
I’ve helped you.” Without
an ounce of remorse, Lachesis held the earrings that fell into her
palm out to Atropos. “Finish it please, so that she may be
reborn.”

“
REBORN?” Earth bellowed,
rage lighting her features as her powers bled into the ground. “You
think I wish to be reborn?” she spat. It was already too late, and
as the needle pierced the first earring, she crumbled right before
their eyes, literally, her screech lost on the wind as her soul
shot from her, flying off to its new body.

“
Mmm. Always liked Earth,”
Clothos remarked absently, bare toe nudging the small pile of dust
left behind.

“
The world or the
Elemental?” Lachesis giggled, chortling merrily.

“
I hate when you’re like
this,” the spinner muttered, shaking her head. “Makes me want to
brain you.”

Stilling, gasping as if struck,
Lachesis whispered, “He comes.”

Seeing the ball of licking flames, far
up in the sky as it came barreling towards them, Hephaestus needed
no introduction.

Lachesis’ hum started up again, eyes
shutting tight beneath her hood, but it faltered as the giant
Elemental scorched a long path across the earth, tumbling as he
rolled to stand, shooting up to his full height, lumbering towards
them with an uneven gait.

Phaestus, eyes stormy and bleeding
red, licking with fire, thick chest heaving as he strode towards
them, the metallic clink of his leg clanking loudly, stopping just
before them, eyed each of them warily.

“
Ladies Fate,” he murmured
quietly, bending down on one knee, head bowed, and waited. His
mechanical leg hissed as it creaked, bending to its creators will,
thumping heavily on the cold, dirt ground.

All humor fled Lachesis and she
stepped forward, shoulders tense.

When nothing happened and no one
spoke, Fire’s eyes fixed on her exposed, pale toes, Clothos began
to fidget in place, gaze darting between her sister and the
Elemental, then Atropos questioningly.

Normally nothing slipped past the
sisters three, they were one, attuned, and shared in all things,
but something was going on here, something that had the hair along
the bookend siblings’ napes standing on end.

“
She doesn’t look like
you,” Phaestus murmured quietly, squeezing his eyes shut tight as
he waited.

“
I know,” the for once
somber, golden caped Fate agreed, a sadness in her voice that tore
at Fire’s insides.

“
Did you know what would...
when we...” swallowing hard, his gaze tipped up to meet hers, her
eyes still closed as she boldly walked right up to him, so close
they were almost touching, brushing her hand softly over the thick,
unruly mass of crimson locks across his scalp.

Nuzzling into her palm, the Elemental
shocked everyone, yanking the Fate to him in a steely grip, thick
arms banding around her waist tight as he buried his face in her
stomach. “They didn’t know,” he blurted. “They think they lost the
gift of sight from Niniane’s misdeeds. I didn’t correct them.
Couldn’t.”

“
I know,” Lachesis
whispered hoarsely.

“
You think me less,
Chesis?” Phaestus deep voice rumbled.

“
No less than you think of
me for what I’ve done.”

Fire’s face hardened and he snarled,
“Your will is not your own! You have no more control over it than
they do!”

“
Don’t I?” she whispered,
full herself, haunted.

Clothos and Atropos eyes widened as
they stared at each other, Clothos nodding when Atropos held
something up only her sister could see, both of them tensing as
they turned to listen.

“
We tempted fate once, my
love,” she called quietly, emotion thick, lumping in her throat, “I
do not wish to do it again?”

Head shooting up, Fire’s eyes widened.
“Chesis...”

Gaining his feet, he cupped her chin,
yanking her hood off to gaze into the eyes of the woman he’d fallen
so completely in love with some many eons ago, gave up his leg for,
his sight, his only temptation—his love.

Starting to hum again as emotion
clogged her throat, Fire dropped his hands, gripping her shoulders
hard enough to bruise her, and gave her small frame a good shake.
“Don’t you give over, Chesis! Don’t you dare! Come back, now!” The
growl in his voice brought her back as he glared down into her
closed off expression. “And dammit, look at me!”

Lips trembling, Lachesis hiccuped, “I
can’t.” Opening her eyes slowly, glazed over and completely white,
unseeing as her lover gazed down at her, heart in his throat, her
fingers reached out to him, clutching at his bared chest. “The
corners lost the gift of sight, my fiery one, when you took on my
punishment for our forbidden child, but I lost mine, to keep the
monster that hurt her leashed.”

Clothos and Atropos had no idea of any
of this. They’d known Lachesis had lost her vision, just not how.
The quietest at times, when in her own mind, she would speak not a
word of it. And Phedaenya, their child? They hadn’t a
clue.

Dipping low, Phaestus pressed his
forehead to hers, rumbling quietly, “We were not to intervene, or I
would have done much worse than anything you could have thought
up.”

“
We punished her, you know,
by giving her over to them. We were wrong, thinking her in better
hands with mortals. They’d no idea the gem they possessed, and I’d
already intervened once, I was not given the freedom to...
Barred... I was not given a chance to choose to, if I so wished it,
until later, until... after she’d spelled her curse.”

“
And that is why we could
no longer interfere,” Phaestus muttered quietly, anger seeping into
every low spoken word.

“
She is gem to an
Ornthren,” Lachesis said after a long moment, “he values her above
all. I do not regret turning a blind eye to Atropos’ and Niniane’s
plotting, and I know you’d meant well when you’d reluctantly agreed
to go along. How could you have known?”

Atropos eyes widened, but she held her
silent tongue.

“
Do not hate me so too,”
Lachesis begged of Death, head craning to gaze in her direction,
“free will reigns over all, and I am left to watch as you choose
your path. I am forever grateful, though, as much as it is worth to
you.”