Through Time-Slamming (5 page)

The Council Members at the table fidgeted uneasily.

Aaibhe stepped forward and asked, “Say you all?” Her chin was up as she looked at each and every one of them. “Very well, but since
I
called this meeting;
I
…not you…
not any of you
…” She allowed her iridescent eyes to travel over them with great contempt, and the room felt like a frigid zone as she spoke. “You will hear what has befallen the Human World. You will listen because we are in the line of fire, and regardless of whether or not you believe we are responsible for the humans; we are responsible for our World.”

Banzar tried to interrupt him and she withered him with a look. He hated her in that moment and in that moment wished his Queen dead. As soon as the thought entered his head, he attempted to get control and banish it. No, he wasn’t like that. He wasn’t a traitor…

The Queen stood regally as she told them, “You need to know that Pestale, his brothers, and Morrigu have escaped the Dark Realm with an army of Unseelie that outnumber us—
all of us
; Milesians and Seelie Fae alike. What we need at this moment is unity of purpose, not this ludicrous nonsense. This is not the time for politics and I will not tolerate it.” She paused and Banzar felt the Council swaying back toward her.

“Indeed, the Unseelie have already begun to feed on humans as they make their way to the Grampian Mountains. Some of you don’t care, but when they have fed and are more powerful than ever—
then what
? Think about it. Do you think Pestale will be content while we remain in control of the real power? No. He will turn his abominations towards Tir. He will use any and all means to defeat us and take our World.”

“You use scare tactics to hone us in, but this time, Aaibhe, it won’t work. We will have our unity
without
you and we will be done with the situation you have created by this obsession to protect the humans.” Banzar could feel the sudden uncertainty with the buzz of rapid conversation at his back.

“I have not given you permission to use my name, Banzar. Nor shall you ever have that permission,” Aaibhe said with her head held high. “Nor shall I dignify this Council’s insults by answering them. I am your Queen, made so by a power higher than this Council, and I am this Council’s leader. This meeting is over,” said Aaibhe. Her eyes narrowed as she turned to her loyal princes. “Breslyn, Danté…in my chambers.” She called Nuad with their mind link, and picking up the skirt of her glittering silver gown she swept it behind her with a style even Banzar had to admire as she left the Council at her back and shifted to her own suite of rooms in the palace.

Breslyn took a moment before he followed his Queen. His fist hammered the long oak table and he advised the fearful faces before him, “You will live to regret this day’s work.” So saying, he shifted to his Queen’s chambers.

Prince Danté took a moment to level a glare at all the members and then at Banzar in particular. He pointed a finger at the dissenting members, “Fie, all of you complete and utter fools. You don’t have a clue, do you? You stand on the precipice of ruin. The Dark Princes
are here
, do you understand? If it were left to me, I would feed Banzar to their hordes for it is what you deserve. You are no better than Gais. At least he was insane, but you are not. Your cunning ways will be your demise.” He sneered at Banzar, “Damn, I think I should have allowed Breslyn to bury you, you asinine fool.”

~*~

Aaibhe looked up from her pyramided hands as Danté stepped out of his shift into the royal chamber.

He took a stand beside Breslyn whose arms were crossed over his massive chest, his silver eyes were lit with fury.

They waited as the Queen took a turn about her room and then stood before them and asked, “Will we ever be plagued by men who look to further themselves at the cost of their brethren?” She sighed heavily, “We haven’t time the to waste worrying about such nonsense.” Aaibhe’s chin was up, and her eyes were alive with determination. “Our path is very clear. We need to stop the Dark Ones before they do any further damage in the human world.” She put a hand out to her Royal Princes, “I trust my Royals, each and every single one, but there are none more capable than you two, and you must know my doubts and fears.” She looked away and then back at them, “My greatest fear is that their Dark Magic will increase as their army feeds. I am nearly certain of it, and we must do something to slow that process down. Until we can surround them and contain them, we are vulnerable.”

“Never say so,” Breslyn’s face was fixed with his resolution. “This time, we will bleed them, Dark King or not, his sons are going down!”

The Queen regarded him steadily, “We were fortunate that the Dark King forgave the killing of his youngest son, and that he was not his favorite son. The Dark King must not be thwarted in this. With the blink of an eye he can destroy our worlds…” she looked away. “Thank goodness there is Crystal keeping him bound to emotion.”

“What are you saying?” Danté asked calmly but with a touch of irritation. “We are being attacked…and we can’t end this?”

“We can end this by returning them to the Dark Realm where they belong and this time, keeping them there.”

“I don’t like it,” Breslyn answered throwing his arm into the air. “It begs repetition.”

Aaibhe sighed, “Shall we focus first on containing the hordes of abominations they have released in the Human Realm? One step at a time. Sometimes the answers come slowly, but those answers, will light the way.”

Nuad, her Chief Royal Tracker arrived then, she turned to greet him with a nod. There wasn’t time for the amenities and she got right to the point, “Nuad, do you have their exact location?”

“Indeed, my Queen, we do.” He turned to Breslyn and Danté and included them in his sweeping gaze. “Their fortress is heavily protected by wards, but they know nothing if they think that can keep out Seelie Fae.”

“Yes, but when we surround them, it must be more than an act of bluster without merit. We must have the means to contain, capture and imprison,” the Queen said quietly.

“Yes, another matter,” Nuad agreed. “And there is more,” he added grimly.

“What more?”

“It pains me to report that the Dark Princes have already sent their Unseelie castes into the nearby villages and allowed the abominations to feed.”

Breslyn slammed his fist into the wall and cursed in ancient Danu. Danté took a step towards Nuad and said softly, “Women and children…?”

“Not one left, only the bones remain.”

The Queen closed her eyes
.

This hurt her in the depth of her being, the Daoine Fae that she was, for a Daoine is one with the Earth.

It had been her sacred duty to keep the prison walls of the Dark Realm intact. Those walls had been compromised when the Seelie Fae had come to Ireland’s lovely shores. She instilled the Druids with magic. Her Druids had been loyal to her and to their duty for thousands of years. They recited the magical chants that had helped to maintain the prison wall in place and the Unseelie bound within to their Dark Realm.

How had it all fallen apart? The Dark King would not accept the total destruction of his monsters. They were his creations, and even as evolved as he had become, she knew what his retaliation would be…

She had for that reason allowed Pestale to live when the Dark King appeared and asked her for his return. He had promised to keep him contained and thought by making his First Prince drink from the Cauldron that all would be well. He had not foreseen what Hordly had managed to do. He had not bothered to watch over the Princes and keep up his part of their deal.

She should have allowed Trevor to destroy Pestale when they had the chance. She should have taken that opportunity and faced the Dark King with it, perhaps he would have…but no, the consequences would have been dire.

And now the price of that decision would have to be paid. Perhaps, Banzar was correct and her time for ruling was over?

If only she had the original magic threads to keep those prison walls intact. If only Queen Bridget had left her the secret of the binding of the walls.

With a sudden decision she regarded her Princes and they shifted, arriving just outside Morrigu’s castle walls.

A moment later Pestale, and his brother Hordly stood before them.

Pestale crossed his arms and asked, “Ah, have you come to beg?”

~*~

Trevor with Jazz’s hand tucked into his own shifted to the Council Chambers, but it was empty.

“What is this?” he said out loud with an accompanying frown. Then without another word he shifted them to the Queen’s private chamber and knocked before entering.

No answer.

“They are not within.”

“Where then? And where is Frankie?”

A joyous and welcome voice at her back screeched out her name, “Jazz…Jazz…”

Jazz turned to find a twelve year old girl whose auburn hair bounced around her youthful, but lovely features diving at her. She was hugged with a fierceness that gladdened Jazz’s heart and she dropped a kiss on the top of Frankie’s head, “Hi, honey, how ya doing?” And then she looked her over and laughed. “Leather huh, they got you in leathers.”

Frankie stood back with a proud smile and waved a hand over her dark blue leather jacket with a black insignia at her left shoulder. Beneath the jacket a white T showed, and her matching leather pants made Jazz’s brow go up.

Frankie said “I match ye. I chose the colors of Lugh, for Trevor’s House.” She reached for Jazz once again, and held onto her like she would never let go. Finally the child put her face up to look sorrowfully at Jazz and said, “Oh, Jazz I have missed ye and now everything is all upside down. The Queen has gone off with Breslyn and Danté, and I’m worried. I’m not stupid and I know that things are going badly for the humans.”

Jazz looked past Frankie to find Ete and Radzia coming towards them. She had met them briefly but she liked them a great deal. She could tell by the grim expressions on their faces that Frankie was right on the mark. Things were not good.

Z came up and touched Frankie’s shoulder, “Hey, kid, was my company so bad?”

Frankie turned to her and grinned as she said with her pretty Irish lilt and tilted her head, “I love ye Z, but ye do understand, don’t ye?”

Z laughed and said, “Sure do.” She nodded at Jazz and looked at Trev. “Glad you found this little one because she sure is special.” She shook her head then and said, “This is not like before. You might as well know right up front, we will have a rare time with the Dark Fae this time…plus…” she looked at Ete and waited for her to offer more.

Ete said softly, “Some of the Council members attempted to stage a coup of sorts. They failed this time, but we do not have any doubt that they will try again.” Ete made a face and continued, “Their timing is of course, madly absurd.” We don’t have a moment to spare and they are distracting the other members with their brand of nonsense. I am inclined to think that Banzar is every bit as dangerous as Gais ever was; perhaps more so. He uses diplomacy and false arguments and charms. Those who will listen, believe that what he is giving them is truth.”

Trevor shook his head and turned away as he took this in. Seeing Frankie’s worried expression, he held out his arms and said, “What about me, little Fios? Got a hug for me?”

She threw herself wildly at him and while he held her he looked at his sister-in-law, Radzia, and asked, “Where has the Queen gone off to, Radzia?”

“That’s just it--we don’t have a clue, Trev, just off without a word to us. We were waiting for them outside the Council chamber,” she grinned wickedly and pushed her black hair away from her face. “But we did listen to every single word being said inside that room. Ete is a Council member, but the Queen asked her to remain with me. It was as though she knew what was going to happen, I suppose she thought if we were inside it would break out into…” Z grinned, “A brawl.” She shrugged. “All at once, the members came filing out and said the Queen touched Breslyn and Danté and shifted off. No one knows where they went. We just assumed they had come to her chambers.”

“Use your mind link, Z,” Trev commanded.

“Don’t you think I tried that already? Both Ete and I have both tried, but our guys have it shut down for some reason.”

“I don’t like this,” Trevor said.

“What about the Orb,” Jazz suggested quietly.

“I can’t. It has already returned to the Queen’s chamber. It won’t respond to me without her command,” he answered grimly.

“No, not the Orb of Time, the Lugh Orb,” Jazz countered with a soft smile.

“Ha-ha, our Jazmine Decker has a brain,” beamed Z, turning to Ete. “What do ya think?”

“What I think, is that we should wait before we try and track them. If the Queen wished us to know what she was planning or where they were going, she would not have asked them to turn off their mind links to us.”

Z sighed heavily, “Ete, why do you always have to make such sense? It is so damned annoying.”

Ete laughed and hugged her, “I have had centuries of compensating for my dear friend Aida’s wildness, which reminds me. Breslyn asked me to find his sister and position her and her mate, Desmond, at Killarney with Shee Willow and Shane. They will need to protect the inhabitants of their village if the Unseelie attack there next. For some reason the Queen believes they will target Killarney next.”