13. The Imposter Queen
13. THE IMPOSTER QUEEN
~ ELOWYN ~
Since I’d first come to deep in the Sorumbra, the wound to my heart struggling to heal while I clung to life, I’d taken to slumping slightly so as not to pull on the mending scar. The act was subtle, and I didn’t even notice most of the time, but that night, right then, I made a point to stand tall despite the pain that tugged on the ragged flesh that was still red and raw and too fresh. I threw my shoulders back and faced the slithering wall of umbracs.
As dark as the night, they surrounded us, piling up on each other in their attempts to reach us. Their thick cores, somewhat like those of an octopus, jiggled in readiness, while their many arms vibrated and undulated. In an instant, they could lunge for any one of us, to snag on our flesh and tear us apart—or worse, to inject us with their poison so we’d be immobilized while they shredded us into bite-sized pieces that would slide easily into their toothless maws.
Accepting there likely wasn’t anything he could do now to help his pony Rompa-Romp, Roan temporarily abandoned the search for him and the rest of the horses to join Reed in holding off the umbracs. Reed had quickly started a new fire near Dragon Xeno, and both men were waving flaring torches at the creatures. Between that and my dwindling power, the umbracs hadn’t yet attacked again. Their chittering, for now, was their only assault.
Finnian knelt beside Xeno, assisting in my friend’s healing, while Pru, holding Saffron, stood beside them, observing. I could only hope she’d choose to share some of her goblin secrets to help Xeno, and therefore all of us, get the hell out of here.
I inhaled, exhaled, then called out, “I’m the daughter of Odelia...” Shit . How had I not thought to first ask for a reminder of her full name and title? “Odelia?—”
“Odelia Catalina Corisande,” Roan offered on a rasp.
Relieved at the assist, I repeated, “I’m the daughter of Odelia Catalina Corisande.”
“The first-born child and rightful heir of King Erasmus,” Roan supplied.
“Who is the first-born child and rightful heir of King Erasmus,” I parroted.
“Who is himself descendant of Prince Borromeo.” After each burst of information, Roan paused for me to echo.
“Who is the son of King Spiro, who created a new world, mirror to that of Faerie.”
Xeno groaned loudly as if Finnian were prodding his injuries, but I didn’t look, focused on speaking the words precisely as Roan did.
“The magic and power of Faerie is meant to run through me, not the imposter queen Talisa Zafira Tatiana. Put real emphasis on the ‘me,’ lassie,” Roan said, and I did.
In response, the umbracs chittered louder, restless and unsettled, as if they sensed ... something happening, I just wasn’t sure precisely what.
“The magic of the land of Faerie, mirrored in this world…” Roan offered, “…runs through my blood.”
I swallowed. “Runs through my blood.”
“I wish to further connect with the land and its power, to forever feel it as a part of me.”
Did I really want that? I suspected that kind of connection should come with some pertinent warnings. But what choice did I have? Better to have the tie between us constant so I didn’t have to keep doing this while our lives were threatened.
“I wish to further connect with the land and its power ... to forever feel it as a part of me,” I announced.
“If I’m worthy of the honor,” Roan said in that ultra eloquent way he’d revealed for this purpose alone. I repeated it, but then he hesitated.
I turned to face him. He waggled his mouth to either side as he absently waved his torch at our many enemies.
“What is it?” I asked urgently.
“I’m not sure of how to ask, and I’m figurin’ it’s mighty important to get it right.”
“Oh,” I said lamely. If he didn’t know, I surely didn’t either.
“Maybe I can help, Mistress,” Pru offered from behind me.
I yipped and whirled to face her, mouth already parted to admit I’d neither seen nor sensed her approach—so much for the warrior instincts Zako had tried to drill into me—but decided against it. Even though she’d previously admitted to powers that allowed goblins to blend into their surroundings, I didn’t want to contribute to her feeling invisible.
“Yes, please, Pru. What is it?” I asked instead. “Tell me quickly.” How much longer would the land hang on to my incomplete request?
Dragon Xeno grunted again in pain, causing Saffron to whine in solidarity, but Pru kept her dark eyes pinned up on me. “Prince Saturn tried something like this too.”
All three men glanced our way in surprise.
“He chugged a potion and grabbed a crystal he wore around his neck. Then he called on the land, saying he was its rightful heir like you did, Mistress—only he wasn’t, he just didn’t know it.”
“None of us did,” Roan grumbled.
“Then he said he wanted to do good with the land’s magic. He wanted it to choose him as its steward, that’s what he said.”
“And what happened?” Roan asked her.
Holding my expectant stare, she answered, “He didn’t glow or anything, not like Mistress. But the ground shook a little where he was.”
“And where was he?” Roan asked.
“Out past the gardens, where the queen never goes.”
Roan waved his torch at the restless umbracs, stalked toward the now-roaring fire, where he swapped the burned-down branch for a longer one, then looked toward where Finnian was. The fae was already staring at him.
“Are you thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?” Roan asked him.
“Yes,” Finnian replied. “The queen felt it or found out some other way.”
Roan nodded and, brandishing the new burning branch, with high steps to avoid sinking into the muck, marched around the part of our haphazard circle that Reed’s torch didn’t cover, holding the umbracs at bay.
“And then she killed ‘er son,” Roan said.
I gasped, even though I couldn’t have truly been surprised.
“That’s why she never found the assassin,” Finnian added, leaning over Dragon Xeno with a small pot of something—healing ointment, probably, perhaps even the same he’d used on me when I’d been lanced by arrows.
I sucked in a breath deep enough to push away my disbelief that she could be that heartless, that vindictive, that ambitious as to kill her own flesh and blood. “Okay, so what do I say next, then? That I want to do good, so let me be its steward? Will it matter that I don’t have the crystal or potion?”
Roan shrugged. “With or without props, if it worked for Saturn, you gotta try...”
“I told my granddoody,” Pru said tentatively, softly enough that I could barely make out her words above the incessant chittering and the crackling of the fire.
I dipped forward and smiled, though I didn’t figure there was all that much to smile about. “And what did he say?”
“That Prince Saturn should’ve said he offered himself as a ... a channel for the land’s will to bring through light to ... to overpower the darkness.”
“That sounds like a right smart granddoody ya got there, Pru,” Roan commented.
With a timid smile I’d never seen on her before, she nodded and rubbed her bulbous nose on her upper arm around Saffron, who tried to lick her neck before she pushed him away.
Finnian stood and reached into a pouch hanging from his weapons belt, and while he rummaged for a different ointment, he told me, “Tell the land you wish to be an instrument of light, and that you’re willing to channel its power to bring down the darkness that’s overtaken the mirror world. Tell it you wish to honor the true nature of Faerie and that, if it chooses you as its representative, you’ll do everything in your mortal power to restore a proper balance between light and dark in the mirror world.”
“That should work,” Roan added.
Reed waved his torch in wider arcs than before and warned, “Whatever you’re gonna do, you’d best get to doing it. The umbracs feel extra restless, like they’re about to break loose.”
So, before I could think any of it through or what this kind of commitment might entail, and if I was prepared for whatever ramifications it would deliver, I spoke.
“Dear, land…” What, was I writing a damn letter? I rolled my eyes at my foolishness. “I stand before you”—I hesitated; I also stood on top of it...
“Just keep goin’, lass,” Roan encouraged. “I’d bet the land feels into yer heart more than yer words.”
Right, my broken and pierced heart...
“I desire to right all the wrong in the mirror world. To deliver fairness and wellness to all fae of all kinds and all sizes, and to the shapeshifters and the dragons too”—Pru squeaked, but if I was going to make a deal with a powerful, invisible force that had the potential to bite me in the ass, why wouldn’t I look out for everyone and everything deserving of compassion that I could think of?
“I wish to be your”—I gulped before I could get myself to say the next bit—“your channel of power and of light, to...”
“Defeat the darkness that’s claimed control of the mirror world, especially Embermere,” Roan supplied.
Once more grateful for the help, I echoed.
“I intend to defeat the imposter queen Talisa Zafira Tatiana,” he added, “and to rule in her stead with fairness, care, and the interest of my subjects as my priority.”
My heart thumped in my throat; my pulse suddenly whooshed through my ears loudly enough to drown out the horrid chittering. What was Roan thinking? I had no intention of ruling Embermere! To kill the asshole queen, abso-fucking-lutely. But to become queen in her place? I hadn’t considered my fate beyond surviving the Fae Heir Trials. It was Rush who was to become king.
Rush . What would Rush do in my place?
Immediately, I knew the answer. To save the fae, he’d do whatever it took, sacrifice whatever he must.
“You’re worthy, lassie,” Roan offered gently when it wasn’t that I’d been wondering. Or had it?
Pru scooted closer, but when Saffron reached for me, she backed away. “I’d follow you, Mistress.”
I half-smiled, half-grimaced. “I don’t want anyone following me. I just want to live, that’s it. Well, to live without a queen trying to kill me at every turn and to get the chance to choose what I want for my life.”
“When it’s time for our essences to depart the Etherlands,” Finnian said while bent over Xeno, tending to his patient, “and to incarnate into these bodies, we arrive with a destiny, with a purpose only we can fulfill.”
I snorted nervously. “Sure. That doesn’t mean becoming queen of Embermere is my destiny. Do you hear how crazy that sounds?”
“Destinies often seem ‘crazy’ until they begin fulfilling themselves. Then...”
“Then, what?”
Finnian turned. His face was masked by deep shadows, but I could still make out the way his caramel eyes shone with his intensity.
“Then, they become inevitable.”
I glanced from him, to Roan, Pru, then Reed. “You all can’t be serious?”
“I didn’t understand why we all came on this journey with you, lass,” Roan said, “not till right now. You’re our future queen, and we your?—”
“Friends,” I interjected before he could say something that piled on even more pressure I wasn’t ready for.
“That too.”
“Just say it, Elowyn,” Finnian said. “Reed’s right. The umbracs won’t hold much longer.”
So, despite my apprehension and the nerves and tangible fear tingling through the entirety of my body, I told the land, if it was even listening, “I’ll do whatever’s in my power to fulfill my ... destiny.” I choked on the word a bit. “Whatever it might be. If that means replacing the imposter queen and ruling in her place, then I’ll do it. But if I’m to do any of that, I need you on my side. I need to survive, me and my friends, my allies. I need to be able to, uh, channel your power to accomplish whatever it is I’m meant to do.”
I looked toward the others. The men glanced over their shoulders at me while they tended to their duties, and Pru beamed at me. “I’ll use whatever power you give me only for the light.”
I stared hard at the writhing, chittering monsters who’d devour us in instants if we gave them the chance. “And I’ll only kill when absolutely necessary, I promise. Only to protect myself and those in need of my protection.”
Nothing happened, and I shrugged, still waiting. “Did I do it wrong or something? Did I need the potion or the crystal?”
“Doubtful, lassie, but maybe,” Roan said.
Reed stabbed an encroaching umbrac with his flame. The beast squealed, setting the surrounding umbracs to hissing. Next, he cried out, “We fight as one in the light. We fall divided in the darkness.”
Finnian, Roan, and Pru chorused the chant, so I did as well.
Then the hissing faded into that constant chittering.
First, my skin warmed more, and then its glow shone brightly enough to push back the umbracs. They were sliding down their piles and next slinking away in a slimy mass. They only retreated perhaps twenty feet before they once more climbed atop each other to watch us and wait.
But so long as my glow held, twenty feet was enough to get us—and Xeno—through the rest of the night.