Chapter 10 #2
Finally. All this domesticity was making my stomach clench anyway. Arthur cast a cheery blessing on us as we left the inn and I wasn’t quite sure if he realized my mission was to kill one of his fellow townsfolk. He seemed happy to help, regardless.
The walk down the cliff stairs was even more terrifying in armor. I didn’t glance down, afraid I would teeter right off the edge. It would have been a perfect opportunity for Maggie to kill me if she hadn’t been staring at my ass like she saw through the culet.
Townspeople fled back to their homes when they saw us.
Maggie gave a cheeky wave to that Tuna man.
He turned green at the sight of her. I dragged her forward to walk in front of me.
Vera’s house came into view as we mounted the small rise and I summoned my helm.
Maggie gasped as I settled it on my perfect hair.
The cheek plates, visor and bowl were pure Elvish design but a brace of twisting horns sprung from the top rather than silk or Hippish hair.
Sometimes everyone needed to be reminded I was a Nightmare as well.
The cottage stood dark when we arrived at Vera’s front door. I wasn’t about to knock politely. I would finish this one way or another.
“Come out, mermaid, and meet your reckoning.”
Maggie snorted out a laugh that I ignored. If we started, we were going to end up killing or fucking each other. Today, I needed to take a step closer to my crown.
“I will have the Calix so you might as well bring it out with you,” I called into the morning air.
Banging and crashing sounded in the cottage before Vera ripped the door open, still in a floor-length nightgown. Her white braid swung around to tap her chest as her forward momentum took her to the first step.
“What in the high holy hells are you squawking about–Oh!”
She assessed me slowly and with less fear than I would have liked entered her eyes.
“I'm going to need a shawl for this,” she said.
I looked to Maggie. Godds knew why. She just did some stupid human gesture with both her upright thumbs, settling herself on a nearby stump to watch. We would have words later if that was a curse.
Vera returned with two shawls and the Calix.
There was no mistaking the green gleam of fertility magic across the metal or the wild roses sluggishly twisting to form a guard.
Vines with wicked thorns moved as if they too were waking up as they wrapped around Vera’s forearm.
She took a few experimental swipes with the sword and I held my ground, not at all worried about the powerful blows.
“Ready yourself,” I said.
I wanted to give her a fair shot but I would take her life if there was no other way. I spread my stance for battle, calling the night terror into my hands. My hair whipped behind me and shadows danced across the sand.
Maggie might have been clapping, but it was hard to hear over the magic I called forth. The song of earth and living things poured into my chest. The taste of crushed herbs filled my mouth and my eyes glowed ruby as my Nightmare stirred to life even during the light hours.
“Whoa, whoa. What’s all this then?” Vera held out a hand, shaking her head.
All the magic crashed back to rest.
“I’m here to win the Calix. That’s the test, right? We battle to the death?”
Vera scoffed and produced a mug of tea from somewhere in her shawl, easing herself down into her net-mending spot. Her nightgown fluttered around her.
“I’m an old mermaid. Our last scuffle took it out of me.”
I bristled. Did she think she would automatically win? Old Magic never flagged, never lessened, and it always came with some deep introspective Bakah-bullshit-like lesson.
“Besides, it’s not me you have to impress. It's the Calix. We’ve gotten to know each other pretty well over the centuries and he’s particular now.”
I took off my helm, now suffocating me. “You need me to search my heart, find my true courage or whatever?”
“See, that’s why you’ll never wield him,” the mermaid said.
I looked to Maggie for a little help and she just smiled and did that weird gesture again, which I took to mean, ‘You got this’.
I stomped over to the old woman. If all I had to do was take it from her, I wasn’t above fighting her for it again now that it was in her hands.
Probably. Sweat slicked my palms. No matter what my people thought of me, I was their true leader and I was worthy to wield the Godd object left in our care. Nevermind we lost it. It was ours.
As I reached for it, the vines clung fiercely to the mermaid but I was just as stubborn until my hand passed right through it.
“I don’t understand,” I said, ready to rip out my precious hair.
“It doesn’t bring blessings and fertility to just anyone. Like I said before, it needs to know you’re worthy.”
“I am the King. Of course I’m worthy. Hand it to me.”
Maggie scoffed.
“Not helping,” I snarled at her.
“Take a second to act like a King instead of demanding like a brat.” Maggie snapped back.
Vera appraised her. “See. She does have her head on straight.”
“A brat is someone who doesn't have the power to back up their claims. I most certainly do.”
I called forth a pack of shadow-hounds to run wild through the yard.
Only to find them all milling around Maggie, wagging their feathered tails, until she laughed and scratched behind their ears.
My hands found my hips and I scuffed the scrubby grass until my jaw unclenched.
This was nothing like my plan for regaining my crown.
“Nice parlor trick,” Vera said. “Are you going to summon some black bunnies next?”
I drew my night terror, ready to end this.
Maggie spread her arms, standing between the mermaid and my wrath.
“Take a beat, Nightmare.” She pushed the tip of my sword down. “In Elf-land-”
“Allfenheim,” I said.
“In Allfenheim,” she repeated, holding her hands out. “What would you do to show your own people you were worthy, Noth?”
I stuck my blade in the ground, leaning on it.
“I’m there to ensure the Harrowlands’ problems are only relatively burdensome.
I am worthy because I know what’s best for them and fix true problems for them.
But we don’t have time for me to organize a town bake sale for this ramshackle dot on the map.
I’m on a bit of a schedule to get my territory back from the asshat who usurped my throne. ”
“The Elves named a new King already?” Maggie asked.
“A usurper,” I reiterated.
Her pause was longer than usual for her. “You sure you don’t want him to have it? They did try to kill you.”
I shrugged. That was just part of being on the throne.
“Well, so have you and I still want you. No one is a better King than I. They won’t be able to deny that when I bring the Calix.”
“Then show her, Noth. What would you do for me if I lived here? How would you fix this?” She gestured to the ghost village.
“I would move the heavens and hells to see you safe, happy and prosperous.”
Her smile stopped my heart. Armor or no armor, I almost fell to my knees.
“Then do that, Your Highness,” she said.
The honorific on her lips tasted sweeter than I ever imagined. It sparked the best–worst idea I’d ever had. It wasn’t a romantic gesture, but restoring the harbor for trade and transportation would be the practical, dare I say honorable, way to see Maggie happy and prosperous in Portsgrave Harbor.
I lifted my chin, letting my hair stream out behind me in a black banner.
I felt dumb I hadn't thought of it myself. So eager to get back to my territory, I tried to crash through the solution with force rather than my usual good sense. If this didn’t prove my worth to the Calix, then I didn't deserve to be King.
“Stand back and turn away, Pumpkin.”
She didn’t need to see this. Only my full Nightmare form would accomplish what I had to do.
He sleepily complied with my call, stretching out of my skin, lengthening my jaws, my teeth.
Luckily my armor was flexible enough that it fit him as well because we grew and sprouted into a terrible beast form.
He dotted eyes across our cheeks, blossoming our ears longer than ever.
A thick tail curled around Maggie’s ankle.
“Hey now!” Vera’s voice echoed distantly.
My Nightmare was wholly uninterested in her, or the sword she held.
He just wanted to flex his power in the waking world, in front of his Mate.
I drew the darkness tight until it was tangible, shaping it to my will, swirling it beneath the water.
A waking dream wasn’t useful. I needed access to the place dreams came from.
The dry ale taste of phantasies flooded the back of my tongue.
The ground shook and I steadied our mate with a cage of claws at her back. Her small hand wrapped around one of them and I couldn’t move it after that. She might have let go.
A whirlpool formed in the harbor. My darkness drew in the rocks, debris and shipwrecks the sirens filled the water with.
It was easy to crush it all into the dust of reveries once it passed the portal.
More boulders fell into the void and townspeople left their homes to gather on the pier to watch.
Maggie’s gasp was satisfying enough to flutter the shadows around me.
But daydreams were less powerful than night terrors.
My power wasn’t endless in the daylight.
My Nightmare wanted to play with our mate, scare her into a dark corner to feast on her.
We shifted into the smoke and shadow bunny Vera suggested before I reined him in.
Hopping around, I blinked too many eyes at our mate for her sanity.
She bent down like she would actually touch us but my will was sharper than my strength.
By the time the harbor cleared, I settled back into my Elven form, my tongue pushing my long teeth back into my gums. I shook out the armor so it settled correctly and turned to the women by my side.
“Something like that?” I asked, too pleased to keep it from being smug.
Vera yelped and I looked down to find the Calix in my hand, twining around me, seeking beneath my armor. Power flooded me, searching Maggie’s bond and pinging around my body.
“Noth, won’t the Siren Queen be mad? I assume she closed off the harbor for a reason.” Her voice was little more than a whisper. From fear or awe, I couldn’t tell.
I shrugged. “Let her come for me. Enemies are the price of the crown. See? I always get what I want.”
The Calix glimmered in the sunlight, twisting up some green shoots amongst all that dead growth.
But Maggie wasn’t staring at the Calix. Her eyes appraised me with an emotion I couldn’t name.
Was she wondering if I meant that I would have her too?
Did I? With all this power in my hand, my wants had never conflicted more with my realities.
“Well done, little King,” Vera interrupted as she made her way back into her snug house.
When I turned to her, that expression on Maggie’s face was gone.
“What do we do now?” she asked.
I showed her all my sharp teeth. “Now, Pumpkin, we get revenge.”