Thaumatology 11 - For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll Read online

  ‘Might as well put on a show.’

  ‘The “whole Lady Ayasha thing”?’ Ophelia asked, stopping again.

  ‘Ayasha travels with her slave, Lilith,’ Ceri explained, settling back on her seat. ‘It was part of our disguise and now, I suppose, it’s part of the legend. Slaves generally travel naked aside from cuffs and a collar, silver ones if the owner can afford them. Lil has a nipple chain to go with the facial one.’

  ‘Right.’ Ophelia started walking again. ‘That’ll make the courtiers sit up and take notice. You don’t mind doing that, Lily? I wouldn’t want you feeling degraded or anything.’

  ‘She thinks it’s great,’ Ceri replied, making sure everyone knew that she was less inclined to like it.

  Everyone had already worked out Lily’s opinion, however. The half-succubus was beaming happily as she took her silver collar out of her bag and began digging around for her cuffs.

  ‘Lil,’ Ceri said, ‘you don’t need to wear them until tomorrow.’

  ‘Yes, but I haven’t worn them for a week. I’m just going to make sure they work.’

  ~~~

  Ophelia was pacing again when Ceri walked back into the room after her bath. Lily followed behind, her long hair wrapped in a towel. The Sidhe had stopped just before they went up, probably because her legs were tired, and had sat down to pick at some food, still looking anxious. At least she had been sitting down.

  She turned on her heel and started back toward them as Michael came through the door. Like the others, he had not bothered dressing since he was quite at home with his body, even if he preferred being furry. Ceri saw Ophelia’s eyes moving, flicking over the werewolf’s body. Her anxious expression made the signs of interest harder to spot, but they were there. Ceri was a little surprised to note that she could actually spot the fae’s pupils dilating.

  ‘You are going to wear a track in this really lovely carpet,’ Ceri commented as she dropped into the loveseat. Lily sat down beside her and, grinning, Ceri turned so that she could rest her legs in Lily’s lap.

  ‘They can afford new carpet,’ Ophelia replied.

  ‘You’re making me nervous.’

  ‘You walked across half the Demon Realm with a naked succubus and defeated a seriously powerful demon lord. You’ll be fine.’

  Ceri sighed. ‘You really need to get some sleep tonight or you’ll be useless tomorrow.’

  ‘I’ll sleep when we get through tomorrow’s trial.’

  ‘When was the last time you got laid?’

  That stopped her. Ophelia turned to look at Ceri, surprise on her face. ‘Three weeks… What the fuck does that have to do with anything?!’

  Ceri ignored her and looked instead at Michael. ‘Would you mind taking her in the other room and screwing her?’

  The werewolf looked over at Ophelia, tilted his head thoughtfully for a second, and then said, ‘No, I wouldn’t mind at all,’ before climbing to his feet and walking purposefully toward her.

  Ophelia held up her hands. ‘Michael? It’s a nice thought, but I really don’t need…!’ Her sentence was stopped as he picked her up, almost in passing, and hoisted her over his shoulder. ‘Hey! Really, no, I mean, I’m too wound up to enjoy it. Ceri! Tell him to put me down!’ Michael pushed the bedroom door open with his free arm, apparently unmoved by Ophelia’s struggles. Actually, she was not struggling that much. Anyway, Ceri was too busy giggling. The door swung shut behind them.

  ‘Okay,’ Ceri said, getting control of her breathing. ‘Ishifa, did you manage to contact the Silvershields.’ There was a thump, as of someone being dropped onto a bed, from the other room, followed by a squeal of mild outrage.

  The fairy pulled her slightly wide-eyed gaze away from the door. ‘Yes. I told Lorien about the attacks and the discord symbol. He hadn’t heard anything about it, but he’ll ask. They haven’t been able to get anything you could call definitive, but he did find out that a group of Wildhorns crossed into the North Lands about a week before the wedding and they seemed to be heading toward the Wintergreen Estates.’

  ‘Morrigan’s Paps you’re big!’ Ceri glanced at the door to the bedroom and giggled again.

  ‘Um… okay, so that means we have evidence that the Wildhorns could have done it. If Lorian was able to find that information, I’d imagine the court knows. Right?’

  ‘Probably,’ Twill agreed. ‘I’d have put them low on the list for something like this though. They generally prefer the direct attack. I agree that Joshia’s death was quite direct, but framing Ophelia…’

  She paused as the Sidhe woman could be heard yelling, ‘Oh fuck yes!’ through the door.

  ‘…framing Ophelia seems far too complex a plan for them.’

  ‘They would know the spells to hide their tracks,’ Ishifa said, ‘but the spell to blank the knife’s history… They wouldn’t have much need for that kind of magic.’

  Ceri frowned, pursing her lips. The sounds in the bedroom had become the rhythmic squeaking of bedsprings and the sound of a woman grunting loudly in time to them. ‘They believe in living in the wilds, behaving like fae used to before all this civilisation, right?’

  ‘Basically, yes,’ Twill agreed.

  ‘And we were attacked by mountain trolls, who should be up in the region the Wildhorns live in.’

  ‘Yes, but they would tend to avoid interaction. Mountain trolls don’t get on well with anyone.’

  ‘Like Sidhe assassins who happen to be wearing jewellery that matches the tattoos the trolls had?’

  ‘Discord,’ Twill said, her voice musing.

  ‘The Wildhorns could have been working with someone else,’ Lily put in. ‘Perhaps the same group as the assassin and the trolls. A new political grouping? I mean, Seelie and Unseelie are basically political viewpoints, right? Politics evolves, new parties develop.’

  ‘Oh… oh… oh…’

  ‘Sounds like she’s nearly there,’ Ceri commented. ‘I thought Seelie and Unseelie were more like… well, sub-species… Though that doesn’t make much sense when I think about it.’

  ‘Oh… Fuck yes!’ It was probably a good thing they were in a tower. Ophelia would definitely have upset the neighbours.

  ‘And there she goes.’

  Twill chuckled. ‘Lily’s right. Seelie and Unseelie are… viewpoints. Certain personalities gravitate toward one or the other, but essentially they are political groupings. The Seelie derived from the Tuatha Dé. The Unseelie have been around longer. They had a more militant faction at one time, the Formori, but they died out centuries ago, much as the Tuatha Dé did.’

  ‘Huh, I’m not too hot on fae history. Most of what I know comes from Irish myth.’

  ‘I picked up a little hanging around the Dubh Linn,’ Lily said. The bedroom door opened and Michael came out, smirking slightly. Lily patted Ceri’s thigh. ‘My turn.’

  Ceri moved her legs, pouting. ‘You’ll be okay?’

  Lily rose to her feet, all smooth grace, and pulled her towel off, handing it to Michael to clean up with. ‘I’m well fed, I’ll be fine. And she’ll sleep like a baby.’

  Michael took Lily’s place, laying the towel in his lap, and Ceri lifted her legs back up. ‘How was she?’

  The werewolf smiled. ‘A gentleman doesn’t tell.’

  The Summer Palace, February 5th

  ‘All stand for King Oberon and Queen Titania.’ None of Ophelia’s party had to stand, they were already up. The call did cut down on the chatter from the rest of the room, which had been amusing Ceri no end. Most of it seemed to be mildly outraged that their human visitor had led Lily into the audience chamber on a chain. Lily was doing her meek, subservient, slave-girl act, which was not exactly an act, but she was putting it on more than usual. The courtiers were, as best Ceri could tell, a little shocked.

  Two figures appeared from behind the twin thrones in the audience chamber as the assembled fae climbed to their feet. The room was roughly egg shaped with chairs for the audience in the broader section under a huge, domed roof,
and the thrones set in the narrower area. The acoustics were probably helpful, and the shape tended to draw attention to the royal couple, though Ceri could not really see why they needed the assistance. These were true High Fae, transcendently beautiful. Your eyes were drawn toward them as soon as they entered the room and you just did not want to look away.

  Both were tall, attractive, physically ideal examples of a Sidhe. Beyond that, however, they were polar opposites. Oberon was dark; dark eyes, inky black, shoulder length, wild hair, slightly dusky skin. He was dressed in a black tunic and tight, black britches, and there was a fairly simple circlet of fairy silver around his head. He would have made an amazing brooding hero in a movie or maybe a comic book. Titania was blonde and pale-skinned. Her hair fell past her shoulders in glowing waves, almost seeming to give off light and wreath her head in an aura. Her dress seemed to be made from flowers with green fronds and pink flowers forming the bodice, and long, green petals forming the ankle-length skirt which shifted around her legs as she walked giving tantalising glimpses of the skin beneath.

  It was glamour. They were projecting an aura of beauty and Ceri knew it. It was almost like the Black Lady who frequented the Dubh Linn in London. You somehow knew she was a beautiful woman, but when you tried to put your finger on what she looked like the details slipped away like water. Oberon and Titania were incredible, beautiful creatures, but if you had tried to describe exactly what made them so gorgeous you would find you could not do it. Ceri could feel the desire coming from Lily over the empathic link they shared, and that just made her own need for these people worse. She needed her head on straight and all she could think about right now was begging to be Oberon’s plaything. Her fist clenched around her staff. It was the silver chain around her ankle that was doing it; fae enchantment which increased her libido.

  She felt Lily step a little closer behind her. ‘God they’re beautiful,’ the half-succubus whispered. ‘You need to… to fight fire with fire.’

  Fire with fire? Fire with dragon fire! Ceri closed her eyes. Not seeing the two Sidhe helped, but she still knew they were there. Pushing down on the urge to prostrate herself before the King, she focussed on herself, her own core, the bridge between the base of her Chakral and Tantric medians which represented the metaphysical connection to her physical body. The Physical Bridge was like a muscle, with strands of white energy twining with bands of silver. The silver was her dragon side, the part which made her a sorceress and represented her draconic heritage.

  ‘Narada Darksun will put forward the case against Ophelia Silvershield.’ The major-domo’s voice rang out again. No preamble, no ceremony; Ceri was a little surprised, but she was busy trying to focus.

  ‘Your Royal Highnesses.’ The voice was presumably Narada’s, though Ceri did not remember hearing him speak the entire time she had been near him. ‘My son, Joshia, was to be wed to Gloriandel Wintergreen on the afternoon of Imbolc. He was found that morning having been stabbed with a black-hilted dagger. Three other fae who were with him were also killed. The dagger was identified as belonging to Ophelia of the House Silvershield and she was arrested and brought before you for judgement.’

  There was a slight pause and then, ‘That is the entirety of your case?’ Oberon’s voice was deep, very masculine. Ceri felt her body reacting to it in a very physical way; she gathered her power and fed herself with it.

  ‘Yes, Highness.’ Narada did not sound particularly happy with the reaction.

  ‘Very well, continue.’

  ‘The Advocate of Ophelia Silvershield will put forward the counter-case.’ The major-domo intoned.

  Ceri opened her eyes; she was ready. She heard the faint gasp from the courtiers as she stepped forward, leading Lily behind her. The desire was still there, but above and beyond it was the power. She had the blood of dragons every bit as royal as these two in her veins and she was not going to give in to basic, human lust. Her skin was iridescent, and she was sure her eyes were glowing blue… and somehow the two figures on the thrones seemed less like the beautiful creatures they had been a few moments earlier.

  ‘Your Royal Highnesses, I am Ceridwyn Brent, known as Lady Ayasha, Overlord of All Demons, daughter of David and Marion Brent, descendent of Brenin and Brenhines, of the line of Gorefguhadget. I have chosen to represent Ophelia Silvershield in this matter.’ Both of the royal fae bowed their heads at the introduction. Ceri returned the slight bow and Ceri got the impression that they were acknowledging an equal. I wonder if he knows how much I’d like to rip his britches off? Collecting her thoughts, she went on.

  ‘Together with her other Advocates, I found Joshia’s body. I investigate supernatural crimes on Earth and have some experience in the matter of murder. If Ophelia committed the crime, she shows remarkable lack of sense. The dagger has been wiped of sympathetic and contagion resonances, there were no traces of anyone else being in the area of the crime scene. We found the bodies by scent.’ She spotted Titania’s eyes flicking toward Michael; they knew he was a werewolf. ‘If someone were going to go to all that trouble to hide their presence, why would they use their own dagger?’

  She took a breath. ‘Beyond that, we’ve had two attempts on our lives while coming here. I would say that might be expected considering the emotive and politically charged nature of the crime Ophelia is accused of, but these attacks were connected and unusual. A squad of mountain trolls attacked us in an open plain, miles from their home territory. It’s unlikely that they would be concerned with the alliance between the Wintergreens and the Darksuns, and I doubt they got incensed over the death of a sprite. Then there was an assassin who committed suicide to avoid questioning. His body is in a cell here now, but he was wearing a pendant which bore the same sigil as the trolls had tattooed on their bodies. Lilith, please present the pendant to the King, if he will allow it?’

  The King nodded, holding out his hand, and Lily stepped forward, almost prowling. Ceri might have managed to submerge her urge to rip Oberon’s clothes off, but Lily was still having trouble. She stepped up the first step of the dais the thrones were set upon, and reached out, dropping the chain into his hand. Ceri gave her chain a little tug and Lily backed up again, not taking her eyes off the beautiful man who was now examining the assassin’s jewellery. His expression darkened and he handed it across to Titania. They knew what it meant.

  Oberon turned back to look at Ceri. ‘You believe that Ophelia Silvershield did not kill Joshia Darksun?’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘You have until the full moon rises in ten days to prove her innocence.’ There was a rumble from the area of the Wintergreens and Darksuns which went silent as the King’s gaze moved toward them. ‘We have spoken in this matter. This court is adjourned.’

  It seemed like that was it. The courtiers waited for the king and queen to leave and then began filing out. All except for one of them, anyway. One man moved out of the throng on the other side of the room, trailed by a couple of people who looked like they were bodyguards rather than anything else. The man had the same sort of look as Oberon; the same dark good looks, the same basic facial structure in many ways, the same black hair, and the same sort of presence. Hot, animalistic, sexuality rolled off him in a torrent, though with this one it felt a little more dangerous than it did with Oberon.

  The unknown man bowed deeply before Ceri. ‘Lady Brent, I am Finvarra. I owe you my freedom and my sanity. It is a great pleasure to make your acquaintance.’

  Ceri returned the bow. ‘It was really Lily who did most of the work on that one. I just got the credit.’

  The Sidhe’s eyes flicked to Lily, standing just behind Ceri with her eyes downcast. ‘I’ve heard it said that Lady Ayasha’s pet is among the most powerful of succubi, but still she is your pet.’

  Behind her, Ceri could almost feel Lily willing her not to mess with the legend. ‘Thank you, Lord.’

  Finvarra flicked the honorific aside dismissively. ‘Tsh! I owe you my life and I’m no one’s lord anymore. I still hol
d some sway in court, however. If I can help in any way, send me word.’ He bowed again, all fluid grace, animal magnetism, and suppressed power.

  Ceri smiled. ‘My thanks to you, Lord Finvarra. We’ll need all the help we can get.’

  ~~~

  ‘So… that’s it?’ Lily asked once they were back in their suite.

  ‘That’s it,’ Ceri replied. ‘And I’m proud of you, by the way.’

  ‘You are?!’

  ‘Uh-huh, I know how much you wanted to rip their clothes off and hump them on their thrones.’

  Lily giggled. ‘I was still acting a little inappropriately.’

  ‘Oh, everyone does that,’ Ophelia commented. She was looking a lot calmer after a good night’s exhausted sleep and being given the chance to prove her innocence. She was actually sitting down for one thing. ‘They’re probably the most beautiful fae alive, though a lot of that is glamour. If you meet them privately they seem more normal.’ She grinned. ‘You probably scored points for keeping your voice level when you spoke to him, Ceri. The light show was impressive too.’

  ‘The light show was there to keep my voice level. Did you see the way they looked at that pendant? They know what it means.’

  Twill gave a nod. ‘I think, if we are going to prove Ophelia isn’t the murderer, it’s vital that we find out about that sigil and the people behind it.’

  ‘Agreed. Ishifa, can you check with Lorian again this evening?’

  The fairy nodded. ‘Of course.’

  ‘Ophelia, any ideas about where we could start looking otherwise?’

  The Sidhe grimaced, looking thoughtful, but it was Twill who spoke. ‘There is the mountain troll angle, and the Wildhorns. Both live in the mountains south of here.’

  ‘Oh great,’ Ophelia said. ‘Troll hunting in the mountains. You know, if I wanted to be used as a sex toy by hulking animals, I could just go and admit my guilt.’

  ‘Hush you,’ Ceri commanded, grinning. ‘Lily’s hungry after meeting Oberon. If you keep complaining you’ll be the sex toy of a succubus.’