Gears of Fate, page 18
part #1 of Forgotten Gods Series
“You got what you wanted,” I whimpered. “Please give me my sister back.”
“Oh, but she’s having so much fun,” Mob said. She waved her hand at a nearby mirror and the glass fogged over. The reflection shifted, and through the haze, a clear image of Alice appeared sitting in a lush garden with flowers in her hair. A creature sat next to her, the same creature I saw outside my house. A giant with skin like bark and limbs made of tree branches. Leaves grew from his head instead of hair, and crooked bark teeth overlapped his mouth. My heart nearly stopped as his huge hands reached for her. She laughed and leaped into his reaching arms. The beast hugged her tight while Alice giggled. A different kind of sensation weighed on me as the glee sparkled in her eyes, a happiness I’ve never seen before.
“Where is she?” I asked.
“In my garden with her friend, another pet of mine. Dryad… that’s his name, I think. Never got around to naming him something proper. Couldn’t be bothered really. Anyway, no need to worry. She is in good hands.”
“Seneca is gone and you’re awake! Just let us go,” I begged.
“Seneca was a nuisance. An effort that took up too much of my son’s time. She may have been the original plan. Until he realized there would be a more convenient method.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We found Alice, and I need her for one more thing.”
Chapter Nineteen
She gave me no other explanation before demanding I be carted off to the dungeon. I spent hours sitting alone in a cell that must have been meant to cage dogs. I tried to close my eyes and save my strength, but I couldn’t stop thinking of how happy Alice looked, and what Mob said about her. Why did she want her? My back ached with pain and my bones stiffened within the cramped space. I tried to sit up, but the low ceiling meant I had to be in a constant hunch. I couldn’t lay down either because the length of the cage barely gave me enough room to spread my legs. Similar prisons lined the walls on either side. Even though other prisoners whispered in hushed tones and cried out in pain, all the nearest cages were empty. I spent the first couple of hours trying to force the door open. I knew it was impossible, but out of sheer stubbornness, I tried to pry the bars open with my bare hands, hoping maybe I could summon some emergency strength from the depths of my soul.
I don’t know how much time passed until someone came to see me. A woman approached, her motions fluid and graceful. She wore a cloak around her shoulders, hood pulled low over her face. Soft brown hair fell out from underneath. I caught glimpses of her tan skin as she scanned the dungeon. The sight of the food she had with her made my stomach rumble. Once she made eye contact, she hurried over to me.
A soft whisper escaped her lips. “By the gods… you must eat and gather your strength.” She pushed the plate of bread and cheese into the cell.
“Since when do Fey care about my health?” I wanted to hate the woman, just because. But the food made it hard. I bit into a piece of bread.
“I’m no Fey,” she said.
I stopped eating and looked at her questioningly. She pulled back her hood and let it fall to her shoulders. I dropped the bread and cheese. I’m certain my mouth hung open as I looked into those eyes. The same pained eyes she had when she walked away six years ago.”
“Mom?” I asked. The word felt alien to my lips. I never thought I would use that word again.
Her eyes welled up with water as she rushed toward the cage and reached for my hands. I let her take them, more out of shock than anything else, but I relished the feel of her skin against mine.
“Zak. I’ve missed you so much. I can’t believe this―I thought I’d never see you again.”
“Because you left, you left us… you left me. Why did you leave?”
“I had to; I never wanted to leave you and Alice. But it was for her own good.”
“What are you talking about?” I pulled away. “What is going on? Why are you here?”
“There is so much to explain.” She thought for a moment. “We don’t have time though.”
“Way I see it is we have all the time in the world, unless you have a key to this cage. Even if you did, I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on. Rust, Mom, you can’t just show up without any explanation.”
“Okay, okay. Just listen and don’t ask any questions until I’m done. I have a lot to say and not much time.”
“So stop wasting it and get on with it.”
“You were so young when I left, but do you know what I used to do?”
“Scavenge.”
“Right, I was a scavenger. I was a damn good one too. I made a lot of money and had quite the reputation. Olympians sought me out for plenty of expeditions. I was very committed to the job. I had ambition and a passion for it… I feel horrible saying it, but my job came before my family way more than it should have. Your father didn’t take well to that. He felt like he should be able to support us on his own while I should have been home taking care of the house and family. I just didn’t have that in me. I wasn’t that type of person. I needed excitement and adventure.”
“So you chose adventure over me?”
“No! Not at all. I loved you so much it hurt, Zak. You were the world to me, and the only thing that kept me coming back. It reached a point with your father where we had nothing left, no love, no desire. But I refused to leave you. So I always came home. On one of my last expeditions, I led a group of scavengers to the outskirts of the Seelie Court. On that day, Oberon was out hunting wild Redcaps. We stumbled upon each other by mere luck. I was taken aback by his charm and looks, and oddly enough, he seemed to be just as smitten with me.”
“He glamoured you?” I asked hopefully.
“No. I was intrigued. We spent a lot of time together him and I. We were friends at first. I visited him more and more on my expeditions. Soon I would go even when there wasn’t a job. By the time we became… lovers… I decided that I needed to make a choice: either stay in the Seelie Court or go back to Olympus for good. The choice was already made. I was pregnant.”
“Alice…”
“She’s not your father’s.”
The world came tumbling down.
“I knew what it would mean for my baby to be a bastard child of Oberon. It was nothing good. Especially if Queen Titanya were to find out. She would no doubt torment my child to no end.”
“Weren’t you the least bit worried what the Queen would do when she found out you were messing with her husband?”
My mother smiled. “Like I said, at that time, I had an unquenchable thirst for adventure. I never thought sensibly. It might have been my nature or the call of the Fey. I didn’t once fear for my safety. But when I knew my child was at risk, my whole perspective changed. I needed to get away and never return. So I went back home… to your father. I told him I was pregnant and would quit the business for good. He was surprised at first; he acted like he wanted me to think about it. But I knew he was really pleased with my decision. I feared though that he would always suspect Alice was not his. The timing just didn’t work out. She looks nothing like him either. If he knew, he never let on. So we lived in a house of lies.
“Soon after Alice was born, I received a message from Oberon. He knew of his daughter and he wanted her, for what purpose I dread to even consider. I couldn’t let her be taken, so I made a choice. I walked away from my family and came back here. I begged Oberon to leave Alice alone. I promised myself to him in exchange for her. His anger was so great he claimed to no longer love me. But a bastard child had no place in his court, so he agreed to my terms, if only to see me suffer. I was made a personal servant to the Queen. By then, she had already learned of our indiscretions. She did not make my life easy.”
“All this because you wanted a little adventure?” I didn’t know if I was angry or hurt, most of all, I didn’t know if I should hate her or feel so incredibly sorry for her.
She looked away, trying to avoid my eyes, her hands squeezed around the bars of my cell. “Yes. I’ve made too many mistakes, mistakes that have put you all in danger… you will never know how sorry I am. How much I think about what I should have done. Not a day goes by that I don’t regret losing you.”
It all seemed so sincere, the child in me wanted to believe everything she said, but I just wasn’t ready to accept her apology. “That’s what Mob meant when she said that she used Seneca to find Alice. Alice has Rose blood in her. They used Alice to raise Mob! We were always too late.”
“All it took was a prick of her finger, a drop of blood to unlock the seals that kept Mob bound in her prison.”
“What will she do?”
“Next she’ll awaken the Iron Dragon. We have to stop them or Mob will crush Olympus.”
“Can you get me out of here?”
“Yes, I think so. I can’t risk it until later tonight. I have an ally close to Mob. I just had to see you and make sure you were okay… to tell you to hold on…”
I took a deep breath and made a choice of my own. I put my hands on hers and the warmth of my touch seemed to give her strength. She looked up into my eyes and let a smile spread across her lips. I gave her a smile in return. It felt so good to be with her again. I would have to let everything else be a problem for later. “Okay, I’ll wait for you. We are all going home tonight. Even if I have to rip this piece of rust place apart piece by piece.”
When she left, I cried. My sobs added to the echoes of the dungeon, probably lost amongst the sounds of so many others suffering. I didn’t know if I cried tears of joy for finding my mother again, or because everything that’s happened in our lives made me so sad and angry. Alice and I suffered because of our parents. Issues they had and they couldn’t get their rust together. We were the victims. Alice didn’t even know who her father truly was!
I punched at the wall, letting the sting of pain run its course through my body. I punched until my knuckles swelled raw and tender, throbbing as blood trickled down my hand, Olympian blood made up of far different things than Alice’s. I thought back to the things she would see, her imagination that drove her crazy and one day made her stop talking. She could see the Fey. For so many years, she saw creatures that no one believed her about, creatures that horrified her into silence. All because my mother didn’t stick around to explain things. Even I had refused to believe her stories. She must have felt so utterly cogged.
I felt like I should have hated my mother. I couldn’t. Just thinking about seeing her again filled me with excitement. I have to admit I couldn’t stop thinking how things would change when we got home. With Mom and Alice in tow, we would go about rebuilding our lives. Surely, Mom would singlehandedly slap some sense into my father and make things right. Then we would move somewhere, somewhere far from The Fringe and start over. Somewhere safe from the Fey… I felt stupid and naïve like a little child. A happy ending seemed impossible. But I would try my hardest to find one, if not for me, for Alice.
My mother came back later that night with someone else. Dryad crouched down behind her. He smelled of grass and flowers probably from playing with my sister. He looked fiercely dangerous, but something about him seemed soft and loving, maybe because of the way my sister smiled in his arms made me feel I could trust him. But that same image also made me very jealous of him.
“What’s that thing doing here?” I asked.
“Zak, Dryad isn’t a thing, he’s a forest spirit… and he’s been protecting Alice for me. He used to be Mob’s personal pet.” She reached up and scratched behind Dryad’s ear. “But all he needed was a little love and tender care.”
“Right, kind of like your kids?” I felt bad about the jab as soon as I’d said it. The hurt in my mom’s eyes made me feel horrible. But she didn’t give me time to apologize.
“Dryad, open the cell door please.” She took a step back. Dryad grabbed the bars with his giant hands, and with no effort at all, ripped the door from its hinges.
“Umm… thanks.” I crawled out. My legs gave out under me and I would have been lying on the ground if Dryad hadn’t caught me. He supported my weight as I tried shaking circulation into my legs.
“I managed to get my hands on these.” Mom handed me a bundle of cloth, I unrolled it and found Jotunn. Way to go Mom!
The bundle had a sword for her too, which made me worry. “Can you use that?” To answer my question, she spun her sword around in a series of complex arcs and spins. “Brass.”
“We have to move quickly. Will you be able to keep up?” she asked.
I couldn’t help feeling offended. What did she think I was, the same little boy she left behind? I pushed off Dryad and stood tall on my own two feet. “Of course I can keep up. I made it this far on my own.”
She responded with a proud smile.
My mother led us through the dungeon into a maze of corridors. I couldn’t tell one hallway from the other. They all seemed to blend together with the same decorations and designs. She moved like she knew these tunnels, so I had to put my faith in her. We gradually descended into the bowels of the Ivory Castle. She led us to a spiral staircase that dropped deeper into the underground. Thick and moist air greeted us that smelled of rust and metal. The farther we went, the more nervous I got. I felt myself falling further and further from the sky, I ached to see the clouds that soared over my home. I swore I would get back to the sky soon with my family beside me.
The stairs ended at another tunnel. The walls felt rocky and sharp, as if dwarves used their crudest of tools to dig out the guts of the Earth. Light flickered up ahead, and with it came the sound of voices. We sped up and followed the lights to an opening. Mom held me back, pointing a cautious finger. I peeked around the entrance corner and saw Mob. Standing, she looked ten times creepier than before. Her spidery limbs twitched with such erratic motions I could barely tell what she was doing.
Ten guards flanked her, and most importantly at her side, holding her hideously long finger, stood Alice. Candles poorly lit the room, but it was enough for me to see the mound of dirt that stood before them and the head of a ferocious dragon, its eyes closed, and its mouth open wide. Ivory teeth gleamed in the candlelight, and its hide was made of flaky rusting iron.
“My dear pet, I have awoken,” Mob shouted. “But I have yet to regain my full strength. I need you to lend me your power and aid me on my quest in restoring this world. We must rid it of the sickness that threatens to destroy it all. With you by my side, my armies shall rise. The time has come for the Iron Dragon to scorch the skies and shake the ground. We will watch our enemies perish and take the world for our own. I will not be content with just this world; I will rule the Earth, skies, seas, and the netherworld! We were both merely weapons to the family Rose. But no longer. The blood of a Rose shall wake you from your slumber like it has me. I, Queen Mob, will restore all of existence to its splendor, before the taint of man!”
“We have to do something,” I whispered.
“I know… but we’re outnumbered,” Mom said.
“So what we wait and do nothing?”
“I’m thinking…”
Mob continued. “Once the dragon has carved out a path for us, the Unseelie shall be many, the Unseelie shall go far, and the Unseelie shall reign supreme!”
I felt the shimmering cold of Jotunn at my side; the sword hungered for blood. I have to admit I did too. Mob took my sister. I didn’t give a damn if she was only my half-sister. I just knew I had to get her back and make Mob pay. I stood and drew my sword.
“What are you doing?” Mom tried her best to grab my arm, but I wiggled away from her.
“The Unseelie can kiss my cogs.” I ran out into the open with my sword raised. The first guard noticed me and came at me with shocking speed. I barely had time to swing. He deflected it, but his steel frosted over. The guard staggered back in surprise; I drove the sword into his chest and pulled at my blade as his skin turned ice blue.
“Zak!” Mom screamed.
Another guard swung a sword at my head, I ducked the blade, which sailed over me and shattered the first guard into a million tiny pieces of ice. With Jotunn free, I sliced it across my attacker’s leg. As tendrils of frost vines crawled up his thigh, I rammed my shoulder into his stomach, knocking him to the ground. I tried to get back to my feet, but he grabbed a hold of my shirt and pulled me in close while the other guards all converged. They piled onto me, squeezing the air from my lungs; the weight of a mountain seemed to be on top of me. My ears filled with countless voices of guards yelling and cursing. Darkness crept into the corner of my vision.
A roar like the sounds of trees falling shook me to life. One by one, the guards went flying off. When I could breathe again, enough space opened for me to see light. Dryad tossed guards around like rag dolls, my mother at his side, fighting off others like a master swordswoman. I rolled out of the way before another guard brought a heavy axe down on my head. I let Jotunn’s cold embrace me; I swung at the guard’s chest with a ferocity I didn’t know I had, slicing through armor that froze on contact. With a final gurgling wheeze, he fell, and his body shattered.
“Get Alice!” Mom fought two guards of her own. Through all the chaos, I lost sight of my sister and Mob. I found them at the dragon’s head, Alice struggling, kicking and screaming in her effort to get away. The Queen clutched her wrist and pricked her finger on the dragon’s tooth. The cavern rumbled and dust fell from the ceiling. No one else seemed to notice at first, not until the ground shook and a crack opened up, belching heat.
Everyone fell to their knees, except Mob who laughed hysterically and finally let Alice go.
I crawled over to my sister and picked her up. She wrapped her small arms around my neck, still crying in pain. I tried to back away, but couldn’t keep my balance. The ceiling caved in and I had to dodge falling debris while trying to leap over the newly formed chasm.
The cavern fell into chaos. Mom fended off an attack, searching for a chance to go on the offensive. Mob raised her hands toward the dragon and chanted something in a language I couldn’t understand, and the ground split wider. I ran a few steps more before I lost my footing and tumbled down as a fissure erupted right under me.
