Once upon a Spring morn

45

Reckonings

A s the woman stopped before Roel and looked him up and down and smiled wickedly, “I did not expect you, Nefasi,” said the Changeling Lord.

“Then why did you summon me, Morgrif?”

“I did not summon you by name, Nefasi, but rather I summoned this one’s deadly enemy, for he is a most leathal foe.”

Nefasi laughed. “Indeed, I am his deadly enemy, for he set back my revenge against Lord Valeray.” At the name Valeray, the Changeling Lord’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “He, who is most responsible for the defeat of Lord Orbane?”

“Oui, Morgrif, the very same. And this fool twice kept me from seizing one of Valeray’s get: Celeste.” Nefasi turned to Roel and put a hand behind her ear in a pretense of listening. “What’s that you ask? How did you interfere? Pah! You fool, ’twas I who sent the brigands to capture Princess Celeste, Valeray’s youngest spawn. And ’twas I who sent my minions to attack at the twilight bound. And it was you who interfered both times, for I watched as you slew brigands and again as you slew Redcaps and Bogles and Trolls and fled with the princess.”

“You watched?” asked Morgrif.

The woman ground her teeth. “I looked through the eyes of my familiar and called out for revenge, ere some fool put a crossbow quarrel through my bird, and oh, how that pained me, and for that this man shall also pay. . and dearly.”

Nefasi turned to the Changeling Lord and said, “You will be well rewarded for this, Morgrif. And when Orbane is set free, you will sit near the throne.”

“I think I have another gift for you, Nefasi,” said the Changeling Lord. “This knight has a woman with him.”

“A woman?”

“Oui. Elegant and slender and of pale yellow hair and green eyes.”

Nefasi crowed. “Ah, even sweeter than I thought.

Surely it is Celeste. She has not escaped my revenge after all.”

Sweat ran in rivulets down Roel’s face as he strained to move, yet he could not. And Nefasi laughed to see him struggle, and, preening in her power, she strutted back and forth before him, her long black gown flowing behind. “Why, you ask, do I wish to harm your love, the princess? Idiot, I am one of four sisters, two of whom are now slain: Rhensibe, killed by Borel; and Iniqui, murdered by Liaze. Those two assassins are siblings of your Princess Celeste, all of them foul get of thief Valeray and his slut Saissa. And I and my sister Hradian plan to kill them all; we will have our revenge, we two who remain Lord Orbane’s acolytes.”

Hatred filled her eyes, and spittle flecked at the corner of her mouth, so rabid was her desire for vengeance.

“There will come a day when we set him free, but you will not be around to witness it, nor will your whore Celeste.” Nefasi raised her hand, her black talons gleaming ebon in the candlelight, and she reached for Roel’s exposed throat.

“Whore, am I?” came a call from the enshadowed doorway.

Nefasi turned to see Celeste standing in the opening, her bow in hand, an arrow nocked. Behind her stood someone else in the darkness.

The witch hissed, but then she laughed. “Have you come to save your love, Celeste? This is even better than I expected.”

Celeste drew her bow to the full and aimed.

Again Nefasi laughed, and she raised her right hand toward Celeste, her index and little fingers hooked like horns and pointing at the arrow, and her middle fingers pointed down and her thumb pointed leftward. “You fool! Set aside your pinprick, for neither you nor it can harm me.”

“Oh, no?” said Celeste, and she loosed the shaft to hurtle through the air toward the witch.

“Avert!” cried Nefasi, and then her eyes widened in fear, and she shrieked as the arrow sped true and pierced her through the heart. Momentarily she looked down at the gray shaft, and then at Celeste.

“Not even the gods could turn that one aside,” said Celeste coldly.

And Nefasi fell to the floor, dead before striking the stone.

Suddenly Roel could move, and he stepped toward the Changeling Lord.

But Morgrif leapt into the circle and spoke an arcane word. And he laughed and looked at Celeste even as Roel approached.

As the princess nocked another arrow, the Changeling Lord called out, “Though somehow you have managed to defeat your deadly enemy, I have now called out to my minions to come to my aid, and by their very numbers, they will o’erwhelm you both.” Celeste aimed and loosed her shaft, the arrow to hiss through the air, only to shatter as if against an invisible barrier at the perimeter of the circle.

Once more the Changeling Lord laughed and called out to Celeste, “I am in a ring of protection, a place where your weapons of bronze cannot harm me.” His gaze then fell upon Roel, and Morgrif stepped to the very brim of the design toward the knight and added,

“Not even that silver-chased bronze sword of yours, fool.”

Roel, now reaching the circle’s edge himself, gritted and said, “Coeur d’Acier is no weapon of bronze.” And with a backhanded sweep, he took off the Changeling Lord’s head.