Radiant Shadows

Chapter 12

Ani pushed the covers off and stretched. She was even less rested than when she’d arrived at Irial’s. The house was silent as she went downstairs. At the door to the parlor, she paused. Inside, she heard the low murmur of voices. She felt the tangled threads of longing and disgust—and left.

She stood on the top step, with the gargoyle knocker sleeping behind her, and faltered. A Ly Erg was standing in the street.

“Where do you go?” he asked.

“Not with you.” Shivering despite the midday sun, Ani turned the opposite direction from the Ly Erg.

The red-palmed faeries worked to support whatever machinations Bananach devised—to the point of regularly threatening mutiny in the Dark Court. It was inevitable: they were warriors, and any excuse to create true war pleased them. Not the faeries for me. Even if she had her doubts about the new Dark King, Ani had too much loyalty to Irial to support plots against the king he’d chosen for their court.

She went walking down the first shadowed alley; her court typically waited in such places. Instead of the faeries she found reassuring, another Ly Erg stood watching her. She turned down another and yet another alley until she was in what many deemed the least attractive part of the city. Oil and chemicals rolled through the puddles of brown water that collected in the dips and holes in the asphalt. The world was reflected back to her there—a bit less bright, a touch less sharply defined. To Ani, it was beautiful. Like her own court, the dark water could seem to make things ugly if a person didn’t look closely, but she’d been born out of those shadows: she saw the beauty where some saw only grime.

Of course, not everything wrought of darkness was lovely, any more than everything in the light was. That truth was frighteningly clear as Bananach appeared. She stood in front of Ani like she’d stepped into existence, darkness given form in between an inhalation and a scream. The Ly Ergs had steered Ani toward her.

“Girl. Gabriel’s child.” The raven-faery tilted her head expectantly. “I require you. Come.”

One of the Ly Ergs from earlier was standing behind Bananach.

Ani swallowed a cry of fear. Few faeries frightened her, but the raven-haired warrior did. Talons and beak, ashes and blood, Bananach unsettled the Dark King himself. The growing unease and mistrust between the faery courts had strengthened her enough that she could stand against even the strongest faeries.

“Lady War directs you to follow.” The Ly Erg gestured. “Do you resist?”

The hopeful look on his face made clear to Ani that resisting wasn’t likely to be a successful option. “No.”

“Good pup,” Bananach said.

Neither the raven-faery nor the Ly Erg spoke another word as they walked toward a building that looked as if it hadn’t been inhabited during Ani’s lifetime. The windows were painted black with iron fencing stretched over them like hurricane shutters. They weren’t but a dozen blocks from Niall’s house. Would she kill me on his step? The answer to that was, like all things with Bananach, impossible for Ani to fathom. War was both capricious and bold by nature.

Bananach pried back the metal and gestured Ani inside.

Ani’s heart thundered so that she could feel it under her skin. What she couldn’t feel was any emotion from Bananach. That’s no good. Before she would cross the threshold, Ani asked, “Am I guest or prisoner?”

“Maybe.” Bananach gave Ani an inscrutable look and motioned toward the window. “Go now before my soldiers’ security is compromised.”

The Ly Erg turned away, presumably to return to his post, and Ani crawled through the window and into a room that looked like it belonged in a medieval warlord’s castle. Swords and other sharp-edged weapons were being forged; others were being repaired. Yet as soon as Ani had started to process the odd anachronism of the inhabitants’ activities, she caught sight of the curious contrast on the facing side of the room. Computer monitors and work stations sat on vast wooden tables. Ani stared at them.

“You are not part of the Hunt. You are not truly part of their court.” Bananach’s dark eyes were familiar enough to seem comforting even as her words were insulting.

“I am.” Ani tilted her chin up. “Our king—”

“Your king. Not mine. I want no king.”

“You made an oath,” Ani whispered.

“I did. It’s why Niall hasn’t died at my hand. Why Irial has lived so long.” Bananach looked beyond Ani to stare into emptiness. “Will he come for you, Gabriel’s Daughter? Would he save you from my talons?”

Ani wasn’t sure which “he” Bananach meant. Gabriel? Niall? Irial? Some other “he”? With Bananach, clarity was elusive.

Bananach was beside her then, her lips against Ani’s ear. “Your father won’t approve. You mustn’t tell him. You mustn’t tell them anything.”

“Tell him I… I don’t even know what you mean.” Ani tried to keep her tone respectful and even, but following the raven-faery’s comments was impossible.

“That’s a good answer, Gabriel’s Girl. You tell them that when they ask. Pretend ignorance. I’ll speak for you.” Bananach nodded once, as if to affirm something. “Women’s secrets. You give me what I want, and I will give you much.”

“What do you want?” She was sure she was respectful now. Rabbit had taught her the importance of the right words and phrases, the right tones and gestures, all of the right ways to speak to the mad or the dangerous. Bananach was both mad and dangerous.

She cackled and tilted her head again. “I require your strength and your blood, little Hound.”

“Would I be alive at the end?”

“Perhaps.” Bananach crouched before her and gazed up at her. “I cannot see that clearly yet.”

“Oh.” Ani looked around for an exit. Fighting wasn’t an option, not against Bananach. Ani could run though, not like the fastest Hounds, but faster than most faeries.

Faster than her?

Bananach petted Ani’s arm like she was a stray dog. “There’s something special inside you, and I need it. I’m offering you the chance to keep breathing while I take it.”

“I—”

“First, you will kill Seth… and Niall. Perhaps Niall first. You aren’t bound by fealty as I am. They won’t suspect you.” Bananach reached up and stroked Ani’s face. “You will do this. Then you will come to me and give me your blood.”

Ani shuddered. The sliver of mortality she carried wasn’t just a limitation on her strength: despite her best efforts, it also meant she was less cruel than her court. Considering the murder of those she knew felt wrong. She forced herself not to flinch and asked, “Or?”

Bananach crowed. “No ‘or.’ There aren’t choices, child. Disobeying me would be very… foolish. I will come for you.”

The thoughts in Ani’s mind, the threat to those she loved if Bananach came after Ani… it was more than Ani could process.

“You were born for this. If he’d killed you, it would be different, but he didn’t, did he?” Bananach stood and stepped back. “He wants me to win. That’s why he let you live. For me.”

“If who killed me?”

“I am done with speech. Run along and do as I bid, or I will be displeased.” Bananach turned away and left Ani sitting in the midst of forges and computers. The raven-faery wasn’t even looking, so—half expecting resistance—Ani ran. She threw herself across the room with a speed she’d rarely found. In that instant, she was every bit the daughter of Hounds, every breath a Hound herself.

No mortality slowed her, and no one stopped her.