I stared blankly at the orange hand for a moment, wondering when I was supposed to feel something. It always seemed instantaneous when he did it to someone else, but nothing seemed to be happening to me, strangely enough.
I shook myself from my reverie as a brisk breeze caressed me. What had I even been daydreaming about? Something about being a mercenary of all things? Preposterous!
“Juniper, you’ll never be ready for the party in time if you spend all your time on that balcony,” a familiar voice said from behind me.
With one last, fond look at the sun setting over the hills west of the bay, I turned with a wide smile. “I’ll have you know, my queen, that I’ve never been late to a party in my life.”
“That does sound like you,” she acknowledged with a wry grin as I crossed over to her, the skirts of my dress gliding over the carpeted stone floors. “You’re more the type to leave early. And as I have ever told you, you may dispose with the formality when we’re alone, Daughter.”
I laughed, not bothering to challenge that characterization. “You know I was only teasing you back, Mother. Now tell me, have you seen Elizabeth tonight? How does she look?”
“Clothed,” she drawled. “As I expect you both to remain until the party is over.”
“That sounds perfectly boring,” I harrumphed. “What’s the point of a party if not to play prelude to a night of passion?”
“Well there’s propriety for one. Someone in our family needs to make up for Aisha’s and Newter’s lack of decorum. I might also add the respect of our neighbors, or have you forgotten already that they will be our guests this evening?”
“I fear you’re looking in the wrong place for etiquette, Mother. Gregor is further down the hall,” I joked before sighing. “I suppose that bastard Chevalier will be in attendance? It baffles the mind that he thinks we would keep a prisoner of war. And where would we even secret that dreadful woman away to in the first place? It’s not as though we have dungeons to throw her in.”
“Some people cannot comprehend the concept.” Mother looked past me to the balcony and the rolling hills it framed. The last rays of the sun played across her face, casting her in a deep, bloody red. “I’ll leave you to finish getting ready.”
I watched her go with a thoughtful frown and—
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—went to the party.
“Lady Masuyo of Palanquin!”
Masuyo tossed me a wave then walked in with confidence, leaving me with Elizabeth and Aisha.
Hm. Everyone else must already be inside, I thought as I drank in Elizabeth’s appearance this evening. She looked simply divine in a luxurious blue gown with small, twinkling bits of silver woven into it like stars. The colors brought out her eyes, which I was pleased to see were hungrily drinking me in just as I was her. I was sorely tempted to quit this posh gig straightaway in favor of inviting her to my bedchambers.
“Elizabeth,” I said, my mouth suddenly dry. “You look…”
“Nice?” she hopefully supplied, looking a bit nervous. That look set my heart aflutter and made the temptation to skip the party with her all the worse.
“Very,” I emphatically agreed. “I’m not sure the words to describe how transfixing you are exist.”
Aisha pantomimed gagging, and I kicked her without looking her way. She kicked me back, and my smile widened. “Elizabeth, I was wondering if you’d like to—”
“Lady Juniper of Palanquin!”
I sighed. Duty called.
“Betcha can’t keep your eyes off her ass,” Aisha whispered far too loudly to Elizabeth behind me. I glanced back, and Elizabeth was blushingly prettily while our entirely too pleased sister seemed to be fighting to not cackle.
Well. Mother had said to maintain decorum, but there was nothing wrong with a little teasing, was there? Plus, Aisha had started it. I threw Elizabeth a saucy wink before advancing into the ballroom with an extra sway in my step. I didn’t even need to look to feel the intensity of my lover’s gaze burning into me as I presented myself to court before moving to join my brothers and sister at Mother’s side.
“You look lovely this evening, Juniper,” Gregor remarked when I reached them, ever the gentleman.
“Thank you. You look quite handsome yourself,” I replied with a smile. They weren’t empty words either; he was dressed quite sharply in a well fitting gray tunic with a dark wool coat and matching trousers. Sadly most who met him thought he was monstrous. It was their loss, and I was certain he would find someone worthy of him someday. They would be very lucky indeed to be with a man of such character.
“Lady Elizabeth of Palanquin!”
“Looks like Elizabeth agrees with that assessment,” Newter snickered as our sister glided forward over the marble floor, that blush still burning hot on her cheeks. Unlike Gregor, Newter’s tunic hadn’t been buttoned up. I had a silly crush on him when Mother had first adopted me into the family, but I had gotten over it after the traveling doctor—
“Lady Aisha of Palanquin!”
I gently shook my head as Elizabeth finished reaching us, and I hooked an arm through hers. I wanted to lay my head down on her shoulder, but I resolved to try and uphold Mother’s request. Instead I raised an eyebrow at Aisha’s strut, for there was no other word to describe it, across the ballroom floor. “Aisha seems to be having a good time,” I diplomatically noted.
I blinked. It was now me sashaying across the floor in her dress instead.
Aisha…? Why—
The me that was not me passed some representatives from the Empire, and they were abruptly impaled upon spikes of metal. I shrieked and clutched at Elizabeth.
“Murderer!” cried the Emperor, Kaiser, his voice ringing within his armor of blades. “Seize her! Seize her!”
“What? No!” I cried in alarm as the emperor’s knights advanced towards us, the Wolf and the Magician leading them.
Mother leaned forward to touch the ground, and crackling blue and red light burst forth from her fingertips, cleaving the room itself in twain. The Empire fell into a dark, unending pit, and to my horror, Aisha began to fall with them. I lunged forward and caught her hand, leaving her dangling over the edge. She began to slip, the blood staining her hands making them slick in my grasp.
“Aisha,” I wept. “Why?”
“They killed my brother!” she replied, her face once more her own and her expression bitter. “I had to!”
My grip on her failed, her hand too slick, and she fell into the depths and vanished from my sight. “I hope it was worth it,” I whispered into the void.
“You did the right thing,” Mother said from behind me.
I turned to her in horror. “What? No, I… I didn’t mean to let go…”
She shook her head with a pained expression. “What Aisha did—it was wrong. We don’t kill.”
“But we have!” I screamed as I surged to my feet, just barely keeping my balance on the precipice. “We just condemned her to it, can you not see it?!”
“Indeed, you have.” My head snapped to the side, and I realized Chevalier and the other representatives from the Protectorate stood with their weapons ready. The Wizard, the Sharpshooter, the Duo, the Celt… and I knew the rest of their legion would not be far behind. “Lady Juniper of Palanquin, you are wanted for the high crime of murder. Come with us peacefully. There doesn’t need to be a fight.”
Mother moved to touch the floor once more.
“Stop!”
She paused, and my family all turned to me in surprise. “Juniper?”
“Leave my family alone, and I’ll… I’ll surrender.”
“Juniper, please,” Elizabeth begged, the first words I had heard from her all night.
“You don’t have to do this,” Masuyo agreed.
I smiled. I didn’t want to smile, but I had to. I didn’t want them to remember me any other way.
“The punishment for murder is death,” Chevalier gravely pronounced as he drew his massive cannonblade and brought it to bear.
An eye for an eye. I closed mine. “I’ll save you the trouble.”
I fell backwards—
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—and into the cold sheets of the bed. Rose petals fluttered up in the wake of my landing.
“It’s a bit chilly in here,” I said with attempted playfulness, but my heart was only half in it. My mind was split, both here and not here. I had killed twice now—Ariel and Aisha. I didn’t deserve to be living a normal life while theirs was over.
“I think I can help,” Elizabeth answered with a small, upside down frown as slowly slipped out of her dress.
She was a vision—an angel from a heaven not intended for someone like me, who brought ruin to those I loved. What god had played with fate, moved the stars that I might end up with someone as lovely inside and out as her? Why did she stay here with me when she could be in any world she wanted?
She pulled back the sheets and climbed in, her fingertips dancing over me and leaving goosebumps in their wake. Unintentional at first but soon enough with purpose I slipped deeper. She deserved better, for me to stay, but it was easier underneath. My own private elsewhere.
Her fingers slowed. The Birdhumps remained. Little worlds, brought to life in me by her touch—she was magic.
“Juniper? Are you okay?”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
She took my hand. Concerned? I’m not. I have my Elizabeth here. Why then? I wasn’t talking. Yes, but also no. Other word. Respondersive? I shook my head. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” she whispered. Her fingers cavorted no more. Goodbye, fowllumps. No ballroom for nails, but she was warm, and I snuggled a little deeper into the warmth. “It makes sense. Tonight was bad.”
I nodded, rubbing against. Hair tickled my nose. Her bad days, my bad days. Back and forth, blue and red, yin-yang, sun and moon. A balance atop a family. If it should falter, still we’d be caught.
She gently brushed the hair away, and my nose stopped its wiggling. “Where?”
“Where?” she repeated.
“Where,” I confirmed. “Anywhere. Only need you.”
She hugged me tighter, and the feeling of hot sand swelled beneath me as the smells of salt and humid air tickled my nose. My toes wiggled in the sand, and I emerged from my underneath. Cautious. It hurt, but Elizabeth made it better—bearable. “Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me.” Her fingers resumed carding through my hair, and I leaned into the touch. Ariel, Aisha—they were falling, dead. The urge to submerge altogether grew strong, but I resisted. For now.
“I want to.”
We held each other in a world of her design. Seagulls flew by, and crabs stalked the sands, but none bothered us in our private little bubble. The sun hung eternally over a horizon with no water, yet the smells of the ocean surrounded us all the same.
“I… I love you.”
My breath hitched. “… why?”
“Why?”
“Yes… Why?”
I frowned, and though I was unable to look at her, I felt her smile in a way I didn’t understand. The yin to my yang.
“Because you’re you.” It was cheesy, but it was her, and I loved her all the more for it.
I loved her. I didn’t say it back. I wanted to but couldn’t. But I squeezed her hand, and I felt her smile widen. An angel I didn’t deserve.
I would try to deserve her.
The sun finally began to descend in earnest, burning on its journey behind our world. Disappearing into the ground like—
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—our kingdom, burning to ash.
A mighty roar pierced the night, giving voice to the bringer of a poison that turned lives to cinders. More voices rose in answer, intermixed with the crackling of wood. Fear and panic, but also courage and determination. Our people, and the guards sworn to defend them.
“Mother, please,” I said to her as she examined the events unfolding on the grounds below the castle tower. “He is here for me. I cannot allow our people to suffer when there is something I can do about it.”
“All is not lost,” she disagreed. “I know a spell that will hold the Dragon and his forces at bay. We need only buy time for my wizards to cast it. Be patient, Daughter.”
I glared at the floor in frustration as I bowed. “As you will, Mother.”
“Assemble our forces.”
With a thought, the warning bells rang at my command. All through the kingdom and castle they echoed, serving both to summon my family and to herald our coming to those who threaten us and ours. I watched the door with impatience as we assembled. I, the Meteor, was first alongside our Queen, Melanie, the Faultline. Next came Newter, the Chemist, and soon after my beloved Elizabeth, the Labyrinth. Thereafter Gregor, the Snail, arrived together with his right hand, Masuyo, the Squire.
Our war council began.
Queen Faultline spoke. “Snail?”
“Evacuation of our people beyond the inner walls has begun. I destroyed the main entrances of the outer walls as well, but the enemy will only be slowed, not stopped.” My brother may have been a gentle soul, but when he answered the call, he would do what was needed.
“Squire?”
“The Guard is manning the inner wall gates, and our archers stand ready to rain iron upon them. I have also verified the apparatuses for alerting Meteor to seal them were in working order.” Though she did not have the gods’ touch, my sister was yet a force to be reckoned with. Her determination was unmatched.
“Chemist?”
“Flasks of my elixir are being distributed, and I’ve checked on our emergency supplies in the tunnels. We’re ready to completely evacuate if needed.” The humors of my brother were potent indeed, and none knew the tunnels under our kingdom better than he. By his direction, our people would find safety if the necessity of abandoning our homes became apparent.
“Labyrinth?”
“Outer traps. Inner moat.” I closed my eyes, doing my best to shut out the mental image of so much water being close by. A poor day for my love meant her influence was great. Fortuitous under the circumstances, yet that did not stop me wishing her better days to come. The closer she got to the gods, the further she was from us.
“Fighter?”
My eyes flew open in a panic at that moniker—
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—and Octavia grinned down at me.
No… No no NO!
“You missed me. Admit it.”
“I did,” I agreed with a snarl. “I missed the chance to cut your goddamn head off, you foul witch!”
“Look left.”
I looked left.
“Look right.”
I looked right, tears streaming down my face.
I followed her directions as she gave them, helpless to resist. Before long, the final order came. “Choke yourself.”
I did. I wanted to die. Anything was better than being under her spell once more.
“There, see?” she said, condescendingly patting me on the shoulder. “And to think you believed you had escaped, silly! Now, stop choking yourself, and put your armor on. We have work to do.”
I let go of my throat, realization dawning on me as I looked to the armor I now noticed besides us. I reached out to the armor and put it on…
…on her.
“What?! St—”
I crushed the helmet, and her head within it.
A river of red flowed down her lifeless—
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—corpse, just one of many nearby. I knelt down and examined the barbaric wounds inflicted upon it as closely as I could stomach. It had been savaged, covered in a myriad gashes that all doubtlessly contributed to the deceased’s ultimate death. Bones seemed to be broken in several locations, but more noticeably, some of the larger bones had been removed altogether through cuts in several areas that were larger than the rest. The skin at those sites laid unnaturally flat like a deflated balloon of flesh.
“Penny for your thoughts, Juniper?”
“I think you’ll find my general impression mirrors your own,” I replied. “Whoever inflicted these horrors on these villagers is a monster.”
“We are indeed of a mind.”
I looked over my shoulder to Masuyo, whose eyes were averted. “We’re certain it’s him?”
“There is no doubt. Even the Dragon and his ilk would not sink so low. Desecration of the dead, especially in this manner, suggests the work of your father’s agents.”
I had never considered him my father, but I knew what she meant. I stood and signaled to the nearby guards to begin preparing them for burial. The dead rested, but work was yet demanded of the living. “I imagine he comes for me.”
“‘Tis well known he seeks no excuse for the atrocities he and his perpetrate, but… I agree it is likely he comes for you.”
“How did he find me?” I asked as I gave us flight to leave the village. “I’ve… changed since when I lived with Mom. I would have thought the trail would have gone cold.”
She scowled, an expression I almost missed in my focus. “But she is known as mine. I may have unwittingly led you to him.”
“Unwitting, perhaps. You know I would hold no—”
My eyes widened as I felt several legions of arrows soaring through the air towards us. I yanked us to my side, and though the iron still rained down on us, I diverted all that might have struck true. What? Ah, of course. “It seems he is quite the necromancer. He brought a dead trail to life, and now he makes a trap of the deceased.”
I tore the arrowheads from their hafts and forged them anew into bells, which I set to ringing as I directed them towards the castle. Hopefully we would have backup soon. In the meantime, however, we would have to hold the line. Were his prey to escape the snare, I had no doubt my father would butcher some other village to spite us.
Perhaps I was prophetic, since the next volley of arrows flew not towards us but away from us towards a small farm I could just barely make out from here. I could not grab them at this range. Was that intentional? How could he have learned my limits?
I flew us forward as swiftly as I could to try and save the farm, which of course put us on an intercept course with the platoon of his soldiers. They would not be able to reach us up here, but his plan thus far had been keen, so I held myself ready for anything. It seemed our haste would prove worthwhile as we swiftly closed the gap, but to my shock, there was no metal in the arrows! Worse yet, we were now close enough that I could properly see the farmer’s family as they were struck.
“Juniper…?” Masuyo asked, well acquainted with my reach.
“I felt nothing,” I said through clenched teeth. “I had no purchase upon them.”
“Lady Juniper, the Meteor of Palanquin!” a voice bellowed from below us. I checked for metal armor, that I might end this immediately, but there was none. They must have fired every steel-tipped arrow they had with their opening gambit. The level of planning was astounding. “We have hostages. Come down to discuss terms.”
The bells I had made earlier had fallen outside my sphere of influence in our mad rush forward, so I was limited to the armor and weapons upon mine and Masuyo’s persons. I cursed and swore I would be better prepared next time.
For now though, we had no choice but to play their game.
We floated down, and it quickly became apparent their claim of hostages were true. Daggers of hewn bone were held at the throats of children, who must have been taken from the village in the midst of their massacre earlier. The barbarians were clothed in bone and leather without studs, held together by tightly wound bolts of cloth.
“That’s close enough!” A woman with blue warpaint adorning her face yelled. “Move over there—” she gestured to a rock outcropping nearby “—or the children die.”
Bone would not cut on the same level as steel, but I had little doubt these bastards could use them to kill mere children before I could stop them. “There’s no need to do anything rash,” Masuyo called out before looking at me. “Juniper?”
I nodded and slowly moved to comply. Once we were in place, the woman I presumed to be their leader said. “Strip yourselves of your equipment and hurl it out of your reach. We will know if you plan trickery.”
I pretended to oblige, stripping Masuyo and I of all but the clothes we wore beneath our armor for comfort, but I moved the metal only to the very edge of my reach. I could bring it around behind them or perhaps move it underground. As long as they had no one in their company who could detect danger, it—
The barbarians began to part like water around a rock as a man stepped forward. I was wrong to think the woman in warpaint their leader, for none other than the man who gave birth to me, Sir Klaus II, emerged from his band of barbarians. I trembled to think what my life would have been like, had this knave raised me.
“Hello, Daughter. It has been—”
As he passed by the woman in warpaint, she put a bone dagger through his throat.
I stared in shock as blood ran down—
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—my father’s throat, his shirt absorbing all the sweat.
“See, little one? Do you see what I did here? Do you remember what this is?”
“Um…” I tilted my head. “You mixed ‘em. That’s a… a…” I whined, looking up to him imploringly when the name just wouldn’t come.
He smiled patiently. “You’re right, I did mix them. It’s called an alloy.”
“Why?”
“Why is it called that, or why did I do it?”“Yes!”
That earned me a laugh, and I giggled as well. “I confess I don’t know why it’s called that. Maybe your Mama would know? But it’s done because some metals become better when they’re combined. Perhaps they’re stronger, or they don’t rust, or—”
“But they’re the same parts,” I asked, not understanding. “How do they get better than they were before?”
“Do you remember what I showed you yesterday?”
These words I remembered. “Annealing and tempering!” I chirped. “You heat ‘em up, and you let them cool!”
“That’s right,” he praised, ruffling my hair. “And do you remember the difference?”
“Um… How hot and how long they cool?”
“Those are the basics, yes,” he said with a nod of approval. “Annealing you heat up to a hotter temperature, and you let it cool for longer, like leaving it in the forge and slowly reducing temperature. Tempering you heat it up to a hot temperature—but not quite as hot!—and you cool it a bit faster by leaving it out in the air. Make sense?”
My brow knit together. “Anneal hotter and slower, temper hot and airy?”
He guffawed at my abbreviated explanation, and I found myself giggling along with him.
“That’s a serviceable explanation. Listen to what I teach you, and you’ll be a blacksmith in no time! Swords, axes, armor—you name it, you’ll make it!”
I yawned.
“Oh ho, I’ve bored you, have I?”
“Nuh uh!” I denied, pouting a bit as my eyelids drooped. “Just a bit tired.”
“Alright, off to bed with you,” he said as he plucked me up. He held me tight as we left the forge, and I snuggled a little deeper into his warmth when the far colder air outside washed over me. He took me into our house and drew a bath, then he helped me clean myself and towel dry. I wanted to help, but I felt… strange. Like I was getting sleepy but more awake.
“You did good today,” he said as he tucked me into bed and ran his fingers through my hair, just like I liked it.
“Did I?”
“You learned a lot, didn’t you?”
“Mhm,” I agreed with a yawn, leaning into his touch.
“You’ll learn more tomorrow.”
“‘Kay.”
“If you stay determined and get a little better each day, you’ll be surprised at how far you’ll go.”
“I’ll be better?” I slurred. I thought he might not understand.
He did. “You’ll get much better,” he agreed.
“Love you, Daddy.”
“I love you too, little one. Now, are you ready to wake up?”
What…? I sluggishly opened my eyes in confusion. Wake up…?
“June?”