Reilynn just hummed in agreement as she stood and looked at her braided hair in the mirror. “Thank you! Now… about your face. Are you planning to come down to breakfast or do you want me to have cook send something up?”“Could you have something sent up?”“Sure. I suppose we could just tell everyone its your time of the month. You are due soon right? Guess it might not be too far of a stretch.”“Time of the month?” Valkyrie had heard the phrase but had never really understood it.”“Yea, you know, your flow?”“I-” Val honestly had no idea how to respond.“Well, the boys know how bad my cramps get so they know to stay the hell away and just chuck chocolates at me from across the room. It’s a good way to get sweets and to keep people at bay for a few days. I will see what Cook has for breakfast and have a tray brought up. We really should still touch you up with some makeup. If you do come out, those bruises are rather startling.”“Thanks,” was all Val could manage.“I don’t suppose you
Late that afternoon, Reilynn accompanied Valkyrie into town. Val had thought about trying to go on her own, but realized the General and his wife would protest and raise an issue. She was stuck between two worlds. One where she was an underworld queen of the sea, Durres, and now Caradon guilds and another world entirely where she was thought to be a helpless young woman whose outings could damage her chances of a marriage proposal.The notion made her sick to think about. Most of the men she had met thus far had died at the end of her blade or deserved to die in the near future.She thought of Alexa and considered sending for her to join them, but thought her friend likely wanted time away from her for now. The thought stunk in ways she had not expected.Morgessa had trained them both to be ruthless and to kill efficiently. Most of her training had been focused on Scath, but from time to time she had an especially nasty brute who had been sentenced to death by the Surian council of El
That evening, Val made the now familiar trip across the estate grounds, dodging the praetorian guard patrols as she slipped over the wall and onto the streets of Caradon.She had hoped to find Alexa waiting for her on the roof top across the way, but her friend was no where to be seen.As she slipped through the town, scath scattered as if they could sense her presence. Val had never had issue hunting scath, but they had begun to avoid her turf in Durres growing up. If they were as sentient as the ancients, perhaps they could communicate.There was definitely a congregation near areas of greed and debauchery in the city. While Valkyrie observed this most often around brothels and gambling houses as well as the one fight club she had come across by pure accident, the scath seemed to shy away from the razor’s edge brothel, as if something there had scared them.Val shrugged it off as coinciding with the decrease in business. Most of the doxies had likely departed under Alexa’s guidance
Valkyrie scowled at her friend. She supposed she should expect nothing less from Alexa and pushed to her feet. “I got your peace offering,” Alexa said over her shoulder before stepping off the roof and disappearing from sight. Val rushed to the side just in time to see Alexa tumble off a metal awning and then roll to her feet on the cobbled street. “Brazen showoff,” Val hissed as she followed Alexa to the street. Val rolled to her feet and set up to catch Alexa but when she turned the corner, Alexa was nowhere to be seen. “I like the chocolate covered strawberries,” came her voice from just behind Valkyrie. Val spun to find Alexa leaning against the brick wall. Alexa pushed off the wall and walked past Valkyrie with a determined gate. “You still owe me a lot of scath units, but the chocolate was a good place to start. Come on, there was a swarm of wraiths down by the fair. Its easy kills and we can likely load up for the night in a few hours.” Val had to run to keep up with Ale
Val turned to see Gregor Black seated at the head of the table. In his early forties now, Gregor had ages some from her memories but still had the powerful build and broad shoulders she remembered. She figured she got at least some of her height from his tall frame, which stood at six foot four inches. His coal black hair was such a contrast to her own silvery locks that she briefly wondered if she was of any actual relation to him at all. It took an active force of will to put that dark thought aside for later consideration. Gregor came to his feet and towered over her as he pulled out the chair to his left for her to sit. Tension tightened the muscles from Val's head to her toes. She looked up at the man she had once called her father, and hesitated before taking her seat. She could feel Gregor’s eyes at her back and then his light touch as fingers drifted across her shoulder as he passed her and returned to his seat. “I am pleased you agreed to have lunch with me,” he said as
“I want to see this device. I want to know what you think you see compared to what I know is there.”“And why should I grant such a thing?” Gregor asked. “I have only revealed so much because it was pertinent to your life and events twelve years ago.”Valkyrie ignored the first part of his question and ask one of her own. “How are the scath pertinent to my life?”“It was the failure of my work all those years ago that forced the Brotherhood to seek other options. Things were not progressing as they wanted so, they were preparing to take more drastic action when Reginald saw to it that you and your mother were not to be found.”“The brotherhood? Desmond mentioned a Brotherhood.”“Desmond? I should have known it was Desmond,” Gregor growled.“Wait, you knew Desmond?” asked quickly.Gregor fought back a heated retort and said, “I knew he was a friend of your mother. It seems fitting he would take you in.” then as if to himself, “No wonder the experiment failed.”“What were you trying to
“It is a delicate balance, increasing the silver concentrations in our blood in such a way that the systems can adapt and accept it so we can harness the power of the Sparks. With that power comes the great risk of being destroyed by these unnatural beings.” Gregor said as he stared in morbid fascination at his caged beasts.“As you have now discovered, these beings share a weakness with you, dear Valkyrie. For some reason, sodium affects them adversely. So it makes sense that the Tetrodotoxin I used has such a profound effect. It causes paralysis for a time in silverbloods, but for these scath, carbon tetrachloride mixes with sodium for a violent reaction. I suspect it is part of how this Prince was captured all those years ago.”“Sodium? As in salt?” Val asked, confused. The scath had seemed less active when she was with the pirates and there were only a few aboard the Luna Marra, but that ship had spent most of its time in the air, away from the salt breeze of the ocean below. Thos
Valkyrie looked at the ancient cage once again. The bands of silver and gold were solid, no hint of a key or lock of any kind. The runes glared at her as if she should understand them but their meaning eluded her. “Even if I could, I have enough to contend with out here.” Val wondered if she was going insane. Was she really conversing with one of her father’s caged beasts? And this one was shape shifter too? As she watched, the being shifted again, the smoke she so often associated with scath pulsing from gray to inky black. As the violet eyes shrank back into its cage, val heard the faintest of whispers emanate from the caged beast. “When you remember oaths of old, promises of a past shared, I shall be as I have always been.” What was THAT supposed to mean? Val turned back to the fight at hand. Xaphan faced off against her father and two remaining guards. Gregor was busy opening a heavy locked safe not ten feet from her. As he managed to get the lock open he glanced her way, pu