Chapter 3
Ireland
53 B.C.E.
Water dripped, dripped, dripped. The only other sound in the darkness were the sounds of rats scurrying about.
From her position on the ground in the cell, Kiana looked up.
She sensed them.
They had come for her.
Her sisters.
The Valkyrie.
It had been two-hundred days. Two hundred days since she and her mother had left Valhalla, the god plane where her two other parents lived. So far away now.
And Kiana only eleven.
She should have never followed her mother, she now knew.
She had to return, her mother had said, to reclaim her throne as the rightful queen of Ireland. But things had not gone according to plan. Her cousin Rolf, who had claimed the throne for himself, had killed her mother and locked Kiana away to be brought out and shown off like some strange creature.
Which she was.
Since Kiana wasn't yet frozen into her immortality and still dependent on food, he had starved her, only allowing her enough food that she didn't perish completely. And kept her here in this cell.
Therefore, she was weak and listless, pale and gaunt.
Her only friend had been a bird who came to visit her every day named Onyx, a raven.
One of Odin's, she knew.
The black bird cawed at her now.
"Yes." she said, her voice rough from disuse. "I know they are here."
There were the sounds of a scuffle outside, then the door creaked opened.
A gorgeous, petite woman with long dark hair and amber eyes, accompanied by an equally stunning woman with strange violet eyes entered the dank, cramped cell.
The dark one tilted her head at her.
"This is no way to treat a Valkyrie." she said. "I am glad I killed them."
Then introduced them both. "I am Nix, child. This is Cara. We are your sisters." and held out a hand to help her up.
Kiana looked at them.
They looked just like her, with their pointy ears, claws, and slight fangs. They were her. Her kindred.
She took the hand.
Kiana woke with a start and sat up, gasping. A sheen of cold sweat covered her body and she looked around her frantically.
She was in a bed, the sheets tangled around her legs. On the Accord's, which was basically a term for the collective Valkyrie covens on Earth, private jet, richly appointed in accordance with Valkyrie sensabilities, she now remembered.
Lightning rocked the jet and a voice, male, was yelling at her. She told him in a gasping voice at his enquiry if she was ok, "I'm fine. I'm fine.", and almost believed it.
"Just a bad dream." she added over the thunder.
He said something comforting, no doubt something he would have told one of his ten children, she realized in her fuddled state, and was gone, leaving her to herself, as always.
She was safe. No longer in that dark, dank cell that no one, especially a child, should be in.
Still shaking, she threw the sheets off and went to the bathroom. She splashed water on her face and then, after drying it off, looked in the mirror. Her eyes flashed from silver back to green until finally, in concert with her breaths slowing down, stayed green.
"You are safe." she said out loud to the creature in the mirror. "Safe." until the creature believed.
Once she had mostly calmed down, although never completely for a few days after such a dream, she walked out of the bathroom and, without really knowing what she was doing, went to one of the windows and stared out.
The sun was shining and the clouds looked like puffy cotton balls, part of her realized.
This did little to soothe her.
Her sisters had taken her that day, kept her safe and taught her how to fight, how to hunt vampires and other assorted baddies. Then, when she had mastered this and had frozen into her immortality, she had returned to Ireland.
The last face her cousin, Rolf, had seen had been hers.
She had then, being the last direct heir, ruled Ireland as Queen for a while.
An immortal queen with strength and power.
The people, Celts, tried to forget that once she had been a freak-show, a creature to be gawked at. Instead, though they didn't know exactly WHAT she was, they worshipped her like a goddess. Even calling her one.
She, who definitely hadn't forgotten her ill treatment, let them treat her as a goddess and demanded of them accordingly.
Then, one day, something changed.
Kiana preferred to walk alone, roaming the countryside and observing her subjects, even breaking up fights, to her guards chagrin, especially since she usually ordered them not to follow, which they summarily ignored. She didn't really, as a Valkyrie, need them around, after all.
As she had drawn near a village, a girl, small, perhaps three winters, approached, fingers in her mouth.
Kiana had knelt down to her, giving her a greeting.
The little girl had reached up and, touching one of Kiana's curls, had said, "Swan Maiden."
Kiana's heart, which she had thought had turned to ice the day her mother had been killed, just...melted.
"Yes." she had answered. "Yes, I am."
And at that moment, she had realized something. She didn't want to be here ruling a people who thought she was and treated her like a deity. First of all, she wasn't. Second, she wanted to hunt again, loved to kill leeches and rid the world of evil. She wanted to be what she was born to be. And that, as the girl had said, was a swan maiden. Shield maiden. Valkyrie.
So, that's what she did.
Years later, when the girl was old enough, Kiana had made her queen in her place. A strong queen who was fair and just.
Kiana had walked away the same day.
And, though she had loved the girl just as much as she had loved her mother, she had learned something on Ireland: Everything has a price. And love demanded the highest price of all.
How she envied those who seemed unafraid to love, unafraid to pay the price.
They were braver than she was.
So what was she doing gazing out the window as if she...longed?
Just then there was a ding and the demon who was piloting the airplane his voice came over the intercom, "We're approaching the airport now."
Kiana pressed the button for the intercom.
"Got it. Buckling in now." She told him before sitting down and doing just that.
Since Valkyrie were immortal creatures, they could survive most anything and an airplane's controlled, gentle landing was definitely up there, but if something went sideways, it could still hurt like hell. Best to avoid that.
As she waited, she focused her mind on the task ahead.
Damn Nix, she suddenly thought. She had probably seen this whole ordeal. And hadn't said a word about it being so difficult.
If only she had just killed him when she had the chance.
"Admit it. You can't kill him." said her damn inner voice.
"Shut it!" she muttered. "I so can."
She was going to find him and end him.
End of story.
But why did the thought of looking into those blue eyes, so descent and kind and haunted, make her all gooey inside?
"Gooey?" she asked the empty room. "I am not a ghoul!"
"What was that, Kiana?" came the pilot's voice over the intercom.
Kiana rolled her eyes.
Of course he would hear THAT!
"Nothing, Ferron." she told him. "Just thinking about ...something. Have we landed?"
"Yeah. Just did." came his answer.
She thanked him and told him he could leave.
She then went to shower and change.
She had a job to do.
