Cruel Fates
Chapter 1
By: Kiana Darkk
AN: Here we are! Book III. Two years later. (I made a little mistake in the last chapter...Okay, so it was two!) Well enjoy. Ages are as follows:
Silvara- 20
Damien- 22
Jade- 20
Nathaniel- 23
Sarai- 21
Alex- 23
Titian- 20
Daemonar- 27
Keeli (Sarai & Alex's Spawn)- 1
Others- Who cares?! They're obviously not important if they're called 'others!'
Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah. We all know I don't own BJT. Get off my case.
~~~Kaeleer, Realm of Shadow~~~ *Jaenelle's POV*
Gabrielle screamed again in agony, ripping a pillow to shreds with her bare hands. We had tried everything we knew to make the pain stop, but none of it worked. Potion after potion, spell after spell. Finally we'd resorted to just giving our hands to her to hold while the pain ripped through her.
I had already made the rest of the Coven go back to their homes. They agreed only because they still thought of me as their Queen somewhat, even though those days had long since passed. There was nothing they could do. The only people left at the Hall were myself, Daemon, Chaosti, and Saetan, because well, it's his house. Oh, and Beale, Helene, and Mrs. Beale.
Gabrielle was suffering through an awful attack this time. It had been going on for days. I was sure this was the end. The Great Witch couldn't even help her own friend. How can you treat an illness if you don't know what it is?
Chaosti was sitting beside his wife, his eyes bloodshot, and his clothes wrinkled, determined to stay with her until the very end.
Outside it was pounding rain. Lightning flashed through the sky, cutting it into jagged pieces, and illuminating the trees from the ground. Soon thunder followed.
BOOM! The thunder said in earnest.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! I realized then that it wasn't the thunder making the booming noise, but someone knocking. Who in Hell would come here at this time of night? Intensely irritated, I stomped off down the stairs, and Daemon glided after me.
"Beale!" I yelled when I was down there, "Get the door!! Please!!" I added as an afterthought.
Beale was already on his way. He yanked open the door and let in three cloaked figures, all soaking wet from the storm. Daemon looked at me with his eyebrow raised, and I shrugged, answering the unasked question.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" I snapped at them. One figure stepped forward, dressed in a navy cloak, the hood still up.
"I wish to see Gabrielle," the figure stated simply. It was a smooth voice, obviously belonging to a woman, but that a perfect stranger should request to see a dying Queen was so arrogant and forthright it only served to infuriate me more.
"And I wish to know who wishes this," I spat out coldly.
Pale hands reached out from underneath the cloak to push back the hood, while speaking the words, "I do." The navy hood fell back to reveal a head of metallic silver hair, most of it hidden still underneath the cloak. A round face with high cheekbones and full, red lips, a nose perfectly suited for the face, and those purpley-blue eyes. And we mustn't forget the pointed ears.
I stared into the face of Silvara, Gabrielle and Chaosti's lost child, and was stunned into silence. I knew Daemon was as surprised as me without even having to look. The child had grown into a woman, and was now here, standing before us. The child who had caused so much grief when she left without a word of goodbye.
"I want to see my mother," she said again, imperiously. Wordlessly I nodded, and turned to lead her upstairs. All of the women followed me, including the two who hadn't revealed themselves. I knew I should make them reveal themselves first, and their intent, but I just couldn't. I couldn't think. Just react.
Silvara and the other two swept into the room with an air of authority and purpose. Chaosti looked up from his position next to Gabrielle, and his jaw dropped immediately. His eyes went almost comically wide, and I heard a muffled chuckle from one of the hooded women. Silvara, however, paid no attention to him and took off her cloak. Flinging it onto a chair, she began issuing orders.
"Jade, get the webs set up," she said, then noticed that the woman had already begun doing so. "Okay, um...Sarai, see what you can do for her." The woman in the forest green cloak moved to the front of the bed, and gently shooed Chaosti up and away. "The rest of you, get out."
Protests went up from both men. "Wait a minute-"
"This is my wife here-"
I stuck two fingers in my mouth and whistled sharply to get everyone's attention. "Chaosti, Daemon, you heard Silvara. Get out." I cut off any protests. "I will stay and watch over the proceedings in here." Reluctantly they agreed and left. When I looked up Silvara was staring at me, a steely glint in her indigo eyes. "Jaenelle," she began, "Don't undermine my authority."
My teeth clenched together in irritation, but I managed not to say anything. "You might as well be of some use, since you're here," Silvara murmured almost to herself. "Put up a shield." I obeyed, although it cost me a lot to be following the orders of some child. I noticed the woman in black had tossed back her hood, revealing a head of even deeper black hair. I could see no more because her back was to me, however I assumed this was Jade. She was weaving a web with expertise, and I wondered what it could be for.
"Silvie," the woman in green asked, "Could you take off my cloak for me? It's hot in here." Both of her hands were busy touching and analyzing Gabrielle. Silvara unclasped the forest green cloak and tossed it on the chair with her own. The woman was small in stature and her hair was the white-blond color of sunlight with small braids of green here and there. Her skin was tanned, with gray eyes the looked out of place. That must've been Sarai.
Finally Silvara rolled up her sleeves and got to work. With an intense look on her face she walked up to Gabrielle's side. The look on her face was somewhere between anger and pity, maybe both, maybe none. "Come on, you bitch," I heard her say, "You can't die that easily. I won't let you." Suddenly a knife flashed in her hand, but there was no sense of panic in me. Everything told me Silvara was going to save Gabrielle. The knife arced down and sliced open the palm of Gabrielle's hand.
She had gone very still since Sarai had begun doing whatever it was she was doing, and there was no reaction from her when Silvara sliced her open. After that, Silvara sliced open her own palm, then squished them together, letting the blood mingle and flow. Jade handed her a long strand of webbing taken from two webs which she was now binding together. There was a jewel in the center of each one, both Ebon-Gray. One was Gabrielle's, I knew, and the other must've been Silvara's.
Silvara started wrapping the cord around their joined wrists, and murmuring words in the Old Tongue and the modern language. The words she used in the Old Tongue I couldn't understand, she said them so quickly and lowly, however I could hear the modern words just fine.
"Blood of my blood,
flesh of my flesh,
my soul to yours,
my heart to thine,
I bind you to me,
one we shall be,
sharing life and death,
pain and joy."
When she finished the makeshift poem the cord was wrapped completely around their wrists tightly. The strands of Jade's two webs had been woven together and now she was crooning softly in some other language I did not know. Gradually the webbing sank into Gabrielle and Silvara's skin, leaving no mark at all.
Silvara was able to pull her hand away, and she wiped it on her pants repeatedly as though having touched something slimy. Jade stopped singing, the spell done, and carefully covered both of the webs with a cloth that immediately turned invisible once it wrapped around the looms. Sarai looked up from where she cradled Gabrielle's head. "She's stabilized."
A collective breath was let out around the room, and I smiled in relief. She wasn't going to die today! Silvara looked at me and said, "You can take the shield down."
When the three women and myself stepped out into the hall the males instantly jumped to their feet, Saetan now among them.
"What happened?"
"Is she okay?"
"Silvara?" This was from Saetan, who was the more calm of the three of them.
"Hello, Uncle Saetan," she said with a smile, and gave a mocking bow. The act made her tangled silver hair spill forward in a wavy mess. When she straightened it remained in her face. Saetan flipped her hair back over her head with a chuckle. "Yes, it most certainly is you," he said with a wry smile.
"To answer your questions, yes, Gabrielle willl be fine. Explain what you did Silvara," I said.
She frowned, not liking being ordered around, but agreed since she didn't want to be bothered about it later. "Basically what we did was bind Gabrielle's life force to mine. As long as I am alive and healthy, she will be stable. However, I did not cure her, simply because I cannot. That does not mean that I don't intend to try. She should be conscious in a day or two."
Silvara turned to face me, and the other two girls looked at me expectantly. "Now Jaenelle, I was wondering, since it is a little late to be travelling, would you mind putting us up for the night?"
"Oh, yes. Yes, of course. Um, I'll tell Helene to get some rooms ready for you. It'll be just a moment." All three girls gave words of appreciation and thanks, then moved off to a sitting room. Chaosti was left staring dumbly at his daughter's backside as she basically ignored his existence. Oh yay, this was going to be so much fun.
*Jade's POV*
Sarai shut the door to the sitting room quietly behind us, and Silvara plopped gracelessly onto a couch. I knew that she was tired from the spell-working, but she was also angry, sad, disappointed, scared, and any number of other things. Meeting up with her parents again was a big deal to her. 'Course it would be to me too.
Not to mention this wasn't exactly the welcome she was expecting. The great Witch coldly receiving us into her huge road-block of a house, seeing her mother so weak and pale. It looked familiar, but I couldn't remember how exactly. Darkness, it must have been awful.
Sarai sat down gently in an overstuffed armchair, like she was afraid she would break it. Fat chance. That thing looked like it was sturdy enough to support an elephant and not even wobble.
I was bored, and filled with the awe and energy that always came from working my own magick. Restless, I paced the length of the room, then turned, and paced back. Oh Mother Night, I was starting to act like Alex, pacing all the time.
Everything was quiet in there, so I thought to amuse myself by wishing I could read minds. What would everybody be thinking? Sarai would probably be thinking along the lines of, I miss my husband! I wanna go home now! This is no fun! No, that was unfair of me. Sarai was tougher than that, even though she looked like a cream puff. Silvara, her thoughts would probably be just, What if..., I wonder..., and Why...?
She had a lot of her mind lately. I knew that. She'd been distracted and upset, worried and then sad. She wanted to believe that her mother was okay, despite the warnings she had received. Deep down, I guessed, that she still loved her mother and father, despite their treatment, despite the differences, and despite the years apart. That was what it meant to be a family, I suppose.
There was a knock a bit later, and I paused to collect myself. Sarai and Silvara sat unmoving, both too exhausted to care. Taking three long strides, I reached the door and flung it open to reveal *dun dun dun* the Witch. She looked at me calmly, as opposed to her earlier psycho-ness. I wondered if she was on drugs or something. Usually people don't cool down that fast.
"Your rooms are ready," Jaenelle said after I had let her in the room, "If you'll just follow me."
"Oh. Okay, thanks," Silvara stood up fluidly, and followed after the already-retreating figure of Jaenelle Angelline-Sadi. Sarai went behind her, and me, last. Down a maze of corridors we went, to the obvious guest quarters, and abruptly Jaenelle stopped.
"Here you are. This will be Sarai's room, this room is for Silvara, and Jade may take the room next to that. Good night, girls," She walked off back the way she came, and I marvelled at the chilly reception. Silvara had told me that she and Jaenelle got along rather well. I shrugged it off, and opened the door to my room, leaving the other two to get settled in on their own.
My room was nice, I guess. It was all one room, practically four times the size of mine back home. A quaint set of furniture was set up near the door, with a table nearby, obviously meant to be a sitting area. The bed and wardrobe were partitioned off from the rest of the room, and a bathroom was attached. We were livin' in the lap of luxury now! Honestly, though, I was uncomfortable. This was nicer than my room was even at the cottage. I thought I had it good there.
*Damien's POV* Dreaming
Tersa was sitting on the opposite side of a spider web, running her fingers down its strands lovingly, like a lover would. Maybe for her, her Craft was her love, and she could dedicate herself to no other.
She stared up at me with unseeing eyes, and repeated slowly, deliberately, the prophecy that she had said in my presence two years ago.
"Two years next, the silver moon will rise, bringing with her the shining star, and the deep, dark sky. With them shall come a healing wind and from then the real story begins."
Her golden eyes, like mine, like Father's, like Grandfather's, locked on my own. I saw her mouth the words, "Moon-rise is finally here."
I shot up, gasping for air, knowing that this was true. That I had to leave court now and go home. The moon was here finally, and I wanted to see it.
AN: What did you think of the very first chapter of the final book in the story? Was it good? Was it bad? Did you love it? Did you hate it? TELL ME!!! REVIEW AND TELL ME!!!! ::rocks back and forth:: Tell me... ::mumbles:: tell me tell me...review....review review review review.... mwahahahaha....re-tell....view me....review....tell me.... ::gets carted away on a stretcher, wearing a straight jacket::
Announcer: We apologize for interruption of this Author's Note. The author has gone insane mid-presentation, and is currently being treated at the Milwaukee Insane Asylum. For further information call, 1-800-CRZMOFO.
Editor: **sits, shaking head**