Unhuman Acts Read online

  “Let me see the wound.”

  I leaned forward, and she reached into a bowl, grabbed a fistful of a thick, viscous substance, and stuck it to the bite. It molded to my skin, and my shoulder felt instantly better.

  She lowered her voice to speak this time, talking me alone and not the entire courtyard. “You can’t see the Stewards until your position as Queen is either confirmed or disproved. It wouldn’t be suitable for the Queen to come to them as a subject, but you can’t demand their obeisance until you’ve been crowned.” She glanced up and back to me. “Your advisor is approaching. I trust the two of you can speak without being heard?”

  “We can. Thank you for the potion, the poultice, and the explanation.”

  I turned to Mordecai. I can’t be their Queen!

  Can’t you?

  I’m not an elf or a sprite!

  I asked about the cedar sprite. She arrived approximately the same time I moved your tree. The mirror is maintaining itself — it isn’t a relic from times past. They’ve also recently reconfigured some rooms in the castle. I believe this was in response to the activity under your hill.

  I shook my head, and he rested his palm on my cheek, holding my head still. Don’t shake your head. They see you as their Queen, and shaking your head when they don’t know why could be bad.

  What do I do?

  If the legends are correct, the center of the labyrinth could very well heal you. I heard his internal sigh. But you could just as easily be killed trying to reach the center.

  So, my options are Xaephan or the center of the labyrinth? Anything else?

  He flinched when I said his brother’s name. I’d try to remember not to do that again.

  None I’m aware of. There are some legends of other things, the blood of… another internal sigh. The race doesn’t matter, because it means a virgin has to be brutally raped and killed, and you’d die before you made someone else give their life for yours. He smirked. And you’d probably attempt to kill me if you found out I gave it a try.

  That leaves us with the labyrinth, unless we want to try to negotiate with he-who-shall-not-be-named again.

  There are rules that even he must follow, and one of them says he can’t save your life under certain circumstances unless he’ll own your soul. We needed to ask him, because you never know when he’ll find a loophole, but this appears to be a rule he intends to follow. Mordecai stroked my cheek with his thumb. Thousands have attempted the labyrinth over the millennia. None came out alive. Whether they died inside, or were taken to another realm, no one knows. The legends say the Goblin King is the only one who can reach the middle and take back his power. However, the words for King and his in the original language are gender neutral, so it could just as easily be a Queen.

  Lauren drew the labyrinth. I’ve meditated to it, and spent enough time studying it, I can find the center.

  That’s a plus, but there will be tests along the way.

  Well then, we just have to hope I can pass them.

  I turned back to the Crone. “Can I take things into the labyrinth with me?’

  “No weapons or sustenance.” She looked at my shoulder. “The poultice has almost soaked into your skin. It will finish in the next few minutes, so it will no longer be considered sustenance by the time you enter.”

  “I’ll need better footwear, a pencil, a notepad, and a few ponytail holders.”

  She smiled. “Quite practical. I can arrange for all but the footwear.”

  A woman on a balcony yelled, “You can have my boots, Your Highness!”

  The next thing I knew, dozens of women were trying to give me the shoes on their feet. I didn’t know what to do, so I closed my eyes and reached my energy out for the cedar sprite.

  And suddenly, she was beside me, one arm around me while she motioned towards a woman. The young woman stepped forward, the sprite accepted her boots, and turned to offer them to me.

  “I have nothing of value to trade, except for the sandals I now wear.”

  The sandals have gold woven into them, Mordecai told me telepathically. She’s the winner in this trade.

  No, I am, because I need practical boots.

  We made the trade, and the Crone watched me lace the boots on. I wasn’t sure what they were made of, but they were ultra-comfortable. My new cedar friend had chosen well.

  The Crone closed her eyes, but I could see her eyeballs moving under the lids, as if she were reading. She opened them suddenly, and my heart stuttered.

  “You may not levitate over a wall, nor can you leave this realm until your quest is finished. Your other abilities will not break any rules. Your advisor cannot go with you, but it seems the rules don’t say anything about tree sprites.”

  I turned to look at my cedar friend. “I won’t ask you to come with me. I don’t know if I’ll come out alive or not. I must go, but you don’t have to.”

  The sprite was around twelve to fifteen feet tall, and thin. She reminded me a little of a miniature version of the Ents in looks, but not at all in personality. She didn’t talk, but she didn’t need to. I immediately knew she’d go with me because I saw her and appreciated her. Because I respected her without expecting anything of her.

  And I’d taken a version of her to my new home.

  I’d seen her.

  The Crone pulled three ponytail holders, a notepad, and a pencil from her robes, and I thanked her for them. The ponytail holders were made of an unfamiliar material, but they’d do the trick.

  Mordecai and the Crone walked us to within twenty yards of the entrance. When the Crone stopped, so did Mordecai.

  I looked to the Crone.

  “Do you have any advice?”

  “Not everything is as it seems. Trust your instincts.”

  I looked to Mordecai, and he shrugged. “If you get yourself killed, your lion and I will never forgive you.” He shook his head. “Come back to me, Kitten.”

  “I’ll do my best. If I don’t, you’ll make sure Lauren’s okay, and you’ll check in on Cora?”

  “You know I will.”

  I nodded, turned, and walked towards the entrance without looking back.

  I’d cry if I looked back, and once I went in, I needed to be fully in the moment.

  I’d thought back to the map and recalled the first three turns while we walked to the labyrinth. The tree sprite walked with me through those first turns, and stopped when I found a stone to sit on. I began drawing.

  I could recreate the map on paper, but I’d have been lost if I’d tried to walk it from memory without a diagram.

  In this part of the labyrinth, the walls were made of a deep grey stone and were perhaps twenty feet tall. The walkway was around six feet wide, and the ground was lined with pavers at first, but soon turned into packed earth.

  For some reason, I thought I only needed to walk the labyrinth and make it to the center. I should’ve known better. I’ve become something of a student of mythology, after all.

  It’s never that easy.

  Chapter 5

  My first inkling something wasn’t quite right came when we took a left turn and two huge statues told us we were going the wrong way. They weren’t particularly creepy, and seemed to be statues of tall, possible royal elves. Still, statues telling you not to go that way are disturbing no matter how you slice it.

  My instincts told me not to doublecheck the map, so I held my head up, ignored my racing heart, and kept walking. When we were past them, a wall of bubbles seemed to block the way. I looked around but didn’t see anything to knock them over with, so I shot my laser into them. They pop-pop-popped until they were all gone, and we continued walking.

  Two more turns, a straightaway, and it was time to make a right turn, but there wasn’t a right turn. There was only a left turn.

  All isn’t as it seems.

  If this were a video game, we’d have needed to go left to get some tool or key that would let us go right, but I had a feeling going left might be fatal, so I didn’t wa
nt to give it a try.

  The path was around ten feet wide here, which meant more of the wall to inspect.

  I walked back and forth a dozen times, and finally turned to the tree sprite. “Any ideas?”

  I felt the sprite pulling energy to her, and green grass grew all around us.

  Except for a single dirt trail.

  I walked the trail and stopped in front of the wall. Now I had a smaller section to inspect.

  And I saw a knocker where one hadn’t been before. Or, where I hadn’t noticed it before.

  I lifted the knocker and dropped it. Nothing. I did it twice more, for a total of three.

  Nothing.

  Four more times, for a total of seven, and the wall disappeared.

  I turned to the Sprite. “Thank you.”

  She gave a little bow, and I laughed. “I’ve always adored you. Or, I guess your mirror in the human realm. It’s nice, having you with me. Thank you for accompanying me. I’ll try not to get us killed.”

  Two turns later, and the sprite put an arm/branch out to stop me. She picked up a broken piece of wall, tossed it onto the dirt path before us, and the brick sank.

  “Quicksand?” I asked.

  The sprite gave what can only be described as a shrug, and I considered the rules. “The Crone said I can’t levitate over the walls, but there shouldn’t be a problem with us levitating over the quicksand, right? As long as we don’t go over a wall.”

  I took a breath, trying to think it through from all sides. “Will you be okay if I reverse your gravity polarity? Do you need to stay grounded?”

  She offered me her arm/branch, and I took it. “I’m going to take us up and right back down, so we can make sure you’ll be okay.”

  I took her up and felt pain, but somehow, she pushed us forward over the quicksand, so I couldn’t put us right back down.

  “Dammit!”

  I moved us faster, and kept going for a good fifty yards, until there was grass growing below us. I assumed that meant it was solid ground again. I cautiously settled us down, and breathed in relief when we didn’t sink.

  “You can’t purposefully hurt yourself like that again! You’re still hurting! What can I do?”

  The sprite closed her eyes, and I looked around. No benches, or even large rocks to sit on, and sitting on the ground didn’t feel like a good idea. No problem, I’d learned how to do standing meditations.

  I faced her and lifted my left hand. Her left was already in my right, and she understood I wanted her to put her right in my left, forming a circle.

  I pulled energy from the land below us through my feet, and from the sky above us down through my crown chakra. Once I had the stream heading both directions, I started a circle of energy going out my right and into my left, and she accepted the energy into her left branch, through her center, and out her right branch.

  It took perhaps five or ten minutes before I felt she was no longer in pain, and a little longer before she felt stable.

  “I wish you could speak.”

  “Then I can.”

  My mouth fell open. “Could you’ve talked all along?”

  “Not until you wished it, my Queen.”

  “I’m not your Queen. I’m Kirsten.”

  “As you wish, Queen Kirsten.”

  I sighed. It wasn’t worth arguing over.

  “What shall I call you?’

  “My name is Cedrotrix.”

  She pronounced it with a Scottish accent, so it was kind of like seed-roh-trix, except the consonants were soft and the vowels loud. It sounded melodious when she said it, but I worried I’d slaughter it.

  However, it came out close to her pronunciation when I said it, and she smiled. I was unbelievably happy I’d been able to say her name without hurting her feelings.

  “I don’t understand our connection, but I’m happy you’re my friend.”

  “Friend?” She considered the word, and then said it as a statement. “Friend. Yes. This is why you wish for me to call you Kirsten, and not my Queen?”

  “That’s part of it. I’m happy you understand.”

  She nodded, and I focused on the task at hand — getting to the center of the labyrinth.

  According to the map, we had a left turn coming soon.

  The next hour was relatively easy. We had to figure out how to get through a solid wall a few times, but no obstacles tried to kill us. Without the map, I’m not sure we’d have made it. How is one supposed to know the seemingly only option of a left turn isn’t the only choice? Still, though we were careful, I thought we were making pretty good time.

  And then we came to a dark part of the labyrinth. The walls were higher, there was less light, and the very air seemed hostile. Breathing it in altered my energy, and I had to focus on good thoughts.

  I touched my necklace, but it didn’t help, as it had done for the Siabhra. For that matter, I couldn’t recall it helping since I’d arrived in Alfheim.

  We rounded a corner and were confronted by at least a dozen wolves, snarling and growling, their hackles raised. They clearly wanted me for dinner.

  But I didn’t want to have to kill them.

  I refused to levitate over them and risk hurting the sprite, and that limited my non-lethal choices.

  Or did it?

  “Will they hurt you if they bite you?”

  “They will not bite me, Queen Kirsten.”

  “I can get past them, but you won’t be able to be near me. Can you carry my clothes and other things until we’re past them?”

  “Yes, Queen Kirsten.”

  I stripped everything except the boots and my underwear, wrapped the notepad and pencil inside the dress, and used the ponytail holders to firmly secure my bun. I lit myself on fire and walked through the wolves, who were sufficiently afraid of the crazy flaming human.

  The sprite followed me at a good distance. I walked at least a quarter mile past where they stopped, despite the fact it took so much energy to maintain the flames.

  Cedrotrix seemed to stand sentry while I dressed. “It would’ve been easier to kill them.”

  “Yes, but they’re just doing what cornered wild wolves are supposed to. If they’re trapped in that section and can’t get out, I was encroaching on their territory. Killing them would’ve been wrong, especially since I could find another way.”

  “You are a worthy Queen.”

  My instincts told me not to agree or disagree. It felt as if the labyrinth was listening.

  I walked carefully and paid attention to everything. The ground went from sand to earth to rock and then back to pavers, but I totally missed the trapdoor until it was open and I was falling. I levitated and kept myself from landing hard, and yelled up for the sprite to stay put.

  Everything happens for a reason, and I didn’t seem to be in immediate peril, so I looked around. It was clearly an oubliette, complete with dungeon cells and torture equipment. The trapdoor was the only way down, and there was no ladder, or even a rope.

  Lucky for me, I could levitate out.

  Except I couldn’t.

  I tried several times but nothing worked. My levitation had worked to let me down without injury, but it wouldn’t take me back up. I jumped and tried, hoping maybe just the first couple of inches weren’t letting me, but that didn’t work, either.

  Beautiful.

  An oubliette by definition only has the entrance from above, but perhaps this wasn’t an actual oubliette.

  Everything is not as it seems.

  But I couldn’t bring myself to walk into one of the dungeon rooms to see if there was a way out the back.

  A man appeared before me, tall and thin, with tight leggings that showed a huge package.

  Okay, so spank me, I couldn’t help but see it. The fabric hid nothing.

  “You are intruding.”

  Was I? I didn’t think so, but how to tell him? I settled on, “The crone sent me through the labyrinth. I’m on a journey. Can you help?”

  He laughed. “
Help you? Hardly. It’s been ages since such a juicy morsel found herself in my oubliette.”

  “Not an oubliette. You appeared from somewhere other than the trap door in the ceiling.”

  He lifted a single eyebrow, and I took a good look at him. At least six feet tall, skinny, long dark hair that didn’t look feminine, and dark eyebrows. He wore a tailcoat and a ruffly shirt peeking through the front.

  But he looked completely masculine, despite the hair and ruffles. Perhaps the huge cock under the leggings helped with that.

  In the myths involving a test, there’s always a way out, you merely have to find it. I took inventory — dress, boots, tablet, pencil, cedar sprite above me.

  Okay, how about abilities. Levitation didn’t work, would my light weapons? I formed a lightstaff, and it worked. Yippee-kai-yay. I moved it to my left hand and formed a sword in my right.

  I met his gaze with self-confidence, and kept my voice strong but pleasant. “Can you point me to the exit, please?”

  He eyed my weapons as if weighing his options, and finally stood to the side. “End of the hallway and turn right. You’ll find stairs.”

  I motioned with the sword. “After you.”

  He gave what can only be called a long-suffering sigh, but he turned and walked.

  I was worried we’d come up in a different path than the one we’d gone down, but I surfaced and looked back to see Cedrotrix twenty yards back.

  “Oh, thank goodness,” she said, but she walked carefully, placing a foot on each block and testing it before placing her weight on it. “I was so worried. I did not feel you come to harm. Are you well?”

  “I am.” I looked to the tall, menacing man, and told him, “I’m sure you have somewhere else to be?”

  “Certainly.”

  He went down the steps, and I told Cedrotrix, “He appeared out of seemingly nowhere, but I’m betting there are tunnels under us. You’d have seen him if he’d come down these steps.”

  “This is accurate, and I did not see him. Did you ask his name?”

  I could’ve kicked myself. “No. I need to do better. Thank you for reminding me.”

  We stopped to rest a few times, but the effects of the demon bite were growing. With no water or snacks, we didn’t dare stop long — the sooner we made it to the center, the healthier I’d be for whatever final tricks the labyrinth threw at us.