Red Solstice (Alfheim Book 1) Read online

  With all the excitement time seemed to have speeded up and just as I felt I could slow down and breathe again I was frog marched to buy fabric and wool for the baby and everyone I know seemed to be knitting like mad. Good thing too considering I am not so good at that. I had been talking to Hilda regarding the birthing but it was still a shock when some eight weeks into the new years I went into labour. It was an even bigger shock when my daughter was born and was rapidly followed by her twin brother. John said I was well known for never doing things by halves but this time I had excelled myself. I did worry that maybe they were born too soon as they seemed so small but Hilda said that it was not unusual for twins to arrive a few weeks early and they were not only healthy but exhibited a similar appetite to my own. I have to have them registered at the town hall and this I do as Violet and Niall Millefleur, although I would prefer them to bear their father's name, but I do not think it really is Red and anyway that would undoubtedly look a little strange on their certificates.

  The Spring Equinox arrives and departs without any sign of Red or for that matter any other of my grandmother's people. I am afraid to let my guard down but somewhat relieved as well. I need time both for the babies to grow and also to come up with a plan that will safeguard both myself and my family, something which is more proactive as we cannot spend our lives travelling the country just to avoid my grandmother. I also need information regarding where my parents are and how they are. At the moment it seems like a mountain waiting for me to climb it.

  It was April before I asked Hilda about the passage between the worlds and she seemed surprised that I did not know. It seemed that humans could sometimes stumble through where the energy separating us was at its thinnest, and half breeds had some access at the main portals but my bracelet was a guaranteed admission to anywhere ticket as well as a protective device. This was a very important piece of information to think about.

  The van had been sitting idle, apart from special excursions to further the wedding celebration, as it is not much use in the town but it seemed a pity to just leave it to gather dust and rust. Truthy saw it almost as a piece of magic in its own right and has been on at Benjamin and myself to teach her to drive. I, now being busy with the babies, deemed it better if he undertook such a potentially dangerous task and after much persuasion he started this. At first she had an easy life as there was no one to get in her way on the Street but gradually, as she grew more confident ,and the poor old van required petrol, they took it up the Abalone Road hill to the main road. Obviously I was not there for this but Benjamin gave a hair raising account afterwards and swore he would not go through it again. However, she cajoled him to make one last tiny attempt and all praise to the girl she actually made it to the next village four miles over, without hitting anything. After two months they were taking passengers with them to neighbouring villages and towns and by the end of May he had her ready to take a driving test. This was something that both he and I had not really given any consideration to, and I can now admit I do feel some shame in flouting the system to that extent, but we generally did feel that Truthy would benefit from having a proper driving license. It was actually a surprise when she passed first time but hey I had always said she was bright. It has also done wonders for her confidence and she is now talking of applying for University and maybe even leaving the town briefly and working outside. I am not certain who is more shocked, Benjamin or her family.

  Paying a visit

  We are fast approaching the Summer Solstice and closely following that, the birth of John and Aylsa's baby. I cannot delay any longer in stirring up the hornets nest where my grandmother roosts, if you pardon the mixing of my metaphors. I have to deflect her from their baby as they are the least capable of dealing with her spell casters. If it means I do yet another disappearing act then so be it, but I have had another perhaps more audacious thought, and that is to disappear where they least expect me to be, into their own world. I have worked on visualising the entrance to my grandmother's keep from word of mouth and as my father is there I have with me something of his that I can tune in to. This is going to be harder than my previous trips as I have never seen the place but I have put in the best preparation that I can muster. So with some trepidation and a strong sense of purpose I kiss the angels goodbye and leave them in Aylsa's care: After all she now needs the practice. I then walk the spiral focusing on my purpose.

  Eventually, I arrive at a studded wooden door of fairly imposing proportions to be met by a group of archers that seem to melt out of the undergrowth. I pause at this point to wonder if they saw me also melt out of undergrowth and are not as impressed with my arrival as I am theirs'. The leader is smirking as he looks me over in what I consider a frankly insulting manner. “Ill met, little lady,” he says and his men snigger.

  “Considering we are much the same height that is rather a stupid thing to say, “ I smile back at him. “ But it is rather ill meeting you I do suppose.”

  He now has to decide if I am some game to play with or a potentially important news bearer. Ball being in his court I wait politely.

  “ I had not noted you as someone of importance”, he continues, still arrogantly

  “I doubt that I am to you,” I reply with a laugh .

  “Your name”, he barks.

  “Considering the power of such, I think not. Just go and tell your lady her granddaughter waits without”.

  I see the war now going on in his tiny mind and it feels good. He gestures to two of his men to wait there with me and disappears into the fortress. It is less than two minutes before an elderly man in seemingly important robes appears leaning on a staff. He peers at me and utters what seems to be an oath in his own language. I am then fast forwarded into a large hall where I finally meet the woman that has caused so much of my family's anxiety. She is rather shorter than myself but Red did not deny her anything when he said she was beautiful. Do I feel jealous. Yes a little.

  “Finally”, she says after a long time staring at me as if she needed to fully assess what stood before her. “But why now?”

  “Good question”, I reply, “ I thought this a good time to come and meet you and ask politely if I can have my parents back. Oh and I would also like to claim a right for my children to have their father's name.”

  She looks puzzled. “Children? Father?” she echoes

  “Yes” I continue, “the one who remained nameless that you sent to fetch me “

  “How came this?”, she demanded.

  “He sent me a rather sexual vision which seemed to have the strange after effect of making me pregnant” I said matter of factly.

  Her eyes widen and she whispered to one of her crowd of underlings. I am subjected to another long searching stare whilst people suddenly rush out in all directions. “You are like a blank wall”, she finally adds, puzzled.

  “I do hope so”, I return, “ I have worked quite hard at that” and I smile.

  “Proof”, she demands, “I will need to see” and it is her turn to smile, but I have a photograph with me and I toss this to the floor in front of her. One of the ladies surrounding her leaps to collect it and I see her eyes go wide before she hands it over. Then there seems to be an entire room of them trying to look at the picture over her shoulders.

  The twins are looking particularly cute in this one with their lovely blonde hair and sweet faces smiling up at their uncle John's camera.

  I seem to have put an entire room in shock or maybe my little angels have.

  My grandmother regains as much composure as she can but her voice is faint as she queries “Two?”.

  “Yes” I reply, “twins, one male and the other female.”

  “By my ex captain of guards?” she continues, her face guarded,

  “I am not keen on the sound of ex as I was hopeful he might make an honest father for my babies”.

  “He lives” she said almost under her breathe.

  “That's good, as I shall be needing child support.”

>   “I could offer you a rich husband, a Lord, who would be delighted to claim these as his own”

  “I am not so keen on the elderly husband bit, I prefer my request to your offer.”

  “He need not be elderly” she now sounded exacerbated. Bad temper seems to be a family trait. I smile at her. “I asked for a name for my children not necessarily marriage for myself”.

  “It is better to have the strength of an alliance in place to protect you and your babies,” she replied.

  I shrug and she continues” However, it is not so important now that you are back in the fold and now that I know your brother's wife is with child”

  Clever bitch I think to myself before replying, “Ah yes a true quarter blood weighed against two almost full bloods, I can see that your people would be happy to accept that”.

  She stares at the floor before raising her faces again to look at me her eyes holding mine determinedly. “Or I can send the supposed father on a quest to regain that which is his by right and then I will have full control of both the babies and the outcome”, now she is smirking.

  “ I really like you granny”, I say “You are a bitch after my own heart.” Her minions gasp in astonishment.

  “Coming from a slip of nothing that stand in my court, in my power, you should be more guarded of your tongue,” she spits back at me.

  “Trouble is with despots”, I continue, ”they underestimate things” Smiling like the Cheshire Cat I fade from her sight. Oh why did I not have a video camera with me..

  The guards brought him into the hall but he went to his knees of his own accord. “My Liege”, he said. She gestured at the men to leave keeping only her chief advisor and one trusted handmaiden with her. He stayed where he was in abeyance whilst she thoughtfully watched him. Eventually she spoke, “I sent you to bring me back my granddaughter, a task I trusted to you and you alone because I had faith in your ability to fulfil it” she paused. He thought about replying to this but decided it was not a sensible thing knowing her odd moods. “You took it upon yourself to come back alone, with a strange tale of her somehow newly gained abilities and because of this I stripped you of your rank and sent you to the borders in the hope that you would suffer sufficiently without my having to have you executed for your disobedience”. She paused again. “Yesterday morning, I received a visit from said granddaughter and as you had spoken, she has remarkable power”. She was certainly dragging this out he thought as she paused for another length. “It would seem that as well as not bringing her to me you also deemed it a sensible thing to lay with her”

  “Liege”, I blurted out suddenly fearful, “She laid a geas upon me and I went to her in a vision only”

  I dared to look up and I could not be certain if she was about to shout at me or burst into laughter. She shook her head and sighed before making a gesture to her chamberlain. He held a book and several portions of it had colourful markers inserted. “If you had taken more instruction from our history rather than spending your youth carousing in the barracks and chasing women you would know that there have been many documented cases of this.”

  I stay quiet in the hope someone will tell me what the hell I am now guilty of. He slams the book open at a random marked page and I read that sex in the role of Incubus or indeed Succubus has and can result in pregnancy. To say I am struck dumb would be a massive understatement.

  My lady sighs and I pluck up the courage to ask for permission to speak, “It has been almost over a year since the last Solstice, my Liege. If this is true why has she not come sooner to complain and if she is still pregnant then the child cannot by the very laws of nature be mine”.

  “She did not come to beg and plead and nor was she without proof. In fact she demanded your name for her children and assurance that you would offer some support to them. I might also add she did not want your name for herself. You now have a choice which is either to comply with her wishes or to go on the traditional quest to take them for your own”.

  I keep thinking she is saying children but maybe I am in shock. “Here” she thrusts a photograph at me and I gaze down onto two white haired babies so elven as to be pure blood. “Two,” I utter, feeling sick. “One male and one female”, she confirms. “As yet unnamed”

  She confers again with her chamberlain and then quizzes me about my family. I am the son of one of her many handmaidens after a brief liaison with a visiting lord. As he was not of our lands she did not pursue him but kept me until I was old enough to enrol in the guards. Mostly we are not preoccupied with who fathered who as long as it was consensual, unless, of course, there is land or power involved and then it becomes of paramount importance. I can see that these two need to have a name to back them because of where they stand in the succession but I doubt that mine would be that favourable above a Lord of power with a potentially trusted pedigree. I venture to mention that it would be more appropriate for her to take a landed husband for the sake of the babies and she agrees with me but it seems that Lily had refused this already. I feel some sympathy for my Lady as she has not had to deal with anyone nay saying her in what must be a few hundred years, but I also am feeling that she is enjoying this almost as if it is a kind of game.

  I have two days to decide, two days before the Solstice comes, but then what if I claim the children from her, how will I get them back here. I am not exactly versed in dealing with the young. I would not be able to look after them until the Equinox falls. I have to think this through and fast as my Lady will expect me to make the right decisions this time. I know amulets exist which allow passage to and fro but they are almost impossible to obtain and does this situation merit one. If I take the children and make it back I know she will follow me sure as night follows day. Is this what my Lady wants to happen. I beg for further council in this matter and am granted a session with the chamberlain who is our main guide when it comes to the magical arts, and also my Lady's mind.

  We are as a people able to use magic but only as strongly as our inborn ability allows. We tend to have to learn it as we do with war craft, but we can all utilise it to an extent. I am fortunate in that by some trick of my birth the Lord that fathered me passed down a strong genetic empowerment which allows me to call upon certain elements for both protection and attack. It is something that has made me useful in my position firstly as one of my Lady's body guards and also as a border guard. A case of when all else fails blast them with lightening. Before last year I had never encountered one who could stand against me and return my burst of power. Allied to this skill is another where I can raise a fog which befuddles the mind of the enemy and helps lead them into traps. The vision geas is a learned one taught to me by my mother before she took off for another keep as a married lady her ability to reproduce gaining her a well placed husband.

  What do I know of Lily. She blasted me back and if I had not stepped aside I would have been splintered like the tree behind me. Somehow she has managed to learn to send geas through her singing and it is a very strong talent. I know she had no formal training in these matters as her mother has been captive here for some nine years or so. I had heard of Hilda's existence long ago but not that she was an adept and I doubted that she had more than a smattering of knowledge, although she had obviously taught Lily how to raise a protective circle. Her eldest son is a notable healer and much prized for his work. Had she known enough to teach Lily to vision call me, that is a puzzle. More than this was she capable of other things and if so what did I have to face.

  I had returned briefly to my glade and seen the destruction she had meted out on it after the portal had closed. It was far from a pleasant sight but it had seemed such a petty thing and somehow beneath her, maybe I was giving her greater allowance for her youth, when in fact she was obviously as devious and deceptive as her grandmother. I do not know what she is or what she is capable of. All I can say about her is I hate my aching need for her, even now, after all that it has led me to.

  After a happy hour spent with the chamberla
in I am still indecisive. It would seem that my Lady has a few options to explore and she would dearly like to bring her granddaughter to heel. He is worried that she might have bitten off more than she can chew this time having taken into account my story regarding Lily's power surge and what he witnessed for himself of her intelligence. There has been very little to occupy my Lady apart from the occasional visits and balls or the rather tame Wild Hunt rides that she now took. I do know that she is of a fair age but she does seem to have slowed down from the adventurous spirit that she once was. I would not endanger her for the world as she has been good to me in the past. On the other hand there are needs here that must be met for the sake of the land. I can empathise with her daughter and the way she has been forced to suffer at her mother's hands but it was also wrong of her to run rough shod over her wishes and marry the craftsman. The fact that she bore three children does in some way alleviate this but those who are of high rank have to stay within their boundaries as much as we who hold none do. Our numbers have dwindled and whatever twists the balance of power does the land a disservice as we slide from one petty war into another.

  If these are indeed my children then I feel they should be raised here where I can offer them some protection. I am aware that Lily is equally as capable as myself but they need proper training and to learn of our customs. It would be better for them if she would only accept a high lord's hand but at the worst they would be well cared for and lavished with attention at my Lady's court. If I go for them, then I will need to have an extremely strong geas in place to trap their dam because she must not be allowed to run amok here. The chamberlain has agreed to search out both a portal amulet and also the spell. I need to gather my kit together and start to make preparations. I look forward and the future is not bright but at least it holds hope.