Page 44 of Winter Queen
“That bawbag really didn’t feel anything. I’ve never been in a mind like his. It was empty and full at the same time. Like it wasn’t all his own thoughts, like he was just a vessel and someone had filled it with their own ideas and commands.”
“The Morrigan,” I say darkly and he nods.
“Her traces were all over his mind. Her influence runs deep, much deeper than just creating him. She’s fed him her lies from the moment he was created, and she’s reinforced them every day. He’s been like a sponge, drinking it all up, feeding off it. He dinnae feel but he has desires – the same as the Morrigan’s. He wants what she wants, and he will do whatever it takes to please her. I guess he might have enough of a connection to her that he’d feel if she’s happy, and that might fill the hole in him for just a bit. It’s sad really, how he’s her lapdog despite his obvious intelligence.
“She’s got complete control of him, and I dinnae think there’s a way of breaking it. If we set him free, he’ll run back to her… if he can still run.” His voice turns ominous. He must have wrought quite a lot of damage while extracting information from the clone’s mind.
“No way are we letting him go anywhere. He stays here, even if he rots in dungeons for the rest of his life,” I say, ignoring how violent that sounds. As a ruler, you sometimes have to make unpleasant decisions. And in his case, it’s not even all that unpleasant. He hurt me – the cut on my throat is still throbbing – and would hurt my Guardians if he could.
“I was speaking hypothetically,” Arc replies with a grim smile. “After what I’ve seen, I’d never let him out of my sight. He’s done terrible things, Wyn. Believe me, ye don’t want ta ken about most of them. And there are others like him. I’m not sure how many, but we need to be prepared to see more fake Crispins in the future. But what’s important is that I’ve seen the Morrigan’s lair.”
“Please don’t tell me it’s Castle Tioram?” I ask and he shakes his head.
“No. Kind of. Tioram is a Gate, but one that only leads to her Realm, nowhere else.”
“Wait, what? The Morrigan doesn’t have a Realm. My mother expelled her and gave her lands to other Gods.”
Arc shakes his head. “Sadly, that’s no longer true. She’s made herself a new Realm from the ruins of several zones of the Demon Realm. She started off with one zone, enslaving the demons. Then she used them to conquer more, until she ruled most of the demon lands. She knows we’re monitoring the Gates leading to the Demon Realm, so she built her own.”
“That’s impossible,” Storm interrupts. “Nobody can build Gates by themselves.”
Arc sighs. “Ye can if ye sacrifice a thousand demons ta create it.”
I think all of us are dumbstruck by that. I mean, I don’t like demons and I killed quite a few myself. But killing a thousand of them, and probably a lot more while she conquered their Realm in the first place… wow.
“So that means Castle Tioram is just a front to prevent us from knowing that she lives in the Demon Realms?”
“Aye,” Arc confirms. “And if we’d gone there tomorrow, we’d likely only seen a ruined castle. But now that we ken, we can lie in wait and enter the Gate when someone exits.”
“What? No way are you entering the Demon Realm by yourselves,” I protest. “That’s what we have our army for. We know her weak spot now, we can send our forces to Tioram and assault her on her own territory. That’s much better than waiting for her to attack us. We finally have an advantage, let’s use it.”
“She has hundreds of thousands of demons, Wyn. We won’t stand a chance with a frontal assault. We need ta use stealth, sneak in and strike her before she knows we’re there.”
I frown, giving him my most disapproving stare. “I hope that ‘we’ refers to some of the army’s scouts, not any of you four.”
He has the decency to look slightly guilty.
"We are the best there are," he says without false pride. It's a statement, the truth. "If we want ta succeed, we need ta send the best."
I’m tempted to order them not to go, but I know that they really are the best.
“Not all of you though, right?” I ask, keeping my voice as steady as possible. I don’t want to seem too needy. It’s a simple fact though that I need them.
“I will stay here,” Crispin says softly.
I know he’s not just doing that to keep my company, but also because his reaction to the Morrigan might be unpredictable. Who knows what hold she still has over him. She had decades to manipulate him, and from the shadows that have been clouding his gaze recently, it’s clear that he’s been struggling to fight his demons.
I take his hand and he pulls me into his arms from behind, putting his hands on my stomach and his chin on my head. It’s a weird kind of supporting hug, where I can take in everyone else’s reaction but still get the benefit of his soothing touch.
“Her illusions are strong,” Arc remarks, almost as if in awe. “I’ll need ta be there to break them and shield our minds.” He gives me a big smile. “Dinnae worry, Wyn, the twins and me are a good team. We’ll be back before ye know it.”
“Don’t patronise me,” I hiss, but I’m smiling to show that I don’t quite mean it. Maybe I do. I don’t know, my emotions are all over the place. Not long ago, I would have fought to come with them, but now I have responsibilities. I can’t leave the Realm without a ruler. My mother is still in bed, too weak to even sit up on her own.
When did I become so… royal?
“You always have been,” Crispin whispers into my ear.
It takes me a moment to realise that he answered a question I didn’t ask out loud.
