Mercy Thompson 01-05 - THE MERCY THOMPSON COLLECTION
started to talk.
âA long time past in a land far from this one,â said Alicia in a storytellerâs voice, âthere was a fae daughter who could work magic in silver and so she was named. In a time where fae were dying from cold iron, their magics fading as the One Godâs ignorant followers built their churches in our places of power, the metals loved her touch, her magic flourished, and her father grew envious.â
âHe was a nasty piece of work,â said Samuel, his eyes on the womanâs wrinkled face that sometimes wore scars on her cheek or at the corner of her eye. âMercy would call him a real rat-bastard. He was a forest lord whose greatest magic was to command beasts. When the last of the giantsâwho were beasts controlled by his magicâdied, it left him a forest lord with no great power, and he resented it as Arianaâs power grew. When the fae lost their ability to imprint their magic on thingsâlike your walking staff, Mercyâshe could still manage it. People found out.â
âA great lord of the fae came,â continued Ariana. She didnât seem to be listening to Samuel, but she waited for him to quit speaking before she started. âHe required that she build an abominationâan artifact that would consume the fae magic of his enemies and give it back to him. She refused, but her father accepted and sealed the bargain in blood.â
She stopped talking, and after a moment Samuel picked up the story. âHe beat her, and she still refused. His was a magic sort of like the fairy queenâs, in that he could influence others. It might have been more useful, but he could only influence beasts.â
âSo he turned her into a beast.â Arianaâs voice echoed even though my office was full enough that a gunshot shouldnât echo, and it was eerie enough that Jesse scooted nearer to me.
Ariana wasnât looking at Samuel anymore, but I couldnât tell where she was looking instead. I donât think it was a happy place.
âIn those days, the faeâs magic was still strong enough that it was harder to kill them unless you had iron or steel,â said Samuel.
He didnât seem worried about Ariana, but Zee was. Zee had gradually moved off his chair until he was crouched between Jesse and the scarred fae woman.
âHe used his powers to torture her,â Samuel said. âHe had a pair of hounds who were fae hounds. Their howls would drop a stag in its path, and their gaze could scare a man to death. He set them at her every morning for an hour, knowing that as long as he went not one moment more than an hour, she could not dieâbecause that was part of these fear houndsâ magic.â
âShe broke,â Ariana said hoarsely. âShe broke and followed his will as faithfully as his hounds. She knew nothing but his commands, and she built as he desired, forged it of silver and magic and her blood.â
âYou didnât break,â said Samuel confidently. âYou fought him every day.â
Arianaâs voice changed, and she snapped, âShe couldnât fight him.â
âYou fought him,â Samuel said again. âYou fought, and he called his hounds until his magic failed him because he used it one time too often. I had this story from someone who was there, Ariana. You fought him and stopped, leaving the artifact incomplete.â
âIt is my story,â she growled, and she turned those black eyes on Samuel. âShe failed. She built it.â
âTruth belongs to no one,â Samuel told her. âArianaâs father visited a witch because his magic was insufficient to work his will.â There was something in his voice that made me think that he knew and hated that witch. âHe paid the price she demanded for a spell that combined witchcraft with his magic.â
âHis right hand,â said Ariana.
Samuel waited for her, but she just stared at him.
âI think he wanted to call his hounds,â Samuel said. âBut they had strayed too far for him to influence. He got something quite different.â
âWerewolves,â said Ariana, then she turned her back to us, hunching her shoulders. I saw that there were scars on her back, too.
âWe attacked because we had to,â Samuel said gently. âBut my father was stronger than we were, and resisted. He killed her father. We stopped, but she was so badly hurt. A
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