Chronicles- A Devil's Daughters Crossover- Book Two(Published Feb 2017)

Secluded Shadows

   The dungeons beneath The null spread out like a maze, one had to know where they were going to navigate them; or use your senses to guide you, if you were lucky enough to possess the knowledge to do so, and only on levels one through six. You went any lower, and none of your 'gifts' would work. A special little measure that had been taken to ensure that never again, would the Null fall to the enemy.
    Didn't help keep the enemy out, when they were already inside your fucking prison, and wreaking havoc. Gods, this day was just getting better and better, Not!
   Malice had been searching for hours, since that bastard had felt the cool of her steel and fallen to its knees in the war room; leaving a big, thick, sticky black mess, that Lord Eroch was probably still pissed about. But his anger, was nothing compared to the rage that coursed through the Valkyrie's veins.
    They had tampered with her children, and abducted her husband, and that was something, that was so far from being acceptable in Malice's books. Like, who the fuck, does that? An enemy, a Shadow. It had been a Shadow who'd stepped before her, and that Shadow had danced with her blade, and lost. She knew her husband, she could hear the tones in his voice and see the look on is face; even now, she pictured those deep hazel eyes and that shaggy brown hair and beard... those chiseled muscles...
    "Fuck!" She shouted, dragging her sword across the bars, letting them ring out as the cries grew louder.
    "Shut that fucking noise up, bloody bastards, having no sense to let the dead rot in peace!" The voice was old, shaky and haunted.
     "I will forever be sorry..." Malice approached the thing's cell, taking in the grotesque nature on his deformities.
     A giant lump over one shoulder, his forehead burnt and mangled, his hair falling out in patches and his eyes... Gods, those were what nightmares were made of, causing thousands to tremble beneath their sheets; too afraid to close their eyes. But not Malice, not today.
    "First the Null falls and my slumber is ruined, and then again, with the noise you all made the last time, and now this? Where is your Lord of Darkness? I was promised solace for my confession..."
     "And you are, who?"
    "My name matters not, for my time has passed. No one remembers my deeds, both good and bad, and I sleep in this darkness, waiting for my sentence to pass. And what do I get? You, a bloody Bitch, with your sword and your noise..."
    "Again, I will forever be sorry..." Malice replied, her claws lengthening as she approached the door, and then the lock. "Allow me..." She went on, a grin creeping across her face as her eyes narrowed, "... to present compensation." She laughed, her feet moving swiftly as her sword came down across the male's chest.
    "Bloody.... hell!" The male let out, his words gurgling in his throat as his lungs filled with fluid and choked the life out of him.
    "It is pretty bloody down here, isn't it?" Malice chuckled, using a sliver of his shirt to wipe away the mess on her blade.
    He gurgled once more, and Malice had to listen close, "Fuck, you!"
   "Oh, I'm sorry, you said you wanted to be left in peace, not pieces!" She sighed, shaking her head. "Perhaps next time you think twice, about calling me a Bitch?" But the sigh escaped him and those deathly haunting eyes became nothing more than little beads of black. "Huh, maybe there won't be a next time?"
     She had no idea if the thing was going to come back at all, with the Courts being over run with dead souls, all of them waiting for Judgment, it was a definite, five hundred years before he reared his ugly ass again. And good thing too, cause the stench he was letting off, was making Malice want to vomit.
    "Dammit!" She let out, looking down at the mess she had left. "He's not, gonna be happy about this!" She shook her head again, and turned from the cell, locking the door behind her.

                                                                                         ***

   The room was dark, but Navina could feel the presence all around her.
    "Marena?" She called out, expecting the female to reply, but she didn't.
   Marena wasn't talking to anyone, or at all. Not with her whole' induced coma' thing she had going on. Like, how long was someone supposed to just, sleep? And for what?
    'You know why!'  The voice sighed, and the room almost seemed to grow brighter. 'Come, tell me what worries you!'
    Okay, so she could talk, but only a handful of people could hear her, and an even smaller handful, who could actually reply. Navina, was one of them, and Mia was the other. Markus, Malice, even Lync at times, they could all hear the words she spoke, but speaking back to her... now that was a feat! It drove Malice crazy, and Navina felt as if that was the problem, you put Malice and Marena in the same room, even mention Marena's name in her presence...
    Malice couldn't control her anger when it came to Marena, her rage was just too great. She had loved her, and lost her, only to find her again, shattered, broken. They had ruined what she was...
   'I am far from ruined, my sister!'
   Now that, sounded, strange. Her sister...
   'Well I am! We were sired by the same male, born under the same moon to the same, wretched female...'
     As if Navina needed to be reminded. She had watched that vision ply out, over and over again; and it was getting old.
    'It is, what happened, Navina. We cannot hide from it, only embrace it, for it makes us who we are!'
    'Daughters of a whore? And trapped in a prison our so called protectors, have made for us?' She snapped back with her mind, shouting at the top of her lungs, though no words escaped her lips.
    'Nonsense! We are Kor'Mhia, Navina! Foran, was our Father...'
    'The son of Pathen, oh joy! Our so-called grandfather is out for blood, our, blood, Marena!'
    'Did you visit with Orella?'
    'Yes!'
    'And?'  Marena was waiting for more, but Navina had idea what 'it' was.
   'And, what? I don't know what was said, I met with the female, and then the Elders whisked Malice away...'
    'Then it is done!'  Marena sighed, like, actually sighed, as if she was finally at rest; but Navina was more confused than ever.
   Orella had spoken of a male, one they had driven from the North with their storms, that he had vanished into the mountain mists, just as talk of the blood moon and dragons arose; and then the Elders had burst in, and there was talk of a ritual, and the need for it to be completed...
   'What is done? What ritual did Malice partake in?'
    'That is for Malice to explain, as she sees fit! But know that she has helped to seal the pact between our two peoples, and the Kor'Mhia will never refuse them now!'
   'Our two peoples? I don't even know who my people are! The Kor'Mhia are a mystery to me...'
    'And the El'Terrans? The Valkyrie...'
   Just as Malice could not bare to say Marena's name, the same was true in reverse. They had loved, and lost, and loved again, and lost... So many lovers, so many triangles, but the bond between them, was one that even Navina could feel.
   'They are my friends, not my people!'
    'And, Lync?'
    "What does he have to do, with any of this?" Navina shouted out loud.
    'Do I have to remind you, I cannot hear you when you speak in tongue!'
    'I said, what does he have to do with any of this?'
    'Your vision, he was there!'  Marena laughed, 'Tell me, tell me that you saw it, that you saw him, and her?'
    'Wait, what? Who is she?'
    'The male lay him at your feet, Navina....'
    The bundle, the one she had seen in the vision. He had placed it at her feet, before his life had slipped away.
    'Yes, Navina!'
    'Lync?'  Navina mumbled.
    'Yes!'
     What was she saying? That was so long ago, how could... He was just a child then, and infant...
   'He is, that child, Navina!'
    'And what did I do with him? Where did I take him? What, happened to us?'  She was losing it, kind of like Malice had earlier, but this, this was stupid nuts. How could Marena have the answers?
    'I do not hold all the answers, Navina! No one knows what you did with the child, not even the Order. That is locked in your mind, and Pathen has made sure you would forget it!'
    'But why? I don't understand, why was I made to forget?'
    'All I know, is that, that night, it was his race, that was supposed to vanish, not you! That child was supposed to die with his Father, but you, intervened, and that drove Pathen quite mad!'
    'I know that story, I want to know why it pissed him off so bad. What was so important, that Lync and his kind, whatever they are, had to die? What big plans, included the mass murder of an entire race?'
   'I do not know, Navina, but there is a reason, that Pathen did not want him to survive, and the two of you rank higher on his list, than even Malice.'
    'Malice? What about Malice?'
    'Besides being a Valkyrie, and the niece of Janice? How about the fact, that she was my...'
    'She was your what, Marena? Your lover? We already know all that.'
    'She was far more than that! Far more! And from what, I, can remember, that alone, would cause Pathen to head for war.'
     'Why? Why in all of this Verse, would he go to war, over Malice?'
     'It is hard, not to fight, for the one you love!'  Marena sighed again, and the shudders ran through Navina.
    What the hell was she saying? Pathen, loved, Malice? When? How? Where? Did Malice know this?
   'My mission, was to recruit her, for him! He wanted a mate as formidable as she, but when I... I just couldn't...'
    'You knew what was coming, and you gave her the scrolls and sent her away!'  Navina gasped, as she saw what Marena was seeing; heard, what she was hearing.
    'I had no choice, he was going to turn her, and I could not let that happen!'
    'Oh Gods, Marena! But how, how do you know all of this? You would have had to...'
    'I, was Pathen's body slave, I did for him, whatever he wished, and I was present for most of is business meetings. He allowed me to hear some things, and hid others...'
    'And that is how you know about Lync? But that was so long ago?'
   'Pathen was not just observing time, he was traveling through, Navina, and I did not see what happened that night, Malice told me...'
    'Excuse you? How the fuck did Malice know? And she's never said anything?'
    'She was there, because I sent her there, on his orders. And she has not said anything, because she doesn't remember, I could not let her remember.'  And with that, Marena's mind was closed to her.
   There were no more words, no more sighs, just a peaceful sleep, as it had been before.
    "Don't do this, Marena! I need to know!" Navina shouted at her, and felt the hands on her shoulders.
    "It's alright!" His voice shot through her. "I've got you!"
    The one and only constant, the only and only thing that kept her grounded, was Lync. Gods, how was she supposed to explain this to him?
    "You don't have to!" He groaned, burying his face in her neck. "And no, I can't explain it, but I can hear every whisper that comes from your mind..." He kissed her ear. "I know, that you will figure it out, and that's all I need to know!"
   Oh Gods, he knew exactly what to say,  exactly what to do... He was her everything, and she had... she had saved him, from Malice.
    "She will understand!" Lync growled in her ear.
    "I don't think she will!" Navina mumbled. "There's too much... too much happening, all at once!"
    "She is Valkyrie, Vina, she is stronger than any female I have met, save one.." He growled again, leading her towards the door. "Now come, we will find Malice, and we will set this right...."
   Navina couldn't argue with him, she never could. Perhaps, that was why Pathen feared him... And Malice, Pathen, loved, Malice? For real? That, was not going to go over well, not one bit. Perhaps, she would save that little morsel, until after Reh was found, and on the mend; for the Valkyrie was going to find her husband, wherever the Shadow had hidden him.