Breath of Air (8 page)

Rian nodded, reloading one of the rounds back into the revolver and clicking it into place. He replaced his ear plugs and then proceeded to point the revolver towards a target some twenty feet in the distance and cock it. Clynn motioned for Capri to step further back, up against the wall of the cage. She watched in fascination, realizing with a jolt that she had never even seen a gun fired until now.

After a moment of lining up the shot, Rian fired, and the bullet zoomed through the air with a loud pop, hitting the bull’s eye on the target, and proceeding to instantly explode with fire. Capri’s eyes widened with shock as sprinklers above the target sprayed some kind of white liquid over the fire, putting it out within seconds. All that was left of the target was smoldering remains.

Clynn and Roarke began to clap, so Capri followed suit, even though her hands were shaking slightly. Rian set the now empty revolver down on a nearby table, and turned to face his father.

“Good work, son. You’ll never guess it, but the one liquid we’ve discovered that can quickly put out eternal fire is milk. We think it’s because milk means life and fertility and, well, the Underworld just means death.” Roarke threw back his head and laughed at his own joke, and when he was finished he was still grinning. “C’mon, girl, let me show you what else we got over here.” Roarke motioned towards the wall full of weapons and led the way, Clynn and Capri walking behind him. Rian followed as well, silent as ever.

When they passed the other shooting cage, Clynn nodded to Balgaire, who tilted his head slightly in return. Capri caught a glimpse of his face before he turned away again, and she shuddered involuntarily. It amazed her how much of a contrast there was between the two older Furies. It was like light and dark, night and day…where Roarke was jovial and confident, Balgaire just seemed, well, sour.

“These are most of the weapons that we not only use in the field, but that we’ve come up against in the past from the enemy.” Roarke gestured to the wall, grinning. “As you can see, we have an expansive collection.” He began to walk along the wall, pointing to each of the different groupings of weapons, his voice getting more and more excited. “You have your semi-automatic pistols, revolvers, much like the one you just saw; your shot guns, pistol grip, sawed off, and complete; your semi-automatic rifles, long distance sniper. Then we have the more, well, unique weapons: your eternal fire whip, poisonous demon ninja star, and your full range of grenades.” He paused at the end of the display case, which held nearly a hundred different sized and shaped grenades. He grinned again, even more excited. “But now I have to show you the best part.”

He reached over and pulled a round from a box on the display case and handed it to Capri.

She stared at it for a moment, rolling it between her fingers. It looked almost identical to the demon fire bullet, only instead of there being fire in the glass casing, there was a smoky liquid.

“What is it?” She asked, glancing up to look at Roarke. His smile was that of a man who had all of the power in the world, and knew it.

“Liquid nitrogen.” He replied, winking at her. “Shoot a demon with that puppy and it freezes em from the inside instantaneously. Then, while their body is frozen, you smash them to pieces with either a hard object, or hit em with a normal lead bullet, and they shatter. Then, it’s bye, bye demon.”

Capri handed the round back, looking awestruck. “So they are not really that hard to kill then, these demons.”

“Not if you know demons the way I know demons.” He told her, looking smug. “And once Rian here takes over for me, he’s going to know everything I know, and maybe more.” He wrapped his arm around his son and grinned down at him, and Capri watched as Rian kept his gaze lowered, his face serious. He was certainly much more reserved than his father.

“Well, if that completes the tour here, we best be moving on.” Clynn said suddenly, looking over to Capri. “Ready?”

Her eyes were still on Rian, but she nodded and turned to look up at Roarke. “Thank you for showing me everything. It’s all very…fascinating.”

“Come back and see us anytime. Maybe I’ll even teach you how to shoot!”

Capri glanced over at the weapon filled display cases, feeling uneasy. She had never really thought about learning how to fire a weapon before…though it did look like it could be fun.

“Thanks, that would be nice.” She said with a wave as her father led her back towards the door and out into the hallway. When they were back in the main corridor, he turned to her.

“Feeling overwhelmed yet?” He asked, his soft gray eyes twinkling.

Capri snorted. “Please, I’ve just learned that I’ve been living amongst demons my entire life disguised as normal people. I think I’m past the point of being overwhelmed.”

Clynn just laughed and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“Just wait till you see where the Fates work. Roarke at least makes the Furies job sound adventurous, but the Fates are downright depressing. Just don’t take them too seriously and you’ll be fine.”

“Great.” Capri muttered as her father lead her towards another doorway further down.

The door they stopped at simply had the word FATES written across it, and when Clynn opened the door Capri noticed a similar hallway to the one that had lead to the Furies workplace, only this hallway had no doors, only a staircase at the far end that spiraled up into darkness.

The torches supplied some light, and when Clynn shut the door behind them Capri’s eyes had to adjust to the dimness. They walked along, then up the spiraling staircase. Up and up they went, nearly two stories up, when they finally came to a stop at a landing. There was a single door at the top, and Clynn knocked before opening it.

Nyxa opened the door a few moments later, and she looked extraordinarily annoyed. “What is it?” She barked, looking from Clynn to Capri with dark eyes.

“Good morning, Nyxa.” Clynn began, trying to be polite. “I am giving Capri a tour of the castle, and I was hoping you could spare a moment of your time to show her around.”

Nyxa rolled her eyes and sighed. “Clynn, we never have a moment to spare, you know this. It’s only ten am; I still have a hundred thousand more deaths to do. Show her around, but don’t expect me to play tour guide.” She scoffed, her raspy voice bitter. She immediately turned back around, leaving the door open, and headed back inside the room. “Nova, stop getting distracted, you’re getting backed up!”

Clynn motioned for Capri to enter, and when she did, her eyes immediately shot straight to the ceiling.

They were inside one of the four circular towers of the castle, and so where there would normally be a pointed dome ceiling, there was instead what looked like a swirling black hole. As she watched, she saw silvery figures floating up into the black hole from the right side of the room, while others seemed to float back out of it on the left side, forming some kind of weird cycle.

The walls of the tower had a few slitted windows that let in limited sunlight, and were made of plain stone, as was the floor. More light was coming from several torches lining the walls, though even when combined with the tiny windows, the room was very dim in comparison to where the Furies worked. Centered in the room were what looked like three work stations, complete with the Fates busily working away.

The room was completely quiet except for the sounds of working, and Capri thought it best to simply watch and not ask questions.

If she hadn’t known better, she would say that the Fates were seamstresses, busy making clothing. But, of course, she did know better, and instead she watched with awe as the Fate named Angora and the young teenage boy with the gypsy face were busy spinning thread on a traditional looking spinning wheel, feeding what looked like wool into it as Angora pressed a pedal with her foot, thus spinning the wool into thread as it wound around a spindle. Capri noticed that when the thread reached the spindle, one of the silvery figures would descend out of the black hole and attach itself to the thread, merging with it and changing it into a glowing silver strand.

From the spindle, the silvery thread was then winding its way down to the next station, where Morgaine sat with her daughter. They were seated at a long wooden table, and they appeared to be measuring the thread against a strange looking ruler with ancient looking symbols on it. They were marking their measurements with what looked like black chalk, and as they marked it, they would feed the thread onto another much larger spindle, nearly full, where the silvery thread was busy being unwound by Nyxa and her daughter, Nova, who were laying the thread on their own smaller table and cutting it with ancient looking metal shears. As they made each cut, the silvery glow would leave the thread and take form again as it flew back up into the black hole. The thread pieces were then discarded into a large pile on the floor.

“I’m sure it must be pretty obvious to you what they’re doing here.” Clynn whispered quietly in her ear. She turned to him and simply nodded. “Why don’t we move on?” He whispered again, ushering her towards the door. The Fates didn’t even seem to acknowledge them leaving as they all were so intently focused on their work, and Capri figured that it was probably for the best.

Once they were safely out onto the landing and down the stairs, Capri finally felt like she could speak.

“I can’t believe that they are real.” She murmured, the image of the silvery thread still in her mind. “For some reason, out of all of this, they were the hardest to believe.”

Clynn chuckled as they emerged back out into the main corridor. “The Fates are certainly unique, and their purpose is extraordinarily important. They may be rough around the edges, but you saw how hard they work. Yet they refuse to bring in reinforcements like the Furies do. The Fates prefer to do everything themselves, that’s just their way.”

Capri stopped then, pausing midstep as she stared at her father. “Where does that black hole go to?”

“It takes the soul where it belongs, whether it be heaven or hell.” He said simply.

She nodded, feeling incredibly small once again.

“By the way, you saw the boy in there? With Angora? His name is Alastor, and he is the first male Fate in over a thousand years.” Clynn smiled at her. “Needless to say, Angora and Thea were both thrilled to welcome him into the world. Male Fates tend to have powers that the female Fates don’t possess, and so they are keeping a close eye on him, waiting to see if he is unique in any way.”

“Wow, that’s a lot of pressure to put on someone.” Capri’s eyes widened as she thought of the gypsy faced boy spinning the thread, so intent on his work.

Clynn smiled at her. “In many ways, we are all under more pressure than we should be, but that is just the way it is.”

“I understand.” Capri smiled then, glancing around at the other doors. “Where to next?”

“Rohan is the last on this side of the castle, let’s go visit him and Rhiannon. They should be in the Greenhouse today.”

♦ ♦ ♦

CHAPTER FIVE

Nearly two hours later, Capri had seen the rest of the castle, and had walked what felt like several miles just getting around from room to room. She had seen Rohan’s Greenhouse, with its glorious plants and luscious fruit trees. Lucian’s tower, the walls covered in streaming water that pooled underneath a wooden platform floor. The Muses’ tower, with burning incense and charming Celtic music. Blythe’s dungeon of fire, equipped with a large, floating orb that showed the center of the Earth in its glowing core.

Her father also showed her a vast library on the ground floor, with rows upon rows of hundreds of thousands of books reaching all the way up to a golden coffered ceiling, flanked by a solid wall of glittering windows facing the courtyard.

It was, quite simply, more than she could have ever imagined. And, also quite simply, it was her home. From now until forever.

“My office is up here.” Clynn said cheerfully as he opened one of the few remaining doors in the corridor and led her up a long flight of stairs. When they reached the landing, there was a single door, leading to what Capri assumed was the last of the four towers. When he opened the door and she stepped inside, her mouth fell open in honest surprise.

The walls were the same gray stone as outside, much like the other three towers had been. However, unlike the other towers, this room was open and airy, with soft natural light coming from several large, open arched windows that spiraled up towards the ceiling.

Gracing the stone floor were several plush light blue rugs, and in the center sat what looked like a stone bird bath. Only, as she looked at it closer, it wasn’t filled with water, but with what looked like white smoke.

Entranced, she let her eyes wander up towards the ceiling again, which to her delight she realized was covered with misty clouds, sunlight shining softly golden through them, just like the atrium. Birds flew in and out of the open windows freely, spiraling and singing as they flitted through the cylinder tower.

“This is where I spend most of my time, where you will too.” Clynn said suddenly, his hand resting on her shoulder.

“This is beautiful.” She murmured, her eyes following the birds as they darted through the windows.

Clynn chuckled. “It’s been this way for centuries, every Air Dryad before me and you has worked in this same room.”

Capri smiled, her eyes shifting to her father. “I love it. It’s perfect.”

She turned to look at the bird bath, pointing at it. “What does that do?”

“Ah, yes.” Clynn walked towards it, chuckling and beckoning her to follow. “Why don’t I just show you, since you wouldn’t believe me if I tried to tell you?”

It was her turn to laugh, only to have that laughter evaporate the moment he raised his arms as he stood in front of the bird bath, his hands open and spread, and the smoke rose into the air, swiftly forming a shifting white column that reached up to the high ceiling.

The column started to swirl as Clynn motioned with his arms, his hands not touching the smoke but moving it as though it were solid mass. Appearing slowly through the mists, Capri could see images, clear as though they were photographs. The smoke slowed in its movement as the images came sharply into focus.