Shattered Silence

“As much as you look like your mother, your personally reflects me.” I whip my head to the left to see Bartholomew. He leisurely walks towards me taking in the darkened garden. “Finding solitary in the shadows.” He grins and meets my eyes. “Just like me.”

“I’m nothing like you.” I back away, putting a boulder between us. His grin falls and he shifts from foot to foot, causing the shadows around him to shift and sway. “I’m still an Ordinary. I am no daemon,” I spit out.

Bartholomew put his hands behind his back and tilts his head forward and fuses through the boulder. I stumble back, falling to the ground suddenly fearful that I angered him. He steps forward and kneels. “I am your father and the sooner you accept that the better.” I force myself from backing away. “I know you don’t want to be half anything, let alone daemon, but you are. Nothing is going to change that.” He waves his hand and the shadows wrapped around them. “Not even magic.”

I stare at him defiantly. Besides Deimos and my horns there was nothing that gives away that I am anything more than Ordinary. He stands up and offers his hand, “You will soon realize if an Other truly wishes to harm you, you would be dead.” I still don’t take his hand. “Rune, are you that close minded? You’ve seen for yourself that the shadows are sanctuary. I am fairly sure you have a familiar lurking around.” He casts a quick glance around, but Deimos stays in hiding. “Just take a chance.”

Everything in my head is screaming not to trust Others at all, but my heart is somewhere else. It knows the truth, even though it hurt to accept what my heart already knows. It knows who I am and what I can do but what my mind had been lead to believe is trying to steer me away. However there is a small sliver of me that knows the truth, back when I saw a family of Sulkies get slaughtered for their pelts, I knew and doubt started growing. The problem is I was taught to always trust what my head says, because matters of the heart tend to kill.

I take a deep breath, close my eyes and clasp Bartholomew’s hand. He pulls me to my feet. I find myself in surprise that nothing happens. I don’t even flinch. It is strange I thought I would’ve noticed something different but his hand feels like any other handshake.

“I guess I take back what I said earlier.” I open my eyes to find Bartholomew staring at the space my horns occupy. I jump back and explore my head. Sure enough my horns are back. I look out of the corner of my eye and see my horns peeking back. They are thicker now, with a creamy tan color and within the spiral are amber etchings of symbols. I glance at Bartholomew’s and notice his are straight black each laced with silver etchings that seem to shift with his posture.

“Why are mine different?” I voice, before I can cover the relief in my voice.

“Like you’ve been saying, you’re half human. At least partly.”

Then it dawns on me. “How can you hide in plain sight? You have horns?” He looks at me with puzzlement.

“So do you.”

“But the only thing that’s been able to hide my horns was a potion I got from a witch.”

His eyebrow arch in shock. “I can hide my horns whenever the need arises” Suddenly his horns start to recede.

“How?”

“It’s a natural occurrence. It is the same as moving my arm.” He stares at my quietly then speaks. “You can’t hide yours?” I shake my head.

“I’ve tried.”

“That’s what happens when Others and Ordinary’s mix. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.” He gestures to me like I don’t already know.

“You sound like you’ve seen this before?”

“I have. You’re not the first child I have conceived with an Ordinary,” he says nonchalantly. I stiffen. “Just recently, I might add, one of my daughters was killed in a raid. Now she had more daemon than human. I knew from the start she was going to be powerful, unfortunately her being half human she would only come into her daemoness during puberty.” He shrugs and smiles at me, but it falls when his eyes meet mine. “Rune, shadow daemons aren’t known for being monogamous. We don’t mate for life. We have duty and honor. Tis no surprise you became a solider.”

“How can you be so crass about my mother, about your daughter?!”

“Your mother is a whore. I happened to be going through the capital and met her. At the time she was seamstress and a mega supporter of the Cuff. Even though I disliked her view of things and tried to change them, her beauty captivated me. We meet every time I came to the capital for Mathias’s court, we would meet. After the third time I realized she had become a whore and cut all connections to her. A man of my standing couldn’t have anything to do with a whore like her.”

I grit my teeth as I try to keep my calm façade in place but every word out of his mouth makes me realize he is a schmuck and he is no help to anyone. He may have standing with the rebels and the humans, but not with me. My acceptance of Others slowly starts to go down. Finally I can’t stand what he is saying. Without a word I turn and walk away.

I let my shoulders slump when I felt Bartholomew slip into the shadows. I always wanted to know who my father was but this isn’t what I imagine. I wonder if everybody in his tribe is like this. I wonder if it is true what he said about shadow daemons.

“Rune right?” I fall from my thoughts as I slam into someone. “Whoa there.” I look up into inky black eyes and hair. He put his hands on my arms to stabilize me. Suddenly I feel sick to my stomach and try to jerk back, but he holds onto me.

“Let go.” I struggle against his grip.

“Listen and listen to me carefully. I don’t care that you are Bartholomew’s biological daughter and I don’t care that your friends with an elf. I do care about my position and I won’t have someone like you taking it from me.” The more I struggle the more I feel sick to my stomach. My legs start to shake and my bones start to ach.

“Who are you?” I whimper out. Just before my vision gets blurry I notice his eyes are rimmed with a sickly greenish yellow iris.

“Ragnar, appointed heir to the Aruric throne and future chief of the shadow tribe.” His grip tightens and he pulls me close. “I will not hesitate to destroy you if you get in my way,” he threatens. I gage as I smell his breath, barely holding back vomit. “Understand?”

Before I could nod or speak, loud noises echo off the hallway walls as a rush of people near by. Ragnar tries to pull me into the shadows to finish our conversation, but I quickly remember what Deimos taught me and push the shadows away from his reach. Ragnar growls and shakes me violently. “Stupid bit-”

“Rune! What’s going on here?” I turn towards Kalix’s outraged voice but can’t see her. I wonder if it looks like Ragnar is holding me intimately. Suddenly I could feel scorching heat.

“Kalix! Stop!” Tristan shouts and then I am being pushed into another body. My stomach pain and aching bones disappear and my vision clears. Tristian has Ragnar held up against the wall as Kalix looks between us with confusion and anger in her eyes until she see me vomit up diner. The residue sick keeps me hurling, even after my stomach is empty. Slowly it dissipates and I became aware of a warm hand rubbing small circles on my back. I quickly recognize Tristan’s voice as he mutters something under his breath.

The rolling in my stomach subsides and I looked up. Tristan smiles at me and hands me a handkerchief. Then Kalix catches my eye as she hold light in her hand and corners Ragnar. She isn’t hurting him but by the way her lips are moving she is giving him a piece of mind.

“You feeling better?” I nod and stand up trying to shake off Tristan’s help. However my legs are still unstable and I tumble into him. “Here let me help you.” He ducks under my arm draping it around his neck and shoulder, while his arm wraps around my waist. He slowly glides me down the hall towards the mass of Others heading for Thira and the healing room.

Kalix comes around my other side and copies her brother and helps me down the hall. “Ragnar is a sicko. His effects should wear off soon.” I nod my head as my body slowly refreshed itself.



“What the heck Tristan?” Tuulikki stabs her finger in Tristan’s chest. “Hayden’s bleeding to death and you pass him off to Thira to help the half- daemon?” Tuulikki shouts in outrage. Tristan stands his ground.

“Thira ordered me to move and ‘get out of the way’. Do not be angry at me Thira knows what she’s doing.” Tuulikki goes to argue back but suddenly Thira enters the room wiping blood from her pale blue hands.

“Tuulikki I stabilized Hayden go to him and leave them alone.” Tuulikki gives one last fleeting glare in my direction and disappears. I try to shrink as Thira looks at me. Her iridescent dragonfly wings shimmer and her antenna’s twitch as she takes in my appearance. Her multi lens eyes blink once then she speaks.

“Rune I take.” I nod and cover my mouth with my hand. Thira shimmers in place and suddenly shoves a bucket in my hand. “Don’t make a mess I will be right back.” She shimmers again and is gone.

Tristan sits next to me and continues to rub my back between my shoulder blades. I hold back my bile barley and sigh. “What happened to Hayden?”

“Ardor and Hayden were out collecting herbs and ran into a scouting party for an Ordinary town a couple klicks away. They caught Ardor casting a spell and assumed Hayden was an Other and attacked. Ardor was barely able to get them away without leading them to the kept.” Kalix runs her hand through her hair, she is stressed out. I can feel her excess energy rolling off her.

I jump as Thira shimmers into the room again. She suddenly appears at my side and instantly injects me with something. I yelp. “What was that?”

“That was a shot. It will make you sleep but it will also get rid of the sick.” Before I can so much as nod I go out like a light. I dream of daemons from the capital, figures of my solider family and the shadow tribe mixed together making fiends. Words whisper through my dream demanding I reveal where I am. The voice is getting stronger ripping through my mind searching for a location and suddenly it was gone in a flurry of feathers.

My eyes opened to a dark room. The shadows make it late afternoon, almost dusk. I slept the night and day away. I shift slightly realizing I am lying against someone. I sit up as slowly as I can, not to disturb my bed partner. I smile in spite of myself. Tristian lays there, eyes closed and a smile on his lips.

Slowly I got off the bed and leave the room. Two doors down, I look into a window and see Hayden asleep with Tuulikki in his arms. They look peaceful. I rub the back of my neck. Hayden was innocent and look what happened. This has to stop.

Knowing the scouting party, they probably informed the king. I had to know who they were sending and when. I scan the hallway and find no one lurking. I close my eyes and think of the clearing Tristan took me too. It was half way to the town. I find my center and reach out with my being. Following Deimos’s training I jump.

I tumble through space landing on my stomach as I go to get up; I am knocked back down by another. I roll my eyes as Ash tumbles to the ground.