Shadows Before the Sun

She continued on as I glanced around, expecting someone to appear and give us hell about littering on the amazing floor. But the paper stirred as though a breeze had come, though none had, and fire ate up the paper in a soft whoosh until it ceased to exist—ashes and all. Just like that.

A self-cleaning floor. God, these mages are brilliant.

I caught up to Sandra, wondering if my crafting sister knew how to make a floor clean itself, and wondering how the hell to get around the human/siren issue if not a daily injection of grimwyrd.

“Okay, so if not grimwyrd then what exactly? It’s what the human delegates used. It’s what every human going into siren territory uses.”

“You’ll see,” was all the answer Sandra deigned to give.

On Earth, sirens were required by law to wear voice-mods to subdue their natural lure and insanely potent voices. Sirens gladly wore the device since the idea of being followed around by a bunch of drooling men, women, children, and some animals was not exactly their idea of a good time. But here, things were different. This was their world where humans were a very small minority. It was up to the human traveler to protect themselves.

Because of my otherworldly genes, I was developing a partial immunity to the natural siren lure, but I didn’t want to chance it. I needed my wits about me, and grimwyrd was the only thing that blocked the lure.

The gallery dead-ended at a tall arched doorway. The hallway split, going left and right. Before we came to the intersection, the massive doors opened and three mages swept toward us. The two on the left and right were male, fit, with strawberry blond hair and dark, intelligent-looking eyes. Brothers, maybe even twins. They both wore the long forest green robes that signified their level as Magnus, which put them at a couple hundred years old even though they looked to be in their mid-thirties. The only level above Magnus was Elder, and the Magni had a couple hundred years more of study and training to reach that distinction, if ever. The woman who stepped from the middle with her hands reached out to Sandra’s in greeting, however, already had. She was an Elder.

Whatever she said to Sandra was lost on me because she spoke in the common tongue of Elysia, but it gave me time to study the newcomer. The woman had a kind face, hair on the blonder side of strawberry that had gone white at the temples pulled back into a high bun. Her robe was white, without a single embellishment. She was nearly as tall as me, and attractive with high cheekbones and proud nose.

“Forgive me,” she said, turning in my direction. “Sometimes I forget not everyone can understand our language. I’m Edainnué Lightwater.”

I held out my hand. “Charlie Madigan.”

Her smile grew wider, and she seemed so pleased. “Oh, I know. I know who you are, dear.” She introduced her nephews, Brell and Trahern Lightwater, and then invited us into her private study beyond the massive doors.

“I can’t tell you how delighted I am to see you, oracle. It has been too long, much too long. And to come with this one! A surprise to be sure. Tell me, Charlie Madigan,” she said as she sat down behind a low marble desk, “how do you feel?”

I was halfway down to one of the chairs opposite the desk when the odd question made me pause for a second. “I’m fine. How is it you know me exactly?”

“Hard not to know the person who called primordial darkness from one world to another.” She leaned against the high back of her chair and steepled her fingers under her chin, her shrewd bright blue eyes intent and curious. “It’s quite a feat, what you did. Some claimed impossible until you proved them wrong.”

I thought of Emma; I’d move mountains for her if I could. I ended up moving darkness. “It could’ve been anyone,” I said. “I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.”

“Dead, I hear, when you were given gifts of the noble and Adonai. Not what I would call the right time, eh?”

As nice as Edainnué Lightwater seemed, I hadn’t come to Ithonia to be interviewed or to chat about all the things that had happened to me. I’d come for my partner. “I survived. I see that as being in the right.”

Lightwater laughed and said to Sandra, “She does have spirit, you’re right.”

Sandra leaned over the arm of her chair toward me. “Just so you know, spirited is not the word I used to describe you.”

This made Lightwater laugh again, and my impatience rose. “I don’t mean to be rude, Ms. Lightwater, but —”

“Right, right. Fiallan, I know. Reclusive, the sirens of Fiallan, even from their own kind. Quite cut off from the rest of the world. Though, they choose to be that way. I will have Trahern and Brell take you both, but first you will need a few things for your journey and I would beg an audience with the oracle in return.”

“Accepted,” Sandra said, not giving me a chance to speak.

My cheeks grew warm and I squeezed my fists tightly. How long was an audience? Hank could be in trouble, hurt, dying for all we knew and they wanted to hang out and chat about the future?

“Charlie.” Sandra’s voice pulled me out of my internal tirade. Lightwater was eyeing me with interest, and her nephews stared at me with concern. “Your hand.”

I glanced down and saw the symbols on my right fist were beginning to glow. Shit. I pulled my hand back into the sleeve of my jacket and drew in a steadying breath. “It . . . does that sometimes,” I tried to explain, but it just sounded lame. “It’s just that . . . time is crucial, and I have to get to Fiallan as soon as possible.”

“You have the right of it, to want to move quickly. I understand. Your delegates came through a few days ago, and I believe they were attempting to free a siren who was wrongly accused, though the specifics were not told to me.” Lightwater studied me with ancient eyes, wise and knowing. “You will need a few things, of course.”

She stood, pushed her chair aside, and then bent to root in the large cabinet behind her. “First,” she said over her shoulder, “a cloak of the apprentice, and then . . . ah, there it is.” Lightwater gathered her finds and came around her massive desk, setting them on the corner. “Here, put this on.” She handed me a dark blue robe. “Fiallan doesn’t get many foreigners, but the occasional human student of the arcane isn’t unheard of.”

I stood and took the robe, grateful and suspicious at the same time. There was no reason for her to help me. True, the Adonai had no love for the sirens of Fiallan—even sirens from other cities had no care for their brothers and sisters—but to offer all this. Was it because of Sandra or some other reason?

“And this.” Lightwater presented an amulet.

I took it and examined the tear-shaped milky blue stone etched with a spiral of symbols from top to bottom. “What is it?”

“You’re about to enter the land of the sirens, Charlie. They wear no voice-mods like they must in the human world. You might be changing, evolving into a being capable of withstanding their voices like we do, but you’re not there yet, so let’s just play it safe and wear this at all times.” Ah, so here was the Elder’s version of grimwyrd.

“Wouldn’t want you drooling after every siren who crosses our path,” Sandra quipped.

I shot her a hard glare. “I’d planned to buy some grimwyrd.”

Lightwater only chuckled. “Two spirited ones, I’d say. And this is for language.” The Elder came at me with her pointer finger.

Instinctively, I stepped back. “What are you doing?”

“She’s making it so you can understand and converse in all languages,” Sandra said with a sigh. “Really, Charlie, try to keep up. It’s a simple syndialexi spell. Relax. Travelers do it all the time.”

Lightwater gave me a motherly smile. “It won’t hurt a bit.” Her pointer finger pressed against my temple as she muttered words unknown to me. Warmth radiated from her touch and spread through my skin. Gentle and un- intrusive and then it was gone almost as soon as it began.

“There. Now you may talk and understand.”

She was close to me, so close I could smell lavender and sage on her skin. “Why are you helping me?”

Lightwater leaned her hip on the edge of the desk and folded her hands in front of her. “Because I want something in return.”