“Damn,” he said. “It’s ending, and there’s nothing here to see. I’m very disappointed. The legends must have been the ravings of drunks and braggarts.”

  The woman snorted as if in disbelief. Trev turned his attention back to her.

  “What am I, then?” she demanded. “A turnip in the road, crushed by a wagon wheel?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m sure you’re a very interesting person.”

  She came closer then, peering into his face. Then she took a step back.

  “I see the blood of Oberon in you. I can’t fathom why you aren’t affected by my charms.”

  “Were you trying to charm me? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend.”

  She shook her head bemusedly. “I think you’re the one who’s charming me. I find you as fascinating as you find me dull. What a strange turn of events. One would think you’d created this show of colored light to attract me rather than the other way around.”

  Finally, the lady had Trev’s full attention. “You summoned the rainbow?” he said. “You? To lure me here?”

  “Yes, Trev,” she said. “I did.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “I am Lady Morgana.”

  “Tell me, fair Lady, how did you do it?”

  She sat on a tree stump and smiled at him. It seemed to him that her confidence had returned somewhat.

  “You don’t care who I am,” she said thoughtfully. “You don’t care that I lured you here—you don’t even want to know why. What you want to know is how I did it...”

  “Exactly.”

  “I think you have a weakness as great as your strength, boy. Do know what it is?”

  “My mother says I can’t keep my nose out of things.”

  “Exactly,” Morgana said. “You’re curious. You seek the dangerous and the unknown, which are one and the same.”

  Trev shrugged. He’d been lectured by adults on precisely these points all his life. “Are you going to tell me how you did it or not?”

  “I will, if you strike a bargain with me.”

  Trev hesitated. He watched the woman as she sat and stared like a cat about to pounce. He did not fear her physically, as she appeared unarmed and relatively harmless. He gathered from her behavior that she thought he should have been overwhelmed by her charms, but he’d felt nothing special in the way of attraction toward her. He’d already kissed half the young maidens in the Haven, and this older woman seemed no more enticing than any of them had. If anything, he found her overbearing attitude off-putting.

  “What sort of bargain?” he asked at last.

  “First,” Morgana said, “you must lay with me. Right here, under the dying light of this rainbow on these sodden leaves.”

  Trev considered. His mother had made him promise not to seduce young girls of the Haven. She’d insisted he was too young and they were the same. But this woman wasn’t from home. She didn’t fall under any such promises. He smiled with mild interest. He was a young half-elf, after all, and they weren’t known for their shyness.

  “I agree. And what would the second thing be?”

  She clasped his hands with her smaller fingers.

  “Second, you will find something for me. You will seek it with all your heart and bring it back to me. And you must avoid telling people what it is you seek.”

  Trev frowned. “Find what?”

  “The Quicksilver Jewel. The stone that is the same color as your shining hair.”

  Trev’s frown deepened. He snorted. “Is that all? I can’t promise to do that. I have no idea where it is. No one else does, either. You’re trying to give me a fool’s errand. I won’t spend the rest of my days in your service seeking a none-such.”

  “You don’t have to seek forever. Just for a year and a day. That’s all, and if you tried your best and failed, you will be released from your bargain.”

  Trev considered. He had never bedded a woman before and was as curious about the process as any young man his age might be. He’d always thought he would end up going to the Twilight lands to find a nice elf girl, or falling in love with a Haven girl the way his father Puck had done. Marriage had been drummed into him as a clear first step. But this way—this way seemed quicker and infinitely simpler. Better still, if he gave into this woman’s advances, he would not be breaking any vow to his mother.

  On the second point, he was less interested. To him, a year was still a long time. His lifespan would measure many centuries, possibly even millennia. But he didn’t want to waste an entire year on a fool’s errand.

  “A year is too long,” he said. “I’ll seek the Jewel until Midsummer’s Eve—no longer.”

  Morgana’s mood shifted with startling rapidity. She made a hissing sound, ripped her hands from his and slapped him with the same fingers that had been caressing his a moment before.

  “Such impudence!” she said.

  Trev touched his cheek, finding three bleeding lines there. Her nails were amazingly sharp. “I take it you reject my offer? A pity. I was looking forward to the first part.”

  She looked him up and down hotly. Finally, she sighed and nodded her head. “You intrigue me more than I do you. I find the situation disturbing. Knowing you are at least part Faerie, I hope you take your vows seriously.”

  “I do.”

  “Very well, let us consummate this deal now. The blood-color is already gone. The purple has faded to umber as well. Let’s make love in the heart of the green, where the light still shines the brightest.”

  And so Trev took her into the green light. He laid with her there upon the moldering leaves with the brilliance of the rainbow shining down on his bare back. Morgana left many bleeding lines on his skin, but he didn’t feel the razor-like cuts until later when he put his tunic back on and they chafed and burned at the touch of cloth.

  Trev found the entire experience exhilarating, and no longer regretted that he had chased down the rainbow to its termination.

  “Now,” he said as they lay entwined. “Tell me how you summoned the rainbow. Do you possess Lavatis?”

  “No,” she said. “That Jewel calls upon an elemental form of the rainbow—a mindless living creature. My power over it is not so great. I can only call the light and place it where I will.”

  “But how?”

  “With this,” she said, tapping the Jewel on her breast.

  Trev looked at it, and nodded. “Is it a Jewel of Power then? If so, which one?”

  She laughed and pushed him away from her. “That was not part of our bargain. Now, you must go and seek for me, until Midsummer’s Eve.”

  He pressed himself close to her and kissed her again. She resisted at first, but then allowed the contact.

  When he had parted company with Morgana, he was stricken by a single thought: Had he found the good face of the rainbow—or the evil hind end of it?

  He could not be certain if the witch he’d met qualified as a blessing, or a curse.

  * * *

  Mari, hearing his tale, was quite certain that her innocent son had found a terror rather than a treasure. She was horrified that he’d lost his virginity to some unknown beastly woman of power. She raged in turns at the temptress Morgana and then at silly Trev. She lectured him on a dozen points at great length, until Trev found his attention wandering again.

  “How could you get yourself into something like this, Trev?” she demanded.

  “Pardon me, Mother,” Trev said, leaning his cheek upon his fist. “But didn’t you fall for Dad in a similar fashion?”

  Mari’s eyes narrowed. Trev knew this sort of talk was certain to annoy her, but he’d become annoyed himself.

  “When I fell prey to your father, the Faerie were new to the Haven. At that point, never in my entire life did I really expect to meet them. They seemed exciting and different. But the situation was entirely different in your case. You’ve met the Faerie many times—you’ve lived with them. You knew what you were getting into. You knew the dangers of chasing a rainbow, but you did it anyway.”

  Trev heaved a sigh. “I suppose. But we both know why I did it. You have to understand the urge I feel to play with them, to seek them out. You did the same with Father, even after the first time you met a strange elf in wood. You went back for him. You did your best to find him again.”

  Mari’s face became purple. Trev thought it was interesting when she did that. In this case, he marked it up to a volatile mixture of rage and embarrassment.

  She cuffed him then, and he didn’t bother to duck. She’d only rarely struck him, but fortunately, it no longer hurt when she did it. He was too big now to care much.

  “Do you feel better now?” he asked her gently.

  Her sides heaved and tears ran down her face.

  “No,” she said. “I feel terrible. I feel like I’m not getting through to you. I don’t want you to go off adventuring in the woods like your father did. He’s dead because of it.”

  “Nonsense,” Trev replied. “He rambled for centuries without being killed. He died defending the Haven and all of us, not doing something foolhardy. He fought the Dead, and lost his battle. Could have happened to anyone.”

  Mari calmed down. She nodded. “You’re right about that. I’m sorry to imply otherwise. But I just don’t want to lose you. You understand that, don’t you?”

  “To a point. You see, this world we live in is much bigger than the Haven. When the Dead came, I learned that staying quiet as mice in Riverton doesn’t guarantee anything. It’s strength that wins the day when events take a bad turn.”

  Mari gave him an entirely different appraising look. “What are you on about?”

  “Just as I said: I seek strength.”

  “By bounding around in the woods like a Wee One? By fornicating with random women met in strange places?”

  Trev smiled slightly. “By having experiences. By interacting with beings of power and besting them.”

  “To defeat the powerful when they become aggressive, you must have power of your own. Quick feet and quick wits won’t save you then.”

  “Exactly. That’s where we agree.”

  Mari’s eyes narrowed. “So you seek power of your own?”

  “Like Brand’s, yes.”

  “There’s only one Axe.”

  “But there are nine Jewels. I mean to have one. Preferably one that doesn’t have a defending owner at the moment.”

  “You can’t mean—oh, Trev—you can’t intend to take the Black!”

  Trev’s eyes widened in surprise. He shook his head seriously. “No mother. I’m not mad! I touched the Black once, and that was enough for a lifetime. I don’t want a Jewel of such evil power.”

  “They’re all evil,” Mari said. “I touched the Red, and I recall it well. I know what I’m talking about. Trev, tell me you’ll drop this folly. I know you promised that witch, but you don’t have to do it. Seek and fail. Search for months in all the wrong places, that’s all you have to do. Then you will be released from your bargain.”

  He shook his head. “No, that isn’t my plan. I’m leaving tonight, in fact. I’ll reach the Deepwood by nightfall and I’ll leave the Haven behind.”

  “Trev,” said Mari, sounding a trifle desperate, “I know I can’t talk you out of this. I know you too well—you’re just like your father. But I want you to speak to someone before you leave.”

  “Who?”

  “Brand. He’s the only man I know who has mastered his Jewel and not the other way around. Talk to him before you go. And listen to what he says. Will you do that for me?”

  Trev thought about it.

  “Yes,” he said at last. “And now I must leave to seek my fortune, dear mother.”

  They embraced, and Trev left soon after. Mari gazed after him, and he could feel her eyes on his back and he knew that hot tears ran down her face.

  Before he’d gone a hundred steps, he felt like going back to her. He felt homesick already. This was different from wandering alone in the woods and on the mounds at twilight. This was so much more serious.

  But he kept his resolve firm. He waved once over his shoulder as he reached a copse of rowan trees before vanishing beneath them. Then his childhood home was lost to view, and he began to run lightly down the trail toward the Berrywine River.

  Feeling happy, he whistled a lively tune. Birds squawked down at him, voicing their irritation.

  END Excerpt

  Be sure to read the rest of the Haven Series by B. V. Larson!

  THE HAVEN SERIES

  Volume I: Haven Magic

  (First three books: Amber Magic, Sky Magic, Shadow Magic)

  Volume II: Dark Magic

  (Books 4 thru 6: Dragon Magic, Blood Magic, Death Magic)

  Volume III: Dream Magic (Series finish)

  UNSPEAKABLE THINGS SERIES

  Technomancer

  The Bone Triangle

  Visit BVLarson.com for more information.

 

 

  B. V. Larson, Dark Magic

 

 

  Thank you for reading books on GrayCity.Net
Share this book with friends