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SECOND SIGHT
STORIES OF FROST AND FIRE, BOOK TWO
KIMBRA SWAIN
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and
incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a
fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual
events is purely coincidental.

Kimbra Swain
Second Sight: Stories of Frost and Fire, Book two

ASIN: B083JFXRC9
Kimbra Swain / Crimson Sun Press, LLC
kimbraswain@gmail.com
crimsonsunpress@gmail.com

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and
Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is
prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

Ebook Cover by: Kostis Ept

Paperback Cover by: Kostis Ept and Crimson Sun Graphics
Formatting by: Crimson Sun Graphics
Editing by Carol Tietsworth: https://www.facebook.com/Editing-by-Carol-Tietsworth-
328303247526664/
For Mary M. Kyzer and Rayma Carter
 CONTENTS

Books by Kimbra Swain

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Epilogue

Acknowledgments
About the Author
 BOOKS BY KIMBRA SWAIN

FAIRY TALES OF A TRAILER PARK QUEEN

Urban Fantasy
BLESS YOUR HEART
TINSEL IN A TANGLE
SNAKE IN THE GRASS
COMIN’ UP A CLOUD
GULLY WASHER
MOONSHINE IN A MASON JAR
HOTTER THAN BLUE BLAZES
SIGHT FOR SORE EYES
HAINT BLUE
FULLER THAN A TICK
BRIGHT-EYED & BUSHY-TAILED
SUCK IT UP, BUTTERCUP!
FIT TO BE TIED
PITCHIN’ A HISSY FIT
AMAZING GRACE

STORIES OF FROST AND FIRE

Urban Fantasy (New Adult)
ZERO HOUR - PREQUEL
FIRST FLAME
SECOND SIGHT
TRIPLE THREAT
QUARTET OF QUEENS
FINAL FLIGHT
 DOG RIVER WOLFPACK
Urban Fantasy
WAYWARD SON - PREQUEL
BAD MOON RISING
MIDNIGHT RIDE
FLIRTING WITH DISASTER
BORN ON THE BAYOU
SIMPLE MAN

CHANTILLY LACE
Urban Fantasy (New Adult)
FRIVOLOUS MAGIC
AMBITIOUS PRODIGY
VICIOUS SPELLS
DANGEROUS TRICK

LEGEND OF A VAMPIRE REJECT

Urban Fantasy
HARD KNOCK VAMP - PREQUEL
VAMPIN’ AIN’T EASY
GET YOUR VAMP ON
VAMP IT LIKE IT’S HOT
VAMPIRE STATE OF MIND

PATH TO REDEMPTION
Urban Fantasy
ABOMINATION
INTUITION
 REINCARNATION
TEMPTATION

PATH TO REDEMPTION HISTORICAL NOVELLAS

Historical Urban Fantasy
FOUNDATION
RESTORATION
DECEPTION & DEVOTION
TRANSFORMATION

KIMBRA SWAIN STORE

T-SHIRTS FROM TEE PUBLIC
KIMBRA SWAIN SWAG STORE
 SIX MONTHS BEFORE ZERO HOUR

W e tiptoed past the sleeping Solomonar and down the

steps into the vault. Kyrie was hugged so close behind
me that I could barely walk. When we reached the gate to enter my
mother’s collection of treasures, I reached out to feel the magic at
the door. I’d been in the room before many times, but I’d never tried
to enter alone.
“Are you sure about this?” Kyrie asked.
“Are you chickening out on me now?” I replied.
“It’s just that your mom is already pissed at me because we were
climbing the Tree of Life. Now you want to break into her vault, and
she will think it was my idea,” Kyrie whined.
I looked at him and put my hands on my hips. “Kyrie Babineau, I
would never let you take the fall for something I made you do.”
“Then, order me to do it,” he said.
“Order you?”
“Yes, you can do that. You are the Princess of Winter. I am your
humble servant.” He bowed to me. I shoved him, knocking him off
balance.
“You are ridiculous. I’m not ordering you. We are just having fun.
Besides, mother’s punishments are rarely so severe.”
 “If she forbids me from seeing you at all, which she could do,
that would be devasting.”
“She wouldn’t do that,” I said.
“I wouldn’t put it past her.”
I ignored his fears and reached through the portal. It didn’t chop
my arm off, so I grabbed his hand, then dragged him into the vault.
I held my breath for a second, but no alarms went off. In fact,
nothing happened. I knew mom said this could be a safe place to
hide, but I wasn’t sure what the terms of entry involved.
“Whoa,” Kyrie said, looking around the room at the treasures.
In the center of the room, four pedestals held the four elemental
stones that were given to my mother to control earth, fire, wind, and
water. She didn’t have to have the stones with her to use these
elements. They were like representatives of permission to use them
by the keepers of the stones. I approached the fire stone. It had
belonged to my father, Dylan. He gave it to Mom before he died.
She’d told me after the war for Winter that I was now the guardian
of the stone. I didn’t know what that entailed, but I wasn’t sure how
to be a phoenix either. Kyrie stood next to me mesmerized by the
stone.
“Have you ever touched it?” he asked.
“No, but I can feel its connection to the element. It connects to
me.”
He nudged me to break up the seriousness. Kyrie couldn’t handle
being serious about anything. “Where did all these books come
from?”
“Uncle Levi collects them. He’s a nerd,” I said. “Of course, the
one over there is the bard book that Oberon gave him.”
The song book that Uncle Levi received when I was still a human
child held the stories of Arthur and the spells of the Winter
Otherworld and Camelot.
“This one is dark,” Kyrie said, pointing at one on a shelf by itself.
I walked toward it.
“Wow! I feel that,” I said, reaching for the book. Kyrie slapped
my hand.
“Are you nuts? Don’t touch it!”
 “I’m not scared.”
“Maybe you should be.”
“I knew I should have brought Mark with me.” I’d cut him to the
core with that comment.
“He would have told on you.” He was right. Mark was too busy
being an Alpha for me to ask to do anything. Besides, if he said the
word mate one more time, I was going to have a conniption fit.
“No harm ever came from reading a book.” I took the book from
the shelf. The power inside of it reached toward me as if it were
begging for attention like a child. I opened it to the first page. “It’s
Theban.”
“What’s that?” Kyrie asked, leaning over my shoulder.
“Alphabet used by Wiccans for spells.”
“Can you read it?”
“No.”
I flipped through the pages of spells that I couldn’t read. The
drawings and engravings in the book were particularly dark-themed.
There were a few instances where English was written in the
margins of the book. I could read the last page.
“According to the laws of the Order of the Red Cloak, this book is
to be destroyed upon the death of the Order,” I said.
“A Book of Shadows,” Kyrie said.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“In N’awlins, the witches say that each coven owns their own
Book of Shadows. The spells they used. It’s like a diary for the
coven,” he said.
“So, if we translate this, then we can learn the secrets of the
ORCs?”
“Maybe, but why would we want to know them?” he asked.
“Knowledge is power.”
He lifted his eyebrow at me, and it made me grin. Kyrie was
incredibly handsome when he was devious. I was pretty sure he
knew it, too.
“What are you two doing in here?” Levi asked, appearing
suddenly at the door.
“Reading,” I said, snapping the book closed.
 I’d never seen Levi so angry, and I never expected him to be
angry at me. “Kyrie, go home.”
“But…” Kyrie started to protest, but I put my hand on his arm.
“It’s okay. Go. I told you that this was on me,” I said.
Kyrie rushed past Levi and through the portal. Levi kept his eyes
on me.
“Put the book back,” he said.
“I’m sorry. We weren’t hurting anything,” I said.
“Do you know what that book is?” he asked.
“Kyrie said it was a Book of Shadows. It mentions the ORCs,” I
said.
“Right. I found it in a trunk that belonged to Mable. It has all of
her spells in it. The ones that kept the secrets of Shady Grove. The
ones that hid the true nature of the fairies from your mother. The
ones that made Joey Blankenship’s son look like Dylan. Every
deception that we faced is documented in that book.”
I slid the book back on the shelf. “I couldn’t read it.”
“Good. Don’t ever touch it again.” He walked around the glowing
stones to where I stood. He took my hands in his. “Winnie, your
mother would skin me alive if something happened to you, because
I decided to keep that book in case, we needed it one day.”
“Kyrie didn’t want to come in here. Please don’t be mad at him.”
“Don’t you think I know that?”
“You do?”
“Winnie, I’ve known you since you were knee-high to a
grasshopper. You have an independent streak in you. I have no
desire to stifle it. One day it will serve you well, but until then, let’s
not forget that you are new at the magical stuff. There are just some
things you need to leave alone. Independence is good. Ignorance is
not.”
I lowered my head and stared at my feet. He wrapped his arms
around me and hugged me.
“I’m sorry, Uncle Levi.”
“I love you, Winnie.”
We went home, and, as far as I knew, he never mentioned it to
my mother. She would have lost her shit, and Kyrie probably would
have been in deep trouble.
 PRESENT DAY

I paced the floor. We’d gone another week without finding

any sign or clue as to what happened to Callum when
Araxia had dragged him into the Otherworld. Mom and
Levi were searching there. We had pressed every supernatural
contact that we had in Steelshore. No one knew anything. Aydan
had been here every day as we spoke to those contacts. He could
tell if they were lying. He was currently sleeping in Dominick’s old
room.
“Wearing a hole into the floor isn’t going to help us find him,”
Kyrie said, while drying his hair with a towel.
Kat and Cat lounged on the floor staring at him. He’d just gotten
out of the shower, and he only had on a pair of gym shorts. Kat
purred loudly, and Cat shoved her. They hissed at each other, but
then settled back down on the rug.
“Do you remember the book?” I asked.
“What book?”
“The Book of Shadows in the vault.”
“Oh no! We are not dabbling with that,” he said.
“I didn’t say dabble with it. Levi has read it. There has to be
something in it about the ORCs. We know they have returned. We
know they are involved. They were the last ones to see Callum. The
more we know about them, the better.”
 “Yes, and like you said, Levi read the book. I think if there was
anything in it that was helpful, then he would have used that
information.”
My eyes flicked to the door and someone knocked. Kyrie looked
at me, then to the door. He’d caught that I sensed it before it
happened.
He opened the door to find Colton and Ruby waiting there.
“Well, Starboy, you look nice without a shirt,” Ruby commented.
“Mine,” I said.
Ruby rolled her eyes, and Colton came in behind her.
“That doesn’t bother you?” Kyrie asked him.
“Why should it? She goes home with me. Or rather I go home
with her. Or something. So, we checked through our assigned
quadrant of the Summer realm and found nothing,” Colton said.
Ruby’s father, Astor, the King of Summer, had set up a grid
search for his servants to look for leads about Callum. His search of
his realm had been as fruitless as ours.
“Can you read Theban, Ruby?” I asked.
“Why would I want to read a Wiccan language?” she asked.
“No reason,” I said. Kyrie shook his head at me, and I ignored
him.
“I can read it,” Colton said.
“You? How do you know it?” I asked.
“Karis taught me,” he said.
We hadn’t seen the good professor since after the altercation a
few months ago. Colton spent every moment with Ruby here in
Steelshore or in Summer. Rory said that their parents actually loved
the human who had taken up with their daughter. They’d put
pressure on Rory, but apparently Ruby could do what or whomever
she wanted.
“Now, we have to decide if we are asking for the book, or
stealing it,” I said.
“Asking for it!” Kyrie responded. “We are not doing that again.”
“Levi didn’t do anything to you,” I said.
“That you know about,” he shot back.
“What did he do?”
 “You are aware that your Uncle-slash-surrogate father is hella
powerful, right?” he asked.
“Well, yeah. He keeps my mother in check,” I said.
“And I didn’t let you influence me to dabble in things we
shouldn’t after that, right?”
“Aw, did the big, bad bard frighten you? Besides you went with
me after the vampire that one time.” Kyrie shook his head as if he
didn’t want to revisit how we had botched that little investigative job
just before I moved to Steelshore.
“He scares me,” Ruby said, while petting Kat.
I’d never feared Levi. I knew he had the juice, but I didn’t get
why so many of my friends found him to be intimidating. He would
never harm any of them, unless they harmed me or my brothers.
Which brought me to my mom. From what I’d heard, she was
completely unbearable right now. She’d lost Callum, and she wasn’t
going to rest until he was found. They’d already turned the
Otherworld upside down looking for him. Whoever had him must
have had the ability to obscure his presence even from his mother.
Granted, he wasn’t a blood child, but that never mattered in my
mother’s eyes, so the magic stuck with him as if he were born of her
womb.
My brother was a different sort of shifter, like me. He belonged to
the Native American traditions, as the white wolf. Nick had recently
reunited him with his blood sister, Tinley, who I really liked, until she
started asking me a hundred questions about Mark Maynard. He’d
met her briefly when Callum disappeared. He was able to save her,
but not both of them. She seemed to have formed an attachment to
my old beau. It shouldn’t bother me. I was happy, and I had Kyrie.
I chalked it up to change. Humans don’t like change, and I was
just as much human as I was Phoenix. It would take some time to
wrap my head around Mark being with other women. My first
impressions of Tinley were good. I needed to focus on that. It didn’t
matter if they dated or mated or whatever. But if she hurt my best
friend, I was willing to bet that white fur of hers would burn.
“Winnie,” Kyrie said.
 I looked down at my fists which had begun to glow. I grimaced
and released the tension I’d allowed to grow in my thoughts. My
phone rang across the room, and Colton tossed it to me. I caught it
and answered.
“Hello.”
“Well, if it isn’t the most beautiful Phoenix the world has ever
known?” Seamus said.
“You called me, Pirate,” I replied.
“That I did. Just a warning for you, Dear. A dark being has
entered Steelshore. I’m trying to track it down. I don’t know if it was
summoned or what, but I know it is in town,” he said.
“What kind of dark being?” I asked.
“The demonic kind. Be careful, Wynonna.” He sounded genuinely
concerned. He was right to be. The demons of the human world
were nothing more than amped up Wild fairies with little to no
conscience. I’d just started my leadership of this group, and I didn’t
expect to face a challenge like a demon so soon.
“Thank you for the information, Seamus,” I replied.
“You are most welcome. Now, when shall I prepare for our
second date? Our first was so rudely cut off,” he said.
“It wasn’t a date,” I replied.
“Oh, I see. Your starboy is standing nearby. We can discuss it
later,” he said.
“You are the devil,” I said, because he’d made me laugh.
“I have been called much worse, but not from more beautiful
lips,” he said, then hung up.
“That bastard,” I said. “Did you all hear him?”
“I think he has a crush on you,” Ruby said.
“He’d better not,” Kyrie interjected. I grimaced at him. He’d
started to defend our relationship outwardly more and more. I
wasn’t sure that was what I wanted.
“I meant about the demon,” I said.
“It could be something other than a demon,” Ruby replied.
I looked around the room and wished Rory and Soraya were
here, but they’d asked for a few days off to spend together. I’d
allowed it, but I didn’t know why. We needed them here. “A bottle of
Pinot Noir to the cat who can bring me information about the demon
in Steelshore.”
Kat stood up from Ruby’s lap and stretched lazily. Cat practically
ignored me while she purred at Colton’s feet trying to look up his
baggy shorts.
“Fine. I’ll find him myself,” I said. “We will start looking in the
morning. I need some rest.”
Ruby and Colton took the hint and quietly left. Kyrie leaned on
the entrance to the bedroom.
“You know that I’m not interested in the century old vampirate,
right?” I asked.
“He can be seductive,” he replied with a playful glint in his eye. If
he only knew how much more attractive that was, then he wouldn’t
be concerned about Seamus.
“A Phoenix cannot be seduced,” I said.
“I’ve heard that.” I couldn’t resist the flirtatious smirk on his face
any longer. I jumped up from my spot on the couch and blinked the
three feet between us. He already had his arms out to catch me.
“Look at you, using your fairy magic.”
“That’s not the only fairy magic I have,” I replied.
“Well, by all means, show me.”

T he next morning Kyrie and I sat in the office, looking over the local
news and crime reports. We hoped to find an indication that
someone had unleashed a demon in my town, but we came up with
nothing.
The door chimed, and I stood up with fiery fists. Kyrie narrowed
his gaze, and a cloud of glittering stars surrounded his body.
“What are you doing here?” I snarled at Reyna Havlin, the leader
of the Sanhedrin.
“We have a problem,” she said.
“You have a problem. You just walked into the one place you are
not welcome in this city,” I said.
 “Actually, there are a lot of places here that don’t like me,” she
said with a chuckle. She walked across the room and sat down in
front of my desk. “I just want to talk to you and ol’ dreamy eyes
here.”
I backed down, and Kyrie’s galaxy dissipated.
“You’ve got five minutes,” I said.
“There is a demon in Steelshore,” she said.
“I know that. Thanks.”
“He’s looking for you,” she said.
“Didn’t know that,” I said. “Why?”
“Hell, if I know. I figured I’d warn you. I’d rather you survive it,
so I can kill you later,” Reyna said, standing up from her seat.
“Oh, you are so kind,” I replied.
“I do my best,” she said, then slipped out the door.
“What the fuck?!” I exclaimed.
“She’s just trying to get you riled up. The demon isn’t after you,”
Kyrie said.
“I’m going to call Mom. She beat a demon once,” I said.
“I’ve heard that story. You don’t think it’s the same one, do you?”
“Surely not. If so, she told me she banished him by saying his
name three times.” I couldn’t remember the demon’s name, and you
really didn’t want to randomly blurt out demon names.
I called my mother who wasn’t at home. She and Levi were in
Winter. They spent most of their time there looking for clues to find
Callum, which was what I should be doing. Not anticipating a visit by
a demon.
Kyrie pulled me into his lap. I struggled to get away, but he
planted a kiss on my neck. I felt his calming power in the kiss.
“We have faced other stuff. We can face this,” he said.
“Why would she warn me?” I asked.
“She wasn’t. I’m willing to bet that Reyna has no idea how to get
rid of it. So, she laid it on you.” It made sense. We had heard that
several of her Sanhedrin followers defected after our confrontation.
It hadn’t stopped the trafficking, and we were still finding random
dead fairies. Each one had the glittering sparkle residue of Sanhedrin
magic. We couldn’t pin it on them. But one day Reyna and I would
have a knock-down, drag-out fight.
Kyrie’s phone rang, and I heard Rory’s voice on the other end.
“We’ve got movement at the port. How quickly can you get here?” It
surprised me because Rory and Raya were supposed to be on
vacation.
“I’ll fly us in. Tell me where?” Kyrie said.
“Dock 17. The ship’s name is Hasamelis,” Rory replied.
“On our way,” Kyrie said. I grabbed my jacket, and we stepped
outside into the cloudy day.
After walking into the alley between the office building and a
florist next door, I put my arms around Kyrie’s neck. He waited to
make sure no one was following us, then jetted into the sky like a
rocket.
F lying high over Steelshore, I looked down as the
buildings of downtown passed. We flew slightly up the
river to the international docks. Kyrie produced a cloud around us as
we flew to obscure our flight. Near the port, we lowered between
two abandoned warehouses, then broke into a solid sprint to the
dock that Rory had indicated. I opened my sight to see if I could
detect anything in the way of Sanhedrin magic.
Even though I saw none of their magic, I did see the black
swirling mist that I could only describe as evil.
“Hold up,” I said, grabbing Kyrie and tugging him into an alley.
“What is it?” he said, trying to catch his breath.
“Call Rory back. Find out exactly where he is,” I demanded.
“What did you see?”
“Some kind of black mist.”
“Demon.” Kyrie called Rory. The phone rang several times then
went to voicemail. “I can go up and take a look if you want to stay
here.”
“That’s a good idea. See if you can see him or Raya.” I knew the
two of them liked to comb the docks for information about the
trafficking. Occasionally, they would find a small shipment that we
could interrupt, but for the most part, we didn’t have any new leads
in that department.
“I mean it. Please stay here.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I have no desire to tangle with a
demon alone. If I’m gonna die, you might as well too,” I replied. He
grinned and kissed me on the forehead. He took off into the sky and
the sounds of the water took over my senses. The docks were
unusually quiet for this early in the day. I realized that it was
Sunday, but the docks ran 24/7.
I braved a peek around the corner. I saw nothing, then switched
to my sight. The mist seemed to be fading. Whatever was here had
moved through, then left.
Kyrie landed behind me and jerked me into his arms. “Let’s go!”
“Did you find them?” I asked, as he took off into the air again. I
swallowed my words and coughed. He turned away from the docks
and headed back toward the office.
He leaned into my ear. “Rory called me back. He and Raya slept
in today. They are at the apartment.”
“Well, shit,” I said, looking back at the docks fading in the
distance.
My mom had always pressed me to use my sight more often. She
said it could save my life. I was sure it had today. Maybe.
“It was from Rory’s number and it sounded like him,” Kyrie said.
“Demons are deceptive,” I replied.
My heart sank. I knew this was something I would have to deal
with before I could put all my efforts back into finding Callum. If it
were true and a demon wanted me, it wouldn’t stop trying to find
me. And rarely did a demon just drop by to share a glass of sweet
tea and sit a spell.
I had left home hoping to make a difference here, but it seemed
like everything had gone to hell in a handbasket. Uncle Levi told me
after the fight at Dog River that things are never as quiet as they
seem. There was always trouble brewing under the surface. I
thought I knew what he meant. It seemed I had no idea.
Kyrie landed us in the alley between the buildings. We ran to the
front door and into the office. Renata sat at Kyrie’s desk. She was
flipping through emails on our shared laptop. We’d allowed her to
help at the office. Mostly she organized the reports pertaining to
supernatural activity that we got from our police informant. Or even
possible activity.
 “Hey, Ren,” Kyrie said, masking our sudden entrance which
hadn’t registered with Renata because she wasn’t aware of societal
norms. We’d rescued her, and she’d spent a few months in Shady
Grove. She was unhappy there, so we allowed her to come back
with us to do limited tasks. We weren’t sure of her abilities, but
generally dwarves had some engineering and building talents. If she
had those, we hadn’t seen any sign of it, yet.
“Hello,” she replied with a shy smile. She didn’t speak much, but
she kept everything in the office in order, so we didn’t have to worry
about it. She and I had discussed her abilities, but she was reluctant
to talk about what she could do.
“Anything new on the reports?” I asked.
“Not really, but the detective sent an email saying he would be
by today with some information,” she said.
We had made a deal with one of the human cops that had visited
us a few months ago. I’d reached out to him after Dominick left, and
we came to an understanding about our activities. He understood
that we were out there to help the innocent and that we had means
at our disposal that most did not. I might have shown him a couple
of fireballs just to prove my meaning. He’d agreed to throw anything
to us that showed up in our realm, and we would turn over our
human leads to him.
A week ago, I gave him a lead on a drug trafficking boat that
we’d infiltrated thinking it was trafficking fairies. He got all the
publicity and a big pat on the back by the mayor of Steelshore. He
owed us.
Kyrie and I sat back drinking coffee when Jacob Carpenter
arrived. He walked in wearing a tan trench coat and a fedora. He
looked like Inspector Gadget’s handsome brother.
“Morning, Winnie. Kyrie,” he said.
“Hello, Badge,” I said.
“Coffee?” Kyrie asked. Jacob always said yes, so Kyrie got up to
fix him a cup.
“Yes, please. Two sugars,” he said as he took a seat across from
my desk.
“You look tired,” I commented.
 Kyrie handed him the steaming cup of java and took a seat on
the side of his desk to listen to our conversation.
“I am. We’ve had a rough couple of nights.”
“I haven’t seen anything in the reports,” I said.
“We haven’t filed anything official, because we don’t know what
we are dealing with. I figured it might be something in your realm,”
he said, pulling a file folder from his trench coat.
I flipped it open as Kyrie looked over my shoulder. Ren was in the
back room sleeping on the cot. She slept more than any of us. I
supposed she had a lot of catching up to do.
The first picture was a gruesome circle of blood which looked like
it had been drawn with the fingers of a human hand. There were
four other photos showing different angles of the circle. The next set
of photos were of a man tied to an old metal chair. His wrists had
been cut and the blood ran down the legs of the chair into buckets.
“This blood drew the circle?” I asked.
“Yes, the victim’s name is Joseph Kepler. 48. Father of two.
Divorced. Alcoholic. Estranged from his family,” he said, looking
down at his phone. There were some details that he would give us
like the pictures, while other details were provided verbally.
“Someone no one would miss?” Kyrie asked.
“Not really. We were only looking for him because his ex-wife
called saying he was late with the child support payment. His job
said he had gone home on Friday, but didn’t show up on Monday or
Tuesday,” Jacob said.
I flipped the page to another blood circle. This one was definitely
in a different location. The previous one looked to be on dirty
concrete. This one had been drawn on linoleum. I flipped back and
forth between the two. There were no runes or other magical
symbols. Just the circles.
“Where is this one?” I asked.
“The first was in the warehouse district just north of town. The
second one is in the home of Melissa Culver. 37. Single. Never
married. No known family,” he said.
“She the vic?” I asked.
“Yep.”
 I flipped the page and saw Miss Culver tied to another chair.
Buckets were collecting blood from her slit wrists. There were more
pages.
“How many circles in all?” I asked, flipping through the pages
more quickly.
“Five. Each one had a specific victim left at the scene. Tied to a
chair and bled out.”
“All of them loners?” I asked.
“Yes. One was even a homeless guy we haven’t yet identified,”
Jacob said. “Do you know anything about blood circles?”
“Nothing good. Circles are used for magical reasons, but usually
they are accompanied by runes or other implements like candles.
Were there any candles, incense, or crystals at any of the scenes?” I
asked.
“Not that we saw. Maybe the person that drew them took the
tools with them,” he suggested.
Kyrie stopped looking over my shoulder and paced to the front
window of the office. He was thinking what I was thinking. Whoever
did these circles had done it to summon a demon.
“Anything else?” I asked.
“Look at the last page,” he said.
I opened it to see the five locations marked on the map.
Someone had connected the five locations by drawing a pentacle.
“It’s definitely magic, but I can’t tell you what kind. Doesn’t look
Wiccan. I’d go with something more sinister,” I said.
Jacob leaned forward, set his cup on my desk, and perched his
elbows on his knees. “The thing is, Winnie, I know you well enough
now to know that you are holding back on me. You introduced me to
this world, and I’ll be damned if I’ll go out there hunting this
thinking it’s just a bunch of kids playing ‘Let’s Summon Satan.’ Be
straight with me.”
I sighed and Kyrie grunted. It was his way of telling me to go
ahead and do it.
“We have reason to believe that someone has summoned a
demon.”
 “What? Demon? I thought I was dealing with fairies, not religious
shit,” he huffed.
“Well, not a demon in the religious sense. Most ‘demons’ deemed
so by the human race are actually just really dark, Wild fairies. They
are extremely powerful and have no remorse. It seems that
someone, or at least five someones, has summoned a visitor from
the Otherworld into Steelshore.”
He leaned back and looked at the ceiling. “So, it’s not one person
doing five circles?”
“No, it would have to be one person doing each circle
simultaneously,” I replied.
“Fuck,” he muttered.
“Good news, though. More than likely the ones doing the
summoning were human. Even bad fairies don’t dabble with the dark
fairies of the Otherworld. There is a reason why they are not allowed
to cross the veil,” I said.
“Because they act like demons,” he said.
“Pretty much. It’s much more likely that a foolish group of
humans did it without knowing what exactly they had summoned,” I
replied.
“You hunt the demon. I’ll hunt the summoning little bastards,” he
said.
“Yes, but we need to stay in touch. I believe the demon is after
me.”
His eyes shot up to mine. “What?”
“I think that he’s looking for me,” I repeated.
“Why?”
“Dunno, yet. But the humans who conjured him probably know.
I’d like to know, too,” I explained.
“Of course, I’ll keep you notified. Be safe out there, Winnie,” he
said. He still hadn’t gotten the full picture of what I was and what I
could do. Therefore, I excused his unknowing comment. Even then,
fairies didn’t deal with demons. I was sure my father had. In many
ways, Luther Harris, Soraya’s grandfather, would be considered a
demon. These dark Wild fairies could be redeemed. But even Luther
belonged to a different set of supernatural than our traditional
fairies.
As much as I hated it, I would have to call my mother to find out
how she knew the demon that hunted my Uncle Levi a few years
ago. That demon was raised by a Wild fairy who turned out to be a
member of the ORCs. So, I couldn’t flatly say there were only
humans involved, because Lisette had proved she would go to no
ends to take the Winter throne.
Kyrie chatted with Jacob before he left while I got lost in my
thoughts. I didn’t have to be worried about being seduced by the
demon, because a Phoenix couldn’t be seduced. He or she would
have to hunt me down legitimately. There were reinforced wards
specific to the dark fairy which would keep him out of my apartment,
but I wanted to be proactive and find this bastard before he found
me, or the people that mattered to me.
“Winnie,” Kyrie said, trying to get my attention.
“Huh?” I looked up to Jacob standing at the door. He waved with
a grin. “Oh, sorry. Thanks, Badge.”
“Later, Winnie,” Jacob said, then left me alone with Kyrie.
“You are still thinking about that book,” he said.
“If Mable kept records, then she surely put the information there
of how Lisette summoned the demon that went after Uncle Levi,” I
said.
“Then ask your uncle about it. Winnie, I don’t want to mess with
that book. I come from N’awlins where we know better than to mess
with dark witches and their bullshit. Lisette was a Creole Priestess.
Nothing they do is good.”
“She was also a fairy and we just told Jacob that it was probably
a human who summoned it,” I said.
“I know. But we can’t attack the covens around here. Nick told us
that the young witch in Dog River had helped them. There are
always two sides of the card,” he said, withdrawing a card slightly
larger than a playing card out of his pocket. He flipped it back and
forth showing the decorative outside, then the rune-forged inside.
He flipped it again, and it disappeared.
 Kyrie had talked about his special cards, but he’d never shown
them to me in action. I accused him of being a knock-off Gambit. He
got angry. I apologized and got some great make-up sex out of it.
“So, let Jacob do the dirty work with the covens while we locate
the demon,” I deduced. “It has to eat. Depending on what flavor we
are talking about, then it could be anything from human parts to
animal parts.”
“Flavor what?” Ren said, standing at the door to the back room
and rubbing her eyes.
Kyrie’s forehead wrinkled. “How much did you hear?”
“There’s a Wild, dark fairy in Steelshore that was summoned by
humans,” she said.
“Can’t hide it from her now,” I said.
“I wish you wouldn’t hide things from me. I know about the dark
ones,” she said.
“What do you know about them?” I asked.
“When I was very young, my uncle used to tell me about them.
He built weapons for some of the nobility in the Otherworld. He was
very handy at it, and everything he made had a special power or
was specifically connected to the power of the user,” she explained.
“Sounds like a good guy to have around,” Kyrie said.
“I lost track of him when Mordred took over the Otherworld,” she
said sadly.
“I’m sorry. Perhaps we can find him for you.”
“Maybe. But he used to tell me about the beings that would
come to him for weapons. They always wanted something to
specifically attack a certain menace, but that wasn’t how he worked.
He amplified the magic of the user, not contained the magic of the
victim. Anyway. People would tell him gruesome tales of how the
giants and beasts of the Wild would sometimes come out of their
dark places to kidnap fairies to be used as wives or just to take
human children for themselves.”
“For what reason?” I asked.
“I assume to eat them,” she said.
“Bleh,” Kyrie exclaimed.
“Keep going,” I encouraged her.
 “These are the demons you speak of, right?” she asked.
“I think we are talking about the same things, but I didn’t think
they could leave their homes without being summoned,” I said.
“They can move around the Otherworld, but they risk
extermination. They can’t come into the human realm at all without
being summoned,” she said.
My little half-dwarf was proving to be an encyclopedia of
knowledge. “Why would a human summon one of these things?”
“Well, to attack something they feared or something they hated.
They would have to give the demon a sacrifice to make the trade,”
she said.
“Blood sacrifice?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied.
I handed her the envelope of pictures that Jacob Carpenter had
given us. “I’m warning you. Those pictures are not for the
lighthearted.”
She nodded and opened the folder. Sinking down into the chair
across from my desk, she thumbed through the pictures.
“Five sacrifices. Five circles,” she muttered.
“Five demons?”
“No, just one very big, bad one,” she said. “This is bad.”
“What can you tell us about tracking them? There aren’t any
implements there for conjuring,” I said.
“With this amount of blood and the placement, they wouldn’t
need implements. They formed enough power with the circles and
the pentacle.” She pulled the map out of the folder and sat it on my
desk. She pointed at the tips of the star which centered on each
blood circle site. “What if we drew the pentacle like this?” She took a
pen from my collection on the desk and drew the star as if it landed
between the circles. Each tip pointed to a different location.
Kyrie looked over her shoulder. “That’s dock 17.”
“What are these other places?” I asked.
Kyrie opened up the laptop and pulled up a better picture of the
city. The other four locations pointed to a government housing
project just north of the city in a rough neighborhood, a public park
just west of downtown, The Holy Church of the Virgin, and the
swamps of Dog River.
“We search these other places, and I’ll call Nick to see if he has
anyone that can take a look at this stuff in the swamp,” I said.
“I want to go,” Renata said.
“I’m afraid you will get hurt,” I said honestly.
“Winnie, I’ve been trafficked all my life and forced to do things I
didn’t want to do. I’m damn tough, and you’ve got to give me a
chance to prove it.”
I sighed. “Okay, but if I say run, you bolt.”
“Ten-fourteen!” she said, giving me a weird salute. I was pretty
sure she got it from the Sailor Moon cartoons, which she watched
while running down my phone battery to the point that I bought her
a tablet to watch them.
“Ten-four,” Kyrie said with a snicker.
“Oh, damn. I thought I got it right,” she said.
“The salute was on point,” I said to encourage her.
“Sweet,” she said, saluting me again.
“Call Ruby and Colton. See if they want to check out the park. I’ll
call Raya and tell them the vacation is over.”
T he Holy Church of the Virgin was the oldest Catholic
church in Steelshore. The façade mimicked Notre Dame
in Paris. Not as grand, but just as breathtaking. The single rose
stained glass stretched across the front of the church.
Kyrie and I tried the front door, but it was locked. We walked
around the building, finding other locked entrances.
“Why would it be closed today?” I wondered.
“Doesn’t make sense to me. It’s a historical site, and it’s usually
filled with tourists,” Kyrie said.
A young woman with three children approached the doors and
found them locked, too. She saw us watching and approached us.
“Why is the church closed?” she asked.
“We don’t know. We wanted to see the inside,” I said.
“I come here and light a candle for my beloved papa every week.
It has never been closed,” she said.
“Maybe try again tomorrow,” I suggested.
She nodded, then herded her children away.
“Well, are we breaking and entering?” Kyrie asked.
“Yep!” I replied.
“That’s my girl,” he said with a proud grin.
We stalked back around the end of the building where the most
concealed door stood. Hedges on each side would mask our entry. I
placed my hand on the knob of the door and reached deep within
myself. I buried the cold there because it interfered with my phoenix
abilities. But freezing things solid had benefits. The metal cooled
under my hand as I pumped Winter power into it. The knob became
brittle and quietly shattered in my hand. I dropped the shards on the
ground and stepped into the church.
Immediately, I smelled blood. That acrid copper odor assaulted
my body down to my lungs, and I covered my nose. My free hand
turned to fire, and I felt Kyrie move magic behind me. We stepped
into the main sanctuary of the church. Above the altar, a woman
hovered in a blue forcefield ward. I didn’t need to use my sight to
see it. As we circled around her, we could tell that she was clearly
dead. Blood dripped from her body into a growing puddle.
“This is recent,” Kyrie hissed.
“Yeah,” I said, looking around the room. “I don’t feel anyone else
here. Do you?”
He shook his head, but we remained vigilant. He looked up to the
woman and gasped. “Winnie. She’s a fairy.”
I looked at her again and saw the pointed tips of her ears which
were masked by her long brown hair.
“Shit.”
“You can say that again.”
“Shit. Shit.”
Her wrists had been cut so the blood ran down her legs. I circled
around the ward to see if I could see anything else.
Kyrie texted someone without looking down at his phone. He had
a lot of skills. The ones I preferred were in the bedroom, but he had
others. He played the piano which thrilled my brother, Killian, who
played every instrument. He had a good singing voice, but I only got
to hear it when he sang in the shower or in the car. He made me
laugh which was probably the part I liked the most. And he could
see in multiple directions at once. I had no idea why that was cool.
It was actually strange, but I loved all of his intricacies.
“Do you think there is one down at the docks? And the other
locations?” he asked.
“Probably, and whoever did it wanted us to find it, but when I
saw the black smoke, we diverted. I don’t see any of that here,” I
said.
“I don’t feel the coldness as I did on the docks,” he replied.
 “If there is a body down there, Jacob will let us know.”
“How did you know I was texting him?” he asked.
“Bros before hoes,” I said.
“No, my dear. No one comes before you.”
And he was a skilled flirt. I ignored it for now, because of the
dead body. I reached deep within myself to call on my fairy side and
my connection to the King and Queen of Winter.
“Dad?”
“Winnie, what’s wrong?” Levi immediately answered.
“Someone has turned a demon loose in Steelshore. I’ve got dead
humans and dead fairies. Maybe Mom or you can tell me who this
is?” I asked.
The King of Winter appeared in the church in full regalia. Levi
wore a dark blue tunic with silver snowflakes adorning the sleeves
and edges. His black pants and black boots made him look royal, but
the glittering antlered crown on his head made him regal.
“Oh, hi,” Kyrie said.
“Kyrie,” Levi said, offering his hand to my boyfriend and partner.
“Sir. Your majesty,” Kyrie stammered. Levi looked imposing as the
King. He always had a pleasant face, but like this he seemed stern.
“Your fairy side is stronger,” he said to me.
“Were you in Winter?” I asked, knowing that it was nearly
impossible to reach him there mentally.
“I was. Your mother and I are meeting with some delegates from
the Wild fairies,” he said.
“About Callum?” I asked.
“No, about everything else. What do you have here?” he asked,
walking around the body as I had.
Kyrie’s phone beeped. “There is one at the docks and also in the
park.”
“In the park? Where people can see it?” I asked.
“No, Rory says it’s hidden in a patch of trees. They are keeping
people away from it with magic,” he explained.
“She’s Winter. A royal. I’ve seen her at court. Our subjects aren’t
happy about our attempts to settle the differences with the Wild,” he
said.
 “So, they called the demon to come after me to distract you?” I
asked.
“Why do you think the demon is after you?” Levi asked.
“Reyna said it was.”
Levi growled and unleashed a torrid of cuss words that would
make my mother blush. “If the Sanhedrin are working with the
Winter fairies that oppose us, then they could have given them the
means to call the demon. But if she is dead, then either they were
used by Reyna and her crew because they can’t call the demon
without Winter power. Or Reyna needs to watch her back, because a
demon cannot be contained.”
“Lisette controlled the one you called,” I countered. His face
wrinkled up in pain. I’d reminded him of a time when he was young
and stupid. “I’m young and stupid now, too. I need the book, Dad.”
“No,” he said flatly.
Kyrie moved to the front of the church, giving me a moment
alone with the only living male father figure I had left. I grabbed
Levi’s hand and dragged him to the altar of the church where the
table was made of bits and pieces of mirror. He looked at himself.
“Do you see who you are now? You are the mother-fucking King
of Winter.” I touched the crown on his head. “You made a mistake.
Have you ever forgiven yourself about it? Mom has. I think you are
infallible. Killian thinks you hung the moon. I swear to you that I just
want the book to fix this. I’ll be smarter than you were.”
He huffed out a laugh, then hugged me. “You always were the
smartest girl in your class before you grew up on us.”
“Yeah, well. I’m still above average,” I said.
“And for your information, Miss Smartypants, I have forgiven
myself, but I’d never forgive myself if something happened to you.
That book is too dangerous. Not for you, but for everyone else. If
someone took it from you, then we’d have more problems than the
unsettled Wild and your lost brother.”
“I think I can find Callum with it, too.”
“Winnie.” His tone pleaded with me. “Your mother can’t handle
anything else right now.”
“Whatever. Mom is strong. She handles everything,” I said.
 His eyes welled up with tears and he touched my cheek. “She
wanted to tell you herself. She’s pregnant again. Her emotions are
kind of all over the place with Callum missing.”
“You need help,” I said.
“We all have a job to do.”
“I need that book to do my job,” I insisted.
“I’m telling you, no.” He stepped back and drew Excalibur. “I love
you, Winnie. And it’s not the first time you’ve gone behind my back.”
He gave me a sad smile and stepped through a portal made by the
sword into the Otherworld.
Kyrie approached me slowly. “So, congrats. A new sibling.”
“Let’s go get that book,” I said.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Are you serious?”
“Yes, Winnie. I’m serious. He doesn’t want you to have it. I’ve
felt the mojo in that thing, and it’s no good. It reminds me of some
of the darker parts of the Quarter in N’awlins. I don’t want to lose
you to that darkness.” Kyrie was never serious, even when we were
in the worst trouble. He always had a joke or a flirt to cover the dire
situations.
“What do you suggest, Starboy?”
“Starman. Do I need to prove it?” There was my Kyrie.
“With a dead body in the room? That’s a no.”
“I’ve never seen him shaken.”
“Neither have I. So, for now, we figure this out without the
book,” I said. Kyrie kissed my forehead.
“Thank you.”
T he human cops arrived along with Jacob Carpenter and
his partner, Moira Nunnelly. She didn’t like us very
much. Thankfully, Jacob hadn’t told her who and what we were.
“Well, surprise, surprise. The fake F.B.I. finds another dead body,”
she said, looking up at the suspended body of the fairy in the
church.
“When did you find her?” Jacob asked.
“We came here to visit the church. It’s one of the oldest in the
city, and we were doing a little sight-seeing,” I said.
“The church was closed,” Moira said.
“Was it? The back door was unlocked. We didn’t break in,” Kyrie
said.
She rolled her eyes. “How do we get her down? Are there wires?”
“It’s magic,” I blurted out.
“Winnie,” Kyrie hissed.
“You think you are cute, but you aren’t cute enough to get
yourself out of this,” Moira said.
“You think I’m cute?” I asked her.
She cut her eyes to me, then back again. I just learned
something about Moira that I didn’t know. I was going to use my
fairy wiles on her until Seamus Daragh walked into the back of the
church. Strange place to find a vampire.
“Well, what do we have here?” he asked.
“This is a crime scene, Mr. Daragh. You shouldn’t be here,” Moira
said, walking to him. He laid his hand on her shoulder. Her eyes
glassed over. He guided her into a pew where she began to writhe
and make unholy sounds.
“What the hell did you do?” I asked.
“Want me to do it to you?” he asked playfully.
“Absolutely not,” I said.
“What she said,” Kyrie followed.
Moira’s moans filled the church like a choir in a brothel.
“Wow! I wish someone would touch me like that,” Jacob said.
“I could if you want,” Seamus said.
“No more touching!” I exclaimed. “Why are you here?”
Seamus looked up at the fairy, then back to me. “You have a
problem.”
“No shit, Seamus.”
“I have an answer,” he said with a smile. “If you would, indulge
me.” He held his hand out to me.
“I thought I said, no touching,” I said.
“That only happens if you want it,” he said as Moira hit a new
wave of moans. “Apparently, she’s been missing the finer things in
life.”
“Wynonna isn’t,” Kyrie said, putting his arm around me.
“Too many dicks,” I muttered. “Lead the way.” Jacob covered his
mouth to hide a laugh.
Seamus flipped up the collar of his wool coat and marched out of
the church as Moira hit her peak. Jacob stood over her trying to
wake her from the daze. A coroner van drove up with another couple
of cop cars as we ducked into Seamus’ limo.
The plush interior didn’t surprise me. I knew that Seamus lived
an upper-crust lifestyle. However, the wet bar impressed Kyrie.
“Help yourself, Mr. Babineau,” Seamus said.
I took one of the crystal glasses from Kyrie and sat it back down
on the tray as the car began to move.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“For a ride. We need to talk, and I know of no place safer than
my own vehicle,” he said.
“You said you have an answer for the demon,” I said.
 He smiled and looked down at his lap. His runed cane sat across
his legs. “I did not mention the demon.”
“You said…”
“He didn’t say the demon. And we have more than one problem,”
Kyrie said. I wondered whose side Kyrie was on.
Seamus’ eyes shot up to Kyrie. The smile that formed on his face
could be described as evilly amused. “Did you know that the Star
Folk of the First People are considered gods?”
“Yes,” Kyrie answered. “What does that have to do with
anything?”
“Wynonna, what is the name of the first phoenix?” Seamus
asked.
“Uriel.”
“The archangel. A servant of gods. Do you serve Kyrie?” he
asked.
“That’s not funny,” Kyrie growled.
Seamus held his hand up. “I meant no harm. We are changing
hierarchies every day. The two of you are proof of that.”
I had never thought of myself as an angel and I certainly never
considered Kyrie to be a god. However, from a human perspective,
we were supernatural. The humans in Steelshore and all over the
world had been exposed to our kind in small doses. It formed
religions which made us stronger. Or just the belief that something
else was out there gave us a boost. Kyrie’s people had been moved
from place to place and eradicated, but those that remain still
devoutly worship the old ways. Those people gave Kyrie power.
“If Kyrie’s people give him power, then who powers me?” I asked.
Seamus leaned back and smiled. “You know, your parents don’t
give you enough credit, Wynonna. I have always thought you were
the brightness in the dark. Your father was the same. By all means,
he was extraordinarily powerful on his own, but when he moved to
Shady Grove, the old gods that lived there trusted him completely.
They looked to him for guidance. He stood behind your mother
through everything that she faced. When she was ready to face
them on her own, he gave that power to you.”
 “I do serve the old gods,” I said. “My mother’s faith in me. Levi’s
trust in me.”
“And Kyrie’s love for you,” Seamus said.
“Make me stronger,” I surmised. “What does all of that mean
though? I already know that I’m powerful.”
“Sometimes knowing why we are powerful is just as important as
knowing that we are,” Seamus concluded.
I fell silent and watched the city pass us by. I didn’t know where
he was taking us, but it didn’t matter. Why did I have the power of
the phoenix? What was my purpose? That was why I had come to
Steelshore. To find myself. I’d claimed the city as my own, but what
about the rest of the world? What about Dog River? What about the
Otherworld? Maybe my place was beside my mother.
Kyrie’s hand slipped into mine. I met his gaze and he seemed to
be searching for something inside of me.
“Your belief in me is just as important as mine in you,” he said.
“I’m not doing enough,” I said.
We ignored Seamus who seemed to blend away leaving us in our
own protective shroud. I realized that Kyrie was blocking the
vampirate.
Kyrie touched my face. “Sunshine, you are always enough. No
one expects you to take on the world.”
“But what if I can?” I asked.
“Then we do it one demon at a time.”
“If we weren’t in Seamus’ limo…”
“I’ll take a raincheck,” he said, giving me that perfectly
mischievous grin.
“In bed with a god.”
“In bed with an angel.”
“Seems sacrilegious.”
“Even better.”
I slapped him on the arm, and he chuckled. “So, how do an
angel and a god trap a demon?”
“I have no fucking idea, but I know we will figure it out. I have a
feeling this isn’t why Seamus brought us here,” he said, nodding
over his shoulder.
 The limo sat outside Ely House, the jazz bar owned by Eartha
Hamlet. She’d repaired the place since the last battle we’d had
there. She’d banned us from returning, and I didn’t feel like we
should cross that line. Kyrie dropped the veil, revealing a
contemplative Seamus.
“The answer to one of your problems is in there,” he said,
tapping on the window with his cane.
“Ely House? We aren’t allowed to go in there,” I said.
“Since when has that stopped you?” Seamus laughed. “Who
owns this club?”
“Eartha.”
“Actually, I own the building. I own The Savoy, as well. I own the
church, or at least the property where it is at. I can’t rightly own a
place such as it.”
“I get it. You own half the town. What’s inside there?” I asked.
“If I told you everything, I wouldn’t have any fun.”
My fists turned to fire, and I darted across the space between us,
grabbing him by the lapel. My fire singed through his coat, and he
stared me in the eye without flinching.
“This isn’t fun, Seamus! This isn’t a fucking game!” I snarled.
“I assure you that despite my long life and abilities, I will burn,”
he said. I flattened my palms burning through his shirt, but when
they touched his skin, he didn’t burn. “Cane.”
“Winnie, this isn’t helping. Let’s just go,” Kyrie said.
“Nick’s mother is what?” Seamus asked. My flames rippled over
his chest burning away his jacket. On his left chest, he had a skull
tattoo with elongated teeth. Red roses surrounded it. I’d never seen
him without a shirt, and honestly, I was almost distracted. My flames
flickered in his eyes as they climbed up his neck.
“A witch? I’m tired of the quizzes!” I shouted at him.
“What is Grace’s mother?” he asked.
I backed away, and the fire stopped burning before it consumed
his pants. A move I regretted. Sort of.
“They are sirens, and there are supposed to be three of them,” I
said. “You should have pointed this out sooner.”
 “I only recently heard the tale of the three sisters from Nick who
came by to ask a favor,” he said. “I didn’t bother him with the
information. He has enough on his plate.”
“And I don’t?!”
Kyrie was outside of the limo, leaning down to get my attention.
“Winnie.” He held his hand out to me.
Seamus leaned forward and touched my cheek. I felt the heat in
it. He should have been cold, but my heat had gotten to him.
“Fuck, Seamus. I’m sorry,” I muttered.
“Wynonna, you could never do anything to hurt me. Forgive me
for exploiting your trust in me too far. But I do not lie when I say
you can handle this. All of it,” he said.
His hand turned cold, and I tore myself away from his touch. I
had to remind myself of the seductive power of the vampire. The
phoenix was immune to seduction, but I felt something. His eyes
darkened.
“I gotta go,” I muttered and climbed out of the limo to Kyrie who
looked like he wanted to murder Seamus. “Come on. We should go
talk to the siren.”
“We can’t walk in there like this,” he said, pointing to his jeans.
Ely house had a dress code, and we weren’t dressed accordingly.
When I stepped onto the curb, Seamus’ limo pulled away. I
snapped my fingers putting Kyrie in a tuxedo and myself in a slinky
dark purple dress. Kyrie offered his arm and I took it.
“I could have killed him,” I whispered.
“You wouldn’t have. He knew you wouldn’t,” Kyrie said. “His faith
in you is strong.”
“Faith.”
“The kind of thing that powers angels,” Kyrie said.
S urprisingly, the host sat us without protest. Perhaps we
weren’t as banned as we thought. A young man in a service
formal stepped up to the table.
“Drinks?” he asked.
“Merlot,” I said.
“Same,” Kyrie added.
The server nodded, then walked away. The stage at Ely House
had been expanded. A burgundy velvet curtain obscured the stage
while light jazz music played through hidden speakers. The house
was packed.
The server returned with our glasses. I looked at them using my
sight and saw nothing magical. However, he brought us a very fine
wine. I hoped that Kyrie brought his wallet.
“Wow,” he said quietly after taking a sip.
“It’s good,” I agreed. “The cats would love it.”
“Those crazy cats and wine. I’ve never seen or heard anything
about such a thing,” he said.
“I like them.” I had become very fond of my new roommates. I
couldn’t call them pets. It didn’t seem right. And they certainly
weren’t familiars in the traditional sense of the word. In exchange
for room, board, and wine, they brought me information. Of course,
the pipeline for information of any kind had died out since Callum
disappeared into the Otherworld through a tree just north of Dog
River.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 — Kuinkas muuten, teidän armonne!

— Missä me nyt olemme?

— Sleesiassa jo. Ei meitä ruotsalaiset enää saa kynsiinsä!

— Se on hyvä! — sanoi Kmicic jo täysin selvinneenä unestaan. —

Missä meidän armollisen kuninkaamme asunto on?

— Glogowassa.

— Sinne menemme, kumarramme hänen jalkoihinsa,

antaudumme kokonaan hänen palvelukseensa. Mutta kuulehan,
vanhus!

— Kuulen, teidän armonne! Mutta Kmicic vaipui mietteisiinsä eikä

ruvennut heti puhumaan. Ilmeisesti hän mietti jotakin mielessään,
epäröi, harkitsi ja lausui viimein:

— Toisin ei voi olla.

— Kuulen, teidän armonne! — toisti Kiemlicz

— Ei, kuninkaalle eikä hovilaisille saa hiiskahtaakaan, kuka

olen!… Nimeni on Babinicz ja tulemme Częstochowosta. Isosta
tykistä ja Kuklinowskista voitte puhua… Mutta nimeäni ei saa
mainita, muuten minun tarkoituksiani voidaan selittää väärin ja pitää
minua petturina, sillä sokeudessani olen palvellut Vilnon vojevodaa
ja auttanutkin häntä, ja siitä on hovissa voitu kuulla.

— Herra eversti! Sen jälkeen, mitä teidän armonne on tehnyt

Częstochowossa…
 — Mutta kuka todistaa sen todeksi niin kauan kuin luostaria
piiritetään?

— Toimin käskynne mukaan!

— Tulee hetki, jolloin totuus pääsee voitolle, — sanoi Kmicic aivan

kuin itsekseen, — mutta ensin täytyy armollisen kuninkaamme
itsensä tulla vakuutetuksi… Hän on sitten myöhemmin todistajani!

Tähän keskustelu katkesi. Päivä oli nyt täydelleen noussut. Ukko

Kiemlicz alkoi veisata Kosman ja Damianin säestäessä häntä
bassoillaan. Tiellä tuli tavan takaa vastaan kulkijoita, jotka pidättivät
ratsastajia ja kysyivät uutisia, varsinkin sitä, vieläkö Częstochowo
pitää puoliaan. Kmicic vastasi, että se puolustautuu ja ehdottomasti
selviää voittajana.

Majatalot olivat kaikki täpötäynnä. Monet matkustajista olivat

menossa kauemmas sisämaahan rajaseuduilta ruotsalaisten
hyökkäystä pakoon, mutta tavan takaa kohdattiin myös
aatelismiehiä, jotka olivat saaneet tarpeekseen ruotsalaisista ja olivat
samoin kuin Kmicic matkalla tarjoutumaan karkoitetun kuninkaan
palvelukseen. Viestit Puolasta olivat elvyttäneet näitten matkaajain
toiveita, ja monet jo valmistautuivat palaamaan aseet käsissä. Koko
Sleesiassa valmistauduttiin toimintaan. Lähettejä kiiti kuljettaen
kirjeitä kuninkaalle ja kuninkaalta Kievin kastellaanille, valtakunnan
ensimmäiselle senaattorille, joka ei hetkeksikään ollut luopunut
ajamasta Jan Kasimirin asiaa.

Tämä oli alkua laajaan kapinaan, joka paikoitellen jo oli jossakin

määrin leimahtanutkin ilmi. Ruotsalaiset olivat aivan ymmällä.
Heidän äskeinen voitonriemunsa vaimeni, ja he kysyivät itseltään
hämmästyen: »Onko tämä todellakin sama kansa, joka eilen hylkäsi
kuninkaansa ja antautui taistelutta?» Kuinka? Paanit, aateli,
sotajoukko olivat tavalla, jommoista historia ei tuntenut, menneet
voittajan puolelle, kaupungit ja linnat olivat avanneet porttinsa, koko
maa oli vallattu. Ei koskaan mikään valloitus ollut vaatinut niin vähän
ponnistuksia ja verta. Ruotsalaiset itsekin ihmettelivät sitä, että niin
helposti olivat valloittaneet mahtavan valtakunnan, eivätkä voineet
salata halveksimistaan voitettuja kohtaan, jotka heti, kun
ruotsalainen miekka välähti, hylkäsivät kuninkaansa ja isänmaansa
joko saadakseen rauhassa nauttia omaisuutensa jäännöksistä tahi
saavuttaakseen uusia etuja sekasorron aikana. Sen, mitä aikanaan
Wrzeszczowicz oli sanonut keisarin lähettiläälle Lisolalle, sanoi itse
kuningaskin ja kaikki ruotsalaiset kenraalit: »Ei ole tässä kansassa
miehuutta, ei kestävyyttä eikä sopua, ei uskoa eikä
isänmaanrakkautta, ja siksi se tuhoutuu.»

He unhottivat, että tässä kansassa vielä eli yksi tunne, se, jonka
maallisena ilmenemismuotona oli Jasna Góra.

Tämä tunne sai aikaan kansan uudestisyntymisen.

Pyhän paikan tykkien jyrinä synnytti vastakaiun kaikkien ylimysten,

aatelisten, porvarien ja talonpoikain sydämissä. Paheksumisen
huuto kuului Karpaateilta Itämereen, ja jättiläinen heräsi
horroksistaan.

— Tämä on kokonaan toinen kansa! — sanoivat ruotsalaiset

kenraalit hämmästyneinä.

Ja alkaen Arvid Wittenbergistä aina vähäisten linnoitusten

päällikköihin asti kaikki johtajat alkoivat lähettää Preussissa
oleskelevalle Kaarle Kustaalle kauhun sanomia.
 Sillä välin kulki tuhansina kappaleina koko valtakunnassa kädestä
käteen Jan Kasimirin manifesti. Aluksi se ei ollut tehnyt mitään
vaikutusta, mutta nyt sitä luettiin linnoituksissa, jotka vielä eivät olleet
joutuneet ruotsalaisten valtaan. Kaikkialla, missä tuntui ruotsalaisten
raskaan käden paino, kokoontui aateli suurempiin tahi pienempiin
ryhmiin ja löi rintaansa kuunnellen maanpakoon karkoitetun
kuninkaan liikuttavia sanoja, jotka syyttämättä ketään erehdyksistä ja
rikoksista kehoittivat pysymään toivehikkaana ja rientämään
nöyryytettyä valtakuntaa pelastamaan.

Tätä universaalia luettiin myös Kaarle Kustaan leirissä,

ruotsalaisten valloittamissa linnoituksissa ja kaikkialla, missä vain oli
puolalaisia joukkoja. Aateli kostutti kyynelin jokaista kuninkaan
sanaa ja vannoi ristin ja pyhäinjäännösten ääressä tekevänsä hänen
kehoitustensa mukaan. Osoittaakseen valmiuttaan kyynelten vielä
kostuttaessa silmiä ja innostuksen liekehtiessä sydämissä miehet
viivyttelemättä nousivat ratsujensa selkään ja hyökkäsivät
ruotsalaisten kimppuun.

Näin alkoivat pienemmät ruotsalaiset joukot kutistua yhä

pienemmiksi ja tuhoutua. Niin tapahtui Liettuassa, Samogitiassa,
Masowiassa, Suur-Puolassa ja Vähässä-Puolassa. Sattui usein, että
aateli ilman mitään sotaisia aikeita kokoontui naapurin luo ristiäisiin,
nimipäiville, häihin tahi illatsuun, mutta ryypättyään niissä lopetti
ilonpidon siten, että iski kuin salama lähimmän ruotsalaisen joukon
kimppuun ja hakkasi sen maahan. Sitten juhlan viettäjät laulaen ja
huutaen ja ottaen matkan varrella mukaansa ne, joita huvitti
»metsästys», jatkoivat matkaansa, muuttuivat verenhimoiseksi
joukoksi, ja joukosta muodostui »puolue», joka jo kävi jatkuvasti
sotaa. Talonpojat ja palvelusväki liittyivät suurina joukkoina mukaan.
Toiset toivat tietoja yksityisten ruotsalaisten ja pienten
ruotsalaisryhmien olinpaikoista, kun nämä varomattomasti olivat
hajaantuneet kyliin. Tämmöiset sotivat joukot lisääntyivät päivä
päivältä. Ilomielisyys ja kansalle ominainen sukkelajärkisyys tekivät
veriset ottelut heille rattoisiksi.

Puolalaiset mielellään pukeutuivat tataarilaisiksi, joitten pelkkä

mainitseminen jo peloitti ruotsalaisia. Heidän keskuudessaan kierteli
ihmeellisiä kertomuksia ja juttuja näiden Krimin arojen poikain
peloittavasta julmuudesta ja järkähtämättömästä rohkeudesta, joiden
kanssa ruotsalaiset eivät vielä koskaan olleet joutuneet tekemisiin.
Huhuttiin kaanin olevan tulossa sadantuhannen miehen kanssa
avuksi Jan Kasimirille.

Ruotsalaisten päälliköt olivat monin paikoin aivan vakuutettuja

siitä, että tataarilaiset jo olivat lähellä, ja he vetäytyivät suurempiin
linnoituksiin ja leireihin vieden kaikkialle mukanaan vääriä tietoja ja
pelkoa. Seudut, jotka tällä tavoin vapautuivat vihollisesta, saattoivat
varustautua aseilla ja muodostaa järjestymättömistä joukoista
säännöllistä sotaväkeä.

Mutta uhkaavampi vielä kuin aatelisjoukkojen liikehtimiset ja

tataarilaisten tulo oli talonpoikain nousu. Jo siitä asti kuin
Częstochowoa oli ryhdytty piirittämään, alkoi olla kuohuntaa rahvaan
keskuudessa, ja tähän saakka kärsivälliset ja rauhalliset maan
muokkaajat alkoivat tehdä vastarintaa, tarttua viikatteihin ja
sirppeihin ja auttaa aatelia. Tarkkanäköisimmät ruotsalaiset kenraalit
katselivat peloissaan noita pilviä, jotka milloin tahansa saattoivat
puhjeta semmoiseksi rankkasateeksi, että vedenpaisumus nielisi
auttamattomasti äskeiset voittajat.

Oli vain yksi keino uhkaavan vaaran tukahduttamiseksi alkuunsa,

nimittäin pelon herättäminen. Kaarle Kustaa sai vielä suopeudella ja
mielistelyllä pitäneeksi puolellaan ne puolalaiset joukot, jotka olivat
seuranneet häntä Preussiin. Hän mielisteli Koniecpolskia, kuuluisaa
päällikköä, joka oli hänen rinnallaan kuudentuhannen oivallisen
ratsumiehen kanssa. Nämä ratsumiehet tuottivat ensimmäisessä
taistelussa preussilaisille sellaisen tappion, että vaaliruhtinas heti
ryhtyi neuvotteluihin.

Ruotsin kuningas lähetti myös hetmaneille, ylimyksille ja aatelille

kirjeitä, jotka olivat täynnä kohteliaisuuksia, lupauksia ja kehoituksia
pysymään hänelle uskollisina. Mutta samalla hän käski kenraalejaan
ja päälliköltään kukistamaan tulella ja miekalla kaiken vastarinnan
maassa ja varsinkin ankarasti tekemään lopun talonpoikien
joukoista. Rautainen sotilasvalta pantiin toimeen. Kokonaisia kyliä
hävitettiin maan tasalle, linnoja ja kirkkoja poltettiin. Vangitut
aatelismiehet annettiin teloittajain käsiin, vangiksi joutuneilta
talonpojilta hakattiin pois oikea käsi ja heidät päästettiin kotiinsa.

Erityisesti oli Suur-Puola rangaistusretkikuntien

temmellyskenttänä. Se oli ensimmäisenä alistunut vieraan
herruuteen, ja se myös ensimmäisenä nousi vastarintaan.
Komentaja Stein antoi siellä yhtenä päivänä hakata käden pois
kolmeltasadalta talonpojalta, jotka oli saatu kiinni ase kädessä.
Hirsipuita kohosi suuri joukko ja ne koristettiin joka päivä uusilla
uhreilla. Samoin menetteli Magnus de la Gardie Liettuassa ja
Samogitiassa, jossa ensin aateliskylien asukkaat ja näiden
esimerkkiä seuraten talonpojatkin olivat tarttuneet aseihin. Koska
yleisessä sekamelskassa ruotsalaisten oli vaikea erottaa omia
puoluelaisiaan vihollisista, niin ei säästetty ketään. Mutta tuli, johon
vuodatettiin verta, leimahti yhä voimakkaammaksi. Alkoi sota, jossa
kummallakaan puolella ei ollut kysymys voitosta, jonkin linnan,
kaupungin tahi maakunnan valloittamisesta, vaan elämästä ja
kuolemasta. Ei enää taisteltu, vaan teurastettiin toisiaan säälimättä.
TOINEN LUKU.

Tämä sota oli vasta alkamassa, kun Kmicic kolmen Kiemliczin

kanssa saapui Glogowaan matkan jälkeen, joka hänen
terveydentilaansa nähden oli rasittava. He tulivat perille yöllä.
Kaupunki oli täynnä sotaväkeä, paaneja, aatelia, kuninkaitten ja
ylimysten palvelijoita. Majataloissa vallitsi sellainen tilanpuute, että
ukko Kiemlicz vain suurella vaivalla löysi Andrzejlle asunnon
kaupungin ulkopuolella erään köydenpunojan luona.

Koko päivän Andrzej makasi sairaana ja kuumeessa ja luuli jo,

että hän sairastuu vakavasti. Mutta hänen rautainen luontonsa voitti.
Seuraavana yönä oli vointi jo parempi, ja päivän koittaessa hän
pukeutui ja lähti kirkkoon kiittämään Jumalaa tervehtymisestään.

Sumuinen ja luminen talviaamu sai vaivoin pimeyden

hälvenemään. Kaupunki nukkui vielä, mutta kirkon ovesta näkyi
valoa alttarilta ja kuului urkujen ääni.

Kmicic astui keskemmälle kirkkoa. Pappi alttarilla toimitti

jumalanpalvelusta, mutta rukoilevia oli vielä vähän. Alttarin juurella
oli maahan langenneena matolla joku olento ja hänen takanaan
polvillaan kaksi punaposkista, aivan enkelimäistä poikaa. Maassa
makaava ihminen oli aivan liikkumaton, ja vain rinnasta kohoavat
huokaukset, jotka saivat hänen hartiansa vavahtelemaan, ilmaisivat,
että hän ei nukkunut, vaan rukoili hartaasti koko sydämestään.
Kmicic vaipui myös rukoukseen, mutta sen jälkeen hänen katseensa
taasen kiintyi tuohon maassa rukoilevaan eikä voinut siitä irtautua.

Andrzej päätteli heti, että rukoilija oli joku huomattu henkilö, sillä
kaikki läsnäolijat, alttarilla seisova pappikin, katselivat häneen
kunnioittavasti. Tuntematon oli puettu mustaan, soopelinnahalla
koristettuun pukuun, kaulassa oli valkea pitsikaulus ja sen alta
välkkyivät kultavitjat. Hänen vieressään oli musta, mustilla sulilla
koristettu hattu. Poikien taakse polvistunut paashi piteli hansikkaita
ja sinisellä emaljilla koristettua miekkaa. Tuntemattoman kasvoja ei
Kmicic voinut nähdä, sillä maton poimut ja erittäin tuuhean tekotukan
suortuvat kätkivät ne näkyvistä.

Kmicic nykäisi vieressään seisovaa aatelismiestä ja kuiskasi:

— Anteeksi, että häiritsen teitä jumalanpalveluksessa, mutta en

voi voittaa uteliaisuuttani!

Kuka on tuo?

Hän osoitti silmillään maassa rukoilevaa.

— Varmaankin olette kaukaa saapunut, kun ette tiedä, kuka se

on? — vastasi puhuteltu.

— Totta on, että tulen kaukaa, ja siksi kysynkin siinä toivossa, että
minulle se hyväntahtoisesti sanotaan.

— Se on kuningas.
 — Herra Jumala! — huudahti Kmicic. Samassa pappi alkoi lukea
evankeliumia, ja kuningas nousi.

Andrzej näki nääntyneet, keltaiset kasvot, jotka olivat kuultavat

kuin vaha. Kuninkaan silmät olivat kosteat ja silmäluomet
punehtuneet. Koko maan kohtalot näyttivät painaneen leimansa
noihin jaloihin kasvoihin — niin paljon kärsimystä niissä kuvastui.
Unettomat yöt, jotka oli vietetty rukouksessa ja murheessa, kaikkien
hylkäämän maanpakolaisen katkera kohtalo, mahtavien kuninkaitten
pojan, pojanpojan ja pojanpojanpojan loukattu majesteetti, suru, jota
hänelle niin runsaasti olivat tuottaneet omat alamaiset, sen maan
kiittämättömyys, jonka hyväksi hän oli valmis uhraamaan henkensä
ja verensä — kaikki tuo oli luettavana hänen kasvoistaan kuin
avoimesta kirjasta. Mutta samalla näkyi niistä niin suuri ja
loppumaton hyvyys, että suurimpienkin petturien ja kaikkein
syyllisimpienkin tarvitsi vain ojentaa kätensä tälle isälle tullakseen
vastaan otetuiksi ja saadakseen anteeksi tekemänsä vääryydet.

Kmicicistä tuntui häntä katsellessaan, kuin rautainen koura olisi

puristanut sydäntä. Sääli valtasi hänen mielensä, ja äärettömän
syyllisyyden tunto sai polvet vapisemaan, koko hänen ruumiinsa
värisi, ja aivan uusi tunne syntyi hänen sydämessään. Yhdessä
hetkessä hän kiintyi niin koko sydämellään tuohon kärsivään
majesteettiin, että tunsi tämän isän ja kuninkaan olevan hänelle
kaikkea muuta maailmassa rakkaamman, tunsi olevansa valmis
antamaan hänen tähtensä verensä ja henkensä, kestämään
kidutusta ja mitä tahansa. Hänessä kuoli huimapää aatelismies ja
sen sijalle syntyi yhdessä hetkessä rojalisti, joka koko sydämestään
oli uskollinen kuninkaalleen.
 — Hän on meidän kuninkaamme, meidän onneton kuninkaamme!
— toisteli hän itsekseen aivan kuin huulillaan todistaakseen sen,
mitä silmät näkivät ja sydän tunsi.

Jan Kasimir polvistui uudelleen ja vaipui rukoukseen. Pappi

poistui, kirkossa syntyi liikettä, mutta kuningas oli yhä polvillaan.

Mutta se aatelismies, jota Kmicic oli nykäissyt, tuli nyt Andrzejn

viereen.

— Kuka te olette? — kysyi hän.

Kmicic ei heti tajunnut kysymystä eikä vastannut, siinä määrin

hänen ajatuksensa yhä olivat kiintyneet kuninkaaseen.

— Kuka te olette? — kysyi toinen uudestaan.

— Aatelismies niinkuin tekin! — sanoi Andrzej aivan kuin unesta

heräten.

— Mikä on nimenne?

— Nimeni? Olen nimeltä Babinicz, kotoisin Liettuasta, Vitebskin

seudulta.

— Minä olen Lugowski, kuninkaan hovista!… Saanko kysyä,

tuletteko
Liettuasta ja Vitebskistä?

— En… Tulen Częstochowosta. Lugowski oli perin hämmästyneen

näköinen.

— Jos niin on, niin tulkaa kanssani uutisia kertomaan. Armollista

kuningastamme on kovin vaivannut se, että hän ei kolmeen päivään
ole saanut sieltä mitään varmoja tietoja. Kuinka? Te olette kaiketi
Zbrozekin tahi Kalińskin taikka mahdollisesti Kuklinowskin miehiä?
Częstochowon luota?

— En Częstochowon luota, vaan itse luostarista!

— Lasketteko leikkiä? Mitä sinne kuuluu? Vieläkö Jasna Góra

puolustautuu?

— Puolustautuu eikä lakkaa puolustautumasta! Ruotsalaiset ovat

jo peräytymäisillään.

— Jumalan nimessä! Kuningas palkitsee teidät runsaasti! Sanotte

tulevanne itse luostarista?… Kuinka ruotsalaiset teidät päästivät
läpi?

— Minä en pyytänytkään heiltä lupaa siihen. Mutta anteeksi, en

voi ryhtyä kirkossa seikkaperäisiin selityksiin.

— Aivan oikein! — vastasi Lugowski. — Laupias Jumala!…Tulitte

kuin taivaasta!… Odottakaahan! Asettukaa viereeni kirkon ovelle,
niin esittelen siinä teidät kuninkaalle!

Näin sanottuaan hän lähti menemään, ja Kmicic seurasi häntä.

Tuskin he olivat asettuneet ovelle, kun saapui kaksi paashia ja
heidän jäljessään hitaasti astuen Jan Kasimir.

— Teidän majesteettinne! — huudahti Lugowski. — Tietoja on

tullut
Częstochowosta!

Jan Kasimirin vahakasvot vilkastuivat heti:

 — Mitä? Kuka on tuonut? — kysyi hän.

— Tämä aatelismies! Sanoo tulevansa itse luostarista.

— Onko siis luostari valloitettu? — huudahti kuningas.

Andrzej lankesi kuninkaan jalkoihin. Jan Kasimir kumartui ja alkoi

nostaa häntä käsivarsista.

— Sitten, — huusi hän, — sitten myöhemmin! Nouskaa, Herran

tähden, nouskaa! Sanokaa pian… Onko luostari valloitettu?

Kmicic nousi kyynelet silmissä ja huudahti kiihkeästi:

— Ei ole valloitettu, teidän majesteettinne, eikä valloiteta!

Ruotsalaiset on lyöty! Heidän suurin tykkinsä on räjähdytetty rikki!
Heidän keskuudessaan vallitsee pelko, nälkä, onnettomuudet! He
miettivät jo peräytymistä!

— Ylistys olkoon sinulle, taivaan kuningatar! — sanoi kuningas.

Hän kääntyi kirkon ovea kohti, otti hatun päästään ja menemättä

peremmälle polvistui oven luo. Nyyhkytys puistatti hänen
ruumistaan.

Rukoiltuaan kuningas nousi rauhallisena ja kasvot kirkkaina. Hän

kysyi
Kmicicin nimeä ja sanoi:

— Saattakoon herra Lugowski heti herra Babiniczin asuntoomme.

Neljännestunnin kuluttua Kmicic seisoi kuninkaan huoneessa

ylhäisen seuran edessä. Kuningas odotti vain kuningatarta
käydäkseen aikaiselle aamiaiselle. Kun Maria Ludwika hetken
kuluttua saapui, huudahti Jan Kasimir heti hänet nähtyään:

— Częstochowo pitää puoliaan! Ruotsalaiset peräytyvät! Tässä on

herra
Babinicz, joka tulee sieltä ja tuo nämä tiedot.

Kuningattaren mustat silmät katsoivat tutkivasti nuoren miehen

kasvoihin ja nähdessään niiden vilpittömän ilmeen alkoivat säteillä
ilosta. Kmicic kumarrettuaan syvään katsoi kuningattareen rohkeasti,
niinkuin totuus voi katsoa.

— Te otatte raskaan painon sydämeltämme, — sanoi kuningatar,

— ja suokoon Jumala, että se ennustaisi onnellisemman ajan alkua.
Tuletteko suoraan Częstochowon edustalta?

— Ei hän tule Częstochowon edustalta, vaan sanoo tulevansa itse

luostarista! Hän on sen puolustajia! — huudahti kuningas. — Kallis
vieras!… Kunpa joka päivä tulisi sellaisia! Mutta antakaahan hänelle
puheenvuoro… Kertokaa, hyvä ystävä, kuinka te puolustauduitte ja
kuinka Jumalan käsi teitä kaitsi!

Kmicic aikoi ryhtyä kertomaan, mutta samassa saapui sisälle

uusia arvohenkilöitä. Tuli paavin lähettiläs, sitten primas
Leszczynski, kuuluisa saarnamies pappi Wydzga, valtakunnan
kansleri Koryciński ynnä muita, jotka eivät olleet hylänneet
kuningasta onnettomuudessa ja tahtoivat mieluummin syödä hänen
kanssaan maanpakolaisen karvasta leipää kuin olla uskottomia.

Kuningas oli kiireissään kuulemaan uutisia eikä paljon välittänyt

aamiaisestaan, vaan lausui:
 — Kuulkaa, hyvät herrat! Kuulkaa, vieras tuo Częstochowosta
hyviä uutisia… Itse Jasna Górasta! Ylhäiset herrat katselivat
uteliaina Kmiciciä, joka seisoi aivan kuin tuomioistuimen edessä,
mutta ei joutunut vähääkään hämilleen ja aloitti kaikkien istuuduttua
paikoilleen kertomuksensa.

Oli helppo huomata hänen puhuvan totta, sillä hän puhui selvästi
ja ytimekkäästi niinkuin sotilas, joka oli itse kaikki nähnyt ja kokenut.
Hän puhui priori Kordeckista kuin pyhästä profeetasta, ylisti pilviin
asti Zamoyskia ja Czamieckia, kertoi muista luostarin puolustajista
eikä unohtanut ketään muita kuin itsensä ja selitti koko menestyksen
Pyhän Neitsyen ansioksi.

Kuningas ja ylhäiset henkilöt kuuntelivat ihmetellen. Arkkipiispa

kohotti kyyneleiset silmänsä taivasta kohti, pappi Wydzga käänsi
kertomuksen kohta kohdalta paavin lähettiläälle, jotkut herroista
pitelivät päätään, toiset löivät rintaansa.

Kun sitten Kmicic kuvaili viimeisiä hyökkäyksiä ja kertoi, miten

Müller tuotti järeitä tykkejä Krakovasta, niiden joukossa sellaisen
kolubriinin, joka pystyi särkemään ei vain Częstochowon, vaan
minkä muurin tahansa, niin vallitsi kuolemanhiljaisuus ja kaikkien
katseet olivat kiintyneet hänen huuliinsa.

Mutta Andrzej keskeytti äkkiä kertomuksensa, ja hänen

hengityksensä muuttui kiihkeämmäksi, puna nousi hänen poskilleen,
hän rypisti kulmakarvojaan, nosti päänsä pystyyn ja sanoi:

— Nyt minun täytyy puhua itsestäni, vaikka mieluummin olisin

puhumatta… Ja jos sanon semmoista, mikä saattaa tuntua
kerskailulta, niin Jumala on todistajani, että en tee sitä palkinnon
toivossa, sillä semmoista en pyydä, koska suurin palkinto minulle on
saada vuodattaa vertani kuninkaan puolesta…

— Puhukaa vapaasti, me uskomme teitä! huusi kuningas. — Siis

tuo kolubriini?…

— Tuo kolubriini… minä hiivin yöllä linnoituksesta ja räjähdytin sen

ruudilla rikki!

— Laupias Jumala! — huudahti kuningas. Mutta tämän

huudahduksen jälkeen vallitsi äänettömyys, jonka oli synnyttänyt
yleinen hämmästys. Kaikki katselivat nuorta miestä, joka seisoi
silmät säkenöiden, puna poskilla ja pää ylpeästi pystyssä. Mutta niin
paljon oli hänen olemuksessaan tällä hetkellä peloittavaa ja hurjaa
uljuutta, että jokainen uskoi hänen todella kykenevän semmoiseen
tekoon.

— Kuinka te sen teitte? — kysyi kuningas. Kmicic kertoi

tapahtuman kulun.

— En usko korviani! — sanoi kansleri Koryciński.

— Hyvät herrat! — sanoi kuningas arvokkaasti.

— Me emme tietäneet, kuka on edessämme. Ei ole vielä hukassa

valtakunta niin kauan kuin se synnyttää tällaisia ritareita ja
kansalaisia.

— Tämä mies voi sanoa itsestään: »Si fractus illabatur orbis,

impavidum ferient ruinae!» — sanoi pappi Wydzga, joka mielellään
siteerasi kirjailijoita kaikissa tilaisuuksissa.
 — Tämä on todella uskomatonta! — sanoi kansleri uudelleen. —
Kertokaa, miten selvisitte hengissä tästä ja miten pääsitte tulemaan
ruotsalaisten joukkojen läpi!

— Räjähdys saattoi minut tainnoksiin, — sanoi Kmicic, — ja

aamulla ruotsalaiset löysivät minut siinä tilassa. Siellä minut ensi
tilassa tutkittiin, ja Müller tuomitsi minut kuolemaan.

— Pääsitte siis pakenemaan?

— Joku Kuklinowski pyysi minut Mülleriltä haltuunsa kiduttaakseen

minua, sillä hänellä oli vihaa minua kohtaan…

— Se on tunnettu roisto ja rosvo, olemme kuulleet siitä! — sanoi

eräs herroista. — Hänen joukkonsa on Müllerin kanssa
Częstochowon edustalla… Se pitää paikkansa.

— Tuo Kuklinowski oli käynyt Müllerin lähettiläänä luostarissa ja

koettanut yksityisesti houkutella minua petturuuteen… Silloin minä
iskin häntä päin naamaa ja potkaisin menemään. Sen vuoksi hän
vihasi minua.

— Siinä on oikea aatelismies sormenpäitä myöten! — huudahti

kuningas ilostuen. — Semmoiselle ei pidä mennä joutavia
puhumaan… Müller siis antoi teidät Kuklinowskille?

— Aivan niin, teidän majesteettinne! Tämä sulkeutui kanssani

tyhjään riiheen muutamia miehiä mukanaan. Minut sidottiin köysillä
orteen, ja hän alkoi minua kiduttaa, polttaa, kärventeli kylkeäni.

— Hyvä Jumala!
 — Äkkiä hänet kutsuttiin Müllerin luo, ja silloin tuli kolme
aatelismiestä, eräät Kiemliczit, hänen sotilaitaan, jotka olivat
aikaisemmin olleet minun palveluksessani. He tappoivat vahdit ja
päästivät minut pinteestä.

— Ja te pakenitte. Nyt ymmärrän! — sanoi kuningas.

— Ei, teidän majesteettinne! Odotimme kunnes Kuklinowski

palasi. Sitten minä ripustutin hänet samaan orteen ja kärvensin
vuorostani häntä.

Tapahtumaa muistellessaan Kmicic punehtui uudelleen, ja hänen

silmänsä alkoivat kiilua kuin suden silmät.

Mutta kuningas, jossa epätoivo helposti vaihtui iloisuudeksi,

arvokkuus leikillisyydeksi, alkoi takoa käsiään pöytään ja huusi
nauraen:

— Se oli oikein hänelle! Petturi ei ansainnut parempaa kohtelua!

— Jätin hänet henkiin, — sanoi Kmicic, — mutta aamuun

mennessä hän lienee paleltunut kuoliaaksi.

— Se oli verraton temppu! Enemmän vain semmoisia! — huusi

kuningas, joka nyt oli tullut täydelleen hyvälle tuulelle. — Itse sitten
tulitte noitten sotilaitten kanssa tänne? Mitkä olivatkaan niiden
nimet?

— Kiemlicz, isä ja kaksi poikaa.

— Mater mea de domo Kiemlicz est, — sanoi arvokkaasti

Wydzga.
 — Näkyy siis olevan sekä ylhäisiä että alhaisia Kiemliczejä! —
sanoi Kmicic iloisesti. — Mutta nämä eivät ainoastaan ole alhaisia,
vaan suorastaan heittiöitä, mutta oivallisia sotamiehiä ja minulle
uskollisia.

Tällä välin kuiskutteli kansleri Koryciński jotakin Gnesenin

arkkipiispan korvaan ja lausui sitten:

— Paljon tulee tänne sellaisia, jotka oman kunniansa

kohottamiseksi tahi palkinnon takia puhelevat minkä mitäkin.
Tämmöiset tuovat vääriä tietoja, ovatpa usein vihollisen
palkkaamiakin.

Kmicic sävähti punaiseksi.

— En tunne teidän arvoanne, — sanoi hän, — mutta otaksun

teidän olevan korkeassa asemassa… Ei ole kuitenkaan olemassa
niin ylhäistä arvoa, joka oikeuttaisi ilman todisteita syyttämään
aatelismiestä valheesta.

— Mies, te puhutte suurelle valtakunnan kanslerille! — sanoi

Lugowski.

Kmicic vihastui.

— Sille, joka syyttää minua valheesta, olipa hän vaikka kansleri,

minä sanon: helpompi on syyttää valheesta kuin panna alttiiksi
henkensä, helpompi antaa musteen vuotaa kuin veren!

Koryciński ei ollenkaan loukkaantunut, sanoi vain:

— Minä en syytä teitä valheesta, herra ritari, mutta jos on totta,

mitä puhuitte, niin teillä täytyy olla kylki poltettu.
 — Tulkaa toiseen huoneeseen, niin minä sen teille näytän! —
sanoi
Kmicic tiukasti.

— Ei tarvitse! — sanoi kuningas. — Uskomme teitä muutenkin!

— Ei suinkaan, teidän majesteettinne! — huudahti Andrzej. —

Minä itse haluan sitä, pyydän tätä armon osoituksena, että minua ei
kukaan, olipa miten ylhäinen tahansa, täällä loukkaisi. Huonopa on
palkinto kaikista kärsimyksistäni! Minä en tahdo palkintoa, mutta
tahdon, että minua uskotaan. Pistäköön epäuskoinen Tuomas
kätensä haavoilleni!

— Minä en ole epäuskoinen! — sanoi kuningas.

— Itse totuus puhui hänen sanoissaan! — lisäsi Maria Ludwika. —

Minä en erehdy ihmisistä.

Mutta Kmicic pani kätensä ristiin.

— Hyvät herrat, sallikaa toki! Tulkoon joku kanssani syrjään, sillä

sietämätöntä on minulle olla täällä epäluulon alaisena.

— Minä tulen! — sanoi nuori hoviherra Tiesenhausen.

Hän vei Andrzejn toiseen huoneeseen, mutta sanoi hänelle heidän

mennessään:

— En lähtenyt siksi, että en uskoisi, sillä uskon, mutta tahdoin

puhua kanssanne. Olemme Liettuassa jossakin tavanneet toisemme.
Nimeänne en voi muistaa, sillä mahdollista on, että olen nähnyt
teidät kasvavana ja ollut itsekin silloin poikaiässä.