Of Absence, Darkness

Rachel Neumeier

Description

Daniel never imagined that Tenai's memories of her earlier life might be absolutely true. But when he and his daughter are swept up in the plots of her enemies and dropped abruptly into a world of dark magic and darker history, Daniel must find a way to aid Tenai against the all-too-real echoes of her past.Though the hidden schemes of Tenai's enemies offer peril enough, the worse threat comes from within: if Tenai cannot master the vast rage she still carries, her own fury may shatter her world.

Sujets

• Fantasy (canción de Mariah Carey)
• Fantasy

Informations

• Publié par: Book View Cafe
• Date de parution: 28 septembre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781611389869
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Of Absence, Darkness
Death’s Lady #2

Rachel Neumeier

www.bookviewcafe.com
Book View Café edition September 28, 2021 ISBN: 978-1-61138-986-9
Copyright © 2021 Rachel Neumeier
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
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Endnotes
Sample As Shadow, A Light
Copyrights & Credits
Also by Rachel Neumeier
About Book View Café
Acknowledgments
Kristi Thompson, Elaine Thompson, and especially Kim Aippersbachprovided enormously helpful critiques of this story. Linda Shiffer and DoloresNeumeier caught innumerable typos. Thank you all!
-1-
Daniel's first impression of Tenai’s world was of darkness.
They had been at Jenna’s college graduation, he and Tenai.Jenna had wanted Tenai to come, of course, so she had taken a day off from herjob—easily, now that she was Brian McKenna’s full partner and the senior masterat his third martial arts dojo. Tenai had been gravely interested in thegraduation ceremony, as she was still interested in new things she encounteredin her life. She had been smiling a little, pleased by the happiness of theyoung graduates. She knew a handful of them, of course: some of Jenna’s collegefriends, like Jenna herself, were habitués of her dojo. But nothing could makeTenai look like an ordinary parent or friend.
Daniel had been conscious of the sidelong glances Tenaiattracted—tall, with that unusual bone structure; carrying herself with anabsolute physical confidence that was clearly out of the ordinary. No doubtsome of the attendees thought he and Tenai were a couple and were wondering howa man like him had attracted a woman like her. The thought hadn’t bothered him:anybody with an ounce of discernment was going to be struck by Tenai. Evensixteen years after having built a normal life for herself, she still stoppedthe eye.
As far as he could tell, Tenai hadn’t even noticed thereactions she engendered. Well, she was no doubt used to double takes, and shewas focused on Jenna anyway, rising to greet her when the young woman tossedher cap into the air and ran back to them, the sun no brighter than herhappiness.
They had been heading back toward the car after the ceremony.Jenna had grabbed his hand and then Tenai’s. She had pulled them, linkedhand-in-hand-in-hand, into nearly a run. They had been laughing, pleasantlyguilty because they were skipping out on the reception. Even Tenai had beenlaughing.
And now they were elsewhere. The change was jarring, likemissing an unexpected stair, only more so. Daniel had been holding Jenna’shand, but his daughter’s slim hand was no longer linked to his own: they’d bothstumbled hard and lost their mutual grip. He knew he yelped, and heard ashocked little cry of surprise from Jenna. There was ground underfoot, notpavement; he had fallen and caught himself on one knee and the palms of hishands, and it was earth and grass under his hands, not blacktop. The very airhad changed: much more humid, warm with a moist heaviness not at all like May.It smelled of growing things. He could not see anything.
A long hand reached out of the darkness, closed on hiselbow, lifted him back to his feet, and let him go again. From quite near,Jenna's voice, sounding very young in the dark, a child again instead of heralmost-twenty-two, said, “Daddy?” in a tentative tone.
“Jenna?” he said quickly. “Tenai?” He took a step, andstumbled again over the uneven ground. It was not completely dark, he found. Itwas the contrast between the place they had been and the place they now werethat blinded. Overhead, a half-moon rode through torn fragments of cloud.
“Daddy?” Jenna said again, frightened.
“Hush,” said another voice, velvet and dark as the night.Tenai's voice, but her slight accent had taken on a less familiar edge in thisplace, unutterably more foreign. “Hush, child. There is no danger for you here.See, here is your father.” Faintly visible as their eyes adjusted, Tenai ledthem together.
Even in the dark, even through his own shock and fear, Danielfelt her anger, burning across the surface of his skin as though he stood tooclose to a fire. He hadn’t felt that for a long time. He said, “Tenai?” again,and his voice shook.
“I am well enough, Daniel,” answered that velvet voice. Palemoonlight slid down Tenai's cheek as she turned her face toward him. “I amangry, yes, but I have reason for my anger. I am my own master. Do not beafraid.”
“Where are we? Where are we?” Jenna's teeth chattereddespite the warmth of the air, and Daniel put an arm around her shoulders andpulled her close. He was terrified himself, and fighting it. It was hard tobelieve that this was real, and for a moment Daniel even thought that maybe it wasn’t real, that this was a weird and complicated hallucination; probably they wereall still running over the sunlit parking lot, with the car just a few yardsaway—they would bang into it any minute, and that would jar them out of it—jar him out it, probably no one else was hallucinating this way, that’d be a masshallucination, and too strange for belief –
The night was quiet around them, all of them, Jenna andTenai and himself. The warm, humid air was unstirred by any breeze. It carriedliving country scents that had nothing to do with a large city.
“Where we should never have come,” Tenai answered, speakingto Jenna. “Not even I, and certainly not you. This is my world, and I am sorrythat it is unlikely to offer you a fine welcome, child.”
“You brought us here?” Daniel asked, leaving aside for themoment other questions, like, You mean this place is real? You mean thateverything you told me was true? Incredulity ran through him like a tide,and certainty, as strong, that it was true. He stood still, caught for atrembling instant between convictions. At the same time, all the stories Tenaihad told him of her long, long life in this world crowded at once into hismemory, and for a moment he was so frightened he was close to throwing up.
Jenna broke the moment, by asking in her clear, trustingvoice, “But where is this place? Your world? Tenai, what do you mean?”
“The land is called Talasayan,” Tenai answered her. “Once,it was my home.”
She was angry, angry, angry. That was unmistakable. Danielheard other emotions in her voice as well: grief and loss and something verylike joy, in a complex tangle. He asked her again, “Did you bring us here,Tenai?”
For a moment, he thought she would not answer. She walkedaway a little distance, far enough to be lost in the night, but then she cameback, her arms full of branches. She dropped them on the ground and a momentlater, fire caught in the center of the pile, golden and homey as any othercampfire, utterly welcome despite the smothering warmth of this night. The fireblazed up. The crackle it made against the too-silent dark was comforting as ablanket. Its light showed Tenai's face more clearly, fine-planed and foreignand not comforting at all. She said, “Not I, Daniel. This was never my intentionnor my action.”
“Then whose?” Jenna asked. She was still shivering, but notso much now, in the light of the fire. She held out her hands to the warmth asthough it offered hope of safety.
Tenai glanced at her, a glance so filled with impassionedanger that Jenna blinked and stared and even took an involuntary step back;probably, Daniel thought, without even knowing she had done so. “Not myfriends,” Tenai said, and turned away to gather another armful of wood.
“Your—enemies?”
“This is my expectation, Jenna, yes.” Tenai stirred the firewith her foot. Sparks flared and floated up into the darkness. She spokewithout looking at Jenna, at either of them. “This should not have occurred. Idid not imagine it could occur. Someone has done this, and because you wereholding my hands, this person has done this to you as well as to me. Now youare here. I am very sorry.”
“You’re serious? I mean, this is a … a different world? Forreal?” Jenna turned in a circle, gazing out into the darkness. “I mean … forreal?”
“Can we just … go back?” Daniel asked.
“Wait, you want to just go home? Without even lookingaround? Seriously?”
“Jenna …” Daniel let his voice trail off. He had no idea howto say, This isn’t a fantasy movie. Terrible things happened here. Tenaisuffered terrible things here—Tenai did terrible things here . Hedidn’t know how to say any of that without frightening his daughter. He saidinstead, “Tenai, can’t we just go home?”
Tenai was gazing at him. Very likely she knew exactly whathe was thinking. She said, her voice soft, “At midwinter. At midwinter I willbe able to tear open the veil. I am sorry, Daniel. There are ways to open theveil, but it is not so easily done out of season. It would take great power totear it open now.”
“Someone did,” Daniel pointed out.
“Yes.” Tenai looked into the sky, at the broken clouds.“Someone made a great sacrifice tonight. A sorcerer poured the blood of thatsacrifice out upon the earth for this. I have such skill, but whom should Ikill, to gather so much power into my own hands?”
“It takes human sacrifice to do this?” Danieldemanded, shaken.
Jenna, shocked, said, “You do human sacrifice here? Youdon’t, really?”
“Such a sacrifice was made tonight,” Tenai answered. “Thatis the only way to open the veil, save at midwinter. And the sacrifice must goconsenting into the country of Lord Death.” Her voice was soft and dark as thenight that waited outside the small light of the little fire. “I have enemies.Sixteen years ago, I had many enemies, and no friends at all. What sorcererbrought me across the veil into this land,I do not know. Nor for what purpose,though I may speculate. But I very much doubt this was anyone who meant to dowell rather than ill.”
Daniel touched Jenna's hand; reassurance for them both.
Tenai went on in the same soft voice. “I think it unwise tolinger here. I do not trust the intention of anyone who would reach across theveil to bring me back into this world. That there is no one here to