A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

<< Previous

It took less time than either Molly or I had expected, though my former apprentice came closer in her guess. We both felt it before either of them even stepped from the building, a subtle tension draining out of the air like a boiler releasing pressure. The forces that had created it were still there, but their wary opposition had dropped to saner levels without an explosion being involved. That was…good. Neither of us had wanted to see what would happen if Mab and Viserys Targaryen had truly disagreed. Mab was Mab, but here in the mortal world, on this ground, she was far less powerful than she would be in any other circumstance. And I was keenly aware of my more than suspicion that I'd never truly seen Viserys go all out. I wasn't sure Chicago would be able to survive two powers like that duking it out.

And worse, if that had been the result, Molly and I would have been fighting him too. So though we both worked to hide it, there was a profound feeling of relief beneath our masks as the Winter Queen and a Dragon stepped out from Mac's, and I felt a thrill of power run through me as I saw her again. And at the same time, fluttering insects in my midsection, as I realised this might be the last time I ever felt her power over me in that way. After a year and more of coming to terms with it, that wasn't something I'd ever prepared for. As far as I'd been aware, the only way out of the job I'd taken had been feet first. And yet, now?

Mab didn't speak, she didn't move, but we found ourselves drawn inexorably across the open space of the parking lot to her. A subtle expression of her power, to be sure, but harder to ignore as a result. Regardless of any decision made today, we were still her vassals, and this was her way of making that very clear. As lessons from the Queen of Winter go, this one was tame. Only once we were before her did she speak.

"You suggested that a discourse would convince me that the threat of this being has been eliminated, did you not, my Knight?" She did not ask me the question so much as demand an answer, all without raising her voice beyond a whisper.

"I did," I replied pleasantly, with not a hint of clenched teeth.

"Then know that I find myself in agreement with your assertion," she said calmly, as if discussing nothing more pressing than the weather. Her attention slid away from me in part, to include Molly, and she inclined her head to Viserys. "With that understood, and the proper reasons known, there is little need to refuse this being's offer."

"My Queen?" Molly asked, the two words carrying a great deal more than just the title.

"You may accept his offer without fear of straining your obligations to Winter," she nodded gracefully to Molly, "or to me." Another nod, this one to me. "So long as you hold to those duties required of you."

Silence followed, for a space of time that felt much longer than it surely was, as we each processed what Mab had told us. I recovered first. "I see," I said carefully, before not at all hastily adding: "Thank you." Molly's voice sounded a moment after mine, repeating the same sentiment.

"Thank me by fulfilling your duties," Mab replied sharply, a faint light of satisfaction in her eyes. "I will expect nothing less." She turned to Viserys, and nodded once, very slightly. "I have given them leave to accept, and granted my own to you to offer. I have little doubt they will both accept. Good day, Visery Targaryen."

There was a tender wash of chill wind, cold even in the face of Chicago's Spring, and she was gone. Viserys peered for a moment at the space she'd inhabited, gave a small chuckle of his own, and then reached into his cloak. From it, he withdrew two rings of dark, brilliant metal, bright as tempered steel. An inlay of something too pure to be silver reflected the wan light of the day, and reaching out with my senses I could feel the magic bound into them, power unlike any but a very few creations I'd ever seen.

"Ser Harry, Lady Carpenter," he said, his voice low, but filled with a steady intent. "I offer you both these talismans without cost or obligation to you or your own. With their power, it is my hope that you shall each find mastery of yourself." He held out the rings, one in each hand.

"What did you say to her?" I asked, not yet reaching for the talisman, too curious as to how he had brought Mab to terms so swiftly.

"I told her the truth." Viserys replied very simply, white teeth flashing in a predator's smile. "Your Queen has heard a great many, but never one quite like mine."

"That," Molly noted, reaching out to pluck her own ring from Visery's hand and holding it up before her, "I can believe." She focused on the item, enveloping it with her senses, and whistled softly. "Especially with this in hand."

"Ser Harry?" Viserys asked, giving his other hand a small flourish, and I coughed suddenly, taking up the other ring. "Examine them as you wish, but know that your Queen has too, and agreed to this. Once worn, they will shield you from the influence of Winter, and any attempt to take your thoughts of mind, no matter how subtle."

I looked down at the piece of otherworldly jewellery, with enough power bound to it to be almost more magic than physical. It looked so small to be so powerful, but as a Wizard, I knew that size, as the movie says, mattered not. Not with something like this.

"Thank you, Viserys." There was nothing more I could say.

"You are most welcome, Ser Harry."

---

Viserys made his own way home, with the same gathering of power that I'd become so used to seeing, and comfortable using, even if I still had no idea how he did it. He'd only come with me to the meeting because it had been more in keeping with our roles. For myself, I did my best to gauge Molly's reaction, but I knew better than to push. I left her by her car, still flicking glances down at the ring cupped in her hand. I'd check in on her tomorrow. It was pretty much all I could do.

I headed home, the Munstermobile grumbling back through the early afternoon traffic, and as I drove, I considered the weight of the ring in one of the pockets of my duster. A time or two I looked down at where the small weight was stowed, but my mind was focused elsewhere. Ever since making my bargain with Mab, I'd fought for every scrap of humanity I could. I'd taken a step larger than I'd ever have considered as part of that, gathering together my children and the woman I loved into a family, each one an anchor to the version of me that I knew Mab wanted nothing more than to wipe away, if she could.

She'd failed, so far, but not for lack of trying. And though I had it on the authority of an archangel, who probably did know that sort of thing, that she couldn't force me to do so, it wasn't that simple. I had it on the authority of one of the most powerful spirits of intellect I'd ever met, and someone I considered a friend, that the Mantles changed people. No matter who you were, eventually, they changed you. Strong urges, that in the end just wouldn't stop. How was I meant to tell which was right?

The ring in my pocket, of dark metal and pure silver, was a way out of that dilemma, and there was no reason for me to ignore it. I'd trusted Viserys a score of times and more with the safety of my mind, though those workings had always been temporary. Why was this so different?

It's different, Harry, a part of myself growled, because this is permanent. It's a choice about your future, and you've always sucked at those. I muttered something unpleasant under my breath. Sometimes I could be a real jerk, even to myself. Maybe even especially to myself. Unfortunately, I forced myself to admit, the conclusion wasn't wrong.

And yet, if I put it on…I knew that the Mantle pushed me, every day. I knew it. I had a handle on the urges it created, but those were coping mechanisms, not solutions. As far as I'd known before Viserys had come crashing through my life, there hadn't been a solution. And now one was in my pocket. I'd still be the Winter Knight, this wouldn't change that. But I'd be my own man again, in a much deeper way than I'd been for years. Being beholden to Mab, that I could survive. She'd had something on me long before circumstance forced me to accept her offer.

But being my own man again? Being free of the influence of Winter on my every action, of the press of the Mantle? Of that constant worry that someday, something would make me snap, no matter how hard I tried to control it? I knew what that life was like, or I thought I did, but ever since my not-quite-death, it had been the past. I wasn't sure how to make it my future.

That thought stayed with me through the rest of the journey, all the way to pulling up into the driveway of the house that had, over the past months, become a home. Maggie wasn't home yet, but Bonnie would be reading, I thought. And Karrin… Karrin.

I looked down at my duster pocket as I killed the engine, then slowly took out the ring. The car made those little clicking sounds they do, as I turned it between fingers, feeling the cool metal and the steady thrum of magic beneath it. I knew question I was trying to answer, the real one, that I'd been running from. What did I think my future could be? What did I think I deserved to have?

"Karrin would call me such an idiot," I muttered to myself, and yet, I wondered. Would she? She'd had to ask herself that question, more than once. In all of those cases, the same truth held. The only way forward was through. I had a family. I would protect it. And that made the choice in front of me real simple.

The metal was comfortable against my skin as I slid it on, and Winter howled in sudden fury as it felt the magic bound into the complex symbols inlaid in that bright silver reach out for it. Power surged through me a moment later, cutting off the Mantle's shriek like a headsman's axe. And then, my mind was quiet. Quieter than it had felt the very first time Viserys had cast that warding around me. I could still feel the presence of Winter, its power, and its abruptly futile rage. But my thoughts, I found myself blinking at tears as I realised that my thoughts really were my own again.

And that maybe, just maybe, I might have a future worth living for. One that was mine.