Page 49 of Leviathan's Song
She had a quiet strength I’d admired my entire life, and she was gentle and tender-hearted. One time when I was eight, my father’s favorite dog had given birth to her first litter of puppies, all stillborn. My father had been disappointed, of course, but the sounds of my mother weeping when she found them still ripped at my heart when I remembered it.
She was as loving as she was beautiful, so I was surprised at the spike in my nerves as she pulled me into a hug. I’d caught her suspicious glance over my shoulder toward Levi, and even though I knew she would respect my choices and I didn’t need her approval of him, Iwantedit.
She huffed a quiet laugh as her finger tangled on one of the tiny chains in my hair, and she drew away to extract it and fix my hair. “Elara, dear, did you mean to wear every amulet and charm you own?” Her smile was indulgent as she teased me, and my gaze fell to the single pendant she wore around her neck, a symbol of a bird, a gift from my father. He’d always called her his “little bird.”
I’d made her some amulets in the past, but she never wore them anymore, claiming she disliked all the clutter. Clutter or not, my charms were a part of me. “I’ve never worked on a construct the size of the sentries. I wanted to make sure I would have all the power I needed.” I fingered the moonstone power-well hanging from my right ear.
Levi shifted behind me, and my mother’s gaze flicked over to him with acute interest. I turned to him to begin the introduction. “Levi, let me introduce my mom, Elish Hawthorne al’ Einin.” He took my mother’s extended hand and gave a slight bow, all manners and chivalry, but kept conspicuously quiet. I was finally beginning to realize this was a thing he did when he didn’t want his enchantments to affect anyone.
“Mom, this is Levi Navarre. He’s my… my person. He’s mine.” I cringed. It hadn’t occurred to me how strange saying the word ‘boyfriend’ to my mom would feel until the last second, and I’d panicked.
I felt Levi’s fingers snake gently into my hair and rest possessively at the back of my neck. I didn’t need to look at him to know his shoulders were shaking in silent laughter at my awkwardness. My mom’s eyebrows raised slightly at my declaration, her eyes bouncing back and forth between us before coming to rest on the ward on my wrist. She didn’t need to hear Levi speak to know he was a siren; I’d gotten my magical discernment abilities from her. She leveled me with a knowing look.
Beside me, Levi chuckled in spite of himself, and I felt his enchantment skitter over my protective ward, reminding me that my mom didn’t have one. With all the packing, I hadn’t thought to make her one. I felt defensive all of a sudden, imagining her accusing me of being brainwashed by his magic.Ugh.I probably shouldn’t have sprung that on her.
To my great relief, my mom simply cocked an eyebrow at me and welcomed Levi graciously. A mention of honey cakes had me darting for the kitchen like an excited child. Unfortunately, they were all packaged up, along with the rest of our food for the trip.
My mom laid out a paper map on the table, and we used our calling chips to store it so we didn’t have to deal with keeping it safe and dry. We discussed the best options for routes, where to find inns for an evening and where we’d have to camp. After everything was done and squared away, there was nothing left to do but call the sentries. My mother hugged me again and told me she was proud of me.
“You aren’t going to come watch me call them?”
“Oh, no. Those things are terrifying. I’ll stay and watch from the balcony if you don’t mind. I know we’ve discussed this in detail, but please,pleasebe careful. Remember what your father taught you.” She cast a wary eye out the kitchen window toward the crypt. I kissed her cheeks, and she bid Levi farewell.
“It was lovely meeting you, Mr. Navarre.” Her gaze flickered over him once more in curiosity, her sharp eyes cataloging every detail. Oh, the interrogation I was going to get later.
“And you, Mrs. Hawthorne.” He seemed to be taking all of this better than he had the transport, or maybe he was keeping his freak-out internal this time. My mom blinked when his enchantment washed over us.
I led the way out of the back of the house and down the stone path to the sentries, Ryo following us with our bags.
“Your person?” Levi asked, now that we were alone, and I winced. I knew it was too much to hope he’d let that one go. He took my hand and squeezed my fingers lightly with gentle reassurance.
“Sorry, I panicked,” I grumbled under my breath, making his grin spread further across his face.
“I like it,” he said with gentle amusement, and my heart gave a pathetic thud, reflected in my smile.
We climbed the short staircase and stood under the large marble arch, looking into the chamber. It was a cavernous space with a high domed ceiling rising several stories above us. Sunlight streamed in through window cutouts set high in the stone walls and Raald, the largest construct, knelt against the back wall with his stone wings folded behind him. He contained a heartstone from the sparks, little fire fairies, and in one fist, he held aloft a lantern lit with an eternal flame. He looked like an exquisite carving of an angel of war but had actually been formed with lava instead.
To his right and left, two doors led down into the crypts, where my ancestors lay. My parents would be buried here, and so would I. It had been so for over a dozen generations.
Against the right wall, Leothen crouched—the ceiling would have needed to be at least six stories for him to stand at his full height. He was a true stone sculpture, wearing a stone crown, carrying a stone broadsword, and looking for all the world like a massive stone knight.
Domm squatted across from him, against the wall to the left. He was the shortest, at only five stories tall, and he was also the oldest. We didn’t even know how old he actually was, other than that he’d been part of our family for several thousand years. He was humanoid, like the others, but didn’t bear the likeness of a man like they did. His massive arms were much larger than his legs, giving him a build much closer to a gorilla than a man.
He had very large shoulders with immense jagged boulders jutting out above them and his back. He was crudely cut, his face looking more like a protective mask for playing sports than a statue’s face. His eyes were nothing more than two vertical slits, and he had a few other divots carved out of his face, but nothing more. He carried no weapon other than brute force, and something about him made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up a little.
Domm’s magic wasn’t quite the same as the other two and wasn’t anything close to what we used these days. When I’d played in here as a child, I’d pressed into his magic several times out of curiosity and always gotten the impression that it was very primal, ancient in its nature. There was just something more to it than any other golem I’d ever seen. He and Leothen were the two I would be bringing with me today, and my discomfort with the unknown nature of Domm’s magic hadn’t abated.
I blew out a large breath, trying to release some of my unease. I could do this.
“Poseidon’s ugly mother,” Levi swore. I shot him a confused look, only to find him gazing at the constructs in awe. “These are what we’re taking? You can control these things?”
“Uh, yes. In theory. That’s the hope.” I tried not to let my nerves into my voice and scrubbed my hands off on my jeans.
Levi was quiet for a beat, then came a flat, “What?”
“Well, I’ve never done this before,” I admitted. “At least, not on this scale.” No point in waiting around for my nerves to build. I raised my hands slightly to center myself and prodded at the magic in Leothen’s heartstone. I’d start with him in case Domm gave me trouble. I eyed the more primitive structure to my left warily, imagining losing control of him, then returned my focus to Leothen.
He was already active, waking from over a century of slumber as I pushed my energy into him and tried to get a grip on his current directive. My ancestors had instructed the golems to “watch and defend”, and so they sat, passively sending out magical feelers, waiting for any magic that didn’t match our family and wasn’t escorted onto our property by us. Anything that made it past a specific boundary would rouse the golems, and they would terminate it. With extreme prejudice.
