Page 45 of North Queen
Her eyes widened at the trickle of blood falling from his left nostril. “You’re bleeding!”
“What happened?” Catherine gasped as Esther moved quickly to Nemus with a cloth.
He wiped his nose and took a moment before looking back up at Norah. “Nothing to worry about. I just used a little too much energy. I’ll be fine.”
“Are they there?” Catherine asked. “The memories?”
“Well, something’s there, but it’s blocked.” He looked at Norah. “By her, I think.”
Norah glanced at Catherine, then back to Nemus. “How do I unblock it?”
“I don’t know,” Nemus said as he wiped his nose again with the cloth. “I don’t have enough power to help you.”
Norah looked at her grandmother as a wave of disappointment washed over her.
“We understand,” Catherine said. “Thank you for trying, Nemus.”
“Wait,” Norah said with a start. She wasn’t leaving without getting as much information as she could. “You’re a seer of visions too?”
“I see them, yes.”
“Are you the one who saw me taking the Shadow throne?”
He shook his head. “No. Others have, but I have not. Seers may see the same visions, or they may not. No seer sees all visions.”
Norah frowned and looked at her grandmother.
“But,” he said, drawing Norah’s eyes back to him, “I saw the vision of your capture. And the breach of Mercia. It was I who showed your father.”
Norah’s breath came in quick clips now. “Are you able to show them to me?”
“Norah, we’ve asked enough already,” Catherine pressed her. “And these are old visions, changed visions—ones that will never come to be. Your father saw to that.”
But that wasn’t enough. “Still,” she said to Nemus, “can you? Please?”
Nemus nodded. Norah heard Catherine sigh, but she ignored it.
They both closed their eyes again, returning to the room inside her mind. He motioned to the front door and led Norah outside into the darkness. But they were no longer in the city. Mercia was gone, and in its place lay shadows of rocky hills. Her mouth hung open as a large army passed silently through the night. Between their ranks rode an ominous figure on top of a destrier. He looked more wraith than man, floating through the darkness wearing a horned helm and bladed shoulder armor. Draped across his horse in front of him lay a lifeless young woman. Norah couldn’t see her face, but her breath wavered at the long tendrils of snowy hair that fell down the side.
“Is that me?” she whispered.
Nemus gave a nod. He held his arm out, and the army fell away.
They stood inside the courtyard of the castle—the castle of Mercia. It was daylight now, but men cloaked in darkness surrounded them, with their faces covered. These weren’t Northmen. In the center of the courtyard stood gallows, with three ropes hanging from the beam above. Three men were led toward them, and she recognized Councilman Edward among them.
Norah watched in horror as her councilmen were ushered up in single file, pushed along by a monster of a man. This man was different from the vision before but equally haunting. He wore nothing on his arms and torso, as if he were invincible. His skin bore dark ink patterns, and his face was covered in a wrap, from which only his eyes showed. Edward screamed words she couldn’t hear, but she could see the terror in his face as the ropes were looped and tightened around the men’s necks. The monster executioner nodded, and the floor fell out from underneath their feet. Norah covered her mouth to hold in her own scream. Two of the councilmen hung limply, their necks immediately broken, but Edward squirmed at the end of his rope.
Norah couldn’t watch anymore, but she couldn’t look away. She could only stand in horror. A cry escaped her lips. Finally, as if a sliver of mercy existed, the monster of a man pulled a dagger and ran Edward through with the blade. Then, he turned, and the dark pools of his eyes looked right at her. Seeing her.
Norah gasped and opened her eyes with a start, shaking and struggling for her breath. They were in Nemus’s home again, sitting on the floor. Catherine was by her side, taking her hand and holding her steady.
“Are you all right, child?”
Norah swallowed back the fear in her chest, inhaling deeply to keep from vomiting. That was the breach Catherine had warned of—the Shadowmen taking her, taking Mercia, and bringing death to them all. Her eyes found Nemus again.
“That’s why your father took you and hid you away from the world,” he told her.
Norah waited a moment for her breath to come back to her. “And you can’t see where he took me?”
