Secrets Bound By Sand

by T. A. White

  The Silva hesitated. "Harridans do not die of old age. They are either killed by a challenger or are claimed by the madness of their station. She lingers longer than is wise so she doesn't fall to her inner beast."

  Tate was quiet. This might explain why Gabriella was so hesitant to discuss her doyenne challenging the Harridan for her position.

  The Harridan stood and held her hand out to Tate. "Walk with me?"

  The Silva released Tate and stepped back, leaving the choice in her hands.

  Tate glanced at Ryu, asking his opinion. He hesitated. The events weren't any more palatable to him, but they couldn't accomplish what they'd come for standing on the sidelines. He nodded, once, his expression full of warning. Proceed, but be careful.

  Moving slowly, Tate stepped onto one of the columns near her. It was the easiest to reach from the ledge. Walking across them would be an interesting task. She'd have to pay attention to every step or risk falling on her face.

  The notes changed, jangling discordantly as the octave shifted. The column under her glowed softly before the ones next to her took on the same glow, the effect rippling out. Each new column that changed color caused a shift in the wind's notes. It was like watching a pebble thrown into a still pond and then listening as the air around it reacted to the change.

  The Silva behind her sucked in a sharp breath.

  Ilith's interest distracted Tate enough that she almost missed her next step. The small dragon scurried from Tate's arm to her shoulder where she perched, winding around Tate's neck to create a sort of dragon necklace tattoo. There, she listened with fascination as Tate hopped to another stone, again causing a shift in octave of the notes.

  "Beautiful," the Harridan said with a faint smile. Her eyes were distant and distracted. "They said you might one day come. I did not think to be near the end when you did."

  Tate hesitated, not sure how to take those words. "What is this place?"

  The Harridan rose, her bones full of liquid grace as she stepped from one column to another. Her feet were bare, and Tate saw there was a slit in her skirt to make movement easier. "Who knows? A gift. A curse. There are many stories; most fanciful."

  Tate glanced around them. This place invited the imagination.

  Her attention snagged on a column, wider and taller than the rest. It was the size of a person, dwarfing the columns around it, interrupting the flow of the place.

  Seeing where she glanced, the Harridan smiled her foggy smile. "You're interested in my new friend."

  "Friend?" Tate asked as the Harridan moved toward the mystery at the same stately pace.

  She faced the column and beckoned Tate. "Come and meet him."

  Tate advanced, a sick feeling in her stomach. She didn't like this. Not even a little bit.

  The Harridan stepped aside, a foggy smile on her face. "He was your friend first."

  The front of the column came into view. Tate sucked in a harsh breath that burned her lungs. Horror filled her as her gaze went from the column to Ryu in stunned disbelief. This couldn't be happening.

  "Tate, what is it?" he asked.

  She didn't answer. She couldn't.

  "Tate?" He stepped toward her.

  "Stay right there." Fear made her voice abrupt. "Do not come."

  Because the column wasn't a column at all. Jacob was locked in its depths, his face frozen in shock, scales dotting his skin as if he was caught on the cusp of a shift.

  She didn't know how this was possible, what magic the Harridan had wrought, but she didn't want Ryu caught in it.

  "What did you do?" Tate's voice was guttural and horrible. She sounded like the dragon, even as she realized too late, Ilith's presence had diminished until it was barely felt. Something about the stones muffled their bond.

  "He was in pain. I took it away." The Harridan trailed one finger along the column.

  "You killed him."

  "He's not dead." The Harridan lifted her head from where she'd rested it against the column.

  Relief loosened the hold rage had on Tate. Not all the way. Tate doubted the sick feeling in her stomach would disappear until they figured out a way to get Jacob out of the stone.

  "Release him," Tate ordered. "Release him now."

  Tate was seconds from throwing away any hope of salvaging the situation. Jacob being frozen in stone was all the proof they needed of the Harridan's intent. It was a clear act of war. The Emperor would take it as proof and retaliate with all the might at his disposal.

  "I can't," she said.

  "Ryu, your trick with the stone. Can you use it on objects you didn’t place in the stone yourself?" Tate asked.

  His expression was questioning. It quickly turned cold and unforgiving as he figured out why she didn't want him over there.

  Vale, meanwhile, had circled around in the opposite direction. His loud gasp when he caught sight of Jacob's stone prison was all the answer Ryu needed.

  "Yes," Ryu hissed. The dragon's sibilant voice reverberated in Ryu's words.

  Suddenly, Tate was looking at the dragon instead of Ryu, the same double vision from before veiling his form. Wrath burned in the dragon's eyes. Tate sensed it wouldn't take much for him to cover the ground between them and rip the Harridan from her side.

  "I will release him, if you perform a task for me," the Harridan said in a sing-song voice.

  Tate wasn't listening. She'd gotten what she needed, and Ryu would likely be able to pull Jacob out. Whether the other dragon was still alive or not was unknown.

  "Open the gate, and I'll restore your friend," the Harridan bargained.

  Tate flicked her a look. She didn't bargain with people who hurt those she considered hers.

  The Harridan had picked up a curl and was rubbing it along her cheek.

  "What gate?" Tate finally asked.

  "That one." The Harridan used the curl to point at the two statues whose hands almost touched.

  "I don't see a gate." Tate prepared to give Ryu the signal to transform.

  "It's right there." Frustration caused the Harridan to stomp her foot.

  "You can't blame our Tatum too much, my dear Esme," an amused voice said from the lip of the containment wall. "She was never one for brains. She always preferred brute force to accomplish her goals."

  A tall man stepped off the wall, making his way to the sunken area where the columns were. All the while, a small smile played along his lips.

  The deceiver. The man under Aurelia. Former Savior; suspected Creator. She'd really hoped they'd all been wrong.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  The Harridan skipped in a circle around Jacob's column, either not realizing the threat the ancient presented, or no longer caring.

  Tension filled the air, but their escorts were very careful to keep their hands away from their weapons. They watched the ancient with an unexpected caution and wariness.

  The ancient spread his hands. "What? No words for your old friend, Tatum?"

  Movement told Tate their Silva escorts were no longer the only danger in the room. Creatures climbed over the retaining wall and filtered through the pass until twenty of them formed a small circle around the stones and Tate's people.

  Seeing where her eyes had gone, the ancient let his arms drop to his sides. "Ah, you've met some of my friends already in Aurelia. I swung by a few of my old haunts and woke them up."

  It was confirmation of what Tate had only suspected. The ancient really had been the one behind the assassination attempt in Aurelia. His sticky web was spun through everything since then.

  "It's quite amazing how well-preserved they were. Better even than when they were sent to sleep. It’s an unexpected bonus." The ancient looked over his monsters with a proprietary air. "I suppose I have your besties to thank for that. They should have destroyed them all. Empathy. It really will kill you."

  He stepped off the wall and strode across the small ledge before stepping onto a column.

  A thunderous roar tore through the stones as they wailed.
Their agony cut through the hands Tate clapped over her ears. The din burrowed into her mind, building and building.

  Pain pounded in her head.

  Vale crumpled to the ground, his body curling in on itself as he sought escape—only there was no escape from the terribleness. It dived deep into the bones where it lingered, vibrating, reverberating until it felt like she would fly into a million pieces.

  Dewdrop's banshee wail wouldn't even get close in magnitude to this.

  Prolonged exposure would result in liquefied organs and eventually—death.

  Tate forced her head up. Blood dripped from her nose as she met eyes the color of ice against the dark northern sea. The ancient was the calm in the storm, unaffected by the cacophony.

  His hair was shorter than last time, shorn close to his skull. There was nothing to distract from the cruel lines and strong bones of his features.

  The sound faded into the same soothing babble of before. Tate's body ached. Even her molars hurt, a dull twinge running up into her sinuses to trigger a headache that pounded at her temples.

  She gradually straightened, never taking her eyes off this new enemy.

  If you passed him on the street, you'd never know what he was capable of. But there was a bottomless pit of darkness inside him. She'd felt it during their last encounter. It was what drove him to such extremes. It would never be satiated, not even when he consumed the entire world in his greed.

  He might have it hidden now, but you don't forget something like that. At least, not when you don't have a millennia long sleep fucking with your head.

  A half smile formed as he held her gaze.

  Something wet trickled out of Tate's ears and nose. She reached up, touching the liquid. Blood. So, the stones had some bite.

  Ryu was silent as he burst into movement, evading the monsters that grabbed for him. He was on the columns beside Tate before she could stop him. His speed inhuman. Death lurked in his eyes as he stared at the ancient with a white-hot rage.

  "Ryu, wait," Tate warned.

  The man flicked his eyes at the dragon and smirked. "Yes, Lord Ryuji, wait. You mustn't be impetuous or else you'll lose your head, and Tatum will be so very sad."

  Tate darted into Ryu's path. She pressed her hands against his chest. "You can't. Feel."

  Something had shifted. An almost intangible feeling of wrongness. Tate hadn't noticed until it was too late, but now it was all she could feel.

  It was like a veil had been slammed down between her and Ilith. She could still reach the dragon, touch her, but it felt like they were encased in cotton, everything muffled.

  "Ah, yes, I was wondering how long it would take you to figure that out," the man said. "A parting gift from Jaxon Kuno. It's meant to help the Silva control their inner beasts by soothing them and lulling them to sleep.” He snorted derisively. “What a waste. We made their kind aggressive for a reason, but I guess it works out in my favor, since a side effect is it also muffles the bond between you and your dragons. Shifting here would mean your death most likely."

  Tate's hands were tense on Ryu as he listened with an inscrutable expression. They needed to tread carefully, now more than ever.

  She'd been willing to play the Harridan's game up until now, biding time as she thought of a way to salvage the situation. Concerns about plunging the empire into a disastrous civil war faded in the presence of their new enemy. A man more dangerous than anyone else she could think of. Someone who had come out of their last encounter with nary a scratch on him while Tate had come perilously close to death.

  She didn't know what would happen if Ryu attacked now, while they were outnumbered and the man in front of them was at an advantage. And she didn't want to find out. Not when the price might be Ryu's life. Some things were just not worth the risk.

  Ilith was an uneasy presence inside of her. She didn't like the man any more than Tate did.

  Tate thought she detected a note of fear from her dragon. Surprising, given Ilith lived in the moment and seemed convinced she was invincible.

  The air around Ryu shimmered, his fury pouring off him in waves, almost scalding hot against Tate's fingers. Confusion filled her as warmth radiated from him. It almost felt like he'd swallowed a sun.

  She eyed him carefully, an abrupt vision of a dragon swimming through the air beside Ryu filling her mind, the dragon's proud head lifted as he hissed a silent warning. That dragon's head swung toward Tate, as if feeling her eyes on it. It made a sound like a purr before the heat and vision faded.

  She blinked dumbly at Ryu, questioning if she'd just seen and felt what she thought she had. That hadn't been the precursor to a shift. She was almost sure of it. More like the dragon was close to breaking the veil between worlds on his own. Almost like he was a separate entity. Which was impossible.

  Tate wanted to question Ilith about this new development but the stones made communication difficult. She needed to conserve her strength.

  Ryu's face relaxed. Suddenly it was only him looking out of his eyes as he winked at her and dropped a small kiss on her nose.

  She gaped at him. This was neither the time or place for amorous intentions. Especially when she'd been seriously concerned she was losing him to the dragon madness.

  On the other hand, it was a very Ryu-like thing to do.

  His hands fell to cup her waist and he gave her a squeeze of reassurance.

  The man behind them scoffed. "And here I thought you would always be loyal to your one true love."

  The words should have rocked her to her core. Instead, they did just the opposite. Ryu and Tate watched the man with interest.

  Maybe later the emotional impact from the statement would descend and awkwardness would create a chasm between them, but for now, they were a team, united against a common enemy. Nothing he said would change that.

  "You shouldn't be too surprised," a familiar voice said from behind the wall. Christopher appeared as he walked to the shorter end. "What seems so recent for you actually took place well over a thousand years ago. It's only natural she would have moved on."

  Tate stilled. Damn it. She could only deal with one crazy at a time.

  Ice filled the ancient's face. " I didn't expect you to show your face in front of me again."

  Christopher stepped onto the ledge rimming the columns. "Now, now. The past is the past and you got what you wanted and more."

  "You ruined a perfectly good plan."

  "You wanted her memories restored. The only way to do that was the Lake of Revelation," Christopher responded, not looking at Tate.

  The ancient appeared unmoved by Christopher's excuse. "I should have you ripped apart by the limbs."

  "That's a bit of an overreaction in my opinion. I used your shade the way you instructed the Silva to do. The end result was the same. This way was more expedient and less messy."

  Ryu's hands tightened on Tate's waist. He leaned forward, his breath stirring her hair. "Are you still glad you didn't let me kill him when we had the chance?"

  Tate resisted the urge to stomp on his foot when he straightened with a warm chuckle. Her irritation amused him. It was good to see him taking this entire situation in stride. Did he not see the danger they were in or was it that he just didn't care?

  She frowned at him. What did he know that she didn't?

  She glanced around at the Morain. Tate didn't sense an immediate threat from them, much to her surprise. It was more like they were impartial observers, here to provide a witness to events.

  The ancient’s creatures, on the other hand, eyed them with bloodlust. They were here for the promise of violence. Even if they gave the ancient everything he wanted, he would likely still kill them.

  "And here I thought we had come to an understanding," Tate said, interrupting the two.

  Christopher glanced at her, his brown eyes clearer and saner than she'd ever seen. "As much as you and I will ever be in accord. We're on the opposite sides of a great divide. You represent everything wrong with thi
s world. I plan to tear their legacy down."

  "Was it all a lie?" She needed to know how big of a fool she had been.

  He shook his head. "No, I really did rescue you from them."

  "Yes, we were all quite surprised when the mastermind of this endeavor made off with our prize," the ancient said in a silky voice.

  Christopher grimaced but kept his attention on Tate. "You're always watched and protected. Your dragon guards you even when you think he doesn't. I needed to get you away from him and your other two friends so you could be reminded of what you'd forgotten."

  Tate hated this sick feeling inside, the one that told her she'd been foolish to spare him. Ryu had been right, mercy wasn't always the best or even the most just solution. Not when it might mean the deaths of those she cared about. Was honor really worth more than their lives?

  "I helped you." She was grasping at straws, trying to stop whatever plan he was about to set into motion. It was clear he had one. Even if the ancient thought he was still in control.

  She knew better. Christopher might be physically weaker, without access to the same inhuman abilities, but he made up for it with cunning. He was the spider, sitting on the web, cocooning you in his strings before you even realized you were strangling.

  "You did." He took a deep breath and shut his eyes. "My mind hasn't been this clear in years. It is more than I ever thought possible."

  "Don't do this. I can help, speak to the Lord Provost and get you a pardon. You can take up your life again."

  His smile was crooked. It reminded her he’d been an academic once. "I’m sane again, but my goal has not changed and what's behind that gate will put me one step closer to achieving it."

  Tate's throat tightened. She'd failed to sway him. Pity. She thought he'd been right earlier. They could have been friends if they'd been born in a different world and time.

  The ancient's eyes were cold and merciless as he regarded Christopher. "I should kill you now for your betrayal."

  Christopher cocked his head as he stepped to the side, revealing the two waiting behind him in the shadows of one of the statues where they'd gone unnoticed until now. "But then you wouldn't receive the gifts I brought you."