Thorolf’s partner and mate, Chandra, was almost as tall as her Pyr, with ebony hair that was wound into dozens of braids that wrapped around her head. She was lean and muscled, with a watchfulness that made Lila think she was a strong warrior, too. Their son was five or six years old, and particularly tall, with his father’s blue eyes and blond hair.
“To think I surrendered immortality for this kind of travel,” Chandra said lightly and Thorolf grinned, untroubled.
Lila was startled by her words. She had been immortal?
“You have no regrets, Chandra, and I know it,” Thorolf countered as he got to his feet. “We live each day to the fullest, and that’s as good as it gets.” He went to her side and touched her belly. “How’s the hitchhiker?”
“Used to a little jostling, fortunately, given his father’s habits,” Chandra said with a smile. “He’s fine.”
So, she was his mate and expecting another son.
Rhys stepped forward to shake hands with Thorolf. “Thanks for coming. I didn’t expect it, since neither of us are big swimmers.”
“Hey, I had to see the super yacht.” He surveyed the ship with open appreciation. “This boat seriously rocks.”
“I’m not sure we have enough provisions,” Rhys teased and Thorolf laughed.
“Are you kidding me? I’m not going hungry after that flight.” Thorolf poked Rhys. “I was counting on you, dude.”
“And you won’t be disappointed. Lila, this is Thorolf’s mate, Chandra, and their son, Raynor,” Rhys said. The woman stepped forward with a warm smile and shook Lila’s hand. She gave her son a stern look, distracting him from staring at the yacht like his dad, and the blond boy came forward. She guessed that he was about four years old.
He shook Lila’s hand solemnly. “Are you the mate?” he asked. “Was it Rhys’ firestorm?”
“It was,” Lila said, struck that Raynor was about the same age as Thomas had been when she’d last seen him. She felt that ache of loss again, and knew that leaving her family was a mistake she wouldn’t make again.
She wouldn’t have to leave them to save herself, not when she was with Rhys.
“Is everyone still at Kristofer’s place?” Rhys asked, but Thorolf shook his head.
“You know that Rafferty and Melissa were already heading back to the UK. Now there’s something going on with the Seven Thieves that he wants to check out. Donovan called him.” Thorolf shrugged. “Then Erik went back to Chicago. Eileen had the heebie-jeebies about something, but it turned out to be no big deal.”
“Nothing wrong with wanting your dragon shifter around when things are changing,” Chandra said calmly and the others nodded.
“So, Kristofer and Bree are there alone for the moment. Sloane and Sam are on their way from California, and Brandon and Liz are coming from Australia, too.” He nodded at Lila. “Liz is a marine biologist, too. She wants to compare notes.”
Lila was surprised. “What’s her name?”
“Dr. Elizabeth Barrett,” Thorolf said in a posh accent, then grinned.
“I know of her,” Lila said with delight. “But her work is in more tropical seas, particularly around Hawaii.” It was amazing to her that association with the Pyr could also improve her professional contacts.
“She’s a Firedaughter,” Thorolf said, then demanded a tour. “Hey, Balthasar!” he shouted. “I want to drive!” He took Raynor by the hand, the boy as wide-eyed as he was, and Rhys grinned as he led the way.
Lila watched them go, considering the brilliant gold of Thorolf’s aura. Chandra’s aura was filled with subtle shadings and seemed to be changing all the time, but it was radiant as well. When she realized the other woman was watching her, she had to ask. “Did you really surrender immortality for your firestorm?”
“There was so much at stake,” Chandra said with a nod. “The choice had to be made because I didn’t want to imagine a world without Thorolf.” She surveyed Lila and smiled. “You’re an immortal, too? How old are you?”
“About two thousand years, give or take.” She eyed the other woman. “You?”
“I don’t remember not being,” Chandra admitted.
“Have we met?”
“I might not have been in this guise if we did,” Chandra said, obviously amused. “And I might not remember if we did.”
“Why not?”
“Because I was divine as well as immortal.” Lila knew her surprise showed, but Chandra was philosophical. “Demeter, Diana, Isis, Freya.” She shrugged. “Many skins, many shapes, many years.”
“Don’t you miss it?”
Chandra shook her head. “Time blended together when I was immortal and lost much of its meaning. This way, each day is precious, each hour and each moment. I’m more invested in my life, which sounds strange, but it’s true. I treasure life for the gift it is. Everything is so much more vivid, and relationships are both stronger and more potent.” Her smile widened slightly. “I don’t regret my choice. Mortal life has been a thousand times more rewarding than I ever imagined it might be.”
Lila nodded, her thoughts swirling. “Let’s find you a stateroom that you like,” she suggested. “There are a few choices.”
Would she give up her immortality for Rhys? Lila hadn’t considered the possibility before, though she was concerned that Maeve would demand some sacrifice from her.
Could she bear to make a partnership with Rhys, knowing that ultimately he’d die and she’d be left behind? If she was immortal, that day would come.
It was already hard to imagine her life without this particular dragon shifter.
They were eating that night without Balthasar when Thorolf pushed away his empty plate. They’d entered an area where icebergs flowed south and it was foggy. Balthasar had chosen to stay on the bridge, making sure their path was clear. He’d slowed the yacht, too, and the engines seemed to throb.
“This might be a dumb question,” Thorolf said. “But why did that vampire dude—”
“Sebastian,” Rhys said.
“Sebastian,” Thorolf said, then cocked a finger at Lila’s necklace. “Why did he call that a hag stone?”
“Because that’s what it is,” Lila said. The others looked at her. She shrugged. “That’s what people in Scotland and Ireland call stones like this. Hag stones or witch’s stones.” She heard her tone change, as if she was giving a lecture. “There’s an old belief that stones with a natural hole like this were coveted by witches.”
“Why?” Thorolf asked.
“They used them to see the Fae,” Lila replied. “It’s just a silly superstition...” She fell silent, realizing what she’d just said. She looked down at the stone, wondering whether it was just her imagination that it had a faint red glow about it.
“Eithne did put magick into it,” Rhys reminded her, as if he’d had the same thought.
Lila took off the necklace and removed the lace. She held the stone between her thumb and forefinger and looked through it. At first glance, the dining room looked the same, and so did everyone in it, but then she noticed some flickers of blue-green light. All were aligned in the same direction and moving toward the front of the yacht. They reminded her of iron filings in a lab experiment, relentlessly drawn to a magnet.
“What do you see?” Rhys asked.
“I don’t know. Light.” She gave him the stone and he looked, then caught his breath.
“Is that darkfire?” he asked, passing the stone to Thorolf.
The big Pyr looked through the stone, first with one eye, then with the other. “Oh yeah,” he said with obvious trepidation. “And it looks like it’s going somewhere. Darkfire with a plan. Why doesn’t that sound like good news?” He surveyed the dining room, obviously not expecting an answer, and Lila felt chilled. “Is there a way we can talk to Rafferty? My phone has been a paperweight since we got here.”
“We’re well beyond any cellphone service,” Rhys said. “Balthasar might manage something with the satellite phone, but I’d rather he kept his atte
ntion on those icebergs.”
“No Titanic jokes,” Thorolf said in agreement.
Rhys stood up and went to pick up the trident, still leaning in the corner. “What if we could solve this ourselves?”
“How so?”
“Do you remember how to sing to the earth?”
“I’ve helped before.” Thorolf grinned. “Think of me as back-up, not as a lead singer. You start and I’ll chime in.”
“All right then,” Rhys said. “Let’s see what we can do.”
Rhys sang all that night and all the next day. His chant was low and persuasive, filled with power. It started a resonance within the yacht itself, the metal of the structure and the stone of the decor vibrating in response to his call. Lila understood that he called to the element of earth, cajoling it to do his will.
He used the trident, but sparingly, and only tapped it gently on the floor. Thorolf sang with him, matching his chant, and they sang until they were hoarse and exhausted.
Lila did her best to heal them, but Thorolf insisted she help Rhys first.
“It’s his rodeo,” the big Pyr said. “He’s the one who needs his strength.”
Rhys slept as Lila exuded her healing powers, while Chandra and Nyssa cooked dinner for them. When they gathered again to eat, Lila asked about Rhys’ strategy. “You could prompt a quicker reaction if the trident works for you,” she said.
“But a violent earthquake will have a big effect,” he said. “There would be tidal waves in Ireland and Scotland, at the very least. And on Balthasar’s charts, it’s clear that the seamount is a volcanic plug. I don’t want to start an eruption or a shifting of the continental plates.” He nodded and finished his meal. “Slow and steady is the way. It’ll still be pretty fast and disruptive to some sea life.”
“It’s too bad that my second affinity is to air and Balthasar’s is to water,” Thorolf said. “You could have used some help with earth.”
“We’ll do what we can.” Rhys nodded at Thorolf and they began to sing again.
By morning, new waves rocked the yacht and Balthasar brought news of a disturbance on the ocean floor. They barely took a break for dinner that day and sang long into the night. Rhys’ voice was husky and the waves were getting bigger. Raynor became seasick, but his father continued to sing with Rhys.
Lila looked through the hag stone and saw that the glimmers of blue light had changed direction. They were moving toward Rhys, as if he’d become the main attraction. She showed him when he took his break, then breathed her healing mist as he slept.
The next day, he shifted to his dragon form before he sang. The chant wasn’t any louder but it was more insistent. The waves grew bigger and began to splash over the rails. The yacht rocked as the two Pyr chanted together and they sang as evening fell.
When the sky was dark and the stars were coming out, Lila felt as if they stood on the cusp of something. The two Pyr sang, then Rhys tapped the silver trident on the deck. Lila saw a little spark of blue-green fire, then the song changed slightly. The light burned brighter and crackled as it converged on the trident, and the trident itself seemed to burn with blue-green fire. Chandra and Nyssa stood beside Lila and watched. Lila felt the crackle of static electricity and the shimmer of the darkfire stirring in the air. The tension rose as they sang more loudly, then there was a brilliant flash of blue-green light.
The yacht heaved. The ocean roared. The power flickered on the yacht and Lila had a profound sense that something had changed.
Rhys was so exhausted after he shifted shape that he staggered to a chair and fell into it. He was pale and there was perspiration on his brow. “It’s coming,” he said with satisfaction, then opened his eyes and smiled at Lila. “It’s done.”
They ate and he almost fell asleep at the table despite the storm that heaved the ship. The waves crashed over them and the world seemed to heave on all sides, but Rhys slept on. Lila breathed her healing mist over him all night long, watching his aura brighten with every passing moment, and hoped they might succeed.
Earthquakes. Sunken palaces with full treasuries. A Dark Queen and an ancient dragon locked in a battle for supremacy—and the Pyr caught right in the middle. It was like old times, to Thorolf’s thinking, and he wished there could just be a good fight to square everything away. He was ready to get his feet on solid earth again, especially after the tumult Rhys had created.
The sun rose on a sparkling clear day and he went to the bridge. Balthasar said they were getting close and showed off the charts with enthusiasm. Thorolf spotted Chandra on the deck below with Raynor and she pointed to the sky.
A white bird flew ahead of them, then circled over a spot in the ocean.
“An albatross?” Balthasar asked.
Thorolf shrugged. “Whatever it is, I think it’s Snow. Is that the spot?” He pointed to where the bird was circling.
“Pretty much.” Balthasar turned off the engines and the yacht slowed in the water. Lila and Rhys joined Chandra at the rail, catching their breath in unison as the yacht drifted over white spires in the water below.
“The palace of the Isle of the Blessed,” Lila said with wonder.
“Damn,” Thorolf said.
“You did it!” Balthasar exclaimed and thumped him on the back.
“Rhys did it.” Thorolf counted twelve spires, arranged in a circle. He thought there was a broken one, too. There was a dome in the middle, but it was deep beneath the surface.
“You did it!” Lila cried and kissed Rhys. He kissed her back, swinging her around in front of everyone. Thorolf bounded down the stairs to join the others, Balthasar following more slowly.
“This is the part I haven’t been looking forward to,” Rhys admitted, glancing down at the palace. He squeezed Lila’s hand.
“Better you than me,” Thorolf said, knowing that neither one of them was a strong swimmer. “I’ll stay here and keep watch over the yacht.”
“And I’ll monitor your dive,” Balthasar said.
“We’ll finish what we’ve started,” Rhys said. “That dark mirror must hold the key.” He looked at Lila and she nodded agreement.
“We’ll do what has to be done,” she said and he hugged her again.
“Nothing like teamwork,” Thorolf said.
Balthasar had brought the diving gear for Rhys and helped him to suit up, reminding him of his instruction. Lila and Nyssa had retrieved their skins to dive with him.
“I’m coming with you,” Nyssa had said earlier. “I’ve listened to Nereus a lot more. I should be able to help you find the dark mirror more quickly.”
“Won’t it be obvious?” Thorolf asked. “In prime position in the hoard?”
Nyssa had shaken her head. “The treasury was stacked with riches when the island sank, then there’s all the additions Nereus has made from shipwrecks over the centuries. I expect it’s a chaotic mess.”
“So, the plan,” Thorolf said, making Rhys go through it again.
Rhys ticked off the steps on his fingers. “We dive to the treasury. We find the dark mirror. We try to go through it to Fae. If we manage that, we save Theo and Arach. If not, we come back here and make another plan.”
“We need to try to find the portal near Westray, too,” Lila said.
“First things first.”
“And Nereus?” Nyssa asked.
“When you find him, kick his ass,” Thorolf concluded and Rhys laughed. They checked their watches, checked Rhys’ oxygen and weights, reviewed their signals, then dove.
Thorolf strained his eyes to follow the dark figure of Rhys for as long as he could, his frustration rising when he lost sight of his fellow Pyr. He had a bad feeling, but acknowledged that it could just be because he didn’t like being on a yacht in the middle of nowhere.
A shadow suddenly crossed in front of the sun. Thorolf looked up to see an enormous black dragon in the sky.
“Embron,” Balthasar whispered, then the dragon prince dove into the sea far to their left and vanished from si
ght.
His arrival couldn’t be a coincidence.
How would a dragon defend himself underwater, where he couldn’t breathe fire?
They couldn’t even warn Rhys.
“This is so not good,” Thorolf whispered, peering into the sea. “Is there another wetsuit?”
“Yes, but you don’t know how to dive.” Balthasar was already shrugging into a wetsuit. “Stay here and keep your eyes open.” He buckled on his weights, checked his oxygen, gave Thorolf a thumbs-up that seemed overly optimistic, then dove.
He disappeared into the silvery water and the vigil began.
“I suck at waiting,” Thorolf told Chandra.
“I know,” she said and slid her hand into his. “Don’t worry. I think you’ll have a chance to kick butt before this is over.”
Thorolf could only hope for the best.
In a way, the dive was wonderful. The water was brighter than Rhys had expected, and he was surrounded by shades of silver, grey and green. It was quiet, like they visited another world, and their movements were slow, like they danced. He descended steadily, timing his dive the way Balthasar had instructed him, the two selkies circling around him with playful enthusiasm. They’d both changed to their seal form and he could only tell them apart by the marks on their skins. He couldn’t feel the same joy at being in the water as they obviously did, but he tried to appreciate it.
His heart was pounding a little faster than it should, but he slowed its pace. He tried to eliminate his fear by looking around. Far below them was the roof of a palace made of white stone. The domed roof of the treasury glowed and he couldn’t really tell how far away it was. There were spires around it, twelve tall thin towers with windows. As he descended past the tallest one, a school of small fish swam though one window and out the opposite one. Long ribbons of dark green seaweed waved from the towers like banners, and he could see anemones growing on the tower sides, like flowers. The deeper they went, the more life they saw, and Rhys stopped in wonder to watch a school of dolphins swim by.
Dragon's Heart (The DragonFate Novels Book 3) Page 31
