Tempest Song: Unraveled World Book 2

by Alicia Fabel

  “How’d you find out?”

  “A little birdie told me.” She rubbed her sore cheek. “Why are you in here?”

  “Because Kuwari drugged me and threw me in here,” he said as if she were dense.

  “Yeah, I kinda figured out that part,” she replied dryly. “But why are you still in there? Why not path out of here and pick me up on your way out of dodge?”

  “I can’t make a path. These bars are made of the same no-go stuff as my ring.”

  “Your anti-sleep-walking ring?”

  “That’s the one.”

  “How? I mean, I thought that stuff was impossible to find.”

  “I’m more concerned with why they even built this prison in the first place. They didn’t know I was bringing you here until hours before I did. That means these bars were already here. I just don’t know why.” Addamas sighed. “And I think they’re drugging my food with no-go dust too.”

  “Then why are you eating it?”

  “Because it seemed like a better idea than starving to death,” he answered.

  “Gotcha.”

  “It only seems to be in my breakfast, but if I don’t eat that, I don’t get anything else for the day. The effects wear off, but even if I could get out of here, I wouldn’t make it far. And there’s no way I could take a passenger.”

  “Fabulous.”

  “Don’t worry about me. Get to the world-gate. Follow the river upstream. It’s a full day's walk. Two if you go too slowly—don’t. The Tablilu Clan will help you.”

  “How about I break you out of here and you can path as far as you can. Then we’ll walk the rest of the way together.”

  “You can’t break me out.”

  “Sure I can. All I have to do is get the keys from that kargadan outside. Any ideas on how to not wake him up?”

  “Birtum sleeps like bear. Otherwise, a pretty singing voice would bring him to his knees.”

  “I don’t have a pretty singing voice.”

  “I know. I’ve heard your squawking before,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter because he doesn’t have a key you can steal. This door doesn’t take a key.”

  “Why didn’t you just say that, instead of wasting time insulting my singing?”

  “Something that awful deserves to be insulted,” he replied with the first bit of his normal, ornery charm.

  “Then how do you open it?” Vera felt around the gate until her fingers ran across what must be the lock, except it was a round hole big enough for her to stick her thumb through. “What kind of lock is this?”

  “One that only a Kargadan can open. The key is a horn.”

  “They stick their horn in there and the door opens?”

  “Convenient, right?”

  Vera tugged at her kargadan magic, pushing it up and out. A horn flowed from her forehead. It wasn’t wicked-sharp or very big, but it should do the trick.

  “No, Vera.”

  She jabbed the tip of her horn into the locking mechanism, and the door slung open.

  “Cake.”

  “You shouldn’t have done that,” Addamas said.

  “Why not?” Vera frowned. Her horn wouldn’t retract. Like an invisible hand had wrapped around it, keeping it out. She felt along the smooth edge until she discovered a band around the tip. What the… She couldn’t pull it off.

  “Because you aren’t keyed to the lock. You’ll be trapped here.” Addamas wrapped his hands around the back of his neck. “Shit, Vera.”

  “You could’ve led with that,” she said, trying not to panic. “Whatever. We’ll figure out how to get it off later. Let’s go.”

  “We can’t. Well, I can, but you can’t. That’s a no-go ring on your horn. So if anyone unauthorized breaks me out, I can’t whisk them away.”

  So much for Lady Luck joining team Vera. “Then we’ll walk.” Vera pulled Addamas out of the cell and led him from the kargadan prison.

  “We won’t make it out of the village,” Addamas said.

  “Think positive.”

  Addamas spun Vera around to face Kuwari and Hutran, who waited for them.

  “Go, Addamas,” she said.

  “I can’t leave you here.”

  “Just get Kale, okay? And then come back for me.”

  Addamas was gone before Hutran could reach him.

  “And now you’re all screwed,” she informed them. “The Guardian’s gonna come for you.”

  “She’s right.” Kuwari twisted his hands together.

  Hutran stared at her horn. “She’s kargadan.”

  “I told you she was,” said Kuwari.

  “Yes, the girl you prophesied would come,” said Hutran. “We all thought you were insane. Then she showed up. I thought maybe it was some trick, so you could keep leading us all on, but it seems it was not, after all.”

  Vera stood dumbly after that revelation.

  “You’re quickly running out of time, Hutran,” warned Kuwari.

  “Apprentice Vera, I claim you for my own,” Hutran told her.

  “As flattering as that is, I’m afraid I must say, hell no.”

  “As a member of the kargadan people and an unchaperoned female, you do not have a choice. I have the right to claim you, to offer you my protection, and to provide for you as your mate.”

  “Go to Kurmugi—that’s your version of hell, right?” Vera folded her arms. “I am not one of your people.”

  “That horn says otherwise.” Prince Ashur stepped from between two buildings where he’d apparently been spying on them. “As the heir of this herd, I accept you into our numbers. I ratify the claim of Hutran on Apprentice Vera.”

  “Kale will be coming for me. You know that right?”

  “I have no doubt the Guardian will come,” replied Ashur. “There’s nothing he can do, though.” The prince nodded to Hutran. “You can present your intended to the village tomorrow with a feast, and face any male who wishes to challenge your claim.”

  Hutran snorted.

  The prince’s lips tipped up. “I agree it is unlikely, but we will uphold our traditions. We are all in your debt for this sacrifice.” And with that the prince left.

  Vera’s chest constricted. Things cannot be going down like this.

  “Healer, will you do me the favor of housing my intended until our mating ceremony?”

  “It would be my pleasure.” Kuwari bent his head graciously.

  “Forget that,” Vera said. “There’s no way I’m coming with you.”

  “You can either go of your own volition, or you can be carried and tied to your bed to keep you safe from yourself,” said Hutran.

  Vera widened her stance defiantly. “Try it.”

  “Vera,” Kuwari said gently. “I know how shocking this must be. I promise you will find peace here by helping to save our people.”

  “As I said, you are not my people.”

  “I have tools back at my lab to remove the band from your horn,” Kuwari said.

  “No,” Hutran cut in. “Leave it.”

  “I know her welfare is your priority, so you should know that the band will begin to pain her if I do not remove it soon.”

  “I will not have that satyr stealing her away in the middle of the night,” Hutran insisted. “Until you can fit her with a neck brace, it stays.”

  Kuwari hesitated.

  “I have claimed her. I decide how best to keep her safe.”

  “You are right.” Kuwari dipped his head. “I will start working on a neck brace immediately.”

  “I want her horn on display for the claiming announcement tomorrow, so everyone sees that she is one of us.”

  “Of course.”

  Hutran asked Vera, “Walk or be carried?”

  She flashed her middle finger. Quicker than Vera saw it coming, he slapped her across the face. Her head jerked to the side as she fell to her knees. Already tender from her run-in with the prison bars, her cheek throbbed with enough force to steal her breath. Spots crowded her vision.

  “W
hen I ask you a question, you answer,” Hutran said in a measured tone. Meanwhile, he plucked the knives from her waistband—the fall had revealed them. Task completed, he stood back to watch her dispassionately while she struggled to stand.

  “Please,” Kuwari urged her softly. “Come home with me.”

  Vera trembled but held her head high. “I’ll walk.”

  “Good girl,” said Hutran, just as Aiaru once had. “I will be by in the morning to escort her to the village center for the announcement. Make sure she is ready.”

  “It will be my honor,” Kuwari answered.

  Vera didn’t let the tears fall down her cheeks while Kuwari cleaned the cut on her cheek. She didn’t cry as he convinced her to drink the eitr he put into her hands. She didn’t cry until she was alone in her room, curled into a ball. What have I done?

  13

  “If your magic cannot undo the seals, then maybe the dragon can burn the gate down,” Kale said to Mother.

  “Is dragon fire that powerful?” asked Mimi with awe. Or perhaps it was fear since she was slowly edging away from the dragon.

  “Not powerful enough to burn down a gate, but maybe powerful enough to burn through whatever is holding it closed. Would you try?” Mother asked Braxas.

  “You are sure a gate is there?” The dragon cocked his head to scrutinize what appeared to be empty space.

  “It’s there,” assured Mimi. “I don’t recognize the magic that’s tied it closed, though. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “You are a strange cat.”

  Mimi hissed. “You are a slow lizard. Cook that door already.”

  Braxas rumbled low in his chest. Kale worried Mimi might end up barbecued if she wasn’t careful.

  “Mimi,” Mother began gently, obviously thinking the same thing. She wrapped an arm around the girl. “Kale said you’ve been ill. Perhaps we should sit for a minute.”

  “I don’t need to sit, I need to get through that gate, find my friend, and tear apart that goat.”

  “Braxas’s fire is rather hot, so we should at least back up some. Or you’ll be crispied and not able to rush to anyone’s rescue.” Mother winked at Braxas as she led the girl away.

  The dragon turned his narrow-eyed gaze away from the irritable girl. Marianna watched them all with a grim expression. She had been the first to try and fail to open the gate.

  “You’ll want to step back too,” Braxas warned Kale. Smoke streamed from his mouth. He sucked in a huge lungful of air. Leaves on the trees strained toward his open mouth. Then, in a burst, he blew out a stream of flames. It streaked into the boundary forest, leaving the bitter smell of char hanging in the air, but didn’t seem to hit anything.

  “Mimi?” Kale called for a diagnosis.

  “It didn’t even singe them,” she said.

  “Go again,” Kale said.

  “I might set the forest on fire around us if I do.”

  “Mother, can you douse dragon flames?” asked Kale.

  “I won’t let the borderlands burn,” she answered.

  “Good. Go again.” Kale pretended not to notice how the dragon looked to Mother for approval before proceeding to draw in another gulp of air.

  Only for Mimi to shout, “Stop.”

  Somehow Braxas managed to swallow the flames. Based on his growl, it did not feel good to do it, though. From the spot where the door supposedly stood, Addamas tumbled into the borderlands. Mimi and the Mother rushed forward.

  “Where’s Vera?” Kale headed for the gate.

  “It’s sealed again, Kale.” Mimi shook her head.

  Kale swung around and lifted the satyr by the front of his grimy shirt. “She had better be alive.”

  “She was a few hours ago when I last saw her.”

  “Why didn’t you get her out?” Kale demanded.

  “Because she had a ring of no-go around her horn.”

  “She figured out how to unlock her kargadan after all,” murmured Marianna.

  “They’ve got a whole arsenal of the stuff now. I tried to set a path straight to you, but I barely cleared the village. It took hours to path across Nibiru to the world-gate.”

  “How did you come through the gate?” asked Mother.

  “Um…” Addamas threw a side-eye at Mimi. “I walked?”

  “But the gate is sealed closed,” insisted Mimi.

  Addamas craned his head to look, as if he could see the seals Mimi described. “Not from the other side it’s not.”

  “How long before you can path me into Nibiru?” Kale asked.

  “A few hours? A day? I don’t honestly know.”

  Kale decked him.

  Addamas didn’t try to avoid the fist, he simply said, “I’m sorry I deceived you.”

  “I told you it was dangerous. I told you she wasn’t ready.”

  “It was her choice.” Addamas didn’t sound repentant. “I know it’s hard to swallow, but you can’t dictate her life. She begged you to let her go, like it was ever your call. When you didn’t listen, she asked me.”

  “And now she’s trapped,” bellowed Kale.

  “I’m sorry she’s in trouble, but I’m not sorry for taking her. Maybe it went sideways, but she needed to find her kargadan. Now that she has, we just have to get her out—if she doesn’t save herself first. That woman is not helpless.”

  “I never said she was helpless.”

  “You treat her like she is, though. Did you know she siphoned Ferrox? She was out of time, but no one listened because no one believed she was capable of saving herself.”

  Ferrox? Kale sent through their link.

  Her eyes might have glowed after she brushed my coat that one time.

  Why didn’t you tell me?

  It was not my place to interfere.

  To Diyu it wasn’t, Kale raged.

  As much as I hate to say it, the satyr is right. Your girl needed saved when she fell into your life, but now she needs you to get out of her way.

  I can’t. I— Kale cut off the thought, but Ferrox caught it anyway.

  Holding her back is the surest way to lose her.

  Been reading self-help articles lately?

  Ferrox sent him a vulgar gesture through their link. Do what you want. I wouldn’t be upset to watch you pummel the satyr.

  “You’re right,” Kale said to Addamas. “But never deceive me again.” He set Addmas down. “Let me know as soon as you can path, so we can go get her.”

  Addamas took a step and stumbled.

  “Mimi, you may need to help him,” Kale said. “I might have broken something… Sorry.”

  “Braxas needs a drink,” Mother said once Mimi and Addamas crossed from the borderland into the meadow. “We will return soon.”

  The two slipped into Summartir. Kale was left alone with Marianna and his own tormented thoughts.

  “Vera’s stubbornness rivals your own,” Marianna commented.

  “I’m beginning to understand why so many people don’t like me very much.”

  “You’re also terrifying to most of those people.”

  Kale didn’t respond. He was lost in thoughts of how he’d driven Vera down this path.

  “You know, I heard whispers that an unnatural rode into Summartir this week,” said Marianna.

  “I didn’t realize your cats could whisper,” Kale replied.

  “They can’t.” Marianna smirked. “But my snakes can.”

  Kale noticed that Fred, the yellow snake she usually wore as an accessory, was missing. “I finally know how you know everything.”

  “I’ve always had my ways,” Marianna said slyly. “We are getting off topic.”

  “I wasn’t aware there was a topic.”

  “Oh, you do, you just don’t want to discuss it. Tough cookies. How did you end up in your unnatural form, stumbling through the realm of witches?”

  “It was a mistake.”

  Marianna clicked her tongue. “That’s quite a mistake for someone so powerful.”

  “It wo
n’t happen again.”

  “Why?” Marianna asked. “Are you afraid you’ll turn into the monster of your past?”

  That was exactly something he feared.

  “Is that your greatest fear?” Marianna pushed. “Becoming a monster?”

  “Isn’t that what everyone fears most?”

  “It is what Vera fears most. I don’t believe it’s what you fear most. Perhaps once, but not anymore. So, what is your greatest fear?”

  “What does it matter?”

  “Humor an old woman,” she replied. “We have nothing but time, and I find this a wonderful distraction.”

  Kale knew she wouldn’t give up her line of questions until he answered. “I fear failing the entire world,” he answered honestly.

  “You would not be a very good Guardian if you didn’t fear that. But what do you fear most? What drove you to trying on your old skin? You spent a thousand years avoiding your unnatural bindings and yet you ran to them. I want to know why.”

  Kale was getting frustrated. He had no idea what she wanted from him but wished she’d drop it. “The battle reminded me that feeling nothing is sometimes better.”

  “When I found you asleep on a pile of leaves outside the Velvet Wood last year, with that girl cuddled against you, you would have been glad for numbness?”

  Kale stiffened. “She was asleep, and I was warmth.”

  Marianna waved a dismissive hand. “It doesn’t matter if she meant to snuggle up to you or not. What matters is whether you would give up how it felt when you woke and found her that way. Because if you embrace numbness, moments like that would not exist either. All that would remain is the deadened feelings which drove you to join your old steed for a trek through the underworlds.”

  “Do you have spies in all the realms?”

  Marianna shrugged. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I think it is interesting that you are avoiding the topic again.”

  Kale sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Remind me what that topic is.”

  Marianna smiled. “Would you give up how that girl makes you feel to escape your fear of losing her?”

  Kale froze. His mind flew over the times when Vera’s smile sent his pulse flying. How her touch made the blood pound in his veins. Would he give that up to ease his fears? Would he give that up for anything? “No.”