“The badlands are to the south,” Zaverza said, clutching her shawl around her tighter. “You will not survive the desert without a guide.”
“We have one,” Sabine said, dismissing her concerns. Even if they didn’t have a guide, she’d still risk traversing the badlands in the hopes of locating Pearl. “It’s very important you show him the stick and the coin. With the stick I gave you earlier, he’ll protect you. With the coin, he’ll know you carry an important message. Will you do this for me?”
“I swear it,” Rika said, straightening her shoulders. “Should I leave tomorrow too?”
Sabine hesitated and turned her head. “Blossom, do you know when they’re going to start the purge?”
Blossom peeked out from her hair. “Tomorrow or the next day.”
Zaverza gasped. “A fairy!”
Rika’s eyes widened, and she said, “She’s so pretty. She almost looks like a miniature version of you.”
Blossom grinned and tugged on Sabine’s hair. “Did you hear, Sabine? She said I’m pretty! And they think I’m like you!”
Sabine smiled and said, “Zaverza and Rika, I’d like you to meet my dear friend Blossom. She’s actually a pixie, and one of the most loyal and treasured companions you could ever hope to have.”
Blossom trilled happily at Sabine’s words. Rika took a step closer, staring at Blossom with wonder. All her earlier fear was gone, and Sabine was tempted to send Blossom with the girl for her first meeting with Bane. She’d forgotten how easily humans were charmed by pixies. Unfortunately, she’d need to keep Blossom with her. The pixie had talents Sabine couldn’t hope to duplicate.
Blossom fluttered off Sabine’s shoulder. Sabine reached out and took Rika’s hand, then opened it so Blossom could land on the girl’s palm.
Rika grinned and said, “I thought pixies were just stories.”
“There’s always some truth in every story. Once we’re back on the ship, you two can have a chance to get to know each other better.”
Blossom beamed a smile at Rika. “You’re going to like meeting Esme too. She’s a dryad witch, and she loves flowers. Oh, and there’s Levin who’s a wyvern. And Malek—”
Malek cleared his throat. “I think that’s enough, Blossom. You can share more later, after we’re back on the ship. We have a more urgent focus right now.”
Sabine nodded, but she was secretly pleased by how quickly Rika had accepted Blossom. It would make introducing Rika and Zaverza to the rest of her companions a little easier. “Malek’s right. We came here tonight to give you a warning. After we leave you, we’re going to destroy the crystal they’re planning to use to detect magic. Once we do, it’ll be too risky for you to remain here. I expect they’ll seal the city immediately. How quickly can you both finish packing?”
Zaverza frowned. “I won’t be going.”
Sabine’s gaze flew to the elderly woman. Before she could argue, Zaverza shook her head and said, “No. I must remain here. I foresaw my death during the burning festival.” Her eyes took on a faraway cast. “No one cheats death forever, and this is my time. I go willingly, to pacify the demands of our city. Even if I were to leave with you, my illness will take my life in a few months’ time. In truth, I have fought to remain this long only to ensure Rika would be taken to safety.”
Malek frowned. “The wisdom of seers is legendary, but your granddaughter still needs you. Even a few months would make a difference.”
Zaverza’s eyes crinkled as she grinned, revealing her gapped and discolored teeth. “I think not. Rika is prepared as much as possible. I can do no more. Rika will be safe, especially with strangers who are willing to take grave risk to help protect our city. You will save a number of innocents tonight. For that, you have my gratitude.”
“You shall be remembered, and your wishes honored.” Sabine lowered her gaze and pressed her closed fist over her heart in a gesture of respect. Among her people, once Elders made the decision when it was time to fade from this world, it was up to the rest of the Fae to ensure their wishes were followed.
Malek’s brow furrowed, and he sighed. “All right. If you refuse to leave, allow me to offer a suggestion.”
Zaverza’s gnarled hands adjusted her shawl. “I’m listening.”
“I retained the services of the dockmaster earlier today. He’s sending a crew north in the morning to begin making repairs to my ship.” Malek reached into a pouch and withdrew a few more coins. He handed them to Zaverza. “Shorin’s a decent man. Pay him with this, and he’ll make sure your granddaughter arrives at my ship safely.”
“Bless you both,” Zaverza whispered, her eyes crinkling with a smile. “I know Shorin and his wife well. I’ll call upon him tonight and make the arrangements. Even if the city is sealed, we can ensure Rika gets out.”
Sabine smiled warmly at both women. “Good. With a little luck, I’ll see you at the ship in a few days, Rika.” Turning to Zaverza, she added, “I understand destiny more than most, but sometimes a foretelling is only a prediction of possibilities. The future is yet unwritten. If you change your mind, you will be welcome with us.”
“I appreciate the offer,” Zaverza said with a bow. She removed her dark shawl and offered it to Sabine. “You should cover your hair when you leave. You are too recognizable for what you are about to attempt.”
Sabine smiled and shook her head. “Keep it to ward against the chill. With your permission, I will perform additional magic and alter my appearance. It’s minor enough that it won’t be detected, but I’d rather not leave the same way we came in. Do you have another way out of here?”
Zaverza nodded. “Through our living quarters. We’re the only ones here, so no one will witness anything.”
Sabine nodded. Closing her eyes, she allowed her glamour to fall away. Her magic rose to the surface, and the marks on her skin pulsed with power. Reining her power in, she focused on using the marks as anchor points to bind her new illusion to her skin.
Using her impressions of Karga’s residents as a guide, she darkened her hair and skin, even making her eyes a soft brown. Her ears were a bit trickier. Adding or reducing physical traits required more magic, but her ears were too distinctive. Forcing herself to breathe through the pain, she gently shortened and then rounded them, giving herself the illusion of having earlobes.
The trick with glamour was keeping as close to the original appearance as possible. Subtle changes were easier to maintain and required far less power. When she finished crafting the illusion, she affixed it against her skin with hundreds of pinpricks. Only the Fae possessed such mastery of illusions. Even if someone touched her, they wouldn’t be able to differentiate the illusion with reality.
She opened her eyes and found everyone staring at her. Zaverza shook her head and said, “I would not have believed such a thing was possible if I hadn’t seen it for myself. Your companion already has our same coloring, but you could easily pass for a native now.”
Sabine smiled. “That was my hope.”
Malek’s gaze roamed over her features. “I still prefer your true appearance, but it’s a very effective disguise.” After turning back toward the two other women, he nodded at them. “I wish you both good fortunes. It may be a few days before we’re able to return to the ship. If we don’t arrive within a week, then we likely won’t have survived.”
At Rika’s worried expression, Sabine said, “If something happens to us, Bane will know. He’ll take you to safety.”
Zaverza nodded. “Let us show you through our living quarters. You have a long night ahead of you. The watch will be changing at dawn, and you’ll need to be well away before that happens.”
Both Sabine and Malek exchanged glances and then followed the two women into their home. Sabine felt a twinge of regret. A wave of destruction was following in her path. First Akros, then Malek’s ship, and now Karga. She only hoped she might save some innocent lives before it was all over and done.
Malek walked through the streets with Sabine at his sid
e. He still couldn’t get over the marked difference in her appearance. If he hadn’t seen her change, he never would have recognized her. More troubling, however, were the implications of such an ability.
Sabine frowned up at him. “What’s wrong?”
Malek adjusted the bag over his shoulder. “I still can’t get over how easily you can alter your appearance. For almost seven years, I’ve been searching for someone with enough Fae magic to locate the portal artifacts. Now I’m wondering if I’ve encountered more of your people in my travels and never knew.”
Sabine hesitated and then shook her head. “It’s unlikely. You would have had more of a chance closing your eyes and catching a butterfly. There may be some Fae living in parts of the world, but I only remember one other person leaving Faerie while I was living there. Before that, it had been almost a century.”
“Nobody could catch me,” Blossom protested from beneath Sabine’s hair. “I’m faster than any butterfly.”
Malek bit back a grin. It had been a stroke of luck meeting Sabine, and he thanked his good fortune he’d docked in Akros. “The person who left Faerie, what made them leave?”
She shrugged. “It was a punishment of sorts. Whatever he had done was considered unforgiveable by our Elders. He was given a choice to either surrender his magic to his heirs or leave Faerie.” Sabine darted a glance at him. “He chose exile.”
Malek frowned and stepped over some broken crockery littering the alley. The route they were traveling was circumspect and not easy to navigate with their sandals. “What would have happened if he had surrendered his magic?”
Sabine lifted the hem of her dress to step over another broken pot. “He would have been treated as less than a human. Forgoing our magic is one of our oldest and most dire punishments, second only to having the Wild Hunt called upon us. Those Fae who surrender their magic typically choose to fade in less than a year’s time.”
He did a double take, floored by the possibility. Among his people, dragons who were no longer able to fly would never have gone gracefully into the Beyond. His magic might manifest differently than Fae power, but he couldn’t imagine wanting to die if he couldn’t change forms. He hadn’t realized how dependent the Fae were when it came to their magic. “Seriously? They would choose death over living without their power?”
Sabine’s mouth formed a thin line, and she gave him a curt nod. “My people are proud, almost to a fault. They have a hard time imagining a different life.”
Malek paused and took her arm, then pulled her around to face him. The more he learned, the more extraordinary he found her. She’d not only dared enough to embrace a different life for herself, but she’d also found the courage to thrive. “Is that why you thought you’d be safe in Akros?”
“It was actually my Beastman protector who decided for me,” she replied, lowering her gaze. “Balkin knew it would never dawn on my family to look for me in a human city. Before I left my home, I wouldn’t have considered it either.”
Malek blew out a breath. Needing to continue touching her, he pressed his hand against her lower back and continued leading her down the alley. “It was brave of you to leave everything you knew to try a new way of living.”
She darted a glance at him and smiled. “Not exactly. I was foolish and arrogant in my thinking, like most of the Fae. It’s taken me a long time to realize there’s a great deal I don’t know about this world and its inhabitants.”
“You’re not like the rest of the Fae,” Blossom said and patted Sabine’s hair. “That’s why we follow you, Sabine. You’re different.”
Malek glanced at the pixie sitting on Sabine’s shoulder. “What do you mean? Do all the pixies follow Sabine?”
“Not yet, but they will soon,” Blossom said with a grin and winked at him. “Barley went to rally the troops. It’s why he went back to Faerie with the rest of my family.”
Sabine stopped in her tracks and said, “Blossom, why don’t you scout ahead? We need to know how many people are guarding the crystal so we can make a plan.”
Malek arched his eyebrow but didn’t dispute Sabine’s suggestion. He was curious about the pixies and what they were planning, but he wouldn’t push, especially not right now. They were close to one of the main thoroughfares, and they couldn’t risk anyone overhearing anything.
Blossom’s appearance shimmered slightly, and she turned back into a dark moth. Against the dark brown of Sabine’s hair, the pixie was nearly impossible to see. Blossom fluttered her wings and took flight, disappearing into the darkness.
Sabine turned back to him and asked, “Do you know which building is our target?”
Malek gestured toward the intersection ahead of them. “At the next street, we’re going to turn left. The Kiervan’s headquarters is a large building at the end. It’s not far from the southern gate.”
Sabine nodded. “What’s the range of the crystal?”
“Not sure. I wasn’t eager to test it out,” Malek said with a frown. “The dwarves have them embedded into the gates of their city. In order to enter, you have to walk underneath them. I believe the larger the crystal, the greater the distance it can detect anything.”
“Can they be shattered with our current weapons?”
A small group passed the adjacent intersection, laughing and talking among themselves. Lowering his voice to a whisper, he said, “Possibly, but we may need to use arcane means. If this crystal is similar to the lances on my ship, it’ll be designed to withstand mundane weapons.”
Sabine frowned and tapped her weapons, as she did when she was considering solutions to a troublesome problem. Malek was beginning to recognize some of her mannerisms, and most of them he found endearing. From everything he’d seen since they’d met, Sabine had a tendency to put the welfare of others above herself. It was going to be up to him to make sure she stayed alive and unhurt. He just didn’t want to alienate her in the process.
She looked up at him and asked, “What about dragonfire? Can you use it without removing your necklace?”
Malek shook his head. “No. It’ll shatter the warding. I’m not sure I have enough strength to shift into dragon form either. Flying with the ship took too much out of me.”
He fell silent as he weighed the possibilities. With both of them being unfamiliar with the city and its residents, they were at a disadvantage. A plan began to form in his mind, but he suspected Sabine wasn’t going to like it. Unfortunately, any other option would put her at risk. He wasn’t willing to allow anything to happen to her.
“Do you remember when we broke into the councilman’s home?”
Sabine tilted her head, causing her dark hair to partially cover her eyes. She absently brushed it away and regarded him with curiosity. “Yes. Why? What are you thinking?
“You obscured visibility that night, making it darker and harder to see. Can you do it again? Here?”
She frowned. “Yes, but it requires major magic to shift an entire town into darkness. There’s also a proximity issue. We need to maintain our distance to prevent anyone from seeing through the shadows, and the crystal will still recognize us if we get too close.”
“All right. I think I might know how we can accomplish our goal.” Malek reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear, momentarily taken aback by the lack of their pointed tips. He’d be grateful once she could return to her normal appearance. It was strange looking at Sabine but not truly seeing her.
Blossom reappeared suddenly, shedding her illusion as she landed on Sabine’s shoulder. “I looked all around. There are three Kiervan in the room next to the crystal.”
Sabine nodded and glanced in the direction of the intersection. “Good. That’s at least a manageable number. How many outside the building?”
“Just one guarding,” Blossom said, her wings twitching fast enough to lift her off Sabine’s shoulder again. “The ones inside are sleepy. I think they’re going to bed soon. They said their shift is almost over.”
Sabine frowned and turned
back toward Malek. “We need to do this soon before the shift change. They won’t be as alert.”
Malek nodded. “I can shield your magic if you can hide me from sight. I’ll sneak in, take care of the guards, and destroy the crystal. We just need to get rid of the guard in the front without having him raise the alarm.”
Sabine arched her brow and gave him a teasing smile. “Distracting him won’t be difficult, especially if he’s outside the crystal’s range. I’ll take care of him if you can handle the rest.”
He hesitated, flexing his hands into fists, and then forced himself to release them. The idea of putting Sabine in danger was anathema to him. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any other options. She’d proven to be capable of taking care of herself, but it was hard to reconcile the truth with his instincts. The urge to whisk her away and keep her safe from harm was overriding all sense of logic. It was becoming more difficult to suppress his tendencies where she was concerned.
He reached out and took her hand in his to draw her closer. She came to him willingly, her eyes revealing nothing but trust. He paused, staring down at Sabine. She was quickly becoming one of the most important things in his life. At a time he could least afford complications, he was falling in love with the woman who held the key to either saving his people or damning them to oblivion.
She placed her hand against his chest and searched his expression. “What’s wrong?”
He shook his head and wrapped his arms around her, needing to hold her. Now that he had her in his arms, his need to steal her away was beginning to ease. “I don’t like the idea of putting you in danger, sweetheart.”
Her gaze softened. Standing on her toes, she brushed a light kiss against his lips. “I’ll be fine. You’re the one with the most difficult task, but Blossom can help you.”
“Oooh! Can I?” Blossom asked, fluttering her wings in excitement. “We’ll be the dynamic flying duo. A pixie and a dragon! We’ll be unstoppable.”
Malek frowned, unsure how Blossom could help but not wanting to offend the pixie. For such a tiny person, Blossom had a rather large and forceful personality.
By Blood and Magic Page 17
