“You say you created the Weatherblight,” said Ari. “And you can obviously control them, as you claim. What are you trying to accomplish here?”
Mordus let out a high-pitched, chirping laugh. The fishers began imitating him with their own senseless noises, each of them sounding like the purring of a grotesque cat.
“That is a question I cannot give you the answer to, just yet,” said Mordus. “It is in flux, much like the surface upon which you toil.”
Mordus turned away from Ari. Kerys was still pulling at his sleeve, and this time he let her lead him toward the tower, keeping his sword lifted and watching both the Escion and the monsters.
“Leave this spire and do not return to it, Lord Stoneblood,” called Mordus. “I believe you will find the reception most unwelcome if you do.”
CHAPTER 17
Ari slammed the door of the tower shut and immediately turned his attention to the control wards on the common room’s central table. Eva had shifted back into her incarnate form, and both she and Kerys were trying to talk over one another.
“This is not what it seems, milord!” said Eva. “This could be a trick.”
“We need to leave!” shouted Kerys. “Hurry, Aristial! Let’s go!”
“There is nothing about these ‘Escions’ in any of my recovered memories,” said Eva. “They could very well just be another form of Weatherblight, intelligent enough to speak and deceive.”
“Who cares?” shouted Kerys. “Dormiar’s blood, we need to get out of here!”
“Everybody relax!” he shouted. “I’m just as unnerved by what happened as both of you probably are, but let’s try to keep our composure. Any thoughts on which of these wards looks like it will bring us somewhere safe?”
“Just pick any of them!” shouted Kerys and Eva, in perfect unison.
Ari risked a parting glance out the window as he set his hand down on a ward that had a pattern on it reminiscent of a misshapen oval. Mordus was still standing in the exact same position, staring up at the sky with passive focus. The Escion’s words about him leaving and not returning still echoed in his head, the implication sending a chill down the length of his spine.
He pressed his hand down on the ward and triggered it with his will.
***
For a couple of seconds, Ari just let himself breathe. The sound of the raging storm was gone, and a glance through one of the tower’s crystal glass windows told him that they’d found a place with fair weather.
He wordlessly went to the door and opened it. A serene jungle environment lay just beyond the tower’s threshold. Tall trees with broad, glossy leaves extended dozens of feet upward, and a chorus of insects and exotic birds hummed in the background on the humid air.
The sensation of pressing a ward and instantly being somewhere else was still jarring to him. They were in a place that Ari knew nothing about, a place he couldn’t even have guessed the location of on a map. A place where it was, judging from what little of the sky he could see through the thick canopy of vines and tree branches, a couple of hours later in the day than where they’d just left.
“I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to this,” said Ari. “It reminds me of the one time I drank enough root ale to black out down in the Hollow and couldn’t remember where I was when I woke up.”
“I’m pretty sure that happened a few times,” said Kerys. “Honestly though, I think the tower teleporting us is probably the most understandable part of what happened over the last few minutes.”
“Very true,” said Ari.
He didn’t know what else to say about it beyond that, and he let his attention turn back to their surroundings as he stepped a few feet outside. Eva followed him, looking around warily.
“Aristial, we have to do something,” said Kerys. “If this Escion, or Mordus, or whatever he calls himself really can control the Weatherblight, what does that mean? What if what he said about Deepwater Spire really is true, and it’s what’s been seeding the monsters?”
“I would be careful about taking whatever that creature said at its word,” said Eva. “It was obviously intelligent, and as I said before, we have no idea if it saw a possible advantage in misleading us.”
“Even still, we might be the only people who know about it,” said Kerys. “We have to tell someone.”
Ari scratched his head.
“Kerys,” he said. “I’m not sure if you noticed this, but the surface isn’t exactly bulging at the seams with people. In fact, we’ve only run into other survivors and people who’ve wanted to kill us so far.”
“Shut up, that’s not what I meant,” said Kerys. “The city that Rin told us about. Cliffhaven. If we do get there eventually, they need to know about this.”
“And we’ll tell them, of course,” said Ari.
He bit back on the cynical, second half of what he’d been about to say, which was that if Mordus truly could control the Weatherblight, it was all they could do to hope that his intentions were benevolent. The Weatherblight had only ever been as unpredictable as the weather. The scenario of an intelligent monster with an army of fishers or vodakai at its back wouldn’t have many happy potential outcomes.
“I think it would be prudent for us to focus on our current circumstances,” said Eva.
“I agree,” said Ari. “Survival comes before anything else. Kerys, do we have any food left in the tower? Anything at all?”
“Nothing suitable to eat,” she said. “But I think I recognize some of the plants around here. I can’t promise that they’ll be edible, but it’s worth a try.”
“Good,” said Ari.
“I do not mind making an attempt at hunting,” said Eva. “It would also give me a chance to explore the surrounding area.”
“Sure,” he said. “But be extremely careful. Don’t go too far, and if you see anything unusual, come straight back.”
She nodded, holding his gaze. Ari was momentarily struck by how confident and unaffected she still seemed after what she’d just been through. Her corset rustled slightly as a breeze blew through the trees, emphasizing the tight, revealing way it clung to her body.
She headed off into the jungle, barely making any noise as she prowled through the tall grass and foliage. Ari’s reason for watching her go was, of course, to confirm the direction she was leaving in, and not because of the way the wind stirred her skirt upward, occasionally revealing interesting parts of her posterior.
Kerys cleared her throat. “Can you give me a hand gathering some of these vegetables? I doubt we’ll have more than an hour or two before dark, given how much later it is where we are now than back on the spire.”
“Sure,” said Ari.
The jungle provided a wealth of choices when it came to potential green, leafy edibles. Kerys pointed out a patch of purple berries that looked extremely similar to the red ones they’d been dining on surrounding the river near where they’d originally found the tower.
He followed the process of testing the berries that he’d learned from Kerys what seemed a lifetime ago, starting with a dab of juice on his skin, progressing to tasting without swallowing, before finally eating one. Ten minutes later, Ari was reasonably sure that he’d found them a nice new treat.
“Here,” he said. “Taste one of these.”
A flash of a smile passed across Kerys’ face as she bounced over to him. Ari grinned at her as he brought the berry to her mouth and gently pushed it against her lips. She let him feed her, blushing slightly as his hand lingered near her face, brushing a few strands of her blonde hair back from her forehead.
“That’s good,” said Kerys. “Sweet, but with a touch of sourness.”
“I thought it might be a good candidate for trying to make jam out of,” said Ari. “Of course, we don’t have anything to store it in long term.”
“I had an idea about that,” said Kerys. “If we manage to collect enough essence to have some to spare, there are still a few wards in the tower’s interior that we haven’t activated y
et.”
“We have a shower and a heating table,” said Ari. “What more could we need?”
Kerys took him by the hand and led him back inside and into the kitchen. She stopped in front of a small closet in the corner of the room with an obvious ward on the door.
“Eva mentioned that this ward was for keeping food cold,” said Kerys. “Look at all the room in here! Imagine how much more efficient it would be if we had a place to store all of the food we find but can’t eat immediately.”
She opened the door and bent over slightly, leaning her head into the cold closet. Ari couldn’t resist teasing her a little.
“Let me take a look, too,” he said. He pressed forward, pushing his crotch against her butt and peering into the very empty and very clean space. “Interesting, I see what you mean.”
“I can feel that, Aristial,” said Kerys.
“What?”
“This.” She reached a hand back and took hold of a certain, half-stiffened part of Ari’s anatomy.
“It’s not my fault,” he said. “Well, not entirely. Your butt looks really good when you lean over like that.”
“Aristial Stoneblood,” she said, in a voice that wasn’t nearly as irritated as she’d probably intended. Ari cupped her cheek and gave her a soft, loving kiss.
“We made it,” he said. “I’m just glad that we’re safe again and we can joke around like this.”
“So am I,” said Kerys. “Thank you, Ari.”
“You don’t have to thank me,” said Ari. “This was a team effort.”
“Maybe,” said Kerys. “But you’ve kept me safe since the beginning. You’re good at protecting people, Ari. I feel safe, and I know that as long as I’m with you, everything will be okay.”
Ari felt a painful, sinking sensation in his abdomen as he remembered the truth of his own circumstances. He was going to die, sooner rather than later. It was going to hurt Kerys when it happened, even more if he didn’t find a way to prepare her for it. He reached his arms out and pulled her into a hug, taking a slow, shaky breath as he tried to shake away a hideous thought of what would happen if she couldn’t manage without him.
“Ari?” said Kerys. “You’re squeezing me too tight.”
“Sorry,” he said. “I just… don’t want to let go.”
“That’s so sweet!” said Kerys. “Almost sweet enough to make me forget how perverted you can be sometimes.”
“The peeper calling the groper perverted,” said Ari as he let his fingers briefly dance across her buttocks.
He kissed her again and took her hand in his, swinging her arm back and forth as he maneuvered them both toward the stairs and his room on the second floor. Kerys smiled and went with him, and he’d just begun to get a little hopeful when Eva’s voice came from outside.
“Lord Aristial?” she called. “Do you mind helping with this?”
CHAPTER 18
His jaw dropped when he saw the animal that Eva had managed to hunt for them. It was a black-spotted jungle pig, easily fifty pounds worth of meat, if not more. Eva was carrying it over her shoulders, but from her stooped posture, she’d obviously been hauling it for quite some distance.
“How in the world did you manage to snag that?” asked Ari.
Eva flashed a catlike smile as she passed the animal’s carcass to him.
“I tried something new,” she said. “I used a small pile of ripe berries as bait and then waited in my sword form for some animal or another to make contact with me. I had no idea that it was a beast this large until I’d assumed my incarnate form again.”
It was only then that Ari noticed that she’d also been carrying the ornate short sword they’d found in the pink mesmer’s chest back in the spire. She pulled it from its sheath and wiped the remnants of the pig’s blood off on the grass. Ari looked over at Kerys, who watched Eva holding the sword with an odd expression on her face.
“Is something the matter, Lady Kerys?” asked Eva.
Kerys’ eyes lingered on the sword. She opened her mouth, her expression briefly taking on a defensive, irritated quality before deflating as she shook her head and diverted her gaze down to the grass.
“Nothing,” said Kerys. “It’s fine.”
“It’s not nothing,” said Ari. “I didn’t mention this to you, Eva, but I gave that short sword to Kerys to serve as her own personal weapon. I figured that the size would suit her, given that you’d probably prefer a longer sword, anyway.”
“Oh!” Eva looked down at the blade, and a sudden blush came to her cheeks. “My apologies. I promise, I will clean it for you and make sure it is in good condition before returning it. If you would like, I can also start teaching you some of the basics of fighting with such a weapon tomorrow?”
Kerys nodded, and her mouth turned up into a broad smile.
“Why don’t you use it to butcher our dinner, first?” she suggested.
Ari left the butchering and cooking to Eva and Kerys, giving them some alone time as friends while he addressed another pressing issue. There was far more meat on the pig than they’d be able to eat in one night, and he had doubts about how long it would last on its own in the humid jungle heat.
Drying or curing it would have required resources they didn’t have on hand, but Kerys’ words earlier had reminded him that they had another potential option for preserving meat. He went up to the third floor and absorbed close to half of the remaining essence in the enchanting altar and then made his way down to the kitchen.
He’d gotten a sense of the amount of essence the cold closet’s ward would need earlier in the day, and it diligently burst into white light as he willed the requisite amount into it. Two smaller wards also flashed above and below the main ward.
Ari opened the closet’s door and stuck his hand inside. It felt perhaps slightly colder than the air in the tower, but not by much. He chewed his lip, hoping he hadn’t wasted essence on a ward that had a function different from what he’d been expecting.
He spent the next ten minutes helping Eva butcher the meat. He wrapped the pieces they weren’t going to eat that night in the broad, glossy leaves of the nearby trees before storing them in the cold closet, which to his relief, did eventually start to feel noticeably cold. He guessed that the control wards affected the temperature, and triggered the lower of the two several times in order to bring the climate inside the cold closet as close to freezing as possible.
Kerys took a slab of pork and set it on the cooking table, and the smell of sizzling fat and meat was almost enough to floor him. He’d gotten used to the lean, stringy bird meat they’d been subsisting on back at the spire, and the change was enough to make his mouth water.
“Let me taste test,” said Ari.
“It has to be cooked all the way through, or you’ll get sick,” said Kerys.
“That part is cooked,” he said. “If you cut it off, I can just—”
Eva came up behind him and grabbed by the wrist, gently but forcefully pulling him out of the kitchen.
“I will make sure he waits politely in the common room,” she said. “Your cooking smells fantastic, Lady Kerys.”
“Thanks, Lady Eva,” said Kerys.
When dinner finally arrived, it proved to taste as good as it smelled. Kerys cut the pork into long strips and made a small garnish from the sour berries they’d found outside that paired surprisingly well with the heavily marbled meat. Ari let out a satisfied sigh when he was finished eating.
“This is the best night we’ve had in a long time,” he said.
Kerys and Eva both smiled at him in response, and he let himself enjoy the moment, pushing unwanted and unneeded thoughts aside. The three of them went outside once they were finished eating, leaning against the outer wall of the tower and enjoying the cool jungle night.
“Tomorrow, we should start exploring the nearby area,” said Eva. “Our goal should be finding another suitable place to begin harvesting essence.”
“I agree,” said Ari. “But talk of that
sort can wait until tomorrow.”
Eva was sitting next to him, and he put an arm around her. Kerys was already cuddled up against his left side, and for a few glorious minutes, they just enjoyed each other’s company. It was a moment that Ari found himself wishing would last forever, even though he knew that it couldn’t.
“We have not discussed which of us will take the first watch for tonight,” said Eva.
The silence that followed her question felt weighty and awkward. Ari sensed the reason for that, even if it was something he’d never draw attention to out loud. If Kerys took the first watch, he and Eva would more than likely end up using the next few hours to strengthen their bond. If Eva took it, then he and Kerys would enjoy each other’s company in a similarly intimate sense.
And whichever one of them ended up being the odd woman out would either have to endure coming in second, or be unreasonably sulky the next morning.
Ari let out a small sigh. He knew that it was especially critical for them to be on guard that night, given that they were in a new environment. He also knew that if it came to a discussion, the fact that he’d done the least amount of work in regard to the catching and cooking of their dinner would probably come up.
He rolled his eyes and made the decision for the group.
“I’ll take first watch,” he said.
“I think that would be wise,” said Eva, glancing at Kerys.
“So do I,” said Kerys.
They exchanged good nights, and Ari gave both of them a soft, lingering hug before heading up to the roof. He’d brought an ample stash of sarkin flower with him from the spire, and he was more than a little tempted to light a smoke.
“Not tonight,” he muttered to himself. “I’m good at protecting people, not sulking.”
Instead, Ari found one of the sticks that he and Eva had been using as practice swords and started a slow recital of everything she’d taught him. He still did his best to keep an eye on the surrounding jungle, but the night watch had always been more about watching for inclement weather events.
Vision Voyage (The Weatherblight Saga Book 2) Page 10
