I blinked. “Oh, is that all? Just the source of all magic. That’s not heavy at all. Tell me, if I break it open, you know, accidently break it? What happens then?”
Our host paled. “I do not believe that would go well for anyone. The diamond is a living, breathing creation. We call it a diamond because that is the best way to describe it, not because it is truly a simple gemstone.”
Better and better. Sentient items for the win, anyone?
Vahab stood up. “There is no good reason to take that diamond away from her. I placed it in her mother’s mother’s mother’s hands before I was stuffed into the vase. And if that family line has kept it safe all these years, then they should be left alone.”
Pazuzu looked at Vahab and rolled his eyes at the Jinn, then turned to me again. “There is no other pathway for you to face Asag. The Beast from the East has not made this easy. The diamond is buried within the heart of the island. That is all I know.”
There was a flurry of wings overhead and the two small dragons dropped to the middle of the table. Lila landed in a soup.
Fen landed in a large fruit salad.
“You want to tell her about the prisoners you have locked up?” Lila snapped.
“They are not prisoners.” Pazuzu sighed.
“Yeah? They seem to think they are.” Lila stalked across the table, kicking stuff off. “And seeing as they are cousins to dragons, I would like to know just what you are doing with them? Or shall I spit acid on your face and see if you’d like to answer me after I’ve melted your skin off?”
I stood up, wobbled a little, and realized I’d had more than I’d thought to drink. Reyhan was slumped in her chair, head tipped forward and sleeping on the edge of the table. I tried to look quickly over at Vahab, but the quick movement had me reeling. “What . . . ?”
“A light sedative for you all.” Pazuzu sighed again. “It is part of the game that Asag has set up. Lucky for you, your dragon friends have not partaken in the food, so they will be able to help you. You must escape my home, and ride to the Kingdom of Storms, retrieve the yellow diamond, and bring it back to me in order to complete this task. Fail, and find death. Succeed and find yourself one step closer to facing Asag.”
Vahab shoved to his feet, unsteady but standing. “Damn you, Paz!”
“It is not my idea!” Pazuzu snapped back. “I am as bound as you were in that vase, Vahab. The rules are the rules. It is what we all agreed to in order to live and hope to see enough days that he would be brought down!” His voice was rising rapidly. “If I could kill him myself, I would. But that is not for me. That task comes to her.” He thrust a finger at me. “The only one to reach past the first challenge in all these years. And she is . . . she is just a mutt, with no magic, and she reminds me of—”
“Me?” offered Vahab, still shaky, but holding his own. “The one Jinn who stopped Asag in his tracks toward the western desert and confined him to his city which is why he has his little generals no doubt doing his dirty work?”
I did a slow turn to look at Vahab. “How?”
“It’s a long story.” He waved a hand at me. “But this one, Mamitu and Gorg are the three who turned on me, to save themselves. If they’d stood firm, we could have stopped him. I had him on the ropes.”
Pazuzu shook his head. “That was never going to happen. He was going to kill us all, and Mamitu could see it! If we were dead, what then? We convinced him to use you as the first challenge. Of course, we thought you’d be out long before now! We helped all those who came, at costs to ourselves, Vahab. We . . . we did our best.”
The sedation in me bubbled up and I groaned as I sagged back to my chair. Lila ran across the table to me as the two men argued back and forth.
“Zam!”
“M’okay,” I mumbled. “Juss sleep for bit.”
My eyes slammed shut and that was that. I was out cold.
A stream of light across my face woke me from the food Pazuzu had so freely fed us. Why did he have to knock us out? What part of the game was that? A stupid one, in my opinion. I rolled to my side with a groan, sluggish with every move as if the sedation was still rumbling through me.
I didn’t feel sick, or injured, just . . . tired. I’d been put in a bed that was soft and warm, the blankets heavy around my limbs.
“It’s about time!” Lila crawled out from under one of the pillows. “We have to go. I’ve been poking at your ear and screaming for hours!”
I stretched and yawned wide enough that my jaw cracked, and my spine popped, my head fuzzy. “Where are we?”
“ARE YOU SERIOUS?” Lila flipped around so that we were face to face and she could grab both my ears and shake my head. “We have a deadline that is stupid ridiculous and you’re sleeping away the day. I don’t care if you’re full of sleepy time potion, we need to move!”
I swung my legs off the bed and grabbed at my clean clothes that were hung over the back of a chair. Pants, shirt, boots, cloak, weapons. I blinked at the sword that lay across the chair and the note on it.
“You will need this.”
11
M for Mamitu? Damn it all to hell. With a grimace I grabbed the sheath that Lilith sat in and strapped it to my back, over my cloak.
Immediately she spoke.
Do not leave me behind again.
“Don’t fucking well try to take over my body then,” I growled. My mind was clearing, and the night before came back to me. I could recall bits and pieces of the conversation between Pazuzu and Vahab. They’d argued a long time; the sleeping draught that had taken me and Reyhan out apparently hadn’t worked as well on Vahab. Or maybe he hadn’t been drugged?
Lila zipped around the room. “We gotta go. Between the ice drakes in the dungeons and the pillars on their way, we have to go.”
I had my hand on the door. “Ice drakes? Wait, the pillars are coming?”
Lila landed on my shoulder. “They are here, at the gates of the castle demanding entrance. I’m betting that was the reason for the sedation. To give them time to get here. I hate this Pazuzu shit.”
A thump rumbled through the floor, punctuating her words.
“And the ice drakes . . . they are wingless, four-legged dragons that look a bit more like horses. They are savvy through the mountains and rocks. Kind of like goats.” She blew out a sigh. “I thought they were captive, but they aren’t really. Pazuzu just doesn’t let them go far because of Asag.”
“You talked to them?”
“Yes, I went back to speak to them while you were out cold.” She hunched her shoulders.
“Let’s go,” I said. “We can’t save them, and we need to get to the rooftop.” Fingers crossed that Cassandra could get us out of here and back to the desert. That should put some space between us and Asag’s monsters.
I looked around the room and a sudden spike of anxiety hit me in the gut. “Where is Reyhan?”
“I don’t know,” Lila said, her voice pitched with stress.
I almost ripped the door off the hinges as I flung it open. “Reyhan!” Her name echoed through the spacious building, bouncing off the blue stone. Another shudder rippled the stone. “Lila, did you look for her?”
“I sent Fen to look while I kept an eye on you,” she said. “He said he couldn’t find her anywhere.”
I drew a slow breath, scenting the air, but already knowing I’d find her faster on four legs. I stepped through the doorway in my mind that took me from two to four legs and a moment later shook out my black fur.
My smaller shape was about the same size as Lila, and far better for sneaking around than the large jungle cat. “Lila, go to Balder, tell him to be ready. I’ll meet you there with her.”
“Be careful, Zam. Nothing here is as it seems. It feels . . . off.”
I patted her quick with a paw, then raced away, through the hallway, scenting for Reyhan’s distinct perfume. Desert and cub, jungle and child. The seconds and then minutes ticked by as I checked rooms, went down stairwells, until finally n
ear the dining hall I caught a whiff of the little girl.
In this form I could pick up the tang of the potion still lingering on the food and drink and I cursed myself for not being smarter. For not being more careful.
Food and drink, they were a weakness. All I had to do was look at the țuică we’d drunk down more than once to know it.
Nose to the ground, I opened my mouth as I drew in the smells across the back of my throat, making sure I was on the right track. Maks was better at this tracking business, and I missed him keenly. Not only for his ability, but for the fact that I knew he was in trouble, and it would be more time than I wanted to get to him.
And I couldn’t help but feel the longer we were apart, that it was not going to go well when I found him.
“No,” I whispered. “Not right now. Reyhan first. Maks next.”
Clearing my mind of my mate, I hurried through the room, picking up the smell of the little girl on the far side, against a wall that looked as though there were no doorway. Yet the scent led right to it. A whoosh of air trickled out from between a thin gap of the wall and the floor.
A screeching groan of stone on stone and then a booming crash shook the walls around me. “Fuck.”
A tap on the other side of the wall and a quiet voice whispered, “We don’t say that here.”
I shifted back to two legs and put my hands against the space. “Reyhan, are you okay?”
“Pazzy said I should stay in here and stay quiet. That the bad man was coming for me.” Her voice shook a little.
The bad man . . . Asag? His pillars?
It hit me in the guts. The pillars weren’t hunting for me, they weren’t chasing me across the desert.
They were chasing Reyhan.
Asag wanted the little girl, and he’d sent his minions after her. I’d just gotten in the way.
The question was, did I leave her hidden, or take her with me?
12
Let’s be honest, there was no question. Reyhan was safer with me, I just had to find a way to throw off Asag long enough to give us space.
I looked back at the spread on the table, all the food, right down to the suckling pig that was about the size of a small child. Next to it was a piglet that was smaller yet. My mind raced as I considered my options, and how to pull this off.
Doubt crept in. Could Pazuzu keep her safer than me? Did I dare to leave her here? Was she safer without me?
The strongest Jinn weren’t those with the best magic. But those with the most cunning. That was what Vahab had said. And in that moment . . . I believed him.
“Take your clothes off, and shift,” I said. “Hurry.”
“My clothes go with me.” Her voice was muffled. The castle listed and I went to one knee.
“Just do it, Reyhan, I need you to trust me!” I yelled as I scrambled up and ran for the table. A simple double cross would be to take the piglet with me, pretending that I had Reyhan and draw the pillars away.
But if I dressed the large pig in her clothes, leaving behind something of her to draw them, and then took her with me . . . maybe that would buy us more time. And I would not worry myself sick if she were with me.
I snatched up the piglet, shaking the red fruit out of its mouth as I ran back to the hidden door. Sliding my hands over the space, it took me only a moment to find the latch just above my head. One stone a little smaller than the others depressed when I pushed against it.
The stone slid sideways, revealing a beautiful room with a plush bed, a stack of books and simple toys, food and water, even a bathtub. Perfect for a hidden prisoner. Reyhan sat on the bed in her jungle cat form, green eyes watching me close.
I scooped up her discarded clothes and yanked them onto the body of the pig, then stuffed it into the bed, pulling the covers up to its chin.
Reyhan pawed at a leather bag on the bed that had two shoulder straps. “Smart girl!” I scooped it up, popped her in it and slung it onto my back, flipping my cloak over it and hiding her even better. Her tiny claws dug into the back of my one shoulder as she peered out. “Stay down for now.”
I blew out all but one candle in the room and turned and ran, hitting the button that closed the door as we slipped through. The stairs we’d entered Pazuzu’s castle in led us up and up and up as the boom of the structure being blown apart below us sent shards of dust flying around us and bits of ice.
At the top of the stairs, I paused and looked out on a scene that stole my breath away.
Cassandra, Balder and Dancer were on one side of the rooftop, and between them and me was a dozen of the rock monsters. Lila zipped back to me as Vahab stumbled into my back.
“What have we here? Oh, that’s not good. Looking for the girl, are they?” Vahab sighed and put a hand right on the backpack. Right on Reyhan. “They will have to tear the castle apart before they find her.”
“Cassandra, fly the horses out of here!” I yelled.
Balder reared up, and struck out at one of the pillars, but barely dented him. This was bad. This was so bad. I spun as Cassandra lifted off and reached for the two horses. I could do nothing else for them as I ran back into the castle. We had to find another way out of here.
“Lila!” I yelled for her and she was there in a flash, flying alongside me as I ran down the stairs. The rumbling of heavy feet behind me told me that we were not going to be allowed to just make a run for it without pursuit.
But it’s what we had and so I would find a way to make it work for us.
A stone flung by my head, ruffling my hair. It bounced off the wall ahead of me, shattered and sent shards everywhere.
My face and neck got sliced, Vahab yelped like a kicked puppy and we kept on running.
“Where the hell is Pazuzu?”
“Hiding, most likely,” Vahab said. “He’s a coward. I see that more clearly now.”
I leapt through a doorway that thankfully led downward. “Lila. Think the ice drakes would take us for a ride to get down the mountain?”
“If it meant their freedom, yes,” she said.
She shot out in front of me and led us along. I didn’t ask where Fen was.
Lila did. “Where is he?” She suddenly turned on Vahab and he shrugged.
“He was snooping the last I checked near Pazuzu’s quarters.”
Lila’s face tightened. “Two more lefts and a set of stairs takes you to the drakes. I’ll get Fen. Idiot.”
Before I could argue with her, she was gone. Literally in a flash, gone.
“They are going to be cute together,” Vahab said. Another time I would have laughed. But I was saving my breath. Even if I agreed with him. They would make a cute pair.
The next two lefts I took at top speed as rocks and stones flung toward us, sending slices through clothing and skin.
One more turn and the stairs appeared. I leapt forward, letting the freefall momentum take me more than halfway down before I landed with a stumble and kept on running.
Vahab was well behind me, but he had his Jinn magic should he decide to use it. I wasn’t saving him again.
At the bottom of the stairs was a large iron door. I grabbed the handle and shoved it sideways, the gears grinding slowly.
“Hurry your ass up!” I yelled at Vahab. The pillars were right behind him and as he slid through the doorway, an arm shot through. I was sliding the door back on it, pinning it in place.
“Vahab!”
“Nothing I can do.” He didn’t even help me hold the door.
I had to keep them there a minute longer. The door squealed. “We have to keep them from the secret room! We need to keep them here as long as we can!” I yelped and glared at Vahab who gave me a smile and touched his nose.
“They won’t find her, the room is too well hidden!” he shouted back, grinning even though his tone was one of smug confidence. At least he followed my lead. And maybe it would work . . . .
The arm pulled back and I slammed the door closed.
“They’ll be back,” Vahab said. “
Maybe not for hours, but they’ll be back.”
I stared past him at the creatures crowding forward, noses outstretched.
About the size of a horse, maybe a little bigger, they walked on four legs with a leaner body than Lila had, though not snake-like as Fen was. More . . . well, more horse-like. No wings, but they had long loose scales that ran down their necks, and the tails were unreal—long, like whips with barbs on the end. Between their bodies and their legs were thin membranes of skin that glittered translucent. Pale, they were shades of white, gray and light blue. They’d disappear in the mountains and the snow.
I stared at the one who drew closest. “Ice drake? My friend Lila said you were here.”
The long muzzle bared longer teeth at me. “Who are you?” Female, this was a female by the pitch of her voice.
“Look.” I shifted the bag on my back, feeling Reyhan settle down and begin to purr. “We need a way out of here, and you want to escape, right?”
She ignored my question as she tipped her head to the side and her loose neck scales flared up, like a cat puffing herself to look bigger. “What are you?”
“Jinn.” Vahab touched his chest. “That one is a half-breed Jinn.”
“Don’t you want to get out of here?” I repeated my question. “Or are you trapped?”
Her nostrils flared and her tongue flicked out, ice droplets falling from it. “We could leave if we wanted to.”
“Well, the castle is coming down around us, so you might want to do that,” Vahab said. “We just want to hitch a ride.”
“Why would we do that?”
I looked around the pens. Comfortable, they were being treated well by all accounts with the cleanliness and the food and bedding. “Because I think if you could have left by now you would have.”
The castle shook and listed again, throwing us all to one side. I held up my hands. “Look, I am trying to stop Asag. I need to get to the desert edge where my horse will be waiting—”
Kingdom of Storms (The Desert Cursed Series Book 8) Page 8
