Dream of Darkness and Dominion

by Hilary Thompson

  He laughed and embraced her just as tightly. “And look at you. Queen, I’ve heard?”

  She flushed and stepped back, her fingers touching her head as though to adjust an invisible crown. “I can’t believe it. Any of it,” she added, gesturing around her. The soldiers were wary, giving Nik wide berth, but they soon regrouped a bit, securing ropes and checking injuries to each other and the boat.

  She glanced ahead to another boat, where three men stood against the rail, hands to their foreheads against the sun.

  “You landed on the wrong boat, though,” she teased. “Sy’s there.”

  But then Sy wasn’t, because he’d jumped into the water and was stroking toward them like lightning across the gentle waves.

  Coren laughed, lowering a ladder for him, and she retreated with a smile as Sy’s head popped up over the rail.

  Nik’s heart was nearly ready to explode, but his feet seemed frozen to the deck. In the distance, Shuri screamed in delight as she gobbled another witch. Out of the corner of his eye, Nik saw Coren take off to help. The battle wasn’t quite over, but the witches had been decimated.

  He had done his job, and his boon was standing here before him, glistening with water and golden skin. And the biggest smile Nik had ever seen.

  Sy stepped toward him and cupped Nik’s face in both hands. His eyes were wide as they searched Nik’s, then roaming his body as though looking for something missing or wrong.

  “I’m sorry,” Nik whispered. “I shouldn’t have left the women.”

  “I’m so glad you’re here,” Sy answered, the sincerity in his voice a balm to Nik’s wary heart. Sy wanted him here. He’d done well, and Sy was happy with him.

  Nik slumped forward, burying his nose in Sy’s neck, his hands sliding to Sy’s waist and clutching him close. He knew he shouldn’t. Not with all the soldiers here. Not with witches still alive.

  But then Sy wrapped his solid arms around Nik and drew him even closer, resting his water-cracked lips at Nik’s temple.

  “I love you,” Sy said, his voice hoarse and so low Nik almost didn’t hear it. The words seeped into Nik’s mind with even more difficulty than the first time he’d seen the Draken.

  How could it be possible that he’d gained so much? His shoulders shook and rattled against Sy’s chest, his teeth clacking so much from fear of losing this he almost couldn’t answer.

  But he ground his teeth together and pushed the words through, his heart singing. “I will always love you.”

  Chapter 30

  NIK AND SY STAYED ON the rescued boat, shoulder to shoulder against the rail until it landed on the northern shores of Sulit. Coren had flown between the other three the rest of the journey, checking on everything like a mother stormcloud chicken, and Shuri had tailed them all, picking off straggler Brujok with the glee of a child beheading wildflowers.

  The soldiers dragged themselves and their gear onto the black sand beaches, wary of the dark woods beyond. The emptied boats were docked as well as possible, guarded on all sides.

  It would be too easy for Brujok to ambush them and burn the boats or set them free, Nik knew. As much as he wanted to spend the night locked in Sy’s arms, he and Shuri would be best suited to keep watch.

  I’ll take first watch, Shuri said in his mind. Nik turned, looking for her bulk in the growing dusk. It took him several minutes. She blended in nearly perfectly with the young night. Go. Be with your love. Grow your magic.

  Nik smiled at the reminder. If the Draken were right, he and Sy would be even more powerful together.

  The army camp was larger than Nik had anticipated, though compact. He and Sy were at the north end, and he’d seen Coren land near the southern tip, close to the falls. Leaving Sy to help with the few remaining wounded, he walked the perimeter carefully, watching for signs of spells in the water lapping near his ankles.

  He could sense wardings nearby. The Brujok would know people had landed. But as of now, he didn’t sense anything besides trees and small animals in the forest. This was the Listening Forest, and even without the wards, the witches would know most of their secrets by the time the moon had fully risen.

  They must be prepared to fight at any moment.

  He’d followed Shuri here nearly blindly, accepting her Draken sense of knowing. But now, Nik wanted answers. Ahead, Sy’s familiar silhouette stepped from the shadows, closer to the weak fires they’d just started to ward off the chill of an autumn evening. Nik quickened his steps. Sy would tell him everything.

  Just as he reached the fire, a woman in armor stepped from a nearby tent, and Sy turned to her, not yet seeing Nik. She held a paper for him to see, tracing unseen lines on it.

  Nik purposefully scuffed his feet against something as he approached, and both looked up.

  Sy’s face lit with satisfaction, and Nik was relieved, letting out a pressured breath he hadn’t known he’d held. “Did you suffer many losses today?”

  “Just over two hundred,” Sy answered.

  “So many,” Nik said, a pang of sorrow flashing through his chest.

  “It would have been many more without you,” Sy countered. He gestured to the woman. “This is General Noshaya, one of Riata’s four. This is Nikesh, the Draken shifter who helped save our boat from the skies today.”

  Noshaya’s eyes widened. She was much older that Sy, but her movements were powerful as she strode toward Nik and offered her hand. “Thank you,” she said. “Our armies fight well against other men, but witches and water are apparently our weakness.”

  Nik felt his mood darken at her mention of weaknesses. He’d once vowed never to set foot on Sulit soil again, yet here he was. “There are many cruelties here. May your soldiers avoid them all,” he said, doubting they could.

  “Are you very familiar with witches?” Noshaya asked. Sy moved to stop her questioning, but Nik held up a hand. He’d searched the mountains for peace and returned as an even fiercer warrior.

  He could make it through whatever Rurok had kept waiting in the dark, even if it were the one face he dreaded more than any.

  “I was held captive here for some time when I was younger. I escaped four years ago.”

  “I’m both sorry and not,” Noshaya said. “Forgive my eagerness, but our young prince has been little help. I could use your inside knowledge to better plan our campaign if you’re willing.”

  Nik found it hard to swallow as she offered him the paper. It was a map to his nightmares.

  He took a deep breath, studying the incomplete drawing. There were many errors, especially concerning the layout of Rurok itself. “Do you have ink?”

  He settled himself by the fire and began to correct the map, focusing only on the lines he was drawing and not on the memories associated with each room and stair. Sy stretched next to him, his long fingers drawing slow circles on Nik’s back. Nik felt his soul relax into the touch as much as his body. Though he relished his new Draken form, he felt even stronger just being here with Sy.

  “Should we know anything about the Brujok?” Noshaya asked. Nik considered, wishing the woman were not quite so thorough. There were other things he wanted to be doing now.

  “All witches have spies everywhere. The trees, the animals. Write your secrets instead of speaking them. But I have no idea which of them is in charge now. Mara, of course, holds ultimate power over them all.”

  “Mara is gone,” Sy noted.

  “Gone? What else have I missed?”

  Sy smiled, and Nik realized he had a thousand questions of his own. “I want to know everything,” he said, scooting back to lean against Sy’s warm chest, his feet toward the heat of the fire.

  Noshaya buried herself in maps and papers as Sy began to tell the story of how he and Coren defeated the Restless King, wounding Mara and her twin Aram, and how they sailed back to StarsHelm for Coren to claim her surprise birthright as Queen.

  “We even managed to rescue her brother, who everyone thought dead,” Sy said with a grin. “He’s not my favorite p
erson, but he can be helpful when he wants. Jyesh had been a captive here the whole time, masquerading as Mara’s Lord of Witches.”

  The words fell like an explosion in Nik’s mind, and his ears rang with deafness. For a bare second, the face in his memory paralyzed him, the shining eyes and wicked, tender grin.

  He scrambled away from Sy as the shift powered through him, and his great wings threw him into the air before he’d even processed the mental change to Draken.

  Nik flew like a foxen pursued by hunters, streaking across the sky in a desperate attempt to outrun the fears chasing through his mind. He’d made it halfway to the Whispering Mountains before he realized Shuri was beside him, matching him beat for beat.

  Once he was aware of her, she used their connection to pull his mind toward hers, to calm it and soothe his panic.

  Whatever it is, we will manage, she said, repeating the words until he could breathe again. But what is it? she finally asked.

  They travel with my tormentor. He is alive and free and my good friend’s long-lost brother.

  The words wrenched a hole in Nik’s heart as he admitted to himself that he would have to face this. Coren rescued a brother she’d thought dead. She’d unwittingly rescued a monster, but knowing Coren, she was trying as hard as she could to love him good again.

  Shuri simply flew beside him in silence. Then, I’ll eat him at a single look from you.

  A surprised laugh burst through Nik’s swirling thoughts, and his bunched muscles began to unknot. Soon, he banked and began a more leisurely pace toward the camp. Shuri was right. He wasn’t alone in this. He had friends. He was free.

  And if he had to guess, he would say he had the greater power now.

  This time, Nik would be the strength called to Lord’s weakness and not the other way around.

  Circling the camp from above, Nik was relieved to see most of the soldiers had gone into their tents. Sy sat alone, staring at the fire. Waiting.

  Nik nodded to Shuri, who headed back to the boats for her watch. He landed at the edge of the beach, his talons and tail splashing into the water. Sy looked back, his face stony and scared. Nik focused on the shift, drawing his clothes carefully about him. He wasn’t ready to be naked in both body and mind, and he had things to confess to Sy.

  “I’m sorry,” he began, but Sy stopped him, linking their fingers together.

  “Whatever it is, please don’t be sorry. We’ll fix it together.”

  “Your words brought up things I’ve never told anyone.” Nik took a deep breath. He could do this. “I’ve met the Lord of Witches before. It was he, and not Mara or the other Brujok, who kept me captive. He flayed my body badly, but my heart worse.”

  The words were already easier to say, and Nik wondered if his sudden detachment was real. It shouldn’t be this easy to speak of Lord - of Jyesh, the boy who had broken him just as he’d begun to heal. But Sy was a shield, and his Draken form was a weapon. He felt safer than he had in a very long time.

  Sy stared at him, his mouth opening and closing. Nik knew few words could make such a thing better, and Sy had already said most of them. “Nik... I... I never guessed,” he finished in a whisper.

  “I’ll meet him here again, I know,” he said, staring at Sy, pleading him not to take this from him. “Just let me handle it. I need to handle it. It’s the only way for me to heal from it, I think.”

  Sy nodded, but there was real fear in his deep blue eyes. Firelight danced over Sy’s golden skin, and for a moment, the yellow glow seemed to separate and loom behind Sy, rather than before. Sy grimaced with phantom pain.

  “Not now,” he grunted, shutting his eyes against something. “Not here.” He threw the words over his shoulder, and Nik followed the gaze, blinking in confusion as the fire died down again.

  “I have things to tell you as well,” Sy said, catching his breath as he lowered his eyes. “It seems we are both trailed by demons.”

  As Sy described the curse he’d accepted to kill Zorander Graeme, Nik grew full of anger. Sy didn’t deserve this. Sy, who thought of everyone else first. Who was supposed to return to Weshen Isle with him and grow old, watching the tides rise and fall, and the stars twinkle above?

  “I’ll figure this out,” he promised Sy. “This curse was made, so it can be broken.”

  “I have a method for management, for now.” Sy shrugged, and his resignation ripped at Nik’s heart. Neither of them was any good at fighting their demons, but neither was willing to share the fight yet. Sy pushed his hair from his face, attempting a smile. “What else do you have to tell me of your time away? How are the women?”

  “They have mostly found their magic,” Nik answered, glad to give good news. “Some of us cleaned the city from battle, and others plan to move there and begin a new life. We even found a few survivors. Young boys.” He was proud he didn’t choke on those words, grateful that he could speak of the survivors without dwelling too much on those he had failed.

  “Coren freed the Wesh in the palace,” Sy said, a smile spreading across his handsome face. “Nearly four hundred of our people travel to Weshen City to begin a new life. Some have been slaves nearly their whole life. But some were the men Graeme captured from battle. Weshen will rise again,” he said, his eyes shining anew with determination.

  This look made everything worth it for Nik. Whatever evil stood between them and their future together, they would face it together. The future began now. Everything else was simply a mountain to climb, and Nik had quite a bit of experience with that.

  “I know we search for Mara, but what have you heard of Shadow? The Draken told me it is the final enemy. Like Graeme was Mara’s puppet, it seems Mara is Shadow’s.”

  “I don’t know,” Sy admitted. “I guess we’re taking this one bit at a time. Coren thinks Mara is in the south. Her twin brother and sister are there, too, with Kashar and a good witch. We need to reach them before Mara does.”

  “Mara seeks them?”

  Sy nodded. “There’s more. Coren had some sort of...encounter with Mara. She appeared in the palace, real, but without physical form.”

  Nik knew of those spells. “That takes immense power,” he warned. “She must be drawing from blood magic, then.” Sy had described Mara’s blades, and how they soaked the blood up like earth. “Umbren magic. Shuri flew me over Umbren,” he continued. “She showed me her memories and her mother’s. If Shadow is allowed to rise...” Nik remembered the shadow-things piling onto and into each other. He shuddered, and Sy’s arm squeezed him tighter.

  “How about you tell everyone the rest in the morning? We can figure it out together,” Sy murmured, moving to stand. He glanced back at the empty tent beyond the circle of firelight and offered a hand to Nik.

  Eager to erect happy barriers against any more dark memories, Nik didn’t hesitate a single second.

  THE NIGHT HAD BEEN quiet and free of Brujok attack. Coren thought it a little suspicious, but she was grateful for a full night’s rest. The previous day’s battle on the lake had drained so much of her energy.

  Dain and Noshaya had already begun to move the armies down the coast and around NewMoon Falls. A handful of soldiers had been selected to stay and guard each boat and help with the few wounded soldiers, and Dain’s elites were still milling around camp, under orders to follow Coren everywhere.

  Jyesh had been moody and quiet all morning, and Coren had taken to ignoring him. He would either help or not. She scanned the camp, itching to leave, and finally, she saw Sy and Nik making their way down from the northern tip. The female Draken circled over the lake, swooping low to pluck fish from the lake and swallow them whole.

  Coren waved to Sy and Nik to hurry up and shouldered her pack. It was light, with only a single change of clothes, a bit of dried meat, and a few extra weapons.

  “Good morning,” she called. As they approached, she could see their faces were tense. Sy looked like he had news, but he cut his eyes toward Nik and shook his head at Coren.

  Jyesh
emerged from his tent, looking as fresh and clean as if he’d spent the night in the palace. He grumbled a greeting to her. Coren started to point him toward Nik for introductions, but Nik had stopped, frozen and staring.

  Sy had walked ahead several steps, but when he saw Nik’s fearful expression, he jogged back. “Nik?” he said, his voice concerned. “We don’t have to do this now.”

  Behind Coren, Jyesh sucked in a breath, a strangled noise choking his throat. Coren turned and saw his eyes wide with shock.

  “You,” Nik hissed, and she whipped back to her friend. She’d never heard such venom from Nik, not even when he spoke of the slavers who had made his childhood a waking nightmare. Sy was already standing before Nik like a guard, and Coren was more confused than ever.

  Jyesh stumbled forward, his face stricken and pale and fixed on Nik. “It really is you. I thought you were dead.”

  “You were meant to.” Nik stepped up, bristling as though for a fight, and his chest bumped against Sy’s back. Sy side-stepped and wrapped a hand loosely around Nik’s shoulder, and Nik flinched away, caught in pure instinct. Blinking back at Sy, he drew himself tall next to his love. “I knew you would never stop hunting me if you thought me alive.”

  “Hunting?” Sy glared at Jyesh, his voice like a knife pressed to the throat. Nik stilled him with a palm to his chest and a few words murmured in Sy’s ear.

  “You left me,” Jyesh ground out. His eyes were wide, open tunnels to a wounded soul. Coren gasped, her gaze flitting between the three boys. She’d never seen her brother so shaken, his slick facade of cruelty crumbling before everyone.

  “You ruined me!” Nik burst out, his voice hoarse and desperate. He was pale and greenish like he was going to be sick, but he wasn’t backing down. In the distance, the Draken screamed.

  “I loved you,” Jyesh said, a bit of his familiar haughtiness returning. Coren felt her eyebrows shoot into her hair, and she exchanged a panicked look with Sy as the pieces began to slot together. Sy nodded his understanding, his expression warning her to keep her mouth shut.