Keelia allowed Joryn to stand beside her. She held her breath as the threat moved closer, running up the slope, heading direcdy for their camp. Closer, closer…
Here.
A mass of fair hair and tanned skin came over the rise, and once again Keelia threw herself in front of Joryn.
He protested and tried to move her aside, but she would have none of it. She lifted a hand and asked him silently to contain his powers. He didn’t have a chance to ask why before she spoke to the intruder.
“Hello, Father.”
*
16
In the end, Joryn had to either allow Keelia to protect him, or use his gift for fire against her father. There had been a time when he would not have hesitated to attack a large Anwyn brute who rushed toward him with deadly intent, but things had changed.
Everything had changed. As dark of night and the full moon approached, he stood with Keelia and her parents and a muttering Druson, who made no sense at all. The Grandfather didn’t cease his constant nonsensical murmurs, but no one was listening to him.
“We don’t have much time.” The pretty red-haired woman, Queen Mother Juliet, looked very much like Keelia, only she was a few years older and her hair was curly instead of straight Their eyes and the shape of their faces were much the same. “Keelia is the only one of us who won’t transform tonight, and I cannot rest easy until I know that my daughter is safe.”
“She’s safe,” Joryn said, doing his best to assure Keelia’s mother… and her glaring father, Ryn.
Druson’s words became a bit clearer. “Not safe. Not yet. He still needs her to do what he wants done.”
Joryn put a hand on his friend’s shoulder, trying to comfort Druson and end the babbling. “The wizard is dead.”
The Grandfather shook his head. “No, not dead. Not dead!”
Juliet’s brow wrinkled with worry. “Perhaps we should listen to him.” In spite of her words, she seemed uncertain. “If the wizard was the cause of the disruption of my abilities, as well as those of others who have my gift, and he’s now dead, then why have my gifts not returned in full force? I see some things, but not all. Is it possible that this … this Caradon is correct?”
Keelia nodded as if she understood her mother’s concern. “Perhaps someone or something else is to blame for the interference we’re experiencing. I know Maccus is dead. I saw him die.”
Druson ran both hands through graying hair. “You’re not listening to me!”
Ryn had no patience for humoring an obviously insane Caradon seer. “That’s because you’re not making sense. I can barely think for all your rambling. Shut up!”
Joryn glanced at the horizon. There was no time to share with Keelia and her parents what Druson had told him about the past history of Anwyn and Caradon. He wasn’t even sure that it was true, but if it was … they all needed to know. Everyone needed to know, but such explanation would have to wait until morning.
Druson worked at making his meaning clear, enunciating each word. “We cannot let the wizard have her! I will die for my Queen, but—”
“Your Queen?” Ryn said gruffly.
Druson pounded a fist against his own chest. “My Queen, you barbarian.”
The big man looked as if he had been slapped. In his mind the Caradon people were the barbarians, not the superior Anwyn.
Druson had been mentally off, and scattered, and yes, very near insane. But he had not been violent. He hadn’t even fought against Maccus’s soldiers when the proper time for fighting had been presented. So Joryn—and everyone else present—was surprised when Druson grabbed Keelia by die back of her gown and dragged her away from the group and toward the cliff’s edge.
“You don’t understand!” Druson shouted. “Our Queen is special, she is unlike all others but-she does not yet know the depths of her power. The forces of our ancestors are hers, but she cannot see. The future of all rests wim her, it rests inside her and she does not know.”
“What don’t I know, Druson?” Keelia’s voice remained calm. “Tell me.”
“You are now as we once were. You have unlimited and untapped abilities beyond what is known to our people or any other. And yet your power sleeps, because you have not reached for it.” Druson dragged Keelia closer to the cliff’s edge, glancing back and down to test me distance he’d fall if he made a misstep. Joryn had looked over that edge earlier. It was a tremendous and almost straight plunge that would take anyone who went over it into the green valley at the foot of the mountain.
“Watch yourself, Druson,” Joryn said calmly as he took a step toward his friend. “Don’t stand so near the edge.”
Druson laughed harshly. “You don’t understand. I tried to tell you, but you don’t understand.” He looked at Keelia, “She does,” he whispered. “If not, she soon will.”
Without warning, Druson called upon all his strength to push Keelia to the edge, and over. She flailed, but she hadn’t seen the move coming, and she dropped over the edge with a horrifying scream. Druson backed away from the edge and laughed again, but there were tears in his eyes. “Now she will know. Now she will see.”
Joryn did not hesitate. He ran toward Druson, passed by the insane Grandfather, and leapt from the edge of the cliff, following in Keelia’s path.
*
Keelia’s panic didn’t last long. Her breath was stolen away by the fall, and then she found it once again. She was terrified, and then suddenly she was not. This was so much like her dream, it felt as if she had been here before, with the wind on her face and in her hair, and the air catching and holding her body as she fell.
She heard the fabric of her gown rip, and was not concerned. Her arms were guided back, her head up, and it felt so natural, so right. The wind caught her hair and what was left of the gown, and then it caught something else.
Her wings.
Directly below, a flash of flame caught her eye. Between her and the ground, a large circle of fire appeared and grew. She had wings which kept her aloft, but had not yet learned to control them well. She couldn’t move out of the way of the flames fast enough, nor could she catch air with her wings and rise away from the fire. Even as she attempted to shift her unwieldy form out of the way, the circle of flame grew larger and larger, until she knew she could not possibly miss it.
A shout from above caught her attention, and she clumsily rolled her body, wings and all, to see Joryn falling toward her. The appearance of wings had slowed her down, and he’d shaped his body to have as little wind resistance as possible, so he continued to rush toward her. The flame was his doing, she understood, but why?
They both tumbled toward the earth at an alarming rate of speed. They were both going to plummet through the fire and into the valley below if something didn’t happen very quickly. Could she catch Joryn and learn to use these newly discovered wings in time to save them?
His voice rang in her head. Hang on.
When Joryn reached her and snapped his arms about her, she obeyed. She hung on to him with all her might. Linked, wings fluttering, hair entangled, they fell into the fire …
And instantly landed on a soft bed of grass.
Amazingly, she and Joryn lay on the ground. Keelia felt as if she’d fallen a few feet, no more. How was that possible?
Keelia quickly regained her breath and sat up slowly. She and Joryn were surrounded by a collection of stunned and annoyed and amused people. No, not people, she realized as she looked at them. Spirits. Those who were dead but had not yet moved on.
One peaceful spirit smiled at her and nodded his head. He bowed to her, and when he lifted his head once again, she looked into his eyes and recognized the creature from the battle by the stream, the one who had fought for his soul. And won.
An older woman with long white hair and a well-lined, serene face approached. Keelia instantly knew that the fate of this one’s soul was not undecided, as many of the others were. There was a pure white glow about her that made Keelia smile. The older woman had come h
ere for the express purpose of speaking to Joryn. She’d been waiting for them to arrive.
Keelia reached around to touch the wings that had sprung from her back. Joryn caressed a feather that had sprouted in her hair, one of a few that were mingled with the red strands, and Keelia wondered what else about her had changed.
“Only the eyes,” Joryn answered, as if she had spoken aloud.
His eyes were drawn to the woman bathed in white, and he jumped to his feet. “Grandmother.”
The old woman smiled. “I’m simply Vala now. What was the Grandmother now resides in Druson. You must protect him.”
“Druson pushed Keelia over the edge. She might’ve been killed.”
“He knew she would not.” She shook her finger at Joryn like a censuring mother might. “You were told not to use this doorway. Things in your world are not as they should be. The dark magic which is at work in your world disrupts all energy, even that which creates these doorways.”
Here in this place, Keelia’s gifts were at full strength. It had been so long since she’d experienced a powerful rush of knowledge, she was stunned. How could she not have known months ago that her talents had been tainted?
Because she could now see so much of Joryn, Keelia knew what doorways the old woman spoke of. She also knew that Vala held the answers to many questions. Their time here was short, and she wanted as many of those answers as she could collect. Keelia scrambled to her feet, feathers and all.
Joryn smiled. “You scold me for using the doorway, and yet you are here to speak with me. It’s not as if I could allow Keelia to fall to her death.”
“She might’ve gained control of her wings,” Vala argued.
“Or not.”
Keelia hated to interrupt the easy banter, but she had too many questions to stand by and wait patiently. “I don’t understand any of this. Where did these wings come from?”
The old woman reached out and patted Keelia’s face. Her touch was peaceful. Heavenly and welcome. “They come from inside you. You see so much of others, and yet you do not see that which rests inside yourself. You have the power of all the creatures of the earth. They need only to be unlocked. Freed. Experienced.”
“But…”
“Joryn and Druson know the rest. They will tell you all that you need to know.” Vala turned her attention to Joryn. “The wizard is not dead.”
“I saw him die.”
“He is not dead. He will try to claim the Queen before the cycle of the full moon ends. You must stop him, Joryn, or else all is lost. Do not allow him to touch her. Do not allow his poison to infect the mountains we love. Now go, before you’re both trapped here. You’ll do the world no good resting in the land in-between.”
Joryn nodded. “Where will the doorway lead us?” Vala smiled. “As always, the doorway will open on the same place where you entered this world. That is as it must be.”
Keelia fluttered her new wings. They had entered this world in midair.
*
Druson held his breath as he watched. What if he was wrong? He didn’t think he was wrong, but what if he was? Behind him, Keelia’s mother screamed, and her father bellowed. They both ran to the edge after Joryn leapt into the air, but they did not follow. The large Anwyn grabbed Druson with large hands which would soon be paws. Druson was moments away from death, but he had no regrets. He’d done what needed to be done.
He glanced up into angry golden eyes. “Look,” he said softly. “Look, look, look.”
The old Queen was already watching, and it was her word that saved Druson from a quick death at massive Anwyn hands. “Wait.” A stilling hand came up, and Druson did not die.
The Anwyn and his mate looked over the edge and saw what Druson saw. The Queen sprouted wings, large wings that slowed her descent. The circle of fire appeared, and Joryn shaped his body in a fashion that allowed him to reach Keelia. He caught her, or she caught him, and they fell through the fire.
And disappeared, for the span of a heartbeat or two.
When they reappeared, the Queen’s wings were spread wide, and Joryn held on to her, in essence riding on her back as they glided into the valley below and landed.
It was time for the full moon transformation, for him and for the Anwyn pair beside him. Druson felt the shift begin. Unlike the Queen, they could not control the shifting from human to animal and back again. He managed to voice one warning before the change robbed his ability to speak.
“Tonight beware the black cat who wears metal at his throat.”
*
The ground rushed up quickly, but not dangerously so. Keelia did her best to control the wind with her wings, but flying was a skill she’d need to practice in order to perfect. Joryn’s weight on hter back did not help matters any, but this was the only way for the two of them to make it safely to solid ground.
She landed hard, and Joryn rolled off her back and away, shifting to mountain cat as he whirled across the grass.
Keelia did not shift. Her wings retracted, and she took a deep, calming breath. A moment later those wings were gone, though she suspected—no, she knew—that she could now call upon them as she called upon her claws. Falling, finding her wings, entering the world between life and death, speaking with the white witch who was no longer Grandmother, exiting that world with Joryn on her back, and making their way safety to the ground… it had all happened in a matter of minutes.. Perhaps two.
While she lay on the ground trying to catch her breath, the blond cat sauntered over to her and sniffed at her throat, then her hair, then her cheek. He only wanted to know that she was all right; she knew that as she reached out to stroke Joryn’s head.
“Now I understand why you’re afraid to make a child who might have your gift for fire. It isn’t simply fire at all.” Her fingers traced the streak of red in his fur. “That doorway can be dangerous if misused.”
Yes.
A child with such a gift would need intensive training, as well as constant supervision, until of a certain age.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” It would’ve made a few days of heartbreak much easier if she’d know Joryn’s reasoning for keeping his distance. “I suppose you didn’t trust me enough.” She continued to stroke his fur. Her feelings were not hurt by the revelation. Joryn had never been one to give his trust easily. The Grandmother was. likely the only person on this earth he’d ever truly trusted. Until now. He had not said so, but he did trust her.
“You leapt off a cliff after me,” she said softly. “What if the doorway hadn’t worked properly in the air?”
A chance I had to take.
She had offered Joryn her throat, and he had jumped off a cliff on the chance he might save her. Could anyone doubt that they were mated?
Keelia sat up quickly, disrupting Joryn’s position. “Is it possible that Maccus is not dead, as Vala and Druson said?” When she remembered how compliant his enchantment had made her, she shuddered. She didn’t want to lose herself again, ever. “He can’t possibly make it down the mountain as quickly as we did, but…” She looked into Joryn’s green eyes. “But my parents don’t have any idea what he’s capable of, and they’re directly in his path.”
She shifted instantly to red wolf. Perhaps she could transform herself to another, faster animal, but now was not the time to experiment with untested abilities. The wolf was still a very large part of her, and she needed it now. She looked into Joryn’s green cat eyes. We must hurry.
*
Maccus came across the three of them well past midnight. The red wolf, the insane black and gray cat, and a blond… wolf? Was the Queen’s magic so powerful that she could command her chosen mate to shift into the animal she called her own? He did not wish to be a wolf, but then once he had control of the Queen, she would do whatever he desired, as she would have no desires of her own other than to obey him.
The three animals seemed to be alert, and Maccus studied the situation with calculating eyes. He no longer had his soldiers to call upon for assis
tance. Those he’d kept close to him were dead, thanks to Joryn’s fire. Those who were far away from him, fighting the demon’s war, had been stripped of their powers and would find themselves weak and bewildered, soulless and dedicated to doing the demon’s work, but without Maccus’s direction.
He must take the Queen on his own.
Certain parts of the ritual to make her his bride must be followed, but all would not be precisely as he and the Isen Demon had planned. Keelia had destroyed the stone which had enchanted the half-transformed creatures, so he would not be in that enhanced state when he made her his bride. They could not be washed entirely in moonlight when the ceremony took place, as he would change into his feline form without his full power. No, the ceremony would have to take place when both moon and sun shone, and he maintained his human shape. How else was he to make his daughter?
But Keelia would wear the blood of her lover. That was required. It was necessary. Even if it were not required, he wanted to see the man who’d burned him suffer. Maccus studied the large blond wolf below, and then his eyes were drawn to the red wolf who would soon be his. At the moment, all three animals were very much on guard. He could see and sense their tension, their readiness. Three against one was not favorable odds, and Maccus had never been one to place himself in danger if it could be avoided.
The silver and gold medallion, all but ruined by the Queen and yet not entirely without power, hung from his neck. In the morning he would have full use of his magic, and he could take them at that time. Once he made the Queen his again, the others would be easy to take.
The black cat with metal at his throat settled down to watch and wait.
*
After much discussion, it was decided. Ariana and Sian would march to Arthes to heal Arik and send Sibyl and Bronsyn to safety; Merin and his men would descend upon Giro and his unholy army so that they would never reach the capital city; Sophie and her husband, Kane, would search for Liane and her lost children—the lost heirs to the throne.
Ariana wasn’t sure who had the toughest job ahead of them. Merin and his soldiers were prepared to fight, and their task was, perhaps, the most straightforward. Some of them would die, but they would die nobly and with purpose. She planned to rejoin them once her task of healing Emperor Arik was completed, so that she could tend soldiers and return battered gray and dark souls to those of Ciro’s Own who were captured. Healing was her most important gift in this war. It always had been.
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