One Thousand Kisses

by One Thousand Kisses

  Had the agent mistaken their noises for gnomes or had she noticed something else?

  Ani checked for swaying weeds and red hats. Nothing. Embor offered his arm so she could stand. Upon rising, she inhaled but didn’t detect the characteristic odor. Nasty little beasts.

  “She could still recall her sibs. I only froze one.” Embor’s whisper sounded pained, but he pressed her hand between his arm and body. “We have to move.”

  The cat’s haunches quivered. Again, Ani pulled Embor behind the pylon just in time.

  Master Fey sprinted through the tall grasses in the outer circle. The agent shouted something about death to gnomes before the bitter flavor of stone, an earth magic Ani hadn’t mastered, gusted past them.

  Had the agent hit the cat? Ani sidled to the edge of the pylon. No, there was Master Fey, bounding above the sparse grass between the perimeters. He released an ear-splitting yowl before disappearing again.

  The agent lowered a spell globe. “By Hella. You again?”

  “What’s he doing?” Embor hissed.

  “Can’t tell.” She swayed, unbalanced by her stance.

  Embor wrapped an arm around her. She couldn’t see the cat until he tore into the inner ring. Why was he doing this? Pyrite clattered as he raced past the agent, his hair fluffed like a badger. The fairy twisted to watch him.

  “I can’t send you through again, Hairy Man,” she said. “We got written up.”

  The cat cast a wild-eyed glance at the agent and scrabbled through the opposite circumference. It was almost like he was running in place on the rocks that delimited the inner ring. Markers scattered like dice.

  “Come on, don’t do that. If I can… And he’s gone.” The agent scratched her head. “I’ll never understand cats.”

  Ani strengthened her night vision but couldn’t see the cat. The ring agent began to straighten markers. Ani inched behind the pillar.

  “What do you think she meant about sending him through?” she whispered to Embor.

  His bicep tensed beneath her fingers as he hefted the backpack. “Cats don’t use rings.”

  Perhaps this one did. She’d grown fond of him even though he was a turmoil magnet. She leaned against Embor, his warmth welcome, and fretted.

  “If there are gnomes, we can’t leave him.” In addition to fairies, gnomes loved to eat cats. Anything with flesh and magic was fair game. The only things that stopped them in the Realm were freeze magic and stone magic.

  “He can take care of himself.” Embor’s tone was clipped. Annoyed. With her or the cat? “He said he’d done his part. Perhaps he doesn’t intend to come with us.”

  Ani thought differently. When Master Fey had confessed he wanted the Torvals to pay, his mindspeech had been venomous. In fact, he reminded her of Embor in that small way.

  Two ways, really. Neither of them liked to talk.

  She opened her mind on the wavelength the cat used to communicate. Master Fey, are you all right? Please come back.

  No sounds in the night. Until she heard the snarl.

  It was tiny, vibrato and non-feline. It turned her blood cold in a way that had nothing to do with the weather, nothing to do with her memory of Warran’s and Ophelia’s magic.

  Gnome.

  Every Fey, no matter their station or species, was taught to recognize a gnome attack. Embor shoved her behind him. The rucksack knocked her against the pylon. To their right, grass rustled.

  “Cat, when you disorder the ring,” she heard the agent complain, “it knocks the conduit out of whack. Somebody could land in the… Son of a sevensie!”

  “Fairy!” yelled a tiny voice, followed by many more.

  “Fairy! Fairy! Fairy!” Red hats popped above the scrub as a pack of gnomes leapt on one another, rushing forward. Panic erased Ani’s post-healing lethargy like a bomb going off in her synapses. She grabbed the freeze globe in her pocket, and Embor blazed with heat.

  Did he expect to burn them? Fire magic didn’t stop gnomes when they were hungry.

  Gnomes were always hungry.

  More grass rippled as the gnomes swarmed. Ani wanted to scream and run, what sensible fairies did when they couldn’t transport away from an attack, but Embor had pinned her against the pylon.

  The ring agent cursed. A piercing alarm sounded.

  “Transport us out of here,” she yelled at Embor.

  “We have to get through this ring before we lose our chance.”

  Where was the cat? She tried to drag Embor around the pylon. “The ring is protected, right? It’s safer than here.”

  “If we rush in, the agent will lock it down.”

  The agent, over the alarm and the snarling, heard them. “Bart, is that you? Get your butt over here.”

  But the movement of grass, the red hats, the snarls—they didn’t converge on the ring. The gnomes had no interest in the solitary agent, the one with five sibs and limited power.

  They headed straight for Ani and Embor.

  Gnomes. Why did it have to be gnomes?

  Embor reached for shield magic, but this soon after draining himself, he couldn’t hold on to it. Couldn’t convert it. The Realm’s natural magic was an ocean of power—amorphous and unrefined.

  Other magic, though, half-cast or accumulated magic, he could use. Globes. Repositories. The globes in his survival supplies withered as he pulled. Pain flared in his jaw when the emergency spell implanted as a molar disappeared as well.

  “My freeze globe melted,” Ani exclaimed. “Are you pulling incipient magic?”

  “It’s easier.” He wrenched at the sources around them. The alarm shut off abruptly. His defensive shield flared to life just as the first gnomes burst through the grass, claws outstretched.

  The largest gnomes were knee-high. A few of the little bastards could kill an adult fairy if that fairy were immobilized. If that fairy were unable to cast spells, to run, to fight.

  A few could rip his flesh to shreds. A few could suck him dry of magic until his brain cracked.

  This time Embor wasn’t restrained in a cell, writhing in pain. He wasn’t in humanspace, cut off from magic and succor. These creatures wouldn’t lay a single claw on Anisette if he had to brownout the entire district of Cragen to defend her.

  “What in the Realm is going on?” the ring agent exclaimed.

  Gnomes flooded out of the grass, smashing against Embor’s wards with shrieks and hisses. Most had red hats and primitive animal-skin clothing. Hunger and frustration twisted their humanoid features. A few rat-like skitters darted toward the ring, swerving clear of the standing stones.

  “Crawl back under your rock, you flippin’ rodents.” Magic flared behind Embor and Ani as the ring agent chucked spell globes.

  Embor didn’t have the strength to maintain the shield long, and incipient magic here was limited. His body and mind only cooperated on sufferance. Already a nearby standing stone groaned as he tapped it. The agent and her sibs were better equipped to fend off gnomes, but he had no way to explain his presence and had dusted his mindwipe globes to establish the shield.

  He wasn’t sure how he was going to manage this before the agent locked down the ring. The AOC, corruption aside, trained employees rigorously before allotting them a station. If only the AOC had remained dedicated to their original purpose.

  The fairy lights atop the monoliths sputtered out. Anisette wriggled behind him. Gnomes clambered up his shield, so he reinforced the overhead sector.

  One of the standing stones cracked with a violent pop.

  “What was that?” Anisette whispered.

  “Bart, you ass, you’d better not have another rifle.” The woman’s voice was closer. If she waded into the fray to rescue her sibling…

  Someone from the guardhouse yelled back. “I don’t have a gun.”

  Was that the sleeping man Embor had used the freeze globe on? Damn. Thawed so soon?

  “If you’re at the house, who’re the gnomes after?”

  “That cat, I bet. Come on, there�
��s too many. Gotta call the others.”

  “Fey cat, you’d better come to the house.” The agent’s footsteps slapped across the ground and faded.

  “The ring’s clear.” Anisette’s cool hand gripped his wrist.

  “Can’t move the ward.” Embor gritted his teeth. An ancient pillar labored and broke. Pieces hit the ground like thunder, unfortunately not on top of any gnomes.

  “Drop it.” Anisette tugged. “We’ll run.”

  “Won’t make it.” Gnomes were fast. If he dissolved the shield, they’d swarm like bees. They were cut off, gnomes eight- or nine-deep. Climbing the pylon. Surging over each other and battering the wards.

  “Transport us there.”

  “Too weak.” He’d pass out again and fall into the blackness. Then who’d defend Anisette? Not the blasted cat, that was for certain.

  His palms and fingers began to itch. Redness hazed his vision. He wanted to kill gnomes with his bare hands for their presumption, their wrongness. They’d ruined everything. Why were the vermin even here? Ring zones were supposed to be cleansed.

  He couldn’t transport. He couldn’t hold the shield. He had to face the face that he, one of the strongest fairies in the Realm, had run out of power.

  He needed help.

  Anisette’s hand shifted to his neck, her touch light and sensuous. For a moment she caressed him. His shield wavered as surprise overtook him.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Infusion.” She circled him, fingers checking his pulse, reading his energies.

  What else could she see? “You can’t do it again. You’re worn out.”

  “I’ll be careful.” One finger stopped his lips. Her eyes were huge in the darkness, her scent smoky and floral at the same time. “You’ve got a deficit bigger than the Bay, and you’re ten seconds from browning yourself out.” She smiled tremulously. “I’ve got closer to ten minutes.”

  An enticing sensation trickled into him as she lent him energy. Cool and delicate, different from his own hot power. Healers had infused him in the past, but the intimacy of her magic entering his body shook him to the core.

  After they bonded, she’d always be part of him. She’d always support him, calm him, cleanse him.

  By the spirits, he had to touch her. He framed her face with his hands and lowered his mouth to hers.

  Instantly the power she’d been feeding him swelled to a rush. He grabbed her hips and thrust his tongue inside her, tasting her sweetness for the first time.

  A bad time. A terrible time. But so delicious.

  Sparks shot between them, a mutual infusion of lust. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed against him. Something inside him began to glow.

  He knew it for what it was—the glimmerings of a bond—and wrenched away.

  Her soft lips moved against his neck. “Better?”

  He cleared his throat. Had she noticed? His cock had hardened, and eagerness trembled through him. Could this be any more ridiculous?

  It could if it ruined their chance of escape. The snarls of angry gnomes quieted as he tightened his wards. The second infusion increased their options, even as the kiss decreased his.

  Every time he touched her, he wanted to make love to her immediately, without waiting for the perfect moment.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  For a blinding moment, she smiled, giving him another gift he didn’t deserve. Then her knees buckled, and he caught her against his chest.

  “That took a lot out of me.” She wound her arms around his neck. She touched his hair. “Embor, I…I think we should stay and face the Torval Elders.”

  “I know.” The wise, political choice would be to contact Skythia, hoping she’d protected herself against spirit magic. But he couldn’t lose this. Wasn’t wasting this opportunity. He had information regarding his enemy’s location, and he intended to make use of it.

  “I sense a but.”

  “We’re going anyway.” Her power swam through his veins, soothing and cool. Before she could protest, he scooped her into his arms. The gnomes might latch onto him, but by Ka, they wouldn’t touch her. “As soon as we cross into humanspace, run. I’ll take care of stragglers.” Gnomes weren’t as resilient away from the Realm as they were in it.

  “Put me down.” She gazed fearfully at the wall of gnomes. “I can run.”

  He wasn’t as sure after two infusions. But it didn’t matter.

  “We’re not running.” He dropped the wards. Gnomes trying to climb the shield tumbled to the ground. One landed on his shoulder and sank its claws in.

  Anisette screamed. A mass howl rose around them, but Embor was already in motion.

  Teeth ripped into his calf. He kicked, focused his borrowed power and transported them into the ring before the vermin even realized their prey had disappeared.

  Anisette smacked at the gnome clawing his head and shoulders. “Go away, go away, you terrible…little…beast!”

  He stamped one near his feet. Skitter. The creature on his leg sucked power from him more rapidly than anticipated, but he couldn’t stop now. He’d kill it on the other side.

  Em? queried Skythia’s mind-voice. Where in the hells are you? What’s going on?

  Skythia’d found him without the shield. He and Anisette had to cross over immediately. He reached for the magic to deliver them to humanspace…

  It slipped away, into the gnome’s maw. Its spiteful, satisfied buzz rattled his bones.

  Is this some kind of premarital honeymoon? I know you haven’t bonded, Skythia complained. You’re not doing us any favors. Tell me where you are.

  Serendipity, he lied, smothering his pain. Had the Torvals gotten to her? Too hard to discern. He couldn’t risk telling her anything. Busy now.

  Stay. I’ll come to you. They’re crying for your blood. I’m thinking we go public with the prophecy and get your ass married. That should appease some of the haters.

  He ignored her. Anisette struggled in his arms, grabbing the gnome. It snarled and buried its teeth into her hand.

  Her shriek nearly sent Embor to his knees. Black earth power burst from her, and pain scalded his wounds so harshly he fell. Anisette rolled free. The pack rushed them en masse, unhindered by wards, shields or any of the protective measures that were supposed to be around ring sites.

  Anisette flung the gnome. It landed outside the small markers and rolled to a stop, where it lay unmoving. The pack closed in, slavering for blood.

  “Transport us,” he croaked. His mouth, his magic, had dried up like powder. Blackness edged his vision. He couldn’t hold off Skythia’s probe. “Hurry.”

  The gnome on his leg released him. Blood streamed down its chin. It pulsed with the magic it had stolen. Insatiable, it darted toward Anisette.

  Embor raised onto an elbow, trying to stop it, but it had taken too much from his weakened body.

  Anisette grabbed the gnome, and blackness flared again. What was she casting, agony? The vermin uttered an inhuman shriek and spasmed. Weird, tainted magic flushed from its body in a hiss. Running toward the onrushing pack, Anisette hurled the body at them like a shot put.

  It bowled the front line of gnomes over. The pack slowed, hesitated. Sniffed their comrade.

  No agony spell he knew, no agony spell any Court healer knew, could render a gnome unconscious, much less kill one. What had she done?

  And could she teach him?

  She was magnificient. Power fluttered around her hands and arms in a visible miasma. A smear of blood—his, he thought—decorated her cheek. Her beautiful face contorted as the pain rebounded on her.

  A weight landed on Embor’s midriff, claws ripping his belly. He cursed and fumbled, trying to keep the gnome from his throat. His hands encountered silky fur, small bones. It was the damned cat—who promptly bit him on the chin.

  The pack’s heads lifted as one and focused on the cat before they bounded forward. As if on cue, all five agents burst from the guardhouse.

  “Who goes the
re? Stop!”

  Closure magic gathered around the ring. Constricted.

  Now! The cat yowled so loudly even Embor heard it.

  Anisette, barely ahead of the pack, barely ahead of the tightening, skidded toward him. She fell across him and the cat, and then they were no longer in the Realm.

  Chapter Eleven

  She woke on a dark, deserted beach. Thousands of stars. Big moon. Sand cushioned her, but Ani felt like she’d belly flopped into granite. Her bones ached. She hovered near wakefulness, memories flickering like an old candle.

  When she’d transported everyone, she hadn’t had time to sync her spell with the ring and hadn’t been sure how they’d land. But she wasn’t alone. The boom and crash of the surf couldn’t hide a familiar grumble.

  She sat up, head muzzy. “Embor?”

  His body sprawled nearby. When she spoke, he rolled onto his side. Sand coated his cheek. “I hate humanspace.”

  Her mouth tasted foul, but any shakiness from her magical outlay was gone. They must have been asleep awhile. “How long have we been here?”

  “No idea.” He crawled to her. Blood spattered his tunic. “It’s still night.”

  “How are you feeling?” In humanspace, she had no magic to repair the damage done to him—or that he’d done to himself. Energy globe dependence had an ugly recovery phase.

  “Surprisingly terrible.”

  “I imagine so.” Of all the people in the Realm, she’d never have thought Embor Fiertag would have gotten himself hooked on globes. At the same time, he was so stubborn, she wasn’t that shocked. “Headache? Irritability? Intermittent tremors?”

  Goodness, if he didn’t manifest any tremors, she’d never know the difference.

  He raised an eyebrow. “I feel like a gnome chewed my leg and I crashed on a beach.”

  “Wash your cuts in the ocean.” She’d do the same with the bite on her hand. “Salt water is a venom deterrent.”

  He rolled to his feet. “We should go soon. It’s possible they’ll look for us.”

  “The gnomes?” Ani tried to push herself up. Sand crunched under her body.

  “The agents. It will take time to get authorization, but they’ll get it.” He helped her stand, his grip steady. He’d rebounded more than she would have thought, unless he was faking. In the Realm, a stiff upper lip couldn’t fool a healer.