by K. A. Linde
“To bring me back?”
“Cyrene, it’s me. It’s Ahlvie, the cheat and gambler and mendicant. The person who crossed the literal ocean with you. I was trying to protect you.”
Cyrene looked deep into Ahlvie’s bright gold eyes. She wanted to think that she could see into his soul and know who he was underneath. But he wasn’t Doma. He had no magic. He was just a human who could transform into one of Malysa’s beasts. He was an Indres. And she just couldn’t trust that it was her Ahlvie looking back and not a plant that Malysa had sent to get to her.
“I want to believe you.”
“I knew that you’d doubt me. But I can give you information on Malysa. I know some of what she’s planning. I know what she wants and where she is.”
“Unfortunately, we don’t know if what you tell us is true,” Cyrene said. “And, even if it is true, she might have wanted you to tell us that information so that she could lull us into a false sense of security.”
Ahlvie huffed and flopped back down onto the chair. The ropes he’d been in last night were shredded, just as Dean had predicted. “You’re right.”
“I am?”
“Yeah. You can’t trust me. I mean, I want you to.” He laughed uneasily. “But I wouldn’t trust me either. I just…Creator.” He tilted his head up to the ceiling. He looked so much like her Ahlvie that it hurt. “Malysa controlled the shift. I haven’t been able to shift back without her express command. She has this control over me so that I can turn to this killer that locks me up behind my own eyes. I have to watch as it takes over and does horrible things. Things I’d never do.”
Cyrene swallowed back the sadness and anger.
“But then I figured it out. Malysa said something that just clicked with me. She said that I couldn’t shift because I didn’t really want to. And, when I heard that you were here, well, I knew that I could take back control. I hadn’t known how to before. Once I realized I could, it just happened. Me back in control. The beast chained behind my eyes.” He looked haunted as he spoke the words.
“Could Malysa flip the beast back in control at any point?” Cyrene asked.
Dean shot her a look that said she’d clearly asked that question wrong. She’d asked it like what Ahlvie had said was truth. That he was in control and she was talking to him and not the beast.
Ahlvie looked at her hopefully. “I don’t know. I hope not. It’s horrible inside.”
Cyrene strode away from Ahlvie. She couldn’t look at him. Look at him and see her friend when she didn’t know how much of what he was saying was the truth and how much was a lie.
Dean came to her side and put a hand to her shoulder. “I can ask more questions if you’d like. I can handle the interrogation. It’s…it’s not my first.”
Cyrene winced at that, too. At the horrors Dean had had to endure in Domara. But she just shook her head.
“I don’t know if we can trust anything he says. Not without knowing for sure that Malysa can’t reach him. What we need is a way to ensure that the link is broken between him and Malysa. That the beast within stays a piece of Ahlvie and not the other way around.”
“Do you have any idea how to do that?”
A tear trickled down her cheek, and she brushed it aside. “No.”
Twenty-four hours dragged by. The slowest and one of the most excruciating days of her life. The waiting and wondering. Staring at Ahlvie. Avoiding Ahlvie. Trying to decide if he was betraying them or leading them astray.
More waiting.
More wondering.
By the time the Guild reappeared in the warehouse with the official all-clear, Cyrene thought she would go utterly mad if she was there another moment.
“Well?” she asked the Commander.
“As far as I can tell, it looks like he speaks the truth. There are Indres in the city, but they seem aimless without him. Nowhere near our side of the city. The Honorary and her lot still aren’t back from the sacred grounds. We intercepted a messenger that put more patrols out, looking for your description, but no one on their way here. No sign of this Wara…Braj.”
Cyrene breathed a sigh of relief. “That doesn’t mean that he’s telling the truth, but it’s a relief.”
“I also think it’s probably our cue to leave.”
Cyrene froze. “Truly?”
“We voted while you were visiting your sister. As much as we all agreed that there was much to do here in Kell, we’re hardly safe where we are. And there’s more that can be done.” The Commander looked off toward his troops standing in the shadows. “I said we’d all go or no one.”
“And they agreed to that?” she asked in disbelief.
“It proved that I stood with every one of them. In the end, we all agreed.” His gaze swept back to her. “We follow you, Domina.”
“How soon can we leave?”
He arched an eyebrow. “What do you think we’ve been doing the last day?”
“Of course.”
“Are you putting down your beast?”
She shook her head. “He’s coming with us. I have a plan.”
A lie. She had no plan. But she had a thought at least. And a thought could grow into something more.
“No, you don’t,” he said with a laugh.
“Okay, fine. Not a plan. But an idea.”
“You risk a lot for him.”
“He’d do the same for me if he were in full control of himself. He has many times before. I can’t abandon him. Just as you said that it’s all of your people or none of them, it’s the same for me. And he is one of mine.”
The Commander shot her a rare smile. “I can respect that.”
She held her hand out. And he reluctantly put his in hers.
“Thank you, Tristen.”
“Let’s just hope that your plan for us is just crazy enough to work.”
“Those are my best plans.”
He released her hand and arched an eyebrow. “Trust me, I know.”
Cyrene returned to Dean to tell him the good news. She looked over the shield around Ahlvie and wondered how she was going to make this mobile. They couldn’t exactly drop it and let him walk with them. Not if Malysa could still get to him. But Cyrene didn’t really want to knock him out and have someone carry him. That might be even more suspicious than him walking inside a shield no one could see.
“Where are we going?” Ahlvie asked.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t make me gag you.”
“How’s Avoca?” he finally asked.
Cyrene shuddered at the question. “Please stop talking.”
“That bad?”
“Ahlvie!” she snapped.
“Sorry. Sorry. But she’s my wife. And I almost killed her,” he muttered. “I was there. I stopped the thing inside me.”
“She knows,” Cyrene said as she worked her magic to ease the shield in tighter around him. Then she created some sort of tether with it. As if she were holding his arm in place, but it was just the shield. She passed it to Dean without comment and created another one.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“You have two options. Either you walk out of here between the two of us in that shield or I let Dean knock you out again.”
Ahlvie glanced at Dean. “Uh, the first option. Yeah, definitely option number one. Can I walk in this thing?” He stepped forward. “More of a stutter. I look kind of drunk.”
“So then, you should have no trouble.”
He smirked at Cyrene, and she saw the raw quality of her friend there in those eyes. She hastily looked away. She didn’t want to let him get to her. Not if she had to ready herself to…stop him if she had to.
The Commander took one look at the arrangement she had made and shook his head. “Don’t let him slow you down.”
She nodded once and then forced all three of them together as one. It probably wasn’t the smartest move on her part, but she wanted to figure out how to save Ahlvie. One way or another, she was determined to do it.
With the Commander’s Guild scouting, the way through the streets of Alba and up toward the Drop Pass was much smoother than the last time she had made her grand escape. Large fur-lined cloaks were passed out from a shelter before they moved up the mountain. Even in summer, the Pass was cold, not frozen like the Haeven Mountains, but with snow still on the ground, it was much colder.
Farther and farther, they moved up the mountains until they reached the slope that Cyrene remembered leading up to the Black Mountain. She could see that many of them looked uncomfortable, veering toward that mountain. It hadn’t gotten the name the Black Mountain of Death for nothing.
Long ago, dragons had lived within it and stories were made up about the haunted mountain the Pass that led between Alba and Yarrow on the other side. She’d been nervous about the Pass being haunted and possible ghosts. But it was just stories that gave an explanation for the dragons that had once lived there.
When they had reached the Black Mountain last time, all they had found was Mikel fast asleep for two thousand years. The mountain had been impenetrable, and he’d been trapped. Now, he was gone. Along with so many others. But dragons had returned to the Pass. Sarielle and Halcyon were waiting within its depths.
Cyrene led the way into the sanctuary. And the murmurs of fear were replaced with awe. The great halls of the Society were impressive. The dragons even more so. But they weren’t here for that.
“This way,” she told the Commander.
They followed her down a hall to the darkened portal.
Dean passed her the coin with a smile. “Light it up.”
She wove her magic together, focusing on the use of all four elements at once. Then she touched the portal door. At first, nothing happened. Then the outside of the portal began to shimmer with the words of the Doma and the Society twined together. Once all the words were lit up, the center of the portal turned into an iridescent pool as if it were made of liquid.
She switched the portal key to Tenchala and then opened it on the other side. There had been surprise from turning the portal on but nothing compared to the Guild members seeing the Sand Plains of Tenchala through the doorway.
“Someone should be waiting there for you,” Cyrene explained. “The army is camped on the eastern bank of the Huyek River, across from the capital of Aurum. It’s not too far from Tenchala.”
The Commander’s eyes were wide. “That is the Sand Plains?”
“Yes.”
“Wow.”
She grinned. “Good luck, Commander.”
“Where do you go from here?” he asked.
“To pick up a friend.”
“And the beast?”
“Is no longer your concern. Though…I would be careful not to mention it in the camp. Many people there care for him, and I don’t want anyone to worry more than they already are.”
The Commander nodded. “I think we’ll have enough to keep us busy. First, find Gwynora.”
“Yes, Gwynora. She’ll get you all set up. I’ll be there soon.”
“Farewell but not good-bye, Domina.”
Then he was striding through the portal with Haeven close on his heels. The rest of the Guild followed as if they feared nothing. It would do her army some good to see such confidence. She couldn’t wait to return and bring it all together finally.
“What are we going to do about Ahlvie?” Dean asked when the portal finally closed behind them.
She strode back out of the portal room toward Sarielle and Halcyon. “We’re going to find out if we can save him.”
“And how are you going to do that?” Dean asked.
She looked from Ahlvie to Sarielle and back. “With spirit. And a whole lot of luck.”
38
The Trance
Ahlvie shook out his hands. “Okay, okay. I’m ready. Is this going to hurt? Because I’m okay with that. Just want to prepare myself.”
“Do shut up,” Cyrene grumbled.
“Can I have a drink before we do this?”
She glared at him. “I really thought that I’d missed you.”
He cracked a smile. “So, I’ll take it, that’s a solid maybe?”
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Dean asked. He stared at the pair of them like they had just sprung a second head.
“No,” she admitted.
It will be perfectly fine, Sarielle assured them
Easy for you to say, Halcyon sarcastically butted in. You’re not risking your life.
Cyrene had realized that, while Halcyon was much quieter than Sarielle, he only interjected with thick sarcasm and condescension. It was amazing that he worked so well with Dean. Except that they seemed to have matching tones for this particular feat she was attempting.
“Can’t Malysa reach you through your spirit magic?” Dean asked.
“She used to be able to,” Cyrene said. “But not with Sarielle.”
“She did when you were linked with Vera.”
“Yes, but that was Vera’s weakness. Not my own.”
He arched an eyebrow. “And linking with Ahlvie is different how?”
“Ahlvie doesn’t have magic. I’m not technically linking with him. I’m just…connecting with his conscious.”
“That’s reassuring,” Dean said dryly.
I will watch out for my soul sister. Do not fear.
“How will I be able to pull you out if something goes wrong?”
Cyrene looked to Sarielle. She’d never had anyone around to actually pull her out of a dream. She didn’t even know if it was possible.
You cannot, Sarielle told him. But I know what to look for this time. Last time, it was an invasion. She had cut me off from her before I knew what was happening. She will not get through a second time.
Dean sighed.
“You heard the dragon,” Cyrene told him. “Now, everyone, stop talking. I need to concentrate.”
“Yeah, she needs to concentrate,” Ahlvie boasted.
Cyrene narrowed her eyes at him. She actually had missed him. Even if he was a ridiculous fool, he was her fool.
“Right. I’m shutting up,” Ahlvie said.
Cyrene had never done anything like this before. But she couldn’t let her nerves show. Especially since Dean was right. He had every reason to worry. Malysa had gotten into her dreams and attacked her the last time she tried anything remotely like this. She had activated Cyrene’s own blood magic with a glance. She’d been out of commission for a full day, and she couldn’t possibly afford that again.
Furthermore, she had never connected with another conscious on the spiritual plane that wasn’t already there. Serafina existed in the other realm. Vera had gone here with her. Malysa had sought her out. And it was only the fact that Malysa had been able to find her in the dream state at all that she thought it possible for her to find Ahlvie.
Cyrene settled her mind, finding that calm that she had so lacked while trying to learn her magic. Then she placed her hands on Ahlvie, sliding easily through the shield and to his shoulders where he lay on the ground.
For a moment, she felt nothing.
Then she pushed past the shield to Ahlvie’s existence beyond.
She had done this part before. When Kael had been teaching her to enter minds, to change and control them, she had been able to do it then. But it had always felt like an invasion since then. As when Kael had entered her mind in Tiek. But this…this was nothing like that. Ahlvie had consented to her entering his mind. There was no resistance. Just total openness, and then she was inside.
She floated through a myriad of thoughts and feelings and wandering emotions. Then she settled his mind until everything felt more still. With a move forward, she put him under and felt him slip into a trance state.
Holding on to that feeling of almost sleep, she reached out for her link with Sarielle. They connected as easily as breathing. Her magic sang to the tune of Sarielle’s.
Good luck, Domina, Sarielle said against her mind. I will guard you from here.
; “I know you will.”
Then Cyrene pushed forward with her spirit magic until she felt the viscosity of the spiritual plane barrier under her fingers. She pressed through the liquid, and in the next second, she was there.
She took a moment to orient herself. Bringing up the first place that came to mind—the rose gardens in Byern.
Everything was in full bloom. Roses of every color decorated the enclosure as it had when she went through her Presenting and then through her own rose garden ceremony. The very ceremony that had bound her to her home. Something that had snapped since. But she still loved and admired this great garden and what it had once meant to her.
She took a deep breath. This was the tricky part.
She put her fingers to the diamond at her throat. She was the Domina now. She might not have trained for this, but she had earned it all the same. She could do this. She knew that she could.
With all the concentration she possessed, she reached out through the plane. Scoured it for the mind that she was looking for. Not just waiting to call a person already in the spirit, but reaching in and pulling them through, too.
“Ahlvie,” she whispered, hoping her voice would draw him to her.
It did not.
She focused then on the essence of Ahlvie. The funny, lighthearted cheat that she had grown to admire. The wicked swordsman who had grown up in Fen. Who had completed their Lone Wolves ceremony, become a High Order, and trusted her implicitly. The man who had tried to sell her to help get them out of Byern. And who had fallen in love with Avoca on sight. The person who had only taken two things seriously—his love for Avoca and Cyrene’s mission.
Ahlvie wasn’t the beast. And the beast wasn’t Ahlvie. They were just two sides of a coin. Not the totality.
And, as she concentrated, a body began to materialize in the gardens before her. She grinned as Ahlvie appeared, even with his once-brown eyes. But then she shuddered back a step in shock as a second form took shape.
A giant wolflike creature with razor-sharp fangs and menacing gold eyes.
The Indres within.
