Funny, I would have said in the past that Darcy was my best friend. In fact, I always had. Even after she slept with Steve. Because she was a lion, and a part of my pride, and that meant we stood by each other. But this friendship with Lila felt more real than any relationship with any of my pride.
It should have bothered me, but the thought of Lila as part of a new pride that only she and I shared made me smile. I trotted over to where Maks stood beside Balder. I didn’t ask, just jumped, and he caught me. His thick coat was layered with wool and a waterproof overcoat. I had no shame left to me.
I crawled up over his neck and then went straight down inside the front of his coat, turning until my head poked out the top. The heat from his body seeped into my own and my eyes slammed shut, fatigue hitting me like a blow from one of the gorcs. Around his neck, he wore a gold chain, the thick links warm from his body. I settled it under my front legs and it kept me from sliding farther into his coat.
“Don’t shift while you’re in my coat, you’ll rip it,” Maks said as he swung onto Balder’s back. I smiled and turned my head down under the top of his coat, darkness covering me. Breath after breath, my heart rate slowed and the smell of Maks that was uniquely his filled my lungs. Desert, he smelled like the desert, and maybe I’d always picked up on that, the desert and flowing fresh water, a river, a place of safety from the heat of the land I loved.
Home. He smelled like home and I wanted to stay there.
The motion of Balder’s steps, the warmth from Maks, and I fell asleep feeling safer than I had in a very long time.
What I hadn’t counted on was the dreams. Or that Ish would be waiting for me within them.
I stared, the scene before me fading in and out for a moment before I realized I stood in Ish’s private study. The flames of her fireplace were nothing but coals and she sat in her favorite chair, her head in her hands.
“What have I done? Zamira, Zamira, forgive me. I tried to save you, my daughter.” She whispered the words while rocking in place.
I said nothing, feeling the truth of the dream for what it was. A vision that I needed to see in order to understand what was going on.
I held my tongue as a knock came on the door. “My lady, there are two satyrs here who beg to speak to you. They come at the behest of Zamira.”
Ish’s head snapped up and the tracks the tears had left on her skin were clearly visible. What did I believe? A sobbing woman who grieved what she believed was my death, or what had happened to me where I’d felt her power push me toward a suicidal act?
There were two other voices who’d commanded me, using me. Who they were was the question I couldn’t answer. But perhaps seeing this would help.
I held still as Marcel and Stella were ushered in. Marcel didn’t wait. He launched into the story of the Jinn attacking them and taking Kiara, and how I’d asked them to deliver the message in the hopes that she might do something.
“She wished to save Kiara?” Ish frowned and shook her head. “She went after her brother, did she not?”
Marcel shrugged. “I think so. But she said you were the only one who could do anything to stop the Jinn who had the girl. That you were the only one strong enough.”
I was impressed that he hadn’t offered to flounce Ish once during the whole conversation. Then again, Stella looked to have a death grip on the back of his arm.
Ish slumped. “If I leave the Stockyards now, all will be lost. Kiara must survive on her own if she is to survive at all. Thank you for your message. You may stay and refresh yourselves for the night, but no longer. I cannot guarantee your safety here.”
Stella took a step forward. “My mother told me of you. Ishtar, Goddess of the Lions, Destroyer of the Land. What are you doing? Is it your fault that our world is dying? Your fault the emperor sleeps when he could be making our land great again?”
Ishtar? Was that her full name? It tweaked something in my memory, a story my father had told me, but I couldn’t quite grasp it.
Ish’s eyes narrowed as did my own at the not so thinly veiled insults. “You know not of what you speak. The Emperor is a truffle-headed fool with more power than any creature should have.”
Marcel stared at Stella like she’d sprouted a second head. “Yeah, so you can go your way. I don’t want to go with you. I’m not an emperorist.”
Stella shook him. “You got Rev killed. You’re going to give me a child.”
I wanted to save him, but I needn’t have worried. Ish snapped her fingers and then pointed one at Stella, her power reverberating through to me even though I stood there in spirit. The curl of power that wrapped Stella made the satyr female squeak and piss trickled down her legs, dripping on the floor. Ish’s voice rumbled deeply, making my chest shake. “Go and leave him.”
Stella dropped her hand from Marcel, spun on her goaty little hooves, kicked out once and then scurried from the room.
“Thank you, Holy Goddess, if that’s who you are, thank you.” Marcel dropped to his knees in front of her. “Thank you.”
The room wavered and swayed as I was being pulled from it. But why had I seen it at all? I was no dream walker, which meant someone wanted me to see this scene.
Ishtar, was that really who she was? Why would she lie all this time then? I would not have thought any differently of her. Would I?
The dream faded, and I tried to hang onto it if only to make sure Marcel would be safe. Damn it, I liked him too much.
I strained against the bonds pulling me back, Maks’s voice the largest part of it. I stared into the darkness as the door to Ish’s inner sanctum opened and in swept a man I knew.
Merlin. I might have breathed his name. He turned, touched his fingers to his head acknowledging me, and then the bastard had the nerve to wink. He fucking well winked at me as I slid away from the scene. But I heard his words loud and clear.
“Ishtar, my old friend, we have things we must discuss.”
“Merlin, you bastard.” Ish lifted a hand to him and the scene was gone, flashed away in the touch of Maks’s hand on top of my head, calling me back to the land of the living. I fought the call of his touch, and the way it pulled me from the deep healing sleep. I wanted to stay where I was pressed against his body, safe and warm, breathing him in and knowing that for the moment nothing could touch me. That the dreams were just that—only dreams.
“Zam,” his voice had an edge to it that made me shiver despite the warmth between us, “I need you to wake up. We have a rather large problem.”
Why was I not surprised?
Chapter 16
Merlin smiled at Ish despite the harsh words she threw at him in her chamber at the Stockyards. Around her, he could see the dancing colors, the different stones she’d collected over the years bringing her back a measure of her previous power. But she was not there yet.
“Well, I should have stayed after that last visit, I agree. It’s not nice to flounce and run, don’t you think, Marcel?” He turned his eyes to the satyr still on his knees. The young supe stared up at him.
“You flounced her and. . . left her?”
Merlin shrugged. “I was young and stupid.”
“It looks like you’re old and stupid now,” Marcel muttered.
Merlin laughed. Satyrs were always good for a laugh if nothing else. “Fair enough. But. . .” he turned to Ishtar, “I came with a far more important thing to discuss than any previous relationship we might have had.”
“It was hardly that.” Ish’s tone was dry, and she’d pulled herself back together after the initial shock of seeing him, he could tell. She was a hard one to crack and flouncing her had been a bad idea all those years ago. And a large part of the reason why he didn’t want Flora with him now.
“Fair enough. A single night of passion then between young hearts.” He tipped his head to her and just caught the roll of her eyes.
“What are you doing here, Merlin? I doubt it’s to reminisce about the days of old.” She moved to her chair and sat, lowering h
erself with the grace of a queen bred and born to her position.
“We need to discuss the Emperor. He is waking.”
Marcel gave a strangled tiny goat cry before he slapped his hands over his mouth. Merlin didn’t spare him a glance but instead kept his eyes locked on Ish. “I cannot stop him, Ishtar, Queen of the Desert.”
She closed her eyes. “Merlin, you stripped me of my power, stole my jewels and gave them to others, and now you wish me to stop your father?”
Marcel let out a big breath and then there was a thump indicating he’d fallen over. But again, Merlin didn’t dare glance to the side.
“You can’t stop him any more than I can,” he said.
Her eyes flew to his. “You think me weak?”
“I think you know as well as I do that there is only one way to end his life, and there is no way that you or I can do it. We have not the skills, nor the heart.”
She covered her face with her hands. “Do not ask me to sacrifice her, Merlin. The jewels are already fighting me. They have been held too long by maniacs, by those who are cruel.”
He snorted. “And they got that from you, Ishtar. You were the maniac. That is why we, as a group, decided to take the jewels from you. That and we needed them to put him to sleep.” He slapped his hand on a table. “When we stripped you of your power, your humility saved you. Now you would throw it away for power again?”
He knew that she’d started by gathering the last of the lions to her, drawing strength from them. They were her spirit animal, always had been, and when the Jinn had nearly wiped them out, she’d gone hunting for what was left of the prides.
She drew a breath. “I am not sending Zamira against the Emperor.”
“She has already broken the hold on one part of the wall, Ish.” He crouched in front of her. “She will break the middling part too, I am sure of it. She is the Wall Breaker.”
“Against the dragons? You are insane. She’s small and weak and no match for their strength! I tried to bring her back to me, but someone told her she could do it. Someone told her that she could kill all the gorcs if she found her power!” Her eyes were wild with emotion, mostly fear. She loved Zamira. He could see it in her.
Flora, it had to be Flora who’d encouraged Zam to fight. That was her way, just like her granddaughter. Leap into the deep end and fight your way out.
“Is she alive?”
“She is,” Ish said softly. “Though I do not know for how long.”
“Marsum just tried to kill her, if I am reading the signs correctly,” he said.
She let out a soft cry. “He has found her then. He knows she lives.” Ishtar shook her head and covered her face with her hands. “I. . . the jewel from the giants, it has done something to me. Their hatred of her is filling me like nothing else. I don’t understand. It is not safe for her to come home to me.”
Merlin sighed and held his hand out. “Give it to me then. If you cannot hold it without trying to kill her, give it to me.”
“Better that she be dead than facing the Emperor,” she snarled.
Merlin took a step back, feeling the power rushing up through Ishtar’s body. He could see the different gemstones she held glowing lightly, and it was then he realized that she’d taken them into herself. She’d swallowed them whole.
“Ishtar,” he whispered her name, “do not do this. We still need you.”
The power rolled around her, and he knew there would be no getting through to her now. There was too much fear, too much shame, and too much strength given to her from the jewels that had held her original power for so many years. Twisted by the creatures that had handled them, they’d absorbed the darkness within the world.
And now that darkness was echoing every ugly thought she had, and she did not have the heart to fight it.
He took a step back and grabbed the satyr by the arm. “I leave you then, Ishtar, to your plans, whatever they might be.”
She drew a breath, and he yanked the satyr up and bolted from the room as Ishtar began to chant behind them.
He could have blocked her, but he was still hoping to avoid using his power. The taste and flavor of his magic would be like a gong to the Emperor. A gong that would break through the last of his deeply spelled sleep.
As he and the satyr raced through the Stockyards, he yelled at those they encountered. “Go! Ish has lost her mind and will kill you all.”
The bleating of animals, the cries of the people, it was the Reckoning all over again. Merlin felt it under his skin and it drove him to run faster even as he could feel his own power welling up, preparing to protect him.
This had been his worst idea yet, and that was saying something. He’d had a lot of bad ideas in his lifetime.
He scrambled up onto his horse and booted it into a gallop. The satyr stayed glued to his side, running flat out.
Behind them the ground rumbled and an explosion rent the air.
There was nothing left of the kindhearted woman who welcomed the destitute into the Stockyards. She was gone.
There was only Ishtar, Queen of the Desert, first consort to the Emperor.
He bowed his head. “There will be no hiding now.”
“Then I’m going to find Zam,” Marcel said. “She’s got a knack for staying alive.”
Merlin glanced at the young supe, nodding. “Yes, I think we should both find Zam.”
Chapter 17
Maks’s fingertips ran along the top of my head between my ears and I couldn’t help but push my furry self into his touch. Damn feline response to touch. I fluttered my eyelashes without meaning to at him. “Sorry, can’t help it.”
His face was a careful neutral, but his eyes were soft. “You’d better come take a look at this.”
I pulled myself up out of the top of his coat, shivering as the wind hit me, ruffling my fur. I twisted around so I looked in the direction we were headed.
Ahead of us was indeed a large problem, but I had to believe it wasn’t as bad as Maks thought. I hoped.
We were near the edge of Dragon’s Ground to start, the large blackened marker reaching high into the sky denoting the start of the dragons’ territory. At the base of it were two horses and two people I knew all too well.
“How is it bad that we’ve caught up to Steve and Darcy?” I wiggled back down into his coat. “That was the goal. That means they probably haven’t found Bryce. Score one for us.”
Lila peered at me from Maks’s shoulder, down into my warm spot. “They are being held there for interrogation by one of the younger dragons. A chameleon.”
I grimaced and Maks gave a grunt that said it all. A chameleon dragon would be hard to fight if it came to that. They could match their scales so fast to their surrounding area that they in essence disappeared.
“Well, if they are talking, that should be good, shouldn’t it?” My brain was still foggy with sleep, and with what I’d seen in the vision that had taken me back to the Stockyards.
Maks grunted again. “From what we can see, the discussion is getting heated.”
“How can you see that from here?” We were still a solid mile and a half out. Maks held up a battered pair of binoculars.
Right.
I made a move to climb out, and he put his hand against me through the coat. “No, you need to rest longer if you can.”
“Yeah, but if there’s going to be a fight, I need to be able to move,” I pointed out.
“No fighting,” Maks said. “Lila is going to try to discuss passing through.”
Before I could tell them that was a bad fucking idea, Lila had shot off his shoulder and was winging toward the group ahead of us.
“The dragons hate her, Maks. That dragon would as soon kill her as look at her.”
“She seems to think otherwise.” He looked to the sky, following her progress. “And she’s got the sapphire. She’s safe, and fast. She’ll be okay.”
Right, there was that. Maks adjusted his seat. “I have your necklace, the one with your father
’s ring. It’s in my pocket.”
“I don’t want it back,” I whispered. No way I wanted those voices in my head again, forcing me to do things that were not my choice, not my decisions. I’d had enough of that shit in my life to want any more of it.
“I cleared it of Ish’s spell. She won’t be able to track you through it any longer.”
I looked up at him. “You said you thought she affected you too. How?”
He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a dagger in a sheath. “She gave this to me before I left. She knew I would go with you. She was counting on it for some reason. She asked me to help protect you.”
I frowned, my cat lips dipping downward. “None of her actions make any sense. They are all contradictory.”
“Agreed. Which makes her extremely dangerous and impossible to predict.” He slid my father’s ring on the chain over my neck and it curled around me, becoming part of the chain on my neck that was woven of my clothing and weapons. “I spelled it to block the curse as best I could. It’s not perfect, the way Ish’s spell was, but it should help keep the worst at bay, I think.”
I could have kissed him, but I knew it wouldn’t have been welcome, not really. I turned and watched as Lila swept in over Steve’s and Darcy’s heads. “Why did she think she could talk to this dragon? You do remember last time, don’t you?”
“I do, but she seems to think this one will be better. She said something about knowing him.”
A sense of urgency hit me and I tensed, uncertain where it was coming from but listening to it, anyway. “Hurry, something bad is going to happen.”
Maks didn’t question me, just urged Balder forward. We took off at a gallop, Batman following more slowly. I bit my lower lip, feeling the bad thing coming like a storm rolling in fast and hard. I’d never had this sensation before and the chain around my neck seemed to hum in response. This had something to do with the curse that Marsum had put on me and the damper that Maks had tried to give it.
Dragon's Ground (The Desert Cursed Series Book 2) Page 14
