Eventually, Eithan had figured out how to take her blood slowly, so that it didn’t bring her to the point of death right away, and so it could be languid and pleasurable between them.
But this was quick.
Pati’s skin was pale almost immediately, then she started to twitch, and Lian had to pin her arm down, and then she went motionless, and they all sank down to the floor, Pati in Lian’s arms, Eithan in a crouch, mouth still attached to her wrist.
The last moments seemed the longest. Lian’s breath had a panicked edge as he was gazing down at Pati’s face, and Pati looked, well, dead, and Eithan was still drinking, still drinking, still—
But then he stopped, detaching from her and lying her wrist on her chest carefully.
Eithan stood up, wiping at his mouth. He stole a glance at Nicce, as if he was worried at her reaction to him this way, but she knew it was because he felt monstrous, not because of any concern of jealousy. She went to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. He draped an arm over her shoulders and gave her a grateful look.
They both turned their attention to Pati.
Lian’s fingers fluttered against her skin.
“You can see it’s taking hold,” said Eithan. “The tinge to her fingertips, her lips.”
Lian lifted her fingers. He let out a funny sound, almost a laugh, but very nearly a sob. He gathered her up in his arms and held onto her.
“It’ll be all right,” said Nicce.
“How long until she wakes up?” said Lian.
“Hours,” said Eithan. “I’ll help you take her to one of the beds downstairs.”
“Not yet,” said Lian, clutching her body tightly.
And for a long time, it was quiet.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Lian kept a vigil over Pati in her bed, seemingly afraid to leave the room.
Nicce and Eithan stayed in the room at the top of the tower, speaking occasionally in soft voices. The experience seemed to have brought up memories for Eithan. Guilt was stirring him, thinking of the other women he’d done this to at Ciaska’s behest, and Nicce reassured him that he couldn’t be blamed.
“It was my idea, Nicce,” he muttered.
“To stop the hunting,” she said. “To stop wholesale slaughter. And to protect the other knights.”
He was quiet, but he accepted what she’d said. She stroked his hair, standing next to his chair. He pressed his cheek against her belly. She felt close to him. It was reminiscent of the way she felt when they merged into each other while they were making love. Whatever connection was forged between them, it was only getting stronger.
When Pati woke up, Lian was relieved, and she was excited.
But of course, it wasn’t done. She had to also have Nicce’s sunlight blood, and Nicce warned both Pati and Lian that it was an excruciating experience. Drinking it was like drinking liquid fire, and the pain wouldn’t heal until Pati could walk into the sun.
So, they waited until the sun rose, until it was high in the sky, and then the final piece of the change was complete.
With that done, they left the dark forest.
Together, the four of them climbed the mountain back to the keep, where Xenia was waiting for her daughter with tears in her eyes. Nicce couldn’t help but think of what Xenia had said, about everyone living forever.
She pondered the idea of taking it from everyone, giving them all one mortal life to live out. It must be possible, mustn’t it? But would Pati hate her for it, for helping to give her an unending life and then taking it away?
Nicce was getting ahead of herself. There were other things to concentrate on, important things, and she needed to focus her entire attentions on them. She began working on the script for this play that the traveling troupe would put on. She decided on a script about Feteran bringing fire to the humans, and for the gods to have punished him because of it. But then, just when the kingdom of Rabia needed them most, Feteran made a daring escape and came to repel Aitho and Sullo so that King Timon could escape.
She oversaw the auditions for the people who would play the parts and she even sat in on some of the rehearsals.
But she couldn’t only focus on the play, because other things were brewing.
One day, she and Eithan met with Feteran in the keep, in a room that had been given to Feteran for his use. It was full of stacks of books that had been taken from the Castle Brinne library at Feteran’s request. They were waiting for King Graydon to notice and to take issue with what he might term theft, but thus far, he had not.
Feteran leaned over his desk, in between stacks of books, propping himself up with his hands. “Aitho takes the power to open the portals from the portals.”
“What?” said Nicce. “Are you sure?”
“Aitho has a different sort of power than some of the other gods,” said Feteran. “I don’t know why, but he needs to work with things. Sullo can send out a beam of light, but Aitho needs to pick up dirt from the ground and manipulate it. That’s how he makes his dirt creatures.”
“Aitho makes those?” said Eithan.
“How do you know this?” said Nicce.
“Well, some of it I know from observing Aitho,” said Feteran. “It’s been some time since I’ve seen him, but I did meet him in the presence of Sullo more than once. I’ve cobbled the rest of it together from books. I’m almost certain that if we close the portals, he won’t have the ability to open another one.”
“Almost certain,” said Eithan.
“We should kill him to make sure,” said Nicce.
“Yes,” said Feteran. “Except that Aitho doesn’t have crystals.”
“What?” said Nicce.
“Well, he doesn’t have the same sort of power as the others, does he?” said Feteran. “So, he doesn’t have to let it out. In some ways, he’s less powerful than the other gods, but he also has less weaknesses, so I wouldn’t know how to go about killing him. I do know that I once saw him lose his arm, and that he just picked it up and put it back on. There were some clods of dirt on the ground, but otherwise, you’d never know he was hurt.”
“Maybe we could kill him with the power of someone else’s crystals,” said Nicce.
“I think we start by closing the portals,” said Feteran. “If Aitho opens another portal, then we know we have an Aitho problem that we need to solve.”
Nicce considered. “I suppose that makes sense, but we should have some kind of idea for how it is we’re going to deal with our Aitho problem if we have it.”
Eithan lifted a finger. “Before we go down some long, twisty side path about Aitho, are we forgetting that we have no idea how to close the portals?”
“Oh, no, I know how to do that,” said Feteran.
They both turned to him, eyebrows raised.
“Oea’s crystals,” said Feteran. “I’m almost entirely certain that’s how the portals were opened in the first place.”
“How do you know that?” demanded Eithan.
“Well, look, Oea was trapped in the other realm,” said Feteran. “She was a human who had been brought over and changed by whatever the hell was over there then, and she wanted to go home, back to this world, her world, and I think she used her power to do it.”
“Is this something you got from a book?” said Eithan.
“Didn’t you ever talk to Ciaska?” said Feteran.
Eithan gave him a withering look.
Feteran surveyed them both. “She got bored sometimes. She’d come to my tower and talk to me about her childhood and things like that. Her mother was insane. Maliatha, the goddess of death. She had tentacles for hair, like the nightmares, and she’d apparently take Ciaska outside that palace over there, just set off into the dark mist randomly and leave Ciaska out with the nightmares and run away. Ciaska said she never knew why her mother did that. Was it to make her stronger? To give her a challenge? Or was she simply hoping her daughter would die out there?”
Eithan’s jaw twitched. “If you’re trying to make us feel sorr
y for her—”
“I don’t feel sorry for her,” said Feteran with a wild laugh. “Anyway, the joke was on Maliatha, because Ciaska had an affinity for the nightmares. She could control them. She could call them. She was the goddess of nightmares, after all.”
“So, your source for all of this is Ciaska?” said Nicce. “You think she was telling you the truth?”
“I don’t see why she’d lie to me. She didn’t have any reason to manipulate me. I was her captive. She definitely didn’t want to impress me,” said Feteran.
“So, Ciaska told you about Oea?” said Nicce.
“Oea was her grandmother,” said Feteran.
“She was the mother of all of them, wasn’t she?” said Eithan.
“No,” said Feteran. “That would mean…. so much incest. No, there were others in Oea’s generation, they just all died.”
“Right,” said Nicce. “They mated with humans and the other gods were born, but then they succumbed to the power within them, because it was too much.” She remembered the story that Jala had told her in Aitho’s dungeons. “So, you’re saying that Oea’s line goes directly through to Ciaska?”
“Yes,” said Feteran. “Ciaska was her only living descendant now that Phir was gone.”
“What happened to Oea?” said Nicce. “Did Ciaska say?”
“I think she committed suicide like Phir at some point,” said Feteran.
“But how do the gods kill themselves?” said Nicce. “Do you think they just stop making their crystals? And are you sure that won’t work for Aitho?”
“I’m not sure about anything,” said Feteran. “But if there are any of Oea’s crystals left, I think they’re in that palace.”
“The Nightmare Court palace?” said Nicce.
“Exactly,” said Feteran.
“But where?” said Eithan. “Is anyone living there anymore?”
“I don’t know,” said Feteran. “I didn’t keep tabs on that place.”
“Seems like people might stay there just for the water and the self-cleaning chamberpots,” said Nicce with a sigh.
“Yeah, if you don’t mind never seeing the sun and dealing with nightmares all the time,” said Eithan.
Nicce considered. “It could be worth it. Too bad we’re going to close the portal and cut ourselves off from it forever.”
Eithan laughed.
“Well, maybe we’re going to close the portal,” said Nicce. “Assuming we can find Oea’s crystals, anyway.”
“Will you come with us?” said Eithan to Feteran.
“Are you insane?” Feteran shuddered. “I’m never setting foot inside that palace again.”
Nicce considered. “I guess I can see why it would be traumatic for you.”
“Oh, bad things happened to everyone there,” said Eithan. “Toughen up.”
“You spend hundreds of years in a cage being skewered every day,” said Feteran. “And then we’ll talk about getting tough.”
“Fine,” said Eithan, folding his arms over his chest. “Well, where should we look?”
“I have no idea,” said Feteran.
“Ciaska didn’t give you any idea of that?” said Nicce.
“She didn’t talk to me about crystals,” said Feteran. “Are you forgetting why she locked me up in that cage in the first place? She wasn’t about to give me that kind of information.”
Nicce sighed.
Eithan sighed.
“What?” said Feteran. “Why are you looking at me like that? I’ve done all the work thus far. It’s time for you two to pull your weight.”
* * *
The troupe of players was getting ready to do their first performance by the time Nicce and Eithan were ready to go back to the Nightmare Court. Nicce wanted to stay and watch the play, but she knew that they might be searching that palace for days, even weeks, and they didn’t have time to waste. They needed to get started with their search as soon as possible.
So, instead, she and Eithan took horses down the mountain and left them in the stables outside the dark forest. Then they hiked through the trees, packs on their backs. They had brought food for Nicce and other supplies as well. They couldn’t be sure what kind of shape the palace was in.
Apparently, the last of the brides had left the palace nearly five years ago. They might have stayed longer, but there had been another collapse of one of the towers, and the whole place seemed precarious now. Without major repairs, they were vulnerable to nightmares getting inside.
No one had been back in the last five years, so no one was sure if the entire place hadn’t been taken over by gassigoths and athoaths. They might really be roughing it and searching through rubble for crystals.
Nicce felt strangely apprehensive and yet also a funny feeling in her stomach, like when she’d looked inside the cell where she’d lived for fifteen years. The palace was another not-home, a place where she’d lived, a place of memories. There were bad memories about the place, but it was also the place where she’d kissed Eithan for the first time, and where they’d made love for the first time. It was the place where she’d fallen in love with him.
Strange jolts that were uncomfortable but edging into pleasant went through her when they finally came to the portal. It was a tear in the middle of the air, purple fronds blowing around its edges, moved by a breeze that only the fronds felt. It was strange and beautiful and horrifying.
Nicce swallowed and she groped for Eithan’s hand.
His fingers tightened reassuringly around hers.
She thought of fighting Eithan here in front of the portal, her sword at his throat, wavering, unable to kill him. She squeezed his hand.
They stepped over the portal, its iciness going inside her and cutting off her breath. It was painful, but it faded quickly as they crossed over.
And there was the palace.
It was still standing, most of its towers intact, but the left hand side of it seemed to have collapsed entirely. The scattered stones were littered with the thorny strands of the plants that grew the dark orbs, and the purple mists floated around the still-standing tallest spire. A flying nightmare swooped over the top of the palace, its black wings barely visible against the dark background.
Nicce felt as if something wet and cold were slithering up her spine, and she was frightened. She moved closer to Eithan.
“You all right?” he murmured.
“Marvelous,” she said. “You?”
“Mmm,” he said. “Jumping for joy.”
They started for the palace.
Of course, no one was at the gates, which had usually been guarded by scantily clad men that Ciaska had hand selected, apparently for the appeal of their bare arms and chests. They walked through, and they went inside the palace.
It was dark.
The place had always been lit by floating orbs of various colors, but there were none now. Had they come from Ciaska? Had they simply burned out?
They pressed on through the darkness until they ran into a chair that was upside down in the middle of the corridor. Eithan stepped on it, breaking it and retrieving one of its legs. He fumbled for some flint in his pack and then they had a torch.
They walked more quickly inside the circle of flickering light illuminated by the fire. Somehow, it made the place seemed even more sinister and unsettling, all of the darkness pooling at the edges of their vision.
They didn’t run into any nightmares as they made their way through the place, but then the doors had been shut, so it would have been hard for the creatures to get inside.
They went all the way to the throne room, which was still intact. Ciaska’s dais sat at the front of the room, and the rest of the place was full of tables and chairs, all of them empty. Nicce didn’t like it, this abandoned place. Here, especially, the palace had always been full of activity and conversation, people drinking and laughing, even if they weren’t particularly happy.
“The dais,” said Eithan, striding towards it. “Maybe she kept the crystals ther
e.”
Nicce furrowed her brow. “I don’t understand.” She followed him. He had the torch. They climbed up the steps of the raised platform.
He handed her the torch and surveyed Ciaska’s throne.
Nicce wondered if he was picturing the goddess sitting there, thinking about the way the woman had said his name.
Abruptly, Eithan kicked the throne.
Nicce cried out, surprised.
He kicked it again, and the chair fell over, splintering away from where it had been secured to the dais below.
There was a hollow space there, where something could have been stored, but it was empty.
“Gods,” muttered Eithan.
Nicce put a tentative hand on his shoulder.
He turned back to look at her. “Let’s get out of this room.” His voice was tight.
She only nodded.
On the other side of the throne room, they went through a closed door and found a corridor in which the ceiling was half collapsed. They had to pick their way over fallen rocks and stones to get into the bedrooms. Here, they ran into nightmares, and they had to fight them, slicing and stabbing.
There was something cleansing about the fighting, and they indulged in it for too long.
They didn’t find anything in the corridor, and they both knew it was empty of the crystals. It wouldn’t have made sense for Ciaska to keep the crystals in the bedrooms of those in her court. Something so valuable wouldn’t be there.
But they stayed longer, fighting and killing everything they came across until they were sweaty and exhausted.
Finally, they tumbled back through the doorway and shut it tight against the nightmares.
They gasped and panted and slid down the floor, resting their heads against the wall.
Their torch had burned out.
Eventually, Eithan got up and made another one, and Nicce went up the stairs and into one of the bedrooms to see if the spigots still worked. They did.
It felt good to wash away the sweat and blood and dirt of the battle with the nightmares.
Eithan joined her while she was scrubbing herself in the tub. He set something down next to the tub, and she blinked at it. “What’s that?”
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