by Tara West
“Release the prisoners now!” Dianna aimed her magic at a spike above the woman’s head.
“Very well.” The chieftain heaved an overly-dramatic sigh. “Bring the prisoners here.”
Dianna ground her teeth and watched the ceiling for any signs of Madhea. Her stones were getting restless. The wait was interminable. Finally, two large guards brought a battered, thin man toward her.
“We’re sorry, Chieftain,” one guard said. “Without a stone, we had to break the wall down with picks.”
The Chieftain narrowed her eyes at Dianna. “I’m sure it’s no coincidence our stones go missing and Ura shows up with this witch.”
Dianna was less concerned with the chieftain’s accusations and more worried about the thin man kneeling beside the guards. She hardly recognized her brother until Ura raced past her.
“Markus!” Ura fell to her knees before him, clutching his face, sobbing. She turned toward the chieftain with fire in her eyes. “What have you done to him? He was trying to save you!” She jumped to her feet. “Shame on you all!”
“Not all of them should be shamed.” A man who looked like an older version of Ryne shook off the guards who held him. “We had a few families on our side.”
Two other guards released an old man, reverently bowing to him. The man’s spine was bent forward as if he carried a tremendous weight on his back. His wrinkled, wizened eyes looked much like Dafuar’s, and Dianna knew he had to be Odu, Feira’s father and grandfather of all the people of the Shifting Sands.
The crowd went silent when he cleared his throat. “Are the boats ready?”
A group of men and women pushed through the crowd, bowing before him. “They are.”
“Good,” Odu said. “We need to go. It’s not safe here.”
Simeon picked up Markus. A sobbing Ura followed at their heels. Dianna was alarmed at the ease with which Simeon carried her brother. He must have lost four stone since she’d last seen him.
“Lead the way,” he said to Ryne.
“Wait!” The chieftain held out both hands when they tried to pass. “Where is my son?”
Ryne walked up to the woman, his back stiff. He looked her in the eyes, his expression unapologetic. “He and the others were killed by sirens and Eris’s soldiers. I’m the only survivor.”
“Guardians!” she shrieked, shoving a shaking finger in Ryne’s face. “Arrest him at once!”
The crowd broke into a wave of murmurs and cries, but nobody made a move toward Ryne.
“Did you not hear me?” She snarled at a guard who’d let his weapon fall. “He murdered my son!”
The man stepped back, shaking his head. “That’s not what he said.”
“Do you believe that lying gnull?”
The guard blushed, glancing quickly at Dianna. “Does it matter? He has a powerful witch on his side.”
“Oh, for Elements’ sake!” the chieftain snapped, hefting the spear and aiming it at Ryne’s chest.
Ryne sidestepped the chieftain, knocking it out of her hands. She fell, landing on her arse with an ear-shattering screech. She tried to stand, but Tar grabbed hold of her sleeve, keeping her from rising. A loud boom rent the air. The chieftain looked up as a massive spike detached from the ceiling and impaled her in the chest, pinning her to the floor. Tar raced away, yelping, while the Ice People scattered, screaming as a winged woman fell from the sky, shattering the ice floor when she landed and creating an avalanche of spikes to fall from the ceiling, striking hapless victims as they tried to flee. Then an angry, buzzing ball of pixies swarmed into the cavern, attacking those who were injured, ripping off fingers and ears with violent ferocity.
Elements save them all. Madhea had come!
“Stop!” Dianna yelled, shattering the spikes like glass while splattering pixie blood all over the walls.
But her magic wasn’t strong enough, because several pixies had escaped, chasing after the ice dwellers as they ran down the hall.
Her mother turned to her, green eyes glowing with unnatural malice, her wings buzzing angrily. “Daughter.”
Strike her now! Sindri cried.
Terror paralyzed Dianna’s limbs. Her knees weakened as her mother stalked toward her. She backed up, collecting magic in her palms. “You are no mother to me!” she raged, hating how her trembling voice revealed her fear.
“I am your mother.” Madhea held out a hand, a plea in her voice not masking the venom in her glare. “And this is your one chance to live. Join me or die.”
Ura sobbed, bent over Markus. Simeon laid deathly still beside them, blood pooling around his head, shards of ice stuck in his hair. Elements, no! Simeon couldn’t be dead!
Rage fueling her movements, Dianna leapt forward, throwing a ball of energy straight at her mother’s heart. “I’d rather die than side with a vindictive bitch!”
Much to her dismay, Madhea caught the ball and threw it back. She ducked and the energy flew past her head, smashing the ice wall behind her. A thunderous crack rent the air. They were running out of time.
Focus, Sindri admonished. You’re letting anger and fear rule you.
How could she focus when her world was falling to pieces? She flung another ball at her mother, then another. Madhea deflected them, laughing manically and taunting Dianna.
“You are half mortal,” Madhea cackled. “What makes you think you can take on a goddess?”
“You won’t be the first goddess I’ve brought down.” She fired another ball at her mother’s head.
“If you’re referring to my dear sister, Eris, know this.” Madhea threw her head back with a squeal, her arms lighting with magical fire. “I am far more powerful than she.” As if to prove her point, she tossed a green bolt of lightning at Dianna.
She ducked, and an ice spike exploded into a million fragments. Madhea might be right. The ice witch was more powerful than Eris, but she didn’t dare voice it aloud.
She’s lying, Sindri said. She’s trying to get you to back down.
Use us, Neriphene urged. Let us channel through you. Together we can destroy her.
She let herself be drawn to that space between two worlds. Energy raced down her arms and pooled in her palms, and she knew this blast would finish Madhea for good. Just as she was about to strike, her mother flew past her in a blur, Tar nipping at her heels.
Dianna spun around, prepared to fling her magic at her mother’s back, but Madhea had Markus in her arms, using him as a shield.
“Markus, no!” Ura screamed, falling on her side, hands lifted toward them.
“Drop him!” Dianna commanded. “It’s me you want.”
“Is it?” Madhea laughed and launched into the air.
Tar jumped on his hind legs, catching the end of Madhea’s robe, but the goddess jerked free, leaving the dog with a ripped piece of cloth between his teeth.
Dianna fell to her knees as Madhea flew away with her brother and several squealing pixies flew after her, clutching shreds of bloodied skin between their teeth. There was no telling what that evil witch and her little demons would to do him. If the woman was prepared to murder her own daughter, Markus didn’t stand a chance.
Chapter Seventeen
A Mother’s Curse
THERE WAS A CRACK, then, boom, the earth shook. Dianna had no time to mourn the loss of her brother. She had to get her friends to safety before the entire mountain fell on their heads.
She was relieved to see Ryne already had Simeon slung over his shoulders. He bent under his weight.
“Your lover weighs as much as a gnull,” Ryne grumbled.
Simeon wasn’t her lover but now wasn’t the time to make that clear. “How do we get out of here?” she yelled over the din of the rumbling mountain.
“To the boats!” Ryne’s father said, waving them on. Then he called to Ryne and Dianna. “Get Ura!”
Dianna tried to pull a sobbing Ura off the ground. “We need to go!”
“But Markus?” Ura cried.
“Siren’s teeth
, sister!” Ryne hissed. “There’s nothing we can do for him now. Let’s go, before we all perish.”
As if to emphasize their peril, Tar wildly barked at Ura while dancing around in erratic circles.
Ura buried her face in her hands. “Leave me to die, then.”
The wall beside them shook and rattled, pebbles of ice pelting their heads. “Do you want your unborn child to die as well?” Dianna jerked Ura’s arm, trying to force her to stand. “Markus’s child?”
Ura gaped up at her, clutching her stomach. “How do you know?”
“Never mind that.” She finally managed to get Ura to her feet. Grasping her elbows, she looked deeply into Ura’s silver, glossy eyes. “I will retrieve my brother, I swear to you. I will get him back from her if it kills me.”
When Ura silently nodded, she pulled her out of the chamber seconds before the wall crashed down.
They followed the others, racing through a dark tunnel dimly lit with tiny glowing crystals on the ceiling that shone like starlight. The frigid air was so stifling, Dianna thought her lungs would burst. It soon became apparent she had no idea how to traverse the slick floor, and she was forced to lean on Ura for support. Even the old prophets had better footing than her, shaming her by gliding across the ice, though they were assisted by other ice dwellers.
“This way!” Ryne’s father said when the tunnel came to a dead end, blocked with slabs of ice and snow.
They ran until her chest heaved and her leg muscles screamed in pain, finally emerging into a much larger tunnel of solid ice with a wide river flowing through it. Four boats nestled between two wooden platforms, banging against each other as the current threatened to snatch them from their cradle.
“They’re taking our boats!” Ryne’s father called. “Stop!”
Tar ran to the boats, biting a man’s leg as he was about to climb aboard. Ryne unceremoniously dropped Simeon on the ground, unsheathed his sword, and brutally cut down the man as he was about to drive a sword through Tar’s back.
“Out of the boat!” he yelled to the terrified woman already on board.
She obeyed, scrambling onto the slick embankment and falling beside her man, pressing her hands against his wound, trying in vain to stop the bleeding.
Dianna pitied the frantic woman, but she had to save Simeon before it was too late. She smoothed his hair, sucking in a hiss when she saw the deep gash that dented one side of his head. It was a mortal wound, to be sure, but she would not let him die.
“Aletha,” she cried.
Press me against the wound, Aletha commanded.
Dianna pressed the stone against his bloody scalp, then shut her eyes, momentarily losing her soul as she flung herself to the other world.
“Dianna! We need to go,” Ryne yelled, having loaded ice dwellers onto a boat.
Dianna’s eyes snapped open. Several loud cracks sounded in the distance, and Dianna knew the mountain was buckling. She looked down at Simeon, who was blinking at her.
“Thank you, Aletha,” she breathed.
It was my pleasure. You belong together, Aletha answered.
She held a hand down to Simeon. “Let’s go.”
Taking her hand, he struggled to his feet and staggered to a boat.
Ryne helped them both in, and they pushed off from the embankment as a swarm of ice dwellers burst from the tunnel, pleading for passage.
“Find another way out,” Ryne called to them, clutching a mast.
“All the tunnels are blocked,” a frenzied man called to him. “Please!” He fell to his knees, begging.
Each boat was already so full, some looked to be in danger of sinking.
Simeon wrapped his arms around her, pressing her face against his chest, shielding her from the horrors that ensued. Ice dwellers fought on the embankment, pushing each other into the river, and then the ceiling crashed down on their heads. The collapse knocked several large chunks of ice into the water, swelling the current and nearly capsizing the boats. The passengers sucked in collective gasps as they rode out each wave that pushed them quickly downriver. They emerged from the mouth of the tunnel moments before the tunnel collapsed and Ice Kingdom was lost.
Dianna looked up, expecting to see the sky but realized they were in another cavern, this one far larger than the last.
The waters finally slowed, and not a sound could be heard behind them, as if every remaining soul had been crushed. Dianna clutched the seven-pointed star that Sogred and Sofla had given her, recalling their mother’s blessing and wondering if that spell had protected her and the others from her mother’s curse.
MADHEA RAN HER HANDS down Markus’s bruised arms. “What have they done to you?” she whispered, for he didn’t appear to be the same mighty hunter as before.
Though his shoulders were still broad, like Rowlen’s, he was far thinner. She pressed his broken ribs, feeling the bones fuse together in response to her touch. Then she held his cracked jaw until the disfigured bones fell back in place.
Healing him took far more strength than she’d imagined. Her fight with Dianna had weakened her, and she had still not recovered from Bane’s attack. After she finished with the boy hunter, she poured a sleeping draught into his mouth, forcing him to swallow. Moaning, his head lolled to one side. Madhea was comforted with the soft sound of his snores. Knowing he’d be asleep for a while, she laid her head upon his hard chest and let her eyes fall shut, relishing the feel of his warm body under hers.
“So much like Rowlen,” she breathed. Or he would be soon. She’d make sure of it. She’d been too long without a real man for a lover.
She thought of the sleeping potion she’d given him and recalled the amber liquid she used to pour into her soldiers’ drinks. The herbal concoction increased their strength, but it also swelled their hearts with love for her. She smiled, vaguely remembering where to find the herbs to make the potion. Though it was tempting, she dared not risk using dark magic to make Markus hate his family. The risk to her beauty and strength was too great. But if she could make him love her, perhaps it would outweigh his feelings for everyone else.
THEY WERE PACKED IN the boat so tight, Dianna feared it would capsize if she made any sudden movements. The water carried them swiftly downstream, as if the Elements were adding momentum to the current. An odd thought struck her. Perhaps they were, just as they’d helped her reach Eris’s island.
She sat down beside Simeon and looked at the other passengers. Ura was tucked away at the bow of the boat, wrapped in her father’s arms, sobbing into his chest.
Dianna’s heart ached at the sight, and she couldn’t help feeling responsible for Markus’s abduction. If only she’d attacked Madhea when the sky witch had first fallen into Ice Kingdom.
Odu sat beside Ura, looking angry. Dianna followed the direction of his gaze, shocked to see Dafuar sitting opposite him at the aft end, returning Odu’s stony glare. Why would the two brothers stare at each other that way? Had they forgotten each other after three hundred years?
Dianna looked up at the translucent ice ceiling, stretching so far above their heads, she could see clouds rolling off it. “Where are we?”
“Beneath the glacier,” Ryne grumbled, clutching the center mast.
She wondered why Ryne had refused to make eye contact with her. Was he distraught over the destruction of Ice Kingdom? Or was he angry with her for not destroying Madhea? A blade twisted in her chest at the thought. “How long does this go on?”
“About three more days,” he answered tersely, still refusing to look at her. “Although at the rate we’re moving, maybe sooner.”
Simeon’s jaw dropped. “I hope we’re not stuck in these floating coffins for three days.”
“Be careful what you wish for. This river ends at a large gnull colony.”
Ryne’s tone was far too even, though there was an underlying sense of smugness in his words. Was he happy they’d be forced to confront a nest of gnulls? Markus had told her about the gnulls, and she was none too excited
to have to battle them, for she knew it was she who must be the one to drive them back.
“What are gnulls?” Simeon asked.
“Man-eating monsters as big as broots.”
Aye, there was a smugness in his voice, as if he gleaned satisfaction in making their guts churn.
“Dragon balls! Why did we come this way?” Simeon jumped to his feet, making the boat rock. The ice dwellers gasped, giving him dirty looks.
“Have a care,” one man grumbled.
Ryne cursed. “What other route did we have, Simeon?”
He drew back his shoulders, looking indignant. “Back down the mountain.”
Dianna shook her head. “We’d be struck down by Madhea.” Her vindictive mother had probably been waiting for them to emerge, prepared to throw deadly bolts at their retreating backs.
“You had her in your sights.” Ryne shot her a look so deadly, a lesser woman would have cowered. “Why didn’t you destroy her when she first fell into Ice Kingdom?”
She stared at Ryne a long moment, spine stiffening. She didn’t know if she should feel shamed or angry at his accusation. “Because I was scared,” she answered honestly, doing her best to stop her limbs from shaking at the mere mention of her mother’s name.
“We were all scared. But only you had the power to take down your mother, unless you didn’t want to.”
Heat flamed her chest and face as she scrambled to her knees. He could have laced his words with barbed, poisonous darts, and they would’ve had the same effect. “How dare you! That woman is the reason my father is dead. She’s taken my brother hostage.” She took a shaky breath, wiping away angry tears. “And in case you didn’t notice, I did fight Madhea. I was stunned at first, Ryne, though it wouldn’t have done any good. When I did fight, she threw back all my magic.”
“You were the Ice People’s only hope. Thousands perished because of you.”
