The Mirror's Gaze

by Rae D. Magdon

  "A little." Her muscles stiffened, and I could tell she was trying to stay still as I settled into the cradle of her legs.

  "What about this?" A shiver coursed through her body as my lips sealed around the hard point of her nipple, and I lashed my tongue over the tip in feather-light flicks. Her hips bucked up, and she groaned as she found purchase against my stomach. If my mouth hadn't been busy, I would have smiled.

  "Yes. I mean, no." Her fingers threaded through my hair, guiding me across to her other breast. I conceded, but only after trapping the tight bud between the edges of my teeth for a swift tug.

  "Well, which is it?" I scattered kisses across her chest. "Yes or no?"

  Belle struggled to answer as I dragged my tongue along the flat plane of her abdomen. She forgot her efforts to hold still when I drew close to her navel, and her grip on my head flexed, as if she wasn't sure whether she wanted to push me further down or pull me back up. "No," she groaned. "Saints, Ellie, where did you learn to be such a tease?"

  "From you," I whispered in between touching up a faint, blushing mark a few inches in from her hipbone. "Or have you forgotten who taught me how to do this?"

  Belle seemed to make up her mind. She pushed harder on my hair, trying to direct me between her spread legs, but I took my time getting there. I lathered layers of kisses across her abdomen as I draped one of her knees over my shoulder, exposing her even further. Her outer lips were already swollen and parted, revealing the soft pink folds between and the straining bundle of her clit.

  I bent forward, coaxing a sharp cry from above me the moment my lips made contact. More warmth ran over my chin, but I was completely focused on my goal—making Belle shudder to pieces just as she had done for me. I savored her reactions, tailoring my efforts to get the ones I wanted. Her knee pulled tighter over my shoulder whenever I moved my tongue in circles, and her stomach tightened every time I pulled her further in. When I did both at once, her hips levitated off the pallet, and she whispered my name. "Ellie, please. Oh Ellie, just like that.”

  I released her with a soft pop before she could tip too far over the edge. She cast a pleading look down at me, but I ignored it, dragging my tongue lower to press against the tight ring of muscle at her entrance. This time, I had full access to the flood I had only felt before. I hummed in satisfaction, gathering as much as I could and raking my nails along her tense thigh to keep her still. She made even sweeter sounds as I pushed inside of her, and the honey that filled my mouth almost made my eyes roll back in my head.

  Causing my strong, beautiful lover to break down before me was just as satisfying as surrendering to her. I craved her pleasure as much as my own. This, I thought as she began to tremble and sigh, is all I need for the rest of my life. Just this. Just her. When I couldn’t stand to wait anymore and her entire body was quivering with need, I finally took her back into my mouth. Belle stiffened then shook, twisting her fingers tightly through my hair in her desperation.

  She came a few seconds later. More wetness and heat burst against my chin, and the stiff bud of her clit twitched in the seal of my lips. Her hips gave a few unsteady jerks, but mostly, she held still and shuddered, as if my mouth was almost too much to endure. When I cast my eyes up along her quivering body, I noticed that her soft blue eyes were locked on me. They were filled with such love I could not put it into words, but it didn’t matter. She understood I felt the same. I eased her through the harshest ripples, only backing away when her waves became eddies. She breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed back onto the pallet, staring at the top of the tent with a glazed expression on her face.

  “Well, that’s certainly something to fight for,” she mumbled. “How can I fail when I have a lifetime of that to look forward to?”

  I smiled. Before, joking about our own mortality might have upset me, but now, I felt more confident. I believed in the picture my wife had painted of our future together. I believed we could make it back to Baxstresse and resume our lives. I believed the two of us and all our friends could survive this war, and I wasn’t going to let fear take that dream away anymore. “I love you,” I said, grinning as I climbed up along her exhausted body. “And I’m happy to give you all the incentive you need to stay alive.”

  Belle’s hand left my hair and slid down my back, teasing the base of my spine. “Likewise. Now, why don’t we rest for a minute before we get cleaned up and save the kingdom? I’m not ready to let you go yet.”

  Chapter Five

  Taken from the letters of Cathelin Raybrook, edited by Lady Eleanor Kingsclere

  BY THE TIME THE dragons finished flying the bulk of Jett Bahari's army over the city walls, the sun had dipped dangerously low in the sky. Its light had begun to curve over the horizon, and the chill of night was swiftly descending. With each glowing orange ray that slipped away into blue and each faint star that winked above us, the tension grew. Anyone left outside of Kalmarin wouldn't live to see the morning.

  Larna and I remained with our pack, helping our injured onto the dragons, making sure everyone was fed, and waiting by the cliffs for the signal to proceed. The dwellyn had secured sturdy rope ladders to the crags near the top, and when I had nothing more pressing to do, I watched them scurry up and down. Inda had already located an entrance large enough for the liarre to pass through and once the walls were breached, we would make our way down into the tunnels.

  "Catie?"

  The soft touch of a hand on my good shoulder startled me, but I relaxed as Larna's scent wrapped around me. "Tuathe. Do you need me?"

  Larna offered me a slight smile, although her eyes remained worried. "Aye. Always."

  I leaned into her side, resting my cheek briefly against her shoulder. If we only had a few moments left before the battle, that was where I wanted to be. "I love you," I told her, tucking beneath her chin and folding an arm around her waist. Her heartbeat thumped steadily beneath my ear, and my own slowed down to match.

  "I love you, too."

  "Cate?"

  Reluctantly, I drew away to answer the second call of my name, leaving my fingers on Larna's hip until the last possible moment. When I saw a familiar messy bun of golden hair and bright green eyes, my annoyance faded a little. "Ellie. What are you doing here? You're supposed to be with Feradith, flying over the walls."

  "I will be, in another minute. I came to say good luck."

  She means goodbye, I realized, with a sharp pang in my chest. None of us had any idea what we would find in the tunnels, and some of us might not come out of them. "It's past time for luck, I'm afraid," I said as I left Larna's embrace and approached her. "We're going to need one of those divine miracles you Serians are always preaching about."

  "Don't talk like that. Cate, you've done so many incredible things since you left Baxstresse. If only one person destroys that mirror and makes it to the palace gates alive, I know it will be you."

  On impulse, I reached over to rub my shoulder. "I wouldn't take that bet," I told her, glancing over at Ailynn. She was several yards away, standing with Jinale and Rufas and their band of soldiers. "I'll put my coins on our fire princess."

  Ellie huffed. "Then Saints, stay next to her and duck a lot. You aren't going to die."

  "She won't," Larna said, to my mild surprise. Although I had been teaching her, her Serian wasn't the best, and I was impressed she had been able to follow the conversation. She draped a strong arm around me, pulling me against her. "I won't let her."

  Ellie nodded stiffly, and I caught the glistening in her eyes. "You'd better not," she said, before pulling us both into a big hug. My eyes began to water as well, and when she kissed my cheek, its surface was tracked with tears. "Come back, Cate. I need my best friend."

  "All right. I will."

  Ellie finally pulled away and made her way back to the abandoned tents in the distance. Larna laughed softly. "You'll be after marrying that woman someday, Tuathe," she said, tucking a lock of my hair back behind my ear.

  "When we're both dotty old wid
ows and you and Belle have died of old age, maybe," I teased. "But I don't have any intention of losing you before then. I'm not leaving through the palace gates without you, Larna. I can't."

  "You willna have to." Her gentle hand crept around the back of my neck, and when her lips descended over mine, I found a moment of peace. This was the woman who had mended my heart, and I would fight to protect it—to protect her—with every bit of strength I had.

  ***

  The steady drip of water echoed as we made our way deeper and deeper into the cliffside caves. The light from outside had long since faded into darkness, and the damp, coppery smell of limestone stung inside my nose every time I breathed. Mixed with the biting scent of magic, it was difficult to bear. The rock seemed to throb with it, almost like Feradith's cave, and its pulse thudded deep in my bones.

  Inda and the other dwellyn moved at the front of the group, so swift and silent I scarcely would have known they were there if the flicker of Ailynn's fire hadn't illuminated their small bodies. Their shadows twisted along the walls, far taller than they were as they walked in single file. The Farseer pack followed along behind, tense and anxious, fur bristling and noses twitching. Most of us had already taken our half-shape, although a few glided by as wolves, muzzles held aloft.

  "How much farther?" Larna growled beside my ear. She prowled along beside me, breathing lightly, almost as quiet as the dwellyn. The only sound that gave her away was the slight splash of her paws in the shallow pools of cave water.

  I closed my eyes and focused. Kalwyn had taught me how to pull on the threads around me and sense where the knots gathered, but the raw stink of magic was so strong I had difficulty pinpointing the source. After some hesitation, I glanced back toward Ailynn. She was a few yards back with the liarre forces, perched on Rufas' back, hands glowing faintly with flame. I nodded left, chin raised in question, and she dipped her head in agreement.

  "This way," I whispered up to Inda, repeating the motion. "We have to be getting close."

  She nodded, and the dwellyn veered left, navigating down another tunnel. The caves inside the cliffs were like a tangled spider web, radiating in all directions and doubling back on each other. Without their guidance, I was sure we would have been lost a few turns in.

  Then, suddenly, twin lights flashed in the distance. They were round, floating in midair, and my nose picked up something musky beneath the other smells. I sniffed, letting the stale air wash into my mouth, and beside me, Larna did the same. The two of us looked at each other, and Larna barked out a command.

  "Wyr! Be ready."

  Her shout broke the tension, and the darkness exploded with growls and snarls. Heavy, bristling bodies hurtled along the passageway, heading straight toward us, and in Ailynn's faint light, I could see we had been right. Mogra had left some of her pets beneath the palace to wait for us, and they were not as mindless as the kerak. They were swift, savage, and deadly cunning, and if their jaws closed in a death-bite, they would not let go.

  There wasn't time to be afraid. The baying of wolves echoed in the darkness, and our forces met in a savage tear of teeth. I lunged, snapping at the nearest target I could find. My jaws closed on a stout foreleg, and I crunched down to the bone, ignoring the way my opponent thrashed. Fangs flashed above me, sinking into the scruff of my neck, but the wyr didn't find a hold. A huge black body leapt toward us, knocking into its side and sending it crashing to the ground.

  Larna. The two of us tore free together, twisting in the cramped quarters. The brawl around us had turned to chaos. Mogra's wyr were everywhere, and in the shadows, with the stench of magic and blood and fear saturating everything, it was almost impossible to tell friend from foe. The dwellyn at the front of our group had drawn their blades, defending themselves against creatures three times their size, but the liarre were more hesitant. They couldn't release their arrows well at such short range, and they couldn't tell us apart either.

  "Ailynn," I roared, whirling to meet another set of swiping claws. I saw a flash of a face near mine—twisted, hungry, muzzle dripping with spit at the jowls. Teeth clicked near my throat, and I had to kick and writhe to avoid them. "Light the tunnel."

  Suddenly, the world exploded in a flash of white. My eyes burned, and howls of agony bounced from the walls. "Run, now," Ailynn called, shouting to be heard. "Find somewhere open!"

  The battle became a chase. As one, our forces moved, crawling and clambering and cleaving our way out of the writhing mass of bodies. We had to climb over several dead corpses to do it—theirs and ours—but after a few frantic moments, the first of us found freedom in a tunnel to our left. I started to run, but at the sound of screams, I had to look back. The sight struck me like a blow. More wyr poured out of the nearby tunnel branches, more than I could have possibly imagined, tearing apart everything they touched.

  Liarre fell, shredded to pieces. Dwellyn were crushed beneath their feet. Still, they kept coming—an unstoppable tide, too numerous to count. I tensed, preparing to leap back anyway, but another shout stopped me.

  "Go, Cate." Jinale towered tall and proud beside me, bow drawn, poison arrows ready. “Take Ailynn. Find the mirror and destroy it.”

  “My pack,” I protested, pleading, but Rufas and Larna were already boxing me in, urging me to continue.

  “Cate,” Larna barked, shoving into me and forcing me to move. “Move! The pack will follow.”

  But I knew they wouldn’t. They wouldn’t, and neither would Rufas and Jinale’s warriors, and neither would Inda’s dwellyn.

  Rufas seemed to understand. He dipped his head, passing her the rest of his own quiver, and then turned away. There wasn’t time. I ran, fleeing down the tunnel with Larna and Rufas sprinting beside me.

  I looked back only once, and wished I hadn’t. Jinale was still standing at the mouth of the passageway, firing arrows into the darkness as the shadows swallowed her up.

  ***

  I couldn't tell how long we spent weaving through the tunnels by the light of Ailynn's glowing flames. Distant shouts and the howling of wolves made tracking time difficult, and the constant hum of magic was worse. It became our guide, but as we followed the thrumming strands through the catacombs, the intense energy seemed to sense us as well. It coiled around me, licking at my skin, boring into my head and throbbing there like an awful heartbeat

  Ailynn wasn't much better off. She swayed on Rufas' back, and her breaths were shallow. The caniarre remained stalwart and silent, and with what little light there was, I could see tense lines on his face. Only Larna remained unaffected. With no magical abilities, she didn't seem to sense the vibrations, smell the singe of burning air, or jerk along to the lurching pull. She brought up the rear, ears pricked up, constantly listening.

  I knew what she was thinking. She had hope that some of our friends, some of our pack, had managed to escape. Perhaps they had found shelter somewhere in the network of caves, but I doubted it. Mogra's wyr hadn't been a pack, but an army and they had been waiting for us. Waiting to stop us from finding the mirror.

  Just when I thought my skull would split open and I couldn't stand another second of the swelling magic and the echoing screams, the tunnel branched out into a large, dark cave. No, not a cave. Ailynn's fire flickered brighter. A room. We entered a large cavern that judging from the smooth walls and level floor had been made by humans. As we stepped forward, I noticed that Ailynn's magic was not the only thing lighting our way. A high, cold beam of light fell down from the ceiling, illuminating a large stone platform.

  At first, I was furious. The mirror we had fought so hard to find was nowhere in sight as it had been in my visions. Then, I noticed that the platform was not empty. Pale white bones, strangely delicate, but much too large to belong to a person, lay scattered across its surface. When I saw the shape of the hollow skull and looked into its missing eyes, I knew—and I also Knew. This was no ordinary skeleton. It had once belonged to a dragon.

  "Feradith's hatchling," said a voice, carrying thr
ough the room despite its softness. "Still here, after all these hundreds of years."

  I turned toward Ailynn, thinking she had spoken, but the line of her jaw was tense and unmoving. She was staring straight ahead, not at the bones, but beyond them into the darkness. A cloaked figure stepped into the beam of light, and I saw a spill of auburn hair beneath the hood. Instantly, I shook off my surprise and dropped into a crouch. I could guess who she was, even though I had never seen her take this shape before.

  "The others are gone, of course," the figure said. She did not seem to be frightened of us, or even distressed. Instead, she spoke as if from far away, in a dreamlike trance. "The magic they unleashed was too powerful for them to hold. It disintegrated them in an instant. All except for one—the strongest. The one who drew on the power of his focus object to save himself and became part of it."

  "Where is it, mother?" Ailynn asked, fire flaring to life around her fists.

  "The mirror?" Mogra pushed her hood back, and her resemblance to Ailynn was striking. "She's taken it."

  "Where?" Ailynn demanded, louder this time. "If there's anything of you left that isn't his, tell me."

  Mogra gazed up at the swirling column of light, letting it wash over her face. It started to shift and change, and wrinkles flickered in and out along its surface. "To the girl, of course. How better to claw his way free of death than with the body of a Kira'baas?"

  Chapter Six

  Taken from the verbal accounts of Ailynn Gothel, edited by Lady Eleanor Kingsclere

  MY MOTHER’S WORDS SHOULDN'T have surprised me. This wasn't the first time she had seen a child as an object she could use, merely a means to an end. But as I stared at her face, hauntingly familiar and yet so different from the person I remembered, my chest clenched. Despite everything Mogra had done, part of me had still clung to faint hope—hope that somewhere beneath everything, some piece of the woman who had raised me still existed.