by Pat Esden
The clip of boots passed in the hallway over our heads, reverberating down the stairwell before fading as they moved on.
“That was close,” Mother whispered.
I glanced around, getting my bearings. In both directions, a gloomy, catacomb-like tunnel lined with black carpeted doorways stretched off into darkness. Jaquith had said the berserker quarters spanned the entire length of the fortress’s outer wall. That left us with miles of tunnel and potentially hundreds of cells to search.
“We’ll need to break into two teams,” Mother said. “It’s the fastest way to find him.”
I smiled. “Not necessarily.” I pulled the egg pendant out from the neckline of my sarong and let it dangle. I focused my energy and a tingling sensation sparked in my chest, sweeping toward my arm. “What direction do I go to find Chase? Right? Left?”
The egg hung motionless. But the same crawling sensation I’d just felt in the stairwell prickled the soles of my feet. An intense hum filled my ears.
“Something wrong?” Dad asked.
I shook my head and the hum as well as the sensation vanished. “I think the ward on the stairwell is interfering.”
Jaquith nodded. “Quite likely. It’s powerful. But its effects should weaken once you get farther away.”
“How far?” Mother said.
“It’s impossible to say. Maybe never down here.” He turned to Dad, his voice becoming somber. “We should break into teams, like Susan suggested. You and her should go check in one direction, while Annie and I do the other. A concubine and eunuch. Someone who has lived in the fortress with someone who hasn’t.”
“I don’t like it,” Dad said.
I gathered the necklace up in my hand, curling my fingers around the egg and pressing it against my chest. I didn’t like the idea either, but—“It makes sense and it’ll be a lot faster. If you two find him first, one of you can come and get us. If we find him, we’ll let you know.”
Mother glanced to the right, down the tunnel. “But how are we going to know which cell they’re in? We can’t just blindly walk through every carpet and hope for the best.”
I nibbled my bottom lip, a touch of moisture clinging to my head mask. There had to be a solution. Chase was counting on us. He was hurting, mentally and physically.
An image of Chase, looking at me through the fight cage bars, flooded my mind: His face darkened by beard stubble. One of his eyes bruised and swollen shut, blood crusting along the lid. His nose flat. His lips split open. Bruises. Blood. So much blood—
That was it! “Blood,” I said. “Chase was hurt. There’ll be fresh blood on the floor you can track him with. We can do the same or use the pendulum if it starts working.”
Jaquith nodded. “This is the section closest to the fight cage. If we’re going to see a blood trail, it’ll be somewhere in this general area.”
Dad and Mother took off down the right-hand tunnel. Jaquith and I went left.
Luckily, there were only doorways on one side of the tunnel. So I crept along close to that side of the wall, letting the egg dangle and trying to ignore the sensation and hum as I murmured, “Where is Chase? Help me find what is lost.”
The egg moved, but it was a natural sway, keeping time with my footsteps, almost brushing each carpeted doorway as I passed.
“Aiyeeeeeeee!” A bloodcurdling scream ripped out from behind the carpet closest to me, sending my pulse into hyperdrive. Almost tripping on the hem of my sarong, I bolted away, egg clutched in my hand, my heart hammering against my ribs.
The carpet began to thump in and out, in and out, harder and harder, as if fists were pounding against it. It stopped moving and a voice mewled, “I can smell you. Your meat. Your blood. Tasty. Tasty.”
Jaquith grabbed my arm, towing me to the next doorway. “Don’t worry about that one.” He gestured back at three white X’s chalked at the top of the carpet. “He’s been in there a while. He’s not going to make it.”
I shuddered and I wished with all my heart that I didn’t know what Jaquith meant. The guy was berserk, uncontrollably so. Soon Malphic’s magi would drain his energy until he died.
“This is taking too long,” Jaquith grumbled. “Before we know it, Malphic will be down here to check on Chase.”
He said it offhandedly, almost to himself. But it made getting back into the zone nearly impossible. Still, the crawly sensation was barely noticeable now, the hum fading, and a slight tug from the pendulum insisted we were going the right way. We’d find Chase at any moment. I was sure of it. And Lotli, I reminded myself.
I took a deep breath, trying even harder to channel my energy toward the egg.
The next carpet was decorated with copper coins and embroidered with ravens. I held the egg in front of it. It swung back and forth, back and forth, showing no sign of wanting to circle, like it should have done if Chase were behind it.
Still, I felt drawn to study the carpet again. It was dirt free, every thread perfect. It had to have been made and hung recently. When we’d first arrived I’d found Chase easily through a carpet in the inner sanctum. But this carpet didn’t look like that one or any I’d noticed before. What if it was messing with my abilities, like the stairwell ward?
“Jaquith?” I said sharply. “Maybe we should check behind this one.”
“No,” he said without a trace of emotion. “That one’s a tomb.”
My chest squeezed. Okay. So it wasn’t Chase’s cell. Still, it seemed whoever they were, they deserved at least a drop of sympathy. I bowed my head, a moment of respect—
My gaze caught on a dark fleck next to my feet, then a larger spot and another, a whole trail of black-red droplets.
I swooped down and ran my fingers across the drops. Their tips came away sticky and as red as they’d been that night on the clifftop. But this time there was no rain to wash the blood away. No chance it wasn’t real.
“He’s here,” I called to Jaquith. No need for my egg now. My heart screamed that he was super close. I scoured the floor and found more drops. A piece of blood-smeared yarn with a tiny silver starfish threaded into it—a charm off Lotli’s flute—lay directly beneath a carpeted doorway.
Almost unable to breathe, I pushed my hand against the carpet’s darkness. The static shock of its magic prickled my skin. I stepped through it and into a tomb-like chamber lit by a single flickering candle. A chair sat beside a table. On it were a bowl and large stoneware jug. Scattered across the dirt floor as if thrown or torn off in a hurry were a white sash, arm gauntlets, and men’s boots.
A flicker of light came from a keyhole-shaped doorway to my left, its brightness casting shadows in my direction. Clearly this wasn’t a single-room cell like I’d envisioned. But it was just as tomb-like as I’d feared.
“Chase?” I called, my voice weaker than I’d have preferred. You promised to forsake him, I reminded myself. She’ll hurt him if you’re not careful.
Jaquith stepped out from the carpet and moved up next to me, his voice stronger than mine. “Lotli. Chase. Are you in there?”
Nothing.
A soft, erotic moan whispered out from the other room.
“Lie still.” It was Lotli’s voice.
CHAPTER 25
Follow not the sway of hips and hollow music of the stars. Fear them as you fear oblivion.
—Attributed to Megast-el Zea, Djinn historian and High Magus
Jaquith seized my arm, but a million berserkers couldn’t have held me back. I twisted free, flew to the keyhole doorway—and came to a dead stop on its threshold.
Just ahead of me, in a candlelit bedchamber, Chase lay naked on a thin mattress. He was on his back, his head lolled to one side. His unfocused eyes stared out from a mass of swollen bruises. His arms hung limp. Blood and dirt splattered every inch of him. His pants, scimitar, and knives lay in a pile on the floor between where I stood and the mattress, mingled with Lotli’s robe and tunic.
She knelt beside him, nude except for her tiny talisman bag. Her deep-
golden skin glistened, pristine and perfect. She pressed her fingertips just below his sternum, pushing upward toward his rib cage. “Relax. Give in to it. Let go,” she chanted.
Paralyzed, I could only stare, one hand gripping the doorframe, my heartbeat thrashing in my ears. I knew what I was seeing, but my mind reeled, desperate to block it out.
She slipped up onto him, straddling his abdomen, sliding slowly backward, fingertips pressing even harder. Chase still didn’t move, though one part of his body clearly wasn’t immune to the wriggle of her hips.
“Chase!” Jaquith barked, drill sergeant tough.
Chase’s head and shoulders lifted from the mattress. Lotli drove him back down with her fingertips. She swiveled our way and smiled sweetly at Jaquith. “Give us a moment. We are almost ready to come.”
Deep, cold hatred sank into my core. I stepped stiffly toward the mattress, every muscle taut. My fingers tightened around the handle of my dagger. Somewhere behind me, Jaquith shouted for me to stop. But his voice was distant and surreal, an unimportant whisper in a nightmare where I could see nothing except for Lotli.
She smirked at me. “Nice outfit,” she said. Then she sliced a glance toward the floor, where her flute lay atop the discarded clothes in a none-too-subtle threat of what she’d do if I tried anything.
Heat raged through me, melting the heavy cold.
“Fuck you!” I screamed, diving for the flute.
But she was faster. Before I could reach it, she was off Chase and on her feet, facing me with the flute in her hands. She ground her fingernails into the threads of hair and corded yarn.
Spasms seized my guts, the lightning strikes of pain knifing every part of my body. My knees buckled. Unable to stand against the pain, I crumpled to the floor, hunching and groaning as I rode the waves of agony.
Lotli brought the flute to her lips and began to play a shrieking melody. She sashayed past me and straight at Jaquith. He clamped his hands over his ears and stumbled backward through the keyhole doorway and into the other room. She prowled after him, hips swaying, each step punctuated by a piping screech.
“Stop it. Stop,” Jaquith wailed, sinking to his knees.
A fresh wave of anger surged into my blood. I clenched my teeth against the spasms of pain, sprung to my feet, and charged through the doorway after her. I slammed into her back like an enraged bull. The force sent her flying away from Jaquith and into the table. It toppled, and the bowl and jug thumped to the dirt floor. She went down hard on top of them, the flute soaring from her hands.
I hurtled past Jaquith, snatched the flute, and retreated to the keyhole doorway. Jaquith was shaking his head, no doubt trying to regain his wits. A yard away from him, Lotli was crawling back onto her feet, eyes on me, dark and deadly.
I glanced over my shoulder at Chase. He hadn’t moved. He just lay there as if every ounce of life had been drained out of him.
Drained? I did a double take. Despite the dirt and blood, I could make out six dime-size black marks right below Chase’s sternum—right where Lotli had pressed her fingertips.
In an instant, I remembered. I’d seen marks like that before. The one time I’d met Zea. I’d thought they were shrunken tattoos.
I gasped. Not just six dots. They formed the shape of an irregular hexagon. The constellation Ophiuchus!
Lotli grabbed the stoneware jug by its handle and staggered toward me, her dark eyes glistening. “You should not have done that.”
I clutched her flute against my chest and stood my ground in the doorway. “What the hell are you?” I demanded.
“Hexad! She’s a hexad,” Jaquith shouted, struggling to his feet.
“A what?” I said to him, totally confused.
Before he could answer, Lotli slammed the jug full force into his face. With a loud crack, the jug splintered into pieces. Jaquith’s hands went to his face, blood weeping through his fingers as he dropped to the ground, groaning in anguish.
Now empty-handed, Lotli slunk toward me. “We have business to finish with the warrior. And you promised not to interfere.”
My mind spun, struggling to put everything together. The egg pendant she’d given me was designed to collect and store energy. The truth was, I’d felt physically better after I’d smashed it. Maybe I’d watched too many science fiction movies, but all I could think of was an energy vampire—or an outer-space succubus of some kind. Jeffrey White hosted a show on history and ancient aliens. Was that why he’d had Newt and Myles kidnap her? Had he suspected something about her origin that we’d missed? My mind sifted through the ancient alien TV shows I’d seen. Stars. Symbols. Interconnections across the globe. Pyramids . . . Oh my God. The Aztec calendar stone in Moonhill’s secret tunnel. Now I knew why the face at its center had drawn my attention. The cheekbones. The nose. They resembled Lotli’s.
She held her hand out. “Give us our flute.”
I stepped back, out from under the doorway and into the bedchamber. My free hand fumbled for my dagger while my other held tight to the flute. “Take one more step and I’ll smash it. Seriously, I’ll do it.”
Rolling her shoulders, she inched closer. “You are too late. He is already ours. Now give us the flute.”
“I don’t believe you.” I pulled the dagger’s blade along the flute’s length, peeling off a long wedge of waxy yarn and hair, praying it might break her spell, praying it wouldn’t do something horrible to me or Chase.
“That will do you no good.” Her voice remained steady, her face calm.
Droplets of sweat slid down my rib cage. I peeled off another section and another, slivers of wax sprinkling the silk of my sarong and veils.
Her expression didn’t change. But she craned her neck, making a show of looking past me toward Chase. She licked her lips and stroked her talisman bag.
The bag. I’d never had a chance to study it up close and if she hadn’t inadvertently drawn my eye to it, I might not have looked at it then. But I had and what I saw made me swallow a gasp. It was decorated with a hexagram.
I stole another look to make sure I’d seen right.
Lotli launched herself at me, snatching the flute. Using it like a bat, she wacked the dagger from my other hand. I whirled on her, grabbed the talisman bag, and yanked, breaking the thong it hung from. She smacked my wrist with the flute. Pain flashed up my arm and the bag went flying.
“I won’t let you have Chase,” I growled.
She sneered. “He is not yours to save.”
Panting, I backed to the center of the bedchamber. Through the doorway I could see Jaquith. His face was smeared with blood. But he was on his hands and knees, and gripping a jagged pottery shard. I had to buy him time to get to his feet. He was stronger. He knew how to fight.
I took another slow step back, toward the mattress and Chase. My soul, my heart, everything screamed for me to jump at her and strangle her with my bare hands. But we needed her to open the veil; without her, none of us would be able to get back up the stairwell and escape this place.
Lotli raised her flute to her lips, a soft whistle sounding as she sidestepped me and headed for Chase.
I had to focus. There had to be a way to turn this from a battle of magic to something I was a master at. Bluffing. Dickering. Dealing. Those were the things I knew the best—
And I did have something to offer her.
As if I were manning a booth at an upper-end antique show, I took a deep breath and straightened my spine. This wouldn’t be an easy sell.
“Wait a minute,” I said, facing her squarely.
She turned to me. “We have nothing else to say to you.”
“What if I could give you a more powerful genie?”
She glanced at where Jaquith was crawling toward the doorway and snorted. “We do not think so. He is not even fully male.”
“I’m talking about a different son of Malphic. A full-blooded genie. A true prince. Powerful. Handsome—and fully endowed.” I took the poison ring out from my bra. Looking at her st
eadily, I slid the man-size ring over my middle finger, slipping it back and forth suggestively, while I gave my lips an erotic lick. “He’s prepackaged and ready to go.”
Her eyes widened. Her lips parted. I had her attention now. Yeah, come and get him. His name is Culus. He’s Malphic’s loser son, but you have no way to know that.
Lotli’s head swiveled toward Chase, a lingering gaze. He shifted upright, half-sitting. A feral growl emanated from deep within his chest. His eyes were no longer unfocused, now they looked more fierce and wolfish. Oh God. Was she right? Had I already lost him to her—or the change?
Steadying my voice, I sweetened my tone even more. “Do you really want a berserker when you could have a full-blooded ifrit, as powerful and sane as Malphic? If you want, I’ll let you touch the ring. Feel its power before you decide. Once we get back to Moonhill, he’s all yours—if you forsake Chase now.”
Spittle glittered at the corner of her mouth. She plucked her robe up off the floor and flung it on. One slow step at a time—like an egret stalking its prey—she moved toward me.
Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Jaquith using the doorframe to pull himself up.
I extended my hand to Lotli, fingers fisted to keep the ring secure.
She slipped up closer than necessary, way too close. I could see the sheen of sweat on her forehead and the pulse of the blue veins beneath her skin. I could even smell the scent of Chase on her. But I stood still as she touched the ring with her fingertip. Her breathing quickened. She tucked her flute under her arm and then curled both her hands around my fingers. Her eyelids closed, lashes fluttering as if in ecstasy.
“Forsake Chase and he is yours,” I whispered. “All yours, once we return to Moonhill. I promise.”
“This one, he is delicious. Powerful.” She moaned. “Yes, I forsake the others. Oh, yes.”
Her fingers tightened around mine, a firm handshake to seal the deal. Relief swept through me, so strong it left me light-headed. We could get out of here now. Find Dad and Mother.
