Heir to the Shadows

by Anne Bishop

Page 73

 

  Surreal gulped back a sob of relief at the sound of that familiar midnight voice.

  Hope and horror filled Daemon's eyes as he slowly raised his head. "Please," he whispered. "I never meant. . . . Please. '" He threw his head back, let out a heart-shattering cry, and collapsed.

  Using Craft, Surreal rolled him off her and sat up, cradling her broken wrist. Dizzy and nauseous, she closed her eyes as she felt Jaenelle approach. "I realize arriving a few seconds sooner would have made a less dramatic entrance, but I would've appreciated it more. " "Let me see your wrist. "

  Surreal looked up and gasped. "Hell's fire, what happened to you?"

  During the other times when Jaenelle's "shadow" had joined Surreal to search for Daemon, it had been impossible to guess she wasn't a living woman unless you tried to touch her. No one would mistake this transparent, wasted creature for something that walked the living Realms. But the sapphire eyes were still filled with their ancient fire, and the Black Jewels still glowed with untapped strength. Jaenelle shook her head and wrapped her hands around Surreal's wrist. A flash of numbing cold was followed by a steadily growing warmth. Surreal felt the bones shift and set.

  Jaenelle's transparent hands pulsed, fading and returning again and again! For a moment, she faded completely, her Black Jewels suspended as if waiting for her return.

  When she reappeared, her eyes were filled with pain and she panted as if she couldn't draw a full breath.

  "Collapsing," Jaenelle gasped. "Not now. Notyet. " Her transparent body convulsed. "Surreal, I can't finish the healing. The bones are set, but . . . " A tooled, leather wristband hovered in the air. Jaenelle slipped it over Surreal's wrist and snapped it shut. "That will help support it until it heals. "

  Surreal's left forefinger traced the stag head set in a circle of flowering vines—the same stag that was a symbol for Titian's kin, the Dea al Mon.

  Before she could ask Jaenelle about the wristband, something heavy hit the ground nearby. A man cursed softly.

  "Mother Night, the guards heard us. " Using her left arm for leverage, Surreal got to her feet. "Let's get him out of here and—"

  "I can't leave here, Surreal," Jaenelle said quietly. "I have to do what I came here to do . . . while I still can. " The Black Jewels flared, and Surreal felt a shivering, liquid darkness flow into the maze.

  Jaenelle tried to smile. "They won't find their way through the maze. Not'this maze, anyway. " Then she looked sadly at Daemon's gaunt, bruised body and gently brushed the long, dirty, tangled black hair off his forehead. "Ah, Daemon. I had gotten used to thinking of my body as a weapon that was used against me. I'd forgotten that it's also a gift. If it's not too late, I'll do better. I promise. "

  Jaenelle placed her transparent hands on either side of Daemon's head. She closed her eyes. The Black Jewel glowed.

  Listening to the Hayllian guards thrashing around somewhere in the maze, Surreal sank to the ground and settled down to wait.

  "Daemon. "

  The island slowly sank into the sea of blood. He curled up in the center of the pulpy ground while the word sharks circled, waiting for him.

  "Daemon. "

  Hadn't they all been waiting for the end of this torment? Hadn't they all been waiting for the debt to be paid in full? Now she was calling him, calling for his complete surrender.

  "Move your ass, Sadi!"

  He rolled to his hands and knees and stared at the golden-manned, sapphire-eyed woman who stood on a blood-drenched shore that hadn't existed a minute ago. A tiny spiral horn rose from the center of her forehead. Her long gown looked as if it were made from black cobwebs and didn't quite hide her delicate hooves.

  The pleasure of seeing her made him giddy. Her mood made him cautious. He carefully sat back on his heels. " You're annoyed with me. "

  "Let me put it this way," Jaenelle replied sweetly. "If you go under and I have to pull you out, I'm going to be pissed. "

  Daemon shook his head slowly and tsked. "Such language. "

  With precise enunciation, she spoke a phrase in the Old Tongue.

  His jaw dropped. He choked on a laugh.

  "That, Prince Sadi, islanguage. "

  You are my instrument.

  Words lie. Blood doesn't.

  Butchering whore.

  He swayed, steadied himself, rose carefully to his feet. "Have you come to call in the debt, Lady?"

  He didn't understand the sorrow in her eyes.

  "Fm here because of a debt," she said, her voice filled with pain. She slowly raised her hands.

  Between the shore and the sinking island, the sea churned, churned, churned. Waves lifted and froze into waist-high walls. Between them, the sea solidified, becoming a bridge made of blood.

  "Come, Daemon. "

  His hands lightly brushed the crests of the red, frozen waves. He stepped onto the bridge.

  The word sharks circled, tore off chunks of the island, tried to slice away the bridge beneath his feet.

  You are my instrument.

  Jaenelle called in a bow, nocked an arrow, and took aim. The arrow sang through the air. The word shark thrashed as it withered and sank.

  Words lie. Blood doesn't.

  Another arrow sang a death song.

  Butchering who—

  The island and the last word shark sank together.

  Jaenelle vanished the bow, turned away from the sea, and walked into the twisted, shattered-crystal landscape.

  Her voice reached him, faint and fading. "Come, Daemon. "

  Daemon rushed across the bridge, hit the shore running, and then swore in frustration as he searched for some sign of where she'd gone.

  He caught her psychic scent before he noticed the glittering trail. It was like a ribbon of star-sprinkled night sky that led him through the twisted landscape to where she perched on a rock far above him.

  She looked down ,at him, smiling with exasperated amusement. "Stubborn, snarly male. "

  "Stubbornness is a much-maligned quality," he panted as he climbed toward her.

  Her silvery, velvet-coated laugh filled the land.

  Then he finally got a good look at her. He sank to his knees. "I owe you a debt, Lady. "

  She shook her head. "The debt is mine, not yours. "

  "I failed you," he said bitterly, looking at her wasted body.

  "No, Daemon," Jaenelle replied softly. "I failedyou. You asked me to heal the crystal chalice and return to the living world. And I did. But I don't think I ever forgave my body for being the instrument that was used to try to destroy me, and I became its cruelest torturer. For that I'm sorry because you treasured that part of me. "

  "No, I treasuredall of you. I love you, Witch. I always will. You're everything I'd dreamed you would be. "

  She smiled at him. "And I—" She shuddered, pressed her hand against her chest. "Come. There's little time left. "

  She fled through the rocks, out of sight before he could move.

  He hurried after her, following the glittering trail, gasping as he felt a crushing weight descend on him.

  "Daemon. " Her voice came back to him, faint and pain-filled. "If the body is going to survive, I can't stay any longer. "

  He fought against the weight. " Jaenelle!"

  "You have to take this in slow stages. Rest there now. Rest, Daemon. I'll mark the trail for you. Please follow it. I'll be waiting for you at the end. "

  "Jaenelle!"

  A wordless whisper. His name spoken like a caress. Then silence.

  Time meant nothing as he lay there, curled in a ball, fighting to hang on to the glittering trail that led upward while everything beneath him pulled at him, trying to drag him back down.

  He held on fiercely to the memory of her voice, to her promise that she would be waiting.

  Later—much later—the pulling eased, the crushing weight lessened.

  The glitt
ering trail, the star-sprinkled ribbon still led upward.

  Daemon climbed.

  Surreal watched the sky lighten and listened to the guards shouting and cursing as the maze sizzled from the explosions of power against power. Throughout the long night, the guards had pounded their way toward the center of the maze as Jaenelle's shields broke piece by piece. If the screams were any indication, it had cost the guards dearly to break as much of her shields as they had.

  There was some satisfaction in that, but Surreal also knew what the surviving guards would do to whomever they found in the maze.

  "Surreal? What's happening?"

  For a moment, Surreal couldn't say anything. Jaenelle's eyes looked dead-dull, the inner fire burned to ash. Her Black Jewels looked as if she'd drained most of the reserve power in them.

  Surreal knelt beside Daemon. Except for the rise and fall of his chest, he hadn't stirred since he collapsed. "The guards are breaking through the shield," she said, trying to sound calm. "I don't think we have much time left. "

  Jaenelle nodded. "Then you and Daemon have to leave. The Green Wind runs over the edge of the garden. Can you reach it?"

  Surreal hesitated. "With all the power that's been unleashed in this area, I'm not sure. "

  "Let me see your Gray ring. "

  She held out her right hand.

  Jaenelle brushed her Black ring against Surreal's Gray.

  Surreal felt a psychic thread shoot out of the rings as they made contact, felt the Green Web pull at her.

  "There," Jaenelle gasped. "As soon as you launch yourself, the thread will reel you into the Green Web. Take the beacon web with you. Destroy it completely as soon as you can. "

  Daemon stirred, moaned softly.

  "What about you?" Surreal asked.

  Jaenelle shook her head. "It doesn't matter. I won't be coming back. I'll hold the guards long enough to give you a head start. "

  Jaenelle opened Daemon's tattered shirt. Taking Surreal's right hand, she pricked the middle finger and pressed it against Daemon's chest while she murmured words in a language Surreal didn't know.