by Ponce, Jen
He was silent.
“Dad?”
“She may have knocked me out with a sleep spell. She was just doing what she thought was right.”
“Why are you defending her? She took my daughter. I’m going to kill her.” I stood, unable to be still. “How could she? How dare she?” My dad opened his mouth and I said, “Don’t you dare say she meant well.”
His jaw snapped up.
“I wonder where Kroshtuka went?”
“Is that your fella? Well made young man.”
I eyed Dad. “Thanks.”
“Devany.”
Dad and I both looked over. Kroshtuka’s face was drawn.
“Oh god. What?”
“It’s your son. He’s alive,” he said, as if seeing the question on my face. “But the Rider has him.”
***
I ran to the backyard, cracking my shoulder on the French door as I thudded onto the deck. I jerked to a stop halfway down the stairs. Liam stood by one of my wild rose bushes, a smile on his face. He looked like my son, but that smile … Oh dear, that smile.
“Hi Mother.”
“I killed the host.”
“Sorry. Wrong again. How many people did you kill, Devany? People that weren’t guilty? How many people died because you stabbed first and asked questions later?” He chortled.
I couldn’t even touch him, not one finger. Because it was my son’s body. My son. “Liam, you can fight it. Fight it.”
“No he can’t. I’m here, stretching out. He’s a smart kid. Too bad he won’t get to use it.”
I lurched forward and grabbed his arm. He didn’t fight me. “Krosh!” I dragged him up the stairs, onto the deck, carefully—it was my kid’s body and I didn’t want to hurt him—and pulled him into the hall.
“The goddess?”
I nodded sharply.
The Rider thrashed Liam’s body in my hold. “What? No!”
Krosh stepped in and slung Liam over a broad shoulder and we hooked before the Rider could do more than start shrieking. The storm at Tempest Peaks raged but I didn’t stop to admire it this time. Krosh and I dashed down the path to the entrance to the goddess’s home. I hoped she wouldn’t mind, I hoped she wasn’t busy, I hoped she would be able to help him. Oh god. What if she couldn’t help him?
My arms got sliced up, as careless as I was going through the deadly path. I focused so hard on keeping Liam’s body safe that I neglected myself. Arms bleeding, I followed Krosh up the winding path, urging him silently on, urging him to go faster, faster, faster.
The Rider flailed about, causing Krosh to lose his balance several times, once staggering into one of the silent warriors standing guard. When we got to the top, the scene resolved into the goddess sitting with Ty, stroking his hair.
When she looked up at us, her eyes were glowing. “Back so soon? I am busy.”
“My son.” Tears escaped. “The Rider is in him. Can you?” I swallowed the bile that threatened to burn its way out of my throat. “Can you help him?”
She gestured and we walked forward. The Rider was quiet, and when Krosh set him down, he didn’t try to bolt. His eyes were on the goddess, who looked both beautiful and terrible. “So, here we are, face to face once more.”
“I am not the one you met so long ago,” the Rider snarled in my son’s voice. “That was my brother.”
“Ah. Weak thing, he was.” She snapped her finger. “Easy to kill.”
Liam lunged at her and her hand went around his slender throat.
My turn to lunge. “No!”
“Shh,” she said to me. To the Rider, she said, “Come out of there, right now.” And Liam collapsed at her feet.
“Liam!”
“Shh,” she said again. “He must be dreaming for me to draw out the pestilence. Let me work. Sit with my son while I sit with yours.”
I glanced at Krosh then dropped down beside Ty. He was crying again, or perhaps he’d never stopped. I put my hand on his shoulder and he twitched, but otherwise didn’t indicate he knew I was there. “How’re you doing? Is the reunion everything you thought it’d be?” I glanced at the goddess, saw that she leaned close to my son, whispering words so low I couldn’t hear them. Black smut was oozing out of his ear and I had to turn away. “I killed Ellison. And Jasper. I didn’t want to but I did. I did and it hurt so badly. I could have used you there. To give me shit. To make it okay.” I took another breath. Stole a peek at my kid and looked away. “Whatever it is you’re feeling, wherever you’re at, know that I care about you. I mean, you’re still an ass. And you have work to do. Personal work, you know, to become a nicer person. But. I consider you my friend and I don’t want you to curl up here and die.”
His eyes were on me.
“I’m not kissing you.”
He didn’t laugh but it danced in his eyes. He also didn’t speak but the lines of his face relaxed and something eased inside me, too.
“Arsinua stole my daughter.” The threat of tears clogged up my throat and I had to look away. His hand covered mine. “I’m going to need you, so don’t give up. Okay?”
“It hurts. Worse than with Jasper. This is—” he stopped. “It’s also better than Jasper.” His nostril’s flare. “You have his soul.”
“Half of it, yes. Krosh gave me half to save me. And he has half of mine.”
Ty grunted. “Wydling bastard.”
“You’re just jealous,” I said, not putting much into the tease. I peeked at my son again but it didn’t look like there was any progress. “I’m getting my daughter back.”
“Arsinua always was too much of a do gooder, wasn’t she? She obviously knows nothing about you, to have dared take your child.” His finger brushed my hand.
I looked down at our twined fingers and then at Krosh whose eyes met mine. No censure. No anger. What had I done to deserve him? “She’d better learn quickly. Because if she doesn’t give me back my daughter, I’m going to kill her.”
“I cannot pull out the Rider all at once,” the goddess said, cutting into my conversation with Ty.
Bile rose in my throat. “You did it for me.”
“I took out the potential in you. This is almost a fully hatched parasite. I need time.” She brushed Liam’s hair off his face, his too pale face. “He will stay with me, and I will draw the cursed thing out a bit at a time so as not to damage your son’s brain.”
“Damage his brain?” I think I swayed. Ty’s hand gripped mine tighter to keep me upright. “Is he going to be my son when you’re done?”
“Most likely, yes. If the parasite does not fight me too badly.”
I wanted to rage but I tamped it down, unwilling to explode in front of this woman. “Thank you.”
She inclined her head. “I told you I owed you and I always will. You brought me my son.”
I knelt beside Liam and kissed him, then pressed my mouth close to his ear, not knowing if he could hear me or not. “I’ll be back for you baby. Fight it. I love you.” I hugged him, my tears dampening the shoulder of his t-shirt. “Fight it, kiddo.”
I felt Ty’s eyes on me as Krosh and I left.
TWENTY-FOUR
“What is it you want to do?” Krosh asked as we stepped from the tunnel of obsidian shards.
“Get my daughter back.” I opened my Magic Eye and looked for her thread, seeing a slender red ribbon that shivered off into the distance and just … ended. What did it mean? “I’m going to try to hook to her.” I held onto my daughter’s image and we stepped through—into a large market. The thread disappeared into thin air, abruptly cut and I wanted to cry all over again. The crowd was large, pressing around Krosh and I, moving between vendors, chatting, reeking magic. “This is hopeless.”
“Where do you think Arsinua would have taken her?”
Would Arsinua be stupid enough to turn herself in to the Council again? “She might have taken her to the Anforsa.” If she did, I wasn’t sure how to get Bethy back. “If she hurts my daughter, I’ll kill her.”
&
nbsp; He nodded as if that were a perfectly sane thing to say. “If she’s at the Council, she’ll be well protected.”
A slight comfort. “The Anforsa will be powered up, magic-wise, since I fixed the Omphalos.” I slipped into his arms, needing to be touched, needing to feel the part of me inside him. “What would happen if I destroyed it?”
“The witch’s power? Their society would fall. Wild magic would return to their lands. Perhaps the broken magic could be healed.”
“So it would be a good thing? For the Wydlings, anyway?”
“Yes. But it might spur the hunt of humans for power.”
I wondered if there was a way to destroy the hooks, to keep the two worlds separate. “The problem is I can’t get near it. My hooks fail when I get too close.”
“We could go to the Council and ask for your daughter’s return. She is part Wydling, after all. We have right to her as well.”
Hope seeped into me. “Would they abide by that? I really don’t see this lady being too accommodating.” Hell, Arsinua was on my side and she was often obnoxious about the Wydlings.
“Let’s visit the Dream Mother.”
“But she was talking doom and gloom and bindings. I’m not sure I want to face it.”
His chuckle warmed me. “You are a strong, powerful. You can face a tiny, old woman.”
I snorted. “I wouldn’t bet too hard against Lizzie.” Someone bumped into me and I cursed at them. Krosh guided us away from the press of the crowds, tucking us away in a small space between two carts. “It won’t take long, will it? I’m not sure I can give it very much attention for long, whatever it is. There’s a barbed wire-wrapped ball of worry in my stomach.”
“It will take some time but it will be worth it, Devany. This I promise you. Come. Take us home.”
Home. Without my kids, it wasn’t. We to the Dreaming Caves and Lizzie was there, waiting. She took our hands and led us down a tunnel I’d never seen before. After a few minutes’ worth of walking, we had to let go our hands and walk single file. The cool, damp air brushed against my skin, aggravating me. I shouldn’t be down here doing whatever this was. I should be out looking for my daughter.
Krosh’s hand on my shoulder reminded me to take a breath. The tension eased from my muscles and I began counting the in and out of my lungs. That helped to ground me, and by the time we spilled into a small cavern, I was almost calm.
This room was oblong, with nooks at intervals all around the room. Each nook held a small stone statue. There were ravens, wolves, hyenas, lions and animals I didn’t have names for. A pool shimmered in the middle, sunk into the floor and filled with vivid blue water. Light filtered in through holes in the ceiling, transforming the water into a large, gleaming jewel.
“What are we doing here, Dream Mother?”
“I thought we should talk with the Old Ones before we finished the binding ceremony. Just in case I’d been misinterpreting the Dreams.”
Krosh looked worried that this was even a possibility.
“What is it we’re going to do?” I asked, my imagination running wild at the idea of speaking to Old Ones … whatever they were.
“We are going to speak to our ancestors.” She gestured to the statues, then shrugged out of her robe without any embarrassment at all. Krosh did the same and I slowly followed suit, not sure I wanted to get into the tub. Lizzie slipped into the water with Krosh’s help, then he held out his hand for me.
“Come,” he said, and I finally climbed in, settling against him. Almost immediately my eyes slid shut. I tried prying them open to no avail. Fine then.
The Dream came almost immediately. Lizzie, Krosh, and I were standing on a vast plain, cracked, dried ground all around. In the middle was a basin colored the same brilliant blue as the water in which we sat. A tornado raged in the distance—the goddess’ caldera.
“There is darkness surrounding your son. Despair. I cannot tell whether it is the parasite that drapes such sorrow around him or something worse.”
No, no, no. I couldn’t think such horrible thoughts about my son’s fate. He would be fine. He would have to be fine. I forced myself away from the subject and asked, “What about Bethany?”
“Her fate is tied to the Omphalos.”
I waited but nothing more was forthcoming. “What does that mean? Lizzie?” She said nothing and I wanted to scream in frustration. Krosh’s hand settled lightly on the back of my neck. I took a breath. “Did I do wrong in fixing the Omphalos?”
“It is not for me to say. I wish I could see more,” she said. “I see them linked. I don’t see why.” She was silent for a moment and I listened to the drip, drip of water somewhere back in the cavern, my mind drifting into a Dream.
A bird flew into view and settled on the branch of a barren tree. It spread its wings and went up in a sudden, brilliant flame. Ash fell to the earth below it. Hours passed—at least in the Dream—and then a breeze kicked up, blowing the grey powder away to reveal an egg. It had my name on it. When it cracked open, blood spilled, puddling beneath it. A shivering, naked baby spilled out, its featherless wings beating ineffectually at the air. It struggled, bloody and wet, to one of the fallen feathers of its past self. The feather ignited and burned and as it did, the chick grew in its warmth.
“Devany?”
A hand scooped up the bird, a familiar hand, a hand engulfed in fire of its own. Ty lifted the baby bird to eye level, his sensuous lips curling up into that smile of his, punctuated by dimples. “A strange pastime for you, isn’t it?”
I woke with a gasp. Lizzie was gone. Krosh was behind me, holding me out of the water so I wouldn’t slip under and drown. I covered Krosh’s hands with my own and tried to calm my breathing.
“He’s tied to you whether you like it or not. He’s important to your future.”
I shook my head. “I’m not tied to a demon. No matter how cute he makes himself out to be.”
“He might be the only way to get your family back together.”
I turned around in the water so I was straddling him. His face was strong and calm, no censure still. “If that’s true, then I’ll make sure he helps. But I refuse to think of us tied together. It would be the last thing before my destruction, to be involved with Ty like that.”
Krosh’s strong hands ran up my back, kneading the tight muscles there. “Why do you think I knew you would be mine?”
I raised an eyebrow. He had come on rather strong when I’d first met him. “Why?”
“You are strong and capable. You fiercely protect your own.”
“Not very well. My kids are gone.” Again, I added in my head.
He pulled me in and kissed me. I confess, I lost myself for a while there. The grief was still knotted up tight in my stomach but the kiss eased the fire of it for a while. “You will get them back. I will help, as will your Skriven.” He kissed me again. “Come. We will meet the Elders and you will become a member of the Meat Clan. Then we will go get your daughter back.”
***
I drank a milky potion handed to me by Caterpillar Eyebrows and my thoughts floated up to the ceiling with the smoke from the herb-scented fire. As I floated, more of the Meat Clan filed in, each taking their own drinks, joining me on the cavern floor as their spirits flew upward. My thoughts spiraled away to the Goddess, Liam, and Ty, the bowl of heaven above them all in spectacular majesty. I flitted toward the Council’s seat, searching for my daughter, but all I could see was the powerful throb of the Omphalos.
The wind caught me and I flew, silently, over the Wilds. I saw a giant black tower that spiraled up into the sky. A mighty presence lurked in the shadows and smaller things skittered in the dark. The pealing sound of a child’s laughter in that ominous black made me shy away. I thumped into my body and saw that Krosh had changed. His hyena body danced in and out of the smoke. More of the Meat Clan jumped and danced in both their animal and human forms. I wanted to join them, to change, but Neutria sat hard on the back of my mind and wouldn’t let me. Weir
d that she was passing up the chance to be out in her true form.
As they danced, I saw the phoenix again in the middle of the fire. I reached for it but it disappeared when my fingers warmed near the flames.
“Devany Miller,” Lizzie said. “We want you to open up your mind to your People. See us open up our minds to you. Join us. Take up the strands woven by the Great Spider herself in the first days. Join us in weaving our futures. Making our world stronger, our lives connected, our souls bright for the new ones to find their ways home.”
I took her hand and let her draw a pattern on my palm with a blackened stick from the fire. The picture was of an egg in flames. How she’d known, I had no idea. She kissed me on the forehead, then she pressed something hard and cold into my palm. Chills ran over my body as I opened my fingers.
A crystal heart. Not the one that Arsinua had given me, not the thing that I’d thought was inside me. This was fire itself trapped in the shape of a heart. Frozen. As I held it, it warmed and melted into the picture she’d drawn on my hand. Fire sank into my skin but it didn’t hurt.
“As you are one of the People, you belong on this world as much as you belong on yours. You will always have a home with the Meat Clan.”
My cheeks were warm and wet. I hugged her in gratitude and felt hope for the first time that I would get Bethany back. Surely I couldn’t fail with the entire Meat Clan behind me. Right?
As I floated, as they danced, I saw another presence, one I almost cried to see. ‘Tom?’ His golden light shimmered before me.
‘Let me go, Devany.’
He disappeared into golden sparks of fire and I felt him inside me once more.
The ritual didn’t last as long as the Meat Clan’s celebrations but it lasted well into the night. Finally, when everyone was spent, I picked my way to the entrance to the cave and stared up at the night sky. “I’m going to get you back, Bethany. I promise.”
Krosh joined me at the entrance.
“I have to go see if I can find my daughter. I’ll be back.”
He nodded. “Would you like me to come?”
