“Hey, holy man, it’s Ryan. We’re here, it’s okay. You and Ellie are safe.”
Bahru’s eyes opened slowly, and his lips curved in a smile. “I know we are.”
He unlocked his arms, and Ryan took the baby, hugging and kissing her, flooded with so much relief that his knees were damn near weak with it.
But his joy was short-lived. It skidded to a halt when he heard Tomas talking to the thug underneath the fallen limb. “Where is Sindar taking the witch? Tell me, or I’ll leave you under there to die.”
“Someone will find me—”
“Yeah, come hunting season. That’s in the fall, pal. This is spring. Where did he take her?”
Closing his eyes, the man shook his head, refusing to talk.
“Fine. We’ll do this the hard way, then.” Tomas stepped up onto the branch, increasing the pressure on the man’s chest. “You gonna tell me now?” he asked. And then he started jumping up and down, driving a gasp of pain from the main each time he landed. “How about now?”
“Tomas, for the love of God...”
“This guy was gonna kill your kid, Ry. Don’t forget that.”
Ryan handed the baby back to Bahru, then walked over and calmly jumped onto the log beside Tomas. “Shall we?” he asked.
“You bet.” And this time they both jumped, then landed hard.
The thug cried out, his face twisting into a grimace. “All right, all right. He’s taking her to the top of Black Rock Gorge.”
Ryan frowned at Tomas. “What the hell is—”
“It’s a hundred-foot chasm with a rocky, shallow creek running through it. The cliff at the top is a popular spot,” Tomas said. “Students die there every freaking year. Suicides, accidents and pure idiocy.”
Ryan went cold as he stared into Tomas’s eyes. “He’s going to throw Lilia off the damn cliff,” he said, shifting his gaze down to the man under the tree. “Is that what he’s planning?” The man didn’t answer fast enough, so Ryan jumped again. “Is it?”
“Not just her. All three.”
“Over my dead fucking body.” Ryan leapt to the ground and went to take the baby from Bahru again. “Come on, Bahru. We need to get back to the truck, and I can’t leave you here alone.”
Bahru scrambled to his feet, and Tomas fell into step behind.
“Hey! Wait!” shouted the trapped thug. “You can’t just leave me here.”
“I’ll call from my cell and send help!” Tomas shouted back.
“After we save our women,” Ryan added.
Ryan glanced up at Bahru as they made their way through the woods. The old man was looking weary. Ryan met his eyes. “You saved my daughter,” he said. “You wouldn’t let them take her without you, would you?”
Bahru lowered his eyes, trudging on. “Demetrius is the true hero. He risked his life to get us out. Sacrificed it, perhaps.”
“And that thing you did just now,” Ryan went on. “How the hell could two guys that strong not manage to peel your scrawny arms from around my kid?”
“Because I believed they could not.”
“I don’t even know what that means.”
“Ask Lena.”
“Lena,” Ryan said softly. “I’ve got to let her know the baby’s all right. Look, when we get back to the tunnel, I want you to take my truck and drive the baby back home. Stay there with Lena and Indy, okay? Tell them we’ve gone after Lilia.”
“I do not drive,” Bahru said softly.
“Try believing you can.” Ryan said it with a teasing smile, and Bahru smiled back at him. “Thank you for saving Ellie, Bahru. I’ve been unfair to you for a long time now. That’s over.”
Pressing his hands together, Bahru paused to bow over them.
And then they were walking again, and Ryan was holding Ellie in one arm and dialing his phone with the other. He called the house, expecting Lena to answer.
Only she didn’t.
His eyes widened as he realized his mistake. “Dammit, Tomas, I think they went after Lilia and Sindar on their own.”
Tomas nodded slowly. “That’s exactly what they did,” he said slowly. “And we had to let them. Because this is their deal, and because we had to save Ellie. But now...now we’re going after that sonofabitch, too, and he is going to be sorry he ever met our women. Ever.”
* * *
Sindar made Lilia walk barefoot, her legs shackled with a length of chain he’d salvaged from the bomb shelter and her wrists bound together behind her with rough rope. It wasn’t an easy walk, up the steep, stair-like rock face. It was beautiful, though. The trees were green and sweet-smelling. Wild apple trees were awash in blossoms so fragrant the scent made her dizzy. It was almost too strong. The higher they climbed the more she relished the warm spring breeze. It was soothing somehow. And below—farther and farther below—a narrow creek twisted and bubbled and laughed over stones at the bottom of the gorge.
“We’re nearly there,” Sindar said to one of his men.
He was gleeful over what he was about to do. What a sick and twisted man he was, she thought. And then she looked at Demetrius, still lying unconscious on the mattress as the men who carried him struggled with his weight. So beautiful. So still. Was he dead already? He’d tried so hard to save her.
Yes, he’d done horrible things, but he’d more than made up for them. He’d given his life for Ellie, and for her, Lilia thought. And she loved him more than she ever had, which was saying a lot, because she’d already loved him enough to defy death and linger between worlds for thirty-five centuries.
“Are they coming?” Sindar asked one of his minions. Lilia stopped walking, her attention momentarily distracted from her beloved. “Are who coming?” she asked.
Sindar, who hadn’t been paying any attention to her, walked right up to her and clasped her chin in cruel fingers. “Your sisters, of course. We can’t have this party without them.”
She head-butted him, hard, and it hurt like hell, but when he fell on his ever-widening backside, she thought it was worth it. And the sight of blood spiderwebbing across his forehead gave her the most satisfaction she’d had all day. Then she turned and started running, back down the way she had come. He was not going to kill them. Not her and not her sisters. Not again. If they were following, she had to warn them.
“Stop her!”
She ran, rocks coming loose under her feet, the edge perilously close, and made it past several of his minions before one grabbed her. Dammit!
“Hold her for the rest of the trip. It’s not much farther. And answer my question. Are the others following?”
From several yards back a man shouted, “Yes, Master Sindar. The two witches have already reached the base of the gorge. And there’s a man with them.”
“What man? One of the husbands? Is it the priest or the prince?” Sindar asked, though Lilia was sure his thug had no idea what he was talking about.
“It’s an old man, sir. An old man with whiskers and a limp.”
Gus? It couldn’t be. Gus was in the hospital. There was no way he was hiking up a mountain with her sisters.
“Give me that!” Sindar snapped, waddling down to where his soldier stood and taking the binoculars away from him. “By Marduk’s teeth, it’s the bum from the alley. What is he doing here?” He handed back the binoculars. “No matter. He’s too old and weak to be a problem. Let’s get moving. We’re nearly there, and Beltane is only minutes away.”
Lilia tore her mind away from the puzzle of Gus’s presence and paid attention to Sindar once more. “What difference does that make, Sindar? Demetrius already accepted the final piece of his soul. Beltane means nothing now.”
“And this from a witch, no less?” Sindar sneered. “The cross-quarter date is a powerful time, harlot. I intend to make this sacrifice when the Veil between the worlds is at its thinnest, in hopes my beloved King will see and hear and know, and will finally be at peace. I want Balthazorus to know his disloyal concubines and the trusted friend who murdered him have paid
the ultimate price.”
* * *
Just as she reached the base of the trail up the gorge, Lena’s cell phone vibrated. She’d long since turned off the ringer, even though the signal was spotty here. She didn’t want to give herself away to those bastards who had her sister. Pulling the phone from her pocket, she saw that it was Ryan, and her heart jumped into her throat. “Did you find her?” she asked without preamble.
“She’s safe. She’s fine. Bahru took her and the truck back to the house.”
A wave of emotion washed over her so powerfully that it took away her ability to speak. She tipped her head back, eyes closed, chest spasming.
Indy snatched the phone from her and pressed the speaker button. “Ry? Did you find Ellie?”
“Yeah, Indy. She’s fine. Bahru’s taken her home. What’s wrong? Is Lena all right?”
“Speechless with relief, I think. Thank the Goddess the baby’s safe,” Indy whispered.
“Why the hell aren’t the two of you at the house waiting for him?” Ryan demanded.
Indy met Magdalena’s eyes, and it was Lena who spoke. “We had to go after our sister, Ryan. We were following the trail at first, but now we’re just making a beeline for Black Rock Gorge. According to the recording, that’s where he took her.”
“We know, Lena.”
“What do you mean, you know?” She looked at Indy.
“We got it from one of the henchmen who came after Bahru. There are probably more with Sindar,” Tomas said.
“Ten or so, judging from the bear-cam,” Indy told him.
“Babe, Sindar knows you’re coming. It’s a trap. He intends to throw all three of you from that cliff, just like he did before.”
Magdalena met Indy’s eyes and said softly, “That’s pretty much what we’ve pieced together, too. He wants us to catch up to him. The trail was way too easy to follow.”
“Look,” Ryan said, “just wait for us. And then we’ll all go up together. We can take them if we work as a team.”
Holding Indy’s steady gaze, reading it very clearly, Lena said, “All right. I love you, Ryan.”
“I love you, too, babe.”
“Tomas?” Indy asked.
“I’m here, babe.”
“I love you, hon. Everything’s gonna be fine.”
“I’ll be there soon. Wait for me,” he said. “I mean it, Indy. Wait for me.”
She disconnected, looked at Lena. “We can’t wait. You know that, right?”
Gus stood staring from one of them to the other. “But you can’t face them alone!”
“Fifteen minutes to Beltane,” Lena said. “Sindar might settle for one sacrifice if he can’t have all three. We don’t have time to wait. If we wait, she’ll be dead.”
“We’re going to win this time,” Indy said.
“We win either way, sis. We found each other. We found our loves. I had Ellie. At least she’s safe now.”
“That freakin’ Bahru. Who’d have figured, right?”
“I always liked him,” Lena said. She looked at Gus. “This is our fight. I don’t want you coming up there with us. Wait for the guys, then bring them along, okay?”
He stared at her, said nothing.
Magdalena took her sister’s hand again. “Come on, let’s get it done. This showdown is long overdue.” And they started together up the trail.
* * *
Gus watched them go, shaking his head slowly. “They are so much more than I ever knew, those three women. I was wrong, so very wrong.” And then he started up the hill himself, picking a different route and staying out of sight as best he could. At least until he saw the men heading up the trail behind him at a heartbreaking run. All right, then. He would wait for them, and they would go up to the top together and pray they were not too late.
Because, Gus thought, the three beautiful witches were mistaken. This wasn’t their fight. It was his. It had been his all along.
* * *
Demetrius awoke to a nightmare. He found himself on the ground, hands bound in front of him, propped against a boulder, as he blinked his eyes open and winced at the pain that radiated outward from his belly, burning through his entire torso. But there was worse pain as his vision cleared and a tableau came into focus. A woman in a bloody white makeshift robe stood on the edge of a cliff, her hands bound behind her back, men dressed entirely in black standing nearby.
“Lilia!” He lurched forward as if to get up, only to be slammed by a man wielding a club the size of a baseball bat. It hit him in the chest, and he went down.
“Ah, good,” Sindar said, coming into his vision, blocking Lilia from his view. “You’re awake. I was so afraid you’d miss it.”
“Sindar. What the hell are you doing?” Demetrius demanded. “You failed in your mission. My soul has been restored. It’s over.”
“It’s not over. I could kill you all a thousand times and it would still not be over. My King cannot rest until this is made right.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Don’t you remember? Think, Demetrius. Now that you have your soul back, think about that day when you murdered your friend.”
“That was over three thousand years ago, Sindar. What difference can it possibly make now?”
“All the difference.” Sindar turned and glanced behind him, giving Demetrius a brief glance of Lilia. She was looking over her shoulder at him, and there were tears staining her cheeks. For the briefest of instants their eyes met and held.
“Face front, Lilia,” Sindar snapped. “I want your eyes on the fall that awaits you, right until the moment I push you over the edge.”
“You’re a sick man, to delight in torturing an innocent,” she said.
“Another word and you go over right now.” Sindar turned back to Demetrius, blocking his view of his beloved again. “We’re waiting for the other two, you see. But if they don’t get here soon we’ll be forced to proceed without them.” He looked at the sun and then at his watch. “Ten minutes. That’s how long she has to live.” He smiled in evil delight. Then he looked at his thugs. “I want two of you to go back and wait along the trail. As soon as the witches pass you, grab them, and don’t worry about being gentle. Bind them and bring them to the edge.”
“No!” Lilia cried. “Please, have mercy on my sisters. This was all my doing, not theirs.”
“I know. And you’ll suffer more knowing they will once again die with you for your sins.”
“You’re a high priest, Sindar.” Demetrius sat up straighter, returning his focus to the fat holy man. “You’re supposed to represent the Gods. You’re supposed to live by their standards. Murder isn’t one of them.”
Sindar stomped closer, his eyes blazing. “He wasn’t quite dead, you know. When you finished with him. He lay on the floor, drowning in his own blood, as the guards dragged you away. But he wasn’t quite dead. Hearing the commotion, I raced to his side. I knelt beside him. He could barely speak, and his eyes were filled with pain and fear. He wept, Demetrius. Tears of blood. Because of you.”
Demetrius lowered his head, guilt rising up in him. “It was wrong, what I did to the King. I should have reasoned with him, talked to him....” He lifted his gaze and leveled it on Sindar. “I should have convinced him that his High Priest was unfit to serve in the temple of Marduk.”
“He whispered to me as he lay there dying. ‘I will know no peace,’ he told me, ‘until this is made right.’”
The guilt rose up in Demetrius’s chest. He and the King had been friends. But Balthazorus should never have thought that executing his own harem slaves was justified merely because one of them had fallen in love with another and hurt his pride.
“I promised him, before he died, that I would obey his command,” Sindar said. “And then I swore that vow in ritual. Like your precious harlot Lilia, I did not cross over when I died. I lingered, as I knew she would. And I watched. I controlled people like Father Dom and the man who bombed the interfaith conference, and e
ven you, Demetrius. When you were that raging Underworld beast...it was my voice that whispered to you, that told you to take the witch’s child in order to manifest a body for yourself. It was I who gave you the power to control the minds of the townsfolk who helped you, and even the Hindu guru.”
“Thank the Goddess,” Lilia whispered.
“I’m pretty relieved to hear that myself.” Everyone turned as one to look back along the trail. Magdalena was standing there, her red curls waving like a battle flag in the wind. “I’m sorry I misjudged you, Demetrius, and I forgive you for everything that happened.”
“For the record, so do I.” Indy, Demetrius realized. She had slipped around and come out ahead of them.
“Don’t stand there like mooncalves!” Sindar shouted at his minions. “Kill them!”
His men split into two groups, one going toward Indira, the others heading for Magdalena. Only one remained to guard Lilia, but not for long. As Demetrius watched, Lilia jumped in the air and kicked the thug in the chin.
He went over the side with a desperate cry that brought Sindar’s attention her way. “No, damn you!” He surged forward, but Demetrius got to his feet and plowed into the high priest, his head lowered like an angry bull’s, catching Sindar midchest.
Sindar doubled over and dropped to his knees. Lilia ran to Demetrius and pressed against him. She longed to embrace him, but her hands were still bound behind her. Her sisters were fighting for their lives, Indy dealing with four thugs, while Lena took on three.
“Turn around,” he told Lilia quickly. As soon as she did, he began tugging at the knots, quickly freeing her.
“Stop!” Still on the ground, Sindar fired a gunshot into the air, then got up and marched over to Lilia. He grabbed her arm, jerking her away from Demetrius and pressing the gun to her head. Demetrius lunged after her, though his hands were still bound, and Sindar pointed the weapon and shot him.
Hot lead ripped through Demetrius’s thigh, and he went down hard, bleeding, writhing in pain.
Sindar returned the gun to her head. “Get down here, you traitorous whores!” he shouted to Lena and Indy. “Get down here now, or I’ll shoot her and throw her over the side.”
Blood of the Sorceress Page 27
