by B. T. Narro
“Two hells,” Shara muttered, coming off her mount and walking toward Cedri with her arms out. “I’m so sorry.”
They were at the wall of the village. Blurry shapes could be seen behind the thick sartious energy.
Cedri turned away from Shara’s approaching hug. “We’re here now anyway, and I’m tired. Let’s buy what we need and rest.”
Shara didn’t give up, putting herself in front of Cedri, though she did lower her arms. “I already know most of what happened during your infiltration because I heard what you told Jaymes. That’s why I didn’t ask. I still have questions, but I didn’t think you wanted to talk about it.”
From a sideways glance, Cedri peered up at the taller woman. “I’m glad you’re telling the truth.” Then she turned to face Neeko, waiting for his excuse.
He had none to give. He’d been too distracted thinking about Laney, his promise to Jaymes that he would do everything in his power to kill the red priest and the king, and Shara. She was so beautiful to him, he felt powerless when he looked at her.
“I’m sorry, Cedri. I feel terrible that I didn’t think to ask, but I’m sure I would’ve tomorrow.”
“It’s the three of us,” Cedri said, “not the two of you and me. I made a decision while I was with the PCQ that I’ll see this through to the end. I’m not like Steffen. I don’t have another life waiting for me. This is our life until we finish our mission.”
Shara’s eyes widened. “Does that mean you’re coming to Ovira with us when this is over?”
“That…I don’t know yet. But maybe.”
Shara leaned down and kissed her cheek. Cedri wiped her cheek after, though she didn’t voice a complaint.
They walked with their horses along the wall until they came to the opening on the southern side. Although this village was in the South, Neeko figured from what he’d read that they wouldn’t be in danger. Sastien Village was known as a place that welcomed travelers, similar to Aylinhall, except this was in no way a city.
Many of the houses, if they could be called houses, were smaller than the room given to Neeko and Cedri at Grodger’s Inn at Aylinhall. The walls of these buildings were made of wood nearly as thin as bark. And like the thatch roofs, hardly any of the walls were built straight. Some looked as if a strong gust of wind could knock them over. Others looked like that had happened already.
Trees were scattered along the village, growing between houses and sometimes used as a makeshift corner. Only some homes had doors, and none looked sturdy enough to withstand a strong boot.
“I could spend a lifetime here working on their houses,” Neeko commented, “and I still wouldn’t come close to finishing.”
“We should pay them extra for food and shelter,” Shara said.
It was easy to do when their meals and beds came cheap. Neeko paid five times the asking price for everything they bought, and he still only spent ten silver. By nightfall, he’d replaced his old bag with a new one filled with clothes and food.
The merchants of Sastien Village made him feel as if this was his home. They didn’t bombard him with false compliments like in Antilith, and they didn’t act as if only his money mattered to them, which was the case in nearly every other town and village he’d visited throughout Sumar. These traders were all similar to the traveling merchant Neeko had encountered on the way to Cessri after separating from Shara and Rao. The man had saved his life and hadn’t taken advantage of Neeko’s desperation.
“I like it here,” Neeko told Shara as he joined her in bed. Cedri was in the hut next door. “I’m glad to finally be traveling across Sumar. I just wish it was for the sake of the experience itself, not a product of trying to stop a war.”
“Trying? Are you now having doubts we’ll be successful after we’ve come this far?”
“I’ve always had doubts.”
She was quiet for a few moments.
“What is it?” Neeko asked.
“I haven’t had doubts, and I was trying to figure out if that makes me or you the strange one.”
“I think you.”
She laughed, and Neeko couldn’t keep his lips off hers any longer. She happily returned his kiss, but then pulled away to tell him something.
“This might be the last time we have a bed and some privacy until this is over.” She gave him a quick kiss on his nose. “I thought I might warn you in case you didn’t realize.”
So much heat coiled in his stomach and chest that he felt on fire. “Oh, I’m well aware. Why do you think I was being such a terrible companion earlier—thinking lustful thoughts when I should’ve been asking Cedri about her experience?”
Shara let out a soft giggle. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“I’ve loved you for longer. I’ve loved you ever since we reached Antilith on our way to redeem our redemption scrolls.”
Neeko paused, realizing it had taken him much longer than that.
“It’s not a competition,” he finally muttered.
She laughed and then kissed him.
It soon became clear that Shara knew as well as he did that they would be up well into the night. So they took their time with each act of love, focusing on every kiss, every caress, and every surge of pleasure that their bodies shared.
Several times throughout, Neeko thought his body had reached its limit, but then a simple touch or kiss would give him new life. He saw Shara go through the same cycles, falling asleep with her hand draped over his stomach, her head on his chest, only later to awake to his kiss and climb on top of him with fervor.
Finally, when they were both completely sated, Neeko fell into a sound slumber while holding Shara’s damp back against his chest, his bent knees tucked behind hers.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
NEEKO
He found it too difficult to get out of bed in the morning and hoped Shara would take responsibility and get him up. Instead, she lay on her side and faced him, refusing to look anywhere else as they spoke.
“The hardest part is coming. The most dangerous part of our trip,” she said, sliding the tips of her fingers around his stomach.
“Are you still without doubts?”
She rhymed in a steady tone. “That’s right, but I am scared. What’ll come into sight? I don’t know if I’m prepared. It can’t be easy to kill a priest, and especially not a king. And escaping after they’re deceased might be the hardest thing. If we get there to find, that our task can’t be done, I will accept in my mind, that we can leave without the war being won.”
“As long as we’ve done everything we can,” Neeko said, “then I can leave as well. But I truly mean everything.”
When they finally left the shanty, they knocked on Cedri’s door to find that she wasn’t there.
Shara touched his shoulder and pointed behind and upward. “People are gathered on that hill, though I don’t know why.”
A few dozen villagers seemed to be peering to the south, and none of them looked pleased at what they saw.
“And there’s Cedri,” Shara added.
Neeko saw her standing with a hand cupped over her eyes and wearing her usual scowl. She didn’t notice Neeko until he and Shara were halfway up the hill.
“What is it?” Shara asked.
“It looks like a storm,” Cedri said. “And people are saying Eppon’s volcano might be erupting.”
Neeko had the urge to fly into the air for a better look. But he stayed on the ground, not wanting to draw attention to himself. The storm looked to be hundreds of miles away, but it still felt too close. The sky was dark gray in the distance, almost black. Lightning tore down nearly as often as Neeko took a breath, sending flashes through pillars of dense smoke billowing up from what he assumed to be the volcano. Mountains blocked him from seeing more.
The crowd murmured about the fire god’s anger, believing what they saw was the beginning of wrath for a lack of sacrifices. Some said that because the water god didn’t kill them, now the fire god would
try.
“We should go,” Shara and Cedri said in near unison.
Neeko agreed, and soon they were back within the forest, where he felt the diymas were watching them.
*****
It took a day to reach the Sastien Bridge and finally leave the forest behind. As a child, Neeko loved being within any forest. It felt like discovering a new world…or it used to. He assumed it would be a long time before that feeling returned, if ever.
When they stopped to eat and let their horses rest, Cedri requested help with training. Right before the psychic began, Shara made a face Neeko had never seen before, sucking her whole bottom lip into her mouth while squinting her eyes and clasping her hands at her chest. She looked as if someone had a clamp on her fingernail and was about to rip it out. Cedri took one look, then covered her mouth as she turned away and unsuccessfully stifled a laugh.
“Stop, Shara,” she said through her giggles. “I need to concentrate.”
“What? What am I doing?” The expression was gone as she looked to Neeko for the answer. It took him a moment to realize that, amazingly, she wasn’t joking. She truly had no idea what face she’d just made.
Soon Cedri was focused and ready. Neeko prepared himself for pain as he’d done countless times in Aylinhall, the last place he’d trained with Cedri. He thought of resisting psyche almost like thickening his mind, describing it this way to Shara.
Cedri had explained that every living creature produces bastial energy, which she went over again now for Shara. “When you feel something, your bastial energy emanates from your body in a certain pattern,” she said. “From joy to pain, it’s the same pattern for the same emotion for every person and animal. A psychic manipulates the shape of this bastial energy to mimic the emotion we want you to feel. This is what we call psyche, or a psychic spell. To resist it, you need to make your energy more difficult to manipulate.”
“How can I do that?” Shara asked.
“Do you know how seeing someone in pain can make you feel pain as well?”
“Yes.”
“Well, resisting pain is just the opposite. You need to maintain control, which will make my attempts to hurt you fail.”
“So, thicken my mind, as you said.” Shara looked at Neeko. “What does that feel like when it’s working?”
“To me, it’s like there are no other feelings besides strength. My mind is nothing but a wide tower of bricks, and my opponent is a weaponless child. Nothing can hurt me.”
“Confidence is important,” Cedri added.
“All right.” Shara made two fists and shook them at her hips. “Confidence! I’m a wall. You’re nothing. I can’t be hurt.” Slowly, her face changed to match the look of utter fear she had before, making it quite clear she had absolutely no confidence.
Cedri formed a sly smile. Neeko felt nothing, but Shara collapsed and shrieked loudly enough for Neeko to throw his hands over his ears, instinctually protecting them. Cedri did the same, stopping her spell.
“Gods, Shara,” Cedri complained. “You make it sound like I’m ripping your hair out. It’s not that bad.”
Panting from her hands and knees, Shara slowly raised her head as if the act were monumentally difficult. She looked weary and years older, her forehead already damp with sweat.
“Horse piss, Cedri. You’re not doing that to me again. I don’t care what Jaymes said.”
Neeko helped her up, asking the psychic, “Why didn’t I feel anything? Have I gotten better at resisting?”
“No.” Cedri sighed. “I thought it would be humorous to focus all of my psyche on Shara.”
“You put all of your strength into hurting me just to amuse yourself?” Shara yelled.
“And it was utterly disappointing because of your dramatic reaction.”
Shara ran two steps and kicked Cedri in the shin with what looked to be all of her might.
“Shit!” Cedri stumbled and fell over backward, grabbing her shin with both hands as she rolled back and forth on the ground. “That hurt you pig fucker!”
“Oh my gods,” Neeko muttered out of shock, never having heard a woman swear like that. Nor had he seen Shara kick anyone before, and so viciously as well. He put himself between the two women. “That’s definitely enough psyche for now.”
Shara didn’t look offended by Cedri’s sharp tongue, but apologetic instead. She no longer seemed weakened by the spell of pain, either, the youthfulness back in her face.
“I’m sorry, Cedri,” she said. “I shouldn’t have kicked you.” She helped Cedri up, then took a look at her shin. It was already discolored. Shara sucked in air through her teeth. “Sorry,” she repeated.
“It’s all right. I shouldn’t have started with so much pain. I regret what I said.”
“I have something that might lighten the mood.” Neeko glanced between them to find burgeoning interest in their eyes. “I need to practice lifting extra weight with pyforial energy so I can get better at it. I need one of you to get on my back.”
Shara laughed nervously. “As long as you don’t go as high as before.”
“He’s taken you with him already?” Cedri asked.
“Only because we had to, otherwise we would’ve been killed by diymas.”
Cedri’s mouth went flat. “What?”
“Let’s explain after,” Neeko suggested. “And Cedri can tell us everything about her experience with the PCQs.” He shifted to point his back toward the petite psychic, who would be easier to lift. “Would you like to go first?”
“You won’t go high, right?” She sounded nervous.
“I won’t. This is just practice, after all. It will be safe.”
*****
The next four days of riding took them more than a hundred miles along another marvelous Southern road, this one extending from two towns within Thalcea. They practiced psyche and soaring many times.
By the end of the fifth day, Shara had somewhat improved in resisting the spell of pain, but Cedri had greatly improved at delivering it to both of them at once.
Neeko was better with someone on his back than the first time he’d lifted himself with Shara, but he was nowhere near comfortable enough to take her or Cedri so high that they’d fall to their deaths if the energy slipped out from beneath his arms.
Eventually they reached the end of the road, which led into Finkestown. Neeko knew nothing about it from books, but the name alone made it seem harmless. However, Shara assured him it wasn’t exactly safe for Northerners.
They used aliases and claimed to be from Sastien Village when asked, figuring it was the easiest place to use given the three of them knew its history and that Neeko’s rough linen shirts and pants were made there.
The three of them shared a room so no one would be separated. Though there were only two beds, Neeko intended to respect Cedri’s wishes and do nothing with Shara while Cedri was nearby.
It immediately became difficult when Shara got into bed to lie beside him, sliding her leg over his beneath the sheets. She found his hand and pushed her fingers between his. Cedri got into her bed on the other side of the small room.
“I’m curious about the people here,” Shara said, speaking as if the three of them were having dinner back in the great hall of the castle. “We only dealt with merchants, so we’ll never know what the citizens of Finkestown are really like.”
“They seem just like the people anywhere else,” Cedri said with her usual lack of emotion.
Neeko worried the psychic might pick up on his longing for Shara, but Cedri didn’t seem to be paying attention, turning away from them to face the wall.
Shara shocked him with a question aimed at Cedri. “Do you miss Steffen?”
“Yes, all right. I miss him. What do you want to know about that?” She spewed her words into the wall and tossed her hand through the air as she spoke.
“Nothing you don’t want to say.” Shara paused as she squeezed Neeko’s hand. “I miss him, too.”
“I really miss Charlotte
.” The sadness of Cedri’s tone made her sound like a different woman in that moment.
Shara gave Neeko a subtle jolt with her knee. “Say something,” she whispered. “You knew Charlotte better than I did.”
Neeko scratched his forehead. “I know what it’s like to lose a close friend. Sometimes it feels like you had an argument with them and you want to apologize but you’ll never be able to. There’s this longing for something that’s impossible.”
Cedri turned and faced their bed. “I sometimes forget that you’ve lost most of the people you’ve cared about.”
Her words made him feel as if his heart had been twisted in his chest. “It’s easier to feel bad for them for not being able to live out their lives, instead of focusing on my own longing to see them again. Then there’s no pitying myself.”
“But there’s more guilt, don’t you see?”
“I’m used to guilt by now. I’d rather feel it than pity.”
Cedri gave a quick “hmm” as if telling Neeko she would consider it.
“Good night,” Shara said.
“Good night,” Cedri muttered back.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
NEEKO
They didn’t ride for long before Shara slowed her mount to a stop. “Neeko, will you check to see if there’s still a storm over Eppon?”
He’d lifted himself into the air every day, at her request, since leaving Sastien Village in the forest. He didn’t worry about the storm as much as Shara did, for it didn’t seem to be moving out of Eppon.
“Please,” she added. “There’s no one around right now.”
“Do you want to come with me?”
Fear made her lips purse. “Are you confident we won’t fall?”
“No, I was just curious.”
“Sometimes in my dreams I’m flying with you again and it’s exhilarating.” She waved her hand in his direction as if swatting a fly. “Don’t tempt me until you’re confident.”
