Aeo smiled. “Good.”
Dragana was still gaping at him. He smiled at her, but she seemed overwhelmed by his appearance. He tried to reach her thoughts, to touch minds the way they’d grown used to, but he couldn’t. Their mental connection was severed. It was lonely in his mind without her in there, too.
The weight of her stare, so full of confusion and awe, was too much. She should know him better than to give him such a look. He was just Aeo, the sarcastic assassin who’d hijacked his way into the Bok’Tarong. He didn’t deserve anything even resembling reverence.
He shifted his weight, turning away from Dragana. His gaze landed on Saydee. The girl looked stunned, but by her actions or his appearance he didn’t know. “Nice job, Saydee.”
The girl blushed and fidgeted, still holding the blood-soaked dagger. She looked down at it, seemed to realize what it was, and dropped it like it might bite her.
“Well done indeed,” Raeb added. Aeo heard a tremendous amount of respect in those words, and he sensed there was a lot more to the story than what met the eye.
Aeo, wondering what history lurked behind that statement, looked from Saydee back to the Mage General. His eyes widened as he stared at Ashwinn’s corpse. “Does anyone else see that?” he asked.
Everyone looked at the mage’s body, but no one said anything.
“I guess I still have the Bok’Tarong’s sight,” he said. “There’s a connection there, but it’s fading fast.”
“A connection … like Saydee’s?” Dragana asked.
“Yeah.”
“Do you think it’s still connected to the hive?” Raeb asked.
Aeo shrugged. “I have no idea. But this guy was completely overtaken by the Entana. It would make sense that his connection would be stronger than any others’. Maybe it was strong enough to endure for a little bit after his death.”
Dragana leaned closer, though she’d confessed she couldn’t see anything. “Can we ride it?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” he said.
Raeb looked up at him. His strange Entana eyes made Aeo’s skin crawl, but he did his best not to show it. “That’s a dangerous gamble, Aeo. If it doesn’t lead to the Entana, or it dissipates before we reach the hive, we’ll be stranded in the spirit world without a guide.”
“Do we have a choice?” Dragana asked. “The -taken soldiers are everywhere. If we don’t stop them, no one will be safe from the Entana. They’ll take over the entire world. The human race will be extinct.”
“This is a one-way trip,” Raeb said. “If we follow this to the spirit world, we’ll have to find our own way back.”
“And if we miss this chance,” Aeo said, “we may never find a way to the hive.”
The gravity of his words stopped all argument. They had to know, just as Aeo did, they’d never find another way to the Entana hive.
“We need some kind of protection,” Raeb said. “Our bodies will be helpless here. If the mages come while we’re in the spirit world, we’ll be defenseless.”
“I’ll stay,” Saydee said. “I won’t be much good up there, anyway. You three can handle the hive.”
“Saydee, you deserve to see this through as much as any of us,” Dragana said.
“It’s all right.” She stared down at the mage’s body for a moment. “I got what I needed.”
Raeb placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked at him, Entana eyes to Entana eyes, and hugged him.
Raeb froze, his hands outstretched but inches from touching Saydee. His mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air. He looked at Dragana and Aeo as if to say Help! What do I do?
Aeo and Dragana looked at each other and burst out laughing. As he gazed at her, Aeo’s heart skipped a beat. She was a little shorter than he’d thought, the top of her head reaching to just under his chin. And she was right there. Only inches away. She was more real, more accessible, than she’d ever been before.
He reached out to touch her, maybe even pull her closer to him, but his hand passed right through her skin.
A dark cloud dampened Aeo’s joy. He might feel alive now, but he was still just a spirit. No matter how close Dragana might seem, she would forever be out of his reach.
Aeo shook the thoughts free and stepped toward the glowing connection between the mage and the Entana hive. “It’s fading. If we’re going to do this, we have to do it now.”
Raeb released Saydee and stood next to Aeo. The man looked thoroughly confused. Aeo could sympathize.
Dragana gave Saydee a brief hug as well before stepping beside the men.
“Ready?” Aeo asked.
Raeb and Dragana nodded. “Ready.”
He looked at Saydee, gave her a brief nod of thanks and respect, and grabbed onto the thinning thread of Ashwinn’s connection.
“How do we …” Dragana started to ask, then was silenced. Her spirit latched onto Aeo’s almost of its own will and she was pulled free of her body. Raeb’s did the same.
The three spirits looked up, willing themselves forward.
And with that, they disappeared from the physical world and began their journey to the Entana hive.
31
Raeb didn’t enjoy this trip through space and time any more than he had his last one. The cold winds buffeted his spirit, and the mind-boggling sights left him feeling small and speechless. Their task seemed more idealistic, and more idiotic, with each passing moment. How could three small spirits take on—let alone defeat—an entity that existed in a place where stars and worlds passed by in a blink? They’d barely beat Ashwinn, and he was just the Entana’s slave. The Entana itself would make Ashwinn look as strong and intimidating as a newborn kitten.
And then the Entana hive loomed before them.
“By the gods of Taron,” Dragana whispered.
It was still as massive, still as vile, as Raeb remembered. Perhaps even more so, now that there was no stopping their journey. Raeb wouldn’t just stare at the horror of the hive—he would enter it. Chances were, he wouldn’t be leaving it.
Squeamishness and fear settled in Raeb’s gut, as if they’d thrown out every bit of courage and made themselves a cozy little nest. They twisted in his stomach like worms and made him nauseous. If he’d been able to take the coward’s route and flee, he’d have considered it. Heavily.
Still, they sped ever closer to the hive.
There was no sensation of arrival or landing. Raeb was just there, suddenly, standing on ground that felt solid but looked like little more than mist. The air felt heavy like it would in such a place, but not with moisture. It was soupy with dread.
Though Raeb had been preparing for this moment, he wasn’t the least bit ready for it. They were here, in the middle of enemy territory, about to enrage the most dangerous foe in humanity’s existence. Three of them, with a couple of enchanted swords.
And worse, they’d been allowed in. The Entana hadn’t blocked their way or made them fight to enter the hive. They’d welcomed the trio, somehow transporting them directly into their midst.
We are idiots.
Dragana gasped next to him and dropped to her knees. Aeo lay there, his spirit body flickering as if he was blinking in and out of existence. Bits of his rosy gold essence drifted from his skin like smoke, dissipating into the hive. His eyes were full of pain and fear, but even as Raeb watched they started to glaze over.
“Aeo! Can you hear me? Hold on, Aeo.”
Heart hammering, Raeb knelt beside Dragana. Dread filled him as he leaned over Aeo’s fading spirit. Whatever was happening to him, they had to stop it. He was the Master of the Bok’Tarong and their only hope to defeat the Entana. If he were to die now, he and Dragana were dead as well.
But more than that, Raeb couldn’t sit here and let his friend die.
He watched Aeo’s essence flicker. “His anchor must not be strong enough,” he said. “His spirit doesn’t have anything to hold it together.”
“What do you mean?”
“We have our
bodies anchoring us to the world. They’re strong and solid enough, ours enough, that our spirits remember what we are and hold together. Aeo has only the blades. This far away, the bond isn’t strong enough.”
Aeo’s eyes were almost vacant, his spirit going grey and dull as he bled out the last of his rosy gold essence. Dragana held him by the shoulders, as if she could keep him together by force.
“Metal doesn’t hold a spirit-bond as well as flesh,” Raeb continued, fumbling with Aeo’s arm more for something to do than out of any true way of helping. “I didn’t think the Master of the Bok’Tarong would have an issue with that, though.”
Dragana’s eyes were dry, but there were tears in her voice. “He’s dying! We have to do something!”
“There’s nothing we can …” He left the sentence unfinished. Raeb had no way to save Aeo. But looking at Dragana, perhaps she did. He’d never understood the magic behind the spirit-carvings of the jungle tribes, but he’d seen them before. They were powerful. Offering it would be a risk, but Aeo didn’t have time for Raeb to worry about that. It would be Dragana’s choice, anyway. And he was no expert in the arena of love.
Raeb placed his hand on her arm. At first she didn’t seem to understand—perhaps she thought he was comforting her—but then she noticed his fingers didn’t touch her skin. They were resting on the cuff on her arm, the carving of her spirit. Its enchantment had carried it to the spirit world with them.
She raised her eyes to his. They were red from unshed tears. “I’ve seen the way you look at him,” he said. “I hear it in your voice.”
She didn’t ask for an explanation, and she didn’t deny what he implied. “Would it work?”
Raeb shrugged. “I don’t know. But its magic is a kind of binding. It might give him something—someone—to anchor to.”
Dragana’s eyes unfocused. Raeb left her to her thoughts. After all, this wasn’t something to do lightly. A spirit-carving given in love was a beautiful, enchanting kind of magic. It created. It made things whole. But if that love wasn’t pure, or reciprocated, the magic was dangerous. It would tear her own soul apart. If Aeo and Dragana weren’t already bound to each other in their hearts, trying to force this would destroy them both.
After a moment she looked down at Aeo. The man’s spirit was flickering wildly, fading into transparency. He looked more like a shade of death than a normal soul.
Without another pause, Dragana removed the cuff. Its color faded from opalescent green to flat gray as it left her skin. She held it in her hands for a moment longer, gazing at the enchanted carving. Then she leaned over Aeo, took his hand in hers, and put it on him.
It had fit on Dragana as a cuff around her upper arm. Aeo wore it as a bracelet. After a second on his wrist, it blazed the color of burnished bronze. Faint streaks of Dragana’s opalescent green raced across the carving, until the two colors were mixed and melded in perfect harmony.
Raeb smiled. It was more beautiful now than it had been on Dragana’s arm. It was stronger, more solid, and seemed as if it had been created half-finished, so that one day it could become this. Just as it was meant to do.
Several long heartbeats passed. Aeo’s spirit was still fading, the details of his face blowing away like fog in a breeze. Dragana cried out and gathered Aeo in her arms, weeping.
Raeb wanted to turn away from her sorrow, and his own, but his eyes were glued to Aeo. Was it his imagination, or had the spirit stopped fading? Raeb stared until his eyes hurt. Yes. Aeo was stabilizing. Bit by bit, he began to take shape again.
Dragana’s tears dried as Aeo’s body solidified. The rosy gold hue returned to his spirit. Raeb started breathing again.
Aeo lay in Dragana’s lap for a moment before opening his eyes, recognition flooding into them.
Her smile was brittle with fragile hope. Her hands trembled as she helped Aeo sit up. The assassin cradled his head and swayed for a minute. “This is the worst hangover ever.”
“You should be grateful you’re still alive to feel it,” Raeb said, tension melting from his body.
Aeo groaned. “I’m not sure if I’m ready to feel grateful yet.”
He rubbed his hands over his face, then noticed the gleaming cuff on his wrist. He stared at it for a second, then at Dragana’s arm. Faint shadows, with just a hint of bronze and shimmering green, traced the outline of where the cuff had once rested.
“What did I miss?” he asked.
“Your spirit was coming apart. You needed something to hold you together. To keep you alive.” She gestured toward the cuff. “That will bind us, body and soul,” she said. A strange mixture of timidity and nervousness tainted her voice. “Well, as much as it can bind a soul without a body, anyway.”
Aeo looked down at the cuff, then back to Dragana. He looked confused, but Raeb could see him puzzling out the details. A spark of understanding lit his eyes and he stared at Dragana, still confused, but awed.
“What did you do?” he asked. Raeb didn’t read any anger in his tone. The question had been loaded with gentleness and genuine, innocent curiosity. Very unlike the brash assassin.
“I’ve given you my spirit,” she said. She sounded childlike, innocent, terrified. “It means … well … our souls are bound together, now. We … uh … kind of belong to each other.”
Aeo was silent for a moment. “You mean you married me?” he asked.
Dragana blushed, as much as a spirit can, and her spine straightened. Raeb could almost feel her terror. If Aeo rejected her right now, he would blast the man’s spirit into oblivion himself.
Aeo stared at Dragana for a few seconds. Then he launched himself at her, wrapped his arms around her, and kissed her.
Ecstasy. There was no other word for what Aeo felt as he kissed Dragana. Here in the spirit world, he was real enough to be with Dragana.
Blood rushed through his body as he felt Dragana’s body against his. He lost all concentration until the only thing in his world was his contact with her. Her lips on his. His hands on her back. The perfection of her in his arms. He’d thought he was happy when he was fighting, that he was made for battle. But holding Dragana, he knew this was what he was truly meant to do.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew it couldn’t last. Once they returned to the physical world, Aeo would be just a sword again. But he refused to dwell on those thoughts. As long as they were both here, he wasn’t about to let her go.
Raeb was practically dancing around them in his anxiety. Their time was limited, and they had no idea what kind of defenses the hive would erect once it detected their presence. As much as Aeo wanted to stay in Dragana’s arms forever, he got to his feet. He helped her up. They stood together, Aeo and Dragana hand in hand, and took their first real look at the Entana hive.
This place had the feel of an eerie labyrinth. The echoes of Entana hunters surrounded them. Dim light illuminated the room, though there didn’t seem to be any source. The walls were more ethereal than real, shifting colors and seeming to fade in and out of reality on a whim. Instead of echoing like the hunters’, their own voices sounded flat and muted.
“Does this seem familiar to you?” he asked Raeb.
The other man nodded. “It feels like Saydee’s mind.”
“I think we landed in the middle of a maze,” Dragana said.
Aeo had noticed that, too. There were five doorways, each corridor becoming lost to darkness and gloom within steps of the entrance. Horrible, mangled cries echoed out of them. “Those don’t sound like the hunters,” he whispered.
“No,” Raeb said, drawing Sunray, “they don’t.”
Aeo moved to unsheathe the Bok’Tarong, but found it already in his hand. He pictured it in its sheath, and it was there. A thought and it returned to his grip. Handy thing.
Dragana stared at the blades in his hand, then drew her own Bok’Tarong from the sheath in her back. She looked confused for a moment, then calm spread through her features. “The Bok’Tarong is a part of me,” she said, glancing f
rom her blades to the cuff on Aeo’s wrist. “In more ways than one. I suppose my spirit doesn’t understand it isn’t actually mine.”
Aeo grinned. They had two Bok’Tarongs. Their chances had just doubled.
And they would need it, if the sounds emanating from the corridors were any hint.
Aeo raised the Bok’Tarong and put his back to Raeb’s and Dragana’s. He scanned the corridors. The ever-shifting lights and textures made it impossible to tell if something approached.
He strained every one of his senses. Sight—ambiguous at best. Smell—nothing. Taste and touch—not helpful. Hearing—filled with the echoing cries of these not-quite Entana hunters. It wasn’t the best kind of information, but it was all he had to work with.
Dragana leaned back, pressing her head against the men’s shoulders. “Shouldn’t they have found us by now?”
Aeo shrugged. “We don’t know how far sound travels through here, or how twisted the paths are. They could be on the other side of that wall but unable to reach us, for all we know.”
“Or they don’t want to catch us,” Raeb said. “They could be surrounding us, or corralling us, or—”
Raeb’s words were cut off by a choking sound. His eyes bulged as he swayed, face turning red. Sunray clattered to the floor. Then he toppled to his knees, with the speed and inevitability of a glacier.
Dragana knelt beside him. Aeo spun in circles, keeping his eye on every entrance.
Raeb froze, holding so still he could have been a statue. “Raeb?” Dragana held his shoulders in trembling hands. “Don’t you dare die before I can yell at you.”
He convulsed a few times, but did not respond.
A voice echoed all around them, hissing and slithering from the walls into their minds. “You beg for death by coming here.”
Aeo looked up and around, searching for the source of the voice, knowing he wouldn’t find it. “I come bearing death, you mean,” he called back.
He assumed the rolling, gurgling sound that followed was laughter.
“You humans and your humor. It has always been one of the more endearing traits of your species. We have never known another race to have such a capacity to laugh at their own stupidity.”
Soul of the Blade Page 28
