“You are the goddess of women, your wisdom is keen. I will heed your advice in all things.” This time Maxum did bow his head.
Confused and overwhelmed by all she was hearing, Airi had been struck mute. She was staring at a goddess—a goddess!—and had listened to a plot to kill a god! She couldn’t even begin to know how to deal with something like that.
Meru came up to her, lifted her chin with two fingers and peered down into her eyes…into her soul it seemed.
“Just remember, my little chosen one, the dagger cannot lie. Sometimes there are truths too painful to bear, and sometimes there are truths we are not yet ready to hear. Be careful what questions you ask. Be certain you want the truth that will be spoken. And the dagger will make people deal fairly with you, but make sure you deal fairly with them in return. The dagger is yours for as long as you live, but it can be taken away if your heart becomes impure or unjust.”
With that she turned and simply faded away, the temple dissolving with her, leaving them kneeling in the grasses of the glade.
Maxum was the first to get to his feet but she quickly followed. He began walking back toward camp and she was hot on his heels.
“You want to kill a god?” she spat. “Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“Keep your voice down,” he hissed back at her.
“Oh why? So some other god doesn’t overhear me? They are omniscient, Maxum! They know everything, see and hear everything!”
“No, they do not,” he said, stopping suddenly and turning to her. Her momentum sent her crashing into his chest and he closed his hands around her upper arms to help her regain her balance. “Look, I know a lot more about the gods than most people do. I’ve listened to every song from every storyteller on two continents now. The one thing true in almost every song is that the gods are almost as human as we are! They play, they fight, they make friends and make enemies. They fornicate and have children. They feel everything we feel…sometimes to an even stronger degree. Certainly to a more dangerous one if you happen to get caught in the middle. But the one thing I learned was that no god anywhere could possibly pay attention to every being at every time. In the Song of Delleran, Xaxis was ‘taken by surprise.’ In the Song of Holybore, Hella was caught bathing naked in the woods, unaware of the watcher. In the Song of Jukessa, Mordu was unaware of his wife’s affair. Mordu, the god of love caught unaware of a human loving his wife. So you see, they cannot hear and know everything at all times.”
He released her and turned to go but she grabbed hold of him and spun him back around.
“All right then, answer me this…why do you want to kill a god? What curse is…” She stopped and understanding dawned. “From dusk to juquil’s hour. That is when the curse happens isn’t it? What happens to you during those hours?”
He looked for a moment like he wasn’t going to answer, but eventually he said, “I am dragged into the depths of the soil and rock of the ground and there I am crushed and suffocated.”
Airi’s mouth dropped open in horror. “For all those hours?”
“Every minute of them.”
“But…why? What could you possibly have done?”
“Have you ever heard the Song of Four Brothers?”
“Well, yes. The four brothers climbed Mount Airidare and stole drinks from the fountain of immortality and as punishment—” She broke off her eyes going wide. “You are one of the brothers, aren’t you? This is why you want to kill Sabo. To get vengeance on him for—”
“No! This is not about vengeance. It is about freedom. All I want is to be free of this curse. The only way for me to be free is if Sabo willingly releases me from it…or if he is destroyed. Sabo thrives on pain and suffering, he would never release such a delightful source of it. I have no other recourse.”
“But to fight a god? That is the act of a madman! You may be immortal, but you are not invincible. You can be killed somehow!”
“If a god-made sword separates my head from my shoulders then I will die, no doubt going straight to the eight hells to continue my torturous existence.” He plucked at the talisman around his neck. “But thanks to this my head cannot be removed from my neck. I am invincible.”
“As long as you are wearing it! What will keep him from snatching it from around your neck?”
“I will. He would have to get past me and Weysa’s Champion.”
“This is madness,” she whispered.
“I agree. But what other choice do I have?”
She could see no other alternatives open to him. Songs of Sabo’s creative brutality to men were sung far and wide and in gory detail. The god of pain and suffering was the god men prayed to when they wanted their enemies to suffer and die. When men wanted vengeance they prayed to Sabo. In a pantheon of emotionally flawed gods, he was the cruelest.
When she had no response he turned and walked away from her. She hastened after him once again.
“All right then…you’re going to fight a god. But what is this ‘she is mine’ crap? You lied to a goddess you wanted help from.”
“I lied?” he asked.
“Well, yes. I’m not yours. I’m—”
“You’re wielding the Dagger of Truths, Airi,” he said softly, giving her a speaking glance. “I couldn’t have lied even if I wanted to.”
Airi stopped dead in her tracks and gaped at him. When he didn’t stop she was forced to hurry and catch up with him once more.
“I am not yours! I don’t belong to anyone but me!”
“You are mine. You are one of my men. One of those whom I am responsible for. A responsibility I take very seriously.”
“Ha! Do you? You weren’t acting so responsible when you brought us into the dragon’s den.”
“I do take it very seriously. And I didn’t bring you anywhere, you followed me—of your own accord I might add.”
Well damn it, he had a point there. But she wasn’t going to let him off the hook that easily.
“But even so you know that wasn’t what she meant when she was talking about women and finding a destined mate to make you whole or some crap like that. You don’t believe in that any more than I do and you certainly don’t feel that way about me.”
“Are you stating facts or are you asking me a question?” he asked her. “Do you want to hear the truth? Ask me and let the dagger do its job.”
She opened her mouth to do exactly that, but then a sudden fear filled her. What if he said…? No. No, he wouldn’t. Couldn’t. Didn’t feel that way about her. He just wanted to bed her. That was all. There was no emotion attached to any of it.
Then why was it so hard to ask the question? It was a simple question with a simple answer. An answer she thought she wanted to hear.
Or did she?
Confused, she shook her head and decided it was best not to ask right then and to deal with it later, when she’d had more time to think about it.
“So what now?”
“We go to the Killing Forest and find the labyrinth. The Killing Forest is only a week’s travel from here. Then we go to Gorgun and find the demigod and the Cuff of Cadence.”
“Gorgun is a month’s journey at least!”
“Do you have somewhere else to be?”
“Winter is coming!”
“So I expect we will be cold.” He shot her a sidelong glance. “We can keep each other warm.”
The words sent a wave of heat flushing across her cheeks and then down through her body. The invitation was clear and direct. The response was not so simple.
“Your men aren’t going to follow you on these crazy quests without having something to show for it.”
“A labyrinth is usually lousy with treasure, especially one being guarded by a great beast. You think that ring is going to be the only thing it’s guarding?”
“You can’t know that for sure.”
“No…and the men know that each venture has two possible outcomes. Either we make money or we don’t. This is a job. We have to work at it. Treas
ure doesn’t just fall into our laps. There’s a long journey between here and the cuff. I am sure there are many treasures to be plundered along the way. And if not…we’re going to the house of a rich demigod. There’s certain to be some payoff there.”
She fell silent as they walked back toward camp. Then she asked, “Why do you keep them with you? As you said, you are invincible now. You don’t need them to fight for you. To protect you. Why do you have them with you?”
“Because I owe it to them,” he said. Then he stopped suddenly and glared at her. “Damn that dagger,” he ground out.
Suddenly Airi had a new sense of power. He had to answer any question she asked as long as she had the dagger in hand and he had to do it honestly.
“Why do you think you owe them?”
“It was a long road to find the talisman. With very little payout. Sure, the dragon’s den made up for a lot of that, but they had my back as we battled our way through the catacombs where the talisman was buried. We saw things there—dead things come to life again—that you would never want to see in your life. If not for them I would have died in the process of getting this talisman and it is going to be key in my battle with Sabo. I could never have succeeded without it.”
“Fair enough,” she said. “But you don’t owe them anything. As you said, they followed you willingly.”
“It’s how I feel,” he said quietly. “That’s all that matters.”
He had a point. She looked upon him with new eyes. Here was a man of great honor, for all he liked to portray himself as a greedy fortune hunter. A very brave man, to think of battling with a god. It was an impossible task, one that very well might mean his death or worse…more torment. Worse torment. If he failed there would be no escape from his torture.
She thought of that as they approached the campsite. Thought about how terrible the torture was that he suffered. What would the men think if they knew? She suspected she knew. They would not want to be around a man who was cursed by the gods. They would think of themselves before they would think of Maxum. Just as she would have done. Might still do. She had to seriously think about whether or not she wanted to be a part of this insane journey. Winter was coming, she told herself. She never traveled during winter if it could at all be avoided. She had enough money to keep her comfortably for a long time, certainly through the winter. And with the dagger there was potential for an endless source of income. She could go into some sort of trade, the dagger would force everyone to deal with her fairly. She could easily make money without having to worry about anyone taking advantage. The downside was that she would always have to speak the truth herself whenever she carried the dagger. She hadn’t yet decided on how to deal with that. A thief needed to lie. It was just the nature of the game.
But with some proper thought she wouldn’t need to be a thief any longer. For her thievery had been a means to an end—not something she relished and took great joy in. She could con and lie with the best of them and took pride in her abilities, but she could just as easily live without all of the danger, the lies, and the manipulations. In fact she would prefer it.
They came up on the camp and found the men were already up and ready to leave. They were simply waiting for them to make an appearance.
“About time,” Kilon barked. “Just because you two feel like screwing in the weeds doesn’t mean you get to make the rest of us wait. We should have been on the road already.”
“We weren’t—” Airi began indignantly.
“We leave when I say we leave,” Maxum said, stepping up to get face-to-face with Kilon. “And what I do with my time is my business. I’m getting tired of your attitude. If you want to stay a part of this group you better find some congeniality somewhere inside of you.”
Kilon’s jaw worked, but he didn’t say anything in return. Maxum, clearly deciding the matter was handled, went to saddle his horse. When she went to her saddle she was reminded that Sarda had made off with her saddlebag. Inside had been her gold, a change of clothes and about a dozen other little things she used throughout the days. Now she would have to replace everything, including the bag itself.
She sighed and glanced over at Maxum. Now she would have to depend on him for everything once more until she got to Calandria and the bank. Luckily she had been wise enough to keep the vault key in a small hidden pocket on her saddle itself. Otherwise she would have been right back where she started.
The idea of being stolen from…it just irked her. If it had just been a test, why hadn’t her things been returned to her?
She fondled the dagger for a moment. Had it been worth it? she asked herself. It was hard to tell so early in the game but she thought the loss of a little gold and a few articles of clothing would pale in comparison to the worth of the thing.
She pulled the blade out of its shining black sheath and had to marvel over the fine workmanship of it. Well of course, it would be fine. It was a god-made weapon. There could never be anything finer than god-made weapons. It would never rust and, if rumor was true, it would never dull. She had never come close to seeing a god-made weapon in her life. If she had, she probably would have stolen it.
But god-made weapons were rare. She wondered if Meru had forged this weapon herself or if Hondor, the demigod who was blacksmith to the gods, had forged it.
It didn’t matter, she realized. What mattered was the power of the thing. The men had no idea what it was she held in her hands and it was probably best that they didn’t. But they would begin to suspect quickly if they found themselves telling truths they would not normally share. So for the time being she tucked the dagger away into her remaining saddlebag and then cinched the girth to the saddle tightly around Hero’s belly.
She mounted shortly after and rode up abreast of Maxum. She didn’t know why; she should have held back like she always did and avoided him. She could tell by the fleeting look of surprise on his features that he had expected her to do just that. But she was tired of running and hiding from him like a child. She knew him better now, better than any of the others, and that meant something to her. It might not mean much to him in the end, but it meant something to her.
She almost wished she hadn’t found out all these truths about him. Knowing all the details of his tortured life was going to make it harder for her to deny him anything…including access to her body.
Oh, who was she kidding? She was not denying him access to her body because she didn’t want to deny him. Not any longer. He had proven just how much passion there could be between them. How much pleasure. And it was a pleasure she found she craved almost above anything else. She had never freely indulged in a dalliance with a man. Oh, she had been hot and furtive with a boy back when she had been in her teen turnings, but that was the sum of her experience.
But Doisy’s potion meant a certain freedom she had never experienced before and Maxum’s passion for her, mature and hot and wild as it was, promised to be something far beyond the fumblings of her youth. True, she was young yet, but she was far older and wiser and she suspected she would appreciate a liaison with a man far and away above what she had experienced before.
And what a man he was. Complex and powerful, potent and sexual, tempestuous and tortured. There would never be anything like him to cross her path in her life again, she thought, so why shouldn’t she take advantage of him while he was around? She could simply use him for the pleasure he could provide and then walk away when the time came. And the time would come. It always did. Whether it would be her leaving him or him leaving her, it would come. Even if she followed him through to the end of these quests she would watch him pit himself against a god…and that would be the end of it. She didn’t care how many talismans or totems he managed to acquire. A god was a god and there was no way he could fight a god and survive.
But in the end that meant he had very little time left in this world. At the end of it he would either be dead or consigned to some kind of hell for the rest of his days. If these were his last days, shouldn
’t she provide some companionship and some pleasure he could take memories of with him wherever he ended up going? Shouldn’t she try and give him enough pleasure to hopefully outweigh a small portion of the terrible torment that awaited him?
She was suddenly angry with him…angry he would throw away his life. But the anger quickly faded when she realized he was only living half a life to begin with. The other half was lived buried deep in the ground. She shuddered as she thought of it, thought of what it must be like to be dragged beneath the surface and suffocated by the heavy soil. What must it feel like to have the weight of all that rock and dirt pressing in on him, crushing him from all sides at once?
Unable to help herself, she reached out and touched a hand to his thigh.
Maxum looked down at her hand with no little amount of surprise. It was an intimate gesture, one that he never would have thought she would instigate. He had fought with her for every intimacy thus far. This one was finally being freely given.
He didn’t know how to feel about that. He was afraid she was doing so out of pity for him, now that she knew his situation. He did not want pity. Especially from her. He would rather she continue to fight him tooth and nail. Besides, the fighting was half of the fun. He wondered if he would grow bored with her when she finally gave in to him. If it was the game that kept him so interested.
Well, there was only one way to find out. He covered her hand on his thigh, squeezed her fingers, then picked up her hand and leaned over to touch her finger to his mouth, which he then promptly and baldly sucked into his mouth. He felt her hand tense, saw her eyes widen, then she flushed and jerked her hand away. She glanced back at the men behind them, clearly afraid they had been seen.
What should it matter to her if they were seen? The men already thought he was fucking her. Little intimacies like that would merely remove all doubt. And he would be fucking her. Tonight, if he had any say in the matter. There had been enough games, enough fighting. If she felt sorry for him he would use that to his advantage to get what he wanted. It would be just another tactic, he told himself. A weapon to be used against her. Then he would purge her from his system and be done with her.
Bound in Darkness Page 19
