by Sam Cheever
Astis turned her heart shaped face in my direction. Her eyes were a clear, beautiful blue and her features were delicate. She looked like an angel whose only flaw was a tiny overbite. But rather than detract from her impossible beauty, the flaw somehow made her even more appealing. “I’d heard about your prickly temperament, Princess Darma. I see the rumors weren’t an exaggeration.”
Slayer coughed suspiciously. I narrowed my gaze at him as he coughed again behind his fist, his eyes sparkling with amusement.
“Shut up, Slayer.”
He allowed a grin to escape. “Rumors are hurtful things.”
I gritted my teeth, determined not to feed the rumor mills by shrieking at him like a fish-demon wife. “Can we get this over with please? I want some peace and quiet.”
The air behind Astis glittered and Astra and Dialle shimmered into the room. The expression of disgust Astra threw in the witch’s direction made me feel better. Apparently I wasn’t the only one in the room who wanted to feed the woman to the gargoyles.
Dialle gave me a smile. “Your color is better.”
“That’s because she’s trying to keep from throttling me in front of the witch,” Slayer said on a laugh.
I ignored him, realizing that nothing I said or did would keep him from being an ass. I’d get my revenge later. When I was on my feet again and he least expected it. The thought made me smile. “Maybe I could throttle Slayer until I heal,” I offered hopefully.
The men chuckled. Astra seemed to be considering it.
“Kidding, Astra.”
“No,” she lifted a small finger. “The idea has merit.”
Slayer shook his head.
Dialle took Astra’s hand and kissed the tip of the finger. “We spoke to Torre. He told us what he thinks happened.”
I inclined my head, panic setting in. “Did he give you a fix?” Please God he didn’t tell them what he’d told me...
Astra shook her head. “We told him we were certain Astis could heal you.”
“That’s unfortunate,” the witch said happily. “Because I cannot.”
The room fell into shocked silence. The temperature in the room rose to suffocating levels and Astra’s aura turned from silver to charcoal gray. When she took a step toward Astis, Dialle grabbed her hand. “Clarify, witch or I’ll send you to the fairy mound for pleasuring,” the king threatened softly.
While that didn’t sound particularly terrifying, the threat seemed to work on Astis. Her smile fell away and she turned a hostile gaze on me. “She has a corrupted mating mark. It is slowly poisoning her to death.”
“Holy fried pixies,” Astra muttered. She turned an accusatory look to me. “I can’t believe you let him mark you in the first place. His magic’s not nearly powerful enough to overcome yours.”
“How in Hades would I know that, Astra?” I glared right back at her, neither of us willing to give in to the other.
Slayer finally cleared his throat, distracting us. “You can’t fix that?” he asked the Supreme High Witch.
Astis shook her head, clearly happy with her inability. “There are only two ways to fix a corrupted mating mark.”
I panicked. There was no way I could let her tell them what Torre had told me. “I don’t...!” I stopped as her words sunk in. “Two ways?”
“Yes. The Prince can either recreate the mark, strengthening it so it will work this time...”
“Absolutely not!” Slayer and Astra said at the same time.
Though he seemed less certain than the others, Dialle agreed. “A second failure would be too dangerous.”
“Or you can take her to the necromancer,” Astis continued.
I really didn’t like the sound of that. But it was an option I hadn’t known I’d had so the least I could do was pursue it. “What necromancer? How can he or she help?”
“She’d never survive the journey,” Dialle said, frowning.
“I don’t know anything about this necromancer,” Astra said, “But it sounds dangerous.”
“She rules the dead in the frozen environs,” Dialle explained. “Her kingdom consists of a narrow band of land, mostly mountainous, that is adjacent to the Hell dimension. It’s very difficult to reach her lair and, once there, it’s even more difficult to negotiate with her.”
“Why?” I asked.
“She is the most evil creature in the dark world. She cares for nothing or no one except herself and her ghouls. To get her to help we’ll have to promise her something she values highly.”
“What does she value?”
“Pain and sorrow,” Slayer said.
I looked at Slayer, wondering why it sounded like he spoke from experience. What I saw on his face scared the crap out of me. He was pale, his gaze bright and his jaw taut. He looked terrified. I made my tone as gentle as I could. “Slayer?”
He blinked, glanced up, and shook his head. “I can’t...” he swallowed hard. Turning to Dialle he cleared his throat and tried again. “I can’t support that, Dialle. As an option it’s more dangerous than the mark.”
Astra had her gaze fixed on Slayer and she looked alarmed by his reaction. “As I said, I don’t know anything about this necromancer, but judging by Slayer’s reaction I vote no.”
“You want the Prince to mark her again?” the witch asked with a half-smile.
“Of course not!” my sister responded.
The witch shrugged, letting her meaning hang unspoken between us.
When I couldn’t stand it anymore I broke the silence. “I’ll go to the necromancer.”
“Darma, no...”
I held up a hand to stop Slayer. “I’ve made my decision. It’s either that or die. I refuse to let Torre mark me again.”
Slayer looked at Astra. “Talk some sense into her.”
Astra frowned thoughtfully. “Can you make her stronger?” She asked the witch. “So she can travel to the frozen environs?”
“Frunk me!” Slayer bellowed.
“It’s what she wants, Slayer. She’s capable of making her own decisions.”
“Normally, yes. But she’s weak and delirious,” he objected.
“Stop talking, Slayer!” I commanded with impressive force. Unfortunately the effect was ruined when I succumbed to a coughing fit. When I could breathe again without hacking, I told Astis, “Do what you can do to make me stronger. I want to leave as soon as possible.”
~SC~
After nearly being melted down into a feisty puddle in Hell, I never would have believed that I’d be longing for heat again. But navigating the epically frigid landscape of the frozen environs had driven any semblance of warmth from my body and, between shivering so hard my teeth were in danger of being fractured, and fighting to keep my fingers and toes from freezing solid and falling off, I decided a short vacation in the fiery pits might be in order.
The air was so cold it burned my lungs and turned the condensation from my nose to ice as soon as it left me. The landscape was a stark white as far as the eye could see, a constantly shifting silvery haze riding the air high above our heads. In the distance was a jagged range of daunting mountain tops, the snowy whiteness of their height only occasionally severed by a strip of brown that I assumed was bare earth. With fresh snow and ice falls every few minutes, I was amazed that any part of the place could remain clear of the icy mix.
Nothing grew in the desolate tundra. Nothing moved. But more than anything else, it was the silence that bothered me. A silence so deep that every breath we breathed seemed to roar through our lungs and then die when it hit the air. The weight of the cold stifled sound beneath it, freezing it to death.
We moved in a long line through the rough terrain, keeping several feet of space between us in case the icy ground fell out from under us. Apparently that was a common experience and we were trying to minimize our losses if it happened. As far as I could see ahead and behind us were Dialle’s loyal guard, their wide, red faces tense. Nurturing their own, Hellish internal heat, the soldiers’ heavy devil
bodies were only lightly covered against the cold. At the very front of the winding snake was Astra and her king.
Slayer trudged along beside me on the glass-like surface of the valley, his weight fracturing the silvery stuff in pretty webs that spread outward and stopped in a nearly perfect oval. He hadn’t left my side since we’d traveled through the portal into the Necromancer’s kingdom. I’d been gritting my teeth for hours, trying to keep from yelling at him as he continually threw worried glances my way. He was constantly grabbing my elbow, trying to help me over ragged ice flows, or asking me if I was all right.
I knew he was worried about me and that was sweet. I was worried about me too. But I felt as if I’d been beaten from head to toe with a dragon spike and I was fighting hard not to show it. Any weakness, however small, would bring him down on me like stink in a gargoyle nest. And I was tired of having to put on a happy front.
From the corner of my eye I saw Slayer turn his head and open his mouth. I lost it. “Stop talking! I’m fine.”
His lips slammed shut and one eyebrow peaked. “I’m glad to see your temper is still intact.”
I threw him a glower. “I’m tired of people asking me how I am.”
“I’m sensing that.” He grinned. “But I was just going to ask if you wanted one of these.” He held up a nutrition bar. He’d instructed all of us before we left that we needed to eat almost continuously in the frozen environs or the cold would quickly consume what energy we had and kill us.
My stomach roiled at the thought of food, but I knew I needed it. Taking the bar from him, I tried a smile. It felt like a death grimace. “Thanks. Sorry for snapping at you.”
He shrugged. “I’d say I’m used to it but that would just get me yelled at again.”
I tore the covering off the bar. “Since when are you too delicate to be yelled at?”
“I’m not. But I don’t want you to waste your energy excoriating me. I’d rather you saved your prickly mood for the necromancer. You’ll need it there.”
I took a tiny bite, hoping to sneak the food past my roiling gut before it realized what had happened and recoiled. “You’ve met her before?”
He frowned. “Unfortunately.”
“Tell me about it.” A story was just the thing I needed to distract me from my physical discomfort. Even if it was a horror story.
“I’d rather not talk about it.”
“Why not?”
He shrugged, but I noted the tightness around his eyes and mouth. Something about the experience had seriously spooked the unspookable Slayer. Suddenly I had to know what it was. “Tell me. Maybe talking about it will help.”
He gave a bitter snort. “Help who? It certainly won’t help me.”
“Me,” I told him softly. “I’ll feel better if I know what I’m going up against.”
His expression softened and, finally, he nodded. “You’re right. It’s best if you’re prepared.”
I risked another little bite, chewing slowly.
He frowned as if considering how or where to start and then began his story. “Its name is Morta.” He glanced down at me. “The Necromancer. Morta is omnisexual, a creature with no predetermined sex that consumes the fear and death of others.”
Despite my determination to listen without reaction, I shuddered. I took another bite to cover up the movement. “Lovely.”
He inclined his head. “Yeah. The thing’s a real peach. I came here with a thousand soldiers at the behest of Queen Persuis.”
“Queen of the red dragons?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“It was not widely known but Queen P had trouble bearing female offspring. She finally had a daughter strong enough to rule but the child was killed by the royals.”
“I remember that. Astra was involved somehow.”
He grinned. “It was how I met your sister.”
I really didn’t like the grin on his face. “Anyway...”
“Yes, Queen P asked me to accompany her to see Morta in the hopes that the necromancer could remove the flaw inside her body which was keeping her from bearing healthy females.”
I frowned. “But if I remember right, she had several sons.”
“She did. You know as well as I do that the dragons have a matriarchal society. Men don’t rule Queendoms.”
“Smart.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “We’d been told how high the price would be before coming. But Queen P felt she had no choice. The future of her Queendom was at stake. If she didn’t produce a suitable female heir within her breeding life, there would be no one to rule the red dragons when she died.”
“What was the price?”
Slayer’s gaze slid away. A muscle in his jaw jumped and his hands fisted at his sides. “An unacceptable one.”
I wondered what could possibly be so horrible that it still affected Slayer, a strong man whose playful demeanor made it seem like nothing much disturbed him. “Tell me.”
He turned to me, his eyes suspiciously bright. I realized in that moment that whatever it had been, Slayer had felt its sting as much, if not more than the red queen had. “Morta’s powers are vast, beyond anything possible this side of Heaven or Hell. But only rarely is her help requested. Why do you think that is, Darma?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
Slayer pulled air into his lungs in a long, shaky breath. He glanced away, toward the front of the procession, where Astra and Dialle, with Gerch taking point, were about to step onto the mountain.
“The payment she demands in unimaginable. Outrageous.” His sexy dimples showed briefly as he gave me a grim smile.
I loved those dimples. But it gave me no pleasure to see them in that moment. “Tell me.”
“Her oldest son.” He scrubbed a large, square hand over his face, clearly upset. “Beezus...”
His voice tightened around the name and trailed off.
“She demanded his death?”
“She devoured his life force as payment for her healing power. It was a horrible thing to see. And Morta made us watch. It was one of the conditions.”
“But how could the queen do that to one of her children?”
Slayer shrugged. “Males have far less value in the queendoms than females. Still...” he drew in another shaky breath. “Persuis loved her son. It nearly killed her to see him die.”
We walked in silence for several moments―Slayer wrestling with the pain of reliving Beezus’s death and me terrified to learn what payment she would demand of us. Finally, I dragged my thoughts away from myself and reached for Slayer, grasping his hand. “Beezus was your friend?”
He didn’t respond for a moment and, when he finally did, his voice was thick with unshed tears. “We grew up together. I loved him like a brother.”
Something deep inside my heart tore at the news. I felt suddenly guilty for making him relive it. “I’m so sorry.”
He shook his head. “You were right. You need to know...to understand.” He turned a fierce gaze my way. “She’ll make it hurt, Darma. She’ll demand something that will tear you into tiny pieces. It’s what she does. She savors pain...relishes it.”
I nodded as if I understood. But of course I didn’t. I wouldn’t fully understand until I stood in the same place Queen Persuis had stood. And I suddenly realized how incredibly strong the red queen had been. I wasn’t at all sure I’d be that strong.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Night Bites
Eanie beanie monster meanie,
Eat my magic and die.
A shout went up at the head of the climbing column. My gaze jerked in that direction and, behind me on the steep slope, Slayer stopped climbing. “What is it?” he asked breathlessly.
“I’m not sure...”
The face of the mountain exploded outward and something long and black with bright yellow markings on its belly shot out and punched two of Gerch’s soldiers off the mountain. Arms flailing, the two men soared out into open space and, with their mouth
s open wide in silent screams, plunged to their deaths on the valley floor.
Horrified, I watched as the shimmery haze that had clung to the sky speared downward, covering them in a roiling miasma through which I could only see flailing feet and hands. When the haze finally rose upward again, there was nothing left of the devils except two skeletons that appeared yellow against the bright white of the snow. “Oh my god!” Something tugged in the center of my chest. A spark flared in my magic but I pushed it down.
Another shout sounded and the mountain burst again, sending four soldiers careening off its sides. I didn’t wait to see what would happen to them, turning to Slayer I screamed. “Shift! Hurry!”
But we didn’t have time. The frozen rock rolled beneath our feet and I had to fling myself to my belly to keep from being thrown off. Slayer grabbed for the rock as he tipped backward. His arm shot out, energy erupting from his hand in a short, powerful burst that slammed him forward with a soft grunt.
I grabbed his hand. “We need to shi...” The rock above us blasted outward. The snake-like creature crashed into the guard directly above me, sending him flying on a husky scream. Slayer threw himself over me as an avalanche of rocks bombarded us.
I clutched frantically at the mountain’s surface with my fingers and toes, glad I was wearing leather boots that allowed me to grip the jagged surface.
Slayer’s arm shot out and he slashed the thick, black appendage in half with a power arrow. The thing screamed as hot, black blood sizzled into the snow around us. The severed stub flailed wildly, smashing into the earth mere inches away from our legs..
Rocks erupted from the surface above us and rained down. A boulder the size of my head smashed into my forearm, sending agony spearing through me. My arm went numb and I lost my grip on the rock and started to slide.
Screams filled the air as, eruption after eruption sent Dialle’s people flying to their deaths above and below us. The way the path was being obliterated, I realized that, if Slayer and I survived the initial attack, we’d be trapped in the middle of the incline, unable to climb up or down.
Slayer wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me against his long, hard body. His heart beat a rapid staccato against my back. “I’ve got you, Princess.” He shot energy into the rock above our heads, creating a deep crevice he could grip. His arm a tight band around my middle, he did the same thing down by our feet and then shoved my boots into it with his foot. “Stay close to the rock.”
