“I didn’t,” Layna finally managed to choke out, “I think there’s something wrong…” foam bubbled into her mouth and stars danced before her eyes. She felt her body start to convulse uncontrollably and she heard Aria gasp and saw the woman’s eyes widen before the pain became too intense to notice anything else…
CHAPTER 14
Nathair felt a sudden horrible wrenching of his soul.
Something was wrong. He concentrated his being on his inner self, searching for the source of the unbalance. He traced it along the paths of power...no. This couldn't be.
The life of one of his girls was draining and draining fast. He couldn't stand losing her. Feeling the life of her, all that power slowly just draining away was unbearable. Forgetting the feigning of bonds, he drew upon the power in the stone now embedded within his chest. He could feel the heat of it rising as he accessed it, its throbbing pulse matching his own quickening heartbeat. He heard gasps of his two captors, and felt spells being flung at him. He waved them away with impatience.
Something inside him stirred, then suddenly woke with a vengeance and he felt as though it was literally trying to claw its way out of him.
He threw back his head and howled in agony and brought shaking hands before his eyes. The skin was peeling away, and black scales took its place, each one burning with searing pain as it formed. He howled again and fire sprang forth from his lips, charring them to ash. He stumbled forwards from the pain as two great wings ripped out of his back, tearing through the skin with ease. After that all he could think was pain and darkness.
*
It was free! The being drank thirstily from the powers around it, taking in more and more to break free from this puny prison and build from pure power the form it truly should be. It felt the agony of its host, but felt no sympathy for their shared body. The being didn't understand such feelings. It poured every drop of energy it could into the making of its new vessel. The howl of pain turned to laughter and the being opened its new eyes.
Ah! To see the world again!
Two frightened creatures stood before it, cowering in intense fear.
Rightly so, it thought smugly before biting one's head off. Gulping it down in one easy swallow, it darted its elongated neck forward to grab hold of the other by the leg as it turned to flee. With a quick jerk of its mighty maw, it expertly flung the morsel into the air and caught it neatly, downing it in two bites. It licked its newly formed lips, and ran the forked tongue over the new razor sharp rows of teeth.
It took to the air, reveling in the feel of the wind beneath it.
But just shy of the completion of the being’s new form, progress suddenly stopped. It felt a tiny urge in the back of its mind. A foreign thought made its way into its consciousness.
She’s dying!
The being paused and pondered this oddity for a moment.
She’s dying! The voice repeated, screaming its will into its head.
The being batted the presence away like a pesky insect and returned its attention to becoming fully awake.
The thought stubbornly pushed itself to the surface again, refusing to be ignored. I WILL find my girls. The being pushed it deeper, back down into the depths more forcibly this time, becoming annoyed by the interruption. But even before it could turn its full attention back to what it had been doing, the annoyance surged forward once again, like a trapped animal clawing its way to freedom. There was such force behind the thought that it wracked the being to its core.
Confused, it turned its full attention now to this alien presence and probed at it roughly.
It was the host!
It was too stunned to repel it again. What was the host’s mind still doing here? It should have been expelled when he took over the body and made it its own. It reached for the mind and shifted through the memories harshly. So, he thought he was a god himself did he?
Before it had time to finish the thought, the host made a final thrust into the front of their shared consciousness, and the being found itself inexplicably pushed back down into its dungeon. But the door wasn’t shut as tightly as it had been before, and he was free to watch the creature who had managed to withstand its possession.
*
She’s dying! Nathair mind-screamed with all of his might and suddenly found himself tumbling back into his body.
Except that it wasn’t his body anymore, and he was flying! Nathair’s eyes widened as he gazed down at the ground far below him and in his surprise he started teetering dangerously against the wind.
Without the mind with experience in flying in control he was working against the body’s instincts when he tried to move the way he normally would.
He flapped his reptilian wings wildly but he only managed to flail about in descent, but he was still falling. He tried desperately to not concentrate on what his body was doing, telling it to fly without consciously trying to control the individual muscle movements. As the ground came rushing closer, he felt a nudge in his mind, and as he focused on it realized that it was the knowledge of flight.
He grasped at it frantically and as the memories of thousands of years of experience with this body washed over him, he spread his massive wings and caught the air, moments before it would have been too late to pull up.
It wrenched his flight muscles terribly in doing so, but no more damage was done than he had endured before.
The thought took Nathair by surprise. Before? Now that his flight was in control, his wings beat effortlessly as though they had done it a million times.
They have. A smug thought bubbled to the surface from within his head.
Who are you? Nathair thought back, distracted by the awesome power of his new form. But whatever it was did not deign to answer him. Nathair only spent a moment to marvel at his new ability, then focus his vision on the ground far below. He had another moment of admiration for this form as he could easily make out the forms on the ground below though he knew to them he must only be a dark blot against the sky.
He got his bearings quickly and turned towards Treymayne.
He briefly entertained the thought of jumping, as he had done with Jezebel, but the memory of how weak he had been afterwards made him hesitant. He would be of no use healing her if he was too weak to stand. He felt a strangely proud and yet annoyed feeling in the back of his mind that he would not be weak this time, but he did not want to risk his girl’s life on this gamble.
His thoughts were drawn to Katya and almost instantly he found himself within her mind. She didn’t seem to notice his presence and he filed this interesting piece of information away for later contemplation - he had not been able to see past her shields previously. Foremost in her mind were memories of Layna and he realized that she had tracked the girl down. What luck! He quickly used the information from Katya to connect with the dying girl.
He then turned his attention to Layna’s mind. It was a turbulent whirlwind of pain, the black aura sweeping over her as the poison took hold. He quickly sent a thought to halt its spread and started the tedious process of drawing it out of her. Over this distance, the work was tiresome and he stopped short as soon as he was sure she would live. He spared another moment to put her farther into a healing trance, to be awakened when he wanted her, and withdrew.
His girls were safe. Now he could concentrate on what in the name of the Three had just happened to him…
*
Katya suddenly had a strong urge to check on Layna and she sprinted to the girl’s quarters, drawing strange looks from those she passed in the hallways. She wasn’t there and Katya wracked her brain for where she would be. Gryffon was busy with some sort of official business so she wouldn’t be with him. Perhaps she was visiting with the Lady Aria again.
Her mind made up, she retraced her steps back to the main part of the palace and towards the lady’s suites. She almost ran straight into the woman as she came bursting out the door.
Aria’s wide and crazed-looking eyes lit upon her and the woman rushed
forward, grabbing Katya by the shoulders “Please, help me…Layna…I-…I don’t know what happened, I never meant…”
Katya would have liked to have slapped the girl upside the head and tell her to get a hold on herself. And then ask some pointed questions about exactly what she meant about not meaning to do something, not meaning to do what?
But instead she took hold of the girl’s hands on her shoulders and removed them a trifle roughly, pushing past her into the room beyond.
She spotted Layna sprawled on the floor next to the chair, along with a puddle of spilled liquid around a shattered tea cup.
Katya knelt by her side and sent her magic around her. With her magesight she saw that Layna’s entire body had been filled by a toxin, spread by the beating of her heart. Katya could not tell much underneath the murky poison, but as she filtered it away she breathed a sigh of relief that the girl was still alive. As it began to clear, she could just make out the tiniest of heartbeats, as if Layna’s heart had been slowed to keep her alive until help arrived to slow the spread of the malignance.
Katya kept up the feverish work, slowly siphoning out the poison and the damaged parts, coaxing the healthy parts to re-grow. She was unaware of anything around her, all that mattered was keeping her alive. She was the last remnant of her past and Katya certainly wasn’t going to let her be poisoned along with her parents. She hardly noticed when Gryffon joined her and added his strength to her own.
Soon after, she felt his hands pry her away from Layna and she reluctantly did so. She had done all that she could, and her body had no strength left itself to lend to Layna’s healing.
She felt liquid pressed against her lips, and seeing it was Gryffon offering it, she opened her mouth. She gulped it down, realized it was broth and collapsed on the chair Layna must have fallen from, too weary to care about anything but sleep.
When she woke, it was dark out, but the moon shone brightly in through the open window. She stirred and a dark shape moved at the end of her bed. Her hackles raised, she froze.
“Don’t be frightened,” said a deep, kind voice and Katya relaxed, recognizing it as Gryffon’s. “My name is Lord Gryffon. I’m sorry I don’t recognize you, but nonetheless owe you a debt of gratitude. I don’t know how you did it, but thank you.”
“Layna?” her voice was raspy and she nearly choked on the word as if her throat was swollen.
“They think she’s going to be alright. Thanks to you. She’s here,” he pointed to the bed next to Katya’s. “She hasn’t regained consciousness, but her vital signs have stabilized.”
It took Katya several days to recover herself, but was soon back to full health even after almost draining herself completely to pull out the poison. Layna still hadn’t woken, however, and Katya was beginning to worry. She lay motionless on the bed, her face as white as a ghost’s, her breathing barely a whisper. Not wanting to let the girl out of her sight and lose her only means of finding out about her past, Katya had insisted on staying with her. Therefore, she was immensely grateful she was so fastidious in her disguises. Being such a prominent figure in such a scandalous event was sure to get her noticed - and it had.
Luckily, so far her credentials as a servant who was supposed to be here were still valid, as she’d made tracking them down so confusing that she’d doubted any would follow it through to completion. At least, that was what she was counting on.
She made her way to Layna’s side. She just couldn’t die. It would be too cruel for the Three to allow her a chance to find out about her past only to kill all of the people who might be able to tell her about it.
She picked up Layna’s hand in her own. It felt cold and clammy. Her throat suddenly constricted and her vision blurred. A strange emotion washed over her in a suffocating wave and she felt something cool and wet slip down her cheek.
She was crying! The surprise was almost enough to snap her out of it, but not quite. She was not enjoying the intense rushes of emotions that seemed to suddenly be overtaking her.
Someone cleared their throat behind her and she spun around, blinking away tears. Gryffon gave her a small sympathetic smile and took his place by Layna’s side. He’d been forced to leave this spot - reluctantly - to help find out what had happened, but he always returned as soon as he could and stayed for hours, whispering into Layna’s unhearing ear.
After a suitable amount of time had passed that she was sure he wouldn’t bring up the subject of her crying she looked at him.
“What have they decided to do with her?” she asked, referring to the Lady Aria who had readily admitted to putting a potion into Layna’s tea, and whom Gryffon had just come back from seeing. She claimed that the man she bought it from told her it was truth potion, but so far they’d been unable to track down the mysterious merchant to confirm her story. Not that he was likely to back her up anyway when it would mean admitting to his own less-than-legal activities.
Katya felt that either way, Aria should have known better.
Gryffon looked up at her, “They’ve put her on house arrest for now, but nothing formal has been charged. I just can’t believe she’d do something like this.”
Katya had a surge of anger, “How can you say that? She’s already admitted she did, and your Layna’s lying here practically dead and you’re defending the woman who did it to her?!”
Gryffon looked taken aback, and he looked back down at Layna.
“Do you know she’d been keeping Layna busy with that Noam character so that she could steal extra time with you? And now she’s looking for your sympathy and attention. You can’t tell me you haven’t let her cry on your shoulder even once. Do you not see what’s she’s doing? Layna certainly has. I thought that you and Layna were close.” Her tone was more accusatory that she meant it to be. She didn’t know why she cared.
“We are,” Gryffon defended himself, “I’m not doing anything with Aria…how do you even know?”
Katya clamped her mouth shut. She had said too much already.
“Besides, I don’t even know what Layna and I are, if there even is a Layna and I. She’s going around telling people we’re just friends.”
She just gave him a disapproving look. Her emotions were wrecking havoc with her good sense and she resolutely shut her mouth, determined not to say any more.
CHAPTER 15
It remembered its name…Nuko, yes. That is what he was once called. From his temporary prison, he probed the host. He could see where his subliminal thoughts had twisted the weak mind. He smiled to himself at the fact that they continued to breed for talent. That particular suggestion has been easy to convince the host, and those before him, to carry out.
They had already grown strong enough to accommodate him, in fact, this one had even been able to resist him - though given it was only a tiny portion of his essence he was resisting…a fact that both annoyed and thrilled him…it wasn’t all that impressive. Unfortunately, the desire to seek out others with the mark was very well ingrained upon them, even more so for those of strong talent and those, as he was observing in his host, who also happened to be the males of the species. He supposed it hadn’t been hard to nudge their minds towards wanting to breed. He snorted inwardly. He would have to work on breaking this compulsion, the host’s need to find these two women that had imprinted on him was proving to be a nuisance. He needed it to move on towards performing the rite, no longer was it necessary to strengthen the hosts.
He mused at the intricacies of his own spell, creating the hallucination of the man’s mother to try and convince him to summon him. Though had I been fully awake and had realized what a twisted relationship they had…he let the thought pass quickly. The past did not matter. Now that he was awake, nothing would be able to stop him. Soon the host would surrender its body to him, willingly or not, and he would finally return to the world.
Nuko pondered his next step quietly while the host continued its day to day business, seemingly oblivious to its scheming.
*
&nbs
p; Nathair could feel the thoughts of his intruder beneath the surface of his own, but not quite make them out. They felt very smug, however, which Nathair was not entirely pleased about. They did contain vast knowledge though, knowledge that he fully intended to use. He had ‘visited’ Katya’s mind to determine that Layna was in fact still alive and she was in no immediate danger so Nathair was content to leave them while he concentrated on his unwelcome guest.
From the knowledge that his intruder had already given him, Nathair had been able to learn to use his dragon form and had quickly mastered changing from one to the other. It had been with extreme trepidation that he had attempted to change back to his human form, having no desire to repeat the painful process, but he had been happily surprised to have made the transformation with only the tiniest bit of discomfort. Apparently only the initial awakening of the power within him required the agony.
He practiced changing back and forth once he had figured out how, and returned to the place where he had been held captive to sit back and wait for the woman in charge to return. He had no doubt that she had some sort of magical link to her minions and perhaps himself as well that would tell her that he was no longer under their control. Before he returned to dislodge the imposter and take back his rightful place on the throne, he had some questions for the woman.
In short order she arrived, and she was not alone. There were five of them altogether, and the moment that arrived, spirited there by magic, he held up a hand to hold them in place.
The woman scowled at him. “What is the meaning of this?”
“The meaning of what, my dear?” he mocked her, echoing her earlier words. “I am simply restoring things to their natural order.”
Those Who Fear the Darkness (BloodRunes: Book 2) Page 19
