The Dead and the Dusk (The Nightmare Court Book 2)

by Val Saintcrowe

  “She does hate you,” said Absalom, making an apologetic face. “You know, on account of stealing Eithan’s affections.”

  “What?” said Nicce. “This part was not really explained to me.”

  Eithan ran a hand through his hair. “I may have… well, I needed to leave to find you, and I manipulated her into being jealous of you so that she would send me after you. If I bring you back, I don’t know what she’ll do.”

  “Kill me?” said Nicce. “Maybe it will make my blood change. It could be a good thing.”

  “She likes to have leverage,” said Eithan. “She’d probably keep you alive and hurt you and make me watch.”

  Nicce grimaced.

  Eithan tapped his chin. “I might… I have an idea of how I could get her off that notion. I just don’t know if…” He furrowed his brow, and then he abruptly turned to Absalom. “When we were at the Guild the second time, when we spoke to Diakos? We took jewels away from a number of the assassins there. What did we do with them?”

  Septimus spoke up. “We threw them into the river on the way home.”

  Eithan sighed. “I was afraid we did something like that.”

  “Well, they do hurt us,” said Absalom. “I suppose they don’t hurt you—”

  “Actually, they do,” said Eithan. “I can bear the sunlight, but not whatever light is in those jewels.”

  “Oh, well, that’s unfortunate.”

  “Yes, so you do need me,” said Nicce. “I’m the only one who can use the jewels.”

  “We don’t even know what they’ll do to the goddess,” said Eithan. “The jewels hurt, but they aren’t nearly as debilitating as drinking your blood was. I don’t know if it’s enough.”

  “Well, we need something,” said Absalom.

  “Yes.” Eithan paced. “Well, if I could keep Nicce from being tortured by Ciaska, then we could cross the portal and bide our time. We could continue trying to figure how to make her blood change over, and if we couldn’t do it, we’d use the jewels.”

  “We don’t have any jewels,” said Septimus.

  “No, we don’t,” said Eithan. “We’re going to have to go and get some.”

  * * *

  “Gold?” said Othanus, who was standing in front of the fireplace in Diakos’s study, shaking his head in disbelief. “You come in here and offer us gold?”

  Eithan glared at the man. He and Nicce had argued over the best way to accomplish this. She’d wanted to sneak in and steal the jewels. She said she knew where they could be found. But the last time they’d been here, they’d had to fight their way out, and he wanted to save all their energy for dealing with Ciaska. They were going back there that evening, and he needed to be at his best. When he was wounded or tired, his brain wasn’t quite as nimble. So, he’d said they’d try to accomplish it with straight trade.

  Thus far, it wasn’t going well.

  For one thing, the Guild was in shambles. It was Eithan’s own fault. He’d killed more than half of the members, many of them personally, and Nicce had killed the Guildmaster Diakos, so the remaining members were without leadership.

  “How much gold?” said Jennix, looking Eithan over.

  These two seemed to be as in charge as anyone, Eithan thought. He knew them both. He’d threatened Jennix for information about Nicce and he’d fought Othanus when he’d been captured by the Guild members.

  Ethan held up a bag of coin. “Would you like to weigh it?”

  “We don’t need gold,” said Othanus. “This is a trick to try to keep us from being able to best your knights. We know you fear our magic.”

  “Yes, and yet somehow,” said Eithan, “even with your magic, I have beaten you…” He counted on his fingers. “Three times now? Every time I enter these walls, your men start dying. Am I wrong?”

  Othanus’s nostrils flared.

  “And this is a truce?” said Jennix.

  “Why not?” said Eithan, smiling.

  Othanus turned furiously on Nicce. “I don’t understand why you’re working with this man. He is our enemy.”

  “I’m fighting against the real enemy now,” said Nicce. “We need the jewels. Just hand them over. Do you think we couldn’t simply take them if we wanted?”

  “You swear not to come and fight us again?” said Jennix. “Not to jump us in the woods and threaten to carve us up?”

  “Jennix, you do not make the decisions here,” said Othanus.

  Jennix turned on him. “I’d say half of the members disagree with you.”

  “You’re a woman. A woman can’t lead the Guild,” said Othanus. “Don’t listen to a thing she says, Sir Eithan. I’m the one who will be making this decision.”

  Eithan looked back and forth between them for a minute, thinking it over, and then he sprang forward and pulled out a knife. He collided with Othanus.

  They went back against the wall.

  Eithan had his blade to Othanus’s throat.

  “Sun and bones,” said Othanus, fumbling for a weapon. “You said you wouldn’t harm us.”

  Eithan pressed his knife into Othanus’s skin. “Stop. Don’t move.”

  “What are you doing?” said Nicce.

  Eithan ignored her. He looked at Jennix. “Is there anyone else in your way of becoming head of the Guild?”

  Jennix’s eyed widened.

  “Here’s the bargain,” said Eithan. “Give me the jewels, and I’ll give you the gold, and I’ll dispatch this one for you. Then you can lead. What do you say?”

  “You bastard,” snarled Othanus, struggling.

  Eithan turned back to him. “I said not to move, didn’t I?” He bared his teeth at Othanus. “Well, Jennix, do we have a deal?”

  * * *

  Later, when Eithan was walking out of the Guild with Nicce, and they were carrying a sack full of jewels, Nicce was quiet.

  He wasn’t sure what to say to her, but he found himself not enjoying her silence. He wanted her approval, but he knew he didn’t deserve it. “I would apologize for the death of Othanus,” he said. “But I did say I wasn’t going to apologize again. Still, I suppose I am sorry. It was only that it seemed expedient, and it got us what we wanted. I suspect Jennix will be a better leader in any case.”

  She glanced at him. “I’m not bothered by his death.”

  “Oh,” he said. “You were quiet. I thought…” The other knights were waiting for them up ahead. They hadn’t accompanied them into the Guild because when they’d left, it was still daylight, but now the shadows of the dusk hung heavy amongst the trees where he knew Absalom and Septimus were waiting. Soon, the other two knights would come into view. Eithan wouldn’t have much more time alone with Nicce. He slowed his pace, wanting to stretch it out.

  “I’m quiet because I’m puzzling out everything about Ciaska. I know you said that you didn’t bed her, but I’m not sure what you told her to make her so jealous of me.”

  He started walking more quickly again.

  She picked up the pace too. “Should I ask Absalom? Does he know?”

  He held out a hand. “I can carry the sack. The jewels don’t hurt me if the magic isn’t activated.”

  “It’s not that heavy. Listen, I wouldn’t push you. I can see you don’t like to talk about it. It’s only that I think it might be important for me to understand, especially if she’s going to torture me for your benefit.”

  “I’m not going to let her do that,” he said. He hoped he was going to pull it off, anyway.

  “I still think I need to know.”

  He sighed. He stopped moving. “It’s…” Oh, he couldn’t even find the words. “The goddess has been laboring under the assumption that I’m, um, impotent.”

  “Right, that’s why you didn’t father her child.”

  “I might have convinced her you cured me of that.” If he still had warm blood, he’d be blushing right now. He turned on his heel and started walking again.

  She had stopped too, and she didn’t come after him right away.

/>   But then she was there, whispering furiously. “You told her that you lay with me?”

  “No!” He was whispering too.

  “Oh.” She sucked in a relieved breath. “Well, that’s good.”

  “She can never think that happened.” He stopped moving again, raising both hands. “That can never happen. It would be far too dangerous. She would…” He couldn’t even finish the sentence.

  “Well, are you going to have to… to lie with her?”

  “I don’t know,” he muttered. “Hopefully not. But maybe. I’ll have to see what happens.”

  “Oh,” she said again, but this time she sounded disappointed.

  He glanced in the direction of the trees, of the shadows where Absalom and Septimus were waiting, just out of sight, and then he stepped closer to her. He reached up and picked up a lock of her dark hair, turning it over in his fingers. “You know I don’t want that.”

  She was quiet, looking up at him.

  They gazed at each other for moments so long that they seemed to stretch out like the shadows around them, and he thought of that interrupted moment in the fortress, which he should have stopped. He shouldn’t be doing this now. His voice came out barely there. “Why don’t you hate me? You said that you wished you did. So why don’t you?”

  Her gazed flitted down to her feet. She let out a little laugh. “It’s as I told you, that cold, firm skin of yours…”

  He laughed too, a helpless laugh. “Do you think you could try harder?”

  “To what?” She looked back up at him. “To hate you?”

  He nodded.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” she said with a small smile.

  His chest squeezed. He didn’t know why. Something about her, how she was always so impossibly beautiful and also so determined, so intent, so strong. Abruptly, he leaned close and pressed his lips to her forehead. He lingered there, too long, his eyes shut.

  When he pulled away, his throat felt tight. He nearly staggered away from her, and he didn’t look back to see if she was coming after him.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Nicce and the knights didn’t waste much time back at the fortress, just readied for the journey through the portal by dividing up the jewels they’d gotten and stashing them amongst their pockets and inside their clothes.

  Just in case, Eithan had her instruct them all in getting the magic out of the jewels. Each of the knights tried the spell and was able to manage releasing the light, but it was excruciating for them to hold it and use the magic. They would use it as a last resort, relying on Nicce instead.

  However, Eithan wouldn’t allow her to carry any of the jewels, because he said that Ciaska might search her more thoroughly, or that she might end up missing articles of clothing.

  “Hopefully not,” said Eithan. “Ciaska can be hard to predict, however. I’ll do my best not to let it get that far.”

  Nicce felt trepidation rising within her. What was Eithan planning? She tried to ask, but the words got stuck on her tongue coming out of her mouth. She was still thinking about Eithan on the path outside the Guild keep, his lips on her skin, the way he’d touched her hair, and she was confused and angry.

  She hadn’t been entirely serious when she’d said that she’d see what she could do about hating him, but she did think it would be easier if she didn’t have this inconvenient attraction to him. It didn’t make any sense, not that she could parse out, anyway.

  Maybe it was because it was always supposed to be him. She had been raised to kill him, made aware that she would possibly have to seduce him in order to do so, and so she’d always thought that there would be something physical between them. Maybe it was all subconscious suggestion, what she felt when she looked at him. If so, she could rise above that. She could drive it down.

  And maybe if this thing with Ciaska that he was bringing her into did prove to be horrid and did somehow—her skin crawled—involve her without clothes, it would only help her to hate Eithan. Then they could simply use each other, and it was all much more tidy that way.

  Just outside the portal, Eithan stopped her and he turned her around. “Give me your hands. I’ll have to tie you up.”

  “Oh,” she said, holding her hands out. She supposed this made sense. If he was dragging her back to Ciaska, she would have obviously come against her will. She’d be a prisoner. She should have realized that she’d be brought in that way.

  Eithan waved Absalom and Septimus through. “We’ll catch up,” he told them. He turned back to her, uncoiling a rope that had been strapped to his belt. He looped it around her wrists. “Too tight?”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  He tied it securely. “As I said, I’m fairly confident that I can convince Ciaska to leave you be, and to have others leave you be, but there is a chance I’ll be unsuccessful. Now’s the time to back out of this, you know.”

  “Never,” she said.

  “Right.” He gave a tug on the rope that tied her wrists and nodded. He let go. “I assumed you’d say that.” He looked at the portal, and then back at her. He shoved his hands into his pockets. “I also assume that since I found you with that fisherman whose boat you were living on that…”

  Her face was heating up. “There’s no reason to ever bring up Zed. He was just a… distraction.”

  “You told me when we first met that you were a virgin,” he said, not meeting her gaze. “I assume that’s not true anymore?”

  “I wasn’t a virgin then,” she said. “I lied to you.”

  He raised his gaze to hers, a smile quirking his lips. “Of course you did.” He gave his head a little shake. “Well, good then. That’s… better.”

  Why? But it didn’t come out of her mouth, and then he was leading her through the portal before she could find the breath to speak or even to protest.

  Going through the portal was like being embraced by ice. It was a horrid, cold, squeezing feeling that was bracing. On the other side, she gasped, doubling over.

  Eithan stopped, looking back at her. “You all right?”

  She nodded. The cold was receding already.

  “Sorry, I’ve never brought anyone across who wasn’t changed,” he said.

  “It’s fading,” she said.

  “Give her a moment,” said Eithan to Absalom and Septimus.

  They both nodded.

  Nicce breathed, looking at her surroundings. There wasn’t much to see. It was all blackness here, only the hint of misty air, almost purplish here and there to break up the darkness. Turning, she saw the spires of a palace. It was shimmering and sleek, glowing obsidian against the dark landscape. Instinctively, she moved closer to Eithan.

  “No, don’t do that,” said Eithan. “I think you should favor Absalom. Act as though you despise me, as though you fear me. And as though you fear Septimus as well, which probably is the truth.”

  “Go to the pit, Draig,” muttered Septimus. He leered at Nicce. “I’m nothing to fear, sweetling.”

  “Don’t talk to her,” said Eithan, shoving Nicce gently at Absalom.

  Absalom caught her. “Do you ever think to share your plans with us ahead of time, Eithan?”

  “That would ruin the surprise,” said Eithan. He walked off, squaring his shoulders.

  Septimus made faces at his back.

  Absalom sighed and started after him. Nicce, since she’d been told to favor him, kept pace with the man. She was piecing together what was going to happen. There were a few things she wasn’t clear on, but judging from the things that Eithan said, a picture was forming in her head. And she didn’t really like it.

  She had a wild thought, of turning and running, leaping back through the portal and going far away. She pictured it, pictured running through the forest—

  That reminded her. Where were the nightmares? They were usually crawling all over that forest, but the woods had been empty. She needed to ask someone about that.

  And with that, her desire to run left her.

  “Where ar
e the nightmares?” she said loudly.

  Septimus turned to her. “All around us. Don’t speak so loud. You’ll attract them.”

  She looked around, a cold trickle of fear climbing her spine. “Here?”

  Septimus smiled a nasty smile.

  “Ignore him,” said Absalom to her, in that same gentle voice he’d used when she’d first seen a nightmare in the woods. “He’s only half civilized.”

  “I can hear you, you know,” said Septimus.

  “I meant in the dark forest,” said Nicce.

  “Ah, yes,” said Absalom. “After receiving the bride, the Exalted One calls the nightmares back through the portal. We don’t know why they go through it in the first place. The goddess says she sends them, but we think maybe they go on their own, that something draws them out, that maybe her control over them grows weak.”

  “So she does need the bride?” said Nicce.

  “We think it’s tied to the seasons,” said Septimus. “Maybe something with the moon.”

  Nicce furrowed her brow, but they were growing close to the gates of the palace now. There were two guards there, men dressed in armor that seemed utterly useless to her because it covered so little. They had metal shoulder plates, but their chests were bare. They only wore a small bit of leather at their crotches. The rest of their skin was bare and oiled. They held spears and they wore helmets.

  She found her gaze settling on the muscles in their chests and stomachs and then, realizing she was ogling and supposed to be terrified, she looked away.

  Eithan was already through the gate, striding ahead.

  They followed him through, and they approached the palace.

  At the doors, Eithan reached for her, and she let him, and he widened his eyes meaningfully, so she made an exaggerated flinch and tried to pull away from him.

  Eithan thrust her at Septimus instead, who grabbed her by the arm, grinning his awful grin, and dragged her over the threshold of the palace.

  She peered up at the strange green and yellow glowing orbs which were floating around above their heads. They lit their path, but they were like nothing Nicce had ever seen. And the air was cold here. Cold and clammy. She shivered.