by Kay Hooper
“Obviously.” Thinking about what had happened, she said, “Your power helped me to see them, right?”
“Yes.”
She had several questions about that. “You’ve never done such a thing before. Why?”
“Because I didn’t know it was possible,” he answered readily. “After what happened with Varian, it was obvious our energy could combine. Something I somehow doubt my ancestors knew. And after last night … well, I had the idea that either of us could enhance the other’s abilities by sharing power.”
“Which is what happened. Is that—what we saw—is that what you see when you reach out with your senses?”
He nodded.
Serena was impressed. “I do have a long way to go. Alone, all I get are faint impressions.”
“Time, Serena. It takes time.”
“And I’m impatient, I know.”
He kissed her again, then said, “Why don’t we start down now? Tremayne, Roxanne, and Kerry won’t reach Sanctuary today, I think, but if we cut across the valley, we should meet up with them before dark.”
“Okay. I’m curious to find out what that kid’s doing with them.”
After leaving the clearing the way they’d found it, they made their way down the mountain, careful of the rain-slick slope, talking idly, not about anything really important. Being lovers, Serena realized happily, had removed barriers and constraints and made them closer, but it hadn’t changed the familiarity that came of years together. Being lovers added dimensions and layers and depths. It was wonderful.
They reached the dirt road late in the morning, and before they could even turn toward the west another tremor rumbled through Atlantis. It wasn’t a bad one, over in seconds.
“I don’t like them,” Serena told Merlin in the tone of one who has made a personal discovery.
“No, they aren’t pleasant,” he agreed.
Serena looked ahead to the dark, dreary forest and said, “I have an idea.”
“Which is?”
“Why don’t we go just far enough into the forest to be out of sight if anybody happens to be watching, and conjure ourselves a little house or something. Then we can stay there all day, and even tonight, and when Roxanne and Tremayne are close enough early tomorrow morning, we can just pop over.” She eyed him hopefully.
In a mild tone he said, “That would be cheating.”
“No … just taking a little shortcut, is all. Besides, which would you rather do, spend the day walking through that dreadful forest, or spend the day in bed? With me.” To make certain he understood his options, she wreathed her arms around his neck and stood on tiptoe to kiss him.
Merlin wrapped both arms around her and lifted her off her feet, an abrupt and intense hunger evident in him. Against her lips he murmured, “Woman, do you plan to use your body to get your way with me from now on?”
“Only when I think it’ll work,” she confessed.
He shifted his hold on her, cradling her in his arms, and began carrying her toward the forest. “Well, it’s working now,” he told her ruefully.
Varian prowled the terrace of his palace restlessly. His hand lifted often to touch the place on his chest that had been burned by the two wizards from Seattle, even though it was healing rapidly and scarcely hurt at all now. It wasn’t pain he felt at any rate; it was bewilderment and unease, coupled with a growing sense of eagerness and anticipation.
It had to be a portent, he thought, a sign to him. Forty years here without even an instance of power mating power, and yet in a single morning he had encountered not one, but two pairs of wizards. First the pair from Seattle, that redheaded whore Serena and Merlin, and then his own crafty kinsman Tremayne and his whore from the city. Two pairs.
And it wasn’t just the fact of them that disturbed Varian. The two from Seattle … their powers had combined. Combined. He had never felt anything like the jolt that had sliced through his own energy and knocked him off his feet, and he knew he’d never forget it.
“My Lord …”
He looked at one of his concubines as she glided out onto the terrace and smiled at him. He thought her name was Elena. She was very young and ripe to bursting with libidinous juices, and since he’d broken her in right, she was eager for him. She cupped her own breasts and lifted them invitingly, the nipples stiffly visible through the filmy material of her shift.
“My Lord … please take me.”
He didn’t want her.
The thought was so shocking that he waved her away without a word and retreated to the end of the terrace to try to understand what was wrong with him. Why didn’t he want her? He had never in his life turned away from a willing bitch, not unless he was exhausted, and he wasn’t—in fact, he was half hard, partially aroused, but not by Elena.
It occurred to him slowly that he was growing excited by the possibility of taking a woman of power to his bed.
Why not, after all? If Tremayne had managed to do it, then surely he could. He thought of spreading the legs of some haughty whore, her eyes filled with vibrant life like those of Merlin’s mate, that Serena, and Varian felt himself twitch urgently.
Of course, he’d have to find a willing one; those whores in the city were reputedly swift to fire off a shift of energy right to a man’s groin, which was the last thing Varian wanted. He wondered how Tremayne had avoided that particular fete.
He reached down and fondled himself absently as he gazed out over the valley. A willing whore …
“I like that,” Roxanne said, eyeing her friend’s new outfit.
“What, this old thing?” Serena grinned as Roxanne looked uncertain, and added, “Never mind. I’d be delighted to conjure up something similar for you.”
After a moment’s thought Roxanne smiled. “No, I don’t think so. It suits you, Serena—it wouldn’t me.”
They were sitting on a fallen tree near the bank of a stream not an hour from Sanctuary, where the two couples and Kerry had met up only minutes before. Merlin and Tremayne were standing several feet away talking, and Kerry was kneeling at the stream washing her doll Chloe’s face.
Nodding, Serena said, “So, tell me—if you don’t mind, of course—why you left Sanctuary.”
Roxanne hesitated, but then confessed her intention of destroying the men who had attacked her. She spoke quietly, telling Serena what had happened when Kerry had followed her and Tremayne away from Sanctuary.
“It was my fault she was put into danger. If I hadn’t been so wrapped up in my desire for revenge, I would never have left Sanctuary without making certain there was someone to watch out for Kerry. Felice … well, she wants a child of her own, as I told you, and the older Kerry grows, the less Felice is interested. She probably didn’t even notice the child was missing—”
“Day before yesterday,” Serena said. “Before Merlin and I left Sanctuary, she asked me if I’d seen Kerry. She didn’t seem worried, though.”
Roxanne sighed. “No, probably not.”
“But it was hardly your fault that Kerry sneaked out of the city, Roxanne. I thought the Sentinels were there to keep the kids in, as well as unwanted males out.”
“Yes, but Kerry was still my responsibility. And if Tremayne hadn’t been with me, those men would have hurt her so terribly, perhaps even killed her—” She swallowed hard. “One of them … was one of the men who attacked me.”
Serena frowned. “What did you do?”
Roxanne explained what had happened when her power had combined with Tremayne’s, and added, “I don’t understand it, and neither does Tremayne. The Curtain should have punished us for trying to use power….”
Serena was more interested in another question. “Roxanne, do you trust Tremayne?”
“I—I don’t know. Perhaps.”
“But the possibility is there?”
“Yes,” Roxanne answered honestly. “When he helped me to save Kerry so instantly, without hesitating. I felt … I felt I could learn to trust him.”
Serena didn’t p
ush it. “I see. So, you two saved Kerry and destroyed those two village men, one of whom was one of your attackers. And then? You changed your mind about going after the other two?”
“It didn’t seem important anymore. The anger inside me just faded away to nothing.”
“You know, I think that’s probably a good thing,” Serena told the younger wizard. “We have a saying in Seattle—what goes around comes around. The men who hurt you will pay for what they did, one way or another.”
“That’s what Tremayne said.”
“Obviously a smart man.”
Roxanne smiled, then said hesitantly, “You and Merlin seem different. You look so happy, both of you.”
“I’m probably lit up like a Christmas tree,” Serena reflected, knowing she tended to broadcast every emotion—and she was filled with a delighted tangle of them.
“Like a what?” Roxanne asked, puzzled.
For just a moment Serena thought the saddest part of this place and time was that they hadn’t yet begun to celebrate Christmas, but then she brushed the thought away. Stupid, really, when you considered everything else….
“Never mind,” she said to Roxanne. “What I mean to say is that Merlin and I have finally found our way past those walls between us.”
“You’re … mates?” Roxanne asked a bit shyly.
“Yes. And I highly recommend the relationship.”
Roxanne studied her friend’s face for a moment, then said softly, “I envy you, Serena.”
Serena looked up to see Merlin and Tremayne coming toward them, and murmured, “Don’t miss your chance, Roxanne. Believe me, it’s worth the risk.”
“Are you ladies ready to go on to Sanctuary?” Merlin asked, taking Serena’s hand as she stood up.
“It suits me,” Serena replied, smiling at him.
Roxanne was looking at Tremayne. “Yes.”
He held out his hand, and she took it.
Antonia stood in her favorite window and gazed down on her city. It was early evening, the quarter moon still visible through the Curtain, and she was feeling too restless to even attempt to go to sleep.
Her agents reported that Merlin and his Serena were seldom apart and appeared quite sickeningly devoted to each other; they obeyed the laws about touching in public, but since they spent most of their time either outside the city gates or else in Roxanne’s house, it was simple for them to circumvent the laws. As for Roxanne, it did indeed seem apparent that her loyalties were now divided: the wizard Tremayne had also been granted permission to enter her house during the day.
And Antonia’s list of potential consorts was growing short. In fact, there was only one name left, a name she had thus far refused to say out loud to herself, let alone to her mirror. What if he was the one? If so, how ironic that her mortal enemy was to be her mate.
Slowly she went to the mirror on her bedroom wall and stared into the bright surface of it. “Show me Varian,” she commanded flatly.
She had seen him before but at a distance—a not uncommon occurrence between male and female wizards—so she had only the vaguest memory of his being dark. Her mirror showed the image of a dark, powerful man in bed with a woman, both of them naked, and Antonia caught her breath. Unlike the prophecy of her crystal, this scene was clear and sharp; she might have been standing over the bed looking down on them.
Unashamed, intensely curious, she watched them, fascinated by what she saw. She knew the mechanics of the act, of course, but she had never thought about how it would look. It was … rawer than she’d expected, both awkward and graceful. The naked bodies strained apart and came together, glistening with sweat and trembling visibly with exertion. The woman’s arms and legs clutched at him as her body accepted his thrusts, and he looked like some savage warrior triumphant, his head thrown back and his hard face a mask of primitive conquest.
Antonia couldn’t take her gaze off the scene. Her breathing quickened, and she slowly became aware of the response of her body to what she saw. But before she could feel anything more than the slow tension of arousal, the naked bodies in the mirror convulsed in their release, and the scene faded until her reflection stared back at her with feverish eyes.
Varian. Varian.
She knew it was him, knew he was the one she had seen in her crystal. In her future.
Varian was to be her mate.
• • •
As they stood outside the gates of Sanctuary watching Serena and Roxanne say good-bye to each other, Tremayne adjusted his backpack absently and then looked at Merlin. “I know she’s going with me partly because she wants to leave Atlantia.” He smiled. “But I can bear that. I have a chance now, a chance to earn her love, and that’s all any man can ask for.”
“What about Kerry?” Merlin asked curiously.
“Why are we taking her with us?” Tremayne looked at the little girl, who was dancing about the two women excitedly. “Several reasons, I suppose. Because Roxanne loves her and feels responsible for her. Because she really doesn’t have anyone else, now that Felice is expecting her own child. Because I believe Roxanne will feel less wary of me during the voyage if she has Kerry to care for.”
Merlin smiled. “And because you have a soft spot for the child?”
“That, too.”
“All excellent reasons.”
“I thought so.” Tremayne studied the older wizard speculatively. “What of you and Serena? Why don’t you come with us?”
“Thank you, but our home lies in another direction. We have to return to Seattle. Our ship will arrive no more than a day or two after yours, I should think. We’ll be fine, Tremayne. No matter what happens here, we’ll be fine.” Merlin changed the subject smoothly. “Will Varian allow you to take Roxanne and Kerry through his mountain pass to the sea?”
Tremayne shrugged. “There won’t be a problem. If he even notices us, he’ll probably consider himself well rid of us.”
Merlin nodded, then looked toward the city. “Did you get any reaction from Antonia?”
“Not really. Roxanne asked for permission to take Kerry from Atlantia, and she said Antonia granted it without question or protest. She’s probably relieved we’re going; between the four of us, we’ve definitely shaken up Sanctuary.”
“That is certainly true.” Merlin offered his hand. “Good luck to all of you, Tremayne.”
Shaking hands, the younger wizard said, “Thank you—for everything. I won’t forget it.”
“Just take care of those ladies of yours. If I’ve learned anything here, it’s that we need women of power. Because without them, we can’t be whole.”
A few moments later, watching as Tremayne, Roxanne, and little Kerry set off toward Varian’s mountain and the pass that would take them to the sea beyond, Serena sniffed and then rubbed her nose fiercely. Merlin put his arm around her.
“Dammit, I swore I wouldn’t cry!”
“They’ll be all right now,” he reminded her.
Serena sniffed again. “I know. That is—are we going to stick around until we’re sure they made the ship?”
“It would be prudent, I think. Would you mind spending a few more nights here, Serena?”
“If we can sleep up on one of the mountains the way we have been, of course not. As a matter of fact, I’d just as soon we got started now. I know it’s early, but the way people have been staring at us inside the city is really beginning to bother me. Do we have to go back in there?”
“No. Pick a mountain.”
She did, and long before nightfall they were comfortably settled halfway up one of the western mountains, having transported there when they were sure no one would be able to observe them.
“Although why it matters, I don’t know,” Serena commented some time later as she conjured a fire while Merlin took care of the lean-to. “The witnesses are gone. No one left here will get the chance to influence the future, no matter what they see us do.”
Merlin knew she was increasingly disturbed by thoughts of the coming catac
lysm; he had seen her look to the sky each night, watching broodingly as the moon edged toward full. So when he pulled her down beside him on the pallet inside their lean-to, he tried to make her feel a little better about it.
“Serena, no matter what we might have done, we couldn’t have saved Atlantis. Some things are simply too vast and too complex for mortals to consciously control. Some things really are fated to be.”
She hesitated, then said in a small voice, “But were we a part of it? I’ve been thinking about it, you see, and I can’t help wondering. Maybe we changed the future by helping Roxanne and Tremayne, but is that all we did? What if we were always meant to be a part of the process that destroyed this place?”
Merlin couldn’t deny the possibility. He hadn’t told Serena about Antonia’s prophecy, or about his own belief that the Leader had misread what she had seen. But if he was right about that, and right in believing Antonia had no understanding of the trust required for a man and woman of power to mate, then her attempt to do so might well strike the final blow to Atlantis.
“You can’t agonize over it, Serena,” he said finally. “Neither of us can. Look around you. No matter what we did, when we came here, Atlantis was already dying. The powerless people here, men and women, had mutated and were dying out. The wizards were doomed, as well. It’s possible that merely by being here and being what we are, we became a step in the process … but that’s all. And it happened a long, long time ago.”
She looked at him solemnly. “I’ll try to remember that. But can we leave as soon as we know Tremayne and Roxanne and Kerry are safely away? I don’t want to watch what’s going to happen here.”
“Of course we can.” Merlin bent his head to kiss her, and as always, sharp hunger flared between them. She melted into his arms, and forgot about everything except him and her and the way they made each other feel….
When Varian received the message carried to his palace by a powerless male from the city, his first urge was to burn it without even reading the scroll. But he did read it out of curiosity, and then he wanted to burn it.