Bryn and Zayden were clapping, both with wide grins.
“It’s about fuckin’ time,” Bryn teased.
“You aren’t…” Mave didn’t want to say jealous, but it was on the tip of her tongue. She hadn’t even considered the possibility before she asked Mat, but now she did.
“No.” Zayden was the one who jumped in and answered. “Bonding is between two people, not a family affair. We’re happy for you and Mat. That’s all. Why be jealous of something I’m personally not ready for?”
“Same,” Bryn agreed, nodding. “It’ll happen in its own time if it’s ever right for us.”
“How did I end up with such amazing husbands?” Mave asked, grinning at all three of them as she walked toward the wagon. “Now, let’s get this camp set up.”
They followed her, Zayden ribbing Mat, as he often did.
As Mave pulled down a bag from the wagon, her eyes fell on Emerian, who had already set up his own tent and was nearly done setting up their campfire.
She had to figure out what to do about him, but she needed just a little more time. It was the only dark cloud still hovering over her.
Mave went to sleep in Mat’s arms, Bryn and Zayden staying up later to give the two of them time. Mave was glad to have a private moment with him after the bond. They made love, then curled into each other, but when she closed her eyes, the bliss was gone.
Mave entered a dream. She didn’t stand in the woods. She stood on the path, looking at the large mountain. The trees on the other side of the clearing began to shake.
Then Kristanya walked into the clearing, each of her steps shaking the ground as if she was something bigger, something more than the wingless Andinna that stood before her.
And fury blazed in her eyes.
Mave felt real fear as the goddess drew closer and closer.
Kristanya didn’t close the distance between them completely. She stood on the path, in Mave’s way, framed by the massive mountain behind her.
“Every mortal has warned you,” the goddess began, her voice booming and echoing off the distant peaks. “If you continue on this path, you will die.”
“I’ll die anyway,” Mave answered, stepping forward. “There is only death in my future. There is only death in my past. What difference does it make?”
“You could save who you can. All you have to do is turn around.” Kristanya snarled. “But I’ll tell you here and now that if you come to me, you will die. I have never named an Avatar, and I will never name an Avatar.”
“You’ll name me,” Mave snapped. “I’ll convince you.”
“Then you will be the most recent name in a long line of fools, for only fools think they can stand before me and believe they can hold my power. I do not need a mortal representative. I do not need you.”
“The Andinna are going to die!” Mave screamed. “Are you okay with that?”
“Then Andinna will die.” Kristanya was unmoved. “The Andinna would have died, eventually. All things do.”
“But…” Mave’s heart raced. “You’re one of us. You helped make us!” Mave knew the story now better than she knew those of her parents. Kristanya, who gave up her black wings to the Andinna, so the new people could fly as she had.
“I am not one of you,” Kristanya said, her voice dropping to a whisper.
The world tilted, and the ground shook. Mave was knocked down as a large shadow rose over her. When she looked back up, Mave saw something else.
A dragon stood over her. Black and five times the size of the biggest wyvern Mave had ever seen, Kristanya towered over her, so large, her tail brushed over treetops.
“I am the darkness. I am the first god, and I will one day be the last. The failings of mortals belong to those who tend to the living. I tend to the dead. I belong to the darkness.”
“You trained me!” Mave roared. “You came to me!”
“A mistake I won’t make again due to an errant hope I allowed my sister to breed in me. Death is inevitable. Not even I can help you escape it. If you wish to walk freely toward it, that is your own choice.”
“There has to be a way!” Mave yelled. “There has to be!”
“I will give you the same chance I give all the fools. Come to the top of the mountain, home of the dragons. I will give you the same chance I give everyone. And like all the others, your ignorance of what you ask for will be your doom.”
Kristanya turned and began to walk away.
Too late, Mave realized something strange about the way the goddess had just spoken to her—empty, lashing out. Devoid of emotion except rage leaking out, an easy emotion to let slip.
Mave saw something of herself, something sad and personal.
She had said it herself once. Not even the gods are infallible. I just need one chance.
38
Mave
Four days later, they were at the base of the mountain. Mave made her husbands pick up the pace after that dream. She had seen something, and she hoped she was right, but she needed to get to the top of the mountain.
She had a chance. She just needed to prove to a goddess, this was a path they could take.
“What are we going to do about the horses?” Mave asked, staring up to her destination. The temple was so far up the mountain, she couldn’t see it or maybe it was on the other side of the mountain.
“We can leave them here,” Mat answered. “I’m more worried about our supplies. This has to get us home, too.”
“I could maybe stay down here with everything, but…I made a promise, and I need to see it through,” Emerian said softly from the wagon.
Mave tried not to growl at those words because they touched her more deeply than she could handle. Why did he have to go down this route? Couldn’t he have chosen to be a less honorable male?
“I need you up there, too,” she snapped. “You’re my nemari. You have to handle things for me if I die. Help my males if I don’t come back.”
“And I’m back to being her nemari because suddenly I’m useful again,” Emerian muttered.
“Then what are we are going to fucking do?” Zayden was frustrated.
“Maybe I can be of help,” someone said out of Mave’s sight. She had her blades drawn by the time she turned, staring at the direction of the words.
Standing alone was an older female wearing long robes. Her posture was regal, and her brilliant turquoise eyes were a rare color, a mix of blue and green. They were bright in the black eyes of the Andinna and framed by the tatua covering the female’s face like all Andinna had as adults—except one.
“And you are?” Mave growled, spinning her swords in her hands.
“The high priestess of the temple on this mountain. My name is Invia. I pray every day, and last night, I received a vision of this spot. Now I see why.”
“You’re willing to help us?” Mat stepped closer. “Because…”
“I’ll lead you to our stables. They’ve been unused for a long time because horses were a rare commodity in recent centuries.”
“How have you survived here?” Zayden inquired, leading the horses to turn the cart. The female began to walk away, talking as she moved.
“Many priests and priestesses hid their temples as the Elvasi swallowed our country. They couldn’t reach us, and we were very careful. We hunted when no one was near and farmed as we could on the mountain. The dragons provided for their faithful here in Anden. We kept up with our duties and maintained several places of worship away from the coastline, where we knew the Elvasi had ended up.”
“The land was too hard for them,” Bryn explained.
“As it should be,” the priestess said, a smile in her words. “This land doesn’t belong to Andinna, it belongs to dragons. Just because they defeated the Andinna doesn’t mean they took the land. Still, it wasn’t safe to do much other than survive.”
“I know someone who would disagree with you. A husband of mine has a theory that we made the land hostile to others by our blood sacrifices to it, every
spring for thousands and thousands of years. Elvasi magic doesn’t work as well, if at all, here.”
“Does your husband have much faith in the gods?” The priestess seemed aloof and a little arrogant as if she knew Luykas and had already decided his theory was not valid compared to her own.
“No,” Mave admitted. “But I like his theory better. I’ve never had much respect for the gods. They’re so important, but where were they during the last war? Why can’t we mortals be something needed and important, too? Why do they get all the credit?” Mave jerked her chin up, her intentions clear.
The priestess stopped, her eyes going fierce at Mave’s words.
“You disrespect them,” she snapped.
“Yeah, and Kristanya fucking knows it,” Mave growled with a smile.
“High Priestess, please take us where we need to go, so we can continue our journey,” Mat said gently, coming up on the female’s other side. “Before you get the sharper side of my wife’s tongue. We can leave philosophical questions for a different day.”
“That wasn’t the sharp side?” Invia seemed surprised by Mat’s words.
“No.” Mat looked around the priestess and gave an arrogant, knowing smirk. “That wasn’t the sharp side.”
Invia looked at Mave with new respect and continued the long walk as they moved around the base of the mountain and up a low-grade slope. Finally, they found the stable, old, but still standing. Mave’s husbands jumped into action and got the horses inside, feeding them after they were groomed and settled with blankets to protect them from the cold. Mave grabbed her most important bag and swung it over her shoulder, waiting with the high priestess.
“So, there’s a war in the Dragon Spine again. Is it safe to assume you’ve come from it?”
Mave raised an eyebrow. “Yes.”
“And? How do things go?”
“Poorly.” Mave saw no reason to lie. If she and Alchan failed, everyone would know by spring, the end was coming.
“What do you do? You’re obviously a warrior, but how did you end up here?”
“I’m Maevana Lorren Amori, and I was once the King’s Champion. I’m here because I’m desperate.” Mave turned her gaze to the female as she heard a gasp and saw the small, open mouth. “Let me guess. You knew my parents.”
“I did,” she said softly. “I know your brother. He stopped in on us during the last thousand years, making sure we were still safe and had enough food. I heard a whisper about you, but rumors and gossip don’t reach me. I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you. Now I see it. Your eyes—”
“Are my father’s eyes. Yes.” Mave had heard all of these things before. The fact it was still coming up was threatening to drive her insane.
“Where did the Amori name come from?”
“My parents…my adopted parents,” Mave clarified. “Technically, I think my full name is actually Maevana Lorren Amori Andini or something, because one of my husbands is Luykas Andini, the king’s brother and prince of the Andinna, but I never claimed the name. Alchan offered it, but I’m not a royal. I’m a warrior.”
“Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive,” the high priestess reminded her. “But you are right. If that’s not the name you wanted, it’s not your name.”
“We’re ready!” Mat called out. Mave lifted a thumb in the air, confirming she heard him. He tapped Zayden and Bryn to follow him, and they walked over to the wagon, where Mave and the high priestess were waiting.
“Let me show you the greatest temple of our people,” the high priestess said with no short amount of pride. She jumped into the air and began to fly.
Mave waited for a moment, testing her wing. It was healed, and she could fly, but again a force tried to tell her not to continue. Mave growled, then jumped into the air, her males following. She followed the female high into the air, seeing the dangerous hazards on the mountainside that protected the temple as they arrived.
It was magnificent. Black-and-white marble came out of the mountain, building the outer half of the temple. As Mave got closer, the winds grew dangerous, and she knew it was the storm above them, trying to chase off those who would dare come to this place.
She landed on the giant entry. Flat marble jutted out of the mountain, enough space for Rain and several other wyverns to land if they needed to. She took in the view below as her males landed, all of them panting after they finally made it through the fierce winds.
Mave ignored the soft chatter around her and turned to see the temple entrance. Seven pillars held up the front of the building, one situated directly in the middle. They weren’t simple and classic like the Elvasi. Each was actually a dragon statue, their back feet on the ground. They rose up and up, their heads holding up the ceiling.
“I’ve never seen a temple like this,” Bryn whispered.
“Me neither,” Zayden said in a similarly hushed voice. “It’s glorious.”
“Now, I see why people took pilgrimages to see this. I never got it growing up, but now I understand,” Mat said, awe in his words.
Mave wasn’t as overwhelmed. She saw history and greatness just as they did. She saw beauty. And it did little for her. She was impressed, but she wasn’t awed.
She was too angry with Kristanya to allow herself to be awed.
“Welcome. Now, come, and I’ll show you where you can pray.”
“I’m not here to pray,” Mave said, not moving, even though her husbands began to follow Invia. When Invia looked at her, Mave looked up, beyond the temple at the mountain itself. “I’m here to climb.”
“Do your males intend to climb with you?” Invia’s entire demeanor changed in a second, from proud to unknown. Mave couldn’t read her anymore.
“No,” she answered.
“Then you need to come with me. I’ll show you and tell you what you need to know. Your males can stay in the temple for as long as they need, but…we have a rule. Those waiting on pilgrims to the top must leave at the end of the season.”
“Because I’m probably dead.”
“Yes. Come.” As they followed her in, Invia snapped her fingers and pointed at the males. “These are her husbands and her nemari. They need rooms for a possibly extended stay. Maevana Lorren Amori is here to climb.”
Gasps from the priests and priestesses around the group made Mave looked around quickly, seeing a dozen of them standing in the dark shadows watching.
Her males were ushered away from her, and Mave’s heart began to pound.
“Will I be able to see them before I leave?”
“You have declared your intent to climb to the Dragon’s Nest, the peak of this great mountain. You have forty-eight hours to settle your affairs and learn before you leave. If you back out, you will leave having been banished from this place, for we don’t take these things lightly. One chance—that is all you have, and you have already begun.” Mave looked at her husbands as Invia led her away. “Once you and I are finished talking, you can spend the next two days doing as you please.”
She led Mave to a large inner courtyard, somehow kept alive in the midst of the storm. Mave looked up and gasped. A glass ceiling let the minimal light available through and kept the storm from penetrating. It was deceptively warm as well. Mave found small fireplaces built around the side in areas where it wouldn’t set the plants on fire.
They ended up going into a quiet room at the back of the temple, or what Mave thought was the back. Invia offered Mave a seat, then took another across a table.
“Why do you wish to climb?” Invia asked, grabbing a large book and flipping to a blank page, then readied a quill. “We have all those who come tell their story, for remembrance.”
Mave understood. In case anyone came looking, the story was written.
Mave told her story from the beginning—her childhood, her time as a slave and a gladiator, her evolution into the warrior she was now, her freedom, her journey through Olost and the Elvasi attack. It went on and on.
Mave spoke of her first dream of Krist
anya, which made the high priestess stumble for a moment, the only time the high priestess messed up as Mave continued on through the war.
And finally, to her argument with Alchan.
“So…the secret about the royal family has finally escaped their tight lips,” the female whispered. “Interesting. Also bold of you to send your king to his death.”
“My king is…” Mave trailed off. “My brother is a good male who deserves his place in history as a great king who tried to exhaust every resource to save his people. And I will do everything in my power to give him that.”
Invia only nodded.
Mave finished her story with finding Invia.
“Now, I’m here with you to ask the goddess Kristanya to make me her Avatar in the hope it grants me the ability to win this war.”
“No one knows what an Avatar of Kristanya could do, but you seem to have great belief in the idea,” Invia pointed out. “Others went to Kristanya for the same reason, hoping it granted them the power to keep their loved ones from dying. Control over her darkest forces, so they could subvert them. In a way, you are doing the same.”
“In a way, but she’s not just the goddess of darkness and death. She is also the goddess of war, and that's what I’m hoping to draw on.”
“Of course.” Invia closed the book and set it aside. “You climb for a long time. Only four Andinna have ever returned from this journey, and it took many weeks. They never told anyone what they found at the peak. You could get there and find nothing.”
“I have the feeling that won’t be the case,” Mave whispered, thinking of what Kristanya told her.
“Certainly. You’ve had more access to the goddess Kristanya than any other Andinna. She’s always been most withdrawn. We know her in our blood as warriors. We know her on the night of Al Moro Nat. We know her at our end. No Andinna has ever truly known her while they’ve been alive.”
“I can’t say I know her well, but she took an interest in me, and now, I’m going to see it through, even if she thinks it’s pointless. I have so many questions for her, and I’m going to get answers while I’m up there.” Mave decided she wanted to change the subject. There was so much about her and her life that was hard and terrible, but Varon had seemed sure, and now Mave needed the truth. “What should I expect?”
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