Kuwari was still nursing happily when a servant came over carrying robes. Iltani put hers on without a word.
Ditanu was standing on the opposite side of the bed belting his in place when he looked up at her and grinned. “Welcome to my world. No privacy at all. And no, you won’t really get used to it as much as learn to tune everything out.”
“If you say so.”
Really, it was a small price to pay for finally being with the man she loved.
***
Ditanu, as expected, didn’t have the slightest hint of a hangover. While Iltani would have been happy to stay in his chambers and make love again, repeatedly, he had kept his plans to go from island to island to rejuvenate all the dormant lamassu. Her logical mind agreed it was essential to have a better warning in the future if another fleet of ships ever managed to breach the dome protecting the city-states.
Their first stop earlier in the day had been Nippur, the island of Ahassunu and her line. Shalanum was trusted enough to keep a secret, so they went openly to wake the lamassu there first. Between herself, Ditanu, and his aunt, the work of waking the dormant lamassu went faster than Iltani thought it would, although it still took a few hours at each stop, and it was draining work. Ditanu decided they would do two a day, with a day of rest between.
Ditanu had wanted to finish one island in particular.
Kalhu, the city-state ruled by Beletum and her father. It was a little-known fact that the lamassu could also be used to spy. Even if they were asleep, they could still hear and see everything within their domain.
Iltani agreed Kalhu should be one of their first stops—but done in secret so their enemies would not be aware. Ditanu hadn’t wanted her to come, saying she should stay behind and guard Kuwari. She’d only laughed at her king’s naiveté and told him he was welcome to explain that to Ishtar, then.
Iltani had sensed her goddess near from the moment Ditanu had conceived his plan to wake all the dormant lamassu.
***
That was how Iltani found herself beside one of many boats being dragged silently up a beach in the middle of the night with only the moon to light their way. Well, they did have unlit torches with them should they have a need. The rocky shore at the base of the cliffs was an excellent place to hide their boats from casual observation. If anyone happened to be patrolling an empty beach, they might happen upon them, but that was why several of the Shadows would stay behind with the boats and subdue any soldiers belonging to Beletum. They could make an apology and soothe ruffled feathers later should Beletum prove innocent.
If the lamassu did report something treasonous in nature, Iltani wouldn’t be concerned with ruffling feathers. She’d be taking heads instead.
Once the boats were secured, she, Ditanu, and Kammani, surrounded by a group of sixty Shadows led by Uselli, made their way off the beach and followed the stairs cut into the cliff a century past. The stairs were still in good repair if a little weather-stained and salt-eaten.
At the top, a large door made of solid planks and reinforced with metal was in much rougher shape. Its hinges were rusted. A cloak shoved against one and a blow delivered from a sword hilt was all it took to shatter the lock. Inside it was dark, silent, and dank.
“No one patrols this area,” Uselli muttered in angry disbelief. “Who allows their defenses to be so compromised?”
Ditanu cleared his throat. “Someone who has too many other things to accomplish, perhaps?”
“Or,” Iltani added and Ishtar’s magic flared a stronger warning. “Someone who doesn’t fear being attacked, because the mercenaries who attacked us are in their employ. Ishtar’s warning magic awoke as soon as I stepped foot on this island.”
“We should go back, gather more men before we return,” Uselli urged.
Ditanu shook his head. “No, we need to investigate this now. We’ll wake the lamassu as planned and then go to the council with evidence. I can’t wipe out one of the ruling houses just because I do not trust them. We need evidence first or risk having the other city-states respond in fear.”
“But Ishtar is warning there is danger here.”
“How many of the councilors did your power label a threat to me?”
Iltani scowled but grudgingly replied. “Most of them.”
“You see?”
“That doesn’t mean Beletum and her father are not a true threat.”
“Then think of it this way. If we only take the head, the body might still survive and grow a new one someday.”
“I’d like to see someone grow their head back after I’ve cut it off.”
Ditanu reached out and caressed her cheek. “It is not that I don’t trust you, but we must be certain first.”
“Understood.” Iltani drew her sword. “I still don’t like it.”
“Dislike noted,” Ditanu said with a cocky grin. He shielded his eyes when the first torch was lit and when he lowered his hand, his expression had changed. The flash of humor was gone, replaced by something far more predatory.
So he did believe her when she’d warned of the danger. Now he wanted to hunt down that danger and kill it. She drew breath to say even killing every last traitor wouldn’t fill the hollow in his heart where the love of two of his cubs used to live.
Closing her mouth, she remembered again the pain and hollowness in her heart when the first tiny thread in her blood link had snapped. She’d only known those tiny lives for a day. Ditanu had known them since birth. Iltani’s hand tightened on her sword’s hilt.
Perhaps Ditanu had the right of it after all.
Maybe healing couldn’t start until after his need for revenge was satisfied and laid to rest next to his two dead cubs. Whether it would heal him or not, she would help him slay his enemies even if it hadn’t been her duty. Child killers didn’t deserve to keep breathing.
A guard stayed behind at the broken door where he could pass messages between the two groups of Shadows.
Ditanu forged on, and Iltani stayed at his side while his Shadows paced ahead.
They met no one in the tunnel or in the root cellar where it emerged. From there, they exited the cellar and made their way higher up into the palace. Ditanu had scoured ancient maps detailing Kalhu’s layout before he’d chosen the place to come ashore. That was how he knew of the hidden entrance and that it led up into the palace and not elsewhere in the surrounding city.
They found a few guards on duty, but easily avoided detection.
The Shadows’ dark cloaks were woven with magic to hide them from enemy eyes. What their cloaks couldn’t hide, their training did, assuring they moved with silent feet and smooth grace, barely stirring the air as they passed.
She and Ditanu moved just as swiftly and silently. They’d been trained by Burrukan, after all. Still, she had to nod at the other Shadows’ training, skills which took years to perfect.
At last, they came upon the first of the dormant lamassu—one of four statues guarding the great hall of Kalhu. These ones were lacking the beauty and luster of the ones back in Nineveh. She ran a finger along one stone feather, dislodging flakes of paint from centuries past.
“These ones are old,” she whispered so only Ditanu would hear.
“But they are loyal and they will still serve.” He patted one of the lamassu’s great bull legs. “I and those of my blood will take better care of you in the future, too. I promise.”
Ditanu drew a blade and then brought it to his forearm and made a nick. The sharp blade sliced cleanly, and a few beads of blood welled up and then a few more. He muttered under his breath and made a second deeper slice.
Anointing the lamassu might be one of New Sumer’s best defenses, but it still hurt.
Iltani gave Ditanu a nod in acknowledgment and then went to the far corner of the hall to her own lamassu. Priestess Kammani was already marking the one before her with blood.
“Well, old fellow, it’s time to wake to the world once more.” Iltani sliced her own arm with a soft grunt. “I imagine it has
changed a bit since last time your hooves made the ground shake.”
Priestess Kammani prayed solemnly while she anointed her lamassu. Ditanu remained silent. While Iltani chatted nonsense at hers. It had been precisely the same for the other eleven she’d already awakened this day. Each city had a varying number of the lamassu depending on how large the islands were and how much beach they had to guard. Between thirty and forty seemed the normal number.
Iltani anointed her statue more by rote now than careful skill, and so she was startled when this one started to shift under her hands. Iltani whipped around to see the others already waking.
The lamassu of Nippur hadn’t moved at all upon waking. They had only acknowledged Ditanu as their king and Iltani as Ishtar’s Blade, accepting each as their commander. As for Kammani, they had drawn upon her power and acknowledged her as one of the line of the gryphon kings, but did not ask her how they should serve.
However, all that had been done in the silence of their minds, the statue never moving. Lamassu only moved when they sensed danger.
These ones were moving.
‘King and Blade, beware,’ the one before her spoke. ‘Treachery breeds upon this island. They mean to slay every last one of your line.’
The lamassu nearest Kammani started across the room, shaking the floor under Iltani’s feet. Priestess Kammani lost her balance and stumbled. One of the Shadows helped her back to her feet.
Kammani’s lamassu spoke four words. ‘Ereshkigal seeks to rise.’
‘The Queen of the Underworld has grown jealous of her sister,’ Ditanu’s lamassu added its weighty voice. ‘She seeks a way to rule this world too.’
Iltani knew if Ereshkigal gained a foothold in this world, it would change beyond all recognition.
The lamassu confirmed what Ishtar had sent her in a dream, but its words were clearer. If Ereshkigal set her own puppet upon the throne, she would merely have to wait. With more worshippers praying to her, she would grow stronger while Ishtar grew weaker. There wouldn’t even need to be a battle.
“We need to get out of here now.” Iltani rushed over to Ditanu’s side.
He was nodding his head when the second lamassu spoke again. ‘Your false consort and her mate are here, below in the dungeons. I can feel them through the stone. They are weakened from battle wounds and torture. While they might survive a few days more on their own, it is unlikely Beletum will leave them alive once they learn of our awakening and your nocturnal visit.’
Iltani’s heart plummeted to her stomach. If what the lamassu said was true, and of course it was, Burrukan and Ahassunu were alive, and in need of rescuing, but if they waited, likely all they’d find would be their corpses.
“I won’t leave them,” Ditanu said with a steely note of finality. It silenced Iltani’s and Uselli’s voices before they even raised them.
“I agree, or else they are dead,” Iltani said, “but we don’t have much time. Dawn is fast approaching and servants will be waking soon. The more people we have to hide from, the more likely we’ll be caught. I don’t care how skilled the Shadows are. Even they can’t hide in broad daylight.”
“We will hurry then. The dungeons are below us from what I remember of the map.” Ditanu closed his eyes and frowned as if retrieving the mental image of the map he spoke of. “If we hurry we should be able to reach the dungeons, free our friends, and escape back to the beach before our enemies know we were ever here.”
Priestess Kammani just shook her head at them. Iltani knew she wasn’t afraid for her own life. “If either of you gets killed, Ereshkigal is that much closer to winning.”
“We won’t die,” Ditanu said with surety rising in his voice. “This is why Ishtar sent her Blade. Together Iltani and I are stronger than any force Ereshkigal has drawn together, slave to her will.”
Iltani hoped he was correct.
Chapter 30
The dungeons were as dark as she expected, and the air was less than fresh, but it could have been worse. There was no scent of violent death or old decay. Iltani breathed a sigh of relief. Now they just had to get Burrukan and Ahassunu free.
There had been five guards stationed at the dungeon. They were all now dead by her blade. She didn’t feel guilty. They were holding Consort Ahassunu prisoner. While they might not have been willing subjects of Ereshkigal, they had remained complacent. Had even one of them been willing to get word to Ditanu or his Shadows, the lot of them would have been freed and rewarded.
Well, Iltani had given them the reward they deserved.
One at a time the Shadows broke open the doors. Inside they found other victims and survivors of the island attack. Ditanu had taken one look at his citizens and ordered his Shadows to start delivering them safely back through the palace and on into the root cellar and freedom.
More cell doors were forced open. Iltani started down another corridor lined with yet more doors. Closing her eyes, she rested her hand on her belly and whispered a prayer. “Ishtar guide me to these ones’ mother, so they can grow up knowing us both.”
Ishtar’s answer was a slight tug upon her soul. She followed her goddess. Ditanu and his personal guard followed in her wake.
She came to a door and raised her hand. Her fingers uncurled to show the glow of Ishtar’s power. It was the barest trickle, just enough for the task at hand, not enough to harm the unborn cubs in Iltani’s womb.
Reaching forward, she touched the lock, and it vanished in a puff of smoke and a hot metal smell. Inside it was dark, but Iltani summoned a touch more power, not the vast draws of battle magic, but a gentler, healing light which illuminated the room.
Burrukan was in human form, a heavy metal collar fastened around his neck. A chain attached to it secured him to the wall. The chain would only allow him to move a few feet in any direction. Presently, he lay on his side, drugged or unconscious. There was no way Burrukan would have slept through someone coming into his cell otherwise. Consort Ahassunu was resting beside him in gryphon form. She didn’t look good. The belly wound she’d taken just days before was infected and oozing. Iltani could smell the corruption.
“We need to get her out of here,” Iltani whispered.
Ditanu and the Shadows were already moving. They had backed out of the cell to find something to carry Ahassunu upon. Iltani knelt by Burrukan’s side and gently shook his shoulder, hoping she wasn’t causing him too much pain.
He blinked up at her, and slowly his owlish look changed, sharpening.
He spotted the open door and the other Shadows outside. “You must go.” His voice sounded as broken as he looked.
“Not without you and Ahassunu.” Iltani touched his collar and then changed her mind, vaporizing a link in the chain instead. She did the same for Ahassunu, who didn’t stir at all.
“She is dying,” Burrukan said, his voice so full of pain.
“But is not yet dead. I won’t let these traitors kill another one of my people.”
Ditanu and six guards came back in carrying one of the other cell doors.
Well, that would work, she supposed. Priestess Kammani came forward and examined Ahassunu. When Kammani declared her stable enough to move, Ditanu and several of the Shadows gently lifted the consort and placed her on the door to carry her out. Iltani helped Burrukan to his feet. Another of the Shadows handed him a spare sword. He closed his fist around it and nodded sharply.
The Shadows had their rightful leader back and hope flared in more than one gaze for the first time after learning the dire news of Ereshkigal’s rising.
***
The trip back up to the lamassu’s chamber took twice as long. It couldn’t be helped with carrying Ahassunu and several of the other prisoners weakened from Beletum and Ziyatum’s hospitality. Each moment stretched by longer than the last. Iltani’s fingers tightened upon her sword hilt until she noticed and forced them to relax.
They had just reached the hall leading to the lamassu when there was a cry of warning. The cry was cut short a moment late
r, but the damage had been done. Holding her breath, she listened and waited. Then she heard the thump of boots.
Two guards belonging to Beletum’s house burst through a set of doors at the end of the hall. Seeing the prisoners, they froze. The taller one on the right shouted over his shoulder and then started forward.
Iltani and the other Shadows still had the advantage of their concealing cloaks. All the enemy soldier would see at first glance was unarmed prisoners, attempting escape. Three of the nearly invisible Shadows were easing closer to the two enemy soldiers.
They were nearly upon them.
If they silenced these soldiers and the ones coming up behind, Ditanu and his people still had a chance of escaping without a fight.
The front-most Shadow was within three body lengths of his target, his long dagger already in his hand. Two other shadows were converging upon the scene when the other guard, the silent one who was studying the scene in more detail, suddenly turned and ran back through the door.
“Intruders!” he bellowed as he ran. Reaching the door, he turned back and hesitated, looking back in time to see his partner grunt softly and fall to the ground, already dead from a dagger shoved up under the chin and into his brain.
The door slammed closed and Iltani heard a latch being slid in place. Then, muffled somewhat by the door, other shouts of ‘King’s Shadows’ and other answering shouts in the distance.
“So much for secrecy,” Ditanu muttered under his breath and then gestured to his men, “This way.”
Iltani followed the king’s direction while keeping an eye on the passageways behind and to either side. Her senses stretched outward, Ishtar’s defensive gifts flowing outward with them. Minds that had been sleeping mere moments before were now waking.
Other guards were rushing toward the cries of warning.
When her group reached the room where the lamassu waited, Ditanu gathered half his men around him and then ordered the prisoners, Consort Ahassunu, and their Shadow guides on ahead. To Burrukan, he said, “The rest of us will slow the enemy while you go on ahead. The escape tunnel and the stairs leading down the cliff are narrow. Some of the injured will have to be carried.”
Queen of the Gryphons: Ishtar's Legacy: Books 1 & 2 Page 24