Kingdom of Storms (The Desert Cursed Series Book 8)

by Shannon Mayer

  Fen bobbed his head in agreement. “I felt a little of it too, but I don’t know how that can be?”

  I wasn’t about to spill Lila’s secret. “Maybe because I understand what it is when you love the wrong person.”

  Fen closed his eyes. “You think Lila is wrong for me?”

  Shit, did he really think he loved her already? I mean, in part I understood, she was fucking amazing. “No, I mean whoever hurt you. Lila wouldn’t do that. She doesn’t have it in her to break hearts.”

  Fen’s eyes filled with what I could only guess was relief. And maybe a bit of hope.

  “Okay, enough therapy for today.” Vahab clapped his hands together. “Let’s go.”

  Let’s go turned out to be us climbing on Fen’s back. “I thought you couldn’t carry this much weight,” I said as I settled in behind Vahab, Lila in my hood, and Reyhan tucked tight in my arms.

  “He lied,” Vahab said. “Because I didn’t want to move too fast.”

  Fen leapt into the sky, different than Lila would have in her larger size. Instead of powering up, he kind of galloped forward, undulating and picking up speed before he was rising. His body undulated through the air, his long white mane fluttering around us.

  “The prophecy,” I yelled into the wind. “What do you know of it?”

  “It’s not a prophecy,” Vahab yelled back. “Or at least not the way you might think of it.” He twisted around to look at me. “Demons have a set of rules and if those rules aren’t followed, they are automatically sent back through the Veil to their realm.”

  I frowned, thinking about Asag and Mamitu, about Pazuzu. “You mean like his three challenges that have to be faced in order to then face him?”

  He nodded. “Yes, exactly. The natural world demands balance, predators and prey, or things go to shit. He is a predator. But that means he has to have at least a weakness that his prey can manipulate if they are smart enough.”

  The wind warmed as we wove our way through the mountain passes. We weren’t very high, at least I could see the valley floors and the . . . “Oh shit, those are pillars.”

  Asag’s rock monsters were swarming in the same general direction as us, just further below. If one of them looked up, we were screwed in the most royal of senses.

  “I can help with that,” Fen said, and a mist swirled out around his mouth, sweeping out and closing us up in what was essentially a moving cloud bank.

  Lila stirred from my hood. “They aren’t seeking us by sight but tracking the kid by some other way.”

  “It can’t hurt,” Fen said.

  Unless they started shooting at us.

  On cue, a flaming arrow blitzed through the cloud bank, and just missed Fen’s head. “Shit!”

  “Out of the clouds,” I said. “We can’t avoid the shots if we can’t see them coming.”

  Fen dropped, diving straight for the ground, which meant we all got a little air. I clamped my legs around his middle at the last second and clung to his mane. Vahab squealed and floated above Fen’s back until Lila shot forward and landed on his shoulder, shoving him back down.

  “Hang on,” Fen yelled as he began to spiral. The momentum was intense, and I closed my eyes so I didn’t lose my lunch.

  Nope, that wasn’t any better. Nausea flipped my stomach upside down, as Fen did the same thing. I could feel the burning arrows going past us, the heat of the flames kissing against my exposed skin, but nothing landed. I opened my eyes to the world twisting in and around itself.

  Fen grunted once, but that was it.

  He pulled up hard above the floor of the valley between the mountains and skimmed along. Looking over my shoulder, there were no pillars.

  “Where did they go?”

  “I threw my mist around them. They are blind for the moment,” Fen said.

  “It won’t last,” Lila said. “They aren’t tracking by sight, which I believe we’ve already covered.”

  He shot a look back at her. “It’s the best I can do.”

  “Seems like you are lacking then,” Lila muttered and I . . . I really wasn’t sure why she was being a jerk.

  “Maybe you want to stop them?” Fen snapped.

  “Maybe I will!” she snapped back.

  “Lila, you don’t have enough—” I was going to say acid.

  “Enough what?” she growled. “Size? Strength?”

  Oh boy. “We’ve tried killing them before and even your acid doesn’t make much of a dent, which means we need to be smart about this. What can stop a fucking rock monster?”

  Silence all around as we flew hard. Ahead of us the edge of the desert was showing through, glimpses of the sand here and there.

  Balder and Dancer would be there, which meant we’d have the speed we needed.

  My brain hurt as I tried to figure out just what the fuck we were going to do. The rock monsters would keep coming, all the way to the sea if we didn’t stop them. And I had no desire to be stuck between rhuk and a rock monster, with a storm on top of us.

  “We have to find a way to stop them,” I said.

  “And just how do you propose to do that?” Vahab said.

  I reached up and touched Lila. “I think I need to walk the dreamscape.”

  “Right now?” Vahab bellowed.

  “Who do you know that has any knowledge about Asag who can actually speak without getting caught up in some sort of binding spell?” I yelled back. “I . . . I will speak with someone I know that has been around a long time.”

  Lila clawed at my neck. “You think that’s a good idea?”

  I shrugged. “It’s all I’ve got for ideas other than trying to outrun them, which we know won’t work long term.”

  Her hold on my neck eased and she grunted. “This is stupid. I hate that demon and his stupid rock monsters.” I reached up and patted her on the head.

  “We’ll figure this out, we always do, right?”

  She shot me a look. Yeah, I wasn’t feeling all that hot shit right then either, but I wasn’t about to let Vahab know that. Much as we were technically working together, let’s be honest, the trust just wasn’t there yet.

  “I can see the horses,” Fen called over his shoulder. “We are almost to them.”

  Just ahead I could see the body of the rhuk, Cassandra, her wings spread wide as if sheltering her chicks. Or in this case, the two horses.

  As Fen landed and slid to a stop I was off and running toward Balder, Reyhan still sound asleep in my arms. I’d give the kid that, she was able to sleep through anything.

  “Balder, get ready to run!”

  He reared up, spun and went to one knee, lowering his back for me. I leapt, landed in the saddle and we were off.

  Cassandra let out a screech. “What about me?”

  “Can you keep up?”

  “Of course!” Her launch into the air sent a curl of dust and sand around us, but I closed my eyes and leaned into Balder, kissing at him.

  Lila clung to my neck. “You think you can fall asleep while we run for our lives?”

  “The herbs that Pazuzu gave Reyhan to keep her quiet.” I reached under my shirt and pulled the pack of nepeta out—catnip. As Balder galloped flat out, I grabbed my water bottle and sloppily mixed the nepeta into it, and gave it a shake.

  I looked at Lila who sat on the front of my saddle watching me. “Bottoms up.”

  I chugged the water. The tang of the herb was unpleasant, but within seconds my limbs loosened.

  Oh, I had not thought this through.

  “Lila . . .” I slurred her name as I slumped forward.

  “I got you, go find us help!” Her claws dug into me and then I felt a hand on my right side, holding me in the saddle.

  Vahab was beside us, the black mare bringing him alongside me and Balder. That was all the coherent awake thoughts I had before I slid into the dreamscape.

  The world was the same and yet not. I watched from the back of Balder to see the army of Asag in the distance and losing ground. But that wouldn�
�t last.

  I leapt off his back and kind of floated for a minute in space before dropping to the ground. Something inside of me shifted.

  Nope. Not quite like that. The head of a tiny jungle cub stuck out of the top of my shirt. I pulled Reyhan out and she shifted to two legs. “Where are we?”

  Jaysus on a crippled donkey. I hadn’t even thought that Reyhan might be able to dream walk with me. I decided my best shot was to explain quickly as we moved. I took her by the hand and started running.

  “We’re going to find help, and this is a dreamworld where things can still hurt or even kill us, but we can also do some pretty amazing things.”

  The scenery around us blurred as we ran.

  She laughed and giggled. “This is great! If I yell fuck here, can anyone hear me?”

  I stumbled. “I can hear you!” I looked at her. “And we don’t say fuck.”

  She grinned up at me, just the bright little girl she was, without the dark shadows of being hunted by rabisu, or Asag, or having lost her entire family.

  “Where are we going?”

  I thought about the person I was hoping could help. “A wise woman named Flora. She . . . she might know something about Asag and his monsters.”

  “So that we can stop them?”

  I squeezed her hand and nodded. “Yes.”

  The landscape shifted suddenly and I was no longer in a desert, a jungle, or a mountain top.

  I was in a place I’d never seen, but had heard about. A city. But not like a desert city; one of the cities that had been on the Indiana Jones documentary with thousands of people, and buildings taller than any mountain.

  At least there were no people here.

  “Flora?” I hollered her name. Of course, she had to be sleeping too. Damn it, there were too many holes in this plan of mine. That’s what I got for making a decision on the fly without considering how it could backfire.

  “I don’t like this place,” Reyhan whispered. “Where are we?”

  I searched the signage around us. “Seattle.”

  I paused and headed toward the smells of something nothing short of magical and found myself stepping through a door into a bakery. “Oh my goddess,” I whispered. The stacks of delicate pastries, the smell of fresh bread, the pull of food made by the hand of a . . . well, of a goddess, made my stomach rumble.

  “Can we eat it?” Reyhan whispered.

  “No,” I said. “We have to find Flora.”

  “Flora isn’t here.” The dulcet alto voice turned me around. A woman stood there, looking at me, looking at her. She had long black hair, green eyes, and weirdly looked a bit like me. Only she was much taller and had the body of a . . . well, of a goddess. Maybe this was the one who’d done the baking?

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m Flora’s granddaughter, Alena.” As she spoke her image wavered. “She only just got back home from her trip. Did she meet you there?”

  I nodded. “I need to ask her a question.”

  “Maybe you can ask me?” Alena offered. Again, her image wavered, and she stretched, a self-satisfied smile on her lips. “Remo, don’t wake me up.”

  I frowned. “I doubt you’d know. No offense.”

  She shrugged. “None taken, I’ll tell my grandmother you were looking for her.” And then she was gone.

  I turned and pulled Reyhan with me. “I want to stay!” she whispered.

  “I know, but it’s not real. We can’t eat it.”

  She sighed and I felt the disappointment myself—not only for the food but for not finding Flora. Because my other option . . . was my grandfather.

  “Okay,” I whispered more to myself than to Reyhan, “let’s go find the old bastard.”

  17

  Reyhan and I blitzed away from the place called Seattle. Before, the dreamscape had been set only in our world, over the desert. Something had changed if we could walk through the entire world. Or maybe that was what happened when my grandfather’s hold on the place slid.

  “Who is the old bastard?” Reyhan asked.

  “My grandfather.” I jumped over the ocean of water, barely registering the impossible move. Weird how this world worked, because it could kill us and a fall from this height normally would. I didn’t want to dwell too much on the mechanics of the place I didn’t fully trust or understand. I would just take it as it came.

  “And he can help us?”

  “I hope so.”

  Focusing on the Emperor, I found myself being drawn back to a place I don’t think I’d ever truly believed I would return to.

  The Stockyards.

  The home of Ish, the home of the Bright Lion Pride. The place I’d lived for most of my life. I found my feet slowing as we drew close to the buildings. There was not a lot of movement here, other than a few animals scurrying about.

  “Shax, I need to speak with you.” I used his given name because I wasn’t sure that I wanted to call him Grandfather. Or the Emperor. Neither really fit him.

  “What if he’s not here?” Reyhan whispered.

  “Then we keep looking,” I said with a great deal of confidence, enough that she smiled even while inside I could feel my guts twisting. There were not a lot of options when it came to long-lived beings that I could trust. Or that I hadn’t already killed.

  I let myself in through the front door, and was immediately assaulted by memories. Of Steve and Kiara. Of my brother injured. Of Ish . . . I shook it off. “Shax?”

  A scuffle came from what had been the main meeting room. “I am here.”

  Still holding Reyhan’s hand, I led the way through the double doors and into the room. Braziers were lit around the edges, giving off only a little heat, but a great deal of light. Carpets littered the floor, softening our footsteps.

  My grandfather, stripped of all his power, sat in the center of the carpets cross-legged and with his hands resting on his knees. “Zamira.”

  “This is the old bastard?” Reyhan whispered, but of course she was audible, loud and clear.

  His bushy white eyebrows climbed to his hairline. “I suppose I am the old bastard. Did you have a child? No, it can’t be, she is too old.”

  “I am protecting her from Asag,” I said, watching him for a response.

  And boy, did I get one.

  His whole body tensed and he paled so far that I thought he was going to fall over. “The demon?”

  “You know him then?” I lowered myself across from him and for just a moment I could feel the movement of Balder under me, galloping at high speed while I made this journey. Strange to be in two places at once.

  “I know him. He was . . . part of the issues I dealt with in my early years as the Emperor. And he was part of the reason we chose to wall off the eastern and western desert from one another.”

  “We.”

  “Myself, and a few others who chose to remain there, to try and stop him.” He shrugged. “They would be gone now, Asag would have killed them.”

  I nodded, even though I suspected that Mamitu, Pazuzu and Vahab might actually be the ones he was speaking of. “Asag has sent his pillars after us.”

  Shax frowned and touched a hand to his chin. “I do not know of such things.”

  I thought about it. “That is what the locals call them.”

  “It’s a stupid name,” he pointed out. “Describe them to me.”

  Reyhan cleared her throat. “They are rock monsters, and they can’t be killed and they are his army. And I hate the fuckers.”

  He choked on a laugh. “Ah, so then that is something I know a little of. They are a type of golem. Not sentient, not thinking on their own. Perfect for a demon like Asag.” He rubbed his face again. “How many of them are there now?”

  “Hundreds.”

  A grimace crossed his face. “That does not bode well. And they have been around for thousands of years, so I would guess that they are no longer soft clay, but hardened rock and stone?”

  “Yes!” I leaned forward. “Almost impossible to h
urt, or stop.”

  I can hurt them.

  Lilith’s voice caught me off guard and I flinched. My grandfather noticed. “What is it?”

  “A new weapon,” I said. “Sister to the flail.”

  He sighed. “You do not need to challenge yourself every time, you know. I know that weapon, she is far more dangerous even than your flail.”

  It was my turn to grimace. “I wasn’t aiming for a challenge. I was aiming for a weapon that wouldn’t be a pain in my ass. And I know that she is worse, I’ve experienced it.”

  Lilith let out a laugh that had me shaking my head.

  “Back to Asag and his golems,” Shax said. “What do you need to know? How to kill them?”

  I nodded. “Yes. They are hunting,” I almost said Reyhan’s name, but instead shot a quick look to the top of her head. “Us.”

  My grandfather gave a low sigh. “Asag is unredeemable. He always favored the young ones. His golems have a weakness, but it is not an easy one to make happen, I think.”

  “Anything. We need something,” I said.

  The old bastard clapped his hands together three times, and a brazier rose up in front of him, the flames blue and green. “What destroys clay?”

  I blinked at the flames, undulating like the waves of an ocean. “Water.”

  “No blade will kill them, no acid will eat through their outer shells. You must wash them away.” He rolled his hand through the flames. “How you will convince them of that is where things could get interesting. They are, of course, fearful of water and avoid it at all costs.”

  “And they can fly,” I said. “So even if they got close to water, they can fly over it.”

  “Interesting, that is a new trick then.” He bobbed his head and yawned. “I hope that helps you, granddaughter of mine.”

  I almost nodded. Almost. “What do I owe you for this information?”

  He smiled. “You know me too well. I will call on you, should a need arise.”

  Damn it, I should have negotiated at the beginning, but I was in too big of a hurry. Also I was trying to figure out just how we were going to make this happen—getting Asag’s entire army into water.

  “Maybe we can make a trap for them?” Reyhan asked as we stood and the world of the dreamscape wobbled around us. The nepeta was wearing off.