Before I could think better of it, I pulled her free of the sheath on my back. “You can change shapes?”
Yes.
“Can you make yourself into a flail?”
Lilith shivered in my hand. The length of the handle stretched out and the metal of the blade shimmered and reformed into a spiked ball that dangled from a chain. The handle was polished wood, and the steel of the spiked ball was a dusky gray without an ounce of shine to it. I rolled my wrist and the chain clanged as I spun it round.
You are more comfortable with this shape?
I slid through the movements I’d trained when using the flail. Step, spin, switch hands, spin again. Lilith and her machinations were quiet as I moved through the exercises. Breathing through them and waiting for her to try and take me over.
“Okay, let’s try,” I said.
You wish me to . . . try and possess you?
I gritted my teeth. “Yes.”
I’d barely said the word and the world blacked out. When I came to I was standing over a sleeping Vahab, my arm pulled back and ready to let fly with the flail.
I opened my hand and dropped Lilith. Letting out a breath, I realized that miraculously, Vahab had not woken up.
“That was stupid,” Lila said.
“Yeah.” I turned to her, wondering if I was as pale as I felt. “I need you to be my second while I train with her, Lila.”
She snorted. “And do what? I don’t want to spit acid on you and with her in your hands, I don’t particularly want to get bashed either.”
Gingerly I reached down and picked up Lilith and walked back out into the desert away from the camp. Lila flew after me, looping through the air. She was thinner than I’d ever seen her and I was suddenly, acutely aware of how much stress we’d all been under.
How little we’d eaten, drunk, or slept in weeks.
Back out by the thorn bush I stopped. “Lila, you can stop me. Use the connection between us.”
Lila landed on top of the center of the thorn bush and tucked her wings in. “Okay, but I still think it’s a bad idea.”
You must . . . embrace me, instead of fighting me, Lilith said.
That sounded like a terrible idea. I closed my eyes and nodded.
And woke up walking back toward the camp.
Lila could snap me out of the fog that Lilith put me under, but that was the only good thing. Two hours we trained before I called it.
“I can’t stop her,” I said as we stood there by the thorn bush. “She’s too strong.”
“You are stronger,” Lila said. “You withstood Jinn trying to take you over!”
“But Jinn . . . they aren’t a demon.”
Lila leapt across the bush and I caught her in my arms and hugged her tight. For the first time in a long time, I was afraid. Afraid that we weren’t going to be able to finish this journey. Afraid that Asag and his golem army would win. And worse, I was afraid that I was once more that weak shifter who was not strong enough to save her friends.
Lila slapped my face. “I know that look, knock that shit off right now.”
My jaw dropped and she grabbed my face with her tiny claws. “You are still the same Zamira I met at the edge of the Dragon’s Ground. Fierce and smart, and tough. Maybe we don’t know the path we are walking, but that’s never stopped us before. So. Stop it. Stop doubting yourself.”
I gave a tired laugh. “Lila, what would I do without you?”
She arched her eyebrows at me. “Probably die.”
We will keep practicing.
Lilith’s voice was not tired, but I could feel the frustration in her. I swung the flail up and over my shoulder, and like the first one, it locked into the sheath with some sort of magic. Good enough.
“We should get some sleep.” I turned and started back toward our camp.
Lila yawned. “A few hours would be good. We’ll try again. You’ll get this. I know you will.”
My sister-friend’s belief in me was a balm to my soul and yet I knew the truth. When it came to Lilith, I wasn’t strong enough to stop her from taking me over fully.
Which meant that there was no way I could use her against Asag.
20
Two hours of sleep was not enough, but it was what we got. Reyhan woke me up, tugging on my ears. “I’m hungry and there is a dust storm coming.”
I rolled to my feet before I was fully awake, my body registering that her words made no sense. There was no wind. “Go to the saddlebags, eat something,” I said as I stared north. North where the golem army was even now working their way toward us.
Sand and dust rose up from their hundreds and hundreds of feet.
“Let’s move.” I ran to the horses and saddled them both up before Vahab even opened his eyes.
“Five more minutes.”
“That’s fine, you do that.” I didn’t want to point out that he probably wasn’t on the army’s hit list anyway.
I grabbed Reyhan and swung her up on Balder’s back before joining her. With a grumble Vahab mounted up on the black mare, Fen small once more, wrapped tight around his neck.
“Lila?”
“I’m going to swing back and see how many there are.” She was gone before I could tell her no.
“Damn it,” I muttered.
“I’ll go with her!” Fen released his hold on Vahab and shot away, shifting in size as he left us. He shot straight across to meet Lila and then veered away. I could only imagine the thrashing she was giving him.
“Let’s go.” I bumped Balder with my heels, and he picked up a quick trot. I didn’t want to race ahead. Not with Lila and Fen back there.
Vahab rode up beside me. “Do you think the rhuk will help?”
I shrugged. “I’ve no idea. But I’ve got nothing else.”
The Jinn nodded, his face solemn. “If we get to the water, maybe the Storm Queen will help.”
I snorted. “She tried to kill me once already.”
“You think that was all for you?” Vahab asked. “Don’t you think highly of yourself.”
“You got a better explanation?” I asked. “She just happened to have a bad PMS day and tried to wipe out that particular part of the desert?” I lifted my eyebrow at him. “Fuck that particular lizard right . . . there.”
Vahab laughed. “I still don’t think it was for you. My delicate flower wouldn’t do that.”
Good grief, he was already falling for her, and he’d not even met her. “Be careful, you might create something in your head that is not even close to reality. What if she’s all muscles and lean like me?”
He grimaced, his lips curling up like he’d smelled a pile of rank camel shit. Yeah, that was what I thought. His imagination was surely running away with him. But then again, maybe so was mine.
There was no reason for me to think that indeed the storm had been all for me, but I suspected it—the storm had felt directed at us. What better way to make Maks open to her advances than to take me out of the picture?
What if Maks thought I was dead?
That thought was a hammer between the eyes, and I gasped. If he thought I was dead, then he might have slept with her. For his freedom and his life, it would be a small ask if his mate was gone. Even if he hated the woman who’d done it.
My stomach rolled and I had to shake my head to clear the traitorous thoughts. If he had . . . and he believed it gained him his freedom, I could understand.
Whatever it took to survive, that was the code of the desert.
Biting back those vile thoughts, I looked over my shoulder, reaching for the connection between Lila and myself. She was okay, irritated but okay.
From what I could tell the dust cloud hadn’t gained on us, and we hadn’t gained on them. That was good enough for now.
And I would think no more of Maks fucking the Storm Queen and just focus on the shit we were sinking in.
We continued on at that pace. Reyhan had picked up on a constant stream of consciousness that flowed out of her mouth. Vahab star
ed at her. “Is this normal? Is she broken?”
Reyhan didn’t seem to even notice as she started rhyming words over and over in a singsong.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been around young ones,” I said. “But generally they love annoying adults.”
Reyhan giggled and snuck a look at me, and I gave her a squeeze. She was a good kid, smart and brave. Which made the idea of Asag stealing her away even more horrifying. He’d destroy her not only in her body, but her heart and mind too.
A whoosh of wings turned my head as Lila landed on Balder’s rump. “There are a lot of them.”
Fen landed a moment later on the black mare’s saddle. “I’d guess close to five hundred. I feel like they are picking up numbers, they seem to be coming in from all directions.”
“And they are holding back on their speed while they do it,” Lila said, her jewel-toned eyes full of worry. She shook her head. “You think Cassandra will pull through for us?”
I didn’t know how close we were to the ocean, or how far away Cassandra was, but water was our only hope, even if we had to ride straight into it. “We ride hard now,” I said. “And hope we can make it to the water in time.”
I turned away from the army at our back and gave Balder his head, kissing at him. He and the black mare leapt forward in tandem and we were off and running.
Torin had run for me like this, faster and faster, but he was a fully mature adult stallion. One that still had his horn.
“Go as long as you can, my friend,” I yelled into the wind. Balder bobbed his head once and then stuck his nose straight out as he reached for a longer stride.
Lila crawled around to sit in Reyhan’s arms. The little girl was quiet now.
Even she could feel the danger that was coming for us. I didn’t dare look back. Not yet.
That moment would come soon enough.
We rode hard, only stopping where we had to for the horses to drink. Three times I got off and ran beside Balder, and made Vahab do the same. He grumbled but otherwise did as he was told.
Thank the gods, because I wasn’t sure I could deal with another problem right then.
“Um . . .” Lila said as we were galloping up to the top of a slick sand dune. “I think we have a problem.”
“Tell me it’s not a new one.” I leaned into Balder’s neck, trying to keep my body more in line with his as we took the hill.
“Well . . . kind of?” She hovered just above me and was staring not behind us, but in front of us.
Balder reached the top of the hill, breathing hard, sweat slicking his body. I reined him in, and we sat at the top of the dune staring at what lay in front of us.
Blue water, cresting with white curls as they dashed in across the sand. How in the world could this be bad?
Lila grabbed my head and turned me ever so slightly to the left. Out in the water was an island capped with a massive castle that rose up into the lower clouds.
Lightning crackled above the peaks of the roof and the wind snapped away from the castle and straight toward us. More than that was the number of rhuk roosting along the edges of the castle.
Well fuck.
“I thought you said that it was further east than we were headed?” I barked at Vahab.
“Well, I guess I was wrong then!” He smiled. Smiled. Mother fucker . . . he’d done it on purpose to get us closer to his girlfriend. “You said you needed us to get to water fast, that’s what I did.”
I spun in my saddle and punched him in the side of the head. “The problem is she doesn’t know that you’re coming to woo her! She’ll see us as intruders, you dumbass!”
He howled. “But she’ll see the golems as intruders too!”
She also had been hunting for the horses—aka hornless unicorns. I slid off Balder’s back. “My friend, you have to go.”
I stripped him quickly of his gear, pushed Vahab off the back of the mare and did the same to her. “Go, find somewhere safe and I will find you.” I kissed him on the nose and saw Reyhan do the same to the mare.
He snorted once, and I thought he’d argue about leaving me. But this time he did not. In a flurry of sand and hooves he was gone, racing down the side of the dune and heading east. I almost called him back until I saw him angle away from the water. That would have to be good enough.
We were done running from the golems. One way or another we had to stop them.
I scooped up the saddlebags and left the rest of the gear behind. Lila flitted around my head. “Battle it is.”
I nodded. I did not see this ending well. And what would I do with the girl if we were overrun?
She skipped ahead of me, her long hair tangling in the wind. She didn’t truly understand what was happening. Or what Asag would do to her.
“Lila, if it gets tight, you understand we can’t let her be taken.”
Lila closed her eyes and Fen gave a low growl. “You can’t be serious.”
I rounded on the other dragon. “And what would you do? Let him have her?”
Vahab hunched his shoulders, but I said nothing to him. There was nothing to say. We were literally between a roost of rhuk and an army made of stone and clay.
21
Maks
He did not like this. Stripped to the waist, the old woman had drawn swirls and designs all around his torso and back, over his face and down his arms. “You will be first into the water. And if the magic recognizes you as one who has walked the dreamscape before, then you will easily take my Dani to see her future.”
Maks said nothing. There was nothing left to say. Either he helped these crazy women do what they needed to do, and he was set free, or . . . or he was back on the chopping block.
They stood in what felt like the lowest floor of the castle. Arin had blindfolded him and led him to this place, down twisting staircases and through a number of doors. She’d even backtracked twice, and he thought it was to throw him off until she began muttering under her breath.
She’d gotten lost. Whatever this place was, it was hidden well, even from those familiar with it.
“Take her through, and then bring her back.” Arin patted him on the shoulder on one of the few spots that he was not covered in swirls of red and black paint.
Where they stood now was a circular room that had been carved out of rock. Water dribbled down the walls, dripping and cooling the already damp room. Three torches flickered against the walls, sizzling and dancing as water caught the edge of the flames.
“Anything else?” he asked, more out of habit than a real desire for direction.
“Do not touch it,” she said.
He didn’t have a chance to ask what ‘it’ was. The scrape of the rock doorway turned them both around. Dani stepped through, only her face covered in the same swirls that he was. With a shrug of her shoulders her gown slid off and she stood naked in front of him.
He turned away. Apparently the ‘it’ was Dani.
The Storm Queen stepped up beside him. “You, into the water first.”
“What water?” The floor was solid rock and the only water he could see was that which dripped down the side walls.
Arin pointed at the center of the floor and the rock slid sideways to reveal a dark pool of water. There was no light, no way to tell the depth of it. Being from the desert, water was not a favorite thing of his. He could swim but . . .
The old woman snapped her fingers. “Into the pool.”
A fear that he would jump into the pool, and they would slam the lid shut was a rather sudden and unpleasant thought. Jaw tight, he stepped toward the edge and then stepped out over the water.
He held his breath as he went down into the pool. The water was cool, not cold. He bobbed back to the surface as Dani dropped a rope over his neck and tied it to her wrist. Right before she dove in next to him.
The rope tightened and he took a gulp of air before he was diving down with her, chasing her.
This was a terrible idea. He swam hard after her, keeping the leash s
he had on him loose. It took him a minute to realize that there was light under the water, and that he could see they were headed toward the glowing source of said light. At the bottom of the pool was a sandy beach and . . . trees? How was that possible?
Dani reached the beach first and swam toward it. The world seemed to turn upside down and they went from swimming through the water to stumbling across the beach. Or at least he did.
“What . . . ?”
“I have never been here,” Dani said. “But my grandmother has spoken of her one journey here, many years ago. I knew that it would be strange and beautiful.”
That was an understatement. All around he could see water, as though they were inside a glass bowl.
He moved to take the leash off his neck and she yanked it tight, dropping him to his knees. “You will come with me and you will not take that off. It is all that ties us together. That and the symbols we both wear. Without them, this construct would come to pieces and we would both be destroyed.”
“Listen to her,” Marsum said, strolling alongside him. “She’s not wrong about that part.”
Maks got to his feet and banked his anger. “You could have just told me.”
Dani sniffed and Marsum shrugged.
The sand was warm under his bare feet as they walked away from the edge of this . . . construct, as she’d called it. The sand headed downhill and soon gave way to grasses, trees, lush fruit bushes and even the call of birds. A soft breeze brought the smell of rain on the horizon, and the sweet scent of ripe fruit.
“Here.” Dani tugged on his leash, leading him down the hill further. At the base of the hill was a small pool of water. Only this one had nothing natural about it. Instead, it was a fountain that had been made out of a solid gemstone. Carved like a stemless glass, water pooled in the center of it, bubbling ever so slightly.
Dani approached it and he could smell the fear on her.
“What happens now?” he asked.
“I drink the water. Then I will sleep and while I sleep I will dream in this place of my future.” She knelt next to the sparkling chalice and cupped her hands into the water. Hesitating, she stared for a solid minute at it before she brought it to her lips and swallowed it down.
Kingdom of Storms (The Desert Cursed Series Book 8) Page 13