Ishtar's Blade

by Blackwood, Lisa

  Uselli flinched and his eyes slid toward the Priestess as if begging for some distraction.

  “You know something else.” Ditanu leaned forward, his fingers gripping his throne in a white-knuckled grip. “Tell me.”

  It was an order clear and simple, one no Shadow could deny. Uselli didn’t look happy but he continued. “We found a survivor in the ruins. One of Beletum’s guards. He claims to have knowledge of Iltani and Kuwari. He would not tell me the news. If you would give me a few moments with him, to be certain this is not just some political maneuvering to gain your favor, I would like to verify this. To be certain.”

  “I will hear him and then decide a course of action.” Ditanu gestured with his right arm, his dead cub still held in the other. Pain etched across his face, he snarled, “Bring him forward.”

  Priestess Kammani offered to take the lifeless cub, but Ditanu waved her off.

  There was a shuffle and shifting of bodies as another person was brought forward. He wore the uniform of a guard of the house of Beletum. His appearance was as rough as the rest of the court, bloody and battle worn. The newcomer had a noticeable limp, his lower leg bandaged.

  Still, he hobbled forward and then executed an almost elegant bow to the king.

  “Your highness, I am sorry for your loss,” he paused, his demeanor taking on a nervous quality.

  Ishtar’s power stirred fitfully, her hostile interest narrowing to focus upon Beletum’s guardsman.

  “Rise,” Ditanu said in a clipped voice. “Tell me what you know.”

  “I was injured in the first volley of cannon fire. In the chaos, I was separated from the rest of my men, so I helped others reach what we thought would be safety on the northern beach. We were wrong. The battle was raging on the beach. I and a few other survivors made it to the harbor. We made a last stand among the rocks at the cliffs edge while the tide was low. From there I saw much of the battle.” His eyes shifted to the left, scanning the faces around him.

  Looking to see who all had survived? Or was that a nervous evasion?

  He continued on, unaware of Kammani’s and Iltani’s deepening scrutiny. “It was there I saw them moving the bodies of Consort Ahassunu and her Shadows. Burrukan had been killed first I believe, though, from my location, I only saw what happened afterward.”

  Iltani’s heart constricted with new pain. So Burrukan and Ahassunu hadn’t escaped. She knew they didn’t stand much of a chance, but Burrukan had always been so resourceful she’d held out hope that he’d find a way.

  “And what did you see?” Ditanu’s cold voice pierced Iltani’s thoughts. “Afterward?”

  Yes, Iltani thought, what did you really see? The battle would have been over by then. Ishtar had already put her and Kuwari in the boat and escaped with them before Burrukan met his fate.

  “I think Burrukan and Consort Ahassunu fell trying to protect the two cubs. Afterward, I saw Burrukan’s apprentice, Iltani, running across the beach with Kuwari in her arms. One of the enemy soldiers shot her in the back with a musket. Seeing she was wounded but still alive, I and the other survivors tried to aid her. Many were slow, already injured and fell to the enemies’ weapons. I took a blow to the head. I think they thought I was dead. Too stunned to move, at first, I could only watch as they toyed with her…before…before they decapitated her,” he paused in his story and then nervously glanced behind him. Seeming to gather his courage, he looked up from the floor. “I am sorry, but once she fell, they made short work of your helpless cub.”

  “Lies!” Ditanu roared and lunged up from his throne.

  Iltani agreed. For that, most certainly, was not what had happened.

  Ditanu slashed out at Beletum’s guard, claws extended as he shifted into gryphon form. The guard, too surprise by the sudden attack, didn’t react fast enough, never seeing death coming. One moment he was standing before the king, the next, a sharp snap heralded his neck being broken by a powerful blow from Ditanu’s paw.

  Ditanu blasted out another roar and charged at Uselli. The Shadow was faster than Beletum’s guard and he managed to escape a killing blow. Still, blood flew in a spray across the polished stone floor.

  The court erupted in shouts and yelling as King Ditanu, lost to battle rage and grief madness, cut his way across through the crowded hall.

  He lies. Ishtar whispered.

  Those two words seemed to reach Priestess Kammani’s mind where Iltani’s had not. The High Priestess halted in her tracks.

  My Blade still lives. She guards the seeds of the future.

  Kammani remained frozen a moment more, then began shouting orders. “Shadows, to me! Half of you clear the room, the rest distract your king. We must contain him.”

  More guards rushed in from the main doors, coming to her calls and the king’s roars.

  Uselli was beside her in moments and together they started to build a plan.

  Iltani watched and listened, still linked to Kammani through Ishtar’s magic, but she felt more ghost than alive now.

  Ditanu had descended into grief madness. Iltani didn’t know if even Kuwari would be enough to bring him out of it again.

  *****

  Priestess Kammani rubbed a hand over her eyes, trying and failing to rub away the exhaustion blurring the edge of her vision. The King’s Shadows had been successful in luring the enraged Ditanu down into the cage of magic she’d created in the sands of the practice ring.

  The golden glow of the shield circling a large expanse of the sand ring didn’t soften the despair emanating from the other Shadows standing guard outside the ring. By the time they’d gotten Ditanu into the cage, he’d been far beyond reason. Nothing Kammani said calmed the enraged king. At least, he was safe within the cage. Only the quick thinking of Uselli allowed them to trick Ditanu into it at all.

  Uselli had sent servants running to steal pillows from the royal nursery. Using the pillows with the scent of Ditanu’s cubs, they tricked him into the cage. However, once he’d learned his cubs were not within, he’d set to pacing and attacking the walls of his prison.

  With many Shadows injured, their grief-maddened king far beyond help, the court in disarray, the council broken, many of its members dead, Kammani dearly needed Ishtar’s guidance, but Ishtar had been silent after that first warning. Kammani barely knew where to start.

  No. That wasn’t true. She knew where to start.

  Find Iltani and Kuwari.

  May Ishtar grant her blessings upon them all.

  For only Iltani and Kuwari could save king Ditanu now, and if they were not found soon, it would be too late.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Many hours later, the council was at an impasse. Kammani secretly wished Ishtar would come and dance upon all their heads, but of course—the goddess was busy elsewhere, keeping Iltani and Kuwari safe, she hoped. If Kammani could have simply told the other councilors Kuwari still lived—somewhere—it would calm some of this storm.

  But she didn’t dare risk endangering Iltani or Kuwari by repeating what Ishtar had told her.

  There were traitors somewhere deep in gryphon territory.

  Perhaps as high up as a council member.

  Kammani glanced around at her fellow councilors.

  If those traitors learned Kuwari still lived, they would do all in their power to make sure he never made it back to Nineveh.

  “I refuse to believe my daughter and Kuwari both are dead. I want more proof than speculation and that questionable source of Beletum’s.” Councilor Shalanum stood so fast his chair scraped across the floor with a screech.

  Ahassunu’s father was one of the few councilors Kammani trusted. Their friendship went back a long way, but even so she feared if she told him, he would do something rash and alert their enemies that Kuwari was still alive.

  “And while you have us all out searching on your impossible fool’s errand,” Beletum sneered, “we’ll be allowing the line of the gryphon kings to perish. We’ll all die with it. Or is that what you want?” Beletu
m retorted.

  “Fool’s errand?” Shalanum snarled back, looking like he was going to come across the table to challenge Beletum to a physical battle, mere words not satisfying enough. “How is seeking the last hope of all gryphon kind a fool’s errand, tell me that?”

  Beletum waved her hand dismissively. “Your misguided theory is understandable, given your own grief at your daughter’s loss.”

  Kammani decided she wouldn’t get in Councilor Shalanum’s way if he made a move to kill the other councilor, but she did wonder what Beletum was after. Clearly she had a plan. One Kammani wouldn’t like, on principal alone. Beletum’s father was tight-lipped as well.

  A slow smile spread across Beletum’s lips, confirming Kammani’s earlier misgivings.

  “Ishtar has blessed us with another possibility. Yes, his mate and cubs are dead, but the king still lives. The seed of the gryphon line can be renewed.”

  Councilor Ubarum looked up from where he’d been studying the table as if it was the most interesting thing in the room. He probably had as little stomach for the bickering of the councilors as Kammani herself. Burrukan had been his brother.

  Ubarum’s gaze narrowed upon Beletum. “What are you going on about?”

  Beletum smoothed a hand over her hair as if in thought. “We all saw our king descend into grief madness at learning the fate of his mate and cubs. Once the rage burns itself out, it will take his will to live with it. When that happens, he will go into an unresponsive state, and then fall into a deep sleep from which he will not wake. When he dies, most, if not all, gryphon magic will die with him. All the inhabitants of the city-states will be exposed to the outside world.”

  “We all know the worst case scenario.”

  “But have you thought about the best case? We have a little over a day to preserve the line of the gryphon kings, and by that, I mean begetting another litter in a fertile womb. With enough herbs and a fertile female willing to allow the impregnation, it might be possible to avoid doom for many more generations.”

  “You speak treason so easily,” Kammani said in passing.

  The silence in the room was absolute. Kammani could hear the other councilors breathing. No one moved. Too shocked? Or weighing the possibilities of success? When one’s own life was on the line, one tended to become morally flexible. Still, no one wanted to be the first to agree to Beletum’s treasonous words.

  With a huff of annoyance, Beletum’s father, Councilor Ziyatum stood, the sound of his chair scraping back loud in the quiet room.

  He gestured at the table. “This silence is as ridiculous as Priestess Kammani’s mention of treason. We are all facing our doom. The king will be dead in a day, two at most. Then it will be just us alone, trying to keep our kingdom safe as our magic dies. How are my daughter’s words any more treasonous than sitting and doing nothing?”

  Pirhum, the oldest gryphon on the council, squinted at Beletum and gave her father a deep frown, but he looked thoughtful, too. “What you suggest goes against everything we hold sacred. Under normal circumstances, it would be treason to take away the king’s will for no reason other than to save our own hides.”

  He stood and went to a side table to pour himself a drink. “Yet, as you say, King Ditanu will die, and much of our magic will die with him. He loves his people, and I believe he would not wish that fate upon any of us. If he were capable of understanding our dilemma at this time, he would forgive us.” The councilor shrugged. “He will likely be too far gone to realize what is happening, or that he isn’t with his mate. If he can be persuaded at all.” His tone suggested he doubted it.

  “Doubtful,” Kammani agreed, and then arched a brow, already knowing the answer to her next question. “Who do you plan to send?”

  “It’s no secret my mate is sterile,” Beletum said with a shrug. “Yet I still cycle for him.” She glanced at her mate in question. Nidnatum looked mildly uncomfortable but offered no comment.

  Beletum patted her mate’s hand with what must be honest affection. “I am presently in the early stages of my fertility cycle. I’m willing to risk whatever I must to ensure our culture survives. Besides, I won’t ask another to do what I wouldn’t do myself.”

  Oh, the great self-sacrificing Beletum. So noble and concerned for her people. Of course, it had nothing to do with her ambitions for the throne, to be the new consort, mother to the next generation of gryphon royalty. Kammani snorted.

  Beletum was the most self-serving of the council members, and that was saying something.

  “Ditanu will likely just kill you.”

  The momentary calm soon dissolved into the chaotic debate of earlier. Priestess Kammani could only shake her head. Ditanu was loyal to his true mate, that bond unshakable and goddess blessed. He would kill whatever female made the attempt to supplant her.

  Kammani had never like Beletum, and wouldn’t be too broken up went Ditanu carved her to pieces. Better her, than some other poor innocent they might try to match with the king.

  If this distraction kept the traitor on the council from guessing Iltani and Kuwari still lived, all the better. Once Ishtar’s Blade and the cub were found, the Shadows would protect them from further harm.

  When she knew the future of the gryphon kingdom had been safeguarded, Kammani would turn her attention to routing out the vipers within her kingdom.

  Again her eyes slid to Beletum. As much as she disliked the female, the young councilor wasn’t the mastermind behind the first attack which had killed Ditanu’s mother and siblings. No, she was far too young, a cub herself at the time. But Beletum’s father? He warranted close watching.

  Kammani was about to leave the council to their bickering, when her link to her goddess awoke, flooding her with power. Ah. Ishtar had a task for her. Kammani could only hope it was the answer to her prayers. Standing, she stepped away from the table. The vocal debate stilled. Into that temporary silence, she said, “Ishtar has need of me elsewhere. Once I have attended to that summons, I will deal with King Ditanu. In the meantime, do as you wish, but know if my nephew comes to harm from Beletum’s scheme, I will personally seek you out and remove your head from your shoulders.”

  If Ditanu didn’t do it first.

  With that threat still hanging in the air, she swept from the room, heading in the direction Ishtar urged.

  The tug led Kammani out of the palace, down the long twisted path of the Processional Way, and on by Shadows guarding the streets, keeping the peace and preventing panic from harming the citizens. She walked swiftly onward to Ishtar’s Gate.

  When she reached the gate, she motioned four of the Shadows guarding it to follow her.

  “Come with me,” Kammani ordered. There were many on duty, more than normal after the attack on Uruk, but instinct told her she’d need the guards.

  Kammani continued on down the stairs until she stepped onto the beach. There she stood looking out into the ocean’s vast expanse.

  Behind her, she sensed the Shadows following. They were too well trained to question her actions, but they must be curious. She was opening her mouth to tell them she was serving Ishtar’s wishes when she spotted a bright bit of magic racing toward them from far out on the ocean.

  As it drew closer, it took the shape of a small boat. A clear shell of protective magic encircled the entire boat, but when it finally came to shore, propelled by Ishtar’s unseen hand, the magic protecting the boat burst, vanishing in a cloud of sparks and mist.

  Kammani’s breath hissed out on a gasp at what was revealed and then she sent up a prayer of thanks, for the hope of all gryphon kind lay curled in the bottom of the boat.

  Iltani slept, still curled protectively around the sole remaining of Ditanu’s cubs.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Iltani jerked awake with a gasp, not knowing where she was at first. Slowly, too slowly, she began recognizing the furniture around her. A plush quilt covered the massive bed. Brown silk drapes shrouded it from the rest of the suit. By some strange twist of fate
, she was in the king’s suites, his bed to be precise. She glanced around once more.

  The king was nowhere near. Her blood link told her he was farther away, still in the castle, but elsewhere.

  Alive, but terribly distressed.

  Of course, he was. He’d thought everyone he loved was dead.

  She needed to go to him, to let him know he still had one living cub and four tiny unborn sparks of life that would one day grow and mend the hole in his heart. The unreasoning need had her up and stumbling from the bed before she noticed there were others in the room with her.

  High Priestess Kammani and several other priests and priestess were gathered around a low table, their backs to Iltani.

  Kammani glanced over her shoulder at Iltani, acknowledging her with a nod, but turned back to Kuwari. After a moment, she finished with the cub. A squawk emanated from behind Kammani and Kuwari’s head popped up, swiveling from side to side, searching for her.

  “Good, you’re awake. How do you feel?” Kammani asked.

  “I need to see Ditanu.” Iltani didn’t want to stand around discussing useless things while she still didn’t know the king’s full condition. While he ‘felt’ wrong to her blood link, it didn’t exactly tell her how far he’d already succumbed to grief madness. There were several phases, each worse than the last until finally death claimed the hapless victim. She hoped he was still in the first phase, but the sooner they reunited Kuwari and his father, the better.

  Iltani walked over to the table, intending to scoop up the cub and then seek out his father until she remembered something else and her fingers rested against her own belly.

  It was still unreal. So much had happened in a short time, she was still trying to process it all. No. Kuwari wasn’t the only surviving member of Ditanu’s family. She was the new surrogate mother to Ditanu’s next litter.

  Goddess Ishtar be merciful.

  What a mixed up fate.

  Later, she’d sort out her chaotic emotions and thoughts. For now, there was only Ditanu’s need. He needed to learn that he wasn’t alone in this world.