I slowly straightened my shoulders, knowing in my heart what I had to do. “Lila, I need you to back me up.”
“Always, you don’t even have to ask,” she said, “but what are we doing exactly?”
“Shem,” I called for my uncle, “I need you back here, please.”
Shem held his horse back and I motioned for Ford to stop. I went to the back of his horse, unhooked the makeshift travois that pulled the stretcher, and hooked it up to Shem’s horse. I patted his animal on the rump and sent him forward with Merlin.
Then I turned to Ford. “You are always welcome in our pride, Ford. You have a place to come home to, to people who love you and would fight for you to the death. I can’t make you stay, and I will never force someone to stay in our pride if they want to go.” I took a deep breath, feeling the eyes of the others on us as Ford just stared down at me.
My lips trembled and I didn’t try to stop the emotions from reaching my eyes. “I release you from the bonds of our pride. Go, find what it is you’re looking for. Or stay. But if you stay . . . then you stay because you want to, not because of what could be, or what you want to be.”
Lila sighed. “I second her in this, Ford. You’re a good one. But if you can’t be happy here, then you need to go and find your happy. Maybe bring her back when you have cubs because I think your cubs are going to be the cutest little bundles of fur.” She grinned up at him from my shoulder, but he just kept looking at me.
“You’re releasing me.”
“Stay or go, it’s your choice,” I said as I swung back up into my saddle. “I won’t force you either way. We want you here, but you have to want to be here.” I turned Balder and we jogged to catch up to Shem who was now the back of the line of horses and riders.
“You think that was smart?” Shem asked.
“I think it was the right thing to do,” I answered. “The thing is, maybe if my father had given you that option when he found out you were in love with his wife, things would have turned out differently.”
“She loved me,” Shem said softly, “but not like she loved your father. It took me a long time to see it and understand that difference.” He glanced over his shoulder. “He’s still coming this way.”
I didn’t look back. “Maybe you can talk to him. Without Merlin helping.”
“I heard that,” Merlin grumbled.
“I expect you’ve heard it all, ass.”
Balder jogged to catch up to Batman and Maks. He didn’t reach out and take my hand or anything so obvious. “How did your talk go?”
“Oh, about as good as trying to make a rock float,” I muttered.
Lila hopped across to Maks. “I like Ford, but he’s not you. He doesn’t know Shakespeare at all.”
“Is that all I’m good for?” Maks shook his head. “Pity.”
“Well, and you make a good fire, you’re kind to animals, you’ve saved this one from herself more than a few times, you . . .” Her litany of all the good things about Maks went on for a few minutes. When she started in on his physical attributes, he held up his hand.
“Okay, enough, enough. What is all this about anyway?” he asked. I shook my head but Lila sighed.
“The males of most species could use a lesson or two from you.”
“I was also possessed by a number of rather vicious Jinn, if you do recall. That’s a major flaw,” Maks pointed out.
“Well, good thing Zam knew how to fix that too.” Lila sighed again.
After that, the usual chatter of a big group settled down. Twice Steve tried to stop us, but now it was me who wanted to keep going. The last few weeks I’d barely been able to sleep without being sucked into the dreamscape to find some other fun danger waiting for me. But if I changed my sleep pattern to one where I was sleeping when my enemies were awake, I’d have a chance at actually recharging.
Score one for the house cat.
The tug on my back from the line of the flail’s handle drew me to the southwest, and I kept us heading that way. Though it seemed as if Steve was being pulled that way too. The lull of the night quieted talk, and I found myself wondering what message Ishtar could be sending for the Emperor. Were they truly working together? Was it a temporary cease fire, or had they been working as husband and wife all these years, rebuilding their power to take back the world for their own when the moment was ripe?
All the questions and no answers that I could see. I made myself let them go, at least for now. The sun was rising and we needed somewhere to sleep. I reached up and touched Lila on the side.
“Lila, can you see if there’s a place up ahead to crash for the day? A bit of shelter would be great, but I’ll take anything at the moment,” I said.
She bobbed her head once, then pushed off my shoulder, gone in a flash of her sparkling scales.
Maks and I watched her fly away. He moved Batman closer to us and leaned over. “What happened with her and Trick?”
I shook my head. There were too many ears and the last thing I wanted was to give Steve fodder to tease my friend. “Later.”
A few minutes and Lila was back, zipping around our heads. “There’s a strip of scrubby trees that runs for about a mile, and it’s maybe fifteen minutes out of our way. Not the best cover, but it will work for the day.”
That was better than I’d been hoping for. Now to get Steve to stop where I wanted him to.
A little manipulation never hurt anyone, right?
“Let’s go,” I said to Maks, giving him a wink. Shem, Bryce and Kiara followed. I chose not to look back for Ford. If he wasn’t there, I’d be hurt, and if he was there, I’d feel like a shit for not making it clearer that he could go if that was what he truly wanted.
Our group passed a slowly moving Steve and Darcy. Steve’s chin drooped to his chest. I said, “Come on, we can keep going. There’s no reason to stop, we can go for a few more hours.” I angled us in the direction that Lila pointed.
Steve jerked awake, and Darcy narrowed her eyes at me. “You said we’d stop at the break of day,” she said. “And the sun will be up in less than an hour.”
Steve spluttered, wide awake now and instantly pissed off. “Why would it matter what she says? She’s not running the show here!”
He had a point. I wasn’t running the show. The Emperor was, but I wasn’t about to point that out to him.
“I’m not going to have you run us into the ground,” Steve growled, all of a sudden going against his earlier words that he wanted to move faster.
All because I said I wanted to move faster.
I bit back the grin. What a fool. I knew him too well.
“She’s doing it on purpose,” Darcy said. “She knows you’re going to say black to her white, just because you hate her.”
Well, fuck, that was not helpful, not in the least. Time to change tactics. I shrugged. “You know what, Darcy, you’re right. I’m trying to manipulate him. I’m trying to get him to stop, when I really want to move faster. But I will say, I’m impressed that he’s letting you speak for him.” I smiled at her. “Good job, putting him in his place.”
Take that, two-timing-lying-ass-piss-poor-friend.
Darcy’s eyes widened as Steve let out a low growl. “She does not speak for me. No woman of mine will speak for me.”
“Ever again?” I offered. “Because I did it all the time. Nice to see you have a type.”
If I’d thought that Darcy’s eyes were wide before, they were nothing to what they looked like now. I’d put her in a bind that she didn’t know how to get out of. If she spoke up, she was confirming I was right about her. And if she was quiet, she looked like Steve ran the show and she had no say as his newest mate—as a weaker mate than I had been. Both positions were uncomfortable for a woman who’d been her own person for so many years.
Steve gave his horse a hard boot in the ribs and scooted him forward. “I see a place to camp for the day. We can stay there.”
I let him get ahead of us. Darcy brought her horse near me and B
alder. I lifted an eyebrow.
“You dug your grave when you threw your lot in with his,” I said softly, just loud enough for her ears. “Don’t expect me to go easy on you.”
She curled her lips back, showing her teeth to me, a threat in every sense of the word. “You will never have him back.”
Like Steve, she booted her horse far harder than she needed to, no doubt in part to get under my skin. They knew I cared for my mounts; all the mounts at the Stockyards had been under my care and training. “Assholes,” I muttered.
Bryce moved up to where Darcy had been. “Why would she say that about Steve? Does she really think you’re after him?”
I shook my head. “No idea. Probably just because—”
“Because Steve still loves you.” Kiara cut me off, and she couldn’t have dropped a bigger bomb.
“I’m sorry, what?” I twisted in my saddle to look at the younger lion shifter. She did not say what I thought she’d said. “That’s not possible.”
She frowned, looking at her hands resting on the front of her saddle. “Maybe love is too strong of a word. But he called out your name in his sleep when he was with me. I think he wants you because you don’t want him. Because you defied him in every sense of the word.”
Bryce let out a low growl. “That makes him dangerous in a very different way. Obsessed.”
“It means,” I made hard eye contact with Kiara, “that I’m not the only one in danger. I’m not the only one who has defied him.”
She lifted her chin and nodded. “I know. But he’s focused on you right now.”
“I’ll stay close to Kiara,” Bryce said and held up a hand as she started to protest. “It’s not that I don’t think you can take care of yourself—Zam has been a good example for you of kicking ass.” He paused and drew a breath, a wicked grin on his face. “It’s because I want a shot at Steve, too, and if he comes at one of you . . .”
“We can all get our licks in,” Maks said, also grinning.
A coughing rattle caught all our attentions, drawing us back to where Merlin was sitting up in the stretcher. “You all realize you have bigger fish to fry than a stupid lion shifter with a bad complex about women, correct?”
“Oh sure, but what’s the fun in only going after the ones that are probably going to kill you?” I said. “Let us have our fun driving Steve mental. It’ll make this trip that much better.”
12
The mile-long strip of trees was exactly as Lila said it would be. Narrow, barely enough limbs for cover, but there were patches here and there that we could use to give not only ourselves, but the horses shade too.
As I set up a small spot to camp for the day, I caught a flash of jet-black hair as Ford stopped in another part of the strip of trees, farther down from the rest of us, but still there. Fair enough; I’d told him he could stay. I guess I’d really thought he’d just take off, go his own way.
Leave us and try to forget me and the pride.
A hand touched my arm, startling me. I turned to see Maks watching me watch Ford. “You okay?”
Two words that held a world of answers inside me, and I settled for the most honest of them. “For now.”
He kissed me, gently, not a claiming of me because anyone could be watching, but just a kiss acknowledging that this was hard for me. That he was with me. Crap, was I turning into one of those people who read into every action of their mate? I shook my head.
“When do you think Ollianna is going to make another strike against us?” I asked as I went to my knees and used a flat-ended stick to dig a hole that would hopefully produce water for all of us.
Maks dropped beside me, grabbed a pointed stick and helped to loosen the ground as I dug it out. “Hard to say. That had to be a lot of energy for both the frog hatch followed so closely by the lizard men.”
“And then lifting the curse off me,” I said. He grunted and I glanced at him. “What?”
“I don’t think she lifted that curse off you.” Maks held out his hand and we switched sticks so he could dig and I could loosen the ground. “I think it was Ishtar.”
I paused. “Why would you say that?”
He didn’t slow his digging as he widened the hole. “Because if you were dead, Steve could have picked up the flail and carried it to the Emperor, no games, no Ollianna chasing him.”
I frowned, thinking about his words. “I suppose it’s possible that it was Ishtar, but I’ve felt her magic before, and it wasn’t like that.” Then again, it wasn’t like I’d let Ishtar’s magic touch me since she’d gained more power, since she’d gone crazy with the increase in her magic.
“I’m just saying, we don’t know that it was all Ollianna. With three powerful monsters coming at us, we can’t assume anything.” He took one more swipe with the flat-ended stick and water bubbled up. I grabbed the collapsible buckets and carefully scooped up the water as it filled the small hole, then offered the buckets to the horses first.
Maks and I worked in silence after that, the way we had back in the beginning, back when we’d first ridden out from the Stockyards, headed into the unknown to save Darcy and the others captured by the Ice Witch. I shook my head.
So much had changed.
So much had stayed the same.
Lila swung around the treetops, snagging oversized beetles and crunching them down by the sound of things. I made my way to where Merlin lay on his stretcher. “Let’s see if I can help you,” I said.
“I’m not sure it’s a good idea,” he said. “I think . . . I think you should leave me here.”
He reached over and took my hand and a flash of power rolled between us, nothing sharp or painful, just surprising. I blinked, and then I frowned.
“Seriously? Why would you take me into the dreamscape?” I was still holding Merlin’s hand, and as I tried to step away from him, I pulled him to his feet.
“Because we need to talk and there are too many ears, too many unknowns. You were very clever to realize that sleeping during the day is a way to avoid Ish and my father.” Merlin didn’t let go of my hand, using his free hand to rub it over his head. “We can use this to your advantage.”
He tugged me and we were running across the desert, to the south. Way to the south and then to the east, until we neared a shoreline of an ocean I’d never been to. The dreamscape made it easy to cover distance. I’d give it that. Merlin slowed and pointed at a crumbled down building.
“I think that is where Ollianna is.”
“How do you know?”
He snorted. “I’ve been in and out of consciousness for a long time. Weeks. I’ve been looking around, trying to figure out what I can do to help.”
“And you want me to check this place out?”
“I think if you can explore it now, you can map it out in your mind and be ready to face her,” Merlin said, then paused and shook his head. “I don’t think I’ll be there to help you when that time comes.”
I looked at him, really looked at him, seeing the pallor of his skin, how thin he was, how sunken his one eye was. “Are you dying?”
“I think so. Don’t bother trying to heal me. I think this is because of my ties to Ishtar.” He shook his head slowly. “She said she was killing me in part because I could still help you. That if I were to help you, you’d have a chance at making this all right.” His hand tightened over mine. “Let me help you, however I can. I’m stronger here, far stronger than my mortal body.”
I tightened my hold on his hand until he winced.
“You forget your own strength,” he said.
I nodded. “And so do you. I won’t give up any of my friends without a fight. Not even a troublesome wizard who has caused as much trouble as he’s helped with.”
I didn’t look at him as I led the way toward what was Ollianna’s stronghold. I tried not to think about Merlin dying, tried not to think about what it would mean for all of us to lose his knowledge. Instead of those thoughts, I focused on what was in front of me.
T
he structure was five stories tall, hundreds of feet wide, and built into the side of a cliff at the edge of the water. Made out of the same gray and brown stones of the cliff, it blended in well, and would have been unnoticeable if you weren’t looking for it, especially at night.
Multiple entryways dotted the structure, but pillars held up the main opening, pillars that were carved deeply with the sinuous lines of a snake. Subtle, it was not. I went straight for that main entrance. Inside, a moaning wind curled through my hair, tugging it to the side. I made note of the intersections as we came upon them.
With Merlin, I wove my way through Ollianna’s home, memorizing it as best I could.
“Is the falak really as dangerous as the Emperor made it out to be?” I asked sometime in the walk.
“Yes. Though I doubt the falak was actually being kept away by my father’s presence. I think now that it was a ruse to keep his own skin intact. He was always very good at that,” Merlin said.
That had been my thought too. “Which means that killing the Emperor won’t significantly impact what we can do to the falak.”
“True.” Merlin tugged on my hand, pulling me back from an intersection. “If you get the chance, I think you should kill him. Use the flail if you can.”
A soft scuttle of feet in the hall ahead of us froze me. I grabbed Merlin and shoved him into an alcove, tucking myself in tightly next to him.
Voices floated to us.
“Do you think Ollianna is correct?” The first voice was reedy, thin, and very distinct. I was sure I’d never heard it before.
The second voice was familiar. It was the old witch who ruled the Swamp. “I think she is mad with power. She thinks she’s protecting us, but that child she carries is going to destroy the world. I have seen it. I cannot think how to stop her, though.”
I looked at Merlin who shook his head.
But I was not that person who didn’t follow her gut. A gamble was worth taking if it found us allies, if it found us a way to end the monstrosity that Ollianna was growing in her belly.
Emperor’s Throne: Desert Cursed Series, Book 6 Page 10