Maks slowly stood. “What do you mean?”
“You know how the Jinn, when they died, they were made into the undead creatures that roamed the land?” I pointed at Steve. “Think you can do it to him?”
Maks blinked a few times, then closed his eyes. It took him a good minute and then he slowly nodded. “Shit, yes, I can raise the dead.”
“And can you give him instructions?”
Maks closed one eye and then nodded again. “I can.”
So just like that, the decision to bring Steve back to life was made. A messy, bloody, undead Steve, but a Steve, nonetheless. Because being killed once just wasn’t good enough for a douche like him.
I wanted him to die twice.
“What do you need me to do?” I asked as Maks did a slow circle around Steve.
“Nothing. I just need to find that last bit of his soul and reattach it to his physical body. Then I can give him a direct command.” He held his hands out, palms down over Steve’s body. A deep blue smoke swirled out and drove into Steve’s limbs and torso, as if he were the desert and the Jinn magic was rain being absorbed into it. Maks flicked his fingers one at a time, and with each flick a different part of Steve’s body jumped and twitched until he pushed to his feet. Wobbly, but standing.
Blood coated the front of his chest and his throat was nothing but tattered flesh, the white bone of his neck visible when he turned his back to me. “You want me to send him back to Ishtar.” Not really a question, but I nodded anyway.
“Tell him to kill her,” I said. I knew he wouldn’t be able to, but hell, it would be worth the scare on her to see that she wasn’t the only one able to send assassins. I didn’t believe for a second she’d sent them to protect us. She’d sent Steve and Darcy to make sure Ollianna didn’t get the flail, no matter what that cost was.
Then they were to take the flail to the Emperor themselves. Of that I had no doubt.
Of course, I was not the only one with enemies on all sides. Ishtar had forgotten to consider that Ollianna might make a play for Steve’s loyalties.
Maks gave a command in a language that I suspected was Akkadian, the language of the Jinn. Bits of it sounded familiar, and the words buzzed along my spine in a not-unpleasant fashion.
They reminded me of the words on my mother’s papers, the few journal sheets she’d left behind.
I blinked and Steve was shambling off, heading to the east, toward the Stockyards. Naked, his skin would burn and blister in no time, the blood would call the desert insects and creatures, and by the time he reached Ishtar, he’d be unrecognizable. A veritable mess of flesh and bones.
I didn’t even need to write a message and tack it to his chest. What he was and that we’d sent him was message enough.
Along my back the flail tingled, a warning that we needed to move. To get going to the southwest again, to take the Emperor his prize.
“What about Darcy?” Maks asked. “You want to bury her?”
I shook my head. “No, let the desert reclaim her. It’s where we all come from. She’ll feed the wildlife, and it can be the last act of good she does for this world.”
I mounted up on Balder, glad for the dark night around us. Already in the distance came the bark of wild dogs. They would find Darcy’s body first, and it would feed them for a few days, maybe even a week.
My stomach churned and I fought a sudden wave of nausea. I didn’t realize Lila was on my shoulder until she patted my cheek. “Remind me not to turn on you. I don’t want my body to feed the wildlife.”
A tired, half-barked laugh slid out of me. “Gods, that was harder than I thought it would be.”
“She got a clean death,” Maks said, “and Steve went down fighting. It could have been worse for both of them.”
He was right, and yet there was more hurt in losing Darcy than I wanted to think about. She’d been my only friend—even if it had been a lie from the beginning, even if she’d secretly hated me—for a long time. I wiped my eyes and did my best to shake off the pain. Maybe it was just the thoughts of what could have been, the friendship that I thought would see me through to the end of my life.
With a little more effort, I pushed those thoughts away, let them slide from me and said a final goodbye to them both.
Steve and Darcy had taught me how to be stronger than I’d ever thought I would be. They allowed me to find my strength. Because if they hadn’t turned on me, I never would have needed to stand on my own.
I never would have found Maks or Lila, and those two . . . they were all I needed, heart and soul.
“Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Darcy, for making me the woman I am today, by turning your backs on me,” I said.
Maks nodded. “Thank you, Steve, for leaving her, so I could find her and have her love that you cast aside.”
I smiled at him and Lila gave a chirp from my shoulder. “Thank you for turning on her, Darcy, so she could see just how damn good she has it with me as a friend.”
I laughed. “You are the best of the best, Lila.”
“Speaking of,” she said, “that bird was seriously trying to give me a message. But it was garbled.”
“What kind of a message?” I asked. “Like a warning?”
“Nope, like . . . it sounded a bit like Merlin,” Lila said. “But he shouldn’t be able to use much magic, should he? When he’s dying?”
I frowned. “He plays a long game, and we could very well be in the middle of one of his chess moves we can’t understand yet.”
“Like separating you from your pride?” Maks said thoughtfully, his eyes distant. “We move faster without them, and you have less to worry about with them behind us. Even with your brother at your side, you were more cautious. Giving him more breaks, knowing he couldn’t keep up and that he wasn’t a very good rider.”
The wind around us picked up, swirling the smells of the desert—distant flowers, even more distant rain, and the scent of the horses all mixed together—and I tried to just think for that moment. “I give you breaks.”
“Not as many,” Lila said. “Because you know our strengths, as we know yours. We are tied, the three of us, in a way that you aren’t tied to anyone else, not even the pride.”
Lila was not wrong. “You think that Merlin did all that on purpose, to drive us away?”
“I’m thinking so. Especially if that bird had a message from him. He could have been faking how injured he was.”
That didn’t make sense, though, because I’d put my hand on him, I’d felt the injuries deep within his belly and how they were bleeding out. I closed my eyes and tried to capture that second in time.
Could it have been an illusion? Could Merlin have duped me once again to do what it was he thought I should? The feeling of him dying faded even as I thought about it, like a sheet pulled off a trick.
“Fucking hell,” I growled. “I think he did dupe me. What does he want now?”
Lila curled her lips, twisting them into a funny pursing. “Something about the final two stones.”
Maks and I shared a look. “There are only two stones left floating out there, and Ishtar is not supposed to know about either of them.”
“Unless she does,” I said. “And if she does, we have to stop her.”
Like a bolt of lightning, understanding dawned. “He wants us to find the last two stones, the one that creates, and the one that bestows powers on others.”
17
The thing about Merlin’s message via the bird was two-fold problematic.
One: We were being driven toward the Emperor, and I had to do that before my promise hurt, or worse, killed me. And yeah, I did think the flail would suck my life dry if it came to me not keeping my word.
Two: Having the stones in hand when we met up with the Emperor wasn’t necessarily going to make our lives any easier. If he knew we had them, I had no doubt he’d take them from me.
“What are we going to do?” Lila asked. “I don’t think Merlin is wrong this time. I think finding the final two stones is s
mart. Better us than Ishtar or Ollianna or the Emperor.”
“What do you want to bet that Ollianna and maybe even Ishtar are already looking for them?” Maks said.
I nodded. “I think you’re right. I spoke with Etheral, the previous leader of the witches, in the dreamscape. They are terrified of Ollianna, and they are willing to work with us to stop her. She knows that Ollianna is looking for more power. The stones would give her that.”
Lila grunted. “You trust that witch?”
“No, not fully.” I stretched my arms over my head, feeling the muscles pop and stretch. Stiff, I slid off Balder’s back and walked beside him. “But I believe her when she says she is afraid of Ollianna. With the emerald stone, she’s more powerful in her abilities with the reptile world, and now the falak is on its way to being born . . . even the witches have realized when they are being used.”
I looked at Maks. “Anything in your memory banks about where either of the stones might have been stashed?”
His eyes closed and he swayed a bit in the saddle. I reached out and put a hand on his thigh to steady him. He dropped a hand over mine, warm on warm.
A sigh slid from him. “I can see a place, but I can’t tell where it is. It seems tropical.”
I frowned. “That doesn’t help much. Lots of tropical places out there, both on this side of the wall and the other.” Tropical would be a hell of a lot farther away than . . . “What do you want to bet the stones were taken out of here before the wall went up? So they were safe from anyone who would try to find them. No one on this side of the wall would be able to cross over. There would have been no way for Ishtar—or me or any of her minions to ever get to them. They were safe.”
Maks tipped his head back. “That would make sense. And give a better chance to keep them out of the wrong hands.”
“What doesn’t make sense,” Lila snapped, “is why the fuck Merlin wouldn’t just tell us where they are!”
“He doesn’t know,” Maks said, his eyes at half-mast like he was seeing something inside his head. “The stones were given to those who were to protect them, and they were his most trusted people. They were the strongest, and the purest of heart when they were given the stones. They didn’t tell him where they were going. Plus, for all we know, those last two stones were taken from the original protectors.”
Balder gave a long low snort and shook his head as if he didn’t agree with Maks. I patted him on the neck and closed my eyes. “I feel like the answer is here, that we’ve got it within our grasp, we just need to find it.”
The rest of the night we rode passing ideas back and forth, discussing what kind of creature could be the purest of heart. Maybe a child, but a child would need a protector, and a child would grow up and become an adult—a not so pure at heart adult, no doubt.
Maybe a powerful creature like the Wyvern.
Maybe a spiritual creature like the Oracle.
There were just too many options and not enough time to check them all out.
Near dawn, we stopped to camp for the day.
Maks made a small fire and Lila brought back a pair of desert hares we roasted far past being done so Maks could eat them too. Lila grimaced as she watched me eat. “I’m glad I took the innards first. That looks terrible.”
The color on Maks’s face changed as he took a bite of his hare and closed his eyes. Some things would never change. He would always turn green at the thought of raw meat and Lila eating still-warm guts.
Merlin would always be turning on a dime and changing his mind.
Lila would always be my loyal friend, sister of my heart.
Balder would always run like the wind.
Maks would always stand with me, no matter what we faced. Handy that he had so much inside his head that could be helpful now, but that was an added bonus.
My family . . . I frowned, my thoughts tightening over my brother first. Bryce would always be my brother, but it was my mother who came to mind so forcefully, it was as if she were there with me, standing with me, directing me. I would always have her . . .
Journals.
I scrambled up from where I was sitting and both horses startled, snorting at me with irritation. Maks grabbed his weapon and held it out, doing a tight crouched circle. “What is it?”
“The journals! My mother’s journals that no one could read because they were in glyphs! What if you can read them now, Maks? What if with all that knowledge in your head, you can read them?” I grabbed at the saddlebag that held the papers and yanked them out. What was left of them anyway.
They were crumpled and dirty, sweat- and water-stained, but I had them.
Maks put his weapon down and strode to my side. He took the first paper from me and nodded. “Yes, this is . . . they are directions. Zam, they’re directions! They were done in code though, that’s why . . .”
He took the stack of papers, shuffling them until he had them in an order that he seemed satisfied with. “There are some missing, though.”
“Yeah.” I glanced at Lila, remembering all too well the acid vomit that had preceded the loss of some of the papers. “It was an accident.”
She cringed. “I’m sorry.”
I waved a hand at her. “Don’t fret about it. This is still more than we had a few minutes ago.”
Maks muttered under his breath and pulled a paper out, then shoved it back in. “So read individually. You can see each glyph,” he held a paper out to me, showing me the image of the black lion pinned on its back, the glyph I’d believed meant that Ford would die, “seems to be independent of all the others. But when you read them together, it’s a message. It’s a message from your mother to you written basically in code.”
He sat down.
I sat across from him. “A message that will help us?”
“I think so.” He waved his hand over the paper, and there was a spurt of his magic that sank into the thick parchment paper. I watched in absolute fascination as the images turned into words and lined up, the top starting with “My dearest daughter.”
Maks looked over the papers, set them in order, and then handed them to me. “You read them first. In case they are personal. I think I have them in order, or as close as you’re going to get with the missing bits.”
I took the paper, feeling the weight of it as if they were a pile of stones, and not a note from a mother I barely remembered. A mother I’d put on a pedestal and kept there my entire life. I really hoped I hadn’t been wrong about that.
I blew out a breath and started to read.
My dearest daughter,
There is no time to waste. When you read this will be when you must take action of a sort that will change the face of the desert, and perhaps the world, for generations to come.
The Emperor is a danger, but more than that, the danger will come from his wife should she ever gain back the power removed from her. He is a puppet who belongs to Ishtar, and that is something not even his only son knows. No one knows what I know, and now what you know.
Ishtar is the desert goddess. She gave the Emperor his abilities. She created the falak from mythology to give the Emperor a reason to rule—a reason to be a hero.
She is the danger that no one understands because she has hidden behind so many others. Her magic has infected those it touches. Because you and I were born of the Emperor’s line, a line created by her magic, we have an immunity to her powers that no others have. It is why she hates me so, and one day will hate you too.
There was a break between that and the next page that told me I was missing a chunk. I could only hope it wasn’t important.
The stones you must find, the stones I have been hunting for my whole life are the three you will need to stop her. The first lies with the Wyvern in the desert sands. The second lies deep within the jungles of Africa with the Changeling, and the third lies in the heart of the purest creature alive—
The break there was maddening. What I wouldn’t give to have that final creature spelled out, seeing as ther
e was no actual place given. As it was . . . the fucking jungles of Africa?
I have not much else to tell you except that I do not know if even the three stones will be enough to stop her. But she is the one, my girl. She is the one you must stop at all costs, you must take the stones from her. Give them to my brother, he can hold them and send them to safety once more. The Emperor is a puffball compared to Ishtar. He . . . my relationship with him was complicated, as I suspect yours will be as well. He is broken by her magic. When you see the one that is Shax, that is the father I knew and even loved. The other, the Emperor, he is the creation of Ishtar.
Another break.
Take all you can to stop Ishtar. You will need all you have to stand against her power, and when the moment comes—and you will know when—then you must give the stones to—
That was the final break. There was no I love you, no you can do this, no final words of encouragement.
I swallowed hard and turned the paper over, but there was nothing left, no more words. I handed them over to Maks to read. Lila sat on his shoulder reading along with him.
He let out a low whistle as he finished. “What do you think?”
“I think we go to the Emperor,” I said softly. “And I think we let him loose.”
Lila hopped off Maks’s shoulder and let out a strangled squeak. “Let him loose?”
The flail shivered on my back.
Yes, I agree.
Ignoring Marsum’s voice, I nodded. “I was already considering it. Let him loose, make him an ally if we can.”
“Then we make a run for the other stones.” Maks gave a slow nod. “He’ll keep the others busy. At the very least, he’ll attack Ollianna and the falak.”
“That would be the hope. To them, we aren’t really players in this game,” I said. “Not really. Irritants at best.”
“I don’t think that’s true, at least not about all of them,” Lila said. “If Ishtar believed you to be nothing, she wouldn’t have sent Steve and Darcy after you. She wouldn’t have tried to control you for all those years. She sees potential in you, maybe the way she saw it in your mother.”
Emperor’s Throne: Desert Cursed Series, Book 6 Page 13