“She sent them to help me,” I pointed out. Which totally contradicted my mother’s message. I held the papers, looking the words over again.
“What if,” Maks took one of the papers from me and read it again, “what if Ishtar knew Steve would try to kill you? But by sending him to help, she removed the blame from herself?”
My guts twisted, souring at the suggestion, and not because he was wrong. “Fuck.”
Basically, that meant even if we distracted Ollianna with the Emperor, we’d still have to watch for Ishtar—she would still be looking for ways to remove me. I worried at the inside of my cheek, holding it between my teeth. “There’s a way to check on her. I could walk the dreamscape and go to the Stockyards. I could see what she’s doing.”
Maks closed his eyes. “Be careful.”
“You’re not going to try to talk me out of it?” I raised an eyebrow.
He smiled and reached for me, tugging me tightly to his side, then kissed my head. “No. It’s smart to find out what the enemy is up to, even if I don’t like that you’ll be in danger. And I know you well enough to know you’d do it anyway.”
“I can go with her,” Lila said. “And if you hear us yelling, you wake us up. You’re our lifeline, Toad.”
Lila hopped across the ground and on the final bounce landed in my lap.
Maks tightened his arms around us both. “‘My troublous dreams this night doth make me sad.’”
I smiled against him. “‘What dreamed, my lord? Tell me, and I’ll requite it with sweet rehearsal of my morning’s dream.’”
“Let’s hope it’s sweet,” Maks murmured against my hair. “Let’s hope that—”
“Henry VI!” Lila said. “That was a good one.”
“Fitting, very fitting,” I said around a jaw-cracking yawn. I closed my eyes, knowing I was safe in Maks’s arms, and fell asleep.
18
The dreamscape world was becoming far more familiar to me than I really wanted it to be. Lila peered up over my shoulder. “Strange to be here during the day, isn’t it?”
“It’s not really any better. Except that most of the assholes are awake which means we won’t have to deal with them.” I pushed to my feet, and Lila flew into the air above my head. I shifted down to my four legs and took off as fast as I could, the two of us racing toward the Stockyards.
Lila zipped along above me. “I like how fast we can travel here.”
“Me too,” I said as I jumped over three sand dunes at once, landing on the far side light as a feather. I kept an eye out for Steve, wondering if I’d see his shambling zombie ass on the way, but he never appeared. Relief flowed through me, surprising me. I didn’t need to see him more tortured, even if he was dead. Or mostly dead. Even if I was the one who’d suggested it.
Lila and I slowed our approach when we could see the Stockyards ahead. “So, what are we hoping for exactly?”
“Any information we can use about what she’s planning, if she knows where the stones are, or worse, if she has them. We’ll find all of that in her personal chambers,” I said. “Follow me. We’ll stay close to the ground and use the shadows.”
Lila dropped and jogged along beside me. We were of a size that we could have been harnessed together to pull a cart had a fairy decided to snag us.
We ducked in through the courtyard that held the horses. A smell of flesh and blood slowed my feet. “You picking up on that?”
Lila gave a little snort and shook her head. “Yeah, someone has been hurt.”
The smell intensified, sticking to the back of my throat as I crept closer, ducking behind rain barrels and other buckets that had been overturned. I paused outside Balder’s stall and then turned with my head cocked to one side. “Animals can see into the dreamscape and are often here.”
“Yes,” Lila paused and her wings trembled. “Oh no.”
I turned away from Balder’s stall and hurried to the one next to him. Empty, but the third one down held the body of a horse flickering in and out. Dying.
The next and the next were the same: horses I knew and had trained, horses I’d fed and cared for were being slaughtered.
I didn’t realize I was going to them until Lila tugged me away from the stalls. “You can’t save them. Ishtar is doing it so no one else can get away from her.”
I let her drag me backward, all the way to Balder’s thankfully empty stall. I slid in and took a moment to catch my breath. “I shouldn’t be surprised by her cruelty. I shouldn’t be.” But I was, because I remembered who she’d been before. I remembered her touch on my brow when the nightmares had come for me after the slaughter at the Oasis.
Lila butted her head against mine. “Let’s see what we can find out and get the hell out of here.”
I blew out a breath, trying to erase what I’d seen, and led the way once more. I leapt up to the window ledge that led into my old room. Sure, we could have walked in from a different direction, but part of me couldn’t break old habits. This was how I would always come to this place.
I hopped down onto my bed and hurried across the small room to the door. It was shut, but that was easily fixed. One bound into the air and I was hanging from the lever handle. I pushed with my back feet against the wall and the heavy door creaked open a few inches.
Just enough for Lila and me to force our way through into the dim light of the hallway. I turned and hopped up for the handle on this side, once more using my back feet against the wall to get the door shut. No point in letting anyone know we were here, or that we’d been here.
Lila blinked her big eyes at me and gave me the slightest of nods as I dropped to the floor. By unspoken agreement, we were silent as I led us through the Stockyards, deeper and deeper until we reached Ishtar’s inner sanctum. There were no guards, and I didn’t hear or smell anything. Maybe they were all outside slaughtering the horses. I bit back a snarl, put my nose to the door and pushed it open.
Lila crept in beside me. “She doesn’t lock her door?” she whispered.
“Who would dare come in?” I whispered back.
“Best jewel thief in the world?” Lila offered.
“And her smart-ass dragon sister?”
She grinned. I shifted from four legs to two. Hands would be far more helpful with this part of the snoop. I went to Ishtar’s desk first and was immediately disappointed. Other than a single drawing, a picture of a black cat that didn’t look all that different from me, there was nothing. I let my finger drift over it, over the green eyes and the fierce set of the cat.
I had no doubt she’d drawn this, but why of me when I was a jungle cat? She’d never seen me like that. I shook my head and let it go, knowing that a single picture didn’t matter. Not now.
There wasn’t a single other piece of paper, not a book, not even a scrap of a note on the massive desk. I opened drawer after drawer, only to find them completely empty.
I put both hands on the desk and leaned forward. I remembered clearly seeing all sorts of maps and paperwork on her desk the few times I’d been welcomed here. I ran a hand over my head, trying to think where else she might have put them.
“Wait for me here, keep looking,” I whispered as I shifted back to four legs and hurried out of the room.
The one place that Ishtar held closer than her office was where she slept.
I’d never been allowed in there.
No one had that I knew of.
I hurried to the south end of the structure and the stairs that led down, down under the belly of the building. With my eyes, the dim light didn’t bother me, and I could find my way easily. Bonus was my dark fur and size kept me well hidden from any eyes that might be looking for me.
Ishtar’s smell thickened the closer I got to my destination. Spices, thick and heady, and a distinct tang of ozone, like an oncoming storm. That was new, but it smelled like her all the same.
At the bottom of the stairs the doorway stood cracked open with a sliver of light falling out of it. Like an invitation, as if sh
e’d known I would come to her.
Fuck. I froze on the stairs and waited, listening, smelling, trying to pull up every sense I had to see if she was indeed in her room.
“Fuck.” A growled word slid from a voice I knew all too well.
The Emperor.
And he was rifling through Ishtar’s things?
This was more and more intriguing. If what my mother had said was true, he knew that he was not the powerhouse here, but Ishtar had let him take the fall as the one to be afraid of while she remained free.
I all but slithered down the last few steps and crept into the room. The Emperor had a small lantern in one hand and he dug through the books on her shelf with the other, knocking the books off, making no attempt to hide that he’d been there.
He’d have made a terrible thief.
I crept across the floor, keeping tight to the wall, making sure only to move when the light swung farther away from me. I reached the side of a bookshelf and tucked myself into the shadows to watch and wait. He and I needed to talk. I wasn’t sure this was the right moment, but I was willing to take it if it came.
The Emperor sat on the edge of the massive bed and ran a hand over his head, not unlike how I’d done just moments before. The family connection was there, whether I wanted it to be or not.
“Where are you hiding them?” he muttered as he looked around the room. His eyes swept over me, not even seeing me within the shadows.
Another score for the little black house cat.
What did he mean by hiding them? Was he looking for the stones too? It seemed likely, but why would he think she had them?
What else could he be looking for?
Footsteps on the stairs were light, the footsteps of the woman I’d considered my mother for so many years.
Fuck. Shit. Son of a goat fucking bitch. I sunk deeper into the shadows and held my breath.
Ishtar swept into the room and slammed it open. “What are you doing here?”
“My love,” the Emperor purred and leaned back on the bed. Damn, I could suddenly see a resemblance between him and Merlin. That ability to act and lie was ingrained in them as breathing.
Ishtar didn’t soften, but she didn’t try to hurt him either. “What are you doing here? We agreed to meet later.”
“I couldn’t wait.” He patted the edge of the bed and I struggled not to move. The desire to squirm cut through me. I did not want to see this. Through narrowed eyes, I calculated how far I was from the door, and if I could make it without being seen. Two sets of eyes were worse than one, especially when one set was Ishtar.
She went to the Emperor and sat beside him. “The falak is being reborn. I do not know how it is possible.”
He grunted. “Ollianna was always thirsty for power. As is your daughter.”
I frowned. Daughter? Did he mean me?
“She comes by it honestly.” Ishtar shrugged. “My daughter is weak, though, and already has been swayed away from your teachings. That priestess has convinced her to help Zamira.”
The Emperor blinked a few times, his shock apparent. Maybe he wasn’t such a good actor. “She turned on me?”
“Easily.” Ishtar’s response was dry. “Why you think you inspire such loyalty is beyond me.”
I had to agree with her on that one.
The Emperor pursed his lips and tapped the fingers of one hand on his thigh. “Zamira is still headed my way. When I take the flail, you still want me to kill her?”
Oh shit.
Ishtar was silent long enough that I knew the answer before she spoke it. “Yes. She is far too close to figuring this out. She carries four stones with her; take them.”
Now the Emperor did startle. “Four? She found one of the missing stones?”
“Yes.” The word was sharp and biting this time. “I am close to finding the others. One is with that bitch in the jungle. I’m sure of it.”
Part of what she said was a lie. I could all but taste it on the air as she spoke. So she was stumped, was she? Good.
But who was she talking about? The changeling in the jungle then was female.
The Emperor’s face was carefully neutral, which made me think he might know who the bitch was.
“Once you have all the stones,” he said, “we can finally move forward together.”
I almost wondered if I shouldn’t bother to find the stones, leave them to stay hidden wherever they were. But if my mother thought they were important, then I needed to get them, and . . . well, maybe use them? Cast them? I wasn’t sure.
“When you find them, we shall be free together.” He leaned over and pressed his lips to hers. “But first . . .” He pulled her down to the bed, and she didn’t fight him.
This was my chance.
With my belly low to the ground, I crept across the floor. At the stairs, I glanced back as Ishtar sat up. “No, we have much to do still.”
Well, shit.
I froze.
Our eyes met.
Hers widened and I bolted up the stairs as fast as I could, feeling her magic curling toward me. She would kill me now if she could, knowing that my death here would be my death in the waking world.
I was up the stairs and racing toward the office where I’d left Lila before the magic kissed at my heels. I growled and picked up speed, turned a corner and bought myself time bolting through the narrow opening into the office. I spun, shifted to two feet and slammed the door shut, locking it.
“Time to go, Lila!” I said as I shifted back to four legs, even though my bones protested that many shifts.
“Who saw you?”
“The Emperor and Ishtar,” I said as I leapt to the one bookshelf that still stood, even if it was empty.
“You don’t do anything small, do you? It couldn’t have been like the cook, or maybe a maid. No, you had to show yourself to those two ding-dong-alongs,” she muttered as she grabbed me around the middle and flew us both high into the rafters.
The door below rattled and I pointed at the window that was now our only hope for escape. It didn’t open as far as I needed, which meant we had to break it. Here’s to hoping it wasn’t thick old glass.
Colored glass winked at me as I raced across the rafters and scrambled up to the window ledge, throwing my body at the glass as the door behind us blew open on a blast of magic that I felt more than saw.
Not unlike Ishtar’s scream that shot down my spine as I fell out of the window, legs splayed to slow my fall.
Lila’s claws once more wrapped around my middle before I’d fallen even ten feet, and then we were high in the air flying hard for the far desert. But Ishtar’s magic was coming for us fast, a billowing wash of magic that would consume us both.
“Maks!” I screamed for him. “MAKS!”
Lila joined me. “TOAD!”
A splash of cold water snapped me upright, out of the dreamscape and once more in the desert leagues away from the Stockyards, sending me into a weird spiral that was discombobulating as I fought the urge to pat my body down, to make sure I was there all in one piece.
Lila spluttered and gasped, her body drenched too.
“That was intense,” she said.
“What happened?” Maks grabbed me by my arms and gave me a squeeze, helping me center myself.
I quickly went over what I’d seen, and what Ishtar had said. That the Emperor was going to kill me when I took him the flail. But I wasn’t sure I believed that. He’d been looking for something when I’d come upon him, and Ishtar didn’t know that.
“Well, that isn’t going to happen then,” Lila said. “It’s as simple as that.”
She was right, and she was so very, very wrong.
19
“I still have to take the Emperor the flail,” I said as I wiped the water out of my eyes and flicked it away with a quick shake of my fingers. Getting snapped out of the dreamscape with a bucket of water was effective but left me like water left any cat—irritated.
“WHAT?” Lila burst out, her voice big
ger than before, much bigger.
I turned as she shifted to her big dragon form, looming over us. The horses snorted and startled back a bit. She bent her head to Balder’s nose and brushed her snout against his. He blew out a big snort and shook his head.
“Good to see the venom shit wore off finally,” I said.
“It’s about damn time,” Lila said. “But don’t try to distract me. You cannot possibly think to take the flail to the Emperor. Can you?”
I turned my back on her and Maks as I paced a small circle around our camp, back and forth, my mind working over what I knew. “Here’s the thing: I saw the Emperor in the room before Ishtar came in. He was looking for something, several somethings.”
“So?” Maks stood with his arms crossed. “That doesn’t mean he won’t kill you.”
I thought about all my interactions with the Emperor, with all the times he could have killed me. All the times he could have and didn’t. Of my mother’s words, that there were two sides to him, a truth I’d seen for myself.
There was no trust between us, but maybe an understanding that I got because he was blood. I would never call him family, that would indicate some love between us. But blood understood blood in a way that I wasn’t sure I could explain. “I think he wants to overthrow Ishtar. He wants the stones too, but he can’t tell her that. Can he?”
Maks’s jaw tightened. “I don’t like what you’re suggesting. You think he’d help you?”
At that, I shook my head. “Help me, no.”
My original plan that I’d started putting together when I knew we had to go to the Emperor and take him the flail was still possible. In fact, I might be even more at an advantage knowing what I knew now. I grabbed my bottom lip, pinching it as I thought. “The truth is, none of the three superpowers we’re dealing with want to share. Do they?”
“No,” Lila said carefully as she laid her body down.
I looked at Maks. “Do they?”
He shook his head. “No. They don’t. But they all see you as a threat of some sort. So why wouldn’t they pair up, just like Ishtar and the Emperor are doing to wipe the common threat out?”
Emperor’s Throne: Desert Cursed Series, Book 6 Page 14