by Gwynn White
“And where are my bandages?” Axel asked.
Magridal slouched against the bulkhead. “No airships. Looks like we’ve outrun them all. And I brought you bandages, but you were yelling at each other. I thought it politic to leave. So Heron and I took the opportunity to look for Nicholas’s ice crystal. It doesn’t exist.”
Magridal’s words hit Axel like a fist.
Lynx wriggled away from Axel to face her. “That’s not possible. I saw Felix inject him. I saw his image in the air above the informa. Felix knew everything about him. Even his weight.”
Magridal shrugged her slender shoulder. “Sorry, Lynx, but it doesn’t exist.”
“You checked the encryption?” Axel’s voice was sharp. “Lukan’s not going to blare this information to the world.”
“Positive.” Heron stepped up behind Magridal. “We ran it through Viper.”
“Viper?” Lynx looked first at Heron and then at Axel.
Axel answered. “We code each program we use to break Felix’s encryption after a name common to our allies. Felix is still brilliant, but he’s not the only master around these days.”
A thousand options, all leading to the death of the alliance if Nicholas wasn’t found, flooded Axel’s mind.
He clamped them down and turned to Heron for more information before allowing nerves to rattle him. “You’re absolutely sure you ran the correct parameters?”
“Felix has pulled something new out of the bag. After Tao died, all signals at the cottage vanished.” Heron gave Lynx a tender smile. “I’m sorry, Lynxie, but the Heartland is a big place. Until our programmers crack this latest code, Nicholas could be anywhere.”
Lynx slumped back against the bulkhead next to Magridal. “I—I can’t accept that.” She appealed to Axel. “Can’t these . . . programmers find his ice crystal?”
“There are millions of ice crystals blinking on the grid, Lynx. Without knowing which is his, even the best programmer will find it almost impossible to track his. That’s why we needed the signature from his signal at the cottage. It’s the only easy way to trace him.”
“You said ‘almost impossible,’ so there is still hope.” Lynx started to pace. “In the meantime, what about Morass? He took Nicholas. Can’t we find him?”
Axel’s head jerked around to Heron. “Look him up. He was at the cottage.”
He—and Lynx—waited in tense silence as Heron flipped through screens. But Axel didn’t need Heron’s bleak expression to tell him what his eyes so clearly saw: Morass’s ice crystal had no public signature. That probably made sense since the man shadowed Lukan.
Axel turned heavily to Lynx. “It was a good thought. But . . . nothing.”
He could see tears of frustration threatening in Lynx’s eyes. Crying was fine, in the privacy of one’s room, with him to comfort her, but the last thing he—and probably she—wanted was to expose herself in public. He forced a businesslike tone. “Lynx, I told you, I won’t rest until we find him. I need him as much as you do.”
Lynx stepped aggressively into his space. “What do you mean?”
Axel sighed, wishing he were dealing with Lynx the hard-headed raider and not Lynx the hard-headed mother. But he didn’t know what to say to her to help her see the bigger picture here. Her life in the forest had been so small—important certainly, to raise the Light-Bearer for his momentous task—but now she needed to embrace something bigger, something greater than just the survival of her little family. The world needed her to put her emotion aside to make tough choices for the benefit of all mankind.
So, even though this wasn’t the best time for this discussion, he had to tell her about the alliance’s troubles. “Without him, we lose the support of the monarchs. They are already balking about paying their taxes, but yet they’re clamoring for a war to overthrow Lukan. I was counting on Nicholas’s tour to drum up support.”
“Without the taxes, you can’t pay your troops?” For the first time, Lynx seemed to soften. Her voice sounded reasoned, not blindly demanding as it had been since boarding the airship.
“Exactly. The Pathfinder Alliance will collapse. And with it, any hope of keeping Lukan out of Treven. Not to mention delivering on the Dmitri Curse.”
Lynx slid down the bulkhead and landed on her butt on the steel floor. Her forehead thumped down onto her knees.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” She smiled tremulously up at him. “I guess I’ve been hogging the pity party.”
He twitched his eyebrows at her, but chose to say nothing that could incense her. She held up her hand to him. He took it warily.
“Axel, we both need to have more faith in Dmitri. It’s his curse. He will find a way to help us.”
Axel wasn’t about to argue, even though he put very little faith in the dead seer’s willingness to help. Surely, if Dmitri intended to assist them, he wouldn’t have let Nicholas be captured in the first place. For sixteen years, Axel had spouted to the monarchs about this fabled curse. Now, both he and they expected something concrete to work with. A boy abandoned by the very seer who should have been promoting him would not win too many hearts in the palaces and marketplaces in the Free Nations.
But he smiled. “As you say, it is his curse, after all.” He couldn’t help adding, “There is nothing more we can do now. But once back in Treven, I will set my search in motion. We will find him, Lynxie.”
Lynx searched his face, then stood. “Winds! All right. We seem to be out of options. And I don’t want to fight you.”
She seemed to have accepted the inevitable—for now.
Axel allowed a smile. “Me neither, my love. Me neither.”
But even as he spoke, he knew he and Lynx still had many battles ahead of them before they reached agreement on how to find, and then to deploy, Nicholas to change the world.
Chapter 14
Lynx pushed her mess tin away and picked up her drink with her good hand. The other wrist had been bandaged and, although still throbbing, was slightly more comfortable than it had been. The dinner the crew of the Light-Bearer had prepared had been filling, if not particularly tasty. After the horrendous day losing Tao and Talon, and then her fights with Axel, the pain in her hand and her full belly left her languid and ready for sleep.
They had left Cian far behind and were well across the Izmodo Sea, which lay like a giant chasm between Treven and Chenaya. At the speed they traveled, they would cut the seven-day trip down to a mere four days. Truly, Axel’s airship was remarkable.
She glanced over at him. He and Magridal talked together at the opposite end of the mess table. Clay and Heron sat on either side of her. That Axel hadn’t chosen to sit next to her troubled Lynx. If she hadn’t known that Magridal and Heron had been together since the earliest days of the alliance, she may have been jealous that there was something between Axel and his beautiful Trevenite commander.
Lynx frowned. How had it gotten so crazy that she would even think something like that about Axel?
All day while fighting with him, she had kept telling herself to stop. He was her love, the man she adored, the man she wanted to spend forever with, so why had she turned their first real day together into a drama of note?
She wasn’t the only one who had lost people today. That Axel loved both Tao and Talon, she knew with utter certainty. But the horror of it all had blown all reason, all compassion from her mind.
And then there was the ice crystal.
She clicked her tongue in frustration. So he hadn’t told her about the ice crystal, but that wasn’t reason enough to turn on him like he was the enemy. The memory of his forlorn, almost desperate face as he told her his reason for withholding that information made her wince.
She had rejected him in favor of Lukan that morning after agreeing to marry him the day before. And his pain at her decision was still evident all these years later. Yet he had remained true to her.
But why can’t I suppress the niggle that he betrayed me by keeping that secret?
Not
to mention their almost irreconcilable differences over Talon.
Hard as it was, she had accepted that they could not rescue Talon until they found his ice crystal. She had told Axel she believed Dmitri would help despite the seer not intervening to stop Lukan taking Talon. Not even her headstrong son would be so stubborn as to resist Dmitri’s help once he realized no one was coming to rescue him. The seer, who had spent all those years living in a dog, would be swift to help them find Talon, of that she was sure. As soon as they had him located, she would insist on Axel launching a mission so she could fetch him.
And then Talon’s training starts.
Never again did she want to see her son vulnerable and unable to defend himself against his enemies. She and Tao had often spoken about training Talon to fight, but had always desisted because it would open a thousand questions they were not ready to answer.
None of those prohibitions now applied.
And if Talon was going to be the man Axel needed him to be to keep the alliance together, then her son had better know how to lead men in battle. To her, it was clear; Talon was no figurehead—no face on a flag. Dmitri had decreed that Talon, and only Talon, had the power to destroy Lukan. It made sense that he had to lead the Pathfinder army into battle.
How Axel would take that, she didn’t know. As Felix had said, Axel was the Pathfinder Alliance. She suspected she would meet some resistance when she told her warlord of her plans for Talon.
But that was a fight for another day.
Another day.
Tomorrow she would wake up without her son. Where was he? Had he gained consciousness? Was Morass torturing him? Did he worry where she was?
Each unanswered question felt like a knife stab to the heart. There was nothing she could do but fret. And what good did fretting do, anyway? It just clouded her judgment and made her intolerant of those who were trying to help her. It was better to stay calm and focused so she could make decisions that led to his recovery. She took a deep gulp to breathe the pain away.
Axel looked over at her. “Ready to sleep?”
He must have thought she yawned.
She considered saying no, but the weariness in her core told her she was exhausted. Talon needed her alert and at her physical peak. She nodded.
Axel paused, looking uncertain, and then said, “I’ll take you to your cabin.”
Her cabin?
Where was his cabin? And surely their arguments hadn’t been so bad that he didn’t want to be with her on their first night together in sixteen years?
She glanced around the room, suddenly aware of the silence. From their averted faces, Clay, Heron, and Magridal knew things weren’t going well with them. That irked almost as much as Axel suggesting she sleep in a separate cabin. Even if he didn’t want to make love to her, they didn’t need to let the whole crew know that.
She gave Axel her most provocative smile. “Your cabin will do fine.” She held out her hand to him. “How big are the beds on this wonder ship of yours?”
Magridal answered first. “Very narrow. An issue that caused great consternation amongst some of the troops during its design phase.” She threw her arm around Heron. “Not that Axel cared that we have to rope ourselves to the bed to stop from falling off.”
“I did you both a favor.” Axel shot back as he sauntered around the table to take Lynx’s hand. “Admit that you and Heron like it kinky.”
Lynx smiled at Axel. “And how do you know that?”
“Teach him to knock,” Heron muttered into his drink.
Axel grinned back at her. “The hazards of living in close quarters.”
“No,” Magridal objected through her laughter, “the hazards of not knocking.” She thumped Clay’s arm. “He’s the worst.”
Their banter saddened Lynx. They knew each other so well, but even though Heron had been her first love, and Clay her brother, thanks to Lukan, she was a stranger here. She hastened toward the door, dragging Axel with her.
Once in the gangway, Axel closed the hatch behind them, giving them some privacy. He pushed past her in the narrow passageway. “Cabin’s this way.”
His butt, shapely in his black uniform, caught her eye as he strode up the narrow passageway ahead of her.
A flush of hot desire swooped through her. Logic wasn’t needed to tell her to make love to Axel; her body was singing a chorus all its own. She licked her lips—and then giggled like a girl at the prospect of finally having this beautiful man.
Axel looked over his shoulder. “And now?”
Before she knew what had happened, she was pressed up against the bulkhead. Had he seen something of the lust in her expression? Wicked smile in place, he moved so close she could feel his warm breath on her neck.
She leaned into him, drinking in his smell. All these years on, he still reminded her of the wild places in Norin. She slipped her arms around him, wanting nothing more to come between them tonight.
Every hair stood in anticipation of his touch, his kiss, his hands on her body—
A moan escaped her as his lips brushed hers.
But his kiss was gentle, teasing.
She grabbed his head to pull him down fully to her mouth. But even as she tried to initiate something deeper with him, she fumbled her nose against his. She blushed, feeling every moment of her years of inexperience. A virgin until the day when Talon was conceived, she had never been with a man since. And before marrying Lukan, she had been too busy being a warrior to give much thought to any other kind of passion.
Was everything to be mortifying today?
She closed her eyes and sighed. “Winds! Even though I have a sixteen-year-old son, I feel like a complete novice at this.”
“Good.” He moved even closer. “Then I don’t need to feel like a bumbling idiot tonight when I strip you of your clothes and make love to you until dawn.”
Her face heated, and she laughed at both images: Axel bumbling—not possible—and him making love to her.
“You laugh!” he growled against her neck as he trailed kisses across her skin, sending her lightheaded with craving. “It’s been a very long time since I’ve had some action. As you well know.”
Warmth reddened her cheeks at his confirmation of her earlier thought: Axel had been physically faithful to her all these years, so why—
She shut off all her doubts on his integrity. “Take me to your bed, please.”
“You have no idea how long I’ve waited to hear you say that.” Despite the narrow confines, he scooped her up into his arms and broke into a fast trot, stopping only when he reached a closed hatch. Still holding her, he reached down and flicked the handle open.
“Lock it,” Lynx said, not wanting any callers throwing open the door while she relished Axel.
He laughed as he tumbled them both onto a narrow bunk bed with her underneath him. “You’re learning.”
“Tonight I intend to learn a whole lot more than just door-locking skills.” She rolled on top of him, grabbed his face, and kissed him hungrily. No matter what issues they had faced today—and still had to confront—she could never deny how much she burned for him.
He returned her kisses with equal passion.
In her dreams, she had always envisaged savoring her first time with Axel, but contrary to all her plans, she snatched at his fatigues. Fabric tore. She tugged harder until they fell open in her hands. She tossed the fabric aside to kiss his nipple. It hardened in her mouth. Gooseflesh pebbled his skin, and hers. The remainder of his uniform landed on the floor. And then she was kissing him—everywhere.
His hands groped at her clothing, but removing her tunic would mean taking her lips off his body. That she refused to do.
Through her haze of want, she heard him chuckle.
She looked at him through smoky eyes. “You have a problem, my warlord?”
“No. Just a solution.”
Before she knew what had happened, her clothes were gone, he was on top of her, and her body writhed with unknown pleasure.
Over and over again.
Finally, exhaustion claimed them both. Content as a cat on a sun-drenched step, she draped over him on the narrow bed.
He played with her hair. “I love you, Lynx of Norin.”
“Forever and always.”
Lukan may have taken her homeland from her and made her a stranger here among her people, and although the Winds could never right that wrong, they had brought her this—this homecoming in Axel’s arms, where she would always belong.
No matter how much she and Axel warred with each other, she would never be a stranger here. She’d spent sixteen years yearning for a home that didn’t exist anymore. But this . . . this moment with Axel was home. He was home. Better even than any bead-and-feather-woven braid.
And that was definitely something worth fighting for. Even if he was now her main adversary in the fight to position Talon as the new leader of the Pathfinder Alliance, as ordained by Dmitri the Seer himself.
Chapter 15
Tao wasn’t sure how he ended up at the ornamental lake at the palace. One second, he had been sitting with Dmitri in the fourth dimension, the next he was back here, in the mortal world.
When two young boys with scraggy, long hair walked on the path a little distance from him, the details were no longer important. It was clear from their faces that they hadn’t seen him.
Did his skin still gleam the way it had in the fourth dimension? That would not do here. He looked at his hands and saw his usual fair tone. No one seeing him would ever suspect he was dead.
Identical in height, build, and facial structure, both boys had glittering diamonds next to their right eyes. The diamonds signified that they were Lukan’s two heirs.
They also screamed to Tao that these were his sons. And it was his task, as Dmitri put it, to help them understand their rightful place in Chenaya and to tell them of their cousin, Nicholas—the true and legitimate heir to the throne.
Tao stared at them hungrily, desperate to learn as much about them as he could. Part of him was terrified they would vanish in a puff of smoke. Having found them, he knew he would not survive if he lost them again.