by Nhys Glover
I sprang to my feet furiously, all the good feelings created by our time together evaporating in an instant. Eyes flashing, I gave Zem a hard shove. It was like shoving a brick wall, but I didn’t care. When it didn’t work I used one of Airsha’s moves on him that had my warrior husband flat on his back in the dirt. He’d taken me for granted, assumed I was on his side, even when he was being a shite. It was time he learned different.
“Listen up, Zem. If he’s going to try, then the least you can do is let him. There is no reason for this territorial thing you’ve developed. I’m not a possession, you don’t own me. And like it or not, Laric is going to be part of us. One of us. His hands are going to be on me. He is not the enemy!”
I stepped away, looking at the other three and then at the small audience of fighters I’d attracted. Too furious to put up with any of them, I stormed off.
I should have known it wasn’t possible to escape them. I was barely in the corridor leading off from the arena when I heard sandaled feet behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see Prior jogging toward me. Of all of them, he was the least problematic in this moment. He wouldn’t try to soothe me like Landor, he wouldn’t incite more tension like Laric. And Zem was the last person I wanted to see right now. Compared to all that, Prior and his fire problem seemed insignificant.
“What do you want?” I snapped over my shoulder anyway.
“None of us goes off on our own, especially not you. There are Devourers just waiting to get us. Nowhere is safe.”
I knew he was right, but it didn’t make me feel any better. “So you’re my bodyguard. Poor you!”
He reached out and grabbed my arm, spinning me so I faced him. “Aye, it is poor me. Do you think I want to be alone with you like this? Especially when I can read every fraggin’ thing you did with those two last night and this morning in your mind?”
I shouldn’t have done it. It was pure lunacy. But in the next instant I was launching myself at him, capturing his lips with my own. The very idea that he’d seen all the salacious things we’d done made me burn for this man.
This time he held out longer. But not too much longer. Before I’d had time to draw in a second breath he had me slammed against the wall, kissing me as passionately as I kissed him, our teeth clashing in our frenzy.
No more than moments. It was no more. And then I felt the heat and smelled the burning. It didn’t register at first. Not until Prior was throwing a bucket of water over me. Only then did I see the burned scraps of my tunic and breeches and the red, ugly burns on my skin.
Stunned and helpless, I leaned against the wall. It didn’t hurt yet. I was still in shock. And it wasn’t bad. Prior had the wherewithal to use the nearby bucket to put out his handy work. When was I going to learn my lesson? Why couldn’t I keep away from him? Did I really have a death wish?
Prior scooped me up into his arms as if I weighed nothing and began striding back to the arena. The other three swarmed us as soon as we came in sight.
“I burned her. You have to fix her. I burned her!” Prior muttered helplessly.
Landor took me from him gently, but I could feel his body shaking. With infinite care, he lowered himself to the ground, with me in his arms. I still felt no pain. I knew I should. It only made sense I would, given the extent of the burns that had mainly been located around my middle where Prior’s hands had been.
“Not his fault. I did this,” I said, my voice surprisingly weak. I looked at Landor to make sure he’d read my mind, but he was already preparing for the healing. When he was healing you couldn’t reach him.
Poor man, he seemed for ever to be healing one or other of us. Usually me. The Goddess knew what she was doing when she gave him to us.
In what felt like no time, the healing was completed and I felt sleepy. But I couldn’t sleep until I was sure no chasms between my men had been created because of me.
“Not his fault, Landor. Don’t let the others...”
“Shhh... Sleep, sweet girl. The others know. We have to find a way to resolve this. There is no blame.”
And with that I gave in to the peace of oblivion. Landor would find a way. I could trust him to fix this as he fixed my body.
Chapter Fourteen
SHARDRA
I had slept better that night than I had in so long. Mayhap because I had no fears that she would pull me to her. Or if she did, it would be to end me. And I would be happy with that. Now I had done all I could to safeguard the world for him, I would happily die.
It had been a long day, starting just after dawn and not ending until after dark, and yet I had managed it well. Only one short trance, or fit as my parents used to call them when I was young. So, even though I was tired by the end, I spent several more turns in my room drawing the map of the tunnels to the best of my ability. It was difficult when I had only seen the map for a short time, and that had been a sun or more ago. But I had discovered long ago that I had an excellent memory. Once I had seen something I could recall it again in all its details.
So I finished the map and fell into the clean soft bed, luxuriating in its sensual delight, and slept. And while I did so, my comforter came to me.
He held my hand and led me across a vast green plain where wildflowers bloomed and the sun shone down on us from a peerless blue sky. We had been here many times before. I knew this was his place, the place he went to in his mind when he wanted to escape his torment.
Through the middle of the green ran a silvery river. It was to this place we often walked. I would sit with my feet dangling in the cool water while he swam. It was always amusing to watch him fold his wings up against his back so he could do it. And sometimes he’d turn over, form his wings into a feathered boat and just float there, perfectly at peace atop the water.
But today he would not let me sit on the edge. He pulled me in with him, laughing when I sputtered and complained. It was far colder when you were submerged completely in the cool water, rather than simply feeling it on your feet, I discovered.
“You are cruel!” I cried out on a gasp, surfacing with water running down my face and into my eyes.
“It is my nature,” he replied amiably, sweeping me up into his arms and hugging me to him so the heat of his body was a startling contrast to the cold of the water.
“What is your nature? You have never told me.”
He laughed a little, before dropping me so I went under the water again. It was deeper than I could stand, and I did not know how to swim. I experienced a momentary fear of drowning, but it was fleeting. He would never hurt me. Not really. He was my comforter. He had been waiting an eternity for me.
Sure enough, in the next instant he was hauling me to the surface again, his handsome silver-toned face a mask of concern.
“Sorry. Euphoria carried me away. I forgot for a moment that you cannot swim. Did I frighten you?”
I shook my light head, feeling the droplets of water flying off in every direction. Looking to see where my hair was, I was surprised to find it wasn’t there. In this other world I was shorn as surely as I was on the Physical Plane. I reached up to check. Feeling the skin of my skull was a disconcerting sensation.
He took my hand and brought it down so he could kiss it. “It suits you. And I am like this because I am so overjoyed for you. They have accepted you, made you one of them. And they will make sure the bitch cannot get you. It is all as it should be; as she promised me it would be.”
“Who? Who promised you? Why do you never tell me anything about yourself? Sometimes—much of the time, if I am honest—I think you are nothing but a figment of my imagination. If you were real, I would know more about you. You have been with me all my life, you know everything there is to know about me, and yet I know nothing about you. Nothing other than this is your favourite place, and it is in your mind; that you have waited forever for me; and now, that it is in your nature to be cruel. Yet you are never cruel to me. Kindness is all you have ever shown me.”
While I complained, he’d
wrapped his wings around us both, to cradle and warm me. The water was kept from my body by the waterproof wings, and the heat of those wings dried the droplets left behind. But more than warming me, the gesture was one of comfort. Because that was his true nature as far as I was concerned. He was my comforter.
“One day soon you will know what I am. One day soon I will be freed from this prison. And you will help to set me free. That was as it was foretold. You are everything to me.”
And with that final word I felt daylight pierce my eyelids. I awoke to the smell of clean sheets and sunshine. Not his sunshine, but that of the Physical Plane. It poured in through my tower window and filled my heart with joy. I was still here. She hadn’t come for me, and I was not dead.
The guards knocked on my door not long after I had washed and dressed. They asked if I was ready to go back to the royal apartments because someone had come. I hurried to follow them, excited by the prospect of this new life with its many happy surprises.
One such surprise was how well I could walk now. Mayhap it was the food and water I was encouraged to consume at every opportunity. It was like I was regaining strength I hadn’t known I still possessed. I had been weak for so long I thought strength was out of my reach ever again.
In the apartment I found Airsha and her men. The Five were absent, as was the Chancellor and the little man who had shadowed her. Instead, there were two new men. One was regally dressed, with a bland, somewhat supercilious smile. The other was thin and dressed plainly, his dark-blonde hair an untidy mess around his narrow beard-stubbled face. He looked as if he’d only just left his bed and had slept in his clothes.
Airsha hurried to my side and leaned up to kiss my cheek. Her warm smile felt as good as the sunshine that had poured in my window not long ago.
“I am so glad you survived the night. I didn’t sleep a wink worrying about you.”
My eyes must have widened at that because she groaned and grimaced.
“I worry too much I’m told. Don’t be concerned. If not you, it would have been over something else. Mayhap a restless husband.” She turned to scowl at her men, who lounged on cushions on the floor, each holding a plate piled high with food.
The scarred one looked chagrined, so I assumed he was the restless one. I could not imagine sharing my bed with four people. I had slept alone all my life in the physical world and only with my comforter on the other.
I had no name for the world where he existed. My dreams? That made him nothing more than a phantom, so I decided it was not a dream world he inhabited. It couldn’t be. He was too real!
“Please, break your fast if you can find some scraps my husbands have left behind.”
I knew she was teasing them, because there was still plenty of food on the tables, and I heard them chuckle behind me.
Picking up a plate, I began selecting foods that took my fancy. I had never had such choice, and all so fresh. Deciding to risk a little nut pastry, I scooped it up. Then, to balance it, I added small chunks of whitemeat and soft cheese. I finished with an already sliced piece of fruit the colour of the sun. I didn’t know its name, as it was new to me, but I looked forward to exploring its taste.
Once I was seated and eating, Airsha called everyone’s attention to her. “Members of The Five will join us shortly. There was an accident and Flame was injured slightly.”
As if her words conjured them, the four big men entered the room, the white one, Landor, carrying Flame in his arms. She seemed to be asleep.
The red-haired husband jumped to his feet and rushed to the girl’s side, sending much of his food to the floor as he did so.
“She’s fine. She had some bad burns, but I have healed them. She will sleep for a while and be as good as new,” the white man said in answer to the man’s unasked question.
Airsha’s husband ran a gentle finger down the girl’s cheek.
“She is too impetuous. Calun says she’s too impetuous,” Airsha said
Four heads nodded their agreement. The very black man couldn’t leave it at that though.
“I burned her. I need to find a way to stay away from her. But she goes off on her own, and with the Devourers an ever-present threat she cannot be allowed to do so. Short of locking her in her room, I can think of no way to keep her safe, from them and me.”
“Your magic,” the thin, unkempt man said into the tense silence.
“I’m sorry?” Airsha turned to look at the man in confusion. It was as contrary a statement as I was ever known to make and the man had my instant interest. He was like me!
“You can gift your magic,” he said nervously, realising only then that he’d spoken aloud.
“How would that help?” The Goddess Incarnate sounded curious rather annoyed by his interference.
“He is fire. She needs fire to counter his. Any fire will do. It will aid her on her mission as well.”
Airsha’s mouth dropped open, as did several of The Five’s.
“Of course, you cannot defend against one element with the same element. But it would be challenging. One person would need to be using their magic if the other is to be blocked. When I fought an air mage once he knocked me back with his air, but I had to open the earth to defeat him because I couldn’t fight back with air. I saw the same thing happen on the battlefield.”
“I hate to suggest this,” the Chosen One’s youngest and best looking husband said. “Because I really enjoy it when you use it in bed. But your lightning is fire magic.”
Airsha seemed about to reprimand him for sharing their bedplay secrets, but then thought better of it. “That might work. She’d have to practise with it. And I am not sure I can gift my magic to someone who is already a mage. I am the only one who seems capable of containing more than one element.”
“The Goddess would not... wouldn’t...” The white man corrected himself oddly before going on. “The Goddess wouldn’t have chosen Prior if there was not a way around this problem. Flame is no ordinary mage. I cannot... can’t be the only one who sees that.”
“He is correct,” the bedraggled man said into the pregnant pause that followed his pronouncement.
“For now, get her the sleep she needs. I will consider this in more depth once we have dealt with other issues. I need you men to remain here. This man is the Finder I sent for.” Airsha indicated the over-dressed man with the fake smile.
“I will remain with Flame to ensure her healing is complete,” the white man said with determined insistence. The others seemed to support him. Odd, they appeared to be opposed to each other—competitive with each other—but where Flame was concerned they came together as one.
“Yes, of course. I took that for granted. It would be like someone telling my men to leave me unattended when I was ill. I am pleased to see how well you protect her. When the Goddess gave her pronouncement I thought it wouldn’t work. But I am pleased to see I was wrong.”
“Again.” The handsome young husband grinned cheekily at his wife and she rolled her eyes at him. It was the most natural of gestures, and at odds with the role she played.
Once everyone was seated, Airsha started her introductions again. “At Councilman Umbri’s suggestion, we asked Mudrean of the Capital to consult with us. He is a gifted Finder, so I am told. Also, nobleman Redin of Southairshan has journeyed to reach us. He tells me he was sent by the Goddess and can walk the Nether Plane.”
I turned to give the thin man, Redin, even more of my attention. He was like me then. But could he really be capable of helping me rid myself of the hag? It was one thing to walk the Nether Planes consciously; it was another thing to wield power there.
“Let us start with the most pressing matter, so that if necessary Flame’s men can leave to be with her. Mudrean, we need to find the Goddess’ elemental key. It is a blending of air, fire and earth and shaped like a ring or circle. It can be used to open the way to the underworld. What we currently know about its location is that it is hidden on the side of a volcanic mountain beyond the sea
.”
The man had made much of bowing to the gathered assembly when he was introduced and retained his too broad smile throughout the introduction of Redin. But as soon as Airsha started describing what she sought, his smile began to fade. By the end he was scowling.
“With all due respect, Goddess, what you ask is impossible. There is nothing beyond the seas. Everyone knows that. And even if there was something, I can only find what is lost. If the Goddess hid this ring, then it is not lost. She knows where she put it. Ask her.”
For a moment the room was silent. The impudent tone was too disrespectful to be tolerated. It amazed me that the scar-faced husband hadn’t already dealt the man some punishment. Who would think to speak to the Goddess Incarnate in such a manner?
“She does know where she put it, and so does that lady.” Redin pointed my way, his quiet voice breaking into the furious silence that had fallen.
All eyes turned to me. I was too shocked to speak. How could he say such a thing? There was no way I could find the elemental circle. If I could, the hag would have found a way to use me to find it herself.
“I... I do not know...” I stammered out, feeling attacked and defenceless.
The silent husband, who had returned to sit to my right after seeing Flame, placed a gentle hand on my arm. Comfort, I felt comfort wash over me. It was so painfully familiar that it shocked me back to my senses. He was so like my comforter!
But he was not him. And these people were not attacking me.
As arguments broke out, Airsha raised her hands to silence the agitated men. “Let us start with the easiest. Thank you for attending us here today, Mudrean of the Capital. You will be recompensed for your time. You may leave.”
With a disgruntled sniff, the overdressed buffoon rose and took his leave. I felt relieved when he was gone.
“Now, Redin. You claim the Goddess told you to come here and that She has provided the way to find the key to the underworld. Lady Shardra is that way?”