Mortiswood: Kaelia Falling (Mortiswood Tales Book 2)

by Gina Dickerson

  * * *

  Chapter Nine

  The Draugr’s Realm

  Cadence tipped her head back and screeched. Her wails echoed Thom’s as he consumed her for the second time since they’d swum through the rocks to his land by the Drauguri Sea. They rolled, joined by body and teeth, over the inky ground, the edge of the sapphire sea touching their toes, until they were both again sated.

  The land was still, the only sound to be heard was the sound of their breathing. Cadence was surprised; she had not expected Draugar needed to breathe. Mud hung above their heads, roots from the earth above distending through it. The ground they lay on was hard and lumpy, raven-black in colour and broken up by glittering crystal rocks. The same stretched on for as far as the eye could see. Cadence licked her lips. The bitter tang of the stagnant air mingled with the taste of Thom’s blood lingered upon them. Wiping her mouth on the back of her pale-blue skinned hand, she studied the blue blood. It tasted different to human blood, metallic yes, but with an undertone reminiscent of the putrid flesh of rotting fruit. The Drauguri Sea stretched before her and Thom, disappearing into a horizon devoid of sky or clouds. The water was still with no current to create waves, the occasional sprinkle of earth cascading down from the distended roots and mud being the only movement in the water.

  Thom strode, naked in Draugr form, into the sea and beckoned Cadence to him.

  ‘Come,’ he called. ‘Let the Drauguri Sea heal the wounds from our union.’

  Cadence rose unquestioningly and followed Thom. The viscous water warmed her cool skin. She held her arms out, waving them in the water and the liquid seeped up her body, filling in the bite marks made by Thom during their union. The biting didn’t bother her; she had done the same to Thom upon his commands. She smiled. Sex as a Draugr was different to having sex as a human. This time around it was more intense, rougher, and urgent.

  A momentary pang of nostalgia jabbed her. Calix had been the last person she had shared herself with and in contrast, he had been a gentle lover. A nasty thought whispered in Cadence’s mind. Calix was a boring lover, nothing like the men she had dated before him. Most had been tough and cool, troubled, exciting. Thom was different. Way more dangerous than those human lovers. He had real bite. She laughed, watching a bite mark heal in her forearm. He sure did have that.

  ‘Here.’ Thom held out a hand. ‘Cease thinking about your old life. You are a Draugr now, there is no returning.’

  Cadence scooped some water in her hands and poured it over her bare, pale-blue breasts to heal the bite marks. ‘You can read my mind?’

  Thom glided through the water and pulled Cadence to him. ‘Of course. You are mine. I control you and this is my realm. My rules.’

  ‘Will I be able to read your mind?’

  Thom laughed, exposing jagged teeth. ‘No, my wife, it does not work that way. I control you, not the other way around. Through your transformation to a Draugr I will have absorbed the strength from your Sifar power.’

  ‘But I thought I’d be as strong as you when I became a Draugr...I never knew I’d lose my Sifar powers!’

  ‘Those powers are gone, surrendered with your humanity. Any power you had only served to make me stronger once you transformed. Give and take, Cadence.’ Thom grabbed Cadence’s hair, his long fingers snarling tendrils around them. ‘As a Draugr you are powerful but you will never be as strong as me. I am the original Draugr, I create and absorb. You, in return, receive immortality.’ He yanked Cadence’s hair, pulling her head back, and she yelped. ‘I own you and I can kill you.’ A bobbled line of blood marked the trail his fingernail scraped across her cheek before piercing under her chin. Blue blood ran from the puncture over his finger. Thom laughed, licking his finger clean he released Cadence and waded through the water back to the shoreline.

  Cadence cupped some water and shakily patted it against her chin. She turned obediently when Thom called for her. The dry ground was cold underneath her feet after the warmth of the sea, making her shiver.

  Thom waved his hand, conjuring up clothing and held it out for her. ‘Dress yourself,’ he ordered. ‘Then we will rest for a short while to rejuvenate our senses, and after we awake we will swim through the earth and I will take you to The Salloki Palace to learn The Salloki ways.’

  Cadence held up the black, leather suit. ‘An all-in-one? I’m not a comic book action figure!’ She giggled. ‘If I have to sleep can’t I have something comfortable to wear?

  Thom grabbed a fistful of her hair. ‘You wear what I give you and you will be grateful. If I want you to walk around naked, you will. Do you understand? You are mine. I own you.’

  Cadence struggled into the leather outfit. It was skin-tight and left nothing to the imagination. The trouser part of the suit fastened with a short zip, the top half had long sleeves which also fastened with a zip from wrist to elbow, ensuring a snug fit. The front of it exposed her cleavage, sweeping in a “V” down to her navel with leather lacing crisscrossing her skin to hold it in place. The boots Thom conjured up for her were not of her choice either; flat, patent black ankle boots with three buckles.

  ‘Can’t I choose my own clothes and shoes?’ Cadence complained. ‘I’m not going to a fancy-dress party.’

  Thom’s growl hit her before his hand battered her cheek. ‘Do not be insolent. Remember, I made you. I am giving you immortality; do not complain about your appearance.’ He tapped her head. ‘Think before you speak.’ Pulling Cadence to him, he kissed her. ‘A Draugr wife is always obedient, do you understand?’

  Cadence nodded mutely, her cheek smarting. Obedience was a small price to pay for immortality.

  ‘You understand perfectly well and you are correct, it is a small price.’ Thom nodded and retrieved his own clothes, easily slipping on the dark denim jeans and black long-sleeved shirt. He held out a hand to Cadence. ‘Very good, we will rest now. You will always sleep at the same time as me. You will do everything I tell you, when I tell you. You will no longer need to think for yourself, I control you now. Even if we are apart, you will do as I do, you will sleep when I do, eat when I do, you will do everything, Cadence, everything I instruct you to.’

  ‘How will I hear you if we are apart?’

  With an almost tender look upon his face, Thom turned his fiery eyes to Cadence and tapped the side of her head. ‘You will hear my voice. You will never be alone again.’

  An emotion shifted inside Cadence. An old memory resurfaced, one she had kept hidden in the depths of her mind.

  ‘Your parents abandoned you, leaving you at Mortiswood Academy when you were but a child. They were unable to cope with the enormity of your Sifar powers.’ Thom read Cadence’s thoughts, riding on the waves of her memories. ‘You never heard from them again. I will never abandon you, I will never leave you. You are mine. Those human men you dated could never satisfy you because you were longing for more than they could ever offer. You yearned to belong to someone and now you do.’

  Cadence’s memories cleared. ‘Yes,’ she replied, knowing that was exactly why she had succumbed to Thom’s powers in the first place. Her abandonment by her parents had left a huge void inside her. She placed her hand in Thom’s and struggled to smile. ‘Like I said before you turned me, I want everything you have to give me.’

  Thom smiled devilishly. ‘You will have it all for as long as you are mine, Cadence.’

  ‘For eternity? We are both immortal.’

  Thom didn’t answer; instead he waved his free hand and conjured up a mattress strewn with blankets. Roughly, he tossed Cadence onto it before settling beside her and closing his eyes.

  * * *

  Chapter Ten

  Mortiswood

  Calix crawled out from behind the Vallesm’s fallen body. Cadence was gone. He had lost her. Pain squeezed his eyes shut, failure shrouding him in a suffocating blanket.

  ‘Stop your baby-arsed crying.’

  Calix eyes snapped open. ‘What do you want? Come to finish what your comrade started?’


  Bran reached down and offered Calix a hand to help him up. ‘Take it, it’s not a trick,’ he snarled.

  Calix eyed it suspiciously. ‘I’d rather crawl back to the Vallesm castle using my teeth to pull me along than trust you.’

  ‘I’ll knock them out if you want to make it easier for you to drag yourself by. You can use them in the manner mountain climbers use those pick things. You do have horse-like gnashers.’

  Calix struggled to his feet. ‘Did you just turn up to take the piss?’

  ‘No, taking the piss is an unexpected treat.’

  ‘What are you doing here?’

  Bran shoved his hands in his overcoat pockets and looked around to where Jade was lying unconscious. ‘You’re in quite the little mess, aren’t you?’

  ‘No thanks to you.’

  ‘It’s not my fault you’re such a wimp.’

  ‘It’s your fault I didn’t find the castle quicker. You gave me a dud map.’

  Bran laughed. ‘I knew you’d figure it out eventually. Even you are not that stupid.’

  Calix ground his teeth. ‘You did it to annoy me. Well, you succeeded. If I’d have found a Rosealrium bloom quicker Cadence may not have gone off with Thom. I lost her because of you.’

  ‘We both lost something today.’

  Calix staggered over to Jade. ‘I lost someone not something. There’s a difference.’ He painfully crouched next to Jade and checked her neck for a pulse. Her eyelids were half open, exposing the whites of her eyes. ‘Oh no, she’s dead, she’s really dead!’

  Bran sighed heavily and dropped beside Calix. Splaying his fingers, he laid his hands on Jade’s chest. Lifting her with violet tentacles of his light, he rose to his feet, the light acting as a pulling rope around Jade’s body until she was suspended in mid-air with her back arched. Bran’s eyes turned completely black as he worked, the tails of his coat billowing behind him. Crackles of violet energy snapped across the onyx of his eyes, his hair flared into cool, violet flames, and his mouth moved, silently chanting words of old magic.

  ‘Why are you doing this?’ Calix hadn’t expected help to arrive in the form of Bran. He frowned. ‘Is this some kind of trick?’

  Bran, concentrating on Jade, ignored the questions. ‘Do something useful and see if your pet is alive. Where’s the other one?’

  ‘You mean Kaelia’s Vallesm?’ Calix, struggling through the fallen branches to where Bryson the Vallesm lay, noticed Bran flinch at the mention of Bay. He raised his voice as the distance between him and Bran increased. ‘The one you hoped would stay locked as a Vallesm forever so Kaelia would never find out he is Marrock?’

  Bran’s concentration snapped and Jade crashed to the floor. ‘What are you harping on about?’

  Calix, pulling branches off of Bryson’s battered Vallesm body, laughed. ‘Don’t pretend you didn’t suspect Bay was Marrock. That’s why you cursed him to stay as a wolf.’

  Bran was beside Calix in a flash, yanking the branches out of the physician’s hands he snapped the wood easily. ‘I didn’t know you would all start thinking that blasted mutt is Marrock.’

  ‘Enough with the bullshit,’ Calix replied scornfully. ‘You and the Draugr knew, meaning The Salloki knew, and that’s why they wiped out every Vallesm that crossed their path. They want Kaelia but if she’s not at full potential she’ll be easier for them to handle. You knew the meaning of the name Marrock.’

  ‘Yes to everything, we all know I cursed the boy that little snippet is old news,’ Bran admitted through gritted teeth. ‘But if I had known that overgrown lap-mutt would be hailed as being Marrock—being Kaelia’s knight—I’d have torn it to pieces with my bare hands or better still, let the boy plummet to his death over the cliff.’ He pulled off the remaining branches covering Bryson’s bloodied furred body with such force they loped a tree in half.

  With a groan, Calix bent to check Bryson’s furry neck for a pulse, his own limbs still ached and it was difficult to move. ‘His pulse is faint but he’s alive.’ He looked up at Bran. ‘You never expected Kaelia to accept Bay as a Vallesm and love him regardless, did you?’

  Bran looked away. ‘I never expected her to form such a strong bond with a creature.’

  ‘Calix?’ Jade’s shaky voice called out. ‘Are you still here?’

  Calix slowly stood and gingerly waved his arms over his head. ‘Jade! Over here.’

  ‘What’s he doing here?’ Jade nervously eyed Bran once she’d made her way through the fallen branches. ‘And what’s he staring at?’

  Bran, pointed shoulders rigid underneath his dark coat, had his back to them, looking from shadow to shadow shifting between the trees.

  Calix sighed, and then said, ‘I don’t know what he’s staring at. It’s more than likely he’s concocting another devious plan so keep your eye on him. He did bring you back to life, although that’s what he does. He’s a necromancer after all.’

  Jade nodded slowly, tears pooling in her eyes. ‘I died, I know.’ She touched a bloodied spot on her head from where it had hit the tree stump, and winced. ‘Cadence has gone with Thom, hasn’t she? Seduced by immortality.’

  Calix swallowed a lump in his throat and glanced away. ‘Yes, she chose to become a Draugr. I wasn’t enough for her.’ He pointed at Jade. ‘We weren’t enough.’

  ‘She was a complete cowbag when her spirit was inside me. There was nothing you could’ve done to have changed Cadence’s mind. She wanted to be a Draugr, wanted the immortality it offered.’ Jade gently touched Calix’s arm. ‘Sorry, I know how much you like her but she was never quite right in the head. You should’ve seen all the blokes she dated before you...any arrogant bad-boy got her attention. She always had to be the best at everything, and she was until Kaelia turned up at the academy. She hated Kaelia getting all the attention from Harriet. Seriously, she hated Kaelia more than I’ve ever seen her hate any newb to the academy. It’s why she went after you, she was jealous of the way you and Kaelia are with each other.’

  Calix winced. ‘What was I, a means at getting one over on Kaelia?’

  ‘Sorry, Calix, I wasn’t thinking. My mouth runs away with me sometimes.’

  ‘It’s over and done with,’ Bran interrupted. ‘Cadence is no longer a human, or a Sifar, she’s Thom’s wife now, meaning she’s lost any trace of humanity. You’ll never get her back and if I were you, I wouldn’t want her back. Forget about her.’

  ‘Sorry if we’re not all as cold hearted as you.’ A flush of anger rose from Calix’s cheeks, bleeding into his pale hairline. He clenched his fists. ‘You only care about yourself, Bran.’

  ‘And you care about anything with breasts. Although I must admit Cadence did have quite a handful. More than a handful by my estimation.’

  ‘You’re a complete dick!’ Calix spluttered. ‘Don’t pretend to know me. You don’t. Just because you’re led by an insatiable need for power, don’t assume I have an insatiable need for anything and don’t you dare talk about Cadence in such a way again.’

  ‘What are you going to do, kill me?’ Bran mocked. ‘You’re scared of being alone. That’s why you follow Kaelia, isn’t it? When it sunk through that dense skull of yours and you acknowledged she would never be romantically attracted to you, you turned your attentions to the Sifar, who changed her mind and left you for a dead, blue, centuries old guy who stinks worse than a rotting cow!’

  Calix’s cheeks burst again into colour and spittle flew out of his mouth. ‘At least I have a shot at finding someone. Who’d want to be with you? You’re practically disfigured with that scar!’

  Bran pushed his face up against Calix’s, his dark eyebrows dropping into a point over the scar. ‘Remember, Physician, I can kill you.’

  ‘Well it wouldn’t make a change!’

  ‘And I’ll happily kill you again but I won’t bring you back this time!’

  ‘Go on then, do it. Kaelia will never forgive you!’

  ‘As much fun as this is,’ Jade interrupted, ‘we need to do something
about that wolf, and I want to get out of these woods. I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.’

  ‘Eat the wolf.’ Bran pointed at the weak, comatose Vallesm. ‘It’s practically dead but its flesh will still be warm.’

  ‘Ewww! What’s wrong with you? It’s a saying, I didn’t mean it literally.’ Jade made sicking motions. ‘Calix, what are we going to do?’

  Calix pulled himself from his cloud of anger, tearing his eyes from Bran to Jade. ‘Do you want to return to Mortiswood Academy?’

  ‘No.’ Jade shook her head, her white-blonde hair wiggling in long, messy tendrils down her back. ‘I want to join Kaelia. She is The Chosen One and I want to pledge my powers to her.’

  ‘You’ll be safer back at the academy,’ Calix replied. ‘This isn’t your fight, Jade. There’s no need for you to become involved in all of this. You saw how Thom took Cadence. I wouldn’t want something similar to happen to you.’

  ‘If she wants to die, let her.’ Bran shrugged. ‘It’s her choice.’

  ‘Exactly, it’s my choice and I choose Kaelia.’ Jade looked around. ‘So, how do we get out of here? We need to move the Vallesm but there’s no way we can carry him, he’s far too heavy. I can’t believe there are two Vallesm...where is the other one, the grey and white one?’

  ‘With Kaelia,’ Calix replied. ‘It turns out they already knew each other, even though Kaelia didn’t know it.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Vallesm are shifters.’

  ‘Oh, wow, how cool, I never knew!’

  ‘Me neither until recently. Anyway, you’re right, you and I can’t carry Bryson, even between us he’d be too heavy.’

  Calix and Jade stared at Bran.

  ‘I’m not carrying the mangy mutt.’ Bran shook his head.

  ‘You’re the only one with superhuman strength,’ Calix replied. ‘You can take us, one by one, back to the Vallesm castle.’