On the far side of him, Kylan stirred and stretched. The strange little moment burst like a soap bubble and normalcy crashed back around them.
* * *
“Jex, this is hard!” Kylan complained, dropping her forehead into the parchments spread out in the grass before her. Each was covered in Jex’s elegant, looping script and though he’d written carefully, the symbols were foreign and the little girl had been struggling to copy the same few for nearly an hour.
“I never promised it would be easy,” he informed her around a mouthful of pastry. “Atromorese is a complex language, with a completely different alphabet than Egali, but you blabbed to your mother and insisted on being taught. I’m obligated now.” He reached into the basket Enari had brought with her and pulled out a sealed jug. Pulling the cork, he sniffed it apprehensively.
“This is just cider, right?”
Kylan snatched it from him and took a gulp before handing it back. “Just cider.”
“Why thank you, my devoted taster. If there’s any poison or medicine in there, you’ll be the first to know.”
Enari and Kylan both rolled their eyes.
“Enari wouldn’t poison you, silly. She loves you too much,” Kylan said absently, staring down at the page before her with a scowl of frustration.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Enari hide her face behind her hands. Kylan, of course, was oblivious to the discomfort her comments had caused.
“Though it would be pretty smart to put your medicine in it,” she mused, “That’s what I would do if I were her, since you’re such a baby about taking it. Argh!” With a shriek of aggravation, she pounded her fist into the grass in an unusual display of temper.
“I hate this!”
“Kylan!” Jex snapped. He had absolutely no patience for temper tantrums.
“I’m sorry!” she wailed, and broke into hysterical sobs.
She threw herself into Enari’s arms and the older girl rubbed her back soothingly, a look of sympathy crossing her face. Jex closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Enari held Kylan until she quieted, then used a sleeve to wipe her sweaty and tear-stained face. Knowing Kylan wouldn’t be released until she’d done at least a little work, Enari drew one of the pages and the wax practice tablet into her lap. She took the torina’s hand in hers and guided the stylus over the scratched surface. The copy was wobbly and a little crooked, but it was better than the little girl had been able to make on her own.
Jex stared at her, pastry and cider forgotten. “That’s…that’s actually very good, even if the last one is backwards. You didn’t tell me you knew any Atromorese.”
She didn’t, or at least, hadn’t until she’d observed some of their lessons. It had been easy enough to pick up from watching the pair, and she found she was even able to read a little, though it was a laborious process and she often came across symbols she didn’t know.
“I think that’s enough for one day,” Jex announced into the silence. He climbed a little stiffly to his feet and bent to pick up the scattered remnants of the afternoon lesson. “Kylan, go on ahead and take all this with you. You’re free, once it’s put away properly, and don’t think I won’t check.”
Kylan accepted the armload of objects, then skipped away from them, disappearing quickly before her tutor could change his mind. He gave Enari a hand up, twining his fingers through hers instead of releasing them once she’d gained her balance. She looked at him askance but made no move to pull away. It was actually rather comforting the way her hand completely disappeared in his larger one.
“That was kind of you.”
“I could tell she was at the end of her patience for the day and so were you.”
“Still,” he leaned over to pick up the basket, “she has to learn to do it on her own.” Swinging their clasped hands between them, he headed in the opposite direction Kylan had gone, deeper into the garden instead of back to the palace.
“It’s too nice to go back indoors just yet,” he explained in answer to her questioning look, “There’s a little pond around here someplace that should be just about perfect for idling away the rest of the afternoon.”
The idea appealed to her. Even though it was early autumn, the afternoon had grown unusually warm. He led her to a back corner of the vast grounds, pushing aside a fall of wilting jasmine to reveal an oasis.
A small stream trickled into a pool in the middle of the secluded clearing. Soft, thick grass dotted with tiny yellow and purple flowers carpeted the ground and Enari found herself wanting to remove her shoes and feel the blades under her bare feet. A moss covered, but still rather scandalous statue caught her attention, recalling the warmth of Jex’s breath against her ear as he’d read the erotic words of Tahir’s Lover. She stared at the thing, unable for a time to look away from the lovers forever immortalized in stone.
As they approached the water’s edge, Enari had no more warning than the sly look that came over his face before he lunged at her. He caught her around the waist, pulling her towards him before bending and sliding an arm under her knees to scoop her up. She began to struggle when it became clear he intended to toss her into the water fully clothed.
“Don’t you dare!” she cried, kicking her legs and slapping her palms against his chest.
Jex only laughed. When she felt him release her, she fisted both hands in his tunic and leaned back. If she was going in then so was he. He realized her ploy too late and toppled in after her with a shout.
They surfaced together, sputtering and gasping for breath.
“You,” he panted, “are an evil little minx!”
Her waterlogged skirts tangled around her legs as she tread water and she felt one of her slippers come loose and sink. Her scowl only made him laugh harder and she splashed water in his face. He splashed her back before she could get out of range and the ensuing battle was boisterous, but short-lived.
It wasn’t long before Jex was out of breath and called for a ceasefire. Enari graciously accepted his surrender, though she couldn’t keep a triumphant smile from her mouth. That would teach him to start a war he couldn’t finish.
They waded out of the pond and he helped her wring most of the water from her gown before they collapsed side-by-side on the soft grass. Enari flopped onto her back, sprawling out in a most unladylike fashion and tilting her face to the sky. Eyes closed, she basked in the warmth as the breeze began to dry her sodden clothes. Jex lay next to her, silent for once
Slowly, the serene atmosphere began to change. Jex turned onto his side to face her and his eyes dropped to where her damp gown clung to her breasts. He licked his lips unconsciously and she tried to cover herself, but he stopped her.
“Don’t, Nani.”
His hands moved, fingers gliding over the skin of her neck to twine in her wet hair and cradle the back of her head. He leaned forward and she instinctively closed her eyes.
There was no Kylan to interrupt this time.
He pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth. Then another. The third time, she turned to meet him.
The kiss was long and slow and sweet. He pushed gently and she could taste a lingering hint of spiced cider, crisp and tart, in the embrace of his lips. She shuddered and he backed away.
“Cold?” he asked softly.
She shook her head, dazed and a little breathless.
“Good.”
Raising a hand to stroke her cheek, he began to trail soft kisses along her throat and behind her ear. She felt his breath warm her water-chilled skin and instinctively moved into him. He pulled the delicate lobe of her ear between his teeth, nibbled, nipped, sucked. She turned her face and his mouth was covering hers again.
This kiss was needy and desperate, spinning out of control so quickly she could barely comprehend what was happening. He traced the seam of her lips with the tip of his tongue and she parted them on a gasp, granting him the entrance he sought. She wanted him closer, wanted to feel the weight of him atop her, wanted…w
hatever came after.
He felt her shiver again and pulled away reluctantly. “You are cold.”
She shook her head but he released her anyway, taking her hands and pulling her to her feet.
“We’ll go someplace warm and get you out of those wet clothes.” There was a promise in his words that made her insides quiver and he swatted her backside playfully as she started to leave the garden.
Grinning teasingly up at him, she gathered her wet skirts and darted away, daring him to give chase. She could hear the squelch of his boots as he pursued her and she ran faster, ducking down a side path in the direction of the palace.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
They stole away to his rooms, slipping through corridors empty of life at the height of a sleepy autumn afternoon. Music and distant laughter floated through the air from some far wing of the palace, or perhaps from the city beyond, but they passed not a soul.
As soon as the door was locked behind them, Jex began backing her towards the bedroom. His hands clutched at her hips and his mouth ravaged hers until she could barely breathe. Gasping, tugging feverishly at the ties of her bodice, he pulled it down to free her breasts.
Enari helped by shrugging her arms out of the sleeves and letting the fabric pool about her waist. Though he didn’t speak, she could see his desire in the boiling, swirling emotions that filled his mind and it took an enormous amount of mental effort not to be dragged under.
Her bottom hit a small table and impatiently, Jex reached behind her and swept it clear, ignoring the sound of breaking glass as the contents struck the floor and something shattered. The strong scent of wildflowers filled the air.
Grabbing the back of her thighs, he lifted her up and sat her on the hard surface before eagerly bundling her skirts out of the way and stepping between her legs. She wrapped them around his hips, drawing him even closer. The only sound in the room was their ragged breathing and the rustle of clothing.
As he began to pull his tunic off over his head, pain lanced through his chest from front to back and it was like nothing he’d ever felt. He staggered and doubled over, sucking in a pained breath. Enari scrambled off the table to kneel beside him, even as she hastened to slip her arms back into her gown. His face had gone ashen and he was sweating profusely.
It was happening again and she felt the familiar helpless frustration. Every time he showed signs of improvement, it was fleeting. He simply wasn’t recovering like he should and even the pompous Master Illyrian was at a loss. No one could explain why a previously healthy young man was taking so long to regain his strength
“Goddess,” he groaned in despair and embarrassment, covering his eyes with a trembling hand, “Whatever this is, I’m not…and when I least expect it, it hits me like a kick to the guts.”
She touched his face. “Should I get the High Mage?”
“No, no. I’ll be alright. Just…just let me sit a minute.” He scrubbed at his face with both palms. “After everything, it seems I’m to be unmanned before you as well. You must be very impressed.”
“Perhaps Master Illyrian—”
His laugh was short and bitter, broken by a wet cough he hadn’t had before. “That stuck-up ass? The last time I tried to speak with him, he told me to stop wasting his time.”
That sounded about right.
Suddenly, he cried out in agony and toppled forward onto his hands and knees. He dry-heaved once, twice, then began to vomit violently.
What came spewing from between his lips, however, was not his lunch, nor anything she’d ever seen the like of.
The fluid was dark, viscous, and flecked with crimson, and wherever it hit, the rushes hissed, blackened, and disintegrated. It continued to come long after his stomach should have been empty and Enari could do nothing but watch him retch onto the marble floor, every muscle in his body straining to expel the noxious stuff.
Eventually, it stopped and Jex collapsed face down, just barely missing the thick puddle. It roiled as if alive and began to gather itself. Enari stared in dawning horror at the figure that coalesced before her.
It wasn’t large, standing only as tall as a man’s elbow, but it was monstrous. The skin was perfectly black and glossy, seeming to absorb the light around it. Overlarge, leathery wings unfurled from between the hunched shoulder blades and wicked, claw-tipped fingers and toes gouged furrows into the stone beneath its feet. It grinned at her, revealing rows of rotten, serrated fangs and red eyes smoldered at her balefully. The reek of the thing was indescribably foul.
“Mortal Seer,” it rasped, forked tongue licking out to taste the air, “you stand before Rhazlanakad. Pledge your allegiance and I may yet spare your life.”
Rhazlanakad. She’d seen this one’s sigil on a page etched with runes of warding and obscuring in the Treatise Maldicta. It turned out that in addition to containing secret rituals and eldritch knowledge, it had also been a book of demons.
This was Plague, one of the Greater Maelstrom, and he could only enter the mortal world if summoned. Someone had called him here with a blood sacrifice, the ultimate sin in the eyes of the Goddess and Her Consorts, and sent him after Jex. Images from her nightmare of a dead little boy and burning eyes flashed through her mind and she scrambled back.
This…this was wholly beyond her. She was a novice, a healer—not a mage or warrior. Scores of men and women far greater than she had fallen in battle with the Maelstrom in the last Great War. This being would crush her like an insect underfoot, and a quick death would be the kindest outcome she could hope for.
“Trust your gut, girl. Don’t be afraid to follow your own intuition. That may make the difference between life and death.”
The Master Librarian’s words came to her in a rush, accompanied by a calm that seemed to come from outside herself. Everything around her slowed, and it was as if she had a lifetime to make a choice. She could go for the High Mage, or Vasi, or even the Master Physician, but Jex would be long dead and devoured by the time she returned with help and that was if any help could be found.
Or she could follow the quiet whisper in her soul telling her to stand and do battle. She knew they could both die here—would very likely die here—but she refused to run. If this was her end, then so be it; she would face it with honor and dignity. Tanith’s daughter would not go down without a fight, nor leave a vulnerable friend to face such peril alone.
At the thought of her mother, something flowed into her and she suddenly felt as if her body was no longer under her control. Yet she wasn’t frightened. The presence was warm, familiar, and she took comfort from its strength. Whatever this was knew what it was doing, and so, offering up a silent prayer to the Goddess, Enari closed her eyes and let her arm extend of its own volition, palm out and fingers spread, in the direction of the dark creature. The other hand settled on Jex’s back and she was dismayed to find it still. There wasn’t much time to do what must be done.
“You have no power here!” Rhazlanakad shrieked, “You’ve passed beyond the Gates!”
A soft, feminine voice that blew in on a breeze through the open window answered.
“Her sire granted me a single boon on the night of her creation, and its use was not limited to this life. While I have not the strength to banish you, creature, I may hold you until the work is done.”
Tears coursed down Enari’s cheeks. She had no doubt that this was her mother here with her now and wondered if it had been her mother guiding her all along, giving her the gift of Sight when she’d looked into the mirror, and leading her to the Treatise...
A single white blossom, blown up from the broken vase on the floor, slid across her forehead like a gentle kiss and her breath hitched on a sob.
“Mother?”
The flower was only the first of many. The gentle breeze became a gale that sent papers flying and a cascade of leaves and petals whirling around the demon in a spinning cloud. He swatted at them angrily, but his clawed hand seemed to rebound without making contact.
“Weep n
ot, daughter. There is no time for grief now,” the voice breathed in her ear, “Do what you must, but be quick. His power returns when the last petal falls.”
Rhazlanakad continued to scream curses and threats, yet remained bound in place, able to do nothing but watch from his prison of whirling greenery and paper.
Recalling what Vasi had taught her, Enari rolled Jex onto his back, then tilted his head and pinched his nose shut. She made sure his mouth was clear before covering it with her own and blowing until she felt his chest rise.
After the third or fourth breath, her own lungs were heaving, but she continued to force air into him as hard as she could until there was no more. Exhausted, she pulled away. It would have to be enough.
Jex inhaled sharply and his eyes flew open, but for a moment he saw nothing but fire. Then it fell aside and he found it had only been Enari’s hair across his face. A trio of tears pattered onto his cracked lips and he licked them away, tasting more than the expected salt on his tongue. His eyes traveled up her face and found it wasn’t Enari staring back at him.
The change was subtle, just a slight blurring of her features, as if he were looking at an older face overlaying her girlish features, but it was disconcerting. He also thought he could detect a faint silver-gold halo around her.
“Little time remains,” advised a voice he didn’t recognize, “and there is much you must hear. You are an errant spark, cast adrift on the night of your birth into a world that has long awaited your coming. Whether you will catch fire or die out, temper or destroy, is up to you. Today you come into your true power and today you face your first true test.
Before you stands Rhazlanakad, Plague, and he is one of the Greater Maelstrom. You’ve met before, though you do not remember. He will be free once the last petal touches the earth and you must send him back to whence he came.”
With that, Enari’s eyes rolled back and she collapsed. He caught her and laid her gently on her side, then looked up at the fuming Plague. Their eyes met, and fire roared to life in his veins. It was more power than he’d ever felt in his life, and he knew exactly what he was going to do with it.
Errant Spark (Elemental Trials Book 1) Page 20