by Jasmine Walt
“I see,” R’gaolar said softly. The look in his eyes told me that there would be hell to pay if Broghan was harmed in any way, and I started to sweat a little. The Tua made a complicated gesture and spoke what I recognized to be some kind of searching spell, thanks to my recent mastery of the Tua language. There was a loud POP, and Broghan came tumbling out of my sleeve in baby dragon form, landing in a heap on my half-eaten plate of food. The little scamp had been here all along? Hiding from Ta’sradala, I presumed, who had to be his aunt.
“I should have known,” R’gaolar said dryly, no longer looking quite so angry now that his son was recovered. He switched to Tua. “Clean yourself up and stop playing about.”
Broghan chuffed, then flew to the ground. There was a flash of light, and I blinked as he morphed into a young boy, similar in coloring to his father, though he only stood about eight feet tall. “I am not ready to return home yet,” he said, a bit petulantly. “You never let me have fun.”
“You are far too young for this particular kind of fun,” R’gaolar said firmly. “What were you thinking, coming to this realm without so much as leaving a note? Everyone is out searching for you.”
“I wanted an adventure,” Broghan said defiantly, “and I got one. Besides, I was worried that Sunaya might not make it back in one piece, so I came along to make sure she arrived safely in her world. It’s a good thing too, because she nearly died, and neither of you would have wanted that on your conscience, would you?” He met Ta’sradala’s gaze, and she scowled and averted her eyes. Of course that was just what she had hoped for, but she knew better than to say it out loud, especially right now.
“While I’m sure the mortal appreciates your heroics, it was not your place to play knight in shining armor,” R’gaolar growled. “You should not have run away. You know the punishment for disobedience.” Huh. I wondered what kind of punishments Tua meted out to rebellious kids.
“I am still glad I came here,” Broghan countered easily, not at all intimidated by his stern parent, “and I shall come back whenever I please, no matter how much of a fuss you all make. This realm is far too fascinating to leave unexplored!”
R’gaolar made an exasperated sound in the back of his throat, then grabbed Broghan by the arm. The two of them disappeared in another flash of light, leaving the rest of us staring at the spot where they’d vanished. The silence stretched on for several seconds as we tried to collect ourselves from the shock. Even Ta’sradala seemed shaken, with good reason—she’d just dodged a major bullet, thanks to me.
“Now that you’ve seen what comes of engaging in such reckless acts,” Iannis said, finally breaking the silence, “it is really time that you let us go home, Grandmother. The wedding is mere days away, and we have much to prepare for.”
“That is not my problem,” Ta’sradala said stiffly. “You have offended this family by not consulting us before tying yourself to this mortal, and there must be consequences.”
“If there are to be consequences,” Iannis said heatedly, “then you should punish me, not Sunaya. She is entirely blameless in this situation.”
“Iannis!” I protested, but he didn’t look at me.
“You’ve already put me through hell and back,” I snapped at Ta’sradala. “Don’t you think you’ve done enough?”
“Please,” Deryna said. “Let this go, Ta’sradala.”
“Sunaya has proved her loyalty and devotion to Iannis,” Ennartha said. “I give my blessing to her, and you should too, Mother.”
Ta’sradala stared at us for a long moment, her face a stony mask. I could scent the strength of her hostility and convulsively gripped Iannis’s hand under the table. Should I ask him to use the gulaya now, before she could open her mouth? But I didn’t know if he would be fast enough—I certainly hadn’t been, and now mine was sitting in my magical sleeve, dead and useless.
“I cannot deny that you have somehow made it through my challenges,” Ta’sradala finally said, a crafty gleam in her eyes that made my stomach clench with apprehension. “But the true test of a marriage comes when a couple is forced to face adversity as one. I shall set you one more challenge that you two must complete together. If you survive that, you shall have my blessing.”
“Why you—” I snarled, but the old Tua waved her hand before I could finish my sentence. The world began to spin again, and I grabbed Iannis tightly, terrified that we would be separated. Where was that old bitch sending us now? And would we be able to survive this final test?
17
“Great,” I muttered when the world had finally stopped spinning. “This is just fucking great.”
“I see my grandmother was particularly inspired with this locale,” Iannis said dryly as we looked around. We stood in the middle of a vast desert, with absolutely nothing but red sand dunes and valleys as far as the eye could see. The sun blazed overhead in a yellowish sky, and the clouds were some kind of noxious green color. There were no signs of life, not so much as a single cactus jutting up from the sea of red death.
“Yeah, well I guess she thought I had it too easy with the underground caverns,” I said. “At least that place had water, even if it was cold.”
“Underground caverns?” Iannis raised an eyebrow. “That almost sounds exciting.”
“It was for the first half hour or so. But after falling into a fissure and almost dying, the novelty wore off pretty quick.”
Iannis smiled. “I missed you,” he said, burying his face in my hair. My heart warmed as he held me tight against him, and I took a moment to enjoy his embrace as the hot winds gusted around us. We would have plenty of time to grumble and tear our hair out as we tried to escape this hellhole—I could take a few minutes to enjoy being reunited with Iannis again.
We sat down in the scant shade of a flat rock. “Tell me everything that happened,” Iannis prompted. “I was terrified for you. Until I found you again, alive and well, I kept imagining terrible things— a thousand ways you could have perished, and I would have never known the truth about what happened.” He squeezed my hand tightly. “I don’t ever want to go through such an experience again.”
“Me neither,” I said fervently, squeezing his hand back. “Your grandmother decided that I was too weak to marry you, and she told me I had to pass three tests to prove I was worthy of you.”
“How ridiculous.” Iannis’s eyes blazed with anger. “Whether or not you are ‘worthy’ is not up to her at all, and as far as I’m concerned we have both proved ourselves to each other a hundred times over.”
I smiled. “Yeah, well you can tell that to the old bitch the next time you see her.” I took a breath. “For the first test, she threw me into the cold, stormy sea, with only a rowboat to keep me afloat. I nearly drowned out there, but I managed to make it to a fishing vessel and get myself out of harm’s way.” I shivered, remembering how fucking cold I was. “I wonder how she knew when to yank me back. Is there some way for her to observe what I was doing? She clearly didn’t see what I was doing in the Tua realm during my second challenge, and who I met there.”
“I believe she can observe what happens as long as her victims are in Recca—but perhaps not if they are in other dimensions,” Iannis speculated. “Or perhaps the Tua realm is shielded from eavesdropping, unlike other realms.”
“Huh.” I frowned. “If she can’t eavesdrop in other dimensions, that means my third challenge was probably still in Recca.”
“I can’t believe my grandmother really sent you to the Tua realm.” Iannis scowled. “But it is obvious she did—I guessed as much from that scene with the young Tua, though I could not understand what he and his father said to each other.”
“I can understand them now,” I said. “The trip was surprisingly…educational.” I gave a lopsided smile at Iannis’s astonished look.
He shook his head. “It’s a miracle you survived the experience, if my memories of the place are at all accurate.” He pulled me into his arms, and I sighed a little as I pressed my cheek a
gainst his broad chest. The steady thrum of his heartbeat soothed me, making me want to sink into his embrace and forget about our problems. From the comfort of his arms, I told him all about my adventures with the Tua, and my last ordeal in the underground caves.
“You were incredibly lucky that the Tua you ran across were benevolent,” Iannis said gravely when I’d finished. “There are others who would have caged you up as a pet, or worse, roasted you over a spit and eaten you. And the forests contain other horrors you never saw—giant poisonous ants, flesh-eating birds, and a kind of vampire poltergeist, to name only a few I heard of from my mother.”
I shuddered at the thought. “Yeah, I did get lucky. But aside from that one monster, and the quicksand, it wasn’t that bad. And at least I can file that trip away as something I’ve done that no other living ‘mortal’ has experienced.”
Iannis laughed. “I’m glad you are able to still see the bright side,” he said, kissing the top of my head. “Though I wish I had been there, with you, rather than that erratic young shape-shifter.”
“I’m sort of glad you didn’t have to endure all that with me,” I confessed, pressing my forehead against his. “Though I am happy to have you with me now.”
I kissed him softly then, and Iannis tightened his arms around me, pulling me even closer as we finally took a moment to savor our alone time. No, it wasn’t the most ideal location for a reunion, but after being separated from Iannis for so long I’d take what I could get. The taste of him as he slid his tongue into my mouth, the feel of his strong hands as they roamed up and down my back, his addictive sandalwood and magic scent…these were all things I’d begun to take for granted. I clung to him as we kissed languorously, taking our time to reaffirm our love for each other.
“I don’t have anything nearly so exciting to report,” Iannis said at last, when I pulled back to catch my breath. “The wedding preparations were still on schedule when I departed. Director Chen promised to ensure that if we manage to get back in time, things should go off without a hitch.”
With everything I’d experienced at Ta’sradala’s hands so far, I wasn’t quite so optimistic about our timely return. But I didn’t see any reason to dash Iannis’s hopes, so I stayed silent.
Iannis and I ate some jerky and took a swig out of my canteen, then took stock of our supplies. Thankfully, we had some usable items, like the blanket I’d brought, and a pair of sleeping bags that Iannis had stored away for emergencies, but there wasn’t anything that could get us out of here, and our food and water stores wouldn’t last us more than a few days.
“Where do you think we are?” I asked as the sun began to set. “The colors in this place seem strange, though not nearly as strange as the Tua realm.”
“In yet another dimension, more than likely,” Iannis said with a sigh. “For all we know this entire world is like this, with no food or water.”
We used the levitation spell to float up high in the air, but even from hundreds of feet up, we couldn’t see anything but desert. As the night sky came out, dotted with unfamiliar constellations, the light of the sun was replaced by the reflections of two huge yellow moons.
“Well that was useless,” I said as we slowly drifted back to the ground. “I’m guessing your gulaya isn’t going to work here, since we’re not in Recca.”
“I doubt it,” Iannis agreed. “And I dare not risk trying, since I have no way to recharge it here. We will need to find some other method of escape.”
We discussed various options on how to make this place more hospitable while we tried to figure out our escape, but even pooling our knowledge together, we came up empty. The spells to produce water relied on gathering moisture from the air, and there was none here. And while transmogrification was an option, it took quite a bit of magical energy and would have to be a last resort. Not to mention that with no food, we had to be careful not to expend our power any more than was absolutely necessary.
Exhausted from his travels, Iannis curled up next to me on his sleeping bag and fell asleep. I tried to catch some z’s too, but my mind was buzzing, too wired to settle down. As I stared up at the strange night sky, I sorted through the knowledge the Tua had given me. Would I be able to walk from this dimension back to Recca? I had done it before, but that was because Nalan and Alara had known the precise path, and I had been able to follow it. Plus, I’d only survived thanks to Broghan’s help. This time, I had no idea which dimension I was in, and in what direction Recca lay. If I tried to travel at random, I might accidentally transport us to another realm even more inhospitable than this. We could land in a world with toxic air, unable to breathe, or beneath an ocean, and die from the water pressure. Not to mention that the spell used up so much energy—I’d be totally depleted and weak as a kitten, vulnerable to any passing predator, unable to try again if I got it wrong the first time.
Except this time, you have Iannis with you. Between the two of you, you might be able to pull it off.
The hope that we might actually have a viable way of getting home—even if the plan wasn’t fully formed—was enough to help my mind finally relax. I slept for a few hours curled up next to Iannis, stirring sometime later when sunlight began to creep beneath my eyelids.
“Iannis,” I mumbled when I felt him shift next to me. “I have an idea about how to get us out of here.”
“You do?” Iannis asked, sounding fully awake. I opened my eyes to see him staring at me, looking intrigued. “How?”
“Nalan and Alara gave me the knowledge on how to walk between dimensions,” I explained. “That was how I was able to make it back to Recca. I only have the exact instructions on how to get from the Tua realm to our world, but I assume the process could be used to walk between any two dimensions, if only we can figure out the way. However, it takes a huge amount of power, and I was completely drained the last time. And since I’m not sure where we are, I’m worried that we might accidentally end up in a different world instead of back home. If it’s not one that we can find food and water on, we’ll die before we can try again.”
“It will be dangerous,” Iannis agreed, his brow furrowed. “But we don’t have any alternative, do we? At least with our combined power we should be able to travel without draining you.”
“I hope so. Once we leave here, Ta’sradala may not be able to find us again,” I said. “She’s probably watching us gleefully as we struggle. Do you think she’d bring us back before we die of thirst or hunger? I know she hates me, but she might save you, at least.”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” Iannis said. “And if she brought me back after I’d watched you perish, I’d rather not return at all. Anything, any risk, is better than that.”
I bit my lip. “Do you think we should try it now?” I asked, sitting up.
Iannis shrugged. “Why wait? The longer we stay here, the more we will suffer in this heat anyway. Now, while we are still strong and well-fed, we have the best chance of success.”
We quickly packed up our sleeping bags and canteens in our magical sleeves, then joined hands. Anxiety welled up inside me, and I leaned in to kiss Iannis again.
“If we don’t come out in one piece on the other end,” I murmured against his lips, “please know that I love you, and that I have no regrets.”
“I do know,” he said, nuzzling my cheek. “As certainly as I know that the sun rises and sets. Or at least it does in our world. And I love you just as much, if not more. Now let’s begin.”
Iannis put a protective bubble around us, enclosing a supply of the hot but breathable air in case we got stuck in the void, or someplace else that was inhospitable. Once I was certain the bubble was secure, I reached for the knowledge the Tua had given me and pulled out the dimension-walking spell. As I studied the directions again, Iannis began to pour some of his power into me, filling me up with sizzling hot magic. I took a deep breath as it flowed in my veins and let the map of the dimensions fall open into my mind again. I could see where Recca was, and the Tua realm, but I
had no idea which square of the quilt we were on, and another tremor of fear went through me. What if I fucked this up?
“Relax,” Iannis said to me in mindspeak. “Let your instincts guide you.”
Nodding, I zeroed in on the square that was Recca, and spoke the spell, willing it to take us back home. The world shifted and tilted around me, and I clutched Iannis’s hands tightly as I felt my magic pour out of me once again. Opening my eyes, I saw a swirl of colors, and my heart leapt. Was it working this time? Would we actually make it back?
Our feet slammed into the ground, and I stumbled into Iannis. He caught me before I fell, and I sucked in a deep breath of the hot air in our bubble. My heart sank—we were in the middle of a prairie. But not just any prairie. The tall grass, which nearly came up to my knees, was a deep indigo color, and the sky above us was bright orange. Off in the distance a herd of what looked like bison was grazing, but they seemed to be a dark green, the color of evergreen trees, and something was off about their shape.
“I’m afraid this isn’t Recca,” Iannis said, voicing the obvious. “But at least there is life in this world. Better than what we had before.”
“There is that,” I said, letting out a gusty sigh. “Let me test the air, see if it’s breathable.”
Iannis protested, but I had already taken a few steps forward, leaving the bubble. Cool air wafted against my skin, and I took in a deep breath, then let it out in a sigh of relief when nothing bad happened. The air seemed to be just fine here, and with a tang of grass and moisture, it was ten times better than that hot desert air we’d been breathing before.
I signaled to Iannis to drop the air bubble, then raked a hand through my hair, trying to ground myself. I felt woozy from using all that magic, and I pulled another piece of beef jerky from my sleeve and munched on it as I looked around.