by Unknown
Pan spread panic through the rest of them, dwindling their resistance even further. Most of my Intare had stayed in human form, finding it easier to knock out our opponents with fists instead of paws, but some had transformed just to further scare the humans. It was all working really well and the sound of thunder and lion roars were punctuated with screams of surrender.
“War is upon you!” Aidan yelled from my left. “Prepare to suck the cock of Karma!”
“Aidan!” I gaped at him.
“What?” He grinned. “You can quote movies but I can't?”
“Enough!” A strong voice cut through the clamor and we all looked up to see Nayenezgani standing in front of a doorway. Through that doorway mutants poured out as Naye continued to bolster his troops. “Stand firm! You're strong enough to defeat our enemies.”
I started running for Naye, reacting automatically to seeing my main target. I had to do my part and distract him so the others could succeed. My Victory and War magics were urging me on. Faster. Run. Acquire the feather. The magical warpaint was starting to make my face tingle but that was just a backdrop to the focus I had for Naye. We were going to win this. I would take his feather and subdue him. No more bloodshed. No more tears for Mrs E. With the Thunderbird's magic zipping along my skin, calling to my own, I was certain that we'd be victorious.
A blur of black flashed in my peripheral vision but before I could turn my head, Odin was beside me. I saw him roll to the ground with Tawiskaron at his throat and I almost stopped to help him but he yelled at me to keep going. I saw them start to tumble, Tawiskaron's mohawk and beautiful suit taking a beating as they rolled in the dirt. I knew what the Mohawk god could do, knew what his eyes would look like when he called upon his demon magic, but I needed to get to Nayenezgani.
Odin could take care of himself. I had to trust in that as he trusted in me to do the same. So I left him to fight Tawiskaron as I continued towards Nayenezgani. All around me the battle started to get deadly, gods giving up on disabling their opponents and switching to more lethal methods before they could be injured themselves. I couldn't fault them but my heart hurt to see it, to hear it.
Then another sound stopped me in my tracks. It was so low, it was almost just a vibration. I turned in its direction to find Brahma, mouth wide open, emitting the freaky sound as if he were launching it at our enemies. Damn if it didn't work too. The men in front of Brahma fell to the ground unconscious. I realized then that I'd never really paid attention to how Brahma fought before. I guess I'd been too distracted by the more showy magics to notice Brahma's sound-wave warfare.
“He's like the Hindu Muad'Dib,” I laughed, suddenly picturing Brahma at the head of an army of Fremen in their desert suits... riding atop a huge Dune worm.
Then I snapped out of it and realized that I'd lost Naye in my distraction. I searched the battle and finally found him off to one side, his skin starting to emit a yellow glow. Wounded men were stumbling up to him, holding out their arms in supplication. Naye would simply lift his braid and touch them with the feather that was bound to the end of it. Their wounds would heal miraculously, skin knitting together with dizzying speed as blood ceased to flow. They'd stand up looking stronger and return to the battle with renewed vigor. That's when I knew Naye was the key. If I could just secure him, the others would surrender.
My star started to glow, brighter and brighter inside my chest, as I neared Nayenezgani. I could feel the power of it pulsing through my limbs and vaguely wondered what it portended. The emerald at my throat started to warm in response. Yes, maybe taking enough of his magic to weaken him first would be the best route. I could store it in the gold band around my emerald until we came to some kind of understanding.
I started to reach for Nayenezgani's magic, even as I ran towards him, and then I stumbled to a stop just a few feet away. My star flashed, light shooting down my arm, and Nayenezgani's magic flashed in response, flying out to meet mine. Starlight hitting sunlight. Torr had been right, stars do interact with each other, recognize each other. In the midst of this energy storm, our power had to take a moment to acknowledge one another. It was only polite.
Nayenezgani stared at me as our magics touched and then I felt the star on my forehead add its own little bit of magic. Naye's face went slack. Somewhere inside me, I realized I was accomplishing just what I'd been meant to do without even trying. I was distracting Naye. His mouth opened as if he were about to speak but then his eyes focused on something over my shoulder and I heard a voice shout inside my head: Behind you! Before I could even start to turn around, I felt my star dim, its light muting until it blinked out.
I inhaled sharply as all of my magic was lost to me, blanketed by a wave of crushing blue. Like the ocean had been released inside me. I couldn't reach my power, my beasts, nothing. The light within me was gone. My connections to Trevor, to my Intare, and to Faerie, all gone. Even the bond I still held with Thor had disappeared. I looked down and saw a black feather pressed against my arm. I followed it to a golden brown hand and then looked up that hand to find Tobadzistsini staring down at me sadly.
“I'm so sorry, Godhunter,” he caught me as I fell, “but you've been vanquished.”
The blue within his eyes seemed to expand and darken until that darkness consumed me.
Chapter Twenty-Two
I woke up to a man's grief-filled screams.
I blinked and frowned as I tried to remember. Had I been in a battle? I looked down at my white dress and reached up to feel the dried paint on my face. It flaked away with my touch and left my fingertips red as blood. I sat up and looked around.
Amazingly, I wasn't chained. Normally when I was taken by an enemy, I woke up in chains. Yet there I was, sitting completely unbound on a nice, soft bed in a pleasant looking room. White walls and white painted furniture showcased simple details like a hand carved bookcase and a painting of a waterfall. There was a large picture window but through it I could see only clouds. That wasn't a good sign.
I stood and went to the door. It was unlocked and when I opened it, the sound of wailing increased. I considered my options and decided to head in the opposite direction of the sound. It didn't take a genius to figure out that you should head away from crying. Especially when the crying most likely came from your captor.
So I went left down a bright hallway instead of right. There were several doors off the hall but I continued on. I didn't want to explore, I wanted to get the hell outta there, wherever there was. The hallway finally led me out into a kitchen. It was a cute country kitchen, with a heavy wood table at its center with lots of baskets hanging above it. There were pretty clay pots lined up on the windowsill and a teakettle on the stove. My kind of kitchen but my favorite part about it was the door I was hoping led outside.
I went straight for the door, sensing that freedom was just beyond it. The knob turned, the door opened, and I was let outside just like I'd hoped. Onto a ledge. Just like with the Thunderbirds, I was high up on a mountain. I looked behind me and saw that the house I'd emerged from was carved directly into the stone mountainside. How deceiving wood paneling can be.
I was just considering releasing my wings, when a hand grabbed my arm and yanked me back into the kitchen. It was Tobadzistsini. He gently pushed me into a high backed chair and then went back to close the door with a quiet snick.
“There's no escape out there,” he said conversationally as he took the teakettle off the stove and filled it from the faucet. He replaced it on the stove and turned on the burner before he took a seat at the table with me. “You're in our territory now and the only way out is through the Aether. Our tracing chamber is in the opposite direction from where you were headed.”
I crossed my arms and looked him over. The whole situation felt odd to me. Why was he so relaxed? Why wasn't I bound in some way? Even if I couldn't escape, he should have been concerned that I'd fight him. Turn into a dragon or something...
My dragon. She was gone. I couldn't feel her. I couldn't f
eel anything. All my magic seemed muted, just out of reach. Wrapped in cotton or sunken underwater. Then I remembered the feather. Tobadzistsini's feather.
“What did you do to me?” I growled.
“I vanquished you,” he stood again and fetched us ceramic mugs. They had pictures of landscapes on them, bright sunsets with desert plant life in black silhouette.
He put a sugar bowl out and then a little tea strainer over one of the mugs. The kettle started to whistle just as I was feeling the urge to scream and Toby took it from the stove and poured tea through the strainer. He moved the strainer to the other mug and poured some tea for me. Calm movements, careful and precise. I wanted to grab that kettle and knock him over the head with it. Repeatedly.
“Care to elaborate on that?” I watched him lift his mug and blow over his tea.
“My feather suppressed your magic,” he shrugged. “You're as helpless as a human until I release you. So don't bother trying to escape. You won't even be able to trace the Aether.”
“What?” I screeched.
“Your witch abilities are suppressed as well,” he took a little sip. “You have no magic at the moment.”
“What about my emerald and my rings?” I persisted. “They're very important to me.”
“They're safe,” he patted his breast pocket. “I sensed the magic in them and thought it best to hold on to them for you.”
I grimaced. Having any of the three pieces of jewelry in an enemy's hand was unsettling but it was the gold ring that bothered me the most. I'd made matching ones for all of my lovers except Arach(who I already had a wedding ring with). It was a symbol of our love for each other but it was also imbued with magic. Magic that would alert us when one was in danger and help us to find them. The only thing was, I hadn't counted on it being removed and I had no idea if it would still work when it was off my finger.
No, I wouldn't panic. They knew who'd taken me so they'd know where I'd be. Mrs E could lead them right to the twin's territory. Getting past the wards might be problematic though.
“What do you want with me?” I got right to the point and ignored the horrible panic that was filling my belly. “Why'd you bring me here? Why not just kill me?”
Another wail came rolling down the hallway to us. Toby looked over his shoulder with sad eyes.
“Who is that?” I asked when it became obvious he wouldn't answer my other questions.
“It's Naye,” Toby turned his brown-rimmed blue eyes back to me. “Odin killed Tawiskaron and Naye is mourning him.”
“What?” I thought back to the battle. How badly did things go that Odin was forced to kill Tawiskaron?
“It seems that your lover has somehow acquired your ability to steal a god's magic,” Toby set his mug down and stared hard at me. “He took Tawiskaron's magic and killed him in the process.”
“Oh damn,” I closed my eyes in sadness. I actually liked Tawiskaron and I knew Teharon would be heartbroken over his brother's death. “Poor Teharon.”
“Poor Teharon?” Naye was suddenly standing in the kitchen doorway. “You know nothing! Tawiskaron was my son. Your lover killed my son!”
“Uh,” I gaped at him. “Excuse me?”
“Naye,” Toby shook his head. “This is not the way.”
“That's right,” Naye strode forward to glare down at me, his yellow inner iris brightened as the five jagged marks going down the right side of his face started to glow. “I was married once. Her name was Atahensic and she was a goddess of the moon but she died giving birth to our twin boys. While I grieved over her, her family took the babes, saying I was in no state to care for them. They stole those children from me and raised them without knowledge of me but I never gave up looking them. I searched and searched until I found Tawiskaron and Teharon. I was able to reach Tawiskaron but Teharon was beyond me, he'd sided with my mother in the God War. Fate laughs at both of us. Mother has no idea that she fights alongside her grandson.”
“How does she not know?” I gaped at him. “Didn't you tell her you had children?”
“Atahensic was married to another,” Toby explained while Naye glared at me. “She dallied with Naye and then married him in secret. No one knew about their marriage except for me. Ata didn't even confess it to her husband till she was far along in her pregnancy. She thought he'd be less inclined to hurt a pregnant woman. She was wrong. That's why her family took the children from us. Why they were raised without knowing who their father is.”
“But how did she die?” I was reeling under the revelations. “She was a goddess, right? Gods can only be killed through decapitation.”
“Can they?” Toby asked. “Haven't you killed them by stealing their magic?”
“Uh, well,” I floundered.
“As you well know, gods are not truly immortal,” Toby continued. “The easiest way to kill us is through decapitation but there are other ways. One of them is with human belief.”
“Oh, right,” I whispered as I remembered Brighid's son and husband. They'd died during a war but it was because their people had believed they would die.
“The power of myth,” Naye said bitterly. “Her people saw Atahensic cast from the sky and they believed the fall would kill her. So she died.”
“I'm so sorry,” I said sincerely.
“So am I.”
“So Teharon is your son,” an ache filled my chest for both Teharon and his twin. That they never knew the parents who obviously loved them.
“And so was Tawiskaron,” Naye yanked me to my feet. “Until your lover killed him!”
“Naye!” Toby yelled as Naye pulled me through the house. “Naye don't kill her! We need her, remember?”
“I'm not going to kill her,” he growled as I struggled vainly against his hold. “I'm going to change her. I'm going to make her understand.”
He took me through the house and out a door, onto yet another ledge. There was some kind of contraption waiting there. An X made of crossed timber with poles bracing it. There were straps at each point and little planks at the lower points. He stood me on the little planks and started strapping my wrist to one of the upper points. I wrestled with him but there was no way I'd win. A human against a god, it was laughable. He had me tied to that X in no time.
Then he pulled a sharp looking blade from a sheath at his waist. Light glinted off the edge as he lifted it to my throat. I swallowed hard and stared him in the eyes. Of all the ways I could die, this was the last I'd expected but if this was the end, I'd face it as bravely as I could. He wouldn't get any useless begging or tears from me. That, at least, I would have.
The knife jerked down and sliced through my leather dress. Another slice at each arm and the pieces fell away. Slice. Slice. My pants were gone. I had only my underwear left. It was so unexpected, I didn't even react to it at first. I just looked over my exposed skin in confusion.
Naye turned and looked up at the sky. As he stood there, the sun came out from behind the clouds and started to shine hot on my skin. He looked back at me with a satisfied expression and I lifted an amused brow.
“If I'd known we would be sunbathing, I'd have brought a swimsuit,” I said.
“We'll see if you're still smiling at the end of the day,” Naye growled.
I wasn't worried when he left, slamming the door behind him. I was part dragon after all, heat wouldn't hurt me. Except my dragon was submerged beneath a sea of magic and after a few hours, my skin started to redden. I guess dragons could burn after all.
That night, when every inch of exposed skin on the front of my body was burned red and starting to blister, Naye came back for me. He took me down gently and cradled me as he carried inside the house. I was kind of surprised that he didn't taunt me with some villainous snarkiness. I'd been mentally preparing myself for a verbal battle but I was grateful for the peace. My skin stung so badly, my lips cracked and bleeding, but I didn't make a sound. Frankly, I was too exhausted.
He laid me upon the bed I'd woken in earlier that day and th
en he brought forward the braid that hung along the side of his face. He touched the white feather at the end of the braid to my skin and the pain vanished, the blisters and burns disappearing. My lips healed and moisture returned to my mouth. I gasped.
“The bathroom is right through there if you need it,” he gestured to a door behind him and then to a side table where a tray of food was laid. “There's some food here for you. Eat, see to your body's needs, and then sleep, Atahensic. We'll speak more in the morning.”
As he closed the door, I began to shake. Not from exhaustion but fear.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“I'm not Atahensic,” I growled again.
“Yes you are,” Naye stroked the hair back from my burned skin and then took me down from the cross, as he did every night after he let me burn all day. His voice softened as he continued, “Your magic reached for mine. You recognized me as much as I recognized you. You are my moon and my wife.”
“Did you just say I'm the moon of your life,” I tried to laugh but it came out as a wheeze. “Who do you think you are, Khal Drago? Am I supposed to call you my sun and stars? Cause let me tell you right now, that ain't happening, buddy.”
“I am your sun but I'm not your stars,” he frowned at me.
“Don't you watch Game of Thrones?” I gasped. “Yet another reason why I can't be your girl.”
It had been a few days I think. I'm not sure actually. The days had started to blur together, lost in a haze of sunlight and pain. The nights were just exhausted slumber and relief. Naye would heal me, I'd stumble into the bathroom, stumble back to bed, and then choke down some food before I passed out. I was still in my underwear, the bastard hadn't even given me something fresh to cover my lady bits.