The Chaos Crystal

by Jennifer Fallon

  Cayal looked at her with a puzzled frown. 'You left who behind, where?'

  'My father,' she said, choking back a sob. 'He was alive; Cayal and I left him on the ice with Jaxyn. He told me to run and I did it with barely a second thought, and then you and the other immortals broke the ice, and now he's dead, and it's my fault, because if I'd made him come with me, he'd have been safe ...'

  The words fizzled out as the tears overtook her. Cayal gathered her into his arms again and this time she didn't resist. This time she put her arms around him and sobbed against his shoulder, as if everything had finally caught up with her. As if she no longer had the will to hold it back. Cayal said nothing for a time. He just held her and let her cry, partly because he wasn't sure what else he could do, and partly because he knew that her tears would ultimately be cathartic.

  For a time, she sobbed like a broken-hearted child. Cayal held her, wishing he could ease her pain. And hoping that somewhere between here and Jelidia he could find a way to prevent Elyssa from killing her in a futile attempt to steal her body for her own — a process Cayal secretly believed was never going to work, even with the Tide magic of two worlds at their disposal to make it happen.

  CHAPTER 49

  Arkady woke in Cayal's arms. For a moment she couldn't imagine how she came to be there, and then she remembered breaking down last night and Cayal comforting her, which had led to Cayal kissing her, which had led to, well ... this.

  'You snore. Did you know that?'

  She shifted on the narrow bunk. Cayal was awake. She wasn't sure how long he'd been lying there holding her, watching her. Long enough to realise that she was snoring, apparently.

  'Well, aren't you the last of the true romantics.'

  He smiled. 'I like to watch you sleep.'

  'Why? Particularly if I snore?'

  'It's the only time you're ever truly relaxed, Arkady.' He bent forward and kissed her gently on the lips. 'It's past sun-up. I really should go ...'

  'Before your fiancee finds you in here?' she finished for him. Tides, what have I done? Last night's moment of weakness, Arkady realised, may end up costing her her life. She was under no illusions about the capacity of the Immortal Maiden for jealous retribution if she thought Arkady her rival for Cayal's affection.

  'Don't worry about Elyssa,' Cayal said, showing no inclination to get out of bed, despite his stated intention of leaving. 'I'll take care of her.'

  'She looks at me strangely,' Arkady said, making no move to escape the comfort of his unnaturally warm body beside hers on the bunk. The air in the cabin was

  freezing. She could feel it on her face. The rest of her, however, was snuggled beneath the fur coat she'd brought from Glaeba, pressed against Cayal's warm, hard-muscled length. 'That's just her way.'

  'If I was a horse and she looked at me the same way, I'd be certain I was destined for the knackery.' 'Now you're exaggerating.'

  'No, I'm not,' she insisted. 'And I will be destined for the knackery if she finds out you spent the night in my cabin.'

  He nuzzled her ear. 'Then we shan't tell her.'

  She shook her head and pushed him away as far as she could on the narrow bunk. 'Tides, Cayal, do you any have conscience at all?'

  'Not so's you'd notice,' he said, in a better mood than Arkady had seen him for a very long time. 'And before you start accusing me of being morally bankrupt, your holiness, might I remind you that you're lying here beside me, naked as the day you were born, a willing participant in my moral decline?'

  'Your moral decline didn't need any help from me, Cayal,' she said, a little miffed to think he was trying to make her equally culpable for the lapse in good judgement that had brought them to this pass, and this bed.

  Why didn't I say no? Why didn't I tell him to leave when he started kissing me last night?

  Arkady knew the reason. She'd been cold and guilt- ridden, frightened and lonely, and Cayal had a talent for offering her comfort when she was at her most vulnerable.

  'And for your information, I'm lying here with you because you give off heat like a walking glass-furnace and I'm going to freeze to death the moment I get out from under these covers. Why couldn't you and your insane friends build your magical, crystal-powered, immortal-killing chamber somewhere warm?'

  'It has something to do with being near the magnetic poles,' he told her. 'Are you going to keep complaining about the weather?'

  'Every chance I get.'

  'Maybe I will let Elyssa kill you after all,' he said with a smile.

  Arkady eyed him curiously. 'Is there a particular reason she wants to kill me, Cayal?'

  'You know the reason,' he said. 'She thinks I fancy you. She's jealous.'

  'So why hasn't she killed me already?'

  'Because I asked her not to.'

  'And the other reason?'

  'What other reason?'

  'The real reason Elyssa is allowing me to live.' Arkady turned on her side, pushing herself up on her elbow so she could read Cayal's expression. 'Elyssa is itching to be rid of me, Cayal. I can see it every time she looks at me. And yet she allows me to keep on breathing. Why?'

  'You're carrying the Chaos Crystal for us.'

  'You could have hired someone in Glaeba to do that if you had to. You don't need me, just a cooperative human who can't touch the Tide.'

  Cayal looked away guiltily for a moment, and then he shrugged, as if he'd decided there was really no harm in her learning the truth. 'Well ... it might be because I...sort of promised her ... your body.'

  Arkady wasn't sure what he meant. If Elyssa had a taste for taking pleasure with her own gender, Arkady had never seen any sign of it. 'I thought you said she wasn't that way inclined?'

  'I mean literally,' he clarified, with some reluctance.

  'I don't understand, Cayal.'

  He sighed, more than a little uncomfortable. 'Ah ... well, you see ... Lukys's offer to help me die is, I recently discovered, only a sideshow to the main event, which is transferring Coron's consciousness back into a proper

  body. I may have ... um ... implied .. . during my discussions with Elyssa while I was trying to get her to help, that if she was willing to help me die, I'd ask him to do the same for her.'

  Arkady frowned, unable to grasp what he was telling her. 'Let me get this straight. Lukys wants to transfer the consciousness of his pet rat into a human body — Tides, I don't even want to think about the story behind that — so you told Elyssa he could do the same for her, using my body?'

  The Immortal Prince nodded and ventured a cautious smile. 'It won't work. I mean, you're not even a little bit immortal. The process would most likely kill you anyway, so Lukys probably won't even agree to try it. You really have nothing to worry about

  'Nothing to worry about? Are you insane? Well, yes, you are, aren't you?' she said, giving him no chance to answer. 'What possessed you to promise her something like that, you fool?' No longer fearful of the cold in light of Elyssa's dire plans for her, Arkady threw back the covers, climbed out of the bunk and attempted to retrieve her clothes from the floor of the cabin while staying on her feet. She shivered in the icy air, trying to keep her balance. The deck was rising and falling with the roiling sea outside, something she'd not been quite so conscious of while lying in the bunk next to Cayal.

  'I thought it would save your life,' he protested, managing to sound both wounded and innocent at the same time. 'Tides, I was only trying to help, Arkady.'

  'She wants to possess me, Cayal! How exactly is that saving my life?'

  'You're still alive.'

  'I think I'd rather be dead!' She pulled her bodice on over her slip and began the laborious process of doing up the scores of tiny nacre buttons that held it closed. 'I can't believe you brought me all this way just so Elyssa can kill me.'

  'I didn't bring you here so she can kill you ...'

  'No? Then how else do you think this is going to play out, Cayal? Do you imagine that when we get to Jelidia and arrive at this fabulous ice
palace of yours, I'll hand over the crystal and then you'll say, "Oops, my mistake. Sorry, Elyssa, Arkady has to leave now"?'

  'Well, obviously we'll have to think of a plausible reason she shouldn't attempt the transfer,' he said. 'And find a way for you to return home. But I'm sure, if she hears it from Lukys, and he tells her it won't work, Elyssa won't try to force the issue.'

  'Assuming you ever have such a discussion,' Arkady said, knowing Cayal better than he imagined. 'She's here because you promised her my body. If she finds out she can't have it, she's going to tell you where you can shove your plans to die, refuse to help you at all and then you're screwed. So I seriously doubt you're going to tell her a damned thing.'

  With the buttons finally taken care of, Arkady turned and sat on the edge of the bunk so she could pull on her shoes.

  'I won't let her hurt you, Arkady,' Cayal assured her, reaching out to stroke her hair.

  Arkady shook him off impatiently. 'Of course you will. You've been trying to kill yourself for over a thousand years. You're not going to let the life of a mere mortal get in your way now. Not when your goal is so close.'

  'That's a cruel thing to suggest.'

  She glanced at him and then turned her gaze away. Tides, he could look wounded, even when he's completely at fault.

  'Doesn't make it any less true, though,' she said, tugging on her boots. Finally dressed, she stood up and turned to look at him, cursing herself for the weakness that left her so blind when it came to the true nature of the Tide Lords — this man in particular. The icy cabin suddenly felt too stuffy and close. She couldn't breathe.

  'You know what I think?' she said, reaching over to open the porthole to let in some fresh air. 'I think —'

  'Land ho!' came a distant cry from above.

  Arkady closed her eyes. Tides ... we're here.

  'What do you think?' Cayal asked.

  She had been going to say so much. And Arkady had a lot to say to this man. She had been going to tell him how much she'd needed him last night. But how much she loved Declan. And, despite his unique gift for comforting her when she needed him most, how callous he was. How uncaring of anything but his own pathetic, cowardly wish to die. But it was pointless, she realised. Nothing she said would make a difference. Nothing she could do would alter what was about to happen.

  'I was just going to tell you to be careful,' she said, taking the easy way out. 'If I leave first, and Elyssa doesn't see you coming out of here, she need never know you didn't spend the night in your own bunk.'

  Before Cayal could say anything more, she turned, grabbed her fur coat off the bed and then her fur hat from the dresser near the washbowl. Pushing her arms through the sleeves, she jammed the hat onto her head, turned for the door and, without another word, Arkady slipped out into the dim companionway, leaving the Immortal Prince and everything she wanted to say to him behind her.

  Pulling the fur tightly closed and the hat down over her ears, Arkady made her way on deck to discover there was more than a distant smudge of coast on the horizon. Icebergs littered the surrounding sea that dawn gilded with a magical golden light. She'd heard that at the height of summer here, the sun never set, and last night had definitely seemed uncommonly short. That might have had more to do with how she'd been occupied, she then realised, than the actual length of time that had passed.

  The crew were dashing about frantically, shouting at each other and doing whatever it was that sailors do on ships sailing through waters riddled with icebergs. Arkady had to stop and dodge and apologise quite a bit as she carefully moved forward on the slippery deck, finding the whole process of ocean sailing rather daunting and very fraught. Although she had grown up in a city near a lake, for her, sailing was something she'd come to later in life, after she married Stellan. Then it involved leisurely trips on calm water on a very large and well- provisioned barge, with lots of servants and even a small orchestra to entertain the guests. Her only ocean-going experiences, on the other hand, had been the short hop across the Sanorna Sea from Glaeba to Torlenia when they'd been exiled by the king, and across the ocean as a slave on the trip to Senestra — a journey she never wanted to relive, for any number of reasons, few of them related to sailing.

  She spied Elyssa ahead, talking to the captain. Or rather, being talked at by the captain, who was gesticulating and pointing, making no bones about the fact that he was upset about something. Not far from them, some of the sailors were winching a longboat down to the water. The Immortal Maiden looked up and caught sight of her. She motioned Arkady forward with her arm as the captain fell silent.

  'We can't take the ship in any further,' she said, her breath frosting in the icy air. 'Captain Spineless the Magnificent here is afraid of scraping his precious hull on an iceberg. We're going to have to go the rest of the way by longboat.'

  Arkady nodded, not sure if she was being asked her opinion, or being told what she must do. 'Very well.'

  'You need to fetch your things,' Elyssa informed her. 'And make sure the crystal is safe.'

  'Of course.'

  'Have you seen Cayal?'

  'Not since yesterday,' Arkady lied, finding it interesting how unsettled the immortals were by not being able to feel each other's proximity on the Tide. The dampening effect of the Chaos Crystal was fascinating. The scientist in Arkady would have loved to have had the opportunity to study it — if studying a magical artefact could even be called science. 'I could go look for him, if you want.'

  'You just get packed and make sure the Chaos Crystal is safe,' Elyssa said. 'I don't need your help to find Cayal.'

  'As you wish, your highness,' she said with in inelegant curtsy, made even more difficult by the rise and fall of the deck. 'Will we have to walk the rest of the way to the palace once we make land?'

  'Hopefully there will be someone waiting for us with a sled.'

  'But how will they know to be waiting for us?' Arkady asked, looking over the side at the drop to the icy water below with concern. If she missed a single step climbing down to the longboat, that water down there would kill her in minutes.

  'Lukys would have mounted a magical barrier around the continent,' Elyssa said. 'We probably sailed through it days ago, alerting him to our presence.'

  'Unless the Chaos Crystal killed it,' Cayal suggested, coming up behind Arkady. She jumped at his sudden appearance. He'd obviously been back to his own cabin and changed out of the clothes he was wearing yesterday. Elyssa didn't seem suspicious. Perhaps the argument with the captain had distracted her. 'Either way, they'll know we're coming.'

  'Does Kentravyon know we're leaving?'

  'He's talking of swimming ashore.'

  'That's crazy.'

  'Well ... yes.'

  Elyssa rolled her eyes, but made no further comment about Kentravyon. She turned back to

  Arkady. 'Fetch the Chaos Crystal,' she said. 'It's time for us to leave.'

  Bowing respectfully to Elyssa again and not even glancing in Cayal's direction, Arkady did as she was ordered, figuring that, for now at least, doing as she was told — even if it meant suffering Elyssa doing the telling — was the safest course of action and probably the best way to stay alive.

  CHAPTER 50

  Located in a sheltered bay on the northern coast of Chelae, Denrah was a large village that enjoyed the unique advantage of being the northernmost deep-water anchorage of substance in Chelae. Strangers were not uncommon here and, as a rule, went unremarked. Declan could have set the rendezvous somewhere more remote, he supposed, but he didn't know the islands that well, and at least here in Denrah he could guarantee that all the immortals would know where he was. 'They're coming.'

  Declan squinted in the direction the Scard was pointing. Warlock was looking out to sea through the long brass tube of a Torlenian telescope he'd acquired on his visit to Ramahn. The telescope allowed the Scard to spot the approaching immortals even before Declan was able to feel them on the Tide.

  The morning was bright, the sky a cloudless co
balt vault over the island. Declan had been tempted to leave Warlock behind for this initial meeting, figuring the inclusion of a Scard in their party was something he could broach later, once he found out how many Tide Lords he had on his side. But the big canine would have none of it.

  'Are you sure it's them?'

  The Scard nodded and returned the brass instrument to his eye. 'It's them. And they seem to be riding ... some sort of ... I don't know ... This will sound like I've lost my mind, but it looks like a magic carpet.'

  'Don't be ridiculous, Warlock,' Declan couldn't help himself from responding. 'There's no such thing as a magic carpet.'

  Warlock lowered the 'scope and glared at him, his teeth bared, a low growl rumbling in the back of his throat.

  Declan still wasn't entirely certain what had made Warlock abandon his family, yet again, to follow him into danger. He was certain the Scard wasn't loyal to him personally, and there didn't seem any other reasonable explanation. It had something to do with Warlock's pups. Declan had worked out that much. But exactly how the Scard thought he was helping them — or, more to the point, how his mate, Boots, thought he could help them by following Declan — remained something of a mystery.

  There was no time to start questioning Warlock now, however, about his motives. He had to content himself with the thought that Warlock had undertaken every task Declan had asked of him since they'd left Hidden Valley and the icy winter of Glaeba behind — the most important of which was delivering the message to Ramahn, which had resulted in his meeting with Brynden.

  Declan hadn't wasted the intervening time. To keep himself occupied while he waited for the immortals from Glaeba and Caelum to join them, he'd drawn detailed plans of Lukys's palace — or what he could remember of it. He'd sketched out the location of the ice chamber, the size of it, the upper levels; any detail he could recall that might aid them in their quest. There was no way of knowing what magical defences Lukys would have put in place around the palace, or even if he'd bothered with them. There was a good chance he wasn't aware anybody was even thinking of trying to stop him from opening the rift.