“Vedhe…”
Vedhe looked at her, flames dancing in her eyes.
“Please put that away. We need to talk.”
Vedhe hesitated, but finally she tucked the sun orb back into its pouch. The flames in her eyes didn’t disappear, but they at least dimmed a bit.
“It’s affecting you, you know. I can see it in your eyes.”
Vedhe shrugged one shoulder. “It’s the side effect of the sun orb. You take the sun into yourself to use it.”
“Can it kill you?”
Vedhe ran her finger along the curved path of a scar that ran up her arm, refusing to look at K’lrsa or answer.
“Vedhe? Can using the sun orb kill you?”
“Of course it can. Just like using the staff can kill you.”
K’lrsa glanced across the cave to where she’d left the staff, still wrapped in its three layers of blankets. Even this far away and wrapped up, it called to her, longing to be held and used, whispering to her how easily she could turn this dry desert into an oasis. All she had to do was try.
She licked her lips, forcing her attention back to Vedhe. “Is there a way to use them safely?”
“No.” Vedhe leaned against the wall, resting her arms on her knees. “It’s never safe for a mortal to use that kind of power. Didn’t you realize that the first time we were in that room? Every item in there was barbed, designed to eventually punish the mortal who dared to wield the power of a god. They’re our lesson when all else fails.”
“And yet you keep playing with the orb, even knowing that it can hurt you.”
Vedhe touched the pouch where she’d stashed the orb, a small smile on her lips. “I’d rather burn out from the power I wield then ever again be at the mercy of a man like Ivan or Harley or G’van.”
“But you’re safe right now.”
Vedhe didn’t answer for a long moment. K’lrsa touched the pouch at her waist, wondering if she was going to need the moon power. And, if so, how to use it.
“Am I?” Vedhe leaned forward, the flames in her eyes flaring just the slightest bit. “What aren’t you telling me? What else happened in that room?”
“What are you talking about?” K’lrsa crossed her arms across her chest and leaned back, trying not to look guilty, but from the slight smile on Vedhe’s face as she too leaned back, Vedhe wasn’t fooled.
“I’m not a fool. Something happened. It’s why M’lara took the necklace. And it’s what you discussed with your parents and Herin.”
“I just wanted their counsel.”
“Hm.”
K’lrsa bit her lip, thinking. Should she tell Vedhe? It might help. Vedhe knew the dangers of the sun orb. Maybe she knew about the moon power and the staff, too. But…
She sighed. Surprise might be the only advantage she had. She couldn’t risk letting Vedhe know. Not yet.
She leaned forward. “What do you think they’ll give Aran? Do you think it’ll be like the moon power? Something that can defeat us like the moon power can defeat the sun orb? Or do you think it’ll be a stronger weapon?”
“Who told you that?”
“What?”
“About the moon power. Who told you it could defeat the sun orb?”
“The Lady. The first time we were there. When I thought you’d choose it, I asked her what I could choose to counteract you and she told me the moon power. It appeared because I asked that question.”
Vedhe shook her head. “It won’t defeat it.”
“It won’t? But I thought…” K’lrsa tried to hide her panic as Vedhe shook her head.
“It protects against it. That’s different.” She narrowed her eyes and studied K’lrsa. “Why did you choose the staff? You had to have other choices. Better choices. What good is the ability to call water in a fight like this one?”
“I don’t know. I…I almost chose it the first time. It just seemed to call to me. But the Lady didn’t want me to choose it. She kept standing between me and the staff. And so I thought maybe it scared her because it was so powerful, but I don’t know why.”
“What were your other choices?”
“Just the staff and the moon power.” She met Vedhe’s eyes. “I almost chose the moon power.”
“Why? What good did you think that would do?”
She bit her lip, scared to confront her friend, but she needed to if they were going to succeed. “To stop you. When you go too far. When you turn on the tribes.”
Vedhe laughed softly and touched the pouch at her waist once more. “Oh, I don’t think it’ll come to that.”
“No?”
“No. The orb will destroy me long before then.”
“Destroy you?”
“I told you. They each have their price. And the amount of power I’ll need to wield to defeat Aran and destroy all the men with him will kill me.”
“And you’re okay with that? Why?”
Vedhe shrugged one shoulder. “The Trickster tells me I have to do this if I ever want to go home. It’s the only way he’ll give me Kriger.”
“But you think you’re going to die. So why do it?”
She pulled her knees close to her chest, looking as young as she actually was. “I don’t want to continue like this. At least if I kill Aran before I die, I’ll have done something good with all this pain and rage.”
K’lrsa moved closer, staring into Vedhe’s eyes. “Is it really that bad for you?”
“Yes.” Tears flowed silently down her cheeks. “Every night when I sleep, if the Trickster doesn’t come for me, I relive what was done to my family. Or what it felt like to burn as I walked across that desert. Or what G’van did in that tent. It’s like being in the labyrinth and facing my deepest fears every single night.”
She stared at something K’lrsa couldn’t see, shaking. “It comes during the day, too. It’s not constant, but… There’ll be a moment when I’m not even expecting it, and suddenly I’m back there, watching my home burn or with those men’s hands on my body.” She shook her head, curling up on herself even more. “I never know when it’ll happen. I can’t guard against it. It just comes when it wants and then leaves again. I can go days, thinking I’m fine, and then, BAM.” She slapped the ground. “It strikes.”
K’lrsa reached out a tentative hand to touch her knee. “I’m sorry, Vedhe. I…I didn’t realize.”
Vedhe shrugged and moved away, breaking the contact. “It’s not your fault. It’s theirs.”
“It’ll get better. In time.”
Vedhe shook her head. “Maybe for you, but not for me.” She turned away from K’lrsa, curled up on her side and pretended to sleep.
K’lrsa slunk back to her own bedroll, wishing she knew what to do to help her friend, but feeling powerless.
She watched Vedhe sleeping. It was her fault Vedhe had been in that tent. That part of her friend’s misery was a direct result of K’lrsa’s actions and no matter how much time passed or how much she did, she’d never make up for that.
And worse. Now she was taking Vedhe with her to kill Aran—a man she’d never met and didn’t care about—and Vedhe fully expected to die because of it.
That, too, was K’lrsa’s fault.
But how could she save her? How could she make it all right?
Chapter 56
Two days later—after traveling in silence, each lost in their own thoughts—they found Badru in the camp at the edge of the barren lands. The women and children from the Daliphate were gone, moved to safety somewhere else, replaced with Riders from the other tribes mixed in with the former soldiers from the Daliphate.
There wasn’t a man or woman in the camp that wasn’t bandaged or bruised in some way.
K’lrsa slid from Fallion’s back and raced to Badru’s side. He had a strip of cloth tied around his upper thigh and a nasty gash on his forehead, but when he smiled her heart skipped a beat like it had the first time they met. “Are you okay?”
He nodded. “We’ve managed to keep them at bay so far. It hasn’t be
en easy, but we’ve done it. I’m not sure how much longer we can hold, though.”
Vedhe joined them, the sun orb cupped in the palm of her hand. “I can take care of them next time they come.”
K’lrsa swallowed, imagining hundreds of soldiers burned to nothing in the space of a breath. Not to mention what it might do to Vedhe to use that kind of power. “Do you think that’s wise? I’d hate for you to use it now and not be able to use it against Aran later.”
Vedhe looked at K’lrsa for a long moment, her eyes full of fire and darkness—enough to consume the world. K’lrsa shivered as Vedhe tucked the orb back into the pouch at her waist and walked away.
“What was that?” Badru asked.
“Vedhe has the sun orb now. And I have the staff of power. The Lady let us choose new weapons.” She glanced around the camp. “Didn’t M’lara already tell you? Isn’t she here?”
“M’lara? I thought she was with you.”
“She was. Until she stole my necklace and escaped. The Lady said she was headed towards you.”
“She never made it. Why’d she steal the necklace?”
K’lrsa fought the urge to grab Fallion and keep riding until she found M’lara. The only thing that stopped her was not knowing where to go. Had M’lara made a mistake with the necklace and injured herself? Was she even now trapped in a cave somewhere in the desert, coughing up blood? Or had she continued on? Not wanting to risk Badru or anyone else stopping her.
She wasn’t that foolish, was she? Then again, she was K’lrsa’s sister and K’lrsa had been that foolish not so long ago…
K’lrsa shoved thoughts of M’lara to the side. She couldn’t do anything about her right now and thinking about her little sister would destroy her if she let it.
She needed to rest and plan. They’d only have one chance to defeat Aran.
She looked to Badru. “Do you know where Aran is? Is he with his troops or in Toreem?”
“No. I don’t know.”
“We need to. Can you send scouts? We have to act before Aran has a chance to master his new powers.”
“New powers? What are you talking about?”
She stared into his beautiful blue eyes. So much had happened since she last saw him in the cave. He needed to know, but she didn’t have it in her to tell him. Not just yet.
She squeezed his arm. “Can I tell you everything after I’ve eaten a hot meal and had a chance to sleep for a bit?”
He frowned but pointed her towards a tent on the far side of the camp. “Sure. You can sleep in my tent. I’ll have one of the men bring you some food.”
“Thank you.”
She kissed him on the cheek. It probably wasn’t fair to leave him in the dark like that, but she still hadn’t decided how much she was going to tell him. She wanted to trust him, but… could she?
Her gut was screaming at her that she needed to trust both Vedhe and Badru if they were going to have any hope of defeating Aran. But at the same time the only way to stay in control was to keep the existence of the moon power to herself. And as much as she’d been through with both of them, she wasn’t sure she could let go enough to tell them everything.
She sighed.
She was so tired…
She just hoped the gods left her alone while she slept. She needed rest, not more of their interference.
Chapter 57
Of course, as soon as K’lrsa fell asleep she found herself in the moon dream.
She wasn’t in the desert this time. She was in the midst of the barren lands, the earth blackened and dead all around her, pools of stagnant water that reeked of decay dotting the landscape. The whole place was gray and oppressive. Fog drifted along the ground, wrapping itself around her legs like a living, breathing nightmare.
Cursing the gods, she kicked at the skull of an animal unfortunate, stupid, or desperate enough to drink the tainted water.
A shrill giggle filled the air around her.
“Show yourself, you little brat,” she yelled, looking in all directions for the Trickster.
Because of course that’s who had summoned her here. Who else would spend any more time in this horrid place than they had to?
He stepped out of the grayness, this time in the shape of an old man, twisted and bent. But he still had the same fat belly as his child form.
It occurred to her that the Lady hid behind her beauty, Father Sun behind his fierce warrior nature, and the Trickster behind his vicious cruelty. Masks, all of them. That hid a rotten core.
She glared at him. “What do you want, little man?”
“Oh-oh. Forgotten that you should respect the gods, have you?” He capered closer, his maze-like eyes studying her face. “Think you can do it all yourself now? Protect your people? Keep them healthy and safe? Feed them even in the worst of times?”
She shook her head. “I never said that. I just want a decent night’s sleep without one of you traipsing through and telling me what I have to do.”
“Oh. I see.” He raised one eyebrow in amusement. “Have my parents been bothering you again? My apologies. They get bored so easily. When you’ve been here as long as we have, it gets harder and harder to find anything entertaining in the day-to-day lives of you short-lived little creatures.”
“Then move on.”
“And lose? No.”
“Lose what?”
He tilted his head to the side, studying her. “The battle, of course.”
“What battle?”
He shook his head as if disappointed. “Surely you know by now we aren’t the only gods.”
“Yes. I’ve figured that out. Aran has his death walker gods and Vedhe has something, I’m not quite sure what.”
“Oh there are many others besides them. Hundreds.”
“And you’re all at war with one another?”
“War? No, no, no. That would be too much effort.” He grinned, showing blackened teeth. “It’s more…a battle of the minds. Like one of your little games you like to play around the fire. Except you, my dear girl, and others like you, are our pieces. And there are no rules. Other than the balance.” He eyed her shrewdly. “Unless you’re my clever mother, of course.”
“Why? What did she do?”
He laughed, rubbing his hands together in glee. “She took the playing board and threw it in the air. All the pieces are scattered now. Every carefully made plan, every stratagem and trick—some that have been in the making for hundreds of years—gone in a flash.”
“Just because I took an extra object?”
“Two extra objects. And, no. Not because of that. That was more like you stomping on the board after it had been overturned already.” He rubbed his hands together, grinning. “No. Your re-entering the room at all upset the balance. And when you chose the weapons you did?”
He chortled. “Between you and my chosen one, you brought back the three most powerful objects that have ever existed. In one day. On one side of the battle!” He wiggled with glee. “The others are beside themselves. They don’t know what to do.”
“Vedhe thinks they’ll give Aran the power to stand against us. So that the balance can be maintained.”
“Oh, Aran’s gods will give him power alright. That’s a certainty. Already have. The question is…What will all the other gods do?”
She stared at him. Hundreds of gods, he’d said. How many sides were there to this battle?
His eyes lit up with excitement. “They’re scrambling right now. Gods that haven’t spoken in a thousand thousand years are reaching out to one another, trying to form alliances and debate strategies. All the lines are being redrawn. Every single one!”
“And you’re happy about this?”
“Things haven’t been this exciting since we first arrived here.”
K’lrsa glared at him, hating him and the Lady and Father Sun.
She wished they’d just go away. Better to stumble through alone than be subject to the whim of the gods.
As if reading her thoughts, h
e leaned closer. “You do need us, you know. The tribes rely on their gods more than most. You can’t survive the desert without us.”
She didn’t want to admit he was right, so instead she asked, “What are they going to do? These other gods?”
“Ahhh. That is the question. Do they give more power to their own people so they can stand against you or Aran, whoever wins? But if they do, then how does it ever stop? It’d take millennia to achieve balance again. And what if someone grows bold enough to challenge them? To take on the gods themselves?”
“Is that possible?”
The Trickster looked at her closely, first with his left eye, then with his right, like a strange, broken bird. “Why do you ask? Do you want to challenge the gods?”
“Just curious.” But she watched his face with an intensity she couldn’t hide.
He stepped closer, narrowing his eyes. “Hmmm. Do you really dislike me that much, little one?”
She snorted. “No. I don’t care about you. I care about my parents who are trapped right now in the Hidden City because Father Sun is holding them captive to a vow I didn’t mean.”
“Ohhh….” He peered at her again. “So you’d challenge my father, would you?”
He laughed merrily and danced away. “That would be worth seeing!”
K’lrsa turned away, disgusted. “Why am I even here? Why isn’t Vedhe here? She’s your chosen one, isn’t she?”
“True…And she needs me to keep the nightmares away. But you’re the one it all hinges on.”
“What do you mean by that?”
He stepped closer, lowering his voice. “What kind of world do you want to live in, K’lrsa dan V’na of the White Horse Tribe?”
“What kind of world? What are you talking about?”
“Do you want to live in a world where people like you and Vedhe and Aran have the power to kill thousands with a mere flick of the wrist?” He wiggled his eyebrows. “Or do you want to live in the world you grew up in, one where food is always scarce and death a close companion, but people are too powerless and concerned with their own survival to bother much with threatening yours?”
Rider's Resolve (The Rider's Revenge Trilogy Book 3) Page 20