“You were mad when I met you.”
Ariana chuckled softly. “Too true.”
Jacquin crept forward, following Adrian through the stone hallways of the main palace of the Core. She held her arms close to her chest, a heavy, overpowering sense of wrongness flooding every stone. With each step she could sense the past, different buildings, different people, but always the same result. Pain. Fear. Death. Regimes had risen and fallen on this land, entire tribes massacred, people enslaved and oppressed since the first people of Aggar started to build on the ice. She could almost smell the blood in the air, the sweat and tears of uncountable victims.
“This land is cursed,” she muttered under her breath.
Adrian turned, looking at her nervously. “What?”
Jacquin shook her head. “Nothing.”
Adrian led her down silent hallways to the main doors of the prison, massive metal structures that didn’t even allow air to slip around their sturdy frame. There was immediately a blast of smell, mold and human musk, rancid and sour.
Adrian curled her nose. “They fell into disrepair long ago. Only the bars remain strong.”
They crossed the threshold and Jacquin nodded. “These caves are far older than the Core.”
Adrian nodded. “The castle was intentionally built over them.”
A squeak and scuffle caught Jacquin’s attention and she laughed aloud as Fisk raced toward her, trilling with glee and climbing up her dress to her shoulder.
Adrian and Jacquin descended down stone steps into the prisons, Adrian calling a ball of flame into her palm for light. They instantly spotted her, lying still in one of the closest cells to the front door.
The women ran forward to their bondmate, Adrian shredding the lock to Rox’s cell with a magical twist of her hand. Jacquin raced to Rox’s side, pulling off her cloak and draping it over Rox’s ice-cold body.
Rox turned, her eyes clouded, her body bruised. She reached up for Jacquin as if in shock, her hand running across Jacquin’s cheek. “Jacquin?”
“I’m here, Rox. Adrian, too.”
“You came for me?”
Jacquin took her hand and kissed her palm. “Always. We’re here to save you.”
Adrian strode toward them from the door and glared at the sick Rox. Rox’s face twisted with grief and sorrow. “Adrian, I’m sorry.”
Adrian shook her head. “We can discuss your abandonment later. We need to get you out now.”
Jacquin tried to help Rox stand but the woman was weak on her feet. Jacquin gasped as she noticed a festering stab wound through Rox’s other hand. “Adrian! She’s hurt!”
The anger in Adrian’s face dissipated as she took Rox’s hand, holding it out to the light. “Someone stabbed you?”
Rox trembled and shook her head. “It’s not important. You have to help me find my daughter.”
Adrian flinched in shock, glancing at Jacquin to see if she was just as surprised. “Daughter?”
“The Twins have her. They’re going to sell her if they haven’t already. We have to find her.”
Adrian shook her head. “We have to get out. The path is only clear for a few more minutes, then the Twins will begin their search. We need to be across the river by nightfall.”
“I won’t leave without Serena,” Rox growled.
“Stay and you’ll die. We all will. Leave and we may be able to formulate a proper plan,” Adrian rebutted. “We don’t have time to argue.”
Jacquin assessed Rox’s injures. “Adrian, she can barely stand, let alone run with us. We have to carry her.”
“Or heal me.” Rox sat up, grabbing the front of Adrian’s shirt. “You’re a Blue Sight and a natural healer. I felt it when we locked eyes. Heal me.”
Adrian took a step back in shock. “I don’t heal. I’m a destroyer.”
“You can heal and you know it. Use your Blue Sight as a channel. Heal me.”
Adrian’s eyes softened in grief and pain. “I want to, Rox, I do, but…”
“Just look me in the eyes and do it.”
Adrian move uncomfortably, looking to Jacquin for support before finally looking into Rox’s eyes.
Adrian began to glow blue like hot flame, her magic rising around her, flooding through her into Rox. Jacquin gasped as Rox’s injuries began to fade and disappear. The infection in her hand melted from her like water and the skin knitted back together. Just as Adrian was starting to get winded, her breath coming in rapid shots, Rox broke their connection, both women gasping as their bond was severed.
Adrian fell to her knees, her muscles jumping beneath her skin. Rox smiled and grabbed her, kissing her hard and deep. “I knew you could do it.”
Adrian and Rox helped each other to their feet. Rox tied Jacquin’s cloak around herself. Jacquin took Rox’s hand. “We’ll find Serena. I promise. But for now we have to get you to safety.”
Rox’s face fell. “I won’t leave the Core.”
“You have to,” Adrian retorted sharply. “The Twins’ first course of action will be to try to track you. If you’re in the Core, they’ll know. Then we’ll all be back here. You have to get to the forest at least.”
Rox huffed and growled in frustration, her eyes moving back and forth as she thought through her options. Tears fell from her eyes as she realized Adrian and Jacquin were right. “Fine. But I’m coming back for her with or without you.”
Adrian glanced out the cell door, nervous about time. “Fair enough. But let’s go. We have a ferryman and horses waiting for us.”
Rox kissed Adrian, then Jacquin and nodded. “I trust you both. Let’s go.”
Chapter Five
Rox sat beside the fire, holding her arms close to her chest as she trembled. Even beneath a blanket of furs and wrapped in Adrian’s cloak she couldn’t stop shaking.
The forest towered high above, blocking out much of the night sky, the trail of smoke from the fire barely making it past the woven canopy of black and silver pines. They had made it across the river, back to Adrian’s horse and through the forest to the cart horses where they’d set up camp and Adrian had drawn a protection circle to block the Twins’ scrying efforts.
The scent of the rabbits Adrian had trapped roasting over the fire wove through camp, making Rox’s stomach twist. She was starving; she’d barely eaten in days, but somehow the scent of food made her feel sick. Rox twisted her hands together, her nails digging into her skin. She felt her daughter everywhere, could smell her in the forest, see her dancing wild in the flames, feel her soft curls in the silken furs around her shoulders. What was happening to her? Was she still in holding or with an owner? Would she still be in the Core when they had a viable plan to go after her?
She thought of the psychological and sometimes physical torment Calder had subjected her to over the last few days. She couldn’t imagine her daughter in the same situation. Serena had always been an emotionally sensitive child despite her wild nature and she’d never been hurt by another human before coming to the Core. She wouldn’t know what to do as a slave, especially in the hands of Calder.
Rox trembled and swallowed hard. Calder. What would he do once he discovered Rox had disappeared? Would he go after Serena?
“Can I sit with you?” Jacquin stepped silently beside Rox, her eyes heavy with worry. “I’m cold.”
Rox could see through the lie, but she didn’t care. “Yes, please.”
She opened her blankets and Jacquin slid behind her, cocooning them both in the cloaks and blankets. Rox leaned back against the taller woman, encircled by Jacquin’s arms, her scent sweet and spiced against the earthy scent of the forest. For a moment Rox felt sheltered, safe in the harbor of blankets and Jacquin, protected from the Twins and the Core in ways not even Adrian’s spell could match.
Rox turned and buried her face against Jacquin’s chest, huddled beneath he furs, hidden from the rest of the world, and once again she wept. She held Jacquin tight and the woman responded, holding her close, running her hands through Rox�
�s hair, kissing her head and brow.
“We’ve got you. You’re safe. We love you.” Jacquin’s voice echoed like whispers from the Mother, attempting to soothe Rox’s fears, but it wasn’t herself Rox was worried about. Her traumas, her heartache, could wait. Every moment they delayed was a new trauma for Serena.
Rox felt Adrian’s strong hand on her shoulder through the blanket, her touch cautious and concerned. “Rox?”
Rox shifted, opening her blanket again and Adrian curled around her from behind, wrapping Rox completely between her lovers. Adrian laid a soft kiss on the back of her neck. “I’m sorry, Rox. I didn’t understand. I should have guessed after you released the Circle’s slaves. I should have known you had a reason for being with them.”
Rox reached back with one arm and wrapped it reassuringly around Adrian. It didn’t matter anymore. Their feuds, their frustrations meant nothing faced with the new reality of the Twins and Serena’s enslavement. She didn’t owe the Core anything else. She was free, yet she had never felt so defeated.
Adrian and Jacquin held her until her weeping subsided. Rox furiously wiped at her eyes and her nose, embarrassed at the display of emotion, her blotched face and red eyes. Adrian shook her head, sensing Rox’s emotions. “Don’t be embarrassed. Not with us.”
Rox held her face in her hands, still leaning on Jacquin’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to fall apart.”
Jacquin kissed the top of her head. “If you can’t fall apart in our arms, where can you? We love you.”
A new wave of shame washed over Rox. She should trust them. They were her bondmates. Still, she couldn’t help but feel weak, especially with Adrian. They shared a warrior’s bond. They both knew what it meant to be hard, untouchable. She didn’t want Adrian to see her so defeated.
Adrian tensed as she felt Rox’s emotions and understood her fears. “I understand you, Rox. Feel whatever you feel. Just know we will never look down on you for being vulnerable. It’s not a weakness.” The rabbits spat and sputtered on the fire and Adrian kissed her again. “You need to eat something.”
Rox shook her head. “I already feel sick.”
“You were just healed. Your body needs help recovering. I’ll make you tea. I think I saw some wild mint deeper in the woods. It’ll be good for both of your stomachs.”
Adrian detangled herself from their pile, grabbed her sword and a knife, and traveled into the woods.
Jacquin chuckled lightly. “Being useful is the only way she knows to show her love.”
Rox looked up at Jacquin in concern. “Both our stomachs? Have you been sick?”
Jacquin kissed her cheek. “It’s fine. I’m better now.”
“You came after me when you were sick? You should have stayed behind.”
Jacquin shifted uncomfortably. “Rox, were you sick at all while you were in the Core?”
Rox leaned back in thought. In the pain and grief about her daughter and Calder’s attack she’d forgotten about her flu. “A flu. Nothing more.”
Jacquin brushed a long curl from Rox’s eyes and Rox spotted the lifestone mark on her wrist. Adrian’s words about the bonding returned and Rox paled. “It was me, wasn’t it? I left and you the lifebond made you sick.”
Jacquin kissed her, long and slow, cradling her head with a gentle grip. “It doesn’t matter. Truly. You went after your daughter. I would have hated it if you abandoned her for me, even if I died.”
Rox pulled her into a tight hug. “Serena would have loved you.”
Jacquin leaned forward, her lips close enough to brush the lines of Rox’s ear. “We’ll save her and bring her to the desert. I’ll teach her to dance under the moonlight with her family and tell her stories of how brave and selfless her mother is. We’ll be a family. Safe. Free.”
Rox’s heart pounded in her chest, aching for such a future. She brushed tears from her eyes. “I dreamed that every night in prison. How did you know?”
“Because I saw it every night I was sick.”
Adrian returned with a handful of mint leaves and set about preparing tea. Rox pulled away from Jacquin and walked to her, pulling her into a tight hug. “I’m sorry. I know you aren’t expecting a warrior out of me.”
Adrian relaxed in her arms and smiled. “The lifebond and the combination of my Blue Sight and Jacquin’s seer abilities makes us feel like we already know each other. But you and I don’t. You might be surprised what I think of you and how I judge people, Rox.”
“I’d like to get to know you better, Adrian.”
Adrian chuckled and threw a handful of mint in the boiling water. “Well, if the rocks in my wrist mean anything, we have a lifetime to make that happen. Now rest. We need you and Jacquin strong if we’re going to break into the Core.”
Rox tossed in her sleep, the tangle of furs and her bondmates’ bodies suddenly tight and oppressive, drawing her out of her dreams. She sat up, damp with sweat despite the cold. Her legs ached, cramped from being too still. She wanted to run, wander, leap.
In the distance she could hear a warm hum, cresting like the gentle lapping of the sea on the shore. She could almost hear her name entwined in the sound, like the whispers of a lover, beckoning her deeper into the woods. The sounds pulled at her on a primal level, making her eyes sharp and her mind clear. It was the same sensations she had when she was in a rage, but her body was calm.
She crawled out of the pile of furs and canvas that served as her bed, careful not to disrupt her lovers or Fisk, and jogged into the forest. She moved aimlessly, searching for the source of the sound, the ground soft and giving slightly beneath her feet as she ran across pine needles and soil. She moved swiftly, dodging and weaving around the trees as if she were made for it, her natural instincts whispering where to go, how to move.
Rox reveled in the feeling of a clear mind, her thoughts full of nothing but the song of the forest, the call in her heart and the feeling of movement. No more prison walls. No more fear. She felt powerful. Brave. Settled. There was nothing that could keep Serena from her now; not Calder, not even the Twins. This was her land. Her home.
Rox blinked, the absurdity of her thought slowing her run. The north had never been her home. She was from the coast, a fisherman’s daughter and a desert scout. The ice plains of the Core had always been foreign to her. Still, she was somehow able to navigate the forest with little effort, her body naturally knowing what to do and where to go, like memories from another life, imprints in her DNA.
She came to a small clearing, the moonlight streaming through the hole in the trees, bathing a gathering of changlings in pale blue light. Rox froze, her breath quick with fear as a dozen changlings, sitting in a close circle, turned to her as one. Their soft feline fur swayed gently in the light breeze that slipped through the open canopy, their eyes glowing like amber and emeralds in the moonlight.
Rox reached for her knife, but it wasn’t there. All her weaponry was still back in the Core. She stumbled back, her fear overriding the primal instincts that had given her such joy running through the forest.
The changlings didn’t move or stand, just continued to stare at her. Their faces were still, their arms loose at their sides. They didn’t seem surprised or threatened by Rox’s appearance. Their weapons sat untouched in a pile at the center of the circle, more like a stack of crystals than glass weaponry.
Rox slowly began to calm and took a step forward into the clearing. She waited for one of them to react, to lunge, to hiss, but the only sound she heard was the gentle, rumbling hum that had awakened her. It took her a moment to realize the sound was being emitted by the band of changlings.
The primal sensations from before began to reclaim her mind, lulling her into a heady calm. A ginger-striped changling woman holding a wooden staff stood slowly, reaching out to Rox. Rox could read her expression, an invitation to join the circle.
Rox sat between a human-like changling man with thick, soft grey hair over his taut muscles and an ebony female that reminded Rox of t
he changling she had battled in Oasis. The standing changling let out a rumbling sound that could only be described as a purr as she sat back in the circle, looking up through the clearing in the trees at the moon.
The music swelled and Rox closed her eyes, her mind drifting out of her body, floating through the wilds of the north and the caverns of the nearby mountains. She felt rough stone and bark beneath her hands, a twisting tension of muscles smaller and tighter than her own beneath her skin. She stretched long before a fire and mined lifestones in the roots of the mountains. She could smell sulfur and lava, pine and fresh soil. For a moment she was flying, her wings unfurled behind her back, Aggar drifting away from her far below her paws.
She touched hundreds, thousands of lives, swimming through a sea of emotion and sensation buried deep in her blood. She knew in an instant she was wading through the lives of her ancestors and kin, all of changling history open to her and, deep in the beginnings of time, the imprints of the eitteh that started her line. She had never felt so connected to Aggar or to herself. In a moment, her heart seemed to shift, to fall into place.
“Rox?”
“What are you doing?”
Adrian and Jacquins’ voices broke through her wandering mind and she opened her eyes. Adrian stepped forward, her sword held high. The ebony changling beside her hissed in warning, the entire circle growing agitated, their hands angling for their weapons. The music had stopped.
Rox leapt to her feet, her hands outstretched to her lover. “No! Stop! They’re safe!”
Adrian hesitated, her sword wavering. “They’re changlings.”
“So am I.” Rox’s words hung heavy in the clearing, a palpable silence that caught everyone’s attention. “At least partially. It’s in my blood.” Jacquin smiled, wide and dazzling. Rox glanced at her sideways, a mischievous smile turning up the corner of her mouth. “You knew.”
“Only after you left. I saw your ancestor. She wasn’t visited by a ghost. She had a changling lover and birthed his child.”
Sands of Aggar: Amazons of Aggar Book 3 Page 19