Paldimori Gods Rising Box Set

by T. L. Callahan

  “Meara.” She blinked up at the girl with a sleep-confused expression. Suddenly, she sat up gripping her in a crushing hug. “My daughter. My daughter. You have returned.”

  Daughter? But I was her only daughter. Right?

  “I love you, Mother. I’m sorry for leaving.”

  “Hush, child, there is nothing to apologize for. I have missed you sorely.” Mother kissed her head, and the girl snuggled into her. “It is me who is sorry, daughter. I should not have denied you use of your power or tried to force you to be someone you are not. You have the fierce heart of your father. I should have known I could not hold you back.”

  “No, Mother, you were right. The powers draw the bad people. We must leave.” Meara sprang to her feet and tugged at my mother’s hands. “Father is coming. He’ll bring the bad people.”

  “Your father is coming?” Mother began to fiddle with her hair.

  “Mother, we must go,” Meara urged. “Father is part of the bad people. He brings them here now to destroy the village.”

  “Nonsense. What has he been teaching you? Your father wants a different future for us, but he would never hurt our people.”

  “Mother, please, you must believe me. They call themselves the House of Spirits. I heard him tell the commander-at-arms that they would attack the village. He wants to kill everyone. He called us ‘useless Chaonian-halflings.’”

  The color bled from Mother’s face. “The House of Spirits? You are sure?”

  “Yes, he—” A baby cried out nearby.

  Mother quickly stood and rushed to a pile of cloth in the corner. She scooped up the baby and rocked it in her arms. “Come meet your sister.”

  “M-My sister?”

  No, it couldn’t be! Dread and anxiety swirled in my stomach. The overwhelming combination that had filled too many of my days as a child. If I had been in my own body I would probably be throwing up.

  “I was with child when your father left. This is Dalia.”

  My mother called me “flower.” Is this why? Not because I talked to the flowers so much when I was little, but because my real name was that of a flower.

  Meara cautiously approached the squirming bundle. There nestled in the cloths was a tiny baby. Her eyes were a vivid blue with a thatch of blondish-brown hair. “How old is she?”

  “Five months. We feared for her health because she is so small, but Dalia is a fighter.”

  Meara reached out to the waving arms, and tiny fingers gripped hers. The crying stopped. A green light flared around the twined fingers, and a perfect pink flower petal floated to the ground. “She ... She is like me.”

  My thoughts were a mess. But I knew one thing for sure. That baby was me.

  “Her markings are different,” Mother said, “but, yes, she is like you.”

  “He can’t find her, Mother!” Meara’s eyes were big and scared as she stared at the baby. “He’ll try to turn her. We have to—”

  An eerie wail sounded. Meara gripped Mother’s arm tightly. “They are here.”

  “I love you, daughter.” Mother pulled Meara into a hug. “Here take your sister and hide in the forest. The Great Mother will protect you.”

  “My mark is of spirit, like Father. How will the Great Mother hear me?”

  “The Great Mother answers those with a pure heart. You need only call her, Meara.”

  “What about you? Come with us.”

  “I am the protector. I must see to the others. It is the burden of the powerful, as you already know.” Mother brushed a kiss across the girl’s head and then the baby’s. “Go now. Be safe my daughters.”

  Meara edged out of the hut and sprinted for the woods. A plea was on repeat in her head for the Great Mother to keep them safe. She stumbled in the dark woods, the baby getting heavier by the minute. Then she leaned against a large tree to rest. The baby’s hand brushed the tree, and green sparks flew. A green I recognized as my powers as the sparks dipped and weaved through the air, then sped off in different directions, only to return moments later to circle the girls.

  That had been a whole lot of lights. I’d managed to create maybe a dozen glowing mushrooms. Had I been even more powerful as a baby?

  Meara watched as the sparks came together to form a swarming mass like lightning bugs. They tugged at her braids and clothes. “You want me to follow you?” she asked. The lights vibrated happily in the air, a few darting off to the left and racing back. “Ok. Ok. I am coming.”

  Meara walked for several minutes following the little green lights until she came to a thicket. The brush shifted from her path to reveal an opening in the underbrush barely big enough to lay down in. She settled down with the baby cradled against her as the bushes weaved themselves into a protective bubble around them. She must have fallen asleep because the next thing she knew there was a huge hand wrapped around her neck dragging her up into the air.

  A massive man with fire leaping from his eyes held her in the air, and no matter how hard she struggled she couldn’t get free. “Paden thinks you are something special. But you are worthless like all Chaonian halflings. Better to rid our House of your disgrace.”

  It was so quick there was no time to react. One moment the moon was glinting off the blade and next it was buried in Meara’s chest. She screamed in agony. The giant tossed her to the ground like trash and reached for the baby. “Another bastard child of Paden’s? I will rid the world of you both.”

  Meara flung herself over the baby and pressed her lips to the baby’s shoulder. I could hear in her thoughts that she had no clue why she was doing this, but only wanted to save her sister. As Meara’s life drained away a symbol formed on the baby’s shoulder. A white symbol of a three-headed dog. It glowed a bluish-white color and everywhere the light touched became coated in frost. I could feel Meara’s life slip away and into the baby’s body.

  The looming giant hesitated a moment then shook the frost away and pulled a second knife from his fatigue pants. He plunged the blade toward the baby. Before it made contact a tree picked him up and threw him into the night. Mother appeared. Her long hair was streaked with soot. Her clothes were ripped, and a patch of blood coated her side. She dropped to her knees and pulled Meara’s lifeless body into her lap. Her keening cry filled the night and leaves rained down as the forest wept alongside her. She begged over and over again for Meara to come back to her.

  That was the cry that woke me from my sleep nearly every night as a child. I understood now the nightmares that haunted my mother. She refused to talk about my father, so I had always assumed he was the reason she was so sad. Regret filled me. Having lived through her past now with Meara, I realized how very strong my mother truly was.

  “That was how we were joined,” Meara said as we returned to Thanatos. “You are marked with spirit and with earth. I do not know what Gaia plans for you, but I will be here for you sister as I always have been.”

  21

  “Her blood tested positive for digitalis poisoning.” The tired-sounding voice filtered through to my comfy land of dreams. “You’re lucky I recognized the symptoms so quickly. The amount of time it had been in her system, combined with the activity from the swimming races, had moved the poison through her body quickly. There doesn’t appear to be any permanent damage, but only time will tell. What she needs now is rest.”

  “Thank you, doctor.” Jaxon said. “I’ll make sure she gets the rest she needs. She’ll be a guest here on my floor until she has recovered. I’ve already informed her servants.”

  Their voices trailed off as they left the room.

  I drifted in that in-between sleep place until what they were talking about registered. I was poisoned? And Jaxon was making decisions for me!

  I sat up in bed and my head felt like it exploded. I got a brief impression of a small bedroom with bare walls and basic furniture before my vision went blurry. A strong arm wrapped around my back and eased me down onto the bed. Jaxon’s spiced wine smell teased my senses and I wanted to curl up in his arms
. “Careful, Dia. You’ve been out for a while.”

  Tears slipped from the corners of my eyes as the pain continued to pound in my head.

  “Here, the doctor left you some pills for the headache.”

  I refused to let him feed me the pills like I was a helpless child, and he reluctantly gave in.

  I closed my eyes as if I could pretend I’d never overheard the conversation but opened them a moment later. I wouldn’t hide from the truth. Jaxon had been right about me being like him—the truth no matter how bad, was better than living with a lie. “Is it true? Did someone poison me?”

  He waited until my gaze met his. “Yes, it’s true. The guides are going over the training area for any clues. Did anything strange happen this morning? Did you eat or drink anything different?”

  It was a struggle to remember everything at first, but eventually the morning came back to me. I’d had breakfast in my rooms as usual. Then gone to the training area. I’d snuck into the meadow to pull a few snacks from the stump. Then the race. The only other thing had been the water Nikki had brought me, but that was ridiculous. She was more likely to sleep with your boyfriend than try to kill someone.

  “No, I can’t think of anything.”

  Jaxon quizzed me about my day until my belly growled like it was going to eat him. He brought me a tray of food, and I felt a little better after eating. We argued again when I wanted to go to the bathroom by myself. We bargained: I would stay here in his guest room if he stopped trying to baby me.

  I took advantage of my few minutes alone in the bathroom to take a quick shower, but underestimated how much it would sap my energy. I was sitting on the closed toilet lid trying to work up the strength to dry off when Jaxon walked in. He ignored my yelling at him while I tried to cover the important parts of my nakedness and dried me off in a detached kind of way—as though I was his kid sister. It made me feel like I was completely undesirable. I mean, the man was working his way through the female population of the island and didn’t even try to look at me when I was naked.

  I was hurt and embarrassed. I snarled at him as he carried me back to bed that I could take care of myself and I didn’t want him here. He’d leaned down and captured my lips in a tender kiss. That confused me. I was telling him that this wasn’t working as I slipped back to sleep.

  “Dia, wake up.” The voice floated through my head and I grunted.

  “Argh, not yet,” I mumbled.

  A hand rested on my face. “Sto-op!”

  The hand pulled off my face, and I rolled over, snuggling into my pillow. Then a stinging smack landed on my butt. “Oomph.”

  I twisted around to find my own hand resting on my butt. Giggles filled my head.

  I rolled over and draped my arms across my face. The oversized T-shirt that must have come from Jaxon slid up to the tops of my thighs. “Ha ha. Very funny making me smack my own butt.”

  “I thought so.” Meara giggled again. “You’ve been sleeping for hours and I’m bored.”

  “This ghost in my head thing is going to take some getting used to,” I groaned, as I carefully got out of bed. “Can you haunt the kitchen and scare me up some food?”

  Meara appeared in her ghostly form in front of me and blew a raspberry. “No, but Jaxon had your servants set up a whole snack bar over on that table. And put your clothes in the closet.”

  I shuffled across the floor, thankful that my head was feeling better. I stopped in front of the table giving a girly little squeal as I spotted some of my favorites. The man had scored major forgiveness points for this. It was like my own concession stand of yummy goodness. There were baskets of Skittles, Nerds, and Strawberry Shortcake Rolls. On the other side were veggies and fruits arranged like flowers.

  “Hurry up. I want to try something.”

  “Stop rushing me.” I grabbed two plates and started piling them up. “Is this what it’s like having a sister?”

  “I don’t know.” Meara hesitated before saying, “I guess we’ll learn together.”

  “Guess so,” I mumbled around my snack cake.

  She laughed. “You look silly. Get a napkin.”

  “Bossy.” I switched to talking to her in my mind. Now I could eat and talk with my mouth full.

  “I am twelve years older than you, you know,” Meara stated imperiously.

  I worked my way around the table tasting a little of everything, until my stomach called uncle. I swayed on my feet as I made my way back to the bed, feeling full and ready for another nap. The next thing I knew, my feet were carrying me to the wall of windows. I blinked sleepily in the afternoon sun, looking out on the sheer drop down to the ocean.

  “How are you doing that?” I asked Meara, realizing that, like the butt smacking, I hadn’t been the one driving me.

  “I can control your body sometimes.” She stated like it was no big deal. “It’s easiest when you’re distracted or really tired.”

  “Yeah, let’s not do that again.”

  “I was only having a little fun, but I won’t do it again,” she promised.

  “Great. Now what did you have in mind to keep us from going stir-crazy?”

  We spent the afternoon trying out exercises with my spirit powers. It wasn’t as easy as the earth power. The green ball of earth power was like putty, wanting to be shaped and molded. The blue-white ball of light at my center kept slipping through my grip. It was like smoke, constantly shifting. I couldn’t dig my hands into it like soil, I had to finesse it with my mind. By the time I declared myself too tired to continue, I’d gotten the hang of blocking Meara from my thoughts. I’d also been able to see through her eyes when she took her ghostly form and our mental communication had gotten stronger.

  I had been a little surprised that Jaxon hadn’t visited, but one of our experiments had been for Meara to track him down while I was seeing through her eyes. He’d been checking in with the guides on the investigation into my poisoning. The lawyer side had been out in full force as he interrogated them. It had been a bit of a turn-on to see him like that. Then I realized my reaction to him while inside Meara’s head was really inappropriate. She had teased me about it all the way back to the room.

  Most people would think having a child ghost permanently attached to you would be creepy. I wouldn’t deny that it was taking some getting used to, but I’d been raised to embrace the spirit of Mother Nature. What was one more? The only part that really scared me was when she was able to take me over completely, but she’d promised not to do it again. I knew she meant it, but I wanted to be strong enough to keep it from ever happening again. I wanted to be strong enough to protect her too. Now that I had a better understanding of the cage she had been living in for twenty-seven years, I was determined to free my sister from her prison—me.

  I took a short nap after that, and got up again, feeling stronger. I marched out of the bedroom expecting to have a fight on my hands, but Jaxon still wasn’t back. I decided to go exploring.

  His floor was a weird split. On the side with the bedroom where I’d slept, it looked like a fancy penthouse suite with sleek clean lines. The other side looked like the mountain had been left in its natural state. Pine trees dotted a meadow and the outcroppings of rock along the wall. A waterfall fell from a rocky ledge two stories above into a pool surrounded by a sandy beach. The outside wall of the floor was completely open to the outdoors.

  I walked out onto the ledge of this outcrop, high on Mount Titan. Night was slowly creeping across the valley below. I could still see the ridge in the distance that always seemed to call to me, and my earth power seemed to dance inside me for a second. My toes wiggled at the edge of the sheer drop. It was exhilarating standing here at a precipice. One step in either direction could alter my fate. My powers swelled inside me as if encouraging me to take a leap of faith. Would I soar, or would I fall?

  A breeze wrapped around me and pulled me from the ledge. My feet dangled several inches off the ground as I was spun around. Jaxon stood in the opening of his r
ooms, his expression fierce as he stared at me. He made a “come here” gesture and the wind carried me to him. This was his power. I had wondered. The little caresses of wind whenever his eyes were on me made sense now.

  “What were you doing so close to the edge?” His velvet voice commanded an answer.

  I liked the lawyer in him when it was directed at others, but not so much when it was directed at me. “Did you think I was going to jump? I’m crazy, not suicidal.”

  “No, I was thinking someone already tried to kill you, and you’re giving them another damn fine opportunity.”

  Oh, well, when he put it that way. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

  Those plump lips thinned in displeasure. He held out his hand and the breeze set me down on the ground in front of him. “You have to be more careful. We don’t know who was behind the poison, and don’t think I’ve forgotten about the near-electrocution in the rain forest.”

  “Right, that too. I’ll be careful. But I can—”

  “—take care of yourself. Yes, I’ve heard.” Jaxon turned and walked away. “I’ll leave you to it.”

  I followed him, wondering why he was acting so strange. I shouldn’t care. But there was a ton of things I shouldn’t do. Like ogle his butt. I’d had plenty of time to think about my life today and the fresh perspective of near-death. Life was meant for living, and I had been so close to locking myself away because I was afraid of getting hurt again. My heart may have been bruised, but it was still beating. I was going to live to the fullest as I had always promised myself.

  Jaxon entered the pine-tree meadow on the other side of his floor, his quick stride never slowing. I struggled to keep up, my body feeling the strain from nearly a whole day in bed. He came to a stop a few feet from a pine tree and held his hand back toward me, indicating I should stop. The tree was bigger than most of the others with a thick trunk and long-reaching limbs. We stood silently watching the tree. Birdsong filled the air after a few minutes and movement in the branches near the top caught my eye. A small yellow bird hopped along the branches chirping, then poking its bill into a pinecone. It hopped further along the branch to the very end to deliver the pine seed to a nest. Three grayish-yellow baby birds chirped, their mouths open wide to receive the food. A second bird came and repeated the process.