“Have you talked to her about kids?” asks the Elven mercenary with an impish smirk. “I may be an elf, but I’m not getting any younger. We are capable of dying of old age even though most of us never get that far.”
“You’ve been saving that one for months, haven’t you?” Kevin laughs while he enjoys the terrified look on Delvin’s face. The old warrior stands and puts a muscular arm around the shocked champion. “He did the same thing when I asked if he wanted to sleep with her. At least he didn’t ramble out gibberish this time. Let me take him back to the academy, so he can get ready. Don’t want you being held up in the morning.”
“Do I get in trouble by saying I’d like to have kids with Nyx, but not until after we’re married?” Delvin blurts out as he is guided toward the tent flap.
“You win a few points,” Tzefira claims with a chuckle.
Feeling a little more relieved, the champion lets himself be pushed out of the tent and follows Kevin back to the academy. As he watches the resting mercenaries, he wonders if any of what he said will be shared with Nyx. He would not be surprised if her father decides to have some fun at his expense, which sends a shiver down his spine. The thought of having to talk his way out of wanting to have kids with the channeler is nothing more than a jumble of awkward apologies and defenses. Delvin clears his mind of the useless fretting and marches through the open gate of the academy. He silently thanks the gods that Nyx cannot read his mind because he is sure he will be dreaming of married life with her as soon as his head hits a pillow.
2
“Delvin!”
Sparks fly from Nyx’s ebony hair as she thrashes in bed and abruptly sits up, the sheets and blankets crashing to the floor. The half-elf shudders and rapidly blinks her violet eyes to get rid of the lingering image of the warrior’s severed head. She can still feel Stephen’s hand touching her shoulder even though the only thing there is the strap of her nightgown. Boiling hot tears roll down her cheeks as she curls into a ball and desperately tries to catch her breath. The slender channeler becomes lightheaded from her gasping, which makes it harder to shake the remnants of her recurring nightmare. Reaching toward a nightstand, Nyx tries to use her magic to float a glass of water to her hand. Instead, the drink smashes against the far window and the liquid flows onto a leather couch, turning the material from black to red. The half-elf freezes and finds her body unable to move, so all she can do is mutter curses through her clenched teeth.
Nyx relaxes when the scent of roses touches her nose and focuses her senses on a bare foot that is on the corner of the mattress. The channeler leans over the edge of the bed to see the exposed leg that disappears into the large mass of sheet and blankets. Tendrils of sapphire hair are sticking out of the pile and a delicate hand is rhythmically tapping on the metal wall. Nyx sheepishly grabs the coverings and tries to pull them back onto the bed, but she only accomplishes rolling Sari out of the warm nest. The naked gypsy calmly stands up to snatch one of the sheets away and goes to clear one of the windows of its enchanted tint. With the warm fabric wrapped around her body, she takes in the sight of the flying machines and towering buildings of Nevra Coil.
“I’m sorry, Sari,” Nyx says as she slips out of bed and joins her friend. “Why were you sleeping naked in my bed? Were we drinking again?”
“I’m getting really tired of this running gag,” the gypsy claims as she watches a spinning platform pass by the windows. She smiles at the sight of the Lizard, which is swiftly pulling itself along the rails. “You’ve asked me that first question every morning for the last week. I’d do the usual joke about us making out all night and now we’re married, but I’m really worried about you at this point, Nyxie. So I’m going to explain this again. I still have trouble sleeping alone and Luke is kind of off-limits even though I have permission. You keep having nightmares unless someone holds you in your sleep, so we’ve been sharing a bed since Delvin left. My lack of clothing is because your magic set my gown on fire during our first night. My naiad powers protect my flesh from your outbursts, so I’m saving my wardrobe from your unpredictable spells.”
“I’m sorry about that,” Nyx replies in an emotionless voice. She begins to take her nightgown off, but the garment is held up by Sari’s quick hands. “I thought I should be naked too, so we’re even. Am I wrong?”
“Open window, Nyxie. How about you wait until we take a bath together this morning?”
“I’d like that. You’re a good little sister.”
“You’re acting very strange.”
“My head feels funny. Is somebody else in there?”
Sari rolls her emerald eyes and storms over to the door, her powers transforming the sheet into an ice-covered dress. Cracking her knuckles, she throws the entrance open to find their friends waiting in the hallway. Timoran and Luke immediately turn away even though they have already been caught. The red-headed barbarian quickly surrenders and bows his head in apology to Nyx who timidly waves at her guests. The large, scarred man hands Sari a blue top and her favorite yellow skirt in the hope of erasing her frown. Luke remains nervously shifting from foot to foot, the blonde half-elf having been the one to hear Nyx’s scream. With a flourish of her hand, the gypsy lets the warriors into the room and moves to block their third visitor from entering. Arms crossed and legs wide, Sari becomes an immovable barrier for the silver-haired champion, who is wearing a simple white gown.
“Are you in her head, Dariana?” asks the shorter woman while she removes the sheet and changes into her clothes. She ignores the flustered cough of Timoran and the awkward stuttering of Luke as she adjusts her skirt. “I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t play around in our minds. That only makes the situation worse.”
“I’m sorry, but Nyx told me to do it last night,” the toned, white-eyed champion replies while she waits to be let into the room. Not wanting to use her powers, she gives Sari an awkward hug and holds onto the embrace until her friend relaxes. “I guess hugs really do solve a lot of problems. I’m really sorry and I would have told you if Nyx didn’t make me swear to keep it secret. She wanted me to watch her dreams while she slept and to help if she woke up in a panic. The telepathic barriers in this building are giving me problems again, so the best I can do is make her more . . . submissive.”
“Can you release her now that we’re here?” Luke asks as he feels an invisible figure land on his head. He reaches up to scratch Fizzle on the chin, the purple-scaled drite appearing and wrapping his tail around the warrior’s arm. “Have the nightmares gotten any worse, Sari? She seemed a lot louder this morning.”
“If they are then I can’t tell.”
Timoran scratches one of his old scars as he takes a seat on the couch, the barbarian remaining tense in case he has to restrain the yawning channeler. “We should revive her true self and ask. Personally, I think seeing our fire sprite like this is unnatural and more disturbing than her previous fits. Surprisingly, I miss her magical outbursts. Do you happen to know what her nightmares are about, Dariana?”
“I promised I wouldn’t view them and only react to her emotions, so I can only guess that it’s related to my brother,” the tall woman replies as she stands in front of the channeler. She takes her friend’s hands and leans forward to touch their foreheads together. “Please be ready for anything because her true self will return at full strength. We all know what Nyx is like when she isn’t forced to be docile.”
The champions burst into action while Dariana closes her eyes and reinforces her mind, the telepath’s breathing becoming steady and gentle. Fizzle darts to the entrance to close the door and covers it in a barrier that should be able to slow Nyx down. Sari coats the windows and ceiling with thick ice that will devour any flames they touch. Timoran remains seated, but his muscles tense in preparation to tackle Dariana away from the smiling half-elf. Calmly standing next his best friend, Luke takes Nyx’s hand and squeezes her fingers.
“Are you going to behave?” asks the forest tracker, his chocolate brown eyes
transfixing the other champion. “You understand everything that’s going on, so I’m trusting you to keep your magic under control. No outbursts since you requested this.”
“I’ll do my best, little brother, but I’m scared . . . and possibly angry.”
Dariana exhales softly and touches Nyx’s temples, a jolt of energy bursting through her friend’s mind. The barriers that kept the young woman’s emotions in check are carefully dissolved. A tremor shakes the entire building, causing gnomes on every floor to secure their fragile experiments. One by one, the mental defenses are removed and more quakes rattle the room. Dariana pauses when she comes to the final door and nods her head to Luke, who begrudgingly moves a few steps away. All noise vanishes when the last barrier is erased and the pent up feelings flow into Nyx’s head.
Instead of lashing out with fury, like her friends expected, the half-elf falls to the floor and cries. Still holding the channeler, Dariana turns her gentle touch into a tight hug, which is joined by Luke. Nyx’s shuddering gets more violent as the images of the nightmare return with vivid clarity. A burst of force sends Luke and Dariana tumbling to opposite sides of the room and the violet-eyed half-elf scrambles for a bucket before she vomits putrid aura. Corrupted by her own misery, the energy dissolves into a rancid mist that forces Sari to remove her ice and crack open all of the windows. Timoran reaches out to touch Nyx, but yanks his hand back when he feels a wave of heat waft off her body.
“I’m not sure if this is better or worse than her violent outbursts,” Luke says as he inches closer to his weeping friend. “Is she even aware that we’re here?”
“I’m going after that idiot and the rest of you are coming with me!” Nyx declares while she leaps to her feet. The channeler snaps her fingers in an attempt to turn off her friends’ eyes and begins to change out of her nightgown. She pauses when Luke and Timoran cover their faces and Sari hurries to throw a blanket over her. “My magic isn’t very reliable. I guess it’s a good thing all of us are going after Delvin. Let me get dressed and we’ll head out immediately. I’m sure we can negotiate for a flying thingy to get us to Everthorne.”
“Delvin told us to stay here and recover our strength,” Dariana says, using her power to mask Nyx’s state of undress from the warriors’ eyes. She catches a curious smirk from Sari, the gypsy well aware of her invisible act to preserve the half-elf’s dignity. “Most of us have recovered, but your magic is an issue. If Stephen attacks us on the road then you would be a liability and easily captured.”
“Well that moron is an easy target too!”
“Fizzle confused,” the drite admits as the channeler buttons her red shirt. “Nyx say Delvin leave. Nyx give better shield. Why Nyx want to follow?”
“Because Nyx made a big mistake!” the half-elf shouts, making her friends wonder if she will ever stop screaming. A chortled cry gets caught in her throat and she steadies herself with a nearby chair. “He’s my friend and Stephen can use him against me. That bastard could kill Delvin to make me suffer like he tried to do with Luke. I should have known about that possibility, but I let him go off alone before I thought it through. So we have to go after him and make sure our enemies don’t kill my . . . I just want to make sure Delvin is safe. He hasn’t tried to contact us, which makes me think something is wrong.”
“I believe I preferred her being angry and not having a plan,” Timoran mutters before backing away from the glaring woman. Her short hair rises as her magic churns under her skin, but the display ends in an embarrassing hiss of steam that rises from her pointy ears. “I assume your nightmares have been about Delvin dying or simply not coming back. Maybe we should discuss our options after you have had time to calm down. After all, you do not possess the gift of foresight, so these are nothing more than nightmares.”
Nyx stomps her bare foot and storms over to the door to tear down Fizzle’s barrier like it is a flimsy curtain. “That’s what you say every morning. Then something happens to make me forget or my magic gets backed up causing me to go to the hospital. I refuse to be tricked today. We’re going after Delvin before dinner. Maybe tomorrow morning if we have trouble getting a ride to the mainland.”
“You’re not going to let this go, are you?” Luke asks with a nervous grin. He rubs at his left forearm, the skeletal handprint mysteriously itching. “Very weird that you want to go after a guy who you keep saying you’re not in love with. Especially since we have no proof that Stephen will go after him or is even on the move.”
The fist of wind misses the forest tracker’s head by an inch and makes a deep dent in the wall. A startled yelp can be heard from the other room before a ringing impact repairs the damage. Dariana jumps between the half-elves as Nyx tries to turn her fingernails into fiery claws, but only colors them a pretty red. Luke lets himself be pushed into a chair, his hands remaining on his saber hilts in case he needs to deflect an attack. The channeler grabs her bottomless pouch to draw her mourning star, but Timoran catches her wrist and slips the weapon from her hand.
“Anybody smell something really foul?” Sari asks as she exaggerates sniffing the air and gagging on the stench. She steps closer to Nyx and takes a deep breath before clutching her throat and gargling in disgust. “I can’t concentrate with that odor making my eyes water. We’ll have to discuss this over lunch.”
“I hate you, little sister.”
“Don’t talk because your breath makes it even worse.”
“What are you up to, gypsy?”
“You promised me a bath.”
“I wasn’t of sound mind.”
“Doesn’t matter because both of us need to get clean and have some girl talk.”
Dariana raises her hand as she points out, “I’m a girl too. Why can’t I join you?”
“I have no idea why, so I guess you can come along,” the gypsy says before holding up her hand to stop the taller woman. She lets her arm drop and shrugs, accepting the unexpected witness to her master plan. “The only rules are no mind powers, no magic beyond my water control, and everything will remain between us. That means no telling intimate secrets to the boys. I’ll think of other rules as things move forward.”
“Do we have to be naked together?” asks the silver-haired woman with a look of wide-eyed innocence.
“That’s so cute,” the emerald-eyed champion coos, causing Nyx to giggle. The amused expression vanishes as soon as everyone gives the half-elf attention. “The answer is yes. This is going to be a lot more entertaining than I planned.”
Sari happily blows a kiss to Timoran and Fizzle, but hesitates when she turns to Luke. With Dariana taking the lead, the gypsy grabs Nyx by the wrist and pulls her out of the room. A few bursts of magic can be heard from the hallway until a pulse of energy ripples along the metal walls. Fizzle is the only one brave enough to peek out of the doorway to watch Sari and Dariana drag a paralyzed Nyx into the nearest bathroom.
*****
Unlike the more common bathing chambers that are found throughout Windemere, the ones in Nevra Coil do not have a series of individual basins. In their place is a large pool built into the center of a red-tiled floor, the water gently swirling to keep the liquid fresh. Thumb-sized bubbles rise to the top of the bath and pop to release a soothing scent. Every five minutes, a glistening ripple runs along the pool to dissolve any oil and grease that has been scrubbed off the bathers. Several alcoves are built into the windowless walls, the areas used to store clothes and dry towels. Two shelving units filled with soaps and shampoos flank the entrance, which the three champions have locked for some privacy. There is a ladder for each of the towering cabinets, but Dariana has no problem reaching the top shelf to grab a cylindrical bottle of orange foam.
“You really are unfair,” Sari says from the pool as she floats on her back. She enjoys the ticklish feeling of the enchanted water that removes the dead skin from her body. “After all of your centuries of life, your skin is flawless and your hair is beautiful. There isn’t a wrinkle or blemish on you.”
“I wouldn’t know,” Nyx replies from a bench, the half-elf keeping herself covered with a towel. “I think they just get clean and leave.”
“They talk about weapons, adventures, and the future. Luke will bring up me and Kira if he’s feeling guilty,” Sari replies as she swims to the edge of the pool. She notices the curious stares from her companions and smirks. “To keep me away from Kira, Catarina let me use her peeping spell a few times. I may have figured the enchantment out on my own and used it to spy on the guys, Kira, you two, and this cute gnomish artist. Oddest thing is that only seems to work when the target is bathing.”
“You really are depraved at times, little sister,” the channeler states with a half-hearted chuckle. Nyx decides to take another look at the soaps, but a tendril of water steals her towel when she gets too close to the bath. “Give that back, Sari! This isn’t funny.”
Sari throws the soaked cloth back to her friend, who wraps it around her body. “I totally agree with you, Nyxie. The rest of us are naked and enjoying ourselves while you’re sitting there alone. The two of us have bathed together before and Dariana can simply erase the memory if you really want her to forget. You have nothing to worry about.”
The Mercenary Prince (Legends of Windemere Book 9) Page 5