Loralia & Bannack's Story (Uoria Mates IV Book 4)

by Ruth Anne Scott

  "Locking them," Bannack said a moment later, sounding as if he was speaking more to himself than to her.

  "Locking?" she asked.

  Loralia listened while Bannack told him about the warriors visiting the prison that they had thought belonged to the Klimnu but they discovered actually belonged to the Covra, and how they found out about the kingdom that the Covra had locked. He detailed the Light Ones and how they appeared to be frozen in place in the same breath that they had been drawing when the Covra attacked them. As she listened, Loralia tried to understand what he was telling her, and what she might be able to do to help him. She had gone to the mirror realm to surround herself in what was familiar, hoping that it would help her to think clearly. She could feel that her mate was frightened and upset, and she wanted to do anything that she could to help him.

  She moved deeper into the caverns, exploring the chambers and venturing into areas that she hadn't visited in quite some time. Suddenly she saw something that made her heart pound faster and a smile come to her lips for the first time since the day that Bannack left.

  "Do you remember what I told you about the compact?" she asked, looking into the mirror at him.

  Bannack nodded.

  "Whatever reflects in your mirror, reflects in mine."

  "Yes. And do you remember what happens when something reflects in my bottom mirror from the top?"

  "It becomes real."

  Loralia nodded and looked back across the cavern.

  Bannack crouched down behind the barrel he had pulled into the middle of the street and glanced over at Lynx who sat beside him. The others had remained in the buildings on either side of the street, poised beside the windows and doors to watch what was happening, but staying out of sight.

  "Are you sure that this is going to work?" Lynx whispered.

  "It has to," Bannack answered. "In order for it to, though, you have to believe that it will. Loralia can only make this happen if you completely believe that it is going to work the way that she intends it to. If you don't, it won't exist, do you understand?" Lynx nodded and Bannack nodded back at him, "Good. Now we have to be completely silent."

  The two warriors fell silent and Bannack glanced down at the compact in his hand. Loralia's face gazed up at him from the glass, her beautiful lavender eyes calm and focused. Nervousness flooded through Bannack, but he knew that he had to steady himself so that he could do his part of Loralia's plan properly. After several minutes of waiting, he heard the rustling sound that told him the Covra were approaching. The sound seemed louder and deeper than it had before and Bannack knew that meant there were more of the creatures this time as if they had sent more to seek revenge on those who had destroyed three of their number just hours before.

  "They're coming," Bannack mouthed to Loralia, not making a sound.

  Loralia nodded. Bannack lifted up slightly so that he could look over the barrel and watch the Covra approaching.

  "Patient," Loralia mouthed to him.

  Bannack watched until they were close enough that they would be able to see him clearly and then stood, pulling Lynx up with him so that they were standing in the middle of the street, open to the swarm of creatures approaching. He could feel Lynx tense beside him, but Bannack stood steady. Lynx adjusted his grip on the blade beside him. It was meant as both a ruse and a backup plan just in case Loralia's idea fell through. They waited for a few more tense seconds, the time seeming to drag past as they allowed the creatures to get dangerously closer. Bannack's heart pounded in his chest and his head felt like it was swimming. If this didn't work, the entirety of the group could be killed, many by each other's hands.

  In an instant, the plan mobilized around him. The Covra climbing along the outside walls of the buildings got close to the windows and doors, and the warriors inside started to shout. As they yelled, the creatures paused and started to retreat from the sound. They started moving backwards back down the street, but several of the warriors streamed out of the building and made a line across the street, blocking them with a wall of sound. The creatures turned and started scurrying more quickly toward Bannack and Lynx, unable to go anywhere else.

  "Are you ready?" Bannack asked, looking down at Loralia.

  "Just hold your compact so that the bottom mirror is straight upright and the top mirror is tilted toward it. Go!"

  Bannack turned the compact in his hand and held it as Loralia instructed. There was a moment when nothing happened and he felt his stomach turn, but he closed his eyes and forced himself to believe with every bit of his existence that she would create exactly what she intended to. His eyes still closed, Bannack suddenly heard the hissing, screeching sound of the Covra dying. He opened his eyes and found himself staring at a massive slab of brown and grey rock.

  After several long seconds the screaming stopped and a chilling quiet settled over the street. Finally it broke with the sound of Loralia laughing.

  "We might not be able to communicate with our thoughts, my love, but how many of the other warriors can do that?"

  Bannack could hear the other warriors cheering and shouting, but it took a few moments before he was able to get his thoughts together enough to walk around the stone slab toward the cheering. When he did he saw the green blood of the Covra soaking into the dirt of the road, dripping from the rock spikes protruding from the front of the slab.

  "What is that?" he asked.

  "The floor of one of the caverns," Loralia told him, "I used to play on them when I was younger. I remembered how sharp they were."

  "You are incredible."

  "No, darling, you are."

  "What, now? Is this thing just going to stay here?"

  "If you think that it is part of settlement now, then it is. If not, when you close the compact, it will disappear."

  "Then it will stay, forever a reminder of what destroyed the Covra."

  Suddenly Loralia's eyes grew dark.

  "This isn't the end, Bannack," she said solemnly.

  The words hit him and the sound of the celebrating warriors seemed to fade.

  "What do you mean?"

  "I can still feel them. They're angry, Bannack. There's more to come. You need to save the Light Ones or very soon they will be lost forever."

  (To be continued in Part II…)

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  Chapter One

  Layla could only remember running. She was barefoot and the ground beneath her feet was cold and damp, sticks and rocks occasionally digging into the soft flesh and low brush clawing at her as if trying to stop her. Everything around her was hazy. The color seemed to have washed out of the world and left behind only shades of brown and rust and grey. She felt like she was running through water, moving slowly no matter how hard she fought to go faster.

  Chilling air whipped at her face and she felt the first few stinging raindrops of a storm cut at her skin. She didn't know where she was going or how she had gotten there, and as she ran, the trees seemed to blur and blend into one another, making it impossible for her to orient herself.

  She knew they were coming after her. She could feel and hear their heavy footsteps even in the thick, muting air and feel their presence getting closer. They seemed to be everywhere even though she couldn't see them as she ran. The oppressive feeling of them was getting more intense, but she had to keep running. She didn't know where she was running, but her feet wouldn't stop. Her mind and her fear wouldn't let them.

  She thought she could be getting away. She might have a chance to get out of the woods and find
her way back home – only, she couldn't remember what home was or where she may be able to find it. All she could do was run.

  A cold, sharp breath invaded her lungs as she turned around a massive tree. The hard, choking pressure of a hand on her neck cut off the breath and she felt the ground beneath her feet disappear as the hand lifted her up. There was a moment of consuming terror and then the world around her turned to streaks of black and grey. Then there was nothing.

  What could have been hours or days later, Layla became aware again. She kept her eyes closed as consciousness slowly rose through her body and she felt every inch become awake and present. Her muscles ached with the type of depth that came from intense exhaustion and long exposure to cold. The air around her, however, felt warm and damp. She was lying on her back and could feel something hard beneath her like a slab of stone. A tingling sensation flowed through her body and she tried to move her arms, only to find that they were lashed to the stone beneath her with rough lengths of rope. She tried to move her legs, but they were also secured to the stone beneath her.

  She kept her eyes closed, terrified of what she may see if she opened them, and tried to remember what happened before she was running through the woods. No matter how hard she thought about it, however, Layla couldn't come up with anything except running. Her feet still felt chilled and stung from the forest floor, but she had no sense of how much time had passed since whatever had grabbed her and lifted her away.

  Taking a long breath to steel herself, she let her eyes slowly slide open. As her eyelids opened and she lifted her head, the first thing she saw was the horizon. It glowed a vibrant shade of green as what looked like a deeply purple sun melted out of sight. She looked above her and saw a low grey ceiling as if she was in a small room. Confusion joined the fear that pumped through her as she tried to process what could be happening to her.

  Suddenly she was aware of a presence in the space with her. She could feel someone near her, but she couldn't turn her head enough to look. She wanted to speak, but couldn't bring any sounds forward. The feeling of the presence shifted and she felt someone walking around from behind her head to pause at her side. She looked up at him and felt her breath catch in her throat. The man standing beside her was startlingly beautiful and she felt so immediately drawn to him she briefly forgot her fear. He gazed down at her with eyes the color of honey. The flicker of a torch above his head and the glow from the sinking sun showed streaks of bright, clear blue through the shimmering, melting color.

  The man gazed down at her and ran the backs of his fingers along her cheek. Not exactly sure why she was doing it, Layla tilted her face slightly into the touch. She started to open her mouth to speak, but he shook his head, bringing a finger to his lips to quiet her. Without a word, he backed away from her and disappeared back around her head. A second later, the feeling of his presence in the space with her was gone. She lifted her head and saw that the sun was nearly down. Straining to see as much of it as she could, she watched as the purple dissolved into the vibrant green, blending into a single line of color before the sky went dark.

  Just as the last of the sunset disappeared, she heard footsteps approaching. She hoped it was the same man she had seen beside her, but the feeling of their presence was different. It was like the oppressive, terrifying feeling that had surrounded her as she was running through the woods and she immediately felt herself tense. Four men appeared on either side of her and her body shook so intensely she could feel the ropes burning her wrists and cutting into her ankles. None of the men spoke, but at the same moment they bent down and she felt herself rise into the air as the men lifted the stone slab beneath her and started carrying her out of the room and into the darkness of the night beyond.

  Chapter Two

  Layla watched as the sky moved past over her head, seeming to unfurl like a roll of velvet as the men carried her. They had lifted her above their heads like she weighed nothing despite the massive piece of stone and were carrying her smoothly almost as though she were floating through the air. Now that she was out of the small, tight room with the torches, the air felt cooler and she drew in a breath she hoped would calm her. She needed to get her mind together, to put herself back in control of whatever was happening. If she had any chance of escaping, the only way she would make it happen would be to stay calm and think clearly.

  She searched her mind for anything that would help her, anything that would tell her where she would go or how she may be able to get away from these men. All that came to mind, however, was the slow motion repeat of her running through the woods through a washed-out colored world that seemed further and further away with each step the men took.

  Suddenly she felt the slab of stone tilt and she seemed to get higher. She realized that the men were climbing a set of steps up into an ancient-looking stone building. The hall they carried her down was lined with torches contained within bright metal cages and featured thick tapestries in shades of green and black. She couldn’t tell what the tapestries depicted and by the time they reached the end of the hallway, she had given up attempting to decipher them and lowered her head back down on the stone slab to ease the tension and pain forming in the back of her neck from trying to hold her head up while not being able to move her arms or legs.

  The sound of a heavy door opening filled her ears and she watched as a tremendous doorframe passed overhead. Her captors had carried her into a sprawling room so vibrantly bright after the muted light of the corridor that it hurt her eyes. She closed them, squeezing them as tightly as she could until the burning stopped and she no longer saw the pinpricks of color dancing on the backs of her eyelids.

  When she opened them again she realized that the room was not bright simply because there was more light in it than there had been in the corridor or in the small room where she had woken up. Instead, it seemed intensely bright because it was completely lined with mirrors. Now that her eyes had gotten accustomed to the refracted light, Layla was able to look up and see that the ceiling reflected the floor and the walls, creating a never-ending series of reflections that was dizzying in its depth. From the reflection above her, she could see that the men carrying her were all dressed identically in hooded green cloaks nearly the color of the sunset she had seen when she awoke. Black gloves covered their hands and the hoods concealed their faces so that she was not even able to determine their age. She only assumed they were men because of their size and strength.

  Layla felt the men lower the slab of stone to the floor and she turned her head to see the men walking away. Smaller figures in hooded purple robes approached and she felt the ropes at her wrists and ankles loosen, then soft hands come to her arms and gently lead her up to a sitting position.

  "Come with us," a sweet, almost musical-sounding voice said.

  Layla felt like she had no choice. She knew that she should run, but the compulsion was tempered by the realization that she truly had nowhere to go. Until she had some concept of where she was or how far she had come, she wouldn't be able to escape. Though whoever these people were had been gentle with her so far, she had no idea how they would react to her should she attempt to get away from them. Instead, she allowed these smaller figures, who she assumed to be women, to guide her away from the stone slab and across the mirrored floor toward a platform at the far end of the room.

  They walked up a steep set of stairs and she saw a deep tub cut into the center of the platform.

  "What is this?" she was finally able to force past the tightness in her throat.

  "We must prepare you for Jiri," the same voice that had beckoned her to follow told her.

  "I don't understand," Layla said.

  The figures eased their hoods off and Layla saw that they were all indeed women. Young, softly beautiful women all wearing the same braids in their hair and calm, complacent looks on their faces. The one who had spoken to her reached forward and started to push her cardigan off of Layla's shoulders. Layla hesitated and saw a smile come to the woman's
lips.

  "Do not be afraid of us. We won't hurt you."

  The way she said it made Layla feel even more nervous and she relaxed the tension in her shoulders so that the woman could pull off her cardigan. She let the women undress her and for the first time she noticed that her clothing had tears and streaks of dried mud. She tried again to think back on how she got to that place, but she could only remember running. There was nothing beyond the woods where she ran.

  Once they had removed all of her clothing, one of the women took her hand and carefully led her to step into the tub. The water felt so hot it almost stung her skin, but the sensation was a soothing distraction from the chill of the night outside and the uncomfortable feeling of the confusion and fear that continued to trickle along her spine. She climbed down a series of steps deeper into the water and then crossed the tub so that she could sit on a low bench across from the steps.

  One of the women picked up a bowl and poured the contents into the water, immediately changing the shade of the bath to a light pink that seemed to shimmer with touches of gold. A velvety, sultry scent touched her nose and she took a deep breath to fill her lungs with it. Her head swam slightly with the effect and she felt her body starting to relax into the hot water. Another of the women picked up what looked like a complex pitcher, used one hand to carefully tilt Layla's head back, and poured more water back over her hair. This seemed to be some kind of beginning for the other women, who started moving around her, picking up bottles and vessels, and bathing her quietly. She let them lift her arms to wash them as the woman with the pitcher cleansed her hair. After several minutes she felt brave enough to speak again.

  "Who is Jiri?"

  The first woman smiled at her again.

  "He is the youngest prince."