by Martha Carr
“Huh.” Cheyenne eyed Yilas. “Are we sure this guy knows what he’s saying?”
“Nope.”
L’zar craned his neck to peer at the top of the rising hill and grinned. “Let’s go ask for a moment of his time.”
Foltr thumped his cane on the ground and smacked his lips. “I’ll sit this one out.”
“Yeah, me too.” Ember brushed violet-tinted hair out of her eyes. “No offense, Cazerel, but I don’t trust this machine enough to make it climb something like that.”
“None taken, Healer. More time for us to sit together in peace, yes? I would hear more of your fae knowledge.”
Cheyenne glanced at the raug chief. “You’re not coming with us?”
“No. I’ve fulfilled my promise in bringing you here. The rest is up to you to decide. I have no part to play in what comes next.”
“The pleasure’s all mine.” L’zar stepped toward the narrow path winding up the steep hillside, moving as casually as if they had all the time in the world.
But we don’t. Cheyenne nodded and took off after him.
“Hey.” Ember pointed at her, violet eyes narrowed. “Be careful.”
Cheyenne nodded and shot another brief glance at the raug chief. “You too. We can compare notes afterward.”
“After you.” Byrd shoved Lumil forward. “Go.”
The goblin woman stumbled forward and snorted. “Not for the deathflame, asshole.”
“Oh, yeah? You get all shriveled and scared looking up at that hill?”
Lumil swiped the back of her hand under her nose and sniffed. “Yeah.”
Byrd ran a hand over his bald head and shrugged. “Me too.”
Corian and Maleshi passed the goblins, who shrank away when Corian leaned toward them to mutter, “I wouldn’t be so sure it’s safer down here than up there.”
“Hey, screw you.” Lumil gestured toward the mountaintop and let her hand smack back down against her thigh. “Nobody puts anything harmless at the top of a steep climb like that.”
“Just sayin’.” Corian headed for the base of the footpath after Cheyenne and L’zar.
Maleshi shook her head and started up the path right behind him. “That was less delicate than I would’ve expected from you.”
He stopped and turned around. “You should stay here.”
“What?” She chuckled, but it faded the instant she realized he was serious. “Not on your life.”
With a soft hiss, Corian glanced over his shoulder at L’zar and Cheyenne, who were halfway to the first switchback. “Not a good idea when it’s just the four of us.”
“Well, you’re the one making a big deal out of it.”
“I’m the one trying not to make a big deal out of anything. We’ve made enough mistakes as it is.”
“I’m coming with you whether you like it or not. Feel free to throw a fit all the way to the top.” She gestured up the mountainside and raised her eyebrows. “We both know what L’zar’s likely to try when he stands face to face with his nephew. Cheyenne may suspect it, but even if she does, she can’t stop him on her own. Not yet.”
“Maleshi.”
“And you have already proven you’re not willing to stand up to him, even if it were possible. I care a lot more about Cheyenne at this point than I do about your hesitation or what L’zar might or might not understand, so turn around and get your ass up this mountain.”
Corian’s silver eyes narrowed before he snorted and spun to climb the path.
Maleshi smirked and headed after him. “And before you say anything, yes, I know how insufferable I am.”
He gave a resigned sigh and shook his head. “Not the most insufferable. I’d rather have you on this hike than the chaos twins down there.”
She glanced down the hillside at Lumil and Byrd, who’d started another round of bickering, though it was whispered and faint and they hadn’t started hitting each other yet. “I wonder if they see it that way? You think it’s a good call to mess with their heads like that?”
“It was either that or send them both to meet the deathflame, General. If I scared them long enough to keep them from deciding for themselves, it’s worth it. Trust me, if you’d spent centuries with those goblins Earthside, only to suffer their constant nagging on your first return home, you’d feel very much the same way.”
“But I wouldn’t call this home, ma gairín.”
“Me neither.” Corian lifted his gaze to see the back of L’zar’s shoe vanish around the corner where the path turned around the side of the mountain. “Not anymore.”
Chapter Forty
Cheyenne pushed herself up the steep rise. When the path curved back around the mountain again, she looked down to find the rest of their rebel group right where she’d left them, staring up at her and L’zar and the nightstalkers. I give it five more minutes, then they’ll get bored. Or they won’t be able to see us anymore.
She looked at the top of the hill, which was more of a mountain now that she saw how much more there was to go. We’re gonna be a while.
“You good?” Corian asked from behind her.
“Yeah. Just taking it all in.”
L’zar stopped at the curve of the switchback heading in the opposite direction and suggested, “You should keep your eyes and your attention that way.” He pointed at the peak. “Right now, the only thing that matters is up there waiting for us.”
Cheyenne kept climbing. “He’s not a thing, L’zar.”
“Yes, I know. You’re the first to jump to everyone else’s defense but mine, aren’t you?”
“So far, you’re the only one I have to defend against.”
Behind her, Corian shook his head but remained silent. Maleshi trailed her fingers along the tops of the tall, pale grasses tinged with purple growing along the path.
“I’ve never attacked you, Cheyenne.”
“I wasn’t talking about me.” Just every other magical who trusts him too much and can’t see L’zar’s lunatic sucker-punch until they’re on the ground.
“Have I hurt anyone?” L’zar chuckled. “I mean, really hurt anyone. We’re talking about since you and I have gotten the chance to get to know one another.”
“We’ve already been over this.” Cheyenne’s foot slipped on the loose dirt of the path and sent a wave of gravel and dust down the mountainside. Focus. “There are plenty of situations where nothing is as bad as hurting everyone around you, just like saying nothing is lying through your teeth.”
“Ah. You’re still focused on my lack of action, is that it?”
She heard Corian’s hesitant breath behind her but kept after her father up the trail. If he thinks I’m talking about them, that’s his problem. “Yes, and I’ll have a problem with it until you decide to step in and do something. Not because it’s part of your plan, L’zar, and not because it serves your twisted purpose.”
“Don’t speak of my purpose like you have any idea what it is!” L’zar stopped and glared down at her from the next level of the trail above. “You don’t see the way this all plays out, Cheyenne. If you want me to treat you as an equal, quit running your mouth like a child.”
“Hey, I’m not the one who stayed up all night getting wasted and almost ripped the whole raug city out of bed to shut me up.” Cheyenne put her hands on her hips and returned her father’s burning gaze. “You wanna throw names around and call me a child? Great. I can hold up a mirror, L’zar. That’s what kids are for, right?”
The drow thief stared at her, then his gaze flicked to Corian and Maleshi. The nightstalkers had stopped to watch the argument, and the fact that they had witnesses seemed to snap L’zar back into the present. “You excel at reflecting all my pet peeves right back at me.” A humorless chuckle escaped him. “But you have no idea what I’m thinking or what I have planned. Don’t talk to me like you do.”
“Why won’t you tell me?” Cheyenne spread her arms. “Let me in on the secret plan you’ve been off in your own world thinking about for the last two d
ays, huh?”
He cocked his head, then let a slow smile bloom on his face. “Where would the fun be in that, huh? You’ll know when you’re meant to know, just like everyone else.”
L’zar picked up his hurried pace up the mountainside, and Cheyenne snorted. “Yeah, everyone except you.”
“Let him have his fun, kid.” Corian shrugged. “Everything else worked the way it was supposed to when we got to the Heart. Well, mostly. In the end, what needed to happen happened. If he wants to keep his secrets, we’ll wait together until he’s ready to share.”
Cheyenne stopped and turned to frown at the nightstalker. “So you don’t know what he’s got cooking up for his nephew either?”
The nightstalker blinked.
“He won’t lie to you,” Maleshi said. “But he’s not gonna come out and say it.”
“Interesting.”
“No, it’s not.” Corian scowled and trudged toward the switchback, quickly gaining on the halfling. “And don’t look at me like that and say, ‘Interesting.’ I don’t have to tell you who you remind me of when you do that.”
“Plenty of family traits I have no control over, I guess.” When Corian grunted and shot her a warning look, Cheyenne spun to head up the hill behind her father. Maybe I did just pull a L’zar, but I can read between the lines with the rest of them. If Corian doesn’t have any clue what the drow’s got up his sleeve, we all need to be a lot more careful.
She looked up the mountain at the drow thief, who’d stopped to put his hands on his hips and take a deep breath, gazing out over Nor’ieth like he took this hike all the time to clear his head and get the endorphins pumping. Cheyenne snorted. He could probably conjure his own endorphins if he wanted to.
Half an hour later, they reached the first leveling-out of the mountain, though they still had another six yards at least until they reached the peak. Cheyenne squinted against the sun blazing down on them and could barely make out what looked like another Grecian temple above them. The white stone glistened in the sunlight and blocked out whatever else was up there.
When she looked down the way they’d come, Corian and Maleshi followed her gaze. “They’re all still down there.”
“Probably waiting for one of us to fall off or for the top of the mountain to explode.” Corian heaved himself up the particularly steep switchback and nodded at Cheyenne to continue. “Can’t stop now.”
“Did something happen?” Cheyenne looked at Maleshi, who wouldn’t meet her gaze.
“Not yet.” Corian gestured up the path for her to keep moving. “And it won’t if we stay here talking about it.”
“Wow. Somebody’s in a mood.”
“It’s definitely not the mood for figuring out how many different ways I can say keep going.”
Cheyenne scowled at the nightstalker and nodded slowly. “Got it.”
“Cheyenne, I’m just—”
“No, it’s fine. If anyone can spot the signs of a magical about to lose their shit, I can. I hope you cool off before we need your head back in whatever game he’s playing.” She nodded at L’zar, who was busy pulling himself up over the lip of the mountain peak when the footpath just stopped.
“I’m fine, kid.”
“Good.” Cheyenne headed after her father. It’s reassuring to see someone else who’s frustrated by L’zar and his secret plans. I wish he picked a better time to let me see it.
She reached the end of the path and glanced up at the overhanging ledge of earth, the soil dry and crumbling, with bits of grass and protruding roots dangling toward her face. The second she got a good grip on the ledge with one hand, L’zar loomed over the edge and blotted out the sun.
“Jeeze!” Cheyenne stepped backward, away from him and his glowing golden eyes. “What?”
L’zar slowly extended a hand and grinned. “Thought you might want some help up.”
“Uh-huh.” Narrowing her eyes, she gripped the ledge again with one hand and accepted his help with the other. She kicked once against the loose earth and let him pull her up the rest of the way.
“There. And here we are.”
As soon as he released her hand, Cheyenne wiped her palm on the outside of her trenchcoat, then stuck both hands in her pockets. “And there he is.”
She’d been right about the white stone temple at the center of the mountaintop plateau, which still glistened under the sun and cast a glare in every direction. It was a lot easier to see what was inside the temple, which only had four stone pillars, a stone base, and a stone roof. There were no walls, curtains draped around the pillars, or an altar. Just a magical sitting cross-legged on the stone, his back turned toward them and his bone-white hair fluttering in the breeze.
Corian and Maleshi quickly climbed up over the ledge and stopped beside L’zar and Cheyenne. The general dusted off her hands and cocked her head. “Hell of a climb just for this.”
“We’re not finished yet.” L’zar stepped silently toward the temple, his hands clasped behind his back as he considered the best way to introduce himself to the younger drow deep in mediation. He never got the chance.
“Welcome.” The other drow’s voice was soft, almost emotionless, but it didn’t contain the same numerous tones as Yilas’.
L’zar stopped and studied his nephew’s back. “Thank you.”
The younger drow stood in one fluid motion without using his hands and turned to face his visitors.
Cheyenne’s eyes widened; the face staring back at her looked exactly like L’zar’s, only younger, thinner, and the wrong color. His skin had faded from the usual slate-gray drow color to pale, washed-out violet, but the gray was still there beneath the surface. His eyes, though, were so much lighter than her own, they were almost yellow. Even then, a soft glow emanated from them as Ba’rael Verdys’ son swept his slow, discerning gaze over the four magicals who’d come to speak to him.
No way this is a trick of the light, even if I can’t tell what color his eyes are. The halfling shot Corian a sidelong glance and whispered from the corner of her mouth, “That’s not normal. Right?”
The nightstalker shook his head. “Not beyond these walls. But for Nor’ieth?” He shrugged and met her gaze for a split second before returning his attention to L’zar.
Great. Too much time spent in this secret plane, and we’ll all get the color drained right out of us. Cheyenne took a step forward but couldn’t bring herself to move any closer.
L’zar dipped his head and grinned at his nephew. “You saw us coming?”
The light-skinned drow passed his gaze over L’zar and returned it immediately to Cheyenne. “We see many things.”
He talks like the olforím too. We’re not dealing with a drow at this point. The halfling swallowed.
“I’m sure you do, all the way up here.” L’zar looked over his shoulder. “Great view.”
His nephew kept staring at Cheyenne.
“What’s your name?” the Weaver asked.
“We are called Aut Na’mor.”
“Sure. When the olforím address you.” L’zar chuckled. “I mean your real name. The one you were born with.”
The light-skinned drow’s pale yellow eyes moved slowly back toward his uncle. “We have no name.”
“Ha.” Turning around to fix Cheyenne and the nightstalkers with a growing smile, L’zar gestured at Ba’rael’s secret heir. “He has no name.”
Corian rubbed the back of his neck and shot Cheyenne a quick glance before stepping forward to join the drow thief. “Do you know who we are?”
“If you’re referring to the names you use for yourselves, then no.” The drow eyed Corian now, his wide eyes and blank expression looking so much like L’zar’s when he’d cloaked himself in magic that Cheyenne had a sudden urge to slap a reaction into him. “If you’re asking if we know what you are, we have our suspicions.”
“Oh, indeed?” L’zar blinked at his nephew, tilting his head from side to side as his grin widened. “What do you suspect we are?”
&n
bsp; “Telling you would not change the truth one way or the other.”
“Ah. I would still very much like to hear it from you.”
Ba’rael’s son blinked slowly and stared at Cheyenne. “No.”
L’zar chuckled. “No. Well, then. Is there anything you will agree to discuss? Seeing as we climbed all this way to speak to you.”
Cheyenne frowned at her father and tried to ignore the strange itch spreading across her face beneath her cousin’s intent stare. This guy’s been brainwashed, and L’zar thinks it’s one big joke.
“Hello?” L’zar leaned toward his nephew and flicked his fingers in front of the other drow’s face. “Should I repeat the question?”
“Her.” The light-skinned drow barely lifted his chin as he studied Cheyenne. “We will agree to discuss her.”
“Oh.” L’zar tilted his head at Cheyenne. “Your cousin has taken a certain interest, it seems.”
“Cousin.” Ba’rael’s son slowly tilted his head, eyeing Cheyenne again. His unsettling gaze made her eyes itch too.
“Yeah, but we didn’t come here to talk about me.” The halfling walked slowly toward them, frowning at the complete lack of reaction on her cousin’s face. Totally insane. There’s nothing there. “We’re here to talk about you. Or to you. About your home.”
The corners of the other drow’s mouth twitched. “You’re interested in Nor’ieth, then.”
She glanced at Corian and shrugged. “Not this home. Your first one.”
“We have only one existence. That is here. Cousin.”
“Yeesh.” Cheyenne grimaced at her father. “This isn’t going the way you expected, huh?”
“I need a little time, Cheyenne.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that before.”
L’zar shot her a warning glance, then stepped toward his nephew and placed a hand on the younger drow’s shoulder, meaning to guide him toward the temple for a quick chat. A burst of magical energy traveled up the drow thief’s arm at the contact, and his eyes widened. “Perhaps a good deal more time. But we have plenty of that, don’t we?”
His nephew didn’t budge, and L’zar removed his hand as if the other drow had threatened to remove it for him.