by Martha Carr
Chapter Forty-Four
On the top of the mountain, Neros leaned toward Cheyenne and narrowed his eyes as he scanned her face for the millionth time. “Why are you so different?”
“We went over that.” She scooted back across the floor and dropped her hands into her lap. “I am different. At least, different from everyone else in this world. Apparently, halflings are an Earthside myth like Nor’ieth and the olforím. Now we know it’s all based on truth, huh?”
“No.”
Cheyenne squinted at him and cocked her head. “No, the myths aren’t based on truth, or no, something else I missed?”
“Your human blood is only part of what makes you different, Cheyenne. There’s something else.” Neros frowned, his bone-white eyebrows darkening his pale features in an odd play of shadow and sunlight. “Something I haven’t seen before.”
“Well, that might also be the Sorren Gán’s magic that L’zar tricked himself into getting, I guess. Then he gave it to me.”
“You have so many answers, cousin. None of them tell me what I want to know.”
“And you have a lot of questions.” With a snort, Cheyenne folded her arms. “I don’t know what else you to tell you, Neros. I don’t have all the answers. I can’t see whatever it is you and L’zar see. Not even sure I want to. And by the way, how are you able to read the Weave? L’zar had to almost die and pledge his unending loyalty to a creature that doesn’t give a shit about him, but I have a feeling you took a different route.”
Neros spread his arms and gave her a blank, distracted smile. “We are here.”
She clicked her tongue. “And you were doing so well with the first-person pronouns.”
“Not just me.” Her cousin gestured toward the valley with a sweep of his arm, his fingers folding in on themselves at the end. “All of us. The olforím, Nor’ieth, the light. Everything weaves together. If I were to leave this place, I would still be here.”
“Hmm.” Cheyenne nodded slowly. Play along, and maybe he’ll say something that makes sense. “So you can leave.”
His pale eyes narrowed. “Why would I?”
“Well, to start, there’s the fairly large, looming issue of your mother, who’s as crazy as L’zar but kinda still has a foot in the door when it comes to plastering her crazy all over Ambar’ogúl. And keeping me from fixing everything she’s broken in the process.” Assuming she doesn’t refuse my so-called terms and goes the kill Cheyenne route instead.
“Nothing is broken.”
“See, that’s where I think we’re hitting a disconnect. You haven’t stepped out of this place once since you got here, have you?”
“Why would I?”
Cheyenne closed her eyes and forced herself not to rub her temples in frustration. “Yeah, you already asked that. And I don’t have an answer for you, because I’m not…whoa, whoa.” She jerked away. His pale fingers were floating through the white hair draping over her shoulders. “What are you doing?”
“I can’t see you.”
“You can see me fine, and I’d seriously appreciate it if you continued to see me from at least two feet away. At least.”
Neros sighed, another frown flickering across his forehead. “Whatever you carry with you, Cheyenne, it is enough.”
“Well, thanks.” She shrugged. “I’m all for a healthy level of confidence, but I’m not sure that’s gonna help me much against the Crown. She’s been poisoning this world, Neros. Stealing magic from others to fuel her own. Spilling the leftover waste as far as it’ll go. It’s crossing over the Border now too.”
“I don’t care about any of that.” The pale drow waved her off with a scowl, then ran his gaze across her shoulder and down her arm. “Tell me about your beginning.”
“My beginning?” I’m not sitting here, spilling my guts to this guy about the terrifying, lonely first years of my life. And I’m definitely not saying a word about Bianca. “Anything specific?”
“Everything.” Neros’ eyes widened, and he leaned toward her again. “Your first memory. Your first thought. What you felt when you saw yourself in the mirror and realized it was you staring back through your eyes.”
Cheyenne chuckled and cocked her head. “Sorry, man. I have a fairly good memory, but it doesn’t go that far back.”
“Why not?”
She frowned and pursed her lips. “In general, most of us don’t remember any of those things.”
“I do.” Neros leaned forward even farther and placed his hands on the white stone floor. “I remember the doorway opening to me for the first time. I remember the light touching down from the Weave to wake me up. I remember you.”
“Nice try. We never met before this.”
“And still.” He looked quickly back and forth from one of her golden eyes to the other and drew a long, loud breath. “I can’t find what binds you.”
“Hey, seriously. Cut it out.” She slapped his hand away when he reached toward her mouth. “That’s another thing, man. You can’t crawl up to someone and start touching them.”
“Does it hurt you?”
“What? No. It’s creepy, and I like my personal space, okay?”
“Space.” Neros withdrew his hand and stroked his pale, hairless chin. “How much?”
“Okay.” Cheyenne pushed to her feet and spread her arms as she stepped away from him. “Like, this much. At all times. What is that, four feet?”
The pale drow placed his hands in his lap and stared up at her. “You said two.”
“Yeah, I know. It doubles every time you cross the personal-drow bubble.”
“Hmm.” Rising slowly to his feet in one fluid movement, as if a giant hand pulled him up by invisible strings, Neros tilted his head and frowned. “I can show you things you haven’t dreamed of imagining.”
“And there’s the offer.” The halfling folded her arms. “Thanks, but no thanks. I’ve already listened to way too many prophecies and had all kinds of crazy dreams. Not looking to add to that list.”
“Prophecies mean nothing.” He stepped toward her. “Dreams are only as good as the mind around them.”
Cheyenne couldn’t hold back a laugh. “Okay. Nothing wrong with my mind.”
“The light, cousin. And the Weave. The threads through us all.” Another step closer.
“Hey, you can stop right there.”
“Even those that run from me to you.” Neros pinched his fingers together against his chest, then spread them toward Cheyenne’s. “From you to me.”
“I’m serious. Stop walking at me.”
“We can find those threads together.” He flicked his fingers toward her face, and she felt his hand brush across her cheek despite the three feet between them.
Cheyenne jerked away from the touch and scowled at him. “Don’t do that again.”
Neros’ pale eyes blazed above a determined smile. He lifted his hand again and took one more step toward her.
“Back off!” She shoved the air between them with both hands and sent her cousin sailing backward across the temple.
He landed on his ass and skidded across the floor until the back of his head cracked against the thick stone pillar. Neros slumped over his lap, breathing slowly, and gingerly touched the back of his head.
Shit. I drew first blood, and now he’s gonna come right back at me.
Neros looked at his fingers as if he’d never seen blood.
“I’m sorry.” Cheyenne took a halting step toward him. “I gave you plenty of warnings. I know it’s not an excuse, but my need for personal space is a very real thing.” So is failing at an apology. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. Badly.”
Her cousin tilted his head and studied the blood on his fingers. “You didn’t.”
“Well, maybe you don’t feel it now, but in the morning, you will.”
The blood glowed in a halo of white light and lifted from the drow’s pale fingers. It sparked and floated away like embers from a fire, dissipating into the air.
“Oh. Because yo
u can heal yourself.” Cheyenne wrinkled her nose. “Probably should’ve seen that coming.”
Without a sound or even a grimace of discomfort, Neros stood and blinked quickly before staring at his cousin with the same intensity again. “You look surprised.”
She took a step back and lifted her hand slightly. If he goes nutso-drow on me after this, I’ll be ready. “I am. First, because I’ve gotten myself into a lot of situations where self-healing like that would’ve come in handy. And mostly because you’re not angry.”
“No, I’m not.”
The halfling lifted her chin and shot him a skeptical glance. “And you’re not attacking me.”
“No.”
“I saw how fast you can move. You didn’t even lift a finger to defend yourself.”
Neros’ open, curious gaze brought another tingling wave of magical attention buzzing across the halfling’s skin. “There is nothing to defend against, Cheyenne. Not here. Certainly not with you.”
“Well, I did bash your head open. And O’gúleesh aren’t famous for being peaceful and letting something like that slide.”
A soft chuckle escaped the pale drow. “O’gúleesh do not dictate the ways of this world, cousin. Rather, it is the other way around.”
“Okay. Either way, I’m sorry I lost it on you.”
“I’m not.” In a burst of white light, Neros darted across the temple and stopped inches in front of Cheyenne.
“Jesus, for real?” She staggered back and almost fell off the edge of the temple floor, then stepped off and backed up across the plateau. “You move fast but pick up new concepts pretty slow, huh?”
“Stay with me.”
“What?”
Neros took a slow step toward her, his washed-out golden eyes flaring with intensity. “Stay with me, Cheyenne. Here, in Nor’ieth. On this mountain. I will show you everything. And you will show me what I cannot see without you.”
“Uh, no.” Cheyenne glanced behind her to gauge how much room she had before she’d end up falling off the mountainside. “I get it. You’re intrigued. Everyone seems to have some kind of realization along those lines when they meet me. And I’m definitely not a stranger to being different. But staying here is not an option.”
“It can be.”
A dry laugh escaped her. “Oh, no. It definitely can’t.”
“We have a purpose, Cheyenne, you and I. We can fulfill it together, without ever ‘lifting a finger to defend ourselves.’ Like you said.”
“That wasn’t what I meant.” She stuck her finger in the air, meaning to point it at him in warning, and paused. Without ever lifting a finger. Maybe I don’t have to find a different race to put on the throne. Maybe I need a different breed of drow, the kind that can knock L’zar Verdys off a mountain and keep him off but won’t fight back. “What about fulfilling your purpose somewhere else, huh?”
“I do not understand.”
“Clearly.” Cheyenne glanced at the sky and took a deep breath. “Look, I don’t know how much you’ve seen, but here’s what my purpose is for the foreseeable future. I basically staged a coup against the Crown of Ambar’ogúl, or at least the beginning of one. We all thought I was the only one left to inherit that throne, family ties and all. None of us knew you existed until yesterday.”
“I exist here.”
“Yeah, yeah, I get that. But what if you could exist at the center of Hangivol? The capital. The highest seat of power in this entire world. You have a purpose there too. A birthright, more or less. You could change everything about what it means to be a drow ruler. You gave L’zar a run for his money, Neros, and you didn’t fight me. That’s an insanely powerful combination, don’t you think?”
“I don’t care about the Crown.” A darker golden light flashed behind her cousin’s eyes, and he continued his slow, almost predatory stalk toward her. “I don’t want it. I don’t need it. I have no desire to be anywhere but here, where I belong. And I want you to stay with me.”
“Again, no.” Cheyenne spread her arms. “We went over this already.”
“I can change your mind.” Neros’ eyes widened, and he lifted a finger toward her. Bright white light crackled and sparked at his fingertip, throwing eerie reflections into his glassy, colorless eyes. “Let me show you.”
“Nope. I’m good.” So that’s a no on putting a new drow on the throne. At least I can say I tried. “I think we’re done here.”
“I want you to stay.”
Broken record with this guy, huh? “Yeah, well, we all want things, Neros. Doesn’t mean we always get ‘em.” She backed up toward the edge of the plateau and gauged the distance down to the footpath. “Nice to meet you. Good luck with seeing stuff. I’m glad your head’s okay.”
“Cheyenne.”
She spun and jumped off the ledge. Her black Vans skidded across the loose dirt and gravel, then she set off down the zigzagging path a lot faster than she’d climbed it. Silence followed her down the side of the mountain.
He’s not even gonna try to stop me. Would’ve been a pretty decent choice for a new Crown, but Maleshi was right. It’s gonna be hard as shit to find someone else who wants it.
Chapter Forty-Five
When Cheyenne reached the base, L’zar, Corian, and Maleshi stalked toward her from a grove of white-trunked trees. L’zar’s golden eyes were wide with eager expectation. Corian frowned. Maleshi raised her eyebrows and stayed a dozen feet behind the others.
“Well?” L’zar caught up with his daughter as they headed back toward the central grouping of Nor’ieth’s white stone buildings. “What did you find out?”
Cheyenne couldn’t look at him. “He’s even crazier than you are.”
Maleshi snorted.
“That doesn’t tell me anything, Cheyenne.”
“Yeah, well, your nephew didn’t tell me anything, other than that he’s not leaving this valley. And you’re not getting anything out of him that you can use against Ba’rael.”
“He said that?”
“No. Not the last part.” The halfling stopped and whirled toward her father, looking him up and down when he leaned away from her in surprise. “Look, whatever you thought you could convince him to do for you, it’s not gonna happen. He kicked your ass without even trying.”
“He did no such thing.”
“Yeah, he did. You’re pissed because you weren’t fast enough or slippery enough for once in your life.” Cheyenne pointed at the top of the mountain. “Neros is more powerful than both of us, and he didn’t even try to fight me. He just healed his wound and brushed it off like it was nothing.”
“You hurt him.” L’zar dipped his head and studied her intently.
“Accidentally.” She shrugged. “The guy has a problem with boundaries. Probably not a big deal for you. I get it. Runs in the family. No boundaries plus insanely powerful magic and no desire whatsoever to get revenge or fight back or even protect himself. L’zar, you won’t be able to find anything to change his mind. The only thing Neros cares about is staying here, reading the Weave, and…”
“And what?”
Cheyenne glanced at Corian. “And me. I guess.”
The nightstalker ran his fingers back and forth across his mouth and frowned. “What about you?”
“He wants me to stay here so we can fulfill some purpose together.” She turned quickly and marched toward the stone village. “And that’s not happening, so as far as Nor’ieth goes, we’re out of options. At least we tried.”
L’zar snarled and took off after her. “That’s not good enough.”
“Okay, then you go try talking to a drow who’s spent his whole life being pumped with all this magic and doesn’t give a shit about anything you have to say. Oh, yeah, that’s right. You already tried, and he threw you off a mountain.”
“What did you tell him? Did you at least explain what’s happening?”
“Stop!” Cheyenne spun toward her father and shook her head. “I spent the last I don’t even know how long answer
ing Neros’ questions. I can’t believe I’m saying they were more obnoxious than yours, but I’m not in the mood to answer more right now. So back off.”
“Cheyenne!”
“And we don’t need anything from him. Just to be clear.” The halfling glanced at L’zar and then Corian, who was quickly catching up with them. “You didn’t even know you had a nephew until yesterday.”
“Yes, but it changes everything.”
“So, which is it? Huh? Either you had complete faith in me and the rest of the magicals who put everything they have on the line to give your sister these terms she can’t refuse, or you’ve been lying to me the whole time. Is that why you wouldn’t tell any of us what you wanted from Neros?”
L’zar opened his mouth and cocked his head.
“Yeah.” She scoffed, “That’s all the answer I need.”
“Cheyenne, we can still do this, with or without Neros.”
“I know that.” The halfling stormed toward the buildings. “Time for you to start believing it, Weaver.”
L’zar stood perfectly still. He took a sharp breath when Corian placed a hand on his shoulder but didn’t move.
“She’s not wrong,” Corian muttered.
“You’re saying I am?”
“No. It is possible for both of you to be right, you know.”
L’zar snorted. “When did she turn into this…this force I can’t control?”
Corian slid his hand off the drow’s shoulder and nodded. “Looks like your head’s starting to clear a little.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means she’s always been that force, brother. You haven’t had the time to see it until now.” The nightstalker took off after Cheyenne.
L’zar turned around to see Maleshi approaching behind him. “General?”
She raised both hands and stepped sideways around him, giving the drow thief a wide berth. “If it’s still important later, bring it up then.”
Shaking her head, the general put a little spring in her step and hurried away from him.
L’zar opened his mouth to call after them, then closed it again. This would be the moment my own flesh and blood calls checkmate. Only she won’t. She’s not enough like me for that.