by Aimee Moore
I lifted my palm to call my flame for light, and groaned in pain as the emptiness in my veins stung. I turned to Karne. “Turn that off, too.”
Karne was standing in the darkness, but his skin seemed just a bit brighter than mine. “I don’t know what you’re demanding.”
“My gift. It’s gone when you’re here. Fix it.”
“I can no more fix that than I can make you like me. But I can help.” And then he twirled his own fingers in the air, and golden stars lit the space, suspended in the air.
I moved with caution to the spot where Dal had been. There were shards of glass and wood everywhere; a minefield for my bare feet. I crouched and began to lift debris, the Kraw markings on my longest finger catching my eye as I searched. I only needed to lift a few shreds of parchment to see large splashes of blood, long dried on the floor.
My heart began to pound as I shifted more things out of the way, hoping to uncover more of the man I loved.
“He’s not under there,” Karne said in a gentle voice.
I shot a lethal glare at Karne, then stood and turned my attention to Lianne’s space, which I was grateful to discover was blood-free. Her plate armor must have shielded her from whatever happened. I glanced around for some clue to what caused the explosion.
“It doesn’t make sense,” I said under my breath, rubbing at my eyes to try and dispel the exhaustion. “One minute, we were fine, and the next the world was exploding.”
Karne pushed away from the wall, crunching over the priceless artifacts and texts with his boots. “The arcane rarely makes sense. It was probably a trap, triggered by one of you. You’re lucky I sensed it and arrived when I did.”
I frowned at the waste of debris on the floor. “I think we destroyed it,” I whispered, toeing aside a piece of blue glass.
“Destroyed what?”
“The Helegnaur. Now we’ll never be rid of your queen.”
Karne was quiet for so long that I turned to face him. He was frowning at me as if I’d said something strange. “The Helegnaur was never here,” he said at last. “I’ve already looked. All that awaited you here were interesting trinkets and a cleverly placed trap.”
“Dal would have known if there was a trap,” I said.
“You place much faith in your Child of War. He is not a god, you know.”
“You don’t know what he can do,” I said in a flat tone.
“Nialae have enslaved his people for eons. We know what they can do.”
I shot Karne a look that said exactly what I thought of him, then made my way out into the antechamber. Everything was covered in a fine layer of dust and ash, two sets of footprints marring pristine layer of grey. One smaller, precisely lined; and the other massive, a wrinkle indicating worn leather. The right foot seemed to drag with every step. I traced the outline of his shoe with a shaking finger, then raised my chin and stood to follow the footprints.
“It’s been two days, Seraphine, he is not here.”
“I have to make sure,” I breathed.
As I left the antechamber, cold sent harsh goosebumps up through my bare skin that woke me up like nothing else could. With Karne so near I had little hope of being able to use my gift to warm myself. I rushed up the stairs anyway, pushing at the trick wall until I found the catch that Dal had pulled days before. The wall rumbled open, and I burst through the tapestry at the top expecting to see Dal, as if I had just caught him leaving.
But there were only the ghosts of my imagination walking through the shattered remains of their home. I made my way through the halls, calling out Dal’s name. Perhaps he had decided to make camp, knowing I would return by any means necessary.
I passed Karne, who was leaning on the shattered doors in the magnificent entryway, ignoring the woman in purple robes and her repetitive greeting. “The cold is going to kill you,” he murmured.
“He’s injured, I have to find him,” I breathed, limping onto the icy stone portico. The cold was barely worse here, but it stung twice as bad as I looked out at the ravaged expanse of greying bones in the waning daylight.
The cart was gone.
“No,” I whispered. Toes stinging with cold, I limped past the frosted bodies to find the wheel tracks where the cart had been. I followed, down the long entry road, through the gates, on and on over the abandoned road until I was too frozen and dizzy to continue. Until the university was long gone and I’d exhausted all of my adrenaline and nearly run out of hope. I collapsed to my knees in the middle of the deserted, icy stretch of road, and yelled Dal’s name.
Flakes of snow began to flurry down to the frosted ground. I clutched at the necklace that was no longer on my neck. I had nothing. Nothing but a beautiful tattoo and the memories of the man I loved. I shook as I gasped for air, as I played over our argument moments before my world exploded.
My mind went blank, and I lay in the cold mud. A sob wracked me and my skin stung as if it were shattering like glass. My fingers, toes, and nose were in bone-deep pain. I tried to summon my gift, but pain wracked my being in its place, and so I stayed cold. If my cruel argument was the last thing Dal knew of me then I’d never forgive myself.
I should get up. I should march back to that university and demand that Karne take me to my mate. Yes, that was my next course of action. I would summon Patroma and take what I needed. As soon as I got up. I would do that.
I just needed to close my eyes for a moment, first…
Chapter 15
Stalwart
I awoke in a trickling room, the dim light of the ember sconces sizzling now and again from a stray drip. As I stirred to collect myself, warm water sloshed about my naked form. I sat up and winced, glancing down at the black shard still in my shoulder. It stung less now than it did the first time I’d noticed it, the bleeding stopped completely.
The hot pool I lay in was shallow, my head had been pillowed while my body had wafted in the deeper part. The large room was made of light stone, trickles of water coming in from the walls to collect in other pools in the room.
My fingers and toes were stiff with pain, but they wiggled when I moved them. I tried to rise, letting off a hiss as the black shard’s pain radiated through my body and dizziness rocked my existence. Nausea boiled up, and I steadied myself, waiting for both to pass.
I finally got out of the pool, padding on the warm, porous stone. Aside from the malady in my shoulder, my aches had fled. A small table was resting near the pool, once again with food and water. And a note, but no clothes. I picked up the note. In slashing, elegant script, it read:
Try not to kill anyone this time. Ring the bell and you will be attended to.
I turned the parchment over to the blank side, then back again, frowning. I glanced around my surroundings once more, looking for weapons or clothes or any clue of what had happened after I closed my eyes on the road. I was unharmed and clean, that was all I knew.
Kill the maggots who dare to keep you here again.
I shook my head, shoving Patroma down to the darkest pits of my mind. I’d be dead if Karne didn’t bring me here. I couldn’t find my way back to Dal if I was a corpse.
I took a tentative bite of the soft, dark brown bread, trying not to eat much in case it was drugged. I couldn’t stop myself from finishing it, along with the tart cheese and berries. The pitcher of water I downed did little to trick my stomach into thinking I was full.
I sat on the edge of the pool and poked at the shard in my shoulder, wincing as the stinging shot right to my chest. I gave it a wiggle, trying to determine its depth, but the pain shooting through my body did little to indicate the shard’s exact length beneath my skin. It wasn’t more than a finger’s length, that much was certain.
Sucking in a deep breath to steel myself against the pain, I began to try wriggling it out of my skin. Blackness clawed at the edges of my vision as the pain radiated into my bones. I swayed to the side, bracing myself as I panted. Grunting with frustration, I lay flat on the stone floor, planting my feet wit
h determination.
“You’re coming out, you son of a bitch,” I muttered. I gripped the shard again, giving it a tug, crying out as the pain washed me into a black oblivion.
When I woke, blood crusted on my shoulder and mucked me to the floor with its viscous pull. I sat up with care, looking at the red imprint of my shoulder on the stone. I gave a scathing curse in Kraw, then rose to rinse and search the room.
Finally, not finding any weapons or answers, I rang the bell that was sitting next to my plate, hoping my nakedness would be addressed first.
After a small eternity, Yasmil walked in dressed in the same hideous garment as before, only in a shade of tangerine that set off her orange eyes. Yasmil’s gaze swept over my nude form with blazing hatred for but a moment, and then her mask of calm was in place as she cleaned up my eating space.
“I trust you had enough to eat,” she said in a neutral tone, splashing water over my sticky puddle of blood. It ran rust rivulets into one of the waterfall pools.
No. “Yes. How many days was I out?”
“Only one.”
“Clothes?”
“I will bring them.”
“I need to speak to Karne.”
“Karne is busy,” she said without looking up at me. “I’ll be back with clothing and escort you to your room.”
“I want my things back so I can leave.”
Floor cleaned at last, Yasmil set the cup on the tray, knuckles pale in her dark skin. “That is not for me to decide. I’ll return.” And then she left.
I paced some more, chewing at a jagged piece of fingernail as I tried to dissect the vault explosion. Something was bothering me about it.
Yasmil returned with another of those horrendous body suit dresses, and I scowled.
“Doesn’t this place have anything else to wear? Is your master such a pig that he makes all the females wear these?”
Yasmil flicked her long black lashes up to me with the most minute hint of a glare, then cast them back down as she approached me.
“He is your master, isn’t he?” I asked.
“We are compensated.”
“Are you Nialae?”
“None of your business.”
“Human, then,” I said.
“I am Karne’s head of household, that is all you need to know.” She held the body suit dress up to help me step into it, the neck ring unclasped.
I shook my head. “I’m not wearing that. Once was enough. Never again.”
“You cannot be dressed in only skin within these halls, unless you are servicing or sleeping,” Yasmil said.
“I’ll walk through these halls naked if I have to. I want my own clothes back. And I want to see Karne. Now.”
Yasmil closed off, lowering the body suit thing. “I’ll return with a different color, perhaps.” And then she began to head toward the door, the gleam of the ring around her throat catching my eye in the dim light.
I followed, and she shot me a harsh look of admonishment. “You cannot come.”
“Stop me then,” I growled.
We stared each other down. Yasmil was larger and healthier than me, stopping me would be easy for her, especially with the throbbing malady in my shoulder. But she made no move to touch me. I pushed past her, and then I was naked in the elaborate, starry hallways. Paintings and statues and glittering objects I had never seen before winked back at me. A particularly odd painting of a nude woman licking a tree and staring at the painter rested on the wall across from me.
“Which way is Karne?” I asked.
“As I have said before, he is busy.” Yasmil’s voice was harsher now.
“Then I suppose you won’t mind if I wander until I find him,” I said. Cold, naked, and more embarrassed than I was going to let on, I began to limp through the halls.
Yasmil trotted after me. “Don’t be ridiculous, you can’t do this.”
“Perhaps he’s in this room,” I said, opening a door.
A sprawling room bigger than my entire house yawned before me. Within were mountainous shelves with books towering sky high, and men and women in robes bent over more books, staring at me as if I were completely daft. I opened my mouth to let off a rude comment, but then my eye caught… a Kraw man in the room of books. He was tall, as Dal was, dusky-skinned with long black hair. But where Dal had many strong black tattoos flowing over his muscled bulk, this particular Kraw had none peeking under the finely tailored clothing clinging to his lean form.
I straightened. “Pardon me, I’m looking for the man who took my clothes.” Then I continued down the hall. Yasmil whispered something to the group in the book room and pulled the door shut, then trotted after me as I reached the next door in line.
I pushed the door open to find Nialae women, lounging in strange chairs that looked as if they were made from fern fronds, speaking a musical language in sultry tones. Their tables were naked men, holding trays on their backs, glancing at the door with a mixture of shame and guilt.
I frowned, and the women glanced at me. “I’m looking for Karne,” I said.
The two Nialae women laughed. One put her foot on one of the men’s bottoms and shoved at him, speaking in that beautiful language with a smirk on her face. The glasses on his tray rattled a little as he struggled not to upset them.
“He is not here,” the man breathed, face red.
I nodded and closed the door, striding toward the next door.
“He’s not in there either,” Yasmil hissed.
“I’d better make sure,” I said, reaching for the handle. As the door opened, an ear-shattering horn blasted past me, accompanied by various head-rattling banging noises and a cacophony of screeching. I squinted one eye open to see an auditorium yawn into the distance, a small group of musicians on the stage, detonating such a racket that I worried I might be deaf. I yanked the door shut and moved to the next one, the silence of the hallway ringing in my ears. I was relieved to hear Yasmil speak.
“Satisfied yet?” She hissed.
“No.” My voice sounded far off to my ringing ears. I reached for another door, and this time Yasmil’s lean frame was between my hand and the door.
“Enough of this game. I’ll take you to Karne, and I only hope he’s angry enough to end you.”
My hearing was returning to normal. I smiled. “Death finds us all, Yasmil. But sometimes, when we burst forth at it with arms flung wide, we can surprise it into passing.”
Yasmil frowned at me, her gaze going back and forth between my eyes. “You’re completely mad,” she whispered.
“I am surviving,” I whispered back, remembering a lifetime ago when I had uttered those words under different circumstances.
Yasmil continued to frown at me as she slipped past, glancing over her shoulder just once as she stopped in the middle of the starry hallway. Reaching to the floor, just past the rug, Yasmil plucked a winking star from the blackness below the glass. It was as if it was always there for her, resting next to the rug, and yet I could swear that the winking blue sparkle had been lifetimes away. I gasped as she held the small star like a firefly and began to draw a winking rectangle on the wall. It was as if the doorway was made of the blue star itself, scored against an invisible wall as charcoal smudges the smoothest surface.
When the rectangle was complete, she bent to the floor to put the star back into the infinite blackness, and it winked deep in the inky distance, impossible leagues away from us. Then she turned and crooked a finger at me before stepping through the rectangle. I followed, finding myself staring at Yasmil stopped in front of large double doors. Light shined off of her bare shoulders, reflecting all of the lovely colors in her dark skin. I looked behind me to see only more hallway, no sign of the burning blue doorway Yasmil had made.
“What are you?” I asked turning forward again.
“I am exactly what he needs,” her deep voice said. Then she pushed the doors open to Karne’s blinding red room.
I should have expected what I saw. But somehow, I didn�
�t. Karne was naked with a woman. Both on their knees. Her body dangled by her wrists, which were bound by shadow suspended in the air like a black cloud. Her head was thrown back in ecstasy as her body rocked and her breasts shook from the force of Karne’s thrusts. Nose wrinkled in disgust, I turned to Yasmil to ask what kind of game she was playing. But the look on her face stopped me. Her form was tense, as if she were holding her breath, her eyes guarded.
“Karne,” Yasmil said loudly over the crude slapping of bodies.
Karne didn’t stop. The woman he was with didn’t stop. No, I wish they would have stopped instead of what Karne did.
He looked at me. Right into my eyes as he continued to thrust into the woman, and then he held my gaze as his climax took him. I should have looked away. I should have rolled my eyes or snarled in disgust or done anything other than watch back as my face heated and my body warmed. The moment was as embarrassing as it was intrusive.
The woman let off one last shuddering moan as she went limp, and Karne withdrew, standing with a luxurious stretch. With a careless flick of his fingers, the shadow binding her wrists evaporated, and the woman fell with a grunt.
Then Karne was striding toward me, still ready for more, and completely unashamed of anything I was witnessing. If Karne thought that I was going to be intimidated by that paltry display of loving, then he was in for a rude awakening. I raised my chin and stood tall.
“You have done well, Yasmil, to bring her to me as I’ve wished,” Karne said in a husky voice, never taking his eyes off of me. “I thought for sure I’d have to wait longer, but no, here you are Seraphine, ready for me.”
“The only thing I’m ready for is to leave. I want my things back. All of them.”
Karne reached me and grabbed my wrist, pulling me just close enough that his body heat warmed my skin.
“You want what you just saw. I see it in your eyes. I smell it on you,” he murmured.
I glanced behind him at the woman who was righting herself, still catching her breath from what they had just done. I shoved his hand off of me and stepped back.