by Linda Kage
Nalini’s second companion on her left was considerably more recognizable, however. He gained my attention when he sat down on the boards of the ferry and let his tongue hang out so he could pant like a contented puppy. I blinked at the small bedraggled boy who didn’t look as if he’d ever taken a bath in his life. He wore nothing but a loincloth and seemed more like a feral animal than a tame child.
Which was exactly the same state he’d been in the last time I’d seen him.
“What in the world?” I murmured, returning my gaze to the man and realizing where I knew him from as well.
“What?” Quilla demanded in a low voice.
I turned my body in toward hers so only she could hear me, even as I kept my suddenly suspicious gaze on Nalini. “I know the two companions. The man’s a soothsayer. And the kid’s a magical bloodhound. I guarantee you he’ll be able to smell the glamour on us and tell them we’re under a disguise, so be prepared.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Quilla nod imperceptibly. “And the woman?”
“No idea,” I confessed. “I met the other two in the Dimway Forest about a moon cycle ago when Nicolette started her royal tour of Far Shore. They traveled with a group of other wayfaring mages that followed a blond Amazon woman.” I glanced toward Quilla, adding, “A blond Amazon woman who told Nicolette she was a direct descendant to the mage who placed the first love mark on Elaina L’Amante.”
Quilla whirled to gape at me. “That would make her a Graykey, then.”
“Yes, it would,” I agreed, returning my gaze to Nalini. “Unless she was lying. Or your family legend is false.”
Snorting at that option, Quilla asked, “What was this blond Amazon woman’s name?”
“Mydera,” I said, which gained Nalini’s immediate attention as if someone had just called her name.
She’d been stroking her hand up the outside of Melaina’s arm while Melaina leaned back against the soothsayer—Wicket, I remember him being called—when he stepped in behind her to shift her hair to the side and kiss the side of her throat. But now her sole focus was on me.
Stepping away from the orgy she’d been on the precipice of beginning right there in the open ferry, Nalini approached us, her hips swaying lustily with each step.
“And you two,” she greeted with a big smile as if she knew us, her arms opening wide in welcome. “You must be the happy new couple. I’ve been looking for you.”
Instantly on guard, I shifted closer to Quilla.
But Nalini waved her fingers as if to calm me. “Be at ease, warrior. I mean your mate no harm. Far from it, in fact.”
“But you’ve been looking for us?” I countered, remaining on high alert as I kept myself positioned between her and Quilla. “Why? How do you even know who we are?”
Nalini opened her mouth to answer, but Holly appeared in front of me in her cat form, hissing and growling. Nalini paused in her tracks, blinking as Holly transformed into an enormous panther with a sleek black pelt, and the high-pitched kitty snarl she was emitting became a low guttural roar.
Claws emerging, she leaped at Nalini's face.
Nalini frowned at her. “How rude,” she accused before lifting her hand and waving the backs of her fingers at the unicorn as if to sweep it aside.
The leaping panther popped out of existence a mere inch from reaching its target.
“What the—” I rushed forward, then spun in a circle, looking for my unicorn. Not even a puff of smoke or sparkles or anything signaled her disappearance. Circling back to face the calm woman who’d wished Holly away with a simple flick of her fingers, I cried, “What the fuck did you just do to her?”
I drew my dagger threateningly, ready to defend Quilla. But since my glamour showcased a young girl and my hands were still stuck together due to my shackles, I didn’t appear too intimidating. It looked like I had to hold the blade with two hands because it was too heavy for me to lift with one.
Quilla’s old-man glamour appeared at my side, swords in both her hands. Melaina rushed to our side, brandishing a weapon as well and thankfully remaining loyal to us.
“Hey! What’s going on here?” The ferry master called from his edge of the ferry where he was busy directing the flow of the boat. “No squabbles on my boat or you’re going overboard.”
“No squabbles here, dear,” Nalini assured him with a flirty smile, blowing him a kiss that caused him to blink as if she’d just blown dust in his eyes. “Forget you ever saw me or my two companions and go about your business now. All is well.”
He nodded and obediently turned away, murmuring a monotone, “All is well.”
“What the hell?” I whispered, realizing she’d just taken control of his mind and thoughts, even his memories. No ordinary, everyday magic could do that.
I gaped at Nalini just as she turned back to us, smiling pleasantly. My expression caused her an amused chuckle. “Relax, darling.” She fluttered out a non-concerned hand. “I assure you, your unicorn friend is fine. I just put her in time-out for a bit. I’m sure she’ll be waiting at the shore for you as soon as you dock.”
“That was insane,” Quilla murmured, her voice sounding as shocked as I felt.
“Wasn’t it, though?” Nalini agreed with a serious nod. “I mean, who throws a tantrum like that without any kind of provocation at all? I didn’t even threaten that hussy unicorn. Did you see me threaten her?”
“I saw you poof her out of existence and then mind control the ferry master into forgetting what he just saw,” Quilla countered.
But Nalini didn’t even seem to hear her rebuttal. She was still too busy being insulted by Holly’s behavior. “Honestly, just because I turned her great-whatever-grandmother into the most badass magical creature in existence doesn’t mean she can treat me like that? That was, like, nine generations ago. They should all just get the fuck over it by now, don’t you think?”
She glanced at both Quilla and me as if expecting an answer, but before we could say anything in return, she went on.
“Besides, I did that lying little cow, Margaret, a favor. I could’ve eliminated her entirely for deceiving me the way she did, but no. I was benevolent and spared her life. She could’ve died right then, a forgotten no one. And I was kind enough to alter her only a little for her deceptions. Which she more than deserved. Now you tell me, what would you rather be: a mystical being with unlimited powers that can heal and protect mankind and shift into any other animal you want, or would you rather be dead for betraying your entire world?”
Instead of waiting for a response, she once again kept talking before we could give one. “So her little half-breed horse descendant, Holly, should learn her place. Bitch, just suck my ovaries, is what she can do...”
I glanced questionably at Quilla just as her old-man glamour sent me a similar glance. Nalini’s story sounded eerily like the one Melaina had told me about how the first Graykey ancestor had turned that one woman—Margaret Scott—into the first unicorn.
Silently realizing we were on the same page, we turned back to Nalini together. “Are you trying to tell us you’re actually Corandra Graykey or something?” I asked.
Nalini paused, her eyebrows lifting in surprise. Then she glanced toward Quilla with an almost proud smirk before murmuring, “Someone’s been sharing her family legend with her new mate, I see. That’s wonderful. The romance between you two must be developing nicely, then. Tell me, are you with child yet?”
“What?” Quilla sputtered incredulously, pulling back when Nalini moved too curiously close for her personal space to allow. “Hell no, I’m not with child yet.”
The flamboyant woman waved a hand. “You’re right. Probably too soon for all that. Though if you require assistance in that area,” she added, addressing me with a catty smile. “I can definitely assist. I’ve a tonic that could make her more susceptible to your advances. She’d be willing to tup you within minutes, if you like.”
While Quilla murmured an incredulous, “What the fuck?” my mouth
fell open, mind whirling.
Nicolette had told me that Mydera—the blond Amazon leader of the traveling mages in the Dimway Forest—had secretly given her husband Farrow an aphrodisiac without their knowledge to get him to bed her. This sounded freakily similar.
“You won’t be giving her anything, thanks,” I said slowly.
Nalini shrugged. “Fine. If you prefer the old-fashioned seduction, so be it. That route will take longer, but I’ve heard good things come to us who wait, ergo, I suppose a few extra days won’t harm anything.”
“What in the hell are you talking about?” Quilla demanded suddenly.
“I’m—” Nalini opened her mouth, only to frown. “Your glamours are really quite distracting, you know. I’d prefer to talk to the true versions of you, if you don’t mind.”
After curling her fingers as if forming a ball from the air around her, she opened her hand, palm up, and blew on it gently. What followed was a massive wave of wind that blew over us, wiping away all traces of our glamours with one swift breeze.
“Oh,” she said in surprise when the shackles appeared on my wrists. “Well, that was unexpected. Keeping him bound, are we, dear?” she asked Quilla with a wink. “Very nice.”
Meanwhile, Melaina was shaking her head and breathing, “Not possible,” as she gaped at Nalini with a mixture of horror and awe.
Nalini waggled her brows mysteriously. “My talents are amazing, I know. Wicket and I will gladly demonstrate more of my awe-inspiring abilities to you once we’re done talking to these two, if you like.”
“Hell yes,” Melaina answered, bobbing her head slowly. “I’d like that very much.”
I rolled my eyes before demanding, “Now show us your true form since you insisted on seeing ours.”
Turning to me in surprise, Nalini murmured, “I beg your pardon?”
“This is her true form,” Melaina argued, frowning slightly over the tone I’d used on Nalini. “I can see through any disguise a person wears, remember? She’s not disguising anything.”
Grinning proudly at Melaina, Nalini huskily agreed, “No, I am not.”
“So, you’re going to deny you’re the same person I met only weeks ago, the woman who was considerably paler and twice the size you are now, going by the name Mydera? Or I heard some of your people call you Mater. Mater Silvam.”
“It means mother of the wood,” Nalini explained with a regal nod.
“Or are you really the mother of the entire Outer Realms?” I countered. “Are you Corandra Graykey?”
“Of course she’s not Corandra,” Melaina huffed as if I were insane for even coming up with the idea. “Corandra would be over three hundred years old.”
“I turned four hundred and forty-eight this last June, actually,” Nalini answered, only to shrug when we frowned at her. “In case you wanted to send gifts.”
“What?!” Melaina shouted. “No, you’re not. It’s not possible. You can’t be hiding four hundred years of wrinkles from us. This is your true form.”
“Right you are,” Nalini told her with a charmed smile. “Whenever I change my identity, that becomes my new true form.”
“So Indigo’s right? Corandra Graykey really was your original identity?” Quilla asked.
Nalini chuckled. “Of course not.” Then she sighed. “Corandra was my third identity.”
“The two identities before that must’ve been on Earth, then,” I realized aloud.
Giving a gracious nod, Nalini answered, “In the old world, yes. I probably never should’ve become Bridget, my second identity. Biggest mistake of my life, but oh well. Live and learn, right?” She glanced toward Quilla. “He’s a smart one. That will provide good genes for the family line. I approve.”
Before Quilla could sputter out a coherent answer, Nalini returned her attention to me, asking, “How did you figure me out?”
“Your rant about Holly confirmed it, but your traveling companions initially pointed me in the right direction.” I tilted my head toward the boy and then the soothsayer. “Though, didn’t you have a third personal servant in Dimway? Spice was her name, wasn’t it?”
“Ah, yes.” Nalini sighed fondly as she nodded. “Lovely girl. She wasn’t invited for this trip.” Motioning to the filthy boy, she added, “Neither was this little stowaway, but he popped up on our tail long after it was safe to send him back to the forest with the others by himself, so we had to bring him along. Isn’t that right, Bewler?”
When she scratched him on the top of the head like one would a dog, he panted adoringly up at her. “The poor dear’s scared to death of grooming and hygiene. And clothes,” she explained as she stroked his hair. “Give him a bath, and he immediately strips back down to these rags and rolls around in the dirt again. So we’ve decided to just let him be him.”
Satisfied with his rubdown, Bewler suddenly surged to his feet and darted forward to sniff at Melaina, Quilla, and me.
“Hey!” Quilla started in offense, jerking a step back, but I caught her arm.
“It’s okay. He won’t hurt you. Let him search us.” I glanced toward Nalini. “We don’t have anything to hide.”
Nalini tipped her head in gracious thanks for my cooperation. “As I was saying,” she started again.
“You were looking for us,” I finished for her. “Specifically.”
“Yes,” she answered.
I lifted my eyebrows. “Why?”
A wistful sigh escaped her lungs. “Oh, if only I could answer that,” she lamented. “Life would be so much easier that way, wouldn’t it? But alas, I am forbidden. Dark magic binds my tongue silent, and I find I do not wish to die on this fine day.” Opening her arms, she smiled around the ferry. “The weather’s much too favorable, don’t you agree? I should think I’d like dark clouds, cooler temperatures, violent bolts of lightning and booming thunder to herald my demise. As if the Outer Realms were rebelling against my unfortunate departure.”
“Then what can you tell us?” Quilla demanded, obviously not a fan of Nalini’s flowery description of her own death.
“I’m here to help you, of course,” Nalini announced brightly before pointing at me. “You, that is.”
I jerked back in surprise, and Quilla sent me a deadly, traitorous glance. “Me?” I repeated. “I wasn’t aware I required help.”
“Of course you do. Was it not your mark that foresaw my many-greats-granddaughter here as being your one true love?” she asked.
“Er, yes?” I said, feeling suddenly uneasy about all this.
Nalini nodded grandly. “Great. Then I am here to assist with helping her fall in love with you.”
“Oh!” My eyebrows rose. “But I don’t need your help with wooing her, thanks.”
“I’m certain,” Nalini allowed with a graceful nod. “You’re a pretty boy. Charismatic and entertaining. I’ve no doubt she’ll eventually succumb to your charms over time. But to speed the process along—”
“No,” I said sternly. “There will be no speeding the process along. Quilla will not be forced to do anything she doesn’t wish to do. And if she chooses to never return my feelings at all, that is her own prerogative. You’ll not interfere with her heart or mind as you did with the ferry master. You got that?”
Relief flooded from Quilla’s emotions. She was grateful to hear I’d never do anything to impose on her regard for me against her will. I would’ve taken her hand then and squeezed it in reassurance. But she’d probably slice it off if I touched her right now, so I settled for sending her a heartfelt nod.
“Child, I am here to help.” Nalini spoke the words calmly enough, but the displeasure in her eyes was obvious. “It would be to your own advantage to remain civil.”
I inclined my head. “You’re right. My apologies for the lack of decorum. Your suggestions were upsetting my mate, is all, and I responded to that. I do appreciate the generous offer, even though I have no idea why you issued it.”
“All I can say is that a union between you two would benefit me
greatly.”
I wrinkled my brow. “Why?”
Nalini’s hand shook as she wiped at the corner of her eye where blood welled. Just as blood would well in Melaina’s eye when her emotions ran too kindly. Damn. She really was bound by a dark curse that prevented her from telling us too much information.
“That is all I can say,” she answered simply.
I glanced toward Quilla. She squinted at me as if trying to figure out what I was thinking. So I spun back to Nalini.
“The amulets,” I blurted, wincing when Quilla’s emotions jarred with fear and worry. She didn’t want me telling Corandra Graykey her plans. “The ones you passed out to the original nineteen so they could return to Earth if they so wished?”
Nalini’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “What about them?”
“We need…” I glanced toward Quilla when her emotions jerked with even more wariness. Then I turned back to her ancestor and finished with, “Three. We need three of those amulets.”
Bubbling out an amused laugh, Nalini set a hand against her chest and asked, “Why ever would you seek those silly old stones? Certainly, you’re not—”
Her laughter died an immediate death as she glanced between me, Quilla, and Melaina. “No,” she said suddenly. “No, you can’t possibly be considering going to the old world? Permanently? Being of my blood, you and one chosen companion can visit as often as you like,” she told Quilla. “There’s no need to stay there forever.”
“It’s the only way she can completely avoid the side effects of her curse,” I explained.
“No,” Nalini snapped. “The only way to avoid—ahhh!” Gasping in pain, she pressed the palms of her hands into her eye sockets, but blood streamed down under her fingers, while more leaked from her nose and her ears.
“Amans?” Wicket rushed to her side in concern and gathered her into his arms.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” she assured him, even as she rested her cheek on his shoulder and let him comfort her. “I said too much. That’s all.”
“What were you saying?” Melaina asked, stepping curiously forward. “Do you know how to break the curse? Was that it?”