Alaskan Fury (47 page)

Kaashifah hesitated.  He was
admitting he had fallen in
love
with her?  Her chest began to hurt with
a new sensation—the sudden pounding of her heart.  The sound of her own blood
rushing in her ears, she looked down at the big hand that held hers and watched
his ebony fingers slide gently across her knuckles as he waited for her
response.  Before she realized what she’d done, she gave him her other hand to
hold, as well.

‘Aqrab froze, seemingly as
surprised to see that as Kaashifah herself was.  Both of them sat there in
silence for long minutes, the snow melting around them, looking at their
clasped hands. 
He tamed a Fury,
she thought, both horrified and…
blissfully
happy
?

“Wrap it in law,” Kaashifah
whispered.  “I would take your offer.”

‘Aqrab looked up at her again,
his violet eyes anxious.  He took a long, uneven breath, glanced at the
surrounding snow, and let it out in a whoosh.  Biting his lip, he met her gaze
again.

“Trust,” she told him softly.

‘Aqrab swallowed, looked back
down at their clasped hands.  For the first time, when he spoke, ‘Aqrab’s voice
didn’t boom out in confidence as he raised his voice with Law.  While it
carried the same ringing echo, it was softer, almost timid.  “I, Yad al-‘Aqrab,
sand-singer of the Scorpion clan, firstborn son of Bakr al-Shihab, eleventh
djinni Lord of the Fourth Lands, hereby offer a bargain to you, Kaashifah the
Fury, Handmaiden to Ares, Warrior-Priestess of Horus, Angel of Vengeance, and
Justice of the Battlefields:  Swear upon your honor that you will not take my
head once you are free, and I will remove the Third Lander from your blood.  Do
you accept?”  There was fear in his eyes as he waited.

Kaashifah stared at him.  He hadn’t
even put
magic
to it, as he had with the dragon.  It wasn’t, “Allow
yourself to be put under a geas never to take my head…”  All he was asking for,
in his bargain, was for her to say
words
.  Anyone could say
words
. 
Words meant
nothing
.

…and, as she had learned by
spending three thousand years with a djinni, everything.

He continued to watch her with a
nervous tension to his face. 

“I want you to change it,”
Kaashifah said.

She saw the hesitation there, the
uncertainty, and for a moment, it looked like he would recant his bargain. 
Very slowly, the djinni said, “Change it to what, little wolf?”

“Trade it for a handful of snow,”
Kaashifah said.

She felt the sudden heat roll off
of the djinni’s body, felt his fingers tighten on her hand.  He bit his lip and
looked away, at the endless expanse of white in all directions. 

“It is said,” Kaashifah said
softly, “that the Djinn love to play with fire.”

Very slowly, ‘Aqrab turned back
to her, and a tentative, shy smile crossed his lips.  “Such is said,” he agreed
softly.  He watched her a moment, seemingly debating in his head.  Then, after
a pause, he raised his voice, stronger now, reciting her new bargain.  “I amend
the bargain.  Give me a handful of snow, and I will remove the Third Lander
from your blood.  Do you accept?”

Kaashifah smiled at him, her
chest warming.  “I do.”

Instantly, violet energy began
twisting around him in a cyclone, setting his words into Law before it
disappeared.  Then the enormous djinni slumped over her hands as the magic
departed, biting his lip, looking like a nervous deer.

Kaashifah went to move her hand. 
At first, the djinni held onto it, tightening his grip in a spasm.  He stared
down at her wrist for long minutes and swallowed.  Then, ever-so-gently, he
released it.

Her heart pounding, now,
Kaashifah twisted, dipped her hand into the snow, and held it out to him.

For what seemed like centuries, ‘Aqrab
only stared at the whiteness as someone would watch a scorpion.

“It’s melting,” Kaashifah
whispered.

‘Aqrab watched the snow melt for
an eternity before he took an unsteady breath.  Then, biting his lip, the
djinni very slowly twisted his big palm up and held it out for her.

Most of what Kaashifah dumped
onto his hand was water, but it must have been enough, for the djinni stiffened
with, “You have given me a handful of snow, fulfilling your side of the
bargain.”  And then, his eyes widening, he was moving towards her, putting his
wet hand upon her back, between the shoulder-blades, the other between her
breasts.  Kaashifah felt the caged animal in the back of her mind suddenly give
a startled yelp, the surprised snort of an angry predator, then felt it
wrenched from her consciousness entirely.

In that moment, Kaashifah felt
her wings.  Glowing and radiant within her, she pushed them out, then, and the
djinni fell backwards, covering his eyes, as the entire countryside lit up with
the light of her feathers.  Kaashifah barely noticed.  Her soul was singing as
she got to her feet, feeling the full rush of her Fury for the first time in
millennia.  She stretched them out, extending her long-lost limbs out in a
twenty-foot spread, then gave a tentative flap, making the snow billow around
her, falling in quickly-melting swirls on the djinni’s ebony body. 

Laughing, Kaashifah pounded the air,
throwing gusts of snow in all directions, reveling in her wings.  The djinni,
for his part, had curled into a ball at her feet, head tucked against his body,
trying to avoid the drifts.

…or something else.

Kaashifah hesitated, and, still
exhilarated with the thrill of her Fury, she reluctantly drew them in,
tightening them against her back.

Very slowly, the djinni unfolded,
lifting his head timidly.

“Ah,” he managed, still lying on
his side, blinking up at her, “I forgot how pretty you are, little wolf.”  Yet
he had that wild, terrified look of something that was about to flee to the
Fourth Realm, never to be seen again.

Kaashifah grinned and dropped to
her knees in front of him.  Even as the djinni started to shy away, she wrapped
her arms around him in a hug.

At first, ‘Aqrab was stiff
beneath her, obviously expecting a fist through his chest, or a foot through
his spine, or a sword through his brain, but, as she gingerly lifted him up and
wrapped her wings around him, cradling his body in their cushioned light, he
gradually relaxed into her embrace.  Kaashifah continued to hold him for long
minutes, feeling him breathe, reveling in the energy she once again felt
flowing through her body, no longer a constant struggle to pull it from behind
a shield of Void, but
there
, waiting, begging to be used. 

Before she knew it, ‘Aqrab
slipped his big arms around her waist, and she felt him start to shudder, the
snow melting in a wave around them as he wept into her shoulder.  “Thank you,”
he whimpered.

He
thanks
me
?
Kaashifah wondered, confused.  By growing her wings, she had gained a foot of
height, putting her head just under his chin, but he still dwarfed her for
size.

“I thought you were going to kill
me,” he blurted in a teary, snotty confession on her shoulder.  “Goddess, I
thought you were going to—”

Very slowly, grinning, Kaashifah
began tightening her grip.

The djinni stopped sniffling.  Nervously,
he said, “What are you doing, mon Dhi’b?”

Kaashifah lunged into the air,
holding him to her chest, and launched out over the mountainside.  The djinni
screamed and clung to her in a death-grip, his legs tightening around her in a
spasm.

“You once told me you wished you
could fly, ‘Aqrab,” she said, pounding the air with her wings, dragging them
skyward.  “You said you thought wings were wasted on Furies.”

“I twisted words!  I twisted
words!” ‘Aqrab babbled.

Kaashifah laughed and spiraled
upwards, buoyed by her magics…and her joy.  Far beneath them, the dragon stuck
his head out of his cave, looked up, made a startled grunt, and ducked back
inside in a hiss.  Kaashifah ignored him.  “
Look
out there, ‘Aqrab.  You
can see the
world
.”  Indeed, not even the mountains were impeding their
view anymore.  The air itself was thin, the clouds at their feet.

The djinni, for his part, kept
his face buried in her neck and let out a belly-deep, unending, “Too
hiiiiigh
!”

Kaashifah laughed and spun,
dragging them further skyward.  As the djinni shrieked, she rolled and dove,
twisting through the air with happy reunion, abandoning every care to the
ecstasy of stretching her wings.  She twirled and plummeted, then gained
altitude and soared into a freefall before pulling them up at the last minute
and arcing down across the mountainside. Her bliss, however, was cut somewhat
short when the djinni’s body convulsed and she felt a hot wetness down her
back.  She paused, spreading her wings mid-air, holding herself in place with a
pillar of energy to the earth.

“‘Aqrab,” she said evenly.  “What
was that?”

The djinni fled realms.  She
heard him scream as he started to fall.

Laughing, Kaashifah dove to
follow the faint outline of heat-shimmer against the snow below.  She pulled
beneath him, rolled onto her back, and said, “Come on, ‘Aqrab, I’ll take you
back.”

The djinni popped back into the
First Realm and she grabbed him, then slowed their descent in a mixture of
magic and air-pulverizing wingbeats.

Once she lowered his feet gently
to the ground, the djinni, gasping, backed out of reach.  “I’m sorry.  I will
clean it.  I swear.  I just need…breath…can’t think…”

Kaashifah grinned.  Not even the
smell of vomit was dampening her enjoyment of the moment.  “Not a fan of
heights, I take it, ‘Aqrab?”

The djinni gave her a greenish
grimace that she supposed had been meant as a smile.  “If it was just the
heights, mon Dhi’b, I think I would have been fine, but you were spinning so
fast I could not tell which way was up.”

Kaashifah waved a dismissive
hand.  “You’ll get used to it.”

‘Aqrab’s eyes widened and he took
an immediate step backwards.

“
Someday
,” Kaashifah
laughed.  “
Someday
you will get used to it.  I plan to take you up again
tomorrow.  No spinning this time, just flying.”

“Flying where?” he asked,
suspicious.

“South,” she said.  “It’s time my
sister and I showed these Inquisitors their mistake.”

‘Aqrab cocked his head at her
slightly, and he tentatively cleared his throat.  “And, uh, what are you going
to do if your sister is…not of the same mind?”

Kaashifah stared at him.  “You
mean if she’s
actually
an Inquisitor?”  She snorted.  “Impossible.”  She
went over to a knee-high bush that had been exposed by the djinni’s heat and
bent down to snap off a short branch.  Holding it up, she ran her energy up it
and the twig began to glow with the same searing light as her wings.

“I need a sword,” she commented,
watching the branch glow.  She experimentally swiped at the snow with it, and the
snow peeled away from the branch, eaten by her energy.  Grinning, she slapped the
radiant twig at the bush, showering branches in all directions as it sliced
through its brethren.  Still, the result was like nothing she could have gotten
with a blade.  She lifted it to peer at the beam of light.  Small and slender,
but with too much give… 
Gods,
but she needed a
sword
.  Lowering
it so that the light was no longer blinding her to her darker surroundings, she
said, “You want to bargain with me for a sword, ‘Aqrab?”

‘Aqrab was eying the tiny,
scraggly stick at her side with all the wary respect he would give a basilisk’s
spine.  “Perhaps another time,” the djinni responded, not taking his eyes from
the stick.  “I’m afraid I’m still recovering from the last one.”

Kaashifah grunted and tossed the
twig into the snow.  After burrowing through the icy drift, the brilliant
energy of a Fury faded, then went out.

A sound from ‘Aqrab as the
snowdrift went dark made Kaashifah turn.  The djinni had, she realized, been
holding his breath.  Slowly, he met her eyes, and the nervousness was still
there, his fear bared and raw.  His gaze flickered to her feathers and he bit
his lip. 

Fear
.  It had been
something Kaashifah had grown accustomed to, as a Fury, but it was startling to
see it now, after so many years with the djinni.

I’m terrifying him
. 

The thought made her heart sink. 
As a Fury, her job had ensured that everything had always been terrified of
her, and she had long ago learned to block out the hurt in order to survive. 
But now, watching the djinni poised before her like a frightened rabbit,
Kaashifah felt her wingtips droop to the snow.  She didn’t, she realized, want
the djinni to be afraid of her.

Give him time, sister,
the
mountainside seemed to whisper, the gusts creeping over the snowdrifts
caressing her feathers, renewing the passion within her.  For a long,
rebellious moment, Kaashifah wanted to launch herself back into the sky to surf
the winds and revel in her Fury, regardless of the djinni’s fears.  But, very
reluctantly, she pulled her wings back within her body, the change shifting her
back to her smaller human form.  Almost immediately, the djinni seemed to
relax. 

“Better?” she asked, peering up
at him.

‘Aqrab gave an uneasy laugh and
rubbed the back of his neck as he looked down at her.  “Forgive me, mon Dhi’b,
but that brings back…bad…memories.” 

And then Kaashifah realized that
perhaps ‘Aqrab, in play, had stated something with a deeper truth.  After three
millennia with a Fury, even after successfully
courting
her, he was
still a prisoner of war.  All this time, bound by a mere five hundred cubits. 
She bit her lip at the sudden wash of guilt.  Softly, she said, “If I made my
wish, what would you…”