bedeviled & beyond 07 - beset & bewildered (12 page)

My stomach roiled at the thought of food, but I knew I needed it. Taking the bar from him, I tried a smile. It felt like a death grimace. “Thanks. Sorry for snapping at you.”

He shrugged. “I’d say I’m used to it but that would just get me yelled at again.”

I tore the covering off the bar. “Since when are you too delicate to be yelled at?”

“I’m not. But I don’t want you to waste your energy excoriating me. I’d rather you saved your prickly mood for the necromancer. You’ll need it there.”

I took a tiny bite, hoping to sneak the food past my roiling gut before it realized what had happened and recoiled. “You’ve met her before?”

He frowned. “Unfortunately.”

“Tell me about it.” A story was just the thing I needed to distract me from my physical discomfort. Even if it was a horror story.

“I’d rather not talk about it.”

“Why not?”

He shrugged, but I noted the tightness around his eyes and mouth. Something about the experience had seriously spooked the unspookable Slayer. Suddenly I had to know what it was. “Tell me. Maybe talking about it will help.”

He gave a bitter snort. “Help who? It certainly won’t help me.”

“Me,” I told him softly. “I’ll feel better if I know what I’m going up against.”

His expression softened and, finally, he nodded. “You’re right. It’s best if you’re prepared.”

I risked another little bite, chewing slowly.

He frowned as if considering how or where to start and then began his story. “Its name is Morta.” He glanced down at me. “The Necromancer. Morta is omnisexual, a creature with no predetermined sex that consumes the fear and death of others.”

Despite my determination to listen without reaction, I shuddered. I took another bite to cover up the movement. “Lovely.”

He inclined his head. “Yeah. The thing’s a real peach. I came here with a thousand soldiers at the behest of Queen Persuis.”

“Queen of the red dragons?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“It was not widely known but Queen P had trouble bearing female offspring. She finally had a daughter strong enough to rule but the child was killed by the royals.”

“I remember that. Astra was involved somehow.”

He grinned. “It was how I met your sister.”

I really didn’t like the grin on his face. “Anyway...”

“Yes, Queen P asked me to accompany her to see Morta in the hopes that the necromancer could remove the flaw inside her body which was keeping her from bearing healthy females.”

I frowned. “But if I remember right, she had several sons.”

“She did. You know as well as I do that the dragons have a matriarchal society. Men don’t rule Queendoms.”

“Smart.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “We’d been told how high the price would be before coming. But Queen P felt she had no choice. The future of her Queendom was at stake. If she didn’t produce a suitable female heir within her breeding life, there would be no one to rule the red dragons when she died.”

“What was the price?”

Slayer’s gaze slid away. A muscle in his jaw jumped and his hands fisted at his sides. “An unacceptable one.”

I wondered what could possibly be so horrible that it still affected Slayer, a strong man whose playful demeanor made it seem like nothing much disturbed him. “Tell me.”

He turned to me, his eyes suspiciously bright. I realized in that moment that whatever it had been, Slayer had felt its sting as much, if not more than the red queen had. “Morta’s powers are vast, beyond anything possible this side of Heaven or Hell. But only rarely is her help requested. Why do you think that is, Darma?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

Slayer pulled air into his lungs in a long, shaky breath. He glanced away, toward the front of the procession, where Astra and Dialle, with Gerch taking point, were about to step onto the mountain.

“The payment she demands in unimaginable. Outrageous.” His sexy dimples showed briefly as he gave me a grim smile.

I loved those dimples. But it gave me no pleasure to see them in that moment. “Tell me.”

“Her oldest son.” He scrubbed a large, square hand over his face, clearly upset. “Beezus...”

His voice tightened around the name and trailed off.

“She demanded his death?”

“She devoured his life force as payment for her healing power. It was a horrible thing to see. And Morta made us watch. It was one of the conditions.”

“But how could the queen do that to one of her children?”

Slayer shrugged. “Males have far less value in the queendoms than females. Still...” he drew in another shaky breath. “Persuis loved her son. It nearly killed her to see him die.”

We walked in silence for several moments―Slayer wrestling with the pain of reliving Beezus’s death and me terrified to learn what payment she would demand of us. Finally, I dragged my thoughts away from myself and reached for Slayer, grasping his hand. “Beezus was your friend?”

He didn’t respond for a moment and, when he finally did, his voice was thick with unshed tears. “We grew up together. I loved him like a brother.”

Something deep inside my heart tore at the news. I felt suddenly guilty for making him relive it. “I’m so sorry.”

He shook his head. “You were right. You need to know...to understand.” He turned a fierce gaze my way. “She’ll make it hurt, Darma. She’ll demand something that will tear you into tiny pieces. It’s what she does. She savors pain...relishes it.”

I nodded as if I understood. But of course I didn’t. I wouldn’t fully understand until I stood in the same place Queen Persuis had stood. And I suddenly realized how incredibly strong the red queen had been. I wasn’t at all sure I’d be that strong.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Night Bites

Eanie beanie monster meanie,

Eat my magic and die.

A shout went up at the head of the climbing column. My gaze jerked in that direction and, behind me on the steep slope, Slayer stopped climbing. “What is it?” he asked breathlessly.

“I’m not sure...”

The face of the mountain exploded outward and something long and black with bright yellow markings on its belly shot out and punched two of Gerch’s soldiers off the mountain. Arms flailing, the two men soared out into open space and, with their mouths open wide in silent screams, plunged to their deaths on the valley floor.

Horrified, I watched as the shimmery haze that had clung to the sky speared downward, covering them in a roiling miasma through which I could only see flailing feet and hands. When the haze finally rose upward again, there was nothing left of the devils except two skeletons that appeared yellow against the bright white of the snow. “Oh my god!” Something tugged in the center of my chest. A spark flared in my magic but I pushed it down.

Another shout sounded and the mountain burst again, sending four soldiers careening off its sides. I didn’t wait to see what would happen to them, turning to Slayer I screamed. “Shift! Hurry!”

But we didn’t have time. The frozen rock rolled beneath our feet and I had to fling myself to my belly to keep from being thrown off. Slayer grabbed for the rock as he tipped backward. His arm shot out, energy erupting from his hand in a short, powerful burst that slammed him forward with a soft grunt.

I grabbed his hand. “We need to shi...” The rock above us blasted outward. The snake-like creature crashed into the guard directly above me, sending him flying on a husky scream. Slayer threw himself over me as an avalanche of rocks bombarded us.

I clutched frantically at the mountain’s surface with my fingers and toes, glad I was wearing leather boots that allowed me to grip the jagged surface.

Slayer’s arm shot out and he slashed the thick, black appendage in half with a power arrow. The thing screamed as hot, black blood sizzled into the snow around us. The severed stub flailed wildly, smashing into the earth mere inches away from our legs..

Rocks erupted from the surface above us and rained down. A boulder the size of my head smashed into my forearm, sending agony spearing through me. My arm went numb and I lost my grip on the rock and started to slide.

Screams filled the air as, eruption after eruption sent Dialle’s people flying to their deaths above and below us. The way the path was being obliterated, I realized that, if Slayer and I survived the initial attack, we’d be trapped in the middle of the incline, unable to climb up or down.

Slayer wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me against his long, hard body. His heart beat a rapid staccato against my back. “I’ve got you, Princess.” He shot energy into the rock above our heads, creating a deep crevice he could grip. His arm a tight band around my middle, he did the same thing down by our feet and then shoved my boots into it with his foot. “Stay close to the rock.”

Taking deep, gulping breaths, I shook my head. “We need to get off of this mountain.”

“Working on it.”

He swung his arm in an arc toward the sky above us and I looked up frowning. “What are you do...?” The question died on my lips as I realized danger stalked us from above too. The deadly miasma that clouded the sky above our heads was sinking downward. Slayer’s energy sizzled orange and black through the roiling haze, eliciting a terrifying cacophony of screams. The screams vibrated beneath my ribs and my magic sparked again, flaring outward as the lethal mist became more agitated.

Unfortunately, rather than slow the monsters down, his attack just seemed to piss them off. Angry faces appeared in the midst of the haze, with dead black eyes and gaping mouths filled with long, serrated teeth.

Darma!

The rock rumbled beneath us. I sent my energy into it and found the aura of a massive creature heading our way. If it managed to find its way to the surface, Slayer and I would be dead. “Another one’s coming!” I shouted.

He sprayed the twisting fog above us with another burst of magic. In response, two shrieking entities shot downward, teeth bared.

Instinctively I blasted them with power and they shattered into tiny pieces as they reached us. But not before one of them tore a chunk out of my hand.

Darma!

The ground rumbled again and all around us small chunks of icy rock tore loose and sifted downward.
I’m kind of busy here, Astra.

There isn’t much time. Use your necromancer energy.

The crevice Slayer had made for our feet crumbled away and I slid downward several feet with a yelp.
What the hell are you talking about, Astra? I don’t have necromancer energy.

You do. I’ve felt it in you. Trust me on this. Your magic is responding to the lethal mist hanging above us. Those are the dead, Darma. Let the energy go and harness them to kill this thing attacking us. I’ll join my magic to yours.

The rock beneath Slayer and me burst outward and a thick, meaty appendage slammed into us. I flew off the rock with Slayer at my back, still wrapped around me.

Do it, Darma!

With nothing to lose, I opened myself up to the energy that kept sparking in my chest. It swelled to the boundary of my skin and hesitated, throbbing there as if looking for a spark to ignite it. Frosty air splashed against my face, buffeted us with numbing cold as we plunged downward. Slayer’s body stiffened and I felt the atmosphere start to change as he tried to pull us out of the air and into a shift. We were falling too fast. There wouldn’t be enough time.

I threw back my head and screamed, sending the energy I was binding beneath my skin out into the frigid air. The magic pulsed from me in an energy-drenched cloud that created a sonic boom as it hit the dense, cold environs. Its effect on the dead hovering over us was immediate. The cloud condensed, tightened into a vibrating coil of agitation, and then burst outward in thick ribbons of energy. The atmosphere beneath us turned heavy, like thick layers of cotton, and Slayer and I slammed to a stop in midair.

It was as if Slayer and I were encapsulated in a thick, gooey bubble of cold. I turned my head to look at him and found him frowning. “What the hell just happened?”

“I don’t know, I...” Our bubble shifted and we dropped several feet before it tightened around us again. As it usually did for me, fear transformed directly into rage. “Frunk me!” I fueled my energy with a shot of anger and felt the bubble quiver with agitation. That was when I realized how fragile my control was. “We need to shift...NOW!”

With a squeal, the bubble burst and Slayer and I fell the rest of the way to the ground. I hit hard enough to knock the wind out of me but not enough to be seriously hurt. However, if the thick cloud of angry dead arrowing toward us had their way, we were just seconds from dying ourselves.

I grabbed his hand. “Shift to the top. We’ll just have to risk where we end up.”

He grinned. “Be ready to shift-hop.”

The air around us shimmered in the beginnings of a shift and the dead shrieked again, enraged that they weren’t going to reach us in time. Then the energy swelled and everything went still and quiet.

We landed on the razor edge of a narrow ledge just below the mountaintop. As we started to fall, I yanked my magic forward and sent us into another shift, placing us safely in the center of the wide, flat patch of grass I’d spotted as we left our first shift.

Sound and movement returned with a rush as our feet slammed into the surprisingly unfrozen ground. I pinged off the grassy surface and flew forward, landing sprawled on my belly with a soft grunt. Slayer landed beside me, his big body kicking up dirt and grass in a long slide, before stopping. He turned his head to glare at me. “You really need to work on your shift-hops.”

I tried not to groan as I pushed painfully to my feet. “Give me a frunkin’ break. It’s not like I’ve had a chance to practice them.”

“You’re beginning to sound a lot like your sister, Princess,” said an amused sounding male voice behind us. “She seems to be rubbing off on you.”

I turned to glower at Gerch, whose broad red face was creased in a wide smile. “Yeah, like an oily stain.” I brushed dirt off the knees of my leather pants, grimacing as pain lanced my palms. Turning them over I noted that several small rocks were embedded there. “I was such a nice girl before I started hanging out with you guys.”