Defy (22 page)

“They also found tracks leading away from the
cave,” Uriel said. “Tate is alive.”

Skye covered her face with her hands and
leaned into Caleb’s chest. The sounds of her emotion filled the
room. Caleb closed his eyes briefly as the news sank in.

“Harold and his team have started tracking
her. We’re going to bring your children home.”

Ariana had been pushed beyond her limits. The
Mercesti took so much of her energy to see to their needs that she
didn’t have enough left to take care of her own. She felt like a
wasted shell of her former self.

When she considered giving up, she thought of
Tisha and the unknown Mercesti female. She couldn’t prevent
remembered images of them lying beneath Deimos, their bodies
ravaged and their blood flowing into him. It would be one thing to
drop dead due to the abuse of her Lekwuesti power…but quite another
to suffer their fates. Eirik made it clear that her refusal to
cooperate would most certainly result in that horrifying
consequence.

And still, just then, she couldn’t find it in
her to press on.

They were hiking up the side of a mountain.
She had come to learn that they only ever walked on the mainland to
avoid detection by Waresti air scouts. They knew that her lavender
wings would stand out in stark contrast to the red of the Mercesti
wings, and they weren’t taking any chances. Thus, her hope of
possibly being spotted and rescued had faded long ago.

Because the higher elevation resulted in
colder temperatures, the Mercesti had demanded thicker boots and
clothes. After generating the items, she felt drained of every last
vestige of energy. Her feet moved clumsily on the uneven rocks as
they urged her forward with threats and physical goading. The cold
sliced through her, despite the cloak and boots she wore over her
gown. She stumbled and fell numerous times. She no longer felt the
cuts and bruising, however. She no longer felt anything.

When she tripped on a rock and slid back down
the mountain several feet, she didn’t get back up. She felt several
heavy blows from boots landing on her body. She vaguely heard
aggravated voices cursing at her and issuing threats. Someone even
grabbed a handful of her hair and tried to drag her up that way.
None of it had any effect.

“Release her,” came Eirik’s voice.

She saw him as a nebulous shape in the
darkness. Her eyes couldn’t focus.

“We need her coherent,” he continued. “She is
of no use to us otherwise. And we are nearly to our goal.”

He lifted her. She wanted to protest. Even in
her weakened state, she loathed the idea of being touched by him.
Unfortunately, her mind couldn’t make her body obey. She faded into
a rather blissful state of oblivion.

It felt like only moments later when sharp
pain blasted through her face. Jerking awake, she instinctively
brought a hand to her cheek and jaw where the hard slap left a
lingering sting.

“She is awake,” someone barked.

Disoriented, she shifted into a sitting
position and looked around. She was on the ground in some kind of
inside chamber. Besides a few red balls of Mercesti light, the
space was dark. Still, Ariana sensed the size of the room as she
was roughly hauled to her feet. Mercesti soldiers surrounded her,
preventing her from moving.

“Good,” Eirik said. His voice echoed, as
though he was on the other side of the chamber. “The key to
activate the wall should be just over here.”

Curious despite herself, Ariana peeked
between the shoulders of the Mercesti standing in front of her. She
couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of them, however. Then
there was a flash of red light.

“There we are,” Eirik said triumphantly. He
lifted his hand from the wall. Whatever he had done had caused the
surge of light.

Ariana’s eyes widened. On the massive wall in
front of her were hundreds of weapons. They all rested behind what
appeared to be a shield of red Mercesti energy.

“Come here, Ariana,” Eirik commanded.

A strong shove from behind got her moving,
and she decided it wasn’t worth fighting the remaining few steps to
reach Eirik. He watched her approach, his cold red eyes trained on
her face.

“Welcome to one of Grolkinei’s War Rooms,” he
said when she stopped in front of him. “The battle fought against
the daughters of Saraqael was planned in this very room.”

Stunned, Ariana gave the chamber a more
careful glance. When she looked over her shoulder, she spotted
something that made her mouth hang open. Three life-like
depictions—special Estilorian images called wherlins—stood there.
They resembled
kyria
Amber,
adelfi
Olivia and
adelfi
Skye. The wherlins wore very revealing red dresses
quite unlike anything Ariana had ever seen the sisters wear.

“Of course,” Eirik continued as she looked
from the wherlins to the huge table in the center of the chamber,
“that turned out to be a monstrous failure that led to Grolkinei’s
downfall. It was only a matter of time, in our opinion. Which is
why we stopped following him.”

She again turned her gaze to him. His words
surprised her. Grolkinei had been notorious for killing any being
who refused to follow him.

“We do not follow anyone,” he said. “I
explained as much to the weak female, Kanika, while Deimos was at
her throat.”

Shock and fear rushed through her at his
words. The acting leader of the Mercesti was dead? Kanika was the
female who had, for all intents and purposes, been the one to take
the powerful Grolkinei’s life and then assume his role over her
class. And she had fallen to the same Mercesti Ariana was now
forced to serve?

Hopelessness flooded her.

“The sword that killed Volarius was a point
of pride for Grolkinei,” Eirik said as he moved closer to the wall.
“He wanted it on display for others to admire, but he did not want
anyone to have the ability to get to it. Thus, he approached me
about creating this shield.”

Ariana watched as he touched the red light of
the shield. Using the index finger of his right hand, he drew a
series of complicated symbols in the air. Each completed symbol
burst into a bright red spark of light as he finished it, resulting
in a bell-like sound. When he signed the last symbol, the red wall
of light encasing the weapons abruptly vanished.

“I have wanted to do that for a very long
time,” he said. “Unfortunately, Grolkinei was at least wise enough
to keep this room heavily guarded.”

He moved to the center of the wall, where a
large broadsword was displayed. Because it was high up on the wall,
he had to bring forth his wings and fly up to it. Despite the
sword’s size, he lifted it from its stand with ease and then
returned to the ground.

Ariana half-expected him to swing it in a
wide arc and take her head from her shoulders. Instead, he held it
with the pommel extended toward her.

“It is time to see whether you live,” Eirik
intoned, “or whether these soldiers get to have their fun with you
before Deimos finishes you off.”

Swallowing, Ariana eyed the sword. She
wouldn’t be able to lift the thing, so Eirik certainly wasn’t in
any danger of her trying to attack him with it. But she didn’t know
what the residual energy on the weapon would do to her. Still,
there was no getting out of this. If she wanted any chance of
surviving, she had to try.

“You must put it down,” she said at last. Her
voice was barely above a whisper. “Otherwise your energy will
impact the results.”

After giving her a long stare, he strode over
to the table and set the sword on the length of stone. Ariana
followed. Her gaze moved over to the wherlins of the daughters of
Saraqael. Somehow, having even the images in the same chamber with
her gave her strength. They had managed to defeat the most feared
Mercesti regime in Estilorian history. She could do this.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and
cleared her thoughts. Although she didn’t know specifically what
she sought, she brought a likely image to mind. Nine elders joined
in thought and purpose. Energy cycling between them, growing with
ferocity as they honed their focus. An unrolled length of parchment
between them, its surface glowing with luminescent writing.
Murmured words of power, unintelligible but potent. A searing flash
symbolizing the culmination of their efforts.

When she opened her eyes, there was a wash of
lavender light in the dark chamber, indicating the use of her
second power. She reached out and touched the sword’s pommel.

Three separate lengths of lavender light
speared out from the weapon.

Three?
she thought in dismay.

“Can you find the scroll?” Eirik asked.

Her heart thrummed as she considered the
reason for the different paths of light. Perhaps one path led to
the place where the idea of the scroll had been conceived. Another
could lead to where it had been created. And the third might just
be the one that led to the scroll itself. Her second power didn’t
usually track things in this manner, but this was by far the most
powerful and mysterious object she had ever tried to find. She
supposed anything was possible.

Deimos stepped closer and closer the longer
she hesitated, escalating her fear. The truth was, she had no idea
whether any of the three paths led to what Eirik sought. They could
lead to objects entirely unrelated to the scroll.

So she did the only thing she could. She lied
through her teeth.

Taking a bracing breath, she replied, “Yes. I
can take you to the scroll.”

Obtain [
v.
uh
b-
teyn
]: To come
into possession of; get, acquire or procure,

as through an effort or by a request:
to obtain
permission
.

Tate wasn’t entirely sure how to interpret
Sparky’s sudden departure after he saved her from the korrigans.
Just when he was surely about to agree to send Nyx after her, he
disappeared. Maybe he had been unable to maintain his connection to
her for some reason, she guessed. She stood there for several
minutes in case he tried to reconnect with her, but in the end, he
didn’t return.

She put it from her mind, knowing Nyx would
find her eventually.

So off she went, toting her fishing pole and
the slayer grass knife with her. Because she was handier with her
nunchucks than with a blade, she created a slot for the knife in
the lining of her wet boot and carried it there. It was thin, so it
slid nicely between the thick layers of leather.

Although she’d just about drowned and she
still had no idea where she was or how she’d ever find her way
home, she started her hike with more confidence and optimism than
she had the day before. She’d managed to survive so far on her
own—well, with Sparky’s help. If her luck held, she’d come across
some Waresti she could approach to get her to Central, where
someone would surely know how to contact her parents.

That didn’t mean she could afford to be less
vigilant, she reminded herself as she trekked through the forest.
Where there were Waresti, there could also be Mercesti. She
shuddered to think what could happen if she ended up at the mercy
of the dark ones.

When she had dried enough, she paused to
style her hair, placing her shift-cloak over her shoulders for ease
in transporting the garment once she was done. Then she continued
on, keeping a careful eye out for food.

She emerged cautiously from the edge of the
forest about an hour later. Before her was a vast, sunlit expanse
of green, vine-like plants. Curious, she moved cautiously from the
cover of the trees to examine the plants.

Strawberries.

After staring at the bright red fruit for a
moment to convince herself she wasn’t imagining things, Tate jumped
up and down and spun around in a maniacal form of dance. Her
skirt-cloak floated around her shoulders as she held back a loud
whoop of joy. Then she laid her fishing pole on the ground and
started picking and eating the ripe and delicious fruit.

Normally, she wouldn’t have needed more food
the day after eating a meal. But the rather small fish hadn’t been
very satisfactory, and she suspected that it had been quite some
time since her last proper meal. The strawberries were like a
miracle on her tongue.

She knew better than to overdo it, however.
If she ate too much of the sweet fruit too quickly, her stomach
would likely cramp up on her. After eating enough to satisfy her,
she used some more fabric from her skirt to create a pouch and then
gathered as many berries as she could carry. Tying the pouch to the
end of her fishing pole, she slung it over her shoulder and then
continued her march.

The ground rose steadily throughout her hike
that day. Her calves burned and the air cooled. She wasn’t sure how
wise it was to be deliberately moving to a colder environment when
she lacked any clothing with which to warm herself. But she
couldn’t see turning around at that point.

When she reached the outer edge of the
strawberry field, she realized the ground dipped down for a bit
before leveling out and then rising again.

And from there it went up. And then up some
more.

Holy crap. She had reached a mountain.

Zachariah had fully planned on remaining in
the nice, plentiful glade for at least a couple of days. When he
woke up after the single night and adventure-filled morning spent
trapped in a dream with a stubborn, fluffy-haired vixen, however,
he changed his mind.

“Come along, Nyx,” he said as he picked up
his satchel. “Perhaps if we leave this place, she will leave me
alone.”

He knew that made no sense, seeing as they
had connected with each other a number of times in various
locations, but he felt a pressing need to move on.