Jayne Castle [Jayne Ann Krentz] (41 page)

Something else had happened to her at sunset, she recalled at one point. That was the time of day she

had married Ridge. The traditional time for a wedding ceremony. Her brow furrowed slightly at the

memory and she tried to put it out of her mind. How could she have let a man put his lock and key

around her throat?

Ridge was only a man, an incomplete creature seeking to control that which he needed in order to

recreate himself. His usefulness to her was very limited. The fact that she was pregnant by him meant that

she no longer needed him. But she didneed him. How could that be? Her head spun with the disorienting

whirl of thoughts.

He would take away her chance of freedom.

She did not want her freedom without him.

He would seek to control her.

She welcomed the conflict because it reinforced their bond of intimacy. There was a sensual excitement

in a battle that could not be completely won or lost.

He had a temper that came from the Dark end of the Spectrum.

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She had a talent for soothing the fury that burned in him.He would use his sensual power over her to

master her. She wielded a similar power over him.

No matter how the argument went in her head it made very little practical difference. The Keys had both

been freed. They sought each other now with increasing energy. She knew some-how that the one she

held was already vibrating faintly in response to the one Ridge must have found. Kalena could feel the

energy flowing from the case into her body. Soon she would be facing the Dark Key and the man who

held it.

The black mist caught her by surprise when it swirled angrily around her as she turned a bend in the trail.

Kalena halted, aware of the roiling cold that had lain in wait to trap her. Her awareness turned to scorn.

"Foolish men," she called, listening to the echo of her voice. "I have brought the Key with me, just as you

ordered. I have no intention of trying to flee. I will be happy to show you the results of your stupid

meddling. Call back the mist. It can't touch me now"

There was no response. The black fog continued to swirl around her, but it was clear it could not touch

her. It could and did, however, blank out her view of mountains, sky and trail. In a few seconds she was

encircled by the mist, although she was safe from its icy tendrils.

Slowly she moved forward. The mist ebbed and flowed around her, seeking to snarl her arms and legs in

cold bonds. But Kalena was safe from it and she knew it. She kept walking straight ahead, although she

could not see more than a couple paces in front of her.

She knew when she entered the caves. The darkness around her took on a different texture. The mist

began to fade and Kalena saw figures moving toward her with lamps. They halted a discreet distance

away and she realized that as long as she held the case, they could approach no closer. Kalena smiled

the cool, aloof smile of a woman who knew she was safe from the touch of men.

"Idiots," she murmured, "you have no idea of what you have set free. You played with the tools of a

power you don't begin to understand, and soon those tools will destroy you."

"Not so, woman." Griss held up his lamp so that she could see his austere face and glittering eyes. "You

are the one who lacks intelligence and comprehension. But that is only to be expected. You are merely

female. Come. Meet your opposite on the Spectrum. It is almost sunset and your groom awaits. The

consummation of this marriage of fire and ice crystal will change the future of the world. Too bad you will

not live to see it."

"Your threats are meaningless." Kalena walked forward obediently, amused when the hooded men fell

back. "But I will come with you because there is something here that must be done."

There was a shuffling of booted feet along the corridor, and Kalena followed the cloaked figures. She

was led through a bewildering array of cavern passages and she realized almost at once there was no

need to blindfold her. She was lost by the tenth turning, but somehow, with the Key in her hand, she did

not feel lost.

Just when she had begun to wonder if the trip would ever end, Kalena realized that the stone beneath

her feet had changed to glass. Black glass.

The Key in her hand vibrated with energy.

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She paused, watching as the men ahead of her fanned out into a vast chamber that was completely lined

with dark glass. In the center of the room a fire burned, although no one was feeding the flames. Slowly,

she moved into the chamber, aware that the case in her hand was pulsing with power.

"Here is where you will meet your fate, woman. Your husband, who is also destined to be your

executioner, awaits." Griss waved her farther into the chamber with a mockingly dramatic sweep of his

caped arm and then stepped back. "And you, foolish woman that you are, cannot even try to run from

him."

Kalena looked across the expanse of the glass room and saw Ridge. He stood with his feet slightly

spread apart, as though he were braced for combat. In his hands he held a black metal case.

"So you decided to return," he called softly across the fire.

"I had no choice."

"That much is true." He took a few paces forward so that the firelight glowed on his harshly carved

features. The gold in his eyes was the color of the flames and just as dangerous.

Around them the members of the Cult of the Eclipse edged to the farthest walls of the chamber. Kalena

sensed them retreat to what they thought was safety and wanted to laugh. There was no safety to be

found in this chamber. Not now. A fierce, exultant energy washed through her.

"The Keys have been brought too close together," she told Ridge. "The power has been loosed and is

moving already. Can you feel it?"

"I feel it. Soon you will know just how weak and soft you really are, woman. You will learn the true

meaning of surrender. How do you dare to challenge me with the Light Key? I will enfold you in

darkness, take you and bind you completely to my will. And when it is done, the Light Key will be

destroyed."

"No, Fire Whip, you cannot destroy either me or the Key I hold. You are only a man and that which you

wield is darkness. It is the source of your lust and your fury and your pitiful masculine power. It cannot

survive a direct confrontation with anything from the Light end of the Spectrum. It can only rage and

swagger and try to dominate with no hope of doing so."

"Your female arrogance and pride are as false and foolish as your reasoning. You and all other women

exist only to serve men. But you in particular exist to serve me. All that is feminine is meant to bow before

all that is male. Just as the Light must ultimately surrender to the Dark, you must finally surrender to me."

"Stupid male. Don't you understand that the Dark exists only because of the Light? The Dark end of the

Spectrum is cold and lifeless. Only the Light end can bring forth life out of the Dark."

But the Light is meaningless without the Dark. Each end of the Spectrum is defined in terms of the other

end. One cannot exist without the other. To destroy one would be to destroy the other.

The words filtered through the haze of excitement Kalena was feeling. It was a lousy time to remember

Olara's teachings in philosophy. Kalena struggled to forget them. She needed to focus the whole of her

concentration on winning this confrontation.

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"The power of the Dark end of the Spectrum is limitless," Ridge told her in a rough, challenging voice.

He faced her from the other side of the fire, his lean, strong body taut with the masculine power that

shimmered in the flames in front of him. "All that is female is weak in the face of it, just as you are weak.

Don't you recall your own weakness, Kalena? Think about it. Remember the times you have surrendered

completely in my arms. When I touch you, you belong to me. You are mine to do with exactly as I wish.

Your Light Key will crumble just as easily when it confronts the Dark. Why don't you try to flee, woman,

while you can? I would enjoy the chase. I will come after you, run you down and crush you beneath me.

I will take you completely even as I destroy the Key that makes you so foolishly arrogant."

Ridge heard the words he had just spoken and scowled. A part of him really did want her to turn and

run to safety. But that made no sense. He was here to conquer her as man had always conquered

woman; as the night conquered the day. He didn't want her to escape. He wanted—no needed—to

subjugate her completely. It was his right, his heritage as a man. She belonged to him and he was free to

do what he wanted. But first he must crush her foolish bid for power.

"I would never run from you, Houseless bastard," Kalena taunted. "You are less than dust beneath my

feet, an illegitimate bastard who thought he could claim a heritage through me. Why should I run from

such as you?"

Ridge felt the fury begin to burn deep in his gut. He took another pace forward, the black case vibrating

almost painfully in his hand. "Then stay, Kalena, and learn the full extent of your weakness. Learn the

meaning of surrender. You are nothing more than a servant I have chosen to indulge. Before this is over

you will call me master."

"And you are nothing more than a tool whose usefulness is over! Before tonight is finished you will kneel

at my feet and beg for mercy"

They faced each other in the firelight, neither aware of the heat of the flames or the cowled men who

occupied the room with them. No one moved along the glass walls of the cavern. And then, without any

warning, both the black case and the silver one sprang open.

Kalena flinched at the shock wave that went through her, but she remained on her feet, staring down at

the writhing flames that formed the Light Key.

Ridge, too, felt the jolt of raw energy that coursed through him when his case flew open. Fathomless

cold wafted upward from the black object that was exposed in the box. The time had come. He reached

eagerly into the case and his fingers closed around ice that was so bitterly cold he thought it would freeze

him to his bones. But he held fast. He could do nothing else.

On the other side of the fire Kalena was unable to resist putting her fingers into the white flames of the

Light Key even though the heat was so intense she was certain her whole body would ignite. Her hand

tightened around a white fire that flowed through her.

The black case and the silvery white case fell to the glass floor unheeded as Kalena and Ridge faced

each other with the Keys to the Stones of Contrast.

Kalena knew the Key she held was no longer a tool or an object; it was a part of her. It consumed her,

drove her, guided her. With it she was infinitely more powerful than the insolent male with the golden

eyes, infinitely more powerful than all he represented. With the Key she could conquer him, make him

plead for mercy. She could destroy him if she wished.

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But she did not wish to destroy him.

The thought came to her like a cold shock in the midst of hot anger. Ridge was the father of her child.

He was the man to whom she had given her heart. He was the other half of herself.

Ridge was aware of the power that was flooding him, urging him to go forward and release the

devastating potential of himself and the weapon he held. They were one and the same, he realized. The

Key was connected to him in some manner that defied comprehension. With this Key he could master

Kalena and all the lightness that surrounded her. If she defied him, he could destroy her.

But he did not want to destroy Kalena.

The realization dazed him. He wanted to subdue her, master her, force her to acknowledge him as her

lord, but he did not want to destroy her. He wanted to take her, bury himself in her soft warmth. He

wanted to feel that combination of exultation and satisfaction that was his every time he held her in an

intimate embrace. She was his and he was sworn to protect her. He was honor bound to protect her. He

must protect her. She was his other half. His opposite. She was the Light that balanced the Dark within

him.

The Key trembled in his grasp and the icy cold spread deeper into his body. In some distant corner of

his mind he understood suddenly that if he didn't control the ice, it would control him. And if the Key held

complete power over him he would be unable to stop it from shattering Kalena. Dammit, he would not let

himself be used as the instrument of her destruction. He wanted her with a raging desire that was stronger

than the Dark Key's drive to destroy the Light.

A deep, hot fury seethed in him, the kind of anger that made the steel of Countervail glow with fire. He

would not be used in this way.

He would control the Key.

To do that, Ridge knew, he would need to halt the flow of ice that threatened to ensnare him. He must

warm the Key with the force of his own inner fire.