Lunatic (17 page)

His throat was burning. She was right. This was foolish. Only a fool would be stranded in the desert, dying from thirst, and refuse water.

Shaeda extended the goblet. "Drink."

Johnis's hand accepted the eluweiss before he consciously thought to reach for it. The compulsion was too great. Shaeda?

He pressed the silver lip to his mouth and drank.

Or had she done it for him?

The smooth liquid was sweet and burned all the way down, filling his stomach. A sharp pain twisted through his gut and the rest of his body, all the way to fingers and toes, and sent a buzz through his head. Everything seemed sharper, clearer. His senses heightened.

Greedily he drank the rest, each swallow further intensifying everything around him: the haze, the sand grinding beneath his feet, the feel of his clothes, Shaedas light touch.

His eyes narrowed, vision tinged with that purple haze. Heat coursed through him. Bubbles rippled along his bloodstream. The faces of his enemies now clearly shone in his mind's eye. Those who had destroyed Middle must die. All of them.

"Very good, my Johnis." Shaeda withdrew the goblet, and it disappeared. Her hand reached into the air and pulled down toward him. Now she held another badaii. She took a small bite from it, studied him.

"You please me, Johnis. Yet another gift shall I bestow, now that I see you trust me." She drew a small object from her hand. A ring. Small and silver. "This is most difficult. I fear your mother did not fare well."

His mother's ring.

A lump caught in his throat.

She cupped his hands and gently slid the ring on his finger. "Middle has been beset and overdrawn."

He was sick of running. Sick of being chased around in the desert with his life in his hands.

The days of being victim were over.

Johnis balled his fist as the internal river flooded and threatened to burst the dam that held his fragile sanity in check.

Shaedas power continued to spill into him. Heady, never-ending, and potent. Where before his senses were only heightened, now he saw in a completely new spectrum.

The Leedhan's mind revealed to him what befell Middle. He saw it all, saw the carnage through her vivid, multicolored eyes ...

Her siren song almost overwhelmed what she was saying.

Everything was a magnificent whirlwind, a cacophony of sensory pleasures.

"Much has occurred in five years, Johnis. The Forest Dwellers split; most became Horde and remained in Middle as you've seen it. Others became outlaws called albinos for their smooth skin. The Circle."

A split. Their forces split. Of course, there had been enough controversy when Johnis was last in Middle that this now made horrific sense. The council had been in upheaval, the leaders divided on how to address the matter of the Horde.

"Thomas became one of the outlaws," Shaeda said.

An invisible presence slid around Johnis's shoulders. Her spirit, the seat of her powers. Heady, bubbling to the surface. The dam was creaking. Small rivulets of water now broke through. The impending breach was near.

"In the end, Middle collapsed on itself," Shaeda said. "The outlaws raided the village and destroyed it."

Hate and bitterness clamped down and smashed through the dam walls. Something deep inside him fought for reason.

Johnis withdrew from her. "You could be lying."

"Regrettably, I am not."

Johnis glared at the silver ring and knotted his fists, heat rising in his chest. "Thomas would never do that."

From beneath the fog, Silvie moaned and sat up. "What's going ... ?"

He helped Silvie up. "It's the Horde I despise," he said.

"Johnis, yield but a moment longer. Yield. Listen. There is more.

"Then tell me!"

"Patience." Shaeda fixed him with a gaze, and once more he could not move. He stood fidgeting. "Patience. It is not only for the books that you were chosen, Johnis of Ramos."

"What, then?" he growled, angry at his inability to tear himself away from this woman whom he suddenly desired more than anything.

Shaeda glided over the sand. "It is truth that restrains you, and such truth alone. Your eyes are open now, and you see clearly."

"Johnis ... ?" Silvie trailed off.

Why was he so resistant?

He'd followed his heart.

She was here.

"In my half of the world, I possess all authority and power, my Chosen One." Shaeda placed her hand over his heart, palm spread wide. Her long fingers covered most of his torso.

No, no need to resist.

His heart would always lead him.

"Half the world is mine, Johnis. Consider this."

"I'm listening."

"Half the world is mine, and more power is at my disposal than the mere appearance of food and drink, fog and mist, pools and sleep. This much you have already witnessed."

Johnis clenched his jaw.

"Make alliance with me. Aid me in but one task-one simple task of monumental reach-and I will grant you my strength, my power, and my authority. You will inherit a vast and glorious land that your dreams could never fathom."

"Why would I want that?"

"We aren't interested in turning." Silvie had found her mouth and now spoke from directly behind Johnis. "Our minds will go."

"Why do you doubt, little female? My ways will prevent any such ... deceptions." Shaeda returned her attention to Johnis. "Your mission will require you to forgo the bathing ritual a little longer. You also require clarity, vision, and single purpose."

She offered him the badaii in her hand. "I will give you all of these and share with you my powers."

Johnis withdrew. "Why?"

"Take my gift, Johnis. Together we can overthrow this Horde we so despise. Together we will rule this world. Will you hear me?"

He had already tasted the eluweiss. Surely it wouldn't matter if he ate the fruit from whence it came, this badaii. It couldn't have any different effect on him, could it? Johnis studied the purple fruit, reached out to take it.

Then again ...

"You haven't answered the question."

Shaeda scrutinized him. "I have told you that I rule the far side of the River, correct?" He nodded. The Leedhan turned grave. "This Teeleh became jealous of us, because we are half-human, and he banished us to the other side of the River." Her lips pulled back, revealing needlelike rows of teeth. "Yet . . . Yet now, I, Shaeda, ruler of the entities, the Leedhan, have returned, and shall use this amulet to control these beasts and usurp that purebred to such completion as has never been done."

A moment passed. The Leedhan simmered, forcing a smile. "He calls us vampires, yet such is not so. And he will see the full might of an entity." Musical, dark laughter came from Shaedas throat. "What say you, my pet? Shall we destroy this common foe?"

Shaeda still held the badaii.

Johnis plucked it from her hand.

"This isn't right," Silvie said. "We need to bathe."

Bathe.

Endure searing pain several times a day.

Why prolong the inevitable?

"You will not be required such," the Leedhan spoke to Silvie. "I force none. Yet, perhaps you will see for yourself the healing my fruit accomplishes."

Johnis stared at the badaii.

He was tired of the haze that had settled in. Tired of the transition phase. And hungry. At least as hungry as he had been thirsty.

Shaedas eluweiss quenched his thirst. Now to quench his hunger.

He lifted the fruit to his mouth and bit. His eyes widened. It was like when he drank the eluweiss, but a thousand times more potent.

The haze vanished. Everything lay bare before him.

He chewed.

The flavor burst into his mouth and filled it. Rolled over his tongue and between his teeth.

Johnis swallowed. Power surged through his body, plunged into his veins.

He devoured the badaii. With each bite his purpose, Shaedas vision for him, became a more certain reality.

Her power coiled around his mind and settled. Johnis's eyes widened.

A gentle laughter echoed inside of him. Enter, my johnisss ... The gift of knowledge I bestow ... of knowledge and power. "

He knew the Leedhan's thoughts. Her power coursed into him. Dominated his mind. His muscles tensed.

All his thought converged on one task: conquer the Horde.

ilvie stared in grotesque fascination at the striking beauty before her. She'd been separated from Johnis in the fog, and this woman had offered her something called eluweiss.

She had taken it. The last thing she remembered was falling into a deep sleep.

And now Johnis seemed spellbound by this same strange woman who floated in the desert.

The same woman from his visions.

The eyes-those incredible, dual-colored eyes-were stunning. No wonder he'd been so transfixed. She was gorgeous, this exotic goddess in gauzy, transparent clothing, with the delicate voice and glowing eyes.

Silvie forced her mind to refocus. The disease threatened her. This woman threatened her. This creature was seducing Johnis.

Her Johnis.

"Hear me," the goddess commanded.

Johnis's expression had changed. The desperate look had fled. But his face was not that of the Johnis she knew.

"Yes." His voice was deep. He played with something on his little finger. He turned it over, and with every turn his brow furrowed deeper, mouth drawn into a thin line.

A ring. A familiar silver ring.

His mother's ring. The tart had Rosa's ring. "Johnis ... ?"

Johnis remained transfixed. The look in his eyes was one Silvie had never seen. He'd never even afforded the Shataiki that kind of scorn before. That cold, vengeful hatred.

The woman withdrew a piece of yellow, rotten fruit, infested with maggots, and offered it to him.

Disgusting.

"Take this harach," the woman said. "Such is your means of enticing what shall be an army that cannot be thwarted and that will rid the Horde of all the albinos within days. An army you alone will command. But mind you, Johnis. This is merely the bait. Take such."

He scowled. "How is that bait?"

The woman smiled, amused at his ignorance. "What is detestable to some is tantalizing to others. Surely you remember the Shataiki."

"Pin yourself to a cactus," Silvie spat.

Johnis had heard the woman's voice in his head from over six hours away. And now she was before them. Changing him.

Johnis's menacing glare intensified. She'd seen that look before-from a throater right before a battle. This Johnis would count his bodies.

"I remember."

"Why don't you get away from my lover," Silvie warned. She brandished a knife.

But Johnis's now-visible woman only seemed amused. "The children of Tanis are indeed fascinating ..." The woman gave a musical laugh. "I do not believe such necessary."

"No. But that doesn't mean ..." Johnis trailed off.

"We wish to conquer Horde, do we not? The Dark Priest." A coy smile. "And what is this talon between their ribs? The thorn in their flesh?"

"What?" Johnis asked dumbly. He was struggling, Silvie could tell. The woman's power overwhelmed him. Consumed him.

"Him whom they despise more than anything else."

"Thomas."

"The Circle," she said. "If you were to solve this problem for the Horde, you would be greatest among all Horde."

"But he's not Horde!" Silvie said.

"No?"

Shaeda slid her arm around Johnis. Her hand stroked his neck. "We Leedhan have our own power, this much you can see. Feel. Yet, there remains another."

"And what is that?" Silvie protested. "By Elyon, Johnis, why are you listening-"

Multicolored eyes drank her.

"Peace, little female. "

"I possess knowledge of the acquisition of a final solution to all that haunts the Horde, Johnis. An eclipse that will force the diseased Scabs to eat out of your hand. Together we will destroy them at our whim."

Johnis shook his head, desperate to clear the fog.

Come on, johnis, fight it!

But now Silvie understood.

No one resisted this Leedhan.

Johnis blinked, eyes wide with wonder. Clearly he was completely taken with her every word. It was he who was eating out of her hand.