Sands of Aggar: Amazons of Aggar Book 3 (18 page)

“I want to help them,” Rox admitted. “I don’t think they have anyone else.”

Jacquin took Adrian’s hand and nodded. “They need our help.”

Adrian shifted uncomfortably, but Rox angled herself to meet her eyes, her
amarin
pleading. “They’re my family, Adrian.”

Adrian tightened her grip on Jacquin’s hand and nodded. “For you, Rox.”

Jacquin took the changling’s hand and Rox’s mind was instantly flooded with images and messages, the wave of information sorting and organizing with the species’ memory she’d awakened sitting in the circle, filtering through generations of changling language, customs and symbols. As if sharing a single voice, Rox began to speak the changling’s words.

“We have been searching for you for generations. The Divine Triad. Our only link to the human world. We have laid waste to dozens of human settlements that stood in our way. There was once a time when we communicated with your kind. The speech was halting, simple, manipulative, but we could still speak. Millennia hiding beneath the mountains in the presence of the lifestones, beaten and broken by the humans nearly to extinction, has changed that. We are now bonded. Silent. We need you as our mouthpiece.”

“I don’t understand,” Adrian grunted, trying to translate and filter the rush of images and emotions from Jacquin and the translation from Rox.

The changling – a shaman – didn’t understand Adrian’s question. “We are bonded. One,” Rox repeated.

“The beginnings of a hive mind,” Jacquin gasped through the pressure of her visions. “They’re telepathic as a species. Linked across the planet.”

“Yes. One.” Rox felt a swell of pleasure from the shaman at communicating with the women. “We need your help.”

Adrian grit her teeth. “What do you need?”

“The core is in the mountains.”

Adrian shook her head. “The Core is nearly a day’s ride north.”

Rox shook her head, trying to understand. “The mages’ core is in the mountains. It’s poisoning our home.”

Adrian’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Jacquin?”

Jacquin moaned, losing the strength to continue their connection. “I don’t know.”

Rox felt the shaman’s desperation rise. She could see a glowing red orb embedded in a stalactite, emitting sickness and death, the bodies of thousands of changlings at its base.

“I’m sorry!” Jacquin wept and released the changling’s hand, falling to the ground. The connection between the four women instantly disintegrated, leaving Rox dizzy and ill, her mind exploding with the presence of the shaman, fighting with her own thoughts for control of her mind.

Adrian helped Jacquin sit, holding her as she recovered from her contact with such a foreign mind. As Rox’s own thoughts and memories returned she realized the truth about what the changling had meant. “I know what the core is.”

All eyes turned to Rox and she shook her head to clear it. “The Twins have a device. They’ve culled together the pieces from all over Aggar, it’s what the Circle was looking for. It’s supposed to call together all Blue Sights. They intend to eradicate them.”

Jacquin grabbed Adrian’s waist in a vice-like, possessive grip and Adrian’s face twisted with rage and grief. “They what?”

Rox looked at her apologetically. “I’m sorry. I forgot during my imprisonment. But the device doesn’t work. They couldn’t activate it.” Rox looked up at the shaman, her face hopeful, urgent. “It’s missing a piece. Its core. Buried in the changling’s mountains.” The shaman bowed, tears in her eyes. Her message was delivered. “The device is leaking without its shell, poisoning the changlings’ home. It’s what finally drove them back out of the mountains, what’s been making them crazy. The poison has affected their entire telepathic network, poisoning even those changlings that have escaped. We need to remove it and store it in its proper casing. We need the Twins’ device.”

Adrian snorted, the sound violent and full of unspoken emotion. “Good luck. The Twins are vicious. Cruel. They won’t give us anything by choice and they’re too clever for us to take their prize by stealth.”

Adrian’s voice broke with unshed tears and Jacquin placed a hand on her shoulder, her brow furrowed with worry. Rox tried to meet Adrian’s gaze, to give her strength and read the source of her sudden emotions, but Adrian pointedly refused to catch her eyes, covering her eyes with her hands, the motion infused with decades of shame.

Rox felt her lips curl as a violent sense of protectiveness flooded her. “Then we take it by force.” She turned to the shaman. “Changling warriors are some of the swiftest, most cunning and vicious in Aggar. You have a force large enough to help us storm the Core?”

The shaman nodded, her people ready for battle for generations.

Rox looked back at Adrian and nodded with sudden decision. The Twins would no longer threaten her partner, her daughter, the world. “Then we invade the Core. We finally dethrone those tyrant Twins and we save our world and the changlings. Their reign is over.”

Adrian crouched low in a the large cedar tree, a simple illusion camouflaging her in the evergreen’s branches. A small group of travelers from the Core climbed off the ferry barge, leading three horses and a merchant’s cart onto the main path through the mountains. Rox spied a maroon cloak, the traveler’s hood pulled high over his head. All of Ariana’s messengers wore red.

The messenger walked deeper into the forest, glancing up through the low-hanging branches. He lowered his hood and Adrian felt a sharp pain her chest as she noticed how young he was, barely adolescent. It was a smart move. The Twins would be less likely to track him. But he was too young to be caught up in a revolution.

The messenger hissed into trees, flashing a small, silver leaf medallion in his palm. “Adrian?”

Adrian dropped to the ground and released her illusion spell. Ariana’s messenger jumped in surprise and turned around, holding out the medallion for her to see. “Who sent you?” Adrian questioned, already knowing the answer.

“Ariana of the Grey Exiles.”

“Were you followed?”

The boy shook his head. “Ariana sent merchants with me. I helped unload the horses. No one will think twice about my being here.”

Adrian walked toward him, one hand on her sword, the other touching his shoulder, a blue light shining beneath her palm, temporarily running beneath the messenger’s skin, making him glow with Adrian’s magic.

The messenger tensed, frozen with fear, but the magic reached his feet and seeped back into the earth, never changing color or brightness. He wasn’t sent by the Twins. Adrian nodded. “What’s her message?”

“She says the Exiles are awaiting your command.”

Adrian nodded. “Good. Tell her to watch the river.”

The man nodded. “Consider it done.” He pulled a package from the pack on his back and handed it to her. “She also wanted you to have this.”

Adrian slowly took the heavy, paper-wrapped package and unwrapped it to reveal a thick, silver-grey wool cloak identical to the one she’d lost in the raid on Oasis. Adrian ran her fingers over the fabric, the color and weave bringing back hundreds of memories. The cloaks were banned in the Core, a symbol of the Grey Exiles.

“You shouldn’t have brought this. If you’d been caught with it–”

The boy raised his hand. “She told me you should wear it when you return. You are an exile, Adrian. You should wear your colors proudly.”

Adrian unfurled the cloak and tied it around her throat, the weight familiar and comforting. “Thank you.”

She pulled a gold coin from her pouch and offered it to him. He put up his hand and shook his head. “I volunteered for this mission. I wanted to thank you for taking a stand. This revolution wouldn’t exist without you. You were so brave, leaving the Core like you did. You’re an inspiration to us all.”

Adrian stiffened with his praise, instantly transported back to the snowy tundra, watching a mob leave the Core, bent on killing her. She hadn’t left voluntarily. She’d lived for years, emotionally and physically abused for her Sight, never taking a stand. She wasn’t brave. She wouldn’t have gone if it weren’t for the backlash against her Blue Sight. She’d left the Core to save her own skin, not to make a statement. It hadn’t been until Ariana had found her a home among the other exiles, until she’d lived among the truly brave, those who had left the Core by choice, that she’d become a revolutionary.

Adrian had become a symbol not because she was a real inspiration, but because her name was recognizable. None of the Core’s nobility had publicly abandoned the city until Adrian. She was an easy message to spread, a symbol to hold up, but it was a lie.

Adrian swallowed hard. “Thank you. But you’re the brave ones.”

The man bobbed his head with a smile. “It will all be over soon.”

Adrian nodded tensely. “Yes. Now get back to Ariana. The longer you’re out here the more suspicious you look.”

The boy nodded again and raced back out of the trees for the ferry dock.

Adrian watched him go, a tension forming in her chest that spread to her stomach. She had never wanted to be an inspiration for revolution. She wondered what the young messenger would think if he knew she still wasn’t sure she wanted to invade even as plans were quickly falling into place; that part of her heart, her allegiance, her home was still behind Core palace walls, her shame and guilt irrevocably bound to the opinions of the vicious nobles who had raised her. She wondered what the Grey Exiles would think if they knew the deepest roots of her grudge against the Twins were not in their atrocities, but in the way they had broken her heart as a child.

Adrian sucked in a deep breath and rolled her shoulders, trying to relieve a tension that wasn’t in her muscles. She tried to cast another illusion and the words burned her tongue, the symbols hazy in her mind as her magic clashed again with her Blue Sight. She closed her eyes with a grunt. For a time her magic had been at peace, but not anymore, her abilities mimicking her heart.

She grabbed her sword at her hip and trudged deeper into the forest, making her way to where she had tethered Dread. It would be a long ride back to camp.

Adrian strode into the changling camp, the cold nipping at her nose, carrying with it the scent of damp fur and earth. The changlings had been pouring in for days, traveling in packs from the mountains and further south. They swarmed like bees, filling the forest, sharpening swords and knives, fletching arrows and preparing meals without speaking a word.

Jacquin stepped up behind her, running her fingers over Adrian’s new cloak. She was being fitted for light armor. It was the first time Adrian had seen her in pants. “This looks familiar.” Adrian didn’t know how to respond. After a moment of silence, Jacquin glanced out at the camp. “It’s unsettling isn’t it? The silence?”

Adrian glanced at her. “You can’t understand them?”

Jacquin chuckled. “Ever since we reunited with Rox my mind is at peace. The visions don’t come nearly as frequently. It’s everything I always wanted, but it’s much quieter than I’m used to. To me they’re completely silent. Only Rox has been able to communicate with them. Our magics combined seems to have awoken a dormant part of her species memory.”

Adrian leaned back against a nearby tree. “I can tell what they’re feeling, their intentions, but not words or thoughts.”

“That’s your Blue Sight, my love.”

Adrian folded her arms over her chest and glanced down at her feet. “It’s getting fainter.”

Jacquin turned to her, her slender brows knit with concern, her lips pursed. “What do you mean?”

Adrian sucked a deep breath past her teeth and sighed. “Ever since our first meeting with the changlings my magic has been chaos again.”

Jacquin hesitated, choosing her words carefully. “Your Blue Sight connects you with the world. Are you trying to separate yourself?” Adrian’s skin turned cold, her muscles tensing. She popped her jaw. Jacquin nodded. “I see. Adrian, I promised not to push for information about your connection to the Core and I won’t. But know I’m here if you want to talk, so is Rox. Perhaps sharing some of your concerns will help you find some peace.”

Adrian wanted to talk, wanted Jacquin and Rox to ease her fears, but she could feel her truths sinking deeper into her heart, guarded and hidden from the women she loved. They knew so little about her. She couldn’t risk their opinion of her changing if they knew her truth.

Adrian held her arms tighter against her chest. “Ariana is ready. Her soldiers will be ready to open the gates for us when the time comes and sneak us into the palace while the changlings fight.”

Jacquin sighed softly at Adrian’s retreat. “They’re taking a great risk.”

“They’re willing to die for us to succeed.”

“They trust you,” Jacquin attempted to assure her, but the words only made Adrian more unsure. Memories of her adolescence in grey tarp-tents, traveling as a refugee through the Ramains. She saw the first people who had raised her with love, patiently erasing her ignorance, her prejudices and easing crippling insecurities with their love and steadfast refusal to give up hope. People with debilitating illness, missing limbs and traumatic emotional scars. Escaped slaves, activists and jaded soldiers with their families, bound together in their rejection of the Core.

Adrian didn’t want to involve them in a war. She’d done terrible things, sacrificed her entire life, to ensure they wouldn’t enter the fight. “Either way, it will all be over soon. Either we defeat the Twins and retrieve the artifact or we fail and every rebel will be hunted down and executed. Not even the exile camps further south will be safe. The Twins will kill them all.”

Jacquin squeezed Adrian’s shoulder. “We’ll succeed. Every sacrifice will be for the greater good.”

Adrian pushed off from the tree. “They’re still dying, Jacquin. Pray to the Mother the battle is quick. The Goddess knows she won’t hear my pleas.”

The boat cut through the waters of the Ma’naur, slicing through the waves like a knife, chasing the long line of magical light Adrian had cast into the river as a sign to Ariana to secure the gates. Jacquin and Rox stood on either side of her, her cloak billowing back behind her shoulders. She took a deep breath as the Core loomed closer, clenching the hilt of her sword. The day of the revolution had finally come.

The changlings stood behind her, their energy frantic and tense, ready for battle. Their glass weapons, many dotted with lifestones, glowed in the moonlight. Adrian spotted hand-made bombs in many of their belts. The changling shaman stood near Jacquin, her fur seeming to buzz with magic. She was ready to lead her people. She had been for a long time.

Adrian squinted, trying to see the waterway gates to the city through the pre-dawn haze. Had Ariana been successful? Had the resistance already been massacred? She knew Ariana would begin with a quiet takeover. She’d place her sympathizers in the guard on duty at the right time, use her spies to quietly assassinate any of the Twins’ loyalists who’d get in the way. She wouldn’t want anyone to be aware of the attack until the changlings poured into the city, targeting defensive strongholds, opening gates and waterways for the rest of the waiting army and drawing as many soldiers from the palace as possible. Still, if they had been discovered early, if someone had sounded the alarm, they could be sailing into a trap.

Adrian took Jacquin’s and Rox’s hands. “Once we enter the city we’ll meet up with Ariana’s men. I’ll know how to recognize them. They’ll lead us secretly through the back alleys of the Core so we can hopefully infiltrate the palace undetected. We will undoubtedly have to fight in the palace. The Twins will be on high alert. No one will be able to enter unnoticed, not even with Ariana’s charms.”

Jacquin glanced around Adrian. “Do you know where they’re keeping the device, Rox?”

Rox shook her head. “They took me away before I could see anything.”

Adrian clenched her jaw. “They’ll be keeping it in their tower. I know how to get there, but it will be dangerous. You shouldn’t follow me.” Rox and Jacquin instantly started to argue, their voices a blend of shock and refusal. “I’m not trying to be proud, but the tower is warded on the best of days. Neither of you is a trained mage. Neither of you knows them as well as I do. You wouldn’t survive. I want you to find Serena. Jacquin, you can try to have a vision, read the minds of the guards, and Rox, you defend her. You know the slave yards. You’re the best team for the job.”

“I don’t want to separate the triad,” Jacquin announced, using the word Rox had reported the changlings had taken to calling them.

Adrian shook her head. “We don’t have any choice. I promise, if we could stay together I would, but it’s too dangerous.”

Jacquin balled her fists at her sides, trying to think of a better argument, but Rox clasped Adrian’s shoulder firmly, her eyes sad and vicious all at once. “Make them pay for what they did to my daughter?”

Adrian clasped her shoulder as well, the two women finally sisters-in-arms as well as lovers. “I swear it. Find Serena.”

Rox snarled, the expression pure changling. “If I have to rip apart every slaver with my bare hands.”

They closed in on the Core and to Adrian’s relief the gates opened, red cloaks rippling in the early-morning air. Ariana had been successful. The boat slid into place and the changlings immediately disembarked, following their shaman into the shadows of the city. Two red-cloaked guards, their silver leaf pins glowing at their throats in the torchlight of the city gates, beckoned Adrian forward.

Adrian, Rox and Jacquin approached them, Adrian scanning each with her magic to guarantee they held no magical trace to the Twins, and then followed them away from the changlings.

The revolutionaries led the three women down a winding path around the Core, keeping them to the shadows and far from main roads as they eased up to the palace. Halfway through the city a sentry post along the city wall exploded.

The city erupted in chaos. More explosions went off, waking every resident and calling streams of guards out of the towers and from the palace as the changlings began their invasion. Screams and the striking of steel on glass filled the air, rising to a deafening pitch as the western gate blew open, letting in another contingent of changling soldiers. The city quickly smelled of nothing but ash and blood.

“They’ve secured the western gate but are having trouble with the east,” Rox reported, interpreting the network-mind of her people, their thoughts and messages filtering through the pieces of her brain open to their communication. “More guards are backtracking to the palace. They realize it’s an invasion, not an isolated attack.”

“Then we have to go faster,” one of the exile scouts prompted as they ran for the palace.

The palace grounds were as chaotic as the city. A pack of changlings had beaten them to the main gates and the grounds were already smeared with blood, the bodies of guards and changlings alike littering the path.

“This way,” one of the exiles beckoned, leading the women away from the main gates toward a vine-covered hole in the wall, leading toward the kitchens. “Enter through there. We have people among the servants. They’ll get you into the palace proper unseen. From there it’s up to you.”