Unbinding (37 page)

Either Eharin didn’t notice, or she took his statement for the sort of empty courtesies commonplace among elves, especially at court. But it wasn’t. He was outright lying. Kai could see that . . . but Eharin’s way of sensing thoughts didn’t give her the kind of detail Kai got. Maybe she couldn’t tell the difference between a deliberate lie and the everyday insincerity of a flatterer.

“You’ve set the explosives?” Eharin asked him.

Another little bow, this one with a touch of flourish. His thoughts were gleeful. “Everything is ready. Do you wish to see the trigger?”

“I wish to have it,” she said sharply, and held out a hand.

He stepped closer, reached inside his jacket, pulled out a little snub-nosed gun, and shot Eharin in the face.

B
RAINS
and blood exploded out the back of Eharin’s head. Her legs kicked—quick, jerky motions with no grace at all. She toppled over—first onto the coffee table, and from there onto the floor.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for so long,” Malek said. He glanced at Kai, smiling. “I’m sure you have, too, and I do apologize for robbing you of the pleasure.”

Kai thought she might be sick. The smell, his smile, the fact that a few minutes ago she
had
wanted to kill the elf bitch . . . she swallowed.

“Made a mess, didn’t I?” He clucked his tongue. “Ah, well. We won’t be here too long, I hope. One more thing, and then I’ll see if I can make you more comfortable.” He took off his sports jacket, removed something from the pocket, and moved to the other side of the coffee table, where Eharin lay in an ungainly heap. He draped the jacket over what was left of her head.

When he turned around, she saw what he’d removed from the jacket. A hypodermic. Kai squirmed, but between her aching head and the ropes tying her wrists and ankles, she couldn’t do a thing to stop him. He pushed up her sleeve, which was stiff with dried blood—“You are something of a mess, too, aren’t you?”—jabbed the needle in her arm and depressed the plunger partway. Then, to her astonishment, he unbuttoned his own sleeve, pushed it up, and injected the rest of it into himself. “What is that? What did you just do?”

“A harmless virus. Nothing to worry about. But it’s alive, and so can carry the—I think you’ve been calling it a hook? The element that will let my lord bring us to him when he’s ready. Much simpler this way, isn’t it? Less painful, too.”

Not until hope broke apart on the hard ground of reality did she realize she’d let herself hope. She ought to know better than to have thought for an instant that slimy Malek was here to rescue her. No, he was here to collect her. She closed her eyes as a wave of defeat crashed over her.

“Head hurting?” he said sympathetically as he buttoned his sleeve. “I’m afraid I can’t do much about that, nor can I untie you. Is there anything else I could do to make you more comfortable?”

Kai blinked rapidly—which reminded her. Why not ask? “Eye drops,” she said. “They’re in my pocket.”

“I believe Eharin emptied your pockets, but the contents should be . . .” He moved out of her range of vision, reappearing a moment later. “Is this eye drops?” He held a familiar little squeeze bottle.

She started to nod, winced. “Yes. It’s my left eye. The contact’s stuck where it shouldn’t be, but with some lubrication it ought to slide back down.”

“Contacts.” He grimaced. “Many things here are delightful, so innovative—television, for example. Quite remarkable. But the healing sciences do leave something to be desired. If you’ll forgive the intrusion, I’ll have to apply the drops myself.”

He did so briskly. Again she blinked rapidly. This time, the contact slid back where it belonged. “Thank you.”

“Would you like to sit up, or would that make you dizzy?”

“I would prefer to sit up, yes.”

He huffed a bit—Malek wasn’t strong—but he got her upright, though she had to sit slightly sideways to accommodate her bound wrists. It did make her dizzy for a moment, and she swallowed bile at the increased thudding in her head, but it was worth it. “Thank you,” she said again. Courtesy cost little and sometimes paid dividends. She’s learned that much on her quests.

“I’m glad I could assist you,” he said solemnly. Surprisingly, that wasn’t a lie.

“Do you know what happened to José? The wolf who was with me.”

“Not precisely, but he was alive the last time I saw him. That was perhaps three hours ago. You were unconscious for quite awhile. Excuse me a moment. I believe I’ll get a chair.” He went to fetch one, a wooden chair with a needlepoint seat, and set it across from her. “There. Now we can chat. We may have a bit of a wait. My lord is extremely busy just now.” He sighed with what looked like happiness. “It will be so good to see him again.”

That wasn’t a lie, either. And . . . studying his thoughts, Kai had to conclude that he wasn’t compelled or beguiled. “You’re a genuine believer. In him.”

“I worship with my whole heart,” he said simply. “You’ll see why—soon, I hope, but if not, eventually you’ll understand and serve, too. I know you’ve felt rubbed raw by the elves—their condescension, their arrogance. You haven’t been exactly discreet. I did caution you about that, but in the end, it won’t matter.” He gave her a conspiratorial smile. “You’ll see. Dyffaya isn’t like that. He said he was besotted by us, and it’s true. He’s eager to claim us—to claim humans—as his people.”

He meant every word. He scared the shit out of her. “Um . . . do you know what he plans to do with me?” Not that she didn’t already know. He wanted to use her against Nathan.
Nathan, I’m sorry.

His eyebrows lifted. “Haven’t you guessed? You’re to replace Eharin.”

She blinked. And couldn’t think of a thing to say.

Malek didn’t mind. He enjoyed having an audience. “Such a pathetic woman, so convinced of her superiority when she was really rather stupid. It never occurred to her that when Dyffaya wasn’t using her as a locus he might be using something else. A dog, a bird, a mouse—he isn’t limited to sentient loci, you know. He’s been aware of her plan to betray him for some time, but he couldn’t act until he had you in hand, so to speak, to replace her. And all that nonsense about him being too busy keeping track of his creatures to notice what she did!” He shook his head sorrowfully. “Eharin knew that Dyffaya controls the flow of time within the godhead, yet she failed entirely to see what that means.”

“My head hurts,” Kai said. “I’m not seeing it, either. Could you explain it to me?”

“Simply that he has all the time he needs to act. It wouldn’t do to have one of his creatures fail to honor their lord’s word, you know. Any who call on him must be spared.”

“He accelerates time in the godhead, you mean? So what happens here on Earth occurs very slowly for him, giving him time to respond.”

“Exactly. It’s tedious for him. For today’s events, he set one portion of the godhead to a vastly accelerated rate, and most of him will have to stay there until most of the creatures are killed or have expired. Still, some portion of his attention must remain with his guests—those like you whom he’s invited to the godhead—so he’s reset the guests’ portions to make this easier. They’re currently experiencing a very slow time rate, much slower than on Earth. I don’t pretend to understand that, but he’s a god. He can do much that is beyond my comprehension.” He sounded as proud as a father contemplating his infant’s newly acquired crawling skills.

“I see.” Malek was astonishingly willing to answer questions. Kai didn’t understand it. He was treating her as a colleague, aside from the little detail of keeping her tied up

No, as a future colleague. He was cultivating her now just as he’d done at court—because he thought she would have pull with the source of all power and authority. There, it had been the Queen of Winter. Now it was Dyffaya. “Uh, what do you mean about the monsters expiring?”

“Those that aren’t killed—and you took care of quite a few! A remarkable display, I must say, if unnecessary. They wouldn’t have killed you, you know, simply planted a hook. Though I suppose they might have bloodied you a bit, and they probably would have killed your companions. You’d have regretted that, so perhaps it’s just as well you fought so fiercely . . . but as I was saying, those that aren’t killed will expire within a week or two. Whatever Eharin did to incite such ferocity in them shortens their lives.”

“What Eharin did? I thought Dyffaya—”

“No, my lord has many incredible abilities, but he is not a binder. That’s why he needs you.”

Dyffaya thought Kai was a binder? Gods, but that was going to make for problems when he learned the truth. Only Dyffaya also thought Eharin was—had been—a binder. And he’d been using her, so . . . Kai spoke slowly as she absorbed the implications. “Eharin was a binder.”

“She was quite sure she’d kept that from you. Apparently she was right about that much.”

“She kept it from the Queen, too.” Which would be considerably harder.

“It was fortunate she was never at court. Though once she crossed the line from mindhealer to binder, she knew she’d have to leave Iath, so when I approached her . . . oh, dear. You look distressed.”

“She started out a mindhealer. And
became
a binder.”

“Of course. Did she never warn you about—no, I suppose she couldn’t, or you might have guessed. And there are so few mindhealers, and they’re watched so closely—I suppose you never learned why. Most at court don’t know, either, and those who do wouldn’t speak of it. Apparently the Queen didn’t, either? No? But it does seem you might have guessed. Mindhealers
are
the only ones who can permanently alter a mind, you know.”

Kai could only stare. All this time she’d thought binders and mindhealers were separate—the Gifts similar, but distinct. Mindhealers were the good guys. Binders were bad. But mindhealers became binders if they crossed some line . . . “What’s the line?” she asked urgently. “What turns a mindhealer into a binder?”

“Well. I don’t know if I should say. My lord wished me to answer some of your questions, but I’m not sure he wants . . .”

Malek’s voice faded. Everything
faded. Her senses. Her body. She felt nothing
,
no sensation whatsoever. No sight, sound, no sense of her body, of space around her—and yet she experienced motion. Motion that went on and on and she would have screamed if she’d had a throat or lungs or—

K
AI
arrived standing, and promptly fell to her knees. Nausea roiled and her head pounded so much she didn’t know if she was going to throw up or pass out. Then she was sure she’d throw up . . . and then she wasn’t. The nausea seeped out. She swallowed.

The sky was black. Utterly black, without a speck of starlight. The ground was glowing. So was the man embracing Malek . . . and so were the thoughts woven into everything. Absolutely everything. She looked around, awed. Sparkly, shimmering thoughts—roils of darkness—lavender struts and lace twining through tall black trunks that weren’t really trees, but massed thought. Great pillars of thought thrusting down deep into the stuff of this place and up to what passed for sky.

Motionless thought. Frozen. Thought was always in motion, yet the black tree-thoughts were utterly still. Yet they weren’t compulsions or remnants. She didn’t know what they were, but they disturbed her deeply.

All this while, Malek and the man—no, the god, for surely that was Dyffaya, even if he was using a human body—had been greeting each other, hugging, exchanging a lover’s kiss. She dragged her attention away from the not-trees and dialed down her Gift.

Or tried to. It didn’t work. Panicked, she tried again, but her Gift was so damn stimulated by this place she couldn’t make it respond. Or maybe her own fascination was the problem. The thoughts were so large and strange—

“My dear friend.” Dyffaya spoke with a resonance that drew her attention. “My loyal and faithful Malek.” He looked as he had in the enormous projection he’d sent to inform San Diego residents that they were to start worshiping him. Human, in other words, though as beautiful as any elf. The god—or the embodied portion of him, that is; the thoughts she saw everywhere didn’t originate with that body, but many of them were anchored in it—kept one arm around the small, tidy man who’d helped him abduct her. He patted the beaming Malek on the cheek. “You deserve so much more than a quick embrace. We will take time to be together, but just now I am pressed.”

“I understand, my lord.” Though he looked crestfallen.

Dyffaya gave him a last hug and released him. “You have done well, Malek. Very well. I am pleased with you. You may remain here to watch the last of the games, and after, we’ll have that time together. Just the two of us.”

Malek brightened.

“Take the path.” Dyffaya gestured and a path of pale stones appeared. “It will lead you to the game-place. There’s a seat reserved for you, my faithful one, at my left side. Go now. When I finish here, the game will begin.”

Malek hurried away. And the god turned to look at her. “Kai.” He smiled. It was a beautiful smile, warm and welcoming.

She realized she was still on her knees and managed to shove to her feet, though she wobbled a bit. Her head wasn’t getting any better.

“Eharin hurt you. I’m sorry for that.”

“Did you see her bash me over the head? She was sure you weren’t using her eyes later, after I woke up.”

He ignored that. “You are not at all happy to be here, but I am so happy to have you.”

Her Gift was tugging at her.
Not now
, she told it. “So I understand. You want me to become a binder.”

“So direct,” he murmured. “It is a common quality in my new people. I have not grown accustomed to it. I will, with time.”

Don’t piss off the god
,
she warned herself. She might have to in the end, but courtesy cost little and was important to elves. And Dyffaya was elf, even if he wasn’t portraying himself that way at the moment. “I’ve been at court, but I’m not good at the courtesy practiced there. Forgive me if I err. I have questions. Is it okay to ask them?”

“You may ask.”

“Why are those thoughts frozen?”

His brows shot up in startlement. “What thoughts?”

“The ones shaped like trees.”

“They
are
trees. Not precisely the same as those you are used to, yet still trees.”

He said that quite reasonably. And . . . he meant it. No pus green coated the thoughts anchored in that elegant body. And he was wrong. How could he be wrong? How could he not know?

He moved closer, still smiling in that warm, intimate way that made her want to step back. She held herself still, but it was an effort. “You don’t believe you’ll accept my offer. I understand that. I understand you better than you believe. You think I’m your enemy, but I’m not. It’s true that I don’t share your fascination with ‘good’ and ‘evil.’” His voice shaded those words in such a way as to make them sound like intellectual abstractions, of importance only to those interested in a particularly esoteric topic. “Yet if you accept my offer, you’ll be able to influence me more toward ‘good.’ You’ll help so many people, Kai, if you . . .” He stopped. Frowned. “I am also not accustomed to people looking away when I speak to them.”

She’d been studying the way thoughts both anchored Dyffaya’s body and were anchored in it, and had suddenly realized that his “body” was nothing more than an extremely complex intention. Startled by that realization, she’d tried to trace that intention where it vanished in the glowing ground. She ought to be able to see into the ground-stuff if she dialed her Gift up high enough, but so far . . . she dragged her gaze back to him. “My apologies. I’ve never been
inside
thoughts before, and these are so vast and fascinating. It’s distracting.”

He was silent a moment, then said, more to himself than to her, “I had not given sufficient consideration to what your odd form of mindhealing would mean here.”

Instinctively, she knew she didn’t want him to think about that too much. “I don’t know how to address you. There are so many forms I might use. Not being sidhe, I don’t understand all the nuances. I hope I haven’t shown disrespect by failing to use your proper title.”

“Titles are a bore. You may call me Dyffaya, as you and the others have been. I hope you will call me lord one day, but you are not yet ready for such a commitment.”

Again he brought out that smile, a claiming sort of smile, as if they already knew each other. A sexual smile, and yet the thoughts she saw everywhere weren’t sexual. They were . . . yearning. Oh. Oh, gods. She turned slowly, staring at the not-trees—the yearning in them! Endless, frozen yearning—eons of it, unchanging, incapable of change, their blackness a lack, a loss so profound—

A familiar and beloved sensation broke in upon her preoccupation. She gasped with delight as an ecstatic Dell raced out of those not-trees toward her. A moment later Kai went to her knees again, but on purpose this time, so she could put her arms around her familiar.

Dell purred madly, an expression of love she didn’t use often. She licked Kai’s face with her too-rough tongue, making Kai laugh. Oh, it was good to be close again! Even as she purred frantically, Dell sent a chiding thought about Kai allowing herself to be injured and her intention of fixing that.

“She is certainly happy to see you.”

Dell immediately sent a sense of warning and a complex gestalt that included Dyffaya’s jealousy, his neediness, and his belief that he’d tied Dell to him. Kai straightened and looked at the chameleon instead of simply reveling in her nearness. The shiny lavender beguilement she saw shocked her into stillness—but it wasn’t anchored. It looked dense, as if a great deal of power had been used, but it slid through Dell’s thoughts like oil, not affecting them. Kai could dislodge it with a single soft—

No,
Dell sent sternly.
Fool him.

Of course. Kai sat back on her heels. “What have you done to her? She’s glad to see me, but she’s thinking of you.” True enough, though not in the sense she wanted Dyffaya to take it.

Dell promptly went to Dyffaya and rubbed her body along his leg and hip. As she did, she sent Kai instructions in a complex gestalt. Kai frowned, unpacking them. “She . . . she wants me to tell you it’s good that you brought me here, and that the bond is much eased now, with me closer.”

Dyffaya caressed Dell’s head with one hand. “Your familiar and I have grown fond of each other. Does that surprise you? I don’t mind sharing her with you,” he said generously—and that was a whopper. He minded very much. “I hope you won’t feel badly about sharing her with me.”

“You’ve said you weren’t accustomed to some of my ways. I’m not used to—to Dell being attached to someone else. Some people amuse her, like Cullen, but . . . I’ll get used to it.” She let herself sound grumpy about it.

Dell had been right. Her grumpiness pleased Dyffaya because he took it as an acknowledgement of his bond with Dell. Did he not see a difference between beguilement and real affection? He gave the chameleon’s ears a last rub. “I don’t mind sharing,” he repeated, and it was still a lie, but less virulently so.

“Then maybe you’ll allow her to do something about my head. It hurts.”

“Of course.” He gave a gentle wave.

Dell came and sat in front of Kai. Again she sent a gestalt bundle, but this one was so dense and layered Kai couldn’t unpack it. She recognized the scent-sight-emotion blend that meant Nathan—who was alive and well. She got that much. She thought the blended sense of strong-male-blood-gift—which arrived with the flavor of the blood and a distinct scent—was Benedict, and Funny One was Cullen, both of whom were alive, thank God. But there was something about the male chameleons and . . . a plan? Something about the future, anyway. Those parts of the gestalt lacked scent, which was how Dell thought of the future. A time that hadn’t happened yet had no smell. But she couldn’t untangle things enough to be sure.

Dell huffed once and gave up.
Dots him,
she sent, along with a mingling that meant pride-not-earned and a familiar instruction. Dell wanted Kai to keep Dyffaya talking—bragging?—while she fixed Kai’s head.

Okay. Kai sat down with her back against Dell’s side. It didn’t matter where they touched, only that they did. “The male chameleons,” she said abruptly. “I wondered why I’d been able to break that link, but if it was Eharin controlling them instead of you . . . but Nettie was sure she sensed you.”

He shrugged and settled onto the ground with her, sitting cross-legged. “I used the link, but Eharin set it. Which is, as you say, why you were able to break it. She was never as good as she believed herself to be. She certainly lacked your power, and how she resented that, poor dear! She was so greedy for power. But also, though she would not have admitted this, she was not as good as you will become. More skillful than you are now, yes, but don’t worry. At this point, your raw power will serve me better than finicking delicacy.”

Kai’s head seemed to be vibrating. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it would get that way. “What is it you want me to do?”

“Why, make worshipers for me.” He smiled at her gently. “Nothing as terrible as you’d imagined, is it? You’ll be able to return to your world and live much as you like. Eventually you may not be needed. It depends on how long you live.”

“Ah . . . it does?”

“Once I can go there myself, I expect finding worshipers won’t be a problem.” The thoughts around him glowed brighter. That was a happy idea.

“I was told you couldn’t enter Earth.”

“Not now, no.” The glow dimmed. “Eventually, I will. It will take time. I haven’t yet managed to make the necessary adjustments to a mortal body. I suspect it will take just the right body, and when the time comes, I may need your assistance to . . . but that’s all well in the future. I hadn’t planned to go into it with you yet. Where was I? Oh, yes. Your duties won’t be onerous. You won’t have to handle any of the organizing—others will deal with that—only be present at services so you can influence the thoughts of those present. I’ll let you know which ones I want you to make into my worshipers.”

That’s all she had to do—remake people’s thoughts so they worshiped a mad god while he looked for “just the right body” to take over. That’s what he meant, wasn’t it? He hoped to find or make an avatar. Kai spoke through dry lips. “I thought you were only fed by true, heartfelt worship, such as Malek offers.”

“That’s the beauty of using a binder. It’s not like compulsion. After you’re through with them, the chosen ones will genuinely worship me. Your influence—that’s another ability of binders, dear Kai, though I’m sure Eharin didn’t teach it to you. You’ll catch on quickly, though, I’m sure. You can influence thoughts of those around you in a temporary way, as well as making permanent changes. Your influence will draw many to return to services until their hearts open to me, even without you altering them. Eharin had been doing this, but she had so little power. She could only influence a few at a time, and making even one genuine worshiper left her depleted for days. I could and did feed her power for other things, but for some reason she couldn’t use it to fuel her Gift. Odd, isn’t it?”

The vibrating was reaching a peak. “Yes. I don’t understand that.” Any of it.

“Still, she did her best. Had she remained faithful, she would have always had a place with me, even though she was never fully mine. But she wasn’t as stupid as my loyal Malek believes. She knew why I wanted you and, little though she might have admitted it, she knew you would become much more important to me than she was. She couldn’t stand that.” He sighed. “Poor thing. I’ll miss her.”