No, she said, pushing herself up to the hunched-over crouch that was all the cave allowed, which made her feel trapped and squirrelly. This isnt Im not your guide. Theres been some sort of mistake.
He hadnt moved a muscle, except to follow her with his eyes. When you first woke up in the cabin, you recognized me. I saw it in your face.
I dreamed of you, lusted after you, imagined you were all the things I havent been able to find in a flesh-and-blood guy. Okay, maybe there were a couple of dreams, but there wasnt anything about me guiding you anywhere. She didnt mention waking up hot, bothered and alone. Clearly, their dreams had been very different: she had dreamed of finding love; he had dreamed of saving his people. Was that what her subconscious wanted her to see? That she was too wrapped up in her own problems? That one resonated a little too well, making her queasy. Pressing a hand to her stomach, she said, I need toyou know. Outside.
He touched her free hand briefly in support. Go out the back and stay close. Theres a grove of borer trees on the other side of the stones, and you dont want to mess with borers.
She didnt ask why, didnt intend to find out. Ill be back in a few minutes. I think I just need some air. And some space without him there to remind her how numb shed been for too long, just going through the motions, stuck in her own little world.
Outside of the cave, the air was cold, stark and silent, with none of the howling of earlier. The huge moon lit her path as she picked her way over the rocks, getting clear of Dayns sight as if looking for someplace to relieve herself. Then, with her heart pounding and fear souring the back of her throat, she looped around and headed back downhill, stumbling in her haste to get to the stones and break out of the hallucination before she did something really stupid Like buy into it.
WITH REDA GONE, the cave was cooler and far less interesting, drained of the intense, compressed energy that practically shimmered around her. But it was also a whole hell of a lot calmer.
Dayn exhaled slowly, telling himself that it was going to be okay. This was going to work. She finally seemed ready to consider that she wasnt caught in some strange and elaborate dream, and once they got past that, he was sure her memories would resurface and she would be able to guide him. At least he hoped to the Abyss that it would work that way. He was starting to fear it might not, because a human seemed a very strange choice for someone to guide him through the magical realm of Elden. Which made him think that this part of the spell, too, had been damaged by the sorcerers magic. Not that she was damaged; exactly the opposite, in fact. She might have some human suspicions and disbelief when it came to the magic, and an apparent tendency to go wide-eyed and catatonic under fire, but she drew him, compelled him. Unlike the willowy, aloof wolfyn females he had spent the past two decades with, she was compact and curvy, and her emotions were written so clearly on her heart-shaped face. He had caught himself staring into her eyes, which reminded him of the deep blue skies of home, and basking in her voice, which was sweet, soft and wholly feminine.
Which was why she wasnt the only one who had needed a minute alone. Because he needed to get a grip on himself, needed to regain some perspective. This wasnt about him being a man and her a woman; it was about him getting his ass home and taking care of business there. And after that he would be back to being a prince of the realm, with all that the title implied. Which meant there was no benefit to him noticing how his sweater clung to the curves of her breasts and hips, and that the hitch of her breath when she caught him looking at her told him the attraction wasnt one-sided.
Priorities, he said to himself, hearing the word echo through the otherwise silent cave, the air empty of wolf howls. The ritual was done, then, and it was time for him and Reda to head back down to the stones. Maybe she wouldnt even need to remember. Maybe her just being there would cause the vortex spell to work for him as it hadnt before.
Rising to the crouched-over crabwalk required by the cave, he eased out and straightened, calling softly, Reda?
There was no answer, but she wouldnt have gone far, given that he had mindspoken her to stay close.
Not long after he arrived in the wolfyn realm, he had discovered that his mindspeak powers worked on all females, regardless of what realm they came from. When he had physical contactas he had just now, touching Redas handhe could implant suggestions, even orders. That was how hed kept Keely from knowing certain things he didnt want her to, and how hed initially pushed Candida to protect himuntil she had figured out what he was doing, and went for his throat. After that, he had told her everything, and instead of killing him, she had decided to help him, instead. And thank the gods for that.
Although the packs wisewoman hadnt been able to send him home, she had given him the vortex counterspell, and more recently had been working on some new poisons she thought would work on beings of dark magic, like the Blood Sorcerer. More, she had helped him work out the limits of his mindspeaking powers in the wolfyn realm, and they had discovered that while he couldnt make a female do something she was against or prevent her from doing something she really wanted to, he could influence other, less definitive emotions. That was why he hadnt been able to push Reda into opening up to himshe was too set against it. But given her obvious fear of the wolfyn and the fact that she was starting to warm up to him, she would obey his command to stick around. She ought to be right nearby.
Only she wasnt.
Cursing under his breath, growing increasingly anxious when there was no sign of her, he walked all the way out to the edge of the borer grove, where the ground started to go hollow. Then he backtracked and circled around the cave. And he picked up her trail heading back down the incline, beelining straight for the standing stones.
Son of a bitch. He had underestimated her mental strength, her disbelief and her determination to break free of what she thought was an illusion. Scrambling back to the cave, he grabbed his supplies and weapons, hoping to hell he hadnt just made a fatal mistake. Worse, as he pelted downhill, the horizon beyond his tree-hidden cabin started to glow.
His stomach plummeted. He was going to be too damn late.
STANDING JUST INSIDE the stone circle, Moragh threw her head back and laughed with delight as fat blue sparks leaped from one stone to the next and wind stirred her hair, fanning it out around her face.
STANDING JUST INSIDE the stone circle, Moragh threw her head back and laughed with delight as fat blue sparks leaped from one stone to the next and wind stirred her hair, fanning it out around her face.
Raising her voice to carry over the sparks and crackles of power, she called, Oh, joyous dark gods, I knew it, Nasri! I always knew the Book of Ilth was real.
She had argued with the sorcerers so-called scholars, who had written the text off as either fiction or a heretical interpretation of the gods and the Abyss. Granted, nothing had happened back then when she had tried the two simplest spells, but she hadnt known that location mattered. It stood to reason, though, that the separation between realms would be thinnest at certain points, the magic connecting them more active. It had taken the lost princes spell to draw her to the right place at the right time, and the stirring of vortex wind for her to figure out that she needed to try the first of the two spells she had memorized.
It had worked then, and again just now. She was facing the beginnings of a vortex of her own, one she controlled.
Are we going home now, Mistress Moragh? Nasri called from where he stood outside the stones, holding the submission chain of the surviving ettin, which was still stupidly looking around for its brother.
Admittedly, she should have set both of the creatures on the prince and made sure of the kill. But she hadnt realized right away that something in this realmgods, she was in another realmwould dull her connection to his fathers spell, making her unable to track him beyond the immediate area of the standing stones. But no matter, she suddenly had new and wondrous options.
Yes and no, she said in answer to Nasris question. I must return home and retrieve the Book of Ilth. Her heart lifted at the thought of wielding the books powerit didnt contain only realm-travel spells, but also summoning spells more powerful than anything the kingdoms had seen in centuries, power transference spellsthe possibilities were nearly limitless. I will take the ettin with me, so you are not troubled by him, and then I shall seal this portal behind me, so the prince cannot follow. That was the second of the spells she had memorized. Sealing this particular portal might not trap the prince in the wolfyn realmthere were probably other locations where vortices could be madebut it would slow him down, giving her enough time to steal the book from the very scholars who had mocked her for believing it real.
The gnomes eyes widened. And me, mistress?
Satisfied that the vortex was well under way, she stepped out of the stones, froze the ettin in place with a three-word command and then turned her attention to Nasri, who had backed away a few paces when he thought she wasnt looking. And even though he had long ago stopped appealing to her, the thought of what she was about to do had her secondary canines descending easily, breaking the skin with that itchy pinch of pain she loved so much, and then gliding into place alongside her lower teeth, just touching the gums with a kiss of the wickedly sharp points.
I have a special job for you, Nasri.
He blanched at the sight of her fangs, but the compulsion was well rooted. Even as his entire body cringed away from her, he took three jerky steps forward and raised his arm, offering her a wrist dotted with tooth-marks in various healing stages.
She surged forward and took his throat instead, biting deep and hanging on as he writhed and the glorious tang of blood flowed down her throat. New connections formed; new magic came to life, and she found his weak little mind with hers. Now pay attention. This is what I want you to do.
REDA DIDNT SCREAM, but that was only because she was paralyzed, stuck flat to the ground beneath a dense clump of underbrush at the edge of the clearing, where she had a perfect view of the dark-haired woman drinking from the neck of her small, wizened servant, and a clear soundtrack of the vampires rhythmical sucking noises interspersed with mewls of horror from the victim.