The Reckoning, page 9
Their leader, a man with hair and eyes of gold, stood and chose another log for the fire. He placed it on the flames and moved back to the old man to stare him in the eye. “How does my brother fare?”
“He is well,” Ohma replied.
“And the princess?”
“She too fares well.”
A collective sigh sounded from the other members of the party.
“Your brother is a man of extreme bravery, my lord, and is a worthy adversary to any who challenge him.”
“Have you knowledge of the Living Dead?”
“No. But the weapons I ensorcelled will be enough protection should they catch them up, and both Kaden and Tannith are skilled warriors.”
“How can you be sure of their survival?”
“You forget I am a seer. I have walked the pathways of the future, and in all, your brother and the princess survive long and prosperous lives. They are people of great destiny. The Gods of Creation protect them. Also, the Great Prophecy names them. They cannot perish while the prophecy stands unfulfilled.”
“Pig’s swill!” Etan leapt to his feet and began to pace. “You and your tales of the future. You are forever spouting on about visions and roads to the…gods know where. If you know so much, wave your magick wand and put an end to this farce.” He stopped before Ohma. “Tell us now how this will end. Will we find the last pieces of the Cross? Will we defeat Dannock and Sernon? Or will we all perish? Answer those three simple questions.”
And let me leave, he added silently. Let me escape the woman who torments my mind with thoughts of should have beens, and what ifs. His gaze slid briefly to Skylah sitting beside Erik, then flittered back to the old Mage Druid.
Ohma peered around the fire at the accusing faces.
Erik’s eyes darkened. “Can you answer his questions?”
“Do you think I would not have told you if I could foresee the end?” Ohma spread his hands imploringly. “That one vision forever eludes me. The one thing the gods have denied me. Perhaps we were not meant to know. Perhaps it is something they do not know themselves. Maybe it is a saga that must be played out in its entirety and we in turn must make our own end.”
Etan turned away and ran a hand through his hair. “Once again, old man, you speak in riddles that I am too exhausted to decipher.” He grabbed his bedroll and the flask of leftover wine from supper and stomped into the forest where he hoped with a good drink and a good night’s sleep, he could rid his mind of thoughts of the woman.
But the flask was soon empty—the night long—and sleep elusive.
****
Sometime after Etan retired to his blankets and Erik had excused himself from their company, Skylah and Ohma sat cross-legged, staring into the slow dying embers of the fire.
Ohma peered across the coals with a heavy heart. The former Faerie had seen much tragedy in her life, and still there was more to come.
“Do you truly love him, lass?”
Skylah frowned. “Who? Erik?” She glanced over to where the young king lay in the shadows.
He nodded his ancient head.
She smiled softly. “Erik wears his power so lightly. He has such gentleness. How can I not love him?”
Ohma sighed and lowered his gaze. “He is not the one for you. I have seen your future. He does not walk your path.”
Skylah rose to her feet and glared down at him with eyes flashing like green fire. “Then you have seen wrong. Erik is my future, there can be no other.”
“ ’Tis no good towering over me in anger, lass. I meant no offense. You have no family to speak of and for some reason I feel a certain responsibility toward you.”
“Then be released from it. I have Erik to look after me and wish for no other. You said there are many pathways to the future. Erik loves me and nothing and no one will keep us apart. So, you can take your vision, throw it into the deepest dungeon of your mind and slam its rusty door. Etan was right.” She bent low her words soft yet powerful. “You are playing with people’s lives, and I will listen no more.”
Ohma remained silent, and Skylah looked away into the sputtering flames, wiping impatiently at the tears forming in her eyes. “We were meant to be together,” she insisted, softly. “Why else would the gods have put us through so many trials to find each other?”
Ohma sighed, reached into his sleeve, and passed her a blue handkerchief. “Indeed why?” he muttered to himself. “Perhaps you are right, little one.” He was sorry now he thought to meddle. “I meant no harm. I am old and images sometimes get muddled in this ancient head of mine. Forget my words. Go to your young man and seize what happiness you can. For in these times of desperation, who can say how each day will end?”
Skylah dried her eyes, bent to kiss his cheek, and tugged gently on the thin plait of his snowy beard.
“I am sorry I spoke so harshly. You frightened me. A long time, I have waited for someone to love. Surely the gods cannot be so cruel as to snatch away my happiness when I have just found it.”
Ohma nodded and kept his own counsel. He had one vision of the future he wished he had never seen. Perhaps the gods would be generous and change the outcome, but he doubted it. The gods did what they did for a reason, but by all that was holy, he could see no reason in what was to come. “I am certain you are right.” How could he tell her he had seen Erik’s future in a vision of blood? He gave her a gentle smile. “Now, go.”
Skylah glanced thoughtfully into the darkness of the trees to where Erik lay wrapped in his blankets. “I have a notion to heed your advice, my friend, and reach out for that happiness of which you speak.” She bid him a comfortable sleep and slipped into the night.
Erik rolled onto his elbow and peered up at the dim outline of the woman standing above him. “What is it?” He pushed his sleep-tousled hair from his eyes. “Is there a problem?”
“Problem? Is it a problem when a lass seeks company?” Skylah peeled away her leather battle skirt, wrist guards and vest, and dropped them at his feet. “I am taking the advice of a Druid.”
His eyes filled with knowing, and he moved aside. “Remind me to thank that old man sometime.” He smiled softly and pulled her into his arms to welcome her naked form beneath his blanket. Rolling her over, he nuzzled her ear. “What else did you and Ohma discuss? You have spoken long into the night.”
She shivered at the riotous sensations his lips evoked. She was barely able to breathe, yet still, Ohma’s words haunted her. Seize your happiness while you can…Erik is not for you…his path does not lie with yours. No. She groaned, willing her mind to block out the Druid’s words. It was not true. Erik was hers, and nothing, no one, would take him from her. In defiance to the words, she reached for the laces on Erik’s breeches and deftly began to unravel them, but he placed his hand over hers.
“Are you sure?”
“I have long waited for this time. You do not mean to stop me now?”
He kissed her tenderly on the brow. “I had to ask.”
“And for that you are even dearer to me.”
He smiled in the moonlight and helped her with the laces, then all thought dissolved from her consciousness in a meeting of hands, lips, and the hard body of the man who loved her.
****
Well back in the shadows, Ohma sat cross-legged by the fire and turned his eyes to the starlit sky.
“Why?” he beseeched to the gods in soft anguish. “Why him? Has he not been through enough? Why not me? I am old.”
But, no answer came, just the whisper of a gentle breeze as it picked up his words and scattered them to the lonely night.
Chapter Eight
Tannith stepped from the pass, her breath lodging in her throat at the sight displayed before her. At the center of the valley descending from a sheer cliff was a spectacular waterfall. She brought her hand to her face and wiped her eyes in disbelief. This was a heartfelt reward indeed for such a trying journey.
After traveling for a near full day, Kaden finally found the opening to the pass behind a fallen tree. The gap between the towering cliffs was barely wider than the width of Phoenix’s flanks. The large stallion had panicked and reared onto his hind legs. After settling him, she was forced to lead him through blindfolded. Kaden trailed behind, eliminating their tracks. He arrived to stand beside her. Neither of them spoke. A brilliant rainbow arch of light was reflected in the spray.
“Surely the Gods of Creation themselves fashioned these falls.” Her words were muted by the thundering water.
The tiny valley was fertile and wet, still glistening from recent rain. They mounted the stallion and followed a narrow track winding down into the valley to the foot of the falls. Palms, giant umbrella trees, and ferns of every description dotted the landscape; blue and mauve mountains towered around them, a swirling mist shrouding their peaks, giving them an aura of mystery. The falls pounded straight into a natural kidney-shaped basin. The spray of crashing waters smoked and hissed as it tumbled over black volcanic rocks.
Kaden dismounted and picked his way between boulders and fernery toward the edge of the pool. Undercutting the base of the falls, he spied a ledge leading into a dark cavern. He returned to Tannith, mounted the stallion, and leaned forward to take the reins. “I think that is what we are searching for.” He pointed. “If we follow this path, it should lead straight to the entrance of the cave.”
****
They continued along a narrow track that followed level ground around the inner rim of a gully, then began a slow steep ascent. The trail led to a small, crystal-clear waterfall and a cave where hundreds of multicolored Dillon birds nested in the crevices of an enormous rock chamber, then they passed over a rope footbridge strung across a shallow fern-filled stream.
By the time they reached the cave, the sun began to make its slow decent behind the blue-mauve crest of the hills. While Kaden searched for a place to tether Phoenix away from the drenching spray of the falls, Tannith moved ahead into the cave.
On entering, it took her night vision a moment to adjust.
The cave was shallow, no more than twenty feet long and thirty wide. The floor of charcoal-black rock gave the impression of having been seared by a thousand summers of ancient campfires. Rough antiquated drawings covered the walls, rendered in bright aluminous ochers, lending the cavern an aura of frightening intent. Images clamored to fill her mind. Screams of a million lost souls cried their despair.
Faces of creatures, bright and demon-like, swooped, howled, ascended, and descended, engulfing her body and soul in their fiendish game of madness. Whether an illusion or real, she cared not. Bending, she covered her ears, tried to shut out their screams, and fled. Kaden made to catch her arm, but her fear overpowered her. She wrenched free and ran refusing to answer his call.
Outside, drenching spray soaked her clothing, returning her to the present. The sting of the icy water felt real and invigorating after the strange imaginings that had invaded her mind.
Although unsure of what had happened, she knew she could not return to that unholy place that eve. She drew a ragged breath, then almost jumped as Kaden’s arm came around her. It was warm and strong, lending her confidence. When he smiled down at her, she leaned against him, drawing from his strength.
He turned her gently to face him. “What happened? Why did you leave so abruptly?”
Tannith peered up at him, her hair and lashes dripping with moisture. She shivered. “Did you not feel it?”
His hands held her arms to steady her. “Feel what? I felt nothing. Tannith, there was nothing in that cave. I searched.”
“There were…voices, screaming, the most hideous faces…spiders…You know I hate…” She shook her head and trailed off. “Just images, really. But know this, whatever is in that cave was trying to warn me or scare me witless.”
“Perhaps the Dwarves had Ohma cast a warding spell over the cave to stop strangers from stumbling upon the entrance to the city.”
“I am not spending one night in this place, even for you.”
His arms came around her and he pulled her close to his chest, and she rested her cheek against his heart. “If you are worried, perhaps it is with good cause.” He took her arm and led her out from the ledge behind the thundering water. “We will backtrack and set our camp at the base of the falls and try again come dawn. From my calculations, Dannock is about two moons ride behind us. We will be long gone before he and his creatures track us here—if they find this valley at all.”
He led her out from behind the waterfall to where he had tethered the horse. He boosted her onto Phoenix’s back and wrapped her cloak around her shoulders, then climbed up behind her. Grasping the reins, he headed the horse back down the mountainside.
****
Kaden awoke with a start. The two moons were high. A paradise of Hibiscus and Frangipani surrounded him. Night creatures played their orchestra on the periphery of the campsite, but none of this registered as terror struck at his heart.
She was gone.
Tannith’s discarded blanket lay in a tangle beside him. Her weapons were still where she had stacked them, and thankfully, there was no indication of a struggle.
“Darn woman!” He grabbed up his sword and dagger and scanned the ground for a sign. It was not hard to find her tracks by the light of the twin moons. Her footsteps were deep in the fertile soil and led east along the bank of the small stream by which they camped.
She stood naked in a shallow pool, into which a narrow waterfall plunged. Droplets of water glistened over the swell of her well-rounded breasts, trickling down her flat stomach to meet with the flow of water swirling around her hips.
A bewitching goddess by moonlight.
His gaze slid over her slim curves in silent appraisal—breasts as white as the purest marble, a waist no larger than the span of his hands, and with a vision in his mind of what lay beneath the moonlit water, his loins grew hard and hot. The urge to reach out and feel the warmth of her perfect beauty burned deep in his gut.
****
Tannith watched him step closer and her eyes widened.
She thought she did well to leave the camp without waking him, but she should have known. The warrior never slept with more than one eye closed at a time. She wanted him to see her and made no move to cover herself. She wanted his hands on her body, touching her, bringing her to life. His dark gaze was a firebrand, searing her soul, marking her his. Some nights she dreamt of him with such intensity she had awoke hot and trembling.
Would he join her in the stream and make her his? She watched him warily, unmoving. Or would he scold and order her to return to camp? The feelings he evoked, the fire, the ice, the shivers of pure pleasure that racked her body and tortured her soul were worth a risk.
Taking her courage in both hands, she waded a step closer. “Are you going to stand with your mouth gaping all night, warrior? Or will you join me in the pool?”
“You should not be out here alone. It could be dangerous.”
“Anywhere could be dangerous with you,” she assured, pushing a handful of silvery tresses back over her shoulder, giving him better access to her body. “I thought the risk would be worth the reward.”
The emerald of his eyes blazed in the moonlight. “We discussed this.”
“You discussed it. I listened. Now it is my turn to talk.”
His brow rose. “I see.” His emerald gaze never left her face. “If that is what you wish.” He drew his remaining knife from his boot, lowered his sword to the ground, and pulled his knee-high boots from his feet, tossing them across to join his weapons.
Next, came his brown leather jerkin. The fastenings to his loose-fitting hill tribe breeches held no hindrance to his nimble fingers as he unlaced them and let them slide down over his well-muscled thighs to be kicked aside.
Tannith’s breath caught, choking off her words. For what words could describe the sheer magnificence of his body—its masculine planes etched silver and gold in the moonlight? Like a bronze God of ancient times—sublime in his nakedness, hard, strong, unyielding.
She knew what she was about to do would change the course of her life. It was something that would go against every code of her upbringing, every law. She would be joining with a man from another race—an inferior being, according to her people.
It was a love such as this that caused the dilution of the Elven blood and the beginning of the Elisian Race. Did she truly love this man enough to put behind her all of her teachings and the elite bloodline her people now strived for?
He looked so vulnerable standing, awaiting her decision. Even now he had stopped, was watching her, giving her a choice. In that moment, all doubts melted to insignificance. She knew she would give up her last breath to lay with this man.
Their eyes met. “Are you sure this is what you want?” he asked.
“I want you, that is all that is clear to me.”
“Then by the gods, woman, you shall have me.” Kaden stepped to the edge of the pond and dove into the water to disappear into its crystal darkness. Then as suddenly as he disappeared, he reappeared. His large hands spanned her waist to draw her toward him with slow assurance.
She ran her lips over his chest, the base of his throat, and across his shoulders, tasting, teasing. A groan issued from deep in his throat. Emboldened by her newfound power, she encircled his neck, drew his lips down to hers and took his mouth. His tongue filled her, seeking, finding, drawing forth a response from her, so complete, so thoroughly dazzling, she thought her knees would melt and blend with the water.
Then she was falling. Kaden must have felt it too, for he clasped her waist and lifted her, to slide her up the hard planes of his body. With one swift movement he pulled her thighs around his waist. Tannith felt his hard length pressed against her. It felt so good, right, as if it belonged. Pulling away, she trailed her hand down between their bodies, encircling him, feeling his heat.
In a sudden burst of strength, he thrust her to arm’s length and flicked his long black hair from his eyes. “What are you doing?” He reached out to steady her. “Do you want this to be over before it starts?”
