He groaned and rolled over in his sleeping alcove only to jolt to full wakefulness when he came face-to-face with Magged, who knelt beside him.
“You move and mumble in your sleep,” she said.
How long had she been watching him?
“Slee brought us a deer once,” she told him. “We butchered and ate it. It was delicious.” She licked her cracked lips, her gaze distant in memory.
Zachary swung his legs out of the alcove and stood in an attempt to get some distance from her. His ribs, at least, no longer twinged every time he moved, though the bruises were slow to fade.
“It was a lady deer,” Magged continued. “I can tell the difference, you know.”
She followed him as he strode across the cavern. Nari was nowhere to be seen. Magged was on his heels as he descended to the lower cavern. Midway down, he halted and turned. She practically walked into him.
“I would like some privacy,” he said.
“Oh, are you going to make water?”
“Yes.”
“It doesn’t bother me to watch.”
He tried to suppress his mounting irritation. “It bothers me.”
Magged gave him a look like she thought he was being silly, but she sat on a rock. “I will wait here, then.”
Zachary took a deep breath and continued on. He was accustomed to the constant presence of others around him, but even the Weapons allowed him to urinate in private. When he finished, he found the hotspring and splashed water on his face. He’d take a full bath, but he suspected Magged would come looking for him. In fact, when he rose from the pool, he turned to find her standing there. He was so startled he almost stepped backward into it.
“Magged!” he said sharply. “Please don’t sneak up on me.”
She tilted her head as she looked up at him, then pulled her shift over her head and stood naked before him.
“Magged,” he said, this time more subdued, and he averted his gaze from her pale body. “Please cover yourself.”
“Don’t you want me?”
“No.” There was no kinder way to say it that she would hear.
“Why?” she asked plaintively, reaching out to him. He stepped away. “Do you like Nari better?”
His cheeks burned. Nari was undeniably lovely in the Eletian way, and what man would not think in those terms? “I am married,” he said. “I have a wife.”
“You will never see her again. I can be your wife.”
“No, Magged. I’m sorry.” Keeping his gaze averted, he walked around her and away. A quick glance over his shoulder revealed her staring into the pool. He felt easier knowing that she was not following. He wondered not for the first time from where Magged had been taken. She’d been raised and taught by Nari, so there was no clue from accent or mannerism. She’d been too young when abducted by the aureas slee to have developed the ways of her homeland. Could she be one of his own subjects?
If he found a way out of this cave, how would Magged adapt to the outside world? It would all be new to her, completely foreign. The cave was her home, all she had ever known. Could she survive outside?
He supposed, as he paused in the cavern where they slept and ate, it wasn’t worth worrying about since he’d failed thus far to discover an exit. There was no sign of Nari, so he continued up the steps to the upper cavern with all the dripstone formations. Nari, he guessed, was off collecting the fungus they survived on. His stomach rumbled at the thought of food, no matter how unsatisfying and bland.
He was holding up rather well, he thought, despite the absence of regular, hearty meals, and of the hundreds of servants who saw to his comfort. He would have guessed he’d feel more adrift without a secretary organizing his days, but there was no need for a schedule in the cave. He did not feel exposed without his Weapons, for the cave was a quiet, contained environment, though he’d surely wish for them if the aureas slee returned. There was no one constantly vying for his attention, no political intrigue, no real demands. It was, in fact, something of a relief. But then he’d remember his predicament and the danger to his wife and realm and start searching once more for a way out.
When he reached the upper cavern, he was so surprised by the sight that greeted him, he thought he must be hallucinating.
“Meep,” said the orange tabby cat. It sat on the stone gryphon.
A cat was not something Zachary would usually consider eating, but his stomach rumbled at the thought of fresh meat. His initial thought of food then transformed into shock that there was a cat sitting right there before him. Where had it come from? If it had gotten in, then surely there had to be a way of getting out. Then he remembered both Nari and Magged mentioning that the elemental brought them food occasionally. But why would it bring a cat? It wasn’t much of a meal for three people.
“Where did you come from, little one?” Zachary asked. It just rubbed its cheek against the back of the gryphon’s head. He stepped toward the cat. It did not flee. With another step, it paused its rubbing and stared at him. He halted. Was this some trick of the aureas slee? But the cat rolled over and wriggled its back against the gryphon and purred madly.
Zachary began to search the chamber anew, hunting for a possible exit that he might have overlooked before. He searched feverishly, crawling into crevices, feeling into cracks with his hands, even areas he’d combed before.
“How did you get in?” he demanded of the cat, but it just lay on the stone gryphon with its paws in the air, purring blissfully as though gorged on catnip. There was a reason, Zachary thought, that he gravitated toward dogs.
Nari entered the chamber and stared first at Zachary, and then at the cat. She spoke softly in Eletian, stepped closer to gaze at the cat.
“I have not seen,” she finally said, “one of these creatures in so very long.”
“I have been trying to figure out how it entered.”
She gazed at him with wide eyes, eyes filled with hope. “To feel the sun on my face again,” she said. “To smell of the earth and green of living things.”
“Will you help me look?”
“Yes,” she replied, “though the creature could have squeezed through a very narrow opening.”
“Could the elemental have put it here?”
“I do not think so. I did not feel Slee’s presence.”
They started working along the walls, examining the barest cracks, and gazing up at the ceiling.
“You can feel the aureas slee’s presence?” Zachary asked.
“It is very cold.”
“So, where could the cat have come from?”
“Almost anywhere,” she replied. “We do not know where we are, after all.”
That was true and Zachary considered the possibility they were near civilization, but he had a hard time believing it. If they were somewhere in the wilderness, how had an ordinary house cat found them? He glanced back at the cat many times to ensure it did not slink off and disappear on them.
“Maybe we should get Magged to help,” he suggested.
“She is sulking.” Nari gave him an accusing look.
“Because I rebuffed her?” He peered behind a thick stalagmite.
“Yes. It is the way of your race. She desires family. I have tried my best to be a companion to her, but I cannot provide for all her needs, particularly those which only a male can gratify.”
“I am afraid I cannot fulfill that need for her either,” he replied. “One cannot always have what one desires. I am committed to another. I’ve a wife, with children on the way.”
“I understand,” Nari replied, “and I have gleaned you are the king of the Sacor Clans. You feel great responsibility toward your people.”
“I do, very much so.”
“That is honorable. For Magged, whose whole world is the cave, what is outside is meaningless. She cannot comprehend the weight of your res
ponsibilities. I tried to explain, but all she feels right now is the pain of rejection.”
Zachary looked behind a boulder. “I did not wish to hurt her. If we can find a way out, perhaps there will be someone with whom she can have that family.”
Nari paused her search. “I do not know if she would survive the outside world for long. I do not know that she would wish to leave.”
Zachary sat on the boulder to rest. He could not imagine wanting to stay in this hole in the ground, but he had not spent his whole life there. “What about you, Nari? Would you leave?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “There is one who . . .”
“Someone from whom you were taken?”
“Yes. I would search for him, see if he still awaits me, or if he was lost in Argenthyne.”
She spoke as though only a few years had passed, not centuries, and in Eletian terms, he supposed it was. He’d been so intent on exploring and trying to find a route of escape from his prison that he hadn’t thought to ask her what the world had been like before she was abducted by the aureas slee. What had Argenthyne been like? Might she have had contact with his ancestors? These questions and more now came to him. In his role as king, there’d been little propriety for casual conversation with the Eletians who had presented themselves to him. But now? He was no king here.
No king.
He was about to ask Nari his questions when he noticed the cat standing with its fur on end. It growled. The cave amplified the growl until it expanded into every nook of the cavern and sent sonorous vibrations along the dripstone formations.
Magged emerged from the passage that led to the lower cavern. “What is—?” she began.
Zachary never heard the rest of her question because freezing air shrieked through the cavern and slammed into him. He was blown back and ice crystals raked his skin. He leaned into the maelstrom and shielded his face with his hands and tried to see what was happening. Nari jumped behind a large stalagmite to shield herself from the tempest. Magged huddled against the cavern wall.
The wind eased and a translucent form, like a glazed man, appeared before him, and he realized it was of his own approximate shape and features, had he been made of ice. The elemental’s body, if it could be called such, was crisscrossed with deep scores as though from sword blades and was missing one of its arms. Zachary broke off a large stalagmite and held it like a club.
“So,” he said, “you have been ousted.” Wind gusted into him.
“You!” the elemental shouted, its voice the oscillating howl of the winter wind. “You will exact the price. All I wanted was to treasure her.”
“Treasure, or imprison?” Zachary demanded, but he did not await an answer and launched at the aureas slee, brandishing the stalagmite. He pounded it into the glassy form, but it was the limestone that shattered into thousands of glowing pieces, not the ice.
The creature laughed. “Did you not know that ice shatters rock?”
It then swung its one arm and Zachary flew across the cavern. He skidded across the floor and must have blacked out for a moment, for the aureas slee loomed over him, reached for him.
“Slee!” Nari cried, leaping out from behind cover and shouting in Eletian.
The aureas slee turned and advanced on her. Zachary climbed unsteadily to his feet and leaped on its back, gripping it around its chest. It shook him off as though he were no more than a flea, then turned and knocked him over again. Zachary peered up through a haze, his consciousness wavering, his whole body screaming. The aureas slee reached down and grabbed him by the neck and lifted him with monstrous strength.
Zachary pried at ice fingers that crushed his throat, his legs dangling, the world growing ever more dim. He gasped for air. Vaguely he heard Nari shouting and a roar filled his ears. Was it the wind that roared, or some great beast? There was an impact, and an impression of tawny fur and giant wings. The aureas slee released him and he dropped to the cavern floor. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, Nari was there kneeling beside him, her hand on his chest.
“Zachary . . .” She glanced over her shoulder. There was a great din, the sound of snarling and crashing. “There are two of them.”
Two of what? he wanted to ask, but he didn’t seem to have the energy to speak.
A translucent hand of ice swept Nari away and grasped Zachary’s wrist and lifted him like a doll. The rest he was never sure of, whether it was real or a nightmare. A pair of gryphons—one tawny and one black—had sprung to life as if from ancient tapestries, and attacked the elemental. Dripstone formations shattered as the aureas slee hurled the gryphons off itself, all the while keeping hold of Zachary. A portion of ceiling came crashing down revealing the daylit sky overhead, freshening the air, but Magged disappeared beneath the rubble. He could not see Nari through the dust.
The gryphons flew through the cloud of dust and dug their scimitar claws into the aureas slee, and lifted it with great wingbeats. Slee still clutched Zachary’s wrist even as it was carried away. Up and up and up into the sky they went, and then dropping to skim the tips of evergreens. The gryphons tossed the aureas slee between them, toying with it like it was a mouse, jerking the dangling Zachary back and forth. He thought his arm would surely be torn from his shoulder.
The aureas slee howled at its tormentors, sent sputtering winds at their wings, but its efforts were fruitless. “I am done with you,” it hissed at Zachary, then it flung him away, away through the unbearable cold and into darkness.
Nari wiped grit out of her eyes and filled her lungs with the sweetest air she had breathed in centuries. It was laden with fir and spruce, the scent of damp, fecund earth. The vision of gryphons carrying Slee away, Slee in turn lifting Zachary away, played in her mind. Did Zachary still live? Mortals were such fragile beings.
Magged.
Nari gazed where she had last seen the woman. It was all rubble. She clambered over fallen rock, unwieldy stone clacking underfoot, only her Eletian sense of balance keeping her upright.
“Magged?” she called. She pulled away rock and debris. “Magged, can you hear me?”
There was a muffled sound from nearby. She worked even faster, tearing away the debris, and soon found Magged’s face plastered in a mask of dust. The rest of her was buried beneath more rubble and gigantic slabs of rock that had once been the cavern’s ceiling.
“Nari?” Magged whispered. Blood traced through the dust on her face from her nose and mouth, and from a gouge on her temple. She seemed unable to see. Nari sensed the life leaving her.
“I am here, Magged.” Nari lightly touched the woman’s cheek.
“I—I am sorry,” Magged said. “I wanted him to be family.”
“What do you have to be sorry for?”
Magged’s breaths were ragged and wet. “I know the way out.”
“What?” Nari spoke more sharply than she intended.
“A hole . . . hidden beneath the throne. A passage to the outer world. Knew it since I was little.”
“Oh, Magged,” Nari whispered.
“Wanted family . . . We are family, aren’t we?”
“Yes, Magged, m’shea. We are family.”
When Magged said no more, her harsh breaths silent, Nari closed her staring eyes. For a time, Nari just knelt there. In but a moment, her world had changed, just as it had when Slee stole her from the forests of Argenthyne and brought her to the cave. She gazed up at the brilliant sunshine that showered down through the opening, and sang for Magged, sang for Magged into the blue sky, for Magged who would never experience freedom and that outer world, and who had only wanted a family. To Nari, she had indeed been family. Nari had raised her, as she had raised so many other children Slee had brought. Some had lived for as many years as Magged. Others had failed quickly, and she sang for them all. It was a song of mourning. Though Eletians lived eternally, they could die, and so yes
, her people knew songs of mourning.
When she finished, she stood. She left Magged’s face uncovered so she could lie beneath the freedom of the open sky. Nari gazed at the gold columns of sunlight that poured through the collapsed ceiling of the cave. Long had she held an essence of the outer world within her, a piece of Argenthyne, the scent of the forest, the moss beneath her feet, shade and fern and birdsong. It was all that allowed her to endure years of captivity. Now was her rebirth into the world. She could leave and discover how much had changed during her captivity, seek her lost love. And she would hunt the aureas slee.
She left Magged and started to climb her way out.
INTERCEPTED
The days were growing longer and, at times, milder. Freezing nights were followed by days with more direct sunlight that penetrated the forest canopy and provided warmth. Karigan willed it to wash over her and dreamed of being a cat curled up in a patch of sunshine that beamed through a window.
But, it was only a dream, for she could not remember being thoroughly warm and dry. Condor’s hooves sucked in slushy mud—the Eletian ways were apparently not immune to mud—and the trees constantly unloaded collected rain or clumps of wet snow on her. At night, the shield Enver created over their campsites with his muna’riel helped some, but never entirely. They would have to cease even that protection soon so the intense light of the muna’riel did not attract the attention of any scouts of Second Empire.
Estral sat slumped on Coda ahead. She was bearing up well, but Karigan could tell the journey was taking its toll. At least it would bring a certain veracity to what she was writing about Green Riders. The soggy cold was taking a toll on Karigan, as well, despite all her experience. Her nose constantly ran and her weathered knuckles cracked and bled. Old injuries, especially her wrist that had been broken last spring in Blackveil, ached. Even Enver did not appear unfazed by their travel conditions. He was quieter than usual and looked a little haggard, which was something she’d never seen before with an Eletian. Not even among her companions in Blackveil. It must be, she thought, his human blood that, well, made him more human.