Island Shifters: Book 01 - An Oath of the Blood (33 page)

“Hey!” screamed one woman on the street as Kiernan collided into her.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, her surroundings blurry and indistinct through tear filled eyes. She did not care. She just wanted to get away. Away from Beck, away from her father, and away from this quest.

To demons hell with them all!

No destination in mind, she moved blindly through the crowd until it began to thin. Brazen young men made lewd comments to her as she passed, but she barely heard them. Distantly, she became aware of footsteps close behind her. Too close. She turned to look and an arm whipped around her neck, spinning her hard against a soft body. Before she could react, the soft murmur of whispered words in her ear caused her vision to haze and the energy to seep from her body. She knew she should be fighting, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not move arms that suddenly felt like lead weights hanging uselessly at her sides.

Why was she so weak?

Unexpectedly, she was lifted off the ground and her mind screamed out in one last coherent thought before darkness swallowed her.

Bajan!

Chapter 19

P
RECIOUS
T
ROUBLE

“D
o you think we should wake him?” he heard Rory ask.

“He still looks a little green to me,” said Rogan, reaching down to lift one of his eyelids.

Beck growled and swatted Rogan’s hand away clumsily. His head was aching dreadfully. “What happened?” he croaked.

Rogan dragged a chair over to Beck’s bedside. “You tell me. Do you know how hard it is to tear an amorous earthshifter from his intended quarry?”

Beck opened his eyes. “What? Speak some sense, man!”

“I found you in the street last night in the arms of two, shall we say, ladies of dubious honor. Were you drunk?” asked Rogan, sounding perplexed.

Beck heard Rory snigger.

“Of course not!” He had no interest in other women or excessive drink. So, why could he not remember what happened last night?

Rogan leaned back in his chair and engaged in his favorite pastime coaxing three fireballs to life in his hands. “Forget about it. It happens,” he said philosophically as he juggled.

Beck shook his head emphatically despite the shooting pain to his temples. “You don’t understand….”

There was a knock on the door, and Rory went to answer it.

Beck groaned and lifted his head enough to see with one eye that Airron was in bed, snoring softly. Well, that was one less thing to worry about. The only concern on his mind now was talking to Kiernan and resolving their argument. He still did not agree with what she said, but her frustration with him left an achy, hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“It’s Gage,” announced Rory.

The wiry Scarlet Saber came into the room. “Good,” he said looking around. “Most of you are here. I will be going down to the docks to arrange our passage to Deeport this morning. It should not take long, so be sure that everyone is ready to leave within the hour.”

When Gage left, Beck got out of bed, staggered to the basin and splashed cool water on his face. Feeling only slightly more human, he said, “Wake Airron. I will go tell Kiernan.”

He threw his shirt on over his head and lurched out into the corridor. He knocked loudly on Kiernan’s door and waited. There was no answer. The hair on the back of his neck stood up, and he instinctively knew something was wrong. In that moment, he also knew that it had something to do with his inability to remember the events of last evening. He hurried back to his room. “Kiernan is not answering,” he blurted in a panic as soon as he came through the door.

Rogan shrugged. “Maybe she is downstairs already.”

“No, I don’t think so.” Beck walked over to Airron who was sitting on the side of his bed combing his fingers through his long silver hair. “I need you to get in there, Airron.”

“Now?” he asked.

“Yes. I cannot explain it, but something is wrong. I am worried about Kiernan.”

Airron stood up at once. “Enough said. I’ll do it, but I better shift in here.” Beck, Rogan, and Rory backed up as the air around Airron shimmered with magic. It seemed as though the Elf disappeared into thin air as his tall frame shrank down to the floor, and his mouse form appeared from under the pile of clothes. Rogan growled in his chest and backed away further as he remembered the last time he saw that mouse. Beck held open the door and the mouse scurried out and over to Kiernan’s room.

Turning back inside, Beck sat on the edge of his bed to wait and exhaled deeply to ease the growing apprehension inside of him. Rogan was right there beside him and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. “We will find her Beck. There are any number of places she could be, so do not borrow trouble. We have already bought enough of our own.”

Beck nodded appreciatively to his friend.

Airron was back a few moments later and shifted immediately back into his human form. “She’s not there, but as far as I could tell from my low vantage point, all of her belongings are still in the room.”

“I suggest we go down to the dining room,” said Rogan. “We can ask the innkeeper or some of the guests if they have seen her.”

Not sure what else to do, Beck nodded and followed but, as he suspected would be the case, Kiernan was not downstairs. He argued to his friends that they needed to split up and search the city streets for her and to his great relief they agreed. The more people out actively looking for her, the better chance to find her quickly.

Beck pushed out of the inn and again the smells and noise assailed him. After so many years of exile, he did not think he could ever live in the proximity of so many people. He needed more land around him. He needed earth.

More than a head taller than most of the people on the street, he surveyed every face, building and alleyway he passed. He spoke to the two young grooms whose names, Beck learned, were Seth and Tobias. They had not seen the pretty lady with the green eyes, as they referred to her, but promised to help look. Motivated, no doubt, by the promised gold florin.

Beck searched for an hour. There was simply no sign of Kiernan.

He returned to The Queen’s Lair despondent. Entering the pub, he met up with Airron, Rogan and Rory who had all returned with the same negative results.

“What could have happened to her?” he asked aloud, but to no one in particular. If only I could track her, he thought to himself. If they had been anywhere other than this godforsaken city, he could have.

Airron’s features were pained as he spoke up. “I regret being the one to voice it, Beck, but in my opinion Kiernan would never leave like this. Not voluntarily.” The implication of Airron’s statement hung in the air between them. If not voluntarily, than someone had taken her against her will. His thoughts were naturally running in that direction as well. He just refused to let his mind catch up with them.

“I will not leave without her,” he told them emphatically.

The door to the inn opened, and the Sabers walked in. “Do you have the passes?” Beck asked them.

“Yes,” said Bret Schwan.

“Are they good for tomorrow as well?” Bret said that they were, so the group agreed to continue the search for the missing Kiernan. But, they did not find her that day nor the next.

Beck was sick with worry. He could not eat or sleep, and spent every waking moment pounding the streets, looking for any sign of her passage. At dinner the evening of their third night in Iserport, Rogan said quietly, “We have to continue on, Beck.”

“I will not leave her, Rogan. You know that.”

“I do, but I need to retrieve my pendant and the Dwarves and Elves need to know the island has been invaded. Earthshine is less than five weeks away.”

Earthshine, the phenomenon that happened once a year on the island when night disappeared and there was sunlight for twenty-four hours straight. Most Massans rejoiced during the event and celebrated with all manner of festivity and merriment. By choosing this occurrence as a demand for surrender, Adrian Ravener had turned this joyous occasion of light into something dark. Beck doubted that the Massans would look forward to Earthshine with the same zeal in the future.

If there was a future.

“What do you suggest?” he asked Rogan wearily.

Rogan stroked the bearded stubble on his chin as he considered. “I will travel ahead to Kondor to search for my pendant and speak to King Rik, and Airron can travel to Sarphia to warn King Jerund. Beck, as is your want, remain here to continue the search for Kiernan and once you find her, we will all meet up in Sarphia to unlock the map to Callyn-Rhe.”

Rory looked annoyed. “And, me?”

Beck waved a hand at him dismissively. “You should go with Airron to Sarphia.”

The fireshifter glowered. “I do not wish to go to Sarphia. I will stay here and help you with the search.”

Beck thought about Kiernan’s words that he was being too casual in his duty. “No, Rory!” he said harshly, standing abruptly and knocking his chair backwards. “You are to go with Airron to Haventhal. Do I make myself clear?”

He felt all of their eyes on him as Rory spit out, “As you wish.”

By the next morning, Beck’s friends were gone, continuing on in their sworn duty. He felt the same pull, but fought it. When he had lost everything he had cared about in this world, Kiernan was the one to see him through the pain. He would not, could not, abandon her now. If he had to tear down this decrepit city brick by brick, that is what he would do.

Kiernan slowly opened her eyes and regretted it immediately. She moaned as a sharp pain exploded in her head and she shut them tight again to stop the throbbing. That one brief glimpse revealed to her that she not in her room at The Queen’s Lair, but in a room filled with white. White walls, white floor and a white coverlet thrown over her body.

She turned over and cradled her head in her arm to stop the pain.

“I can help you,” said a female voice from the corner of the room.

Kiernan flinched at the unexpected voice, but did not lift her head. “Then, help,” she croaked out.

A figure approached her bed, and Kiernan felt the movement of the mattress as it sank under the woman’s weight. “My name is Helenite, and I am a healer.” The woman turned her over and pressed her fingertips to her temples. Kiernan felt a strange tingle and stiffened her body in response.

“What?..”

“Quiet now, and let me complete my work.”

Kiernan relaxed her mind and her body responded in kind. She heard Helenite mumble words that she did not understand. All she knew or cared about was that the pounding in her head was subsiding. When Helenite finished with her ministration, Kiernan sat up gingerly and looked at her. The healer was one of the loveliest women Kiernan had ever seen in her life. She had long chestnut hair pulled back in a single braid and large, brown almond shaped eyes with long eyelashes and full red lips. She was wearing a pale green satin gown that showed a generous amount of bosom.

Kiernan self-consciously ran her fingers through her own tangled hair, feeling extremely dull and frumpy in the woman’s presence. “Where am I?” she questioned with distrust in her voice.

The healer rose from the bed to leave without saying a word.