Island Shifters: Book 01 - An Oath of the Blood (36 page)

He could not help himself. He wept. He wept for the loss of his parents and home as well as for Kiernan. He wallowed in pity and despair as he imagined Kiernan in the hands of vicious and evil foes, berating himself ruthlessly for not shielding her from harm as he promised King Maximus and Captain Nash he would do.

Kiernan was right in all of her accusations. He was negligent and careless, and she was paying the price.

Twice a maid knocked on his door, once to clean his room and once to deliver food. He sent her away both times without opening the door.

He began to climb out of his world of darkness with the rise of the sun on his fifth day in Iserport. In those long, lonely hours of the night, the dark concealed the truth from him, but with the morning light, it was revealed. Hope. With light there was hope, and he clung to it, deciding that he still had the will to fight. Still had hope that Kiernan would be found.

He rose from his bed, washed at the basin, and then dressed and went downstairs.

Gage Gregaros was in the dining room eating alone at a table, and Beck pulled out a chair and sat next to him. The Saber’s mouth tightened slightly as soon as he saw Beck, but said nothing.

“When did you get back?” Beck inquired.

“Last night, and just in time so it seems.” He told Beck over breakfast that Rogan was safely on his way to Kondor. Whether the Dwarf would find his pendant was still anybody’s guess. Bret Schwan, accompanied Airron and Rory to Havenport, but as of yet, had not returned. “We will find her,” Gage said finally, but he no longer sounded optimistic.

Despite Beck’s exhaustion, the pair started out again, steering clear of the Rearing Horse. They searched long into the night without results. Well past midnight, Beck returned to his room and flopped down on the bed. Still, sleep did not come. His mind and heart were in turmoil. It was apparent now that Kiernan had been kidnapped, but by who? Why? He wondered if her captors knew she was the Princess of Men. Or, could it be that Adrian Ravener was involved?

Beck jumped off his bed and began pacing. Too many questions and not enough answers. He went to the window and threw open the shutters to breathe in the pungent night air. There were a few people still on the move outside of the inn, but most were indoors now, sleeping soundly with their loved ones. Dispirited, Beck was about to slam the window shut when a flash of motion caught his eye. He crouched instinctively, but continued to scan the street. The movement he detected was not natural. It was too fast.

Then he saw green eyes peering up at him from an alleyway across the street.

Bajan.

Beck waited for the stragglers to pass by the inn and then whistled softly and stepped back. In a streak of white, the Draca Cat bounded across the road and leapt into the second story window.

“Bajan! What are you doing here?” he asked, sticking his head out of the window to look up and down the street to see if any bystander happened to witness the Draca Cat’s jump into the building.

He pulled back into the room and shut the window. Bajan’s green eyes were hastily searching the room. He was looking for Kiernan.

“She’s gone.”

The cat lifted his upper lip in a snarl.

“Did she contact you?”

Bajan nodded.

“Did she sound distressed?”

Again, Bajan nodded.

Beck grabbed Bajan by the face. “I knew it! She is in trouble, Bajan, and it is up to us to find her. Everybody else is gone.” He paused, thinking. “Have you tried to contact her?”

The cat nodded and then shook his head indicating that his attempt was fruitless.

“Do you think you can you track her?”

The cat was still for a moment as he considered and then nodded. Optimism flared within him. “Come, her room is this way and you can pick up her scent from there.”

Beck opened the door to his room and they slipped out silently. There was no one in sight, but he heard laughter coming from the pub downstairs. He tried the door to Kiernan’s room and it was still locked. Without hesitation, he put his fist through the door next to the knob and reached in to open it from the inside. When he was sure no one had heard the splinter and crack of wood, he stepped inside and carefully looked around. It was empty except for Kiernan’s backpack and a few personal items on the table by her bed. He repacked her belongings, shouldered the pack, and turned expectantly to Bajan.

The Draca Cat was already honed in on Kiernan’s scent, and Beck cringed when he sprinted out into the hallway, raced down the stairs and into the pub. A woman screamed as soon as she saw Bajan, and chairs scraped back as people stumbled to get out of the cat’s way.

Indifferent to the reaction of his presence, Bajan scrambled through the pub and out into the night. Beck held up his hands. “It’s all right! He is a Draca Cat and very friendly. Please! Do not be afraid.”

As soon as he was out the door, Beck quickly located Bajan standing at the far end of the street. He sprinted toward the cat. “Have you found anything?”

Bajan whined and began circling the same location over and over. Beck could read the cat’s meaning easily. Kiernan’s trail ended in the middle of the street.

It did not make any sense.

Except, he thought suddenly, if she was picked up and carried. That had to be it. Unless she disappeared into thin air, it was the only explanation for the lack of her scent from this point.

This was a big city. Someone had to have seen something.

His father always told him there was a solution to every problem and, if it was important enough, you just had to keep trying until you solved it.

This was important enough.

Chapter 21

L
AND OF THE
E
LVES

E
very muscle was tensed as Kiernan waited behind the door to her white room with her dagger clenched tightly in one hand.

Soon, one of the women would be back, and she would be waiting.

It was still a mystery to her as to why she was being held captive. If these women were of benevolent intent, why was her door locked? From the outside? Why did they keep spelling her into unconsciousness? She had had very little contact with any of the women since Gemini’s peculiar announcements in the four-tiered chamber days ago.

Gemini said that she knew Kiernan’s mother, so at some point the Queen must have brought her here. But why? What was Gemini referring to when she said that Kiernan would be trained? It was all very intriguing, but she simply did not have time for games and innuendo. Beck and the others must be worried sick by now.

As soon as she thought of Beck, her heart sank and she looked up toward the ceiling of her room to blink back the tears that threatened to fall.
No
, she shook her head. Most likely not worried at all, and more like still wrapped up in the arms of another woman and not caring in the least as to what had befallen her. The realization that he did not feel the same way as she did caused an unbridled pain so deep that she did not know if she would ever be the same person again. Yes, she would continue to exist, but she would never be the same, not with a gaping hole carved out of her heart.

Footsteps sounded outside of the door and she readied herself. She just needed to scare them into letting her go, she told herself. She did not need to harm them. Her only goal was to leave this place and meet up with her friends again.

There was a knock.

When she did not respond, a key was inserted into the door and with a sharp click, it was unlocked. Kiernan held her breath as a woman dressed in a blue velvet dress with black belt at the waist and black, shoulder length hair pulled back into a braid, entered her room.

With a growl, Kiernan sprang forward and grabbed the woman around her neck, the dagger less than an inch from her throat. “We will now do this the hard way,” she breathed into the woman’s ear. “I have to get out of here and
you
are going to show me the way.”

“Princess, you do not want to do this,” said the woman calmly.

Too calmly?

“Yes, obviously I do.” She nudged the woman’s back roughly toward the door. “Now go, and lead the way out of here as fast and silently as possible. If you make any move….” The woman lips moved in a silent chant.

Demons hell and an ash pit
, swore Kiernan,
not again
. Before she had a chance to respond, her dagger dropped from her nerveless fingers and she fell back onto the floor, stiff as a board and unable to move no matter how hard she tried. She could not even move her lips to scream.

The dark-haired beauty stared down at her. “Do not let our looks fool you, Princess. We are not weak and delicate. We can be ruthless if we have to be. After all, they do not call us witches without reason.”

If Kiernan’s rage could have broken the spell over her inert body, it would have exploded into a million fragments. She had never felt so helpless in her life, her fate so completely in another’s hands. She had always been able to fight or talk her way out of any situation and now she could do neither.

The woman’s gorgeous blue eyes were confidently smug. She was young and appeared to be around Kiernan’s age, although it was hard to tell with these women.

“My name is Sapphire,” Kiernan’s tormenter announced and then stepped one leg over Kiernan to straddle her in a very humiliating fashion. “If you continue to push, Princess, you will be pushed back. Hard.”

If Sapphire expected Kiernan to nod, it was a cruel joke.

The woman tossed her black braid over her shoulder and squatted. “I should probably leave you on the floor all night to teach you a lesson, but I won’t. Gemini is waiting.” She got right down in Kiernan’s face. “Try it again, though, and you will be very, very sorry.”

Sapphire mumbled a counter to her spell, and as soon as it lifted, Kiernan let out a frustrated scream and jumped to her feet.

“What in the hell was that?” she shouted. “How do you know magic? What are you?”

Sapphire held her head high. “I told you. I am a witch or a sorceress if you like that name better.”

“So, you are telling me that this is some kind of witches’ coven?”

“Exactly what I am telling you.”

“Really? And, how does Gemini know my mother?”

Sapphire grabbed Kiernan by the upper arm in a vice like grip. “Come. I will take you to Gemini and, Highworld bless her, she can answer all of your irritating questions herself.”

“Fine,” said Kiernan, and gave the sorceress a sickly sweet smile as she jerked her arm out of her grip.

Sapphire raised her eyebrows, but said nothing.

Kiernan was escorted down the same corridor full of tapestries and into the antechamber with the fountain of the young lady, but instead of going to the chamber across the white marble floor, Sapphire led her up the wide staircase to the first level of balconies.

They passed several young women, all in formal attire, who nodded politely to them. At the top of the stairs, Sapphire continued down a hallway and then stopped before a simple wooden door with no sign or decoration.

She knocked and was immediately granted admittance from a voice on the other side of the door.

The petite Gemini came from around her desk as soon as Sapphire and Kiernan entered.

“You may go now, Sapphire. Thank you.”

Sapphire curtsied deeply to Gemini, and then cast one last withering look over her shoulder at Kiernan before she departed.

The first thing that struck Kiernan when she entered Gemini’s chambers was the provocative scent that permeated the room. Her mood changed in an instant, and she felt herself growing tranquil and relaxed. Gazing around, she decided the best way to describe the décor was a blend of disordered comfort. A beautifully carved, but cluttered, writing desk and straight-back chair sat directly across from the door. Behind the desk was a battered yet intricately carved bureau chest. Off to the side was a wooden sofa upholstered in blue cut velvet brocade and strewn with plump colorful pillows.

A bookshelf in the corner contained a sizeable library of well-used tomes, and Kiernan walked toward it unsteadily to scan the titles on the spines. Among the collection, she found
Manipulation of Magikal. Herbs, Dream Acumen,
and
The Prophetic Age
. Scattered between the books was a variety of ritualistic items including mortar and pestle, crystals, pentacles, candles, a black onyx athame, pewter chalice, and even a cauldron. A garnet-topped staff leaned precariously against the shelves.