Prince of Fire (38 page)

On to Arthes, then.

Ciro had no qualms about traveling unescorted. It would be much easier to make his way past any guards who might've been foolishly placed between him and his destination, and he was certainly capable of handling any resistance he met along the way. Alone he could...

Not alone. Take the empress. Take the child within her.

Ciro did not care for Diella, even now. She was loud and demanding and her requirements were plentiful and stridently voiced. Pregnancy would likely not agree with her. More precisely, pregnancy would not agree with those around her.

Still, the demon had insisted that Ciro allow the former empress to live, at least until the child she carried was born, and so far he had obeyed. He had done everything the demon had asked of him. Now he was to take Diella with him on the journey to Arthes? Weeks of travel with just the two of them?

Her place is there.

Since the demon lived so much inside Ciro, he had no choice but to obey once again. If he did not, then the demon's constant voice would surely drive him mad... though some might insist he had already passed the point of madness.

* * * * *

"I told you we would arrive on time," Keelia said. She and her mother led the way as their party approached Ariana's army's camp on a bright, warm summer afternoon. They were intercepted far from the gathering of soldiers, of course, but two of her own Anwyn guards were among the soldiers posted at the perimeter, and they recognized their Queen in spite of her travel-worn state.

Druson, who was not yet completely white-haired, had been silent for days. Once he saw the traveling party safely with the army they sought, he wordlessly turned back toward the Mountains of the North. His home was there; his people needed him. He himself still had much to learn.

When presented to the army's beloved leader, Keelia hugged Ariana fiercely, and they laughed. Juliet's reunion with her sister Sophie was much the same, with a close embrace and laughter and tears. Ryn and Uncle Kane shook hands, but they were less jovial than their wives. They knew war, and they could not find even the smallest smile in the knowledge that it was upon them once again.

Keelia drew Joryn forward and introduced him to her family as her husband. Columbyanans—humans as a whole—didn't quite grasp the concept of being mated. Any sort of ceremony to make Joryn hers would have to wait for another place and time. There was much to be done before that would happen... but it would happen. She could envision with great clarity the sacred ceremony that would take place in the courtyard of her own palace, in her own beloved City. They would pledge themselves to one another before her people and the priestesses, and there would be great joy. Joryn would be her King, and their children would fill the palace she had always called home.

But not until this task was completed.

When their greetings were done, they wasted little time getting to the business at hand. Ariana's husband, Sian, shared with Keelia and the others the Prophesy of the Firstborn. Keelia easily saw her part in it, a part which had already taken place. She had betrayed love, and even though she'd been under Maccus's spell all the time, that betrayal was no less real. Betrayal in the name of victory. Maccus's victory. The Isen Demon's victory.

Joryn had placed one finger on the margin of the prophesy, drawing Keelia's eye to what very well might be a sketch of her failing from the cliff and finding her wings. The others had thought it to be an ordinary bird, but to her and to Joryn the drawing had greater significance. He'd also suggested that another sort of betrayal had taken place when she'd broken Maccus's spell and renounced the false love he had planted in her heart and mind. Perhaps, he suggested, it was the betrayal—the
defeat
—of that false and unnatural love that had been prophesied.

Keelia did not waste much heart berating herself over past choices. It was done, and all was as it should be for now.

Ariana told of her visit to the Land of the Dead and the miraculous return. According to the prophesy, that left Lyr to wield the crystal dagger. Keelia immediately grasped the importance of her cousin from Tryfyn's part in this war.

"He'll join us within days " Keelia said, confident of her prediction. "Lyr and Duran, Aunt Isadora and Uncle Lucan, and half a dozen others, they ride toward us quickly. They'll join us before this gathering divides."

Keelia reached for the knowledge of where Lyr might find the crystal dagger. She had an inkling, but could see nothing certain. Not yet. When he was closer, perhaps she would know. There was simply so much to consider that she was having a hard time concentrating on any one matter.

"You will go to Arthes to the emperor," Keelia said, and Ariana answered with a nod of her head. "Aunt Sophie and Mother will try to find Liane. I suspect Aunt Isadora will wish to join them." Which meant their husbands would also be on that journey.

"And you?" Ariana asked, "Where will you go?"

Keelia closed her eyes and tried to see where she would be needed most in the coming months. With the army or with Ariana? She thought her place would be with her cousin, but she was not yet certain.

"Will they find Liane?" Ariana asked.

"Yes." She was quite confident they would.

"Can you tell them where to look for her?"

"Not tonight, but perhaps tomorrow." Her mind was tired, and she was seeing nothing clearly at the moment. Snips and flashes, half-truths and faded pictures. There was simply so much to know ... and still so very much undecided.

"What of the sons?" Ariana asked sharply. "The heirs to the throne? They would be just your age. Did they survive their mother's escape from Arthes? Do they live?'

Keelia looked at her cousin with calculating eyes. Ariana had not yet revealed that her own husband had a claim to the throne—a claim he did not wish to pursue. Since he had asked his wife to keep the secret, Keelia could not be angry that Ariana remained quiet about the matter.

"They live," she said confidently. "Both of them. One dark, one fair. One touched with a shadow he fights, one noble to the pit of his soul." A crystal-clear stream of knowledge burst through the jumble of what was to be and what might be, and she could not stop the sharp intake of breath that followed. For a moment, reality was lost to her, and all she saw was one clear truth.

Keelia leapt up and ran to the tent opening, so she could look out on the army that spread far and wide around them. As far as she could see, there were armed men who prepared for battle; there were campfires and tents and horses. There was the ring of blades being sharpened, and even the occasional odd trill of laughter.

"He's here," Keelia whispered.

"What?" Ariana laid a steady hand on Keelia's shoulder, and together they looked out over the army.

"Sebestyen's eldest. The next emperor of Columbyana. The man who must take Arik's place if we are to defeat the darkness." Keelia turned and looked into her cousin's eyes. "He's here."

Joryn slipped his arm about her waist, and for a moment Keelia was surrounded by and washed in the comfort of love. Her cousin on one side, her mate on the other. "I do not yet see exactly who this man is, but I will see, in time." At that moment she knew, without a doubt, that until this war was over her place would be at Ariana's side.

Ariana slipped away to tell her husband about the newest revelation, and Keelia faced Joryn. "It isn't over," she said softly. "We are still meant to fight. We are needed here."

"I suspected as much," he replied.

"You are needed as much as I am. Surely you recognized yourself in the prophesy, he who walks through fire."

"I can't see how I might show these humans the way," Joryn said skeptically. "Maybe I've already done my part by showing you the way. Maybe there is more to come. All that matters is that wherever you are called, I will be with you."

His words sent a wave of relief through Keelia's tense body. "You're going to be a wonderful King."

Joryn's eyebrows arched slightly. Had he not yet realized that he would be King? Of course he had. He would be King of the Anwyn and of the Caradon, if Druson's predictions about the days to come in the Mountains of the North were correct.

"It occurs to me that fighting a demon might be easier than bringing your people and mine together," he said.

Keelia understood Joryn's reservations, but soon enough he would know that his worries were unnecessary. "I don't think so," she whispered. "If we can defeat the demon before us, then our people will come together well. Not without problems, but still... very well." Keelia closed her eyes and touched Joryn's mind with her own, offering to her mate a crystal clear vision of a wonderful future.

* * * * *