The Witch (13 page)

But still no one was looking at them.

Look without your eyes.

The sword vibrated and she brushed her fingers across its hilt lightly. “Maybe we are looking at the city wrong. Maybe we need to actually touch it.”

“And how do we touch a city?” Jushua asked.

Loren thought for a moment. Everything around them would be tangible, if it was real, wouldn’t it? She stopped walking and picked up a stone. It felt smooth and cool beneath her fingers. She slipped it in her pocket for a reason she couldn’t name.

The rock was real. She could feel the weight of it. But what wasn’t?

She walked over to the nearest building, some type of shop as far as she could tell. She ran her hand over the worn brick.

It felt as real as the stone in her pocket. “I don’t know. Let’s just get to where we’re going.”

Don’t rush. Take the time to see what you need to see.

Jushua held out a hand for her. Loren took it without thinking.  He pulled her closer. “Stay between us.”

“How far are we to Ihth?” She refused to be distracted by him anymore. Now wasn’t the time. If they lived through this journey,
then
she would try to figure out what to do about him.

“Not far. Ihth was a small village that grew into Darda’s outskirts. It started about a mile from here.” Deki said. He stared at their clasped hands with an inscrutable expression on his face. She wanted to pull her hand away but Jushua held her too tightly. She glanced at Jushua, was he doing it deliberately?

She didn’t think so. He was staring off into the distance. When his attention shifted back to them he was frowning. “How long did we hike into the city?”

“A little over three hours. Why?”

“It should have been almost twice that. The Heirche were further away from Darda of old. There is no reason we should have made such good time. Especially with a human halfling. We are not in Darda.”

Score for young Jushie. My brother is not just a fair looking male. There is intelligence between his ears.

The sword almost laughed against her. It was feeling more and more real every time it spoke with her. She wished she could talk to it, but she didn’t dare. Not with Jushua and Deki so close.

Deki knows. How could he not? He cared for me five thousand years, did he not?

Why had he not told her?

Because it was not his place. And it hurts him too much. The first thousand years he tried to free me. His efforts, while appreciated, were not to bear fruit. It is not his path to free me.

Then whose was it?

If you need to ask then you are not ready to hear the answer.

Great. The only talking inanimate object she’d ever owned and it was being cryptic.

Just go forward. The answers you seek are deeper in the city. Or are they past the city? Perhaps you need to close your eyes to guide your steps.

“Close your eyes, Jushua. What do you hear?”

**

What did he hear? He heard the hum of Evalanedea, he heard the sound of his female breathing, of birds flying overhead.

What he did
not
hear was the sounds of the village around them.

And he should have. “It is an illusion. A clever one, but one we will not be trapped in. This is not Darda. We continue on.”

They would use his and his brother’s memories of that time to guide them. Rather than his eyes sight, they would follow the knowledge he had possessed this time. He knew the way to Darda, and to Ihth beyond. He would not fall for such illusory traps as this. Not again.

But he was not letting go of his witchie unless he had to.

He opened his eyes again, and his gaze immediately met his brother’s. Dekimos nodded.

His brother knew what Jushua was thinking. And Deki agreed.

As soon as they were out of this false town they would speak of it.

Loren’s feet hurt, and her head was beginning to spin. Something about the air in this Darda-that-wasn’t was messing with her somehow. She did not know what it was, and it was becoming harder and harder for her to ignore.

It is the darkest of sorcery that can create something such as this so many years later. Watch yourselves.

The sword spoke exactly how she was feeling. That really freaked Loren out; but the blade comforted her, as well.

She’d started talking back to it—mentally—an hour or so on their trek through the convoluted magical city. It wasn’t a straight walk through the place; they’d had a few unexpected detours along the way.

And she was getting so tired, drained. Frustrated. And lost.

Something was also going on with Jushua and Dekimos. The two continued to shoot silent, manly expressions at each other when they thought she wasn’t looking. After the umpteenth such look, she stopped walking. “What is it? You two are hiding things from me. I want the truth. So spill it, boys. Or I’m not taking a single step further. Sorry, guys. We’re not playing the secrets game.”

Jushua yanked on her arm. “You are not so large that I cannot carry you if you prove stubborn. Dekimos and I merely share concern. Both for you and for the effects of this city upon all of us.”

“Then tell me of them. I will not break, guys. I’m not stupid or weak, and if you recall correctly I’ve been around eighty-one times. Died eighty times. I don’ fear it. But I don’t go looking for it either.” Even this time. She wanted to get through this, whatever it was. But she deserved to know what they were thinking. If they were planning something. “Tell me.”

**

He did not wish her frightened, that was all. And until he had the answers he sought he would not tell her the truth. “I merely worry that we will not find our exit in this place.”

“We need to follow the sun. Toward the mountains.”

“Where do you get these new ideas? What says go to the mountains?” She seemed so certain of this path they were to take. Her destinies, again? Or something else? Was she being truthful with them? “Tell me.”

“The Fates, if you want to put it that way. I know that is where we are supposed to go. Just as I know this is where we are supposed to be.”

“We are wandering with aimless intent. What can it hurt for us to go toward the mountains, or beyond them even to the seas?” Dekimos asked.

Jushua could not answer that. But he did not like it that she kept secrets from him. “To the mountains, then.”

**

They kept walking and walking, always following the sun.

Eventually they ended up on the edge of the city. Where they’d originated. They’d come nowhere.

Frustration and defeat filled her.

It only worsened when Dekimos stared at them with an inscrutable look on his face. “We cannot continue thusly.”

“What do you suggest?” Even she heard the frustration and anger in Jushua’s voice. Loren understood. She felt the same.

“This city, it is not real. Yet…there must be some sign of it somewhere. Of it, Cles City, all of them. We need to know.”

“And how do you suggest we do that?”

“I will go to Cles. I will return to you within a day. You and Loren,
you
are the ones meant to go forth in this task. Not I.”

Jushua argued.

Loren definitely understood what he felt. He was so determined to protect his brother, just as she had always wanted to protect her mother.

But…Dekimos knows the paths he should follow. Jushua must also follow his own way. To do else is to invite the Fates’ wrath.

Loren didn’t like it, but it felt right. And it was always Deki’s right to choose. “Twenty-four hours, Deki. I think that will be about how long it will take me to know what it is I need to do.”

Ihth
.

The sword in her hand vibrated just slightly, and it was in that moment that she realized someone was really in there. Or a part of that someone. She wanted to ask Deki if he knew, and opened her mouth to do just that.

Don’t. He already knows. This is the path we are to take. Though I am not certain it is Jushua’s.

How was she supposed to think about that? If Jushua was there, then it was his path, wasn’t it? To be something else, yet be there with her, wouldn’t that be impossible?

Dark sorcery makes anything possible. Go to Ihth. You will know what to do next when you arrive.

Loren was starting to resent the feeling that she was nothing more than a puppet of the Fates, and now she was being guided by a talking sword. How was she supposed to figure all of this crap out?

Before she had to face the darkest sorcerer of all time?

“We go to Ihth.”

“And I go to Cles City.” Deki brushed the hair off her cheek and then turned to his brother. “She is yours now. Protect her always.”

“Deki…you’ll return with us to Thrun, won’t you?” For some reason, Loren doubted in that instant
how
they would all return.
She
would not be pulling Dekimos through the realm barrier to Relaklonos again. She knew that with a certainty she could never explain.

“If the Fates decree it. If not…this is the path I am supposed to tread. Go. And be safe.”

With that he turned and walked off into the forest. Loren watched him for a long, long time.

“Is he coming back?” She whispered the question to the man at her side. He stared after his brother, worry on his face.

“I do not know. If he doesn’t, I will search for him. I will not lose him again.” Jushua’s pain was in his voice did he realize that? “I have not found him once more only to lose him again.”

Loren wrapped her hand around his much larger one. “We’ll find him, if we have to. But he has protected himself for five thousand years, Jushua. He’ll be ok. I know he will. And…I’m not yours. I don’t know why he said that.”

“Don’t be silly. We both know the truth of his words. The Fates you speak of so fondly have decided it for you.”

“Maybe, but that doesn’t mean you should just give in so easily. I thought you didn’t believe in following the Fates.”

“I do. When it suits me.” He grabbed her arm and twisted her around so fast her head whirled. Until her chest was pressed against his. Then his huge hands went to her ass and he lifted her. “Kiss me, female.”

She looked up at him. He was crazy, wasn’t he? “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why not? I think we both agree at this time that we were meant to be together. And we may die tomorrow. Should we not at least answer some of our more pressing questions?” His hand was behind her neck, beneath her hair. Her skin burned where he touched.

“That doesn’t mean I’m just going to go for it, and hop in the sack with you.”

“I don’t know what sack it is you speak of, but if that means sharing my bedroll while on this quest of yours, then I am quite willing.” He kissed her so quickly Loren couldn’t react. Couldn’t pull away.

She wasn’t so sure she wanted to. “I can’t do this now. I have to focus on this quest, as you called it. I can’t afford to screw it up.”

“And I would cause such a screw up, as you put it? I do not think so.”

“Still…” She closed her eyes and refused to think about him pressed against her and how right it felt.

She wasn’t Dardaptoan or Lupoiux, she didn’t think she could just find her mate that the Fates decreed her and automatically be with him, care for him. Desire him. But that didn’t mean the idea of him wasn’t tempting.

He wasn’t Dekimos.

That thought gave her a momentary rush of guilt. How could she even be thinking of Jushua like that when she had just found Deki? No, she and Deki weren’t meant for one another now, she knew that.

But that didn’t mean she could casually hurt him by being with his brother.

Fates decree, little Nelanora. Be with the one you are supposed to be. It is the way of things.

The sword vibrated and she pulled away from Jushua, not sure how to respond to any of it. “We need to get going. I don’t know where the Gardens of Ihth are, do you?”

He kissed her quickly, then stepped away. He knelt in the ground and outlined a crude map in the dust. It took her a moment, but it finally registered.

He’d drawn the same shape as had been in the temple in Dardanos. She
had
seen it before. In her dreams. “Ihth is here. My mother was born in Ihth. So was yours. Well…Nelanora’s.”

“What could we be searching for there?”

Not searching. Returning.

The sword again. How was she supposed to respond to it?

“We will know, will we not, when we arrive? Won’t your precious Destinies tell you?”

“You shouldn’t mock, Jushua. What if your mocking angers them? They have been known to make rash decrees. That rarely ends well, from what I understand.”