The Chaotic Kingdom - Chapter 14

<-Chapter 13

December had finally arrived. More than a week of quiet had passed, and everyone felt a bit on edge. They were waiting for the other shoe to drop and wondering just how long of a reprieve Minstrel would give them. Tasia continued to train Logan and Terry in their conjuration gifts while Raine tended to Kari's healing skills, and Theo worked on Kimber's Sight.

The latter had proved a quick study and she had picked up aspects of meditation and divination with impressive speed. Still, she did feel a bit nonplussed to find herself sitting naked in the middle of the attic one night. "Why are we doing this?" she asked her husband. She eyed his loose robe with some wistfulness. "We're technically still on our honeymoon."

He grinned at her. "Are you addicted to me by any chance, Kimber?"

She merely lifted a brow. "Are you shocked if I am? I don't see you discouraging such a thing. You say I seduced you the first time, but let's be real, Theodore: by the time I tackled you to the floor of your apartment, you had been doing a fair job of not-so-subtly seducing me first."

"Family tradition, really."

She snorted. "Good to know for the future. Now please tell me why I'm sitting here getting splinters in my ass."

He tried not to laugh as he finished drawing a circle around them with white chalk. "We're doing this because it's time to see how far you've gotten, and you volunteered to make the first attempt at using Sight to get insight into Minstrel. As for the nudity, being skyclad helps shed bonds of mortality and enhance gifts. I'm not naked because I'm not making the dive, and I'd distract you anyway." Not that seeing his wife sitting there naked did anything for his concentration, either. Her skin glimmered beautifully in the candlelight, and her soft curves always tempted his hands to wander. Down, boy, he told himself. He sat down across from her, and his robe dipped over a shoulder. "Alright. Concentrate."

"He expects me to concentrate when he sits there like a redheaded god of desire." She reluctantly closed her eyes and put the image of her near naked lover out of her mind. "What am I concentrating on, love?"

He rose to his knees and leaned closer to lightly place his hands on her temples. Both of his visible Flower Marks began to glow softly, and the glow rippled down the streaks of orange and yellow over his eyes. Gold majik moved across his cerulean eyes as he harmonized everything inside him. "On my voice," he said, and his Virtuoso voice vibrated with power and music. "Simply on my voice." He caught her when she slumped toward him. Until she could learn to look alone, he had to anchor her. "What do you see?" he asked softly.

"A big piece of plaid material." The words sounded almost monotonous for she had gone deeply into her Sight. "Every color under the sun."

"Pick one. Start with the most common." If she could see even one little piece, it could be fed to Storm and perhaps he could unravel the entire damned scarf. And if not Storm, then maybe Tasia. Theo could not shake the feeling Tasia might know more than even she realized, but whether or not she would share remained another subject entirely.

"Red. Lots and lots of red." There was a moment of silence. "I can't unravel it."

"Then it's a big part of him. We'll look later. Pick another color."

"Black. It's under the other colors." Pause. "It looks like death." Her eyes opened suddenly, and the blue had disappeared into the black of her expanded pupils. "It's consuming everything."

"Pull out." He gave her a shake. "Pull out, Kimber, now!" When there was no response, he slapped his hand over her forehead and forcefully blocked the vision. "Kim, focus on me, honey. Hear my voice." He softly began to sing the first thing that popped into his mind in the hopes of severing the ties for her.

Her entire body went slack, and he felt the danger pass. For long moments there was silence, and then she mumbled against where her face was pressed to his chest, "I haven't heard the Dancing Rainbow song since I was a kid on a playground."

He managed a weak laugh. "I was desperate." His arms tightened around her. "I'm so sorry. I should never have asked. I should have realized you weren't ready to try to touch something potentially evil."

She straightened. "Hey. Shh. Shh." She gently framed his face with her hands and brushed at the tears under his lashes. "I have to learn somehow. I have to be stronger if I am to help you." She drew him closer and wrapped her arms around his shoulders as she rested her cheek on his head. She didn't need to invite him in to see what she had; he was already there inside her mind as two mated visionaries always were. Before the black had overtaken everything, she had seen twenty colors. Twenty very familiar colors. All of them being slowly bled out.

 

* * * * *

 

In another apartment not very far across the city, Kari rolled over in bed to snuggle her lover and discovered his side of the bed was empty. It disoriented her and she opened her eyes quickly. Where had he skipped off to? "Stormy?" she called as he sat up. She felt a charge of static a moment later, and her hair quivered in the air. It crackled as she got out of bed.

She went toward the living room slowly, not wanting to intrude on whatever he was doing. Candlelight flickered around the room, and she saw that he had pushed all the furniture out of the way. He sat on his knees in the middle of a cast circle and only the candlelight covered him.

Her entire body flushed with desire that never seemed to go away for more than minutes at a time. He had always, and would always, have a devastating impact on her entire being. Just one look at him from across an entire university racetrack had brought her senses wildly to life, and nothing had been the same since.

She honestly did not think he had any real clue that she had taken the culinary class just to be near him. Sure, she loved to cook and bake, but she had never felt a need to take a class until she had discovered that was why he was on campus. She had been an alumni and only borrowing the racetrack for training but she had immediately asked to join the class as well. Luckily, she had gotten in. Everything about Storm had been such a . . . breath of fresh air. She had never fit into the Rebirth Era, and Storm had made her more comfortable than anyone else. Arriving in the Resurrection Era had felt like coming home. She had always belonged here with her beautiful Cultivator.

He continued to lightly age like a drink made to be savored in a century; in thirteen years, he would reach his peak and stay there as immortality entirely kicked in. He still had a nearly willowy frame, but there could be no mistaking his lethality when he clearly had distinct muscle. He frequently dumped his larger brothers-in-law on the sparring mat as needed. His ashy brown hair had grown out to just past his shoulders, and he usually just left it down because he knew Kari liked to play with it. Honestly, no matter what he did to his appearance, she always felt enthralled.

She sighed. Yeah, she was hopelessly in love. "Hey," she said softly. "Can you hear me?"

"Mm." His eyes didn't open. "I was trying to read the pattern. I think Kim tried a few moments ago herself. I linked to Theo. I thought maybe I might have a better chance since I'm used to walking the Immortal Fields and finding others to link to. I don't have Sight, but I don't need it for this. I'm just going deeper into the pattern I've already seen."

She sat down to watch him. "Do you ever regret it?" she asked softly.

"Being chosen as a Defender Cultivator who risks his life for peace? Or being a witch with majik?" His eyes did open then and he looked at her with a smile. "The latter never had a chance to bother me. I grew up in the Martine house as much as my own. Mom and Tasia made majik feel so . . . normal. As soon as I thought of a question, one of them answered it. And as for the former, well, it's literally a gift from Gladiolus and Destiny that I be chosen as a Dual Cultivator. Yes, it was terrible how we came to be Activated, but I don't regret it."

"You don't talk about that time," his lover noted. "Why not?"

"It was . . . horrific. Almost a sort of reminder of the burden on ourselves. Aria was dying, Kari." He tilted his head back. "Falling to pieces literally. Poisoned and tainted water. People dying. Armand could have been a kind and just man, and Aria would have still be dying without a Ruler Cultivator on the throne. Here, it's okay as long as we just live, but not there." He took a long breath. "I think more than any other war yet other than this one, we had the biggest risk of dying. LeAnn and Tasia nearly drowned. Tasia had to shatter her own soul. The first time. The second was the Dragon War." Under his breath, he muttered, "I don't want to know what the third will be." He shook his head. "Honestly, it just hurts too much to remember."

"Storm?" She pressed her hands against the circle preventing her from getting to him. "Put this down. I want to hold you."

He smiled. "Okay." He started to straighten up to dissolve the circle and break the connection when he felt something slipping back along the link he had been holding. Quick as a blink he slammed up his mental shields and locked the doors he had opened.

The force slammed into the shields, and it was so hard and powerful that it broke into the physical realm. He went flying across the room to smack into a wall. He broke through the circle as he did, and it shattered violently. The invisible shards slashed into his flesh, and Kari rushed through the hidden debris to his side. "Stormy!" She fell to her knees beside him and eased him into her arms. "Stormy, are you okay?"

His eyes opened and they looked murky with pain. He could barely focus on her hands as they glowed softly gold with majik while she tried to heal his wounds. "When we see him, he sees us." Tears welled up suddenly. "I saw inside him. It was . . . empty. It hurts."

She gathered him closer and began to rock him gently. "I know, my love," she murmured. "I know." Both of his Masks had been sitting near, and his communications one lit up with yellow and purple ombre. She reached for it without releasing him. "Hi, Tasi. It's Kari."

"Is Storm okay?"

"Yeah." She held him closer protectively and put the mask on the table to use her then freed hand to gently massage his forehead. "He was testing the pattern. Something ricocheted back at him and slapped him pretty hard. Broke the circle too."

"Shit." Tasia let out a long and weary sigh. "That's what I thought. Did he say anything about it?"

"He said that when we see him, he sees us, and that he saw inside him and he was empty. Any clues on that one?" She grabbed the mask and then lifted Storm in her arms and stood. Not an easy feat because he did pack a fair bit of weight, but unlocking her majik had increased her own strength enough to finally allow her to manhandle her slightly shorter Cultivator. Thankfully. She carried him back to their bedroom.

"A few. Kim was trying the same thing. You and Storm should meet up with Theo and Kim. I don't want any of you diving solo, understand? It's more than obvious that Minstrel is unexpectedly familiar with and comfortable accessing energies normally reserved for majik users. Unless I'm there to anchor, the four of you work together."

She had to smile. "Yes, Mother."

"Oh, shut up." The mask stopped glowing.

She put Storm down gently on the bed and then put the mask to the side. He began to shiver, so she crawled in next to him. She cocooned them in the blankets for warmth, and he finally fell asleep as he tried to recover. She remained awake for a long while, though. Something was bothering her. Eventually, she slept as well.

They were both awakened a few hours later by someone pounding on their front door. Kari tried to roll over to go back to sleep but had forgotten she and Storm were all tangled up. She remembered when she found herself pinning him to the bed. Her barely open eyes blinked. "Hi."

Storm, now more than awake himself, rolled his eyes. "I can't move." His hands lifted without thought to thread through her rust colored hair. "Not that I'm complaining, mind you. You make a far better blanket than any feather comforter."

She lowered her head to kiss him when the person outside began knocking again. The candles he kept around the bedroom flared to life at the same time. He grumbled and shoved her aside to find his robe. He belted it tightly as he stalked to the door and opened it. "I should take offense," he said, "but if anyone is entitled, you are."

Theo snorted. "Damn right." He hugged his friend tight. "You okay?"

"Kari's good with her hands." Storm knew how it sounded and didn't bother to clarify it. He just smiled. "I'm fine. Really. But come look at this." He held the door for Theo and Kimber and then led the way into the living room. There was a burn mark in the carpet where the circle had been, and the couch had cuts in it.

"There goes your deposit," Kimber said to Kari as she came down the hall wearing her running shorts and a workout bra.

"Better the apartment than my lover. He's worth more than any money." Kari aimed directly for the coffee pot and discovered Storm had set it to brew the night before. There was already a cup waiting, much to her delight. She wanted her morning run still, but damned if she would do it without any measure of coffee in her system.

"She's such a cute addict," Theo decided. A bracelet with a raw agate stone shimmered as he shoved his hair out of his eyes. Not unusually, the Resurrection Cultivators had found themselves harmonizing to a stone of their Mother world as their protective charm. "Tasi told us to stick together, so I figure we might as well get started on it. The two of you together should be able to get us further than either of you alone, right?"

"Let's find out." Storm held a hand out to Kimber. "Here. Link with me." When she eyed his hand, he rolled his eyes. "Theo, your wife is afraid of me."

"I'm afraid of you," his own lover mumbled as she drank her coffee. Mornings were not her thing by a long shot; hence the run to wake her up. Without that, she usually only managed enough cognizance for one thing, but having guests forced her to keep her hands to herself.

Storm felt the heat in her gaze and curled his toes into the carpet. He had started to really love mornings since knowing her. Theo sensed the byplay and grinned slightly. "Kim, take his hand so we can go home and Kari can have him instead."

Kari coughed and Storm grinned. "Please do."

Kimber laughed. "Life can be so odd sometimes. I've been through so many strange times of my life where I fluctuated between thinking boys were weird and then thinking they might be the best thing ever and then thinking they were scary and then back to liking them. Then I met Theo." She smiled at her husband. "And somehow he convinced me that the right one could be all of the above."

He tapped a foot lightly on the ground. "Well, hell. What I'd like to do in response to that would be inappropriate in polite company." He shot her a smoldering look from under his lashes and made his eyes appear a blue mystery.

She felt heat climb her cheeks and rush through her blood. "I pity Beth," she grumbled. "Theodore, stop that."

"Seriously. Don't mush up her brain. It's her one decent working feature."

Kimber fired a rude gesture in Kari's direction, and Storm and Theo both muffled snickers. "Alright, kids, let's behave." Storm held out his hand again. "It'll be okay. Linking with me isn't unlike linking with Theo. Just open your mind."

She was still a little uneasy if only because she was still getting used to having her majik at all. At least she did not have magikry; she needed both Ruler and Defender magic for that, not a lone skill. They all heard a flutter and turned their heads to see Haeth sitting on the windowsill watching them. The morning sun shined on her blue scales. "Just open your mind," the Elder dragon said. "It will all work out."

She reached out and took Storm's hand. Theo stepped up behind Storm and put his hands on the slightly taller man's shoulders while Kari stepped up to brace Kimber as well. Once they were all together, Haeth flew around them in a loop to create a circle of blue-green flame. It was stronger than a normal cast circle and carried an echo of dragon power that added additional protection.

Storm could delve into a pattern to unravel it, but without Sight he could not speak of what he saw nor determine how to move deeper. Kimber could. Their unity meant he could work and she could translate. Her eyes opened, and the pupils had contracted to pinpoints. "Plaid."

Kari had no idea what to do to guide, but Theo did. His voice was deliberately soft and commanding to create a strong anchor. "Kim, you saw the black as death. Storm, pull on the black string."

There was silence and then a brief expression of annoyance flickered over Storm's face. Kimber said, "It won't remove."

Theo felt a little chill. That meant death was a deeply intricate part of Minstrel, which made him all the more dangerous. "Pick another color."

"Blue." Pause. "It's a single thread all by itself." Frustration filled her voice. "We can't remove it either."

"In my limited experience," Kari said, "that implies to me that whatever makes up Minstrel is all tied up. We're going to need to find the single thread that links it all."

"Yeah." Theo was watching Kimber's face. "What is it?"

Puzzlement was in her tone as well. "I hear a bell. There's a bell chiming somewhere. It's so methodical. The blue thread is quivering." She took a sharp breath. "He sees us."

"Get out!" Theo pulled on Storm as Kari pulled Kimber and their hands came apart to severe the connection.

The circle quivered and shuddered as an invisible outside force slammed into it. The entire building shook with impotent fury, and the circle threatened to break. The four within were all knocked off their feet and to the floor where they stayed for safety. Haeth let out a single piercing roar and the circle blazed red. The force outside whirled through the room, ripped through the couch, and knocked everything over and off the walls. Then, just as suddenly, it disappeared. Haeth searched the room and then dissolved the circle. "It's gone."

Kari carefully crept over to Storm and pulled him into her arms. "Stormy? Honey, talk to me." There was no response, and she saw angry welts marking his arms. He had still taken some of the backwash. She immediately began healing them.

Kimber shook her head and reached for Theo. "Theo?" He gave a faint groan and his head fell onto her shoulder. It was then that she noticed his hair, and her face lost its color. "Kari. Check Storm's hair."

Kari glanced down and began to curse softly. The colored locks of hair that each Cultivator possessed that showed their planetary heritage no longer looked vivid. They had faded to a sickly hue as if being bled out. "Shit." She spotted Haeth sitting on the counter. "Can we fix it? What is this?"

"Minstrel is able to use evil magic. He can notice when you try to see him. He follows the path to the source, and he can touch those who are open even through the circle. He did not bother with you or Kim because you are not as important to him. He went after the boys. He forced them to push for their limits to protect themselves. Unlike three others we know, they are not in possession of infinite power of any sort." She flew over to land on Kimber's shoulder. "You can refresh them, yes. Witches who resonate to Cultivators can do such a thing, and because you are Caretakers, you resonate to your lover. Only him, though. You could not aid anyone else. Be warned, however, that to revive Theo and Storm wholly, you two will push yourself to the edge in turn. You'll have to sleep it off, or be revived in turn by Tasia and/or Ryan."

Kari looked at Kimber. "I don't care if it incapacitates me. They're needed more than we are. There's not a lot we can do, but tons that they can do. We're relatively useless in any fights that come along."

"I agree." Kimber held Theo closer. "However, I think we should see about changing that. I won't stand by much longer while they're hurt like this. You think we could get Rodi and Allister to teach us how to use swords or something?"

"I say we go the whole way and have Terry and Logan teach us advanced physical combat too. We've already got some basic skills we can easily expand." Kari lowered her head and pressed her lips to Storm's forehead. She could almost literally feel the pain inside him from the mental slap and physical drain. "You gave me your power once. Now take mine."

When Theo awoke, he found himself lying on the bed down the hall. Storm was lying beside him. He groaned and sat up. "What the hell?" He felt slightly groggy, and strangely refreshed and also on a bit of what felt like a sugar rush. An odd combination, to be sure.

Storm groaned and turned over onto his side before sitting up. "My head. I feel hungover." He considered that. "No, I feel slightly drunk. Kari fed me her power. What the hell?" His eyes widened sharply as the pattern came clear. "Shit!"

"What?" Theo asked urgently.

"Minstrel must have tried to drain us and the girls refreshed us by giving us their majik!" He leapt out of the bed and ran down the hall toward the living room. He quickly raced to Kari's side where she was lying on the floor. Kimber lay not far away. It looked as if they had been trying to reset the room and dropped where they stood. "Kari, you idiot."

Theo knelt beside his wife and smoothed her hair back with trembling fingers. "We need Ryan and Tasia. They can replenish their majik without risk. Damn it, they should have just called them to start with!"

"There was no time," Haeth told them from where she was lying on the kitchen counter. "You were both so far gone they needed to fix it immediately."

"I'm going to get dressed." Storm headed back down the hall.

Theo gently touched Kimber and then reached over and touched Kari as well. "Sleep," he ordered softly. The two women relaxed even more as his powerful voice compelled them to truly rest and their breathing evened out. He could not have sent them under to begin with, but once there, he could indeed take them to the deeper and more restful stages. He had aided Sayena or Kacey at the hospital more than once, actually.

He fetched a couple blankets and gently tucked them over each woman. He was adding pillows when Storm came back down the hall in denims and a plain shirt. He also wore a necklace now that held the chunk of citrine that worked as his protective charm. His bracelet with its two Masks hung on his wrist as well.

Theo pulled out his PCA and started to say Tasia's name when he sensed a presence. He turned his head sharply and saw Minstrel just outside the window. He was watching them with a jovial smile on his face, and he waved when he saw Theo's gaze.

"You bastard!" Storm ran toward the window but the madman was running off with a laugh that chilled him. "Haeth, protect this place."

"Of course."

Theo lifted his phone again. "Tasia Aria." It connected almost immediately. "You probably already know because you're you, but Rodi and Logan need to come babysit. Ryan and you are needed too. While you do that, Stormy and I are hunting Minstrel. If we need you, you'll know." He disconnected and shoved the phone into his pocket and then grabbed his Mask from its earring instead. "Let's get that asshole. No one touches our Caretakers."

It was such a rush, Minstrel realized as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop. Why, he felt almost high as he floated on the power he had sucked from the Resurrection Cultivators. The feathered necklace he wore made him think he could fly, and he leapt higher and higher, laughing as he went. The bell on his hat chimed cheerfully. "One, two, tie my shoe," he sang. "Three, four, shut the door!" He twirled in the air with another laugh . . . and was suddenly hurled through the air as a bolt of lightning infused with fire plowed into his chest.

He slammed into another building and fell to the rooftop with a grunt. He got back up to his feet to see Storm and Theo in armor and Masks standing on the rooftop with him. Both looked furious. He couldn't have been more delighted. "You came to play with me?" He turned a cartwheel gracefully. "What shall we play? Cards? Skipping stones?" His smile sharpened into something almost evil. "Roulette?"

A giant roulette wheel appeared underneath the two Cultivators, and they fell into it with yelps. Storm scrambled back up to his feet and looked around sharply. It looked just like the real thing, and that alone made it more unnerving. "What is this?" he demanded.

Minstrel leapt over to the piece in the middle that spun the wheel and smiled down at him. "Why, it's a game!" He dodged as Theo tried to blast him with raw majik. "Tsk tsk! How very naughty of you. Those aren't the rules." He kicked the wheel into motion and spun along with his arms held out in the air. "Whee! Fun! So much fun! Let's have more fun!" The wheel spun even faster.

Theo and Storm hit the ground on pained yelps and then held onto the colored plates for dear life as the wheel kept spinning them dizzy. They had once liked roulette because it took as much luck as it did skill to spin the wheel and make your marker stop on certain plates to gain points. They would probably never play it again after this. The wheel stopped without slowing down, and it sent both Defenders tumbling head over heels. Luckily their armor protected them. They carefully straightened to their feet and then heard an ominous click. They slowly turned their heads and found a door opening under a crossed out number.

"You won a free trip to the Underbelly of the Plane! Congratulations!" Minstrel hopped down to the edge of the bowl to look inside. "What prize have we got for them, Fred? Why it's a trip into your worst nightmare! Have fun, and thanks for playing!"

Theo's eyes widened as a boulder rolled out onto the bottom with them. It was too large to dodge, and the sharply sloped sides of the wheel could not be climbed. The wheel abruptly tilted slightly, making the boulder begin rolling toward them, and there was nowhere to run to escape. Theo reached for his transport magic only to find it muffled again. "Start running!"

"Welcome to How Long Can You Last!" Minstrel's tone matched that of a host from one of the productions released on Visualities. Over the last few hundred years, people had grown to love watching contestants compete in various sorts of games as entertainment. Shanae and Sayena had only three rules about the production of those shows: no shock factors, no humiliation, and no rigging the outcome. Clearly, Minstrel had missed those rules. "Today's contestants: the Resurrection Cultivators! Who will live? Who will die? Find out after this advertisers' break!"

"I'll break his ass!" Storm said under his breath.

Theo managed a weak laugh. "I'll help. Damn it, we can't run forever!" Something suddenly touched his Sight, and he looked up sharply. Shocked, he could only stare. A little girl almost identical to Anna Aria was hovering in the air in front of them. It could not be Anna, however, for this girl looked translucent in a familiar way. "A ghost?" he whispered.

The little girl wore an unfamiliar style of dress, and her hair hung in loose curls. She clutched in her arms a little doll with a minstrel's hat. Her eyes locked with Theo's, and she held the doll up. She gave it a shake, and the bell on the hat chimed merrily. Theo suddenly remembered the bell Kimber had spoken of and took a quick breath. "That's it!" he exclaimed.

"It?" Storm stared at him.

Theo dropped his voice so Minstrel wouldn't hear, and Storm's eyes sharpened like a sword edge. He reached out with his magic to call lightning bolts to his hands, and then began running up the sloped side instead of the basin. The bolts worked like climbing picks to let him get high enough the boulder could not strike him. He immediately called his bow to hand and whirled to fire an arrow at Minstrel before the startled enemy could move.

The arrow seemed to whiz harmlessly over his head, and he just laughed. "All that just to miss me!"

"I never miss." Storm grabbed up the lightning bolts and summoned more to his hands. He released the high-pressure blast at the boulder and blew it apart into fragments of dust too small to hurt anyone. Theo fell to his knees and worked on catching a breath as his partner slid down to stand beside him.

Minstrel puzzled over Storm's words until he turned around and discovered that his hat had been shot off his head. It was pinned to a flagpole with an arrow. An unholy scream bellowed up from inside his chest and the roulette disappeared as he dove for his hat.

Storm helped Theo to his feet, and they both watched as Minstrel tore the arrow out and clutched his hat close. A chilling rage filled his eyes as he looked at the two Cultivators. Without a word, he disappeared. Theo let out a long breath. "Let's go back and make sure our Caretakers are okay."

The entire apartment building had been invisibly wrapped inside a particularly potent dual-cast majik circle from Rodi and Logan that no enemy would dare try to pierce. Storm and Theo rushed into the apartment to find Rodi armed with his sword, but he sheathed it at seeing them. "You look exhausted," he noted. "What were you doing?"

"Playing games." Storm hurried across the room to where Tasia and Ryan knelt over Kari. The apprentice had his hands on either side of Kari's head and the priestess was covering his hands. Silver-gold majik from Tasia and gold majik from Ryan flowed together into the unconscious woman. "Is she okay?"

"She will be. We just finished with Kim." Tasia looked to where Theo had sat down with his wife's head on his lap. "He was not after you two as we thought. It was an intent to harm them all along. He didn't get them in the circle, so he got you two in a way that he knew would make them sacrifice themselves for you."

"But why does he resent us so much?" Logan demanded from near the window. "Why not you? We're a drop in the bucket compared to all of you. We can't save worlds. You can. Is this an extension of his hate of Raven? Hate one Caretaker so hate the rest?"

Storm frowned deeply as he saw part of the plaid unravel. "That sounds right, yet somehow doesn't seem to be everything. It's definitely part of it. The green thread just unwove itself. I think it's envy. What he's envious of, however, I don't yet know."

Theo drew a long breath. "Well, things also got more complicated, too. When we were trapped today, Storm got us free by shooting his hat off his head. He went nuts. I've never felt such a chilling force in my life. And . . . the reason I told Stormy to shoot his hat was because I saw a ghost." He looked at Tasia. "I saw a little girl. A ghost. She looked exactly like Anna, but in a little blue dress. She was carrying a little doll with a minstrel's hat. She made the bell jingle, and I knew."

Storm took a sharp breath as the entire weaving in his mind seemed to suddenly unravel wildly. Rodi's hands instantly came down on his shoulders and anchored him. He had never had a pattern explode like that. "The blue thread," he whispered. "The ringing bell. Tasi, what did Raven say about why Minstrel hated him?"

Tasia's chocolate eyes looked older than usual, as if she had suspected the truth all along. "He said that Minstrel killed his little sister but blamed Raven."

"Then that's it. That's at the core of him. Somehow . . . his sister is at the root of this. That tiny little blue thread holds all of it together." Storm closed his eyes as Rodi gently massaged his pounding temples. "I just don't know why."

 

* * * * *

 

Deep below the Alurian castle, Minstrel sat in a darkened corner with his hat clutched against his chest as he rocked back and forth, back and forth. He was breathing hard, and tears slid down his ashen cheeks as his eyes stared sightlessly ahead. "They can't take you away from me," he whispered. "They can't take you away. I'll protect you. Don't worry. I'm here. They can't take you away."

 

©Stacy J. Garrett. Do not reprint or redistribute without permission.

Chapter 15->

The Chaotic Kingdom - Chapter 13

<-Chapter 12

Emily woke slowly to the realization of two very crucial things. One, it was very hard to get used to having a bedmate that had wings. Two, it was hard to get used to because her lover had a strong preference for sleeping on his stomach, and his feathers tickled her nose. Small as his wings may be, they did reach far enough to tickle her when he had her that close. "Ack." She swatted at the offending wing, and the arm flung haphazardly around her waist pulled her even closer.

Somewhere inside her, a happy voice squealed. She grimaced and sighed and stared at the ceiling. Silas' sleepy face came into her line of view a few moments later as he leaned over her with a smile. "What has you scowling this time?" he asked. He skimmed the knuckles of one of his hands down her arm, deliberately caressing her Defender Flower Mark. Her skin had been toughened from her tough life, yet it still felt supple and delightful. The only soft part about his Emily was her tender heart. He loved that about her.

"You make it sound like I'm always scowling," she muttered.

He had to grin. "You're scowling right now." He ducked his head and kissed her quickly. "What's wrong?"

"I feel like a lovesick idiot!" she complained. When his brows shot up, she shoved him to the side and sat up. She absolutely refused to acknowledge that the sight of him in nothing but his wings did dangerous things to her heart, never mind her body.

"Em," his voice was warm, "you are in love."

"But I never act like it!" She scooted out of bed and stalked into the bathing room despite his snickers. She stuck her head under the spray of the shower and told herself that acting like a lovesick idiot could be kept a secret as long as she didn't have to endure the teasing of her friends. Then, as he got into the shower with her, she realized she was doomed. Damn it, he looked even better naked with wings when he was wet.

When she finally got to the third floor drawing room where her friends waited so they could have a brief meeting, Tasia took one look at her and said only, "You could make it a style."

"Style?" Emily eyed her warily and wondered why the others were giggling and snickering. It dawned on her belatedly, and she reached up to her hair only to come away with a handful of feathers. The resigned look on her face set the room off into laughter. "Damn him. He did it on purpose."

Tasia grinned at her. "Don't feel bad. You guys teased me mercilessly after Rodi and I became lovers, and I'd like to point out you're not the only one running late."

"I'm not?" She looked around to do a head count. Ryan was sitting with Racine and Beth. Reagan sat on the window seat with Raine. Theo and Storm had perched on beanbags. LeAnn was the only one not visible, nor present. "Er . . . where's LeAnn?" Her eyes widened. "Whoa. No damned way."

"Indeed!" Beth tried not to laugh. "Here." She tossed Emily a little box. "For when she shows up."

Emily discovered herself with a box of confetti and began to snicker. "How appropriate." She set the box to the side and sat down in her chair with her legs tossed over the arm. "Does that make it officially official that we have all netted our selected mates?"

"Finally, yes," Raine agreed gravely. "And apparently word has spread about such, and the Elders are betting as to whether there will be a Resurrection Era baby boom after this fight is done. The presumption being that while there is inevitably an age gap to spread across the generations finally, and fittingly Relisha will be the eldest by a relatively decent amount, we should start seeing more future heirs finally start to be created and birthed."

Tasia snorted. "Racine and I have done our share. We have two each."

"Anna doesn't have a Seed, though." Storm grinned. "And she might like a little sister. You know, doubly ensure the future safety of Iris, since she’s become pretty important for switching to a Gray core as well."

Unusually had switched, in fact. It had begun years before when Tasia herself had forcefully become Gray. Iris had always had a Light Core, being as she followed Delphinium, but after Iris had befriended Aria—which was Gray as well—and the two worlds had decided to share Tasia as Defender, Iris had begun to evolve as well. No world's Core had ever evolved in such a way, so no one really knew why it had happened though Claret and Racine alike felt it a prelude to something else important in the future. It did not change Iris's Flower Element of Ice, nor did it really have any impact on any living or Realm-located Iris Cultivators. All it changed was that Iris now depended equally on Delphinium and Protea alike to exist because she needed both Light and Dark forces, and future Cultivators such as Daelan would not be so heavily magically oriented; Irisians had never been physical in much of any sense until Tasia had come along. Ironic, in a way.

"I'm good with two," Tasia said dryly. "And putting aside that I can't have a daughter of my blood—remember, my mitochondrial lineage is to end with me—would you really risk me having another daughter like me?"

Almost collectively, the room blurted, "No."

Beth had to grin though. "For the rest of us, I could always see about putting together a fertility spell. Never hurts to help, right?"

"Kim told me that if I get her pregnant before she gets at least a year to adjust to being a queen, she will make me regret it," Theo said dryly. "To which I reminded her that she would be at least half at fault for my getting her pregnant, so I can't be blamed entirely."

Emily listened to her friends laughing and felt her stomach flutter with a combination of powerful emotions at the idea of being pregnant with her winged lover's child. A part of her felt utterly thrilled with the entire concept. The rest of her was downright terrified. She knew she had to have a child for the sake of her world, but that made it no less terrifying. "Moving on," she muttered.

Beth, Ryan, and Tasia exchanged a brief look but did not say anything. Emily ignored them. She didn't particularly mind if the empaths were picking up that she felt afraid. As long as no one pried, she was fine with it.

The door swung open, and LeAnn rushed in wearing a pair of denims and a hastily grabbed shirt—that wasn't hers. She felt a bit flustered and more than a bit rushed. Damn it, she wanted to go back to bed with her fiancé and snuggle more! He looked wonderfully sweet when he was sleeping, as if all of his fears and tensions had faded. He also held her very firmly even in his sleep. She'd had to get creative to wiggle free. Not that she was complaining, of course.

"Sorry I'm late," she started, only to break off on a shriek of laughter as her friends threw confetti at her. "You guys are terrible!" She shook her hair out and then stretched largely before walking over to sit beside Tasia. "Good morning," she noted dryly.

"Well?" Theo wiggled his brows. "How was he?"

"He'd kill us if he heard this conversation," Ryan snickered.

"That's why he's not here. Give, princess."

LeAnn leaned back on the couch with a smile that looked as smug as it felt. "I just spent the most incredible night of my life. Every tear, every minute of waiting, was so worth it." She sighed deeply and contentedly. "This does not leave this room, but he got candles and fermented juice. He said our first time should be something special. As for the event itself . . . Wow." She huffed out a little breath. "Just . . . wow. The next person who says he's emotionless is getting their clock cleaned."

Emily opened one eye. "You were with Chance, right?"

"Yes, smartass, I was. You have feathers in your hair." She ignored Emily's muttered curses as she hunted them down. Served her right. "If it weren’t for the insane homicidal maniac wandering around, I would be the happiest woman in the universe. And speaking of a related note, where are Starlight and Phoenix?"

"Here." Phoenix walked in with a yawn and he was dragging Starlight behind him. "She sleeps like the dead, seriously. That and Raven wouldn't let go."

Reagan got wide-eyed. "You actually went into their room and separated them?"

"Sure, why not?"

The Resurrection Cultivators all began laughing. Phoenix just grinned and shoved Starlight toward a chair. "You people are easily amused." He took a seat as well and tucked his hands behind his head. "What's the meeting for?"

"Just a brief one to go over the events from yesterday." Tasia got up and crossed to go look out the window. The morning sunlight slanted across her caramel eyes and made them look like melted candy. "Minstrel clearly knows some of our weaknesses."

"I think . . . I think he wants you, Tasi," LeAnn admitted quietly. "Yesterday . . . when he had Starlight and I, he talked about how he wanted to see you break, to know how your tears tasted." She cleared her throat. "I lost my temper."

"Really? Do tell," Reagan mumbled. "And they think my temper is bad. At least I won't break a building!"

"It was only a little break," LeAnn defended herself. She shrugged. "It's his fault for moving when he had said he wanted me to hit him."

Tasia and Storm's eyes alike sharpened. Slowly, the younger said, "Kari and I were talking about it. We think the emptiness inside him drives him to feeding on emotions in a bit more of a literal sense. I think if we can figure out his ultimate goal, we will have the key to destroying him."

"There's no helping him?" Theo asked quietly. "I honestly don't think he's actually evil. Doing evil deeds, yes, but not actually evil. He got through the shields, so he can’t really be evil. Just mad."

"You can't heal madness," was Ryan's whisper. "Not even Aunt Sayena could do that. It would be a different sort of miracle entirely."

"There's a method to his madness," Storm murmured. "He's testing us individually. He went after Raine, and then Beth, and then LeAnn. And, yes, that was a test of her and not Tasia. He wasn't aiming to kill Tasia, even if she hadn't deliberately risked sacrificing herself to shake up Chance."

"I wondered about that," Raine muttered. "Damn it, Anastasia."

Her sister shrugged. "It worked."

Storm tapped a finger on his leg as he thought through things. "There's no rhyme to his reason, so I can't specifically say who might be next. All I can be sure of is that any 'actual' test of Tasia will come last, and it will be terrible."

Tasia inclined her head. "Of course it will." She shrugged again with a wry smile. "My prerogative as the strongest here." She leaned against the wall on a sigh. "Don't go anywhere without your Masks, and for Goddess' sake make sure you keep up with your magical and majikal studies."

"She's being bossy again," Emily said drolly to Starlight and Phoenix. "One gets used to it."

"One can also get used to being a fly," was the polite retort, and made everyone begin snickering again.

The meeting came to an end not long thereafter. Ryan hurried to catch up with Emily and fell into step beside her as they headed down the hall toward the wing where their families lived. Hyacinth and Statice had rooms in one wing north of a main hall while Orchid and Daffodil had rooms in another to the south. The suites had always belonged to those planets, utilized by the Defenders and/or Rulers when they came to visit Protea. It had only been since the start of this Era that they had been in relatively permanent residence. That would change in less than a year as the rest of the worlds finally restored entirely. The atmospheres had strengthened to full exposure over the last month, and the last construction now commenced.

"Em," Ryan said softly to his elder sister. "Talk to me. What has you so afraid? I can almost see it, let alone feel it. I want to make it better."

Emily stopped and turned to hug him. "I love you to bits, Ry. I wish you weren't so gentle though. You'll hurt yourself if you try to heal the world solo." She eased back and kissed her brother's forehead. "Look, it's no big deal. I just . . . well, you know I never intended to have kids."

Ryan frowned. "I thought that was only because you assumed you would never get married or have a way to support yourself properly. Neither of those are a concern now, and, well, we have to have kids for the sake of our worlds. I mean, okay, it's much scarier for the person carrying the child than the other, but . . ."

"It's not that. It's me, okay?"

"Emily."

"Just drop it!" Emily almost shouted at him. She ran down the nearby stairs and slammed out the doors at the bottom. They swung wildly behind her as she disappeared.

Ryan was left shocked and frozen for a moment in the hall. Emily had never shouted at him like that before. He somehow kept his back straight as he continued through the palace toward his rooms. Guitar music drifted out the doors but could not soothe him as it normally did. He bit back tears as he went into the sitting room.

Gail looked up with a smile as she heard the door open, but the smile disappeared instantly as she saw the look on his face. "Ry? What's wrong?" She set the guitar to the side and stood, and then made a startled sound as he flew into her arms and burrowed against her shoulder. "Ryan."

He buried his face against her blouse and opened the empathic link between them. They could open and close it at will, and it usually stayed closed when he was in a meeting with the Cultivators since it gave her a headache to get the full blast from everyone else. Now that he was in her arms, he opened it wide once more.

Gail winced for a brief moment as the emotions pounded into her head. She was not empathic, but she had a highly sensitive mind that tended to give her headaches as it tried to process too much too fast. It came from being born in the Realm. Silas had a physical sensitivity that meant he might feel enjoyable things more acutely, but he assuredly felt far more pain as well.

She sorted through the rioting emotions inside her lover and zeroed in on the main problem. With a sigh, she scooped him up and sat down on the giant fluffy beanbag they both liked. It was just the right size to hold them both, and she was both tall enough and strong enough to move her Cultivator as needed. "Why did she get so angry?" she murmured as she pressed her lips to his temple. She could almost feel the pain hissing inside.

The feel of her arms took away the pain like they always did, and he felt himself relax a bit. "We were all joking about us Cultivators all getting married and having kids soon, and Emily's scared of the idea of being a mother. She told me once she didn't want kids because she would never be able to support them."

Her brows lifted. "That might be partially true, but it's not the whole of it."

He looked up at her. "What's the rest of it?"

"She's worried that she has a genetic predisposition to be a bad parent because of her own. She compares herself to the others around her and thinks that because she's more brash and abrupt, she won't be any good at mothering. Never mind the fact that she is—maybe ironically—the gentlest and sweetest with all of the kids in her life. I heard her scold Devin the other day. She was firm, but she was not at all what someone who didn't know her might expect. She doesn't even see it. Worse, she wouldn't listen if we told her."

"What about Silas?"

She snorted. "Him even less, but he has a better chance of making her sit down long enough for him to start talking. He also has a better chance of getting through once she is listening." She gently caught his chin and tilted his face up for a kiss. "What about you?" she murmured. "Are you afraid?"

"Well, I won't be the one pregnant, so that's not a concern," he told her on a smile. "And I'm me. I don't worry about my genes because, as a certain lineage proved pointedly recently, it's more about how you choose to use what you're given than what you're given at all. Even without Aunt Sayena's edict, though, I would insist on us waiting until this war was at least done before we made an attempt."

"Valid points. Any reason why other than the obvious?"

"I absolutely will not let you risk yourself or any child of ours in your need to be my Caretaker." He lowered his gaze. "The edict came because of what happened to Tasia. I don't know if you know because it was kept very quiet, but Tasia's labor with Daelan was horrific. It was almost thirty-six hours long, she could not sleep even with help, and it took everything Raine and Aunt Kacey and Aunt Sayena had to keep both mother and child from . . . from . . . being lost."

Her heart stopped for a moment. "No," she whispered, "I did not know that. They couldn't just surgically remove the baby?"

He shook his head. "They couldn't get Tasia even lightly asleep let alone deeply, and when she told Aunt Sayena to make the incision anyway—honestly, she wouldn't have felt it by then—her majik healed the cut almost instantly. We just had to . . . had to pray to the Goddess, and do whatever we could by whatever means we had."

Softly, she said, "I suppose I can logically see why. With her arcanistry in her blood, the concentration of power after such an immense summoning would not go away for a very long time. Throw in that her son has the potential to become a wizard himself, and things would get very dangerous very fast."

"The rest of us are not that powerful, but we are powerful enough that none of us want to risk it for ourselves or our Caretakers, whichever is applicable."

She thought about things and then asked, "If that's one reason, what's the other?"

He grinned. "While Mom and Dad positively adore you and think you are the perfect soul mate for me, Mom has asked that we not disrupt her delicate sensibilities by forcing her to realize before absolutely necessary that her child is grown up—especially since I was mostly grown when I came into her life, so she feels cheated."

She snorted in amusement. "I heard something similar from my parents recently, too. And I'm over five thousand years old."

"You're never too old to be someone's little boy or girl."

"Okay, now you're just going to make me mushy."

He smiled and snuggled close. "That's my job."

 

* * * * *

 

Cashlin was not happy as he stared at his brother across the throne room. "You have failed me!" he barked.

"Failure is such a harsh word, big brother," Minstrel countered politely. "Can't we use the term 'unsuccessful'?" Cashlin snarled at him, and he just smiled cheerfully. "Well, the Blossom Field Cultivators are rather strong as whole, you see. The Elder Cultivators are Dual, and the Resurrection Cultivators are that and more. Very, very powerful!"

"More than the Alurian Defenders?" Cashlin leaned back in his chair thoughtfully.

"Vastly so. They've got a rather potent blend of magic as Defenders plus magic as Rulers plus majik as witches and they're all summoners. The Lead Defender of Iris is even more special because she's a sorceress and other things." His voice turned wistful. "Such a beautiful, powerful spirit. She glows with Light but burns with Dark. Her Gray power is very alluring."

Cashlin's eyes narrowed. "I will not let that child sway another of my generals!"

Minstrel quickly lifted his hands. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! You misunderstand me. I'm not attracted to her. I just want to break her. I want to strip her slowly down to the barest elements of her soul and see what makes her different. I want to make her cry, to make her rage." A faraway look appeared in his eyes. "When she defended her princess . . . she burned so beautifully. Like a witch at a stake."

A chill went down Cashlin's back as he realized Minstrel's madness continued to grow by leaps and bounds. How long would it be until Minstrel turned on him to feed his insanity? He had always known it was a possibility. If he saw a hint of it, Minstrel's life would end. "Fine," he said curtly. "Dismissed. What do you plan to do today?"

Minstrel held up a handful of gold feathers and threw them in the air. They fluttered slowly down toward the ground. "Oh, just play with a bird or two. I've thought of plucking one feather at a time, but they'd fight. So I'll just cut their wings entirely. The air and water won't like it, you know. They love their birds."

 

* * * * *

 

Emily didn't know where she was going, but she was damned certain she was going there to be alone. She was not, however, entirely unsurprised to sense Silas approaching her quickly. She turned her head and saw him coming around the side of the castle toward where she stomped down a path. "Leave me alone!" she snapped at him.

"No." He reached for her, but she turned into a sparrow and flew off quickly. He just sighed and conjured a net as he opened his wings to increase his speed and chase after her. She didn't even notice until he was right behind her and suddenly swooped her up in the net. "Gotcha."

"Asshole!" She turned into a gnat and flew out through the net. A rain cloud immediately opened over her and followed her wherever she tried to fly. It began pouring, and her wings failed. She changed back hastily and landed soaking wet on the ground with a thud. "Ouch!"

He skidded to a stop gracefully near her and made the cloud go away. She snarled at him, and he just grinned. "That's what you get for having a child of the Realm for a lover." He crouched beside her but was careful to keep just out of her reach. "Mind you, I can only conjure small things and heal small wounds, but it's enough."

She felt like the idiomatic 'mad as a wet cat.' Her green eyes narrowed to slits as she watched her lover. She couldn't decide which would be more satisfying: turning into a snake and strangling him, or turning into a bear and eating him.

Silas, knowing her temper intimately, got to his feet and walked around behind her. He knelt and wrapped his arms around her snugly before she could move. It not only kept her arms pinned at her sides so that she couldn't go for any sensitive portions of his anatomy, it also allowed him to hold her and cuddle her like he loved doing but she rarely allowed. "I love you, Em," he murmured into her ear.

Her entire body relaxed on a groan. "Damn you, Silas!"

He just smiled and skimmed soft kisses over the rim of her ear until she shivered in his arms. "Talk to me, would you? Relationships have this little give and take thing going on. You give me your troubles and I take them away, just like I give you my loneliness and you take it away."

Tears sprang to her eyes and she fought them fiercely. "You always say stupid things."

"That's because I'm often stupid around you." He held her with one arm and turned her head with his other hand so that he could see her face. His heart tightened painfully as he saw the tears lurking under her lashes. His valiant Defender, crying. It destroyed him. "No tears. Dirty pool. Cut it out this instant."

"It's because I love you, you jerk." With her arms now freed, she swiped at her eyes. "I never cry. Go away."

"Nope." He held her when she would have turned away. "If you're the wind, I'm the trees catching you. If you turn into a bird, I'll be the nest holding you. If you turn into a butterfly, I'll be the net chasing you. And if you turn into a gnat, I'll damned well rain on you until you turn back into the woman I love no matter how maddening she is."

She lifted a hand and half-heartedly punched him in the shoulder. It wasn't hard, but he still winced. It reminded her that he was highly sensitive physically, especially to her, and she sighed. She pressed her lips to where she had hit in an apology. "I don't think before acting."

He feigned a gasp. "What, no? Really?" He grinned and caught her hands before she could hit him again. "Serves you right." He stole a kiss and then went back for a second that he lingered over until she relaxed entirely. "There," he said softly. "Now tell me what's wrong."

"I . . ." She blew out a hard breath. "We got into this stupid discussion about sex and kids. It just reminded me that I never intended to have any kids, that's all."

He digested that. "Why?"

"Why did we have the conversation?"

"No, why don't you intend to have any? I really don't want to know what you lot talk about when the Caretakers aren't around, thanks."

She snorted. "If you can't talk about it, why do it?" She shrugged one shoulder. "I just don't think I'll be any good at it. What kind of parental role model do I have anyway?"

He arched a brow. "Uh, the Elder generation of Cultivators and Caretakers? Tasia and Rodi? Racine and Allister? Arista and Diego?"

She began to frown. "But they're not related to me. What if I turn out like my birth father?"

"Yeah, not happening. What would you do if you had a kid and someone threatened him or her?"

Her eyes lit with temper. "Tear them limb from limb and feed them to a boar."

"There you go!" He patted her lightly on the head. "Also, so you know, we all kinda watch you get absolutely mushy around the kids, and you do sort of volunteer first as a babysitter for any of the parents. So I feel safe thinking you'll be an incredible mother, Em." He got to his feet and tugged her up and then pulled her into his arms. "Just think: you could have a miniature replica of me."

"Is that supposed to entice me into having kids?" she snorted. She refused to admit that her heart melted at the very idea of a tiny Silas running around and clinging to her leg. She had enough trouble with one of him. She didn’t need two!

"You're right." He nodded firmly. "We need daughters just like you." He grinned when her eyes widened. "Then you'll know what I go through every day." He laughed and swung her in a wild circle when she took a shot for him with a fist. "I'm crazy about you!"

Her head was still spinning when her feet touched ground again, but she had never been more wildly happy in her life. She threw her arms around his neck and held on tightly with her face pressed to his shoulder. He stared for a moment in surprise and then gathered her even closer as his head lowered to hers. "Em."

"Whoops." Ryan muffled a snicker as he came around the corner. "Are we interrupting?"

"Yes." Silas sent him and Gail a dirty look. "Go away."

"No." Gail kept her arm around Ryan's shoulders. "Let's hit the town. We've been cooped up like birds for a while now." As her brother fell into step beside her, she murmured, "Nice job."

"I heard that," Emily muttered.

It was mid-morning by the time they got to the market, and they grabbed boxed lunches from one of the venders. Those in hand, they headed for their favorite grassy spot right outside the city in the strip of land that separated city from farmlands. A much larger and more powerful wall lay further out past the farms and encircled the entire kingdom as a whole. The strip of land between city and farm provided for not just quiet for the farmers, but also some breathtaking scenic spots for all citizens. Emily and Ryan's favorite spot sat on a little tree-lined hill where they could see the Martine farmland and the blooming apple trees. Tasia's farm was actually the one closet to the city, appropriately enough.

It was a bright and sunny spot that day, and Emily had no sooner seated herself than Silas laid down with his head in her lap. "Hi," he told her.

She snorted. "I'm not feeding you." She gave him a shove and watched in satisfaction as he rolled down the hill. "So much for the theory he had a pointed head."

Gail drank her water before she started laughing, and Ryan snickered outright. Silas made it back up the hill and grabbed his sister in a headlock that made their lovers laugh. "I heard you," Silas complained. "You should be on my side!"

"I didn't feel like it." Gail laughed as she struggled to get free, and they both went tumbling down the hill again. The sound of Emily and Ryan laughing at them made the indignity worth it, though. They stood up again, and Gail started to brush off her denims when she felt a sudden danger approaching her Cultivator. Silas felt it too, and they looked up the hill sharply. "Emily! Ryan!"

The two Defenders leapt to their feet just as a swarm of monsters dropped in around them. There was no other word for the mass of Reparations. There were at least ten, and they all looked and felt deadly. Emily and Ryan shifted to back-to-back and grabbed their Masks. Once on and armored, they called up their weapons and waded into the fight. Silas and Gail tried to get up the hill to them, but Reparations came down on them as well. Silas drew his sword, and Gail drew her rod. Both opened their wings and got to work.

Emily was not sure what to make of things. It seemed almost impossibly easy to defeat these monsters. A single strike from her harpoon could be enough, let alone Ryan's attack magic. She swiftly moved over to her brother. "What is this?" she hissed.

"The appetizer!" Minstrel announced jovially as he appeared in a tree over their heads. They both turned as one and lobbed blasts of raw majik without warning, forcing him to hastily dodge. "Well, that was a smidge closer than I expected." He leapt down to the ground and landed between the two Cultivators. "Hello, kids."

Emily and Ryan each dove a different direction to get out of his range and braced themselves for more. He looked between them and then laughed and clapped his hands. "You're both very strong-willed, so I have to like you!" He turned and looked down the hill as a nasty smile curved his lips. "Your birds are as well."

"Don't touch them!" Emily snarled as she lunged for him with her harpoon. He dodged once more, and her weapon sank into the ground. Before she could get it free, he grabbed her by her arms and jerked her off her feet. "Let go!" she snapped.

"Gladly." He turned and hurled her away from him hard enough that she smacked into a tree and fell to the ground only to go tumbling down the hill. She didn't immediately move when she came to a stop at the bottom. Minstrel sensed Ryan behind him and turned sharply to grab his wrists before he could strike him. "Ah ah ah. Bad move, prince." He hurled him after his sister.

Silas heard Ryan's shout and looked over sharply to see that he had landed less than five hundred feet away and did not move. Terror exploded inside him as he saw Emily beside him, equally motionless. "Emily!" he shouted. He began to force his way through the few remaining monsters. "Em!"

"Ryan!" Gail was hot on his heels. "Hang on!"

Minstrel watched the two race toward their mates. The instant he saw Silas's wings open fully to increase his speed, his smile turned deadly. "There you are, little bird."

Gail caught a glimpse of light and came to a sharp stop. "Silas, wait!"

She was too late. Silas didn't see the razor-thin wire in time and ran directly into it. His lowered head was spared, and the wire instead struck his wings. It cut right through them like a knife through butter and severed them clean from his back. His agonized scream ripped through the air.

"Silas!" Gail would have lunged toward her brother, but Minstrel appeared behind her and grabbed her wings. "You sick bastard!" she snarled. She was not normally quick to temper, but beyond all fury in that moment. Her lover, her brother, and her sister-in-law were all wounded, and at least one of them might die. She struggled to turn around. "I'll rip your throat out!"

"Ooh, still waters run deep," Minstrel laughed. He gave a shocking surge of strength and ripped Gail's wings off.

Gail's scream was still echoing on the air as Emily stirred and rolled onto her stomach. "Crap," she said under her breath. Something hurt deep inside her soul as if she had been stabbed. She took a breath as she straightened up, and horror choked her voice as she saw Gail and Silas motionless on the ground. Blood stained their clothes and the grass around them. "No! Ryan, get up!" She scrambled across the ground without waiting for her brother and was almost sobbing as she fell to her knees beside Silas. "Silas! Silas!" She lifted him into her arms, but he didn't stir even though she felt his pulse and heartbeat. Murder filled her gaze as she looked to where Minstrel stood with the four wings in his hands. "I'll kill you," she said gutturally.

Ryan had gotten to his feet and made it to Gail. Tears streamed down his face as he checked her pulse. She was alive, but weakening by the second. "Gail!" He held her closer and fought to deepen their link and anchor her; the wounds were too severe for his healing power. The rolling waves of pain that swept over him nearly made him pass out.

Gail's eyes flickered and then opened. The black color had dulled with pain. "Ry. Get . . . the wings back. Please . . ."

"Oh that's nice." Minstrel studied the wings. "I didn't know a child of the Realm died without their wings. How wonderful. I'll have to remember this for later. Well, toodles." He turned around to leave . . . and impaled himself on the sword held by Tasia. The blade went all the way through his stomach and out the back, and pain ripped through his body.

He had never felt any pain like that before. It actually went beyond his body somehow. He dropped the wings and reached out to tenderly touch her face. Her icy gray eyes looked harder than he had ever seen them, and the swirl of power had deepened warningly. He could feel her waves of rage. They tasted like candy in a sweet counterpart of the pain she had already inflicted. "I could become obsessed with you," he told her softly.

She jerked back out of his grip and took her sword with her. "Get out of my sight."

He fell down to his knees and began to laugh. Twice now she had managed to hurt him. No one else ever had. She could make him feel. "It hurts! It hurts! How marvelous it is!" He was still laughing as he disappeared, and his fallen blood destroyed the land instantly.

Tasia spared only a minute to slice her palm enough to make blood flow. She dripped it onto the land to restore the deadened ground and then grabbed up the fallen wings. She ran down the hill to where the other Resurrection Cultivators had gathered beside the two Caretakers and saw Raine had one hand slapped over each twin's back to stem the bleeding. "I have the wings," Tasia said curtly. "We need to get them back to the castle where Aunt Kacey and Aunt Sayena can help you put them back together."

Racine lifted her ankh. "Transporting now!" Her power swept around them and took them directly to the foyer of the castle. "Emergency!" she yelled. "Kacey! Hurry! Everyone, come quickly!"

Kacey came flying down the hall with her partners close on her heels. She took one look at the scene and drew a sharp breath. "Delilah, call Sayena! Talon!" she shouted. "Chance! Hurry! We need to move the twins to the sickroom!"

The two men were already on their way and blanched as they skidded into the foyer. "Shit," Chance said as he knelt to pick up Silas. "Damn it to hell and back."

Talon's curses were far more creative as he lifted Gail. Both males followed Kacey and Raine as they ran down the halls toward the sickroom. Theo ran after them, and he had the wings that were needed. A familiar whoosh through the air indicated when Sayena arrived via hasty transport, and the others could only cross their fingers and hope.

Arista and Diego rushed to Emily even as Delilah and Ulyen rushed to Ryan, and all four parents clutched their visibly shaken child close. "What happened?" Arista demanded raggedly.

Emily looked at her, and tears ran down her cheeks. "He . . ." She doubled over and buried her face against Diego's shoulder as she began to sob. "Minstrel ripped their wings off! Why?!"

"It's not fair!" Ryan cried against Delilah's shoulder.

Tasia looked at the two siblings and realized they would not easily calm down. They had picked up the extra sensitivity from their lovers, and they felt the pain in their souls far too acutely. It was an unfortunate reciprocity that would make it harder for the twins to recover if they picked up on their mates' distress. "Reagan," she said quietly. "Take them under. Pallas will ensure they have nothing but sweet dreams." Other than just about anything from Aria, the most effective induction of sleep came from Illusion or Memory Flower Elements, and Reagan had become particularly good at it after taking Pallas as her lover.

The High Princess lifted her hands and majik flowed over her fingers. The spells were swift and effective. Emily and Ryan both fell deeply asleep, and their mothers removed their Masks for them. Everyone else pulled off Masks as well, and Diego and Ulyen scooped up their children to carry them back to their rooms to rest.

The others dispersed a bit somberly, and Tasia and Storm exchanged a long look before going to the sickroom to check on the twins. Sayena looked over when they entered and said, "They'll be fine now. The wounds healed as soon as we returned the wings. They're just now exhausted both physically and emotionally. They lost a lot of blood. Just shy of needing a transfusion, thankfully."

"Their wings aren't physical?" Storm asked curiously.

"They actually are," Tasia offered, "but they're also made of the pure energy of the Realm. It remains as a sort of mystical force under the skin of their backs until they use it and then it manifests as wings. Severing the wings did double damage. They had become physical limbs and therefore bled a ton, and yet they were still extensions of that energy so therefore punched a huge hole there too. The positive side to all of that is that merely returning the wings would reconnect them and heal both problems."

"Indeed." Kacey gently tucked the covers more firmly around Silas and then Gail. "They can't use their wings for at least a few hours to ensure that there is no permanent damage."

Tasia studied the twins and the bandages that were wrapped around their chests to remind them of that fact. "No kidding." She waited until Kacey and Sayena had left the room before looking at Raine. "Second opinion?"

"If something happens in the next five minutes to Ryan or Emily, nothing would keep them here." Raine lifted a brow toward the beds. "Right?"

"Yeah," came Silas's rough voice. "Sorry."

Tasia gently sat on the side of his bed and reached over to smooth back his sweaty bangs. "We're the ones sorry, that you got so deeply hooked into this." She sighed. "Go ahead and tell them what we realized, Stormy."

Storm sat on the side of Gail's bed as she and her brother both sat up carefully. "I described Minstrel as being like a piece of plaid. Well, I think we're slowly starting to unravel little bits of it. Minstrel is damned brilliant. He knows that hurting our mates will hurt us. He's not testing just us, but is in fact testing all of us. When Logan used his majik for Raine, or Terry linked empathically to Beth, or when Chance went after LeAnn . . . he's testing all of us."

"But why?" Raine demanded. "Why do this? What's his goal?"

"I honestly don't know yet."

"Do you?" she demanded of their older sister.

Tasia shook her head slightly. "No. I may be the stronger pattern master and need far smaller bits of information than he does, but right now we're both getting the same clues and therefore reaching the same conclusions. Because of it, I'm only taking in what I'm given and not actively looking for more. I'm letting Stormy do that part. He has the time and energy to do it while I have to focus on the coordination of the immediate battle and not necessarily the whys of it."

"So what happens next?" Gail asked quietly.

"I honestly don't know that either," Storm admitted. "All I know is that Theo, I, Reagan, Racine, and Tasia need to be especially careful. He'll go after one of us and our Caretakers next." He glanced at Tasia. "I'm more certain than ever that you'll be the last."

"I'd rather I was next." She smiled thinly. "I'd kill him."

 

* * * * *

 

Emily was deeply asleep when her subconscious mind got disturbed. It wasn't a jarring intrusion, and she began to wake slowly. She didn't know what had woken her at first and then she felt the warm body beside her, and Silas's arm snug around her waist as he gently kissed her shoulder. Her eyes flew open. "Silas!" She jerked up into a sitting position and turned swiftly to run her hands over him. "Are you okay? Should you be here? Oh god, don't ever do that again!" She flung her arms around his neck and burrowed tightly against him.

He just sighed and held her closer. "Yes, yes, and if you're in danger of course I will." He drew her back and saw her frowning at him. He gently took one of her hands and placed it over his heart. The bandages couldn't stop her from feeling his heartbeat. "See? Just fine."

She leaned against him on a sigh and closed her eyes as his arms tightened around her. "I love you, you jerk. Just try not to die before we get married. If you're going to die, I'd better be the one committing the honors."

He had to smile. It wasn't the most romantic statement ever made, but it was one hundred percent Emily. He wouldn't change a single thing about her.

 

* * * * *

 

Cashlin stood looking down at where Minstrel lay on a medical bed. He was healed and healthy, but resting for the time being. Cashlin did not want to admit that he was beginning to deeply fear his brother. His madness seemed to increase exponentially with every passing day. "What are the feathers for?" he asked as he noticed the bits of gold in Minstrel's hand.

"These?" Minstrel turned them different directions in the light. "I thought I might make a necklace. Aren't they lovely?" He barely noticed as Cashlin left the room and continued to admire the bounty he held. It had been a successful trip beyond his dreams. What could he get out of the Resurrection Cultivators next? "I see you, I see you," he sang softly. "No matter where you are."

 

©Stacy J. Garrett. Do not reprint or redistribute without permission.

Chapter 14 ->