My hand came away warm, not cold. I frowned and stared hard at the stone. “What are you really?”
For just a second, I thought I saw the red rock of the desert cut to mimic the stone, and then it was gone, and the black and gray stone was back to what the original castle had been.
The sconces twisted to the right and then lit up a winding stairwell.
“Shitty fucking place to fight,” I muttered under my breath. I could all too easily see someone come down from above, forcing me into a fight in the narrow space. Bad, bad juju rolled through me. I’d fought the Ice Witch before to a standstill, but I’d not killed her. And part of me thought I should have. Then again, the flail would not have been returned to me if I’d killed her, and the weapon had saved me more than once.
I counted the steps as I went up, gauging how high I was. The stairs were at least four flights and in my head, I tried to map out where I was based on my brief look at the castle from above. There had been a room at the top of a huge turret. That had to be where I was going.
I put a hand to the kukri on my right thigh, the handle ready for a quick pull and slash. I took the last corner carefully, peering around to see an open door at the top, my eyes just above floor level. The door was oversized in width and height, and it was wide open.
The room beyond it—at least what I could see—was draped in fabrics, and the sound of a fire crackled merrily. A waft of heat blew out to me, the smell of wood smoke tickling my nose.
Voices floated to me as if they had suddenly come to life. That was interesting, since I’d not heard them sooner. With my ears, if they’d been talking I should have heard them halfway down the stairwell even if I’d not been able to decipher what exactly they were saying.
“Lila, you are sure you do not have a curse laid on you?” The voice reminded me of the Ish I’d known as a child. Soft. Kind. Worried about my well-being. Of course, it wasn’t her. It was her sister. But they were close enough in tone that my defenses slid a little.
“My grandmother never said it was a curse. She said it was something to overcome. A challenge,” Lila answered. “Do you think the Raven will have found Zam yet? I’m worried about her. Maks is not himself. I should go and find her.”
Part of me thought I should wait and see what the Witch said in response, but I didn’t want Lila to worry. I made my way up the last few steps. “I’m here, Lila.”
She gasped as I took the last step and a blur of blue and silver slammed into my chest. I reached out to catch my balance on the wall before we both tumbled down the many flights of stairs I’d just come up.
I hugged her with my other hand. “You’re okay?”
“Yes. Maggi has been very kind. Surprisingly enough.” Lila pulled back from me, her eyes worried despite her words. I knew how she felt. Trusting someone who’d tried to kill you in the past was not a natural thing.
I made myself take the next few steps into the lair of the Ice Witch. “So, Maggi is your name then?”
“It is the name my mother gave me, yes.” Maggi stood and clasped her hands in front of her body. Slim, tall, long white hair, pale blue eyes as piercing as any hawk’s, but there was not fury in them as there was the first time I’d met her. Neither was there any blood lust. She was just the sister of Ish now, and had no vileness attached to her.
Of course, I couldn’t let it ride at that.
“How is it that you are so different now? Why are you helping me? Why would you return the flail?” I asked, not letting go of Lila.
Maggi sighed. “You have not noticed that the jewels bring with them not only power, but madness too? They were never meant to be held by anyone. My sister . . . she stole them a millennium ago from the very waters of creation and used them to rise to power.”
“You mean Ishtar then, don’t you?” I needed to be sure. One hundred percent that we were talking about the same person.
I found myself in the room, drawn to the woman in front of me. She had answers to questions I’d asked for years.
“Yes, I mean Ishtar. She is ancient, as am I, I suppose.” A smile twisted her lips. “The jewels allowed her to imbue a pantheon of gods and goddesses. She helped to create many of the supes as you know them, but the jewels . . . they broke her mind, even as strong as she was. Too much power took her mind to a dark place, a place of chaos. That kind of power will always corrupt.” She sighed and sunk into her chair.
“Wait, are you actually going to tell me what the fuck is going on with all this?” I waved a hand through the air as if to encompass the world. “No tricks like Merlin? No manipulations like Ishtar? No games like the Emperor?” I still struggled to believe Ish was Ishtar, that she was that one, the desert goddess we’d feared and loved in equal parts. A consort to the Emperor. A demon goddess whose fury could be felt even thousands of miles from her.
Maggi gave me a weary smile. “As much as I am able to, yes. I will tell you what I know. There are parts that are hidden even from me. But you are the Wall Breaker, and you have a heavy journey ahead of you. That is why I’m helping you. I . . . there was much wrong I did as the Ice Witch. Perhaps this is something I can do to make amends.”
Like killing three of the members of my pride. Like trying to kill the rest of us. But I kept those thoughts to myself.
“Oh, well that’s just fucking fabulous, isn’t it?” I grumbled as I lowered to the floor, choosing to ignore the part about her amends. I didn’t know what to do with it. I needed whatever help I could get, even if it was from someone who had at one point been an enemy.
My legs were tired, and I was exhausted from the amount of time Balder and I had been running. I wanted nothing more than to shut my eyes, but the idea that I might actually, finally, get some answers kept them open. “Let’s get this show on the road then. I’m on a time crunch.”
Magi’s eyes swept over me. “You should sleep.”
I shook my head. “No. Tell me what you need to tell me and we’ll get the fuck out of here.”
She sighed and bowed her head. “Reckless as always.” With her fingers to her lips, she nodded, more to herself than me, I think. “You can rest your body. Sleep before you fall over, and I can dream walk with you both. It is a talent I have. That will speed up your stay. If it is agreeable to you?”
I wasn’t sure if it was agreeable. Especially after my last two jaunts into dreamland. “You would be inside my head?”
“In a manner of speaking.” Maggi nodded.
“How can you possibly do that?” Lila asked. “Linking dreams is not an easy thing between two minds, never mind three.”
Maggi smiled at Lila. “Did you not wonder how Zamira found you? She followed the threads of your life. You are part of her family as far as she is concerned, and that simple truth allowed her to do the impossible. You two are bound together as tightly as any siblings I have ever seen. Perhaps even more so.” A twist of pain slid over her face and I wondered if she and Ishtar had been close at one point. “Close your eyes to the world, and I will bring your minds together, then I will join you there in the dream world.”
I shouldn’t have trusted her. I knew that in the logical part of my brain, but my instincts on people were generally spot on and they were saying she’d changed. She was not the same woman I’d battled before. Maggi was no longer the power-mad Ice Witch. She was just Magi, a witch who had strength and knowledge that could ultimately help us. I hoped.
Lila leapt up, flew to a pile of cushions near Maggi and brought one back for me. The velvet material was a deep gold like the desert sands. I dropped my head onto it, lying flat on my back. A sigh slid out of me as my eyes closed. This was not what I would call the most comfortable sleeping arrangement, but I’d had worse. Hell, I’d slept through ice storms, so this was damn near tropical.
Lila circled on my chest, then settled down, laying so that the tip of her nose touched my chin. I put a hand over her body and let sleep take me, trusting we were making the right decision. Warmth whispered through my veins, not unlike the warmth of the țuică.
There was no discernible moment between wake and sleep. I was just . . . there, inside a dream that looked a great deal like the room where I’d gone to sleep in, including me flat on the floor, Lila on my chest, a velvet pillow under my head.