Authors: Maggie Shayne

Books by Maggie Shayne (336 page)

BOOK: Books by Maggie Shayne

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“I’ll be okay, Nathan. I’m just glad I left the pigeon coop open.” He looked up and pointed. The pigeons were already fleeing into the night, vanishing instantly, swallowed up by the darkness.

Natum turned to Nidaba. “We need to talk.”

“But Natum, your house!”

He glanced toward Nicodimus. His son gave him a nod. “Hey, George, what do you say you come with Arianna and me? We’ll fix up your scratches, get you something to eat, some dry clothes, okay?”

George looked down at the Rottweiler by his side. “Can Queenie come with us, too?”

“Sure.”

“Just a minute,” Nidaba said, and she moved forward, put a hand on the dog’s head. No tingling jolt rushed through her. She nodded, satisfied this one was the real dog, and gave her a loving scratch between the ears. Then she nodded her assent. “It’s okay. She’s the real Queenie, not the impostor.”

The imposter ...

Nidaba glanced toward the flames and felt a heavy sadness for Puabi, in spite of herself. They’d had a lot in common, the two of them. Both willing to fight and die for the love of one man.

Natum gave George a nod and George walked with Nicodimus and Arianna toward the car the two had arrived in. Queenie ran along beside him. Nic called back, “There’s an inn nearby. The Hampton. You know it?”

Natum nodded. “We’ll be along. Later.”

“Natum?” Nidaba whispered.

“I know, I know. My house. Come on, love. We still have not finished our conversation. I had no idea I had so much more to say to you, but I find that I do. Besides, we have a proper farewell to say. To Sheila.”

“But the house ...”

“Let the damned house burn. I don’t need it anymore. What I need, Nidaba—
all
I need—is for you to come with me. Let me say what I need to say to you before you walk away from me again. I’m not going to let you go this time until you’ve heard everything I have to tell you. Everything I’m thinking and feeling. And until you’ve told me everything you are thinking and feeling in return. You understand?”

She nodded, looking into his eyes, and seeing a familiar gleam there. He radiated a familiar power. He was himself again, she thought. At last. She had located her long missing king.

As the dawn broke over the waves, Eannatum and Nidaba sat in the small boat, staring down at the still water. It was the same spot where they’d lowered Sheila’s body, and while the currents had long since carried her away, they returned to this spot to honor her. Nidaba had chanted long prayers in Sumerian, and Eannatum had joined her. There hadn’t been time before for more than a hurried farewell. So now they said their goodbyes, wished her soul well on its journey, shed their tears. Looking back at the shore, all Eannatum saw was a pile of smoldering wreckage, charred beams, refuse where his house, his haven, his make-believe world, had once stood.

“You were right, you know,” he said very softly.

“Was I?”

He nodded. “I’ve been living a lie, Nidaba. I’m not an ordinary man. I’m not a quiet antique dealer from New England. I am Eannatum. Immortal High Witch. King of the greatest nation of its time.”

She smiled. “You’re more than that, you know. More than even I realized. We both are.” She clasped his hands in hers and stared into his eyes. “We’ve been given this gift for a reason, Eannatum. Not just so we can live forever, grow more powerful, battle the Dark Ones. There’s more to it. There has to be.”

He hesitated for a moment. “I saw ... something back there at the house. A being... surrounding you like a nimbus.”

“It was ... something greater than any of us,” she whispered. “A force beyond what I understood before. Beyond any God or Goddess I know by name ... more like ... All. Like All that ever was or ever will be, combined into one being that is you and is me and is... everything. Even Puabi.”

He stared into her eyes. “And what does this being want from us?” he asked, his voice touched with wonder.

“I don’t know. I only know ... there’s more to this than I have understood. We need to find out what, and set about the business of doing what we were put here to do.”

“It has taken me four thousand years to understand one of the most important things I was put here to do, Nidaba. But I know it now. So perhaps we can start with that.”

She nodded slightly. “Yes. Of course we can. What is it, Natum, that you believe you should be doing?”

He lifted a hand, cupped her cheek. “Loving you. Endlessly, deeply, passionately loving you, my beautiful priestess.”

A joyful smile spread across her face and her eyes gleamed. “Eternity is a long time to love one woman.”

“You are more like ... like a collage of all womankind. Far beyond one woman. And I have already loved you for an eternity. If I couldn’t stop in four thousand, five hundred years, even when I tried, why should I expect it to change from now until forever?”

“I cannot live as a mortal, Natum.”

“And I cannot live without you, Nidaba.” He smiled very slowly. “We should marry. The way we should have long ago. In fact, we should marry a hundred times, in every form of wedding rite that exists. We’ll have a Christian ceremony, and a Buddhist one, a Wiccan hand-fasting, a Sumerian marriage rite, and everything else we can think of. Just... just tell me you still love me, Nidaba. Even if it’s only a little bit. I know I’ve hurt you deeply, but I swear—”

“Shh.” She pressed her lips to his and kissed him tenderly. When their lips finally parted, he was stunned to see tears in her eyes. “I have loved you for all my lifetimes, Eannatum. And for all those yet to come, I will love you still.”

He looked at her beloved face, into her beautiful, dark eyes, and he knew she meant it. They were meant to be together, had been from the very first day they had met, a young prince and a precocious little priestess who wanted to learn to write her name. Chosen and placed on this planet for some purpose, yes, but one they could find, and understand, and ultimately accomplish only if they were together. This was their destiny.

“Gods, but we’ve wasted so much time,” he said, pulling her close, savoring the miracle that was Nidaba.

“Yes, we have, my love. But we aren’t going to waste any more.”

Other Books by Maggie Shayne

Silhouette Intrigue

Forgotten Vows 1994

Twilight Phantasies 1993

Twilight Memories 1994

Twilight Illusions 1994

Born in Twilight 1997

Twilight Hunger 2002

Two By Twilight 2003

Embrace the Twilight 2003