Tested by the Night (29 page)

To make matters even worse, she had to constantly watch every single step she took. For the farther and deeper they traveled, the more patches of broken ground appeared. Small oozing fountains of red hot magma spurted ever upward, and tiny exploding sparks of burning lava stung her bare arms while hot ash floated in the air. A thick coat of it covered her skin and clogged her nose and throat.

She was on the verge of telling Talmuk she’d changed her mind, that she was done and couldn’t go another step when they rounded a sharp bend and she stopped dead in her tracks. There before her ebbed and flowed what could only be described as a lake of slowly swirling molten lava. And sticking straight up from the very center of the fiery maelstrom was Queen Adrina’s spear.

Mia’s heart pounded in her chest, and her breath quickened.

At first, the lava and the spear within it was all she could see, and then her eyes adjusted elsewhere as a softly spoken, “Welcome. I’ve been expecting you,” from a distinctly female voice broke her trance.

Sen Jeasa Mooktar wasn’t anything like Mia had expected. Where most ogres were very large boned and obese, the Sen Jeasa really wasn’t. Not that she wasn’t ogre through and through, for without a doubt she was. Her coloring, her almost complete lack of body hair, her prominent canines, and the fact that her pasty-white jowls swung freely on both sides of her pasty-white face with every movement she made attested boldly to her nationality.

But where most ogres were very fleshy, the Sen Jeasa was almost petite. And where most ogres were at least seven feet if not more, this woman was no taller than her own five-foot-five. Perhaps, it was because the shaman was frail, wrinkled, and bent over with age. Though if the aura of confidence radiating outward from all around her was any indication, her obvious advanced age hadn’t slowed the Sen Jeasa down one bit.

And though her twenty or so strands of faded red hair fashioned just like Ohfeelya’s in a tight little bun on the top of her head competed unsuccessfully for attention with the bright red lava swirling all about, Mia had the strangest feeling the Sen Jeasa had never had to compete with anyone or anything in any way in order to claim her rightful place. She’d been born to be precisely where she was this very moment. As if destiny itself had placed a crown of leadership upon her weathered head.

“So you’ve finally come to try and take back the spear your Queen Adrina gifted to my people so long ago? Mooktar told me to be expecting you. He says you are on a quest of some type?”

Mia’s mouth fell open, and the Sen Jeasa continued. “Don’t look so surprised, young princess. Do you really think your god Draka is the one and only spiritual entity in the entire universe?”

Mia shook her head, and the shaman chuckled. “Of course, you don’t, deary.”

Then the Sen Jeasa of Mooktar became completely serious. “But I’m afraid you’ve traveled a very great distance for nothing. Queen Adrina’s spear must remain where it is. It’s the only object, in all of Albrath, cold enough to slow the flow of the lava. Without it, this volcano would most certainly erupt, and my people would all die.”

Mia gulped and fingered the hilt of the blade in the pocket of her breeks. “I only need the spear for a very short time, and I’ve brought a…a replacement.”

Pulling the object from her pocket, she held out the jeweled dagger for all to see. The blood red gemstones encrusted upon the dagger’s hilt glittered in the smoky light and matched perfectly the color of the molten lava swirling around them, and its blade sparkled a cold icy blue. “My mother, Queen Lizbeth Hammerstrike, imbued this dagger herself with her very own hands. She enchanted each and every gemstone with perseverance and infused the blade with the power of an ice so cold it cannot melt. At least, not for quite some time.”

Mia took a steadying breath. “You see, she’s a very powerful enchantress amongst my people. And though I realize this piece of metal and gemstone is not nearly as powerful as Queen Adrina’s spear, perhaps it can take its place for a short time. Just long enough that I can use the spear in order to fulfill my quest. I’ll return it to your safekeeping as quickly as I can. I give you my word.”

The Sen Jeasa of Mooktar shook her head. “Barbarians are not to be trusted. Everyone knows this. Your people have been trying to steal back what their very own queen gifted us with for centuries.” She turned her back on Mia. “Why should I believe anything you have to say, Princess? Why should I even care about your silly little quest? And why would I ever take such a dangerous chance with the lives of my people? You and yours mean little if not nothing at all to the ogre nation. Be gone from this place and never return.”

Mia tried to no avail to swallow past the lump forming in her throat. All this way just to be turned down? There must be something else she could say, something she could do? Something she hadn’t yet thought of? Some other angle perhaps? Anything?

It was on the tip of her tongue to beg when suddenly Ohfeelya spoke up. “I mean no disrespect, but you are wrong, oh wise shaman. The spear needs—must go with Mia. It’s…it’s sick, and Mia is the only one who can see it healed. At least, I—I think she’s the only one. Somehow, she’s as tied to the destiny of Queen Adrina’s spear and to the continued wellbeing of the ogre nation as we are.”

The Sen Jeasa of Mooktar turned toward Mia and roared. “How dare you bring this charlatan of a holy woman onto my mountain? Into my presence and the presence of our god?”

Mia shook her head. “No, no, no. Ohfeelya isn’t a holy anything. She’s my friend. I don’t know why she’d say what she did. Perhaps the heat is getting to her?”

She expected the ogress leader to explode with anger right before her eyes, but it was Talmuk, the warlord, whose voice she heard next. “Calm yourself, Sen Jeasa. I told you the little ogress they called Ohfeelya was special, didn’t I? I sent you a missive last evening. You did receive it, did you not?”

The Sen Jeasa nodded, and Talmuk continued.

“I’ll tell you now as I told you then. I can feel the very same power emanating from her that I do from you and this mountain. Perhaps this barbarian princess has brought us something far more powerful than her dagger of ice? Perhaps she has brought us your next apprentice. The very same alcolate we’ve all been praying so diligently for.”

The ogress suddenly smiled, and her long, yellowed canines made indentations into her chin. “Perhaps she has. Yes, perhaps she has at that.”

Chapter Twenty

Darkness surrounded her, and Mia lay on her side listening to the soft, subtle, sounds of the night mixed with Talon’s not so quiet snores. What a day it had been. Queen Adrina’s spear was safely in her possession. The dagger of ice magic her mother had gifted her with resided temporarily in the spear’s place. And on the morrow, they’d head back to The Academy of Magical Arts. The second of her three quests complete. And she hadn’t even had to use her Mystic powers of persuasion or her increased knowledge from the potion of increased intelligence to accomplish her task. It seemed fate itself had stepped in and solved all her problems very nicely.

She should be happy, ecstatic even. So why wasn’t she?

She punched her pillow for good measure and flipped onto her back. The continued goodwill and health of one Miss Ohfeelya Upz was why Mia wasn’t happy, and she didn’t have the first clue as to what to do about it.

Her gnome-ogre friend wouldn’t be traveling back with the rest of them tomorrow. Oh, no. Ohfeelya had
volunteered
to be a willing hostage of sorts for these people and wouldn’t be stepping one foot out of Oreeghan until Mia returned Queen Adrina’s spear, good as new, to its rightful owners and place. That was, if her mother, the queen, was even capable of imbuing the power back into the spear in the first place, as Mia had promised she would.

But could it be done? Was it possible?

Perhaps Aunt’s Briar and Lark could help Queen Lizbeth with the spear? Perhaps even Uncle Leeky and Aunt Laycee could lend a hand in some way? And if she became desperate, truly desperate, she could even ask, her instructor, High Mystic Purrell, to put his big brain to the task. Or Head Mistress Seychelle’s enchanter abilities. After all, restoring Queen Adrina’s spear to its original power wasn’t part of her original quest and so help with the restoration of its icy powers shouldn’t be outside the realm of her stringent guidelines.

Even though she still didn’t enjoy talking with the man, she’d have to ask Alistair in the morning, to be sure.

Mia cringed.

Fixing the spear, if it was even fixable, was one thing, but how on Albrath was she ever going to explain to Leeky and Laycee Shortz why their precious niece was now an ogre captive? And though it was true, Ohfeelya was staying of her own volition and was being treated more like a princess than a prisoner, right this moment anyway, the fact remained she wasn’t free to simply roam about and do as she liked. And she certainly wasn’t free to leave.

Eyes were on her at all times.

Talmuk’s eyes to be precise.

Talmuk’s hungry, seeking, ever questioning eyes.

Mia shuddered.

The great warlord was probably considered quite handsome and sought after amongst his people, but to her, he was just plain scary with his razor sharp canines and his bulky muscles. At least he was a frightening sight until he glanced Ohfeelya’s way.

Mia had to admit Talmuk wasn’t the least bit terrifying when he was in Ohfeelya’s presence. As a matter of fact, the big oaf melted before her like a cuddly, ogre-like, teddy bear.

She smiled as the realization came to her that what she’d once thought was flirtation aimed in her direction had probably been meant for her ogre-gnome friend all along.

But did the reality that Talmuk obviously liked Ohfeelya with more than a passing fancy exonerate Mia from deserting her friend to whatever ogre whims the Sen Jeasa and the warlord might think up in her absence? Was becoming ruling queen someday really more important than the possible safety, the wellbeing of an innocent? A friend?

Not that she didn’t know beyond any shadow of a doubt that with leadership came the necessity to make hard choices when hard choices needed to be made, for she did. After all, how many times as she was growing up had she watched as her father sent his most trusted men off on this or that important mission.

Most of the time those men returned unscathed, but at times they didn’t. And there were even those very rare times when they hadn’t retuned at all, at least not as they’d been when they left Alaria. Even worse, on a couple of occasions, very good men under the direct orders of King Adan Hammerstrike had been returned cold and lifeless, in a plain pine box or in pieces.

Mia shuddered again.

Being a true ruler meant making hard choices even when that ruler would rather not, and she knew that, had always known it. But what she was having trouble grasping was exactly where the line was drawn between putting people at risk for self-gain as opposed to putting them at risk for the welfare and the good of the barbarian nation as a whole.

Mia gulped.

What kind of horrible person allowed her friends to step up and put themselves in danger for her own needs? In reality, anyone with half a brain could effectively rule the barbarian nation, couldn’t they? But friends, true friends were few and far between.

Talon and his cousin had put themselves in danger for her in Bane and now Ohfeelya here in Mooktar. It wasn’t to be borne.

She promised herself then and there, it wouldn’t happen again. For in the end, a crown being placed upon her unworthy female head wasn’t equal compensation for the wellbeing of a friend, any friend? At least not adequate compensation. That was for sure.

She was on the verge of shaking the big barbarian sleeping next to her awake, of collecting her entire little group, including Ohfeelya, and giving the ogre’s back Queen Adrina’s spear when Talon gathered her into his big strong arms and squeezed.

“Stop torturing yourself, Princess, and get some sleep. We have a long journey ahead of us on the morrow, and all your thrashing about, sighing, and pillow punching will wake the dead.” He tucked her in close, the beat of his heart steady, sure, and comforting through the thick wall of his chest. “It was Ohfeelya’s decision to make, Mia, not yours. And one she made willingly.”

“But I can’t allow it,” Mia cried. “What if Mother can’t fix the stupid spear? What if I can’t get back here before the dagger loses its power? What if Ohfeelya and an entire race of people perish because of me? I can’t live with that possibility, that responsibility on my conscious, Talon. I simply can’t. To VoT with the stupid crown and being queen of the barbarians someday. It’s not worth it.”

She gulped.

Talon rubbed her back. “Stop it, Mia. Stop second guessing yourself. Your judgment has always been sound. It’s one of the things I love about you. And the what-ifs of the world will only serve to drive you crazy if you allow them.”

He kissed her temple. “I mean, what if, by chance, the sun didn’t rise in the morning? Would that be your fault, too? And what if all the stars in the sky suddenly rained down upon Albrath? Or what if a random lightning bolt took the life of someone you cared for? Would you blame yourself?”

Talon could feel Mia ramping up for yet another bout of self-incrimination and to stop it before it could start, he pressed his mouth against hers, sweeping his tongue across the seam of her lips.

With a sigh, she relented and opened to him.

She tasted of wild Mooktar mountain berries this evening, tart and yet sweet, mixed with equal portions of passion and anxiety. He took the kiss deeper, thrusting his tongue in and out of her mouth with the very same motion his VoT-hard cock longed for. And she kissed him back, tit for tat, giving, receiving, warring, and surrendering.

When the kiss finally ended, he nuzzled the tender skin of her neck. “Ohfeelya is doing what she’s doing because she believes in you, not because you demanded it of her. I believe in you. We all do. Now, all you need do is love this barbarian back for a little while and believe in yourself.”