The Chaos Crystal (34 page)

Arkady's heart hammered in her chest as she tried to work out what that meant. He was Crasii, so it was reasonable to assume he was here at the behest of an immortal master. With so many immortals abroad these days, all Crasii were suspect, except Scards like Boots whom Arkady had known since she was a pup, and whom she'd witnessed firsthand defying a Tide Lord.

Was this creature here at the behest of Jaxyn Aranville? Had he sent someone in pursuit of her? This wasn't likely to be a Crasii sent by Elyssa, she reasoned, hunting a lost dam and puppies. Any Crasii she sent in pursuit of Boots would be speaking Caelish. Unless, of course, it was a trap, and the canine was speaking Glaeban in order to deliberately lull Boots into thinking she was safe
...

Tides, what should I do?

She could hear the canine coming to investigate the noise. Arkady had only seconds before she was discovered. If this Crasii — this creature magically compelled to obey the orders of his immortal masters — found her here, she could be back in the sadistic hands of Jaxyn Aranville before nightfall. There would be no reasoning with this beast. No chance of talking her way out of this one. No way to make him defy his orders
...

Silently, Arkady withdrew the knife from the back of her skirt and held it in front of her. She knew what she had to do. Her freedom, the puppies' freedom, Boots's chance to reunite with her mate one day — all of them were dependent on not being discovered here and now.

Arkady thrust the knife forward as soon as the Crasii rounded the pillar, ramming the blade as deeply as she could into the belly of the enormous creature before he could react. The beast lashed out at her with a snarl, scraping the side of her face and her shoulder

before he fell, gripping the hilt of the knife with a howl of agony.

Her face and shoulder stinging, her heart in her mouth, sweating as if it was high summer, Arkady jumped back as the canine crashed heavily to the leaf- strewn floor, blood seeping through the hooded jacket where he clutched at the knife.

'Help me
...'

Arkady took another step backward. She wasn't stupid enough to get any closer. Even writhing in agony and obviously dying, the canine was still dangerous, and if he managed to get that knife out of his belly, he'd be armed as well.

'Please
..
.'

Arkady hardened her heart to his pleas, figuring if she had the guts to kill this Crasii, she should have the courage to stand here and see it through.
And it isn't
like you haven't killed countless Crasii before,
she reminded herself harshly.

'Tides, my lady, what happened?'

Arkady spun around to find Boots running toward them. 'It's all right, Boots, go back. I've taken care of it.'

The dying canine looked up as she spoke.
'Boots
...?'

'I heard someone howling like the
...'
She stopped and stared down at the howling Crasii. 'Tides, woman. What have you
done?'

'Stay back, Boots,' Arkady urged, trying to stop the young female from getting any closer. 'He'll be dead soon.'

'He'd better not be,' Boots said, shaking off Arkady. She ran to the canine and fell to her knees beside him.

'Boots! Don't go near him! He's still dangerous!'

The canine ignored Arkady. Instead, she pushed the hood from the intruder's head and pulled him onto her lap, her eyes filled with tears, muttering soothing nothings to him as she rocked him back and forth, tears streaming down her face. It was then that Arkady

got her first good look at the canine. He seemed familiar, but she couldn't recall where she'd seen him before.

It was Boots's distressed cries that finally revealed who her victim was. Arkady's heart lurched as Boots stared up at her accusingly.

'He's not dangerous,' the Scard said with a tear- filled snarl. 'This is Warlock. The father of my puppies.' Boots leaned down and kissed his forehead before adding with a sob, 'You stupid bitch. You've killed my mate.'

CHAPTER 32

Cycrane seemed unnaturally peaceful. For a city that had been at war a couple of days ago, it was surprisingly quiet. Cayal leaned on the balcony of the Ladies Walking Room of the Cycrane Palace, barely noticing the bitter winter chill in the air. He looked out over the warm dots of light that marked the snow- shrouded city below him, and the dark stain behind the town, sucking in all the light, that marked the deep waters of the Lower Oran. 'Admiring the view?'

Cayal didn't bother to turn. He'd felt Elyssa approaching on the Tide and had time to brace himself. 'I was trying to remember what this place looked like before the lake was here.'

'Really?' she asked, coming to lean on the balcony beside him. 'And here I was thinking you were just sick of listening to my mother.'

Cayal allowed himself a small smile. 'Well, there's that, too. Don't you ever get sick of her?'

'All the time.'

He turned his back on the city, brushed the snow from the railing and perched on the edge of the balcony to study Elyssa in the starlight. She hadn't changed at all in the thousand or more years since he'd seen her last. She was still cursed with a receding chin, eyes set too far apart and a face that could most kindly be described as
unfortunate.
'Why do you stay around this insane family of yours, Lyssa? You have the power to do anything you want. You could beat Tryan into a

bloody pulp if you wanted to, and the rest of them can't hold a candle to you.'

'They love me.'

'Is that what you call it?'

Elyssa turned from looking at the city to face him. 'They love me, Cayal. And they've been there for me. Through ten thousand years of immortality, they've
always
been there for me. Everyone else leaves eventually. If they're mortal, they die. If they're immortal, they just let you down.'

'You're very bitter.'

'I'm
bitter? Tides, Cayal, you're suicidal.' She searched his face in the darkness, as if she was looking for answers he was certain she could never find in him. 'Do you really think Lukys can help you die?'

'The question you should be asking yourself, Elyssa, is:
can he help you live?'

'In another body? One that's beautiful? One that's not a virgin? One that doesn't devour every lover she takes as he tries to enter her?' She smiled sceptically. Kentravyon had told her the story about Coryna and Coron the Rat. Cayal didn't think she believed a word of it. 'You do
know
Kentravyon is mad, don't you, Cayal?'

'Yes.'

'And yet you still believe him?'

'It's not just Kentravyon. I've seen the lengths Lukys has gone to, to make this happen. Tides, he's built a palace in Jelidia for his one great love, Lyssa, to rival the one your mother built in Magreth.'

'That's kind of romantic, when you think about it.' After a moment, Elyssa's dubious smile faded and she shook her head. She wasn't convinced. 'Kentravyon says Lukys has a new body selected for his lover.'

'Bred for it, would be a more accurate description, I suspect,' Cayal said. 'Apparently, the only way to
ensure
someone will become immortal when you immolate them is to burn a mortal who's more than half immortal to begin with.'

'Is that how Hawkes became immortal?' she asked. 'Is it because he was more than half immortal to begin with?'

'Five-eighths, if you believe him. I assume Oritha has a similar pedigree.'

'Where is he, anyway?' Elyssa asked. 'I haven't seen our newly forged immortal spymaster since before we broke the ice.'

Cayal shrugged. 'Don't know. Don't care that much either, to be frank. He irritates the hell out of me. He'll be around somewhere. Looking for his girlfriend, I don't doubt. Or brooding about her. He broods about her a lot. And with good cause, I have to say. He messed up that particular love affair quite spectacularly, with only a very small amount of help from me.'

'Is she pretty?'

'Who? Arkady?'

'Not Arkady,' Elyssa said. She clearly wasn't interested in Hawkes's love life. Or indeed Cayal's, either. 'I meant Lukys's wife. Oritha.'

Cayal nodded. 'I suppose she is. Bit short and dark for my taste, but Lukys seems quite taken with her.'

'Does she know what he has in store for her?'

He shrugged. 'I couldn't say.'

'So her active cooperation is not required to effect the transfer of Coryna's mind into Oritha's body?'-

'To be honest, I never thought to ask.'

Elyssa contemplated that notion for a moment before she spoke again. Cayal found her questions encouraging. She was obviously considering their offer. At least he hoped she was. Without the location of the Chaos Crystal, there was nothing
on offer.
'What happens to her after the transfer?'

'She becomes immortal.'

'No, I mean what happens to the mortal wife? To the entity known as Oritha? What becomes of her personality, her memories; her
soul
if you like? Does

she simply fade away? Or does she stay in the body, constantly fighting for control of it?' 'I have no idea.'

'I think I'd like an answer to that question before I commit to your cause, Cayal.'

'I can't give you an answer, Lyssa. You'd have to ask Lukys.'

'Then what
can
you give me?' she asked, ever the pragmatist. 'I think I deserve some sort of compensation. You want me to surrender the key to ultimate power.'

'The Chaos Crystal isn't the key to ultimate power,' he scoffed.

'Oh? So Lukys wants it just because it's shiny, does he?'

'It
channels
power, Lyssa. It isn't powerful in or of itself.'

'Really? And when did you become an expert on the Bedlam Stone? You don't even know what it looks like.'

'Truth be told, neither do you,' he said, crossing his arms impatiently. 'According to my spies you have a Tarot that's falling apart, a map you can't read, a rough idea of where the crystal's hidden and not much else.'

'That's more than you have, Cayal.'

True enough.
He sighed, sick of this verbal bantering that was getting them nowhere. 'What is it you want, Lyssa? Name it.'

'I want you.'

'What else do you want?'

She smiled again, and it wasn't pleasant. 'How badly do you want to die, Cayal?'

Not that badly,
used to be Cayal's automatic response to that question, but now the opportunity to find the Chaos Crystal was almost within his grasp, he discovered his determination wavering.
So what
if
she's
dangerous, cruel, vindictive, psychotic, and bordering

on, well
...
ugly.
If
it means I'll be dead by the time
the Tide peaks, why do I care?

'Do you still kill your mortal lovers when you get frustrated with their screams?'

'What if I do? I can't actually kill you, Cayal, so you've nothing to fear.'

Cayal smiled, cynical enough for her comment to amuse him. 'There's not a lot of romance in your soul, is there, Elyssa?'

'Those are my terms, Cayal,' she said with a glint in her eye that indicated she knew she had the upper hand. 'You want the location of the Chaos Crystal? I'm your first port of call.'

'Fine.'

'I'm not interested in a one-night stand,' she said, clearly mistrusting his ready capitulation. 'I want something lasting.'

'I'm planning to die, Elyssa, as soon as I possibly can. How lasting a promise do you expect me to make?'

'Till death us do part?' she suggested, with a sly smile that made Cayal's blood run cold. 'In fact, now I think of it, a wedding is just what this situation calls for. You want to die so badly? Fine, then. You can marry me first.'

'You cannot be serious.'

With a sour smile, she turned from the balcony railing and headed for the diamond-paned door leading back into the Ladies Walking Room. 'Have a nice life, Cayal,' she said with a wave. 'I
know
it's going to be a long one.'

'Elyssa, wait.'

She turned with her hand on the latch. 'Yes, Cayal?'

'Isn't there some way we can
...?'

'No. So, if we're done here, I'm going back to my family. The ones who always stick by me. Unless there's something you want to ask me?'

Tides, she's going to make me ask.
Cayal studied her in the starlight, wondering if there was ever a time when he hated her more than he did right at this moment. 'Will you marry me, Elyssa?'

She smiled triumphantly and Cayal discovered he
could
hate her more. Quite a lot more, actually. 'Yes, Cayal, I will.'

'And you'll give us the map? Now? Tonight?'

She shrugged, a little puzzled by his haste. 'If you're in that much of a hurry you can have it now, I suppose. When do you think we should hold the wedding ceremony?'

'When we get to Jelidia.'

She shook her head and moved toward him, stopping in front of him with her hands on her hips. 'I'm not waiting that long.'