The Chaos Crystal (43 page)

It seemed as if there hadn't been a moment in the last few months when she wasn't in danger, putting someone else in danger, or making decisions that might have disastrous consequences for everyone she knew and cared about.

As for Cayal's appearance in this place, at this time — Arkady had given up trying to explain how or why her life seemed so intertwined with the fate of the Immortal Prince. She'd done nothing but what had, at the time, seemed the right thing to do. And yet, somehow, it always led back to Cayal. Somehow, no matter what she did, no matter how hard she tried

to escape him, she wound up in the same place, time and time again.

Cayal was staring at her in disbelief. 'You
know
where the Chaos Crystal is?'

'Help Warlock,' she told him. 'I'm not saying another word until you save him.' Arkady didn't know if her threats meant anything. She was fairly certain they wouldn't have any impact at all if Cayal realised the Chaos Crystal lay barely ten feet from where he was standing, kicked carelessly under the furs to keep it out of sight of the canine puppies who'd been using it as a chew toy for the past few days.

At least, Arkady
assumed
the oddly glowing quartz skull the pups had found behind the crumbled wall on the lower level was the magical crystal Kentravyon was searching for.

I mean, how many glowing magical crystals could
the Cabal have hidden in this place?

Cayal was staring at her suspiciously. 'How do I know you'll keep your word?'

'Should we spit in our palms and seal the deal like
real
men?'

He debated the matter for a moment longer and then swore under his breath, before kneeling down beside Warlock. He placed his hand on the dying canine's belly, over the wound Arkady had inflicted in her haste. Boots backed away from them, pulling the pups to her. Cayal drew on the Tide. He seemed surprised at the effort it took, a fact Arkady attributed to the nearness of the crystal. A few moments later, Warlock howled in agony, his body spasming in torment and then he lay still, only the faint rise and fall of his chest giving any hint that he was still alive.

Cayal stood up, wiped his hands on his trousers and turned to Arkady. 'There. It's done. Where is it? I know it's here somewhere.'

Boots scrambled on her hands and knees to Warlock and pulled back the bandages. She looked up

at Arkady in amazement. 'The wound is gone. Completely.'

'Of course it is,' Cayal said over his shoulder, sounding a little hurt that Boots might doubt him. He fixed his unsettling gaze on Arkady. 'Where's the crystal?'

'You have to help them get away first.'

'The deal was that I heal him, Arkady, and then you give me the crystal.'

'Heal him and help them get away. Those are my conditions. Can you distract Elyssa and Kentravyon for long enough?'

'I'm sure he could,' a harsh female voice remarked from atop the landing. 'The question that you should be asking yourself, my dear, is why he'd betray his own kind for a cheap little slut like you.'

With a feeling of nauseating despair washing over her, Arkady closed her eyes for a moment and wondered why she had ever thought herself clever enough to save Warlock and his family from the immortals. Everything she'd done thus far in that direction had proved spectacularly unsuccessful.

She looked up in time to watch Elyssa descending the stairs slowly, Kentravyon close on her heels, taking in the scene below — Boots, Warlock, the pups, and Cayal — with the air of a mother who'd just caught her children doing something very, very naughty. Kentravyon didn't seem interested in the Crasii. He was looking around, scanning the dark lair anxiously. In such proximity to the Chaos Crystal, he could feel its presence, and it seemed to be all he was interested in.

'Does this woman mean anything to you, Cayal?' 'Of course not,' he said without so much as a flicker of hesitation.

'Then you won't mind if I kill her.' 'Be my guest.'

Arkady stared at Cayal in horror.
''What?'

Elyssa smiled and turned on Arkady. 'You sound so surprised, my dear. Did you think he cared for you?'

'Cayal?' Arkady couldn't believe he would just stand there while Elyssa murdered her, but that seemed to be what he was prepared to do. He refused to give her any hint of how she was supposed to respond.

'I think you know her better than you're letting on,' Elyssa said, turning to Cayal with a disapproving frown. 'Is there something you want to tell me about her?'

'I find her very desirable,' Cayal replied with a shrug. 'Tides, any man with a pulse would. But I've no particular affection for her. Kill her if you want.' He folded his arms across his body, a study in nonchalant disinterest. 'You might want to check with Kentravyon before you do it, though.'

'Why?'

'She knows where the Chaos Crystal is.'

'She could be telling you that just to save her neck.'

'Well, you'd know best, my dear. Have you finished wasting time over there, Kentravyon?' he called over his shoulder. 'Or should we just ask the person who's hiding the damn thing where it is?'

Kentravyon looked up at that, and turned from poking into the dark nooks and crannies of the underground chamber to stare at Arkady. 'Hah! Didn't I say she knew?'

Behind Cayal, Warlock groaned as he regained consciousness. Arkady silently prayed he had the wit not to draw any further attention to himself. Elyssa was focused on her at the moment, and had yet to remark on the unexplained presence of her slaves and their puppies in the ruin. Inexplicably, in the presence of the immortals, the normally boisterous puppies had become remarkably subdued.

Kentravyon approached Arkady, his bulk blocking her view of Cayal, Elyssa and the Crasii. It took all her strength not to flinch. 'You have to let them go!'

The mad Tide Lord stopped and stared at her oddly. 'What?'

'I'll tell you where it is, but you have to let the others go.'

'What others?'

'The Crasii. Let them leave and I'll tell you where it

is.'

'They're not going anywhere,' Elyssa announced flatly. 'They're mine arid I'm going to strip their filthy Scard hides from their bones and then feed the meat to their own puppies.'

So much for Elyssa not noticing the Scards.

'Charming,' Arkady thought she heard Cayal mutter behind Kentravyon, although she couldn't see him because the looming presence of the Tide Lord blocked her line of sight.

'Tides, just kill her, Kentravyon,' Elyssa said impatiently. She turned to the canines. 'And then I'll kill the Scards, we'll find the stone and we can be gone from here.'

'We can't kill them all,' Kentravyon said, not taking his eyes from Arkady. She faced him gamely, but it took every ounce of courage she owned not to take a step backward. Cayal did nothing, seemingly content to let things unravel as they would, interested in saving neither her nor the Crasii.

'Why not?' Elyssa asked.

'We'll need one of them to carry the Chaos Crystal.'

'We're not letting any filthy mortal touch it!' she objected.

'It's not about letting mortals touch it. The Chaos Crystal channels the Tide. It affects anybody
connected
to the Tide, and the more closely you're connected, the more trouble it'll give you. Unless you have enough solid gold handy to completely encase it, you won't be able to hold it for more than a few minutes without it driving you insane, Elyssa. Believe me. I know.'

Arkady wondered if that was the reason Kentravyon was mad, something the Tarot was quite vague about. Someone, after all, had taken the trouble to fashion it into the shape of a skull. If it was this Tide Lord who'd carved it, perhaps that explained his insanity.

'What does gold do to it?' Elyssa asked.

'It shields the dampening effect. Don't know why. Just does. Why do you think Maralyce was after so much of it?'

Cayal nodded in understanding. 'Because she knew if she ever found the Bedlam Stone she'd not be able to carry it anywhere unless she could shield it.'

Elyssa didn't seem very interested in Maralyce's motives for anything. 'Tides, if it's such a problem, then one of the Scards can carry it.'

'We'd rather die than lift a finger to help the suzerain,' Warlock growled, taking with him any hope that the Scard and his family might survive this encounter.

Tides, Warlock,
Arkady thought in despair,
couldn't you have pretended to be Crasii for a few
moments longer?

'One of you will carry it or I'll kill your puppies and make you eat them,' Elyssa said in a chillingly uninterested voice. 'Choose now.'

'We are not taking a litter of flanking
gemang
all the way back to Jelidia with us,' Cayal declared, sounding very annoyed.

Kentravyon turned to look at him, stepping back a little as he did so, which meant Arkady could now see everyone again. Warlock was on his feet, Boots and the pups behind him against the far wall near the fire-pit, the light from the flames casting demonic shadows on his features. He looked ready to die to protect his family, an eventuality that Arkady was afraid was all too likely if things didn't improve in the next few minutes.

Elyssa stepped in front of them, hands on her hips. Arkady's heart lodged somewhere in the back

of her throat as she waited for the Immortal Maiden to strike them down. Before Elyssa could act, however, Cayal moved up beside her, cast his gaze over the Crasii for a moment and then fixed his attention on the Immortal Maiden. 'The time for silly pets is done, Lyssa. Let them go. Arkady knows where the crystal is and she can carry it to Jelidia for us. If you promise to release these wretched creatures she's so fond of, out into the snow, I'll wager she'll even do it willingly.'

The immortal woman glared at him impatiently.
Cayal's right,
Arkady decided.
She really is a
thoroughly unattractive young woman.

'They have betrayed me, Cayal. Why, in the name of the Tide, would I even consider letting them go?'

Cayal slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her to him, but right at the point Arkady feared he might kiss the Immortal Maiden, he gently turned her around until she was facing Arkady. With both arms around Elyssa's waist, his mouth nuzzling her ear from behind, he smiled. 'Look at her. Look past the scratches and the dirt. Look at the new you, Lyssa,' he said. 'Men from one end of Amyrantha to the other have lusted after that body. Declan Hawkes would die for her, if he could. Even Jaxyn wants her, and you know how hard he is to impress. She's probably the most beautiful mortal woman alive on Amyrantha.'

Despite Cayal's glowing compliments, Arkady got the feeling his praise wasn't meant to help her. She had no idea what was happening between Cayal and Elyssa. Cayal's words made no sense and she didn't like the way Elyssa was looking her up and down as if she was a particularly juicy side of beef.

'When the Tide peaks that could be
you,
Lyssa,' Cayal added in a smiling, seductive voice, his lips next to her ear. 'Tall, elegant, beautiful
...
free of pain
...'

Elyssa seemed doubtful, but not completely

unconvinced — although of what Cayal was trying to persuade her remained a complete mystery to Arkady.

'But she's not immortal. Or even close.'

'Doesn't matter,' Kentravyon said with a shrug. 'I mean, it's
easier
to make the transfer with someone who's part immortal, I suppose, but not impossible. That flanking rat wasn't immortal, and it worked for Lukys and Coryna.' He turned to give Arkady a considering look. 'Cayal's right, you know. You could do a lot worse.'

'Do you love her, Cayal?' Elyssa asked softly.

Arkady held her breath wishing she knew what Cayal's answer might be. And whether or not the answer would make things better or worse. Being loved by the Immortal Prince was not something likely to endear her to the Immortal Maiden, she realised, and since she'd last seen Cayal, clearly the relationship between him and Elyssa had undergone some radical changes.

'I want her,' Cayal admitted after a long moment. His eyes met Arkady's but she couldn't tell if he was lying to save her, or telling the truth and just didn't care enough about her to pretend otherwise.

'Will you want me too?'

'I want you now, Lyssa.'

'No, you don't. You
need
me now.'

'And every moment we waste here debating the issue, the Tide is coming in.'

Elyssa frowned at Arkady and then threw her hands up, pushing Cayal away. 'Oh, Tides, what do I care about a pack of flanking
gemang,
anyway? Get them out of my sight.'

The Scards didn't need to be told twice.

Warlock snatched two of the oddly quiescent pups from the floor, took Boots — who was still clutching Missy — by the arm and they all fled up the crumbling stairs. The pups started to cry for some reason.

Arkady wondered
if
it was because they were Crasii and didn't want to be taken from the presence of the immortal masters they were created to please.

Arkady watched them leave, her heart pounding. She didn't know what would become of the canines; she only hoped they had the sense to get away while they still could.