World Weaver (The Devany Miller Series Book 4) (14 page)

“Now, we must restore our world to the way it was before the Witch King changed the magic in Midia. The Witch King claimed he made the Omphalos to make his people safer, to protect them from the dangers of wild magic. We know this isn’t true. We know the wild magic is a living thing that has been broken by the Omphalos, locked up and tormented by the Witch King’s need for power. It’s our fault that we accepted it.”

An uneasy grumbling filled the room. Someone said, “It is not our fault. We didn’t break the magic.”

“No, we did not. But we did sit by and let it happen.” Lizzie stared out at the crowd, her expression stern. “No one knew what the Omphalos could do, not even the Witch King. To say that it is his fault or our fault is to finger-point, and that’s not productive. Placing blame will not help us fix the magic.”

“Then what do we do?” The question came from a young woman I recognized, one of the Wydlings who had helped Krosh and I find Ellison in the Basin.

“The Dreams told me someone would come who would change things irrevocably. She is here with us now.”

She meant me and my cheeks heated. “I’m sorry I screwed everything up.”

“You should be,” Fisli said, his glower broadcasting his dislike of me. That was okay; I didn’t like him either.

“I’m not sorry,” Lizzie said. “Had she not fixed the Omphalos, we would have lived here, complacent, until the magic broke bit by bit and killed us all. Now we must do something. We must fight. She is our catalyst. We can either take up the challenge or die.”

The silence shattered with voices raised in agreement and dissent. Lizzie looked positively radiant and answered the questions shot at her with aplomb. I leaned into Kroshtuka, hoping he wouldn’t get tired of me seeking him out for support. It seemed like I’d been doing that a lot lately. Surely better times would come, times when we’d be a normal dating couple instead of two people fighting for survival.

Eventually, the questions ceased and Lizzie held up her hands. Quiet descended once more. “There are things we all must do. The other Elders and I will be Dreaming for the next few weeks to divine the best course of action. We will be asking you all to do your part.” Her gaze fell on me. “You already know what to do.”

I did? Right. I needed to visit the man who had information about the Spider Queen. Then, I supposed, I had to find the queen herself.

ELEVEN

Talking with Daniel Luresh was going to prove harder than I thought. “I should have gone to see him when Lizzie mentioned him,” I said as my hook failed to materialize me in Null or anywhere near it. The borders were closed to me. I’d tried getting in, beating myself against the Omphalos’ magic until Krosh pulled me close, holding me tight until I could talk without sobbing.

My last attempt had landed us on a treeless steppe with grass as high as our chests. Birds banked overhead and hyenas on the hunt cackled in the distance. Any other day I would have found it beautiful; now it represented my failure. ‘You won’t ever get her back,’ the vast blue skies seemed to say.

Krosh said, “I will get a message to the clans living near the border and Null. There are bound to be witches living there who might help us get Luresh a message. We’ll arrange to have him meet us at the border.”

I nodded, disheartened by the whole mess. “Could you do that while I check things on Earth?” I wanted to see if the clones were keeping out of trouble. I also needed to talk with the goddess about Sorgen, the Omphalos, and the barriers. She might know of a way to break the Omphalos. Hell, she was a goddess. Could she pluck my daughter away from the Anforsa?

Doubtful. Things were never that easy.

“Take me home,” he said. “I’ll send out missives within the hour.”

I hooked Krosh back to the Dream Caves and went home. My clone was still at work, Liam’s at school, though his clone would be home soon. “Travis?” No answer. My brother had promised to be home when Liam got off school. Where the hell was he? I debated calling him, then decided I would have to trust him to get home in time. I fed Cheeseweed and gave her some cuddles as I walked through the house.

In the living room, the couch had been moved, the coffee table shifted. In the downstairs bathroom, Dev Two had bought a different kind of toilet paper. In the kitchen, Liam Two’s shoes were kicked off by the counter. It was my house, but it felt unfamiliar to me, as if I were a visitor.

Despite the small changes, everything looked okay and my phone didn’t have any alarming messages on it. I went upstairs to find clothing to wear for our journey. I changed jeans, put on a pair of Tom’s thick hunting socks he’d forgotten to take with him when he moved out, and a t-shirt that said, ‘Wake up. Kick ass. Repeat.’

I dug around in my closet until I found my hiking boots and slipped them onto my feet. Then I put another set of clothes, underwear, and toothbrush and toothpaste in my camping backpack. Tom and I had gone camping often when we were first married. Then time for such things fell away when I got pregnant with Liam.

I slipped a plastic comb into a side pocket, added in one of those thin thermal blankets and a rain poncho, a jacket, and my old pocketknife I hadn’t taken from my bottom dresser drawer in years. Back down in the kitchen, I debated about taking matches, then remembered I was going to be camping in a place with magic.

I could make my own fire.

I hooked to the Slip to find Tytan, wanting him with me when I went to talk to his mother about Sorgen. If he were there, maybe she wouldn’t kill me for asking. He and several other Scriven were discussing the new developments on Midia when I walked in. His eyes searched my face, then he patted the seat beside him on his couch.

I stayed standing.

“The power coming off that thing is tremendous,” Kali said, her arms crossed at chest, stomach, and waist.

“None of us can enter,” said another Scriven, this one a gaunt, skinny man without a face.

“They helped me test the borders,” Ty explained, “like the velociraptors in your Earth movie about dinosaurs.”

I snorted, though really, if the Skriven had any Earthly comparisons, velociraptors would come close, at least the movie raptors. Smart, deadly, predatory, and utterly alien to humans.

“The witches will be thinking themselves above us all,” Kali said. “We must rectify this assumption.”

I silently agreed. “There are a few things I need to do.” I paused, thinking of Nex’s words. “Some things I need help with.”

The Skriven looked interested, all but Kali, who pulled one of her many knives and twirled it in her hand until the steel blurred. I averted my eyes.

“I have to find a witch named Daniel Luresh. Kroshtuka is going to get a message to him somehow. I need to talk to the goddess at Tempest Peaks. And then I need to find the Spider Queen.”

“No small task,” Ty said.

The knife spun faster and then the Skriven sheathed it with a soft brush of sound. “I will go with you,” Kali said. “I have long since wished to meet the Weaver of Worlds.”

I bit down on my automatic response, which was to say no. I needed help. I’d asked for it. Now I needed to accept it. Hell, maybe the Spider Queen would relate to Kali, with her six arms and two legs better than she would with me, a mere four-limbed creature. “Okay, great. I’ll pick you up after I’ve talked to Luresh and Sephony.”

Ty and I hooked to Tempest Peaks. We slipped through the narrow crack with knives of obsidian reminding me that I was indeed a human who could bleed. “Damn it. I forgot to bubble up.”

Tytan lifted my arm to his mouth and licked the blood from the cut before I could yank away.

“Ew!” The wound healed, leaving a thin silver scar. “What, you’re a vampire now?”

“Where do you think those bastards got their ideas?”

“From the fleshcrawlers,” I said, wiping the last of his slobber off my skin.

He snorted. “Earth vampires are faded fleshcrawlers. But they got their techniques from us.”

Good to know.

Up we walked, past the warriors. I let my gaze wander on each one this time, hoping it would annoy Tytan, but he laughed as we climbed ever upward to the top of the hill where the tree stood. Where Sorgen stood. I stopped in front of him and stared at the burnt ruin of his face. “Have you tried talking to him?”

“Why?” He walked past without a backward glance, but I stayed behind, stepping closer to what was essentially a pile of ashes in the shape of a man.

I stepped closer. “I’ve asked you this before. Can you understand me?”

Silence. Ash flaked off and fluttered to his feet. Surely by now there wouldn’t be anything left, but no matter how much ash fell he was always there. I sank down into my control room, searching for something to help me communicate with the man. Often my imagination came up with clever ideas, but this time the control room sat dark and silent.

Tytan and his mother were talking, heads together, when I entered her sanctuary—or prison, I supposed. As I joined them, Sephony said, “The Spider Queen is deep in the Wastes. It will be hard to find her if she doesn’t want to be found.” Her crackling, lightning eyes fell on me. “What is it you wish to know about the man who forced me to choose between love and honor?”

***

Taken aback at her anger, I floundered for something to say. No, I wasn’t surprised she was still angry at Sorgen for what he’d done, but her ire was directed at me. “I have to figure out how to undo what I did, fixing the Omphalos. The Dream Mother said I needed to talk to the Spider Queen.”

Sephony’s face softened. “My grandmother was a Dream Mother.”

The tornado whipped around us, tossing my hair every which way. I wished for a ponytail holder and seconds later, Tytan held one out to me. “Stop that,” I whispered. “Thank you.” As I pulled back my hair, Sephony shook herself free of her memories.

“The Witch King did not create the Omphalos. That was the story he told to hide his perfidy from his people and mine.”

“Then where did he get it?”

Her expression clouded. Storms gathered in her eyes. Then she shook her head. “Why are you here?”

‘
Be very careful, Devany,’ I told myself. “To figure out how to destroy the Omphalos.”

“You cannot.” She turned abruptly and stalked away. The tornado swept around and enveloped her in its black funnel.

“We need to go,” Tytan said, turning me around and shoving me toward the entrance.

Lightning sizzled the air behind me and then thunder boomed, deafening me. Only Tytan’s hand on my elbow kept me upright long enough to escape the goddess’ circle. Outside, the storm was muted, but boy did it rage. “She’s just angry, right? Caught up in the bad memories? There has to be a way to destroy that damned Omphalos.” He didn’t answer me so I pressed. “Right?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that we should not mention my father to her again.” He glared at the man of ash. “If he’d left her alone, I wouldn’t have been born. Perhaps that would have been better, considering.”

Ash piled at the Witch King’s feet and more took its place. He moved, just an inch and his lips parted. Sere words rasped from his mouth. “Loved her. And you.”

Tytan’s grip on me tightened, but I said nothing. He said nothing. We both waited for more.

Sorgen did not speak again.

“Come on,” I said. We walked back down in silence and after successfully navigating the obsidian tunnel without shedding more blood, I stopped him. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re around.”

A sly look stole over his face. “Glad enough to sleep with me?”

“Seriously? That’s what you come up with when I’m trying to be nice?”

“I was being nice, too.” He moved in close, close enough for the heat of his body to warm me. “I could make you scream.”

I put a hand on his chest. “I have no doubt that you could.”

“Oh?”

“You’re a beautiful man. You are very well aware of the effect you have on me. Hell, I’ve kissed you way more times than I should have. But the thing is, I can have the hots for you and not act on those feelings.” That’s what I told myself every time I got caught up in the sensual web that surrounded him. There was no law in enjoying the feelings he produced as long as I didn’t act on them and I made sure it was clear where I stood on the issue. “So no. I’m not going to sleep with you.”

“Yet.”

I rolled my eyes. “You would make a great alpha male in one of those paranormal romances, you know.”

“The bad boy who is reformed by the heroine’s love?”

“Mmhm.”

“How about the good girl who is transformed into evil by fucking the bad boy? I’d lay down a few bucks to read that.”

Why did I even bother? Honestly. He had a one track dirty mind. I formed a hook. “Let’s go figure out how to find the Spider Queen.”

“Thank you.”

I paused, holding the hook open. “What?”

He didn’t say anything else and I had to guess that he meant bantering with him. Had it taken his mind off his father? His mother?