World Weaver (The Devany Miller Series Book 4) (27 page)

“Thank you, human. You have done me a great service this day.”

“You’re welcome.” I stayed upright though my knees wanted to buckle. “Will you get the Omphalos now?”

She screeched a war cry. “My children.”

“My daughter.”

She extended one of her legs to me. “I will return my children to my home. When I do, the way will be open for you to do the same. Do not think that it will be an easy task even without the witches stealing my magic and twisting it to their own purpose.”

“Nothing is ever easy,” I said.

“Just so. Goodbye, Devany Miller.” The Spider Queen leaped and in seconds disappeared from sight.

“I’m coming, Bethy,” I whispered. “I’m coming.”

TWENTY-ONE

After Krosh changed back into his human form, I concentrated on the Wydlings using the backroads’ bracelet as a focus. I hoped that the group had turned back toward home and that Kali and Tytan had taken care of them.

The thought of him produced a flashback of Ravana holding baby Tytan by the leg and shaking him. ‘Every bruise. Every cut. Every drop of blood will have your name on it, Devany Miller. There won’t be a moment when he doesn’t think of you and curse your name.’

It was the past. The past. No matter what she said, she couldn’t change the past. She was dead. Her days of doing anything but playing out her miserable existence in Purgatory were over.

She was dead.

Krosh’s touch made me jump. “Are you okay?”

I nodded, swallowing despite my dry throat. “Yeah. You ready?”

It took three tries to get us close to the Wydlings. Krosh was the one who spotted them, far in the distance. “Look,” he said, just as I was about to open another hook and try again.

Kali stood silhouetted by red light, her swords transcribing deadly arcs in the air. Infected Wydlings surrounded her, lunging at her with graceless fury and one by one they fell.

We waited for the battle to end before calling out to her. She didn’t act surprised or happy to see us. She was just … Kali. “So you are among the living once again,” she said. “Tytan did not take your death well, however brief it lasted.”

She said nothing else and I wanted to shake her. “What do you mean, he didn’t take it well? Does he know I’m alive now?”

“I should think so. I knew it.”

“Where is he?”

She thrust her chin to her left and I put my hand to my eyes to squint into the sun. “I don’t see him.”

“Search the ground,” she said in a bored tone.

A dark lump lay at the base of a twisted stump of a tree. “What the hell, Kali?” I ran for him, mindful of the uneven terrain and my wounded hand. Holding it close to my chest, I dropped to my knees beside his still form. “Ty? Ty, damn it, I will cut out your heart if you don’t answer me right now.”

“I love it when you talk dirty to me.”

I thumped him in the chest. “What the hell?”

He cracked open one eye. “You’re alive again.”

“Yeah.”

He grunted.

“What happened? Are you okay?” There were deep rents in his flesh, as if he’d had a run-in with a can opener and lost.

“One of your spawn challenged me for your spot as Originator. I tried to make a hook to get the damned Wydlings out of here before they ended up dead and a syntarsus came through. Ugly fucker. It tried gnawing off my leg.”

“It would have ripped you to pieces if I hadn’t stepped in,” Kali said.

Tytan flipped her off. “It fell apart when you breathed again. I doubt it’s over, though. You’ll have to deal with the spawn who challenged you or he will do it again.”

“I thought they had to find their soul first before they could challenge their Originator?”

“You were dead. That triggered a challenge.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Why did they challenge you? Why not just take my place?”

He shrugged, wincing when the movement tugged something painful. I leaned over him and winced at the large gash in his side. “I’m guessing because I read as an Originator.”

“Shit. Who knows?”

“Now? All of them.”

I sighed. If it didn’t rain, it poured. I wasn’t sure what would happen now that the other Originators knew Tytan was similar to me. They’d figure out fairly quickly that Ravana had been up to some pretty significant shenanigans before I’d killed her. “If you go back to the Slip, watch your back.”

“How about you watch it for me?”

I held up my burnt hand. “Busy enough as it is, thank you.” I paused. He’d taken care of me when I was badly hurt and now I sounded like a callous asshole. “If you were badly hurt, I would nurse you back to health. I promise.”

“Little white nurse’s uniform. White tights.”

“Shut up.”

“What happened to your hand?”

Shit. I hadn’t figured out how best to tell him about that. “I found the Spider Queen’s eye.”

He raised his brows.

“It was inside Sorgen. I burned my hand pulling it out of him. Ty,” I said. “Tempest Peaks collapsed. I don’t know if Sephony is okay or not.”

“And you didn’t stay to find out?” His voice was quiet, his words short and succinct. Guilt crawled through me.

“No.”

“Take me there.” He grunted with pain as he pushed himself to his feet.

“You need to rest and heal—”

“Devany, please.” There was more to the pain in his voice than his physical wounds.

“All right. Let me get the Wydlings home and then we’ll go.” I put my hand on his arm and pushed power into him, directing the magic to heal and dampen the pain. His shoulders relaxed.

“Thank you.”

Kali left on her own to go back to the Slip and I hooked the Wydlings and Krosh to Odd Silver. “I have to take him myself, I think.”

“Be careful,” Krosh replied. I kissed him on the cheek and hooked back to Ty.

When we got to Tempest Peaks, the destruction was gone. In its place were the ruins I’d seen in the memories beyond the white door in the Spider Queen’s tower. A shimmering bubble of magic rippled over the ruins, light blues and pinks, greens and yellows. It looked and smelled like Spring. Ty put his hand up and the dome opened for him. I slid in with him.

Sephony stood with her back to us, looking much as she did when she set off on her quest to ask for aid from the witches to stem the Rider infestation. When she turned, she smiled, the magic that had driven her insane gone. Her smile faded when she saw the state her son was in. “What happened?”

“A syntarsus,” I said when Tytan didn’t answer. “You’re okay.”

“I haven’t been okay for thousands of years. But I am better.” She took Tytan into her care, fussing over him, healing the gashes in his flesh with her magic. “It won’t take long before you’re better than new.”

They looked happy together, mother and son. I hated to interrupt, but I had to ask, “Do you think you could heal my hand?”

She took my wounded hand in hers and unwrapped the bandage. When she saw the blackened flesh, she shook her head. “I cannot help with this. I’m sorry.”

“Do you know what it is?”

“A curse.”

I sighed. Of course it was. “Is there a way to undo it?”

“You can pass it on to someone else, but you cannot cure it.”

Well, shit.

“Thank you for bringing my son to me. We need time to say our goodbyes.” She smiled over her shoulder at Ty.

“Goodbyes?” Ty asked, already sounding stronger.

“Devany freed me when she took back the Queen’s eye. Freed your father too. I stayed behind long enough to see you one more time, precious boy.”

“He shouldn’t be free, not after everything he did,” Ty said, every word bitten out.

“Amen,” I muttered.

“Don’t you think he suffered enough, trapped all those many years in eternal flames? He paid for his wrongdoings, as did I. Now I must love you as much as I can before I, too, leave. Come, my love, for I wish to hold you in my arms once more before I’m gone and tell you everything will be all right.” To me, she said, “Good luck finding your daughter. And thank you.”

I nodded. Her magic squeezed me out of the ruins, not painfully, but with finality. I hoped Ty wouldn’t hold a grudge against me for taking his mother away from him, however inadvertently I’d done it.

I hooked back to Odd Silver to wait for the collapse of the witch magic and plan how to get my daughter safely home.

***

When the Omphalos fell—or rather, when the Spider Queen took back her egg sac—the ground shook. Magic spilled over us, shivering, unsettled. Wydlings changed forms at random and soon the whole village gathered in the ceremonial pits to be closer to Krosh, to be anchored by him. I fed him power and he grounded everyone. Liam held my hand tight and still feathers poked through his skin, only to fade away the next instant.

The flux lasted all day and well into the night. We gathered beds for the older folks and bedrolls for the younger ones, none of us willing to go off on our own in this new, uncertain time. Come morning, the magic appeared stabilized, with the occasional flare that caught at least one person off guard. No one had slept well, but there was a general celebratory atmosphere in the village anyway. The world had changed and for the Wydlings, it had changed for the better.

The witches, on the other hand …

“When can we go?” I asked, suffering through the Magani’s ministrations once more. My hand hadn’t healed, but it didn’t hurt, which was good. I thought. The Magani tut-tutted when I said it.

“You’re losing feeling in your fingers. What will happen if the hand dies?”

“It already looks dead,” I said glumly. A horrible thought came to me. I could ask to have it removed. That would take care of the charred mess, but I’d be without a right hand. Of course, I was without a right hand anyway. “It’s a curse, at least according to the Goddess.”

His mouth made an ‘O’ in surprise. “That explains why my poultice didn’t work. Tell me exactly how you found yourself burned.”

Thinking I already had, but indulging him, I told him how I’d reached inside Sorgen’s belly to retrieve the eye.

“He was perpetually ash?”

“He was being punished with eternal flame.” And I’d set him free. I supposed a thousand or more years of pain more than made up for trying to destroy the Wilds, raping and betraying Sephony, and ripping the Spider Queen’s eyes from their sockets, right?

“I will ask our Dream Mother to search for an answer for you. Until then, kept it clean and wrapped and, since it doesn’t pain you, use it.”

“Use it? But it’s gross.” I wiggled my fingers and shed ash all over the floor.

“Use it. Doctor’s orders.”

I caught myself before I rolled my eyes. “Thank you.”

He smiled and I was glad I’d quelled my adolescent urges.

After Magani left, Krosh helped me slip my burnt hand into a glove. The leather felt weird whenever it shifted against my seared skin. Not painful, but gross.

“Are you ready?” Krosh asked me.

“Very.” And scared. And worried I would never find my daughter or worse, that the Anforsa had done something terrible to her. To Liam, I said, “Be good.”

“I want to go with you.” He set his jaw and crossed his arms over his chest. “And don’t say I’m too young or that it will be too dangerous.”

“It
is
too dangerous.” I saw the protest on his face and I pulled him in for a hug. “They already have your sister and maybe your grandfather and my friend, too. I’m not risking your life or safety.”

“I don’t care. I want to come.” He pushed away from me, looking as stubborn as Tom’s father.

Krosh raised his eyebrows at me and I said, “Be my guest.”

Having my permission, he turned to my son. When he spoke, he was leader of Meat Clan. “You will stay and work on your changes. My sister needs help repairing her home and there are other families without strong young men to help them. You are needed here.”

Liam opened his mouth to argue, but saw something in Krosh’s eyes that made him think twice. It wasn’t fear that kept him silent, either. It was respect. He nodded. “If I’m needed here, I’ll stay.” He sounded so grown up my heart ached. “Mom?”

“Yeah, baby?”

“Bring her back. I miss her.” Then he was in my arms again and he was my little boy for a short time. “Be careful.”

“I will. I promise to bring Bethy and your grandpa home. I promise that Krosh and I will be careful. Soon everyone will be home, safe and sound, and we’ll have a big ole celebration. Okay?”

“‘Kay.”

When he left to find something to help fix, I took Krosh’s hand in mine. “Thank you.”

“Thank you for letting me talk to him. He’s a good boy and he fits right in here.” His grin was infectious. “Perhaps I will get you to stay if I can convince your children they don’t want to leave.”