Defy (23 page)

The water-soaked silhouette of the female’s
form had burned itself into his memory. He knew her scent wasn’t
actually clinging to his clothes, yet he swore he could detect the
fresh lemony essence when he sniffed his tank top. His side where
she had slept against him in the dream felt warmer than his other
side when he awoke. It was all crazy and nonsensical and—he could
admit it—just a little terrifying.

As he started off with Nyx, he deliberately
focused all of his attention on their trail. He told himself it was
to ensure they didn’t stumble upon any Waresti or Mercesti. It most
certainly wasn’t because he was avoiding thinking about the fact
that he had implied that he would send Nyx after the blasted
female.

“I just
had
to use the bloody
antitoxin,” he muttered. Then shut up when he reminded himself he
wasn’t thinking about it.

They walked for nearly an hour in no
particular direction. Nyx’s companionable silence was quite welcome
after the long night and stressful morning. As they eventually
emerged from the forest to a vast meadow, a rather strange
sensation overtook him. An intense lightness of spirit surged
through him, making his chest feel like it was swelling. The
muscles of his face had the unmistakable urge to curve upward. He
staggered to a halt in the meadow and blinked in surprise.

He felt…what, exactly? Her thought sprang
into his head:
happy
.

Realizing that
she
was funneling the
feelings to him through their damned connection, he tried to
counter it. For some reason, he couldn’t.

Glancing at Nyx, who stood nearby watching
him with her ageless gaze, he said, “She is not happy because she
expects you to come find her. I am certain it is for an entirely
unrelated reason.”

Nyx gave him a slow blink.

“Damn and blast,” he growled as he paced,
reaching up and rubbing his hands roughly through his hair. “I
already gave her back her life, did I not? Why is that not
enough?”

Back and forth he paced, working hard to
convince himself to drop it and move on. She was the fool who
believed he was a model Gloresti who cared about another
Estilorian’s well-being enough to send his one and only companion
after her. He hadn’t actually promised to send Nyx. He had merely
mentioned it was a possible option. If she had chosen to believe
otherwise, that was none of his concern. Why would he give two
damns about some female he barely knew?

He didn’t. And that was that.

But he found himself jerking to a halt,
giving his hair one last tug of frustration over his own weakness.
Then he turned to Nyx.

“I have no idea where she is,” he said. “But
she needs help. She said she cannot fly. You know where you
snatched her and can surely return her wherever she needs to go.
Then she can stop harassing me while I sleep.”

He felt calmer after talking it over with his
companion. Now he understood why he was relenting and sending the
kragen after the female. It was for his own bloody peace of mind.
She would then leave him be.

“Go find her and return her to her home,” he
instructed. “But try not to get yourself discovered. Stick to the
ground during daylight hours if you can. If anyone saw you grab
her, they could be looking for you.”

Nyx gave a nod. She was an intelligent
creature. He didn’t doubt her abilities in the least. Reaching out,
he gave his friend a rub on the neck.

“Thank you.”

With one more flash of her diamond eyes, the
kragen turned and hurried out of the meadow. For her size, she was
a remarkably stealthy creature when she wanted to be. Sighing,
Zachariah sat down in some high grass so that he was relatively
hidden. Then he closed his eyes and focused.

It took a few minutes to clear his mind, but
before long, he was mentally striding along a low mountain ridge
with the dream-female in his sights. Her hair was once again piled
on her head and accented with its various colorful and glittering
adornments. She wore that ridiculous bright green garment around
her neck and a cloth bearing some kind of richly-scented fruit
slung over her shoulder.

“Have you completely lost your mind?” he
demanded.

She jumped a foot and issued what sounded
like a squeak. Whirling, she faced him, a bright smile lighting her
face. “Hi, Sparky.”

“You could catch the eye of half the
Estilorian plane wearing this thing,” he snapped, walking right up
to her and untying the cloak from around her neck.

“I—”

“Any Mercesti in the area will be drawn to
you like a beacon,” he interrupted, holding up the piece of
clothing and examining the underside of it.

“But—”

“You should be wearing it with this lighter
side facing out.” He briskly whipped the garment back around her
and started refastening it. “It is practically white, and up here
in the mountainous areas will blend in better.”

“Well—”

“And unless you want to attract a trail of
bears or similar animals that could slay you where you stand, you
should dispose of this ripe fruit at the first possible
opportunity.”

They stood staring at each other for a long
moment. He waited for her to respond to his logical statements. She
seemed to be waiting for him to say something else. Raising an
eyebrow, he crossed his arms and waited.

“You touched me,” she said at last.

“I…”

He trailed off. He
had
touched her.
But he was only a projection. That shouldn’t have been
possible.

She walked up to him and tried to touch him.
Her hand passed right through him.

“Wow,” she said, her brilliant eyes wide. “I
guess when you’re really passionate about something, Sparky, you
have the ability to partly manifest yourself.”

Passionate? About her?

He snorted. “You talk foolishness. Such a
thing is not possible. Transferring oneself from one location to
another merely through thought?”

“Oh, I definitely wouldn’t say that’s
impossible.”

Her smile puzzled him. It was as though she
knew something he didn’t. Frowning, he said, “I am here to inform
you that Nyx is on her way. I told her to collect you and return
you back to wherever it is she took you from.”

“Of course you did,” she said with a small
wave of her hand. “I trusted you to do what you said you would.
Thanks, Sparky.”

Her continued faith in him both baffled and
irritated him. He was undeserving of it, and he didn’t like how she
made him examine himself and look closely at what he’d become.
Stepping away from her, he prepared to drop the connection,
silently vowing to stay away from her from there on out.

Before he did, he caught her gaze and said,
“Trust me when I say that you should never trust me,
Beautiful.”

The reestablished connection to Tate pulled
Tiege right out of sleep. It had taken him longer than usual to
fall asleep once they returned to the camp after making the
decision to split up. He had lain awake wondering what he had
gotten them all into.

Sending Quincy and Sophia off on their own to
rescue some random female from a group of Lord-knew-how-many
Mercesti seemed completely idiotic.

And absolutely necessary.

Not a single one of them was content to leave
another being at the mercy of the group who had slain females in
such a brutal manner. Once Tiege managed to convince himself that
splitting up was the right thing to do and that Quincy and Sophia
were resourceful and clever enough to pull off the rescue, he
couldn’t help but worry that the mystery female would already be
dead by the time they got to her.

Between these thoughts and his continued
worry about Tate, his head didn’t clear enough to allow sleep until
the sun was already lightening the sky. He’d probably only slept
for about an hour when Tate’s connection had his eyes once again
opening.

“Hey there,” Clara Kate said from her
position on a nearby log. She secured the lid on the waterskin as
he sat up and caught her gaze. “You rested enough to move on?”

“Yeah,” he said, battling back a yawn. He was
still tired, but he wanted to get moving.

She nodded. “Good. Ini-herit walked with
Quincy and Sophia to that clearing. He wanted to look at the tracks
again in the light to make sure he correctly interpreted them. Then
he’s going to send Quincy and Sophia off after the female
captive.”

“Okay.”

Tiege got to his feet and stretched a bit.
The air was cool and fresh. A light fog was already burning off,
but it gave the trees around them a misty quality. It suddenly felt
as though they were in the middle of a dream. How had things gotten
so off-course in just a matter of weeks?

“Do you remember the first time we had a
family camping outing?” C.K. asked as she shifted the recently
doused cinders with her booted foot.

He couldn’t help but smile as he glanced at
her. “Yeah.”

“You, me and Tate skipping rocks at the pond
while Soph measured and tracked the distances.”

“Eating food off sticks over an open fire for
the first time.”

“Sleeping on the ground and thinking it was
the best thing ever.”

“Yeah,” Tiege said again. He glanced around
at the patch of grass and earth that had served as their bed last
night. “What were we thinking?”

She grinned briefly, then looked toward the
trees where the others had gone as her expression sobered. “It’s
funny how eager we all were to grow up. Now, here we are, coming of
age. And all I want to do is go back to that campout when we were
little kids and only had to call out to our parents if we needed
anything.”

Tiege knew just what she meant. Before he
could respond, however, their conversation was curbed by
Ini-herit’s return.

“We were correct about the direction taken by
the Mercesti,” said the Corgloresti elder. “Assuming they
maintained their course and remained on foot, Quincy and Sophia
should be able to catch them later today or early tomorrow. They
will have to stop at night to ensure they do not overlook any
tracks that could help direct them.”

C.K. and Tiege both nodded.

“Is your connection with Tate reestablished,
then?” he asked Tiege.

“Yeah. We’re ready to roll.”

After dealing with the fastening of the
flight harness, during which time Tiege adamantly wished he could
fly on his own, they set off. Without Sophia to scout for them,
they flew as carefully as possible. Ini-herit and Tiege took the
lead, flying among the trees whenever possible. Tiege paid careful
attention to how the Corgloresti elder moved his wings as well as
his body as they maneuvered between narrow gaps in the branches and
skimmed over pine boughs.

They had to stop a couple of times to walk
through expanses of land with very little cover. Ini-herit didn’t
want to risk them being seen. At mid-day, they paused near a spring
to refresh themselves. C.K. refilled the waterskin and snacked on
the last apple. Ini-herit stood without moving, his arms crossed
and his eyes on C.K. Tiege still wondered what was up between the
two of them, but it was hardly any of his business and he wasn’t
about to ask.

“The connection to Tate is very strong now,”
he said. “I practically feel like I could talk to her if I wanted
to.”

“Why do you not?” Ini-herit asked.

“I—what?” Tiege frowned. “I didn’t mean…”

“You should meditate,” the elder said in his
matter-of-fact manner. “Open your mind and attempt to connect with
her.”

Blinking, Tiege gave that a moment’s thought.
Knorbis and Malukali had both taught the Kynzesti meditation
techniques. The elders had also taught them ways to block mental
intrusions, something they said might be necessary when the
Kynzesti made their debut at Estilorian Central and were among the
masses of Wymzesti and Orculesti. So he knew he could put himself
into the meditative state recommended by Ini-herit.

“All right,” he said. “Why not?”

Finding a shaded spot, he walked over and sat
down. Being as immobile as possible always seemed to help when it
came to meditation. He settled himself into a comfortable pose and
then closed his eyes.

His lack of sleep the night before aided him
in his efforts. Because he was too tired to focus on much else,
Tate was in his mind the moment he closed his eyes. He had thought
that he would see her, kind of like what his mom described when she
transported from one location to another just by envisioning it.
Instead, it felt very much like he was in the middle of a dream. He
couldn’t actually see her at all. But he could somehow sense that
he was in her thoughts.

Tate
, he thought.

He took her suddenly blank thoughts to mean
she had frozen in shock.
Tiege?

The sound of her voice in his mind sent
emotion flooding through him. Not so long ago he had thought he’d
never hear her voice again. He had to swallow hard and hone his
focus.
Yeah
, he thought back.
We’re trying to find
you
.

Oh, Tiege! I miss you so much. I knew you’d
come after me.

Now her emotion hit him, too. He couldn’t
fight the sting behind his eyes, so didn’t bother trying.
I’ve
missed you, too, Tate. We’re coming to get you. I need you to
describe where you are right now.

Yes!
she thought excitedly.
I can
describe it perfectly. Mom should be able to transport—

Mom’s not here, Tate
. His jaw clenched
as the wave of surprise, hurt and disappointment washed through her
and into him.
She’s been on bed rest. Everything that
happened...it was too much. Dad is with her
. He didn’t bother
adding that his father hadn’t wanted him to come after her.

She seemed to understand. Her emotions
leveled out.
Okay
, she thought.
Well, I’m at a
mountain
.