Kalona’s Fall (7 page)

“Kalona, what you created for me did exactly as you intended. It demonstrated the
power of your passion, and I could view your whirlwind from the Otherworld. I appreciate
your strength and your desire to share your innermost passions with me. You do wield
the power of an immortal warrior,
my
immortal warrior, and that pleases me. But if you are ever to be more than warrior
to me, you must temper your passion with kindness, your power with control.” She closed
the space between them. She needed to touch him. To let him hold her in his arms as
he had the night before as he had fed her berries and gazed at the moonlit ocean with
her. But for his own sake, Nyx denied her need and finished her judgment. “I understand
the intent behind your creation, and because of that you did not fail the test, but
you did not please me, either.”

Kalona’s shoulders drooped and he did not meet her eyes. “I ask that you forgive me
and give me another chance to please you, for I desire to be much more than your Warrior.”

“Readily, I forgive you and grant you another chance. Which element would you choose
to wield?”

His gaze found hers again. “The one that is so favored by you—Water.”

“My friend?” Nyx said, looking from Kalona to Mother Earth.

Mother Earth nodded and said, “Until you each call into being your creation, I grant
you dominion over Water. So I have spoken; so mote it be.”

“Thank you, Mother Earth,” Nyx said. Without another word to Kalona, Nyx turned her
back to him and walked to Erebus. Embracing him warmly, she said, “Erebus, your bow
of color is lovely! You have pleased me greatly. Would you walk awhile with me? I
would like to introduce you to the People of the Prairie. After what they have witnessed
today, I am sure your music would bring them much needed delight.”

“Goddess, it is my greatest pleasure to do your bidding.”

Nyx let him take her hand and together they walked through the grasses toward the
timberline. Though she wanted to, the Goddess did not allow herself to look back at
Kalona even once.

6.

TRUST ME, GODDESS. I WOULD NEVER LET YOU FALL …

Kalona sulked for several
days after the test, replaying over and over again in his mind the disastrous conclusion
to what he had intended as an awe-inspiring demonstration of passion and power.

How had it gone so terribly wrong?

He had practiced day after day on the grassy prairie. The neighboring tribe of Prairie
People could have attested to the fact that he had created many whirling funnels of
wind and magick, and that he had easily controlled them. The local mortals had even
begun leaving gifts of food, clay pots filled with precious ocher, and carefully made
clothing for him. Remembering Nyx’s fondness for these particular people, Kalona had
dressed carefully for his test, decorating himself to please her.

But nothing had gone as Kalona had planned.

Erebus had saved the day
and
won Nyx’s pleasure. Kalona could not bear to think of what else Erebus had won from
Nyx.

He would not allow himself to fail again!

“It is that wretched elemental magick that was at fault. Air is so unpredictable—so
changeable. It was Erebus’s choice in elements that was flawed. Though is my choice
of Water any better?” He paced around the clearing he had begun to think of as his
own. It was far enough from the tribe of Prairie People that they did not often pass
by, and close enough that the offerings they had continued to leave for him were easily
accessible. The People did not particularly interest Kalona, but their food did, as
did the thick, soft furs they’d left for his sleeping pallet. Not surprisingly, Mother
Earth’s surface was as hard and uncomfortable as her admonishing gaze. The immortal
had no true need for sleep, though that did not mean he didn’t appreciate a warm,
soft spot on which to rest his body.

“Cro-oak! Cro-oak! Cro-oak!”
Above Kalona, the ravens that had taken to following him around the prairie lent
their words to his tirade.

“If you must shadow me, do it quietly!”

The black birds preened and stared at him. Kalona shook his head. “I have to find
my focus! I must wield Water more wisely than I did Air. I must win Nyx’s pleasure
from Erebus.”

That shouldn’t have been so difficult. Before the botched test, Nyx had regularly
sought him out. They had spent many days and nights together, and she had seemed well
pleased to be in his presence.

“Without being wooed by an unpredictable element!” Kalona shouted his frustration,
causing the ravens to flutter their wings restlessly.

Kalona stopped pacing and reasoned aloud. “I pleased her without using an element
or invoking Divine magick to do so. I did it before, and I shall do it again. And
from an intimate, pleasant interlude wherein I remind her that it is
me
she desires, not magick or elements or the unpredictable power of creation, I will
take her to my next test. It will be something as simple and intimate as our interlude,
and I will be victorious, winning Nyx’s favor!” Kalona hurried to the pile of furs
and leathers and such that were rich gifts from the Prairie People. He dug through
the mound until he found what he sought—a knife made of a black stone, hewn to a strong,
sharp point. “I am liking these Prairie People more and more each day.” Kalona rolled
the knife and a basket of fruit and fragrant flatbread within the softest of the furs,
and then he took to the sky and headed into the northwest, seeking that which he knew
would please his Goddess.

He didn’t use magick to fell the tall pine tree, though he did use his immortal strength,
as well as his preternatural speed, to hollow it out and carve from it the form of
a gracefully pointed boat. Kalona found he enjoyed using his hands as much as he enjoyed
the scent of wood and the sight of the azure lake. Nyx had been right about the beauty
of the lake. Its color was so lovely that he often glanced at it to be sure it wasn’t
just a trick of his sight. But it didn’t change. Even under the moonlight the huge
round body of water, dotted with one tree-covered island, seemed to glisten aqua,
its high sides looking like a bowl made of clouds that had trapped the sky.

Kalona worked without pause all day and night on the little boat, and as he worked
he thought of Nyx. Her beauty inspired him, and when he was finished he stood back
and surveyed his work. Kalona was well pleased. The craft was more than seaworthy.
Kalona liked to believe that it also reflected Nyx’s beauty. All around it he had
meticulously carved symbols that reminded him of the Goddess: stars and moons, delicate
shells and waves. He had even replicated the white flowers she had worn in her hair
when last he’d seen her.

He carried the boat down the steep side of the lake so that it rested on the rocky
shore. Then he placed the thick, soft fur within it, as well as the basket of fruit
and flatbread. He was ready for Nyx. He had even decided what he would create for
her during his next test. He hadn’t practiced over and over again as he had with the
funnel cloud, but he felt confident that he had changed his intent enough that he
wouldn’t make the same mistake as before. This time he would not show her the power
of his passion. This time he would make tangible the delight he felt at her beauty,
and show her how much he cherished her, in whatever visage she chose.

There was just one thing that he couldn’t figure out, and that was how to get Nyx
to come to him without using Water to summon meddling Mother Earth. He wanted to be
alone with his Goddess before the test, to show her what his own hands had created
for her before he wielded magick and Water and put on the requisite public show.

Kalona had never had to call Nyx to him before. She had just appeared, usually smiling
and telling him to stop looking so serious and come gather flowers with her, or gaze
at moonlit water with her, or kiss her, gently, just where her impossibly soft skin
curved to meet her graceful shoulders …

Kalona shook himself mentally.
Thinking
of kissing Nyx would not conjure the Goddess.

Perhaps he should try calling her name.

“Nyx?” His voice echoed back to him over the brilliant blue surface of the lake, sounding
tentative and almost childlike. Kalona squared his shoulders and tried again. “Nyx!”
This time the echo was more forceful, though it produced the same result. Nyx did
not appear.

“Think!” he commanded himself. “There must be a way to reach her without using Mother
Earth’s element and bringing the whole crowd of them here.”

As if his words had conjured a small part of that crowd, the little creature stepped
from behind a nearby pine tree and spoke mockingly in its whispery voice,
Goddess not called like servant! Goddess commands, not commanded!

“You are one of Nyx’s Fey. I saw you beside her on the prairie.”

As soon as Kalona spoke, the Fey skittered back behind the tree.

“Don’t run away! I need your help.” Kalona pitched his voice to sound coaxing, soothing.
The creature, moving with an odd, liquid grace, slid part of its body from behind
the tree, peeking out at him. “Don’t be frightened. I will not harm you.”

Not frightened,
said the Fey, moving all the way out from behind the tree.

“That’s right, you don’t need to be frightened of me.”

L’ota not frightened.

“L’ota? Is that the type of Fey you are?”

The creature looked thoroughly offended.
I skeeaed! Servant of Goddess! She name me.

“So, you
are
close to Nyx.”

Always.

Kalona hid his smile. “If you are always close to Nyx, then where is she? I do not
see her.”

L’ota’s strangely shaped body rippled in consternation, changing colors from pale
pink to crimson and rust.
Not here. Otherworld.

Kalona couldn’t contain his smile. “Are you here watching me for her?”

No!
L’ota exclaimed, her voice rising above its usual whisper.

Kalona’s smiled faded. “She didn’t send you to watch me?”

I watch for me, not for Goddess.

Kalona’s brows lifted in amusement. “Why would you want to watch me?”

You make Goddess sad. I want know why.

Kalona felt as if the strange little Fey had driven a knife into his heart. “Nyx has
been sad?”

The creature’s elongated head nodded, making the pink fringe of fur on its head bob.
I want know why.

Kalona thought the creature didn’t sound particularly worried about Nyx, or even concerned
that her Goddess was sad. It just sounded curious.

“I want to know why, too. And I want to make sure she is never sad because of me again.
The only way I can do that is to have her come here to me, so that I can fix the wrong
I did that saddened her. L’ota, please go to your Goddess and tell her that I ask—no,
that I entreat—she come to me.”

The Fey went very still, and Kalona held his breath, waiting. When she finally spoke,
L’ota surprised Kalona with her nonchalance.

If you command I tell Goddess you here.

“If I command you? That’s all it takes to get you to tell Nyx I’m here and that I
entreat she come to me?”

No matter. Not my concern. Only notice what commanded to notice.

Kalona thought the creature thoroughly odd, but he said, “Then I command that you
go to Nyx and entreat her to come to me.”

L’ota’s body completely liquefied and she disappeared, leaving Kalona to stare after
her and worry that he had, again, made a mistake.

*   *   *

“You found my favorite lake.”

Her voice startled him. He’d been sitting on a rock, staring out at the blue water.
So much time had passed since the strange little skeeaed had disappeared that he had
begun to despair of Nyx coming. The sound of her voice was like balm on the aching
wound that was his heart. He stood and turned so quickly that he almost lost his balance.

She smiled. “Hello.”

“Hello,” he said. He took in every detail of his Goddess. Today she had chosen to
appear to him as the young maiden she had been when they’d first met. Her blond hair
curled down past her shoulders. Her dress was simple, the color of the summer sky—the
color of her eyes. The only adornment she wore was her mantle of stars, which rested
over her hair like a headdress made of silver strung diamonds and the fascinating
sapphire tattoos that decorated her skin.

Nyx was the most beautiful thing Kalona had ever seen, and he knew he could spend
an eternity gazing into her eyes.

“I have missed you.” They spoke the words together.

Kalona could contain himself no longer. His long strides closed the space between
them and he gently, carefully, took her into his arms and just stood, holding her,
breathing in her scent as every particle of his being rejoiced.