Surrender (THE DRAGONFLY CHRONICLES) (26 page)

A warrior stood aside. As the dust settled, the first mummy stepped over the rocks and pushed into the third room. Drakkina didn’t need to count to know that ten others stood behind him. Slowly the first mummy unwound the stained wrapping from his head, revealing a sunken skeletal face with scraps of tanned skin stuck to the stained bones. Broken teeth moved and light peered from the black eye sockets. Drakkina stood mesmerized at the grotesque display of power.

“Child of Gilla,” the mummy spoke. It was Semiazaz’s smooth voice. “Give us our rightful orb and we will allow you to retain your life.”

Semiazaz. She hated him, hated him with ice-sharp revulsion. She could not give up her existence until he was destroyed completely, until she righted her wrong. Drakkina held her reaction behind Kailin’s mask.

Several of the mummies behind the demon leader tore at their face wrappings. “No!” one spat. “She dies!”

“I will tear her limbs apart,” another threatened.

Drakkina searched the black eyes of Semiazaz but saw no sign of blue with gold rims. Was Eógan somewhere in there? Could he be, like the scrying bowl had insinuated?

She held the recreated orb in her hands. “You desire this?”

Semiazaz’s face remained a blank mask of wrappings, but his black eyes sharpened into glinty shards of obsidian. “I will trade your life for it.” More hissing and curses from his bound coven. Drakkina set it on the cut stone floor next to her booted ankle.

“My life is not yours to trade,” she said, churning the small marble of magic inside that she held ready to unleash.

“Is it possible that Drakkina has left you so unprepared that you don’t know that I can kill you with one thought?” he annunciated, his borrowed skull tipping slightly to view the plain rock on the floor.

“Is it possible that you are so ignorant that you don’t know the expanse of power gifted to me by Gilla?” she volleyed.

Semiazaz’s head snapped back up.

“You will die soon enough, at the final battle as we have seen. I will take the Orb of Life now.”

She kicked it gently with her foot. Her image even made a noise of boot on rock to add to the illusion. “The orb is nothing more than a fabled rock.”

“We felt its magic when you touched it,” he replied evenly. His face turned toward the back where no doubt one of the men had given themselves away. Stupid human.

Drakkina shrugged. “I’m touching it now and it’s doing nothing.”

The mummy took a rigid step closer. “Did you gift it to the witch then?”

The amulet had been Drakkina’s, the female half. The Orb had belonged to Eógan. But he’d given it away when he realized he and Drakkina were swaying toward darkness, their power so great. As if he’d known already how their actions could destroy the world. Drakkina felt the tension pull along the lines of her face and she forced a smooth visage of innocent youth.

“Of course. And just as you will never catch Drakkina, she will never gift it to you.”

The mummies broke through the boulders, shrieking and stomping their fury. A large demon grabbed one of the mortal men and yanked him to the ceiling, slamming his head into the limestone dotted mosaic. Bright red smeared along the carefully placed tiles. Dead. The human would be dead.

“So,” Drakkina said, trying to draw the attention away from the corner and the sarcophagi. “There is nothing of use for you here.”

Semiazaz stared at her. “So lovely.” He rotated his half-wrapped mummy head along his stiff shoulders as if his white hair cascaded across them. His gaze moved like the sensing forked tongue of a cobra, judging, waiting to strike. How long should she wait to draw them away? They had to follow her.

“Gilla and Druce created such beautiful children.” He tilted the other way. “You say you are strong. How strong, exactly? There would be glory beyond your comprehension if you joined us.”

“Join you?” It was ludicrous. She eyed their shapes. “You are so desperate to take a body again that you will inhabit a desiccated 3,000-year-old corpse? Why would I join a desperate, pathetic, imprisoned coven?”

A hiss erupted from a mummy behind him. “Let me take her!” The voice was familiar.

“Ahh,” Drakkina said. “Bast. In home territory again? It must rankle that the Orb was hidden here the whole time, in your own litter box, and you never knew.”

Semiazaz’s head swiveled to the thrashing feline demon. She shucked the mummified remains and floated in cat form in a black swirl of smoke. “Be still!” He turned back to Drakkina, his black eyes even more piercing. “You know Bast.”

“Drakkina has schooled me on all of you.”

“And yet you stand here acting like we are no threat,” Semiazaz replied. “Even when you are trapped and know that we will kill you and strip away your magic.”

“I am powerful,” she articulated softly and each mummy turned toward her. A circle now, probably the maximum distance they could separate from one another. Drakkina moved toward the doorway, stepping lightly around a stoic wrapped demon. At least their attention was drawn away from the coffins and two remaining men.

The slick oil of the demon’s touch slid through her transparent form. She fought the chill and stepped into the outer room.

“She’s not here!” the demon blared. All mummies converged as she floated quickly into the outer room. Without the need of pretending, Drakkina slipped like a shadow around the tumbled contents. “She’s not alive!”

Drakkina let out a trill of feminine laughter, taunting and luring to draw the stupid beasts after her. Her form remained that of Kailin’s, but she didn’t use energy to make it seem whole anymore. Drakkina’s essence shot up one of Kailin’s holes, straight toward the sparking constellations. She didn’t bother to count the bodies scattered below, blown against the dunes by the demons’ tornado-fury. Her mind focused on the shift she must make at the right time. Too soon and her pursuers would lose her and return to the crypt. Too slow and they’d catch her and discover she wasn’t Kailin, thus returning to the crypt after they killed her.

A shriek filled the sky below as the bound evil abandoned their mummy shells and shot after her. Yes, exactly. Now where to shift? Drakkina’s form slid between temporal lines, into the mist that made up fractions of time out of sync with the mortal world. Lines of time crisscrossed like a spider’s lair, decades and centuries intersecting at distinct points where she could leap with ease. But she dove and wove through the mist, leaving a faint trail behind her. She wanted them confused and dizzy before they stopped following her so they’d be less likely to return to Kailin.

A crack of hot power shocked through her from behind.
Cac!
Close, too close!

“Cease your flight,” resonated through Drakkina’s mind. Pure darkness, an oily sludge meant to suffocate her will and stop her.

Drakkina’s mental blade of white magic slashed through Semiazaz’s command. She dove through the mist between Merewin’s and the time Kat had inhabited for a few mortal days. Twisting and flexing, Drakkina dispersed her essence as close to the lines as possible. Where to land?

“Stop!” Semiazaz tried again. Drakkina sliced and dove into the years following Kat’s exit. Her mist tingled with the thickness of mortal air and the sluggishness of time. It tugged on her form as she shot faster than a star shooting toward a circle she couldn’t see but knew was there. Kat’s meadow, the one Gilla’s daughter had protected with her magic and tied off into the very trees and stones that encircled it. Kat had hidden there and a century later, her sister Serena and her mate had hidden there, much to Drakkina’s annoyance.

It was somewhere below. Blackberry brambles surrounded it. Pure of heart could find it.
Cac!
Pure of heart! What a foolish stipulation!

Demons shot through the tree tops above her, scattering summer leaves like the shots from a more modern day firearm. And witnesses below would swear of devils shooting through the branches. They wouldn’t be too far off.

“Earth Mother, show me the way,” Drakkina willed and dove, her eyes closed, her essence and trust in the great Mother guiding her. She thought of Kailin’s twin, Kat, and her specific twist of glamour magic that guarded the meadow. Like a glittery sliver of power, Kat’s magic shimmered behind Drakkina’s eyelids. She plummeted straight into the soft grass and yellow-buttoned daisies. Her form evaporated at impact with a mere dispersion of particles. She reformed on her back, staring up at the gray dawn lighting the circle made by the trees above her head.

She didn’t need to breathe, yet she panted. A flare of heat smashed past the trees above her and circled. Could they see her, smell her, find her? Would Kat’s magic hide her or bring the demons right to her? Drakkina watched. Pure of heart sounded much better now that she was in the meadow. Semiazaz’s coven was as far from purity as one could get.

Around the meadow, the leaves shook as the dark power searched and scattered more leaves. Shrieks and screeches chased birds and forest animals out of the woods and into the clearing where Drakkina lay along the earth, waiting, staring, praying.

“We’ve lost her!” the voice of Bast shot from the other side of a large blackberry bramble.

“Quiet,” Semiazaz rebuked the furious group that literally shook the world around them. “She couldn’t have just disappeared.” His voice came without force. Semiazaz was close, very close. All became silent. Drakkina didn’t try to shield herself. That would require more magic and might be just enough to make them sense her through Kat’s glamour shields.

“I do not believe that the creature was Gilla’s daughter,” another voice, deep and restrained, offered.

“Neither do I,” Semiazaz replied. A movement near a thinning of blackberry vines pulled Drakkina’s gaze. Silently she sat up into a cross-legged position. If she was to die, it wouldn’t be on her back.

“Drakkina,” Bast hissed. But Drakkina’s gaze centered on the man standing along the edge of the meadow. She had no heart yet it stuttered painfully in her chest.

Eógan. He stood there, dark hair with specks of gray to show some age hit just below his shoulders. His blue tunic was the same that he’d worn to honor their union. Dragonflies were stitched along the edge that lay against his strong thighs. Broad shoulders stood proud yet relaxed. His sword remained as always strapped to his side.

Drakkina squeezed her eyes shut and opened them. He remained, looking very much alive, though she knew he was not.

“’Kina,” he called and Drakkina felt the blade of sorrow twist in her. It was purely emotion since she had no body. She held her position. “Come out to me. I am still here. Semiazaz may have taken my magic, but you can still save me. I am within him and can come back. He says that if you give him the orb, he’ll let me free.”

“Lies,” Drakkina whispered and ignored the tears making the vision slide between crystal clear and then blurry second to second. Her eyes soaked in the sight of him even though she knew it was all Semiazaz’s dark magic.

“’Kina, it is a good bargain. He has no use for you if you give him what he wants. We can be together again.”

The sun broke through amongst the old trees of the forest, beams of yellow and white like the thunderbolts of the ancient gods. They struck along Eógan’s beautiful form, along his strong features and caught his eyes. Black. His eyes were obsidian orbs, not blue, not a hint of gold around the rims.

Drakkina turned her gaze away. Lies. If Eógan was inside Semiazaz, the demon had tainted him centuries ago. Even a man as strong as her love couldn’t exist within such turmoil and darkness. Could he?

“I do not think she remains here,” the deep-voiced demon said. Semiazaz continued to scan the area but didn’t advance into the clearing. “I do not feel her essence or that of the orb.”

Bast hissed and several others shook within the trees. Semiazaz’s black gaze drifted over the clearing and to the right as if he didn’t trust his senses that nothing stood before him. With a sudden twist of power he transformed, the darker hair paling to silver down his back as he changed into his usual wise-man image. Drakkina released her breath. He was easier to view this way.

“Back to Egypt,” Bast said.

“Nay,” another called. “There was nothing of Drakkina or Gilla’s daughter there when we left. The witch sent her and the true orb elsewhere. We should return to the stones and start again.”

“Egypt has too much magic,” another boomed. “Gives me pain to sort it through.”

“Pain is dealing with all of you,” Bast hissed.

“Enough,” Semiazaz ordered with one last glimpse around. His eyes seemed to rest for a second on Drakkina but continued to scan the area. Just her imagination?

“To the stones of the Scots. Perhaps Drakkina will become brave enough one day to face us there. Her cowardice is so like her mate’s. Perhaps if she knew how I still torture him, she’d meet me.” He let the taunt and offer lay like a hovering ribbon of coal smoke. Enough to choke Drakkina if she breathed it in. Only years of honing the steel around her heart kept the pain minimal.

“Together then,” he said and dissolved into power that warped the summer air, making it look as if a gray ripple of water fell where he’d appeared. The trees vibrated and then stilled.

****

Long, deep kisses Jackson had experienced before, but never like this. Trapped with the most amazingly courageous woman he’d ever encountered, courageous and intelligent and powerful. He pulled back slightly and ran his barely moveable thumb against her hand and nuzzled her cheek with his nose. He wouldn’t assault her here, trapped with fear driving her passion.

“What?” she asked breathlessly and he hoped the panting was from the kiss and not the low oxygen level.

“Listen,” he answered. “I think they’ve gone.”

Kailin’s body tightened beneath him as if she strained to move. Her foot pushed against his boot. He gave her as much room as he could but they were still clearly pinned together.

She huffed. “I can’t put even a small distance between us to use my magic.”

“It might be too soon to do that anyway. If Drakkina is leading them away, she surely doesn’t need you to wave a flag back here for them.” Jackson shifted. “Brace yourself, I’m going to try to push upward and I don’t want to hurt you.”