City of Gods [Book 3 of the Teadai Prophecies] Read online

  Lyssinya moved instantly into her own memory dream, that of Dragon Island, where she’d spent the majority of her years. She stood looking out over the ocean for several heartbeats then began her search for Tapnut’s blue flame. His footprint was nowhere that she could see among her kin’s dreams. The only prints she found here were the few Sages already at the hamlet. Her youngling, Daphnen, wasn’t here, either. Nor were the others Tapnut traveled with. She thought on where she could search next. Since they were in the Means, they could be anywhere in the vast Netherworld. A frustrating notion. She closed her eyes, quieted her mind, and allowed her awareness to spread out like a ripple of water, waiting for even the lightest touch of familiarity.

  She stood that way for a very long while, waiting, hoping, sensing all around her in the Netherworld, a world as real to her as the mundane one she’d been born into. Just as she began to reel in her awareness, a tingle of someone familiar caressed her mind.

  Tapnut? A faint scent found her and relief almost dropped her to her knees. He was alive. But where? She turned this way and that, trying to locate him, calling out to him.

  Lyssy?

  His voice came as a complete surprise to her. She didn’t hear him like she heard others in the Netherworld. This came directly to her mind, yet he sounded as though he spoke through a very thick window glass. But he wasn’t a slumberer. How could he contact her? She suddenly didn’t care how. Tapnut, can you hear me?

  Yes, my love. How—

  Don’t worry how. I need to locate you. Keep talking.

  All right. But I’m not speaking. I was thinking about you, as I have been ever since you left the island. We’re trapped in the Means.

  Yes, Ved’nuri told us you were missing. Are you sleeping now?

  No. That came as a surprise. How long have we been here, Lyssy? Days? Weeks? Please tell me it hasn’t been years.

  She smiled despite herself and began to walk toward his voice. You’ve been missing only a short while, my love. But you can’t remain there.

  Yes. We—have fol—

  Tapnut? Keep thinking of me. Just a little longer and I might be able to locate you. She heard his mental voice again but couldn’t make out what he said. He sounded so weak. “Tapnut!” The sensation disappeared and she could no longer feel or hear him.

  She called to him several more times. Nothing. Tears pushed from her eyes and she brushed them away as she created a sparkling Energy mark, a shimmer in the sand, so she would know where she left off her search. Tapnut had ties to this island, just as she, and he was her bedfriend. He would return here to find her, or rather his mind would return, being drawn here by her previous occupation of this memory dream. Sooner or later, they would locate each other again. They had to. Tomorrow night, after Ved’nuri finished with her, she would bring the others here to help.

  With that thought in her very tired mind, she drifted into a dream state, where she saw her bedfriend’s death, a nightmare that woke her in the middle of the night. She thanked the Goddess it was only a dream.

  Chapter 15

  After leading the other slumberers around the five-point star the void followed, Adelsik took her place back at the start in her beach memory dream. She truly hoped the Vedi’s calculations were correct and that they had indeed located the exact points. She could feel the others through the awareness the way Lyssinya had taught her but couldn’t communicate, which frustrated her.

  At least she’d done something useful with her Energy by spending her off nights in search of Croferituus. Despite Ved’nuri’s rules, Adelsik had kept up the search. The crowned woman had forbidden anyone to confront Croferituus, not simply seek her out. She had no doubt the formidable leader of the Gypsies knew exactly what she’d been up to. But Ved’nuri hadn’t scolded her. Perhaps she waited to see if Adelsik could perform some other amazing feat. She was a Gypsy, after all. And she and Thad had brought Henny back. Well, Thad had done most of the work. Adelsik simply gave the youngling a good shove toward her body. She still couldn’t see any sort of tether, no matter how much she studied her kin here in the Netherworld. The other healers hadn’t seen such a thing, either, but Thad insisted Henny’s otherself had clung by an iridescent tether to her body, and he used that connection to bring her back to the mundane world.

  Adelsik fought a shiver at the thought of that kind of separation and dug bare feet into the warm sand as she waited. Lyssinya worried her. The red-haired Sage had become withdrawn and even more agitated since her kin’s disappearance in the Means. She had contacted her bedfriend, Tapnut, though. Adelsik couldn’t explain her concern for a woman that she had once fled from. Perhaps calling the woman Mother Atan had bonded them after all. But Adelsik was no youngling, hadn’t been since they left the Land of the Goddess. Her feelings now were more like those she felt for Haranda, love for a sister.

  Before she could involve herself in more thoughts, Ved’nuri’s essence knocked into her senses with dizzying speed. The crowned woman certainly knew how to get someone’s attention, and she’d learned more than any of them since Lyssinya’s tutelage. Her son, Ved’emir, understood more each night too. Soon, he might outperform Adelsik, something that didn’t sit well with her. Sure, the boy was special, a Vedi’s child, a Vedi himself, conceived and brought forth in the power of the ancient dome, but he should still be a swaddled babe, not a grown man.

  Adelsik chided herself for letting her mind drift. She should have noticed Ved’nuri’s essence before it reached her. She was a Gypsy, not some foolish middling woman. They hadn’t been certain this type of link would work. Evidently, Ved’nuri had succeeded. Adelsik grabbed onto the woman’s scent with her Energy and allowed it to pull her around the five-point star to blend with each of her slumbering sisters, Elder Siri, Lyssinya and Wren. Haranda had been left in the mundane world as this task proved too much for her lesser Energy. The sensation made Adelsik a bit giddy and lightheaded but she held on, with pure determination if nothing else.

  Once the star was enmeshed with their combined essences, the cold touch of the void tried to push its way through them. Goddess, help us! The thing felt like ice against Adelsik’s senses and threatened to split her off from her kin. She waited the allotted counts and closed her eyes, trying to sense Croferituus within the iciness of the void. At first, she got nothing but a slight headache and the sensation of being frozen, then it warmed, just a bit, like a stale breeze cutting through an icy winter storm.

  That had to be her. Croferituus felt different here, less whole, as though she’d spread her essence into the void itself. Adelsik reached out with her Energy, splitting a portion from her kin, and sent it within the frigid star to follow the warm breeze. Croferituus moved in pattern with the void. When the yellow-eyed woman suddenly changed direction and headed straight for Adelsik, she braced for impact. If she could capture the woman at just the precise heartbeat, trap the breeze with her own slumbering Energy, she could wrap Croferituus in the Netherworld bind she’d learned from Lyssinya. She didn’t wonder long why the others hadn’t done the same.

  Warmth slammed into her senses so hard it knocked her to the sandy ground. Something pressed down on top of her and hot, foul breath brushed against her ear. “Stay away from me!” a woman’s shrill voice cried. Hollow, yellow eyes stared down into her face and the scent of death came in a rush.

  Adelsik fought rising bile and terror to get hold of her senses and she grabbed for the woman but not before Croferituus moved away.

  “Stop her!” someone cried.

  That was enough to shake Adelsik into action and she sent her Energy out to capture the woman. With the false binding Energy in her grasp, she imagined Croferituus wrapped and helpless the way Lyssinya had done with her many times. An animal-like screech left the woman’s lips as she fought against the invisible binds. What surprised Adelsik most was the lack of strength in the woman. This was the same one who had captured, held and beaten Haranda bloody and sent her back to her body in that state. And Haranda could ho
ld her own in the Netherworld when she needed to.

  That’s when she realized Croferituus was also restrained by Ved’nuri, Elder Siri and Lyssinya. When had they arrived in Adelsik’s memory dream? So, I didn’t do it alone. She fought the disappointment of that realization as Wren circled the yellow-eyed woman. Croferituus let out another ear-splitting screech.

  “Quiet,” Wren said in a voice that had instantly cowered Adelsik as a youngling.

  But Croferituus didn’t comply. Instead, she began shifting between the image of her mundane body and that of a mountain cat, all the while shrieking like a trapped animal. Adelsik felt her slip within the Energy but she managed to hold on through each alteration.

  “I said, quiet.” Wren’s arm came up and she sent sparking Energy to the woman’s hide.

  Croferituus cried out and began to struggle even more. After several more sparks, she finally began to submit. That’s when Adelsik noticed she still wore the forbidden ring, the thick gold band with the square, black stone. Only it didn’t seem as beautiful as before. Had the woman used up whatever power it gave? Adelsik didn’t feel threatened by Croferituus’s slumbering Energy. In fact, every struggle the woman put up now had to do with her ability as a changer.

  “Get the ring,” Ved’nuri said once the woman’s shrieks turned to sobs.

  That started Croferituus’s struggle all over again. Adelsik had prepared herself just heartbeats before and began to anticipate each change between woman and cat.

  Yellow eyes stared at her, astonished at first then filled with hatred. “You dare hold me, you little snit. I’ll tear you apart, Gypsy whore!”

  “Quiet.” Wren sent several sparks again. “I can’t get the ring this way, Ved’nuri. Not as long as she keeps changing.”

  A smug look grew on that hollow face and the yellow eyes became fierce.

  “I can,” Adelsik said so quickly that she surprised herself. She found the crowned woman’s colorful eyes. “I can get the ring, Ved’nuri.” Fear and confidence rose together and her heart beat a frantic rhythm.

  “Very well. Wren—”

  “What?” Lyssinya’s voice cut like a sharp-edged knife. “Ved’nuri, surely you won’t let a child, a mere new-oathed, attempt something this dangerous?”

  Adelsik took exception to that reference. “I’m not a child, Lyssinya.”

  “Enough.” Ved’nuri’s beautiful face grew hard. “You will not question me, daughter.”

  Lyssinya’s eyes dropped and she nodded. “My apologies, Ved’nuri.”

  “Accepted.” The crowned woman turned to Wren. “Change places with Adelsik.”

  “Yes, Ved’nuri.” The white-haired Gypsy moved beside Adelsik and focused on Croferituus.

  “Lyssinya, make certain what happens here, happens to her mundane body as well.”

  “Of course, Ved’nuri.”

  Adelsik waited until Wren wrapped the captive woman with her Energy and Lyssinya had nodded that she was ready to transfer actions from Croferituus’s otherself to her mundane body, wherever it might be, before moving in. She kept her own Energy around the yellow-eyed woman, as well. Instinct told her she needed the link to anticipate the woman’s changing. As she stepped closer to the writhing idiot, she felt the vileness grow, but she also sensed everything Croferituus was about to do. Hot emotions flew up and down, around in a dizzying pattern of nonsense, and fluctuated between sanity and madness. The woman was truly out of her senses.

  Just a hand span away, Adelsik looked into those dead eyes, yellow from a disease one couldn’t get from the mundane world, and she prepared to reach for the ring. Croferituus seemed to put all her Energy into changing. Cat, woman, cat. A false start changing to woman and she remained a cat. Even with the others restraining her, Croferituus could strike out with one of those nasty claws, so Adelsik kept her guard up. Woman again, then cat, then woman. Adelsik sensed she would begin the change to cat form but remain a woman this time.

  As soon as Croferituus’s ruse ended and she remained in her womanly form, Adelsik grabbed her wrist with hand and Energy combined and wrenched the thick ring from her finger. Just as she pulled it free, oppressive darkness and an incredible feeling of loss engulfed her and she had difficulty breathing. She instinctively pulled more Energy into her otherself and grabbed onto the darkness with her slumbering abilities, as an amazing strength filled her. She pushed the oppression away until a blinding light gave her such a headache that she cried out with pain and let go.

  Dizziness overtook her and she began to fall. Someone called out her name. She squeezed the ring as her otherself slammed into something hard and darkness took her.

  Chapter 16

  When she tried to open her eyes, Adelsik found that something covered them. Her arms wouldn’t obey her wishes to move, either, and panic began to set in. Croferituus came to her mind. The woman had captured her again. Goddess, help me. A parched mouth made it very difficult for her to form words, yet she set herself to that task, only to let out a pathetic whimper.

  Something cold and wet touched her aching forehead. “Be still.” Predula’s voice. Thank the Goddess it wasn’t Croferituus.

  “P—Pre—” was all she managed before her head began to pound behind her eyes. Tension from her kin pricked at her. They had worried over her.

  “Hush, girl. I’m here. Lift her so she can drink. Careful.”

  Someone sat beside Adelsik and gently lifted her limp body until she leaned against a soft, breathing form. Her head ached even more. A light scent of rose bath salts found her nose and she tried to turn toward the woman.

  “Be still,” Haranda said. “Let me take your weight.”

  “Do as she says, Adelsik.” Lyssinya’s officious voice came in a raspy tone from somewhere nearby.

  A cup was pushed to Adelsik’s lips. It smelled of herbs. “Drink slowly,” Predula said. “You need nourishment.”

  She obeyed. At first, her head throbbed with the simple pursing of her lips. But as she began to swallow the sweet liquid, the ache seemed to ease. Not too much sweetness, though, just enough to wet her appetite until hunger began to gnaw at her belly. She finished the liquid and started to ask for food when she felt herself fall back toward a deep sleep.

  “Don’t slumber,” she heard her former clan mother say before darkness took her.

  When she awoke again, crackling from a nearby fire caught her ears, along with a scent of burning wood. Her head ached but was tolerable now. Something still covered her eyes and she managed to move her arm up toward her face. Someone snagged her wrist and gently forced her arm back to her side.

  “You’re not to move just yet. Predula’s orders.”

  “Taniras?” Adelsik was surprised at the hoarse tone in her voice. At least she could speak now.

  “Yes. I’m here. You need to drink.”

  The wolf singer moved from Adelsik’s side. Soon, hands lifted her body and Taniras slipped behind her, taking her full weight. She couldn’t sit up by herself if her life depended on it. She felt the woman lean away and back, then a cup was gently pushed to her lips. She still couldn’t move her arms much above the mattress, so she allowed the singer to hold the cup.

  “Drink slowly.”

  Adelsik obeyed and tasted the same sweetened liquid as before. After a few sips, she pulled back from the cup. “What happened?”

  “We can discuss that later. Right now, you drink.”

  She suspected that whatever had put her to sleep last time, laced this drink, but she obeyed and was disappointed when she felt herself slip toward unconsciousness again.

  When she next awoke, her head no longer ached, and she found that using her arms came much easier. She reached to her face to find bandages over her eyes.

  Cool hands gripped her wrists and put her arms to her sides. “Don’t touch,” Predula said in a gentle chiding voice. “Your eyes need to heal.”

  “What happened?” Adelsik’s voice took on a less raspy tone than before. She felt someone sit on the
left edge of her bed. Tension pricked at her but it was faint.

  “You don’t remember?”

  “I remember darkness, oppression. The void, I think.”

  “Yes. What else?”

  Adelsik sensed others were in the room but she didn’t dare harness the Energy. Whatever happened had upset Predula and the others. She could hear that in the healer’s tone even now. Besides, she didn’t think she could harness anyway. Not yet.

  “I caught at the void with my Energy. I remember pushing at the oppression. A painful light blinded me and I must have passed out.” She tried to make sense of the whole disjointed affair. A sudden memory caused her to panic. “The ring. I had it. Where is it? What happened to me? Why are my eyes covered?”

  Someone sat on the right side of her bed and took her hand. “You, dear girl,” Haranda said, “gave the void such a shove that it retreated quite a distance, pulling you with it. Ved’nuri and Lyssinya had to wrench you back. And they might not have done it if Siri and Wren hadn’t taken hold of their otherselves. It took all of you to pull free of the void. Somehow you used up the remaining power from the ring, even though it wasn’t on your finger. It’s dead now, gone to dust. Thankfully.”

  She wondered whether Haranda was upset Ved’nuri hadn’t allowed her to participate. There didn’t seem to be any anger in her voice. Come to think of it, Adelsik had heard Lyssinya’s raspy voice one of the previous times she was awake. The woman had sounded much as she did now. “Are they all right?”

  “They’re recovering,” Predula said. “You took the brunt of the void’s power.” She rose and her voice grew louder. “You stay in bed, woman, or I’ll have Payatt tie you there.”

  “Yes, Healer.” Lyssinya’s voice that time. “How is she?”

  “She’s in good hands. You rest. You’re not fully recovered, yet.”

  Adelsik heard a huff from Lyssinya and she smiled. “Wren? Elder Siri? Ved’nuri? How are they?”