03 - The Eternal Rose Read online

  And as Torchay's pain, his love flowed into her through the awful gash in her dreamself, it began—just a bit—to fill up that burning emptiness inside her.

  “I have been so stupid. Can you all forgive me?"

  “Yes, you have been. But I should have expected it, you do stupidity so often and so well.” He was grinning at her when she looked up at him. “As for forgiving, I suppose I have to, don't I? Since I'm in love with you and all. You'll have to go back and ask the others, though. Aisse is likely to smack you first, before she does, she's that mad at you."

  Kallista pressed a hand over her own wound, and this time managed to seal it up, rather like pressing layers of soft clay together. It still oozed a bit, but it stayed shut. Torchay's injuries sealed up the same way, when he helped.

  “Thank you for coming,” she said.

  He shrugged. “I couldn't let you go off alone, could I? I'm your bodyguard."

  She tugged at a lock of his hair, laughing. “I think this could be considered beyond the call of duty."

  Then she turned away to study the featureless dreamscape. Her smile faded. She didn't recognize anything. There was nothing for her to recognize.

  “I don't know if I can find the way back,” she said after several long moments of frantic searching.

  “You'd better. I certainly can't. I don't know how I got here to start with."

  “Weren't you dreaming?” Kallista started walking, sending up a quiet prayer for guidance.

  “No. I was making love to you.” Torchay held her hand as he stalked beside her, bristling with protectiveness even here.

  “And you ... jumped?” She cocked an eyebrow at him.

  He shrugged, then stopped, pulling her around to face him. “You know the way back,” he said. “Of course you know the way. Stone's gone, and I'm here, but you've got six other links. You've cut them off, but they're still there. All you have to do is grab hold, the way you caught me. They'll lead us home."

  Goddess, how unbelievably stupid and selfish she'd been. The pain of her loss was no excuse. They'd all suffered the same loss. She'd been too wrapped up in her own misery to see it.

  “Do you think the children will forgive me?” Kallista said in a small, contrite voice.

  “Ah.” Torchay looked worried as he shook his head. “That one's going to be tricky. You may have to work for it, before they decide to trust that you'll not abandon them again."

  “But we have to get back first.” She blew out a breath and held on tight to Torchay as she reached for her other links.

  She'd squeezed them down so tight and so thin that she was almost afraid to touch them, for fear they'd tear and flutter away like spider webs on the breeze. She breathed on the links. They shuddered, but held, warming under her breath. Carefully, she opened the painful constriction and moaned as the cramped ache eased.

  Half her pain had been self-inflicted, caused when she'd cut herself off from her iliasti. Yet more stupidity.

  “Hold on.” Kallista tightened her grip on Torchay's dream hand and grasped the links in her other as they plumped with magic, grew strong and resilient. Kallista pulled hard on them.

  She didn't draw magic through them, but rather used them to guide her, Torchay flying behind her across the measureless distance of the dreamscape. Twice, she had to wrap magic around Torchay's self when he threatened to leave bits of it behind, but eventually, finally, she saw the opening in the dreamfog.

  They were lying on their backs, she and Torchay, naked and helpless in the bed she shared with Obed. Their ilian had gathered as Leyja and Keldrey worked frantically over Torchay.

  “What did you do?” Kallista glanced at him, alarmed.

  “I told you. I have no idea. I just—came after you."

  “Well, get back down there where you belong. Right now.” She gave him a hard shove and followed him down to make sure.

  He didn't seem to quite know how to put himself ... back into himself.

  “Like this.” Kallista followed the umbilical that tied her to her body, flowing into it as if she'd never been away. She opened her eyes to see Keldrey's backside cantilevered over her as he breathed for Torchay.

  What was wrong with him? She reached out to touch.

  “Somebody stop her before she hurts him again,” Keldrey growled, rising to give Leyja room to work.

  Obed caught Kallista's hand and pulled her gently away.

  “Wait.” She struggled to sit up. “What's going on? What's wrong with Torchay?"

  Everyone turned to stare at her, except Keldrey who bent to give Torchay another breath. Obed spun her in his arms and grabbed her face between his hands, searching her eyes as if scarcely able to believe what he saw. “Kallista?"

  She smiled. “Yes, love, I'm back. I'm sorry I left you.” But she didn't have time now to indulge in weepy reunions or extended hugs. She pulled herself out of Obed's embrace.

  “What's wrong with Torchay?” Kallista crawled around Keldrey to Torchay's head and brushed his hair off his high forehead.

  “You're the naitan, you tell us.” Keldrey paused to give another breath. “We thought he was getting through to you. Then he collapsed."

  Hadn't he got back into his body? Kallista didn't know, could see only reality. No, the dreamworld was reality too, just a different kind of reality. She couldn't see it now. But—she could see through Joh's eyes and her own at the same time. Why couldn't she see the physical and metaphysical the same way?

  Kallista drew magic. She closed her eyes tight and opened them while leaving her eyelids closed. And there he was, hovering half an armslength above his body. “What are you doing?” she demanded.

  “Floating?” Torchay rearranged himself to sit cross-legged in midair.

  “I'm compressing his chest,” Leyja said. “To keep his heart beating."

  “Not you.” Kallista waved a negating hand at Leyja. “Torchay."

  “He's here?” Obed shivered as he looked around the room.

  “Where?” Joh brightened, his looking eager and curious. He found every new thing fascinating.

  “There.” Kallista gestured toward her beloved's incorporeal self. “What—” She opened her eyes and peered with all her vision at him. “Did you cut yourself completely free of your body? Why in the world—"

  “I told you, I wasn't letting you go anywhere without me.” He shrugged, which made him bob up and down. “And I didn't know what in blazes I was doing."

  “No, don't stop,” Kallista said when it seemed Leyja would cease her laboring. “We have to keep him going till we can get him ... reattached."

  “We'll keep going till you say stop.” Keldrey took over the chest compressions. “However long it takes."

  “Next time,” Kallista scolded Torchay, “don't take everything with you when you jump, or whatever it was you did. Leave something behind so you can find your way back."

  “I had you to bring me back.” Torchay arched an eyebrow at her. “Now, are you going to finish the job or no'?"

  “Saints, you can't do anything for yourself, can you?” With a sigh and a weary, teasing shake of her head, Kallista called magic, reveling in the sensation as it flowed through the links to her. Without Stone, it was sluggish and resistant, like drawing mud from a well rather than water, but it came.

  She reached through Torchay's body and out again to capture a foot-shaped bit and haul it into his well-loved, familiar body. It took a bit more magic to sweep all of him out of the dreamscape and back inside his physical self, but once there, he stuck nicely. Magic wasn't needed to keep him in place.

  “Wait,” she said. “Before you leave this place completely—watch. Learn.” And she showed him how to make a safe shift into the dreamworld, so that he could find his way back to a body that only slept. “I hope you don't have to do it again, but if you do, I want you to know how. I want you safe. I love you."

  “I love you.” The words were spoken in his familiar raspy tenor as he opened his eyes to look at her.
r />   Leyja and Keldrey scrambled out of the way before he raised onto an elbow and looked around at the rest of their iliasti. “Well. That was quite an adventure."

  “What happened to you?” Joh asked.

  Aisse climbed onto the bed to hug Kallista. Then she broke it off, clouted Kallista on the head, and hugged her again.

  Kallista's vision, still as much in the dreamworld as in the physical, could see their weeping wounds bleeding into each other, beginning to fill up the empty space left when Stone was torn from them. She hugged Aisse tight, then reached for Fox, climbing over Torchay's legs to get to him.

  Fox pressed his face against her. “Did you see Stone?"

  “No.” Kallista kissed his cheek, his eyes. “I think if we had, we couldn't have come back. He's gone too far for any of us to reach. But he's waiting for us, when our turns come—a long, long time from now."

  Fox's laugh cracked, but it was a laugh. He pushed her toward Viyelle for more hugs, more kisses. Finally, she had hugged each one of her iliasti and was nestled again in Torchay's arms. Obed's dark eyes burned into her, with happiness and envy both. She could feel it hissing through the link, but she didn't know what to do about it. She was getting tired of the jealousy, so she ignored it.

  Everyone crowded onto the bed while Torchay told the tale of his adventures. Then they had to explain to Kallista about the runaway-slave-turned-thief who had dropped into the family courtyard out of a tree and had now apparently vanished back up that tree into the darkness from which he'd come.

  Leyja cursed and stomped around a bit when that was discovered, but finally admitted there was nothing to be done about it now, and if the thief returned, they'd know he was sincere in his offer. Maybe. Leyja seemed reluctant to trust anything having to do with this thief.

  Then they told her what this Padrey had told them, about the slaves and the Daryathi breeding program. The news burned away the last of the dreamfog lingering in Kallista's brain.

  * * *

  Chapter Fourteen

  “I told them you would want to rescue all the slaves,” Aisse said.

  “You were right.” Kallista grabbed Obed's discarded robe and put it on as she got out of the bed to pace. She made a few circuits of the room before Keldrey stopped her and belted the robe around her.

  “You're distracting the lads.” He tipped his head at the others. “Makes it too hard for Fox and Joh to do their thinking."

  “Right.” They had to have their cleverest thinkers on the job. And Viyelle, with her creative, sometimes bizarre ideas that often actually worked. Kallista turned to face her ilian. “We have to get Sky out first, or we're too vulnerable to help anyone. But we're not leaving any Adaran enslaved."

  “Are we taking the word of a confessed thief that this is happening?” Obed demanded.

  “Do you have any real reason to believe it isn't?” Viyelle retorted. “Other than your experience of living here? Which you have yourself admitted was cut off from normal society."

  “There is no proof either way.” Joh stepped in to cut off the impending argument. “We need corroboration. Someone else to tell us whether it's true or not."

  “That's easy enough,” Kallista said.

  “How? By sending the thief off to spy for us?” Leyja paced crosswise to Kallista's path. “Why would he tell us any truth but the one he wants us to believe?"

  “Stubble it, Leyja.” Keldrey pulled her back onto the bed, planting her there with a little shove. “You don't like him because he stole that necklace from you and got away. You're making it personal."

  “All we have to do is ask Bekaara,” Kallista said. “She's helped us already. She's an honorable person—everyone says so, and I have my truthsaying magic for just-in-case."

  Obed leaned against the bed's headboard. “Yes. She will tell us truth, even if it is an uncomfortable one."

  Kallista sighed, turning to look at her ilian all crowded together on the bed, looking back at her. “I'm beginning to think that everything in this place is uncomfortable."

  “Oh, I don't know—” Torchay drawled, stretching out on the bed by shoving Joh aside. “Seems very comfortable right here."

  “Speak for yourself.” Joh shoved back, sending Fox nearly lurching off the other side.

  “I am.” This time Torchay's shove sent Joh stumbling halfway across the room to bump into Kallista.

  Joh slung an arm around Kallista's shoulders. “Come along, love. There's obviously no room for us here. We'll find our own comfortable spot."

  “Oh no, you don't.” Torchay scrambled from the bed and joined them. “No’ after I've gone to all the trouble of going after her and bringing her back."

  “We're still in Daryath,” Obed reminded them, arms folded in disapproval.

  “No, we're not,” Viyelle said. “We're in the Adaran embassy. On Adaran soil, as long as we're inside. We got rid of all the Daryathi servants. There's no one left to spy on us."

  “You did?” A load of worry lifted from Kallista, then she frowned. “Won't that make them suspicious? And what about that boy? That gift?"

  “Stone was murdered,” Joh said. “By his ‘wife,’ true, but the locals still accept the need for heightened security, especially since you've been ‘indisposed.’”

  Kallista winced. “Has that caused any problems? Stone wasn't my husband."

  “He's Varyl.” Viyelle sat up cross-legged on the bed. “Im-Varyl, the way they've been reading it. In the direct line. And they don't quite know what ‘godmarked’ means, despite what you told the new Habadra—she's had her investiture ceremony, by the way—anyhow, they're apparently making allowances."

  “And according to their laws,” Fox said, “the ‘gift', the man Habadra sent us, isn't Daryathi any more. He's Varyl-sa. Adopted into your Adaran Line. And in case you need to know, I got tired of calling him ‘Hey You’ during practice and named him. Night, because he's dark."

  “River, Sky, Night—” Torchay listed the males their Tibranborn had named. “You keep going and no one will have names, just descriptions."

  Fox threw a pillow at him, which was batted away. “I thought we were going to do sex. Or at least get to sleep all together for once. What happened to that?"

  “I got shoved out into the cold,” Joh said. “And captured the prize.” His arm over Kallista's shoulders curled round her neck and he planted a smacking kiss on her cheek.

  “Well, bring her back.” Fox scooted aside to make room. “It'll be crowded, but we'll manage. We've managed with less."

  “I don't think this is wise.” Obed was squeezed up against the headboard as people shifted.

  “Oh, Obed, don't be such a pooty-face.” Viyelle grabbed his tunic and wrestled it off. She didn't have to wrestle hard.

  “That's right.” Aisse, already naked—Kallista didn't know how she'd done it so fast, but she always did—straddled Obed's lap. Aisse caught his face between her hands, her lips brushing his as she spoke. “Don't be such a pooty-face. Don't let Daryath rub all the Adaran off you."

  She kissed him, mouth open, rubbing her full breasts against his naked chest, and after a moment, Obed kissed her back the same way, his hands settling on her hips. Kallista had to blink. He'd never gone so far with one of the other women in the ilian, not when she was naked.

  “Hey.” Viyelle jiggled Aisse's arm. “Share. Everybody kisses everybody tonight."

  Aisse drew slowly back from Obed and looked at Viyelle from the corner of her eye. “Everybody?"

  “Every single body.” Viyelle punctuated her words with a decisive nod.

  “All right then.” Aisse patted Obed's cheek in a reluctant farewell, then turned and pounced on Viyelle, capturing her for an open-mouthed kiss. After a moment's startled laughter, Viyelle returned it.

  “Well, that's not quite fair, is it?” Fox said, watching avidly. “I mean, we're already short of women to begin with."

  “She did say ‘everybody kisses everybody.'” Keldrey grabbed Fox for a loud, joking ki
ss.

  When he let go, Fox took hold of his ears and brought him back. “This is how it's done."

  “Looks like a good plan to me,” Kallista finally managed to say. Viyelle was kissing Obed now, and Aisse and Leyja were trying to swap tongues.

  Torchay and Joh exchanged a look, one of those very male ones Kallista didn't want to know the meaning of. Together they picked her up and tossed her onto the bed, into a bony tangle of knees and elbows, following close behind her. Then they kissed each other, leaving her to find her own partner. Keldrey just happened to be free again.

  “Oh, Khralsh.” Fox used the name of the warrior face of the One. “Aisse has gone broody again. She wants another baby. A black-haired one this time."

  Kallista looked past Joh's shoulder to see Aisse with her hand halfway down the front of Obed's trousers and her tongue in his mouth. He had hold of her wrist, stopping her, but his resistance seemed to be softening.

  “So?” Aisse abandoned her pursuit of Obed to roll over and sling an arm around Torchay's neck. “But if I can't have black, I'll settle for red."

  “Will you, now?” Torchay slid his arms around her. “Will you settle for a kiss now and discussion later, after all this is done and we're back home in Arikon?"

  Aisse stuck out her lower lip. “If you insist."

  Torchay laughed and nipped her lip before granting the kiss he'd offered, and Kallista called magic.

  It brought gasps from eight throats, including her own. She checked the contraceptive spells, making sure they were in place—they didn't need to be any more vulnerable while in Daryath than they already were—and she opened the web she had built over the years, binding each one to each of the others.

  “Keldrey?” She still had presence of mind to ask. He wasn't part of the web.

  “I've got him,” Viyelle said.

  Kallista opened her mouth to take in sleek, hot, solid strength. She wrapped the web of magic around her iliasti and swirled it round herself in a blanket of love, teetering on the edge. She checked again to make sure everyone was tucked in safe, then she let herself fall.

  It wasn't a screaming, searing plummet into passion, not this time. The magic itself seemed to mourn, stuttering as it passed over the place where Stone should have been. They floated, drifting on a gentle river of comfort and rising desire. Stone was dead. But they, the ones who had loved him, were alive. Their love still lived, or it wouldn't hurt so much.