The Whispering

  “It’s okay, Tharin. I’ll bring Ziri back,” she says quietly, her eyes locked on Ka’sith.

  I take her by the arm, forcing her to look at me. “No.”

  She smiles, a teasing look in her eye. “Why are you always so bossy?”

  “Lily, this isn’t a game. You’re not going alone.”

  She reaches up and places her hand on my shoulder. “Trust me, Tharin. I promise not to let anyone else kill me but you.”

  “Lily,” I say between clenched teeth, tightening my grip on her arm. “You’re not going alone.”

  “You can’t come, Tharin. Women only and don’t ask me how I know, I just do. I’ll take Julia with me.”

  “No,” I reply in unison with Tolan. Julia ignores Tolan, and Lily continues smiling at me. Then it hits me. She is scared as hell and I am not helping.

  I ease up on my grip and say calmly, “I can’t let you go, Lily.”

  She pushes her fear aside and says just as calmly. “Tharin, can’t you feel the barrier in front of us? That’s why Mirnuk said he would bring us as far as he can go. Men can’t pass her shield unless she wants them to. She won’t allow any of you through and if I don’t go she will kill Ziri. I won’t let someone else I care about die because of me – and you can’t stop me.”

  Lily steps away from me and slowly waves her hand over all of us. I’m startled and frustrated to find I am unable to move. I look at Tolan and watch as he tries to reach for Julia but his arms are locked at his side. A quick glance at the others, including Mirnuk, show they are in the same situation. And then I remember the Binding that ties me to Lily and with calm concentration and effort, I take a step toward her. Lily’s eyes widen and then fill with confusion as I take her by the arm again.

  “You will not leave without me,” I say quietly.

  She gives in. Sighing, she takes my hand and leads me toward the witch. As we near Ka’sith, Lily lets go of me and continues forward with Julia. I move to follow but I hit an invisible wall. Lily turns to me, mouthing – “I’m sorry.”

  As soon as Lily and Julia pass through the barrier, the others are released from Lily’s hold.

  Fury takes over and I slam my fists against the witch’s shield. The barrier vibrates violently as the ground shakes beneath me. I release the fury outward and when I pull it back in, I take with it the energy of the dead trees, the blackened earth and the empty sky. I feel evil forces build inside me and its insidiousness need to corrupt all that I am. The gold and crystal flame ignites and the symbol of our union engulfs the blackened energy, fighting to purify the invading evil. I reach out and touch the shield, releasing the clean energy into it. The shield begins to pulsate, a high pitch emitting from it. And then I release the evil back onto the shield and within seconds it explodes into icy flakes, covering the immediate area in a blanket of crystal ice.

  It takes me a moment to regain my balance and it’s then that Tolan’s voice finally penetrates. “Tharin!”

  “We don’t have time. We need to go after Lily.” I look ahead and see the witch has disappeared, along with Lily and Julia.

  “Tharin,” the urgency in his voice finally registers and I turn to him. He and the others have their backs toward me. And I turn to face the Ange.

  Harlu stands in the middle of his assassins, dressed in his usual black. I scan the four behind him and recognize them all accept for the hooded one just to the side and back of him. Janlu and Morlo I dismiss immediately, but I stare hard at my cousin. Dorlan stands easily at Harlu’s left, his hooded coat covering what I know to be a plethora of weapons. His blues eyes stare back but not at me. His hard gaze is all on Alorn and I know the look is reciprocated from Velesi’s First Greaneth.

  It isn’t until the hooded figure moves forward that I recognize who it is. There is no mistaking the seductive sway of her hips and the dancer-like steps as she comes to a stop at Harlu’s side. She removes her hood exposing her face, a face I once saw as beautiful beyond words. Now, it is distorted with rage and anger, and even hate. Standing next to the leader of the Ange…is Kalis.

  ~ * ~

  Chapter Nine

  ~ Lily ~

  I watch in horror as the ground shakes and the witch’s shield explodes into a blizzard of white. The hollow sound of the wind that accompanies it drowns out everything around us. Julia and I take off running, heading back toward the elves we love when the ear-splitting screams of Ka’sith stops us in our tracks. We turn to face her, blades in hands only to realize her screams were not of rage but of fear and death. I look back for Tharin, but the freak ice storm from out of nowhere blocks my view and I can’t make out where he or the others are. Oh my God, is the witch that powerful?

  I feel her pull tug at me and I grab Julia’s wrist.

  “Hold on,” I yell and she nods.

  The wind picks up and we huddle together covering our eyes against the black debris as sleet courses through the area. We bury our heads into each other’s shoulders and hang on for dear life. Ka’sith’s pull from within suddenly disappears. It is like someone pulled the plug on the storm and all becomes quiet.

  Still holding onto each other, Julia and I slowly come out of our huddle and look around. The blizzard and snow has disappeared, and so have Tharin and the others. I spin around to make sure I wasn’t facing the wrong way, but they were nowhere in sight. The black grove is once again as it was; desolated and dark but also cold.

  “Lily,” nudges Julia.

  I turn to face the direction she seems to be fixed upon. Sprawled flat on the ground where she once stood is Ka’sith. The mist that accompanied her is gone, and the silver two-headed snake lay frozen and lifeless next to the witch’s body. Her hair, once beautiful and silver, is now matted, gray and dirty spewed about her like spilt milk. Her face is turned away from us so we are unable to tell if she is alive.

  I look at Julia, both of us unsure what to do next. “You go and check her out,” offers Julia, standing back. “I’ll watch your back...from here.”

  I sigh and stop myself from rolling my eyes. Something Sema extremely disapproved of, and in her honor I have been making a conscious effort to break the habit.

  I turn to face the prone body, taking a deep breath before moving toward Ka’sith. As I take a step I can’t help but wonder why she is down. I mean, it is her domain, right? Shouldn’t she have protected herself when she unleashed the storm on Tharin and the others? I stop, looking back at Julia who shoos me forward with a flick of her blade. I can sense the witch is still alive, but it doesn’t stop me from being startled when I look back at her and she is sitting straight up.

  The left side of her face is skinned and bloodied from the blast. Her left eye is gone and she glares at me with her remaining one. She turns to look down at her pet snake and reaching out, touches it with a slender finger. I watch in fascinated horror as the two headed snake comes to life and splits into two. One slithers to the other side of the witch and like two rods stand straight up on the tip of their tails. They seem to dissolve into liquid mercury and begin to spill out over themselves, growing and forming into two slender dryads. Small and compact, the twin dryads are as white as the witch and dressed in silver. Their sheaths hug them tightly, enhancing their feminine curves, patterned in snakeskin and leaving little to the imagination.

  I feel Julia at my side, her blades at the ready. I glance at her. “You think you’re ready for this?”

  “Oh, yeah,” she replies with a reckless smile, her eyes set on the twin fighters. I know my friend has been antsy since seeing Frank and Chris and this is exactly what she needs to get it out of her system.

  Julia moves from my side, circling to the left in slow measured steps, daring the snake dryads to follow her. With silver eyes, they track Julia’s movement, their heads moving side to side like their animal spirits. Then Julia makes her move. She runs in an arc as if moving to charge Ka’sith from the back. The snake fighters move to meet her, shooting slim silver darts at my friend, and with pride an
d amazement I watch as Julia easily deflects them. She is giving me an opening to face Ka’sith without her bodyguards, not that I think the witch needs the extra protection.

  Julia won’t be able to hold them off for long and a brief call is all it takes. The black stealth appears, charging after Julia. Cessa leaps as Julia goes into hand to hand combat with one of the snakes, as the other comes at cat from the opposite side. Cessa takes the second opponent down but the dryad slithers from her once they hit the ground. She is up quickly and Cessa circles her, waiting for the next attack. She doesn’t wait long.

  I force myself to look away and face Ka’sith who is now standing. She glares at me and I feel the evil at her core. I move away from the fighting, trusting my friends to take of business.

  “Prince Tharin’s brother will die for what he’s done to my grove,” she screams.

  Tharin caused the blizzard storm? I force my face to remain unmoved, but inside a feeling of awe and pride swells in me. Explanation or not, he is so getting kissed when I see him again. That is if I can take this witch down, save Ziri and get Julia back unscathed to Tolan. Yeah, no problem.

  I focus on the witch but concentrate on calling the serpent from within. The last two times she came without warning, this time I call her. I need to control the power, starting by not seeing her as a separate entity. There is no separate being, there is only me. I feel the struggle of the serpent’s energy trying to take over, but I quell her fire and stay calm.

  “I will take you, as well, Queen Lilianethia,” sneers Ka’sith.

  She moves toward me but her left foot seems to be stuck. She lifts her sheath and I see where her foot used to be is now a dried and dusty root that crumbles as she moves. But Ka’sith doesn’t seem to care. By the time she steps forward the blacken roots have already regenerated. An evil smile distorts her face as she reaches out for me. Instantly my hand comes up and a shield stronger than I have ever felt appears. The witch screams in frustration.

  “Where is Ziri?” I demand.

  Ka’sith snarls and she lifts her hand, clawed and bloodied. She closes her it and her talon-like fingers squeeze tight around an invisible force until she makes a tight fist. The ground trembles and I look around me, then back at the witch. Behind her a giant, dead laurel tree emerges slowly from the ground. The pain! So much pain comes from it and I struggle to keep my shield intact. I focus my new healing powers to enforce my existing protection.

  My eyes grow wide when the bark casing disintegrates from the tree, exposing an unconscious Ziri. He is pinned to the tree, but I can’t see any visible bindings. His head is down and his long hair hides his face from me, leaving only his elfin ears exposed. The only piece of clothing he has on is a loincloth made from the same black bark as the witch’s sheath. For a moment I am distracted by how much skin is exposed. I either never gave it much thought or was too stuck on Tharin to notice, but Ziri is magnificent. I hear a collective intake of sharp breaths behind me.

  I turn to see Julia, the snake dryads and Cessa all frozen for a moment taking in the sight of Ziri. Realizing they are still in combat, Julia lands a hard blow with the butt of her blade on her opponent dropping her instantly. The body of the dryad’s twin lands on top of her sister after Cessa flings her aside. The two bodies melt into liquid silver and becomes one. Once it gains its shape of the two headed snake, it slithers quickly back to the witch. It makes its way up Ka’sith’s body as it did before, its two head peeking out once again near the witch’s ears. There it collapses on her shoulders, out cold.

  “My babies,” wails the witch.

  She throws her hand at Julia and Cessa. Julia instinctively drops to her knees and throws her arms around Cessa, protecting the cat from the oncoming strike. She peeks up, her arms still wrapped around Cessa’s neck, and stares at the gold tinged energy shield covering them from the witch’s attack. She looks at me annoyed, indicating I need to take care of the witch quickly.

  I face Ka’sith again. “Release him. Now.”

  The witch hisses her hatred at me and throws a hand out at Ziri, but I beat her to him with another golden shield. I feel her frustration and anger, and before I know what she is up to, she spits at me. I mean – she actually spits on me!

  Now pissed way the hell off, I walk up to the hissing witch, draw back my hand and slap her hard across the face. Ka’sith’s head flies back, her hand instantly at her burning cheek. She stumbles and when she regains her balance she looks at me in shock.

  “How dare you…you whore spawn…” she shrieks.

  I leap at her again and this time I slap her so hard she flails backward. Who is she calling a whore?

  Ka’sith stumbles to regain her balance once more as I wave my hand at the ground beside her. Dead roots shoot upward and wrap around the lower part of her face, shutting her up. Her eyes widen at the betrayal of her own roots. She tries to rip them from her mouth and with another wave I call for more roots to bind her hands and arms to her sides. She glares at me through her one eye – and if that one eyed Cyclops’ look could kill...

  Appearing at my side, Julia keeps her eyes on the witch and asks, “Are you okay?”

  I nod, trying to catch my breath. “Yeah, where’s Cessa?”

  “Trying to pull off Ziri’s cloth thingy...you know, his underwear,” she answers, still staring at the witch.

  I turn quickly toward Ziri and see Cessa pawing at his loincloth, one of her claws catching at the material. “Cessa! Stop that!” I yell.

  The black cat stops her pull and turns to look at me over her shoulder. She turns back to Ziri shaking her paw gently to untangle that naughty claw of hers. I stare at her unbelievably…really?

  “Come here, you bad girl,” I call to her, trying not to laugh.

  She quickly saunters over to me and I drop to a knee to greet her with open arms. How I have missed her. If I could I would keep her with me all the time, but my training with the elves has taught me the need to have my weapons ready and well maintained for any and every attack. I can’t allow Cessa to use up her energy just because I am lonely. I save my time with her for special occasions.

  I rub her face and she almost knocks me over as she nuzzles me. “What do you think you were doing, young lady?” I ask laughing, as she plops to the ground exposing her stomach. Oh yes, my dearest Cessa, it has been way too long. I give her what she wants and the ground vibrates with her purring.

  “What are we going to do about her,” asks Julia.

  I rise and walk toward Ziri as I call back to her, “I don’t know but we can’t leave her like that.”

  “Why not?” yells Julia. Ka’sith struggles against her bindings, glaring at Julia.

  “Look around you, Jules. I can’t allow her to keep killing dryads and their trees. You heard what Minth said.”

  I look for a way to get Ziri down, moving in closer to try and see his face, but his head is still lowered and I am too short to reach up and pull it back. Cessa moves to the side and disappears behind the tree and reappears a moment later completing the circle. I look at her and she peers at me with her head tilted. Okay, nothing on the far end that will free Ziri.

  Upon closer examination I can now see the welts on his body, black mud covering them from view. There are deeper cuts, open wounds caused by a thick whip. I turn to the witch and glare at her and in response her eyes dance with malicious glee. It takes me several breaths to calm down.

  Julia approaches, stopping next to me as we both stare up at Ziri, trying to find a way to free him.

  “Can’t you use your elf magic to bring him down?” she asks. She keeps her eyes on Ziri, and without thinking reaches down and rubs Cessa’s ear.

  “I don’t think I can – I mean, if I can I don’t know how,” I answer, now anxious to get him down and heal his wounds.

  “Can you heal him from here? Maybe he can tell us how to get him down.”

  I step closer to Ziri, placing my hands on his muddied legs and connecting with what energy he has le
ft. Unfortunately, this desolate area doesn’t have the clean energy I need to fully heal him, so I give him some of my own. I pull away quickly. He’s too damaged. I haven’t touched him for more than mere seconds and already I feel the drain. Cessa softly nudges my hand with her wet nose. When I look down, she glances at Ziri, flicks her tail in agitation and then nuzzles at my hand until it is on top of her head. Of course.

  I rub her head gently as I pull the energy from her and placing my other hand on Ziri, allowing the energy to flow through me using my body as a conduit. Her energy is so clean, so electrifying, so pure I am renewed with strength and power just by having it pass through me. When I open my eyes, Cessa is gone – back to Malainisi.

  Ziri groans and shakes his head. The wounds on his body are healed, leaving scars –maybe for life, I’m not sure. His chest expands as he takes in a deep breath and his head comes up, his face hard and tense as he grinds his teeth in anger. Furious eyes search beyond us until they come to rest on the witch. Ka’sith laughs mockingly at him, even with her mouth covered. Her gestures and eyes make it obvious.

  Ziri tenses until every muscle in his body is taut and ready to break. Julia and I release a breath when the only thing that ends up breaking is his invisible bonds. He drops to the ground, but his legs are still weak and he topples over us, taking us down with him. Oh my God! He is so heavy and not only that...he's half naked.

  “Julia,” I yell from under him. “Don’t let him go!”

  I grab onto Ziri’s arm as he tries to untangle himself from us and I wrap my legs around one of his. Julia does the same, but the mud makes it difficult for us to hold on. So I grab for his hair, but he easily shakes me off and stands with Julia hanging onto his waist. Ziri shoves Julia away and with nothing else to clutch onto she hooks her hands into the waistline of the loincloth and with one mighty pull, yanks it down trapping his ankles. Ziri goes down, face first…hard. We are on top of him in an instantly. I place my hand on the ground and roots quickly appear and wrap around his arms and thighs, pinning him still.