Chapter 5
They landed a few miles from the small city of Naucratis. The water was an amazing shade of dark blue, and it rolled as Zandra stumbled around trying to find her footing. Anani laughed as she clutched at him.
“It is not the first time you have flown.”
“No, but you forget that I age much faster, and it has been well over a couple of decades. My body isn’t quite so young as it was.”
He pulled her to him and stroked her hair. For a moment, Zandra was tempted to lean into him and let him comfort her, but her comfort only lasted as long as it took her to remember where they were. In a few days, she would be delivering Akeno to his last resting place among his people, and she had no desire to survive the ordeal in front of her.
Before either of them could say anything else, a voice behind them reminded them that there was more to the world than just their own misery.
“Such a sweet couple of little birdies. It’s a shame that these little birdies ended up at the wrong place, at the wrong time. They won’t get to make such a mistake again.”
Both heads turned and took in the creature standing just at the edge of the water. There were several others similar to it standing to either side, but they did not have the same aura of menace and arrogance.
Anani laughed, “Oh, a little lost buggane. There is a perfect watering hole for a little guy like you just over that hill.” He turned and pointed to a forested hill that moved up steeply into mountains. Coming from that direction were others of his kind. The shifter and the witch were surrounded. Anani turned back and looked at the one who was clearly the ring leader. “It appears you have us in a pretty tight spot. How will we ever get out of it?” His voice dripped with feigned fear, something that was lost on the bunyip.
The creature growled at him, “You won’t.” He gave a signal and several of the creatures began to lumber forward, their eagerness causing them to trip over each other.
Zandra put a hand on Anani’s chest to stop him. Under her breath she said, “You nearly died recently. They are mine.”
To her surprise, Anani folded his arms. “I thought you had used up your reserves.”
She flashed a wicked grin at him. “For the sport of buggane baiting, I think I can find the necessary energy. It has been years since I’ve had the chance to do anything so recklessly delicious.” He laughed as she moved to meet the creatures heading toward them.
The first one to reach her immediately caught on fire. She gave his staggering body a quick kick back into his comrades, and the smell of burning, rotted flesh began to hit her nose. Taking a deep breath of air, she turned to the buggane now charging forward from the opposite direction. These appeared to be a little smarter as they spread out along the beach and came at the pair from several different directions. Clearly they had thought that she carried fire, and their mistake at not realizing what she was would cost them dearly.
Zandra began to dance, kicking up sand into the air. It began to ebb and flow like the flow of the waves, and with each time she added sand, the wave of sand tripled in size. By the time the creatures had neared her and Anani, the wave was higher than the trees in the distance. Zandra ended her dance by leaning down, the huge sand wave crashing down on the confused buggane.
One or two had realized what was happening from their strategic positions behind the lines, and they had already turned to flee. Zandra stood up, as if from a bow, raising her hands. The ground beneath the last few buggane gave way, tossing them into the air. As they flailed, the witch brought her hands down in a dramatic gesture. Corresponding lightning seared through them, skewering them as if they were hideous butterflies being pinned in a collection.
There was a furious shout behind her. Zandra realized that the leader had not charged with the first. He would have had a better vantage point, so it was likely that he realized what she was doing before she had wiped out his men. Zandra’s energy was waning, and she felt dizzy as she turned to look at the remaining buggane. He was only inches from her. Reflexively, she threw up a wall instead of an attack spell. He easily smashed through it and his claws raked across her arm and down her side. She wanted to say something to Anani, but Zandra had no idea where he was. The last she had seen, he was moving around, finishing off the buggane who had survived the initial wave of sand.
Zandra staggered backward, blinking at the sudden turn of events. “You little prick,” she muttered. As her body began to tip over, her hands weaved an intricate design in front of her. Pushing it forward, a pattern of fire flew forward as the beast began to charge again. It hit his chest and burned through, causing nauseating fumes to engulf the beach.
Zandra missed most of the aftermath. Before the mark had hit the buggane, she had lost consciousness. A strong pair of arms kept her from hitting the sand, and for the first time in her life Zandra felt no fear as she was lifted into the air.
Zandra was following Akeno through the city, but for some reason he refused to turn to look at her. When she tried to yell out to him, she found that her voice began to choke her. The stagnant air poured into her lungs like sewage water, causing her to splutter and reach her hand up. Her eyes looked up to see Akeno looking down at her. She tried to beg for help, but he just shook his head. “I cannot help you because you killed me. If you had only accepted me instead of trying to woo Anani, we would have been happy. I am sorry.”
Trying to shout out as he turned away from her, Zandra felt something pulling at her foot, dragging her down. A cruel, cold voice in her ear whispered, “You were always going to be mine. You can run as long as you like, but I will always get what’s mine.”
The voice sent chills down her spine, and Zandra began to kick out, knowing exactly who waited beneath her. Akeno was the only person who knew about her past, and she had hurt him repeatedly as she tried to escape that past.
“I was never yours. I belong to no one, and I choose a different path!” She kicked and flailed as the Sluagh-filled air and water poured into her body.
The laugh was shrill as the force yanked her into the darkness.
A comforting warmth spread over her body. Zandra reacted on instinct, pressing out a wall of energy to repel whatever had taken hold of her.
“Zandra! Wake up!” A familiar voice drowned out the laugh, calling her out of the nightmare.
Zandra gasped as her eyes flew open. A strange light was shining down on her from a cloud of smoke. She tried to figure out what she was looking at, but her mind was still in the nightmare. “I can make a difference. I can be more than I’ve been.”
“I know you can.” The firm voice was now soft and a hand was stroking her hair. “I’ve always known you could.”
Though he had never felt so strong or warm, Akeno was the only person who had ever been there when the nightmares started. Everything had been a terrible dream, and now she had the chance to make it right. “I’m so sorry, Akeno. Oh gods, I am so sorry. How can I ask for forgiveness, for the loss of so many years–” Her voice choked as the pain of two years began to bubble over the surface. She could not stem the tide as she buried her face in his neck. “I swear, just pull through this and I will do whatever you want.” She wrapped her arms around the man she should have loved. “I will be what you want me to be, just be okay.”
The arms wrapped around her and gave her a tight squeeze. Akeno always knew how to make her feel loved, and she had almost given it up. The voice was a little strained as he replied, “Rest. You need to rest. I will take away your dreams.”
The idea caught her off guard, and Zandra began to try to push away. “You can’t! You know that will only make him stronger later.”
“Shh. Rest.” A firm hand pushed her down as another went to her forehead. Zandra tried to fight it, but her eyes grew heavy and she again fell into sleep, but this time she drifted into a dreamless oblivion.
The next time Zandra opened her eyes, there was a beautiful starry sky above her. She sat up quickly and tried to figure out what had happened. Strange images danced through her head as she tried to recall how she had ended up outside. “Where am I?”
“Just outside Naucratis. After you nearly leveled half of the main inn, they felt it best for you to find another place to recover.”
Horror flooded into her mind as she turned and looked at Anani, who was flicking something in a fire not too far from where she had been resting.
She placed the heel of her hand against her forehead. “Oh my gods, I have got to get inside. If you will just give me a few hours, I will be out of your current territory.” Zandra tried to push up onto her feet, and fell over, her face hitting the sand.
Before she could get up, Anani was beside her, wiping the sand off of her mouth. “Just what do you think you are doing? I thought you promised to be my strength while I needed it. Then you nearly get yourself killed. And then you nearly crushed some of the ladies of the night who were celebrating the night off just outside of Fender’s End.”
“Oh gods.” Zandra moaned and covered her face with sandy hands. The sand pressed into her eyes, causing her to start tearing up.
Anani pulled her hands away from her face and brushed off her face. “What do you think you are doing? There is plenty of time to repent your sins later. Right now, we need to get you better so you can fulfill your part of the agreement.”
Zandra looked at him through her tears. He sighed and ran a firm hand over her eyes, the sand and tears blowing away with his hand.
At a loss for what to say, the witch tried to find her last memory.
The shifter leaned over her. “You don’t remember the last few days, do you?”
Zandra looked at him and tried to think of what he could mean. The only memories swirling in her head were of a slow painful death and a pool of endless regrets.
“Look at me.” The voice was firm, but not unkind. When she still couldn’t get her mind around what was happening, Anani tilted her head up so that she looked into his eyes. “Zandra, look at me.”
As she stared into his eyes, images from the last few days began to swirl in her head. The buggane attack on the beach and her near flawless victory. The terrifying flight. The feel of Anani’s arms as he–
“Oh gods!” She pulled back, her mind firmly back in the present. “I am so sorry. I–”
Anani shook his head and pulled her against him. “No more of that. We have an agreement, and you are not going to be able to hold up your end if you fall into begging for forgiveness. Relax and heal.”
A small sob caught in her throat, but she nodded her head. “Of course. Just a little more sleep and I will be fine.”
He let go of her and pulled back so that he could look into her eyes. “Is sleep really what you need right now? Every time you are asleep, you wake more delirious. I think we need to find someone who can help you. And I’m not sure just what to do until we can find someone.”
Zandra shook her head. “I’m fine. It was just… the buggane poison working its way out of my system. Just nonsense.” She had no idea what she had said or done in her delirious state, but from the look on Anani’s face, it must have been pretty bad.
“You aren’t as tough as you think.”
“I’m not as weak as most people think.”
“I don’t know anyone who thinks you are weak,” he held up a lock of her hair, “but you are starting to fade, and I don’t know what is going on.”
Zandra’s eyes tried to focus on what he was showing her. In front of her was glossy black hair that looked a lot like hers, but it was obviously streaked with white. She had always been careful to conserve her energy and magic so that her life would be extended. In nearly 100 years, she had never had a single white hair. Just from what Anani was holding it looked like at least a quarter of it had changed colors.
“That’s not mine.” She gave a nervous laugh. “Are you trying to fool me?” Zandra tried to smile at him as if she were on to his joke.
Anani pushed her hair behind her ear. “Do you remember why we came to Naucratis?”
Zandra frowned. “We are in Naucratis? Why would I want to travel to–” Her eyes widened as a few more memories seeped into her mind. Despite what she had been through, she knew better than to say where she was really going – her instincts to try to shield Anani were ingrained, even as the loss of Akeno rushed into the front of her mind. “I need to….” She scrunched up her face trying to remember what motive she had given.
Anani lifted her up. “Zandra, I don’t know what you have done over the last few years, but it is clear that you have been trying to atone, and it is destroying you.”
“No, no, I'm fine.” She tried to push against him, but the hands that she saw did not look like her own. Pulling them against her chest, she tried to hide them before Anani could see.
The shifter looked around. “I have no idea where to go.”
“There is a Medics Association outpost in Naucratis.”
He looked down at her. “They are not going to be able to help you.”
“No, but I can help them.”
Anani looked at her sideways before nodding. Without a word, he carried her back into the city.