Rise of the Gryphon (Belador #4)(35)
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

“I am sorry. Grendal saw me again! I got away before he could touch me, but . . .” Her eyes shifted down with guilt.

“All you had to do was stay put and leave with Storm.”

“I could not go to Storm,” Lanna said meekly, raising pitiful eyes to her.

Evalle felt a chill ride across her skin at the fear in Lanna’s voice. “What happened?”

“I wait near holding area for you, and Storm came running up. Then guards surround Storm.”

“Why?”

“Grendal said Storm snuck spy inside beast fights. That Storm was reason VIPER waited outside. Grendal described me. Said I was spy and I would tell VIPER about Noirre majik trades.”

Evalle grabbed her head, feeling it might explode at any minute. “Unfreakinbelievable.”

“That is why I follow guard with Dame Lynn head to where Alterants held. Only place Grendal could not enter. I thought if no one find me, then no one can prove Storm did anything wrong.”

For a teenager, she had good survival skills. Evalle had to give her credit in the logic department, too. Lanna was right. Kol might be a lunatic demigod, but punishing someone without proof would undermine his next event.

Please tell me Storm got away without harm.

But if VIPER waited outside the event, what had happened then?

Evalle didn’t know. She could only hope that maybe Storm used the potion, even though she doubted he would, then shifted into his jaguar form so he could disappear into the night.

Cumberland had miles and miles of undisturbed forest.

And Storm had resources. He had the invisibility potion and would have had a plan in place to get her off the island. But now she had Lanna to contend with and keep safe. “You can’t leave this room, Lanna.”

“Ever?”

“I have a good and bad feeling that this is a short visit based on what Kizira said, but she knows you’re with me and I don’t have any idea what the Medb have planned.”

“I heard what she said. Why does she let me stay?”

Evalle debated on how much to tell Lanna, but the truth might be her best choice considering where they were and what Lanna could hear before leaving. “Quinn has known Kizira a long time. I don’t think Kizira wants to harm anyone related to Quinn.”

Lanna frowned, thinking hard, then glared at Evalle. “You would accuse my cousin of befriending the enemy?”

“I’m not accusing Quinn of anything, but he does know her. You can ask him about it when you see him again, but please don’t repeat that to anyone here or back home.” Evalle hoped that she and Lanna would see Quinn sooner rather than later. “In the meantime, don’t make this any more difficult than it already is. If they come for me, cloak yourself until I’m gone and do not leave this room, no matter what.”

“I understand.”

“Yeah, well, that whole ‘I understand’ won’t work. Quinn believes you’re good for your word, so I want you to say you will not leave this room unless I tell you.”

Some teens might pout, but not Lanna. Her jaw was rigid with annoyance. She didn’t like being outmaneuvered. “I give my word. I will not leave this room unless you tell me.”

“Thank you.”

“But you will lose our best chance for information if you do not use me. I can stay cloaked for half hour now and I am working on other abilities.”

For a fleeting moment, Evalle considered allowing Lanna to move around invisible for intel, but she just as quickly dismissed the idea as stupid. “Do your practicing in here and keep it quiet when you do.”

“You should help me.”

Do I look like a majik trainer? “I doubt any of your tricks can help us here. We’re in Medb central, the hub of dark majik like nothing you’ve ever seen. Even Grendal couldn’t get us out of here.”

“That is because Grendal cannot do something that I can.”

Evalle walked over and dropped to the sofa, sinking deep in the soft cushions. Her body had healed, but she was beat. On a drawn-out sigh, she asked, “What are you practicing that a powerful wizard can’t do?”

“Teleporting.”

THIRTY

Lanna’s claim of teleporting had sounded much more promising last night.

When Evalle heard a thunk, then “Ouch” for the fiftieth time, she rolled over on her back on the king-size bed and pushed up on her elbows.

Lanna stood next to the door to a bathroom just as large as this bedroom suite. She rubbed her shoulder.

Evalle admired Lanna’s determination, but she doubted the girl’s body would survive this training. “You’re going to be black-and-blue when Quinn sees you again. He doesn’t need another reason to kill me besides letting you end up in TÅμr Medb.”

“I am not thinking something right, but this would be easier outside in open area.”

“I don’t think they have an outside like at home. This is another realm. I heard that Queen Flaevynn can’t leave the tower because of some curse. If the TÅμr Medb realm included land like Treoir does, we’d probably be able to see it through the windows. We’d have windows.”

Lanna got that not-ready-to-quit look on her face and vanished, reappearing in the middle of the room.

Evalle clapped. “There you go.”

“That is simple,” the girl muttered. “We need to travel much farther to escape. I must go from one room to another before I can go distances.” She walked to the corner farthest from the bathroom and vanished again.

Then thunked the same door.

Evalle winced when Lanna appeared, rubbing her head this time. “Take a break, okay. And don’t try to go anywhere outside these two rooms.”

“I gave my word.”

“Didn’t mean to insult you. Just don’t want you teleporting into Flaevynn.”

“Evalle?” a brusque male voice called from outside the room.

Lanna dove into the bathroom, pulling the door almost closed and flipping off the lights.

Surprised to get any notice before someone popped into her new holding cell, Evalle answered in her surly I-haven’t-had-coffee-yet voice, “What?”

“The queen wants to see you. Get dressed.”

“Why? Nudity bother her?” Not that Evalle was leaving here without clothes on.

“No, because I’m opening this door in sixty seconds.”

The chuckle at the end of that belonged to Tristan, who would call her bluff.

Crap. Evalle scrambled out of the bed in nothing but her panties. Kizira must have supplied the clothes that Evalle and Lanna had found in a wardrobe, in both their sizes. When Evalle couldn’t locate a bra, she yanked on a gray T-shirt and jeans and was zipping up her boots when Tristan opened the door.

Evalle shoved back a mass of hair that had yet to see a brush and stood.

Tristan, on the other hand, looked as if he’d just showered before putting on a long-sleeved powder-blue knit top and black jeans. Dressed for success at Medb Inc? He stepped inside, closing the door, then gave her a decidedly male once-over.

Where was her dagger when she needed it?

Kizira had relieved her of it during teleporting last night. “Look at me like that before I’ve had coffee and I’ll hand you your gonads in a jar.”

“Damn, you’re evil in the morning.”

“You have no idea.” Especially after a night of dreaming about Storm, who might have had to fight his way to freedom, if he hadn’t decided to make good on his promise to destroy the place. She hoped not. She wanted him safe and missed him so much she felt physically ill. “What does the queen bitch want, Tristan?”

“That’s not the right attitude if you want to survive being here.”

“I don’t want to be here to begin with.”

“Then you shouldn’t have shown up last night,” Tristan snapped back at her, but that wasn’t anger behind his words. She heard concern and guilt when he added, “I wish you hadn’t.”

Evalle walked over to him, keeping her voice down. “Work with me and we’ll get out of here.”

“I’m trying to find a way to get you and Petrina out, but you can’t depend on me. Flaevynn has Kizira compelling all of us. I can only talk about something I haven’t been forbidden to discuss, and I can’t do anything to help you escape.”

“What does Flaevynn want with Alterants?”

“To kill Brina and take over Treoir.”

“How?”

He opened his mouth, then closed it, shaking his head.

Evalle growled, “How is that helping me?”

“You don’t understand. I can’t physically say the words. Just like when I was in the ABC last night, I couldn’t have walked out of there if I’d had an armed escort. Being compelled by the Medb is absolute, but only with regard to what you are specifically compelled to do. So remember that.”

Drawing back, Evalle said, “You think they’re going to compel me?”

“I know she is. Don’t fight it. Every time you do, they realize they need to narrow down their orders to you. Go with whatever they say, then figure out how to get around what you can. Just like me talking to you last night at the games.”

“Kizira said something about resting because the next forty-eight hours would be physically demanding.”

“She’s right and now it’s less than that.”

“What’s going to happen?”

He rolled his eyes and gritted out, “Compelled. Got it?”

She let go of her anger and finally paid attention. Tristan was enlightening her on what she had to look forward to and how to prepare. “Sorry. Kizira indicated I wouldn’t be staying long. Can you say if that means I’m leaving soon or we all are?”

“All.”

“Then we have to get the others to join our resistance so we can escape when we leave.”

Tristan answered with grim disappointment. “No one is getting out of here until we head to Treoir.” His gaze traveled over her face. “Might want to brush your hair.”

“Why?”

“I’m here to escort you. Kizira said Flaevynn and Cathbad are ready to decide if you’re worth keeping alive.”

“Cathbad?” Evalle thought back on her studying. “Wasn’t he a druid a long time ago?”

“There was an original Cathbad the Druid who lived during the original Queen Maeve’s rule. The Cathbad here is a descendant. Every six hundred and sixty-six years the torch is passed on, so to speak, to a new Cathbad the Druid and Queen Medb, but Flaevynn isn’t interested in anyone else being queen if she can’t live forever. I’ve gotten parts of the story out of Kizira. Tell you more when I can.”

“You can start by telling me what you know about the origins of Alterants for the next time I get a chance to talk to Macha.”

“About that. I was wrong and found out—” Tristan paused, staring past Evalle’s head for a few seconds, then his gaze returned to hers. “Kizira said to bring you now.”

“You have telepathy with her?”

“Yes, and you will, too, once . . .”

“Once what?”

Tristan shook his head, indicating he couldn’t answer that question. He grabbed her arm and the room spun.

Teleporting. Couldn’t they walk through this tower?

THIRTY-ONE

Cathbad stood beside Flaevynn in front of her jeweled waterfall that functioned as the queen’s scrying wall. Now they would see Evalle fulfill her part of the prophecy, or curse as Flaevynn constantly corrected him. “ ’Tis time for Evalle ta accept her destiny.”

On a sound of disgust, Flaevynn lifted her hands and moved them across each other. A two-story wall of water cascaded over precious gemstones. Diamonds, rubies and more, many as large as his head. When she lowered her arms, a wide-screen image revealed a picture of Evalle standing alone in a pit deep inside the tower that was known as the arena.

Titanium bars covered the only exit for walking out.

Evalle stood in the middle of the room, looking up, down and around. “Helloooo. Thought queenie was looking for me.”

Flaevynn’s waist-length black hair separated into a pile of thick tendrils that raised and twisted, hissing.

“Calm down, Flaevynn. Evalle wants ta get a rise from ya so you’ll come face her.”

“You’re sure we need her?”

He smiled at the edge in her voice. Flaevynn would not get her way with this. “If ya kill her ya might as well start celebratin’ your last birthday now.”

“Yo, mama,” Evalle yelled. “Listen up. I’m no one’s bitch and I don’t give a rat’s ass about your test. You screw with me, you’ll bleed.”

Flaevynn’s hair twisted into a knot of squirming locks. Cathbad groaned under his breath. Flaevynn was reaching the limit of what little patience she possessed.

He’d best be keeping her busy. Cathbad told Flaevynn, “Conjure the image of Tristan’s sister the way I told ya so that Evalle can no see her, but anyone else can.”