“No,” he said sadly. “That would change too much back home, regardless of the good we do here. I can’t go back to Qatu’anari looking like this and claim to be the Rajah. But darlin',” Sath said, pulling her into his arms and kissing her forehead, “I am going to take full advantage of this while it lasts.” She snuggled into his arms, but he pushed her back, clicking his tongue at her. “Uh-uh, don’t tempt me like that. For now, we need to get moving if we’re going to make it there. I think it will be a lot safer while the sun is still up.”
“You’re right,” Gin said, pouting as she crossed the room. She began putting her armor back on and smiled as Sath moved in behind her to help. “I don’t get my tunic hung on my hair anymore, Cat,” she said, smiling as she remembered the day in the guildhall when he helped her get untangled from her dress armor. “Leather this time. Not the chain link.”
Sath grinned. He pulled on his greaves over his leather trousers, scowling at the fit. “These are too big,” he said, frowning at the ill-fitting armor. “How am I supposed to protect you if…”
“How about this time you let me look after you?” Gin interrupted him. She finished buckling on her own greaves and stood looking at him, her hands on her hips. “I have my magic sorted out. I can protect you at this time.” Sath smiled at her, pride beaming from his face as he replaced the ill-fitting armor in his pack. “What?”
“You’ve come a long way from that scared little girl I met in that tunnel,” he said.
“Yeah? You’ve come a long way from the goon that tried to steal my bag—and my sandwiches,” she said, shoving him playfully and then reaching for her staff and rucksack. “Let’s get out of here before I change my mind.”
Twenty-Five
Once More, Into the Void.
Another week had gone by, and Taeben was in Ellie’s mind bright and early every morning, urging her to get up and get back to work. One morning, she woke up sitting in the hard chair at her desk, journals scattered about, and new notes written that weren’t there the night before. Taeben was breaking his promise to stop controlling her body like a puppet, and Ellie was too exhausted to keep up the barriers that held him at bay.
Ellie, get up. GET UP.
No.
WHAT?
She could feel how angry he was, and she didn't care. She was tired—exhausted, really—and she could not get out of the chair.
I said no, I can’t. I need to sleep.
We have things to do, Ellie, you and I. What have you heard from the Mother Dragon?
Nothing. No word.
Don’t lie to me.
Don’t yell at me this early in the morning.
In truth, she had heard from the Mother Dragon’s minions, and she was surprised that Taeben didn’t know that—or maybe that’s why he had accused her of lying. She was too exhausted to be sure. Her trip to the Temple had been fruitless—none of the drakes would tell her how to contact the Mother Dragon. However, as she was leaving, a small red dragonkind female had approached her. She claimed that her mother had been a dragonkind daughter of the Mother. Ellie didn’t really care if the story was true or not, just that the female was in contact with the dragons on the other side of the world through the bond. Ellie had made a bond with that female and now was connected to someone called Embyr, who seemed to know a lot about the Mother Dragon’s comings and goings, but would not reveal how she knew.
How Ellie was able to keep that bond a secret from Taeben she was not sure—and she could share with him only the parts that she felt to be relevant. The fact that the Nature Walker and the Rajah had escaped from the Mother Dragon’s traps she set for them after somehow breaking out of the Void was not something that he needed to know, for example. But the fact that the Mother Dragon had them in her sights had made Taeben very happy.
I am sorry. It has been so long since I have had a corporeal form that I sometimes forget how loud I am. I simply wish to know if you have made progress in locating the orb.
A’chrya, I am sorry, but as far as my sources can tell, the orb is missing from the world. They think that one of the gods has it.
Well, that is ridiculous.
I told them that, but they believe that the All-Mother of the Elves, Sephine, has the orb.
That would explain how Ginny knows where it is, I suppose. She IS the Nature Walker after all.
A’chrya, are you saying that you believe that the All-Mother is real?
Of course I do—but being real and taking corporeal form to come to our realm are two different things. How did Sephine get the orb?
A’chrya, my contact tells me that she has had it for a long time. The human hybrid, Lena Calder, who used the orb as a weapon during the Forest War, delivered the orb to Sephine at the end of the war rather than keep it in the world. Every Nature Walker since has known that Sephine keeps it with her, in the Void.
Lies.
Ellie sighed. She had anticipated that answer when she received the missive from her dragonkind ally in the north. Still, she had been able to find nothing else out about this mysterious orb—only that it was the weapon used to defeat Father Ikara and end the Ikedrian part of the war effort. Defeating Father Ikara? Taking his magic? He merely chose not to use his magic as he now had a legion of wizards to do
