A Warrior's Quest (2 page)

“The girl...she does not know of her role in the upcoming tribulations. My female feels that her not knowing is best for her.”

A sharp arrow hit Ren
’s chest. Fear “Will she live through it?”

The wolf stopped walking. Looked straight at Ren. “That is something else we simply do not know. What we do know is that the fate of our worlds rests on her shoulders. And hers alone.”

Dear demons, he so hadn’t expected that.

She was that vital to a war that would not happen for close to eighteen months. And she had a Beansidhe calling out for her soul. “She must be protected then.”

“At all costs. If she dies before she fulfills her destiny, the realms as we know them will become dark and death-filled. No world will go untouched—Gaia, Levia, Relaklonos. Some realms will simply cease to exist. And we have no way of knowing which.”

Ren said nothing else as they walked up the path to the castle. The girl, the stubborn, infuriating, beautiful girl had the fate of everything on her narrow shoulders.

And he’d just made it his mission to see to it that no one ever harmed her.

Aureliana swung her sword high above her head, then brought it down in an intricate move that was designed to distract her enemy. The Lupoiux wolves she trained with were in awe of her skills, and she knew it.

None of them were over fifty years in age. She had eight times that. Eight times as many years to perfect her skills. She would do her best, along with her partner Belnus, to train these young pups in the art of fighting. It would be the only chance of survival many of these men had. And she could not shake that thought from her mind.

Even young Uriah, the boy she had rescued months ago from his own father, fought a partner with a wooden sword. So young to face the threat of a war he could not begin to understand.

Belnus feinted toward her and she parried. They had sparred together many times over the last three hundred fifty years or so. She knew his moves as well as he knew hers. They were cousins of sort, their families merging somewhere in the Dark Ages, and other than Kindara, he was her closest friend. She loved him, and his
Rajni
Amaia, and his seventeen-year-old daughter Rosslen. They were her family.

She was thankful they
’d chosen to make the move to Levia with her and with the other fifty or so Dardaptoans who had left their home in Dardanos, Colorado to come to this Land of the Deities.

Having Belnus around made her a little less lonely.

She missed Kindara. They had been near constant companions since girlhood. They had only been a few years apart in age, which to their Kind was negligible. Had they ever been separated for so long?

She did not think so. Even when Kindara
’s late
Rajni
Iavius had taken Kindara on their expeditions all over the American continents, Aureliana had gone with them. She and Kindara were closer than sisters.

How did Kindara fare in the world of demons? The last time Aureliana had been in Relaklonos the castle of the demon king had been battered with canon fire. She
’d had the misfortune of being in the room next to the one hit. Kindara was now the demon king’s consort, and was carrying the demon’s baby spawn, heir to the throne. Was she safe?

Aureliana had to admit she didn
’t quite trust the demon to keep his promise of protecting Kindara.

He
’d failed before.

“Come, Auri. It is late. I wish to have my dinner with my family before too long.” Belnus put his sword down. The two of them had long grown past the point of using wooden practice swords. “Have you exorcised the demons plaguing you today, yet?”

He had always been able to read what was bothering her. They waited until the Lupoiux trainees had started dispersing toward their own quarters before starting toward the castle. “I don’t believe, my friend, that I will ever be able to erase those demons. We both know what faces me, and probably soon.”

“Did the goddess claim it so? None of us, save the prognostics like Theo, can claim to know our futures.”

“None survive the Beansidhe. We both know that.”

“Yet you already have, once. If a miracle occurs once, it can occur again. And she was not even a full Beansidhe, after all. She may have weaknesses.”

She’d learned months ago that the Beansidhe that had attached itself to her was an Encantado—a humanesque creature capable of assuming the guise of a dolphin—and Beansidhe halfling, something that was exceedingly rare. Had Belnus a point? Was the Beansidhe weaker than other Beansidhe? Would that work in her favor when she inevitably faced the creature again? She was afraid to even hope. “She might. But I cannot gamble on that. No, this place is my new home. I can never return to Gaia. I will never see my home again.”

He hugged her. “Do not fret, Auri. You will see home again. I feel confidant of that.”

She could only pray that he was right. But how could she pray to the goddess when she’d had several occasions to ask the goddess for intervention directly, and had been given no satisfactory answer, other than to have faith?

They were the last ones to enter the palace, as was custom. They were the
teachers; it was their responsibility to ensure everyone was where they were supposed to be.

A small crowd was inside the foyer. So the Wolf god had returned then.

Eiophon had been in Gaia, rendering the justice Rand had pronounced on a Florida pack of Lupoiux. From what Aureliana had put together from Jierra, the sentence had not been good. Had any of the pack survived? Uriah and his brother Elias were the only survivors of a small branch of Red Gothan wolves, the same pack that had kidnapped Jierra and nearly killed Auri months ago. They’d also kidnapped a host of other women, including Rand’s sister Rebecca and his aunt Jordan. Those two Taniss females had been bitten, and were now full-fledged Lupoiux females. Jordan had relocated with the Taniss Pack at the same time Auri and Jierra had entered Levia. Jordan was at the center of the crowd.

There were children, all appearing under the age of twelve or so. Where were their mothers? Had the mothers survived, or had Eiophon struck them down?

Jierra—a former elementary teacher—had put herself in charge of all the displaced children of the Lupoiux people. Auri often helped with the foundlings, ensuring they were settled, either with other Lupoiux families who had room for them, or in the children’s ward she, Jierra, Jordan, and the goddess Kennera had built within days of Auri’s arrival in this beautiful but different place.

She
’d had little time to explore this realm—the girl goddess, the deity she’d worshiped her entire life, stayed pretty close to the castle and her children. Aureliana could understand that—if she had two small infants, so powerful and important to the world, she’d be sticking close to them, too. And the babes were the goddess’s children. How could she not stay with them?

She had had little time to take Aureliana on something as trivial as explorations. And the damned Wolf god had refused her requests, stating only that a girl Dardaptoan would be in too much danger in this place.

Danger from what, Aureliana would like to know.

Hadn
’t she protected herself against more than two dozen Lupoiux?

At least by learning of this realm what she could, she would be doing something to protect the goddess
’s—and Jierra’s—babes’ futures. It would be a legacy she could leave them.

She would leave nothing else behind but the sword still strapped to her hip.

Perhaps, by the time she passed on, her brother Aodhan and his
Rajni
Mallory would have had a child? Or perhaps Marous, or Clavion, or their other fourteen brothers would have found their
Rajni
s and made children?

Perhaps she would have some time with the next generation of Adrastos
’?

Somehow she doubted that would happen.

She wasn’t even certain she’d live until next week. Something was about to happen around here. Something involving her.

He saw the girl warrior enter the room, and he smiled at the way his heart increased. It always had when he faced a challenge. And this woman was challenge for any man. Of whatever color blood, not just red. Even green blooded creatures such as
him would see her for what she was.

A fighter. Beautiful.

She was paler than he remembered, thinner. Worry hit him briefly. Had she not recovered, then? She had first been wounded at his hand, then a few months later had been used as an exhibition of fighting by a rogue band of wolves. She’d been bruised and battered by the male animals for entertainment. Did her injuries still plague her?

Would she be strong enough for the future she now faced? Hadn
’t his sister-in-law told him how fragile the females of her Kind actually were? Would he face the added burden of protecting her from her own weaknesses?

It was a Herculean task set before him to care for this female. But he was the head of warriors for his people; even Rathan did not claim such a distinction. Rathan was Incubus demon fully. They shared a father but not a mother. Ren himself was both Incubus demon and
Warrior demon. The best of both breeds, the blood of the strongest of each flowed in his body.

None could protect such a fragile flower as this but him.

She had yet to see him and he liked that. He wanted to study her, determine what about her it was that had him breaking his vow to only offer consort to those of his Kind. Just to look at her wasn’t to get him the answers he sought.

She was small compared to the warrior women he knew. They were often six and a half feet tall to his seven and a half feet plus height. The girl Dardaptoan was probably just under six feet or so. And thin for his tastes. He far preferred strong, stout women capable of holding their own with him.

He would break this female were he to touch her. Why hadn’t he realized that before? Had he ever, in two thousand years on the world, been with a female as small as she?

He did not think so.

He scowled at her.

She looked up.

He was too far away to see the full extent of her emotions on her face, but surprise was evident right away.

He started across the lobby toward her.

***

Aureliana tried not to let her conflicting emotions surface for the big beast to see. He was still purple of all things. Purple.

Her
Rajni
had the Warrior demon ability to turn his skin any color for camouflage. Was it wrong for her to be a bit weirded out by such a thing?

Belnus said something to her, but Auri missed it. Why was the demon here? Had something happened to Kindara or her babe? Someone else? Bronwen? He breath caught and she started walking toward him. Why would it have to be him here? She had just gotten past the point where she missed him at night, though he had never held her more than the few times he
’d carried her when she’d been injured.

But he was her
Rajni
and her soul cried out for him. It probably would forever. She could not stop that. She forced herself not to reach for him. Instead she met his gaze with a cool one of her own. “Why are you here?”

“I have come to fetch you, female.”

“And I have no say in the matter? Who sent you?” It could really only be two people, Kindara or her demon. “Is Kindara well? The babe?”

“My nephew grows extremely strong.” He nodded his head, full of arrogance. “It is his mother who wishes for you. I believe she may be homesick, and with her daughter gone as well. She asks for you for mere comfort in this time of hers. So, I have been sent to fetch you.”

He’d said the one thing designed to get her instant compliance. “We can leave tonight.”

“Nonsense. I doubt you have yet eaten, and I need sustenance, as well. If we were to leave now we would arrive in Relaklonos too late even for a simple meal. They are on a different time pattern than Levia, remember?”

She hadn’t, but it didn’t matter. At least this was
something
she wanted. She hadn’t been banished to Levia for punishment—had chosen to go to help Jierra adjust to
her
new life. But Jierra was happy and settled, and fast becoming the right-hand woman of none other than a
goddess.

Jierra didn
’t need Aureliana anymore.

But apparently Kindara did.

“So we eat. First light, we head to Relaklonos.”

She wasn
’t so thrilled to be going back to the demon realm. She’d had two experiences there, and neither had been safe and secure for her. Canon fire and slavers did not a happy Aureliana make. That was for sure.

But her best friend waited. That was all the draw she needed.

The next morning she was knocking on the demon’s door at first light. He opened the door and greeted her with a not-so-friendly expression.