Geared for Pleasure (42 page)

“Then I began to receive messages from strange little insects. It was the Khepri. He said the queen wanted to see me. I thought I was to be demoted or punished for my inappropriate attitude, but no. She asked me to tell her all about my time with the Felidae. To ask if I had heard the stories of the first Peacemaker or the myth of moonfire. She told me to trust the man who sent me messages and to go back and continue to learn from the Felidae. To protect them until I was called again. So I did.”

He coughed. Cyrus cringed at the painful sound, but Iacchus could not seem to stop now that he had begun to speak. “I did, and I heard the stories of a hidden tribe that kept the old ways and waited for the return of the moonfire oath. I also heard about the rumors
against the queen. False tales of a god king who had been banished for his love of the Felidae. I reported to the Khepri and we became friends.”

Wulf, who had been studying the small treetop village in silent fascination, focused on that. “Friends? Have you met him then?”

The old man started to nod, but hesitated. “In a way. Never got a look at him. But we talked. He offered me the opportunity to aid my queen for a generation. To protect her from something we could both feel coming. Though he knew far more about the specifics than I.” He turned his gaze once more to Dare, and Cyrus could see how difficult it was for him to say. “He took samples of my inheritance markers. Not long after I held you in my arms for the first time.”

Dare had gasped, covering her mouth and shaking her head in confusion and disbelief. Commander Iacchus held out his hand toward her, as if he could stop the pain not even Cyrus had known of. Samples of inheritance markers. He’d believed Dare conceived naturally.

“Demeter, my inheritance, my blood, is still a part of what you are, though you are not mine alone. He said you would be a special child belonging to all of Theorrey, and he was right. You have the best qualities of all of us inside you. Your gifts, the queen’s love for you—” His voice cracked. “I have always been proud of the part I played.”

Cyrus watched the captain move closer to Dare, hand on the hilt of her sword. Phina, as well, knelt at Dare’s feet, her tail brushing against Cyrus where he sat beside them.

Phina nuzzled Dare’s knee. “
That
is why her birthmark is shaped as a Khepri scarab. He, in a way, is more her father than the Wode commander.”

He, too, felt the sting of betrayal by his mentor. For the sake of the Chalice. He had a feeling that Phina and the captain had been suspicious before now. But he could only imagine what Dare must be going through.

Her laugh held a tinge of hysteria. “Everyone’s been right all along. Phina’s instincts weren’t off. I was fooling no one. I am not Wode. I
am
a half-breed. Worse than that, an experiment of some kind made, not in love, but by invention. And the Khepri, the queen’s Khepri did this? Made me… what?”

He watched the women allow Bodhan to drag her up and turn her until she was in his arms. “Mine, Dare. He made you mine. My princess. My heart. Your inheritance, despite what the damn scientists or the Theorrean Raj want you to believe, means nothing. They can change your hair or your height,
not
your soul. Not who you are.”

Freeman spoke beside them. Cyrus was surprised at the smoothness of his voice. And the sadness in it. “I do not believe the Khepri meant Dare harm. The commander is right to call her special. She is. Perhaps more than we realize. She is the only one who could not be fooled. She knew the true queen was gone and can feel her even now. I, for one, am thankful to have her on the Deviant. Proud to fight beside her.”

Cyrus lifted his eyebrows high in surprise when the captain walked over to Freeman and placed a hand, only for a moment, on his arm in gratitude. She lifted her chin. “Well said, Freeman. I am inclined to agree.”

The Peacemaker, carrying an empty greenwood bowl intricately carved with Felidae symbols, joined their small somber group. The others moved awkwardly out of the way until she could reach Dare. “Iacchus said he would return the moonfire and restore the oath the queen made, not that he would bring us the true child of Theorrey. A story on the wind come to life. You will forgive me, I could not help but overhear… You have the mark of the blue beetle?”

Phina had backed up onto Cyrus’s lap, watching the exchange with fascination while absently stroking his shoulders and arm. He felt his body heat and his heart begin to heal at her unconscious show of affection.

“It is on my back. I have never seen it clearly.” Dare drew his attention once more.

The captain, Freeman, Phina, and Bodhan all spoke in unison. “I have.”

Cyrus sighed. He did not want to know how so many people had seen the bare back of his companion shield. Neither, it seemed, did Commander Iacchus, whose face had turned purplish and swollen with discomfort.

The old woman nodded. “If you would grant me the honor please.”

Dare looked around and blushed, and Bodhan’s glare touched every male, including her father, until they looked away. His voice was tender when he spoke to her. “Face me, princess. We can just lift your jacket and show her together.”

Cyrus heard fabric rustling, Dare’s muttered, “Beneath my binding,” and then a gasp.

“So it is true.” The Peacemaker’s voice had a strange tinge to it. Cyrus was not sure if the fact troubled her or eased her mind.

They all turned when Dare’s fabric ceased its rustling and Dare looked down as the elderly Felidae pointed at the center of the bowl. “This is the symbol that dwells beneath your skin. Theorrey dwells in your blood.”

He wanted to stand, as curious as everyone else, but decided he would rather keep Phina where she was. Safe beside him.

Iacchus spoke, his voice solemn as he addressed the matriarch. “In her
blood
? Does that mean… Peacemaker, will you accept hers in place of the queen’s for the oath?”

The Peacemaker dipped her head in acknowledgment, never turning from Dare. “She carries the mark of the blue beetle. She is the Chalice, the element of empathy that carries the heart of the queen. It will suffice. Do you have the dagger?”

Phina’s body tensed on his and Cyrus whispered in her ear, “What is it?”

“Moon’s blood oath. In the settlement it’s unbreakable.” She pulled from his shoulder and showed him the small healing mark on her palm.

“Have you made one?” he asked.

She nodded. “Not one as important as this one I think.”

Dare reached into her belt, catching Cyrus’s gaze as she did. He nodded. This had been his mentor’s goal all along. To bring the queen’s dagger to these people.

“The first Peacemaker held our people together. She befriended the eternally youthful queen, recognizing her as a bringer of light and knowing her people would prosper as long as the queen dwelt among them.”

The woman swayed in front of Dare, speaking as though reciting an old story she had spun a hundred times. “To honor her ways, the Peacemaker carved out a cavern in the mountainside, gathering drops of its silver blood to create a blade.”

Dare handed the dagger to the Peacemaker and Cyrus studied it with new eyes. Its symbols he had believed decorative were Felidae, matching many on the bowl she still held with one hand.

“To honor our ways, she sacrificed her most valued possession.” The woman lifted the dagger to her chest, showing the similarity between her own necklace and the jewel embedded in the hilt of the silver dagger. “The symbol of the fire in her heart that had dropped from the sky into her hands. The moonfire stone. The only one of its kind, containing the true fire of the universe. She placed that inside the dagger.”

Dare leaned in to study the dual-bodied stone and she knew she would see it. Knew she had not seen it before. Only when you are looking could you see the fire flickering inside the stone. “I can see it. So this Peacemaker, she gave the dagger to the queen?”

The Felidae nodded. “They made an oath with their blood. The queen promised to bring no war to the people. My people. And
the Peacemaker vowed to stand by the queen and her own people in battle, as she had before, should the need arise.”

Cyrus glanced at Iacchus and saw him wiping the sweat off his brow, his attention riveted on the scene despite his illness. Had this been his life’s work? His mission?

Dare tilted her head, sensing something only she could. “You do not believe the queen kept her oath.”

The Peacemaker appeared startled, but she nodded faintly. “Having no war is far different from living in peace. Many who travel hidden by the veil have returned with claims that war can be bloodless. War can be captivity with the excuse of protection. War can be isolation wrapped in the lie of freedom. The men who followed Stet, who has been banished for his cowardice, believe the queen’s immortality is her weapon. That she would live to see us all die a slow death. They are not alone in their beliefs.”

Dare reached out, holding one edge of the bowl with one hand and cradling the edge of the dagger with the other, connected now to the Peacemaker. “She is not responsible for the treatment you have seen. I did not realize it, but I know now she was imprisoned long before she was taken from us. I’m not sure how or why, but it is true. I have felt her sorrow for the Felidae. Her anger at those who would harm them all of my life.”

Phina spoke quietly, but with vehemence from her perch on Cyrus’s lap. “I am Felidae and I have lived in the settlements. Those atrocities are not hers. She saved me from them. She would save all of us if she could.”

The Peacemaker beamed at them, tears filling her eyes. “Then my hope is restored. It will be difficult, but if you make the blood oath with me, with this dagger that holds the true moonfire, I and all who follow me will stand at your side, at the queen’s side, should you have need.”

The matriarch bent and set the bowl at their feet between them, held the dagger in her hand, and cut her palm. Cyrus watched as the innocent girl he had grown up with stood proudly, following the actions of the Felidae leader. Dare held her hand out, not flinching when the blade sliced open her flesh.

Her blood must not be spilled. She is precious, not to be harmed.

How often had that mantra been beaten into his skull? He had believed he protected her because of her weakness, soft heart, and vulnerable size. He’d had no idea.

Bodhan, as well, did not seem pleased with seeing Dare’s blood. His expression was protective. Watchful. Suspicious. A man after his own paranoid heart. He knew no harm would come to her if Bodhan had his way.

The two women pressed their bleeding hands together, the blade and stone between them. Blood dripped into the green bowl, onto the image of the blue scarab Cyrus could now see sitting at the center, at the heart of it all.

The hair on the back of his neck began to rise and he could feel it—a strange static charge building around them. The forest and the Felidae went eerily quiet. They felt what he did.

Dare gasped softly, “It is hot.”

The Peacemaker lifted her other hand, covering Dare’s firmly. “It will get hotter. The oath will burn into our blood, that we will never forget.”

Cyrus watched the dagger begin to emit a silvery blue glow. Dare was shaking but shrugged off Bodhan’s hands when he tried to touch her.

They all stood. Even Iacchus had gotten to his feet in concern. This was more than a bloodletting ritual. Much more.

He could have sworn he saw a flash of the moonfire flame spark between their fingers, and then it was over.

The Peacemaker wrapped her arms around Dare for a moment and murmured, “The blood of the Chalice. Truly you represent the eternal queen. The oath is restored.”

She slipped the dagger into her belt and picked up the bowl. Walking past them, out into the middle of the milling crowd, she held the bowl above her head.

Silence.

Her voice, when it came, seemed to tremble with power and authority. “The heart of the blue beetle sings and the truth is revealed to us. The moonfire has been restored and the blood oath of old renewed. Those who would have faith in me, prepare for what is to come. Those who follow another path, the path that leads to the Lord of Blood, can dwell with us no more.” The murmur of the voices grew louder, drifting down from the houses above. “Spread the word. Lift the spirit veils throughout the mountainside and tell them what you have heard here. Revenge has no refuge amongst our people. Malice no home. The first Peacemaker unites us all once more.”

A cheer broke out and traveled, causing Cyrus and the others to watch in awe. He had seen this in the painting. How had the queen known?

Cyrus watched the Felidae men who headed deeper into the forest, past the village. What appeared to be vines gave way to ropes and pulleys that they began to work, revealing more dodge. More illusion. This small community was not small. He could see dozens of dwellings spiraling up massive trees far in the distance. Gliders drifted in the distant skyline, from one tree to another.

This part of the journey had brought more questions than answers. He had believed he understood what was at stake. Now he was not so sure.

The Khepri had a few things to answer for. He needed to speak to the commander. Perhaps he knew where the mysterious hand of the queen could be found.

The Peacemaker came toward them quickly, gently cradling her palm. Cyrus could see the cut had been sealed closed by the heat the ritual had created. “The gliders told me you were searching for a tower beside the lake,” she said. “Is that true?”

The captain came forward, nodding. “The queen left us a message, telling us to find it.”

“It is not a place easily seen. I will send you with one who will show you, but you should go now. My people need to adjust to this news without interference from outsiders.”

Cyrus cringed a bit with his first few steps but shook his head when the others looked on in concern. “I’ve survived worse.” He glanced at Dare and offered her a playful, apologetic smile. “Perhaps I was chosen because I can take a beating?”

“No.” Commander Iacchus was lying down in his hammock once more, clutching his chest.