43. Maeve

43

Maeve

N inack's chain of stolen godheads remained on the floor where he had disappeared, along with faint threads of shadow. Maeve looked between it and the events unfolding before her with equal anticipation. There was a growing sense within her, that touch of the divine, she now realized, she had missed in ways difficult to describe. She could see at least a dozen more links of her fire in that chain, and they called to her. Come claim us, they seemed to whisper. We belong with you.

Yet, what was happening between Cedric and Eros? That kept most of her attention.

Had he truly offered Cedric the position of a god? One of the primordial forces of the universe?

The guardsman looked more baffled than she felt, his mouth working. "I," he stammered, then fell to his knees. "I am not worthy."

Definitely an affectation of the Realms , she thought wryly.

"Someone will take his place. I must choose soon. If not you, who?" Eros lifted his gaze to the rest of them. "Your Priestess is spoken for. Others are already marked. What of her?" he motioned to Gladys, who startled. "Would you change to a brother, young human?"

Gladys shrank back, clutching the leathers over her chest.

"Or we could wake that one," he jerked a chin where Nath was sprawled near the door, unconscious. "But he is already mostly the Fae males."

"Must it be one of the humans in this room?" Maeve asked.

Ankou shot her a look which quite clearly telegraphed she was to keep quiet.

Eros just smiled, and the look was so unsettling on such a primal level that Maeve took a half-step back.

"Ninack's essence is, for now, contained to this room," her father explained quietly, though most of those with superior hearing would pick up his words. "And if our Lord is doing as I believe he is, then a vessel must be found."

"Aye, then," Pike growled, prowling forward with both daggers in hand. He did not seem perturbed by the god of gods, coming to stand just beside the kneeling Cedric. "You could leave the boy be and take me."

Eros did that same slow perusal, looking Pike up and down. "You'd do."

"Pike, no!" Maeve cried, and Cedric looked back at her, his eyes swimming with tears of relief. But as they locked gazes, she could see another emotion coming into play. Resolve.

"No," Cedric echoed, thrusting a hand forward. "I will do it."

Eros, who looked more bored than anything, slipped his palm against the guardsman without another moment's hesitation.

Cedric turned in an instant. In one breath he was an armored member of the High Priestesses guard, a cape of the four colors of the gods hung from his shoulder plates, and the next he stood in plain black garb, still looking mostly human, but dripping with black shadows. His eyes were swallowed up with black, no white showing except the faint reflections off the ambient light.

Maeve's mouth fell open, and before her father could stop her she darted forward, pulling Pike with her by the back of his armor. He came willingly.

The power in the room shifted, changed. Cedric stared at his hands, opening and closing his fists as though he had never seen them. "What—I know it all," he said. "I can feel his—my—hunger. I know… so much." His voice was a rumble through their feet, shaking the foundations of the mountain. He glanced at Thea, "My lady?—"

"She is not your lady any longer, she is here to serve you. She is your priestess," Eros said mildly, moving around the new god to stroll around the room. He paused before Titania, bleeding from a slash to her chest, his eyes fixing on the red blood for a moment until he moved on. He circled the other three gods, nodding to himself as though he were an inspector come to call. He laughed when he saw Elias, who took several steps back, hand on the hilt of his short sword.

When he stopped by her, Maeve held her breath. She had sent Pike away with a few wild waves of her hand to guard Thea, hissing, "She's alone."

But when Eros's footsteps stopped their tread and he fixed his disconcertingly pale gaze upon her, Maeve felt something inside her quail. Those eyes were like liquid mercury and starlight, edged in the deepest charcoal that spread thin tendrils toward the pupil. She knew if she ever attempted to paint, she would not be able to capture them. Never to satisfaction.

"Interesting," Eros said, repeating his word from earlier. "She is yours, Lutem?"

"Yes, Lord," Ankou said, bowing his head. "Though part of her godhead is still missing."

"Ah, yes," Eros waved a hand and the chain sailed through the air toward her.

Maeve was not shy about it. She absorbed the rest of her blue fire links within an instant, the others coming loose to clang on the floor.

When next she opened her eyes, she was blinded.

The threads connecting everything, one into the next, were at such a conjunction on the shape of Eros—who was massive—he looked made of pure light.

"She can see part of it," Eros remarked, and she felt as much as saw the reverberations of that voice through those same threads. "Yet not all. How fascinating."

The god slid closer, and Maeve leaned back, the sense of him like a burning line against her skin, sinking into her bones. He stared with eyes burning with star fire. Then she blinked, and her vision was returned to normal, her godhead coming to rest, she sensed. Some part of her clicking back into place.

"You've given me an idea," Eros said. "A new experiment."

Ankou tensed, and Eros laughed, stepping back and clapping the god of death on the shoulder.

"Be at ease. I will leave the remainder of this mess in your capable hands." He stepped back further, hands sliding into the pockets of his long pants. Maeve stared at his bare feet, still seeing that great being of light in her mind's eye. "Lutem, Rizor, Tegal. Welcome your brother, Ninack. You will find him a better companion through the eons, if I am any judge."

Bowing, Rizor said, "We appreciate your leniency."

Eros disappeared, leaving nothing but the echo of his odd laughter.

Everyone in the room seemed to be able to breathe normally, and Rodan spoke behind her. "The rifts, Ced—Ninack, can you close them?"

"Yes," he said, his voice containing still a great wave of power. As though he did not know how to contain it. "I remember."

The god of darkness strode to the throne, stroking a hand down one arm, and the mountain rumbled with a thrum of energy. Outside, Maeve could see the cracks in the sky sealing shut, the swirling vortex of clouds beginning to slow.

The Nyx that had been coming through reversed direction, screaming as the light of the sun began to penetrate the thick clouds. She watched as they burned to ash, most, before they could reach those closing rifts.

And then it was over, and the clouds were simple wisps of white and pale gray upon a cerulean sky. Ash drifted like snow to fall on the ruin of the earth below.

Maeve reached for the pathways, and found the humming connected web of them within her mind. The thread to home called to her the loudest. She ached to be on the soil of the Realms.

But below them, the city was in chaos.

Lydia was at one of the windows, peering down at her city. "I should be down there," she said. "I have foundations that can help."

"We'll do what we can," Maeve said, coming to stand beside her daughter.

"I must return to my… home," Ninack said gently. "This mountain palace does not belong here."

She turned to him, surprised to see that those black eyes were warm. She took a step toward him. "Are you alright?"

The new god of darkness looked at his hands again. "This is… the same as it has always been, and yet new."

Tegal came up to him and clapped him on the shoulder. "Brother, you were not the first to be reborn. Talk to me if you have any questions."

Maeve turned a startled glance to her father, who offered her a wane smile. "It has always been me, Maeve my darling. Rizor and I have never played with the laws of Danu like our siblings.

"Rodan's lip curled and he shot at Tegal, "You have a lot to answer for."

The god of life laughed. Rodan looked ready to go over there and do something, but Maeve put a restraining hand on his arm.

Ninack shuddered and then settled onto his throne, motioning to the doors so they unlocked and swung open on silent hinges. "I would have your company, brother," he said to Tegal. "There is much I would ensure I understand."

Thea, who had been watching everything with eyes swimming with tears, approached and knelt before the throne and the two gods, one upon and one beside. She bowed her head. "Thank you for allowing me to bear witness."

Ninack stood once more, coming to Thea and reaching down, helping her to stand. His smile was broad as he leaned forward and whispered something to her that Maeve could not catch, but she saw the priestesses face pale, her eyes go wide.

"There's the issue of Elias's bond with the Nyx," Rodan said, speaking to the room at large but watching Ninack in particular. "Where did you send Maeve? Where can we find the Nyx master?"

The god of darkness had hold of Thea's shoulders, and he gave her a kiss on the cheek before turning to Rodan, extending a hand. "I can share the knowledge with you."

Her bondmate did not hesitate, and she could sense the moment that he found the coordinates through their link. She turned to Titania and Ankou. "You're bonded now. For good?"

"I hope so," Titania purred, wiping at the slash on her chest. "Would you happen to have some of our healing potion, Maeve darling?"

She made some, passing it to her mother. "You killed Oberon because of what he did to me," she said, the words more a statement than a question. Ankou had told her, Icarus had been Oberon's pet project, the king consort playing with the threads of her life for some decades now.

"It was one of the main reasons, yes," Titania agreed. "He was the one who introduced Ninack to Icarus, giving him two vital weapons. A maker and an illusionist."

"They still live," Maeve murmured. "But Oberon is in your world?" she asked Ankou.

He nodded. "He has passed through the gate, and has drunk from the River Lethe."

"Good riddance," Titania muttered. "It was not even a decade before he became boorish and intolerable, and his machinations were clumsy and deadly both. I wish it had not taken me so long to discover the method of removing the bond."

"How do you do that?" Maeve asked, curious.

Her mother smiled at her. "Some secrets are for the High Queen of the Fae Court to hold. Will you become that?" She did not wait for an answer. "No. You have your lovely little world. What could you possibly want with an empire?"

"Easy," Ankou said, moving so he was between the two women in his life. "My love, you know that now that Oberon is dispatched, you can rule the Fae Court the way you have always wished. Remove his influence, and be at peace."

"I want to be able to claim you as my daughter," Titania said, lifting her chin and staring Maeve down. "That could put to bed those awful rumors."

"I'll think about it," she said.

"First you need to help Elias," Rodan said, coming up behind her. "He needs the bond between himself and the Nyx severed, and we must take care of their threat before it's too late. He has some minor control over them, but you know the bond is not one of mastery, but blending."

"And why do you think I would help you?" she asked, her face expressionless. "I doubt you would do the same, were our situations reversed."

Maeve felt a flush rise to her cheeks. "If you ever hope to claim me as a daughter, you will break the bond for my friend."

Titania looked at her for a long beat, and then nodded. "It makes the spell easier, if the bondmate is dying."

Maeve shuddered, and noticed as she did that Lydia was still gazing out at the destruction far below. Through her own psychic senses Maeve could tell nothing, but she knew from simple observation that her daughter was practically jumping out of her skin wanting to go down to help.

She turned back to the others. "Let's get this done, and come back to aid in what's going on out there."

They separated the group, Ankou staying with Lydia to escort her, Jen, Pike, and the other humans out of Ninack's stronghold.

Titania, Maeve, Rodan, Troy, and Elias would go to the Nyx caves. Maeve was certain that it was somewhere in the northern climates, where Gladys had said entire townships had gone missing—dark—in recent weeks. It had been incredibly cold wherever they had been and, when Rodan opened their bond and let her see where their destination, her suspicions were correct.

They traveled the Earth pathways to far northern Siberia, at the foot of a mountain range that opened to a cavern just before them.

They moved inside and found their way to the massive cavern, moving swiftly, Fae and elf alike quick on their feet.

It seemed several levels of strange, to be ready to fight by Titania's side after everything Maeve had learned of her. She kept stealing glances at the High Queen. With her hair braided back and an armored costume on, Maeve could see the resemblance. Especially in the eyes.

They conjured balls of fire to illuminate their path, Maeve reveling in the renewed surge of her godhead's power.

Elias was shaking with more than cold by the time they found their way into the main cavern. Not a one of their party spoke, urgency propelling them forward.

The Nyx screamed. It shrieked as Titania brought forth light like a midday sun, causing all the creatures that had huddled in the dark to shrink and bubble, steam and burn to ash.

Elias was streaming tears as, together, the Fae and elf unleashed upon the last of the Nyx masters, the final mind that mattered. She could see him mouthing something as the creature fell.

She thought it was, I'm sorry.

Titania did the spell to unhook the bond, and Elias sagged, caught by Rodan. The cavern shook as though by an earthquake, the creatures within quailing and fleeing for any exit as viscera and blood rained on them.

Maeve grasped hold of everyone, reached for the pathways, and they were away.