22. Tahlia

The giant stalked across the landscape with varjuline curling around his legs like scary little shadow puppies. Tahlia shivered, then stood, brushing herself off.

“Marius?” Tahlia looked him up and down, watching for signs of the curse’s control.

His face only showed every emotion that she too was experiencing. Want. Fear. Confusion. Desperation.

“Lady Tahlia.” He also looked exhausted.

“You’re still yourself?” she asked. “Tell me your favorite game to play with Titus.”

“I don’t think the c—” He swore and snarled, looking away. He seemed to hate it when he lost his temper, like he was frustrated not only with the curse but with his reaction to it.

“Right.” Tahlia nodded. “You can’t say curse or anything related again.”

The giant lifted its ugly, gnarled head and roared.

“At least, he’s a ways off?” Tahlia said, her tone forcibly hopeful. “Where is he headed?” As long as it wasn’t toward them, that was fine for now. They still had to rouse Fara and figure out a plan. Gods, she needed some time to process what Marius had told her, Trevain’s story, and, of course, the whole plague monster who kills dragon-riding Fae is back situation.

Trevain floated above the dying fire, just beside Fara, who still slept. “I have a guess and I don’t like it.”

Marius knelt beside Fara and felt for a pulse in her neck. “Speak plainly, spirit.” He glanced up at Tahlia, a world of frustration and pain pinching his handsome eyes and mouth. “She is strong. I believe she is healing.”

“Katk might have figured out that the standing stones are what trapped him here during his first waking period,” Trevain said. “If he destroys them, he will be free to continue setting his revenge plague on Fae with Mistgold blood from here to the coast.”

“Why?” Tahlia asked.

“When the victims succumb to his plague, their blood and life force feed him. That is the only way he can remain awake.”

“So to put him back to bed like the naughty fellow he is, we must starve him of victims?”

“That, or whatever solution the goddess, Mother Twilight, has up her proverbial sleeve. Perhaps we should find her…” He scratched his chin. “Presenting him to his champion would work if said champion breaks the magic that woke him.”

Tahlia scowled. “Why would his champion put him to rest?”

“Supposedly,” Trevain said, “if the champion did not sacrifice himself or herself, the monster’s reign will end when he sees the champion. Perhaps as a check on the magic’s power, set by the Old Ones? No one truly knows. Only my fellow spirits whisper this truth and most of them are stark-raving mad.”

Marius grumbled something unintelligible. “I don’t know why you’d expect a situation like this to make sense. In my experience, dark magic follows no logical course. It’s painfully undisciplined.”

“That’s such a Marius thing to say.” Tahlia looked to Trevain. “What happens with Marius’s curse in all of this?”

Trevain shrugged. “I would assume his curse will end if we manage to put Katk to sleep again.”

A frown tugged at Tahlia’s lips. “Assume?”

“The monster has only risen once,” Trevain said sourly, rolling his eyes.

“Watch your tone, spirit,” Marius snapped.

Pleasure coursed through Tahlia’s body, warming her from head to toe. She smiled at Marius and was rewarded with a smile back.

“Forgive me,” Trevain said to Tahlia.

Tahlia waved him off and knelt beside Fara. Her eyes opened. Red lines crisscrossed the whites and her lids were swollen. Tahlia exhaled in a rush and hugged Fara fiercely. She was as limp as a rag doll as Tahlia helped her lean back again.

“I’m so glad you’re not dead,” Tahlia said.

“Me too.” Fara attempted to sit up once more, but she couldn’t quite manage it.

“Don’t get up. Not yet.”

Fara nodded and relaxed, letting her eyes drift shut again. “I thought that was it for me.”

“We all did,” Trevain said, giving Fara a kind smile.

The experience with the memory realm had exhausted Tahlia and Marius, so they decided to rest if only for an hour or two. They asked Trevain to keep an eye out and every living being, dragons included, lay down to close their eyes for a short break.

“You’re certain we can take the time to rest? He is going to be tough to catch,” Tahlia said, looking in the direction Katk was headed.

“The dragons will outmatch his pace without much difficulty if they have a moment to rest,” Marius said, the confidence of many years in the order making his words firm and his tone sure.

Giving him a thumbs up, Tahlia lay beside Fara and fell asleep watching her friend’s purple eyelids flutter in dreams. She hoped they were dreams, anyway, and not nightmares.

A dragon snout woke Tahlia,and when she opened her eyes, Lija was staring down at her.