Diomere's Exile

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Voices rang out across Volos’ harbor as ships docked, their sailors throwing ropes out to those waiting to tie them down. Nadia, hand fisted around the hilt of the short sword at her waist, watched a sleek merchant ship glide into the harbor, its white sails furled. Though smaller than its counterparts, the Diomerean merchant ship was a long, slim vessel with a projecting bow and streamlined hull known for its beauty, grace, and speed. Nadia just wanted it to release her sister from its bowels.

Geeta leaned heavily on Jon beside her, a scented cloth held over her nose. “Tap that toe any harder on this sorry excuse for a dock and we’ll all be swimming with the ships and shit.”

Nadia gave the other woman a hard look, then peered at an amused Jon. “How do you put up with that mouth?”

Geeta gave her best cat-got-the-cream smile. “Because this mouth has many talents which make overlooking its flaws easy.”

Jon’s bark of laughter rang out over the docks, causing heads to turn.

Nadia shook her head and returned to watching her sister’s ship. “Cheeky heifer,” she muttered, biting back a smile.

Her friend’s laugh turned into a wheezing cough. Nadia shot Jon and Pell a worried glance. The amusement leaked from Jon’s gaze as he pulled her close to his side.

“I had thought you were finally taking a turn for the better,” Pell said, watching Geeta with concern. “Nadia seems to be completely cured and Jon only a bit pale and shaky.”

Geeta glanced at Pell, tears leaking down her cheeks. “The gate needs to be open before we’ll be completely healed.”

Pell wrinkled his forehead, unfamiliar with the inner workings of the A’mi. “Why? You said it was producing a’mi. So shouldn’t you just need to sit soaking it in longer?”

“You would think so,” Nadia muttered. “Hopefully, Arriana can help us figure out why.”

The ship’s crew called among each other, and the passengers began to disembark. Nadia forced herself to wait in place after her sister’s dark red hair caught her attention. As soon as Arriana stepped off the gangplank, Nadia strode forward and swept the smaller woman up in her arms. She swallowed past the lump in her throat, her eyes burning, as she simply reveled in having one of her sisters with her at last. When she was sure her emotions were once again under control, she pulled back and looked down into her sister’s beloved face.

“I can’t believe you’re really here.”

Wide green eyes, shiny with the tears trailing silently down her pale cheeks, stared back at Nadia from a narrow face. Everything about Arriana was small. Her tiny nose was dusted with a sprinkle of tiny freckles. Her small chin was pointed on a small face. Her head barely reached Nadia’s chin, but her smile was wide as she hugged her eldest sister.

“I’ve missed you so much, Carina,” she said in a musical voice which perfectly matched her lively nature, using her childhood nickname.

Nadia pulled a wrinkled handkerchief from her sister’s hand and gently wiped the tears away. “I’ve missed you too, Sprite.”

Arriana plucked the rose from Nadia’s hand and knelt at the edge of the dock. “Thank you, Meren, for allowing me safe travel on your great waters. Thank you, Soira, for fair winds which allowed us to arrive quickly. Thank you, Asha, for allowing me to step safely onto your shores, and Naar for the strength of the ship on which I traveled. Thank you, Druj, for the impulse to return to Diomere so I would be there when my sister’s letter arrived. Please accept this rose as proof of my heartfelt gratitude.”

She placed the rose upon the water’s surface and watched it float away. Nadia kissed the tips of her fingers and blew it toward the sea in silent agreement with her sister’s gift. Escorting her sister up the dock, she ignoring the looks of astonishment she knew were a result of including Druj, the god of chaos, impulsiveness, and the underworld, in the prayer.

Arriana threw her arms around Geeta and gave Nadia a concerned look over their cousin’s shoulder. “Thank you so much for taking such good care of my sister, Geeta.”

The older woman blushed. “Of course, my lady. She doesn’t make it easy, but I do my best.” She pulled out of Arriana’s arms and leaned against Jon. “Lady Arriana, this is my heartbonded, Jon.”

Arriana took Jon’s hand and squeezed it between both of hers. “I’m happy to finally meet you, Jon. I’ve heard so many good things about you.”

Jon nodded his head, a small smile on his face. “Dese two have done nothing but prattle on about you and your arrival since we receive word you were coming. Dey told me you had a smile dat lights up de world around you. I see dey were right.”

Arriana’s tinkling laughter filled the air, making heads around them turn. Nadia met each curious gaze with a hard stare and the onlookers quickly went about their business.

Pell stepped forward and took Arriana’s hand. “Lady Quinones, it is a pleasure to see a familiar face from home. I trust your voyage was uneventful?”

Arriana nodded, her smile stiff at the corners as she nodded to Pell. “Thank you, Teniente de Argustanos. It was.”

Nadia pulled her sister’s hand from Pell’s and tucked it into the crook of her own elbow. “Come, the carriage waits.”

Pell helped load Arriana’s trunks onto the back of the coach, the Emerald Mermaid’s name emblazoned on its side in gold, and rode up front with the driver while the rest of them climbed inside.

Nadia settled in beside her sister. “I don’t think you’ve changed a bit since I last saw you,” she teased. “You still look fourteen.”

Her sister scowled. “I’m a successful healer. I traveled to Arenatou and even earned the respect of the logic-minded medics.”

Nadia raised her brows, biting back laughter at her sister’s indignant look. “You’re just so cute and tiny.”

Her sister’s lips twitched. “Mouthy shrew.” Geeta coughed and all humor faded. Arriana turned and touched Geeta’s knee. “Tell me everything about this illness you’ve been unable to heal.”

Geeta closed her eyes and leaned against Jon. “It’s slowly killing me. Before last week, I had only a fortnight left.”

Nadia gasped while Jon pulled Geeta tighter against his side. “You didn’t tell me that.”

“I didn’t want to worry you.”

Arriana held up a hand. “What changed?”

Nadia glanced out the carriage window at the tall u-shaped guild halls lining the avenue leading from Volos’ North Bay. In one stone courtyard, aproned workers loaded rolls of fabric into a covered carriage, and next door a clockmaker worked on the large clock which stood in the center of Time Hall’s courtyard. She’d walked these streets so many times, visited many of these halls when setting up the Emerald Mermaid, yet never had she suspected that Thuno’s gate hid under the mountain which towered over the city and on which Thuno’s main palace perched. She returned her gaze to her sister.

“Did you know other gates still survive outside Diomere?” she asked as the carriage slowed and turned onto Palace Highway.

Her sister’s eyes widened. “You found Thuno’s gate?”

Nadia smiled and nodded. “I can’t believe it either.” The carriage pulled up to the Emerald Mermaid. “We’ll show you now while your trunks are taken to your rooms.”

Her sister let Pell help her out of the carriage, then stopped to stare wide-eyed at her inn. “Oh, Nadia, it’s beautiful. It’s so welcoming with the soft white stone and all those windows. It feels more like a large home than a public inn.”

“Exactly what I was going for,” she said with a swell of pride. “Come on, you’ll love the inside.”

Pell left them to get reacquainted, while Nadia gave her sister a tour of the inn, ending in her suite of rooms and the hidden entrance into the caves. Nadia showed her sister into her private cave where Geeta and Jon waited.

“This rats nest must be where you spend all your time.” Her sister grimaced, gesturing toward the stacks of books and papers on the low table and floor.

Nadia raised her brows. “Yet, I know where each book and paper is when I need to find it.”

“I call it the cave of controlled chaos,” Geeta said, a tired grin on her face. “So far as I’ve seen, no vermin have crawled from under anything.”

“Thank the gods for small mercies,” Arriana muttered with a shudder.

Nadia ignored their jabs and pulled the tapestry from the opening to the gate’s cave. Jon assisted Geeta into the cave. The sick healer stopped before the gate, her eyes closed. The pillars glowed with an inner light that hadn’t faded since the first time she’d touched them.

Her sister stepped through last and gasped. “Lightboxes in Thuno?”

They left Geeta soaking in the Gate’s glow while Nadia showed her sister the palace and the lake before returning to the Gate Cave. Nadia crossed the cave and caressed the closest pillar as she did each time she passed through on her way to her hidden pool.

The glow grew brighter, and the gate warmed under Nadia’s hand as if welcoming her. “Thuno’s Gate.”

“It looks very similar to the one in Diomere,” her sister said.

Arriana moved up next to Nadia and ran her fingers over the pillar’s carvings.

The pillar flashed, and Arriana jerked her hand back. “Ow,” she cried.

To complete the joining, we must have the one bonded to the key. This Sankta Hogo-sha belongs to another.

Arriana’s startled gaze jumped to Nadia. “It spoke to me in the language of the A’mi.”

Geeta stepped away from the pillars. “I heard it too.”

Jon just nodded when they all looked at him as he eyed the gate warily.

“That word,” Nadia said. “Sankta Hogo-sha. Jasara called me that the night she took Areisteo.” She shook her head and met Arri’s wide-eyed stare.

“We need to ask Lareina if she can tell us what it means,” Arriana said. “What joining is it talking about?”

“The gate said the first part to me when I first touched it. I figured it is talking about the heartbond ceremony, but I don’t remember Mother mentioning the gate’s role in any of the stories she told me about it,” Nadia replied.

“I don’t either,” her sister murmured, her gaze on Geeta’s curvy figure. “However, the effect it has on Geeta confirms the information Lareina found on a’mi sickness right before I left.”

“So it is an a’mi illness then.” Geeta sighed.

Taking a seat on one of the cushions Geeta had scattered near the gate, Arriana gestured for them to join her. “Apparently, when the A’mi and Sa’i passed freely through the gates, they were careful not to stray too far from city that housed the gate without coming back for a recharge. To do otherwise caused a’mi starvation for those from Mondami and poisoning for those from Saimond.” She turned to Geeta. “Diomere has an active gate. The island is saturated by the a’mi it leaks. So those of A’mi blood allowed to live on the Saimond side, can do so without repercussion. But you’ve been away from Diomere for over twelve years. Your body is starving for the a’mi it needs.”

“If that’s true, then why haven’t Jon or I been affected as strongly?”

“You’re both bigger. Think of two people starving for food. The one with more fat stores on his body will live longer than the one with less. Geeta’s declining health is affecting Jon, because they’re heartbonded. If she had died, he would have soon followed. The heartbond allows Geeta to borrow some of his strength. He is most likely the reason she is still alive.”

The bottom dropped from Nadia’s stomach as she realized how close she’d come to losing her closest friend. She shot Jon a look of gratitude, realizing she owed him more than she could ever repay. She reached out and squeezed Geeta’s hand, needing the reassuring warmth of her skin to ease the sick churning in her gut.

“But why does being around this gate only slightly alleviate her problem instead of healing her completely as it did me?”

“This gate hasn’t been opened for a very long time. And isn’t yet fully active, if what it said about the bond and the key is any indication. It would seem that it’s chosen you as that key and therefore, you have a direct link to the a’mi which powers it.” She looked from Nadia to the gate. “Until you find your heartbond and activate the key, Geeta only gets a trickle of power when near the gate.”

“And if the gate isn’t activated? What happens to Geeta?”

Arriana leaned forward, placing a hand on Geeta’s head and heart, then closed her eyes. For an instant her pale skin seemed to shimmer and gossamer wings appeared to extend from her back, revealing the pixie blood she’d inherited from her mother.

After a few moments, she opened green eyes that seemed to glow from within, her gaze stricken. “What she’s getting from the gate is keeping her alive. Barely.”

Jon pulled Geeta tight against him and buried his face in her hair.

Nadia surged to her feet. “We’ll put her on the next ship leaving for Diomere.”

A tear spilled down Arriana’s cheek. “The gate is the only thing keeping her alive. If she gets too far away from it…”

“But what happens if the gate stops leaking a’mi? Or if the Order discovers that it’s here and convinces Dieuroi Mavros to destroy it?” Nadia dragged a hand down her braid and started to pace. “The only alternative is to find my heartbonded and activate this gate as soon as possible.” Nadia kicked the pillow she’d been sitting on across the cave, ignoring the flash of amber eyes in her mind. “You might as well tell me to sprout wings and fly or turn water into wine,” she said, her voice breaking on the last word.

All three of them stared at the gate, each lost in her own thoughts until a knock sounded on the door of her chamber. Nadia stood and passed through the opening, followed by the other three. After pulling the tapestry over the hole, she crossed to the door.

Sarna’s gaze jumped directly to a seemingly healthy Geeta and widened. “Jorgan’s wife has gone into labor.”

Geeta bustled to the door, followed closely by Jon. “I’m on my way.”

Sarna turned without further word and left. Arriana raised an eyebrow, but remained silent.

“I’ve got to go. I’ll be back for my nightly pick-me-up,” Geeta said, stopping beside Arriana to pull the younger woman into a hug in her motherly way. “I’m so happy to have you here, dear.”

The sisters watched Jon escort Geeta out, their hearts heavy. They returned to Nadia’s suite in the Emerald Mermaid, where Arriana would be sleeping. They chose to take dinner privately and catch up. After the food had been consumed in companionable silence, they curled up before the fire with steaming cups of tea and a plate of cookies.

Nadia caught and held her sister’s gaze, determined to shake the gloom of Geeta’s impending death. “I think I’ve found Areisteo.”

Arriana’s eyes widened. “He lives?”

She rubbed her forehead, remembering her close call with Gregor the day before. “I haven’t been able to confirm with my own eyes yet, but I’m optimistic it’s him. He believes he is the bastard prince to Dieuroi Mavros. The Dieuroi has hired a rival underworld guild to eliminate him after witnessing him change into his true form.”

Color drained from Arriana’s face. “Is he safe?”

“The assassins were hired two nights ago. He’s been surrounded by the crown prince’s personal guard since.” Nadia rubbed her neck. “He takes the leavings from the Dieuroi’s table every seventh day to Thuno’s poor district.” Nadia met her sister’s worried gaze. “If he’s allowed to do that, the assassin will try to take him out then. I would.”

Arriana covered Nadia’s hand with her smaller one and squeezed. “I was with Lareina when I received your summons about the illness. As soon as I finished reading aloud to her, she had one of her visions. In it, she saw someone attack a faceless boy. A man stepped between him and the poisoned knife, then died from the poison. The sky darkened until only five stars remained. The first star wept and burned out, followed by the other four stars. The darkness suffocated the world.”

“What in the dark abyss does it mean?”

Arriana shrugged. “Lareina believes the five stars represent five people important to our world. The man’s death hurts the person represented by the first star. She sent me to keep him from dying.”

Nadia leaned back and closed her eyes. Her sister’s visions were often peppered with riddles, but they were always important. At five years old, Lareina, the youngest of the five Quinones sisters, had come running into Nadia’s chamber, tears pouring down her face. She’d had a dream that her mother died. Quick to reassure the younger child, Nadia took her by the hand and led her to her stepmother’s room only to find the lady laying in a puddle of her own blood, the commander of her father’s personal guard dead beside her.

Nadia found out later that the commander and one of his lieutenants had been making their rounds when they heard Dona de Quinones cry out. She’d tripped on the step leading from her balcony into her chamber, twisting her ankle. Lifting the lady from the floor, the commander was placing her on the chase when Don de Quinones walked into the room. He’d killed them both in a fit of jealous rage. Their father was a plague on all five of the Quinones sisters’ lives and always had been.

She inhaled, shoving the painful memory away. “She believes it’s prophetic?”

“Yes.”

Nadia leaned forward and banged her head against the edge of the table. “First, our nephew’s kidnapping, now this.” She sighed. “If we’re going to keep this mystery man alive, you’d better tell me what he looks like.”

“Lareina said he’s tall with shoulder length brown hair and oddly pale brown eyes. His looks are memorable rather than handsome in the traditional sense.”

Nadia tensed, her eyes narrowed as Arriana pulled out a small square of parchment and rolled it out on the table. Gregor’s face had been painted in startling detail in her sister’s hand. She’d caught the distinct amber shade of his eyes perfectly.

“The dark rings encircling the amber iris are thicker,” she said in a low voice.

Her sister leaned forward. “You know him?”

Nadia traced a finger along his square jaw. “You’re right, he isn’t handsome so much as striking”—she traced her finger over his full bottom lip—“until he smiles.”

Realizing she caressed the picture, Nadia yanked her hand away and glanced up to see her sister’s brows raised and her mouth hanging open. Heat crawled up her neck to her face. She scowled and rolled up the painting.

“You have feelings for him. You, who swore off all men and sneers at the notion of love, are falling for a man.” A delighted smile flushed her sister’s face. “I want to know all about him. Now.”

Nadia rolled her eyes. “Just because I don’t believe men are trustworthy enough to warrant marriage, doesn’t mean I don’t notice them. He is Lord Gregor Cyrene, Marquess of Cyrene and Sestos, and Prince Stefan’s closest ally, confidante, and Commander of the Crown Prince’s personal guard. He’s being groomed as the crown prince’s personal advisor.” She lowered her voice. “And I find his smile beautiful.”

Her sister clapped her hands, her excitement making her bounce in her seat. “Just wait until I tell the others. Zephyra, especially, won’t believe it. She was sure you’d grow old and die alone, a sexually frustrated spinster.”

Nadia scowled. “Zephyra can mind her own damn business. I’ve had sex. It’s completely overrated.”

Reminded of Nadia’s past, Arriana’s smile faded. “Not all men are like our father or your ex-betrothed, Carina. Would you miss the chance to find your heartbonded, especially now?”

Pressing her lips together, Nadia ignored her sister’s question and stood. She moved to a pair of crossed swords hanging on a stone wall across from the fireplace and pulled the hilts of the swords toward each other. The wall pulled forward with a quiet sigh, revealing a steel banded door. She inserted her key into it and waved for her sister to follow. “Come, Geeta will have returned to the gate’s cave by now. I want to show you the rest of what I found.”