Mage Assassin 4 Chapter 2

By the time I reached the fiery lake, I was panting heavily. The cool water I’d been doused in had kept me from getting too hot under the light from two of the six suns of the Ardere that were currently hanging overhead, but I was still winded after my non-stop sprint toward the palace.

I had already promised Cinis I would come to her right away with news about the Voltid, but it seemed especially important to do so now. I needed the queen to be on the alert that the wind goddess could be roaming around.

It also just so happened that my next planned stop after this trip had already been the  of Ocadia’s castle, and now that was doubly important, too.

I had been avoiding visiting the king himself in person because of the possibility of drawing the goddess to him, but also to avoid being spotted too often there. It certainly didn’t help with keeping a low profile, but I also couldn’t mirror too many beings to get inside, either. The king had no idea about my private powers, so I had to always be myself with him.

But the guards were bound to notice eventually that several random faces seemed to enter the palace without ever exiting.

Still, I couldn’t delay visiting the king any more. I had to go to him and inform him that the Goddess of the Prevailing Winds had been the one behind the assassination attempts. Even though I knew from my own intel that she hadn’t gone after the king herself just yet, she seemed to be far from willing to back down.

Things certainly showed signs of escalating, too, so I needed the king to be in on some of this.

It was going to be a tricky meeting, to say the least.

But for now, I was worried about the Queen of the Ardere first and foremost. There were no ferry masters in sight when I reached the lake, but a few turtles were floating lazily in the lava-water by the dock, and two of them were still saddled and bridled. I chose one and made sure it wasn’t tied to the dock before I vaulted onto its back and gathered the reins in my hand.

The turtle seemed only slightly startled at being abruptly boarded. With a noise like a small earthquake, it stretched out its tree trunk-sized legs and pushed against the rocky platform that was submerged around the dock.

The last time I came here, the journey across the fiery lake had seemed to go by fairly fast, with just enough time to look around me and enjoy the wonders of the Ardere. Now, the pace of the turtle was almost slower than I could stand, and I didn’t realize I had started drumming my fingers impatiently against the turtle’s shell until it gave a threatening little wobble. I quickly pulled my hand back to the saddle’s pommel, and the turtle swam on calmly.

When I was close enough to the shore, I leaped from the turtle’s back, and I felt the heat of the lava water through the soles of my shoes as they passed over it. I landed just above the waterline on the black sand beach and left the turtle to go about its business as I headed toward the cave that led up to the palace.

The torches that had been all lit up on the night of Cinis’ coronation were still in their sconces, but none of them were lit, and the cave was murky and dim compared to the light of the two suns.

I was only a short way up the stairs inside this cave when a pale, black-haired figure came sailing down them with her bat-like wings billowing out around her.

“Ooof!” I choked a little as Cinis collided directly with me.

“Sorry!” the beautiful queen blurted as she clung to my arms. “I saw you on the beach below and didn’t realize you’d made it this far yet. I was--”

Then she gave herself a little shake, like she had just realized something.

“Are you alright?” I asked as I set her carefully on her feet.

“Why are you all wet?” Cinis sent me a slightly puzzled look.

I was no longer dripping, but I was still undeniably drenched.

“Wind goddess,” I said abruptly, and a look of alarm came to her face. “Listen, let’s go talk in the courtyard or something… You might want to sit down.”

Cinis raised her eyebrows. “Okay, but only because you look like you need to sit down yourself.”

Despite the seriousness of what was going on, I had to chuckle a little at this characteristic sass from the queen. I saw a flash of white as she sent me a teasing smile, and then she grabbed my hand and led me up the steps.

We came out onto the flat stone terrace that jutted out slightly from the cliffside to overlook the fiery lake. It seemed empty without all the fire beings crowding around and outshining the suns as they had on the night of Cinis’ coronation, but it was refreshing to have some peace and quiet.

But now that we were out of the light of the cave, I guessed from Cinis’ wide eyes that it was clear I’d been in a murderous tussle for my life with the wind. Aside from the bruises, I was sure that several gashes must be present on my jaw and arms where the wind had dug into my skin like whips.

We sat on one of the many benches near the edge of this balcony-like courtyard, and I ran over what had happened with the Voltid first in about twenty seconds.

“…and now I’m certain there’s no threat from that front,” I finished.

“Okay,” Cinis said with a deep breath. “So… What the hell happened with the wind goddess, and how exactly did it involve water?”

“Well, I took the main trail back out of the forest, like you said, and that brought me out near the Ember Fields. So I started walking toward the palace from there on the path, and… everything was quiet, at first. Then I heard that whistling noise…” Even remembering the piercing, malevolent noise was a little eerie. I fell silent and gave my head a small shake to clear it before I went on. “And then the wind came.”

“Came… how, exactly?” the queen prodded me. “Did you see the goddess herself, like you did before?”

I shook my head grimly. “No sight of her physical form. But the wind got a hold of me, and it honestly beat the shit out of me for a little bit. I heard her laugh in the middle of it, when she thought she’d won.”

I smirked slightly with satisfaction at the fact that I’d at least managed to give the vindictive goddess a hell of a lot more than she bargained for, but a dangerous expression had come over Cinis’ face.

“Is that right?” It looked like she had to physically unclench her teeth to speak. “I can’t wait until I get a hold of that foul, deplorable, sneaking bitch--”

“No one’s going to be getting a hold of anyone just yet,” I said firmly to rein in the queen before things got out of hand.

She quieted after a few more muttered insults aimed at the wind goddess, but she continued to scowl as she let me continue.

“So I summoned the waters to me as fast as I could…” I carried on.

Cinis listened intently as I explained the giant, watery shield that I’d called into existence. Her face became completely still while I talked, and when I finished, her red-amber eyes were bright with something that I thought might be tears.

“This just happened with no warning at all, after a whole week of silence from this goddess?” she demanded.

“Well…” I hesitated. “I don’t think it could be called a ‘warning,’ but… I’ve had a weird sense that she’s been watching me lately.”

“What do you mean, ‘watching’ you?” Cinis stared at me.

“Sometimes I’ll get that eerie feeling,” I said with a frown. “The one I got before the goddess attacked today. Usually it’s when I’m outside, or alone. Everything will seem too quiet, or just off in a way that I can’t quite put my finger on. I can sense someone looking over my shoulder.”

Cinis was taking deep breaths like she was struggling to remain calm, but she still managed to be reasonable with her response.

“Well, how do you know it was the wind goddess?” she asked. “What if you were sensing someone, or something, else?”

I shook my head again. “I’m not sure exactly how to explain it, but it’s a sense I’ve honed over the years in this line of work. I know it’s her who has had her eye on me during those times, I can feel her there.”

“And you didn’t think to mention that to me at some point in the last week because…?” The queen’s husky voice was polite, but in an extremely menacing way.

“We’ve all been a little busy, Cin,” I said. “It hasn’t been the easiest thing trying to manage the possible aftermath of killing those assassins without actually being seen near the castle myself, in case I bring the king into the danger that I just worked so hard to get him out of. I’ve had my estate members and spies making constant reports to me.”

“So?” she scoffed. “You can’t have been too busy to stop for a moment and say--”

“And then there’s the series of jobs I’ve still been accepting, including staging an assassination in a troll bar without raising any eyebrows,” I continued. “Not to mention, managing my assassins and their jobs, keeping this business afloat and as discreet as possible, training Elis to control the murderous spirits he’s conjuring… Oh yeah, and raising a juvenile nipitar… that’s been a real breeze.”

“Fine.” She scowled at my sarcastic grin. “But, you could have made time to tell me you were being followed by that goddess bitch.”

“I didn’t see any reason to make you worry,” I reasoned.

“Well, I’m worried now!” she hissed, and her red-amber eyes got even brighter.

Then small trails of smoke trickled from her wings, and I realized she was dangerously close to snapping.

“I’m completely alright, surely you can see that,” I tried.

“Oh, surely,” the queen purred venomously. “You… you…”

I narrowed my eyes while I waited for her to come up with any kind of rebuttal, but she was just too furious now.

Then she pounced.

I rolled off the edge of the bench just in time to avoid her leaping on top of me with her teeth bared, and I landed in a crouch before I allowed her to come at me.

The queen was caught off guard by this, and she suddenly spread her wings to try and stop herself like she sensed a trap at the last second. But she was already coming at me full tilt, and I purposely allowed her to bowl me over. Then I got a firm grip on her and rolled to bring myself up on top of the furious queen.

She bucked her hips to try and dislodge me, and when that didn’t work, she attempted to shimmy backward out from under me. I put a stop to this by straddling her and pinning her wrists to the ground, and she jerked her head up in an attempt to snap at me with her bared teeth.

Then her skin began to grow ominously hot under my fingertips, and I saw the need to bring this conversation back into the bounds of peace.

But first I had to tear my eyes away from the queen’s plush cleavage as she laid there panting with all her curves on display on top of her outspread wings.

“The point is,” I said in a firm voice as I stared into her narrowed, still-glowing eyes. “The wind goddess is apparently on the loose in Ocadia, and--”

“Oh, that’s the point?” she snapped as her eyes started swimming with unshed tears. “Great! I guess nothing else matters, then, like the fact that some people might be worried for your safety, you stubborn fucking assassin!”

Cinis let out a furious roar, but it sounded more like a restrained sob, and I frowned slightly as I considered my raging lover.

I knew Cinis cared about me deeply, but her earlier threats toward the wind goddess were a lot more in line with the queen’s usual fierce nature than whatever this was. I pulled up short to study her face for a moment as I tried to figure out what was going on, and I couldn’t decide what I saw there. Tension, obviously, but she seemed much more upset than she normally would be. There was something under the surface that was causing this, I was sure of it.

I decided not to waste time playing games.

“Cin,” I prompted. “What’s going on? Talk to me. ”

She only sighed as she suddenly stopped fighting against my hold. Then I rolled off of her and offered her a hand up, but the queen ignored this. Instead, she leaped to her feet to pace away from me a little, and she continued pacing with a worried look on her face that made her pale, perfectly sculpted features scrunch up slightly. She was clearly thinking hard about how to tell me something, and I waited as patiently as I could for her to spit it out.

A few minutes later, Cinis finally stopped in the middle of fiddling with her long black hair, and she turned to face me with her hands folded in front of her.

Then I realized there was a strange hint of excitement on her face.

But this was nothing like the exhilarated look I’d seen on her after she killed the Altayan assassin in the most badass way imaginable… nor was it the lusty, breathless gaze I was given each time I tumbled her into bed. No, this was something else, something that made her seem like she was glowing from the inside out.

Despite how tense she was, Cinis looked absolutely radiant about something.

“Dex,” she said in a voice that was slightly shy, but also quivering with excitement. “I’m… I’m pregnant.”

My jaw dropped so hard I thought it would hit the floor, and an infinite number of thoughts suddenly spiraled through my mind all at once. I couldn’t make much sense of any of them. There was only the general feeling that I shouldn’t be this shocked, since I knew Cinis had wanted a child since we first made love, but I was in fact very shocked. And slightly panicked at the idea that I, a Master Assassin and professional murderer, was going to have a child walking this world.

A child of a fire descendant. A child of a queen.

A child of a fucking assassin.

Cinis stared at me with wide, red-amber eyes while she waited for my face to do anything that showed I’d really heard her.

It didn’t.

I might have blinked once, but I couldn’t be sure, and before I could even think of getting a word out, a loud, distant whistling sound penetrated my hearing.

Cinis heard it, too, and we both looked around in alarm for the wind goddess. But it wasn’t the piercing sound of the wind I’d heard several times now. This sounded different somehow, and it was coming from directly overhead.

“Oh, dear,” Cinis mumbled.

“What?” I demanded, but she didn’t elaborate.

Cinis’ head just jerked skyward, and her eyes flared at what she saw there. My own eyes followed her gaze, and I inhaled sharply at the sight above me.

A meteor was hurtling down at us from the sky.

It was distant when I first caught sight of it, but by the time I had squinted a little to make sure I was really seeing a huge ball of flame flying toward us, it was already looming terrifyingly close over our heads. It blocked the light from the Ardere’s suns and filled the land below with a dimmer, ominous-looking, dark orange wash of light. The whistling noise must have been from the intensity of its speed, and I reckoned I could also hear the mad crackling of the flames that surrounded it and streamed behind it in a huge, fiery tail. The flames sounded a bit like they were laughing, and I was reminded eerily of the wind for a moment.

The absurdity of this thought brought me fully to my senses.

“Shit!” I bellowed in a rush of panic.

I swayed a little at the thought of this meteor hurtling toward my lover and our unborn child, but there was no time for contemplating it any more just now. I quickly snatched Cinis’ hand and started to sprint for the cave that connected with the castle and the beach below, and I dragged the queen along with me as the whistling grew louder and louder.

She soon picked up speed and dashed alongside me, and I was a little surprised to see that she didn’t look terrified. Only very apprehensive and deep in thought.

“Cinis…” I yelled as the whistling grew louder.

“Everything’s fine!” she insisted, but she did look a bit scared now. “Completely fine! This is totally fine!”

“Like hell it is!” I bellowed back. Then I threw a quick glance upward as we ran, and I saw that the meteor was almost directly upon us.

It dwarfed the whole royal courtyard, and I could already feel a wash of heat on my upturned face.

“Shit, shit, shit!” I repeated in a gasp as I tucked my head down and rushed onward. We were almost to the cave, but despite our breakneck speed, we weren’t quick enough.

With the boom of a thousand erupting volcanoes, the meteor struck the courtyard.

We were immediately thrown forward into the air by its force, and I let out another yell as I hurtled through the air. There was no way to stop. The most I could do was twist violently to the side to insert my body between Cinis and the flying debris that was raining down around us.

The queen shrieked a little as we landed, and I managed to brace myself on my hands and knees above her. My knees scraped painfully across the cobblestones on each side of her legs, and the impact sent pain lancing up my outstretched arms as I stayed in this protective position.

Cinis seemed safe, though, and I breathed out a small sigh of relief as chunks of rock and debris pelted off my back. Then I winced as a larger one about the size of a potato ricocheted off my shoulder blade.

Thankfully, no larger stones made contact with me, although some came close. An enormous chunk of cobbled terrace came crashing down just feet away from us, and a cloud of dust kicked up and made the queen cough.

I wheezed a little, too, and then I shook my head and climbed slowly to my feet. Once I made sure I was steady enough to support Cinis, I held out my hand for her to take, but she ignored me and leaped to her feet like she hadn’t just been thrown violently to the ground.

Suddenly, the queen seemed riled up in a whole different way, and she immediately stormed toward where the meteor lay out of sight in the deep crater it had made in the palace courtyard.

She didn’t seem even a quarter as stunned as I was.

“Cinis?” I frowned as she continued to stalk toward the scene. “You gonna fill me in on what the hell is going on?”

“I’d hate to worry you,” I heard her mutter under her breath, and I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

“Woman!” I shouted. “You were just giving me a hot pile of shit for keeping me…”

I paused when she was about twenty feet away from the destruction, since a pair of large, pale, strong-looking hands suddenly appeared over the rim of the crater. They firmly grasped the stony ledge as their owner leveraged himself up to climb out of the pit.

My jaw fell open for the second time that day as a tall man vaulted out of the crater and landed lightly on his feet.

Then he dusted his hands off with an oddly familiar expression of satisfaction, and a few orange sparks scattered from his palms and fingertips. The proud, noble planes of his face looked like they were sculpted from pale marble, and a mane of black hair tumbled loosely around his head and down to his chiseled jawline. A slight, scruffy beard shadowed his face and made his high cheekbones stand out even more, and he had bags under his eyes, like he hadn’t slept in days.

The bags made the striking burnt-amber color of his eyes practically leap out from his face, and even from this distance, I could see that his pupils spun and swirled with something glittery.

The sight made me stare in disbelief at the familiarity.

Despite his disheveled appearance, the man was undeniably handsome as fuck. Shockingly so, and he ran a long-fingered hand through his messy, tousled hair like he knew this. The jet-black strands seemed to turn into tendrils of russet flame that licked at the fingers casually running through them, but then his hair quickly faded like a red-hot anvil once his hand passed through. By the time he finished and was distractedly rubbing his jaw, his hair had fallen back into its previous glossy black shade and texture.

Then the newcomer’s luminous amber eyes roamed around and finally met mine, and they flared briefly to a red shade like the sunrise before a storm. This one look assured me that the man had a distinctly royal air about him, but not royal in the same way that the king was. In fact, this man’s obvious spirit of royalty made the king seem petty and pretentious.

Now some pressing questions came to me: Why the hell had this man come hurtling down out of the sky like a flaming meteor, and how was he completely unscathed as he climbed out of the huge crater created by the impact of him hitting the ground?

The manner of his arrival and the details of his appearance suddenly all fell into place, and I realized that there could only be one answer.

Then the handsome devil spread his arms wide toward Cinis and flashed a ridiculously charming grin that looked a hell of a lot like her own.

“My darling daughter!” he crooned as his eyes flared with fire. “I heard the wonderful news…”