B00CGOH3US EBOK (50 page)

"You slew one of my dragons."

"Not on purpose."

"But you did, none the less. I should kill you for that."

The fact she hadn't been turned into a toad yet made Jill bold. "So why haven't you?"

"Because I am not done with you, yet." Isylte smiled, the catty grin never reaching her eyes. "Come, Lady Jill. I have something I wish to show you."

The witch turned and walked away, her confidence and regal bearing at odds with her youthful appearance. A doorway materialized in the wall behind the throne and Isylte disappeared into the next room without looking back.

Jill supposed she could refuse to follow, but that would get her nowhere. She wanted answers. She needed to find a way to save Baelin, if it wasn't already too late. The key to his curse was hidden somewhere within these cavernous walls, perhaps lying just beyond that door.

She really didn't have any choice. She followed.

Baelin looked down on a place he hoped never to see again.

A place of pain. A place of degradation. A pit of hell.

"It does not look so bad."

He glanced at the knight standing beside him among the ragged crags of the mountainside. He knew what Kendale saw before him. A beautiful fortress, its towering walls of gleaming crystals cloaked in shifting clouds of mist.

"Do not let its beauty deceive you. The Dark Witch's magic is powerful. She can make the day seem as night or the sun be the moon and you will believe it, until she has your soul."

Now that he'd recovered from their flight, Kendale would not be swayed. "How then do we scale walls of ice built on a mountain of mist?"

"We do not. Already she knows I am here. The gates will be open, and she will be waiting." Baelin turned to his friend. "'Tis not too late. This is not your battle. You have seen what the Dark Witch has done to me. I cannot promise once we enter the walls, we will ever leave again."

Kendale smiled and checked his sword. "But if we could be assured of the victory, what fun would there be in that?"

"Ah, victory. Would that we could be guaranteed it just this once. But I fear no matter what the outcome, I am going to lose Jill. Time has run out for me. Already the sun begins to set. In a matter of hours the full moon will rise and I shall become the dragon once more."

"Do not concede what has yet come to pass. Hours may be all that we need. Mayhap the last challenge you seek lies within those walls of ice."

"Perhaps it does." Maybe all he'd been through, all the long years of fighting against his fate, had finally brought him to this point.

Back to
her
.

Baelin readied his weapon, knowing it had little power against the witch's magic.

"Be warned, the closer I get to the Dark Witch's realm, the more power she has over the beast within me. 'Tis why I have never returned before. If we still remain within her walls once the sun sets, I will return to my dragon form and then she will have complete control over the creature I become. I will not know you for the friend you are, nor Lady Jill for the woman I love. If that should happen…"

He could not finish the request.

"I give you my word.
" Kendale placed one hand on Baelin's shoulder and squeezed. "But I pray it will not come to pass."

Baelin hoped he was right. For if he was not, Kendale would be Jill's only hope.

He would be the only one left to save her—and he would have to slay the dragon Baelin would become to do it.

The door led to another chamber. A bedroom, to be exact.

Though the room was large, like the great hall before, the furnishings within were sparse. A lady's dressing table carved out of pale wood occupied one corner, its edges gilded in silver. Two high-backed chairs with white pillowed cushions faced a roaring fire that did little to dispel the chill in the air. A large bed big enough to sleep the entire Brady Bunch family at one time sat on a raised dais. Covered in white furs, its massive frame dominated the entire room.

With such an obvious fondness for white, Jill wondered where the queen got the nickname of the Dark Witch.

"I like what you've done with the place. Very impressive. But the whole white monochrome thing must be a bear to keep clean."

Isylte frowned, as if the concept that dirt would dare mar the pristine perfection of her domain was inconceivable.

"I am pleased you approve. There are not many mortals who have ever gained entrance into my private chambers."

"So what makes me so special?"

"'Tis what I would like to know." The Dark Witch paced a circle around her, her amethyst gaze examining her from head to toe and back again, analyzing, studying, judging. "What makes you different from all the others? How is it you have succeeded where the others have failed?"

"Just lucky, I guess."

"Nay, there is something more. Something different. Over the centuries I have watched the other maidens come and go. You are not as beautiful as some, but you have a knowledge and experience the others did not have."

Without warning, Isylte put her hands on Jill's shoulders, sending an electric current rushing through her body. The Dark Witch's eyes widened in surprise at the static shock that passed between them. She released Jill and stepped back.

"Ah, I see. How interesting. When I created the curse, I knew there was no maid alive with the courage and honor to break it. But I did not foresee a woman from the future coming through time to face the challenges. Yet here you are."

"Yes, here I am. Guess the devil is in the details, isn't it?"

Isylte cocked her head. "Hmm, I like that. 'The devil is in the details.' I shall have to remember it." Her smile vanished as quickly as it came. "And you are one minor detail I did not plan on."

She sauntered away, turning her back on Jill, dismissing her significance with that one single gesture. "But no matter. All I must do is wait until the moon rises and it will be too late for Baelin." She whipped around, her pale hair fanning about her shoulders, the lines of her face cruel and vindictive. "And for you."

Now she knew why they called her the Dark Witch. She may look like an angel on the outside, but inside she was nothing but selfishness and cruelty.

Isylte walked over to the wall by the bed and pulled aside a white curtain. The sudden splash of vibrant color against the white stone shocked Jill's eyes, but it was the image depicted in the weaving hanging there that broke her heart.

It was Baelin. Or at least what was left of him. From the chest down, the rest of the tapestry was missing, the lower edge fringed with dangling threads.

"A remarkable likeness, is it not?"

Jill found it hard to speak around the painful knot in her throat. "Yes, it is."

"It was once magnificent, but you have managed to ruin it."

"Me? How? I never touched the thing."

"Do not be naive. You did not have to. The challenges. With each one you have passed, you have managed to unravel my magic."

A puzzle piece finally fell into place in Jill's mind. "Just like Baelin's tapestry has been reweaving itself each time."

"Yes, but so long as a portion of this tapestry remains intact, the curse still holds its power."

Jill looked at the ragged tapestry. There was so little left of Baelin. So little time left for both of them. That their lives had been turned upside down by this woman's caprice enraged her. She wanted to strike out, to hurt the witch as she'd hurt Baelin.

"Looks like your little curse is hanging on by a very thin thread there, lady."

"Do not taunt me!" Isylte shrieked. She made a motion with her hand and Jill braced herself to be turned into some slimy, reptilian creature. It didn't happen. The witch lowered her arm and breathed deeply, her nostrils flaring in her bid to regain control. "No, not yet. But when this is over, you will regret your ill-chosen words."

"I usually do," Jill mumbled to herself. "But it's not over yet."

"No, it is not. I will admit you surprised me when you made it this far. I underestimated you. But there is still the final challenge. One I am confident you will fail."

"How can you be so sure?"

"For one thing, Baelin must be with you to complete it."

"Then I guess you've already won, because he won't come." The words tasted bitter on her tongue.

"You think not?"

"I don't know what you did to him while he was here, but he's been avoiding this place like the plague." Jill's heart twisted at the grim truth. "He won't come. In all this time, if he wouldn't do it to end the curse for himself, what makes you think he'll come for me now?"

"Does he love you so little, then?"

Jill didn't want to believe it, but the possibility was there just the same. Did he love her enough? She honestly didn't know.

"We shall have to see, will we not?"

She began to understand the witch a little more. She might be older than Moses, but emotionally she was little more than a vain, spoiled child. A child who lashed out and broke her toys if she didn't get her way.

"You can't make somebody love you, you know. It doesn't work that way."

"Who said I wanted him to love me?"

Jill opened her mouth to respond, but the witch was no longer paying attention to her. Instead, she'd turned to look at the tapestry once again. As Isylte gazed upon Baelin's image, a shadow crossed her face, a whisper of longing Jill recognized all too well.

The Dark Witch was lying. She was a desolate creature, much like Baelin had been, living alone in her palace of ice. She did want someone to love her.

Jill almost felt sorry for her. Almost. But she refused to feel pity for the spiteful woman-child after all she'd done to Baelin.

"Everyone wants to be loved, even those who don't deserve it."

Isylte chuckled, but there was no humor in the sound. "And what do you know of love?"

"Enough to know it has to be freely given, not forced. Have you ever heard the saying, 'If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it's yours. If it doesn't, it never was?'"

The Dark Witch looked at her, perplexed, before laughing.

Jill rolled her eyes. "Yeah, it's a pretty hokey saying in my time too, but it's still true."

"But I did set him free. Yet he has never returned."

"Because you set him free as a monster, so he would be forced to come back to you. But it didn't work, did it?"

"We shall see about that."

Jill opened her mouth to respond, but the witch was no longer paying attention to her. Instead, she'd turned to gaze at the tapestry once again.

A brittle smile formed on the woman's pouty lips. "Well, well. It appears we both underestimated Baelin's affection for you, after all."

"What do you mean?"

The witch did not answer, but continued to stare at what remained of the tapestry.

Jill followed her gaze. The ragged cloth hanging on the wall began to wave and flutter, yet there was no longer any breeze coming from the arched doorways, no draft in the vast chamber that she could detect. She looked closer and realized it wasn't the tapestry that was moving, but the image within the threads itself, as if the rendering of Baelin was trying to unravel itself and break free of the weaving. She blinked her eyes, trying to clear her vision, but the image continued to undulate and sway before her eyes.