Balance Of The Worlds (6 page)

Her words hurt him. She could tell that from the way his coldly handsome face tightened.

She said nothing else, instead dressing quickly. What did it matter if he saw her naked? He was right—it wasn’t the first time.

And if it was enough to move him, it would shock the three hells out of her. Nothing turned him on, except whatever plan he had churning around in his head.

She was honestly surprised he’d been able to perform the night the babes were made. No doubt it had been difficult for him, preferring Kennera as he did.

Still…she could not resent him for that bargain. Not when it got her Dres and Nella. “My sword, Lotho. Hand it to me.”

It had been her mother’s. Her mother had been a practitioner of the ancient Evelanedean nature’s ways. They favored peace and harmony over most things. But that didn’t mean her mother hadn’t known how to protect herself. Or that she hadn’t taught the same to Nelciana. Or Nelanora.

She closed her eyes for a moment, thinking of the sister now returned to her.

The sister she did not doubt would be at the front of whatever battles were to come.

Loren was now Laquazzeana, wasn’t she? That meant…she was the goddess of the gods, the highest of all deities possible.

And the Dark Sorcerer was bringing the battle to all of them.

And Loren would battle him again like she had when she was not yet seventeen.

Nelciana would be at her side.

With her own people to lead. “My sword. I need to find my Aunt Eaudne. There is much that needs to be discussed.”

He handed it to her wordlessly. “Of what?”

“
War.
Did you miss the memo?”

Lothonos shifted until his hard male chest blocked her path to the door. “What I
missed
was the part of the message where it said the mother of my children needed to be involved in the battles.”

“I am more than just a mother. No…that’s not entirely correct either. I
am
a mother. And my children are now threatened. I’ll fight with this blade if I have to—or with my claws if I have nothing else. I will do what I must to ensure the world my children will one day inherit is safe for them. There is nothing I will not do, Lotho.
Nothing
.”

She just wished Lothonos would go away. He’d followed her from the room, and down the large hall. He hadn’t said anything, just walked behind her.

Every time she looked she saw the father of her children. Cold and silent. Reminding her of what she’d left behind in Levia. He did look so much like their son.

Not that the babes were ever far from her thoughts. Her arms ached for her son and daughter, more so since she had had seen the babes asleep in their mothers’ arms as the women and men sat around a large stone table.

She didn’t know where she was going, but she got lucky. A large room on the first floor held what—and who—she was looking for.

The Laquazzeana Phaenna had grabbed her hands and pulled her into the room with her.

Lothonos followed. No one tried to stop him.

The beings surrounding the table seethed with power so strong, so bright, that it was difficult to look at them at times. Nelciana wasn’t accustomed to being the weakest member of any place.

Some of them were downright intimidating.

Aureliana stood up and passed a sleeping infant to a purple male at her side. She held out her hands to Nelciana. She had no choice but to respond. “Hello, we have been waiting for you to join us.”

“I am not certain why I am here.”

Eaudne was there, a smile of welcome on her beloved face. How Nelciana had longed to see her again. She had to resist just grabbing Eaudne and clinging. Wishing her own mother had been as fortunate as Kennera’s to survive so long ago.

“Followed the Fates, didn’t you?” Phaenna asked, pulling Nelciana’s attention across the room. Her words were sing-song. Nelciana looked at her. Would she ever understand the other female? Would she get the chance?

She did not know.

“Yes, I did.”

“And they are never wrong, are they? You are here. Therefore this is where you are supposed to be. How can you be somewhere you aren’t supposed to be? Rather complicated, isn’t it?”

“Welcome to our home, Goddess Nelciana. I am Cass, Nalik’s
Rajni.
”

Nelciana stared into the woman’s green eyes. There was something familiar about them, weren’t there?

“Cass possesses the soul of one of your lost sisters,” Eaudne said. “The two of you should speak of it later. I’m afraid we have no time for such dealings now. Though I certainly wish differently.”

“What is going on here? And why were you waiting for Nelciana?” Lothonos.

She had almost forgotten him, hadn’t she?

“Nelciana has a great part to play in the coming days,” Eaudne was the one who spoke, in a tone so hushed Nelciana had to strain to hear her, though Eaudne was directly at her left.

“Aunt?” The term slipped so easily from her lips, reminding her of the old connection her family had had with this woman. Three Hells, it hurt her to see Eaudne, damaged and hurt still, and imagine her mother there in Eaudne’s place.

But it wasn’t her mother’s destiny, was it?

No. Her mother had been fated to die that day, and nothing could have ever changed that.

Her mother, the rest of her family except for Nelanora, her friends, all of them were fated to die. It had taken Nelciana a long while to accept that. And now her sister sat three seats away.

Her sister. And another one’s soul was right there next to the scarred male she recognized as Nalik Black. Her world, her knowledge, had changed again with only a moment’s notice. But why had the Fates brought her here today?

“You have questions. It is good women our age question things. Keeps us young and attractive, don’t you think? Don’t you think so, god of boring?”

Nelciana hid a smirk when Lothonos bristled immediately. Phaenna was definitely needling him, wasn’t she? Why?

“Phaenna,
please.
Now is not the time for playing. For any of us. Aureliana, sit please. Nelciana, you and your male, as well. We have so much that faces us this day. Much we need to actually do. We cannot sit around this table forever. Not if we hope to win this war.”

Never would she have thought to hear Eaudne, a descendant of the Evalanedean healing family, speaking of war. It was anathema of what the woman had used to stand for.

But it was not for Nelciana to judge; not with her mother’s sword strapped at her side. “What do you suggest we do? I will admit I know very little about what is coming.”

“Then it’s time for a story!” Phaenna stood up and circled the table. She waved her hands around again. She stopped between Nelciana and Eaudne. At first Nelciana wanted to step away, but after a small moment, Phaenna pulled Eaudne’s chair closer and nudged Eaudne into it. With a kind and gentle hand.

The two older women shared a look, Phaenna’s filled with concern.

They were connected, weren’t they? How strong of a bond did they have? Phaenna turned back toward Nelciana. “Once upon a time, there was a nasty sorcerer named Dark Sorcerer. Yes, he wasn’t very original, was he? He took over a place known as Evalanedea and killed
almost
everyone in the ruling families. Only a handful escaped—and I won’t tell you any names because you can look around the table and get a good idea who is who—and came to other worlds. No one knows how many worlds there are, either. Did you know that? I didn’t. I thought I’d been to
most
of them. I was wrong…or is it that I don’t quite remember? It’s always hard to know, isn’t it? Any
way…
This bad guy, Dark Sorcerer, apparently imprisoned his own twin brother somehow. To steal his powers, I think. I’m not sure why.”

“You have yet to say how this pertains to Nelciana.” Lothonos had his hand on her back, didn’t he? Why was it so easy for her to forget about him?

“
Because
she is going to help us defeat him. Someone has to do it. Why not her?”

“Because I forbid it, that is why.”

Nelciana turned toward him and glared. “Lothonos, this is not for you to decide.”

“To the Three Hells it
isn’t.”
He glared back down at her. “You are
not
a Laquazzeana. You were lucky to escape this dark bastard once before, I won’t have you ever getting near him again.”

“Oh, how sweet and protective. Nelciana, if you decide you don’t want him, can I have him for a while?” Phaenna walked behind him and stroked his dark hair quickly.

Nelciana tried not to laugh at the absolute horror and anger that went through his eyes so quickly. “He is not mine.”

“Of course he is. Why else would he be here? But if you prefer, I can zap him to anywhere you want him to be.”

“Phaenna! Enough.” Eaudne’s tone held her own laughter, for just a moment.

When Phaenna returned to her seat, Nelciana thought she saw just a hint of satisfaction on the other woman’s face. Was that what Phaenna was about? Using humor—this time at Lothonos’ expense—to lighten the tension they all inevitably felt?

Maybe she was starting to understand Phaenna just a bit better.

She sobered. “What are we going to do?”

Everyone looked at her.

“We’re going to fight,” the purple demon said. The words from such a large, imposing creature were so incongruous with the sight of him cuddling the tiny behorned babe in his arms.

But then again, what else could be more important than a child? What could make someone fight harder than knowing their babes were endangered?

Nothing.

She looked at the affronted male still standing beside her. “Sit, Lotho, please.”

She held a hand out to him. And he took it.

He sat. Right next to Jushua. It was hard to look at the two of them side by side like that. They were opposites, weren’t they? Even in coloring they were different.

She tried to forget that he sat next to her throughout the long hours of discussions that followed. But she couldn’t. He was a larger than life reminder of who exactly it was she would fight—and die—for.

She missed Dres and Nella so much. Her arms ached to hold them again.

Their father was an exceptionally poor substitute for them.

Nelciana did not know what to think or feel as the day ended. Her soul was ravaged by the knowledge that the fighting would be necessary, by the long discussions of war and how best to protect the peoples of all the worlds. No one even knew what kind of army the Dark Sorcerer would lead. Or when or where, or anything substantial But all agreed with the Fates that it was coming.
And that it wouldn’t be over quickly.

It could take years until the worlds returned to what they were. If they ever did.

What kind of a world would her children one day inherit?

Her arms ached from emptiness. Her heart would always be with her babes.

“You did well today,” someone said from behind her as she walked down the long hallway to the rooms she had been given near her sister.

She turned. “Eaudne…I am afraid it will never be enough.”

“You cannot say that. Or know.” Eaudne held out her good hand toward Nelciana. She took it. This woman had been her mother’s closest friend. The connection was something Nelciana needed. “Something I have learned recently. There will
always
be hope. I do not think that could be a bad thing. Dear child, you so look like your mother. How blessed I am to have found you again. Hope, you see. You bring it. You
are
it.”

Of course the woman would think so. How many of her lost children had been returned to her? “How is Estacles?”

Her eyes warmed. “He wakes occasionally. He recognizes his brother. Dekimos carried his brother for many centuries. And he seems to know Jushua, as well.”

“And you?”

Sadness crept into the woman’s eyes. “No. I am afraid he does not recognize me. But I have changed much.”

Thinner, paler, far more damaged than she had been, but the core that was Eaudne was still there, wasn’t it? Gone were the soft cheeks, the rounded curves, the healthy glow that a pampered mate of a king had known. Eaudne was damaged, scarred, and possibly missing a limb—no one knew for certain—but it was more than that.

Her soul had changed; it was not too difficult for Nelciana to see, for all that the Laquazzeana’s powers hid it.

What exactly
was
Eaudne now? Shouldn’t her Laquazzeana gifts be enough to heal her? To restore her to who she had been before the Dark Sorcerer’s attack?

But then again, Loren had been a Laquazzeana for five thousand years, as well. And her gifts hadn’t been enough to break the Dark Sorcerer’s curse.

That was absolutely terrifying.

“Is Loren free of the curse now? Is my sister going to die again?”
Loren
knew
she was a Laquazzeana now. Didn’t that mean something?

Eaudne hesitated. “No one knows, Nelci. There are things that aren’t revealed to the Laquazzeana, either. Loren knows some of the path she must take.”

“So she could end up dead, like all of the others. I…I have had no other, Eaudne. Just Kennera for so long. And now Loren returned to me just yesterday. I am not so certain I can face the idea of losing her again.”

“And that fear will keep you from doing what it is you must. I understand it; I feel it every time I touch one of my children. Twenty-two, Nelciana, and every one of them are etched upon my soul. Now I have Kennera returned to me, and Deki and Estacles. I never lost Jushua. Every day I woke with the fear that I had. I don’t think I will ever lose that fear. It is a part of loving someone.”

“Yes…my babes…I miss them so much.” She whispered the words, putting sound to the pain in her heart. “And I fear I will not ever see them again.”

“Go to them. Know this, Nelci, every moment you can spend with them is the most precious you will ever have. I tried with my children, but I could have given more of myself to the elder ones. I let silly convention of our times stop me, let responsibilities for a kingdom that no longer exists pull me from those who truly mattered. I lost them long before the day that dark bastard took them from me. And I will never forgive myself for that.”

Nelciana wrapped her arms around the older woman. Eaudne had lived at least eight thousand years, hadn’t she? And until something strong enough to kill a Laquazzeana ended her life, she would continue on every day with the pains of her heart.

Nelciana couldn’t think of anything bleaker. Sometimes their near-immortality was a bigger curse than a gift, wasn’t it?

Through the years since she’d arrived in Gaia she had spent her life guiding and protecting the Witches and Druids who had followed her. It was her purpose, and her duty, as the last of the Nellana.

She had done so with pride, helping her people to grow through families and love.

She had had them, and she had had Kennera. She had not been
alone.
Not truly; but it wasn’t until the babes that she had started to feel love again. She had thought the Dark Sorcerer had burned all the love she could ever feel out of her with his fires.

It was only the babes that made it clear that he hadn’t. “If I go to them, I may never want to leave.”

“And you fear you will not do what you must at the moment that it is needed?” Eaudne put her hand on Nelciana’s cheek. “Baby girl, destiny does not
work
that way. The Fates have a nasty way of making certain that we do the things we are supposed to. Even Laquazzeana are not exempt. Something to keep in mind. When something is meant…very few can escape their path, Nelciana. If you are meant to do something, you will. Go home,
go
to your children. It is where you belong. And when it is time for more, you will know it. Go. We will send that god of logic home when we find him. I think there is still much between you that will need to be finished before too long, don’t you? He reminds me of your father in many ways. He drove your mother mad at times, didn’t he?”

“I…”

“Take this. Find that male of yours, and go to your babes. They need you. Both of you.” Eaudne stepped back and slipped her hand into her tunic. She pulled out a portkey. They were tiny rubbery balls that would release a cloud of some mysterious and ancient power. The cloud would part the barriers to a specific world. It was all that separated her from her babes. A tiny rubbery ball. Nelciana took it in her palm.

“He is not mine…I…we…were together for the babes. That was our only purpose for—”

“Destiny, child. Destiny was
why
you were with him. Something else to keep in mind.”

Nelciana went.