“Stop,” he whispered, his voice breaking.
“The first time I saw her, I noticed that little scar upon her neck. How did she come by that, my love?”
“Morrigunia, please,” he begged. “Stop taking her from my memory. That is all I have left of her.”
The goddess lifted her head. “I have never delved into your memories, deargs dul. That is not honest!”
Cainer Cree looked up at her. “Then how would you know about the scar, you devious cunt?”
She smiled. “Because I have seen it.” She tilted her head to one side. “Just this morn, as a matter of fact. I check on her regularly, hoping she will wake, but alas, she sleeps on, lovely lass that she is.”
The Reaper’s heart had been broken long ago but it ached anew as he took in the taunting words of his captor. “Don’t,” he pleaded. “That is cruel even for you.”
“You doubt my words?” she asked.
“Not even you can fly beyond this galaxy and even if you could, you would not find my Aisling for she would be long…” The word stuck in his throat so he used another, less painful one, “gone.”
“You think your lady dead, my love?” she inquired then shook her head slowly. “Nay, she is very much alive yet sleeping still as she has been since the first day I found her on Zenia’s ship.”
Cainer’s eyes flared. “What?” The question was barely a sound as he asked it.
“Lying upon this strange bed with a glass cover in place around it.” She made a moue with her lips. “I tried to open the damned thing but it would not budge.”
He was staring at her, his hands now covering the lower part of his face with the tips of his middle and index fingers bracketing his eyes. His breath was coming in quick, shallow pulls as he slowly came to his feet.
“You look stricken, my deargs dul,” Morrigunia stated. “Did I not tell you your lady still lives and is but a few miles from your prison?” Her face held a triumphant grin. “And has been all these years?”
“How?” he managed to ask. He could feel the racing of his heart—hear the blood pounding in his ears.
Morrigunia shrugged. “I suppose Zenia brought the pretty one with her. Who knows why, perhaps to kill her in front of you? To make her watch as you Transitioned and then throw her to you for you to kill?” She shrugged again. “We will never know, will we?”
“You are lying,” he accused, though a faint glimmer of hope had begun to spark in his wounded eyes.
“I never lie!” Morrigunia shrieked at him. “How dare you accuse me of such a thing!”
He went to her, falling to his knees before her, putting his hands out in entreaty. “Let me see her,” he begged. “Just once. Let me be sure she is safe.”
“Have I not told you she is?” Morrigunia snapped.
“She is in an extended sleep unit,” he said. “You could have damaged the seal trying to open it.”
“I damaged nothing,” the goddess said with a dangerous narrowing of her green eyes. “Had I damaged it, would she not be so much moldering dust by now?”
Wincing at the thought, the Reaper took comfort in knowing what his tormentress said was true, but he needed to know the stasis was holding, that Aisling was, indeed, sleeping. More importantly, he needed to know she was alive.
“Why?” Morrigunia asked, reading his thoughts easily. “You are here, she is there.” She pointed to the north. “You can’t even see her island from here.”
“Morrigunia, please,” he whimpered, fresh tears starting down his cheeks. “Let me but see her just once. Bring her here, please!”
“Don’t you think if I could have done that I would have long ago?” the goddess asked with a snort. “I would have liked nothing more than to see the devastated look upon your face when I took her back.” She leaned toward him. “Imagine it, Reaper—your ladylove within a hairsbreadth of you being able to put your lustful hands upon here and then poof! Gone in a heartbeat!”
The anguish was almost more than he could bear and without thinking, he laid his head in the goddess’ lap and sobbed. His hands were wrapped around her hips, his cheek pressed against her shimmering cloth of gold gown.
“There, there, my love,” she cooed, stroking his dark hair. “Morri will make it better for you.”
She crooned to him as he cried, sang an ancient Chalean lullaby to soothe him as she threaded her fingers through his thick curls and when his body convulsed with the increase in his sorrow, she bent forward to wrap him in her arms.
“Hush now, Sweeting,” she said. “You will make yourself ill.”
“Kill me,” he said between the heartbreaking sobs. “Kill me, for I can not stand this loneliness any longer.”
Morrigunia drew in a long breath and lifted her head to look out at the sea. She could see the demon standing framed in the doorway of the airship. He was waving his arm. Even as she listened, the ship came to life with a sputter of its mighty engines then began to hum in a powerful rumble that shook the ground under her feet.
“Such an impressive machine,” she commented. “I look forward to flying in it.”
Cainer Cree was beyond hearing. He was lost in a misery so dark, so deep he could barely move and he vowed to himself he never would again. He would lay where he was and never rise. It was a vow that communicated itself to his captor.
“That will not do, deargs dul,” she declared, and pushed him away from her.
He fell upon the ground and curled into a fetal position, his palms together, hands pressed between his crooked knees.
“That will not do!” Morrigunia repeated. She stared down at him and became alarmed at the steadiness of his gaze. Though his eyes were open, she could tell they had lost their focus. “Get up!” she ordered.
The Reaper ignored her. He had willed his thoughts to The
Levant
and was listening to the warrior and demon. Riel Evann-Sin was taking command just as Cainer knew he would. What needed to be done to get the intricate ship aloft was there in the warrior’s hands and he was already seated at the controls.
“Get up!” his tormentress commanded.
There was a trilling sound and Morrigunia tore her eyes from the Reaper to gaze with wonder at the airship. It was lifting from the rocky island where it had sat for centuries. Dust billowed from beneath its sleek black belly.
“Go with the Wind,” she heard Cainer whisper, and looked down at him. He had closed his eyes.
“No!” Morrigunia shouted. “Get up! Get up now!”
A low hum began on Achasán Island, and she watched as the ship began to rotate, its nose coming around to face her. For a long moment, she stared at the awesome machine then slowly turned her head to look down at the Reaper. She winced for he was as still as death and she knew he would remain so.
“So be it,” she said, and with a roar, vanished.
“Cainer, get up!”
It was not Morrigunia’s words but Riel Evann-Sin’s that opened Cainer’s eyes. He stared at the ground before him and watched an ant crawling over the grass with a large leaf clutched in its mandibles.
“Cainer, get up before she comes back!”
The ground beneath his cheek was vibrating with the power from The
Levant
. He lay where he had fallen, and once more bid the warrior a safe journey to his lady.
She did not throw another Geas upon you, Reaper!
Evann-Sin shouted in Cainer’s mind.
You are free to leave! Do it before she realized her mistake!
The Reaper narrowed his eyes, hearing the words, but afraid his warden would return should he attempt escape. To have freedom snatched out from under him at the last minute was something he did not think he could endure.
You have to try!
came the strong suggestion.
The
Levant
was hovering just off the coast of the Isle of Uaigneas. Overhead, the leaves were whipping as though a hurricane wind thrashed at them.
Cainer straightened his legs and pushed himself up. He turned to look at his L.R.C. as it sat suspended just beyond the cliff. In the fading light, it was beautiful for the rising moon cast a shimmer of light upon its sleek, black hull.
I have her coordinates, Reaper
, the warrior told him.
We can bring the E.S.U. on board.
“Her?” Cainer questioned.
Your lady, fool! We can retrieve her but you have to hurry!
Dropping his gaze to the underbelly of his ship, the Reaper stared at the area where the tracking beams were located. They could latch on to Aisling’s E.S.U. and draw her up into The
Levant
in a matter of seconds.
He took a tentative step away from the cliff and toward the well-beaten pathway that led down to the shore. Then he took another and then another until he was walking faster, then loping then running full-out as he crashed past the low hanging tree limbs. Keeping apace of him was The
Levant
, its quiet engines barely making a rumbling sound as it moved. Though he stumbled at times and had to reach out to grab a tree trunk lest he fall, he kept going, his only thought to reach the shore.
Why the hell doesn’t the gods-be-damned teleporter work, Reaper?
the warrior growled.
I could just transport you up here!
Though he was barely winded as he ran, Cainer’s heart was beating faster than it ever had before. His headlong rush to get to the shore took nearly all his conscious thought but he managed to convey to Evann-Sin that the unit had been damaged upon landing in Chale.
Can’t I fix it?
“Later,” the Reaper snapped but was overjoyed that the warrior was rapidly accustoming himself to the machine and knew the possibilities of it.
He was nearly down the cliff, holding his breath for fear Morrigunia would materialize at any moment. As his feet hit the beach, he went down, crashing heavily to his knees but was up in a flash, streaking toward the waiting ship. Already, the gangplank was lowering a foot above the lashing sand beneath it. Putting his hand up to shield his eyes from the flying sand, he raced toward The
Levant
.
Speed it up, Reaper!
the warrior shouted in Cainer’s mind.
We don’t have all night!
He was only a couple of yards away. He dragged in one last breath and leapt for the gangplank, propelling himself through the opening only a second or two before it came down. He rolled along the floor as the warrior banked The
Levant
steeply to starboard and the L.R.C. began climbing as it arced.
Kaibyn helped the Reaper to his feet. The men staggered for the ship was increasing speed.
“As soon as I got the ship online, I put a tracer out for your lady,” Evann-Sin explained. “She is on Finscéalta na Gaoithe. Do you know that place?”
Cainer shook his head. “An island?”
“Aye. We’ll be there before you can snare a rabbit,” the warrior chuckled. He glanced up as the Reaper came to stand beside him. “Want to take over?”
Before Cainer could answer, Evann-Sin was out of the console chair and the ship made a sudden downward plunge.
“Shit!” the Reaper yelled, and had his hands on the controls before the vessel crashed. “Don’t you
ever
do that again!”
Evann-Sin laughed, and cast Kaibyn a look but another traveler caught his eye and drew his immediate attention.
Morrigunia was sitting on the bunk of the E.S.U., her legs crossed, her arms folded over a luscious chest whose bare breasts gleamed in the overhead lighting.
Kaibyn looked around. “What is it?” he asked.
Knowing the demon could not see the goddess—nor apparently could the Reaper for he, too, looked where Evann-Sin was staring—the warrior shook his head. “I…”
“Take good care of my deargs dul and go with the Wind, warrior,” Morrigunia said softly, and she winked at him. Her blessing imparted, she left.
Evann-Sin let out a shaky breath. Closing his eyes for a moment, he silently thanked the goddess.
“What are you thanking her for, warrior?” Cainer asked.
The warrior locked eyes with the Reaper. “For giving you your freedom.”
“Broadcast it to the world, why don’t you?” Kaibyn snarled. “You’ll have that bitch on us now!”
Cainer intercepted Evann-Sin’s thoughts—and his memory of a few moments past—and heaved a sigh of relief. He added a silent thank you to Morrigunia, and heard the tinkle of silver laughter in his mind. “No,” he said. “I think she has moved on.”
Since Evann-Sin had programmed in the coordinates to Zenia’s ship, The
Levant
was soon hovering over her, the underside tracking ports opening slowly as a laser beam on the aft cut into the other ship’s topside, peeling back the hull as though it were a grape. When the access hole was large enough to draw its target through the demolished hull, the Reaper lowered twin cables and locked on. There was a loud shrieking of metal against metal as the E.S.U. was pulled out of its harness. As the E.S.U. came free of the other ship—wires trailing—The
Levant
dipped slightly, but with ease and never-forgotten skill, Cainer brought the slightly swinging E.S.U. aboard and positioned it beside his own. It was a tight squeeze for The
Levant
had been built for only one occupant.
“Take over, Riel!” the Reaper ordered as soon as the E.S.U. was in place. “I have but moments to get the unit reconnected.”