Lost (38 page)

As Set turned
to go, a worker hurried up to him and hissed something complex. I'd
just looked up, so I had a chance to see Set's reaction to whatever
he'd just been told. His shoulders bent forward as though he'd just
been handed an enormous burden, and his skin went even more ashen.

Set looked off
into space, motionless and silent, for nearly a full minute before he
finally turned back to us. The expression on his face was the look of
a man who'd just been betrayed by his family and deity all at the
same time.

"Isaac
Nazir, my queen commands that I relay a message."

I tried to stop
him; I knew that whatever he had to say wasn't good, but he talked
over me.

"She bids
me to tell you that if you'll stay for one last challenge match, this
one to start immediately, that she'll meet with your queen
immediately after the fight and tell your queen all that she wishes
to know."

He didn't have
to tell me who my opponent would be. I could see it in every line of
his face and posture.

"Against
you?"

"Yes.
Those are her terms."

The next second
seemed to stretch out to eternity. I heard Celeste gasp in
astonishment and felt her hand tighten in mine as she realized that
there was a chance for her to get everything she'd set out for. I'd
just finished doing the deal she needed to get back earlier than
she'd believed possible, and now she was being offered the
opportunity to talk to Set's queen.

Ash had gone
completely still. In that way he was like the lamias. He probably
hadn't realized yet that Celeste wasn't planning on using her
question to save Kristin, so for him this also felt like a chance at
the dream he'd been sure he was going to have to give up.

None of us had
any illusions about Set's ability to fight me. Normally I would have
been virtually guaranteed to lose a match against him, but right then
he could barely move.

It was all
there for the taking. Everything we'd been fighting and bleeding for.
Talking to the queen had become a kind of Holy Grail for all of us,
but the price was too high. At least for me it was too high.

I wasn't going
to murder the man who'd saved my life not just once but twice. I
wasn't going to take advantage of the fact that he'd nearly put
himself in a coma to save me. I didn't know what kind of game his
queen was playing at, but I wasn't going to be a pawn on her board. I
was finally ready to admit that there was an endless array of
possibilities before me.

The only
limiting factor was what I was willing to sacrifice to get the
outcome I wanted. For every person the sacrifices they were willing
to make were going to be different, but for me those sacrifices
weren't going to be paid by innocent people. I wasn't going to
sacrifice Set, his life wasn't mine to discard on a whim like that.

"Please
tell your queen that we decline her offer to converse with her. The
price she asks for her counsel is too dear."

Ash stepped
forward. "Isaac, think this through. This isn't just about
Kristin. This is our opportunity to bring down the entire Coun'hij.
That's the first step towards the kind of golden age our people
experienced under Alec's ancestors.

"Alec
could unite the packs. We could hunt the vampires to extinction. We
could even bring order to the cats south of the border. That wouldn't
just benefit our kind, that would represent a turning point for the
humans in those countries too. I've been down there and met some of
those people. They are good people stuck in a system that is corrupt.
They deserve better."

For a moment I
was tempted to tell Ash that his dream had been dead before it had
even started, that his sister was planning on using her question to
save her people rather than saving Kristin, but at the last second I
thought better of that.

"I have a
plan, Ash. The hack that we talked about on the way down here could
work. If you're still willing to fund the attempt then I think you
can get what you want, what we all want, without Set needing to die."

"And if
I'm unwilling to just walk away like that?"

"I don't
think that you're a match for Set, not without your weapons, but if
you do manage to kill him somehow, then I'll kill you in turn."

"You'd do
that? After all that we've been through together? You'd do that
knowing that you'd be sentencing Kristin to insanity and death?"

"Yes, Ash,
I would. Alec was right. I've been confused for a while now, but I
back my friends up. It's just what I do. You and Set are both my
friends. You've both saved my life and I'd like for nothing more than
the two of you to get along, but if one of you attacks the other
without cause than I'll kill the one who instigates the fight."

Ash gave me a
hard look, the kind of look that told me he was seriously considering
his odds of surviving both fights, but after a second he nodded.

"You
honestly believe that this plan of yours can work?"

"Absolutely.
Everything you'll need in order to carry it out is on a file on my
tablet with your name on it."

"Okay, I
hope you're right, and I'll back your play on this one."

Celeste
probably would have said something too, but she knew that the
decision was out of her hands. Set and the rest wouldn't let her
fight, and Ash had just agreed to abide by my decision, which meant
that her only other option would be to throw Jax into the ring, and
we all knew that would be like tossing a baby chick into a pool
filled with piranhas. Even in his current state, Set would make short
work of Jax.

My decision was
going to stand. Set might still die as a result of us having come to
his enclave, but it wouldn't be at my hand.

"We'll be
at the path to the portal within the next half hour, Set."

Set gave me a
tired, thankful smile and then turned to go, but before he could even
take a step another worker came running out of their cavern. It took
less than a second for the agitated lamia to deliver his message and
then Set turned back to us.

"My queen
bids you attend her immediately, both of you. She says no further
challenge is necessary."

Isaac Nazir
The Lamia Enclave

There was no
question which two of us he was referring to. Ash wasn't happy at
being excluded, but he agreed to go back to our rooms and help Jax
get everything packed up and ready for our departure.

As soon as Ash
was gone, Celeste and I followed Set inside the lamia cave. I
couldn't have said for sure what I was expecting, but I was left with
a vague sense of disappointment. It looked a lot like our quarters.

The chairs were
subtly different, like they'd been designed for bodies that didn't
quite match up with what I saw each time I looked at a lamia, but
that wasn't really a surprise. I already knew that something was
messing with my perceptions there.

The rooms and
halls that we walked through were well-lit with the same
softly-glowing spheres that I was used to seeing in our rooms. Their
caves were just a much bigger version of ours.

If I'd been
expecting something more alien in their habitat and been
disappointed, my expectations were more than fulfilled where their
queen was concerned. We walked around a bend in the corridor and then
suddenly there she was, a tiny woman no bigger than Celeste or I,
whose power filled the room she was in to capacity and then beyond.

Her skin
glowed, but not with the normal glow that I was used to seeing from
all living things. In this form, with eyes that were only a little
better than what a normal human was born with, I shouldn't have been
able to see any more than a very faint glow. Instead she lit up the
room.

There were
still half a dozen of the glowing melons hanging from the ceiling, so
I couldn't be sure whether Set and the rest of the lamias saw the
same kind of cool, white radiance coming off of her that we did, but
I got the feeling that Celeste and I could have easily read a book
with nothing more than her as a light source.

"Welcome,
Isaac Nazir and Celeste Hunt. You have done well. You have earned
your question. I will answer in the best way I am able."

Her voice
was…odd. Her English was crisp and unaccented, but there was
something on the trailing end of her words. I couldn't tell if it was
just because I was a shape shifter and had better than normal
hearing, but it almost sounded like there was a chorus of people
repeating her words.

I shook my head
in disbelief. Even that wasn't quite the right description for what I
was hearing. A chorus of people talking at the same time as her would
have rendered her words unintelligible, but that wasn't what was
happening. It was only the last few sounds of the last word in any
given sentence.

The queen
looked over at me and smiled. "Such a questing mind, Isaac
Nazir. I wish that you could remain here with my people. I would
enjoy filling you up with knowledge the likes of which you can't even
begin to imagine, but such a thing is not to be. Your brightness
already is nearly blinding. Even now the Consumed would be upon us if
not for the fact that your glow dimmed during the time that you
struggled on death's door."

"I too
regret that I can't return another time. There is much that I would
like to learn."

Her smile
turned sad. "Yes, you can't stay, and you can't return, but
maybe that is for the best. We would have to change you at the same
time that we taught you. You would become something different,
something greater in some ways and lesser in others. That is always
the price of change."

She looked at
Set, reaching out a hand to him, and he dropped down to his knees so
she could place her hand on his head. "Our poor consorts are the
perfect example of that. Changed from what they were into something
else, their bodies constantly at war with themselves. I wish that we
had been able to see another way."

Set changed
before our very eyes. It was like looking at time lapse photography.
In a matter of seconds he went from aged and decrepit to being once
again the vibrant individual he'd been when we first arrived at the
enclave.

"My most
faithful of consorts, I regret putting you in such trying
circumstances, but it was necessary. You bore it well and I am proud
of you. Your honor is intact and you have moved the work forward in
important ways."

I found myself
wishing that I could transform to my wolf body so that I could see
what she looked like with those eyes. Something about Set's queen
demanded that she be viewed as a being of pure light.

Set reached up
and clasped his queen's hand, holding it against his head as though
worried she was going to withdraw from him.

"It is
enough for me to know that the work continues. Honor does not demand
recognition for my small contribution."

The queen shook
her head at him. "There are no small contributions, Set, but
yours are greater than most. You offer all that any man or woman can
offer. Your energies and loyalty combined with a willingness to
sacrifice whatever needs sacrificed to move the work forward. It is
upon such things that all works, large or small, move forward."

She was
responding to Set, but she was looking at me by the end of her
statement and chills raced up and down my spine as I realized that
she knew exactly what I was planning. I opened my mouth to ask her
how much she knew, but she held a finger up, silencing me.

"It is not
proper for consorts to ask questions when queens are present. We get
so few opportunities to commune together."

She turned to
Celeste and smiled. "Ask your question, child."

It was the kind
of thing that could have sounded condescending, but it didn't. Even
Celeste didn't seem inclined to take offense.

I looked over
at Celeste and realized that she looked more like the queen than she
ever had before. The simple white clothing she was wearing soaked up
the light from around the room and then re-emitted it, subtly changed
so that it was now Celeste's light.

"How do we
find the Coun'hij? We need to find them and destroy them so that our
people can free themselves. Any help or information that you can
provide would be appreciated."

I stopped
breathing. I wanted to breathe still, but my lungs refused to
function. The oral histories that had been passed down to Celeste all
indicated that the queen would answer only one question. Celeste had
just used our only question to save Kristin and bring down the
Coun'hij.

Somewhere along
the way she'd become willing to sacrifice her people to save the rest
of our race. Even if that meant putting Alec Graves back into power.
It was the one thing that I'd nearly given up hope of ever seeing
happen. She'd just removed the one barrier between us.

The queen shook
her head at Celeste, but the gesture wasn't scolding. If anything it
was just sad. "Freedom isn't what you think it is, and the destruction of overlords just
reveals new overlords. Sometimes the new masters are external,
sometimes they are internal. Freedom doesn't guarantee happiness."

"No,
nothing external guarantees happiness, but there are more reasons to
fight than just happiness. Justice is worth fighting for. Ending
oppression is worth fighting for."

The queen
turned back to me, but I hadn't technically asked a question. "You're
right, dear Isaac. If only more of your people and mine understood
that."

She turned back
to Celeste as she finally withdrew her hand from Set's head. Set
looked sad, but didn't protest.

"I cannot
answer that question for you, not now at least. Telling you where to
find your enemies would lead to the failure of our work, but just as
important, it would lead to the failure of yours."