Page 128 of Storm of Fury
Marduk shook his head grimly. “I found a necklace in the vault that once belonged to her. It reeks of her magic, but there’s a crack in the emerald and the light inside it has faded. It must have been some old spell lingering.”
“Why are the pair of you here?”
“Our beloved king”—a wealth of sarcasm sneered in Sirius’s voice—"insists that we return with his long-lost little sister. He heeded our warnings about Amadea and the Chaos magic, but he seems to think Ishtar is the priority.”
“Rurik is concerned that if the Keepers get their hands on her, they’ll kill her,” Marduk said flatly.
“Rurik is also of the opinion that if we want to discover whether there is any remaining taint of your evil bitch mother’s Chaos magic around, then the best way to track her down is to use another Chaos wielder. And with Árdís’s magic still so new to her, Ishtar seems to be the best alternative,” Sirius added.
Bryn’s eyebrows arched. “Are you entirely certain we’re capable of containing Ishtar’s magic? And will she work with you? She seems to have her own aspirations. Namely, freedom.”
“She will come with me,” Marduk said firmly. “She knows me, and when we were trapped in those caves, she was starting to listen to me.”
Tormund exchanged a glance with Bryn. “Is this before or after she set off a cataclysmic chain reaction among all the volcanoes down the east coast of the continent?”
Marduk turned toward the north. “She will come. Get your things. We need to find her before the Keepers do.”
* * *
Flyingover the countryside was so much better than riding a horse—though it had cost him a handful of coin to have them stabled.
Tormund whooped and bellowed as Sirius wove between clouds, challenging Bryn and Marduk to a race. Bryn shook her head at him.
“Were you dropped on your head as a child?” she yelled.
He grinned, holding on to the strap that was secured around Sirius’s body. “Why not enjoy it, love? You never know when it will be your last chance to ride adreki.”
“I thought you were afraid of heights!”
His gut dropped. “You had to mention it, didn’t you?”
Bryn turned into the wind, her face devoid of expression. Then she shook her head, a smile escaping her. “You’re a fool. Race you to the mountain!”
She leaned forward as Marduk banked and dove down, his wings flat against his side. Her red braid whipped behind her, and her cloak tore itself free in the downdraft.
“Did you hear that?” he yelled down to Sirius.
Sirius banked and began to plummet. “I have ears, you idiot.”
The words sounded as though they came directly from thedreki’smortal mouth.
Tormund reached out, snatching Bryn’s cloak out of the air. He could barely breathe, his hair whipping in his face and his heart racing. If he died tomorrow, then he would never regret this moment.
And if he lived…. Well, he’d never forget it.
They dropped like a stone, Sirius’s greater weight swiftly catching up to Marduk’s. Down and down, with the mountain’s sheer sides growing larger.
Sirius knew what he was doing. He’d shattered enemies with a single storm and battled through the darkest nights. He’d been flying for well over a century surely. He definitely wouldn’t hurl himself directly into the mountain—
Tormund’s yell of glory was just about to turn into a scream when the enormous blackdrekiabruptly banked and soared along the sides of the cliff. Sparks raked off the stone, as though the Blackfrost was running his claws along its sides, and Tormund swore he could hear the bastard laughing in his head.
By the time they landed on a rocky outcrop that hovered above a beech forest, Tormund was fairly certain his stomach was several miles behind them. He fell from thedreki’sback, landing on hands and knees on the blessed, sweet soil.
“Mother of Jesus,” he whispered, bending low to kiss it.
“What’s wrong?” Sirius purred, shimmering back into mortal shape. “You look a little pale, friend Tormund.”
“You could have warned me!”
