I scanned the crowd, looking for Trey, but the room was too big and had far too many shadowed corners. The wind stirred around me, whispering it was time to seek the lady P. I took a deep breath and released it slowly, but it didn’t really ease the sudden uncertainty about the path I’d chosen. My attraction to Pyra was real enough, but this place—these people—were leagues above me, and I suspected the games they played might be too.
If I seduced Pyra, I’d be in great danger, of that, I had no doubt.
And yet, the danger to Winterborne was even greater. I was a Nightwatch soldier, trained from a very young age to do whatever it took—to step willingly into death’s path if necessary—to protect this place. And if bedding Pyra to uncover her secrets gave this city a chance to survive the darkness hinted on the wind’s whisperings, then there really wasn’t a choice.
I downed my drink, gathered two more, placed Kiro’s drug in one of them, and then went in search of her.
She was waiting in the far shadows to the left of the doors, her back resting against the railing and her mask dangling idly from one hand.
“Lady N,” she said, her voice warm, “I was beginning to suspect you’d decided against our liaison.”
“I have to admit, it is only the intrigue of what you might wish to discuss with me that has brought me here.”
She laughed softly and accepted the glass of wine from me. “I think we both know talking is not what I desire.”
The wind stirred around me, whispering the need for innocence. “Indeed, we do not.”
She studied me, her gaze suddenly speculative. “Tell me, lady N, are you acquainted with the teachings of the goddess Astar?”
More than just acquainted, I wanted to say, but once again the wind urged against it. “I’m afraid not.”
“Ah, then you are in for such a revelation.” She paused, her anticipation sweet on the air. “Perhaps we should retire to your suites so that I might enlighten you?”
“Lord T might well interrupt—”
“Your Lord T is well and truly occupied. I’ve made sure of that.” She drained her glass, then stepped forward and linked her arm through mine. “Shall we go?”
I hesitated, and then nodded. She guided me down the stairs and—obviously well acquainted with the layout of this place—waved away the pageboys who would have guided us to the suite I shared with Trey. Once we were inside and the door locked, she poured us both another drink then handed it to me gravely. “To the revelations and pleasures of the flesh.”
I echoed her words and silently hoped the truth serum wouldn’t take any longer than an hour to work. While I had no doubt I’d enjoy my time with her, the vague sense of uneasiness I’d felt earlier had returned twofold. What I learned here tonight might well be a key to solving the mystery of what was going on, but it was also about to place me in great danger.
If the wind agreed, she wasn’t saying.
Pyra smiled. “Are you ready, Lady N?”
“I think so.”
“Good.”
She stepped forward and kissed me. It was a gentle thing, little more than a promise of the heat to come. Then, with a prayer to the goddess, she stepped back and began to undress.
Initiation was never hurried. It was an unveiling, a blooming of both the senses and sensuality, one designed to heighten the experience and the pleasure for a first-time initiate. Which I wasn’t, of course, but it was nevertheless beautiful to watch her slow dance to nakedness.
Then it was my turn. I echoed her movements, my body tingling with expectation and the knowledge of what was to come. She gasped when my stains were revealed, but it was a soft sound of surprise and perhaps even passion rather than horror.
She stepped closer and our dance continued, filled with reverent touches that became ever more intimate, until it was no longer just hands, but also tongue. And so it continued until sweat sheened our bodies and desire was so sweet and heavy on the air it was almost liquid. Only then did the goddess allow completion, and while it might not have been what the deeper recesses of my body truly desired, it was nevertheless a more fulfilling initiation than what I’d experienced the first time.
We retired to the bed and continued to worship the goddess for nigh on an hour, after which Pyra murmured a prayer of thankfulness and closed her eyes, a smile teasing her well-kissed lips. I fought the tiredness pounding through my body, fought the need to drift into sleep right alongside her, and said softly, “What secrets do you keep, Pyra? What is your involvement with Lady Saska?”
“She’s my sister.”
I yawned hugely, and then said, “Sister of blood, or sister of the flesh?”
“Neither. She is my apiary sister.”
I knew an apiary was a hive, but had no idea what she meant in this situation. For all I knew, it might have been some sort of secret sisterhood here in the Upper Reaches. “And who else is a member of this apiary?”
She mumbled something I couldn’t quite catch, and then added, “But there’s no one else currently in Winterborne.”
Meaning there were others elsewhere? “What of Lady Hedra? She wears the same bracelets are you.”
Again, I didn’t catch her reply. I leaned closer and said, “Repeat that.”
She did, but even softer. The drug seemed to be working faster than Kiro had implied. And I had to wonder if perhaps I’d accidentally ingested some of it via her lips, because the need for sleep was pounding through my body.
Instead of trying to clarify Hedra’s position in whatever was happening, I asked, “And what is the aim of this apiary?”
“To obey.”
My eyes closed. I forced them open again. “Who is it that you have to obey?”
“The queen.”
So this queen, whoever she was, wasn’t a figment of Saska’s imagination. “And where can we find this queen?”
“Everywhere and nowhere. She’s in our minds and under our very feet.”
Meaning we were dealing with a witch capable of using both air and earth magic? Hadn’t both Kiro and Trey claimed that was impossible?
I yawned hugely; it was becoming a struggle to remain awake, to think. “And does she use the bracelets to communicate with you?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes for longer this time, and tried to think of another question. But my brain was fuzzy and unfocused. Alarm ran through me, but it was a distant thing and couldn’t reach past the fog that was encasing my mind. Whatever question I might have asked died unspoken as sleep finally claimed me.
It was the wind who woke me. She reached through the fog with little courtesy or gentleness, her whisperings harsh and cold in my brain. I stirred, swearing at her, only to become aware of the slight dip in the bed; someone had either climbed in or out of it. I reached out sleepily and realized Pyra was no longer tangled in the sheets with me.
Move, move, move, the wind whispered urgently, tugging at my hair, my arms, and my legs. I rolled over compliantly and forced my eyes open.
To see a flash of silvery white as a knife plunged toward my heart.
6
It might have been the wind that woke me, but it was training that saved me. Even though sleep still rested far too heavily on my limbs, I jackknifed sideways and lashed out with a bare heel. There was a grunt as I connected with flesh and the knife that would have plunged into my chest buried hilt-deep into the bed instead.
The wind hit me like a punch, knocking the air from my lungs and flinging me backward onto the floor. The same air that had hit me now screamed in warning. I rolled sideways and somehow staggered upright, only to be knocked down again as something smashed into my face, cutting my skin and leaving me bleeding and dizzy.
I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the lingering sleepiness and saw, out of the corner of my right eye, another flash of movement. I rolled under the vase aimed at my head then surged upward, flinging myself at the woman causing the mayhem. A squeak of surprise left her lips as she jumped off the bed onto the floor. But before I could follow her or pin her, the wind hit me, forcing me backward. I swore, and she spun around me, apologetic even as she kept pushing me, until my back was pressed against the far wall and the force of her was so great I could barely even draw breath.