I laughed. “That’s a lovely sight. She knows how, for sure.”
Our sister and her dragon husband often went out for a flight, him in dragon form and her on his back, holding on with gleeful delight. He had helped her with her fear of heights, though she still didn’t like standing on the edge of a cliff. But somehow, being astride her husband’s back with his giant wings seemed to take the fear of flying right out of her.
The carriages were comfortable, though we cautiously avoided the gorts as we climbed in. Iris sat next to me, and Rozurial sat opposite. Morio, Trillian, and Vanzir went in the second carriage. Shade, Delilah, and Tanne rode in the third.
Iris leaned back against the seat. She looked as tired as the rest of us. “I really don’t want to be here, but I know I had to come.” She frowned. “I received a note from the Temple of Undutar not long ago.”
I cocked my head. She hadn’t told us about this. “Oh, and what did it say?”
“They would like it if I would bring my children to them for an official blessing. They can take their note and shove it up their . . . iceholes.” Iris shook her head. “I know what they want. They want to punish me for what happened by claiming one of my children for the temple. But Undutar herself made me her Earthside High Priestess. They don’t dare go against her wishes, so I’m pretty sure they were going to do their best to be inclusive . . . in other words, use guilt to talk me into claiming one of my children.”
“Can they do that? Doesn’t the fact that you are the Goddess’s Earthside agent give you the right to set your own rules?”
I had no clue how the Priestesshood worked. It was different for every temple, every deity. Iris was the priestess of Undutar, the Finnish goddess of mist and ice and fog. She had been cast out of her temple for a terrible crime, long ago, and had managed to extricate herself from the charges, but it hadn’t healed the breach caused by their violence against her when they had exiled her. Iris was quick to forgive small slights, but when it came to holding a grudge for an egregious act, she was one of the best.
“I operate under that assumption, but I’m thinking they aren’t betting on my lack of cooperation. I have no clue why they’re being so asinine about it. Perhaps the High Priestess of the order has gone dotty or something.” She shrugged. “Whatever the case, they better not be waiting by the mailbox for an answer from me.”
Roz was leaning back against the seat, his eyes closed. But I knew he wasn’t asleep. He was listening to every word we said. The incubus had started out a bounty hunter; he was after the same vampire who had turned me. Dredge had destroyed Roz’s entire family. But Rozurial had ended up joining forces with us and had been part of our extended tribe for years now. He had also developed a mad crush on Iris, though it went unrequited, and he did his best to remain on a friends-only basis. Even if she had not married Bruce, nothing would have come of it. Incubi and succubi couldn’t have normal relationships—not and remain true to their nature.
The Barrow Mounds were located right outside Elqaneve, the capital city of Kelvashan. Unfortunately, Elqaneve was a pale shadow of its former glory. My sisters and I had been at the palace the night the storm came thundering down from the sky, and by morning, the city and most of the Elfin countryside lay in charred, smoking ruins. The Queen was dead, and the storm had rolled on to attack a new target. Telazhar and his band of sorcerers had created the sentient mass out of rogue magic and anger—and it had rained death and destruction from the sky over several of the cities before being destroyed.
As we rode through the outskirts of the city, fires lit the sides of the roads. Some were in houses that had been hastily cobbled back together. Others were out in the open, where we could just make out the shadows of tents and makeshift camps. It had been about six months—almost seven—since the sorcerers marched on the city, but even now, I could still smell the heavy scent of charcoal and dust in the air. Luckily, I didn’t have to breathe.
Iris coughed, shaking her head. “So much madness in the world. So much destruction. I knew it was bad, but I haven’t been back to Otherworld since then—at least not to Elqaneve. There used to be row after row of brightly lit houses lining this road. Now everything is gone.”