“I cannot deny that you have somehow made it through my challenges,” Ta’sradala finally said, a crafty gleam in her eyes that made my stomach clench with apprehension. “But the true test of a marriage comes when a couple is forced to face adversity as one. I shall set you one more challenge that you two must complete together. If you survive that, you shall have my blessing.”
“Why you—” I snarled, but the old Tua waved her hand before I could finish my sentence. The world began to spin again, and I grabbed Iannis tightly, terrified that we would be separated. Where was that old bitch sending us now? And would we be able to survive this final test?
17
“Great,” I muttered when the world had finally stopped spinning. “This is just fucking great.”
“I see my grandmother was particularly inspired with this locale,” Iannis said dryly as we looked around. We stood in the middle of a vast desert, with absolutely nothing but red sand dunes and valleys as far as the eye could see. The sun blazed overhead in a yellowish sky, and the clouds were some kind of noxious green color. There were no signs of life, not so much as a single cactus jutting up from the sea of red death.
“Yeah, well I guess she thought I had it too easy with the underground caverns,” I said. “At least that place had water, even if it was cold.”
“Underground caverns?” Iannis raised an eyebrow. “That almost sounds exciting.”
“It was for the first half hour or so. But after falling into a fissure and almost dying, the novelty wore off pretty quick.”
Iannis smiled. “I missed you,” he said, burying his face in my hair. My heart warmed as he held me tight against him, and I took a moment to enjoy his embrace as the hot winds gusted around us. We would have plenty of time to grumble and tear our hair out as we tried to escape this hellhole—I could take a few minutes to enjoy being reunited with Iannis again.
We sat down in the scant shade of a flat rock. “Tell me everything that happened,” Iannis prompted. “I was terrified for you. Until I found you again, alive and well, I kept imagining terrible things— a thousand ways you could have perished, and I would have never known the truth about what happened.” He squeezed my hand tightly. “I don’t ever want to go through such an experience again.”
“Me neither,” I said fervently, squeezing his hand back. “Your grandmother decided that I was too weak to marry you, and she told me I had to pass three tests to prove I was worthy of you.”
“How ridiculous.” Iannis’s eyes blazed with anger. “Whether or not you are ‘worthy’ is not up to her at all, and as far as I’m concerned we have both proved ourselves to each other a hundred times over.”
I smiled. “Yeah, well you can tell that to the old bitch the next time you see her.” I took a breath. “For the first test, she threw me into the cold, stormy sea, with only a rowboat to keep me afloat. I nearly drowned out there, but I managed to make it to a fishing vessel and get myself out of harm’s way.” I shivered, remembering how fucking cold I was. “I wonder how she knew when to yank me back. Is there some way for her to observe what I was doing? She clearly didn’t see what I was doing in the Tua realm during my second challenge, and who I met there.”
“I believe she can observe what happens as long as her victims are in Recca—but perhaps not if they are in other dimensions,” Iannis speculated. “Or perhaps the Tua realm is shielded from eavesdropping, unlike other realms.”
“Huh.” I frowned. “If she can’t eavesdrop in other dimensions, that means my third challenge was probably still in Recca.”
“I can’t believe my grandmother really sent you to the Tua realm.” Iannis scowled. “But it is obvious she did—I guessed as much from that scene with the young Tua, though I could not understand what he and his father said to each other.”
“I can understand them now,” I said. “The trip was surprisingly…educational.” I gave a lopsided smile at Iannis’s astonished look.
He shook his head. “It’s a miracle you survived the experience, if my memories of the place are at all accurate.” He pulled me into his arms, and I sighed a little as I pressed my cheek against his broad chest. The steady thrum of his heartbeat soothed me, making me want to sink into his embrace and forget about our problems. From the comfort of his arms, I told him all about my adventures with the Tua, and my last ordeal in the underground caves.
“You were incredibly lucky that the Tua you ran across were benevolent,” Iannis said gravely when I’d finished. “There are others who would have caged you up as a pet, or worse, roasted you over a spit and eaten you. And the forests contain other horrors you never saw—giant poisonous ants, flesh-eating birds, and a kind of vampire poltergeist, to name only a few I heard of from my mother.”
I shuddered at the thought. “Yeah, I did get lucky. But aside from that one monster, and the quicksand, it wasn’t that bad. And at least I can file that trip away as something I’ve done that no other living ‘mortal’ has experienced.”
Iannis laughed. “I’m glad you are able to still see the bright side,” he said, kissing the top of my head. “Though I wish I had been there, with you, rather than that erratic young shape-shifter.”
“I’m sort of glad you didn’t have to endure all that with me,” I confessed, pressing my forehead against his. “Though I am happy to have you with me now.”
I kissed him softly then, and Iannis tightened his arms around me, pulling me even closer as we finally took a moment to savor our alone time. No, it wasn’t the most ideal location for a reunion, but after being separated from Iannis for so long I’d take what I could get. The taste of him as he slid his tongue into my mouth, the feel of his strong hands as they roamed up and down my back, his addictive sandalwood and magic scent…these were all things I’d begun to take for granted. I clung to him as we kissed languorously, taking our time to reaffirm our love for each other.
“I don’t have anything nearly so exciting to report,” Iannis said at last, when I pulled back to catch my breath. “The wedding preparations were still on schedule when I departed. Director Chen promised to ensure that if we manage to get back in time, things should go off without a hitch.”
With everything I’d experienced at Ta’sradala’s hands so far, I wasn’t quite so optimistic about our timely return. But I didn’t see any reason to dash Iannis’s hopes, so I stayed silent.
Iannis and I ate some jerky and took a swig out of my canteen, then took stock of our supplies. Thankfully, we had some usable items, like the blanket I’d brought, and a pair of sleeping bags that Iannis had stored away for emergencies, but there wasn’t anything that could get us out of here, and our food and water stores wouldn’t last us more than a few days.
“Where do you think we are?” I asked as the sun began to set. “The colors in this place seem strange, though not nearly as strange as the Tua realm.”