Chapter 568: Wives and Mothers

Haley woke in Mason’s arms, sighing as she looked out their balcony towards a vivid, red sunset. They were in a quaint hotel in Quebec, looking out over the Saint Charles, near the old city.

She’d always loved it, and wished often she could take Mason there. To introduce him to her two best friends in the world. She couldn’t believe they’d finally taken the time.

Someone cleared their throat from across the room.

Haley shrieked and turned, hiding behind Mason’s arm like a shield. Except now Mason was gone. And so was the sunset and the soft warmth. And there was Blake, standing there in her lovely dream, fidgeting with impatience.

“Thank the lord. Does Mason

ever

sleep? I need you to get him a message.”

Haley’s nightgown was thin and basically see through, so she pulled the sheet over her chest and glared. She hadn’t been sleeping well because of her pregnancy. And Blake’s Dreamwalks always ruined her night. Plus it had been a

very

good dream.

“I have questions for you,” she snapped. “Like why did Seul-ki show up out of the blue saying you’d disappeared? And why would she give me some kind of…”

“Terribly sorry.” Blake smiled in that ‘not at all sorry’, predatory way of his. Haley felt her tongue literally stop working. “I’m short on time. Tell Mason I’m in Jeong’s city, working on weakening him and prepping things. But we have a problem.”

Haley swallowed and tried to work her mouth enough to curse the arrogant bastard straight to hell. But she wasn’t so foolish as to not pay attention. Whatever Blake wanted or said, Mason would want to hear it.

“Jeong…” Blake took a deep breath. “Somehow he has the identities of most of our people. Someone leaked it in the Neutral Zone. But what matters is…” he trailed off and shrugged.

“Some of you have relatives alive in the east. Jeong has them. I don’t know who. But he’s going to kill them, Haley. And Mason has to ignore that fact. Because if he lets Jeong stop him, the deaths will be far worse. He

has

to be stopped. And we’re only going to get our best chance once. Tell Mason he has to be the monster required.”

Haley tried to catch up, to process that. They had loved ones alive? Did she? She fought the hope, taking in what Blake was saying. Apparently he’d at least allowed her to

speak

again. She fought the curses off her tongue.

“Can’t we protect them? Negotiate?”

Blake sighed. “That’s what he wants. It’s just a bargaining chip. He’ll kill one to show he’s serious, give us a few more to go away. But he’ll keep most no matter what.”

“But… couldn’t we…”

“Haley.”

Blake stepped forward, those intense blue eyes shining like halogen bulbs. Was it part of his dream power? Had he gained immortality? Why was it so hard to focus…

Haley blinked as Blake pulled away as if annoyed.

“We don’t have time for this. I have to coordinate myself with Mason’s attack. That’s the signal for me to do what I need to. But we won’t be able to talk once I’m in, and I have no idea how long it’ll take.” He shook his head. “Even I may not be that lucky. If he doesn’t keep Jeong busy, he’ll come running. He has to keep him

busy

. Do you understand?”

“Not really,” Haley said, a bit worried now as she saw Blake’s manner. He seemed…manic. Distracted. Like he was trying to do three things at once. Or possibly like he’d snorted cocaine. “When’s the last time you slept?”

“Hmm?” Mason’s brother blinked and waved a hand. “I

am

sleeping. Part of me. Tell Mason the source of Jeong’s main power is civilian ‘contracts’. I’ll take them away. But we want him to come out and commit to the fight first. Understand? Lure him out.”

“Mason will be very glad to know you’re helping him,” Haley said, trying to give him a genuine smile. “He’s been worried about you. Please don’t put yourself in too much risk. You could leave the city and join us. We have a…safe place, I could tell you where and…“

“No.” Blake blinked and matched the difficulty of her smile. “Tell Mason I’ve

been

helping him. But don’t give me any details. I could be captured. Oh, and…” he paused, then shrugged. “I think Seul-ki betrayed us. I can’t be sure. But I think so. She’s with the emperor. I don’t know what she knows that might hurt us. Not much, I think. But she’s…very clever. And well…she’s his sister, as it turns out. Not all my luck is good.”

Haley covered her stomach with a hand, eyes drifting far away. The emperor’s

sister

? By God. It must have been her who’d given Jeong their identities in the Neutral Zone. She must have been ready to betray them all the way since...

Thank

God

she’d left with Blake for the tower those weeks ago.

But Haley’s heart started to pound. The seed. The ‘artifact’ Seed of Life Mason gave her to keep safe. She’d put it in the hall, behind a door only she could access. She hadn’t told anyone. But the drug…whatever Seul-ki had done. What if somehow she’d… she hadn’t checked it since…

“Blake, I have to go now. I’ll tell Mason everything you said. Is there anything else you need to tell me?”

Blake ran a hand through his increasingly long, blonde hair.

“I don’t think so? I don’t suppose Annie could be smuggled into the city, or…no, I know it’s too dangerous. I’ll figure out the dungeon on my own. Just tell Mason…if things don’t work out, I mean. Just tell him…” Blake shrugged and looked away. “Just tell him he’s a moron, alright?”

Haley frowned, getting more worried now. What was he saying about a dungeon? And it wasn’t like Blake to admit anything could go wrong, or to seem flustered. Was he putting on some kind of act to get her moving urgently? With Blake you could never know.

“I’ll tell him,” she said. “But if you need to contact me again, of course you can. I’m usually asleep early.”

“You’re a good woman, Haley. I’m not sure Mason would be doing, I mean…” Blake smiled and met her eyes. “You might have saved us all. You know that? If he didn’t have you. And we didn’t have him. It might be Jeong and demons forever.”

Now he was

really

worrying her.

She wasn’t sure what to tell Mason without getting him worked up. She’d do her best not to make it sound worse than it was. Blake could be so dramatic. She hoped that’s what this was.

She was about to suggest again that he leave the city and talk to Mason, but he winked and started to shimmer like fading light. Haley yawned and blinked until it was her real eyes, and she was back in her bed in the chief’s all.

Her alarm blinked with a red five and two too many zeros. She sighed as she forced away the covers.

**

Ilya of the Vori, Lady of the White Tower, squirmed on her bed with a pillow between her legs. She wasn’t in heat anymore, fortunately, but she still felt very alone, and wanted nothing more than to summon her human lover.

Except he was gone, along with his other human allies. All he’d left her was a note that said ‘be back soon’. Not another word. She’d been panicked. Then angry. Now she’d moved on to lonely and sad.

She trusted him, though, and knew whatever he was doing would be important. She just had to wait and take care of things.

Fortunately, Blake had finished closing the demon portals infesting the towers. He’d also fought back the planar invasion that threatened them when the portals failed. The orc lords had rallied and fought them together, creating a unity the towers hadn’t seen since…well, ever. Or at least since the time of legends.

At council meetings, Ilya was treated like a queen. Her tower was growing daily, with newly promoted caste members rising from the lower orders, often gifted by the gods with magic. It wasn’t just shamans. Ilya was being sent seers and prophets, too.

As the thought occurred to her, she threw off her blanket and dressed, summoning her most powerful seer. The former Stoneblood peasant soon sat across from her at her table, yawning and blinking tired eyes.

“No time for that now, Malka,” Ilya said, sliding some goblin arcane powder across the table. “I need your power to find someone. Or to tell me if they’re safe. I could ask my ancestors, but to speak with them again so soon…I’d best avoid it.”

The older female nodded as if this was wise.

“Sorry, my lady,” she said. “Still not used to the voices. They wreck my sleep.” She snorted the goblin powder and shivered. But her eyes focused. “Tell me the names, then, and something true about them. Names and truth are powerful magic.”

Ilya’s eyes unfocused as she considered. Malka was bound to her now by divine oath. Such things could still be broken, but not easily. And Ilya was feeling safer every day now. The towers were united. She had a small army of constructs gifted to her by Blake. And she was growing stronger, too. She could afford to take some risks.

“His name is Blake Nimitz. He is capable of any good or evil thing in this world. And he will be my husband.”

Malka’s brow raised, but she said nothing. She reached across the table and took Ilya’s hand, her eyes clouding with magic.

“You won’t have long. Don’t tarry.”

Then Ilya’s spirit was flying like a bird, out from the window of her tower, faster and faster as she flew east. She reached the ocean and kept flying. Higher and faster until she found more land, mountains and desert and grassland until her eyes widened.

There was a city, a human city, more vast than the tower underground, with a central fortress made from such beautiful stone.

She descended until she found Blake in a small room in a large dwelling, Meditating on a bed. Except he was also sitting in a chair. And pacing across the room. And talking to himself. She couldn’t understand what she was seeing.

His little floating construct hovered up in the middle of the room, spraying her with a bright light. The Blakes all turned and stared right at her. Then they condensed into just the man sitting on the bed. He opened his eyes and smiled at her.

“I was going to Dreamwalk to you soon. You are as ravishing in spirit as you are in body.”

It was so surreal, Ilya didn’t know what else to do but smile. She had so many questions, so much she wanted to say.

‘When are you coming home?’ ‘We should get married the moment you do.’ ‘Are you safe?’ ‘Why did you leave?’

“I need your help, Ilya,” Blake said, unusually serious. All she could do was nod. “I need you to send me a group, like I took to clear demon portals. You’ll have to bargain with Chillik. I want a wizard, the same assassin, and get the engineer from my lab. That should be enough. Send them through the teleporter beacon as soon as you can. It’s already set to the right location. They just have to activate it. I’ll meet them at the portal.”

“Are you in danger?”

Her voice sounded strange. Like she was speaking through a pane of glass.

“We’re all in danger, at all times,” he said, smiling. “But my enemies are in more danger than me, my love. Can you send them?”

She nodded, and he stood and crossed the room, trying to touch her.

“I’ll be with you soon,” he said. “We’ll be married. And make half rough, half smooth skinned babies. They’ll be holy terrors full of dangerous magic. And they’ll take the whole world by the throat.”

Ilya smiled, her hand moving through her lover’s with no feeling.

“I hope they’ll have their father’s blue eyes,” she said, fighting back tears as she tried again to touch his hand. He sighed and stepped away in frustration.

“The portal should be ready in four days. Send them. I’ll be waiting.”

Ilya wanted to linger, to ask more questions and just to hear her lover’s voice. But the same magic that sent her yanked her back out the window and across the sea. She blinked back to her own body, staring at Malka as she tried to remember how to talk.

“You didn’t tell me you were pregnant,” said the seer, frowning. “Soul magic can be dangerous when there’s another, especially if weak.”

Ilya put a hand to her stomach, the other to her mouth, and Malka nodded with understanding.

“It should be alright. Congratulations, my lady. Did you see what you wanted? I’m sorry it wasn’t long. I hadn’t expected the distance to be so…”

“I saw enough.” Ilya took the woman’s hand and smiled. “Thank you. You did very well.”

She dismissed her servant and stood, mind racing. She couldn’t think about her pregnancy. Not yet. Not with the father in danger. That was the first and only problem to solve.

She hadn’t ‘officially’ met with the goblins now taking refuge in her tower. Blake had been using them because they’d been resistant to demonic mind powers. But now? It didn’t seem wise. She considered sending him orcs—going to her allies. But who to choose? And of course she would do as he asked. But he was wrong about one thing: it wouldn’t be ‘negotiation’.

Tower orcs knew very well how to deal with goblins. ‘Chillik’ and his people would send her husband exactly what he asked for, exactly when he asked. Or there wouldn’t be any survivors of the Greenblood Order after all.