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Vanzir.
“Vanzir! What are you doing here?”
He looked as startled as I felt. “I don’t know—I was out on guard duty and suddenly found myself here, running toward . . . I guess it was you.” His eyes spun and he hung his head. “I’m so fucking sorry, Camille. I wish I could take this all away . . . take it all back. How did you get away? Are you okay?”
I stared at him. “I’m not here in body. Vanzir, I’m trapped in the Northlands. Hyto has me.”
He nodded gravely. “I know he has you. We found the cloak and the mark on the tree. Smoky’s already gone to OW, searching for you. Shade and Rozurial are getting ready to leave for the Northlands, so hang on. They’re going to try to find you. Delilah and Menolly went to Grandmother Coyote—I’m not sure what happened because they just took off for there before I went out for a walk. Trillian and Shamas are staying home to protect the house and Morio and Iris and Maggie.”
“Crap. Smoky’s in Otherworld? Does he know I’m in the Northlands?”
Vanzir paled. “He’s headed for the Dragon Reaches for help. He doesn’t know exactly where you are, though. Smoky . . . oh Camille, he’s terrifying.”
“But you’re alive?”
With a sad laugh, he inclined his head. “When Smoky realized that you’d been captured, he sent for me. Suggested a truce. He blames himself, Camille. He’s in a terrible state—and that means he’s highly dangerous. When he found the tree . . . and your cloak . . . he ripped several of the trees out of the ground and burned them to cinders. He changed into his natural shape and would have trampled the entire forest if Trillian and Iris hadn’t stopped him.”
I sank to the ground. “I want to come home. I need to come home. Vanzir, Hyto is . . .” Looking up mutely, I pulled up my skirts to show him the bruising on my thighs. Then I pointed to the collar around my neck. “I don’t know how much longer he’ll let me live. He’s setting a trap for Smoky with me. You have to let Smoky know that it’s a trap to catch him. I’m near the Skirts of Hel, to the north. In a cavern high up the mountain.”
“You think the big lug doesn’t know that Hyto’s out to trap him? But that won’t stop him from coming for you. And may the gods save whoever gets in his way. He’ll kill anyone or anything to have you back.”
After a moment, Vanzir began to flicker. “I feel like I’m being pulled back. I’ve got to go, Camille. I can’t hold my place here. I don’t have my powers, but something happened to me tonight—something to do with the Triple Threat. It happened out on their land—something . . . I don’t know what—”
And then he vanished into the night, and I felt myself being drawn back to my body, but then before I reentered the labyrinth, I stopped, once again staring up at the sliver of the moon.
An ancient voice, resonating from the sky, showered down around me in a silver rain of whispers. “My daughter, I would save you if I could, but there is a destiny for all creatures, and this seems to be part of your fate. Your training, though—never forget your training. Remember you are my daughter, you are my child. I will always be with you, through the horrific and the joyful. I will always be watching, helping when I can, sending my love when I can’t.”
I began to cry—she was so sad, my Lady. I could hear it in her voice. I reached up toward the moon, wanting to go to her, wanting to ride the skies with the Hunt and forget everything and everyone in the lust of the chase.
But the moon disappeared, and I was once again walking back through the labyrinth. My alter ego waited, and I walked up to her and embraced her, and we became one. Feeling both stronger and terribly old, I continued walking till I came to my sleeping form.
It would be so much easier to cut the cord. But I knew now they were searching for me. The men who loved me, my family—they were doing everything they could. I couldn’t give up on them. And so I slid into my body and closed my eyes, and fell into a deep, dark slumber.
Shortly before dawn—although I could not tell anymore what time of day it was—Hanna woke me.
“Camille, wake up, wake up.”
I pushed myself to a sitting position, weary and aching but bolstered from the memory of what I’d found out. “What is it?”
“Hyto wants you. I’m to bathe you, feed you, and bring you to his chamber.” Her brow was furrowed and she bit her lip as I groaned. Despite the salve, I hurt—there was no getting around it.
But then I remembered meeting Vanzir the night before and I steeled myself. They were hunting for me. I could do this. I could survive.
After another soak in the tub, which helped ease out my muscles, and another application of the salve to prevent infection, she handed me a thin, sheer skirt. No underwear—not even a thong, no top.
I looked at her mutely and she shrugged. “This is what he requested you wear.”
“It’s like a freakin’ tutu. He’s determined to humiliate me.”
And the scary thought was, he still might be able to do it. I felt stronger now, even with the hell he’d put me through the day before, but another reaming like that, or worse . . . I couldn’t guarantee I’d last through the pain.
My mind was strong, my will stronger. But torture had a way of driving the best person mad. And what Hyto was doing was torture. I slipped into the flimsy skirt and followed Hanna to the table, draping a blanket around my shoulder against the chill.
“I prepared food that might be easier on your stomach—soft bread and soup, and a baked apple.”
I ate, quickly, then used the restroom—as it was—and turned to her. “Each time, my chances of returning lessen. Please, if I don’t come back, hide my bones and give them to my loved ones. Because they will be here. They will rip that monster to shreds. And I want them to have what’s left of me.”
She pressed her lips together, but nodded, and mutely stood back, waiting for me to exit the chamber.
