A Kiss of Fire (A Kiss of Magic #2)(10)

Mariah didn’t even hesitate.

“I will go with my mistress.”

“Then sleep,” Lindo said.

She did.

Hundor, who had recovered from the guard’s attack on his mind, stepped forward to catch her before she hit the ground. Lindo walked ahead of them, altering the perceptions of anyone they came across. No one would see them carrying two unconscious women into the carriage that awaited them.





Chapter Four


Ariana stirred when a particularly hard jouncing awoke her from her sleep. The first thing she noticed was that she was cold. Very cold. The conveyance she was in jounced again and she tried to make out what she could in the near darkness. She began to warm herself by reflex as she strained to see around her. There was a small square window of sorts set high atop the conveyance. It let a little light in.

And it was a conveyance. It was a coach, but unlike any coach she had even been in before. She quickly created a ball of fire and brightened the interior. The first thing she saw was Mariah lying curled up on the seat across from her. The other woman was shivering in her sleep and Ariana immediately switched sides of the coach and sat near her to keep her warm. The older woman’s shivering eased and Ariana smoothed back a strand of Mariah’s honey blond hair, tucking it back behind her ear. Once she was certain Mariah was warm enough, she stood up in the coach, wobbling as the coach struck some sort of rut in the road. She stepped up on the coach seat across from Mariah and, reabsorbing her fireball, she grabbed for the bars of the tiny square window with both hands, trying to pull herself up to see out of it. The window made it just to the level of her eyes if she stood on her tiptoes. She looked out and could see nothing but vast stretches of land, some wooded, some not, sprawling out around her. She could see it was nearing dusk. They couldn’t have been traveling for very long then, she thought. It had been dusk when they had been attacked. Provided it was the same day. That thought made her heart sink. How long had she been asleep?

She dropped down into a sitting position again and created another fireball for her to see by. She looked at the structure of the coach. If not for Mariah she could simply set the coach on fire, burning it to ashes around herself, walking free of the burning embers unscathed. But as she looked at the walls of the coach she began to realize that, with the exception of the cushions she was sitting on, the coach was made completely of iron.

She was powerful, potentially powerful enough to melt iron, but that would take just about all she had and, again, there was Mariah to consider. Even if she could melt the iron around her, dripping scalding metal was very different than burning wood. She wasn't sure she could walk away unscathed from that. Even she could be burned under the right circumstance. And if she did burn her way out of the iron coach, she would likely have nothing left with which to fight those who were outside of the coach. She certainly wasn't powerful enough to go up against an Aspano majji, which was what the first cloaked man had obviously been.

She regretted the impulse that had had her leaving the capitol with only two guards. But she had always thought she would be powerful enough to defend herself against anything. But all the firepower in the world meant nothing when someone could simply enter your mind and take control of it. It was why she always took an Aspano guard with her. To counteract any such attacks. But clearly the Aspano who had attacked them had been far more powerful than her guard had been. He had felt extremely powerful as he had entered her mind and bid her to sleep.

But he had looked so familiar. She should be able to place an Aspano with that kind of power. He had the power to rival Dendri Adiron, the most powerful Aspano majji on their continent. But she would know of another majji of Dendri’s ability, wouldn’t she?

“Unless he isn’t a majji,” she said aloud to herself.

Then recognition blossomed in her mind. She didn’t know his name, couldn’t remember it, but she knew who he was. She had sat across a table for him for a week two autumns ago as he had provided aide to…

No. It couldn’t be! He wouldn’t dare!

Oh, but he would, she realized with cold, sinking dread in her belly that she could do nothing to warm. Raja Sin’s aide. That was who he was. And if his aide was involved in this than it was certain that Sin was a part of it as well.

He must be mad! Kidnapping the leader of the Saren world? It was insanity. It was an act of war! It was…barbaric.

She ignored the flutter of anxiety—was it anxiety?—curling in her belly. Yes. It had to be anxiety. It most certainly was not excitement. Anticipation? But not an eager anticipation, she told herself sternly. It was an apprehensive anticipation.

A blinding memory of his kiss that night in the gardens came screaming at her. The heat…oh, the heat of it. She had been burned for the first time in her life. Burned in such a way that she had smarted from it for days afterward. For weeks afterward. In fact, she had just finally managed to make it through a day without thinking about it once. Well, not more than once in any event. The rawness of it came back to her now though. Along with the understanding that she would see him again soon. If they were bringing her to him, she would see him again very soon.

She told herself that didn’t excite her as much as it did frighten her, but that didn’t ring very true. There was very little she was afraid of, but since she wasn't willing to be honest with herself right then, she put it down to fear.