The Rogue Queen (The Hundredth Queen #3)(34)
Snowflakes drift in through the open casement. I huddle deeper into the wool blanket that I borrowed from the infirmary, and I rock in the lookout chair. I came directly to the secluded tower upon leaving Healer Baka. The salve she rubbed into my knee eased the aching, but even though the beacon emanates warmth, the Voider’s poison still gnaws into my bones.
A fire dragon crouches in the beacon’s flame. I do not send the manifestation of my soul’s reflection away, nor does it snap or hiss to gain my attention. The fire dragon waits patiently for my command, a pup sitting dutifully alongside its master.
A wolf howls in the far-off hills. The lonely call sends my gaze to the road. Hastin will arrive that way; it is the only thoroughfare in or out of Samiya. I will watch for him and meet him outside the temple gate. He will not come any closer to my home until we have an alliance.
As night dawdles on, the snow on the casement ledge deepens. I burrow into my blanket, and the folded parchment in my pocket rustles. While Healer Baka prepared the salve for my leg, I sketched a picture. Though it had been a while since I indulged in drawing, I labored over the details.
I open the drawing and examine Ashwin’s face. In my rendition of the prince, shadows obscure half of his profile. Remorse and blame draw down his mouth, and in his eyes, sorrow coils. He has worn this precise expression every day since he unleashed Udug. Ashwin’s self-blame troubles me. Every day Udug roams free and unchallenged, Ashwin’s regret intensifies. The only good to come of it is that he looks less and less like his father.
Tarek never regretted any of his actions. My deepest, most painful memories originate from him—not only what he did to me but what I was led to do to him. I smothered and poisoned his soul-fire, just as Udug is doing to me. Tarek deserved to die, not only for killing Jaya, but I loathe being his monster, just as he is mine.
A sudden wind sweeps through the tower. The strong gust extinguishes the beacon and my loyal fire dragon. Cast into the dark, I feel my neck hairs prickle.
“Your drawing flatters me, love.”
I draw my daggers and jump up. My sketch of Ashwin falls to my feet. Tarek manifests in the darkness at the rear of the tower, away from the reflecting snow. More shadow than man, his grainy shape is like a pillar of sand.
Tarek evaluates the sketch, now ruined by the damp floor. “You’ve missed me.”
“That isn’t you.”
“My son, then . . .” He tips his head back, thinking over that coupling. “You’ll tire of him. Ashwin doesn’t have the same fire inside him to mold the world with as we do.”
I raise my blades higher. “How did you find me?” He must have traveled by shadows. The evernight exists beyond the light, confined to the dark. But that is little comfort at midnight.
“You summoned me, my wife.” At my instant protest, he says, “You thought of me, did you not?” I did think of Tarek, though only in relation to his son. Then again, when Tarek visited me in the Pearl Palace, it was after I thought of the demon rajah disguised as him . . . “Put away your daggers. Your blades cannot harm me.” He slides forward to the fringe of the shadows but comes no farther. “You were boorish that last time I visited. I could have chosen to ignore your summons, but as I said before, I must warn you.”
“I need no warning from you.”
“You do if you and Ashwin aim to locate the gate to the Void.” Tarek smirks at my shocked withdrawal. “Ah, yes. You are searching for the gateway. I could tell you where it is, but you must come closer.” He reaches for me, still circumventing the barest of light. “It’s been so long since I’ve touched your hair.”
My skin squirms. “You’ll never touch me again.”
“Then you will never find the gate, and without it, Udug will rove free. But I must warn you, Udug can find the gate. And should he be the one to open it . . .”
A leaden warning unfurls in my chest. Udug would only open the Void for an awful purpose. “What do you want in return?”
Satisfaction lightens his voice. “One small request, really. All I ask is that you summon me at the gate. Simply stand before the entry and call my name.”
Nothing is ever simple or harmless with Tarek, but a greater threat roams the mortal realm. “Where’s the gate?”
“Your pledge first, love.”
“Not until you tell me where it is.”
“Then you shall never know.” Tarek’s gaze strokes down my body. “You’ve always reminded me of Enlil’s hundredth rani. Does it strike you as prophetic that we never learned her name? Of all the fire-god’s wives, we learned only of her. Yet we only know of her in association to him. Her reputation lives on in infamy because she wed a powerful man. I, too, have blessed your life, Kalinda. Let me help you again.”
I swipe my dagger at his murky chest, purposely missing. “Go back down the hole you crawled out of.”
His eyes smolder, two sable pits. “Your temper will be your undoing. Udug will crush your world.” Tarek glides backward, deeper into the shadows.
“Wait!” He pauses, his lips curling smugly. I edge forward, stopping before the toes of my boots touch the gloom he dwells in. “If you care anything for your son or me, you’ll help us.”
“Doesn’t my coming here prove that I love you?” He beckons me nearer with his same vainglorious grin. The tips of my toes crest the darkness. The cold tingles, alive and crawling with tentacles. Tarek sidles up to me and grabs a handful of my hair. He lifts my locks to his nose and inhales. “Breathing you in is like drinking midnight.”