“But you are,” Nadaline told Rune. Her voice was a husky, almost fearful whisper, as though she thought Rune might hit her for saying such a thing.
“I could be from anywhere.”
“No,” Blue said, flatly. “You couldn’t. You know you’re Skyllian. Born and…”
“And what?” Rune narrowed her eyes, suddenly angry. Suddenly afraid.
But Blue only shrugged. “You’re from here, is all I know.”
“You don’t really know it,” Z said.
“The legends say—”
“Fuck the legends,” Rune said. “Let’s get this shit started. I need to find Damascus. Either tell me where she is or take me there. Now.”
At that moment a…howl, it must have been a howl, blasted her eardrums. She started at the suddenness of it and flinched away from the sound, dropping her fangs.
“It’s just Sorrow,” Nadaline said. “She’s alerting the shimmers.”
Rune rubbed at the gooseflesh covering her arms. “The captured shimmers. Are their lords dead?”
“Not as far as we know. The witch holds them prisoner in her castles. She gains more pleasure from torturing them than from killing them. Their hands were captured with them. Only one hand was killed during capture.”
“Which one was killed?” Rune asked. She began walking down the long, dusty road with Blue, Z, and Mad Nadaline.
Z placed his hand against the small of her back, not to urge her on, but to maintain contact. She was glad.
“Ours,” Blue said. “The shimmer was captured just recently. When it was attacked, Death lord’s hand fought alongside us, though he was not supposed to. And even though Death Shimmer is protected by a hugely powerful army—the Army of Death and Darkness—it fell to the witch.” She gave Rune a dark look. “That is what we’re up against. Flesh is the last free shimmer.”
Rune took a deep breath and caught Z’s familiar, warm scent. “Do you know how much I want to ignore everything and hide away with you?”
He nodded. “I know.”
“Hiding isn’t possible,” Blue said, seeming to think Rune was actually considering it. “By now, the witch and her agents will know you’re here.”
Rune curled her lip. “I’d never hide from a fight.”
“Rune’s a protector,” Z said. “And a warrior. She doesn’t hide.”
Rune closed her eyes. Bad shit was coming. Whether she wanted it to or not, it was coming.
She stepped away from Z so she could think more clearly. “Do the people of the captured shimmers fight for Damascus?”
“They would,” Nadaline answered. “If she ordered them to. But she doesn’t need them. She has actual armies. Those captured simply fight each other and live in terror. Most of them, anyway. There’s nothing else they can do unless you—we—free them.”
“That will change now,” Blue disagreed. “Once word spreads that the princess has come, they will fight. They will fight against the witch.”
“They will fight for the…for Rune.” Nadaline’s smile lit up her face.
“There are larger clusters of rebels like us,” Z told her. “They fight Damascus, though most of them are dying out. She’s just too powerful. The ones who remain will fight with you.”
“We’ve been waiting for so long,” Blue said, grimly. “Waiting for the princess.” And in her eyes was a challenge.
Rune would have given just about anything to have had her crew at her side. “Then let’s go show them the wait is over.” She shot out her silver, undulating claws and they sliced through the still air with a sound like no other.
The sound, somehow, of hope.
Soon, the shimmers would stir with hope, with belief.
They believed the tales.
They believed Rune Alexander, the princess, had come to save them.
She wished she believed it as well.
Chapter Five
The first city they neared looked as if it had been copied from the ancient Rome of Rune’s world. It was majestic from a distance. Tall pillars and round, pristine buildings arose from the dusty earth. White column after column marched with solemnity into the horizon, disappearing from view with disconcerting abruptness.
And it was overflowing with people.
She could hear them, and she could smell them.
She wrinkled her nose at the stench of living beings packed together too tightly. It didn’t matter that she and the others were a quarter of a mile from the gates, she could smell those inside the city. “Is this…what the fuck shimmer are we in, anyway?”
“We’re still in shimmer three,” Blue said. “Death.”
“There are guards inside the city,” Mad Nadaline murmured. “Scores of them. We must be careful.” She glanced sideways at Rune, smiling. “Though the chances of our capture have significantly lessened with you here.”