raised my eyes to him. I hadn’t been thinking about using the crown, but then I wasn’t exactly strategizing for an op. “Your crown, my queen,” he said, straight-faced, serious.
Shaddock was holding the Glob. “Ugliest thing I thing I’ve ever seen, and pulling it out of a bug skull wasn’t fun, but you know?” He flipped the Glob over and over as if testing its weight. “The power in this thing is mighty amazing. Don’t reckon you’d want to sell it?”
“Like the crown, it chooses its victim.”
“Mmmm. Dawn’s coming. We need to get moving, Queenie.” Shaddock placed the Glob in my hand, and when he realized I couldn’t hold it, he tied it in place with a strip of cloth he cut from his own shirt. “Your scepter.”
Gee flapped his wings and tossed something down. “Your arcenciel scale,” he said. “I found it in the rocks, covered with your blood, from the battle with the Flayer of Mithrans.” Edmund caught it and Eli tucked it into the sticky wrap holding my bandages in place.
I looked at Gee, perched in the tree overhead. “You said you’d show me the way through the rift and back, so I didn’t get lost.”
“I would guide you, but the Dark Queen has an angel to guide her, if she lives or dies. Heavenly power is far better than any assistance or pathways I might offer.”
I wanted to argue and call him foresworn, as I had Soul, but Bruiser was dying. I whispered, “Put me in the rift water, Eli. If I don’t drown immediately, put Bruiser and the others in.”
That strange expression was still on his face. “And if you die?”
“Then I’ll have screwed up, you doofus.”
A faint smile ghosted over his face.
I searched through my memories, through poorly learned protocol, and half-recalled Cherokee words and phrases. I couldn’t move, couldn’t touch his chest, over his heart, but at least I had the words. “You have been my protector and shield bearer, my brother in thought and deed. Nvwadohiyada,” which meant “Harmony to you,” said as a type of blessing to the warrior who had fought for me. I had already taken care of Eli and Alex and the Everhart-Truebloods in my will, and I had positioned them in a place of power in Clan Yellowrock. This last blessing was all I could do at this point.
Tears gathered in Eli’s eyes. His nostrils trembled; his lips went hard and thin as if he held in a scream.
“Throw me in the pool, Eli. Let’s see if I sink or swim.”
Gently he slid his arms under my knees and beneath my shoulders. Even with the Anzu feather, the pain was a red-hot razor of agony. Eli lifted me and carried me the few feet to the pool. Soul was on the far side, watching. Silent. Not her usual self, but then she was a fish. Or an aquatic mammal. Whatever. He knelt again and eased me into the heated water. Instantly my bones stopped aching. My muscles relaxed. But I started bleeding again, a pale cloud of pink in the water. Dudley was hurting so bad it was off the scale, even with the new Anzu feather and spinal damage. I held in a scream, knowing that if I ever started wailing, I might never stop. I breathed short and fast as Eli settled me with a rock at my back and the arm holding the Glob around another rock. Floating.
Other than that, nothing happened.
Edmund was dribbling his blood onto Bruiser’s throat and into his mouth. Bruiser wasn’t breathing, wasn’t bleeding. But what had Gee said? “His soul is ready to depart.” Not “His soul has departed.”
I turned my head, able to move that much, healed at least a little by vamp blood. “Put Bruiser in. Fast,” I said. Edmund lifted my honeybunch as if he weighed nothing and placed him in the water with me. The master vampire had to hold Bruiser up by his shoulders or he would have slid beneath the water.
I had said the word, Nvwadohiyada, the word and meaning lodged somewhere in my brain. The way of the war woman was not always to lead others into violence. The war woman could also lead to peace. The way of the Cherokee was harmony and harmony was peace. To achieve harmony with our clans, our tribe, with other tribes, and with nature, we went to water. Water was sacred. Holy.
Some water was more sacred, holy, and healing than others. More of my blood