I hadn’t been out of the city for months and I was disoriented by the wide, rolling landscape ahead. Needing to ground myself, I turned my head back to catch a glimpse of the city, to soak in the sight of the last place I’d been with Skalla, the place where our friends had died.
But, as if wanting to drive the knife of this night a little deeper between my ribs, the city was gone.
My knees buckled, and I would have fallen if Koltar hadn’t been holding me. Rationally, I’d heard about Aeshyr’s protection of this place. The way it became somehow cloaked to outsiders. But I’d never actually witnessed the phenomenon since I’d been unconscious when we’d first arrived here.
“No,” I choked out, desperation thick in my voice. The city was gone. Vanished. Not even a dot on a foreign, unknowable horizon. I would never be able to find my way back here even if I had the chance. It was as if the city had never even stood at all. In its place was grass and Shara and then the gleaming river beyond.
The river was where Koltar led me, taking a wide berth around the invisible bulk of Callabarra. A small boat waited for us.
Do not get in that fucking boat.
I reeled backwards, knowing that this was my last chance, because if I got in that boat and went wherever he wanted me to go I knew I’d never find my way back. I also knew I wouldn’t even be alive to try.
But Koltar merely lifted me and plonked me down in the vessel. He hopped in smoothly behind me, starting up the boat and steering it out into deep water before I could even think about jumping back out. I hadn’t gone swimming in a while, but I’d always been pretty good at it. I could still try jumping, but...
But we were already well out into the centre of the river. And this wasn’t some little creek. The Bohnebregg river was a monster of a body of water. Wide as a lake with surging currents in the deep areas that I knew I couldn’t win against. Sitting in the bottom of the metal boat, my hands cradled my abdomen, and I knew that I wouldn’t jump. Jumping out here would mean drowning, and I had to squeeze every second out of my life that I could in case a chance for escape came.
Either that, or Skalla returned.
My eyes scanned the sky, my pulse leaping every time a dark stretch between stars made me think it could be the stone of Skalla’s door. But he wasn’t here.
Not yet. But he will be...
I stopped my fruitless search of the sky and watched Koltar instead. He steered the boat but did not turn on its light.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked. I didn’t actually expect him to answer, but he did, bluntly and without emotion.
“I am taking you to people who will kill you.”
OK. Wow. I knew this night was headed in a bad direction, but it was kind of wild to hear him just announce it like that.
My fingers dug into my stomach.
“Why take me all the way out here? Why not...” I didn’t know the Bohnebregg word for shoot, and I struggled with the sentence construction before I remembered that Koltar had some of that webbing so that he could talk to Aeshyr. I switched to Finnish. “Why not just kill me the way you did my friends?”
He gave a hissy, sneering sound. “They are not dead,” he muttered, his eyes fixed on the river ahead. “I will deal with them upon my return, but they are alive. We do not kill in Callabarra.”
Oh, thank God. I blinked away new tears, these ones of relief. I swiped at my face.
“So you don’t kill people in Callabarra,” I said, “but you take them to someone else to do your dirty work for you? You kidnap people instead?”
He snorted, then gave me a cold look.
“Ah. But you are not one of my people.”
“I suppose I can’t argue with that. But still... What did I do?” I was more angry than plaintive. “What is this punishment for? I haven’t done anything to deserve this!”
“It really has very little to do with you,” he said. His eyes were ahead again, like he was watching for landmarks. “But Skallagrim is a threat to my city that I will no longer tolerate.”
“Are you insane?” I cried. “It has very little to do with me, but I’m the one getting killed over whatever this is? And you have to know that when Skalla comes back and finds me gone he’s going to go absolutely berserk!”
Berserk in the literal sense. He would smash the city into a million pulverized pieces. How could Koltar not see that?
But when he glanced back at me again, he looked at me with a furrowed brow as if I were the ignorant one. The one who truly didn’t understand what was happening here.
“You don’t know, do you?” he finally asked.
“Know what?!”
“That when you fully mate with a stone sky god, he loses his immortality. His lifespan becomes bound to his mortal mate’s. It does not matter how strong he is. It does not matter where he is or what he is doing. The moment his mate dies, so does he.”
I blinked uncomprehendingly at Koltar’s back as he continued to steer the boat down the river.
“It is the only way to eliminate a stone sky god,” he continued. “The only way for a mortal, that is. Skallagrim is made of metal, through and through. Not only is he powerful and unpredictable but he knows where Callabarra is.”
“He would never do anything to betray the city!” I shot back. “Especially now that we’re together. He listens to me!”
“He has already toppled the main gate of our city and injured several of the Mother’s Claws,” he pointed out icily. “Not to mention the fact that before he left this world generations ago, he was a raider prince who killed and hoarded with the best of them. A natural enemy of our cause. And now he knows how to bypass the city’s protections. He knows where we are, how many we are. How defenceless we would be against him. All of this, and he has never once stopped to seek forgiveness or repent.”
“He’s changed since then!” I said. “He only wants me to be happy. He’s not going to start raiding for metal again like he did hundreds of years ago!”
Koltar gave a mirthless hiss of a laugh.
“Men made of metal, like your mate, do not change. Their blades merely get sharper over time. Impossible to wrap in cotton.”
“What about Jolakaia! She changed! You allowed her into the city!”
“She is not an all-powerful immortal who can obliterate us with a wave of her hand,” he countered. “Or, formerly immortal, I suppose, since Skallagrim no longer qualifies. Jolakaia was committed to follow the Mother before I even found her. When I first saw her, I knew she could be wrapped in cotton if only given the correct guidance.” He sneered. “Although, since she was the one to expose us to Skallagrim, bringing him directly to our gates without seeking permission, I would say she is not the best example for your case.”
My mind whirled, trying to figure out how to get out of this now that I knew what Koltar’s motivations were.
“Well, we aren’t even fully bonded yet!” I bluffed. “So it won’t even work anyway!”
“Ah, yes, that is why you looked so horrified when I told you he would die when you did,” he said sarcastically. “And even without that expressive face of yours, you are absolutely drenched in the scent of him. Much more so than before. No, I am certain you are bonded now. Lying will not do you any good.”
Fuck.
“What if we leave?” I asked. “As soon as Skalla gets back, I’ll make him take me somewhere else. Anywhere else! You’ll never see us again. I swear.”
“I am afraid that is not enough. Skallagrim cannot continue to live with the knowledge he has gleaned about us.”