Mona Lisa Blossoming

Chapter Sixteen

Without a word the High Lord led me outside. My attention was caught immediately by the two horses on the front lawn, if that was what they could be called. I stared at them with both wonder and apprehension.

Suddenly the dark tower groaned. The walls shook and the ground quaked. I whirled back to catch the High Lord calmly removing his hand from where he had pressed it against the smooth black wall. The trembling ceased.

"What was that?" I said.

"I set the wards. Nothing can enter now."

That sounded nice. It would keep Halcyon safe until he regained his full strength. "What about getting out?" I asked.

"The stones of Darkling Tower are keyed to Halcyon's hand as well. He will be able to leave when he is ready." Darkling Tower. Another edifice with a name. And how appropriately named.

Once that task was accomplished, Blaec seemed like a different person. His eyes were no longer empty but filled with energy, with purpose. He strode down the front steps, fairly strumming with impatience, as if he couldn't wait to be off or rid of me. I trailed warily after him. Wary because he headed straight for those giant demon horses.

I was getting a bad feeling about this and was trying to find a polite way to tell the High Lord that I didn't ride, in case he was getting any ideas that way, when he plucked me up and swung me onto the back of one of the animals, completely ignoring my sputtering sounds of protest. Blaec's hands lifted from me and then I was alone on the terrifying beast. I squeaked as I felt myself sliding sideways and instinctively tightened my hold on the flowing mane, but it was the gentle unseen power shifting me upright like an invisible pushing hand that really kept me from falling.

"Was that you, High Lord?" I managed to squeak out.

Blaec leaped gracefully onto his own mount, a jet-black stallion that neighed and snorted, eager to be off. And I noticed then that it wasn't only its greater size that set the demon horse apart from its equine brothers up on Earth. It was also the eyes. They flared to life, a fierce, fiery red then faded slowly back to dark brown. Sharp intelligence glinted in those knowing eyes.

"No, that was Mary, your horse," Blaec said.

I gazed down at Mary with surprise. Whereas the stallion was ebony black, she was pure white, like fresh-fallen snow. "Er… thank you, Mary."

The mare tossed her head in acknowledgment and gave a polite little neigh. Her eyes, I noted thankfully, were not glowing red. No doubt they would, though, if I aggravated her enough. I tried not to do so. I tried to hold real still as Mary took off in a gentle canter after the stallion, as if by not moving, I wouldn't imperil my perilous balance. It sounded good in theory, but like many good theorems, did not work out in application. I continued to shift and tilt and slide sideways, and Mary continued to patiently push me back upright with that invisible hand.

The stallion snorted in disgust, prancing in place, waiting for us to catch up with them. His rider snorted in equally impatient disgust.

"Hell fire," Blaec said, not bothering with charm anymore. "You're stiff, like an iron poker's shoved up your ass. No wonder you keep falling over. You've got to relax, girl, if you want to keep your seat."

"Why didn't you say something sooner!" I said. He wasn't the only one disgusted. "This is my first time on a horse."

"Really?" Blaec said dryly, "I couldn't tell. Oh, just pretend that it's my son you're riding."

I gasped in outrage but the High Lord turned and galloped off before I could come up with a scathing retort.

"Stupid, arrogant male," I muttered. Mary neighed. Her eyes laughed kindly back at me, as if I amused her. "Well, he is," I said to her and groaned as I slid sideways once more. Gently, she shifted me back.

"Let me just walk," I called ahead to Blaec.

"I told you before, no time."

"What's the rush," I muttered, and grimly concentrated on relaxing, letting my upper body roll with the easy rocking motion of my mount. Surprisingly, it did help me keep my seat, and the fact that the High Lord was right only served to rankle me more.

We passed a scattering of shabby abodes. The demon dead were out and about. Men, women, but no children. They bowed to the High Lord, eyed my white glowing skin hungrily. They made no effort to approach me, but their hot gazes itched my back.

When I finally seemed to be getting the hang of staying on Mary, Blaec said, "Hang on." With that one warning, he murmured something to the stallion. The great beast gathered itself and sprung up, stretching out, soaring into the air, floating up, up, and then down in a long effortless arc, covering well over a hundred feet.

I only had time to say, "No!" and squeeze my knees tightly around Mary's barrel sides, and then she was also springing up, air-bound, dropping my stomach down into my feet and choking a gasp out of my throat as she landed a soaring distance away. Her feet barely touched the ground before she sprang up again in another giant leap after the High Lord's stallion. "Goddamn it! You're supposed to be horses, not leap frogs."

But my protests seemed not to matter to them. When Mary finally came to a halt, I slid off her, falling into an ungraceful heap beside her dainty hooves, thankful once more to be on solid demon ground. She eyed me sadly, as if sorry for one so clumsy.

Blaec dismounted with a natural fluidity that I was beginning to despise. Walking over, he offered me a slender, elegant hand. Grudgingly I took it and he lifted me to my feet with hardly a pull.

"Showoff," I muttered and he grinned. He grinned, the bastard.

"No wonder he calls you his hellcat."

With a gentle murmur of thanks and a light stroke on their powerful necks, Blaec sent the demon horses on their way.

I assumed there was a portal here. Couldn't really tell. It looked just like an ordinary clearing. But when I turned my head, looking around, I caught sight of it: a shimmering white force, barely visible, like a blurring of reality you could only see from the corner of your eye. If you looked at it straight on, it disappeared.

I stepped toward the portal. "My thanks for escorting me here, High Lord," I said grudgingly. I still had manners, even though his had apparently completely fled.

"My duty is not yet done, child." Blaec took my arm.

"You don't have to bring me up."

"I will accompany you. Then you will bring me to Mona Louisa."

I halted. "You're going after her," I said flatly.

"Yes."

I regarded him calmly. "What if I told you that I will take care of her?"

Blaec shook his head. "I must see to the matter myself."

My shoulders and the back of my neck were already tense from that harrowing ride-flight. Now they were tightening even more—great big knots of tension that threatened a pounding headache if they continued.

I did not want to be responsible for Blaec's safety. No, that wasn't true. I really did not want to be responsible for his death. Halcyon had said that his father had not walked the Earth for a long, long time. And the longer you'd been away, the harder it would be to play.

"Look," I said, "the night is already more than halfway spent. Wait until tomorrow and I will bring you to her then." My plans were to take care of the blonde bitch Queen before it was time to fetch him.

"It cannot wait."

"Damn it, Blaec. I didn't do too well keeping your son safe. If you get dinged up, as well, it's going to suck something major."

He smiled for the very first time and it lit his face up the same way it lit Halcyon's: flashing light over darkness, brightening up his whole face. Making me wish he hadn't smiled. Potent weapon, that smile. It made you want to please him, to coax out another smile from him.

"Somehow, I managed to understand what you said," Blaec said with amusement. "Do all Queens talk as you do now?"

"Nope, just me. I'm one of a kind." Wasn't that the Mixed Blood truth.

"Do not worry for me, my young Queen."

"Can't you contact the High Council? Let them punish her?" Of course, they hadn't done such a good job of punishing her the first time around. But hopefully he didn't know that.

"It is no longer a Monère matter. By laying hands on my son, her judgment has passed into my realm."

Desperately, I tried to think of another deterrent. "You should think of how your son will feel if you get hurt."

"Halcyon knew that I would seek her out. Counted on me, in fact, to do so."

"He did?"

"He came to me," Blaec said simply, "when he could have easily gone instead to his own residence to rest and recover."

I flashed back to that stupid look of understanding that had passed between the two of them. "Ah, Christ." God, I was so tired. I just wanted to crawl into my bed and close my eyes for a few hours. It would be so much easier to face things with a little rest. Although perhaps it was all the weight on my shoulders making me feel so tired.

Sighing, I glared at Blaec. "I will never forgive you if you die."

A hint of a smile. "I will do my best then not to die."

Great. Just freaking great.

Taking my hand, Blaec pulled me to that shimmering haze of biting energy.

I hesitated. You can't really blame me for that slight pause. I'm the first one to admit I enjoy a little pain; in the right context it spices my pleasure. But even the worse sadist wouldn't enjoy this much pain. Pain that pulsed through you until you thought your blood would boil and burst out your veins.

Unfortunately, it was the only route up.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped into the portal and… sweet bliss. No pain. Blaec was shielding me. I almost collapsed against him in gratitude. He kept me upright with a light supportive hand.

Descending down to Hell felt as if you were falling. That was the only real impression I'd had while ripping pain had threatened to tear me apart. That and the fact that it seemed to take forever. Of course, being in horrible agony would tend to make even a second feel incredibly long.

Ascending was quite different. Nope, gravity didn't seem as if it were squashing you, and there was no sense of shooting up or being lifted. There was only an impression of speed, of movement. The direction of that movement was not specific, though, just a whirling sense of motion around you, as if you were in a spinning tunnel that passed you from the continuum to another. And time sped by swiftly like the movement. In what seemed a mere moment, we were stepping out of the wall of mist.