Page 147 of Fortune's Blade

“Dorina?” He stared around some more, still clutching me tight. “What are you talking about? What’s happening?”

“Look,” I said, and showed him, sending the images from in front of the small cave directly into his mind. “They’re losing, and if they do, so do we. I need my body.”

“Your body? Your body? It’s bad enough that your mind is trapped in there! I’m not sending your body, too! You need to get out—”

“Ray. I am the weapon a goddess gave her life to create. Not my mother, but me. They need me.”

“Bullshit! I need you. And Dory needs you! She almost died to save you—”

“And I would honor that. I would honor her—”

“Stop talking crazy shit and get back here! If the portal works one way, it works the other. I’ve got your body right here, and we finally got a ride out—”

“And what good will that do if the gods return on my heels? The battle is here; I cannot run from it. You have to let me go.”

He stared at nothing for a second, his eyes huge. I don’t know what he would have decided, but the Pythia made a mistake and grabbed for me again, and it spooked him. “No! No, fuck that! Fuck that!” And he took off running.

Antem partly transformed, snaring him with an evil-looking talon. And dragging him back despite everything that Ray could do. And he did a lot, considering that he had only one hand to work with and was battling something far larger than himself.

He might even have fought his way loose, but he wasn’t fighting just one, but two.

Because the Pythia learned quickly. She managed to grasp hold of my left shoulder from behind when Ray was busy fending off the dragonkind. And started to pull me away, but he refused to let go.

But she had help. Because there was a portal there; I could not see it, but I could feel it, tugging at me with a strength greater than his. And I assumed that he could, too, because this time, his face was tragic as he realized he couldn’t stop me. But he was holding on nonetheless, was feeling around in the purse that hung from his belt, was pressing something into my hand.

“Give ‘em hell,” he whispered and kissed me.

And then I lost him as darkness descended, lost the feel of his arms around me, lost the taste of his kiss. But not for long. Light broke over me again, brilliant and shocking as I blinked my eyes open on another world.

And they were my eyes, and my limbs, although they didn’t feel that way. I did not know if it was the shock of being back inside my own flesh after hours beyond it, or the transition through the Pythia’s strange portal. But for a moment, the world spun crazily around me.

And then solidified abruptly, as I saw what was heading for us.

Great Athena was coming, having finally spotted the witch who was delaying her army’s progress with a blizzard. And she was coming fast, eating up the battlefield at a run and slashing her own men with her sword to get them out of the way. She was trying to get to the witch before she absconded, but the redhead took off on her makeshift broom just before she arrived, ducking and dodging the vicious swipes the goddess was making at her.

The storm immediately began to calm without the witch’s magic fueling it, but there were still snow flurries partially obscuring the vision. It wouldn’t last, however, so I had to be quick. And for that, I needed some help.

The ravens were still circling the field, riding air currents far above this sordid business. I stared up at them, wondering if this was where they came from, for they looked the same as those in the city. The ones who had warned me about the gods. The ones I should have listened to.

I listened to them now, opening myself up, filling my ears with their calls. They were chatty, probably talking to each other about the folly of anyone thinking they could defeat the divine, while secretly hoping we would. Did he enslave your brothers? I thought, concentrating on them as I once had some bats who had come to rescue Ray and I in a desperate situation. Not because they’d had to, but because they’d wanted to.

I had found common ground with them.

Could I do it again?

Did he take them away, to unknown lands? I wondered. Did he make them his slaves, force them to spy for him, to help him in his conquests? Is he forcing you to show him what is happening here, all the way in another world?

Did he steal your eyes and make them his?

Would you like to do something about it?

I couldn’t tell if they were listening. It was hard to see them, as the witch was at it again, circling the field, calling the storm in fits and starts and slapping Athena with the results. But it looked like the small black specks might be getting closer.

Or maybe that was a mirage; between the sun and the sand and the snow, I couldn’t tell. But I could hear. And a goddess’s scream echoed over the landscape a second later, causing the whole battlefield to pause.

And me to stick my head out long enough to see a mass of birds flocking around the great head, as if attempting to peck out her eyes. Along with a sole, gigantic specimen who landed by me, sliding a little on the frozen ground, and tilting his head curiously. As if wondering who this strange creature was who called to them from the ground.

One who would ask a favor, I replied, and carefully reached out a hand.

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