“That’s thanks to the Tua power boost,” I said as I curled my fingers around him. “I really ought to thank Nalan and Alara if I ever see them again. I wouldn’t have survived without them, or Broghan either.”
Iannis pressed a quick kiss against my lips, then spoke the spell he’d worked out. I sucked in a breath as I felt a strong tug at my power, and our hands lit up as my magic began flowing into him. Suddenly, we were yanked forward, the prairie around us disappearing into a swirling kaleidoscope of colors. Iannis and I clung to each other tightly as we hurtled through time and space, and I buried my face in his chest as I began to feel dizzy. Unlike last time, which seemed to only take a few seconds, the experience seemed to stretch out endlessly, until I began to panic, wondering if we’d somehow gotten stuck again and would never come back out.
“Relax,” Iannis said in mindspeak. “We are on the right track. The two dimensions are not closely aligned, which is why it takes longer.”
I blew out a long breath, forcing myself to let go, to trust that Iannis knew what he was doing. He’d never led me astray before. He would get us through this, just like he did with everything else.
Finally, we began to slow down, the pressure squeezing in on all sides gradually alleviating. Lifting my head, I saw that the colors swirling around us were beginning to meld, and as I stared, the landscape around us solidified into an endless landscape of yellow grasses and scattered trees. The air was hot, the sun beating down mercilessly on us, but it looked normal, and the sky surrounding it was a clear blue.
“A savannah,” Iannis said, still holding me tight. “And those are gazelles off in the distance. I do believe we are in Faricia.”
“Yes!” I pumped a fist in the air, and that was when a tribe of dark-skinned natives charged out from behind a clump of nearby trees. They wore skirts garnished with some kind of white and black fur, and their bodies were painted with clay in elaborate patterns. I drew my crescent knives as they pointed long spears at us, and Iannis threw up a shield. The natives hissed as the air around us shimmered with magic, and they jabbed at the shield angrily. They didn’t seem happy to see us here, and what was worse, Iannis’s shield wobbled beneath their blows. I tried to fortify it with my own magic, but after that transportation spell, we were almost tapped out. A wave of nausea swept through me, and it took everything I had to keep upright as my stomach twisted into knots.
“Damn,” Iannis murmured as another native came forward from behind the trees. This one was taller than the others, with an elaborate headdress and several colorful amulets dangling from his neck and furs. He pressed his weathered hands against the shield and spoke in a strong, resonant voice. The shield flickered, then died, leaving us completely exposed.
“Please,” I said, the word coming out in a strange language that I couldn’t recall ever speaking. “Don’t hurt us. We mean you no harm.”
The man’s eyes widened. “You speak our language?”
“Yes,” I said, without missing a beat. I realized that Nalan and Alara had gifted me with the ability to understand and speak any language, not just Tua. “We are travelers blown off course, just trying to return to our home.”
“Do not hurt them,” the man, who I guessed was their shaman, said to the others. “I wish to find out more about these pale-skinned travelers who have appeared so suddenly in our midst. They are weak just now, and easily within my power to control.”
“This isn’t good,” Iannis said to me in mindspeak as the shaman began to engage in a spirited debate with another native, who looked to be the hunt leader, about what to do with us. The hunt leader pointed out, reasonably enough, that one killed enemies when they were weak, and that it might not be prudent to keep strange mages around any longer than necessary. Apparently, there were very strict rules about that in their tribal customs. “They are just as likely to treat us as honored guests as they are to sacrifice us to whatever god they believe in.”
From what I’d overheard, the latter was a far more likely outcome. “Great,” I said, surreptitiously sidling closer to Iannis. “Maybe now would be a good time to get the hell out of here?”
Iannis quickly grabbed my arm, then pulled out the gulaya from his sleeve and activated it. The natives turned to us, shouting, and the last thing I saw was the astonished looks on their faces as we disappeared in a flash of light.
20
The moment our feet landed on solid ground, I dropped to my hands and knees and threw up in the nearest clump of bushes. They happened to be rose bushes, and familiar ones at that—even through my retching, I could tell that we were back in the gardens of Solantha Palace.
“Are you all right?” Iannis asked as he gently rubbed my back. How come he doesn’t get nauseous after gulaya travel? I wondered, more than a little envious at his composure.
“I’ll be fine,” I gasped, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. I pulled out my canteen from my sleeve and took a swig of cool water—water from another dimension, I thought wonderingly—to drown out the acrid taste. “All that traveling was just a little too much on my system,” I said as I straightened.
“I know what you mean,” Iannis said. Even he looked a bit unwell, his face paler than usual. But his eyes were bright with excitement as he looked around. “We’ve made it back, though, haven’t we? There were some moments I doubted we would.”
“We definitely have.” Grinning, I flung my arms around him and squeezed tight. “Even better, we’re finally free of Ta’sradala! She did say she wouldn’t come after us if we survived that last trap she set for us.” Not that she’d expected us to ever get home. She probably thought we were wasting away in that desert right now. It gave me great pleasure to have finally gotten the best of her.
“Indeed.” Iannis’s eyes sparkled with satisfaction. “After being bested again and again, she won’t want to continue this confrontation. With any luck, we won’t meet her again for at least a century.”
“Or ever,” I said hopefully, though that was probably too optimistic.
A gardener chose that moment to walk around the corner. He dropped the shovel he was carrying, his eyes widening in astonishment. “Lord Iannis! Miss Baine! You’re back!”