Chapter 45
SHARA
:Thank you, Son of Morrigan,: I told Nevarre. :Using your Shadows to cover my eyes was a great idea.:
His crow cawed. :My pleasure, my queen.:
Shielding the rest of my body with power, I used Xin’s bond to guide me into the cave.
I didn’t need my eyes to see. Not when I had such deep Blood bonds.
Clanging blows bounced off the rocky walls as he hacked at the adamantine chain, trying to break Basilia free of the tetradrachm.
Despite all the tugging and fighting going on outside, the coin had barely moved, as if it outweighed them all.
I didn’t think removing the chain would be enough to let Basilia die, though it wouldn’t hurt anything to try.
Correction. I heard metal shatter. It would hurt Guillaume’s sword.
:It’s not my Templar blade,: he assured me.
Once inside the cave, I pulled the Shadows from my eyes and used them like a curtain against the jagged rocky entrance, just in case the hydra managed to get one of her heads past the rest of my Blood. Moving quickly, I dropped to my knees beside Basilia’s body.
She lay crumpled at the base of a large statue of Medusa.
The chain was deeply embedded into her leathery skin, as if it had become part of her body.
Xin had severed her spine, but dry, woody tendons were re-attaching her head, pulling her body back together.
Just like Leonie, her eyelids and mouth were sewn shut.
Basilia looked more shriveled and drier.
Maybe it was the climate? Or something to do with her power?
She looked more like Huitzilopochtli before I resurrected him.
Power filled me, simmering hot and ready to be used.
I allowed a small drop of blood to well up from the puncture I’d made on my wrist so I could shield myself as I walked past the spitting venomous heads.
Swiping my finger through the blood, I touched a dainty heart-shaped lock holding the chain to the silver disk, willing the lock to melt away.
Hissing like a living serpent, the chain slipped off her body, tearing away pieces of dried skin. Not just the lock but the entire chain began melting into smoldering puddles of metal.
But I could still hear thuds outside.
Both Sekh and Mehen roared and bellowed. My dragon had taken several deep slices and bites, and while he wasn’t exactly endangered, he was taking on damage.
While the hydra only got bigger by the second. The quicker I solve this issue, the better.
Closing my eyes, I allowed my consciousness to sink into her body. :Plan C.:
I moved toward her heart as quickly as possible, looking for her spirit. Dry and woody, at least she wasn’t rotted like Thierry had been. Which should’ve made it easier to find her bird. But I couldn’t find anything that moved or fluttered or held any spark of life at all.
Her spirit had already been removed, and it fought my Blood outside in the form of the hydra.
I could possibly touch my blood to the hydra itself and try to free her soul, though no one would want me to get that close to her, even wrapped in power.
I couldn’t even be sure the Eleusinian Mysteries would be enough to fully shield me.
Besides, I didn’t know if it would work, and the hydra was as big as the sphinx now, with so many heads she looked like a whole herd of giant snakes snapping and spitting.
My hair slipped free of the bun, tumbling down over my shoulders. A golden disk glinted in the dim light, riding on the wave of dark hair. Medusa’s head glared up at me as I picked up the disk, Her mouth gaped open in a silent scream. Snakes writhed around Her head.
Reverently, I laid the disk on Basilia’s chest. “My mother wanted you to have this, Basilia. She would have given it to you then if she could. But she was keeping a secret from the world to protect me.”
Her stiff arms jerked up to clutch the disk against her. As if she feared I would take it from her.
The sudden silence outside told me it was working. Through their bonds, I saw the hydra collapsing to the ground, all her snake heads limp. Dead eyes staring. Gaping holes in her chest and belly where they’d tried to stop her.
Basilia moaned, trying to speak.
:Xin.:
Immediately, he squatted by her reattaching head and began to cut the stitches holding her mouth shut with the shattered remnants of the sword. Even without her tongue, I understood what she said.
“Isador.”
Tears streamed down my cheeks. “Yes. We’re here, Basilia. I’m so sorry this happened to you.”
Xin flicked a quick look up at me, silently questioning whether I wanted him to cut her eyelids free. I shook my head. I already felt her spirit withdrawing from this plane. Though instead of the gentle flutter of feathers, she left with the rasp of scales, slithering against stone.
A voice came from Medusa’s statue. “SO IT IS THAT BASILIA GORGOS CROSSED THE VEIL INTO MY ETERNAL EMbrACE.”
On my knees beside Basilia’s body, I bowed my head. “Please forgive me for killing your last daughter, She with Dread Shining Eyes and Terror in Her Hair.”
“WE GORGONS RIOT WITH GREAT FEAR AND DREAD, DAUGHTER OF ISIS. YOU HAVE FULFILLED MY DAUGHTER’S SOLEMN OATH TO brING THE LAST GORGONEION HOME. THERE IS NO JUDGMENT AGAINST ISADOR, ALTHOUGH I WOULD ASK A BOON FROM YOU.”
Medusa, asking me for something? I tipped my face up to gaze upon Her statue.
Snakes flowed and rippled around Her head, but Her face was classically beautiful with shining silvery green eyes, high forehead, and soft, full lips curved in a gentle smile.
Wrapped in flowing white robes, She bent down to brush Her fingers against my cheek.
Warm and alive with power, Her touch sparked deep inside of me.
“GORGON BLOOD YET LIVES ON THIS MORTAL EARTH IN YOUR DRAGON KING. IF YOU CHOOSE TO HAVE AN HEIR WITH LEVIATHAN, SHE WILL WEAR A CROWN OF STARS, AND HER GAZE WILL STRIKE DREAD IN THE HEART OF HER ENEMIES, FOR SHE WILL CARRY ALL OUR GORGON GIFTS.”
Oh wow. We had sort of joked about him being a dragon baby daddy…
:Fuck yeah, my queen,: Mehen purred in his bond. :I volunteer as tribute. Any time. Any place.:
“I—I will consider it,” I stammered out, blushing. “I’m not quite ready for children.”
She kissed my forehead. “NAME HER SEREN AND GIVE HER AS MUCH LOVE AS YOU’VE GIVEN TO MY RECALCITRANT NEPHEW MANY TIMES REMOVED.”
Straightening, She turned and offered Her hand behind Her. The shadows deeper in the cave moved, coalescing into Basilia Gorgos, fully healed and restored. The Gorgoneion glowed against her chest, spinning rainbows of light through the cave.
“There’s a great deal of residual power in my nest.” Her eyes burned with hatred and rage—but not at me. “All my blood. All my power. All my suffering. Use it well, daughter of Esetta Isador, and right the atrocities committed by Jeanne Viennois.”
Standing, I held out my palm toward Xin. He drew the shattered blade across my skin, drawing my blood.
“I, Shara Isador, daughter of Esetta, daughter of She Who Is and Was and Always Will Be, will right the atrocities committed by Jeanne Viennois.” My blood seized the oath, writing it deep into my bones. “So let it be.”
By the time I exited the cave, most of the hydra was already cleaned up. From the way my dragon smirked, I assumed he’d eaten most of it, though the other flesh eaters had probably helped. Feasting had helped heal most of Leviathan’s injuries, but he never refused blood if I was offering.
With my bleeding hand grasped in Leviathan’s mouth, I told Undina what had happened with Basilia.
Just as she’d said, I could feel residual power all around me.
Every step I took across the nest made vibrations of fury ripple in the air.
Every pebble and blade of grass inside this blood circle thirsted for retribution.
All the lives of House Gorgos. Basilia’s blood soaked into the ground.
Her pain and rage were so thick, I struggled to breathe until I stepped out of the blood circle.
Every dark emotion lingering here fed the oath I’d sworn.
Not urgency—like I was going to die—but with clamorous intensity, demanding my undivided attention. I had a feeling I wouldn’t be sleeping much until I’d fulfilled my oath to Basilia.
“How many of these trophies did you say you found in the Dauphine’s last nest?” Undina asked.
“Forty-four.” She made a series of high-pitched squeals and whistles that I assume was sea creature for “fuck.” “Some of them are already dead, but there are still twenty to thirty trapped queens needing help.”
“Each with some kind of trap or creature like a hydra protecting her.” Undina shook her head. “I would offer House Ketea’s assistance, but we weren’t much help with Gorgos. I don’t know what else we could offer.”
I didn’t tell her about Medusa’s request for an heir with Gorgon blood.
For one thing, that was my business, and another, I didn’t want her thinking I was open to taking orders like a custom cake shop.
I wouldn’t be opposed to having an heir with each of my Blood, but damn.
That was a lot of babies, and I didn’t even know if I wanted one yet.
Okay, that was a lie. I knew I wanted a daughter for House Isador. I refused to let my house die out after everything Esetta and Selena had done to have me.
As Rik had said, I was extremely young to have children as far as Aima queens were considered. Though if I dwelled on it too long, I could all too easily imagine a young dragon playing with a baby hell horse or rock troll or kraken…
Okeanos’ tentacles started turning pink, which drew a sharper look from his mother.
I quickly changed the subject. “Before I do anything else, I’m going back to see what particularly nasty surprise the Dauphine was up to in a New Orleans swamp.
I don’t want them bursting free and beginning to wreak a new step of her forked attack.
After that…” I sighed. “I’m not sure. Hopefully it’ll come to me. ”
“Safe travels, House Isador,” Undina said. “May the tides carry you to exactly where you need to be.”