CHELISE PULLED her mount up with a sharp tug, digging her heels into the leather stirrups. She threw her weight back to compensate for the sudden stop. The pale mare, bred to blend into the desert, snorted and tossed its head, protesting the bronze bit that dug into its flesh.
The sky . . . there was something wrong in the sky.
“What?” Marie cried, whipping her head around as she shot past. She forced her horse to a tramping halt. “What is it?”
“I . . .” Chelise stared at the black cloud on the distant darkening horizon. Something about the sight spread a chill over her skull. “I . . .”
Marie followed her eyes and gazed with her. “What is it? A cloud?”
“It’s moving.”
“So clouds move. What’s gotten into you?”
“Over the high place, as if—”
“Shataiki,” Marie whispered.
The horses were breathing hard from their run, but this one word uttered by Marie felt like a kick to Chelise’s gut. She hadn’t put her finger on it, but now that Marie had labeled the huge, swirling vortex, the dreadful certainty that her daughter was right wrapped its claws around her throat.
Shataiki.
“That’s impossible,” she finally managed.
Marie twisted in her saddle. “It’s over the high place, Ba’al Bek.”
“But . . . so Qurong accepted Thomas’s challenge?”
Marie turned her jittery mount back to Chelise, casting an eye at the Shataiki. “Unless they’ve gathered in defiance of Thomas’s presence on their sacred turf. He would be the first albino to enter the cursed place of worship.”
“But no one’s seen the Shataiki for years. Have you ever seen one?”
“I may have. At one time I thought I had, but it could just as easily have been a shadow. This is . . .” Marie couldn’t seem to form her thoughts around the idea that they were actually seeing Shataiki. But there could be no doubt. It was a massive cloud of black bats, each the size of a bloodhound if the legends were correct, packed so closely together that they looked from this distance like a solid mass. “So many . . .”
Chelise had finally convinced the council that Qurong and Ba’al would accept Thomas’s challenge only if they intended to double-cross him. She argued that Qurong would never stoop so low in his mind to go with Thomas if he lost the challenge. The only person remotely capable of winning Qurong’s heart was his very own daughter. Chelise.
Marie earned the right to go because she had defended Thomas’s honor by fighting Samuel in Vadal’s place.
They left Jake with Suzan, who complained bitterly that a fighter of her caliber should go with them.
After eight hard hours of riding they were less than halfway there. But they had the fruit; they would not stop.
“We’re not going to make it,” Chelise said. Her heart pounded in her ears. “If they’ve already started this ill-advised game, we’re going to be too late.”
“I’m not sure there’s anything we could do if—”
“Then go home,” Chelise snapped. “It wasn’t my idea that you come.”
“Easy. I’m not second-guessing our decision. I’m just stating the obvious. We don’t stand a chance against that.” She nodded at the cloud of Shataiki, slowly rotating in the dusky sky.
“You’re forgetting about Elyon. You nearly killed your brother for his honor—”
“I would never kill Samuel.”
“—yet you doubt Elyon’s power?”
“If it’s up to Elyon, then why does he need us? He’s got Thomas out there. What good will two more be?”
“Qurong—”
“Can be won by Elyon much more easily than by you,” Marie cut in. Then with less bite: “So it would seem to me.”
“You’re far too much like your father,” Chelise said. “Everyone should take care of themselves, is that it? Your independence is only cute when there’s no real danger.” She kicked her horse, and the beast surged forward. “If Elyon could snap his fingers and win anyone’s heart, the Horde would have flocked to the red lakes long ago,” she cried. “That’s obviously not the way it works.”
Marie urged her mount into a full run and pulled abreast. “I’m not suggesting we don’t go, Mother, but Thomas and I aren’t the only ones who are stubborn. Father knew that your love for Qurong might jeopardize his mission, not to mention your life. I think that cloud only raises the stakes. Don’t do anything rash.”
“Now the youth are giving the advice?”
“I’m not a child! I’m the one who’s here to keep your backside out of trouble.”
“I’m not a fool.”
“No, but love is blind. And you, Mother, are blind when it comes to your father.”
There was some truth to what Marie said. Chelise would give her life to save Qurong, if Elyon required it. But her love for Qurong didn’t make her stupid.
Chelise pushed her mare into a full gallop. “Fine, save my backside. At this rate you’re not going to be given that opportunity, because it’ll all be over by the time we get there.”
She breathed a quick prayer, begging Elyon to keep them all alive until she could show up and make things right. She immediately chided herself for such arrogance.
“How far?” she breathed.
“We can’t push the horses like this all night. Daybreak. At best.”
Thank Elyon they’d brought the healing fruit.