“It was for the first half hour or so. But after falling into a fissure and almost dying, the novelty wore off prettyquick.”
Iannis smiled. “I missed you,” he said, burying his face in my hair. My heart warmed as he held me tight against him, and I took a moment to enjoy his embrace as the hot winds gusted around us. We would have plenty of time to grumble and tear our hair out as we tried to escape this hellhole—I could take a few minutes to enjoy being reunited with Iannisagain.
We sat down in the scant shade of a flat rock. “Tell me everything that happened,” Iannis prompted. “I was terrified for you. Until I found you again, alive and well, I kept imagining terrible things— a thousand ways you could have perished, and I would have never known the truth about what happened.” He squeezed my hand tightly. “I don’teverwant to go through such an experienceagain.”
“Me neither,” I said fervently, squeezing his hand back. “Your grandmother decided that I was too weak to marry you, and she told me I had to pass three tests to prove I was worthy ofyou.”
“How ridiculous.” Iannis’s eyes blazed with anger. “Whether or not you are ‘worthy’ is not up to her at all, and as far as I’m concerned we have both proved ourselves to each other a hundred timesover.”
I smiled. “Yeah, well you can tell that to the old bitch the next time you see her.” I took a breath. “For the first test, she threw me into the cold, stormy sea, with only a rowboat to keep me afloat. I nearly drowned out there, but I managed to make it to a fishing vessel and get myself out of harm’s way.” I shivered, remembering how fucking cold I was. “I wonder how she knew when to yank me back. Is there some way for her to observe what I was doing? She clearly didn’t see what I was doing in the Tua realm during my second challenge, and who I metthere.”
“I believe she can observe what happens as long as her victims are in Recca—but perhaps not if they are in other dimensions,” Iannis speculated. “Or perhaps the Tua realm is shielded from eavesdropping, unlike otherrealms.”
“Huh.” I frowned. “If she can’t eavesdrop in other dimensions, that means my third challenge was probably still inRecca.”
“I can’t believe my grandmother really sent you to the Tua realm.” Iannis scowled. “But it is obvious she did—I guessed as much from that scene with the young Tua, though I could not understand what he and his father said to eachother.”
“I can understand them now,” I said. “The trip was surprisingly…educational.” I gave a lopsided smile at Iannis’s astonishedlook.
He shook his head. “It’s a miracle you survived the experience, if my memories of the place are at all accurate.” He pulled me into his arms, and I sighed a little as I pressed my cheek against his broad chest. The steady thrum of his heartbeat soothed me, making me want to sink into his embrace and forget about our problems. From the comfort of his arms, I told him all about my adventures with the Tua, and my last ordeal in the undergroundcaves.
“You were incredibly lucky that the Tua you ran across were benevolent,” Iannis said gravely when I’d finished. “There are others who would have caged you up as a pet, or worse, roasted you over a spit and eaten you. And the forests contain other horrors you never saw—giant poisonous ants, flesh-eating birds, and a kind of vampire poltergeist, to name only a few I heard of from mymother.”
I shuddered at the thought. “Yeah, I did get lucky. But aside from that one monster, and the quicksand, it wasn’t that bad. And at least I can file that trip away as something I’ve done that no other living ‘mortal’ hasexperienced.”
Iannis laughed. “I’m glad you are able to still see the bright side,” he said, kissing the top of my head. “Though I wish I had been there, with you, rather than that erratic young shape-shifter.”
“I’m sort of glad you didn’t have to endure all that with me,” I confessed, pressing my forehead against his. “Though I am happy to have you with menow.”
I kissed him softly then, and Iannis tightened his arms around me, pulling me even closer as we finally took a moment to savor our alone time. No, it wasn’t the most ideal location for a reunion, but after being separated from Iannis for so long I’d take what I could get. The taste of him as he slid his tongue into my mouth, the feel of his strong hands as they roamed up and down my back, his addictive sandalwood and magic scent…these were all things I’d begun to take for granted. I clung to him as we kissed languorously, taking our time to reaffirm our love for eachother.
“I don’t have anything nearly so exciting to report,” Iannis said at last, when I pulled back to catch my breath. “The wedding preparations were still on schedule when I departed. Director Chen promised to ensure that if we manage to get back in time, things should go off without ahitch.”
With everything I’d experienced at Ta’sradala’s hands so far, I wasn’t quite so optimistic about our timely return. But I didn’t see any reason to dash Iannis’s hopes, so I stayedsilent.
Iannis and I ate some jerky and took a swig out of my canteen, then took stock of our supplies. Thankfully, we had some usable items, like the blanket I’d brought, and a pair of sleeping bags that Iannis had stored away for emergencies, but there wasn’t anything that could get us out of here, and our food and water stores wouldn’t last us more than a fewdays.
“Where do you think we are?” I asked as the sun began to set. “The colors in this place seem strange, though not nearly as strange as the Tuarealm.”
“In yet another dimension, more than likely,” Iannis said with a sigh. “For all we know this entire world is like this, with no food orwater.”
We used the levitation spell to float up high in the air, but even from hundreds of feet up, we couldn’t see anything but desert. As the night sky came out, dotted with unfamiliar constellations, the light of the sun was replaced by the reflections of two huge yellowmoons.
“Well that was useless,” I said as we slowly drifted back to the ground. “I’m guessing your gulaya isn’t going to work here, since we’re not inRecca.”
“I doubt it,” Iannis agreed. “And I dare not risk trying, since I have no way to recharge it here. We will need to find some other method ofescape.”
We discussed various options on how to make this place more hospitable while we tried to figure out our escape, but even pooling our knowledge together, we came up empty. The spells to produce water relied on gathering moisture from the air, and there was none here. And while transmogrification was an option, it took quite a bit of magical energy and would have to be a last resort. Not to mention that with no food, we had to be careful not to expend our power any more than was absolutelynecessary.
Exhausted from his travels, Iannis curled up next to me on his sleeping bag and fell asleep. I tried to catch some z’s too, but my mind was buzzing, too wired to settle down. As I stared up at the strange night sky, I sorted through the knowledge the Tua had given me. Would I be able to walk from this dimension back to Recca? I had done it before, but that was because Nalan and Alara had known the precise path, and I had been able to follow it. Plus, I’d only survived thanks to Broghan’s help. This time, I had no idea which dimension I was in, and in what direction Recca lay. If I tried to travel at random, I might accidentally transport us to another realm even more inhospitable than this. We could land in a world with toxic air, unable to breathe, or beneath an ocean, and die from the water pressure. Not to mention that the spell used up so much energy—I’d be totally depleted and weak as a kitten, vulnerable to any passing predator, unable to try again if I got it wrong the firsttime.
Except this time, you have Iannis with you. Between the two of you, you might be able to pull itoff.
The hope that we might actually have a viable way of getting home—even if the plan wasn’t fully formed—was enough to help my mind finally relax. I slept for a few hours curled up next to Iannis, stirring sometime later when sunlight began to creep beneath myeyelids.
“Iannis,” I mumbled when I felt him shift next to me. “I have an idea about how to get us out ofhere.”
“You do?” Iannis asked, sounding fully awake. I opened my eyes to see him staring at me, looking intrigued. “How?”
