Daughter of the Tides, Servants of the Moon Book 2

Del shuddered in her vision.

The air was so cold it hurt to inhale; she could feel her blood slowly freezing into icy spiderwebs on her numb skin and moving sluggishly through her veins as it leaked from her wounds. Around her, she could hear the crunch and claw-scrapes of several running hard through the ice-laden trees. Looking up at the sky through the barren branches, she could see the clock of the stars turning in the sky.

She could feel the frigid night petrifying her body, but the cold also kept her from bleeding to death as the shadow carried her away from the burning Temple of her goddess. The smell of apostasy, blood, and smoke still clung to her hair as it blew across her face. The leaking from her wounds dripped her life-blood onto the pristine snow. A scent trail for the one who hated her to follow, if he came back. Her heart ached as though it were broken.

But who was he? she wondered from beyond the vision.

“Please…” Her plea turned into crystalline clouds in the waning moonlight. “Please, let me go…to the Fields…”

A face as pale as death looked down at her. “Not yet…” He stopped running. “Beloved, she is bleeding again and awake now.”

Eyes that glowed with the light of the harvest moon looked into hers as consciousness faded. “Stay with us, Del…” Whispered words…

Del blinked rapidly and bit the knuckles of her hand to keep from screaming out loud. Tiny arms hugged her, then Ainsley kissed her cheek. Del leaned her forehead against her acolyte’s.

“If that happens, you leave me, Ainsley… You go north with your shadow to the place of the three moons, the Goddess will show you the way.”

Coppery curls slapped Del’s cheeks fiercely as Ainsley shook her head violently. Del held them down as she cupped Ainsley’s face.

“Little fox, you must survive to be the next Delphi. If I don’t, then I don’t. At least… at least, I’ll be with Luca in the Fields.”

Trembling, Ainsley shook her head. Her nearly silent whisper was a shout of horror.

“If we lose here, it will cross the Tides to wage war beyond.” Tears left glistening trails down Ainsley’s freckled cheeks. “Our families, our packs, everyone, living and dead, would suffer forever.”

She opened a sketchbook. It showed the Fields of the Moon. The Tides were empty; nothing remained of the sacred waters but a dry, cracked plain. The sky was burning with fire, and the souls there were in anguish. “Ye must endure and, eventually, make the same choice as Comhnyall so the Naphtal can endure.”

Ainsley ripped the page from the book and put it in a large flat censer. The glowing coals began to eat the paper away. Looking at the faces of the tormented as it burned, Delilah saw Luca suffering. His mouth opened as if in a scream. An expression he never worn in life, not even with a half-dozen silver bullets in his body. Living, he had faced everything with a courage she never imagined having. He died in her arms, only shedding pain-induced tears and apologizing for leaving her so soon. Delilah’s exhale was a harsh sob as her mate’s face turned to ash.

“Only you and Comhnyall can stop this and to do so, you must give up Luca.”

Delilah’s wolf forced the shift. Ainsley already had the door open as it ran out into the darkness, howling like a lost soul. The vibration of four running but silent feet and one pair of not-so-silent feet made the Acolyte turn. She blinked her burnished golden eyes at Kaiyou, Ketsu, and Louis. Then held out her hand to Leon for a paper he held. When he did not hand it over, Ainsley marched over and took it. Glancing over the list, she pointed at a name.

“I don’t understand what she wants,” Louis responded in a confused tone.

Ainsley silently harrumphed and pointed at the name again, showing Kaiyou. She tapped her foot impatiently. The giant Shogunate wolf chuckled then bowed. “Yes, Acolyte Delphi. I will bring this petitioner… So, the Delphi is no longer taking petitioners tonight?”

A curt nod, then Ainsley waved her hand in a shooing motion.

Kaiyou turned on his heel and in moments, was back with a surprised looking older wolf. “Beta Granger, this is the Delphi’s highest Acolyte Ainsley of New Wemyss, she wishes to know if you seek a boon from the Moon.”

Ainsley smiled sweetly and led the wolf by the hand to an interview alcove with Kaiyou following silently behind.

“She can’t hear petitions, she’s just an acolyte.” Louis looked at Ketsu in shock.

But the younger Shogunate just shrugged at the petitioners coordinator. “Ainsley was trained by the Oracle Tiene since she was a babe. The Dephi trusts her visions, so should we too.”

Nyall enjoyed the warm mild weather around the Eye of the Goddess Temple. He and Ketsu were running the Protector Wanderers through some of the more difficult of the shifting drills during the day. Several of the older wanderers and protectors complained about the drills, especially Luca’s brother Louis, but the Delphi had insisted that all Temple staff and pack have more defense and warrior training. At night, after he finished the lessons Essie and Eliazar gave him, he found himself patrolling the shore instead of sleeping. As he easily loped around the tiny island, he crossed a scent path. The smell of fresh snow and incense caught his attention and he cautiously followed it.

Nyall noticed Del was particularly edgy since coming back west. His wolf found hers sitting at the edge of the lake, howling her song of grief. His went forward and sat beside her, their voices echoed across the water until the moon was lost behind the clouds. She laid down with her head on her paws and closed her eyes. Her breathing evened out and she fell asleep as he sat watch. His golden wolf towered over her smaller dark brown one. His wolf turned his head and raised his lip slightly when Ketsu’s black wolf appeared but the Shogunate wolf only bowed its head and dropped two pieces of clothing; a gown and a kilt. Then it faded away into the night, leaving Nyall’s wolf to watch an approaching thunderstorm beyond the lip of the crater.

A boom of thunder had Del’s wolf leaping to its feet. It looked around startled, whining, then bolted in the direction of the temple. Confused, Nyall’s wolf picked up the bundle of clothes and sprinted after her. The rumbling of the storm and strobing lightning chased Del until she slid to a stop in front of a small groundskeepers’ shack. Her skin replaced fur as the rain, began but her trembling, panicked hand couldn’t get the knob to turn. It was locked. A brilliant flash illuminated everything as the noise vibrated her body.

“No… no… no…” She could feel the pull of the Tides and dropped to her knees, covering her face with her hands.

“Delilah, what be wrong with ye?” Nyall’s accent was always thicker after he had been in his wolf.

“We have to get inside,” she begged, “Please… the storm.”

Nyall forced the door open and Del scrambled inside. She rushed over and pulled the curtain closed over the small windows as Nyall turned on the single overhead light. As the thunder boomed outside, she shrank into a corner. He wrapped the kilt around his waist, he didn’t mind that it was wet but Del’s thin gown was soaked. So, he searched the drawers until he found a thick towel for her to wrap herself in.

“This will keep ye warm until the storm passes.”

Wrapping herself, she whispered, “Thank you.”

“Are ye unwell, Delilah?” He asked as they sat on the narrow cot.

A rumbling growl of thunder startled her, as she flinched next to him, terrified for a moment before relaxing, “I hate storms, I hate what I see when they come, only the darkest things appear when I am caught in a storm. Visions I can’t stop myself from having.”

“I did not know ye could scry a storm,” He said, concerned, “Mo Mamó said to seek visions in something without a finite edge is dangerous; an oracle could get lost in the Tides and never return to their body.

“It isn’t by choice, and it only shows me the worst outcomes,” she answered fearfully. “Storms call to me; the way broken mirrors call to Essie.”

“What do ye mean they call to ye? I thought that is why oracles needed bowls and such, to call the vision to them.” He put his arm around her as she cringed away from the flashing coming from the windows. It wasn’t a conscious gesture, and he didn’t realize he had done it until she curled herself into his side.

“Not all visions are sought, Nyall. Sometimes the Goddess calls an oracle to the Tides, sometimes things just pull us in. The night our pack fell, I got pulled into a storm. I saw Essie die and she saw me die. The Moon gave my sister a choice while She showed me the deaths of every one we loved… I… I watched my father and Alpha Isaac die to protect us. I saw our decoys murdered so we could flee. And… and my Nonna, my grandmother, she laid a false scent trail to the safe rooms, through an escape tunnel, and all the way to the river. She died at dawn with the Des Rues Beta threatening her. Essie and I had already escaped through the Tides.”

Nyall looked down at her in surprise. “What do ye mean, ye escaped through the Tides?”

Del shrugged, then jumped as thunder boomed. “Essie was hurt, her head was cracked like an egg. My arm was useless, but I carried her as I followed the moon’s light. I heard my mother’s voice telling me to put her in the reflecting pool my father had build for her. As I rinsed the blood from her hair, I begged the Goddess to let her live. Then the water glowed and sucked us under. I held onto Essie’s hand the way she held onto mine when Luna Sari cut us from our mother. The Tides washed us up on the ledge around the Hidden Eye Reflecting Pool below this temple. The healer Margo helped us, I had a broken arm and they… they didn’t know how Essie survived. I was glad she did, but it cost her, her gift. She can’t scry without terrible pain, and she has headaches all the time. It’s my fault. If she had just let me die… Luca would still be alive.” Tears ran down her cheeks.

He tightened his arm around her, “It isn’t your fault. The Moon gave ye and Essie impossible choices. I could not have done it. I would not have let any of my brother’s die if I could have saved them.” Leaning his head against the wall, he murmured, “Del, why does the Goddess make things so difficult? If She is so powerful, why does She just not make us all do what She wants? When Moire died, she said she had more time than she should have. I don’t understand why the Goddess didn’t heal her or stop the murder of my pack if we were to be king and queen… It all seems so pointless now. Like the Goddess doesn’t even care…” He didn’t realize she was crying until she moved to wipe her tears away.

“She does care. She loves Her children so much, but we have to choose to follow Her will. And when others defy Her will, the faithful suffer too. We suffer small losses, so our faith will be stronger when the big ones come.”

“Small losses?” he blurted out incredulously. “We both lost our packs as children and our mates before we turned twenty. How much bigger of a loss does She expect us to bear?” He removed his arm from her shoulder and crossed his arms across his chest as she curled her legs up and scooted toward the wall.

“After the storm on the Tides the night New Wemyss was destroyed... I knew Luca that he would die if he stayed with me. But he refused to leave me, even when I threatened to reject him. He said…” She dragged in a shuddering breath. “He said if it was the will of the Goddess that he would die to protect me, then he would die but before then he would live and love me for every moment we shared.”

She inhaled as if in physical pain. “He still crosses the Tides when I am struggling; I can see him, feel him.”

“Ye are lucky. Moire refuses to reach back to me. No matter how hard I pray or how my wolf longs for just a whisper, she never reaches back to…”

“Lucky? Every single time he crosses back, it feels like he is dying again.” Interrupting, Del responded harshly. “Be glad she lets you be, so you don’t have to feel like your soul is being torn apart over and over...”

He snarled at her, “Tis better than the emptiness of feeling my mate reject me. The Goddess never told me I would lose Moire after my pack was murdered. I thought her returning from the Fields was a boon. I did not know it was only for a few years! Just long enough to believe things were going to be better, long enough to see her round with my pup and believe the Goddess would let us be happy together. When she died, I lost everything.”

“You and Moire had nine times the years than Luca and I did!” She yelled back at him. Her claws tore the blanket they sat on as his fingers bruised his biceps so he would not strike her because he really wanted to strike the Goddess Herself for not healing Moire.

“This isn’t a contest to see which of us has suffered more.” Delilah breathed slowly in through her mouth and out through her nose until the flush of rage left her cheeks. Del’s eyes closed as she meditated, Nyall could practically feel her praying as he brooded angrily.

In a calm, detached voice she declared, “A time of testing is coming to all wolves, why should we be spared when they will not be? You will be the Moon’s Champion and Monarch and I am the Delphi of the Moon. To lead our kind, to know the value of what we are defending, we must also endure suffering. Hope and faith are weak in those who live an easy life... And compassion… Compassion is given easier and values more by those who have received compassion. We are not better than any other wolf, Comhnyall MacGealimir, last son of Lyallfr Gealimir, Alpha Heir of New Wemyss,” she spat his whole name like she hated him, “We made our choices. We chose to serve the Moon and we will until our deaths.”

They sat in silence for nearly half an hour as the storm moved away.

Finally, there was a scratch on the door and Essie came in. Shifting, she stood there wearing nothing but a smirk. “It’s safe to come out. The sun’s up and the storm’s over. You okay, sis?”

Del gave her a flat look. “Yes, Nyall got me inside before one of my nightmare visions could catch me.”

“And what did you do to pass the time?” She asked cheekily, eyeing Nyall the way many other females did.

“Nothing you would do… we just talked.” Del snapped. She folded the towel she was wearing and shifted to her wolf before trotting out the door.

“How… Com-Pletely… Bor-Ing…” Essie shouted after her sister who sprinted toward the temple at full speed. Turning to Nyall, “Seriously, you just talked?”

“Aye, Essie, we talked about losing our mates and the night your pack was wiped out, and how ye cracked your skull like an egg.” He growled then regretted it when the color drained from her face. He watched her hand go unconsciously to touch her scar and he reached up to catch it. “I’m sorry, Essie. I should not snap at ye. Delilah and I had an argument. She said we deserved to suffer so we could be better leaders.”

Essie rolled her eyes, growling under her breath, “My sister is such a goddess-damned martyr. No one deserves what happened to you, or what’s going to happen to me.”

Stopping, Nyall looked at her curiously as they walked back to the Eye of the Goddess in the rain, “What else is going to happen to you? You already lost your pack and your power.”

“Don’t worry about it, Nyall.” Essie sighed, wishing she had a cigarette. As they walked, she decided she hated the cold morning rain of late spring.