Naamah's Kiss - Jacqueline Carey [214]
We had to wait for a procession to exit. I tried to use the time to calm myself, cycling through the Five Styles, but I was growing drained. Not the way I was when I let Raphael channel my gift, not the kind of drained that caused my life force to ebb, but drained nonetheless. I wished I hadn't agreed to help the princess retrieve her sword. I could feel the twilight beginning to waver, hints of color seeping into my dim, shadowy dusk.
"What is it?" Snow Tiger asked in alarm.
"I'm weakening," I murmured. "My lady… if they do not open the gates soon, we may have to turn back."
No! The dragon's voice surged in volume, then softened. I can help.
The princess shot me an indecipherable glance, but she moved without hesitating, putting one hand on the back of my neck and pulling my head down to kiss me.
I panicked at the first touch of the dragon's energy slithering between my lips, into my mouth, deep inside me. It was too like what the spirit Focalor had done, breathing poor Claire Fourcay's stolen life force into me. I would have pulled away if I could, but Snow Tiger's grip on my neck was as strong as iron. She kissed me relentlessly, and the dragon sent such a surge of fondness and affection into my thoughts that I ceased to struggle and found myself responding instead.
It was like… stone and sea! Like my first taste of joie multiplied a thousandfold. The dragon's essence was wild and joyous, moonlight over clouds, snow-covered peaks reflected in deep water. Its silvery brightness coiled in my belly, infused my limbs. And it was being gentle, so very gentle, but it was still so unimaginably vast, it made my head spin.
The princess released me abruptly.
I gasped, catching my breath.
Better?
"Aye." I gazed around in wonder. With no conscious effort on my part, the twilight had deepened. All at once, everything was brighter and darker, almost as it had been on the far side of the stone door. The memory made my heart yearn with longing. "Oh!"
"Moirin." Snow Tiger pointed at a formation of soldiers marching across the square, led by a man on a horse. "Pay heed. They will be opening the gates soon."
"I see, my lady. I am ready." I was filled with inhuman strength and energy, so much I could barely contain it, my diadh-anam singing inside me. I couldn't imagine how the princess lived with it day after day without bursting out of her skin.
And I couldn't imagine how she had ever mistaken it for aught other than somewhat glorious and majestic.
It was different when I was afraid, the dragon offered. Very, very different.
Snow Tiger glanced at me, then away, still unreadable. I wondered whether I ought to thank her or apologize to her. Once again, I hadn't the faintest idea. Not even D'Angelines had a protocol for such circumstances.
She did not find it as distasteful as she pretends. Unlikely as it seemed, the dragon's tone was smug. You are very beautiful, and you have an agile tongue for a human.
Her back stiffened.
I cleared my throat. "Well, then. Let us fall in behind them, shall we?"
The massive gates swung open to allow the phalanx of soldiers to depart. Unseen in the brilliant twilight, the princess and the dragon and I slipped through the gates in their wake.
The gates closed behind us.
We were free of the Celestial City.
* * *
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
Snow Tiger and I made our way to the marketplace. It should have been every bit as terrifying as our escape from the Celestial City, but the dragon's essence yet blazed in my veins, rendering me fearless. This time, I led the way, slipping and twisting through the crowded streets of Shuntian, dodging passersby, feeling stronger and quicker than I ever had in my life.
It was a good feeling.
It ebbed, though. And I felt bereft and