Here we went, whether I liked it or not.
Too busy squinting ahead to the other side of the river and the vague outline of mountains to either side of the canyon, I didn’t notice anyone else on the bank behind us approaching and hastily purchasing fare to cross the river as well until someone yelled, “Wait!”
I turned to see who was making the call, and everything else just kind of faded away as I blinked dumbfounded at the sight before me. The small, dark woman was decked out in nothing but gold beads and red scarves. Rubies clung to the thin golden chains that dripped from her headdress while great golden hoops swung in her ears. More gold wrapped around her biceps and wrists while rubies and turquoise stones plunged into her cleavage where her fitted bra top was layered with more golden baubles.
The sun glinted off the piercing in her belly button, calling even more attention to her bare midriff and the four black stars tattooed on her side, running from her tiny waist and down over the healthy curve of her hip where a turquoise and red hip scarf—interspersed with gold coins—held up her transparent harem pants that had slits in both sides and showed off her toned legs. Gold cuffs held the pants closed at the ankles, and even her slippers were ostentatiously beaded with gold, rubies, and turquoise.
Since we were the only customers on the ferry and we were still close enough to shore, the ferry master was able to shove his staff into the water and pause the progress of the pontoon, so the woman and her two companions could easily jump across the gap of water from the dock to the boat.
They carried no traveling packs, no mode of transportation, no nothing that usual people on the road would possess.
“Well, that’s not something you see every day,” I murmured, unable to stop staring, as I wondered if she was some kind of performer, and we were going to get a dancing show on our trip.
Quilla and Melaina, who’d been standing on either side of me, turned as well.
“What the fuck?” Melaina murmured, drifting forward in a daze.
Quilla elbowed me in what looked like the side of my glamour girl’s head, but what was actually my rib cage. “Stop staring,” she growled.
“I’m not—” I started automatically, thinking she was referring to herself. She only ever told me to stop staring at her. But when I realized she wanted me to look away from the half-dressed woman oozing steamy lust, I blinked at her, stunned. She was jealous of my attention to another woman.
Irritated envy blasted from her feelings like shards of splintery ice.
I smiled a very pleased smirk.
“I was just thinking her outfit was awfully flashy and superfluous to be wearing for a grimy boat trip across fish-scented waters,” I explained before winking and nudging her. “Though I have to admit, I wouldn’t mind seeing you in that bedlah.”
Snorting in answer, she shook her head and turned back to watch her aunt approach the other woman as if moving in a trance.
“Who the hell are you?” Melaina murmured, her voice full of awe and adoration as she lifted her hand to touch all the irresistible shininess.
“I am Nalini,” the flamboyant woman answered, only to raise amused brows at her companion, who smacked away Melaina’s hand before Melaina could touch the star tattoos dotting her hip. “It’s okay, amans,” she told him, stroking his arm lightly. “I don’t mind if she touches me.” She turned back to Melaina, her smile bright and eyes glittering with interest. “Please excuse my lover. He gets unreasonably jealous sometimes.”
Quilla’s aunt spared Nalini’s paramour a glance, only to hum deep in her throat and reach for him with her other hand. “No need for jealousy, handsome,” she assured. “As you’re welcome to join in too.”
“Oh, Jesus.” I shook my head and sighed. “She really just can’t help herself, can she?”
“No, she can’t,” Quilla murmured as I finally turned my focus to the other two travelers with Nalini. I had noticed she wasn’t alone from the beginning, but it’d been impossible to look past all her opulence and really see them until now.
The man she called her lover was slim—small in comparison to me but still considerably larger than her—with freakily pale blue eyes, dark skin, and shorn black hair. I squinted at him, convinced he looked familiar, even though I couldn’t pinpoint from where.
Nalini’s second companion on her left was considerably more recognizable, however. He gained my attention when he sat down on the boards of the ferry and let his tongue hang out so he could pant like a contented puppy. I blinked at the small bedraggled boy who didn’t look as if he’d ever taken a bath in his life. He wore nothing but a loincloth and seemed more like a feral animal than a tame child.
Which was exactly the same state he’d been in the last time I’d seen him.
“What in the world?” I murmured, returning my gaze to the man and realizing where I knew him from as well.
“What?” Quilla demanded in a low voice.
I turned my body in toward hers so only she could hear me, even as I kept my suddenly suspicious gaze on Nalini. “I know the two companions. The man’s a soothsayer. And the kid’s a magical bloodhound. I guarantee you he’ll be able to smell the glamour on us and tell them we’re under a disguise, so be prepared.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Quilla nod imperceptibly. “And the woman?”
“No idea,” I confessed. “I met the other two in the Dimway Forest about a moon cycle ago when Nicolette started her royal tour of Far Shore. They traveled with a group of other wayfaring mages that followed a blond Amazon woman.” I glanced toward Quilla, adding, “A blond Amazon woman who told Nicolette she was a direct descendant to the mage who placed the first love mark on Elaina L’Amante.”
Quilla whirled to gape at me. “That would make her a Graykey, then.”
“Yes, it would,” I agreed, returning my gaze to Nalini. “Unless she was lying. Or your family legend is false.”
Snorting at that option, Quilla asked, “What was this blond Amazon woman’s name?”
“Mydera,” I said, which gained Nalini’s immediate attention as if someone had just called her name.
She’d been stroking her hand up the outside of Melaina’s arm while Melaina leaned back against the soothsayer—Wicket, I remember him being called—when he stepped in behind her to shift her hair to the side and kiss the side of her throat. But now her sole focus was on me.
Stepping away from the orgy she’d been on the precipice of beginning right there in the open ferry, Nalini approached us, her hips swaying lustily with each step.
“And you two,” she greeted with a big smile as if she knew us, her arms opening wide in welcome. “You must be the happy new couple. I’ve been looking for you.”
Instantly on guard, I shifted closer to Quilla.
But Nalini waved her fingers as if to calm me. “Be at ease, warrior. I mean your mate no harm. Far from it, in fact.”
“But you’ve been looking for us?” I countered, remaining on high alert as I kept myself positioned between her and Quilla. “Why? How do you even know who we are?”
Nalini opened her mouth to answer, but Holly appeared in front of me in her cat form, hissing and growling. Nalini paused in her tracks, blinking as Holly transformed into an enormous panther with a sleek black pelt, and the high-pitched kitty snarl she was emitting became a low guttural roar.