Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's Tamora Pierce's.

A/N:

Sunfish Sailor: Oh, yes. He's weakening quickly. Thanks for the compliments.

Silverlake: Thanks. I'm an obsessive updater.

Nativewildmage: Thanks!

WhyshouldItellyou: Funny name! I'm an obsessive updater. I have been on since 10/24/05 and this is my eighth story. It's my 108th chapter. Yikes!

Alanna Cooper: Thanks!

Kit49: Thanks. I hear so many people say that Numair isn't as manly as some others. They apparently missed the part where he's tom-catting around with women of the court. I think he's just a really deep character, but all man – and a delicious one at that.

Goldeneyedwildmage: I liked the first part of your replacement sentence, but I wanted something minorly funny. So I'm going to contemplate a while more. You are so close to what I did at Temptation Lake, as you will see. He was not even aware of the water. He was very bespelled.

Hoshi-ko88: I assume your favorite part was the kissing scene?

Narms Briton 44: Thank you so much. Wow, you prefer my style of writing to TP's? Damn. This is kind of boring in some ways. And no, I have no plans to do anymore fics after this. I might drop by and do some one shots, but my next project is my own book. After it's done, then maybe I'll come do some more.

Purple Eyed Cat: I have never even heard of this book of stories you were talking about. TP doesn't have it listed on her website. Now I'm dying to know. If you see it again, can you message me with the name?

Sarramaks: I assume you are planning to do roughly the same thing in your next story. I can't wait to read it. I'm glad you liked my Weiryn. He was a twisty character to write.

Chapter 16 – Temptation Lake

They walked until well past dark with the assistance of magical light focused through Numair's staff. When at last they came upon a body of water that was either a large pond or a small lake, Numair stopped.

"Temptation Lake?" he asked, looking out over the expanse. It wasn't that much larger than the pond where a tauros came after Daine earlier in the day.

"Yes, indeed," Broad Foot said, "And I could do with a swim."

He heard Daine sigh happily from behind him and he turned to watch her drop her pack, bow, and quiver. She looked very weary but she smiled to him. In the half light from his staff, she looked more beautiful than ever and he nearly told her as much but held his tongue at the last second. He lifted Broad Foot from his shirt pouch and placed him on the ground before removing his own pack. Thinking of the tauros attack he asked, "Broad Foot, if I bespell our camp for protection, will it inconvenience you?"

Broad Foot clapped his bill in a sort of laugh. Maybe he can laugh. "No, not in the least. Though you don't need to spell it – Temptation Lake is sacred. No one of the Divine Realms would harm anyone here. If anything does happen, mind," he added, looking at them soberly, "just call or think my name, and I'll come. And remember – don't drink the water." He vanished in a silver cloud of light.

Numair gave his pack to Daine and went to dig the privy. Even if they were too tired for words, they could count on the comfortable pattern of setting up and breaking down camp as they worked perfectly in tandem. She would set up the bed rolls. He would dig the privy and spell the camp. Tonight there would be no fire. But the chill mountain evening could make sleeping uncomfortable, especially since Daine would not have her animal bedmates to keep her warm. He planned to take care of that too. He began to gather rocks and place them in a circle around their things.

Numair moved quickly, despite the fact that he was fatigued. He walked counterclockwise around his circle spreading angelroot powder as he did so. "Sodut ot pervney. Vigik ot pervney. Nojei," he muttered. It was the most powerful protection spell he knew. When he finished the first circle, he could already feel the magic settling in. A silence fell. He walked a second circle and spoke again, "Qirek dost calenti, Nojei." The rocks began to glow faintly. He walked the third circle, sending black sparkling light after him. "Sodut ot prolefna," he continued and when the third circle closed, "So mote it be." The sign of his magic vanished except for the warmly glowing stones.

He sat where he would be sleeping and tugged off his boots. "We're shielded from sight and sound," he said. He wished they were shielded from gods as well, but he did not have that power. It was silly, he knew, but after hearing what things like "Mauler" could do he was suddenly having a hard time thinking of gods as benevolent.

"And the rocks?" Daine asked.

He knew she would ask because it was summer. "We only have one blanket and a cloak each. You know I don't like to get cold," he said with a weary smile. It was true, although he had done this more for her than himself. The stones were giving off a comfortable heat. He rolled his cloak into a pillow and pulled his blanket around him tightly, turning his back to her. "Good night Magelet," he said.

"Good night, Numair," she said.

But as tired as he was, he didn't fall immediately to sleep. He couldn't. He kept thinking about how strange the day had been and how he had come so close to revealing everything twice. In the past three months, he had found a pattern to cope with his love for Daine. He had learned to keep his face passive and his emotions hidden. He had learned to let Daine talk to other men without becoming aggressive and overly protective. But now that hope had resurrected in him so brazenly, he was finding it harder and harder to resist her again. It was not wise. He knew all the reasons for keeping his secret and those reasons were still sound. He couldn't lose his resolve now. He hoped the duckmole wouldn't turn out to be right.

Numair could hear Daine's breathing level off and knew she was sleeping. He turned over and watched her sleep for awhile, until somehow his thoughts melted into dreams.

He was standing in the room where the Great Gods were fighting Uusoae again. He turned to his left and saw that his father was again there with him, mouth tightly closed. He turned back to the circle where Uusoae had shifted into a creeping, thorny vine. The multicolored vine tried to sneak through and between each of the Great Gods, but was stopped by the white fire barrier that surrounded them. Uusoae shifted in a flash to become a water spout. The force of the twisting wind nearly pulled Kidunka in. Drops of water escaped and were drawn back in by the combined efforts of the other gods, reining Uusoae in, but only temporarily. In an eye blink, Uusoae was now a kraken. Multi-colored tentacles reached for each of the Great Gods, strangling them. Uusoa seemed so much stronger than the others and Mithros' face changed color from the force of her strangling. So busy were the Gods with her frontal attack that they did not notice the hundreds of purple and orange cockroaches that spilled from beneath her, and ran in all directions to swarm over the room and the world beyond.

The scene shifted and Numair was back at the towers. He was trying to climb down a ladder on the multi-colored tower, but it kept growing and growing and he gained no ground. Faster and faster he tried to climb, even sliding down the ladder at some points. He looked over to the golden tower which was diminished and growing smaller. In his dream he shifted to hawk shape and swooped to the bottom where he now saw Gainel. The Great God had been torn in half and lay there, a gruesome, bleeding mess, but not dead. Gainel's left half was moving, lifting something. It was an hour glass. The sand in the top was spilling in multiple colors to the bottom glass. More than half of the time it was marking was gone.

His dream self shifted to human and turned to find his father standing there. "Why am I here," he asked his father. "If time is running out, what is time running out for?"

Salam Draper only turned his back to his son. "Father," he said, "You turned your back on me a long time ago. If you want something from me now, you need only ask. Don't keep torturing me."

His father remained turned away and said, "This is not my kind of fight, but it is yours. This is what you are good at. This is what you were born to do. It was what I should have seen in you all along." Then the man turned to face him and he had no eyes. He was clearly blind.

Numair awoke abruptly. It was before dawn. He sat up and rubbed his face, uncertain of all the messages included in the complicated dream. It was not that weird to think of his father as blind. In many ways his father was blind – blind to the power that Numair had and the uses for it, blind to the world outside of textiles, blind to his wife's unhappiness. If Numair were honest with himself, it was the biggest motivation keeping him from confessing his love to Daine. His mother was so unhappy. Many arranged marriages worked out alright. He had seen couples who grew to love one another over time. But his parents never did. His mother had once told him that she believed herself in love with Salam when she married him, because she wanted to make him happy. But the truth was that neither had ever loved the other. And then there was the age difference. Ultimately, his father had died, leaving his mother alone. It was what Daine could expect if she ever found room in her heart for Numair, for he would surely die before her.

Daine was still sleeping soundly. Despite all the sound arguments, he wanted so much to be part of her future. He watched her for a moment longingly and decided that would not be the way to start the morning. He crawled out of his blanket and dressed. Then he packed his things. He removed the spelled rocks, breaking the circle and the enchantment and walked to the water's edge. He couldn't drink the water, but he could wash his face and check on his friends.

He knelt at the bank and, having splashed some of the cool water on himself, he called up the image of Kitten. She was sleeping soundly on a cot in Tkaa's room. She had survived the onslaught he had witnessed before. He almost laughed with relief.

He called up an image of Jon next. He was also asleep with his head on his desk and papers stuck to his face. Poor Jon. He's exhausted.

And then Numair called up an image of Raoul – who had also apparently survived. He was lying in a cot in an infirmary. There were bandages on his face and arms. He looked to be badly injured. A young healer scurried into the picture to check on him. Numair saw her smile and that told him everything.

Last, he called up an image of Alanna. She was cleaning her sword and looking worried about something. He could see her open her own bracelet and stare at the pictures of her children and husband, blowing a kiss to each. The image shimmered with swirls of color. Though the sun was beginning to rise, it didn't seem to be reflection. The mix of yellow, orange and purple seemed familiar. And then he realized it was like his dream had been. He was certain that he should not see Chaos' colors in this lake.

He bent closer and reached into the water with his Gift, checking for anything unusual. There was something wrong about the water. While he tried to figure out what he was seeing, he heard Daine laugh. He looked up and she was there, just a few feet from him. She laughed again. I love that laugh. The lake disappeared, but he wasn't concerned. I must still be asleep after all, he thought. Daine was removing her clothing and beckoning to him. It was something that could happen in his sleep and he smiled at her and followed willingly.

There was a strange music and he didn't know where it came from, but it didn't matter. Daine wanted him. She kept beckoning and he followed obediently. Somehow the air seemed to become thick and walking was difficult, but he kept following. Daine was completely undressed and kissed the air in front of her flirtatiously. So he walked faster, despite the resistance of the heavy atmosphere. Why does her hair look silver? he thought mildly. It didn't seem to matter. It was only a dream after all. He was floating to her now, eagerly contemplating her. His mind went numb and he was so cold, but Daine would warm him. Beautiful Daine.

Something heavy struck him. His mind spun as he tried to find something concrete to grasp about where he was and what he was doing. And again, something struck him painfully. He cried out and inhaled water. He was in the lake. He thrashed wildly, trying to break the surface. Something pushed him from beneath, something that looked extremely like a seal lion. And then Daine was there again and undressed. She put an arm around him and dragged him to the surface while his thick mind tried to understand what had happened to him. He felt the bottom of lake beneath him and Daine let go. She raced to the edge and began to vomit violently in the reeds.

He too pulled himself out, dizzy from the lack of oxygen and confused about what had just taken place. And a vision of another Daine began to play around his eyes – he had inhaled lake water and he knew what was wrong now. He pulled himself to the reeds and induced vomiting.

A flash of silver light flared and the badger appeared. "What has happened here?" he asked, surveying the scene.

"I'm not entirely sure," Numair answered. "I was somehow drawn into the lake and Daine pulled me out. My head hasn't completely cleared yet. I'm having trouble sorting reality."

The badger breathed on him with a puff of silver. His breath was atrocious. But it somehow cleared Numair's head. He could sort reality out now and the things he thought he had dreamed seemed very strange now. The woman he thought was Daine was silver haired and blue, but otherwise looked to him just like her. He remembered a strange song too. He heard Daine's familiar steps and said, "I think I hear –" he had turned as he said it to see Daine approaching, wearing only her badger claw necklace. He felt himself blush and he averted his eyes.

"Oh for –" she cried. He heard her scramble in her pack for clothes. The badger was sneezing repeatedly. Soon he could hear her behind a tree as she shouted a conversation she had just had with Broad Foot. "He says the whole lake is tainted with Chaos Bile. It's dangerous to gods and immortals because it brings them closer to Uusoae and he says the lake is very popular."

The badger shifted his feet anxiously. "He's right," the badger said. "Uusoae could have numerous allies from this."

"What did you think you were doing, Numair?" the girl asked.

"I was enchanted. There was no free-will involved in my actions," he answered.

He nervously contemplated everything that the badger and Broad Foot had said. It was not the kind of news Numair wanted to hear right now. He went and gathered up Daine's boots and when she emerged from behind a tree, she was dressed and carrying her stockings. He handed her the boots.

She fixed a stern eye on him. "Are you sure you didn't drink from the lake?" she asked in nearly a whisper. "That creature looked to me like a blue, naked female with a big chest, until Broad Foot changed my vision. She looked like just the kind of female you might want to be tempted by, Master Salmalin."

He blushed, thinking of who he had thought it looked like. "I give you my solemn word that I did not drink the lake water and request temptation," he answered. It had been a long time since Daine had referred to him as "Master Salmalin" and even longer since he had been with any women that looked like she had described. Apparently she hadn't noticed that it had been nearly a year since he had bedded any women. He combed his wet hair back with his fingers nervously. "I tested it with my Gift, and sensed there was something very wrong with it. You know, Magelet, the gods may be losing ground against Chaos."

Broad Foot had arrived and was talking softly to the badger. Hearing Numair, they broke off their conference and came over. "What makes you think so?" asked the badger, dark eyes sharp.

"I know my legends and myths," he explained. "The creators of the universe ordained that the gods, who stand for order, and Chaos, who stands for –"

"Chaos," Daine interrupted with a smile.

Numair tweaked her nose without even realizing it. "They must stay in balance. The only problem is that it's the nature of each to fight the other. It's written that a day will come with the Queen of Chaos will break free of the prison made for her by her siblings, the Great Gods."

"When that day comes, the mortal and divine realms will melt into Chaos. The gods – all gods – will perish, as will mortal life." Broad Foot's voice was grim.

"You know your legends well, human," remarked the badger. Though it was a compliment, it brought Numair no satisfaction. He decided not to say anything about the dreams.

"I have to report this," the duckmole told them. "It's more than just he lake being poisoned. The creature that had you captive was no part of this place. It was a Chaos dweller, masked as a lake being. How one of them managed to escape into the Divine Realms… You start without me – I'll catch up." Without another word, he vanished.

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