He caught sight of Venna first, apparently recovered but with an arrow stuck in her shield as she stood staring into the forest. Kara was obviously still harrying the woman, trying to keep her out of the fight for as long as she could. Tási was actually far worse off, having taken another one of Kara’s arrows—this one a more telling blow in the center of her chest. Dismissing both of them for the moment, Endreí turned towards the battle that was raging only a few paces away.
Endreí’s heart caught in his throat when he saw three bodies on the ground amidst the ongoing struggle. Runil lay unmoving, his heavy hammer still gripped tightly in his hands despite the thick pool of blood that surrounded him. Barely a few feet away, his brother Khael stared blankly at the sky above, his lifeless eyes telling Endreí all he needed to know about the dwarf’s fate. Across the small battlefield, he saw another form, so covered in gore that he only recognized Stephanie’s corpse by the long braid of blond hair that had somehow remained pristine despite the utterly horrific state she was in.
The shock of seeing so many of his friends dead almost sapped Endreí of all his strength, but he simply couldn’t allow himself to falter. Dreya was still slashing at Rissa, Daisy, and Nate, none of whom remained uninjured at that point. Yet despite inflicting numerous wounds on them, Dreya herself appeared to be completely unscathed. In fact, the smile Endreí had thought he’d seen on her face was now in full display as her blades relentlessly slashed at the few who still opposed her. With his anger stoked to new heights, Endreí stalked forward, intent on putting an end to the woman who’d slain his friends. Recasting Empower to bolster his attacks, Endreí prepared to unleash Unseen Blade on Dreya as he came into range.
Before he could close in on her, Dreya struck out with the dual blades in her hands, snaking past both Nate and Rissa’s defenses with a series of brutal blows. In a flash, Daisy was down as well, unable to ward off Dreya’s lightning-fast attacks without the others by her side. Turning to face him, Dreya smiled broadly in triumph as the three lay on the ground at her feet.
“You,” she casually flicked the blood from her swords as she spoke to him. “Have caused me a lot of trouble.”
“Tási’s been a good little pet, and she’s quite fond of you for some reason, so I might have been willing to overlook most of that,” she sneered as she continued striding forward, closing the gap between them while Endreí stared helplessly at the grievous wounds on Rissa’s body. “But you killed Líann; my Líann, and that’s something you’re going to have to pay for.”
Faster than Endreí thought possible, Dreya’s fist crashed into the side of his face, and he fell to the ground, stunned by the incredible force of her blow. Dazed, all he could do was stare up at the multiple images of her that wavered in his vision as she loomed over him. Scattered flecks of blood still adorned her blade as she pressed its sharp edge against his neck and slowly carved a deep furrow across Endreí’s throat.
“Your end won’t be fast, I promise you that,” her bright green eyes seemed to glow as her taunting tone vanished, replaced with a far more menacing one. “You’ll be begging for me to kill you before it’s over.”
Lying on the ground in a haze, Endreí could offer no resistance as she slipped the tip of her blade deeper into his flesh, and he cried out in pain when she twisted the hilt of her sword and tore it free. Dreya provided him no opportunity to recover before she slammed her boot into his ribs, and Endreí felt the crunch of breaking bone when her blow struck home. Clutching at his side and barely able to breathe, Endreí knew there would be far more for him to endure before his torment would finally be over. Yet his thoughts were not of his own suffering; instead, all Endreí could consider was what might still happen to Rissa.
He tried to glance over to where he’d last seen his wife lying on the ground, but a spasm of pain shot through Endreí’s body when he started to move. His broken ribs screamed out in agony, protesting even the slight movement, and Endreí let out his own pained cry in response. Dreya seemed to only delight in his suffering, pressing her heel against his side as he lay helpless on the ground. The sensation of her boot pushing into his shattered bones sent a wave of fresh torment coursing through Endreí, and he screamed out again, unable to hold back any longer. Rather than let up, Dreya only ground her heel in harder, and Endreí’s eyes rolled back in his head as waves of pain overwhelmed his senses.
Endreí struggled to regain himself when Dreya abruptly relented, and he could no longer feel the exquisite agony of the pressure digging into his side. With his face pressed into the dirt, the earthy scent of the forest filled Endreí’s lungs as he gasped for air, yet he knew that his reprieve was only a temporary one—a brief respite before she’d resume her torture again. Relishing the few seconds he had, he fully expected that something even worse was waiting for him as soon as Dreya was ready to continue his suffering.
Gazing up, Endreí saw her still looming over him, yet her expression of rage was gone, replaced by one of stunned confusion. Dreya’s swords had fallen from her hands, and instead of gripping the blades, she held on to a long, wooden shaft that was protruding from the center of her chest. Endreí watched as Dreya dropped to her knees and then onto the ground beside him, staring in amazement as the shimmering light faded from her eyes. Somehow, inexplicably, one of his friends had managed to save him; he just couldn’t understand how.
With his broken ribs, Endreí couldn’t move his right arm, so he fumbled with his left until he managed to grasp a healing crystal from his pouch. Crushing the red jewel in the palm of his hand, Endreí felt the sweet relief of its power when the healing magic began knitting together his shattered bones. Clinging to a nearby tree as he struggled to rise to his feet, Endreí saw that he wasn’t the only one taking advantage of the unexpected victory; Rissa, Nate, and Daisy were also slowly recovering as they tended to their wounds.
Yet seeing all of them still so close to where they’d fallen only deepened the mystery, and Endreí turned to look near Dreya’s body to see who’d slain her, fully expecting to find Kara smirking back at him when he did. But there was no sign of her there either; Tási’s bloody form lying on the ground offered him the only possible explanation.
Realizing what she’d done—how Tási had been the one to save not only him but Rissa and the others as well—Endreí stumbled over to where she lay unmoving on the cold dirt. As he approached, her eyes slid open just slightly, and Tási reached out towards Endreí when he sat beside her on the ground. She smiled as he lifted her up gently and cradled her in his arms, speaking to Endreí from between her bloodstained lips.
“I would’ve never let her hurt you, Alex,” Tási faltered for a moment as she grimaced in pain. “But she was too strong for me to challenge her directly; I had to wait for the right moment to strike. Now that she’s gone, we can be happy together.”
Endreí glanced over at Dreya’s body once more, finally recognizing the weapon that had impaled her body—Tási’s staff. Dreya’s blood still dripped from its thick, wood shaft, slowly expanding the pool of red liquid that soaked the earth around her corpse.
“Help me, Alex,” Tási’s words drew his attention, and he turned to stare into her eyes once more. “I can’t move my arms.”
She’d obviously been wounded badly in the struggle; Kara’s arrows were still lodged in Tási’s body, and the crimson puddle around her seemed to be only slightly smaller than the one surrounding Dreya. Unable to heal herself unless he aided her, Tási would soon meet the same fate as her former Mistress.
Holding her so close, Tási’s desperate plea called to Endreí, and he felt the pull of her magic more powerfully than ever. In his mind, Endreí could see his future with her all too vividly. Images of the happier times ahead of them came to him in a rush, flooding his senses and working their way into his heart. Years seemed to rush by in mere seconds, and in that brief time, Endreí experienced the fullness of their lives together, and not just the two of them. Endreí also saw their children, a bea
utiful little girl—the near-perfect image of her mother, and a boy that resembled him quite strongly. He felt the love that would grow between the family he and Tási had made, and Endreí knew exactly what he had to do.
Endreí reached down and fumbled around his belt, finally grasping what he needed in his trembling hand. As he stared into Tási’s amber eyes, she smiled up at him, knowing that her salvation was near. Endreí returned her broad grin, also realizing that he’d finally found the key to his happiness as well.
Tási’s body jerked when Endreí’s dagger slid into her, and the smile on her face was replaced with a look of pain and disbelief. He held the blade firmly in place as her warm blood flowed over him, coating his hand and spilling onto the ground beneath them.
“Why, Alex?” Tási’s whispered her confusion as she faded away.
“My name,” he replied coldly. “Is Endreí.”
He held on to Tási as the life drained out of her, part of him simply needing to witness her passing just to make sure she was well and truly dead. Another part of Endreí—not an insignificant one—actually felt remorse over what he’d done. What he’d been forced to do. There’d been a time when he’d loved her very much, and despite all that had happened, some of those feelings still lived on deep inside him… emotions that had nothing to do with Tási’s magic. Still, once he was certain that Tási was gone, Endreí let her body slip from his arms and rose up from the ground, turning his back and leaving her to lie alone in the dirt.
With her passing, Endreí felt the weight of Tási’s magic lifting off of him. Although he’d been aware of its influence, once he was free of the Spell, Endreí was stunned by the sheer force of it. He’d been living under its oppressive cloud for so long that Endreí had simply become accustomed to the burdensome weight. His mind reeled as Tási’s presence slowly evaporated, leaving him with only his own thoughts for the first time in years. Struggling back to his feet once more, his eyes immediately drifted towards Rissa and the confused yet relieved expression on his wife’s face. The absence of Tási’s manipulation left him feeling almost hollow, the depths of its emptiness so shocking that Endreí nearly stumbled as he made his way forward.
Although she hadn’t heard the words that had passed between them, Rissa had watched as Endreí had first held Tási in his arms and then plunged his dagger into her. The first must have seemed all too familiar, recalling the way he’d comforted Trish as she’d died, unable to aid her. He wondered just how concerned she must have been at that sight, knowing the power of Tási’s magic and probably fearing what he might have done under its influence.
“It wasn’t even close,” Endreí simply stated as he sat down beside Rissa, looking her over to ensure that her injuries were fully healed.
“I never doubted you for a minute,” she replied, yet her lopsided grin and mocking tone gave away Rissa’s thinly veiled sarcasm quite clearly.
Nearby, Daisy seemed lost, her dark eyes blankly staring at the bodies of their friends lying on the ground. Endreí had been so consumed by what had transpired since he’d become aware of their deaths that the pain of knowing they were gone struck him all over again. Dreya had taken Khael, Runil, and Stephanie away from them, adding their deaths to the apparently endless list of her depravities.
As he sat on the ground and considered the injustice of it all, Nate walked over to stand next to him, silently extending his hand as he offered to help Endreí up. Endreí recognized that there was much more to the gesture and reached up, accepting Nate’s help even though he didn’t truly need it. Neither of them pushed the boundaries of their truce any further than that, but when Endreí saw that Kara wasn’t by his friend’s side, he frantically glanced around, instantly fearing the worst.
The last time he’d glimpsed Kara, she’d gone off into the forest, seeking to attack their opponents from the cover the dense trees would provide. She’d done so quite well, keeping Tási, Broda, and Venna almost completely out of the battle. Yet Venna had been tracking her when he’d been diverted by Dreya’s slaughter of his friends, and Endreí felt the tightness in his chest beginning to crush his heart as he cast about desperately for any sign of Kara.
Fortunately, he found her quickly, standing guard over the prone form of Venna lying on the ground with one of Kara’s arrows in her shoulder and another piercing the armor of her leg. The wounds weren’t the full extent of her injuries, however, as Venna’s armor also bore the clear indications of having suffered from one of Tási’s Spells as well. Obviously unable to continue fighting with her wounds, Venna sat in a state of shock, gazing at Dreya’s body with a look of stunned disbelief on her face. Endreí could certainly understand her situation—he was still struggling to accept that any of them had survived the battle.
Despite her current state, Endreí knew Venna was a threat that couldn’t be easily dismissed. As he walked over to where Kara loomed over her, Rissa, Nate, and Daisy joined him, weapons drawn, obviously just as aware of the danger as he was. When they reached Venna, she only glanced away from Dreya’s body long enough to acknowledge their presence before staring down at the ground beneath her.
“You’re going to kill me now,” Venna seemed not only resigned to her fate but to actually welcome it as well. “At least that’s what you should do.”
“Is there any reason not to?” Something in the elf’s tone prompted Endreí to ask her.
“I don’t know,” she replied, clearly both somewhat confused and still trying to comprehend the almost inexplicable turn of events.
“We weren’t always like this,” Venna finally looked up, blood flecking her cheeks as she met Endreí’s gaze. “At first, we tried to help people, and we did a lot of good. Then something changed; Dreya changed, and everything went bad.”
“Dreya was always like a force of nature; powerful… irresistible,” Endreí detected a hint of some deeper meaning behind Venna’s last word. “She drew people to her somehow, making us all more than we’d been and filling our minds with visions of a better future.”
“But those visions began to change over time, and so did we,” Venna’s voice was tinged with remorse at the memory as she paused to wipe the gore from her face. “Dreya’s dreams became ones of conquest and domination, and we did truly horrible things in her name.”
Although she didn’t provide any details, Endreí could imagine for himself what she’d meant by ‘horrible things.’ He’d seen enough of them over the years to not require any elaboration.
“She controlled us, but that doesn’t excuse my actions,” Venna’s words were filled with her resolve. “I’ve murdered innocents of my own free will, and I’m ready to pay the price for the evil I’ve done.”
Kara drew back on her bow, apparently eager to give Venna the justice she so clearly deserved, and she stared back at him in surprise when Endreí reached out, staying her hand. As he knelt down beside Venna, Endreí also caught the… curious look Rissa directed at him, but he paid her no mind.
“Your death would solve nothing,” Endreí braced himself as he spoke, seeing the pain in Venna’s eyes and remembering that he’d taken her husband’s life. “Dreya led you astray, but now that you’re free of her influence, perhaps you can make up for what you’ve done.”
“I can’t possibly…” Venna’s voice trailed away as she stared off blankly for a moment before gathering herself once more.
“Dreya may be gone, but I’m not sure that I’m safe, or that I ever will be again,” she confessed her doubts openly to him.
Endreí understood her hesitation. Even though he was free of Tási’s magic, the effects of it still lingered within him. It would likely be some time before he could be around Kara without feeling far more for her than he should, but he also knew that they both deserved the chance to prove themselves—and that perhaps Venna did as well.
Venna’s eyes widened in recognition when Endreí drew his second dagger, and she lifted her chin slightly, providing him with an open path to her throat. Yet, inste
ad of slicing through Venna’s flesh, he placed the weapon in her hand and heard Rissa’s horrified gasp as he drew it to his own neck.
“Are you still Dreya’s tool?” Endreí released his grip on her, providing Venna with the perfect opportunity to kill him if she truly wanted to.
As they stared into each other’s eyes, Endreí could see the conflict Venna was waging within herself. Part of her wanted nothing more than to slay him for what he’d done, yet some other portion of Venna was struggling to break free of the cycle of violence Dreya had initiated, knowing that Endreí had only acted in self-defense. He had no idea which way that pendulum would eventually swing and could imagine just how difficult the decision was for her. Had someone taken Rissa’s life, Endreí doubted that he’d be able to show them any mercy at all, regardless of the circumstances. While time slowly dragged on and the keen edge of his own dagger dug into Endreí’s skin, he wondered just what had motivated him to do such a stupid, reckless thing. Sure, it was an excellent test of Venna’s motivations, but what the fuck had he been thinking?
“No,” Venna shook her head slightly, finally answering as she slowly drew the dagger away from Endreí’s flesh.
“It may be some time before I’m truly myself again, but I’m not hers anymore,” she reversed her grip on the blade and offered it back to him.
Endreí accepted the weapon back quickly, trying to conceal just how badly his hands were shaking as he did. Behind him, Kara and Rissa both let out an audible sigh, and Venna actually smiled at him weakly when she heard their expressions of relief.
“It was very close for a minute,” she whispered to him almost conspiratorially, yet still loud enough for the two women to hear.
Chapter 16
Having passed Endreí’s ill-advised ‘test,’ Venna was allowed to tend to her people’s remains while they returned to see to their own fallen companions. Unfortunately, the ground was too full of thick tree roots for them to dig any graves, so while Rissa washed the blood off Khael and Runil, and Daze tended to Stephanie as best she could, Nate, Endreí, and Kara began gathering wood for a funeral pyre.
Echoes: A Second Skin Novel (Second Skin Book 6) Page 18