The dragon ruffled her wings. “Why should that matter to me?”
“It’s got to be exhausting, controlling his every movement the way you have been. Can he even think for himself at all anymore?”
Her eyes narrowed, and she said nothing for a few moments, as if she were thinking through his offer and trying to find the catch. Finally, she said, “All right, then. I think I can agree to those terms. But what guarantee do I have that your friends won’t come after us?”
“You don’t. Just like I have no guarantee you won’t hurt them once we make our Bond.”
“That is a dilemma.”
“So we don’t do it here,” Amar suggested. “You can put the others to sleep like Kesari, and we can leave together right now.”
“They could still come after us.”
“Not right away.”
“I could still come back to hurt them.”
“We’ll put enough distance between us and them to let them wake up so they can escape or fight back.”
Valkyra’s tail flicked back and forth across his abdomen. “There still aren’t any guarantees in your little plan. For either of us.”
There weren’t. Once they’d left here together and formed their Bond, there would be nothing to stop Valkyra from taking control and returning to attack the others again, using his body to do the damage this time instead of Jameson’s. But he still had the daravak. As soon as he got the chance, he would ingest it. That should suppress the magic that would come with their Bond so Valkyra couldn’t use it against his friends.
“It’s the best plan either of us are going to get,” he said.
“I suppose you’re right.” She turned to Jameson, who walked stiffly to the barrier that held Kesari, Saya, and Aleida. He stepped through it, stooping to put Saya and Aleida to sleep with the same glowing light. The barrier vanished. Lucian remained trapped inside a smaller one of his own, watching the scene play out with coal black eyes.
Jameson stepped into Mitul’s barrier and repeated the process. A chill went down Amar’s spine as he looked over at his sleeping friend. He wished he’d had the chance to say goodbye—to all of them—but maybe this was for the best. This way, they couldn’t try to talk him out of what he was doing.
“How long will they stay like that?” he asked.
“Until dawn. Plenty of time for us to get away from here, don’t you think?”
“Let’s go then.” He wanted to be as far away as possible by the time the others woke up.
The roots around his wrists, ankles, and hips loosened. He sat up, shook off the dirt, and when Valkyra wasn’t looking, slipped the daravak into his pocket. He’d likely only have one chance to use it, and he couldn’t waste that opportunity until he was sure he needed it. No sooner had he stood upright than his limbs locked up. A new barrier had formed, clinging to every angle of his body so he couldn’t move.
He tried to speak as Valkyra hopped onto Jameson’s shoulder, but his mouth wouldn’t move either, and the words came out jumbled.
“I’m afraid I can’t hear you,” the dragon said. “But I’m sure you’re wondering why I’ve put you in there. Call it an abundance of caution. I’d be a fool to trust you completely. Now then, shall we?”
Jameson began to walk, and by no means of his own, Amar followed, hovering above the ground in his floating prison. He tried to turn, tried to get one last look at his friends, but it was no use. All he could do was stare ahead as Valkyra and Jameson took him deeper into the forest.
No more than a couple of hours could have passed when they stopped. Valkyra had Jameson withdraw the barrier trapping Amar, and he stumbled onto the ground with the sudden release. It was still night, but the trees in this part of the forest had thinned out enough that he could see a bright swath of stars through the canopy when he righted himself.
“Why are we stopping already?” he asked.
Valkyra was still perched on Jameson’s shoulder, both of them safely out of arm’s reach several paces away. A smile curled the soft corners of the dragon’s mouth. “I think this is as good a place as any.”
The icy chill in her voice sent a shiver down Amar’s spine. He’d left his sword behind, and his pistol was empty, but he looked to the ground for an improvised weapon—a rock, a stick, anything he could use to defend himself. “This wasn’t the plan,” he said. “We agreed to get as far away as we could before we make our Bond.”
“I’ve changed my mind. I like my plan better.”
His heart raced in response to the threat in her words, but he had one card left to play. The daravak was still in his pocket.
He started to reach for it, but Jameson was faster. His hands flattened against the ground, and the area beneath Amar’s feet shifted to throw him off balance. A thick tree root shot up in front of him, shedding dirt and tiny plant tendrils as it straightened. The sharp tip gleamed like it had been turned to polished stone.
He barely had time to react. The root shot forward and pierced straight through his abdomen, emerging out the back below his shoulder blades. Pain erupted through his body as it withdrew, and he slumped onto the ground. Blood pooled beneath him. His fingers scraped against his hip where they’d reached into his pocket, still clutching the bundle of daravak.
Valkyra flew from Jameson’s shoulder to land on the tree root still protruding from the ground. Blood seeped into the pristine fur at the bottom of her feet, turning them red. She blurred in and out of focus as Amar’s vision swam. “I’m terribly sorry about that, dear,” she said, sounding not the least bit sorry at all.
“I won’t—” His words came out garbled as he choked on a mouthful of blood. “I won’t make a Bond with you.”
“Oh, I think you’ll find I can be very persuasive. You don’t like me now, but we’re going to be the best of friends when you come back to life. Of course, our first order of business as partners will be eliminating your companions. I can’t have them interfering, you understand.”
Blackness crept into Amar’s vision. He was losing way too much blood, way too fast. He was going to die. And then she was going to make him kill his friends. Friends he wouldn’t even remember anymore, not even after everything they had been through together.
Valkyra’s silky tail brushed over the tree root, picking up more of Amar’s blood. She glanced back at Jameson. “I suppose there’s no point in keeping up this Bond anymore. As you guessed, it is rather exhausting having to control him.”
She closed her eyes, her body stiffening, and Jameson let out a long wail. He clawed at his face as new streams of blood ran from the corners of his eyes like tears. His limbs twisted around his torso in a grotesque, monstrous fashion, and there was a series of sickening snaps that might have been bones breaking. With one final shudder, his wailing ceased. He collapsed onto the ground and did not move again.
Valkyra’s dragon form dissipated, replaced by a shimmering light the same blue color as the glowing orbs from Shavhalla. It morphed into the shape of a woman, long hair framing a square face. She remained near the bloodied tree root, a callous smile on her lips as she down at Amar.
He clung desperately to what little remained of his own lucidity. This couldn’t be the end. He couldn’t let her win. Not like this.
With a cry, he pushed himself onto his back, freeing his left hand to pull out the daravak.
“Still clinging to life?” Valkyra clicked her tongue. “Let go, Amar. Everything will be so much easier after you die. I promise.”
He raised his hand to his mouth, shaking with the effort.
“What are you doing? What is that in your hand?”
He released one corner of the bundled fabric, and the daravak fell into his open mouth.
“Stop that!” Valkyra screamed, her voice shrill. She bent down at his side, wrapping her ghostly hands around his wrists, but he couldn’t feel them.
He chewed the bits of mushroom and forced himself to swallow. He didn’t know if it would do any good, given the state he was
in. But it was something, and the fact that it infuriated Valkyra had to mean there was at least a chance that it would work. Even if she did convince him to make a Bond in his next life, with the daravak in his system, he wouldn’t be able to use his magic. Not for a while, at least. He could buy his friends some time, maybe enough for them to get away. Or better yet, Valkyra would realize that pursuing and confronting them wasn’t worth the effort after the time it took for the daravak to run its course.
She continued to rage and scream at him as the blackness closed in. Amar shut his eyes and conjured up images of his friends’ faces. Mitul. Saya. Kesari. Lucian. Faces he didn’t want to forget. Memories he would cling to until his very last moments. Memories he hoped to find again someday.
Their faces were still in his mind when he let out his last breath.
54
Kesari
"Kes?” The voice that spoke her name was soft and muffled. “Kes, can you hear me? Wake up.”
Her eyelids were so heavy, but she finally managed to pry them open. She squinted against the brightness of Lucian’s flames. “What’s wrong?” It was a cold, gray morning, and he didn’t usually wake her so early unless there was something wrong.
But something was wrong. It all crashed into her at once, making her sit up and snap her eyes wide open as she scanned her surroundings for the others. Saya put a hand on her shoulder. Mitul paced back and forth across the ground where he and Amar had been lying. Aleida was back at their camp, gathering everyone’s belongings. Straight ahead were the sparse, darkened remains of the patch of forest that had burned during their fight. There was no other sign of Valkyra or Jameson, and Amar was gone, too.
You can have me, but not if you hurt them.
Amar’s words—the last word’s she’d heard before Jameson put her to sleep.
“Where is he?” she asked Lucian.
“Valkyra took him.”
“She made Jameson put the rest of us to sleep, too” Saya explained, “and then they all left.”
“We’ve lost hours,” Lucian said. “Plenty of time for them to get far away from here. We have no idea where he is.”
Mitul turned toward them, deep creases furrowed into his brow. “How are you feeling?” he asked, but there was an edge of impatience to his voice. He must be anxious to get moving and go after Amar.
“I’m all right,” Kesari replied. She stood up, turning to Saya. Mitul’s cloak covered her right arm and chest where the fabric had burned away, but red skin still peeked out from the edges. “Let me have a look at that,” she said.
Saya carefully lifted the edge of the cloak. Her fingers shook, and her teeth began to chatter as if she were freezing. Kesari winced at the sight of the raw, blistered skin underneath. A feverish warmth radiated from it.
“That bad, is it?” Saya said with a weak smile.
“It’s going to be fine.”
“You’ll need to use some water when you heal that,” Lucian suggested.
Kesari nodded. Aleida was already approaching with their packs, and she dug through hers until she found her canteen. She channeled altma through her fingers to cool it and carefully dripped some over Saya’s injury. “Sorry,” she said as the young woman flinched. She didn’t dare touch the skin, as painful as it looked, and instead left her hands hovering over the wound while she sought out the deeper tissue damage with her magic.
“I should be more careful,” Saya said, gritting her teeth through the pain. “This is the second time you’ve had to patch me up in the last few days.”
“I don’t mind,” Kesari said. “But I don’t like to see you hurt.”
It was a slow process, but the water seemed to help. With Mitul growing more and more restless by the second, Lucian offered to fly ahead and see if he could at least pick up Amar’s trail. He returned an hour later, right as Kesari was finishing up with Saya’s wounds. The skin was still a little raw and red, but Saya’s face had regained its usual color and was no longer damp with sweat.
“I found something,” Lucian called out as he dropped down from the sky. “Jameson’s dead. I didn’t see Amar or Valkyra, but there must have been some kind of fight. There’s blood everywhere.”
“Where?” Mitul asked.
“Come on.” He flew off again with the musician right on his trail. Kesari, Saya, and Aleida followed. They practically had to run to keep up with Mitul’s breakneck pace, and they were all panting when they reached the spot Lucian had found.
Jameson’s body was sprawled across the ground, and even though she already knew he was dead, Kesari had to check for herself. She almost regretted it when she saw his face. The sight was even more grotesque than it had been last night. Along with the blood that had dried on his waxen skin, there was a strained twist to his muscles that suggested extreme pain. He hadn’t deserved any of this, even if he had led Valkyra and Aleida right to them. Kesari put a hand to her mouth to stifle a cry and turned back to the others.
They were standing around a dark, sticky pool covering a patch of fallen leaves. A few paces away, a thick tree root protruded from the ground, its surface coated red. Flies buzzed around the whole mess, and Kesari had to cover her face with her sleeve to keep the smell from making her sick. There was so much blood.
“That’s Amar’s,” Mitul said.
“We don’t know that for sure,” she replied, though the words sounded foolish as soon as they left her mouth. Who else could the blood belong to? Jameson lay several paces away, and there was no trail or sign of his body having been moved that she could see. Besides, he hadn’t been bleeding nearly this much.
“She killed him,” Saya said.
“Why?” Mitul’s voice was strained. “He’d already given her what she wanted. If she killed him, he’d forget everything.”
“That must have been why,” Aleida said. “Maybe she wanted him to forget. He’ll be easier to manipulate, now. She can tell him whatever she wants him to believe.”
Mitul whirled on her, his eyes full of a ferocity Kesari had never seen in him before. “This is your fault,” he said. It wasn’t a shout, but his voice shook with the effort of a man trying to keep his rage in check. “Everything was going according to plan until you charged in with that sword. If you hadn’t interfered, he’d still be here.”
“I had to interfere.” Aleida’s jaw tightened, and she gestured to Jameson’s body. “You were all tiptoeing around, trying to save a man who couldn’t be saved. This all would have been so much simpler if you’d agreed to kill him from the beginning.”
“Maybe we should have killed you from the beginning,” Saya shot back. “We saved your life when you didn’t give ours a second thought every time you came after Amar. Whatever it took to save your brother, right? Whatever it takes to get what you want, no matter who gets hurt in the process.”
“What does it matter now?” Aleida hissed. “He’s dead anyway. He was dead before the fight even started, so what was the point of trying to save him?” Tears brimmed in her eyes, but her scowl was all angry defiance.
“We don’t kill people whenever it’s convenient,” Saya replied. “We’re not monsters like you.”
Aleida lunged, tackling her to the ground. She raised a fist to pummel Saya’s face, but the taller woman had a knife to her throat before she could strike.
Before either of them could take action, Mitul grabbed Aleida by the shoulders and hauled her back. “That’s enough, both of you!”
Aleida continued to glare at Saya, who stood and brushed the leaves out of her hair and clothing without looking at her.
“Amar sacrificed himself to save us,” Mitul went on. “We should be making the best use we can of our second chance, not fighting with each other and wasting more time. We need to figure out what we’re going to do next.”
“I don’t care what the rest of you do,” Aleida said. “I’m going after Valkyra. She needs to answer for what she’s done.”
“And how exactly do you plan on making that happen
?” Lucian asked. “We don’t know where she’s going or what she’s plotting, let alone how to stop her.”
“And you’re not killing Amar just to kill her,” Saya said.
Aleida rolled her eyes. “Of course I’m not. What would be the point if he’s going to keep coming back to life?”
“Pointless or not, you seem to have a habit of coming up with reckless ideas.”
Aleida opened her mouth like she was about to say something else, but Mitul cut her off. “Enough. You and I will both go after Amar and Valkyra. We need to find out more about whatever she’s planning, but we can’t let her know what we’re doing. She already knows we’re trouble, and she’s going to want to get rid of us as soon as we give her a chance.”
“So we go after them and…what?” Aleida asked. “Just wait?”
“Yes,” Mitul said. “Because sometimes it’s helpful to think about things and make a plan before you go rushing in.”
“We’ll need some way to get his memories back once we find him,” Kesari said. “With Jameson gone, that’s going to be difficult.”
“You could do it,” Saya said. “You were there when Jameson brought his memories back the first time. Do you remember how he did it?”
“Not exactly,” Kesari replied. “I may have been there, but I didn’t really participate. I mean, maybe if I had his research notes, but—”
“That’s it then,” Saya interrupted. “You, Lucian, and I can go back to Deveaural to get his research. We’ll cut through the desert on the way, and I can finish my haseph and present my offering to my people. We’ll meet up with Mitul and Aleida afterward.”
“Where?” Lucian asked. “We don’t know even where Valkyra’s going.”
Kesari’s gaze flitted to Aleida. Mitul, Saya, and Lucian stared at her, too.
“What are you all looking at me for?” she asked.
“Where do you think she would go?” Mitul asked. “You know her better than any of us.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know her. She lied to me the entire time we were together.”
Tethered Spirits Page 45