There, a seam, but tightly closed.
“How long until it Separates her from her dragon?”
“It didn’t say. I had hoped it would have already,” Azurynn’s silky voice answered.
Kirynn’s eyes snapped open as dread clawed up her spine. Separate her from Syrakynn? What did that mean?
Azurynn cocked her head slightly to the side as she tapped one finger against her lips. “I sense the bond has weakened, though not as much as I would have liked.” She met Kirynn’s eyes. “I wonder if you will feel your dragon’s soul being torn away from you?”
Lose Syrakynn? Oh Fates, she had to get out of this. She couldn’t let Syrakynn be taken from her. Why would the bond be weakening? Kirynn wrenched against the rope, kicking at the creepy woman, ignoring the pain as the fibers cut into her wrists and blood trickled down her arms. “What have you done to her?” Fury rose up and buried the fear.
“Done to her?” Azurynn’s eyebrows rose slightly. “We have done nothing to her. But the chain you wear around your neck cuts you off from her and your magic, and it will eventually tear her soul away from yours. Already the ties that bind you two together are weakening. It’s quite fascinating really.”
Kirynn arched against the wall and pushed off, kicking her foot out again. Satisfaction flooded her as she clipped Azurynn’s chin. The other woman’s head snapped back as she fell, landing hard on the stone.
Kirynn smiled coldly as her body slammed back against the cold stone. Whether or not they succeeded in tearing Syrakynn from her, they were dead women. Azurynn picked herself up from the floor, hatred filling her ugly eyes. Sulwyna laughed. “I told you to stay back. If you would stop playing with her and use your senses, you would have known what she was planning.”
Azurynn rubbed her jaw and glared at the other Shadow Rider. “You could have warned me.”
Sulwyna shook her head. “It is your problem if you are not paying attention. You’ve been training as long as I have. I’m not here to hold your hand.”
Pain flooded Kirynn’s head. It felt like a metal spike being driven through her forehead. She groaned as the pain built and darkness pressed in.
Azurynn’s voice rang in her ears. “Sulwyna, if you break her soul shield, I won’t be able to observe the effects of the chain on her. She’ll be too far gone to register any of it.”
The agony lessened until nothing but a dull ache remained. Panting, Kirynn glared at the two women. She would get out of this.
Sulwyna laughed. “If only looks could kill, right Guardian?”
Kirynn took a deep breath, letting it out slowly while she centered herself and went back to her exploration of the barrier in her mind. It only took a moment to find the seam this time. She began to work at it, searching for a weak spot.
Syrakynn burned a long line of Kojen, doing her best to avoid the front line where Border Guards mixed heavily with the creatures as they attempted to beat them back. “Kirynn! Where are you?” she sent, trying to desperately to reach her missing rider. It had been hours and still only silence met her.
A ripple of weakness washed through her long body.
“Syrakynn,” came the sending from Shryden. “You’re fading!”
The red tried to clear her suddenly sluggish mind as she struggled to maintain flight, anguish crushing her heart. Kirynn must be dead. Namir roared in protest. Syrakynn managed to clear the combatants on the ground before crashing and sliding across the sand. She could barely lift her wings.
Paki landed next to her as Taela ripped away the safety straps. Another wave of weakness flooded Syrakynn and she laid her head on the ground. Taela appeared in front of her, putting her hands on either side of Syrakynn’s snout. “Please don’t fade, Syrakynn.” Tears swam in Taela’s eyes. “Your rider isn’t dead. I can’t find her, but I can still sense her. She isn’t far and she lives.”
Syrakynn reached out for Taela, the unused path to her mind unfamiliar, “I have no control over it. Something is tearing me away and I can’t stop it.”
“You have to fight it Syrakynn,” Taela sent back.
A heavy weight pressed down on Syrakynn as she closed her eyes. “There is no fighting Separation…”
Taela’s sobs filtered through the thick fog settling over her mind. The roars of the other dragons in the battle filled the air. Syrakynn took a deep shuddering breath as a sharp, painful tingle ran through every nerve. Her soul was coming loose.
She sighed deep and waited. There was nothing else to do. Nothing else she could do. Syrakynn only hoped Taela was wrong and Kirynn was dead. She didn’t want to go to Maiadar alone.
In the darkness that slowly pulled over her like a blanket, something stirred. A trickle of awareness. A tiny thread of a connection. Kirynn! Syrakynn reached for it and held on to it.
So faint it was barely audible in her mind, she heard her rider. “Don’t leave me, Syrakynn. I’m here; I’m trying to reach you.”
Another thread slipped through whatever kept them apart and Syrakynn felt a little bit of strength return. More threads slipped through allowing a connection the size of a thick rope. Strength raced through Syrakynn’s legs and wings.
Taela gasped. “Syrakynn, your color is returning.”
She opened her eyes and stared at Taela standing before her. “She is clawing her way back to me. I can sense her now.” More connection pushed through the weakening wall between them. Syrakynn wished she could help, but she didn’t sense what Kirynn fought against.
Kirynn ripped another hole in the seam and another. Syrakynn’s strength and love poured into her.
“She’s breaking it,” Azurynn growled.
Sulwyna gave Azurynn a flat look. “You messed it up.”
Kirynn ignored them and forced the seam wide open. The barrier fractured all the way around the dark hole. She attacked it with her mind. It shuddered then crumbled. Her bond with Syrakynn flooded her along with her magic. The presence of the red roared into her mind as Kirynn opened her eyes.
Flames raced up her arms to the rope. She hit the floor with a thud, her legs not ready for the sudden need to hold her up. Azurynn bolted from the room, but Sulwyna narrowed her eyes.
Pain burst behind Kirynn’s eyes but she didn’t care. Fueled by rage, she focused past it and threw a weave at the woman. Sulwyna screamed as fire erupted from every pore in her skin. The Shadow Rider fell to the floor, thrashing.
A rush of wind gusted past Kirynn as if something had sucked all of the air into the other chamber. She climbed to her feet and stumbled past the now silent and still burning form of Sulwyna. The muscles in her shoulders screamed from having the weight of her body pulled against them for so long. Kirynn rolled her arms, wincing as she stepped into the cavern. Azurynn and her dragon were gone.
A harsh scream filled the cave, echoing off the walls. Covering her ears, Kirynn turned toward the sound. A black dragon thrashed against the dark stone wall as its body collapsed in on itself. It withered and crumbled until it was nothing more than dull black scales stretched over the skeleton.
Kirynn stared at it. The thick, sickly sweet smell of burning flesh drifting on the smoke from the alcove clogged her throat and nose. Coughing, she pulled her shirt up over her mouth and nose and glanced back at the body. She could put the fire out, but she wasn’t going to. Let the pile of Kojen-dung burn until there was nothing left.
Kirynn looked around. How in the name of the Fates was she supposed to get out of here? She stepped to the edge of the water. It was a massive underground spring. A large tube ran diagonally from one side of the spring up into the stone wall. That didn’t get there by accident, which meant there was a way in and out of here.
She’d just discovered rough stairs cut into the wall when Syrakynn reached out to her, “Stay right there. I am coming for you and I don’t want the edge of the Slide to hit you.”
Kirynn sighed with relief and sank down onto the stairs. The air over the spring began to swirl like a whirlpool. The Slide widened
until it cut through the ceiling and the side walls. Syrakynn’s beautiful, red body came through with Serena on her back. Paki and Taela came through right behind her.
They landed with a splash in the shallows where the water lapped at the rock. Relief and love flooded Kirynn. “I thought I might never see you again,” she sent.
The red gazed at her with her big, bright green eyes. “Next time don’t take so long to answer me when I call for you.”
Kirynn laughed. “Hopefully, there won’t be a next time.”
Serena and Taela ran up to her. Serena knelt on the step below, examining Kirynn’s wrists. “What happened to you? And what is that around your neck?
Kirynn reached up and felt the thick links of chain for the first time. She tried to pull it away and winced. Serena stopped her. “Don’t, it’s embedded into your skin.”
“How do I get it off?” Kirynn’s skin crawled. What had they put on her?
Taela looked at her with worry. “Kellinar is Sliding to Galdrilene to get Emallya. Whatever that is, it’s evil. I can see the symbols in the weave on it. It makes my head ache to read them, but I believe this came from the Kor’ti.”
Kirynn’s heart sank. Azurynn had created the chain. They had someone who could read the shadow book.
Puzzled, she looked up. “Why is Kellinar here? For that matter, what are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in Haraban or Trilene or something?”
“We were supposed to be on our way to Trilene right now, but while you were down here lying about, there was a battle with a swarm of Kojen. We came to help since you were missing.” Taela smiled.
Kirynn frowned. “Azurynn and Sulwyna said I was their experiment. The Kojen must have been a diversion. I heard a man’s voice, but I can’t remember it well enough to recognize it but it seemed familiar. I was still coming around from whatever they had drugged me with. He wanted to leave and one of them told him he could go back to pretending.” She tried to bring the memory into focus but it wouldn’t come. “There is a rat among the Council it would seem.”
Serena frowned at the wounds on Kirynn’s wrists. “Why do you think it’s someone in the Council?”
“It had to be someone pretty high up to allow them entrance.” Kirynn glanced up at Taela who was staring at her. “What?”
“What was that name you said?”
“Azurynn?” Kirynn asked. “She was one of the Shadow Riders here. She can use the shadow side of Spirit magic. I was going to kill her but the coward ran.”
Taela shook her head. “No, the other one.”
“Sulwyna. She used Spirit magic too.”
“What happened to her?”
Kirynn shrugged. “I killed her. Why?”
Taela looked around the cavern. “Where is she?”
“In that alcove over there.” She waved her hand toward the arched opening.
Kirynn looked at Serena as Taela walked away. “What was that about?”
Serena shook her head still looking at the wounds. “I don’t know.” She sounded as if she had barely paid attention to the conversation.
“Are you trying to see if you can heal by frowning?”
“What?” Serena looked up, her expression startled.
Kirynn smiled. “You’ve been staring at my injuries and frowning since you arrived. I thought perhaps you were trying a new technique.”
“I’ve been trying to heal them, but that chain seems to be blocking my magic.” She stood and brushed her hands off with a frustrated grimace. “I think I will have to wait until it’s off before I can do anything.”
“We should get you out of here. Emallya would like you to return to Galdrilene to have the chain removed, and both Kellinar and Vaddoc are asking if there is room for them to Slide into this cavern,” came the sending from Syrakynn.
“Tell them we will meet them at Galdrilene. And tell them not to Slide here. The cavern is large but not big enough for two more dragons,” she sent back.
Kirynn raised her voice and yelled, “Taela, we need to get a move on before we have everyone in this Fate-forsaken cavern.”
Taela walked back from the smaller cave. “I know; Kellinar is pestering me about getting out of here.”
“What were you doing?”
Taela frowned. “What did Sulwyna look like? What is left of her is burned beyond recognition.”
“Brown hair, head scarf, hazel eyes, olive skin. I’ll have Syrakynn send you the image from my mind.”
Taela sucked in a deep breath and Kirynn raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Sulwyna was Sehlas’ youngest wife. His brother didn’t throw her out; she left to become a Shadow Rider. I always thought she knew what I did in the garden when I broke Sehlas’ mind.” Taela glanced back at the small cave. “I’m glad you were able to kill her.”
Kirynn shrugged slightly and stood. “Glad to be of service. Let’s get out of here.”
She waded into the water next to Syrakynn and laid her hand on the red’s scales for a moment, relief filling her again. The loss of the dragon would have killed her, of that she had no doubt. With a deep sigh, she turned and pulled the catcher strap from where it had fallen in the water and fastened the wet cuff around her ankle. After leaping into the saddle she looked down at Serena. “Are you flying with me or Taela?”
Serena smiled. “Taela. No offense Syrakynn, but you seem to love pushing the limits more than me. You are too much like your rider and I don’t want the Slide back to Galdrilene to scare me half to death. Since Miya has already Slid back to Galdrilene to wait for me, I will be happy to hitch a ride with Taela.”
Kirynn shrugged. “Suit yourself.” What was the other woman talking about? Syrakynn just believed in getting things done in a timely manner which Kirynn appreciated. The red knew the limits and flew just within them.
Syrakynn waited until Taela and Serena were on Paki and the silver had a chance to shift out of the way before lifting off. Kirynn saw the image of Galdrilene form in the dragon’s mind as the Slide spun open.
Maleena paced along the edge of the inner terrace, waiting for Kirynn to arrive. Emallya and Bardeck waited patiently in the caldera with Vaddoc, Kellinar, and Anevay. She reached out for Tellnox, pleased to find that so far there were no Kojen in Calladar. The green and Mckale continued to patrol the eastern border of the nation. She didn’t like that he was there alone.
The other riders with dragons either too young to Slide efficiently or too young fly gathered around on the inner terrace. Belynn leaned against her red as she nervously chewed on a fingernail, her hazel eyes worried.
Brock paced along the other end of the terrace, his intense blue eyes staring down the caldera while Toren and his red Rahu stood on the ledge outside their hatchling lair. Nolan and Sumara stood together in tight-lipped worry.
The air rippled in a giant whirlpool as a Slide opened. Maleena stopped pacing and watched. Kirynn and Syrakynn came through first, followed by Paki and her passengers. The knot in Maleena’s stomach loosened at the sight of the red and her rider. She knew they were safe, but it was good to actually see it.
The red landed smoothly and Kirynn leaped down from the saddle. Maleena and Emallya hurried across the grass of the caldera to Kirynn, while she unbuckled the catcher strap and Paki landed.
Emallya studied the chain around Kirynn’s neck with tight-lipped worry.
Vaddoc strode toward Kirynn. “Are you alright?”
Kirynn glared at him. “Of course I am.”
He stopped a few steps away and folded his arms across his chest, one eyebrow raised. “You hardly look it.”
She glanced at her bloody wrists. “This? This is nothing and as soon as I get this shadow-blasted chain off, Serena will heal them.”
“You missed all of the fun this afternoon, what happened?”
Kirynn glared at him. “While you were having fun killing Kojen, I was stuck in some underground cavern with a lake, having a chat with a couple of creepy women. One of which is dead now.�
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“Hold still,” Maleena said as she examined the heavy black links half-buried into Kirynn’s skin. Faint traces of Shadow magic still radiated from it. Etched into the metal were symbols. A few minutes later Taela joined her. Soon, she saw the symbols translated in the other woman’s mind. Maleena’s blood began to run cold as the meaning behind the symbols became clear and the weave that had been used was revealed.
“Right here.” Taela traced a symbol on one link with her finger. “This is where she went wrong. She forgot to add a single line in this area and it left a seam that Kirynn was able to break open.”
Maleena studied the images in Taela’s mind. Her Spirit sister was right. If Azurynn hadn’t missed that one line, Kirynn and Syrakynn would have been lost to them. She looked at Emallya. “Have you ever seen anything like this?”
Emallya nodded as Nolan and Anevay came closer to examine the chain. “Yes, during the War of Fire. I had hoped since we were unable to recover the Kor’ti they wouldn’t find anyone who could read it. Apparently they have.”
Serena frowned at the chain. “How do I remove it?”
“You do not. I will show Maleena and Taela how to remove it. Then you can heal the wound it will leave behind.” Emallya looked at Maleena. “This is going to hurt. Even if Mckale’s shield was working properly, it would still hurt. The bondmate shield does not protect against this,” her eyes flicked to Taela, “no more than it did when you used Shadow magic to help Paki.”
Maleena nodded. “I know. I can sense the Shadow magic in it but I can handle it.”
Taela turned to Maleena with a startled look. “Why isn’t Mckale’s shield working?”
Emallya smiled, a wealth of warmth in her eyes as they settled on Maleena. “Because she is pregnant. During the first few months the shield is adjusting to the new person growing inside. It will not quite work fully until the pregnancy is over, but it will get better as it progresses.”
Tears of War Page 27