by K. C. May
Gavin would have suggested Brawna take the child, but he thought Brawna might be better to have with them in a battle than Risan. The Farthan was familiar with weapons, certainly, but was he trained for combat?
“I was man-at-arms first in Farthan regular army, then in Farthan Imperial Guard,” Risan said as though guessing Gavin’s concern. “First Master of Blade Arms and Third Master of Pole Arms.”
"Brawna, would you take the boy?" Gavin asked.
She nodded.
Gavin thought he saw relief in her face. "Stay close but hidden. We may need you."
"No," Dwaeth said too loudly as he shied from Brawna’s outstretched hand. "I want to stay with Risan."
“Shhhh,” Risan said, bending down to him. "Dwaeth, do you remember what thing I promised? We have to take care something first. Stay with Miss Brawna for short time, and I will come for you. I promise on my life."
Dwaeth nodded and hung his head. Brawna took his hand and led him to the porch. She turned back to them and whispered, “Strength and courage.”
Chapter 58
Brodas awoke as the sky had begun to lighten. Dawn was here and Warrick had not returned. He'd better not have fallen asleep or there would be hell to pay. Brodas pulled the covers aside and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He had slept in his clothes, not wanting to waste time changing when Warrick sounded the alert. He would have preferred everything to be perfect the day he claimed the King's Blood-stone, including wearing pressed clothing to the cave, but such things were unimportant in his larger plan. After pulling on and lacing his boots, he picked up the sword lying on the floor alongside his bed.
He admired the workmanship again and wished he knew the nature of the enchantment Risan had put on it. Once he had the King's Blood-stone, the blacksmith would tell him. The sword wouldn't be able to protect its maker from Brodas's magic then.
He went to the door and opened it. "Bring me some--" The hall was empty, his guard absent from her post. A chill swept across the back of Brodas's neck. Perhaps she was simply taking care of her private business. The stair creaked, but he did not hear the rhythmic fall of boots on the steps. Something was wrong. He went to investigate.
As Brodas reached the top landing, the sight of five people ascending the stairs utterly confused him. The last of them fired an arrow. Brodas barely had time to block it with a spell, and its sharp tip cut through his tunic and stung him in the chest just before it exploded into splinters. The rest of the intruders charged him with swords drawn. Among them was one whose face was far too familiar.
"Kinshield," Brodas hissed. He held up the sword and focused on the gem in the snake's eye.
* * * * *
A wave of force slammed into them. Daia fell back against Gavin and he fell into Domach behind him. Together they tumbled backward down the stairs. Finally, they came to a stop and disentangled themselves. The pain barely registered as Daia rolled to her feet at the bottom landing. She snatched up her sword and started back up the steps, two at a time. Someone else charged up behind her.
Daia thrust with her sword. Brodas did not raise the jeweled sword to defend himself. Her blade should have penetrated his flesh, but it stopped as though she had stabbed a wall. A white ring of mist shot down the length of her blade, spilt over the guard to her hand and washed over her body. Enveloped in a sharp tingling sensation, she collapsed like a rag doll onto the stairs, bumping down a few before sliding to a stop on her belly. Then she felt nothing, but she heard and saw all.
* * * * *
"Daia, no," Gavin yelled. It was too late. He recognized the look of helplessness in her eyes as she lay immobile on the stairs. Gavin started up the stairs behind Domach with Risan beside him. Brodas hit them with another wave of force. It lifted Gavin from his feet and slammed him onto his back on the floor. Risan hit the wall along the staircase and tumbled down the stairs. Domach spun and hit the banister with his hip, flipping over it. Gavin rolled to his knees and climbed to his feet. The burning in his shoulder was excruciating at first, but the pain faded quickly.
A spark appeared in the air, and opened into a line of darkness. The line widened, splitting like a demon's grin into a smile.
Gavin reeled. How could a door from the demon's realm open here? He looked up. There Brodas stood, his hand outstretched as if he controlled it. A gray-green hand reached through, each of its four fingers ending in a long, curved claw. A fur-covered arm followed, and a head like a bear, accompanied by the stench of sulfur. It stood a head taller than Gavin as it stepped fully through, and the opening snapped shut behind it.
Thoop! An arrow flew past him and sank into the creature's chest. It roared, the sound of it making the hair on Gavin's neck stand up. He sliced with his sword and jumped back as a claw swiped at him. He stepped in with a lunge, drove his blade half-way into the grayish fur of its gut. He yanked it out and ducked its claws.
Gavin saw another spark down the hall beside the staircase. Arrows flew past him, some burrowing into the beyonder, some batted harmlessly away by a massive paw. Gavin chopped at the thing's neck, hoping to behead it. Then, he was flying through the air. He heard an oof as he slammed into Edan. They hit the wall so hard, Gavin thought he heard every bone in his body break. His neck, head, chest and back lit up with tingling fire as he fell with a thud to the floor.
The pain felt like being burned alive on a spit. At least, he thought it was pain, but the searing heat died down to uncomfortable warmth. His power -- King Arek’s power. He tried to climb to his feet, but he could not feel his legs. The creature advanced upon Gavin and Edan, lying in a heap. Gavin tried to move, to let Edan get away, but he could not.
Just as the creature was bending to deal a death blow to Gavin, it screamed and turned. Behind it, Risan plunged his sword again and again into the monster's leg. It turned and batted at him, but he ducked under its paw and continued hacking. Grayish liquid began to squirt from its wounds, flooding the floor. Its struggles weakened, and it staggered.
A wave of force swept down the stairs. Risan and the monster slammed against the wall. Gavin rolled off of Edan, who slid backward across the floor.
The beyonder twisted around, clawing at Risan.
The pain in Gavin's back started to lessen and the feeling returned to his legs. He climbed to his knees and whipped the dagger from his hip sheath. He stabbed the thing in the back, and it slumped, tried to turn toward him. Edan rolled to his feet and drew his own knife, and together they stabbed again and again as the beyonder collapsed to the floor.
Risan got up and started running up the stairs. Gavin saw he had a clear line of sight over Risan's head, but wouldn't for long. He threw. The knife spun in the air, sailing toward its target.
* * * * *
Brodas nearly laughed aloud at the futility of their efforts. The five of them together could not hope to best him, but they were too dim-witted to realize it. With barely a thought, he sent Gavin’s knife spinning away. It sank into Risan's thigh and laid him flat on a stair, writhing and screaming. Brodas turned the archer’s arrows to toothpicks. And Domach was nowhere to be seen, no doubt slain by whatever beyonder had come through the second portal he'd opened.
If only Gavin would come up the stairs and try to stab him as Daia had, Brodas would be ready to render him helpless, kill his friends and be done with it. Getting the huge swordsman to the cave would be Brodas's greatest challenge. Once Warrick arrived, all would be well. And with the Lordover Tern’s daughter as Brodas’s bride, all would be better than well.
In fact, with that magnificent gift of hers, Brodas might not need to make contact at all. Perhaps he could strike Gavin with paralysis and kill his friends with a little help from Miss Daia. He turned his attention to her lovely light blue eyes.
* * * * *
Daia lay alert but unable to move. Time and again, she watched her companions try to attack Brodas on the stairs only to be tossed back down like the unwanted toys of a spoilt toddler. If they could get close enou
gh to hurt the wizard, she could help ensure his death. But first, they needed to get him off the stairs. He could not defend against four attackers at once.
Something vile reached for her mind, tacky, tar-like. Brodas was trying to connect with her. No. She pushed hard against him, and he pushed back. She felt like she was trying to shut a door against the force of a dozen men pushing it open. NO! Squeezing her eyes shut, she dove into her center and focused only on keeping him out. Little by little, she felt herself slipping, unable to push against the power that violated her. She felt him reach as though with the tip of a finger, stretching toward the source of her gift. Closer. Closer...
* * * * *
With a growl of effort, Gavin pushed himself to his feet and looked around. Daia lay unable to move on the stairs. In front of him, Risan yanked Gavin's knife from his leg and started pulling himself up the stairs. Domach crawled down the hall like a wounded fish, his bloody left arm clutched to his body, his right leg flopping against the floor. Blood streamed from his ears and from a gash in his forehead. He clutched his sword in his right hand.
Behind a corner, Edan stood beside the wall, his right arm hanging limply. His teeth were clenched tight and with a hard twist from the waist, he slammed his shoulder against the wall, muting a scream.
Gavin looked up at Brodas. He was glaring at Daia. Doing something to her. Her eyes were clenched shut. Some war was raging between them.
Gavin realized then that he and his companions were losing the battle. Once again, he had underestimated Brodas Ravenkind, and people would die because of it. His friends would die. Brodas used the gems in Gavin's own sword to attack them and defend himself against their efforts. If only Gavin could get-- Wait, he thought. Hadn't he felt his knife meet his hand before it should have?
The moonstone. Maybe he could use this new magic to get the sword away from Brodas.
He pulled the blue moonstone from his pocket. Focusing on the blue gem in his palm, he lifted his left hand toward the sword in Brodas's hand, reaching for it. Wanting it, intending to take it as though it were close enough to grasp. He reached as hard as he could, commanded it to come to him.
The sword wiggled, but Brodas held it tightly. The intensity of Brodas's glare grew, and he gritted his teeth.
“Daia, help me,” Gavin yelled. He wasn’t sure she could, with whatever Brodas was doing to her, but if she could hear him, if she could reach for him... He pulled harder. Harder.
Domach drew his knife. He let loose a throw and struck his target in the shoulder.
Brodas screamed. He turned his blazing eyes to Domach.
A warm presence reached for Gavin, taking hold of his entire inner being. Suddenly he felt a renewed strength. Daia! He pulled at the sword in Brodas's hand.
The sword wrenched itself free of Brodas's grasp just as another wave of force shot down the stairs. Domach caught the brunt of the spell squarely in the chest and tumbled backward, but still Gavin slammed into the wall behind him and fell. The moonstone flew from his hand. His new sword skidded across the marble floor.
Gavin crawled to the sword. His hand closed around the hilt.
Al...as...ar.
* * * * *
Brodas felt the sword tear itself from his grasp. How in the seven realms…? Kinshield. There he'd stood, his hand outstretched. Just as Brodas had let loose the last blast, the sword went to him. It went to him.
Without the gems in the sword, Brodas would have to make physical contact with his enemies to harm them by magic. And that meant he was vulnerable.
Risan was closest, crawling up the stairs toward him. Brodas stepped down beside Daia and bent, reaching toward the Farthan's head to scramble his mind. Risan shot out a hand, grabbed his wrist and pulled. Brodas pitched forward.
He tumbled down the stairs. He felt his right wrist break, but his healing magic started working like an instinct, mending it before he hit the landing. When he tumbled to a stop face down on the floor, an amazing sight greeted him; a perfect blue moonstone lay just inches from his nose.
* * * * *
Ald...as...ar.
Gavin watched Brodas fall headlong down the stairs, and his hope was rekindled. Risan struggled to his feet. Domach crawled toward Gavin’s old sword.
Ald...as Gar.
To Gavin's horror, the moonstone was right in front of Brodas. Domach was closest. "The gem. Domach, get the gem," Gavin yelled. He focused on the gems in the hilt of his sword to pull the moonstone.
From the middle of the staircase, Risan leapt at Brodas, his sword outstretched.
Aldras Gar.
Risan’s blade came down on Brodas's outstretched hand, severing the last two fingers and cutting deeply into the third. Blood sprayed forth. Brodas screamed. Before Gavin’s eyes, the stumps where Brodas’s fingers had been healed instantly. Just as the moonstone started to slide across the floor toward Gavin, along with Brodas’s two severed fingers, Brodas snatched up the blue gem with his three-fingered hand.
Risan rolled to the side. "Gavin, say it," he shouted.
Gavin shot to his feet. What? Say what...?
“Get down,” someone yelled.
Gavin turned just as Brodas released a blue ball of tiny lightning bolts. Something flew at Gavin from the left, knocking him out of the path of the blue light. Gavin landed hard on the floor with Domach on top of him.
Thoop! Thoop! Thoop! Arrowhead fragments, feathers and splinters of wood flew through the air.
Aldras Gar.
Gavin pushed Domach’s limp form off of him and rolled up onto his feet again. What was that annoying whispering? Was it...?
Aldras Gar!
...the sword. Whispering to him.
ALDRAS GAR!
"Say sword's name," Risan called.
Gavin gripped the hilt with both hands. "Aldras Gar!"
A wave of power shuddered down the length of the weapon from tip to pommel. A hum vibrated it gently in his hands. Gavin felt he had a tenuous grip on it, as though it would leap from his hands at any moment.
A flame burst forth from Brodas's outstretched hand. Gavin had no time to react but to squeeze his eyes shut. Mild heat stroked his face. He opened his eyes. Brodas's clothes were ablaze and his blackened face was contorted in fear and shock, his hair singed, eyebrows seared completely off. Gavin swung Aldras Gar. Brodas jumped back. The tip of the blade barely sliced across his chest. Sparks flew from the blade as it drew his blood. Sparks!
Holy mother of Yrys! What the hell kind of enchantment was this?
Brodas bolted down the hall, patting furiously at the flames clinging to his clothing.
“Edan, with me,” Gavin shouted. He raced down the hall and through the kitchen after Brodas. Gone. Gavin rushed outside. Edan appeared beside him on the back stoop, an arrow nocked.
“Where?” Edan yelled.
Gavin ran across the courtyard, then stopped and turned around, hoping to catch a glimpse of the fleeing wizard. A horse, saddled but unmanned, emerged from the stable. Edan fired an arrow. It flew through the air and suddenly halted its forward course, hovering over the horse as it galloped through the trees.
Chapter 59
Edan came to Daia and sat on a step beside her. He brushed the hair from her face, then gently turned her onto her back and pulled her to a sitting position between his thighs. He held her to him with his arms around her, her back against him. Her chin lay against her chest. “I've got you,” he whispered.
Never in her life had Daia felt so helpless. She'd watched from the corner of her eye as her friends battled Brodas while she lay immobile. Useless. Gavin had taken a hard beating; Risan and Edan were both injured. On the blood-smeared white marble floor below her, Domach lay unmoving. Risan knelt beside him and pressed his ear against Domach’s chest. Daia held her breath.
Gavin came back down the hall. “Is he alive?”
“No,” Risan said.
Gavin squatted beside him. “Sorry about the knife,” he said.
Risan s
miled dimly. “It would hit mark if Ravenkind did not knock it away.”
Gavin put a hand on Risan’s thigh. “Don’t worry, I ain’t getting amorous,” he said with a crooked grin. He shut his eyes for a moment, and Daia watched Risan’s grimace change into a gape.
“You can heal,” Risan said when Gavin pulled his hand away. “That is amazing. Did you see that?” Risan asked Daia and Edan. “He healed my leg with just touching.”
Gavin put a hand on Domach’s chest. A vein bulged on his temple, and his arm quivered. After a long moment, he relaxed and sat with his head in his hands.
“Where is Ravenkind? Dead?” Risan asked.
“He fled,” Gavin said, “but Edan got an arrow into him. Likely he's still alive. I got to go tell Brawna about Demonshredder.” He looked up at Daia. “You awright?”
In answer, Daia rolled her eyes. If she were all right, she wouldn’t be sprawled on the stairs, limp as a corpse.
He grinned. “One blink for yes, two for no.”
She blinked twice. No.
“Are you injured?”
No.
“He used that spell on me when... It’ll fade in a few hours, but maybe I can speed it along. Want to try?”
Yes.
He climbed the stairs. Edan started to stand, but Gavin motioned him to stay there. He hooked his hands under Daia's thighs and lifted, bending her knees so that the soles of her boots lay flat on a step. Then he pushed her knees apart and knelt on the step between them. With a lecherous smile and wagging eyebrows, he said, “And you told me I'd never get between your legs.”
“Gavin,” Edan said in a disapproving tone.
If Daia could have smiled, she would have. She didn't doubt Gavin Kinshield would make a crude joke with his final breath.
He took her head in his hands and closed his eyes. His hands, so huge and rough, were surprisingly gentle. She did not know how to ask him if she should help with this at all, but decided that if he wanted help, he would say so. Almost immediately, she felt numbness in her fingers and toes and found she could wiggle them. The tingling sensation traveled up her arms and legs little by little and soon reached her torso, neck and face. Daia moved her hands and feet. It was working.