“No,” said Claudia.
“Silent Hunters,” said Caina, lowering her voice. “Two of them, outside.”
“Did they follow you inside?” said Martin, reaching for his sword.
“We killed them,” said Claudia. “I can ward the entrances to the hall, maybe the gate to the village itself, to warn us if any more enter.”
“There is no need, I fear,” said Nasser, voice grim. “Likely they have already infiltrated the village.”
“These scarred devils would stand out among my folk,” said Strabane, “and from what you have said, their powers of illusion will not last long. They will strike soon. But how can we fight invisible men?”
“We don’t fight them,” said Caina. “We hunt them. I can sense them when they employ their powers. I will go from house to house, accompanied by a few good fighters. I can sense the Hunters and use this,” she tapped the handle of her ghostsilver dagger, “to collapse their invisibility. Without their illusions, they are simply naked men armed with only short blades. They would be no match for an armored warrior.”
“Well and good,” said Strabane. “I will accompany you. Nasser, if you…”
The main doors to the hall burst open, and two watchmen rushed inside.
“Fire!” they bellowed. “Fire at the smithy! Fire! Grab your buckets and come! Fire!”
As one the men of Drynemet heaved themselves to their feet, some reeling drunkenly, and ran for the doors.
“Stop them,” hissed Caina. “That’s what the Hunters want. Chaos and fear in the village. It will make it all the easier for them to attack Martin.” Or, worse, it would create a distraction for the Red Huntress herself to attack. The Silent Hunters had failed to kill Claudia and Martin at their mansion, and the Huntress herself had failed to kill Martin at the Golden Palace. Had Cassander decided to throw both of them at Martin at once?
“My folk will not huddle in my hall while their homes burn,” said Strabane, “but if these devils can turn invisible, how shall we fight them?” He growled. “Cassander Nilas and his Umbarian dogs shall regret attacking guests under the protection of Strabane of Drynemet!”
“Go,” said Caina. “Oversee your people.” Her mind raced, considering the options. “Lord Martin, I think you should stay here under guard.”
“I cannot let my hosts suffer while I sit idle,” said Martin.
Caina bit back the urge to curse. “Then send half the Guard to help put out the fires, and the other half to remain here with you. Claudia can keep her sensing spell up, and dispel the invisibility around any Silent Hunters.” Claudia gave a sharp nod, her face strained. “Then the Imperial Guards can cut them down. The Silent Hunters are neither wraiths nor devils. They are merely men with a bit of stolen power, and without that power, they die just as quickly as other men.”
Yet their tactics troubled Caina. Why slip into the village at all? Why start fires? That would alert their intended victims to their presence. The Silent Hunters knew their weaknesses just as well as Caina did. They were most effective when striking from the shadows and vanishing without a trace. This kind of bold attack seemed dangerous and risky.
Unless, of course, they merely wanted to create a distraction. But for what?
“Very well,” said Martin in his commander’s voice. “Your plan is sound. Tylas! Detail a single squad to remain here with Lady Claudia. The rest of the men are to aid Strabane’s folk. Keep their swords ready at all time. There’s no telling when those Umbarian dogs will strike.”
“My lord,” said Tylas, turning to shout orders, and the Imperial Guards hastened to obey.
“I shall accompany you, Ciaran,” said Nasser, “as will Laertes. If you reveal the Hunters to us, we shall slay them.”
“What if the Huntress shows herself?” said Claudia.
If the Huntress showed herself, she would likely kill them all.
“Hit her with your banishment spell,” said Caina. “That seemed to enrage her the last time. Hopefully while she is distracted one of us can wound her severely enough to inhibit her healing ability.” She offered Claudia a tight grin. “Perhaps we’ll get lucky and we won’t need to borrow the Emissary’s valikon after all.”
“One can hope,” said Claudia.
“Let’s go,” said Caina.
Strabane and the Imperial Guards boiled out of the front doors to the hall, but Caina headed for the side door, Nasser and Laertes following her. Outside she heard the screams of women and the shouts of men, and she saw that the Hunters had set at least four houses ablaze. The Kaltari men and the Imperial Guards organized themselves into lines, passing buckets from hand to hand to extinguish the flames.
Caina felt the tingle of sorcery. Silent Hunters were nearby.
She had one advantage, at least. The Hunters could not attack without discarding their invisibility, and the duration of their power was limited. That meant they would only attack from ambush and concealment, fleeing the minute they were discovered. They would have spread themselves throughout the village to cause as much chaos as possible.
Which gave Caina the chance to hunt them down one by one.
Again the purpose of their attack eluded her.
Well. If they left some of the Silent Hunters alive, they could always question them later.
Caina concentrated, feeling the pulse and throb of the sorcerous auras around her. The nearest one came from one of the round stone houses facing the hall, its thatched roof ablaze. Caina felt the aura moving around the house’s curved wall. A Silent Hunter, she surmised, circling the house in search of new victims.
“Pretend like we’re going to put out the fire,” said Caina, and Nasser and Laertes nodded. She started forward at a run, her eyes scanning the dust of the ground. The flames provided ample light, and she spotted the footprints of a barefoot man. Caina ran towards the house, watching the tracks. They stopped, which meant the Hunter was watching them, deciding whether or not to act.
Caina passed the Hunter’s position, yanked the ghostsilver dagger from its sheath, and slashed.
The blow was hasty and ill-aimed, but it struck something hard, and Caina felt the blade bite into flesh. The dagger got hot beneath Caina’s hand, and the Silent Hunter appeared with a flash of silver light, blood streaming down his left shoulder. He growled and stepped towards Caina, raising the dagger in his right hand, but Nasser calmly drove his scimitar into the assassin’s throat. Blood gushed from the wound, and the man fell dead to the ground.
“Sloppy cut,” muttered Laertes.
Nasser grinned. “Ever the centurion, eh?”
“Dead is dead,” said Caina, shaking a drop of blood from the ghostsilver dagger. She concentrated for a moment. “This way.”
“How many more of them?” said Laertes.
“At least twenty,” said Caina. “Maybe more.
“Well,” murmured Nasser, “I shall certainly have time to improve my cuts.”
###
Claudia waited, sweat trickling down her temples. Martin held his sword drawn, as did the other Imperial Guards. The hall was deserted, save for the twelve Guards who had remained behind to guard the Lord Governor. Claudia heard shouts and screams from the village outside, but not as many as she had expected. Most of the villagers had not yet realized they were under attack. Perhaps Caina and Nasser would be able to hunt down and kill all the Silent Hunters before they hurt too many people.
“Anything?” said Martin.
“Nothing,” said Claudia with a shake of her head. Her stomach fluttered with nausea, making her glad she had not eaten anything since coming to Drynemet. Vomiting all over her boots in the middle of a fight was hardly an effective tactic. “No Hunters, no sorcerers. Nothing.”
“It galls me,” said Martin, “to stay safe while other men risk their lives on my behalf.”
“You’re the Lord Ambassador,” said Claudia, though she was relieved that he had stayed in the hall. “If you are killed here, the Empire might have war with both Istarinmul
and the Order.”
“Alas, this is so,” said Martin with a sigh. “There is a time and a place to lead from the front…”
“But this is not it,” said Claudia, rechecking her sensing spell. She still felt no Silent Hunters within the hall. Her eyes swept to the doors and back again, but no attackers had entered. At least with the doors closed, the Silent Hunters could not enter the hall unnoticed. They could turn invisible, but they could not walk through walls. As Caina had said, they were mortals with a bit of stolen arcane power, not wraiths or spirits.
Something else Caina frequently said itched at Claudia’s brain. What did she say?
No one ever looked up.
Claudia looked up and her blood went cold.
A hole opened in the roof above the firepit to allow the smoke to escape. At the edge of the hole stood a woman in close-fitting leather armor the color of blood, a crimson cloak streaming from her shoulders, her face concealed beneath a mask of red steel, its expression serene.
The Red Huntress.
And she was looking right at Martin, a bow in her hands as she drew back the string.
Claudia screamed in rage and terror and cast a spell, flinging all her power into it. The Huntress released her arrow in the same instant Claudia’s burst of psychokinetic forced hammered into her chest. The arrow hissed past Claudia to shatter against the floor, and the Huntress fell backwards and out of sight.
“What is it?” said Martin.
“She was there,” said Claudia, trying to keep the opening in the roof and all the doors in sight at once. “The Huntress. She was about to shoot you.”
“Actually,” said Martin, “I think she was aiming at you.”
“Me?” said Claudia. “Why?”
“You’re the only one who was able to hurt her,” said Martin.
“Then I have to go out and help,” said Claudia. “Gods, husband, there are hundreds of women and children here. She’ll slaughter them all if we can’t drive her off.”
“It seems,” said Martin, “this is the day to lead from the front after all.”
###
The spell struck Kalgri and sent her stumbling backward. She had seen far more powerful sorcerers, but Claudia still could hit with an impressive amount of strength. Kalgri had hoped to kill Claudia and rid herself of the threat of the banishment spell, and then butcher her way through the rest of the village until she found and killed the Balarigar.
Well, no matter. There were other ways to deal with her foes.
The force of the spell carried Kalgri to the edge of the roof, and she let herself fall. It was sixty feet to the yard below, but the power of the Voice surged through her, and Kalgri landed without harm. She spun, the senses of the Voice seeking out foes to slay, but for the moment she was in an island of calm. There were some Silent Hunters between the hall and the outer wall. Fewer than she expected. And…
Caina Amalas came into sight.
She was dressed like a caravan guard, leather armor and dusty boots and a ragged brown cloak. In her right hand she carried the ghostsilver dagger she had stolen from Callatas’s library. Kalgri realized that she was hunting the Silent Hunters. Of course! The woman had the ability to sense sorcery, and the Hunters radiated sorcery like heat from a forge when they used power. The Hunters had no idea of her ability, and given how much they relied upon their invisibility, they would die quickly when Caina found them.
No matter. Their purpose was to create a distraction and nothing more.
Two men followed Caina. The first was a middle-aged man with the look of a veteran of the Legions of the Empire. The second…
Kalgri sucked in a surprised breath.
She knew the second man.
###
It was almost ridiculously easy to kill the Silent Hunters.
The murderous fools had no idea that Caina could sense them, and they had complete faith in their invisibility. She could simply stroll up, pretend not to sense them, and then strike with the ghostsilver dagger. The minute the blade broke their skin, their invisibility collapsed, and Nasser or Laertes struck a killing blow. Since the Hunters were operating singly rather than in groups, they could not warn each other against the danger.
Given what she had heard about the Hunters’ crimes, Caina had no qualms about killing them.
Nasser killed a tenth Hunter, and Caina closed her eyes for a moment, seeking for signs of arcane power. There were more Hunters on the northern side of the hall, and once they …
“Glasshand!”
Caina’s eyes snapped open and she spun around.
The voice had not been entirely human. Or it had been two voices speaking at once. One sounded like a normal, unremarkable woman with an Istarish accent. The other was a deep, inhuman growl, a voice deeper than any human could produce, a voice that seemed to reverberate inside of Caina’s skull.
The voice of a nagataaru speaking through a possessed human’s mouth.
The Red Huntress stood at the base of Strabane’s hall, the crimson cloak rippling around her, her red mask serene.
With a sinking feeling, Caina realized that the Huntress might well have killed both Martin and Claudia already.
“Nasser Glasshand,” spat the Huntress in her strange voice, “the lord of dust and ash and candles. You escaped me once before, but you shall not elude me again.”
Nasser showed no hint of fear, beckoning with his left hand as he pointed his scimitar with the right. Laertes moved to Nasser’s right, broadsword and shield raised, while Caina moved to Nasser’s left, her ghostsilver dagger ready. Ghostsilver disrupted a nagataaru’s powers and caused it pain, and if she could bury the blade in the Huntress, perhaps that would slow the assassin long enough for Laertes or Nasser to land a deadly strike.
“Bold words, my lady,” said Nasser in his sonorous rumble, his smile spreading over his dark face. “I did elude you once before, and I am looking forward to a repeat performance.”
“You don’t have your enspelled toy now,” said the Huntress. “It cannot save you.” The serene mask turned towards Caina. “Nor can your new allies protect you. The Balarigar cannot defeat me.” The inhuman snarl of the second voice rose with rage and hatred.
The Huntress knew that she was the Balarigar? Perhaps the Voice had told her, had learned it from the nagataaru Caina had confronted earlier.
The Huntress shot forward in a crimson blur, and Caina had no more time for thought. The assassin sprang into the air, her cloak streaming behind her like bloody wings. Twin scimitars gleamed in her gloved hands like crescents of frozen light. Caina flung a knife, hoping to catch the Huntress off-guard, but the assassin flicked her wrist, her right blade deflecting the weapon.
The Red Huntress landed and smashed into Nasser like a storm, and Caina expected to see the master thief fall dead to the ground.
Instead Nasser whirled, his scimitar flashing, and struck at her. The Huntress blurred to the side with inhuman speed, her scimitars swinging for Nasser’s face. Somehow Nasser got his scimitar up to block, the blades clanging, and the Huntress went on the offensive. Her swords spun and whirled and stabbed through a dazzling array of attacks, and Caina knew firsthand the strength behind those blows.
Yet somehow Nasser blocked them all.
His sword work was crisp and precise, his footing excellent. Caina had seen many master swordsmen during her time with the Ghosts, but Nasser Glasshand was among the best of them. His scimitar wove a curved cage of steel around him, blocking every one of the Huntress’s attacks. Yet Nasser remained on the defensive. He was fast, but not fast enough to block the Huntress’s attacks and strike back. Laertes tried to circle her, but the Huntress was simply too fast and stayed ahead of him. Caina flung several throwing knives, but every time the Huntress dodged or blocked. She even tried throwing a knife directly behind the Huntress, but somehow the assassin sensed it and swept a scimitar behind her to deflect the blade.
There was no way she could have seen it coming. Perhaps the Voice
had given the Huntress inhumanly keen senses, so sharp she could hear the whisper of a knife spinning through the air. Yet the clang of steel upon steel would have drowned out any sound the knife made.
No. The Huntress hadn’t seen the blade coming. The Voice had. The nagataaru was a spirit, and even though it saw through the Huntress’s eyes, it had senses other than those of the flesh.
Perhaps Caina had a way to block those senses.
She ducked toward one of the round houses. The village of Drynemet was in chaos, with the men and the Imperial Guards fighting the fires, yet no one had noticed the furious duel between Nasser and the Huntress. For the moment Caina was unnoticed.
She tugged off her brown cloak, slid a mask over her face, and drew up the cowl of her shadow-cloak as it fell around her. Only the Ghost nightkeepers knew the secret of weaving shadow-cloaks from silk and shadows. The cloak was as light as the air, and blended with the shadows, enhancing Caina’s ability at stealth. It also shielded her thoughts from mind-controlling spells, and prevented anyone from using sorcery to discern her location.
And, if she had guessed right, it would block her presence from Voice’s sight.
Caina darted forward, drawing another throwing knife.
###
The Voice screamed with glee, its hunger and rage burning through Kalgri’s limbs.
The Legion veteran was a lumbering old fool, and for all her cunning the Balarigar was laughably weak. Kalgri could have killed them both in the space between two heartbeats, had she been free of any distractions.
But Nasser Glasshand was a damnably effective distraction.
He was a masterful swordsman, so good that he had actually managed to hold her attacks back for a few moments. But it would not last. The Voice gave Kalgri strength and power beyond the mortal, and despite the sorcerous aura around his left hand and his prodigious skill, Nasser was still a mortal man. His stamina would wane, and then Kalgri would have his head.
The Legion veteran and Caina circled around her, but Kalgri kept her eyes upon Nasser. The Voice could keep track of the veteran and the Balarigar easily enough, and warn her when she needed to move…
Ghost in the Hunt Page 21