by Lisa Shearin
“Excuse me?” Tam asked, genuinely confused.
“You’re right. I got myself into this; I have to get myself out. Sarad Nukpana wouldn’t let me go, so you shouldn’t, either. Though what I’d do to Nukpana wouldn’t exactly work on you.”
“And what would that be?”
“You’re a little taller than he is. My head fits under your chin with about an inch to spare. Though if I jumped up hard enough, I might get the same results.”
Tam grinned. “A head butt.”
“Nukpana’s the perfect height for me. Let my head sag forward a little in defeat, then snap it back under his chin and knock out some of the bastard’s teeth.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah, I’d enjoy it, too.”
Tam snuggled closer. “What would you do next?” he whispered.
Goblins. What other race got excited talking about in-fighting?
“Once he let me go to catch the teeth falling out of his mouth, I’d stab or slit whatever I could reach. I don’t think I’d be picky at that point.”
While we’d talked, Tam had loosened his hold on me ever so slightly. It might be enough. Only one way to find out.
“Sarad Nukpana’s not the one holding you now,” Tam said on the barest breath. “I am. So what are you going to—”
I threw my head back as a diversion, then drove my elbow hard into his stomach. After a gratifying “oof” from Tam, I twisted sharply and drove my other elbow into his ribs. I was rewarded with a pained hiss and freedom.
I got the hell out of range and got my blades on guard, balancing on the balls of my feet, ready to move wherever Tam didn’t. Sometimes winning a fight just meant surviving.
Tam didn’t come after me. He just stood there, his right arm cradling his ribs. I wasn’t buying the wounded bird routine. I hadn’t hit him that hard.
Tam blew his breath in and out, wincing with every inhale. Okay, maybe he wasn’t faking it.
“You okay?”
“You bumped a rib I’ve had broken a couple of times.”
Bumped?
“That was damned near my best shot and you call it a bump?” I felt a sudden urge to hit him again, harder this time.
Tam breathed in and hissed the air out. “It never healed quite right.” He slowly stood straight. “I’m fine.”
“Which rib?”
One side of Tam’s mouth curved up in a smile. “What, so you can hit me again?”
“So I know what to avoid, you idiot. I’m not the only one Nukpana is after, so I’m not the only one who doesn’t need to get hurt.”
“Second rib, obviously the left side.”
“Injury noted. I’ll avoid it next time.”
Tam spun his blades with graceful and deadly efficiency, then flashed a grin full of fang. “Who says I’m going to let you have a next time?”
He circled off to the left, faster and smoother than any mortal creature had a right to move. I moved with him, keeping as much distance between us as possible. Tam lunged, both blades extended, his long legs damned near giving him the reach he needed to skewer me. I parried sharply, pivoted off, and kept moving, quicker now. Tam could circle and feint all day. Sarad Nukpana would do it as long as it was fun, and when he was ready, he’d move in for the kill.
“Raine, you’ve got two Khrynsani guards coming with more on the way.” Tam’s voice was sharp, commanding. It was his fencing master’s voice; it was also the voice telling me move my ass, do something, and stay alive. There weren’t really any bloodthirsty Khrynsani closing in on me, blades drawn for the kill, but Tam wanted me ready for any scenario. At least it was only two this time; last time he’d made it four.
Tam’s words were a staccato bark. “Stop running! Fight!”
He was right. I was running, but not from him.
I was running from Sarad Nukpana, from the inevitable. I would meet him, and if I didn’t kill him, he would do worse than kill me. I didn’t want to get anywhere near the crazed son of a bitch. He scared me. Hell, he didn’t just scare me. He terrified me. I didn’t just want to run. I wanted to run and hide. The goblin was turning himself into a monster, a monster whose only goal was to consume me and all that I was.
After he killed everyone that I loved.
After he killed them slowly, reveling in their agony, murdering them in the most hideous way I had ever seen.
I saw a dried corpse on a slab, but it wasn’t General Aratus, not this time. The image was so clear, too real, the stench of dried flesh too cloying. The slender body lying on that slab wore the pale gray uniform of a Guardian cadet; the face was—
A scream built in my throat, rage fighting for a voice, desperate for release.
“Kill him!” roared a voice I only vaguely recognized as Tam. Then it twisted, the words a phantom echo in my head, taunting, silken smooth, daring me to kill him, laughing that I had already failed.
I had failed to kill him before he killed Piaras.
I screamed and attacked the black-clad goblin in front of me, my blades a blur before my eyes, my movements sheer instinct, my swords extensions of my rage. He fought me, but I forced him back, kicking a chair out of my way, then another, any obstacle that kept me from reaching and killing.
And ending my terror.
I was on the floor, on top of Tam, the full edge of my blade against his throat, one hand on the grip, the other flat against the blade, ready to shove the steel home through his throat.
I drew a sharp breath, horror choking me. I opened both hands and dropped the blade. It fell against Tam’s neck. He left it there, his hands closing around mine, holding, comforting.
Only then was I aware of Vegard’s hand firmly gripping the back of my doublet at the neck, pulling me back.
“Steady, Raine,” Tam said. “It’s all right. Breathe. There you go, love. Just breathe.”
When I did, Vegard released me. I sat back, breathing heavily.
“Ma’am, are you all right?” Vegard’s voice was low and professional, a Guardian’s voice, a Guardian who’d just stopped a killing.
I nodded. My mouth was dry, my throat raw. I dimly remembered screaming like a crazy woman.
“Did I scream?” I rasped.
“Yes, you did,” Tam said. “I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have pushed you like that, not after what those Reapers did to you.”
I laughed, dry and hollow. My throat felt like it was on fire. “You’re sorry?” The laugh turned into a cough. “I almost—”
Tam’s now-gloveless hands were smoothly rubbing up and down my arms, soothing, calming. “Almost doesn’t count in a sword fight. Don’t worry about it.”
“That’s easy for you to say; you’re not the one who went nuts.”
“You didn’t go ‘nuts.’ You tapped your rage is what you did. Cold, hard rage.”
“It’s okay, ma’am,” Vegard told me. “It happens.”
“What the hell do you mean, ‘it happens’?”
Vegard sheathed his sword. I hadn’t even realized he’d had it in his hand. I closed my eyes and forced down a shudder. I’d even scared Vegard.
“My people call it berserker, ma’am,” he was saying. “And if you ask me, it’s what you’re going to need.”
“I’m sorry,” I told them both.
Tam sat up and put his arms around my waist, pulling me close. “For what—coming after me like a berserker? Rage is your friend, as long as you keep it controlled. Focus your anger.”
“Lose control, lose life.”
“Precisely. Sarad Nukpana is counting on you to hesitate if you ever get a blade to his throat, or in the Saghred’s crosshairs. He knows you’re not a killer; but this once, for him you have to be. You have no choice.” His black eyes were hard, his expression grim. It was the game face of the goblin queen’s enforcer. “Raine, if you hesitate, you’re worse than dead and you know it. If you’re sitting on Sarad Nukpana’s chest with your blade to his throat—finish him. No hesitation, no mercy.”
I too
k a shaky breath and slowly let it out. “No Nukpana.”
Tam nodded in approval. “Exactly.”
It would be self-defense, but it would also be murder of the cold-blooded variety.
“You don’t have to like it, Raine,” Tam said, picking up my thoughts. “You just have to do it. And it’s not murder; it’s extermination. Nukpana isn’t going to give you the gift of time.”
“He prefers corpses.” And I didn’t want the next one to be Piaras.
Or Mychael.
Or Tam.
“I will be fine,” he assured me, his voice a bare whisper. “Sarad couldn’t take me when he was in his full power. He’s still a specter, almost a ghost.” Tam’s dark eyes glittered with anticipation. “My plan is to make that arrangement permanent.”
I tried to get up, but my knees had other ideas. Vegard was there to help. As always.
“Thank you.”
A little smile curled his lips. “Always glad to help a fellow warrior, ma’am.” There was quiet pride in his voice.
I gave him as much of a smile as I was able. “I like your plan,” I told Tam. “Mychael’s plan is to lock me up in the citadel. I refuse to sit in a warded and guarded room like some kind of crown jewel while Sarad Nukpana picks off the people I care for.” I paused uncomfortably. “Mychael and Piaras are in the citadel . . . and you’re here. I don’t like it, Tam.”
Tam stood, his grin wicked. “So you want me and my crown jewels in the citadel with you?” His grin faded. “I’m not alone, Raine, and I am certainly not defenseless. I am prepared for many forms of attack—as I always have been. I can take care of myself and my son.”
Tam’s son, Talon, was the result of a relationship Tam once had with an elven woman. That made Talon a half- breed, which in the opinion of the goblin aristocracy made him an abomination. Tam had rubbed their collective nose in it by publicly acknowledging Talon as his son and heir.
“Where is he?” I asked.
“In his rooms. And yes, I’m sure he’s there and is going to stay there,” Tam said in response to the question I was about to ask. “He was just escorted back from his spellsinging lesson. He has homework, which he’d better be working on right now.”
Instead of trying to sneak out a window for an early date.
Tam pulled out a chair for me, and I straddled it, resting my arms across the back. Tam tossed me a towel from behind the bar, then pulled a chair opposite me and sat down, leisurely stretching his long legs out in front of him and crossing his ankles.
His black eyes gleamed. “I found the coach Sarad Nukpana used last night.”
Apparently Tam had already dismissed the fact that I’d almost separated his head from the rest of him. I knew I couldn’t. I’d be replaying it in my nightmares. I’d just add it to the growing list of nightmare fodder. For now, if Tam wanted to ignore it, I could, too.
“And when were you going to tell me about the coach?”
“I’m telling you now,” Tam said. “I told Mychael earlier.”
“Well, where is it?”
“A town house on Park Street. It’s a rental property. A robe maker has a shop on the first floor and lives on the second; the third floor is being used by a bookseller for extra storage.”
“And it has a carriage house.”
“It does, and inside is a very nice black coach, covered in tarps, of course.”
“What about the horses?”
Tam shook his head. “Just the coach. In his present state, Nukpana would have to have at least one person working for him. Likely it was that person who hired the horses from a nearby stable—and there are at least six stables within acceptable distance. Black horses are common here, Raine. Conclave mages looking to impress their peers on a night on the town would want a matched set.”
Or Sarad Nukpana wanting to scare the crap out of me.
“The town house is one of four in the city owned by the Ghalfari family,” Tam said.
“Goblins?”
“Even better. Sarad Nukpana’s family on his mother’s side.”
I spat a laugh. “That thing has a mother? Let me guess, she says he’s really just a nice goblin boy who wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“Actually, she’s quite proud of him.”
“Figures. And you found which house he was using by process of elimination?”
“That and proximity to one of his hideouts.”
I couldn’t believe what I just heard. “You know where he is? And you didn’t tell us?”
“I know where he was. He hasn’t been there in over a week.”
“And Mychael knows this, too.” I didn’t ask it as a question; I knew the answer only too well. Mychael knew, I didn’t, and he had probably wanted it to stay that way. Mychael and I were going to have a talk.
“Mychael knows. However, Nukpana was no longer there and it was obvious to me that he had no intention of coming back. Mychael stepped up Guardian patrols in that neighborhood. The city watch has the next few streets under surveillance. Sarad is fond of taunting us, but he has come too far to take needless risks.”
“How about the other three houses?”
“They’re all occupied. Rented, like the first.”
“One of those occupants could be hiding him. Or he could be living in the attic or a cellar.”
“He could be, but he’s not. One is being rented by an elven family whose daughter is enrolled in the college, the second by a pair of human mages, and the third is the home of a college fraternity.”
I tried to picture Sarad Nukpana haunting a frat house. “That doesn’t mean that he’s not there.”
“My men and I have checked each house.”
“No Nukpana.”
“Not a trace.”
I wanted to believe that they had missed something, but Tam’s men were dark mages, trusted colleagues from Tam’s days in the goblin court—or as close to trusted as you could get in the goblin court. If they said Sarad Nukpana wasn’t there, then he wasn’t there.
“Tam, I need to lay hands on that coach.”
He knew I meant that literally. “Absolutely not.”
“You said Nukpana hid it well, so it’s unlikely he thought anyone was going to find it. If he used that coach to kidnap General Aratus, there’s going to be psychic residue all over it; and the more violent the kidnapping, the stronger those images will be. Yes, it’d be great if I could get enough from that coach to track Nukpana, but it might be just as productive if I could find his accomplice.”
Tam didn’t say a word; he just looked at me. You know the look, the one that said shaved ices would be served in the lower hells before he’d let me get within five blocks of that coach.
“Tam, you said someone had to hire horses for that coach. That same living, breathing, solid someone tossed the general’s body at my feet. Nukpana’s not fully corporeal yet; he needs mortal, flesh-and-blood help, and his helper was in that coach. If I can get in there, I can get his scent, and I can find him.”
The stubborn set of Tam’s jaw told me he knew I was right. Tam hated it when that happened.
“When did you find the coach?” I tried to keep my eagerness from showing. Tam knew I’d already sunk my teeth into this one. His sigh confirmed it.
“Just before dawn this morning.”
“Did anyone see you?”
Tam gave me another look; you know that one, too.
I raised my hands. “Sorry. Of course no one saw you.”
“Momentary lapse accepted.”
“So you found all this out—the coach, houses, horses—in less than a day?”
Tam smiled. “You’re not the only one who can find things people want to keep hidden.”
“I never said I was.” I stood. “Now, where is that coach?”
“Being watched.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
“I know precisely what you mean, and I’m not telling you where it is. It’s too close to dark to risk you going anywhere
near there. Nukpana may be planning to use that coach again tonight.”
“Yeah, and we can’t let him.”
“And we won’t. Three of my men are watching the carriage house. If Nukpana shows, two will follow him; one will report back to me.”
I opened my mouth to protest, and Tam held up a hand. “Yes, Mychael does know; and yes, he has provided backup for my men. If Nukpana or his accomplice comes for that coach, he or they will be stopped. And if we’re lucky, we can end this tonight.”
Lady Luck had stopped speaking to me; I hoped she was on better terms with Tam. Women liked Tam.
Tam’s lips turned into a firm line. “If we don’t, Sarad may soon have all the help he needs to regenerate himself, highly qualified help. The best nachtmagus in the goblin court arrived late yesterday on a ship from Regor, sent by Sathrik himself. He went directly to the goblin embassy.”
King Sathrik Mal’Salin. Goblin king, Nukpana’s boss, mildly psychotic, extremely murderous. But then, this was the goblin royal family; crazy was in their blood. Aside from getting Sarad Nukpana back, he wanted to get his hands on me and the Saghred. When Nukpana failed to deliver me, Sathrik set his royal lawyers on me. As far as I knew, they were still slithering their way through Mid’s legal system.
“Would Sarad Nukpana trust this nachtmagus?”
“Probably,” Tam said. “It’s his uncle on his mother’s side—Janos Ghalfari.”
“Damn.”
“Trust me, something stronger would be infinitely more appropriate. I’ve seen Janos at work. There’s nothing he hasn’t done, or at least tried; and if he liked it, he did it again. And when he stepped off of that goblin ship, he had Khrynsani temple guards with him.”
“Do you think Sarad Nukpana might have gone to the embassy?”
Tam shook his head. “Not a chance. Until he’s fully regenerated, he’s vulnerable. Rudra Muralin is still goblin ambassador, and both would like nothing more than to see the other dead. No, Nukpana wants and needs privacy right now. He cannot—”
The door opened and a Guardian stepped inside. “There is a lady here to see you. Imala Kalis. She said that you’re probably expecting her.”
Tam snarled a curse in Goblin under his breath.
Vegard laid a hand casually on the pommel of his sword. “If she’s trouble, I can tell her to go away.”