by Lisa Shearin
I stopped breathing, paralyzed with a fear so sharp that it staked me to the ground where I stood. I whimpered. I didn’t have the breath to scream.
“A final gift for you, little seeker.” The words were from Sarad Nukpana.
The voice and body belonged to Tam.
Talon screamed, a full-throated roar of denial, anguish, and rage. He lunged at his father, and it took all Dad could do to hold him back.
“For shame,” Nukpana chided from inside Tam’s body. “And Tamnais risked everything to find him. Let the boy embrace his father. It may be the last chance he will ever have.”
Terror tried to sucker punch me, but I grabbed it and shoved it down. Terror had no place here, only cold logic, and even colder action. That didn’t stop my stomach from twisting into a tight knot and another whimper from escaping my lips.
It was my worst nightmare and it was standing right in front of me. The combined magical power of the mages’ souls that Sarad Nukpana had ingested made the air around Tam’s body ripple with the sheer magnitude of it. I’d never seen or heard of shields that strong.
Weapons couldn’t reach him; neither could magic.
The Saghred was squirming inside of me, desperate to try. I kept my breathing even, and held as tightly as I could on to the stone’s power. Sarad Nukpana was too strong now. When I made my move, it had to count. I’d only get one chance, and that chance hung on those shields coming down.
“I want to speak to Tam.” I had to force the words out past the pressure building in my chest.
“What if he doesn’t want to speak to you?” Nukpana taunted lightly. “Though even if he wanted to, he’s powerless to do anything about it.” Nukpana twisted Tam’s lips into a smirk. “He’s quite helpless to do anything.”
My hands clenched into fists as a white- hot rage took control of me. I didn’t fight it; I let it in, embraced it, and aimed it squarely at the goblin standing not ten feet away. Had he moved toward me? Or had I stepped closer to him? The Saghred wanted to be much closer. I remembered training with Tam: lose control, lose life. Though now my life wasn’t the only one at stake.
Neither was my soul.
I forced myself to see Tam not as Tam, but as Sarad Nukpana. He was holding Tam hostage, the only difference being that it was from the inside. Big difference, but the same problem.
I’d freed hostages and prisoners before. Find and free them. It was my job, and I was good at it.
I would free Tam.
“You’re welcome to try, little seeker.”
The bastard was reading my mi—
“There is no need to read that which I am bonded to.”
Oh no.
Nukpana sighed in unabashed pleasure. “It saves so much time and trouble to know precisely what my future partner is thinking even as she thinks it. Your umi’atsu bond with Tamnais is most convenient.” Tam’s voice dropped to a familiar seductive purr. “And the intimacy is absolutely delicious. When I took Tamnais, I took your umi’atsu bond. It links you with his magic and his mind. I am in possession of Tamnais’s mind, so I can easily see inside of yours. Soon I’ll be able to control the Saghred—and you just as easily. Rudra Muralin’s knowledge of the stone is extensive, though I am still absorbing his memories. He was detestable as a goblin, but he will prove useful in the coming hours and days.”
I lunged for the body on the bier and drove the point of my dagger against the big artery in Sarad Nukpana’s throat. It just broke the skin and cool blood welled up around it. Nukpana hadn’t been in Tam’s body for long; the corpse on the bier was still warm. “Release Tam now or you’re not going to have a body to come home to,” I snarled. “No blood, no life.” I drew my long goblin sword from the harness on my back. “Or better yet, no head, no Nukpana.”
“My previous body and its identity have become more of a burden than an asset,” Nukpana/Tam replied mildly. “Being notorious has been fun, but it is hardly productive for the work I have planned. So by all means, little seeker, decapitate my corpse. I have no further need of it. It is my intention to remain precisely where I am.” His smile was full of fang. “Would you enjoy that, Raine? Unlimited power in the body of your lover.”
“He’s not my lover.”
Nukpana/Tam took a slow, deliberate step toward me. “Then we shall have to change that very soon. I know Tamnais has desired you for years. Pity he will be a helpless bystander, only able to watch what I will use his body to do to you.”
“Hey,” said a quiet voice. “Remember me?”
Dad had slowly circled and was now within ten feet of Nukpana/Tam. “Looks like we both found bodies.” The steely glint in his eyes promised payback, and his smile said he was going to enjoy every second of it. “Too bad you won’t be keeping yours.”
Nukpana/Tam laughed in a perverse mixture of voices. “Eamaliel Anguis, still a noble Guardian, only now your host is barely old enough to shave. Coward, you took the first body you could find.”
“You took a body you’re going to regret.”
“The seeker will not kill her soon-to-be lover—and neither will her father.”
Tam rolled his eyes.
I didn’t move a muscle; I didn’t even dare to breathe.
That eye roll was all Tam. Nukpana didn’t have a thing to do with it.
And the goblin knew it. That eye roll was followed by a flash of panic. The panic was all Nukpana. Tam may not have been in control, but Sarad Nukpana didn’t have a firm hold on the reins. At least not yet.
The Saghred smelled Nukpana’s fear and relished it. The tiger was licking its chops. The goblin knew that, too.
Dad chuckled. “Problems, Sarad? Is your control slipping? Apparently even your host body finds your antics ridiculous.”
“Then the time for play has passed,” came Janos Ghalfari’s smooth voice from the doorway behind us. The nachtmagus had five Khrynsani temple guards with him. They were completely blocking the opening.
Dad casually glanced past them down the tunnel. “That’s it? No Khrynsani welcoming committee?” The air around him virtually crackled as he powered up his magic. The guards shifted uneasily. Dad flashed them a smile that was more a baring of teeth that told them to bring it on.
“These men are merely an escort,” Ghalfari said quietly. “Many more are here with me, brought from Regor. And you are . . . ?”
“Uncle, allow me to present the infamous Eamaliel Anguis,” Nukpana/Tam said. “New body, old nemesis.”
Ghalfari’s black eyes glittered with something ugly. “The Guardian who stole the Saghred from Rudra Muralin and our king a thousand years ago.”
“I prefer to call it a retrieval,” Dad replied dryly. “From a boy with far too much power and not enough sense or sanity to use it. And I’m only 934. Why does everyone insist on making me older than I already am?”
Ghalfari turned his head slightly to speak to the Khrynsani guard waiting just behind him to the right. “Go and get your brothers in arms. We will have need of them all.” He turned to his nephew. “We must move quickly, Sarad. The paladin knows where Mistress Benares has gone. The map in his possession shows this tunnel. We must prepare.”
Which meant Mychael knew the way in, or someone with him did. That knot in my stomach loosened a little. When it came to backup, you couldn’t have too many, especially when that backup was Justinius Valerian and half a citadel’s worth of Guardians. Ghalfari’s other Khrynsani must be waiting in a nearby bunker.
The Saghred burned in my chest. It didn’t want backup. It wanted the souls in Tam’s body—including Tam’s. I took a deep breath and pushed the urges down, nearly overpowering urges.
“Hungry, Raine?” Nukpana murmured.
“The rock’s on a diet until I say it’s not,” I said through clenched teeth.
“You being here will keep us from going to the trouble of finding Mychael,” Nukpana/Tam said. “Tamnais is trusted by a surprising number of people on this island. Tamnais and the paladin are friends of a sort,
are they not?”
“Good enough that Tam told Mychael to kill him if the Saghred ever took control of him,” I said deliberately. “The same would apply to a certain goblin psycho. That is, unless I let the Saghred take a bite out of you first.”
One side of Tam’s lips briefly jerked into a lopsided smile. Tam may have lost control of his body, but he’d kept his sense of humor.
An instant later, Nukpana forced that smile down. “That’s the beauty of it, little seeker. Mychael won’t realize the truth until it is too late. I did promise you prolonged torment, did I not? I don’t want you to die; I want you to watch. I fully intend to return to Tamnais’s body, but for a few hours, I will require the body of a certain paladin who knows where the Saghred is being kept—and who can take it and walk away unchallenged.”
Hellfire and damnation.
“Yes,” Nukpana/Tam replied smoothly. “No doubt to Mychael Eiliesor, it will be hell. It will also confirm everything Carnades Silvanus has accused him of—that he’s been contaminated by contact with you and the Saghred. His stealing the stone will prove it. When I have finished with Mychael’s body, no doubt Silvanus will have plans for it—or at least his severed head.”
And we were the bait. Talon for Tam. Me for Mychael.
Like hell. I felt a growl building in my throat, and the Saghred’s hungry fire flared in my chest.
“Speaking of watching,” Nukpana/Tam continued. “Tamnais’s memory of when I took him is still quite fresh.” His smile was smooth, horrible, and all Nukpana. “Would you like to see?” he whispered. “With our bond, I’m certain that I can share it with you. He put up an impressive fight—but as you can see, obviously not impressive enough.”
Talon broke free of Dad’s grip and threw himself at Nukpana /Tam. The kid never made it past the bastard’s shields. The impact slammed him back against the bunker wall, not hard enough to kill. No, Nukpana was still playing, and to him Talon was a toy to be enjoyed. Dad was instantly by his side, helping him to sit up. Talon’s aqua eyes narrowed in raw hatred and he sang a single, discordant word—the same word he’d used to freeze the elven Nightshade on Sirens’ roof.
Nukpana/Tam dismissively waved his hand and the note froze in Talon’s throat. The kid tried again but no sound came out, and his eyes went wide with panic.
The Saghred’s fire roiled in my chest and I let it. “If you have taken—”
Dad helped Talon to his feet. “I’ve seen it done before, Raine. The loss is temporary, an hour at the most.”
Nukpana/Tam never took his eyes from Talon. “Though I could have ripped his voice from his throat and never left a mark. Children should be seen and not heard.”
“And this one should have been killed at birth.” Janos Ghalfari’s words were calm and precise.
Dad pushed Talon behind him.
The Khrynsani guard came running back into the bunker, his gray skin a couple of shades paler than it should have been. “Sir, the men . . . I can’t wake them.”
“Wake? What do you mean ‘wake’? What are you—”
My growl turned into a chuckle. Nukpana/Tam knew. He didn’t have to read my mind to know what had happened to every last one of his uncle’s Khrynsani guards.
Piaras had been a very busy young man. Brilliantly busy. Sleepsongs were what he did best.
“You’re looking for an elf, Uncle Janos,” Nukpana/Tam snarled. “A Guardian cadet named Piaras Rivalin. He is a spellsinger and obscenely gifted. I want him brought to me. Alive. The account I need to settle with him is long overdue.”
I had to get Sarad Nukpana out of my head. I needed to think and think fast, and having my target know my plans as I thought them would be counterproductive to say the least. I knew how to block someone from my thoughts. This was different; this was a bond, forged by the Saghred.
And sustained by the Saghred.
My lips twisted into a smug grin. If the rock wanted a meal, it’d better start cooperating with me.
Hear that, rock?
Instantly a wall of white noise went up between my mind and Nukpana/Tam’s. It didn’t block thoughts, but it distorted the hell out of them. If Nukpana tried to read my mind, he was going to get dizzy.
Nukpana/Tam’s head turned sharply toward me. He knew what I’d just done.
“Hasn’t anyone ever told you that eavesdropping is rude?” I told him.
Nukpana/Tam’s eyes darkened and expanded to solid black orbs with no white visible. The air chilled and tightened, and the black magic pressed on me like a giant hand, constricting, crushing—and caressing. My breath came in shallow, rapid gasps. He had no intention of killing me; this was just a show of force, of control.
I let the Saghred push back.
My eyes were locked with Nukpana/Tam’s in a silent battle of wills. The power of centuries of dark mages versus the power of the Saghred. Rudra Muralin knew how to control the Saghred, but Nukpana hadn’t digested all of that knowledge. The pressure lifted enough for me to speak.
“Looks like the rock . . . doesn’t want you in my head, either.”
Fire burned in my chest, throat, and behind my eyes. I sucked in a breath and bit my lip until I tasted blood to keep from crying out. Blood. A Saghred sacrifice. I dimly wondered if I could absorb myself.
At full power, the Saghred could probably blast through Nukpana/Tam’s shields. Though the force of it would kill Tam and bring the ceiling and any building above that down on all of us. And even if I could get past those shields, the Saghred would take every soul in Tam’s body—including Tam’s. I didn’t know of any other way to get Sarad Nukpana’s soul out of Tam’s body.
I couldn’t risk it. I wouldn’t risk Tam. There had to be another way. I just couldn’t think. Hell, I couldn’t think at all. Focus, Raine. Think. What stomped flat any idea I came up with was one simple fact: if Sarad Nukpana escaped with Tam’s body and was in it from one sunrise to the next, the possession was permanent, and there would be nothing even the best exorcist could do to change it.
Sarad Nukpana wouldn’t be tricked, not this time. I clenched my hands around my weapon grips until my nails dug into my palms.
My gloved palms.
I didn’t know if a layer of leather would stop the Saghred from satisfying centuries of starvation, but I didn’t have a choice. If Sarad Nukpana took me, he could use the Saghred, and he’d have the power to do anything to anyone at any time. He would be unstoppable. I had to warn Mychael. That meant leaving Tam. We were bonded. Once we were out of here there’d be no more magical distortion and I would follow Tam to Hell and back if I had to—by myself, with my own seeking skills.
I had to escape.
But escape meant first being captured.
I trusted Dad to know what to do. I slowly let my shields dissolve and loosened my grip on my weapons. My hands went slack, my fingers limp, then my blades clattered to the floor.
“That’s it, little seeker.”
Nukpana/Tam’s voice had dropped into a seductive lower register. I closed my eyes and took one deep breath and slowly let it out, then again.
I dimly heard Dad swear and scream at me, trying to break my trance, to make me hear him, heed him.
Nukpana/Tam laughed, low and confident. “Come to me, Raine.”
I did.
I put one foot in front of the other, hesitant, allowing myself to be drawn in. Closer. Exactly where Sarad Nukpana wanted me to be.
Exactly where I had to be.
With a will of its own, my right hand reached out toward him, and he took it, imprisoning my hand in his, drawing me to him, inside his shields. It was Tam’s body I was held against, but it was Nukpana’s hands that ran all over my body.
“You are already mine, Raine,” he whispered, his lips against my throat. “Your magic, my strength, the Saghred’s power.” His words rumbled deep and soft in his chest. “The acts we will commit, the kingdoms we will conquer.” His fangs nibbled the soft, vulnerable skin covering the artery in my throat, my blood
pulsing frantically, in fear.
In anticipation.
“You will be by my side, the instrument of my will.” I felt his lips curl into a smile against my skin. “I will use the Saghred by using you.”
I ran my trembling hands up his chest to his shoulders and around the back of his neck, intertwining my fingers, stroking the skin there. I raised my face to his, my eyes wide, my lips parted, entreating.
Surrendering.
Nukpana/Tam lowered his head to mine.
I clenched the back of his neck and jerked his head and upper body down as my knee came up, slamming into Tam’s ribs—the second rib on his left side. The one that had never healed.
I heard it break. Hard.
Nukpana/Tam’s shields buckled along with his knees. He landed in a groaning heap on the floor.
I ran like hell.
Dad had cleared the five Khrynsani out of the way, the force of his magic slamming and pinning them to the wall like armored bugs. That left Janos Ghalfari and he stood squarely in my way, disbelief on his face giving way to determination. The Saghred’s power still coursed through my veins. I hissed a single word and Ghalfari folded and collapsed like he’d taken a giant fist to the gut.
There was no time to retrieve my blades. The three of us cleared the doorway and ran for the rats’ tunnel.
Tam’s weak laughter floated on the air behind us.
Tam, not Sarad Nukpana.
I brushed tears out of my eyes and kept running. And hated myself for it.
Chapter 22
Most people run from rats. We ran after them.
While trying not to stumble and fall on my face, it occurred to me that rats didn’t need a door to escape; a hole or a crack would work just fine. I hoped there was a door at the end of that tunnel, but if there wasn’t, I was fully prepared to make my own.
A tall figure ran toward us out of the shadows and Dad damned near skewered him with his sword.
Piaras neatly parried the blade. “Glad to see you, too. I found a way out. This way.”
I didn’t ask him how he knew and we sure as hell didn’t need any urging to follow. Dad summoned a lightglobe and rats squealed as they ran for their tiny lives. We were doing the same thing, minus the squealing, at least for now.