“I know I have to die,” Sera said quietly. “But not yet. First, we’re going to use this demon to stop Jyllith.” She glared at her davenger. “A harvenger waits nearby. Find it. Now.”
The davenger loped off, sniffing the air with its obscene nostrils. Sera went after it and Kara dashed after them, Trell and Jair beside her. What else could she do? Sera had sacrificed herself for all of them, and denying that would only make that sacrifice meaningless.
Sacrifice. That was her life now, the life into which she had pulled those she loved. This was the cost of her journey to Tarna. Aryn. Byn. Sera. She was the reason they were dead, or soon to be.
She wondered how she could possibly live with that.
The davenger led them into a narrow break in the surrounding rock, a claustrophobic split that led off road into the wild part of the Ranarok mountains. When it found a path they could not follow it scurried back and took a different tack, snorting and huffing like a feral dog. Thunder rumbled and rain poured, soaking Kara even through her thick torasel cloak.
As Kara followed Sera’s davenger, the tiny part of her that was not numb knew she would never have found this path without the davenger to guide her. If the harvenger escaped, with Jyllith, she would feed many more people to the Mavoureen.
Sera had not sacrificed herself simply to save Kara. She had sacrificed herself to save villages like Taven’s Hamlet, children like Ranna and Cho. One way or the other, Jyllith had to be stopped.
Pass and undergrowth merged into a gray, wet blur until the davenger paused below an overhang of brown rock. The cave conjured an image of a gaping skull, and Kara shivered. They would need to build a fire after this was done, warm themselves, but not inside that cave. There was something very wrong inside that cave.
Kara could sense the evil inside, a stagnant feeling of death and decay that pressed upon her shoulders. It was like what she had felt from the Thinking Trees — a palpable aura of menace — only this was stronger, thicker. Stalactites and stalagmites were visible in the dusky light, but the cave went in further than she could see.
The davenger bounded right into the cave, almost prancing, then twisted its head backward like some sort of freakish owl. “There.” Its speech was hoarse and dry, like an old man speaking between bouts of a terrible cough. “There is—”
A massive black fist whipped from the darkness and bashed the demon corpse into the stalactites. The davenger howled as the fist impaled it on sharp spears of rock. Sera screamed, clutched her head, and dropped to her knees.
The harvenger. Kara took the dream world and scribed, fast and calm, drawing on Solyr training. Those glyphs sucked the blood from her body, sweeping every bit of cold from her bones.
First came the Hand of Life, a great wave that froze the harvenger’s legs. Next the Hand of Heat, searing the harvenger’s torso with flames hotter than any made by man. Ice crackled below as heat boiled above, one from each of Kara’s outstretched hands. Her blood floated before her in glyph form, glowing bright.
She maintained her glyphs as the maelstrom of fire consumed drop after drop of her own blood. She was killing herself and it would not take long, but this demon could not survive. If it defeated them here, hundreds more would die.
Kara’s eyes blurred and her heart pounded as wave after wave of ice hampered the harvenger’s steps. Its scales popped, cooking off one by one. The harvenger waved its fists and battered the cave walls, angry and not at all afraid. Then foreign blood flowed alongside hers, bolstering Kara’s power just before she collapsed.
Sera gripped her shoulders, and Jair gripped Sera’s. They channeled their blood through her. It was only three-fifths of the power of a full dyn, but it was far more than she had before.
She no longer needed to freeze the harvenger’s legs. Kara pushed the harvenger back with flame alone. She scribed the Body of Heat for the first time in her life and buried it inside the harvenger. The three of them would melt it from the inside out.
Searing air rushed from the cave like heat from a kiln. Kara even fancied she felt Heat inside her, chortling at the destruction one of the Five could wreak through human hands. He would savor this.
“Look out!” Trell slammed into all three of them, knocking them into a shallow dip.
For a moment, Kara lost everything — her pain, her consciousness, her will. Then it all came screaming back.
Blasts of jagged rock whistled by on either side of Kara, continuing the destruction that Heat’s potent flames had begun. Trees splintered as the tiny missiles pitted the mountain and the harvenger. The demon collapsed.
The separation from her dyn and blood magic shocked her. Kara could scarcely move, scarcely think. Those had been sharp missiles of rock, propelled by air. Only an Aerial could make such an attack. Jyllith had come to her demon’s aid, and she did not plan to kill Kara today. Jyllith had come to murder her friends.
Kara was suffocating. Her limbs felt heavy, her world a blur of brown and gray. Her body trembled, from cold or blood loss or both, and she knew then she was not getting up. She had poured all her blood into defeating the harvenger, and now she would die.
The harvenger barreled from the cave, coming for Kara with fire still clinging to its scorched flesh. It would trample her and that would be the end of it, the end of her pain and grief and this nightmare journey. She was almost glad. She almost wanted that.
Trell leapt into the harvenger’s path, sword free of its sheath. He shouted and stabbed, ducking under the harvenger’s feeble swipes and jabbing away at its blistered side. Each cut went deep.
The harvenger screamed and shrank from Trell’s stinging sword, stumbling away. Kara saw then that she and her dyn had burned every last scale from its body. The naked harvenger fled down the hill just as two more red-eyed davengers came bounding up.
The davengers took no notice of the flaming harvenger, rushing past it without even a bow, and that insult was their last mistake. Even blinded, bloodied, and burning, the demon king Balazel could not allow such disrespect to go unpunished. It reversed course.
The harvenger caught the first davenger and splattered it all over the ground with a blow from one massive fist. It caught the other by one leg and spun it about like a child’s toy. Bones snapped and scales crunched. The harvenger tossed that davenger into the night.
Kara stared as the harvenger stumbled into the woods, a living torch tearing spindly trees apart. She could not chase it, but without its scales it would be easy prey. She wondered if some part of Aryn still hated these demons as much as he hated her.
Jair stepped between her and another storm of rock, smashing it all away. The Adynshak had come to his aid, five sword-wielding specters tearing a path through the oncoming storm. The Adynshak rarely took physical form. Jair had more power than anyone knew.
Sera hugged Kara close and whispered in her ear. “Kill her for me. Kill her for Byn.” Then she transfused all the blood she could.
Kara screamed. It felt like her veins were splitting inside her body. Sera’s face turned pale, then stark white. Finally the burn inside Kara faded, replaced with a dull ache. New energy. Sera’s blood was Kara’s now, and she felt drunk and dizzy.
Moving blood in such quantity required thinning it, and no mage could thicken blood that was thinned in such a manner. She and Sera might both die when Sera’s flash heal faded, but that left them plenty of time to stop Jyllith. To stop the monster that had hurt Aryn, and Byn, and the people of Taven’s Hamlet.
Sera’s eyes fluttered shut. Kara caught her and set her down, staring at the long streak of white that now split her dark hair. What had that flash heal cost her? Was she even still alive?
Kara stood and took the dream world. She focused on the slender orange silhouette in the distance. Jyllith stood on the other side of the rise, separated from Kara by a large divide that was even now filling with gnarls. If Sera was dead, it was a kinder fate than the Underside.
Kara scribed her first glyph. Jyllith’s next s
torm of rock and wind blasted past her without effect as Kara’s Hand of Breath scattered it like leaves. The blast knocked her into a crouch and she wondered then if she could do this, defeat a trained Aerial and Demonkin.
“It doesn’t have to be like this!” Jyllith shouted from the far side of the divide. “Surrender! Come willingly, and your friends can—”
Kara tossed a Hand of Land clean over the divide, a spear of solid rock. Jyllith dived away just before it skewered her, but Kara’s attack did shut her up. Good.
“You’d kill them all the moment I surrendered!” Kara shouted back. “I’m ending you!”
The gnarls in the divide surged toward the rise leading to Kara and her friends. The Adynshak moved at Jair’s bidding, sweeping down the rise to meet the gnarls. Trell joined them, and Kara knew those gnarls would never reach her. They would all die.
Kara threw back her cloak and sliced each index finger anew. She finally stood across from the person who had harried and hunted her since they left Solyr. She would make Sera’s sacrifice worth something, avenge Aryn, avenge Byn.
It was time for Jyllith to die.
Kara scribed two Hands of Life, merging rain into a massive wave that swept toward her opponent. Jyllith sliced it in two with a knife blade of air and Kara burned that knife with an arc of crackling flame. Kara stepped aside as more daggers of rock flew past. She tossed a Finger of Heat that almost burned off Jyllith’s face.
Steel rang below as Kara scribed and ignited a few more Hands of Life, simple feints to take Jyllith’s measure. Just like a triptych duel. Jair, the Adynshak, and Trell were driving the gnarls back. Life’s green power cloaked Trell once more.
Kara scribed and ignited the soul glyph of the Spurned Lover. It ripped from the cliff wall beside Jyllith and shrieked, but the sound barely phased Jyllith. She knew the lover was harmless, and would not fall for such a transparent trick. She was also wrong.
Jyllith sidestepped Kara’s next Hand of Heat with ease — exactly what Kara intended. That took Jyllith into quicksand created by mixing a Finger of Life with Digger the Mole. It trapped her.
Jyllith used a Hand of Breath to blast herself to safety, flipping in mid-fall as she scribed another protective Hand of Breath between herself and Kara. Kara scribed an idea glyph directly on Jyllith.
The previously quiescent Spurned Lover tore into Jyllith with nails as long as swords. Maddened by Kara’s idea glyph, the Lover was now convinced Jyllith was the unfaithful oaf who had clubbed her in her sleep and left her to starve in their family well. A story only available to those who perused Solyr’s massive library.
Jyllith screamed and stumbled as sword nails ripped at her flesh, fighting the Lover as best she could. The mad specter drew blood and tore hair. Its ruined eyes were solid black, and its muddy black hair clutched at Jyllith like a great body of snakes.
Jyllith finally managed a glyph, blasting the Lover into oblivion with a clap from two Hands of Breath, but the conflict had given Kara all the time she needed to scribe her last glyphs. Rain thickened and swelled, collapsing into four solid waves that closed on Jyllith from all sides. She could not stop them all.
Jyllith tossed herself straight at a wave, wrapping herself in a tight cocoon of air, but it still hit her hard enough to knock her flat. She really was a skilled Aerial, perhaps the best Kara had ever seen, but that wouldn’t save her. Nothing could.
Yet Kara hesitated. She didn’t finish it. She wasn’t ready to become a murderer yet.
Kara scribed the Forever Prisoner on Jyllith’s prone form and marched down the slope. Her limbs felt like they were floating as goosebumps covered her skin. She felt Sera’s blood fading.
“That’s it,” Kara shouted. “You lose!”
The Adynshak faded as she neared Trell’s position, leaving a mess of slaughtered gnarls. Only the chieftain remained. Trell disarmed it as she walked, slicing its axe in half. The chieftain bared brown teeth and spread its arms.
“Good,” it rasped. “Very good.”
Trell ran it through. He pulled his sword free as the gnarl fell, and then beheaded it with a single stroke. Mercy offered to a fellow warrior who had fought bravely and well.
Kara stalked past the dead gnarl and Trell fell in at her side, wiping blood from his blade with his sleeve. His eyes were calm, and there was not a scratch on him. They clambered together up the opposite rise. When they topped it, Jyllith was shivering.
The Forever Prisoner had her mind now, and its memories of centuries of solitary confinement would drive any unprepared soul mad. Mages did not use it lightly. Many considered it inhumane.
Kara heard rocks clatter and glanced down the rise. Jair and Sera were clambering up now, together. They had stopped this madwoman at last. No more innocents would die at Jyllith’s hands.
Kara pushed the Forever Prisoner’s dark and clinging aura down just enough to free Jyllith’s head. Trell waited beside Kara, sword ready. He would run Jyllith through if she scribed anything.
Jyllith’s gray eyes focused, glared, but no Hands of Breath slapped at her or Trell. The Forever Prisoner had her locked down. Kara knelt beside her as Jyllith struggled to speak.
“You think you’ve won, don’t you?”
“I have. I did. You’re still alive because I’m too soft for my own good. I had nothing to do with your family’s murder, so what’s behind all this? What do you want from me?”
“Tell your Soulmage to ask the dead of Talos. Ask my mother, if she’ll even talk to the people who ripped her children apart.”
“You murdered Sentinels at Highridge Keep. You slaughtered everyone at Taven’s Hamlet. You have an army. We know that. Tell us where you plan to strike next, and I’ll make your death quick.”
“Yes. Why not? I’ll simply betray the people who swore their lives to avenging everyone I ever loved.”
Kara shivered and grimaced. “Don’t test me.”
“I already have. You can’t break me. We’re done talking.”
Kara wanted to strangle her, but she could barely keep her eyes open. Sera’s flash heal was fading, and with it Kara’s life. Both of them had burned far too much blood. How could she make Jyllith talk before they both lost consciousness? Before they both died?
This woman had made Aryn into a harvenger, kidnapped Byn and murdered him. She had sent innocent souls to the Underside. She was Demonkin. By the laws of the Five Provinces she should be executed a dozen times over, yet Kara didn’t know how to do that. She still didn’t know how to take a person’s life.
Jair came huffing up the rise with Sera in tow. Kara took a firm grip on Jyllith’s red hair and yanked her head up. “Talk!”
“No.”
“Tell me where your army is!” Kara ignited a Hand of Heat and moved it toward Jyllith’s face. “Or I’ll make you burn.”
Jyllith just laughed, coughing as she did it. “The more you glyph, the faster you die. Do your worst.”
“She knows you’re bluffing,” Sera thought. “I’m not.”
“No.” Kara couldn’t think of Sera that way. “We can’t.” This was Sera, the most generous woman she had ever met. Her best friend.
“I’m already dead to you and Solyr. I’m already Demonkin. If it saves lives, saves families, what is one more forbidden glyph?”
Kara knew Sera was right. Jyllith’s army could be out there right now, marching toward another helpless town. Killing people. Killing children. Their morals did not matter. What mattered was saving the hundreds of people Jyllith’s army would soon slaughter.
“Make her talk.” Kara stood. “Whatever it takes.”
She walked away and hugged herself. She couldn’t look at Jyllith any longer. She couldn’t think about her as human. If she was human, it would be more difficult to torture her.
“Jair,” Sera whispered. “Put me down beside her.”
Pretending this wasn’t happening was wrong. Kara turned back and forced herself to watch. Jair supported Sera as Sera closed her eyes. Her
bloody fingers traced faint glyphs on Jyllith’s leather vest.
“Do you know the names of the men you murdered?”
“I know they loved you enough to die for you. I hope you made it worth it, you vapid who—”
Sera ignited her glyphs. Jyllith went stiff, back arching as her limbs bent straight. She made no sound. Until she started coughing up her own blood.
Though Sera was a Bloodmender, and one of the most talented Kara had ever known, it was possible for healing to cause great pain. Bones could be twisted as easily as they were mended, and blood could be heated as easily as cooled. Healing could hurt.
Kara dropped to her knees at Sera’s side. She had ordered this horror and she would watch it. Her penance.
“Tell me where your army will strike next,” Kara said. “Or the pain is going to get much worse.”
Even as she said it Kara imagined her mother writhing in her bed, writhing as ants ate her from the inside out. That’s what they were doing to Jyllith, and Kara felt tears welling in her eyes.
“Kara.” Sera grabbed Kara’s weak palm. “Jyllith has pure blood.” She sounded relieved. Almost … excited.
“What? She’s a Bloodmender?”
“She could be.” Sera mussed her glyphs and Jyllith slammed flat with a raw huff. She was breathing fast, but she had not screamed. Somehow, through all that agony, she had managed not to scream.
“If we take her blood,” Sera said, “we’ll live.”
“No.” Kara tugged at her hand. “We can’t.” This was wrong.
“We have to.” The blood came. It flowed into Kara and locked her stiff, forcing her eyes wide. Saving her life.
Pure blood could be transfused with no ill effects. That’s how Bloodmenders like Sera used their blood to heal others, but it didn’t have to be their own. Talented Bloodmenders could draw blood from one body and force it into another, whether that person wanted it or not. That’s what Sera was doing. Draining Jyllith like a well.
Kara had been ready to die. She had almost welcomed it until she remembered her mother, wasting away in Solyr. If she had to trade the life of one evil, heartless woman to save her mother ... she could do that. She could kill to save her mother’s life.
Glyphbinder Page 22