The two rescuing hags glared at me, but struck at the Shadows before flying back out of Shadowbridge.
My head was spinning.
“Who am I supposed to fight?” Bren yelled even as he hacked at another Shadow. “Witches, hags—who’s good and who’s bad?”
“I don’t know!” I yelled back. “Fight any being who fights us. And keep slaying the Shadows!”
Bren readied his sword as an amorphous cloud of darkness slid toward him.
“We must fight or flee,” I shouted. “Or we’ll die right here. Right now!”
***
Chapter Twenty-One
Flee? No way.
Another surge of power rushed through my body. The sensation filled me from head to toe, making me feel like I was as big as Rol and twice as strong. My arms and legs burned. I was on fire!
Blood pounded in my ears. My sword flashed silver as I sliced through the black cloud approaching me. Like a puff of smoke, the cloud faded away to nothing.
Snarling Shadows, like the ones I had seen on the Path and in the prehistoric world, crept toward us. The stench in the room smelled like rotting garbage.
The whole building shuddered and rocked as Shadow things oozed through the walls, like black blood seeping from the stones. Shrieks and cackles came from outside the manor and on the roof, and I wondered if there were more creatures trying to get in. Dark forms whipped by the windows.
More witches on brooms!
And some of them were singing, too, but it wasn’t bothering me. I knew how to shut them out now. It was just a matter of knowing I should shut them out, and my brain took over and did the rest. A trick of concentration, like ignoring crowd noise during a big at-bat.
One thing I couldn’t ignore, though. The witches from Shallym had come to fight. But for us or against us?
My entire body glowed silver, more than ever before. But these Shadows were different. They weren’t afraid of my glow like the ones on the Path. A Shadow reached for me. I swung my weapon at the thing, and silver light burst from my sword. My blade sliced through the Shadow and it vanished, clearing a place in the darkness and releasing a stream of light.
“Take that, you freak!” I yelled.
“By the Goddess!” Jazz cried out. “The Shadows. All those souls. What if—”
From the corner of my eye, I saw gold pulsating from her in eerie waves as she zapped another black spot with a bolt of pure white light from her finger. Even as she fought, she sobbed, as if it was hurting her to kill the Shadows.
While I battled, something kept drawing me to Jazz. As if my sword wanted to connect with her neck.
Horror filled me at the thought, and I poured everything I had into fighting the Shadows. I grunted and shouted with every Shadow I slayed.
Acaw zipped through countless Shadows with his knife and fork, and his crow familiar attacked even more of the things than the elf did.
Rol’s endless training sessions with me had instantly kicked into gear the moment I’d wielded my sword. One Shadow after another evaporated as I hacked at them. I was hyper-focused, my concentration totally on what I was doing. I barely noticed the snarling noises of the Shadows anymore.
But when my sword sliced into them, the sounds they made caused my stomach to churn. Whimpering. Almost human sounds. And then they were silenced—by my blade.
My muscles burned and sweat poured down my face as we battled. The room continued to buck and rock, making it hard to keep my balance while I fought.
“How many more?” I shouted to Jazz, barely able to hear myself over all the noise.
“I don’t know.” She whirled and shot light at another Shadow.
An enormous black creature sprang from the wall behind Jazz. Before I could reach it, the Shadow pounced on Jazz and ripped into her arm with its claws.
Jazz shrieked, and fury filled me.
My vision changed to hazy red. I swung my sword at the Shadow that had clawed Jazz and sent the thing into oblivion. With a loud, grating pop, all the Shadows vanished. Light filled the room. The manor stopped rocking. I stumbled forward, like I’d just gotten off a boat after a wicked storm. Jazz swayed beside me, but kept to her feet.
Everything around us became quiet. Too quiet. All I could hear in the room was blood rushing in my ears and the sound of our breathing. Even that rotten stink had gone away.
The screaming, cackling, and singing outside grew fainter and fainter, and then that noise was gone, too.
For a minute.
I could sense them. That weird connected thing I had noticed before, coming and going, like my sharper hearing.
It was as if the witches of Shallym had retreated, and then the angry ones regrouped. A dull roar started at the bottom of the hill, followed by screaming. I felt witches dying. Like knives in my chest, my back. Images flooded my mind. Some dropping in battle. Some being murdered.
The room was trashed, and I could imagine how that must be driving Jazz nuts. I kept my sword at the ready, my heart still thundering, prepared to strike any black thing that moved, or any traitorous witch with funny ideas.
The crow-brother screeched and landed on the elf’s shoulder, and I jumped, almost taking out the stupid bird with my sword.
“The villagers are agitated,” Acaw murmured. “Some are in rebellion. This is not good. No doubt they are angry.” His eyes fixed on me. “No doubt they believe this attack to be your fault.” And he vanished.
Before I could swear about what he said as loudly as I wanted to, Jazz collapsed to her knees, her face pale. Her golden glow was so faint that for a second, I thought it had disappeared. “The Shadows have gone,” she whispered. “For now.” She crumpled onto the floor.
“Jazz!” I rushed over, dropped my sword and knelt beside her. A giant rubber band squeezed at my chest as I pulled her into my arms.
Her eyes rolled back. Her face sagged, and she felt weightless. Blood poured from her arm, more blood than there should have been, I was sure.
“Rol!” I shouted. “Jazz is hurt. Help me, somebody!”
Acaw reappeared out of nowhere with a jar and a cloth in his gnarled fingers. His crow-brother flapped down and landed beside Jazz.
“What’s wrong with her?” My fear for her nearly choked me.
The elf held up the jar. “Salve for the queen’s wounds. It will slow the spread of Shadow in her blood.”
“What?” My arms started to tremble. “One of those dark things is inside her? In her blood?”
“No time for talk.” Acaw set the jar on the floor. “You must dress her wound. Only you can touch the queen.”
“But I don’t know what to do.” Total helplessness filled me, and I wanted to take my sword and hack at something. Like Nire. Especially Nire. “Where’s Rol? Can’t he do it? I might screw it up or something.”
The elf’s gaze held mine. “Rol cannot help you now. You must do this.”
“Oh, man.” I eased Jazz on the floor and wiped sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand. She looked so vulnerable lying there, and I was terrified she would die. If she did, I didn’t know what I would do.
I hadn’t realized until that moment how much she meant to me. And how much I…loved her.
The thought shocked me so badly it nearly knocked me backward. Acaw’s words drew me back to reality—that I had to do whatever it took to help Jazz.
“Cleanse the wound first.” Acaw moved behind me and gave me a wet cloth. “This has a binding agent that will help to decrease the flow of darkness.”
“Jeez.” My hand shook as I took the rag and wiped away the blood. God, there was so much, and I didn’t think it would stop pouring out of her body and onto the floor. “She’d hate all this mess,” I murmured as I looked at her pale face.
The crow screeched just as I finally got the bleeding to stop, and I nearly jumped out of my skin. Three claw marks ran along her forearm. But they weren’t red—they were black, like road tar. And bubbling.
“Quickly now.”
Acaw handed me the jar, and I lifted off the lid and set it on the floor. It smelled intense, like peppermint on steroids.
He pointed to Jazz’s scratches. “Use your fingers to dip out the salve and spread it on the queen’s wounds.”
I jammed my hand into the slimy stuff and put the clear glob on Jazz’s arm. My fingers tingled as I wiped salve over the scratches. That weird silvery glow surrounded my hand, and then the black wounds shimmered silver and stopped bubbling. I held my breath—was the salve helping Jazz?
Acaw’s crow-brother hopped onto his shoulder as the elf moved to the other side of Jazz. “You master even the Shadows in her blood. Rol has trained you well.”
“Huh?” I glanced at him as I smoothed more salve over Jazz’s arm. “Rol didn’t teach me any first-aid.”
Acaw just smiled. Or at least on him I thought it was a smile. On most people it would have been considered a snarl.
“Do we need to wrap her arm or something?” I asked as I wiped my fingers on a cloth the elf handed me.
“Nay.” Acaw shook his head and retrieved the dirty cloth from my hand. “Wrapping would make it worse.”
I tucked a strand of Jazz’s black hair behind her ear, my fingers brushing her cheek. She felt cold to my touch. What had it been, all of twenty minutes ago that she had been so warm in my arms when I kissed her?
With my heart in my throat, I asked, “Is she going to be okay?”
“Only the Goddess knows.” Acaw shrugged, and I wanted to pound him. I wanted to pound anything or anyone I could get my hands on.
“Carry her to her room where she can rest,” the elf instructed. “If it is not already too late.”
Before I could shout at him and ask what the hell he meant, he was gone. Vanished.
The little jerk.
Where was Rol? I couldn’t imagine what would keep him from Jazz’s side. He was never far away. Could the Shadows have hurt him, like they hurt Jazz? Or maybe a witch or hag gone bad.
I bit the inside of my cheek, trying to keep from seriously freaking out. Everything would be okay. Jazz would get better, I’d find Rol, and we’d go after Nire on the Summer Solstice, just like Jazz had planned.
Taking care not to bump her arm, I scooped Jazz up and carried her out of the drawing room and upstairs to her bedroom. Her cinnamon-and-peaches scent surrounded me, along with that sinus-clearing peppermint smell of the salve.
Just as I laid her down on her bed, she moaned and her eyelids fluttered. “Bren,” she murmured. “Something…wrong.”
“Jazz.” Relief eased through me in a warm wave as I knelt beside the bed and took her hand. “You’re going to be all right.”
Slowly she opened her eyes, their golden color dimmer than normal. “We must find…” Jazz swallowed and took a deep breath, “what drew Nire’s scouts here. Allowed them through—my pro—my protections.”
“I don’t understand.” I brushed a strand of her black hair away from her face.
But she closed her eyes and her head rolled to the side.
That rubber band squeezed my chest again. “Jazz.” I shook her shoulder, but she remained silent. I laid my head over her heart. To my relief, I heard it pounding, and felt the rise and fall of her breathing.
“You get some rest.” I kissed her clammy forehead and stood. “I’m going to find Rol.”
The moment I started walking away from the bed, my gut clenched. I felt the statue wriggle in my pocket, and I swore it told me to stay. But I had to find Rol. I had to save Jazz. It took all I had, but I broke through the bedroom door and into the hallway.
Sweat cooled my body as I jogged down the stairs and into the trashed drawing room to grab my weapon. Wind swirled through the broken windows as I knelt to pick up the sword, and I noticed Jazz’s blood drying on the stone floor. It looked black and wicked. I hoped it wouldn’t stain—that would drive Jazz out of her mind. Maybe I’d clean it up for her before she saw it.
Yeah. That would be the nice thing to do.
“Rol!” I shouted as I turned my back on the drawing room and hurried through the manor. Where was he? My chest got tighter and tighter as I ran through the kitchen, out the back door, and into the courtyard. “Rol!”
He wasn’t anywhere outside. Not in the smithy, the training yard, nor the stables.
Screams still rolled up the hill from the village—hags, Keepers, and other witches. My hearing was getting way stronger, and they were way loud. At the moment, I didn’t care.
When I finished checking everywhere I could think of, I ran into the kitchen and smacked right into Acaw. The elf almost toppled over, and his crow-brother screeched at me from his window perch.
“Sorry,” I muttered. “Where’s Rol? I can’t find him.”
Acaw shrugged. “Nire’s minions have taken him away.”
“What?” I grabbed the elf’s tunic and clenched the leather in my fist. “Rol was taken and you didn’t bother to tell me?”
The crow shrieked and flew at me, dive bombing my head. I let Acaw go and stumbled back. Acaw straightened his tunic and gave me a snotty look. “Attending the queen was of utmost priority.”
I raked my hand over my hair, about a billion thoughts going through my head, and not one of them told me what I needed to do. “You’re right and I’m sorry. But Rol—we’ve got to help him. Now.”
“That is for the queen to decide.” And the stupid elf vanished. Again! Rage filled me, hot and furious. I ripped out my sword and waved it in the air as I roared out my frustration.
Still brandishing my weapon, I bolted from the room and hurried upstairs. Rol, taken by the Shadowmaster? What did that mean? What would happen to him?
I rounded the corner of Jazz’s room, came to a complete stop, and my sword slipped from my fingers and clattered onto the stone floor.
She stood in front of her bureau, looking as pale and as beautiful as Mom’s white roses—not a hair out of place, her clothing spotless, all the blood gone. The only evidence of the battle was her arm, which she cradled to her chest.
My heart thudded and I wanted to reach for her. To make sure she was all right and to comfort her. Instead, I said, “You’re up.”
Brilliant observation, Bren.
Jazz nodded, but she didn’t smile. “Thank you for dressing my wound.” She glanced at her arm and back to me. “No one, save Rol, will touch me, and he’s—” Her lips trembled and tears glittered in her eyes.
“Gone,” I finished for her.
“Acaw informed me.” She lowered her head, and I crossed the room and gathered her into my arms. I stroked her hair as she sobbed against my shoulder.
My head ached, and I fought back my own tears. Guys weren’t supposed to cry, right? That’s what my dad always said—be a man.
But Rol had become like a dad to me. More of a father than mine ever was. And, well, I didn’t think Rol would mind if I got a little soppy over him.
I brushed at the wetness in my eyes. “We can get him back, right?”
Jazz pulled away from me. “It’s possible.” Rubbing at her arm, she sighed. “But we need to take time to think this through.”
With a sound of frustration, I raked my hand through my hair. “We can’t leave Rol in the hands of that monster a moment longer. We need to go help Rol. Now.”
She rubbed harder at the wound as she stared at me with her golden eyes. “It wouldn’t be wise to go without a plan.”
“We can’t afford to wait.” I started pacing the floor and raised my hands. “The way I see it, if we don’t help him now, Rol could die.” Something drove me beyond the need to find Rol. Like I needed to take Jazz somewhere and take her there now. The statue in my pocket giggled in my head, and I went stock still in front of her.
“I—well.” Jazz looked away from me, scrubbing at her arm so hard I was afraid she would open the wound.
“What’s wrong?” I put my hand over hers, and she jumped back.
I frowned. “Something’s the matter. What is it?”
>
Jazz looked about ready to crawl out of her skin as she rubbed her arm harder and harder. Her skin seemed to be growing darker where the scratches were. “Something has affected this Shadow wound.” She glanced at my pocket and went totally still. “You have something—” She broke off and brought her gaze to mine and swallowed.
“I have what?” A hot flush crept over me and my ears started to buzz. She couldn’t mean the figurine, could she? What difference would it make if she knew about it or not? It was mine. And she didn’t need to know about it.
Her hand started rubbing the wound again, but she clenched her fists and moved her arms so that they were straight at her sides. “We agreed to be honest with each other, yes?”
“Yeah. So?” I folded my arms across my chest. “What has that got to do with going after Rol?”
“Possibly everything.” Jazz motioned to my pocket. “What do you have that you aren’t telling me?”
“None of your business.” I scowled and started bouncing my knee.
She lifted her chin. “We can’t go after Rol until I know what you are hiding from me.”
“I’m not hiding anything!”
“Show me.”
“No.”
Clenching her fists, she advanced toward me. “For the safety of my people, I’ll be forced to break my promise to myself and spell your breeches into oblivion.”
I blinked. “Huh?”
“I’ll make your pants disappear so that I can see what you’ve hidden.”
My face was so hot I was sure it had to be bright red. I just stood there for a moment.
Her fingers twitched.
“Okay, fine.” I dug into my pocket and wrapped my fingers around the statue. I tried to draw it out, but I couldn’t. My arms shook and my entire body trembled.
Jazz frowned.
Why couldn’t I just take it out of my pocket? I gritted my teeth, and with everything I had, I yanked the thing out.
The figurine flew from my hand and landed at Jazz’s feet.
***
Chapter Twenty-Two
Oh, my sweet Goddess. No wonder my stronger magic wouldn’t work during the fight with the Shadows! Something had been blocking me!
L.O.S.T. Trilogy Box Set Page 18