“High-Queen Nolan once said, ‘Choosing not to fight can be the bravest act of all.’ Or at least I think it was her,” Kayleigh offered.
Rahzir let out a hollow laugh and said, “When my people speak of that woman, far less kind words are used. It was wasteful when our forces destroyed Mon Alder, but the history you have been taught no doubt says she founded the city to bring your glorious ideals to the savages in the sands. My history tells of how they drove our tribes from our most fertile land so that they could build their walls of stone and say how much they were willing to do for us.”
Kayleigh understood Rahzir’s perspective on things. Looking over her shoulder, she came to her own conclusion.
“Tamera,” she said, addressing the earth maiden still grieving for the loss of her unicorn. “Hand me Garrett’s helmet. You and Rahzir head to that village where Laurel said we would meet up. I’m going to go back for the others.”
The nomad warrior shook his head and said, “You won’t be able to carry off the ruse for long.”
“I’ll try and get the west gate open and get as many people as I can out of the city.”
“Don’t do it, Kayleigh,” Tamera begged. “You’ll just get killed.”
“I promised you and the rest that I wouldn’t leave again. I can’t just ride away without trying.”
The young nomad regarded her until she felt uncomfortable under his gaze. “Go swiftly and strike quickly. The ones outside the city are there for a reason. They are the worst riders and poorest bowmen.”
Stopping, Kayleigh considered the images Rheysurrah fed to her and did her best to understand what her unicorn was saying. “The other unicorn is telling us to keep her and her rider separated. She wants us to tie her to the wagon securely. Apparently, Garrett can drive her into some kind of frenzy.”
Tamera looked down at the unconscious air maiden and said, “She won’t be doing anything.”
Rheysurrah didn’t share her conviction for going back to Shiftla’s west gate. He was questioning her judgment as well. Annabeth didn’t have a strong connection to Kayleigh’s yearmates and, by extension, Rhey didn’t know the other unicorns very well.
Through their bond, he implied that they could take care of themselves and the two of them had a larger responsibility to deliver Garrett to General Hawthorne.
Majherri didn’t care when it was just some soldiers and wagon drivers who’d die at the hands of those Yar savages near Miros...then again, he was spoiling for a fight. Rhey’s different. I keep forgetting this.
She hadn’t expected reluctance from her mount as they galloped away from her small group. She was still riding the intense emotions of her battle with the sorcerer calling himself the Master. If Kayleigh had access to Rheysurrah’s magic, she might have been able to end this war, but there was a nagging feeling that it wasn’t quite that simple.
She saw columns of smoke rising from behind Shiftla’s broken defenses. Without their leaders, the invaders weren’t exercising any discipline. Lieutenant Townsend’s lectures came to mind where she’d emphasized that greed and lack of control can be an army’s greatest weakness, turning a decisive victory into a costly delay.
If they mean to occupy Shiftla, they’re doing a poor job of it!
Looking out into the Clef River, she saw a few boats and people in the water clinging to anything that might float, desperate to escape. Amanda was down by the docks and Kayleigh hoped she was already out of the city.
The west gate was still mostly intact. The raiders had blocked the opening with several wagons, forcing those trying to escape to crawl over or under them. A dozen men with spears barred the way to salvation and six more on horses were ready to ride down into the ground any who made it through. The limp forms, devoid of the life they had this morning, were left in the dirt as a testament to the horsemen’s effectiveness.
She brought Rheysurrah to a halt and felt him again try to convince her that this wasn’t the right course of action.
“I’ll pretend to be Garrett and order the horse riders away,” she said to reassure the unicorn. “The spearmen won’t be able to get close to us and we can…drive them away…or something. Don’t worry. I’m not trying to retake this city!”
Rheysurrah still didn’t like it and had no qualms expressing his opinion.
Steeling herself, she prepared for the likelihood that she’d have to kill more people. Captain Meghan Lynch once warned her not to become too eager to take a life. The nomads had no such qualms about doing it to the fleeing residents of this town. Sadly, it looked like several females had been spared and were huddled against the wall. Spared for what? Kayleigh didn’t want to think about that and was going to ensure it didn’t happen.
She wrestled with Garrett’s helmet. It was a bit too large and blocked more of her vision than Kayleigh was comfortable with. Her eyes and only a bit of her face were exposed. Finishing with it, she said, “Alright, let’s take care of this.”
“There’s a major breakthrough at the main gate,” she shouted, riding close. “Take the horses and reinforce them! I’ll hold this gate.”
The men looked to the rider with the darkest cloak, who said, “Half my men were summoned by your last request. If there is such a problem there, why are you not there right now?”
Kayleigh hadn’t been prepared for the orders to be questioned and felt an admonition from Rheysurrah. Her plan was collapsing before it had even begun.
“Go, now!” she said and pointed. “The Master will not be pleased.”
“Unlike you, woman, I serve him freely. If you cannot hold the gate, you are the one to face his wrath. I’ll not give another soul for your stupidity!”
Rhey alerted her to one rider trying to circle.
“Thresh! The unicorn is a male!” the rider shouted. “The other rode a female!”
With their ruse exposed, Kayleigh burst into action. She dropped Garrett’s useless bow and spit ribbons of flame from both of her outstretched hands. Thresh’s horse reared and threw him as the unprepared man tried to raise his bow.
“Stay and die!” she screamed and pulled at Rheysurrah’s magic, waving her hands around and spraying liquid fire all over the place. Kayleigh’s flames licked at the hooves of the nearby horses, driving them into a panic. Rheysurrah’s hooves exploded as he rocked forward and unleashed a kick with his burning hind legs to give the man behind them pause.
This caused the arrow the man fired from a kneeling position to miss wide. Rhey danced to the side and avoided a spear hurled by the closest man on foot. Kayleigh responded by increasing the intensity of her flames and swept them across the dodging men. Majherri had previously convinced her that fear of fire was almost as potent as the actual magic itself. People on fire screamed and their screams affected the choices of others.
There was a stab of pain and she’d thought for a moment that Rhey had been hit, but a glance down and she saw an arrow sticking through the fleshy part of her left thigh. Thresh had recovered and, despite Rheysurrah’s evasive dance, scored a hit.
Anger flared through her, probably magnified by Rheysurrah’s, and she responded. His eyes filled with fear as he fumbled with his quiver, trying to get another arrow. The thick column of white fire washed over him and his scream was cut short. Privately, she hoped that this man hadn’t been a relative of Rahzir’s.
Thresh’s death broke his troops. They bolted. Kayleigh waited until they were far enough away before she tried to pull the arrow out of her leg. The arrow was barbed and she cried out in pain, realizing that she’d have to cut it out. Snapping the arrow, she left only about a finger’s length of shaft in her leg.
Townspeople trapped behind the gate saw the confrontation and were already scrambling to get out of the city.
“Get the wagons out of the way!” she called out to the cowering women and the first few who had climbed over the crude barricade. Most just continued running like frightened animals, but some actually heeded her command. She climbed off of Rhey, lim
ping noticeably, and threw her weight behind the first wagon. With the assistance of others, it rolled forward slowly. Kayleigh grimaced, seeing the dead bodies of those who’d attempted to crawl to freedom.
The death of the man called Thresh, bothered her less with each step she took. The second wagon had broken wheels, but the people inside the gate had stopped trying to climb over the wreckage and were now pushing at the wagon closest to them and moving the mass aside. With a supreme amount of effort the crude barricade was pushed out of the way and those held prisoner in their own city poured out. Kayleigh likened it to the phrase “Rats abandoning a sinking vessel.”
Tired and injured, she grabbed Garrett’s bow and pulled herself back into the saddle before scanning for any unicorn riders. Two minutes passed and the flow of humanity exiting the city began to ebb. She used her fire on the wagons, so they couldn’t be used when the soldiers returned. It was certain that they would return in force.
“We’ve got a few minutes,” she said to her unicorn and nudged him toward the entrance. “We could…”
Kayleigh trailed off under a barrage of images from Rheysurrah. He told her in no uncertain terms that they’d done enough and he would not be setting a single hoof inside those walls.
“I promised I wouldn’t leave them again!” she retorted.
He started to turn away from the city and sent an image of Annabeth fighting to her death out in the desert at her to emphasize his point.
“I’ll get off and do it myself then,” she said and started to get off, but the pain in her leg caused them both to wince.
He replied with a memory of his former rider telling another to, “Quit being an idiot.”
Seeing memories of Annabeth was disconcerting, especially when she’d never been present for it.
“Fine! You win, Rheysurrah,” Kayleigh said. She thrust her hand into the air and sent a geyser of green flame into the air with the hopes that people would see it and know there was a way out. She kept it going as Rheysurrah trotted easily by those fleeing on foot. After a hundred yards, she let the green flame go and leaned forward, allowing Rheysurrah to carry them toward Tamera and Rahzir. On both sides of the bond, there were hard feelings and very little trust. Neither felt like being in the other’s company at the moment. If she could, Kayleigh would have walked, but the arrow in the side of her leg throbbed as she removed the Yar knife from the sheath holding it. There were no signs of pursuit and she asked him to slow down so that she could cut the remaining portion of the arrow from her leg.
Funny, she thought. A wizard and his manticore can’t touch me and some stupid archer wounds me. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry!
Retrieving a few bandages from her saddlebags, she used the bone knife to peel away the leather around the arrow shaft. She winced in pain when she prodded the flesh around the wound with the tip. Biting down on a rag, Kayleigh dug around the arrowhead, making the injury larger to remove it. She had another chance to practice her cauterization technique.
The pain was good in one respect. It distracted her from the anger she’d felt about the fracturing partnership she and Rheysurrah had.
It took only twenty minutes of hard riding to find the wagon. The female unicorn tied to the back was having some kind of fit that was clearly slowing them down. Kayleigh’s guess that Penelope Garrett was awake proved to be correct. As she approached, she saw that half the air maiden’s body was now encircled with rope and it was lashed through the sides of the wagon, effectively immobilizing the woman. A length of fabric that looked like it came from Rahzir’s head covering served as a gag.
Tamera’s really good with knots, Kayleigh thought, trying to reclaim a lighter mood. Orsa moaned, but remained unconscious.
“You didn’t find the others?” Tamera asked.
“No,” Kayleigh responded. “We got the west gate unblocked, but only townsfolk were there. What’s going on here?”
Tamera grimaced and gestured at the prisoner. “The unicorn was right about her driving it insane.”
Kayleigh let out an exasperated sigh and said, “Garrett, stop this. You’re only going to hurt your unicorn.”
The woman glared at her with those darkened eyes and the tethered unicorn broke into a fresh fit.
“We’re not going to get very far like this,” Rahzir said, fighting with the reins.
“I was thinking about knocking her out again,” Tamera admitted. “But if I hit her too hard…”
At least she’s not still talking about killing Garrett, Kayleigh thought and considered the situation. She remembered helping Laurel and her unicorn calm down after fighting with Garrett the first time. Would it work in this situation?
She hopped out of the saddle and winced on the landing. Her bandaged leg was still tender.
“Are you okay?” Rahzir asked.
“It’s nothing,” Kayleigh replied, trying to brush it off. “Just an arrow wound in the leg…more annoying than anything else.”
The female unicorn bucked and kicked as she approached. She went into the wagon instead of trying to touch the unicorn’s side and said, “Tamera, block Garrett’s view.”
Unfortunately, the horn of Garrett’s unicorn danced in front of Kayleigh. Raising her hand, she sent a flash of bright flame in front of the unicorn to momentarily blind it. With her other hand, she reached out and grabbed the horn.
Instantly, she felt darkness and rage pushing at her through the sudden connection. There was pain, inflammation on the unicorn’s flanks and it was the source of the agony. Kayleigh caught an image of the unicorn being whipped…by her rider!
The bond Garrett shared with the female throbbed with energy. Like any other bond, she perceived it as a rope, but this rope had dark threads all around the knot that twisted and moved like worms or small snakes, constricting on the side that pointed to the unicorn. The side coming from the rider seemed darker, as if dipped in tar. Using the same mental hand she used to forge a new bond with Rheysurrah, Kayleigh grasped the bond and shook it. One of the dark worms slithered toward her, but fell away from the bond, vanishing into wisps of smoke. More of the threads crawled out of the knot and Kayleigh brought her other hand down on Garrett’s side of the bond and squeezed.
From behind, she heard a muffled scream as her actions caused the air maiden pain. More of the worms fell away, but one struck her phantom hands and it felt like Kayleigh had been stung on her real one by a bee. Opening her eye, she saw a welt on the back of her right hand.
Mentally, Kayleigh took her hand and beat on the knot where the two met. Each blow seemed to cause Garrett pain, but the unicorn was now significantly calmer.
“Alright,” Kayleigh said, addressing the unicorn. “I think whatever I am able to do can block your rider’s influence on you, but I’ll have to ride you. Will you allow this?”
The unicorn nodded and Garrett began a muffled protest.
With a deep breath, Kayleigh got into the unicorn’s saddle and fought off another wave of those dark worms trying to slither out of the bond.
A hazy vision passed between Kayleigh and the unicorn she now rode. Kayleigh concentrated, but all she heard was a voice threatening someone named Cyemma.
“Cyemma? Is that your name?”
Surprised, the unicorn snorted.
“I can see and hear your memories, but it’s muffled, like trying to hear a conversation with my head under water.”
“You can do some strange things, Reese,” Tamera said. Kayleigh glanced over at Rheysurrah and could see that he wasn’t that angry over her being on another unicorn. The fact that he wasn’t bothered by this irritated Kayleigh and spoke volumes about the current state of their relationship.
Maybe this is better for now, she thought before saying aloud, “I’m getting used to it at this point. Go ahead and unhook Cyemma and let’s get going. If I had to guess, Garrett’s control weakens with distance. Otherwise, Danella would have done so much more to Majherri.”
As Tamera did so, Kayleigh s
aw another image of something with a dark coat. It was a unicorn, but other than the horn and mane it was black. Looking closer, she saw the familiar horn was missing its tip.
“Is that Majherri?” she asked, fear in her voice. “What has she done to him?”
Cyemma couldn’t answer and Garrett used her confusion to launch another assault on the bond. Cyemma bucked hard, but Kayleigh managed to hang on. Tamera must have realized what Garrett was doing, because she turned and kicked the air maiden in the gut.
This allowed Kayleigh enough time to help Cyemma regain control and they rode to the front of the wagon. To Rahzir she said, “I’ll stay in sight and will get back here in a hurry if something’s wrong. Rhey, stay with them for now.”
The male unicorn nodded, but showed no real interest. Kayleigh urged Cyemma forward with the muted groans of Penelope Garrett cursing them.
“I hope whatever is controlling your rider will eventually wear off,” she said. Cyemma responded with a vision of Penelope in chains over some kind of pot or cauldron. There were people all around. It was a tent. Kayleigh tried to focus on the bond and try to get a clearer picture. When she did, she noticed a tiny thread going off of Cyemma’s side of the bond. Following it back to the source, she was amazed at what she found on the other end…a tiny life, so faint, fragile, and beautiful. It made her gasp.
“Cyemma? Did you know you are pregnant?”
The unicorn stopped in her tracks and Kayleigh got the distinct impression of fear emanating from Cyemma.
Chapter 11- Dire Warnings
“The man I whipped in Jaruciax,” Danella said in an offhand nature. “I want him under my new command. Bring him.”
“I’m afraid he was lost at Shiftla, Milady,” the cavalry leader replied.
“Pity,” she said. “It is also a shame that I will be without my sisters and that Majherri must wear these enchanted reins to make him appear as a pathetic beast of burden.”
Sorceress (Book 2) Page 14