Reandn went to alert as the man held his hands away from his sides in a gesture of no harm meant and called, “Kalena! What’s wrong?”
Reandn cocked an eyebrow at Kalena; they were close enough that he kept his voice low. “Well? I can flush his Dragons out for you... or not.”
“If we don’t,” Vaklar said, his deep voice gruff in its whisper, “I don’t think me that we’ll see the inside of your Keep. Not an’ we travel with these.”
Reandn took that as a decision made. “Teya, stand ready. The Reds should handle their own once they understand, but if they’re slow to act, you’re on defense.”
“And me.” Madehy dismounted so she could string her bow — though she did it behind her horse’s haunches, where she wasn’t likely to be spotted, and she did it after she leashed Kendall to a tree.
Elstan had slipped back into his antagonistic self, ready to protest; Reandn cut him short. “With any luck, we’ll stir Malik’s Reds up enough to pick them out. I want you to hold them, if you can.”
“I — oh,” Elstan said, belatedly realizing he had nothing to protest after all. Possibly it jarred something loose in him. In a much lowered voice, he said, “I’ll do my best. It’s not a spell I’ve used on more than one man at a time.”
And probably then only for his own amusement, Reandn thought, but had moved on to Vaklar. “Trust the Wolves,” he said. “The woman is Faline. I know her.”
Malik stood all but upon them. “Kalena? Goddess grace, girl, what’s wrong? Why do you greet me only with furious whispering?”
“Did I mention?” Elstan murmured dryly. “He likes the play of words on his own tongue.”
Reandn handed Sky’s split rein to Kacey and moved forward, his attention on the squad and not Malik. Though Faline’s eyes were narrowed as she stared at him, she hadn’t recognized him yet — and no surprise. She’d never expect to see him here, and out of uniform. “Faline,” he said. “It’s Dan.”
Her eyes went wide. “Dan!” she blurted. “What the Lonely —”
“Part of the escort. Faline, I need you to hold the Reds back.”
The Red next to her — red-shirted, pot-helmed, armed with the shortest of swords and covered with a boiled leather vest that held his Squad ranking — looked startled, and recovered quickly to aim a scowl at Reandn.
Faline took his arm, whispered a few quick words... persisted when he shook his head. When he subsided, it was with the expression of a man unconvinced and uncommitted, but he wasn’t arguing anymore, and that, Reandn thought, might be as much as he’d get.
“And who are you?” Malik said, drawing his eyebrows together into an exaggerated peak that made his drawn-out face and the curved nose that went with it look even longer than they were.
Reandn gave him a predatorial smile, and spoke so only Malik would hear. “I’m the one who’s going to make your life difficult... starting now.”
Malik frowned at Reandn as though he were examining a noxious bug, and then made a pfft of dismissal. “Kalena, come and talk to me, child. I know you’ve had troubles, but I’m here, and this is the end of it. Elstan will protect you; I sent him along especially with your welfare in mind.”
“So we heard.” Reandn put himself directly between Malik and Kalena.
Beneath the frippery of his courtly manners, Malik’s dark eyes were cold and calculating. “Red First,” he called, “I think we’ll need your help to come to an understanding.”
Reandn caught Faline’s eye and shook his head, the tiniest of gestures.
“Kalena, dear, I’m getting just a bit annoyed at you,” Malik said, making another one of his waving-off gestures, his fingers all but brushing Reandn’s nose.
Reandn snatched the hand before it left his face, twisting the thumb around and forcing a pained and astonished cry from Malik.
“Meir!” shouted Red First; Kalena made a sound of dismay.
Faline shouted a sharp command. “Hold your place!”
Malik went to his knees, hissing protest and fury. Reandn leaned over him. “Those two men standing behind Vaklar are Knife, and they’re talkative. And Elstan? He’s had some things to say. Did you have anything you wanted to add?”
“Fool,” Malik grunted, and then cried out like a man in agony and in fear of his life. “First — by Goddess, get Kalena to safety!”
“Hold!” Faline shouted.
“No Wolf commands me!” one of the Dragons cried. “Save Kalena!” With a chorus of roars, a handful of the Dragons broke rank.
Red First roared in fury, even if half of it seemed aimed at Faline. “Back in ranks! Fall back!”
But if some of the Dragons held, baffled, the others still came on. Malik’s men. Reandn met their charge with a grin, shoving Malik aside and wondering if Elstan would —
There. Magic sang through the air — both Teya’s shielding and the resonance of Elstan’s strong magic coming right through it. The five charging Reds caught up short in Elstan’s spell, awkward and astonished and unable to move.
Reandn staggered against the magic as he snatched short swords from those five Dragons — flinging each weapon into the brush, knowing from the men’s expressions and their trembling but definite movement that he didn’t have long. Magic dragged at him, triggering a flush of anger, a reaction so ingrained that it came on regardless of intent.
“Reandn, no!” Teya cried. “Don’t do that!”
But a glance told him her spell held up well, a weird eye-twisting glamour that made it hard to locate those behind it — but that she stood before it, unprotected, where Vaklar and the Knife blocked the road. If Elstan’s spell fails —
Not if. When. With a sudden gust of magic gone ragged, the Dragons broke free; two of them landed on Reandn while others rushed Vaklar with a chorus of battle cries.
Reandn squirmed in the dirt, all the air slapped out of his lungs and too much weight on him to get it back. They hindered each other as much as they hindered him, but it was only a matter of time; his arm was caught beneath him and there was sudden fire in low in his side.
But the Dragons’ triumph turned to stiff astonishment as Elstan’s magic renewed. Reandn took the moment to claw his way out from under, twisting sideways and still unable to free his arm. He had only a moment before they broke free again and grabbed at him, their movements confused and obscured by a startling limn of green.
Teya screamed, sharp surprise turned to shrieking agony; her shielding evaporated. Magic crashed down on Reandn and the Dragons followed it up with knees and fists, battering him over magic’s crippling touch. Screams and cries and commands and Faline’s strong voice ringing out —
Malik’s Dragons gave way beneath the onslaught of the remaining squad. Reandn dragged himself out from underneath it all, magic-dazed, stepped on once too often — and found himself face-to-face with Teya — Teya, writing on the ground with her hands over her face and blood pouring out between her fingers.
Behind her, Kalena, Rethia and Kacey fought to turn the horses, targets for any knife or arrow; Elstan stood before them with his fingers in a wizardly stutter, unable to channel the magic that still flowed around them all but still trying. Beside him, Madehy pulled ineffectively at her bowstring; the nocked arrow slowly slipped off her finger as her knees gave way to the assault of high emotion.
And Malik? There, lurking by the side of the road, the intended victim of Madehy’s faltering arrow, the target of Elstan’s attempted defiance.
Something in Malik’s hand glinted wickedly slender — a heavy throwing dart. Reandn fought the rising magic to reach his boot knife, all his focus on Malik, all his intent on stopping the man before he threw that weapon.
But Kacey saw it, too.
She tugged on Kalena’s spooking horse, grabbing after the reins while Kalena, senseless in terror, screamed Vaklar’s name. The fancy little palomino reared high, dumping Kalena — slamming into Kacey’s horse on the way down. Kacey’s horse lurched away — and she had no stirrup on that sid
e to catch her. She hit the ground, rolling frantically aside from still-dancing hooves.
Knife still in hand, Reandn found himself pinned by Elstan’s magic — pinned by a lightning pain. Kacey! — on the ground and terrified, a stunned Kalena crawling backward into her until they were one target, not two. Not Kacey. But there was Malik, shooing off the horses between them, ignoring Elstan, and ignoring the fighting behind him.
Which is worse — never having something, someone, or having it — and losing it?
Not again.
“Malik!” Reandn bellowed, and man glanced back only long enough to slide behind Sky as magic turned the world grey.
Bloody-damn the magic, bloody-damn what damage the Dragons had done him, he wasn’t going to let this happen. Not again.
His frustrated anger turned hard and cold and determined and on the fringes of it he heard Rethia’s startled cry. “Danny!” Elstan cursed, his magic faltering even further.
And Reandn suddenly understood.
He’d been so sheltered from magic since its return — shying away from cities and villages where it would be in use, turning on anyone who thought to invoke any small spell in his presence... counting on Teya’s protection. Until these last harrowing days, he’d never been trapped into enduring the progression of a spell.
And now that he had... Elstan, fumbling even the small spells he ought to have been able to handle. Teya, struggling as he’d never seen her struggle — You’ve got to work with me, Dan! and Reandn, no — don’t do that! He understood the unicorns — flowing around him, shifting in their own currents, none of it ever touching him.
Start with the anger.
Kacey, unable to run, facing Malik with Kalena in her lap and terror in her eyes.
Take away the haze of fury, turn it cold and hard.
Wolf-clear thinking, the heat of anger’s fire turned into the steel it tempered.
Add the feel that lurked within him, that which came with his life-honed determination — that which had taken him from kitchen boy to Wolf First and then Wolf Remote.
A growl, down deep in his chest — and something that had been stuck there a long, long time.
Let it all go. No more harboring it all, like he’d harbored his grief for Adela. Let it go, and part the currents of magic around him, prowling up from the ground — through the pain, through the clear air, through everything that might have once stood in his way.
Elstan stilled his hands and gave up, slowly backing away, his eyes wide.
Malik laughed, short and harsh, knowing only that the wizard had failed and unable to perceive the significance of it. “Kalennie,” he said, hefting the heavy throwing dart, “you should never have come.”
Reandn slid his knife in front of Malik’s throat, the blade barely kissing skin. “Neither,” he said into the man’s ear, words throaty with promise, “should you.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 19
“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Kacey shoved Kalena off of her lap as Reandn jerked Malik around to give her a good hard look, his hand tight around the man’s flabby arm and the knife still against his throat. “Dan, I’m all right.”
Faline strode up to him through the disorganized aftermath of the Dragon skirmish, Red First by her side. Only then did he realize the persistence of what he’d seen earlier. “Green,” he said, sounding stupid to his own ears. “They’re green.”
Faline planted her feet and crossed her arms to aim her steady gaze his way. Her whipcord frame and plain, spare features seemed at once familiar and yet out of place, in this here and now. “Maybe you know something about that? In fact, I maybe you can explain all of this.”
“Green,” Elstan said, on his way by with a packhorse. “Old school prank. Thought it would help identify them.” He shoved the horse’s lead into Kalena’s hand in spite of her gasp of protest, and went off after the fading rustle of brush and leaves that marked another mount’s departure.
Faline raised an eyebrow at Reandn, her silent request for elaboration. No, more of a demand, he thought, finally shoving Malik at Red First and only absently noting the fresh gush of blood flowing past his belt.
A whimpering moan stole his attention; he jerked around to find Teya, staggering before he caught himself. She lay curled up at the side of the road, her hands still clutching her face. Rethia reached her side as he did, and Kacey wasn’t far behind; Reandn rested a hand on Teya’s leg as Rethia soothed her and Kacey patiently but firmly pried her hands away.
She didn’t look long. One hand resting on her patient’s hip, she said, “Wash rags. Water, and a fire to warm it on. And my packs, I need my packs.”
Reandn glanced at Faline, who immediately gestured to the other Wolf. “Clon, get whatever they need.”
“What’s he done?” Reandn asked, gently squeezing Teya’s knee — although with any luck, and with Madehy joining Rethia’s effort, his patrol wizard couldn’t feel it anymore. Her whimpers had faded to soft moans, more the mercy.
Kacey accepted the canteen and rag that Clon thrust at her and murmuring, “More. And warm.”
“Fire’s being built,” the Wolf assured her, and went off to query Elstan about the location of their supplies.
Only then did Kacey look at Reandn, and only then after sending Malik a dark glower of a look. “He’s put out her eye, that’s what he’s done. I’ll have to get her cleaned up before I can see how bad it is. Don’t get in the way.”
Her eye. Reandn grimaced, watching for a moment more before admitting to himself that there was nothing he could do but get in the way, and then stood, wincing, to meet Faline.
“You’re losing a fair amount of blood yourself,” she told him, prodding him in the side with an ungentle finger.
“Ow, dammit!”
“That was just to stop you from growling I’m fine,” she said implacably. “You’re not. But you’re on your feet, and you’ll stay that way long enough to let me know what’s happened here.”
“A huge mistake, that’s what,” Malik said. “I don’t know this man, but he’s in very serious trouble — as are you all if you don’t release me this very moment!” He made an attempt to jerk his arm free of Red First’s grip, and settled for disgruntled and — under the circumstances — impressively dignified expression. “This man attacked me, if you’ll recall.”
“As I recall,” Faline said, cocking her head and more amused than anything, “you waved your hands dangerously close to his face and he stopped you.” Malik frowned at her, clinging to his imperious disdain. As if he was a child, she said gently, “The distinction you’ve neglected to make, meir, is that if Dan had attacked you, you’d have been unable to shout orders to your compromised Dragons, or to maim that young woman over there, or —” she held out her hand, and Reandn obligingly dropped Malik’s remaining throwing dart into it, “to even think about throwing this dart at the ambassador we’re here to protect.”
Reandn wiped road dust from one eye and discovered it did nothing to remove the haze that had appeared in front of Faline. “What was it you wanted to know, exactly?”
“All of it,” Faline said firmly, ruffling her short bangs away from her forehead and favoring him with exasperation. “From the beginning. Only sit down, first. The one thing I’ve gotten wrong is how long you’d be on your feet.”
“You’d best listen to me,” Malik insisted. “Before it’s too late to save yourselves from the consequences of —”
Red First gave him a sudden shake that popped his teeth together. “You think I didn’t see my Dragons — my Dragons — break orders to do your bidding? Someone at the Keep might listen to you, but I’ll not.”
“See here, First —” But Malik turned pale as the Dragon rested one gloved hand on his short, serviceable sword, and tightened the other around Malik’s arm. Reandn scrubbed a hand across his eyes.
Faline gave him a shove, just enough to send him stumbling toward the edge of the road, where he sat. One of the Reds came up, murmur
ed to Red First that because the compromised Reds had been disarmed and that their worst injury was a broken arm, and left, taking Malik with him. Red First crouched in front of Reandn and took his plain pot helm off, tucking it in the crook of his arm and scrubbing his fingers through his sweaty hair. “Now,” he said. “I’ll tell you the opposite of what I told him. Talk. And you’d better hope I listen — and that I believe.”
Reandn talked. He told them of his insertion into the escort, and of the trouble they’d hit in Pasdon; he told them of the ambush on the pass road. He told them of Teya’s arrival, and of Rethia and Kacey, and then of how Kalena had talked them out of the Knife camp alive. With his mouth going dry and his stomach starting to turn, his shirt gone cold and clammy against his back, he put the two Knife representatives under Dragon protection, mentioned Madehy only in terms of identifying her, and then, after making sure Faline realized there were wounded waiting at Pasdon, he told them of Elstan’s folly.
“Elstan,” Faline said, looking at the wizard where he stood in the middle of the road, holding onto the reins and lead ropes of half a dozen horses; Elstan didn’t even try to hide the fact that he’d been eavesdropping. He only lifted his head a fraction and pushed one skewed braid out of his face. “But he did turn those men green, didn’t he.”
“As soon as they broke ranks, my men marked them,” Red First said. Grudgingly, after eyeing the wizard another moment, he added, “Made it quicker, though. And that green —” He glanced over at his men, then ducked his head and snorted. “I don’t guess they’ll have much luck trying to lose themselves, will they? ’Less that green fades.”
Elstan shook his head. “Not until I remove it. I confess I don’t remember that spell as readily as the first. I’ll have to think about it.”
“Don’t waste too much time on it,” Red First said. “Not yet. But... come deliver yourself up, meir wizard. Those at the Keep will sort out where you stand.”
Elstan stood there another moment, his face blank, unsurprised but somehow not quite resigned to it. Madehy, still red-eyed and flushed, walked up to him and held her hand out — and then patiently kept it there. Finally Elstan took a deep breath and deliberately passed her the horses. “Couldn’t get your bay,” he said calmly, on his way by Reandn.
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