Too late. Chief Boern blurred, slipping right past Raedren and coming back into focus in mid-run—heading straight for Hyra.
“Back to the original plan, then!” Chief Boern grabbed Hyra by both wrists. He immediately lifted his knee, intercepting the kick she aimed at his groin.
Raedren panicked again—and again he shoved it down, refusing to let it show. But this time it was someone else, and Raedren wasn’t as good at handling it when it was someone else. His hands began shaking as Chief Boern slammed his forehead into Hyra’s nose, splitting it open and dazing her. Raedren juggled the unconscious trainer as he cast barriers, but Chief Boern was already inside Hyra’s defenses, and he whipped her to the side, preventing Raedren’s spell from taking hold.
The shaking continued, and it was getting worse, from casting fatigue and from so much fear. Hyra was hanging loosely from Boern’s grasp, her legs weak and eyes unfocused. Raedren knew he needed to save her, and the trainer in his arms, and probably the spellhounds and guards fighting the aku behind him. He told himself he needed to save them all even as one of the Nijāst screamed, overwhelmed by the aku—but in his heart of hearts, he knew it was Hyra he needed to save most of all. Not because of the quest. Because it was her. His heart and brain and everything was screaming at him to save her, right now.
He recognized this emotion. He had done it again. Despite his best efforts, despite deciding that he wouldn’t date or fall in love with Hyra because she couldn’t leave this village and he didn’t want to stay, he had done it again. He had fallen in love.
Raedren shook it off and shoved those feelings down, burying them in a tight, hot, frustrated ball in the pit of his stomach, down with every other churning emotion he was suppressing. Regardless of anything else, he didn’t want to see her hurt. And he wouldn’t.
He could hear his friends screaming his name as he charged at Chief Boern and Hyra, still carrying the unconscious trainer. Behind him, the aku had already defeated half of the spellhounds and both of the guards. Raedren closed the distance, mana winds speeding him forward. Boern was casting another spell, but he wouldn’t be fast enough. Raedren lowered his shoulder and barreled into the treacherous chief.
And missed. He thought he had him, but Boern had simply stepped to the side, dragging Hyra with him.
Raedren growled as his boots planted on the ground, and then he twisted at the waist. The limp trainer’s legs flailed, catching Boern in the chest and face. That gave Hyra the chance she needed to yank her wrists away.
“Here, take him,” said Raedren, and before Hyra could respond Raedren dropped the other trainer into her lap. She barely caught him, mana flowing through her muscles as she enhanced herself enough to carry the larger man.
But Raedren only stayed facing her long enough to know that it would be done. He turned to Boern, and before the older man could complete the spell he was incanting, Raedren grabbed the chieftain by his left arm and right leg, picked him up, and threw him bodily into the closest wall.
Somewhere inside, the gentle man Raedren normally was winced. But the fear and desperation that had hold of him watched with satisfaction as the wall cracked.
Boern slid down into a crouch and growled, his teeth bared like a wild animal. “You’re getting on my nerves, boy.”
Raedren said nothing. He stood tall, not moving a centimeter, giving Hyra the time she needed to take the other trainer and get away. Raedren looked between Chief Boern and the aku. The remaining three spellhounds galloped past him, summoned by a whistle. He could hear Hyra yelling, pleading for him to join them, but he ignored her. Mazik and the others would be here soon. He just had to hold out.
He tried to ignore the Noble Hunt he could see overwhelming the Nijāst defenders at the edge of town, who were even now in a rout. One thing at a time.
Chief Boern made no moves as Hyra ran farther away. He just stared at Raedren, his chest heaving and his eyes narrow as the aku walked to him.
Boern began chanting another spell. “Attack!” he said, partway through. The aku charged Raedren, and the magick Raedren had been holding in flooded outward. The aku ran into barriers so dark they were nearly opaque, and the beast was stopped entirely.
Chief Boern’s body blurred. He reappeared next to Raedren, not even a step away. He was smiling. In his hand was a glass vial. It was open. Open, and not a finger’s width from Raedren’s nose.
Something sweet forced itself into Raedren’s nose. He tried to step back, tried to cast a spell to push Boern or the fumes away, but his legs were wobbly, and his barriers were useless against a gas. Raedren’s vision began to shudder and dim, and for a brief second he thought of the unconscious trainer, who had stayed that way despite everything that had happened. Suddenly, he understood.
Chief Boern’s fist collided with Raedren’s head. Darkness swallowed him.
A shriek sliced across the battlefield. “Nooo!”
Gavi’s head snapped up. The attack earlier, after Raedren drew the enemies’ attention, had turned the battle in their favor, but while the turncoat Adāst fell rapidly, the enemy adventurers were fighting with all the power and fervor of the veterans they were. It was only by dint of numbers that Gavi, Mazik, and the others were slowly overwhelming them. Gavi had just scored a solid hit on Yintour for the first time when the scream drew her attention.
Her eyes immediately found Hyra, whose back was to Gavi, with three spellhounds around her and the unconscious trainer limp in her arms. Gavi followed Hyra’s line of sight to the massive aku, and—
She watched as Raedren crumpled, his barriers dissipating. She saw Chief Boern, holding a vial of some kind. He had a handkerchief over his mouth and nose, and though only his eyes were uncovered, he looked satisfied. The aku stood beside him, staring down at Raedren with the interest of a hungry beast.
Gavi’s chest tightened as she put two and two together. Poison. Some kind of gas. Sleeping gas? A memory popped into her mind. Like they used on the spellhounds when they stole them! Or something else?
Her mind was spinning, sprinting, chasing its own tail as worry and the precursors to regret began to build. They needed to get to Raedren now, but six enemies still stood in their way. They were on their last legs, but still dangerous.
“Rae!” Mazik screamed, his voice cracking as Boern knelt to prod Raedren. Twenty-seven barked, sensing Mazik’s distress. Hyra was trying to run to Raedren, but other Nijāst had slipped past the faltering enemy lines and were holding her back.
Fear roared through Gavi, fear for her friend’s life. It burned red-hot, threatening to plunge her into a blind rage. But she wouldn’t let it. Instead she did as she had learned long ago, from an instructor who had seen her frustration at so much work for so little progress, and had tried to help.
Don’t let your emotions control you, sweetheart. If you’re going to get angry, focus your anger on the task at hand. Use it. Harness it to get better.
Her anger crystallized. Gavi focused on what she needed to do to get to her friend, one step at a time. She traced the path, before finally settling on the first step.
Gavi growled at Yintour. “Get out of my way.”
Yintour must have recognized the danger, because she and her guildmates immediately pulled into a tight circle.
Gavi flung herself at her opponents, her arms rattling from the force of her blows as she sliced through their defenses. Next to her, she could feel the heat as Mazik joined her. If her anger was white-hot and focused, Mazik’s was the red-hot inferno she had eschewed. He was firing spell after spell, most of them at Chief Boern, though the aku had stepped up to protect the chieftain with its own barriers. Mazik roared, his shout nearly unintelligible as his mana exploded forth. “Move!”
Light erupted around them, and Mazik broke through, shoving plate-clad Alterites out of the way with his bare hands. Gavi and Twenty-seven followed him through the gap, swiping at their enemies’ flanks as they passed. The Alterites fumbled, trying to defend from two directions, and the
n the Nijāst fell on them. There were shouts of surrender as they were finally subdued.
Chief Boern was calmly watching them as they sprinted for him. “Ah, ah, ah …” he said, waggling a finger. He hauled Raedren to his feet, a knife on their friend’s throat. “Stop right there.”
Mazik and Gavi stopped instantly. Twenty-seven crashed into Gavi’s legs, almost knocking her over. Hyra stopped struggling against the allies holding her back. The unconscious trainer was still out cold. Mazik and Gavi were only ten paces from their friend, but it felt like an ocean.
Gavi whispered out of the corner of her mouth. “Can you knock the knife away?”
Mazik’s reply was nearly inaudible, and came through clenched teeth. “Maybe. The beast might get in the way.”
Gavi understood. The aku stood between them and Boern, partially obscuring him, so close she could smell it. It smelled like rotten meat.
“If you do anything rash,” said Chief Boern, raising his voice pointedly, “I will cut his throat.”
No one moved. Gavi’s mind whirled as she tried to think of a plan.
Chief Boern turned to Hyra. “Effami. If you want your boyfriend to live, meet me at Sparrow’s Ridge in ten minutes. Come alone. If you come with us, he’ll be spared.”
Hyra sagged against the Nijāst holding her, but she had the presence of mind to say, “I won’t be coming alone. I’ll need someone to make sure you don’t kill him after I leave with you.” She pointed at Gavi and Mazik. “Those two will come with me.”
Chief Boern hesitated, but he must have realized that he didn’t have long to argue. “Fine. Ten minutes.”
“Why did you do it?” Hyra blurted out before Boern could turn away.
Chief Boern sneered. “You wouldn’t understand. I’ve scraped and suffered and sacrificed for my entire life, and what did I end up with? A shitty little village. What a waste. I’m better than this place.”
Dragging Raedren with him, Chief Boern ran for the advancing riders, the aku following him.
Hyra collapsed to her knees. Gavi rushed to her, but not before grabbing Mazik firmly by the arm. From the way every muscle in his body had tensed, she was afraid he would do something unwise. She dragged him to Hyra.
“It’s my fault.” Hyra was shaking her head, her eyes hollow. One of the spellhounds licked her face. “I know it’s really Chief—that Boern bastard’s fault,” she corrected, and the words came out with enough vitriol to surprise Gavi, “but that’s not how it feels. If I had just taken the hint when he tried to tell me it wouldn’t work between us, he wouldn’t have been captured.”
“Did he actually tell you that?” asked Mazik, surprise momentarily quelling his anger.
Hyra shook her head. “But it was obvious he didn’t want to live in this village, and I can’t leave. I can’t leave this horrible, twisted, fucking atrocious excuse for a village,” she whispered. Her chin slumped to her chest.
Gavi was taken aback. From what Raedren had said, she thought Hyra liked the Nijāst village—that it wasn’t a matter of her not being able to leave so much as not wanting to. Then again, Gavi supposed a day like this would shake anybody’s faith.
Before Gavi could think of what to say, Mazik stood up, and spoke with a voice filled with cold certainty.
“Don’t kid yourself.” Mazik rolled his shoulders, his face as stormy as a typhoon sea as he stared after Raedren. “Boern was backed into a corner. He would have taken Rae regardless. He just would have tried to get me and Gavi to capture you if he hadn’t thought blackmailing you would be more effective.” Mana crackled across his barriers, and his voice was low and menacing. “When we get him, I’m going to beat that bastard to death with a practice sword, so it’ll take longer.”
Gavi was surprised by how calm she was. As Caspian arrived and asked what happened, Gavi examined herself. She could feel the anger and fear, the pounding in the back of her head that was screaming at her to go after their friend, but it wasn’t controlling her like it was with Mazik. She was in control. She calmly went through their options.
After several seconds, she stood. “We can’t wait ten minutes.”
“I agree.” A spell appeared in Mazik’s palms, writhing with barely-constrained power. “I say we blast straight through and go after them immediately. Sound good?”
Gavi surveyed the area. Yintour and the other adventurers were being restrained. The riders were advancing, but Nijāst had been passing their group the entire time. The two sides were already clashing in places, buildings shuddering as spells exploded in the dusty streets. She shrugged. “Eh, fuck it. It’s probably the best plan.”
Mazik pumped his fist. “All right! Bloodthirsty Gavi has arrived. I knew I could count on you.”
Gavi started to respond, but when she saw the smile he gave her, which was equal measures fiercely loyal and murderously bright … she couldn’t decide if it chilled her to the bone or set her blood on fire, or both. She was glad for his faith in her, if nothing else.
“I’m coming too.” Caspian slotted an arrow onto his bow.
Twenty-seven stepped closer to Mazik and leaned against his leg.
“Me too,” said Hyra. Gavi turned, preparing to object, but Hyra’s eyes blazed. She jabbed a finger at Gavi’s chest. “You can’t stop me! I have to be there or he’ll know we’re not going to bargain with him. I—” She stopped. “Are we? If I need to go with them, I will. I won’t let—”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” said Mazik. Gavi’s eyes snapped to him, and he glared back. “What do you want me to say? I don’t want these bastards to have anything other than a slow death and a shallow grave, but we’re in trouble without Rae, and I won’t tell his parents and sister that I got him killed.”
“You should have thought of that before you brought your friends along to play adventurer,” said Gavi.
“That is becoming abundantly clear!” snapped Mazik. “Now, are we going or not?”
“He’ll kill us if we sacrifice someone else to save him.” Gavi cut Mazik off before he could respond. “Yes, we’re going. I’ll think of a plan on the way.”
Mazik let out a long breath, then tried to smile. “Badass, in-charge Gavi. Another of my favorites.” He let out another breath, then winked at her. “Sorry about that. You’re the best, Gavs. Don’t worry, we’ve got this.”
Gavi snorted to hide her embarrassment. “Shut up and clear the way.”
As Hyra whistled and began calling spellhounds from all over the battlefield, Gavi watched as Mazik turned to the advancing riders. The smile he wore was not kind. “With pleasure,” he purred.
*
Mazik tore through the Noble Hunt like a tornado through a campsite. He didn’t know if the riders were letting them through or if they were truly taken aback, but the area of road Mazik filled with light and sound was quickly vacated, the riders slipping away with their evasion spells while their familiars howled in pain. Mazik sprinted through the gap, the others close behind. He fired at a few enemies as they passed, and took obscene pleasure at their shouts and curses.
He flew ahead of the others as if on wings of magick. Gavi, Hyra, and the cloud of spellhounds followed as best they could, while Caspian, whose leg was still injured, had already disappeared from view.
Only one of their group managed to keep up. As Mazik plunged into the forest, Twenty-seven followed closely. Even without alteration to aid his running, the hound was fast enough with enhancement and muscle-power alone. Goldilocks! Mazik felt a smile tug at his face.
Deep in his chest, Mazik could feel anger and excitement warring—his fear for Raedren clashing with the pure, adrenaline-soaked love of the fight. As always, he knew he could choose which emotion drove him, and he chose excitement. Mazik let the laughter bubble forth, short and terse, and grinned despite the frightful pounding of his heart. “Good! Keep up, Goldie! It’s time for us to kick some ass.”
The two of them caught up to Boern as he and the aku were coming to a
stop in a small clearing. Though the trees flourished all around it, the glade was barren of anything but dirt and leaves, with the moon overhead bathing it in pale light. There were signs of recent clearings—this area was kept clean on purpose. At the back of the clearing was a rocky ridge which overlooked a shallow slope, if the meager dip in the trees beyond was to be believed. On top of the ridge was what looked like a weathered shrine.
Mazik took all of this in in an instant as he hurtled toward Boern, mana swirling around his clawed fist.
“Mazik Steal!” Blue winds wrenched at Boern. The chieftain was spun around, but he clung to his hostage with both hands. That prevented him from defending himself from Mazik’s follow-up spell, which exploded in his face.
As Boern reeled, the aku stepped in between them, cutting off Mazik’s spell. Mazik could hear Boern cough and snarl. “One more stunt like that and I’ll slit his throat.”
Mazik froze, holding out a hand to stop Twenty-seven. Gavi, Hyra, and the other spellhounds caught up shortly. Once they had all stopped, the aku stepped away, revealing Boern. He was holding a knife to Raedren’s neck.
“So. Here we are again,” said Mazik.
“I thought I said only the three of you were allowed,” snapped Boern.
Hyra shrugged. “I only said that these two would be coming with me. I didn’t say anything about anyone else.” Her expression clouded over. “And before you argue, I think we all know your monster can beat these little ones without much trouble, and that we just gave you seven more chances to capture the spellhounds you wanted. You shouldn’t be complaining.”
Boern didn’t respond. He pressed the knife to Raedren’s neck, the tattered remnants of Raedren’s MPB sparking feebly. “Let me remind you that I still hold the cards here. I can kill your friend and take my chances at capturing you myself. Don’t test me.”
Mazik grit his teeth, his earlier elation ebbing in favor of resurgent anger. I’m going to enjoy boiling this sonofabitch alive.
The two groups stared at each other, neither one apparently eager to move. Finally, Hyra said, “Well? How do we do this?”
Freelance Heroics (Firesign Book 2) Page 38