Defy (32 page)

“There are distinct claw marks here, sir,”
she said, running her fingers over the scarred rock. “In my
opinion, the kragen who took Tate recently passed this way.”

Because there aren’t enough challenges in
our path already
, he thought, even as he nodded in
acknowledgement of her observation.

Extending his wings, he gave the silent order
to the Waresti around him to hit the air. Then he sent out the less
than optimistic news to his elder.

Tate’s been taken prisoner by the Mercesti
who are seeking the Elder Scroll. And it appears the kragen that
took her is tracking her, as well.

Gabriel’s thoughts ran through Caleb’s mind,
but he couldn’t fully grasp them. His daughter—his little girl—was
a Mercesti prisoner? Not only that, but she had a creature tracking
her that had nearly killed her?

Tiege, Clara Kate and the others are
closing in on her location
, Gabriel conveyed. He exchanged a
look with him as they flew.
Tate’s been trained, Caleb
.

That was easy enough to say, and certainly
true. But Caleb’s thoughts drifted to the sweet-scented baby he’d
wrapped in pink swaddling blankets and held through many long
nights, pressing her to his chest and rocking her to sleep. His
thoughts were of the energetic, bouncy-haired toddler who had
gotten into more trouble than any of her siblings or cousins, and
somehow made him all the more proud of her for it. His thoughts
were of the awkward preteen who had grown all too quickly into a
beautiful and amazing young woman.

His thoughts were of her alone and in the
hands of the Mercesti.

And he could only pray that their training
had been enough.

“What can we do?” Sophia asked as she and
Quincy watched the apparent leader of the Mercesti grab Tate and
drag her closer to the Lekwuesti female. “Oh, God, Quincy. What can
we do?”

She was no longer in the flight harness. They
had successfully followed the progress of the Mercesti group under
the cover of the forest. Not having to fly definitely helped
maintain their stealth. Now, they stood side by side within the
branches of a tree, watching the events below and trying to come up
with a plan.

“I think you’re going to have to use your
elemental power,” he responded in a low voice. “The trees
will…”

He trailed off as they watched the second
male enter the scene. He was just as tall as the male holding Tate,
though not as bulky. To Sophia’s inexperienced eye, he appeared
equally deadly. Although he hadn’t drawn a weapon, his gaze, body
language and tone conveyed a sense of command to which a being
couldn’t help but respond.

“Holy light,” Quincy said in a near-whisper.
“That’s Zachariah.”

“Zachariah?” she repeated. “Are you
sure?”

“Definitely.”

Sophia’s fear for her cousin suddenly
ratcheted up a number of notches. She hadn’t realized until then
how much she had hoped the rumors about the former Gloresti second
commander had been false. The Gloresti class—her father’s class—was
built on honor and loyalty. That any member of the Gloresti could
fall from grace to the point where he converted to Mercesti seemed
impossible.

But Zachariah had. The blond,
disheveled-haired male who strode up to Tate was most definitely a
Mercesti.

There was something very strange about
Sparky.

Tate was less interested in the cursed kris
resting against the pulse in her neck and more interested in the
odd shimmer that coated Sparky as she looked upon him in person for
the first time. The shimmer was almost like the resonance of a lie
when someone spoke it, but not quite as notable. His eyes seemed to
fluctuate in color, resulting in a swirling purplish tone to his
irises as well as his markings.

What in the world?

Both his words and his presence shocked her.
Why was he here? He shouldn’t have followed her. He was going to
get killed!

She tried to send him a warning through their
unusual connection, but quickly realized it wouldn’t work while
they were awake and unfocused. When she fidgeted with her bindings
again, she felt them loosen enough that she could pull a hand out.
Not seeing any reason not to, she completely removed her hands from
the fabric and held it in her grasp. It was a potential weapon,
after all. She might very well need it to get her and Sparky out
of—

“Well, well, well,” her captor said then,
interrupting her thoughts. “Hello, Zachariah.”

Ariana’s gaze was focused on the Kynzesti
when the new Mercesti approached. She noted the recognition in the
other female’s gaze when she spotted him and wondered at it. How
would a Kynzesti know a Mercesti?

And when his first words were, “If she dies,
it will be at my hands,” it made their knowledge of each other even
more puzzling.

She saw the Kynzesti female stiffen at
Eirik’s greeting. It also had Ariana on alert. Zachariah. She knew
that name. He had been the second commander of the Gloresti upon
her transition to the Estilorian plane a couple of centuries
before. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t recognized him. But then,
she had only met him once, and that had been shortly after her
transition. She had thought him dead.

His red gaze moved briefly over her before
shifting back. “Eirik,” he said with a brief lift of his chin. “You
are holding something that belongs to me.”

“Is that right?”

The two males could have been discussing the
weather for all of the expression that crossed their faces. She
heard Deimos start grunting again and there was another flurry of
activity as the creature fought for his release.

“It is,” Zachariah said. He hadn’t looked
directly at the Kynzesti yet, telling Ariana how little she meant
to him. “I have been hunting her for days.”

The Kynzesti’s eyes widened. Ariana
understood then that the other female’s knowledge of Zachariah
hadn’t led her to believe he wanted to harm her. Once again, this
surprised her. What being didn’t suspect a Mercesti of the worst
possible behavior?

“You have not made an appearance among us
since your conversion all those decades ago,” Eirik said. “Yet now
you present yourself. I have to wonder why.”

“I have just told you. You are holding
something that belongs to me.” Zachariah moved closer to Eirik and
the Kynzesti with a seemingly casual stride. Now, his red gaze
moved to the female. “I want it back.”

Deimos made savage sounds at the
announcement. Several cries of pain and a series of curses from
those restraining him indicated the creature was trying harder for
his release.

Eirik never removed his eyes from Zachariah,
unconcerned about his henchman’s behavior. “You have no claim on
this female. My soldiers caught her and brought her to me. It is
not my problem that they outwitted you on the hunt.”

“Hardly,” Zachariah said in a bored tone. “I
was waiting for her to heal before picking back up the hunt.
Chasing wounded prey is the work of the weak.” His eyes moved
around the Mercesti until they fell on Bertram and Tycho. The males
were easy enough to identify with their visible injuries. Whatever
they read in his gaze had them exchanging glances and stepping back
among their peers as if to hide. He looked again to Eirik. “I am
amazed you allow such feebleness among your followers.”

“They serve their purpose.” Eirik moved his
kris, causing the Kynzesti to flinch when the blade pressed harder
against her skin. “What is so special about this female that she
draws you back into the fold after all these years?”

Ariana stiffened as Zachariah continued his
slow prowl around Eirik and the other female. He was very close.
Still, his attention
was
on Eirik, she reasoned.

“I belong to no fold,” he said. He reached
out to pluck a feather from the female’s vibrant hair. He ran it
briefly under his nose as if catching its scent even as he
continued moving. Ariana found the action very similar to Eirik’s
when he was threatening her. She shivered. “And I owe you no kind
of explanation.”

“Then it appears I have no reason to turn her
over to you. She serves me some purpose.”

“If you seek a reason,” Zachariah said, “I am
happy to give you one.”

His hand snaked out and grabbed Ariana around
the neck. She didn’t even have time to gasp in shock before she was
held tight against him with his hands around her throat.

Tate couldn’t believe this was happening.

How does he know you, Tate?

It was at least the third time that Tiege had
asked her the question. She was too concerned over the cursed
weapon at her throat, the increased aggression by whatever creature
was being held at bay a few feet away, and her bafflement over
Sparky’s presence—not to mention his familiarity with these
Mercesti—to get into any kind of explanations just then. All she
could do was send Tiege a thought that Sparky wouldn’t hurt her.
Probably.

But even she questioned her judgment when he
grabbed the Lekwuesti female. One of his hands completely encircled
her throat. He held her so that her feet barely touched the ground.
The female struggled to pry his hand off and kicked crazily as
though to gain purchase. The movement made the heavy sword on her
back slip free of her body and thud to the ground, harness and all.
Tate thought of at least three ways to break the hold, but realized
the other female had no training. The sounds of gurgling and
gasping filled the air as she flailed.

Tate also realized that Eirik had stiffened.
The kris moved away from her neck the slightest bit. She caught
Sparky’s gaze and tried to figure out what he was doing so she
could either help him…or thwart him.

“What do you think you are doing?” Eirik
asked. His voice made Tate feel like a cold wind had brushed the
nape of her neck.

When a few of the surrounding Mercesti
approached Sparky, he changed his hold. The sounds the Lekwuesti
made had the soldiers glancing at Eirik and then backing away.

“I am offering an exchange.”

“The Lekwuesti is no concern of mine,” Eirik
said. “She is a plaything for Deimos—who is quite hungry, I might
add.”

Tate saw the lie resonate around her. She
shook her head the slightest bit when Sparky glanced at her.

“Then he can play with her while she is
dead,” Sparky said with a shrug, and changed his hold again, this
time bringing his other hand up as though to break her neck.

“Stop,” Eirik demanded.

Although Tate couldn’t see his face, she
imagined he was furious that his bluff had been called. She debated
what she should do. She could escape his hold without too much
trouble, but that wouldn’t help the other female, and there were
still hundreds of Mercesti to escape on foot. She remained as still
as possible.

“Very well,” Eirik said after a moment of
tense silence. “You and I admit the females are necessary for the
moment. We shall ignore the whys for now and move into what we
should do about it.”

Sparky loosened his hold enough that the
Lekwuesti’s eyes weren’t bulging and she could suck in gasps of
air. Then he walked a couple of steps with her in the direction of
the pedestal housing the scroll. Tate wondered what he was going to
do and whether the scroll would finally be mentioned.

But when they got within a few feet of it,
they encountered an invisible wall.

“How many do you suppose we got?”

Sophia looked around in consideration of
Quincy’s question. She was using her ability to manipulate plant
life to snag Mercesti standing close to the forest. There were
low-hanging tree branches, pliant bushes and shrubs, and even roots
from trees at her disposal. As soon as one was snagged, Quincy
knocked him unconscious with a thick tree branch.

It was slow-going, however, because she
couldn’t do more than a couple at a time, and most of the Mercesti
were grouped closely together. She also had to wait until no one
was paying attention, or she risked the other Mercesti discovering
their efforts.

What worked in their favor was the awful
noise made by whatever creature the Mercesti contained, as well as
the fact that some of the Mercesti actually wondered where their
companions had gone when they turned and found them missing. Thus,
a handful trickled into the forest out of sheer curiosity. Sophia
found them easy enough to subdue.

“I would say not even twenty,” she whispered.
“This isn’t working.”

He frowned. They looked again to the crowd
surrounding Tate and the Lekwuesti. She watched Zachariah haul the
Lekwuesti up against the mountain and hold her there as if bracing
himself for support. She winced at the female’s terrified
expression.

“What we need,” Quincy said, “is a
distraction.”

As it turned out, one was provided for
them.

Tiege stood with Clara Kate, Ini-herit,
Alexius and the rest of the Waresti traveling with them at the top
of a mountain ridge. Below them, partially hidden by an overhang,
was the horde of Mercesti holding Tate prisoner. He realized that
what his sister had described as a pedestal surrounded by light to
him looked like a wall of rock.

By this point, Tate had lost her focus too
much to allow him to hear more than a few of her thoughts. She kept
repeating the thought that someone named “Sparky” wasn’t going to
hurt her. He couldn’t tell if she was trying to convince him or
herself.

Despite—or perhaps because of—everything, he
was proud of her. She held her own, keeping her fear under control.
He sensed her considering the situation from every angle like their
dad taught them, weighing decisions rather than just acting
impulsively and doing something that would possibly get her or the
Lekwuesti killed. She had clearly learned something from this
experience, as the old Tate would have treated this like a fun
adventure.