Glyphbinder (24 page)

Kara scribed her first glyph. Jyllith’s next storm of rock and wind blasted past her without effect as Kara’s Hand of Breath scattered it like leaves. The blast knocked her into a crouch and she wondered then if she could do this, defeat a trained Aerial and Demonkin.

“It doesn’t have to be like this!” Jyllith shouted from the far side of the divide. “Surrender! Come willingly, and your friends can—”

Kara tossed a Hand of Land clean over the divide, a spear of solid rock. Jyllith dived away just before it skewered her, but Kara’s attack did shut her up. Good.

“You’d kill them all the moment I surrendered!” Kara shouted back. “I’m ending you!”

The gnarls in the divide surged toward the rise leading to Kara and her friends. The Adynshak moved at Jair’s bidding, sweeping down the rise to meet the gnarls. Trell joined them, and Kara knew those gnarls would never reach her. They would all die.

Kara threw back her cloak and sliced each index finger anew. She finally stood across from the person who had harried and hunted her since they left Solyr. She would make Sera’s sacrifice worth something, avenge Aryn, avenge Byn.

It was time for Jyllith to die.

Kara scribed two Hands of Life, merging rain into a massive wave that swept toward her opponent. Jyllith sliced it in two with a knife blade of air and Kara burned that knife with an arc of crackling flame. Kara stepped aside as more daggers of rock flew past. She tossed a Finger of Heat that almost burned off Jyllith’s face.

Steel rang below as Kara scribed and ignited a few more Hands of Life, simple feints to take Jyllith’s measure. Just like a triptych duel. Jair, the Adynshak, and Trell were driving the gnarls back. Life’s green power cloaked Trell once more.

Kara scribed and ignited the soul glyph of the Spurned Lover. It ripped from the cliff wall beside Jyllith and shrieked, but the sound barely phased Jyllith. She knew the lover was harmless, and would not fall for such a transparent trick. She was also wrong.

Jyllith sidestepped Kara’s next Hand of Heat with ease — exactly what Kara intended. That took Jyllith into quicksand created by mixing a Finger of Life with Digger the Mole. It trapped her.

Jyllith used a Hand of Breath to blast herself to safety, flipping in mid-fall as she scribed another protective Hand of Breath between herself and Kara. Kara scribed an idea glyph directly on Jyllith.

The previously quiescent Spurned Lover tore into Jyllith with nails as long as swords. Maddened by Kara’s idea glyph, the Lover was now convinced Jyllith was the unfaithful oaf who had clubbed her in her sleep and left her to starve in their family well. A story only available to those who perused Solyr’s massive library.

Jyllith screamed and stumbled as sword nails ripped at her flesh, fighting the Lover as best she could. The mad specter drew blood and tore hair. Its ruined eyes were solid black, and its muddy black hair clutched at Jyllith like a great body of snakes.

Jyllith finally managed a glyph, blasting the Lover into oblivion with a clap from two Hands of Breath, but the conflict had given Kara all the time she needed to scribe her last glyphs. Rain thickened and swelled, collapsing into four solid waves that closed on Jyllith from all sides. She could not stop them all.

Jyllith tossed herself straight at a wave, wrapping herself in a tight cocoon of air, but it still hit her hard enough to knock her flat. She really was a skilled Aerial, perhaps the best Kara had ever seen, but that wouldn’t save her. Nothing could.

Yet Kara hesitated. She didn’t finish it. She wasn’t ready to become a murderer yet.

Kara scribed the Forever Prisoner on Jyllith’s prone form and marched down the slope. Her limbs felt like they were floating as goosebumps covered her skin. She felt Sera’s blood fading.

“That’s it,” Kara shouted. “You lose!”

The Adynshak faded as she neared Trell’s position, leaving a mess of slaughtered gnarls. Only the chieftain remained. Trell disarmed it as she walked, slicing its axe in half. The chieftain bared brown teeth and spread its arms.

“Good,” it rasped. “Very good.”

Trell ran it through. He pulled his sword free as the gnarl fell, and then beheaded it with a single stroke. Mercy offered to a fellow warrior who had fought bravely and well.

Kara stalked past the dead gnarl and Trell fell in at her side, wiping blood from his blade with his sleeve. His eyes were calm, and there was not a scratch on him. They clambered together up the opposite rise. When they topped it, Jyllith was shivering.

The Forever Prisoner had her mind now, and its memories of centuries of solitary confinement would drive any unprepared soul mad. Mages did not use it lightly. Many considered it inhumane.

Kara heard rocks clatter and glanced down the rise. Jair and Sera were clambering up now, together. They had stopped this madwoman at last. No more innocents would die at Jyllith’s hands.

Kara pushed the Forever Prisoner’s dark and clinging aura down just enough to free Jyllith’s head. Trell waited beside Kara, sword ready. He would run Jyllith through if she scribed anything.

Jyllith’s gray eyes focused, glared, but no Hands of Breath slapped at her or Trell. The Forever Prisoner had her locked down. Kara knelt beside her as Jyllith struggled to speak.

“You think you’ve won, don’t you?”

“I have. I did. You’re still alive because I’m too soft for my own good. I had nothing to do with your family’s murder, so what’s behind all this? What do you want from me?”

“Tell your Soulmage to ask the dead of Talos. Ask my mother, if she’ll even talk to the people who ripped her children apart.”

“You murdered Sentinels at Highridge Keep. You slaughtered everyone at Taven’s Hamlet. You have an army. We know that. Tell us where you plan to strike next, and I’ll make your death quick.”

“Yes. Why not? I’ll simply betray the people who swore their lives to avenging everyone I ever loved.”

Kara shivered and grimaced. “Don’t test me.”

“I already have. You can’t break me. We’re done talking.”

Kara wanted to strangle her, but she could barely keep her eyes open. Sera’s flash heal was fading, and with it Kara’s life. Both of them had burned far too much blood. How could she make Jyllith talk before they both lost consciousness? Before they both died?

This woman had made Aryn into a harvenger, kidnapped Byn and murdered him. She had sent innocent souls to the Underside. She was Demonkin. By the laws of the Five Provinces she should be executed a dozen times over, yet Kara didn’t know how to do that. She still didn’t know how to take a person’s life.

Jair came huffing up the rise with Sera in tow. Kara took a firm grip on Jyllith’s red hair and yanked her head up. “Talk!”

“No.”

“Tell me where your army is!” Kara ignited a Hand of Heat and moved it toward Jyllith’s face. “Or I’ll make you burn.”

Jyllith just laughed, coughing as she did it. “The more you glyph, the faster you die. Do your worst.”

“She knows you’re bluffing,”
Sera thought.
“I’m not.”

“No.”
Kara couldn’t think of Sera that way.
“We can’t.”
This was Sera, the most generous woman she had ever met. Her best friend.

“I’m already dead to you and Solyr. I’m already Demonkin. If it saves lives, saves families, what is one more forbidden glyph?”

Kara knew Sera was right. Jyllith’s army could be out there right now, marching toward another helpless town. Killing people. Killing children. Their morals did not matter. What mattered was saving the hundreds of people Jyllith’s army would soon slaughter.

“Make her talk.” Kara stood. “Whatever it takes.”

She walked away and hugged herself. She couldn’t look at Jyllith any longer. She couldn’t think about her as human. If she was human, it would be more difficult to torture her.

“Jair,” Sera whispered. “Put me down beside her.”

Pretending this wasn’t happening was wrong. Kara turned back and forced herself to watch. Jair supported Sera as Sera closed her eyes. Her bloody fingers traced faint glyphs on Jyllith’s leather vest.

“Do you know the names of the men you murdered?”

“I know they loved you enough to die for you. I hope you made it worth it, you vapid who—”

Sera ignited her glyphs. Jyllith went stiff, back arching as her limbs bent straight. She made no sound. Until she started coughing up her own blood.

Though Sera was a Bloodmender, and one of the most talented Kara had ever known, it was possible for healing to cause great pain. Bones could be twisted as easily as they were mended, and blood could be heated as easily as cooled. Healing could
hurt
.

Kara dropped to her knees at Sera’s side. She had ordered this horror and she would watch it. Her penance.

“Tell me where your army will strike next,” Kara said. “Or the pain is going to get
much
worse.”

Even as she said it Kara imagined her mother writhing in her bed, writhing as ants ate her from the inside out. That’s what they were doing to Jyllith, and Kara felt tears welling in her eyes.

“Kara.” Sera grabbed Kara’s weak palm. “Jyllith has pure blood.” She sounded relieved. Almost … excited.

“What? She’s a Bloodmender?”

“She could be.” Sera mussed her glyphs and Jyllith slammed flat with a raw huff. She was breathing fast, but she had not screamed. Somehow, through all that agony, she had managed not to scream.

“If we take her blood,” Sera said, “we’ll live.”

“No.” Kara tugged at her hand. “We can’t.” This was wrong.

“We have to.” The blood came. It flowed into Kara and locked her stiff, forcing her eyes wide. Saving her life.

Pure blood could be transfused with no ill effects. That’s how Bloodmenders like Sera used their blood to heal others, but it didn’t have to be their own. Talented Bloodmenders could draw blood from one body and force it into another, whether that person wanted it or not. That’s what Sera was doing. Draining Jyllith like a well.

Kara had been ready to die. She had almost welcomed it until she remembered her mother, wasting away in Solyr. If she had to trade the life of one evil, heartless woman to save her mother ... she could do that. She could kill to save her mother’s life.

Sera’s bloody fingers scribed more glyphs. The scribing and screaming dragged on until Kara knew Jyllith had suffered enough. She ripped her hand from Sera’s. She had enough blood to live now, but could she? Knowing what she’d done?

Jyllith whimpered, thrashed, screamed. Why were they doing this? Sera wasn’t even asking questions now. She was just hurting Jyllith to hurt her. To make her scream.

“Stop!” Kara grabbed Sera’s hand.

Sera took great gasps of air, eyes darting between Kara and Jyllith. Like she was waking up. Like she was ashamed. Jyllith was covered in her own blood, and her eyes were pools of it.

“That’s it?” Jyllith rasped.

How could she still talk? “Listen—“

“No. You listen. You think you’ve hurt me? My davenger spent half a night tearing your Byn apart, piece by bloody piece.”

Sera shrieked, tracing glyphs faster than Kara could see. Jyllith howled. Kara heard Jyllith’s bones cracking open inside her body, and that disgusting sound forced her to action at last.

“Stop!” Kara grabbed Sera’s hands. “Enough!”

Jyllith collapsed. This woman had done horrible things and those she’d sent to the Underside were enduring tortures far worse than this — yet it was not Kara’s job to punish her. That was for Order and Ruin.

A better soldier would have tortured Jyllith until she begged to tell all she knew, and a better mage would have ripped such secrets straight out of her head. Kara was neither of those. Her hatred for Jyllith had made her something far worse.

“We’re done,” Kara said quietly.

Sera shook in Kara’s arms. “She murdered Byn. She fed Aryn to the demons.” Sera’s still orange eyes were wide and wet, but Kara didn’t know if she wanted a reason to stop or a reason to kill.

“She did.” Kara hugged Sera tight. “It doesn’t matter.”

Beside them, Jyllith choked. Stopped choking. Stopped breathing. Her body thrashed and went still. Jyllith was dead.

They had avenged Aryn, avenged Byn, and it was nothing like Kara had thought it would be. She felt empty. Cold.

Sera glared at Kara, glared at Jyllith, then burst into tears. She sobbed against Kara’s shoulder, and Kara held her. She couldn’t stop seeing Jyllith’s blood-filled eyes.

“I wanted to hurt her,” Sera whispered. “I wanted to make her scream.”

“It’s over.” Kara stroked her hair.

“Is it?” Sera pulled back. “Kara ... this isn’t me. What I felt when I hurt her, what I did to that woman … it’s not me.”

“I know it isn’t.”

“You don’t understand. Ever since I scribed Davazet’s glyph, I feel different. Like I’m dreaming, like this isn’t real. I’m not thinking how I used to.” She glanced at Jyllith. “I don’t even feel guilty about killing her. Why don’t I feel guilty?”

Trell knelt on Jyllith’s other side. “What about her army?” If he had an opinion on their recent atrocity, he kept it to himself.