Lisa Shearin - Raine Benares 01 (24 page)

A
solitary goblin stepped forward as the others deferentially made way for him.
This was unexpected. The beautifully intricate scrollwork on his chestplate
clearly identified him. Twin serpents twining around one another, battling for
dominance, both surmounted by a crown. He looked like a slightly older version
of the prince.

King
Sathrik Mal’Salin.

“Brother,”
he said.

Prince
Chigaru remained motionless. “Sathrik.”

“You
will address your king as Your Majesty.” Nukpana’s voice was still and quiet,
but the menace was clear.

“He
is not my king, and he is no longer my brother,” Chigaru said. “He is worthy of
neither my respect nor my honor, so I may refer to him in any manner I choose.”
He laughed softly. It was hollow and without humor. “He should count himself
fortunate I use his given name rather than others that come to mind.”

Piaras
and I didn’t need to be anywhere near this reunion. If we ran, we would be
shot. If we stayed, we would be found, and then shot. And that was if we were
lucky. Clearly, the ending would be bad either way. At the moment, I didn’t
know which Mal’Salin brother was worse, and I didn’t even want to think about
Sarad Nukpana. I suspected Sathrik Mal’Salin lacked the power to call his grand
shaman to heel if he wanted to play with us a while before he had us killed.
Still, if his words to me last night were any indication, Sarad Nukpana wanted
me very much alive. That might be even worse.

The
prince inclined his head in somber acknowledgment of his brother as he slid his
saber free of its sheath. The hiss of escaping metal was instantly repeated on
both sides. From the eager faces around us, this was a confrontation a long
time in the making. I so did not want to be here when it happened.

The
night was suddenly split by a feral goblin war cry. I couldn’t tell which side
it came from. It was immediately answered in kind by a raw voice. Bolts were
loosed from both sides as the goblins eagerly charged each other.

I
didn’t wait to see any more. I pushed Piaras to his feet and we ran back into
the trees. I couldn’t see where I was going, and until we put the sound of
goblins killing each other well behind us, I didn’t care. I found spaces
between the trees, but more often I found brambles and vines. My face and arms
stung with tiny cuts. The ground abruptly dropped away into a ditch. Piaras’s
long legs took him to the other side. Mine weren’t as long, and I wasn’t as
lucky. I landed just short of the rim, and my knee slammed hard into the
ground. Tears came to my eyes, but I pulled myself up and kept running.

Piaras
suddenly stopped. It was my turn to run into him. Fortunately for both of us,
he didn’t fall down.

I saw
what had stopped him in his tracks. I agreed with his decision. Sarad Nukpana
wasn’t what I had sensed hunting me.

A
black mass loomed before us. I had seen it before—through Siseal Peli’s dying
eyes.

More
of them glided from the trees, surrounding us. I felt rather than heard
something move behind me. I spun, going back-to-back with Piaras, my daggers
held low. I was face-to-whatever with one of them. I slashed where an abdomen
should be, but the blade passed straight through it. An oily finger extended to
touch me. The beacon kicked against my chest like a hammer. My chest tightened
until I couldn’t breathe past the pain, and my vision blurred. The things drew
back.

Someone
was running toward us through the trees. Moments later four Khrynsani shamans
burst into the clearing. Like Piaras and me, they stopped dead at the sight of
the monsters. But unlike us, they didn’t seem surprised to see them. They
didn’t exactly look relieved either. The shamans moved to surround them,
chanting in low, sibilant whispers. I recognized some elements of a containment
spell, but of a sort that I had never been taught, nor would ever want to
learn. Perfect for monsters.

It
had no effect.

It
was the goblins’ turn to be surprised. I felt their fear, and the creatures’
hunger. They wanted us more than they wanted to obey the shamans, and the
goblins’ spells just seemed to annoy them. Maybe it was me, but annoying these
things didn’t seem like a good idea. The shamans didn’t see it that way and
kept chanting. Two of the creatures turned toward them. The eyes of the goblin
closest to us widened in disbelief.

Two
of the things glided toward him. The goblin stopped chanting and drew breath to
scream, but the creatures reached him before he had the chance. They flowed
over the spot where he had stood. Nothing remained.

A
static charge like the aftermath of lightning hung in the air. Two of the
creatures had now fed, and the others shifted restlessly, eager to do the same.
The remaining three shamans were more experienced. They didn’t run—and they
should have.

Some
of the creatures drifted closer to me and Piaras, their caution giving way to
hunger. I fought back in every way I knew. Garadin’s lessons hadn’t left me
unprepared. My repel and shielding spells were of the highest level, but
nothing worked. The more I threw at them, the tastier a morsel I became. Magic
didn’t stop them. It fed them.

The
final goblin shaman managed to scream before they took him. Then Piaras and I
had their undivided attention.

Garadin
had taught Piaras protection spells, but because of his age and inexperience, I
had assumed they were only the most basic. I was wrong.

Piaras
sang. His normally warm, rich baritone turned harsh and dark, the notes booming
and discordant. He sang in goblin, the language the creatures supposedly
obeyed, the language of dark magics. I didn’t like hearing it from Piaras. But
the monsters just ate it up. Literally.

Spells
didn’t work, sung or otherwise. Shields didn’t work. They just swallowed them
whole. The beacon thrashed against the center of my chest like a wild horse
fighting a bridle. I froze, suddenly more afraid of what I was thinking than
what the monsters were about to do. Prince Chigaru said the beacon was
connected to the Saghred. If I was connected to the beacon, I was connected to
the Saghred. The creatures ate everything I could give them. Could they eat
everything the beacon—and the Saghred—could give them? It didn’t seem to think
so. And with my life in danger, I didn’t have a choice, regardless of what the
Saghred might do to me.

There
was an opening just beyond where the creatures circled us. Both of us wouldn’t
have time to reach it, but if I could distract them long enough, Piaras might.

“Get
behind me,” I told him. “When they come after me, I want you to run.”

“I’m
not leaving you.”

“Do
it!”

Piaras
glanced sharply at me, his mouth forming the word “no.” The sound never made it
out. He saw my face and froze. His own reflected disbelief—and fear. He was
afraid of me. I didn’t know how he saw me in that instant, and I didn’t want to.
Prince Chigaru’s words came back to me. Death. He saw death reflected in my
eyes. Was that what Piaras saw now?

The
Saghred’s power was building. I couldn’t stop it any more than I could stop the
goblin-spawned things that closed on us. I couldn’t resist the power and found
that I didn’t want to. My hand went to the center of my chest. It felt like it
belonged to someone else. The leather of my doublet was no barrier. I didn’t
feel the beacon, I felt what lay beyond it—wild and whole and wide awake.

Its power
became my power. I was its instrument, but the tune was still my own.

My
ribs heaved against the pressure to keep breath in my body. The power tore its
way to the surface, a complexity of magic I never knew existed until now. That
power became a part of me, as did knowledge of a way to destroy what threatened
us. Thoughts not my own flashed like lightning through my mind, too fast for
comprehension, too complex for reason—but not too inaccessible for action.

One
of the creatures rushed us, crazed with hunger. I threw myself in front of
Piaras and into the creature before it could reach us, and before it was ready
to feed. The instant of contact opened a floodgate, releasing more power than a
thousand such creatures could consume, and threw us both to the ground. The
thing tried to separate from me to save itself, but it couldn’t. There was a
blinding flash of light, then all was still. The pressure holding me down
lifted. I opened my eyes.

The
creature was gone. They were all gone. There was nothing left.

I
felt raw and exhausted and I had the worst headache of my life. I also felt the
urge to be sick. I groaned, rolled over, and threw up. It felt like there were
hundreds of voices inside my head. Wonderful. Every magic-sensitive within
miles must have heard what had just happened. The volume was deafening. I held
my head with both hands. It didn’t help. I rolled over onto my back, gulping
air. The ground was cool and damp. Maybe if I could just shut my eyes for a
little while.

Piaras
was kneeling over me. “Raine, can you hear me? Are you all right?”

I
opened my eyes to a squint, and moved my head in what I thought was an up and
down motion. It hurt, so I stopped.

Piaras
started lifting me to my feet. “We need to go. Now.”

I
didn’t want to be on my feet, but I tried to help him as much as I could.
“Something’s coming?” I heard myself slur.

“Yes,
something’s coming.”

My
legs would have been perfectly content to wait for every Mal’Salin and goblin
in The Ruins to converge on us. The rest of me just wanted a nap. From the
sounds of things, company wasn’t going to be long in coming. It didn’t matter
if they belonged to the king, the prince, or the psycho—Piaras and I would be
just as dead.

“I’m
okay,” I told Piaras, standing on my own. I was a bit wobbly, but at least I
was upright. The ground was still looking awfully good.

He
didn’t look convinced. “You’re sure?”

I
managed a weak smile. “I can sleep when I’m dead, and that’s not going to be
tonight. Dead, that is. Sleep I’m still hoping for.”

“Perhaps
we can help you with that.”

I
knew that voice.

Paladin
Mychael Eiliesor stood squarely in the middle of the path that I judged to be
the best way out of this nightmare—and he didn’t look inclined to move. A full
complement of Guardians moved quickly and silently through the trees, putting
themselves between us and the goblins. That action I could agree with and even
be grateful for, but I doubted the same was true of Eiliesor’s intentions. The
beacon rested quietly against my skin. Coward.

A
blond human Guardian ran back to the paladin from the direction of the goblin
pursuit. “More Khrynsani shamans, sir.” The big man grinned. “Almost enough to
make it worth the trip.”

He
held a curved battle-ax in his hands, and I could feel the magic he held in
check. I think he wanted a chance to use both, though he looked like he would
enjoy using the ax more. I hoped he got what he wanted. Everyone deserved a
little happiness. He was bearded and sections of his shoulder-length hair were
braided. Myloran sea-raider stock. Uncle Ryn had a few Myloran berserkers on
his crew, and the Guardian had a familiar maniacal gleam in his eyes. He looked
like he’d fit right in with Uncle Ryn’s boys.

“Take
the men and cover our exit,” Eiliesor told him. “Do not provoke an attack.”

“What
if they attack first?” the blond Guardian asked eagerly.

“Defend
yourselves.”

The
Guardian saluted and vanished into the trees.

I
took a step back. “
Our
exit?”

“You
do know how to find trouble, Mistress Benares.”

Eiliesor
hadn’t moved, but his posture told me he would be on me in an instant if I
moved again. I decided to stay put, for the moment. I let my breath out slowly
and relaxed my shoulders, ready to spring. His movements perfectly mirrored
mine.

“It’s
not like I have to look far,” I said. “Trouble usually finds me, especially
lately.”

The
Guardian smiled, and I had to admit the effect was startling. He managed to
look boyish and dangerous at the same time. “I told myself the next time I
found you, I was going to be on dry land,” he said.

I
couldn’t help but smile back at him. “I won’t apologize for the dunking in the
canal yesterday morning. A girl’s got to protect her privacy.”

“I’m
no trouble, Mistress Benares. At least not to you.” His smile vanished, replaced
with something surprisingly like concern. “You would do yourself and your
spellsinger friend a great service if you would believe that. For your own
safety, I need the two of you to come with me.”

I
glanced at Piaras. Everyone recognized what he was. Did he have “spellsinger”
written on his forehead or something? Piaras was looking at the elven Guardian
with wide-eyed awe. Great. I didn’t need this now.

“She
plays a dangerous game, Guardian,” came a smooth and cultured voice from behind
us. “As do you.”

Sarad
Nukpana was standing not ten feet away, looking at Piaras and me with
bright-eyed interest. Still darkly beautiful, still just as deadly.