Soul Weaver: A Fantasy Novel (8 page)

Shel swallowed nervously. She knew Sanook didn’t think she was up to this, but the Shadowman had kept his opinions to himself ever since the day Rez let her in on his plans. Their training sessions had continued – in fact, they had grown far more intense over the four days before the gang started out for this ambush.

Rez and the rest of the gang were depending on her to retrieve the souls. It wasn’t a task even Sanook had been able to prepare her for. Rez told her the method could only be learned from the vague, hidden memories Aemond had passed on to her along with his soul. It had taken her hours just to pick out some of these faint memories, and days to find the right ones that would teach her how to collect the souls. No one else in the gang knew how to do it, and she wouldn’t have known where to begin teaching someone else. She was on her own.

The cross-country journey had taken two full days, and Sanook had drilled her every step of the way. Aside from his relentless exercises, Shel had needed every spare moment to practice the soul-gathering technique she had learned from Aemond’s memories.

She was completely worn out by the time they reached the small, dense thicket of trees beside the King’s Road. She had dropped to the ground and been asleep within moments, and it seemed like only moments more before Rez had shaken her awake. That had been an hour ago. Her stomach had twisted and turned and crawled around her belly every minute of that hour. Was she ready, truly ready for this? Shel didn’t know. She certainly hoped so.

“I don’t have much choice,” she told the Shadowman. His dark eyes studied her through the slits of his mask, but as always she couldn’t see his face. She had no idea what he was thinking.

“Stick with Rez,” he told her urgently. “Follow his lead. You won’t be alone out there. And remember, the rest of us will be nearby. Everything’s going to be fine.”

Sanook turned and crawled away to join the others. Maul and Kal were there, with about a dozen more members of the gang. Shel had overheard something about another group being sent after one of the other archons. She realized she still didn’t know everyone, or even how many people were in this gang of Rez’s. There was so much she didn’t know about her new family.

This wasn’t the time to worry about that, she told herself. Just another distraction. Focus. She held her hand up in front of her face and pictured her soul extending from the fingers as smoky tendrils. She wanted to make sure the power was still there. She was really spooked. She’d never felt this way before a job before.

She felt eyes on her. Shifting her position, she saw Rez staring at her from a few feet away. He nodded his head very slowly when he saw her looking. Nervously, she returned the gesture.

Rez peeked over the ridge again, lifting one hand on a stiffly extended arm behind him. He closed his fingers suddenly in a tight fist: that was the signal. Almost before Shel even recognized the motion, Rez had thrown himself over the cresting ridge into action. She jumped to her feet and raced after him, only distantly aware of the others charging out of the thicket.

The convoy stretched out along the road in front of her. A dozen heavily armored men marched out front, holding long pikes at the ready. Behind them came the horses pulling the ornately decorated carriage. Behind that, more soldiers and then another carriage – smaller, large enough only for a single occupant. That must be the archon. All around and behind this carriage were dozens more armsmen bearing swords, crossbows, and pikes. It seemed they all turned to look directly at her, all at once.

Shel heard shouting. The gang surged over the ridge and rushed down on the road. Maul led the charge on the front. The giant swung a heavy club of solid oak; the club was nearly as large as some of the startled soldiers. Six men followed the giant, shouting their war cries and brandishing swords.

At the rear of the convoy, Kal led the other wave. The honey-haired thief carried twin daggers in her hands. Shel knew the other woman carried at least two dozen more knives concealed in her clothes. Six men followed her, armed with swords and daggers. They descended on the convoy’s rearguard howling their challenge.

The convoy exploded into chaos. Archers hidden in trees to either side of the road poured arrows into the mix. The ambush had been intricately planned by Rez. Of course, the plan involved a lot of fighting.

Shel gasped as she saw Maul strike the first of the pikemen out front. The massive club, wielded by the biggest hulk of a man Shel had ever seen, struck the soldier full on his heavily armored chest with a loud crack. Shel saw the plate armor buckle and dent even as the pikemen was lifted bodily off the ground and hurled through the air to crash down a dozen feet away. Maul plowed ahead, striking another man in the face and crushing his skull in an instant.

Shel found Rez, a few paces ahead of her and racing for the carriage that was their main objective. Her heart pounded in time with her churning feet as she struggled to keep up. She had to remember her part in all of this.

A soldier came out of nowhere, charging straight for her. Shel tried to slow her headlong rush, but she was going to crash right into him. She saw his wild eyes and furious snarling lips, saw the sword in his arms coming up to gut her. Half a dozen feathered shafts suddenly blossomed from his chest and neck. Blood spurted, splashing over Shel’s face as the soldier dropped to his knees and lost his sword. She jumped over him and left him behind.

Two men lowered their pikes and charged Kal. She ducked beneath the wickedly barbed blade of one, spun around and leaped into the air. Her jump carried her over the second pike. She landed adroitly, spinning on nimble feet to drive one of her long daggers into the second pikeman’s belly between two plates of armor. The man screamed in pain and surprise as Kal ripped him open. The honey-haired thief moved on before the soldier fell.

The other pikeman tried to turn, but she was behind him in a flash. With a wordless shout, she drove both daggers point down into the base of the man’s neck. Her wrists were crossed, and she pulled her arms apart. The twin blades passed each other as they tore the man’s neck apart. Gouts of blood were flung in either direction as the blades ripped free. Kal spun away from the dying man, already seeking her next opponent.

Sanook stood on the crest of the ridge. Beneath his mask, his eyes were closed and his lips moved in silent incantations. He could “see” everything before him with his mystical senses. Every arrow loosed by the bowmen concealed in the trees was his to command. He steered this one to ensure it found its target; he knocked that one aside, preventing it from striking one of their own men.

When the archon’s crossbowmen loosed shafts at the howling raiders, Sanook blasted the bolts aside to strike harmlessly into the dirt alongside the road.

To a Soulweaver’s eyes, the Shadowman on the ridge was aglow with a raging torrent of power. Misty white tendrils encircled him in a whirling maelstrom; crackling bolts of energy writhed around his outstretched arms and occasionally lanced out to strike one of the heavily armored soldiers. He called down lightning from the skies, panicking the horses and cooking pikemen in their armor like spitted meat over a fire.

Sanook could sense every member of the raiding party. He felt their fear and the wild confusion of other emotions, heightened by the madness of battle. He soothed their fears and leant some of his strength to each member of the gang. He was their strength, he was their resolve.

One of the crossbowmen spied the robed figure on the ridge. The soldier was no weaver, didn’t even possess a soul other than his own – to his eyes, Sanook was just a strange man in robes standing in plain sight with his arms outstretched. He sighted carefully and fired; his aim was true, and the crossbow bolt flew straight for the Shadowman’s throat. A full three feet shy of its target, the shaft of wood and steel stopped dead in midair and disintegrated.

A moment later, lightning sliced down out of the clear sky and found the crossbowman. The soldier screamed as his flesh was seared.

Rez and Shel reached the carriage. The leader sprinted to a halt, turning to catch the still-running Shel in his arms and catapult her up on to the roof. Shel jumped into his arms, and Rez tossed her up high. She had to grab hold of the carriage roof and cling for purchase, but she made it. She glanced down at Rez.

“Get to it,” he shouted up at her. “Quick as you can. I'll deal with Thorne!” Then he was gone, running toward the second, smaller carriage in which the Archon himself traveled. Maul and Kal’s teams could handle the soldiers with Sanook providing cover, but Archon Thorne was a powerful weaver who could likely kill them all.

Shel watched Rez go for a moment, then shook herself. She had work to do. Kneeling atop the carriage, she closed her eyes and tried not to think about the battle raging all around her. She felt exposed and defenseless. She would have to trust the others to keep the soldiers at bay, and Sanook would keep watch over her and prevent any arrows from striking her. Shel took a deep breath, reached within herself, and began forming the complex weave necessary to extract the souls from the enchanted gemstones Thorne used to transport them.

Rez ducked a slashing sword and dodged around the out-thrust end of a pike. Gritting his teeth, he resisted the urge to turn and fight. He had to reach Thorne, or they’d all be lost.

Rez studied the small carriage. The Archon would be inside. Rez couldn’t understand why Thorne hadn’t come out yet, but he had long ago learned not to question strokes of fortune. He slowed his mad dash as he drew nearer, preparing his first combat weave.

Shel’s eyes flew open. Something was wrong, terribly wrong. According to Aemond’s memories – if she understood them correctly – she should be able to sense the souls trapped in gemstones. Rez had told her the jewels would be packed in chests, but that should make no difference. She couldn’t sense anything within the carriage. Nothing at all…

She looked up, casting her eyes around desperately. The pitched battle continued on all sides. Men screamed and died. Blood spilled on the earth, soaking into the layer of dust laying over the stone-paved highway. Steel rang on steel, interspersed with lightning bolts hurled down from the clear blue sky. Shel saw Rez, two paces from Thorne’s carriage with outstretched arms and curled fingers. The air around his hands was distorted as if from intense heat, the only sign of his weaving visible to her. The others wouldn’t see even that.

Shel was confused. Everything was going according to plan. From the corner of her eye, she saw Kal whirling in place, flinging daggers that flew true to their targets. With a maddened battle roar, Maul crashed his heavy club down on a soldier’s head, crushing helmet and skull both. Sanook still stood on the ridge. Everyone was in place. But the souls weren’t there.

“It’s a trap,” she realized. Feeling the blood drain from her face, Shel stood up and looked around frantically. “It’s a trap!” She shouted as loud as she could, but her friends couldn’t hear her over the deafening cacophony of the battlefield. Her words melted beneath the clatter of steel, the bellowed challenges and beseeching wails of pain.

The small carriage exploded without warning.

Roiling flame and thick, black smoke poured forth and rapidly spread over the raging battle. Rez was flung backwards by the force of the blast, flying through the air before slamming into the dirt beside the highway. Dazed, he shook his head and struggled to rise.

In the next instant, the soldiers appeared. They came from the far side of the King’s Road, where they had lain concealed in the tall grass. There were dozens of them, more than a hundred. More kept coming behind. Shel stopped trying to count, spinning away from the sight in a panic.

She was about to jump down, with no real plan after that, when the carriage roof buckled and splintered at her feet. Shel looked down, stupefied. A second blow from within, and the roof cracked open. A blur of motion shot upward, rising above the level of the roof to hover in mid-air right in front of her. She looked up in horror and saw it was a man.

Archon Thorne wasn’t young, but neither was he old. It was impossible to put an age to him, actually. In a certain light, he might appear aged and worn. Now, in the bright sun, he glowed with vibrance and youth. All except for his eyes: the eyes were black pits of ancient hate.

He was a tall, slender man with unruly brown hair that curled slightly as it fell around his aristocratic features. Thick, sensuous lips were curled back in a mocking sneer to reveal perfectly straight, even teeth that had been filed to sharp points. The Archon wore rich robes of velvet and silk, purple and jade with golden trim. Gold and silver rings glinted from every finger, and jewels sparkled from most. A heavy amulet hung from a thick golden chain around his neck; the amulet itself was a golden disk engraved with a sinuous-rayed sun, emblem of the Golden Empire.

Archon Thorne hung in the air, his feet dangling more than six inches above the shattered carriage roof. His out-flung arms crackled visibly with energy and the air all about him shimmered with the same heat-haze distortion Shel saw around Rez or Sanook when they used their weaving. The Archon glared down at her, and she could practically
feel
his palpable hatred rippling off of him in waves.

“Oh, no,” she whispered.

“May the summer never end!” answered Thorne, and then he wove their destruction.

Sanook watched in horror as the plan fell to pieces.

Shel was atop the carriage, but something was wrong. The Shadowman saw her rise from her crouch and shout, but distance and the clamor of battle kept any sound from reaching him on his ridge. Sanook squinted behind his mask, trying to make out the words.

The roar of the explosion stunned him. Sanook whipped his head around, looking to the source of the cacophony. He saw Rez flung through the air like a boneless doll. In the same moment Sanook became aware of the others.

They hadn’t been there before, he was sure of it. He would have felt them.