Storms (Sharani Series Book 2) (28 page)

“Well,” a cool voice said in the darkness. “It appears I may have underestimated you yet again, outcast.”

Gavin looked up as the sword skittered across the ground behind him. A few sparks flew through the air further down the passage and then a lantern, this time an oil one, flared to life. The flame cast a yellow-orange glow over Kaiden’s aged, wrinkled face.

“The Sisters are the knife threatening at the neck of the entire nation, and the balm which calms the wound. Were this text placed before them, this scholar’s life would be forfeit without further question.”

—From
Commentary on the
Schema, Volume I

Gavin felt fresh sweat bead on his forehead.

So much for the plan.

“People do make a habit of underestimating me,” he said with more confidence than he actually felt.

The man who had lit the lamp set it on the ground and stepped into the light, which cast an illuminating glow over him. The other man moved up on Kaiden’s other side. Both drew swords. The man on his left held the greatsword Gavin had pulled from the top of the Oasis wall.

“You’re lucky you didn’t kill Sarial,” Kaiden said, eyes and expression as hard as stone. “Or you’d already be dead. As it is, your death now will be a slow one.”

Gavin suppressed a shiver, then noticed the way Kaiden was standing. The man’s knees were locked, but he swayed ever so slightly, as if he was having trouble keeping his balance. The jaw Gavin had originally assumed was clenched in anger took on a new light. Was Kaiden really just doing his best to stay on his feet?

“You’re pretty confident in your two friends here, then?” Gavin asked, stalling. It was three against one and even if Kaiden was barely managing to stay on his feet, the other two looked more than capable of cutting him to ribbons. Gavin didn’t recognize either of them, but he assumed they were members of Kaiden’s original clan. The tunnel was narrow, barely wide enough for the two of them to stand to either side of Kaiden. Even still, they had to turn slightly to give them all space.

“You’re pretty calm for someone who’s about to die,” one of the men said.

Gavin grinned and winked at the man, though he was busy scanning the area for a means of escape or, at the very least, a weapon of some sort with which he could defend himself. His eyes fell on a loose stone studded with bits of grey metal about the size of his fist. A vague fragment of a plan began to come together. The earlier diversion had worked well against Sarial. If he could make it work again he might stand a chance.

“I’ll make you guys a deal,” Gavin said. “Kaiden is clearly too weak to do much of anything other than make some empty threats. I’ll fight the both of you at once, if you like, but allow me a weapon at the very least.”

“Why would we do that?” the other man asked, the cruel humor in his voice sounding of metal over wet leather.

“Well,” Gavin said, bending down and retrieving the stone with one hand. “My weapon will be this rock. If the two of you can’t beat a guy with a rock when you have swords then I’d imagine you’re not at all worthy of Kaiden’s confidence.”

The two men laughed, though they didn’t move to attack him. Kaiden swayed a little more and the light from the lamp at his feet flickered across his face.

“Finish the fool,” Kaiden hissed.

Gavin drew in the energy in a rush and willed it into the rock. It came ablaze with crackling sparks and grew hot in Gavin’s hand with a rapidity that stunned him. Before the two men could move, Gavin brought his arm back and snapped it forward in a well-aimed throw. Confusion passed over the faces of Kaiden and his two companions briefly, since the rock was clearly not aimed at any of them, before the rock connected with the glass lantern. Both it and the rock exploded into glowing shards.

Bits of rock, glass, and lamp oil flew everywhere, crackling with white-hot energy and covering the sandy floor, part of the walls, and all three men that clustered around it. For one heartbeat Kaiden, his companions, and Gavin all looked on in shocked silence mixed with disbelief, then the oil ignited.

Flames leapt up all three of the men, though the majority of the oil landed on Kaiden. Kaiden’s two companions screamed and dropped their swords. Bits of glass and rock stuck up from their legs, their hands, and faces. Gavin stumbled back from the sudden flaring light. Kaiden stumbled forward, hands beating at the flames that raced up his loose clothes. His two companions turned and scrambled back the way they had come, their screams of pain echoing back down the passageway over the sound of crackling flames.

Gavin stumbled backward even further, coughing now against the smoke which billowed and filled the passageway with a thick black cloud. Normally, lamp oil wasn’t that flammable, but the rock and energy must have been hot enough to ignite it all at once. The smoke stung his eyes and Gavin snapped them shut. The smoke wouldn’t normally have been so bad, but in the cramped confines of the tunnel, his eyes watered as they struggled to expel the noxious gas. He coughed as the screams of Kaiden’s two companions faded away.

A hand closed around Gavin’s leg.

Despite the smoke and stinging pain, Gavin opened his eyes and looked down through the haze of smoke. Kaiden held Gavin’s leg in a powerful grip. Kaiden had managed to smother the flames, but not before they had eaten away most of his hair. His face shone red through the smoke. A few small bits of glass dotted his face.

“You fool,” Kaiden croaked, voice even more hoarse and gravelly than it had been before. “I am your only hope to escape this place before the rest of the Orinai come.”

Gavin tried to pull free of Kaiden’s grip, but the man’s hand was like an iron manacle on his leg. Kaiden crawled forward and then rose onto unsteady feet, using his grip on Gavin as leverage. Gavin kicked Kaiden in the chest, sending the man stumbling backward, but he didn’t fall.

“You’re the fool,” Gavin said. “All this talk about being our last chance, our only hope. Why don’t you just tell us what it is you’re afraid of? Why go through this elaborate game? Why kill off half the Rahuli?”

Kaiden stumbled forward again. One of Sarial’s daggers zipped through the air and up into Kaiden’s hand.

“There’s no room for chaff amongst the wheat beyond the walls of the Forbiddence,” Kaiden said, taking a determined step forward. “Your naïve hope of protecting them all, of leading a “united” Rahuli people, is an imbecile’s dream. You take those who will follow you and you kill off the ones who won’t.”

“There’s a fundamental flaw in that plan of yours,” Gavin said, taking a few more steps back and blinking away the tears that formed in his eyes from the smoke.

“Enlighten me,” Kaiden said with a cough. He continued to step forward, each step a determined, concerted effort.

“Sometimes those you try to kill fight back.”

Kaiden made a noise. It took Gavin a long moment to realize he was laughing. “You won’t survive against the Orinai,” he hissed.

Gavin sensed movement behind him at the same time that Kaiden charged forward with a roar. Gavin dropped to the ground and rolled onto his back, trying not to get surrounded. A bolt of pure white energy screamed over him and hit Kaiden directly in the chest, burned through him, and continued on toward the roaring flames. It was gone in an instant.

Gavin blinked away the afterimage as Kaiden fell to his knees, dagger dropping from his limp red fingers to clatter against the rocky floor. Kaiden’s mouth opened and closed a few times, but no sound escaped his lips.

Gavin glanced backward as he rolled to his feet. Samsin strode into the light, his face a mask of steely resolve and anger.

Gavin got to his feet and strode forward in a crouch beneath the pooling smoke. He reached Kaiden as the man toppled backward. Kaiden’s mouth worked and Gavin leaned in close.

“Don’t trust them,” Kaiden breathed. Gavin waited, but the only sound which broke the silence was the crackling of slowly dying flames.

“He’s dead,” Samsin said, walking up behind him.

Gavin sensed his approach even if he couldn’t see him. No, Gavin realized, he didn’t sense Samsin. Rather, he sensed the energy that was still radiating from Samsin’s hands in slow spirals up his arms.

“If I’d known you were going to attack them,” Samsin continued in the same arrogant tone, “I would have gone with you from the beginning. You’re lucky I got here when I did.”

“I managed well enough on my own,” Gavin said. He got to his feet and walked gingerly over to the last few lingering flames to retrieve his greatsword from where it had fallen. The flames had died down as the lamp oil was consumed, but the weapon was still warm to the touch.

“If you could call it that,” Samsin said. “Anyway, they’re dead now. Let’s get back to Nikanor and away from this cursed, slave-carved place.”

“Slave-carved?” Gavin asked, gaze lingering on Kaiden’s still form for a moment. He noticed Samsin leaving and hurried after him down a side passage, away from the smoke and turned down a side passage.

Samsin snorted. “Have you lost the knowledge of your own abilities? Barbarians. Look at the walls. Do you see the layer of glass there? Your sort made these halls.”

“My sort?”

“Lesser magic users. I think you call yourselves relampago, though that’s a barbaric term,” Samsin replied in his thick accent. “Ugh. Even speaking in your tongue is barbaric.”

Relampagos had created these tunnels? The glass made sense. Gavin had noticed that when he’d first fallen down into tunnels hidden within the Oasis walls, but hadn’t thought about it again until now. He’d seen Farah working with the reddish glass knives, so it was obviously an ability common to relampagos. But how did Samsin know about it? He obviously thought of himself as something more than a relampago.

“What is this place?” Gavin asked as they walked. Gavin had to take twice as many steps as Samsin in order to keep the pace, even though Samsin walked in a half crouch.

“Speak with Nikanor when your healers get done with him,” Samsin said. “He knows the legends of this place better than I. I didn’t even think this place was real.” He paused for a long moment, then made a grumbling noise. “I guess that’s moot now. You’re here and this place is real. Like a storm blossoming on a calm sea, belief becomes irrelevant when confronted by cold reality.”

Don’t trust them
. Kaiden’s words resounded in Gavin’s mind. Samsin was clearly avoiding the question. The bolt of energy that had killed Kaiden could have just as easily killed Gavin. In fact, if Gavin hadn’t sensed the energy building behind him, he
would
have been killed, with a burning hole in his chest that mirrored Kaiden’s.

Gavin pushed those thoughts aside. At the moment, trust didn’t matter. They needed to find Nabil, if he still lived, and get out of here. He went back through his memory, trying to remember how he’d gotten out of here before.

“How are we going to get Nikanor out?” Gavin asked.

“I will carry him,” Samsin said.

Gavin’s eyebrows shot up. That didn’t seem at all like something the arrogant man would consider doing. Still, he wasn’t about to complain.

Gavin’s eyes had finally stopped watering by the time they made it back to the cell where Nikanor still lay in the soft sand. His lungs still burned and he felt like there was an itch deep within his chest that he was unable to scratch, but it was easing.

“Go get Nikanor,” Gavin said, once they reached the door. “I’ll keep watch out here.”

Samsin grumbled, but disappeared into the room. Gavin waited outside the door, trying to think where he should look for Nabil. He went to scratch the new growth on his chin and realized his hands were shaking. He took a deep breath as his whole body began to shake, the trembling shallow and light, like the shivers of an early morning chill.

He’d killed men before, but what he’d just done was something new. He’d killed using his powers. He hadn’t killed Sarial, but she was dead now as surely as the others. The smoke alone would have suffocated her if the flames hadn’t gotten her too.

It had been necessary, but his body and mind revolted against the thought. Anxiety, a racing pulse, and the rush of battle had kept the revolt at bay, but it had been there all the same just waiting for a calm moment to rear up. Gavin took a few deep, calming breaths and swallowed hard. He hoped it wouldn’t happen every time he was forced to defend himself and his people.

Noises sounded from the doorway announcing Samsin’s return. Gavin turned as Samsin sidestepped through the doorway carrying Nikanor in his arms like a mother would carry a small child. Gavin felt the small amount of energy Samsin had within him, but still, he marveled at Samsin’s strength.

“Let’s go, sl—um, what
is
your name?” Samsin’s hesitation was minimal, but it still grated and destroyed the momentary respect Gavin had started feeling toward him.

“It’s Gavin.”

Ignoring his irritation, Gavin took the lead, stopping only momentarily to grab a torch from a sconce on the wall and light it with a quick surge of energy from his hands. The power came easily now that he knew what he was doing. True, there was a little light to see by filtering down through cracks and holes in the ceiling, but he wanted more and Samsin certainly needed more to navigate the narrow tunnels.

“Do you know where you’re going?” Samsin asked before they’d even made it to the first turn.

Gavin ignored him.

They passed through several different side passages, making the same turns Gavin remembered from when Cobb had come to rescue him and Lhaurel only a few short weeks previously. It was a long journey, but Gavin assumed they were headed in the right direction mostly because he could tell they were traveling downward. He remembered coming out in the Oasis before, but he was hoping he’d be able to find the other entrances, the hidden ones Evrouin had mentioned Kaiden using to get the clans who supported him into the hidden passages and caves within these walls. Those opened up facing the rest of the Sharani Desert instead of inside the Oasis itself, which was flooded as of the last report Gavin had heard. Still, when Gavin got to the end of the hall he’d thought was the way out, a blank stone face greeted him instead.