The Dread: The Fallen Kings Cycle: Book Two (13 page)

Never before had Aidane felt a spirit in such torment. The hollowed soul screamed in agony, lashing through Aidane’s body and violently pushing aside her own spirit. The possession was brutal, as if she were being pulled apart from the inside, and while Aidane fought her attacker, she knew she could not hold out for long. The two armed guardsmen had their swords drawn, but they looked around as if unsure what to do.

“Put down the knife, Aidane.” It was Kolin’s voice, and to Aidane’s complete shock, she realized she was holding one of the knives from the sideboard that was set with an after-dinner repast of cheeses, fruit, and wine.

Aidane’s entire body swayed with the effort to contain the hollowed spirit as Aidane fought for control. She called out to the palace ghosts to help her, but the other spirits fled from the dark power of the ghost that struggled to possess her. The dark spirit had no goal other than vengeance and a hunger to shed blood. Against her will, the revenant propelled her toward the others, although everything in her screamed for her body to obey her command.

I won’t let it use me to do this
. The ghost was wild, uncontrolled, and Aidane’s movements were not coordinated. She knew at any second that Kolin would rush her, and she feared that she might plunge the knife into his heart, driven by the vengeful spirit that possessed her. Its howls of agony were making it difficult for her to think, drowning out her concentration in its consuming pain. Nothing would satisfy this tortured spirit except blood, and Aidane guessed that if she tried to cast the knife away, the spirit might find a new body to inhabit, one less able to fight it. If it possessed Jonmarc… Kolin… the guards… the result would be a bloodbath.

She was still halfway across the room from the others, who had pressed against the wall. The hollowed ghost was shrieking for her to run, and her body was beginning to carry itself faster and faster in lurching, unsure steps. Aidane glanced up and met Berry’s eyes for a second, and then managed the only resistance open to her. As the ghost’s attention focused on its would-be victims, Aidane turned the knife in her hand and let the momentum of her off-balance attack take her to the ground.

The knife plunged into her stomach, and the searing pain Aidane felt was her own, coupled with the screams of the hollowed spirit as it realized that this was all the death it would cause. As she fell, Kolin threw himself over her as one of the guard’s swords sang through the air. Berry’s cry of “Halt!” came an instant too late, and Aidane heard the sickening sound of the sword blade connecting with Kolin’s flesh.

It hurt to breathe, and her hands were covered with her own blood. Then it felt as if something hit her hard, and Aidane realized that Daciana’s spirit was forcing its way inside her dying body. Aidane was too spent to protest, but to her amazement, Daciana’s spirit crashed against the tormented spirit of the hollowed ghost. Aidane thought the attacker would be thrown free, but Daciana’s spirit glowed brighter as it fought the angry ghost, wresting it away from Aidane and binding it in strands of light.

I will fight for you
. It was Daciana’s voice, whispered from within Aidane’s mind. The spirit adviser’s voice was calm, but everywhere around them, voices raised in alarm.

Someone rolled Kolin from where he lay atop her, and Aidane could hear Jonmarc cursing under his breath. “Get a healer before we lose both of them!” Jonmarc shouted,
and Aidane heard the distant pounding of footsteps as a guard ran to do his bidding.

“Mine looks worse than it is,” Kolin said, his voice taut with pain. “I’ll heal.”

“Your back is laid open to the ribs.”

“I’ll heal. Take care of Aidane.”

To Aidane’s surprise, the queen knelt beside Jonmarc, heedless of the growing pool of Aidane’s blood and Kolin’s ichor that spread across the floor. “She did this to protect us, Jonmarc. I saw it in her eyes before she fell.”

“I know.” Jonmarc looked from Berry to the guards near the door. “Where is the healer?” His voice was angry, and his body spoke of frustrated motion, but in his eyes, Aidane read fear, and she knew just how well-founded that fear was.

Aidane felt a growing coldness. She had stopped trying to staunch the flow of blood, and although Jonmarc pressed a cloth against the wound, blood was slowly coloring the cloth a bright red. Kolin’s cool hand gripped her own blood-soaked fingers.

“Help’s coming, Aidane,” Kolin whispered. She couldn’t see the damage the guard’s sword had done to Kolin’s back, but she knew it must be substantial to cause the tightening she heard in his voice. He might have survived a strike that would have killed a mortal, but he was obviously in a great deal of pain because of it.

“Get over here now!” Jonmarc barked as a green-robed figure swept into the room. The healer knelt next to her, and Aidane could see a worried expression on the face of the older man as he let his hand hover over her, using his healing magic to read her condition.

“She’s losing blood fast,” he murmured. “I’ll need help—”

“With the queen’s permission, we offer our services.” The voice was deep and rich, heavily accented in the consonant-heavy overtones of the Markian language. The hem of an ochre robe swirled into Aidane’s line of sight.

“Please, do whatever you can,” Berry replied, and for once, Aidane thought that the queen sounded like the young girl that she was.

A new face filled Aidane’s view, although the images were beginning to blur and Aidane felt as if she were spinning. The ebony-skinned man met Aidane’s eyes and fixed her with his gaze. He began to chant in a language she did not understand, but she caught one word:
Daciana
.

Inside her own head, the yellow-robed ghost girl responded with a singsong chant. Aidane felt Daciana’s spirit fill her with warmth. Other ghosts were crowding close, drawn to the nearness of death, anxious to possess Aidane in her dying moments to own a living body once more, even if only for a few seconds. Aidane knew she was too weak to fight them off.
Don’t let them take me
, she murmured in her mind.

I can’t hold them all off and hold onto you
, Daciana’s spirit replied,
but my companions can. Will you open yourself to us?

Too weak to reply, Aidane dropped the last battered vestiges of her mental shielding, trusting Daciana’s companion spirits to reach her before the hungry interlopers.

Aidane’s whole body bucked and began to shake as the spirits she had seen clustered around the
Hojun
priests slipped into her, filling her, leaving no space for the marauders who snarled and snapped in frustration.

“You’re losing her!” Dimly, Aidane heard Kolin’s angry voice.

Both of the
Hojun
priests were chanting now, and Aidane could hear the healer’s murmured words interspersed amid the chanting. She felt as if she were floating, and the shearing pain had dulled to an almost-bearable agony, though it felt distant, not really her own. The room around her was crowded, but inside her mind was crowded, too, and Aidane longed for the sweet peace of darkness that would make all the myriad voices be silent.

She is not Eastmark-born
.

She is one of us in her gift. Can you not sense that?

Her ways are strange to us
.

She reunites dead lovers, and you join body and flesh of supplicant and goddess. There’s nothing strange about it
. Aidane recognized the heated voice as Daciana’s, and she was fairly sure that the other voice was of the old man’s spirit that she had glimpsed in the company of the
Hojun
.

Not all blood likeness shows on the outside, old man. Look at me and my wolf
. The sullen dark-haired spirit shifted into the image of a large, dark wolf.
She is more like us than not
.

The rhythm of the
Hojun
chant changed, and it caught the attention of the wolf-spirit. Whatever the priests were saying also brought the stawar spirit to attention. It was a massive cat, lithe and heavily muscled, the ultimate predator. Aidane saw both the wolf and the stawar freeze as if hearing something she did not, and their spirit forms tensed as if their prey was in sight. The
Hojun
priests uttered one guttural word in unison, and both of the spirit animals sprang forward.

At that same instant, Daciana released the shadowed remnant of the hollowed spirit that she had bound. The stawar and the wolf spirits sprang on it and Aidane felt the rush of their power surge through her, convulsing her body. Distantly, she heard a woman scream.

The stawar and the wolf seized their prey, using their powerful claws and teeth to shred through the shrieking revenant. Its screams filled Aidane’s mind and issued from her mouth. Stawar and wolf were consuming the darkness, slashing it into dark ribbons and gulping it down, and Aidane felt the darkness tear loose, feeling as if fire flowed through her veins. Powerful hands gripped her shoulders as her body arched and writhed. Far away, she could hear arguing voices and the hum of a low chant.

Suddenly, she was free. Her body collapsed, utterly spent. Darkness of another kind, sweet unconsciousness, rushed up to salve her wounds.

You’re safe now
. It was Daciana’s voice, and while the voice seemed close enough to have been whispered in her ear, Aidane knew that the spirit spoke within her mind.
I promise you, we will leave you more gently than we entered, when we are sure that no more harm will come to you
.

Aidane awoke in a bed. She lay on her back with fresh, clean linens beneath her and covering her, and the sleeve she glimpsed was of a nightgown she did not own.
I’m dead and they’ve prepared me for burial
.

The thought crossed her mind for a brief and frightening instant, and then Aidane realized that the fear caused her heart to pound in response. Not quite dead then…

“You’re safe.” Kolin’s voice sounded nearby. Aidane
opened her eyes gingerly, afraid that light would hurt. She found Kolin sitting on a chair that had been pulled near the bed, and she realized she was in her room. He gave a tired smile, but Aidane saw concern in his eyes. “That was close.”

Aidane listened in her mind for the voices of Daciana and her companion spirits, but all was quiet. “They’re gone.”

Kolin indicated the room around them. “Just barely. Those two
Hojun
priests insisted on following us when we carried you up here. Vittor, the healer, stayed with you for several candlemarks. What’s more is that the queen refused to leave your room until Vittor assured her that you would live.”

“Does she know?” Her own voice sounded scratchy and faint. Kolin held a glass of water and gently helped her sit to take a sip.

“Know what?”

“That I meant her no harm. It was the spirit, the hollowed one…”

Kolin nodded. “The
Hojun
priests confirmed that there was an evil spirit, and they said their spirit envoys had destroyed it. The queen knew that you turned the knife on yourself to save her.” There was a note of anger to his voice. “Dammit, Aidane! Why didn’t you signal me? I could have held you back without nearly killing you.”

“I was afraid… that it might try to possess you… or Jonmarc, or the guards. I wanted to destroy it.”

“By destroying yourself?”

“If necessary.”

Whatever reply Kolin intended to make was cut off when the door opened. Jonmarc entered, followed by
Prince Gethin. Kolin’s eyes widened for an instant, and he drew back. “She’s only just awakened,” Kolin said with an edge of reproof.

“Gethin insisted on coming, and neither of us wanted any sword-happy guards near Aidane, so here I am,” Jonmarc replied with a shrug.

Gethin took a few steps to stand beside Aidane’s bed. For a moment, he regarded her without speaking, and she could read nothing in his black eyes. “I came to thank you for your bravery,” Gethin said in accented Common. “You stopped an attack that was clearly meant for Berwyn or for me. Either way, I am in your debt.”

“The
Hojun
…” Aidane began, but her voice trailed off, and she found that just breathing required an enormous amount of energy.

“Along with the queen’s gifted healer, the
Hojun
and their spirits cast out the attacker and helped you heal.”

“One of them… wasn’t sure about it. I’m glad he… changed his mind.”

Gethin drew a breath before speaking, and a look of chagrin crossed his face. “For many years, my people kept many things to themselves, refusing to share them with the other kingdoms. We did not marry outside our own people, and we did not share our other… gifts. It led to great sorrows. My father decreed that all that should change. I’m here as part of that change. The
Hojun
shared with you something that has never been given to someone who was not of our blood.” The last four words were edged with such a thick distaste that Gethin seemed to spit them.

“Thank you.”

Gethin exchanged a glance with Kolin and Jonmarc.
“I’m told that there are others like you, who share your talent, and that in Nargi, such a gift earns a death sentence. Jonmarc and Kolin told me that they’re part of a smuggling concern to bring valuable people out of Nargi into Dark Haven. I’ve committed ten thousand gold
veneraj
from my personal account to fund their efforts, provided that they also bring out any true
serroquettes
that they might find. I can guarantee safe passage and sanctuary in Eastmark for you, m’lady, should you choose to come, and to others of your gift.”