The Geomancer (34 page)

Flay scowled but then pointed at Gareth. “At least let me kill
him
.”

Goronwy huffed with impatience and turned toward the door with alarm. “No time! Our friends from Chengdu are losing ground up there. We were lucky to convince them to join us in the first place. I'd rather not create ill will to complicate future diplomacy. So, if you'd be so kind, bring the empress to the airship. Now!”

Flay snarled, but dutifully streaked toward Adele who still struggled to reach her faintly glowing dagger. The vampire kicked the woman in the stomach, knocking her over onto her back. Flay snatched up Adele by the collar.

Goronwy prattled on. “Flay, if there's one lesson I want to teach you people, it's that you can't learn from the dead. I want to know what makes her different. Experiments will enlighten me. Hurry now. Bring her. She'll be a useful asset to the Parisian institute.”

The vampire dragged her prisoner toward the door. Adele's gaze cast back to Gareth thrashing on his bloody perch. Their eyes met in a moment of fear. She flailed and took hold of Flay's cold wrist. She called up a rush of boiling heat. Silver smoke encircled them both, but no flesh seared.

“Stop squirming.” Flay shook Adele, bundling her roughly from the hellish chamber and up the steps out of Gareth's sight. “You can no longer hurt me.”

“I'll never stop trying,” Adele managed to grind out. She continued swiping at Flay's arm. She also struggled to get her feet under her, but it was impossible. Exhaustion gripped her as hard as Flay. They emerged into the upper temple chamber and Adele noticed a pile of wood and metal wreckage against one wall. Yidak's memory machine had been destroyed.

“Flay!” Goronwy called out in alarm.

The war chief dropped Adele on the floor. The empress's breath whooshed out, but she immediately pushed herself up onto her knees. She caught a glimpse of Flay rushing past Goronwy to intercept two figures who stood in the outer archway. Flay ducked a flash of steel that swept over her head. As Takeda spun to strike her again, Yidak barked a quick command for the samurai to see to Adele across the room, and the old vampire moved in seamlessly to engage Flay. Takeda ducked a savage blow without looking as he passed.

Yidak fought Flay in the doorway. They weaved and struck, blocking and feinting. Claws flashing. Flay hit the Demon King hard several times. Yidak scored strikes on her as well, but as the fight continued, the old vampire's expression betrayed uneasiness. His blows couldn't stagger her. He clearly had never faced a foe as skilled as she. They continued to spin and slash, silent and fast, clothing snapping with their motions. They leapt from floor to wall to ceiling, but their precisely placed feet made no sound as they fought.

Takeda knelt next to Adele with concern. His robes were torn and bloody. His voice creaked with weakness. “Good, you're alive.”

Adele tried to speak. She desperately pointed at Goronwy. Flay and Yidak moved with frightening preternatural speed, even to Adele's skilled eye. However, the old man approached the combatants without alarm and reached out his hand. A large red crystal on a thin chain dropped from his fist. Adele could sense the power coming off of it despite the distance. Yidak shuddered, jarred by the energy of the crystal. That slight hesitation was enough. Flay tore into him with both hands. She shredded his face and grabbed him by the chest. She picked the Demon King off the floor and brought him down against her upraised knee. Yidak cried out and went slack.

Takeda roared and charged Flay with his katana drawn back over his shoulder. She let Yidak tumble from her grip, her back still turned to the onrushing samurai. Goronwy slipped around them toward the doorway, the crystal still dangling in the air. Takeda staggered as its power battered him, but he still swung at Flay's exposed neck. She instantly faced him and her two hands clapped the sword between them, bringing it to a sudden stop. Takeda stared in disbelief for a second before he too found himself savaged by Flay. He stumbled. The katana fell with a clang to the stones. Takeda dropped, still trying to strike at Flay, but only ripping her silk robe.

Goronwy knelt next to the groaning Yidak. He dropped the talisman onto the old vampire's chest and Yidak screamed in agony. The proximity of the crystal also tore through the battered Takeda as he vainly struggled to reach his mentor.

There was another horn from outside, and Goronwy stepped over Yidak with a grunt of annoyance and continued quickly for the daylight. “Flay! Come!”

Flay started back toward Adele, but noticed movement overhead. Shapes slipped through cracks in the high dome of the temple, crawling along the ceiling. Five of Yidak's monks hissed their anger when they saw their leaders writhing below. They drifted down to the floor around Adele.

Goronwy's voice came from just outside. “Flay! We have what we need. Attend me!”

Flay's eyes locked on Adele from across the chamber. With a sneer of fury, Flay turned and followed the Witchfinder out into the light.

The monks looked down at Adele with blank stares and grimaces of pain. They pushed and bobbed as if they tried to go to Yidak and Takeda, but they couldn't fight into the searing power of Goronwy's talisman.

Adele heard the faint sound of buoyancy gases roaring outside. With the vampire monks hissing impotently, she half staggered, half dragged herself across the floor to Yidak and Takeda. Smoke rose from the old vampire's chest and he had lapsed into a quivering palsy. The crystal leaked geomantic forces like a cracked steam engine. Takeda now lay nearly senseless beside his master, but he still fought to reach the talisman.

Adele's hand fell onto the crystal and she snatched it up. This was a geomancy she understood, and had mastered. She closed her fist around the talisman as if she could crush it with brute strength. Her vision sparked and everything spun. Weakness battered her body. Still, with a grinding effort, she forced the energy back through the crystal all at once. The stone glowed bright between her fingers and collapsed into a hot liquid that drizzled to the tile floor.

Adele fell over. Yidak coughed and clutched his burnt chest. The monks now raced forward to their master. Adele's arms felt like rubber. Her boneless fingers couldn't grasp anything. She gritted her teeth, feeling blood dripping along her cheek. Her face lay helpless against the floor.

Gareth put a hand on her back and leaned close to her face.

Adele grabbed him and held him for a second to be sure he was real and not an illusion. His chest and arms held numerous jagged wounds where he had ripped himself free. She groaned, “Anhalt?”

“He's alive.” Gareth pointlessly wiped blood from her face with his bloody hand.

Adele wanted to hold him, protect him, heal him. Instead, she hissed out, “Stop him. Please, stop Goronwy.”

Gareth didn't speak as he reeled to his feet. He paused to look at Yidak, but the old vampire waved him on with an agonized smile of relief. Adele then heard him padding heavily toward the door.

C
HAPTER 33

Gareth broke from the main temple, dragging in a lungful of frigid air to stir himself. He ignored the dreadful grinding of bones inside his chest and stumbled for the nearest open rampart, where he launched himself into the air. Blood from his wounds dripped slowly to the Earth. The sky was full of Chengdu fighters, but few paid any attention to him. The battle had come to a confusing close, and they were wandering off, unsure if they had won or lost, trying only to survive the continuing attacks by Yidak's monks.

The clouds had thinned. Goronwy's airship sailed south for the end of the valley. It was unable to escape by climbing over the surrounding peaks. Every bit of wretched canvas was stretched on the yards, trying to gain speed.

As Gareth came in range, humans at the rails opened fire. Long orange tongues flashed from muzzles. A few bullets whizzed close. A ragged volley of cannon fire belched from the ship's flank with an exhale of black smoke. He veered away from the projectiles barreling toward him just as the bellow of the cannon finally rolled over him. Gareth rose to put the hazy sun behind him and he dove for the masts. His claws raked through a mainsail. The wind quickly battered the rips into great flapping holes, and the ship lurched and slowed.

Something slammed into him from above. Flay. The power of her strike drove them both tumbling through the jungle of yards and shrouds until they crashed against the deck. Their impact cracked the rotting planks. More of Gareth's ribs snapped. He shoved her off him. Bloodmen wheeled toward them but held their fire, most likely for fear of hitting their war chief. Flay had always been sinfully fast and strong, but there was something more furious about her now, almost animalistic and regressive.

She rolled to her feet and came at Gareth without pause for breath. Barely blocking her strikes, he maneuvered for room. Gareth shifted to the side, and as her arm went past he drove his claws into her side. She countered with a blow of her own, nearly taking his arm off. Blood splattered the deck.

Leaping up into the air, Gareth planted his foot on the back of her neck and shoved her forward and down. Across the deck, the bearded old man watched the battle with fascination, fingering the chain of another talisman. Gareth used his momentum to fly at Goronwy. His arm lifted to claw the old man down and end this.

A bloodman stepped suddenly between them and took the blow meant for Goronwy. It ripped him in half. The body knocked against Gareth and threw him off balance. The Witchfinder stepped up and looped the talisman's chain over Gareth's head before stepping back with a smile.

Instinctively Gareth expected excruciating pain. It didn't come. In fact, he felt nothing. The surprise on Goronwy's face told him it wasn't what the Witchfinder expected either. He couldn't have known. Adele's geomancy had changed Gareth forever.

Gareth went to strike at Goronwy again, but Flay grabbed him from behind. Her claws opened the flesh on his shoulder. She grabbed his exposed collarbone and flung him aside. He smashed into the rail, scattering the sluggish human crew. Three of them went screaming over the side. Gareth snapped upright as two vampires grabbed his arms. With a cry of rage, he slammed them together, then catapulted the stunned forms overboard.

His strength was fading fast. He had lost too much blood. He needed a few minutes to feed and regain his vigor, but the nearest human was now scrambling away across the deck.

Flay rushed Gareth again. He leapt aside, creating the space he needed to land a blow on her spine. She crashed into the deck. Gareth pulled the talisman from his neck and wrapped it around hers.

Flay laughed through bloody teeth and pushed herself to her feet. “Did you really think that would work?”

Gareth moved warily as she did. “It was worth a try.”

“You and I are no longer affected by the wielders of the Earth.” Her robe was shredded and Gareth caught a glimpse of the huge scars that cut across her flesh almost like a cage. “So the playing field is even once again.”

Gareth didn't understand, but he didn't reply. He was already moving. Flay was the only thing he had ever feared, even when they fought on the same side. Now she was even more dangerous. The hatred on her face wasn't just for him. She stared at everyone, including Goronwy, with the same contempt.

Gareth vaulted over a capstan toward the Witchfinder. Goronwy was the priority. With him dead, humanity would be safe. Adele would be safe.

Flay, instead of rushing Gareth again, tore a carronade from its lashings and heaved it across the deck. The small cannon struck Gareth's hip and sent him sprawling into a morass of torn rigging. The iron cannon crashed against the side of the ship, taking out the rail. It teetered on the edge, tangled in the cables and shreds of sails that littered the deck.

Gareth staggered to his feet, his leg almost a dead weight. Blood saturated his hip. He didn't feel the tangled ropes about his legs until the cannon tipped over the side and the lines tightened. It pulled him off his feet and yanked him along the deck through the shattered rail. He saw the sky below the airship and a lake-studded plateau far below. His claws dug furrows into the planks, clutching jagged wood as the weight of the cannon tore at him. He reached a hand back, trying to slash at the ropes tangling him. Suddenly Flay was there swinging one of the heavy teak spokes she had snapped off the capstan. He couldn't protect himself.

A bright light exploded in front of his eyes and then darkness enveloped him. The world melted. Then he was airborne. He plummeted. More light shoved its way into his dazed brain. He fought the hurricane of wind, reaching for his tangled legs.

Then there was another jarring explosion and the world went from white to dark. He was surrounded by a choking blackness. Gareth snapped back to awareness as he realized he had fallen into the lake far below the ship.

Fear almost paralyzed him. He thrashed at the water. The sun above him was a watery circle that was fast disappearing from view. The mass of the cannon still lashed to his legs dragged him down into the darkness.

Gareth screamed and watched his breath disappear in a wave of bubbles back up to the surface. He tore at the ropes binding him, taking chunks of his own flesh in his desperation. But he finally kicked free. Hands clawing through water, he fought his way toward the shimmering light far above him. His chest ached to breathe. His vision narrowed to a mere pinprick of light and he reached for it.

He breached the surface with a massive gasp. He had time for only one gulp of air before he sank again, his clothes heavy and his arms leaden weights. Terrified, he struggled again to rise. When he broke the surface once more, his arms flailed about. No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't free himself. He couldn't lift up out of the water.

The sodden bulk of his coat pulled at him with nearly the same drag as the cannon. He shrugged it off, slipping beneath the icy water again. He floundered his way back up, managing another shallow gasp of air. This time he caught a glimpse of a distant shore in all directions, and he despaired.