by Nick Harrow
“Then send his ass over here,” I said. “He and I can settle this man to man.”
Several of the soldiers chuckled at that and got screamed at by their sergeants for their insolence. The commanders glared at me but didn’t respond.
We stared at one another for a good five minutes before they decided they couldn’t melt me with their collective anger and retreated to huddle up near the barges. I took that opportunity to take a deep breath and cycled my breathing to relax my muscles and help my body recuperate before the next round of attacks. It would take those dickweeds time to prepare their troops for battle.
You need a better plan.
Mielyssi appeared in my mind’s eye. She stalked through the darkness of my thoughts, her naked body gleaming like ivory under a full moon. Slashes of red war paint stained her cheeks and forehead, and a feral gleam burned in her eyes.
“I’m open to suggestions,” I said. My heart ached to hold her. She felt so real, as if she stood right in front of me, ready and willing to be taken. I wanted to go back to the time before all this shit had started, back to our time together, alone.
That’s not how this works.
I didn’t know whether she meant my wish to return to Mount Shiki or my request for advice, and she didn’t clarify. She was inches away from me now, at least in my mind, and she studied me so intently it was hard to bear.
I’ve given you gifts. Use them or die.
I couldn’t hold back any longer. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her lithe body against mine. My lips found hers in a frenzied crush of passion, and the kiss burned itself into my soul.
“Don’t go,” I begged. “Together—”
We are already together. Do not waste what I’ve given you, Kyr.
“What the fuck does that mean?” I shouted.
But Mielyssi was gone.
The troops had gathered on the other side of the barrier. This time, they’d formed up into ten columns, each four soldiers wide. The long formations snaked back into the water beyond the boats, and each soldier leaned forward against the soldier ahead of them. They advanced, slow and steady, their sergeants barking out a cadence that kept them in lockstep.
As they approached the barrier, I saw the grim determination in the front ranks’ eyes. I felt their righteous rage at my existence, and their willingness to die for this cause as surely as I’d felt Mielyssi’s lips on my tongue. Whatever their new plan was, they were confident it would work where the others had failed.
This time, they were coming through.
And I didn’t think there was a damned thing I could do about it.
“Hurry up with that ritual,” I muttered. “We’re going to need it.”
The warriors reached the barrier.
Live or die, the end of this fight was at hand.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
THE POOR FUCKERS IN the columns’ front ranks never had a chance. The instant the scripts on their armor touched the barrier they were doomed. The senjin held in those engravings burned more slowly this time because less of the scripts’ surface area was exposed at once. Instead of a single explosion of brilliant light, the senjin oozed from the engravings in white-hot rivulets. Manifested sacred energy melted through the White Tigers’ armor with the ease of a hot coal dropped into a bucket of lard.
The soldiers screamed as their defenses turned against them and the unfettered power burned through their flesh. The pain broke them, and they pushed against the barrier with their hands, only to find that their comrades behind them had other ideas. The rear of the long columns advanced and pushed the pinned soldiers forward into the barrier. Men screamed as they were flattened against the red wall, their voices choked by steaming senjin that melted away their vocal chords. The soldiers died knowing they’d been sacrificed by their commanders.
The second node’s worth of rin was gone, burned up by the slow and steady advance. I unleashed another node, refilling the pyramids. It worked, for a moment. Then the first row of dead and mutilated soldiers were forced through the crimson wall and collapsed onto the beach.
I braced myself for a sudden rush that never came. The corpses had passed through the barrier because there was no sacred energy left in their armor or their bodies. It had all been repelled by the barrier. My defenses had held.
I let out a roar of victory.
My excitement was short-lived. That ordeal had inflicted a beating on me, and my core was sore and exhausted. There were still nodes of rin left inside me, and I could still spend them, but my muscles burned with the effort of holding me upright, and my thoughts tumbled and fell across one another. I couldn’t keep this up for much longer.
The soldiers on the other side of the barrier, however, just kept on coming. Those who were now in the front ranks wailed and screamed for the advance to stop, while the men behind them marched forward with grim determination. Every man who wasn’t smashed up against the formation knew that if they didn’t break it, they could be the next to die. Given that horrible choice, there wasn’t a man on Earth who wouldn’t sacrifice someone else to save his own skin.
“We’re coming for you,” one of the commanders snarled at me. “We’re coming through this fucking trick of yours, and we will skin you alive for the pain you’ve caused.”
“You’ll never get through,” I growled.
My rage had swelled inside me with every word that man spoke. His pompous attitude, his callous disregard for the men who served under him, and his willingness to serve a corrupted tyrant who’d destroyed my people and laid waste to the world filled me with a bone-deep loathing. I’d never done anything to deserve this. All I’d wanted was to grow closer to nature and heal its wounds. I’d wanted to be a shaman to fix things; I’d never wanted to fight.
What do you want?
The crimson bear’s voice was fainter, a mere whisper now. But her presence burned inside me, a guiding star in the wilderness.
What did I want?
I wanted her. I wanted the spirits. I wanted the world healed, and my life back the way it belonged.
Another rank of bodies fell through the barrier, and I burned another node of rin to keep the barrier alive. The screaming never stopped. The soldiers at the front of the columns turned away from the barrier, howling for release, their morale shattered. They’d expected an easier win.
Instead, they’d watched dozens of their allies in arms die screaming, and they were next.
The soldiers that hadn’t reached the wall rammed the panicked warriors ahead of them into the barrier like siege engines of flesh and metal. Senjin burned, and the air filled with the smell of fresh lightning strikes and burning meat.
The commanders screamed at their men to keep pushing, that they were winning, that this was almost over. They vowed to honor the sacrifices of the fallen with statues and monuments to their glory, promised to take care of their families and make sure the widows never wanted for anything.
A wordless roar burst from the throats of the soldiers. Lines of senjin curled around them from their commanders’ helmets. It wasn’t just words that came out of their leaders’ mouths, it was a compulsion. The soldiers had to keep going, they had to fight, because their lives weren’t their own. These men were under the thrall of commanders who didn’t give a shit about them, who in turn wore the leash of a distant ruler who would gladly throw their bodies into the meat grinder to see me dead.
“Turn back,” I howled. “Save yourselves, you fucking idiots. You’ll gain nothing from my death.”
“Your death is reward enough, savage,” the commander shouted back at me. “With you gone, the Emperor’s great plan can proceed.”
“Fucking fools,” I snarled.
My barrier pressed against my core from all sides. Another node of rin held the soldiers but did nothing to alleviate the pressure around my spirit. The bond between the Wall of Sanctity and my spirit had grown stronger the longer I’d been attached to it. When it fell, I would fall.
&nbs
p; More bodies tumbled through the barrier, and my soul shuddered at the weight of the columns pressed against it. The link I felt to the formation was so powerful it might as well have been a part of my own body. So far, I’d been a passive observer, fueling the defenses and hoping they’d protect me.
That wasn’t going to win this fight.
The crimson bear was right. She’d given me the gifts I needed to survive, and I suddenly understood how to use them to defeat these fuckers. I roared, unleashing two more nodes of rin into my Crimson Claws and Bear’s Mantle techniques. But I didn’t manifest them in my fingers and shoulders as I had before. I pushed the technique out from my core, through the bond I shared with the barrier.
The soldiers in contact with the formation exploded in fountains of blood. My claws erupted from the wall of sacred energy and sliced through armor and flesh with ease. The barrier stiffened and grew harder, its surface armored against any blows.
I roared again and pushed back against the invaders. The effort cost me, my body sagged to its knees, but everything I had went into the barrier around the island. Crimson claws tore soldiers apart, scattering their shredded bodies in every direction. The columns broke, panic shooting through their ranks when they realized the danger.
The commander nearest the formation opened his mouth to roar a command to his fleeing men, and my talons ripped off his helmet and the top half of his head. He fell to his knees, mouth open, wordless gibberish pouring from his lips as he drooled through his final breath.
“Holy shit, Kyr,” Yata crowed. “What the fuck.”
My rin was almost gone, my core exhausted. It took every ounce of willpower I could muster to maintain the formation as the broken White Tiger army retreated. They piled into their boats, and I unleashed my Earthen Darts technique through the barrier.
The rocky ground near the formation’s base exploded outward. The missiles from my technique hammered into the backs of the fleeing warriors. Armor shattered under the barrage, and men fell into the lake with their bodies punctured and their spines snapped. The water around the lake foamed red with the blood of the fallen as the survivors shoved off and rowed as fast as their weary arms could manage.
“Go, fools,” I roared. “And never return. Take word back to your Emperor that I’ll do the same to any others who come here.”
I held the formation until the boats had disappeared into the mist. The last node of my rin was gone, my core and all of its nodes empty. I was hollow and starving, desperate for more sacred energy, yearning for another jolt of the power I’d purified from the meridians that converged on the island.
“Don’t do it,” Yata barked. “Here.”
The raven pecked the side of my head, distracting me from my breathing technique. It forced a node of senjin through our bond and replenished one of my nodes.
The sacred energy pulled me back from the edge, but only just. The desire to take in as much senjin as I could muster, including the corruption it contained, was still there, but I could control it.
“The shit I do for you,” Yata scolded. “Now I’m down two nodes.”
“Thanks,” I groaned. “Let’s finish this.”
I staggered to my feet, leaning on my war club like a cane. The spikes bit into the ground, turning up rich, dark earth teeming with wriggling insects and worms. The temple’s door seemed a thousand miles away, and every step was an extraordinary effort. I’d pushed myself far beyond the limits I’d previously known, and the power I’d taken from the island, even purified, had left its mark on me. I was hurt in ways I didn’t understand, and my aches seem to multiply by the second.
A sharp pain lanced through my side, and I fell to one knee. The hot poker of agony burrowed beneath my ribs, twisting and turning, ripping a terrible roar free of me.
“What’s wrong?” Yata screeched, fluttering about my head, eyes wild with panic. “What happened?”
I couldn’t talk through the pain. It grew more intense by the moment, and I was sure I was about to die.
The pain passed at last, and I drag myself back up to my feet. The sudden realization settled over me, and I knew exactly what had happened.
I’d felt the same way in Ulishi.
And again on the river, before the Jade Seekers’ attack.
Jiro Kos had put more inside me than just corrupted sacred energy back on that bridge. He’d marked me, and that pain was his way of finding me.
“They’re coming,” I groaned. “They’re close.”
“Who?” Yata demanded.
“The Jade Seekers.” My head sagged, my hair dangling around my face. “Jiro fucking Kos.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
THIS WAS IMPOSSIBLE. The Jade Seekers were dead. I’d seen their bodies scattered around the nexus chamber, broken and shattered by their battle with the spirits’ mistress.
“Isn’t he dead?” Yata asked.
“Fucking thought so,” I said. “But apparently fucking not.”
I hadn’t seen Jiro’s ridiculous blade down there, had I? I’d assumed the Jade Seeker bodies I’d spotted down there had been the same ones who’d been chasing me across the countryside for the past few days. I’d been blinded by the hope that the spirits’ mistress had killed them all.
And I’d been wrong.
“Going to need more juice,” I said to Yata. “As much as you’ve got.”
Another wave of pain ripped through my side. It was nauseatingly strong and sucked the breath out of my lungs. It didn’t last long, fortunately, but it was much harder, more intense than the first one. Jiro was closing in on me.
“Are you crazy?” the raven cawed. “What if it doesn’t come back? I don’t want to be empty for the rest of my life.”
“Your life is going to be pretty goddamned short if I get killed.” The pain had frayed my temper. I shouldn’t have snapped at Yata, but I couldn’t bring myself to apologize. There’d be time for that after I finished.
“Yeah, okay, good point.” The raven screeched and unleashed its reserves of senjin through our connection. The mercurial power hit my core like a gut punch, and I sucked in a deep breath as I processed the raw energy. Blue shio dripped from my pores as the red rin soaked into my nodes. That hadn’t helped my pain, not even a little bit, but it had made me stronger. I straightened up, shrugged off the agonizing pain buried in my side, and lifted my war club over my shoulder. “That’s better.”
“For you,” Yata squawked. “What do you want me to do now?”
“Get the fuck out of here,” I said. “Downstairs. Find out how far along they are on the ritual. I don’t know if I can beat Jiro, but I can hold him off for a while. Tell them to finish what they’re doing, right fucking now.”
“Pretty sure that’s not how magic works,” the bird croaked. “But I’ll tell them to hurry.”
The raven’s wings flapped as it launched itself off my shoulder and into the temple.
I took a deep breath in an attempt to settle my nerves.
My thoughts flashed back to our battle on the bridge, my lucky shot that had knocked him over, and the fact that he had survived a fall hundreds of feet onto the rocks below. If that hadn’t killed him, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to finish the job alone.
Never alone.
Mielyssi’s words were comforting, but not in the way she thought. She was still out there; she could find a replacement for me if I fell. Maybe the spirits and their mistress would help her. In the end, what mattered was that I’d tried. Win or lose, I’d given this fight my all.
Another wave of pain tried to bring me to my knees. I fought it and stood tall.
Jiro Kos arrived on his golden horse. Its hooves splashed across the water until it reached the shore, and then it vanished from beneath him. The Jade Seeker didn’t miss a step as his feet hit the gravel, and he came toward me with an easy, confident stride.
“Why didn’t you just come out on the river if your horse could fucking walk on water?” I asked Jiro. “Probably would’ve en
ded this right then and there.”
“My power was spread thin supporting my troops,” Jiro said. “I could have banished their horses and come alone to face you, but after what happened on the bridge, I didn’t want to chance another of your savage tricks. You were lucky once. It wasn’t a good gamble to give you a chance to be lucky again.”
“It doesn’t seem like it mattered,” I said. “I dumped your ass into the ravine, and yet here you are. Still a pain in my fucking ass.”
“The Midnight Emperor treats his valued ally well,” Jiro snarled. “Your trick hurt me, but he brought me back.”
Well, shit. Maybe that explained the empty nodes I’d seen in Jiro’s core. Maybe the Jade Seekers weren’t really alive; they were just animated shells piloted by the spirits of warriors. If their bodies got fucked up, the Emperor could make new ones.
“Neat trick,” I said. I was too tired. It was time to end this. “Are we going to spend any more time jerking each other off, or do you want to fight?”
The Jade Seeker’s only response was to draw his sword.
The enormous two-handed blade hummed with power, and its voice, feminine and throaty with bloodlust, wailed as he approached.
“I’m going to make you eat that sword,” I said. “You’ll spend an eternity in hell with it singing.”
“You’re going to die,” Jiro said.
He was still three yards away from me when he swung his sword. Silver senjin flashed around the blade as its technique ignited, and a wave of pure, limb-severing force streaked across the distance between us.
If my core hadn’t been advanced, that would’ve ended the fight.
Too bad for Jiro I was faster than he’d expected, and pissed as hell. I twisted my body away from the attack and sidestepped toward him, club raised to bash his fucking brains out.
Jiro danced back, sword held in a high defense. His blade was heavier than my war club, and I had no idea what other scripts it held. I needed to get in close where the ludicrously oversized sword wouldn’t help him.
