If Lilac really were from Superius, how could she have known about Klye’s plans before reaching Port Alexis in West Cape? Why had she gone to Port Alexis in the first place? More importantly, why had she decided to come all the way to Capricon to join his band?
“I have a few things I need to ask you, Lilac.”
“Like what?” She spoke in an unconcerned tone that Klye found less than convincing.
“First of all, what is your full name?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Because I don’t think you are being entirely honest with me,” Klye replied. “I want to know why you are here.”
“And you think my last name will give you a clue as to my secret agenda? Very well, my full name is Lilac Zephyr. Like you, my family is named after a goddess.”
It was true that Tristan was a derivative of Tristana, the goddess of love—as most people called her—but Klye knew next to nothing about Zephyr. Or the woman who shared her name.
“Why are you here, Lilac?”
She glanced behind her and took a deep breath before answering. “I am here for Ragellan and Horcalus.”
Before Klye could decipher the meaning of her words, Othello appeared in the hallway. At the same time, the Renegade Leader heard a great clamor throughout the temple, as though someone were trying to pound down the door.
“The Knights have surrounded the temple,” Othello told them.
Behind the archer, Jalil Shenn was hurrying down the corridor, heading toward them, and Klye did not like what the expression on the healer’s face told him. He and Lilac returned to the room, where the healer joined him at the window. Through the glass, Klye watched gravely as six Knights riding abreast circled around the temple.
A sudden flash of red light reflected off the window pane, and Klye spun around, doubting what he saw—or, rather, what he didn’t see.
Horcalus’s bed was empty. He, Ragellan, and Lilac Zephyr were gone.
“What magic is this?” Jalil Shenn whispered, looking genuinely confused.
Klye took a step toward Horcalus’s empty bed. “It was Lilac…”
Another great crash resonated from the direction of the temple’s entrance.
* * *
As the minutes passed at the pace of a laden pack mule, Selwyn McRae thought more and more about his exchange with the healers. The situation was so ridiculous he hardly believed it was happening. Who in the hells did these priests think they were that they could openly defy the king’s will?
The subcommander was all too aware of his men’s restlessness. They fidgeted with their equipment and talked in low voices. McRae was certain they were speaking of him, their impotent commanding officer. He would be a laughingstock if he returned to Fort Milo empty-handed, especially when the rogue knights had been within his grasp.
Commander Calhoun be damned, McRae thought. I’m going to handle this my way.
“Come with me,” he told the Knights standing nearby. “We’re going to give the healers one more chance do right.”
This time, they were greeted by a heavyset woman who was almost as tall as McRae. It occurred to him, then, that the Renegades might have taken the healers captive upon arriving. Jalil Shenn and his compatriots could be acting under the Renegades’ coercion. If this were true, it would be the Knights’ duty to free them from their captors…
To the woman, he said, “If you do not send the Renegades out at this very minute, I will order an attack on the temple.”
McRae thought he heard one of his men gasp, but he ignored it. He didn’t like the idea of storming a church any more than they did, but he would not be denied the opportunity to bring in the two rogue knights—not to mention the Renegade Leader.
“You know we cannot comply with your demand,” the woman replied, folding her arms across her ample chest.
“Then you leave us no choice,” he hissed.
When the priestess saw him raise a hand to signal his men to assemble, she quickly shut the door, and McRae heard a bolt sliding into place.
“Break down the door!” McRae shouted. “We’ll enter the Temple as a single unit, with a small company of mounted warriors watching the outside in the event that they try to escape through some other passage.”
This is it, he thought. No more keeping swords sheathed as the rebels did as they pleased. No more hiding behind the walls of Fort Miloásterôn, hoping the Renegades would grow bored with their revolution and give up the fight.
McRae felt a great rush of energy course through his body. It was finally time to do what the Knights of Superius should have been doing all along.
Passage X
Ragellan closed his eyes to shield them from the blinding light. When he opened them again, he found himself outside, standing on a road lined with a dense wood on either side. Horcalus lay on the ground a few feet away. The younger knight moaned and restlessly rolled his head back and forth.
Ragellan’s first instinct was to run to his friend, but discipline dictated otherwise. He reached for his weapon—only to realize he didn’t have one—and spun around. Lilac stood nearby, weaponless but in a battle-ready stance.
“What’s going on?” he asked her.
Lilac surveyed the area around them. When she had her back to him, Ragellan saw her shoulders rise suddenly, and he had to take a step to one side in order to see past the woman.
A black-robed woman regarded them silently from farther down the road, her hands lost in the folds of her gown, which billowed out behind her. He and Lilac watched silently as the woman took great strides toward them. When she was close enough, Ragellan called out to her.
“Who are you? What do you want from us?”
Ragellan feared he knew the answer to the latter. A part of him refused to believe the Knights of Superius would hire a spell-caster to hunt him and Horcalus, but they had already sent a sai-morí to do just that.
Clearly, the Knighthood was capable of anything these days.
“I am Dark Lily,” the woman in black replied. “But you needn’t introduce yourselves. I have been travelling with your band for some time.”
Ragellan didn’t quite know how to take that, but he supposed Dark Lily must have used her magic to observe their trek through the forest.
“And you are a bounty hunter hired by the Knights at Fort Splendor,” Lilac said to the wizardess. “You are here for Ragellan and Horcalus.”
“So you have put the pieces together, have you?” said Dark Lily dryly. “But allow me to clarify. I am not a bounty hunter. I am an assassin.
“Subcommander McRae and his Knights have provided the perfect diversion. While they take care of your friends, I have all the time I need to complete my mission.”
Ragellan wondered what Lilac knew about Fort Splendor, but he put the quest aside and mentally prepared for battle.
Dark Lily withdrew a slim, silver object from inside her robe. Lilac sprang at the assassin. Black lightning crackled from the wand, and Ragellan watched Lilac throw herself to the side, narrowly avoiding the spell. She hit the ground hard and did not immediately rise.
Ragellan came forward then, but he was rewarded for his effort by drawing the wand’s fire. He tried to avoid the lightning, but one bolt grazed his shoulder and sent him spinning to the dirt road.
The knight fully expected another blast to follow and braced himself for contact, but Lilac was back on her feet by that time, and Dark Lily was once again aiming her wand at the other woman. Ragellan took the opportunity to regain his footing and circle around the wizardess.
Dark Lily sent a few more black bolts in Ragellan’s direction, but none of them hit him. When Lilac took a direct hit to the chest, Ragellan was close enough to their attacker to strike.
But Dark Lily saw him coming and managed to pull out of the path of his fist. She pointed the wand at Ragellan and said something unintelligible. His body tensed as he awaited the black explosion that, at such a close proximity, would surely rip him apart.
Bot
h hunter and prey were surprised when the wand did not answer her arcane command. Dark Lily shrugged and dropped the wand to the ground. “Must be all used up,” she muttered. “It’s just as well. I wouldn’t want any sparks to burn your pretty little head before I deliver it to the Knights.”
Ragellan rushed forward. Dark Lily drew a sword seemingly from nowhere. He recognized Lilac’s broadsword immediately, remembered all too clearly how the blade had butchered goblins and the sai-morí alike.
Keeping his arms outstretched for balance, he tried to anticipate the assassin’s next move. He bent one knee slightly and shifted his weight to that leg, ready to dive out of the way if necessary. If he was to disarm the woman, it would require perfect timing.
But Dark Lily did not advance. “After witnessing your prowess in battle, I have come to respect you, Chester Ragellan. Even with this enchanted sword, you might best me in a one-on-one combat…except for one important fact.
“I don’t fight fair.”
The next words that came out of her mouth made Ragellan’s skin crawl, even though they made no sense to him whatsoever. If he could strike while the assassin was busy with her spell…
He dove forward, but Dark Lily disappeared into thin air.
Ragellan tucked down into a roll. As he hit the road, he heard the air swish past his ear. Although he couldn’t see her, Ragellan knew the wizardess had not run off. No, Dark Lily was still nearby, and she had just barely missed her mark.
Ragellan sprinted over to Lilac, putting as much distance as he could between himself and where Dark Lily had been. When he reached Lilac, he peered around at the dusty road and the grass that surrounded the wide path, wary of any signs of the unseen stalker’s pursuit.
Through a series of quick glances—never taking his eyes of the road for more than a few seconds—Ragellan determined that Lilac was alive. Her shirt was blackened from the wand’s magical discharge, but her chest rose and fell at a regular pace. Ragellan shook the woman roughly until her eyes opened. She sat up and looked around, her body rigid.
“Where is she?”
Ragellan was half-crouched over Lilac, and as he spoke, he continued to watch the ground all around them. “She’s invisible, and she has your sword.”
Lilac swore as she pulled herself to her feet. “The good news is that she can’t cast any more spells while she is invisible…at least I don’t think so. The bad news is she won’t have to if she has my sword.”
A sound caused them both to start. The dust on the road seemed to move by itself, scattering impossibly though predictably. Ragellan could almost see the wizardess’s footprints as the uncanny disturbances drew closer and closer to them. The assassin was moving too fast.
Ragellan pushed Lilac away and yelled, “Get Horcalus out of here!”
He did not wait to see whether the woman obeyed him. His eyes remained fixed on the advancing footprints. When no more appeared, Ragellan sighed and closed his eyes.
“Your luck has run out, Knight,” said a voice on the wind.
“Gods forgive me if I have sinned,” Ragellan whispered and desperately lunged forward.
He heard the sound of a blade whistling through the air but felt only the slightest prick on his neck as the invisible weapon separated his head from his body.
* * *
Deciding he must deal with one problem at a time, Klye set aside his worry for Ragellan and Horcalus and focused on coming up with a plan to escape the temple. His mind frantically reviewed the limited options that lay before them.
“Jalil, we’ll need our weapons back.” When the healer, who suddenly looked much older than he had that morning, hesitated, Klye added, “We’ll lead the Knights away from the temple, avoiding an incident if we can. But we have to be able to defend ourselves. Or would you rather us all get massacred here in your Temple?”
The Renegade Leader had kept his tone as even as possible. He had to remind himself that Jalil Shenn and his priests had helped his band, asking nothing in return but for the Renegades to respect their rules.
After a deep sigh, Jalil lowered his gaze to the floor and replied, “Very well. If you look inside that chest by the bed, you will find your gear.”
“Thank you.”
Klye wasted no time in brushing past Jalil and opening the cedar chest. He quickly handed the short sword to Plake. Ragellan and Horcalus’s blades were there, but Lilac’s sword was missing. A wave of worry washed through him, but Klye pushed it back. In a matter of minutes, the Knights would infiltrate Mystel’s Temple, and he had no intention of being there to greet them.
He gave Othello Horcalus’s longsword and Plake the blade Ragellan had carried. To the latter, he said, “Try not to cut your foot off.”
“Is there a back way out of here?” Pistol, cutlass in hand, asked Jalil.
Another boom resonated through the temple. It was louder than any of the prior ones and was immediately followed by the sound of shouts and boots pounding against the polished hardwood floors.
“No time for that.” With an apologetic look at Jalil Shenn, Klye said to Plake, “Help me with this.”
Plake followed Klye’s lead, and the two men carried the wooden chest over to the window. A startled Jalil shuffled out of the way, pressing back between two beds. “What…what are you doing?”
Klye answered by starting to swing the chest back and forth. As he and Plake increased their speed, the chest swung higher and higher, until its ascent was level with the circular window. “On three, let go.”
The Renegade Leader counted aloud, turning his head and bringing his hand up to protect his face from the flying glass fragments. He then used his sword to knock away the dagger-like shards that still clung to the frame.
“All right, let’s go. Once we’re outside, stay close together.”
Scout was the first one through the window, followed immediately by Othello. The pirates went next. When Arthur began to struggle, his shirt caught on the splintered pane, Klye helped the boy free himself from the window’s frame. Then it was Klye’s turn.
As he propped a leg up onto the windowsill, he said to Jalil, “I am truly sorry for this. We didn’t intend to bring our troubles to you.”
The healer offered Klye a wan smile. “The fault was not yours, Klye Tristan. I only pray that if we ever meet again it will be under better circumstances.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Klye muttered, hoisting himself up onto the ledge.
“Stop!”
The command caught Klye by surprise, and he tipped his head back in time to see four Knights storm into the room. He pushed himself through window and deftly dropped to the ground outside the Temple, where the others waited. There were no Knights within sight.
“Follow me!”
Klye ran as fast as he could, heading in what he deduced was a northerly direction. At most, he had put ten yards between himself and the temple when he heard the sound of metal scraping against wood. It wouldn’t be long before the Knights began their pursuit.
Just then, several mounted warriors galloped around the western corner of the temple. Perhaps they had heard the window shatter, but Klye thought it more likely that Sir McRae had ordered the riders to circle the Temple.
Klye ignored the stitch in his side and concentrated on the trees that seemed to tremble in the distance. As he ran, he asked the gods—whichever ones happened to be listening—to get him out of this one.
And if you keep Ragellan and Horcalus safe, I just might start believing in you, he prayed.
* * *
Lilac resisted the urge to collapse and surrender to the sobs constricting her throat. There was no mistaking her sword’s deadly song. Without looking back, she knew Chester Ragellan was dead.
Drawing strength from the rage burning beneath her anguish, she obeyed Ragellan’s final request and sprinted over to where Horcalus lay, unconscious and unaware of his imminent peril.
When she reached the knight, she lowered herself to one knee, keeping a wary e
ye on the area around them for signs of the assassin. Her eyes, blurry with the promise of tears, hurried past the spot where she had left Ragellan. She found no evidence of Dark Lily’s presence.
The road was eerily quiet. All was still except for a slight breeze that toyed at a few loose strands of her hair. I am going to die, she thought, the realization hitting her like a balled fist to the gut. The despair that came over her was almost immediately replaced by anger at the injustice of getting felled by such a cowardly murderess.
Then to her astonishment, Dark Lily appeared off to her right. The wizardess looked as surprised as Lilac was, but she quickly regained her composure, relaxing her shoulders and continuing toward Lilac and Horcalus at an almost leisurely pace.
“This is a beautiful sword,” the assassin said, holding Lilac’s blade aloft. “I’ve come across more than a few enchanted weapons over the years, but this one is different. I can sense a great power inside that rivals any talismans I’ve come across. I hope you don’t mind if I add it to my collection.”
Lilac struggled to come up with some way to hold onto life. It dawned on her that Dark Lily had not intended to reappear, which meant that the wizardess was off-balance. If I can only get the blade away from her, there may yet be hope, she thought.
“It’s a vorpal sword,” Lilac said in a shaky voice.
“Ah, I should have guessed,” the wizardess said. “The legendary vorpal swords were crafted by the ancient sorcerers. No wonder this weapon has a different feel than relics blessed by the Goddesses of Magic. This weapon might predate the goddesses themselves!”
“I’m glad you like it,” Lilac muttered, looking around desperately for anything that might serve as a weapon.
“Don’t be bitter,” Dark Lily said. “Being killed by your own sword is poetic. Anyway, there are far more painful ways to die.”
When Dark Lily was standing less than three feet away from her, Lilac rose to her feet. “Please just make it quick.”
Rebels and Fools (The Renegade Chronicles Book 1) Page 25
