Something tightened in Bethany’s stomach, and she summoned her magic.
“Jev!” Lacelle called, coming up behind Bethany and Shawna. “Where is—oh…oh, no!”
Allen had moved forward to engage one of the running men, and Dormael had taken another with magic, but there were three more rushing out of the shadows toward them, and Jev was still limping on his injured leg. Bethany watched in horror as the things caught up to him.
“Jev!” Lacelle screamed.
Jev uttered a surprised scream of terror as one of them grabbed him. He was jerked to the ground, and the other two things fell on him, limbs rising and falling, scrambling in the darkness as Jev let out pained, gurgling cries. The crazed men—at least, Bethany thought that was what they were—tore Jev apart in complete silence. When they were done, they tore down the walkway toward Allen and Dormael.
“Lady Baroness!” Lacelle hissed. “Lady, what do we—”
“Aren’t you bloody wizards, for the gods’ sake?” Shawna said, her swords ringing as she slid them from their sheaths. “Do some magic!”
“More of those fucking things in the dark!” Lilliane said.
“Gods of the sky, gods of the Void, protect these poor souls—” Torins intoned, his eyes shut against the dark. Bethany watched the three wizards in complete astonishment. These three were nothing like Dormael and D’Jenn.
“This is no time for prayer, you drooling idiot!” Lilliane hissed.
Lacelle clenched her jaw and gave a sharp nod, looking around at everyone standing on the walkway.
“Right! Everyone, gather in the middle of the path! Now!” she said, the fear gone from her voice as if it had never been there. Torins and Lilliane rushed to her side, and Shawna nudged Bethany toward them, too.
“Go on, kid,” Shawna said, hefting her swords. “I’m going to need room to swing these.”
Bethany wanted to stay and help, but she knew that she’d only get in the way. She scurried over to the three Philosophers. Torins and Lilliane kept shooting fearful glances at the darkness under the boiling globes, but Lacelle got their attention with snapping fingers.
“We’re going to link,” she said. “We may not be trained to fight, but we can provide some safety for the rest of our people to run to. Open your Kais, and I will take control of the link.”
“Safety,” Lilliane said, a haunted look in her eyes. “Not for Jev, no safety for Jev. Oh, gods, it was my fault! Jev died and it was my fault!”
“Focus!” Lacelle snapped. “Clear your heads and open your Kais, or do you need to be instructed like children?”
Lilliane nodded, a sour look on her face. Bethany felt Lilliane’s song eek out into the world, sharp and fearful, like the woman herself. Torins opened his own Kai, and joined it to hers. Lacelle reached out and took control of the other two, the three songs joining to make a new melody.
“I’m going to create a Ward!” Lacelle shouted, probably for Shawna’s benefit as well as the other two wizards. “A shielded area that won’t allow anyone past!”
“Will I be able to get in and out?” Shawna asked, eyes still trained on the darkness around them.
“I’ll let you in, Lady Baroness.”
“Good,” Shawna said. “Keep everyone on the inside of your…whatever you called it.”
Lacelle nodded, and started to work with her students’ combined powers. She gestured to the stone of the path, and dust rose from its surface as symbols were cut into its face with her power. Bethany shuffled back, trying to make sure she didn’t step on anything. Once all her symbols were cut onto the floor, Lacelle did something else with her power that Bethany couldn’t follow. Her ears gave a low pop, and then the three of them were standing inside a bubble of blue werelight. Their surroundings were visible through the wall, but tinged in hues of blue, purple and black.
“That will hold out anything that wants to get in,” Lacelle said. “This is one of my personal little tricks. We shouldn’t have anything to worry about.”
“Poor Jev,” Lilliane said, sniffing as tears came to her eyes. “I didn’t want him to die, not really. Not really. I didn’t mean it. Not really.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Lilliane,” Lacelle said. “Tell her, Torins. Tell her.”
Torins only stared at them in turn, the blue light reflecting the sweat on his brow. His eyes were wild, and Bethany had seen that look plenty of times before—he was desperate. His big bull-chest was heaving up and down with short breaths, and his jaw was clenched. Bethany shuffled away from him, closer to Lacelle. She wasn’t going to be close to that big, dumb animal when he spooked.
“Torins,” Lacelle said, trying to break through his fugue. “Torins, it’s going to be alright.”
“It’s not, though,” he rumbled in reply. “It’s not.”
“Yes, it will. Lilliane, pull yourself together and stop blubbering, for the gods—”
“Incoming!” Shawna called. Everyone turned their eyes in her direction.
Something rushed out of the blue-tinged darkness, eyes locked on Shawna. She quick-stepped to the side and cut a long gash into the thing’s neck as it ran past, legs scrambling to turn back in her direction. It slammed into Lacelle’s ward with a sharp crack, the bones in its nose shattering as it ran into the wall of magical force. Bethany stared in horror as the thing’s dead eyes tried to roll backward to turn toward Shawna, and it pushed itself off the ward without even changing its expression. Horror froze the breath in her chest, but then a silvery swipe took the thing’s head from its shoulders. It dropped to the walkway, its head tumbling out into the shadows below.
“What the fuck…what the fuck was that?!” Lilliane screamed.
Shawna was already yelling in defiance as she fought another, having to dance backwards and plant a sword through the thing’s throat to bring it down. The creatures—corpses, Bethany realized with a chill—fought with a level of vicious abandon that chilled the blood in her veins. She was terrified for Shawna.
“You have to let her back in!” Bethany said, tugging on Lacelle’s sleeve. “Tell her to come back in!”
“Give me a moment, child,” Lacelle said, eyes darting around.
“There’s more of them in the shadows! You have to let her back in!” Bethany said.
“Lady Baroness!” Lacelle called.
“I’m going for Dormael and Allen! Stay there!” Shawna yelled back, but then she was fighting again, and Bethany watched in terror as more of the things began to scramble over the side of the walkway.
“Tell her to come back in!” Bethany said. “Shawna!”
“Be quiet, child!” Lacelle hissed. “Please!”
“Torins! Torins, what are you—ack!” Lilliane screamed.
Bethany and Lacelle turned back to find the hulking Torins restraining Lilliane, one meaty hand wrapped in her hair, the other with a knife stuck to the woman’s throat. He stared at Lacelle with crazed eyes. Lilliane grappled with his wrists, trying more than anything else to stay on her feet as he manhandled her across the stone floor.
“Torins? Torins!” Lacelle snapped. “Torins, what are you doing?!”
“You don’t understand,” Torins said. “None of you understand! He…this must be part of his plan, right? It must be!”
“Whose plan, Torins?”
“Victus’s plan, for the gods’ sake—you know what I’m talking about!”
“I don’t, but if you calm down and tell me, talk to me like a sane person—”
“He’s not bloody sane,” Lilliane snarled through her teeth. “The idiot has finally gone soft in the—”
“I don’t want to kill you, Lilliane, but I will,” Torins snarled. “I will!”
Bethany looked back to where Shawna fought, now dancing between two of the corpses. She held her own, felling them both, but Bethany could see more of them coming in the distance. There was no way she could hold off so many.
“You will do no such thing, Torins! What has bloody gotten into you?” Lace
lle hissed. “Put her down!”
“Gotten to me?” Torins said. A look came over his face like a dark cloud, and his shoulders fell the slightest amount. Lilliane struggled, but she was no match for his strength. “He’s had something on me for a long time. He…he wanted someone in your camp, someone—”
“Someone to keep watch on me,” Lacelle said, eyes widening. “To spy on me.”
“Yes,” Torins rumbled. “I didn’t want to, I didn’t…but he knew something about me. He knows something.”
“What?”
A sick smile came over Torins’s face.
“Lirium,” he said. “I’ve been on Lirium for a long time.”
“You fool,” Lacelle said, shaking her head in dismay. “You poor, bloody fool.”
“I never wanted any of this!” Torins growled, shaking Lilliane by the hair. “It was always just information! Just harmless stuff, nothing important.”
“Nothing that seemed important, you fool!” Lilliane hissed.
“You shut up!” Torins snarled, pressing the point of his knife into the fat of her throat. “Just be quiet!”
“It’s alright, Torins,” Lacelle said, trying to keep her tone even. “You’re free of him, now. It doesn’t matter if he tells anyone now.”
“It’s not just the Lirium anymore,” Torins said, grimacing. “I just…I can’t let you leave. I can’t.”
“You must!”
“I can’t.”
Bethany’s eyes went again to Shawna. The woman cut down creatures whenever they got too close, and kept them at bay by dancing out of their range and changing direction. It was a losing game, though. Three of them were after her, and more were in the shadows beyond. Bethany clenched her teeth.
“Torins, look around you—this isn’t Victus’s work! This is necromancy! You’re not privy to all the information, you don’t know everything! Think!” Lacelle said, desperation in her voice.
“I just can’t let you leave,” Torins said. “He wouldn’t excuse it. He wouldn’t. He would do something…something terrible.”
“We’re all going to be ripped apart, you stupid bastard!” Lilliane screamed.
“We have to go back,” Torins said, shaking Lilliane to shut her up. “We’re going to turn around now. We’re going back!”
“That’s not going to happen,” Lacelle said, holding up her hands for peace. “Why don’t you just let Lilliane go, and you can leave, you can go back. Alright? Just let her go.”
“I can’t!” Torins growled. “I just can’t! If you don’t come now, I’ll kill her. I’ll cut her throat right here.”
“Torins!” Lacelle hissed. “Torins, I don’t want to have to hurt you!”
“You’ve got three seconds,” Torins replied. He pressed the knife into Lilliane’s throat, making the girl stand on the tips of her toes. “Three seconds, then she dies. I’m sorry.”
“Torins!”
“One!”
“Torins!”
“Two!”
Bethany had had enough.
She reached out with her magic, and gripped Torins the same way she had gripped the rock in Gameritus. The man gave a surprised cry of pain as she clamped down on him, and both Lacelle and Lilliane started back in surprise. Bethany took a deep breath, trying to still the wild fright that fueled her spell, and turned her eyes in Shawna’s direction.
Three more corpses lay dead around her, and she was in process of killing two more. Three others were running in her direction from farther down the walkway. Bethany judged the distance, gritted her teeth.
“Pirate-Queen of the Seas!” she growled.
Then, she tossed Torins out of the safety of the ward, and sent him flying into the group of corpses pursuing Shawna. His body slammed into them with bone-crushing force, bringing the whole group to a chaotic, tumbling halt. Apparently the ward could only keep things out, because Torins had passed through from this side like a knife through hot butter. Shawna took the head off the last corpse able to pursue her, and turned to sprint for the safety of Lacelle’s ward.
“Let her in!” Bethany said. For the tenth time, already!
Lacelle gestured at the ward, and Bethany heard the woman’s song play a sharp melody. The blue light parted, and Shawna came through the hole an instant later, skidding to a halt near the center. The noblewoman was covered in gore, and gasping for breath from the effort of the fight. The light reformed around them, and a moment of tense silence passed.
“What…what happened in here?” Shawna asked between gasps of breath.
Lilliane and Lacelle glanced at each other, then regarded Bethany with stunned gazes.
“Flying Rock,” Bethany shrugged.
Torins started screaming then, and everyone turned their gazes in his direction. Shawna tried to catch her breath, but reached out to squeeze Bethany’s shoulder. Bethany patted her hand, and decided not to make a big deal about saving her life.
Pirate-Queen of the bloody Seas!
***
By the time Dormael turned back to Jev, it was already too late.
Three of the things had him on the ground, pounding him into the stone with bloodthirsty abandon. Jev screamed in wild terror, but his screams soon turned to gurgles as the things cracked his head open with their berserk attack. They ripped the little man apart, and in complete silence.
Dormael was so shocked by the sight of it that it took him a moment to recover.
“What are those gods-damned things?” Allen asked through clenched teeth.
“No idea,” Dormael said, still stunned at the brutality of the attack. With a start, he realized that the things had risen from Jev’s broken corpse, and were running in Dormael and Allen’s direction.
“They’re coming this way!” Allen said. He hefted his long, curving saber and pulled a spiked buckler into place on his forearm. “I’m not dying like that! Not like that!”
“Nor I,” Dormael growled, readying his magic. “Watch your eyes!”
“My eyes?” Allen asked, but it was too late.
Dormael cracked out with his magic, sending a white-hot bolt of lightning at the three silent men. Two of them were blown off the walkway, flying into the shadows below without a sound. The third was lifted from its feet and tossed back toward the two creatures who still crouched in the doorway. Smoke rose from its chest, and Dormael readied a spell for the two creatures behind it.
He nearly fell on his arse when the thing got up.
Nothing should have been able to survive that, he thought. He watched in horror as it climbed to its feet, eyes still locked on Dormael and his brother. Smoke was still rising from it—and, in fact, a small fire was burning over its clothing—but the thing didn’t even notice.
“What, in the name of the gods, is that thing?” Allen asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Isn’t this supposed to be your sphere?” Allen said. “You’re supposed to know these things.”
“Not these things,” Dormael said. “Nor those things behind it. I’ve never seen their like.”
“Beautiful,” Allen grumbled. “Bloody beautiful.”
Dormael reached out and gripped the burning creature in his Kai, bringing it up from the stone of the walkway. Even suspended in the air, it fought to get to him, kicking its legs in a vain attempt to struggle in his direction. Dormael twisted the thing into a wrecked ball of flesh, and tossed it into the shadows.
The two creatures stared at Dormael and Allen, swaying like a pair of poisonous snakes entranced by a charmer’s song. The other things—the silent berserkers—had disappeared into the shadows around them. The swaying creatures let out a strange series of kettle-like noises, and then crouched like cats on the prowl.
“I think they’re coming this way,” Allen said. “They look hungry.”
“Let’s see if they’re like the other things,” Dormael said. “Watch—”
“—my eyes? Got it.”
Dormael lashed out with his magic, sending a searing bolt
of energy cracking across the distance. The smaller of the two was struck, and it uttered a strange cry in what Dormael thought was pain. He could feel, though, an odd sensation. His magic wanted to slide away from the creatures, like oil over the surface of water. His lightning had hit the thing, but the power of the strike was toothless, diminished. The strange creature shook itself as the electricity arced around it in the wake of the bolt, and continued to prowl toward them.
“Evmir’s bloody hammer,” Allen said. “Can we even kill these things?”
“We have to try!” Dormael said, hefting his spear.
The first of the creatures—the largest—broke into a lithe, liquid sprint. It had long, thin claws on its hands that made scraping noises across the stone. It uttered a cry, like a hound on the hunt. Allen held up the buckler—which seemed a pitifully small shield in the face of the large, hellish creature—and held his long saber aloft. He crouched, ready to meet the thing’s charge.
The second one also tore down the walkway in their direction, vaulting Jev’s corpse without looking down. Dormael readied his spear, crouching as if he was about to meet the charge of a wild boar, and clenched his teeth. He reached deep into his being and pulled more power from his Kai, bringing his magic to a single, powerful point.
As the thing rushed him, he lashed out with his magic, trying to knock it from the walkway. He hit it with enough force to have shattered a boulder, but his magic again slid mostly away—however, he had poured enough power into the attack to have some effect. The creature tumbled away into the darkness to their left, though it didn’t go as far as it should have.
So it does work, though not as well as it should.
Allen screamed in fury and rushed the last few links toward the other creature, meeting its charge head on. His saber whipped out in vicious arcs as he advanced, forcing the creature to duck away. Allen scored a slash on its long, distended forearm, and the monster hissed in rage as it rolled away from him. It came back up to a fighting crouch, and shot its glowing eyes between Dormael and Allen.
Dormael reached out and tried to grip the thing in his Kai, but it again resisted his power. His magic flowed away from it, as if its skin was anathema to its touch. It rose from the walkway for the space of a small moment, struggling against Dormael’s magic with its arms and legs. Allen moved in and made a swipe at the thing, but its claws deflected his saber with a tense, metallic note. Dormael made a few quick thrusts at its face with his spear, but its claws flicked his attacks aside as well, and he had to let his spell go as a waste.
The Seven Signs: Three Book Collection Page 85
