“Bind the nathahlen to your harness so you need not worry over holding him safely aloft.” A second rope shimmered into existence between Ruslan’s hands, and he bent to Marten.
Mikail didn’t move. He burst out with, “Ruslan, what of Kiran? If we had pursued the Alathian, we could have—”
“Pursuing the Alathian would have wasted precious power in our zhivnoi crystals. We barely have enough to safely reach Ninavel’s confluence, and I want no further delays.” Ruslan frowned down at his harness. “Flight charms are such a poor substitute for translocation.”
Mikail said, “But the hennanwort’s effects will wear off before we reach Ninavel. If Kiran blocks the path he opened to the labyrinth’s heart, we’ll have no hope of wielding the weapon.”
Drugged! Kiran was drugged, not mindburned. Hope leaped so bright that I forgot caution. “Kiran’s going to toss you both into Shaikar’s hells, just like he did Lizaveta.”
Mikail threw me face-down onto the stone. I landed hard enough to split my chin open and knock the wind from my lungs. He was right on me, yanking me onto my back, his knife bared.
“Mikail,” Ruslan said mildly.
“Let me cut out his tongue,” Mikail said. “Please.”
“Not yet.” Ruslan looked at me for the first time. “He may be only nathahlen, but when the labyrinth is ours and those he loves are dying in torment, I want to hear him beg.”
The dark promise in his eyes dried my mouth to ash. “You can’t cast against Cara and Melly. Not with Ashkiza’s weapon, not with anything.”
“It’s not I who will be casting.” Ruslan clawed his fingers into Marten’s hair and lifted Marten’s slack, blood-smeared face. “Lizaveta should have been the one to wield the labyrinth.” A spasm of anguish twisted Ruslan’s face. He looked down, his grip on Marten’s hair tightening. “In her stead, I think it fitting that Captain Martennan will draw every scrap of life from his beloved country and leave it a blighted wasteland.”
Ruslan’s plan wouldn’t work. Marten couldn’t cast. He wouldn’t be doing a damn thing with the labyrinth. I couldn’t stop a savage grin.
But Mikail, damn him, eyed Marten and said, “Can he cast in Lizaveta’s stead? His ikilhia looks as weak as a nathahlen’s.”
Ruslan said, “Kiran was kind enough to tear his power from him, yes. But even crippled, Martennan is yet a mage, not truly nathahlen. A riverbed that has run dry can be forced to flow again. His ikilhia is too weak to survive the experience, but he’ll live long enough to know what destruction his final casting has wrought.”
My grin died. Ruslan was so fucking certain he’d won. I opened my mouth, unable to hold silence, but Mikail spoke first.
“But we can’t force Martennan. Not without casting. He’ll never yield to physical coercion—”
“We cannot force him,” said Ruslan. “But Ninavel holds plenty of mages not bound as we are. With Martennan’s ikilhia so reduced, even a lesser mage should have no trouble casting a binding that will ensure he obeys our every command. Especially if his innate mental resistance is first weakened by pain.” His gaze dropped to Marten again, and his smile softened into something truly horrible.
Mikail said, dogged, “But if Kiran goes to the labyrinth—”
“You need not fear on that score, akhelysh.” Ruslan tightened a last knot and stood. Bound to Ruslan’s harness, Marten rose with him, his head lolling and his body slack. “The Alathians have taken steps to protect their gate. Kiran will not reach it again. And with what you carry…” Ruslan smiled his sandcat’s smile at me. “Kiran will come to us in Ninavel as surely as if compelled by the mark-bond. And then both your vengeance and mine will be satisfied.”
I glared back at him, though I had the awful feeling he could see straight through my defiance to the fear creeping cold along my spine.
Above me, Mikail’s breath hissed out through his teeth. In silence, he snaked a coil of rope around my torso and through my bonds, then knotted it to his harness. I strained my head back, trying to see his face. I hadn’t wanted to admit as much to Kiran, but I well knew Mikail wasn’t entirely lacking in care for him, no matter how fucked-up and stunted that feeling was. Had Lizaveta’s death burned the last shred of humanity out of him, or did he still have some glimmer of concern for his mage-brother that I could exploit?
All I got for my trouble was a clout to my temple that made the world go dark. By the time I surfaced again, we were flying, the wind battering me and the rope branding fire across my body where it cut into ribs and stomach and groin. I almost envied Marten, who was dangling insensible from Ruslan’s harness. Mikail’s wings swept the air in steady rhythm, driving us northward after Ruslan like a hawk speeding for its roost. Far below us, the desert was a red, wrinkled plain. The Whitefires reared high to the west in serrated knives of pale granite. Some of the peaks, I recognized. We were still a long way from Ninavel, but eating up the distance fast.
Surely Kiran wouldn’t be so stupid as to come running. Even if he couldn’t get near Ashkiza’s weapon, Lena and Cara would help him come up with some better scheme than haring after me on a rescue attempt.
No, said a sly voice deep inside me. Ruslan is right; he will come.
I jerked against my bonds in surprise. Khalmet’s bloodsoaked hand! The demon hadn’t left me?
And miss a chance to be carried secretly into the very heart of my enemies’ stronghold? Did I not say you are the perfect tool?
I didn’t care anymore what the demon had done to me. I’d take any ally against Ruslan. What’s your plan once we reach Ninavel?
To wait for the chance to strike, said the demon. Neither of us wants Ruslan and the ssarez-kai to wield Ashkiza’s weapon; do you not agree?
You know I do. But what’s this talk of waiting? You heard Ruslan. He thinks he’s got everything he needs. Soon as he breaks Marten, he’ll make him suck every bit of life out of Alathia and do gods only know what with all that power—though I knew one thing he’d do; he’d be certain to make Marten cast something horrible against Cara and Melly, oh gods! We can’t wait, we have to stop Ruslan right now—
Calm yourself. The demon’s irritation prickled through me. Surrounded by the ssarez-kai, I will have at best one chance to strike, and I warned you, I am bound by blood-right. I cannot touch Ruslan unless the ssarez-kai release their claim. But when my young cousin comes for you—ah, now that will bring opportunity. Until then I will hide still and small within your soul, deeper than even the brightest-souled mage can reach. While you must hold your tongue. Give the akheli no reason to kill you before my cousin arrives. Is this clear to you?
Perfectly clear, though I didn’t much like it. I had the nasty feeling the demon wouldn’t care what Ruslan did to me, so long as I didn’t die outright.
But the demon wasn’t waiting around for me to argue; it sank away until I had no more sense of it in my head. I squinted at Ruslan, a dark blot between blood-red wings.
“You haven’t thought of everything, you asshole,” I growled, my words lost in the rush of the wind. Suliyya grant that Ruslan’s failure to see the demon in my soul would mean he’d be the one to burn.
* * *
(Kiran)
“I can’t find Dev. I can’t find him.” Kiran paced from sun to shadow and back again, heedless of the afternoon’s burning heat. Huddled in the shade of a looming boulder, the others watched him in silence. Teo was crouched over his satchel, his hands white-knuckled on the strap. Lena twisted at her rings with a deep, worried crease between her brows. Melly shifted anxiously from foot to foot beside Cara, whose fierce gaze he found hardest to meet.
She was counting on him. They all were. They’d risked their lives to save him, lost friends and lovers and more because of him. He could not fail them. Could not. Yet time was slipping away so fast. Teo and Lena had purged his blood of the hennanwort as quickly as possible and helped him find an earth-current so he could draw enough power to cross to the demon realm. But he’d lost most of a da
y recovering from the drug, and more in his futile search for Dev and Marten. By now Ruslan must be nearly to Ninavel and the protection of the ssarez-kai.
Cara shoved away from the boulder. “Please say that doesn’t mean Ruslan’s killed him.” The depth of her fear for Dev was plain in the hard angles of her crossed arms. Her fingers were sunk deep into her biceps as if she were physically clinging to her control.
“Ruslan would never kill him so quickly.” He didn’t want to tell her why; the vision of his own knife carving Dev open was too terrible. “Ruslan’s blocked the blood-bond somehow. He’s hidden not just Dev, but himself, Mikail, and Marten.” Kiran could not travel the demon realm’s chaotic maelstrom of currents without an anchor to guide his path. He’d struggled to find any hint of his quarry’s ikilhia to use as his lodestone, and failed every time.
He’d even grown desperate enough to search for the scarred demon. But the seeking cries he sent spiraling out on the currents had gone unanswered, without even a distant sense of the demon’s watching presence. Wherever the demon had gone when it abandoned Dev, it was nowhere Kiran could reach.
Cara said, “But you know where Ruslan is going.”
“Yes.” Kiran’s chest tightened. “And yes, I know the taste of Ninavel’s confluence well enough to anchor my path to the city.”
Teo shook his head, his mouth a grim line. “Ruslan and the ssarez-kai will expect you to come to Ninavel.”
“I know,” Kiran said. “But I have to go. It’s my one hope of stopping him. After I failed to reach Dev, I tried to reach the labyrinth and failed in that, too.”
“What?” Lena’s head jerked up. “Has the Council released the wards and closed the gate?”
He hated to destroy the hope he saw dawning in her eyes. “No. They’ve drawn even more on the labyrinth. The gate chamber is built in a valley that holds a small confluence. The Watch has created a new barrier surrounding the entire confluence—a barrier that exists not just in our realm but in the demon realm. Don’t ask me how they managed that. All I could discover is that the spell’s keyed against me, specifically. I can’t pass it. Nor can I break it; it’s as strong as the border wards. In the demon realm I can reach through the barrier a little way. If I had Dev, I could perhaps have sent him through to the valley, in hope he could get into the gate chamber and shatter the Watch’s spellwork…” Kiran’s throat closed. Every time he thought of Dev in Ruslan’s hands, his ikilhia roared up so wild he could barely master it.
“The Council thinks protecting the gate from you is enough to keep them safe.” Lena’s ikilhia was as unsettled as his, a crackling stormcloud so far from her usual calm column of silver it was nearly unrecognizable. “But you say Ruslan has built another. That he’s found some way to use the labyrinth without any need of you.”
Kiran nodded tightly. “I know he means to cheat the ssarez-kai. If I convince them of that—”
“You can’t gamble the lives of an entire country on that hope alone!” Lena’s hands clenched. “When you sought Marten before, you were able to reach his office in the Arcanum. Before you go to Ninavel, take me to the Arcanum, and I will warn the Council.”
A chorus of shocked denials answered her, Kiran’s loudest among them. “You saw what happened to Marten when I took him through the demon realm! He would’ve died if you and Teo hadn’t been right there to help him. My control is still weak after the hennanwort. I can’t be sure of protecting you any better than I did him. I’ll take a message, but I won’t take you.”
Cara snorted. “The Council’s not going to believe any message you leave them. Warning them’s a waste of time. Our best hope is to get Kiran past those damn demons.”
Lena’s eyes were dark holes in a face gone gray as ash. “But if Kiran fails—”
“Hey!” Melly jumped between them. “You don’t have to argue. The answer’s easy. Before Kiran goes to Ninavel, he sends me through the Watch’s barrier.” She faced Kiran, her amber eyes bright with determination. “You said the valley has a confluence. That means I can break into that gate chamber and destroy Alathia’s connection to the labyrinth just as well as Dev could.”
Cara rubbed wearily at her brow. “Melly. I know you want to help, but—”
“I’m a thief, and a good one! I’ve been shattering wards and sneaking into highside towers as long as Dev’s been outriding, and you don’t question his skill.”
Kiran said, “This wouldn’t just be wards, Melly. You know the Taint can’t protect you against active casting.” Dev had proved himself clever enough to overcome that handicap, but Kiran could hardly trust that a twelve-year-old would manage the same.
He looked to Lena for support. But when she met his eyes, hers held a terrible, desperate hope.
She said, “If Melly herself were veiled and carried protective charms as powerful as those I’ve seen in Ninavel…Marten shared with me his knowledge of the chamber’s defenses. They’re meant to protect against mages, not someone Tainted. If I set within Melly the knowledge of where to strike, she might be able to reach the chamber and shield herself with protective charms long enough that she can shatter the wards before the Watch can capture her. Kiran, is there any place you can reach besides Ninavel where we might find strong charms?”
“Lena,” Cara said, shocked. “You’re not serious.”
She was. Kiran knew why. His own desperation ran just as deep, his hope of success equally slim. Ruslan knew he would come to Ninavel, but sending Melly to Alathia’s gate was a tactic he wouldn’t expect. If Melly broke the labyrinth free of Alathian lives, then Kiran could enter the labyrinth via Ruslan’s gate, root it into Ninavel’s great confluence, and strike his master down.
And he did know a possible source of charms.
“Yashad abi Mahar,” Kiran said to Lena. “The spymistress who took over the Khalat. She had a wealth of powerful charms. If the charms were stored within the Khalat, they might have survived Ruslan’s attack. Zadikah should have reached Prosul Akheba by now; she could help me find what Melly needs.” Dev had said Zadikah offered him anything the Khalat’s survivors could provide, and Lena carried blood samples from her and Janek. Zadikah’s blood would work perfectly well to anchor his path across the demon realm. He could step straight from the currents to her side.
Teo jerked to his feet, still clutching his satchel. “Zadikah would help, yes. But Kiran—Melly is a child. Breaking those wards will be incredibly dangerous, and even if she succeeds, the Watch is certain to capture her afterward.”
Melly scowled at him. “So? I’m not safe anyway unless we stop Ruslan. This’ll help Kiran do that. If the Council catches me, fine. After Ruslan’s dead, Kiran can rescue me same as he will Dev.”
She spoke of a rescue with utter faith, as if it were a certainty that Kiran would not only kill Ruslan and save Dev but survive to come for her.
Eyes hot, Kiran said to Teo and Cara, “She’s young, yes, but that works in her favor. The Council won’t be so quick to punish a child. From what I know of flight charms, I think Ruslan won’t reach the city until tomorrow’s dawn. That gives us a few hours yet—time we can use to secure the charms Melly needs in Prosul Akheba.”
Cara was still frowning. Melly said, “Cara, listen. I’m as good at this as you are at climbing. If Dev were here, he’d tell you.”
“If Dev were here, he’d kill me for even considering this,” Cara said. “But fine. You want to go after those wards? Then I’m going with you. I may not be Tainted, but with some proper charms I can make one hell of a distraction.”
“Good,” Melly said, with a force of feeling that revealed the nerves beneath her confidence. “Don’t know if Dev told you, but Tainters never work alone.”
“Help me sort the packs, then,” Cara said. Melly hurried straight to Teo and the packs. Watching her, Cara took a slow, ragged breath.
Kiran turned aside, unable to bear the anguished resolve in her eyes. He knew what she hadn’t said. She also intended to take the brunt of the
Council’s ire, should she and Melly be caught. No; when they were caught. Teo had been right in telling Melly the Watch would not let them escape. Kiran winced just imagining what Dev would say about that.
Forgive me, he sent along the dark, silent blood-bond, though Dev would never hear him.
Lena said, “Do you still intend to go to Ninavel? Or will you try to use Alathia’s gate?”
“I have to go to Ninavel. We have no guarantee of Melly’s success. It’s best to try two plans at once. If I can convince the ssarez-kai to turn on Ruslan, that will stop him also.”
“They will try to force you into a kin-bond.”
“I know.” He was so afraid. For Dev, for Lena, for himself, for everyone that stood to die if he failed.
Perhaps Lena saw something of it in his face. She caught his hands. “Kiran. Remember what I said to you when we broke Ruslan’s compulsion. He is strong, but so are you.”
“Your words kept me from despair when he captured me.” Her hands felt so steady on his. He wished he had half her inner strength. “Lena…I’m sorry. For what I did to Marten, and what he endures now. I’ll save him if I can.”
“I know you will.” But the grief darkening Lena’s eyes showed how unlikely she thought Marten’s survival. She slid one hand free of his and pulled a stained scrap of cloth from a pouch at her belt. “Zadikah’s blood sample.”
Kiran took the scrap. Her fingers tightened on his.
“I wish more than anything that I could go with you.”
He wished that, too. The most terrifying part of facing the ssarez-kai was that he must do it alone. But he didn’t want to admit that aloud and deepen her worry.
“You and Dev have saved me so many times,” he said. “It’s only fair I take a turn.”
“I’ll follow you to Ninavel,” Lena said. “As fast as I can. Just in case…”
She wouldn’t reach the city in time to help him, but Kiran murmured assent.
The Labyrinth of Flame (The Shattered Sigil Book 3) Page 55
