ARC: Assassin Queen

by Anna Kashina

  His fingers clasping the Reincarnate’s face fell through it, grasping the empty robe. He collapsed with it, his mind going dark.

  40

  Aftermath

  Kara. I must save Kara.

  Kyth lifted his head. He had no idea how much time had passed. Weapon clanging in the room had ceased, the only sounds around him moans and gasps of the wounded and dying. Is it over? The thought seemed strangely detached, distant compared to the exhaustion he felt. Every muscle in his body screamed in protest as he gathered all his strength and pulled himself upright.

  The room was in chaos, the floor strewn with bodies amidst the settling dust dissipating from the place where the stone slab used to be. Only three figures were still standing. Two black-clad Majat, looking grim and exhausted, as if barely able to maintain a grip on their weapons. And, opposite them, a white-robed figure. Kara.

  A chill ran down Kyth’s spine.

  At first he had mistaken the black circle around her feet for a heap of black cloth. Then he realized these were spiders, crowded around her to form a dense ring. The nearest ones were raising up, poised to leap, yet something seemed to hold them back.

  Kyth scrambled up to his feet.

  “Kara!”

  She turned, the expression in her widened eyes terrified, lost.

  Is she still one of them? Kyth looked at the spiders again. If they were sure she was a Kaddim, they would have jumped her already during the time Kyth was unconscious and could not control them at all. The fact that they hesitated told him that there was still hope left, that she still had time. The link. We must break the link.

  “Find Nimos!” he shouted. “You must be touching him when he dies!”

  She looked down at the spider wall around her.

  Kyth lowered his head, sending them a silent signal. The ring parted instantly, letting her through. He rushed after her, searching for the white-robed bodies scattered over the floor. Some of them were motionless, others writhing in death agony, deformed beyond recognition by the work of the spider poison. Dear Shal Addim, please don’t let Nimos be dead already. But even if he was still alive, could they find him in time? Could they still recognize him?

  He turned to the Majat. “Get all the Kaddim together, dead and dying. Pile them up. Quick!”

  They obeyed, the Jades from the doorway joining them too, drawn by the urgency in his voice. Kyth staggered in exhaustion as he dragged the half-dissolved human flesh into one big pile, like a funeral pyre consumed by poison instead of a flame. Screams and moans echoed in the air. Kyth distanced himself from it.

  “Found him,” Kara said. “I think.”

  She was kneeling beside one of the bodies, the man’s bony hands, still intact, reaching up to her. Kyth shivered. The disfigured face was impossible to recognize, except for the distinct eye shape. Black on black, without any whites, like the eyes of an owl. Nimos. Thank Shal Addim.

  The dying man clasped Kara’s wrists. She screamed as he made contact. Kyth rushed to her side, watching her fall forward, twisting and screaming, the black triangle of the Kaddim mark on her arm smoldering into her flesh. She writhed on the floor in a death embrace, Nimos’s arms locked onto hers, as if intending to take her with him. Can he? Kyth knew that whatever happened, there was nothing he could possibly do except wait. He knelt beside her, wishing he could relieve her agony, feeling utterly powerless to do anything at all.

  It seemed to take forever before the grasping hands of her enemy fell away, the black eyes rolling still, then imploding and dissolving like the rest of the flesh. As Kara collapsed beside him, the chamber receded into absolute stillness.

  Kyth leaned over her, stroking the sweaty hair away from her face, grasping her hand, marred by a fresh burn spreading from the place where the Kaddim mark on her arm had been. Her skin blistered away, as if she had been holding her arm in the fire all this time. It must have hurt terribly, yet Kyth knew that the burning itself must have felt like nothing compared to the rest of her pain.

  The surviving Majat gathered around them – four men, all that was left of the entire elite force of top Gems that had penetrated the Kaddim fortress under Mai’s command.

  Kyth looked at all the bodies scattered around the room. There was no way they could leave all the Majat here, but with so few of them left, all exhausted from the battle, they couldn’t possibly do anything to retrieve them. Could they count on a rescue? Belatedly, Kyth thought of the battle that for all he knew might still be going on outside. Did Ayalla ever tell him what would happen to the Kaddim defenders after the Reincarnate was destroyed? Would they lose some of their power? Would the spiders Alder had out there be able to finish the job? He extended his senses to the outside of the fortress, but couldn’t detect what was going on. Just in case, he relayed the signal through the spiders to the ones Alder still carried on his shoulder. Come and get us. We need help.

  He started as Kara’s hand closed around his with unexpected force. Her eyes fluttered open, focusing on him. She looked so drawn, exhausted, her hollow face pale gray. Yet, as he leaned closer, he detected no Kaddim magic from her.

  He smiled, but she didn’t give him any time to speak. Her violet eyes shone with urgency as she used him for support to pull herself upright.

  “Mai,” she said.

  Kyth paused. Did she remember anything that happened? Did she recall striking Mai down? His eyes trailed to the slim, black-clad shape sprawled on the floor a few paces away, so limp it was hard to imagine that this body had once been capable of so much power. He fixed his gaze on it, afraid to turn back to Kara and see the expression on her face.

  Kara clambered up to her feet and rushed to Mai’s side, kneeling beside him and pulling off his mask.

  Kyth swallowed the rising tears. Underneath the mask, Mai’s face looked so calm, his blue-gray eyes staring unseeingly into the ceiling, his arms thrown out to the sides as if in his death he was striving to embrace the world. The hole at the base of his throat gaped like an ugly dark void, splotches of blood around it marring Mai’s flawless white skin. Kyth clasped a hand to his mouth, trying to stifle his trembling lips. A grown man like him was not supposed to cry, but he couldn’t possibly control it.

  He was surprised at the way Kara showed no such reaction at all. She leaned down to peer into Mai’s face, her expression focused and intent, as if the sight of his death didn’t affect her in the least. Has she gone mad? Did the Kaddim link damage her mind? Kyth felt too exhausted to wonder. He knew that no matter how hard it seemed right now, it was his job to try and comfort her, ease her grief that he knew must be choking her now.

  Just as he was about to step toward her, Kara raised her hands, her fingers hitting several spots at the top of Mai’s chest. His body shuddered, his head rolling to the side to face the far wall.

  Kyth stared. Kara was clearly mad. He should stop her, before she defaced Mai’s body. He opened his mouth to protest, but her urgent look stopped him.

  “Do you have any of the Keepers’ elixir with you, Kyth?”

  The Keepers’ elixir. Kyth’s eyes widened. She was speaking of a magical cure the Keepers possessed, a liquid that could heal deadly wounds in a manner of minutes. Did she mean…?

  He opened and closed his mouth several times, struggling to find his voice. “Did you… Did you hit him with a harmless blow?”

  Kara shook her head. “Not so harmless, as you can see. With his fighting skill, it was bloody hard to hit him right.”

  “Then he… he’s not dead?”

  She clenched her teeth. “Not if I can help it. The elixir! Do you have any?”

  “No. But help is on the way. They should be here any minute.” I hope.

  She grasped a knife off Mai’s belt and cut off a strip of her shirt, pressing it to his wound.

  “Normally,” she said, “I should’ve been able to revive him by now. I’m afraid my blade did too much damage. I don’t want to try anything else until his wound is healed – if we can do it quick
ly enough.”

  Kyth struggled through the stupor that enfolded him. He felt so worn out that every movement felt like a chore.

  “The spiders,” he said. “They can help to keep him stable until help arrives.”

  “The spiders?” She frowned, her eyes darting to the furry creatures milling nearby. Kyth couldn’t blame her for being afraid, after seeing the havoc they had caused in the enemies’ ranks. Just a few weeks ago they scared him witless too, before he had embraced Ayalla’s magic and learned to see them in a good light.

  He gave the silent command, sending the spiders running, piling onto Mai’s chest to cover the gaping wound. He lent them more of his magic, to make sure they were able to sustain the life force within, to keep it from seeping away. It wasn’t the same healing as Ayalla was capable of, but for the moment it had to do.

  Kara stared at them for a second, then rose to her feet, turning to the other Majat, watching the scene warily.

  “Take off everyone’s masks,” she ordered. “Quick!”

  After a brief hesitation the men rushed into action, seeking out the black-clad bodies, pulling off masks. Kyth shivered, watching the faces of his fallen defenders coming out into view. Raishan, his eyes closed, his leaden-pale face caked with a crust of drying blood. Lance, his half-opened lips still holding the cocky grin that Kyth had always found so annoying. He stood, dumbfounded, watching Kara rush around them, his mind catching up too slowly as he realized what she was doing.

  “Are you trying to revive all of them?” he asked.

  She didn’t even look at him as she nodded. “As many as I can. And by the way, if you’re not too exhausted, you can feel free to help.”

  Kyth rushed to her side. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do, so he focused on seeking out bodies, pulling masks off. The first man he touched actually stirred and opened his eyes. A Ruby, the one who had helped Kyth to scale the wall. He reached to feel the pulse, finding it steady.

  “How did you do it?” he asked Kara.

  She frowned, kneeling at the side of an unconscious man to hit some pressure points on his neck. “The Kaddim link. They used it to share my skill. But I realized fairly quickly that it actually worked both ways. They could control me, but I could control them too – to an extent.”

  To an extent. Kyth stared. “Control them?”

  “Yes. I had to make it look believable that I was on their side, or they would’ve killed me on the spot and captured all my ability at once. The best I could do was turn their blows into non-fatal ones. It worked better for some than it did for others.” Her eyes trailed to Mai, her expression telling Kyth more than words.

  A faint echo carried through the passage behind them, footsteps rattling down the stone hallway. Kyth’s heart raced with hope. Were they being rescued – or did the Kaddim survivors find them at last?

  He had no time to wonder, because just then he sensed a tremor, the stones of the fortress around them shuddering, as if no longer certain of the forces that held them together. Kyth froze.

  “I think this place is going to collapse,” he said. “We must get out of here as soon as we can.”

  Kara glanced around. Kyth didn’t need to see her frown to guess her thoughts. Only seven of them were standing, with over twenty on the ground. With the distance he knew they needed to cover to clear the fortress there was no way they were all going to make it out alive.

  “I will hold it together,” he said. “Let’s hope I can give them enough time to rescue us.”

  He extended his magic, reaching all the way through the stones down to the far corners of the ancient structure. It felt just like Ayalla trained him, putting the dissipating stones back together. The task was vast, but the fact that he didn’t actually need to reassemble anything, just to reinforce the existing bonds feeding on the power of the air made it seem more manageable. He was surprised he could even use his magic after being so exhausted, but once he settled into the feeling, it didn’t take as much effort as he thought.

  Afterwards, Kyth had been told that it took less than fifteen minutes for the search party to reach them after he sent the signal to Adler. To him it felt like hours, the strain wearing him down until it became nearly impossible to bear. By the time he saw Seldon and Egey Bashi rushing into the chamber with Alder close behind, he could barely keep up straight. He leaned back against the wall, certain he would never be able to move again.

  Seldon merged into the situation naturally, firing out orders to send men rushing, picking up the wounded, carrying them out of the chamber. Alder ran toward Kyth and knelt by his side.

  “Get everyone out,” Kyth said weakly. “The fortress is about to collapse. I’m holding it together.”

  Alder nodded briskly, then rushed away to speak to Seldon, who redoubled his efforts, men moving like a blur around him. Kyth watched them with half-vision, inwardly saying his goodbyes, certain he would never see them again. Then his foster brother appeared again, reaching over to pull him upright.

  Kyth struggled to keep his balance, extending the last of his strength to the stones of the fortress.

  “I… I can’t, Alder. Can’t move. Leave me.”

  “The hell I will.” Alder picked him up, holding Kyth up to his massive chest, easily as if he was a child. As they rushed out of the chamber, Kyth heard a screech of the moving stones behind them. Then he passed out in his foster brother’s arms.

  41

  Healing

  The beams of the setting desert sun felt pleasantly warm after the death chill of the stone fortress. Kyth gave himself a moment to revel in their heat. Then, the memory of recent events forced his eyes open. He sat up and met Alder’s concerned gaze.

  “Where’s everyone?” he asked weakly.

  Alder pointed. “Over there. Magister Egey Bashi and Ellah are healing them, with Kara’s help.”

  Healing them. Kyth steadied himself. His body felt sore, so weak that he nearly keeled over trying to pull himself to his feet. He was surprised he was still able to stand upright. Even without any physical wounds, the battle with the Kaddim left him so exhausted that he doubted he would ever feel right again.

  He glanced at the Kaddim fortress looming just a short distance away. Surprisingly, it was still standing, but some of the outer buildings showed cracks and gaps as they were starting to collapse. It was only a matter of time, but fortunately, by Kyth’s estimation, their current location, atop a rocky plateau at least half a mile away from the fortress, should be a safe place to be at when the whole structure went down. For all Kyth knew, it was going to sink into a giant hellhole that would swallow everything in that place. He couldn’t care less, as long as he was certain everyone in their party was safe.

  “What happened when you attacked the fortress from the front?” he asked.

  Alder shrugged. “It wasn’t much of a battle, really. I heard Aghat Seldon say that the Kaddim warriors probably believed it to be as much of a diversion as we did. Everyone knew the real battle was happening inside the fortress.”

  “Were there many casualties?”

  “Some. But not nearly as many as I expected. Seldon had the Majat spearhead the attack, which really did make all the difference.”

  Kyth nodded. Despite lacking their top fighters, the Majat force Mai brought was enormous by any normal standards. Even the trained Kaddim warriors couldn’t possibly withstand them for long.

  “How did it end?” he asked.

  “At some point,” Alder said, “they all just fell down and… dissipated. Not sure how. Only the robes were left behind. Everyone felt so freaked out, even if the Majat didn’t really show it.”

  Kyth nodded again. This was likely the moment when he killed the Reincarnate, whose magic had been holding those undead warriors together.

  “When they fought,” he said, “did you notice they were undead?”

  “No.” Alder looked puzzled. “We were all warned, of course, but I thought Egey Bashi had made a mistake. I would never have
suspected these warriors were different from any of us, not until they actually dissipated.”

  Kyth sighed. It felt so good that the war was over, even though he knew it would take him a while to fully realize it.

  The Majat stationed around the healing area parted as they saw Kyth and Alder approach. Kyth stepped inside their circle and looked around with widening eyes.

  Most of the wounded men were sitting up, some looking dazed and weak, but very much alive. Ellah and Celana were rushing among them, along with the Majat volunteers who helped to cut bandages, distribute drinking water, and treat light wounds. Celana smiled when she saw Kyth and ran toward him, throwing her arms around his neck. Kyth held her, feeling lightheaded as he looked into her eyes.

  “What you’ve done was enormous,” she said. “You’ve won the war.”

  Kyth glanced around the area again. “I didn’t do it alone.”

  She reached up and kissed him. “You know what I mean. You are a hero who will go down in chronicles and be worshipped for centuries to come.”

  He laughed and kissed her too, inhaling her fresh scent. “I hope not.”

  She brushed her cheek over his, an intimate gesture of affection that made his toes curl with pleasure. “I must go. Ellah and Magister Egey Bashi need my help.”

  “Of course. I’ll go see Mai.”

  She frowned and briefly glanced away.

  Kyth’s eyes narrowed. “He is all right, isn’t he?”

  Her gaze wavered. “The Diamonds suffered the most. As I understand, not only because the Kaddim had focused all their effort on targeting them first, but because with their skill it was very hard for Kara to direct blows against them that would not harm them too much.”

  Kyth thought back to the occasion when Mai had to do the same thing to Kara to save her life. That time it worked well, though. Wasn’t it going to be the same now?