He turned and meandered away from the spice cart.
She looked a moment longer, nodded to the girl, then followed.
“Why Elmerah,” he whispered when she neared his broad back, “am I to believe you’re actually worried for my safety?”
She snorted, startling a woman walking past. Once the woman was out of hearing range, she replied, “Hardly, I just want to make sure there’s someone left to rescue me.”
He chuckled, then veered across the street. A crossroad came into view, marking the street’s end, just as Baeorn had mentioned. Her eyes scanned down the row of houses. There. A man in a wide brimmed hat leaning near the closed door.
Pretending to peruse a stand piled high with fresh-baked bread under a gauzy cloth, she flicked her gaze once more to the building, spotting the second man atop the balcony.
Given the house’s position, the rear end would be partially visible from the crossroad. It would be difficult to disable the men standing guard there without any passersby sounding an alarm.
She jumped as Baeorn appeared at her side, his large frame making him stand out despite the cowl covering his pointed ears. “I’ve spoken to Alluin. I will distract the men at the front. Liam will aid you at the rear.”
She subtly nodded, then sauntered away. Alluin had already made it to the crossroad. Perhaps it would be best if she approached the rear of the house from the other direction.
She cut back across the street, weaving through the crowd. A few looked her up and down, then hurried away. It was all well and good for the elves to hide their ears. It was a little more difficult to hide her height and bronze skin. Anyone in the house who knew Rissine would have no trouble picking her sister out of the crowd.
At that thought, she pulled her hood a little lower over her brow, then darted onto the narrow dirt path between buildings, kicking up her black coat at the hem. A tall stone wall bordered the sides and rear of the house, obscuring her view of the other guards, however, it also kept the guards from seeing her . . . unless there was another high balcony like at the front.
She pressed her shoulder against the wall, just in case, then crept further along, occasionally glancing behind her to ensure no one followed.
She reached the end of the wall. By her estimations, Alluin should have been a few steps ahead of her. He would hopefully notice her once she entered the rear courtyard.
Saying a silent prayer to Arcale, or Ilthune, or whatever god would actually listen to an Arthali witch, she jumped, latching her hands atop the stone wall. Her breath heaved as she pulled herself upward, rolled across the top, then dropped down.
She crouched for a moment, crushing a patch of well-tended lettuce as she peered around. A short stone wall surrounding most of the large garden shielded her view of the house, just as it shielded her from those within.
She remained crouched for several heartbeats, but nothing moved. They hadn’t seen her.
Keeping her head down, she crept to the garden’s iron gate, then peeked out across the courtyard. The two men Baeorn had mentioned rested with their backs on either side of a heavy wood door mounted into the lower stones of the building. Halfway up, the stones transitioned to wood gray with age. There were several windows on both the lower and upper level, but nothing moved within.
She turned her gaze to the far wall just in time to see Alluin vault over it before ducking behind a large silver oak.
“What was that?” one of the men on guard hissed. “I think I saw something.”
Elmerah peeked out as the man who’d spoken pushed away from the wall and walked across the courtyard, his loose crimson pants and hair nearly as red standing out amidst their green surroundings. Leaving him to Alluin, she crawled back away from the gate, then scurried to the other end of the garden nearer the house. She peeked over the low wall at the other man still near the door, paying little heed to his cohort’s concerns.
She was tempted to take care of him quickly with magic, but she needed to save what little energy she had left for Rissine.
She was about to leap over the garden wall to charge the man, when he pushed off the wall with a yawn. After stretching his arms over his head, he opened the door and went outside.
Gritting her teeth, she looked back toward the red haired man, creeping near the tree Alluin was hiding behind. She jumped as elven hands whipped out, covering the man’s face as he was dragged behind the tree. Within a heartbeat the other elf, Liam, vaulted over the wall and landed behind the tree. A few grunting noises ensued, then Alluin peeked out around the trunk of the massive oak.
Elmerah signaled to him, pointing to the door to show the other man had gone inside.
Alluin nodded, then pointed toward the second level of the house.
Her head whipped the other direction as she looked up, scanning the windows.
Hatred flared within her. Rissine stood framed by one of the central windows, looking out over the back courtyard. She didn’t seem to be peering at anything in particular, just staring wistfully.
Elmerah’s fingers flexed around the pommel of her cutlass as Rissine backed away from the window. At the only faint surge of magic summoned by her ire, she switched her grip to the enchanted short sword she’d procured from the thug at the docks further back on her belt. Touching the hilt instantly nullified her magic, just as it would Rissine’s. She hated touching the thing, but it was likely her best chance against her sister.
She nearly jumped up and screamed as someone appeared crouched beside her.
With a hand held to her racing heart, she turned to Alluin. “Never sneak up on a woman plotting bloody revenge,” she whispered.
“I’ll try to remember that for the future.” He shifted his stance to lean against the garden wall. “Liam is going around the side. He’ll look for a place to climb up and enter through one of the windows. You and I will go through the back door. I’ll create a distraction while you head upstairs and find Rissine. Hopefully by that point Liam will be able to assist you . . . ” he looked her up and down. “Should you need it,” he added.
She nodded. He moved to go, but she stopped him with a hand on his arm.
He looked a question at her. “Alluin—” she hesitated, then deciding they might soon die, finished, “I just wanted to say thank you. I likely wouldn’t have tracked down Rissine without your help.”
“I’m doing this for my people too, you know. Rissine is my key to the emperor’s plan.”
She sighed. “I know, but you didn’t have to include me, and now you’re letting me have the first stab at Rissine, trusting I’ll tell you whatever I learn. So thank you, I’m not used to being trusted.”
“Well I’m not used to doing the trusting,” he quipped, then hopped over the wall, racing toward the back door.
Cursing under her breath, she hurried after him.
He’d already entered the doorway by the time she arrived, and had left the second guard unconscious in the hall. He was buying her time, and she’d better not waste it.
Following the sound of another scuffle, she raced down the hall, her boots sounding a little too loudly across the floorboards. A shock of white blonde hair came speeding out of one of the rooms ahead.
For a moment she thought it was Saida, then the woman turned.
With a satisfied snarl, Elmerah launched a foot into Thera’s face. She fell back with a screech, but Elmerah was already past her, heading for a set of stairs.
She raced up them, ready to draw the enchanted blade the moment Rissine revealed herself. She’d let her sister use up her energy launching attacks that would not hit, then she’d dispose of the blade and unleash her own magic. It would finally be time to see who was better.
She crested the stairs to find Liam hoisting himself in through a window, his sandy blond hair mussed from the climb. She didn’t see any trees outside and had no idea how he’d managed the ascent, but she didn’t bother questioning him.
“Watch the stairs,” she hissed. “Give a shout if
she tries to go down.”
She stopped to listen for a moment as Liam moved past her. Fighting had broken out downstairs. Hopefully Baeorn had come in through the front to join Alluin, but she couldn’t worry about that now. The real danger to them all was Rissine.
The upstairs portion of the house was smaller than the bottom floor. Just a long hall and several rooms. Rissine had to be in one of them, but she wasn’t making a peep.
Elmerah walked first to the door she thought belonged to the window where she’d seen her sister. She withdrew the magic nullifying blade, then kicked it open.
It slammed back against the interior wall, but the room was otherwise perfectly still. Just a bed, a dresser, and a closet.
She took a moment to check under the bed and in the closet, then went to the next room, surprised Rissine was actually hiding . . . unless Rissine had immediately gone downstairs and escaped out the front while she and Alluin went in through the back.
She kicked the next door and went inside to look around. She had just turned to leave the empty room, when a shiver of electricity raised the tiny hairs on her arms. She whipped around, holding the enchanted blade in front of her body.
A bolt of lightning met with the blade, then dissipated, though it left Elmerah’s hair alive with residual friction.
Rissine stood framed in a doorway that hadn’t been there before. Elmerah knew she was not skilled in illusions, so it must have been a special feature built into the room.
“An enchanted blade?” Rissine questioned. The small bells and jewels at her hips jingled as she stepped forward, and rings glittered at her fingers.
Other than the new shiny baubles, Rissine looked just as Elmerah had imagined her. Thick black hair, a little more curly than hers, frothed around her face, falling well past her shoulders. The perfect olive skin of her bare arms showed the spiraling tattoos marking her as a Shadowmarsh witch. Elmerah had been too young to obtain them before she’d left her homeland and, for that, she was glad.
Elmerah spun the blade in her hand, readjusting her grip to point the sharp end at her sister. “Why did you bring me here, Rissine?”
Rissine raised an eyebrow at her. “Not to fight you, dear sister. Though I suppose I cannot blame you for being angry about the pirates. I was simply too busy here to come myself.”
She wasn’t sure what was happening downstairs, but knew that prolonged commotion would draw the militia to investigate. She edged toward her sister. She had to make this quick.
“If you didn’t want to fight me, why throw lightning at my back?”
Rissine laughed. “I had to make sure you’re still the sister I remember, able to fend off anything I throw at you.”
Elmerah sighed, then tightened her grip on her aimed blade. “What do you want? Why find me after all these years?”
Rissine prowled around her, heedless of the blade pointed at her throat.
Elmerah spun slowly, tracking her every move.
“There are about to be some big changes in the Empire,” Rissine explained. “Egrin Dinoba has forged new treaties with the Dreilore and Nokken, betraying the old agreements with Faerune. Even the Akkeri have a place in this new world order. I’ve bargained for the Arthali exile to be lifted. We will have a new homeland soon on this large, rich continent.”
Elmerah’s jaw dropped. That wasn’t what she’d been expecting, not in the slightest. “Why do you care about the Arthali exile? You weren’t much older than I when we left Shadowmarsh. We owe nothing to the Arthali.”
“We owe it to ourselves!” Rissine hissed. “You may be content wasting your days in some swamp, but I’ve been here, slowly earning the respect I deserve. Soon I won’t have to hide my heritage when I walk through the streets. We will build an empire of our own, and no one will dare ever spit on us again.”
Elmerah shrugged. “I don’t really mind the spit. Now I’m assuming the militia will be bursting in here at any moment, so tell me what any of this has to do with me. And what about Saida?”
“We’re Shadowmarsh witches,” Rissine replied like Elmerah had asked a very stupid question. “Who better to lead our people out of exile?”
Elmerah snorted. Her sister had clearly gone mad. “And what of Saida? Her name was on those contracts. Why her?”
Rissine shrugged. “The emperor wanted her. I did not ask questions. Perhaps it’s part of his bargain with the Akkeri. They’ve long despised Faerune. Perhaps the priestess is why they attacked the city.”
Revulsion made her shiver. Any man who would bargain with the Akkeri was mad, and if what Rissine said was true, that meant the emperor had planned the attack on his own people. She wanted nothing to do with any of it.
Without warning, she lunged forward, placing the enchanted blade against her sister’s throat. “I want no part of your new empire. Give me your word you’ll leave me be, and I might not slit your throat.”
Rissine laughed, placing her throat more firmly against the blade. “There is no escaping for you. Things have already been set into motion, and you will not risk being on the wrong side of this war. The Faerune and Valeroot elves will have their peace no longer.”
Elmerah stepped back at the sound of many footsteps, then Thera and two men dragged Alluin into the room. Thera’s face was stained with blood from a broken nose, granting Elmerah a small measure of satisfaction.
Sensing Thera’s intent, she darted behind her sister and held the blade to her throat. Her nostrils were hit with the scent of rich herbs and bitterroot, the latter a bad habit Rissine had picked up early on. The scent encased her in sudden nostalgia, which she quickly pushed away. “Let him go,” she ordered.
Alluin struggled against the two men holding him as Thera withdrew a small jeweled dagger from the belt cinched at the waist of her white dress.
She pointed the dagger at Alluin. “I don’t think you’re in any position to give orders here.” She looked to Rissine. “What would you like me to do?”
“I’d like you to not interrupt my family reunion you fool,” Rissine growled, pulling against Elmerah’s grip. “Get him out of here. Kill him for all I care. Elmerah will not harm me. She’s always been full of bluster.”
Clearly taken aback, Thera lowered her blade.
“Ugh!” Elmerah growled, “and you’ve always been a snake-tongued witch!” Tossing aside the enchanted sword, she shoved Rissine into Thera, toppling both women to land in a crumpled heap on the floor.
She withdrew her cutlass, summoning fire to her blade.
The two men holding Alluin let him go and stepped away, their hands held up in surrender.
“Go!” Elmerah shouted, shoving Alluin out the door just as a bolt of lightning struck right where they’d been standing.
Rissine always had been the gifted sister. Elmerah couldn’t summon lightning inside if she tried.
She and Alluin ran down the hall as another bolt chased after them, followed by thundering footsteps. They raced down the stairs to find Liam, only half conscious leaning against the wall.
Alluin and Elmerah each took an arm, dragging him toward the front of the house. If they could reach the street, Rissine would not be able to continue her attack.
They were almost there when Baeorn came running toward them. “I’ve barricaded the front, but the militia will soon break through. We must go out the back.”
He took Liam’s arm from Elmerah, allowing her to lead the way back through the house past expensive furniture and artwork. If only she hadn’t tossed that cursed enchanted blade aside. Without it, she’d be weak to Rissine’s next attack.
They reached the back hall to find the way blocked by Rissine, Thera, and the two men who’d captured Alluin.
“Militia men are out front,” Elmerah snarled at her sister. “You better go let them in. You won’t see your precious new world order if we all end up in the stocks.”
Rissine glared at her for several heartbeats. “Fine, go. Take some time to think on what I’ve said, and do not try to
run. Next time, the pirates will drug you and beat you within an inch of your life before taking you.”
With that, she stepped aside.
Elmerah would have liked to get in one last insult, but from the sounds of it, the milita men were about to break down the door. With a glance back at Alluin, she hurried past Rissine into the hall, then let the elves go ahead of her.
She stole one final glance back at her sister, wondering at what point her best friend had fully warped into the twisted viper she’d become.
Saida
It felt like they’d been in the carriage for days. Saida’s arms and back ached from remaining in the uncomfortable seated position with her wrists bound behind her back. Daemon and the emperor had spoken little since revealing Saida’s fate. She longed to check the note in her stocking. Perhaps she would now understand what it meant, and why the creature had given it to her.
There were a few shouts outside, and the carriage ambled to a halt. Someone knocked on the door. The guard at her side leaned forward and opened it slightly.
She watched his every move, periodically glancing to the closed door on the other side of the carriage. If she could just get out into the streets, Egrin wouldn’t be able to apprehend her without making a scene. He’d gone to great pains to ensure her capture remained a secret. Now, to try and lunge for the open door, or to use the distraction to open the closed one?
The guard leaned a little further out, arguing with someone outside. Daemon and Egrin both seemed bored with the entire event. Seeing this as the best opportunity she’d get, she took a deep breath, then lunged toward the partially open door, spotting just for a moment the two militia men outside before she was tossed back against the bench.
Daemon and Egrin still sat calmly across from her. Frantic, she tried to struggle against the ropes binding her hands, but her entire body was paralyzed. She tried to scream, but she couldn’t breathe. Shooting stars crackling in her brain, she stared at the emperor. Had he—
He held a finger to his lips, which curved into a wicked grin.
The Witch of Shadowmarsh (The Moonstone Chronicles Book 1) Page 12
