There were no other tracks. Whoever threw Liel had done so from a great distance. That made a patrol the unlikely culprit. Langorians were strong, but not that strong.
Liel’s tracks stopped at the edge of a dense, snow-laden thicket. I saw where he’d crouched down. The tracks were messy. The scrub directly in front of them had been flattened and crushed by something. Not wanting to be exposed yet, I scooted over and peered through a more intact section of the undergrowth.
Past a web of dead vines and branches, through a veil of snow, I spotted movement. Sporadic grinding sounds interrupted the hush.
Stepping around the fragile, frozen limbs, I crept as close as I dared. I parted the scrub for a better view. When I got it, the breath caught in my throat.
I backed up through the brush and ran.
TWENTY SIX
I didn’t look back. I didn’t want to know how close it was. Swords pulled in close to my body, eyes focused on the icy terrain, I pushed through the frozen woods with one goal: to lead my pursuer as far from Krillos and Liel as I could.
It didn’t take long to realize fleeing was the worst thing I could have done.
In my defense, seeing the gigantic, fleshy body crouched over the remains of a splayed open carcass, chewing on the insides of something that might have once been a cow, I’d thought the beast too engrossed to follow. But when my boot crashed through a brittle, fallen log like a clap of thunder, the Arullan skin bear broke away from its meal; snarling, snorting, and flattening everything in its path in an attempt to show me how much it disliked being interrupted at dinner—for a second time.
At least I was outdistancing it. For now, I thought. My vision spell allowed me to see the obstacles rushing up, giving me time to make course corrections before I fell on my ass. I also had a size advantage. My pursuer, with all its weight and floundering limbs kept getting snagged in the labyrinth of scrub and felled trees. My lead, however, was deceptively encouraging. As quick as I was moving, I was going to run out of forest long before I outran the bear. Once we hit open land with no impediments, those lengthy legs that were a hindrance to my pursuer now would catch up fast.
Loud wrathful sounds erupted a ways behind me. Snapping limbs boomed like thunder as the animal struggled to push its massive body through another tight maze of bracken.
At best, I had a moment.
Sliding a sword inside the sheath at my hip and another through the one strapped to my back, I took hold of the frosty bark of the tallest tree I could find and started climbing. It wasn’t exactly effortless. My numb fingers were uncooperative. My grip was precarious. The trunk and branches were caked in ice, and my slightest movement dislodged little, frigid piles of snow onto my head and shoulders.
Halfway to the top of the tree, the pops and snaps from below grew louder. I stopped, perched on a limb, and looked down through the branches. I caught a glimpse of the top of the bear’s oversized head as it moved side to side, sniffing the air. I wasn’t sure if it was smart enough to figure out where I’d gone, but it knew I was close. Any noise would reveal my position, so I leaned back against the frozen trunk and hoped I was out of range.
Trembling, skin burning from the cold, I pushed the icy strands of wet hair out of my face, and remembered the set of gloves in my coat. Taking them out, I slipped one on. I paused before donning the other, watching snow dot Jarryd’s ring on my finger. The green beneath glistened.
I stared at it a moment. Then I let the jade’s aura descend into me. Its presence instantly slowed my breathing. Feeling better, I put the glove on. I fretted on the safety of taking in more, but I couldn’t afford to be cautious this time. If Fate decided to curse me with more scars; so be it. I couldn’t chance the bear losing interest and moving on. Krillos and Liel were still out there.
Waking every rivet-sized rock fastened to the braces on my arms, I absorbed them in chorus, and their combined power sped in tandem through my veins. It swooped in like a blast of fresh air, and I wasn’t cold anymore. The biting numbness in my hands eased. Every part of me was warm and pulsing, teeming with a rousing variety of vibrations.
I was channeling enough power to lay waste to every tree in sight. Still, it paled in comparison to when I robbed the obsidian columns in Kael. It was a raindrop in the ocean of magic that took me when I channeled the Crown of Stones.
My body remembered those moments fondly. It remembered the pleasure, the satisfaction of knowing I had no parallel. That was its point of reference now, the high spots on my internal scale of measure. A state of being it desperately wanted to feel again—just like I’d feared. Only now, that fear felt dim. Childish. The penalties seemed meaningless. The scars I might gain: trivial. At this moment, all that was important was the magic and how glorious and formidable it could make me.
The bear let out a frustrated growl. It shook what dead leaves were on the tree and it seemed to shake my focus back, too. Propped against the trunk, my exhilaration, my selfish lust for casting shrank. My reckless swagger diminished. Remembering why I was channeling in the first place, I held onto the lone aura of the amethyst and shoved the rest back out.
I looked down again, ready to cast, and the bear was on the move. It scampered off to the left, making snuffling, agitated noises. Someone yelped in surprise.
Krillos. Damn it.
I came down fast out of the slippery tree. Krillos was thirty feet away, waving his weapon and hollering like he might actually scare the bear off. Getting my first long, up-close look at the animal that had been chasing me; I knew he didn’t have a chance.
Entirely hairless (as its name suggested), the Arullan skin bear’s thick, baggy, pinkish colored skin swaddled a frame that was broad and solid as all hell. Going up on its brawny hind legs, it towered above the height of most eldring. Its paws were double the size of my head. I put its claws at about the length of a Kaelish long knife, and just as sharp. The increasingly worrisome sounds the bear was spewing were exiting a mouth surrounded by thick fleshy lips, set in a jaw wide enough I could have climbed inside for a nap—if not for the serrated teeth.
Going wide around the bear, I inched my way over to Krillos. As I drew near, he spared me a glance. “What do you think, Shinree? They used to say the truest test of a Langorian’s mettle was a skin bear. And we’ve got our own right here for the taking.”
His enthusiasm irked me. “You run from wolves. But this excites you?”
“Don’t like packs.” He brandished his sword. “One on one is more my style.”
I resisted reminding him it was two on one, and even those odds sucked without magic. “How’s Liel?”
“Out cold. He’s pretty banged up. But he’ll make it.”
“Get back to him. I’ll draw the bear off.”
“And let you get all the credit for taking it down? Not going to happen. Besides,” Krillos grinned. He held up the tusks protruding from the metal on his wrist. “I could use another backup.” His grin widened. “You take right. I’ll take left.”
“You take nothing. You need to leave so I can cast.”
“You can’t kill this thing with magic, Troy. Where’s the fun in that?”
The bear’s sounds grew louder, more insistent. I roused the spell and an amethyst halo pulsed around my gloved hand. But Krillos didn’t move.
“Go, damn it,” I told him. “I’ll bring you its fucking claws.”
He hesitated. “We’re never going to get another opportunity like this. Skin bear fights are legendary in these parts. There was a time you didn’t make it past the rank of captain if you couldn’t face one and live to tell the tale.”
“This isn’t some asinine Langorian proving ground, Krillos. That thing is Death on four legs.”
“Yeah, beautiful, ain’t he?” Krillos laughed at my responding scowl. “All I’m looking for is a good go around, my friend. Just store your spell for now, and if things get dicey, he’s all yours.”
“And how long exactly would you like me to wait? Until he rips
off your other arm?” His answer would only piss me off more, so I didn’t wait for it. “You know, I’m getting damn tired of everyone asking me in one breath to be their weapon and then holding me back in the next. So why don’t you shut the hell up, get the fuck out of my way, and let me do what needs to be done to save your stupid ass!”
Krillos eyed me fiercely. The bear eyed Krillos. It dropped to all fours, released a growl that made my teeth ache, and charged him.
The spell encasing my hand; I yelled, “GO!” And with a shove that was fueled by anger as much as magic, hurled Krillos through the web of trees far beyond sight.
The bear, confused by its sudden lack of a target, came to a halt. It only took a second for the animal to realize I was still here and shift in my direction. Then it froze.
Head lifting, nose working, the bear stared off into the woods. I followed its rapt gaze and spotted what he had; dozens of dark, furry shapes moving through the trees. They were on all fours, but these weren’t wolves. Their legs were oddly bent.
The entire forest was full of eldring.
Hearing movement behind me, I spun to see the bear storming me at full speed.
The air around my hand still tingling and glowing; I pushed out, and thrust the amethyst’s energy at the bear. But the same level of force that launched Krillos off his feet had zero effect on the bear. Its enormous body broke right through the magic and kept coming.
Scampering backwards, trying to create some distance, I shot it again. The results were the same. Running now, pulling in more of the stone, I released it in larger and larger bursts. I kept shooting. The pursuing bear left me no time to aim. Some of my attacks hit. Most went wild. The forest resonated with snaps and cracks as limbs and trunks broke in half and tumbled to the forest floor.
The stone was draining too fast. I pulled in others, bending them to my needs; and the aura’s color deepened as it tore out of me.
I’d made target at least fifteen times, felled twice that many trees, disintegrated the palm of my glove, banged both my shins, twisted an ankle, and lost a measure of skin to a poorly placed thorn bush. But the bear’s thick, pink legs were finally stumbling to a stop. Snow burst into the air, cascading up as the massive animal went down.
I was right behind it.
The magic seeped out of me, and I fell to my knees. Winded, through half closed eyes I watched the eldring come out of the forest. They loped over leisurely. Their claws poked at the heaving sides of the half conscious bear. They poked at me and I reached for a sword. I got it out halfway before one of them flattened me.
I tried to cast again. Lying in the snow beneath the eldring, chest aching as its heavy weight pressed down on me; I knew it wasn’t happening. Not after such a rapid spewing of magic. My body was too weak. My focus was too cloudy. My resistance was no more than that of a wounded mouse in a cat’s mouth as the beast wrapped its talon-hands around my ankles and started dragging me off through the forest.
TWENTY SEVEN
I couldn’t see in the dark anymore. The spell on my eyes had worn off. I wasn’t as cold as before. We were too far back in the cave to feel or even hear the wind. The air was damp, laced with the pervading musky smell of fur and smoke. A layer of moss covered the slab of rock I was lying on. It was soft, but not much of a cushion for my head. It hadn’t fared well in my forced trek through the woods. Neither had my back or shoulders, where a mess of bruises were making an uncomfortable connection with the hard stone. This is where they’d put me though, so I tolerated it, resting and regaining my strength while I listened to them breathe in the dark.
The eldring made other sounds from time to time. I heard them moving about the chamber. As of yet, none of them had come near me.
Ripping off my ruined glove and removing the other, I felt around. There were no sharp drops or inclines within reach so I ventured off the slab. I went slow, crawling over the wet, gritty ground so I didn’t trip. Escape wasn’t my intention. The eldring were probably staring right at me. I just couldn’t sit still any longer.
A soft, scraping, rhythmic noise interrupted the dark. Curious, I moved toward it on my hands and knees.
I listened to the scraping grow steadily louder.
I was nearly on top of it when a burst of fire shot up in front of my eyes.
Recoiling from the surge of heat and light, I raised a hand to block the sparks. Between rapid blinks, I caught glimpses of a high ceiling and far away walls. As my eyes adjusted, there were corridors branching off into darkness.
I lowered my hand. My vision returning to normal, I noticed the majority of the walls were splashed with veins of sparkling color. Closer, inches in front of me, was a sizable pool. Its water reflected light from the newly made fire on the other side. A large number of eldring were crouched in a circle around the flames. From what I could tell, they were all female. The tallest of the group was hovering over the fire; a flint gripped in her clawed hand. Many of the others had small, black and gray, fur covered creatures resting in their arms or at their breasts. Seeing me, the young ones lifted their wobbly arms, pointed, and made cute, burbling sounds.
I scrambled backwards and the one with the flint grunted.
“Sorry,” I said. “I am grateful for the hospitality, but if you’re looking for a nursemaid, you’ve got the wrong guy.”
She grunted again, with urgency. Dropping the flint, she ambled forward and slid down into the pool. Making quick work of the knee-high water, the eldring hopped out the other side and came at me; orange eyes blazing. I didn’t sense any threat coming off her. It was more like an air of authority. Like she was the leader and was trying to impress upon me how dangerously close I was to breaking her rules.
I decided to fall in line, for now. “I’m guessing you’re the chief or the commander of this little troop? Maybe, you’d like it better if I called you Empress?” There was no reaction. She seemed more curious than hungry. “You clearly don’t want me to leave. But if you aren’t eating me, what am I doing here?” Better yet, I thought, what are you doing here? “Maybe my father doesn’t have all of you under his thumb after all.”
She tilted her head; definitely listening. As the one I’d dubbed the Empress studied me, a few of the others got up and loped around. Three were hunkering down with their children, crouching among large, round piles of grass and limbs, built up like nests. Others were at an adjacent wall where wooden planks, arranged in rows, were overflowing with globs of raw meat. Dripping in blood, the fleshy pink strips had been recently peeled off the bones of an Arullan skin bear.
Wanting my attention back, the Empress clicked her tongue.
“Go ahead,” I said to her. “Enjoy your meal. I’ll wait right over here.”
The Empress didn’t budge. She sat back on her haunches and ogled me.
I glanced around. I took a longer look this time, searching for some sign of Krillos among the shadows. “There was another man.” I patted my chest. “Like me. He was there when the bear attacked. Did you bring him, too?”
Her oblong head turned to one side.
“Is that yes, or no?”
I got another head toss. This one seemed to have purpose. As if she were directing me to one of the passageways off to the right.
More than likely, I was reading into things. But I needed to know. “Is he down there?” I asked, standing. “Can I see him?” I headed toward the tunnel and a deafening shriek of alarm rang through the cavern. Emanating from one of the eldring in the back, the high-pitched noise was full of protest.
More beasts joined in, copying the sound, and with a stuttering growl of pure annoyance, the Empress pivoted away. She waded back through the water to her pack and bellowed a sequence of throaty rumbles and snarls that implied she didn’t give a damn what they thought. About half championed her. The other half advocated their point loudly, and the discussion grew tense. Claws swiped insistent, angry motions. Tusks wagged as they bickered. The argument went on, and I thought again about the tunnel.<
br />
It was hasty to make a move that might turn my hosts against me. After all, we were getting along so well. Yet nothing good could come from being caught in the middle of an eldring pissing match. If their anger spilled over in my direction, it wouldn’t matter if I followed their rules or not. I was alone, in a confined space with no weapons. They’d taken everything, even my knives.
I looked down at my arms. But not the braces that held them. Why?
Eldring were smart. They’d been in the forest watching me. They’d seen me cast, seen my stones glow. Possibly, as my spells’ hunger grew, it killed some of them. So if they had even a rough idea of what I could do, why didn’t they see the stones as a threat?
I glanced at the walls. I studied the colors imbedded in the rock. They were too lustrous for hornblende. But there were other walls, other tunnels I couldn’t see. If there was a vein somewhere in the dark, I wouldn’t know until it was too late. Hornblende’s aura was undetectable to a magic user. But if the eldring knew it was there…
They would see no harm in leaving me stones I couldn’t use.
I looked around again at the shafts leading from the room. I thought back over my trip here, knowing I’d lost consciousness at least once. If we’d traveled as long as it felt, it was entirely possible we were close to Darkhorne. And if there was hornblende nearby, then it was just as possible this wasn’t simply a cave. It was part of the old mine carved out by my ancestors centuries ago. The passages were said to have stretched for miles in all directions. All the way to the keep.
Unused for hundreds of years, underground, out of the cold, an abandoned mine was the perfect place for a den. It was also the perfect way into Darkhorne. I just had to find Krillos and Liel first.
The Crown of Stones: Magic-Scars Page 21
