by JANRAE FRANK
She stayed by Channadar's injured side, her blades out now, her nerve steadying, taking each one as it came. This was not one against twenty or more in the dark and her taken by surprise. Furthermore she knew help was on its way. Dynarien had restored her confidence. She blocked a cut and caught the vampire under the breastbone with her other blade. The creature shrieked as she learned why kenda'ryl was so often called the metal of the gods, especially when runed. The blade went through the bone and into its heart, killing it.
"My dragonfly, my Leeza," Channadar murmured, as if recognizing her for the first time for what she truly was. Leeza thrilled to see that in his eyes.
Where in their lighter moments they had wrought illusions, the forms they wove had substance. Their eagles had fiery claws that burned and tore. Their strange white birds with the flowing tails destroyed the undead with their glowing purity. When the creatures closed with them and there was no time to weave the magics, they simply sliced them with the golden blade edges of the magic fans and let the demon blood flow black onto the floor like vile ichors.
The Chosen fought hard to keep the foe from their injured lord and his lady, but one would get through, as the now surrounded Fae struggled to reach the door to the hallway. Jangflower staggered, a sword point sticking from her back. She fell against Leeza, who killed her murderer, blood splashing in her eyes. A vampire seized her hair, jerking her up only to release her abruptly as Blue Lily's golden fans sliced his throat to ribbons, and then severed his neck bones.
The room filled suddenly with birds. Chucomei had entered the fray, followed by the desperate fireflies trying to rescue their mates and loved ones with whatever lay to hand.
A path was opened to the door and Tiderider yelled for Leeza and Channadar to flee as one by one the Chosen began to fall. A vampire seized Leeza from behind, dragging her from Channadar's side. Tiderider, the golden Fae who had seen the sea, darted in and severed the creature's hands, spun it around and drove his folded fan through its heart. Then he caught Leeza's hand and put her behind him, snapping the fan open again.
"Keep moving," said the voice she loved most and she found Channadar had reached her once more. He looked so weary and in pain that it tore at her. "I hear Mohanja in the corridors, Dragonfly, but he's still a ways off."
Six Lemyari and their minions suddenly wedged up and charged, breaking past Tiderider and Da'Shanagara to reach Channadar. Juna leaped to stop them. His summerflies flooded around them. Yolany yanked him back, dragging at his arm, hanging on him with all her weight, preventing him from reaching Channadar.
"Let them kill him," she hissed, her eyes strange. "He's kept you from what's yours."
Juna shook her loose, but by then it was too late. The other summerflies had seized Channadar, pulling at his arms, throwing his guard wide open to his enemies. There was a blade in his brother's chest and Channadar was falling, his fan sliding from his fingers. All the games and laughter and songs were ended forever. Their eyes met for an instant, Channadar's lips shaping a single word without the breath to speak it. "Juna."
Juna whirled and killed Yolany.
* * * *
Leeza glanced from the corner of her eye, seeing the summerflies descend on Channadar sent a chill alarm racing through her. Before she could get close enough to him to intervene, the three women had entangled his good arm and thrown his guard open. Leeza fought free of her opponent, but it was already too late before she reached him. A vampire's blade took him in the chest and a second ripped his side open. Leeza's heart was that of a warrior, even if her training was not, and she had learned a crude, yet effective, precision with her blades growing up. The golden fan fell from his fingers as he staggered and then jerked suddenly forward with another succession of impacts, which was when Leeza realized the three summerflies had stuck him also.
The tableau slowed to a crawl in Leeza's perceptions. Shock, grief, and rage, it all spun through her being. There were two ivory hilted blades in his ribs and a third in his back. She did not know that she screamed, seeing him crumple as Tongari yanked her blade from his ribs. Leeza saw Yolany hanging on Juna's arm, keeping him from his brother's side, from his aid; saw Channadar's lips form Juna's name, questioning the treachery, which had slain him. Then Channadar lay crumpled on the floor and Leeza could not think; she could only feel. A wild expression swept across Leeza's face like madness.
Tongari, who was nearest to Leeza, shouted a warning to Sysymi and Pelaui seeing her stalk toward them. They had started to kneel and retrieve their blades, but left them protruding from his body to flee instead. Seeing that she was abandoned and frightened by the expression on Leeza's face, Tongari faltered and brought her blade up. The summerfly was a murderer and an assassin, not a warrior. Tongari knew how to kill, but not how to fight. Leeza knocked aside Tongari's attempt to defend herself and gutted her. Then Leeza stalked them across the room, ignoring the rest of the battle.
* * * *
Tiderider saw first Leeza vanishing into the side hallways leading to the bedrooms and then Juna spring to stand over Channadar, facing the vampires alone as he and the others fought to reach them.
"Now that it's too late, Juna?" Tiderider muttered his words through clenched teeth, seeing that his belovèd lord lay dead.
Then the golden Fae cursed, seeing a Lemyari shove a longsword through Juna's chest and still his heart with a twist. Juna's body fell across his brother's as if defending him even in death. Tiderider gave a small nod, acknowledging Juna's courage.
The room filled suddenly with fresh troops as Mohanja and the Guild arrived. They slammed into the Faes' attackers, driving them back, rescuing the beleaguered survivors. The mixed unit of Guildsmyn and private soldiers – part of a group that had been quietly assembled by Yukiah before his death – hit the undead with raging force. The healers, under Sha's command, moved up behind them, dragging the dead and wounded into the hall, clear of the fighting.
"Hell shitting damnation!" roared Mohanja. "Don't let a single one of these murdering assholes get away!" It was hard to say what was more shocking, all the death and destruction or the sound of the usually unflappable Mohanja cursing.
Only then was Tiderider able to cross the room and drop to his knees beside his lord and Juna. He turned Juna's body over, confirming that he had died. The golden Fae laid Juna aside, quickly, impulsively touching Channadar's throat in search of a pulse, which he felt certain he would not find. A white froth flecked with blood emerged from the chest wound.
"Let me have him."
Tiderider looked up at the voice to see Sha beside him. He nodded curtly, surrendering his lord to her.
Channadar's eyes fluttered open as they shifted him. "Leeza?" His voice emerged in a struggling whisper. Blood trickled from a corner of his mouth mixed in with a frothy white that wheezed up from his lungs with each breath.
Tiderider swallowed, recognizing the signs that Channadar did not have much time left him; but perhaps the golden Fae would at least be given a chance to say goodbye. He touched Channadar's head. "I will find her."
Sha read Channadar and then reached in her satchel, bringing out a jar and a folded piece of gauze. She applied the salve to the gauze and pressed it down hard over the chest wound. Her assistant reached in and applied pressure to hold it there. Then Sha brought out a bottle and a glass with markings on it. She measured, tilted his head up, and made him drink. "We're going to move you to a secured area that's been added to the Guild Wing. We're taking your people also."
"Leeza ... where is she?" Channadar whispered again.
"We haven't found her." Even as she spoke, Sha realized he could not hear her. His eyes had closed as he slipped from consciousness.
She turned to her assistants. "Get him down to the Guild surgeons in the secured sections immediately."
They bundled the Fae lord onto a litter and carried him away.
Tiderider squatted. "She was here, fought at his side. I'll find her."
"Tiderider, is there an
ything magical that needs to be removed immediately?"
"His mother's mirror." Tiderider watched the soldiers and Guildsmyn covering the bodies of the dead Fae. They piled the dead vampires along a wall. Only four of the Chosen besides Tiderider, Chucomei, and a handful of fireflies survived.
Sha gestured to a Guildsmon at her elbow. "Make it happen." The mon left her.
"My lord?" Tiderider asked, praying that Leeza's quest for aid had somehow altered the vision and omens.
"The damage needs to be surgically repaired. We've added a secured section onto the Guild Wing for noble guests in need of protection and we're sending you all over there."
"Will he live?" Tiderider persisted.
"I don't know. I just don't know. The Guild surgeons are good. But I don't know." Then Sha caught herself and shook her head. "I doubt it. He has a sucking chest wound and two blades sitting in his lungs. The sooner you find Leeza, the better the chances are that she'll see him alive. I'm sorry."
Tiderider's expression tightened. His hand drifted to Juna's face, drawing his long fingers across the stilled features. "My lord's brother died well. Laughing in their faces. It is worthy of a song. 'In such wise, Channadar's laughing brother died, who had known too well the taste of joy and too little of responsibility.' That is how it will be sung among the Fae." He saw Channadar's fans and picked them up, tucking them in his belt. "My lord will want these when he wakes." If he wakes.
Then he spied the linked crystals on their braided chains that had fallen from Channadar's pocket. Tiderider's hand quickly covered them, hesitating briefly before slipping them into his own. It made his heart ache. There was no longer any question in his mind but that they had loved each other.
* * * *
One of Sha's assistants covered Juna's body and two Guildsmyn lifted it up, bearing it away. Sha rose and went in to see if there were any other survivors that she could help, with Tiderider walking at her heels. "When you are ready to go ask any of the healers or Guildsmyn to take you."
"I must find Leeza."
Sha nodded at that, and went to Mohanja who squatted, examining each of the demon-vampire corpses with Aramyn bending at his shoulders. Soldiers were cutting their hands off, dropping them in sacks. "Are any of these people you recognize, Mohanja?"
"No. She must be calling them in from all over this continent, summoning an army. This is not just a coup, it's an invasion."
Sha's eyes widened and her voice quickened with realization, "Did you hear what you said, Mohanja?"
"Hear what?"
"The word you used. We've been dancing all around it, but sometimes when you finally say the word itself things begin to fall into place. Maybe if you had said the word sooner it would have hit me and maybe it would not. But it has just now. It is a coup, Mohanja. There are now only two Wrathscars left, other than the unborn children. There are now only two Gees left, the Grand Master and Talons, other than the unborn children. The heir is dying. Takhalme is in bad shape. It would be easy to take out Wrathscar and, by Yahni's dying words, he is already under her influence. Who would be the obvious choice as regent for the children? And the regent for the children, if they were Guild would control the Guild. If Channadar should die without heirs the lands would go to the crown and they abut on the escarpment. I must get him to acknowledge Leeza's child as soon as possible. Those lands must not fall into the wrong hands."
"If I could connect this attack upon the Fae to Galee I would have a legitimate complaint against her. But we have searched their pockets and found no papers, no identification. Nothing. Crystal their faces and see if anyone recognizes them and can remember seeing them with Galee or Wrathscar." Everything Sha told him clicked more things into place. He wished he could tell her that the branch clan had come and brought hope that Galee's move to seize power in the realm would be challenged by a legitimate heir who did not require a regent.
"I will see that it is done," Aramyn told him, leaving.
"What are you doing with the hands?" Sha asked.
"One of the temple healers wants samples of the venom to see if an ante-venom can be developed."
"That's an excellent idea. I'd like to have some myself."
"Talk to Mikolinas, there's plenty here. He should be willing to share."
"How is Galee coping with the silent mutiny?"
Mohanja went very still. "Ask tonight, when we're alone. She isn't. I think that's why she murdered my clerks."
* * * *
"I want to take you to Imralon," Dynarien told Talons. Despite healing at an astonishing rate, he still looked battered. His hand moved unconsciously to the binding godmark on his chest. He could take her there, but only briefly before he had to have her back. "Let my father's healers Read you." But it was not the healers he wanted to Read her, it was his father himself, otherwise he could have simply brought them to Creeya.
"No," Talons said, turning her face away to stare listlessly at the windows. "You would never bring me back."
"I would. I promise."
"No. Stop bringing it up. If I wasn't so tired I'd kick you."
A small sad look fled across his features. He had not liked it when she kicked him, yet now he would have given anything for her to be able to do it again. Dynarien walked out and sat down on the couch beside Edouina. She closed the bedroom door before returning to him.
"There's no longer any maybe about this," Edouina said, her eyes haunted. "She's dying."
"If I could just get her to Imralon, maybe my father could help. But she refuses to let me take her."
"Then I'll have to start talking her into it."
"Can you?"
Edouina snorted. "Honey, she's not anywhere near as stubborn as I am – especially when it means keeping her alive." Then her face went sad and angry. "Did you hear those soldiers talking? About raping the heir? No, you wouldn't have. You were out by then." The image of Dynarien lying unconscious and bleeding flashed through her mind and turned up her anger a notch.
"Talons doesn't remember it. I've read her after each of those episodes. There were six males involved."
"And you didn't say anything?" Edouina snarled.
"Can you imagine how she would have felt? Bad enough knowing Bryndel did it."
"I want them dead. Every last one of them."
"So do I." Dynarien turned grim for a moment and then added. "I'm going to ask him to send a healer to look at her."
"Do you think he can help?"
"I don't know."
* * * *
Brandrahoon sat before the mirror in his house in Timbren on the Blood Coast. The room was small and cozy. A fire burned in the hearth. It was one of those oddities of his peculiar form of undeath that, while his body was not fond of solid food; he did quite well with liquor while the lesser bloods did not. He swirled the blood red wine and drank it. He had come in with only six myn, Mephistis, one of his sa'necari retainers – Isranon – and Anksha, leaving the rest in the ruins of Aubrudrin. There was something odd about Isranon that Brandrahoon could not quite identify, besides the fact that he bore the name of Brandrahoon's dead brother, the one who had defied Waejonan and been murdered.
At Brandrahoon's command the mirror's surface swirled and then cleared, revealing Gylorean Galee sitting in her chair.
"I have been waiting for you. I require a favor. I want Dynanna destroyed."
"I have anticipated you, Galee. All those long talks about those infuriating twin yuwenghau. I am in striking distance of the female at this moment."
"Are you?" she purred. "Well, let me inform you of the date and the time. Then we will kill them both. And how is our young prince managing?"
Brandrahoon glanced across the room, watching the cat-like Anksha straddle and feed upon the moaning Prince Mephistis on the floor before the fireplace. "Quite well, I assure you. He has made the acquaintance of my little pet. They like each other very well."
Galee repressed a shiver at the thought of Brandrahoon's demon-eater, Anksha. She had tr
ied to destroy it before it reached its maturity and failed. It was far too late now. The creature was grown into its power. Only Galee and the Master of Blood knew that Anksha was one of the Tinkerer's toys, possibly the last of its kind, bred to devour creatures like themselves. Brandrahoon had rescued Anksha as a baby and reared her. Few challenged Brandrahoon, knowing Anksha would come after them. The creature was relentless once it began stalking someone or something. "You always were my favorite, Brandrahoon."
"I suppose that is a compliment, Galee," Brandrahoon observed, dryly.
* * * *
Derryl found the gates standing open at his mansion in Havensword. The swirling autumn breezes carried the smell of death. They had been here. He knew what he would find. Already he felt sick with anger, violated, his heart, and psyche raped with the deaths of the people inside. People, who had pledged to him, trusted him. They had been his. Noblesse Oblige. And he had failed. A leather messenger's pouch was tied to the gate bars, the leather still fresh and relatively untouched by the weather. They knew when he would arrive. Therefore they were watching him. Possibly right at this moment. Derryl dismounted, walked to the gate, and pulled the pouch free, feeling inside it. He took a paper out.
"RETURN MY BOOK OR DIE."
Rage boiled up in him and he screamed, "Damn you, I don't have your book!" He dropped the pouch, stomping on it as he crumpled the paper and threw it away. "I. DON'T. HAVE. YOUR. BOOK."
A heavy weight landed on his shoulders, carrying him to the ground as he heard his myn shouting and horses screaming in fright. He reached for his sword, but before he could draw it, his head cracked against a rock and fangs sank deep into his throat. Derryl's last thought before sliding into the darkness was of Maya and Leslie, of how much he loved them.
* * * *
Tiderider walked from room to room, searching for Leeza. He found treachery written on every window where the signs of warding had been removed with subtle dabs of dark black stain in the heart of each symbol; and the results were written on the floor in blood. He dragged blankets off the beds, covering the bodies of his folk he found in each room in the course of his search. His heart grew heavier with each one he found. The enemy dead he left uncovered. The Guild could remove those or deal with them as they saw fit. Galee was Guild and therefore they had hesitated to trust the Guild; they learned too late that the Guild was not Galee. They had learned too late whom they could trust among the Guildsmyn.
