“Impossible,” she whispered.
“Far from,” I answered, tired beyond belief. “The crystal doesn’t work on her. Nor does any magical power on this earth.”
Enya straightened. Her hand slipped from her throat. As though I’d blasphemed before the gods while in their holy temple, her anger assumed its natural course and she frowned heavily. “Oh, for the love of –”
“Father tried to kill me.”
Mother’s face stilled, her cornflower blue eyes suddenly careful. “He what?”
“He set a trap. He’s dead, Mother. I wish I spoke sincerely when I say ‘I’m sorry’. But I’m trying very hard to disrupt my penchant for lying.”
Enya shrugged. “You’re mistaken, dear. Your father is at Castle Salagh. I just left him to come look for you.”
“I’m not mistaken – Mother. I know who attacked me. Commander Blaez was with him. He’s escaped, however.”
“Whatever.”
“You!”
Iyumi’s voice rose unto the high-pitched octaves of an outraged alewife. “It’s you, you bitch. I know you, you conniving devil-monster, shadow spawn from hell. You pull his strings, don’t you?”
Startled, I spun about. “How dare you talk to my mother that way.”
Holding the troll tight to her tiny bosom, she backed into the mule, fear warring with fury across her face. “Your mother? Your mother is the Red Duchess? I should’ve known. You’re blind as well as stupid, Flynn.”
“My mother isn’t – she’s the victim here! Can’t you see that?”
“I see she’s blinded you, you moron,” Iyumi spat, her huge eyes wide with unfeigned terror and hate. “Did she geld you, too? Did she? I believed you when you said you wanted to atone for your sins.”
“I do –”
“Obviously, I wasted my time. You’re as much a monster as she is.”
I half-turned toward Mother, trying to apologize. “Mother, I’m so sorry –”
She watched Iyumi with the same feral calculation I might see as a lion hunts a lamb. A smile played across her beautiful lips, her arms folded over her generous breasts. She ignored me, as though I hadn’t spoken. As though I wasn’t, and still aren’t, standing in her presence. All her attention lay on the tiny girl behind me.
“I fear you listen too closely to those voices inside your head, darling,” Enya remarked, her tone light. “You should never believe what you hear.”
“Mother, ignore her, she’s wrong.” I said, trying to seize her hand. “She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
“Who suggested you sacrifice the boy, Flynn?” Iyumi snarled, her body shaking. “Was it her? Was it?”
Alarmed, Buck-Eye and Torass dismounted to stand behind Iyumi, restraining her with hands to her slender shoulders. Rather than fling them off, she backed a step to stand between them, as though seeking their protection. Dra’agor whined, his tail tucked, and his ears flattened. He sidled toward her, keeping his body between Iyumi and my mother.
“The boy would have died anyway –”
“Is that what you told him, bitch?” Iyumi screeched, her cheeks deathly pale. “Why don’t you tell him who he truly was? Tell him, hell-whore! Tell him!”
“He was nothing,” Enya replied, still smiling, her tone light. “Just as you are, silly child.”
“You don’t dare, do you? Because he’ll turn against you, isn’t that right? He’s the only one who can stop you, you devil-bitch, and you know it. You’re right to fear him, you need him and you need this baby.”
“He’s my son, and he loves me.”
Iyumi spat like a cat. “He doesn’t know what he loves.”
“Hey, now,” I began, sweating, frantic, trying to halt this atrocity. “Can we all calm down a bit? Please?”
“My son is loyal and true,” Enya replied, her eyes on Iyumi. “You shall be his reward.”
“Mother –”
“Be quiet, Flynn.”
I snapped my jaw shut as Iyumi’s voice rose higher in pitch and rage. “You killed them all. You forced your own son to commit the worst possible sin, and for what? For power. I’ll see you dead in your own blood before you dare harm this child.”
“I don’t want to hurt that baby, dear,” Enya purred. “You surely are quite mistaken. I wish to see her safe from the Evil One. You see? If she dies, so do I. And all I love in this world.”
“See? You’re just mistaken, Yumm – er, Iyumi.”
“Mistake this, stupid boy.”
Mother laughed, her voice high and musical as Iyumi made the sign. “Ah, you are such a treasure, dear. I shall enjoy getting to know you better, as my new daughter-in-law.”
“Mother –”
Her open hand cracked across my cheek. My flesh in flames, I winced, my hand rising to my face instinctively. “What the hell?”
“You’ve five days, boy. I suggest you gag her, and tie her to that mule. Don’t make me come looking for you again.”
CHAPTER 13
Blind To All Else
His boot kicked me in my cracked ribs. Sharp, hard and with utmost cruelty.
“Get up, cuz,” Cian chirped brightly. “Your day of destiny hath dawned.”
Cursing him into the furthest reaches of hell, I staggered, ungainly, to my feet. My outraged rib-cage screamed in protest, white fire coursing through every vein. During my time unconscious, my broken nose quieted a fraction, though dried blood cracked against my lips as I grimaced in effort. Short on breath and long on agonizing pain, I fought to stand upright and toe to toe with him. My hands bound behind my back hampered me greatly, but I won my footing and stared my cousin and brother Atan in the eye. Working saliva into my dry mouth, I spat at his boots.
He grinned, the half-healed slash on his left cheek puckering. “An officer and a gentleman,” he commented. “Ever so proper. Once you’re ashes, I’ll post your name on a park bench somewhere.”
“You’re too kind.”
“I know.”
Cian smirked, his right hand tangled in my chain leash. Pulling me forward, toward him, he inclined his face into mine. The half-thought that he intended to kiss me crossed my fractured brain waves, although I knew he liked girls rather than boys. Instead, he offered me a deep glance at his tonsils and a full wash of his noxious breath. “Only the good die young, Van.”
“That explains why you’re still here.”
He chuckled, poisoning my air intake on his exhale. “I protest that remark, dearest cousin. I’ve been wronged, by you, and merely seek my honest revenge. I stand in the light of right while you, um, don’t.”
“I did you no wrong, Cian.”
“No? How about you murdered my lady.”
“What lady?”
Cian scowled, his scar dancing. “You know, dammit. You knew Zeani and I were in love and intended to marry. You robbed me of that.”
His face inclined toward me again, his nasty smile rising anew. “And you’ll be paying the price.”
I rolled my eyes. “Are you truly that thick, cuz? I never thought so, but, you know, you excelled at deception in school.”
I knew my words jolted him, for he jerked away in a rapid there-and-gone twitch of his facial muscles before his sneering expression returned. How did I know? his eyes asked. My own malicious grin rose to match his and I caught his eye. And held it.
“Zeani didn’t love you,” I commented, my upper lip curling. “She slept with every officer above the rank of sergeant. She wasn’t too ambitious, our Corporal Zeani, but she did like her boys with connections.”
His eyes flattened. “You lie.”
I chuckled. “Do I? Should he survive this debacle, yon Broc will inherit a fortune and a title one day. Am I right or am I right? Broc, you scoundrel, elaborate for us on the night you drank too much at the Atan festival three years ago and Zeani pursued you until you surrendered. Didn’t she suck –”
“Liar!”
Cian’s yank on my chain dropped me to my knees. He kick
ed me in the gut, dropping me instantly onto my face in the dirt, coughing, and unable to draw breath. I floundered, gritty dust filling my eyes and sending them into a fury of watering. Though helpless tears tracked down my filthy cheeks, I never quit trying to get up. An Atan died on his feet and a curse for his enemy on his lips. I regained my knees, halfway there, and grinned upwards into Cian’s rage.
“Thank you,” I gasped, choking, my chest burning.
“For what, you idiot? For what?”
His heavy hand on my leash dragged me upright, gagging, as I seized every sweet breath with gratitude. “For proving to me she’d never love someone like you.”
“You don’t know jack,” Cian screamed into my face, his own purple with rage. “She loved me! She said she did!”
“If you say so, cuz,” I answered, smiling. “Keep telling yourself that. Imagine her fury when I said no.”
His heavy fist cracked across my cheekbone. Its collective force all but knocked me back into unconsciousness. I’d like that. Cast me into the empty darkness where I’d not feel the flames taking my life. Do it, please. Zeani screamed when the flames ate her up, I recalled. She sucked in air, yet only the terrible heat filled her lungs. I remember. Ah, I remember so clearly. Her hazel eyes boiled in their sockets as she died. Her flesh melted from her cheeks, her lips, her chin. She fell onto her once-beautiful face, mercifully hiding the scorched flesh of a self-confessed traitor. She went down as an Atan should: brave, strong and utterly fearless.
Her voice shrieked one word. A name.
That name wasn’t Cian’s.
“Lieutenant!”
Broc and Tris lunged forward. Between them, they caught Cian low, tackling him by his belly and his knees. He went down hard, and might have taken me down with him had my chain not slipped through his hand. I stayed on my feet through sheer cussedness and a determination to not hit the ground again. Taking only shallow breaths, I spat blood and the swinging world steadied a fraction. Though I tried sending the awful pain to the back of my head, it refused to leave.
Cursing, Cian socked Tris in the gut a fraction before Broc caught him in a shoulder lock. “Calm down,” he yelled. “Do you want him to fry or don’t you?”
“Of course I do! Get off me, you ass.”
“Stop beating on him then. He wants you to kill him quick, like. Can’t you see that?”
“Lemmee go!”
As entertained as I was by this fracas, I briefly thought of escape. And dropped the idea almost as quickly. Not just trussed like a feast-day goose, I was powerless and weakened with blood loss and injury. Pity Cian didn’t let his temper loose and hit me hard enough to kill me outright, I thought. Better that than death by fire.
Yestin and Drust flanked me as though suspected flight was foremost on my mind rather than furthest, while Kado nocked an arrow and pointed it at me. Not at my heart or throat, where I might die quickly should I make an error in judgment. He aimed that deadly barb at my knee. He smiled.
In a swirl of dust and coarse oaths, Cian scrambled to his feet. His face coated in dust and spittle, he slapped away the hands that now reached to help rather than hinder. He glared around at his men, included me in his furious hate, and straightened his clothes.
“Did you sleep with her?” he bellowed at Broc.
Broc paled. “Me, boss? No, of course not, whyever would I? She loved you, boss, never even looked at another man.”
I almost laughed. Clearly Cian didn’t believe him. By their sudden sour expressions, neither did Tris nor Yestin. Zorn scowled, and turned his head to spit into the dirt. Kado still smiled at me, and I half-wondered if he prayed for me to try an escape just so he could shoot me. I declined his obvious invitation by standing still and rolling my shoulders to ease the discomfort.
Broc’s obvious lie didn’t save me, however. If Cian now realized his love was a slut who preyed upon anything male, he’d never release me with an apology. If I wasn’t to blame for her behavior, I was still to blame for her death. He loved her with a passion that blinded him to all else. And I took her from him.
“Mount up,” Cian ordered, his voice hoarse.
Grabbing up my chain, he jerked it viciously in a juvenile rage vent. Dragging me with him, he stalked to his grey gelding. In an unnecessary show of subservience, Broc held the horse’s bridle as Cian mounted. With his commander safely ensconced on his mild-mannered steed, Broc, his skin as pale as a dead fish, vaulted into his own saddle. I caught a swift glance of pure hatred directed my way. But as Cian’s spurs struck silky hide and I was hauled off my feet, I failed to return an appropriate response.
Forced to walk quickly and keep pace with the horses, I focused on the ground at my boots and concentrated on each step forward. For once, Cian kept his mouth shut and his hands to himself as his boys rode in a semi-circle behind us. Their awkward and tense silence spoke louder than shouted curses. No military unit I ever rode with, unless under strict orders, ever travelled without lewd jokes, gossip about women and superior officers, or whose horse ran faster. These boys knew I was in the right and Cian in the wrong. Yet, they’d never stoop to either admitting it nor to helping me.
When the steep, rocky terrain demanded it, they rode in an even line behind Cian’s grey, with me tagging along at his flank. As Cian led the way downhill rather than up, I maintained his pace without too much agony. The horses were forced into careful walks to avoid nasty stumbles that might tip a rider out of his saddle. In addition, their stiff silence offered me several interesting ideas to pursue.
Though they tied my hands and collared my powers, they hadn’t bothered to disarm me. My sword clapped against my left leg as I walked. Why? Even if I was incapable of using it, what fool didn’t seize his prisoner’s weapons? In a less than totally bizarre situation, they’d have stripped me of every weapon I possessed, real or imagined. Did they deliberately ignore it? Did they see it?
Had my sword’s own magic, outside my own, blinded them to its presence? Could I call upon its strength when I had none of my own? Despite my desire to call forth the sword’s own power, my need to keep my footing prevailed. The mountain landscape constantly threatened my footing. If I didn’t keep up, or if I fell, Cian would no doubt drag me by that cold pewter collar to my destiny. I couldn’t, and dared not, focus my thoughts on the sword.
We reached the lower shoulder of the huge mountain just as the sun passed its zenith and headed west. Cian permitted only the briefest breaks to water the horses on the lush mountain streams. They munched cold fare as they rode, but I received no water and no food. My injuries and constant weakness kept hunger at bay. Yet, my throat felt as though I’d swallowed sand. At every break I asked for water and was ignored.
Within the lower elevations, my boots trod thin tough tundra rather than the wickedly sharp rocks of the higher peak. Deer and mountain grouse fled in swift panic as the snorting horses and creaking saddle leather spooked them into flight. The heavy forests of twisted pine and lush evergreen thinned into emaciated knots of scrub oak and elm trees. Below lay the Auryn River where Malik, Kiera, Grey Mist, Wind Warrior and my special lady, Sky Dancer, met their end gurgled and burped over countless boulders and fallen trunks.
All of them dead. Their restless spirits stalked beside me, calling for me to join them. Though their loss cut me to the quick, I embraced their presence. They came to accompany me to the other side. Soon, I’d join them as one more spirit, one with the gods, and with the Creator of All. My mind shied away from all thoughts of Iyumi. Her beautiful eyes, her sardonic smile – much too painful to contemplate. Must think of something else, quick, no don’t remember her lovely curves, her blue on blue eyes, think dammit, don’t reminisce, think.
The gradual incline down flattened out, and only a few hundred rods away the rushing river galloped faster than a horse might run. I knew this area. We approached the Auryn many leagues to the east of where my brothers died in a region with fewer high hills and more open grasslands. Prey animals of all sp
ecies leapt, jumped, bolted and hopped out of our way. An eagle screamed high overhead, it’s hunting call breaking into the tense silence. The river’s voice increased in tempo and volume the closer we travelled toward it. It roared over boulders smoothed by time, white foam splashing high.
The sun in its glory ascended into the deepest west, throwing spears of red, orange, purple and gold over the forbidding peaks above. The pain I’d ignored all day expressed its displeasure. Weakened by blood loss, thirst and cracked ribs, I could no longer ignore the damage done to me. All had taken their toll, and if Cian didn’t stop to murder me soon, I’d collapse, unable to walk any further. At which time he’d no doubt drag me until I was dead.
Hmmm. Perhaps I might be instantly killed if his collar snapped my neck, dragged as I was behind his mount. Or I’d slowly strangle while rocks and shrubbery smashed into my face and head, thus adding to the torture while not necessarily sending me into the arms of the good gods very quickly. Crap. Not as good a choice as I first thought. Best keep one’s footing, I thought, haphazard.
Before I did indeed fall, unable to put one foot in front of the other, Cian called a halt. He dropped my chain, permitting it to coil up on the ground at my feet. None of his men jumped forward to point arrows at my knees, preventing a swift run away. He knew as well as I did escape wasn’t in my travel arrangements, and swung down from his gelding. Leading the horse away, he left me to my own devices. Sweat trickled into my eyes, stinging sharply, as I gasped for breath. Sitting gingerly on a rock, I shut my eyes and focused on staying conscious. If I could concentrate, if I could pull in enough willpower, maybe, just maybe, I could call on my sword’s magic. But will took energy and I had precious little to risk on a maybe.
Around me, Cian’s men dismounted and led their beasts to water and grazing. I couldn’t hear what they said to one another, but their voices held little humor and none of the usual soldier bitching about the hours, food and commanding officers. If I didn’t know better, I’d guess they didn’t much like their current assignment but dared not let Cian know. I shut my eyes to better listen, hoping against hope that one of them might remember their Atani vows.
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