Daena remarked.
Bannor wondered.
Corim answered.
Bannor leaned forward. What was this creature? It wasn’t a pantheon lord. He felt a tingle as if it were a savant, but no savant possessed bio-force like that. He glanced at Daena. His threads and energy level more closely resembled Daena than anyone else. The signature wasn’t right for him to be a first one though.
He slid a step closer to examine this new individual. There was something familiar about the aura, the texture of the threads of this creature. Where had he sensed energies like those before?
He blinked.
Dulcere repeated, the incredulity clear in her thoughts.
Bannor responded.
Ziedra said.
Dulcere responded after a moment.
Ziedra said.
Wren responded.
The young man took a deep breath, chest swelling and body shuddering.
The sudden movement made Bannor lurch. The boy was definitely alive.
The intruder drew another breath, unfolded his arms and stretched. He opened glowing eyes much like Daena’s only they cast a rosy violet illumination across his cheekbones.
“Oh, hello,” he said in languid voice that had an echoing quality to it. Something about the mesmerizing tone of it made Bannor’s skin prickle. “Seems I’ve been waiting here forever.” He sighed and rolled his head side to side. “Then again, I suppose by the principle of temporal coalescence, I have been waiting forever.”
The more Bannor saw of this creature, the more alarming he became. As it woke up, more and more threads had begun to spiral around its aura. His heart was pounding and he didn’t know why. This creature was totally new to him, yet there was something familiar as well. “Waiting for what?”
The young man raised an eyebrow. He put his hands behind his back and made a little shake of his head.
Wren thought.
The young man smiled and pointed toward Wren with a nod.
“You can see us, and hear our thoughts?”
The intruder nodded.
Dulcere told everyone.
“Eloquently stated Belkirin Starbinder,” the newcomer said with a bow to Dulcere. He looked toward Bannor. “You can call me, Kell.”
“All right, Kell,” Bannor said. “And why are you here?”
The young man didn’t answer but moved forward, gliding across the floor with languid steps. Not knowing this creature, but feeling its power, Bannor backed up out of the way. As Kell stepped into the hall, Dulcere moved clear too.
Hands again behind his back. Kell turned his head to look at Dulcere. “I like it,” he said. “You are so beautiful in green. Yet you wore it so rarely.” He sighed. “I always thought Kriar women were beautiful. Especially your mother. Truly an empress among your kind.” The smile on his face melted. “Protect them, protect them as only you, Quasar and Eclipse can. You have to settle your differences to succeed.”
He turned toward Corim. “And for light’s sake get off the bloody fence. You can love them both. Stop being so damned afraid.”
“You know us?” Wren asked.
“Indeed, Sister, I do.” He made a sweeping gesture and hovering figures of everyone became visible. He made a down gesture with his palm and all the already surprised people hovering in the corridor dropped to the floor.
Ziedra gripped the side of her head. “Ow. Hey!”
“If there were more time.” He looked to Wren. “I would express my admiration.” He focused on Ziedra. “Confess my infatuation.” He turned to Daena. “And tell you how much I love you.” He rocked his head back and drew a breath. His gaze fixed on Daena. “Now, I must do something I know will upset you all.”
He rolled his shoulders forward and stepped toward the auburn-haired savant.
“What?” Daena’s eyes widened. She stepped back.
Corim stepped in front of her, Shaladen blade pointed at Kell’s chest. “No. Explain yourself.”
Kell looked down at the powerful weapon, the tip hovering hairs from the surface of his skin. “I have nothing but respect and regard for the Shael Dal. So many of them were so good to me and good for me. Shining examples of what men and women should be.” He looked up to meet Corim’s eyes. “You included.”
He reached toward the blade.
“Do not,” Corim raised the blade to Kell’s throat.
Kell sighed. He snatched the blade and a flare of energy lashed back along it into Corim.
The power burst into the burly man’s chest smashing him into the wall with a groan. As Corim’s limp frame slid down the granite, Dulcere with a gleaming blade of light in her hand was instantly in his place pressing the glowing weapon against Kell.
The intruder let go of the Shaladen he was still holding. It dropped to the floor with a clunk. He looked down at the tip of the light weapon burning the fabric of the shirt he was wearing.
“You have to let me pass,” he said. “There is little time left.”
Dulcere asked.
Ziedra skittered over by Corim, and put a hand next to his neck and felt his chest. “He’s just stunned.”
Kell’s hands dropped to his sides. He shook his head. “Lords you are so beautiful. Your little sister grows up to be so magnificent, my chest aches thinking of her.”
Kell rocked his head back and turned his hands outward. Bannor saw threads all around Dulcere bend and twist. He started to interfere but it happened in the blink of an eye. The light weapon in the Kriar’s hand winked out and she rocked back with a gasp, body shuddering and convulsing she dropped to her knees, clutching herself.
He had to stop this kid. Bannor found the thickest of Kell’s threads and reached for them. Before his psychic fingers had even closed, Kell was staring at him and in that instant he felt his own threads yanked and tangled. A crushing pressure clamped down on his throat. Pain jolted through his body causing him to let out a gasp. His links to eternity were being pinched off, and pushing with all his strength didn’t lessen the pressure at all.
Kell’s glowing magenta eyes narrowed. “You’ve never been on the receiving end of your own power have you? Hurts doesn’t it? Especially when you feel all your magic being sheared away. How many creatures have you done this to? I’m certain they all remember it for a long time.”
“Kell,” Wren growled. “Stop it. I won’t warn you again.”
Kell made a slapping gesture toward Bannor that felt like getting kicked in the stomach by a mule. All of the air left his lungs in a stunning rush. He dropped to his knees making futile gasps for air that wouldn’t come.
The intruder turned to Wren, Ziedra, and Daena. Ziedra’s hands were glowing and she looked frightened. Wren too looked uncertain. Daena’s face had a stony expression.
The young man turned his head to one side. “Sister, mother, goddess, what exactly are you going to do if I don’t?”
A dagger appeared in Wren’s fingers and was flying at Kell so fast Bannor barely saw her move. As fast as the movement happened, the blade passed through empty air. Kell was standing behind Wren with an arm braced around her throat.
“You always told me, never waste time with retorts and rhetoric. I—”
Ziedra interrupted him by snatching
a handful of Kell’s long hair. “Hurt her and I swear to Gaea I will blow your frelling head off.”
Wren pried at the man’s arm, trying to kick and struggle out of his grasp, to gouge a rib or in some way break free. Whatever her efforts, Kell seemed unconcerned and unaffected by any of it.
“With a hell-seeker I suppose?” Kell said, leaning his head to look at her. “In these close quarters? You want to kill me, not everyone in this corridor.”
“Shut up, damn you,” She doubled her fist in his hair. “Let go of her.”
Kell moaned leaning back against her hand. “Lords, I wanted you to touch me for so long. Even in anger.”
Ziedra snarled, the glow of magic around her hands brightening.
The young man’s eyes fluttered.
The dark-haired savant gasped. “Uck.” She let out an incoherent sound, body trembling and shaking. She staggered back apparently unable to control her limbs.
Kell leaned forward, his lips next to the blonde savant’s ear. “Liandra,” he whispered. His voice seeming to echo throughout the hall. “I can see myself.”
Wren’s eyes went wide. Bannor felt his skin prickle, his heart seeming to freeze in his chest. What could he do? His Nola was in knots. His body wouldn’t move.
The young man pressed his lips to the back of Wren’s head. “I love you.” He rocked his head back eyelids fluttering. The blonde woman shuddered and went lax in his arms. He lowered her gently to the floor.
“What the frell are you?!” Daena cried.
He pressed his hands together. “Cute. At least you said so. Daena this won’t be easy. You’re so young and you have such a gigantic responsibility.” He stepped forward.
“Stay away,” she thrust her palm at him. The air in the hall shuddered with the massive force she directed at him. Bannor felt his ears pop.
Daena’s nola power crashed into Kell’s chest, rocking him back a step, and causing his clothes and hair to fly as though in a hurricane gust. He should have been smashed into jelly.
Kell started forward again.
“No!” Daena said. Bannor felt the energies well up in her, far stronger than anything he had ever felt the girl summon. “Go back!” She jabbed with her fist.
The atmosphere in the hall appeared to writhe and contort around Daena’s outstretched hand. The rocks hummed, and Bannor felt his flesh rippling as the lance of nola energy stabbed out.
The impact shredded Kell’s shirt and made a fiery red marring spread across his bare skin. The impetus knocked the young man back a step but little else.
“Keep doing that and you’re going to hurt yourself,” Kell said. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“The last time a stranger said that, she turned me into a monster! Stay away!”
“You aren’t a monster, Daena,” Kell said. “You’re someone very special.”
Damn it. He didn’t want Daena to get hurt again. He struggled to push through the compulsion and the pain and rise. Making his body press to a stand. “No,” he growled. “Leave her be.”
Kell paused a step from where Daena stood, and glanced toward him. “I can’t. There are great things at stake. Problems that only Daena will be able to solve.”
“What’s that got to do with you?”
Kell looked into Daena’s eyes. “She failed.”
“Fail or not, I don’t want anything else forced on me damn it!”
Kell shook his head. “Sorry.” He started forward.
Daena made another attempt to slam him away with her Nola. He weathered the attack just like the other two. Being in the original form of her spindly former self, her physical resistance was minimal. Kell fended away her physical attacks with swift strokes of his hands.
Bannor grabbed a mass of Kell’s threads with the intent to tangle him up. As soon as he pressed down, a savage jolt seared through his body like a strike of lightning, his nola itself seemed to twist in his head. The sudden pain took the legs out from under him.
Continuing to block Daena’s resistance, Kell knelt and grabbed her around the waist as she finally turned to run.
“No!” Daena wailed.
“Shhh.” Kell hushed pressing his cheek between her shoulder blades.
Daena gasped and rocked her head back. She shuddered.
A humming went through the air, and Kell’s body shimmered as though translucent. Flecks of light spun around the two of them in multicolored vortexes, whirling faster and faster.
The floor and walls trembled as some horrendous force seemed to press in. Daena and Kell’s bodies became silhouettes outlined in the bright light.
Daena let out a cry, the sound dropping in pitch and echoing through the hall. Through the rumbling came a hissing and bubbling sound. Bannor felt a radiant heat press against him, and his bones seemed to vibrate. The silhouette of the young savant’s body grew taller and broader, and a green illumination shone out of her form. The radiance rapidly grew brighter than the magic whirling around her.
In a final rumbling flash that sent gusts hissing through the hall, Daena reappeared, now clothed in the what Bannor could only call a first one’s natural shape. Steam curled off the girl’s huge naked body. She fell to her knees, sobbing into her hands.
Kell was gone.
He looked around. Damn, that would have alerted the whole castle. He scrambled to Dulcere. What his power could do, it could undo—he hoped.
Bannor grabbed the Kriar’s shoulder. His nola was still tangled up from whatever Kell had done, but it seemed to be awakening again. He concentrated, focusing to untangle the blocks that the stranger had twisted in her essence. Strangely, it was as if the boy had put slip knots in the skein. A single pull returned each thread to normal. He could ponder that mystery later. He continued freeing Dulcere’s energy and consciousness.
In a few moments, it was done. He could hear and feel the approach of the citadel guards. If they were seen, especially a giant naked Daena, it would create a scandal that would take a century to cool off.
He shook the Kriar’s shoulder. “Dulcere, up. We need you.”
The ancient female’s eyes opened a crack.
Damn. She was barely conscious. He needed her alert now. He took hold of her shoulder, calling on the Garmtur to help him. It had been a long time since he tried to summon the magic that way. He had learned a great deal since those first days in the forest outside of Blackwater. Mostly, he had learned not to use the Garmtur like that. He remembered one time, still completely fledgling in his understanding of his nola, making Sarai strong so she could fight Rankorhaaz. The risks he had taken then without even knowing it. It made him shudder to think. He knew it now.
Wake up. Be strong. Get us out of here!
He felt his nola respond with a familiar kick in the ribs. Like a horse happy to be let out of the corral, the energy charged through his body and channeled through his hands into the disoriented female.
As the magic flooded into her, Dulcere’s space-black eyes snapped open, and she gasped. In what must have been a reflex action, her hand latched onto his arm with crushing force. That slender body concealed a horrendous strength.
Gritting through the pain in his arm. “Dulcere—get us out of here—guards are coming. All of us.”
The Kriar snatched around, obviously seeing the scattered bodies of their scouting team, and hearing the now imminent nearness of the guards. She glanced back to him. A pale sheen shot across the surface of her skin, and then a light flared in her eyes.
In that instant, their surroundings shimmered and changed. The stone corridor was replaced with the familiar environs of Malbrion hall and the conference circle. Their appearance drew a chorus of surprised gasps and oaths.
He glanced around confirming that Dulcere had indeed brought everyone. Giant Daena was still sobbing. Corim lay unconscious, Ziedra and Wren lay stunned on the floor.
Sarai, Euriel, and the others closed in around them with words of surprise, concern, and curiosity fast on their lips. As
Sarai shook his shoulder, he could only think this wasn’t a very auspicious start to their investigation…
* * *
Chapter Fifteen
Ramifications
« ^ »
The rapists scared me, Hella terrified me, and the eternals had me practically soiling myself. What Kell did…I can’t put words to. I just know that my life has been immeasurably complicated by it…
—Daena Sheento,
Ward Prodigal of Malan
Bannor lay on the floor, his head cradled in Sarai’s lap. He had a colossal headache, one of the biggest in more than a season since he stopped the demon army in the valley on the Malan border. Wren, Ziedra, Corim and Dulcere were being tended to with special attention being paid to the statue-like Daena who looked uninjured, but had obviously been profoundly rocked by whatever Kell had done to her. The ones who had stayed behind, wives, husbands, mothers, friends and guardians were all clustered around in the conference circle hovering around the bruised investigators.
“I still don’t understand, what was this Kell creature?” Sarai was asking him. She leaned forward, her silk fine hair tickling Bannor’s cheek. Her brow was furrowed and her violet eyes wide with concern. “A pantheon lord?”
Bannor shook his head. Wincing, he rubbed his temples and moaned. “Something worse, something stronger. At the very least, he was a fully realized savant. He could do things with the Garmtur I could only dream of.”
“The Garmtur?” Euriel looked over from where she was sitting behind Wren massaging the blonde savant’s shoulders. “I thought there were certain limitations to the number and kind of savants that can exist.”
Brow furrowed in obvious discomfort Wren drew a breath and rubbed the back of her head. “When I first learned about savants, I was told that only one of each type of savant could exist. I think that conclusion was only an assumption.” She reached out to her brother who was sitting next to her and the man captured her hand between his in a comforting gesture. “There can probably be a savant for every one of the original first ones. When I joined with Starholme I felt a lineage of thousands…” Her voice trailed off. She was quiet for a moment. “Whoever he was, he worked us like common greens. I don’t think all of it was power though.”
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