by B. T. Narro
“Why would you want to kill the tavern keeper?”
She felt a spark of tension within both of them. She pushed it out of their energy as best she could, but it kept coming back like a hungry dog sniffing around a slaughterhouse.
The tall mage drew a dagger. He grabbed her cheeks and pointed the weapon beneath her eye. “I’m about to cut this pretty blue thing out of your eye socket. Which room?”
“I’m about to tell you! Just tell me why you would kill the tavern keeper.”
Tears clouded her vision, running down her cheeks and onto his fingers. She squelched the fear threatening to overwhelm her so she could focus on what Charlotte had taught her, twisting their urgency into tranquility.
The shorter man answered, “We weren’t planning to kill him until you made us use py energy to stop you. We can’t let our identities be known.”
“That’s what I figured…so how do I know you won’t kill me as soon as I tell you what you want to know?”
The taller man pulled his dagger free and slammed its hilt into her temple, next to her left eye. Her eyelid quivered as she reeled from the pain.
“Just tell us now!” he demanded.
She felt something wrap around her first finger. She looked down at it; swelling or tears had made her vision blurry. It must be pyforial energy. It pulled her finger back toward her wrist. Pain came on sharply.
“I’m going to break your fingers one by one so severely they’ll never heal. Then I’m going to cut out both your eyes,” said the taller one.
And they’re going to kill me when they’re done. Her heart beat like a drum. Her inhales were shallow and painful coming down her throat. She couldn’t stop her tears.
The energy pried back her finger farther, the agony forcing a sharp scream out of her tender throat. Suddenly her mouth was muffled by more energy and the prying stopped.
“Last warning,” the taller mage said. He let the energy off her mouth.
“I just need your promise that I won’t be killed!” She wept uncontrollably, ashamed that her fear had won out.
They glanced at each other, irritated and worried.
“You won’t be killed,” the smaller one said.
“I can tell you’re lying. In the same way I can cause pain, I know your intentions. There’s no reason”—a sob interrupted her—“to kill me. I have no one to tell about your identity. I don’t even know your names.” Damn, she sounded so frail. She was ashamed and terrified…and worthless.
Why haven’t the guards come! She’d stalled as long as she could.
If they would kill her mercifully, she would let them do it. But she couldn’t endure having her fingers broken and her eyes cut out. The thought made her feel even more pathetic.
The taller mage put his dagger back in the ankle holster. “We know Grodger’s Inn very well,” he warned. “If you lie to us about which room he’s in, you will die. If you tell us the truth, you’ll live.”
She could sense his honesty. She glanced at the shorter one. “I just need you to say the same thing.”
“Tell us his room without lying and we’ll let you live.”
He was honest like the first. Damn guards. They should be here.
“Now tell us,” the taller one said with an eerie calm, knowing they’d won.
CHAPTER NINE
NEEKO
There was a rap at the door. Cedri had returned with his food more quickly than usual. Perhaps she hadn’t stayed to eat but had brought her meal with his.
Neeko set down his book, waiting for the rest of their secret knock.
There were two more quick knocks. It wasn’t her.
Excitement fluttered in his chest at the thought of it being Steffen and Shara. “Who’s there?” he called.
“It’s me, Neeko.”
Was that Steffen’s voice? It didn’t quite sound like him.
“Who’s me?” Neeko asked.
There was no reply. It wasn’t Steffen and Shara. Neeko’s heart sank. Dread followed. Who in two hells would know his name?
Then the answer came—no one he wanted to see.
Panic took over as he hurried to his bedroom for his bag. A boot, or perhaps a shoulder, slammed into the door. He cursed as he threw his bag over his back. The door broke open with the next blow. Not taking the time to attach the sheaths holding his swords to his belt, he ran to the window and threw open its wooden shutters. Being on the third story meant he wouldn’t be jumping out, but if he had enough time to get py beneath his arms—too late. Something shoved him away from the window, a gust of py, he realized. Another gust came, pulling his legs out from under him.
He fell with his back still to his attacker. He couldn’t get to his knees before a blanket of energy pushed him back down.
He had the thought to protect his neck, and just in time. A force tightened around his throat, but the space his hand created left him able to breathe.
He finally got a look at his attacker. Damn, there were two! A tall and a short mage, certainly members of the PCQ. The tall one knelt to retrieve a dagger from a sheath attached to his ankle. Neeko used the py he’d gathered to knock the man over.
The energy around his neck fell to his chest and shoved him against the wall, remaining there to dig into his sternum. The shorter mage was powerful, possibly even more than Neeko was, and there were damned two of them!
Neeko grabbed the energy with his hands, using both his mind and his might to shove it off him. It broke apart, and he could breathe again. But the tall mage had py around a floating dagger. Neeko ducked as the man shot out his arm and the blade followed his command. Neeko rolled beneath his bed, looking behind him to locate his enemy’s dagger after it bounced off the wall. He got py around its hilt, then rolled back out and jumped up to find both mages crouched, peering beneath the bed.
There was no hesitation as he sent the dagger through the air. It impaled the tall one in the shoulder, and he fell backward with a scream while the other reached out. Py squeezed around Neeko’s throat.
A surge of panic made him grab it in a hopeless attempt to pry it off. He quickly ignored his instincts and tried to get his own ring of py around the mage’s neck. But the man lifted his hand to prevent being choked.
Running out of air, Neeko noticed his swords in scabbards on his bed. In a blink, he had energy around the handle of one of them and ripped it free. Neeko sent the sword flying, but the short mage dropped to the floor. It sailed over him and into the common room, too far to retrieve with energy.
The mage had kept his focus while ducking and it felt like someone was standing on Neeko’s throat. His neck couldn’t hold the weight much longer, feeling as if it was about to collapse in on itself. His panic was nearly too much for him to get py around his second sword.
This one had to hit, and quickly. The tall mage had gotten up and was pulling the dagger from his shoulder.
Neeko made his sword hover, and both men ducked and then rolled. Neeko waited, aiming. They shuffled back and forth, holding their arms in front of them.
“Get his energy!” yelled the short one—the man Neeko needed to stab so he could breathe again.
Before the tall one could grab hold of Neeko’s py around the hilt, he forced the weapon forward blade first. It caught the small mage in his right arm, and the py instantly came loose around Neeko’s neck.
Gasping for air and acutely aware of the tall mage getting py around the bloody dagger he’d ripped from his shoulder, Neeko ran for the window. He didn’t have time to do more than gather a small cluster of py before he dove out.
He fell like a sack of rocks, the ground coming at him faster than he ever could’ve imagined. Being aware of his imminent death made time slow to a near halt. He split his concentration, using half of his mind to pull the trailing cluster of py in front of him while using the other half to gather more energy.
He forced the clusters together, putting the sphere of energy directly below him. By his next breath, he would slam i
nto the energy and then the ground. It was just enough time to spread the clear energy into a sheet. He caught onto it like a cat would, digging his hands deep into the cushiony energy while using his mind to keep it from plummeting into the dirt path a few feet away.
The force of his body was too much for his arms and legs—his chest and knees crashing into the sheet of py. The energy bent but held together, making him feel as if he’d fallen onto a mattress. He used all his willpower to demand the energy upward, but as hard as he tried, he couldn’t seem to conquer his momentum.
The ground approached, his speed fast enough to kill him. Neeko put everything he had into one last heave of his mind. It felt like he was trying to pull a charging horse to a stop.
Somehow he managed it, coming to a halt close enough to the ground for him to reach out and touch the dry dirt if the energy wasn’t in his way. He leaned back, tilting the energy with him, and slid off.
Taking a look over his shoulder, he found both mages gawking out his window, one with a bloody shoulder, the other with a bloody arm. He looked around and found the same gaping stare on no less than fifty people all around him.
Then he saw the guards—a mob of them. Those with bows were on horseback. Why in two hells are there so many of them?
A man in common clothing came out from between them. “He’s not one who tried to kill me. They could still be in my tavern.”
So this was the tavern keeper Cedri had been visiting. Neeko hoped she was all right but didn’t have time for more than a passing thought about her. He glanced up at his window, prepared to direct the guards at the two other py mages, but they had ducked back inside.
“Doesn’t matter, he’s a py mage,” the guardsman in front told the tavern keeper. Then he called out to Neeko, “Give up or be shot!” The three archers on horses behind him loaded arrows.
Neeko threw up his hands. “I give up.”
A crowd was amassing, blocking his view…and standing in his path to the stables on his right. He considered flying over them, but the stables were too close for him to retrieve his horse without getting an arrow in his back.
“We’re coming to detain you now,” the lead man warned Neeko. “If you move or use pyforial energy, we’ll kill you.”
There was no more time to plan. He moved pyforial energy beneath his arms and sprung up, then soared faster than he could run over the throng of gasping people.
“Shoot him!”
Strings snapped. Arrows shot past him and the fletching of one brushed his shoe. Horses broke into a gallop, and the guards shouted for people to move.
Neeko took a turn around the inn in the air. Then another, ending up going the opposite direction.
To his dismay, one guard had gone around the building. “He’s here!” Luckily the man was without a horse and bow. Neeko soared over him.
He couldn’t fly for long at this speed. He would need a horse. He looked back to find guards coming around the inn, kicking their speeding horses.
Neeko remembered seeing a horse seller on the way to Grodger’s Inn. No, too far. It’s a mile away.
There weren’t any buildings tall enough ahead to conceal his flight path, so he came down in front of a tailor’s shop that had at least two entrances he could see.
The owner hadn’t seen him land and treated him like any other patron. “Good evening.”
Neeko stopped for an instant, finding four exits. Good. He ignored the owner and ran straight for the exit to his right. His pursuers would have to guess which one he’d take. He used py to grab a black jerkin from the nearby wall and willed it into his hands.
“Thief! Pyforial thief!” There was some amazement mixed into the tailor’s shock.
If Neeko was already a thief, he figured taking a black hat with a wide brim wouldn’t make it any worse.
“Stop! Guards, guards!” The tailor ran toward the opposite door, most certainly looking for help.
Neeko didn’t have time to unlace the jerkin in order to wear it. So he got a good hold on it and his new hat as he moved py beneath his arms.
The beat of horse hooves drummed, slowing as they neared the shop. He heard the tailor shouting about him as he lifted himself from the ground.
He soared over five buildings, staying low so as not to be seen by the guards on horseback. Then he came down between two houses and began madly picking at the laces of his new jerkin, his hands fumbling. All his life, Neeko had avoided coats with laces because he hated untying them. “Should’ve grabbed a damn tunic,” he muttered to himself.
At least he heard no horses. They probably would separate in hopes of locating him.
As he got his arms through the sleeveless leather, he noticed a child watching him from an open window not ten feet away. He looked about Rao’s age, nine or ten, and formed a guilty countenance at having been caught spying.
Probably saw me land. Neeko flipped on his hat and pulled a ruff from his pocket, letting it catch the light of the low sun.
“Where’s the nearest place I can buy a horse?” he asked.
The boy nervously pointed north, away from the guards, thankfully.
“How far?”
“Just down that road, sir.”
Neeko would let himself be amused about being called “sir” later. He thought he heard hooves. He flicked the ruff from his thumb into the open window. The boy caught it against his chest with both hands.
A woman’s shrill voice came from behind him. “You still haven’t set the plates! Get in here right now!”
Neeko fought against carrying himself into the air. The guards were too close; he would be seen. Instead, he kept his head down and walked calmly along the dirt path.
His new attire concealed his identity about as well as fresh clothes can conceal a man who hasn’t had a bath in a week, but it would be enough to trick any guard riding past him in a hurry.
He heard shouting behind him. “I’m looking for a pyforial mage!”
Neeko dared not turn around.
“A young man, light hair, about eighteen.”
It was two years older than Neeko’s actual age but still close enough for him to be identified by anyone after a quick look at his face. He noticed those around him looking at the guard and shaking their heads. Neeko was the only one who wasn’t turning around. It wasn’t worth the risk, though. He picked up his pace.
The guard’s horse came galloping past him…then stopped. It turned to block his path.
“Have you seen the pyforial mage I described?”
“No, sir.”
The guard glanced around. Finding nothing, he drove his heel against his horse’s side.
Just as Neeko let out a relieved breath, the man halted his mount again. He turned to face Neeko.
“Take off your hat.”
“Why?”
With one hand around a bow, the guard let go of the reins to reach for an arrow as he spoke. “You do not ask why. I am a guard of Aylinhall demanding that—”
He was interrupted by his own startled yelp as Neeko wrapped a thick belt of py around his stomach and shoved him off his animal. He fell onto his rear, too surprised to do anything but grunt. Neeko leapt onto the saddle and pushed the guard flat onto his back with py as he got his hands on the reins.
He’d already made it past the horse seller by the time the guard was yelling about the pyforial mage.
The road took Neeko north, but as soon as he was out of view, he turned right and rode east for a good half-mile. Then he turned again, going south.
He slowed so his speed wouldn’t continue to draw attention from all the men on the street coming home to their wives and children, some of whom might realize later they’d seen the pyforial mage who’d jumped out of the third-story window at Grodger’s Inn. Some might even make the connection that he was Neeko, the same mage who’d killed hundreds of terrislaks. Maybe word would reach Cedri that he’d left the city to the south.
That gave him an idea. He changed his mind about his speed
, thumping his heel against the animal’s sturdy side. If Cedri, Shara, and Steffen still drew breath, he would do everything in his power to reunite with them in Cessri.
He rode out of the city like a comet burning through the sky, pulling the gazes of everyone he passed. It increased the chances of him being spotted by guards or members of the PCQ, but he would risk more than that to help Shara and the others find him.
CHAPTER TEN
NEEKO
The grass was lush, so Neeko’s new mount wouldn’t go hungry. But Neeko had left without supper, and his bag only contained a seescope, a half-full water skin, his clothes, and his blanket.
Even worse, a woman seemed to be following him on horseback.
He wondered many things about this woman, who stayed a few hundred yards back. She seemed older than him yet still young. Was she simply leaving at the same time and in the same direction? He doubted it.
Before all this began—before Cedri’s sister killed his father, before the Southern army destroyed his house, before the redemption scroll—Neeko wouldn’t have considered that this woman could be following him. Perhaps he would’ve even offered to escort her.
But now Neeko couldn’t afford to trust.
She didn’t follow him directly, taking a more eastern route southward, keeping to the hills so she wouldn’t lose track of him. Or perhaps it was just his imagination.
Still, he had to make sure. The sun was setting, and he would have enough trouble sleeping with his worries about Shara keeping him awake. Cedri’s well-being weighed even more heavily on his mind. Something must’ve happened to her for two pyforial mages to have found him. So the last thing he needed was to wonder if this stranger would attempt to kill him while he slept.
He turned southwest, riding away from the woman until he went up and over a long incline of land, giving her no line of view. If she didn’t want to lose him, she would have to come to the same hill because night was fast approaching.
