“Die,” she commanded and pointed the tip of her blade at the beastman.
Harik coiled on his legs and leapt at them. Majherri raised his flaming horn to intercept, but Danella’s fiery onslaught erupted just beside his head. Both the tent above and the creature were engulfed by the inferno she released. The screams of the snow beast were cut short and the jump was blocked by her flame.
Dying, the creature fell short of his targets and he rolled into two of the poles supporting the material over their heads. This last act brought sections of the covering down on top of them like a big net.
The area near Majherri didn’t survive Danella’s powerful burst of flame, which left them an opening. Others weren’t nearly as fortunate as they watched the shapes squirm their way to freedom.
The fight sent waves of exhilaration through Danella. She waited there as the people crawled to the edges and emerged or managed to push their way through the tent. The Yar warriors clutched their weapons and looked both angry and uncertain. Her men were held at spear point and Majherri sensed she didn’t really care about their fate.
The warrior from the rock who had first addressed the group stood ready to hurl his weapon. “You’ll die for this, witch! Do you know what you’ve done?”
“Killed a fool who attacked me,” she answered. “And now another less powerful fool stands before me.”
“You can’t kill us all! One of us will bring you down. Everyone, ready yourselves. We shall avenge our chieftain.”
“No!” another Yar shouted. “Her fate will be decided by the next chieftain! It is the way, Royt and you would dishonor your father and all he stood for if you forsake our traditions.”
“Then I hope our spirit chooses me!” The man pulled his shirt off and shouted. “I’m right here! I will be your servant, just like my father. I’ve spent my life becoming worthy of you, Mighty Gursk. I will gladly carry your mark.”
Majherri felt a pang of pity watching this human named Royt pleading with the animal spirit to join with him.
If Gursk is listening, he declines to respond”
Others began checking themselves. Even Royt’s begging ceased and an uneasy silence fell across the people milling around.
Danella enjoyed the chaos. Majherri sensed that she truly desired more violence and killing, but the need to complete the mission Count Darius gave her was winning by a slim margin.
The foreboding silence was interrupted by the sound of claws ripping through cloth and a slightly different version of the creature stood and threw his arms in the air, unleashing a savage roar. To the humans it was the snarl of a beast, but Majherri understood it.
“I am again!” Gursk announced.
The reborn beastman surveyed the scene as Royt and the others went to their knees before their new leader. The son of the slain chieftain eyed Danella and glared at her.
No doubt he’s waiting for the new beastman to order an attack. How many times will we have to kill this thing today?
Now the new host of Gursk regarded Danella and Majherri. The fur on the beastman was darker and it did not stand quite as tall, having a leaner and more agile appearance.
The shimmering effect returned and Gursk retreated, leaving the man it had chosen to be the next Chief of the Ice Claws behind. With all the new hair, it took a moment for Majherri to recognize the person, but when he did he glanced at the stunned face of the Yar called Royt. The man’s plan to see Danella dead would not be occurring on this day.
“Lady Rider,” Kuresh said, brushing the thick mane of hair away from his eyes and looking slightly annoyed at suddenly having so much. “I believe Gursk, the Spirit of the Snow Beast, has given his approval to your plan.”
Danella laughed and said, “Allow me to be the first to offer my congratulations, Chieftain. Long may you reign.”
Chapter 20- Harsh Lessons
“Four groups of horse riders just left Salif,” Captain Lynch said from the other side of the trees. “We need to leave. It doesn’t look like a regular patrol. They’re riding hard and the largest group is headed our way.”
“What about the others? I thought we were going to wait.” The pair had waited until dawn, looking to see if the rest of the group journeying to Talcosa would leave Salif’s gates.
“They’ll catch up eventually. My orders are to see you back to The Academy, so we ride.”
Kayleigh disliked the idea of leaving people behind and told the captain so as the woman slid into T’rsa’s saddle.
“I don’t like it either, Reese,” she answered. “But you’re the target, not them. The others might even be temporarily barred from leaving the city to try and keep us close. We could stay and fight, but these men are just doing what they’ve been told. So are you going to continue questioning my orders or are we going to leave?”
Kayleigh bit back her reply and instead turned Rheysurrah to face northeast and urged him into motion.
It could be worse, Kayleigh thought, after considering of the prospect of long days on the road with Captain Lynch, someone she disliked. At least Morganstern isn’t with her.
The unicorn beneath her didn’t care for Kayleigh’s disrespectful attitude toward Captain Lynch as they rode off and seemed to be scolding her.
Kayleigh leaned forward and whispered to him, “Before you judge me, Annabeth didn’t care for her that much either and you know that.”
She sensed his pulse of anger and acknowledged that bringing up Annabeth hadn’t been her finest moment - even if what she said was true.
He sent her the memory of her promising to break the bond they shared in reply.
“Yes,” she practically spat. “I’d like nothing better than to set you free, Rheysurrah. Sorry for this war and everyone trying to capture or kill me. It looks like we’re stuck with each other until Talcosa.”
“You should be nicer to him,” Captain Lynch said.
“I’ll take it under advisement, Captain,” she replied. “This does not concern you.”
“Is there a problem, recruit? Do I have to worry about you running away from this also?”
“I haven’t been a recruit for some time now, Meghan,” Kayleigh said, abandoning all pretenses of being pleasant and even going so far as to be downright disrespectful. “I thought you’d be happier. You were part of the reason I wanted to leave. Majherri might’ve been influencing me because of your sister, but I hated my time at The Academy and I wanted out.”
Rheysurrah snorted loudly at the mention of her previous unicorn.
“You too? You know what? Majherri is three times the unicorn you will ever be! If I had that horse from the desert right now, I’d be riding her instead of you.”
“Does throwing a tantrum like a child somehow improve the situation?”
“Let’s just clear the air,” Kayleigh said. “This father I never knew learned enough from Majherri to think that killing you would actually be something I wanted. That alone should be telling. When Laurel made her first kill, she and Annabeth went over the dead warrior’s weapons carefully and Laurel learned how important choosing your first weapon was and what it meant to a Battle Maiden. You picked a knife and told me to take it. The other trainees, the staff, and, Goddess knows, anyone with two eyes could see I was just a pawn in your sad vendetta against my unicorn. That was all because you thought he was responsible for Danella’s death, and it turns out she wasn’t even dead! You’ve been wrong at every single turn, Lynch, and I couldn’t care less about you or your advice.”
Even Rheysurrah was stunned by her outburst and the venom contained within. For Kayleigh it was cathartic. Meghan Lynch represented all the failures and self-doubts of her last year and getting her frustration out in the open like this was Kayleigh’s way of saying those things would never stop her again.
The captain grimaced and said, “General Jyslin ordered me to come along on this trip and, to be honest, Reese, I’ve already had my actions examined by those whose opinions I value. You are not among them. What has ha
ppened has happened and I accept that I had a role in it. I regret my actions that caused you needless grief, but I do not regret the ones that protected my other charges from you. I recognized right after the fight with the Yar that you paired with Majherri made for a dangerous combination and recent history only reinforces how dangerous you really are. Morganstern and Hawthorne almost died because of how little control you have. Those with their own magic begin training at a very young age. Their studies are filled with the kind of discipline that makes your time with me seem like a festival in comparison. You’ve had none of that and you desperately need it or you will make a mistake that kills an innocent person.”
The water maiden’s retort was everything she had come to expect from her former commanding officer, deflecting most of her responsibility and still turning it back on Kayleigh.
“I’m not some half-trained animal! Yes, I know I have so much to learn and hardly any time to do it in, but instead I’m riding a unicorn who doesn’t like me and the only person I have to teach me anything at this time is more interested in making certain I know all my shortcomings. You’re absolutely right, but since we don’t have that scry block that Lady Tomas was making, my father could be tracking us as we speak.”
“In that case,” Captain Lynch said, “I propose we set aside our differences until we make it to Talcosa.”
Her offer was probably the best one Kayleigh would likely receive, so she agreed and all four of them rode on in relative silence, outdistancing their pursuers. Looking to the sky, she saw birds moving through the morning air and wondered if they were messengers carrying orders to capture her. She felt as if a massive gauntlet was closing its fingers around her. She’d be forced to ride through that gauntlet paired with Meghan Lynch and hope that she made it to the safety of the High-King’s seat of power.
She summarized her problems with worried thoughts. If safety means going to the place where a king has a blanket order that I be killed or imprisoned because of who my parents are. The only thing I have going for me is that hardly anyone knows it yet, but I can’t expect that to last forever either.
Taking a brief rest and allowing the two unicorns to drink some water, Kayleigh decided to stick with the safest of topics, water maiden magic.
“I watched Amanda conjure enough water that I was able to imitate it as well as the unblockable strike, but I don’t know anything else.”
“Can you perform the strike with anything other than your knife?”
“I’ve never tried,” she replied, feeling a bit put out that she should have thought of it before.
Captain Lynch removed her bow from where it was on her back and handed it to Kayleigh followed by an arrow. The simple, yet well maintained, bow tingled with Lynch’s magic. This confirmed something Kayleigh had long suspected. This bow was the water maiden’s personal weapon and contained a small reservoir of her power.
Kayleigh wasn’t that good of an archer. Throwing fireballs seemed to suit her more, but she brought the arrow to the notch in the bow and pulled back. Concentrating on the arrow, she loosed it at a tree and willed the missile to bypass it.
It failed, puzzling both of them. To be certain it wasn’t the bit of Lynch’s magic interfering, she threw her knife and it behaved as she expected…splattering around the tree and reforming on the other side.
Lynch took her bow back and handed her another knife. It was a standard belt knife and not one intended for throwing, but Kayleigh tried as well. The dagger clattered off the side of the tree and fell to the ground.
“Maybe it has something to do with your level of comfort with that knife,” Lynch said. “You’ll need to practice with another weapon. Keep my knife for now and work with it. Your magic imitates that of a Battle Maiden, but is not the genuine article. There may be differences.”
“How about freezing water or healing tears?”
“Turning water into ice is a simple elemental manipulation. With your fire talents, I think you’ll be able to pick that up fairly quickly. On the other hand, creating healing tears is a deeply personal matter. It is akin to the fireshade and not all water maidens are able to perform this. We are taught to focus on memories, bad memories and times where we were helpless to change things. Those experiences are drawn on as fuel to create something that will make a difference in a coming fight.”
Kayleigh nodded, knowing her time in the desert had provided several memories that may work for her. Recalling the feeling of her bond breaking with Majherri still made her tear weeks later and the sight of Rheysurrah standing over Annabeth’s body was equally heartbreaking.
“I’d like to try,” she said.
“Not right now, but when we break for the night,” Lynch stated. Walking beside T’rsa, the captain kneeled and put her hand into the water. “Like an earth maiden and stone, you can make a temporary weapon or other object out of water. It requires concentration and focus to get the shape correct. You have an advantage here, coming from an artistic background.”
Withdrawing her hand, Captain Lynch held a duplicate of her belt knife created from a solid piece of ice and continued, saying, “You don’t have to make just weapons. You’re limited only by your imagination. I’ve heard tales before of using this ability to create a key out of water to open a lock, but cannot confirm if that ever really happened. If you were ever in such a situation, I would recommend that you try crafting a key from stone instead.”
Her demonstration was effective and the advice was useful. As much as Kayleigh disliked the woman, she’d been assigned to The Academy for a reason.
“So far, I’ve found that my learning works best if I can touch you while you do it and feel the flow of the magic between you and T’rsa. Would you let me do this while you made something else?”
The captain nodded and repositioned herself so Kayleigh could crouch behind her. Kayleigh took her left hand and placed it where the water maiden gripped her unicorn’s lower right leg. The right hand rested on the crook of Meghan’s elbow. It was too far for her to stretch and get the hand into the water, so she settled for what she could reach. The power flowed through the woman’s body and the sorceress followed the stream of magic. She could sense the discomfort of the unicorn. T’rsa obviously didn’t like Kayleigh. At the other end, she focused on the sensation of how the magic was being used.
Captain Lynch held up a small plate formed from ice. It was murky and the tiny things normally floating inside the water were suspended inside the object.
“In the beginning,” the woman said, “focus on simple shapes. Get those right and you’ll eventually be able to create anything you might need.”
Kayleigh made her first attempt. The circle she’d tried to duplicate came out more like an oval and the thickness varied wildly. The part by her palm was about the thickness of her index finger to her first knuckle and the other end was only as thick as a piece of parchment.
Frowning, she inspected the malformed creation and said, “Mother always said I was good at abstract art. Looks like it needs work.”
“Yes it does, Reese, but it was a good first effort. Most water maidens take several sessions of practice to form something remotely close to what you did only after a minute. Don’t exhaust yourself, but try a few other objects while our unicorns rest. Another trick is to set an object in front of you and try to duplicate it in ice. I’m going up to that hill to observe the road and see if there are any signs we are being pursued.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Kayleigh answered. As the water maiden walked away, Kayleigh pondered the woman’s words and tried to recall if the captain had ever given her praise without some kind of backhanded compliment included. As expected, she could not.
Standing up, the young sorceress gave T’rsa some room and found a spot where she could work. First, she conjured some water to top off her canteen. The things suspended inside of Meghan’s ice plate made her less interested in drinking this water without boiling it first. It was the most obvious and beneficial aspect of water m
agic. Next, she sorted through one of the pouches on her belt and removed a spool of thread along with a button to use as reference objects. Instead of setting it on the ground, she held the button in her hand, feeling the smoothness and the two holes with the pad of her thumb. Since she did not have to be in contact with a unicorn, she had a free hand and, to Kayleigh, it made more sense to use both sight and touch instead of just her eyes alone.
Concentrating, she stuck her other hand into the edge of the water and tried to recreate the button, even going so far as to perform the same circular motion with her thumb. The result was close to the shape, less thick, and it only had a single hole instead of the two, but it was an improvement over her last attempt. Encouraged by the progress, she tried a few more times before moving on to the more complex shape of the spool.
Near the end of the first day, they spotted a small village. Instead of entering and locating an inn, Captain Lynch led them to the first farm they saw on the outskirts. She spoke with the husband and wife and some of the coins the general had given them changed hands.
“They have a guest room we can use for the evening and will provide us with some food for our journey,” Lynch said. “The unicorns have the run of the barn. T’rsa, Rheysurrah, stay away from the road and try to avoid being seen.”
The family had a son and two daughters. Naturally, letting the girls touch one of the unicorns was included as part of their cost for staying at the house. Knowing how much unicorns disliked being touched by anyone but their bonded rider, Kayleigh offered to take them to Rheysurrah, earning a sideways glance from the captain. Both were too young for a selection ceremony and peppered her with questions about attending The Academy.
Sorceress (Book 2) Page 26
