Sella scurried off toward Korima, and at that moment the cultist replied coldly. “So be it. If you wish for pain, we’ll give it to you. Larimos cares not whether her gifts are taken willingly or by force.”
Ruethwyn braced herself for the battle, the two other sets of thoughts meshed with her own in agreement with her. She had an extremely limited amount of mana remaining, and with the number of opponents she would likely only be able to delay them briefly, unless someone could rip the daggers from the monstrosities and eliminate them. They were likely going to die here, and she felt her frustration grow as she watched the magi who’d attacked her, drawing a breath to begin casting a spell.
“Is that so?” A new voice echoed across the battlefield, and Ruethwyn stiffened, then looked behind her. “In that case, I believe we’ll feel no guilt in dealing with you.”
Lord Noril stood there, a staff in hand topped with a huge onyx gemstone. Behind him were at least fourteen more kitsune elders, all of them armed and looking upset.
“Just you? A handful more kitsune think they’ll turn the tide of this battle?” the cultist asked, laughing loudly.
“Who said that there were only a handful of us?” Lord Noril asked, and he raised his staff to the sky, calling out, “In the Sable Lady’s name, purge the darkness from our lands!”
His staff flashed, sending a ripple of darkness outward, and in its wake, spirit foxes faded into sight. First, it was just a handful, then a dozen, then two dozen… by the time it vanished, every direction Ruethwyn looked in had dozens of them, with at least hundreds of the foxes on the field of battle. Ruethwyn’s eyes went wide as they began to yip loudly, and the foxes turned into a wave of spectral fur and fangs that descended on the cultists, and in the process proved that their teeth weren’t immaterial.
Most of the elders rushed forward with the spirit foxes, but a handful were moving to tend to the wounded. Lord Noril approached and murmured a spell, striking the ground with his staff and sending a ripple of light through the air around him, a wave which sent soothing warmth through Ruethwyn’s body as it struck her.
“Lord Noril, your aid was… timely. Is there any chance you could help Korima? She saved our lives, we believe,” Ruethwyn told him, allowing her transformation to fade. It’d felt oddly pointless this time.
Tadrick cut the stone prison open enough to partially free himself, panting as he did so, then froze as he saw Lord Noril and the sight of the foxes ripping the monsters apart piece by piece, blurting out, “Gods above!”
“Korima is stable for the moment. Your help and Sella’s have ensured that she’ll live, and I assisted just now,” Lord Noril replied, nodding to Ruethwyn soberly. “Further aid will have to wait, for many others require healing, and eliminating the tainted disease these intruders bring with them will take time. Thank you, Ruethwyn.”
“I don’t feel like I helped much. If anything, I fear they came here for me,” Ruethwyn replied, flinching as she saw the fallen kitsune.
“Perhaps so, but such a force would not be mustered for one young mage. No, these monsters intended to deal a deathly blow to our clan, and in the process, they have tipped their hand,” the kitsune replied calmly, gesturing across the field. “They deliberately avoided killing, likely so they could use the disease to rip the sanity of the fallen away and turn us into ravening beasts. A few may have died, but I believe I can revive them. The Sable Lady has granted me such power. No, we have dealt them a major blow, young Ruethwyn. You will be held blameless in our eyes.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Ruethwyn asked, seeing the last of the enemies had fallen. It was slightly terrifying to see what the spirit foxes could do when angered.
“And me,” Tadrick added, looking a bit more composed now, then nodded at Sella. “Us, really.”
“If you’d help stabilize the fallen, that would be the best assistance,” Lord Noril said, nodding slightly and smiling at them. “Thank you.”
“We’ll do what we can,” Sella promised, and Ruethwyn nodded, bidding farewell to Luminous and Zaria.
She didn’t have much training in healing, but at least she could be an extra pair of hands for Sella. So Ruethwyn took a breath and headed into the blood-spattered battlefield to try to help.
Chapter 27
“You should’ve knocked me out of the way with a rock, not jumped into the attack yourself,” Ruethwyn scolded, sitting back with a sigh.
“But that would’ve hurt you! Plus, I didn’t really think about it!” Korima said, shrugging as she shifted in her bed, wincing. She’d been mostly healed, Ruethwyn knew, and wouldn’t scar, but her ribs were still bruised. Too many other people had been injured for Korima to be fully healed after the battle. “I didn’t have time to do more than act.”
“She has a point, Rue,” Sella agreed, her voice soft. The blackened marks from where she’d taken her own risk with atavism were fading as well, which was a relief.
Cleaning up after the battle had been a grim task, and one which would haunt Ruethwyn’s memories along with those of Mellesyn’s aftermath. Most of the kitsune in the battle had lived, though four had died, either from lucky or unlucky blows, depending on who you asked, but it was still bad enough. Those four had been taken to the Spirit Forest to be revived, and the cleanup had taken hours.
Only an hour after the battle had finished, the first detachment from the army had arrived to lend assistance, and the sight of fifty soldiers had been welcome, especially since they included several healers. Another detachment had arrived shortly after them, and the soldiers had taken custody of the few surviving cultists of Larimos. Most of the cultists who’d survived had attempted to kill themselves, but not all had succeeded.
Now they were in Korima’s room, and it amused Ruethwyn, in part because it was a little more cluttered than some of the other rooms she’d seen. There were some slightly lopsided pieces of pottery on a shelf, which Ruethwyn suspected were some of Korima’s first pieces she’d made when she was younger, and there was a deer antler beside them. On top of the wardrobe was a faded stuffed fox made of yarn, along with a much more battered rabbit beside it, with some of the damage looking suspiciously like they’d been made by fangs.
The bed wasn’t much different from the ones in the guesthouse, though the blankets had been more heavily used, and the woven afghan on top had frayed along one edge and been reinforced recently. Korima looked a little pale, but was mostly back to being her perky, upbeat self. It helped that Cerid had only been lightly battered, and Rithara had been safely in the Spirit Forest, though she’d fussed heavily over her husband and daughter, especially when she heard about how badly Korima had been hurt.
“You’re right, but that doesn’t mean you can’t think about what to do next time,” Ruethwyn agreed, nodding slightly. “I’d far rather be recovering from a broken rib or something like that than have you nearly killed.”
“I’ll keep it in mind, because that hurt. I saw her just as she was starting to descend, and it was… it was like she had a lance of fire in her hand, and it looked deadly,” Korima said, shivering. “It blew straight through my armor and my fire resistance, too.”
“That would’ve hurt a lot more if it’d hit your back, Rue,” Tadrick said, hovering near the doorway awkwardly. Ruethwyn had seen him glance toward the exit several times.
“It would’ve,” Ruethwyn agreed.
Korima sighed and said, “Why don’t you go check on Ceda, Tad? I know you’re worried about her.”
“Um, that’s, well…” Tadrick froze, his face coloring slightly.
“We know she was in the fight, Tad, and we also know you’ve been meeting with her a lot,” Ruethwyn said, smiling at him. “I’m sure we’re not going to be worried if you go see her for a while.”
Tadrick avoided looking at Sella, clearing his throat, then spoke. “Well, I do want to check on her, since she was injured. That said… when do you think we’re going to leave? The attack has thrown something of a kink int
o our plans, hasn’t it?”
“It has at that, but not too much. We have to leave in about four days to make it back to Tyrness at the time I told Sir Whisperblade I’d be there,” Ruethwyn explained, shrugging slightly as she added, “I figure we can try to help out where we can until then. I’m going to go over some possible wards with the enchanters here to see if I can’t help make things more secure in case of another attack.”
“Once I’m out of bed, I intend to help, too,” Korima added, plucking at the blanket idly. “Not much was destroyed, but I can help get the fields back in order. It might be worth putting up a watchtower or something, too, but I don’t know if I’m capable of making something like that, yet.”
“On the other hand, there’s plenty of healing to be done, and I’ve learned a bit from Lord Noril,” Sella said, hesitating for a moment before adding, “He’s really skilled.”
“Of course he is. His mother is Nethir,” Korima replied, smiling as she added. “Remember, from the play?”
“What?” Tadrick asked, his eyes going wide. “Nethir… the hero of the war? He’s her son?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Korima confirmed, smiling broadly as Ruethwyn stared at her. “He’s one of the most powerful priests of the Sable Lady the clan has produced, too.”
“He said… he said his mother was traveling the world. Is Lady Nethir still alive?” Ruethwyn asked, her jaw dropping slightly as she started putting the pieces together.
“I guess so? I mean, she hasn’t Faded yet, to my knowledge,” Korima said, shrugging. “I hear some elders like traveling the world after a while.”
“Oh. Now I feel a little hesitant about asking him for more advice on healing,” Sella said, swallowing audibly.
“Don’t worry about it. He likes mentoring people in healing. It’s just that most people don’t have the inclination for it,” Korima said quickly. “If he doesn’t want to teach you, he’ll say so. He’s always been like that.”
“Well, that’s… a bit surprising. I might have to ask him a few things, then,” Tadrick murmured, looking very intrigued, then nodded. “Get feeling better, Korima. I’ll see you later.”
Ruethwyn watched Tadrick leave, then the curtain fluttered shut behind him before she sighed and looked back at Korima. After a few moments, she reached out and laid a hand on Korima’s, startling the kitsune into looking up at her.
“Rue?” Korima asked, tilting her head in confusion.
“For a moment there, I thought I’d lost you,” Ruethwyn said softly, turning her gaze to Sella as she added, “Both of you, really. When I saw you using atavism, Sella… it shocked me, and I feared for you. I can tell it hurt you, too.”
“It did,” Sella admitted, running a finger lightly over one of the burn marks. “I hadn’t intended to try using it, but when I saw Korima get hurt, then you were scrambling about… with everything else, I decided it was worth the risk. I summoned a lightning orb and I… well, I absorbed it with what I remembered of atavism. It hurt a lot, at least until I got it under control. Then it felt like I had more control of lightning than I ever had before. Not that it was anything compared to your… frostfire, was it?”
“That’s right,” Ruethwyn said, sighing heavily. “I really can’t blame you. I think we all got a little desperate, there.”
“I wish I could’ve seen it. Lord Noril said that your skin glittered like ice, while the symbols across it and your hair burned like living flames, and your eyes were a mixture of the two elements,” Korima said, her voice wistful as she clasped Ruethwyn’s hand.
“If you hadn’t gotten yourself hurt, you might have been able to,” Ruethwyn scolded. “As it is, I’m just glad you weren’t hit in the fight afterward. You could’ve died so easily.”
“We know, Rue. Still, I have to ask… what was that transformation of yours? I’ve never seen or heard of anything like it before,” Sella said, frowning as she came closer.
“I was… panicking. I did something really foolish in the process, since I was desperate. I figured since I have fire and ice as part of my nature now, I might be able to contain two elementals of those types at once,” Ruethwyn admitted, shaking her head. “I’d already called on Luminous, and I called on Zaria as well.”
“You what? But… that’s incredible!” Korima began, her eyes brightening.
“Incredibly dangerous, maybe. I couldn’t control it, not at first. Then Zaria had finally had enough of watching me mess things up, and she pointed out that my body is partially ice fey, now,” Ruethwyn said, smiling wanly. “She told me to relax and use that. So… I did. It allowed my understanding of fire and ice to advance, and with the way the fire in my blood has melded with the ice, that led to me understanding how to fuse the two elements. It worked, but it was risky, as everything in that fight was.”
“Wow, and you were upset with me using atavism?” Sella asked, raising her eyebrows skeptically as she crossed her arms in front of her. “I think my risk wasn’t nearly as dangerous.”
“You weren’t under attack by a sixth rank fire demon at the time,” Ruethwyn retorted. “Besides, that’s why I didn’t get more upset with you. We all took risks in the fight, and if the elders hadn’t arrived when they did, we’d have died anyway. That or been turned into horrible monsters by those cultists.”
“True, I guess,” Sella admitted.
Korima giggled, squeezing Ruethwyn’s hand as she spoke, her tone bright. “We made it, though! And it’ll be an amazing story to tell in the future, too. I guarantee the clan’s going to remember it.”
“I could do without that part, personally, but I know I’m not going to be able to convince you of that,” Ruethwyn told the kitsune. Sella sat on the edge of the bed beside Ruethwyn, and for a moment, Ruethwyn hesitated, then continued. “It’s just… well, I wanted to bring something else up, too.”
“If you think you’re going to convince me not to follow you into the Golden Dominion, you’re delusional,” Korima said promptly, her ears flicking as she smiled broadly at Ruethwyn. “I’m coming, no matter what you want me to do.”
“But—” Ruethwyn began, only to be interrupted by Sella.
“She’s right, Rue. I’ve come this far, and I’m…” The young woman’s voice trailed off, and Ruethwyn blinked, looking at Sella as she chewed her lip, then continued. “I’m going to help, come the gates of the hells themselves. I refuse to be the weakling that Essryl thought I was, and you’ve done plenty for the rest of us.”
“I think you’re all crazy, rushing into something like this,” Ruethwyn said, sighing heavily.
“You’re the one trying to rescue a girl who you’re not even certain you like anymore,” Korima teased. “I think that’s crazy, too.”
“That isn’t the only reason!” Ruethwyn protested defensively, a bit surprised by the strength of her reaction. “I don’t want to leave the rest of the villagers there, either! They were kidnapped, and… well, they’re the only people I knew, growing up.”
“I know, I know… I shouldn’t have teased,” Korima quickly assured Ruethwyn. “I just couldn’t resist.”
“I do wonder, though…” Sella murmured, drawing their attention as she tapped her lips, and Ruethwyn tilted her head, then smiled as Sella took her other hand as she continued. “I just wonder what they’ve been doing all this time, and what they’re doing now.”
“That… is an excellent question,” Ruethwyn admitted, and frowned. “Essryl said that she was going to draw out their training, so… I guess being taught to be servants? I’m not sure, to be honest, but that seems most likely.”
“Seems reasonable to me,” Korima agreed, then smiled and flopped back. “Now, I’d like a bedtime story, please?”
“How about one about a kitsune who got herself burnt by a fire demon?” Sella offered helpfully.
It was something of a relief that all of them could laugh so easily, Ruethwyn thought.
Chapter 28
Deflecting Anara’s punch, Essryl dodged
the two follow-up blows, judging each of them in turn as she smiled. The young woman’s body was leaving streaks of lightning in her wake, and every movement was faster than it should have been, which made it almost fast enough to make Essryl have to work to block the punches. If Anara had been more skilled, Essryl would’ve been happier, but that took time that Anara hadn’t had yet. At least she was growing more used to the technique, which was encouraging.
Essryl continued dodging and deflecting, hopping over a couple of Anara’s kicks as well, smiling the entire time. Anara, on the other hand, was sweating with the effort of controlling the technique and attacking at the same time. It was only a matter of time before she lost control, and that would be that.
The moment came at last, and Anara stumbled as she abruptly slowed down, the lightning vanishing as she gasped loudly. Essryl hopped backward, smiling as she murmured, “Not bad, Anara. Not bad at all. How long did she last, Lissa?”
“Um, it looks like about a half-glass? So, two and a half turns is about two and a half minutes,” Lissa said, looking at the hourglass closely. It was only made to measure about a minute, though, which made the name a bit odd in Essryl’s opinion. “That’s almost a full minute longer than last time, isn’t it?”
“Close to it,” Essryl agreed, looking at Anara. “You’re able to hold the technique while fighting much better than you were, though I’m not sure how much mana you have left.”
“That’s…” Anara paused, gulping down air, then slowly breathed out and steadied herself before she continued. “I’d guess that was a bit over half my mana? I don’t know for sure. It’s hard to hold the technique in the middle of a fight, even if you don’t fight back, Mistress Essryl.”
“That it is,” Essryl agreed, smiling slightly. “There’s a reason that many warriors who use magical techniques prefer to use instantaneous ones, since that doesn’t require concentration and good control of their mana. I think that’s a foolish way to look at it, since two minutes of about tripling your speed could make all the difference in the world.”
The Obsidian Palace (Through the Fire Book 3) Page 25
