Bastial Sentinels (The Rhythm of Rivalry: Book 5)
Read Bastial Sentinels (The Rhythm of Rivalry: Book 5) Online
Authors: B.T. Narro
THE RHYTHM OF RIVALRY SERIES
Book 1:
Bastial Energy
Book 1.5:
The Sartious Mage
Book 2:
Bastial Steel
Book 3:
Bastial Explosion
Book 4:
Bastial Frenzy
Book 5:
Bastial Sentinels
Chapter 1:
JEK
Outside the door to the throne room, Jek could feel himself losing hope when King Danvell Takary’s screams stopped abruptly.
No!
Just a little longer! I’m almost there!
A guard had come to help Jek break down the door. Together, they kicked with all their strength.
The moment it flung open and Jek saw dead bodies covering the floor, he raced in with his wand ready.
“Get help,” he commanded the guard.
A woman in her middle years was pulling a sword out of the King’s chest. He was covered in blood.
So was she. It dripped from her hair and chin. The chains that bound her wrists and ankles obviously had failed to stop the slaughter.
She sighed at Jek. “I’d hoped not to kill anyone so young.” She spoke with regret, which was at odds with the carnage that surrounded her. But then her eyes hardened and she trudged forward, lifting her palm.
Reflexively, Jek snapped his wand. A protective Sartious shell curved in front of him, just translucent enough for him to see the hazy silhouette of the king-killer advancing on him.
Shaking her head, she dropped her arm. “You can’t keep that up for long.”
She was right. Even worse, he couldn’t cast a fireball without dissolving the shell. Micah Vail had taught him that compact Sartious Energy would stop psyche, but Jek didn’t know what to do next.
His instincts held the answer. As always, he listened.
“Stop!” the woman yelled as Jek backed out of the room, still protected by the Sartious shell. Panic coursed through him when he saw the door was broken off its hinges. He wouldn’t be able to trap her inside as he’d intended. Continuing through the doorway, he turned down the hall and let his arm rest. The heavy green energy floating before him shattered into dust.
He could hear the king-killer’s chains clanking as she pursued him. The wall between them shielded him from her psyche, but the closer she came to the open doorway, the more at risk he was. Jek knew enough about psyche to realize that, at least.
With his mind fogged with fear, he turned and ran. “Micah!” he screamed. “Micahhhhh!”
Where were all the guards? There were a thousand stationed in and around the palace, many of them mages, even more of them archers. This one woman should’ve been killed the moment she took one step toward the King.
Jek knew the palace had been swept for Elves, so how had this assassin slipped through those defenses? He had to assume that the woman was a powerful psychic working with Fatholl. If so, she’d killed Danvell Takary so the Elven leader could control the palace, possibly even Goldram. But could she really hope to capture the entire palace on her own? No, there had to be others with her.
“Lisanda!” Jek shouted next, the hallways eerily empty. “Bastial hell. Where is everyone?”
Screams echoed off the white walls. Banners and paintings shook with the sounds of battle. He ran faster.
He came around a corner to find two Elves finishing off the last standing guard. One of the intruders held out his palm to paralyze the man with pain while the other thrust his sword through the guard’s armor-covered chest. The lifeless body was tossed carelessly onto a bloody pile. The Elves ignored the servants, who fled for their lives, and locked their murderous stares on Jek.
“Micah!” Jek screamed again, ducking around the corner just as the Elven psychics lifted their palms in his direction.
Need to get to Lisanda.
He ran back the way he came, nearly slipping on the smooth floor in his haste. He knew a safe path to Lisanda’s quarters. It was through the window of a room he’d just passed. Perhaps “safe” wasn’t the right word, as it would be quite a drop.
Safer than running through a gauntlet of murderous psychic Elves,
he corrected himself.
The door to the room was locked. He pounded on it as he shouted, “It’s Jek Trayden! Open this door immediately!”
The moment he heard the lock, he threw the door open. It slammed into someone, sending her stumbling backward. She screamed in pain and grabbed her face.
“Sorry, Gerace,” Jek muttered when he saw who it was. He quickly shut the door and relocked it.
“What’s happening out there?” the servant girl asked, pale from fright.
“I’m still not sure.” He started toward the window. “Stay here.”
“What are you doing?”
“I need to get to Lisanda and the others.” He peered out the window.
Bastial hell,
he thought. It was even higher than he’d remembered.
“You’ll break your legs if you jump.”
The moment he opened the window, screams from outside flooded the room. It made his need to hurry more urgent. Instinct told him to leap now and figure out the rest while he was in the air. As he maneuvered his legs over the windowsill, small hands grasped his shoulders.
“Jek, stop!” Gerace pleaded.
“Let go,” he said. “I need to focus.”
He was about to drop into an alley, which curved around the palace and eventually led to stairs and the main courtyard. He took a breath and drew in all the Sartious Energy he could. Unable to contain it for longer than the span of a heartbeat, he slid off the sill and flicked his wand beneath his feet.
All the energy came together as he plummeted to the ground, creating a small platform too narrow to land on with his flailing feet. So his plan changed midair; he pulled up his legs and struck the floating brick with his ass. It broke the moment he slammed into it, but at least it had slowed his fall.
Somehow, he landed on his feet, but the force was too much for him to stay there. He rolled along the dirt path until he finally stopped, flat on his back. Looking up, he saw Gerace leaning out of the window, watching him wide-eyed.
“Are you hurt?” she hollered to him.
“No.” He got to his feet. “Close the window and stay quiet.”
She nodded and obeyed.
Jek hurried down the dirt path. He couldn’t see into any of the rooms he passed, as each occupant had drawn the curtains. Lisanda’s room was no different.
He tapped on the window. “It’s Jek.”
Lisanda flung the curtain aside and unlatched the window. She practically pulled Jek into her room before snapping the window shut.
“What’s happening?” the Princess asked, frantic. “Guards brought me in here, and now they’re outside the door. Did the Elf my father found somehow escape?”
“She killed him,” Jek said, his tone oddly devoid of emotion. “I need to get your family out of here.”
Lisanda was frozen, her mouth agape.
“Where are the rest of them?” Jek asked.
“Dead?” Her breathing quickened. She put her hand on her chest and fell into a chair, dazed.
“I’m sorry, but we don’t have time to stay here.”
Lisanda didn’t seem to hear him. He took her hand. “We have to get you and your family out of here.”
“I don’t understand.” She finally looked at him. “One woman killed my father? What about all his guards?”
“She’s one of many powerful psychics who’ve infiltrated the palace. I don’t know whether they were here already in hiding or whether they forced their way in just now. Even worse, I don’t know how to fight them. We have to round up your family and leave before they kill us, too. Please tell me you know where Raymess is.”
“What about Jessend?”
“We’ll get her on the way to your brother.”
“Are you certain about all of this?” She stepped toward the door, seeming to forget he was holding her hand. He let go before she jerked his arm. “I haven’t heard anything out there.”
“I’m sure. Your family isn’t safe anywhere in the palace.” Jek took her hand again, this time squeezing it hard. “Let’s go.”
She squeezed back, ready to follow him.
Jek opened the door. Two guards turned. Their brows creased; surely they wondered how Jek had gotten inside.
“The palace is under attack,” he informed them. “Help me get the Takarys out.”
“Who’s attacking?” one man asked.
“Psychic Elves.”
He heard himself, and for a moment, Jek was worried they wouldn’t believe him, that perhaps they’d think it was a bad joke. Luckily, they each drew their weapon.
The four of them rushed to Jessend’s room next door, where Jek explained what he knew to the two guards there as Lisanda went inside to bring out her twin sister. Soon they were ready to move.
“Wait.” Jessend
pulled on Jek’s shirt. “Tell me what’s happening.”
“We’re being attacked. I’m taking your family out of the palace.”
“Why isn’t my father with you, then?” she asked. “Weren’t you on the second floor with him?”
Lisanda began to cry as she reached out to her sister. “He’s dead, Jessend. Now they’re coming for the rest of us.”
“What? How?” Jessend’s face reflected her confusion…with grief slowly setting in.
“Psychic Elves,” Jek answered. “He was killed by the woman who was being detained.”
“Are you sure it was her? She looked harmless.” Jessend spoke through her tears.
“I saw her standing over his body,” Jek said, shuddering at the memory. “We need archers and mages to kill the psychics from a safe distance. Do you have any arrows in your room?”