Maylin's Gate (Book 3) (38 page)

She ignored them and continued forward toward the blue shield light.

Around the last tent, a ramshackle barn stood in an open meadow. Loose boards, peeling paint, and wide cracks wrapped the barn. Blue shield light flickered between the gaps. A pair of guards stood at attention before a closed door.

Would she have to kill the guards? An act she should relish left her feeling uneasy. Like Theron and Jimmy, these men had done her no wrong. What if she'd taken Jo's life without any thought or mercy? What would've happened to her? She knew another way past the guards, but could she pull it off?

She pushed through an open pasture where wet winter wheat clung to her leather boots.

The guards turned their heads as she approached.

Her stomach fluttered. She put on the best smile she could muster and stopped a few feet from the closed door.

"Hold there m' lady," a young guard said.

The second guard, an older man with a lean weathered face stepped forward. "I'm sorry my lady, but this barn is off limits. You'll have to turn around and go back to town."

Her stomach sank and she peered past the older guard. "Are they really in there?"

The older guard stared at her with jaw clenched. The younger man gawked, open-mouthed.

She gave the fresh-faced guard a flirtations smile. "Well, are they?"

The younger guard stepped forward. "Who m' lady?"

"Oh come on," she said. "I won't tell anybody." She traced a circle over her chest causing her cleavage to jiggle and shift. "On Elan's name, I promise."

The older guard's gaze darted to her bodice and back again. The younger guard's cheeks turned a bright shade of red.

"Maybe a little peek wouldn't hurt," the younger guard said.

The older guard shot the younger man a hard glare before turning to face her. "I'm sorry miss, but that's not possible. It's far too dangerous."

She ignored the older guard and focused on the younger man. "Do they really look like snakes? Please, I've got to know."

"Come on Motts, it can't hurt if she takes a quick peek. We don't even have to open the door," the younger guard said.

"Attack, attack from the sky," a voice cried out from camp. A bugle screamed from across camp.

Thirty yards behind her, tent flaps ripped open. Soldiers stumbled into the night. Some fastened belts clad with long scabbards. Others readied longbows and quivers. A blond captain shouted orders near the camp's center. Soldiers tripped into the long muddy rows.

The low hiss of an arrow sliced the air and her flesh crawled.

With a sickening thump, a black barbed arrow sprouted from the older guard's chest. The man's eyes widened in shock and blood dribbled over his lower lip.

A second hiss screamed in her ear and the younger guard lunged forward. The weight of the soldier's body slammed against her chest and drove her backwards.

Her mind flashed with panic and she pulled on a bubble of black energy.

With a hard grunt, the soldier landed atop her pressing the air from her lungs. Cold wet grass pressed into her exposed flesh and damp earth clogged her nostrils.

A noisy thwack came from the barn door where a second arrow vibrated in place.

"I'm sorry m' lady," the guard said in a rush. The young man's warm breath pressed against her ear and neck sending a chill along her spine.

Overhead, a draco's alien screech pierced the air.

"They're in the town square," a solider called out running through camp.

Jo. Her body screamed at her to get up and run back to town. She had to protect Jo.

Meranthian soldiers ran toward the barn. Spirit flickered through the gaping cracks.

Blue light shot across the sky splashing a squadron of baerinese attackers.

Her breaths came in shallow hard pulls. "Please, you're crushing me," she said in a choked whisper. "I have to go."

The young guard rolled off her and stared into the sky. The guard's breaths came in rapid fire succession. "Run."

The flapping of leather wings and the rail-thin squeal of a draco pack descended in the meadow a dozen feet away.

Human soldiers bearing longbows sank to their knees. The soldiers trained arrows on troopers leaping from the dracos’ backs.

"Fire," a voice called from camp.

She scrambled to her knees and bunched her soaking wet dress in her fists.

Two troopers rushed the barn where the young guard stood with blade drawn. "Get back," the wide-eyed guard said.

"Release the prisoners," a trooper said with a menacing hiss.

Arrows filled the air zipping past the troopers. Three arrows sank into the mud at her feet. Two others slammed into the barn's rickety walls.

"You'll find trouble that way," the guard said, voice cracking with fear.

The largest trooper, an eight-foot giant, drew a long sword on the young guard's chest. "Kill him."

She stood on wobbly legs and backed away from the barn toward the camp bustling with soldiers.

The second trooper flashed forward in a blur and sliced the young guard's stomach open wide.

Blood sprayed from the gash and splattered her blue dress in a froth of red mist.

The young guard gurgled and fell face first into the wet grass.

A trooper snarled at her, but nothing registered in the soldier’s eyes. Her disguise had fooled even the baerinese.

The young guard's gray soul flickered and ascended from the broken flesh.

She could take the soul and build a monster. A monster that could kill both troopers without breaking a sweat, but she wouldn't. She'd connected with the young guard and the idea of devaluing his life repulsed her. He'd shown bravery in the face of certain death and had saved her miserable life. They'd shared a bond no matter how brief. A strong sense of wrongness overcame her. A foreign sensation. An emotion that would ruin her.

The first trooper flashed forward and kicked the barn door. Like a child's play toy, the door disintegrated.

She ran from the barn as fast as her feet would carry her.

Bright blue light flashed from the barn and the sickening gurgle of death came from one of the troopers.

She ran past a handful of troopers locked in combat with two-dozen human soldiers. No fewer than ten humans lay dead in the mud.

Rain, cold and steady, fell from the sky as if turned on like a spigot.

She pressed ahead running toward the square. Toward the sound of fighting and the shouts of the wounded.

Houses, once dark and sleeping, shone with life as oil lamps lit their glass windows.

She ran harder blowing out rapid puffs of steam. Slippery mud squished beneath her boots. Rain drenched her dress and crawled along her skin.

Shops flashed by and soldiers ran past her rushing toward the town square and the clatter of fighting.

She raised her skirt high and ran faster. Muddy water splashed upward soiling her fresh underclothes. Had the troopers reached the inn? Reached Jo? Who would look out for the girl? A heavy ache settled in her chest. If anything happened to Jo, she would never forgive herself. She never should have left the inn.

In the square, dracos swooped low over troopers clashing with soul knights. Baerinese crossbowmen fired, without pause, from atop dracos. Slivers of blue and yellow light dotted the sea of gray souls fighting for their lives.

She ran along the road's shoulder and touched her magic. If she had to take a life to save Jo’s, she would. Jo didn't deserve death. Not after what the girl had given her.

A trooper's blade whistled past her ear.

She dodged and a golden soul thread streaked her vision.

A gurgle and a hiss.

Beside her, a golden-souled knight slid a glowing sword from the trooper's gut. The knight's gaze touched hers then disappeared into the throng.

On rubbery lungs she pressed forward keeping her magic close and ready.

A black and silver hawk screeched across the sky with talons extended. A draco wobbled and pitched lower trying to avoid the guardian's deadly reach.

The hawk's talons sank into the draco's thick hide and pulled the smaller creature from the air.

The trooper seated atop the draco's back tumbled from the saddle and fell thirty-feet.

She charged ahead running past the last shop beside the inn.

A second guardian, with black and red markings, fought as a monstrous bear a half-dozen feet in front of the inn. The bear gored a charging trooper with its spiked tusks.

Her feet met the inn's porch slick with mud and rain. She ran through the open door and paused. Her breath came in short-hard bursts and her heart pounded in her ears. Cold water dribbled through her blond hair and streaked her face.

Toppled tables and chairs littered the common room. The bar appeared empty.

She ran toward the stairs and flew upward taking them two-steps at a time. For the first time in her miserable life, she asked Elan, a man she once loved with her entire heart, to watch over Jo. She asked Elan to see the girl safe and whole.

The second-floor landing creaked under her leather boots. She turned down the short hallway and her stomach dropped.

The door to her and Jo's room, stood open. Splintered wood hung from the door frame.

Her mind flashed and she screamed sprinting ahead.

A girl's scream came through the open door.

Her heart pounded. “Jo!” She plunged through the doorway and paused.

Two troopers closed on Jo who huddled in a corner wearing nightclothes and holding a dagger.

Her vision flashed hot and bloody. Death's black magic coiled around her body. "Leave her alone." Her voice calm and level caught the trooper's by surprise.

"Run Tara," Jo said. "Don't let them take you too."

The trooper nearest Jo whirled and met her gaze. Fear and recognition blossomed in the trooper's eyes.

She felt no mercy and would show none. With hand extended, ropes of black magic streaked from her fingertips.

A long hiss came from the trooper nearest her and the soldier lunged with blade extended. It mattered little.

Her magic found the trooper's thin orange soul husk and ripped.

The trooper fell forward face-first and writhed on the ornate carpet.

She pulled on the soul cord and filled her body with the pure life force.

The trooper nearest Jo froze. "Please mistress. I meant the girl no harm."

"I know what you meant for the girl."

"Please." The trooper's sword clattered to the floor. "I beg you not to do it."

She showed no mercy.

Black magic snaked around the trooper's neck and she pulled.

A high-pitched hiss rattled from the trooper's throat.

She pulled the trooper's soul energy and power surged inside her.

Two souls hovered near the slain soldiers, but she held no appetite for the dead. She wanted nothing to do with using these soldiers as pets and let their souls go.

Ashen-faced, Jo stared at her trembling in the corner. "You...." Jo's voice came out a hoarse raspy whisper.

She stepped forward. "Jo are you okay? Let me help you."

Jo stood and pressed deeper into the corner. "You're her. The Witch of Ripool. You murdered all those people."

Her stomach dropped into her shoes. She'd seen the expression on Jo's face too many times to count. The unbearable horror. The revulsion. "Please. I'm not going to hurt you. I —"

"No. Stay away." The dagger tumbled from Jo's hand and the girl ran past. Jo ran from the room and ran from her life.

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

Wild Savanna

The dying ember’s cherry glow faded with the sunrise. Campfire smoke curled into the morning air and disappeared into the muted blue sky.

Ronan watched the sun rise with the anxiety of an expectant father. How much time could he spend traipsing across the savanna? How long could Meranthia survive against the baerinese? If their soldiers held half of General Demos's skill, humanity faced certain defeat. What if the ruins held nothing more than crumbled stone and overgrown weeds?

He prodded the embers with a stick. What choice did he have? He couldn’t think that way. He wound find the Ruins of Mistros and have his cure.

The sun rose higher and stood two fists above the eastern horizon. Dawn chased away the mist and revealed the open plains. An elephant’s blare bellowed across the grasslands. The low rumble of a thousand distant hooves kicked up a dust cloud a mile away.

He leaned over and pushed on General Demos’s shoulder. “Wake up.”

The general's eyes fluttered opened. General Demos sat up and peered east. "Did you sleep?"

He shook his head.

Sunlight drenched mile after mile of uncharted grassland. In the distance a herd of black-striped gazelle grazed on a patch of grass. To the south, a knot of elephants pulled leaves from a high-limbed tree. Beyond, the horizon stretched to infinity.