Memory's Wake (36 page)

The look he returned stung, but he stilled.

Memory’s teeth clipped against each other, knocked by panicking nerves. No guard came to shackle her.

Comprehension showed on Roen’s face first. He spoke slowly, dangerously. “Mem, what are you doing? What have you done?”

Eloryn said nothing, her face shaking with emotion.

I can do this, I can do this,
Memory thought, playing the mantra on repeat.

Roen wrenched his hands in the manacles, testing their strength.

Thayl called down the hall to them, his voice echoing in the perfect acoustics. “Don’t bother to fight. The shackles are runed to block any behests. Memory, why don’t you come here and take your rightful place to watch the executions?”

Memory, feet still bare, pushed slowly over the carpet toward Thayl. She winced her eyes shut and called back without looking behind her. “I’m sorry, Eloryn. This is the only way I can get what I want.”

The gaze of every wizard and guard in the room followed her. The weight of judgment in their eyes rattled her, making each step she took a painful internal struggle. Hayes shook his head in disgust as though this was foreseen.

I can do this, I can do this.

Midway down the long hall she called to Thayl, “You said once I brought you Eloryn, you could tell me more that you knew about me.”

Thayl barked a laugh. “Obviously I was lying. I just wanted to make sure you would come, so I could dispose of you.”

Memory’s stomach acid turned to steam, bubbling up through her body. But she was prepared for the worst. Thayl made no threatening move yet. He stood as confident and smug as she hoped he would, after finding just the loophole in her bargain she knew was there.

She continued toward him, projecting every bit of real pain and fear she felt into her words. “You can’t, we made a deal!”

“You people and your deals. I learned long ago that when making a deal, you should be sure exactly what you will be getting. As you have yours, my side of our bargain is honored. You are my heir. Does everyone here understand that?”

A low chorus of agreement sounded through the ranks of guards as she progressed down the room.

“But that doesn’t mean I can’t kill you.” The laughter fled from Thayl’s voice. “If I can’t have the rest of your power, I can’t risk anyone else having it. As much as you look like Loredanna now, you’re too damaged to be anything to me. Better to put you out of your misery.” Thayl lifted his rune-scarred hand.

Not yet. Not close enough.
Memory’s mind found a new height of panic-fuelled overdrive. “There’s something you don’t know!” she cried out. “Something Alward knew, Eloryn knew, that you didn’t. Something you need to know before you do anything to us.”

Thayl sniffed, his eyes half shadowed by dark eyebrows. His hand relaxed. “Tell me if you will, but I’ll make no more deals with you.”

Just steps away, Memory said quietly, as earnestly as possible, “You’re our father.”

The impact was instant. Thayl’s frown deepened, eyes widened, mouth gaped.

Memory stepped right up in front of him.
I can do this.
Eloryn’s plan was too risky, putting too many people in Thayl’s line of fire: Eloryn, Roen, Will. What she always wanted, since she could first remember. Her family. This way, they might be prisoners, but they were alive. This way, if she screwed up, it was all on her.

“Can it be?” Thayl whispered, his forehead scored with deep lines.

Now.
I can do this.
“Of course it can’t. Obviously, I was lying.”

Fury screamed from him, shooting through his outstretched hand.

Memory screamed out at the same moment, focusing all her thought on the sharpest sword in the room. “Beirsinn fair nalldomh! Bring it to me!”

Thayl’s magic passed harmlessly through her.

The sword now in Memory’s hand passed through Thayl’s wrist.

The world ended in blinding light.

Thayl’s scream echoed down the hall to Eloryn. She saw his hand fall to the floor. It thumped in time with her heartbeat, and then the end of the hall lit as if a sun had been born within the room. She shielded her eyes with shackled hands, the light too painful to look upon.

A sandy-haired man stepped forward, peering into the glow. He turned around and raised an arm high in the air.

Guards loyal to Thayl stood dumbstruck by the violent amputation and explosion of magic. Those not loyal to Thayl were ready, waiting on the opportunity they had been promised. At the signal, they stepped forward and unlocked shackles down the line of wizards.

Eloryn’s breath shook and she tried to comprehend what happened. This wasn’t her plan, but the result was the same.
She did it. She really did it.
Thayl’s rune-scarred hand was cut off, the source, the vessel of his power removed, leaving him powerless, a normal man and returning what he stole to Memory.
But we were supposed to be there with you Mem, helping you.

The fluttering moment of peace broke. Cries of outrage marked the beginning of the battle when the actions of the resistance were seen and comprehended. Warring bodies scattered the hall and the eerie light show faded.

“Roen, please hurry,” Eloryn whispered. The guards behind their back, apparently none on their side, were blinking out of their stupor. Roen forced a click from his shackles with a small strip of copper.

He left them hanging from his wrists and worked at Eloryn’s. The fastest guard charged at his turned back. Will struck the man with his shackled hands, knocking him away in a spinning tumble.

Will growled. The guards hesitated, regrouped, drew weapons.

Roen pushed Eloryn’s shackles off her wrists in revulsion. He caught her eye for a moment then turned to Will. Her heart felt as though it would tear out to follow him.

Another guard came running at them. Eloryn breathed out words in a flurry, speaking to the wood of the floorboards under the carpet. They rotted and splintered. The guard fell knee deep into the hole she made, sprawling under Roen’s feet. Roen brought a boot down hard onto the base of the guard’s neck. His attention turned away from Will’s manacles, he couldn’t turn back, as two more men charged, four coming behind.

“You need to get out of here. I can’t hold back so many.” Roen shook off his unlocked bonds and took a sword from the man on the floor.

“You can. I’ll help.” She knew there would be fighting, one way or another, and this was part of her plan that she could still do. Eloryn spoke more words of magic. Roen guided her behind him, backing her up against the nearest wall, parrying away blows from the men who followed.

“By the fae,” Roen wheezed when her behest took effect. His next strike ripped the sword from his opponent’s hand with enough force to lodge it into the wall where it flew.

Will smiled, teeth bared like a predator. Her words reached his body too, taking his strengths, making them stronger. He leapt across at the next wave of guards, pulling the first of them into a spinning tackle that tumbled the rest of the row.

The Wizards’ Council stood between Eloryn and the chaos of fighting. Unprepared, they used simple magic, anything they had that didn’t require being read. Roen and Will fought back those who made it through to threaten Eloryn. She kept a steady stream of words flowing, renewing the energy they spent.

A cacophony of painful cries, clashing weapons and rumbling magic filled the ornate hall, a hall made for dances of a less violent nature. Bodies fell, but the resistance won ground.

“This might actually work. I thought she... I can’t believe Memory did that,” Roen yelled over his shoulder, the confidence from the power Eloryn gave him clear in his voice. “Just up to the Council and resistance to get everything under control now.”

Eloryn took a breath and a moment away from her words of behest. “Can you see her? Is she coming back to us?” The scarring white light that erupted from Thayl’s severed wrist had gone, but the roaring battle now obscured that end of the hall.

“Can’t see yet.” Roen frowned, starting to lose the ease with which he kept more than one man at bay.

Eloryn raced her magic words back out again, keeping him strong. Will broke away from their side. Eloryn’s eyes locked onto his back. He forced through a new surge of guards, cracking his still shackled hands against attacking swords.

“Will, come back!” Eloryn yelled between behests. He kept going, moving out of her reach of influence.

He pushed a man down, climbing him like a ladder. Stepping across other men’s shoulders, he raced for the other end of the hall, clearing half the room before falling into the crowd again.

Eloryn followed his path with her eyes. Through a gap in the blurred motion of battle she saw a heart-shattering tableau.

Thayl still lived, still stood, wounded but awake. Memory lay beneath him, unmoving, collapsed on the dais.

Thayl tore a silk banner from the wall, pulling it with one hand and wrapping it around the bleeding stump where the other had been. Feral anger showed in every movement, in the twist of his face. He spoke words Eloryn couldn’t hear and spat on Memory. Keeping hard eyes on her, he bent and picked up the sword still wet with his own blood.

Eloryn’s pulse beat so fast it burned.
There’s no one there to help her.
A line of guards held others back from the dais, protecting Thayl as the Wizard Council protected her. The resistance focused on blocking new waves of castle troops that headed toward the clearest enemies in the room – the Council, Roen, the defensive line around Eloryn. Everyone, everyone fought for her and no one fought for Memory.

Thayl examined the sword coldly. He stepped with menacing purpose over Memory’s slumped body.

Eloryn’s magic words faltered. She saw Will in the crowd, the only one fighting against the tide. He tore bodies out of his way, pushing through toward Memory. None of Eloryn’s magic reached him any more. He fought with desperate strength as though it still did. Outnumbered, unarmed, already bleeding, the guards overwhelmed him, bringing him down.

Eloryn watched Roen fighting for her for a
painful
moment.
I’m sorry.

She changed the meaning of the ancient words she spoke.

Roen pushed a pair of disarmed men, knocking them back with the last burst of strength she gave him. In the second of time that bought him, he turned to Eloryn. The confusion and concern on his face wrenched her insides.
He knows I’ve abandoned him.

Eloryn’s knees folded, life seeping out of her. The sound of the battle dimmed.

Through clouded eyes she watched the two thrown down guards get back to their feet, pulling at Roen. He shook them off. He called out to her but she couldn’t hear. Feather slow she drifted to the floor, sight flickering out like a finished wick. Four, five more men latched onto Roen and he thrashed to reach her. They forced him down onto his knees, stomach, pushing his face onto the floor, pinning down each limb. His fingertips outstretched in front of her face were the last thing she saw as her eyes closed.

Chapter Twenty-Eight