Vengeance of Dragons (Secret Texts) (33 page)
ads
Kait missed the long twilights she’d discovered in North Novtierra—darkness there crept up quietly, and sunsets hung in the sky for what felt like forever. Had this scene taken place in North Novtierra, she would have had most of a station to enjoy it. In Calimekka, the night charged down on the day like an angry bull, tramping the brief, fragile sunset into oblivion in mere moments.
She moved forward, drawn to the westernmost arch and to the flaring sunset. She stood for several moments taking it in. Then, below her, she heard the voices of the guards growing fainter. They were leaving. If she followed them down, she could wedge something behind the tower door before it could completely close. She guessed that they would head into the Sabir compound; she could follow them in and still find out something useful for her uncle.
She hurried to the door. The stick she’d wedged into it was gone. The door was shut, though she hadn’t heard it shut. The wind? Could the wind have blown the wedge out of place and closed the door while she stood watching the setting sun? She didn’t see how, but she couldn’t think of what else might have happened.
She tried the mechanism. It was locked. She stood still, trying to collect her thoughts, which began racing madly the instant she realized she was trapped.
I can use that coil of rope, maybe the gauze, tie everything together, wait until dark, lower myself to the ground.
There wasn’t enough rope to reach the ground—she could already see that.
I’ll get close enough that I won’t be too badly hurt.
Maybe.
I’ll find a way out of here before someone comes.
She rested her head on the door and closed her eyes.
I’ll find a way out of this.
Behind her, rhythmic clicking on the floor.
She turned, and jammed the side of her fist into her mouth to stifle the scream that tried to burst free.
Two men and a monster stepped through the arches from the eastern half of the parapet to face her. One of the men was Domagar Addo. Beside him stood a burly ox of a man with massive shoulders and a chest sprung like a water barrel. He had shaved his head, keeping a single braid above his left ear in the fashion of the Sloebene sailors. Either fights or bad bloodlines had given him a nose like a squashed mushroom and eyes as cold and flat as a snake’s.
But both men were handsome next to the thing that stood beside
them
.
them
.
Horns curled from its forehead, and scales covered its face and skin, and daggerlike spines rose from its shoulders and elbows. It had long claws on its hands, a thick, lashing tail, rows of triangular, serrated teeth. It alone among the three of them smiled at her. She wished it hadn’t.
“Looking for this?” it asked, and held up the piece of wood she’d used to keep the door from closing. “It didn’t do the job very well, did it?”
The instruments and ropes on the table, the lumpish things beneath the cloth, even the fire left burning down to coals—all of those things suddenly took on a new and sinister character.
The monster said, “Nothing to say? Well, perhaps that’s because we haven’t been introduced. You are Chait-eveni.” Its smile grew broader. Its voice was the rasp of a file on metal. Kait shuddered. “And I am Anwyn Sabir, of the Sabir Wolves. This is my cousin Andrew. And I believe you know our friend Domagar.”
Her hands twisted at the mechanism of the door at her back, trying anything to get it to open. But it held fast.
Domagar said, “We began to believe that you would never follow the little path we made for you and find your way to us. But we’re so happy you did. We’re delighted to entertain such a clever girl.”
Anwyn said, “We are indeed. We have an interesting evening planned for you.”
Andrew Sabir giggled, a sound that made Kait’s skin crawl.
Anwyn said, “Come, don’t be shy. You might as well join us over here. That door won’t give way, and there is no other way out. We intend to know you well before you leave us.”
“
If
you leave us,” Domagar said. “Not something
I’d
count on.”
If
you leave us,” Domagar said. “Not something
I’d
count on.”
33
D
ùghall stared over Ry’s shoulder into the viewing glass. He could clearly see Kait, disguised still as a common laborer. He could see the table she faced, and the instruments of torture that covered the table sitting along one wall. He released his shield and sent a single tendril of his spirit-self crawling through the delicate strands of magic that connected the viewing glass to Domagar, the Dragon. He put himself in danger, because with his shields down, Domagar could follow the link back to him, if he became aware of it. Thus linked, however, he could not only see through Domagar’s eyes, but experience everything the Dragon felt and heard and knew through his other senses, too.
ùghall stared over Ry’s shoulder into the viewing glass. He could clearly see Kait, disguised still as a common laborer. He could see the table she faced, and the instruments of torture that covered the table sitting along one wall. He released his shield and sent a single tendril of his spirit-self crawling through the delicate strands of magic that connected the viewing glass to Domagar, the Dragon. He put himself in danger, because with his shields down, Domagar could follow the link back to him, if he became aware of it. Thus linked, however, he could not only see through Domagar’s eyes, but experience everything the Dragon felt and heard and knew through his other senses, too.
He took a deadly risk, but he took it for Kait. He feared that he was going to watch her die, but he was determined that if he could do nothing else for her, at least he would find a way to make sure she was not alone when they killed her.
The men Domagar was with were both Sabir Wolves. Domagar controlled them, though neither of them were aware of the fact. From Domagar’s mind, Dùghall could draw out little snippets of fact. That Domagar had been the name of the true owner of the body, and that his soul had been ripped out and replaced by the soul of a Dragon named Mellayne; that one of the two Wolves with him was also Karnee; that they didn’t know the girl they’d captured was a Galweigh or Karnee, and they had no awareness of the magic she controlled, but that they were sure she was more than an employee of traders; that they intended to torture Kait to find out who she was, who she worked with, what she wanted, and what she knew. And then they intended to kill her.
Domagar said, “If you cooperate with us, you have my promise that we won’t hurt you,” and Dùghall became aware of voices around him muttering, “Don’t you believe him, Kait!” and, “Kill them and get out of there,” and, “Shift! Shift!”
He focused his attention on his physical surroundings for an instant. Hasmal and Ian and Ry and all of Ry’s lieutenants were now crouched around the viewing glass, talking to her as if she could hear them.
He returned himself to his connection with Domagar. Kait had a dagger in one hand and was saying, “Stay back and ask me what you want to know, and I’ll tell you. Come at me and I’ll kill you.”
All three men laughed. Through Domagar’s eyes, she looked so frail, so helpless. A slender young woman surrounded by three wizards.
The Scarred one limped to the table that held the torture implements and picked up a flaying knife and a set of finger dicers. Dùghall shuddered and tried to think of something that he could do that would protect Kait without leaving himself open to attack. He had to remember that his first duty as a Warden of the Falcons was to survive, so that he could rescue the Mirror of Souls and get it to the Reborn; only if he didn’t jeopardize his own survival could he take steps to save her. He was taking unacceptable risks just by linking into Domagar.
“Do something,” Ian was saying. “Do some magic that will save her.”
“Magic doesn’t work that way,” Ry said. “She’s shielded so tightly nothing I could do would reach her. Maybe we could attack them, but hitting them hard enough to save her would rebound an equal attack onto us, and we don’t have sacrifices to take the
rewhah
. We’d die, but she wouldn’t live.”
rewhah
. We’d die, but she wouldn’t live.”
Hasmal interrupted. “No sacrifice would be required for magic that caused no harm. If we could get through to her, we could . . . maybe we could lift her out of there, or do something else of that nature. But you’re right. Her shields cover her so completely that no magic leaks out at all, and if nothing can get out, nothing can get in.”
Ian said, “But they’re going to kill her.” His voice was anguished.
Dùghall tried to keep his focus on the scene around him in the Sabir tower. The Wolves, the Dragon . . . and Kait.
The Scarred Wolf, whom Domagar’s mind named Anwyn, said, “Girl, you’re not in a position to make choices. Not now. Not ever again. Come to me. If I have to come to you, I promise you’ll pay doubly for it.”
The other Wolf began to laugh. His laughter was the uncontrolled, high-pitched tittering of a madman. Dùghall, looking at him through Domagar’s eyes, was overwhelmed by the hopelessness of the situation. Domagar’s memories insisted the shaved-skulled madman was Karnee, which made him the one among the three who posed the most immediate physical danger to Kait. He was most likely to discover that she was the same sort of creature he was.
The mad Wolf, Andrew, said, “She’s not going to come to you, cousin. Not by herself. You’re too ugly. She wants someone handsome to help her talk. Someone like me.”
“I’ll kill them,” Ian was muttering. “If they hurt her, I’ll destroy all three of them and the rest of the Sabirs, too.”
Ry said, “Don’t make promises you can’t keep. You haven’t the skill or the power to destroy even one of them. They’re wizards.”
“I’ll find a way,” Ian said.
Dùghall’s mind kept racing in circles, looking for something—anything—that might allow him to save his niece. If he could create a tiny reversed Mirror of Souls, he could capture the Dragon soul in Domagar’s body in it, which would return Domagar’s true soul—the soul of the devout young farmer—to its rightful place. He thought. Or it might kill the soulless body. Could that help her? A dead body in the room would be worthless—worse than worthless, because it would give away the presence of observers, and alert the other two. But a devout young farmer might try to come to the rescue of a poor trapped girl.
Could he create the Mirror quickly enough?
He looked at the rings on his fingers. The form of the ring was essential to the structure of the Mirror spell. He’d seen that, had figured out that the purity of the metal the ring was made of mattered, too. He had good rings. But he would also need three wires. He said, “One of you. Get me wires—three short wires. Fast.”
A brief pause, while the men stood thinking.
Yanth snapped his fingers. “Dagger.”
Trev caught the direction his thoughts had taken. “Yes. But you’ll need two.”
Both lieutenants shot out the door and an instant later were back, prying wrapped silver wire from the hilt of one fine dagger with the blade of another. “How long?” Trev asked.
In the tower, Andrew Sabir was moving toward Kait from around one side of the table, and Anwyn, holding his torture implements, was approaching her from the other.
Dùghall didn’t waste time listening to what they were saying. He was fighting to get his most perfect ring, a plain circle of refined electrum, over his knuckles. He’d lost weight over the past months, and the ring had been loose on his finger, but his joints hadn’t gotten any smaller. He said, “The length of your longest finger, all three of them.”
By the time they’d broken off the wires, he’d gotten his ring free. He quickly attached the wires to the ring and twisted the three of them together, then fanned out the ends to form a crude tripod. He stood the little tripod on the floor and nibbled skin off of his lower lip. The tiny fragments of skin he dropped into the center of the ring. This was going to be crude. Terribly crude.
He crouched over the tripod. Focusing his will and his attention completely on the little band of electrum, he said:
Follow my soul, Vodor Imrish,
To the Dragon soul of Mellayne,
To the usurper of the body of Domagar,
Faithful child of Iberan gods,
And from this body expel the intruder.
Bring no harm to the intruder,
The Dragon Mellayne,
But give his soul safe house and shelter
Within the unbroken circle before me—
Unbroken that it may guard
Mellayne’s immortality, and
Protect the essence of life and mind.
I offer my flesh—all that I have given
And all that you will take,
Freely and with clear conscience,
As I do no wrong,
But reverse a wrong done.
He felt fire along the tendril of his spirit that linked him to Domagar. He wanted to scream, but he held himself firm. And within Domagar’s mind, he felt first astonishment, then raw terror. White heat burned away the anchors by which the spirit of Mellayne the Dragon held itself within the body it had taken; white fire pursued that spirit back along the threadlike path that connected Domagar to Dùghall. And when Mellayne’s spirit blasted
through
Dùghall, flailing for any crevice or crack in him that would give it purchase, that angry fire surrounded it and absorbed it and burst from Dùghall’s chest in a blazing stream that poured into the ring. The fire spiraled around, and the room filled for an instant with fog and the scent of honeysuckle and the oppressive weight of a wordless scream.
through
Dùghall, flailing for any crevice or crack in him that would give it purchase, that angry fire surrounded it and absorbed it and burst from Dùghall’s chest in a blazing stream that poured into the ring. The fire spiraled around, and the room filled for an instant with fog and the scent of honeysuckle and the oppressive weight of a wordless scream.
When the air cleared and silence returned, light rose from the bottom of the tiny Mirror, crawled up through the center, and circled into the ring, forming a little pool in the center. A perfect replica in miniature of the Mirror of Souls. Mirror of Mellayne, Dùghall thought.
ads
Other books
Liberation by Shayne McClendon
The Offer by Karina Halle
The Christmas Thingy by F. Paul Wilson, Alan M. Clark
Mob Boss Milkmaid by Landry Michaels
I'm Holding On by Wolfe, Scarlet
InstructionbySeduction by Jessica Shin
Wife and Mother Wanted by Nicola Marsh
Beeline to Trouble by Hannah Reed
Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr
Hello, Darkness by Sandra Brown