Compendium (29 page)

A sudden strangled cry caught in her throat. Cedar was hanging aloft above the ground, secured to the back wall of the chamber like a ragdoll. He was strung up by his arms, and his head hanging limply against his chest, his body completely inert. His face was a ruin of blood and gore. Regaining her voice, Mia let out a roar of fury that sounded foreign and animalistic to her ears. Her mind ceased to function, and her body took over. She leapt into the room, racing toward Cedar’s immobile frame. She thought of nothing but him. She whipped one of the knives from her belt with her left hand and continued her charge forward. From the corner of her vision, she sensed movement and flung the knife in her hand toward a cloaked figure emerging from the shadows. The figure cried out and sunk to the ground. She didn’t even bother to look for the Shillelagh, so consumed was she with fear for Cedar.

Weapons clashed behind her as she charged on, pulling another of her knives from her belt. The room was large, with a domed ceiling of carved wood. The walls were disrupted, as parts of the trunks of several massive elder trees grew up and through the sides of the room. Still, Cedar’s prone form was clearly visible, lit by hanging gourds and the lights of the night sky overhead. He was strung up with vines encircling his wrists and snaking down his arms and around his torso. Whether he was breathing, Mia didn’t know, but she operated as if he were.

Ignoring the sounds of fighting behind her, she leapt at the back wall of the room, hastily shoving Compendium into her sash. After placing a second knife between her teeth and gripping the vines before her, she heaved herself upward and climbed up the back wall. The vines were thick and hot under her hands and almost spongy in a way she hadn’t expected. She hastily pulled herself up. The sounds of weapons clashing and angry shouts were now distant.
We’re quickly going to be outnumbered
. She shook her head. She had to concentrate.

As Mia clung to the rubbery vines and pulled herself higher, she tried to determine whether she was coming up on Cedar in the correct position. He remained unresponsive despite the cacophony below and her occasional shouts of his name. Just as her head passed his feet, something hard struck her from behind. Her breath was briefly knocked out of her as she slammed against the wall. The disorientation of extreme pressure was quickly replaced by a burning, throbbing sensation that seared through her right shoulder. She looked down to see crimson spreading down the right side of her robe. Repressing a scream lest she lose her knife clenched between her teeth, she fought through the burning ache in her shoulder and accelerated her climbing speed.

An arrow whizzed past her head and lodged itself to her left in the wall. Taking a deep breath, she heaved herself around, straining to see to her right. Cedar’s limp form hung directly next to her. She twisted her torso and hooked her right arm through a hanging vine to steady herself. After taking the knife from her mouth with her left hand, she hacked at the vines that were restraining Cedar and holding him aloft.

“It’s just me,” she said reassuringly, as if addressing a child. “I’m going to cut you free now. I don’t know if you can hear me, but I’m here for you.” The vine around her arm started to clench tighter—these vines were mobile. As she worked to release Cedar, one of them wormed its way around her ankle.

“The vines don’t want me to fall either,” she said to Cedar, not at all certain he heard her. “Perhaps they should tell the others to stop shooting arrows at us.” Under normal circumstances, she’d be utterly enthralled with the prospect of experimenting with and learning the properties of these vines, which seemed capable of growing and moving at what seemed to be breakneck speed. However, the harder they gripped, the more Mia wanted to be let go. She slit vine after vine that pressed along Cedar’s torso. Finally a snap came from somewhere near his left arm.

“I hope that was the vine and not your arm,” she said with no response. “Although I suppose it’s the least of our problems at the moment.” She’d already sliced open all the vines along his torso and up his right arm. Now he hung by just his left arm. She grimaced and looked down at the floor of the chamber. Hopefully cutting him loose wouldn’t injure him further; she really had no other choice, though. She wrapped her right arm tightly around his torso and sliced the last of the vines that secured his left arm.

“Don’t worry,” she whispered, “I have you. We’ll make it out of here. I won’t let you go no matter what.” For an instant, she was relieved to feel his heart beating under her hand. It wasn’t the strong, steady beat to which she was accustomed, but it reassured her that at least she wasn’t retrieving a corpse. Cedar didn’t regain consciousness at her touch—though she supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised—as her voice had elicited no response. Up close she still had a hard time making out the specifics of his injuries, although his head clearly was covered in blood. She cringed as she looked at him, a meaty pulp where his right eye should be.

“We’ll get you fixed up,” she said to him, although her voice sounded frail to her own ears. Their bodies began to fall as if in slow motion. They both hurtled toward the ground, the force of Mia’s falling body weight ripping her free from the vines that had begun to cling to her arms and legs. She went limp, trying to absorb the impact and shield Cedar from additional harm. As she slammed into the ground, her consciousness slipped away in a haze of pain and slick blood, her arm still wrapped tightly around Cedar and her left hand gripping her throwing knife.

35
Shillelagh 

Lumin Cycle 10152

Mia awoke to a stabbing pain
in her shoulder. Colors swam dimly in front of her eyes, and a familiar voice carried through the fog in her head.

“There she is,” it said maliciously. The voice was accompanied by a sharp, needlelike pain that dug into the depths of her shoulder. A choked moan erupted nearby, startling her. The froggy voice was her own. When her eyesight cleared, a vine-covered wall materialized above her. Obstructing it was the familiar face of Taryn frowning down on her. She held the Shillelagh in her right hand, its pointed tip pressed deeply into Mia’s injured shoulder. When she squirmed slightly under the pressure, Taryn pushed the stick deeper into her wound.

Mia had no idea how long she had been unconscious. Her mouth felt gummy, and she was lying in a tangled ball on the floor of the great room. Mia’s her arm entwined around Cedar, who remained blissfully unaware of their current situation. Behind Taryn, Mia saw the others—battered, bloody, and bruised—their arms secured behind their backs by a complement of Druids. Mia noticed then what Taryn held in her left hand. It was Compendium.

“I suspected, hoped really, that I hadn’t seen the last of you,” Taryn said, fingering Compendium’s leather cover with her thumb. “Or this.” She held the book out to Mia, her expression no warmer than before. “Although, as I’m sure you’re aware, Compendium doesn’t work in our elder grove.”

Mia’s head swam, and she tried to control her tongue enough to form words. Instead she just blinked and stared.

Taryn, undaunted, gestured to Cedar’s prone form. “I certainly didn’t expect you to send Cedar in to do your dirty work. After all, it is your fault that we have the Shillelagh, isn’t it?”

Mia’s eyes narrowed, and a frown crossed her lips. Taryn smiled, clearly elated that she had hit a nerve.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did you think that I actually wanted to run off with you?” she sneered.

Mia’s cheeks grew warm with embarrassment. It wasn’t just the mocking in Taryn’s voice but the fact that her uncle and the others could hear her taunts and recall the way in which Mia had betrayed them. The betrayal was her source of embarrassment, not anything Taryn could say to her.

“I thought you were a friend, but I suppose it’s my fault for being a poor judge of character.” Mia’s voice sounded hoarse when it finally erupted from her throat.

“I did fancy you my friend,” Taryn said, “but unfortunately, I have no place for friendship right now. My grandfather is counting on me to protect our lovely Shillelagh here and to bring honor to our name.” She dug the Shillelagh deeper into Mia’s shoulder.

A wave of dizziness caused her cruel features to spin before Mia’s eyes.

“Unfortunately, my friend,” she continued, although there was suddenly a faraway look in her eyes, “you
have
been proven to be quite the gullible fool.” A blond eyebrow raised into a knowing arch, as if they shared some secret regarding Mia’s deficient intellect.

“I suppose you need to tell yourself that,” said Mia, forcing her words through the pain spidering across her upper body. “It’s much more convenient for me to be gullible than for you to have feelings, after all.”

Mia may have underestimated Taryn, and she certainly had misjudged her, naïvely perhaps. In Mia’s mind, they had shared a bond that transcended politics. And if that was naïve, so be it. She couldn’t give up on trust or friendship; Taryn wouldn’t ruin those for her. Perhaps Taryn also misjudged and underestimated her. If she thought Mia an insipid fool, all the better for Mia.

“I still don’t know what I did to you, Taryn, to make you hate me so.” The words sounded whiny and weak, but if Mia could put Taryn her off guard, perhaps they all had a chance. She quelled her struggle against the Shillelagh pinning her to the ground and let herself relax and regroup.

“Oh, you’re a prime fool,” Taryn continued, not even skipping a beat. Her eyes gleamed as she stared down at Mia’s prone form. “Can’t you even see that I used you the whole time?” Again, something flickered in Taryn’s eyes, and Mia latched onto that hesitation.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t believe you. We shared too much for that friendship to be a complete pretense.” Mia did her best to look hurt, although frankly there wasn’t much pretending in her expressions. While Taryn had talked, Mia had surveyed their situation from the corners of her eyes. Her left arm was trapped underneath Cedar’s body. Her hand tingled with disrupted sensations, and she gently flexed her fingers to restore the circulation. It still held the knife, and it was out of Taryn’s sight but also trapped beneath Cedar’s weight. The others were bloody and battered but alert and on their feet. They were held clumped in a group, surrounded by Druids with swords aloft and ready to pierce. Mia saw her companions watching her, their faces largely appearing emotionless—except for perhaps Borus, who always did a poor job of masking his emotions. His brown eyes were narrowed, his teeth bared inside his dark, heavy beard in a wide sneer that bordered on a grimace.

“Yes, you fool,” Taryn was saying in the background, her eyes darting to the other Druids who were listening keenly to their conversation. “I was sent there—really I volunteered to go and immerse myself in the Order to learn its secrets and uncover the artifacts hidden within. We Druids have believed in the existence of a powerful artifact that could allow instantaneous travel, but I was the one who took the rumors and speculations and made them into something real and tangible.”

“You’re welcome,” Mia replied after Taryn finally finished her diatribe regarding how she was able to integrate and live among their group of heathens and secure the most valuable artifact the Druids ever had known. Mia tried to keep the animosity from her voice, but she was growing weary of Taryn’s magnanimous talk and couldn’t help herself.

“Oh, please,” Taryn replied. “You were merely a means to an end, a puppet to pull the strings on.”

“Oh, really?” Mia asked, trying to keep her voice casual. She had mostly regained the sensation in her left hand, the tingles giving way to a burning and finally a warm feeling. Slowly, so as not to draw notice to the movement, she slid her arm down, dragging the knife along under Cedar’s clothes, hoping she would snag neither cloth nor flesh. Simultaneously she made a show of grasping ineffectually at the tip of the Shillelagh. Her intention was to appear as if she were trying to prevent it from digging farther into her shoulder as well as help Taryn to assume Mia had no strength remaining.

She twitched her head slightly toward SainClair, and his chin moved downward ever so slightly in response.

Borus coughed then, and the others looked over. “Gah, all this chattering is gonna do me in afore one of yer staffs does,” he said in a loud voice.

Mia stifled a smile and watched closely as Taryn’s head swiveled toward Brother Borus. “You were always a moron,” she snapped at him, her voice hard and clipped. All signs of syrupy sweetness had drained away.

“Aye?” he said, his eyebrows rising comically. “Well, if I recall, ye liked my cooking nonetheless. Yer no different than any of us, lassie.”

“Fine, have it your way,” Taryn said. “Kill them,” she snapped at the Druids who were restraining Brother Borus. When she turned back to face Mia, she could see Taryn’s face had gone from flushed to wan.

“I’d like to see ’im try ta kill me with that sodding stick,” he scoffed at the nearest Druid, who was holding a wooden quarterstaff.

While Taryn recovered her composure, Mia wriggled her arm completely free and lunged toward Taryn’s foot with the knife. Taryn’s right hand was still wrapped around the Shillelagh, and as Mia forced herself up, it dug even more painfully into her shoulder. Mia thrust her shoulder into the stick and pushed while wrenching the Shillelagh simultaneously with her right hand. Taryn let out a grunt of surprise and toppled backward, landing hard on the floor, one hand still clutching the handle of the Shillelagh and the other clasped around Compendium. Pain thrummed through Mia’s body like a bolt of lightning that struck every finger and toe on her right side. The cry that erupted from her throat didn’t sound human. It was the roar of an enraged animal. She twisted herself toward Taryn’s prone form and swiped at her with the knife. Taryn disengaged from the Shillelagh and kicked at the knife with a boot.

“You,” she hissed through clenched teeth, her voice growing shrill.

She reached for the Shillelagh again, but Mia deftly moved it from Taryn’s reach and pulled it toward her body as she tried to rocket to her feet. Mia’s movements were much more elegant in her mind, but then, her movements were frequently more elegant in her mind. Nevertheless she was on her feet, the Shillelagh held weakly in her right hand and the knife in the other. She wanted so badly to shift some weight against the Shillelagh, but she doubted her shoulder would take it. She was still dizzy from the pain. Taryn was quick to her feet as well but possessed no weapon. And yet she still had all the leverage. Shouts rang out around the cavernous room. The clerics wouldn’t be killed without a fight. Mia caught Borus charging a group of Druids with his bare hands before her focus returned to Taryn.

Taryn handled Compendium carefully, her mouth twisted into a wicked grimace. “It appears I’m still at a bit of an advantage,” she said, taking a small step forward. She fingered the spine of the book with one hand and ruffled the pages with her other, a look of envy clouding her golden eyes. Compendium was still frozen on the map of the Druid fortress. “I know how much you rely on it. If you’d done a little more talking to those around you and a little less to this ancient stack of paper, maybe your boyfriend over there would still be whole.”

Mia flinched at her reference to Cedar. She kept silent, though, unsure what to say. Compendium was useless to Taryn, but it was everything to Mia.

“You thought you were so special when you activated this thing,” said Taryn. Her face appeared flushed. She took another small step toward Mia.

Mia wanted to lunge at her and grab Compendium from her hands.

“The illustrious bloodlines,” Taryn said, fingering Compendium’s pages and opening it to the center. “Perhaps you’re worried I’ll do this?” she questioned. She spat into the center of the book then wiped a dirty hand around in the saliva. “Aw, it doesn’t like me.” She held the book out for Mia to see. The page was marred but blank. “I guess the Rosewaters aren’t
illustrious
enough.”

“You know very well Compendium is blocked in this room,” Mia replied.

Taryn smiled. “Perhaps, then, I should make my point differently. Now that this page is ruined, I suppose I should tidy things up a bit.” She pulled downward on the page she had defiled and tugged hard at it. Mia flinched, expecting the thin, ancient page to rip from the book. Her heart pounded.

My friend
. She willed Compendium to respond. The book really was like a friend to her. It had been there during her toughest moments. It had led her into the darkness and back out again. And now it was going to remain silent as Taryn tore it apart, piece by piece, before Mia’s eyes.

“It doesn’t matter what you do to Compendium,” Mia said. “The Shillelagh is coming with us. It wasn’t yours to take, just like Compendium isn’t yours to deface. You’ll regret interfering in the Order, and you’ll regret anything you do to that book.” Mia pointed the knife clenched in her hand at Taryn.

She only sneered.

Despite Mia’s tough words, she flinched as Taryn tore at the page she held in her fingers. The paper bent in her hand but didn’t rend.

That’s it. Fight, my friend.
Perhaps you can still hear my thoughts
.
If so, fight.

Taryn’s hand tugged sharply again at the page, but still it didn’t tear. Mia glanced quickly around the room. Cedar was still unconscious on the ground. SainClair and Borus had disarmed a couple of the Druids of their quarterstaffs and were in a melee with the remaining Druids. The Druid bowmen had been dispensed of first and lay motionless on the floor. Mia couldn’t tell if they still lived. Young Brother Mallus lay in a crumpled heap, blood seeping from his crushed skull, an injury that would have been impossible to survive. She forced down the bile rising in her throat.

“We have to go!” Mia shouted.

“Aye,” Borus exclaimed.

SainClair grunted and dodged a staff aimed at his head. He rolled to the left and came back to his feet. Mia’s eyes returned to Taryn. She had given up trying to tear Compendium and was now moving away from Mia toward the nearest hearth in the room.

“I’ll burn it!” she yelled, her voice carrying over the sounds of exertion and clacks of fighting. “Give me the Shillelagh, or I’ll burn it.”

“Oh, and you’ll let us go on our merry way if I do?” Mia asked.

She smiled coldly and tossed Compendium into the hearth. Mia watched, frozen, as the book settled into the orange glow, darkening slowly, its pages curling gently from the heat. She fought the urge to push Taryn aside and retrieve it from the flames. Instead she threw the knife in her hand. It landed in Taryn’s right shoulder, forcing her back a step. She screamed in pain. Mia’s own shoulder ached from its injury and the exertion.

“That makes us twins,” Mia said.

Taryn clutched at the knife, but her hands slipped on the blood. “I’ll see you burn in the Core!” she yelled.