Ghost in the Hunt (37 page)

Silence fell over the temple. Claudia looked around, seeking the Huntress, but saw no sign of the cloaked assassin. 

“Good fight,” grunted Strabane.

“It would have been a lot worse without that glowing sword,” said Laertes. 

“The Huntress,” said Caina. “We have to find the Huntress. She’s weakened, wounded. The valikon probably hurt the Voice itself.” She gestured at the stairs down to the courtyard. “This is our best chance to kill her.”

“Perhaps she fled,” said Claudia. 

“No,” said Nasser. “We know too much about her now.” He handed Caina her shadow-cloak, and she slung it over her shoulders. “She won’t let us escape. It is war to the death.”

“Come on,” said Caina. “Let’s…”

Purple fire flashed below, and the Huntress shot into sight.

“There!” said Claudia. “She’s there! We…”

The rampart shuddered beneath Claudia’s boots, and then started to shake. She grabbed at the battlements for balance. Was it an earthquake? Of all the poor timing…

Kalgri wheeled, the sword of the nagataaru in her hand slicing through a column. The thick stone column snapped in two, collapsing to the flagstones with a thunderous roar.

“Oh, damn,” said Caina. “The stairs! Go…”

An instant later Claudia realized what Kalgri intended. 

A section of the wall collapsed with a cracking boom, and the floor fell out from beneath Claudia’s feet.

###

Caina rolled to a stop against the base of a column with a hard thump, every bone in her body vibrating with the impact. 

Her instincts screamed for her to stand up, and she staggered to her feet, her limbs and back throbbing and aching. Well, she could stand. That was a good sign. She kept coughing, and she could not see in the cloud of rock dust thrown up by the collapse.

She forced herself to silence, her throat twitching. She might not be able to see through the settling dust, but neither could Kalgri. If Caina could ambush Kalgri, perhaps she could disable the Huntress long enough for Nasser to finish her with the valikon. 

Of course, maybe the collapse had killed the others. 

Caina tightened her grip on the ghostsilver dagger and glided forward, her footsteps silent. The dust was beginning to settle, and she could see the outline of the outer colonnade in the moonlit gloom. Caina saw that the Huntress had hacked through a dozen of the thick stone columns and then hewn into the foundation of the wall until it had collapsed. She had sacrificed the kadrataagu as a distraction while bringing down the wall. 

Caina saw a prone form lying upon the ground and hurried closer. Strabane lay upon his back, greatsword near his outstretched hand, blood marking his shaved scalp. At first Caina thought that he was dead, but then she saw the muscles on his chest and stomach moving with his breath. He would not bleed to death, but he would have a nasty headache when awoke. 

She kept moving, looking for the others. She desperately hoped that Martin and Claudia were still alive. Caina knew what it was to lose a lover, and Claudia’s pregnancy added an extra layer of cruelty to her potential death. Martin’s death would leave his child without a father. Claudia’s death would mean Martin had lost his wife and child in the same instant. 

Caina squinted into the courtyard. A dark shape moved nearby, closer to the wall, and Caina whirled. Nasser limped out of the gloom, his dark clothing darker with blood, the valikon ready in his right hand. He raised the weapon as she approached, and then lowered it.

“I thought,” he murmured, his deep voice barely audible, “you were someone else.” 

Caina nodded. “Where is she?”

“I don’t know,” murmured Nasser, looking back and forth. “She should have struck at once. I…”

Something hissed, and Nasser stumbled back with a grunt as an arrow sprouted from his left shoulder.

Caina whirled and saw the Huntress striding out of the dust, a bow in her hand. She set another arrow to the weapon, drawing the string back. 

“Go!” shouted Nasser, breaking into a run. “Take her!” 

Caina broke into a dash, as did Nasser. Her mind noted odd, small details as she did. Kalgri’s cloak hung in tattered, rippling strips around her. Her mask had been knocked away, and her face looked lined and tired, as if she had aged fifteen years in the last few moments. Even a minor wound from the valikon had done more damage than everything Caina had flung at her in Drynemet. If they could just close and let Nasser land a hit with the sword…

The Huntress raised her bow, and Caina snatched a knife from her belt and flung it with her left hand. The arrow shot from the bow an instant before Caina’s spinning blade slashed through the string. Nasser staggered as the arrow sank into his chest, and he fell backward without a sound, the valikon bouncing from his hand.

Kalgri threw aside the ruined bow and stalked forward.

Caina looked at her, at the valikon, and back at her.

“Go ahead, take it,” spat Kalgri, her eyes burning with purple fire, shadows swirling around her left hand. “It won’t do you any good. I’ve shot him before, you know. This time if I cut off his head, he won’t be able to come back.”

The immaterial sword of the nagataaru appeared in her left hand. Caina blinked in astonishment, wondering why Kalgri would use the weapon against her. 

Of course. Kalgri thought Claudia still had Annarah’s pyrikon. She didn’t know it had returned to Caina. 

Caina stepped closer to Nasser, trying to see if he was still breathing. It was too dark to tell. Kalgri broke into a run, raising the sword of shadow and flame. 

Caina ducked, reaching for the valikon, and Kalgri snarled with triumph. The immaterial weapon touched Caina and shattered, the pyrikon again growing hot against her arm. Kalgri let out a shriek of mingled surprise and fury and stumbled. Caina seized the valikon’s hilt, the symbols bursting back into white flame as the weapon trembled beneath her fingers, and stabbed for Kalgri’s chest.

The Huntress reeled to the side, the movement almost drunken, and the valikon ripped across the right side of her ribs. Kalgri threw back her head and screamed, the Voice joining her cry, and drew the scimitar and dagger from her belt.

She charged at Caina, weapons flying, and Caina retreated, desperately trying to keep the Huntress from gutting her.

And her astonishment, she found that she could.

Kalgri was still fast and strong, but her movements had lost their inhuman speed and power. Evidently the Voice had suffered enough damage that it could no longer transform Kalgri into an invincible killing machine. 

Enough damage that perhaps Caina could strike a killing blow?

Yet she could get nowhere near Kalgri. The Huntress’s scimitar and dagger wove a fortress of blurring steel around her, and her attacks drove Caina back. She found herself in full retreat, backing over the rubble pile and into the terrace outside the temple.

And still Kalgri’s fury did not slow. 

###

Claudia’s mind swam back into focus.

Gods, but her head hurt.

She sat up, her mind going to the training she had received from Komnene in Calvarium. She was conscious, that was good. If she had cracked her skull, likely she would never have awakened. Dust was still in the air from the collapsing wall, so she could not have been out long. 

The baby. Could she had fallen hard enough to lose the baby? Probably not – she had landed on her back and had not broken any bones. But the very thought filled her with sick terror.

Martin. Where was Martin? The terror redoubled, and Claudia staggered to her feet, looking for him.

Instead she saw the Red Huntress and the Balarigar dueling across the terrace. 

The Huntress’s ragged cloak swirled around her like a veil of blood, a scimitar in her right hand and a dagger in her left. Caina’s shadow-cloak billowed around her as she wielded the valikon in both hands, the symbols upon its blade shining bright.

Caina was losing. 

Claudia knew nothing about hand-to-hand combat, but even she could see that Caina was overmatched. Kalgri lacked her usual inhuman speed, but she was still stronger and more skilled, and Caina had no choice but to fall back. Only Kalgri’s obvious fear of the valikon kept her from closing, but sooner or later Caina would make a mistake and Kalgri would kill her.

Or the Huntress would just drive Caina over the edge of the terrace.

Claudia cursed and half-ran, half-wobbled after the combatants. 

###

Even with Kalgri’s wounds, Caina could not keep up. 

She simply was not good enough with a sword. All her early training had been with knives and daggers, and her reflexes and instincts were for short blades. Corvalis had tried to teach her more, but she had never taken to it. Caina preferred to strike from the shadows, not to face her foes in a sword fight.

Kalgri had decades of experience with swords, experience that showed. Only Kalgri’s avoidance of the valikon and the empty space of the terrace had allowed Caina to stay alive. 

And now she was out of space.

Her boot bumped against the low wall at the edge of the terrace, a thousand feet of empty air yawning below her. Kalgri slashed, and Caina managed to parry, the scimitar ringing against the valikon’s blade. She tried to retreat, but with the cliff on her right, there was no more room to maneuver, and Caina had to duck beneath Kalgri’s next stab.

As she straightened up, Kalgri’s boot slammed into her stomach. The breath exploded out of her, and Caina collapsed against the wall as her legs went limp. For an awful instant she tottered on the edge, terrified that she would fall to her death, but managed to push herself away. She landed with a painful thump, the valikon tumbling from her grasp.

Kalgri sneered and kicked the sword away. 

Caina scrambled backward, and Kalgri raised her scimitar to end the fight.

###

Claudia saw Caina fall, the valikon spinning across the terrace, the Huntress lifting her blade for the kill.

If Claudia didn’t act, Kalgri would kill Caina, and then kill the rest of them.

She summoned power, blue light flaring around her fingers, and cast the banishment spell. Sparks volleyed from her hands and slammed into the Huntress, and Kalgri stumbled with a cry of pain and fear. For an instant Claudia hoped the pain would drive Kalgri over the edge of the terrace, but the Huntress caught her balance, her left hand blurring.

She threw her dagger at Claudia.

Claudia dodged, but the blade sank into her left thigh. She screamed and fell, agony throbbing through her, her spell collapsing.

Caina tried to rise and fell again.

The Huntress turned back to her, scimitar in both hands. 

###

Caina watched her death approach.

She tried to rise, tried to reach for the valikon or the ghostsilver dagger at her belt, but the Huntress’s last kick had stolen her breath and turned her legs to water. She had not fully recovered from Drynemet, and Caina had reached the end of her endurance. 

She wanted to scream with frustration. They had come so close!

Kalgri looked every bit as battered as Caina felt.

“You know,” said the Huntress, “I am going…”

A loud click and a twanging noise drowned out the rest of the sentence. 

Kalgri turned her head in surprise.

Caina looked at the outer wall. She saw a man in dark armor and a second in chain mail standing over one of the ballistae. Martin and Laertes, both of them bent over the war engine. The ballista trembled, the cord snapping back.

Kalgri started to dodge, and an instant later the ballista bolt slammed into her.

The result was messy. 

The bolt plunged into Kalgri’s stomach and erupted from her back, her flesh and muscle and bone barely slowing the razor-tipped shaft. The force of the impact threw Kalgri backwards along with the bolt, and she tumbled over the low wall, screaming incoherently.

Caina grabbed the wall and pulled herself up, watching Kalgri hurtle towards the valley below, the ballista bolt still jutting from her belly. As she spun the shaft slammed against the cliff face, acting as a lever to drive the razor-edged head deeper into her guts.

The impact tore her in half. Her legs went one way, and most of the rest of her body went another way in a crimson mist of blood.

Even if the Voice had been unharmed, Caina doubted the nagataaru could have healed that. 

She watched as the various pieces that had been the Red Huntress vanished into the darkness, and then heaved herself to her feet with a groan. Claudia sat upon the ground nearby, and Caina saw Martin and Laertes running from the temple. She wondered what Laertes would do now that Nasser was dead. Retire, likely. With his share of the earnings from the theft upon Callatas’s Maze, Laertes would have enough…

Then Strabane emerged from the rubble, helped along by Nasser, who looked none the worse for wear. 

Caina blinked in surprise. She remembered the potent sorcerous aura Nasser’s left hand, and the strange blue light that had shone from that hand when the glove had been torn in Drynemet.

She would question him about it later. 

“Your leg,” said Caina. Claudia pulled up her skirt, scowling at the long but shallow gash along her thigh. It didn’t look too serious. “Is…”

“Missed the blood vessels,” said Claudia. She let out a shaky little laugh. “I think…I think the Huntress was distracted. Is…is she truly dead?”

“Hunt’s over,” said Caina.

Chapter 21 - Wider Circles

Two weeks after the Huntress’s death, Claudia wore a rich gown and sat at a table in the Court of the Fountain in the Padishah’s Golden Palace, eating from a plate of rice and peppers and skewered lamb. Or she pretended to, pushing the food around the plate with her fork. At least she had a good excuse for finding Istarish food repulsive. Pregnancy frequently disrupted a woman’s stomach.

Of course, maybe the Istarish food really was that repulsive. 

She ignored the food and listened to the discussion between her husband, the Grand Wazir, and Cassander Nilas.