Mythborn (64 page)

She struck using one elbow on the inside of his arm and the other crushing into his opposite thigh. He felt his arm nearly dislocate but her second strike put him down. Her knee made a short forward arc, catching him under the chin and laying him out, with stars bursting in his vision. He shook his head, tasting coppery blood, only to find her blade at his throat.

He opened both hands, looking at the master’s eyes. “Killing me won’t fix you—” he spat blood—“it won’t bring him back.”

There was silence at that as Kisan looked at him, her gaze wavering though her weapon was rock steady. “Before I end this, I absolve myself.” She paused, then admitted, “I sent Piter against you.” Her eyes darted side to side, as if she’d just heard what she said.

“Why?” Arek began to rise but then laid his head back down, her sword’s point still tickling his throat.

“I asked Silbane to push you, with my students,” she breathed, her face falling, “and now he’s dead.” Still her blade hadn’t moved.

“How does this end?” Arek asked, not knowing if she meant Piter or Silbane in her last statement. The master seemed lost but he knew her reaction to any movement on his part would be just as lethal. She was honed to react instinctually, and now he knew that was the key.

She was quiet, then she met his eyes and said, “Piter was all I had. You can’t take him and live.”

* * * * *

Time slows…

In this moment Arek knows talk is over. He can feel her forearm tighten an eyeblink before she thrusts and does the only thing he can— he changes form, shrinking, the blade passing just over his head, sparking into the ground instead of running him through.

Kisan reacts instinctively, reading his move and changing to her unarmored form right along with him, keeping him pinned under her, neither of them dropping their blades.

Arek stabs up and Kisan stabs down, his blades piercing through her body a fraction of a heartbeat before hers, but he knows it can only be a pyrrhic victory. She’s just too good.

He feels the points enter his chest. He’s about to die but it’s the best he can do. At least his father and friends will have a chance. Would his master be proud?

Bam! Bam!

Blood blossoms from Kisan’s shoulder and stomach in a violent outburst of red. She looks down uncomprehendingly.

Bam!

A third deafening blast comes exploding out of her chest. What sounds like a small incredulous laugh escapes her lips. She falls off of Arek and collapses beside him, unmoving.

Time resumes flow…

* * * * *

Brianna stood there, her weapon drawn and pointed. She looked lost, as if she did not remember firing. Arek scrambled up, putting pressure on his side to try to control the bleeding. The blade points had entered into the muscle of his chest but stopped on his ribs. It hurt, but hadn’t pierced deep enough to puncture his lungs or heart. His side was another matter.

“Is she… is she…?” asked the dwarven healer in a daze.

“Are you okay?” he asked her, trying to give her a hand. In his normal form however, she towered over him.

“I took an oath never to harm,” Brianna murmured, “but I had to use the lethal setting.”

Arek raised an eyebrow at that, realizing until now the healer had been firing something less than lethal. An incredulous laugh escaped before he could stop it, and he shook his head in disbelief. Then he recovered and instead of chastising her said, “You did what you had to.”

She fell to her knees. “I’m think I’m going to be sick.”

Arek waited but she seemed to get a hold of herself. He thought about what Silbane would do and realized it would be to give her a task, something for her to focus on. He grabbed her hand and squeezed until she looked at him, then told her, “Check on the firstmark. He needs your attention.” Brianna slowly nodded and got up.

Then he rose and checked on Duncan and Yetteje. The man lay behind the outcropping, a feather blade through his leg. It wasn’t bleeding because Brianna had wisely chosen not to removed it. When Arek met his father’s eyes, the man sighed and said, “I’m tired of being hurt.”

Arek couldn’t help but smile at that and said, “Me too.”

He dropped down beside the unconscious princess, drinking in her beauty. She looked so peaceful, and despite her proven courage, fragile. He looked over at Brianna, who nodded in response to his concerned look and said, “She’ll be okay. Give me a moment.”

He turned to his father and inspected the torc. A brief tug told him what he already knew, that with the blackfire gone neither he nor anyone he knew in Arcadia could take it off. His father must’ve known it too, for he just shook his head and in a soft voice filled with more pain than humor said, “And I now
really
hate the Galadines.” He eyed his son and added, “And that’s saying a lot.” The comment elicited a soft chuckle from both as Arek collapsed next to him.

A moment later Brianna returned with the firstmark, helping him with her shoulder under his arm. Ash looked at the group, his eyes finally on Duncan, and said, “You’re still under arrest.”

Duncan rolled his eyes and said, “I was beginning to doubt your commitment to the Galadine cause.”

Brianna put Ash down, then turned her attention to Duncan’s leg. While she worked, Arek looked at them and said, “I owe you all thanks. I would’ve been killed without your help.”

The dwarven healer pointedly ignored him but Ash gave him a lopsided grin and said, “I never had a quarrel with you, and I’ll not lay the sins of your father upon your head.” Then his tone grew serious, “But I meant what I said. We’re allies for now, but Duncan needs to answer for what he did.” He nodded towards the unconscious form of the princess and said, “I’ve seen you looking at her. Imagine the torture she’s going through standing next to the man who killed her father.”

“Everyone has something to bear, don’t they, Firstmark?” queried the archmage softly from behind Arek. A hiss sounded as Brianna pulled the blade out and then bent quickly over the wound.

Arek sighed, then said to Ash, “I hear you.”

“Maybe, maybe not. I’m in charge of
her
safety. Don’t make me choose between you, because there no choice for me.” Ash looked at him meaningfully until he nodded, then turned his attention back to the opening leading down into Avalyon as more and more smoke billowed through. “How soon before we can get moving. From the sound of it, the Furies are almost here.”

“Furies?” Arek asked, surprised.

The firstmark nodded. “Kisan said the demon-queen used us as a distraction. Not sure if she wants anyone leaving here alive, and I don’t want to stay to find out.”

Arek pondered this, wiping his bloody mouth again and wincing. Every part of him hurt. He spat more blood, then looked at Brianna. At his unasked question she said, “He’ll be able to walk, but the torc is blocking the patch from working fully. I’ve removed the blade and sealed the wound. Luckily it seems to have gone through muscle so the bleeding should be controllable. I have a few more injuries to tend to and then we can move. Light travel—” she caught his look and sighed—“if possible.”

“Work fast,” Arek mumbled through a rapidly swelling jaw, “we don’t have a lot of time.” Then he got up, holding his side, and limped over to Kisan’s body.

Ash limped over too, looking down on her. “She was hard to like, and yet...”

Arek breathed in, then out again, feeling the steadiness of Silbane and Azrael envelop him. He could remember everything. Did all Adepts know this too? Then he looked at Ash and said, “No, Silbane loved her as much as he did me. He thought she was worth saving.” He was quiet for a moment, then added, “He thought everyone was.”

“Some people are too broken to saved,” said the firstmark softly.

Arek didn’t reply, he just thought about his master. He took another deep, cleansing breath, then turned to Brianna.

The dwarven healer nodded, “The blade is out. His hand and other wounds are tended to. I had to put him to sleep—” she corrected herself—“actually I doubt I could have stopped him from passing out, but we can go.”

“Where?” asked Ash.

Arek’s visage grew dark. “I think I want to pay my ‘mother’ a visit. See what all this was about.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but there’s nothing protecting you, is there? I mean that ‘blackfire’ you had is gone. Why wouldn’t she just kill you?”

“I’m going to get some answers,” replied Arek obdurately. Something about him must have truly changed, a steadiness in his eyes. He watched the firstmark search him for doubt, then nod as if Arek had issued a command.

His attention returned to Brianna, who had risen to come and join them. She rubbed her hands on her thighs, looking uncomfortable. Then she noticed the dark blood soaking his side and beginning to soak through at his chest and said, “Your hurt, let me see.”

She took out a salve and rubbed it into the still bleeding wounds. Then she touched her finger to the stab wound in his side and looked at the back of her hand, where an image had formed.

Arek flinched, hissing through clenched teeth as Brianna probed into the wound. “You’re bleeding on the inside,” said Ash, also looking at the image.

“How would you know?” asked Arek, a little annoyed at the invasion of privacy and the fact that he couldn’t see what was displayed on Brianna’s hand.

“It’s not the first time I’ve seen a stab wound, though usually from the outside,” the firstmark commented dryly. “And blood is blood.”

“I got it, Firstmark,” Brianna reassured, focusing on the worst wound first. She played her finger around to see the injury from different directions, every move eliciting a new curse from Arek. Finally, Brianna tapped a few things on her hand, then pulled her finger away and did the same to the smaller wounds on his chest. Finally she checked his jaw and mouth, saying, “The puncture in your side is sealing. A few
enchs
up or down and you’d have had real trouble. The rest are less serious but will probably hurt a lot. Don’t move suddenly and you should heal fine.”

Arek took a breath, already feeling better, like a knot in his side had loosened. If an
ench
was anything close to a finger’s breadth, he got the feeling he’d been lucky to escape real injury. Or had he?

He turned and looked back at the body of Kisan. The master was too good to have missed. He turned it over in his eidetic mind, seeing that first strike she’d buried with perfect clarity. Had it been merely his own skill or had something like a glimmer of regret that stayed her hand?

Brianna broke his reverie by saying, “If we recover my capsule, the thing I was sleeping in, it might help.”

“How?” asked Arek, but not in a challenging way. The woman had proven herself loyal, staying when she could have left and ultimately saving Arek’s life.

“I have instruments that may help us locate a way out of Arcadia,” she replied. “I also may be able to glean more understanding of all this,” her gaze somehow taking in the world around her.

Just then Yetteje moaned, shaking her head. One hand rose carefully to touch her scalp and the knot from the pommel of the sword.

“Leave it,” Brianna said, coming close. She applied a salve and then touched a few symbols on her arm, “it’s going to hurt for a while, but you’ll be fine.”

“How will we find it?” asked the firstmark, meaning the capsule.

Brianna propped Yetteje up, inspecting her wound a final time. Then she rose and tapped her forearm, which in response lit up with unfamiliar symbols. She traced a few, causing a dial to come up with an arrow on it. She came over to them and held her arm horizontally so they could all see.

“This points to the location, and this tells me the distance,” she said, pointing to an arrow and a series of symbols below it glowing on her skin. As she turned the arrow circumscribed an arc, always pointing in the same direction, like a compass.

Arek nodded, then changed form. He looked at the firstmark, asking in a voice tinged with concern, “Flying is our only way out. Are you going to make it?”

Ash changed, his form once again armored in silver edged with blue. He met Arek’s clear gaze with one of his own and smiled, “Do you feel any different since the change?”

The new adept nodded and said, “Something about the process gave me a part of my master. I can’t explain it but yeah, I feel different.”

Ash nodded at that. “Me too, and something gave me a part of Orion. The prospect of flying no longer terrifies me—” he held up a hand—“but I still won’t be choosing it unless absolutely necessary.”

Arek looked at him then and asked, “Do you want to carry your prisoner?”

The firstmark shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. You need them both.” By that Arek assumed he meant Duncan and Brianna.

Arek smiled, then his eyes fell upon his master’s body and a hot flush came to his face. He moved over and carefully gathered Silbane up, carrying him gently back to the group. He didn’t say anything, but everyone seemed to understand he would be taking Silbane along for proper last rites.

The group was solemn as they gathered themselves, with Ash taking Duncan, and Arek carrying the body of Silbane cradled in his massive arms. Brianna helped Yetteje to her feet, and soon the group ascended the spiral platform that led to the very top, looking over the vast vista that was Arcadia spread out before them.