Rise of the Serpent (Serpent's War Book 2) (19 page)

Allie put the tin back in the chest and turned back to see Gor watching her father’s hands. “Are you ready?” she asked.

Gor grunted and nodded at Gildor’s hands. She looked down and forced herself to focus on them. They looked like they were moving. Not his fingers and hands, so much, but his skin was crawling. She gasped and jerked her sword up to shine the green light on his flesh. Her gasp died away as she witnessed the broken bones shifting and pulling together. The muscles and sinews reached out for each other and intertwined, bonding as though they’d never been broken. His skin smoothed and stretched, reattaching itself and hiding the still healing tissues inside.

“Saints be praised!” Allie breathed.

Gor nodded. “Healing ointments from the east that were traded in exchange for some of the treasures mined or caught beneath the mountains.”

“Gor, he’s healed!” Allie cried. “He’s going to be okay?”

Gor shook his head. “Only his hands,” he reminded her. “The ointment will fix simple flesh wounds, not the abuse he’s had deep inside.”

“Oh,” she said.

“He’s better though, and that’s a start. A man who can survive this long…who knows?”

“I do,” Allie said. “He’ll make it.”

“Not if we don’t get out there and make sure we put an end to this.”

Allie nodded and turned back to the wall. “How do we get out?”

Gor walked to the wall and shifted Gildor so he could put his hand against it. The cut had healed and his blood had been absorbed by the stone, but the door glowed and let them pass through.

“After you,” he said.

Allie nodded. “To the guardroom and then where?”

“I know a shortcut,” Gor said. “Let’s go.”

Chapter 21

“Through there,” Gor said. He gestured at the archway off the small dining room. They could hear the muffled sound of steel against steel coming from the short hallway. “There’s a door at the end—that’s the court. I should put Gildor down here.”

Allie studied her father and opened her mouth. The light from lamps on the wall showed both the dirt on his skin and in his hair as well as how frail he looked. He was little more than skin and bones in Gor’s arms. He was in no condition to be in the fight they could hear going on, but putting him down risked leaving him out of their sight. Anything could happen.

Before she could find the right words, a scream tore through the palace that turned more bestial than human. Allie froze in her place while the hair on her arms and neck rose. She trembled after the shriek ended and turned to stare at the hallway.

“Lariki!” Gor hissed. “Go!”

Allie moved before she realized her sword had gone out. She swallowed and forced a breath in her chest. Lariki scared her. She’d seen what the woman could do and she suspected that was only the beginning. She was a half-dragon: the nightmares were nearly endless.

Allie hesitated at the door and then pushed it open. She held it open and stared at the carnage down the steps in the large hall. Two splisskin stood nearby on the raised floor she stood on. Next to them, on the far side, was the human who she remembered from her time in the swamp with the dragon.

“Snake balls,” Gor hissed behind her as the splisskin on the raised floor turned to look at them.

The splisskin with the massive scimitar held it up in the air with one arm and shouted, “Hold!”

Allie remembered him from his time spent tormenting her. Thess, the man who claimed Shathas as his own. The wizard’s name was Rodwin, though she’d seen far less of him. Fasthus was the priest of Kalkar who had healed her and Jillsytria day after day.

The fighting slowed as the snake men battling on the floor of the court heard and passed the word along. Allie strained and saw Lariki with two of her men still standing. Namitus and Corian were there as well, though both were bleeding from the wounds they’d taken.

“What manner of being are you?” the splisskin leader asked.

Lariki met his gaze and lifted her chin. “I am Lariki.”

“You are splisskin?”

She snorted. “My blood comes from a higher race.”

The splisskin hissed and turned to Fasthus. “Is this the one?”

Fasthus held up his amulet and stared through the center of it. He chanted and hissed. His other hand rose to point at her. “Half-dragon!”

Rodwin looked at Allie and said, “I told you she would play a role!”

Thess glanced Allie’s way and then hissed, “Yes, you were right to keep the man.” He turned to regard Lariki and bowed his head. “We have searched far and wide for you, mistress.”

“Mistress?” Lariki echoed.

He bowed his head deeper, as did Fasthus and Rodwin. “Lead us and be worshipped as a goddess. You will be the empress of a new order.”

Lariki stiffened and glanced at Namitus before turning to take in Ramesh and Minoc. “My men? What of them?”

“We have no need of them,” Thess said. “Kill them or send them away.”

Lariki scowled.

“You can’t do this!” Allie said. She looked down and realized she’d stepped forward to the edge of the raised section of floor. “You took a contract with us!”

Lariki smirked. “My contract is with the half-elf, not you, child. And he doesn’t have enough to pay me.”

Allie sheathed her sword and jerked the repurposed waterskin from her belt. “I do! Here’s the rest of your blood money!”

Lariki tilted her head. “Give it to me.”

Allie reared her hand back and flung it in an underhanded toss that sailed through the air. Lariki’s taloned fingers plucked it from mid-air. She tugged the strings and plucked out one of the pearls. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at it.

“Enough!” Fasthus hissed. He rounded on Allie and reached for the ceremonial knife at his belt. “Your purpose has been served, soft-skin! I spared your life time and again. Now it’s time to pay your debt in full.”

He clutched his holy symbol in one hand and began to chant as he pulled the dagger free in the other. A dark non-light spread in an orb around the tip of the dagger until it covered the entire blade and left doubt as to where the weapon ended and where it began.

Allie stepped back, remembering the touch of his magic the countless times he’d healed her. It was oily and vile, filling her mouth with the taste of rotting fish and brackish water. It had made her feel dirty. Not just dirty, but unclean.

“Allie!” Gor growled. He turned and crouched to lay Gildor down, but his movements seemed to be in slow motion compared to the priest’s.

“Don’t be afraid, soft-skin; you knew this would come,” Fasthus taunted her.

Fear. That was the key. She was afraid, but she didn’t have to be. Thork had given her the key. As long as she wasn’t afraid to use it, it wouldn’t fail her. That’s what the shaman had said. She had to master her fear.

She leapt back as the priest tried to drive the dagger into her belly. He missed but she bumped into the wall and bounced back. She caught his dagger on her shield and knocked it up and away, giving her time to draw her sword. The green light flared as her blade whipped within inches of his face.

“You’re the one who should be afraid,” Allie spat at him.

Fasthus hissed and lunged at her, trying to drive his dagger into her throat. She caught his forearm with the edge of her shield and threw his arm up out of the way. The dagger flew across the court room and bounced off the wall. She spun in, cutting a shallow groove across his belly while she twisted around and slammed her back into his chest.

Fasthus was taller and heavier than she was, but his size worked against him when she threw her hips back into his. He doubled over on top of her, making it easy for her to grab the back of his neck and flip him over her back and onto the stone floor in front of her. Allie followed him, dropping with one knee next to his head while her glowing talwar plunged into his chest and quivered when the tip stroke the stone beneath him.

The priest stiffened and shuddered. His mouth opened in a breathless scream that ended when his body collapsed onto the stone.

Allie watched the priest’s eyes glaze over and his chest collapse. She turned her head to stare at Lariki and Namitus. The bloody rogue gave her a half smile and nodded. Corian clenched his fist in a silent salute.

Lariki nodded and broke the sudden silence in the room. “I accept the payment. All splisskin and their allies are to leave Shathas, or I will tear the pathetic hide you call scales from your bodies.”

“What is this? You would deny your chance to be a queen?” Thess snarled.

“You’ve got a hundred, maybe more, of your kind in this city? They might kill us—they probably will—but not before Gor and that girl kill the two of you and the five of us down here butcher most of the rest of your snake lovers in front of us. I took a contract to free Shathas of your kind and return it to the rightful owner. That happens with or without you surviving this day. It’s your choice—I could go either way, but I’m tired.”

The wizard chuckled. “I’d advise you to take her offer.”

“But—”

“Once her oath is fulfilled, tomorrow is a new day with new opportunities and new allies.” Rodwin stressed the word, “allies.” He shrugged and added, “Or you could remind the girl of the things you did to her and her father.”

Allie sneered and rose up from her crouch. She turned, sword in hand and blood dripping from the blade.

“I accept your terms,” Thess snapped.

Allie took another step and then froze in place. He’d just surrendered. She couldn’t finish him like she had the snake that had tortured her or the one that had kept her alive. Her arm trembled and she stared down at it.

“Throw down your weapons!” Thess called to his men. “Leave this place.”

The splisskin looked at one another and then did as he bade them. Steel clattered as their weapons hit the ground. They shared looks with one another as they backed away and stepped around the survivors from the raid and slipped out of the doors and down the hallway.

Rodwin and Thess hesitated and then started to follow them. Thess stopped in front of Lariki but she shook her head and pointed to the doors. His eyes widened and then narrowed while his tongue tasted the air in quick, angry stabs. He trembled and then stormed past her, moving down the hallway with a stiff back.

Rodwin followed and slowed as he passed Namitus. He nodded to the knight and flipped a coin through the air that Namitus snatched. “Ever vigilant,” Rodwin said before he followed Thess down the hallway and out of the palace.

“Allie!” Gor snapped as she turned and started on the first step down from the raised dais.

She spun around and saw Gildor lying on his side with his head up. He was watching her and had a ghost of a smile on his face. All thoughts of revenge disappeared like a cloud of dust in the wind. She ran to her father and slid across the stone to be near him.

“You…good,” he whispered.

“Because of you,” she responded around the lump in her throat. Her eyes were growing blurrier by the moment. She reached out and took his hand in hers and squeezed it as tight as she dared. She thought she felt him squeeze back before his eyes fluttered shut. “Dad!” she cried. “Please, Daddy, hold on! Fight!”

“Give him this.”

Allie felt the pressure against her shoulder and looked up. Namitus and Corian had climbed the stairs to stand beside her. Namitus held a golden vial that glimmered in the light from the lamps in the room.

“If he can be helped and wishes to feel the light on his face and in his soul again, this will help.”

“Take it,” Gor insisted.

Allie pulled her hand from her father’s and grabbed the vial. She twisted the cap off and shifted her father onto his back. His breath rattled in his throat. It was a shallow and defeated sound.

“No!” Allie moaned. She tilted his head up and pressed the vial against his bottom lip, forcing his slack jaw open. The liquid dribbled over his broken and dried skin and into his mouth. His breath grew shallower and he tried to cough but didn’t have the strength. He swallowed the first few drops by accident.

“Drink, Father. Drink this, please! It will help you.”

Whether Gildor heard her or not, he relaxed in her arms and let her pour the rest into his mouth. He swallowed it and grew still in her arms. The stillness passed after a heart wrenching moment. A deep shuddering breath shook Gildor’s frame and then slipped out. Even breathing followed, the deep breaths of a body sleeping and healing.

Allie bent her head forward into his chest. The dirt and stink was lost on her. Grateful tears washed away the horror and lifted the terrible weight from her chest.

* * * *

“Well, all’s well that ends well,” Namitus said. He turned his head from the sobbing young woman and limped to the edge of the upper floor. He glanced at the bodies that Ramesh and Minoc were sorting through. They’d already gathered weapons into a pile. Lariki was missing. “Damn, where’d she go? Off searching for more gold?”

“Said she’s going to make sure the snakes leave,” Minoc said.

Namitus stared at the open doorway. “I’m not going to see her again, am I?”

Minoc jerked his head up and stared at the doorway. After a moment, he turned to Ramesh. The older mercenary sighed and shook his head. “She’s scented her next contract; there’s no stopping her.”

“She left us?” Minoc asked.

Ramesh nodded. “You might catch her if you run. Me? I’ll throw my lot in with Gor, if he’ll have me.”

Minoc glanced at Gor and then at Namitus. “I owe you my life—the least I can offer is my service.”

Namitus grunted. “I don’t need a servant, but you’re welcome to join our cause. I’m afraid I’m out of money though.”

Minoc gasped. “She took our share with her!”

Namitus chuckled in spite of himself. Lariki was a mighty warrior but she might be just as skilled at being a thief. He shook his head and turned again. The pain in his side and his many other wounds were gone. He felt numb all over. Numb enough that he had to be careful with each movement; he felt like he was floating. And he’d given his last potion to Allie for her father. He sighed and turned back.

“Namitus, what are you doing?” Corian asked. The elf stepped closer to him, his brow wrinkled with worry.

“I…I don’t remember,” Namitus mumbled. “I was thinking I need an ale and a warm bath, maybe? And a…”

Namitus blinked the spots out of his eyes and saw a dark shape in front of him. Over him? How had he fallen? Was that Corian or Allie? Somebody with long hair…Patrina? Where had she come from?

“Trina?” Namitus whispered. He strained, trying to see past the halo of light around her head. Didn’t she braid her hair when she was on a quest?

“Go! Fetch more of that ointment,” someone—a woman, he thought—said.

“He’s hurt worse than we knew,” a man said. An elf? Where was his grandmother? It would be nice to see her again. Even if was just a smile on her face to take with him as he slept…