The Cage King (16 page)

The being straightened, revealing a tall human woman with long red hair. Her eyes alighted over the fighters. They paused on him and there was recognition, but then they moved to look past him and she smiled, wicked delight in what she took in. “What the four hells? You got beat? You’re not seriously expecting to be my sidekick after that, are you?”

And Rorth flipped her the bird, though his tone and eyes said he’d expected this reaction. “He’s the Cage King. Give me a break. If it was weapons it would have been different.”

“No excuses. Expect some serious sparring time, Mr. Not-the-King,” and after speaking she threw the axe underhanded to Rorth.

Esh looked back as Rorth took control of the weapon, spinning the weapon in his hand with practiced ease. The axe looked more an extension of him instead of a mere weapon. The giant half orc looked straight at him as he swung the axe a few times.

The woman turned and continued her perusal, the twist of her lips expressing her opinion about their worthiness as opponents. She then turned her face to the stands where Beylor sat. Beylor must have known who she was because he shrunk back in his seat, disbelief and terror on his face for all to see.

Instead of talking to Beylor, she turned back to the fighters surrounding them. Her voice carried, as cold and strong and immovable as her stance. “I’ve got places to be and things to do, so I’m giving all you underlings a choice today. Stay and fight, you’ll die. Run away and I won’t chase you, so you’ll live until you make your next stupid decision. Any takers on running away?”

There was hesitation, shuffling in place, but Beylor had convinced himself distance meant safety because he rose, shouting, “Kill her! Kill them all!”

The slight hesitation the men experienced was lost at Beylor’s words, and they rushed forward. The woman brought her sword up to the ready. “No one ever takes advantage when I offer.”

Rorth moved beside Esh, drawing his attention away from the woman with the sword. “Go get your woman.”

And now the reason for the man being here was so obvious. “You’re Guild.”

Rorth clapped him on the back. “Talk later, go now. We’re fine here,” he said before he ran toward the guards in the other direction, axe brought high and already falling to strike its first blow.

Esh wasn’t going to argue, but then came the screams. Esh looked back to the red-haired woman, and took in the pile of bodies already at her feet and the blood covering her sword.

No, he wasn’t going to argue, but with or without him, they had nothing to fear from Beylor’s men.

Fallon.

Nalah shuddered at the magical signature, slamming against her shields full force. She’d never known Fallon like this, in the midst of war. Power radiated from her in waves, pulsing energy that threatened to topple all in the way, and with her training Nalah could only hold it off well enough to still function. Maybe it was the way Nalah saw the magic, but Fallon’s movements were in slow motion, where light glinted off the blade as it fell against the throat of an enemy, or the swing of her hair suspended mid-air before falling in a stop-motion wave.

“Kill her!”
Beylor called again, true fear in his voice. Not that his men weren’t trying, but the swordswoman was cutting a bloody path through the surrounding warriors.

Lian’s attention was on the chaos in the ring. Nalah took her eyes off the fighting down below and returned her concentration to the cuff on her wrist. The magic was fighting her, though whether it was because it was placed by an innate or because of the blackout zone, she didn’t know.

There!
The click, the wash of acceptance, the signal she’d broken the magic enough that it would abide her wishes.

Lian turned away from the ring and grabbed her upper arm, but before he could do anything else, another figure fell from the sky. This one landed on the upper stands. It was a female with long black hair streaming behind her, a bow in her hands.

One of the guards attacked the female, but her foot connecting with the side of his head knocked him out, and without pause she twisted and grabbed at her back, bringing the bow up and loading it with the arrow she retrieved. Aiming at the ring, she shot arrows in a quick succession Nalah could not follow, taking out guards in the lower stands.

The black-haired woman scanned the crowd, pausing when her eyes found Nalah. She jumped down to Nalah’s level, landing on a bar that couldn’t be more than three inches wide, and the agility combined with the inhuman speed had to mean this woman was an elf.

Please be Guild.
While Lian was distracted watching the archer, Nalah clasped the gold cuff around the wrist of the hand that was holding her.

His grip loosened as he glanced away from the chaos and toward her, and with that opening, Nalah pushed him over the railing. The split-second look of surprise that crossed his features as he fell over was almost comical, and then he was gone from sight, the magical thread snapping as he disappeared.

The elf appeared then before her, and a faint memory of this woman seen from a distance at Fallon’s side rose up and replaced Lian’s face at the front of her thoughts. “Aislynn?”

“Yes. The Realm Jumper?”

Nalah pointed toward the now empty box that once housed Beylor and Tiffany. “The woman is blonde and with Beylor. She has no idea what she has outside of a pretty ring. But there’s someone else, a woman with long silvery hair, she’s gone too-”

Aislynn’s hand shot out and grabbed Nalah’s upper shoulder in a near painful grasp, restrained panic clear on her face. “Silvery hair, past her waist, pure black eyes and beautiful like a doll?”

“Yes, that’s-”

Aislynn didn’t wait but turned and hauled ass towards the box’s exit. Nalah followed, running as fast as she could, which was nowhere near what the elf was capable of. The only reason Nalah could keep the elf in sight was because Aislynn had to dispose of the guards who finally figured out there was an enemy here. She used her bow as a melee weapon, parrying the edged weapons the men carried and striking out with it, spinning the instrument to fight the guards as they crossed her path.

They neared the box, and from a small hidden hallway came the echo of her mother’s ring. “Aislynn, down that path,” Nalah called, and pointed the way when the elf turned to look at her.

Aislynn swerved, and now there were no guards, but this time the elf couldn’t outrun her because barely two dozen steps into the hallway were two bodies lying in the middle of the hallway.

Beylor and Tiffany, both recognizable despite the multitude of claw marks on their bodies and the chunks of flesh torn from their exposed torsos, expressions of horror still detailed on their faces. This wasn’t a quick kill – someone took time slicing them both up. Bile rose in Nalah’s throat, a thick lining she swallowed hard against as she stepped back and averted her eyes to the elf. Aislynn had no expression and didn’t appear to be fighting the nausea like Nalah was. Aislynn’s eyes wandered over the bodies before her gaze met Nalah’s. “Is this the woman who had the Realm Jumper?”

“Yes.”

“Her hands are bare. The ring was taken.” The corridor branched off into five possible routes of escape, and Aislynn gave a quick glance around each exit. “I see no obvious sign of which path was taken. I need you to find the ring.”

Tiffany hadn’t been a friend in the strictest sense, and she’d made her choice when she’d taken up with Beylor, but the good-hearted blonde hadn’t deserved this. Nalah had seen the aftermath of death, but not this type of desecration. Magic infused the corpses. There was an echo of joy attached to the bodies, pleasure in the pain and fear they’d experienced, even a shade of disappointment it hadn’t lasted longer – sick joy that was burrowing into her, becoming part of her, past the feeble defenses that were losing ground by the second. The bile thickened, and Nalah pressed her hand hard against her mouth.

Cool, smooth skin stroked over her brow. “Nalah.” The voice was understanding, with warmth, and love for life, all things opposite of the magic surrounding her represented. “The ring is heritage from your mother, a link to her goodness and love for you. Fight now, and protect it.”

The weight of Aislynn’s words penetrated, dissipating the evil, and Nalah breathed deep, blanking her emotions. She pushed her power out, searched the myriad of corridors the killers may have used, keeping all attention away from the bodies. “Down the farthest right.”

They took off, but not ten more steps Nalah grabbed at Aislynn and pulled her back, hard enough that despite her superior strength, the elf stopped and turned in confusion. If only Aislynn could see, she would understand. Magic shifted in impossible ways, swirled through the air in violent streaks past her, a shredding of barriers that existed for very good reasons. “Aislynn – something’s
wrong
.”

‡

A
islynn made to
bring up her bow, but Nalah didn’t let go of her arm. “Shouldn’t we wait for Fallon?” Even this evil didn’t blot out Tenro’s signature, a hard burn bursting against her and making Nalah’s skin tingle, and no offense to the skilled elf archer, but nothing in Aislynn compared.

“I would love to, but there is no time. I carry nothing that can contact Fallon through the blackout zone and inform her of where we are, and as this development was not one we prepared for, I do not know when she will arrive.” With that, Aislynn disentangled herself. If the archer felt any fear, it wasn’t evident in her sure stride or steady hands. She went forward, keeping Nalah behind her and protected.

Whatever door once was now lay in ruined shards on the ground, letting the late afternoon light filter in. Aislynn tilted her head, and twenty-to-one odds the elf was doing it to listen for any traps before they stepped into the sun.

Either she didn’t hear anything or she decided to chance it, because Aislynn pushed forward, slow and deliberate.

An unearthly giggle, and Aislynn’s arrow flew toward a cluster of treetops. Rustling started at one end of the long line of trees and then moved, shaking branches straight down to the other end.

Then both giggle and movement stopped.

Another arrow in Aislynn’s bow, and though the elf’s head moved in small motions back-and-forth, her arms were locked in position. “Where do we go now?”

Nalah extended her senses. The other magic pounced as if it had been waiting for her, dominating her own meager powers as it began stripping her of her protections.

“Nalah, the ring?”

Ring, ring, what about a ring? There was no ring, there was, there was…there was dark, putrid magic, so cloying it clogged her senses and blocked even Tenro.

“
Nalah
, stay with me.” A vague, floaty voice, but the other descended upon her, desecration, decay, bloat and the pure joy in –
only happiness in
 – shred-the-soul suffering.

Dark, so dark, so cold, always cold, and she was falling.
It
had her.

It had her.

You’re mine, Magic Breaker.

Esh threw the
guard over his shoulder down to the lower levels as he made for Beylor’s box. A woman descended from the ceiling and began shooting arrows, then went into the crowd. Since Rorth and the redhead hadn’t moved to combat her, she must be Guild too. Which meant she’d go for Nalah, and Nalah would lead her to Beylor and the ring.

Beylor’s box was empty, a door to a hidden hallway behind it open. Esh followed through the long corridor, sliding to a stop in front of the two bodies.

“Fuck!”
They were brutalized, and Nalah was walking into the path of whatever had done that. Before him –
Fucking Shit
 – five paths. Five fucking paths, and he didn’t have time for a wrong choice, not with what these sliced-up bodies meant. The evil Nalah had been talking about had decided to make itself known, and Nalah was running toward it.

Nalah. Nalah, Nalah, Nalah.

Panic, blind and frantic, her name on a loop in his head. She was alone without him, alone with creatures capable of this, and he had
no fucking clue
.

The burn deep in his belly flared, orange-red flame winding its way around his lungs, his heart, heading straight for the center of him and
demanding
attention.

It was enough to break through the loop of panic and in unthinking movement, Esh hit out with the side of his fist against the wall, the jarring pain resetting his brain.

He had to get to Nalah. He didn’t have time to search and hope he got lucky. How the fuck was he supposed to find her?

The flame flickered, drawing his attention. It was straining, stretching against binds that held it. It was offering, promising what he wanted, if he would give it what it needed.

It wanted freedom.

He wanted Nalah.

There was no hesitation. Esh dug deep inside, raced for the flame, concentrated on releasing every tie that held it back.

It wanted freedom.

And as long as Nalah was safe, he would give it.