The Grand Crusade (65 page)

“No, not by birth. I’ve brought you Sayce. I have to tell you that you cannot bring the Norrington north. That is what my mother wants. Every league nearer brings her grand plan that much closer to fruition.”

The female elf laughed. “If your mother wants the Norrington, she is a fool.”

Isaura slowly shook her head. “My mother may not be capable of rational thought, but she is not a fool.”

“I will grant your mother is clever.” Resolute raised a hand to shade his eyes and looked north. “There are two reasons she would have sent you south with Sayce.”

“Weescapedl”

Resolute gave her such a harsh stare that she blushed.He is right! We were let go. The implications of how her mother had used her shook her. Isaura’s stomach tightened and sour bile rose in her throat.

“The first reason is that you might be successful in convincing us to get Sayce south to safety, thus removing a threat to your mother. The other is that you were tracked.”

Isaura looked to the north and high in the sky saw a dozen specks, which grew larger as they descended. All but one had the squat bodies of carrion birds, but with flat dugs on their bare breasts. Their black wings had an oily sheen that matched the greasy appearance of the lank locks on their hag’s heads. Thearaftücalled harshly and circled, then landed. A half-dozen formed a semicircle to the south. Two landed on a dolmen, while the remaining trio arrayed themselves to block the way north.

The last creature was as elegant as thearaftüwere ugly. Yellow in color, with black tracing each feather and painting each talon, the huge bird made one low swoop before turning on a wing tip and landing as light as a drifting leaf. She stretched her wings, raising the tips to the sky, then they shrank down into arms. The transformation went slowly, and was mesmerizing in its majesty, as the urZrethisullanciriFerxigo reshaped her body. The expression on her face went from pure ecstasy to one of mild frustration.

As Qwc sprang into the air, Resolute shrugged off his pack and drew his sword. “Sayce, come here.”

Letting her right forearm shift into a long slender blade the equal of his, Ferxigo shook her head. “No, Resolute, she will be going with us. As will the Norrington. Produce him and you will be allowed to live.”

The Vorquelf arched an eyebrow. “Your mistress is not known for keeping her deals.”

Thesullanciri‘s clawed feet tore at the turf. “She is not this generous, but I am. The Norrington for your life.”

Resolute shook his head. “Not in your lifetime.”

Without warning, Ferxigo launched herself into an attack. Her initial leap

closed the gap between them and ended in a lunge that slashed through his leather jerkin. He hissed and her hand drew back bloodied. The Vorquelf batted her blade aside, then spun, giving her a brief glimpse of his back before he came around and slashed at her eyes.

The cut should have carved her skull down to the bridge of her nose or at least blinded her, but it missed. Ferxigo shifted her shape, flattening the dome of her skull and broadening her face. Her eyes moved to either end of a bar as the blade passed above them, then her head returned to something approximating a normal shape. Her left fist came around, smashing Resolute in the ribs and driving him back several steps.

On she came, fast and hard, thrusting at him. Resolute leaped and dodged. Her blade scored turf, slashed jerkin and boots, but never quite managed to spit him. When he would parry, little puffs of sulfurous smoke would rise, but Ferxigo gave no sign of any discomfort. She forced him back, further and further, until she trapped him against a dolmen.

Thesullancirilunged. The Vorquelf dodged right as her blade cracked stone and, for a heartbeat, became lodged. Resolute slashed at her left arm, but it went from being solid to boneless. It shifted into a tentacle and his blade just missed scoring its thick coils.

She whipped her left arm at him and caught him across the thighs with a mighty blow. Resolute smashed into the stone. His right elbow hit hard and his sword was jarred from his fist. Ferxigo pounced, her clawed feet digging into the rock. She pinned him to it with her own body, her back suddenly armoring. A loop of her left arm closed around his neck and tightened while her right hand rose and shifted into twin tines set as wide apart as his eyes.

Sayce dashed at Ferxigo and leaped onto her tortoiseshell back. Isaura wondered what she thought she could do bare-handed against asullanciri. She thought Sayce was smarter than that.Even dead she could serve my mother’s purpose. Her heart rose to her mouth, afraid for her friend yet proud of her courage.

But the Murosan Princess was not unarmed. Silver flashed in her hand. She had torn the amulet from her neck and driven it into the creature’s armpit. Black blood spurted and thesullanciriconvulsed, flinging Sayce off.

Sayce flew a dozen feet and landed hard on her upper back. She bounced once and rolled to the female elf’s feet. Thesullancirisprang from the rock and tried to whip Resolute away. Had the Vorquelf not had a grip on her tentacle, the motion would have snapped his neck. As it was, he hung on, throwing her off-balance. To save herself, she released him, though she left him far away from his weapon.

Again shifting her hand, Ferxigo dug in her armpit and pulled the amulet Sayce had worn from her flesh. “Powerful, yes, but far too short to do the job.” She looked around at her allies. “Save for the human girl, slay them all.”

Thearaftüsprang into the air or danced forward, wings spread. The two on the dolmen behind her squawked horribly, sending a shiver up her spine, but

Isaura did not turn to look at them. Death closed from every side and Isaura sought a spell that could stop her mother’s creatures from attacking.

She never got a chance to cast any magick. With a furious roar, Hlucri streaked along the stone and leaped, arms upraised and claws glinting. His descending form eclipsed Ferxigo, but Isaura caught a flash of pure astonishment on her face. Hlucri’s arms crisscrossed in slashing motions, releasing a bloody black mist into the air. Ferxigo’s tentacle writhed on the ground, but Hlucri did not pause. Instead, he landed on two of thearaftüfrom the southern group and they disintegrated into a wet cloud of feathers.

The Spritha wheeled and twisted through the air, then turned and spat a gob of webbing that collapsed anaraftü‘s wing. That creature crashed heavily to the earth while the female elf cut another in half with a quick sword slash. Two others diving at her screamed as Resolute hurled metal stars that spitted them. Hlucri killed a third with a backhanded swat, and two others fled for the sky, flapping their wings hard.

That only leaves two.

Isaura spun and saw the last of the twoaraftüon the dolmen sinking into its shoulders. Molten eyes burned in an almost featureless face. As she looked up into those red-gold spots, flames actually flared, the way they had in Nefrai-laysh’s eyes.

She held a hand out, slowly, tentatively. “You are the Norrington?”

The stone creature lifted his chin and two dark spots appeared on his throat where the horrid wounds had been when she healed him.

Isaura looked back over her shoulder and saw Sayce was still facedown, with the Spritha and female elf hovering over her. She crossed to her, knelt, and cast a diagnostic spell.

The elf grabbed her shoulder. “What are you doing to her?”

“Checking to see if she or the baby is hurt.” Isaura recognized the concern in the elf’s voice, as the spell she used manifested with the red glow of Aurolani magick as she cast it. Isaura looked up and smiled. “She will be sore, but the child is fine.”

Isaura shivered as she caught the Norrington out of the corner of her eye.Oh, Sayce, this is not at all what you expected. Physically you will recover, but will your heart be broken anew?

Off to Isaura’s left Resolute had gotten his sword back and stood looking at Hlucri. “Which are you? Hlucri or Lombo?”

Thesullancirishrugged. “Guardian. Lady Snowflake.”

Isaura rose from Sayce’s side and approached them. “Nefrai-kesh made him asullanciri. He charged him with watching out for me.”

Resolute frowned deeply. “Asullanciricreates asullanciriwho is capable of destroying othersullanciri^Curious.”

“How so?”

The Vorquelf shifted his shoulders uneasily. “I knew Kenwick Norrington. I

always found it hard to believe he would become one of Chytrine’s creatures. Was he able to hold a part of himself back so he could be her undoing? Did he make that sacrifice so this generation could do what he could not? He gave Adrogans Okrannel and firedirt. It makes sense for him to give you Hlucri to keep you safe, but did he intend it as more?“

“What do you mean, more?”

Resolute gave her a frank gaze, which softened slightly. “Hlucri attacked because an order was given that would have had you killed.”

“I understand that.”

“Where do you think that order came from?”

The answer hit her with the force of one of Hlucri’s blows. She stumbled back a step, then found her body cushioned and supported. She iooked up and saw the Norrington looking down at her. His eyes flared for a moment, then the glow withdrew ever so slightly, as if sockets were beginning to form.

Hlucri trotted over slowly, then sniffed and sat, licking blood from his claws.

“My mother was willing to have me killed?”

Resolute nodded. “I can’t think of any other answer.”

Isaura pointed north, in the direction the two survivingaraftüwere flying. “She’ll know we’re coming.”

“She’s always known we’d be coming. She knows what we will do when we get there.” Resolute shrugged and slid his sword back into its scabbard. “I don’t see any reason to keep her waiting.”

i

A lexia leaned forward, placing her hands on a portion of Caledo’s wall. TheLAdragonfire had left it smooth, as if centuries of river water had worn it away. I 1 That cool soft erosion contrasted sharply with the crumbled edges of buildings that had been shattered by dragonel balls in the city behind her.

Facing her and drawn up in ranks were the troops Prince Erlestoke had brought with him from Oriosa. She knew what he’d gone out with from Saporicia, and those troops had been roughly used. The Alcidese Throne Guards had lost a quarter of their strength, and the Oriosan Volunteers had been all but wiped out. Soldiers from the East Country, Hawkride, and the Midlands had supplemented his force, but a third of his strength was made up of troops who, generously, would be classed as militia and had seen nothing of war.

That was, however, not true of the urZrethi troops who had joined the Oriosan host. The Boka Dragonkillers and the Saren Guards each mustered a full regiment. Just having the Dragonkillers—who had been known as the Coal Seam Guards prior to their work in Oriosa—had been a boost to morale. Alexia’s mind was fairly bursting with ways to employ them.

She turned and nodded to Erlestoke and, past him, to his brother. “These troops are a wonderful addition to our force.”

Alexia turned to face the troops and raised her voice. “I have been told all you have done to get here, and I cannot express my amazement, respect, and gratitude for your having joined us. You all have left your homes and your loved ones to fight in a war that could tear your nation apart as it has sundered so many others. Some of you have fought off invasions; others seek to prevent them from happening.Allof you will help restore many people to their homes—people who now have nothing but memories.

“All of you have lost comrades, but all of you have seen bravery played out in countless ways. I deeply regret the news that Dranae was slain, but his courage must be something to which we all look in the coming days. When faced with overwhelming odds, he did not shrink, but thrust himself into battle as the situation demanded. No, he was not like us—he was a dragon—but that makes his sacrifice that much greater. He could have chosen to sit this war out, as many have, but he did not.”

She nodded to them all. “You, too, have answered the call that will shield the unprepared from evil’s touch. The lives we have all left—the lives to which we shall return—are not easily secured. What we will do in the coming days is to win them for a generation, and another and another. We will fight and bleed and some of us die, so our children, and their children, may never again have to face the decision to go to war. For this, no price is too great. Welcome all of you, and thank you.”

A cheer rose through the ranks, loudest from the irregular formations. Alexia saluted the troops, then the Oriosan Princes. Then the three royals descended from the wall as officers started shouting orders and dispersing the troops.

Erlestoke descended directly behind her. “I’ve taken time to go over the maps the Gyrkyme scouts are making. Nefrai-kesh is setting up a vicious fortification.”

She nodded, her own stomach fluttering at the strained tone in Erlestoke’s voice. “You’re right. It’s even more hideous when you look at the model we’ve got. Come with me.”

Alexia led them through a couple of twists of streets, and then down into the subterranean levels of Caledo. She’d located her command center underground, just in case the dragon Nefrai-kesh had working on the fortifications was sent south. In reality, the dragon could destroy her army pretty easily, since there was no way to house all of them in the ruins, and the ruins would have offered little or no protection anyway. And while Arimtara would give as good as she got, having her die the way Dranae did would have been utterly demoralizing.

They entered a dim room thick with the scent of candles and oil lamps. Perrine and her father stood near the three-dimensional map, pointing out new features to the engineer. Across from them, Crow was in deep conversation with a pair ofmeckanshü—his brother Sallitt and his wife, Jancis Ironside. Crow smiled at her as she approached, but stayed with his brother as she led the Oriosan Princes to the south end of the table.

“This is what we will be facing.”

The Aurolani position had once been a trio of three hills, with the one in the middle slightly south of the other two. The hills had been flattened and dropped in elevation several hundred feet, or so she had been told. The earth had been used to fill in the gaps between them, presenting an undulating wall of earth with a fairly steep pitch. From the plains to the top was about a hundred yards, and every inch of it—as well as the approaches to it—would be studded with dragonels.