The Path of Destruction (Rune Breaker) (4 page)

“Better than having to sit on the damp ground around a campfire. Still, not as cozy and livable as a wagon.” Raiteria commented as she entered behind Kaiel and Brin. She was followed not long after by Taylin.

Taylin folded her wings close and looked around with wide, curious eyes that were mostly focused on the hearth. “It's wonderful.”

“It's pathetic.” said Ru, peering past the bear skin.

Rai scowled. “You were just falling all over yourself about how great it was.”

“Heh.” Ru straightened up and turned toward her, gesturing with the device that created the door. “The spellworking and the mechanism are things of glory and I said as much. What you don't understand is what we're looking at: this tiny device allows its holder to shape the way in which the House manifests. With skill, one is limited only by their imagination.”

He made a disgusted noise and gestured 'round. “And this is the limit of the imagination of the last owner. They didn't even take advantage of the convenience spells in the array. Such a waste is an insult to spellcrafters everywhere. It will take a considerable amount of time to make this place into a proper dwelling.”

“At least you'll be kept busy when we stop for the night.” said Kaiel.

“Tonight.” Ru snorted derisively. “If I start now, I can have something liveable in place by then. I will not suffer the indignity of sleeping in the out of doors again.”

Kaiel looked around, considering. “My portable library can't be moved while it's open. Can this place?”

“Of course not.” said the mage, moving to sit on the floor in front of the hearth, “The door must stay in place to keep the connection open and the connection can't be broken while the control device is inside.” He waved the disk for emphasis.

“Then you can't work on it today.” Kaiel concluded.

A dangerous snarl came from Ru. “What?”

“We're following the army for a reason, remember? To minimize our exposure to spirit beasts. If they get too far ahead...”

“You only want to make haste for her sake.” Ru thrust a finger in Brin's direction as he rose from where he'd just sat. His hateful yellow eyes turned on the elf. “And why is it that you want to return to that charnel house in the first place?”

Brin's face became stony, severe. “It is the duty of a docent to protect the spirits of the dead in any way we can. I wasn't able to cleanse the area or seal it against
nekras
before, but I can now.”

Ru and Brin stared each other down a long moment before Ru hissed at her. “That's not it. It's the girl. You want to find her. Or what's left.” Brin started to protest, but Ru pressed, “You're a fool if I'm right. Assuming Partha stole her guise, you still know nothing of her and owe her less than that. She was dead before you set foot at Idarian!”

“
E-jah!
” Brin spat a foreign curse and suddenly the glowing blade of the Barratta was pressed against the mage's chest. Her breath came shallow and fast as she fought to contain herself. Kaiel stepped up and put a hand on her arm to stay her hand if she decided to thrust.

Ru bared his teeth and pressed forward, causing the blade to start to pierce the dark cloth of his robe and the flesh behind it. Raising a hand, he made the robe's sleeve unravel to the elbow. Do it!” He barked. “Do it and by these scars, I will show you the pain of retribution!”

A strong hand closed on that arm and Taylin pulled him bodily away from Brin and off her spear.

“Ru.” She said flatly and he was overcome with the buzz of emotions in her head. For the first time in days, she wasn't blocking off the link and now he was subject to the flood of concern, guilt and irritation boiling inside her. “Stop.”

Rumbling with his own irritation, Ru snatched his arm back, allowing the robe to reform over his exposed arm. “Yes, Miss Taylin.” He said bitterly.

Taylin paid him no heed, stepping smoothly between him and Brin. “I'm so sorry, Brin. About all of this. If not for us, Partha never would have put you through this, or the people of Idarian Homestead. The absolute least we can do is to make sure you're able to return: for you, for them, and, if she was real, for Layaka.”

The blade of the Barratta lowered as tension seeped out of the elf. “It's not your fault Taylin. It's the monsters that caused this.” Her eyes were pointedly fixed over Taylin's shoulder at Ru when she said 'monsters'.

Ru returned the look with slightly less malice than before. “If there is one thing we can agree on, it is that the creature behind this must meet his demise. He has much to answer for, and I swear before all of you that by the time this ends, I will make a trophy of his mask.”

“Only if you find him before me.” Rai intoned from her place, sitting in one of the chairs.

Taylin fidgeted her wings before nodding. “We can all agree on that. But we have to get there first. Kaiel, why don't you, Brin and Rai continue on ahead.”

“Ahead? Taylin, we really shouldn't separate.”

She turned to look over her shoulder at Ru. “I think we need to. If we don't there'll be more arguments and fights and they're a bigger danger to us than separating. Besides, Ru and I can fly. We can catch up before nightfall without slowing you down any and Brin can perform her rituals in peace.”

Ru met her gaze with defiance, which he also forced into the link. “And I can do something of actual worth instead of merely pushing forward.” He ignored a weary sigh from Taylin.

Gripping her spear in both hands, Brin scowled. “Taylin, I'm not happy with leaving you alone with him.”

“Heh.” Ru showed his teeth again.

Taylin's feathers ruffled further. “He can do nothing to me besides drive me insane with his behavior.” She winced at a sharp feeling in the link, which Ru quashed immediately. She shook her head and continued, “Believe me, there's nothing he can do to harm me.”

Brin looked unconvinced, but nodded her ascent. “I trust you to take care of yourself then.”

“Believe us, he won't survive long afterward if you couldn't.” Rai added, fixing Ru with a warning glare.

Kaiel considered reassuring them, but there wasn't much he could say without giving away to Brin the nature of the link, which Taylin still hadn't revealed to her. Instead, he too nodded. “Very well. We'll move on to Idarian Homestead. You should be able to see it from the air. Find a way to signal us if you need us.”

“I assure you that we won't.” said Ru.

“We will if we do, but I don't think we will.” Taylin said graciously. “Stay safe.”

“You as well.” Kaiel replied as he and the other two took their leave.

The moment they were out the door, Ru settled himself back down on the floor with the control device in hand. “Finally. Worthless distractions and foolishness—how does anything get done in this world with so many variations on the themes of 'obstructionist' and 'useless'?”

Taylin took a seat in one of the chairs with a groan. “Leave them alone, Ru. There's no reason for you to be as pointlessly cruel as you've been.”

He turned his back on her and directed his attention to the wall on either side of the fireplace. Depressions began to form, in which thin spikes of stone, scribed with symbols of power sprouted. “Then you think she'll find anything at all worthwhile in that place?”

“It doesn't matter if she does or not.” said Taylin as she shifted to try and make herself comfortable with the high backed chair restraining her wings. “I don't even understand what she thinks she needs to do there, but I'm hoping it makes her feel better. So stop making her feel worse.”

The depressions gained a mirror-like surface as the spikes began emitting clear, white light. The room brightened by a good measure. Ru kept a heavy mental hand clamping the link down and simply intoned, “Yes, Miss Taylin.”

Recognizing that trying to find comfort in the chair was a losing effort, she got up and sat on the table instead, flaring her wings. “I'm serious, Ru. You can't treat the others like that. Like you said: we all have a goal in common and we can't lose any more friends.”

“
You
can't lose any more friends.” Ru corrected. “I neither have nor need friendship. After what I felt that night when you were forced to order me to heal myself, I no longer have illusions that you are attempting to manipulate me. As such I shall cease my attempts to force you to give orders, but you must be made to understand that I am a tool, not a companion.”

A wave of guilt hit him so hard that his attempt at creating more light sconces in the wall ended up deforming a long, jagged line above the door. He turned to look at her confused. “What...”

“I'm sorry for that, Ru. I didn't want to leave you in pain... and I didn't think of the consequences.”

He swiftly turned away again. “What is it now?”

Taylin's wings pulled in tight around her. “I didn't notice it until you were taunting Brin. I remember you say that you gained them for power and now... I made you heal your scarifications away, didn't I?”

The reaction in the link was instantaneous. The barriers Ru used to shut her off from his emotions came crashing into place like blocks of immovable stone. At the same time, the man himself floated backward away from Taylin as if repulsed by an unseen force.

She had expected this, even hoped for it on some level. Even though she had done what she had for the right reasons, there was still a penance to be paid. Let him be as angry at her now as she had been with him so often and just as justly, she thought.

Except there was not accusation in those yellow eyes, but rather shock, as if she had just walked in and seen him unclothed.

“How.” His voice was back to the reptilian rattle he affected before life in Daire City relaxed him.

Taylin shifted uncomfortably on her perch on the table. “I saw them. When you had that... night terror, I saw your memories, remember? I'm not sure what exactly I saw, but I saw you being scarred for a purpose—lines and arcs all over your body. There were also tattoos. And... and that drink.” Timidly, she touched her own belly. “It burned. Nothing's ever burned me.”

“And none of my previous masters have been so utterly unguarded mentally that they slipped through the link and into my head.” Ru complained bitterly. He turned toward the hearth and threw his power viciously into the spellcraft arrays there. It enlarged dramatically, becoming big enough that he might have cast himself into it if he felt the need. A working of
flaer
kindled a roaring blaze whose ignition blew his robes around him in a blast of hot air.

“I don't know how I did that, but it did stop.” Taylin unconsciously turned her face into the heat suddenly flowing past Ru. The hot, dense air hit her lungs and she felt relaxed and invigorated. As if she hadn't properly breathed in a very long time.

Ru continued manipulating the hearth, raising patterns in the stone surrounding it; trees with bark like scales twisted up with leafy vines concealing the spying eyes of animals that hadn't lived for millennia. The image formed from his memories, a facsimile of another he knew well.

“I put a stop to it.” He said at length. “But I knew that. What I don't know is how you knew they were gone. You know nothing of magic, and I conceal my markings as a reflex. There is no way for you to know such things and yet...” His eyes flashed dangerously and he turned toward the door. “Arunsteadeles.” He growled.

Taylin didn't move to stop him. “No Ru. You told me yourself.”

The dark mage halted in air and drifted closer to her, curiosity rivaling incredulity in his expression. “Odds, bods, hammer and tongs—what are you talking about?”

Sitting still as stone on the table, Taylin locked eyes with him. Her gaze was a match for his in all respects, especially as, for just a moment, he thought he saw her pupil reshape into a vertical slit before reverting to normal.

“Right here.” She said calmly and firmly, a woman now accustomed to dealing with a volatile conversation partner, “In this house. In this room. You threatened Brin and you swore on your scars. You even exposed your arms to show them to her—but they weren't there. You forgot.”

Ru's slow drift toward her stopped cold as a long groan escaped him. Taylin pressed on.

“You've never done that before. Not with me, or Kaiel, or even against the bandits. Normally, you don't threaten, you promise and then act on it. And I know it wasn't out of respect for me, because you don't respect anyone, so why Brin? What made you act like that toward her, especially knowing how emotional she still is over Layaka?”

Baring his teeth, Ru looked around impatiently for something else to work his power on and settled on repairing the area he damaged when struck by Taylin's earlier guilt. “I did it because I want to know what she's hiding. I wanted her to feel threatened and lash out with whatever she's hiding in self-defense. I will not brook another 'Layaka' fouling my vengeance on Immurai.”

Taylin stopped shifting about on the table and stared at him. It was her turn to be incredulous. “You suspect Brin of betraying us? How can you even think that?”

“Who brought Partha into our midst?” Ru asked, “Who has worked hard to ingratiate herself with us and now wishes to lead us off our set path to some remote enclave-turned-boneyard?”

He stopped working his spells and focused on Taylin again. “I told Arunsteadeles before that there is a magic about her that I cannot identify. And as a master in spellcraft, I do not trust any magic I cannot discern. By my blood, she will bring us to ruin if you and he continue to indulge her.”

Taylin exhaled slowly and leaned forward, elbows on her knees, head in her hands. “And what did you learn from what you did to her?”

Ru huffed in disgust. “Nothing. But that doesn't mean that I'm wrong, only that she saw through my gambit. I usually have no need for these subtle tricks, after all. I am out of practice.”

“Leave her alone, Ru.” Taylin's head was down, but she was looking up at him with the fierceness of a lioness guarding her cubs.

“You can't be serious. After what I just told you? Of the magic that surrounds her?”

“Leave. Her. Alone.” Taylin said, slow and dangerous. “You may be a powerful mage, but you don't understand Kaiel's magic either. As far as I can tell, Brin's is closer to his than yours, so there's an extremely good chance that you're just sensing something you can't understand.”