Warrior's Dawn (Fire and Tears) (13 page)

She motioned toward all the dead guards. “You did that alone?”

“Ulric isn’t the only warrior in the family,” he said, his voice deep.

She shivered.

His gaze moved over her. “How much of that blood is yours?”

“Enough. But it’s all superficial. They were playing with me up to that last part.”

He grunted and took a step toward her, taking her chin in a gentle hold that belied the intensity of his expression. He moved her face from side to side, then glanced lower. With a touch far softer than she expected, he rubbed some of the blood from her cheek.

“Come. We don’t have a lot of time.”

She nodded and when he turned back toward the door, she followed, retrieving her dropped sword along the way.

“More are coming?” she asked as they stepped around the bodies.

“Probably not too many more in the building,” he murmured. “Those aren’t regular troops. If you didn’t notice.”

She huffed out a rude noise.

“They’re the List Guardian’s soldiers. But the Sorcerers only allow her to have so many. A larger contingent and the Guardian might start to consider herself something of a power.”

Mina put a hand on his arm before they started through the open doorway. “How many more of her soldiers can we expect? And the Guardian herself? How are we going to get through her and her magic?”

He nodded to a body on the floor just inside the door, one she hadn’t been able to see until now. A woman in a simple brown robe was sprawled at the edge of a stairwell, a thin red line across her neck. Mina blinked.

“What…?” She looked up at Althir as something like panic started to filter into her blood. This couldn’t be good.

“She was dead when the soldiers came through the door,” he said. “I didn’t spot her at first but saw the body as more soldiers attacked.”

“They killed their mistress?”

“No. They’d probably just found her body too.”

“Then…what happened?”

“I’ve no idea. They didn’t think we killed her, though, or they wouldn’t have ‘played’ with you. They would have tried to kill us quickly. Or they would have tried to kill
you
quickly. They were trying to take me alive. No doubt to question.”

The edge of panic started to get sharper. “One of the Sorcerers?”

“If so, they figured out a way around the Guardian’s magic. That shouldn’t be possible.”

“This isn’t good, Althir. What are we walking into?”

“A trap,” he said with a shrug. “But if you want the List, this is the way we have to go.” He gestured to the stairs that led down into a basement.

“Do you have a plan?” She stared at the dark stairwell, her muscles still trembling from the fight. Panic was a living thing crawling through her stomach now.

Althir didn’t ease her growing worry with his answer. “Hard to plan when I don’t know exactly what’s happened. I’ll figure it out as I go.”

“Oh, that’s going to work out well.”

He flashed her a surprisingly sexy smile, one of his real smiles, the ones that stole her breath.

“It’ll be fun,” he said. “Come on.”

Keeping her swords in hand, she stayed close to Althir’s back as they started down the stairs. She took a final look at the List Guardian on the way past, but the body gave no clue what they could expect in that basement. As they descended, Mina checked behind them regularly, waiting for more soldiers who never came.

The deeper they moved, the darker the surroundings, until the light from above was no longer sufficient for her to see by. She overstepped on one of the stairs and would have fallen, but Althir turned with amazing speed and caught her arm. When she got her feet under her, he released her. He’d managed to grab her right on one of her many cuts, but since a little sting from the cut was nothing to a broken neck, she bit her tongue on her hiss of discomfort.

She must still have flinched, though, because he leaned close enough to whisper, “Are you okay? I didn’t hurt you?”

“It’s nothing. Keep going.”

He paused half a beat longer, but she gestured him forward, and he turned back toward the slow descent. She did sheath one sword though and put her hand on his back to keep from falling again. He must have been able to see better than her because he continued without any hesitation.

Then a faint light appeared from below, not enough for her to see by, but enough to guide her in a specific direction. She kept her hand on Althir’s back, however, and didn’t think too hard about why the physical contact made her feel better.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, the faint light turned out to be a small gas lamp that illuminated a small vestibule. A single, closed door was the only way to continue forward.

She leaned against Althir’s back and murmured, “More soldiers?”

He shrugged and studied the door. Then before she could gasp, he opened it. This time, no attack came.

Scowling, she released her breath. “You have to stop doing that,” she muttered so low she wasn’t sure he’d hear.

He must have, though, because he smirked over his shoulder before moving through the door. She followed slowly, raising her sword just in case.

There was more light through the doorway, but not so much as to temporarily blind her. Where she’d expected more gas lamps, the light actually came from small braziers lit with flickering flame. The scent of incense was stronger now, almost cloyingly sweet. She wrinkled her nose and had to pinch it a couple of times to keep herself from sneezing.

When she looked around, she realized the basement was huge, a lot larger than she would have expected given the size of the building above. Gold inlaid wooden pillars lined the outside of the circular space. The floor was covered in dark green and gold marble, the golden streaks catching the firelight and glittering. At the very center of the room was a simple black pillar. Atop the pillar sat what looked to be a very ordinary ceramic vase topped with a copper lid.

The List, she thought, realizing only in that moment the full significance of what they’d come for. Her heartbeat hammered as she started toward the pillar.

Althir stopped her with a gesture. “Let me. There might be magical traps.”

“That you can avoid?” She raised her brows.

“No. But they’ll hurt me less.”

“Althir…”

He didn’t give her time to argue before closing the space to the vessel. Since he still held his sword, he reached toward the ceramic vase with his free hand. She hissed, flinching in anticipation of something nasty happening.

Just as his fingertips touched the copper lid, Mina felt something move behind her. She started to swing around but was stopped short by a knife at her throat.

Then a sweetly feminine voice said, “Step away, Althir.”

Chapter Twelve

Mina held her breath as Althir turned slowly to face the new threat. He was smiling, that smug smirk that set Mina’s teeth on edge.

“Talliah. Good to see you again.” His voice was smooth, his tone light and pleasant.

“Oh, I’m sure you are,” the woman behind Mina said with a chuckle. “So eager to see me you went out of your way to find me.”

“Well, I would have. But I’ve been busy.”

“So I see.”

From the corner of her eye, Mina saw movement. She expected more of the List Guardian’s soldiers. Instead, two of the traitor elves stepped from behind two of the support pillars, closer to Althir. She recognized one. He was the first elf they saw after entering enemy territory, the one who’d seemed to sense Althir inside their first hiding spot. He was tall, slimmer than Althir, with pale blond hair, blue eyes and skin a beautiful light brown that only highlighted the lightness of his hair.

“I am less happy to see you, Liroc,” Althir said with a sardonic twist to his lips. “Though not entirely surprised.” He glanced at the other elf, a tall, red-haired man, with features so perfectly angled he looked unreal. “And Vernil.” Quieter, he said, “Not tainted… So. You killed the Guardian, then?”

Vernil didn’t respond.

Althir glanced at Talliah. “And you’re here for the List. But why? Why now?”

“Preemptive strike,” Talliah answered easily.

“At least one of the others is making a play for the List?” Althir asked. “Interesting. Unexpected.”

“Oh, given the direction of the war, not so unexpected.”

“Is that why you’re trusting two elves with the knowledge? Do they know what needs to be done to open the vessel?”

“They know the rewards they’ll receive for helping me,” she said, her voice silky and seductive.

Althir’s eyes narrowed just a little. “They don’t know, do they?” But he spoke so softly it was more a comment to himself rather than a question he expected to be answered.

“Drop your sword, Althir,” Liroc said in an even voice, his lips lifted at the corners just a bit in a very slight smile. His relaxed body language and raised brow gave off a sense of satisfaction with the situation, but there was a gleam of anticipation in his narrowed eyes.

The other elf looked on without any expression at all.

Althir held up his sword and studied it a moment, lips pursed. Then he tossed it away. “Poorly made weapon anyway,” he said. “Nothing like what we’d get back home, eh, Vernil?”

Vernil blinked once, his only response.

Liroc said, “The blade is still sharp.”

“But ugly. I hate ugly things.”

Something that Mina couldn’t interpret passed between the two elves as they stared at one another.

“Enough,” the woman behind Mina said. “We’ll have plenty of time for questions and insults once Althir is on my altar.”

Mina tried not to react but knowing for certain one of the Sorcerers stood behind her sent a jolt of terror up her spine. Her breathing sped despite her best efforts and her hands trembled. She was still holding one sword—the Sorcerer hadn’t bothered to disarm her or make her drop the weapon, but Mina had to firm her grip to keep from dropping it on her own.

Althir crossed his arms over his chest and considered the woman behind Mina, his head tilted slightly. “I have better uses than your altar, Talliah.”

“True,” the woman purred. “And believe me when I say I intend to take advantage of all your uses, dear Althir. But first, a question.”

“Ask away.”

“You’re here acting on behalf of the Sinnale. As soon as I learned you were in our territory again, I knew you’d be after something significant. And based on what Jacine told me when I put her on my altar, after discovering she’d revealed too much to you, I suspected you were here for the List. But why? Why do the Sinnale want it? None of them practice magic. It’s of no use to them.”

He shrugged. “No idea.”

Mina realized Jacine must have been the servant who told Althir about the List, and the Sorcerer had tortured and killed the woman for that slip. The thought made Mina’s stomach roll, but Althir showed no reaction to the news at all. Did he even care that he’d cost someone her life like that?

“Come now,” Talliah said. “You risked falling into our hands for nothing?”

“Oh, I’m sure they have some use for it. Maybe to hand over to my former sovereigns. I don’t really care.”

“They offered you more than we could?”

“Of course not. But they offered me what I wanted.”

“Which was?”

His gaze flicked to Mina before he looked back at the woman over her shoulder. “The opportunity to leave this cursed city and be done with this nonsense.”

The woman’s knife moved ever so slightly against Mina’s neck and Mina closed her eyes, a quick blink to control her reaction to the threat.

“Really?” the Sorcerer asked. “You just wanted to go away?”

Althir lifted a brow. “What else would I want, given my options?”

The Sorcerer leaned around far enough to look at the side of Mina’s face. Mina didn’t glance directly at her but did try to get a look at her from the corner of her eye. She got a glimpse of dark hair, white skin, and full, pink lips.

“And what about her?” the woman said.

“What about her?” from Althir.

“Was she part of the offer from the Sinnale?”

“Not outright. But…” He trailed off and lifted his hands, palms up.

“She’s delicious. Have you had her?”

“Not yet.”

“What were you waiting for?”

“She calls to my
Shaerta
. I’ll get two, maybe three, rounds with her. Look at that body. I’m going to need half a night just to thoroughly satisfy my taste for her tits. I was waiting for a moment when I had enough time to indulge.”

“Then what?”

“After I fuck her a few times, she’s useless to me.”

“So you don’t care if she dies now?”

“It would be a waste. But there are other women to fuck.”

“Too true,” the Sorcerer purred again and straightened away from her inspection of Mina’s face.

Mina pressed her lips together, trying not to show any physical reaction to what Althir was saying, but his easy dismissal of her was hard to hear. He sounded like he meant every word. His indifference was so natural it could hardly be feigned.