Yield the Night (30 page)

Six daemons flashed into being out of the line, hurtling straight for her.

She spread her arms wide and called on the Stone. Violence erupted in her head but her calm, shaded state held. As the daemons charged, she spun in a fast circle, arms cutting through the air. Two blades of white magic spun out from her hands and whipped outward at chest-height. Blood sprayed. All six daemons collapsed.

She turned toward Miysis. He had been far enough away to successfully shield against her last attack. He stood rigidly, wings half-furled, waist-length braid of golden hair hanging over one shoulder. Another time, she would have been in awe of the beauty of his daemon form, nearly as stunning as Lyre’s. Instead, she just wanted to kill him.

Rage and hatred built inside her, pumping into her from the Sahar and mixing with her own burning fury. Her barrier of tranquil logic started to crumble and she bared her teeth, overcome with the need to see him bleed. To rip out his heart and watch life fade from his deceitful green eyes. To make him pay for what he’d done to them.

The ley line stuttered again, the magic shuddering as another dozen daemons appeared.

Shocked out of her haze of savagery, she spun away from the line. Hatred still seethed in her, demanding she destroy them, rip them apart, feed their blood to the earth. But they weren’t important. It had been less than a minute since Ash had disappeared over the cliff. He hadn’t given up on her when she’d fallen into the river. She wouldn’t give up on him.

Sahar clenched in one hand, she took two running steps and leaped off the cliff.

She plummeted, the wind screaming in her ears. The water rushed toward her while also seeming to approach her in slow motion, gradually filling her vision. Rocky cliff walls whipped by on either side, faster than she’d ever experienced, but the fall was strangely calming, almost serene, her fear of heights forgotten. Pointing her feet downward, she plunged into the river.

Pain ricocheted through her legs on impact. Water engulfed her. The moment she was submerged, she knew why her non-tentacles felt so weird when touched. They were made for the water.

Sensations flooded her mind—every shift of the current, every dart of a nearby fish, every rock, tree branch, and obstacle. The river welcomed her like a long-lost but deeply beloved child, a warmth she could feel inside her head, the touch of a deep and ancient power.

She shot for the surface, her head bursting into the cool air. She didn’t have to swim. The water held her up as she was swept downstream.

Ahead. Far ahead. She could see flashes of black—small wings beating frantically in the air. Zwi had grabbed on to Ash and was desperately trying to keep his head above water. Piper could feel his presence in the river ahead of her. She could even feel his blood, foreign Underworlder blood, tainting the pure waters.

And beyond him she could sense the sharp, crashing violence of rapids.

She had to reach him before he hit the rapids. No sooner had the thought come to her than the current of the river gave a strange shudder. With a reassuring caress inside her mind, the river surged—and then she was nearly flying, the current carrying her at an impossible speed downstream, shooting her toward the flashing black flag that was Zwi. She stretched out her arms, reaching for Ash.

The moment her arms closed around him, another shudder ran through the river and the current abruptly gentled. She clutched Ash to her, his back against her front as she leaned back to keep his head up. Zwi flew above them, crying out in fear with each flap.

The river carried them into the tamed rapids. She could feel the current and the rocks, and she knew nothing would harm them. The alien power in the river helped her, whisking her this way and that along the gentlest path. She spotted a stretch of gravel along the bank, an easy place to go ashore.

The current swirled, pushing them toward the spot. Her feet touched the slick bottom. She pulled Ash through the water and dragged him halfway onto the rocky slope.

“Ash!” She knelt beside him, her feet still in the water. Panic threatened to blank her mind.

Three stab wounds to the chest. They’d missed his heart, but both lungs had to be punctured. Blood seeped from the wounds. She touched his face. His skin was clammy and his lips were tinged blue either from the cold river or from shock. She put a hand over his mouth and felt his warm breath on her wet skin. He was still breathing—barely.

Zwi landed beside her master, pawing at his shoulder as she mewled.

“No,” Piper moaned. “I don’t know how to heal you. Ash, I don’t know how!”

His eyelids flickered but his eyes didn’t quite open. He couldn’t have much time left. What did she do? What should she do?

“Help,” she whispered. “Help!” This time she screamed it, head whipping around to scour the barren, rocky bottom of the gorge. “Please help me!”

And she felt it, whispering through the river. An answer. An affirmative.

Help was coming.

Zwi let out a sharp chirp—a warning. Piper looked up.

High up on the cliff’s edge, almost out of sight around the bend, she saw the dark silhouettes of a dozen people. And then their wings spread. They jumped off the cliff, soaring out over the canyon. Piper’s heart stuttered.

Ra daemons were griffins—and just like Miysis, they had wings.

They were coming for her and for the Sahar. She bared her teeth. “Over my dead body,” she growled.

Reluctantly letting go of Ash, she stepped into the water until she was submerged up to her waist. The river swirled around her, waiting for her command. It knew what to do, as it had done it a hundred times before at the call of other ryujin. Piper could see it in her mind, a vision of how to form her attack. The river was willing. All she had to do was provide the magic.

A dozen griffins soared toward her. She could just make out the golden brown feathers of their wings and the long-handled halberds in their hands, the perfect weapons for diving at your enemy without ever making yourself a target.

She had no intention of letting them get that close.

She tapped the Sahar again. Roaring power surged into her, filling her body near bursting. Every nerve burned with agony, but locked in the shaded state of a daemon, she barely registered it. The griffins were descending, blades flashing in the sunlight. Their long golden braids trailed behind them.

She extended her hands over the water. The river shivered as she flooded it with power. Hatred pounded through her. No one would take the Sahar from her. No one would hurt Ash again.

She flung her hands skyward.

Massive jets of spinning water whipped into the air like a dozen immense waterspouts. The flailing spirals writhed fifty feet above the river, waving and undulating with wild force. The griffins scattered as the spirals crashed into their midst. One, two, three griffins got caught in the spirals.

She dropped her hands and the water jets lost their form, crashing back into the river. The remaining griffins had lost elevation, though already they were beating their wings to regain altitude. Too slow. Her lips stretched into a merciless smile.

She extended her hands and felt the river’s will join her own for a second time. Power poured from the Sahar, through her body, and into the water. Another half dozen spirals of water launched into the air. Five griffins couldn’t get away fast enough and the enormous spouts smashed into them.

Five left. She pulled on the Sahar again—and agony shredded her concentration.

She doubled over, clutching her middle, unable to breathe. Burning, searing pain coursed along every nerve. She’d been so focused, so shaded and immune to pain, she hadn’t really felt it—the Sahar’s power tearing through her body. With effort, she let go of her connection to the Sahar. The consuming hatred from the Stone vanished, clearing her mind.

Gasping, she looked up as the first griffin dove at her. She threw up her arms, barely able to think through the pain, let alone defend herself. The blade of his weapon sped toward her.

Zwi leaped in the griffin’s face, clawing at his eyes. He overshot Piper, his halberd swinging by mere inches above her head. Zwi darted away.

Piper spun as the griffin landed and pivoted to face her. Blood ran down his face. Teeth bared, flared wings making him look huge, he charged with his halberd a spinning blur. She flung a hand out and a five-foot wave of water leaped over Ash and smashed into the griffin, knocking him off his feet.

She dove toward Ash and a blade whooshed past, slicing the air where her head had just been. The second griffin—she hadn’t even seen him coming—swept past, circling around for another strike.

Dropping to one knee, she pulled both of Ash’s short swords from the sheaths along his thighs. Holding both in one hand, she jammed the Sahar into her bra. Breathing hard from the pain of her magic overdose, she ran at the griffin on the ground.

Her left sword hit the blade of his halberd. He nearly ripped it out of her hand when he twisted the handle of his weapon. She slashed with the other but he stepped sideways. Freeing her blade, she darted in, faster as a half-daemon than she’d ever been as a haemon, but he was a hardened, experienced soldier.

A flick of his hand and a magic blast shot at her. Unlike past fights, she could see it coming—golden light rushing toward her chest. She threw up both swords and pulled on her magic instead of the Sahar. Her shield formed: a shimmering sheet of blue magic with streaks of purple.

As his blast was deflected, the griffin lunged in, his halberd sweeping low. She leaped over it, but he reversed the direction and the blade whipped toward her face. She blocked, his halberd crashing into her two blades. If her daemon form hadn’t been so much stronger than her haemon one, she would have been knocked off her feet. She slashed three times in quick succession, trying to hold him off as she desperately searched for a hole in his guard.

Zwi appeared out of nowhere, landed on his head, and wrapped her wings around his face.

He shouted furiously, reaching for the dragonet, but Piper was already lunging forward. Her first strike cut his arm down to the bone and tore the halberd from his hand. Her second pierced his chest between two ribs and went straight into his heart.

He fell backward, the sword stuck in his chest. Piper whirled and ducked with a shriek as two more griffins dove at her. The first blade missed her but the second cut a shallow line across her back as she dove for the ground. She rolled to her feet and whirled around to face them. For a moment, the three of them paused, sizing one another up.

Piper called up a sphere of blue and purple flame and threw it at the two griffins. They both cast shimmering gold shields, but she was charging in right behind as the fire burst harmlessly against their defenses. She slashed at one and ducked as the other tried to stab her in the back. Their damn halberds had so much more reach than her short sword.

Zwi swooped in again. She grabbed a mouthful of feathers from one griffin’s wing and ripped them out. The griffin yelped and flailed at the dragonet.

Piper focused on the other one. His halberd spun in his hands, too fast to follow. He moved toward her, his steps slow but implacable. She retreated, holding her guard position as she watched his black eyes. A flicker of a glance. She sprang back and lifted her sword in a block as the halberd flashed out. It struck the sword so hard that it was knocked out of her hands.

She didn’t waste time being scared shitless that she was now unarmed. His halberd had swung wide in his last attack, leaving a clear opening—so she jumped on him.

Her attack took him completely by surprise. She landed with one foot on his halberd’s handle and used it to spring even higher. She grabbed his shoulder and swung her body around to hook her leg around his jaw. With his head squeezed in the crook of her knee, she flung herself upside-down over his back.

His neck made an awful crunching sound when it broke.

She landed hard, the griffin falling half on top of her. In the sky above, the last two griffins circled. Beyond them, flying hard, was another dozen, newly arrived from the ley line. Holy shit, was there no end to them?

Breathing hard, she started to shove the body off her when a shadow fell across her. She looked up and her heart skipped a beat. The other griffin, chunks of broken feathers sticking off his wings, stalked toward her. She didn’t see any sign of Zwi.

She wrenched at the weight of the fallen griffin, his torso still pinning her leg, her muscles shaking from adrenaline and the residual burn from her magic overdose. He rotated his halberd, aiming the point at her chest. His arm drew back, readying the strike.

She threw up her hands, casting a shield at the last second. The blade hit it. Her shield shattered but deflected the trajectory of the blade. It hit the top of her shoulder and scraped across the shimmering scales. Piper grabbed the handle of the halberd as the griffin yanked it back. The force pulled her free from the dead griffin, but her legs buckled before she could get them under her. The griffin wrenched his weapon free and she fell forward, barely catching herself on hands and knees.

The other two griffins swooped in and landed on her other side, blocking any escape.

The first griffin drew his halberd back a second time, taking aim. Magic sparked down the length of the weapon, a spell to break any shield she might cast. She recoiled, calling on the Sahar to create a shield anyway, the only thing she could do.

With a huge splash, a shimmering white beast surged out of the river and crashed headlong into the first griffin. The water dragon’s massive jaws closed around the griffin’s head, crushing it. Flinging the griffin aside, it whipped its tail over Piper, smashing it into the other two griffins. They both slammed into the wall of the canyon and crumpled.

The griffins in the sky roared battle cries and dove.

Piper scrambled to her feet, looking around wildly for a sword. Before she had the chance to find one, another dragon surged out of the river, spraying water everywhere. And then a third a little ways down the bank. And another. And another.