Chapter 41
Inej hid behind the staircase to watch Manu and the Dark. Even with his injuries, Manu stood strong and imposing. There was a primal, savage look to him that made her stomach quiver in exhilaration. She had seen him compassionate and patient. Now, she saw the leader.
The warrior.
She was sure Manu would win this fight, but how many more enemies awaited them?
Her gaze darted to Chanda. The elf still hadn’t moved, but she wasn’t going to assume Chanda was dead.
Inej was tired of not being able to protect herself.
She turned away from Manu’s battle and scanned the many bodies around her, looking for a weapon.
Inej kept low as she moved to the closest body.
She cringed at the idea of touching the dead, but now wasn’t the time to get squeamish.
Not when her life hung in the balance. But searching the corpses wasn’t easy.
Their clothes were frozen, not just to their bodies, but also fabric to fabric.
She had to break the ice around a pocket and then carefully slip her fingers inside to work the material free before she could even see if anything was inside. It took entirely too long.
She sat back on her haunches and looked at the next victim.
Inej was about to pass him over when her gaze caught the glint of something at his hip.
She glanced behind her when she heard Manu grunt, but the stairs hid him from view.
She returned her attention to the body and hurried over to it.
To her delight, she found the hilt of the dagger and wrapped her hand around it.
Getting it free of the sheath, however, was another problem.
Inej worked it back and forth until it finally slipped free.
The blade was small and decorated. She tested the edge and found it sharp, despite its ornamental look.
She tucked it up the sleeve on her right arm and moved to another body.
One weapon wouldn’t be enough. She had to find as many as she could.
The cold caused her fingers to stiffen, making everything doubly hard since she couldn’t get her hands to work right.
Each time she drew in a breath, it burned her lungs.
Anxiety drummed through her, pressing her to work faster and faster.
She looked at ten more bodies, but none of them had any weapons.
She had moved across the vast expanse of the room toward the second staircase and spotted Manu holding the Dark by his throat. She almost called out to him, but then realized Chanda was no longer where she had been.
That pushed Inej to move quicker. She nearly shouted with joy when she found a second dagger.
The hilt was made of bone, and the blade was as long as her forearm.
She slipped that one into her left boot.
Then she saw a sword attached to a victim’s waist and jumped up to go to it.
Her foot lost traction, and her arms windmilled until she had no choice but to drop to her knees.
She slid the last few feet to the body, wrapped her fingers around the hilt, and pulled. To her surprise, the sword slid free. She stood and whirled around, only to come face-to-face with Chanda.
“What do you think you’re going to do with that?” the elf asked as she wiped some blood away from the side of her face. “You can’t really believe you’ll get close enough to hurt me with that, do you?”
Inej had wanted a fiend to loathe. Chanda embodied everything that had driven Inej to leave her job and home to travel into this merciless terrain.
Chanda held out her hand. “Give me the sword.”
Inej tightened her grip on it and took a step back.
The elf’s dark eyes narrowed dangerously. “That was a mistake.”
Inej moved a heartbeat before the bronze wisps of magic reached her, twisting as it burned the air around her. Chanda’s infuriated shriek bounced off the stone, and fury carved itself into every line of her face.
The elf advanced, bronze magic curling around her clenched fists like smoke.
Inej shot a quick glance behind her as she backed up, so as not to trip over any of the corpses.
The sounds of battle, louder and nearer, reached them, but Chanda didn’t give it a second thought.
She wanted Inej’s death, and she wouldn’t stop until she got it.
Inej didn’t shout for help. This was her fight, and though she was at a severe disadvantage, she intended to make a stand.
“For every step you take away from me, I’m going to draw out your death that much longer,” Chanda threatened.
Inej grinned. “You don’t scare me.”
“You’ll change your tune shortly.”
Inej tried to calculate when Chanda would strike next, but she misjudged badly.
Magic surged from the elf’s hand as the wisps stretched out in both directions.
Inej didn’t have time to correct herself since she was already leaning to the side.
One of the wisps narrowly missed her cheek, while another burned through the fur of her coat and clothes before searing her flesh.
A shout of pain fell from her lips as she spun away, holding her right arm. Her fingers had almost loosened their hold on the sword, but she managed to keep her grip.
Inej saw a long, wide corridor before her. And at the end, a door. She jogged a few steps before whirling around to face Chanda and walking backward. “You might get away today, but Manu will find you. He and his friends will stop you.”
“Half the soldiers at Navara are mine. If I don’t return, they will kill the others and wait for my replacement. So, you see, we’ve thought of everything.”
Inej switched the hand holding the sword since she couldn’t lift her right arm now.
Chanda’s magic pulsed, right before she lifted her hand.
This time, Inej dropped to her knees and leaned backward.
She watched the bronze wisps shoot over her head to land behind her.
Then she twisted to the side and found her feet.
While she had dodged the strike, Chanda had been able to get close.
Inej watched helplessly as Chanda’s magic wrenched the blade from her hands.
She watched as it clattered to the floor and slid far from reach.
“Where is she?” Manu asked, his foot slipping in more of his blood.
Jai caught him before he fell. “Who?”
“Inej,” Rhi said as she watched the last of their enemies fall.
Manu pushed off Jai and stepped over the Sea Elf he had killed. Dread ran like wildfire through his veins when he saw that Chanda was gone. “Chanda has her. We have to find them. Now,” he snapped.
“They could be anywhere,” Arya said. “This place is massive.”
Rhi swung her silver eyes to him. “I’ll check the torture room,” she said and then vanished.
“I’ll head to the left,” Arya said.
Jai nodded. “I’ll go right.”
“I’ll go down,” the Wood Elf said.
While his three friends could move about quicker than he could, Manu wasn’t going to wait around for them. He turned to find the stairs, only to draw up short when he heard a yelp.
“Inej,” he whispered, forcing his feet into a run as he headed toward the sound.
With her fingers stinging from the magic lashing her, Inej looked from the sword to Chanda.
“That was a pathetic attempt,” the elf sneered.
Inej thought about the two daggers she still had hidden.
All she needed was for Chanda to get a little closer.
The trick would be to keep away from the elf’s magic for long enough to get one of the blades free without Chanda noticing.
However, Inej would still have to find a way to plunge the blade into Chanda’s chest. The elf’s heart would be the best bet, because Inej needed it to be somewhere incapacitating, a place that would stop her instantly.
Timing was everything. It was her one and only chance.
“I came to put an end to the kidnappings,” Inej said, breathing heavily as she continued to back toward the outside door.
Chanda chuckled and leisurely strolled forward. “That isn’t going too well for you, is it?”
Inej shrugged and glanced behind her to see the snow that had piled up from one of the doors being left open. “I’m still alive.”
“Not for long.”
“You keep saying that, and yet, here I am.”
Chanda’s smile tightened, ire causing her nostrils to flare. “Let’s change that.”
Inej spun and started running in a zigzag pattern as she headed toward the door. The air got steadily colder the closer she got.
“Run, little human, run. Though you won’t get far,” Chanda called.
Magic exploded as it struck the wall a foot from Inej. She stayed on course for another two steps before suddenly darting to the other side. Snow erupted where her foot had been, showering her with ice.
The door was only a few feet ahead. She was nearly there, and while she had counted on the snow, she hadn’t thought about the ice. Her foot went out from under her, sending her crashing onto her back. She gasped as her lungs seized, and Chanda’s laugh echoed throughout the corridor.
There was no time to hesitate. Inej rolled over and jumped to her feet, letting the small dagger in her right sleeve slip into her palm. Her shoulder still throbbed, but a little discomfort while shoving the blade into Chanda’s heart would be worth it.
The elf strode closer. Inej took three steps back, bringing Chanda deeper into the thick snow. The hilt fit into Inej’s palm well. She kept her arm still so the elf wouldn’t notice the weapon.
“Before I take what’s left of your pathetic life, I want you to know that there’s nowhere Manu can go that we won’t find him. He’ll be captured again, and he’ll suffer even more. Maybe I’ll enslave him.”
Inej smirked. “I wonder how you’ll explain him getting free to the Masters?”