Chapter 30 #2
A roaring gust of hot wind knocked Sinan off his feet and out of the cave.
His body was buffeted up by the force of the air Jacques had used his powers to generate.
The blue kaftan that Abarsam had crafted with his aquamancy floated around Sinan, like the colorful wings of a bird.
Then he fell, as the last leaf on a dying tree falls, and Jacques raised his arms again to send a swirling maelstrom of fire out of the cave and toward the ground where Sinan’s body had landed.
Meri flinched back, the heat of the blaze burning her face and drawing the breath out of her lungs. She could only hope the fall had killed Sinan before Jacques’s fire incinerated his flesh.
“Now.” Zhang Jue came up to Meri, his gaze cold and penetrating.
“I know you by reputation, Lioness of Abdju. Your hatred for the malandanti is well known, as is your skill in killing them. Rixende must die, and Odart’s son is too weak to do it.
Name your price, and we’ll see if we can come to an arrangement. ”
Captain Caron jerked his head toward one of the Shields, who nodded and left the cave. That left two Shields and two mages.
Meri took in the room and calculated her chances.
No, not her chances. This would be for Gallmau, who would gladly die rather than see his sister killed.
It would also be for Valentina, who might be a witch but had shown more bravery than most of the former soldiers Meri had worked with.
Lastly, it would be for Sinan, who had died protecting people like Rixende.
Maybe if the princess of Soissons survived, his city of monsters would be a little less frightening to the rest of the world and a little safer from it.
To save Rixende, she would need help from both Valentina and Jacques. The medica might follow her lead, but the incensor tended to act first and think much later.
It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was all she had.
“First, untie me, and second, give me my blades.” Meri rolled her shoulders, working out some kinks in her muscles. “Killing necromancers without properly taking off their heads is a good way to get cursed. And what do I want? To be the Queen of Soissons, of course.”
Maybe that last was too audacious to be believable, but Jacques had been worried it was Meri’s ambition all along, and he couldn’t be alone in that thought.
“Then you’ll help us keep Gallmau in line as well.” Odart gave her a look that implied grudging admiration for both her amorality and bloodthirstiness. “Neither Zhang Jue nor I want the Grimoard line to end and have to endure another loyalty oath.”
“I can handle the prince.” Meri stood still as the odd material binding her hands was untied.
Captain Caron held out a familiar pair of curved swords to Odart. Abarsam’s water-blessed blades—her weapons.
She ached to have them in her hands again and use them to stab both mages in the gut, so they would die slowly. “He thinks with his member, like most men. I’ll convince him this was all for the best.”
“Don’t do it.” Jacques’s voice held despair, rather than his usual raging fury. “Rixende doesn’t deserve to die this way.”
Meri had hoped Jacques might pick up on what she was doing, but the incensor’s opinion of her had been low from the start.
At least it added realism to her performance.
As for Valentina, she could only pray the medica was willing to break the rules of her guild again.
She accepted her swords from Odart and walked over to the princess.
The girl’s eyes were closed, her fine black hair fanned around the pointed fox ears on her head. She looked more like a lovely doll than a young woman and gave no sign she was conscious.
Meri touched her fingertip to Rixende’s throat and felt the racing heartbeat of someone playing the same kind of game Meri was.
“I always say a brief prayer to the Prophets to guide my hands in righteousness and protect me from the curses of witches.” Meri made that rather grand announcement as loud as she could, then dropped her voice to the barest whisper as her lips brushed against the downy softness of Rixende’s animal ears.
“I’ll drop into my speed and take out the guards holding Jacques.
Run for the river and then stick with him and Valentina.
No matter what they offer Gallmau, he’ll never betray you. He loves you.”
There was the faintest twitch of the girl’s lush red lips.
Meri raised both blades in the air and gave Valentina a look that said: Now .
An explosion rocked the room, and light flared inside the closed space. Meri had forgotten all about Sinan’s flash-bang device, but Valentina hadn’t.
Meri dug as deep as she could for her speed, throwing prayers up to the Prophets to give her one last burst, and they were answered.
The world slowed, and she raced up to the guards near Jacques, smashing one in the nose with the hilt of one blade and slicing through the arm of another. Sloppy work.
Her speed faded too quickly, and a growing ache in her head told her she would pay a huge price for trying to use her Gift too soon.
Maybe the final price, but that was what she had planned. She fell to the floor, time returning slowly enough that she could see Valentina reach out with her hands to use her powers against Captain Caron and Jacques pulling a sword off the waist of one of the guards she had taken down.
Good. If the incensor could use the weapon and his fire to hold off Odart and Zhang Jue long enough, Valentina could take Rixende with her to safety, and Jacques could catch up.
Then she saw an angry swirl of silks and red fur stalk up to Zhang Jue, a jeweled dagger better suited for opening wax seals on letters than doing any real damage in her small hand.
Meri’s head exploded in pain, and a final thought crossed her mind.
Damn it to Hell, Rixende. I told you to run.