82. Clash of Stone and Steel
Clash of Stone and Steel
Talyn
Talyn didn’t realize she was clenching her teeth until her jaw started to ache. She released the tension as she stared at the man who killed her sister where he stood in the training yard of the Citadel.
Well, she stared at the body that man was currently occupying, much like an invading force might occupy a conquered city.
If by some miracle this worked and they were able to pull Morland’s mind out of Aidan’s body, she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to look at the Lord of Derridan again without seeing a monster.
Aidan’s voice still echoed in her mind as she recalled Morland telling her in vivid detail everything he’d done to Julia.
It hadn’t been the voice her sister had heard, but it was the one Talyn would hear from now on whenever she thought of Julia’s killer.
It was all the more reason she needed to leave as soon as this was over.
Even if this did work, she was afraid she’d be too tempted to kill Aidan, innocent though he was.
Talyn glanced to her side where Samhail stood.
His jaw was clenched tightly as well, and she remembered that he had almost as much reason to hate Morland as she did.
He’d told her how Morland had taken over his mind during the war and almost made him kill Bressen, and she tried to imagine what it would’ve been like if Morland had taken over her mind and forced her to kill Julia. It made her shudder.
Across from them, Jasper and Maziren stood waiting.
Maziren’s body was coiled, ready to strike, but Jasper looked as if he might collapse at any moment.
His normally regal posture was gone as his body seemed to sag under its own weight, and anxiety was written over every inch of his face.
He was paler than she’d ever seen him, and she looked away quickly when he caught her eye.
She turned back to Morland. He looked strangely at peace standing in the middle of the training yard as he waited patiently for her to kill him. Bressen had put him back under his mind control as soon as he’d returned from wherever he and Cyra had been.
Movement caught Talyn’s eye, and she saw the Lord of Hiraeth and his wife heading toward them with Cyra’s two shadows, the twins, following close behind. Bressen and Cyra had left to see to some ‘last-minute preparations,’ but they were back.
Talyn frowned. Cyra’s eyes were red and puffy as if she’d been crying.
“Cyra? Are you alright?” Samhail asked, apparently noticing the same.
Cyra lifted her chin and tried to work a smile onto her face. “I’m fine,” she said. “Let’s get started.”
The lady stepped forward and placed a bone on the ground in front of Morland. It was an ulna, or maybe a radius. Talyn could never keep the two forearm bones straight.
She had the sudden urge to stomp on the bone, but she reminded herself that – even if they managed to resurrect Morland – this wasn’t the body that had abused her sister. That body was already dead and rotting.
Talyn closed her eyes and tried not to think too closely about it. It would give her a headache if she dwelled on the details. Regardless of what body he was wearing, it was Morland’s…mind? His soul?…that had hurt Julia.
She didn’t know what made Morland who he was, what compelled him, in whatever form he took, to hurt people. Not just hurt them, but take joy in hurting them. Delight in their pain and suffering. Whatever that thing was, Talyn was going to kill it, once and for all.
Perhaps it was hypocritical of her. She was an assassin after all, but aside from her first kill, when she’d admittedly relished the man’s pain, she’d always tried to make her victims’ deaths as quick and painless as possible. More than half the time, they’d never seen her coming.
Whether that made her a good person or not, whether she deserved a place in the three hells or not, was between her and the Nemesis.
Cyra stepped back from the bone she’d placed on the ground and held her hands out toward it. For several seconds, nothing happened. Then the bone began to vibrate.
Talyn gasped as the bone suddenly lurched upright to stand on end, and some kind of substance crept over it.
Flesh, she realized with a start. Flesh was regrowing over the bone.
She looked at Samhail, but he was transfixed by the scene before him. She may never have seen the real Morland, but Samhail had, and he was watching a man he’d thought he’d killed reform himself.
“Would you like to kill him instead?” Talyn asked him quietly.
She’d been so consumed with the idea of killing Morland herself that she’d never stopped to consider Samhail might want the honor.
For a moment it didn’t seem he’d even heard her, then he dragged his gaze from the regrowing body and looked at her.
“Do you want to kill him? Instead of me?” she repeated.
He looked back at the bone for a long moment, then shook his head.
“I don’t care who kills him as long as it’s for good this time,” he said. His eyes met hers again. “Make sure you finish him.”
She nodded as she gripped the hilts of the daggers in her thigh sheaths.
She’d been able to take her time with the man she’d thought had killed Julia.
This time she’d need to kill as quickly and thoroughly as possible.
Morland’s mind had already proven it could hop bodies the way bees hopped flowers, and she didn’t want to give it any chance to get out again once they had it where they wanted it.
One dagger to Morland’s heart, the other to his neck should do it. Or maybe straight into his brain through his ear.
An arm, a shoulder, and part of a torso now stood on the ground as, little by little, flesh and more bone knit together in front of their eyes.
Nemesis take her. This was easily the most insane thing she’d ever witnessed, and Talyn had seen her share of unbelievable things.
Minutes passed as the body slowly filled in. Another arm, the stomach and back, hips, and soon legs were all there as the naked body of Morland appeared, crouching on the ground before them.
The head was the last thing to form, and the sharp features of a surprisingly young-looking man emerged.
His hair was a light golden brown, and Talyn saw his eyes were ocean blue.
Morland wasn’t especially handsome – not like Bressen or Samhail – but he also wasn’t the hideous beast Talyn had assumed him to be.
But then that was the danger of some monsters, their ability to look just like everyone else.
Whatever force or power had been regrowing Morland seemed to finish, and the body stood up from where it had been crouched, although its eyes remained vacant.
Talyn’s hands closed tighter on the hilts of her daggers.
Cyra exhaled as she looked at the body that stood before them, and Talyn remembered the lady had never seen the real Morland either.
Bressen had, though, and every muscle in his body was strung taut, even those in his face. Something ticked wildly in his jaw, and she could almost hear his teeth grinding.
Cyra stepped forward and put one hand on Aidan’s forehead and the other on the forehead of Morland’s newly reformed body.
She wore plain gold bands on each of her middle fingers, which Talyn had learned held the power to transfer things between them.
Supposedly the rings had made it possible for Cyra to accidentally move Morland’s mind out of his last body and into Aidan’s in the first place.
Talyn drew her daggers and stepped forward as well. The moment they had confirmation Morland was out of Aidan, she’d kill him.
“I need to let his mind go now,” Bressen told Cyra, and she nodded.
They’d discussed this earlier. They didn’t want to leave Bressen’s mind connected to Morland’s and risk creating yet another opportunity for the man to jump bodies. Cyra would have to take over holding his mind as she simultaneously tried to transfer his consciousness.
Lord Aidan’s body jerked but then stood still again, and Talyn assumed Bressen had ceded control to Cyra.
“Do you have him?” Bressen asked, and Talyn heard the nervous strain in his voice.
Cyra closed her eyes and looked to be concentrating. Her brow pinched further, and she shut her eyes tighter. “Yes, but he’s fighting me,” she said, her own voice strained.
“Hold onto him,” Bressen urged. “You’re stronger than him.”
“I’ve got him, but I’m having trouble moving him,” Cyra said.
The lady’s body was nearly trembling with her efforts, and Talyn’s own body started to shake as well. She wished she could transfer some of her strength to Cyra or that she could help hold Morland in some way, but there was nothing she could do.
“I’m going to try something,” Cyra said through clenched teeth.
“Cyra…” Bressen’s tone was cautionary, but a moment later, the crackle of electricity ignited the air, and the bright blue-white webs of Cyra’s lightning skittered over both Aidan and Morland.
The bodies jolted and fell to the ground.
Cyra cried out and collapsed as well to crumple between the two men.
Bressen yelled and rushed forward, but Talyn got to Cyra first and pressed her fingers to the lady’s neck.
“She’s alive. Just unconscious,” Talyn assured him. “Check Morland. We need to know if-”
Talyn didn’t get to finish the thought as both her mind and body were seized at the same time.
Morland’s body – his real body – had lurched toward her to grab the dagger she’d resheathed when she’d checked on Cyra, and she felt the tip dig into the soft skin under her jaw.
At the same time, pain blinded her as Morland crashed through her mind shield to hold her so she couldn’t move.
He’d been a mind wraith originally, and it appeared he still was, now that he was back in his original form.
“No!” Samhail bellowed from somewhere close by, but Talyn couldn’t see him and couldn’t turn her head to look.
“Stay back and stay out of my head, or I’ll shove this dagger up into her brain,” Morland said, and Talyn almost wanted to laugh at the slightly nasal tone of his real voice.