King Of Souls (Book 2) (44 page)

Tara doubled over and pulled tight her hood. She stumbled ahead plowing through the deepening snow toward her minions. She stretched out her mind and found the nearest pair of dark soldiers. She ordered them to find her and carry her through the deepening snowdrifts.

“Mistress, take my hand!”

Tara jumped, startled by the voice then craned her neck upward squinting through the driving snow.

Gregor Demos leaned over her extending his hand where he sat atop the draft horse. “I’m sorry. I thought you were behind me. I never would’ve left you.”

Tara took his hand, and General Demos pulled her six-feet through the air before she landed on the horse’s back. She slipped forward onto the saddle behind General Demos and buried her head into the folds of his thick wool cloak.

General Demos whistled, and the draft horse whirled then plodded ahead through the driving snow.

Tara’s mind extended toward her minions, and she issued commands to halt and await her arrival.

The draft horse forged ahead snorting and wheezing as the snow grew deeper blotting out the narrowing road. Ten minutes later, they’d reached the rear flank of Tara’s minions. They stood like frozen scarecrows in waist-deep snowdrifts.

As General Demos’s draft horse pushed past the minions, Tara issued commands for the ranks to advance.

Through the gusting wind and driving sideways snowfall a dark mass appeared a hundred yards ahead. It spread across the path where the soul knight’s blue shield light had skipped and danced a half hour earlier.

The draft horse trudged forward pushing through a chest-deep snowdrift.

Tara squinted upward through the driving snow searching the high canyon walls for signs of the soul knight or his army.

The upper ridge revealed nothing. He and his pet guardian had vanished with the storm’s full fury.

The draft horse halted, snorting clouds of steam through its flared nostrils.

The dark mass came into view, and Tara’s stomach sank.

“Damn the soul knight!” General Demos leaped from his saddle and ran forward raising his blade high overhead. He stopped and roared in frustration pitching his blade forward into a fifty-foot wall of dark ice covered rock.

The rubble sat piled halfway up the canyon walls completely blocking the mountain pass.

General Demos chopped at layers of snow, ice, and rock, but his effort made no impact on the tons of piled rock. He sank to his knees pulling in deep lungfuls of air and stared upward.

Tara’s chest tightened as the disaster’s full impact sank in. How would the Baerinese armies move into Meranthia now? Could she and General Demos survive until the fleet arrived?

Large pockets of freshly exposed rock dotted the canyon walls further up the pass. The soul knight had blown holes into the rock face. Thousands of tons of rock had slid downward forming an impenetrable barricade.

Tara pulled her hood away and squinted upward through the wind and snow. In the face of the raging blizzard, her voice sounded small and weak. “We’re lost Gregor.”

***

Through thin clouds, where the once mighty forest gave way to desert sands, Thoth descended toward the Obsith war camp.

Ronan reached for Rika’s hand she’d wrapped tight around his chest and held still a moment longer. Rika’s warm body pressed against his. He’d relaxed with her beside him during the long journey southward. He would welcome another thirty minutes with her warm body pressed against his, but Danielle needed him, and he meant to find her.

Rika had slept for hours, and her head rested against Ronan’s shoulder. Her chest rose and fell in a gentle rhythm, and Ronan wished she might sleep longer.

Ronan took her hand and gently squeezed hoping to wake her, but she remained sound asleep. He gazed over his shoulder and found her facing him with eyes closed.

Rika’s lips, mashed against his shoulder, had curled forming a perfect circle. He leaned toward her and brushed her lips with his. “Rika, it’s time to wake up.”

Rika’s head snapped up, and she looked around seeming dazed until she found Ronan’s face. Her lips curved into a sleepy half smile. She stretched upward and returned Ronan’s kiss letting her lips linger for a few seconds. “Is it morning yet, or am I dreaming?”

“Neither I’m afraid,” Ronan said. “We’ve arrived at Trace’s war camp.” Seated atop Thoth’s massive crystalline saddle, he pointed three-hundred feet below.

Miniature people and strange crystal buildings gathered like toddler toys in a playground sandbox.

The thumping sound Ronan heard near the first tree had grown stronger and quicker as they’d drawn near the war camp. He knew he’d find Danielle imprisoned somewhere among the odd assortment of crystal huts.

Thoth’s wings held still, and he pitched left gliding downward in a slow lazy spiral. A puff of white smoke flared from his nostrils as his neck craned leftward.

Lying in a loose semi-circle around the camp’s perimeter, scores of dragons slept under a cloudless field of stars.

Ronan felt Thoth’s gentle presence stir in his head, and he opened his thoughts for conversation.

“Something feels wrong,” Thoth said.

“What is it?” Ronan said.

“The bright light near the camp’s center seems wrong. I haven’t seen it before.”

“We can’t turn back,” Ronan said. “Trace is holding my sister prisoner down there.”

“When we land, take extreme caution. I can’t protect you once we’re among the Obsith.”

“I understand. Thank you for taking us this far,” Ronan said.

For a few seconds, Thoth waited without replying although his mind hadn’t retreated from Ronan’s.

Ronan sensed some tension in the dragon’s presence. “What’s bothering you?”

“I’ve grown fond of you human, and it’s an odd sensation. One I’d never believed possible.”

“Why should that bother you?” Ronan said.

Thoth hesitated before answering. “Once I’m among the sorcerers, I’ll no longer have control over my actions. If I do anything to harm you or Lady Rika, I —”

“Thoth, I understand,” Ronan said. “You’re a prisoner just like my sister. If I can prevent it, I won’t allow them to harm you.”

“If I’m forced to harm you, don’t hesitate to bring me a quick death,” Thoth said. “I won’t resist.”

The thought of butchering Thoth left Ronan feeling unsettled. He hesitated before he spoke. “It won’t come to that, but if it does, I promise.”

Thoth’s presence retreated from Ronan’s mind as the dragon drifted nearer the camp.

Past the sleeping dragons, a half-dozen pinpoints of bright lights moved in a wide arc around the camp’s outskirts. As Thoth descended, he flew over a traveling light revealing a pair of Obsith casters walking the desert sands. The larger man, a shaman, walked several feet ahead of a shorter robed sorcerer. Three-feet over the shaman’s head, a bright ball of flame floated in midair. The flame spilled shadowy light in a wide circle over the desert floor.

Thoth glided past the patrolling guards arousing little more than a casual glance from the sorcerer. Ahead, a tight ring of glowing fires near the camp’s outer edge grew larger as Thoth came within fifty feet of landing. “Ahead is the landing site,” Thoth said. “As I approach, it’s critical that you and Lady Rika jump clear of my saddle before the handlers reach me.”

“We’ll be ready. Thank you Thoth.” Ronan channeled spirit creating clear shields around him and Rika. He sent enhancement energy through his body increasing his strength, speed, and physical resistance. He glanced over his shoulder toward Rika. “Are you ready?”

She gave a short nod as Thoth came within thirty feet of the landing area.

Ronan pulled free his sheba blade from a container attached to Thoth’s saddle and stowed it beneath his long burlap robe.

As Thoth came ten feet from landing, Ronan took Rika’s hand, and they leaped from the dragon’s broad saddle. Ronan curled his body and rolled to an easy stop beside Rika two dozen yards from the war camp’s landing site hidden by shadow.

Thoth touched down and lumbered to a stop inside the ring of fire while three sorcerers scrambled forward.

The first sorcerer tossed a lasso, studded with sharp metallic protrusions, around Thoth’s neck. He yanked and gestured toward the two other sorcerers.

Thoth’s neck jerked downward as the sorcerer secured the rope around a hooked crystal buried in the sand. Electricity buzzed from the metallic spikes spilling through crevices in Thoth’s heavy plates.

The second sorcerer circled Thoth’s hind legs wrapping heavy wire around his ankles. The sorcerer tightened the wire, buzzing with blue electricity, and dug it into Thoth’s exposed flesh.

Patchy spikes of blond hair protruded from the third sorcerer’s tattooed scalp. His gaze settled on Thoth’s empty saddle, and anger flared on his face. His lips tightened merging an intricate weave of black facial tattoos and silver piercings in his lips and nose. He pulled free a long crystal whip attached to his belt. “Where’s Dara you miserable beast?” The sorcerer cracked his whip landing it against the exposed flesh near Thoth’s soft belly.

A stifled roar sounded from Thoth’s throat before he settled onto the sand and lowered his jaw to the ground.

Ronan stomach churned. He bit down clenching his jaw and barely contained an urge to throttle the sorcerers.

Rika’s hand tightened on his wrist, and she leaned forward and whispered. “No Ronan. We can’t risk it.”

“Dara’s life was worth ten of yours. How could you let her die while you lived?” The tattooed sorcerer said while whipping Thoth.

The other two sorcerers joined in pulling free crystalline whips bearing sharp metallic spikes. The first sorcerer lashed Thoth across his face and neck opening thin lines of blood near the dragon’s right eye. The second sorcerer whipped his flank opening dark flesh beneath the dragon’s long plated tail.

Ronan turn a hard glare on Rika. “What if I’d taken that attitude with you in the alley six years ago?”

Rika’s hand dropped from Ronan’s wrist, and her jaw dropped.

“How many more bystanders can the world afford Rika?” Ronan glared at the sorcerers as the continued to beat Thoth. He turned his gaze back on Rika. “Someone has to stand up sometime.” His resolve deepened while he held her gaze awaiting a response.

“What if we’re captured?” The tone of Rika’s words came laced with doubt.

A strained roar came from Thoth’s clenched teeth. He collapsed under the cracking whips and the sorcerer’s maniacal howls.

“They’re killing him Rika.” Ronan’s gaze flickered to the camp’s interior, but the buildings and campfires looked abandoned. “Look around. We’re alone. We can do this.” He wouldn’t force her, but he meant to take action. “What if that were me they were beating?”

Rika’s gaze fell on the sorcerers beating Thoth, and anger flared in her eyes. She turned her gaze past Ronan’s shoulder and peered through the darkness toward the dead black forest. When her eyes again found Ronan’s, a hardened resolve settled over her face. “What’s the plan?”

“Remember last year when you wore the black dress to Lord Randal’s ball?”

She smiled and nodded before shifting into a saber cat.

“On my signal.” Ronan raised his palm directing it toward the sorcerer beating Thoth’s hind end. Spirit energy flared around Ronan’s outstretched fingers.

A blue shield surrounded the sorcerer, and he jumped backward spinning in circles looking for an attacker.

Ronan twisted his wrist inverting the shield’s energy flows. He directed its damaging magic inward. “Now,” he said loud enough for Rika to hear.

Rika bounded ahead speeding past the landing site’s torchlight. Ronan squeezed his hand making a fist as he’d seen Kelwin Finn do in Winter Haven last summer.

The shield’s blue energy warped and contracted followed by a muffled scream. Glowing spirit magic slammed into the sorcerer’s body and his screams died. Layers of muscle and tissue melted from his body leaving behind an unrecognizable pulp of blood and bone.

Lightning crackled from the two remaining sorcerers as they directed attacks toward Rika.

Twin lightning bolts struck Rika’s shield. A web of crackling blue light flared across her shield’s exterior, but she never paused running across the sand at a full sprint.

Rika leaped toward the sorcerer nearest Thoth’s head, and the sorcerer’s eyes widened. He shrieked with an unnerving childlike shrill and raised his arms in a defensive posture.

Rika pounced on the sorcerer knocking him to the ground and opened her mouth exposing a set of glistening white incisors. She sank her teeth into the sorcerer’s throat, and his screech turned into a hissing gurgle.

Ronan unsheathed his blade and sent energy pulsing through its core. He directed energy into Rika’s shield while sprinting toward the remaining sorcerer.

Rika’s jaws locked around the sorcerer’s neck and she picked him off the ground before shaking him from side to side.

The sorcerer’s screams faded, and his eyes took on a distant glassy sheen before Rika dropped his lifeless body on the ground.

The last sorcerer standing directed a second lighting attack at Rika. He never noticed the streak of red and blue death closing in from the desert’s shadows.