Shard Knight (Echoes Across Time Book 1) (30 page)

“I don’t have time to argue. It’s your choice.” Giant black thorns sprouted from Danielle’s body and rammed into the detention shield.

Jeremy’s eyes bulged. “Dear Elan, here we go again.” He extended an open palm and flicked his wrist. “Hold on miss, it’s not worth my life.”

The shields flickered then disappeared.

Danielle released the black thorns and wrapped a sheath of protective vines around her body. The tight corded plants provided a snug layer of protection.

“Can every Ayralen control plants like you?” Jeremy said.

She smiled. “Not all Ayralens sir Knight.” She flicked her wrist, and her belt and staff flew off the table. She caught each in midair then strapped her belt pouch around her waist.

Keely shifted into the form of a golden saber-toothed forest cat and sprang forward pouncing on a terrified Knight Jeremy.

Jeremy clattered to the floor landing flat on his back. Keely planted her forelegs atop his chest pinning the knight to the ornate carpet.

Jeremy screamed as he stared with terror-stricken eyes into the beast’s toothy grin. He held up trembling hands. “Please. I did as you asked. Don’t kill me.”

Danielle removed a seed from her pouch and flipped it atop Jeremy’s chest. “Keely, the man surrendered. Stop scaring him.”

A low rumble emanated from the saber cat’s throat, and Keely stepped off the fallen knight.

Danielle extended her palm toward Jeremy and channeled nature magic toward the seed.

Green flows of energy snaked across the room and sank into the seed atop his chest. Dark scaly vines wrapped Jeremy as tight as a caterpillar in a cocoon.

Danielle stood over Jeremy’s constrained body and flicked her wrist.

A small gap opened above Jeremy’s nostrils allowing him to breathe while the rest of his body remained covered in a spider web of vines.

“He won’t escape those vines anytime soon.” She stepped away and tightened the grip on her heartwood staff.

Danielle’s staff warped with an aquamarine flash and opened to reveal a glassy shard swimming with flows of green and red energy.

She caught the shard as it dropped from the hidden space inside then heartwood staff.

Rika flashed a wary expression and shook her head as she stepped away.

“Rika, we don’t have time to argue.” She extended her arm toward Rika holding the shard in her palm. “Go ahead, and take the shard.”

Rika’s brow furrowed, and she glanced at the glittering shard. “It feels wrong, but I won’t die rotting in that cell.”

Danielle nodded. “I’m glad that’s settled.” She dropped the shard in Rika’s palm and stepped backward.

Rika closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them, her gaze locked on the shard nestled in her palms.

Danielle never grew tired of watching magic fill a human soul. “That’s it Rika. Open your heart to the magic, and let it embrace you.”

Rika’s eyes concentrated on the shard’s core as her eyes took on an out-of-body expression.

The shard’s light burst outward in a thousand directions. Yellow, green, and red streamers raced across the room in razor sharp lines, crisscrossing each other at wild angles.

Danielle froze not daring a breath as the magic took hold.

The light slowed and hung frozen in mid-air. At that moment, time stood still as the shard energy firmed and imprinted on Rika’s soul.

Danielle stood awe-struck at the shard light’s grandeur. What mind created such wonder?

The light reversed course and rushed inward slamming into Rika’s flesh embedding its core within her mind and body.

Rika gasped and snapped her head upward staring toward the heavens as if receiving the answer to a long wondered question.

Green and red light flowed into her open mouth, eyes, and nose. Shard magic seeped into her hair and through the pores of her skin.

Rika’s stance slackened, and she stumbled before finding her footing. She leaned over and placed her hands on her knees regaining her equilibrium.

Keely sat silent, watching, and waiting. A low purr rumbled from her throat, and her saber cat tail batted the floor in playful strokes.

“Rika. Remember what Keely told you. Look into her eyes and join her soul,” Danielle said.

Rika stood as she regained full control of her body. She met Danielle’s gaze. “Thank you Danielle. No matter how this night ends, you’ve given me a gift I can never repay.”

“You owe me nothing Rika. I’m honored to call you a friend,” Danielle crossed the room and embraced Rika. “There’s more we need to discuss. I couldn’t tell you everything in the cell.”

Rika held her embrace. “There’s more I need to tell you too.”

Danielle squeezed Rika’s hands and stepped back. “Time’s short. We need to go.”

Rika faced Keely and stared into her flecked saber cat eyes. A moment later, her body shifted, transforming into a saber-toothed forest cat. Her ebony coat gleamed with a dark rich sheen. She padded across the thick carpet with her cat form as liquid and feminine as her human body.

“Okay, let’s go.” Danielle left the dining room through the same door Pride used minutes earlier.

Keely and Rika bounded after her following close behind.

A smaller utilitarian dining room crammed with a half-dozen tables sat in scrambled chaos. Silverware and napkins laid atop plates of half-eaten breakfast. Empty tables and pushed back chairs signaled a hasty departure.

A faint whimper came from the far corner of the abandoned dining hall.

Curiosity pulled Danielle toward the noise, and she weaved through the mess of fallen chairs and dropped napkins.

A small frail man with a sunken face and a close-cropped gray beard sat huddled and trembling on the floor. Smashed against his chest he protected a thick book. As Danielle slid into view, he shoved himself deep into the room’s corner. “I’m warning you. A dozen shard knights are fighting right outside.” His voice quivered with fear. “If you leave now, I’ll forget I saw you pass.” He tracked the stalking saber-cats with fear riddled eyes.

The gold and black saber cats glided through table legs and stopped on Danielle’s right and left.

A high-pitched shriek escaped the man’s throat as his trembling body deteriorated into a full-out quake. “Keep those ghastly beasts off me. I’ll give you whatever you want.”

Danielle recognized the strange book from the ruins. The spindly man appeared willing to die protecting it. She didn’t know what it contained, but she wouldn’t allow Merric Pride access to its secrets. “Hand me the book.”

The man’s mouth fell open. “No!” He twisted his body sideways and looked ready to scratch a hole through the wall.

Danielle sighed. “Your boss stole my ring, so I’m taking the book. I’ll call that a fair trade.” She motioned to the cats. “Rika. Keely. Bring me the book please.”

Keely bounded toward the trembling man with her jaws stretched wide and canines gleaming. She reared up on her hind legs and roared.

Silverware shook and plates rattled, and the man screamed in blood curdling terror.

He threw the book behind him at Danielle’s feet and buried his head in the corner violently shaking. “Take the book! Just don’t kill me please.” His body shook with sobs.

This man stood idle while thousands died. Danielle felt no sympathy for him, but she wouldn’t slaughter him in cold blood either. “That’s enough Keely.” She spoke the words with little urgency in her voice.

Keely settled onto four legs and retreated.

Danielle picked up the discarded book. She tucked it under her arm and turned to go. “You’re lucky to leave this room alive. I wonder if your employer will offer the same compassion? Somehow, I don’t think he’ll be very happy with you.”

The man offered no response and remained cowered in the corner trembling like an injured fawn.

Danielle, Keely, and Rika dashed through the guardhouse’s abandoned hallways. The sounds of fighting grew louder and echoed from the rear entrance. Primal screams of combat mixed with cries of terror and pain.

A slight tingle of apprehension tugged at Danielle’s conscience. The intense sounds of combat wouldn’t rise from a simple rebellion of a few unarmed women, and she heard no female voices. Camp guards and shard knights fought for their lives, and they sounded desperate. Who would fight a dozen well-armed shard knights and expect victory? Had Pride’s knights stumbled on Arber and Brendyn attempting a rescue?

The women kept moving until they reached the guardhouse’s front entrance. The room sat silent and unoccupied.

A hollow feeling of victory washed over Danielle. “Ladies, wait. Does it strike you odd that every guard and shard knight in camp would abandon their post to quell a rebellion of unarmed starving women?”

Rika changed to her human form. “You’re reading my mind Danielle. What do you think we should do?”

Keely switched into her human form. “We should leave fast and thank our lucky stars for the guardian angel who created that distraction.”

“I don’t feel right doing that Keely,” Danielle said. “What if it’s Arber and Brendyn trying to save us?”

Keely sighed. “I never considered that. Count me in. What’s the plan?”

“If we stay inside, we run the risk of guards trapping us from behind. Let’s go out the front door and circle behind the guardhouse,” Danielle said.

Keely nodded. “If we run into trouble, we’ll take flight.”

“Okay. Let’s hurry,” Danielle said.

“Agreed,” Rika said.

Danielle opened the front door and left the guardhouse.

A blanket of fog shrouded the small muddy lane leading from the camp’s front gate to the guardhouse. On the horizon, the first streaks of dawn penetrated the darkness turning the fog a dim pale gray.

Keely and Rika changed into twin saber cats and prowled through the heavy fog. The wild saber-toothed forest cat controlled vast sections of the Heartwood and stood as an apex predator in the forest’s food chain. Besides its obvious ferocity, the cat held other unique attributes. Its eyesight rivaled the Heartwood’s winged predators that held dominion over the forest floor.

“I’ll follow, but don’t move too fast,” Danielle said. “I can’t see three-feet in this fog.”

Keely led the way slinking along the guardhouse’s stone wall. The deadly sound of fighting grew louder with each step.

As Danielle rounded the rear corner, the cats stopped.

Ahead lay a field of chaos. Tangled vines trapped five guards just a few feet away.

Danielle recognized the warden’s vines. The thorn’s barbed tips produced a toxin that warden’s used to disable or kill an enemy. Brendyn and maybe Arber fought for their lives against Pride’s forces.

Beyond the tangled vines came the sound of desperate fighting. The din of steel colliding with steel rang through the predawn mist, and glowing light from hazy blue spirit shields marked the locations of shard knights pitched in battle. Streaks of ethereal light from active shard blades danced in time with the clash of swordplay. Shielded knights buzzed like hornets around a hive engaged with an unknown enemy obscured by the mist and the building’s edge.

A slick layer of filmy sweat coated Danielle’s palm as she locked her hand around her staff. Arber and Brendyn didn’t use swords. Had they enlisted a rogue shard knight for help?

A half-dozen bubbled knights bounced like ricocheting marbles. A knight’s silhouette leaped ahead claiming the surrendered ground. An amber streamer of light blurred like a scythe in a wheat field shattering the nearest translucent spirit shield. The blue shield light flickered then disappeared. Scarlet blurred, and a shriek of agony pierced the morning mist.

Rika changed into her human form. Her lower lip trembled, and she reached for the scarlet knight with a shaking hand. Tears streaked her face, and a desperate scream crossed her lips. “Ronan!”

Danielle’s chest tightened, and a sharp tingle ran along her spine. Had she understood Rika? Could she mean her Ronan? She wanted to believe with her whole heart she’d heard correctly. She grabbed hold of Rika’s arm and stopped her from running headfirst into the fray. “Rika!”

Rika pulled from Danielle straining toward the scarlet knight as if her life depended on reaching him. Danielle needed to calm her. “Rika. Stop and think. You’ll die if you run in unarmed. Who’s the knight bearing the red sword? I need to know.”

Rika spun on Danielle. Tears ran in a river down her bleary face. “He’s the prince and Meranthia’s true king. He’s my best friend, and I love him. Don’t stop me Danielle. I’ll die before I see him harmed.”

Danielle stood frozen too stunned to react. Her brother fought in the fog of the morning light. She could almost touch him. “Rika, use your cat form.” Her words came fast and urgent. She slipped the book into a harness in her belt pouch. “He won’t die Rika.” She held her staff toward the heavens and embraced a raging river of magic flowing through her body. “Today we fight!”

Unleashed

Warmth radiated through Ronan’s body, and a surge of adrenaline raced through his blood. He’d heard Rika’s voice cry out his name. Power surged inside him, and he faced the onslaught of attackers with fresh determination.