03 - The Eternal Rose (55 page)

She looked with all her vision and couldn't see it. She wanted to scream with frustration.

“Where is it?” Padrey approached, looking back at Fox. “Here?” He touched the side of her neck.

Kallista shivered, and for an instant, she thought she saw a flicker of—of
something
. “Wait."

She pressed Padrey's hand flat against her neck, but the flicker didn't return. She slid her hand onto Torchay's nape as he finished his task, and she reached toward her mates with her other, still clasped in Obed's hand. “Come. All of you. The links are there. They're stronger when we touch."

They crowded round her. Leyja slid her hand onto the other side of Kallista's neck. Aisse covered her hand where it rested on Torchay. Viyelle set her hand beside Aisse's, sliding it up Kallista's sleeve to clasp her wrist. Joh joined Obed, holding her hand between theirs, and with a cheeky grin and a wink, Fox dropped to one knee and wrapped his hand around her unbandaged thigh, since Torchay hadn't put back her trousers yet.

Kallista opened the links wide, praying for the magic's response, but it didn't seem to hear her. She had only the magic given her so many years before, at her childhood's end. But she'd been able to see magic even then. Shepeeredatherselfwithherother"eyes"andsawthefaintesthintofshadow just where Fox said it was—over her heart, rising toward her throat.

The door slammed into them as someone forced it open, sending them all tumbling.

Obed was the only one who didn't fall. He gained his balance in a graceful whirl and waded into the champions crowding through the door. Fox, who hadn't had far to fall, sprang up and helped him drive them back.

Kallista kicked off the trousers tangled round her ankles. They hurt her burn anyway. She reached for Padrey, Aisse—anyone she could touch. She had to rid herself of that shadow.

Torchay moved to help Obed and Fox, and Kallista called him back. “No, help me here. The door is a choke point. They can hold it for now."

He knelt again and laid a hand on her ankle, but though his magic was the strongest of her mates, his presence didn't seem to make a difference now. Or not enough of one. She still couldn't see the shadow. So she would have to work blind.

“Forgive me my foolishness,” she whispered. “Help me now. I can't do this alone."

“O’ course we forgive you.” Padrey's voice startled her, sent chills down her spine as his words echoed with greater power, deeper meaning. “What can we do?"

Tentatively, Kallista reached for magic, but again it eluded her. She growled in disgust. Without her magic, she couldn't rid herself of the shadow, but she couldn't touch her magic.

“Kallista, let me take Fox's place.” Torchay pleaded with her. “He can see it. Perhaps he can see what to do."

“Yes, all right.” She had no better ideas.

Torchay joined the defenders at the door and after a moment, Fox edged away. He stepped backward until he reached Kallista. With a glance back at her to be sure of his location, he knelt and laid a hand over her ankle.

“Can no one carry out a simple task?” A voice—female and oddly familiar—carried through the open doorway from beyond. “All you had to do was kill her. She's half dead already."

Kallista gagged as something—the shadow magic—tightened around her throat.
She couldn't breathe
.

“No!” Padrey's cry distracted her men at the door. Not long, but enough for them to be driven back. Fox let go of her and returned to the fight. Kallista thrashed, desperate for air.

“Padrey, can you see it?” Viyelle demanded.

“Maybe. I think.” He sounded on the edge of panic.

Kallista was too near panic herself. She needed air. She grabbed his wrist, tried to beg with watering eyes.

Looking almost as frantic as she felt, Padrey scooped his fingers along her neck. She expected him to close his hand on nothing, to play at pulling away air, but when he jerked his hand back, the noose around her neck loosened and she gasped a shallow breath.

“Again!” Viyelle cried.

“I see it,” Joh said. “I see it too.” His hand brushed her neck as he pulled shadow from her.

Leyja joined their defenders, and Viyelle. The invaders had pushed halfway into the room, far enough to open a space behind them. A woman entered inside their protection. Shakiri Shathina.

The demon entered with her.

Kallista snarled, her strength returning as her iliasti peeled away the shadow sucking at her. “I should have known."

The fighting slowed, stopped as the two women faced each other behind their champions’ protection.

“You should have.” The demon gloated, speaking with Shathina's voice. “I knew this moment would come. You are weak. Controlled by emotion.
I
sent the assassin's darts to Arikon. I knew your faults would lay you open to me. Attaching the leech was a simple matter. I did not expect you to come
here
, however. Bekaara has spoiled my plans for the last time. The draining has taken longer than I hoped, but it was only a matter of time."

So long ago? No wonder she had behaved the way she had, with the demon's magic draining her all this time. And yet, it was her own fault. She complained about the duties and burdens of rule, but she had loved being Reinine, enjoyed the power it gave. She'd made herself vulnerable to the thing. But the One had still been able to open her eyes to the truth.

Padrey and Joh tore at the demon leech, barely staying ahead of it with the demon near enough to feed the thing power. Now she was aware of it, Kallista could see how the shadow magic had twisted her thinking, had reinforced her errant thoughts and urged her farther along the wrong path, bit by insidious bit. But it had only fed on flaws already there.

With a struggle, and Aisse's help, Kallista rose to her knees. Silently, she cried out to the One.
Forgive me. If I've gone too far wrong, I accept whatever punishment I deserve. But my iliasti are innocent of what I have done. They tried to turn me aside from my wrong, and I would not listen to them, as I would not listen to you. Save them. Save our children.

“What are you doing?” Zughralithiss-Shathina demanded. “Stop!"

The leech magic tightened around Kallista's throat again, despite all Padrey and Joh could do. She ignored it.
Take me,
she begged.
But save them. Please, save my family.

Everyone in the room seemed frozen, most of them focused on the silent, nearly invisible, deadly struggle around Kallista. Save for the three clustered around her. Joh clawed at the shadow over her heart while Padrey seemed to wrestle snakes near her neck. Even Aisse had plunged in, though Kallista knew she couldn't see it. Aisse brushed her hand along Kallista's throat. And the magic stirred.

Kallista grabbed it. Loyalty and utter devotion seeped past a tiny crack in the demonspell. With a sob, Kallista wrapped the thread of magic round her fingers and pulled it through.

Torchay flinched at her sob and Kallista sent reassurance through all her links. She caught Joh's hand, found a wisp of clarity and a second thread of magic. She bound it with that from Aisse and
pulled
.

Joh's gasp made Padrey look up. With a flick of his eyes from their clasped hands to Aisse's ecstatic face, he seemed to take in what was happening and slid his hand beneath the shadow onto Kallista's mark. Joy rushed into her and Kallista laughed out loud. She pushed the shadow back and took her first deep breath in too long.

“Kill her!” the demon cried. “Kill them all!"

The warriors’ stalemate ended on that shout. The Adarans attacked before the others could react. The Daryathi fell back a step or two, but more of them fed through the door to take the place of the fallen and push Kallista's people back.

She reached through the links to her iliasti defending them—too pitifully few—but could not grasp their magic. Half-frantic with fear, Kallista squeezed Joh's hand, took a tight grip on his magic and let go.

Yes.
The magic stayed, even when they didn't touch. She needed the touch to recover the magic, but once captured, she did not need to maintain the hold. “Joh, take Viyelle's place. Send her to me."

He nodded and slipped away, exchanging smoothly with their prinsipella ilias. Kallista took Viyelle's hand and used it to pull herself to her feet as she caught hold of Vee's magic and creativity. Viyelle laughed as her magic streamed into Kallista and was bound into the web.

Torchay glanced back and almost paid for his inattention. Joh warded off the blow and Viyelle laughed again, coming to take Torchay's place with the defenders.

A clatter had him springing past Kallista toward the other entrance, but he held his blow as Tayo Dai bodyguards crowded into the chamber.

Good thing the big room hadn't been furnished, as many warriors as it held now.

"Torchay."
Kallista called him to her, needing the calm strength his magic gave.

The Tayo Dai swept past her to join the fight—only six of them, but gratefully welcomed—while Torchay clasped her outstretched hand. His powerful magic poured into her. The instant Kallista bound it with the rest, the leech magic squalled as it vaporized in a wisp of smoke—as if Torchay's magic had grown so attuned to hers, she didn't have to consciously shape the whole for it to act.

"No-o-o-ooo!"
The demon shrieked with both Shathina's voice and its own in the dreamplane.

Torchay brought Kallista's hand to his lips for a kiss, his eyes holding hers for an instant before he released her and plunged back into the battle. “Fox, Obed, Leyja—all of you go."

The demon lashed out at the three not yet bound back in. Kallista leaped forward to defend them, and went nowhere, restrained by Aisse and Padrey. She threw magic out to stop it, to shield her three, but without Fox's order—

The magic skidded, almost missed them in its haste, but Padrey's magic was not so wildly impulsive as Stone's. It
listened
better. Or something. The shields were weak, the approach skewed, but it served. Long enough for the three warriors to reach her and clasp her hands.

Magic roared into her—Fox's order, Obed's truth, Leyja's unconditional love. Tears fell through Kallista's laughter and she hugged them to her, hugged their magic tight, then bound it into the web as the demon fought to keep them apart.

I love you,
she sent to her godmarked.
Love you all so much. Take care of each other.

Torchay swung around, leaving the fight to others, his eyes wide. “Kallista, what—"

She smiled at him as she gathered the magic in her hands. She shaped it for sleep. Those not directly involved in the fight with the demon would only get in the way. She didn't have to conserve anything. It wasn't her own strength that fought here. The One would provide whatever was needed. She whispered her instructions to the magic and set it loose.

Everyone in the embassy slowly crumpled to the floor. Daryathi champions, Adaran bodyguards, clerks, servants, even the children slept under her protective shielding. Everyone save Shakiri Shathina, Kallista, and her godmarked iliasti.

“Now,” Kallista said. “It is as it should be. You and yours, me and mine."

“Not fair!” the demon whined. “You have more than I do."

“True. The power of the One is so vast, it must be spread out through more of us.” She sighed. “It's too bad the One chose to use such a weak vessel as myself. But here we are."

She gathered magic and the demon attacked, tearing at her, at her links. They shuddered, but held. They would hold no matter what. Kallista knew that now. Only death could part her from those she loved, and even that was not final. She would see them again. And Stone was waiting.

Kallista named the magic.
Zughralithiss. Khoriseth.
The smaller demon still existed somewhere inside its parent. She threw the magic out and immediately called more. Khoriseth had been able to—yes, it
quenched
the magic. Put out the fire before it burned much. No matter. She had more demon-killer to send.

Again and again, Kallista called, shaped, sent. Again and again, the demon fought it off, clawing at her, tearing off bits of her self as her magic ate away its substance. Even with the magic pouring into her, shoring her up, bracing her against the awful attacks, she knew it would be a close-run thing.

Yes, she had the infinite, endless power of the One behind her, but she herself was all too mortal. She wasn't meant for so much power. But she would stand. She would endure. She would use what the One had given her to destroy this demon even if it destroyed her in the doing. The One had accepted what she had offered, and what she had offered up was her whole self. All of her heart, her body, her soul. All of her love.

Kallista opened herself and let the magic pour in, arms spread, head back, her beloved iliasti behind her, beside her, holding her up.

The magic filled her until her body felt separated into the tiny bits that formed her, no longer quite real, no longer connected into a whole, because the magic needed the space between all her bits.

She
saw
. Saw the writhing, twisted evil of the demon woven through the twisted, hate-filled heart of Shathina. She saw her willful, loyal Keldrey lying asleep in the corridor at the head of a troop where he had pushed out from the nursery, driving back their attackers. She saw her children, shining with promise and innocence, glowing with the love showered on them. She saw her godmarked, saw their hearts, their true selves, known already through the magic that bound them together.

There, shining in the distance, impossibly far away yet as close as a whisper, she saw the light of the One. Love, joy and righteous anger shivered through her, shuddered in the magic.

"Zughralithiss,"
she whispered.
"Khoriseth."

The magic exploded from her, leaving all her bits and pieces stranded in their isolation. Kallista
saw
the magic fall on the demon, saw it consume all the darkness remaining before it flashed outward, into Mestada and beyond, in the instant she had left before the isolated bits of herself crumbled into oblivion.