In the Claws of the Tiger (35 page)

A gallery circled the upper level of the room, and Janik guessed the archers were perched up there, taking cover behind the columns that lined its edge. Yes, he saw them, peering around the columns as they pulled back their bowstrings for another volley.

Ignoring the archers and the arrows that clattered around her, Dania charged forward to engage the giant. Inspired by her, Janik found it hard to be afraid, despite the size of the
brute, and he advanced behind her. The giant swung its stone club in a wide arc as they approached. Dania jumped back and the club swept the air in front of her chest, while Janik hit the floor and rolled forward under the giant’s reach.

Janik came out of his roll facing the giant’s knee. The monster tried to hit him with its club, but Janik easily dodged the awkward swing. The giant kicked at him, missing him with its foot but managing to brush his head with its rock-hard kneecap. Janik spun away from the blow, ducking between the giant’s legs and slashing at its hamstring with the tip of his blade. He cut, but not very deep, and the creature wheeled to face him again, kicking clumsily at him as it turned.

That gave Dania the opportunity to close in past its wildly swinging club, and Sever charged up beside her. Their blades swung as one, biting deep into the giant’s legs. A blast of lightning from Mathas’s fingers engulfed the giant’s upper body, and Janik took advantage of its distraction to come in close and drive his sword up into its belly.

The giant howled as a gout of blood splashed down on Janik. The stone club clattered on the floor, and for an instant Janik thought he had dealt a mortal wound.

Then the giant’s arms closed around him, pulling him off the floor and squeezing him against the bloody wound in its gut. Janik’s arms were pinned to his sides, his sword hanging uselessly from his hand, and he struggled to breathe with the giant’s arms clenched around his ribs. He dropped his sword and started kicking, hoping to connect with a tender spot and startle the giant into letting him go. He heard Dania shouting, trying to capture the giant’s attention, and felt tremors rumbling the thing’s body as she and Sever continued hacking at it. The giant wheeled around to kick at them, but its grip did not weaken.

Janik’s lungs started to burn and he changed his tactics. Instead of kicking blindly, he tried to bring his legs up between his body and the giant’s, hoping to work himself free of its grasp. It almost worked. Feeling its grip slipping, the giant wrapped one meaty hand around Janik’s neck and shoulders. Janik’s head swam as the beast swung him like a club at Dania. His legs crashed into her chest, and she sprawled backward onto the floor.

Over the top of the giant’s fist, Janik saw Sever slash with lightning speed, taking advantage of the creature’s reach to cut its wrist. The adamantine sword bit deep and the behemoth released Janik with a howl of pain, sending him flying through the air. He slammed to the floor just behind Dania, dizzy and gasping for breath.

He lay helpless, the room spinning around him. Sever had the giant’s attention, his blade whirling, lines of blood trailing every time it connected with the giant’s flesh. Dania forced herself to her feet, and Mathas sent another arc of lightning to engulf the giant. Auftane stood right behind the warforged, touching various parts of Sever’s strange plated body and causing them to glow with a series of spells. His spells had a visible effect—Sever did not weaken or tire, and kept the giant almost entirely on the defensive. It had not managed to retrieve its stone club from the ground, a minor victory in itself.

Wait, Janik thought. Where’s Krael?

Even as the thought passed through his mind, a movement on the upper gallery caught his eye. Krael pushed the limp body of one of the zakya archers over the railing, then hopped up to perch on the railing himself. Krael was by no means a small man, and his plate armor dramatically increased his bulk. Janik was impressed by the grace of his
movement and the apparent ease with which he balanced on the narrow railing.

Janik rolled slowly into a crouch, and saw Dania charge up beside Sever, her sword crackling with silver fire. Krael was watching the giant carefully, his huge flail in hand. As Janik stood, Krael jumped, flying through the air and landing on the giant’s hump shoulder. He swung his flail as he leaped, smashing hard into the side of the giant’s head.

Janik shook his head and quickly regretted it, putting a hand on the wall to steady himself as the room started spinning again. Dania’s sword struck true, erupting in flame, and the giant choked out a final roar as it fell to its knees.

A month ago, if Janik had tried to imagine fighting alongside Krael and his warforged assassin, he would have thought himself touched by Xoriat’s madness. But here they were, not only fighting a common foe, but working well together.

Krael balanced on the giant’s grotesque hump. He brought his flail around for another mighty blow that broke the creature’s neck with an audible snap.

Janik leaned against the wall and let himself sink down to the floor. This day had brought too many surprises already.

Janik felt much better after Auftane worked his magic with his wands. Or at least his body did—his mind was still reeling at the bizarre company he found himself in, and he sat against the wall as Auftane checked each of the others. With the battle over, Krael and Sever shifted into a more distant attitude, whispering together apart from the others. But Janik couldn’t shake the powerful impression he’d had of the six of them working as a team.

Dania reverted to her previous search for the mysterious
voice. Janik frowned as she cocked her head, looking around at the upper galleries as if trying to find the source of the whispers that only she could hear. She bounced impatiently on the balls of her feet, heedless of the bruises she’d suffered in the fight and eager to chase the mysterious voices. Janik rubbed his forehead, thinking of her words just before they found the giant. Could she really be hearing the voices of Dhavibashta and whatever spirit held the rajah beneath the earth? Could she possibly distinguish one voice from the other?

And what about Krael? Janik thought he saw that distant look in Krael’s eyes again, though the vampire was clearly trying to hide it more than Dania was. That worried Janik, suggesting that Krael was listening to a voice he didn’t want Janik to know about. But Krael had no reason to collude with the rajah, did he? Not with the grudge he clearly bore against the rajah’s lieutenant, the Fleshrender inhabiting Maija’s body.

Sea of Fire, he thought. I never know what’s going on.

Auftane had tended to everyone, using his wands on the living and his own peculiar magic on Sever. Janik got to his feet. Only one other exit remained on this level—a huge door, large enough for the giant to duck through, opposite the enormous door they’d come through. But two smaller doors were visible up in the gallery.

“Which way?” Janik said.

“Up,” Dania said, pointing toward the gallery.

At the same instant, Krael pointed to the large door and said, “Down.”

Janik gaped at the two of them. Dania’s eyes were wide, while Krael wore his insipid grin again. This was exactly what he had feared.

“What’s going on?” he said.

Krael shrugged. “We’ll find Maija in the heart of the temple,” he said. He pointed to the great door again. “That door will take us there.”

“Dania?” Janik said. “Did you have some other destination in mind?” Damn, he thought, did I just side with Krael against Dania? Could things turn any more upside down?

“The pinnacle,” Dania said vaguely, her eyes still on the gallery.

Janik sighed. Dania wasn’t making it easy for him to take her seriously. Krael seemed perfectly reasonable, squarely meeting Janik’s gaze and pointing the group toward the destination they had agreed on. By contrast, Dania was completely distracted and hesitant to offer any explanation. He put his hands on her shoulders and tried to capture her eyes.

“Dania,” he said quietly. “Talk to me. What’s at the pinnacle? Why do you want to go there?”

Her eyes finally met his, but she seemed to be speaking out of a dream. “It’s so beautiful, Janik,” she said. “Like the couatl we saw in the air, and so kind and wise. It wants to help us defeat the Fleshrender. It can help us, Janik, if we go to the pinnacle of the temple.”

“Janik,” Krael whispered, as if Dania wouldn’t hear, “I’m not sure Dania is entirely in command of her faculties.”

“Shut up, Krael,” Janik spat, but he wasn’t nearly as sure as he sounded.

“Perhaps I can help resolve our impasse,” Mathas said.

“I’m listening,” Janik said. He still held Dania’s shoulders, but she was no longer looking at him. She reminded him of a small child, easily distracted, looking anywhere but at him.

“I could send my eyes along the route that Dania suggests,” Mathas said, “just as I scouted the ruins yesterday.
We could attempt to determine the veracity of her assertions without putting ourselves at significant risk.”

Janik gave Mathas an approving smile, but he caught Krael’s scowl out of the corner of his eye. Interesting, he thought. That suggests that Krael knows something about what Mathas might see, and doesn’t want him to see it.

Or else he’s just impatient, Janik thought. Anxious to bring this thing to an end, and put off by Dania’s ridiculous ramblings about the couatl.

“Perhaps we should declare our partnership concluded,” Krael said. “We have helped each other escape from that little cell, and I have shown you the way to the heart of Maija’s temple. If you’d rather not go that way, it’s your affair. But I know what I came here for—I will have my revenge.”

“I can’t let you kill Maija, Krael,” Janik said.

“If you intend to stop me, then you’d better come down with me,” Krael said, his voice low. “And if you think your dreamstruck paladin can do anything to get the Fleshrender out of your dear wife’s body while Maija is still alive, you had better drag her along as well. Frankly, though, I’m losing confidence—and patience.”

So that’s it, Janik thought. Perhaps I was imagining that look on Krael’s face, or reading too much into it. He’s not hearing the voice of the rajah—he just wants to go and get this over with.

He turned back to Dania. “Dania, please look at me.” Her eyes were fixed on the ceiling of the chamber now, and she seemed not to hear him at all. Janik took her shoulders again and shook her gently, then a little harder. “Dania!”

Her eyes did not move, and she spoke so quietly he could barely hear. “The pinnacle first,” she whispered, “and then the rajah’s prison.”

“Sea of Fire!” Janik shouted, pushing Dania roughly away from him. She stumbled, but Mathas caught her, shooting Janik a reproachful glare. For a moment, Janik considered suggesting that Dania lead Mathas and Auftane to the pinnacle while he went down with Sever and Krael. But it would be too dangerous, he thought. He was confident that the six of them could handle anything, even Maija, but split into groups, they’d be vulnerable, especially against another giant. Besides, without Dania, what hope did they have of forcing the spirit out of Maija?

He put his hands to his temples and squeezed his eyes shut. All he could see was Maija sneering at him, Maija casting the spell that had knocked him out, Maija stretching her mocking grin into a thin, cruel smile. Her words raked across his heart: “I lied.”

No, damn it! he thought. That wasn’t Maija, that was the Fleshrender. Maija is still there somewhere—trapped in her body, powerless to stop what the fiend made her do and say. And if Maija is still there, then there’s hope.

He opened his eyes and looked at Dania, who still gazed dumbly up at the ceiling. And that hope lies in Dania, he thought, as crazy as she seems right now. I have to trust her.

With that thought, new memories sprang into his mind. He remembered when Maija first introduced him to Dania, and so many joyful, exciting, harrowing adventures they had shared since then. He remembered the conversation he’d had with Dania—was it just the night before? He realized he had no idea how long they had been in the cell. And then he remembered the couatl they had watched as it danced across the sky.

“Krael,” Janik said, “our bargain is concluded and our alliance ended. Go where you want, but we will follow Dania.
We won’t harm you as you leave this room, but if I see you again—”

“Oh, you will see me again,” Krael said.

“If I see you again, I’ll do my level best to kill you. Thank you for your help. Now get out of my sight.”

Without another word, Krael stalked over to the massive door and threw it open, Sever following close behind. And then they were gone.

“Oh, thank the Sovereigns,” Mathas said quietly.

Janik placed a gentle hand on Dania’s shoulder. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

Dania’s eyes met his again briefly, and she smiled a faint, beatific smile. “Up,” she said quietly.