North Star Guide Me Home (54 page)

‘No, she went with Isidro. I’m medic for our lot.’

‘Well then, we’d best get you out of here in one piece.’ He had Rasten hold the wrapping tight while he retrieved the cuirass and buckled it around his ribs, pulling the straps tight to hold the dressing in place. Then, he slapped Rasten on the shoulder, like he would a horse after pulling the girth tight. ‘There,’ he said, ‘that should keep you going.’

His hands were bloody by this point. Cam wiped them on his trousers, but the stuff was already drying to sticky smears.

Once, he’d wanted nothing more than to feel this man’s blood on his hands. Now, as Rasten leant against the wall with his skin pale and damp with sweat, Cam found that his chief hope was to get him — all of them — out of here without further injury.
Look,
he told himself,
you can sort out how you feel about it later. For now, just focus on the matter at hand.
‘We need to keep moving.’

Rasten drew a heaving breath and straightened, pushing away from the wall, but before he’d taken more than a step, he fell still.

‘What is it?’ Cam asked.

‘Mages. Heading towards us.’ He broke off then, eyes losing focus.

‘Sir?’ Marima said, her voice urgent. Cam glanced across to see her by the door.

Rasten came back to himself with a shake of his head. ‘There are two more mages up above. Sirri says they went in through the main gates. We’ll have to find a way past them. Sirri and Isidro are trying to come up with a plan —’

‘Sir!’ Marima hissed. ‘I think there are more men coming.’

Cam and Rasten both fell silent. Cam sidled closer to the door. He could hear … something. It could well be men creeping closer, trying to take their quarry by surprise.

He closed the door, looking around for something to bar it with, but the room was empty. ‘So,’ he said to Rasten. ‘We’ve got mages coming at us from one side, and Wolf men from the other. Can you fight without endangering Sierra?’

‘Maybe.’ Rasten wiped a hand across his brow, and glanced at Ricca, who was still playing with her ball of light. Then, with a toss of his head, he seemed to come to some decision. He waved Cam away from the door, and hunkered down on the stones near the threshold. He took hold of the blood-soaked cloth of his shirt and wrung some drops from it. Then, with the thick, clotting blood, he drew a sigil on the flagstones.

He finished and straightened. His gaze fell on Ricca and he started towards her, holding out his hand, heedless of the blood on it. ‘Little girl,’ he said, ‘come here.’

Ricca turned to him with a sunny smile.

Marima started forward at once, snatching for the girl’s shoulders. ‘What do you want with her?’

Rasten ignored her. ‘What’s your name?’ he asked the girl. ‘Ricca? I need your help.’

‘She’s a little girl! What help can she be to someone like you?’ Marima spat.

‘Marima,’ Cam said, softly, ‘he won’t harm her, I give you my word.’ He hoped he was telling the truth. Sierra had always sworn that Rasten wouldn’t harm a child.

The girl glanced to her mother, beginning to pout, but before she made up her mind to act, Rasten caught her by the arms, crouching down so he was on her level. ‘I have power, just like you, you see?’ He lifted one hand from her shoulder and cupped it to create a globe of flame, a seething, ruddy counterpart to her pearly orb.

Her eyes widened, and when she reached for it, Rasten let her take it. ‘Ricca, there are bad men coming. I can’t fight them all, and I need your help.’

‘Is this a game?’ she said, starting to frown. ‘I don’t want to play.’

‘No, it’s not a game. There are bad men looking for us, and if they come in here, they’re going to hurt your mama. Do you understand? They’re going to hit her and make her cry, and they’ll take her away from you and you’ll never see her again.’

The girl began to weep, tears spilling down her face, and turned towards Marima.

‘You’re scaring her!’ Marima said, her voice quavering, near to tears herself. Cam took hold of her arm, pulling her back. ‘Leave them be,’ he murmured.

Rasten took hold of the girl’s chin to make her face him again. ‘No, don’t cry. Don’t be scared, be mad. You can stop them. You won’t let them hurt your mama, you can keep her safe. That’s what you want, isn’t it? Here, when you get mad, do you ever feel your power getting hot and tight inside you? Do you feel it pop and sizzle like bacon in a pan?’

Silent tears still spilling, the little girl nodded.

‘Good. I want you to think about that now. Think about how mad you’ll be if the bad men come in here and hurt your mama. Think about how mad you are at them for keeping you locked down here in the dark, away from your other mamas and papas and your sibs. It was mean of them to put your mama in chains and lock you up when you’ve done nothing wrong. Doesn’t it make you angry?’

The girl nodded again. Her tears had faded now, and her face was growing red, her frown deepening.

‘So what are you going to do when they come through that door? What would you do if you saw a nasty hairy spider creeping up on your mama?’

‘I hate spiders!’

‘You do? Me too. So would you put on your biggest boots and squish it?’

‘Yes!’

‘Alright. When these bad men come through the door, I want you to get as mad as you can and when you’re so mad you feel like you’re going to burst, squish them, just like spiders. Can you do that for your mama?’

Ricca bit her lip, and looked up at her mother.

Cam squeezed her arm. ‘Talk to her,’ he urged.

Marima was shaking under his hand. ‘You can do it, sweetheart. You know how you have bad dreams, and make things burn? It’s just like that, baby. You can do it, and then we can go home.’

Rasten released Ricca’s shoulder, and as she ran to her mother, throwing her arms around her legs, he stood up and turned to Cam. ‘It’ll take a few minutes for her to get her power up. Just worry about keeping yourself alive. Let them get to Marima. The more scared the little one is, the faster she’ll blow her top.’

‘What about the Akharians?’ Cam said.

Rasten glanced towards the door, and the sigil in drying blood he’d smeared on the flagstones. ‘They’ll be marked as they come through. When she kills them, the power will come to me. I just … I hope it’s enough. Look, don’t wait for me. As soon as the Wolf men are down, take these two and run for the upper levels. Sirri’s heading for the main gate, and if I fall, she’ll know and she’ll come smashing in to find you. Stick with the girl — she’ll keep you safe.’

Rasten turned his back on the king and walked away, heading to the other chamber.

He willed himself to calmness, drawing steady, even breaths, keeping his mind only in the moment. Since Kell died, it often seemed he’d forgotten the skills that had kept him alive so long. He’d forgotten how to keep what he felt from showing on his face, how to make people believe he was loyal or subservient or fearless …

But this. This he hadn’t forgotten. He still knew how to focus on this one moment in time, to stay calm and still, even though he knew the pain was coming.

He felt Sierra turn his way with a sudden crackle of energy.
Rasten? What’s going on?

Don’t worry,
he told her.
It’ll be alright. I won’t make the same mistake again.

I’ve got some power locked away. I think it’s enough to keep me on my feet, and with the burns the men have endured to feed me, I’ll be alright. You can have the rest.

No. You’ll need it. If these mages take me down you’ll have to break through to find the king.

By the Black Sun, Rasten —

You know you can’t hold it back, Sirri. Fires Below, have you forgotten already? It was the first thing Kell set out to break in you … we trained you to surrender every scrap of power, and it takes more than a short year to undo that kind of conditioning. Trust me on this. If you give me your power, I’ll take it all … and I’ll be cursed if I hurt you again.

Rasten, you cannot sacrifice yourself. I forbid it!

Oh, I’ll fight for my life, Sirri. I always have. But I’m outmatched, and there’s no source here to feed from. I’ll do my best, Sirri, but you have to be ready to step in when I fall.

They were close, now. He could feel them, filled with power, but clamping down tight to keep it from spilling. He drew up his own power and spun it into a shield which he wrapped tight around him and then headed for the door that would take him to them. The girl was primed to attack whoever entered the room, and while she could deal with ordinary soldiers, a pair of Akharian Battle-Mages would crush her.

He slipped through the door, closed it behind him and then fused it shut with a touch of power. Anything to slow them down a moment longer.

He leant against it, drawing a deep breath, just as two men entered from the far end.

He recognised their faces. They’d been there when Pelloras examined Cam’s deserted cell. The only light came from the shields, Rasten’s tinted with red and touched with flame, while the Akharians’ were colourless veils of white mist, like a haze of fog in early morning air.

Rasten made himself smile, and waited.

Marima held her daughter close while Ricca turned her tearful face up to them. ‘Where’s he going?’ Marima said, fear in her voice.

Cam didn’t know how to answer. Could Rasten face Battle-Mages in his current state? He’d killed Akharian mages in the west, but that was when he was whole and unwounded and the mages were those left after the best had been sent to Ricalan. These mages would be weary after the battle and the march, but they’d be the best the empire had to offer — only the cream of the Mage Corps would have been sent to confront Sierra in Lathayan.

When the battle began, he
felt
it, for a tremor ran through the fort itself, through the walls and the floor and the vaulted roof. A moment later there came a roar of sheer noise, a sound like a raging storm.

Over the dreadful, deafening sound of it, he never heard the soldiers coming. All at once, they were simply
there
, streaming in through the doorway, armed with swords and shields.

Cam hastily stepped away from Marima and the girl, snatching for his sword and dagger. His palm felt slick with sweat against the leather hilt.

Ricca took one look at the men and wailed, burying her face in her mother’s legs. Marima stooped to pick the girl up, her face pale and fearful as she backed away.

The men swiftly spread out to surround Cam, and one of them stepped forward. Cam vaguely recognised the fellow and guessed he must have seen him in Dremman’s retinue. ‘Now look here, lad,’ the soldier said, ‘there’s no need for this. Just set down your sword and come quietly. Don’t frighten the little girl any more than she already is. Come with us and we’ll get you out of here before those cursed Akharians find you. Maybe we can make a deal with your folk back in Lathayan, and end this peaceful, like. But you must know the only cursed way you’re getting out of here alive is in our hands.’

The noise was unending, pervasive. It filled his head, made it hard to think. ‘How big a fool do you think I am?’ Cam demanded. ‘I’ve heard more than I care to of your clan’s wretched lies.’ But the cursed fellow had a point — there were a dozen of them. He was hopelessly outnumbered.

By stepping away from Marima and Ricca to draw his sword, he’d moved away from the wall, and with a swift glance around, Cam saw the men had encircled him. Until now, they’d paid Marima and the child little notice, but Marima saw the situation as clearly as he did and tried to move closer to him.

The nearest man caught her by the arm. ‘No you don’t, lass. Keep well out of it, or you and your little one are going to get hurt.’

Ricca had her face buried in Marima’s shoulder, but at those words, her head snapped up and her eyes flashed with anger. ‘Don’t you hurt my mama!’ she shrieked.

Cam felt the touch of steel against his neck, and froze. Another hand seized his arm, and he didn’t resist as they pried the sword from his grip.

The soldier ignored Ricca’s protest. Marima had been slightly built in the first place, and the months of prison rations had left her frail and thin. She tried to pull back, and when she didn’t come with him, the soldier simply yanked her off her feet, setting her stumbling over the flagstones with a yelp of pain.

‘DON’T YOU HURT MY MAMA!’ Ricca screamed, a piercing shriek like a spear through the head. Cam winced and clapped his hands over his ears out of instinct. The hands clutching his arm fell away, too — he wasn’t the only one driven to protect his hearing.

The soldier who’d grabbed Marima stumbled back, as though the force of that cry had thrown him away from her. Marima fell to her knees, pulled off balance, and Ricca squirmed out of her arms and advanced on the fellow, her tiny brows knotted with anger and her face dark with fury. ‘YOU LEAVE US ALONE!’ she shouted.

At once, the air had grown thick and syrupy, as dense as tar. He couldn’t move — he was held in place, like an insect trapped in amber.

As he watched, some massive, unseen force slammed the soldier into the floor, like an invisible boulder smashing down upon him. What was left was little more than gory shreds, his sword broken into splinters.

The men, as one, turned to her. Those who hadn’t dropped their swords tried to raise them, but they were moving slowly, so slowly. The air was full of darting sparks, like fireflies, and from the corner of his eye Cam saw a lick of flame, reaching across the floor like a snake.

Marima scrambled up — she was the only one not caught in the tar-thick field of power. She darted between the frozen men and caught Cam by the arm.

The moment she touched him, the thick, frozen air released him. He snatched for his fallen sword and let Marima pull him away as Ricca hammered another soldier into the ground, and then another and another.

Marima turned to him with tears streaking through the grime on her face. ‘My little girl! My baby! How can she do this?’

Cam remembered how he’d felt, that night long ago when he’d watched Sierra tear apart a detachment of his brother’s men. He wrapped an arm around Marima’s shoulders. ‘She’s still your baby. She’s just willing to do whatever it takes to protect her mama.’