Rise of Legends (The Kin of Kings Book 2) (37 page)

Sanya saw Reela had instructed the dajrik to remove her from his shoulder with his hand. He dumped her down, eager to be rid of his burden so he could begin his destruction.

Reela rolled as she fell, then grabbed her sides and hissed.

“Are you all right?” Sanya came over to check on her, but Reela quickly pulled her blade from the sheath on her belt.

“Stay back.”

Sanya put up her hands. “I have no intention of hurting you.”

She waited for Reela to put back her dagger, then checked on the dajrik. He’d kicked down the wall and roared at the catapults as if they were threatening creatures. He grabbed the sturdy beam of one and snapped it like a twig. Then he bent down and ripped off a wheel, and the catapult collapsed to its side. The dajrik gave a strong kick to its frame, breaking the entire thing in half.

Army men charged out from the barracks but froze in fear at the sight before them. One of them had the presence of mind to call for archers and mages.

By the time they arrived, the dajrik had destroyed the second catapult and begun working on the third. Neither catapult was finished, and Sanya watched with glee as the giant destroyed each piece so it couldn’t be rebuilt quickly, not that he was aware of what he was really doing. To him, destroying the catapults relieved his interminable anger. She imagined Tauwin’s face would look just like the dajrik’s when he was told the news.

Arrows and fireballs pelted the creature, drawing his focus away while Sanya and Reela struggled to keep him intent on shattering the last of the rudimentary catapults. He put his hands together to make one giant fist and crushed them quickly. Then Sanya let him take vengeance on those shooting him. Reela let down her arm to show she had done the same. With their work now done, they ran back into the forest.

Feeling as if she could fall asleep standing up, Sanya held a tree for support as she regained her breath. Reela watched her nervously as she hunched over in pain.

“Did the dajrik hurt you?” Sanya asked.

“I’ll be fine.”

The forest was dark beneath the night sky. Sanya took a few moments to regain some strength, then made light. “Come on,” she said. “It’s a long walk back, so we’d better get started.”

Reela showed her a curious look. “Tell me what you think will happen when we meet back with Terren and everyone else from the Academy.”

“I won’t be seen by any of them. You’re going to fetch Lori and bring her to me.”

“And why would I do that?”

“Because if you allow them to kill her or take her prisoner, you’ll see me again, and I’ll be very angry.” Sanya put on her most fearsome face, quite certain the shadow from her light helped tremendously. “You don’t want that.”

“I’ll do what you want if you tell me how you did it.”

Now that Sanya could think without worrying about an enraged dajrik, she realized there was no harm in telling Reela about her trip to the spiritual world, about her failed plan to move her mother into her father’s body, and about killing him in the process. Sanya supposed that was the one perquisite about being wanted for murder. Admitting that she killed her father didn’t worsen the death sentence if she was captured.

She even went on to explain her plot to marry Tauwin once he had control of Kyrro and then to kill him and take the crown as the first woman ever to lead the territory. She described what kind of man he was and what had happened for Sanya and Lori to now be among his worst enemies.

By the end of her tale, she did sense less hostility from Reela as she’d expected she would.

“Even though we’re not allies,” Sanya said, “we’re on the same side.”

“For now. That might change.”

She was right. Until Sanya figured out what to do, she couldn’t make any promises. Reela sighed as if disappointed.

“If I’m helping you with Lori,” Reela said, “I expect something in return.”

“What?”

“The next time you have an opportunity to assist someone on my side, you’ll do so. Even if it doesn’t benefit you.”

“I can tell you I will, but why would you trust my word?”

“Because I believe we’ll meet again, and we’ll want something from each other once more. With the way this war is going, it’s likely that much will change before then. Neither of us can say for certain where we’ll be or what we’ll need. A partner is still valuable, even if she isn’t an ally.”

It seemed that Sanya’s story had been more beneficial than she’d first realized. Anger still burned within Reela for what Sanya had done, but she could feel a strong sense of understanding as well.

“I agree. I’ll help your side in this war the next chance I get.”

“Then I promise I’ll return Lori to you safely.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Effie awoke to Wilfre pushing his annoying face close to hers. She wanted to put her palm across it, maybe rub some dirt in, and shove it away, but she was too tired.

“She’s awake,” he said, and Jack Rose hurried over and crouched beside her.

“Are you hurt?”

“No.” Then she remembered everything. “Reela and Sanya…and the dajrik…they—”

“We know.” The chemist smiled at her. “Reela explained everything before they left.”

“Left?”

“They went to destroy the catapults in Oakshen, Effie,” Steffen said, appearing from behind a small crowd of people. He bent down and helped her up. They were still in the tunnel that led to the abandoned Slugari colony, but it looked as if a quake had struck. Chunks of the walls and ceiling lay in piles on the ground.

“Do you know who she is?” Jack asked Effie, pointing at the woman who’d been with Sanya. She was slumped against the wall as if asleep. Effie dimly remembered seeing her like that during the chaos with the dajrik.

“Some friend of Sanya’s. Is she dead?” Effie reached for her wand, but the small holder on her belt was empty. She began searching for it. “If not, we should kill her right now.”

“Effie, you’re still under the effects of the potion,” Steffen said.

“I just said she’s a friend of Sanya’s! I don’t care what’s happening with my mind, she deserves to die just to hurt Sanya.”

Where is my wand?
Then she realized Reela must have it.
It didn’t matter. Effie could strangle the woman while she was unconscious. It would be easy.

Still weary, Effie plodded over, pushing her way through people. But Steffen grabbed her by her arms.

“Let me go,” she said through gritted teeth, “or I will hurt you.”

Steffen shook her violently, surprising her. He’d always been gentle with her, even in the rare cases she’d hit him out of annoyance. “Listen to me, Effie! You’ve been making poor decisions all day. Don’t hurt or kill anyone, understand?”

Debilitating sadness struck her, causing her to fall to her knees. “You’re right! I almost got Reela and myself killed. Is she all right?”

“She should be, though she’s with Sanya now.”

Steffen explained the army’s encounter with the two psychics and the dajrik. Jack and Wilfre watched Effie for a few moments to ensure she’d behave, then they directed their efforts to trying to awaken Sanya’s companion.

“When the battle ended,” Steffen continued, “Terren took everyone back except for us. We’re to stay until the tunnel to Trentyre has been completed. The others will defend the Academy.”

Effie couldn’t quite hear his words, still too incredulous at her disregard for Reela’s safety. She was lucky they’d lived through the dajrik, but would she be so lucky next time? A few tears fell down her cheeks.

“Steffen, I don’t want to feel like this anymore. When will it stop?”

“The fact that you’re crying and actually listening to me tells me it should be soon.”

With some relief, Effie composed herself, brushing the dirt off her clothes. There were about a hundred people in this large tunnel. Most were crowded around Sanya’s companion. Now that Effie really looked at her, she could see that she was a young woman who likely would be beautiful once her hair and face no longer were caked with dirt.
She can’t be much older than Sanya. Who is she?

“Effie,” Steffen said, “do you have any idea where that dajrik came from?”

“None. He was running into the tunnel from the Slugari colony soon after Reela and I arrived.”

Effie had been too caught up in her need to kill Sanya to consider the creature, but now she realized he couldn’t have been the Slugari’s dajrik. He had no necklace with a red gem.
Unless it was the Slugari’s dajrik and he’d lost his rujin necklace. That would explain his rage.
Dajriks lived for thousands of years, but the older they got the less they could sleep. Terrible nightmares awoke them constantly, slowly driving them toward insanity. Steffen had taught her this, along with the fact that a high concentration of rujins—a red flower the Slugari cultivated—melted with bastial energy into a substance contained in a gem and kept close to the dajrik could stop the nightmares and allow the giant to sleep peacefully.

“Do you think the dajrik was the Slugari’s and he lost his necklace?” Effie asked.

“Jack and I believe he was another dajrik. But we don’t know how he got down here.”

She could see from his worried expression that they probably also wondered if there could be more.

“I have a theory,” Steffen said. “We know Basen made a portal within the Fjallejon Mountains using stored energy in akorell metal, because Jackrie told us this. We also know the portal brought them to the Dajrik Mountains clear across the continent. Lastly, we know that Jackrie and Cleve stumbled into another portal beneath more akorell metal while within those mountains. This all leads me to believe that when Basen drew in all the stored energy to make his portal, he set the energy of the world off-balance. The opening of more portals is how the excess of energy returned to a relaxed state.

“Think of it like two pools of water separated by a wall,” Steffen continued. “Basen opening a portal is like creating a massive hole in the middle of the wall. The water drains from one pool to the next until the hole abruptly closes, then both pools will slosh back and forth, making waves, and one side now has water that wants to go back to the other side. So it beats against the wall until it creates holes of its own, allowing it to flow through. However, too much water will likely return to the first pool, and then it has to balance itself out by sending some back. What this means is that opening one portal, especially one that needs a tremendous amount of energy, could result in the subsequent opening of other portals hours or even days later. Any place where energy is stored is the most likely spot for one of these ‘holes’ to be created.”

He pointed down the tunnel. “I think akorell metal lies somewhere in the Slugari colony. A portal most likely came open, and the dajrik passed through from who knows where.”

“So the portal should be closed by now,” Effie assumed. “I couldn’t imagine it taking that long for the energy to balance.”

“Yes, but we don’t know if Basen has opened any more portals. We have to be very careful when we’re down there not to walk near any akorell metal, or we could end up going through a portal without having a way back.”

It made sense to Effie, except for one thing. “What are the two different pools of energy in your analogy?”

“That wasn’t a perfect analogy. The bastial energy of the world is not that similar to water. It moves constantly, coming up from deep beneath the ground yet catching in places such as in the dirt, in plants, and even in water. It would be more accurate to think of one enormous pool of water with thousands of walls separating the water from itself. The portals are a break through a single wall.”

“I see.” As she took a moment for the information to sink in, she realized no one was waiting to take her back to the Academy. So she was with this group now. She vaguely remembered Steffen saying something about that when she’d first awoken. “Why am I part of the digging team now?”

“Terren decided to leave you with us when we couldn’t awaken you right away. They needed to get back to the Academy as soon as possible, so they couldn’t wait.”

It seemed as if Effie should feel disappointment, for she knew she wanted to help defend the Academy’s walls if there was an attack. But instead she felt nothing.

The young woman finally came awake with a gasp. She tried to get on her feet and run, but a terrible pain seemed to stop her as she grabbed her head and fell. It made it easy for those around her to pin her down.

“We’re not going to hurt you,” Jack soothed.

She either didn’t hear him or believe him. She thrashed like a wild animal, but it only lasted for a few breaths. She seemed drained after that, lying supple with her limbs held by six people.

“If you’re going to kill me, just kill me,” she croaked out.

“Where’s our psychic?” Jack asked.

A third-year who Effie had seen numerous times around campus pushed through. “Here,” he said. Effie had never spoken with him and didn’t know his name, but he must’ve been competent for Terren to assign him to the tunnel group.

“She seems sick,” someone remarked. Several mages lit the tunnel, and one aimed her light at the woman’s face. There were dark circles under her eyes as her mouth hung open. She looked pale, as if drained of life.