Sorceress (Book 2) (37 page)

The bond resisted her attempts at severing it, healing as fast as Kayleigh could cut it while she and Danella wrestled for control of the one remaining weapon.

Danella let go with one hand and used it to deliver a punch that landed on Kayleigh’s shoulder.

“Your little gamble isn’t working! Time to die!”

Kayleigh couldn’t spare the energy to answer, but someone else did - Majherri. He snorted and neighed. Within the swirling energies of the bond, a piece of magic that was outside of the link formed into something resembling a unicorn horn and stabbed through the tether connecting him and Danella.

By no means did Kayleigh think of herself as a cruel person, but she enjoyed hearing Danella’s howls of agony. Between Majherri’s efforts and her own the bond snapped and released a tremendous backlash of energy.

Kayleigh was thrown from Iarisha’s saddle and suffered even more damage to her ruined palm, landing in a heap on the cobblestones. Her first attempt at rising failed miserably. On the second, she was able to get up on one knee. Iarisha stayed at her side defending Kayleigh.

Majherri wobbled on unsteady legs. Using a wall as a crutch, Danella stood upright. Her face contorted with rage.

“I’ll just bond with you again, traitor! You’re mine! I own you!”

Majherri snorted and, without warning, his hooves and horn caught fire. He didn’t appear to like her plan.

“Meghan, kill them all!”

As the water maiden started to ready her bow, the shape at the base of T’rsa’s legs lunged upward and grabbed Meghan Lynch’s boot. Electrical sparks bathed both unicorn and rider. The water maiden fell forward and dropped her bow.

“When you attack a sorceress, you better damn well finish her!” Ashlynn said, getting to her feet. The sorceress pushed the stunned maiden out of her saddle. “Okay, what did I miss? A black unicorn! Can I have one?”

T’rsa turned and pointed her horn at Ashlynn. “Oh please, she’s only taking a really painful nap. If I wanted her dead, you’d both be. Where’s that woman you were telling me about that needs to die?”

“Right there!” Cradling her bleeding left hand against her stomach, Kayleigh turned toward Danella and shoved her right hand toward the woman and threw a fireball. It wasn’t very powerful, but it was enough to make the woman jump further away from Majherri. Kayleigh could see Danella’s cold and calculating eyes survey the battlefield, trying to decide whether she could prevail against the three unicorns and two sorceresses standing against her. Taking a deep breath, Kayleigh conjured a bigger fireball, but Danella suddenly changed into a monstrous hawk and flew away.

“Ashlynn…stop her!”

The sorceress shook her head and suddenly looked less vibrant. “I used up most of what I had left on Major Stupidity over there…and I think I need a healer.”

It was difficult getting her vials of healing tears out using only one hand. She gave one to the sorceress, divided the second between the bloody mess that was her left hand and the stab wound in her side. The stinging agony dulled slightly, and the shattered bones repaired themselves. She’d need more in a minute, but crying wouldn’t be too hard. The last one she looked between the two nearby unicorns to see who was injured worse. It was easily Iarisha. Kayleigh spread the vial directly onto the worst of Iarisha’s wounds.

“Majherri,” she said, turning to look at her old friend. He seemed skittish and uncertain. “Come here. I need to check your magic and make sure it isn’t going to kill you.”

He approached slowly, addressing both Iarisha and T’rsa. The females appeared to be threatening him. He kept his head low in shame.

“Don’t,” Kayleigh said, starting to cry. “Don’t be ashamed. If you hadn’t helped me break your bond, Danella would have killed me. Whatever you did it was her controlling you. You warned Risha. You risked everything to warn us all and you stood up to that evil bitch! I’m so proud of you.”

She ran to him and threw her arms around his neck, sobbing. “Goddess I’ve missed you!”

Touching him felt odd, since she didn’t have a bond with him. She checked his magic, worried that Danella’s influence might lead to a rapid onset of the wasting, but he seemed fine…tainted, but otherwise in good shape. Kayleigh swiped at her tears and placed them on his wounds and also on her aching hand. It would require several more treatments before she’d be able to move her fingers again. Still, for the moment, Kayleigh savored her victory and Majherri’s freedom.

Majherri sent her an image of them riding on the Sacred Island, laughing together.

“Maybe we can do that again someday,” she said.

There was a second memory. Danella telling him that she’d forever changed him and that Kayleigh would never want him now.

“You know that’s not true,” she said, and sniffled loudly. “I don’t care what you look like. How about we make a deal? If you don’t judge me for who my father is, I won’t judge you for what she did. Does that sound good?”

He nodded and she hugged him again before remembering something important about him. Stepping back she said, “Sorry, I know you hate to be touched by people you don’t have a bond with.”

Shaking his head, he moved closer to her and she embraced him once more.

“Kayleigh?” Ashlynn said. “I don’t want to spoil your reunion, but we should probably move out of the open like this. We’re exposed and in no condition for a fight.”

“Speak for yourself,” she answered. “I’ve got my friend back and it’s Danella running for her life for a change. There’s still some fight left in me!”

“You can’t be serious,” the sorceress said, sounding as exhausted as she looked. “I’ve got a couple of wands left, but I’m tapped out.”

Kayleigh straightened and let go of Majherri. “General Jyslin said to fight for our riders and our unicorns. I don’t need this hand to cast a shield on my arm and, even like this, I’m stronger than most of the maidens that came here with us. You stay and guard the major. Tie her up in case she wakes up before Danella’s spell wears off. Risha, Majherri? Are you two up for it? Good. T’rsa, you better come with us in case Meghan wakes up. She might make you do something horrible. Don’t worry, Ashlynn will take good care of your rider. Check T’rsa’s bags, the major probably has some healing tears in there.”

Forcing herself to cry, she retrieved a bandage from Iarisha’s saddlebags and used it to dry her tears. Then, she wrapped it around her wound and found her scimitar. Getting back into the saddle was a chore, but once there, she felt like it was where she was meant to be.

“Be careful, Kayleigh,” Ashlynn said, looking over her shoulder from where she was drafting a few of the citizens of Pinella to carry Meghan Lynch inside one of the houses.

“She obviously doesn’t know me that well,” Kayleigh said. Coming alongside her and Iarisha, Majherri snorted in agreement.

“Let’s go see if we can help,” she said and urged Iarisha forward.

The trip to the main gate seemed much closer than it did when the giant snake was chasing her. Kayleigh saw the kind of devastation that sucked all the honor and glory out of war and left in its place sadness and heartache. Horses without riders wandered across their path as they passed bodies of warriors, Yar, Tomas, and Rosha. To the dead, the nationalities didn’t seem to matter much.

So much death.

A Yar woman slouched against the frame of a burnt out house. Her hand covered a nasty wound on her stomach. She saw Majherri and held her hand out to him.

“Help me,” she begged.

Kayleigh looked at Majherri. He seemed uncertain, but she thought of her friend, Rahzir. The Yar followed Danella here just as the nomads followed Count Darius. The day had seen enough violence and maybe it was time for some mercy. Pulling an empty vial from her saddlebag, Kayleigh tugged at the magic she shared with Iarisha and cried. The bodies surrounding her made it surprisingly easy, though exhausting. The wound looked very serious, so she captured four tears and then summoned some water to fill the tube.

Not wanting to dismount, Kayleigh moved her unicorn near the injured Yar. The blonde woman held a knife weakly at her until Kayleigh said, “I’ll try to help you. If you’ll let me.”

“Why?”

“I’m not your enemy,” Kayleigh said.

“I am yours,” the woman replied.

“Why?”

“What?”

Kayleigh offered the vial of healing tears and said, “Why are you my enemy? What have I done to you?”

“You serve the High-King. He is the enemy of my people.”

“That’s not enough to kill someone over,” Kayleigh said.

“It is for me,” the injured woman said.

“But not for me,” Kayleigh said.

“Then you’re a foolish and weak, little girl.”

“I’m far from weak. I killed…what was his name? Orga? No. That’s not it. He was this big snake.”

“You killed Orgo? Second of eleven.”

“It wasn’t easy, but yes and I helped Majherri free himself from Danella Lynch’s control. She’s the only one I consider my enemy.”

“She is my chieftain. That makes me your enemy as well.”

“I don’t think so. You just listened to whatever empty promises she offered and she used you. Take these tears. They’ll heal your wounds, but they won’t heal what’s in your heart. Only you can do that.”

The woman set knife down and Kayleigh carefully tossed the glass tube to her.

“If I use this, I am betraying my chieftain and my tribe.”

“You should be wondering what Danella has done to earn your loyalty. She flew away the moment the tide turned against her. Heal your wounds and if you ever see her again, ask her what kind of chieftain leaves her people? Whatever you decide, safe journey to you.”

The woman didn’t answer and Kayleigh couldn’t spare any more time for her when so many others needed the help she could provide.

In the area around the ruined main gate, they found two dozen Battle Maidens gathered in a circle. Several of the unicorns snorted as Majherri approached. Kayleigh could only imagine what they were saying.

“Kayleigh! You’re okay!” Laurel said with a forced smile as she rode over to meet them. Her unicorn shied away from Majherri. Kayleigh nodded and was relieved that her friend was worse for wear, but still alive and with her unicorn. Turning her attention to what the others were looking at, she saw Lieutenant Sheppard dismounted and holding a human body in her arms. Duke Tomas knelt next to her and was delivering last rites. The body of a unicorn, bent in a manner that left no room to hope it was alive, was beside them.

A void opened in her chest and threatened to swallow her. She didn’t have to see the long flowing white hair to know that General Naomi Jyslin was gone.

“How?” she whispered to Laurel.

She pointed her finger at a dead man with a shattered war lance next to him. “He was the hydra. She rammed him at such an incredible speed and drove her lance right into his black heart. The thing collapsed on top of her and Rheysurrah and crushed them both. I wasn’t sure whether we were going to win until she defeated that monster. Someone else turned into a hydra with three heads after that, but the duke drove it and the remaining Yar off.”

“Oh,” she said, awed by General Jyslin’s heroics. The snake she faced was paltry when compared to that abomination. “How about Tamera? Did she make it?”

“I haven’t seen her,” Laurel said nervously. “But I haven’t heard anything bad either.”

“Lady Kayleigh,” Duke Tomas interrupted. “My daughter?”

“Injured and worn out, but okay. She’s protecting Major Lynch, who was…knocked unconscious.”

The man still looked haggard. “Thank you. Though now it falls to me to break the news to her about her brother.”

Kayleigh gasped and the void grew wider, threatening to consume her. “I’m so sorry, milord.”

“As am I,” he said, saddened. “Aeric is in the Goddess’s care now. No doubt trading stories with our general.”

Brian’s alive!
She didn’t dare say anything aloud at the time. It would seem crass and vile to be happy that it wasn’t him. Instead, she began using her tears to make healing draughts and handing them to Laurel as she finished each one.

Draining herself and Iarisha, she had to stop after the fifth vial. It was all she could offer and she knew that there would never be enough tears to undo the damage done this day.

Needing to rest, she finally dismounted and made her way to Lieutenant Sheppard. Duke Tomas removed his cloak and placed it over the still form of Naomi Jyslin. Kayleigh did her best to not stare at the empty eyes of the unicorn she once rode.

“Good to see you still among the living, Reese,” the officer said. “You’ve looked better.”

“I’m still standing, ma’am. Major Lynch is alive, but out of action,” she reported. “Danella got to her and placed her under her control. I’m sure it will wear off, but it might be days before she’s fit to serve. Captain Rose?”

“Didn’t make it,” Lindsey Sheppard said, referring to the third in command.

“Your orders, ma’am?” Kayleigh asked

“I guess that does leave me as senior officer for the time being. Not the way I’d ever wanted to assume command,” the woman said and drew herself up. “Alright, ladies! Secure the perimeter. Whitaker, get a squad of scouts together and patrol the area around the city. Do not engage if you meet resistance. Sinclair, Byers, form a pair of makeshift squads and work with our allies to root out any pockets of Yar still in the city.”