Witch King, page 33
The room took up the whole interior of the tower top, high enough to be mostly free of mud and mold. In the outer wall, a short flight of steps led to a doorway open to the landing balcony, but it allowed him only a glimpse of the gleaming side of the ascension raft. Kai risked another wriggle forward until he could see the whole room.
Ramad stood back against the wall, Dahin collapsed at his feet. Dahin at least was conscious, blinking up blearily at the Immortal Blessed man. His tunic was torn at the chest where he had been dragged by it. His bag lay nearby, a few leather folders open and scattered around. Ramad’s nose bled and his hair had come loose. Just from the way he was standing, it was clear he had taken hits to his ribs and stomach.
The Immortal Blessed faced Ramad, one of the expositor’s bodyguards standing back to flank him, and seethed with frustration. Kai could smell it just as strongly as the fear wafting off the mortal guard. There was no sign of the two Lesser Blessed Kai had spotted earlier.
Stubborn and persistent as ever, Ramad said, “You can kill us both but it won’t change the facts.”
The Immortal Blessed was unimpressed. “Facts? Lie to me again, then. We know you came here for a Hierarch’s finding stone. Tell me where it is.”
“There’s no finding stone here.” It was a gasp from Dahin. He sounded weak, hurt. He made a noise half sob and half laugh. “I was only looking at a map. I hate you people, I hate you all.”
Ramad didn’t waver. “Safreses and Kinlat were taken prisoner and have told everything they know. Aclines is dead. The Imperial renewal has passed, and even without Tahren Stargard, the treaty with the Immortal Blessed will not be altered. If you harm Kaiisteron or Ziede Daiyahah, Bashat bar Calis will take revenge with all the power he has. There is no point in any of this anymore. You should board your craft and leave.” He added deliberately, “I don’t recommend you go to Nient-arik.”
Ah, Kai thought, there it is.
The Immortal Blessed was impatient. “No one knows of my involvement. Stop this ridiculous delay and tell me where the finding stone is.”
“Why do you even want it, Faharin?” Dahin demanded from the floor. “How many other Immortal Blessed are wrapped up in your stupid useless conspiracy? Are you afraid of the Rising World tracking them down or the Immortal Marshalls?”
Ramad pressed his lips together. “Dahin.”
“Oh come on, you were never going to get anywhere by being reasonable with these people, they’re like children with giant egos—” Dahin cut off with a gasp as the Immortal Blessed leaned down to backhand him.
The Immortal Blessed Faharin grated out the words, “Little apostate, you talk of conspiracies like you know more than you should.”
Kai grimaced. The intention he had left on the water was a cold shiver through his nerve endings as its tendrils crept through the weed mat, nearly to the shadow-band. He needed that distraction. But it was risky to wait, with Dahin’s death wish in play. Kai pushed himself up, just enough to catch Dahin’s eye. Ramad, focused on Faharin, didn’t see him.
Draining an Immortal Blessed able to resist wasn’t easy, it was far more difficult than draining a powerful expositor. But Kai had planned for that. Sort of planned. Mostly planned. A lot was going to depend on Faharin’s reaction.
Dahin’s throat worked as he swallowed, the only indication that he had seen Kai. He glared up at Faharin. “What does it matter, you’re going to kill us anyway,” he said, his voice scratchy with pain.
Immortal Blessed never liked to be argued with. “Quiet, you foolish child. You have only yourself to blame for—”
“Where is my sister?” Dahin’s voice rose in fury. “You Hierarch’s ass-licker, what did you do to her?”
Either it was a good distraction attempt or Dahin was done soliciting information from Faharin. Kai felt the two intentions connect and weave their designs together. Hoping the expositor in Dahin’s boat was close enough to get the full effect, he emptied almost the whole well of his pain into the incipient intention floating on the water two levels below. It was hard not to hold back more for self-defense, but this would need almost everything he had left. Then he let go.
A whoosh-thump echoed up the stairwell, then horrified screams. Kai shoved to his feet as heat and the stench of burning waterweed flowed up the shaft. Faharin and the bodyguard whirled toward the stairwell. Kai lunged forward.
The small intention he had readied was already primed with pain; he plucked it off his shoulder and flung it at the guard. He didn’t have a chance to see it land. Faharin moved so fast that before Kai took another step a Blessed blade stabbed through his chest.
It felt like a punch at first, the real pain still just terrible potential, like a poisonous flower about to unfold. Kai let his momentum and his weight carry him forward and forced another full inch of Blessed metal through his breastbone. He was close enough to see the white blond beard stubble above the man’s upper lip. Faharin’s expression was calm and condescending, just a slight twist of distaste to his perfect mouth. Kai scraped the last intention off his chest, stretched forward, and slapped it down on the man’s wrist.
This was the powerful intention that had stunned Ziede, already charged by the expositor who had cast it. It hadn’t been meant for an Immortal Blessed so there was a chance it wouldn’t work.
But Faharin froze for a long indrawn breath while Kai’s heart’s blood soaked his tunic and tearing agony seized his chest. Darkness crept in at the edge of his vision. Then the man’s face went slack and he started to slump.
Kai tried to pull free but the blade was wedged in too far. It dragged him down, abrading his sliced flesh. He fell to his knees as Faharin collapsed in a heavy heap. Kai’s head reeled, new power rushed into him but with the Blessed blade jammed into his heart, there was nothing he could do with it.
Someone shoved the unconscious man aside and hands gripped his shoulders. Ramad crouched in front of him, staring in wide-eyed horror. “Kai,” he whispered.
Past Ramad, the mortal guard lay sprawled on the floor, insensible from the weaker intention. Dahin scrambled around gathering his scattered papers and folders, jamming them back into the bag. “Just pull it out!” Dahin snarled. “Don’t you know anything?”
Kai echoed, “Pull it out,” but it was an almost voiceless rasp.
“Are you certain?” Ramad sounded sick. He must be even more injured than he looked, Kai would have to deal with it later.
“Yes!” Dahin shoved to his feet, slinging his bag over his back. “Just do it!”
“Yes,” Kai whispered.
Ramad swallowed with difficulty. His face set, he gripped the hilt and pulled it free.
The relief was almost as shocking as the pain. Kai gasped a huge breath and clapped his hands over the already closing wound. He bent over, wrestling the rush of power generated by his own agony under control as his damaged body struggled to repair itself. The pain flowed to his well until it buzzed through his skin like a lightning strike. His vision went black, his stomach wanted to turn itself inside out. He couldn’t remember why a well of his own pain had ever seemed like a good idea. Expositors were maniacs. Cantrips were easier, being a demon was easier. Being dead was easier, but he had never been able to let that happen.
As the first overwhelming wave passed, Kai’s lungs reinflated. His heart stammered to a start again. He sat up, squinted at the light, and wheezed, “That’s better. Ramad, thank you.”
Ramad’s mouth dropped open. Dahin swooped down to grab the blade out of his hand, stepped to the stunned Faharin, and stabbed it down through his heart.
“Dahin!” Kai’s damaged lungs were still regrowing and his voice came out in a squawk. “What did you—”
“The Marshalls would kill him anyway!” Dahin snapped, wrenching the weapon around, widening the wound to make certain the man was dead.
Ramad clutched Kai’s arm, looking from him to Dahin and back in bewilderment. It was too late now; destroying the heart with Blessed metal was a sure way to kill even an Immortal Marshall. If they had taken the man prisoner, Ramad could have hauled him off to Benais-arik to disclose the rest of the Blessed conspirators. Kai said helplessly, “If you were going to just kill him, I could have drained him.”
“I can’t think of everything!” Dahin yanked the weapon free and stormed up the steps and out to the ascension raft. “Oh shitting great, Aunt Saadrin’s here! They’ve got her tied up in the cabin!”
“Don’t stab her!” Kai yelled, half falling over, trying to get his legs under him. Sharp pain shot through his knees. Ramad took a gasping breath and seemed to snap out of his daze. He shouldered Kai’s arm and hauled him to his feet. Together, they staggered up the steps and out onto the platform.
The heat and the stench of burning muck choked the air. Clouds of dark smoke obscured the platforms below and the sunken rooftops around them. Through the haze, sheets of fire rolled across the weed mat, more smoke billowing up.
“How did—What did—You set the water on fire?” Ramad sounded overcome, as if this was just too much. Kai wondered if that blow to the head had done something worse than break his nose. They might be able to get Dahin to help him, once they got out of here. “There was that much oil in it?”
“They’re intentions, they don’t need fuel to burn,” Kai told him. It certainly helped things along, but it wasn’t necessary. “It looks worse than it is.” Only the water around the tower and between it and the other intention was actually on fire, not the whole of the Summer Halls. Though from here at the top of the supplication tower it was hard to tell.
Ramad seemed to shake off his shock. “How long will it burn?” He helped Kai to the ascension raft, where a small gate stood open in the side. The interior was big enough to fit a dozen or more people, the floor curving up to form benches along the rails. White curtains were pulled away from the door of the domed cabin in the back, revealing a couple of cushioned couches and Saadrin half sprawled back against the wall. Her wrists and ankles were secured with gold metal bonds and something like a small plate had been fixed over her mouth, preventing her from talking. She was conscious, her eyes narrowed in fury.
“How long will it burn?” Dahin laughed. He stuffed his bag into a cubby in the cabin, ignoring his aunt. “How long has this place been flooded?”
“I know what I’m doing now, Dahin,” Kai snapped. He hated it when Dahin got like this. His legs were still shaking but he pulled away from Ramad. “It’ll stop in a few hours.” He felt a tentative touch from Ziede’s pearl and asked her, Are you all right? Her answer was a grumble. If she was conscious enough to be grumpy, she was going to be all right. He leaned back against the rail, relieved. “We need to go. And do not stab your aunt!”
“Fine, all right, fine.” Dahin dropped the Blessed blade and turned to the steering column. “I’ll get us out of here.”
“We have to find Ziede Daiyahah.” Ramad told Kai, “She was knocked out somehow, before we saw the raft.”
“I found her, she’s just woken.” Kai focused on yelling through Ziede’s pearl until she answered more coherently. Meet us down in the harbor, he told her, when he was sure she understood. Be cautious. The smoke was too thick for easy flying and he had no idea how many bodyguards and expositors had survived. With their luck, most of them. We’re on an Immortal Blessed ascension raft.
How did you—Never mind. She sounded fully alert finally. I’m going now.
“She’ll meet us in the harbor,” Kai said.
Dahin nodded, distracted as he wrestled with the steering column, trying to make it respond to him. Kai winced as the Well of Thosaren flowed through the raft. The alien power was too close, abrading his nerve endings, like an itch deep in his throat.
The deck pushed against his feet as the raft lifted off the platform. It dipped toward the top of the tower, then rotated away. “I’m out of practice,” Dahin muttered.
Ramad stumbled and grabbed the rail. Wisely, he didn’t comment on Dahin’s steering ability. “They can track this craft, correct?”
A cloud of suffocating smoke enveloped the raft and cut off any answers. Then they were out into open air, gray sky overhead, the raft pointed toward the edge of the Summer Halls earthwork. Kai coughed and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. Ramad’s expression was pinched; he wouldn’t be the first mortal to vomit on an ascension raft. Kai said, “When there’s time, Dahin should be able to stop any Blessed from finding the raft.” Then he made eye contact with the inhabitant of the cabin, who was glaring furiously. “Oh, and there’s Saadrin.” She had no reason to help the Blessed who had taken her prisoner. Surely this would make her easier to reason with. “We should—”
Something jolted the raft and a dark shape vaulted the rail. It slammed Ramad aside and he bounced off the bench and landed on the deck. It was the second amalgam, the big one made of both mortal and animal parts, with too many arms and shellfish claws instead of hands.
The raft rocked with its unexpected weight as it surged toward Dahin. Kai flung himself at it, struck the hard-shell plate protecting its chest. That startled more than hurt it, but it gave Dahin a heartbeat to swing the raft around. The amalgam wobbled backward and Kai shoved with the half-formed thought of sending it over the side. The biggest clawed arm swung toward him and the blow knocked him back into the rail.
Kai thumped down onto the deck, winded, his head ringing. His right eye had gone dark and fluid ran down his face. He clawed at it, trying to see, and something squishy came away in his hand. His stupid ghoul eye had come loose. He threw it away and looked up. The amalgam stood over him, claw lifted for another blow. There was no time for a cantrip, no time for an intention.
Ramad suddenly wrapped his arms around the clawed limb and wrenched it backward. The raft rocked again and dropped, Dahin cursing frantically. Metal screeched as the hull scraped solid ground; they were over the edge of the earthwork and sliding down the slope. The amalgam twisted toward Ramad and grabbed at his head with another claw. Kai pulled the telescoping rod out of his tunic and used the deck’s tilt to lunge forward and slide into the creature’s legs. He jammed the rod up into a gap in its carapace and triggered it.
The amalgam couldn’t roar without a mouth but it dropped Ramad. The extended end of the rod pierced its carapace and it leaned down to claw for Kai with all its arms. He jammed the rod in harder and twisted.
Ramad fell to the deck beside Kai, scrabbling for something. Then he shoved upright, the Immortal Blessed blade that Dahin had discarded in his hand. It went through the amalgam’s shell-covered chest like a knife through water.
Kai flung an arm over his head as the amalgam collapsed into component parts. Ramad staggered, breathing hard and bracing himself on his knees. Kai shoved amalgam limbs and a section of torso off himself and stumbled upright. His left eye had also gone dark. When something shoved him from that side, he thought it was Dahin.
Then the intention hit him.
It was meant to tangle, to freeze his limbs. Kai’s hip hit the curved metal bench just before the deck slammed into the side of his head. Cold power burned through the damp cotton of his tunic and into his skin. Dahin shouted, high-pitched and furious. Everything was blurry confusion, but a step away from Kai’s outstretched hand, Ramad sprawled on the deck again. More booted and sandaled feet stood in the raft than there had been a heartbeat ago, way too many. Then everything went dark.
FOURTEEN
The intention wrapped Kai in a web of cold, froze his blood, traced every vein in his body, and set a block of ice in his newly repaired heart. Around him were shouts and movement, but he turned all his focus inward.
He used the lingering pain from his torn flesh to unravel the design and drag its claws out of him, piece by chilly piece. His sense of Ziede returned and her fear filled his head, mixed with his own. She could tell something had happened to him but not what it was, and he couldn’t form the words yet to explain.
When Kai drove the ice out of his eyes, everything was blurry and half-dark, the gray sky obscured by weird shadows. He recognized Ramad, upside down and leaning over him. Kai was lying down, possibly on the bench below the raft’s rail, and he was pretty certain it was Ramad’s thigh under his head. Ramad squeezed his shoulder and breathed the word, “Careful.”
Right, they had been caught, someone was listening to them. There was an extremely powerful expositor nearby and that was very, very bad. Kai’s head hurt, his chest and back felt like he had been stepped on by a wallwalker and maybe ground into the dirt a little. He tried to move and Ramad gripped his shoulders to help him sit up.
Someone, speaking in Old Imperial with a Blessed accent, said, “You told us it would keep him unconscious.”
Kai’s vision was still blurry and shadowed. The raft was not moving and there were a lot of unfriendly people in it. Oh, the other stupid ghoul eye, Kai thought in exasperation. He pulled it out and flicked it away. Someone made a horrified exclamation of disgust, and next to him, Dahin muttered, “Ugh, Kai.”
He blinked and wiped at his eyes and the blurry scene resolved into clarity. It was worse than he thought.
The two Lesser Blessed. The bodyguards who had been on the lower platform, some bearing charred clothing and burns on their arms and legs. One was tossing amalgam limbs over the raft’s rail. The expositor with the veiled familiar was also aboard. The raft was at an angle but not a steep one, so it must be on the upper slope of the earthwork, maybe jammed on top of some brush. A smokey haze hung in the air, so the Summer Halls were still burning.
To Kai’s right, Dahin crouched on the bench, bleeding from a cut on the head, his teeth bared with the expression of a thwarted predator. Kai said silently to Ziede, They’ve got us, stay hidden. He let her see through his eyes and felt her groan of dismay.
The razored rod and the Immortal Blessed blade were nowhere to be seen, but one of the Blessed cradled a weapon that was far more deadly. It looked like the stock of an Enalin crossbow, but drew on the Well of Thosaren to cast a debilitating force onto anyone within a short range. If it was turned on a mortal long enough it would kill. During the war, Kai and the other Witches had never found an intention or cantrip that could stop it. The range was limited, but that didn’t help when they were cornered in this raft.
