02 - The Barbed Rose (38 page)

Kallista, help me!
Joh shouted through her mind.
Help us both
.

I will
. She began to pull back, and he clutched at the magic.

Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me alone with her. I don’t think I can bear it. Not again. Not here. There is something…wrong
.

Joh
. She twined the magic through him, making promises with it.
I must go, but only a little while. Only a little bit. I must, if I am to help you. Be strong, beloved
.

He jolted at the word, so she repeated it as she withdrew from him completely.

She tightened her hand over Viyelle’s where it rested on her arm, calling more magic, calling out to her blood sister.
Karyl, it’s time
.

Time?

To leave. To contact those friends of yours that you pretend you don’t know. I need a diversion
.

Karyl’s “voice” came back filled with suspicion.
Why?

So I can get Fox and Joh out of the Mother Temple house. They have them both. We need a diversion to call this Oskina away
.

Oskina? Herself?

Apparently
. She’d seen a report about her, Kallista remembered now. Torchay had a list of the reported rebel leaders. Oskina was at the top.

How big a diversion?
Karyl asked.

The bigger, the better. Can your friends explode something?

Possibly
.

We’ll meet across the river. North side of the North Temple
.

We won’t be there, sister
.

Of course you will
.

We’ve been talking about it, Kami and the boys and me. If I go, the loyalists in Turysh won’t have a farspeaker. If I stay, they will
.

Kallista did not need this. She already had enough to worry about.
You cannot stay in that house. They’ll be on you in two ticks
.

We have a place. Our friends will look after us
. Karyl’s voice took on sardonic amusement.
We only have to hide. It’s not like we’ll be taking on demons with our bare hands
. She paused.
Rid us of them, Kallista. We’ll do the rest
.

I’ll do my best
. What else could she do? She only hoped her best was good enough.
Be very careful
.

You, too
.

Call me when the diversion is ready
.

Yes
. And Karyl was gone.

Kallista blinked up at Torchay. “We ride tonight.”

“I will ready the horses.” Obed paused at the doorway and looked back. “Everything will be prepared when your plans are made. You have only to tell me who to kill.”

Viyelle stared at the now-empty doorway a moment longer before taking her hand from Kallista’s arm. “Is he always that bloodthirsty?”

Kallista didn’t know, not for certain. She shrugged and looked at Torchay.

“I think so, yes,” he said. “He’s never seemed to have a problem with killing. Or with dying himself, though he’s so closemouthed, it’s hard to know sometimes.

“All right,” he went on, “here’s the plan. We go in and get them out.”

“Sophisticated plan, that.” Kallista drew magic from Obed and Torchay and threw it out to Joh again. She’d promised only half a moment’s absence, and it had been over two ticks.

“You have a better one?” Torchay set Viyelle to packing gear with a look and the flick of a finger.

“No. Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.” Kallista locked the magics together and skated in on Joh’s paths. “Though we probably want to avoid notice as long as possible. I know the house. That will help. And Karyl’s arranging a diversion.

“Will you be able to ride, or do I ride with you?”

“We’re not walking?” Kallista diverted her attention from Joh to look at Torchay.

“Only the last part. How distracted will you be?”

“I won’t ride his vision unless I need to. Just listen in.”
Joh
, she whispered in his mind.

Goddess, Kallista, I can’t do this. Not with
her
here
. His panic flooded her and she did her best to calm it.

Shh. We’re coming. Hold on the best you can. I’m with you. I won’t leave you alone with her
.

“Distracted,” Torchay said somewhere in the distance. “Right, then.”

Kallista tried to help them pack while whispering reassurance to Joh. She didn’t attempt to borrow his sight, didn’t think he would let her. Was fairly sure she didn’t want to see.

She wasn’t much use at packing either, getting in the way and forgetting what she was doing. Torchay finally pushed her into a chair and told her to stay there. He passed the last of the packs out the door and over the loft edge to Obed, and came back to guide her down the steep stairs.

Not long now. Hang on
. Kallista breathed the promise in Joh’s mind and caught his flare of relief.

She tried again and again to reach Fox, to let him know they were coming, until she realized—later than she should have—that with each attempt, he locked himself tighter away. He might as well be hidden inside an iron-bound dungeon. Would she ever reach him again?

Torchay lifted her onto a horse and mounted behind her. They were in the street already? She needed to keep better track of her surroundings, but it was difficult with Joh’s panic shuddering through her.

They were halfway there when Karyl whispered distantly to her.
Diversion time. Armory outside the barracks
.

“Ride!” Kallista spoke aloud. It felt strange. “Our diversion is beginning.”

“You spoke only truth, didn’t you?” Oskina’s voice had Joh fighting his instinctive wince. “You
are
a shy one.”

It would serve no purpose to tell her that her presence was enough to shrivel nearly anything, so he kept his jaw clamped tight and clung to Kallista’s whisper in his mind. He tried for nonchalance, but knew Oskina could somehow smell the truth on him. He hated this.

He’d never been particularly modest, not like Obed whose discomfort at being merely shirtless was obvious. But nudity was one thing. Nakedness was another. Just now, he felt
naked
. With all his bits and parts exposed and vulnerable to being snipped off. He had no doubt that Oskina was the sort who would snip at any provocation. Or whim.

A tremendous boom, louder than thunder, made the floor tremble. Joh grabbed hold of a bedpost, wondering if the whole building was coming down on top of them. He almost wished it would.

Diversion
, Kallista whispered.
To get that woman away from you. We’re coming
.

She’d said it already, but only now did Joh begin to think they would come before—He shuddered.

Oskina yanked the door open. “What is happening out there?”

“I—we don’t know, Oskina Reinine,” a guard in the corridor spoke.

The title he used shocked Joh to his bones. Their ambitions went so far? But if not, why rebel?

“Do you want me to go find out?” The guard sounded eager for the task. To get away from Oskina? Did she affect even her own people this way? Why? Did he truly want to know?

Oskina looked over her shoulder at Joh and Fox standing side by side nearer the bed than made Joh comfortable. Her scowl made it worse. “No,” she said to the guard. “I’ll do it myself. I am surrounded by incompetents.”

Then she spoke to Joh. “Wait for me. I won’t be long.” And she slammed the door shut behind her.

He heard the lock click. His knees wanted to buckle in relief, but he had no time.
She’s gone
, he warned Kallista,
but there are guards outside our door. Two, I think
.

Good. Soon. We’re in the plaza. I need to leave you if you’re all right. I can’t do this and fight
.

Go
. He wanted to cling, but had to let her go. He needed her whole. She whispered a kiss across some part of him he couldn’t name and was gone.

Joh scooped up the pile of clothing and sorted it, tossing Fox’s trousers at him. “Get dressed. Kallista’s coming for us.”

He didn’t know what triggered it, whether Oskina’s absence or Kallista’s name or the trousers hitting the other man in the chest. Joh had his own trousers halfway up when Fox attacked. He tackled him, knocking Joh to the ground. Fox fastened his hands around Joh’s throat, an animal growl rumbling from his chest.

Joh fought back, breaking the hold on his neck and kicking off his trousers to fight unhampered. “
Fox, stop it
. I’m here to help!”

They rolled together across the floor, grappling for advantage. Fox had it. He fought to kill while Joh fought only to control. “Kallista sent me!”

Nothing seemed to get through. Fox fought like a feral thing, using teeth and nails along with fists and feet. He weighed more, had a longer reach, and was nearly as quick as Joh. He’d been trained as a warrior since he was a child of six. Too soon, Joh had all he could do just to stay out of the man’s grasp.

Was
he possessed? Did that explain his single-minded fury?

Joh leaped onto the bed and across it to escape being cornered. He jerked to a stop in midair, head snapping back as Fox caught his braid and yanked. He slammed down and bounced on the hard mattress. The braid made a fine handle. “Fox,
stop
. Kallista sent me. She’s com—”

“You lie.”
The tall blond man used the braid to jerk Joh up off the bed, and wrapped it around his throat. “You tried to kill her.”

Once he would have let Fox kill him because of that. But no more. She needed him, needed his eyes at the very least. He had to live.

“I’m marked.” Joh squeezed the words out past the thick cord around his throat. “
Marked
, Fox.”

“You lie.” But the pressure eased. A bit.

“Just look.” Breathing was still a struggle, but he could do it. “She’s coming. She sent me to find you.”

The braid loosened, replaced with Fox’s big hand positioned to crush his larynx in an instant if he moved the wrong way. Joh spread his hands away from his body, opened them. Fox waited until Joh went still, then moved the braid aside and looked.

A wet thumb scrubbed across the mark. “It doesn’t rub off.” Fox’s voice sounded harsh.

“No. It’s real. I’m marked.”

“You tried to kill them, Kallista and Stone.”

“And Obed. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know it would explode. I thought it would heal her, cure her of the West magic. I was a fool, but I know better now.” Joh talked fast, trying anything, everything to convince this man who literally held his life in his hands.

“I should kill you.” The hand tightened and Joh froze even more motionless. “Tell me why I should not.”

“Torchay will be disappointed you didn’t let him do it.”

A single bark of laughter escaped Fox. “He would.” He opened his hand.

Joh collapsed onto the bed. It was the quickest way to get away from that grip. He rolled off and found his trousers where he’d kicked them. “Get dressed. They’ll be here soon.”

Obed called their attention to a small woman riding out with an escort of brown-cloaked Barbs as Kallista followed him on foot across the plaza. They’d left the horses tied in the southwest corner garden. No one would bother them, even with things so unsettled. The horses had drovers’ harnesses, and everyone knew drovers did not look kindly upon anyone molesting their precious horses. Too many earless drovers testified to that fact. And too many earless corpses of the non-drover variety.

She had to look again at the woman before she saw the dark cloud of demon floating above her. First, rescue Fox, then with his magic, she could deal with the demon.

Kallista led them through the quiet kitchens and back hallways, empty of workers at this hour. Most of them had gone to see what had caused the noise. The taste of magic grew stronger as they climbed. She’d gone gloveless all week as part of her disguise, and now Kallista called her lightning. Her anger needed the outlet. She almost wished Oskina had stayed, so Kallista could deal her the punishment she deserved.

“Let us take the guards,” Torchay murmured from behind her, his hair standing out in a halo round his face because of the electricity she’d raised. “Your lightning’s too loud.”

Thunder did ride with it. Kallista let the lightning disperse back into the air with a crackle of sparks. “Do it.” She backed away from the corner of the corridor, making room for Torchay and Obed to move up side by side.

They looked at each other, dark eyes and blue. Torchay mouthed the count and as one, they stepped around the corner and let their blades fly.

Kallista was running before the bodies hit the floor. She shoved open the door, putting her shoulder to it when the lock stuck, and she stumbled in to find Joh pulling his tunic down over his head and Fox—

Fox stood half-dressed in the center of the room, tunic in his hands, head up, nostrils flaring as if he could smell her. “Kallista?” he said in a voice softer than whispers.

She flew across the room, needing to hold him, to be sure he was safe and whole. He caught her—he could do nothing else—but moved his hands down to his sides as she hugged him. “Fox.” She took his face between her hands and kissed him.
“Fox.”

She’d lost all ability to say anything else. He was here, with her. Nothing else mattered.

“I hate to break up this lovely reunion,” Torchay said from the doorway. “But we need to be out of here before Oskina and her demon come back.”

Joh took two steps and retched into the chamber pot. “She has a pet demon?”

“Actually, I think the demon has a pet Oskina. Come.” Kallista tugged Fox toward the door. What was wrong with him? “Fox, get dressed.”

Then she saw Joh’s face. He was bruised and swollen, his lower lip half again its normal size and still rising. His neck looked almost worse.

“What happened to you?” she demanded.

“Fox.” Joh licked blood from his lip. “He took exception to my trying to blow you up.”