Black Magic (32 page)

"Since when does the High Priest rule?"

"I rule as one of five, a recent decision handed down by the Goddess herself."

"Ah," Trellia replied, an entire country's scathing opinion voiced in that single word. "You have invaded my county without warning and without cause. If you do not return my people to me, compensate us for all the damage you have caused, and leave immediately, I will consider your actions a declaration of war. I have soldiers waiting not far from here and I promise that they greatly outnumber your small band."

"If you seek to start a war, it is one you will lose," Cerant intoned, eyes glowing.

It was the second—third?—time he had done that with no warning. He must have been getting better at it. Angelos would have been proud. Sorin made a note to tell Cerant that later. For the moment, he drew his sword and stepped forward. Brekk did the same, while Koray and Neikirk stepped back.

The guards surrounding Trellia attacked, flames erupting as one of the alchemists released an incantation. Sorin threw his arms up as the fire washed over him, but in the next moment it was gone and he was surrounded only by hissing steam.

Someone screamed and he heard Brekk's roar. Once the steam vanished and he was able to see again, Sorin found himself face to face with an angry soldier swinging his sword. Sorin brought his own up just in time, throwing power behind the swing, driving the soldier back to land on his ass. Sorin rounded on an alchemist, countered the strange green spell thrown at him with a burst of raging power, then sent the alchemist flying back—straight into Neikirk, who made short work of knocking her out.

It took them only minutes to subdue the rest of the guards and surround the queen. They stood, Sorin realized, as they would in their star, effectively trapping the queen in the very center of it.

Even as he thought it, they all began to glow. Lines of power poured out from them to form a star. Trellia tried to break out of it, drawing her own sword, but the center of the star had become a cage of light and eventually she dropped the sword in frustration and glared at all of them. "Is this what you do? Invade us and kill me and steal what is mine?"

"You are the one who bid your alchemists perform illegal experiments," Neikirk said.

"You kidnapped and tortured countless Vindeian citizens," Cerant said.

Brekk added, "You created the white demons."

"You left thousands of ghosts in agony, poisoning the living with it," Koray said.

"You were the one who wanted to destroy us. If you find yourself captive instead of captor, you've only yourself to blame," Sorin said. Power thrummed in his chest and understanding what the Goddess wanted was as easy as drawing breath. "In the name of the people, by the will of the Goddess, you are stripped of your power and Vindeia reclaims that which it lost so many centuries ago. Surrender peacefully or suffer the wrath of the Goddess."

"I choose wrath," Trellia said. "Why would I ever choose to return to living in your shadow? Navath has endured that too long already."

Cerant regarded her coldly. "Do not pretend to care about your country. A queen who cared would have put her people first. She would not enslave a portion of them and leave so many others to die in battles that never needed to be fought. She would not risk their lives and their wellbeing to overtake a country that never meant or caused them any harm. Do not pretend you are the maligned party here, Majesty. Everyone present knows that you're in the wrong, and the Goddess has had enough of seeing her people suffer."

Trellia remained unmoved by his words. "You pagans and your Goddess—" the words cut off as she dropped to the ground, out cold.

Brekk grimaced and stepped back. "She'll not wake any time soon. I'm sure killing her would be simpler, but …"

"There's been enough killing," Cerant said. He gestured to Emel. "Secure her, but make certain it's somewhere well away from the alchemists. I do not want them to so much as see each other. Goddess above, we are busy enough without trying to bring Navath back into our fold." He rubbed at his temples. "My head is killing me."

Sorin grunted, not feeling so great himself. As much power as he had used that day, even with the assistance of the star, he felt over-heated and so exhausted he could sleep where he stood. Movement caught his eye and he smiled fleetingly as the knight he'd spoken to earlier brought him a large cup of hot, dark tea. "Thank you."

"High Paladin," the knight replied and bowed before he strode off again.

Though the tea was hot enough it nearly burned his tongue, Sorin drank most of it down in several quick gulps. "You won't do anyone any favors if you die from choking on tea," Koray said scathingly.

Sorin grinned. "I'm sure you'll delight in saying I deserved it, necromancer. But here, spare me from my own stupidity for a few more minutes, by all means." He thrust the cup at Koray, then turned away so he could not hand it back, knowing Koray was probably miserable in the cold air but would never admit it. "So we have deposed a queen. That will not go over well."

"You might be surprised," came Rosta's voice as he pushed through a cluster of knights to join the circle. "Especially after learning she is responsible for those demons after all, when I said myself she would never do something so terrible. The king will be crushed."

"But will he fight our decision?" Sorin asked.

Rosta shook his head. "I doubt it, and if he tries I will handle it—if you will trust me. Certainly send some of your own soldiers with me. I think approaching quietly, without fuss, will go better than a giant fanfare though of course I understand if you prefer to go yourself."

"I'll go," Emel said, and at Brekk's look added, "There's no one else. I'll take care of everything here, with the help of those from Navath who will join us and whatever men you can spare from our forces. When all is well and in the hands of others who can be trusted, I'll return to the royal castle."

Sorin grimaced but nodded. "So be it, Emel, and thank you. I can think of no one better suited to the task." He sighed, then mustered his remaining energy. "Since it is clear by this point that no one is getting any sleep, let us break camp and head to where we need to be. Emel, take most of the men with you. I need only enough for caution's sake on the journey home, though we should not run into any serious threats now the white demons are all dead."

Emel nodded and left to start organizing the troops, Rosta falling into step beside him. Those Navath soldiers who had arrived with the queen, but not joined in the fight, slipped away to join their brothers. Sorin let them go after glancing at Cerant, who by his look shared the sentiment that they would cause no harm.

Turning to the knights and paladins clustered nearby, Sorin said, "I know you all heard me. Let's get this camp broken down. Someone bring me up to date on the burning of the castle. Where do we stand with food and equipment?" Exhaustion washed over him, only barely tempered by the tea. Sorin ignored it. There was too much to do and not nearly enough time to do it. "See the prisoners are escorted back to the royal castle under heavy guard. I want the queen watched by paladins at all times, and she is never to be unbound."

Brekk fell into step alongside him while they worked to sort out men and supplies, even as the sky began to turn a hazy gray. Sorin yawned and drank down still more tea when someone pressed it into his hands, trying not to think about how many more hours he would have to stay awake before everything slowed down enough that he could get some sleep.

And still he had not been able to speak with Koray, minus that jesting moment over the tea that had been so achingly familiar. That Koray had said anything at all, and in that scathing tone with little to no heat behind it, was heartening. The hope he was afraid to nurture strengthened a little bit more; he just hoped the delay in their talk would not hurt it.

Finishing the tea, Sorin handed the cup off and got back to work. The sooner they were home, the sooner he could make amends. If anything else impeded that goal, even the Goddess would not be able to control him.

Koray kept telling his heart to stop beating so quickly, but it simply would not listen—and it beat fit to burst every time Sorin looked at him with those haunted eyes. At first, he had taken it as disdain, as Sorin being quite content to be rid of him. Then he had not been certain. Why take care of him? Why fuss in that infuriating, but endearing way of his? Was he just trying to sooth the tension between the high paladin and the high necromancer?

But then he had made that comment about making amends, and Goddess how Koray wanted amends to be made. He just did not know how to do it, what to say.
I'm sorry
was a good place to start, but since he had woken they had scarcely had a moment alone together long enough for him to get the words out.

And the few moments they'd had, he had rather neatly wasted.

Koray jerked when he realized he'd started nodding off on his horse again. How did the paladins travel so hard and stay so awake? He resented every last one of them.

Nearby, somebody groaned, and Koray looked toward the exhausted looking woman with mostly gray hair. Nothing was left of her original color except a single wide strip of dark blonde. She and the other eleven necromancers they'd rescued from the castle travelled at the back of the caravan, what turned out to be a contingent of a hundred soldiers all told, an almost even mix of Vindeia and Navath. Even Sorin seemed surprised that so many Navathian soldiers had joined up with them. "Are you well?" Koray asked.

"I'm fine, High Necromancer," she said with a brief smile. "Only tired, and tired of the cold, same as everyone here."

Koray grimaced at her use of his title, still annoyed he had a title at all. "You need not call me that."

She laughed, as did the other necromancers nearby who could hear their conversation. "Why would we not? We necromancers have never had such cohesion, or a leader to call our own such as the priests and paladins possess. It makes us their equal in the eyes of everyone. No one will ever be able to deny that we serve the Goddess as faithfully as everyone else."

There was no way to argue with that, and so Koray dropped the matter. He tilted his head up to watch the sky, the heavy clouds that promised the snow would not be going away anytime soon. At least they would be home soon. Another day or two, ideally, and they would be home.

Home. His stomach knotted at the word, the way he dared to associate it with the royal castle. He had told himself over and over again that he was foolish for thinking of the castle as home, but it had never truly stopped him. The castle, and its confounding high paladin, had become his home. Koray looked down the lines of soldiers, but he was too far back to be able to see Sorin up at the head of the line. Home … if he were truly honest, he didn't really need the castle at all. He just needed the confounding paladin.

When the horns abruptly ordered a halt and caution, Koray frowned. He sensed nothing, and from the looks of those around him neither did they. "I will see what is wrong," Koray said. "Remain here." Leaving the lines, he rode along the side up to the front—and stopped in shock to see eight … no, nine demons in total collapsed in the road. Roughly half of them were on their knees, the rest completely passed out. "What's going on?" he asked, pulling his horse up alongside Cerant's. He flicked a glance to Sorin, who had dismounted and, with Brekk, was speaking with the demons.

"I have no idea," Cerant replied. "Neikirk said their energies were muddled—still corrupt, but struggling to correct. He says it looks like something jolted their systems. What could do that, I cannot imagine."

"The star?" Koray posed. "I definitely felt something when we stood within it, more than just the way we five have been bound together." Something he still did not like. It was bad enough to have the Goddess giving him headaches; he did not need the low, constant buzzing of awareness of the others at the back of his mind. He supposed he would simply have to get used to it, though.

Cerant smiled in a way that said he knew what Koray was thinking. "We'll adjust. It will certainly come in handy to know who exactly is in distress should it ever come to that. Oh, what is happening now …?"

Koray turned back to the demons, watching as Brekk drew the Lost Paladin's sword, which had begun to glow. He felt a faint tugging on his powers and after a moment of hesitation, let it go. Brekk shot him a surprised look, but the sword in his hand glowed brighter still, until the entire clearing around him was bathed in purple light.

Turning back to the demons, Brekk held the sword aloft and slowly, awkwardly, spoke words that must have been given to him by the Goddess, a prayer of purification that was somewhere between those used by the priests and those used by the necromancers.

Growing bright enough to be near-blinding, the purple light spread out to encompass the demons. Koray finally had to look away, exhaustion washing over him as more of his power was borrowed to fuel whatever was happening. When he finally felt the light begin to fade, he looked back—and gasped along with everyone else to see that the purification had worked. Instead of nine demons, there were nine humans: four women and five men.

He had never noticed that any of the demons were female, even though, in retrospect, it was obvious that at least some of them must be. Koray dismounted and pulled extra clothes from his saddlebags, striding up to one of the women and helping her into the spare robe. Paladins and soldiers quickly stepped forward to help the others. Koray handed off the woman he had helped before walking over to Brekk. "Are you all right?"

"Just tired," Brekk said. "You must be tired as well. Thank you for the additional power. I think with practice I will not need to borrow it, but right now I'm still not up to full strength."

Koray nodded. "Whatever you need." He smiled briefly, then headed back to his horse. He stopped when he saw Sorin waiting for him. "Yes?" he asked

Smiling crookedly, Sorin said, "I know you are only going to bite my head off for asking, necromancer, but I saw that Brekk needed your power and wanted to be certain you were all right."