Blood of Innocents (Book Two of the Sorcery Ascendant Sequence) (36 page)

“Searching for evil and snuffing it out?”

“Whatever it takes to keep people safe.”

“And an invading army of malevolent sorcerers taking over a city isn’t your concern?”

“It’s too big for us. Once we return to Gazija, I’ll be taking my men and striking out to the south. Perhaps we’ll return to the Desolate Lands. I’m sure the emperor is more than capable of dealing with the Indryallans.”

“Gazija isn’t so sure…”

Aidan shot him a searching look. “He said so?”

“No. But he wouldn’t be gathering companies of mercenaries if he thought pushing the invaders back would go smoothly.”

“That’s… likely true. Time will tell, though. With the emperor’s forces and Gazija’s combined, I can’t see how they’d fail.”

“At least we’re removed from the fighting. A few more days of uneventful riding and I’ll almost feel relaxed.”

•

“Jukari,” hissed cel Rau.

He was crouched over what Vasile could only describe as a large rat dropping, dry, and with hairs sticking out of it. He cringed when cel Rau rubbed the blob and sniffed his fingers.

“Fresh?” asked Aidan.

The swordsman nodded curtly.

They were crouched behind a low, dry stone wall, which looked to have been erected as a windbreak by frequent travelers in the area. It surrounded a fire pit, and there were scraps of cloth and bits of rusted, broken buckles and other manmade objects strewn around the enclosure. It must have been in use for a long time.

There was a dark patch of dirt close to the jukari leavings, which Aidan scuffed at with his boot. “Blood,” he said.

Cel Rau leapt onto the wall and crouched there, eyes scanning the dirt around it. “Four. No… five, possibly more. They headed south, after—”

Chalayan sidled up to Vasile. “After eating the hapless person sheltering here. Bones and all, Magistrate. Bones and all.”

Vasile shivered, rubbing his arms.

“I don’t know how so many have escaped attention so close to civilization,” said Aidan. “But we can’t leave them roaming around. They’re too dangerous.”

Both Chalayan and cel Rau nodded their agreement.

Vasile wasn’t so sure. “We can’t go off on a side quest,” he said. “Every day we waste could have serious consequences for Anasoma, for Gazija, and for the emperor’s Quivers.”

Aidan reached out and clasped cel Rau on the shoulder, but spoke to Vasile. “So you assume. A few days’ delay shouldn’t affect anything. And more innocent people might die if we leave this problem unattended.”

“Why do you make it sound like this is just a routine problem, easy to fix?”

“Because, Magistrate, it is. This is what we do.”

Aidan gave orders to Chalayan and cel Rau, and soon they were all moving south, though now they led their horses. Vasile had been given strict instructions to gather the reins and control the horses if anything untoward happened.

Cel Rau went first, leading them at a swift pace, presumably following jukari tracks, but anytime Vasile tried to see them, they’d been overlaid with the footsteps of the three men in front of him and their own mounts.

Chalayan muttered to himself, while Aidan was silent. Cel Rau kept touching the hilts of his swords. Each of the men prepared for whatever might happen in their own way. Vasile’s bladder felt full. He followed behind the others, eating their dust, when cel Rau called a halt at the bottom of a rise. To their left was another of the up-thrust rocky outcrops.

Cel Rau beckoned to them, and they gathered to hear what he had to say. Vasile looked around for a place to relieve himself, made his excuse, and left them to deliberate. He wouldn’t be of any use, he was sure, and they could just tell him their plan when he got back.

Another cave bore into the rocks, and he avoided getting too close, shuffling to the side and opening his trousers with relief.

Behind him, he could hear the others arguing, as they always did. He glanced over his shoulder to see them tying the horses together and sidling toward the top of the rise, crouched low, as if they were trying to avoid attention. Something must have spooked cel Rau, else they wouldn’t be so cautious.

A clatter of rocks drew his attention to the cave. Vasile peered into the blackness. Was that movement? There was a muted snuffling, then two yellow eyes gazed back at him. Something growled.

He turned and ran, managing a few steps before his trousers fell down around his ankles, tripping him into the dirt. Rocks clattered behind him, and he twisted to see a bulky form move toward him out of the dark of the cave.

Sunlight hit the creature, and it flinched, turning its head away from the glare, blinking. It was a full yard taller than a grown man. Its skin was a mottled gray, head covered with short, thick black hair, almost fur-like. Two slanted yellow eyes peered out above a protruding beak of a nose.

A jukari. The first he’d seen.

Vasile remained frozen, hoping if he kept still it wouldn’t notice him, and that Aidan, cel Rau, and Chalayan had seen the beast and were rushing toward him.

The creature wore thick leather trousers stitched together with crude seams, and from its neck dangled a chain of finger bones, along with a crude medallion. In one hand, it carried a sword spotted with rust, the biggest Vasile had ever seen.

He risked a glance toward the rise and bit down on a curse. Aidan and the others were lying low at the top and hadn’t seen his predicament. He inched his way backward. Sweat dripped into his eyes, stinging them, and he blinked furiously. His foot scraped against a rock.

The jukari stopped moving. It sniffed the air, moving its head back and forth. It knew something had disturbed its rest, but coming from the darkness of the cave into the daylight, its eyes hadn’t adjusted yet.

It’s only a matter of time,
realized Vasile. He leapt to his feet and dragged his trousers to his waist, making a dash toward the horses. With luck, it would focus on the animals, if he made it that far.

Loud hoots came from behind him, followed by a harsh barking.

To his horror the call was answered by others beyond the rise.

Vasile lurched for the horses. He expected that huge sword to split him in two at any moment.

Stumbling around his mount, he risked a look behind. The jukari was heading straight at him, but slowly, as if it knew he couldn’t escape. Aidan, cel Rau, and Chalayan rushed down the rise toward him. They weren’t shouting to distract the jukari, which he found alarming, but cel Rau had drawn both his swords and raced ahead of the others. Chalayan stopped and was doing something sorcerous.

Vasile hoped the jukari would burst into flames, before remembering Chalayan couldn’t do that… yet. Cel Rau sped toward the beast, and it noticed his approach.

He isn’t going to… He is. Madness,
thought Vasile, relieved he wasn’t the jukari’s target anymore.

The huge sword rose above the jukari’s head, ready to strike at the swordsman. Cel Rau aimed himself at a waist-high rock, then used it to launch through the air, straight at the nightmare beast.

Grunting in surprise, the jukari swung its sword. Too late.

Cel Rau’s thrust penetrated its left eye, while his second blade punctured its neck. The jukari bellowed in pain. Cel Rau’s feet struck it in the chest, and he used his grip on his swords to twist his body out of the way of the beast’s blade, which flashed past him, a finger’s width from his shoulder.

Wobbling, the jukari stumbled to its knees, cel Rau riding the beast down, staring into its eyes. He shouted something, but Vasile couldn’t make out the words.

The swordsman stepped from the jukari onto the ground, pulling his blades from the dying creature, then thrusting one into its chest. Placing one foot beside his sword, cel Rau ripped it free, and the jukari thumped to the dirt, lifeless.

Vasile stared. By the ancestors, if things had been different, he might be dead. Nausea rose in his throat.

Aidan strode up beside him. “Quite the showman, eh? We’re lucky there was just one in that cave.” At his words, more hoots and barking came from beyond the rise, and Aidan’s expression turned grim. “Come on, we have to get out of here. There’re more on the way. They’ve our scent now.”

Aidan pushed Vasile toward his horse, as both cel Rau and Chalayan approached at a run. The sorcerer’s eyes were fear-filled and wild, while cel Rau looked nervous. And if the normally taciturn swordsman looked nervous, they were in trouble.

Vasile dragged himself into his saddle and urged his horse in the direction of Aidan, who waved him past. In moments, Chalayan caught up and began to overtake him.

“Hurry, Magistrate,” hissed the sorcerer. “Fall behind, and you’ll be for the cook pot—except they won’t cook you.” With a humorless laugh, Chalayan cast a frantic look over his shoulder then rushed ahead.

Aidan came up behind and slapped Vasile’s mount hard across the hindquarters, spurring it to greater speed. “Keep up, Vasile. You don’t want to be left behind.”

“So Chalayan said,” he shouted. “Cel Rau killed one, and he said there were only a few. Four or five.”

Aidan shook his head. “More than that. They must have been a splinter group or scouts, detached from their main force.”

“Main force?” repeated Vasile, stunned. Jukari hadn’t been seen together in large numbers since the Shattering.

“Look behind us,” said Aidan. “Then you’ll stop asking questions until we’re well away from here.”

Shifting in his saddle, Vasile twisted and peered back the way they’d come. Dust from their horses swirled around, but there, close to the up-thrust rocks the jukari had come from, several large figures milled around.
Not several,
Vasile thought with dread, as more joined them, and still more. They poured over the top of the rise where Aidan, cel Rau, and Chalayan had been only a short time before like ants. Among them were other smaller, darker, humanoid shapes, though fewer in number. This far away, Vasile couldn’t see them in detail, but sunlight glinted from shiny metal objects they wore.

“Enough gawking,” shouted Aidan. “We’ve horses and they don’t, but there might be more ahead of us. For now, we ride like our lives depend on it!”

Which they do,
thought Vasile.

•

Vasile watched as Aidan slid from his horse and led the beast by the reins. Both cel Rau and Chalayan followed suit, and Vasile reluctantly did the same.

To their left, the orange sun was cut in half by the horizon, and light was fading fast. It was best they lead the horses now, but Vasile couldn’t help wanting to keep riding, knowing what they’d left behind. All three of his companions had remained tight-lipped for the last few hours, only speaking when absolutely necessary.

He was tired. And thirsty. And hungry. He’d drained his last waterskin some time ago, and they hadn’t passed a stream where he could refill them. Clearing his throat, he wiped dust from his face, regretting using water to wash it earlier. Riding last wasn’t pleasant, but it was better than no horse at all.

“Aidan,” he croaked, throat dry. “I need more water.”

Aidan shook his head but took a full skin of his own, waited for Vasile, then handed it to him.

“You need to be sparing with your water,” said Aidan. “And refill every time you can, since there’s no telling when you’ll get the next chance.”

Vasile nodded gratefully, rinsed the dust from his mouth, and spat. After a few swallows of water, he coughed and spoke. “We’re going to keep walking through the night, aren’t we?”

“Yes. There’s no helping it. We’ve some distance on the jukari, but we need more, and we need to get to Riversedge as fast as possible.”

“To inform the Quivers, so they can send out a patrol and kill these monsters?”

Aidan looked at him, eyes hard. “It’ll take more than a patrol to deal with this. We need to warn the city what’s coming so they can prepare.”

Vasile swallowed. “How many were there? I didn’t see.”

“Too many. More than I thought existed. Along with a few vormag. And those… no one’s seen or heard of them for decades.” Aidan cast a worried glance behind them and wiped his hands on his shirt.

“Vormag? Surely you jest? They’re from children’s fairytales.” Except he knew Aidan told the truth.

Aidan laughed mirthlessly in reply. “So most people believe. And that’s the way the Quivers like it. The less people know, and the safer they feel, the better. We didn’t only hunt jukari, you know; there’s all manner of foul creatures from the Shattering out there, some much worse.”

Vasile shivered at Aidan’s grim tone. Vormag had been created after the jukari, a supposed improvement on the intelligent yet clumsy beasts. Stories had them leading the jukari during the Shattering, one step below the sorcerers who’d created them. A thought rose to the surface.

“They’re sorcerers, aren’t they? That’s one of the tales.”

With a grim smile, Aidan nodded. “Some are. The Protectors wiped out as many as they could, and still look for them. But they’re cunning, and far more intelligent than jukari.”

“Why have they gathered?”

“Your guess is as good as mine, but not for anything we’d recognize as a reason. They’re not like us; their thoughts and motives are unfathomable. We just don’t think the same way. And they’re heading straight for Riversedge.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Elpidia fought with her desire for answers and her need to take care of Miranda. Answers? she wondered to herself. Some answers brought more pain than solace. Did she want them, or the results they brought, the options they opened up for her?

“Pah!” she spat, startling the apprentice bustling around the room. The girl had brought a lamp and other odds and ends they thought she’d need, along with extra bedding when Elpidia told them she’d be sleeping in the same room as Miranda.

Caldan and a man she hadn’t seen before had just left, with Caldan promising to come back soon. Whatever they’d done to Miranda looked to have helped the poor woman, but she was still far from healthy.

Time. That was what Elpidia needed more than anything. Time to experiment, to find a cure for her disease before… death. It was coming for her. She scratched at the rash on her neck.