Blood of Innocents (Book Two of the Sorcery Ascendant Sequence) (72 page)

Caldan followed his gaze toward the jukari horde. The two running from them had stopped and were waiting for more of their kind to bolster their courage. He knew they’d return soon, and in greater numbers. Anshul knew what the Protectors and warlocks were capable of, and that told Caldan he was involved with them somehow. He’d better watch his words around these two.

“Let’s go, then.” Caldan indicated for the swordsman to take his horse, and he led Vasile’s mount toward Riversedge.

He felt… good. For the first time in a long time. He’d used sorcery in a good way. There must be a case for using forbidden sorcery in certain situations. He shook his head; that was a thought for another day. All he had to do now was concentrate on getting back to Riversedge alive. As he jogged toward the road, leading the horse, he saw the swordsman eyeing the blackened circle of grass littered with three charred and smoldering jukari with interest. He’d likely never seen such sorcery before. Maybe he thought it was alchemical?

The swordsman flicked him a blank look Caldan couldn’t decipher, before turning his horse to ride alongside, holding Vasile’s shoulder to keep him in the saddle.

•

Amerdan wondered if Bells had any idea what he really was. Probably not, he decided. To the sorcerer, the wonder of someone having more than one well was enough to make her giddy. He was someone to be protected… nurtured. And given to her God-Emperor as some kind of gift. But the only gifts would be their talents to him.

Amerdan watched her as she assembled her
crafting
: metallic shapes covered with acid-etched runes and symbols, only a few of which he recognized. Everything he knew, he’d learned from her; knowledge she deigned to hand out to him when she wasn’t busy with her
crafting
. He’d pushed for more, once or twice, too eager to have it all and be done with the sorcerous slit. But she’d told him it could be harmful to his progress, or his mind, or some such drivel. Still, until he knew better, it was best to be cautious.

But the need… Sometimes, when her back was toward him and she wouldn’t even know, he imagined his knife inside her… He’d had to close his eyes and restrain himself. Even now, he warred within himself, between the need and whether he really required her to develop his sorcerous talent.

Soon, he promised himself once more.

“What does it do?” he asked for the fourth time.

“I told you, it’s far too complicated to explain.”

Amerdan’s fingers twitched toward his knife. Inside his shirt, his rag doll brushed against his skin. “So you said. But I didn’t ask how it works, I asked what it does.”

Bells paused at her work. In her hands, she held a flat metal disc with a hole bored through the center, one of a dozen she’d begun threading onto a steel rod attached to a thin stone base. Once they were all placed onto the rod, it would look like a layered cake, made of various different crafted metals.

“It’s a focus, of sorts. It will allow a sorcerer a long distance away to home in on my location, and transfer their power here.”

Amerdan studied Bells. Her hands caressed the metal disc almost lovingly. Not accustomed to being disturbed, he was nevertheless… unsettled. Why would she need someone else to know her location and give her power? Perhaps she wasn’t strong enough to face the emperor on her own. Except… from what he knew, her sorcery should far surpass anything the emperor could manage in his defense. He fingered the coin now linked to him that would give him safe passage to the emperor.

“But you need me to bring it close to the emperor now. Where will you be?”

Bells smiled at him. “That won’t be necessary anymore. I’ve been given new orders. We only have to get as close to the emperor as we can, among his forces. Then it’ll all be taken from our hands when he arrives.”

“He? Aren’t we going to kill the emperor?”

Still smiling, Bells’ eyes took on a faraway look. “No, that’s not our task anymore. The God-Emperor himself will be here soon. He’s able to come here thanks to our work. All this senseless warring will be over when he does. I can’t wait for you to meet him.”

Chapter Forty-Four

“Now!” yelled Caldan, and threw himself into the drainage ditch beside the road, covering his ears.

Cel Rau landed a few yards away, and Caldan ruptured the
crafting
he’d left on the ground before the jukari attacked.

A wave of force washed over them, pressing them hard into the damp earth and weeds. Crackles of lightning played around the edge of the ditch, but he’d calculated the safe distance effectively. Though he still held onto the shield surrounding them, he didn’t want to stress it unduly, so they stayed away from the destructive sorcery.

This was the fourth one he’d destroyed, and he’d become proficient in determining the radius of destruction based on the strength of the
crafting
. As he only had paper
crafting
s left, the area wasn’t large, but it was enough to kill any jukari close to the source.

He scrambled to his feet, glancing toward Vasile on the horse to ensure he was still mounted. Vasile’s horse seemed quite happy to keep wandering down the road away from the commotion behind it, trailing the spare horse, which left Caldan and cel Rau to deal with the groups of jukari coming for them.

More blackened, smoking jukari corpses littered the road. Outside the charred circle, a lone jukari snarled at them, glancing at its dead fellows and edging around the ring toward them.

Caldan shouted and sprang at the monster. In the blink of an eye, he crossed the distance between them, and his blade hacked deep between its head and shoulder. Sticky blood spurted, black and almost glutinous. The thing whimpered and crumpled to the ground. He blinked sweat from his eyes and gasped for breath. Unlike the previous times he’d had sudden bursts of strength and speed, this instance stayed with him. Though it seemed to ebb and flow, the feeling didn’t fully dissipate, as if it knew it would be needed soon and stayed in a state of readiness. On his finger, his
trinket
felt heavy and warm, like its weight had increased, and it burned from within.

Rupturing the
crafting
s was the crudest, and only, form of destructive sorcery he knew. It gave them an edge when facing big groups of jukari, as long as they could get out of the blast. Caldan wished he knew more about the sorcery, forbidden or not. In situations like this, he’d find it very useful to be able to control the forces like he’d seen Bells do. More than useful; almost essential.

Cel Rau came to his side as Caldan wiped his sword on the jukari’s coarse clothes.

“That’s eleven to you,” said the swordsman. “You’ve passed Vasile, but you’ve still a ways to catch up.”

Caldan nodded grimly. “Let’s hope I don’t. If I do, it means we’ll likely be overrun, and then you won’t care about the count.”

Back along the road, ever shrinking black circles marked where he’d had to revert to using destructive sorcery. In the closest spots, jukari corpses still smoldered. As good a swordsman as cel Rau was, and Caldan gauged the tribesman was one of the best he’d ever seen, they wouldn’t have survived so long without Caldan resorting to destroying his
crafting
s and shielding them from both the explosions and the jukari weapons.

But was he really using destructive sorcery? Deliberately overloading
crafting
s and shattering their stability was unrefined and wasteful, and nothing like what Bells could achieve. He doubted the Protectors would see it that way.

“Come on,” said cel Rau. “There’s more coming.”

Caldan raised his head. Already, another two groups of jukari were rushing toward them. He glanced quickly past Vasile to where a family of five hastened to the protective walls of Riversedge. Close. They were so close now. He fancied he could make out the figure of Master Mold atop the wall next to the gate.

He ran a hand over his hair and massaged the back of his neck. Wearily, he blew out a breath.

Cel Rau mistook his concern about what the Protector’s reaction would be to his use of sorcery for tiredness and a weakening of his will. The swordsman slapped him on the back.

“We’ll do our best. That’s all we can do.”

Caldan pulled his gaze from Mold and took off after cel Rau. In between fights, they made the most of the time to cover as much distance to Riversedge as they could. There were no refugees between them and the jukari; all that were left were ahead of Vasile.

As they reached Vasile, cel Rau uttered a few harsh words in a language Caldan didn’t recognize and pointed to their left and right.

“By the ancestors,” muttered Caldan.

Two separate groups of jukari had skirted the road and passed them by, likely while they were fighting other jukari. For them to be so far ahead and not seen until now, they must have made a wide detour around them. Either they were part of other jukari groups approaching Riversedge, or they’d deliberately bypassed Caldan and cel Rau as too difficult and headed straight for easier prey. And behind them came three vormag. The sorcery-wielding creatures were enveloped in shields. They stopped and joined hands. An eerie wailing came from their mouths, and around them the grass began to wither and blacken, then it burst into flames. As they chanted, the blaze extended in a line to their left and right.

A sorcerous barrier, realized Caldan. Similar to what the Indryallan’s used on the walls of Anasoma. The vormag were leaving the jukari to sate their desire for blood, while using their sorcery to prevent whoever remained outside Riversedge from reaching the city.

Caldan probed at the barrier and recoiled at the writhing fury of the vormag’s wells. They felt like jagged rents in reality, far removed from the smooth wells he was used to sensing. As he was about to pull away something latched onto his senses and he screamed in pain as spiked hooks dug deep. He felt his mind, and his well wrenched toward the vormag. He could feel their hunger and hate. Frantically he slammed his well shut, leaving himself defenseless. The vormag’s grip dissolved when there was nothing to hold onto.

Whatever else the vormag had planned, Caldan didn’t want to wait around to find out, and if he didn’t act swiftly, the family running for Riversedge would be slaughtered.

Caldan’s blood boiled in his veins. His
trinket
pricked his finger, as if it had grown barbs. He waved cel Rau ahead, toward the spare horse.

“Use the mount. Make sure Vasile’s all right. I’ll take care of these. You just make sure you stay in front of the jukari behind us.”

Without waiting for a reply, Caldan surged forward, legs pumping as fast as he could move them. The road and trees flashed past in a blur. Ahead, the father of the family kept glancing behind them down the road, relief on his face. He obviously hadn’t seen the jukari coming at them from both sides. Or the vormag’s fiery barrier blocking their path. They were a hundred yards from the gates of Riversedge and wouldn’t make it to safety.

Caldan desperately urged himself to greater speed, boots slamming down on the stone-paved road.

High-pitched screams sounded from the family as their three daughters saw the barrier. They stopped, the father gathering his daughters to him, wife clutching at his arm.

“Don’t stop,” whispered Caldan to himself, knowing they’d made a potentially fatal mistake. He flung his smith-crafted beetle into the air, sending it toward the vormag. He had no more sorcerous crafted globes, but he could always destroy the automaton if it came to that. He leapt the drainage ditch to the east and raced toward a group of jukari, aiming to place himself between them and the family.

“Keep going!” he shouted at them.

They looked at him with fear-filled faces. After a moment, the parents half-carried, half-dragged their crying children with them. Seeing them start moving again, he adjusted his direction slightly to intercept the jukari, and for the briefest instant transferred his awareness to his beetle, seeing through its eyes. Now eight vormag, with six jukari he was heading toward. He didn’t have a choice.

Gritting his teeth, he prepared to destroy his beetle, when arrows rained down on the jukari. Both groups crumpled under the onslaught of heavy arrowheads slicing through flesh and bone. Moments later, all that was left of the jukari were corpses sporting arrow shafts like pin cushions. Finally, they were close enough to Riversedge for the Quivers to take some action, but that still left the vormag. With their barrier up they would be trapped, but he knew the vormag were too strong for him to face alone. Perhaps they could be forced to abandon the wall they’d created.

Caldan dove his beetle into the midst of the vormag. He dropped another sorcerous crafted globe, linked to it, and ruptured the anchor.

Smoke and dust surrounded the vormag. Caldan looked behind him and their fiery barrier crackled and died, leaving a charred line on the ground. He yelled in triumph. Then a breeze blew and revealed the still standing vormag. They’d covered themselves with shields, though one was bent over, clutching at a gash in its leg.

He could feel their gaze on him.

Caldan screamed as razor sharp teeth ravaged his well. He fell to his knees, hands clutching his head. They were almost inside him. Choking back a howl, Caldan drew as much as he could from his well, trying to use its erosive force to prevent them latching onto him. A thrust from one of the vormag tore into his well only to jerk out when it encountered his roiling power. The tearing stopped.

Caldan found himself on his hands and knees, head bowed, panting heavily. Sweat dripped down his nose and onto the dirt. He dragged himself to his feet.

Arrows from the Quivers inside Riversedge hailed into the vormag’s shields, which were almost entirely covered with sparkles. The ground around them was like a pincushion, so many arrows had the Quivers loosed on them. With eerie cries and howls the vormag turned and retreated, shafts from the Quivers following them.

If they were unhindered they would have torn me apart,
realized Caldan.

He raised his sword in a salute to the Quivers on the wall as cheers reached his ears. On the road, the family continued toward the gate. Safe. They would make it. Now to see to cel Rau and Vasile.