Hunters (Spirit Blade Part 1) (6 page)

Kaelen made his way to the horse's head amid tigers that acted as if he didn't matter. "Then hand me the dagger."

"No." She looked about and caught Lord Je'Kaoron's questioning expression. How many of the others knew about the dagger? She would bet he had told High Lord Je'Dron, especially in regards to her destroying it since it had killed the high lord's half-blood son.

She tried to turn the mare, but the reins were nearly pulled from her fingers. "Let go."

Kaelen stood firm, his mouth in a hard line amid the black stubble along his jaw. "Hand it to me and…I won't bother you again."

To say the offer didn't tempt her would be a lie. However, she couldn't allow anyone to take advantage of its power. It had to be destroyed, even if that meant being harassed by him.

And he wouldn't give up. He'd follow her everywhere until he had what he wanted. The thought sent a shudder of irritation through her.

"Join us, Hunter."

Nadia looked up in surprise as Lord Je'Kaoron rode up on her right, a glimmer in those blue eyes that made her wonder what he planned. She bit her tongue and waited.

"Join us. Once we have completed our task, you may claim the dagger."

She couldn't have heard that correctly.

"In doing so," he added in a darker tone, "I will hold you to your promise, and Nadia will be free from you forever." Lord Je'Kaoron couldn't mean what he said.

No, he didn't. Lord Je'Kaoron was a man of riddles. He wouldn't betray her—or his own kind—by letting Kaelen simply have the spirit blade. Once they completed the task, the dagger would be gone, but Kaelen didn't know that. But what did he mean by being free of her forever?

From the ashen color of Kaelen's face, he wasn't sure he liked the sound of the offer.

"What assurances may I have that you'll not decide to…hunt me?"

"We do not hunt humans."

"No," Kaelen muttered while looking from Lord Je'Kaoron to her with his lip curling in distaste. "I suppose not."

Rage flared in Nadia at the insinuation in his look, but she fumed in silence while waiting for him to mount one of the extra horses held ready.

The tigers gathered closer together, while Lord Je'Kaoron motioned her to join him.

Nadia rode forward through an aisle of tigers standing aside for her to pass. They closed up behind her, blocking Kaelen. She would thank the demonlords later. Lord Je'Kaoron said nothing but gave her a quick glance a moment before riding forward.

They set out from the valley and around the mountain home of Acropa Je'Gri, leaving the familiar comforts behind. The tigers spread out to surround her and Lord Je'Kaoron in the lead with Kaelen and several mounted orange and black armored guards strung out behind them.

Riding close to Lord Je'Kaoron so their horses pinned ears at each other, Nadia said in a low voice, "Thanks."

"I would rather not see you upset, as his presence seems to cause."

She pursed her lips and peered over her shoulder at the hooded figure a ways behind them. The tigers bunched closely in between, as they had during the journey from High Lord Je'Dron's Mount Serako hidden city to the northeast on a different journey to the Nik'Terek Gate. She had been blindfolded while inside the mountain fortress, but from the acoustics and many voices, it had been located inside the mountain, the door hidden by magic. Except this time, the demonlords blocked Kaelen from her rather than blocking her from Je'Rol.

Her heart sank in grief from the memories, but they morphed into her first sight of Je'Surana, the half-blood who had destroyed the obelisk for which Je'Rol had searched, and that led to other wanderings of her mind.

"How is Je'Surana?" she asked.

Lord Je'Kaoron reached inside his coat and pulled out a folded parchment, which he handed to her. "She asked me to give you this but I thought it best to wait since we had company. She was disappointed that you did not visit this morning."

"I'm sorry. I couldn't…"

"I understand."

Amid a streak of guilt for not visiting, because of her guilt for the wound she'd inflicted, Nadia took the paper and unfolded it.

Nadia,

You should not feel ashamed about hurting me. I am doing well. Lord Je'Kaoron knows this, but he forbids me from seeing you off, insisting that I rest a day more.

I wished to thank you for teaching me to protect myself, and I promise that I will practice and do better for when you return.

I always wanted to say how sorry I was about the loss of Je'Rol. He was a very inspiring man. I was jealous that he had traveled around the world, seeing magnificent sights and living free, while I was forbidden from leaving Mount Serako. But Je'Rol told me how dangerous it was.

Still, I fear more for my father than myself in his absence. He has done much to upset the other demonlords by killing Je'Rekun. He is a good man. You must know that, and I know you are a good person. I trust that you will stay with him. He doesn't think he needs protection, but he is one man with many enemies. Please look after him so he returns to me.

Thank you, Nadia, for all you have done.

Jes

Nadia stared at the note and the flowing script of the girl's handwriting. The words did little to ease the burden on her mind of what she had done.

"It was my choice," a soft voice said. "I wanted a reason to keep her behind. In that, I used you."

Nadia looked up at him riding close beside her.

"I should be asking your forgiveness."

"Why?" It would have been a part of Je'Surana's training, a teaching moment, anyway.

He huffed in an almost laugh. "You deserve more respect than I have shown."

"You're protecting her. There's nothing to forgive. You're right. She's too young and inexperienced." But if Je'Surana continued training, she would at least have a chance of surviving in the harshness of the real world, if she ever had reason to leave the security of Acropa Je'Gri. Although Nadia would like to see the day the half-blood girl could beat her, a restlessness grew in Nadia to stop the other Adepts from riling the demonlords. Finishing her training to Nadia's satisfaction might not be feasible if Je'Surana hoped to stop the sects from carrying out their revolution.

Lord Je'Kaoron's face relaxed in a clear sign of relief. "Thank you, my lady. Now, forgive yourself."

So, that was it. She should have known Lord Je'Kaoron would use it as a teaching moment on her.

There was a time when he had scolded her for attacking Je'Rol. She had seen Je'Kaoron's anger, but realized later that he had only been angry that she would kill half-bloods. Since meeting Je'Surana, she understood why. It hadn't been about Je'Rol for him, but what that represented to him. She understood now, and it changed how she saw things.

"I will…in time," she said, the burden already lifting from her mind.

She folded the note and tucked it into a pocket of her leggings.

They rode on in quiet through the day, Acropa Je'Gri disappearing as they passed the mountain and the catacomb exit where Je'Rol had escaped Je'Rekun with the help of a guard that the then high lord had asked her to torture for his betrayal. In the quiet of the ride, Nadia thought back to that crucial moment…

She felt it in the back of her mind, a shadow whispering conspiracies and seducing her with its promised power, but she had let go of her anger. She pressed the knife to the tiger's skull, the spell whispering from her lips making the blade glow with the power to take away life.

Je'Sikar, the orange tiger guard that had aided Je'Rol's escape, whimpered and mewed softly, his eyes pleading for mercy. They had shackled him with enchanted manacles in the round chamber with the high walls, weakening him to the point that her dagger could affect him. She had seen it already, as had High Lord Je'Rekun.

The tiger let out a mournful "urmf" that stayed her hand, but he dared not move. She had to finish the task. Je'Rekun observed closely. But if she killed Je'Sikar, the demonlords would learn as she would that she could kill their kind under the right circumstances. It would confirm the potential danger of the Adepts to their power.

Nadia gazed into the amber eyes of the tiger and licked her lips.

"It is in my interests. I assure you." Je'Rekun's soft voice vibrated with a purr of satisfaction.

His interests in punishing Je'Sikar's betrayal, or his interests in testing her abilities?

Although Nadia wanted to know for herself how far she could push the demonlords to death, Je'Rekun was the last of them for whom she wanted to demonstrate the abilities of the Adepts.

A whispered word changed the spell the moment before she drew blood. The tiger thrashed and howled in mournful agony. Unlike her first attempt, his body didn't blur. Instead, he flopped against the chains for a few seconds and fell still, his sides again rising and falling rapidly.

Nadia sheathed the dagger at her hip and waited.

Je'Rekun strode around the panting tiger and stopped opposite her. "Prepare to depart, Huntress. You have a half-blood to kill."

Lord Je'Rekun had wanted to see if the dagger could kill. She had wanted to know too, but that had changed. Now, she hoped it couldn't and wouldn't risk another testing it on those she cared about. Destroying it would be the surest way to know that no one could use it. She had seen what happened when items or living beings passed through the arch of the Nik'Terek Gate—they didn't emerge on the other side but disappeared. It would be best for their world if that dagger disappeared.

Dangerous sounds from nearby stirred her from the memories. Over the rustle of horse legs and the accompanying tigers through tall grasses came the clicking, slurping, chittering sounds of hungry natters.

"The natters have reclaimed their preferred breeding ground," Lord Je'Kaoron said, his eyes on the barely seen opening behind a tuft of tall grasses, which moved in a way unnatural to the waving from the breeze. The single line of movement split into four lines moving towards them.

Nadia's horse stood with ears pricked at the top of a head held high.

Something hissed nearby, but several tigers broke off to take on the attacking demons.

From a distance, she could help. Using the dispirit power she was born with, she reached out to the simple minds of the approaching demons. They were focused on the smell of living flesh, their ravenous desire for fresh blood driving them from their den, from being eaten by others. The simple instinct to feed and to defend their nests drove them into the open.

A sense of fear spiked when she touched their minds, but it hadn't come from her touch. She felt the confusion already sweeping through them and looked aside. Kaelen had turned his mount to face the cavern.

Two demon hunters. She had almost forgotten about him.

The cavern soon exploded in a wave of skittering, crawling, slithering, oozing monsters that could overwhelm an untrained Adept and easily kill anyone without the dispirit power to stop them. Natters had an uncanny sense of self-preservation that drove them out in hordes when an Adept was near.

However, she wasn't the helpless girl of around the same age as Je'Surana that Je'Rol had saved long ago when a similar swarm attacked her, before she was discovered to be an Adept.

Nadia choked away the memories and the flotsam of regrets they stirred up and refocused on the horde as tigers roared and lunged at the beasts. The natters slowed, many freezing while the demonlords transformed into armored warriors to fight them off.

The battle soon ended, leaving the grasses flattened with various parts of at least a dozen different natter types strewn across a wide area and discoloring the hides of demonlords in the forms of lords and ladies and tigers.

"The caverns must be purged once more," a voice muttered next to her. She turned but Lord Je'Kaoron watched the returning tigers with his nose wrinkled. Even she found the odor of dead natters overwhelming and couldn't imagine its assault on the sensitive noses of the demonlords. "But this has decreased their numbers. The aid of demon hunters is appreciated." His eyes slid from her.

She followed his gaze to the other black-clad rider. Kaelen approached with a scowl on his face.

"Come, Huntress." Lord Je'Kaoron turned his mount in the direction of their travel, and Nadia gladly turned her back to Kaelen. Tigers rejoined them, their coats stained with the innards of the natters. "They will be eager to find the river."

The river. The blue water shimmered ahead, a ribbon through the green between mountain rises. Je'Rol had followed that river.

Nadia shook away the thoughts too easily resurrected while riding in quietude with the demonlords sedate around her. Five months she had grieved and healed, but this journey brought back a new grief, one of regrets for her previous life. If only she had understood then the truth that Lord Je'Kaoron had shown her, she would bear no such regrets.

They soon reached the river, where the tigers waded in deep. The horses splashed through a shallow crossing and paused to lower their muzzles to drink.

Once across, the party continued onwards in a line directly opposite the setting sun. More east than north, they traveled away from the valley through which she had tracked Je'Rol's escape five months ago.

Lord Je'Kaoron said nothing and wore an expression that weighed upon her with the sense that she shouldn't dare to interrupt. Kaelen remained behind, separated from them by the many tigers.

That changed near sundown. At an unseen cue, half the tigers dispersed, running ahead in pairs and trios. Hunting parties, she guessed.

The rest of them continued, until they reached a copse of trees, several with trunks thicker than her, and Je'Kaoron signaled to halt.

Something rustled in the grass.

Tigers fell silent, several moving into positions around the trees.