Lisa Shearin - Raine Benares 02 (2 page)

I
didn’t let him do either. “Everywhere. At least thirty Nightshades. They’re all
over the square and they’re moving. That’s Banan Ryce in that window there. You
know him?”

Vegard
looked, saw Banan, and spat an obscenity that described him perfectly. Sounded
like Vegard knew Banan, too.

I
could see into the collective minds of the Nightshades. Their intentions were
as clear as if they had yelled them up to me. They were going to collapse the
stage. They weren’t aiming for the stage itself or the dignitaries seated on
it; they were going for the supports under the stage. The stage was a good
dozen feet above the street. The Guardians posted around the base of the stage
would be crushed under the combined weight of falling wood and people. The fall
from the stage might kill some; but the Nightshades were there to ensure their
two main targets didn’t survive.

Justinius
Valerian and Mychael Eiliesor.

“Target?”
Riston was suddenly at my other side.

“Mychael
and the archmagus. The Nightshades are collapsing the stage,” I said.

And a
lot of people were going to die when they did.

Vegard
saw Banan’s people moving. “Riston, alert—”

Riston
was already charging down the stairs. “I’m on it!” he yelled back.

I
dimly heard him shouting orders. Everything below had melted into slow motion.
Banan’s men stopped, and I felt their power quickly building. Armed Guardians
were pouring out of the citadel, but they wouldn’t get there in time. The
spells of Banan’s people weren’t silent, but there were too many of them. If
only a handful of them survived, it would be enough to do what they’d planned.

Kill
the archmagus and the paladin, and take a lot of innocent people with them when
they did it.

I
didn’t think; I just reacted. I could move small objects with my mind; the same
went for stopping. That was what I could do before the Saghred. From my vantage
point, the Nightshades were just small objects in need of moving and stopping.
I didn’t have to break
them
, just their concentration. I struck, and the
ones who hadn’t bothered to magically shield themselves went flying. None of
them landed on their feet, and some of them were thrown against buildings. None
of those got back up. That maneuver alone cut Banan’s numbers by half.

Banan
laughed and applauded in the window across from me. Panicked screams came from
below. The stage was collapsing on itself. My hand instinctively shot out to
stop it. Four stories up made no difference. I’d always used gestures when
moving anything bigger than myself; it helped me to focus my magic. The stage
wasn’t a small object. The screams faded in my ears, and all I could hear was
the hissing in and out of my own breathing. I didn’t know how long I’d be able
to keep the stage from falling, but I suspected it wouldn’t be long. What I was
doing was mind over matter. Problem was, my mind couldn’t get past how heavy
that matter was. And I was doing it alone. No Saghred, just me. The new,
improved, really scary me.

Mychael
was helping Justinius Valerian off the stage. I had no idea how Mychael managed
to steady them both on the pitching and collapsing platform, but he was paladin
for a reason. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a crossbow bolt fly toward
them. Valerian saw it, too. He viciously spat something at it and the bolt
reversed direction and hit the sniper in the chest, sending him off the rooftop
and down to the street.

The
stage was coming down whether I wanted it to or not. Gravity would only be
defied for so long. My hand shook violently as I let what was left of the stage
come to rest on the cobbles, praying that everyone around the perimeter was out
of the way. My breathing was ragged and I heard gasps and whimpers I dimly
recognized as mine.

“Good
job, ma’am,” I heard Vegard say. His voice was tight with awe and maybe fear.

Phaelan
looked a little wild-eyed. “Shit.”

Yeah.
I felt the same way.

I
leaned over and rested my hands on wobbly knees, trying to get my wind back. I
could barely lift my head, let alone another stage. I looked out the window.

Banan
Ryce was on the street and in a big hurry to get somewhere, and it looked like
that somewhere was away from me. He vanished into the student section.

I
pushed Vegard and Phaelan out of the way and stumbled down the stairs. Black
speckles danced on the edges of my vision and I felt woozy. I pushed that out
of the way, too.

“Stop!”
Vegard yelled.

I
didn’t stop, but I didn’t get away from him, either. I’d just lifted a stage;
he hadn’t.

He
stopped me with a hand on my arm. I noticed that it was a very respectful hand,
no hard grip.

“I’m
going after him.” My strength was coming back, and my rage had never left me.
“I’m a seeker. I can track the bastard.”

Vegard
hesitated, clearly torn between duty and getting his hands on Banan Ryce.

“Go.”
His voice was more growl than words. “We’ve got your back.”

I
didn’t stop to ask who besides Vegard had my back. I assumed it was Riston and
Phaelan. Truth was, I didn’t care. I’d have gone after Banan Ryce alone. It
wouldn’t have been smart, but I was too angry to worry about smarts and my own
safety right now.

The
square was chaos. Wading through a crowd of panicked people was bad enough, but
multiply that times ten when those people were magic users. They were scared,
they were angry, and they were looking to protect themselves. The magical
distortion from their shields should have negated any tracking I could do. It
didn’t. Banan Ryce’s magical scent rode the air. Time to remind the bastard
just how good a seeker I was, new powers or not.

I
tracked Banan to a side street that was little more than an alley. He wasn’t
trying to hide; he was trying to run. I didn’t blame him. You didn’t try to
kill that many people and hang around for kudos.

“Wait,”
Vegard told me. He scanned the crowd over my head. “Jori!” he bellowed.

Moments
later, a young Guardian pushed his way through the crowd to us. His eyes were
borderline panicked. “Sir Vegard, what happened? Who—”

“Later,”
Vegard yelled over the screaming and shouting people surging around us.

The
kid had a crossbow. He didn’t look old enough to use it. I was, and better yet,
I had a target. I didn’t need magic to take out Banan Ryce.

“I
need your bow,” I told him.

The
young Guardian looked to Vegard.

“Give
it to her,” Vegard ordered. “And your bolts, too.”

He
obeyed. Vegard was getting downright handy to have around.

“Riston
and Captain Benares are somewhere behind us,” Vegard told him. “Find them and
tell them we’ve gone in there.” He jerked his head toward the alley. “We want
backup.”

The
young man’s eyes went wide. “Benares?”

“Yes,
that
Captain Benares,” Vegard barked. “Get over it.”

“Yes,
sir. Over it, sir. I’ll find Sir Riston.”

Vegard
and I crossed the street and stopped with our backs against the wall leading
into the alley. I knew Banan had stopped somewhere in that alley. I could feel
him. Turning that corner just might get our heads blown off.

“How
many ways out of that alley?” I asked Vegard.

“One
exit, one courtyard.”

I
somehow knew Banan wasn’t going for the exit. “He’s in the courtyard waiting
for something, and I don’t think it’s us.”

Vegard
drew his ax off his back. His hands and the ax blade flickered with blue fire.
Now that’s what I called backup.

I
checked around the corner. The alley was empty. We went in. The entrance to the
courtyard was about halfway down the alley.

The
heat from two furnaces against the far wall hit us head-on. Leaning against
walls and lying on tables were mirrors in various stages of completion. There
were piles of sand for making them, and crates for shipping them.

A
mirror factory. Just my kind of place.

Some
of the mirrors were man height. They could have been mirrors to admire yourself
in, or they could be an exit for Banan—or an entrance for his backup. I hated
mirrors.

Mirror
magic took a lot of discipline and a lot of concentration, and could make a lot
of trouble if the mage were so inclined. Mirror mages could use mirrors to
translocate people, manifest creatures, or move objects from one place to
another. Then there was the spying and peeking that could be done from any
bespelled and unwarded mirror. I was sure there were perfectly moral mirror
mages—I just hadn’t met any.

Banan
was there and he wasn’t alone. He could never resist leaving a crime scene
without a souvenir. In this case, his souvenir was also a hostage.

She
was young, blond, and terrified. From her age and the simple robes she wore,
she was probably a student.

As
leader of the Nightshades, Banan had spent a lot of time outdoors and looked
it. His dark hair and tanned face were a startling contrast to his pale green
eyes. He was rugged, he was handsome, and he knew it. He also fancied himself a
ladies’ man. Unfortunately the ladies he fancied didn’t always fancy him back,
and that was just the way Banan liked it. Murder was his job; rape was what he
did for fun.

Banan
didn’t look concerned in the least to see himself on the business end of my
crossbow. “Ah, Raine, you found us. I should have known you would sniff me out.
You were magnificent back there. You performed just as I’d expected—and as my
clients were promised. Everybody’s happy.”

The
bastard had set me up. Someone wanted to see what I could do, and Banan had set
up the audition.

“Well,
almost everybody.” Banan’s grin was crooked. He thought it was charming. “My
two targets survived, didn’t they?”

“They
did.”

The
elf shrugged. “Well, if at first you don’t succeed . . .”

I
pushed down the urge to pull the trigger. The girl was too close to Banan for
comfort, either mine or hers. The urge didn’t go without a fight. That was
fine; I didn’t plan to keep it locked down for long. As soon as I could get her
out of my line of fire, I’d give Banan a performance
I
could be proud
of. I’d even put a little magical something extra on the tip of the bolt that’d
slice through his shields like hot butter.

I
gazed down the bolt’s shaft. I had a gratifyingly clear shot at the space
between Banan’s green eyes. He pulled the girl tighter against him. Vegard
growled low in the back of his throat, and his magic clawed the air with the
sound. Banan ignored him, all of his attention on me. He didn’t consider Vegard
much of a threat. His mistake.

“Wouldn’t
it be easier to use the Saghred?” Banan taunted me.

“I
only use the rock against big trouble. You don’t make my list.” I kept my
concentration where it belonged—on the sweet spot between Banan’s eyes. “Let
her go.”

The
elf smiled. “Not going to happen.”

I
held the crossbow steady; my finger tightened on the trigger. “Never hurts to
ask first.”

A
familiar fire bloomed in the center of my chest. Fire to consume Banan Ryce,
and anyone who might step out of a mirror to help him. The fire and the
Saghred’s power that fed it blazed under my breastbone, white-hot and raging.
Just call it, came the whispered impulse in my mind. The power was mine for the
taking. I shoved down the fire and the impulse. I swallowed them hard and held
them down. The fire flickered and writhed, trying to get around my will. I
pressed harder and it stopped. The tip of the crossbow bolt wavered.

Banan
saw it and laughed.

“You
want the power—and I know you want me.” His voice was low, compelling. “Put
down the crossbow and take me, Raine. Like you have a choice.”

The
fire had diminished to a warm, soft glow, a harmless glow, a glow that only
wanted to help me protect the girl. Just to help. Help me. My hands were
sweating.

The
Saghred was talking to me inside my head. That was impossible. The Saghred was
spellbound, under guard, and under lock and key.

Only
as long as you want it to be.

It
wasn’t a whisper; it wasn’t even a voice. It was the truth. If I willed it, the
Saghred would shake off its bindings and destroy Banan Ryce.

Banan
faded into the background; so did Vegard and the girl. It was just me and the
Saghred. The fire burned and the temptation grew. I clenched my jaw against
them both. I would not be used.

My
finger tightened on the trigger.

A
flash of reflected mirror light blinded me.

I
dropped to the ground and rolled. If I couldn’t see, I was a target. Banan had
been doing more than admiring his reflection. Strong hands grabbed me. I tried
to bring the crossbow up.

“It’s
me!”

Vegard.

“I’ve
got you.” Vegard took the bow and hauled me to my feet, pulling us both behind
a stack of packing crates. I couldn’t see the crates, but I could smell the
wood.