Mythborn: Rise of the Adepts (59 page)

The king had only his short sword, but knew its use intimately. He started to move forward, but a meaty hand closed on his shoulder, pulling him back. Jebida stepped in front, armed with his blade, a dangerous glint in his eyes. "Stay behind me," he said, not looking back at the king.

Jebida swung his blade, but the man was incredibly fast, moving in with one kick to block his arm, then another to his midriff, before dancing back out of reach. The firstmark let the kick hit him, obviously expecting his greater size and bulk to protect him, but had to have regretted that decision—his resulting grunt of pain from the normally quiet firstmark enough of a clue. Jebida was picked up and slammed into the wall on his left.

Ash pivoted around a punch-kick combination, then aimed a strike for the intruder’s head. As he did so, he felt a sting in his neck and saw the man who stood behind the others firing some sort of metal tube. He started to raise his hand, but his muscles involuntarily tightened and he hit the floor, paralyzed. As the poison worked its way into his body, Ash began to convulse and his vision dimmed.

Poison!
Tempest exclaimed through her connection to Ash, but he could feel nothing. He sensed the sword desperately searching the room for something as he lay there paralyzed, watching the scene unfold through glazed eyes.

The man turned and shot another dart at the king, who wasn't moving quite fast enough to evade it. But Jebida’s arm pushed him down at the same moment Talis stepped in, putting himself in the way. The dart hit Talis in the neck and the gruff old warrior clutched at it, his features locking into a grimace of pain, his hands becoming claws. He fell back, gurgling, even as the life left him. Talis fell, looking dead before his body hit the ground.

The assassin flipped himself up over the table, then jumped and rolled as two more knives from Chandra flashed past him. He threw a stiletto, catching her in the midsection, and Ash heard her gasp as it drove through her stomach and out her back. The assassin continued his roll across the table and landed lightly in front of her. Then his fist crushed her sternum before she could draw another breath and she hit the back wall with a wet thud. He could hear her bones snap under the assassin’s fist, and knew she was dead.

Then the man pivoted, flipping back to land near the king and his final bodyguard, the firstmark. Another held his position while the third circled around until they faced the last men standing in the room.

"Surrender and I will let the others live," the lead assassin said, indicating the firstmark and the fallen. He looked at the king with glowing blue eyes. "They have no need to die here, King Galadine." Then he flashed some kind of sign to his men.

Ash lay on the ground, his vision nearly gone, his body wracked in pain. Then something happened and the pain began to lessen. He saw a clean green light in his mind’s eye, suffusing his body with energy, beneficent and healing. It neutralized the toxins and drove it from his blood. The tiny dart fell out with a small sound, as the glass shard hit the floor. Ash looked to his left, where the sound of labored breathing ceased. It was Sevel, his eyes frozen open in death. Ash carefully levered himself over and was about to stand when a voice from the door stopped him.

"Two."

There in the doorway stood a woman, dressed in the same style of clothes that Arek had been wearing, but darker. Her lean frame hinted at violence, but controlled and focused. She was younger than Ash by his reckoning and spoke with authority. Her voice cut into the room like the keen edge of a blade.

"I know death means little to you, but
failure
...." The woman walked slowly into the room. "The Adepts on the Isle live. Six and Five are dead. Your team will not survive meeting me."

The man seemed to know instantly who this woman was. He signaled his men, and though Ash had no way of understanding the meaning of the gesture, he noticed the assassins imperceptibly readying their dart weapons. The smile on the woman’s face said she knew exactly what would happen next.

The strange man snarled, "Kisan Talaris, you make this too easy." He signaled again, but the woman was faster than Ash—or the assassin—imagined. Even as all three brought up their dart weapons and fired, she was in motion, bringing her hands together in front of herself.

The darts sped at her, their glass bulbs filled with the toxin that had nearly killed Ash, but they never reached their target. The woman’s hands came together in a single clap that detonated in the room like thunder.

The sound was frightening in its intensity and the very air seemed to bend and flex, then every piece of glass and crystal in the room shattered. The darts, lethal messengers of death, exploded into tiny fragments, as did every dart on the assassins’ belts. So too, did every pitcher, glass, and plate in the room.

The woman waited for the carnage she had wrought to end, then looked at the assassin. Her form burst in a flash of orange-yellow fire, surrounding her in an ethereal, protective flames.

"My turn," she said simply.

The man she’d called "Two" didn’t wait and neither did one of his comrades. Both moved forward with a speed that belied their bulk. Again, their adversary proved even faster than they anticipated. She met their attack with her own, a series of striking blocks that looked strong enough to break bone and shatter stone.

Two moved to his left and tried to come up from behind her, but she grabbed the other man and flung him as if he weighed nothing at all. Both assassins went down in a tangled heap.

The third man started to move, but reacted to a sharp pain in his back. He looked down and saw the point of a sword emerge from his chest. Then he was spun around to face the man he had seen die with a dart in his neck.

Ash yanked his sword out, then in one fluid motion swung it in a short, deadly arc. The sword flashed emerald as it decapitated the man where he stood. The head flew off, but the body remained standing a moment longer before dropping to its knees and falling forward.

Ash saw the woman at the door had begun her attacks in earnest now, moving through her opponents as one would when fighting children, her aim sure and true. Occasionally her flaming aura would flash orange or yellow as one or the other managed to get in a strike, but nothing actually touched her. She and these assassins dueled in a deadly dance of strike and counter-strike, something Ash knew well. It only continued for a heartbeat or two, then Ash heard the sound like a branch breaking and the leader fell back, his arm hanging at an unnatural angle.

In the blink of an eye, the woman spun into the opening created by the leader’s misstep. She swept aside two punches from the second assassin and struck with the tips of her fingers through that assassin’s neck, crushing his throat and spine. He fell to his knees, gurgling at the leader’s feet, unable to breathe through his pulverized windpipe. She didn’t wait for him to die. She slammed her elbow into the crown of his head, driving it down and crushing his neck. The man folded in on himself, the crack of his neck a clear indication that he died instantly.

The woman took a breath, her form brightening with fire, then she exhaled. Only Two was left alive, his arm broken, his options limited. Without moving, she addressed the last remaining assassin, "Two, who is your Sovereign?"

Beloved, shall we kill this one?
implored Tempest in a girlish voice.

No
, Ash replied,
we must have answers
.

* * * * *

Two stared at Kisan with hate and said, "How do you know my designation?" Then it seemed to dawn on him.

Kisan came eye to eye with the assassin and said, "I killed your men—" she making a slight motion to encompassed the room—"all of them."

Two met the master’s gaze, a small smile on his lips. "Then they deserved it. What of Prime and the king’s son? Will you bargain for that information?" He began reaching with his good arm for something on his belt.

"Stop." Kisan saw the dwarf begin the almost imperceptible motion and froze him with her voice. She knew what Two intended. There was a small point on his belt, behind which lay a sharp needle coated with the same poison as in the darts. One touch and the needle would scratch him, bringing instant death. "You know I can stop you before you kill yourself."

"Then why haven’t you?"

"Wait!" said the king, holding up both his hands to prevent any ill-conceived attack. He looked at the woman who had dispatched these assassins so easily and asked, "He spoke of my son. Where is he?"

Kisan never took her eyes off Two, but nodded in response to the king’s question. If there was a chance to save the prince, she wanted to hear it. "Where is Prime? Give me his location and I will let you use your poison."

Two looked at the king and said, "By now, your son is dead." Then he looked at Kisan and said, "It’s always a pleasure killing halfling kids."

She locked eyes with Two for a heartbeat, then said simply, "Fine." Before anyone could move, she shot forward, her hands a blur. Even as Two began to push his finger against the needle, Kisan had touched his forehead and dove into the man’s mind.

She could see Two’s life before her, but knew she could not absorb it until she spent the time to purge the jumbled life and death of Tamlin and Five, time she did not have to spare. Her goal, however, had not been to assimilate Two. That would take too long and she didn’t need to. She only needed three things.

First, she paralyzed him by locking points along his spine at the neck and waist, then found the entry point of the poison and collapsed the blood vessels around the upper arm, trapping it and slowing its spread. She couldn’t stop the poison from working, but would gain the few precious moments needed for what was to come next.

Second, she searched for Prime’s location. As she suspected, he had been careful with that information. All Two knew was the egress point where Five now lay dead. He had offered the boy when bargaining, though it now was clearly a tactic to buy time for Prime. Whether or not the king’s son was truly with Arek could not be confirmed, and Kisan suspected that Two simply did not know.

Finally, she searched for any information about Sovereign, but what she saw made no sense. She saw a being made of pure light, standing in a cavernous opening. Around it opened hundreds of tunnels, as if this Sovereign stood within a network of caves or a vast subterranean space. The space was filled with what looked to be worms covered in tiny glowing points. Around those worms moved creatures that looked like dwarves, but that Two called,
yewmins.
Kisan knew she didn’t have much time and couldn’t risk following this assassin into death. She pulled out of Two’s subconscious, leaving the paralysis in place.

She opened her eyes and made sure Two could see her, then said, "Six’s memories showed me you can be rebirthed. I’m not going to leave your Sovereign with much to work with."

Her hands whipped out to either side of Two’s head and struck, shattering every bone in his skull. The pressure wave from the blow destroyed Two’s brain, liquefying everything inside. Kisan didn’t even look at him as she kicked the body back. It slammed into a wall with a wet smack, before sliding down in a lifeless heap, dark fluid and brain flooding out of his nose and mouth. She then turned to face the king.

Bernal moved out from behind his men and exclaimed, "How will we find Niall, now? You killed the only man who could tell us!"

Kisan held up her hand and said, "King Galadine, I searched his memories and there is nothing there. They do not share information that can lead to each other. We need to find your son and Initiate Arek on our own. Are you saying they were together?"

"Yes..." the king stammered. "I mean... I don’t know." He took a deep breath, his warrior instinct telling him this woman spoke truly, but the father’s heart in him clearly searching for a way to save his son.

Then, he seemed to realize his best chance stood right before him. "We had assumed Arek’s master a man, but you must be Silbane. Arek said you were with the nomads. Defeating these men speaks to your skill. We are well met, though your presence here destroys our own plans."

Kisan shook her head, looking about the scene of carnage until her eyes came to rest on the Finder, still on the tabletop. "I see the men of Bara’cor are just as insightful as those found elsewhere in the world." She met their confused stares with a small smile, then made her way over to the Finder and inspected it, noting it still sparkled with its own light.

Satisfied the other master was alive, Kisan turned back to the three men and said, "Be happy I am not Silbane. He’s far less merciful than me."

Journal Entry 18

My excitement grows, for I have yet another idea to keep me safe from these raids. The cocoon, but bigger. I know the ritual of setting wards and will follow it to the letter. I will not doubt this place, nor myself as I have in the past. Not this time...

With the help of the numerous imps surrounding me, I have Shaped four wards and spent hours infusing them with power, drawn from blood (mine). This may be the secret I was missing before.