Oathkeeper (28 page)

Why not Wylant?
Rae'en's view returned to normal.

She informed the prince she would be unable to attend the ceremony shortly after she delivered your new armor. I couldn't hear what was said, but Amber was close enough to catch some of it. Wylant mentioned Fort Sunder and flew off without her Sidearms.

Kholster Rae'en
, Bloodmane's echoing voice intoned.

Wait your turn
, she thought at Bloodmane. To Vander, she thought,
Did any of the Armored see her leave?

Two Bone Finders
, Vander shot back.
Why?

Ask Zhan if he minds having one of them follow her—

He says
, Vander replied,
Alysaundra already is and that the Ossuary will be happy to share this information with the Aernese army.

Thanks.
She sat down on the floor, not wanting to muss up a bed one of the maids had taken such pains to make. Stone felt better against her, more reliable than the soft mattresses Oathbreakers preferred.
Tell Rivvek I'll defend his throne ceremonially, as long as that's all there is to it
.

Scooting clear of the wall, Rae'en lay down, eyes closed. Willing her heart to slow down, her breath to come in a slow controlled rhythm, only then did she look through Bloodmane's eyes.

Fire flowed around him as he and his warsuits slew Zaur after Zaur. His helm tilted up, giving a signal to Oathbreaker elemancers. Behind his team, the stone tunnel collapsed, forcing a wave of flames explosively forward. Oathbreaker lancers dived down on any Zaur foolish enough to believe there was anywhere to flee. Dark-scaled reptilian bodies burned as they screamed and died.

What do you want?

We are killing many Zaur, but I have a concern.
Bloodmane swung Hunger one-handed, piercing a brown-scaled Zaur's chest. With a gurgling hiss another Zaur leapt at him, Skreel blades sparking on his helm with little effect. Catching it by the throat, Bloodmane crushed its windpipe and spine. Tossing it aside he moved on to the next batch of attackers.

It's a slaughter.
Rae'en thought.
What's so concerning about that?

Everywhere we suspect we will find a tunnel, we do.
Bloodmane dropped Hunger, letting the warpick cling to his leg plate. Hands free, he tore an attacker in half, gore covering him.

That doesn't sound like a problem to me, Makerslayer
, Rae'en sent the warsuit.

Each tunnel also holds an identical complement of Zaur.
Molten rock hissed under Bloodmane's boots, the dead he cast aside steaming and splitting open as the rock pushed them along with its flow.

Identical how?

Bloodmane pulled himself free of the rock, trudging out of the tunnel when the Oathbreakers and warsuits joined him. Shouts of victory went up from the Oathbreakers, but the warsuits kept their silence, steam rising off of them as they cooled.

There are one hundred and thirteen Zaur
, Bloodmane told her, transmitting highlights from each of the seven engagements that he had led.
Even in the central tunnel
.

It's a prime number?
Rae'en thought churlishly.
So? What?

Exactly one hundred and thirteen Zaur in each engagement
.

Vander?
Rae'en sent.

Eyes of Vengeance says it has been the same for his engagements
, Vander answered.
Look at this
.

Point of view shifting, Rae'en watched as Eyes of Vengeance charged to the back of a line of Zaur where slightly larger Zaur with scales in different patterns waited to die when the Geomancers collapsed the tunnels.

In the beginning
, Eyes of Vengeance told her,
I thought these were the Sri'Zaur Wylant and you described
—

No.
Rae'en sent back an image of the Zaur she had seen.
They look like this
.

“I didn't share the information because I was mad at Bloodmane,” Rae'en whispered. “Idiot. Vander didn't ask me much about them because he has more experience with Zaur than I do and since I couldn't show him a Zaurruk. . . . Blast!”

Ah.
Eyes of Vengeance seized one by the back of the neck and hoisted him aloft. With a swipe of his gauntlets, the zigzag lines of electric blue smeared across its scales.
And may I assume
—

No
, Rae'en sent,
the patterns I saw don't rub off. They're real, like a snake's or a lizard's.

I fear we are doing
, Bloodmane cut in,
exactly what this Warlord Xastix wants us to do, destroying only the decoy emplacements he intended us to find
.

What did Skinner find at Kevari Pass?
Rae'en asked.

Nothing unusual
, Bloodmane, Eyes of Vengeance, and Vander answered all at once.

And he is our best scout?

No
, Vander answered.
Those would be Eyes of Vengeance, Scout, Hunter, Scale Fist
—

Why did you send someone to Kevari Pass?
Rae'en sent the thought to Bloodmane, but Eyes of Vengeance answered.

General Bloodmane did not choose to send Skinner. I did
.

General?
Rae'en asked.
Why General Bloodmane, not kholster Bloodmane
?

Because, though I did not mean for my maker to die, I do not deserve to bear his name . . . even as a rank
, Bloodmane answered.

Rae'en had never felt anything like the waves of grief that flowed with those thoughts, not from anywhere outside herself.

Even though that is what he called me. The Eldrennai dubbed me General Bloodmane and . . . it feels less abominable to answer to that name. I mean no disrespect. Quite the opposite
—

Shut up
, Rae'en ordered. Taking a moment to look through no one's eyes but her own, she examined the red that showed through the lids of her eyes from the light outside her window.

Look. I'm going to forgive you
. . . . Rae'en sent to Bloodmane.
Just give me time. Know that I'm going to be rude, even when you don't deserve it. I miss him and I blame you even though I know . . . I really do know that it wasn't your fault, that he saw an opportunity and took it for reasons I don't fully understand. But I can't be mad at him, so I'm mad at you.

Thank you.
Bloodmane's voice echoed.
Take as much time as you need
.

Where is Skinner now?

I
. . . Bloodmane's voice dipped low.
I cannot find him. Eyes of Vengeance, can you
—?

No
, Eyes of Vengeance answered.
I have a bad feeling about this
.

Who is Skinner's Aern?

Miryndal
, Bloodmane told her.

I don't recall that name
, Rae'en sent.
Is she an Overwatch? A kholster?

She's a grunt
, Vander thought at her,
in Mokk's kholstering
.

Mokk is Ambush's maker
, Bloodmane added.

Where is she?
Rae'en got up off the floor, pacing to the side of the bed where Testament and Grudge were propped. Slinging her warpick over her right shoulder and her father's over her left she took a deep breath. She brought to mind her interactions with her father, when he was happy and when he was sad or upset. He always kept an even temper with her and with his troops. The enemy could go to any of the Bone Queen's hells they like, but to be Aern was to be family.

Mokk is checking
, Vander cut in.

Why doesn't he know?
Rae'en asked with thoughts like clear water on calm seas.

Everyone who wanted to has been restoring the barracks to habitable levels.
Vander sent with the thoughts images of plans underway and sites already completed.
Opening up our old berths—where they still exist. There were plenty of volunteers, so many of the grunts are drilling or reading. Catching up on extra sleep. We're all Armored, so with every soldier only a thought away . . .

Not every soldier.
Rae'en opened the door to her room, surprised to find no guards there. Was that blood? She sniffed the air and brought both warpicks to the ready before she noticed the dead Oathbreaker. One needle-thin dagger clanged off of Testament, the other caught her in the side of the knee.

Pushing away the pain, she whirled on the injured leg, knowing the knee would give, not caring.

Bloodmane howled in agony as her attacker struck home again, sliding the weapon up to the hilt into her side.

It hurts, Bloodmane
, Rae'en thought.
But not that badly
.

No reply.

Colors bled together on the wall, rippling mirage-like in the same way the air did over the Guild Commerce Highway when the suns were high. She struck at the discoloration, Testament rending flesh and scale, the near-black, iron-saturated blood of the Zaur coating her weapon. With the strike, the Zaur's—no, the Sri'Zaur's, she self-corrected—scales pulsed gray then black as if trying to adapt to its surroundings and blend in despite the wound.

It tapped something in Zaurtol with its tail and hurled its weapons. Rae'en took one of the slender blades to the palm in order to catch it, but the other was snatched from the air by another camouflaged Sri'Zaur.

She reached out for Vander, then for Bloodmane, and found nothing but mindquiet in their places.

Hoping it would help, Rae'en shifted her vision to thermal imaging, the back of her eyeballs growing cold. She cursed under her breath. It wasn't much better that way either, as if her attackers were the same temperature as the walls and floor.
How many of them are there?
Hearing the scrape of claws on stone, Rae'en rolled back into the guest room. She snatched Grudge from her back, catching the weapon with the side of her hand and holding it there with the attraction that Aern exploited over all bone-steel items.

—
an you hear me?
Bloodmane's voice snapped back into her mind.
Oh, thank Kholster you're back. What happened?

I'm not sure, but
— Rae'en began to think back.

Kholster Rae'en
! Vander shouted in her mind.
I'm nearly there. I
—

“Bird squirt!” He vanished from her mind. Rae'en roared, “
ALL KNOW!
” transmitting the last few seconds to any Aern who could hear her . . . no longer certain that it reached all of her people.

Incoming
, Amber's voice filled Rae'en's mind as she took the lead in Vander's absence.
I see Vander
,
ma'am.
She sent a snap image: Vander on blue carpet, warding off unseen blows with Spite, his warpick.
He's hurt, but I think the two of—

And then Amber was gone, too.

Bloodmane, what is happening?!
, Rae'en thought angrily. Then,
Never mind
.

Where are Vander and Amber?
Rae'en ran back through the snippet she'd gotten from both of them. Blue Carpet. Okay, so where did that put them? Was that the sea corridor or the corridor of breeze? Remembering her way quickly back through the short walk-through after the Oathbreaker king's funeral, she'd seen several different patterns.

Think, Rae'en
, she berated herself. The corridor of breezes was a diamond pattern of white, gray, and turquoise. Rae'en was about to charge back into the hall when Feagus painted his visuals across the whole of her field of vision. Losing her balance, Rae'en crashed into the doorframe with the muffled metallic sound of bone-steel on wood. The wood lost.

Feagus!
Rae'en shouted in his mind.
I need to see what's around me, not
—

Sorry, kholster
, Feagus gulped, instantly drawing his visual back to the upper-left corner of her view. He stood in the Corridor of Flames making calming gestures to frightened guardsmen as a multitude of Aern rushed past shouting Rae'en's name.
Things are a little out of control
.

Visuals from Varvost and Glayne appeared in the lower left and portions of her vision while a rough map of her location occupied the upper right, leaving an addition-sign-shaped window for her own surroundings. Varvost, engaged in a heated exchange with Bhaeshal, Prince Rivvek's personal Aeromancer, gesturing with his battle-axe, Assault II.

Glayne's window displayed a collage of perspectives from the exterior hallway of her own room. Blinded by Ghaiattri flame in the first Demon War, Glayne had learned to see exclusively through Hunter, his warsuit. After the Sundering, he had learned to see through one of his soul-bonded weapons and then, with practice, through all of them.

Chips of stone skipped from the walls, cut loose by the whirling blade at the end of a thin chain that he spun at a pace so fiercely alacritous the chain itself couldn't be seen. With each step, he shifted Long Fang's rotation, covering different arcs: front, back, left, and right following no set pattern Rae'en could discern, each clear from one angle or another of his clustered visuals.

Moments away, kholster.
Glayne's thoughts were icy smooth.

Could you cut it down to one viewpoint?
Rae'en asked.
You're making me dizzy
.

Obediently, the view from Lookout, the punch dagger that hung from a chain around Glayne's neck, supplanted the others . . . shifting every few seconds with the view from Hindsight, the garrote he wore along the back of his belt. Rae'en tried to recall everything she knew about Glayne, but all she could remember was his disability and that, of all the One Hundred, he had made the most soul-bonded weapons after the Sundering . . . and that none of them was a warpick.

Are you certain none of them got into your room?
One of the needle-thin daggers spanged off of Long Fang's chain, disrupting its steady circle. Viewpoint spinning with Glayne as he jumped, letting Long Fang's chain wrap around his torso and simultaneously reversing the direction of the weapon's spin. Rae'en had no idea how he had the presence of mind or the dexterity to have done so, but mid-turn he'd thrown one of his soul-bound throwing daggers (either Plan, Backup, Hush Now, or My Love—she couldn't tell which), pinning one of the Sri'Zaur assailants to the wall, the dagger's flat, ringed hilt protruding from the Sri'Zaur's eye. Glayne fanned the other three blades.