Rift (35 page)

Lukasz stopped alongside the dead trunk and Eira heard him make a choking sound. Reaching the tree, Eira saw that the trunk wasn’t solid. And Cian had been right. It wasn’t a dead tree.

Bleached bones had been built into the shape of a tree trunk. Eira looked up. The branches were bones too. Bones of all shapes and sizes. Something glopped onto her shoulder. What Eira brushed away was thick and slimy. When she looked at her wet, sticky fingers, they were crimson. Blood. Blood had fallen from the bone tree.

Eira forced herself to look up at the branches. The heavy, roping foliage drooped toward her, dripping blood. She looked away before she could recognize too many of the parts that belonged inside someone’s body.

Lukasz gripped her arm, pulling her back to the ring of knights.

“How many trees?” he asked Kael.

“I can see five or six,” Kael answered. “There could be more deeper in the forest.”

“Five or six accounts for the village.” Lukasz’s face had drained of color. “And more.”

“Where are Alan and Philip?” Alistair asked quietly.

His answer came in the form of a bellow followed by a shape hurtling from high among the pine trees.

Philip’s limp body thumped on the ground and rolled over once. His chest was split open.

Another shape descended, but this one landed on its feet. When it rose, it loomed over them, half again as tall as Lukasz and twice as broad. Its skin matched the ruddy brown of the pine bark and its eyes shone like garnet. The tall creature wore a ragged shirt, and a hat was perched between its long ears. Red liquid slid off the hat onto the sides of the creature’s face.

Eira had encountered a redcap once before and she wasn’t pleased to meet another. Most sorcerers knew that while the idea of summoning the much larger and more vicious cousin of hobgoblins might be appealing, it rarely went well in practice.

Redcaps wielded powerful magics of their own and easily broke the binding spells used to call them to their would-be masters. Eira had come upon her first redcap just after it had decapitated its summoner and was kicking his head around like a ball.

Beside Eira, Kael spewed curses.

“Steady,” Lukasz murmured.

The redcap gazed at them, raised its arms in triumph, and let out another bellow. Two more redcaps lumbered out of the forest. Their hats dripped fresh blood. Alan’s head decorated the long pike carried by the third goblin.

“We can take them down,” Lukasz said in a low voice. “They have size and strength, but we have skill.”

“Where did they come from?” Cian asked.

“That’s a question to be answered after they’re dead,” Lukasz answered her. He raised his arm, shouting an order. “Arrows, now. We have the best chance if we can blind them.”

Seven of the sixteen knights bore ranged weapons. Projectiles whistled through the air, revealing the marksmen’s skill. Arrows and bolts lodged in the closest redcap’s face, several slicing through its eyeballs.

The redcap screamed, clawing at shafts.

“Kael, take your team and cover the archers. Keep the other goblins off us.” Lukasz pointed to the other two redcaps. “Sorcha’s and my men will hack this one apart. Don’t call out if you can help it. If it hears you, it will have a better chance of grabbing you and breaking you in half.”

Kael dashed into the forest with the archers, seeking to outflank the redcaps still in possession of their sight. The blind redcap stomped around madly, roaring and swinging its pike.

“A redcap’s bones are like iron,” Lukasz told the remaining knights. “If you try to strike a blow to its heart, you’re likely to break your blade. Slashing wounds, deep cuts that sever. When it falls, cut its throat. Now go.”

The knights rushed at the flailing redcap, but Lukasz stepped in front of Eira and Cian, blocking their path to the fray.

“My ladies, you must stay out of this,” the commander said brusquely.

Cian laughed at him. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

Lukasz looked at her somberly. “I know well your skills as warriors, but this is a fight my soldiers are prepared for. It’s not worth risking two members of the Circle. You are needed there. You are the voice of the Guard.”

“We are warriors of the Guard,” Eira snapped. “Don’t ask us to stand by while you fight and bleed.”

“You risked enough bringing us here,” Lukasz said. “Trust that if the battle goes awry and we need your swords, I will call on you.”

Eira was about to argue, or even strike the commander to prove her strength, when Cian answered. “Very well.”

Lukasz nodded at Cian and with a battle cry stormed at the blind redcap.

“How could you?” Eira hissed at Cian.

Cian leveled a cool gaze on her sister. “There was no time to argue. Lukasz needs to be with his men more than we need to be in that fight.”

“We are not doddering old fools or helpless maids,” Eira spat. “We’re warriors. More skilled in combat than most of the knights here.”

“They are skilled enough,” Cian said quietly. “You bring shame on yourself to belittle them so.”

Bile came up Eira’s throat with her anger. Too furious to speak, she turned her gaze on the unfolding battle. Kael and his archers had blinded the second redcap, but the third had learned from the others’ folly. The clever redcap had torn a large branch from a pine tree, swinging it before his face to deflect arrows.

A roar from the closest redcap drew Eira’s attention. Lukasz hadn’t exaggerated his advantage over the blinded goblin. The Guard’s axes, swords, and polearms struck relentlessly at the redcap, shearing flesh from its arms and legs. Following Lukasz’s commands, the knights attacked without a sound, leaving the redcap to wield its pike in vain. Desperate and maddened by pain, the redcap threw down its weapon and turned to flee. It trampled over two knights as it stumbled into trees.

“Finish it!” Lukasz called as he led his warriors in pursuit.

As Lukasz’s company disappeared into the forest, shouts of triumph rose from Kael’s team. The blinded redcap, not able to aim its thrusts, had mistakenly impaled the other redcap with its pike, killing it. The dead redcap collapsed and the blind redcap tripped over the corpse. Without hesitation Kael’s men leapt onto the fallen monster, raining fatal blows on its exposed throat.

Eira knew both redcaps were dead when she heard Kael shout, “To the commander!”

Leaving the gigantic corpses behind, Kael and his men raced into the forest, following the trail of blood that would lead them to Lukasz and the final goblin.

“I don’t think the commander will be calling for us,” Cian said with a dry laugh.

Eira bit her tongue, too wearied by anger to fight with her sister.

“We should see to Philip’s body.” Cian returned her sword to its scabbard and walked toward Philip’s broken corpse. “He can receive proper burial at Tearmunn.”

Resigned, Eira followed her sister but stopped when she heard a strange snapping sound behind them. She twisted around, searching for the source of the noise. Without warning an object buzzed past her, its speed creating a stiff breeze that kissed her cheek.

Cian screamed.

Whipping around, Eira saw her sister hunched over. Something slender and white projected from her left side. Another buzz, another breath of wind, and a second white spear pierced Cian’s body just below her left shoulder. Cian screamed again and fell to her knees.

Eira rushed to Cian, crouching beside her. Trying to shield her sister as much as she could, Eira searched the trees for their attacker. High-pitched cackling brought her gaze to the branches of a bone tree. Among the draping gore perched a hobgoblin, its beady red eyes fixed on Eira. It cackled again before it launched itself into the high branches of a nearby pine tree and disappeared. Whether satisfied with its attack or unwilling to risk a fight once it had been spotted, Eira didn’t know, but the small goblin seemed to be gone.

Cian began to cough, spitting blood onto the ground. One look at the wounds snatched Eira’s breath. The hobgoblin had created its weapons by snapping limbs from the bone tree. The jagged, razor-sharp points of splintered bone had been thrown with enough force to render Cian’s armor useless. Both of the makeshift spears had entered her back and spiked out of her lower-left abdomen and upper-left chest.

“Lady Cian!”

Eira looked up and saw Alistair running toward them. Reaching the sisters, he stared at Cian, horror overspreading his face.

“What happened?”

“A hobgoblin was in the bone trees.” Eira’s voice shook. “It ambushed us and disappeared.”

“Hobgoblins don’t attack like this,” Alistair whispered hoarsely. “They never attack like this.”

Eira could only nod. She’d never known a hobgoblin to wield weapons or to demonstrate such deadly accuracy in an attack. But then, the Guard had never faced a band of striga or discovered a village devoid of its residents. The rules of their world were changing quickly. Too quickly to see what was coming next. Too quickly to save Cian. She drew a breath to speak, but only a sob came out as Cian collapsed on her side.

“Lukasz sent me back to tell you we’re pursuing the goblin toward the river,” Alistair said. “We were to follow . . .”

Eira cradled Cian’s head in her lap.

“I’ll go for help,” Alistair told her. “There are elixirs in the saddlebags.”

“There’s no elixir that will save her,” Eira answered. “These are fatal wounds.”

Alistair tugged at his dark curls, frantic. “There must be something. In all that we study there must be something that can save her.”

Eira shook her head. “Nothing we’ve learned—”

Dorusduain is a lesson . . .

Forcing her breath to slow, Eira held up her palm. It was dirty but unmarked. Skin that had been cut open, that blood had poured from, was whole again.

“I know what can save her,” Eira whispered.

“Tell me how I can help.” Alistair crouched beside her. “I’ll do everything I can.”

“I need you to leave,” Eira told him.

Alistair stood up, frowning. “I’m not going to leave you like this. What if the hobgoblins return? What if there are more redcaps?”

Eira’s jaw clenched, but she couldn’t waste time arguing.

“Will you swear to me that what you witness here, you’ll not speak of to anyone?” she hissed. “Swear on your life.”

Alistair paled, but nodded.

“If you forsake this oath, I will kill you myself.” Eira waited until he nodded again. “Hold my sister; try to keep her still. If the bone splinters move, it will cause more damage.”

Eira and Alistair slowly traded places. Alistair’s eyes were wide. He looked frightened, not of his oath but of Eira herself. He probably believed she’d gone mad with grief. He’d be sure of it when he saw what she was about to do.

But she couldn’t worry about Alistair’s assumptions. Drawing her dagger, Eira sliced open her palm and waited for her blood to hit the ground. She began to chant, but her mind was racing as she spoke the incantation the prisoner who called Bosque Mar master had taught her.

Blood has been spilled here. Cian’s blood. Philip’s blood. The redcaps’ blood. He must come. He must.

Eira kept her eyes closed as she chanted. And hoped. Her eyelids snapped open when Alistair gave a cry of alarm.

“Don’t move, Alistair!” Eira snapped.

“But—” Alistair had one hand on his sword hilt, the other holding Cian. His eyes were fixed on the place where Bosque Mar had materialized.

Paying no attention to Alistair or Cian, Bosque came to Eira, taking her hand and kissing it.

“My lady Eira.”

When Eira drew her hand back, the wound was gone. She pointed at Cian’s crumpled form. “Can you save her?”

Bosque glanced at Cian, then returned his gaze to Eira. “Do you want me to save your sister?”

“My sister is dying,” Eira snarled at him. “Of course I want you to save her. Show me the power you claim to have.”

“I’ve offered many demonstrations of my power,” Bosque said quietly. “And you require yet another?”

“Please.” Eira’s anger broke and she bowed her head. “Please save Cian.”

Bosque reached out, lifting Eira’s chin. His silver eyes bored into hers. “Your will.”

He moved to Cian’s side, kneeling on the ground. Alistair stared at him in disbelief, but Bosque calmly regarded the knight and said, “Open her mouth.”

Eira didn’t see Bosque’s weapons, but in a moment he’d opened the vein at his wrist and held it over Cian’s lips. His dark blood trickled onto her tongue. Eira watched as Cian swallowed reflexively. Still keeping his wrist to Cian’s mouth, Bosque reached out and grasped the bone splinter at her shoulder and with one jerk pulled it free. Without hesitation he reached for the other spear, sliding it out of Cian’s abdomen. Alistair gasped when blood didn’t gush from the puncture wounds, but Eira knew what was happening. The wounds were closing, Cian’s flesh mending.

Withdrawing his wrist from Cian’s lips, Bosque leaned over and whispered in her ear. He stood up but glanced down at Alistair’s ashen face.

“Thank you for your assistance, young knight.” Bosque’s silver eyes searched Alistair’s face. “Give me your name.”

“Alistair Hart,” Alistair whispered, gazing into Bosque’s strange eyes without blinking.

“I hope we’ll meet again, young Alistair.” Bosque smiled at him before returning to Eira’s side. “She’ll sleep now. And she won’t remember the attack . . . I thought the memory might pose some difficulties for you.”

Eira stared at him, unable to speak. Her mind stormed with joy and fury.

“You’re angry,” Bosque murmured, stepping close to her.

“Was this your lesson?” Eira asked, glancing at Cian’s resting body and the blood-covered bone pieces that lay beside her. “Are you so cruel a teacher?”

“The lesson is that you need me,” he told her. “As I need you.”

“The redcaps, the village,” Eira said. “All of this was your doing?”

“It was.”

“How could I need you?” Eira kept her voice low. “I’m grateful that you healed Cian, but your redcaps killed two of the Guard. My sister was nearly killed by spears made from the bones of villagers. Innocent people.”

“As I said.” Bosque spoke gently. “I need you. Without you I’m forced to this . . . to acts of desperation for my cause.”