Rogue Belador: Belador book 7 (30 page)

In an explosion of color and a deafening roar, the world spun out of control. Whips of power lashed across Tzader’s face and arms.

Everyone shouted.

Blood rushed through his ears.

The dragon roared and howled. The sound could only be described as a Kodiak bear being torn to shreds.

The spinning Tzader had always associated with teleporting slowed as it whipped around him. Power drained away as they traveled, leaving his body tired but no longer in pain from the fast exit.

He hated watching when he teleported, but had to see if all of his team had made it out.

Faces and parts of bodies flashed by looking like a macabre version of the tornado scene from the
Wizard of Oz
.

But he could still feel the chair arm or at least the part he’d been holding. Closing his eyes, he waited for the disorientation to end.

When it did, wind blew him backwards, head over heels, slamming him onto his back.

Rolling sideways over a bumpy surface, he opened his eyes in time to take in the thousand-foot-plus drop off the side of a mountain.

What the hell? His body jiggled back and forth with movement. He was on top of a railway hopper car full of coal.

“Get over here!” Daegan roared.

Tzader was on his feet and balancing his weight against the movement and wind. The bottom fell out of his stomach when he found the dragon throne rocking back and forth, dangerously close to falling off the cliff he’d just stared down.

Tzader lunged to grab the throne. His boots sank into the coal.

Storm jumped to the other side and they pushed the throne to the center of the car. Tzader yelled, “Don’t you have a tail for counterbalance?”

Daegan growled an unearthly sound. “It’s part of the throne.”

Tzader did a quick search for the rest of the group, although he had no doubt Storm had made sure Evalle was safe before turning his attention to anyone else.

He said a silent thank you that they’d taken off after dark for Evalle’s sake, but now there was a strange, dim glow hanging over their railcars. That had to be Adrianna’s doing.

The train moved at a fast clip, rocking back and forth, which was hard enough to deal with before adding the wind whipping around.

Adrianna had landed on her hands and knees, perilously close to the edge where the two cars were connected. If she fell, she’d be crushed. Evalle had Adrianna’s arm, lifting and turning her back toward the center. They stumbled sideways, swaying with the rocking car.

Tzader looked around. “Where’s Tristan?”

“Little help!”

Adrianna was on her feet, and latched onto Daegan’s chair arm. She pointed her free hand. “There he is.”

Tristan dangled upside down from the side of the next car, close to the corner. He was digging his heels into the coal, but his bent legs didn’t have enough room for a good grip to hold his weight. One good bump, and he’d be an Alterant splat. His body flopped around, banging the metal wall.

Evalle started for him, but Storm pulled her back and showed his jungle cat agility when he leaped to Tristan’s rail car, landing surefootedly.

Tristan shouted.

Storm lunged and clamped down on Tristan’s calves just as the back of his ankles hit the edge.

Tzader left Evalle and Adrianna to hold the throne, and hurried to the edge of his coal car. Looking over at Storm, who nodded as if he got what Tzader intended to do, Tzader shouted, “Do it.”

Storm slid his grip to Tristan’s ankles.

Tristan looked up at Storm as if he thought the Skinwalker was going to let him go. Then Storm stood up, lifting Tristan by the ankles, and swung him away then back toward Tzader, releasing Tristan at the last minute.

Tzader used kinetics to catch Tristan and flip him overhead and in the direction of the throne.

Tristan did a midair flip and landed with bent knees that hit the coal. He stood up and grinned, but it was an effort and his hands shook. Tristan said, “We made it back! Not too shabby a job of teleporting, eh? Sometimes I take myself for granted.”

Daegan yelled at him, “You could have killed all of us! We have to get off this infernal thing. Now.”

“Hey, I don’t have endless energy, dragon boy.”

“Dragon boy? You should enjoy your next minute. It will likely be your last.”

“You gonna kick my ass from over there,
chair
?”

Evalle, ever the mediator, stepped between them. “Not now, guys. We do have to get out of here.”

Rumbling noise from the dragon grew. “I won’t have to crush you, Alterant,” he said to Tristan. “You’ve left a trail a blind enemy could follow. If you were at all adept at teleporting, you would have landed us somewhere we could defend ourselves.”

Storm had jumped back to their car, rejoining the group along with Tristan.

Tzader asked, “The Medb can follow us?”

In answer, two warlocks appeared on the flatcar ahead of theirs, which was loaded with steel plates, and three more warlocks showed up on top of the hopper car following behind where Tristan had just been hanging.

Got my answer.

That’s when Tzader realized he was still linked with both Evalle and Tristan, but now was a bad time to stay that way. If one of them was killed, they’d all die. He ordered, “Unlink!”

Sidestepping at the immediate loss of power, Tzader shook it off, took two steps and planted his feet, waiting on the two warlocks that had jumped down between the cars and were climbing up the front of Tzader’s.

The Medb-priest warlock had dark-purple nails an inch long and sharp as needles.

When the first head popped up, Tzader pushed kinetic power into his legs and booted that warlock across the chin.

His howl followed his body into the open space that dropped off forever.

He clawed the air on his way down.

Warlock number two stayed out of sight, and Tzader started to go look for him when a blast of something flew out of the trees they passed. Hawks emerged from the branches as if something magnetic pulled the solitary predators in to converge on Tzader’s group. Screeching built as they flew into a swirling circle and came in like miniature fighter pilots.

That was not normal.

Those beaks and sharp claws could shred skin and blind them. Tzader swatted and lashed out with short kinetic bursts, shoving them back and off to the side. If these were real hawks, he didn’t want to kill any normal creature unnecessarily, but neither could he let his people get ripped to pieces. Feathers clouded his view as beaks and talons dug into his skin.

His sentient blades snapped and hissed, but he hesitated to use those when he had no way to keep them from slicing one of his team who might jump in to help. He slapped more kinetic blasts at the birds.

Tzader smelled the sharp, metallic scent of his own blood.

Adrianna’s voice cut through all the noise. That little woman had some serious lungs. She kept shouting something, but he was too busy protecting his eyes to pay attention. He swung a wide kinetic sweep, knocking thirty birds away. Just as many filled in behind them. Damn it.

All at once, the birds exploded away from him as if they were his polar opposite. Go, Adrianna.

The warlock who had sent that barrage finally appeared, lunging up at Tzader.

Birds screeched, flying erratically as the warlock still tried to force them in. Adrianna’s voice picked up volume, and the birds were finally swept away in one big, flapping cloud of feathers and screeching noise.

Tzader concentrated his kinetics into his arm, and drew back to slam the warlock in his face.

But the bastard blinked out of sight a second before an arm snaked around Tzader’s neck in a chokehold. The warlock whispered, “I should take you to my queen, but she’ll understand that there are always unexpected casualties.”

When the sharp point of the warlock’s fingernail pricked Tzader’s skin, he dove forward, dragging the warlock with him as Tzader shoved his head into the coal. Damn, that hurt. He flipped all the way over, grabbing the edge of the train car as he rolled off the edge.

Momentum tossed the warlock off his back and down to the tracks, where he screamed until the wheel severed his head and slung the rest of his body into the void.

Tzader had both arms hooked around the wall of the rail car, hanging on. He swung his feet up and used kinetics to make it all the way over. Once he landed, he turned to see Tristan laid out on the coal close to the throne, Storm battling one warlock and Evalle the other one.

They must have dealt with the fifth threat already.

Adrianna was struggling alone to keep the throne from falling over.

Daegan spied Tzader and ordered, “Spin me around and point me at the warlocks! Then get out of my way.”

Tristan struggled to reach his feet, and made it to one side of the chair.

Tzader called to Evalle telepathically.
Both of you let those two warlocks drive you back, then jump to our car and get out of the way. Daegan’s got a plan.

Got it
, she replied then must have said something to Storm. They both retreated as if beaten back.

Tzader grabbed one side of the throne with his hands and his kinetics and told Tristan, “Now!”

They turned the throne to face the fight.

Daegan roared, “Let me at them!”

Evalle shoved a quick blast of kinetics at her warlock.

Storm spun like a top and kicked his opponent as they both jumped down to the home team’s coal car.

Both warlocks started forward, their faces gleaming with confidence, but then paused and started backing up until they dropped out of sight.

Had they fallen between the cars?

No. If Tzader got that lucky, he’d buy a lottery ticket when they got home.

Adrianna lifted her voice. “That’s not good. They’re probably partnering up to drop something nasty on us that will trap us.” She positioned her hands in front of her and started to unfold the fingers of her hand that hid Witchlock.

Daegan said, “Stand back, all of you. As you people like to say, I’ve got this.”

The Sterling witch lifted an eyebrow at that and stepped aside, muttering, “You do realize you’re the only one not fully mobile, right?”

A snort puffed from the dragon.

Tzader weighed the risk of pulling Adrianna back into place, because Daegan had no idea the power she controlled. Hell, Tzader didn’t know the entire extent of her abilities, but he recalled Evalle saying she’d rather go up against a Medb army than Adrianna and her Witchlock power.

Storm shouted, “
Heads up!
”

When the attack came, it was fast and hairy-looking.

Just as Adrianna had predicted, the two warlocks were now blended together as one wide blanket of purplish-black wraiths. Both wraith heads joined as one that led the front edge of the deadly screen. It flew across the top of the boxcar, heading straight for Tzader’s group.

Evalle, Tristan and Tzader shoved their hands up to hit the deadly mass with kinetics, but at the very last possible second, Daegan opened his jaws and flames shot fifteen feet out, lighting up the flying wraith pack.

The Medb conglomeration screamed and twisted in midair, still moving forward at high speed.

The fiery mass shot over the top of Tzader’s head, close enough it would have singed his hair if he’d had any. As he watched, the flames engulfing the warlocks burned for ten seconds then vanished, leaving a blanket of ashes that disintegrated in the next sharp whip of wind.

The damn chair was of some use. Tzader called up his healing and his cuts began sealing. He asked the dragon, “Can any others follow their trail?”

Daegan’s deep voice boomed, “Only to this point. The warlocks followed us here because that Medb priest tagged us when he threw majik. That allowed him to follow the link. Without a second majik trail from here they won’t find us, but we have to leave immediately or we’ll have to fight the next wave.”

Tristan asked, “Again? You want me teleport again? Now?”

Evalle cut in. “Hold on, everyone. I just got telepathic word from Trey that they found Mother Mattie.”

Tzader said, “We can’t deal with that right now, Evalle. We have to turn Daegan into a dragon before the energy is gone from that scale. If we teleport anywhere, it’s going to be to Treoir.”

“Treoir?” Tristan shouted. “No one is listening to me. There’s no way I could teleport to another realm right now. Maybe not for another day.”

Daegan glowered at Tristan. “Then your ability to teleport is as much use as a gelded stud.”

“It was good enough to get your ass out of Tŵr Medb,” Tristan argued back.

“Would you two can it a minute?” Evalle shouted. Once Tristan and the dragon quieted, she told Tzader, “Trey found Mattie, but it’s not all good news. Storm asked the twins staying with us to keep an eye on Lanna while we were gone and to call Trey in case of an emergency, or if anything unusual happened. They just called Trey to say Lanna was missing, but he hung up as Lanna called him and said she’d found the witches. Something happened during the call. He heard the phone fall and scuffling noises. He traced her phone to a building downtown and went hunting her. When he got there, five Medb warlocks slipped into the building from a side entrance. He needs reinforcements, but Tzader told him to check before bringing other Beladors in on this—”