Thawed Fortunes (30 page)

Of course, if Kra'ven was worth even half of
what I pay him, he'd be able to do more than mutter about how
dangerous the women can be if encountered on their own ground. He's
never once exposed himself to the slightest danger.

A series of short-lived, muted screams echoed
up from further inside the keep, and the Baron bit back an oath as
he saw just how unsettled his men were. The near-constant fear of
him that he'd spent so long instilling in them was only barely
greater than the terror inspired by hundreds of tales about the
ghosts who lived in the White Spikes, and the unnatural powers
traditionally attributed to them.

Picking out the man who looked the most
likely to flee if things got any worse, Vladir casually backhanded
him into the nearest wall. "We stay here and fight. They'll not
best us on our own ground and I'll cut down the first one as even
thinks about running."

A fight inside where his knights would be on
foot, and all but useless, was the quickest way to lose men, but he
couldn't afford the appearance of weakness. The men were starting
to fear Kra'ven nearly as much as they feared him, and another
defeat, or even a retreat, would put his authority with the refuse
that made up his army on shaky ground.

##

Va'ma had met up with three
other Guadel several minutes before, and was trying to fight
through to the main door, but was facing ever-increasing
resistance.
Powers curse these lowlanders,
Si'mon was right. We should have closed the main door a quarter
cycle into the ambush.

One of the Guadel in the group had found his
augmentation abruptly stripped away from him a few minutes ago, but
luckily it had happened in between engagements and he'd survived
for the critical few seconds it took for him to readjust to normal
time flow. Despite the growing risk that one or more of his wives
would tire and drop out of the link, Va'ma charged into the newest
batch of swordsmen impeding his progress towards the door.

The hulking Guadel parried a vicious blow
away from his head, and dispatched the soldier with an economical
slash to the throat, and then looked around in surprise as Baron
Vladir appeared at the end of the hall, flanked by a trio of
archers on either side.

Va'ma sprinted down the hall, followed by the
two still-augmented Guadel, and prayed that his wives could hold on
just long enough for him to cut Vladir down.

The first flight of arrows came humming
through the air towards the three warriors, but fully augmented as
he was, Va'ma found it easy to swat aside the closest three,
trusting his companions to defend themselves from the remaining
trio of projectiles.

A dull rumble of footsteps behind him
announced the fact that the guardsmen, with their slower mental
processes, had finally realized what was happening and joined the
charge, but Va'ma dismissed the fact as unimportant. The archers
would only have time for one more flight.

Still fifteen steps away as the archers drew
back again, Va'ma raised his dagger to parry the next flight, only
to feel his world spin as Verona, his youngest wife, disappeared
from his mind, dropping from the link.

Time seemed to speed up, flowing faster than
he could react, and rods of fire pierced him as four of the six
arrows hit before he could adjust and try to deflect them.

##

Se'ath saw Va'ma start to fall, unearthly
grace turning into wooden clumsiness, and the confusion and
contradicting thoughts that had been plaguing him all morning
disappeared. Va'del's calm explanation of fear as a natural
response to danger was no longer pitting itself against the stories
he'd heard all his life about mythical heroes who'd faced death
without ever blinking, without ever wavering from their duty.

Va'ma hit the ground, tangled up with the
Baron, just a few feet in front of Se'ath and he suddenly realized
that he was still running, that the fear that had plagued him all
morning had been replaced with something he couldn't recognize.

One of the Baron's men was before him, and
hundreds of cycles of training took over. The exchange was
lightning-quick and then Se'ath was stepping past the corpse at his
feet, seeking his next opponent, finally part of something bigger
than just himself, finally knowing his place and purpose in the
world. There were worse things than dying, but he'd known that for
a while. For the first time he understood that there were things
that were much better than just living.

##

Jameson seemed to be trying to talk despite a
chest wound that was almost sure to be fatal, but Peters could hear
an enemy squad stomping up the stairs to their left, so he passed
his crossbow and quarrels back to the other new man they'd picked
up just before Jameson, and drew his sword. "No time, Jameson. Just
hang on until this rush is over, and make your shot count."

Going to the great hall where they could
shoot down at the enemy troops as they appeared had seemed like a
brilliant idea up until Peters had realized just how many enemy
troops were actually running around the castle already. They'd had
to fight off three attacks already from groups that had crept up to
the second floor and then charged Peters' position.

Another group, eight men this time, rushed
their position, but well-aimed shots felled half of them and then
it was down to sword work again. As the last opponent fell, Peters
looked around at his men. Nearly everyone sported some kind of
minor wound but only Jameson's injury was serious so far.

Since Peters had led his small band down from
the battlements, he'd picked up a few reinforcements, which had
been helpful but disheartening because most of them had ended up
unattached when the Guadel they were following had dropped out of
link at the wrong time and died. Jameson hadn't had a chance to
tell his story before being injured, but it was a safe bet that
Javin had been cut down or Jameson would have still been with
him.

The sound of running footsteps behind him
brought Peters back around, but he got a hand up in time to stop
his men from shooting the newcomers, who turned out to be two of
the men he'd left up above to ensure that the portcullis wasn't
raised.

"Their mage cut Vincent and Jonas down. We
were keeping them from making it up the stairs, and then suddenly
they both burst into flames. With just two of us we couldn't reload
fast enough to keep them out of the gate house."

Peters felt the crushing weight of his duty
increase as he realized that the reinforcements about to enter the
keep would take their situation from the worst he'd ever seen to
completely impossible. "We'll deal with the reinforcements as they
arrive. Get those crossbows reloaded."

"No, sir. There won't be any reinforcements.
Once the portcullis was up, the mage led everyone still in the
courtyard out to the men outside and turned them around. They're
running away."

Hope blossoming inside him once again, Peters
bent down to reload Jameson's crossbow. The dying guardsman pulled
him down closer.

"We got cut off from Javin. Large
group...headed towards the sisters."

Jameson was dead before Peters fully
registered the trooper's words, but there wasn't time to treat the
bloodied body with the respect it deserved.

Prying his quiver of quarrels from lifeless
fingers, Peters turned on the rest of his tiny band. "Upstairs, and
move it, we've got an emergency."

##

Va'del's weapons were nearby, but he'd been
strictly instructed to stay where he was and not get involved in
the fighting. He was anxious to be up and helping, but his body was
still weak from blood loss, and even Jain was too exhausted to do
anything to speed his recovery.

Despite still being unable to stand without
getting lightheaded and nearly falling down, Va'del had demanded
his bed at least be placed near the door. It was a hollow gesture,
considering his condition and the fact that Vi'en had worn herself
down to nothing in her efforts to bring her sisters out of their
dependent conditions, but it made him feel a little better.

One of the women in the back corner gasped in
pain and then broke out in tears. Jeeves looked up from the doorway
with concern on his face, but didn't leave his post.

When Va'del tried to pull himself out of bed,
the slightly older Guadel shook his head. "There isn't anything you
can do for her right now and you'll either hurt yourself or
distract one of the other women while you're trying to get over
there."

"Her husband's dead, isn't he?"

Jeeves nodded. "Most likely. Our plan extends
out the length of time that everyone can engage while augmented,
but it relies an awful lot on the enemy remaining dispersed for
quite a while. We're bound to lose at least a few more before this
is over."

Va'del was just about to once again express
his frustration with not being able to go help, when Jeeves spun
back towards the door. The move started out completely unaugmented
to begin with, but the change in the fluidity of the motion made it
plain that one or more of his three wives was desperately trying to
augment him.

Jeeves was almost fast enough to deflect the
crossbow bolt that seemed to appear out of nowhere, managing to
just barely stop it from hitting his heart.

Va'del pulled himself to his feet as the man
who was supposed to protect the female Guadel tumbled away in a
spray of blood, and he somehow wasn't surprised when it was Be'ter
who strode calmly into the room.

"I should have known you'd be hiding in here
with the women. When Kra'ven told me that there was an amazing
amount of power being wielded in this room I didn't think I'd get
the pleasure of killing you at the same time I ripped the heart out
of the rest of the Guadel."

Be'ter was casually looking around the room,
but Va'del found himself strangely unconcerned. There was no way
that Mali could match Vi'en for sheer power and Va'del was between
Be'ter and everyone else. Be'ter wasn't going to be able to get to
Jain without Va'del cutting him down first.

Out of the corner of his eye, Va'del saw
Vi'en go motionless, and then he felt the familiar sense of
pressure in his head as she tried to force herself past his
defenses. Just as he succeeded in lowering his barriers enough for
her to begin the augmentation process, Be'ter sent the knife in his
left hand spinning through the air towards Vi'en.

There was a brief flash of pain, and then the
link dissolved.

##

Jain saw the dagger streak through the air
and bury itself in Vi'en's chest, and it felt as though her heart
would break as Va'del's movements once again become relatively
clumsy and unsure.

Trying to avoid attracting Be'ter's notice,
Jain moved over to the older woman's side, but half-formed plans to
try and heal the woman were discarded as it became painfully
obvious that the wound was far beyond her meager powers.

Be'ter was taunting Va'del now, and despite
Jain's best efforts to block the words out they seemed to burrow
into her mind.

"Mali told me you'd gotten married. I figured
something like that would happen once you realized you'd picked
yourself the weakest of all the Daughters. She claimed you refused
to link with the old hag though. Almost had me convinced until you
ran off with Jain and the others."

Vi'en was trying to say something past the
blood filling up her lungs. Jain leaned closer.

"Jain, Va'del's Goddess-touched too. Like us.
When you link, draw through him first to power the
augmentation."

Va'del was tottering slightly, but he had
both his weapons out, and was plainly readying himself to attack
Be'ter despite the fact he didn't have a chance.

Be'ter's smile was cold. "I'm actually glad
things worked out the way they did. You see, the only reason I
didn't kill you the last time we fought was because Mali held back.
I've broken her of that habit now though."

Jain reached towards Va'del's mind, and felt
the forbidding walls he presented to the rest of the world come
down, his thoughts seeming to reach out and welcome her inside
him.

The tiny doubts Be'ter's implications had
created died under a complete certainty that Va'del loved her for
herself rather than for the power she represented, and she reached
out and pulled power into herself.

Mindful of Vi'en's dying words, Jain pulled
the raging energies through Va'del first, and was amazed by their
relative calm when they reached her.

For all that the power was easier to work,
Jain nearly lost her grasp on the threads of fire when she realized
that the link was somehow different, that the shadowy presence that
was Va'del's mind was somehow as much inside her as she was inside
it.

It's okay. I don't have any secrets from
Va'del.

Working as swiftly as she was able, Jain wove
the threads of augmentation over and through Va'del's body, and
then opened her eyes to examine the multicolored pattern of energy
that was the result of her efforts.

Be'ter and Va'del went from staring at each
other to fighting faster than Jain could follow, but she didn't let
her amazement interfere with the steady stream of power she was
feeding into her beloved.

Her very weakness limited the extent to which
she could filter power through Va'del, so the two men were more
closely matched than Jain would have believed possible. Instead of
ending suddenly after just a few passes as Jain had expected, the
fight between Va'del and Be'ter seemed to stretch for an impossible
length of time.

Streaks of blood appeared on both men almost
faster than the human eye could register. Moving with a savageness
that Jain had never seen in him before, Va'del pushed Be'ter back a
couple of steps into the hall before seeming to stall out and lose
all momentum.