The Fractured Sky (22 page)

The alu swallowed, wondering why she felt guilty. What have I done?

Kaanyr turned his attention to Tauran. “It’s smoke,” he said, his voice a bit colder than usual. “There’s some sort of

village up there, and it’s been burning. I see no signs of life.”

“Oh, no,” Tauran muttered, rising to his feet. “We must go there, see if anyone survives.”

Kaanyr shrugged, then turned to look at Aliisza once more.

The alu shuddered beneath his pointed stare. At the same time, she felt herself growing cross with Tauran. He seemed oblivious to Kaanyr’s displeasure. Why? Why does that bother me?

Because he wasn’t thinking of you enough even to feel guilty, she realized. Damned angel. Damn both of you! she fumed.

The cambion turned and walked past Kael back out of the hollow.

The half-drow shifted his stare back and forth between the angel and the alu. His expression was grim, and he shook his head in disapproval. Aliisza climbed to her feet as, Tauran pushed past Kael, his focus turned entirely on whatever was burning.

The alu returned her son’s stare for a moment. “What?” she said. “You, too? What is your problem?”

“Leave him be,” Kael said. “He doesn’t need your wicked, twisted games playing with his head right now. He has enough to deal with.”

Aliisza barely restrained herself from slapping his face. “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said. “Stay out of it.” I’m your mother, she silently added. How dare you speak to me that way. But the words rang false, even in her own mind.

“I won’t,” Kael said. “I watch his back for him, and I’m not going to let you hurt him.” With that, the half-drow turned away and left the hollow.

Aliisza bit back the insult she wanted to hurl after him

and instead took a deep, calming breath. Then she understood something, and she almost laughed. That’s not it at all, my son, she thought. What you really mean is, you won’t let me hurt you. I’ve become a threat. You don’t want to share. The thought almost made her laugh again, but there was a deeper emotion, too. Hurt. You can’t see room in your life for two parents.

That realization made her clench her teeth till they hurt. She climbed up and out through the scrub into the open.

Tauran was already at the head of the group, walking briskly in the direction of the black smudge, which had dissipated somewhat since they had first spotted it. Kaanyr was right behind him, and Kael’s rapid strides were catching him up to the other two.

All three of them, leaving me behind, Aliisza thought wryly, trying to make herself feel better. Isn’t that always the way with men?

The alu hurried after them.

Tauran led them to the outskirts of a tree-house village. He didn’t hesitate to enter it, walking along the ground beneath the dwellings high overhead. Much of the place was in ruins, and Aliisza noted that many of the means to get up into the bowers of the trees had been destroyed or removed. The singed remains of rope ladders and bridges hung uselessly down from the structures, out of reach of those on the ground.

“Damn him,” Tauran murmured, gazing around helplessly. “He didn’t have to do this.”

“Where is everyone?” Aliisza wondered. “There aren’t even any bodies.”

“Oh, by Torm,” Kael muttered softly. He reached for his sword.

The other three followed his stare upward into the trees.

There, scrambling down the thick trunks like strange, smoky spiders, were shadowy beings. They looked human in shape, though they crawled on hands and feet. They had no real faces, only red, glowing eyes. Aliisza could hear a strange sound emanating from them, a kind of hissing.

When they dropped to the ground, they charged the four visitors and those hisses became unnatural howls of misery, rage, and death.

? ????????

Kael took a single step back and rotated away from the nearest of the shadowy assailants. Its red eyes glared, but Kael could tell the creature had once been a dryad, a fey being native to the World Tree. Whatever magic had been used to slay her had transformed her into a force of dark and evil hatred, bent only on his destruction.

The half-drow’s maneuver brought him just far enough back to evade her lunging attack, and as she leaped through the point in space where he had stood a moment before, Kael completed the pivot, bringing his sword up and around to slash at her from behind. The blade glided easily through her shadowy, insubstantial form, its divine enchantment crackling against her malevolence.

The shrieking wail of the shadow-dryad rose in pitch, changing from a scream of fury to one of agony. She arched her back as she tumbled through the apex of her leap, landed awkwardly, and went sprawling. She stumbled as she tried to right herself.

Kael was still angry, but he didn’t want to be. Seeing his mother within that glade, entwined around Tauran, had infuriated him, but he shouldn’t have allowed it to creep into his thoughts and disrupt his concentration. Yet that’s just what was happening. He could not get the image out of his head. He felt… something. Something he could not name.

Two more of the disfigured dryads rushed at him. They began their charge shoulder to shoulder, but as they drew closer, the twin phantoms diverged so as to come at him from either side. Kael adopted a defensive stance, blade out and to his left side. As the left-hand creature leaped at him, he shifted forward, dragging the blade up and under his foe. The sword raked her from knee to shoulder without any resistance at all as she passed him. He fought to control the momentum of the heavy blade, unused to dealing with incorporeal opponents.

As he fought to regain his balance, the other shadow-dryad struck his shoulder and raked her claws against his armor. Though the holy protection of his plate mail repelled most of the blow, he felt a numbing cold pour into his flesh. Kael grunted and swung his blade the rest of the way around as he shrugged her off. The sword came down hard upon her back, passing completely through her torso as she tumbled in a heap.

Learning from the fight as he went, Kael let the momentum of his strike carry the blade down hard to the ground. He used it as a brace to spin himself back the other way, then hefted the weapon into a defensive position and surveyed his foes.

The two abominations that had just assailed him writhed upon the ground, shrieking in pain. The first creature that had rushed at him circled, wary of the magic of his blade.

He shifted to keep her in front of him and checked on his companions.

Aliisza and Vhok had taken positions back to back, each with a weapon in hand. The cambion wielded a pair of enchanted daggers the alu had given him after the loss of his own blade. Three shadowy dryads circled them. On the far side, Tauran stood before two more of the transformed fey, his shining mace gripped in both hands. One lunged at him and he batted it away with a well-placed blow to the head.

A dozen more bounded down from the trees above, rushing to join the battle.

“Let us just fly away and be done with this!” Vhok snarled as he sliced at one of the creatures opposing him. “This isn’t getting us any closer to Zasian!”

“We cannot leave these poor, cursed creatures as they are,” Tauran replied, panting as he swung his mace back and forth in large arcs. “They must be put out of their misery.”

Vhok snorted and slashed with both his daggers at the neatest of the shadowy beings. He struck her squarely in the chest and head. Her wail of rage split the air as she fell back, clawing at the wounds. “Get your priorities straight, fool angel,” he grumbled as he turned to slash at another of the things attacking him. “We’re no good to you butchered by these wretches.”

So much for the new and improved helpful cambion, Kael thought. Though I can’t imagine he’s very happy to see Aliisza and Tauran cuddling, either.

“Nonetheless,” the angel replied with a hint of disdain, “I will not suffer such twisted abominations to live. They deserve death rather than a cruel existence such as this.”

And you don’t even see what’s going on, Kael thought of Tauran. You don’t even see the way she looks at you!

The one circling Kael chose that moment to attack him, and the half-drow was forced to shift his attention back to the work at hand. He swung his sword at her as she darted in, only to discover too late that her attack had been a feint. The momentum of his swing carried him around and past her, and she leaped high toward his head.

Kael staggered as he tried to slide out of the way. His movement carried him out of reach of her black, gleaming talons, but the other two he had wounded rejoined the fight, and both of them took advantage of his unbalanced state to slip inside his weapon’s reach.

Idiot! Concentrate!

The three of them became a blurred whirl of inky howls and slashing pain as they swarmed Kael. He tried to swipe at them with his sword, but the weapon was simply too bulky to use in such close quarters. He cast the sword aside and swung his mailed fists instead.

As he punched at the three horrific creatures battling him, Kael felt a more righteous anger swell within him.

Kael murmured a prayer to Torm, calling on the Loyal Fury’s blessings to aid him in his fight.

Torm heeded Kael’s call.

A bit of the deity’s divine essence coursed through the half-drow. Kael felt glorious strength and holy wrath overtake him. With renewed vigor, he slammed his armored fists left and fight, landing preternaturally powerful blows upon the shadow-dryads. Each strike burst with spiritual light and energy and sent the battle-crazed creatures scattering and yowling in anguish.

Kael strode to his sword and picked it up. Brandishing it, he roared, “I am punishment incarnate!” His voice, magically amplified, reverberated across the battlefield.

The three grotesque fey flinched and fell back from the divine knight.

Kael swung the blade once. He turned to the nearest of the three sprawled horrors. “Feel my wrath!” he bellowed. The thing screeched and scrambled to escape. Kael lunged.

The blade whistled through the air, crackling with holy power. As it struck the shadow-dryad, a thunderous boom emanated from the point of impact, and blinding white light flashed. The shadow-thing let out a single ear-splitting scream and vanished in a burst of purplish smoke.

Kael roared in triumph and turned to the next of the three.

The two creatures jabbered in fright and turned to flee.

Before either of the creatures had covered five steps, Kael was on them, carving them apart with shattering, thundering blows. When he drew up and paused, neither one of the shadow-dryads remained.

Around Kael, the battle raged. Tauran and the two half-fiends worked furiously, staving off a multitude of the things as they continued to swarm. Several of the creatures came at him.

Kael advanced to meet them, the thrill of divine power urging him forward. Gone was his petulance. Gone was the sense of betrayal, the jealousy—yes, that’s what he had felt, he knew—at seeing his mentor and his mother comforting one another. In their places, there was only the fulfilling glory of Torm’s divine might.

Kael stepped among the horde of twisted, cursed dryads, cutting and lunging with his blade. He moved through sword form after sword form, his motions swift, compact, and precise. Everywhere he turned, his blade parted the

shadows, cleaving them into nothingness.

Conducting the battle required no more thinking on Kael’s part. Each move was logical, the correct response to the previous step, the shifting of the opponents. Everything he did was a continuous flow of motion. He was a river maneuvering among the stones.

Each slice of Kael’s blade connected with his enemies. The spiritual energy of Torm coursing through the sword blasted those enemies, ripping them apart and annihilating their shadowy flesh. Puffs of purplish smoke erupted around the divine champion as he carved his way through his foes.

The fight led the half-drow into the midst of his companions. As he conducted the battle, he worked in concert with the other three, attacking in unison with them to flank an opponent or catch it off balance.

Tauran drove one back within reach of Kael’s blade, and Kael sent it to oblivion.

Vhok faced two at once, and Kael stepped between them, dispatching both in a fluid series of swings.

Aliisza became trapped within a gathering of three, and Kael ran to her side, going back to back with her until none remained to threaten her.

It was over. Kael drew his blade back for another devastating strike, and he had no more enemies to battle. All their foes had fallen. The twisted, cursed things were no more.

Yes! Thank you, blessed Torm. That’s what it’s all about.

With the danger past, his god’s divine wrath left Kael and weariness crashed into the knight. He felt light-headed, barely able to stand, and numbing cold pulsed in half a dozen spots on his body—wounds taken during the fight. He sank to one knee, laying his sword at his side, and panted.

Aliisza also settled to the ground, sitting cross-legged. She

stared wide-eyed at Kael. Vhok remained standing, though he breathed heavily and had to lean down with his hands on his knees. Tauran came down to one knee as well, though he immediately entered into a silent prayer, presumably for the immortal remains of the dispatched dryads.

“I hope we don’t have to do that again,” Vhok said between ragged breaths. He eyed the surroundings as though looking for more enemies. “It seemed like they would never stop coming!”

“Funny you should say that,” Kael replied between hard breaths. “I was just starting to get into the moment, myself.”

Tauran looked up from his completed prayer and frowned at Kael. “They rest now,” he said quietly. “They are at peace. I pray we don’t encounter any more warped souls like that.” The comment seemed directed at the half-drow.

Vhok smirked and shrugged. “Well, good for them. I still say that was a fool’s errand, angel. Clearly Zasian did that to slow us down. We played right into his hands by staying here and fighting. I thought you wanted to catch him.”

“I’m not so sure that was his only purpose,” Aliisza said. She shifted herself so that her legs stuck out as she leaned back on her hands.