Defy (34 page)

Fortunately, Nyx decided to make her
appearance then. He watched as the kragen swooped down, curled her
tail around Tate and the Lekwuesti, who were standing all but on
top of each other, and yanked them up into the sky just as Eirik
reached them. Tate managed to get a kick into the side of Eirik’s
head, though whether by accident or design, Zachariah had no
idea.

“Deimos!” Eirik shouted as he grabbed
something from the top of the pedestal in front of him. He spoke a
few more words, but they were unintelligible.

Zachariah switched his hold on his tomahawk
even as Deimos leaped at Eirik. Flicking his wrist, Zachariah let
his weapon fly with a strike that should have split Eirik between
the eyes.

It ended up soaring through the air…right
into the chest of the Waresti second commander as he came in for a
landing.

Sophia couldn’t believe she was flying. The
energy surging through her was both foreign and beyond welcome.
Although she knew she was now a visible target to the Mercesti with
crossbows, she couldn’t imagine ever extinguishing her wings now
that she’d finally called them forth.

After a minute, she realized that she was
getting higher and higher. She couldn’t seem to stop herself.

“Sophia!” Quincy called out to her. “Stop
moving your—”

Panicking, she locked her wings. Then she
fell.

“Extinguish your wings!” he shouted.

“No!” she returned, and started flapping
again. She watched as he hurried to pace her. “I just learned how
to extend them, for all holy sake. What if I can’t do it
again?”

She saw a look that might have been
understanding enter his silver eyes. “You’ll be able to do it now,
Sophia,” he said in a gentler tone. “Do you feel it?”

Puzzled by what he meant, she frowned and
started to tell him no. Then she actually paid attention to the
energy that flowed through her. It seemed to come from her heart
and filtered out into her wings. “Yes, I do.”

“That’s the energy you need to call forth
from now on when you want to extend your wings,” he said, holding
her gaze. “You
will
be able to do it. But now isn’t the time
to test your abilities.”

Just then, they were both almost knocked to
the ground by a large, black mass. Sophia intuitively corrected her
balance in the air as Quincy did the same. They both looked at the
same time in the direction of the kragen that had just blown by
them. And they easily spotted Tate and the Lekwuesti in the
animal’s tail.

Quincy caught her gaze. “On second
thought…”

“Yeah,” she said with a determined nod.
“Let’s go after Tate.”

“Alexius!”

Clara Kate’s shout reached Tiege from where
she and Ini-herit flew overhead. It reflected his own horror at
seeing Zachariah throw his weapon and hit the Waresti second
commander.

Tiege hadn’t wanted to take the time to get
into the flight harness with Ini-herit after his illusion
dissolved, so he ran down the mountain trying to get to Tate, using
his kamas to clear a path. He lost sight of his sister as he made
his way through the crowd. The noise, flashes of blinding light and
chaotic motion disoriented him. But he forced his way through the
crowd in time to see Zachariah’s deadly strike. Not seeing Tate, he
reasoned the Mercesti who had just tried to kill Alexius had done
something to her.

Using his momentum as he raced downhill,
Tiege launched himself into a low dive and roll even as Alexius
staggered back. He sliced the back of Zachariah’s knees with his
weapons as he came out of the roll, causing the Mercesti to hit the
ground. Tiege regained his feet, encircling Zachariah’s neck with
the curved blades of his blessed weapons with the intent of
separating his head from his body.

“No!”

Tiege managed to stop himself at Alexius’
cry. He stood over Zachariah with his kamas around his neck and
looked to Alexius for a reason why he should spare the male who had
struck him down and obviously done something to Tate. He noticed
the Mercesti’s skin burned where the blessed weapons touched him,
but he didn’t make a sound.

“But he tried to kill you,” Tiege pointed out
as Alexius pushed himself back to his feet and yanked the tomahawk
from his chest. Although blood accompanied the weapon, the wound
didn’t appear fatal. The armor he wore had saved his life. “He was
going to kill Tate. We don’t even know where she is. He probably
did something to her!”

“You must be Tiege,” Zachariah said,
startling him. He hadn’t even looked over his shoulder.

C.K. and Ini-herit landed next to Alexius.
They held their weapons at the ready, but the Waresti had largely
dispersed the Mercesti in the immediate vicinity.

“How did you know that?” Tiege demanded.

Moving slowly, the Mercesti reached for the
small of his back. Tiege dug his kamas deeper as a warning.
Zachariah didn’t even flinch as his blood flowed from the inflicted
wounds. Instead, he pulled out two nunchucks from beneath his tank
top.

“Give these back to your sister, would you?”
he asked as he held them up. “It appears I missed my chance.”

Tiege looked at the weapons as realization
sank in. He had the fleeting thought that the blessed nunchucks
didn’t hurt Zachariah. Then Alexius said, “Tiege, he was aiming for
Eirik.”

Without another word, Tiege removed his
kamas, took Tate’s nunchucks and stepped away from Zachariah.
“Where’s my sister?” he asked.

Zachariah pushed himself to his feet, which
Tiege knew had to be painful after the injuries he had caused to
the backs of his legs. “She and the Lekwuesti were taken somewhere
safe just before Eirik and Deimos—” He cut himself off, closing his
eyes briefly. Then he added, “Disappeared.”

“You are injured,” Ini-herit stated.

Zachariah caught the elder’s gaze, but didn’t
reply. Blood had soaked his tank top from the slices around his
neck. Ini-herit stepped closer to him. The Mercesti didn’t move and
watched him with wary eyes. Ini-herit reached out. When his hands
touched Zachariah’s neck, there was a flash of white light. Both
males hissed in pain and backed away from each other.

Clara Kate hurried to Ini-herit, who rubbed
his hands against his thighs. He shook his head.

“I cannot heal you,” he said to
Zachariah.

“You may not be able to,” came a voice. Tiege
looked up as Uncle Gabriel approached, followed closely by his dad.
His uncle caught Zachariah’s eye and added, “But I can.”

When Nyx’s tail once again wrapped around
Tate, she went through what could only be described as a mental
conniption fit. She immediately flashed back to when she was
snatched out of the air at Sophia’s flight lesson, a moment that
had left her scarred in more ways than one.

At first, she was startled, confused and
disoriented. She felt the Lekwuesti smashed up against her and she
realized they were lifting off the ground. Her body was flung in
several directions until she was held in a more stable, horizontal
position with the Lekwuesti wedged up against her left side and
part of her back. Her mind took a couple of minutes to process what
had occurred.

Eventually, though, she regained her senses
enough to figure out what had happened. Above her soared a silent
black mass. She knew it was the kragen.

“Nyx!” she shouted above the wind soaring in
her ears. “Put us down! We have to help Sparky!” When she didn’t
receive any kind of response, she started struggling against the
confines of the kragen’s tail. “Nyx!”

“You’re stabbing me with your blade,” the
Lekwuesti said near her ear.

“Sorry,” Tate replied, and stopped
shifting.

They had to get back to the others. Her
family was down there. Bordering on panic, she tried kicking. That,
also, just resulted in hurting the Lekwuesti. With each passing
moment, they were getting further and further from those who had
come to rescue her.

“Can you reach my knife?” she asked the other
female.

There was some shifting against her side as
the Lekwuesti tested the theory. Tate carefully maneuvered the
slayer grass blade, not moving too quickly so she didn’t stab
either of them. After a few attempts, both females had a grip on
the blade.

“Now what?” the Lekwuesti asked.

“Now—what’s your name?”

“Ariana. Yours?”

“Tate. Okay, Ariana. I want to poke Nyx in
the tail so she’ll release us. I’m bigger than you, but do you
think you could fly both of us to the ground without breaking our
necks?”

Ariana shrugged. “I’m not sure. But I can
try. I don’t think things could be much worse.”

“Bite your tongue. Okay, let’s try.” Tate
looked up at the kragen and winced. “Sorry, Nyx!”

They shifted again and used the slayer grass
to puncture Nyx’s tail. With an angry cry, the kragen uncurled her
tail, dropping the females. Ariana twisted to put her arms around
Tate as they rolled free. Tate clung to the smaller female’s waist
with her arms and legs and closed her eyes as lavender wings
unfurled.

Their landing was far from graceful and took
a lot of skin from Tate’s right side, but they ended up on a high
mountain ridge in one piece. Concerned that Nyx would circle back
and try to grab them again, Tate surged to her feet. She turned to
assist Ariana up, as well.

But when she looked at the Lekwuesti, she
realized they weren’t going anywhere. Ariana was pale and unmoving,
blood pouring from the bites on her neck.

Tate knew if they didn’t get help soon, the
Lekwuesti was going to die.

Zachariah hadn’t seen the Gloresti elder in
fifty years.
Archigos
Gabriel no longer bore the dark blue
Gloresti pairing markings that used to cover his skin, Zachariah
realized, and he had a human Southern accent and spoke in the
unusual, informal manner that Tate did. Despite these differences,
Zachariah’s response to seeing the elder who used to govern him was
as instinctive as though they had been together just the day
before.

He crossed his right arm over his chest,
respectfully bowed his head and said, “
Archigos
Gabriel.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tiege
approach his father. The two moved off a short distance away. He
couldn’t hear what they said.

“Zachariah,” Gabriel greeted calmly, once
again drawing Zachariah’s attention. The elder’s dark blue eyes
slowly faded to blue-gray, something that intrigued Zachariah
despite his discomfort with this meeting. Without a hint of
judgment in his tone, he continued, “You’d better let me take care
of those wounds. I think Tiege hit an artery.”

After the experience with the Corgloresti
elder, Zachariah was hard-pressed to think this was a good idea.
Tate had told him about the fact that
archigos
Gabriel now
shared the ability to heal with his avowed,
kyria
Amber.
Their healing abilities surpassed that of any other Estilorian.
Deciding he had little choice, he gave a slight nod.

The elder approached and placed his hands
around Zachariah’s neck. There was a surge of blue-gray light.
Zachariah flinched at the pain caused by the light, but realized it
wasn’t much worse than the pain of the injury itself. His neck and
leg injuries slowly knit back together. His eyes shifted to Tiege
and Caleb, who had connected themselves with some kind of flight
harness. Caleb extended his wings. They took flight in the
direction that Nyx had traveled. Tate must have managed to connect
with her brother again and they were going after her.

When he looked back at
archigos
Gabriel, he saw the elder’s brow wrinkle. His blue-gray gaze moved
to his side. Zachariah supposed he had just discovered the stab
wound there. When that wound healed, it was no simple mending of
flesh. There was a sort of sizzling sound as it sealed itself.

“Damn and blast,” he hissed, clenching his
fists against it.

“You’re lucky,” Gabriel said as he finished
his healing efforts and stepped back. “The cursed blade affected
you only a bit differently than the blessed one. Your Mercesti
nature must have influenced the effect of the curse. I normally
can’t heal cursed wounds with just my abilities.”

“How’d you get stabbed with a cursed
blade?”

Zachariah hadn’t met the female Kynzesti who
asked the question. Judging by her uncanny resemblance to
archigos
Gabriel, he suspected he now looked upon Clara
Kate. He didn’t answer her.

“What do you intend to do with me now?” he
asked instead, meeting Gabriel’s intent gaze.

“Have a conversation with you.”

“I do not want to have a bloody
conversation,” Zachariah snapped. He watched as the Corgloresti
elder extended his wings and took flight, and was irritated by the
fact that he wondered whether he was flying after Tate because she
needed healing. “I want my life to go back to the way it was before
that bloody, troublesome female fell into it.”

“Which female?” Gabriel asked.

Zachariah looked at Alexius. “I apologize for
hitting you,” he said. “I want my weapon back now.”

The Waresti second commander shifted as
though he was going to return it, but
archigos
Gabriel held
out his hand with his palm up, not moving his gaze from Zachariah.
“Hand it to me, Alexius. Then everyone needs to leave us for a few
minutes.

“We’re having this conversation, Zachariah.
Whether you want to or not.”

Tate had never been so glad to see Sophia and
Quincy.

The pair arrived shortly after Tate sent out
a thought to Tiege that she needed help and opened her senses to
him so that he could find her. When Tiege said their father was
with him, emotion flooded her. And the second she spotted the
silver and blue-green wings in the distance, she was so overcome
that her greeting to her cousin was to clutch her and sob.