The Gantean (Tales of Blood & Light Book 1) (28 page)

“Allian?” I squeaked as he stepped into the chamber. His eyes widened as he saw Ricknagel and Costas, side by side but for the mageglass separating them.

Allian crossed the room in two long strides. “Costas,” Allian said as he stared through the glass.

“Galatien,” finished Ricknagel. “My captive.”

Allian faced the larger man, his back as straight as a sword. “I shall fight you for him.”

Ricknagel huffed in amusement. “I’ve no intention of giving him up. I didn’t take him to sell him. Even so, you’d do better to offer me gold. I have no inclination to fight. Nice costume, by the way.”

“You mistake me,” Allian said. “I wasn’t making an offer.” He swiped his fine embroidered cloak from his shoulders, dropped it, and shook the sleeves of his tunic. He stuck one hand up each sleeve, giving a curtailed bow to the usurper king. His gaze never left Ricknagel’s face.

Recognition dawned as Ricknagel observed Allian’s ritualized gestures. “A Dragonnaire! Someone finally came. I had begun to doubt the renown of Costas’s special legion. Give me your name.”

“I have no name,” Allian spoke the words formally. “I am his, blood and breath.”

Ricknagel nodded. “The damned girl over there is yours, is she?” He scowled as he shrugged his own cloak to the floor. “Amatos, what a fool I am.” He stalked towards the door.

In a flash, he whirled and grabbed the spear that he had carried at the party, which was leaning against the wall beside the door. In the instant that Ricknagel sprang, Allian moved, whipping his hands from his sleeves, his matched butterfly blades flashing free. Both men dropped into crouches, circling. Allian’s face remained impassive, but on Ricknagel’s I read fury and determination.

I pulled Miki into the corner. He tapped urgently on my shoulder and pointed across the room. “Leila, look.”

A white cradle had been pushed against the wall beneath the far window. I suppressed a cry.

Miki’s eyes narrowed to slits as he watched the fight. We could not cross the room lest we interfere with Allian’s success. He and Ricknagel fought in the Lethemian style, with regimented, precise forms, following rules. Allian moved with practiced grace, his hips swiveling in methodical patterns, his blades carving circles around him. He caught Ricknagel’s spear between the butterfly swords and began a slow, inexorable slide towards the other man’s hands. Ricknagel pushed him off.

I could barely breathe. I needed to get to that cradle.
TiriqTiriqTiriq
—I could think of nothing but my boy. Yet I could not reach him. My heart raced and raced.

Ricknagel had power, but Allian’s calm method wore down the bigger man. After seven or eight tries, Allian finally managed to slide all the way down the spear with his blades. The weapon burst from Ricknagel’s grip. A flash of red showed him blooded. Even so, he did not yield. Allian flew at Ricknagel, swords glittering in a deadly rush.

Ricknagel fell with a dull thump that echoed throughout the room.

“Leila!” Allian turned from Ricknagel’s fallen body without so much as a pause. “Can we get him out? Do you know what they’ve done to him?”

Miki crept with me from the shadows. I pushed him towards the cradle—he didn’t need to be told what to do. He bent and retrieved my fallen ulio on his way to Tiriq.

“I’m working on it, but I need time. How did you find us?”

Miki lifted my boy—my sweet boy—into his arms. Relief almost made my legs buckle.

“I decided to do my own search of the house. Look, do what you have to do as quickly as you can. Ricknagel should be out for a good while, but eventually he’ll wake.” He looked around the room. “Is there any rope? I could tie him.”

“He’s not dead?” Hadn’t I just seen Allian cleave the man’s face in two?

“The back edge of the blades are blunted,” Allian explained. “Ricknagel must see a full trial for his treasons. If I were to kill him now, there would be only another assassination to tally in this conflict. Costas likes to do everything by the books.”

As much as I wanted to go to Tiriq, Costas needed me more. I heard my boy’s happy gurgles as Miki bounced him in his arms, and that had to suffice to calm me. I had to continue my unraveling, and I needed all my wits to do it.

I hurried, my fingers burning from the labor of unknotting. Suddenly, Costas’s bloodlight swelled and amber sparks exploded in my face. I screamed.

Thrust from Yaqi again, I met Allian’s blue eyes. They looked wrong. His lips parted on a weak exhale as dark liquid seeped from the corner of his mouth.

“Allian!” I shrieked as he fell into me. Then I looked down.

A full span of spear emerged from the center of his body.

A shadow followed me as I lowered Allian to the ground, moving as though trapped in syrup. I stared up in shock. Miki clung to Xander Ricknagel’s shoulders as together they melted slowly to the floor. The boy had one hand laced in the big man’s peppered hair, the other gripping the hilt of the ulio.

Miki had thrust the blackstone blade so deep in Ricknagel’s neck that I could see only a flash of white bone hilt and Miki’s bloody fingers.

Ricknagel’s eyes were large and still. Miki’s mouth was set and grim.

“Miki?” My voice quavered. “Where’s Tiriq?”

“In the cradle.” Miki yanked the ulio from Ricknagel’s neck, sending a gush of blood cascading everywhere. He clambered from Ricknagel’s back as the man slumped into a gurgling heap beside Allian. Ricknagel’s large hands weakly groped at his throat, trying to stem the waterfall of blood to no avail. His eyes darted. I looked away.

“Get Costas out,” Miki said in a flat voice as he leaned over Allian, checking both his pulse and breath before shaking his head. “I’ll get Tiriq and we can get out of here.”

Tiriq, Tiriq, Tiriq.
My son’s name echoed in my head as I went back under Yaqi’s scrim to unravel the enchantment with shaking hands. Costas’s bloodlight stormed in pulses of orange, gold, and black, growing more chaotic with each unstringing. I held onto my breath the way I wanted to hold Tiriq: fiercely, possessively, greedily.

Reach, pinch, pull, pinch, untwist. I moved like one of Lethemia's magic engines, my body rising and falling in a choreography of five actions. At last, I found myself gripping the last strand of the web, reaching, pinching, pulling, pinching—

An eruption of gold bloodlight sent me flying backwards, warming me from the inside out
.
The room reeked of copper and blood. Miki stood beside me with Tiriq fussing in his arms.

“It’s done,” I said. Within the mageglass box, Costas stood, finally free of the binding enchantment. He made to take a step, but he stumbled. As he caught himself on the mageglass, it cracked. The crack grew, radiating from its source, branching and growing like a living thing. I pulled Miki and Tiriq away from the glass as it shattered outwards in a savage rain of shards. When we dared to stand again my arms bled from a thousand tiny nicks. I extracted Tiriq from Miki and clutched him against my chest, feeling his fast heart beat against mine. A wave of calmness flooded over me. I had him. I could face anything to get us free of this. Tiriq murmured a soft, contented sound that was completely incongruous with everything that had just transpired. He fit against me like a puzzle piece, tight and close and safe.

Costas knelt beside Allian.

“He’s dead,” I said. I glanced at Ricknagel, who no longer gurgled. “Ricknagel, too.”

“What are you doing here?” Costas asked.

“I came with Allian to find you.” The current danger of our situation suddenly hit me like a falling boulder. Miki and I were soaked in blood and dusted with shattered mageglass. Everyone outside this room supported Xander Ricknagel. How would we escape?

Costas hissed, “By Amatos, you were meant to stay in Galantia.” He glanced up at me and his face hardened. “You madwoman. You didn’t bring our son here! How could you?” Accusation laced his words.

Miki stepped between us. “Don’t speak to her like that. She came to get you. She didn’t have to. Maybe she didn’t even want to! But she came. It was that Ghilene Entila who sent Tiriq here.
She
betrayed you to Xander Ricknagel and handed him your son! We came to rescue you both.”

Costas glared at Miki, but the boy only took one step closer to him. “You’d better treat her well,” he demanded. “I’ve killed a king once. I can do it again.”

Miki had a smear of blood across one cheek; his white dress clothes were splattered with red, rusting in the soft light. He held Costas’s gaze unabashedly as he brought up the bloody ulio and drew it suggestively above his throat.

His eyes glowed ferally.

Costas, lightning quick, caught Miki’s wrist and squeezed. Weak as he may have been from his imprisonment, Costas still managed one rapid twist that sent the knife crashing to the floor. Costas gave the weapon a scornful look and left it where it lay. He stalked to the door to peer into the hall. Miki snatched the ulio and stuffed it back into his belt.

Costas strode back into the room and wrestled our son from my arms. The unraveling had left me exhausted; I could not resist him. Tiriq began to squall and shriek, reaching for me.

“Costas—”

“Where are we?” he interrupted as he pressed Tiriq’s head against his chest in a motion that would have endeared me to him at any other time. He appeared utterly dazed.

“The Duke of Engashta’s mansion. There’s a party happening in the ballroom,” I explained. “We must be careful to avoid any notice.”

“That gods-damned Entilan bitch. She’ll pay for this. The traitor! Fucking betraying magitrix! Where is she?”

“You can deal with Ghilene later.” I was none too pleased with her myself. “We need to get out of here without attracting attention.” Though I longed to take Tiriq back, he rested safe enough with Costas, so I turned and plucked up Allian’s cloak.

I swept it over Costa’s shoulders, drawing the hood to cover his distinctive hair. Miki and I were too bloody for a disguise.

Costas pushed Tiriq back into my arms and bent over Allian’s fallen form, searching the ground until he found the Dragonnaire’s butterfly blades. He unstrapped the forearm holsters from Allian’s lifeless arms and put on the blades himself. Then he rose and held his arms out again for Tiriq.

“I’ll have to risk sneaking out with Tiriq,” he said. “You and Miki can go out a window. You can’t be seen with all that blood covering you. How do we get out of Engashta? Allian must have had a plan.”

“We have Allian’s ship in the western harbor.”

Costas tucked Tiriq into his tunic. I took the long veil that still hung, torn, from my head, and used it to strap Tiriq to Costas. My heart wrenched, but Tiriq was better off with Costas than me during the escape. Costas could fight.

“The western harbor. Damn. We’ll have to take the footbridge across the river,” Costas muttered. “The sky carriages will be crawling with Ricknagel’s men.” He closed his eyes. “We’ll meet at the footbridge. You know how to get there?”

“Y—yes.” I grabbed Miki’s hand, pulling him away from Costas and Tiriq, though I could almost hear the screaming tension of the cords that connected us all in Yaqi.

As Costas departed down the red hallway, Miki and I turned to the windows.

Miki shed his boots. Covering his hand with the leather, he used the thick end of the ulio hilt to smash out the window. I delicately cleared the jagged glass from the opening.

“I’ll go first,” I ventured.

After I had inched out the window to hang by my fingers from the sill, I gingerly eased into empty space. I searched the darkness for a foothold, but I found nothing.

“Just let go,” advised Miki from above. “There’s a roof to land on only a few spans below you. It’s some kind of gable or alcove.”

I muttered a prayer to the spirits and let go of the windowsill. The roof smacked my feet, but I managed to keep them, even on the slant. Miki’s eyes glinted above me.

He exited the window with aplomb, landing neatly beside me, crouched like a snowcat.

I peered over the edge of our perch. “Still two floors up. Too far to jump.” A single lantern shone below us, illuminating a circle of grass and the edge of an iron fence. “Much too far to jump.”

“I’ll go first this time,” Miki volunteered, swinging his legs from the platform. He dangled for a moment. “There’s a ledge here. I’m going to put my weight on it.”

He shuffled away from me, his hands groping the gable’s edge. “Oh!”

“What?”

“There’s a turret or tower over there. It sticks out and makes a nice angle with this wall. If we can get over to it, we can wedge in the angle and climb down. At least I think we can,” he said.

“How far does your ledge run?”

“I can’t go on it farther than I can hold this gable roof. Too narrow.” Miki paused. I discerned his silhouette, reaching. My jaw dropped as he somehow swung gracefully out into empty air and launched towards the turret. He
flew.
He would have no recourse but to crash into the opposing wall and slide down the house like a crushed fruit.

But he stuck, his arms and legs pressed into the corner between turret and wall. I slithered to the flat edge of the platform and stared at his route in horror. He had swung from a thin bar of iron—a flagstaff—that stuck out from the house.

Miki was used to swinging through rigging on
Northern Wind
. I was not.

“Oh no,” I whispered. Yet what choice did I have but to try? While Miki shimmied down the crevice between turret and wall like a crab. I followed his path along the ledge and gripped the flagstaff.
Don’t think, just do. Flow like water.
I jumped and swung. Then I let go the flagstaff. The moment of airborne freedom delighted me as much as it terrified me.

I brought my arms over my head and grabbed at the turret wall as I struck it. The thrum of impact seared up my arms, but I pressed into the crevice with all my might. It was not so different from climbing down an ice crevasse, and gravity was on my side. Miki released his breath as I alighted on the grass beside him.

We ran.

M
iki
and I arrived at the Engashta footbridge before Costas and Tiriq. My pulse thundered in my ears as I attempted to calm myself. Our exit from the party had been harrowing, but it might have been preferable to the deception Costas had been forced to attempt. What if he ran into Kiril Engashta, or anyone who might recognize him? I could only hope Costas understood the gravity of the danger and would act accordingly. The fact that he had collected Allian’s blades comforted me, but how well could he use them with Tiriq tied to his side?

Fog collected over the river mouth in thick clumps. Miki and I huddled, waiting. No magelights lit the bridge, and the mist obscured the moon.

Strange sounds fractured the stillness. Was that the soft crunch of footsteps? Miki pulled out the ulio.

A cry rent the night. “Tiriq!” I plunged recklessly into the fog. Costas and I almost ran each other down.

“Is he all right?” I spoke too loudly, but I could not help myself. I ached to hold Tiriq.

“He’s fine, no thanks to you,” Costas said.

I did not acknowledge his petty remark; I understood that my saving him gnawed at his mind. Lethemian men were proud that way; he didn’t like to require assistance, and certainly not from his woman. He’d have to learn to trust me better. We were married now, after all.

I murmured, “The bridge is a treacherous walk. We must be very careful. If we get separated, make for the western harbor where
Lady Tourmaline
is docked. The sooner we leave Engashta, the better. Give me Tiriq now.” I held out my arms, unable to endure another second without touching my boy.

“He comes with me.” Costas curled his arms protectively around Tiriq, who remained mostly shrouded by Allian’s Vhimsantese cloak.

“I’ve crossed this bridge before. He’s better off with me,” I argued.

“I do not wish to have to tell you no again,” Costas hissed.

“Then give him to me!” I’d had enough of coddling his pride.

Costas stepped out onto the footbridge. Never in my life had I been faced with such an urge to violence. My hands itched to clobber Costas, to slap him and tear at his hair and clothes. To scream and wail. Only long years of Gantean restraint kept my shrieks in my throat.

“He’s walking too fast,” Miki griped as he followed Costas onto the footbridge. “He’s making the whole bridge sway.”

“Costas!” I called. “We must go slowly! The bridge moves with every step.”

To my relief Costas slowed. I had expected him to ignore me out of pure spite. Halfway across the bridge a slap of wind shook us in a violent surge. I fell to my knees but managed to grip a spindly string of mageglass. Had I held Tiriq, I might not have caught myself. I peered into the mist ahead of me, trying to see how Costas and Miki fared. I could see nothing.

I crawled forward, too frightened by the gusting wind to return to my feet.

I counted the glassy struts of the bridge as I crawled, to avoid awareness of the material’s transparency. The river below was so far down that I couldn’t see it, mist or no.

I froze when I saw two small hands clutching the side of the bridge and turning white with effort.

“Miki!” I flattened onto my belly and stuck my head through the mageglass strands. Miki looked up at me with utter terror in his dark eyes. The mist curled around him like a shroud; I could see little more than his narrow face, though I knew his body swung in the empty air below.

“Hang on.”

His breath came in shallow gulps. I wriggled farther between the mageglass strands, wedging my shoulders against them. Then I reached for Miki’s breeches, hoping to support some of his weight so he could swing back onto the bridge. I caught the waistband but the fragile costume ripped beneath my hand.

A small, frightened sound escaped Miki’s mouth.

“Almost got you,” I reassured him. I leaned out as far as I dared, snaked my arm around Miki's skinny waist, and hauled.

Miki expertly read my assistance and moved with me, flinging his legs to make purchase on the bridge. He grunted and hooked his knee around a vertical support. I released him and squeezed out from the gap. Miki rested face down, arms flung wide and flat. I waited while he gathered himself.

He said nothing as he pushed onto his hands and knees. Together we crawled the remaining length of the bridge.

In my fear for Miki, I had forgotten to wonder if Costas and Tiriq had made it all the way across, and my lack of concern shamed me. Costas paced along the bluffs, watching us complete our crawl.

“What are you doing? Why are you crawling?” he asked, scowling down at us.

Miki continued without offering an answer. Only once he had all four limbs on solid earth did he rise to his feet and brush himself off.

“The wind,” I said. “It began gusting.”

Costas turned away without offering to help me to my feet.

I hurried after my angry husband into the darkness.

T
wo ship’s
boys on
Tourmaline’s
decks greeted us, showing surprise that we returned with a bedraggled stranger rather than their captain. I left it to Miki to do the explaining.

“I’ll take Tiriq.” I turned to Costas. “There’s a large cabin at the far end of the deck.”

He looked drawn and fatigued, as though he might drop at any moment. “Tiriq can sleep with me.”

I glared at him. “He needs to eat. He’ll cry all night if he doesn’t.” Who knew the last time he had nursed? Despite my explanation, Costas headed towards the cabin with our son. I let him go. Maybe Tiriq could offer him the comfort I could not.

The
Tourmaline
had been prepped and ready, waiting to sail at a moment’s notice on Allian’s orders. And yet I did not know where to tell the crew to sail.

I knew my next task, though I dreaded it: to find Laith and help him with the Cedna. He’d headed to Queenstown out of Engashta. I still needed to see Costas and Tiriq to safety, and I could not risk bringing Tiriq anywhere near the Gantean sorceress, not after what she had done to Tianiq.
Where would Costas and Tiriq be safe?
Costas would know once he’d rested and his mood improved. In the meantime, I directed the ship west, offshore. We had a good wind, and few would think to follow us west into nothing.

I retreated to the cabin, changed my clothes, and wiped my body clean with a wet cloth, though I still felt tainted by Xander Ricknagel and Allian’s blood.

Costas lay collapsed and asleep on the cabin’s bed, with Tiriq tucked in the crook of his arm. Tiriq sat up, wide-awake and sucking on the drawstring of Allian’s cloak.

He chirped at me, dropped the string, and reached out his arms.

I gently drew him from his nook. He held me with a strong grip, clutching my neck, nuzzling my chest. An expansive peace came over me as Tiriq softened into my body. I sat down on the cabin bunk, letting my hand fall lightly upon Costas’s shoulder. I had done so much magic earlier that I sank effortlessly into Yaqi, drawn by my connection to Costas.

Costas’s bloodlight had constricted within him, coiling like a snake in a lair. The enchantment had thoroughly taxed him, and sleep was the only cure. I rested at his side with Tiriq in my arms and let myself have the same solace.

W
hen I woke
Tiriq slept nestled between Costas and me, his mouth open, his breath smooth and content.

Above the small black dome of Tiriq’s head, Costas’s face had relaxed its hard-held lines. He curled around his son like a tongue around a secret, protective and close. I barely breathed into the stillness, feeling the cords that ran amongst the three of us, strong and unbreakable.

Tiriq lifted his head and pawed at me. How many mornings had he awakened while we had been separated, seeking me, only to be denied the reward of my comfort?

Costas blinked; our gazes met. We did not move. We did not have the words to begin all that needed saying. He stroked my hair from my face, running light fingertips over my cheeks. I closed my eyes and let him.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ve been out of my head.”

“I know.”

He pulled me closer so that our arms entwined above our son.

Alone in this quiet place, we three were nearly perfect. Only Tianiq’s absence left a void in our completion.

Silence wrapped around us like a soothing blanket. I feared that if we spoke again, the enfolding ease would disappear. I wanted us to be like this forever, calm and soft, held safe in the dark womb of the ship’s cabin.

But we had no unchanging forever in our future.

I had a duty I could not shirk.