Bewitched & Betrayed

Chapter 22

Most people run from rats. We ran after them.

While trying not to stumble and fall on my face, it occurred to me that rats didn’t need a door to escape; a hole or a crack would work just fine. I hoped there was a door at the end of that tunnel, but if there wasn’t, I was fully prepared to make my own.

A tall figure ran toward us out of the shadows and Dad damned near skewered him with his sword.

Piaras neatly parried the blade. “Glad to see you, too. I found a way out. This way.”

I didn’t ask him how he knew and we sure as hell didn’t need any urging to follow. Dad summoned a lightglobe and rats squealed as they ran for their tiny lives. We were doing the same thing, minus the squealing, at least for now.

“We’re coming back for him,” I told Talon. “We need help.”

“You’ve got the Saghred!” he managed in a hissing whisper.

“Which would have eaten his soul,” I shot back.

So much for filling in Piaras. He swore, a word I’d heard Guardians throwing around the citadel. “He got Tam.”

“Not for long,” I growled.

I wanted to scream, I wanted to kill Sarad Nukpana, I wanted to cry, but most of all I wanted to use what I had. I mean really use it. For the first time, and possibly the last, I wanted to cut loose with the Saghred. Take down anyone who had hurt me or had hurt anyone I cared about. But through the red haze of my rage and pain, I knew that once I did that, there might not be any going back. Cancel that—there definitely wouldn’t be any going back.

As of this moment, I did not care.

Everybody said that Saghred had unlimited power. I had a big damn surprise for them. It wasn’t unlimited. All it could do was kill, suck souls, and destroy—none of which would get Sarad Nukpana out of Tam’s body without taking Tam with him.

Killing everyone in that bunker except for Tam would have been smart. Leave no live enemy behind, receive no dagger in the back was a Benares family mantra. But that would have taken time. Even with steel and magic, it would have taken time we didn’t have.

Get out, get clear, then get even.

The bad thing about any kind of defensive spell, even one with a touch of Saghred power, was that unless you broke their legs, the bad guys would get up and come after you. It might take them a few minutes, but you could count on a group of very pissed-off, armed people on your ass pronto. So you escaped and you did it fast. I had to get out, warn Mychael, and when the goblins followed us, they’d have plenty of trouble and we’d have plenty of backup.

And Nukpana/Tam would be out in the open where either I or Mychael or Justinius—or hell, it might take all of us—might be able to get him immobilized long enough to get a team of exorcists to work on Tam.

The success of that plan depended on Mychael and Justinius not being on the other side of the Conclave complex. I was counting on Janos Ghalfari being right. Mychael was close by.

The tunnel was longer than it had any right to be. Piaras was ahead of us with Dad’s lightglobe, his sword held deceptively relaxed in his hand, his eyes alert. Piaras wasn’t relaxed; he was ready for anything. The kid who I loved like a little brother wasn’t little anymore. His shoulders were back and the responsibility he carried now just made him stand all the straighter, his quick strides sure and determined. It couldn’t have been a trick of the light—there was just one lightglobe—Piaras shimmered with a luminescence that I’d only seen once before when he’d fought at Justinius Valerian’s side, his back against a wall, killing every demon that came against him.

A faint green glow the size of a fist shimmered unmoving in the dark ahead of us.

My gut knew what it was before the Saghred told me.

A ward.

I didn’t care about the ward, either.

“That’s the door leading outside,” Piaras told us. “That glow is a ward; I don’t know what kind.”

The door was huge, metal, and looked like it’d been forged from the same mold as the one Nukpana had closed on us. The rats ran out of a hole under the base of the door. A breeze stirred the dust and dirt on the floor. Fresh air, outside, and so close.

Shouts and booted feet ran toward us down the pitch-dark tunnel.

Khrynsani.

“It’s a goblin ward,” Dad said, getting as close as he dared. “I don’t know how to—”

“Fuck the ward,” I snarled. “Dad, get behind me and shield them.” He did and I aimed all of my rage and my will and my pain at that lock and ward and hit both of them with everything I had. Metal screamed as the door was ripped off its hinges, sending it flying up and out into the blinding sunlight. Panicked shouts and screams erupted from all around us as we shielded our eyes and scrambled out onto the grass of a massive quad, surrounded by buildings—and full of mages and young apprentices.

Crap in a bucket.

My eyes were blinking and tearing with the light, but there was no mistaking mages running at the sight of us—or probably at the sight of me. I glowed with the remnants of the power I’d just used, and a few feet away was the door I’d turned into a twisted, smoking metal ruin. No doubt we made quite a picture.

Damn, but that had felt good.

My vision cleared and I saw two goblins, walking quickly away from the chaos I’d caused.

Nukpana/Tam and Janos Ghalfari.

There’d been another way out of that bunker, and they were getting away.

Oh, hell no, they weren’t.

I ran after them and black- robed mages scattered like startled crows to get away from me. I couldn’t let Nukpana and Ghalfari out of my sight.

“Mychael!” I screamed in mindspeak. The leftovers from the power that’d blown that door sky-high amplified my voice into a massive mind bellow. The mages closest to me fell to the ground, clutching their heads. Just what I needed: sensitives.

Nukpana/Tam and Janos Ghalfari quickened their pace toward a group of young student apprentices. Ghalfari glanced back at me and smiled. Those young mages were hostages for the taking. He expected me to stop or at least slow my pursuit.

I was finished doing the expected, the noble, and the sane. Rational thought had no place in my mind anymore; it’d been drop-kicked by revenge.

“Damn, girl, think you made enough noise?” barked a familiar voice coming up behind me. Someone who liked revenge just as much as I did.

Justinius Valerian.

I turned to see that the mages who had scrambled out of my way scuttled even farther away from the old man and his phalanx of armed Guardian escorts.

“Not nearly as much as I wanted to,” I told him. Tam being possessed by Sarad Nukpana didn’t need to be public knowledge, even to Guardians. I got next to the old man and whispered in his ear, my words succinct and clipped with rage. “Nukpana’s possessed Tam; they’re getting away. Where’s Mychael?”

Justinius calmly nodded toward an archway that appeared to be the only way out of this side of the quad. Nukpana/Tam and Ghalfari were about to pass under it. “Taking on those two goblins.”

I looked up. Mychael was on the roof.

Oh hell. He didn’t know.

“Nukpana’s possessed Tam.” I tried for quiet this time.

Mychael’s head snapped up and so did the crossbow he had trained on Janos Ghalfari. He’d thought Tam was a hostage. He was, just not in the normal way. Apparently Saghred-amplified mindspeak cut through all of the mage distortion. At least the rock was doing something useful.

We couldn’t confront Nukpana/Tam and Ghalfari, at least not here. There were too many chances for too many people to die, and Tam was one of them. If Ghalfari took an apprentice hostage, a trigger-happy Guardian or hero-wannabe mage might just think that Tam was his partner, not his prisoner.

When I looked back at Mychael, the roof was empty.

Oh crap. “What’s through that arch?” I asked Justinius. “The stables. And this time of day, it’s full of horses and coaches.”

The goblins would have their pick of transportation.

I started forward. “He’s not getting away with Tam.”

Justinius’s wiry and surprisingly strong grip on my arm jerked me back. “He can’t get away with you, either.”

The Saghred’s power surged like liquid fire through my veins. The old man slowly removed his hand from my arm, though I know the rock had burned him. Badly. I’d felt it strike. Most men would have screamed and been on the ground. Justinius definitely wasn’t most men. We had enough terrified mages looking at us—looking at me; he didn’t want to add to the show. He just stood there, regarding me with cool, blue eyes, assessing, not judging. At least not yet.

The Archmagus of the Conclave wanted to know right here and now if I was a danger to his people. If he decided that I was, he would act.

Right here and right now.

I slowly let out my breath and met his eyes; hopefully they weren’t glowing, too. “Sorry, sir. The rock’s pissed. I wouldn’t let it eat Tam.”

“Understandable.” Justinius’s face was expressionless; his question for my ears alone. “Do you have it under control?”

His real question was, or was it controlling me.

My lips narrowed into a thin line. “As much control as I’m willing to get until after I save Tam.”

His hard eyes never wavered. “Then let’s go get him.”

The stable area was busy bordering on chaotic, but not because of Nukpana/Tam or Janos Ghalfari. Mages were coming to work, meetings, or classes, and the grooms more than had their hands full stabling horses. Just beyond the stables themselves was an area for coaches and their drivers to wait for their employers to return.

It was noisy, busy, and damned near impossible to spot two dark-garbed goblins in the sea of dark-garbed stable hands.

Damned near, but not quite.

There were more horses and grooms than mages and the magical distortion lifted just enough for me to sense Tam through our bond, muffled though his presence was—and for Sarad Nukpana to sense me. That was fine; it wasn’t like I was trying to hide. He knew I was following him.

Mychael’s presence suddenly flared strong and clear. Then I spotted him. He and Vegard were quickly coming down the stairs leading from the building’s second story down into the stable yard. Nachtmagus Vidor Kalta was close behind them.

Uniformed Guardians were covering doorways and exits, as were some men in plain clothes who didn’t look any less military or deadly. Any spell let loose in here could ricochet and kill who knew how many. Mychael said something to one of his men as he strode past, and the man sprinted to where a uniformed Guardian stood. The Guardian nodded to a man in a window across the courtyard, and the signal was passed on from there. I didn’t know what the signal was or what Mychael had told them to do.

He was keeping it from me.

I knew why, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. I didn’t, not one bit. Mychael had to have seen or heard what I did in the quad, and like Justinius, he couldn’t take the chance that I wasn’t in complete control of myself.

Or because of Nukpana’s possession of Tam, had the goblin managed to tap the Saghred—and me?

Laughter welled up in my mind, mocking, derisive. “No one trusts you anymore, little seeker. Like Tamnais, your hours are numbered.”

Then Nukpana’s presence vanished, suddenly and completely.

The bastard was making his move.

I had to tell Mychael. Nukpana might still be able to hear every word, which was fine with me. The goblin certainly knew his own plans. “Nukpana’s going to leave Tam’s body, infest yours, go to the citadel, and steal the Saghred.” Short, sweet, and supremely scary.

Precious seconds ticked by in silence. Dammit. Come on, Mychael. Answer me.

“How long?” Mychael asked.

Huh? “How long, what?”

“How long has Nukpana been in Tam’s body?”

“An hour at the most.”

“Good.” Then all presence of him vanished from my mind, too. Mychael had plans of his own and didn’t want the goblin listening in.

Or maybe me, either.

I scowled. “Is Mychael talking to you?” I asked Justinius. The question came out more like a snap, definitely sharper than was wise considering the man might be toying with the idea of my annihilation.

The old man grinned impishly. “The boy likes to keep his thoughts to himself when he’s about to ruin some asshole’s good time. Don’t take it personally.”

“So you’re not planning to exterminate me?”

“And miss watching you rip Sarad Nukpana a new one once we get him out of Tam’s body? No, girl. I’m long overdue for some fun.”

Then a lot of things happened.

Shouts, the screams of panicked horses, and the hollow thumps and whistles of crossbow bolts.

Shooting. I couldn’t believe it; the Guardians were shooting at them. Surely Mychael had told them not to hurt Tam. My eyes tried to look everywhere at once. Mychael was nowhere to be seen. I swore and ran for the main gate. I heard the whistle of the bolt a split second before I flattened myself against the gatehouse to avoid being tacked there like a bug to a board.

Khrynsani.

So much for where the ones chasing us down the tunnel had gone. But there were definitely more than four keeping the Guardians at bay. Looked like Ghalfari had arranged some manpower to cover his escape.

They were firing on the Guardians, and Mychael’s boys were letting them have it with the same and more.

Fire was the Guardians’ weapon of choice and magic was its fuel. A Khrynsani timed his shot wrong and the next instant a thin shaft of blue fire punched a hole through him as clean as a lance. The fire didn’t go out but continued to spread and consume until the goblin was a dark stain on the cobblestone street.

Two other Khrynsani went up in flames exactly the same way, but the others kept firing crossbows and throwing red flaming spheres. The goblins were outnumbered and outmagicked, but they didn’t retreat one step.

It was a suicide attack. The crazed bastards were dying as a distraction so Nukpana and Ghalfari could escape.

“Step aside,” Justinius told me calmly.

I did. I had no problem with that. The old man was aiming for Khrynsani guards.

I wanted their bosses.

Justinius chose a target, pointed at it, and a fiery needle of molten silver shot from the tip of his finger, passing completely through a goblin in the act of summoning a red ball of flame. He raised his other hand, palm out, and with a shaft of white fire, vaporized two Khrynsani who had the poor judgment to shoot at him. I didn’t stick around to watch the old man have his fun; I had my own pair of goblin targets.

The coachmen with the bad luck to have high-strung horses had all they could handle just keeping their teams from bolting. If you asked me, the horses had the right idea. I darted among the coaches, following Nukpana’s trail while trying to keep myself from being trampled by terrified horses.

A surprised shout turned into a pained scream as a coachman went flying over the top of the coach parked next to his.

I bared my teeth in a savage grin. Found them.

Janos Ghalfari quickly climbed into the now-empty coachman’s seat, then stared directly at me.

Oh crap.

With a wave of his hand, the horses around me erupted into terrified screams. Diving under the coach next to me was all that kept me from being pounded into cobblestone paste by rearing and thrashing hooves. I saw the door of Ghalfari’s coach open and Tam’s boots step up and inside. Two more pair of boots, probably worn by Khrynsani guards, jumped in after him.

Dammit.

“Raine!”

It was Mychael. A real shout, not mindspeak. I rolled out from between the wheels of the coach I was under and scrambled to my feet.

Mychael leapt onto the driver’s bench of a coach near the one Ghalfari had taken, his crossbow slung across his back. I threw together some shields and ran toward Mychael, ducking, weaving, and dodging, but mostly trusting my magic to deflect anything a terrified horse could hit me with.

I was nothing short of stunned when I reached the coach with all my pieces and parts intact. Then I saw the thin metal step to the driver’s bench and stopped cold. The freaking thing was chest-high on me. Who the hell drove these things? Giants? Mychael held the team’s reins easily in one hand and leaned over the side—way over the side—and grabbed my arm right above the elbow.

I just looked up at him. “You’re kidding.”

Mychael’s reply was a grin and a pull that lifted me off my feet and landed me on the seat beside him. Impressive.

Ghalfari’s coach had just turned onto the street. Hope surged through me. We could catch them; I knew we could. We had to. I had no idea in hell what we were going to do when we did, but I’d figure it out on the way or deal with it when it happened.

The axle springs creaked and our coach lurched to one side. I turned to see Vegard getting inside on the heels of Vidor Kalta’s black robes.

“You need ballast, sir,” Vegard called from inside. “Just tell us which side you need us on.”

I felt the blood drain from my face. Ballast?

Below the bench, four sleekly muscled black horses pulled hard at the reins, eager to go. The coach was covered in ebony enamel that virtually gleamed. Dustless. Pristine.

I gripped the bar on the side of the bench and held on. “Nice ride,” I managed. “Whose—”

Mychael flashed a fierce smile and snapped the reins. “Carnades.”

I hung on for dear life.

There was a tilted metal footrest for the driver to brace his boots on, and I was definitely bracing mine. Before now, I thought my experience with coaches had been pretty extensive: I’d fought inside a coach, clung to the back of a coach, damn near been thrown under a coach, but I’d never been on the driver’s bench going at a speed that was so far beyond insane it was ridiculous.

That was Janos Ghalfari’s fault, not Mychael’s. The goblin set the speed; Mychael was simply hell-bent on catching him.

We reached a smoother patch of street and my teeth stopped knocking together long enough to speak. “You stole Carnades’s coach.”

Mychael gave me a crooked smile. “Appropriated. In pursuit of wanted felons.”

“There were other coaches.”

His smile broadened into a grin. “Yes, there were. But Carnades has some of the fastest horses on the island.”

“Plus you taking them would piss him off.”

“That, too.”

When Ghalfari and Mychael took the first corner, both coaches’ wheels stayed on the street where they belonged. But when Ghalfari took the next corner sharp—and on two wheels—the need for movable ballast became all too apparent.

Oh crap.

“Vegard!” I shouted. “Right side!”

He and Vidor moved and our coach’s wheels stayed on the street. Disaster averted. At least until the next time Ghalfari turned.

The good thing about coaches and horses was that pedestrians could hear the hooves and wheels coming and get the hell out of the way. It was late morning; the streets should have been filled with people going about their business. A few people were on the sidewalks; most watched the coaches thunder past from the safety of shop and office windows. I figured that the streetlamps flashing with bright blue lights had everything to do with it.

“The lights warn citizens to take cover,” Mychael told me. “Justinius would have had them activated.” Now that we were away from the Conclave complex, Mychael could scoop up my thoughts like dice off a table.

That meant he picked up the word I thought loud and clear when one of the Khrynsani threw open a small door on the back of Ghalfari’s coach and hurled a red fireball at us.

I didn’t think; I just reacted.

I threw up a shield in front of me and Mychael, and neatly deflected the fireball. My next deflection wasn’t so neat and a signpost on the street corner burst into flames. Oops. Any people left on the street promptly dived for cover.

The Khrynsani grinned in a flash of fangs as red flame spun over his hand. His eyes were fixed on somewhere out in front of us, down low. The fireball became a solid sphere and he aimed.

At our horses. The bastard was going to torch our horses.

I gritted my teeth pushed my shield out in front of the lead team, one hand still gripping the handrail, the other extended palm out, struggling to hold the shield in place. Keeping a shield steady while I ran was one thing; doing the same in front of four racing horses was virtually impossible. If the shield touched them, they’d spook. If they saw that fire coming at their faces, they’d definitely spook.

I felt Mychael’s will combine with mine and the shield darkened. The horses could still see to run, but any fireballs coming at them would just look like a ball, not horse-terrifying fire.

“Vegard!” Mychael called.

“I’m on it, sir.”

I felt a surge of power from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder and Vegard was half out of the window, his eyes intent, silently mouthing something I hoped the fireball-throwing goblin wasn’t going to like, or better still, wouldn’t survive. I felt a tug and a sharp yank from Vegard as the goblin came flying out of the back window of that coach like he’d been jerked out by a giant hand. The goblin slammed into a metal lamppost with a hollow clang.

Beautiful.

“Wagon ahead!” Vegard shouted.

Oh no.

One man, one horse, and a cart loaded with what looked like firewood.

And Janos Ghalfari was going to run right over them.

The man saw the coach bearing down on him and desperately pulled the horse’s lead, trying to get him to move. The horse reared, dumping the logs into the street. The man and horse got clear just in time. Ghalfari’s horses jumped or dodged the logs.

The coach wasn’t nearly as nimble.

The right front wheel hit one of the smaller logs and the coach lurched sharply to the side, enough to knock around anyone inside, but not enough to turn the coach over.

The next log was much bigger.

Everything seemed to go into slow motion. Ghalfari’s coach flipped over on its side, sliding along the street in a spray of sparks. Janos Ghalfari was thrown to the curb and lay there unmoving. Mychael pulled back on the reins as hard as he could to stop our horses from slamming into the overturned coach.

And Tam.

The panicked horses were still trying to pull the wrecked coach. A moment later there was a sharp crack of breaking wood and the horses were running loose down the street, dragging their rigging behind them.

“Carnades’s driver keeps a crossbow under the seat,” Mychael told me. He pulled back the coach’s break handle and leapt down.

I quickly groped around under the bench and found it, along with a small quarrel of bolts. It wasn’t big; it didn’t need to be. I was familiar with the model. Medium range, maximum damage. It was built for persuading bandits that robbing you would be a truly bad idea.

Or for convincing Sarad Nukpana to get the hell out of Tam’s body.

I jumped down from the bench, crossbow trained on the open coach door. Vegard and Vidor Kalta were already out. Vegard’s axe was in his hands and glowing. Vidor was just glowing.

Shields, right. Way to get yourself killed, Raine. Why don’t you walk around naked, too, while you’re at it? I got my shields up and around me where they belonged.

“The guard’s dead,” Mychael called.

“Nukpana?” I moved closer, bow loaded and held ready.

“Not here.”

“I saw Tam get in,” I insisted.

My skin prickled on the back of my neck. Mychael’s expression said he felt the same thing.

The bastard was using a negating spell and full veil. I moved protectively in front of Mychael.

Nukpana/Tam materialized on the other side of the coach. Full shields, full power. Incredible power. There wasn’t a scratch on him. Our bows were worthless and so was our magic.

Nukpana/Tam’s smile was bright and beautiful. “Now that we’re all here, may I propose a trade?”