Radiance (Wraith Kings Book 1)(63)
The mayor, his goggle-eyed wife and a bevy of councilmen were in the square to see them off. Brishen and Ildiko bid polite goodbyes and promised another visit soon. The moon had begun her journey toward the horizon by the time they rode the paths that led them back to Saggara.
The ravine and its bridge came into view. Their party had started out from Halmatus in high spirits with much small talk and joking exchanged. The atmosphere slowly changed, their group growing quieter, tenser. The trickle of unease that made the spot between Brishen’s shoulder blades tingle became an icy stream that froze the length of his spine. He edged his horse closer to Ildiko. Anhuset did the same on Ildiko’s other side.
Brishen caught his cousin’s eye and spoke softly, using a pidgin Kai spoken by the lakeside dyers and understood by very few who weren’t Kai. “Do you feel that?”
Anhuset nodded. “We’re being watched.”
They all felt it, a distinct scrutiny edged with malice. All around him, hands eased toward sword pommels and shifted shields into protective position. The horses picked up on their riders’ unease, snorting and prancing their agitation as they rode toward the bridge.
Ildiko’s eyes flicked first to Anhuset, then to Brishen. “What’s wrong?” she asked softly.
Brishen signaled behind her, and two of his men closed the space behind her horse, creating a shield wall of man, metal and steed. It was likely too late to disguise her now. She stood out among them like a beacon, but better late than not at all.
“Ildiko,” he said in his most casual tone. “Raise your hood as if you’re just keeping the wind off your hair and do exactly as I tell you when I tell you.”
What little color flowed under her pale skin, leached away to a pallor grayed by fear. She did as he instructed, making a show of fussing with her braids before pulling the hood up until her features were hidden.
Brishen loosened the leather guard covering the blade of the hand axe he wore at his hip. The air around them hung thick with tension—an unnatural silence broken only by the steady clop of horse hooves.
A battle cry shattered the stillness, followed by a bright flash of light. Brishen bellowed a curse at the sudden light blindness and turned his face into his hood. His mount slammed into Ildiko’s mare.
“Down, Ildiko!” he bellowed at her, shoving her face toward the mare’s withers, just as a thin ripple of cold air shot a breath away from his face. A thunk sounded, followed by a heavy groan and the creak of a saddle.
They were easy targets for arrows while mounted, and Ildiko cried out when Brishen dragged her off the saddle with him to hit the ground amidst the chaos of soldiers struggling to control panicked horses. They were partially shielded by equine bodies from the pulsing flare of light that left him and his fellow Kai virtually sightless.
Anhuset barreled into him, sword drawn. Her lips were drawn back from her fangs in a grimace. “Beladine!” she shouted just as a volley of arrows rained over them from the trees. “The fletching is Beladine.”
A chorus of howls rang from the shadows. Brishen clutched Ildiko to him, crouched low among the milling horses. Magefinders. The scum had brought mage hounds.
He pried Ildiko off of him and thrust her toward Anhuset. “Take her and get across the bridge. Now!” The arrow volleys were simply the first phase. If he didn’t get her out of here now, she’d die.
Ildiko clutched at him, her strange eyes huge and dark with terror. “No, Brishen!”
Anhuset didn’t hesitate. She wrapped her arm around Ildiko and slung her over her shoulder. Her own expression was as fearful as Ildiko’s and full of rage. “Stay alive,” she ordered before sprinting away with a struggling Ildiko.
Brishen caught Anhuset’s horse, looped the reins over the saddle horn and slapped the animal on the flank. It shot out of the mayhem towards its mistress. Riderless and seemingly out of control, it darted toward Anhuset unscathed by arrow fire. His cousin altered her path to run parallel, and he lost sight of her for just a moment. Silver hair and muted red mingled in the shadows as Anhuset leapt atop her mount’s back, dropped Ildiko before her into the saddle and kicked the horse into a dead run.
They were past the first hurdle, but the bridge ran long and arrows flew fast. More cries echoed from the forest, this time led by the trumpet of a horn. Brishen drew hard on the sleeping magic bequeathed to him by his sire and all those who came before him. It rolled through him, pooling into his hands. Somewhere a battle mage lurked among the trees, casting light spells to render the Kai blind.
He uttered an ancient word, one spoken by Kai sorcerers who built its spell from the power of shadow and Kai reverence for all things born of the night. A blast of darkness shot from Brishen’s fingers and snuffed out the light flares. Cries of dismay and surprise mingled with shouts of triumph.
Brishen forced down the wave of weakness that threatened to buckle his knees. He could finally see well enough to fight. He shouted to his men. “To the trees! Kill their mage! Kill their dogs!”
A Beladine attacker burst out of the underbrush toward him, swinging a short-handled scythe. Trained for war as all his kin were, Brishen met the attack with knife and axe. The two men slammed into each other, Brishen’s heavier weight forcing his opponent backwards. Brishen slashed his throat and was sprinting through the trees before the spray of blood even touched him.
All around him Kai battled Beladine in bloody skirmishes. He cleaved the skull of an archer and hobbled a swordsman before decapitating him with one swing of the axe. He leapt over the head as it rolled under his feet.