“Please, boy! Fight her off!”
Exeres jerked and twisted, yanking the Sorian around in a circle as they struggled for the orb. He swung the Bloodstone again and again, beating the old man to loosen his grip on his hand. The orb grew hot, burning, scalding him.
—It’s a trick, priest! It doesn’t burn. It can’t burn. He’s deceiving you—
Justin struck Mage from behind and the crushing grip on Exeres’ hand slackened. He stumbled backwards, away from them both, holding an orb in each hand. A sick look of defeat clouded the Sorian’s expression while Miestri exulted in his mind.
—You’ve done it! Quickly now! Destroy it! Call your Druid strength and smash the orb with the Bloodstone!—
“No!” Mage shrieked, launching himself at Exeres only to be tangled in his robes by Justin. The Warder Shae’s eyes glowed red and horrible.
“Do it, priest!”
The weight of Miestri in his mind suffocated him. She was a boulder that he couldn’t get his fingers underneath to even try lifting. Exhaustion sapped him. He was too tired and she too strong. He would never get her loose.
—I will let you go, Exeres. Destroy the orb and I will free you. I swear it—
“Don’t listen,” Mage choked. “It’ll…kill…us all.”
—Use your Druid strength. Destroy it!—
Exeres stumbled back a few paces, chest heaving. He knew that Mage was right. He could see the truth burning in the tormented eyes. Striking the orb would unleash all its power in a single burst. It would destroy everything, killing everyone, snatching their Life magic in a huge gush. Yet despite the truth of it, he could not stop his arm from raising, could not stop the invocation of the Earth magic and its flooding into his body. He could not stop his charred hand from setting the twisted orb on the cracked tunnel stones.
“Do it!” Justin shouted.
“Boy…no…”
Exeres took a breath. A final breath. He knew it would be his last. Miestri’s will tittered with glee. He could see into her mind as well, knew that she was destroying them deliberately. But the knowledge wasn’t enough to stop her from making him fulfill it.
Closing his eyes against stinging tears, he brought his full strength in a downward arc against the glassy hull of the Firekin.
*
“Quickfellow, what is it? What’s making that sound?”
Thealos’ heart hammered in his chest. The voice spoke in Silvan, a haunting, mocking tone that ripped through his feelings like mirror shards.
“You promised, Thealos. You broke your promise. Why didn’t you save us?”
Something in the dark tunnel slinked, blacker than shadows. The smell of Forbidden magic swirled around him, its buzzing and stench like flies feeding with maggots. No, his sister was not in the tunnels of Landmoor. Despite the pain, the longing to see her again, he knew that it wasn’t her. It was the creature that had killed her. The Vocus.
Memories from the wellspring darkened his thoughts. They were creatures of the vilest Forbidden magic, living beings sewn together with a purpose—a single driving factor. To kill and to eat the Life magic of those they killed. The Sorian created them to destroy Sleepwalkers or those they protected. They were like fighting a Crimson Wolfsman quaere taken down to the last man.
Sweet Vannier, I can’t fight this thing. I’m too tired. Too spent.
The Vocus didn’t give him a choice.
It rushed from the tunnel of the Silverkin faster than a breeze, soundless as dust. Thealos had forgotten that the thing had outrun Wolfsmen on a chase through Avisahn. Only the quick reflexes of the Oath magic saved him. He shoved Ticastasy away—hard—and swung his weapon in a sweeping circle to deflect a blade coming straight for his throat.
The blade coming at him was a dagger—a wicked looking thing with a grainy blade and copper hilt. He recognized it as the weapon that had killed Sturnin Goff. The weapon that had murdered his entire family.
The Vocus was impossibly quick, stroke after stroke, slicing faster and faster, the hiss of the dagger blade chuffing as it zoomed by his ear, his ribs. Thealos dodged and twisted, the Oath magic keeping him just ahead of the Deathbane tip. One cut—one slice—and he was dead.
Jaerod! I can’t do this!