Page 22 of Queen Demon
Ziede stood in front of the flames, outlined by the light. Her scarf had been knocked aside at some point and her braided hair hung free. Her arms were lifted as she drove her wind-devils like a wave over the field. Arike soldiers were outlined behind her, at least four or five cadres’ worth, some on horseback, some perched on the ruined outbuilding and wall with crossbows. Kai was glad they hadn’t sent more soldiers; the others would need to guard the rest of their perimeter to make sure this wasn’t a distraction for a second attack.
Ziede came forward, swishing through the grass, and met Kai halfway. His captive tried to struggle; he felt odd energies stir in the air. He drew just enough life to make sure she wouldn’t be able to fight anytime soon, or use her power, wherever it came from. She went limp and he dropped her. He told Ziede, “You were right, they’re Witches.”
Glaring down at the huddled figure, she said grimly, “Yes, it’s disappointing. We still need to find Amabel.”
Kai hissed out a breath and looked back at their attackers. The firelight cast flickering shadows and the figures fleeing back into the fields were barely visible. One stood watching them, Kai wasn’t sure if it was the one who had tried to bargain with him or not. The figure turned away and followed the others into the dark.
“Fourth Prince?” Salatel’s voice called out and Kai signaled her that it was safe to approach. She and Telare and Arsha rode up, their restive horses huffing out breaths as they sniffed for prey. Salatel reported, “Three more vanguarders are missing, Fourth Prince. Two said they were saved by Vanguarder Amabel but there’s no sign of them.”
This was infuriating but unsurprising. Kai jerked his chin toward his captive. She huddled on the ground, panting, fighting to stay conscious. “Watch her. Send for Baram and Ibel from the Witches’ tent to help you. If she moves, kill her.”
Arsha passed her reins to Telare, swung down from her horse, and put her spearpoint to the Witch’s throat.
Ziede took Kai’s arm and the wind-devils lifted them into the air. They sped into the dark, over the field where the grass was still flattened by the force of Ziede’s power. “I should have realized,” she muttered. “The strangeness in the weather, that was their meddling.”
“Who are—” Kai started to ask, but he spotted movement to the east. A person stumbled and thrashed their way forward through the waist-deep grass, but he recognized them from their size and gangly flailing. He swore in annoyance. That was all they needed, someone running off to become another hostage. “There, that’s Kreat.”
Ziede made a noise of exasperation. They swooped lower and dropped to the ground. Kreat spun and almost fell backwardin surprise. Kai caught her coat to pull her upright. Ziede said, “Kreat, go back, stay with Salatel. We’ll find them.”
Clearly half out of her mind with fear, she snapped, “No! No, I don’t believe you—Easterners lie! I—”
Kai was in no mood to be argued with. He turned her back toward the camp and gave her a push. “Do as your elder says!” As she turned to glare at him he repeated it in Witchspeak, where the gestures gave it a far more emphatic meaning.
Kreat wavered, sobbed once, then ran back toward the pillar of fire and the paddocks. Her lack of trust was a problem. She must have gone to Kai and Ziede as a last resort to ask for help for Amabel, running past any number of sentries to reach them. It was infuriating. Seething, Kai turned to Ziede. “Can you believe this? This is supposed to be a shitting army.”
“Children these days, I swear on my forebearers’ ashes,” Ziede agreed, and took them into the air again.
Kai was going to have to think of a way to gain Kreat’s trust: Amabel’s family were part of his cadre, his responsibility, but that would have to wait.
This far away from the fire pillar, the plain was a black sea below and the hills only outlines against the lighter darkness of the cloudy sky. Ziede rose up further for a better view, and Kai caught a flicker of fire light. He whispered, “There.”
Ziede leaned forward, urging the wind-devils to go faster, using the little flicker as a beacon. As they rushed closer, the light resolved into a small bowl lamp, sitting on a flat rock in the low cut of a dry creek bed. It had been shielded by the rise of the creek’s banks, invisible except from the air. Just out of the candle’s reach, shadows moved, person-sized as well as some kind of riding animals, though not leggy and lithe enough to be Arike horses.
A shadow crossed in front of the lamp. In the dim flicker they could see it was carrying a person. Then the shadow slung the limp body over the back of a riding animal.
It might be an injured Witch, but it might not. There was no time to hesitate or be subtle; Ziede dove. She let Kai go and he landed on dry pebbles, the scrape of his bare feet the only warning the Witches had. With a clatter, two riders took off up the creek bed and something swept over Kai’s head, hopefully Ziede. Animals squawk-snorted in indignation and loose rock rattled down a slope.
The first Witch who rounded on Kai got punched in the face. They must have removed their veil because the feel of bone crunching under his fist was satisfyingly tactile. The second grabbed his shoulder and he felt the sting of a cantrip sink into his bones.
Ziede had taught Kai about cantrips though he had been too busy working on intentions to try any yet. Witches used them to do things their affinitive spirits couldn’t, but the power to make them came from those spirits, that connection to the underlying life and flow of the world. It was, Kai had realized, a lot like creating a design for an intention, but without the need for an artificial power well of death and pain.
This is something we should have practiced,Kai thought as he shoved the Witch off him. He grabbed his shoulder where the cantrip had landed and cold sunk into his flesh. It stung and ached and that gave him a little power of his own to tap, though he wasn’t sure how best to use it. He tried the only thing that might work and reached for the wispy structure of the cantrip like he would an expositor’s design.
It felt insubstantial, dissolving under his grasp, like trying to pick up a spider’s web. But when he managed to get a grip and tug at the strands, it came loose; a heartbeat later it was there in his palm, a fading handful of pin-sharp ice, about to melt away. Warmth rushed into Kai’s blood again and he did the next obvious thing: he slammed the cantrip into the Witch’s chest and pushed his own pain in after it.
The Witch cried out and stumbled, clawed at their tunic where the cantrip must be burrowing in. The Witch Kai had punchedcame at him again and he sensed movement to his left. He ducked under a swipe from something like a club and came up under it to brush the wielder’s arm. He snatched some of their life and they yelped and scrambled away through cracking brush and grass.
Someone shouted desperately and suddenly everyone around him was running. Kai lunged after them and his foot caught on something soft. He staggered, pitched forward, and hit the ground. He shoved himself up, cursing, pebbles grinding into his forearms. Talamines’ feet were bigger than Enna’s and it shouldn’t be a problem since the rest of his body was in proportion, but somehow it was. And he should be used to it by now but somehow he wasn’t. He tried to get up but his foot was still caught on something like fabric. Kai sat up and felt around, and touched cloth and leather armor.One of the vanguarders,Kai thought, simmering with anger. If she was dead, somebody was going to pay for it.
Kai got to his feet and went to the candle bowl where it sat beside a coil of rope. He carried it back to see two of the missing Arike vanguarders lay beside the stream bed. He crouched to quickly check them. Relief swept over him when he found both were breathing.
They were unresponsive, probably unconscious, and tied at the wrists and ankles. The Witches had obviously meant to take them captive as hostages. Hopefully as hostages. The other things Kai could think they might do with mortals were a lot more worrisome.
Hooves crunched over the pebbles but the candle showed it was Ziede, riding one animal and leading the other. The creatures were more like oxen, short and wide and apparently more docile. A limp body lay draped behind Ziede’s riding pad and another across the back of the animal she led. “Is one of those Amabel?” Kai asked.
“Yes, and they’re alive, both of them.” Ziede slid down fromthe beast and Kai went to help her ease first Amabel and then the other vanguarder to the ground.
The vanguarder seemed to be breathing well enough but Amabel was gasping, unconscious and soaked with sweat. Kai couldn’t see any blood and couldn’t feel a cantrip, though there had to be something causing this. Ziede pressed a hand to their cheek and said worriedly, “I need to take Amabel back now. They need a physician.”
