Page 114 of The King of Koraha
“Yes, sir,” Rae snapped.
The sounds of the petite woman’s boots grew louder. Shyla gathered the tiny bit of energy her nap had recharged and aimed it at Rae. The wielder was strong, but she shouldn’t be able to counter Shyla’s power. The real problem was Shyla needed to use a light touch to avoid alerting Rae.
Dead, Shyla commanded when Rae’s shadow blocked the sun. Rae’s fingers were cool against Shyla’s throat.
Dead.
Dead.
Pushing with The Eyes, Shyla read Rae’s thoughts. While they focused on pleasing Xerxes, Rae also still struggled to hold on to her identity. She checked Rendor next.
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Then she stood. “They’re dead.”
Shyla relaxed.
“Good,” Vilma said. “Zahoor, get those cuffs and the stake. We might need them again.”
“What about The Eyes, Rae? Are they still there?” Xerxes asked.
When Rae lifted the hood of the sun cloak so she could get a better look at Shyla’s face, Shyla projected into Rae’s mind an image of empty eye sockets and blue, white, and black sand nearby as if The Eyes had crumbled into tiny colored grains.
“Ugh.” Rae dropped the hood. “They’re gone.”
“How? Never mind, I want to see for myself.”
Scorching sand rats. Shyla couldn’t read Xerxes. His sunfire pendant countered the power of The Eyes. As his bootsteps came closer, she frantically searched for a way to stop him. He needed to believe they were dead or all they suffered was for nothing.
“What a waste,” he said again. But this time his voice sounded from right near her as if he was crouched next to her. “Why are they half covered with sand?” he asked.
“She probably used it to block the sun,” Rae said.
“You can lift that much sand?”
“Yes.” The sand sang as it moved. “See? It’s cooler under here. Obviously it won’t save your life, but it helps.” It thudded to the ground. “It also takes a great deal of energy.”
And it gave Shyla an idea. Xerxes was resistant to The Eyes’ magic, but what about her other magic? She’d never tried manipulation on him before.
When Xerxes lifted her hood, she projected the same image into his mind and used thedeadcommand. Pure fear generated the power she needed to keep sending it.
“It appears The Eyes have disintegrated. Is that what is supposed to happen?” Xerxes dropped the material.
Shyla clamped down on her sigh of relief.
“I don’t know,” Rae said. “I saw when she sacrificed her real eyes for The Eyes. Captain Rendor cut them out with a knife and the leader of the Parzival monks inserted The Eyes into her bloody sockets. It was the bravest and most horrifying thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Perhaps they needed to be removed from a living host,” Xerxes said.
“We’ll never know.”
“Yes. It’s such a waste. Big Brute was turning into one of my best soldiers, and Little One…she could have been a queen.”
It took everything Shyla had not to react to his statement. Queen? What did that mean? Eventually he moved away and Zahoor unlocked Rendor’s cuffs. But Zahoor had to recruit two other men to help him pull out the nasty stake.
