“Soul-stealing rock, razor-fanged pixies, blood-sucking leeches,” I hissed as I struggled to get my knife wedged under the thing’s blindly seeking mouth and pry it off. “When this is over I’m going to treat myself to a screaming fit. I deserve it, and I’m going to have one.”
I sliced the leech from my doublet and checked myself for others. I stopped. Something was very wrong. Even more wrong than foot-long leeches. Piaras coughed twice from swallowing water, and then it hit me. The noise Piaras had just made was the only sound I could hear. It was as if every creature, living or whatever, was holding its collective breath in anticipation of something. The pixies had known what it was, that’s why they had given up so quickly. I suspected we didn’t want to wait around and find out what the pixies knew. Piaras realized it at the same time.
“Which is it?” he whispered.
I assumed he was referring to my litany of this evening’s monsters.
“None of the above. We need to move.” The amulet felt like it was trying to slice its way through my doublet to free itself. “Whatever it is, it’s coming at us fast.”
I doubled back toward the hill with the intention of skirting its base. That would put us back in the direction of the closest way out. The newest threat was coming from the opposite direction, so every step in our present direction took us farther from the whatever-it-was and closer to home. Worked for me.
I stopped suddenly just before the edge of a large clearing. Piaras plowed into me from behind, and we both went down in a tangle of limbs. I looked up and froze.
Prince Chigaru Mal’Salin stepped out of the shadows about fifty yards to our right. He wasn’t alone. I didn’t expect he would be. He had neither seen nor heard us, though I imagined that would change soon enough. He was well armed and armored, which was more than I could say for myself or Piaras. Looked like someone was a little put out by our early departure.
Rahimat, the goblin spellsinger, drifted wraithlike out of the trees to stand beside him. Neither of them had sensed us, and I didn’t know if it was the beacon shielding us, or the presence of whatever was coming up behind us. What I did know was that we were trapped between the goblins and something the amulet and my own instincts were telling me was infinitely worse.
Chapter 12
“Mistress Benares. I know you are here. I promise I will not harm you or your spellsinger, which is more than I can say for the creatures living in this forest. You will not make it out alive without my protection.”
Spellsinger? I swore silently. So much for keeping Piaras out of this.
The goblin prince paused, listening. He gestured, and his guards spread out to surround the area where we were. They didn’t know our exact location, but it wouldn’t take them long, especially if they stepped on us.
My hands were sweating against the leather dagger grips. I forced my breathing to remain even, and released the shielding spell I had been holding, quietly I hoped, to cover both of us.
The goblin prince and his guards moved closer. They didn’t make any effort to be quiet. They didn’t need to. They weren’t the ones hiding.
“I give you my word, both of you will be released unharmed once I have the Saghred.”
That’s what the prince was saying, but that wasn’t what I believed. I kept my hand on Piaras’s shoulder, and willed him not to move. I need not have bothered with the warning. Piaras remained flat on the ground, peering through the thick reeds, eyes alert to the goblins moving toward us. The long dagger was in his hand, and the look on his face said that he wasn’t going anywhere else with a goblin tonight—and if any goblin tried to make him, they were going to regret it.
Prince Chigaru’s guards were armed mainly with swords. There were a few crossbowmen. Not nearly few enough, but I would take any advantage I could get. I wouldn’t exactly call what I sensed approaching us an advantage, but if it gave the crossbowmen something else to shoot at besides us, they were more than welcome to join the party.
I didn’t know what scared me worse: the goblins, what was stalking us, or what I wore around my neck. If metal could have emotions, I would say that the beacon was having some strong ones, and it was doing everything it could to compel me to share them. My mind knew I was outside and there was plenty of air for everyone. My body wasn’t convinced. The air was getting thick. Only one thing could do that. Magic. The bad kind. And there was entirely too much of it.
I was being hunted, and not just by the prince.
I looked up. A richly robed goblin stood on the far side of the clearing, halfway between us and Chigaru Mal’Salin. The prince’s guards froze. I didn’t blame them. I also didn’t need a formal introduction to the newcomer. We’d met last night.
Sarad Nukpana stood alone, completely unprotected from Prince Chigaru’s guards. Any one of them could have put a bolt in his chest. Not a one of them tried.
The grand shaman’s head turned, his gaze leisurely taking in every goblin in the clearing. Some of the prince’s guards shifted uneasily, some looked away. I heard branches snapping as a few goblins back in the trees bolted in terror.
“I should have expected a traitor to be hiding in the wild with the animals,” Nukpana said.
“Or Khrynsani to be consorting with monsters,” Prince Chigaru replied, his features expressionless.
Others emerged from the shadows behind Sarad Nukpana, some robed, others in royal Mal’Salin armor. They had no intention of attacking immediately. They were waiting for something, and I for one, could go through the rest of the night without knowing what.
A solitary goblin stepped forward as the others deferentially made way for him. This was unexpected. The beautifully intricate scrollwork on his chestplate clearly identified him. Twin serpents twining around one another, battling for dominance, both surmounted by a crown. He looked like a slightly older version of the prince.
King Sathrik Mal’Salin.
“Brother,” he said.
Prince Chigaru remained motionless. “Sathrik.”
“You will address your king as Your Majesty.” Nukpana’s voice was still and quiet, but the menace was clear.
“He is not my king, and he is no longer my brother,” Chigaru said. “He is worthy of neither my respect nor my honor, so I may refer to him in any manner I choose.” He laughed softly. It was hollow and without humor. “He should count himself fortunate I use his given name rather than others that come to mind.”
Piaras and I didn’t need to be anywhere near this reunion. If we ran, we would be shot. If we stayed, we would be found, and then shot. And that was if we were lucky. Clearly, the ending would be bad either way. At the moment, I didn’t know which Mal’Salin brother was worse, and I didn’t even want to think about Sarad Nukpana. I suspected Sathrik Mal’Salin lacked the power to call his grand shaman to heel if he wanted to play with us a while before he had us killed. Still, if his words to me last night were any indication, Sarad Nukpana wanted me very much alive. That might be even worse.
The prince inclined his head in somber acknowledgment of his brother as he slid his saber free of its sheath. The hiss of escaping metal was instantly repeated on both sides. From the eager faces around us, this was a confrontation a long time in the making. I so did not want to be here when it happened.
The night was suddenly split by a feral goblin war cry. I couldn’t tell which side it came from. It was immediately answered in kind by a raw voice. Bolts were loosed from both sides as the goblins eagerly charged each other.
I didn’t wait to see any more. I pushed Piaras to his feet and we ran back into the trees. I couldn’t see where I was going, and until we put the sound of goblins killing each other well behind us, I didn’t care. I found spaces between the trees, but more often I found brambles and vines. My face and arms stung with tiny cuts. The ground abruptly dropped away into a ditch. Piaras’s long legs took him to the other side. Mine weren’t as long, and I wasn’t as lucky. I landed just short of the rim, and my knee slammed hard into the ground. Tears came to my eyes, but I pulled myself up and kept running.