Ystormun reached out a hand and placed it on Takaar’s brow. Takaar’s face relaxed, his pain faded on the instant. He breathed deeply. Ystormun withdrew his hand and wiped it on his trousers. His gaze moved and came to rest on Auum.
‘TaiGethen,’ he said. ‘Impressive. Worthy of study. Perhaps one day I will create a force to rival you.’
The sheer strength of Ystormun’s gaze forced Auum back a pace but he steadied and refused to blink.
‘We will never serve you.’
‘That will not be necessary,’ said Ystormun. Auum tensed to strike but the mage lord merely laughed. ‘Save it. If the archer does not hit you, I cannot fail. Savour what is left of your life. Put up your blades.’
Auum did so, though he didn’t know why.
In the moments before the chaos unfolded, Helias sensed something. He had to have done because he was already moving when the archer’s arrow thudded into the ceiling and his body hit the floor. Ystormun was turning and moving towards Katyett and her cell. Marack had scrabbled to her feet. Takaar was shouting. Auum could see it and couldn’t stop it.
‘No, Katyett, no,’ shrieked Takaar.
Katyett did not or would not hear him. She slid hard and fast across the polished timbers, her feet striking Ystormun’s ankles and upending him in a heap on the floor. Merrat and Grafyrre turned to defend the doorway from approaching soldiers. Katyett leapt on Ystormun, wrapping him in a crushing bear hug.
‘Got him,’ she said. ‘Got him.’
‘Kill him!’ cried Takaar, dragging a sword from his scabbard and running forward.
‘No. They told me downstairs. He’s the one we want. We need him alive. Help me.’
Ystormun didn’t struggle. He merely reached a hand up to Katyett’s face and unleashed his black lightning. Katyett screamed as her face charred and split. Takaar howled and fell back, his hands about his head once more. Auum ran towards Katyett where she thrashed, her hold broken and her body smoking. Her hair caught fire.
Marack threw her arms about Auum and bore him back.
‘No. You can’t help her. You can’t.’
Merrat and Grafyrre had spun from the enemy at the door. They surged towards Ystormun but his free hand spat lightning at them, drawing dark tears in their faces and hands.
‘Get away!’ screamed Marack. ‘Get away!’
Katyett was dead. Her body ruined and smouldering. Ystormun stood, his fingertips connecting his hands and the black light spitting and hissing within the cradle. Merrat and Grafyrre made to move in again.
‘Too late,’ said Ystormun. ‘Much too late.’
Blackened hands reached out on the end of arms from which flesh had been melted back to the bone. They grasped at Ystormun’s ankles. Pulled. Tripped him. Ystormun fell, the lightning in his hands vanishing and a scream more bestial than human escaping his lips. Hithuur turned an eyeless face full of the desire for death on Auum.
‘Run,’ he croaked. ‘Run.’
Ystormun was already climbing back to his feet. Already muttering under his breath. Auum saw Hithuur shake his head as the Tai thought to attack the mage lord. Something in the gesture chilled him so deeply he shuddered. Marack was shouting for them to run. Grafyrre and Merrat were staring at Ystormun. Takaar moved.
He slid across the floor and scooped up Katyett’s body. He was up in the same movement and heading for the door. The corridor ahead was crowded with men. Takaar stopped and turned. Ystormun was smiling. Sildaan and Llyron were mute, cowering behind chairs. Grafyrre and Merrat were moving to guard Takaar. But there was nowhere to go.
‘Nails!’ screamed Marack. ‘Now!’
There was the merest hesitation. Ystormun opened his hands. The doorway filled with swordsmen. Auum ran. He barrelled into Takaar as he stood, screaming Katyett’s name, and bore them both straight through the window, Marack and Katyett’s Tai right behind him. Takaar came back to himself as the window shattered across his back and he pushed away from Auum. He saw black lightning lick out of the shattered window and chase down the walls, cracking paintwork and splintering wood. He was spinning in the air. His next view was of the ground, rushing up fast. No time to get his feet under him.
Takaar struck the ground on the tumble. He let go Katyett’s body. His shoulder took the first impact and he tucked his head in, rolling around his upper back. His momentum took him on. He came briefly to his feet, twisted, and on the next fall got his arms out over his head, turned a forward roll and came to a stop on his haunches.
He stared back at Shorth. Katyett’s misguided actions had saved him. Saved all five of them. Pain rocked him. It surged through his body and in his heart. Ystormun’s words had confirmed what he had already begun to suspect. Faces appeared at the windows. Auum pulled him to his feet.
Light filled the piazza and there was the sound of multiple detonations. Castings were striking the lawns and temples. Takaar moved to Katyett’s body and scooped it up again. He stared down at her face. It was burned, barely recognisable. He moved away a strand of hair. It powdered in his hand. He began to weep.
‘Takaar.’
‘Leave me.’
There was nowhere else to go. Here was why he had returned. Here in his arms and stolen from him the moment he had found her again. Love for Katyett stormed his body. He would do anything for her. He would die for her.
I’m sorry, what did you just say?
‘No.’ Auum’s grip on Takaar was strong and pulled him towards the piazza. ‘We need you. We’re attacked. What was it you said? Grieve now or make sure the deaths of those you have lost have worth?’
Takaar stared at Auum. From the nails of Shorth, arrows flicked down.
‘I will not leave her to them. She deserves better than that.’
‘Then bring her but come on. We have to get out of here.’
Arms were supporting him. Takaar looked. Merrat and Grafyrre. Marack was by Auum. The five of them, bruised from their landings, ran back into the piazza, keeping the windowless face of Shorth at their backs. Marack ran between Merrat and Grafyrre, whispering words to them, containing her own grief for their sake.
Orbs of brown and green flame were soaring through the air. The lawns of the piazza were ablaze with magical fire. If bodies lay there, they were less than ashes. They kept to the edge of the lawns, in the partial shelter of the temples that ringed them. Every ward at the end of every passage between the temples had been triggered. Flames soared into the sky, trapping them inside and the men without.
Takaar searched for the TaiGethen. They were there. Tucked into the awnings of Tual and Cefu and Appos. Some glancing down the approaches to the Path of Yniss. Forty yards away, the street was packed with men. Takaar’s heart fell. Ahead of the main force of soldiers, mages stood, preparing casting after casting. The noise in the piazza was deafening. Down the street, men clashed weapons, issuing a challenge.
Marack ran to the nearest cell leader.
‘Why didn’t you go, Kerryn?’
‘Why would we do that? You were not ready,’ she replied.
Kerryn looked at Takaar. Saw the body in his arms. She let out a sigh, part disbelief part pure grief.
‘The Arch of the TaiGethen has fallen!’ shouted Grafyrre. ‘Let your anger flow. Take revenge. There are men to be killed. Men are to blame.’
‘No,’ called Takaar, and he didn’t know why he had done so. They could hear him above the tumult of the spells and the fire, he knew they could. ‘We can’t waste our lives. To do so wastes Katyett’s too.’
‘But we have nothing!’ Merrat was screaming right into his face. ‘We have no hostage. We have no leader and we have no escape. All we have is vengeance.’
Oh, how you must be enjoying this. You couldn’t have planned it better if you’d tried.
Takaar stared briefly at the enemy forces not thirty yards distant and preparing to attack. Mages were falling back behind the lines of warriors. Someone had to speak to the TaiGethen, who were already praying for a glorious death.
Yes. Speak to them. Give them the big speech and then fail them.