"There’s no way of knowing how long this light will last," Sukata explained. "Even if it burned long enough for us to fully clear the buildings, there are more outside the circle. We need to give warning, or this will be a plague across the region. There is a town an hour along the road, and if they reach there…."
"How did they cross the circle in the first place?"
One of the Kolans said something and Sukata paused, then replied in the careful Kolan she’d learned at the Arkathan.
"Kentatsuki are one of the most dangerous of the Eferum-Get," she went on in Tyrian. "Relatively easy to kill individually, but they can tolerate dull light, so roam on overcast days, or during dusk. And they implant their young in those they attack, without immediately killing them. The injured run for safety, and their bodies shield the Kentatsuki young when they cross the circle. Those who have been attacked rarely survive more than ten or twenty minutes, and the new Kentatsuki reaches full size within an hour."
"And when it starts stinging people inside the circle, some run outside," Kendall finished, shaking her head at the implications. "And you said there were dozens…"
But Sukata had turned away, looking back at the big main building. Without a word she walked off, catching Captain Faille as he strode past. Kendall watched them blankly, not used to Sukata being in any way impolite. Lieutenant Faral joined them, and the three Kellian stood studying the main building’s entrance and ground floor windows.
One of the Kolans said something, a question, but Kendall could only shrug. The Kellian were obviously talking about going inside, but why they would suddenly want to do that was anyone’s guess.
As usual, they didn’t waste any time about it. Captain Faille took his shorter sword from Sukata and tucked the really long one on the roof of the nearest coach. He and Lieutenant Faral went through the open front door of the inn in one rush, and Sukata was a blur in their wake.
The Kolans broke into a spate of gabble, and the people the Kellian had been ordering about gathered in a confused clutch. Kendall strained to listen over the rain and chatter, and thought she heard something smashing. She didn’t know whether to be worried or not: the Kellian moved faster than almost anything, but it had seemed like there were a lot of the bugs inside. Kendall had watched Sukata practice with Captain Faille, and knew she could easily kill almost anyone who attacked her. Still…
Rather than think about it, Kendall began inching Rennyn across to the far corner of the coach, since by now the inside of the open door was soaked. There still wasn’t a speck of response from Rennyn, even with someone pulling and trying to lift her. Kendall propped her in the corner, tucking a small cushion behind her head and making sure she was as warmly wrapped as possible.
The Kolans had crowded around the open door and, when they gasped and began to point, Kendall let herself look and saw a lightning girl climbing out a window on the middle floor of the building. There was a shadow at her side, lost in her glare, and it was only when a second figure emerged with someone over their shoulder that Kendall realised that they were both carrying people.
The third lightning figure waited inside the building until the first two had reached the ground, then leapt down. Kendall knew this one was Captain Faille because he was taller, and stopped to collect his sword. The Kolans broke out in excited murmurs, then went mouse-quiet as the three headed straight for their coach. Sukata was first, and climbed inside to become herself again, except with a pearly radiance from the light streaming through the door. A little girl, four or five years old, clung to her side so tight Kendall couldn’t see any of her face.
Lieutenant Faral handed another girl in: this one twelve or thirteen, eyes red from crying. She latched on to Sukata as well, while Lieutenant Faral turned away to say something to Captain Faille, and then start shooing people back to their coaches. Captain Faille gazed in at them—checking how Rennyn looked—then closed the door.
"How did you know they were in there?" Kendall asked, looking for anything she could give Sukata to dry herself on, since her friend was absolutely sopping.
"This one began crying," Sukata said, glancing to her left, then reaching to slide open the window. "They had locked themselves in a closet, but the door was weakening."
Captain Faille was standing in between the two rows of coaches. He signalled, and the driver of the coach ahead whipped up his horses. Kendall had only enough warning to put a restraining arm across Rennyn before their own coach jerked and moved forward. She stared back out the window, but couldn’t see Captain Faille any more.
"Is he—?"
"Part of the swarm is outside the circle," Sukata said. "Once we are gone, they will disperse, searching for other hosts. Faille will remain, and attempt to hunt them."
Alone in the dark. Captain Faille might be the most dangerous non-mage around, but if he got stung, what could he do? Kendall glanced at Rennyn, slumped beside her, and pulled a face. What Rennyn would do didn’t bear thinking about.
Chapter Eleven
Fallon tried not to eavesdrop on the Kolans sharing their carriage as they spoke in choked undertones. He only caught the occasional word. That was enough.
Cold, wet and fighting his own perennial weariness, Fallon struggled to put away horror, and think in purely practical terms. He would catch a chill. Worse, Duchess Surclere, though far less damp, really needed to be kept warm and quiet after casting such a powerful spell, not racketing along through the rain.
Such an incredible casting! Fallon had had barely a chance to consider it, but it hadn’t resembled any of the standard light conjurations: there had been no container or point of focus. A twist of air, it seemed, burning white. Duchess Surclere cast so differently, with such complete assurance.
Reminded of the need to keep his teacher alive, Fallon debated the risk of another casting. Lieutenant Meniar, when his strength had run low, had had Fallon and Sukata cast the last few expulsions, since they could afford no delay. That had quickly brought Fallon near the limit of his casting capacity, but surely he could afford a standard warmth Sigillic, to dry them all out a little.
He slept immediately after, which was no escape since it only brought him the same scene in the Dream, with the added complication of Auri, confused and anxious. She stood in the middle of the carriage, unable to avoid the many knees, staring at the dripping, tightly-crammed occupants.
"Some kind of accident?" she asked, turning to Fallon. But she was at least able to gauge his state, and not attempt to bring him in all the way to talk to her. Vexed, she made an ungainly upward leap and swam through the ceiling of the carriage.
Fallon shifted restlessly, hoping in the vague way that the Dream brought to him that he would manage to catch up on sleep before Auri’s impatience overcame her sense. Or at least listening to people within range would provide her with a little potted explanation in Tyrian. She could speak some Kolan, of course, but was years behind him now.
Beside Fallon, the older of the two girls the Kellian had brought out from the Waystation burrowed deeper into Sukata’s side, kicking Fallon in the process. Neither of them had loosed their grip on the Kellian girl for a moment, even though she no longer burned like lightning.
Fallon didn’t blame the girls—he’d been inordinately glad of Sukata himself—but clinginess did complicate matters when they arrived at the next safe place along the Imperial Way: a small town about an hour away.
Lieutenant Meniar, with officials crowding around him, became very firm on the subject of making sure Duchess Surclere was bedded down somewhere warm and quiet, and dealt with the girls by telling Sukata to just take them with her. Then he and Lieutenant Faral left.