Official Reckoning Read online

  They were expecting us, I realized. This was a trap, and we’d just sprung it. It took me a moment to realize that since we had already been captured, we had been the bait. Which meant the quarry had to be…

  “Kaelyfth,” I heard a familiar voice call as Faye stepped out from the storage room. She was decked out in full battle gear, a spear in her hand. “Aren’t you just the slipperiest elf who ever lived?”

  The elf woman shrugged, but didn’t answer, keeping her arrow pointed directly at the woman’s forehead.

  “Wait,” Braire growled, looking around. “You were using us as bait to catch… her?”

  “Of course, Braire,” Faye said with a smile. “Did you really think it would be this easy to escape? Now, lay down your weapons, surrender peaceably, and none of you needs to die this day. Honestly, Abarat is really dying to meet all of you. Well, maybe not you, Grant, interesting as you are.”

  I ground my teeth and kept my grip tight on my sword, watching as the runes started to glow a gentle white.

  Lyth remained silent for a moment, staring the Official down as the seconds ticked by and the sun started to crest the horizon. Inch by inch, she lowered her bow until it pointed at to the ground, the arrow in place.

  Faye smiled. “I’m glad that at least one of you has her wits about her. Now drop—”

  “Actually,” Lyth said, cutting the Official off. “I just had a better idea. See, we wanted to burn that little building behind you to the ground. While our magic is rather impressive, I know someone who can do it so much better.”

  She reached into her pocket as a look of doubt shadowed Faye’s features. Lyth pulled a small, pearl-white pebble from her pocket and tossed it forward. As it landed on the ground three paces away, I could faintly make out a couple of runes glowing.

  I looked over at Braire, who shrugged.

  “It’s not one of mine,” she admitted and looked up toward the mountains. I turned to see what she was looking at. I couldn’t make out details, but it was moving very quickly in our direction. The air filled with a low whine, like a whistle that wouldn’t go away, and suddenly a very real shadow fell across the town.

  “Frarris?” Norel asked in disbelief as she looked into the sky at the massive winged creature which swooped down as it launched a blast of fire from its jaws.

  Faye had only a moment to throw up a protective spell, and Norel did the same as the blast landed hard on the building in front of us. The ground shook as the air was suddenly filled with the smell of smoke and brimstone. Even with Norel protecting us, every person in the courtyard was knocked from their feet. As the bright light cleared, our eyes were drawn to the pile of flaming ashes of the former storage room.

  And the dragon perched atop the wall just behind it.

  “Frarris!” Norel called, clearly ecstatic at seeing her old friend again. “But… no, she summoned her. Nobody can summon a dragon like that except… well…”

  I looked over to her. “Who?”

  Norel shook her head. “Not important.”

  I looked around, realizing that she was very right. There were still just over a hundred men, excluding those that Frarris had killed in her blast, that needed to be dealt with. I smiled and licked my lips as I fed power into my sword. Questions could wait. We had a battle to fight.

  21

  Attacking the Lancers head-on would be a waste, I realized as I took a step toward the men who were still recovering from the shock of a dragon’s attack. Their armor would soak up too much of my power to make it effective anyway, which meant that we needed to be careful. Tactical.

  Braire grinned over at me and pulled three pebbles from the pouch that Lyth had recovered for her, then tossed them in the direction of the recovering soldiers. They quickly formed into a shield wall, holding their spears out as a massive wolf, a snake, and a hawk struck them from behind. I grinned and joined the fray, ducking as the hawk flew in from behind me to tear at one of the Lancer’s faces with one set of claws as the other set gripped another and dragged him into the air as the man screamed.

  I stepped in and smoothly beheaded one of the spearmen who tried to stab the hawk, and then shoulder-charged a second one who tried to do the same to the wolf. I needed to remember his name, I thought. I knew that Braire had told me what it was on more than one occasion, but whenever I looked over at him, all I could think was… Wolf.

  Probably not Wolfie, though, I thought as I ducked under a spear that stabbed at my head and jumped back as the shield wall closed and advanced toward me. The runes in my sword started to glow a bright white. I took another step back to regain my balance and swung the sword at the line, watching as the white blast rushed at them. The shields absorbed most of it, predictably, but the shield of the man closest to me shattered and sent shards of steel into the men standing around him, breaking the front line up and giving me the opening I needed. I stepped forward, ducked under a spearhead that was aimed at my chest and quickly cut the head off of it, then pushed my left hand into the closest man to me and gripped his face under his helmet. A prick of heat spread across my palm before a wet splat of red filled the inside of the man’s helmet.

  I’d used that trick before and would again, as messy as it was. It was effective against men in runed armor.

  I stepped back while slashing the head off another spear and came away from the line of Lancers just as the wolf and the snake charged into them. I heard screams of pain, but I was already moving away, springing over to where Aliana, Norel, and Braire had formed a loose triangle around Lyth, who was picking precise shots to knock off one man after another with her arrows.

  I looked up, feeling a brush of wind as Frarris took to the air again. The archers on the wall were shooting at her now, and I had to assume that she wasn’t invulnerable to their attacks. A couple of arrows already jutted from her hide as she launched another blast of fire at the men. It lacked the impact of the one that had demolished the building but was more than enough to set them all aflame.

  My attention returned to the ground as I saw Faye regain her feet. She was covered in soot but otherwise looked none the worse for wear, although rage radiated from her. Runes across her hands, neck, and face were clearly visible as she gripped her spear and prepared herself for battle.

  Aliana peeled away from the other three elves to engage her, but I raised my hand.

  “I’ll take care of her, you help eliminate these Lancers,” I replied. I didn’t fully believe that I could, but there was a part of me that wanted to prove the woman wrong in thinking that I wasn’t worth Abarat’s attention.

  Not that I wanted the elf’s attention, per se, but it hurt to know that I was the single member of the troop who wasn’t important enough to merit a visit from the elf himself.

  Aliana looked at me and nodded, then jogged over to rejoin the fight. Faye realized what was happening as I stood my ground in front of her and smirked.

  “Aren’t you a brave one?” she asked as she stepped forward and let me feel the power gathering in her runes. “Then again, they do say that bravery is the kindest word for stupidity.”

  I rolled my neck. “Yes, well, by the time you’ve finished with me, you’ll have four angry elves to handle and fewer of your guards. A wise tactical decision if there ever was one.”

  “And you would sacrifice your life?” she asked, taking another step forward. “For them?”

  “In a heartbeat,” I growled. I drew a deep breath and suddenly raised my left hand, launching a blast of white light at her. Faye, clearly expecting a more powerful attack from the sword, was caught off guard and sent stumbling a few steps back.

  “Of course, that isn’t exactly what I want to happen.” I grinned and jumped to the side as she screamed in anger, launching a powerful blast at where I stood a few seconds ago. “I would very much rather you be the one doing the sacrificing, if you don’t mind.”

  I dove to the ground, rolled over my shoulder and came to my feet in a smooth, practiced action, then raise
d my blade to block her spear strike. The haft was coated in steel and the head of the spear was long and curved, showing that it wasn’t quite what the Lancers fighting all around us used. The runes on it started to glow a moment before the head extended another foot, opening a shallow cut on my neck as I moved around the strike, and then ducked as she swept the spear around for my head.

  As I backpedaled, trying to put distance between me and her oddly fantastic spear, she stepped closer and hooked the haft behind my knee and sent me stumbling to the ground.

  Well, this wasn’t going quite as planned, I mused. Then again, I hadn’t started out with much of a plan to begin with.

  I rolled away as she slashed at the ground inches away from me, regaining my feet just as she pooled the power into her weapon and launched a wave of flame toward me. I raised my blade to block the power. I pulled my sword up, swinging forward to cut a path through the flames. They still scorched over my whole body, but after they passed, there wasn’t a part of me that was on fire.

  Faye jumped forward through the blast and thrust her spear at my chest. She’d used the blast of fire to distract me, but had apparently hoped that I would be knocked back a few steps. She hadn’t expected me to stand my ground precisely where I had been.

  She faltered for a moment, a look of surprise on her face, which gave me the opening I needed. I stepped forward, tucked her spear under my arm and used it to pull her close enough to hammer my elbow into her jaw. She grunted, released her weapon, and fell.

  Just as I took hold of the spear, the runes disappeared and the spear itself retracted to a size about a foot shorter than the sword I had in my hand. The head was still long and looked sharp enough to cut through a neck. With that in mind, I pressed both it and my sword to her neck.

  “Yield,” I said, looking down at her. “I don’t want to kill you… no, wait, I do want to kill you, but the fact that you are not in control of your actions makes me feel that you might need a second chance. Abarat is to blame, and I am going to kill him. But I don’t have to kill you now.”

  I did want to, but after what the sisters had told me about how Abarat controlled her, I wanted to think that she was capable of redemption. It was worth a shot, anyway.

  She looked at me, trying to understand what I’d just said. In all honesty, I was struggling with it myself. She arrived at a conclusion a good deal faster than I did, and the runes on her skin lit up as she raised her hands, preparing for an attack.

  I flicked the spear around and hammered her in the temple with the haft. The dull thud was compounded as she dropped back to the ground, a small trickle of blood flowing from where I’d hit her.

  “I guess we’ll address your second chance another time,” I said softly to myself, suddenly noting how quiet the whole courtyard was. I looked around and saw the bodies and still-burning fires, but the battle had moved elsewhere. And I hadn’t even noticed.

  The wolf padded over to me, tilting his head as I walked over to him and reached up. He seemed curious by the gesture and dipped his head low enough for me to gently scratch him behind the ear.

  “I’m going to learn your name one day, I promise,” I said aloud, unsure if he could understand me. “I’m terrible with names. Always have been. I hope you don’t mind, but until then, I’m just going to call you Wolf. Is that all right?”

  He lifted his massive head to look me in the eye, tilting his head again.

  “I hear no objections,” I said, still speaking aloud. “Would you mind standing guard over her? I just… I need to find the rest of my team. Can you do that?”

  Wolf moved away from me to stand over where Faye was still on the ground.

  “Do you understand me at all?” I asked, but Wolf didn’t look back at me. He stood over the Official in a way that I knew I never wanted to wake up to. It was its own brand of justice.

  Wolf seemed to understand the basics of it, anyway. I walked toward the gate, from which I saw the remaining Lancers in full retreat. There weren’t many of them left, and those who remained fled in terror of Frarris.

  “I have to say, I am pleased that you thwarted me on this field of battle,” A smooth, silky voice came from a few paces to my left. I turned around to see the tall, lean frame that I’d come to associate with Abarat. “While I entrusted a powerful Official with the task of containing you and really securing this border of the Empire, I am pleasantly surprised by your ability to overcome. You truly do make a worthy adversary.”

  “How?” I asked. I felt something thick and dry in the back of my throat and I couldn’t push it away, which made my voice come out a little raspier than I intended.

  “Oh, fear not, I’m not really here,” Abarat said with a smile as he traced a long forefinger over his chin. “I have to say that astral projection was difficult for me in the past, but centuries spent in a tomb with nothing but time to waste gives one all sorts of openings for one’s skills. Anyway, I look forward to meeting with you again, Grant. Very soon.”

  With those words, the image flickered and disappeared from view just as the sun fully crested the horizon to start its daily climb.

  It took me a few seconds to gain control of the tremors that had taken over my hands.

  22

  “Who were you talking to?”

  I spun around and saw Norel walking in my direction. She looked gorgeous as always, even though her skin was covered in ash, soot, and blood from the battle. Her hair was in a loose bun behind her head. I quickly sheathed my sword and tucked Faye’s spear into my belt.

  “Sorry?” I asked, playing for time as I tried to think of an answer better than that I’d just seen a projection of our greatest and most powerful adversary.

  “I thought I heard you talking to someone,” Norel said softly as she looked around, trying to spot another person.

  “I was talking to myself,” I said quickly and looked around.

  “But I heard two voices,” Norel pointed out.

  I nodded. “Well… Yes, I was doing both of the voices. I’ve found that conversations are better when I play both parts of it. They tend to flow a lot easier and there are fewer awkward pauses. It’s the only way a person like me can have an intelligent conversation.”

  Norel narrowed her eyes, looking like she didn’t fully believe me. Our bond probably conveyed the terror that gripped my soul when I’d seen the elf and hadn’t yet realized that it was a projection, which, I assumed, was why she came to see me in the first place.

  But she eventually concluded that it didn’t really matter, and leaned in to kiss me.

  “You’re an odd, odd man, Grant,” she whispered as she slipped her arm into mine and guided me back into the town. “I’m glad you survived your fight with the Official. How did it feel? Ending her life like that?”

  “I…didn’t actually kill her,” I admitted as we walked further into town. There were people in the streets again, since most of the civilians that still lived inside the walls had barred their doors for the duration of the fighting.

  “Why not?” Norel asked.

  “The reasons why are a little difficult to explain,” I admitted. “I just…it didn’t feel right. If everything she did was due to Abarat’s influence over her, it just didn’t feel right to kill her over it. It felt better in the moment. And I left Braire’s wolf watching over her to make sure she doesn’t cause any more trouble until we have time to somehow lift his influence on her. If she ends up being a terrible person once that is done, we can kill her then.”

  Norel smiled. I looked down when I realized that she was pushing me into a smaller building next to the gate. It was a guardhouse, and, all things considered, it being abandoned wasn’t that much of a surprise.

  “What are we doing here?”

  “I hate to do this out in the open,” Norel explained and looked around to make sure that we were, in fact, alone in the room before she moved closer to me. “I need you. Now.”

  I opened my mouth to voice some sort of complaint, but rea
lized that I didn’t have anything to complain about—and, as she drew close and let me feel her need through our bond as she tenderly pressed her lips to mine, the sudden change in mood felt like it was needed. I leaned into her and passionately returned her kiss as the fire that pulsed through my body suddenly came to the fore.

  “Fuck me,” Norel growled. Her hands tugged at my shirt until it ripped. I chuckled softly and pulled her pale white robes down her body, pushing them to the ground with surprising ease.

  She grinned up at me as her hands lowered to feel my already-growing cock through my trousers. She leaned in until her bare breasts pressed against my almost-bare chest, then kissed and ran her tongue down my chest as she tugged my pants down.

  She was moving too slowly for my taste.

  I growled in warning before I grabbed her shoulders, turned her around and forcefully walked her over to a table that looked like it had been abandoned for a while. It was abandoned no more as I bent her over it. She squealed excitedly as I ran my hands over her body, enjoying the sensation of her warm skin under my hands.

  There was a spike of annoyance from Aliana and Braire as they realized what we were doing, and honestly, I did care, but not enough to stop. I kept running my fingers over Norel’s body as she pushed herself back, grinding her bare ass against my still-covered cock as I leaned closer and firmly smacked her ass.

  She squeaked as I left a palm print on her right cheek. I stroked her warm skin as my hands came up underneath her, then squeezed her breasts and pulled her back into me, wanting to feel more of her warm body pressed to mine.

  “Please, Grant,” she whispered in a way that mixed with a low, longing moan. “I need you inside me.”

  I was more than willing to oblige as I straightened, pushed my trousers down far enough that my cock sprang free as my weapons loudly clattered to the ground. I gripped her hips and roughly pulled her back into me so she could feel the shaft harden and rub lightly over her clit. She let another one of those long, need-filled moans that she could carry on until her lungs ran out of breath.