leave this place, find a home somewhere, and love each other.
'What are you doing?' Kaanyr asked, quietly entering the hollow. Kael stood right behind him, peering over the cambion's shoulder.
Aliisza started at Vhok's sudden appearance. 'Nothing,' she said as Tauran stirred and sat up. The angel looked first at Aliisza, then he followed her gaze to Kaanyr.
The cambion's stare was emotionless, and at the same time, his eyes glittered dangerously. He looked at Aliisza for a long time.
The alu swallowed, wondering why she felt guilty. What have I done?
Kaanyr turned his attention to Tauran. 'It's smoke,' he said, his voice a bit colder than usual. 'There's some sort of village up there, and it's been burning. I see no signs of life.'
'Oh, no,' Tauran muttered, rising to his feet. 'We must go there, see if anyone survives.'
Kaanyr shrugged, then turned to look at Aliisza once more.
The alu shuddered beneath his pointed stare. At the same time, she felt herself growing cross with Tauran. He seemed oblivious to Kaanyr's displeasure. Why? Why does that bother me?
Because he wasn't thinking of you enough even to feel guilty, she realized. Damned angel. Damn both of you! she fumed.
The cambion turned and walked past Kael back out of the hollow.
The half-drow shifted his stare back and forth between the angel and the alu. His expression was grim, and he shook his head in disapproval. Aliisza climbed to her feet as Tauran pushed past Kael, his focus turned entirely on whatever was burning.
The alu returned her son's stare for a moment. 'What?' she said. 'You, too? What is your problem?'
'Leave him be,' Kael said. 'He doesn't need your wicked, twisted games playing with his head right now. He has enough to deal with.'
Aliisza barely restrained herself from slapping his face. 'You have no idea what you're talking about,' she said. 'Stay out of it.' I'm your mother, she silently added. How dare you speak to me that way. But the words rang false, even in her own mind.
'I won't,' Kael said. 'I watch his back for him, and I'm not going to let you hurt him.' With that, the half- drow turned away and left the hollow.
Aliisza bit back the insult she wanted to hurl after him and instead took a deep, calming breath. Then she understood something, and she almost laughed. That's not it at all, my son, she thought. What you really mean is, you won't let me hurt you. I've become a threat. You don't want to share. The thought almost made her laugh again, but there was a deeper emotion, too. Hurt. You can't see room in your life for two parents.
That realization made her clench her teeth till they hurt. She climbed up and out through the scrub into the open.
Tauran was already at the head of the group, walking briskly in the direction of the black smudge, which had dissipated somewhat since they had first spotted it. Kaanyr was right behind him, and Kael's rapid strides were catching him up to the other two.
All three of them, leaving me behind, Aliisza thought wryly, trying to make herself feel better. Isn't that always the way with men?
The alu hurried after them.
Tauran led them to the outskirts of a tree-house village. He didn't hesitate to enter it, walking along the ground beneath the dwellings high overhead. Much of the place was in ruins, and Aliisza noted that many of the means to get up into the bowers of the trees had been destroyed or removed. The singed remains of rope ladders and bridges hung uselessly down from the structures, out of reach of those on the ground.
'Damn him,' Tauran murmured, gazing around helplessly. 'He didn't have to do this.'
'Where is everyone?' Aliisza wondered. 'There aren't even any bodies.'
'Oh, by Torm,' Kael muttered softly. He reached for his sword.
The other three followed his stare upward into the trees.
There, scrambling down the thick trunks like strange, smoky spiders, were shadowy beings. They looked human in shape, though they crawled on hands and feet. They had no real faces, only red, glowing eyes. Aliisza could hear a strange sound emanating from them, a kind of hissing.
When they dropped to the ground, they charged the four visitors and those hisses became unnatural howls of misery, rage, and death.
Kael took a single step back and rotated away from the nearest of the shadowy assailants. Its red eyes glared, but Kael could tell the creature had once been a dryad, a fey being native to the World Tree. Whatever magic had been used to slay her had transformed her into a force of dark and evil hatred, bent only on his destruction.
The half-drow's maneuver brought him just far enough back to evade her lunging attack, and as she leaped through the point in space where he had stood a moment before, Kael completed the pivot, bringing his sword up and around to slash at her from behind. The blade glided easily through her shadowy, insubstantial form, its divine enchantment crackling against her malevolence.
The shrieking wail of the shadow-dryad rose in pitch, changing from a scream of fury to one of agony. She arched her back as she tumbled through the apex of her leap, landed awkwardly, and went sprawling. She stumbled as she tried to right herself.
Kael was still angry, but he didn't want to be. Seeing his mother within that glade, entwined around Tauran, had infuriated him, but he shouldn't have allowed it to creep into his thoughts and disrupt his concentration. Yet that's just what was happening. He could not get the image out of his head. He felt… something. Something he could not name.
Two more of the disfigured dryads rushed at him. They began their charge shoulder to shoulder, but as they drew closer, the twin phantoms diverged so as to come at him from either side. Kael adopted a defensive stance, blade out and to his left side. As the left-hand creature leaped at him, he shifted forward, dragging the blade up and under his foe. The sword raked her from knee to shoulder without any resistance at all as she passed him. He fought to control the momentum of the heavy blade, unused to dealing with incorporeal opponents.
As he fought to regain his balance, the other shadow-dryad struck his shoulder and raked her claws against his armor. Though the holy protection of his plate mail repelled most of the blow, he felt a numbing cold pour into his flesh. Kael grunted and swung his blade the rest of the way around as he shrugged her off. The sword came down hard upon her back, passing completely through her torso as she tumbled in a heap.
Learning from the fight as he went, Kael let the momentum of his strike carry the blade down hard to the ground. He used it as a brace to spin himself back the other way, then hefted the weapon into a defensive position and surveyed his foes.
The two abominations that had just assailed him writhed upon the ground, shrieking in pain. The first creature that had rushed at him circled, wary of the magic of his blade.
He shifted to keep her in front of him and checked on his companions.
Aliisza and Vhok had taken positions back to back, each with a weapon in hand. The cambion wielded a pair of enchanted daggers the alu had given him after the loss of his own blade. Three shadowy dryads circled them. On the far side, Tauran stood before two more of the transformed fey, his shining mace gripped in both hands. One lunged at him and he batted it away with a well-placed blow to the head.
A dozen more bounded down from the trees above, rushing to join the battle.
'Let us just fly away and be done with this!' Vhok snarled as he sliced at one of the creatures opposing him. 'This isn't getting us any closer to Zasian!'
'We cannot leave these poor, cursed creatures as they are,' Tauran replied, panting as he swung his mace back and forth in large arcs. 'They must be put out of their misery.'
Vhok snorted and slashed with both his daggers at the nearest of the shadowy beings. He struck her squarely in the chest and head. Her wail of rage split the air as she fell back, clawing at the wounds. 'Get your priorities straight, fool angel,' he grumbled as he turned to slash at another of the things attacking him. 'We're no good to you butchered by these wretches.'
So much for the new and improved helpful cambion, Kael thought. Though I can't imagine he's very happy to
