“On my life,” Wigg answered.
After giving Shailiha a final look of farewell, Tristan turned to face the fighting. Closing his eyes, he raised his arms and called on hisK’Shari Forestallment. At once he felt it surging through his blood, strengthening his heart and calming his mind for battle.
But this time he sensed something more. The hundreds of martial techniques the Forestallment held suddenly burst through his mind and his nervous system, granting him their immediate use. Opening his eyes, he was about to charge across the bridge when he heard a familiar voice.
“Not so fast, dango!” Rafe called out. “Let me give you a ride!”
Tristan turned to see Rafe and his highlanders charging down the path opened by the warriors when theirJin’Sai had entered the room. As the highlander chieftain neared, Tristan smiled.
Tristan stretched out his left arm. As Rafe charged by, their two hands locked in a firm grip. With hisK’Shari Forestallment active, theJin’Sai ’s movements had become one with him, like there was no longer any need for conscious thought. Tristan effortlessly threw himself up onto the horse’s back, just behind Rafe.
Their swords held high in the afternoon sun, Tristan and Rafe charged across the bridge and into the heart of the Recluse.
CHAPTER LXVII
AS THE BATTLE FOR THE RECLUSE RAGED ON, SERENAstood on her knees in her private chambers. She was exhausted, and her fingertips were badly scorched from throwing azure bolts. Her once-immaculate black mourning gown was smeared with the blood of both her allies and her enemies, but her precious withered rose remained tucked in her bosom.
She had personally directed the defense of the castle until the monstrous Black Ship had rammed the drawbridge. Then she had left her post to take refuge in her rooms, and to check on her baby daughter. Einar and Reznik were still somewhere among the fighting. She prayed that they were alive, and helping to turn the tide. After dismissing Dagmar and checking on Clarice, she had immediately assumed a posture of supplication.
It was not fear for her life that had brought her here. Rather, it had been to beg communion with thePon Q’tar. With the castle walls breached, she needed their guidance. But she also knew that if she remained amid the chaos and noise, she might not hear their wondrous voices should they touch her mind. And so she had retreated to the relative quiet of her rooms to pray for a sign. Suddenly it came.
“Serena,”the melodious voices called out.“Take heart. We are here.”
She was overjoyed to hear them. Their powerful presences immediately strengthened her resolve.
“The walls are breached,”she answered.“What am I to do?”
“Do not fear,”thePon Q’tar voices answered.“Do as we say, and you and your child will be saved.”
“I await your wisdom,”she replied.
“If the Recluse becomes untenable, you must save yourself,”the voices said.“The spell that we are about to grant you is powerful, and is meant only for you and your child. Use it to escape the Recluse.”
“But what of Einar and my consuls?”she asked.“Are they to flee with us?”
“No,”the voices answered.“From the beginning, they were only a means to an end. That is part of what true devotion to the Vagaries means. Now that Clarice lives, all of your conjured servants, your consuls, and your Valrenkians account for nothing. All that matters is that you and your child escape, and that Clarice grows to womanhood so that the other part of our plan can come to fruition. Despite your fears, it is not too late. Be still, our child, while we impart the needed calculations into your mind.”
Serena waited. Soon a riot of swirling, azure numbers and symbols appeared in her mind’s eye. She tried to read the spell, but found it far beyond her comprehension. Then the calculations unexpectedly vanished. She tried to call them back, but couldn’t. Worried that she had somehow lost them forever, panic struck her heart again.
“I do not understand,”she said.“How am I to use the spell if I cannot recall it?”
“All is as it should be,”the voices answered.“The spell is too powerful and important to fall into Conclave hands. Should you be captured, your enemies will not be able to draw it forth, for we have sent it far too deep into your mind for their meager abilities to retrieve. Even so, we will be able to return it to your ken. You need not understand its workings-you need only to read the calculations aloud in Old Eutracian. But until the battle’s outcome is known, wait where you are, where it is safest. It is still possible that your forces will turn the tide. But if not, we will revisit your mind, and your escape with your child will be ensured.”
With that, Serena knew that thePon Q’tar had gone. Her hope and courage renewed, she walked to the balcony and calmly looked down on the fighting.
As thePon Q’tar had told her, it seemed that the battle still might be won by her forces. The shrews and envelopers fought savagely and in huge numbers. Looking farther, she could no longer see the Black Ships. Perhaps they have been destroyed after all, she hoped. Many of her consuls still lined the wall tops. Black smoke rose into the air as the sounds of the screaming and the dying drifted to her ears.
She watched the terrible battle with renewed faith, for she now understood that its outcome was of no real importance. Once she and Clarice escaped, the wondrousPon Q’tar would protect them for all eternity.
CHAPTER LXVIII
THE MOMENT TRISTAN AND RAFE CROSSED THE BRIDGEand entered the Recluse’s inner ward, Tristan jumped down from Rafe’s horse. TheJin’Sai had a mission to fulfill, and it didn’t include the highlander chieftain. Landing warily on the bloody floor, he spun around and took stock of the situation.
Tristan’s assault on the Recluse had deteriorated into complete pandemonium. This wasn’t a battle of disciplined warrior phalanxes, or of Minion officers shouting out crisp orders. It was a massive street brawl, and each fighter struggled only for himself. Dark smoke and the stench of spilled blood filled the air with their all-too- familiar scent. Dead shrews, Minions, and envelopers lay everywhere. The desperate fighting had completely overtaken the Recluse and darkened the sky; and Minion and highlander bones, clothing, and weapons lay in grotesque, wet piles scattered across the ward.
Tristan stole a precious moment to look toward the wall tops. Although most of the guard paths had been damaged, some were still intact and manned by consuls. The consuls were using their strategic advantage to cast azure bolts down on the Minions and highlanders both inside the castle walls and those still pouring across the bridge.
Tristan’s priority was to find Serena. His heart told him that she would be somewhere atop the walls, commanding her remaining consuls. But because of the smoke and confusion, he would need to get up there to know for sure.
He quickly looked around to find stone steps attached to an inner wall. They led up to the guard paths, but they lay on the other side of the ward. Tightening his grip on his dreggan, he decided to try to reach it.
Just as he started running across the ward, a pair of enraged shrews charged out from around one corner of the Recluse granary. Their bloody teeth flashing, the beasts snarled and thundered straight toward him. Tristan’s response was immediate and unthinking.
TheJin’Sai dropped his dreggan, then reached his right arm over his shoulder to grasp two throwing knives. Without hesitation he placed one knife into his left hand while keeping the other knife in his right. Raising his arms, he simultaneously threw the two blades at the charging shrews.
The knives flew so quickly that they seemed little more than spinning, silvery flickers. A blade buried itself into one shrew’s right eye; the second one tore into the other shrew’s left eye. To Tristan’s amazement, the knives kept going and burst out the back of the shrews’ heads, killing the beasts instantly. Then the bloody knives traveled across the ward and plunged into the facing wall of the granary. They hit the stone wall with such force that they cracked it in two from top to bottom. Tristan suddenly remembered the momentous night in the Great Hall when the Darkling had killed the flier of the fields. Xanthus’ axe had gone on to strike one of the hall’s marble columns
