become used to it.'
'Never,' Jorik said, and he meant it.
Tennora had never been so glad in all her life to see someone as she was when Veron strode into the chamber, crossbow high. Ferremo jabbed at her again, piercing the muscle above her shoulder and wrenching the blade down. She finished her spell with a yelp. An explosion of colored lights filled the space between them. Not as bright or as painful as she'd hoped, but enough to drive the assassin back a few feet, still limping.
'Shoot the lovac!' Nestrix yelled. A bolt whizzed across the room and struck the wall.
Tennora's own wound was still seeping blood, and the loss of it was slowing her down, dizzying her. Her vision swam and her ears were ringing. All her focus she put into staying on her feet and keeping Ferremo and his knife away.
But every spell, every careful attack, used up a little more of what she had left. She could hardly keep her arm up and the dagger in her hand.
And bit by bit, Ferremo was cutting her down. A slash here, a stab there-he was toying with her. And though she had bloodied him as well, leaving him limping, squinting, and wiping blood from his chin, he would fall long after she had.
She pulled her hand from her wound long enough to make it glitter with the beginnings of a spell. Ferremo slashed at her upraised wrist. With a quick turn, she stuck him with the dagger under the arm as he slashed. He hissed and pressed that arm down over the wound.
'Isn't this fun?' he panted, his eyes wild and bright. He lunged forward again, but Tennora twisted away to make the thicker leather catch the knife. Quick as an eel, he turned the weapon and slammed the hilt into the armor near her wound. Tennora cried out.
Another crossbow bolt sang across the room, sinking into Ferremo's hip. His eyes went wide with pain.
'Put the blades down,' Veron shouted.
Ferremo yanked the bolt free of his joint. He slipped around Tennora so she stood between him and the crossbow. As she started to move out of the way, his hand lashed out and grabbed her by the braid, yanking her close. He bent her sword arm behind her back and held her body close to him like a shield.
'Go ahead!' Ferremo shouted back, his breath close and hot against her ear. His weight leaned on her, saving his wounded leg. 'Send us some love.'
Veron froze, anger and fear congealing his features, but Tennora boiled over.
She stomped down hard on Ferremo's foot. The soles of her own boots were soft, but she struck him across the toes with her heel. His grip loosened as he cried out, and she pulled her arm away from him. She reached back and shoved her palm up against his face.
'Ziastayix' she gasped, her vision crumbling to gray around the edges. He shrieked as his skin and hair scorched, the scented oil burning with a smell like pinesap. The twang of Veron's crossbow sounded as she pulled herself free of Ferremo.
Tennora fell to her hands and knees, the blood still oozing from the wound beneath her armor sapping what remained of her strength.
Nestrix and Dareun were off the ground and circling each other, Dareun's hands tracing the shapes of his wild magic, Nestrix beginning to crackle with lightning. As Dareun came around to face his wounded lovac, he stopped and glanced around the room.
'You are alone, wyrmling,' Nestrix said, her voice crackling in Tennora's ears. Dareun's eyes narrowed, and his hands came up to cast.
He shouted another spell, and the shadows of the room condensed around him. He flickered, and his image skipped across the room and into the cage swaddled in the darkness. Antoum Mrays, still huddled in a ball, looked up as Dareun appeared before him. He screamed as Dareun grabbed him by the arm and twisted his ring. The two of them vanished.
'No!' Tennora cried out, but she couldn't even hear her own voice. The grayness closed over her eyes and she collapsed into it.
Tennora's eyes fluttered open to see Veron holding her head up and pressing another vial to her lips.
'You need to start carrying some of your own,' he said. She drank the potion gratefully and let him help her up, still aching but no longer bleeding.
Nestrix stood beside her, tense and worried. Ferremo was pressed into a comer, watching and breathing unevenly.
'Don't do that again,' Nestrix said.
'I'll do my best,' Tennora said wryly as Veron pulled her to her feet. She looked around the chamber. 'Hrast it. He's gone?'
'Not quite,' Nestrix said. She stepped toward Ferremo.
Wounded, Ferremo held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. 'It's not me you want,' he said, panting. 'It's him. I'm just the lackey.'
Nestrix kept coming. 'You're right. He can see through your eyes, can't he? Hear through your ears?'
Ferremo nodded nervously, hands still raised. 'He will know if you-'
Nestrix seized Ferremo around the throat and slammed him against the brick wall. Ferremo twisted and kicked. His face turned plum.
'Then listen and understand this, wyrmling,' she hissed, leaning in close. 'Your days are numbered. You marked yourself the moment you took that boy. If his dam cannot find you, I will hunt you down for her, and you will regret ever breaking through your shell.'
Ferremo tried to cough, but Nestrix's grip compressed his throat. Words struggled from his lips. 'You… can… try… ulhar.' 'Oh, I'll do it. I'll watch you die.'
Ferremo's mouth twisted into a smirk. 'He's… laughing.'
'Tell me where he's gone and I'll let you live.'
'He… wouldn't.'
'Last chance, lovac. Where is the child?'
Ferremo's mouth curved into a gruesome smile. 'Gone.'
Tennora had heard enough. 'Nestrix,' she said. Nestrix looked back at her without releasing Ferremo. 'He's not going to tell us anything. Are you?' she said to Ferremo.
Ferremo's smile widened, and he said nothing.
Nestrix bared her teeth. 'Do not ask me to let him go.'
'No,' Tennora said, though nausea rose in her stomach. 'Hold him still.' Rage, bright and hot, filled Tennora as she sank her mother's dagger between Ferremo's ribs. His eyes went wide. Bright red blood poured from his chest and pumped out in heavy gouts over Tennora's knuckles. His lashes fluttered, and a last wheeze escaped his lips before he trembled and went slack. Tennora pulled the dagger from his body, her hands shaking.
'That was… sudden,' Nestrix said, sounding-for once-surprised.
'No it wasn't,' Tennora said quietly. 'He almost killed me three times over. He kidnapped that boy. He kidnapped you. He started it. I wanted to end it.' She looked up at an amused Nestrix. 'I'm not making a habit of it. But I gave him plenty of chances.'
'Of course you did,' Nestrix said. 'Anyway, he was on his way already. You did him a favor.'
'Stop talking about it.'
'All right,' Nestrix said. 'But can you do it again?'
'I-'
'Stop right there.' Standing in the center of the chamber, Veron watched them over the sights of his crossbow. He took a step forward. 'I've been tracking you a long time, Clytemorrenestrix.'
Nestrix looked him up and down. 'And who are you? The bounty hunter the henich spoke of?' 'I am. I've been sent to bring you back to Cormyr to answer for the death of-'
'The wizard,' she finished. 'You should be glad I killed him.'
'Not now, Veron,' Tennora said. 'We need to find the boy. Dareun's planning to bring down the city.'
Nestrix stepped toward him. 'You need me right now, hunter,' she said. 'Tennora is clever enough to find him, I think, but he's no mere warlock. Not with that collar.'
