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 Excerpt from Path of Blood
From Chapter 2
The nokula stood an arms length away, the rain beading on its silvery hide. It was elegant in a savage way. It watched her. She shifted, making no attempt to move. She didn't want to get any closer to those knife-filled jaws than she had to. ~You are hunted. Reisil shuddered and jerked away, yelping as her head bounced off the stone shelf. Needles splintered through her skull and she was grateful for the pain. "Don't," she said, holding up the rock, though she hardly knew what she might do with it. "Stay out of my head." ~We must speak. I have little time left. The words crawled across her mind, sticky and prickly and slimy at once. Reisil's gorge rose and she swallowed noisily. "Who are you?" she asked, though the cadence of his words and the brusque edge to his tone had already confirmed her first thought. Sodur. The nokula smiled. Or Reisil thought it was a smile. Perhaps it was a snarl. They were likely the same. The voice in her mind sounded amused and predatory. ~You have already guessed. Unbidden, an image rose in her mind of Sodur. It was a bittersweet memory, from before his betrayal, before he made everyone think she was the worm in their apple. He was showing her around the Lady's Temple for the first time. He had led her beneath the trees, their leaves sifting together softly in the breeze, the air smelling soft of wisteria and roses. His back had been to her as recited the history of the Temple. As the memory rolled through her mind, Reisil's teeth clicked together and her skin went clammy. She was seeing it exactly as she remembered, from her perspective. Sodur's back had been turned. Fear uncoiled in her chest. Somehow he'd plucked it from her mind. Furiously she slammed her mental barriers shut, ejecting him forcefully out of her thoughts. A faintly startled expression crossed his animal face. Reisil's chin jutted. "Stay. Out. Of. My. Head." He opened his mouth. His rounded tongue lolled out, slithering in the air like a snake with its tail caught in a trap. Nonsensical breathy sounds issued forth. For a moment Reisil wanted to laugh. The next a tide of fury and bitterness rose up in her. He was manipulating her again. Making her do things his way. Did it never stop? She took a breath, counting to ten. She let it out with a whoosh and glared at him resentfully. She needed to know what he could tell her about Mysane Kosk and his fellow nokulas. She didn't have a choice. ~Fine. What do you want? ~You must not go to Mysane Kosk. ~Why not? Sodur made a guttural sound and swiped suddenly at his head with a heavy paw. Sparkling ridges rose where his claws scraped painful, deep furrows into his flesh. If it could be called flesh. Reisil gasped and drew back against the rock. ~You are hunted, he repeated, his voice sounding tinny and frayed. ~Tell me something I don't know. ~Not just the wizards. They... We... want you. He cuffed at himself again and hunched lower to the ground. Reisil watched in fascination as he twisted his head as if to escape some sort of painful sound. Suddenly an unearthly wail rose out of the night. Reisil found herself raising the rock above her head. The sound went on and on. An earthquake began deep in her gut, moving outward and growing more powerful with every breath. Her arms and legs shook with its palsy. The rock dropped from her limp fingers. Then a wordless screech broke across Reisil's mind like a crystal knife, shattering the howl into pieces. Reisil slammed closed her mental barriers. ~Dear heart, thank you. ~It is really Sodur? ~He hasn't been Sodur for a long time. Before she could answer, another shape emerged out of the misty trees. It was half-again as large as the Sodur. It reminded of her of Baku, with elegant ripples of muscle and a long, reptilian body. It radiated tension and threat. Reisil swallowed jerkily. Could it be? How could Lume have turned into something so big? And yet she didn't doubt it was Sodur's ahalad-kaaslane turned nokula. Somehow the lynx had become this hulking brute. She felt the scritch of claws against her mental walls and stared in repulsion. Lume too? The beast bared his fangs at her and pressed close to Sodur, who nudged him with his shoulder in affectionate acknowledgement. Lume regarded Reisil, dipping his head with something like an apology. Reisil lowered her mental walls uneasily. ~They didn't plan for us, Sodur said, stroking Lume in a loving way that struck Reisil as somehow reassuring. Maybe something of Sodur yet remained. Maybe he could still be recovered. ~We have resisted the call to come to Mysane Kosk, he continued, oblivious to the whisper of thought. But the pull is strong. Soon we must go. He whipped his head from side to side as if to dislodge a swarm of biting flies. This must be quick. Everything I say, everything I think, the rest know. We share a mind; they would silence me— He recoiled suddenly, collapsing on the ground and twitching spasmodically. He emitted an aching cry that sounded like a soul-riven rashani and made Reisil's intestines contract. He flailed and clawed furrows into his neck and face. Lume nuzzled close and his touch seemed to lend Sodur the strength to resist the invisible onslaught. He rolled to his feet, staring at Reisil with that unnerving, lidless gaze. There were chunks of silvery flesh clotted in his claws. The gashes gaped bloodless like wounds on a corpse. ~I still don't understand what you want. He gave a frustrated sigh. It sounded so... human... . Reisil stared askance. ~Imagine a school of fish, the way it turns and moves as if of a single mind. So are nokulas. The individual cannot resist. His mind conforms, like sand under the lash of the wind and sea. ~But you are here even though the rest don't want you to talk to me? The Sodur nodded in that oddly human fashion. ~Lume and I have resisted. And some others. Ahalad-kaaslane mostly. But the others are very strong. He was referring to the wizards who had been caught up in the spell they cast at Mysane Kosk. Reisil knew it without his having to say it. ~You must not go to Mysane Kosk. You must get far away. ~Why?. ~They know you have come to destroy Mysane Kosk. They will stop you. They mean to... convert... you. It requires only that you be drawn inside the circle surrounding Mysane Kosk. You will become nokula. There will be no hope for Kodu Riik. Get away where they cannot find you! And do not fool yourself. This is no illness that can be cured or reversed. The change is irrevocable. You can neither save us, nor can you be saved if you are changed. She eyed Sodur closely, ice spiraling down her spine and boring into her stomach. Here was a danger she hadn't considered. Bright Lady, what could she do? She could defend herself with magic, but could she fight them off without killing them? Or worse, without destroying Mysane Kosk and Kodu Riik with it? Could she fight them off at all? They were made of magic. And the change was eternal. There was no reversing it. The spark of hope she'd nurtured for Sodur and the Iisand guttered and went out. She shoved the pain of that final loss away, focusing on the problem at hand. The entire cadre of wizards who'd created the spell had become nokula. She couldn't begin to guess how powerful they were. Reisil licked her lips, taking a slow breath, fear clamping her throat. But she couldn't run. Kodu Riik would still be destroyed, not to mention the rest of the world and Cemanahuatl. Sodur picked this out of her racing mind. She felt his urgency shoving at her with physical force. She pushed back, anger and resentment hardening in her chest. "Do not try that again," she said, her voice like metal. ~You must go! To stay—to be caught—you will destroy Kodu Riik! His frantic words lashed her mind and black streaks sizzled across her vision at their intensity. She doubled over, bracing herself against the rock shelf and locking her knees against the agonized clench of her body. "To leave means the same." It was all she could do to force the words out. "The only hope is to continue. If I don't save Mysane Kosk then Kodu Riik dies too." Her body shuddered and spasmed as agony burrowed into her mind, chewing nerves and shredding bone. ~No! They will not allow it! They will take you! The battering on her mind redoubled. Reisil sobbed and fell to the ground. Sudden fury erupted in her mind. A tearing beak and slashing talons. Saljane. The goshawk ripped at Sodur's hold on Reisil's mind. He gave a high-pitched yelp and reeled backward. Lume crouched, a growl sounding loud in his throat. Into the battlefield of Reisil's mind bounded his animal presence. He howled and launched himself at Saljane, following Reisil's mental tie to the goshawk. But Reisil had defeated a harder foe in Baku. Freed of Sodur's onslaught, she snatched Lume and flung him forty paces to crash against the thick bole of an ancient hemlock. There was a crackling sound like bones snapping, but Reisil couldn't care. He vanished from her mind. Breathing heavily, she quickly reconstructed the blockade protecting her mind, holding fast to Saljane's fierce strength. Lume lay in a limp heap at the base of the tree. Sodur had not moved, had not made a sound. He might as well have been made of stone. Reisil could not read the expression on his face. And she would not open her mind again to hear his words. When he continued motionless, watching her, she gritted her teeth and strode over to Lume, driven by her healer nature and the memory of the lynx. As she neared, the great beast's skin began to wriggle and distort. Knobby shapes thrust angularly outward, distorting the silvery expanse of his hide. Reisil halted in her tracks, fear curling through her. It looked as if something was inside trying to escape. Then as abruptly as they began, the motions ceased. Long moments trickled past, marked only by the sough of the wind and the drip of the rain. Suddenly Lume gave a loud chuff and rolled lightly to his feet, his brilliant silver eyes hard, his head ducked low. Reisil lunged away, her magic balled ready in her hands. But faster than a thought, Sodur rushed between, one taloned claw splayed over his companion's face, the other held up curved and ready as he watched Reisil. Reisil and Sodur stared at one another, held in place by threat and— Memories of Sodur skipped across Reisil's mind. His kindness when she'd refused the bond with Saljane, his strength when she struggled to find out who she was, his guidance when she felt so lost. It hadn't been all lies. Magic pulsed through her. It filled her. Reisil gasped from the shredding pain of it. She felt like she was bleeding to death. Still she held, eyes fastened on the six curving scythes tipping Sodur's claw. "You were wrong before and you're wrong now. If you want to help, convince your new friends to stay out of my way. You, too." His head tilted. Sodur remained a menacing statue. He would stay frozen, she realized slowly. Until he could speak to her again. She clung more tightly to Saljane. ~Speak. ~I can no longer resist them. They will have all I know. Reisil didn't answer for a long moment, realization dawning. A slight sigh escaped her. ~You want me to kill you, to keep them from taking you. They have enough of you to keep you from doing it yourself, she said. ~Yes. There was a desperate wealth of hope in the word. Reisil could see the logic. Sodur knew so much about the ahalad-kaaslane, about her, and about Kodu Riik. That knowledge would could only help the nokulas. She shook her head, pulling her magic in and sending it back to where it belonged. She sagged as it drained away. ~No. He snarled. Reisil found herself smiling at his fury, her cheeks feeling cramped and stiff. ~They already have other ahalad-kaaslane—who knows how many? They have the Iisand—I'm assuming he's already gone to them, right? Reisil nodded at Sodur's faint affirmative. And you have said they can read your mind. Likely the real damage is done. But there's a chance you'll still be able to help me. I don't think they can make you or any other ahalad-kaaslane forget your vows to the Lady and this land. She squared her shoulders. "It's a chance. You have to take it. I know, I know, the Lady wants me to save Mysane Kosk. And the nokulas. Tell them that. Tell them if the spell the wizards cast to create the nokulas isn't stopped, it will destroy Kodu Riik. It will destroy the entire world. Maybe if they know that, they'll give me time to find a way. But either way, it's time you stopped sabotaging me and did something helpful." ~They will not risk letting you go free. You are too dangerous. Again pressure rose in her mind, hammering at her. Go! She slammed her mental walls shut for the last time. She shook her head. "I'm going to Mysane Kosk. You do what you have to do." With that she turned and strode away in measured steps. Not running, though every minute she half-expected to be knocked to the ground. Her mouth was dry and she felt cold. She slipped through the mist between the trees. When she thought she was out of sight, she glanced over her shoulder and then jeered at herself. They could be right beside her for all she knew. She couldn't see them unless they wanted to her to. Could she? Her steps faltered. Reisil stopped, turning. She refocused her eyes, looking about her with spellsight. The world glowed in muted pastel shades of life—the foundation of magic. But nothing else. So either they remained behind, or they were invisible still. Reisil spun around and hurried through the darkness. She and Yohuac had to leave now. And they'd not stop again until they reached Mysane Kosk. ~Saljane! Take Baku. Go to Mysane Kosk. Go now, fast as you can. Warn the others. I'm coming and bringing the wizards and nokulas with me. For a moment Reisil thought of Tapit and smiled. Her blood roared and her hands trembled. But it wasn't fear. She felt more like mother bear protecting her cubs. And she was done running. |
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