The pins felt much too secure in the ground, but if I pulled hard enough, I might be able to loosen one. With a blade in my hand—she hadn’t taken them—I could defend myself against whatever was coming.
“Here, I think.” She sent me a smirk as she shifted closer to the cliff’s edge. “Fitting, isn’t it?” Another slash, and she gouged through the leather protecting my left thigh, driving the blade deep. “So many cuts on this poor thigh with me adding another.”
Cold, searing agony erupted in my leg, the blade setting fire to every nerve ending along its path. I jolted, biting down on my lips to hold back my scream. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.
My eyes stung with tears, my only response, and I blinked hard to send them running. They drizzled down my temples and into my hair.
“A little bit more,” she said, rising and rounding above my head to reach my other arm that received a matching slice from the wrist to my shoulder. She didn’t stab my right thigh; perhaps that felt too easy. Instead, she delicately cut away the leather and then raked away at the flesh with the tip of her knife. “Your legs will match now.” Her cackle rang out. “Actually, they won’t. You won’t live long enough to form new scars.”
Pain threatened to drag me down in its never-endingembrace. The world spun around me, blackness bunching in before retreating, only to plunge forward once more.
“Did you know that I killed your sweet Seevar?” she said with a sly twist.
“Fuck you,” I croaked.
“I wish I could’ve watched him fall. Sadly, my view was abruptly cut off.”
When Vexxion killed the person she sent after us.
“Did the poor thing whimper as he died?” she asked.
I could swear again, but that would only make her laugh. Better not to react at all.
“I’m sure he did.” Rising, she tossed aside the blade. “I’d love to play some more, but I hear them coming. I’m no welcoming committee, not anything like them.”
Irregular shuffles echoed around us, and I lifted my head and shook it, trying to maintain focus.
Five Lieges melted from the scruffy tree line, gliding toward us with their tattered, dingy robes swirling around them in a macabre dance. Their bones shifted like teeth clattering inside empty skulls as their gazes locked on me.
“Oh, my, Tempest,” Delaine said as she backed away. “I believe those Lieges are hungry.”
43
TEMPEST
The Liege in the cave had adored my blood, implying it gave him a boost of power. If he’d had enough, I suspected it would’ve healed him. These fiends weren’t injured, but they still craved whatever power they could suck from my body.
My swallow clawed its way down my dry throat, and I yanked against my ties as Delaine moved toward the mountain peak, remaining out of the Lieges’ way.
Something blue streaked from the woods, scurrying toward me, followed by another. More beasts eager to lick my blood?
“Get away.” Delaine rushed back down the slope, flicking her hands in their direction, but they kept coming.
Two marscapoles scurried closer. Passing me, they leaped, one landing on Delaine’s chest, another on her face. She shrieked and spun, trying to dislodge them. As much as I’d love to watch them fight her, I remained staked out for the Liegeswho didn’t appear deterred by the fluffy blue creatures attacking Delaine.
They floated closer, their arms lifting, and I expected their hoods would fly back from the wind as they descended around me to drink.
A pop, and Iasar appeared above me. He blasted fire toward the Lieges, but while they paused, milling around together, they didn’t burn, though I had no idea why. He kept shooting flames at them, however, and that held them at bay.
“I’m calling in that favor, troll,” I bellowed.
The ground shook and spun beside my right hip, and the troll I’d released in the hall popped his head above the opening he’d just spun through the ledge.
“Ye need help-ee from Cristalon?” he asked.
“Fuck, yeah.” My hysterical laughter bubbled up my throat, making me croak.
“Fuck, yeah,” he mimicked. He drew the rest of his body out of the ground along with a hammer with a head the size of my fist. He scurried along my right arm and with one blow, broke through the chains binding me to the stone. In no time, he’d freed me, and while I leaped to my feet and drew a dagger, savoring the feel of it in my hand, he scampered back into the hole in the ground.
