“Golds to me!” Vikas screamed as she killed the nearest drake with a spell. The golds converged around her, killing more drakes as they went.
But then Kate sensed the others pressing in behind her, coming to help. The golds turned to confront this threat while Kate continued on to Vikas. He gave me every last drop before he died, Kate heard her saying once more. She remembered the pleasure, the pride the maestra took in it. Your precious Lord Ascender isn’t here to save you, Kate thought. There’d been no sign of Rendborne anywhere. She supposed a god couldn’t be bothered with such trivial things as a battle. Or maybe he’d been hurt in the explosion. She could only hope.
Vikas cast another spell, and once again Kate deflected it with the sword. The glow was gone completely, but it didn’t matter. In another step she would be in striking range. All the hours she’d spent training at the Relay, all the years spent honing her body, came back to her now. To this one fight: to avenge her father’s torturer, the woman who had set the trap for him, who had harnessed his blood, enslaving him even in death.
Once Kate was close enough, Vikas didn’t have room for her magic anymore and was forced to wield her mace like a true weapon. Kate raised her sword and stabbed for Vikas’s belly. The maestra swiped the strike aside, then countered with an upward blow. Kate caught it and thrust down, sparks flying as the metal of their weapons met. Kate had never fought an opponent wielding a mace, but it didn’t matter. The objective was the same—kill or be killed. She stabbed again, higher this time, and the tip of the blade pricked Vikas in the shoulder before the magist could counter. Shrieking, the woman leaped backward, out of striking range. Red bloomed through the gold of her robe.
Kate charged forward, swinging her blade from the left this time. But it was just a feint, and as Vikas moved to block, Kate whipped back to the right and struck the maestra in the side. Screaming, the woman fell sideways, but she swung back at Kate, catching her arm with the head of the mace. Pain tore through Kate, blinding her for a moment. She nearly dropped the sword in her need to grab her injured arm. Then she saw the crystal at Vikas’s neck again, and the pain retreated in the wake of her fury. She raised the sword once more and swung at Vikas in a sloppy, chopping motion. Vikas rolled out of the way, then scrambled back to her feet, one hand clutched to her bleeding side.
Kate swung at her again, first left, then right, then from underneath and above. Relentlessly she pursued the maestra, hatred lending her strength and foresight. Vikas fought back, sweat matting her pale hair to her face, her cheeks flushed. But she was weakening, blood ebbing from her side and shoulder, her muscles tiring. Kate knew she should be feeling the same, and yet she felt stronger than before, renewed with each blow. She could do this forever. Whatever it took.
With a scream of fury, Kate swung again, putting all her strength behind it. The blow landed across Vikas’s wrist, just above where her hand held the mace. The blade sliced through skin and bone both, lopping off the maestra’s hand entirely. Vikas fell to her knees, soundless, her remaining hand clamped around the stump of her other arm.
Kate bent toward the maestra and grasped the blood crystal around her neck by its leather cord. She yanked, pulling it free. Then without thinking, without even knowing what she planned to do, Kate plunged into Vikas’s mind. Panic, pain, and terror enveloped her. For a second it was so much, Kate almost lost herself in it. She fought back the emotion, gleaning memories in the process, glimpses into this woman’s life, the way Vikas’s lust for knowledge had been there from the start, driving her to do unspeakable things. She’d tortured animals first, both ordinary creatures and nightdrakes. She studied the power in their blood and then turned her aims on humans, experimenting on wilders. All the while she justified her actions by the value of the knowledge she gained. Long before Rendborne, Vikas had pushed boundaries no moral person would ever dare.
For a second, Kate almost withdrew in disgust, but then she forced herself deeper, drawing strength from the maestra’s fear. Kate amplified those feelings with her magic, pushing them to their extremes. Vikas trembled, eyes wide and jaw slack at the onslaught.
In full control now, Kate searched for Vikas’s center, that glowing, vibrant flame, the essence of who she was, her very life force. Kate found it and seized it with her magic. This is for Signe and Bonner. For everyone you’ve ever hurt. This is for my father. Kate sent the words directly into Vikas’s mind so that she would understand, taking the judgment with her as she crossed over into death. Then with all Kate had inside her, she extinguished Vikas’s glow like blowing out a candle. Vikas made a single noise, a gasp of surprise almost, then fell and lay there silent and still.
Trembling, Kate stood, unable to think or feel from the shock of what she’d done and the heady power coursing through her. She felt like a storm, a force of nature ready to sweep in and destroy anything that dared step into her path.
A cry of fury filled the air around her. Kate turned in time to see Rendborne rushing toward her. Anger twisted his features, his gold eyes flashing in the sun. As before, Kate felt caught by his presence, enthralled. Her own sense of power, of purpose, fled from her. There was nothing she could do but yield to the man, this god made flesh. Helpless, she sank to her knees.
Vaguely, she was aware that the fighting had stopped, the golds retreating at the appearance of their master. Corwin, Bonner, Raith, and the wilders still left alive crowded in around Kate as if they meant to defend her from this man.
Seeing them, Rendborne raised his right arm and swung it right, then left. Magic exploded from his fingertips, the force of it knocking down everyone still standing. Out of the corner of her eye, Kate saw Corwin go flying backward, landing hard on his back with a groan of pain.
“What have you done?” Rendborne said, reaching Kate. She could see burns on his hands and face, marks of Signe’s deception, but it brought her no satisfaction.
Rendborne stared down at Vikas’s dead face, something like sorrow in his eyes. It seemed the monster was capable of love, whatever that meant to him. Kate was glad to see it, glad to know she had caused him pain, this man responsible for so much death and suffering. Around his neck, the blood crystal seemed to mock her, but there was nothing she could do about it. Rendborne was an unstoppable force.
As if to prove it, some of the wilders who had been farthest away attacked him now. He caught each attempt with a simple wave of his hand, as if he were swatting flies. Then he returned the magic in kind. The pyrist who dared cast fire at him, he set ablaze. The hydrist who tried to pull the water from his blood, he drowned in a gush of water he sent streaming over her head from out of his hands. The aerist suffocated inside a vortex of wind.
When it was done, Rendborne turned to Kate. “I see now how your friends love you, Kate Brighton. They are willing to die for you,” Rendborne said. “And now they shall. All of them.”
Rendborne retreated a few steps, bringing all his victims into reach. Then he raised his hands, cupping the right with the left. Kate saw the glow between his fingers, magic building around his uror mark. Then he raised his hand and unleashed the full force of his abilities, right at her. Right at them all.
37
Corwin