Azure bonds - Kate Novak [166]
Cassana grinned, as if she guessed what the saurial was doing. She looked at the sky behind Alias. The sun had almost cleared the horizon. The tops of the sharp, tooth-shaped plinths looked as if they had bitten into something bloody.
The sorceress motioned to Phalse, who turned his back on Dragonbait. The small servant motioned with his hands in an arcane fashion that seemed to deny the existence of bones in his arms. They swayed back and forth like snakes. Beyond him, a pinprick of light appeared, then grew. It began as a sphere of multicolored magical force, then flattened, turning into a swirling pattern of silver and red.
Dragonbait had seen this gate before. It was the passage to the Citadel of White Exile, where he and Alias had been branded. Now, that passage had to be opened again to draw power from the domain of Phalse's master. With it, they would seal control over Alias at the moment of Dragonbait's death.
Dragonbait finally looked up at Alias; he did not want to grieve her, but he could not help himself. Their eyes locked like pieces in a magical puzzle. Her eyes were red-rimmed from exhaustion and evaporated tears. He used his shen sight. If he was going to die, he wanted to do so with his eyes fixed on the brilliant blue of her soul.
Her spirit's glow was as slender as the flame from a single candle. It flickered like a living sapphire. Yet on all sides rose a tide of darkness, crackling with energy, forcing itself upward to smother the flame. The flame blazed for a moment, but the forces surrounding it rose as well.
The chanting increased as Phalse worked his spells to control the spinning disk that reached between the planes. The first tendrils of dawn caught Alias's hair from behind and set it on fire, a glory of bright red against the newborn sky. "Prepare to sacrifice the innocent'" the sorceress bellowed. "Raise the blade!"
Alias hesitated and Dragonbait saw the candle's flame burn hotter. Cassana made a pass with her wand, and the sapphire flame dimmed as if a smoked glass chimney had been dropped over it. Alias raised her hands, clasping Hill Cleaver's hilt, the blade pointed down at the saurial's chest. His own sigils were now answering the dark siren call of their masters, and Dragonbait thought his hearts would burst from the strain.
Through eye contact, he tried to plead with the swordswoman to fight, to strengthen her will. He wished desperately to add his own inner strength to hers and fight off the darkness. However, while his skill allowed him to see her spirit, he could not encourage it. Silently he cursed his inability to communicate with her.
Blue sparks arced between the sigils on his chest, and the runes on Alias's arm responded in kind. The Abomination had told her that she drew strength from him, but Dragonbait had not discovered how. Maybe, the saurial suddenly realized, he had denied the evil brands for too long. Perhaps they could yet be turned to good.
Deliberately, he channeled his will through the runes, trying to force the light to arc higher. The sparks showered upward like water in a fountain, their display mirrored on Alias's arm. Finally, sparks touched and interwove, bridging the gap between sacrificer and sacrifice.
Cassana's voice sounded far off as she shouted, "Seal the pact!" The darkness in Alias rose like bile, and the candle flame of her spirit faltered. Then, feeding at last on the saurial's