Strange Attractors - Kim Falconer [188]
That wasn’t me! After them! Get the spell!
Rosette and Teg bolted. Drayco led them straight for Nell who raced towards the cliff steps, the raven just above her. As Rosette gained on her, the icy hand in her stomach gripped again. The woman she ran after shimmered, a glamour falling. Her stride changed, her form ever so slightly altered. She saw how she’d been tricked but why had Drayco not sniffed it out? Teg! Call the Lupins to her. We can’t let her get to the portal! We can’t let her take the spell!
Between lightning flashes she could see nothing but the gathering Lupins. A rush of air went past and she smelled horse sweat. A Lupin yowled and dropped to the ground. When the lightning flashed again she saw the girl with the spell was climbing the steps, already halfway to the portal. Rosette stopped at the base of the ruined stairs, lifting her sword behind a young Corsanon staring at Teg, transfixed. He looked hardly more than a boy. She hesitated, unwilling to strike. The light disappeared and she and Teg faced each other.
The next moment Teg was down, blood spraying from his shoulder. When the lightning came again she saw a different Corsanon warrior standing over him, ready to swing and finish him off. She leapt, morphing midair, her jaws going for the enemy’s throat. The darkness returned and he disappeared but she clamped tight, the weight of her wolf body smacking the man to the ground. She shook her head, breaking his neck. When the light returned, the boy ran.
Teg, Drayco, get behind me. Temple witches come!
Teg didn’t move. She glimpsed him out of the corner of her eye. He was down on his belly, panting, the rain washing blood from his shoulder. It mixed with the mud and coursed past her boots. She backed towards him, Drayco with her, his tail lashing, his ears flat. Half a dozen Corsanon High Priestesses had them trapped, their fingers pointing towards Drayco. His hackles were knife points, his lips drawn back over fangs, claws out, ready.
Rosette drew in the Elementals, building up a banishing. Before she could unleash it, Drayco dropped, his legs knocked out from under him. Rosette cut loose the spell to save him. Too soon. It ripped through the witches like a spinning top but it didn’t have enough force behind it to knock them back more than a few feet. Lupins attacked from outside the ring and Corsanons poured in, surrounding them as well.
Kreshkali!
She didn’t answer.
Rosette crouched to touch Drayco’s chest. He was still breathing, but the temple priestesses pressed forward. She sprang at the nearest. It was too close for sword work. She morphed into a falcon, talons forward, slicing. She raked across the faces of the first two priestesses before dropping to the ground, springing back up in wolf form. She cut to the left, tearing off the shoulder and arm of the nearest warrior, and slamming to a halt. The priestesses were making way for a flood of troops, swords drawn. She morphed again, the momentum between shape-shifts so fast, for an instant her wolf form kept going as she twisted in her skin, launching in the opposite direction as a falcon, tearing at the warriors. Her talons locked onto the back of a Corsanon’s head, catching the front of his throat. She closed tight and his sword dropped from his hand, his body following. She morphed again into wolf, the wings of the falcon barely vanishing before she hit all fours.
Bones cracked in her jaws, hot blood filled her mouth. She dropped the next body and tore back to Teg, morphing into human as she reached him. She crouched, drew Teg’s sword and sprang. The thin curved blade came alive in her hand and she waited for the next lightning flash.
A wall of Corsanons charged. She held the blade in both hands, guard position, drawing up a boost of power from her solar plexus. The energy burst from the tip of the sword as she lunged, dropping to her knee. She cut through the enemy, her blade a foot above the ground, slicing shin and bone in a wide arc. She let the momentum of the swing pull her upright, wet cartilage flying