The Born Queen - J. Gregory Keyes [97]
Congratulations, the shadow told him, and opened vast, obfuscate wings. Stephen felt the tickle of command begin. I can use one like you.
Stephen didn’t hesitate, and that fact in itself was a beautiful thing, almost erotic in its intensity. He flung his will at the Vhelny, drawing from the infinite flood beneath the world.
What met him was raw force of a kind he had never sensed before, and he suddenly felt as if he were wrestling with something of constantly changing form, like the alv-queen’s lover in the old tale.
But this was terribly real. He felt suddenly pushed back, surrounded, and it was more and more difficult to keep his focus on the demon, to match his power against it. This was not the power of the sedos; this was ancient night come to life, something that had existed long before the world itself or any of its petty powers.
No. I don’t know what it is, but it can be beaten. Take—
A surge of fresh energy filled Stephen’s limbs, and he suddenly understood.
Whatever this was sat the Xhes throne. There had been another, years before, who had sat that, a Sefry warlock, and he had been bound, and now he knew how to do it.
He stopped fighting the Vhelny’s energies, let them enter him, take hold of his heart and will. And when the demon had committed itself, was in him, he grabbed those energies like the leash of a dog and twisted them, made them his, laid stricture after stricture until the chaos in the monster was hemmed by order and his command.
No, the Vhelny whispered.
“Yes. And thank you for your congratulations, and to paraphrase, I’m sure you will be of use to me.”
I will be free. I will grind everything in you.
“I don’t think so. Now, what say you fly me back into the mountain and we find my companions.”
You will pay.
But something wrapped around him, and in a moment they were soaring though the air, and he laughed in sheer delight.
He couldn’t wait to see Zemlé. And Winna. And Aspar. And Queen Anne, especially Queen Anne. The best part was how surprised they would be. He loved it when people were surprised, when they finally got the joke.
Of course he did. That was why they called him the Black Jester.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
RETREAT
ANNE COULDN’T FEEL the reins anymore. The breeze seemed to spin her around, and then the ground reached for her.
She still could see, but nothing she saw made much sense. Horses’ legs were everywhere, and men were reaching for her, and then it was all just noise and color, and finally she was elsewhere, lying in a meadow by a mere. She lifted her hand and saw that there was no shadow. Her side hurt, and when she reached to feel it, there was a stick there. She pushed at it, and agony erupted along her ribs. Her hand felt wet and sticky, and when she looked at it, it was red.
“Shot,” she managed. There had been a lot of arrows; she remembered that. And then the horses coming together, a shock like a giant ocean wave that threw everyone around her down until she drew, drew down from the sickle moon hanging pale as a cloud in the sky, and struck through them. She remembered seeing their eyes explode in gouts of steam, and the screams…
I did that?
“You did it,” her arilac confirmed, rising up from the earth. “Even Genya Dare would have been impressed by that.”
“Did we win?”
“You broke their charge and killed half of them before you got shot. Beyond that, I don’t know.”
“I am shot.”
“Yes.”
“Am I dying?”
“I don’t know, but you shouldn’t stay here in this condition. If he should come, you won’t be able to fight him.”
“I don’t—” Black spots were dancing before her eyes.
“I’ll help you,” the arilac said, and smoothed her forehead with one burning hand.
A hoof thudded in the earth next to her head, and someone shouted her name. She tried to sit up and gasped.
“She’s here!” a man shouted. “Saints know how. We were looking there—”
“She’s shot.” A face appeared above her.
“Hello, Cape Chavel,” she said.
“You can hear me?”
“Yes.”
“I have to get you up. Do you understand? I can’t leave you here; we’re