The Gates of Night_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [3]
Vial? This meant nothing to Pierce. “What are you talking about?”
He knows, Harmattan said, looking at Daine. A vial filled with blue liquid, glowing slightly, with a familiar seal stamped on the top. His cloak spread out around him, and at this distance it was easy to see it clearly—a rippling plane of metal shards. One thought, and this mass of razors would tear through them. I have no desire to damage it, and I would rather let my brother live. But you will all die if we battle. Give me the vial, little fleshling, and I may even spare you and sister Lei.
“Daine?” None of this made sense. But Pierce knew his captain. Daine was deep in thought. Clearly he knew what Harmattan was talking about.
Daine reached into his pouch and produced a tiny bottle—a sliver of crystal, pulsing with blue light. “Is this it?”
Yes.
“You came all the way to Xen’drik, you cut off Lei’s finger, for this?”
Yes. Surrender it.
“No,” Daine said, wrenching the stopper from the vial.
Harmattan hissed, and Indigo leaped forward in a blur of dark steel. Pierce was already in motion. A human might have been holding his breath or praying for a peaceful resolution, but Pierce had neither breath nor faith. While Daine was considering Harmattan’s offer, Pierce was calculating Indigo’s likely path of attack. He rammed into her, and she staggered back.
Indigo’s gaze remained on Daine. “No! You must not!”
Pierce followed her gaze. Daine raised the vial and drank the liquid. Pierce leaped out of the path of Indigo’s counterattack, half his attention still on Daine.
Daine collapsed.
NO! Harmattan’s voice filled the chamber, a howl as terrible as any storm. This cannot be!
Pierce took a step back and stood over Daine. He could not defeat Harmattan. He knew that. But if he were to die, he would die with his captain.
This was DESTINED! Harmattan roared. His cloak dissolved into a whirling sheath of steel, a storm reflecting his inner fury. This place. The vial. All has come to pass!
“If our destiny is to leave with the liquid,” Indigo said, her soft voice almost lost beneath Harmattan’s rage, “then let us reclaim it from his body.”
“No.” Pierce held his ground, and Shira’s thoughts converged with his own—
Harmattan is at a disadvantage here. He cannot unleash his full power without inflicting grievous injuries. If they seek to harvest Daine’s bodily fluids, they will need to act with precision. And he has been reluctant to kill you.
It was the only weapon that might prove effective against Harmattan.
“Brother,” he said, “this battle is over. Whatever that liquid was, it is lost to you. I will not allow you to perform this ghoul’s work. If you continue down this path, you will have to destroy me.”
Harmattan said nothing. The storm of steel surrounding him slowed, drifting back into the shape of the billowing cloak. When he spoke again his voice was calm.
If that is what it takes.
Indigo lunged at Pierce.
It wasn’t a battle but a dream. Pierce had spent hours contemplating her fighting style, considering her strengths and weaknesses, the tactics he’d seen her use. He knew exactly what she would do, and he was prepared for her.
But she was equally prepared for Pierce.
It was like fighting the wind. He tried to trip her, but she jumped over the blow. He had the advantage of reach, and he mirrored her motion. Blows that could split steel missed him by less than an inch. It was a deadly dance, yet Pierce had never felt so calm, so perfectly at peace. He didn’t need to think. He knew what to do.
He knew that Indigo felt the same way. In the first blows of the battle, anger had driven her. She’d struck with less care. Perhaps, if he’d been more ruthless, Pierce could have brought her down in those first moments. But now she was as calm as he. The battle became a tapestry of motion and strategy, and just being part of it … it was what they were made for. Pierce could continue for days,