The Shattered Land_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [13]
“I cannot allow my enemies to break you, but I lack the power to drive them from your mind. I can only hold them off, as I did moments ago, but I can offer you a quick and painless end.”
Lei prodded Lakashtai’s neck with her staff. “Your enemies? You’re responsible for this?”
“Lei …” Lakashtai looked up at the angry young woman. “Your fury is misplaced, and your weapons are unnecessary. Allow me to stand, so we may discuss this as equals; you know that I would do the same for you, were our positions reversed.”
That’s true, Daine thought. Lei was frowning slightly, but she raised her staff and took a step back. Pierce lowered his bow and returned the arrow to his quiver.
Lakashtai stood up and straightened her cloak. “Better.” She glanced at Lei. “My enemies are the enemies of all. I do not know what they want from Daine’s mind, but the fact that they seek it is all that I need to know. This sacrifice is a tragedy, but we must serve the greater good.”
Daine found himself nodding; strange as it was, it seemed to make sense. After all, who was he to stand in the way of the greater good?
“There has to be another way.”
Lei’s words pulled Daine out of his fog. What had he been thinking? He stared at Lakashtai suspiciously, but she showed no signs of guilt.
“I don’t know what’s going on here, but you said that you held it off—that you saved his life. If you could do it once, why can’t you do it again?”
“I shielded our spirits from the attack, and were I to remain by Daine’s side, I could continue to hold it at bay, but I cannot remain with him forever; I have my own duties to attend to. There is no power that can drive the darkness from his mind. There are only two options: swift death or an inexorable descent into insanity.”
“Well, at least I’ve got options,” Daine said.
“I don’t accept that!” Lei’s knuckles were white against the dark wood of her staff. “I don’t know you, and I’ll be damned to Dolurrh before you touch my friend. If I learned one thing as a child, it’s that there are always solutions—you just have to find them.”
“I take no pleasure in this, Lei—”
“You don’t know me.”
Lakashtai met Lei’s gaze, and this time it was the kalashtar who looked away. “You don’t understand what you are dealing with. This is the source of every nightmare. Its power is beyond comprehension, and no—” She broke off abruptly, her brow furrowed in concentration.
“What?” Daine and Lei said together. Pierce watched silently.
“Yes …” she said, as if speaking to herself. “I had forgotten … but it might be possible.”
Daine could see that Lei was preparing for another blow with her staff, and he put a hand on her shoulder. “Many things are possible,” he said. “Can you be more specific?”
Lakashtai glanced back at him, and the intensity of her gaze sent a shiver down his spine. “I have booked passage to Stormreach. I am leaving in a few hours. You will travel with me.”
“Oh, I think not,” Lei said.
Daine tightened his grip on her shoulder. “Lei—”
“No. Stormreach? That’s Xen’drik, Daine. Across the Thunder Sea? Barren wastes filled with savage giants and creatures we’ve never even dreamt of?” Lei shrugged off his restraining hand and took a step toward the kalashtar woman. “First you try to kill him, and now you want him to take a little trip to Xen’drik? If you think I’m letting Daine out of my sight, you’re insane.”
Lakashtai shrugged, a surprisingly human gesture. Her voice had regained its cool composure. “Then join us. I never wanted him dead, Lei. I simply saw no alternative.”
“And now?”
“A slim chance, to be certain, but if there is hope, it lies in the shattered land.”
“You just happen to be going there. Why is that?”
“A fortunate coincidence, and one I have no time to explain.” Lakashtai took a step toward Daine, and Pierce and Lei leveled their weapons; she glanced at them with the faintest trace of exasperation in her luminous eyes. “Daine, nothing in this land can save you. I know not why the darkness seeks your memories, but I must oppose them. Xen’drik is your only chance, and at the