The Shattered Land_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [140]
“Never mind,” said Daine. “I think our new friends may have some useful ideas.”
The darkness had faded, and the carnage was revealed. Gerrion was the only firebinder still breathing, and while the oathbreakers were bleeding and covered in gore, all four were still standing. Shen’kar had drawn his spiked club and was making a point of studying the embedded stingers.
“How quickly does he die?” the drow asked.
“Wait!” Gerrion cried.
“We tried that, remember?” Daine said. “As I recall, the only reason to let you live was … oh, that’s right, a trick so you could escape.”
“I had no choice!” Gerrion said. Daine was mildly surprised to see tears gathering in the corners of the gray man’s eyes. “You don’t understand. You can’t understand. All my life, all I’ve ever wanted was to be accepted, to do something meaningful.”
“And leading us to our deaths was your only option?”
“It was the only way I could prove myself to them.” Gerrion slowly rose to his feet, keeping his arms apart and his hands open. Daine tensed, but then he saw Pierce on the other side of the path, longbow at the ready.
Pierce, if he even starts to move, drop him.
Understood.
Daine tried to gather his thoughts, to express what he was feeling for Lei and Pierce, but Gerrion was still speaking and this was not the time. … Welcome home, he thought at last. Lei’s smile was a beacon of joy, and that was all the answer he needed.
“… family!” Gerrion said, gesturing emphatically. “You of all people should understand what that means.”
Enough. “Shen’kar,” Daine said. “Make it slow.”
The drow leader clicked his tongue. Kulikoor twirled his chain and sent one end spinning toward Gerrion. The plan was simple: pull the traitor off his feet and strike him with the poisoned rod.
Gerrion had other ideas.
He had been gesturing repeatedly as he pleaded his case, and now he made one final gesture while snapping out a word Daine didn’t recognize. The painted flames on his leather gauntlet burst into brilliant life. Before Kulikoor’s chain even reached him, this mystical fire spread across his body. The radiance was blinding. In a split second, it had consumed him completely. Nothing was left, save for a charred outline on the path beneath his feet.
Daine charged forward, studying the pattern of ash on the ground. The image of the blazing figure was stilled burned into his vision. “Did he kill himself?” he said, taking a few idle swings at the air.
“No,” Pierce said. He seemed slightly distant, and Daine wondered what the warforged had been through over the last day. “Despite the fiery manifestation, this was a short-range teleportation effect bound to his glove. He is most likely within one mile of this location, and I suspect that the gauntlet is now drained of power.”
Daine glanced at Lei. She seemed as surprised as he was by Pierce’s sudden mastery of the arcane, but she shrugged. “I … I think that’s right.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe he managed to activate it without us noticing. I was looking right at him!”
“His mind is slippery,” Lakashtai said. “Even I did not sense the deception, and your thoughts were elsewhere.”
Daine wasn’t listening. His eyes met Lei’s, and the smell of blood, the sounds of the jungle, the memory of Gerrion, all of it faded away. In that moment, Lei was his world, and a moment later she was in his arms.
How charming.
The words jerked Daine out of his reverie. Traveling with Lakashtai, he’d become used to the thoughts of others in his mind, but this was not the voice of Lakashtai, Lei, or even Pierce.
It was Tashana.
Daine stiffened, and Lei looked up in surprise.
How adorable Lei is. I’ve already killed one of her lovers. Perhaps, when you’re mine, I’ll make you kill her yourself.
“GET OUT OF MY MIND!” Daine roared, pushing Lei away.
“Daine, what’s going on?” she said, her eyes full of fear.
Lakashtai was beside him, and she set her hand against Daine’s forehead, closing her eyes. Her skin was smooth and cool to the touch.
“Be strong,” she