The Warden

Chapter 56

Some pain was hot. Other types ran cold. Lady Kyla's particular persuasion was just annoying.

With four nightlings circling her, just waiting for an opening, pain became an overly indulgent luxury. It clogged her mind and made it impossible to wrangle her unruly lifelight. She had several cracked ribs, each one protesting with angry vigor at every move she made. Her left knee wouldn't bend properly and had already begun to swell, the blood beating against the skin in a blistering tempo. Despite all that, she kept her seax in constant motion inflicting what small damage she could to the nightlings now harassing her. The creatures never stilled long enough to do more. Her mindeye danced and reeled from the constant motion of her attackers popping in and out of corporeal existence. One instant their ugly scar pervaded her Sight and the next it blinked out, only to reappear again a second later in a new location, like a swarm of dark fireflies blinking in and out of view.

As much as she had berated the Domrae boy for his imperfections in combat, from her current state she fell far afield of that same mark. Only deity could hope to come close to what she expected.

Oh, Wilo and Werold help us now!

Seax slashing out, a slight tug of contact and a faint trickle of smoke kindled a faint glow of satisfaction in Kyla's chest.

The triumph was short lived.

A vicious blow took Kyla in the arm. Numbing tingles coursed from her elbow to her fingertips, as she gritted her teeth holding back a torrent of profanity. Paralyzed, hanging limply at her side, Kyla's arm refused to respond. Luckily, it wasn't her weapon wielding limb.

Another searing blow took her in the shoulder from behind. She lost her footing, stumbling to her hands and knees.

The pain clouded her senses, especially her hearing for some odd reason. Noise became muted and flat, as though cotton had been shoved into her ears.

So, this is how I end, she thought, closing her eyes.

Someone screamed but it sounded far distant, muffled and unimportant.

She breathed in. Her breath built within her lungs for a moment. It seeped back out her nose. Intuition tingled along her neck. The killing stroke descended.

The world erupted into light, blazing through her eyelids.

* * *

The Domrae pup lay at Charlan's feet. The voice in her head did not utter so much as a peep. The bombardment from the soldiers continued to decline as their numbers dwindled in shrieking falls.

This night was hers.

A quick motion off to one side drew her attention.

Kyla, in the midst of a handful of her wights, staggered, obviously struggling against the overwhelming odds. One knee had already taken damage evidenced by how she favored her other leg. Several ribs must have taken a blow or two by the way she hesitated, hiccupping ever so slightly, when needing to shift in a certain direction.

She doesn't have much longer. A slow, unfurling smile sharpened Charlan's features. I've won.

Stooping in front of Masis, she offered a few sentiments meant to smother every last lingering tendril of hope. Mindeye ignored, as the last syllable barely left her lips the world detonated with harsh, stinging brilliance.

* * *

Master Elwith gasped. Every particle in his body singed, as though set afire and immediately quenched in near freezing water. He only remained standing because his knees had locked in place.