Elisha Mancer by E.C. Ambrose

Author:E.C. Ambrose
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DAW
Published: 2017-01-05T17:16:52+00:00

Chapter 24

Breaking open the secrets he had sealed, Elisha spilled forth Death. He drew it out from every talisman, from the memory of dying, from the scar upon his scalp that marked his broken skull and the Valley of the Shadow that ever lingered. He allowed his heart to falter, calling up the memory of every patient beneath his hands whose operation had gone wrong, and he plunged his life into the frigid void of death. His scream broke off as if his startled flesh forgot he still commanded it.

Katherine’s voice rose up to take its place. She jerked and struggled under him, then rolled them both and rose to her knees, wailing, tears streaking her face.

“Come on, hurry!” snarled a deep voice.

The familiar voice of the flagellant priest called out, “Repent, you temptress! Repent and leave your weeping, for God has done His will through your weak flesh and the enemy lies dead.”

“Stop shouting,” replied another, coolly. “Wolfsbane won’t kill him right off. He’s just paralyzed. We’ve got a few minutes to reap him right.”

Elisha’s staring eyes dried in the salty air, and he cursed the urge to blink them—though the idea of blocking out Katherine’s horrified face was temptation in itself. Why were her horror and guilt so strong? She had known what to expect, but perhaps his execution of the scheme surprised her with its thoroughness. Even now, she seized and chafed his hand, magic entwining from her talisman in dark bands that flowed along her arm as she tried to reach him. Elisha did not respond.

“Hurry up, then, the priest’s beaters will grow anxious if they’re without him for long.”

Five. Five mancers against himself and Katherine—but his own performance left her stunned, in more ways than one. Let them get their hands upon him, they would know death. In his cold, Elisha readied himself.

The soldier leaned over them, grabbed Katherine and pulled her away. “Come on, woman. You’ve had yours—now he’s all for us.”

To the east, a rustle, a crack, then a cry that ended in a sickening thud. The Valley tore open, chaos howling from the gloom to suck down a soul. The ambush had begun.

“Holy Rood!” Shouts and screams and the tremor of feet in the salt beneath him.

A spatter of blood struck Elisha’s face. The instant chill carried the sharp tang of death, and Elisha rolled, pushing himself up.

Katherine shrieked again in a rush of confusion.

The mancer soldier scrambled away, reaching for his weapon. “He’s meant to be paralyzed, woman, scratch him again!”

“Who are these people?” cried one of the other mancers.

The flagellant priest reared back from Elisha, bringing up a whistle that hung at his collar, and the blast echoed through Elisha’s skull.

“Idiot!” cursed the soldier. “Why’d you call your acolytes?”

“We’ll need them,” the priest spat back, and already, his presence brightened with the clamorous approach of his followers, eager to give him their pain.

“Margravine! Watch yourself.”

Katherine flung herself close to the wall, isolated both from him and from any weapon.

Elisha leapt back as Daniel Stoyan stumbled through, swinging a bloody pickaxe.

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