Spellbreaker by Blake Charlton

Author:Blake Charlton
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781429949576
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Blood splattered across Thaddeus’s sheets and onto Leandra’s legs. Dhrun struck another punch across Thaddeus’s jaw, another spray of blood.

“That’s enough, Dhru,” Leandra said. “Sit him up.”

Dhrun hoisted Thaddeus up and kicked his legs over the edge of the bed. Her four arms became a blur as she released the double shoulder lock and twisted both of Thaddeus’s hands behind his back in a double arm lock. This forced Thaddeus to lean forward and cry out in pain. Dhrun looked to Leandra, who shook her head. Reluctantly, the goddess relaxed her grip. He stopped yelling and his face went slack.

Leandra pulled the chair over to him. During the fight, she had forgotten her fatigue and pain. Now they flooded back.

From the hallway came sound of wetly tearing flesh. Leandra looked up and saw that the hallway had dimmed into a net of red light that undulated across the walls. “Damn it, Kai,” Leandra swore and then shuddered. She had wanted to search the bodies. Again she heard the sound of serrated teeth tearing through flesh. He couldn’t resist feeding, not now. Nightmarishly, blood trickled across the floor.

With another shudder, Leandra turned back to Thaddeus. He stopped panting long enough to spit. None of his teeth had come out. Yet. “Thad,” she said. “Start talking.”

Dhrun tightened one of her arm locks. “Okay!” he yelled. “I’ll talk. I’ll talk!” When Dhrun relaxed, he panted a few more times and then raggedly said, “They came a few hours after you did. I didn’t hear them. I … I was working on the loveless spell. Then there was a flash. Next thing I was censored and bound. There was a man with a black beard, pale skin, and blue eyes. He made me tell him everything.”

Tears streamed down his face, blood from his nose. “Then he cast the death sentence on my heart. He told me that when you came back, I had to cast a stunning spell on you and that his men would take care of anyone else you brought with you.”

“Did he tell you why?”

Thaddeus shook his head and spat again.

“He was a wizard?”

“Yes, I saw him spellwright Magnus and Numinous.”

“He was from Astrophell, from the empire?”

“Could have been. But he could have been from Starfall.”

“Accent?”

“Nothing distinct.”

“Clothes?”

“A plain blouse and longvest. He looked like a merchant of the Cloud Culture.”

Leandra chewed on her lip. An hour ago she felt through her godspell a spike of confusion and surprise. That had come to pass. But afterward she had felt a great lifting of emotion. There was something here. She just had to find it.

“What else happened?”

Thaddeus shook his head. “Nothing. He said that they’d be watching me. I was to work on your spell like my life depended on getting it done. Then he punched me in the stomach and left.”

“So maybe that’s what you needed to become an adequate spellwright.”

“A deadline with grave repercussions?”

“A punch in the stomach.”

“Lea, believe me, I wasn’t going to cast the stunning spell on you.”

“Don’t, Thad.

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