Lisa Shearin - Raine Benares 02 (28 page)

The
goblin actually laughed. “I’m trying to save you. I can’t let you die yet.” His
lips curved into a slow grin. “But I can’t help you unless you let go.”

The
sound of steel-on-steel combat joined the screaming from backstage.

My
hands were starting to sweat—and slip. My breath came in shallow bursts. I’d
never realized how hard it was to breathe with your arms stretched over your
head.

“Back
. . . off,” I managed.

“Very
well.”

Muralin
abruptly let me go; I gasped and slipped some more.

The
goblin stood up; the tips of his boots were entirely too close to my fingers.
He looked down to the stage. “A drop of that distance is nothing for us, Raine.
The Saghred would save you. Just ask and I’ll tell you how to do it. It’s
simple—even an elf could understand it.”

“Back.
Off!”

Muralin
shrugged and walked a few steps down the catwalk, turned, and leaned against
the railing. He glanced down into the backstage area and smiled. “Nightshades,”
he noted. “Once again elves are doing my bidding without me even asking. You
and your people have been most accommodating.”

I
pulled myself up inch by inch. I thought my fingers were going to snap off
gripping the flat bars that made up the catwalk floor. It hurt like hell and I
ignored it. The only thing that motivated a Benares more than greed was
vengeance. I pulled myself up onto the catwalk, lay on my belly, and panted.
When I thought I had enough air to do it, I got to my feet.

And
stared.

Tam
was standing about ten feet behind Rudra Muralin. His face gave nothing away,
but his eyes promised murder.

To
Rudra Muralin.

Muralin
spoke without turning. “Your services are no longer required, Tamnais. I have
what I came for.”

Tam
didn’t budge. “I’m still protecting my investment.”

A
pair of armed goblins stepped onto the other end of the catwalk. They weren’t
in uniform, but they were big and wearing identical arrogant smirks. Had to be
Khrynsani temple guards. A trio of Tam’s bouncers came up the ladder to stand
behind their boss. I was trapped smack dab in the middle of everybody, with
straight down being my only way out.

Rudra
Muralin slowly half turned so he could see Tam. Unfortunately, he didn’t turn
his back on me. I swore. I had one dagger left and it had Muralin’s name all
over it—all dressed up and nowhere to go.

“Your
investment
is safe.” Muralin sneered the word like it was something he’d
scrape off the bottom of his boot.

“Is
it?” The tiniest smile creased Tam’s lips, but the gleam in his eyes was
chilling. “Are you quite certain?”

“You
dare
doubt my word?”

Tam
laughed, low and dark. “Doubting your word would imply that its validity once
existed.”

Point
for Tam. Painful death for me.

Tam
hadn’t looked at me, not once.

Muralin
stood utterly still, like sculpted marble. “You forget your place.”

“My
place is here. Yours is not.”

“I
have destroyed men for less than—”

A
crossbow bolt whizzed past my left ear, and I dove for the catwalk. Others
wisely followed suit.

A
volley of bolts followed, pinging and ricocheting off of the metal railing. One
punched through a rail and kept right on going, taking one of the temple guards
in the thigh. He screamed and fell over the edge, landing with a sickening thud
on the stage below.

Crap
in a bucket. Wooden bolts didn’t puncture metal. But steel did.

They
were shooting freaking armor-piercing steel bolts at us—and “us” included me.
The shooters were a pair of Guardians and four fancy-looking elves in someone’s
private guard livery. Finding out who didn’t take long. Carnades Silvanus
pushed his way through the panicked crowd toward the stage, roaring orders at
those fancy guards. I heard the word “kill” at least twice.

I
didn’t know if he meant me or the goblins, and I wasn’t sticking around to find
out. The second Khrynsani guard behind me was gone. Over the railing or down
the ladder, I didn’t care which exit he’d taken. My way out was wide-open.

Until
Rudra Muralin grabbed my ankle.

I
snarled, twisting from my stomach onto my back, and looked up into a blazing
nightmare.

The
goblin’s entire body was alight with power, red and glowing like a bloody sun.
I felt the power that was building in him and recognized it.

It
wasn’t a death curse.

It
was
really
going to hurt.

Muralin
tightened his grip on my ankle, his hand like a white-hot brand. I screamed in
pain, then in rage. I drew back my free leg and kicked him solidly in the knee.

He
laughed.

Not
the reaction I was going for.

“Soon,”
he promised me. Then he released me and vaulted effortlessly over the railing,
landing lightly on the stage.

Impressive.
Scary as hell, but impressive.

Two
of the elves turned their crossbows on him, and Muralin hissed a single
dismissive word, turning the bows to molten metal slag in their hands. The
elves’ agonized screams just added to the chaos. With another word, the goblin
extinguished the footlights, plunging the stage into near darkness. When they
came back up, Rudra Muralin was gone.

Tam
hauled me to my feet.

I
hauled off and punched him.

His
head snapped back. Not as much as I would have liked, but it was gratifying.

Tam
wiped his bloody lip with the back of his hand. “What the hell is wrong with
you?”

I
think my mouth fell open. “Everything!”

A
bolt fired from below barely missed us. Tam grabbed my hand and pulled me
toward the same ladder I’d come up. I dug in my heels.

“Raine,
please come with me.”

Tam
rarely said “please.” I wasn’t the only one who saved certain words for special
occasions. My word had four letters. Tam’s word was “please.” He’d said it to
me at the rehearsal to warn me to stay away from him. Now that same word was
asking me to trust him.

Regaining
my trust was going to take a lot more than one word, but it was a start. We had
to get off this catwalk.

By
now the Guardians must be halfway to the citadel with Piaras. And where the
hell was Phaelan?

When
I reached the bottom of the ladder, Tam took my arm and pulled me past the
dressing-room area and into the back of the theatre.

“Where
the hell are we going?” I muttered between clenched teeth.

I
caught a glimpse of Sedge Rinker and two of his watchers talking with
unfamiliar Guardians, and a dead Nightshade sprawled on the floor nearby, blood
pooling beneath his head.

“Do
not call out to them,” Tam warned and walked faster.

I let
out a bitter laugh. “I’m safer with you than them?”

“For
now, yes. Sanura Mal’Salin unwarded her mirror to admire herself, and the
Nightshades were waiting.” Tam’s voice was tight with barely contained rage.
“They took Talon, Valerian’s granddaughter, and Ronan Cayle.”

Dammit.
I pulled back against Tam’s grip.

“Nathrach!”
It was Sedge Rinker. The chief watcher had seen me and was after Tam.

Tam
hissed a curse in Goblin, tossed me over his shoulder, and ran.

The
back of the theatre was dark; Tam knew it like the back of his hand, and he was
a goblin. Rinker and his men were human. No night vision. There were plenty of
things to trip them up, and from the thumps and swearing, the watchers had found
them. But Rinker wasn’t chief watcher for nothing. He cleared his path and kept
coming.

All I
could see was Tam’s ass and the floor.

Tam
opened a door and closed it behind us, and went down a flight of stairs
entirely too fast for my comfort.

“Put
me—”

“Shhh!”

I
shushed, but I wasn’t going to stay shushed for long.

Tam
stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Above us, Sedge Rinker and his men ran by
and didn’t come back.

“Put.
Me. Down,” I said from behind clenched teeth.

Tam
didn’t put me down. He slid his hand under my gown and up my bare leg to my
thigh sheath. Finding that one empty, he went in search of the other one.

No
way in hell.

Tam
and I had wrestled before—once with intent soon after we’d met, and a couple of
other times since then for fun. He knew my moves. This probably wasn’t going to
end well, but I wasn’t giving up my last dagger without a fight.

I
clasped both of my hands together into one big fist and hit Tam in the back as
hard as I could. When he grunted in pain and surprise, I twisted. We both went
down, and I got to be on top this time.

A
single globe offered meager light, but it was enough for me to see that Tam
wasn’t fighting back.

He
held his hands up, palms out. “No weapons,” he whispered.

“Because
you didn’t get mine!” It was all I could do to keep my voice down.

“To
keep you from carving me up.”

I sat
back, still straddling him. “What the hell is going on?”

Tam
looked as tired as I felt, but he languidly moved his hips beneath me. “This is
the best thing to happen to me all week.”

I
gasped at the source of the contact and the delicious shock of sensation that
followed. Focus, Raine. I glared at him. “I repeat, what the hell?”

“I’m
touching you.”

“Yes,
I’m aware of that.” Parts of me were much more aware than others. “That doesn’t
answer what—”

I
realized what he meant; I shut up and didn’t dare move.

Tam
was touching me. I was touching Tam . . .

...
and the Saghred wasn’t touching either one of us.

But
it was there; I could feel it, hot and coiled, ready to strike at the slightest
provocation. I knew it’d be a good idea to get off of Tam, but I thought it’d
be a bad idea to move.

“How?”
I whispered.

“I
haven’t used a death curse lately?”

I
narrowed my eyes. “You mean no überevil black magic.”

“Don’t
act surprised.”

“How
am I supposed to act? You’re a dark mage.”

Tam
was incredulous. “I was the queen’s chief shaman. What did you think I was?”

“Shush!”
I heard, felt, or sensed something like a snake’s
angry hiss.

Tam
froze and didn’t even blink. He’d heard, felt, or sensed it, too.

Apparently
passion ignited it—that or strong emotion. Great. That’s all Tam and I had.
Ever since we’d met, either he was trying to seduce me, or I was arguing with
him.

I sat
quietly and waited. Tam closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly let it
out. When he opened those glorious midnight eyes, he had himself under control.
Possibly. Me straddling him while wearing a slinky, black velvet gown wasn’t
helping matters any.

The
pissed-off-firesnake sensation didn’t entirely go away, but it had lessened.
I’d take that for now.

“Raine,
what did you think I was?” Tam asked again, softer this time.

“I
don’t know.”

Tam
hadn’t talked much about his past; I hadn’t asked him to tell me. I thought we
had a fine arrangement.

My
family’s big on denial. And if we denied something long enough, we thought it’d
go away. I know that’s not how it works, but we’re in denial about that, too.

In my
mind’s eye, Tam’s dark-mage nature paced restlessly on the edge of the shadows,
eager and hungry. The Saghred was coiled like a fiery serpent near his feet,
tongue flicking, tasting the air, searching, wanting the black magic Tam held
in check.

So
long as Tam didn’t antagonize that snake, it wouldn’t bite me. Maybe.

I
didn’t feel like taking that chance. Time to leave.

Tam’s
hands tightened around my waist. “Wait.”

“I’m
helping you control yourself. You’re a fuse. I’m explosives. Remember?”

The
goblin’s lips curved into a slow, wicked grin. “Yeah, I do.”

I
just looked at him. “If the Saghred strikes a match, that
fuse
of yours
is going to get us both into trouble.”

“I
like playing with fire.” Tam’s hands explored my velvet bodice with a mind of
their own.

“I
know you do.” And after some heavy breathing in a dark alley, I did, too. “So
the farther I stay from you, the better.”

Tam
ran his hands down the length of my bodice from ribs to hips, like he was
memorizing the curves for later. “It would be the smart thing to do.” His
breathing had taken on a ragged edge.