WindLegends Saga 9: WindRetriever (57 page)

Sybelle shook off the hands which held her as the boulder crashed past them and rolled away into the brush. She snatched her long skirt aside and stood, feet apart, crossbow aimed, and let the quarrel fly.

He saw it coming, knew she was wide of her mark and laughed. His trained eye told him the trajectory was off even as the quarrel shot toward him. But at the last moment, an errant gust of wind, just as Chaim had feared, swept under the quarrel and lifted it, correcting the trajectory and the deadly shaft changed course.

"Shit!" Conar had time to say before he scrambled out of the way. The quarrel hit the rock where his chest had been only seconds before, split in two and fell to the ledge at his feet. But the momentum that had taken him out of harm's way, brought his arms cartwheeling and his booted foot slipped on the wet rock and skidded off.

"Conar!" Sybelle screamed, seeing him tumbling backwards off the ledge. "No!”

Chaim's breath caught in his throat. Kanan's mouth dropped open and he reached out to grab his cousin's robe. Both men were unaware that they groaned. Neither heard their lady's wild shriek of denial as the Serenian dropped over the ledge.

He would never know how he did. There would never be a day in his life that he cared to remember that night on the ledge. His heart had lurched to his throat as he began to fall and he had caught just a glimpse of the jagged death looming up at him from the rocks below as he fell away from the ledge and began to plummet to the craggy floor. A brief flash of the treacherous rocks at Boreas Keep flitted through his mind and he bellowed in fear and anger that it was to end like this.

Perhaps it was that anger or just the monumental terror that struck out at him as the lightning jagged past him to strike off the mountain. Or it might just have been another stray, helpful wind reaching out to change the course of its master's life. Whatever had caused it, brought his fingertips in contact with the rocky lip of the ledge, his wedding band catching on a sliver of rock to steady him, and he clung to the ledge, his legs swinging under the base as though he were a child at play on a tree limb.

"Blessed Mosen, please!" Sybelle whispered, seeing her husband dangling beneath the ledge, swaying back and forth beneath the thrust of the rocky promontory.

Conar dug his fingers into a fissure in the rock, feeling his nails breaking, vaguely feeling the pain, registering it, disregarding it, for he had more important things on his mind at that moment. As the wind lashed at him, swinging him, he could feel his heart thudding so hard in his chest he thought it would burst.

"Help him!" Sybelle ordered her men, but she knew there was nothing either of them could do to aid her husband. She looked on in horror as he tried to bring his right leg up to gain purchase on the rock beside him. His foot skidded down the slippery rock and he lost the grip of one hand as he dangled.

"By the Prophetess," Kanan whispered. He could not imagine that the man hanging above them had the strength to pull himself back up on the ledge.

Sybelle sank to the wet ground, her hands over her mouth, tears creeping down her cheeks to mix with the rain already there. She dared not breathe as she watched Conar straining to re-attach his grasping hand with the ledge's lip. As he did, she stifled a whimper of fear for as soon as he had a good enough grip, he swung himself closer to the mountain's face, edging his hands over, Charlotte Boyett-Compo WINDRETRIEVER 254

inch by inch, until he could put his foot in a crevice.

"Are you up there?" Conar grunted to the god who'd somehow always managed to get him out of scrapes like the one he found himself in at that moment. "Do you still care anything about me?" He was losing his grip, could feel his fingers slipping out of the crack. "If you do, then how about just letting me get back up on that damned ledge?"

A keening sound blared through the mountains and the lightning seemed to come as one solid sheet of blinding light as it zipped down from the firmament. Loud, deafening crackles of sound shook the mountains and the air smelled heavily of ozone as the thunder rolled. To the East, the sky was lightening, a faint green glow hovering just at the horizon. No one had time to see it or make note of it for three sets of eyes were glued on Conar McGregor and Conar was too busy trying to keep from falling to his death.

"How about it?" Conar asked his unseen protector. "Just a little nudge. What do you say?"

He could feel the wedding band cutting into the flesh of his finger and blood was oozing down his palm.

Sybelle caught a shriek of terror from exploding from her as Conar once more lost the grip of one hand on the rock and swung sideways, slamming back against the rock face. She heard Chaim begin to pray, Kanan to join in, as the Serenian managed to dig his wildly flailing right hand into the rock behind him.

He was hanging there: one hand on the ledge, his hand caught by the wedding band, one hand gripping the rock to his right, his feet dangling uselessly. He tried to jam his boot heels into any crack he could find in the mountain's side, but there was none there.

Sybelle heard the sound coming at them only a fraction of a second before she got a whiff of the horrid odor accompanying it. She turned, her expression only faintly concerned and the blast of the putrid smell blew over her, watering her eyes, making her squint as her hair blew straight out behind her from the force of the wind. She staggered, gagging at the stench that washed over her.

"What is it?" she heard Kanan gasping as he, too, staggered back from the brunt of the wind's gale-like force.

Conar felt his strength waning. There was no way he could hold on like this indefinitely.

His arms were stretched to their limits, his hands were beginning to cramp from their desperate grip, and he was having trouble catching his breath as he dangled there, his lungs constricting from the pressure. The rain was lashing at him, driving unmercifully into his unprotected face and he had squeezed his eyelids shut to keep out the stinging intrusion.

He did not see the fierce green glow which had crept up out of the storm and was spreading toward the mountain.

He did not see the spiraling red shapes darting among the sickening hue of the glow.

Sybelle Bath-Alkazar was flung back against the mountain, plastered there by the force of the wind. She put up a arm to protect her face from the flying debris being hurled at her and gagged again at the intensity of the horrible odor permeating the air. Her arms were alive with goosebumps, the hair moving as though it were a life form all its own. She tasted the metallic wash of iron in her mouth and knew instantly that whatever was heading their way was more evil than anything she had ever known before.

Chaim stumbled forward, trying to reach his mistress as the eerie green glow bore down on them. He could see writhing images in the billowing haze and his fear had risen to unstoppable proportions.

"We must get inside the cave!" he yelled at his lady, reaching out to her as he fought the wind to reach her side.

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"Conar!" Sybelle screamed, somehow understanding that the force gathering above them, hurrying their way, was after him.

He drew in a breath, preparing to let go of the rock on his right and attempt to swing toward the ledge again. As soon as he did, he gagged, his mouth flooding with the taste of the stench saturating the air. His eyes flew open and grew wide, bulging from their sockets as he saw the hellish essence spreading toward him.

"No," he breathed, seeing the darker blob forming in the midst of the haze. He could just make out the long, eel-like neck, the gaping maw beginning to form at its end. "Oh, god, no!"

The smell was the worst thing Chaim had ever come into contact with in his entire life and he was near to the point of throwing up when he reached his mistress. He gathered her to him, dragging her toward the cave's entrance beside them, ignoring her hands as she tried to free herself from his grasp.

"No!" she shrieked. "I have to help him. I have to help Conar! That is a demon! I must help my husband!"

The wind was so loud it blotted out everything but the terrified thump of his heart in his chest as Conar hung helplessly on the mountain, unable to protect himself from the demon slithering his way. He drew in deep lung-fulls of tainted, sickening air, tasting the vile odor in his mouth, becoming sick with it. There was nothing he could do. Nowhere to turn. No one to help him as the creature bore down on him, Its evil mouth stretched wide in a grin of anticipation.

"At last, McGregor! At last!"
the demon sneered.

Sybelle broke free of Chaim's hold and rushed back onto the path, fighting the wind every step of the way. She threw up her hands, invoking the pantheon of her sect, calling names she had almost forgotten in an effort to stop the horrendous evil that was advancing on her husband.

"Mosen, please! Sirene! Jhaman! Bath-Kree! Help him! Help my beloved!"

The creature's fiery red gaze swept over her as It loomed overhead. Sizzling drool dripped down around her, striking her gown, singeing it, falling on her boots to sear the leather. It's long, scaly neck waved about in the hurricane wind whipping around her, then It's triangular head suddenly dipped until it was directly over the place where she stood.

"I
am raphian
!" It howled at her and she had to put her hands over her ears to keep from being deafened.

"Get away from him, Sybelle!" Conar yelled. "Run!!"

Sybelle swung her head toward him, pleading, staring at him with abject horror. "Hurry, milord!" she begged him. "You must come down! Now!"

Conar no longer had the will to try to get back on the ledge. What good would it do him?

Sybelle could not fight the Domination's Prime Evil, its Destroyer of Souls, Bringer of Storms.

There was no way he could without his powers. He was as helpless as he dangled there as he had been the first time, at Norus Keep, when he had encountered this monstrosity from the depths of the Abyss.

"Conar, Come down!" Sybelle pleaded with him.

"It's too late," he whispered.

Seeing that her husband could not move, or would not, the Kensetti princess turned her fury on the raging demon. "What do you want?" Sybelle yelled at the immense being hovering above her.

Raphian's great maw opened to reveal row upon row of lethal, razor-sharp teeth. Its long split tongue shot out and a loud, piercing slurping sound shook the mountains.

"What is rightfully mine
!
"
the demon laughed and It threw back Its head, arching the long, Charlotte Boyett-Compo WINDRETRIEVER 256

scaly neck. The smell of Its loathsome body grew in volume until Chaim and Kanan were bending over, retching. It spat a mawfull of venom at Sybelle, chortling wickedly as she stumbled back away from the sizzling spit.

"
Get away from It, Sybelle
!" Conar yelled at her, not sure if she could hear him above the roar of the wind.

Sybelle had heard and she tore her horrified stare from Raphian to Conar. "What does it want?"

Conar cringed as the demon swung Its leering gaze to him. He could see the infinite savagery burning in the viper-slit eyes of the creature. He understood the promise in that vile stare.

It unnerved him and made his groin tighten painfully.

"Tell her what I want, McGregor!"
Raphian crooned to him.
"What I will, at long last,
obtain."

A shiver of pure dread shot through Conar's soul. He glanced down at Sybelle, saw her horrified face, felt her fear, knew her helplessness, recognized finally the great love she bore him as she held up beseeching hands to the monster intent on finally destroying him. He shook his head.

"He wants me," he told her.

"No!" Sybelle screamed. "Fight him, Conar! Don't let him near you!"

"It's no use," he said, although no one but the demon heard him. "It's no use."

"You are mine, McGregor,"
Raphian chuckled.
"As you always have been mine!"

He made a decision as the beast laughed at him. Never again could he be at the mercy of this fiend. Never again would he allow himself to know the depravity of which the Domination was a part. Someone, some traitor, had brought this evil to him. Had helped Raphian to find him.

Had been used by the Brotherhood to help finally destroy him. He could not fight so many unseen enemies and hope to win. No, he thought bitterly. Never, never again.

He took one last at Sybelle, smiled, and then turned to Raphian. "I'll see
You
in hell, Raphian!" he bellowed.

One moment Sybelle was staring up at the man she loved and the next he was gone. She screamed as she saw him falling, plunging downward, his body beginning to turn sideways as he plummeted.

Kanan's ear drums burst as the demon began to howl with fury. The sound made the ground tremble, open up into a long, plunging fissure. Rocks crashed down from the mountain and dropped into the gaping hole. In his pain, he was barely aware of Chaim rushing forward, sweeping their lady out of the way of a heavy rock as it fell, pulling her back from the widening cavity which was sucking everything it could into its maw. He, himself, scrambled back, away from the place where only moments before he had been standing, staring at the massive gap which rock had once paved.

"Conar!" Sybelle shrieked, clawing at Chaim's restraining arm, striving to get to the place she had seen his body fall. But the rocks were still dropping, mounding at the base of the mountain, layering themselves one upon the other as though a giant hand were building a monument to the fallen warrior.

"Milady, no!" Chaim shouted at her, dragging her back from the mound.

Raphian shrieked with insane frustration then vanished, taking the loathsome stench and the violent wind with Him almost as fast as the blink of an eye. The demon was sucked back up into the billowing green glow with its squiggles of red lightning jagging through it and the air returned immediately to a cool, dry desert climate.