James Wyatt - In the Claws of the Tiger

“What?” Janik said.

“Aren’t you going to kill me?” the vampire said, his voice growing stronger. “I assume you still loathe me, after all our history, and I did just kill your dearest friend.”

“So you did,” Janik said, his gaze falling on Dania again. “I find I’ve lost my taste for revenge. Just go, Krael.”

Krael walked slowly to the door. He peered intently at Auftane as he walked past, and kneeled briefly beside Mathas.

“Leave him alone, Krael!” Janik called. “Leave before I change my mind.”

Krael stood and stepped into the doorway, then turned back. “They’re still alive, you know. They need some attention.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

“Janik … I’m sorry it had to end like this. Dania was a worthy adversary, a woman of spirit and purpose and conviction. I’m … I’m sorry she had to die.”

Here comes the pain, Janik thought, and he bowed his head so that Krael wouldn’t see the sudden rush of tears.

When he looked up, Krael was gone.

It took all his strength to get to his feet. He knelt beside Maija first, fearing the worst despite Krael’s words, and gently rolled her onto her back.

She looked like she was sleeping-she even made the quiet whimper she used to make when Janik would extricate himself from her arms early in the morning, trying not to wake her. He felt her pulse-strong, slow, and even-and then hesitantly brushed the back of his hand down her cheek. He wanted to stay there, to watch her until she woke up, to be the first thing she saw. But Auftane groaned and twitched, so Janik hurried over to check on the dwarf.

Auftane was a mess. His forehead and nose were scraped from his encounter with the floor, and a trickle of drying blood ran from his mouth into his beard. His once-shining breastplate was caved in on one side, and Janik set to work on getting it off so the dwarf could breathe. As he did so, Auftane’s eyes fluttered open briefly and one corner of his mouth twisted into a half smile.

“Janik,” he whispered. “Did we win?”

Janik returned Auftane’s smile, but found that he didn’t know how to answer. “Are you going to make it, Auftane?” he asked instead.

“Dolurrh can’t have me yet,” the dwarf said. “Too much to get done.”

“Glad to hear it.” Janik took off his coat, rolled it into a bundle, and tucked it under Auftane’s head. “Rest a bit. I need to check on Mathas.”

The old elf lay so still and looked so frail that Janik could hardly believe he was still alive.

“Oh, Mathas,” Janik muttered as he started tending to his friend, “I’m sorry for this. Please, pull through for me, and I swear I’ll never drag you along to Xen’drik with me again.”

Mathas’s eyes did not open, but his mouth moved. His words were a hoarse murmur Janik couldn’t understand.

“What did you say, Mathas?”

“Then I’ll have to go without you,” the elf repeated, only slightly louder.

Janik laughed long and loud as a fresh wave of tears spilled from his eyes.

Auftane worked himself upright, sitting on the floor and looking for the wand he had lost when he fell. Janik spotted it and handed it to the dwarf, who coaxed enough power from it to heal even the scrapes on his face. Looking worlds better, Auftane stood and walked over to crouch beside Mathas.

Mathas’s eyes flickered open at last as the first wave of magic from the wand poured into him.

“That’s better,” he said, and he smiled as the dwarf continued to tend to him. “Janik, what happened? Where’s Dania? And what happened to Maija?”

Janik didn’t answer, but turned around to face the two bodies on the floor-Dania lifeless, Maija still lost in sleep. I wonder what she’s dreaming, he thought as he watched Maija’s face twitch, her brow crinkling slightly. Let her sleep, he reminded himself.

He heard Mathas draw in a sharp breath behind him, and looked over his shoulder. The elf’s eyes were wide, a look of horror on his face.

“Are they both …?” Mathas said, his voice trailing off.

“I think Maija will be all right,” Janik said quietly. “She doesn’t seem badly wounded-I think she’s just asleep.”

“And the fiend has left her?”

“Yes. Dania cast it out.”

“What happened to Dania?” Auftane said, following Mathas’s gaze.

Janik walked over and dropped to his knees beside Dania’s body. He had been dreading it, but he had to do it-to look at her face once more. He had to say goodbye.

Slowly and gently, he rolled her onto her back. The front of her armor was tacky with drying blood. Her helmet was twisted around to cover part of her face, so he took it off, then brushed her red hair from her face. He was only dimly aware of Auftane and Mathas coming to stand behind him. Mathas’s whispered prayers to the Sovereign Host were a comforting drone in the back of Janik’s mind.

Her eyes were still open, staring blankly past him. He reached out and closed them. Auftane handed him Dania’s sword and he took it, feeling the holy power within it but loathing it at the same time. He turned it over in his hands and noticed for the first time an inscription in the blade, carved in small, flowing script: By my life, my honor, and whatever is holy .

“Your oath is fulfilled, Dania,” he said quietly. “Rest easy.” He laid the sword on top of her body, folding her hands over its hilt on her chest.

“Janik, what happened?” Mathas asked quietly, putting his hand on Janik’s shoulder.

Kneeling beside Dania, he told them. “Do you remember, Mathas, on the boat on our way here, when Dania punched me? She was talking about sacrifice, making sacrifices in order to fight the evil in the world?”

“I remember,” Mathas said.

“I think she knew, even then, that something like this was going to happen. Do you remember the last thing she said that night? ‘You will understand, before this is over.’ She knew.”

He sighed, rubbing his temples with his fingertips.

“In the pinnacle, when Dania was surrounded by the fire, she allowed a couatl, like the one we saw flying-maybe the same one, I don’t know, or maybe the ancient one that binds Dhavibashta here-anyway, I think she let a couatl possess her, just like Maija was possessed.” His eyes fell on the torc around her neck. “Except that she was still mostly in control. But the couatl gave her power, and she used that power to force the Fleshrender out of Maija’s body.”

His eyes were glued to the silver torc, but he no longer saw it. The scene replayed itself in his memory, every detail etched there like a scar. The shadow emerging from Maija and entering Dania. …

“The Fleshrender left Maija just like that”-he gestured vaguely toward Maija’s body-“and entered Dania’s body instead. I don’t know, maybe Dania forced the fiend into her body, but I think she just used herself as bait. Once it possessed her, she was able-or, I guess, the couatl in her was able to bind it to her just like the couatl binds Dhavibashta in the earth beneath our feet. Just as our own spirits are bound to our bodies. The Fleshrender’s life was bound to Dania’s life.”

Janik fell silent for several moments.

“I couldn’t do it, Mathas,” he said at last. “I couldn’t fulfill her oath for her, I couldn’t help her. I couldn’t kill her.”

“Of course you couldn’t,” Mathas said. “Of course you couldn’t.”

Janik took a steadying breath and went on. “Krael reappeared,” he said, “and picked up Dania’s sword. He did it. Krael killed her and destroyed the Fleshrender.”

Janik fell again into silence, and his friends were lost in their own reflections on what had happened. Suddenly, Maija gasped loudly and sat upright, a look of terror on her face as she stared wildly around the room.