Sharon Shinn - Reader And Raelynx

Cammon’s attention was almost wholly on Senneth. She was on her feet but shaky, Tayse’s hand under her elbow. How could Justin think of anything else? “Uh-I don’t know. I can try-but I don’t know if I can give them directions here-”

“I’ll go fetch some,” Donnal offered. He was almost instantly a bird shape again, and just as quickly in the air.

“Step away from me,” Cammon heard Senneth warn Tayse. The Rider backed off a few paces, and Senneth moved forward. Cammon could sense her focus and her determination; so much heat rose off her body it warmed him from a couple yards away.

She tilted her head back and flung her arms in the air, and for a moment stood as though frozen by shock or magic. Cammon could feel the energy build inside her; his skin prickled with the charge. Then she flexed her fingers, and power poured from her in one long, continuous, undulating river of light.

Again, cries went up from both camps, but nothing broke the concentration of the two combatants. Again, Senneth’s assault reached Coralinda, bathed her in bright color, and left her unharmed. Indeed, the Lestra seemed suffused with Senneth’s light, engorged with it; her black hair sparkled and her skin seemed to glow. Her own arms lifted languidly, and almost as if she was batting away a troublesome insect, she pushed Senneth’s power aside. Pushed it back. Seemed to alchemize it into something darker, more sinister, laced with poisonous glitter, and redirected it toward its source.

Cammon saw that black stream of energy forcing its way against the ongoing current of Senneth’s attack. Senneth saw it, too, for he felt her redouble her efforts, brighten her own magic, pour even more of her power into the attack. At the halfway point between them, Coralinda’s shadowy river was halted, shoved back in her direction, and finally forced to disperse into the sunny air.

But only briefly. Cammon saw the gleaming blackness coalesce, gain force, gain substance, and slowly inch its way forward along that pathway of light, straight for Senneth.

He couldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe. Around him, he felt everyone straining forward, terrified and bewildered, and he realized that none of them-with the possible exception of Amalie-could view the battle as he did. Perhaps they saw streaks of light and darkness; perhaps not even that, just two women, widely separated, waving their hands and waiting.

Yet all of them could sense a grim and momentous struggle playing out just beyond the reach of their senses, and all of them were afraid.

The black light crept nearer, past the halfway mark again. Senneth dug up reserves of power and forced it back toward its creator. Again, the malevolent mass seemed to partially dissipate, then re-cohere, gather its strength, and ram itself hard against the implacable onslaught of light. At either end of that shimmering rainbow of light and dark, the two women stood, so rigid with power that they seemed to be statues of black granite and white marble, representations of night and day.

Overhead, simultaneously visible in the sky, the sun dropped and the moon climbed.

For a moment-a few seconds only-Cammon’s vision blurred. It was as if, instead of Senneth and Coralinda, he saw two goddesses battling, women taller than the Lireth Mountains. One was dressed in moonlight, silver and creamy; the other wore sunlight, yellow and ragged. Their faces were set, their movements stately, but they flung bolts of power at each other like stones, like arrows. And every missile hit its mark, and each goddess cringed and staggered every time she was struck.

Even as he stared, openmouthed, the image faded. He was again in the middle of a newly green field, surrounded by silent onlookers, watching as Coralinda’s black magic sliced its deadly way through Senneth’s pure band of energy-past the three-quarter mark-half the distance remaining-closer-closer-almost at her heart-

With a cry, Amalie pitched herself past Cammon and knocked Senneth to the ground. The place where Senneth had been standing erupted into muddy red flame and oily black smoke. The air was suddenly heavy with a bitter odor.

The rest of them rushed over to crowd around Senneth and Amalie. Senneth was trembling; her gray eyes were wide and pale. Amalie was bending over, both her hands on Senneth’s left arm, and was shaking her with impatience.

“Don’t you see? Don’t you see?” Amalie cried. “It’s a trick! She’s using your magic against you!”

Senneth looked dazed and unsteady as she climbed to her feet, but she was trying hard to focus. “No-I don’t understand. I can’t believe how much power she has. I don’t know-I’m not sure-it might be more than mine.”

Amalie shook her arm again. “No-it is yours. She’s stealing yours and turning it against you! She doesn’t have any power of her own at all.”

They all fell silent and gaped at her, but Cammon understood it first. “Thief magic,” he said in disgust. “She invites you to a duel, then she takes your magic and turns it back on you. The more you give her, the more she has.”

Senneth took a long, shuddering breath. “Then I-how can I defeat her?”

“You can’t,” Tayse said. “ You are her weapon. You have to lay down your arms to render her powerless.”

Senneth pressed a hand to her eyes. Her fingers were shaking. “I want so much to strike her down.”

“You can’t do it,” Tayse said.

“But I can.”

It was Amalie’s voice. All of them turned to stare at her in astonishment-except Valri, who wore a look of horror. “No. Majesty, no,” the queen said in an urgent voice. “If she can steal Senneth’s magic, she can certainly steal any small power you might have to offer.”

But Amalie, as always, looked serene and confident-aware of dangers but not particularly afraid of them. “I would not send my own power against her,” she said in her quiet voice. “I would take Senneth’s-and Cammon’s-and Kirra’s. Anything they were willing to give me. And their reflected light is what I would use to battle Coralinda’s darkness.”

“But-Majesty-how can you do such a thing?” Kirra asked in a puzzled voice. “I would gladly give you any power I have, but-” She shrugged.

Amalie held her hand out to Tayse. “Give me Senneth’s bracelet.”

Mystified as the rest of them, Tayse dug it out of his pocket and laid it in Amalie’s palm. Instantly, Cammon felt that primitive spurt of dread as some of his energy was siphoned away. Kirra actually gasped, and Senneth’s eyes widened as if someone had just pinched her hard.

“ Oh ,” said Kirra.

“I can feel it, too,” Ellynor said. “But will it be enough? Or will she turn all of our combined power back on Amalie? For that would be unacceptable.”

“She will not be able to steal it from me because it is not actually mine,” Amalie explained patiently. “It has already been borrowed.”

“It doesn’t matter! The cost is too great!” Valri cried. “Amalie, you are the one we are all battling for! If you are lost to some-some-trick of magic, the whole fight is in vain! You are the one who must be saved, not the one who should be risked!”

“But I am the only one who can take the risk,” Amalie said. “And it is my fight. And I am glad to make it instead of asking others to lay their lives down for mine.”

A hawk circled above them and made a smooth landing, transforming itself into Donnal. “Riders are on the way,” he said briefly. “What’s wrong here?”

Kirra instantly poured the story into his ears, while Valri continued arguing with Amalie. Tayse had put his arms around Senneth from behind and she leaned against him, literally seeming to draw strength from his body. She put one hand up to the gold charm she wore at her neck, the pendant he had given her upon their marriage. She closed her eyes, but some of the color began to return to her face.