Madness of the Horde King - Zoey Draven Page 0,131
in my throat as it rose and rose. The pain from the vovic was nothing compared to this.
My vision went dark. My skin prickled like a thousand needles were piercing me at once. But despite the pain, I felt my gift building inside me, the energy that I could conjure at will becoming something far more powerful, roving and roiling inside me, desperately seeking an escape.
Through a thick haze, I heard him.
“Nik! Vienne!” Davik roared.
But it was too late.
That power flooded out of me as I screamed. As it left me, my lungs filled and I felt like I could breathe again.
Directing that power, I felt it travel through the great hall like a wave, stopping all the Ghertun in their tracks, freezing them into place. When the power hit the walls, it delved inside the stone and I directed it to encase the entirety of the Dead Mountain. I could see it rushing through the tunnels, filling and filling them all, stopping all the Ghertun in their tracks.
In my mind, I felt thousands of souls. I was in them all.
Unfathomable power…
I could have killed them all. In a single moment.
And for a moment, I was tempted to. I was tempted to bring the Dead Mountain down, once and for all. I was tempted to end thousands of lives in a single moment.
Because I could.
“Vienne!” Davik bellowed across the still, quiet place.
When I locked eyes with Davik, I felt my chest fill with something else. I felt suspended in time as he pulled himself from the bodies of the Ghertun around him, who made no move to stop him as he sprinted towards me, pushing and weaving.
When he reached me, I felt his touch on my cheek.
“Nik, leikavi, what have you done?” he rasped, his voice anguished, his mind on the verge of breaking.
I had used the heartstone. That same power had meant death for Lokkaru’s father…would it mean the same for me?
A price has to be paid.
Acceptance settled in my chest. At least Davik would be safe.
“It’s done now,” I murmured to him, my eyes filling with tears though I blinked them away. “Bring me Lozza.”
There must’ve been darukkars behind me because Davik bit out an order to them. They streamed into the great hall and, a mere moment later, dragged the Ghertun king to my feet before they scurried away, as if afraid of me. Lozza’s side was bleeding in a steady flow, pooling on the floor. He would bleed out soon. He would die.
He was as frozen as the rest but I found his life source in my mind and I gave back his will.
“You will give me the cure for vovic,” I told him. “You will release your enslaved under the Dead Mountain and vow to me that you will never take another.”
He was staring up at me in fear, in bewilderment, and in pain.
As I looked down at him, I realized it would be so easy to end his life. Davik would do it for me gladly. This male had been the cause of so much pain and suffering within my own family, within many.
But as I looked at him, I also realized that if he died…another would take his place. Perhaps another even more terrible than him. The hatred in the Ghertun’s minds, after centuries of Dakkari oppression and rule, ran like vovic in their veins, poisonous and bitter. It would never end.
“Or else I will bring the Dead Mountain down on top of you,” I whispered. Light was coming from somewhere, blue light that illuminated Lozza’s face. Was it coming from me?
Davik had spoken of a white-haired sorceress that had destroyed an entire horde?
Well, I would destroy an entire mountain if necessary.
The Dothikkar had had every right to fear me when I turned up in Dothik, I realized.
But my newfound power was already beginning to wane. I could feel its reaches begin to contract and pull back. We didn’t have much time.
Lozza stuttered, “In the cellars. The cure is there with the doses. I swear it. Take it. Take it all.”
Rath Kitala’s voice cut in, from somewhere behind me, words in Dakkari to the darukkars, who sprinted from the great hall—no doubt to take every last item in the cellars.
“How do I know you speak the truth?” I asked, even as I delved deeper into his mind. This part of my gift felt familiar to me.
I was relieved when I found no deception, a weight seeming to lift off my shoulders.