The Promised Queen (Forgotten Empires #3)- Jeffe Kennedy Page 0,133
the stairs—in any way I could—but Sondra couldn’t know that. Swinging her heavy walking stick and ululating in an ear-piercing shriek, she charged the captain. With unfortunate presence of mind, he yanked Rhéiane in front of him, drawing his sword. The downward blow of the stick hit the edged metal with a thud that had Sondra bouncing off. She used the momentum to spin and come around, narrowly missing Rhéiane’s skull as Jan held the slight woman between them as a shield.
“Guards!” Jan yelled. “First squad to me.” He blocked another blow of Sondra’s and lunged—fortunately hampered by his struggling shield, and missing Sondra’s heart as she danced back. “Second squad, circle the prisoners. Take them back. Lock them in.”
Sondra changed tactics, lancing the stick straight for Jan’s eye, glancing off his forehead as he jerked his head to the side at the last moment. “Nir, why are you still here?” he bellowed.
The guard appointed to give warning raced down the steps, and Jan released Rhéiane just long enough to wrap his forearm around her throat with brutal force. She choked as he crushed her larynx. He pointed his sword at Sondra. “I don’t know who you are, slave, but you’re killing her.”
The guards began rounding up the captives, shouting and shoving. Sondra narrowed her eyes, assessing the scene. Yes, we needed to eliminate Jan and then take advantage of the guards’ confusion and lack of leadership. As if she’d heard me, Sondra nodded minutely, then held up her hands in a gesture of surrender, the stick high over her head.
“Drop the stick,” Jan ordered.
Sondra smiled. “Sure.” She dropped it—and the concussion flattened everyone in the room, including Sondra. Wonderful.
Taking advantage of the temporary détente, I flew my attention down the stairwell, catching up to the hapless Nir. He raced at top speed down the steps. If I could stir dust motes, I could affect stone. Density shouldn’t matter.
I flew down a turn of the stairs before him, pressed my mind against the stone, suggesting to it that it wanted to be like dust motes. Nir thundered down—and his foot passed through the step as if it weren’t there. He fell hard, breaking his leg with a snap! His skull thudded with an ominous crack against the stones as he went deathly still.
Well then.
I flew back to Sondra—and to a room full of unconscious people. All right. At least the guards were out of the equation. I simply needed to resurrect the rest. Hmm. I went to Sondra, touching intangible fingertips to her temples, feeling very much like some story of a fairy flitting about while the heroes lay fallen.
Whatever the stick had done, it had sent her life energy deep inside. At least I knew something about manipulating that. Carefully, I reversed her energy, changing it so it flowed out to her limbs and brain again. She woke with a start, bright-blue eyes staring blindly through me.
“Lia?” she whispered.
Well, go figure. Yes, I said, and her eyes widened. Hurry, I thought at her and she pushed up to a sitting position, crawling to the unconscious Rhéiane. I woke Rhéiane next, then moved on, going from person to person—starting with Lady Ibb and avoiding the guards—waking them one by one. It grew easier with practice, and I felt even more like some creature from an old tale. I supposed the stories had come from somewhere.
Sondra got Rhéiane on her feet and followed behind me, marshaling the querulously waking captives into a line, managing them with a combination of reassurance and crisp orders. “If You can hear me, Lia,” she muttered under her breath, “we’re facing a problem walking them out of here without guards. The ruse won’t work without that cover.”
I agreed, but I didn’t know what else we could do. We had to get them out of Anure’s reach, especially if Anure was onto Con. If he was able to get Rhéiane to the throne room, we’d be facing disaster. Knowing Con, he’d probably cut his own throat at the toad’s request if it meant saving Rhéiane at last.
I’d really expected—and now viciously hoped—that Ambrose or Merle would’ve arrived by now to assist. The fact that neither had was a bad sign, too. They’d be dividing their presence between their required stations in the throne room and moving the prisoners out. Something had gotten complicated in one place or the other. Or both.