The Whitefire Crossing - By Courtney Schafer Page 0,154

Even unconscious, he’ll instinctively draw power to heal any injury you inflict—and your ikilhia is the easiest source! You’d be the one to die, not him.”

Dev’s glare turned skeptical. “Smacking him into a tree worked, no problem.”

“Only because the surprise broke his focus right as I struck with magic. His shielding spells absorbed the impact with the tree—he’s not physically injured.” This was only a brief reprieve; already, Ruslan’s ikilhia grew brighter. Hastily, Kiran drew in further draughts of confluence power to replenish his depleted reserves, readying himself to fight. “He’ll wake soon. You need to get out of here, now!”

“Not without you.” Dev shoved Kiran toward the forest. “If we can’t kill him, then for Khalmet’s sake, run!”

Kiran dug in his heels. “Running won’t help. He’ll find me the moment he wakes—better if I stay and fight while you run—”

Dev yanked his shirt down at the neck, exposing Lizaveta’s amulet. “Recognize this?”

“That’s how you survived when I disrupted Simon’s spell!” The amulet, designed to divert magical energies around its wearer like water flowing past a rounded stone...Simon had surely left it on Dev to prevent damage to his “useful subject” from the heightened energies produced by channeled spellcasting. The amulet shouldn’t have been enough to save Dev, not against a backlash of that magnitude. But Ruslan must have drawn off enough power through Kiran’s mark-binding link to inadvertently save Dev’s life as well as Kiran’s.

“If you say so.” Dev handed the amulet to Kiran. “Just tell me it still works.”

Two more gemstones were blackened, and deep scorch marks marred the silver, but if the pattern remained intact...hope rekindled, with painful force. Kiran’s heart pounded as he concentrated his inner sight.

“It works.” He slipped the amulet on, dizzy with relief.

“Thank Khalmet.” Dev pulled him into a stumbling run across the meadow.

About to raise his barriers, Kiran hesitated. The magic of the charm on Dev’s wrist was a whisper nearly inaudible beneath the powerful throb of the confluence—but it held an odd, dissonant resonance. Frowning, he narrowed his focus to exclude the earth-energies swamping his senses, though the effort tripped his feet.

Spiky lines of sickly green energy snaked throughout Dev’s body in a way he’d never seen. Dev’s ikilhia burned fever-bright in some places, mottled by dark spots in others.

Dev’s grip tightened. “Less daydreaming, more leaving.”

“That charm—something’s not right,” Kiran panted. You should remove it—”

“Take off my one advantage against Ruslan? Hell, no.” Dev yanked Kiran onward. “Simon’s horse is long gone, after all this excitement. We’ve gotta go on foot. Thank Khalmet the sky’s clear and we’ve got a good moon.” He halted just inside the trees. “Hold on, let me get my pack—we’ll need the water and food.”

He stretched out a hand. A pack flew out of the darkness straight into his grip. Dev slung it on, winced, spat, then jogged off through moonlit trees.

“Dev, wait...” Kiran tried to catch up, tripping over roots and rocks in the shadows. “If you can use the Taint again—you can fly, right? You should leave me and go—”

Dev shook his head. “It’s fading,” he said, sounding angry. “The further we go, the less I feel—” he gave a sharp shrug, and hurried on.

Of course—the Taint used confluence energy. Though veins of earth power yet coiled beneath Kiran’s feet, they were far weaker than the abundance present in the meadow. Kiran reluctantly rebuilt his barriers, wishing he dared leave them down to monitor Dev’s ikilhia. Those dark spots worried him.

“If the Taint’s fading, then take off the charm,” he called.

“Not so long as I feel as single speck’s worth,” Dev snapped, and picked up his pace.

Kiran scrambled after, a new concern rising. Dev was heading straight back down the valley. Surely that would be the first direction Ruslan searched. “Shouldn’t we climb out of the valley? Where are we going?”

“Alathia,” Dev said succinctly.

“Through the gate?” Kiran couldn’t help the sharp way it came out. He emphatically did not want to take any more hennanwort, or place himself helpless in another’s hands.

Dev’s teeth showed white in a grin. “I hope not.” He untucked his shirt and drew out silver crusted with gemstones. “That Taint charm isn’t the only one of Simon’s I’ve got.”

Kiran gasped, recognizing the charm Simon had used to cross the border. “Where did you get that?”

“Once a thief, always a thief,” Dev said. He coughed, then admitted, “Actually, I stumbled over it. Crawled over it, more like, on my way out of that rockfall. Damn thing has seriously sharp edges.” He