darkened blade_ A fallen blade novel - Kelly McCullough Page 0,59

two of them fell back, muttering quietly between them.

“Jax, most of the students are just going to be in the way,” I said. “Pick someone to lead them and get as many of them out ahead of us as you can. Make them stretch those young legs. I’d send you to watch over them, but . . .”

“But if the risen catch up to us, you’ll need my swords if we’re to have any hope of thinning their numbers enough for the students to get away. I know. Let me think. . . . Malok’s a mountain boy originally and I know that Loris worked with him to keep those skills polished. I’ll have him take the lead, with Roric and Maryam to enforce his orders.” She paused. “I’m surprised you’re not sending Faran away, too, considering her injury.”

“You really think she’d leave me?” I asked. “You were with me on the ship that time I tried to slip away from her in Tien.”

Jax snorted. “Fair point. Let me think. . . . Javan will have to stay with us. He’s already having trouble keeping up with that golemite leg of his, and he’s been working much harder on his magic since he lost the one it replaced. Kumi as well, I think. She’s smart and fast and the best of my mages despite her Kanjurese background.” Her eyes went far away for a moment. “The goddess almost refused her, you know.”

I didn’t. “Why?”

“She’s from a Hairi family, the same as Nuriko Shadowfox. Kumi is the first such Namara has allowed to join the order since Nuriko became the Kitsune and betrayed the order.”

The Hairi were the ruling class of Kanjuri, rapportomancers who bonded with the intelligent swords crafted by the mage smiths known as Gojuru. Sometimes a true mage was born on the islands—usually to a Hairi or Gojuru family—but they were never allowed to remain. There was some ancient prophecy about a mage sinking the island chain, and the Kanjurese took it very seriously. The only legal choices for a fullborn mage living in the islands were exile or death—though there were rumors of a secret cult-like order of mage criminals.

“Having gone up against the Kitsune and Thiussus, I can see why Namara might feel that the Hairi were a risk,” said Triss.

Sshayar suddenly formed herself out of Jax’s shadow—a shadow tiger pacing us along the wall—and shook her great head angrily. “The goddess made a mistake when she took on Nuriko. She would have made another if she refused Kumi. It was not where Nuriko came from that made her into the Kitsune. It was who she was. Just as what makes Kumi, Kumi, is about what she is, not who her parents were. Looking at bloodlines is a foolish way to judge people.”

The goddess was never foolish, Triss harrumphed into my mind, though he didn’t verbally contradict Sshayar, for which I was grateful.

No, I responded instead, but she was sometimes wrong. Aloud, I added to Jax, “So, Javan and Kumi. Anyone else?”

“It depends on what Siri and Faran come up with. Altia’s naïve and her technique is weaker than I like, but for sheer raw magical power there’s none of us can match her. I include Kelos and Siri in that. She really has the gift.” I could hear the worry and conflict riding just under the edge of her words—she really didn’t want to need Altia.

“I’m sure she’ll do fine if she has to, and we’ll keep her out of harm’s way as much as possible. The people setting off the avalanche shouldn’t be in much danger. It’s whoever ends up playing bait below that’s going to have to watch out.”

Jax shrugged, obviously unconvinced. “Let me check with Siri and then I’ll get the young ones moving—they’ll have to take some of the load the agutes are carrying now since the goats will never keep up, and they might need those supplies on the downslope if we don’t make it.” She slipped back to chat with the other two, leaving me alone just behind Kelos.

I moved forward. “Well, have you got anything?”

“Yes,” he said. “I think so. There are two places we could stage such an ambush, actually, but the better of them is too far away for my liking. We’d have to push damned hard to get there in time, and I don’t think the improved ground is a good enough trade for arriving blown. The nearer spot we can reach not long after