Ghost in the Winds (Ghost Exile #9) - Jonathan Moeller Page 0,31
said Caina.
“As if I have just run twenty miles while carrying buckets full of sand,” said Annarah. She offered Caina a shaky smile. “Which is still better than how a knife in the neck felt. Thank you. I would have died if you had not acted.”
Caina shrugged. “You saved my life many times. You tended to me when I was recovering in Drynemet. It would be a poor show of gratitude if I failed to repay you.”
“If we tried to repay you for all the lives you have saved, we shall be here until the sun burns out,” said Annarah, trying to rise. Caina helped her to stand.
“How did you wake up so soon, by the way?” said Caina. “Kylon was out for days. I was out for nearly a month.”
“I am a loremaster of Iramis,” said Annarah, “and learning to wield the Words of Lore trains us to handle sudden surges of arcane power. Elixir Restorata generates a tremendous amount of heat and fire, as you have seen…”
Morgant laughed. “An understatement. Ask anyone in Rumarah.”
“So I was able to channel that power into a form of attack,” said Annarah. “For you, the power reacted to your damaged aura, and you needed longer to recover, though you did become a valikarion in the process.” She blinked, and then laughed a little.
“What is it?” said Caina.
“It is a silly thing, but I am grateful it did not burn away my clothes,” said Annarah. “When you were naked in front of all those men in Rumarah…by the Divine, in your place, I would have died of utter embarrassment.”
Caina smiled. “It helps that I don’t remember any of it.”
“The only man who has seen me undressed has been my husband,” said Annarah, “and I wish for that to remain so.”
Caina blinked, seemingly puzzled. “Your husband? Why…” She frowned for an instant, and then shook her head. “Never mind. We have more immediate problems.”
“Yes,” said Morgant. “Like getting off this damned island.”
Annarah nodded and looked at the warded door. “They’re waiting for me, aren’t they? I’m the only one they can sense at the moment.”
“Aye,” said Caina. “Morgant’s got his ring, and they can’t sense me. I thought your pyrikon could shield you from their senses…”
“It can,” said Annarah.
“But to do that,” said Caina, “you’ll have to drop the ward.”
“I can raise it again in a few minutes,” said Annarah, “but by then, they will have swarmed into this chamber.”
“Yes,” said Caina, looking around. “But they can’t sense us, and I can only see baboons in the hall. None of the undead warriors with the seeing spells on their helmets.”
“Where did they go?” said Annarah.
“An excellent question,” said Morgant. “It appears they wandered off.” He thought that suspicious. Those undead warriors were the most powerful fighters on Pyramid Isle. So why had they left Morgant and Caina and Annarah unattended? It did not make sense.
“The nagataaru have trouble perceiving the physical world when they do not possess a host with functional eyesight,” said Caina, “and the baboons are just rotting shells.”
She took a few quick steps back, looking around, her gaze sweeping the ceiling. Morgant had to admit the ceiling was aesthetically pleasing, adorned with patterned constellations in the stylized Maatish style. He did not see anything useful, though.
“There,” said Caina, pointing at the wall.
Morgant considered the wall. “You want us to stand on the spears?” Bronze spears, their blades no doubt protected from corrosion by spells, stood in niches along the walls. A flat ledge ran along the wall, perhaps a dozen feet off the floor.
“No,” said Caina. “We’ll remove the spears and stand up there.”
Morgant grunted. “You think that will work?”
“People never look up,” said Caina. “Have you noticed that? The nagataaru have trouble perceiving the physical world in three dimensions. If people never look up, do you think the nagataaru will?”
That…actually made sense, come to think of it. At least, Morgant couldn’t think of anything better.
“So once we’re up there,” said Morgant, “what then?”
“The nagataaru will search for us,” said Caina. “When they don’t find us, they’ll assume we slipped past them somehow. So they’ll search for us, and if we’re careful, we can slip past them and make our way to the exit.”
“I do not see any other option,” said Annarah. “Even with your new valikon and the Words of Lore, we cannot fight our way past so many nagataaru.”
Morgant shrugged. “Well, why not? If we die, at least we’ll die while looking ridiculous.”