her. This was the end she had fallen to. She was prepared to accept her death. She only hoped that she could take Zeen with her. “Did he know he was carrying you?”
“Young Thurin?” Theus licked his lips with a black tongue, Thurin’s lips. “No. He thought the stars burned us out. And they did burn the others. They couldn’t sink as deep as I did. But of course, I could be lying. I do like to lie. Honesty is one of the pieces of myself that I am still missing. One that I won’t find here of course.” He waved a hand at the surrounding cavern. And in that moment Petrick lunged, faster than blinking, throwing himself across the gap between them, knife in hand. He almost made it, but some invisible force yanked him from the ground and held him just beyond reach of Theus.
“That was rather predictable.” Theus frowned, possibly with effort, and Petrick’s feet lifted still further above the rock. He hung there, snarling, unable to drive himself forward. “The human body is almost all water. You do understand this? And your friend Thurin has considerable influence over the stuff. Especially when it’s me doing it and not caring if I break anything in here while I do.” Theus tapped Thurin’s head with a finger.
Petrick drew back his hand to throw his knife but the same force wrapped him and his thin arm remained raised, trembling with effort.
Theus shook his head. “If I let you throw that blade would you do it? Kill your friend? It would be no great inconvenience to me. I have many bodies. I’ll have yours too if I like, and attacking me just makes it easier for me to find a way under your skin.”
In a blindingly fast advance Zeen shot from the shadowy margins to tackle Petrick, bringing him to the ground. Another of the Tainted came forward and set a foot to pin Petrick’s wrist to the rock, immobilising the knife.
“Now,” said Theus in a louder voice, a current of anger rippling beneath it. “It happens to be very hard for me to be so reasonable for so long. Please don’t try my patience. It’s something else that I misplaced long ago.
“You are going to be inducted into our ranks and then, since obviously I know all about your domestic troubles with young Pome, we are going to conquer what remains of your territory. Adding you to my collection will make an already fairly uneven contest still more one-sided. Murder, bloodshed, oh my!
“Now, the truth is that my friends here are an unruly lot and need to be allowed to indulge their baser instincts once in a while. In fact base instinct is all most of them are.” Gasps, wicked chuckles, and unhinged laughter rang around the circle at that. “So I propose to let you go one at a time and hunt you. Some of you might even escape. Who knows?”
Yaz looked along the line of her companions: Quell, tensed and ready with murder in his eyes. Quina coiled and poised to strike, her hand on an iron knife at her hip. Kao scared but dangerous even so.
“We came here together and we’ll fight you together,” she said, wondering if Thurin was still looking out at her from those wholly black eyes. “We’re ready to make you bleed.”
“Me?” asked Theus. “Poor Thurin will do the bleeding. I will be fine. It’s not my blood.” He pointed at one of the exits. “Run, Yaz!” All around them the Tainted started to hiss and call, the largest gerant began to roar, a thunderous noise, and a crimson-eyed child, frothing at the mouth, screamed as if she had been set on fire.
Yaz forced more light from the star, setting its heartbeat racing. The thing vibrated in her hand and the Tainted fell back to the walls of the cavern, their shouting dying away. Zeen and the other Tainted abandoned Petrick but not before kicking the knife away. Only Theus stood his ground, though he squinted against the light and set his mouth in a grimace of pain.
“What a talented child you are,” he snarled through Thurin’s teeth. “But that fragment will burn out before it starts to do more than irritate me.”