Snake Heart (Chains of Honor #2) -Lindsay Buroker Page 0,110

it? As Dak had admitted, nothing good.

Before he drew close to Sun Dragon, the mage hunter moved to intercept Yanko. Dak moved to intercept her. A throwing star appeared in one of her hands, a dagger in the other. Dak drew a cutlass he had acquired since boarding the ship. The two of them stared at each other.

“It’s time,” Sun Dragon said, glancing toward the mage hunter, then smiling at Yanko. “It wants to be returned to its home. I don’t think it will take any earth magic, after all. Just a good toss.”

He lifted his arm, like a hunter about to throw a spear. The lodestone flared golden in his hand.

Yanko lunged for him, afraid of what would happen to all the ships that floated behind them. Metal clashed to his side, Dak engaging the hunter. Yanko caught Sun Dragon’s shoulder, but not before he hurtled the lodestone into the water.

Chapter 24

As soon as the lodestone tumbled into the water, Sun Dragon spun toward Yanko, his hands flaring with the orange of flame. Yanko wrapped a protective shield around himself and backed up, wanting time to react. Perhaps it was the wrong move. Smiling tightly, Sun Dragon seemed to think it a sign of fear. He lunged for Yanko, flames eating the air all around him.

With his barriers up, Yanko did not feel the heat. He made a scoop of air with his mind and pulled water from the sea below. It floated up and doused Sun Dragon.

His flames were powerful enough to burn even while water saturated his robe, but he snarled at Yanko, clearly annoyed with the trick. He raised both hands and hurled a blast of fire. It battered Yanko’s shield, but he was getting better at repelling attacks. His opponent was not weak by any measure, but he lacked the pure power that Pey Lu had thrown at Yanko.

Sun Dragon drew his scimitar, and an eerie silver glow ran along the blade like fire. He swiped it at Yanko, who didn’t even have a knife. He was, after all, a prisoner on this ship.

Yanko jumped back before the blade sliced through his gut—it had no trouble slicing through the shield he had created. Sun Dragon hurled another fireball at him, following it with an attack from the sword. Once again, Yanko could deflect the fire, but he had to skitter back to avoid the cut. His back struck the railing. He was aware of Dak and the assassin fighting, neither sparing a glance for him and Sun Dragon.

As Sun Dragon raised the sword for an overhead blow, one that would have cracked down on Yanko’s skull since he was out of room to run, Lakeo came out of nowhere, barreling into the mage’s side. She caught him by surprise, shoving him against the railing. Sun Dragon snarled and flung his arm, hurling power along with it. She was blasted from her feet. She crashed into Arayevo, who’d also been coming to help, and they tumbled to the deck together.

“Yanko,” Arayevo barked. She threw him a cutlass.

He had no idea where she’d gotten it, but he caught it by the hilt. At the least, he could deflect the wicked scimitar with it.

Sun Dragon turned back toward him. “I’ve wanted to kill you for weeks, boy,” he snarled, spinning his scimitar in one hand, as if he were performing tricks for some awed backwoods audience at a traveling stunt show.

“Why?” Yanko asked. “Killing me doesn’t change any of the things my mother has done in her life.” He didn’t even know if that was why Sun Dragon hated him, but it seemed to be why the rest of the world hated him.

“But it will hurt her, the bitch. Especially now that she’s met you.”

Yanko felt bewildered. It wasn’t as if Pey Lu had cooed over him and leaped for joy at their reunion.

Lakeo tried to charge Sun Dragon again, but she crashed into a wall of air. As Sun Dragon advanced on Yanko, soldiers ran up the steps, rifles in hand. A wall of flame burst into the air in front of them, and they halted. One tried to leap through it, not to get to Yanko, but to reach Dak, probably to help him, but the man bounced off the way Lakeo had.

Yanko lowered into a fighting crouch, sensing he was on his own with Sun Dragon. He didn’t know how much time he had, since he could feel something happening below the surface. Through magic