Snake Heart (Chains of Honor #2) -Lindsay Buroker Page 0,93

“If our people can’t have it, then nobody gets it,” he finished.

Silently, Yanko urged Dak, Arayevo, and Lakeo to make an appearance, hopefully with weapons. He didn’t want Pey Lu hurt, but he wouldn’t shed a tear for any of those pirates aiming at him. Unfortunately, he couldn’t check on his comrades, not while maintaining his shield.

“I don’t believe you.” Pey Lu started forward again.

Yanko hopped back to the boulder behind him, but he couldn’t go far. The cliff rose at his back.

Kei? he asked, hoping the parrot was close enough to hear him, because he dared not divide his attention and truly focus on the call. He shared an image of the lodestone, of Kei coming down and grasping it with his talons and taking it to... Arayevo. She would be the most likely to fulfill his mission if he fell here.

Pey Lu waved a hand, and Yanko’s barrier was stripped away from him, like a cloak being torn off. He jumped back one more boulder and tried to grasp the shreds with his mind. When that failed, he hurled another gust of wind at the pirates to give himself time to rebuild his protection. Once again, the wind passed by his mother without affecting her, but her men stumbled and fell, all of them this time.

Pey Lu lunged for him, throwing an attack of her own. Even though Yanko had recreated his barrier, it did not matter. His feet left the ground as he was smashed into the cliff behind him.

As he tumbled into it, he glimpsed familiar blue and red feathers above him. He hesitated, knowing his mother could easily target the parrot if Kei had the lodestone. As Pey Lu came close, Yanko launched a familiar mental attack, the imagery of fire burning her. He flung the rock into the air, hoping she would be too distracted to see it. He tried to fill the pirates’ minds with the fire imagery, too, though he didn’t know if he had that range. All he knew was that he would protect Kei, even if it meant exposing himself. The pirates were scrambling back to their feet, and his mother’s eyes burned with concentration—he knew she was preparing another attack before it struck.

He launched his own first, channeling his power into the boulders under her feet. They heaved, unbalancing her even as she unleashed her own attack. Yanko was aware of Kei flying back down the beach, the lodestone grasped in his talons, and felt a flash of triumph before he was slammed against the cliff again, hard enough to blast the air from his lungs. A second attack tried to burrow into his mind, a copy of the mental inferno he had produced, and for an instant, he thought Pey Lu had truly unleashed a fireball at him. Then he turned his defenses inward, constructing walls around his thoughts.

He was so busy concentrating on magical defenses that he wasn’t ready for the fist that slammed into his stomach. Pey Lu grabbed his hand, forcing his fingers open.

“Where—” She cursed, flinging his hand away and spinning toward the beach, her senses surely telling her where the lodestone had gone.

Kei was still in sight. He needed more time to get away—or get to Arayevo, wherever she was. Yanko kicked the back of Pey Lu’s knee, then channeled his power into the earth once again, all of his power.

This time, the rocks did more than shake. The earth heaved, knocking them all to their knees, Yanko included. Boulders split open, shards flying everywhere. One slammed into a pirate’s shoulder like a spear. A head-sized rock crashed into Pey Lu, knocking her against the cliff.

For a moment, her defenses were down. Yanko could have attacked, but he already felt bad for what he had done. He’d had to protect Kei, but—

Something black spun out of the shadows to the side of Yanko, coming from the opposite end of the boulder-strewn beach. Pey Lu gasped in pain—further pain. A throwing knife—no, a throwing star—stuck out of the side of her neck.

Eyes widening in shock and rapid understanding, Yanko jumped to his feet to protect her. A second throwing star streaked through the air at them. This one bounced off his shield.

Pey Lu tore the first weapon from the side of her neck, heedless of the blood that streamed out with it. Yanko didn’t think it had hit her jugular, but he couldn’t be sure. He whirled to face her attacker. The white-clad mage