Wolf's-own: Weregild (34 page)

Another ball of fire came hurling from Malick's hand and toward Asai. Malick took another step, Jacin flanking him now as it splashed about Asai like the first one had done. “Keki!” Malick shouted over his shoulder. Then he pointed a glowing hand down to the mouth of the alley. “Get them down there to Sia."

Immediately, the man holding Joori's arm started tugging him down to where Malick had pointed. Joori resisted a little, then met Jacin's gaze, read every plea and command inside it, and submitted to being pulled away, even as his brother advanced on a maijin.

"Mika!” Malick continued. The young woman who was still in her robe snapped to almost-attention. “Get every bound out of here before the Doujou shows up.
Now
."

Joori's head was spinning a little. He hadn't had any idea that there were others here with magic. What was this place? Some kind of haven for them? He let Keki lead him away several steps before he realized what he was allowing and dug in his heels.

"It will do you and them little good,” Asai put in, his smile arrogant, cool. “The alarm has been raised and the hunters called out. Will you veil them all, Kamen? Or will you leave it to your sister...? Oh!” He paused, the look of regret and sympathy on his face so overdone it was insulting even to Joori. “That's right,” Asai went on, “your sister's
dead
, by the hand of one of her own charges.” He shook his head,
tsked
. A sharp look swung up to Jacin. “How many of your own people fell to the hands of
Temshiel
? What vengeance do you suppose this
Temshiel
will take upon your kin for the murder of his own, little Ghost?"

Jacin jolted a little, his gaze sliding from Asai to Malick and back again.

Malick only looked back for a few seconds then rolled his eyes to the sky. He loosed a chuckle that couldn't have been less sincere. “Bloody hell,” he muttered.

"Do what you were saved for, Jacin-rei.” Asai's voice was strangely soft, crooning, a lover asking for favor. It gave Joori a tiny little shudder down his backbone, even as he tried to shove Keki off him. “He will kill me,” Asai said, dark eyes pinned to Jacin. “You failed your mother because you would not listen to your beishin.
This
is what I have foreseen.
This
is the time for Wolf's Catalyst to do as his beishin has taught him. You
must
trust me, Jacin-rei. Stand with the
Temshiel
and you will fail them all. You will fail
me
. Would you see me fall to treacherous
Temshiel
?” Joori was dismayed down to his core to see that Jacin was listening. “You are a sigh's breadth from perfection, Ghost. So little have I seen for the Untouchable, but this... I saved you for
this
, Jacin-rei. I
made
you for this. Do it now and save your family, save your
people
."

Malick just stood there, looking at Jacin. Then he smiled a little, held his arms out from his body. “If this is what it takes, Fen."

Joori couldn't tell if it was sincere or mocking, nor at whom it was directed. He wondered if Jacin could.

"You're not his dog,” Malick said when Jacin just kept staring, “and you're not mine. Give him what he wants, and he'll own you and yours utterly. Do what you promised, and no one owns you. Either way....” Malick spread his arms wider, opened himself further, teeth clenched. “Make a fucking decision, Fen."

"Don't you see?” Asai asked as he took a step away from the wall, hands out. Another arrow flew at him, but he merely swept out a hand and flicked it aside. “You've no choice. You
must
come with me. You must do that for which you were made, before the vengeance of the
Temshiel
takes all you love from you. I have
seen
it, little Ghost.” Asai's dark gaze cambered over to Joori for just a second, a tiny smirk curling up one corner of his mouth. “Your brother killed his
sister
, Jacin-rei."

Jacin shut his eyes, hand curling more tightly about the knife, shaking.

And Joori knew that in that one, impulsive, bloody act, he'd put every single tool Asai needed to use against “his Ghost” right into his hands. Joori had done this. He watched Jacin, watched the despair take over.

Anger flared again in Malick's gaze, deepening his voice, threading it a little hoarse, but turning it strangely resonant. “By my heart,” Malick grated, took another step toward Asai, “by my body, by my breath and spirit, I pledge my oath to Fen Joori—"

"
No
!” Asai growled and flung his arm up.

Shadows curled all around Caidi like live things, coiling over her skin, down her throat as she opened her mouth to scream.

"Bloody fuck!” Samin rumbled, taking hold of Caidi and brushing at her skin, like he could loosen the shadows that were choking her just by the force of his will and brute strength.

Joori lurched back toward his sister, but Keki still kept hold of him, trying to drag him away again, his strength nearly shocking for someone a full head smaller than Joori. Keki only paused for a second to latch onto Morin and start dragging him too. “Leave it to Malick-seyh,” Keki said calmly, like they weren't here in an alley, magic off its leash and running wild all around them, and Joori's little sister wasn't right this second being smothered by shadows.

My fault
, rammed about in Joori's head, crazed and sibilant and full of too much truth he couldn't deny.
My fault, my fault
, because if he hadn't killed Umeia....

Malick was holding Jacin back just as surely as this Keki was holding Joori. “Then
do
something!” Jacin spat, the second half of an argument Joori hadn't heard but the direction of which was all too apparent.

"I'm doing it!” Malick snapped back then pulled Jacin to stand beside him. He opened his hand, a nest of shadows swarming from his palm and curling out toward Caidi. They were just shadows, all misty black and somehow malevolent, Joori couldn't tell one from the other, and yet, weirdly, he could tell that Malick's were attacking and consuming Asai's. Caidi had faded to a dim little smudge inside the formless black mass, but now Joori could make out facial features, the gold of her hair.

Joori almost got hold of hope, almost began to think this wouldn't end as badly as he thought it might, when Caidi was jolted then lifted up. She shot into the air, right out of Samin's grip, little feet kicking. There were no screams as she sailed up and up, right past Yori, who still hung over the edge of the roof with her bow. Yori flung it over her shoulder as she watched Caidi ascend, made a grab for her, but Caidi was wrenched away in midair, still dark with shadows, and writhing.

"
Fuck
!” Malick barked, grimacing like he was in pain, flinching as though from an invisible blow, but his hand reached up, curled into a fist. Caidi was wrenched again, this time toward Yori, who reached so far past the roof's edge that Joori thought she might fall. “Keki!” Malick shouted.

The man who was holding onto Joori had started to vibrate, power leaking from him, raising the hairs on Joori's arm even as the man let him go and stepped away. Joori could feel the change in the air right away—the thickening of it, the shift of air currents. And again, that weird boost that he couldn't feel with anything he could name, but he
knew
it was coming from Malick. Caidi's abrupt up-and-down evened out as the man—Keki—steadily weaved his hand back and forth in front of his chest in smooth motions. The dark cloud that was all Joori could see of his little sister mimicked his movement. Joori could see Asai's own hand moving frantically, but whatever he was commanding wasn't responding. Keki and Malick had taken over this bit of magic completely.

People were hanging out of the windows of the Girou now, some screaming, some just staring slack-jawed. All of them alternated their disbelieving gazes between the ground and the air. A crowd was surging in from the mouth of the alley, some of them butting up against an invisible barrier, but most of them only gaped at the dark shape lurching over the rooftops.

And then the man next to Joori abruptly stopped vibrating as Joori felt that same malignant magic that had paralyzed him before take hold. Watched Asai's lackey tackle Malick from behind, driving his head into the stones with an audible
thud
, heard Jacin scream “
No
!” and it terrified Joori even more, because there was horror and real panic inside it. Jacin lunged for the man on Malick, wrestling the sword from his hand with the savagery of a wild animal. Turned it on him, nearly sliced his head clean off. Jacin screamed again, “Malick—
help her
!” desperate as he sent a panicked glance at the sky.

Asai moved in behind Jacin, eyes alive with clear intent as he reached for him. Malick stirred sluggishly on the ground just as Asai latched onto Jacin's braid, wrenched him close enough to whisper something into his ear. Joori had no idea what it could have been, but it made Jacin arch, scream, “
No
!” and turn on Asai, knife flashing in his hand, even as Asai swept his arm down in a wide, dramatic arc.

The shadows dissipated from around Caidi all at once, her little body thrashing out against nothing as she plummeted. Yori lurched after her again, reached out and made a desperate grab for her, but she stumbled over something, her arm tangled in her bow, and her balance teetered into nothing.

Oh, shit. Oh, no.

Yori's protection was gone now too. Joori had killed it. Had killed
her
, had killed Caidi, and oh, save him, what had he
done
? Even as he watched helplessly, he wished it was him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jacin's blade flash again, heard the scream of rage and despair, but Joori couldn't take his eyes off the sky.

Caidi didn't make a sound, but Yori yelped in surprise and panic as she fell, plunging down the four stories to the stone of the alley. She hit in a crunch of bone just after Caidi.

Strange, Joori thought—dazed and sickened, and oh so horrified—he would have thought it would have gone the other way ‘round, with Caidi crying out and Yori going silently, the good soldier to the last, and maybe it was because Caidi had already been dead, choked to death on fucking shadows,
Caidi, please, I'm sorry
, or at least unconscious,
please let her have been unconscious
, because perhaps hitting the ground would obliterate all pain, but the falling, the
knowing
, the last few seconds of that bright little life spent in terror, and maybe she'd dreamt she was flying, yes, she'd been flying, never expecting a tangle of blonde hair and broken bodies, and
ah fuck, so much blood
, and Joori couldn't even close his eyes.

Morin's wild screams and denials blended in Joori's ears with Samin's bellow of rage and grief as they both rushed over to the shattered bodies. Blind hope flared on both their faces, like anything that might be left of either Caidi or Yori could be saved. Joori vaguely wondered why he didn't hear Shig scream, why she wasn't going to her ruined sister, but then he remembered she'd be just as rooted as he was.

My fault, my fault, oh fuck, Caidi, I'm so sorry

Eight men from the Doujou were forcing their way through the crowd that had gathered at the mouth of the alley, three with the claret sashes of hunters striding ahead of them. Malick was just getting to his feet, the look of a man who'd lost all control entirely, and didn't know whether to rage or cry. The maijin who'd attacked him was lying in his own twisted heap at Malick's feet, but Malick looked like he wasn't even sure if he'd done it or not. And if he had, it wasn't enough.

Joori could only watch the men coming down the alley, watch one of the three hunters pointing out Shig then two others from the Girou Joori didn't know. And then, finally, Joori.

It was almost a relief. Let them take him. Let them do whatever it was they did with his sort, and then maybe little sisters wouldn't fall from the sky, and budding romances wouldn't be wiped out in a spray of blood over stone. Let him stop being the noose around Jacin's neck, and the stone around Morin's. No more leverage for Asai, no more threat to Jacin, no more Yori rocking beneath him, with her bright green gaze and constant half smile.

Fuck
, he wished he could shut his eyes.

"Fen,” Malick murmured, his voice quiet and deliberately smooth. Fen had been sitting down on the ground by the time Malick had disentangled himself from the bastard who'd blindsided him and caused him to lose his grip on Caidi. Fen had nailed the son of a bitch with his own sword, even as he'd turned on Asai, but now Malick had no idea if he should be expecting an attack from Fen for failing him so spectacularly, or the loss of sanity altogether.

Fen was too calm, too quiet, sitting there in the alley with Asai's bloody corpse beside him. And as much as Malick's heart broke for him, as much as it broke for himself, as much as he was right now mourning both Yori, whom he'd loved like a little sister, and Caidi, whom he'd been growing to, he still regretted that he'd missed it when Fen finally took Asai down.

Umeia, he wouldn't mourn—death didn't mean to him what it meant to mortals, and while Malick was pissed as hell that Joori would dare to do what he'd done, he was still just as happy to have Umeia out of his way. Because however this had all spiraled out of control, Malick knew it had started with Umeia. Perhaps his anger would cool over the next few lifetimes, and he'd seek her out again.

He could see how it had happened, how Fen had gotten Asai, just by the tale the corpse told: one of those little throwing knives jutted out from Asai's left eye. Whether Asai's men had missed it when they'd disarmed Fen or whether he'd somehow managed to get it back, along with one of his long knives, didn't necessarily matter. Fen had blinded Asai first then taken him down.

Just after his little sister had crashed to the stones? Or during? Just how removed from himself
was
Fen right now?

"The Blood of the Catalyst showers the Eye,” Malick murmured, “plucks it.” He nodded. Perhaps not exactly what Malick had thought it meant, but Fen had a way of taking the predictable and twisting it around until even the color of the sky seemed impossible to foresee. Even if Fen hadn't been Untouchable, Malick thought Asai wouldn't have been able to see him anyway. You just couldn't see Fen coming. Malick wondered if even Wolf could predict Fen completely.