Codex Alera Book 1 - Chapter 41

Isana took a pair of quick steps back, pressing Odiana along behind her, and lifted her chin "I've always thought you a pig, Kord, but never an idiot Do you think you'll get away with a killing, right here in Garrison'"

Kord laughed, a rough sound "In case you didn't notice, they've got bigger fish to fry I just walked right on in like all those other fools who came to die here "

"It doesn't mean you can escape, Kord a.s.suming that one of us doesn't get to you when you try it "

Kord laughed again, the sound of it dry, rasping "One of you Which one would that be? Come here, b.i.t.c.h "

Isana faced him evenly and did not move

Kord's face flushed red and dangerous "I said come here "

"She can't hear you, Kord I saw to that"

"Did you'" His eyes moved from Isana to the huddling woman behind and beside her Odiana flinched, even at the glance, haunted eyes widening

"No," Isana said, though she knew the words were useless "Don't look "

But Odiana glanced up at Kord The murderous expression on his face, a finger he jabbed at the ground in front of him, were apparently enough to activate the discipline collar Odiana let out a sudden breathless shriek and fell to the ground, clawing at the collar Even as she did, she struggled against her own convulsing body to crawl closer to Kord, to obey the command he'd given her. Isana reached down to hold her back, but the sudden wave of terror and unbearable anguish that washed up through that touch nearly blinded her, and she stumbled back and away.

Kord let out a harsh laugh and took a step forward, taking the woman's face in his hands. "That's better," he said. "You be a good girl. I'm going to break your pretty neck and then put that collar on Isana. Hold still."

Odiana whimpered, body still twitching, and did not struggle against him.

"Kord, no!" Isana shouted.

The door suddenly rattled on its frame. There was a hesitation, and then it rattled again, as though someone was trying to get in and hadn't expected to find it bolted. Kord whirled to face it.

Desperate, Isana cast the globe of the furylamp in her hand at Kord. It struck the Steadholder in the back of the head. The furylamp shattered, the spark imp inside it flashing into brilliant light for a moment, and then gone. The interior of the warehouse sank into darkness, and Kord began to curse viciously.

Isana swallowed her terror and hurried forward, through the darkness. There was a horrible, frantic moment of feeling in the dark, listening for Odiana's whimpers and Kord's heavy, snarling breathing. Her fingers found Odiana's hair first, and she dragged the slave woman against her. She got the woman to her feet and started dragging her farther back into the warehouse, hoping that she moved in the right direction. Odiana began to whimper, and Isana clapped one hand firmly over the woman's mouth.

"Don't do this, Isana," growled Kord's voice, from somewhere in the dark, back toward the door. "You're just drawing things out. We both know how this is going to end."

Isana felt a ripple in the ground beneath the wooden floorboards, but knew that Kord's fury would have difficulty locating them through the wood, just as it had through the ice. She continued to draw Odiana deeper back into the warehouse, until she b.u.mped against the back wall. She felt her way with her hands, and though the predawn light was showing through cracks in the wall, there still was not enough light to see. She pressed the woman down into the dubious shelter between two crates, then lifted Odiana's own hands and pressed them over the woman's mouth. The slave shook almost violently, but managed to nod. Isana drew her hands away from the woman and turned to face the darkness.

"Come on, Isana," Kord said, his voice more distant. "The collar's not so

bad. Once you put it on, you won't have any more doubts. You can see the good part of it, too. I'll do that for you."

Isana swallowed, revolted, and debated her options. Simplest was to shout for help. There were hundreds of people within Garrison. Surely some would hear her.

Surely. But at the same time, she would be giving her position away to Kord. She did not know how long it might take help to break down the barred warehouse door, but it surely would not take Kord long to break her neck. Though it made her seethe with frustration, she could do little but remain silent and try to find a way to escape the warehouse or to deal with Kord directly. She crouched in the darkness and struggled to think of other options.

The ground rumbled and shook for perhaps a minute, and then there was a sudden round of cheers and blowing horns from outside. Useless. She didn't know what had happened, but she would never be heard over that din. She had to find out where Kord was and either circle out to open the door or attack him herself-and that would be mad. Even if she could find him, he was far stronger than she. She could loose Rill on him, but what if she wasn't fast enough? No, such a confrontation was a last desperate resort.

A calculated risk, then. She took a breath and tried to keep her voice monotone, droning, to better conceal the direction. "You think that will make me happy, Kord?"

His reply came from much nearer to her, perhaps down the same row of crates. "Once I get that on you, whatever I want makes you happy."

"I suppose a man like you needs something like that," she said, moving back, trying to circle around to another row to slip past him.

"Keep talking. Just going to make it sweeter when I get my hands on you." His voice was on the move as well.

From outside, there was a series of shouts, a trembling in the ground, as of thousands of feet striking it. Horns blew the signals to engage, and Isana knew that the Garrison was under attack.

Kord spoke again, and his voice came from not ten feet away from her, in the darkness, so close that she could suddenly feel the cloud of rage and l.u.s.t around him like a hot, stinking mist. "See there? Bigger fish to fry. Leaves me all alone with you."

She didn't dare reply. Instead, keeping her movements as quiet as she could, she moved across the row to the far side, to press against the crates there. If she strained, she could hear Kord moving slowly down the row of

crates, within a long arm's reach, now, but even more, she could sense him against her, the churning muck of his ugly emotions. It drew even with her, and she held her breath as it crept on past, the pressure on her senses slowly changing, as though something warm and moist brushed over her left cheek, then her mouth, then her right cheek, as Kord crept past.

But he hesitated there, and Isana held her own position. Had he sensed her, somehow? Did he know she was there?

"Smell you," Kord murmured, his voice very close. "Smell you. Smells good. Makes me hungry."

Isana held her breath.

He moved, sudden and fast, the sense of him flashing across her cheek, mouth, cheek again, as he moved back toward the door. She lost him after only a second. He had moved beyond the range of what her crafting could feel.

But it came to her, suddenly, that she had a weapon he did not. His fury might be able to lend him tremendous strength, but he would not be able to use it to see. His power could reach no farther than his own fingers. But she could use her own crafting to locate him, even in the total darkness, if her reach had been longer. How could she extend it?

By provoking him, she realized. By stoking his emotions to a brighter blaze, he would radiate them more strongly, make himself more easy to sense. Dangerous plan, indeed. But if she could pinpoint where he was, she could slip past him to the door and go for help.

She moved, first, back to the far end of the rows, picking another at random, before she started down it and lifted her voice again. "Do you know how we escaped, Kord?"

Kord let out a growling sound, now several yards away. "Some d.a.m.n fool didn't patch the roof right."

"Were you too drunk to remember?" Isana taunted, gently. "You sent Aric to patch that roof."

"No," Kord growled. "Wouldn't do that."

"You did. You hit his face right there in front of me and made him."

Kord's voice answered, harsher, panting, moving closer. "Happens. It happens. I get mad. He understands."

"No he doesn't, Kord," Isana said, even more quietly. "He helped us escape. He made holes in the roof so that melt.w.a.ter would run in and give us our crafting back."

"Lying b.i.t.c.h!" Kord snarled His fist lashed out against one of the crates, and the solid wooden staves of its side broke with a heavy crunch At the same time, fighting erupted from very nearby, somewhere just outside the warehouse, in the courtyard itself

"He hates you, Kord Did he come with you? Is he here helping you? You've got no sons, now, Kord Nothing to come after you Bittan is dead, and Aric despises you "

"Shut up," howled Kord "Shut up before I break your lying head!"

And the sense of his anger, his mad, blazing rage, abruptly washed through the warehouse Isana pleaded silently with Rill to leave her even more open than usual to the emotions

She felt him Exactly where that rage was Ten feet away, on the next row of crates, and pacing swiftly toward her Isana moved silently, trying to get past him and back to the door, but as she came even with him one row over, his steps stopped and he started reversing them toward the door

"Oh no," he growled "No, that's a trick Make me mad and make me come chase you, then you run while I find that slave b.i.t.c.h and break her b.i.t.c.h neck and you get away No, no You aren't smarter than me "

Isana paced him silently, frustrated, unsure of how near she had to be to make him remain within the circle of her senses She kept the row of crates between them, until they came to the end

Kord stopped, and she felt the surge of hope and l.u.s.t in him as well, as he inhaled through his nose "Smell you, Isana Smell your sweat You're scared " She heard his knuckles crack He stood opposite her, standing while she crouched She reached out her hand and felt the stack of crates that was between them, one, two, three, four high, at least

"Smell you," Kord purred "You're close Where are you"?"

Isana made up her mind in a flash She turned to the top crate, leaned against it, and pushed with all her strength It felt like it took forever for the crate to tilt and then to fall, carrying the two beneath with it, but it could only have been a second The crates fell, Kord let out a short, sharp cry, and there was a shockingly loud crushing, crunching sound of impact

Isana scrambled back to the door of the warehouse, fumbling in the dark She found the bolt and threw it back, then opened the door, letting in pale morning light, though the warehouse remained in the shadow of the walls She turned and looked back inside

Kord lay on his belly on the ground, the wooden crates over him One of

them had struck him between the shoulder blades, and still lay half on him, unbroken. The other had to have clipped his head, because there was blood on his face. It lay over to one side.

The last had landed on his lower back, b.u.t.tocks, and thighs. It had broken open, revealing the cracked and broken forms of heavy slate tiles used on the roofs of the buildings in the garrison. Isana drew in a breath. The tiles were each made of a heavy fired ceramic, and each of the crates had to have weighed close to three hundred pounds.

She watched as Kord tried to move, straining. He snarled and muttered something, and the earth beneath him stirred weakly. He tried again, but could not get out from under the crates. He subsided to the floor again, panting, whimpering beneath his breath.

Isana walked over to him and stood looking down at him. She knelt and touched a fingertip to his temple, willing Rill to impress his condition upon her.

"Your legs are broken," she said, tonelessly. "So is your hip. So is your back." She felt a moment more. "And you're exhausted. You must have been drawing on your fury to pursue us." She drew her hand away. "You aren't going anywhere, Kord."

"b.i.t.c.h," he snarled, the sound weak. "Finish it. Get it over with."

"Were you in my place, you would break my head open." She picked up one of the heavy tiles, and ran a finger over its squared edge. Held up lengthwise and driven down, it could indeed break a skull. "Maybe with one of these. Crush my skull and kill me."

"I had you beat," he growled. "When I die, I'm going to be thinking of it. You in that circle scared out of your head. You just remember that."

She stood up and dropped the slate. Then she walked down one of the rows.

"What are you doing?" he growled. "When I get out of here-"

Isana went to Odiana and took the woman's hand. She lifted the woman to her feet, then covered her eyes with her hands. Odiana nodded, weakly, and hid her eyes in her own hands. Isana led her out, stepping wide around Kord, who struggled to grab at her ankles and failed.

"You aren't getting out of here," Isana said. "I only know of one person, offhand, who could treat your injuries in time to heal you, Kord. She isn't inclined."

Isana stopped and looked down at him, then stooped down. He clutched

at her ankle, and she kicked his hand away with a contemptuous, "Stop that." She grabbed his Steadholder chain and tore it off over his head. Then hit him with it, hard, across the mouth.

Kord stared up at her, the pain stunning him, robbing him of speech.

She spoke to him in a detached, clinical tone. "You don't feel your injuries Kord. But you'll never walk again. You'll have to have someone clean you like an infant. I'm not sure you'll be able to sit up without help."

She turned and began to walk toward the entrance, leading Odiana with her. "But you will be able to face trial. Like that. Helpless. Stinking of your own waste. You'll go to trial before the Count, and everyone in the Valley will see what you are. I'll see to that. And then they'll kill you for what you've done."

Outside, deeper, louder horns began to blare, almost drowning out Kord's sudden, vicious, pathetic sobs. "Isana! You stupid b.i.t.c.h, you can't do this. You can't do this!"

She swung shut the door behind them and said, "I can't hear you, Kord."

Then the battle swept over her, desperation and agony and wild exultation all blended together. She struggled to merely remain standing, and Odiana clung to her, helped her to keep her balance. The two watercrafters could barely manage to hobble from the warehouse to the quiet spot between one of the barracks. Isana's newly opened senses that had served her so well in the darkness now incapacitated her, and she sank to the ground, to her knees, curling her arms up over her head while she tried to tune down some of the emotions that pounded in her. Dimly, she felt the ground shake again, heard the bellowing of some enormous beast, an equally enormous voice roaring a challenge.

By the time she lifted her head, Odiana was gone. Isana looked up to see one dirty foot vanishing up onto the roof of the barracks building. She shook her head, still dazed, and moved until she could see the wild chaos of the courtyard, and the gargant with its ferocious rider as it turned to flatten a Marat warrior beneath its feet in a sudden rush of fierce anger and swiftly fading pain.

"Oh, no," she whispered, her eyes opening wider, lifting up to the gargant's rider again, and his pa.s.sengers. "Oh, child, what have you gotten yourself into. My Tavi."