Paladin (Graven Gods Book 1) Page 9

  “But why them?” I demanded. “Paladin’s Valak’s enemy, not Ulf’s and Daddy’s.”

  “That is a very good question,” Paladin agreed grimly.

  “I don’t think Valak intended to kill them,” Mother said. “Ulf-Graham said Valak demanded his surrender -- probably intended to take them hostage so he could force us to give ourselves up.”

  Calliope growled, low and vicious. “Ulf-Graham would have known better than to fall for that. Valak has always wanted the four of you. You and Ulf-Graham are far superior to his avatars, just as the kids have infinitely more natural talent than his genetic trash.”

  “Unfortunately, Valak brought ten acolytes.” Mother’s shoulders hitched, and tears clogged her voice. “Ulf-Graham and Richard fought them so hard, they seemed to take Valak and his forces by surprise. Or so Graham told me after he wounded the bastard badly enough that he could punch through Valak’s blocking spells. Unfortunately, Valak had still managed to run him through. Valak fled, but your father died even as he spoke to me.”

  “What about Richard?” I was sobbing just as hard as Mom.

  She swallowed hard. “Your father said he fought so hard none of them could get close enough to take him.” Even at twelve, his breeding made Richard as strong as an adult human male. “He even managed to kill two of them, but a third ran him through. It distracted your father, and Valak…” The word cut off in a hard, racking sob. The car swerved before she brought it back under control.

  “It won’t do us any good to go after them if you get us killed on the way,” Paladin told her, and she slowed down a fraction.

  “Your Daddy… your father said to tell you he was very proud. Proud of Richard. Proud of you. He loved you both very much.” She wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand. “I’m very, very proud of them.”

  So I sat in the back and cried. Calliope crawled in my lap and stretched upward until she could encircle my neck with her furry forelegs and duck her head under my chin, murmuring nonsense words of comfort. I clutched at her. Cal had often been more mother to me than my mother was.

  Mom’s job was to train me, to make me the best Heir possible for Paladin. Paladin, her god. I’d always thought he came first in her life, but maybe I’d been wrong. If I died, Paladin would have no host to enter. If my mother was killed, his millennia of existence would come to an end.

  And then there would be no god of justice to right the wrongs committed by creatures like Valak. Paladin must, at all costs, survive. Yet she was willing to risk his immortal life to give me the chance to see my father one last time.

  “What happened to Ulf?” Calliope asked suddenly.

  “I may yet save the god if we reach them in time, but it will be close,” my mother said. “Since Richard died before Graham did, Ulf had no Heir to jump to -- or none within range. Ulf did his best to save your father, but the wound was too severe -- Valak’s blow hacked into the aorta, lungs and heart. Ulf couldn’t heal Graham before he bled out. But he clings to your father’s body still. Eris can save him, if we’re in time. Along with Graham’s and Richard’s spirits.”

  She might find comfort in that, but there was precious little for me. “Shhhhh,” Calliope crooned in my ear as I sobbed.

  Finally Mother stopped the car on the side of the road behind my father’s silver Toyota. Just ahead of the Camry, a tree lay across the road. Reaching out with my magic, I sensed bodies sprawled on the pavement, but I couldn’t tell which ones were Daddy and Richard, and which Valak’s thugs.

  I was suddenly, violently glad that Richard had killed two of them.

  “Do you sense anything, Calliope?” my mother asked, staring out the windshield. “Because I don’t.”

  All I felt was death, cold and inert, accompanied by psychic reek of evil, like the smell of rotting hamburger meat. “Evil,” I said. “I sense evil. Valak’s evil.”

  “But he’s gone now. He ran with his surviving thugs. Richard and Graham killed the rest.” She got out of the car.

  I reached for the door handle, but Calliope murmured, “No child. Not just yet. Let your mother and Eris… clean up.”

  Mom drew the goddess sword as she walked around in front of the two cars, pausing on the other side of the trees. Magic flowed from the rapier, glowing like some kind of Harry Potter special effect as it swirled over the corpse.

  “What’s she doing?” I asked dully, not sure I really cared.

  “Using Eris to dispose of the body and cleanse the magic she draws from it,” Calliope explained. “Otherwise its evil could infect your mother. In theory, she’d eventually go mad from drinking in so much wickedness.”

  I stirred at that, frowning. The corpse had disappeared, but more than that, I felt the evil hanging over everything fade a bit. “But why absorb the magic at all?”

  “Because otherwise it will linger until Valak returns to claim it.”

  I nodded, understanding. “And we don’t want to let Valak reabsorb the magic because it would strengthen him.” I’d been raised on strategy and tactics the way other kids learned how to add and subtract.

  “Exactly.”

  As we watched, Mother worked her way over the battlefield, pausing with her blade over each body, cleansing and absorbing the magic before disintegrating the remains.

  At last only two still forms were left on the pavement. She bent over the smallest of them and picked him up. Her shoulders bent as if Richard weighed far more than I knew he did, especially given how strong she was.

  She laid him down beside my father and sank to her knees. For long moments, she sat there, rocking back and forth slowly. Crying, just as I was. Calliope nuzzled me as I curled my arms around her, shaking.

  My mother got to her feet, moving like an old, old woman. She gestured for us to come to her. I hesitated, suddenly afraid. I had never seen death before. Especially not the bodies of those I loved.

  But my parents had not raised a coward. I straightened my shoulders and opened the car door. Picking Calliope up, I trudged over to join Mom.

  She had stopped crying at last. Her face was now distant with a kind of terrible self-control. “Say goodbye to them, Summer.”

  There was no blood, not after my mother’s magic had done its work. There was no sign of whatever injuries they’d suffered. They lay stretched out on their backs as though asleep, their faces peaceful.

  I knew their appearance was deceptive. And I found the knowledge that they’d made their enemies pay was no comfort whatsoever.

  I put down the cat and knelt to kiss them both goodbye. Richard’s skin was cold, his face still, as if some magic had replaced the brother I’d loved with a clammy clay replica. My father was warmer, and I realized he hadn’t been gone long.

  Could we have gotten here in time to save them if I hadn’t delayed with my crying and my questions? But I didn’t have the guts to ask.

  Instead I pressed a kiss to his cheek with its fading warmth, and rose to stand beside my mother.

  Her sword rang as she drew it. I watched dully as she spoke to our fallen. “Graham, my dearest love…” Her voice broke, then her shoulders drew back. “The years you gave me are the foundation of my soul. You made my life bright with your humor, your intelligence, your kindness and your courage. I loved you from the first moment I saw you at the ball when Paladin introduced us.” Her voice dropped and vibrated with the power of her vow. “I will never love again.”

  She had to swallow before she could continue. “Richard, my own dear heart, I cannot express how proud I am of the young man you became, or how grateful I am to have had you in my life. No mother has ever had a son who brought her more joy. I know your father felt the same. My only regret is that I failed to keep you safe to become the man you were destined to be.”

  Her voice deepened into Paladin’s. “Ulf, know this -- we will find a fit avatar to house you. And I take oath to you all: Valak will suffer as he deserves at my hands. I vow this as god of Justice, and I will not be denied.”

 
; She paused, and the sword began to glow. It wasn’t the hot blue glow of human magic, but a deeper golden light. Something about it made the hair rise on the back of my neck as my mother began to chant. “Eris, goddess of birth and death, I ask you to take the spirits of Richard and Graham St. Clare and the god Ulf into the peace of your keeping, that the dark god Valak not feed upon their light. Keep them safe among the bright company of your beloved dead, as you so love us all.”

  Sparks flowed down from the weapon, pouring down over the bodies to swirl around them, growing brighter and brighter. When the light poured back to the sword, Richard and my father were gone.

  My legs gave, and I went down, catching myself on hands and knees as I sobbed at the hard, tearing pain. I was distantly aware of Calliope butting her furred face against mine.

  But I was not comforted.

  Chapter Six

  October 15, 2003

  I faced my mother with a sword in my hand.

  It had been two years since the deaths of Dad and Richard, and Valak hadn’t been seen since. Hungry for revenge, Mom had hunted him, but there’d been no sign of him for three states around. Apparently Dad had hurt him badly enough that he had yet to recover and show his wretched face again. We all hoped he was dead, but Mother didn’t think we were that lucky.

  She’d promised that when I turned fifteen, she’d let me start hunting with her, if I proved myself sufficiently skilled.

  Now, determined to show her what I could do, I advanced and swung my blade in a hard diagonal slash. Mother parried with an easy sweep, and the wooden weapons clacked together as she riposted, sword arcing around toward my unprotected belly.

  I leaped back and spun, whipping my bokken in a decapitating stroke. Or at least, it would have been, but Mom darted in, simultaneously ducking and slapping her blade against my butt in a stinging swat. “Ooww! Mom!”

  She glared at me in frustration. “How many times have I told you that showy moves are a good way to get your head handed to you?”

  “I’ve seen you use that one in practice!” I wanted to bite the words back the minute they were out of my mouth.

  That practice had been with Dad.

  Sure enough, pain filled her dark eyes, turning them so hollow my own heart ached. I cursed myself. The pain of his death had never faded, despite the past two years.

  “I have Paladin,” she said shortly. “You don’t. Now. Again.”

  “And keep your guard up this time,” Calliope called. The cat lay half-draped over my mother’s sword, Eris. The glowing blue gems in the magical weapon’s hilt matched the sheen of her eyes. “You were open in tierce.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Resolving to distract Mom from her pain, I advanced toward her, stepping carefully, intent on giving her no opening to exploit.

  That was a tall order, because my mother was a hell of a fencer, inhumanly fast and powerful, with all the agility and skill of a woman who’d been training since the age of three. Just as I had.

  My father had told me once I looked like Mom. I hoped so, because my mother was beautiful. Her eyes were large and dark in her delicate, finely boned face, her mouth full beneath a narrow, strong nose. Her hair fell to halfway down her back in a cascade of dark curls, though she wore it in tight French braids on patrol. To me, she looked like one of the fairy princesses in the Disney movies I secretly adored.

  Her body, though, was all warrior: tall, with a lithe, muscular power I knew she needed as Paladin’s avatar.

  But before I could engage her, Calliope suddenly leaped to her feet. “Barb! I’m picking up twenty men surrounding the house! And one of them is…”

  “Valak!” my mother growled. Bloodlust filled her dark eyes before it hit her how much danger I was in. “And… twenty men?” She paled.

  I remembered kissing my father’s cooling face, and terror flooded me. “How did they get so close without us sensing them?”

  “They must have been shielded.” The cat leaped to the floor, her black fur bushing, her tail lashing in fear. “What do we do?”

  “We take care of Summer,” Mother snapped. “I can’t win against such odds -- they’ll take her unless we get her out of here.” Tossing the wooden bokken aside, she strode to pick up Eris. Mom drew the enchanted weapon with a cold slither of steel, and its blade began to glow with the goddess’s power. “I’m going to work the transference spell, Paladin. You have to take Summer, get her to safety, or he’ll enslave her.”

  Mother’s voice deepened, going resonant and almost masculine with that tone I associated with Paladin. “Barbara, no! There’s too many of them. Without me…”

  Her voice went high, my mother’s again. “… I’d still lose. Which is why you’re taking her to safety. I’m activating the transference spell now. Get ready to go.”

  “She’s too young, Barbara,” Calliope warned, blue eyes wide, ears flat against her head. “Her brain isn’t mature enough to host a god without burning out.”

  I stiffened. “Wait -- what?” They were making me Paladin’s avatar now? But I wasn’t supposed to inherit him until I was twenty-five at the youngest, and even then, only if something happened to my mother. “What about Mom?”

  “I have Eris,” she replied stoutly. “And there’s a spell that will protect you and block your powers to make it harder for Valak to sense you. Cal, you’ll need to contact my sister. She’ll come pick up both of you.”

  “But Mary left the Demi community for that human husband of hers!”

  “She’ll still take my child in. Look, there’s no more time to argue.” Mom’s eyes narrowed as the sword’s blade began to blaze even brighter, the blue intensifying into blinding white. “Valak’s going to pay in blood for killing Richard and Graham.”

  “Barbara…” Paladin objected, his deeper voice metallic with unaccustomed fear.

  “Mama, no!” I cried in anguish. “Don’t send me away! I can help you! We can beat them!”

  “No, Summer,” Mother said, her expression cold with her hunger for revenge. “You’re Paladin’s Heir. He is your responsibility, and if you die, he’ll be lost. And mankind can’t afford to lose him.”

  “But what about what I lost?” Tears began to run down my face. “I lost Daddy and Richard! I don’t want to lose you too!”

  “Better me than all of us.” Though her arms still circled me, I could feel her pulling away, as if she was leaving me even as I clutched at her. “I have to guard the rear while you and Paladin escape.” When I only gripped her more tightly, her voice softened. “He’ll take care of you, Summer.” Her hands combed back my curls until I could meet her fierce, dark gaze. “I must do this, my love. That vicious bastard will pay for everything he’s done. I swear to all the Elder Gods, I’m going to wipe out Valak and all his temple.”

  Her eyelids dropped, and I saw her lips move. “Goodbye, Paladin.” When she opened her eyes again, they blazed blue with magic. “Hush now,” she told me. “Be the warrior you were raised to be.”

  I bit my lip hard at the cool demand in her voice, instinctively drawing my shoulders back. Her fingers gripped my jaw, skin burning hot. Her brilliant glowing eyes locked with mine.

  And HE rushed in. Memories exploded in my brain -- Paladin’s memories, each of them a cold, sharp impact against my brain like pellets of ice pounding my skin.

  Men howling, faces striped in intricate patterns of blue, armed with clubs and crude axes.

  Blurring faces twisted in rage and fear or need, wearing a confusing montage of clothing -- skins, leather, chainmail, plate armor, their weapons long bronze knives, great swords, rapiers, flintlock pistols, dueling pistols, revolvers, automatics, rifles.

  The clash of bodies, howls of rage and terror, blood spraying, flares of pain and triumph and fear. The blunt force impact of all that history hit my child’s mind like a firehose blast. I heard myself scream, high and shrill. Not ready, I’m not ready…

  Paladin’s voice spoke in my mind for the first time, deeper than when he used my mo
ther’s, male, resonant. “I’ll protect you, Summer. I swore it to her, and I shall not fail her. Not this time. Not like with your father…”

  My mother swept me up in her arms. “You’ve got to go. Valak’s coming. I’ll buy you time to get away. Shield her, Paladin.”

  “Mama, no!” I yelled through the mental hurricane that was my god. “I don’t want to leave you!”

  “You’ve got to, baby. I love you!” Mom pressed a quick kiss my forehead. A tear glistened on her cheek as she turned and gestured at the window. Her spell disintegrated glass and wood alike. “Protect my daughter, Paladin!”

  Then she picked me up and threw me out the open frame -- three stories up.

  As I fell, the last thing I saw was Calliope diving after me, her blue eyes wide with fear.

  Paladin took control, and I knew nothing else.

  * * *

  I returned to the present sitting at my laptop, crying. My body jerked and shuddered as the grief stormed through me even more violently than the memories.

  They were dead. My mother, my father, Richard. All dead.

  Valak had murdered them. I felt like he’d broken open my chest and ripped out my beating heart. Squeezed it until it popped like a grape. Logically I knew it had all been twelve years ago, but it felt like yesterday.

  God, how it hurts.

  The man I’d seen in the gym yesterday, the one who’d threatened me. Valak. That shit-eating motherfucker had killed my entire family.

  And I’d been left with nothing. Not even the memories of those I loved.

  A weight landed on my lap, and a velvet paw touched my face in a calming stroke. “Oh, child, don’t cry like that. You’re breaking my heart.”

  I jolted. Calliope stood on her hind legs on my thighs, one soft paw resting on my cheek. I knew that purring growl the same way I’d known my mother’s light female contralto. And that was an apt comparison, because Cal had been my mother more than Mom had been.