The Goblets Immortal, Beth Overmyer [novels to read for beginners .txt] 📗

“At least we can see now.”

“They’re torching the town, Slaíne.”

Slaíne nodded but with a shrug said, “Well, gotta take our blessings where we canst get ’em.” They were both on their feet, racing toward the flames.

Aidan did not think it would affect him so, the sight of a building being reduced to ash. But his shoulder prickled as badly as his conscience, and he was irresistibly drawn into a half-vision, one that overlaid what he saw before him. A barn, burning.

Ten-year-old Aidan ran for the doors, thrust them open, only to be slammed with a fist of smoke. Coughing and wheezing, he managed to call out, “Mother? Father? Sam?”

No response.

Mind spinning, Aidan ran back down to the creek.

“Sir?” said Slaine, her figure blurring before his eyes.

Aidan shook his head. Where was he? Oh, yes. The wraiths. Putting out a fire. He needed water.

A rock leapt from the creek, striking him in the shoulder. His own voice was shrill as the spot throbbed painfully.

“Sir, stop. You’re gonna hurt yourself.”

He shook his head to clear the cobwebs from his mind. “Memories. They’re just memories.”

Slaíne gripped him as he started to sway on the spot. The screams were piercing, and they were close. So many voices crying out for blood.

“Sir, now you’re hurtin’ me.”

Fighting a rising panic and nausea, Aidan blinked his eyes several times in quick succession, hoping to see straight. His vision cleared somewhat. He found himself Calling Slaíne. They stood now, hip to hip, elbow to elbow, as two welded together. At once he Released her, and they both stumbled, regained their footing, and followed the screams and the heat.

Up to this point, they hadn’t met any hostile forces. Now, rounding the dressmaker’s shop, Aidan sensed and saw at least a dozen Pulls. They were cloaked in dark brown, the fabric hanging loosely on their apparently lanky frames.

Aidan stopped Slaíne before she could run into them. Perhaps her eyes were not as good as his, or perhaps he sensed more than he saw.

The creatures saw them now. Some held torches, others brandished swords. Aidan felt for the Pull of their weapons. No iron. Copper, tin. Children’s toys. No, they were not to be worried about. The fire, on the other hand, was a problem.

Aidan Dismissed six swords within the span of three seconds, then went for the torches. One, two, three, four. He Dismissed them all, and now all the light came from the burning building.

The wraiths were surprised, shrieking as their hands suddenly fell empty. Soon, however, they recovered their wits, but Aidan was already upon them. With some difficulty concentrating, Aidan Summoned Slaíne’s silver sword. He dispatched two of the wraiths with four mighty strokes. Slaíne, he could sense, was moving toward the burning building.

Faced with the challenge of an armed man whilst possessing no arms themselves, the wraiths screamed and fled, tripping over the hems on their long robes as they went.

Aidan looked for a moment down at the two he had slain. He flicked back the first one’s hood with the tip of his sword and found an ordinary man, his face a mask of death. Aidan swore. “Slaíne. Get away from there. You’re going to burn yourself.”

But Slaíne wasn’t listening. Her attention was focused on the third story of the building, whence came the shrill cries of a woman. The building was burning and collapsing around her as she moved onto the window’s ledge. She held a small child in her arms.

Aidan’s chest tightened. They were far too high for him to climb to them in time, even if he possessed a ladder. And the wraiths were returning in numbers. Cursing, he positioned himself beneath the woman in hopes of catching the child.

Slaíne was already on the move. She stepped back several paces and then charged at the building. Instead of running into the brick siding, the girl soared high into the air, scarcely touching the wall in her ascent. In seconds it was over. Slaíne secured the babe and shot back down to earth, slowing a split second before she would have hit the ground.

There was no time to take this miracle in before the mother in the window made her own desperate escape. Aidan followed her Pull as it came crashing to earth, and adjusted his position accordingly. The woman fell with a scream. Aidan’s knees buckled as her weight hit his arms, and his muscles burned and strained at the contact. Both Aidan and she collapsed onto the ground in a heap as the wraiths began to ring them in.

“My baby,” the woman gasped, snatching the infant and pushing her way through the wraiths, who didn’t seem interested in her.

“How did you do that?” Aidan shouted as he felt her back press against his. He Dismissed the weapons of more wraiths, but this time, only one or two fled. “Slaíne?”

“Can we first focus on not dying, sir?”

He shook himself out of a momentary stupor. “Can you get us out of this circle?”

“Nay, sir. I ain’t strong enough to carry us both.”

Aidan cursed. He felt for the wraiths’ Pulls as he slashed out at them. All of them had normal human Pulls; he could not get rid of them as easily as he could the goblins. There was a shriek and a grunt behind his back, and he could tell from the girl’s Pull that she had soared upward again.

“Too many of ’em,” she shouted.

Aidan grunted his agreement. Slaíne continued to drift out of the wraiths’ reach, while he lashed out at them. Meanwhile, the building continued to burn. He could Dismiss himself, but that would only buy him an hour. And there was Slaíne to think about. He did not know how her ability worked, so if he left her for Nothingness, there was no telling what sort of trouble he’d put her in.

The moments crawled by like years, but the cloaked men were pushed farther back as he fought. And as the moonlight hit their eyes, he knew once and for