Page 49 of Light Locked
Ryson heaved over as his breath caught against the wetness of blood. His hand clasped over his mouth. He tucked his handaway, but she saw the blood staining the bandages on his palm.
“Venennin, and they’ve taken control of the surrounding forest beasts. We have to kill them to get any measure of control back.”
“How do we defeat them?” Clea asked, and her question drew incredulous eyes.
“Are you serious?” he asked, and she was surprised that he was looking at her now and not the battlefield.
She nodded eagerly, glancing back and forth between Ryson and the others, concerned that Ryson seemed so distracted.
“You don’t know how to kill them?” he asked again.
“I don’t know what they are,” Clea replied frantically, hoping Ryson would return his focus back to the battlefield. Instead, a look of awe materialized on Ryson’s face.
“That’s impossible,” he said. “They are Venennin.”
“I heard you before.” She watched the Venennin from afar. It seemed strange that they weren’t attacking, seeing as Ryson had let his guard down. She voiced her concern after Ryson didn’t reply to her first comment.
“They are trying to understand the same thing I am,” he said, shaking his head at her.
“And that is?” She felt like she had an audience. No one was attacking, and yet here she was, poised for a dangerous battle against these unknown forces.
“If you’re trying to act like you aren’t a Veilin, it’s a bit late, Princess,” Ryson said, and she was offended that he felt any need to scrutinize her now.
“I’m being honest!” Clea snapped. “How do we defeat them, Ryson? I have no reason to lie to you! I don’t understand why you think I am!”
Ryson looked across the clearing, and Clea followed his eyes to see looks of amusement on their enemies’ faces. Frightened, confused, and embarrassed, Clea searched the clearing, like there might be answers to these questions she hadn’t seen before.
“Please, keep going!” Myken shouted from across the clearing, rattling her further. Ralth laughed.
“I favor this much more than a fight,” Myken added.
Ryson cursed, watching her now as if convinced that the Venennin wouldn’t attack them. “Venennin are the Veilin of the darkness. You use ansra to bless; they use cien to curse. Veilin are raised to fight Venennin. There is no possible way you don’t know them.”
“Ryson, I have never heard the name before in my life!” she said, and as soon as the words left her lips, the three Venennin appeared before them, closer and yet still too far away to attack.
Clea grew tense in their presence, widening her stance as she prepared for a battle.
“How fascinating,” Myken said, prowling back and forth infront of the others.
“Surely, fascinating,” Ralth echoed, easing down on his haunches.
“Marvelous curse, Ryson. Only an Insednian would be capable of crafting something so delightfully devious! You wiped even the memory of Venennin from her mind?” Myken laughed at a joke they all seemed to find amusing, and yet Clea drew no answers from it.
Clea turned to Ryson, eyes brimming with accusations and unanswered questions. He reacted with an explanation, as if she’d looked to him for guidance.
“Pure energy can’t waste them like normal beasts. Unlike forest beasts, their bodies aren’t dead but are living human bodies empowered by cien. Blessings will expel cien from them and allow them to be wounded or will return wounds that cien has previously repaired. Bless the dagger before you cut them.”
Clea looked forward, understanding now that her blessing had banished the cien from Ralth’s wound, undoing the unnatural repairs cien made to his skin. Blessings did not kill them, but it did neutralize their power.
Ryson whipped his scythe behind him as Myken vanished. He bounded forward, anticipating where Myken would appear next. Myken dodged, but the blade scathed his clothes. Ryson, despite his wound, moved faster, attacking again.
Clea fell into the pace of battle. She could not see Ryson, but she heard Myken’s voice taunting him as she charged forRalth and the wounded Venennin. Clea’s blessings reached the wounded one first, and he crumbled against the earth with a scream and fell limp in the snow.
Rattled by the nature of his death, but determined, Clea laid another blessing, but this one Ralth countered with a curse. He leapt for her, and she blessed the dagger in her hand, striking for him again before he appeared behind her.
Clea dodged his hand, and as he thrust it past her, her palm went for his heart. He was gone in a second and behind her, so she followed. It was a repetitive dance until Ralth wasn’t there at all. He’d appeared behind Ryson.
She blessed the earth as quickly as her hands allowed, feeling the surge of power leave her. The blessings spread like lightning, and Ralth fled from them. They found Ryson and Myken instead.
