Page 81 of Knight's End
My pulse pattered in my chest.
Holy sarding hell!
Shite!Blue was at my side in an instant.What the sard is that?
The flower turned its massive face toward us. The green knives in the center flexed in a threatening way. My hand tightened on Blue’s arm.
And then the Flower squeaked, “Where’s Donaloo?” in a voice that was far too innocent for the act we’d just witnessed.
Blue just pointed down the hall as I stared, aghast.
“Dini?” I asked.
The flower twirled her petals at me before diving to eat another djinn. Eating them seemed to fill her with power, because two new shoots unfurled. One cut right through a crowd of soldiers battling, her thorns slicing through armor like butter. The other shoot went toward the hallway Blue had indicated, and dipped around the corner, as if searching for Donaloo.
Djinn magic blasted against Dini’s stem, but she seemed unaffected. The golden droplets simply slid off of her and puddled harmlessly on the floor.
Cheryn’s soldiers realized that and started to run.
My knights made it over to me and, as Dini grew more blooms and started to dominate the battle in the front hall, we ran toward the courtyard to see if we might help there.
Outside, there was a bloodbath that matched the gory sunset. There were bodies all around. Cheryn’s soldiers had scaled our walls and were jumping off of the rope they'd lowered over the side. Most of our archers had been forced to retreat up into the towers and they didn't have great angles as they shot their enchanted arrows. More often than not, the red streaks they unleashed from their bows plied the dirt instead of the djinn. Overhead, a rainbow-colored twist of smoke churned like a tornado.
Fear sliced through my stomach. Somehow, I knew that Raj was at the center of that tornado. I just knew it.
An eerie laugh echoed off the cobblestones. Goosebumps rose on my skin.
Blue accidentally shot us all his thoughts. Most prominent was the image of his father—a close up of the sultan’s face as he whispered, "You fail me, and your end will be the most painful thing you could ever imagine."
Shite.
My eyes searched for Blue; he was frozen at the back of our group, still naked, staring up at the whirlwind that started to descend on the courtyard.
I stepped back to stand beside him. I shoved off one arm of my armor and let it clatter to the ground. I laced my fingers through his.
"He's coming for me," Blue said. “Get away.”
I shook my head. “He’s coming for all of us.”
Right now would be a damned good time to use that wish!Quinn bellowed.
Wish for what?I yelled back as our hair started to whip around our heads. In the corners of the courtyard, the wind grew so fierce that soldiers were blown backward, tossed sideways; they had to grab onto pillars and posts to stay upright. But we were in the center of the whirl. It was calmer here. Calm enough that I could see a figure floating above us.
Looking straight up, I could see the evil in Raj’s eyes as he descended on us.
He had a dark beard and black eyes. His hairline was receding, or it looked that way from below. Raj didn’t look as though he were a thousand years old. His torso, above the blue twist of smoke that obscured his legs, was muscular. I did notice the fake ring he thought was on his finger. To me, it still appeared to be a bubble.
We had that at least.
But that was nothing when the wishes started to rain down around us.
He didn’t care if he used every last wish the women in his harem had left. He’d discard them and get more. Blue accidentally sent us all Raj’s thoughts.
Disgusting. Foul, evil man. Unworthy. Bile churned in my belly and anger in my mind.
Raj watched us, pointing, directing his harem to send wish magic at those around us. His harem, a group of at least thirty women, who still spun so quickly that they were blurs of color in the wind, shot golden jets down on our soldiers, who transformed into snapping crocodiles.
Raj didn’t seem to care when one of his own soldiers got caught in the jaws of his wished creatures.
