Page 96 of Knight's End
“Pretty certain you’re glad we all like the taste of trout,” Blue retorted.
“Bloss certainly wiggles that tail of hers like a fish,” Ryan added.
I know I have her hooked,Quinn said to all of us as he wrapped his arms around me.
Ugh.
They were insufferable. But as this was the last bit of banter they might ever get, I simply rolled my eyes and let them top one another’s cleverness with fish pun after pun.
I tried to close my ears as I steered Pony into a descent toward the undead. They marched along the same stretch of desert I’d seen in the scrying stone. The beach crashed into the shore only footsteps from where they trailed across the sand, patrolling the border of Gitmore.
I dismounted, the legion stretching out in front of me for at least a mile.
My knights hovered above me, and I held up a hand. “Wait there,” I commanded, even as the undead archers nocked their arrows and took aim.
I held up my hands in a gesture of goodwill as I took a solitary step toward the undead general. I didn’t wait for him to approach, worried he’d draw his sword and ask questions later, after turning me into an undead soldier.
The general stood at the head of the formation, a feather in his cap. His eyes were still in their sockets, but his grey-green skin was weathered, and a loose flap of skin on his cheek (that had been sliced open at some point so that the muscles of his mouth were exposed) gently smacked against his jaw in the wind. Surprisingly, the undead didn’t smell. Thank goodness. Or I might have ruined my introduction by puking on the general’s boots.
I nodded toward him. "Good afternoon, General.” I realized Shenna hadn’t given me a name. Dammit. I raised my head to look him in the eyes. “Queen Shenna has given me leave to speak to you. And as a gesture of goodwill I offer you peace magic." I shot green peace magic at the general just as an arrow sliced through my shoulder.
Holy sarding shite!
A burn like I’d never felt before ripped through my arm as the arrow pierced my muscles.
Dove!Quinn mentally yelled.
Bloss!Blue’s mind-voice cracked like a boy’s.
I’m fine,my thoughts back to them were shaky.But if this is an arrow, I have no desire to feel a sword wound. It feels like a sarding ax chopped me open.
I refused to look down at the arrow that protruded from my shoulder, though the shaft stuck out in the corner of my vision.
I shot another jet of peace at the general and another arrow flew toward me. This time, Pony blocked it with his wing.
The general held up a hand to stop his archers.
He took a step forward, his black and white, undead eyes blinking. “What is this magic?”
I sopped up some of the blood on my wrists with my sleeves. “Peace magic.”
“I feel it. I have lived so long, and seen so much, that most things do not affect me. But this magic .... It feels … good.” The general took another step toward me.
“Would you like more peace, sir?” I asked him.
He nodded, and my palms lit again with green light. “May I?” I gestured toward his chest.
The general stared at me for a long moment, then nodded. I pressed my hand gently against his jacket. Green peace magic soaked into him and surrounded him. Behind him, the other undead shuffled and muttered but he held up a hand to silence them.
“I am Enderson,” the general said.
“I am Bloss, Queen of Evaness,” I replied.
“And Bloss of Evaness, what is it you seek?”
“I want to end Mayi, the witch of the sea. And I want to recover my sister from her underwater prison.”
Enderson’s eyes gazed steadily at me as I let my peace magic fade. He took a step back and gestured toward my hands. “What do you offer my people if they fight for you?”
