Page 20 of Red Dragon
“Get off me,” he rasped, his constricted throat tightening the words so they were almost unintelligible.
Using his body, he shoved at Syla, then spun her about to press her back against the wall. She hit it hard, but she kept her grip on his arm and sent even more magic into him.
His heart fluttered, beats turning erratic. With her power wrapped around it, she felt it, and his face had turned from ashen to red as he wheezed, trying to get air past her constriction. She could have killed him, but she shied away from the thought. He was an enemy and wanted her people to die, but her gods-gift was for healing. She’d always believed that.
Afraid he would gain the advantage if she lessened the constriction, she kept it in place, but she didn’t apply more pressure. She didn’t squeeze his heart so much that it stopped altogether.
A sword clattered to the stone floor, and the stormer that Fel had been battling flew across the chamber. He struck the wall between two sarcophagi and crumpled, blood leaking from his nose and his eyes rolling back into his head.
Fel spun toward Syla, taking a step toward her to help, but her stormer dropped to his knees, his face turning from red to purple. Fel gaped, not at him but at Syla. He had his mace up, ready to fight, to come to her defense, but as he watched the oxygen-deprived man tip over onto his side, Fel touched two fingers to his chest to indicate the eyes of the moon and drew a circle around them. The superstitious gesture was meant to request protection from the gods.
Seeing the bodyguard who’d defended her and stood by her side these past weeks look at her like she was a terrifying gargoyle or griffin made Syla jerk her power back. She hadn’t killed the stormer, but he didn’t move.
“What are your orders, General?” came a clear and familiar voice from the tunnel outside.
Vorik. And… was he speaking to General Jhiton?
“Close the hidden door,” Syla whispered to Fel.
There wasn’t anywhere to run. Vorik sounded like he was right outside the door.
Fel reacted instantly, rushing toward it, and Syla ran after, realizing she would have to use her moon-mark to close it.
“Get the shielders,” came General Jhiton's cool reply, his voice farther away but not nearly far enough.
Syla slapped her hand to a copper plate on the wall that emanated magic. It flashed silver when she touched it, and the door started to shut, but Teyla’s body lay in the passageway, an obstacle. Her spectacles lay near her face, surprisingly not broken.
“Get her,” Syla whispered to Fel.
Fel hesitated, spotting Vorik standing at attention in the tunnel outside, not yet moving other than to look at them. Fel hefted his mace. Syla awkwardly grabbed her cousin, but she wasn’t strong enough to pull her out of the way without help.
The door caught on Teyla’s hip. Syla had been worried her cousin would be crushed, but its magic prompted it to halt.
“Fel,” Syla whispered as she tugged under Teyla’s armpits, glad to notice heat in her body. And did she groan slightly? At least she was alive.
Fel looked like he would spring at Vorik, but he spotted a second man coming from the side. General Jhiton. And there were two more stormers—two powerfulriders—right behind him.
Not taking his eyes from them, Fel crouched, wincing as his knee or another joint in his leg pained him, and grabbed Teyla. Together, Fel and Syla pulled her back. She managed to snatch up her cousin’s spectacles, knowing she would be blind without them.
The door resumed shutting, but when it was inches from closing completely, a hand thrust through, halting it.
Fel swore. He and Syla pulled Teyla into the chamber, barely moving her out of the way before the door ground back open. As Syla set her cousin’s spectacles atop a sarcophagus, and Fel tucked her out of the way near the wall, General Jhiton strode into the doorway with his swords in his hands and death in his eyes.
Syla glimpsed Vorik in the passageway behind the general but knew he wouldn’t attack his own brother to help her. He couldn’t.
She lifted her hand, thinking she might use her power on Jhiton, but she would have to touch him. And even that might not be enough.
No, she decided, recalling her attempt to stop Captain Lesva’s interrogation by using her power. It definitely wouldn’t be, not if he was bonded to his dragon and magically enhanced. Though he wore the fingerless gloves that so many of the riders favored, he radiated power and she knew without a doubt that he was also bonded.
And the two riders striding in after him? They probably were too.
Fel sprang in front of Syla, stepping into the passageway to block the stormers from entering the chamber. But he wouldn’t have the power to beat Jhiton either.
Syla glanced at the shielder, wishing she hadn’t had Aunt Tibby do such a good job of camouflaging the explosives. They blended in so well that she couldn’t pick them out any better than the intruders had. And she would have to be careful searching. More than a slight impact, and the booby traps would explode.
“The stormers!” came a shout from the tunnel beyond the hidden entrance. “There they are. Get them, men!”
Jhiton and his riders paused at the arrival of Kingdom troops, keeping an eye on the dangerous Fel but also glancing back.
