Page 54 of Silverbow (The Godsung Saga #1)

twenty-seven

Oryn

“ W ell, I have to admit, I expected more from you, Princeling.”

Oryn froze, Kolvar’s coin purse clutched in his fist. The scent that had been masked by the smoke and fear and his own blind rage hit him.

It was metallic like blood, but wrong . Behind him, Bade muttered a curse and Colm uttered a prayer, but the gods and their songs could do little against a black blooded witch.

The demi-elves closed ranks, placing themselves between him and the tall, striking woman who stalked forward.

Their hands found hilts and he felt Ascal’s air and Colm’s spirt gifts surge around him.

He knew the others were clutching earth and fire as well, but it would all be futile.

If any of them could stand against Hylee Starseer, it would be him.

It was his own power she wielded after all.

The shackles constraining her steps rattled as she moved, but with a pulse of dark power, they turned to dust and fell away.

Unbound by the iron and whatever damper she had been holding in place, her dark essence poured from her in a sea of swirling shadows, letting them ripple and eddy as her tattered dress shifted into a sultry thing of dark wisps.

A star-flecked cloak streamed from her shoulders.

“Nimala help any fool who tries to chain a witch,” he hissed in the direction of Ruven and the Ashstrom twins .

Hylee laughed, the sound slithering along his skin. It was a sound that chased Oryn in his nightmares. “Your gods can’t help you now, Princeling.”

“The irons-” Ascal muttered, but whatever he started to say died in his throat as Hylee stroked a red lacquered fingernail down the side of his face.

There was not enough iron in all of Tuminzar to contain the power that seeped out of her.

The mortals stood frozen, jaws unhinged.

Oryn backed a step closer to Enya. He hadn’t just sent her into a bounty hunter’s camp.

He’d sent her straight into the clutches of the strongest witch in Elaria. Gods forgive me.

Raven black hair tumbled in waves down the witch’s back. Porcelain skin that looked like it held all the light of the moon shone in the deep plunge of her neckline. She was breathtaking when she turned violet eyes on him, eyes that seemed to see right through him to the mortal girl he shielded.

“Witch,” he growled. “You’ve been dining well, I see.”

She let out another dark, sultry laugh. “It seems I made the most advantageous bargain,” she crooned.

Delicate hands straightened the star-flecked cloak and stroked the shadows that curled to her ear, whispering their secrets.

“It is good to see you again, Son of Eastwood, though I much prefer how we last met.”

Oryn ground his teeth. That was a meeting he’d always regret, and that was what buoyed Hylee’s power.

Witches devoured bodies and souls, trading their dark arts for pieces of lives.

It was after his encounter with Hylee his fire and earth gifts had gone quiet, as if the shame and regret she wielded against him were not enough.

Enya peered curiously around his shoulder and Oryn batted her back.

“You’re far from Covwood. Did you come all this way to reminisce?”

“I came to admire my work,” she purred in a voice that wrapped around him like velvet. “A masterpiece a century in the making.”

“The irons were just for show then?”

She lifted a delicate shoulder in a half shrug. “I was waiting for things to get interesting.” She eyed the men gathered around them and heaved a dramatic sigh. “But you never can rely on a man.”

Shadows raced from her dark form to twist around Kolvar and his men.

They struggled with the dark power that cocooned them like spider’s silk.

As the shadows constricted, corpses hit the ground one by one with nauseating thuds .

Oryn swallowed as before his eyes, the shrouded forms shriveled, twisted, and disintegrated into clouds of dark dust. Hylee hummed as her aura pulsed, drinking in the the lives she devoured in the blink of an eye.

Ruven and the Ashstrom twins had gone ghostly white, but they remained untouched, for now .

With a wicked grin, Hylee clicked her tongue and stalked a circuit around the demi-elves that stood before him like a cat playing with her dinner. Oryn shifted, stepping around Enya, never turning his back to the witch. “We want no bargains.”

“Oh?” Dark lashes fluttered at him. “Was your last bargain not to your satisfaction?”

“I found it lacking,” he shot back.

“No you didn’t,” she purred.

Oryn tried to school his features to calm.

She kept moving, stalking from man to man, running a fingernail across shoulders or jaws as she took their measure. His companions stood taught as bowstrings, all too aware of the power that gobbled up their gifts like the blackness between the stars. “Always such delicious company you keep.”

She finally halted in front of Colm and brushed a bit of dust from his shoulder.

She straightened his collar with a caress like a lover.

“Still fumbling around in the dark, Dreamwalker?” For half a blink, the violet eyes were blue, the raven hair blonde, and the face altogether different as she stroked his cheek.

She leaned close, her lips nearly grazing his neck and Oryn prepared to strike.

“For a night, we could fumble together, you and me.”

It took much to drive Colm to anger, but the witch taking Maille’s form was enough. Rage like Oryn had never seen set him trembling, nose wrinkling with a suppressed snarl. Hylee chuckled and released him, stalking next to Bade.

She met his unwavering stare with a coy smile.

“It is good to see you too, Eaglet.” She trailed a proprietary hand along his side where the worst of his burn scar lay beneath his shirt.

“I’ve always wondered…what was it like? To be the last on the killing field as men died all around you? To know you failed so spectacularly?”

Hylee hummed when she got nothing but stony silence in answer. The blademaster kept his emotions buried where they could not hinder him in a fight. Deep enough, not even the witch could find them.

She circled twice before stopping in front of Aiden. He shuddered as she dragged a finger across his skin where the collar had been. “Did someone try to leash the pup? Their mistake, I’m sure.” She inhaled sharply, a soft smile flitting across her face. “It is a wonder the world isn’t burning.”

She darted between Aiden and Ascal in a step that may have been part stride, part apparition. His companions whirled, tracking her as she prowled closer, but Hylee paused and spread her shadow skirts in a deep, dramatic curtsy .

“Your Grace,” she grinned.

“That is not an title I use,” Oryn growled, tense as he tried to keep Enya firmly behind his back.

“Not everything’s about you, Princeling,” Hylee tsked.

“Insufferable,” Enya muttered. “I suppose it makes sense, seeing he’s bloody royalty.”

Oryn stiffened and prayed to all five gods she might suddenly find a scrap of self-preservation.

Hylee chucked. “Some would say the same about you.”

Oryn blinked. He turned slightly to catch a look at Enya in his periphery. Her brows knitted, her head tilted. “I…think you’ve mistaken me for someone else.”

Hylee clicked her tongue. “I forgot. You are the most ignorant woman in Estryia.”

Behind him, her breath hitched and from the corner of his eye, he saw the way her eyes flashed. Nimala save us. In all the fights, all the battles where he thought he might meet his end, he had never imagined he might actually die standing between Hylee Starseer and Enya Ryerson.

“Is it true your kind devour the men you take to your beds like spiders?” Enya shot.

“What a delightful little pet she is, Oryn. Well worth the trek, I think,” Hylee smiled.

Please don’t…

“You should ask your prince, girl. He would know.”

The laugh Enya barked held no mirth. Oryn could feel her eyes on his face from where she stood behind his outstretched arm, but they had more pressing problems than a century old bargain.

“Leave her alone,” he hissed. “She wants nothing of what you have to offer.”

Hylee feigned a pout. “I came to help. Aren’t you just the teensiest bit curious about what I have to show her? I came all this way, after all.”

Oryn caught her as Enya tried to duck below his arm.

“I am.”

“Enya,” he warned.

“Someone really ought to tell her,” Hylee sighed .

“Tell me what?”

Would the blasted girl stop moving? Oryn shifted again, trying to herd her back.

Hylee wagged a finger at Colm and tsked. “Keeping secrets again, Dreamwalker?”

A tick of his jaw was Colm’s only answer. He bloody knew what this was about.

“Has he told you what a brilliant little ribbon she has in Valdosonos? It would be such a shame for someone to snip it.” His gifts pulsed at the threat.

Hylee inhaled, letting her eyes flutter closed as her shadows rippled out toward them.

“The gods really do favor her, don’t they?

” She mused. “Her blood sings like a siren’s song.

A song I’ve not heard in an age.” A shadow curled up to Hylee’s ear and she tilted her head, listening to what it whispered.

A broad smile spread across her face. “A song that calls to many, hmm? A little trouble in Ested?”

“What do you know of the demondread?” He asked.

“What’s it worth to you?”

Oryn clamped his jaw firmly shut. He would make no more bargains with the black blooded witches. Hylee laughed, sensing his conflict. She’d probably been the one to make the demondread.

The witch suddenly vanished in a swirl of shadows. He wheeled to find her standing behind Enya, her fingers splayed around the girl’s shoulders. Her violet eyes fixed on Oryn as she leaned close to Enya’s ear.

“Intoxicating, isn’t it, Princeling?” Oryn wanted to wipe the knowing smile off her face. “Is the resonance driving you mad? Ask me what it is and I’ll tell you. For a price.”

Enya’s eyes dropped to the nails curled around her shoulders. She swallowed audibly, finally realizing the gravity of the situation.

“Relax, Princeling. I won’t hurt her. Not yet, anyway. Not if she makes me a bargain.”

Oryn saw red, his knuckles going white on his sword hilt.

“But I have to admit, she had so many names, I’m not sure who I’m bargaining with. Silverbow. Innesh’s Arrow. Witch’s Mercy.” Enya frowned at the last. “Ah. That’s right, you didn’t know. That was no village healer, girl. That was one of my sisters you put an arrow through.”

Enya blanched. “I-I’m sorry. ”

Hylee clicked her tongue. “Magda always was a fool. Got herself kicked out of Covwood for a man with a pretty face. But she was one of us.” The witch waved a hand, dismissing it.

“I-I didn’t know,” she stammered.

Hylee gave Oryn a wink. “Oh, I know. There is much I can tell you, Silverbow.”

“Don’t Enya,” Oryn warned. “The price is too high.”

“You had your questions answered, Princeling. Let the girl have hers.” A growl rose in Oryn’s throat. “Such little gratitude. I gave you everything I could. It’s clearer now than it was then if you want another round.”

“No.”

“I know your Treesinger’s face. Do you?”

Her words struck him like a blow.

“I’ll make you a bargain,” Colm blurted.

No.

Hylee turned her head. “Yes, Dreamwalker?”

Oryn contemplated lunging for her in the momentary distraction, but Enya stood between them and Hylee was far too powerful.

“The Treesinger’s face for a decade of my life.”

“I think not,” the witch laughed.

“A century.”

“Colm!”

“Now that is an advantageous bargain,“ Hylee mused. “But I’m afraid shaving a century from your song does not serve me. Not today, anyway. Besides, I’m having fun .”

“Take your fun elsewhere,” Oryn snarled.

Hylee grinned and pressed her lips closer to the girl’s ear. “I’ll make you a better bargain, Enya Silverbow.”

“Why?” She had the wherewithal to ask.

“For the mercy you showed my sister. And perhaps it will curry me some favor with your gods.”

“Ask the price, Enya,” Oryn pleaded.

“What is the price?”

Hylee hummed. “I offer you what was, what is, and what will be.”

“And the cost? ”

Hylee cocked her head, listening to whatever the shadows whispered. “You only have to do your duty and do what mommy dearest asked of you. She left you a message, you know.”

“Enya-”

“My mother?”

“Mhm.”

“You want me to do what my mother asked of me? That’s it?”

“That’s it, Silverbow.”

“Fine.”

The witch seized Enya’s head between her hands. She let out a gasp, but Oryn dared not move. He stared at the place where Hylee’s fingers lay against her temples, tendrils of shadow drifting across her skin like smoke.

Her eyes went vacant, staring at something he couldn’t see, something beyond. He listened with abject horror as her heart slowed. The steady beats fading…fading…and when they stopped, the hum went silent. Whatever strange in between the witch had cast Enya into, it was devoid of the gods’ songs.