Of Bonds Forged Ch. 03

He punctuated the words with a kick to the stomach that sent the air from Kel's body as he rolled away in pain. He heard the boots in the snow before he felt the next strike, his arms coiled tightly around his belly giving him some protection. "Fix her. Now."

"I can't," he whispered between gasps for air and the concerted effort to keep the contents of his twisting stomach in his stomach.

Solos bent down again. "What? What was that?"

"I can't," he repeated with only a bit more force.

Gravity seemed to end as a force as two clawed hands pulled him into the air to right him. "What do you mean you can't?"

"I can't," some truth spilling from him before he could come up with a better lie. "I don't know how."

"Bullshit. Let me guess, you don't know how, but you'll figure it out if we make a deal. If I fucking pay you," he began, giving Kel the back of his fist, sending the other into the earth again, "to undo what you've done." He punctuated the words with another kick to the belly, causing Kel to cough and gasp anew. For the first time, he noticed Solos's cheering section. Every time Kel was struck, they would either wince in sympathetic pain or howl and laugh in approval.

"It's all right though," he began, spreading his arms out again before slapping them against his thighs. "It really is all right. We're negotiating. We're making progress. You've made an offer and now it's to me to make a counteroffer. Solos picked him up with as little effort as before and pushed him into the nearest wall.

"Here is my counteroffer, little man. You fix what you broke." He pulled a long, wide hunter's blade from his belt, placing the tip near enough to Kel's left eye so that the blade was all that it would see. "You fix what you broke so it's exactly, and I mean exactly as it was before or I'm going to use this blade, gut you, and find a mage to fix what you did, because there's always a better mage."

"So, fix what you broke, or die here and now. Your choice. Do you really want to have died for a good suck? Is it worth it? Was it so good that you see your life as complete and you can die a happy man?"

Kel pulled his gaze from the blade and met Solos's gaze. There was barely controlled rage, but, almost more frightening than that, there was indifference. He really did believe it could be undone, and maybe it could, but Solos didn't care either way. He would gut Kel and move on. He briefly considered lying, saying he could set everything right. It would buy him some time, but it would put him back in the bowels of the place, and potentially in a worse position than he was right now, not that he could imagine the particulars of how that could be so.

Kel decided that maybe if he pushed hard enough in one shot, maybe he could carve a path into Solos fast enough, so that he could make headway with the man with the words that followed. When push came to shove, how different could it be with Solos when compared to any of the women? The women didn't matter. Nothing did. His future distilled down to the simple desire to leave this place with his skin intact.

Please work. Kel took a deep breath, using it to concentrate and call the power forth, imagining it as a wave to unleash. "You need to let me go."

In the instant between word and force, as Kel had seen behind Solo's eyes to his intent, so had Solos seen into his. He drove the blade forward and Kel saw that as soon as it was made. He gasped in anticipation and, in that moment, his fear, anger, confusion, sadness balled up within him and, in that instant, the talisman flared with power so that it glowed before it burst forth. Kel swore that he would see it with his naked eyes almost before he could process it.

What he did see though was the immediate result. It was Solos that looked as if he'd been stabbed. His eyes widened in shock at the sudden pain and the added surprise that it was there at all. There was no checking to see where the source was because it seemed to be everywhere at once with an intensity that didn't fade with time. It was a sensation like no other. He had been wounded before in his violent life, and had nearly died more than once. He was no stranger to violent, wracking pain where one sobbed to keep from screaming and one had to force himself to think rationally, step by step, so that he might live. This wasn't like that. It was horrible. It was paralyzing. But he could think past it. It was like something surrounding him instead of coming from within.

He held the knife in a reflexive grip, in too much pain to let the blade go, or to drive it forward. Solo's eyes were locked wide and, even through the pain he noted the wild in the little man's eyes. He saw the faint glow of power behind them. And he was afraid. He'd never been afraid in his life, not of beast or man, but he was afraid now, which was exhilarating in a backwards sort of way.

Power punched through his barrel chest, from Kel's hands and when Kel pushed, Solos stepped back, his legs moving slowly, but with the joints moving in an unnatural progression, like a puppet on strings.

Kel was power now. He felt it flowing through him like never before since he'd found the trinket. It flowed through him like a rushing river of molten metal. It was a giddy thrill for which there were no words. It wasn't even just that feeling of power, though that would have been enough. But, as he looked around, he saw Adger, the guards, and whatever other flotsam that chose darkness to make their deals just as frozen in fear or bewilderment as Solos was.

He could control them all, he knew. Thoughts of aiming small and building slowly evaporated with the high of power as it came forth from him in waves. He couldn't see it, but he could feel it. He could feel the minds around him, some more than others. The more distant from him the mind the less he could feel it, but that was easily remedied in time. Once those closest were his, he could focus more on the outliers.

But they would be his. They would all be his. He was sure of it. Then, he would bring more to him and shape them, too. Even now he felt he could reach out, that there was no limit. His future was now crystal clear. He would build a kingdom from this place. Those in his thrall would do as he saw fit and even believe as he saw fit. He was a fool for worrying so much. If this is what the power could do, he never had to worry about anything ever again.

The world would be his.

Everyone that he needed or wanted to be part of it would be. The rest didn't matter one way or the other. Goddess, as long as he could keep this feeling within him, nothing else mattered. No fear. No needing to talk himself into or out of something. Just whatever he needed in the moment and what could make him keep feeling this heady, glorious, uncontrolled rush.

The world was before him. All he had to do was just...

He felt a pinch at his back.

He turned to Solos, but the beast of a man stood paralyzed where Kel had left him. The discomfort was still there, and looking down he saw the dark, pointed shard of metal catching bits of torchlight protruding from his chest and the blood oozing from it and over his bare chest, drips already peppering the ground. He continued to turn, until from above him, he saw one of the guards on the railed platform that served as a watchtower struggling through the pain and paralysis, clawing for an arrow from his quiver. Every inch was a fight, and the stain of that was on his face, but he was determined.

Kel tried to fashion a piece of one of those waves of power that still flowed from him to pierce the mind of that guard. He would learn. He would end up like Delvine. Kel would show them. He would show them all. The power he felt could not be stopped. It was bigger than him, Kel knew. He would show them that it was bigger than all of them.

With the brief distraction that came with the sift and refocus of power, he felt a hand claw the back of his neck and a blade drive into his side. Kel finally seemed fully aware of the moment as he turned to look into Solos's eyes and see the satisfaction behind them that went with a victorious sneer. "Not quite enough, was it mage?"

Kel tried to answer, but he couldn't find his voice. The power that promised that everything was possible was fleeing him, the pulses of it fading almost with the beat of his heart. It could fix him, he knew. It could do anything, if only he knew how to control it better, but any control over it at all was slipping away. It seemed to be falling away from him, but that was as much the change in perspective of his world as much as anything else. All his grand dreams, desires and plans were slipping away along with his very life. Kel knew he was lost because it seemed as though the magic was discarding him.

With his last breaths he found himself wishing that he had simply walked away from the old man at the end of his life and had simply moved on with his own.

Solos eased him down to the ground, pulling the talisman from his neck as he rose, watching Kel fade. When he knew Kel was gone, he waited longer still to be certain that it wasn't some mage trick. It was why, while he used them when necessary, he kept none close to him. Mages spun webs within webs and one could often become trapped without realizing it.

When he was finally satisfied, he looked to the guard that had managed to fire the arrow. He yelled across the distance between them. "You? What's your name?"

His voice still shook as he continued to recover, "Rai, Lord."

"Rai, that was a nice shot," he said, trying to weather the throbbing in his own skull, but not daring to show weakness. He'd shown them enough, even if it was through no fault of his own. The man probably saved their lives. At the very least, he may well have saved them from becoming Delvine, which, for Solos was a fate far worse, so that deserved note. "That was a testament to your will and your skill. A week's extra pay for you, whatever you want for your next meal, and the woman of your choice for the night."

"Thank you, Lord. Though if most of that could wait until my brain stops trying to explode, you would further honor me."

He couldn't fault the man and even managed a grin in response. "Fair enough." He used the lingering pain and repeatedly filling his lungs with the bitter air to return himself fully to his body.

"Are you all right, Lord? What was that? It felt like I was burning alive" Adger came towards him with a still unsteady stride.

Solos looked down at the lifeless eyes staring back at him, "I'm fine. And more dark magic from this mage." He looked down hoping the corpse could still hear him, "Didn't quite work out for you though, did it?"

He deliberately avoided looking at the body. He was not one for gore and death. "Orders, Lord?"

"Get rid of that." He sighed. "And, with this one dead, we still need a mage for Delvine. One ruined her, so my best chance of fixing that is another one. Send a party down the road. Healers and mages happen by now and then. See if there is one. Bring them. Pay, barter with them, or seize them, I don't care."

"Lord, what if..."

Solos looked at him expectantly as the pause drew out, "Spit it out, Adger?"

"What if he did what he came here to do? What if her employers sent him to silence her in case she decided to assist you?"

Solos took time to game it out and it made sense. But it still didn't change things. Indeed, if it was all part of some larger scheme, and he brought them to him there would be danger, but there was something to be said for meeting that at a time and place of his choosing, not theirs. "Then we'll know that soon enough. Still, send the team to see if they can find anyone her employers may have sent. End them as discussed. It may not have use as originally intended, but it at least buys time even if Delvine can't be fixed."

"At once, Lord." Adger moved quickly to follow the orders as Solos spared one last glance at the dead little man before heading back to the warmth of home. He couldn't help but notice that the necklace was still warm even as it was coiled around his hand. That warmth spread over his skin and whispered of the power within that seemed to be only looking for permission to be unleashed. The feeling dancing across the hairs on his arm felt to Solos like the pacing of an anxious, chained animal.

Interesting.

To Be Continued...