Heir to the Shadows (The Black Jewels #2)(116)
Author: Anne Bishop

Karla bent over him. "We’re fine.You’re the one who fainted."

"I didn’t faint. I got caught . . ." He started struggling. "Let me up. If the storm’s over, we have to get to Sceval."

"Cat’s there?" Lucivar asked, hauling him to his feet.

"Yes." Remembering Jaenelle’s anguished scream, Saetan shuddered. "You and I have to get there as soon as possible."

Karla poked a sharp-nailed finger into his bare chest."We have to get there as soon as possible."

Before he could argue, they’d all disappeared into their rooms.

"If we move, we can get there ahead of the rest of them," Lucivar said quietly as they entered Saetan’s bedroom. He called in his own clothes and hurriedly dressed. "Are you strong enough for this?"

Saetan pulled on a shirt. "I’m ready. Let’s go."

"Are you strong enough for this?"

Saetan brushed past Lucivar without answering. How could a man answer that question when he didn’t know what was waiting for him?

"Mother Night," Saetan whispered. "Mother Night."

He and Lucivar stood on a flat-topped hill that was one of Sceva’s official landing places, the gently rolling land spread out below them. Large meadows provided good grazing. Stands of trees provided shade on summer afternoons. Creeks veined the land with clean water.

He had stood on this hill a handful of times in the past five years, looking down on the unicorns while the stallions kept careful watch over the grazing mares and the foals playing tag.

Now he looked down on a slaughter.

Turning to the north, Lucivar shook his head and swore softly. "This wasn’t a few bastards who had come for a horn to take home as a hunting trophy, this was a war."

Saetan blinked away tears. Of all the Blood, of all the kindred races, the unicorns had always been his favorite. They had been the stars in the Darkness, the living examples of power and strength blended with gentleness and beauty. "When the others arrive, we’ll split up to look for survivors."

The unicorns attacked at the same moment the coven and the male circle appeared on the hill.

"Shield!" Saetan and Lucivar shouted. They threw Black and Ebon-gray shields around the whole group while the other males formed a protective circle around the coven.

The eight unicorn stallions veered off before they hit the shields head-on, but the power they were channeling through their horns and hooves created blinding-bright sparks as they scraped across the invisible barriers.

"Wait!" Saetan shouted, the thunder in his voice barely competing with the stallions’ screams and trumpeted challenges. "We’re friends! We’re here to help you!"

"You are not friends," said an older stallion with a broken horn. "You are humans!" "We’re friends," Saetan insisted. "you are not friends!" the unicorns screamed."you are humans!"

Sceron took a step forward. "The Centauran people have never fought with our unicorn Brothers and Sisters. We do not wish to fight now."

"You come to kill. First you call us Brothers and then you come to kill. No more.no more. This time, we kill!" Karla stuck her head over Saetan’s shoulder. "Damn your hooves and horns, we’reHealers. Let us take care of the injured!"

The unicorns hesitated for a moment, then shook their heads and charged the shields again,

"I don’t recognize any of them," Lucivar said, "and they’re too blood-crazed to listen."

Saetan watched the stallions charge the shields over and over again. He sympathized with their rage, fully understood their hatred. But he couldn’t walk away until they were calm enough to listen because more would die if they weren’t cared for soon.

And because Jaenelle was among those bodies, somewhere.

Then the unicorns stopped attacking. They circled the group, snorting and pawing the ground, their horns lowered for another charge.

"Thank the Darkness," Khary muttered as a young stallion slowly climbed up the hill, favoring his left foreleg.

Relieved, the girls began murmuring about healing teams.

Watching the young stallion approach, Saetan wished he could share their confidence, but out of all of Kaetien’s offspring, Mistral had always been the most wary of humans—and the most dangerous. Necessary traits for a young male who everyone anticipated would be the next Warlord Prince of Sceval, but damned uncomfortable for the man on the receiving end of that distrust.

"Mistral." Saetan stepped forward, raising his empty hands. "You’ve known all of us since you were a foal. Let us help."

"I have known you," Mistral said reluctantly. "That sounds ominous," Lucivar said on an Ebon-gray spear thread.

"If this goes wrong, get everyone else out of here," Saetan replied. "I’ll hold the shield." "We still have to find Cat." "Get them out, Yaslana." "Yes, High Lord."

Saetan took another step forward. "Mistral, I swear to you by the Jewels that I wear and by my love for the Lady that we mean no harm."

Whatever Mistral thought about a human male laying claim to the Lady was lost when Ladvarian’s light tenor pounded into their heads.

"High Lord? High Lord! We have some little ones shielded, but they’re scared and won’t listen. They keep running into the shield. Jaenelle is crying and won’t listen either. High Lord?"

Saetan held his breath. Which would prove stronger— Mistral’s loyalty to his own kind or his love for and belief in Jaenelle?

Mistral looked toward the north. After a long moment, he snorted. "The little Brother believes in you. We will trust. For now."

Desperately wanting to sit down and not daring to show any sign of weakness, Saetan cautiously lowered the Black shield. A moment later, Lucivar dropped the Ebon-gray.

They divided into groups. Khary and Morghann went to help Ladvarian and Kaelas with the foals. Lucivar and Karla headed north from the landing place with Karla as primary Healer, Lucivar as secondary, and the rest of their team scouting for the wounded and providing assistance. Saetan, Gabrielle, and their team headed south.

It hurt to look at the mares’ hacked-up bodies. It hurt even worse to see a young colt lying dead over his dam, his forelegs sliced off. There were some he could save. There were many more where all he could do was take away the pain to ease the journey back to the Darkness.

Hours passed as he searched for the foals that might be hidden under their dams. He found yearlings hidden in shallow dips in the land, dips that held a power unlike any he’d ever felt before. He didn’t trespass into those places. The young unicorns watched him with terrified eyes as he carefully circled around them looking for wounds. It came to him slowly as he stepped around torn human bodies that any of the unicorns who had reached these places had, at worst, minor cuts or scratches.