Rune Mage [Fantasy/Adventure | Book 1 +2 | Complete]

CHAOS MAGE Chapter 29: Kaim and Leviat

Eleia pummelled Kaim, but he swept her up in his arms as if she weighed no more than a newborn. She screamed all the obscenities she knew at him, slapping at his head, tugging at his hair. Tears poured down her face, blurring her vision until everything was a hazy grey and green. Blood drummed in her ears.

Eishet's face flashed before her mind's eye. Eleia recalled that day in the cells beneath the palace at Falnash when Cazadia Delnargin had lashed that Karman girl raw in an effort to make her speak the insurgents' names. The injuries would have killed any person of her build, but before Eleia's amazed eyes, the unconscious Karman girl was engulfed in white — which Eleia had hurriedly covered with shredded pieces of fabric to avoid the guards noticing — and several hours later, Eishet awoke as if she'd never been anywhere near death's door. It was mind-boggling magic. Eleia had seen Karman magic before with their peculiar designs and lack of soul, unlike Hannan summoning. Whatever Eishet had, it was nothing Eleia had ever seen nor anything she'd read about. But it brought Eishet back from certain death.

If only she were here. She could save Okin.

Kaim set Eleia down gently at the centre of the chamber. She sat up, numb, eyes sweeping slowly over the sky-high ceiling, the delicately interweaving ancient Hannan designs swirling from the centre and spiralling down the four corners of the huge hall. Tophalite bathed the place in a gentle yellow glow, reminding Eleia of dusk during long, dry summers with rippling ochre sand tinged with crimson and sweeping, empty skies. Peculiar light flickered in the air. A fullness pulsed just beneath the skin in her hands. The atmosphere was so saturated with magic.

She jumped when something hit her leg. Kaim had thrown her bag of summoner's dust at her feet. It must have fallen off during the scuffle.

"Summon Apollinon," he ordered.

Eleia glared back at him, gritting her teeth.

"No," she said, ensuring her response was as curt as her trembling arms could muster.

"If you don't call him, Fautos will get here and we're all dead."

"I will not summon the royal daemon at the cost of our friends! You're a scoundrel. I couldn't believe I trusted you—"

"No, you listen to me, Eleia." Kaim's face contorted in a manner she'd never seen before. Darkening with anger, a scowl erased all the pleasant features from his face. Veins popped out at his temples and on the surface of his neck, the skin of which turned scarlet. He stopped signing at her but she could still read his lips. "People have died for this. The entire insurgence waited for this moment when we would get the right arsenal so we can demolish the Daemonium and Fautos. We waited years for this and it's now in your hands — and you're saying no? You have the audacity to say no?!"

His words distorted as he became increasingly furious, his enunciations uncoordinated. He spun around, still yelling, but Eleia could no longer read his lips.

"—told me we should have just left you to die," he snarled when he turned around again. "For three years, I wondered if I should have taken you in. You couldn't fight. Your daemon was weak. You couldn't even run or hear. You had no contribution to our strength. But it was Princess Gerta's last wish and she had been good to my family and to many of the others. Have you any idea how risky it was harbouring you? When Fautos knew his crippled, deaf sister was out there in hiding and we had to stay in Falnash to know what was going on — but you were so easy to spot?"

Eleia attempted to speak, but Kaim stormed over and she stopped, shrinking back and half expecting him to strike her like Fautos had done in the past whenever she'd wronged him — which was often.