Page 74 of Lady's Steed
Avera pointed to the glowing relic. “I thought it kept me safe.”
“It keeps others safe. Your heritage protects you. Voxspiras are immune to Zhos’ influence and tricks.”
Good to know, and while she would have liked to ask questions, there wasn’t time. Gustav halted a pace away from the line of oil and the glow imbuing it.
“It’s working,” Avera whispered. Her simple idea had stemmed the advancing bodies but did nothing to fix her friends. They stood with glazed expressions, motionless, not touching the oil.
Gustav’s head canted and his eyes rolled back in his head. His voice emerged raspy and low. “You cannot escape, spawn of Voxspira.”
Her lips parted. “Gustav?”
A rattling chuckle brought a shiver down her spine. “Foolish Queen. You should have died with the others. Alas, I am plagued with incompetents.”
“You gave Benoit the order to kill my family.”
“Hardly an order. A suggestion he gleefully accepted. The specks that litter this world are still just as greedy and stupid as before.”
“So stupid they imprisoned you,” she stated, emboldened by the fact her ruse kept it at bay.
“Silence!” The shout boomed and Avera clenched her fists lest she recoil. “Once you are dead, there will be nothing to stop my return. And this time, I won’t make the same mistake. Everyone will die.”
With that announcement, Gustav moved forward, but rather than step over the line of oil with the talisman, he stomped it! The glass shattered and Avera uttered a strangled cry and readied to flee as the bodies behind Gustav shuffled forward.
The glow from the amulet expanded despite it being broken, releasing a gas of some sort, or so it seemed, given it spread and lingered in the air. Even better, those close enough to be touched suddenly blinked as if rousing from a long sleep.
“Avera.” Gustav gaped at her then the sword in his hand. He didn’t sheath it though, most likely because the roiling mist arrived to tickle his flesh and drag him under again.
All of those who’d temporarily woken resumed their vacant-eyed stare.
The glow from the amulet dissipated and the fog rushed in to take its place. As Avera retreated, Gustav advanced with his sword held out in front of him.
Avera bumped into the wall and then jerked to the side as Gustav swung. His sword clanged as it connected with stone. She pushed off from the wall, her skin scraping on the rough surface, enough to draw blood, leaving a smear on the rock. The mist in that vicinity shrank, as if burned off by the sun.
Or more accurately, dispelled by the fluid of her wound.
Gustav swung again, and she sucked in her stomach as she took a step back, pleading, “Wake up, Gustav. You don’t want to kill me.”
Not according to his blank face and the fact his arm pulled back to once more strike.
She held up her bleeding hand in a surrender gesture, and Gustav paused, his face shifting through a myriad of emotions: horror, determination, strain, then slackness.
Opal huffed. “Your blood has the same effect as the amulet, it seems.”
“Can we use it?” Avera exclaimed, not taking her gaze from the struggling Gustav and the others who shuffled past him.
“I think so, yes, but I’ll need more than a smear.”
Avera didn’t pause to think, she drew her dagger and slashed it across her palm, opening up a gash deep enough it dripped.
“Let’s work some magic.” Opal dipped her fingers into the blood and then dropped to her haunches. Her cheeks sucked in as she traced bloody fingers in the air, creating symbols of red that hung as if written on something solid. Wildly impossible,and yet everything Opal sketched remained suspended and began to glow. Even better, it kept the mind-possessed at bay.
“More blood,” Opal muttered, showing clean fingers. The blood had left them to form the shapes she’d created.
Avera squeezed her fist and let it drip onto Opal’s waiting hands. As more symbols took shape, the glow around them intensified and the mist retreated.
“Now to break the chain holding them.” Opal grunted as she clapped her hands and then pushed them forward.
The symbols containing bits of Avera’s blood went flying, slapping into Gustav first, then those by his side. As they fell to their knees, more of the marks hit those behind. As they dropped, the ones situated further back got touched next. As this happened, the mist crowding the ledge fled.