JК
Mistrals Kiss :: Гамильтон Лорел
Страница: 135 из 148I realized in that moment that it wasn’t just the archers who were shooting blind — I had never before tried to use the hand of blood on a target I could not see.
For a heartbeat the power turned back on me, and every small scrape I’d accumulated in the past twenty-four hours bled. Each tiny wound bled like a fountain, and I fought my body, fought my own magic to keep it from destroying me.
Lightning struck the cloud, and illuminated it, as it had inside the sluagh’s mound. But I wasn’t horrified this time, I was joyous; a fierce triumphant joy. If I could see it, I could make it bleed.
I had the blink of an eye to spot my targets. A breath to see that the tentacled mass was white and silver and gold, not the black and grey and white it had been. I had an instant to note that the hunt had a terrible beauty before I thrust my power toward that shining mass and screamed, “Bleed!”
Green flame climbed up the trees and lightning flared behind it so that both powers met mine in the cloud at the same instant. The cloud flashed green in reflected color. I called for blood and black fountains of it exploded into the green-yellow flare.
The light died, leaving the night blacker than before. My night vision had been ruined from staring into the light. Something spattered against the left side of my face, something that felt wet, but carried no shock of temperature difference. Only two things feel like that: water at body temperature, and very fresh blood. If I had been a warrior, I would have whirled, gun up, but I turned slowly, like a character in a horror movie who doesn’t really want to see the blow before it falls.
All that met my eyes was the shortest of my Red Cap guards, Bithek. Someone had sliced open his scalp to spill blood in a gory mask down his face, so that even his eyes were lost to the dark flow of it. Then he shook his head like a wet dog, spattering me with warm drops. I closed my eyes, put up a protecting hand.
Jonty’s chided Bithek. “You’re wasting the blood.”
“But so much, can’t keep it out of my eyes. I’d forgotten that it was ever like this,” Bithek growled.
I looked behind me at Jonty and found him as bloody as the other guard. It made me look around at all of them. They were all covered in blood, but even by moonlight and starlight, I could see now that the blood welled from the caps on their heads.
“Your magic brings our blood, Princess,” Jonty said.
“I don’t understand…”
“Make them bleed for us,” the last Red Cap said.
I looked at him. “I can’t remember your name,” I said.
For a heartbeat the power turned back on me, and every small scrape I’d accumulated in the past twenty-four hours bled. Each tiny wound bled like a fountain, and I fought my body, fought my own magic to keep it from destroying me.
Lightning struck the cloud, and illuminated it, as it had inside the sluagh’s mound. But I wasn’t horrified this time, I was joyous; a fierce triumphant joy. If I could see it, I could make it bleed.
I had the blink of an eye to spot my targets. A breath to see that the tentacled mass was white and silver and gold, not the black and grey and white it had been. I had an instant to note that the hunt had a terrible beauty before I thrust my power toward that shining mass and screamed, “Bleed!”
Green flame climbed up the trees and lightning flared behind it so that both powers met mine in the cloud at the same instant. The cloud flashed green in reflected color. I called for blood and black fountains of it exploded into the green-yellow flare.
The light died, leaving the night blacker than before. My night vision had been ruined from staring into the light. Something spattered against the left side of my face, something that felt wet, but carried no shock of temperature difference. Only two things feel like that: water at body temperature, and very fresh blood. If I had been a warrior, I would have whirled, gun up, but I turned slowly, like a character in a horror movie who doesn’t really want to see the blow before it falls.
All that met my eyes was the shortest of my Red Cap guards, Bithek. Someone had sliced open his scalp to spill blood in a gory mask down his face, so that even his eyes were lost to the dark flow of it. Then he shook his head like a wet dog, spattering me with warm drops. I closed my eyes, put up a protecting hand.
Jonty’s chided Bithek. “You’re wasting the blood.”
“But so much, can’t keep it out of my eyes. I’d forgotten that it was ever like this,” Bithek growled.
I looked behind me at Jonty and found him as bloody as the other guard. It made me look around at all of them. They were all covered in blood, but even by moonlight and starlight, I could see now that the blood welled from the caps on their heads.
“Your magic brings our blood, Princess,” Jonty said.
“I don’t understand…”
“Make them bleed for us,” the last Red Cap said.
I looked at him. “I can’t remember your name,” I said.