Rune Knight: Book Two of The Empress Saga

CHAPTER EIGHT

"Waves and tides, unhand me!" Ban demanded as his shirt was ripped off of him against his will.

"Death Fire must be silent," Rippling Moon whispered harshly from up above on the rocks. "Devourers will hear. Allow green one her way. Death Fire sounds of white one."

If Ban didn't miss his guess, Moon just called him a big baby. He didn't appreciate that in the slightest.

Their camp for the night was made within a little gully of rock that was encircled by a thicket of trees. It was safe from snow drifts and hidden from sight. Light Hoof said with absolute certainty that it was far from wendigos and any other predator that might lair in the area. Safe or not, Moon sat up above with the horses on the lip of the gully. Her eyes, ears, and nose were turned outwards towards the forest.

Light Hoof held Ban still with Deebee's help. She was a naked woman again, but that didn't deter Ban's struggling. As for the goblin, a man so small shouldn't have been so heavy. His name was a floundering lie.

"Death Fire will end us for this," the red warned with a note of levity. "His eyes sight black."

"They do," Ban snapped. "Black as black gets."

Light Hoof chuckled. To the depths with him.

Jin tended the fire and boiled something in a pot at Enfri's instruction. Ban kept a leery eye on everything the princess chucked into that brew.

"A tad less heat, dear," Enfri said to her.

"Dear?" Jin asked, incredulous, as she used sorcery to lower the flames.

"No? You didn't much like the last one either. I'm running out of options."

Jin stared into the pot. "Keep trying," she said.

Ban might have had something clever to add to their exchange, but he was occupied by fending off Enfri's roaming fingers.

"Be still," Enfri commanded. "I'd be done by now if you just behaved yourself and took it like a paladin. I've treated children less squirrelly. You were much more cooperative last night."

"I was half-dead," Ban argued. He needed something to distract Enfri from her intent. A plan was hatched out of wild desperation. "I didn't know you were courting Jin then and thought I might make a go of it."

"Careful," Jin warned.

Ban went on unabated. Jin's wrath was the least of his worries at the moment. "Ha! I was thinking of every way I knew of to get you in my bedroll."

Deebee smacked him upside the head.

"Blustering liar," Enfri said. "You wouldn't dream of dishonoring your Pacifica."

Waves take her, it failed. Honesty then. Women appreciated honesty, didn't they? "Fine. Last night, you didn't have that!"

The item he referred to was a glass syringe with a hollow needle that seemed long enough to skewer a boar. What manner of demon carried a vile thing like that in her bags as if it were normal?

"You've developed pus-nodules in your lungs," Enfri tried to explain. "I was worried about this from the start. My potion just wasn't strong enough to keep this from happening and could very well have made it worse. I need to drain them before I give you anything more, or you could get pneumonia and die."

Ban shook his head hard enough that his vision blurred. "No. No, no, no. I've had enough things rammed through my chest, thank you very much."

Enfri backed off, her eyes startled. "Winds take me. Ban, I'm so sorry. I didn't stop to consider. Please, forgive me."

She motioned for Light Hoof and Deebee to release him.