Read Online Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder - Free Book Online Page A

and allowed to ascend to the next
    level.”
    He smoothed tendrils of hair from my face. I made a conscious effort not to
    flinch as his fingers caressed my cheek.

    “Are the rumors true? Are you really a Soulfinder?” he whispered to me. He
    stroked my arm in a possessive way. “Perhaps I can siphon a cup of your blood
    before I deliver you to Jal.” He reached for the knife hanging from his belt.
    I moved. Pulling my switchblade from my pocket, I triggered the blade and rolled
    over, slicing his stomach open. But instead of falling back in surprise, he leaned
    forward and wrapped his hands around my neck.
    A blur of motion beside me, and Moon Man leaped to his feet, swinging his
    scimitar in a deadly arc through Rough Voice.
    I struggled with the leader. His weight trapped my arms. The pressure from his
    thumbs closed my windpipe. He attempted to connect with my mind, and would
    have succeeded with his magical attack if the Curare on my switchblade hadn’t
    worked so fast to paralyze his power.
    One problem remained. Trapped under the frozen Vermin, I couldn’t breathe.
    Moon Man, I called. Help!
    One minute. The clang of weapons split the air.
    I’ll be dead in a minute. Just push him off. A brief flurry of steel hitting steel was
    followed by silence. The man on me fell to the side. I freed my arms and pried his
    hands from my neck.
    Moon Man reengaged in the battle. He fought three men. One man’s decapitated
    head rested next to me. Lovely.
    My short blade wouldn’t last against their long scimitars and my bow was in the
    jungle with my pack. Gathering power, I sent a light touch to one man’s mind.
    Relieved he wasn’t a Warper, I sent him puzzling images to distract him.
    He dropped out of the fight with Moon Man and stared at my approach with a
    baffled expression. The man raised his sword a second too late. I stepped close to
    him and nicked his arm with my switchblade, hoping Curare still clung to my blade.
    Unable to use his sword, the man dropped his weapon and lunged. His intent to
    subdue me rang clear in his mind, but I deepened my mental connection and forced
    him to sleep.
    With only two attackers left, Moon Man had both their heads off in short order.
    He strode over to the man sleeping at my feet and raised his scimitar.
    “Stop,” I said. “When he wakes, we can question him about Cahil’s plans.”
    “The other?”
    “Paralyzed.”
    Moon Man rolled the leader over. The blood from his stomach wound had
    pooled on the rocks. After touching the man’s neck and face, Moon Man said, “He
    is gone.”
    The cut was deeper than I thought. A felt a tinge of guilt as I scowled at the
    body. The leader probably had more information than the other man.
    “It is a good thing. He was a Warper. We would not have gotten anything from
    him except trouble.”
    I looked at the scattered carnage. The headless bodies cast macabre shadows in
    the pale moonlight. The side of my face and the wound in my back throbbed. The
    cool night air felt icy on my wet clothes. Tauno and Marrok both needed medical
    attention, and we couldn’t go anywhere until the Curare wore off. And the thought of
    spending the night surrounded by corpses…

    “I will take care of them,” Moon Man said, reading my thoughts. “And I will
    build a fire. You take care of the wounded. Including you.”
    Pulling the arrows from Marrok’s thigh and Tauno’s shoulder, I gathered power
    but couldn’t assume their injuries. The Curare in their bodies blocked my magic. An
    interesting discovery. It seemed when under the influence of the drug, a person
    couldn’t do magic or be affected by it.
    I mulled over the implications as I searched in my pack. Finding a few lumps of
    Theobroma, I gave it to Moon Man to melt over the fire and feed to our paralyzed
    companions. From my own experience with Curare, I knew the drug didn’t affect
    the body’s ability to swallow, breathe and hear. So I told them what I planned to do.
    The last of my