Gathering Storm (The Salvation of Tempestria Book 2) by Gary Stringer (howl and other poems .txt) 📕

kiss, she directed his vision to the knives in her hands. They were sheathed for safety, but in a real situation, she would have sprung them open in a split second and sliced open his neck.

“How did I not see those?” Daelen asked, incredulously.

“Jessica mentioned Sara had what she called ‘tech skills.’ I asked Sara about it, and together, we had an idea.”

Mandalee was now sporting what appeared to be a ring on one finger of each hand, but they weren’t merely pieces of jewellery; they each contained a tiny perception filter that concealed the knives.

“If you were my enemy,” she flirted, gazing seductively into his eyes as though they were lovers, “my lips would be the last thing you ever felt. You wouldn’t even feel my knives open your arteries. You might just have time to see your lifeblood fly from your body before you died.”

Daelen grinned, “If that kiss was the last thing I ever felt, I could think of worse ways to go,” he quipped.

Mandalee gave him a playful shove for his trouble, but she appreciated the compliment.

“Alright, you’ve convinced me,” he admitted. “Now, I don’t know about you two, but I think that’s enough training for one—”

He didn’t get to finish his sentence before the assassin, all smiles a moment ago, let out an agonising scream and shot off in a blur, towards the house.

“What happened?” Daelen asked. “I didn’t hurt her, somehow, did I?”

Cat shook her head. “No, nothing like that.” She turned to look at Daelen, her face ashen in shock. “I can feel it through our sympathic connection.”

“Feel what?”

“Pain,” she answered, tears welling in her eyes. “Not from Mandalee. From Shyleen. I think our enemies on Tempestria have found StormClaw and Shyleen’s been injured – really badly. We have to get back there now!”

“I’ll have to leave a quick note for Sara and Jessica.”

“Do what you must,” Cat growled, a look of fury and determination on her face, “but I’m not waiting around. Shyleen was hurt once before, and I wasn’t there to help her and Mandalee. That is not happening again!”

Rather than waste time running back to the portal room, she simply widened the Prismatic Sphere micro-portal that had been allowing her access to her world and her magic while on Earth. She stepped through it to the other side. She didn’t waste time closing it, deciding she might as well leave it open for Daelen, but she had no intention of going back.

Chapter 28

Mandalee tore through the StormClaw forest, with tears blinding her vision. She had to find Shyleen. Shyleen was more than she appeared. Shyleen was a part of her. She had given the leopard god half of her soul in return for the knowledge and power of nature. But more than that, Shyleen was, well, Shyleen. Her friend. Her only constant companion since she was a child. Even as Mandalee ran, she could feel half of her own self slipping away.

With a sob, she cried, “Shyleen, I’m coming!”

Moments later, she stumbled across a large clearing. The great leopard was lying there at the far end from her perspective, not moving and barely alive. Mandalee saw at once the vicious wound in her side and knew she had to heal her, quickly. But she also knew something else: this whole situation was screaming ‘trap.’ She forced the tears to stop as she got a grip on her emotions. Shyleen needed her to be in control. She had no choice but to spring the trap, but she could choose what happened when she did, and she decided at that moment that Shyleen was not dying today.

“I know you’re out there!” Mandalee called out. “Waiting to strike. Please, just let me heal the leopard. She’s my friend, though I suppose you know that.” She stepped out of the treeline and made a show of stripping herself of her weapons. “Look,” she encouraged them, “I’m unarmed now. Let me get to my friend, and I don’t care what you do to me.”

About a dozen people – warriors, wizards and clerics, along with half that many demons of various kinds – stepped out of the trees near Shyleen’s prone form. Mandalee knew there were more, a lot more, and she wanted them where she could see them. She took a small step forward.

“Kill me, torture me, take me as a hostage to use against my other friends. Doesn’t matter.”

More enemies were emboldened to join their comrades. Still, Mandalee could hear the animals on the island communicating with each other. From them, she knew there were still more concealing themselves. If she let even one stay hidden, she would die and worse, so would Shyleen. That was not going to happen.

She took another step, slowly, carefully, making no sudden movements, keeping her enemies calm, allowing them to relax. The more relaxed they got, the slower their reaction time when she finally made her move.

Holding up her hands, she showed them that she was indeed carrying no weapons…at least, none that they could see. More enemies stepped into the light, taking the number well into the thirties. Still not all.

As she continued to step slowly forward, a mist began to roll in off the sea…surely a coincidence. Her enemies paid it no heed, whatsoever.

“I’m at your mercy.” Mandalee allowed fear to creep into her quavering voice. “You can take your time with me.”

She wasn’t wearing her mask, and she recognised the looks on the faces of many there present. It was the same look she had seen many times before from people who couldn’t accept her gender identity. It was the same look she had seen at that party in Walminster before she first met Daelen. The look that bartender gave her when he insisted on calling her ‘sir.’ She allowed the anger of that moment to fill her. She let all of her rage from all of those moments fill her. The rage she kept deep inside. The fury that slowly built every time she