Burning Up

reached down toward Marin’s gleaming curls.
    Marin screamed and cowered.
    Amaris jerked her sister away and surged to her feet, the child wrapped in her arms. Summoning a shielding spell, she glared at the wizard. “Back. Away .”
    “Ahhh, Amaris, my sweet.” Korban spread his arms in the fine robes that draped his lean body in silk. Embroidered runes covered the red fabric in intricate spells of protection and power enhancement. The thread shone bright with gold—except where darkened with the blood of the robes’ tailor, slain to enhance its power. His face was long and pale in the torchlight, a beard darkening his angular cheeks and framing his dissolute mouth. “You wound me.”
    “Not yet,” Amaris snarled, “But I will if you do not keep your promise.” She jerked her chin at the unconscious vampire. “I captured Lord Raniero, as you demanded. Now, release us.”
    “In time.”
    “Now!” Amaris demanded through clenched teeth.
    Marin’s little legs curled tighter around her hip. “He thinks ’bout killin’ me to feed that ball of his,” the child whispered fearfully. “I see it in his mind. All the time.”
    Korban’s eyes rested on the back of the child’s head, greed in their pale depths. “So much potential power for one so young. And you say she is but three years of age?”
    “Her age is of no matter to you, wizard.” Heartily sick of his games, Amaris spun toward the great hall’s double doors. She’d left her horse saddled, Marin’s few things packed in saddlebags. They could make Clefton in three days of hard riding. “We are leaving.”
    “No.”
    All around the hall, warriors looked up at his tone. Swords left scabbards with a sinister metallic slither.
    Amaris stopped short as the point of one fighter’s blade rose toward Marin’s thin back. The child’s arms and legs tightened around her with a strength born of sheer terror. Drawing in power desperately, Amaris reinforced the magical shield around them.
    But it could not protect them against every man here.
    “I’ve decided I need one further service from my Blood Rose.”
    Amaris whirled toward him, hot words on her lips. They died on her tongue at the sight of the crimson globe that floated above his palm. The sheer evil emanating from the thing made her skin crawl in revulsion.
    The Blood Orb.
    “I have a small problem,” Korban told her absently, his eyes fixed on the Orb with lustful fascination. “I can kill King Ferran’s errand boy, of course.” He jerked his chin at Raniero, sprawled in muscular insensibility on the rush-covered floor. “But when he does not report back to his master, Ferran will consider his suspicions confirmed. And since the king maintains a well-trained and rather impressive army that includes a respectable cadre of wizards—well, I would as soon they did not pay me a visit.”
    “What has that to do with me?” Amaris snapped. “I cannot defend you from an army.”
    “No, but you can woo yon vampire into a more receptive frame of mind.” He smiled. The expression might have imparted a certain beauty to his triangular, foxlike face, if not for his soulless eyes. “Receptive enough to send a magical message to his master that I am a true and loyal servant. Delay Ferran’s attack just a bit. A month, perhaps even two, while I complete my work.”
    “You mean your mad plot to drop the barrier that protects us all from the Varil. Whereupon they’ll roll over us and feast on our bleeding corpses.” She turned to the nearest warrior. “Do you want to fill the belly of one of those monsters? I don’t. One wonders why your master does.”
    The warrior winced and looked away.
    Korban’s pale face reddened with rage. “The Varil are my allies, bitch. They will give me power beyond your conception—power enough to make me king.” He shot a dark look at the flinching warrior. “And those who are loyal to me will reap the benefits.”
    “Oh, aye,” Amaris sneered. “I wager they will—as crows pick their bones for what scraps the Varil leave behind.”
    His fingers tightened around the Orb as his free hand lifted, trembling with his fury. Power heated the air around it into a hot red blaze.
    Amaris fed more magic into her shields and readied herself to fight, clutching her sister close.
    Then the glow faded from Korban’s fingers, and the rage in his eyes drained into calculation. He rolled his shoulders back and lifted his chin. “You will not goad me so easily. You