The Invisible Ring

them, they’d throw the boy to his death. I told her—I told her to stay down, stay hidden. Told her I’d get Tomas. Made it this far when my shields broke and they were on me. Last thing I saw before I went down was Lady Lia running toward that boulder and Garth swinging that damn broken axle like a club.”
    Brock spat again and then said in a bewildered voice, “She was shielding that broken bastard. And there was some kind of Craft wrapped around that axle. They couldn’t touch him. and he was smashing through skulls like they were ripe tomatoes. Why did she do it, Jared? Why did she shield a male who’s already half-dead? Why did she risk herself for a half-Blood?”
    There are no pawns.
    Jared didn’t answer. There was something he’d forgotten. Something important. But how, in the name of Hell, was a man supposed to think with that damn pounding?
    A woman screaming in rage.
    A man roaring a battle cry.
    A child screaming in terror.
    Then he remembered the other danger that lived among the boulders.
    Jared ran to the flat-topped boulder and climbed up it as fast as he could.
    He saw Garth first.
    The big man stood at the edge of the large nest of viper rats, pounding, pounding, pounding the faintly squeaking bodies into pulp. Tears ran down his face, and each breath came out as a sob.
    Jared looked to the right and saw Lia crawling away from the nest, dragging Tomas with her.
    Jared slid down the boulder, landing hard on his hands and knees. “Lia!” When she didn’t respond, he crawled after her and grabbed her foot. “Lia!”
    She didn’t answer him, didn’t notice him. With one arm wrapped around Tomas’s chest, she kept trying to crawl away from the nest.
    Jared leaned forward to grab the back of her coat, lost his balance, and fell on top of her.
    She still tried to crawl.
    “Lia!” Thera cried.
    Jared rolled off Lia and looked up.
    Blaed and Thera stumbled toward him.
    “Let go, Lia,” Thera gasped, dropping to her knees beside the now-still body. When she couldn’t pry Lia’s fingers open, she used Craft to rip Tomas’s tunic around the clenched hand.
    Blaed dragged the boy a few feet. Thera went with him.
    Breathing hard, Jared turned Lia onto her back.
    Her tunic was so torn, she was almost bare to the waist.
    He looked into glazed gray eyes that stared back at him, unseeing.
    Numb, Jared saw the smears of blood, the grotesque swelling of the viper rat bites on her jaw and neck, the swelling above her left breast. Aching, he listened as Lia struggled to breathe. Desperate, he tried to remember something, anything , about healing Craft that would save her.
    Thera knelt beside him. Tears ran down her face.
    “Tomas?” Jared asked.
    “We’ll honor him as Blood,” Thera replied.
    Jared waited for Thera to do something.
    She simply knelt beside him, her hands pressed against her thighs.
    “Help her,” Jared said, frightened by Thera’s calm shell.
    Thera licked the tears from the corners of her mouth. “I only know a little basic healing, Jared. My knowledge of poisons is limited to what a Black Widow needs to know for herself. There’s too much venom in her. I’m s-sorry. I don’t h-have the s-skill.”
    Watching Thera curl in on herself, Jared didn’t realize the pounding had stopped until the broken axle, now slimed with gore, thumped down beside him and a heavy hand squeezed his shoulder hard enough to crack bone.
    He looked up at Garth’s tear-stained face.
    “Yyyou fffind help,” Garth said, fighting for each word. “Yyyou go. Yyyou take—” He pointed at Lia. “Fffind help. Fffind sssafe place.”
    Help. Safe place.
    Hope shot through Jared.
    Closing his eyes to concentrate, he sent out a summons on a Red spear thread. North, toward Ranon’s Wood. *Belarr!*
    He waited a moment, then tried again. *Belarr! I need help!*
    No answer.
    Even if Belarr was still angry with him, he wouldn’t ignore a call for help.
    *Father!*
    No answer.
    He tried an Opal thread. *Mother! We need a Healer!*
    Silence.
    Lia’s breathing sounded harsher.
    Jared sent out a broad summons at the depth of the Red, letting it spread in an ever-widening circle as far as he could push it. There was the risk that an enemy might answer, but he felt desperate enough to believe any answer was better than none. *Please! I need help!*
    Not knowing what else to do, he tried again and again.
    Here.
    At first, he wasn’t sure he’d been answered.
    Here.
    Not a communication thread. This was far more subtle. He couldn’t tell whether it was a male