Stained Glass Monsters by Andrea Höst Page B

further. Telling her fingers to tighten, she wound
it around and around her hands so it wouldn't slip, and opened her
eyes.
    Pieces of monster were everywhere,
scattered across a street slick with blood and ash. The neat
formation of mages had broken, and beside her was a little cluster
of people working over two fallen defenders. Everyone else, all of
them, were arrayed to her right, toward the Docks District. She
couldn't see what they faced, but she could feel it. An intensity,
a swell of power which left her head throbbing, like a sound too
low to hear.
    The urgent discussions among the Sentene
on what to do next gave her a name. Azrenel-type. Possibly the most
powerful of the Eferum-Get. They were intelligent with little
physical presence, similar to the Life Stealers though fortunately
far rarer. Only two had been encountered in recorded history.
Rennyn looked down at her hands, at the black line cutting into
numb, blue skin. This fragile thread stretched between her and a
thing that unchecked could lay waste to the entire kingdom in a
matter of weeks. She'd been dragging it up the street.
    There was a strange noise, high and
harsh, and she realised it was her breath, tearing in her throat.
She'd done too much, was exhausting her physical as well as casting
strength. The sixty-year plan, the entire purpose of her family,
had been suddenly side-lined, leaving only that thread. She would
hold it till all her strength was gone. Then she would sleep, if
her heart did not stop, and the Azrenel would no longer be
pinned.
    What was worse? To let go, to let this
creature run loose so she could continue on the task she'd been
raised to carry out? Or to turn away from stopping Solace? The
Grand Summoning seemed diminished by comparison. And yet, wasn't
this an effect of the Summoning, on a vastly larger than expected
scale? There would be five more incursions.
    Overwhelmed, Rennyn leaned forward,
curling over her bound hands. She couldn't think of it. Better just
to close her eyes again, and remember to breathe.

Chapter Seven
    Sunlight. The smell of medicine and
recently-laundered linen. A bed, over-firm, though the pillow was
nice. She was lying on her back, and her arms ached, and her hands
were stiff. Her chest felt like she'd been breathing knives. Rennyn
flexed fingers cautiously, and found they were bandaged but seemed
to be all there, so she opened her eyes.
    There was a Kellian watching her from
the doorway. Two Kellian, and a red-haired woman. Rennyn lifted her
head to look at them properly, then lay back and laughed. Not dead
after all.
    Ignoring her audience, she looked around
more of the room. Four beds, and Seb on the one beside hers. Pale
and lying very still, but he breathed.
    "How is he?" she asked the small,
elderly woman sitting on the far side of his bed.
    "Out of the woods. He'll be sitting up
in a day or two. It will take several weeks of treatment before
muscle function is fully restored, though."
    Irisian poison paralysed before death.
But still, he would recover, and in time. Not much else was going
according to plan, but she would at least have her brother.
    "Is it still the same day?" she asked,
suddenly worried.
    "The same." The woman was watching her
with an air of entertainment which Rennyn definitely didn't
appreciate. "You'll be hungry, I expect."
    More than. Moving cautiously, Rennyn sat
up. She was wearing some kind of shift, and her focus stone was
missing. Both of them. The sense of unreality was fading, leaving
her feeling less than pleased with herself. Events had spiralled
out of her control.
    "What is this place? Sentene
headquarters?"
    A third Kellian had appeared in the
doorway, and this one Rennyn recognised. "The infirmary of the
Houses of Magic in Villemar Palace," the Kellian mage said. "The
Sentene occupy one branch of the Houses. The Grand Magister asks if
you feel able to meet with her after lunch."
    Time for interrogation. Rennyn supposed
there was no escaping that. "Provided my