Lauki's Arc

Chapter 6 of 18

Lauki rode the black horse hard until dawn. The road above opened before him, wide and free. But the horse carried a brand on its flank. A skull ringed in thorns. Tiberius's mark. Anyone who knew the swamp king would read it in one glance. They would know Lauki still answered to the king he had fled. He could not court a noblewoman on a slave's mount. He had to strip the brand or lose it. He found a black castle rising from a plain. Obsidian brick gleamed under a Pegasus carved on its highest spire. Merchants and knights passed through its gate. Too many eyes. Lauki led the horse to a stable at the wall and reached for his fire. Gold and red ran along his palm. He pressed his heat to the brand, meaning to burn it smooth. "Stop, or you'll kill it." A pale woman stepped from the shadow. Black hair, red eyes, a thorned sword at her hip. She caught his wrist before the fire touched hide. "That's not a scar you cover with more scars." "Adellina, let him try." A man leaned in the stable door. Black hair with a white streak, a goatee, armor set with skulls. His eyes were red like hers. He looked at the brand, then at Lauki's horns, and smiled. "That's Tiberius's mark. You stole from the swamp king. Bold." "I bargained," Lauki said. "The horse is mine." "The brand says otherwise." Damien Shadowborne pushed off the door. "Ride into any court wearing that, and they'll send word below. The king will hear where you've gone." Lauki's grip tightened. "Then help me take it off." The ground shook. A shape rose behind the pair, huge and slow. Black stone limbs, eyes like molten gold. The golem stopped over the horse and lowered one vast hand. "Magmar reshapes what fire only ruins," Adellina said. "Hold the beast still." Lauki gripped the bridle. The golem pressed a flat palm to the brand. Stone heat sank into the hide, deeper than any flame. The horse screamed once, then went quiet. When Magmar drew back, the flank was smooth. No skull. No thorns. Clean black hide, healed as if the mark had never burned there. Lauki ran his hand over the spot. Nothing. "It's gone." "The mark is," Damien said. He did not smile now. "But we saw it. We know what you carried and who you crossed. Tiberius pays well for news of runaways." He let the words sit. "We won't sell it. Yet. Consider it a debt." Lauki looked from the vampire to the pale swordswoman to the golem. The brand was gone. The road above was truly open. He could reach her at last. But he had traded a mark on the horse for a mark on himself, held by three strangers who knew his secret and his master's name.