Villains by Necessity by Eve Forward Page B

with her beloved Nightshade in his grubby paws, his hands around her poor darling's throat!
    The raven was frozen in fear as the fingers held almost too tightly to its feathered neck.
    Sam saw her expression change, from livid rage, to fear and livid rage, and smiled nastily.
    "One false move, sorceress, and your familiar gets it," he whispered. She glared at him in fury but said nothing.
    Without taking his gaze off his deadly captive, Sam said, "Good job, Arcie. Have a care now and don't let it go. If she moves, rip the blasted crow's head off." The raven gurgled in terror.
    Sam shifted the point of his dagger and pushed aside a corner of the Nathauan's collar. There, like a hole into nothingness against white skin, gleamed the stone.
    Valeriana gasped in fear, panic and anger and started to speak, but a muffled croak from her raven froze her again. With the point of his weapon, Sam hooked the heavy gold chain that held the pendant and lifted it free of her neck. It revolved slowly in the sun, the gold frame glinting in the light, but the black stone was featureless as a midnight lake. Sam glanced from it to the sorceress.
    "This must be quite important to you. You take off all your other jewelry when you sleep, to keep it from marring your fair skin, but not this heavy thing. You hide it under your gown that hides nothing else. And you reach involuntarily for it in moments of stress ... just a twitch, perhaps, but it's there. You said you had means of wielding power in a world lost to Light... could this perhaps be it?" Sam's hand jerked the dagger up, snapping the chain and sending the pendant hurtling into the air. With a shriek Valeriana lunged for it, her panicky strength breaking Sam's grasp. But Sam was quicker. He leaped up to the side and caught the stone neatly in his palm. As Valeriana sprang, teeth bared, he raised it over a boulder, preparing to smash it. She stopped dead. At the same instant, Nightshade gave a strangled gurgle as Arcie's fingers closed on its throat. The peril of her familiar and the loss of her amulet were too much for the sorceress. She turned and collapsed onto the grass, shoulders shaking, with anger or tears, they couldn't tell.
    After a tense moment, Sam and Arcie looked at each other. Arcie's fingers slowly relaxed, and the raven gave what might have been a sigh of relief. Kaylana, unhurried, ever collected, stepped down into the hollow leading Sam's and Valeriana's horses. She handed their reins to Sam, who took them in embarrassed silence; Damazcus wiped his nose on Sam's shoulder. Kaylana stepped softly over to the huddled figure of Valeriana.
    As the Druid approached, Valeriana whirled on her, her hood falling away. She cringed in the sunlight, her sensitive eyes squinting tight, but her voice was strong and proud.
    "All right then, you've won! Kill me now, as I would have killed you! You'll die in the end yourselves when the Light overflows."
    Kaylana spoke. "We will not kill you." She looked at Sam and Arcie as she said this, and somehow they had a feeling it would be as she said. "To do so is to build our own coffin. The Light threatens us all equally. The rest of us will not kill a one ... but nor will one of us rule the rest. Bear that in mind, Sorceress." She glanced over at where Sam was holding the horses and amulet, then back to Valeriana, who was replacing her hood, her arms already reddening from the sun. "Valeriana, is what Sam suspects true, do you draw your power from that amulet?"
    "Yes," muttered Valeriana. "As you may have guessed, it's a Darkportal. The last one I know of. Very small. Very weak. But enough."
    "And," pressed Kaylana, "can you do magic without the amulet in your possession?"
    "No," said Valeriana weakly. "Without it I'm as helpless as a child."
    Kaylana sighed. "You are lying," she said resignedly.
    "All right, all right! Your powers outfathom mine without my Darkportal. I can do some magic, so long as the amulet is nearby ... I am weakened, yes, but