The Tenets in the Tattoos (The King's Swordsman Book 1)

by Becky James

  A Palais guard came to the edge and spotted us, pointing us out to Waker MasterMage. She glowered at us from above. “So this is where you are,” she called out. “Surrender now.”

  “MasterMage, we have secured the apothecarist as ordered,” a man reported behind her.

  Waker smirked at us. “He is a broken toy, no good for anything now. Dispose of him.”

  Chapter 32

  “No!” both Evyn and I screamed at the same time. I sprinted to the end of the lock, looking for purchase up onto the dam.

  Evyn cried, “Lift me up! I’ll help you!” I boosted her, and she scrambled up, then lay on her belly. I used her arms to climb up and ran along the rim of the dam, quickly stepping across the treacherously slippery stones.

  I counted seven: four men and three women surrounding Aubin. He huddled in on himself, his face smeared with dirt. The men and women closed in warily; someone who looked just like him had reduced Special Forces by a quarter in one swoop, after all. But this Aubin was overcome and beaten. He had given up all hope and prepared for his end.

  Eyes flickering briefly when he saw me, he yelled “Go away!”

  “Not a chance,” I shouted back. “Seven against one are my favourite odds!” I grinned even as I desperately ran through how I was going to do this. I’d need to kill, hurting men and women fulfilling their orders.

  “Both of you, just leave me!” Aubin shouted.

  “Huh?” I gained the platform, and someone ran into me from behind. I glanced down. “Evyn! What are you doing?”

  “Fighting with you.” Her teeth chattered but her hands were steady, even the one in the thick Earthian cast. “I can do this. We practised, remember? We have to, to save Aubin. Ready?”

  I grinned at her tear-smeared, dirty face. “Seven against one, except it was always seven against two.”

  I chose a stance, and Evyn sank into a complementary one beside me. Just as we had practised, we moved as one, and I shielded her. She was exactly the right height for this; any taller and it would be impossible to guard her. She was made for me.

  I took two steps forward, Evyn as my shadow making every step with me. One of the men swung his sword at me. I leapt toward it, with Evyn launching behind me and pinging us. We leapt over a clear blue sky and landed back in an empty space. I turned to the guard whose sword had swept down on nothing and slammed my fist into his temple, knocking him down.

  Evyn backed up behind me again. We guessed she would become the target; they would have to go through me first. The remaining six broke off and formed a defensive line. Unable to speak or signal to Evyn, we had to think as one, and it had to be precise. If I didn’t jump far enough, I’d plummet to my death. If she didn’t open the doors when I needed them, I would be cut down. I took a deep breath, knowing she did the same.

  I charged the woman on the far right. Evyn kept up with me and ducked low. The guard swung her sword at chest height but instead of blocking, I spun and jumped backwards. Evyn pinged me and leapt beside me. Landing behind the line, I smacked the hilt of my father’s sword into two more heads, as Evyn ducked and scuttled behind me.

  The remaining four turned around to face me, making a perfect line. The man immediately in front of me lunged forward and I blocked his swing, twisting right into his guard, elbowing him in the face. He staggered back. The woman behind him reached forward to grab hold of Evyn, my soul dancing back. I thrust my sword toward her, but it didn’t connect. The first brought his sword up, forcing me to turn and engage him. The second tackled me and was blasted away by my armour. I laughed.

  Then the woman hooked my leg and I went down. She grabbed for my wrists and I elbowed her in the face.

  “Thorrn!” Evyn backed away from the other guards who circled around my tussle on the floor and were advanced on her.

  Rolling over, I pinned my combatant beneath me, bringing my legs in and leaping up, using her ribs as a springboard. Evyn ran towards me and the fighters. One swiped at her with his sword, but Evyn opened a door, and his blade whistled through the Earthian sky harmlessly. She dodged back behind me, then turned and pinged us through another leap to move right through them and get behind them. When I landed on the Oberrot side, I punched the man who’d swung at her. He fell. Panting, I took quick stock. Five down, Aubin and Waker at our backs, two left.

  Turning my head at a scraping sound, I marked Waker dragging Aubin toward the water. “What are you doing?”

  “Leave me.” Aubin laughed hopelessly. “Shove me in the water to drown. Just go, get out of here.”

  Evyn said, “We’ve nearly won this, just sit tight. Waker, stop where you are.” Brushing her hair out of her face, she croaked, “It won’t be much longer, I promise it will all be over soon.”

  Waker laughed. “Yes. All over soon! Attack them!”

  The last two charged me side by side. I knew a hundred score ways they could attack me, but they would only down me if they worked together. They flashed each other signals I couldn’t read. I gritted my teeth and backed up, Evyn skipping backwards so I wouldn’t tread on her.

  The one on the left went for a downswing so I swept my sword up with a yell, twisting into the blade when we connected, wrenching his sword from his grasp to fly into the air. Evyn opened a portal, and the sword appeared in the stone below us, blade encased in rock. The guard tried to pull it out, wrenching ineffectively, and I smacked his head.

  The woman threw a knife directly at Evyn. I moved right into the path of it but a portal appeared at chest height and the knife vanished, reappearing behind us and clattering into the wall.

  The woman whirled for a huge backhand strike with her sword which would hit my head or arm off if it connected.

  “Thorrn!” Evyn screamed.

  I ducked and threw myself into the guard, knocking her to the ground. Sucking in a breath, she spun, blade in hand. As it stabbed towards my throat, her hand thrust into a portal. Her eyes went wide. Bringing my arm up I punched her in the jaw, and she went slack.

  I stood up, panting hard, my sword held loose in my hand. Evyn was out of breath, but a smile tickled the edges of her face. I smiled back.

  Then we turned to Waker.

  “Stay back,” the MasterMage warned. She had dragged Aubin to the edge of the platform, his shoulders thrust out over the weir, water bobbing just beneath him.

  Waker sat astride him, a long knife in hand. She slid it up under his shirt, and it parted with a hiss. Pressing the point of the blade in his solar plexus, she hovered her fist over the hilt ready to slam her hand down and puncture him through. I struggled to breathe, calming and controlling myself.

  “Stop torturing me and just kill me!” Aubin screamed. Sweat rolled down his face. “I can’t take anymore.”

  “You don’t need to take much more,” Waker soothed. “It will all be over soon.”

  “Waker, back away from him,” I growled.

  Her eyes were wild. “You think you’ve won.”

  “We have,” I said. “This is your only chance. If you let him go, we’ll stop to help him. You will have a few precious heartbeats to escape me. If you don’t give him to us, then you have those precious heartbeats left to live.” I set my stance. I was decided.

  “What do you think, Aubin? Hm? What’s your dream right now?” Waker leant into the blade. Wincing, I darted forward before I could stop myself, halting when Waker hissed.

  Aubin screamed. “Just kill me. Kill me and have done with it!”

  Waker was shaking. “There! You heard him. That’s his greatest dream.”

  “Waker, you have nothing left,” I snarled.

  “I hold everything in my hands.” Waker’s face was fixed, sweat trickling down her temples, clutching onto the knife with white knuckles.

  “We gave you a choice. Take it.” Evyn sobbed.

  “And how can I be sure you won’t kill me if I let my leverage go?” She sneered at Rhona’s body.

  “You can’t. But please, just take it,” Evyn pleaded. />
  “Begging me to run away?” Waker laughed, the sound shrill and echoing in the chamber.

  “I would do that if I were you.” Luc gained the platform.

  Waker swore, and now her heartrate climbed significantly, pounding in her temples. “You! Get away from me.”

  Luc studied her, arms behind his back. “I’m not sure where this fear of me has come from apart from these young people’s minds. They know of another version of me, a version who was able to kill you. And that terrifies you, doesn’t it?”

  “Go away! I’m in a nightmare. Go away!” she screamed wildly.

  “Oh, no, Waker, this is the waking world. You dared to try and take Earthian blood for yourself. I am the guardian of Earth. I am immune to magic. I am coming for you.”

  Waker screamed in terror. “I’ll kill him!”

  “Do it!” Aubin sobbed.

  Luc shrugged. “He seems amenable to the arrangement.”

  The pain mancer took a step forward, hands outstretched for Waker. At that moment Evyn pinged, landing next to Waker and grabbing the woman’s hands, pushing her back. But Waker was a thing possessed. She flailed around and kicked out, knocking Aubin into the water.

  “Evyn, he can’t swim like that!” I ran forward.

  Evyn disengaged from Waker, jumping into the water after him.

  Waker turned, only to run smack into Luc’s chest. He grabbed her upper arms, bending his head toward her white, wide-eyed face.

  “Perhaps it was a vision of me you feared. But you should have feared him.” Luc turned her shoulders sharply. Waker faced me, open-mouthed. Her hands moved, golden light flashing. I winced as it brushed my skin, but it slid off like rain.

  She gaped as I swung my sword up and across.

  “Very decisive.” Luc said. He eased the body to the floor.

  “It’s what we’re trained to do.” Panting, I found her head. Picking it up with both hands, I set it down carefully next to her corpse.

  I had no time to rest or reflect. Evyn bobbed in the water, holding Aubin’s head on her shoulder. He lay very still, as if she was the only thing keeping him afloat. Pulling him up and out, I set him down on the platform. Then I helped Evyn up, giving her a quick hug. “Our bond must be stronger than ever. She couldn’t affect me,” I whispered to her.

  “Well, we did move as one for a bit there.” Evyn shivered. I pulled off my jacket and she wrapped it around her shoulders, blowing water off her nose and watching Aubin.

  Kneeling next to Aubin, I cut his bonds. He sat with his head bowed, rubbing circulation back into his wrists, shaking in the cold of the caves. Resting my arm on my knee, I saw a couple of paths laid out before me.

  I could turn to anger. I could hate him for hurting and kidnapping Evyn, or seek revenge and punish him. I would be within my rights. He had failed who I wanted him to be; a perfect man who loved my soul above all others. Failed because of things done to him, lies told to him, happiness gained and lost. But at the very end, he had seen the truth and tried to get back to it. He had tried to fight Waker on the dais. He would be trying to balance the sheet, if he even believed it was possible.

  Touching Aubin’s hand, I called to him. “Aubin?” His amber eyes looked up into mine. I enfolded him in a hug. “It’s okay now. It’s over.”

  He nodded slowly against my shoulder.

  “Hey, Aubin,” Evyn said, sitting beside us.

  “Stay away from me.” Aubin pushed me gently but firmly away. I shook my head at Evyn. Not right now.

  She bit her lip but raised her thumb. Whatever that meant, she did not press Aubin, instead sitting to the side, hunched in my jacket, watching him.

  Alt-Evyn and alt-Thorrn made their slow way up to the platform while I covered Waker’s body and checked on the Palais Guard. Nervous energy flooded my limbs, and I did not stray more than a handspan from Evyn.

  Once we were grouped together, exhausted, we evaluated our options. I counted on my fingers. “We have to retrieve our passed-out Tuniel, then pick up alt-Tuniel and alt-Aubin. Then we can try and continue to go down, or we can go back up.”

  “With Waker gone, Gough will be restored,” Luc noted.

  Feeling almost too tired to smile, I settled for a happy sigh. “Can we hope by the time we get up there that word will be gotten back to the castle?”

  Luc shook his head. “This is the MasterMage’s Palais. She rules here.”

  “Ruled. Past tense. Very past tense,” Evyn said. I took her hand. She squeezed mine, a wave of understanding and empathy for the burden I now carried surging from her.

  Luc raised one eyebrow at us. “Tuniel MasterMage, of course. She defeated Waker.”

  My mouth opened in an O.

  “Do you think she would be amenable to that?” alt-Thorrn asked Aubin.

  Aubin slowly put his hands over his ears, sliding his head between his knees.

  “I don’t think he’s ready to accept alts. He’s not doing well right now,” I said. “Let’s go ask Tuniel. And… technically I’m committing treason right now, so it wasn’t an instrument of the castle that interfered with magical affairs, risking the Accords.”

  Luc raised an eyebrow at me. “Waker interfered with the agreement by attacking Gough. If anything, she invited a war. However, it would be a good political gesture of goodwill for Gough to have you executed on his return.” I gave him a level look. “I am, of course, looking at the worst-case scenario.”

  “It won’t happen,” Evyn said fiercely, pushing her dirty hair behind her ears and holding on to me with the other hand.

  I looked to gauge the others. “So, who’s for risking the Palais, and who wants to try going down to ground level?”

  “I need to see Tuniel,” Aubin said quietly.

  “Of course. And if she’s minded to accept, then she’ll want to go to the Palais, I’d wager.”

  I went back along the ledge and up to the ridge alone to get Tuniel. She was still out cold, blissfully unaware of the promotion she had received. Luc had clearly passed it over; with an Earthian soul companion, it was easy to see why.

  Lifting her, I tried to find another way around to the platform. I wasn’t sure how I was still mobile, but I knew if I stopped, I might not be able to get moving again. Some kind of principle tickled in my brain about that – objects in motion, perhaps? – and I knew Tuniel would recall it immediately. I might not have kept to the tenets as sworn, but I kept to my own tenets, and the physical principles that limited me. Like a good mundane. I grinned, aware I was feeling something close to drunkenness. Could someone be drunk on relief? Evyn might know…

  The corridors did indeed connect, and I laid Tuniel next to Aubin, corralling my wandering thoughts. Aubin came alert, busying himself with checking her over and making her more comfortable. Evyn stood off to one side with her alt and alt-Thorrn, but her eyes strayed across to him every so often.

  Tuniel opened her eyes, reaching out for her soul companion. “Aubin?”

  “I’m here.”

  I moved off to give them some privacy. “Did you see our ping fighting?” I asked alt-Thorrn.

  He shook his head. “No. What’s that?”

  “Aw.” I deflated. “I’d wager it looked incredible, that’s all. We’ll demonstrate some other time.” I put my arm around Evyn. “How are you holding up?” I asked her.

  “I’m okay. Rhona took a lot of blood.” She flexed her arms, one of which was still in the substantial solid bandage the Earthian medimancers had given her. “I don’t feel great, but I can stand and walk.”

  “I’ll carry you, if need be,” I said.

  She squinted up at me, disbelieving.

  Alt-Thorrn grunted. “How are you still upright? You’ve been fighting and running for turns of the glass.”

  “Same way you’re still upright.”

  “Barely.”

  “Exactly.”

  The Evyns rolled their eyes at one another. I felt suddenly dizzy seeing two versions of my soul companion, talk
ing with myself from a different perspective, but I recentred myself. I really was tired.

  Tuniel decided to return to the Palais to claim her station. “MasterMage,” I said, rapping my fist above my heart. “Let me be the first to salute you. We had better make a start, and we will take frequent breaks whenever anyone needs.”

  “I’ll need proof of my new status,” she said quietly.

  We all winced in unison.

  “At once, MasterMage.” I retrieved and wrapped Waker’s head. It was my duty to carry what I had done, literally for now and figuratively for the rest of my life.

  Tuniel gazed at me as I returned with my burden. “I will be able to find alt-Tuniel and the most expedient route back.” She seemed to be taking everything at a measured pace, but as we moved off, she walked next to me. “What happened? Describe it in detail.”

  I gave her a full report. She wanted to go over anything to do with Aubin. Her lips thinned. “He is struggling. He needs time and some distance.”

  “Distance?” I looked around. We led Luc, the Evyns and alt-Thorrn just behind. Aubin walked apart from them on his own. The Lonely Man indeed.

  Tuniel was able to guide us toward alt-Tuniel and alt-Aubin. The MasterMages greeted one another on equal footing. “Congratulations,” alt-Tuniel said.

  “Although I did not directly participate in my predecessor’s defeat,” Tuniel admitted.

  “If it helps, neither did I.” Alt-Tuniel shrugged, but didn’t offer further information. Not with Luc right there, of course.

  “This is so weird,” Evyn said to me as we walked on.

  “I was thinking that earlier. It really is. But it also offers a unique opportunity.” I moved closer to alt-Aubin. “How are you doing?”

  “Feeling grateful I wasn’t needed for the rest of the fight. Chagrined that I couldn’t assist.” He glanced back at the trailing figure of our Aubin. “Mildly concerned.”

  Evyn said, “We’re more on the majorly concerned end of that scale. Any insights?”

  He sighed. “I suppose I never thought being happy for once in your life could break a person. It would be me that’s shattered by contentment.” He shot us a rare smile. “I’ll need space. Any time I get shaken, I need to get away so I can think. But I will bounce back; a bit more broken and held together by force of will, but I bounce back.”