The Cataphract had built a secure chamber to store the weapon.
Or was it a prison? Was the weapon somehow alive?
Ariadne didn’t know, but she suspected they were about to find out.
Caina and Kylon both came to a sudden halt, valikons raised. Ahead of them, a tree loomed over the road, and a dark shape hung from one of the outstretched branches, swaying back and forth in the cold wind.
It was a hanged man.
Decius Aberon, First Magus of the Imperial Magisterium, hung dead from a noose tied around his neck. His face looked ghastly, his eyes gaping, his swollen tongue jutting over his teeth, a sight made all the more gruesome in the eerie green light. Blood dripped from his right hand, a bloody dagger lying beneath his boots. On the tree behind him, the word CLEAN had been written in blood across the trunk.
The green light made the blood look black.
“Oh, the Divine save us,” whispered Sophia.
“Guess Riona decided she didn’t need the First Magus after all,” said Markaine.
“Guess not,” said Calaver, staring up at his father’s swaying corpse. His face was blank. “Useless, stupid old bastard. Gods of the Empire. What a stupid way to die.” He gave a sharp shake of his head. “What a waste of a life.”
“I would say that I’m sorry for your loss,” started Ariadne.
“But it isn’t a loss, is it?” said Calaver. “The man was a tyrant and a scoundrel, everyone knows it. World’s better off without him in it. I just wish…” For a moment he looked almost sad. “I just wish he had been someone else.” He growled. “Goddamn foolish talk. He was who he was, and that was that.”
“Come on,” said Caina. “If nothing else, that means we’ll only have to fight Riona, and not Riona and the First Magus at the same time.”
Calaver snorted. “Suppose that’s the first useful thing my father ever did for me.”
With that, he turned his back on the First Magus’s corpse and kept walking.
Ariadne gazed at Decius Aberon’s corpse. She had wanted the man out of office as the First Magus of the Magisterium for years. If she was honest, she had often thought that the Magisterium and the Empire would be better off if Decius Aberon died unexpectedly. But to perish in such a grisly way, betrayed by an ally…
She steeled herself. It was no less than Decius deserved, and a fate that he had brought on himself. His crimes had been immense – he had tolerated necromancy and other forbidden sciences within the Magisterium, and he had tried and failed to defect to the Umbarian Order. Even laying all that aside, his treatment of his children had been monstrous. As brutal as Hyraekon Scorneus had been, he had not fathered scores of bastards to raise as his private soldiers and enforcers.
But even putting all that aside, even looking at just the last two weeks, the First Magus had been complicit in the murders of five high magi. Ariadne remembered how Tempora’s face had screwed up as she sobbed for her father. Or how Decius and Riona had killed that poor serving maid in the Black Mirror.
Every language and nation in the world had some variant on the ancient proverb of how evil returned to the evildoer, how a wicked man would fall into the pit which he prepared for another. Perhaps Decius Aberon would still be alive if he had heeded that proverb.
Perhaps one day the death of Quartius Hegemonar and his partners would return to haunt Ariadne.
She pushed aside the thought and followed Caina and Kylon as they led the way along the winding path, the white fire of their valikons stark against the green glow of the forest. The engineer in Ariadne noted that the white fire never seemed to dazzle their eyes, which she had assumed would be a danger of using a glowing weapon. Maybe that was a protection that the valikons afforded their bearers. Ariadne would have to ask Caina about it later…
The trees thinned, and they came to a large clearing. A raised platform of stone about a yard high and thirty yards across occupied the center of the clearing. Two massive altars stood on the center of the platform, each one about the size of a sarcophagus. The entire structure put Ariadne in mind of some ancient temple, the sort of place where the shamans of barbarian tribes offered human sacrifices to their grisly gods of horror and warfare.
The source of the green light floated over one of the altars, revolving slowly.
“Oh, no,” said Caina. “No, no, no. It can’t be.”
“You know what that is,” said Kylon, his voice grim and hard.
Caina only offered a nod in response, her face a mask, the valikon burning in her right hand.
“What is it?” said Ariadne.
She had never seen anything like it.
A tapering shard of faceted black crystal the length of Ariadne’s arm floated over the altar, revolving slowly in the grip of a spell. Hundreds of hieroglyphs covered its facets, written in lines of green fire, brightening and dimming as the crystal revolved. Ariadne did not recognize the hieroglyphs at first, but after a moment she realized they were Maatish.
“It’s called an Ascendant Bloodcrystal,” said Kylon. “The Great Necromancers of ancient Maat made them. They were both weapons and instruments of ascension. When they were used, they would kill everyone within five hundred miles, and the bearer of the crystal would harvest the stolen life force and become a god.”
“How the devil do you know that?” said Calaver.
“Remember the day of the golden dead?” said Kylon.
“Little hard to forget that day, Shipbreaker,” said Calaver.
Kylon nodded. “An Ascendant Bloodcrystal powered the spell that raised the golden dead.”
“Gods,” said Calaver. “And one of these things has been sitting here ever since ancient Maat?”
“No, I don’t think so,” said Caina. “I think this bloodcrystal is from the early days of the Fourth Empire.”
“Why is that?” said Ariadne, tearing her gaze from the revolving crystal. The thing was strangely beautiful but beautiful in the way that a sword was deadly. Or a loaded crossbow. It put her in mind of the final instant before an avalanche, immense force waiting for a trigger before it erupted into deadly motion.
“The Magisterium of the Fourth Empire practiced necromancy extensively,” said Caina. “They worked out how to create Ascendant Bloodcrystals before their deaths.”
“How do you know that?” said Ariadne.
Caina let out a harsh, humorless laugh. “Because they succeeded. The high magi of the Magisterium gathered in Caer Magia to cast the spells to create an Ascendant Bloodcrystal. They did, and the final stage of the spell sucked away their lives and killed them all. The Magisterium of the Fourth Empire collapsed into chaos, and the Emperor was able to seize control and start the Fifth Empire. The bloodcrystal they created stayed in Caer Magia until the Moroaica found it and used it to cast the spell of the golden dead.”
“And one of those damned things is just sitting there?” said Calaver.
“Floating, actually,” said Markaine. “You really should pay attention.”
“The Cataphract must have taken it during the Fourth Empire,” said Caina. “Stolen it and secured it here so the high magi of that time couldn’t use it. And when the high magi pursued it here, the guardians and wards of the Tower killed them all. That must be how the legends around the Tower started.” She peered at the crystal. “And…I don’t think it’s finished. It’s not as complex as a completed Ascendant Bloodcrystal.”
“Then it’s not dangerous?” said Calaver.
“It’s incredibly dangerous,” said Caina. “If not for those guardian spirits, it would have drained away our lives already. But this must be from earlier in the Fourth Empire. It’s not as complex as the bloodcrystal from Caer Magia, and I don’t think it’s finished. If it’s activated, it would only kill everyone within a mile or so, not five hundred.”
“That’s still more than enough to kill most of the population of Artifel,” said Ariadne.
“What do we do about it?” said Calaver.
“Simple,” said
Caina. “I stab it with my valikon. The bloodcrystal is powerful, but it doesn’t have any defense against a ghostsilver weapon. The crystal will crumble to ash, and the power will dissipate. That will be that…”
A dark figure stepped out from behind the altar, illuminated by the glow from the bloodcrystal.
Riona Canwyll walked across the platform, the golden mask of a Great Necromancer in her right hand, green fire crackling around the fingers of her left.
Chapter 19: Make The World Clean
Caina shouted for the others to take cover, to close their eyes. The mask in Riona’s hand would not work on Caina. The others would have no defense against its power, at least not without preparation, and if Riona donned the mask, anyone looking at her would kill themselves.
But Riona did nothing. She stopped at the edge of the platform and looked at them.
“We need to hit her before she uses that mask,” said Kylon.
“Yes,” said Caina, and she started forward, the others around her. She saw the glows as Ariadne and Calaver held power for spells, as Kylon called on his sorcery of air to make himself faster. Sophia kept her crossbow ready, and Morgant lifted his weapons.
Caina kept her eyes on Riona. Yet still Riona remained motionless, her heavy coat and gray hair occasionally stirring in the cold wind rising from the Ascendant Bloodcrystal behind her. As they drew closer, Caina noted that the potent aura around the mask had changed. Likely it had harvested Decius’s life force to augment its power. Caina also saw dozens of small points of necromantic power radiating from within Riona’s body. Was she carrying dozens of amulets?
Then Riona’s right eye bulged out.
It happened for just an instant, and if Caina had not been staring right at her, she would have missed it. But Riona’s eye bulged, followed by her cheek and neck. It was like a small lump was moving within her body just beneath the skin.
Maybe the mask wasn’t the only thing that she had found in the ruins of ancient Maat.
They stopped a few paces from the platform, close enough that Kylon could cover the distance and strike, and Riona let out a rusty laugh.
“I thought you were those damned Umbarians,” said Riona. “They got here before the First Magus and I did. Or the former First Magus, I should say. You should have seen his expression when I donned the mask.”
“We saw his expression when we passed him,” said Caina.
Riona offered a thin smile, and for just a second, something seemed to bulge in her shoulder. “I imagine it wasn’t pleasant.”
“No,” said Caina.
“I don’t like to be interrupted,” said Riona. “So, I’ll give you one chance. Turn around and go. Otherwise, I’ll use this mask, and I’m afraid you’ll join poor Decius Aberon on his tree.” She patted a coil of rope that hung from her belt. “There is plenty of rope for all.”
“No,” said Caina. “If you could do that, you would have done so already.”
“Oh?” said Riona, her cold eyes fixing on Caina. “Do enlighten me.”
“You lied to Decius,” said Caina. “You told him it would take six deaths to empower the mask. But it actually took seven, didn’t it? Seven deaths and the mask would be recharged…and while you’re wearing it, you can safely handle the Ascendant Bloodcrystal. A single touch would kill you otherwise. But once it was recharged, the mask lost its power to inspire madness.”
“Mostly,” said Riona. “But, otherwise, yes. You’re very clever. I warned Decius that you would cause us problems.”
“Yes, I overheard you,” said Caina.
Riona let out a harsh laugh. “Did you? Decius severely underestimated you. But, then, that was always his problem, wasn’t it? He severely underestimated me, too. Look where that got him.”
“Swinging from the end of a rope,” said Calaver.
“You look like him,” said Riona. “If you subtracted forty years and a hundred and fifty pounds…ah. You were one of his bastards. Calaver, isn’t it? He said he sent you after the Balarigar. Instead, you joined her.” She snorted. “Decius should have known.”
“Did you always plan to kill him?” said Caina.
“Of course,” said Riona. “I needed his help when I first arrived in Artifel. Those expelled from the Magisterium as initiates are never allowed to return to the city. Too many people would recognize me.” She gestured at Ariadne. “Yourself among them, high magus. Fortunately, the First Magus was desperate, thanks to his own incompetence. When I met him and told him how I had discovered a weapon that could destroy his enemies, he was all too eager to lap it up.”
“Is that why you came here?” said Caina. “To claim the Ascendant Bloodcrystal and sell it?”
“Truth be told, I thought there would be two Ascendant Bloodcrystals,” said Riona, and she waved her free hand at the altars. “But one must have failed, or my research was wrong. The Fourth Empire didn’t make this Ascendant Bloodcrystal, you know. An expedition from the Third Empire found it unfinished in the desert, and they brought it back to Artifel for further study. The Cataphract stole it from them and secured it here, and I uncovered the records and followed the trail here.”
“Then you’re going to sell it to the Umbarians?” said Caina.
Riona laughed. “The Umbarians? Don’t be ridiculous. The Umbarians cannot hold the Empire. Oh, they might manage to kill the Emperor and seize Malarae, but it will all fall apart on them in the end. They cannot cooperate with each other. Even if they conquer the Empire, they’ll turn on each other and rip their Order apart in civil war. And they cannot keep to a deal. They would promise me half the Empire and kill me rather than make payment.”
“I’m sure Decius Aberon could relate,” said Kylon.
“Since he’s dead, I rather doubt that,” said Riona with a smile. “No, I’m going to use the bloodcrystal to destroy the Magisterium.”
“Are you, now?” said Caina. “You’re aware that the crystal is unfinished?”
“It is,” said Riona. “That hardly matters. It is still sufficiently powerful to cover an area the size of Artifel. And with the mask, I can control the crystal well enough to target its power to affect only sorcerers. I will drain their power for myself.” Her smile returned. “It will not turn me into a god, but what of that? From the perspective of the mouse, both cats and humans might as well be gods. And it is better to be a cat than a mouse.”
“And what will you do with all this power?” said Caina.
“Why, whatever I want,” said Riona.
“No, you’re not,” said Ariadne, her voice hard. “You just admitted to six murders. Seven, if you count the First Magus. You will go with us to stand trial before the high magi.”
“You cannot win,” said Kylon. “There are too many of us, and we have weapons to penetrate your defenses.”
“I don’t need to overcome you,” said Riona. “Instead, you’re going to help me.”
“Am I?” said Caina.
“You are,” said Riona. “You’re going to help me destroy the Imperial Magisterium.”
“Why?” said Caina.
“Because I know who you are, Caina Kardamnos,” said Riona. “Decius might have been too foolish to see the truth of the rumors behind you, but I am not. I’ve heard the tales about the Balarigar, the woman who slew Rezir Shahan and Cassander Nilas and brought Iramis out of the shadows of the past. The woman who waged war against the Magisterium for years. And I look at you now…and I am surprised to see that you are pretty.”
“And what does that have to do with anything?” said Caina.
“With your wits and appearance,” said Riona, “you could easily seduce a wealthy husband and live a life of ease and comfort, even luxury. But instead, you fight as a Ghost nightfighter, waging war against your enemies in the Magisterium and the Umbarian Order. You would only do that for vengeance, for retribution against your foes. They hurt you, didn’t they? Perhaps you personally, or perhaps they slew someone you loved.”
Caina said nothing. Riona’
s deduction wasn’t entirely accurate, but it came closer to the truth than she would have liked.
“The Ghosts have been the enemy of the Magisterium since the Second Empire,” said Riona. “And you, Caina Kardamnos, you can be the one to destroy the Magisterium. To smash it utterly and cast its dust upon the winds of history.”
Still Caina said nothing. What Riona proposed was madness, she knew, and would result in the slaughter of countless innocent people.
And yet…
Something within Caina liked the idea. The angry, terrified girl that she had been, the girl that Halfdan had recruited into the Ghosts, would have rejoiced at the thought of the Magisterium’s ruin. That girl had wanted to see the Magisterium destroyed, the magi slaughtered, every wielder of arcane force in the Empire slain.
“If you destroy the Magisterium,” said Caina, “then there will be no one to protect the Empire from the Umbarians.”
“I will defend the Empire from the Order,” said Riona. “What, do you think I want to destroy the Empire? To rule over a graveyard, a wasteland of ruins and corpses? I want to rule the Empire, not burn it. The bloodcrystal will not make me into a god, but it will make me sufficiently powerful to destroy the Order. Together we can lay waste to both the Magisterium and the Order and bring the Empire to a new golden age.”
“I’ve heard speeches like this before,” said Caina.
“Have you?” said Riona. “Has anyone ever offered you the destruction of the Magisterium before? It is within the power of the bloodcrystal to do it. How much innocent blood will you avenge? How many victims has the Magisterium left scattered in its wake? What did they do to you? All of that can be avenged in a single instant.” Her eyes glittered, shadowed within her face. “Would it not be justice to watch the Magisterium burn?”
Caina said nothing, and the dark temptation within her stirred further. The angry, vengeful girl that she had been snarled inside her thoughts, demanding that she accept Riona’s offer.
Instead, she looked at the others.
Kylon was her husband, and he could use arcane force. Sophia was her liegewoman, and she was on her way to Iramis to become a loremaster. Ariadne was her aunt, and she was something Caina hadn’t been sure existed – a responsible member of the Magisterium.
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