And as quick as that the fight was over, two veteran armsmen fully armed and armored dead at their feet in but a handful of seconds.
Malek flashed a fierce smile. “Somehow I felt the give and play of halfsword versus poleaxe, your dance of winding your weapon serpentine about his, his desperate pivot to break free. Once he over-committed, he was off balance and ripe for a quick kill from behind. Well done, sister mine.”
Jess nodded. “You as well, brother.”
Malek tilted his head in curious bemusement. “I know damn well you could have ended it even quicker.”
Jess shrugged as they quickly cleaned their blades. “Unnecessary. The wooden haft wouldn't have allowed his weapon to pierce my flesh, but we both knew I was in no danger.” She turned then to her friends, giving a quick nod to Alex who nodded back, grabbing Jera even as they all headed for the grand door before them.
“Jess?”
Jess smiled at Malek, closed her eyes, and caressed the door handle before pulling away with a hiss.
“It's warded, and I almost triggered it.”
Alex whispered soft words and Jess could sense his gathering of a gentle web of power. He grimaced and shook, his gaze haunted. "Heavens above, that is no elementalist ward. I cannot make out the specific nature, but I sense such a foulness, a horror about it." He shuddered. "The terror of it is, I feel that should I try to dispel it, it could tear into me, devouring my magic and soul with equal ease. So foul and base an enchantment it is, no decent magic not steeped in utter corruption or Heaven's light could possibly counter it."
Malek smirked at that, tilting his head at the door. “Bloody hells. I feel like I should be able to do something.”
Twilight gazed at Malek, giving a considering nod. “It won't be too much longer before he can use certain gifts in the world of Dawn as well as the Shadowrealms.”
Jess patted her shieldbrother's shoulder. “Fret not. Let me see what I can do.”
She gazed carefully at the lock, allowed herself to sense what was beyond the metal and the writhing wood, hating the foulness within, and saw the carefully crafted, subtle spellweave that seemed to her eyes the color of rotting blood. She hissed in sudden fury, unsheathed her dirk, slicing her cheek at the angle her bronze helm allowed.
"Jess!" Jera whispered, frightened as always to see Jess cut herself.
Jess's gaze was cold even as she pushed away flashes of Eloquin's many lectures, jamming her dirk into the door's lock, smiling in sudden fierce satisfaction.
She turned to her friends. “The spell is no more.”
Alex blinked. “That is no small thing to say, Jess. That magic, it was hideous. Are you sure? Are you sure you are all right? That there will be no... consequence?”
A savage grin was his answer. Alex paled and stepped back. “As if such pathetic use of the dark arts could possibly be worthy of my note, let alone my concern. The spell screamed rather satisfyingly even as I consumed it.” Jess blinked, feeling oddly off balance, though curiously strong. Invigorated, not like she had been rushing through the city avoiding danger before fighting a furious exchange.
She shook her head to clear it, ignoring her friend's odd stares.
“Never mind that. Come, let us proceed.”
With a gentle touch, the door sprang open, seeming to all but spit out the tainted iron lock. Alex smiled in satisfaction. "I held onto my silencing spell. I know how locks in doors tend to pop out for you."
Jess nodded her appreciation but did not turn to respond, instead treading softly down the dark stone steps with a fresh sting to her cheeks, her favored weapon's edge shimmering with a faint crimson hue once more, her eyes caught by the bleak effigies carved into the stone walls as they made their way down the staircase into the chambers below. Abstract as they were, the theme was all too clear to Jess.
“Bloody monsters,” Malek hissed. “Bloody sick bastards.”
"What do you read, Malek?" Alex whispered. "That script is in no language I can understand."
"A good question." Malek sounded puzzled. "I don't know how I know, but, I think it is some sort of dark sermon about the virtues of treachery, sacrifice, and murder."
Jess nodded. “Precisely. And Malek? It's time for you to remove your shirt of mail.”
Malek's gaze was one of confusion before he gave a nod of sudden understanding, his gaze heavy upon Jera and Alex both as he stopped to remove helm and shirt of expertly riveted iron links, before fastening his bronze helm once more.
“Jess?” Alex's voice was confused.
“Don't ask,” Jess shook her head at the spidery script, teasing such dark meanings that whispered into the bleakest recesses of her mind. “I just know.”
“Delvers,” Alex sighed. “You with your strange gifts, the principles by which they work, no scholar can hope to understand.”
Jess smiled at his words. "Delvers indeed, friend Alex, even as your feet skirt the edges of Shadow." Almost of its own accord, Jess found her hand gently inscribing crimson sigils upon the faces of a trembling Alex and Jera both. Alex blinked in surprise even as Jess abruptly raised her fist, demanding silence, the four stopping as one, Jess at last able to make out the sound of voices below.
“Please, you don't have to do this!” A plaintive cry. A voice that chilled Jess's blood to hear. Josie.
Grimacing, yet treading carefully as she dared, Jess continued to make her way down the staircase, desperate to put together all the pieces of the puzzle, as any good commander must, so that when the time to act presented itself, she would know exactly what to do.
"Bloody hells," Malek cursed.
“Oh, but you see I do, my child.” A mocking, sibilant voice. One that took obvious pleasure in poor Josie's mounting terror.
Duke diOnni's voice was surprisingly melodious and calm. “Lord Veitsi, I implore you. We have had a misunderstanding, yet even still, nothing beyond repair. As skilled and wise a man as you are, surely you know that my word means everything to me. A word I have never once broken, in all the bargains I have made, even where I have occasionally met folly. Let us come to an arrangement, good sir. You and your associates and mine. You know I am of considerable means. This is no secret. Let us part this manor as friends, you and your fellows several thousand crowns richer, and I well humbled to keep my nose out of things that concern a foolish trader such as myself not at all.”
Mocking laughter. "Oh, I am quite aware of your reputation. The value you place upon your word, and how you have profited from it as well. In a world full of treachery and mishap, it is so nice to have a merchant one can depend upon, with the resources of an entire duchy at his disposal. The king himself would value such a man, no?" Lord Veitsi's voice turned cold. "Arrogant fool. How do you think you managed to secure those trade contracts with the royal seal this past half year, with an entire consortium risen against your clan? Did your conscience not twinge even a little as men who opposed you suddenly began disappearing?"
"Oh gods," Raphael's exhausted voice could be made out by Jess clear as a bell with the odd acoustics of the arched staircase, even as she continued to make her way down them, wondering just how far they descended, knowing it could only mean one thing. She gazed at Twilight who flashed a grin in turn. "Check on Alex and Jera, Jess."
Jess turned around, gazing at her friends in sudden concern. Alex and Jera appeared grim-faced but were otherwise fine, giving Jess nods in turn. "We are all right, Jess. We heard it too."
Jess shuddered and nodded, suddenly understanding a great many things about her school that would have left her cynical as Hades, had she not been terrified for her friends.
Twilight chuckled softly. "Circle of Midnight, indeed. Even with your sigils, Jess, they should at least be feeling the weight of Shadow pressing against them."
Yet Alex and Jera appeared fine, save for anxious fear for their friends.
“You need not say another word, Lord Veitsi. Well do I respect your power and prowess, this conversation forgotten the moment
you bid such of me!” Duke diOnni's voice implored, only now Jess could hear the first faint stirrings of panic. “But name your price, man. Let us come to an agreement and walk away. You disgustingly rich, me humbled and put in my place, bound by my own oath to you!”
A dark chuckle. Another player. "Ah, Lord diOnni, possessor of the most profitable trade enterprises in all of Erovering. Granted the title of duke only for trade alliances and clever intrigue performed in your father's day! We do not want your dross coinage. Or rather, that is the least of our prizes. There are indeed oaths you will swear this day, even as these children are made to scream before you. Scream before they too submit to the will of their future master, body and soul!"
“Indeed,” gloated the one known as Lord Veitsi. “For unbeknownst to you, with every dark sacrifice I performed in your name, with every black favor I did to aid you unawares, I left behind a clue. A clue that can be revealed to your downfall should you cross us, as you have, by inquiring too deeply regarding issues that are of no concern to you.” A dark chuckle. “With every throat sliced and body thrown over, with every dame extorted to sign over rights she did not even know she had, with every black whisper disparaging the king, calling him a fool, eating his own networks from within for your benefit, yet another clue was put in its place. Each a cleverly concealed calling card that shall lead straight to your House, and to the inescapable conclusion that you are a treasonous murderer, your assets forfeit to the Crown!”
“And of course, as an Agent of the Crown, you shall get your cut for seeing to my downfall.” The duke's voice was bleak with bitterest defeat.
“Well, fool you may be, but at least you understand in the end,” mocked the second voice. “But fear not. For I promise you that by that time you shall be so lost to the depths of darkest rapture, the euphoria of utter submission, the bliss of eternal pain, that mere mortal concerns shall mean nothing at all to the lemur you shall become!”
The duke gasped aloud, and Jess felt her heart clench at the desperate bonhomie in his voice as he made what was perhaps his final bid.
"And a skillful play it was, on all accounts," Duke diOnni chuckled with bitterest rue. "And I would be a fool not to know what an agent's cut is. Ten crowns for every hundred seized. Is it not?"
Silence was his only response. The duke continued on unperturbed, even as the odd staircase ended at last, the cold stone having turned oddly molten and flowing, sigils no longer inert markings, but now twisting with a dark, unholy will of their own.
Jess grimaced, transforming her terror for her friends below into darkest resolve. Alex and Jera were safe at least, gazing outward with anxious eyes yet physically fine, having taken no harm from coming this far into Shadow.
"Then let me make my final offer, Lord Veitsi, Lord Fal, master negotiators that you both are. I shall without question or hesitation sign over to you, your clans, or whoever you desire, a full fifty percent of my wealth. Including the entirety of all my liquid assets, an incredible fortune in silver and gold, just waiting for you to claim. And the fact that you have such terrible leverage over me with all those dark calling cards you had mentioned shall assure that I never cross, nor pursue you for what has transpired this day." A breathless pause. "Think on it, my lords. One crown out of every two to my name, five times the boon you would get arranging for my royal downfall, a fortune in gold and titles to the most valuable properties throughout Erovering, given to you both by a duke who shall furthermore swear to support all your moves in Council, should you wish it."
Silence. Lord Fal's dark chuckle. “A tempting offer indeed, dear duke. It is an utter shame then that you had to involve yourself in affairs that are not your concern. And perhaps, just perhaps, we shall find a use for you that shall allow you to exist upon the mortal plane for at least a bit longer. But your son and his beloved, I'm afraid, shall have to go.” A mocking sigh. “It is a pity, truly a great pity that you did not join our dark brotherhood when you had the chance, years ago, Lord diOnni. For such is a privilege is granted to few who are not already born to our glorious ranks.”
A low sonorous chant Jess only then realized had been quietly echoing in the background as a sibilant susurration, now an outright supplication, voices summoning forth horrors ready to rip through the ever-weakening barrier between this pocket of Shadow and a realm of horror that lay at right angles to all known directions. Hellwards, for lack of a better term. And Jess could feel the foulness even now leaking through.
Josie's shriek rang through the corridor.
12
Dashing down the final steps only to pelt down an endlessly winding corridor twisting in directions hideous and strange, Jess at last broke free with a fierce shout and surge of her will, as if she were somehow leaping over a final boundary between the edges of Shadow and its churning depths, stepping into a massive underground chamber, Malek by her side.
“By all that's holy,” Malek whispered some moments later, gazing at the grisly sight before them.
Jess nodded, allowing herself only a moment's horror.
The screams, she saw, had not been Josie's alone.
Bodies splayed in a pentagram of glistening crimson hue.
Girls. Writhing and screaming, skinned alive, metal bolts hammered into their wrists and ankles, with only their faces left in pristine care, eyes wide with unspeakable agony, their shrieks filling the chamber.
So odd, Jess thought in that odd moment as she screamed in her own mind, the faces of those girls horribly familiar, that she had not heard their shrieks before.
At each point of the pentagram chanted a man wearing hooded robes, each wielding wands glowing the color of death and rot, and in that moment Jess felt a violent fury swell through her. A hot sting as her cheeks suddenly burned, her blade moving in a sinuous ritual as it kissed her flesh before suddenly blazing with her wrath, even as she roared.
In that instant, all eyes fastened upon her.
And just past the hideous pentagram stood three well-dressed lords. The leftmost one in the tricorn hat gazing at her in surprise she immediately recognized, being none other than the man who had goaded a naive student to die upon his blade.
The centermost one, sandy hair tied in a nobleman's knot, gave a mocking bow in their direction, gray eyes twinkling with darkest mirth. "Ah, the Calenbry wench and her friend. Truly, I must admit to some surprise to your being here. I see rumors of your abilities as Delvers were not exaggerated."
Jess glared at the face of Lord Veitsi. Agent, diabolist, and monster. He who had by his own confession murdered and extorted numerous men and women who had opposed diOnni interests, simply to set the diOnnis up for a fall and take his cut of the spoils after he sacrificed the duke to the Crown, and the poor man's soul to Hell.
It was then that Jess noted the faint crimson sigils painted upon the faces of all the lords present, including her captured friends, bound tightly to thick oaken chairs, gazing at the pentagram and lords before them with naked fear. Her stomach roiled, chillingly certain she had seen such markings before.
She turned to Malek, who gave a quick shake of his head.
They made it to the bottom of the stairs no problem. But the leap into this place? It wasn't worth the risk.
He flashed a bleak smile, and Jess was struck with the visceral image of a boy gripped fiercely in hand before being abruptly torn from her grasp, his very soul unfolding and spooling endlessly down the cracks between worlds.
The fact they made it so far tells us something, doesn't it? But we don't know if they could have taken that final plunge, and I know you wouldn't want their deaths on our conscience.
Jess allowed herself a fierce nod, only realizing after the fact that Malek hadn't said a word, his sentiment conveyed by his soft brown gaze alone.
It was better this way, she thought, shuddering at memories that had fled her long ago, remembered only now as they Delved into the outskirts of Shadow once more.
She caught Twilight's gaze. “I sense certain thi
ngs are normally forbidden to you, my friend, but this is the Dreamrealm we skirt, not mundus, and I would ask you to attack nothing living, at first.”
Twilight gave a considering glance at the diOnnis gazing upon Jess and Malek with such desperate hope, before nodding his approval. “Well thought, my queen. I shall have no trouble with your plan.”
Lord Veitsi smirked, addressing Jess once more. "Does it humble you, seeing yourself so utterly mastered? Is that why you hesitate so? You face not some half-mad shadow of a man lost in dream, but a coven of armed diabolists standing against you!" He chuckled cruelly. "No doubt 'tis a bitter drought for a Squire of War to see defeat before the battle has even been joined, but who better to judge such things? Come, Jessica de Calenbry. But surrender your swords, you and your companion both, and you may yet survive this night."
Jess stared coldly into the mocking eyes of the man addressing her. “Lord Veitsi. Agent and monster. You have a choice. Let my friends go, or die.”
All three of the lords gazing upon her with dark amusement abruptly burst into laughter, the five hooded men raised the glowing tips of their wands toward Jess even as she shifted her grip. She felt how deeply the five diabolists had tied their dark magics, their very souls even, into the great working they strove desperately to complete.
Jess fiercely clamped down upon her own mounting fears. She was ready for what came next. She had to be.
“By the lords below, she is an arrogant chit,” mused the figure who must be Lord Fal, somewhat portly with a hairless dome, though a certain coldness about the eyes, a visible ruthlessness, would keep most from dismissing the man outright, Jess sensed. “Still, there is a fire in her eyes, and a saucy flare to her saunter. I can see why young Mord favors her so.”
Oblivion's Queen Page 17