“We can’t stay,” Ed protested. “You’ve already seen why.” He glanced over at the remains of the demon.
Xavier turned to Ann. “Are you Rhiannon Valeran?” All colour drained from her face. “It’s alright. I suspected you might come here. Your secret is safe with me.”
“Ann—”
“Phin needs help and the Ashrak is dead. Let’s stay. For now, at least.”
Chapter Five
Ann and Ed went off to another chamber. She’d been surprised when Xavier had guessed their secret and told them they could still stay. Stranger still had been when the demon stabbed her. She felt the blade slicing through her flesh then darkness had dragged her under. For a few moments, she’d appeared in a shadowy world surrounded by nothing but mist. She decided against telling Ed about it. Ann couldn't be sure, but she thought she might have been dead there for a few moments. But the only thing that mattered right now was making sure Phin was okay.
Ed reluctantly walked off to check for more demons after she gave him a good talking for his overprotectiveness. She hoped he’d stop acting so much like a guard. He’d been more protective of her now than when he was her bodyguard.
Phin now lay on a makeshift bed in one of the other caverns. Blue walls glittered around them. His head had some bruising where the Ashrak had struck him.
She dug through Nadia’s supplies until she found the herb and wrapped it in some cloth to make a compress. She pressed it to his forehead. Since the Ashrak had already known where they were she didn’t see the harm in using a little magic. She muttered words of power.
Phin’s eyes fluttered open. Ann kept her fingers pressed to his forehead so she could listen to his surface thoughts. Where am I? he wondered. What happened?
Ann scanned deeper. How did you escape from Orla? Did you join her?
Phin blinked. “Rhiannon, is that you?” The druid grasped her hand.
Ann winced. “I’m not—” Blessed spirits, how had he known it was really her? Her glamour made her look like a different person and even disguised her voice. Nothing about her should have resembled Rhiannon Valeran anymore.
“No, it is you. I’d know your magic anywhere.” He gave a weak smile. “I’m so relieved you’re alive, child.”
She placed her hand on his shoulder. How did you escape from Orla?
“I wasn’t at the palace. I’ve been travelling to Trewa. After I heard what happened, I tried making my way back there. But I was waylaid. Orla’s forces are everywhere.”
Ann felt no deception in his thoughts. “I’m happy to see you, Phin.” She gave him a quick hug. Despite Ed’s warnings and her own anxiety, she decided it was better to tell him the truth. Besides, he already knew it was her. No point in lying to him now.
“Child, tell me what happened in Larenth.” Phin gripped her hand. “Who killed your parents? I know you’d never do such a terrible thing.”
She winced, a familiar ache in her chest. Ann didn’t want to think let alone talk of that night. “I didn’t do it,” she said finally. “What’s happening back in Larenth?”
“Orla has outlawed the use of magic by anyone who refused to join her.” Phin sat up. “They’re either forced to swear fealty to her or put to death. Dozens are dead already. Everyone from guards to villagers.” Ann’s stomach lurched. “Why did you run? Why haven’t you stopped her?”
“I…I didn’t have a choice.” She’d been so weak after defeating Urien she hadn’t stood much of a chance against Orla’s forces. There had been no other choice but to flee or they would all be dead now.
“Is your father truly gone?”
She nodded and clenched her fists. “He’s gone.”
After making sure Phin had no lasting symptoms, Ann headed back to her chamber and pulled a small box out of her pack. The bag was spelled so it could hold an infinite number of items. Ann flipped the box open and took out a map of the palace. She knew every way in and out by heart. The question was how could she get in and kill Orla without being detected first?
She sensed Ed coming toward her. She shoved the box and map back into her pack. Spirits, couldn’t he leave her alone for one moment? Ann couldn’t have a chance to go through her things for days now since Ed rarely left her alone.
“I haven’t found any more Ashrak.” Ed rubbed the back of his neck. “I still can’t work out how they tracked us.”
“Phin will be okay.” She decided to change the subject.
“Good, we should leave before—”
“No,” she said more forcefully than she’d meant to. “I don’t want to leave yet.”
Ed’s brow creased. “You don’t?”
“No, we should stay. Only Xavier, Phin, and Nadia know who we are. I know we need to be careful, but I trust them. I don’t think they will betray us.”
Ed’s eyes narrowed. “You told Phin who you are?”
She shook her head. “No. I’m tired of running. Maybe we can make a difference here.” Guilt clawed at her. She couldn’t admit to Ed she wanted to stay so she could finally go after Orla again. They’d moved around so much this past month she hadn’t had time to plan things properly. Ed hardly ever left her side either. Deep down she knew he’d never support her plan. He’d stop her or convince her not to go after Orla.
Ann was sick of waiting. Every day Orla sat in Caselhelm and grew more powerful. Which meant she had more opportunity to terrorise the people of Caselhelm and do the spirits only knew what to them. She couldn’t sit back and let that happen. Someone had to stop Orla, and it would be her.
“Are you sure you want to stay?” Ed’s frown deepened. “More demons will come after us.”
“Let them come. We can’t run forever. We’ll deal with it.”
Ed didn’t look convinced. “Fine, we’ll stay for now. But let’s talk about what happened earlier when the Ashrak stabbed you.” He took hold of her hand. “For a moment there, I could have sworn you were dead. I felt like I lost part of my soul. What happened? Were you dead?”
She shivered at the memory of the icy darkness she’d been surrounded by when the blackness had dragged her under. “I don’t know. Maybe. I don’t know what happened.” She pulled her hand away from his. “I don’t want to talk about it either. Get back to work. We need to blend in around here.”
Ed left, and Ann knew she’d have to find the right moment to leave.
Ann waited until later that night. She’d spent the day helping Nadia. Once people learned she was a healer, she’d had people coming to her all day asking for help to cure various ailments. She hadn’t had a moment herself. The resistance’s supplies were lacking. It made her wonder how they managed to help anyone. These people needed help. Money. She felt guilty for only using this place for cover. But she wouldn’t give up on her plan. She’d avenge her father no matter what.
Ann had given Nadia some coin and told her where she might get some decent supplies from some of her father’s contacts. It made her glad she could do a little good here at least. The resistance needed the money more than she did. Besides, when she finally faced Orla she knew she might not come back. It didn’t matter if she died as long as she got revenge for her family. She didn’t care what came after that.
She didn’t say much to Ed that night then pretended to go to bed early.
Ed climbed into bed beside her. She waited until she heard his steady breathing before she slipped out, dressed, and swung her pack over her shoulder.
Sorry, Ed, she thought and muttered words of power to make sure he stayed asleep.
Ann trekked through the tunnels, relieved when she didn’t run into anyone. Guilt twisted in her gut. She hated lying to Ed, but this was too important. She couldn’t lose the chance to attack Orla, not when most of her forces weren’t at the palace.
Pale slivers of moonlight crept through the clouds. Ann moved away from the tunnel entrance and pushed through the trees until she reached a clearing.
She knelt and traced a circle on the ground. And its differen
t rings that would transport her straight to the new lands. It’d be harder for Ed to track her that way. Ann opened her mouth to chant the transfer and spell.
A shadow flew at her. She caught the flash of a knife as she struggled with her assailant. She flexed her fingers and burst of air sent the demon flying.
She began to chant the spell. The demon came at her again.
“Silly girl,” the Ashrak said. “Every time you use the lines, I can track you.”
The glow of the Erthea lines fell away. “What? That’s not possible,” she gasped.
The Ashrak raised his hand. Ann dodged another blast of energy. A fireball formed in her hand, and she hurled it at him.
The demon dodged it and the tree behind him exploded. She cried out more words of power. The Ashrak staggered and drew one of her own knives. “I’ll kill you,” the demon hissed.
“No, you won’t.” She plunged the blade through his chest and the body melted to ash.
The blade fell from her grasp. What have I become? she wondered. She’d never used magic out of pure anger before.
“Ann?” Ed ran over to her and gripped her shoulders. “What happened?” He glanced down. “You’re leaving? Damn it, Ann, you can’t walk into—” he stopped as she covered her face with her hands.
“I’m so tired of running. I’m sick of feeling powerless,” she cried, and tears dripped down her cheeks. “I need to do something. I can’t let Orla get away with what she did.”
“Killing Orla won’t bring your parents back.”
“How can I stand back and do nothing?”
“You’ll never get close to her. Even if you did, we both know someone much more powerful was helping her.”
“Then what do you expect me to do?” she demanded. “I could take her down if I had to. Whatever magic my father used before he died brought Xander back from death and it did the same with me. If I can’t die now, then I can finally put an end to her.”
Ed shook his head. “You don’t know that. We don’t know anything about the spell your father used. It could only be temporary. I won’t let you put yourself at risk like that.”
“You can’t expect me to do nothing.”
“We will find a way to stop Orla but it’s going to take time. Let’s stay here.” Ed wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “We can do some good here.”
“I can’t give up my quest to stop Orla. She’s destroying my people.”
“You don’t have to. We can’t stop Orla and whoever she is working for by ourselves. We need allies.”
She snorted. “You really think a bunch of outcasts can do that?”
“We won’t know unless we give them the chance.”
After years on the run together, Ann and Ed are torn apart when an old friend-turned-enemy resurfaces. Now a prisoner of the demon queen, Orla, Ed must find a way back to Ann before it’s too late. Get Forgotten Magic to find out if he does.
About the Author
Tiffany Shand is the author of urban and epic fantasy short stories and books. She spends most of her time defending her desk from her two feline demons—cats—and battling with her dragon who writes books for her. In the real world, she works as a copy editor and copywriter, helping other authors to get their books ready for publication. When she’s not busy working on books, she enjoys spending time with her family and indulging her love of photography.
Check out her books at tiffanyshand.com. Don't forget to grab your copy of Forgotten Magic for more adventures.
Pretty Poison
Raven Oak
In the Boahim Trilogy, magic is wild and new for most of the Little Dozen Kingdoms. It’s been hidden and forgotten, and in some areas of the world, forbidden. To find magic that devours the way it does in this story would scare anyone, and it should! I really wanted to explore this idea of magic gone wayward or gone rogue. Toss in a character who’s not too sure if she’s on the side of good, and you have a recipe for my kind of story!
Raven Oak
After burning the City of Tovias to the ground, Shendra, now Shara of the Order of Amaska, has trained hard as a journeyman. “Pretty Poison” finds us ten years in her future, tracking rumors of a murderer in the new city of Tovias, now called Lachail. What she discovers is magic powerful enough to burn through wood, metal, and people. Can she stop the poisonous spread of such magics before the town is destroyed? Or is she cursed, her trip to Lachail causing it to burn?
Pretty Poison
“Lachail? What do they expect us to find down there?” asked Shara as she dragged the whetstone across her dagger.
Their last ten years of working together left neither of them any younger as her brother’s finger brushed across a healing scar above his brow. “An Amaskan passing through here reported our mark’s there in town. The man’s Tribor.”
While Shara was newer to the Order than her brother, everyone in the Little Dozen Kingdoms knew that word…and all that came with it—particularly death and destruction. “Why not send the Sadain Army after him? Tribor ain’t nothin’ more than cutthroats for hire.”
Bredych sighed. “They did. The men didn’t return.”
“That’s giving the Tribor a lot of credit if this one Tribor took down Royal Army members.” Shara sheathed the now sharpened dagger in her boot and removed the other from her waist. When she ran a long finger across it, it scratched the outer skin layer but otherwise made no mark. “Is it my imagination or do we seem to find ourselves cleanin’ up more and more messes for His Majesty?”
The words had been uttered under her breath, yet her brother glanced around their campsite at the town’s edge. Shara nudged their campfire with her booted toe, making Bredych flinch, and a laugh erupted from her. “What’s got ya so jumpy?” she asked.
“You’ve never encountered them, have you?”
“They’ll kill for a penny. Ain’t exactly the most talented bunch. Are ya really afraid of them?”
Her brother untucked his shirt from his breeches and pulled it up to expose his abdomen and ribs. A gnarly, purple scar wrapped its way across his flesh from hip bone to arm pit. As thick as her wrist, delicate white lines splayed across the purple scar like spider webs across tree bark. “For all that they aren’t as organized and trained as we are, never discount their desperation. The Tribor count on that when they recruit. Find folks desperate enough for a little coin, and it’s amazing what they’re able to do. One snuck up on me in the woods outside of the capital city.”
“What’d he use on ya? A scimitar?”
“Something like that. Point is, I never heard him approach. One moment I was walking, and the next, I was flat in the mud with my innards trying to escape. Only reason I didn’t die was because Grand Master Elish was meeting me in those woods.”
Shara tilted her head, and when her brother didn’t elaborate, she tucked the information away for later. Odd that the Grand Master would leave the Order. Odder still that he’d be meetin’ my brother considering their abhorrence for each other. Ever since the man had beaten her brother in the race for Grand Master, they’d had a rocky relationship at best.
The ledge Bredych and Shara camped on lay out in the open, but it gave them a clear view of the town below. As she watched it, she asked, “So what’s this Tribor done that he’s our mark?”
“He murdered a duke.”
Her eyes grew wide as she sharpened her second dagger. “The King’s brother-by-marriage?”
“The very same.”
A million questions ran slipshod through her head: How’d he gain access to the King’s brother? Is he really that good an assassin or did he just get lucky? Where’d the murder take place, and dammit, why didn’t Elish give me all the details on the mark? Further questions set her on edge, though she tried to shove those darker thoughts aside.
Bredych’s hand rested on her shoulder, and despite her willing her body to relax, her shoulder muscles stiffened.
“Now who’s on edge?” he asked with a smirk.
She
remained silent as the sun dipped below the horizon, sending splashes of oranges and reds across the sky. It wasn't until the crickets filled the air with music that Shara turned to face her brother. “Being an Amaskan…it means somethin’, right?”
“Of course. Serving Justice plays a critical role in the Little Dozen Kingdoms. Why are you asking this now? I thought you long past your doubts in serving the Order.”
“I thought I was too.” Shara pursed her lips together. “It’s been ten years since I pledged m’self to the Order and Anur, may His Justice pave the way, but I’m never alone. Every job’s with someone else. Not that I mind yer old face, brother, but why are my jobs mostly with you? Why doesn’t Grand Master Elish give the job details to me? Is there a reason I find out the details a moment before we set out to do ’em?”
Lines gathered across her brother’s face as he listed to the flood that poured forth, and when the questions stopped, he wore a frown that aged him a decade. “I-I thought you enjoyed working with me.”
“I do, but there are other Amaskans in the Order. How can I learn to work with other specialties if I never work with others? Besides, ya know as well as I do that there are plenty of solo tasks an Amaskan can take. Why haven’t I been sent on one of those?”
Bredych pointed at the town below, where tiny torchlights flickered along streets as day shifted to night. “If you were going after this Tribor alone, how would you approach it?”
“Well, for one, I’d have all the information gathered by the Order, so I’d be able to make a plan. Seein’ as I know naught but he killed a Duke, I’d have to go into town to see if I could gather some gossip on the man. I’d find out where he is, study his routines, and use that to kill him. But ya didn’t answer any of my questions.”
He sighed, and when his stony gaze met hers, fear gathered along the edges of his eyes. “There is a…shift happening within the Order. Some feel Elish’s devotion to Anur is not what it should be, and that he focuses too equally on the Thirteen.”
Magic Underground: The Complete Collection (Magic Underground Anthologies Book 4) Page 81