“Who is now on the defensive.”
“That’s just it—Dex is never on the defensive. Even when he looks like it. That’s what makes him dangerous and deceptive.”
“Was it the entire complex?” I asked. “I seem to remember that place being huge, and he just winked it out of the plane?”
“He hid it, and if he hid it…we aren’t finding it, until he wants us to.”
“This sounds bad,” I said. “Real bad, like ‘mage warfare’ type of bad.”
“It is,” LD said. “All of the mage sects are united in purpose. They don’t always agree, but they form a loose union…unofficially. It keeps things peaceful.”
“Dex just ended that, didn’t he?”
LD nodded.
“The Golden Circle is no longer part of that unofficial union,” LD answered. “The Golden Circle, much like Dexter, who is currently the highest-ranking mage in the sect, has gone rogue.”
“Does he have the authority to do something like that? What about the Elders?”
“Two things: One, Dex is in the highest position in the Golden Circle after Connor passed. Two, the Golden Circle was founded by a Montague—some even say it was Dex himself, though I doubt he’s that old.”
“The Elders can’t stop him? Aren’t they just as old as he is?”
“Have you met Dex? He’s stronger than all of the Elders combined. You’d need a few sects of Elders to even have a chance at taking him down.”
“That many?”
“If he was in a good mood. But now, with Tristan in danger? Let’s just say that’s not a war I’m willing to entertain…ever.”
“A war?” I asked. “He’s just one mage.”
“You should always fear an old man in a profession where people die young.”
“Good point. Is Dex an Arch Mage?”
“You’re not paying attention, Strong. Focus. What do you know about Dex?”
“He has a dislike for clothing most of the time, is cranky all of the time, and really, really looks out for those who he considers family.”
“You’re missing one thing…one very scary thing that should illuminate it all for you,” LD added. “Who is he currently ‘seeing’—and I use that term loosely.”
“Shit. The Morrigan,” I said, as the realization hit me. “What are you saying?”
“She’s a goddess, and has chosen to be with him. A goddess of Death,” LD emphasized. “Do you really, for a second, think she would be with someone she considered weak?”
“Well, she’s not with him for his good looks, that’s for sure,” I said. “This defection was because of the Black Orchid letter, wasn’t it? The threat?”
“In part,” LD said. “I think this was a long time coming. Dex doesn’t do well with authority, never has. Not even in the Ten, and we’re as lax as it gets with rules. Dex rebels against them, which is why he never really joined us, despite numerous invitations.”
“Then he gets placed in charge of the Golden Circle,” I said. “He must have hated it.”
“Hated? Not really,” LD said. “He hates the trappings of the Order, the constraints; but he actually loves the Circle, just not the rules there.”
“Grey said Monty may have gone there to sort things out during his schism. He said he’d want to be somewhere familiar, somewhere that felt like home.”
“Makes sense,” LD said. “The only problem is…”
“We can’t find it right now.”
“Exactly. Which is good and bad,” LD said, pensively. “If we can’t find it, neither can Evers. It also means we can’t help Tristan during the schism.”
“How do we help Monty, if we can’t even find him?”
“When I said we, I meant everyone but you,” LD said, handing me a small, off-white card covered in runes I couldn’t decipher. “This appeared suddenly, about half an hour ago. Seems like your presence is requested.”
I took the card. It felt heavy in my hand. Instinctively, I knew it was from Dex. I didn’t know how I knew, but I knew. There was only one line on the card I could understand. The rest was in some kind of magealphabet.
It read: Send me the shieldbearer.
TWENTY-THREE
“Dex sent this,” I said, turning the card over. “It feels like him.”
“You can sense the energy?”
“Yes, powerful with a heavy dose of cranky,” I answered. “It’s hard to explain, but it’s Dex.”
“Yes, and it seems he wants you, wherever he is.”
“Wonderful,” I said, exasperated, turning the card over in my hand again. “Should I just jump into the Dark Goat and drive off to the plane where he is? Did he happen to send a map, too? Maybe GPS coordinates? How am I supposed to find him?”
“You aren’t.”
“LD, I swear, if you start magespeaking me, I will shoot you.”
“Take a breath,” LD said, holding up a hand. “If anyone can find Dex, it’s you, or rather”—he pointed at Peaches—“him.”
“Are you serious?” I asked, looking down at my hellhound. “We don’t even know where he is.”
“You don’t,” LD said, looking down at Peaches and scratching his head behind the ears. “I’m sure this awesome hellhound knows how to find the cranky old man. Isn’t that right?”
Peaches gave off a low rumble and chuffed. The ham.
Peaches moved into pounce mode and sniffed the air. For a second, I thought he fell asleep— he was special that way. After a few more seconds, he gave off another low rumble.
“He found him,” I said, looking down at my hellhound with awe. “Don’t ask me how, and he says he can only take me there, but he did.”
“Dex is probably helping with the locating on his end,” LD said, rubbing Peaches’ massive head. “Are you hungry, boy? Hellhounds are always hungry. Here.”
LD gestured and created two large sausages, placing them in front of a barely contained Peaches.
He didn’t wait to be told twice. The enormous sausages disappeared inside five seconds.
“Wow,” LD said, shaking his head. “I hope you can find a larger space when he gets to full size, and maybe buy a few sausage factories to keep him fed.”
“Or I could just learn how to make him his meat.”
LD stared at me for a good three seconds.
“I have one word for you…deathane. Let’s not try that again for a few decades.”
“What do I do if Monty is there?” I asked, concerned. “The last time we spoke, he wasn’t exactly himself.”
“Did he threaten you?”
“He promised to end my existence.”
“Let me ask you a different question,” LD said. “Why do you think Dex is asking for you?”
“I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense,” I said. “I mean, if Monty is there, why doesn’t he just smack some sense into him and fix him?”
“He didn’t ask for Strong or Simon, he asked for the shieldbearer,” LD said. “I think this has something to do specifically with you and Monty. It’s possible Dex can’t help Monty; maybe that’s your job.”
“I’m not a mage or a mage doctor. I don’t know the first thing about how to help him,” I said, frustrated. “All I know is that he used blood magic to save us, and now he’s in a schism.”
“Don’t forget Evers, who wants to kill him and probably you now, along with getting rid of magic altogether.”
“Right, no pressure,” I said, looking at the softly glowing ring on my finger. “Why did he use blood magic?”
“He must have felt it was the only choice at the moment,” LD said. “Tristan has never been what I’d call impulsive.”
“Maybe he wanted the power? Blood magic is off-the-charts power.”
“He picked an odd time to go power mad, don’t you think?” LD asked. “He must have had a reason. The runes we saw on the skywalk should have shredded Haven to pieces. I don’t know how he didn’t activate the sequence.”
“Kali said Evers wanted to remove magic from this plane,” I said. “Is that even possible?”
“Possible?” LD asked. “I don’t know. Probable? I guess anything is probable. She’s strong, but so are we. If she targeted Tristan, there must be a reason.”
“You mean aside from being just this side of a psycho-sandwich of revenge and insanity?”
“We’ll find her,” LD said, his voice certain. “Right now, you need to find Dex and bring Tristan back from the edge.”
“Right,” I said, crouching down close to my temporarily satiated hellhound. “What if I can’t help him? What if it’s too late?”
“What do you think Tristan would want?” LD asked me gently. “Do you think he’s dark? I mean deep, where it counts. Do you think he’d want to be a dark mage?”
“No, absolutely not,” I said without hesitation. “Monty may be many things, but dark is not one of them.”
“Then fight for him,” LD said. “Help him see what he can’t see right now.”
Then, I asked the questions that had been tugging in the back of my mind all along.
“What if I fail? What if I try to help him and make things worse…force him over to the dark side?”
“This is a schism, not mind-control,” LD said. “You can’t ‘force him’ to go anywhere he doesn’t want to go. If he goes dark, your job at that point is not to convince him.”
“What are you saying?”
“If Tristan goes dark, despite your attempts to bring him off the edge into the light, you’re going to have a small window of time to stop him.”
“Stop him?” I asked. “Stop him how?”
“Do you know why Grey isn’t hunted down by the rest of the sects or the Dark Council?” LD asked. “Everyone says he’s a dark mage. Why not just put him away?”
“Because Grey, a dark mage, happens to wield a dangerous, goddess-powered sword?” I said. “Have you seen Scary Grey? I wouldn’t tangle with him.”
“Me neither,” LD said. “But that’s not it. Grey is a dark mage who has managed not to succumb to the darkness; there’s still good there. He fights the darkness everyday. It’s why he doesn’t cast often, much less give that sword freedom. As long as he manages to win that battle…”
“He remains Grey.”
“He remains alive.”
“What happens if one day he slips, or loses the battle?”
“The moment that battle is lost, if he gives into the power of the sword and steps fully over to the darkness…”
“He has to die?”
“Before he kills hundreds, if not thousands of innocents,” LD said, his expression dark and tinged with sadness. “If Monty can’t be brought back from the edge…”
“Fuck you, LD,” I said with venom. “I am not going to kill Monty. He’s family.”
“You say that like he’ll give you a choice,” LD said. “If he steps over and surrenders to the darkness, the Tristan you know will be gone, buried by the darkness.”
“Buried, but not gone,” I said. “If Grey can do it, so can Monty.”
“Grey’s darkness is now focused in the sword,” LD said. “Tristan doesn’t wield a goddess-powered dark weapon.”
I thought hard about what LD was saying, when a solution presented itself.
“But I do,” I said, slowly. “If I use Ebonsoul, I can siphon the energy of the schism from Monty and help him.”
“Or kill him,” LD said. “You don’t know how your weapon will react to him in a schism—or to you, for that matter.”
“Do you?”
“No, I don’t, but I’m not his shieldbearer. You are,” LD said. “Ultimately, this is your choice. To use Ebonsoul, you’re going to have to get close. Close enough for him to hurt you. Your odds are slim to none.”
“Never tell me the odds.”
“This isn’t a movie, hombre. Tristan is powerful in his right mind. If he’s lost it, chances are he’s going to blast first without bothering to ask questions. This is beyond risky…it’s suicidal.”
“What if it was TK?”
“Excuse me?” LD asked. “What do you mean?”
“What if it was TK who had gone dark?” I asked. “What would you do?”
“Bring her back or die in the process,” LD said without hesitation. “She’s scary and dangerous, but she’s not dark. She was close, but she didn’t step off the cliff into the abyss.”
“Then you understand,” I said. “Monty is family. He would do the same for me.”
“I know,” LD answered with a nod. “I needed to make sure you did.”
“When did TK almost go dark?” I asked. “Was that when she was with Badb?”
LD nodded.
“Before the Ten. That’s a story for another time,” he said. “I suggest you never bring that up to her, if you enjoy breathing without mechanical assistance.”
“Understood,” I said. “I’ll bring him back.”
“We’ll keep tracking Talin. Once he leads us to Evers, or TK loses her patience and forces it out of him, I’ll let you know.”
“Tell Erik I had to leave,” I said, touching Peaches lightly on the head. “Besides, I think Jessikah would be safer here.”
“You mean out of the way.”
“She’s clueless and a mageist,” I said. “Her attitude is going to her killed out there. Or I’m just going to feed her to my hellhound.”
“He’d probably get indigestion. Don’t be cruel.”
“How can she be so blind to the obvious?” I asked. “And what’s with the superiority complex? I get she’s a mage, but…wow.”
LD nodded.
“Black Orchid aren’t trained,” he said. “They are indoctrinated from an early age. They are taught to believe that they are the best sect, the most pure, and the most honorable. It’s the only way they can justify the actions they take.”
“You don’t sound like a fan.”
“The Black Orchid is universally hated by mages,” LD said. “Any group that runs around calling themselves superior is instantly blacklisted by me.”
“Agreed, that whole ‘I’m better than anyone’ attitude lasts right up to the moment an orb smashes into your face.”
“No matter how badass you are, hombre,” LD said with a nod, “in this world, there is always someone or something more badass.”
“I learned that the hard way, several times,” I said. “Maybe you and TK can polish some of Jessikah’s rough edges?”
LD stared at me for a second, before shaking his head.
“TK doesn’t suffer fools lightly, even if they’ve been conditioned,” LD said. “Farsight is going to have to learn the hard way. The world is a hard and cruel place. The sooner she breaks from her current way of thinking, the easier it will be for her.”
“Either she breaks from it or the world will break her,” I said. “Especially the world of mages and monsters.”
> “It would be good to have a Daughter of Bast out of their control,” LD said. “They’re powerful when fully trained, if they make it that far. Most don’t, which makes them rare.”
“The Black Orchid doesn’t feel that way,” I said, “They want her eliminated.”
“The Black Orchid fears what it can’t control,” LD said with a wry smile. “Bast mages are an anomaly to them. If they can’t understand it, they erase it.”
“Sounds like they are the ones who need to be erased.”
“One of the reasons they hate Dex,” LD answered. “He checked them a while back. Stopped them cold in their plans. Plenty of Black Orchid were retired that day and they won’t let it go, ever.”
Mage politics were worse than normal politics.
“I may not be a mage, but I know from personal experience when someone is green and dangerous,” I said. “She’ll end up getting herself or someone else killed. That’s not a risk I’m willing to take right now.”
“Duly noted,” LD said. “I’ll let Erik know your hellhound could only take you. That should defuse any protests from Farsight.”
LD moved back, giving Peaches and me some room.
“Tell TK to be careful with Evers.”
“I think you have that backward,” LD answered with a slight shake of his head. “I’d be worried if TK were after me.”
“Me, too,” I said. “Thanks again.”
“For what? I just came to deliver a card,” LD said with a tight smile. “Don’t get yourself dead, hombre. Bring Tristan back, if you can.”
I nodded.
“Failure is not an option.”
LD stepped back even farther and nodded. I looked down at my hellhound. The runes along his flanks were glowing, along with his eyes.
A low rumble escaped from him, followed by a bark. I saw LD wince, covering his ears, before the world went black.
TWENTY-FOUR
Traveling in-between with Peaches was a singular experience. Normally, it felt like a runaway rollercoaster ride where I was hanging on for dear life.
Walking The Razor: A Montague & Strong Detective Novel Page 16