by Todd Herzman
‘He’s not just a bandit,’ the woman said. ‘Surely you can see that.’
The monk’s shadow fell over Marius.
The woman walked to the opposite side of the man and knelt. ‘Look at his armour.’ She gestured at what the man wore. ‘Chainmail. Expensive chainmail. Not a common bandit. And his sword? Quality steel.’
‘A mercenary?’ Peiter’s commanding voice had fallen away.
‘Of a sort.’ The woman leant closer and grabbed the man’s bound wrist. He struggled in her grasp but couldn’t stop her from turning his wrist over. She looked at the underside, nodded at it. ‘Do you know what this is?’
Peiter stepped in front of Marius, leaning over to look. ‘A cut.’ He stood back to full height. ‘A bloodlock?’ The monk closed his eyes and lines formed on his forehead. ‘It’s still active.’ He snapped his eyes open and looked about the clearing.
‘I scouted around.’ The woman stood. ‘Whoever’s controlling him isn’t close by.’
Marius looked at the dead body with a knife in its back. He stepped toward it. It reminded him of the dead in his village. The way the body had fallen, flat on its stomach, the underside of the wrist was visible. The same cut was there.
‘A bloodlock from that far away… the mage must be a strong one,’ Peiter said.
Bloodlock… mage… a blood mage? Marius thought. He spun around and looked at the monk. ‘There’s a blood mage near here?’
‘Hush, Marius.’ Peiter’s eyes scanned the forest. ‘You’re safe.’
‘Is he? I spotted these two back in town and realised what they were. I tracked them.’ The woman stared at the monk. ‘They tracked you.’
‘It’s not unheard of for a blood mage to go after a Tahali monk,’ Peiter said, though his voice was soft, wavering.
Marius stepped closer to Peiter, following his gaze around the forest. ‘Do you think it’s the same one?’
The woman frowned at them. ‘You can talk and pack at the same time.’ She pulled her dagger from the man’s back and wiped the blood off on his clothes, then cut a strip of fabric from his sleeve.
‘What are you doing?’ Peiter asked.
Marius collected his bedroll and started putting things back in the monk’s pack.
‘Covering his eyes and ears. If you won’t let me kill him, at least let me do this.’
‘Leaving him bound, blind, and deaf in the forest is the same as killing him. In the mountains, we have had some success breaking bloodlocks before.’
Marius pulled the drawstring on Peiter’s pack and turned his head in time to see the woman give Peiter a flat look.
‘You want to take this guy—someone his master can track—all the way to the Tahali mountains? A prisoner who could escape and attack you at any moment, lead more like him to you, plus be another mouth to feed?’ She tied a makeshift blindfold around the man’s eyes, then wrapped another piece of fabric three times around his ears. ‘We leave him here, then move on from this forest.’ She nodded at the monk. ‘Those magic hands of yours able to make a light that doesn’t produce smoke?’
‘And I am supposed to take your orders simply because you are giving them? I do not even know your name.’
Marius put his own pack on and brought Peiter’s to him. The monk put it on as if by reflex.
The woman, kneeling by the bandit, finished tying his ears shut, stood, and wiped her hands on her trousers. She stepped forward and held a hand out. Peiter eyed it half a moment before shaking. She smirked. ‘Name’s Lilah.’
‘Peiter.’
Lilah rested a hand on the pommel of her left sword. ‘You don’t have to take my orders or listen to a single word I say. But, well, if you like living, it can’t hurt having me on your side.’ She looked at the sky. Clouds blocked the moon from offering its light. ‘Now douse that fire and follow me, then you can tell me what this boy meant when he asked about the blood mage being the “same one”.’ She walked to the tree line without looking back to see if they followed.
Marius watched her disappear into the shadows, turning into a shadow herself in the dark. ‘Should we trust her?’
The monk sighed. ‘I think so. But, still, we should act with caution. We do not know why she is helping us.’
‘Can’t you read her mind?’
The monk shook his head. ‘I tried. She is wearing protective crystals.’ Peiter directed a hand at the fire and the flames were snuffed in an instant. A light sprung from his hand—a ball of mana, larger than those Marius had seen back in the forest by Billings.
Marius frowned at the light. ‘I thought only those with an Affinity could see mana’s light? How will Lilah see it?’
‘When we draw it into ourselves from nature, yes. But there is a way to make it visible to others.’ Peiter trudged after Lilah, not explaining how he could make it visible. Marius trailed behind, sending a lingering look over his shoulder at the dead man and the bound one.
Chapter 28
Ruben
The woman in the red dress, Alyssa, sat on Ruben’s bed.
Ruben sat on the floor, legs crossed beneath him, hands on his knees. His eyes were closed, and he was having trouble concentrating.
‘This is ridiculous.’ He sighed and looked at her.
Alyssa smiled. ‘You must learn to access your powers without anger. There is another way, you know?’ She closed her eyes, put a hand in front of her, and took a deep breath. Her chest rose steadily then fell as she exhaled. A small ball of light appeared in her hand. ‘This is mana.’ She opened her eyes. ‘It’s where your magic comes from. It’s like… wood for a fire. You burn through it when you use your powers.’
She looked at him from her perch on the bed. ‘You’ve got an abundance of mana inside of you.’ She put a hand to her chest. ‘Some people can only hold so much, they burn through it in moments, and have to learn how to retain more. You? You can do that naturally.’ She held the ball closer to Ruben. ‘If you focus, you should be able to make this with ease. Just close your eyes again, do as I told you.’
Ruben inhaled deeply and shut his eyes. She’d told him to focus first on his breath, until his body relaxed. He couldn’t help feeling tense. He couldn’t help feeling all the stress from everything that had happened since Malarin took him from Billings. His mind conjured images of Malarin throwing Taya out of the tavern. Malarin attacking Ruben in his cell, biting into his neck. And the God King—his strength, his power.
‘You need to relax,’ Alyssa said.
Ruben heard her shuffle off the bed, her feet hitting the stone floor. She sat behind him. He felt her warmth this close. Ruben flinched as she put her hands on his shoulders.
‘Hush. I will not harm you.’ The pads of her fingers dug into his shoulders. She moved them up and down, kneading knots he hadn’t known were there.
A shuddering breath escaped Ruben’s lips. He felt a pang of guilt as he sunk into her touch, as he let her massage the tension and stress away from him. He pushed the guilt aside and let the moment happen.
He was doing this for Taya. Doing this to gain the power to free her, she would understand…
Ruben wasn’t sure how much time had passed when Alyssa let go of his shoulders and sat back on the bed. His shoulders felt like they would melt away.
‘Now,’ Alyssa said, and Ruben heard the satisfied smile in her voice, ‘let’s try this again. Deep breaths… reach for that power inside of you. Do not shove at it, do not yank it and do not burn it. Touch it, tenderly. Touch your mind to it and imagine it in your hands—just a bit, mind you.’
Alyssa’s hands had helped deepen Ruben’s breath. He felt for the power. It took only a moment to find. What usually felt like rage, fire, fury, felt like something else entirely. It was power, that he was sure of, but it wasn’t the same as when he called upon it in a rage. It didn’t burn inside of him. It was more like a dam or a well.
Ruben groped for it, touched his mind to it. Light entered the
room, penetrated his closed eyelids. Ruben’s eyes sprung open. He squinted at the brightness.
A ball of mana, four times the size of what Alyssa had shown him, hovered in front of Ruben just above his right hand.
Alyssa shaded her eyes. ‘Too much!’
The ball grew. Ruben’s power pulsed within.
‘Take it back!’
The light grew so bright Ruben could no longer see Alyssa, only hear her voice, high-pitched and afraid.
He didn’t want to let the power go. Why would he? This is what she wanted, wasn’t it? But the light didn’t stop growing. The power inside of him, pulsing, vibrating, was leaving him and entering the ball. The well inside draining fast.
Control. He had wanted to learn control, and this wasn’t it.
Ruben thrust his hands into the ball of light and let out a long breath before taking in another. He imagined the energy entering him, returning to the well. At first, nothing happened. The light still grew. He touched the ball—tugged at it, tenderly—and tried to reverse the flow.
The light was sucked from the room. Ruben blinked. Pale, quivering bits of left-over brightness swam in his vision. The room looked darker than before. He could see Alyssa again. She faced away from him, head in her knees, hands over her head.
Ruben climbed up from the ground. He took a tentative step toward the bed, looking down at the woman in the red dress, knees tucked up and shivering.
He touched her shoulder, softly, like she had his. She flinched and flung around. Her hands came up in front of her and Ruben no longer saw Alyssa, but a monster with teeth long as fingers and claws sharp as razors.
Ruben shuddered, stumbled back. As fast as the image had been conjured, it fell away, revealing the woman once more.
‘Sorry. Reflex.’ Alyssa stared at him, fear lingered in her eyes despite a smile playing on her lips.
‘No. I’m sorry. I don’t even know what I did, how I did it…’
‘You drew on too much power, just as I told you not to do.’ Alyssa stood, straightened her dress and moved toward the door. She put a hand on the handle, then let go before turning around and leaning back on the door. ‘I pushed you too hard, too fast. It’s my fault.’ Her head dropped and she sighed. ‘I can find you a new instructor, the God King will punish me, but—’
‘No.’ Ruben took two steps forward and stopped short. ‘It—it was my fault. Please, I wouldn’t want to see you get hurt because of something I did.’ He forced a smile.
Alyssa looked up at Ruben. It was strange standing this close to her. She was a head shorter than him, with dark eyes and dark hair. Her skin looked soft. He remembered what her touch felt like. She still breathed heavily from the fright. They both did.
Ruben backed away. Maybe he did need a new instructor. ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry if what I did will get you into trouble.’
He looked away from her but could still see her leaning against the door in the corner of his eye. He could have sworn he saw a smile playing on her lips, but when he looked at her again it was gone.
‘It’s okay. We could try again. Maybe the God King doesn’t have to know.’ She came forward and took his hand, held it in both of hers. ‘You have hands that have known rough work.’ She put a hand to his chest. ‘And a heart that has known much anger. You have only ever accessed your magic in times of struggle. But magic isn’t always blunt as a hammer, hot as a forge. Magic is subtle, too. Gentle.’
She acted so nice, so pleasant, Ruben could almost forget who she worked for. Would the God King truly punish her, or had she just said that so Ruben would feel sympathetic?
Her hand lingered on his chest before she removed it. He swallowed a breath and watched her sit on the bed.
Ruben would learn magic from Alyssa, but he would not betray Taya.
He sat on the floor, as far from the bed as he could in the small room, and closed his eyes. He could sense the power within himself much easier now he’d already touched it. He wondered what had happened, why it had pulsed so strongly. He’d relaxed, just as Alyssa had told him to, but had he been too eager?
He forgot about Alyssa, about Malarin and the God King. Patience, he thought. I must be patient. He wouldn’t be able to master his powers without someone else’s help, and he certainly wouldn’t be able to master them in a day. His father used to talk to him about patience.
Blacksmithing is a craft, he would say. Takes months to learn and years to master.
But Ruben didn’t have years. What if the God King went after his sister? She had been seen in his vision, and the God King thought his family had power. And what of Marius? Would he be safe back home?
The God King hadn’t treated him so bad as Malarin had. Ruben had a comfortable room, three meals a day, someone training him magic, and he was unblemished by a blood mage’s control, but it wasn’t just his own life he had to worry about.
He took a deep breath, let it out. Took another. He focused on each as they came and went. He felt inside himself. The well was there, within his reach. He touched it with his mind—tenderly, gently—and opened his eyes to see a glowing ball of mana in his hand.
Ruben smiled at it. It was still slightly bigger than Alyssa’s had been, but it wasn’t twice the size, and it wasn’t growing, either.
‘Very good.’ Alyssa’s voice was tinged with glee. She had a glint in her eyes.
Ruben’s gaze fell from her eyes, to her lips. To her neck. Smooth, free of scars. His mind flashed to Malarin, red eyes flaring after he’d feasted on Ruben’s blood. The power he’d held, the way he’d shrugged off Ruben’s flames. Ruben wanted that power.
Patience. He would start with patience. But when he had no more, when his patience was depleted…
He glanced at the mana in his hand, then eyed the vein in Alyssa’s neck.
Chapter 29
Ella
Ella lay in bed, alone in her cabin. The world swayed. She no longer felt the ship’s movement in her gut, something else twisted in there now.
The Serpentine was on the move again. If she shut her eyes and focused, she could hear the ocean waves crashing into its hull. Reena had taken the ship’s wheel. Aralia worked her witchery on the winds. The Serpentine’s bow cut through the water faster than any ship had a right.
Ella had barely spoken a word to the two women since she’d jumped off the side. She felt a stinging mix of betrayal and guilt. They’d lied to Ella, then Ella had almost killed them all. But she’d achieved one of her goals. Reena had felt so guilty at lying to Ella that they were now headed to Albion, just as Ella had wanted. They would scope out the island from afar and see if there were any ways to sneak a boat onto its shores.
Something creaked. A high-pitched groan filled the quiet cabin. Ella turned her head. The sway of the ship had opened the wardrobe door. She sat up and stood, moving to close it. She raised her hand, then looked at her fingers. They sparked, flamed and flashed with light. She yanked her hand back as if she’d touched a hot pot she’d thought was cold.
Ella sighed. She’d just imagined it.
Part of her was stunned to find what Aralia had said about her having power was true, and she didn’t have one power—she had three. Three Affinities. Did Ruben have that too? Did he know?
Ella closed the wardrobe door. She paced back and forth, which, in her cabin, only amounted to taking three steps each way.
Three things, Ella thought. Convince Reena to help was one, learning magic came next. The only person who could teach her magic had lied to her. But should Ella’s feelings override the fact that learning to use her powers would help her save Ruben? Wouldn’t it be selfish not to get Aralia to teach her?
Ella stopped in front of the cabin door. She gripped the doorhandle. No sparks, she thought, looking at her hand. She turned the handle with a click. She touched the walls as she stepped through the halls toward the outer deck.
She couldn’t trust Aralia and Reena as she had before, but they wer
e all heading in the same direction. Their goals still aligned, at least for now. She didn’t need to trust them—she didn’t need to like them—to work with them. And if they went their separate ways when they reached Albion, if she had to sneak onto the island without them… Ella would need to have a handle on her powers.
Wind and sea spray hit her face as she stepped into the open air. There wasn’t much movement on the deck. The few sailors out had their eyes locked on the captain at the wheel, and the weather witch beside her.
Ella kept her balance as best she could as she walked the deck. Ephraim was near the wheel and spotted her first. He wore a worried look at seeing her and gave her a slight nod as she stepped onto the crescent moon platform that held the captain’s wheel.
It was their second day on the water since leaving Aralia’s island. Ella paused behind the captain, first mate, and weather witch. The sun was low on the horizon. They’d been at it all day and would soon let the wind decide which way it wanted to blow as they had the previous night.
The two women hadn’t seen her yet. Ella didn’t wish to interrupt them. She felt a sliver of hate as she watched them. She pushed her feelings down. She didn’t need them right now. She remembered her conversation with Jacob after she’d almost set fire to the ship. She watched the two of them work, staring into the backs of their heads.
Can you be good and bad at the same time?
Reena had killed blood mages before. She’d saved those teenagers from being slaves. Saved Arin and given her life back. And Aralia had created a sanctuary, a protected place for those who needed it. These women weren’t all bad, just as Ella wasn’t all bad for almost burning the ship.
She still felt betrayed. She hadn’t forgiven them, and she didn’t know if she could trust them now she knew the truth of why they were after the blood mage. But she could work with them. And besides, she needed to.
Ella watched the witch’s hands, held down at her sides. Her elbows were bent, palms facing forward. The wind billowed her dress, making it flap around her. The sails were taut and tight.