by Todd Herzman
‘I will your’—grace, he almost said—‘I will, grandfather.’
A smile split his grandfather’s lips. ‘That is good to hear. And’—his eyes travelled to Alyssa—‘should you grow thirsty, Lady Alyssa would happily oblige you.’ His eyes flicked between the two of them. Ruben avoided the woman’s gaze. ‘She tells me you enjoyed it the last time, her power flowing through you. How did it feel?’ His eyes were fully back on Ruben’s now. ‘How did it feel, wearing my image?’
Ruben stared at Renial, face blank but for his widened eyes. ‘I…’ he stammered. He had felt powerful, that night. He’d been the God King, tricked the guards, walked out freely if just for a moment, someone else’s blood running through him—pumping power through his veins.
Renial chuckled. ‘Perhaps I have put you on the spot. It is not always an easy thing to talk of, especially when you are so new to the blood touching your lips.’ He smiled, and the smile reminded Ruben of Malarin, back on the ship, the moment after he’d fed from Ruben for the first time. His teeth stained red.
A part of Ruben wondered how truly safe he was here. But that part of him lay mostly quiet, somewhere deep in his mind. His thoughts were of his brother, his sister. I will see Ella tomorrow, he thought, and he knew he would do what his grandfather had requested. It was the right thing to do, after all. How could bringing their family together be a bad thing? How could keeping them all safe on this island not be the right thing to do? Especially when his grandfather only wanted to help them. And save the world, he thought.
‘Go,’ Renial said. ‘Return to your betrothed. I hope she is comfortable in your rooms. Please let me know if they grow too small for the two of you. And’—he glanced at Alyssa—‘you can always request to see Alyssa outside of your rooms. I understand if you have not spoken to your betrothed of everything that has happened since you parted.’
Ruben didn’t know what to say to that. Instead of opening his mouth and stammering again, he simply bowed his head to show Renial he understood. Then, dismissed, he gave one last look at the guards flanking his grandfather, still avoiding looking at Alyssa, and turned to walk back down the long hall.
His footsteps seemed to echo more loudly off the smooth walls than they had when he’d first walked in. His mind was flooded with thoughts of his brother and sister. What would he say to Ella? He’d been trying, ever since getting Taya back, to make his betrothed understand that they were safe here. Ella may not have suffered at the hands of Malarin, but she’d been kidnapped and taken here against her will. So much had changed since they’d seen each other last. He’d no idea who that blonde woman she’d been with in his vision was. Where had Ella gone, after he’d been taken?
He was eager to see her, but afraid of what might happen when he did.
Chapter 53
Ella
Pain brought Ella back to life. She opened her eyes and shut them again, finding the world too bright. ‘Ugh,’ was all she managed to say.
‘Finally awake again, dearie?’
That voice was familiar. Magna, she thought. Her stomach sunk. That meant her plan hadn’t worked—she’d tried to probe the blood lord’s mind and blacked out at the effort. Or, perhaps she’d never gotten that far, and only lost consciousness because she’d run out of air trapped in that bubble of water.
‘Magna?’ Ella opened her eyes a fraction, squinting at the bright light. The world swayed, the waves knocked the cabin this way and that—probably not as violently as it seemed. ‘My—my friends?’ Ella’s eyes began to gain focus. She made out the older, larger woman sitting by her bedside. There were other shapes, too. One stood at the foot of her bed.
‘Safe,’ said a woman’s voice. ‘Thanks to you.’ The woman walked around to the side of her bed. She was beautiful, her blonde hair trailing down her shoulders. Light spilled from the cabin’s window, making her hair a glowing halo. Aralia knelt and took Ella’s hand. ‘Good to see you’re awake.’
Ella smiled. ‘You too.’ She blinked and looked past Aralia. ‘This isn’t the same cabin I woke in last time.’
‘No,’ Magna said on the other side of the bed. ‘This is the captain’s cabin. The blood lord’s own abode. Seemed right to put you in it.’
Aralia squeezed Ella’s hand. ‘The moment the blood lord hit the ground, everyone under his control had free will again. Magna sprang into action, helping those who were wounded in the fight.’ Aralia paused. ‘At least, that’s what they tell me, I was unconscious at the time.’
‘The blood lord, is he—’
‘Powerless,’ Magna said, her voice a low growl. ‘Whatever you did to him…’ The woman shook her head. ‘It broke the bloodlocks.’
‘It did more than that. You snapped his mind, Ella—almost killed him,’ Aralia said.
‘I—I broke his mind?’ Ella didn’t feel pity for the man. She was simply surprised what she’d done could be so harmful. Had she almost snapped Aralia’s mind, then? Her own? Ella looked to Aralia. ‘He still lives?’
Aralia’s eyes darted away from her. She looked at the ground. ‘He still lives.’
‘He should be dead,’ Magna said, her voice blank of the anger it had held before. ‘The men, once his influence had lifted… Your captain, Reena, only just managed to get the blood lord in a cell before they ripped him apart. She said death would be too easy for him, said he should be a prisoner in his own mind for once.’ Her eyes darted away. ‘The men… his hold was strongest on those he made fight for him. I don’t know if they’ll ever be the same.’
Aralia walked around the bed and put a hand on the woman’s shoulder. ‘They won’t be the same as they once were, but each day that passes will be better than the last. I have looked after many who have fallen under a blood mage’s thrall. Now that the haze has lifted, they will learn to live their own lives again. It will be hard, but I have seen it done.’
Magna nodded up at the witch. ‘Aye. They’re young enough. They’ll learn.’
Now that Ella’s senses had returned, and she was becoming more awake, she could hear the roiling waves through the window. She looked to the light, her eyes adjusting. The sky was bluer than she’d ever seen. Blue as the ocean. Blue as Ruben’s eyes.
‘We have a blood mage’s ship, and a blood mage to interrogate,’ Ella said.
Aralia turned to her. ‘We do.’
Ella wanted to smile, but it didn’t feel right, not after so many lives had been lost getting them here. ‘That’s the first step of our plan.’
‘Plan?’ Magna said, perking up. ‘What plan?’
Ella let the smile come as she looked at the woman. ‘We’re going to Albion.’
Magna’s eyes widened. ‘You’re mad.’
‘I might be.’ Ella nodded. ‘But my brother is there.’ She bent up, meaning to sit. Magna’s hand shot out and pushed her back down. Ella’s head throbbed as it thwacked the pillow. She brought up a hand to nurse it.
‘You’ve just woken from—well, I’m not sure what you’ve woken from, but you’re going to need time to recover.’
‘Listen to the woman,’ Aralia said. ‘You may be powerful, but you’ve also been unconscious for two days.’
Ella blinked at the witch. ‘Two days?’
‘Aye,’ Magna said. ‘Now, listen to your doctor, and rest. Or I’ll call your dear captain in, that Reena lady with the serious gaze about her. I bet she’ll give you a talkin’ to that’ll make you listen.’
Ella sighed. Magna was probably right. Her head once again felt like it had been smashed by Ruben’s hammer. She reached inside, checking her mana reserves. As she did, she noticed how much more natural it felt. When she’d first learnt of her magic, she’d had to meditate to even feel it. Now, she just thought about it, and it was there.
Her reserve—to her surprise—was practically full. The energy had restored itself, something Aralia told her it would do naturally over time. Had two days truly been enough for it to replenish itself?
<
br /> ‘I gave you some of my mana,’ Aralia said. ‘I thought it might help you recover.’
Ella blinked at her. You can do that? she thought, but she remembered doing a similar thing when she’d called mana from the ocean—she’d nudged some to Aralia as the woman slept. ‘Thank you.’ Ella sunk into the bed. If Magna wasn’t allowing her to leave it, she may as well become comfortable. ‘Where is Reena?’
‘By the ship’s wheel, I suspect.’
‘How far are we from Albion?’
Aralia shook her head. ‘We’re dead in the water for now.’
Ella shifted in the bed, wanting to sit up again but thinking better of it when she received a glance from Magna. ‘Why aren’t we moving?’
‘We didn’t want to go anywhere until you woke, and besides, many of Reena’s crew died on the Serpentine, those left might not want to head toward more blood mages.’
Ella frowned. ‘You’re changing your mind again.’
‘No, Ella. That’s not what I said.’ Aralia sighed. ‘The plan stays the same. We’re going to Albion, and we’re going to save your brother—and mine. But… we weren’t sure you would wake at all.’
Magna cleared her throat. ‘I’ve never seen someone who’d looked that far gone come back from it.’
‘Well,’ Ella said, ‘I’m awake now.’
Aralia nodded. ‘We’ll need to speak to your crew.’ She looked at Magna.
‘My crew? I don’t have a crew.’
‘They look up to you, Magna. You’ve been tending their wounds since they got on this ship. They’re your people.’
‘What will you say to them?’ Magna asked.
‘We won’t be taking anyone unwilling into harm’s way. The men and women on this ship just got their life back, we don’t have the right to gamble it for them. If people want to leave, we’ll turn back and drop them on my island.’ She paused. ‘Everyone there knows what you’ve been through, most there have been under a blood mage’s thrall at one time or another.’
Magna nodded slowly. ‘Sounds like a good place to learn how to live. Mayhaps some of them will take you up on the offer.’
‘This ship was headed straight back to Albion,’ Ella said. They looked at her. She faltered in her words but continued. ‘That’s what he said, the blood lord. They’ll be expecting him to return soon.’ She eyed Aralia. ‘The plan was to take a blood mage’s ship and roll into the Albion harbour with it. If they are expecting him any day now, and we turn around—’
‘We are not going to take these people back to their captors,’ Aralia said. ‘I understand your haste. I do, Ella. Believe me. Your brother isn’t the only one who has been taken.’
‘Ladies, please.’ Magna stood. ‘Let me speak with the crew. If they don’t want to stay on this ship, we can argue about it then.’ Magna’s shoes slapped the floor on her way out.
‘It’s good to see you alive,’ said Ella, feeling somewhat foolish about her outburst.
Aralia smiled. ‘You too.’
The door swung shut after Magna’s leaving.
Ella avoided Aralia’s gaze, instead staring at the door. ‘On the beach, before the arrow hit you, the blood lord looked at me and said, “you must be the sister”. He said he wasn’t supposed to harm me.’ Ella shook her head. ‘Malarin took my brother, delivered him to the God King, and now the God King is coming after me.’ She met Aralia’s blue eyes. ‘It can’t just be because we have power. You have power, and as you’ve told me, there are many in this world who have powers like ours. Why is he after me? Why is he after my family?’
Aralia sat in the seat Magna had left. She leant back and her eyes seemed to glaze over. ‘I don’t know why, Ella. Remember when you visited your brother’s mind? You saw the God King—I felt him. That power… that raw power. He’s a tyrant, a horrible man, and the most powerful mage in the world. Knowing his motives?’ She shook her head. ‘He may not truly be a god, but that doesn’t mean we should expect to understand him.’
‘We need to save our brothers.’
Aralia let out a long breath and looked at her. A warm smile met her lips. ‘We will.’ She put a hand on Ella’s. ‘I didn’t believe it before, not truly. But after what we survived, I think we have a chance. A slim one, perhaps. But a chance.’
Ella tried to smile, but it was a weak one. The motion brought pain to her head. She bit her lip, preparing herself to ask the question that had been on her mind since she woke. ‘My ability—whatever it was that I did to the blood lord, what I did to you—do you know what it is?’
Aralia shook her head. ‘You’re strong, Ella. Stronger than you have any right to be. I’ve no idea what it is that is fuelling this power of yours, but…’
‘But what?’
‘You must be careful with it. What you did to the blood lord saved all our lives, but it almost lost you yours. If you were to do it again… you can only come back from something like that so many times.’
Neither of them spoke for a long moment. Ella thought on Aralia’s words, nursed the pain in her head, then brought the subject back to more pressing matters. ‘Do you think we’ll be able to convince the others to sail with us?’
Aralia let go of her hand. ‘Their decision is their own to make. But’—she bowed her head—‘I will speak to Reena.’ She stood. ‘Once she knows you’re awake, I’m sure she’ll want exactly what we do. Her crew will follow her, even after all that has happened.’ Aralia managed another small smile before she turned to leave. She opened the door gently, touching her side where the arrow had wounded her.
The door clicked shut, and Ella was alone. She looked around. This cabin was bigger than Reena’s cabin back on the Serpentine. She was surprised they’d put her in here.
She couldn’t help wondering what she would do if everyone agreed to the plan. Aralia was right, they couldn’t gamble people’s lives for them. Was it worth losing as many people as they had, just to save the lives of her brother and Aralia’s? It wasn’t as if they were heading to the Albion Dominion to take out the God King. Not just to save my brother and Malarin, she thought. Everyone who was taken from my village.
They had a blood mage’s ship now. They would be able to roll right into the harbour. But what would happen when they got there? Would they be able to walk down the plank and onto the docks? She was second guessing herself, second guessing the plan. There’s still time to work out the kinks. Assuming they weren’t about to turn the ship around.
One thing was for sure, she realised. They would need the remaining crew of this ship, Magna and the others, if they wanted their plan to have a chance of succeeding. The blood lord’s former thralls would know what to do once the ship docked in Albion.
The blood lord came to kidnap her and take her back. The God King knew she was coming, but he would expect her to be a prisoner. Perhaps she could use that to her advantage. The God King wouldn’t know how strong her powers had become.
Ella made to sit up again, felt the throbbing in her head, and pushed past it. She flung the covers off and stood, heading for the door. She needed to be there when the others spoke with the crew. She’d saved them from their fate, if they were to fight for her—for her brother—they would need to see she was awake. They would need to see she was still strong.
Chapter 54
Marius
The monks stared at the three of them. They wouldn’t stare all at once, they took turns, looking one at a time.
Marius knew they must have been quite a sight. A seeker, a sorceress, and a boy, sitting at the same table in the great hall. Master Flynn had given them an odd look when they’d come back with the sorceress in tow. Marius wondered if the monk had known who he was all along, that the sorceress was his mother. Flynn had mentioned he might walk a different path, one Marius hadn’t even known existed. Was this the path he had in mind?
Lilah had gone quiet when she’d heard the news. Marius had let Jesriel—his mother—do the talking, not sure
how much she would willingly reveal to the seeker. She’d explained who she was, that Marius was her son, that their family came from great power—but she didn’t mention that family was the God King of the Albion Dominion. Marius understood her reluctance, but he didn’t like lying to Lilah. Lilah had only ever helped him. How could he see her as a threat?
‘You really plan to go to Albion?’ The seeker eyed the sorceress with a blank expression—one she’d adopted at their first meeting and had grown attached to.
‘I do.’
Lilah sunk back into her seat. ‘I understand.’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘Your son is there.’ She looked at Marius. ‘A mother would do anything for her children.’
His mother let out a breath at those words. She bit her lip and looked as if she wanted to respond but held her tongue.
She abandoned me, Marius thought. He looked from his mother to Lilah’s emotionless face. The woman had grown protective of him, through all the struggles they’d went through to get here.
‘A mother would,’ the sorceress finally said.
‘How do you expect to get there? No ships I know travel to the Dominion. They’re not known for their trading posts, or their fondness for travellers.’
‘Few can prevent a sorceress from moving where she pleases.’
Lilah peered into her cup. One of the apprentices had brought them water when they’d sat, at a nod from Master Flynn. Marius wondered if the seeker wished it were a stronger drink. ‘I believe you, on that.’
‘Will you join us?’ His mother stared at the seeker. ‘I do not expect you to.’ The pommels of Lilah’s Starblade and arming sword were just visible, her chair pushed back from the table. ‘I imagine your order would frown upon us even speaking.’
‘I brought Marius here because I wanted to keep him safe.’
The sorceress tilted her head. ‘I thank you for that. Though it does confuse me—you do not act like any seeker I have encountered before.’ She glanced at the woman’s cloak clasp. ‘Priests of your faith don’t look kindly on even the monks here.’