by Todd Herzman
Annoyance flashed on Lilah’s previously cold face. ‘Priests and seekers are not one in the same.’
‘Even so.’
‘Your son is safe here, at least for now. Why would you want to take him into harm’s way?’
‘The God King himself is after my family. He will not stop at these walls.’
‘You’ve been safe here.’ Lilah motioned at Marius. ‘You left your children alone and vulnerable and you disappeared. You abandoned them to live in this place because you thought you’d be safe here? Why wouldn’t he be safe here, too?’
‘Lilah,’ Marius said in a whisper. He’d barely spoken since the seeker had met his mother. Though his mother had listened to him, he knew their conversation might not be helped by his input. ‘I believe her. Please’—Marius looked from one to another—‘don’t fight.’
Lilah gave a heavy sigh. His mother looked away. The monks had stopped staring; they knew when to mind their own business.
The seeker looked at Marius. She put her hand across the table. Marius glanced at his mother then took the hand. ‘I know you want to save your brother. But do you realise the danger you’d be walking into? You remember those thralls? Imagine a whole island full of them, and more—blood mages who wield powers you’ve never seen before.’
Marius looked to his mother, the woman he thought he’d lost. His family. He looked back at Lilah. ‘I know it’s dangerous. But it’s my brother. My family. I thought… I thought my mother was lost to me, just as I thought my brother was lost to me. But here she is, alive.’ He stared into his cup. ‘I thought I’d never see my family again.’ His eyes watered, and his mother put an arm around him.
He heard Lilah sigh.
‘I understand, Marius,’ she said. ‘I don’t know if I trust your mother… but I understand.’
Marius gazed up at her through teary eyes. ‘Will you come with us?’
Lilah leant back in her chair and touched the pommel of her Starblade. She looked down at it. ‘I don’t know how long I would last in such a place.’ She eyed Marius. ‘But I made Peiter a promise, before he died. I said I would keep you safe. If I can’t stop you from doing this, then I’ll have to come with you.’ Lilah smirked. It was the first positive emotion she’d shown since meeting his mother. Marius couldn’t help but smile back.
Lilah turned to his mother. ‘This will be a long journey. I say we speak to the monks about getting some supplies and make for the docks in the capital. It’s the closest place with a big enough marina where we might find a captain crazy enough to sail to Albion.’
‘Oh, I don’t think that will be necessary.’
‘What, you have your own ship?’ Lilah looked about, as if searching for it.
‘You are travelling with a sorceress, dear seeker.’ Jesriel smiled. The way she did reminded Marius of Ella. ‘We do not need a ship.’ She glanced at Master Flynn. ‘But you are right, we will need to speak with the monks.’
‘We don’t need a ship?’ Lilah looked at Marius. ‘Do you know what she’s talking about?’
Marius shook his head, but a smile crept to his lips. The events of the day were still sinking in. He’d reunited with his mother. She was alive, and now they were going to save his brother. He looked around the great hall, at all the shaved-head monks sitting to their noon-day meal. There were a few younger apprentices about, some even younger than Marius. This was the life he’d been expecting to have—the life he’d yearned for just hours ago.
He’d yearned for it because he thought he’d never have a chance at something else. He’d yearned for it because it would have given him a chance to learn magic, to study among people like Peiter. His smile faltered at the thought of Peiter. Would he be happy for Marius? Going down this path? This path would certainly find Marius using his powers to harm others—something Peiter felt strongly about not doing. But he wouldn’t be harming others out of malice, and he would only do it if he had to.
We’re going to save Ruben, he thought.
‘So,’ Lilah said. ‘Are you going to explain what you mean?’
Marius was knocked out of his thoughts. He looked back at the seeker, who stared at his mother with a somewhat exasperated expression.
His mother, much to Lilah’s apparent chagrin, simply smiled. ‘You must know there are many ways one such as I can get around. Wouldn’t they have taught you such, in that academy of yours?’
Lilah shifted in her seat. Her eyes drifted away from the sorceress, then widened suddenly. ‘You can’t be serious.’
‘I am,’ Jesriel said with a self-satisfied nod.
‘Serious about what?’ Marius asked.
‘That’s how you want to get us there? Are you mad?’ Lilah looked at his mother incredulously.
Marius looked between them. ‘How does she want to get us there?’
Lilah shook her head. ‘She wants to teleport us there. That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it?’
‘It is.’
‘Teleport?’ Marius frowned. ‘What’s… what’s teleport?’
Lilah sighed. ‘Some powerful magic users have the ability to move themselves or objects through space in the blink of an eye.’ She snapped her fingers. ‘She wants to get us to the Albion Dominion with such magic.’
‘That… that sounds amazing.’ Marius looked at his mother. ‘You can do something like that?’ He suddenly recalled the first time he’d met Peiter, on the road outside his village. He’d seen the monk, turned around, and moments later the monk had caught up far faster than should have been possible. ‘I—I think Peiter could do that.’
Lilah turned to him. ‘Really? Peiter?’
Marius nodded.
‘Huh. He was full of surprises.’ A silence met her words. They all bowed their heads for a moment before speaking again.
‘Are you really so powerful that you believe you can simply teleport us to the Albion Dominion?’ Lilah sounded less sceptical this time, more serious.
Jesriel paused before responding. ‘I think it’s possible.’ She glanced over at Master Flynn. ‘Though I can’t do it alone.’
Lilah followed her gaze. ‘Do you think the monks will help?’
‘I have to believe they will.’
Chapter 55
Ruben
Ruben stared into the fire and wondered what he would tell his little sister. He wanted to tell her the truth of it. That the God King was their grandfather. That the world might soon come to an end if their family wasn’t able to stop it.
A few days ago, he’d tried to escape. Now, he wanted his sister to suffer the same fate? To be locked up in this castle alongside him? Suffer, he thought. Could this truly be considered suffering?
Taya lay on the bed behind him, sleeping. It was early afternoon, but ever since she’d been brought back to him she’d slept more and more. She didn’t know what to do here. She didn’t have the freedom she’d had in Billings. She’d been learning about herbs from her mother—she’d been learning about them her whole life. They used to go on walks through the forest. Ruben would point to the tracks a deer made, and Taya would name the plants they encountered. This one is good for sleeping; chew this one to alleviate pain; eat this one if you want to die a slow, painful death.
The castle gardens here didn’t have such plants. Ruben looked at his hands, at the callouses healed now that his fingers weren’t wrapped around his hammer. Their lives had changed so swiftly. They were safe here—for that he was grateful—but they’d been safe back in the village until Malarin, the God King’s own blood mage, had come.
Tomorrow, he would convince his sister that this is where her life should be, after she’d been kidnapped and dragged here against her will. Ruben turned his palms to the fire and let the warmth fill them. He held his hands there until his palms burned, remembering the heat of the forge. His father’s forge. He looked over his shoulder at Taya, her chest rising and falling in a slow rhythm.
He flinched and brou
ght his hands back, his skin felt as if it would burn. He’d lit the fireplace with his magic, yet it still burned him. Strange that when the flames came directly from him, it never hurt even for a moment. Ruben stood and walked to the door of their room. He gave it a light tap, not wanting to wake Taya. The guard on the other side opened the slit.
Hard to convince Taya, let alone his sister, that we’ll be happy here when there’s still a guard outside my door. The guard blinked at him. ‘I wish to see Alyssa,’ Ruben whispered. ‘Take me to her?’
The guard hesitated before nodding. The slit closed, the lock clicked, the handle turned. Ruben stepped back as the door opened. He took one last glance at Taya before walking into the hall.
She probably wouldn’t even notice he was gone.
The halls of this place still looked the same to him. Ruben didn’t bother trying to make a mental map as he followed the guard. If he ever wanted to escape, he knew he should memorise his way. Yet he barely paid attention when they turned a corner, not remembering the lefts and rights that took them to a door deep in the castle.
The guard stopped beside the door. Ruben knocked. No lock on the outside, he noticed. Though he remembered taking on Malarin’s visage, how the guards had stopped him outside the throne room thinking Alyssa was trying to sneak out. No lock, but still a prisoner.
The door opened. She wore her red dress, as she had hours before in the throne room. ‘Ruben. I wasn’t expecting you so soon.’ A smirk tickled her lips. ‘I am glad you came.’ She stepped aside and he entered. Her rooms were bigger than his own.
He looked about the place until his eyes settled on hers.
She put a hand on his upper arm. ‘Where is your betrothed?’
‘Sleeping.’
‘Good.’ Alyssa smiled.
Ruben grabbed her hand and moved it off his arm. ‘I’ve not come for that.’
She stepped back, her smile faltering. She put a hand to her neck, where the wound he’d left her with was still healing. ‘Something else, then?’ Her smile returned, though Ruben wondered if it was forced.
He stared at the hand at her throat. The vein on her neck, above the bandage, throbbed with blood. He felt a sliver of disgust in his stomach, but it was overwhelmed by yearning. His tongue slid out, licking his lips. He forced himself to look into her eyes.
‘I miss the feeling.’ He stepped forward. ‘The power.’ Alyssa’s left foot moved back, but she stayed where she was. ‘When I drank from you last, I felt sure of myself. I gained courage.’ He shook his head and took another step. ‘I want to feel that again.’
Alyssa took his hand. ‘Come.’ She led him to the bed. They sat side by side, and Ruben stared at her neck. He touched a finger to the bandage. She grabbed his hand and moved it away. ‘Not from there.’ She turned and opened a bedside drawer. When she pulled out a dagger, Ruben didn’t even flinch, he just watched as she dragged it over the soft underside of her forearm.
White lines covered her arm. Scars he’d never noticed before. Ruben wondered how often she did this, and for whom. But those thoughts disappeared when the first bead of red escaped her skin. She raised her arm for him, and he grabbed it with both hands.
The blood touched his lips and entered his mouth. His eyes fluttered shut. It was a moment later when he felt the first hint of power. His strength increased. A fog in his mind lifted, his thoughts sharpening. He felt his power double and triple inside him as Alyssa’s blood slid down his throat. His yearning didn’t dissipate, as he’d hoped it would—it grew as his strength grew, and it took all he had to stop drinking from her.
He took a breath. The air tasted sweet—his senses heightened.
Alyssa wriggled her arm from his grasp. She reached for the open drawer and took out a piece of cloth she held to the wound. ‘Feel better?’ She wiped the blood from down her arm and took a bandage from the drawer. She wrapped the bandage tight, then looked into his eyes. A smile slid onto her face, and this one looked more genuine than the last.
Better? He felt stronger. He reached inside, feeling for the extra reserve—the one he knew would hold her power. He touched his mind to it but didn’t tap its energy. ‘I do.’
He felt powerful, more confident. The last time he’d drunk from her, it had given him the courage to escape. He felt that courage again, this time for something else.
~
Taya shifted in the bed as Ruben walked into the room. He closed the door quietly, hoping not to stir her.
‘Ruben?’
His eyes darted to Taya. The deadlock clicked shut on the other side of the door. ‘You’re awake.’ He came to sit by her and ran a hand through her hair. Taya’s blood still ran thick within his veins, his senses heightened. He heard Taya’s heartbeat without touching his ear to her chest.
‘I woke when you left. Where did you go?’
He hesitated. The blood gave him courage, but only so much. The truth, he knew, wouldn’t make her feel more comfortable here. ‘I went to sit in the garden.’
She blinked, her expression blank as she looked at him. Dark bags circled her eyes. How could someone who slept all day look so tired? Though her face did not betray it, Ruben heard her heartbeat quicken before she spoke. ‘Who’s Alyssa?’
The hand he ran through her hair froze. ‘Alyssa?’
‘I heard what you said to the guard.’
‘She is…’ a servant. Ruben racked his brain. How could he explain away who she was? He faltered. He wasn’t sure what to say, and he wondered why he bothered lying. Why was he trying to protect her feelings?
Ruben heard her heartbeat double, felt her shiver and recoil away from him, her eyes fixed on his mouth. He stared at her, bewildered by her reaction. He put a hand to his mouth.
Remnants of Alyssa’s blood still touched his lips.
‘You—you—’ Taya’s breath quickened as she struggled to get out the words. ‘You said you weren’t a blood mage. You said—’
‘Taya, it’s alright.’ He reached out for her, but she jumped off the bed. She backed up, shaking her head, until her back hit the wall. He stood, staring at her. ‘Please don’t be afraid of me.’ He tried to make the words soothing, but his voice sounded harsh. He felt the power pulse within him.
Her eyes widened, her jaw slack. ‘Red eyes,’ she whispered under her breath, so quietly he wondered if she’d expected him to hear.
She shuddered as he stepped toward her. How could he make her understand? How could he make her trust him? Part of him didn’t care. Part of him watched her snivelling fear and thought her weak.
‘You know I would never hurt you, Taya. I only did this for us. I had to—to make me sure of what to do next.’
She still shook. He wondered if she understood a word he’d said through her fear. He could make her understand, he realised. He could take her blood, touch her mind, and make her believe in him. Make her trust him with everything—like the people trusted his grandfather, like he’d trusted Malarin on that ship. Would it be so wrong, if it took her fear away? Would it be so wrong, if it made her happy?
Ruben froze. His hand was at Taya’s throat, his strength increased two-fold by the blood he’d consumed. When had he walked toward her? When had he grabbed her? Her cheeks were purpling, eyes bulging. She ripped at his wrists, fingernails raking and bleeding his skin. He didn’t feel the pain.
He let go. She slid to the ground. ‘I’m sorry.’ His words rang hollow, even to himself. He could hear her heart beating ever faster as she gasped, clutching her throat, red finger marks imprinting where he’d held her.
He stepped away. His mind felt clear, power pulsing through him. At the same time, he didn’t feel in control. Like when he used to get angry. His mother had always been able to calm him down, then she’d died, and Taya became that person for him. Now, he didn’t feel angry. But he’d slipped, he’d hurt his betrothed without even thinking about it, without even realising what he was doing.
Taya co
wered on the floor. She looked weak. Small. Her time as Malarin’s slave had taken all the fight from her, all the passion that used to burn so bright. ‘You’re a monster,’ she whispered, staring up at him, her eyes devoid of the love they once held, now consumed by fear and rage.
Her words should have cut into him. They should have made him feel pain. Guilt. Regret. But the part of him that felt those things wasn’t in control anymore. I have to be strong, he thought. He’d always needed to be strong. His mother died. Then his father died. He looked after his brother and sister. He raised them. He was strong for them.
Maybe he couldn’t make Taya understand. Maybe he didn’t need to. She didn’t have magic like he did, like Ella and Marius would. They were descendants of the God King. Taya was… just a girl from a small village, a thousand miles from home.
He sat on the bed and watched his once beloved shiver in fear. Did he really think to make her his thrall? A tinge of guilt squeezed his gut at the thought. No. He couldn’t do that to her. It would betray the love he once held for her.
‘Maybe I am a monster.’ She flinched at his words. He sat up straighter and looked at his hands. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt you.’ He blinked, tapping his magic as he did so. When his eyes flicked open, his hands were engulfed in fire. ‘I know you’re afraid of me. I understand why. But this power is a gift.’ He looked at her through the flames. ‘You want to know why the God King took me from Malarin? Why he gave me this room and treats me as he does?’
Taya didn’t say a word. She just sat there, eyes fixed on him.
‘He’s my grandfather.’ Ruben expected her to jump in surprise. To yell in fear. To react at all—but she just sat there, shivering, staring. He wondered why he was even telling her this, if he no longer cared to keep her love. ‘He’s my grandfather, Taya. He might seem like a tyrant, the devil—or worse—but he’s not. I’ve spoken with him. He’s only become as powerful as he has because he wants to save people.’