A Dark Inheritance

by Todd Herzman

  Malarin had once been a good man. He’d healed people. She believed Aralia at her word, despite the lies the witch had told at first, and the lengths she’d gone to get them here. Malarin had been good once, he’d helped people—then he’d changed.

  Just as her brother was changing.

  ‘He turned you into one of them, didn’t he?’

  ‘One of what?’ he spat.

  Ella swallowed. She didn’t want to say the words, but she had to. They were supposed to escape tonight, and here he was, trying to convince her to stay, telling her stories about the end of the world. ‘A blood mage.’

  Ruben clenched his fists. His eyes flashed red. ‘He has helped me become stronger.’

  Ella looked away from him. A tear fled down her cheek. She hadn’t wanted to believe it. Hadn’t wanted to think it could be true. She let out a breath. She couldn’t let it stop her. Aralia and Reena were here for Malarin, they believed they could change him. If Malarin could recover from being a blood mage, so could Ruben.

  Ella wiped her eyes with her sleeve and stood. Ruben was a few feet from her, opening and closing his fist. Clenching and unclenching his jaw. She looked around the pristine gardens. In a way, they reminded her of Arin’s house—so many plants in one place. But where Arin’s plants had been nurtured into life, these had been cultivated—made to bend to a purpose, some simulacrum of beauty.

  There was a statue in the garden’s centre, she hadn’t noticed it before, and almost flinched at the sight of it—she’d seen the man’s face in her vision of Ruben. The God King. A statue of himself in his own garden.

  She looked away, disgusted, and focused on the garden’s door. It was locked. She could melt the lock, burn the door. But guards lay behind it. She’d hoped her brother would be willing to leave—wanting to leave. There was a chance she could convince him, but she knew that chance was slim. If he’d been bloodlocked… but he wasn’t. His words were his own. The God King had an influence over him, but it wasn’t the influence she’d thought.

  ‘I don’t want to live in this castle, Ruben.’ Ella faced her brother. ‘This isn’t my home; it isn’t our home. No matter how safe you feel here, we’re not. The God King has been feeding you lies, changing you into a different person. Can’t you see that?’

  ‘A different person?’ Ruben held up his hands and breathed out. Flames burst from his palms, higher and higher. ‘You’ve seen what I can do. You’ve seen the powers I have now. You’re right. I am a different person—a better one.’

  Ella shook her head. ‘You think it’s the God King who has made you powerful? It’s not. It’s in our blood, it’s our birthright. You’re not the only one in the family with magic, Ruben.’ Her eyes darted about until she spotted her target. She raised her right arm and focused. She didn’t have to focus hard—her reserve was easy to reach now.

  She called a bolt of lightning. It struck the statue, shattering it at its shoulder, the God King’s head fell, smashing to the ground. If only it were that easy.

  Ruben’s face went slack, his eyes wide. ‘He told me you’d have power. That we all would. All you’re doing is confirming the God King’s word.’

  ‘It wasn’t the God King who gave me these powers. They came from one of our parents!’ She raised her left arm. A ball of fire materialised over her palm. She dropped her arm and let the ball burn in mid-air. Then she cut her connection to it. The flames—attached to nothing—withered in moments.

  Ruben smiled. The last thing she’d expected him to do. ‘It’s good to see what you can do, little sister.’ His flames still burned, reaching up from his hands, licking his face. ‘You’re right. These powers are our birthright.’ He raised his arms, the flames raised with them. ‘This whole empire is our birthright.’ He stepped forward.

  Ella stumbled back from him, confused by his words.

  ‘Don’t you understand? Why do you think he brought us here? Why do you think he sent a blood lord after you—specifically you.’

  ‘I don’t know what the God King has told you, Ruben.’ Ella took another step back. ‘But you can’t believe him. He’s a liar, an evil man who only cares about power. He ruins lives, destroys families.’ Ruben let her talk, but his expression never changed. His smile was strange. Familiar—it reminded her of the one she’d wiped off the blood lord’s face. ‘We have to escape from here, okay? We need to get off this island. We can figure the rest out after that. Whatever you’ve done’—her mind went places she didn’t want it to go, imagining her brother’s teeth sinking into someone’s neck—‘I’ll forgive you.’

  ‘Destroys families?’ Ruben laughed. An odd chuckle. ‘Didn’t you hear what I said? This is our birthright, Ella. Think about my words.’ He shook his head. ‘I’ll spell it out for you. Renial? The God King? He’s our grandfather.’

  Ella froze. Her mind flinched from his words.

  ‘Why do you think we’re so powerful? Where do you think that magic comes from? You’re not just some weather witch, Ella. You have power. Maybe more than I do. He’s our family. The only family we have. How could we not be safe with our family?’

  Ella stared at him. Not able to absorb his words—not able believe them. ‘He’s lying to you.’

  ‘Why?’ Ruben asked. ‘Why would he lie?’

  Ella’s mind scrambled for a response. ‘He—he wants your power. He wants to change you, use you for whatever he likes. He must have known you lost your parents—must have known you’d be vulnerable to him if he took their place.’

  ‘No one can take their place, Ella. That’s not what this is.’ His eyes flashed red as he spoke.

  He’s fed on someone.

  Part of her mind wondered if what he said could be true, if Renial really was their grandfather. It doesn’t matter, she thought. Grandfather or not, he’s evil. She needed to get her brother out of here, and she would have to do it without his help.

  Her mind raced. All she had to do was escape. Stuck in the middle of the castle, with an uncooperative brother, and a whole populace controlled by the enemy.

  Ruben took a deep breath. His eyes never left hers. His flames extinguished, and he seemed to calm himself. ‘He’s not the enemy, Ella. Nor am I. You might not understand that today, but you will soon.’

  He turned from her and walked to the castle door. She didn’t move—didn’t even know if she could. He knocked. One of the dark-armoured guards opened the door. Ruben disappeared through it. The door shut and the lock clicked, and Ella was alone in the garden.

  I have until midnight, she thought. She sunk to the grass and held her head. She glanced at the shattered statue, the God King’s head on the ground.

  Tears came then. She’d imagined reuniting with her brother a thousand times, never did she think it would go like this.

  Chapter 63

  Marius

  Marius and Jesriel stood watch from the tree line. Marius couldn’t stop thinking about what they’d seen. Ruben—dressed in the dark clothes of a blood mage—leading along his sister, Ella. What was she doing here? How had she gotten onto the island?

  It was obvious, of course. If Marius hadn’t been with Peiter and Lilah, he would have been taken here long ago, probably snatched straight from the village. The God King had a way of finding them. He could track their powers, which meant Ella must have developed hers. Though their mother had a way to mask her own powers, Marius hadn’t yet learnt the skill.

  All he’d wanted the second he’d seen his brother and sister was to sprint down the hill and save them. He could have snapped the guards in half. He could have grabbed Ruben and Ella and stolen them into the forest. What then, his mind had asked.

  His mother had explained the dark-armoured guards were Renial’s personal retinue. They were supposedly volunteers kept under the God King’s control every waking moment. The God King saw all they saw, heard all they heard. If Marius had run down the hill, the entire island would have converged on their position.

&nb
sp; A man and a woman walked from the castle doors, arm in arm. Their clothes were dark like Ruben’s had been, cloaks draped over their shoulders and sweeping over the ground behind them. His mother grabbed his shoulder, a dark smile curling her lips.

  ‘Blood mages,’ she said. ‘Perfect.’

  Marius wondered at their plan. Follow the two blood mages, take them out and take their place. ‘Won’t the God King find out, just as if we’d attacked his guards?’

  ‘Blood mages are… different. They’re not bloodlocked to Renial, they serve him because they choose to. Well, in a manner of speaking.’

  ‘Why would anyone choose to serve him?’ Marius spat, anger rising in his gut. His brother had been taken by one of their ilk.

  ‘You saw your brother. Renial manipulates people—changes them. And once someone feeds on blood…’ She trailed off, her eyes darting back to the gate.

  Marius thought of who her mother used to be. She grew up on this island, with a father like that… what had she done in that time? What kind of person had she been?

  ‘We must move quickly.’ Jesriel walked back into the trees. ‘We’ll need to skirt around through the tree line. Peasants aren’t often found on this side of the castle.’

  Marius followed her, glancing back at the two blood mages who walked through the gate. ‘What if we lose them?’

  ‘We won’t.’

  He heard the smile in her voice. Marius didn’t know if it was good or bad that his mother seemed to be enjoying herself.

  ‘Can’t we teleport into the city?’ Marius asked as they began to move faster, jogging over the forest floor.

  ‘Teleporting anywhere, especially into a city, is dangerous if you don’t want to be seen. There’s no telling who will be there when you appear. These disguises won’t explain how we popped into existence seemingly from nowhere.’

  As they moved through the cover of trees, they lost sight of the blood mages. Marius worried they’d lose them altogether, but his mother kept running, faster and faster, seeming to know every turn. How could she be so fast? He doubted she ran through the mountain tunnels. Marius only kept pace because he’d spent so much time walking on the road.

  Jesriel slowed to a standstill. Marius stopped beside her and leant against a tree, catching his breath. The forest ranged around the city like a horseshoe. Dozens of houses lay beyond the tree. No wall surrounded the city. Why build a city wall on an island where no one had free will?

  ‘How will we find them again?’

  His mother faced him. Marius flinched. Her eyes were white all over. ‘I never lost them.’ She blinked, and the white flickered back to green. ‘There’s a tavern in the city. We’ll find them there.’

  ‘A tavern?’ Marius had trouble imagining something so normal as a tavern in a place like this.

  ‘The people here are just like people everywhere else in the world.’ Jesriel frowned. ‘Except part of their hearts belong to Renial. Part of their strength, their energy—their very lives. It doesn’t mean they don’t drink.’ She looked at the houses. ‘If anything, it gives them more reason to.’

  His mother stepped out of the trees. She wasn’t puffed from their run. Marius pushed off the tree and followed. There wasn’t a soul between them and the houses bordering the city. No one appeared to be in the houses they passed, though it was the middle of the day—perhaps they were out doing whatever it was these people did. Jesriel said they were like everyone else in the world, but Marius didn’t know what people did in other cities. He supposed there must be markets, and smithies much bigger than his brother’s. It was the first city Marius had ever been in, and it was far larger than he could have imagined. It must have been home to thousands of people, the whole island thousands more, yet they’d seen barely anyone on their way. All they passed were quiet houses until they made it deeper into the city.

  This was where the people were. Turning one corner transformed the streets from eerily empty to overwhelmingly bustling. Marius’s head turned this way and that, trying to look at every person they passed. His mother, for the most part, kept her head down as they walked. She’d fallen into the persona of her disguise and whispered into his ear that he should too. Marius tilted his head down, but his eyes still roamed—he couldn’t help himself.

  They passed market stalls selling drab, grey clothes like the ones everyone seemed to wear, and expensive-looking tailors that catered to blood mages. Most people they passed looked the same. They didn’t see a blood mage on their walk, but as they turned a corner into a large square Marius stiffened at the sight of a squadron of guards.

  Marius leant close to his mother. ‘Why so many guards, when the God King can control everyone with his mind?’

  ‘It’s… delegation. Yes, the God King can be everywhere at once—but he doesn’t like to be. Besides’—Jesriel nodded at a small group walking through the square—‘not everyone on this island is bloodlocked.’

  The group stood out. Their clothes coloured beyond the grey of the peasants, the brown of the guards, the black of the blood mages. One wore a blue cloak, a sword at her hip. The others wore white tunics and maroon jackets—they didn’t look like fighters.

  ‘Who are they?’

  ‘Hunters, slavers, traders… they find people with Affinities and bring them here.’

  ‘Like the blood mages?’

  Jesriel shook her head. ‘The blood mages do it for themselves, the hunters trade with the God King. They’re rarely seen in Kharleon. Seekers don’t tolerate their like.’

  ‘And they’re comfortable walking freely in this place?’

  ‘Comfortable enough—though I doubt they like spending too long here.’

  Marius’s gaze lingered on the group as they passed through the square. These people kidnapped those gifted with magic and delivered them to the God King? Hate gripped him. After what happened in Billings, Marius knew there was much wrong in the world, but the farther he journeyed, the worse he found things to be.

  He wanted to help people—he wanted to stop things like this from happening. He looked up at his mother as they walked. Had she really spent these past few years cooped up inside a mountain when she knew this happened in the world? She possessed so much power, but didn’t use it? At least the monks healed people.

  Marius couldn’t help but be angry with his mother. She’d abandoned them, supposedly to protect them, but what if she’d hid only to protect herself? He pushed away those thoughts and refocused. They were here for a reason, to rescue his brother and sister. There was no time to think on all the other bad things happening in the world.

  Jesriel stopped when they reached the middle of the square. She nodded toward a building ahead. A sign hung above it. Marius recognised some letters from Peiter’s lessons, but couldn’t make out the words, not that it would be in the common tongue. Everyone they passed spoke another language, one he’d never heard before.

  ‘They’ll be inside,’ she said.

  ‘How do we kill them?’

  ‘We don’t, I do. There’s an alley behind the tavern.’ She put her hands on her hips, eyes narrowing. ‘I’ll have to lure them out somehow.’

  Marius glanced at the hunters, now leaving the square toward the docks, and had an idea. ‘Those hunters only deal with the God King?’

  ‘Yes.’ His mother looked down at him. ‘Why?’

  ‘If the blood mages aren’t bloodlocked to the God King… Well, what do they want most?’

  ‘Power.’ Her brow knitted. ‘You want me to pretend to be a hunter, and offer them someone with a coveted Affinity? It’s a risk.’ Jesriel stared at the tavern’s sign. ‘But it might work.’

  They exited the square and slipped into the alley. Jesriel, in a wave of her hand and a moment’s time, changed her illusion from a peasant woman to one of the male hunters. White tunic, maroon jacket. Marius blinked up at her. The peasant disguise had looked somewhat like his mother, but this…

  ‘You stay
out here.’ Even her voice sounded different. Deeper.

  Marius looked about the alley as his mother disappeared into the tavern. The alley was in stark contrast to the square—not a soul in sight, the tall walls draping it in shadow. Marius sunk into one of the darker corners. He wished he was in the tavern with his mother. He wasn’t afraid—he’d killed people before. The first time, he hadn’t meant to—he’d just… snapped. The second time, he’d wanted to obliterate every thrall in his way, but he’d failed.

  He hadn’t been strong enough.

  He felt no guilt for the lives he’d taken. He should have—he knew he should have. Those people had been controlled, their will not their own. Yet he felt no guilt.

  He would certainly feel no guilt at killing two blood mages. Why should he? They were evil. He wondered at his lack of remorse. He remembered being back in Billings, holding Sir Rabbit in his arms, not able to kill him. Had he really changed so much, so fast?

  His mother walked out the tavern’s back door. Marius shifted in his dark corner as he watched the two blood mages follow. The man spoke excitedly while the woman’s eyes darted about, as if checking the alley for traps. Marius didn’t understand a word they said. Jesriel, in the guise of a hunter, waved them through. Marius stared at the blood mages from the shadows. The man wore a vicious smile; a similar smile slowly formed on the woman’s lips.

  They thought they would find another person to enslave, to bloodlock and control.

  And they were happy about it.

  Giddy.

  How could they find pleasure in taking someone’s free will? In stealing their mind?

  Be brave, Marius thought. Be strong and brave.

  He stepped out of the shadows. Their gazes fell on him, confused. Marius raised his hands, one pointed at each. Their look of confusion turned to one of fear as they gripped their necks and gasped for breath. His mother whirled, looking from the two blood mages and back at Marius.

  ‘What are you doing?’

  The blood mages fell to their knees. Their cheeks turned blue. Their eyes bulged in their sockets. The noises they made barely reached above the silence of the alley.