A Dark Inheritance

by Todd Herzman

  A hand gripped the God King’s head. Jesriel had appeared behind him. Renial’s eyes flickered from red to brown, slid back in his skull, then closed. Ella and Marius flanked their mother. Ella’s hands were up defensively. Marius held something at his side, wrapped in a blanket. He looked pale. Ruben climbed to his feet. He hadn’t noticed them sprint in through the walls—his distraction had even worked on himself.

  They surrounded the God King. Renial spasmed, still standing.

  ‘This—this should be working.’ Jesriel put her other hand on her father’s head, titled her head back and closed her eyes. ‘He’s too strong—stronger than before.’

  The God King’s eyes flickered open. His hands snapped up and grabbed his daughter’s wrists. He bent at the hip and threw Jesriel over one shoulder, slamming her into the ground. ‘You think I would let you do that again?’

  Lightning struck the God King’s shield. Ruben flinched, looked to Ella. He’d almost forgotten what his little sister could do. The God King whirled. Time slowed as he raised his arms—he would freeze them in his grip, as he’d done in the forest. Ruben had been unconscious for that, but in the mindlink the others had shown him what had happened.

  Ruben felt his body go stiff. He tried to fight it, like he had back in the village when the blood mage had thwarted his attack—but now he was stronger. Now he had power. He drew upon all of it and tried to fight the force that gripped him.

  But he was frozen still, unable to move an inch, unable to shout. His eyes were the only things he retained control over. He looked to his mother, his sister—both frozen as he was.

  Marius, however, was unaffected. He stepped around the God King, letting the blanket fall to the ground, revealing the sword beneath. He drew it from its scabbard.

  The Starblade they’d pilfered from the God King’s rooms.

  The sword looked comically large in Marius’s hands. He raised it with shaking arms and faced the point at their grandfather.

  The God King’s arms fell. ‘They gave the sword to the child.’ He stepped toward Marius. Marius stepped back, the sword wavering in his grip. Renial pointed at it. ‘Do you know the power that holds, how dangerous it is to wield?’

  ‘You seemed to wield it on us just fine.’ Marius swung the sword in a wide arc, his cheeks flushed, a cry of rage escaping his throat.

  The God King dodged with a laugh. ‘I am not a child. You travelled with a seeker, and you cannot even hold a sword?’ Renial motioned his guards forward dramatically. They’d been standing in the corners of the room. He wouldn’t risk touching the blade himself.

  Marius glanced at the guards then stared at the God King. He raised the sword, hands still shaking from the weight, then he… tossed it forward. The blade started to fall to the ground, but before it could Marius thrust out his palms.

  For a split second, the Starblade stopped. It hung as if suspended by a string. Then Marius jerked his hands, and the sword shot at the God King. Renial, wide eyed, snatched the blade from the air, stopping it short, the tip an inch from his chest.

  He grinned. Then stared down at the blade. His face fell, the colour—the blood—drained from it in moments. He fell to his knees, and it was the first time Ruben had seen even a hint of strain on the man’s face.

  Renial couldn’t let go of the sword.

  The magic that had gripped Ruben was released. He could move again. They all could.

  ‘It’s draining his mana.’ Jesriel looked from her youngest son to her father. When they’d planned their attack using the mindlink in Marius’s room, she’d seemed confident. Assured of their victory. Now, the surprise on her face told a different story—she hadn’t expected to win. She rushed to Marius. His face looked white. ‘Breathe, my son. Don’t let the Starblade draw upon you too.’

  Jesriel had taught them how to protect themselves from a drawn Starblade’s effects. In the mindlink, Ruben had seen what had happened to Marius the first time he’d used his powers. Jesriel wouldn’t let that happen again. Marius’s breathing became even, and colour returned to his cheeks.

  Renial gripped the sword with his other hand, perhaps in hopes to wrench it free—all it did was lock both his hands to the blade. His eyes turned to Ruben. His mouth moved, but no words formed—only a primal growl and spittle escaped his lips as the sword drained him of his energy. The red seeped from his eyes, returning them to their natural brown.

  ‘It’s working.’ Ella gripped Marius’s shoulder. ‘You did it, little brother.’

  The energy in the room shifted. The God King clenched his jaw. Mist formed and floated to him from the guards closest. Red mist. Blood. The guards stood slack-jawed and confused, their master no longer in complete control. But their slight freedom was short lived as more of the mist seeped from them. They gasped, fell to their knees, struggling to breathe as the blood left their bodies through the pores in their skin. It flowed to him. Flowed to the God King.

  ‘He’s fighting it.’ Ruben stepped forward. He had to do something.

  Jesriel teleported in front of him and grabbed him by the arms. ‘Don’t touch him! If you touch him, the sword will only take from you too.’

  The God King’s eyes flashed bright red. He stepped up, on one knee, and looked as if were about to stand. But the power he’d gained wasn’t enough; it didn’t last. It flowed into him, then into blade.

  ‘He can’t fight it.’ Ella grinned. ‘It’s going to take everything from him, and he can’t do a thing.’

  The God King’s eyes slid to meet hers. His mouth gaped, but he didn’t say a word, only another growl escaped. He couldn’t manage a word, but he managed a smile. Red mist poured in from outside the throne room. It flowed through the double doors. The guards outside—just visible from where Ruben stood—collapsed to the ground.

  ‘He’ll take too much,’ Jesriel said. ‘He’ll keep taking blood until—’

  ‘Everyone dies.’ Marius’s face was drawn as he stared at his grandfather and the Starblade he held. ‘I… I did this.’

  Ella hugged him around the shoulders. ‘No, little brother. This isn’t your fault.’

  They backed away from the God King. The very air around him tasted like blood. Ruben licked his lips. He enjoyed the taste, and instantly felt disgusted. ‘How do we stop it?’

  ‘We don’t. If we let him go…’ Jesriel shook her head. ‘These people never had freedom. Maybe now they will have freedom in death.’

  ‘Thousands of people.’ Ella stepped back toward their grandfather. ‘Thousands upon thousands will die.’ The guards at the door gasped for breath. The guards closest weren’t breathing. Weren’t moving. Ella glanced back at her family. ‘I can save them.’

  Chapter 74

  Ella

  Ella turned from her family, perhaps for the last time. She faced Renial. The God King. Her grandfather. She closed her eyes and activated her true sight.

  She couldn’t see his aura. His power. It was blocked to her as he held the blade, just as before.

  But she could see the dozens, hundreds, thousands of streams of energy flowing into the throne room with the blood, entering the God King—then getting sucked straight in by the Starblade.

  For a moment, she wondered about the blade. How could such a terrible thing exist? How could such a horrible thing shoot down from the sky? She’d felt its touch, knew what it did to people like them—the horrible feeling as it clamped onto you and ate out your lifeforce, drained your very soul.

  That was happening to the God King. And all around the island—perhaps even farther, who knew how far his influence spread—it was happening to every person the God King had bloodlocked. All their blood, their energy, their very lives, being taken by this one man, this one blade.

  In the mindlink, she’d shown the others what she could do—what she’d done to the blood lord, how she’d broken his mind, his bloodlocks.

  She needed to do the same here. She needed to break the God King’s lo
cks. She needed to set those people free. She didn’t know what touching his mind would do—she didn’t know if it would work while he held the blade, if it would kill her. But there were no other options left, not unless she wanted their escape to come at the price of tens of thousands of lives.

  ‘Ella!’ Her mother grabbed her shoulders and spun her around. ‘Ella, you can’t do this! His power is connected to the sword, if you touch it—’

  ‘I know.’ Ella removed her mother’s hands. ‘But I have to do this.’

  Jesriel shook her head, tears fell from her eyes. But she didn’t grab for her daughter again.

  Ruben bloomed fire from his hands. ‘Can’t we just burn him?’

  Their mother’s head dropped. ‘It won’t work. As long as he touches that sword, it will take his magic, and protect him from ours.’

  Marius stepped forward. ‘If this is what has to be done, we do it together.’

  Their heads snapped to stare at the youngest member of the family. Marius looked at his mother. ‘Just like the monks helped us get here, we can lend her our strength.’

  Ella shook her head. ‘No,’ she said. ‘No, not if it means you risk your lives too.’

  Marius took her hand. ‘We look after each other in this family.’ He looked from her to Ruben. ‘You both taught me that.’

  Ella’s little brother gripped her hand with more strength than she ever knew he had. Then he reached out for Ruben’s hand. Ruben stepped forward and reached out for their mother’s. Ella faced their grandfather and closed the circle by grabbing her mother’s hand.

  She closed her eyes and felt their strength. It wasn’t the same as the mindlink—this was something else. She felt their minds, but she felt more.

  She felt their souls.

  She felt their warmth.

  Their love. Protection. Worry. Guilt. Fear. And pain.

  It all swirled together in her mind, in her heart. She pushed out with her true sight and knew the others felt what she felt. They knew the power they were about to touch. Their minds were one. Their souls were one. They could feel the flow of blood—the mist that had stained their clothes and faces red—as it was sucked into the God King.

  Together, they touched the God King’s mind.

  Then their one soul split back into four, and Ella’s world went black.

  Chapter 75

  Marius

  Marius woke up on the ground. His head felt broken. It took a moment to remember where he was. His face, hands, body—all of him—felt wet. Drenched.

  Covered in blood.

  He shot up to a sitting position. His mother and brother were waking beside him, sitting up from the ground. The God King was collapsed on the floor, the Starblade fallen from his grasp. He still breathed, but his eyes were closed, and he didn’t move.

  Ella lay still in front of him.

  Marius made it to her first. ‘Ella!’ He knelt by her body. Seeing her like that, covered in blood… but it wasn’t hers. It was the mist the God King had poured into the hall. It was the blood of his people.

  His mother appeared beside him. She put a hand on Ella’s head. ‘She’s alive. Sleeping.’

  ‘When will she wake up?’ Ruben asked.

  Jesriel’s face was blank. She looked from one son to the other, seeming to consider her answer until she finally sighed. ‘I… I don’t know.’ She looked over at her father. ‘But we must not hang around and find out.’

  It was then that Marius noticed how the God King was changing. His unwrinkled face grew lined. His brown hair greyed.

  He was losing his youth, losing his borrowed time.

  Ruben bent down and picked up Ella with ease. He straightened up, holding her in his arms. ‘Then we go.’ He looked to his mother. ‘Can you teleport?’

  ‘Not from within these walls. From the garden, maybe, but…’ She shook her head. ‘I’m too drained.’ Jesriel helped Marius from the ground. They stared down at the unconscious form of the God King.

  ‘He’s… old,’ Marius said. ‘Growing older.’ He looked older than old Joslin now.

  ‘We have to leave. Get to the docks. Find a ship,’ Ruben said, though he didn’t make a move toward the door.

  ‘Ella’s friends will have left,’ Marius said.

  Jesriel looked to the doors. ‘The city will be in chaos. We can’t stick around. These people, controlled or not, have believed in my father all their lives. They’ll know the links are broken—they’ll feel it, and they’ll come here to find out why. If they see us standing over him… We have to move, fast, before they realise it was us who stopped their god.’

  ‘We just leave him?’ Ruben, holding Ella, stood over Renial. ‘Shouldn’t we…’

  Their mother’s eyes turned stony. ‘He’s over a hundred years old, and for the last eight decades he’s been using other people’s lifeforce to sustain himself. Without them, he will suffer, and then he will die. We needn’t help him to his fate.’

  They stood in silence for a moment, staring at the God King. Marius glanced around and found the scabbard. Like everything else in the room, it was wet with blood. He took it to where the Starblade had fallen and sheathed the sword. The energy in the room shifted, and his breath came easier. He patted at his coat pocket, finding Peiter’s leather-bound book safely there. Without a word he came to stand with his family. Jesriel found Taya huddled and shaking behind a pillar in the great hall, her clothes stained as red as their own, her tears mixing with the blood. Marius had forgotten she was here, but he was glad to see her safe. The silence went on until one of them stepped toward the doors. Marius didn’t know who had moved first—it could have been him—but suddenly they were walking out of the castle.

  The floors of the hall were soaked and slippery. Marius tried not to think about whose blood he trod on. They passed bodies. Some still breathing, many dead. Not that Marius checked, but dead bodies had a look about them—a smell about them—that live ones didn’t. The castle was quiet but for their footsteps. No one stopped them when they reached the gates. The people they found awake looked drowsy, confused, and didn’t so much as glance at them as they walked through the town.

  Until they made it to the village square.

  Two women jogged cautiously into the square from the other side, their gazes darting about. One, a dark-haired woman, had a sword drawn. The other, blonde and tall, had her arms raised—poised as if about to attack.

  Marius, Jesriel, Ruben—Ella in his arms—and Taya froze at the sight of them. The two women saw them and stopped running. Jesriel stepped in front of her family.

  The two parties stood twenty feet apart. Jesriel raised a hand. The blonde tilted her chin up, sparks playing on her fingers. The sword-wielding woman’s eyes scanned each of them—then widened when she saw Ella.

  She took a step forward, blade raised. Marius’s right hand twitched—his left still grasping the sheathed Starblade—ready to push her back with his powers, wary of how much mana he’d lost in the battle.

  ‘What have you done to her?’ the woman asked.

  The sky darkened. Marius glanced up to see clouds roll in from nowhere. The hair on the blonde woman’s head raised, caught by static electricity.

  She was causing the storm.

  Jesriel motioned her hands in a circle, forming shards of ice in the air.

  The woman with the sword looked poised to sprint forward. Her eyes ran across their faces again. Her expression changed. She put a hand up to halt her companion as she stared at Ruben. ‘You’re her brother.’

  Marius’s hands relaxed. ‘Ella’s friends from the docks.’

  The tension of the stand-off disappeared. The woman sheathed her sword and walked to them. ‘Is she okay?’ The blonde woman’s hands dropped. A moment later, the clouds parted, and the sky brightened once more.

  Jesriel looked at the woman cautiously. ‘You know my daughter?’

  ‘I do—your daughter? Ella said her parents were—’<
br />
  ‘It’s a long story.’ Jesriel finally seemed to relax. She glanced behind them. ‘I’ll gladly tell it to you somewhere else.’

  The woman looked down at Ella’s unconscious form, then back to Jesriel. She nodded once and offered her arm. ‘Reena.’ They gripped each other’s forearms. Reena motioned to the blonde witch. ‘That’s Aralia.’ She turned back the way the two had entered the square. ‘Our ship is this way. I’m sure you all have plenty of stories to tell,’ she said as she walked. Marius and the others followed. ‘First and foremost, the tale of what happened to all these people.’

  ‘Once we’re on the water,’ Jesriel said. ‘I promise I’ll tell you enough to fill a book.’

  Chapter 76

  Ruben

  Ruben’s stomach lurched as the ship rolled beneath him. He couldn’t stop staring at the island as it got smaller and smaller. He still felt that girl’s blood in his veins. Whatever life he’d had before was gone. He’d changed too much to go back to Billings.

  Not that they were heading back there. He wasn’t sure where they were going now. Some island the blonde witch Aralia spoke of.

  He couldn’t think of the future. Not yet. Not while he could still see Albion from the deck of the ship.

  Ella was below decks. She hadn’t woken. His mother would be down with her. Ruben raised his head until he spotted his little brother, high in the rigging. Marius didn’t seem bothered by the ship’s movement. Taya was around, too. Ruben hadn’t spoken to her since they’d boarded the ship. He should have.

  He knew he should have.

  He looked back at Albion. It seemed so small now. He wondered what would happen there. Had his grandfather truly died? Were the people free now—did they even want to be? There were still blood mages on the island. When they’d boarded the ship, an argument had raged on the deck about how to deal with them. But they were all too weak. Too beaten. Too drained. The argument hadn’t lasted, no one wanted to stay there. They’d promised to return, then sailed away.

  The former captain of the ship, the blood lord that had delivered Ella to the island, was down in the brig.