by Mark Albany
“You don’t understand,” she said, her voice shaking slightly. “What Abarat, my sisters, and I did that night is the reason why there is so much hatred for my people. It made all the fears humans had of elves come true in the most destructive, horrifying way, and I can’t even say they were wrong to think that in the first place.”
“We humans aren’t such fantastic models of tolerance and wisdom while using magic, either,” I said with a shrug. “What you did was a reaction to the actions of my people. You were trying to protect the people you loved. If that’s not a good reason to make a bad decision, I really don’t know what is.”
She smiled but shook her head, trying to push away my attempts at lifting her mood. “Well, I hope you still feel that way, because from what this book is telling me, Cyron is trying to bring Abarat back for one last try at raising that army of his. But this time, Cyron wants it raised for his purposes.” For a moment I thought she was going to be sick just from saying that elf’s name.
I opened my mouth to say something positive about this turn of events, but nothing was forthcoming.
“Do you think this knowledge will be enough to get your sister to join our side on this?” I asked, tilting my head.
“If not that, then nothing will,” Aliana said firmly.
“Perfect,” I replied. “Grab that book and let’s get out of here.”
She looked over at me and then back at the book, hesitating for a moment before taking a breath and lifting the book from the pedestal.
14
“What was that?” I asked, cocking my head and listening.
“Nothing,” Aliana replied, looking around the room. “For some reason I thought there might be some kind of binding spell keeping the book in this room. If we take it out, it will try to stop us, or at least warn Cyron that we’re here and know what he’s doing.”
“At this point, he probably already knows about it,” I said, keeping my voice low, and listening for anyone who might be coming up the stairs to give us trouble,” Either way, I’d say our work here is done. We should take the book and get the fuck out. We can only hope we’re not too late to stop whatever it is Cyron is planning. Otherwise, well, we just came all this way for nothing.”
Aliana nodded, and I could see her forming the portal. I looked toward the door one more time, honestly looking forward to the jump through the portal more than sticking around this place any longer. Whether it was the dim light or the horde of artifacts didn’t really matter. The whole of the place just ticked me off in a way I couldn’t comprehend.
We twisted through the portal again, with the gut-wrenching transportation affecting me less than it would have otherwise. I wondered if the pain and discomfort I felt while moving through them was more of a mental thing, but there wasn’t time to talk about that now. We had more important matters to discuss.
We came out in the same tower we’d been using to study the mansion. It looked different now that night had fallen. With all the lights, it looked somewhat less ominous than it did during the day. I looked down at the ground, trying to get a feel for how far away it was, but was drawn away from that when I saw Aliana dropping into a seat on the floor, her wings fluttering agitatedly.
“What’s the matter?” I asked, moving over to sit next to her, bringing my knees up to my chest.
“Reading that book, seeing… remembering what I did back then…” She shook her head, trying to find a way to say it, and clearly struggling. “Memories I thought were buried deep have risen to the surface.”
I tilted my head to look her in the eye. “Isn’t that usually a good thing?” I asked.
“There was a reason why I put those memories behind me,” she explained, sounding almost annoyed with my lack of understanding. “I was a different person then. People I loved died in the fighting and I was feeling hateful and vengeful, to the point of being almost a completely different person. And there was someone else there. Someone… A human. I… why were we in league with a human?”
I leaned closer. I wasn’t sure if this was a good idea, but I had to try. I didn’t want her to keep floundering like this so I placed my hands on her temples, taking a deep breath as I reached inside myself to find that annoyingly rebellious part of me and push it to the surface, focusing it in my fingers like she’d taught me and closing my eyes.
It was a tentative gesture, one she had to help with as I entered her mind. There was a recurring anger and pain that I could feel in my gut, but as I looked into the picture of the moment she was remembering, there was something odd. True, seeing the world through someone else’s mind had to be difficult, but… the world was darker. There was a fire burning, although I couldn’t see it. She was looking around in her mind’s eye. There were two other women with her. One was Norel, the woman we’d seen in the globe but very different, and the other I didn’t recognize. Long, pale hair and pointed ears identified the two as elves. Odd, that wasn’t how elves were pictured in history at all.
There was a man in the corner. He looked a good deal more like the villains in the fairy tales we’d been told as children. Large, black eyes, pale skin, long black hair and pointed ears extending out past his head. The runes on his skin were glowing a deep blue, a color I’d never seen in runes before. Maybe it was an elf thing? No, the other two didn’t have that. Theirs was a more traditional red. Even so, the power being gathered was almost palpable. I could see it, making the air shudder like reality itself was trying to come to terms with it.
I looked to the corner of the room, and there was, in fact, a man. A human man, with curly brown hair and an elegantly crafted beard. As I looked into his eyes, he moved, turning to see me, tilting his head curiously, like he wasn’t just looking at Aliana through her memories.
He could see me and knew it was me he was looking at—and knew who I was, on top of that. He raised his hand, his lips moving. I saw his power starting to arc toward me.
I dropped back, falling away from Aliana with a gasp as I tried to dodge the power of the man reaching for me. I shuddered, trying to get the feeling away as I looked around, just to make sure I was back.
“Are you all right?” Aliana asked. She had horns and wings again. Interesting how it took me a few moments to see her in that form again, like my vision of what she looked like had changed while I was in her head. Well, it would have. She had been an elf once and would have looked differently.
I nodded, scratching my jaw. The fucking beard still itched.
“Call me crazy,” I said softly. “But I know who that man was. The human man, not the elf.
She narrowed her eyes. “That’s impossible. He wasn’t a young man even then. There’s no way a human would have survived this long.”
“Well, I can’t imagine that it’s just a coincidence he’s the spitting image of Lord Cyron.” I replied. “Is that within the realm of possibility?”
Aliana opened her mouth but shut it again, shaking her head. “It’s technically possible for a human to extend his or her life through the use of magical rituals and certain artifacts, but it would take someone with immense power and strength to even think of it.”
“Someone who might want to help you, your sisters, and that other elf in whatever spell it was you were trying to perform?” I asked, purposely avoiding the use of a name that hadn’t sat well with her before.
She nodded. “It makes sense that if he were there, he would have known the story of what happened,” she whispered, her voice sounding haunted. “He could have extended his life far beyond his years, but why? Why now, why here? Why was he looking for me?”
“I would imagine he wants the same spell performed,” I said, shaking my head. “And he wants as many of the people who performed the original to be part of the encore.”
“Norel is in the Emperor’s court,” Aliana said softly. “She would know him if she saw him. Is she in it with him? No, I can’t imagine that. I… She wouldn’t. She was cursed, same as I was. Maybe differently, with different resu
lts, but still. She has just as much cause to hate him as I do.”
“Is he powerful enough to be able to trick her that way?” I asked. “Like that perception field you used.”
She tilted her head, thinking. “Well… Maybe. Yes. I suppose that makes sense.”
“Shouldn’t that be your first thought instead of thinking that your sister, whom I’m guessing you would trust with your life, is in league with one of the people responsible for your current state?” I asked.
She scowled at me, looking more irritated by the fact that I was right than anything else. I smiled and rubbed her shoulders gently in response.
“I can’t face her right now,” she whispered. “My mind clearly isn’t in the right place for it. If we find her now, I’ll just end up shouting at her for something, and then we’ll be right back where we started.”
I nodded. “Can you think of anywhere we could go where… You’re already creating a portal, aren’t you?”
She gave me no response, simply taking my hand once it was finished and lurching us through it without any kind of warning or fanfare. I grunted as we dropped back into the very familiar location of the cave we had called home for the past few weeks.
“I had a couple of ideas, actually,” I complained, rubbing some feeling back into my ass. “Somewhere that might have an actual bed we hadn’t done away with before leaving this place to cover our tracks. And maybe a razor.”
“Did any of those places take kindly to housing a djinn with wings and horns?” Aliana asked, sitting cross-legged on the ground in front of me, looking up with a cheeky smile.
“That’s a good point,” I admitted. “I want to be rash and I know you do as well. It’s probably a better idea not to crash through the city with blood and vengeance on our minds before we know what we’re trying to avenge in the first place.”
She chuckled, looking at me for a moment before leaning her head on my shoulder. I slipped my hand around her waist and pulled her closer. She placed a light kiss on my cheek before we lay down on the spot that had been our bed before. It was still reasonably soft and would do in a pinch since we needed sleep. She lay facing me this time, pressing her face into my chest, and was soon fast asleep. It took me a little while longer.
Sure, memories of the night in her bath and just earlier that same afternoon made sure that my mind was on the arousal I was trying to conceal, but there was something different now, too. The way she pressed herself into me pulled a warm feeling from the pit of my gut, one that wasn’t completely about sex, I realized. I wanted her that way too, but there was something different now. The world hadn’t been a kind place for her. Annoyingly enough, considering she was more capable of taking care of herself than I was, it didn’t change the fact that I wanted to keep her away from everything that was causing her pain by protecting her, holding her and making it all right again.
I threaded my fingers through her hair, smiling. Here I was, fighting for my life and discovering a plot of unknown magnitude that was about to change the world forever. Was now really the time to fall in love?
15
My eyes shot open at the sound of a piercing scream. I tried to move around, looking for any sign of danger around us, but there was none. No sudden movements, no glint of steel in the dim light of the moon coming from outside the cave. The scream was a lot softer than I thought it had been, too. I looked down, seeing that Aliana was gripping my shirt tight enough that my neck was starting to be pulled down. I could feel hot tears soaking into it, too. I pulled her closer and ran my fingers through her hair.
“Aliana,” I whispered, gently nudging her to wake up. She gasped, speaking in a language I didn’t understand as I shook her again, trying to get a response out of her. She shook her head, opening her eyes and jerking away from me for a moment, like she hadn’t expected to see me.
“What’s the matter?” I asked, pulling her back in and wrapping my arms around her shoulders, avoiding the touch of her wings for the moment as I leaned in closer. “Were you having a nightmare?”
She was awake now, but there were still tears coming from her eyes. I could feel her nails digging into my ribs as she gripped me tighter, her body racked with sobs as she buried her head in my chest. I didn’t want to pry, but there was a low, dirty feeling in my chest. She was in pain, and when someone I cared for was in pain, it was my job to make them feel better again. As it stood, I felt rather helpless. I wanted to help, but I didn’t know how. It wasn’t a new feeling for me, but that didn’t really take the sting out of it.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her voice hoarse. “I… The dream, I can’t shake it.”
“Don’t apologize,” I said softly, stroking her hair tenderly and holding her close. Maybe this—be someone she could rely on to help her get through moments like these—was all I could do to help. I couldn’t imagine she’d had too many people like that over the years. Being alone was a terrifying prospect, and my own experience wasn’t nearly as profound as hers in that respect.
“My sisters were there,” she whispered, her voice vibrating into my chest as she did. “We were together at last. Everything was the way it was before. All was forgiven and in the past. We were all just enjoying each other’s company and then something happened. I can’t remember what, but we were separated again, and I couldn’t stand it happening. If something were to happen to Norel before we could reach her, I would never forgive myself for that.”
I nodded. I knew where this was going, and I didn’t want to sound anything less than supportive.
“Do you have a plan?” I asked, still stroking her hair.
She pulled away to look me in the eye. “You mean beyond teleporting over to where I can find her through the globe?”
I nodded. “How would you plan on breaking the news to her that Cyron is trying to bring an evil elf prince back to life and restart an ancient spell that you said was only marginally successful to begin with?”
She sighed, shaking her head. “I have no idea. I don’t even know what I’m going to say to her when I see her, only… I have to do it now.”
I looked at Aliana. I knew I was no pleasant sight to look at, wearing ragged servant’s clothes. Aliana, while gorgeous, didn’t seemed to be dressed the way any lady of standing, which Norel was apparently trying to be, would see as appropriate. Of course, if Aliana really meant now, we would have to rely on the woman recognizing her and overlooking me entirely.
I sighed, pushing myself out of our ‘bed’ and groaning as the effects of sleeping on what was really just the cold hard floor of a cave left my muscles tense and unresponsive. I stretched, trying to get them moving again as Aliana jumped lightly to her feet. Despite the nightmares, she looked perfectly rested, certainly more so than I felt, and more than ready to jump into action.
“So, your plan?” I asked, noting that the sky outside was already starting to turn a delicate shade of pink, announcing that sunrise would be with us shortly. The cover of night would not be with us for too much longer.
“I know where she is,” Aliana said softly. “She would be asleep in her manse, or feigning it, anyway. We could slip in during the change of the guard, and find our way to where she is from there.”
“Wait,” I said, shaking my head. “We can use a portal to enter the house of a man who is clearly a lot more powerful than anyone else in the empire. Why can’t we portal into her room to find her without having to deal with a changing of the guard, or anything like it?”
“Cyron is powerful, yes, but his technique is limited as well as his knowledge of the various powers that I have at my disposal,” Aliana replied, shaking her head. “Norel will have no such encumberments. Her manse will be considerably more difficult to infiltrate.”
I nodded. “Right. Well, then, changing of the guard, what next?”
“One step at a time, Grant,” Aliana said with a smile, taking my hand.
“Damn.” I started, feeling the air rushing from my lungs as we twisted through sp
ace for a second that seemed to last forever.
“… it!” I completed when we dropped back into reality, shaking my head. I was starting to miss the headaches. It seemed like they were all that was keeping Aliana from transporting us anywhere in the damn world that she pleased. There were no such restrictions now, and it took me a moment to quell the nausea that was rising up in my stomach.
“Quit your whining,” Aliana said softly. “We’re here.”
“How long until the changing of the guard?” I asked, looking around. We were somewhere near the center of town since I could hear the clamoring of the bells, alerting the men guarding the walls that it was time to open the gates, but the precise location was harder to tell.
No, not that much harder, I realized. The stench of open sewers, cattle, and pigs was enough to tell me we were in the Slums. What we were doing here was more of a mystery.
“Long enough for us to change,” Aliana said with a grin.
“Into wha—gods damn it.” She disappeared into another portal before I could finish my question, and I was left in what looked like the courtyard of a villa long abandoned by its previous owners. That was odd, I thought. I never knew the Slums had any villas.
I paced around for a few more seconds as I watched the sky turn from pink to red, with streaks of orange painting across it. Sunrise was upon us, and the changing of the guard was less than half an hour away. I ground my teeth, looking around.
I heard a snap and crackle of the air parting as a twitch of movement caught my eye. I turned around to see Aliana returning, a pair of packs in her hands. I tilted my head questioningly as she dropped them on the ground, the sound of plate armor ringing making my eyebrows raise.
“Armor?” I asked.
“Not just any armor,” she said with a grin, peeling the leather back to reveal steel painted in black and red. “Lancers’ armor.”