“You are no doubt anxious to have me look at the items we’ve spoken about, so you can get your betrothed back to you. I can completely understand. First off, do you have the Griffin’s Key?”
I held out my hand to Spraggel. He dug in his special pocket, and a moment later, laid the silver cylinder in my hand. “We do indeed.”
Yonge’s eyes locked on it the moment it came into view. The man smiled. The first time he had shown any expression since we had entered the room. “Will you, Sir Coren, Princess Zophia, and Mistress Bryst step up on my platform. Let’s see what I can do about these nasty charms.”
I gripped Zofie’s hand more tightly. This was what we had come for. Doubts nagged at me. Would Zofie be all right? Would she return to normal after being exiled so long from her body? All sorts of worries nagged at me. I took a deep breath. There was nothing else to do but go forward. I glanced at Zofie’s impassive face. I’m sure that’s what she would want.
Beside me, Cabrina looked nervous, and for a moment, I was afraid she would balk. The Dark Avenyts inside her was about to lose all her leverage over Zofie and me. We could even kill her once the charms were off, and might likely try, if we could separate her from her host.
She looked over to me and held my gaze for a moment. To my surprise, she reached out and took my free hand. She held it tightly and gave me her signature grin. “Don’t worry. I won’t fight you. You have my word.”
Together, we stepped forward, and Fumiko moved to go with us, but a heavy hand came down on her shoulder. One of the huge guards had silently maneuvered behind her.
“My dear Fumiko,” said Yonge. “Surely you understand why I can’t let you, of all people, close to me. You do have a history for revenge, and I don’t plan on dying just yet.”
Fumiko gave him an ice-cold stare and shook off the guard’s hand, but did not try to follow.
We stepped up onto the platform and stood beside his couch.
“Place the key in my hand,” he said.
I looked down at the silver cylinder, unable to shake off the feeling I was missing something. I was making a deal and didn’t really understand everything’s value. Plus, Fumiko said not to trust him.
But did I have a choice?
I put the key in his hand. His fingers slowly closed over it, and I thought I saw him give a tiny sigh of relief.
“Thank you,” said Yonge. “Now, all of you hold out your bracelets.”
We did as he requested.
“Hmmm. I can see the component that will kill you if they are removed.” He studied them for a moment. “That’s odd. I see that you and the princess have some type of connection through your curses. Most unexpected. I wouldn’t have thought that was possible. That is likely interfering with the charms.”
Rourke had suggested something similar when he had first examined them. I remembered he had emphasized that charms and curses don’t mix well.
Advisor Yonge seemed perplexed. “Sir Coren, did you have any effects from the charm? It should have affected you the same as it did Princess Zophia.”
I shook my head. “For me, the only thing it did was lock away Abhulengulus. It was like my curse took the hit for me.”
Yonge frowned in contemplation. “Odd. I wouldn’t have expected that.” He gave a weak shrug. “It’s not important. Now, I think I can release the worse parts of the charm, but I can’t let you take them off just yet. The entrapment portion is entangled with your curses. I will need to study them some more before I can safely do that.” He glanced up at me. “Will that be acceptable?”
I grinned. “Of course. I think we can live with that for a while longer. Anything to get Zofie back.”
He seemed strangely amused. “Then let me work for a moment.”
He closed his eyes, and I felt myst gathering. A violet glow enveloped the charms, gentle at first, but gradually growing in intensity. I felt my wrist begin to tingle. To my surprise, the tingling shifted to a burning hot, reminding me of the times Zofie and Abe had tried to warn me of some danger. Yonge frowned, but it quickly turned into a grin. The bracelets’ glow intensified one last time and then extinguished.
Zofie shifted beside me. She straightened her shoulders and lifted her head like she was feeling out her body. Her face came alive, and she smiled. “I’m back.”
A voice never sounded so good to me. I immediately took her in my arms, squeezing her tightly. She briefly hugged me back and then stepped away. She bowed to Yonge. “Thank you, Advisor. You have my deepest gratitude.”
He gave a small smile. “My pleasure.”
She leaned closer and took the key from Yonge’s hand. “Now, with your permission Advisor, I would like to complete our end of the bargain. Then you can go ahead with your plans to move the Forever Nexus Shadow. I’m sure your guards can lead me there.”
One of them immediately stepped forward.
Zofie patted me on the shoulder. “Coren, this won’t take long. Why don’t you and the others go back to our quarters and wait for me. Once I’m done, we can have a little party to celebrate my return. I’m sure the servants would be more than willing to help.”
I was a little disappointed that she wasn’t immediately coming with us. It seemed so out of character for her.
“Of course,” I hesitantly agreed.
She smiled and turned to Fumiko. “My friend, would you accompany me? I don’t want to have any misunderstandings while we do this. It’s a very delicate procedure.”
“Of course,” Fumiko smiled. “I would love to.”
As they stepped to the door, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. I called after her, “A loved one’s return is like fresh honey...”
Zofie turned and smiled. “Why thank you, Coren. I’ll join you in just a bit.” She then followed the guard out of the room with Fumiko trailing. As I watched her leave, a tightness gripped my heart.
She hadn’t completed my quote.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Deception
Spraggel, Cabrina, and I were escorted back to our rooms to wait for Zofie and Fumiko’s return. Advisor Yonge had dismissed us with a single wave, and when we hesitated to leave, his guard wouldn’t take no for an answer. I did manage to get in a question about restoring Abe, but all he said was that he would continue to work on it.
When we got back, we found our uneaten dinner had been cleared away and replaced with several kinds of dried fruits and nuts. Not that I minded—my stomach was in knots over Zofie. In my head, I kept going over the quote and why she hadn’t completed it. I could easily rationalize that it wasn’t anything bad. Perhaps she had been preoccupied and missed what I was trying to do. Or maybe I had chosen a passage just a little too obscure. But I quickly dismissed that. She never missed completing one of my quotes.
Never.
I asked Yanmei about having a party, and she said preparations had been made. The moment the princess returned, festive food and drink would be brought out. So there was nothing left to do but wait.
And wait.
Spraggel, nodding off in his chair, finally gave up and went to bed. He asked that I wake him when Zofie returned. Cabrina chose a different route and decided she wanted another bath. I could hear bits of conversation from inside as she and her Avenyts talked to each other. I couldn’t help but wonder what our listeners thought of that.
And I waited some more. I stood watch at the window overlooking the dark garden. Where were Zofie and Fumiko? I began to worry that something had happened. I had asked Yanmei several times if she could take me to her but was politely declined each time. She explained that very few people were allowed close to the Crystal Vault, where the Forever Nexus Shadow was kept.
Just after midnight, Yanmei appeared and gave me a written note from Zofie. She then said she was retiring and left. A moment later, two of the huge guards took position outside the door. I suspected it was to prevent us from wandering during the night.
I tossed the paper on the table in frustration and started to pace. Where were they?
I checked on Spraggel to find him snoring soundly, but Cabrina wasn’t in her room. I guess she was still in the bath. I circled back around, jerked up the note, and stepped to my room.
Hoping it magically said something different, I paused beside the bed and read the note once again. It wasn’t like her to ignore me. The signature at the bottom drew my eyes. She had signed it Zophia. She never signed her notes Zophia—it was always Zofie. Plain old Zofie. I wadded up the paper in my hand, convinced now more than ever something was wrong. And I needed to find her and get to the bottom of this. But how?
In my frustration, I blindly threw the wadded up paper toward the open door. Unfortunately, Cabrina chose that moment to step into it. The wad bounced harmlessly off her chest.
She frowned. “You could have just asked me to leave.”
I smiled sheepishly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there.” I bent down and picked up the paper. “Did you need something?”
She entered and sat down on the end of my bed. “With Zofie and Fumiko gone, this place is too quiet. Plus those big guards out there are creepy. I was hoping you would play a game with me to take my mind off them.”
I frowned. I really needed to figure out how to contact Zofie. “I don’t know...”
But I stopped when I noticed Cabrina frown and flick her eyes toward my bed. Did she want me to sit too?
“Please,” she begged. “Just something simple. Mistress Fumiko and I were playing a staring game earlier. How about that? I bet you can’t outstare me. She couldn’t.”
What was she up to? I sat on the bed a respectful distance away from her. “All right. But just for a little while.”
She grinned. “First one to blink loses. On three. One... two... three!”
Suddenly, we were surrounded by a glowing blue myst barrier. She smiled smugly.
I pointed to the barrier around us. “What are you doing?”
“It’s so we can talk in private,” she stated matter of factly. She grinned and bounced over to the glowing blue wall. “Pretty good, huh? On the outside, it looks like we’re quietly staring at each other.” She put her hands behind her back and rocked on her heels. “Cabrina thought it up. She’s getting better at using her myst.” I detected a note of pride from No-name.
“Won’t they know what you’re doing?”
She shrugged. “They might, but it’s the best we could come up with.”
I nodded. “What did you want to talk about?”
“That advisor’s myst working.” She sighed. “While it may have looked impressive, it wasn’t really. He only adjusted the princess’s charm and didn’t even touch yours.”
“I suspected as much.”
“But he did do something to mine.”
I looked up at her in surprise, and she turned away.
“What did he do?”
She sighed deeply. “Sir Coren, please don’t hate me,” she looked up at me in apprehension. “But I lied to you.”
My eyes went up in concern. Had I trusted her too much? While she looked and acted like a girl, she was still a Dark Avenyts. “In what way?”
She grimaced. “Cabrina knows what I’m about to tell you. It’s what we were talking about a few moments ago. She’s been saying we should tell you ever since you saved us from Mistress Fumiko’s questioning. But I was afraid, and we held off.” She looked up at me. “You see, the charms I placed on you and the princess are quite powerful and require a lot of myst to activate. So much that it would have completely depleted our myst.” She gazed at me levelly. “After I activated the charms, Cabrina and I were supposed to die.”
My eyes widened. It explained a lot. “That’s why you don’t have any directives. You weren’t going to need any.”
She looked down and nodded. “The entrapment portion never included me. It was only for you and the princess. I lied about it because I was afraid you would kill Cabrina. And I couldn’t allow that to happen. You could have cut mine off at any time, killed me even, and nothing would have happened.” She licked her lips. “Only now, Advisor Yonge activated it. I can’t take it off now.”
Which meant Yonge was likely behind Zofie’s strange behavior. But one more thing bothered me. “You said the charms were supposed to drain you. But they didn’t. How did you survive?”
Cabrina took a deep breath. She stepped close and gazed at me for a moment before answering. “Someone saved us. It was in that fraction of a second that the spell was activating. All of Cabrina’s myst was draining away, and we were dying. The pain was horrible. I remember telling her I was so sorry, but I had no choice. I could only do what I was made to do.” She grabbed the front of my shirt and looked up at me with tears in her eyes. “And you know what she told me? She said she forgave me. I couldn’t understand why, still can’t understand. What I did was killing her. And yet she forgave me.” She released my shirt. An expression of wonder came over her. “And then I felt a presence behind me. A big presence. It was nothing like I had ever felt before. And this deep booming voice spoke to me saying, It’s not yet your time, little one. You are everything I hoped for.” Cabrina gazed into my eyes. “It was Abhulengulus. He did something. Opened some hidden gate, and myst flowed through us. A lot of it.” She looked away. “That’s when we passed out.”
My mouth gaped open. I remembered the event. At the time, I had thought Abhulengulus was speaking to me. But it had been to No-name. He had not only acted to provide her myst, but had simultaneously deflected whatever harm the charm had intended for me, taking it on himself. I sighed. There was no doubt, Abe had saved us both. Not for the first time, I wondered at Abe’s depth. He was much, much more than he appeared to be.
Which meant I had another reason to confront Yonge. I wanted Abe back.
“We need to find Zofie and Fumiko.” I looked toward the door and the guards that were standing outside it. “But we have to get past them first. A direct assault won’t work. We have no weapons, and their armor is likely myst shielded.”
Cabrina shrugged. “Easy. Just be ready, and don’t worry about me. I’ll catch up to you later.” She sat back down on the bed in the same spot she’d been in before erecting the barrier. She grinned. “Now play along.” The blue glow suddenly vanished.
She rubbed her eyes. “I don’t believe it, you beat me,” resuming the ruse she had started. “Maybe we can have a rematch. But first, I need to visit the bath.”
Cabrina rose and strode into the common room but paused in its center...
And gave a blood-curdling scream.
Both of the guards immediately stepped into the room, alert for any attackers. She ran to the nearest and put her arms around him. “I’m so afraid! I saw someone heading toward the myst light. He looked so creepy!” Suddenly a myst barrier surrounded them. I could hear Cabrina scream again. “He turned out the light! Don’t let him get me!”
My eyes went wide. Why that little... genius. She had put up another myst barrier. Only this one was black inside. While I could see in, they couldn’t see out. She waved at me and grinned.
I quickly ran out the door and down the hall, trying to remember the way we had come and the direction I had seen them go.
It was long past midnight and well on the way to early morning, so I didn’t encounter anyone in the halls. I couldn’t help but think this was just too easy. I had no doubt these corridors were filled with various myst devices to track movement. So it would only be a little more before I was discovered.
Which way?
I shook my head. Too bad Fumiko hadn’t shared her knowledge of the palace along with her fighting skills. Even just knowing the buildings would have helped.
I suddenly noticed a flicker of motion in the corner
of my vision. But when I turned toward it, I didn’t detect anything. I shook my head. I must be seeing things. The corridors had been darkened for the night with only the occasional myst lantern producing illumination. The dim light provided ample opportunities to mistake something.
Then I noticed it again. I whipped around and stared at where I thought it had been. And I saw it. A tiny patch of shadow, no bigger than my hand and just slightly darker than the rest, was moving ever so slowly along the wall.
Looking at the patch reminded me of Fumiko for some reason. I took a step toward it, and it moved away the same amount. I took another step and another, but it maintained its distance. I moved faster, breaking into a trot and then into a run. It flowed from one corridor wall to another, going one way at an intersection and then the other.
It suddenly stopped on the floor in front of a set of stairs leading down, and when I caught up, the patch of shadow slid down the stairs disappearing into the dim light. I followed cautiously.
It got darker the farther I went, finally going completely black when I reached the bottom. I pulled out my faithful glowing amulet and was shocked to find one of the guards looming in front of me.
I jumped back, prepared to run, but he gave no reaction and stood there unmoving. I held my light up and waved my hand in front of him. Not even a blink.
That was certainly odd. I hesitantly touched the guard’s throat and could feel his skin was warm, and he had a slow pulse. Sleeping maybe? It was certainly odd. I quickly moved to the door behind him and pulled it open enough to slip inside. A weak myst lantern illuminated another set of stairs leading farther down into the depths. A damp smell assaulted my nose, and I knew instantly what it was—their dungeon. They might call it something different, but this is where the prisoners were kept.
I went down the stairs and came to a narrow corridor with three small doors aligned on one side. I heard someone moan and the clank of chain against stone.
I stepped forward cautiously. Not the first one, nor the second, but at the third door, the occupant broke into a fit of coughing. I went back to the immobile guard, and taking the keys from his belt, I returned to the cell and unlocked it. The creak of the door sounded extraordinary loud as I opened it to find its lone occupant chained to the wall.
Assassin of Curses: (The Coren Hart Chronicles Book 3) Page 32