by B. T. Narro
“Damn thin walls,” Kataleya complained as she snatched open the door. “Fine. Come in. I’ve wanted to ask you something anyway.”
Hadley stepped in confidently, looking ready to argue. Kataleya didn’t bother closing the door.
“What did you mean when you said my father’s essence was rare?”
But Hadley didn’t seem to want to speak about this as she let out her breath. “That is one of the reasons I was hoping not to be caught. I knew taking his essence had no effect on his soul and it would only anger you, but the answer to that question will really hurt you. I would tell you that you should ignore it, but I can’t give advice that I couldn’t follow. So I will tell you right now. Your father’s essence is rare because it is corrupted. I know you won’t want to believe me, but—”
“What!” Kataleya screamed. “How dare you!”
“Kataleya.” It was the king’s voice from the hall.
Kataleya un-balled her fists as the king entered.
“What she says is the truth,” Nykal said. “Barrett confirmed it. Whitley Yorn had the essence of a corrupted soul.”
“No, he couldn’t have.” Kataleya grew pale as she seemed weak in the knees. I quickly grabbed my chair near my desk and set it down for her.
“It’s true, Kataleya,” the king said.
She collapsed into the chair.
I thought back to my conversation with Hadley, when she had called Whitley corrupted. It had pissed me off. I had figured the statement was baseless, but now it made much more sense. She had felt it from his essence.
In fact, everything she had done was starting to make more sense.
Charlie had brought up the idea of using an essence of a corrupted man for a specific curse. Apparently, it could be quite powerful. Eslenda had sworn off curses, but she had also wanted Hadley to be killed just because she was a witch.
I felt like I knew Hadley. I had to believe that Eslenda was wrong about her. And if she was wrong about Hadley, perhaps she was wrong about curses.
“Barrett knows a lot about curses,” the king explained. “There are powerful curses that can only be made with the essence of a corrupted man. Having just met you, Hadley knew she wouldn’t be able to convince you to let her have it. She made a choice.”
“And I’m sorry that choice hurt you, Kataleya,” Hadley said. “Truly. I’m very sorry. Jon convinced me that my help is required. We spoke to each other in a way in which you cannot lie, through our mana. And if my help is required, then certain ingredients are required as well. I’m very sorry it had to be your father, but I would’ve done the same to anyone else. It’s not personal, and again, I’m so sorry for the hurt you have gone through.”
Kataleya just stared at the floor for a while. Suddenly she looked up. “She could have gotten the corrupted essence from someone else’s body and claimed it was from my father’s.”
“That’s not the case,” the king said.
“How do you know?”
“Barrett has been a mage of order for a long time. He has come across many essences and other enchantments. The spell Identify doesn’t just notify him about an enchantment; it picks up a scent that only mages of his skill can discern. Think of it like a dog following the scent of a missing person. Barrett can tell that it is your father’s essence in the moonstone carried by Hadley because he has met with your father many times. His mana picks up on the scent in the same way as it did when he was near your father.”
Charlie gasped. “I had no idea that was possible. So Barrett can detect these scents from all kinds of enchantments?”
“Not now, Charlie,” the king lectured as he returned his gaze to Kataleya.
“Are you completely and utterly sure?” she asked. “That it is my father’s essence in there, and it has been corrupted?”
“I’m completely and utterly sure. Now that doesn’t mean he was a bad person. We don’t know exactly what it means. All we know is this: Whitley has helped us greatly in removing Oquin Calloum from power and fighting against dteria in every way possible. I assume what corrupted him was his greed for wealth and power. It is unusual for a man with that kind of power not to be corrupted.”
I could feel Hadley giving me an “I told you so” look, but I was too focused on the king’s next words to give her any look back.
“Even I might produce a corrupted essence when I die. But, like your father, I will die doing everything I can to help this kingdom.”
Did he honestly believe that? If so, what did it say about a corrupted essence? I had always thought of them as only coming from men who had lost their souls to dteria. Now I wasn’t so sure.
“Kataleya,” the king continued as it seemed like everyone else was quiet from shock. “I think it is time you stand up and forgive Hadley for this. You have punished her for long enough. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“I need more time, sire.”
“There is no more time. Forgiveness can be very difficult—”
“Forgiveness has never been that way for me,” Kataleya interrupted. “Not until now, with her.”
Nykal thought for a moment. “Then ask yourself, for whom are you holding a grudge? Because if it’s for your father—if it’s because you think that’s what he would want you to do—you must remind yourself that he is gone, Kataleya Yorn. It has to be the hardest thing you could possibly imagine in this moment—thinking for yourself going forward—but for all of our sakes, you must do it.” He paused for a breath. “Now, do you want to punish Hadley because that’s what your father would want, or do you want to find a way to work with her? What do you want, Kataleya? Answer only for yourself, as difficult as it may be.”
She pushed herself up from the chair and looked at Hadley.
Hadley had large eyes and a naturally innocent demeanor. I honestly didn’t see how anyone could hold a grudge against her, but Kataleya had managed it very well.
Kataleya finally looked at Hadley without the same anger in her eyes. “You’d better curse the hell out of our enemies and only them.” Her tone wasn’t exactly friendly, however.
“They’ll never expect it,” Hadley replied.
Charlie asked, “Now can you explain what exactly happened when you spoke to Jon through your mana?”
I imagined Charlie was going to be very fascinated with everything having to do with the callstone.
“There will be time on the way to Koluk,” the king said. “Aliana, you’re in charge until all of you get back to Leon.”
Reuben let out a squeak of disapproval.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Eden had been telling herself for a while now that she could kill Jon. She could do it. She had to.
She had told herself that letting him live was not a smart option. He was going to be killed by someone eventually, so why not let it be her? The alternative was to go against Valinox, which was something she had been afraid of ever since he’d introduced himself to her under the disguise of the fire mage, Pearson Robinson.
But now Valinox had taken her on his back deep into Curdith Forest. Eden didn’t know if he really meant what he said, that he had another task for her. If that was a lie, that meant he was taking her deep into the forest just to get her killed, if he didn’t leave her here to die on her own.
She was wondering more and more these days if Valinox’s victory was really a sure thing, like the arrogant bastard had convinced her it was. She had met him when he came into her father’s barbershop. Of course her father was out drinking or gambling, possibly both. She pretty much managed the shop on her own when she wasn’t spending time with her old friend Greda.
Eden had noticed early on that she had an innate skill with ordia. The magical art of order just made sense to her, and she didn’t care who found out. She had a habit of flapping her lips as she cut hair, and many of her regular customers enjoyed talking about sorcery with her. It was a good way to pass the time. It was also a good way for some of the right—and wrong—people to find out about her skill.
It wasn
’t as if there was anyone in her life who was smart enough about these sorts of things to warn her not to do it. Her mother, bless her heart, was always working, and Greda’s job was basically to talk about sorcery. The advice to shut up wouldn’t come from her mouth, either.
Every now and again Eden’s father would come home and take more of her mother’s hard-earned money. Eden had told her to stand up to the degenerate, but Mother was as cowardly as she was kindhearted. Mother had tried to talk to her husband to get him to change. She thought he would. Eden, however, knew he would sooner die than give up drinking and gambling.
Before Pearson, the fire mage, had showed up at Eden’s barbershop for a trim, she had heard of the man. There were not a lot of good things being said about him around the capital. Akin to the other fire mage, Josef Webb, who had taken advantage of poor Remi, Pearson was known for dabbling in illicit affairs. Most people stayed away from him.
She remembered their first encounter vividly.
“I’ve heard that you’ve been talking about sorcery,” he’d told her.
There had been something in his tone that immediately made her nervous, but she was still stupid enough to answer all his following questions.
When she had finished cutting his hair and telling him everything she knew about ordia, he told her to meet him in the basement of the Old Guard the next day, and it wasn’t proposed as if she had a choice. She knew the establishment. It was a large and usually busy tavern.
It wasn’t just curiosity that drove her to that meeting. It was fear. Pearson warned her that they could either be allies or enemies, yet all of his enemies would soon be dead.
He said that if they were to be allies, he would make Eden and her mother rich in a matter of months. The fighting would be over that quickly. When it was done, she would likely never see him again, and neither she nor her mother would have to work another day in their lives.
Eden had heard of dteria and knew it was more prevalent in Rohaer. She first thought Pearson was a spy for the king of Rohaer, but she soon found out the truth when she showed up to the Old Guard tavern and was led by someone into the basement, through a locked door.
It was that evening that she first saw just how powerful a dark mage could become. She watched Cason use nothing but sorcery to snap the neck of someone who had refused loyalty to Valinox. Cason wrapped the energy around her neck next.
“Are you with us or against us?” Cason had asked her.
“I’m with you,” she said. It was the only answer she could give.
She was glad they believed her.
It was soon after that she learned that the king, Nykal Lennox, was looking for promising young sorcerers like her. They told her they expected her to be recruited, and then they explained just how powerful Rohaer was with Valinox on their side.
She had heard of the demigods, but she didn’t know just how real they were. Valinox and Cason convinced her that Nykal Lennox had no hope and that this would all be over soon. He would surrender. Very few people would die. She could help make sure of it by acting as a traitor.
She would be rewarded handsomely when it was done.
Eden had believed all of it at the time. However, these days she was starting to wonder if she’d made the right decision. She could’ve betrayed Valinox and told the king that they were trying to use her against him and the others. They could’ve devised a trap, and maybe Valinox would be dead by now. This thought kept her up many nights. But she had been too afraid of Valinox to betray him, and it was only recently that she had started to doubt that he might win this.
Cason had been the only one loyal to Valinox who had the ability to heal any wound in a matter of seconds. Valinox had tried to keep him alive at all costs because not even Valinox could heal like Cason. All demigods regenerated much faster than any human, but only Souriff had the gift of healing, like Cason and Jon did.
Eden was both eager and reluctant to let go of Valinox as they landed deep in the forest. She didn’t like the feeling of her chest against his muscly back, but she would rather stay close to him than be alone so far into Curdith Forest. What the hell could he possibly want her to do here?
“I’m getting tired of you disappointing me,” he told her. “You will not disappoint me again.”
Valinox didn’t look too different from an ordinary man, with brown hair that was a bit messy. But his eyes…Eden never felt so small and insignificant as when they bored into her. He always looked as if the last straw was about to break, and he was about to snap with it.
“Do you understand me, human?” he asked
“I won’t disappoint you again,” she said.
He looked north, then casually said, “You’re going to open the rift to the fae world now.”
Had Eden heard that correctly? He didn’t like it when she questioned him, though.
“It can be done with ordia,” he added.
“Pardon me, but isn’t there a stronger mage of ordia who can do this for you?” She had been wondering if this was the case for some time, because there was no mage of order within Valinox’s group in the forest.
“Opening a portal that wants to open is easy. It’s closing one that’s hard. This is your chance to prove that you can still be useful to me after all your failures.”
She reminded him of something that probably wasn’t going to help her, but she couldn’t keep it in: “I did kill a powerful enemy. The fire mage.” There wasn’t a day that went by when she didn’t think of Remi and the sorrowful look she had given Eden before Eden had driven a dagger into her neck. She had laid there and bled for a long while before Valinox had taken off with Eden. Unless Jon could bring back people from the dead, there was no way Remi was still alive.
Until recently, Valinox knew what was going on in and around the castle, and it was thanks to Eden. Now there was little he knew. Valinox was busy traveling between the kingdoms in order to see his plan to fruition, a plan that Eden seemed to be part of but was largely unaware. It was only recently that he’d found out Jon had been traveling around Lycast to offer his healing services. In the time leading up to then, Eden had been traveling in the forest with the rest of Cason’s men who had survived. She was to watch for the elf, who might come across them as they transported the riches of Lycast toward Rohaer, eventually meeting the group from Rohaer.
It had been recently that Valinox had flown down to their group and picked Eden up. He’d told her while taking her through the air that she would now kill Jon to prove her loyalty. She had been shocked, unprepared, and frankly she just didn’t want to do it.
After she had failed, he had returned her to the forest. Endell Gesh, another traitor, had joined the army there. It was he who had told Valinox about Jon earlier. Apparently, Endell and Valinox had been meeting for a long time, even back when Endell was the head guard at the capital, though Eden had heard nothing about it until now.
“You promised you would kill the king, not a fire mage,” Valinox said in response to Eden’s earlier statement about killing Remi.
“I promised I would try,” she said.
“And did you?” he asked rhetorically.
“I just needed more time. I wouldn’t have been able to before.”
“I don’t have more time, and neither do you. Don’t leave me disappointed again, or I might decide you are more trouble alive than dead.” He paused to let his threat hang in the air. “You will find the portal two miles that way.” He pointed north. “Gourfist guards it. He will not wake up.”
Eden had asked Valinox earlier if it was Gourfist they had heard toward the end of the fight with Jon and a girl who had looked somewhat familiar to Eden.
Since that fight, Eden had chosen not to try to remember any details about the girl. Valinox had already asked Eden if she knew who the girl was who’d bitten a chunk out of his neck, and Eden had shaken her head. Whoever she was, she seemed to be a new ally for the sorcerers, and Eden didn’t want to have to lie to Valinox if she did know something
that could further endanger the girl.
“What will you do after I open the portal to Fyrren?” Eden asked.
The last Eden had heard of Valinox’s plan, he was going to take Cason to the mountain peaks where Failina—the demigod of erto—had been creating a constant snowstorm. Failina was responsible for blocking the path between Rohaer and Lycast, preventing the massive army in Rohaer from getting to Lycast without losing many troops in the process.
While Cason was alive, Valinox planned to disable Failina with dteria and have Cason kill her so as not to wake Gourfist. He figured his other sister, Souriff would come to help, but he was confident he and Cason could take on the two of them. None of the demigods wanted to use their true power so as not to wake their brother, which meant that Souriff and Failina would most likely have to flee.
There was no other sorcerer as strong as Cason, at least that Eden knew of. But maybe Valinox had his eye on someone in Rohaer. Perhaps Failina would be attacked soon anyway.
“I will be ready to get you as soon as you open the portal,” Valinox said. “I just can’t get too close to Gourfist, or he will wake up.”
As the demigod spoke, a huge beast looked to be headed toward them. Valinox didn’t seem to notice it behind him, as it slowly lumbered between the trees. Eden had never seen a creature like it. It seemed to be more tree than animal, with a face of bark and roots that were shaped into a head, with ears and two glowing eyes.
The thing walked with a bit of a sway, as if it had recently come to life and still hadn’t learned the best way to move. It seemed drawn to Valinox as its gangly body edged ever closer.
The shake of the earth notified the demigod to turn around. The treelike creature bent down in front of Valinox, close enough for Eden to see that it had no visible mouth.
But then it uttered something, and the bark of its face broke in half. “Bruuuraaaa.” Chips of wood splintered out from its mouth. It had a breathy voice, deep and rough.
To Eden’s shock, Valinox ignored the creature and turned back to her. “Here,” he said as he handed her a gem with a curse powerful enough that she could feel it without casting Identify.