Dusk Gate (Soul Bound Book 1)

by Benjamin Medrano

  “Oh, she’s certainly that,” Xandra said, laughing softly again as she smiled. “Far more immortal than me, for that matter. I’m not sure she can be killed, from what she said. In any case, she’s reached the rank of Archmage in multiple spheres, and… well, let’s just say that her apprentice wasn’t born of anyone’s body. I believe that the Lady of Storms created her from magic. I can’t come up with any other reasonable explanation for the perfect web of mana veins she possesses… though I suppose that it’s possible she remade the mana veins from nothing for the girl. That would probably be more difficult than creating her entirely. I didn’t dare ask, I’m afraid.”

  “Oh. That’s…” Jasmine said, looking at Xandra in shock, while Naomi’s mouth simply hung open, obviously stunned. Eventually, Jasmine spoke again, her voice a bit more hopeful. “I don’t suppose there’s any way we could get her help, is there? I—”

  “No,” Xandra said flatly, much of her amusement vanishing instantly as she straightened. “And I will not risk her goodwill by so much as asking her.”

  The others fell silent at that, and Mora’s eyes went wide before asking, her voice almost a whisper, “You can contact her?”

  “Yes. And I will leave it at that,” Xandra told her, shaking her head firmly. But on seeing the confused look on Jasmine’s face, she sighed in annoyance and continued, “Oh, of course you won’t leave it alone. She won’t deal with your problem for a simple reason: she doesn’t want others to rely on her.”

  “What do you mean?” Naomi asked after a moment, her voice hushed.

  Xandra considered the young priestess for a moment, tapping her leg impatiently with a finger as she tried to figure out how to explain her thoughts. She should’ve cut Mora off before she’d mentioned the Lady of Storms, Xandra decided, then sighed.

  “What happens when a country runs into a threat that isn’t easy to deal with? One that their army might not be able to handle, assuming they have an army?” Xandra asked, looking at Jasmine.

  “Well… from everything I’ve heard, they either hire adventurers, or send any of their more powerful heroes to deal with the problem,” Jasmine replied, frowning slightly at this point.

  “And if they aren’t sure whether they can handle it?” Xandra asked, growing slightly annoyed as a human woman started moving in their direction. She raised a hand after an instant’s consideration, conjuring a ball of fire as she warned, “Keep coming closer and I’ll set your hair on fire.”

  “I wouldn’t test her, lass. Xandra doesn’t make idle threats very often,” Ethan chimed in, prompting a few dark chuckles around the room. The pretty merchant glanced around, then let out a huff of annoyance before turning away.

  “Well, fine,” the woman said, and Xandra resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Some people weren’t worth her time.

  After the room settled down, Jasmine cleared her throat and shrugged. “Well, considering the situation… most likely they’d do what we are, and go looking for help outside their borders.”

  “Precisely. And the moment you heard about the Lady of Storms, you wanted to ask her for help, without even knowing the full extent of the threat you’re facing,” Xandra said pointedly, frowning at her. “She got tired of everyone coming to her, especially since she’s immortal. Her point of view is that unless it is a threat that the rest of the world can’t deal with, she’s staying out of it and letting new heroes develop.”

  “Oh,” Jasmine said, looking a little troubled, then nodded reluctantly. “I suppose I’ll just have to live with that. I wish she’d help, though.”

  Xandra didn’t respond, instead rolling her eyes, then turned to Mora. “Thank you for helping them, Mora. As it happens, in their usual idiocy the council decided to delay paying me until they were sure what I told them was true. It makes me wonder why they bothered hiring me to begin with. That being the case, I told them to give you my payment once they’re done. At least I know that you won’t spend it, unlike Cain.”

  “He is a diviner. He knows better than to spend money that belongs to you,” Mora said, a slight smile on her face. “In any case, it wasn’t an imposition. I liked talking to Jasmine and Naomi, as they had some interesting stories to tell about you.”

  “I’m certain they told you entirely too much,” Xandra said irritably, glancing at the two priestesses. “Regardless, thank you.”

  “Have a good night, and good luck to all of you!” Mora said warmly, looking at Xandra briefly as she added, “You’ll need it, if you’re going to be hanging around with Xandra.”

  “Thank you,” Jasmine said, her cheeks coloring slightly, but Naomi waved as Mora made her way out. Xandra waited for her to go, then clapped her hands, causing both of them to jump.

  “Well! Since we aren’t going to be leaving this afternoon, as you’ve obviously acquired lodging, we’d best make some use of the time. Shopping for items to make sure the two of you can keep up seems like the obvious solution,” Xandra said, eying the two speculatively.

  In all honesty, the looks of worry on their faces were somewhat satisfying.

  Chapter 21

  “I don’t understand Xandra at all.”

  Naomi’s comment was soft, but not unexpected, with how pensive she’d been all evening. Jasmine looked up from adjusting the laces of her nightgown, resisting the urge to smile, as she didn’t want to make Naomi think that she was making light of her concerns. It wouldn’t be right after what they’d been through together.

  “Why do you say that?” Jasmine asked after a few seconds, straightening again.

  The room they were sharing was relatively small despite having two beds. It wasn’t as nice as what Jasmine was used to, though she’d certainly slept in worse than the lumpy beds. Far worse.

  Naomi hesitated, pausing in the middle of folding her clothing, then audibly sighed as she shrugged, looking at Jasmine helplessly.

  “I don’t…” Naomi began, then paused, obviously struggling to find words, then leaned onto the bed as she complained, “I just wish she’d be consistent! For a while I thought she was just crotchety, mean, and willing to do horrible things, since she says such mean things all the time. I mean, she threatened to set that lady’s hair on fire!”

  “Yes, she did. She also didn’t go through with it, since the woman left her alone,” Jasmine acknowledged, crossing her arms as she waited for Naomi to get to the point. She had a good idea of what was going through Naomi’s head, but she didn’t want to project her own opinions on someone else.

  “I know that, but it was rude and mean,” Naomi said, raising her head to look at Jasmine. “It would make it so easy to hate her if she was always like that. But… but then we found out about other things. The slavers, for instance, and how she didn’t take all of the things from the bandits for herself either. Or how she’s done several things for others without any real payment at all. It doesn’t make sense.”

  Jasmine nodded, pursing her lips as she thought. She couldn’t blame Naomi for her impressions, if she was being honest. For herself, she found Xandra’s attitude oddly refreshing in a lot of ways. Most people were overly polite, danced around the point, and were reluctant to tell her the truth. Xandra… well, Xandra had no compunctions about telling her off if she felt like it. It might be rude, but sometimes it was what she needed to hear.

  “I don’t know why she acts the way she does. I have my guesses, but I don’t know,” Jasmine said at last, adjusting the laces once more, then settled onto her bed gently. “I think that she’s… complex, in that she rather dislikes most people, yet at the same time she doesn’t want anyone to be in the position she was in. Beyond that, with what she does… perhaps it’s her way of making amends for what put her in the Domain of Ashen Hopes to begin with. All that said, I think she’s a good person.”

  “A good person? She did end up down there, I’ll remind you,” Naomi said, looking at Jasmine incredulously.

  “Yes, and so did I,” Jasmine replied gently, smiling at her friend. “
Certainly, I didn’t end up down there as a result of my own actions, but I was there. And besides, if she weren’t a good person, why did she bother saving us last night? Why would she insist on spending her own coin on us, when we haven’t done much of anything for her?”

  Naomi didn’t reply to that, and Jasmine shrugged, then stood again. She’d made her point, though she wondered why Xandra had helped as well. Why, even Xandra had said it was a good question.

  For now, she needed to sleep.

  Her room was almost silent, and Xandra enjoyed the soft rasp of paper as she turned the page of the book, reading absently. The warm light of her glow-crystals was comforting and clear, far better than any lantern or torch, and it made her apartment… pleasant. As did the enchantments which blocked out virtually all sound from outside. This was a place of peace and quiet, where Xandra could hide from the world. That was important, now more than ever.

  “I’m being an idiot. The best idea would be to send them to Nef, pack my things, and move somewhere safer,” Xandra murmured to herself, glancing up from her book and around the room.

  She’d taken pains to make her apartment a proper refuge for herself, and she doubted even the building owner knew what it was like inside anymore. The floorboards gleamed like they’d been freshly waxed, though they were mostly covered in several thick carpets save for near the unused fireplace, and she’d made certain that the boards wouldn’t creak when she walked around. Unlike many other people, she didn’t bother with tapestries on the walls, since her spells kept the room at a comfortable temperature regardless of the time of year, so instead the walls were mostly covered by the bookcases she’d had made. Each was filled with large tomes, some of which she’d penned herself, while others were ones she’d purchased over the last couple of years. She sat in a comfortable stuffed chair, the only chair in the room as Xandra didn’t receive visitors here. No one else was allowed in her apartment.

  The sitting room was small and cozy, much like the other three rooms of the apartment. There was a bathing room, bedroom, and a kitchen, but that was it. Each of the four rooms were barely more than the size of her bedroom in the lower planes, but that was what Xandra had wanted. It was supposed to help her forget her troubles… yet she couldn’t quite focus on her book.

  Xandra sighed, reaching up to pull off the spectacles she was wearing, and as she did the words on the page changed back to barely comprehensible gibberish. She was learning Corvallian script bit by bit, but for now she had to rely on the enchanted spectacles for translations, which annoyed her slightly.

  “Ah, of course. I’ve become complacent… and I don’t want to leave. I’m such a fool,” Xandra murmured, glancing at the book again before closing it with a sigh. “Well, nothing to be done for it. I’ll just have to deal with the problem.”

  She stood and put the book on the sphere of evocation back in its place. Then she spoke a word which quenched the lights throughout the room and headed for her bedroom. If she was going to be gone for a while, at least she could enjoy her bed properly. Finding a mage who could create a proper mattress had taken far too long, if you asked her.

  Xandra simply ignored how Jasmine’s expression of despairing determination from the night before had stuck in her mind, as well as the sheer relief on her face when she’d seen Xandra. There was no reason for her to care about the half-elf, after all.

  Chapter 22

  “The job’s a simple one. The man wants the half-elf alive, but we’ll get half the amount if we kill her. The other two he doesn’t care about, so we can kill or sell ‘em if we want,” Orsah said, her voice slightly raspy. That was a relic of her encounter with jungle fever years before, and while she was sure she could get it healed if she wanted to, she rather liked how it scared people when she was threatening them. Scaring them was better than having them make light of her threats, and if they needed someone to charm a target, there was always Alice.

  “How much does it pay?” Keg asked, rubbing his chin slowly. He was short and built like a keg, thus his nickname. Orsah wasn’t sure what his original name was, for that matter, but from the way he snapped at people when they asked, she suspected it was far worse than his current one. He also was what passed for their quartermaster, so he always asked about pay before making a decision on whether to support a job or not.

  Instead of answering directly, Orsah pulled out a pouch and upended it on the table. Pleasant clinking echoed through the cave as gleaming golden disks bounced off one another, one of them rolling halfway to the edge before Alice snatched it, picking up the coin with wide eyes. The coins were from a variety of mints and kingdoms, but they were all about the same size, as well as solid, pristine gold.

  “This… there have to be two hundred coins here,” Keg said, a note of shock in his voice as he looked up at Orsah and demanded, “They paid you nearly two hundred crowns up front?”

  “He did, on the condition that we try to carry out our part. He claimed that he was paying several groups for the job, and whoever brought the half-elf to him would be given ten times this if she was alive. He also said that he’d know if we didn’t try,” Orsah said, her satisfaction fading slightly at the thought. “I’m not sure how, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a spell on the coins or something.”

  Jonathan immediately cast a spell as Alice hastily dropped the coin, his fingers drawing thin streamers of blue magic in the air, then the mage focused on the coins for a few seconds. It took nearly half a minute, then he nodded.

  “There’s definitely a spell on them. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but I think it just makes them easier to track via magic,” Jonathan explained, flicking a few sandy strands of hair out of his face. “I don’t think I can remove the spell, since that isn’t what I’m good at. I honestly don’t think they were trying to hide the spell, since whoever cast it is better than I am.”

  “Hm. That’s good to know. The question is, do you think he’s going to betray us after doing the job?” Keg asked, looking at Orsah in concern. “I mean, if they can track us down, it’d be easy for them to do that.”

  Orsah instantly shook her head, resisting the urge to snort at the thought, since it was quite silly in her opinion. Not that she blamed Keg for the concern, but he hadn’t met the potential employer.

  “Believe me, he doesn’t care. When I asked why he was willing to spend so much on one person, he just looked at me and said that he doesn’t care about the money. Worse, I think he meant it,” Orsah explained. “Beyond that, he didn’t seem to care about the other two at all. I think that we’re beneath his notice in most ways, so he couldn’t be bothered to spend the effort on betrayal. Besides, he’s fair folk, and you know how they are about bargains.”

  “Oh. You could’ve just said that he was fair folk, and that would’ve satisfied me,” Keg said, looking somewhat put out. “Anyway, it seems like a fair enough bargain to me. If Loth is in as much trouble as you’ve said, going after one of their holy maidens shouldn’t be too bad. Besides, if we catch her that’s what, two hundred crowns each? With that we could ship out to someplace a little nicer where they’ll never find us and still live well for a couple of years.”

  “Or start a mercenary company or such,” Alice said, the brunette’s eyes bright as she smiled, looking at the coins greedily. “Hells, I’m not opposed to even failing to find the lady, as long as we earn this. This is as much as our last seven jobs combined!”

  “Agreed,” Jonathan said, nodding firmly. “We’ve done worse things for less, after all. We’ll just have to be careful, I’ve heard that the holy maidens are all relatively powerful casters.”

  “A point we’ll have to keep in mind. Since we all agreed, though, first we have to find her,” Orsah said, standing up straight as she glanced at Keg. “Take care of the coins, would you? In any case, our employer said that last they’d seen her, the holy maiden was heading toward Evren. Realistically, there are four routes she could take out of there. She could take a ship, at which
point we can’t do anything, she could go north around or through the Stone Expanse, she could make her way toward Devaran, or she could head east along the coast toward the empire proper. What do you think?”

  “The ship or going east are the most obvious routes, depending on what her goal is. Rantoran may be on the verge of collapse, but if anyone could get Loth reinforcements relatively quickly, it’s them. They still have an impressive navy, after all,” Jonathan said, frowning unhappily as Keg collected the coins. “Devaran is occupied with Palto, last I heard, so they wouldn’t be able to help much. Though their patron deities are rather close friends of the Phoenix Queen, if I remember right.”

  “North is the least likely. She’d have to thread the edge of the Stone Expanse and the Thorned Wood. It isn’t as easy to cross as the section near the coast,” Keg added, frowning. “I don’t know why she’d go that way, either.”

  “She is a half-elf, and I’ve heard there are a few elven communities up that way,” Alice countered. “If she’s trying to hide, that might be a good place to go, especially if she’s being hunted.”

  “True. Well, how about this. Why don’t you go into Evren to gather information, Alice? I doubt that a holy maiden is going to be able to avoid attention, so you should be able to figure out where she’s going,” Orsah said after a moment of thought. “Since the northern route is closest, the rest of us can move to it and watch for them while you’re doing that.”

  Keg nodded in approval, and Alice gave a broad grin. “Now you’re talking! I don’t suppose I could get my share in advance?”