Darkblade Guardian

by Andy Peloquin

  “Arudan!” He gripped the man’s shoulders and shook him hard. “Arudan, tell me more about that plant!”

  The bald-headed man flinched back, seeming shocked to find the Hunter standing in front of him. He raised his hands to protect himself. “Don’t hurt me!”

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” the Hunter snapped. “What can you tell me about the plant you were just reading about?”

  Arudan’s gaze darted around the room and his midnight eyes latched on to Taiana. “Taiana, help me! Don’t let him hurt me!” Fear turned his skin an even paler shade of white.

  The Hunter released the man’s shoulders and held up his hands. “Easy, easy. I’m not going to hurt you.”

  “Arudan.” Taiana came over and crouched in front of the hairless man, putting a soothing hand on his shoulder. “This is Drayvin, and he’s a friend.”

  “A-a friend?” Confusion and panic mingled on Arudan’s face.

  “Yes.” Taiana nodded. “You met him yesterday. You were very nice to him, too.”

  “I-I was?” Arudan’s black eyes went to the Hunter’s face, but no sign of recognition showed in his expression.

  “Yes.” Taiana shot a glance at the Hunter. “He’s a friend of mine, too.”

  “If he was a friend, why was he shaking me?” Arudan’s voice sounded plaintive, almost childlike. “I don’t like it when people shake me.”

  “I’m sorry, Arudan.” The Hunter lowered his hands.

  “I don’t like being shaken,” Arudan’s brow knit into a frown and he rocked back and forth in his seat. “Don’t like it, don’t like it.”

  “Never again, I promise,” the Hunter said. At their first meeting, Arudan had seemed forgetful, the result of a long life. Yet something about the way he shied back from the Hunter’s touch made it seem like more than that. Perhaps he truly was touched by the Illusionist like Hailen. “But, as my friend, can you help me?”

  “Help you? With what?” The fear had begun to leak from Arudan’s eyes.

  “That plant you were reading about, what can you tell me about it?” the Hunter asked.

  “Plant?” Arudan looked puzzled. “When was I reading about plants?”

  “Just now.” The Hunter picked up the tablet that had fallen from Arudan’s lap. “In here.”

  “In here?” Arudan’s forehead furrowed as he stared down at the strange Serenii runes etched into the tablet. His lips began to move, and within seconds, he was once again hunched over the stone, oblivious to the world around him.

  “Arudan,” the Hunter said in a firm voice. He had to repeat it twice more before the man looked up.

  “Who are you?” Arudan asked, and suspicion mingled with a hint of fear in his black eyes.

  “He’s a friend of ours.” Taiana spoke up from beside the Hunter. “Drayvin.”

  “Drayvin, hmmm? I suppose greetings are in order.” Arudan gave him a little nod—exactly as he’d done the last time they met.

  “Drayvin wants to know something about one of the plants you’re reading about,” Taiana said in that same patient tone.

  “It’s called opia,” the Hunter told him.

  “Ah, opia. Of course!” Arudan’s eyes sparkled. “Such a fascinating plant. So many uses, though it tastes a bit odd if you eat it raw. Better to press it into a fine wine, perhaps with winter strawberries and—”

  “Arudan.” The Hunter spoke gently, but his tone was firm. “Do you know where I can find it?”

  Arudan looked up. “Find what?”

  “Opia,” the Hunter said. He’d developed a good deal of patience over months of traveling with Hailen, but he’d soon reach its limits. “Where in Enarium can I find it?”

  “I don’t know.” Arudan shrugged. He gestured at the pile of stone tablets strewn around the room. “I’m sure there’s something in these writings that could tell you, though.”

  “Maybe in here?” The Hunter lifted the tablet from the man’s hands and held it up before his eyes. “Something about where opia grows.” The more he repeated it, the less likely it would slip from the man’s memory.

  “Hmmmmm. Perhaps.” The pale-skinned man stared down at the runes, his brow furrowed in concentration. After a moment, his forehead smoothed and a smile spread his face. “Here we are.”

  He cleared his throat and read aloud. “Opia must be planted at the summer equinox, for additional sunlight is required for the seed to take root in the earth. Patience is required, and the fruit’s growth cannot be rushed, for opia will only serve its purpose once it has come to full maturity. For faster maturation, it is my recommendation that the plant is grown in sunlight amplified by a mixture of sapphire and ghoulstone treated with weeping wintermoss.”

  Arudan looked up at the Hunter with a triumphant smile. “A fascinating manual, this, written by a Serenii by the name of Yalleng, one charged with categorizing the plants growing in the Terrace of the Sun and Moon.”

  “Where is that?” the Hunter asked. “The Terrace of the Sun and Moon?”

  “If only Master Keeper Nals could see this, he’d weep tears of joy.” Arudan’s eyes grew unfocused, and he lost himself in a private conversation with himself. “He always was fond of the secrets of gardening. Said it calmed him, gave his mind a place to focus on the greater problems of the world. Why, he would spend hours every day…”

  The Hunter reached out to touch Arudan’s bony shoulder, but Taiana’s hand stopped him. When he glanced at her, she jerked her head toward the door. “Come. Let us leave him in peace.”

  “But the opia—”

  “I will tell you what you seek.” She spoke in a quiet voice, and that strange expression had returned to her face.

  Curiosity burned within the Hunter as he followed Taiana out of Arudan’s room. She closed the door gently behind them, then turned to him.

  “Remember when I said you had become a gardener, caring for the Serenii gardens?”

  The Hunter nodded.

  “The Terrace of the Sun and Moon is where you spent your days.” She searched his face, looking for…what? A sign that he remembered? Did she hold out hope that some of his memories of their time together remained buried deep within him? It would be far easier to accept that his mind was affected in the same way Arudan’s was than to admit that her turning him over to the Illusionist Clerics had robbed him of everything they’d once shared.

  “Where is this Terrace?” the Hunter asked.

  Her expression tightened, and the searching look faded, replaced by resignation. “On the roof of Hellsgate.”

  The Hunter’s gut clenched. Garnos had made it clear he wouldn’t be getting into Hellsgate, not with an army of Elivasti watching for him. Of course, even if he somehow managed to get his hands on the opia, he couldn’t be certain it would kill Hailen as it had Daladar, the young Elivasti that had died during the Expurgation in Kara-ket.

  He wanted to go back into the room—what if those same tablets held an explanation of how to avoid the side effects of the Expurgation?—but Taiana’s next words stopped him.

  “There will be time enough to save your Melechha.” Her voice held more power for its quiet tone. “When we rescue him from the Sage, you will have a chance to gather the opia to cleanse his mind. But our daughter does not have that sort of time. The Withering is almost upon us, and the Sage will seek to use the power of the Keeps. She must be our priority.”

  The Hunter opened his mouth to argue, but he stopped himself. He ached to get his hands on the opia that would cleanse Hailen of the Irrsinnon, yet was that the most important thing at the moment? The Terrance of the Sun and Moon would still be standing when he defeated the Sage and freed Hailen. With the Withering so close at hand, there was a very real risk that the Sage could activate the Keep that housed Jaia—destroying the world and killing his daughter in the process. Much as he hated to pause his quest to save Hailen, he couldn’t simply break into Hellsgate. That meant waiting until the Sage and Hailen left the fortress.

  Better to hel
p Taiana hunting Jaia than sit around waiting.

  “So be it.” The Hunter let out a long breath. The “shadow of the Serenii”—the presence of Serenii magick that thrummed through the entire city of Enarium—would hold Hailen’s madness at bay. The moment the Sage showed his face, the Hunter and Taiana would free the boy. Until then, he had another important task that required all his energy.

  “Come, Az’nii.” He reached for her hand. “Let us go find our daughter.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The sun was fully visible over the eastern horizon as the Hunter and Taiana exited the tunnel into the empty stone building adjoining the one where they made their home. After scanning the streets to ensure no Elivasti patrols were in sight, they slipped out of the shadow of the four-story house and hurried in the direction of the nearest Keep.

  The Hunter shot a glance at Taiana. What is she hiding from me? Everyone had something to hide—he’d learned that all too well during his years as an assassin—but he had wanted to believe that she, the woman that had been his wife in a life long past, would share her secrets with him. Yet she still hadn’t explained who the mysterious “Him” was that had given her the mission to free the Bucelarii. He hoped she’d trust him enough to tell him, but until then, he wasn’t certain how much he could trust her.

  And that realization set anger burning in his gut. Perhaps he was expecting too much of her—too much had happened to both of them to hope they’d be the same people they once were—yet he’d told her everything, so why hadn’t she? What could be so secretive or terrible that she’d hesitate to reveal it to me?

  He bit down on his anger as he followed Taiana. There’ll be time for questions once Hailen is safe. And Jaia.

  The pointed tip of the blue-glowing North Keep rose into the sky just a few blocks from their hiding place. When they reached it, Taiana paused only long enough to ensure the streets were empty before hurrying from concealment toward the front. The Keep appeared like a single solid shard of sapphire thrust into the ground, at least seven or eight floors tall. The only features in the glassy tower were a rectangular pane of glass for the door and the same square, fist-sized transparent gemstone that served as the locking mechanism.

  The Hunter drew Soulhunger and held it up to the transparent gemstone. The square jewel flared bright blue and hummed quietly for a moment, then the pane of glass slid open without a sound.

  He couldn’t help marveling at the ingenuity of the creation, and the fact that Soulhunger—the dagger that had been the bane of his existence for so many years—was now the linchpin vital for their success.

  Once inside, Taiana motioned toward an identical locking mechanism beside the door. The Hunter pressed Soulhunger to the stone, and with a flash of blue light, the door closed.

  The interior of the Keep was vastly different from the basement room he’d seen before. The center was hollow, with two sets of wide stairs circling either side of the room and rising to the upper levels. The Hunter counted eight floors, with a skylight of transparent glass at the pinnacle of the structure. Over the last day and a half in Enarium, he’d gotten used to the subtle vibrations running through the city, much the way a sailor grew accustomed to the rocking of a ship on open water. Yet within the Keep, the humming was louder, strong enough for him to feel it even through the thick soles of his boots.

  The ground floor had three doors, and the Hunter moved ahead of Taiana to open the nearest one using Soulhunger’s gemstone. The glass door slid silently open to reveal two of the strange casket-looking objects made of white stone and a blue gemstone lid.

  “Help me with this one,” Taiana said as she strode toward the nearest one.

  The Chambers of Sustenance had no lock to hold them closed, nor any locking mechanism that could be activated with Soulhunger’s gemstone. Before the Hunter could question how the Serenii opened them, Taiana solved the problem by driving the metallic tip spikestaff into the crack beneath the lid and set about trying to prize the lid open. The Hunter added his weight to the spikestaff and though the ash wood shaft bent, it held. A few seconds of effort, and the lid popped open with a quiet hiss of escaping air.

  The Hunter didn’t need to look inside to know what he’d find. The reek of decay hung thick in the airtight Chamber, tinged by smoke and the sharp tang that filled the air after lightning struck. The corpse within had shriveled, its skin blackened where it was tethered to those strange flexible tubes within. Whether it had been male or female, the Hunter would never know. The poor soul had died too long ago for its features to remain visible.

  “Come on.” Taiana’s voice took on an edge as she strode to the second Chamber. The Hunter helped her to pry the lid open and tensed in expectation of the same foul smell. This Chamber was empty, except for the coil of tubes in the cradle carved into the stone.

  Taiana’s shoulders tensed, her expression growing hard. “There are more to examine.” Frustration, worry, and dread mingled in her tone. Every empty Chamber meant she had failed to find Jaia. Every desiccated corpse could mean she’d found the child too late.

  The Hunter had chosen the northern room on the ground floor, but there were rooms along the east and west wall of the Keep as well. He did quick calculations and estimated they had another twenty rooms to search before they reached the uppermost level—the eighth floor—of the Keep. At this rate, they’d be lucky to get through the entire Keep in an hour. That only left an additional twenty-one Keeps to search, plus the massive Illumina in the heart of Enarium. They’d have to push their pace hard if they wanted to search the entire city for their daughter before the Withering struck at noon tomorrow.

  A part of him knew they would never do it all in time—not with the Sage to hunt and Hailen to rescue—but he couldn’t bear to say the words aloud. The tension in Taiana’s shoulders, the lines in her face, and the pain in her expression increased with every Chamber they searched. A glint of hope would flash in her eyes, only to be dashed at the sight of an empty Chamber or, worse, a charred and withered corpse.

  “You said the Cambionari locked Bucelarii in these Chambers, right?” the Hunter asked.

  Taiana nodded. “That is where I found Kalil, Cerran, and the others.”

  “Do you know how many?”

  She shook her head. “Whenever the Cambionari came to Enarium, I would lock myself away in our towertop room until they left.”

  A thought flashed through the Hunter’s mind. Sir Danna had spoken of dragging the corpses of the Bucelarii they killed to Enarium, and in his memories, he’d known of graves in the mountains beside Khar’nath. Yet they hadn’t killed all the Bucelarii—and Cerran and Kalil were proof. Some had to have been brought back and locked away. The walls of his and Taiana’s room were transparent when looking out, so perhaps…

  “Did you ever see which Keeps they went to?” he asked. “When they brought their prisoners—”

  “Yes!” Her eyes went wide, as if she hadn’t had the idea before. “Not all the time, but on a few of their visits, I could see them moving through Enarium with their prisoners.”

  “Prisoners that had to be Bucelarii, right?”

  Excitement sparkled in her eyes. “I know I saw them going into the Northeast Keep on both the Base and Medial Echelons. And the Eastern Keeps as well.”

  “The ones nearest Hellsgate.”

  Her enthusiasm waned. “Yes.”

  “Then those are the Keeps we need to search first,” the Hunter said. “Those are the ones most likely to house Bucelarii.”

  Taiana’s brow furrowed in thought. “A good plan, except—”

  “For the hordes of Elivasti, right?” The Hunter shrugged. “We’ll find a way to get past them and into the towers. It’s the only way we get any sort of reinforcements to help us fight.”

  “But let us finish searching this Keep first. We’re already here, and we’ve only got two more floors to go.”

  The Hunter nodded. “Lead the way.”

  North Keep’s sixth and
seventh levels of housed only empty chambers, which brought the Hunter a sense of relief. At least he hadn’t found a child-sized corpse charred by magick and withered by the ravages of time.

  Taiana, however, didn’t seem as relieved. If anything, her expression revealed frustration.

  “We’ll find her,” the Hunter said in a voice that rang with confidence—far more than he felt at the moment.

  “I should have known we wouldn’t find her here.” Taiana shook her head, and a mixture of sorrow and guilt flashed in her eyes. “I should have remembered what our child’s prison looks like. I should, yet I can remember nothing but the sound of Jaia’s cries and the glee in the Warmaster’s demon eyes.”

  “Take comfort in knowing the bastard died a painful death.” The Hunter bared his teeth in a snarl. “Screaming in agony, Soulhunger draining his life.”

  “You fed the demon’s blood to Thanal Eth’ Athaur?” Something unreadable passed across her face.

  The Hunter nodded. “Every demon I’ve found across Einan. It was the easiest way to put them down.”

  Her expression grew musing as she turned toward the stairs to begin the descent toward the ground floor.

  “Wait, what about the eighth floor?” The Hunter pointed to the stairs that ascended to the top level. “Aren’t there more Chambers to search up there?”

  Taiana shook her head. “That is the Keep’s control room. There are no Chambers there, simply the magical mechanisms to activate the power of the Keep. They will not serve us, for they only respond to the blood of the Serenii or their Elivasti descendants.”

  Or Hailen’s blood.

  Taiana turned and started down the staircase without a backward glance.

  The Hunter followed. “Did the Serenii build these Keeps for the sole purpose of housing the Chambers of Sustenance?” he asked. All twenty-one rooms had held one or two Chambers, but nothing remotely resembling a bed, chairs, or any sort of furniture.

  “I do not know.” Taiana shook her head. “Too much about the Serenii remains a mystery. But from what I have learned, these were built initially to absorb power for the city. The Chambers of Sustenance were a later addition.”