The Lost Tower

by Eric Martinez

  She sighed. “I know you’re right, and I promise you I’ll try. That’s all I can do.”

  “Good,” he said. “For the record, if I’m ever on the brink of death, don’t use that darkness on me. I’d rather die.”

  “Why?” she asked. “It only hurts me. Not you.”

  “Exactly. I won’t let you corrupt your life to save mine. That’s not a trade I will accept.”

  She nodded. “Fair enough.”

  Francisco paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. “We’re friends, right?”

  She smiled, confused. “Yeah, I’d like to think so. We haven’t known each other long, but we’ve been through hell and back together.”

  He looked hard into her eyes. “Good. Then as your friend, I have to tell you. If you go dark, I’ll kill you myself.”

  She shuddered at the severity of his tone. “That doesn’t sound very friendly to me, Brother.”

  He smiled sadly. “On the contrary, it’s what any true friend would do. And I would expect you to do the same for me.”

  “Fine, whatever,” she said. “Now, do you think you can heal my damn leg so we can get out of here and go home?”

  The walk back to the Cradle was long. Luckily, Sephi’s leg was as good as new, and Francisco had also healed the rest of her injuries, which had been numerous. The burns along her focal lines had been particularly bad.

  They moved through Sephi’s secret tunnel with Echo’s lantern to light the way. The cave that led underneath the Janus Mountains had always been safe and unpopulated. She had discovered it a few years prior when she was searching the mountains for a buru to tame.

  She had found Princess and the secret path on the same day.

  As far as she knew, no one else in the Cradle was aware of the tunnel’s existence, but there had to be other passages like it. Passages known to the Occultum, which would explain how her father had been able to bring a warlock army to Zekariah’s palace. And passages known to the Nyx, which would allow them to snatch up mages from inside the Cradle itself and carry them away unnoticed.

  The Council had the Reds guarding the passes through the mountains, but they did nothing to keep pathways like these under control. Sephi used to think that was a good thing. It allowed her to slip in and out of the Cradle without getting hassled. That was before she knew how much danger truly lurked outside the Cradle.

  The threats to her homeland extended further than the occasional Cyclops raiding party in the north or scattered bands of warlocks looking to cause trouble. The Occultum was more powerful than she’d ever realized, and they had plans for conquering Esper, much like the First Mage. They thought they were carrying on his legacy, after all.

  She didn’t know if her father was the leader of the entire Occultum or if he answered to a higher authority. Either way, he hadn’t been working alone. More warlocks were out there, and she had to believe he was out there with them, licking his wounds while regrouping.

  She couldn’t allow herself to believe her father had died in that tower. Not because she wanted him to still be alive, but because she wouldn’t let herself get caught off guard by him again.

  The Nyx were planning something, too. Moros had been clever enough not to reveal what their plans for the kidnapped mages were, but it couldn’t be good. She needed to find out everything she could about the Nyx, and she knew just who to ask.

  Chapter 27

  The Spire loomed over Sephi and her friends as they made their way along the Citadel’s streets. They hadn’t stopped along the way to freshen up or bathe. Sephi wanted to get this final part of her errand over with so she could go home and sleep for like a year.

  Dirty and disheveled, banged up and bloody, she and her friends looked out of place among the perfectly manicured landscape. People wrinkled their noses in disgust as they walked by, but Sephi stared right back at them defiantly.

  Every speck of dirt was a badge of honor. Every drop of blood spoke of the sacrifices they had made and the battles they had fought. The pampered mages here on the Citadel didn’t know a damn thing about what Sephi had done to keep them safe. They would probably never know, but they had no right to judge her. Not now and not ever again.

  As they walked, she addressed her friends. “Listen, guys. Before any of us talk to the Council or the leaders of our families, we need to be on the same page about a few things. Everyone is going to want a full report, but we can’t tell them we know someone on the Council is compromised.”

  Magnus frowned. “Why not? If I tell Minerva, she will hunt down the traitor and make them pay for their crimes.”

  Sephi shook her head. “Unless she’s the one who’s helping the Occultum.”

  “Impossible,” he said. “She’s spent her whole life fighting them.”

  She held up her hands to keep him from going on. “I’m not saying it’s her. It could be any of the Council members or someone close to them. Someone who has their ear and gives them counsel. We can’t risk telling them, or we’ll all wind up dead.”

  “I trust Minerva,” Magnus said, his expression dark.

  “And I trust Artriojas,” Echo said.

  “I trust them, too, guys” Sephi said. “Except when it comes to this. The only Council member I know for sure isn’t compromised is Pasiphae, as hard as that is to admit.”

  Magnus scoffed. “Why, because she’s your grandmother?”

  “No,” she said. “Because the one thing my father let slip was that he had faked his own death to keep her from hunting him down and killing him. That means she can’t be working with the Occultum.”

  “Are you going to tell her about your suspicions about the Council?” Echo asked, looking at Sephi.

  Sephi chewed her lower lip in thought. “I’m not sure yet. First, I want to talk to her before we report to the whole Council. Either way, I’m asking all of you to leave that part out when you talk to your matriarchs and patriarchs.”

  “Fine by me,” Echo said.

  Magnus nodded. “I’ll do as you ask.”

  Francisco shrugged. “I don’t answer to these buttholes, so I’m not telling them a damn thing.”

  Sephi grinned. “Good man. Now, the other thing I’d like you to keep under wraps is that I can read the Whispers. The only people who know about that are the four of us and the Occultum.” She paused. “Moros might know, too, but he never saw me read them and I never told him I could.”

  Echo’s brow furrowed. “I won’t say anything, but why hide it?”

  “If any of the Council members reveal that they know I can read the Whispers, they’re our bad guy. Because they could only get that information from the Occultum. That will help us root out whoever is betraying us to the warlocks.”

  “You plan to track down this traitor yourself?” Magnus asked.

  She spread her hands. “I don’t want to, but I don’t see who else can do it. We’re the only ones who even know there’s a traitor in our camp.”

  “Why not tell the Violets?” Magnus asked. “It’s their function to ferret out secret threats to the Cradle.”

  “Those sneaky bastards? I trust them least of all. Who knows what they’re up to behind that veil of secrecy? No, this one falls on us, unfortunately.”

  “For someone who wants nothing to do with the Council, you’re taking on a big responsibility here,” Magnus said.

  She sighed. “Yeah, well, there’s no one else. And of course, this is all assuming they don’t banish me outright for not bringing back the Whispers.”

  “What will you do if that’s the case?” Magnus asked.

  She shrugged. “Maybe Francisco would like some company out in Duskwood.”

  He nodded happily. “If you can milk a cow, you’re welcome to my spare room. It’s my sewing room, but I can move some things around.”

  “Perfect,” she said. “Unless the Council sends me packing and allows you to stay.”

  Francisco glanced around. “I miss people, but I don’t miss this place. I’ve been gone
for a century, and this no longer feels like home.”

  “I don’t blame you,” she said. “All right, gang, into the Spire.”

  Sephi stormed into Pasiphae’s study by herself, slamming the door behind her. Her grandmother looked up at her from the book she was reading at her desk.

  “Look who’s back,” the old woman said. “Do you have the Whispers?”

  “My father is alive,” Sephi said.

  The old woman’s expression darkened. “My son? That seems unlikely.”

  Sephi collapsed into the chair in front of her grandmother’s desk. “I know, but I saw him. I talked to him. He’s a high-ranking member of the Occultum, and his corruption runs deep.”

  Pasiphae sighed. “Fuck me, I should have known he didn’t die in that fire.”

  “A fire he caused, by the way.” Sephi gripped the arms of the chair as she spoke the words aloud. Giving voice to what happened reawakened the pain of her loss. “He said you suspected he was going dark. So he devised a plan to kill me, making it look like an accident and faking his own death.”

  Her grandmother raised an eyebrow at her. “And why would he want to kill you?”

  “To cast an evil spell, which seems to be a running theme for these warlock assholes.” She left out the purpose of the spell, not yet ready to entrust that secret to her matriarch.

  Pasiphae nodded. “I’m sorry, Persephone.”

  “For what?” she asked. “It wasn’t your fault.”

  “Perhaps it was,” her grandmother said. “I suspected he’d been seduced by the darkness for some time, but you never want to believe something so horrible about your own child. I confronted him about it, hoping that would put an end to his madness. I kept an eye on him afterward, but after he died, I figured the matter was settled.”

  “So his plan worked,” Sephi said.

  Pasiphae sighed. “It would appear so. I should have done more. I could have prevented the tragedy of your mother’s passing.”

  Sephi shrugged. “Well, there’s no changing the past now.”

  The old woman shook her head. “I suppose not, though I wish I could. Your father had always been a curious and rebellious child. If only I had nipped his dark tendencies in the bud earlier, so much pain could have been avoided. I think that’s why I’ve always been so strict with you.”

  “Because of him?” Sephi asked.

  “Yes, you remind me of him in so many ways,” Pasiphae said. “Defiant of the rules, curious to a fault, and drawn to the forbidden. I feared you would walk the dark road that he did, and I couldn’t bear to see another one of my loved ones fall from grace.”

  Her grandmother’s words made Sephi think about how seductive the blood magic was. Its power still called to her from the dark recesses of her mind. Maybe Pasiphae was right about her. Maybe under different circumstances, Sephi would embrace that power and get swept away in it.

  She couldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t let herself become a monster like her father.

  “I tried to kill him,” Sephi said. “But I’m pretty sure he got away.”

  The old woman nodded. “We’ll find him. He’ll pay for his crimes.” She paused. “Did he get the Whispers?”

  “No, but I don’t have them either. The Nyx got them.” She eyed her grandmother to see her reaction to the news.

  Pasiphae scowled. “The cursed Nyx. Bloody fucking balls!”

  Sephi leaned forward. “So you do know about them?”

  “Of course I do. Everyone on the Council does, although it’s a closely guarded secret from the rest of our people. Aside from the Inquisitors.”

  Sephi threw up her hands in frustration. “Well, what the fuck, Grandma? Why didn’t you warn me about them? Why keep their existence a secret?”

  Pasiphae stood from her chair to pace behind her desk. “The Magic Council wasn’t formed to rule over the Cradle. That is a side effect of our original purpose, which is to prevent the rise and spread of dark magic.”

  Sephi frowned. “I didn’t know that.”

  Her grandmother glanced at her. “Few remember or even care, but the Council hasn’t forgotten. Zekariah’s quest for power led him to commit terrible atrocities, and after he was defeated, our ancestors vowed to never let something like that happen again. Our entire society was built around that purpose.”

  “So how does that affect the Nyx?” Sephi asked.

  “The Nyx were created by the darkest kind of magic,” she said. “We keep them a secret so that no other mage tries to replicate that sorcery.”

  Sephi shook her head. “And that’s why the Council slaughters the Nyx wherever they go? To keep their existence a secret? To erase them from the history books?”

  Pasiphae stopped pacing. “You think it cruel?”

  “Well, yeah,” Sephi said. “You can’t just go around killing people because their presence is inconvenient.”

  “It’s more than a simple inconvenience, child,” the old woman said firmly. “Imagine if the Occultum learned how to make their own army of supernatural soldiers again. Soldiers like the Nyx, immune to magic, stronger than any human, and able to heal quickly. We would be helpless against them. The only way to ensure that it never happens again is to erase the very idea from the world. That requires us to erase the Nyx right along with it.”

  Sephi gaped at Pasiphae. “That is unforgivable. You’re worse than the warlocks. Committing genocide to bury an idea?”

  “I don’t like it any more than you do,” Pasiphae said. “The Council members of the past made the terrible decision to eradicate the Nyx, and all of us who followed in their footsteps had to carry on their work.”

  Sephi shook her head. “You didn’t have to. You could have tried something else. Tried to establish peace between our peoples.”

  “I think the chance for peace with the Nyx passed a long time ago.”

  “Yeah, that’s an understatement,” Sephi said. “The Council was afraid of a big unstoppable army of super soldiers attacking us, but by trying to kill the Nyx, all you’ve done is ensure that they’re our enemy. And they will be coming for us someday soon.”

  Pasiphae sat back down like the discussion tired her out. “I fear you’re correct.”

  “Oh, they’re also the ones kidnapping mages, although I have no idea why.”

  The old woman shook her head and drummed her fingers on her desk. “One more log of worry to burn. We’ll have to discuss it with the rest of the Council.”

  Sephi frowned. “About that. Who suggested that I be the one to go get the Whispers?”

  Her grandmother looked up at her curiously. “Well, I did after I found out you were in trouble.”

  “Okay, then who told you I was in trouble?” Sephi pressed. “Who brought up the idea of banishment and making a deal?”

  Pasiphae tapped a finger to her lips. “Artriojas and Minerva approached me about it. Why do you ask?”

  Sephi sighed. “Because Asterion said he made arrangements with the Council for me to be sent on this quest. So someone here is working with the Occultum.” She lifted a hand. “And before you say he might have been lying, the Occultum knew exactly where I was for the whole journey. Somebody was feeding them information.”

  The old woman’s shoulders slumped. “This just gets worse and worse.”

  Sephi laughed humorlessly. “Welcome to my life.”

  Her grandmother met Sephi’s gaze steadily. “For the record, I’m not an Occultum spy.”

  Sephi waved her comment away. “Yeah, I know. My father seemed very interested in not letting you know he is alive. So I know he wasn’t working with you. But that still leaves the rest of the Council. From what you said, we have to suspect Artriojas and Minerva.”

  Pasiphae sighed. “Enemies all around us and even on the Council itself. Dark days are coming.”

  “I think they’re already here,” Sephi said. “I’ll help you in any way I can.”

  Her matriarch’s eyes flickered to her. “That’s quite the change
from before you went after the Whispers. I’d very much like to hear about what else happened to you out there.”

  Sephi laughed. “I’ll tell you. The Council’s enemies suddenly became my enemies, too. All I want is for the world to leave me alone again, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen.”

  Epilogue

  A few days later, Arabella Zara came to fetch her just after the sun went down. It was Wednesday, after all.

  The little girl chattered away happily while they walked, unaware of the darkness gripping Sephi’s soul.

  The orphaned girl didn’t need to know about the storms looming on the horizon. She had enough to worry about, just surviving from day to day. Her tiny shoulders didn’t need to bear the weight of the world’s problems. Sephi’s didn’t either, but she hadn’t been given a choice in the matter.

  Sephi’s future was uncertain, but for tonight, she would bring a little magic to these children’s lives, helping them forget. And helping Sephi to forget, too, if only for a little while.

  As they approached the entrance to the Foundling Theater, Sephi saw Bobby Candles leaning against the burnt-out building’s wall, smoking a pipe and looking bored. His eyes lit up when he saw her.

  Arabella scowled at the man who had no business being there, but Sephi placed a gentle hand on the girl’s shoulder. “It’s all right. Go ahead inside, and I’ll be along in a minute.”

  Arabella gave Bobby one last dirty look before disappearing inside.

  Sephi nodded at the outlaw. “Bobby.”

  “My real friends call me Robert,” he said.

  She frowned. “Are we friends now?”

  “We’re something,” he said. “You made me a very wealthy man, Persephone Blue. And you didn’t rat me out to the Council, which means a lot.”