The remaining two rakasa and I fought as I tried to stab them with my knife at the same time they were trying to get a net on me. I fought harder when I realized there were tiny spell balls on the edges of the net. Rakasa for the most part weren’t magic users. They clearly were working with one—and I knew whom.
Alric dislodged another rakasa. He was fighting on numerous fronts as most of the remaining ones focused on trying to get to me and he was trying to stop them. I managed to stab the rakasa closest to me, and not throw up as its blood poured over my hand.
My strike and my willpower were useless. In his last action, the dying rakasa got the net secured and he crushed one of the spell balls in his hand.
35
The building I was in vanished, only to be replaced by the inside of a small cell. Actually, it was a cage. I was fine sitting, but I wouldn’t be able to do more than crouch inside of it. The netting was gone, or had turned into the cage. Smaller versions of the spell balls that had been anchoring the net lined the edges of the cage.
There was a blanket or cloth over the cage, not heavy enough to make it too dark so that I couldn’t see, but enough to block me from seeing beyond the cage. I had my knife but my sword had abandoned me. That my fear had finally come true—aka my sword vanishing in mid-fight—hadn’t proven as horrific as I’d imagined it. Of course, I’d imagined me dying because of it and that hadn’t happened. Yet.
I poked my knife into the fabric covering the cage; the space was wide enough for me to get almost all of the blade out. I couldn’t really dislodge the fabric, or stab through it, but my attempts did get most of the rakasa blood off of it.
I’d been in there for about five minutes before I heard any sounds. I would have thought that anyone who’d sent a bunch of rakasa after me with spelled nets would have been a bit more attentive as to when I arrived.
Sharp booted steps came to my cage. “You have done well and will be rewarded. Go and join the others.”
It took me a moment to adjust. I’d really been expecting Nivinal, but that voice belonged to Mackil. Rather, it belonged to Reginald who was now inhabiting Mackil’s former body.
The fabric was whipped off the cage with a flourish. Or what would have been a flourish if the person doing the whipping off had been a bit taller.
Mackil stood before me. It was interesting that even though the body hadn’t changed, he looked so different than he had before. Like when Reginald had taken over Lorcan’s body, the change to the inside reflected on the outside. Mackil before had been crusty and tough. A sneaky thief and con man, but solid.
The person before me managed to look petulant and weak. Already the muscular bulk of the dwarf was starting to turn to flab. He scowled at me.
“Now, I am trying to figure out why Nivinal wanted you so badly.” He slowly walked around my cage. “He wouldn’t tell me, you see. Must not have trusted me.” The laugh that followed would have sent Mackil into hiding with shame. It was more of a wheezing giggle.
“But I managed to get you away from him anyway,” he said. “He won’t be happy that his great plan to capture you was thwarted. No, no, no. And I left a calling card so he would know it was me who had swayed some of his rakasa and stolen his prize.” He peered in closely. One thing stayed the same, Reginald was a madman no matter what body he was in. “Now why don’t you tell me what is so important about you that the great Nivinal would work so hard to get you?”
“I have no idea. You probably grabbed the wrong person.” As I spoke I called up the push spell. Or tried to. One moment I was setting up the spell in my head, the next I was screaming in pain and had dropped to a fetal position.
“Forgot to mention this is a spell cage. It bounces spells back at the person inside. I am trying to build one large enough and strong enough to hold Nivinal, but the bastard has more secrets than even I knew, and this is the largest cage I could create so far.”
I whimpered in answer. It felt like my eyes were bleeding from the inside.
Reginald stomped around the cage again, each step shattering part of my skull.
“Yes, well. I suppose this is my fault. Had I told you about the spelled cage you probably wouldn’t have tried your spell,” he finally said. “Or perhaps you would have anyway. You don’t appear to be the brightest of girls. Nor the most powerful.” He stopped in front of me and I forced open my eyes. “But you did manage to help stop us in the enclave. Now, I know Siabiane and Padraig were involved, both serious magic users. Yet I do feel you helped some. Which might be why he wants you so bad.”
I looked at him with bleary eyes. Neither my brain nor my eyes felt like they were bleeding anymore, but I wasn’t in the mood to play guessing games. I knew why Nivinal wanted me—the damn manticore.
“I have no idea.” I grunted out through clenched teeth.
Reginald shook his head. “Now, I know that is a lie. And not even a good one.” He spread one hand over the cage. His grin was terrifying and disgusting at the same time. The chill that passed through me wasn’t only from his grin though. He’d adjusted the cage’s spell.
“Let’s try that again. What is he looking for?”
He leaned closer to the cage. I had my knife but I couldn’t have gotten in any sort of fatal shot through the cage.
“I don’t—” I screamed as a thousand pins stabbed me in the head.
“See? If you don’t tell me the truth, the cage attacks you. Try again. Why does Nivinal want you?”
“I know where the sapphire manticore is,” I gasped out. It was the truth so the cage was satisfied.
Reginald’s face lit up. “The manticore? It was lost in the elven ruins centuries ago. Yes, Nivinal would want you for that information. You must show me where it is.”
“It’s not visible. I cannot show you what I can’t see.” I ground my jaw tight after I spoke. It was the truth but I didn’t know how touchy the spell would be since I was dancing around the truth.
“Then you will tell me how to get to it.” He shook the cage and I noticed the spell balls were loose. Two bounced off at his rough handling.
“I don’t know how to get it.” That answer didn’t worry me. It was the absolute truth.
“Then who does? Tell me now or I will destroy you in this cage.” He was really losing his temper and three more balls came off. There were only a few left.
“No one knows how to get it. It is hidden from all.”
“You know where it is!”
“Yes.” I would have liked to lie but that spell packed a punch. I couldn’t count on the spell being weakened enough by lack of spell balls to not shatter my head if it went off.
“You will show me! Now!” That temper of his was never going to do him any good, but it helped me. He was so busy shaking the cage and yelling at me that he didn’t notice when the last spell balls fell off. I noticed, however.
The cage weakened once the spells were freed from it. I waited until Reginald had taken a step back, most likely to kick the cage, and then I kicked it first, with both legs. He got caught as the cage piece flew at him, and I rolled out after it with my knife up.
“Want to try that again?” I did the most impressive knife moves that Orenda had shown me. Most of her knife work was using smaller throwing knives. Even if this had been that type of knife I wouldn’t want to lose my only weapon. I thought about trying to call up a spell, but my head was still too tender.
Reginald narrowed his eyes. I thought for a moment he was going to charge me, but instead he spun and ran into the next room. Yelling.
I knew there had been at least one rakasa who had come through his little net trick with me; he’d been talking to it earlier. Most likely the yelling was directed at however many more he had lurking around.
I ran the other way. I was in yet another warehouse, but, unlike the prior one, this one looked like it had started out as an actual warehouse. I rounded the corner and ran right into a rakasa. Not having a choice, I took advantage of his surprise at seeing m
e and I stabbed him with my knife, getting more than a few tears in my arm from his claws as I did so.
I kicked out at him then kept running. There was a door, a simple door with no guards. I sprinted for it as I heard yelling and running feet behind me. If I could make it outside I would have a better chance to hide until I figured out where I was. I took a chance and glanced back.
Reginald was behind about eight rakasa, none of whom stopped or even slowed down to help the one I’d stabbed.
I hit the door hard, trying to get out, and ran into another group of hooded attackers.
“Taryn! It’s me!” I was so caught up in fighting to get free, that I almost stabbed Alric.
He grabbed my arms and held them still. “I’ve got you.”
That was as much of a reunion as we got as the rakasa hit us. Covey handed me her sword and we took care of them quickly. Reginald had vanished and none of the rakasa we fought were of the same fighting caliber as any we’d seen before. Reginald must have recruited the cast-offs from Nivinal.
“How did you find me?” I asked as Alric pulled his sword from the last rakasa. I really got a good look at the ones we’d been fighting; these were all far unhealthier looking than the others we’d seen.
“We do!” Garbage yelled. The faeries had stayed back and I’d not seen them, but they swarmed down now.
Lorcan held up another tiny glowing arrow. “Your friend Leaf took a few hairs with her when she gave you your war feathers.” He nodded toward the clump of feathers and tree sap on my head. “Once you vanished, we were able to put down most of the rakasa. Some did run away however. We used your hair to find you.”
I looked around. The building we were in was on the same block as the one we’d found Flarinen and Kelm in. Who were not around us, I noticed.
“Where are the knights? And thank you all for coming to get me,” I said. “Reginald escaped though. And he’s now aware that I know where the manticore is and that’s why Nivinal is looking for me. That trap with Flarinen and Kelm was to catch me.” Reginald’s trick to have a spelled net transport me and turn into a cage was dang impressive. Considering that he’d only moved me two stores down, it lost a little of the magic.
“We have them tied up for now,” Padraig said but I noticed he gave Alric a sideways glance. “Rather, we re-tied them up. They are both acting odd even though the influence of the dragon has been removed. Bunky and the gargoyle are sitting on them down that alley.”
“We help!” Crusty came flying over and landed on the side of my head. “I sit on them too.”
A mostly sober Crusty wasn’t any less goofy than a drunk one really and she started swinging back and forth on my hair.
Alric finally grabbed her and removed her. “It’s hard to try and talk to you with her doing that.”
Crusty seemed perfectly happy to stay in Alric’s hand, even hanging on when he tried to shake her free.
“There was more than trying to grab you going on though. Again, Nivinal wasn’t there and sent his rakasa henchmen to deal with us.” Alric spoke as we walked over to the alley. Covey and Dueble trailed behind us, and the other three had gone back into the warehouse I’d been in. If there was any magic residue in there from Reginald, those three would find it.
Without the street glows, it was dark as we went down the alley, but there was no way I’d miss Flarinen and Kelm. Actually, I couldn’t have missed their guards. Bunky sat on Flarinen’s chest and the gargoyle mimicked the position on Kelm’s. Both knights were securely tied. Kelm looked resigned; Flarinen looked ready to start ripping heads off.
“We’re fine now, I told you. We didn’t have control over our actions.” Flarinen didn’t sound remorseful at all.
“He’s right,” Kelm said softly. He’d shown some backbone when Flarinen was moping about as the tortured soul, but now that the captain was stepping back into the arrogant bastard we knew and hated, Kelm was falling back into the shadows.
“Really?” Alric stepped up to within kicking distance of Flarinen. “You want to tell Taryn what you said when she vanished?”
Flarinen quickly looked up at me, and then looked away. “I wasn’t recovered. I wasn’t myself.”
“I’ll refresh your memory. You said, ‘Good riddance, now I can do what I need to do.’” Alric walked around Flarinen and bent down to untie Kelm. “Kelm on the other hand tried to tackle you when you tried to run out of the building.”
“I didn’t mean anything…I wasn’t myself. That dragon is horrible.” Flarinen nodded to me in apology, which was more than I’d expected, so I nodded back. “The rakasa took it again, right?”
That answered a few questions. Neither knight had seen what had been done with the greed-causing relic, and the faery bag it was in was still secure. And that we couldn’t let either one of them know we had it. I had no idea how long it would take for the dragon’s hold to die off, and I doubt anyone else did either.
Covey looked down at Flarinen. “Yup. And it’s a good thing for you two. I would have killed you had you grabbed it again. Actually, had Padraig not held me back, I would have killed you when you made your comment about Taryn.” She wasn’t kidding, and the look on both of the knights’ faces showed they knew it.
Kelm rubbed his wrists where they’d been tied. “I can tell you, we had no choice. The pull of that thing was too strong—none of you could have held back from answering it.” Kelm stood next to Flarinen. There were bruises along his jaw and cheekbone, but considering the way I’d seen the two of them swinging at each other in their attempts to get the dragon, I figured those were from Flarinen, not the rakasa.
“Who captured you? The rakasa?” I wasn’t feeling charitable to Flarinen; he could be an ass with or without dangerous relics messing with his head. However, they might have noticed something. I knew I wasn’t certain who had been setting the trap. I directed my question to Kelm, however.
“A large hooded man,” Kelm said. “He seemed bigger than Nivinal, or at least what I’d seen of him when he was in the enclave.”
Alric scowled and hauled Flarinen to his feet. “Did he say anything?”
“No, sadly he didn’t have to. He had that relic in the middle of the floor. He waved at it, we both ran, and the next thing I knew we were swinging in the air trying to get to it.”
“Aren’t you going to untie me?” A closer look at Flarinen’s face showed that Kelm had gotten some good strikes in as well.
Lorcan and the rest had joined us. None of them looked happy, so I assumed there hadn’t been anything to find in the warehouse. “Not yet, my lad.” Lorcan was more sympathetic than the rest of us, but he didn’t back down. “You were the most exposed and the fact that Nivinal was able to manipulate you so strongly cannot be taken lightly.” He turned to Kelm. “I heard what you said, and while it might not have been Nivinal, I think we can assume it was. We didn’t find much in my brother’s lair, but he had a collection of things and notes about Nivinal. He wasn’t who any of us thought, even Reginald—per his journal that was why he left Nivinal; to save everyone from what he was becoming.” He rolled his eyes at the idea of Reginald saving anyone except himself.
There was evidence that the person the elves had known as the inquisitor was not the real Nivinal, which pretty much meant he’d been hiding his true self with them for more than a thousand years. But I agreed with Lorcan about his brother. Reginald wouldn’t have cared who Nivinal was if being with him gave him power. Something must have changed in that dynamic for Reginald to try and go solo.
“Can hurt it now?” Garbage and the rest of the faeries had been silently hovering overhead, along with the constructs. She flew down now and flapped her wings right in Flarinen’s face. The way his hands were tied he couldn’t move out of their way without falling over.
We could try explaining to Garbage about the spell of the dragon relic, and how he’d not been acting like himself. But looking at her face, I knew she didn’t care. Flarinen had befriended them and then betrayed
them—payment had to be made.
I looked around the street we were now walking onto. Null during the day was far less active than nighttime. Our changing things about the city hadn’t changed that. More people were prowling around, heading for pubs, shops, or other less socially accepted places. Being out here, with a handcuffed Flarinen being berated by the faeries, wasn’t a good idea.
“We need to get out of here first. Once we’re on the road I want you all to make Flarinen your priority. Punch him, sing to him, tell him the history of ale, I don’t care.”
Garbage glared at Flarinen long enough to make him look away. She finally nodded. “Agreed. It ours.” I’d noticed the faeries could and usually did identify gender. But when someone made them mad they often became genderless.
Flarinen’s eyes flew open and I saw Leaf fly around him. She’d been coming from his backside and appeared to have a piece of fabric in her mouth. “It ours.” She grinned then flew up to the others.
“That thing bit me!” If Flarinen was looking for sympathy he wasn’t getting it from any of us. Kelm had moved ahead with Covey so he didn’t even notice his captain’s distress.
Flarinen continued to mutter but kept it to himself as we made our way back to the house. Lorcan had created a small mage ball for light and was furiously going over the pages of his brother’s notes and journal as he walked.
“This isn’t good. Not good at all.” Lorcan flipped between a pair of pages and started swearing. “And blast my brother for being such a sloppy pig. He actually might have made some valuable observations but I’m missing at least three pages of notes.”
“Any idea what Nivinal is up to, or is it standard world domination?” Padraig had been speaking softly to Bunky, in some language I didn’t recognize but sounded vaguely elvish. But he stopped at Lorcan’s words.
“It appears that while the Spheres were their destination, they did intend on getting caught in Null—as we expected. Nivinal created the trap to fall back in time, but Taryn and Alric weren’t the intended victims. He’d planned on trapping Reginald back there for some reason that is lost in the missing pages.” He looked up. “Of course, my brother is a self-centered narcissist so he might have been over stating his worth or threat to Nivinal for his own ego.”
The Golden Basilisk (The Lost Ancients Book 5) Page 29