Mageborn: An absolutely gripping fantasy novel (The Hollow King Book 1)

by Jessica Thorne

  He clawed at the stirrups and Lord Kane drew back an arm and struck him across the face. The man spun around, knocked senseless, and fell in a heap on the wet stones.

  ‘I had one rule, Griggs,’ Kane spat at him. ‘You all agreed to that when you chose to follow me. You swore to obey and you have squandered that chance on cheap amusement.’

  The troop moved off noiselessly, chastened.

  The sigil around Griggs’s neck glimmered, still active. But the sense of magic from him seemed less powerful now, less repulsive than when he’d been part of that group. Grace watched them go uneasily.

  ‘What in all the seven hells was that about?’ Ellyn asked.

  ‘I’m not mageborn,’ the guard mumbled as they hauled him up. He wouldn’t shut up about it now. ‘I’m not mageborn.’ He repeated it all the way back to the Academy where Craine looked him once over and told Childers to lock him up until he could be properly tested. He wasn’t anything dangerous like a Gore or a Barrow. Probably just a nascent Zephyr, although one with a bully’s sense of humour.

  ‘I’m not mageborn. It’s a mistake.’ Grace could still hear him saying it as he was led away. ‘They did this. They did this to me.’

  ‘Glories, some people will try anything,’ Ellyn muttered. ‘Like we’d be able to frame him. We should go and find Danny.’

  Grace rolled her shoulders and tried to shake off the feeling that she was missing something. He wasn’t anything special. It was just… strange that a mageborn who had managed to hide so long, and so well he’d entered the Royal Guard, should betray himself in so stupid a way. But then, men were stupid sometimes.

  Like Daniel. Ellyn was right. They ought to go and get him.

  ‘Who’s the love of his life this week?’ she asked.

  When things went wrong Daniel usually threw himself into a brief, destructive romance with someone entirely inappropriate. Losing Kai definitely counted as things going wrong.

  ‘Oh divinities,’ Ellyn sighed. ‘Blake has a new harper down at the Rowan. He’s damned cute. Danny’s down there. I bet you a beer he won’t have moved.’

  Ellyn rarely lost a bet. If Grace didn’t know better she’d think her friend might have traces of a Charm in her. But she didn’t.

  Undetected mageborn were rare, especially if they passed under the eye of the Academy. Sometimes the talent developed later in life, but not often. Perhaps that was what had happened with the guard today. Sometimes a mageborn was so weak that it really didn’t show as more than a hint, an instinct.

  Like with her. Or what remained of whatever power she’d been born with after it had been stolen.

  ‘We don’t have time for a beer. We need to talk to Hale and find out what, if anything, he’s learned.’

  The bar of the Rowan was almost empty, which was a pity since the young man in the corner, bent over his harp, sang with the most beautiful voice Grace had ever heard. It didn’t take a glimpse of the collar around his neck to recognise him as a Lyric. But there was talent there too, not just magic. He was skilled. His hands moved in a delicate dance over the strings and the harmonies sent shivers of unexpected pleasure through her. He was also beautiful, golden-haired, golden-skinned and gracious, like some kind of spirit given human form.

  Daniel, meanwhile, sat with his back to the bar, listening with rapt attention. If Grace walked right up to him this very second and kissed him on the lips, he probably wouldn’t even notice.

  ‘You see what I mean?’ Ellyn said.

  ‘He’s good.’

  ‘I’m not much for music but he’s great to look at. Anyway, not him. Danny.’

  Some deep-seated loyalty made her say it. ‘Danny’s not so bad.’

  Ellyn gave her an arch look. ‘Yeah, well… Danny’s Danny. Want to see if I can pull the stool out from under him before he sees me?’

  ‘That’s your plan?’

  ‘I’m improvising.’

  Grace laughed. They were sometimes too alike. ‘Go for it.’

  But before Ellyn could move, the harper finished the song and Daniel was up on his feet, heading towards him. He still hadn’t noticed them. All he could see was the pretty musician with a magical voice.

  ‘Before they get to awkward flirting,’ she told Ellyn, ‘we should probably break them up.’

  As they approached, Daniel was talking quietly, leaning in towards the harper’s indulgent smile.

  ‘—at the Larks’ Rest in three days’ time. Leeland had to change his schedule so Kurt says—’

  It didn’t sound like the type of line that would woo someone like that. Maybe Daniel wasn’t the flirt he thought he was after all.

  ‘Are you talent-scouting for your brother’s bar now?’ Ellyn asked slyly, coming up behind him. She glanced at the harpist. ‘I don’t know, mate. This one’s a lot nicer. You’d be trading down.’

  Daniel leaped back, his eyes wide in alarm. ‘Ellyn? What are you doing here?’

  ‘Looking for you. We’re meant to be working, remember?’

  ‘I was just… I mean, yes, of course we are, but I just—’

  Ellyn snorted a laugh. ‘Oh I can see what you were just.’

  ‘And you are?’ Grace asked the Lyric, her best officer of the Academy face on full display.

  He smiled easily, not in the least bit uncomfortable with their arrival. Cocky little shit, wasn’t he?

  ‘Misha Harper, Lieutenant. Danny has told me so much about you.’ He held out his hand, unafraid, and she shook it, impressed already. She didn’t particularly want to be, because Daniel was a disaster when it came to relationships, and she didn’t want to spend the next few weeks reining him in and the few after that picking up the pieces when it inevitably all fell apart. But this felt different. This felt… good.

  ‘I hope he hasn’t,’ she replied and Misha laughed gently.

  ‘All good, I promise. He’s afraid you might not approve.’ He slid his fingertips under the delicately patterned leather collar, the expert tooling an effort to make it less like a necessity and more like a fashion choice. The sigil in it glimmered. It was also a challenge and a teasing gesture she couldn’t miss.

  ‘That’s not what I meant,’ Daniel spluttered. ‘I just… I didn’t…’

  The harper reached out for Daniel’s hand. Ellyn smirked, Grace smiled and Daniel turned puce and forgot to breathe.

  ‘I don’t have any reason to disapprove,’ Grace replied. Who was she to disapprove of Misha because he was mageborn? Let him infer a yet if he wanted to. It would be a warning and she meant it. ‘Harper? Did the name or the profession come first?’

  His soft laugh told her she was never getting an answer to that. ‘A bit of both, Lieutenant.’

  Oh, he was a charmer. She’d have to watch him. She’d also thought they were the only ones to call him Danny, apart from his brother. ‘I’ll get the full story another day, perhaps. But we need to get to work. Duty calls, Danny.’

  Misha grinned at him as Daniel tried to stammer out an apology. ‘I told you it would be fine. But she’s right. Duty and honour, Danny. I’ll do as you ask and sort out everything with Kurt. Don’t worry. It’ll be fine.’

  And he pulled Daniel towards him, planting a very visible kiss on his lips.

  ‘Fine,’ Daniel echoed as they parted. He looked slightly dazed.

  Ellyn extracted him from the harper, linked arms with him and led him out of the bar, while Misha settled down to play again.

  ‘Fine?’ she mimicked him perfectly, her voice drifting and soft. ‘Fine?’

  ‘I just… I mean, I met him and I… he was in the bar and… and then he said come to hear him play…’

  ‘Wow, coherent,’ Ellyn teased. ‘Well done that man. I didn’t know Lyrics were meant to addle the brain too. Did you, Grace? Is he half woodsiren or something?’

  Grace shrugged. ‘Can woodsirens come into the city? Are they even real?’ Daniel squirmed. She couldn’t help herself. He was normally so self-assured. ‘What about a Charm? Maybe he’s
just a really good Charm and we all think he played beautifully because he wants us to.’

  ‘No, he’s just… I just… I like him, Grace. I really like him. A lot.’

  ‘No? Really?’

  Ellyn couldn’t take it any more. She roared laughing.

  Grace finally relented. ‘It’s fine, Danny.’ Well, she’d almost finished. It was just too easy. ‘He seems nice. And he clearly likes you too. A lot. Now, your love life aside, we have work to do. We’re already late.’

  It wouldn’t last. Daniel’s relationships never did. Unsuitable wasn’t the word for it. And the Academy didn’t look kindly on relationships between its officers and mageborn. It muddied the waters, Craine said. But she turned a blind eye too. Everyone did. Because when you got down to it, what did it matter? Grace didn’t care who he slept with. She just didn’t want him getting hurt.

  ‘Late for what?’

  ‘Interrogating the Lord of Thorns.’

  That sobered him. ‘Have you lost your mind?’

  She sighed. He was right. ‘Probably.’

  ‘I think we should all go back to talent-scouting for Danny’s brother’s gangster bar,’ Ellyn offered.

  ‘I know, I do too.’ It was a terrible idea, but they were going to do it anyway.

  ‘Do we at least have a plan?’ Daniel asked.

  Grace shook her head. ‘We’ll do what we do best. We’ll improvise.’

  Merlyn Hale wasn’t in the Healers’ Halls. They were directed to the morgue, which was in the lower levels of the far end of the palace, not as far as the crypt, or the dungeons. It was the realm of the Lord of Thorns. Daniel grumbled about all the stairs the whole winding way. Ellyn said nothing. She’d been the one to bring the Gore to the dungeons while Grace and Daniel had tried to save Kai. Grace knew she hated it down there. Always had. Not that Grace could blame her. At least she wasn’t mageborn.

  The ones that went in there never came out.

  Especially not when they went to the tender mercies of the Lord of Thorns.

  The morgue wasn’t as far underground as Grace had feared, however. The palace was built on and into the hill overlooking Rathlynn. While the towers and spires went up into the sky, the kings had also tunnelled down into the heart of the earth. The complex was huge. Grace was pretty sure only the royal family of Larelwynn knew just how big it was. The rumour went that the deepest cells in the dungeons never saw natural light. Or so the people of Rathlynn liked to say, late at night, with a shiver behind the words.

  As they descended the stone steps, daylight faded behind them. The stairs curved so it was impossible to see ahead but there were torches at relevant points, just enough so that there was light to navigate by. The air got colder, leeching the heat from their bodies. That was the reason Grace suppressed a shiver as they reached the next floor, and that was what she would continue to tell herself, or anyone else who asked.

  The narrow staircase opened out into a wide hall, lined with tapestries for warmth, and lit by candles. There was a window, of sorts, at the far end, covered with iron bars and yet still glazed with ancient, rippled glass. It let in only a dim, smoky light.

  ‘Morgue’s this way,’ Ellyn said, turning abruptly left, away from the window.

  Grace knew the way. She also knew what lay in the other direction. Bastien Larelwynn’s domain, and she’d have to go there later. She’d have to interview him. A shiver crawled down the line of her spine. It was almost like that sensation of being watched, but when she glanced back, there was no one there.

  Merlyn Hale didn’t look up as they entered the barrel-vaulted room. Lamps illuminated it, the unnatural, clear brightness signalling right away that magic powered them. The air shimmered with it, like the hum of static, setting Grace’s teeth on edge from the moment she walked in. Daniel closed the door behind them and she wished he hadn’t. It seemed to emphasise that she was trapped in here.

  ‘Hale?’

  He was bent over his desk, studying his notes, but the sound of his name snapped him out of his thoughts.

  ‘Oh Lieutenant, there you are. I’ve been…’ He glanced at Daniel and Ellyn. ‘Yes, I was hoping to talk to you. The corpse…’

  ‘Losle Vayden, from Leane, the victim. We spoke to her grieving father, remember?’

  He gave her a confused look, as if she was talking nonsense. Perhaps he didn’t see the girl as a person. Losle was only a mageborn after all, even if she didn’t wear a collar.

  ‘The victim…’ he began again slowly, finally getting Grace’s cue. ‘The victim was drained of magic so quickly her whole system appears to have gone into shock. It wasn’t removed so much as ripped out of her.’

  He crossed to the mortuary slab and uncovered the Leanese woman’s face and torso. The chest had been cut open and Grace stiffened in shock.

  Behind her Daniel slapped his hand over his mouth, gave a muffled groan and turned away abruptly.

  ‘If you’re going to throw up, Officer, there’s a bucket in the corner by the door,’ Hale said, calmly. ‘Then take it outside. Now, if you take a look here…’ He pointed into the chest cavity as Daniel lost his breakfast and probably last night’s dinner too, sprinting to the bucket by the door and only just making it.

  ‘Ellyn, help him outside, will you?’ Grace asked, keeping her voice calm and even. Something in her ruffled a little. It was almost as if Hale was setting out to upset them, possibly for his own amusement, but possibly for some other reason. She glanced up at the auburn-haired man to see his smirk still turned on Daniel. ‘Maybe take him up to get some fresh air. I can let you know if there’s anything pertinent later on. Please continue, healer.’

  Ellyn nodded at her, just once, clearly picking up on her tone, and then seized Daniel by the armpit, hauling him and the bucket up. ‘Come on Danny. Let’s get you out of here.’

  Grace didn’t allow the amusement inside her to show on her face. First the new boyfriend and now this. Ellyn was not going to let Daniel live today down in a hurry. But this wasn’t a place for levity and Hale made Grace uncomfortable in a way she couldn’t quite define. He was too clever by half to begin with. And there were different kinds of teasing.

  ‘Please continue, Hale.’

  ‘If you are quite sure you don’t need a moment?’

  She thought of the bodies the Gore had left behind. If this healer wanted to shock her, he would have to do a better job than this.

  ‘I don’t have unlimited time. I have other things to attend to.’ Like interviewing the Lord of Thorns. Not an enticing prospect. Definitely not. ‘Get on with it. What have you found?’

  ‘She was in extremely good health. Her magic wasn’t having any detrimental effect on her physical wellbeing. Quite often we can trace the effects on the internal organs as a kind of scarring. But not here. Remarkable.’

  Again, Grace tried not to wince. Quite often. How many mageborn had he opened up like this to examine? And who had supplied them?

  Oh, but she was fairly sure she knew the answer to that.

  ‘What killed her?’

  ‘The rapid extraction of magic. And I mean, rapid. This was no ordinary syphon or Leech. It would have only taken minutes. And for any normal Leech that should have meant an overload and certain death.’

  She thought of Kai, of the light within him, brimming over, burning him from inside. She tightened her fists until her nails dug into the palms of her hands and let him continue.

  ‘And then there’s this.’ Hale lifted one of the young woman’s hands in his long fingers and turned it over to display the palms. They were blackened, burned. ‘One mark on the palm of each hand. The skin is burned in a perfect circle, right through the outer layers and into deeper tissue, the muscles themselves. Almost to the bone.’

  ‘What could have caused that?’

  He paused, as if deliberating what he should tell her. ‘I have no idea.’

  He sounded offended by the thought. Grace narrowed her eyes and wondered if he was lying. It was po
ssible. She didn’t know him enough to trust him on this.

  ‘You’ve never seen this before? Nothing like it at all?’

  Because she had. More than once. In the files Craine had given her. Once again, she forced herself to ignore the itch in her palms. It wasn’t the same as that. For one thing she was still breathing.

  ‘I’ve seen it. I just have no idea how it happened. There was a body—’

  ‘A victim,’ she corrected him coolly, lifting her chin and giving him a hard stare.

  ‘A… a victim then… there was one a few weeks ago.’

  ‘Do you often make such studies of the dead, Hale?’

  ‘I do my duty, Lieutenant. As all must. It is my honour to serve.’

  ‘That’s not an answer.’

  His eyes widened as they turned on her. ‘Am I under investigation now?’

  She smiled, a sweet smile tinged with acid. He looked outraged, but also a little more concerned. Better. It took the smug superiority out of him.

  ‘I do my duty, healer. As all must. It is my honour to serve.’

  A long silence followed. She waited for him to fold. She wasn’t disappointed.

  ‘Perhaps one or two corpses – I mean…’ he winced and swallowed hard. ‘Victims a month. The study is vital to our work as healers, you know? We learn so much from the dead. Not just mageborn. And not all victims of others either. The diseased, those who met an accident or a timely death as well. It’s important to understand. It will help, in the long run, the greater work of healing.’

  Wonderful. He was an equal opportunities butcher of the deceased.

  ‘And mageborn?’

  ‘To study why they are born, how the magic affects them, their links to the Maegen…’

  The word almost made her take a step back from him. She’d never heard anyone say it so lightly. Something lit up in his eyes, interest at her reaction. She didn’t like it. The need to cover herself was instinctive and immediate.

  ‘The… what?’

  ‘The Maegen. The source of power. Have you never asked one of them about it? They feel it, inside themselves, like sap in a tree. Some even dream of it. It’s a spiritual thing for them.’